WumpusRat

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.

To look at it from the TTRPG Champions perspective (a game I used to play constantly), you did the equivalent of taking your character with 8 PD and 30 stun up to facetank the enemy brick with 75 str. It punched you. You dropped. That's about it. This whole thing can be chalked up to a learning experience if you look at it the right way. "Oh, this happened because the TF was set with these parameters. Clearly I can't do this tactic against AVs. Huh. Good to know." That SHOULD have been your takeaway from it. Instead, you came to the forums and complained that the game is "broken" because when the odds are heavily stacked against you, you can't face-tank an enemy designed to take on entire teams. It doesn't matter that you were "mid-animation and couldn't react". You jumped into range and aggro'd the AV. The AV responded, and slammed you into the floor. You could have popped a breakfree in advance "just in case", since as a defender with no cc protection, getting stunned/held/immobilized when you're right next to an angry purple-con ANYTHING is going to cause a lot of pain. You made a tactical error and paid the price for it. Learn from it.

Could be. I suppose it's just that pretty much every character I've made in the last year or so has been a vigilante or rogue, so one of the first things I do is head to Null to switch alignments, and just do all the other stuff while I'm there as well. 🙂

I'm just curious, though. You KNOW you can just go to Null and have him turn off the "high speed pinball" effect, but you...choose not to? So you can be annoyed by it when it happens? I don't get it.

"Welcome, recruits. The six of you have been specially chosen from several military services around the world to become part of the Malta Group. You were chosen due to your skill, intelligence, and overall competence, and your personal histories as of this moment have been wiped clean. You no longer exist. In front of you is the standard loadout for all Malta recruit members. You have body armor that is capable of withstanding directed energy attacks from superpowered beings, strong enough to stop up to fifty-caliber rounds, and tactical goggles that allow for full-spectrum vision even in the most adverse circumstances. Particularly useful against those superhumans who can bend light around themselves to become invisible. And this is your weapon, the Mark-4 Specialized Ability-Prevention rifle, or SAP. It is one of the key tools Malta uses to neutralize enemy superhumans. The fact that you are being issued these weapons is how much faith we have in you. Drills start at sixteen hundred. Dismissed." *several hours later* "So, how many of the sapper recruits made it back?" "None. As usual." "Maybe someday one of them will survive long enough to be promoted to Minion..." "Hah! Not likely."

I really enjoy my merc/thermal. Drop forge on the spec-ops and commando, serum them all up, thermal shields, and they're sitting at 90% resist vs everything but psionic, around +65% damage (serum, supremacy, assault, and +95% for the ones with forge) and slap the target with melt armor, and ... well, it tends to melt.

Manticore isn't all that short, really. He's about 5'10" going by the height slider within chargen. I walked my character that's 5'2" over and stood next to him, and the top of my head is just above his chin. If you don't adjust the height slider, the default male character is 6'5" or 6'6". The default female is around 5'8". A good chunk of the in-game furniture are scaled for VERY large characters. But a lot of other things, such as office chairs, tables, desks, etc, are scaled for characters who would be around 5'0" or so, given how small they are.

I have a couple of characters that use the Presence pool. On my shield/axe tanker, I skipped taking taunt from my main set and just picked it up in presence instead. Intimidate is mostly just a placeholder, and I just have an acc/end in it, and almost never use it. Unrelenting is a good emergency heal, and the long cooldown doesn't bother me since I have enough defense that I don't need to use it very often. On my StJ/willpower scrapper, I have the presence pool to kind of control my aggro to a degree. Pacify for dumping aggro, taunt for peeling things off squishies, and unrelenting for the healing and durability when my regen is being overwhelmed. I'm not a huge fan of having to take powers just to unlock something that you actually want, but it's not an issue that really needs "fixing", imo.

It's definitely going to vary, though from what I've seen on numerous runs where people are trying to do it efficiently but not "we're going to finish this in record time, yo!", from the ones I remember: Penelope Yin - 30m Manticore - 60m Synapse - 60-90m (this one can vary a lot) Citadel - 60m Numina - 45m Positron-1 - 45m Positron-2 - 45m I haven't really done many redside TFs lately, so I don't remember the times on any of those.

I'm not sure offhand. However, you can always go to the test server, give yourself a few thousand prismatics, and see what they look like in-game.

Yeah, depends a lot on the power in question. Sometimes the dark setting with light colors doesn't work right, and light setting with dark colors does. I just wish there was a "nofx" option for every power, just to give more choices.

I generally try to minimize the intrusiveness of power effects as much as possible. Setting some powers to "dark" and then choosing the lightest possible colors to make them translucent, setting armor toggles to minimal fx (or nofx if possible), etc. For things like attacks, I'm fine with leaving them as default or coloring them to fit the character's motif, but for stuff that gets toggled on or thrown on other people, I want to make it as minimal as I can. Having someone throw neon-green ice and fire shields on you so all you can see is a blob of color running around as you're fighting is annoying. 🙂

It depends on the secondary/primary I'm using. But my standard is: Health - Panacea proc, Numina recovery/regen, Miracle recovery Stamina - Power Transfer heal proc, end mod, dmg/end mod, Synapse end mod/runspeed (gotta go fast). Very few of my builds are so insanely tight that I can't spare a couple of extra slots for stamina, not to mention I don't like to suck wind until 50+ and incarnate powers. But I guess I just build a lot differently from other people, since others seem to have just the shifter proc in stamina and nothing else, but can get to 50 without flatlining on end every fight. When I've tried it, I'm out of end REALLY fast, since the proc only goes off every 30 seconds or so.

I figured it out. It only kicks in when you're in combat. I had just finished redoing my build after hitting 50 and was wondering why my resists were about 4% lower across the board than what mids was predicting. After going and poking a mob in PI the resists bumped up to where they should have been, so that was the problem. Error on my part. 🙂

The power Evolving Armor for the Bio Armor set states that it gives a small amount of resistance to everything regardless of which adaptation you have running. Then provides additional resistance if you go into defensive adaptation. However, it's not providing any resistance at all, even in defensive adaptation. Tested it on a brute and tanker, same results.

Yeah, I ran into the same thing when I was doing the "mess with the Family" location event in St. Martial a while back. In the building you go into, there can be upwards of 4 bosses, all with singularities. It becomes a massive game of pingpong to see how long you can survive. Which, admittedly, can sometimes be incredibly fun and a good test for a build.

Yeah, I noticed this earlier today. I was tooling around on my new corruptor at level 9 and poked one of the anniversary crates. Out came three banished pantheon zombies. So I shot one with my blast, quick snipe, and origin power and...it was still at 80% health. I had to run away from them at around 10% health, and I'd managed to get ONE of them down to around 25%. They're definitely overtuned for low level characters.