New Archetype Idea: The Alpha

[Cooltastic]

The whole idea for the Alpha is to make a more combat focused pet master. I'd like to pull all the Assault Secondaries from the Dominator Archetype and make those the Primaries for the Alpha. Then pull all the Pet Primaries from the Mastermind Archetype and make those the Secondaries for the Alpha.

 

So now you have an Assault focused character who leads a horde/clan/pack/gang/army into battle.

 

You no longer have the support to keep your pets alive, but you have the damage to keep most of attention focused on you. Your survivability should be descent enough for taking a few hits from bodyguard mode. But I imagine while being in a team you wouldn't have to rely on it as much. 

 

I just feel like these 2 sets coming together would be a perfect fit. We have an Assault set with Savage melee built in to go along with Beast pets. We have an Assault set with ninja stars to use with Ninja pets. I'm sure there's other great combinations that could come from this mash up.

[biostem]

You'd probably have to remove the attacks from the MM primaries and throw in some armor & status protection powers, to make it viable.

[Shazbotacus]

So, kinda inverse from Mastermind? Player provides damage, pets have support and perhaps even debuff powers with maybe a touch of damage? Probably fewer of the pets or something?

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Shazbotacus said:

So, kinda inverse from Mastermind? Player provides damage, pets have support and perhaps even debuff powers with maybe a touch of damage? Probably fewer of the pets or something?

While that would be pretty cool, I think the OP wanted to keep with the existing MM pets. IMO, it's more about a MM that leads from the front...

[Shazbotacus]

Ah, I see. Makes me think of Valiance Online and their plan with three different kinds of pet classes.

[Lazarillo]

This is an idea I've seen bandied about in a few places, and I admit I like it a lot myself.  In my imagination (where I've always called it the "Vanguard"), I see it going something like this:

• Primary Powersets: Assault
• Secondary Powersets: Pets
• Attacks from the Pet sets are replaced by armors: instead of a t1/t2 blast and weak AoE, you get a couple lower-tier defensive powers (but including mez protection) from armor sets related to the motif of the pets.
  • Beast Mastery gets Regeneration, Demon Summoning gets Fiery Aura, Mercenaries gets Willpower, Necromancy gets Dark Armor, Ninjas get Ninjutsu, Robotics gets Invulnerability, Thugs gets Super-Reflexes
• Rather than being defense focused, the Inherent would be an offensively-oriented type of thing where your pets did more damage if they were attack the same target you were.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Lazarillo

[biostem]

35 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Rather than being defense focused, the Inherent would be an offensively-oriented type of thing where your pets did more damage if they were attack the same target you were.

I would reverse it;  YOU get a bonus to defense and damage for every pet in range, and maybe putting your pets into defensive mode shunts damage from them to you, or something similar...

 

EDIT:  For the above to work, I think you'd need tanker or brute levels of HP and defensive values.  Maybe, in addition to replacing the 3 attacks in the pet set, the 4th "special" ability would be replaced with something that further bolsters you and/or your pets - like I could see necromancy having a power that let's you drain one of your pets to heal yourself and buff your abilities for a short while.  For mercs, YOU take the serum, (albeit modified to actually be worthwhile).  For 'bots, they fire healing beams on you.  Fro demons, maybe the demon temporarily possesses you to grant you with buffs, and for bests, you summon prey, which when killed, grants you health and endurance.  Thugs - well maybe gang war would function almost the same, except they debuff the enemy due to the confusion they cause.

Edited October 7, 2019 by biostem

[Lazarillo]

17 minutes ago, biostem said:

I would reverse it;  YOU get a bonus to defense and damage for every pet in range, and maybe putting your pets into defensive mode shunts damage from them to you, or something similar...

That feels a little too much like MMs and Bodyguard, and I at least envisioned it a little more...lead from the front rather than "use them as a human shield" approach, thus wanted it to be a more offensive bent.  Although it may not be a practical one, I'd admit.  I don't have a lot of experience there.  Brute-level HP does seem like it'd be needed, though, yeah.

[Cooltastic]

2 hours ago, biostem said:

You'd probably have to remove the attacks from the MM primaries and throw in some armor & status protection powers, to make it viable.

Why wouldn't it be viable just by mashing them together as is how I suggested though? If you want to have armor go into bodyguard mode. If your being held, your pets will continue attacking which will draw the aggro off you for awhile. If a blaster is viable, then this should easily work fine as is imo. The only thing I would suggest adding, is a special Alpha Archetype Inherent that grants greatly increased regeneration to pets when out of combat. Possibly for yourself as well, but not sure on that.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Cooltastic

[Lazarillo]

4 minutes ago, Cooltastic said:

Why wouldn't it be viable just by mashing them together as is how I suggested though?

