Any noticable DPS, QOL and or AI Behaviorial differences for Ninjas/Mercs/Thugs/ETC after the patch that reshuffled a ton of weapon draw powersets and revamped them?

[Vulgaris]

Since a goodly chunk of powers in the weapon sets for MM pets are basically just slightly tweaked versions of their player equivalents- And I couldn't find any good up to date or definitive concrete information.  I was curiously if anyone's noticed any of the changes directly improving or altering how their pets have been functioning since the big april patch.

Most notably assault rifle and it's relation to mercs, and the various dual pistol moves and thugs. Because they all but share a lot with their matching blaster sets that got changed too.

[tidge]

For Robotics, DPS went up. The straight-up changes to the henchmen were easy to notice when I took the "one big robot" build for a spin. Prior to the changes, it was painfully slow to defeat large spawns. It is better now, but still not recommended! Higher-order effects have also improved defeat times, as it is no longer strictly necessary to slot the robotic henchmen for KB->KD.

 

Defeat times for (open-world zone) Giant Monsters has mostly improved. The caveat is a little tricky to explain, so bear with me. With the -regen portion of the henchmen attacks being moved to the Mastermind's attacks, it means that the Mastermind has to be attacking (more-or-less) constantly. Prior to this change, it was possible for a Mastermind to go AFK and eventually (some) GMs would be defeated simply by the Robots. This is not (regularly) the case; eventually even the weakest of the GMs will score some good rolls and then the 'bots won't be able to finish them off. Maintenance Drone is a HUGE improvement for Robotics, but it won't keep henchmen alive if the boss is AFK. The one type of GM that now gives me MUCH more trouble are the level 50 Peregrine/Monster Island/Hive GMs. Previously, I found it straightforward to floor their Regen, apply resistances and do enough damage to defeat them solo. Now, even with the improved damage on the henchmen they can usually run "for help" and overcome damage being dealt from just regenerating. I suppose I could make some different build choices to handle these, but solo-fighting random PI GMs is not the type of content that I find particularly rewarding. I see the same type of trouble when soloing some "event" GMs in high-level zones (Nemesis, April's Fool).

 

Was this a big change? It wasn't for my Robotics build or playstyle... I had all along been using the primary (and epic) attacks for grabbing aggro, soft control via knockdown, and %debuffing. I think I moved up one of the attacks earlier in the build, and added Maintenance Drone, and some changes in slotting... the performance was improved and my build choices were not radically different. For players that had made different choices (like skipping all primary attacks), I can imagine them feeling some changes for some content like AVs and GMs.

[Vulgaris]

Cool and informative! Though I kinda sorta meant- Did the powers that henchmen bear are basically all but 1:1 copies of the ones player uses, inherit the cooldown and animation advantages or re balances too that came with this sweeping set of changes.

IE: Do mercs full auto more often, is their cone also 90 degrees now, Do the necro pets with dark blasts (I think the spectres and lich) change with the additions etc.

[tidge]

I don't play either of those sets, but per CityofData it looks like Buckshot is still a 30° cone; Full Auto is 20°.

[Maris]

(NVM, misread the post)

Edited July 17, 2023 by Maris

[smnolimits43]

i find i dont really use my arrows, kind of a wasted slot.