WumpusRat

I'll hop onto the test server tonight when I get home from work and play around with it. Though I'm still holding out the faint hope that the MM sets that weren't updated will finally get their updates at some point. And maybe someday a new MM primary...

A couple I've made recently because they tickled my fancy: Mary Malicious -- a "streamer gone bad" who got a bunch of heroes injured with one of her pranks and got tossed in jail (not the Zig, since she wasn't a super, just normal jail). While in prison, she and some other inmates came up with the idea of live-streaming crimes, and so broke out of prison and started filming themselves committing more and more serious criminal activities. At this point she dreams of taking down the Freedom Phalanx live on camera. The Abdominator -- a fitness instructor who is way, WAY into his own hype. And you will be too, since he has the power of Abdominal Charisma(tm) (mind control). He is here to pump *clap* you up. Lift: "Do you even lift, bro?" Fear: "Gaze upon my rippling 8-pack and despair!" Confusion: "Look at my muscles. Now look at your own. Now look at me again. I'm on a horse." Harlequin Romance -- a socialite who the Carnies tried to recruit, but despite her flighty nature and privileged upbringing, had enough willpower to overwhelm the mind control coming from the mask. Though she won't take it off. Now she goes around spreading her own ideas of "total adoration" to anyone who will listen. And if they won't, she'll MAKE them listen. "Love me or perish!"

All depends on the character and how much I group, really. Some characters I tend to solo with a lot more, so they're a bit slower than those that I do lots of TFs with. On AVERAGE it's probably around 30-50 hours to hit 50th.

The only problem with this approach is that it can backfire on you spectacularly. "Yeah, and MY fun is locking enemies in a Detention Field and watching them be unable to do anything." "And mine is dropping Dimensional Shift onto packs of mobs because it's amusing to see their attacks fire off and hit nothing." "Mine's slapping Black Hole onto a group of mobs and spamming /taunt and /laugh at them while they futilely glare at me." So my question would be, would any of those things annoy you while you're on a team doing missions? Even "defeat all" missions, where you have to stand around waiting for those enemies to pop out of the 30-second long invulnerability bubbles? What happens if the person with it KEEPS doing it? Because I've had it happen, and it's REALLY annoying after the first couple times. Some people don't like knockback. Others don't like people randomly going afk for 5m every other mission. Others want to speed-run while others want to do defeat-all even on maps that don't require it. TACTICAL knockback is all well and good. Punting enemies into a wall that's a step away? That's fun. Hover-blasting and knocking them to the ground? Awesome, I'm all for it. But constantly yeeting them 20 feet away so as a meleer I have to chase after them, and it kills my aoe damage? Yeah, I'mma be grumpy after a bit. The trick is to find people who like the same things you do. If a group doesn't like knockback, and you argue that "my fun is X, tough luck if you don't like it", it's a rather selfish path to take, and I certainly wouldn't bat an eye if the group leader punted someone who made that argument, particularly if I'm playing a melee character.

The people with hair-trigger Fold Space buttons can be incredibly annoying when I'm playing a brute or scrapper with aoes. I'll jump into a pack of mobs, start to do my aoe stuff to tear them apart, and suddenly all the mobs are 20 feet away because someone decided to Fold them somewhere else. After the first couple times I just stopped leading the way and just waited for them to pull mobs, and then dumped my aoe stuff. Makes it a bit more tedious (for me at least), but at least I'm not wasting my powers as much.

A very frequently-run TF (Moonfire) is all about Kheldians, and how she's getting you to help fight against the Nictus, how the Council is forcibly merging Nictus with their soldiers, etc. Where do you think all the Council Nictus guys come from? As far as "no connection to any other element in the game", again, that's untrue. See above. Bt even then, I have a bunch of adventurers who got plane-shifted from their D&D/Pathfinder homeworld and ended up in Paragon. They literally have zero "connection" to Earth or anything else. But they don't need to. One of the characters I have (that I need to get around leveling) is a warshade who is a "serial possessor". The nictus just grabs the nearest person, uses them until they die, then grabs another one and keeps going. My plan is to shift through the various costume slots to have each one be a new "body" it's possessing.

I do like Category-5 from Storm Blast. Calling down a huge whirlwind and pounding rain on an area is fun. If we're counting combos, then a Storm/Storm character is awesome fun. Storm Cell + Cat-5 + Lightning Storm + Tornado for just sheer "End of the World Nature's Wrath" stuff.

That's why on my willpower brute I picked up Unrelenting. For the rare occasions where something messes with my regen, I can turn that on and heal 100hp/sec for 30s.

I pretty much only do story-arcs and TFs when I play. I don't farm, I don't do PI +4/8 maps, I just run around getting contacts and doing arcs. It's why most of my characters end up with like 750-1000 merits by the time they're 50, and can use that to fund their builds.

