The new Protector Bots might need their end costs adjusted

[WumpusRat]

With the changes to the Robotics set for Masterminds, the tier-2 Protector Bots were given several new attacks, to bring them more in line with other tier-2 pets. That's good.

 

The downside is that the endurance costs on a lot of their attacks seem quite high, and they blow through their end pool at an alarming rate. After some testing, you more or less NEED to have 80% or higher end reduction in the Protector Bots to keep them from hemorrhaging their endurance in the first 30 seconds of any given fight. 

 

I tested them at 50th level with full IO slots, with 65%, 80% and 95% end reduction, and with 65% their end pool was gone after one fairly short fight (dealing with 2 bosses, 3 lt's, and 6 minions). At 80% they can hold out a little longer, but will still start to run low if the fight drags out for too long. At 95% they were able to deal with 2 bosses and 1 minion by themselves, but they were at half endurance afterwards.

 

I'm going to do some further testing, with various pet configurations, to see how they last in more protracted fights (such as against an EB or AV), but after testing them out for an hour or so it does seem like their end costs might need to be adjusted a bit. 

 

The other bots seem pretty fine as far as endurance goes; the drones with 70% end reduction can keep fighting almost endlessly, while the assault bot can last 3-4 minutes of constant attack cycling with 70%. The new attacks on the protector bots seem to be overwhelming their end reduction though.

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, WumpusRat said:

The downside is that the endurance costs on a lot of their attacks seem quite high, and they blow through their end pool at an alarming rate. After some testing, you more or less NEED to have 80% or higher end reduction in the Protector Bots to keep them from hemorrhaging their endurance in the first 30 seconds of any given fight. 

That depends heavily on your difficulty settings and what you're fighting.  With zero end redux I usually end fights with 20-30% of their END remaining - and the real problem is they have @%!% recovery.

That being said, it's a known issue that was brought up multiple times towards the end of the Beta.  I think the Devs intend to fix it, but it didn't make it into the final build.

[WumpusRat]

44 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

That depends heavily on your difficulty settings and what you're fighting.  With zero end redux I usually end fights with 20-30% of their END remaining - and the real problem is they have @%!% recovery.

That being said, it's a known issue that was brought up multiple times towards the end of the Beta.  I think the Devs intend to fix it, but it didn't make it into the final build.

Alright. I haven't played for a couple years, just came back to the game a week or so ago, so I'm not aware of the stuff that was hashed out over the course of the beta.

 

But yeah, I was mostly just street-sweeping in PI to test out end drain. I hopped into a council map at +1/8 and with 86% end reduction on the assault bot, 96% on the protector bots, and 75% on the drones, clearing one spawn of them would end up with the assault bot at about 65-70% end, the drones at 90%+, and the protector bots at about 60-70%.

 

I was going to do more testing with running on standard leveling-up slotting (2 Acc, 3 Dmg, 1 End) to see how they fared, but if it's a known issue that the end costs are too high, then I don't really need to test it.

[Doc_Scorpion]

11 minutes ago, WumpusRat said:

Alright. I haven't played for a couple years, just came back to the game a week or so ago, so I'm not aware of the stuff that was hashed out over the course of the beta.

Never hurts to bring issues to the dev's attention!  My reply was meant to be informational, not to shut you down.

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, WumpusRat said:

After some testing, you more or less NEED to have 80% or higher end reduction in the Protector Bots to keep them from hemorrhaging their endurance in the first 30 seconds of any given fight. 

 

50+1 (Musculature Total Radial Revamp) Bots/Rad, 59.62% EndRdx in Protectors, +1/x5 scanner mission, CoT.  AM not used in testing.  EF and RI on the boss in the screenshot, RA spammed while the bots did their thing, no other powers used.

 

 

It's about the same as the Assault Bot (54.33% EndRdx slotted).

[WumpusRat]

Since I had one of my old Bot/FF MMs lying around who I hadn't kitted out with set IOs, I went puttering around killing some +1/8 council spawns (no bosses) with her. Her bots are all set up with 2xAcc, 3xDmg, 1xEnd. (30-35th level IOs).

 

After each spawn of Council, the Assault Bot was at around 40% end, drones were at 70-75%, and Protector Bots varied based on which one paused to heal, but generally ended up around 25-30% end.

 

On the plus side, the little repair bot is a serious champion. I ended up respeccing her out of the medicine pool entirely, since I don't need to use aid other on the bots anymore.

[weewoozesty]

And this is why my Protector Bots are named "One Pump Chump"