wumpusrat

This is a very annoying issue to me too. I've given up on writing bios for all my characters at this point, and just put "Will enter bio when they fix this stupid bug!"

It's frustrating to not be able to actually write down the background story I have for the character, due to it deleting any carriage-returns.

Argh.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not accusing anyone of cheating, don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm just saying that a game glitch is not going to make a naked character complete with pubes and nipples when models of those don't exist in game. There is some other explanation.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is, actually.

Note that the character's tail is a very dark color, and how she's standing, you can see the tail curling back 'inwards' behind her as it goes up to attach to the base of her spine.

I think the 'pubes' in question are just part of the dark tail that's visible between her legs.

At least that's how it looks to me.

For certain builds, it can help out substantially. Whenever I'm building a resist-based mastermind, I always weigh the advantages of adding tough in, compared to whatever other powers I could pick up instead. Sometimes tough wins out, sometimes not.

For a /pain build, I've found it to be incredibly helpful. Combined with my regen and nullify pain, I almost never have to worry about my health against most mobs, except for ones that spam AE attacks or use odd damage types, like fire or dark. I can dive into the middle of the fight to be alongside my bruiser, and not worry about getting pelted, even when not in bodyguard mode.

The other factor for it is that I can direct some of my pets to attack specific targets, and leave others in bodyguard mode, without worrying about large hits as much. If I tell my bruiser and thugs to focus on a single target, for instance, while leaving my enforcers in bodyguard mode, it cuts down substantially on the damage I'll end up taking, even with that reduced bodyguard mode, making my regen and nullify pain even more powerful.

Your mileage may vary, but I'm very fond of tough on my /pain masterminds.

[ QUOTE ]
Tough appears to be unnecessary seeing as youy have both BG mode and the Charged Armor.

I would suggest possibly leadership, but that's just my opinion.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've tried both, and I honestly get more results out of tough than I do out of leadership. With tough running, I can order my pets to focus on a single target (thereby dropping out of bodyguard mode), and still retain 75% smash/lethal resist. It also protects me a bit better against -resist debuffs, which longbow is always overly fond of.

I have a couple other /Pain masterminds who aren't going to be taking Tough, and do in fact have a couple of leadership powers. But this particular build works better (both conceptually and mechanically, given my playstyle) with it.

[ QUOTE ]
WTF skip share pain?

You've got to be kidding me.

It's a gigantic heal with a minor penalty (-100% regen and can't heal). Pain masterminds get a +400% regen pbaoe toggle! So you still run around with 400+% regen depending on health and other bonuses, and bodyguard mode reduces the health cost for share pain.

DON'T SKIP SHARE PAIN CAUSE IT'S OVERPOWERED

[/ QUOTE ]

The health cost isn't what bothers me. I don't take it because I really have no need for it. As I said, Soothe accomplishes what I need just fine, as well as recharging nearly 4x as fast, and I would rather take powers that I can use constantly/more often, than a "situational" power that I would rarely, if ever, use.

With my current build, I'm running at nearly 690% regen. Even the -100% regen from Share Pain wouldn't impact me at all. However, 15 seconds of not being able to regain health outside of regen IS potentially fatal, especially fighting AE-happy EBs/AVs. I'll stick with Soothe, which recharges in just over 2 seconds, and has no drawback.

If you wish to take it, that's fine. However, just because you like the power doesn't mean that "zomg everyone has to take it!!11oneone". I get along just fine without it.

Fallen is a great example of a movie where the villain wins in the end.

[ QUOTE ]
Bad Villain Mission:

Contact: I'm a brilliant guy with lots of plans. I need a stupid thug to carry out a robbery for me. You are a stupid thug. Do this for me because you are too stupid to come up with your own plans.

Acceptance: You're right, I'm pathetic. I'll do it.

Good Villain Mission

Contact: Boss, I did as you said. I've been watching the warehouse for you. You were right, of course, they brought the gold shipment there. Now you can put the rest of your brilliant plan in motion and get the gold.

Acceptance: While I go steal the gold, you go do my bidding to prepare for the next phase of my brilliant plan.