Maybe I've just gotten lucky, but I've noticed that pretty much every TF I've done on Everlasting over the years has, even if things go sideways and we get tons of wipes, just soldiered on through and didn't start blaming everyone. Sometimes a big wipe just made everyone laugh, and we got back up, brushed ourselves off, and went back at it with the resounding "screw you, round two you're going down!" We had a Synapse the other day that had 37 defeats. It took a long time for anyone to come help with Babbage, and we were getting pummeled. Dragging him away just far enough for someone to rez and jump back in, and another person would drop. Rinse, repeat. It was epic. I think that fight alone was like 15 of our defeats. Sometimes this happens simply because the leader isn't high enough level, as well. A group that I do TFs with a couple weeks ago started a Synapse, and we were all 16th level. The mobs spawn at 20/21 even if you have it set to +0, so everything was +4 and +5 to us. And even if you level, you're "set" for the TF, so you'll be 16th for the entire thing. It's an odd bit of code.

You're not "taking an existing set and kitbashing it into a new one" by suggesting a ranged blast set for a MM primary. The pets are the primary function of a MM set. The ranged attacks are secondary. It astounds me that you think it's somehow more work to add three attacks to a MM primary that can fit the theme of it than to come up with various pets that serve as a cohesive theme. Yeah, I didn't plot out all nine powers in a set. Mostly because the chance of MM primaries being added AT ALL is slim to none, if we're being perfectly honest. The devs don't seem to have any real interest in adding new MM primaries. They barely have any interest in updating the three sets that didn't get overhauled with their MM pass they did nearly two years ago at this point. But given that the main function of a MM is to have pets, suggesting possible themed groups of them may have some tiny chance of sparking interest in one of the devs. Saying "yeah, make a MM set around electrical blast" doesn't do anything, since you'd be dumping two thirds of the set anyway, and most of the powers that make a blast set unique are NOT the two tier-1 single-target attacks and the weak aoe. If I were going to put together an actual suggestion for a MM set, I'd do it in the suggestions forum, not the "it would be neat if we could someday have something like this" thread in general.

I always attune PvP IOs. Mostly because they start at 10th level, and if I have a 49th level one, I can't slot it into a low level character. So I'll attune it and put it back in storage, so that way any of my lowbies can grab it and use it early on.

MM primaries are more about the pets than the MM's personal attacks. Not only that, but the Dual Pistol and Beam Rifle sets were created after the MM sets were established. So the devs basically took the pistol attacks from Thugs and created a whole set based around it. Same with Beam Rifle. And honestly, I'd much rather the Ninja personal attacks be shuriken than bows. None of the ninjas use a bow. But they do all have shuriken.

While this is true, if you're trying to shave off the last few seconds of Hasten's recharge to make it perma, the extra slot is actually more beneficial, assuming you don't desperately need that slot elsewhere. Two 50+5 recharges ends up with 95.x% recharge for the power. Three 50th level recharges ends up with 99.x% recharge. That 4% may not be worth it if you don't particularly care about getting it from, say, 121 to 119, but it CAN make a difference in squeaking down to the perma-hasten point.

"How could I have failed this often with a 10% chance?!" 95% to hit and missing 20-30% of the time consistently for months laughs in rng.

Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of "removing the time required to level up a new character to participate in PvP", since you'd have to have a 50th level with copious cash/recipes/etc on hand already, meaning it's really just an option for well-established people with hundreds of millions of inf lying around. Ah well. I don't use it anyway, but it does seem a little silly to require people to "bring their own enhancements" for it. At least give them free SOs or something.

I want more MM primaries. They have the fewest in the entire game, with only 7 to choose from. Some stuff that would fit the "non-world-specific" theme of MMs while using in-game assets: Elementals -- fire imps for tier-1, lightning and ice elemental for tier-2, earth elemental for tier-3 Spirits -- coalesced spirits for tier-1, formed impressions for tier-2, enraged spectre for tier-3 (thees are all First Ward mob types) Mythical -- will o wisps for tier-1, tuatha champions for tier-2, redcap fiend for tier-3 If you start using Paragon/RI-specific enemy groups for pets, there would be dozens of potential set options. Longbow, Arachnos, Family, Sky Raiders, Hellions, Skulls, Outcasts, Trolls, Warriors, Freakshow, etc etc etc.

Is there anywhere that gives free SO/IOs for these PvP characters? I've made a couple to try out powersets without having to go to the test server, but since you don't have any enhancements to put in your slots, it's kind of ... less than impressive.

I'm really hoping the devs get around to updating the last three mastermind primaries "soon(tm)". Beast Mastery desperately needs it. After the updates, it is dead-last in terms of MM primaries, and a huge chunk of its damage output is tied to the passive effect of Fortify Pack, and you lose it if you actually USE the power, which is a bit nonsensical. The "best" way to use it at present is as a mule for defense IO sets, which feels shabby. Not to mention the beasts themselves have some animation pauses in their attack chain, making them attack a lot slower than they should.

We did this on the Yin run I was on the other night. Of course, it was 8 tanks, so there was no choice BUT to click all the glowies and see just how much chaos we could get thrown at us at once. Anything less would have been an embarrassment.

