Semi Petless masterminds

[plainguy]

I won't go in to massive details and try to keep it simple and just try to explain the concept and some background.

 

EDIT - There should be some pet within the build. My only point for bringing these concepts and builds up is to simply say it works now as is, but might not be the best. But my simple point is from a Proof of concept it works and is doable. End result those 7 builds listed could do just about any Task Force. 

 

First off I have 7 Petless or Semi Petless masterminds at level 50 with assorted incarnate levels. Not many at the incarnate level boost because I pretty much soloed/PL all the builds up.

I am able to solo 3/8 on missions and kill AV's on lowering the +0 setting with no incarnate levels. 

 

Current concepts.

• Johnny and his Giant Robot Goliath. - Super genius boy builds a Robot. Robot Traps with last pet only
• Wyld Hunter - Incarnation of the wild hunt with his wolf. Beast Mastery Trick arrow last pet only
• Nyte Terror - Boogeyman for badguys - Demon Darkness, Last pet only 
• Dark Lasher - Demon Storm - Last pet only.  Summon hell storms and overall chaos.
• Whipster -Demon Kinetics - Techno guy created energy whips and Kinetic power via his suit to fight bad guys. No pet
• Whip Lash - Demon Traps   - Techno guy creates energy whips and Traps- No pet.
• Nega Jake - Thugs Time - twin brothers, one semi normal and another infused with dark powers Vigilantes towing the line between good and evil. - Last pet only. 

The builds are in my Signature. 

 

So my simple point is this is somewhat doable. But some build rely heavy on Incarnates to shore up weak areas which is usually endurance based do to Mastermind attacks costing so much endurance.

 

My concept is to allow Masterminds similar treatment that VETs do where certain abilities are locked out when they pick another. 

Less pets means more attacks at a reduced endurance cost then they are now. 

Less pets means a boost to current pets. 

These choices are baked into the build. Meaning it has nothing to do with the current pets you have out. It related to how many pet slots you picked in your current active build.

Thus instead of six pets you have one giant much more powerful pet. 

For example using Robots

We can assume that Battle bots the Tier 1 pets are worth 1/3, of the Assault Bot value and the the Protector bots are worth 1/2 value of the Assault bot.

So having a build with just Assault bot and protector bot and NO Battle bots in the active build makes the remaining bots much more stronger. A bit more hit points and a bit more resistance or defenses. 

Having just the Assault Bot would make it twice as strong as it currently is.

Not picking up Any Tier Robot would give you another attack of power related to the level it was picked. 

EG Not picking Assault bot would give you something comparable to Rain of Arrows, Full Auto, Overcharge, Blizzard, ETC.. You get the point.  

Another example would be not picking up the Bruiser for Thugs could give you Hail of Bullets.

 

Not picking up one or two of the training powers for pets would also give you some form of attack or however the build types are set up method wise.

 

I am not here to argue the dps value of the current petless or semi petless mastermind and I would concede the mission pace is a bit slower to some degree. But it isn't mind numbing slow. You are moving at a decent pace taking mobs down. 

 

Where other servers are looking to give mastermind pets costume choices.  I say homecoming should go in a different direction and  diversify the build instead. 

 

Just allows for many mix and match and unique builds then what we normally see.

 

Later on if you want to change the appearance of the pets based on the number  of pets summoned that a cool bonus/Option as well.  

Only Assault bot would make it a bit bigger or different looking.. EG Malta Hercules. 

Only last demon would give Behemoth Overlord or Blade Prince

Only Tier 2 Demon pets would give you Succubus.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by plainguy
Changed verbiage to make it clear it should NOT be Petless

[Sakura Tenshi]

I don't know about completely petless MMs, because that would just be kind of a neutered Defender. But an MM that can instead opt for making one super strong pet does sound awesome.

 

 

I would inevitably abuse this though and create my 'Demon' stand user [T H E  D E V I L  W E N T  D O W N  T O  G E O R G I A]!