[/ QUOTE ]

And that's why I rather dislike most of the villain content, to be honest. Because that's almost exactly how your contacts treat you: as a dumb thug that they're hiring to do the scut-work they don't want to bother with.

What makes it even more irritating is when they threaten you, and use the tired old "I'm a memeber of/have friends in Arachnos, so you can't touch me, nya nya". Arachnos. Right. The guys I kill by the bucket load on any given afternoon.

Then you have other contacts that outright insult you to your face, or threaten you, and the only response you're allowed within the storyarc is "Gosh, sorry sir, I won't stand up to you again, sorry, I'm a worthless peon, yessir, I'll get right on it sir."

What. The. ****.

Oh well. That's one of the main reasons that one of the MA arcs I'm working on has your contact as your henchman. His name is even "Henchman". He updates you on YOUR plan that you're carrying out, and while he's extremely helpful (and competent at what he's doing), he tells you several times that he knows you're going places, and he wants to ride your coattails.

It always astounds me when contacts treat you like crap, even when you've gone toe to toe with some of the "big name heroes" of the game (Vindicators, Freedom Phalanx), and think you'll just bow down and kiss their feet. Grr.

*runs around the Isles killing random contacts and laughing maniacally*

I never take Share Pain.

Soothe and Nullify Pain suffice for any healing I need to toss at my pets. With slotting, Soothe has around a 2 second recast time, and NP is at around 4-4.5 seconds, and one shot of Soothe can take a tier-1 pet from zero to nearly full.

The fact that Share Pain prevents you from being healed (as well as killing your regen) makes it useless to me, given my play style.

I actually don't want a pirates set. Why?

I really, really, REALLY don't want yet another freaking lethal-damage primary.

Really.

I want a set that does fire, cold, psionic, SOMETHING other than the plethora of lethal sets we have now.

I mean, really, what exactly would pirates DO? Muskets and cutlasses? They'd just be another iteration of thugs or mercs.

Hell, I'd love to see a shivan set. Elementals. Winterlings. Shadowlings. Creatures of pure electric energy. Etc, etc, etc.

I'm glad we're getting one of the classic "minion summoning" sets. I've been wanting to make a demon-summoner for ages.

[ QUOTE ]

That's nice, but it really doesn't have anything to do with the discussion you quoted.

Taking an attack for IO purposes has nothing to do with actually doing damage with that attack.

[/ QUOTE ]

And as I stated within what you quoted, I can also kick out about 100 damage every 2-3 seconds, to add to my pets' overall damage output, as well as the 150ish or so that I can do with Sands of Mu. So yes, actually, I do damage. I was simply pointing out the fallacy of claiming that "almost no sensibly built MM will do damage", which isn't true at all.

That being said, I still don't take Share Pain.

This is my current Thug/Pain build (not quite to 50th yet, but getting closer).

The general philosophy I have for her is to boost the pets up with World of Pain (with the two +resist auras it gives the thugs around 37% to everything, the enforcers just over 60% to lethal, and the bruiser over 60% to smash/lethal), toss Painbringer onto the bruiser, and then charge in to soak the alpha. Against EBs, I'll keep them taunted and focused on me while the pets go to work. With the resists I've got, combined with bodyguard mode and insane amounts of regen, I can just stand there smirking annoyingly as they try to hurt me.

I took the two gun attacks because, honestly, I can add more damage to the total than I could with Assault, and while Maneuvers would add a bit more defense to the pets, taunting keeps most of the damage focused on me anyway.

