Add a massive Absorb shield to MM pet Summoning

[Galaxy Brain]

Masterminds have an issue where their summons essentially get deleted in higher end content the moment they spawn in, making a good chunk of their kit ineffective. To give the pets a fighting chance, would it be possible to grant a massive Absorb Shield to the pets when summoned that only lasts 10~20 sec?

 

Goal: Provide pets with a one-time, limited buffer vs incoming damage upon summon to give them a fighting chance.

 

Suggestion: When first summoned, pets gain an absorb shield equal to say, 300% their max HP that lasts for 10-20 seconds that allows them to tank a decent amount of damage while they get upgraded / buffed to stand a chance.

 

 

[molten_dragon]

Why would you try to re-summon your pets in the middle of a fight and expect them to survive before they get upgraded/buffed?  That's the equivalent of a melee AT rezzing in the middle of a fight and expecting to survive with all of their toggles dropped.

[Shadowsleuth]

Because if the fight is bad enough to wipe out your pets, if that Mastermind doesn't immediately re-summon he will quickly join his pets in death.

 

Ideally the MM would throw out a control or group debuff first before re-summoning, but not all secondary's have that (Kinetics).

Edited November 13, 2019 by Shadowsleuth

[Galaxy Brain]

It's really more of an issue for the minion pets. They usually provide a ton of damage and survival for the MM, but high lvl AoEs can wreck them very fast to the point of neutering MMs.

[Kyksie]

You could just make Equip and Upgrade passive powers that are already applied. They already did that on the "we're not 4chan, honest" server.

[megaericzero]

On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 4:15 AM, molten_dragon said:

Why would you try to re-summon your pets in the middle of a fight and expect them to survive before they get upgraded/buffed?  That's the equivalent of a melee AT rezzing in the middle of a fight and expecting to survive with all of their toggles dropped.

Don't the armor rezzes come with an invulnerability period to protect you from that happening?

[MetaVileTerror]

Some do, some don't, ericzero.

 

But to the original suggestion:  Yes, it's "annoying" to have to resummon your Henchpets in combat, and then Upgrade them . . . but it's part of the gameplay for Masterminds.  Your Henchpets aren't /just/ your Pets; they're a Mastermind's core mechanic.  They're essentially a click Resistance Power which a limited number of Hit Points, thanks to Bodyguard mode, on top of being your Damage, Control, and Debuff Powers (and even Buff Powers with the likes of Demons and Robots).  Making them immortal or granting them Absorb when they respawn is essentially giving the Mastermind a get-out-of-risk-for-very-cheap card every 25 to 50 seconds, depending on how much Recharge you've decided to Slot for (before even getting in to the IO Set Bonuses).  Some Secondary Sets are better at keeping your Henchpets alive than others, and some are better at front-loading that survival the moment the Henches are spawned in.  

I generally don't like the sentiment of "get good," and I think a game's design should facilitate a level of accessibility, but I genuinely feel that Masterminds have a pretty solid playstyle baked in.  The biggest thing is:  You have the power to command your Henchpets.  This is monumental, and while the UI and AI can make it a rather daunting task to get the Henches to do what you want them to, I personally find it immensely rewarding to have this form of gameplay available in City.  If AoEs are nuking your Henches, remember that position for Masterminds is like location for realtors.

 

So, instead of the Absorb buffer, I would like to propose improved UI/UX for Masterminds!  Let's help elevate the players who might find it difficult to wrangle their Henches by improving the controls and response on Henchpets.

[Galaxy Brain]

True, you can disengage and resummon then go back into the fray, but this is still an issue unique to high lvl content for MMs where they basically keep dying from AoEs. Other classes dont have to spend so much time resummoning only to have to do it again in the middle of a fray / back off and become even less of a help in order to swoop back in.

[MetaVileTerror]

I dunno.  I think the new "endgame" for the City invalidates a LOT of gameplay which isn't just DPS with an IO Build which caps Defenses and squeezes as much Recharge and Resistance out.  I feel it's hardly a unique problem that high level content isn't adequately balanced, particularly around non-DPS Archetypes.  Control suffers pretty heavily along with Masterminds.

[megaericzero]

14 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

Some do, some don't, ericzero.

All of the armor set rezzes grant 15s untouchable - Dark, Fire, Regen, Will, even Luminous and Umbral. Looks like Renewal of Light and Return to Battle do as well.

Epic pools and support I don't know about, though. Inspirations not, of course.

Re-reading molten_dragon's post, there's an ambiguity to the source of the rez so I may have jumped the gun assuming they meant the self-rezzes that melee archetypes have available in their armor sets or one of the P2W ones.

[MetaVileTerror]

I apologize.  I don't play Melee'ists to that point very often, or that recently.  I recall all of them getting the Debt Protection mechanic added, but I did not realize they were all given the immortality clause too.

[Call Me Awesome]

8 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

I apologize.  I don't play Melee'ists to that point very often, or that recently.  I recall all of them getting the Debt Protection mechanic added, but I did not realize they were all given the immortality clause too.

Many of them also have a large KB applied as you rez to give you an extra few seconds to get yourself in order along with the untouchable portion.  I can attest that the untouchable portion does NOT last long enough for you to retoggle more than one or two powers so it's recommended to exit stage left posthaste and THEN get everything up.  I typically eat a purple as I'm rising from the floor and toggle mez protection (depending on character) then get some distance to retoggle.

 

It does seem like simply changing the pet upgrade powers to passive would solve the problem; I don't have enough experience with MM to say if it might cause additional problems though.

[Galaxy Brain]

The only pet iirc that doesnt like all the upgrades is the Assault Bot, since its flamethrower takes 5-ever to animate compared to missiles. Bot MMs would used to skip the first upgrade on it.

[MetaVileTerror]

People also don't like to upgrade the Lich and Oni for various reasons.

[Galaxy Brain]

That is another topic altogether, but something we could definitely go over since the upgrades should always be beneficial imo 🙂

 

 

[plainguy]

I've had my pets wiped from a good AOE many of times so I can relate. 

To add to this is when you resummon pets you are practically drained of all endurance and they are on recharge. 

Nothing worse then getting a 2nd wipe. 

 

Doesn't have to be an AV either it could be just a high level setting with a bunch of mobs like Cots firing off a bunch of AOE attacks. 

But this issue is not far fetched. 

 

[Fortuneteller]

This is a really really, really bad idea. Better idea, run away and then resummon.

[DrRocket]

I feel your pain, but...

 

When I IOd my MM there are 6 auras you can slot that gives a lot of toughness to your pets, that is they don't die as easily. I play a necro/dark MM, Since I follow my pets within 20' I spam my dark heal area effect, and keep my pets and myself continuously healed. You be surprised how effective this is, the difficulty is keeping your pets from spreading out instead of keeping focused on a target. I wish there was a command that would auto-target them to whatever I am attacking, instead of having to target, command them to attack my target, and then try to keep them healed.

 

Another survival technique is at 50+ is to IO in such a way to have at least 45% defense versus ranged and aoe, that means you don't get hit much, you use hover and stay above melee range. The aoe defense is critical, since you are within 20' of your pets, you are going to be spam AOEd, the high defense coupled with your spaming PBAOE heals will keep you alive and going.

 

But it is true, with mean AVs despite it all, your pets can and will go down. Once I have a 25% loss, I click on passive and retreat to a safe place. Afterwards I recast my missing pets, buff them, and then go back to taking care of business.

 

Hopet his helps

 

V/R