Suggestion: Make MM powers that give +recharge give +damage to pets

[kelly Rocket]

I posted this suggestion during the forum upgrade and it got lost. 

 

As we all know, pets are completely immune to all recharge effects. They cannot gain +recharge and they cannot be affected by -recharge. I hold out hope that one day the AI problems that prompted the devs to institute this restriction in the old days will be fixed, and we can go back to buffing our pets with +recharge. But in the mean time, rather than have all the secondaries with powers that grant +recharge not be able to benefit from those as much when solo... Could we maybe have the MM versions of those powers have an effect that grants +damage, but only to pets?

 

It would appear to be possible, since the Support Core Hybrid Incarnate power has an effect which only applies to pets. So I have to assume that an "only if target is a pet" flag exists, and could be applied to other power effects.

 

So my suggestion is that powers like Chrono Shift, Accelerate Metabolism, and Speed Boost be given a damage buff effect which would have that flag. I'd suggest about 60% of the +recharge amount. So a power that grants 50% recharge, would grant 30% +damage to pets.

 

This would allow players to take those secondaries with less qualms. They'd still function exactly the same as before when you cast them on other players when you're teaming, but they'd also give your pets a noticeable damage buff, which would be useful both when teaming and when solo.

 

By making it only 60% of the value of the recharge buff, we keep it relatively balanced. It's still not as good as actually buffing the pets' recharge would be (If the pet AI could actually handle it), because it's a lower value, it doesn't buff their support abilities the way that +recharge would, and it's also relatively easy to cap out pet damage, so at times it would go to waste.

 

But it would be something at least.

Edited July 24, 2019 by kelly Rocket

[Sunsette]

My biggest concern was that recharge has diminishing returns in a way that damage does not which could lead to some unfortunate edge cases, but I think 60% is a fair conversion to at least begin with and tinker up or down as needed. I feel like it'd be a very welcome benefit to the frail, high damage melee pets who languish a bit compared to their ranged brethren.

So, yeah, sounds good. I support it.

[PaxArcana]

9 hours ago, kelly Rocket said:

I posted this suggestion during the forum upgrade and it got lost. 

... that'd explain why my +1 is missing.  😄

I'd rather have our pets benefit from the MM's global +recharge (and other effects) that come from non-temporary sources.

I don't know how possible or difficult this would be, but by appending those boosts to our Supremacy aura, so they work as an external buff to the pets.  So if you have +20% global recharge from sets, autopowers, whatever?  Your pets, when within Supremacy range, also have +20% global recharge.  They will attack (and buff, and heal, and etc) that little bit faster .... just like if it were you, using those powers yourself.

[Trickshooter]

11 minutes ago, PaxArcana said:

... that'd explain why my +1 is missing.  😄

I'd rather have our pets benefit from the MM's global +recharge (and other effects) that come from non-temporary sources.

I don't know how possible or difficult this would be, but by appending those boosts to our Supremacy aura, so they work as an external buff to the pets.  So if you have +20% global recharge from sets, autopowers, whatever?  Your pets, when within Supremacy range, also have +20% global recharge.  They will attack (and buff, and heal, and etc) that little bit faster .... just like if it were you, using those powers yourself.

Mechanically, the way pet powers are set up, there is no difference between any source of recharge. All their powers are simply flagged to disallow any changes to recharge strength. It would be tons of work to change that.

[PaxArcana]

23 minutes ago, Trickshooter said:

Mechanically, the way pet powers are set up, there is no difference between any source of recharge. All their powers are simply flagged to disallow any changes to recharge strength. It would be tons of work to change that.

... so, pets can't benefit from Accelerate Metabolism??  Daaaaaamn.  Welp, there's an entire AT that actually doesn't give a fig about Kinetic defenders then ...

[Trickshooter]

Just now, PaxArcana said:

... so, pets can't benefit from Accelerate Metabolism??  Daaaaaamn.  Welp, there's an entire AT that actually doesn't give a fig about Kinetic defenders then ...

Just think about how Kinetics MMs feel!

[PaxArcana]

You know, I forgot about that angle, too.

What,  A,  RIPOFF that entire powerset is, then.  MMs who don't know any better - including longtime veteran MM players like me!! - getting sucked in, thinking their powerset will work to buff their minions, but really ....  ::sigh:: ...

 

Yeah, " lots of work" or not, I think changing that is something that needs to be looked at VERY closely, and maybe tested thoroughly over on Justin for a while.

[Trickshooter]

1 minute ago, PaxArcana said:

You know, I forgot about that angle, too.

What,  A,  RIPOFF that entire powerset is, then.  MMs who don't know any better - including longtime veteran MM players like me!! - getting sucked in, thinking their powerset will work to buff their minions, but really ....  ::sigh:: ...

 

Yeah, " lots of work" or not, I think changing that is something that needs to be looked at VERY closely, and maybe tested thoroughly over on Justin for a while.

Well, I know it was specifically changed because changes to pet recharge rates made them very stupid, but I can't tell you firsthand how. I honestly never played a pet class before the change was made in Issue 14. But anyway, that's why kelly is suggesting that a new line is added to all powers that grant +recharge in the MM secondaries that instead grants +Damage to MM pets only, to make up for the recharge buffs that they're not actually benefiting from.

[kelly Rocket]

10 hours ago, Trickshooter said:

Well, I know it was specifically changed because changes to pet recharge rates made them very stupid, but I can't tell you firsthand how. I honestly never played a pet class before the change was made in Issue 14. But anyway, that's why kelly is suggesting that a new line is added to all powers that grant +recharge in the MM secondaries that instead grants +Damage to MM pets only, to make up for the recharge buffs that they're not actually benefiting from.

Exactly.

 

Long term, I'd like them to fix the AI so that they could remove the "immune to all recharge buffs and debuffs" on pet powers, but as a short term, interim fix, I figured letting those powers (Like Accelerate Metabolism, Speed Boost, and Chrono Shift) give a little damage buff would help.

[PaxArcana]

Well, if we go that way, let's not limit it only to MM secondaries.  Do it to all the buffs.  And maybe debuffs, in the opposite direction, to be fair (especially in PvP).  🙂