Well, for one thing, MM Pet sets already have attacks, some of which are just straight-up duplicated by the Assault sets.

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, Cooltastic said:

Why wouldn't it be viable just by mashing them together as is how I suggested though? If you want to have armor go into bodyguard mode. If your being held, your pets will continue attacking which will draw the aggro off you for awhile. If a blaster is viable, then this should easily work fine as is imo. The only thing I would suggest adding, is a special Alpha Archetype Inherent that grants greatly increased regeneration to pets when out of combat. Possibly for yourself as well, but not sure on that.

Then it would seem that you're being shoehorned, (or at least greatly encouraged), to dip into fighting and leaping, to at least be able to withstand the damage and status effects dealt you by leading from the front without primary or secondary armors/status protection powers to aid you...

[Steampunkette]

You can't keep the 3 attacks in the secondary in part because they're part of the thematic assault sets. E.G. Beast Mastery's Swarm, Ravens, and Eagle are all part of the Savage Assault set. If you do Assault/Pets they'll have to go.

 

So...

 

Bodyguard Mode with a full compliment of pets is about equivalent to having 75% Damage Resistance to all types at all times.

 

Assuming you maintain the aggro.

 

Rather than putting Armors into the secondary, might I suggest Support and/or Controls? Or perhaps the Mez Protection, Taunt, and Build Up?

 

Regardless of what is chosen, this character's damage modifiers for Melee and Range would have to be pretty darned low. The NPCs summoned by the Pet Sets have their own internal values that don't change based on any Scalar tied to the Player Character.

[Cooltastic]

Also... I was looking over the sets some more and man these things are made to go together.

 

     Fire or Ice Assault/Demon Summoning

     Dark Assault/Necromancy

     Energy or Electricity Assault/Robotics

     Savage Assault/Beast Mastery

     Martial Assault/Ninjas or Mercenaries

     Pretty much anything/Thugs(can just be a superpowered boss)

 

Thorny Assault would be the hardest to use, which is why I would also like to suggest a Devouring Earth pet set to go along with it. All the models and animations are already there to pick and choose from. 

[Haijinx]

Needs a different name

 

Also, are the pets reduced in power since they are secondary pets?

[Cooltastic]

8 minutes ago, Steampunkette said:

You can't keep the 3 attacks in the secondary in part because they're part of the thematic assault sets. E.G. Beast Mastery's Swarm, Ravens, and Eagle are all part of the Savage Assault set. If you do Assault/Pets they'll have to go.

 

So...

 

Bodyguard Mode with a full compliment of pets is about equivalent to having 75% Damage Resistance to all types at all times.

 

Assuming you maintain the aggro.

 

Rather than putting Armors into the secondary, might I suggest Support and/or Controls? Or perhaps the Mez Protection, Taunt, and Build Up?

 

Regardless of what is chosen, this character's damage modifiers for Melee and Range would have to be pretty darned low. The NPCs summoned by the Pet Sets have their own internal values that don't change based on any Scalar tied to the Player Character.

Ah, good point you guys bring up about the duplicate attacks. Ok, so yeah guess those should def be replaced. I don't want to make this something that would be able to steal away a tank or brute's job either. I didn't realize bodyguard mode offered those kinds of resistance numbers(Damn.) I think they would have to probably tune those down a bit for this class. I also don't believe this class should be given a taunt either. Minimal Mez protection MIGHT work, but might make it OP so I dunno. I would say some KB protection would at least be warranted.

 

Things I would suggest for replacing the player attacks on the Pet side would be...

     First 100% agree with the Build Up idea.

     Then maybe a pet moral booster which would increase the stats of your pets.

     Then maybe a long cooldown player invincibility ability that takes away access to all your other abilities for the duration. So basically you become a crazy unkillable target for a short duration but you aren't allowed to attack.

 

Those last 2 abilities would work well together. If you see your health getting low, boost your pets and then go into your hibernative state.

[Cooltastic]

7 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

Needs a different name

 

Also, are the pets reduced in power since they are secondary pets?

That would be the idea, player does most of the dirty work as the Alpha and the pets are there for minimal damage support and aggro aid.

 

The name is the only thing I could think of on the spot because of the dang Beast Mastery set lawl. If you guys come up with a better name I'm all all ears.

 

I feel like the sweet spot would be for it to feel like playing a Scrapper/Sentinel but with pets as it's defense.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Cooltastic