page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] Mastermind Archetype Adjustments

[tidge]

5 hours ago, OldPenn said:

 

With this specific statement in mind could you please evaluate the time it takes to select a henchmen so that it can be buffed.  It's fairly common for me to summon pets that get defeated immediately before I can even select them and buff them. 

 

@Maelwys explained the work-around.

 

There is another inherent issue closely related to this: you cannot drop an inspiration on a henchmen that is in the middle of an unresolved animation... and the client-server ping can make it practically impossible to buff a henchmen this way (because the MM also has to be 'idling'). It is easiest seen on my T3 Assault Bot (when it is in combat), but I've seen this with Lore pets and other pet classes too.

 

Team inspirations don't do an animation check, so this is one of those things I think could get fixed, but 'spaghetti code' is certainly going to stop it.

 

The server-client resolution can result in henchmen being close enough to a MM to benefit from ____, but the server hasn't acknowledged this yet. This can also effect how bodyguard mode works!

 

These types of issues are what annoy me most, and I am very tolerant of the sorts of issues other players commonly mention. I don't really expect that these things can be fixed (at some level, they are like race conditions) but since they cannot be fixed, I wish that the dev team was more sympathetic when it comes to abstractly applying nerfs, or limiting buffs. How hard I wish this is directly proportional to how much I wish that other players would recognize that some MM issues may be effectively too difficult to address.

[Grim Lynn]

I wonder if there's a way to, when you're summoning pets, for the same check that determines whether you're summoning the whole tier or just one or two of them to also determine whether the current pets have already been buffed. And, if so, to auto-apply the buff(s) to the incoming minion? Wouldn't help the T3, but hopefully that one is dying less anyway.

 

I assume this wouldn't be a trivial change even if it was dev-approved, but I thought it was an idea worth floating.

[tidge]

Pets/henchmen have a LOT of peculiar effects. I'm sure this is still the case, but it has been a few years: the equivalent "T1/T2" spiders for a Crabbermind all expire at the same time of the oldest one... even if new ones have been summoned to fill gaps in the crew. This isn't how MM henchmen work, how Kheldian pets work, or how Controller pets work.... and those don't all work the same either.

 

I only mention this because "things be complicated".

 

[Dispari]

5 hours ago, ScarySai said:

The interface change is confusing to me, because interface already has a max stack limit that a non-mm with fast enough attacks can hit.

 

Why nerf mms specifically on this one? You've provided reasoning in the past, but it never held up when scrutinized by the actual testers.

Agreed! If the issue is that the MM gets to attain max stacks easier than regular people, why not just make it so the chance of proccing for pets is reduced by 2/3 or something?

[gameboy1234]

On 11/20/2025 at 1:34 PM, tidge said:

There is another inherent issue closely related to this: you cannot drop an inspiration on a henchmen that is in the middle of an unresolved animation... and the client-server ping can make it practically impossible to buff a henchmen this way (because the MM also has to be 'idling'). It is easiest seen on my T3 Assault Bot (when it is in combat), but I've seen this with Lore pets and other pet classes too.

 

Making all inspirations work like team inspirations on Henchmen would fix this!  Seriously I think it's a good idea.  Using the 40% modifier I think would help keep things in check.  Or maybe some divisor based on the number of pets you have out.  But I've noticed for a long time now that Henchmen just won't accept an Inspiration while in combat, it's really annoying, and used to work on live.

 

I do understand the "spaghetti code" issue, but also fixing stuff that's not working should be a bit of a priority.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by gameboy1234

[tidge]

1 hour ago, gameboy1234 said:

 But I've noticed for a long time now that Henchmen just won't accept an Inspiration while in combat, it's really annoying, and used to work on live.

 

In addition to the "what is the henchmen doing?", the maximum range between a MM and a henchmen (for dropping inspirations on them) is not particularly great... this is also true of team inspirations. Single inspirations still work, it just that there are several things working against them. HC has tweaked the in-combat henchmen AI, so it is possible that the henchmen are now simply (on average) farther away from the MM than in previous eras.

 

These are the sorts of things *I* (points to self) worry about when considering MM+henchmen performance... the hundreds of little things that other ATs never even have to think about to boost their performance. If other ATs had to worry about "scaling base ToHit rates" but still didn't have to worry about the things MMs deal with, there would be riots.

[Maelwys]

45 minutes ago, tidge said:

If other ATs had to worry about "scaling base ToHit rates" but still didn't have to worry about the things MMs deal with, there would be riots.

[CaffieneNirvana]

Also, quick, dumb little question 'ere... Will we need to rename any pets like we did for the Controller revamp?

 

I'm not complaining, I just wanna know if I should scramble to go write ALL my babies' names down now while I still can. XD

[Captain Powerhouse]

1 hour ago, CaffieneNirvana said:

Also, quick, dumb little question 'ere... Will we need to rename any pets like we did for the Controller revamp?

 

I don't think you will have to (but not sure how much information the server saves to determine that so can't confirm it won't happen either).

[Neiska]

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. I feel this aptly sum's up my feelings about these changes. 

 

[ScarySai]

On 11/21/2025 at 6:26 AM, gameboy1234 said:

 

Making all inspirations work like team inspirations on Henchmen would fix this!  Seriously I think it's a good idea.  Using the 40% modifier I think would help keep things in check.  Or maybe some divisor based on the number of pets you have out.  But I've noticed for a long time now that Henchmen just won't accept an Inspiration while in combat, it's really annoying, and used to work on live.

 

I do understand the "spaghetti code" issue, but also fixing stuff that's not working should be a bit of a priority.

 

 

 

This is a good idea, not sure they even can, though.

 

 

Aside from that, think the even con "nerf" still needs to be dialed down. It's unnecessary. Not every buff requires counterbalance.

Edited 1 hour ago by ScarySai

[bAss_ackwards]

10 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

This is a good idea, not sure they even can, though.

 

 

Aside from that, think the even con "nerf" still needs to be dialed down. It's unnecessary. Not every buff requires counterbalance.

 

Maybe make Supremacy also include a share of what inspirations you have, instead of making a copy of the inspiration on the minions.

[ivanhedgehog]

14 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

This is a good idea, not sure they even can, though.

 

 

Aside from that, think the even con "nerf" still needs to be dialed down. It's unnecessary. Not every buff requires counterbalance.

nerfing the base experience to buff harder modes is a bad idea. Balancing an entire AT around set bonuses is even worse. we were told that classes were balanced using so's. now that seems to have changed.

[bAss_ackwards]

3 hours ago, Neiska said:

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. I feel this aptly sum's up my feelings about these changes. 

 

 

Do you have any particular notes on why you feel this way about the MM changes?