Disappointed by permanent +res/+def floating shield icons around henchmen

[AxerJ]

I've been leveling my first ever mastermind, and I've been really getting into the character - a Necro/Storm. I have a cool former Circle of Thorns magus-turned-lich theme. The aesthetics of the character and the minions are really fun.

 

But then I got the +res/+def pet enhancements. 

 

And now all my undead have permanent, bright orange and purple floating shield icons around them. Forever. It's actually killing my interest in playing, as it's just not very fun to look at anymore. 

 

So have masterminds resigned themselves to seeing these orange and purple shields floating around their henchmen permanently? Is that the state of a mastermind? That sucks.

 

I'm seriously considering removing them altogether, but I'm a necro/storm -- the pets need those buffs. I'm not giving them any shields. I could just try to knock the enemies down all the time, but removing +30% res and +10% def seems like a pretty significant hit to their survivability.

 

What do you all think of the permanent +res/+def icons floating around your pets all the time?

 

It's really too bad that something which is essentially mandatory is so ugly.

 

Could the devs make these floating orange and purple indicators optional? It's pretty much killing my desire to play a mastermind. Obviously, the look is a lot to me in this game.

Edited September 10, 2022 by AxerJ

[Riverdusk]

On 9/10/2022 at 12:27 AM, AxerJ said:

I've been leveling my first ever mastermind, and I've been really getting into the character - a Necro/Storm. I have a cool former Circle of Thorns magus-turned-lich theme. The aesthetics of the character and the minions are really fun.

 

But then I got the +res/+def pet enhancements. 

 

And now all my undead have permanent, bright orange and purple floating shield icons around them. Forever. It's actually killing my interest in playing, as it's just not very fun to look at anymore. 

 

So have masterminds resigned themselves to seeing these orange and purple shields floating around their henchmen permanently? Is that the state of a mastermind? That sucks.

 

I'm seriously considering removing them altogether, but I'm a necro/storm -- the pets need those buffs. I'm not giving them any shields. I could just try to knock the enemies down all the time, but removing +30% res and +10% def seems like a pretty significant hit to their survivability.

 

What do you all think of the permanent +res/+def icons floating around your pets all the time?

 

It's really too bad that something which is essentially mandatory is so ugly.

 

Could the devs make these floating orange and purple indicators optional? It's pretty much killing my desire to play a mastermind. Obviously, the look is a lot to me in this game.

 

I eventually learned to mostly ignore them, but yes they are really ugly, especially the orange resistance ones imo.  Would love to at least see those toned down a bit, they are really garish. 

 

Not sure how technically hard it'd be to make them completely optional, but I'd be all for it.  

[SableShrike]

This is a huge pet peeve (pun intended) of mine.

 

So much so that of late I’ve made a few builds without the IOs.

 

This isn’t as big of a deal as it sounds for a few reasons:

 

1) You can proc the crap out of most pets; yes, a few procs are better than the others, but now you can fit the others.

 

2) Hami Os will let you max out pet Dam/Mez in four slots and put two procs in the remainder.  This is really noticable on things like Mercs or your Lich.  Don’t underestimate the value of maxed pet control durations.

 

3) Blood Mandate:  the full set of this in pets is insane.  It becomes super easy to hit 32.5%  Ranged and AoE Defense with these.  Then a small Luck lets you hit softcap.  Add in flight and you’re basically an unkillable summoner churning out waves of minions.  Again, you need the full six IOs in the set to get this full effect.

 

Personally, I go the proc and Hami route.  I would rather have pets that can buzzsaw stuff I’ve tied up with my debuffs and such.  
 

Way more interesting than unkillable pets, though the skill needed and potential for things to go wrong are higher.

[AxerJ]

Thanks for the interesting tips, Sable -- I couldn't take the icons anymore and got rid of those enhancements too. I'm certainly noticing the -30% resistance, but the floating colors around each undead kill the fun for me. Great to see some ways we can work around them!