Make MM upgrade powers slotable with pet IOs

[FirstRingOfSaturn]

...because they are pet powers?

[Greycat]

No, pet powers are powers that summon pets.  The upgrade powers are buffs, basically.  That's why they don't take them.

[FirstRingOfSaturn]

You're right, but they are just so pet-focused that it wouldn't hurt to make them accepting pet IOs, more than accepting other sets.

[Greycat]

Well... not really. Let's look at the upgrade powers. Picking some to look at:

Beast mastery:
Train Beasts. (Adds powers.) Takes End/Range/Recharge.
Tame beasts - same thing.

The minions *already* get their individual tier upgrades to the END cost of their powers, damage, acc and so forth.

 

Demon summoning - same thing.
Enchant Demon gives fire blast, ice blasts, healing, melee damage, a hold, -rech and -speed to different pets.
Abyssal Empowerment - same thing, mix of what gets enhanced/added.

 

The other set upgrades are like that as well.

 

Now, the pet (not recharge intensive) sets, other than Soulbound,are the exact same for the first four pieces:

 

Acc/Dam (but you don't need Acc to upgrade the pets, it's autohit, and it's not a damaging power)
Dam/End (the END can come in handy, sure, but it doesn't take that much.)
Acc/End (same thing)
Acc/Dam/End (same thing)

 

Those with a fifth piece doe:
- Resist Taunt/Placate
- Acc (3 sets)
- Dam (1 set)

And the ones with a sixth piece?
Damage
Def aura
Resist aura

 

Soulbound's the weird one, of course, but it's still damage, damage/recharge, dam/rech/acc, rech/acc, dam/end, and a chance to build up proc... so again, the only pieces that would *do* anything would be recharge and acc.

 

Basically the pet enhancement powers wouldn't get much of anything from being able to slot pet sets.

 

Now, if you wanted to suggest making upgrade sets? That's a different kettle of fish. I don't know how the devs would feel about making something only one AT can use (pet sets, after all, can be used by controllers, doms, some defenders/corruptors, and if for whatever reason melee took the patron pets, they can be used there, too.) 3-4 piece sets, maybe, I don't know how many MMs would suddenly want to respect and start slotting their pet enhancement powers. I don't know that I could see a six piece set or that there'd be that *many* sets - but several categories do just have 2-3.

 

The next question would be could you make any that a MM would see as *worth* slotting - the upgrades have an END cost, sure - but they're PBAOE, so you're not hitting them very often. Range, well, I don't know about you, but for me, I'm usually upgradeing them with them RIGHT THERE after resummoning. And recharge... they just don't need that much.

 

Soooo...

 

What do you think, say, two sets (a low - 10-30 - and high - 25-50, say) would look like that'd make a MM want to slot them? Because off the top of my head I can't really come up with an appealing-but-not-overpowered set that'd have masterminds *wanting* to use them. Maybe a global KB resist aura as a piece? I could see MMs wanting that, maybe.

 

Edit:

There's one other thing to keep in mind... slot cost. I don't know about other MMs, but I kind of like having to maybe dump-and-forget an END reduction in those powers and know I can focus on throwing slots the upgrade powers don't need immediately into the minions or the support secondary. So it has to be worth (to some degree) that bit of balancing.

Edited June 20 by Greycat

[Uun]

Actually, the bigger problem is enhancing the henchman for other attributes. For example, Summon Wolves can be slotted with 9 IO sets other than Pet Damage, Recharge Intensive Pet and the ATOs. Lions accepts 5 and Dire Wolf accepts 8. It would add a lot of flexibility if some of these non-damage IO sets could be slotted in the upgrade powers. The devs have started to do this with some of the recent changes to Mercenaries, Necromancy, Ninjas and Robotics. Equip Mercs, Enchant Undead and Equip Robot accept Resist Damage sets. Tactical Upgrade and Train Ninjas accept Defense sets. Dark Empowerment, Kuji-In Zen and Upgrade Robot accept Healing sets. Similar changes have yet to be made to Beasts, Demons and Thugs.

[Glacier Peak]

Henchmen

[tidge]

Even though I like the changes to the first upgrades to allow pieces other than Endurance & Recharge, I still think it makes no sense that the first upgrade is available before the T2 and T3 henchmen AND that the T2 and T3 henchmen require the application of that first upgrade. That first upgrade comes early enough to T1 summons that there is literally no content except at a character's initial pass through levels 1-5 that the T1 won't have the ability to apply the first upgrade. There is no flashback content when the first upgrade wouldn't be available.

 

My preference would be:

• Henchmen get summoned with the first upgrade applied
• The first upgrade be replaced with a buff pet (not a henchmen) to provide something (I'd suggest the current options, or something to further help with henchmen ToHiT); this would allow the power to take (recharge intensive) pet enhancements

I'm not hurt that what I suggest was not the path taken, as the more recent HC changes are improvements I can work with... it is more that I am scratching my head about the peculiarity of the first henchmen upgrade.