Edited April 6, 2020 by Sakura Tenshi

[Lines]

I'd love to see this sort of thing, to give Masterminds more adaptability in their builds and in the decisions they make on the field. I also have a t3-only Demons/Storm, and I absolutely love it. But because storm is great, less about the primary.

 

I think your suggestion is a fairly large overhaul to MM powersets. If it's doable, great, but I think I remember Captain Powerhouse saying that their method for locking powers out (Master Brawler/Practiced Brawler on an SR sentinel) was a bit of a hack solution that they don't plan on repeating.

 

I certainly like the idea that pet effectiveness is higher if you choose fewer pet powers to balance it out. Giving feasible variety to different power choices is what the game should be all about, and MMs are a little cornered.

 

I reckon there could be something in the inherent, like 'back against the wall', where the fewer pets you have out the better your primary attacks will function. Having no pets will give you much higher damage, a little below scrapper/sentinel levels, but obviously you only have the three attacks. It could scale with level, so it's fully effective at the same time you pick up the t3 henchman.

[Replacement]

First off, I think you need a tl;dr. People are going to respond based off of what they think you're saying. 

 

Second, I don't think the Master Brawler logic is what we're looking at, here. Not to say this is all doable but I could see something being worked out. Here's what I could see:

• No bonus attack for being purely petless. This is already a big undertaking and that one detail at least doubles the work.
• No other petless incentives directly.  That doesn't make sense for the AT, and is only a thing because Whips. It would be smarter long term to port whips elsewhere (Hellfire Assault, and I've been meaning to mention that I want to see Aurora Pena's psychic lash become an Epic pool).
• Removing the Endurance tax directly from powers (this would be a lot of work) and re-implementing through a check on currently active pet tiers. Example: gain a debuff for as long as you have a pet out of a particular tier, which adds x% negative endurance discount.
• Likewise, you could auto-grant passives at certain levels, like 12, that suppress while a given tier of pet is active.
• I don't particularly understand the desire to make it build-level.  I think it would be easier to implement changes based on currently-active pets, and wouldn't meaningfully impact standard pet builds anyway.

[Greycat]

Not going to comment on the numbers, since (a) not a numbers guy and (b) I suspect it would depend, in part, on the powerset itself (for instance, T2 'bots providing bubbles...)

 

That said, given in some instances I almost never summon T1s (MSRs come to mind - they die too quickly,) I could definitely see using this and this being useful in some builds.

[plainguy]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

Not going to comment on the numbers, since (a) not a numbers guy and (b) I suspect it would depend, in part, on the powerset itself (for instance, T2 'bots providing bubbles...)

 

That said, given in some instances I almost never summon T1s (MSRs come to mind - they die too quickly,) I could definitely see using this and this being useful in some builds.

Neither am I numbers wise..

 

But I wouldn't mind having Tier 1 pets ONLY if they had more survivability.  

 

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

First off, I think you need a tl;dr. People are going to respond based off of what they think you're saying. 

 

Second, I don't think the Master Brawler logic is what we're looking at, here. Not to say this is all doable but I could see something being worked out. Here's what I could see:

• No bonus attack for being purely petless. This is already a big undertaking and that one detail at least doubles the work.
• No other petless incentives directly.  That doesn't make sense for the AT, and is only a thing because Whips. It would be smarter long term to port whips elsewhere (Hellfire Assault, and I've been meaning to mention that I want to see Aurora Pena's psychic lash become an Epic pool).
• Removing the Endurance tax directly from powers (this would be a lot of work) and re-implementing through a check on currently active pet tiers. Example: gain a debuff for as long as you have a pet out of a particular tier, which adds x% negative endurance discount.
• Likewise, you could auto-grant passives at certain levels, like 12, that suppress while a given tier of pet is active.
• I don't particularly understand the desire to make it build-level.  I think it would be easier to implement changes based on currently-active pets, and wouldn't meaningfully impact standard pet builds anyway.

 

I agree on the Petless line.. My mistake will correct it. There should be some pet or whats the point.. 

Like you said port over whips.