The only thing that really gives me pause are the Knives, due to the ridiculous amounts of caltrops, which scatter my pets all over the place.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Level 50 Mutation Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Thugs
Secondary Power Set: Pain Domination
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Call Thugs EdctM'r-Dmg(A), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg(3), EdctM'r-Dmg/EndRdx(3), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Acc-I(5), ExStrk-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Nullify Pain Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(7), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(9), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Tr'ge-EndRdx/Rchg(11), Tr'ge-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 2: Dual Wield Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15)
Level 4: Soothe Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(15), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 6: Equip Thugs EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(19)
Level 8: Pistols Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21)
Level 10: Hasten RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 12: Call Enforcer EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg(23), EdctM'r-Dmg/EndRdx(25), EdctM'r-Dmg(25), Acc-I(27), LdyGrey-%Dam(27)
Level 14: Super Speed Run-I(A)
Level 16: Swift Run-I(A)
Level 18: Health Heal-I(A), Heal-I(40), RgnTis-Regen+(40)
Level 20: Stamina P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(29), P'Shift-EndMod(29)
Level 22: Suppress Pain Heal-I(A), Heal-I(31), Heal-I(31)
Level 24: Challenge Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(31), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(33), Zinger-Dam%(33), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(33)
Level 26: Call Bruiser EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg(34), EdctM'r-Dmg/EndRdx(34), EdctM'r-Dmg(34), Acc-I(36), ExStrk-Dam%(36)
Level 28: World of Pain Aegis-Psi/Status(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(36), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(37), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(37), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(37), S'fstPrt-ResKB(39)
Level 30: Gang War SvgnRt-PetResDam(A), C'Arms-+Def(Pets)(39), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(39), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 32: Upgrade Equipment EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(42)
Level 35: Anguishing Cry AnWeak-DefDeb(A), AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(42), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(42), AnWeak-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(43), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(43), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 38: Painbringer Dct'dW-Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(45), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(45), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(45), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 41: Charged Armor TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(46), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(46), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 44: Electrifying Fences TotHntr-Dam%(A), TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(48), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(48), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(50), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(50)
Level 47: Boxing Acc-I(A)
Level 49: Tough Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 1: Supremacy



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[ QUOTE ]
It's ridiculous what you're saying.

Almost no Sensibly built MM does any damage that will be buffed by Pain Dom at all.


[/ QUOTE ]

Just had to comment on this bit. Many masterminds can benefit from taking at least one of their primary attacks. It's entirely dependent on spec, build, and the effects you want to achieve.

For instance, my Thug/Pain MM has two of her primary attacks. By doing so, I gain +4.5% more health and +24% more regen. And it cost me next to nothing in terms of effectiveness, since I wasn't going to take Share Pain anyway, and in fact makes me MORE effective in many cases, because I can contribute to the total damage output of my pets. Do I do equivalent damage that my pets are churning out? Of course not. But being able to add in an extra 100 damage every 2-3 seconds or so is a nice benefit. I can finish off runners, knock bosses onto their rears with Dual Wield, and kill off low-health mobs so that my bruiser doesn't end up wasting KOBlow on a mob with 50 hp left.

Likewise, with several of my other masterminds, I quite often take one of the attacks, for IO set benefits. Either increased recovery, regeneration, defense, recharge, or any number of other things.

Could I be 2% more effective if I took a different power? Perhaps. But I don't sweat that little of an improvement.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, as many have already stated, CoV is more like City of slightly immoral Vigilantes. CoV was, and kind of still is, a big let down for me. Some of the ATs are fun to play, some of the Story Arcs are great and very well written, but calling them Villains is just a lie. Also, Arachnos is lame and tying my character to Arachnos for my entire career, while still fighting them all the time...?, just doesn't do anything for me.


[/ QUOTE ]

For me, it's masterminds (obviously, given my sig).

The only hero-side AT I could even remotely get into was blasters. I got one to 50, started another, got bored of it, and went back to playing masterminds.

But yeah, CoV is really just kind of "City of Vaguely Irritable Lackeys". One of the thing that bugs me the most about it is how abusive so many of your contacts are of you. Even into the 30's and 40's, when you've gone head to head with all the "Big Name" heroes and beaten them, some peon still thinks that saying "you'd better watch out, I have friends in Arachnos!" is going to make me do anything other than laugh in their face? I fight/kill Arachnos people on a daily basis.

I've been working on a couple of really VILLAINOUS arcs in MA (not the "go kill puppies" sort, but actual villainy, where you're trying to take over the world, toppling countries, that sort of thing). There are a few maps that I really need to finish them properly, though, and they're not available.

I just wish that the villain side let you be more than a glorified errand-boy/girl. "Go do this, before I kick your butt!"