Much of it comes down to playstyle more than anything. Against +4/8? Yeah, you're probably going to have a rough time with most builds. Especially if you're not in incarnate content, where the pets benefit from the incarnate level shift (all pets are 50th level in incarnate content, and each +1 you get (from alpha, lore, and destiny) will apply to the pets as well, meaning if you're 50+3 in incarnate content, all your pets are 53rd as well, which makes a huge difference. As others have said, you can also look for synergies with your primary and secondary setups. You'll also want to make sure to slot the 6 +def/+resist IO auras to boost the pets' survival rate. Expedient Reinforcement and Sovereign Right have +10% resist all IOs Call to Arms and Edict of the Master have +5% all defense IOs Command of the Mastermind has a +10% aoe defense IO, which rises to +15% with the superior version Mark of Supremacy has a +10% resist all IO, which rises to +15% with the superior version So if you slot all 6 auras, your pets will have +30% resist (+35% with superior), +10% to all defense, and +10% additional aoe defense (+15% with superior, for +25% aoe total) With a secondary that boosts resists and the auras, your pets can easily have around +55% resist to just about everything, making some of them very tanky. With a secondary that boosts defense, the auras, and maneuvers, your pets can generally achieve around 40-45% defense vs most everything, and upwards of 60% vs aoe (some pets will be even higher, such as thugs with the enforcers maneuvers powers or bots with the protectors' shield) If your secondary also has healing/aoe healing, it makes it far easier to keep your pets alive. Since they're your source of damage as well as defense with bodyguard mode, you want them to be alive as much as possible. AoE healing is incredibly useful, especially with pets that like to clump up, like ninjas, undead, and beasts, as those are primarily melee pets. Inevitably, though, you're going to lose pets in fights. As long as you're not losing them too rapidly it shouldn't be too hard to get them back up and into the fight again. If necessary, fall back and regroup. There's no shame in backing off and getting a better handle on the situation. Also, don't neglect personal defenses. There are MANY times where I've lost pets in nasty fights, but I have enough personal resists and defense to tank long enough to get my pets back up and bodyguard established. Additionally, if you really want to, there's a type of build called "tankermind", which leverages the presence taunt power to force things to fight you, rather than your pets. With bodyguard mode and some defenses of your own (patron shield, tough, set bonuses, etc), you can be incredibly tanky. And your pets benefit from stuff shooting YOU, rather than them. But that's definitely a more "advanced" way of fighting for a MM, since it requires a whole new set of tactics and build.

I keep meaning to make some sound mods to replace the various melee weapon attack sounds (axe, dual blade, katana, broadsword) to sound more like they're hitting a person instead of scraping along aluminum siding.

AE is a different beast entirely. And if you're working with custom AVs, it can get really nasty. However, we're not talking about AE, we're talking about Hopkins from the Manticore TF. I've done that TF probably over 100 times on various characters, and I've never had an issue with it. Yeah, he can hit hard, but so can lots of enemies. I've had Freak Tanks swat me for a big chunk of my health if I'm a squishy before. It's something you account for when you're playing a low-def character. Your argument is that the strongest type of enemy in the game who is buffed to the gills (and is possibly many levels above you) shouldn't be able to hit a character with zero defense hard enough to nearly one-shot them. How hard SHOULD they hit, then? Bear in mind, this is against a character with zero defenses. Should they hit for 20% of their health? 50%? If so, how hard are they going to be hitting a character who DOES have defenses? Is it going to be a threat at all? If they're not enough of a threat to make even a squishball character think twice about taking a few hits, they would just be a joke to a tanky or buffed up character. AVs are meant to be dangerous. Especially if they spawn multiple levels above you. Moreso if you've got the TF set to buff them and debuff you. Claiming that they shouldn't be a deadly threat to a character with zero defenses makes no sense.

I'm not going to respond to all the Champions stuff, since that would derail the thread. I could talk about Champions for hours and hours. It was probably my favorite TTRPG, even moreso than D&D, and my friends and I played it for decades. But to comment on this bit, the problem is that you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. If the AV was hitting you that hard, it's because you specifically chose options to MAKE him that hard. Normal AVs do NOT do that much damage. Your TF was almost certainly running with the "enemies buffed, players debuffed" modifiers, which drastically increases the difficulty level, and quite possibly running well under the level the enemies spawn at. I've face-tanked plenty of AVs on squishy characters, and have never been hit for the damage you're claiming. I'd love to see a screenshot of the damage you took, the mob level, and your level, along with any buffs/debuffs, to really see what was going on. But it sounds like you were running on the hardest possible difficulty you could set, jumped into a fight with zero actual preparation or planning, and got hammered for it. And you're complaining that that's unfair. I just don't see the problem.

That would actually be really funny, if there were specifically coded reactions from various groups. Like the winter event, the ice golems seeing a fire character and gain immunity to taunt/threat control and go straight for them to beat them to death before they all get melted. Course, then you'd have fire tankers and brutes laughing like little kids in a candy shop as the entire map just converges on them all at once.