Sigh. I wish I could kill half my CoV contacts. I want contacts who are giving me jobs because they want to ride MY coattails, not me riding theirs. Or contacts that are actually afraid of me. Hell, they're just some normal in a suit. I've been punched in the face by Statesman and Back Alley Brawler and laughed. Dubya tee eff.

Growf.

Well, by the same token I've had groups where the brute is the one causing "rampant chaos" as well, due to the "argh, I can't run out of fury! " mindset, where one or more will go running off to pull more mobs, forcing the people supporting them to have to chase after them to keep them from face-planting, spreading the team all over the place.

Quite often on my masterminds I'll be the one taking point, and soaking the alpha strike and methodically taking the spawn apart, since a lot of the brutes I've run across seem to be rather squishy; more about damage output, less about soaking damage.

But everyone's experience varies.

A "proc" is an extra effect that has a chance to go off when the primary power is initiated. Things like "Chance of Negative Damage", "Chance of -Recovery", etc.

The -resist proc from the Achilles Heel sets is alright, but I actually got more mileage out of the negative energy damage proc (lady grey's set) in my mercs. The lowered resists bumped up the damage by a point or two per shot, but the lady grey proc is a nice chunk of 70 damage whenever it goes off. My mercs tear people down pretty fast.

PPP is short for Patron Power Pool. At 40+ you can pick a patron from one of Recluse's four lapdogs...er, lieutenants (Ghost Widow, Mako, Black Scorpion, or Scirocco), and once you do their initial arc (it's 5-6 missions long), it unlocks your ability to choose one of the PPP sets (akin to the epic/ancillary hero sets at 41+, except villains have to do a story arc to get them).

I can't speak to PvP all that much, I never engaged in it a lot with any of my MMs, though the one I did (my ninja/traps, as it happens) was pretty solid against other people. The stationary nature of the traps didn't hinder her much at all. Just have to be aggressive with them. And if you have teleport foe, yanking someone into the midst of your little fortress is funny as heck.

I was actually in a group the other night where we went out of our way to ONLY invite masterminds. It started as a joke, since the group initially was 4 masterminds, 2 VEATs, a brute and a corruptor, and someone said "Clearly we don't have enough masterminds."

When one of the non-MMs dropped, we started piping up with "Invite another mastermind!"

As people slowly dropped due to having to go, getting disconnected, etc, we made sure to only invite more masterminds. Eventually we had a full team of 8 masterminds. It was hilarious. Mobs were dying so fast that we could move through the mission at a non-stop run. The only thing that slowed us down was a mayhem, where people split up and got chewed up by the massed longbow ambushes.

But a lot of people do seem to have this phobia about inviting masterminds. Much of it is a case of "I remember this one time, when a mastermind screwed us..." But for every situation like that, I can remember when it was a brute, a corruptor, etc. Masterminds are just an easy target to blame, for two main reasons: the pets can get annoying if they end up blocking doorways (a valid complaint, really, though I've had several doorways blocked by overzealous plant doms, as well, with that healing tree, and that thing can't be moved!), and the occasional lack of pet control in a large, crowded room. One pet chasing a runner into another big spawn, and that can cause a wipe.

But the same thing can happen if a runner with a toggle on them goes running off. Or a runner who gets tagged with an AE attack within range of more mobs. Heck, one mission got wiped because a brute sneezed when she started to jump forward, overshot the target group, and landed in the aggro range of two more groups, so our group of 8 suddenly had to deal with about 20 +4 level mobs, including a number of bosses. Was ugly.

But really, all this can be summed up really quick: Learn to master your powers and your pets, and you'll be a huge asset to any team.

Some maps I really, really want:

* the Longbow fortress/island from Nerva (both outside and inside)
* the luxury penthouse/office/rooftop from the villain-side orouboros SF from Mender Tesseract where you kill Marchand
* outside in Grandville, namely the area from the docks up to Recluse's tower, including the courtyard with his giant statue
* outside in Cap au Diable, namely the central area around the globe statue
* Shadow Shard maps, including the giant dome building (Chantry?)
* the final map from the Cap SF, with the lava
* the Mayhem mission maps, complete with destructable objects

Probably a bunch more I could think of, but those are the first that pop into my head.

My Bot/Dark MM was a Council scientist working on an old 5th column techno-magical device which ended up exploding in the lab, and dumping its dark energy into her and her sister (who is a Bot/Storm MM). It ended up crippling her and killed her sister, who she was able to revive (after a fashion) with her new powers, and teleport them away from the wreckage of the lab. They retreated to the rogue isles and set up shop, trying to recover, and built their robotic army in case the Council came after them. Both of them are scarred, and have several cybernetic/robotic parts.

The protector bots will bubble each of the other pets twice, and you once. I guess the reasoning was that since the other pets are less durable than you are (due to bodyguard mode), they could use the extra defense.

If they DID bubble you twice, it would make certain secondaries (FF, Traps) insane. My Bot/FF MM already has around 50-55% smash/lethal/energy/ranged defense. Adding another 7-8% on top of that would be overkill.

Bot/FF can be extremely boring, yes. You can make things a little more interesting if you take the Presence pool and pick up challenge and/or provoke, to drag everything onto you while your pets shoot them. The main problem (that leads to boredom, at any rate) with /FF is that it's generally a very passive secondary. You bubble up, buff your pets, and wait. Occasionally force bolt something around. There aren't any debuffs, which means your pets are somewhat slower to kill than other secondaries, as well.

It's very, VERY survivable, but can be dull.

[ QUOTE ]
Thugs/Pain is pretty hard on your end bar. I'd suggest skipping your blasts, unless you want the pistols for cool factors. They kind of suck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't really had any problems with end on my thug/pain. Course, I got lucky and picked up a performance shifter +end proc off a longbow nullifier on one mission, which was handy, so I dropped that into stamina. I've also slotted sovereign right's +resist and expedient reinforcement's +resist auras into gang war, so with world of pain going, my thugs all have around +36% resists, which makes them fairly durable (except against some serious heavy-hitters, like Positron or Valkyrie).

I've got both dual wield and pistols, mostly because I hate share pain as a mastermind; I use challenge to drag stuff onto me to keep my pets alive, so I need to be able to heal myself.

It all depends, really. The personal attacks don't do that much damage, but they're handy for picking off runners, and for tossing in a bit more damage.

Mercs don't really have "bad" dps. The main problem with the mercs is that they're just not the best at anything. They do good damage, are fairly tough (and when backed up by /pain, are VERY tough), and have some decent controls in the spec-ops.

The downsides being that they're almost exclusively lethal damage (except for a couple of the commando's attacks), and the spec-ops' controls have VERY long recharges for pets (2m, and can't be made any faster).

But overall, I find them to be pretty solid. They kill quickly when they're supported properly, and due to the -def debuffs in the rifle attacks, you can slot some nice procs into them (Achilles Heel's -resist, Lady Grey's dark damage proc, etc).

Serum does suck, though, yes. It's one of the worst of the 18th level powers for MMs.

[ QUOTE ]
It's all fun and games until you add the prepositional phrase. (Also, his surprise appearance in Vivacious Verandi's story arc is flat out one of the funniest plot twists I've ever seen. I just imagined my villain being taken by the ear and dragged away from the fun. )

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually hated that part of it, myself. The first time I did her arc, I was thinking, "Wow, this is kind of cool, I wonder where it's going to end up. I mean, I know she can't win, but..."

And then you run into Hardcase. Who tells you to do what he says, or he'll beat you up. Um... dubya tee eff? He'll beat me up? He's some punk standing around worried about wailers, who I kill by the bucket load. I should be able to tell him to shove it, and if he doesn't like it, he can try and MAKE me do what he says.

Sadly, you're not given the option. Your reaction is scripted for you. "Eek, yessir, sorry sir, don't hurt me, wahhhh!"

Lame.

I like it. Though one thing I'd suggest is getting rid of the idea that the person under probation/duress has to be two levels lower. That means it wouldn't be usable at all at 49-50th level, which would be a shame. Otherwise, I think it's pretty cool.