Samuel_Tow

I don't lead teams for the same reason I don't LOOK for teams - I don't need to play a bot match. If I'm going to play with other PEOPLE, I'd like to play with other people, not simply with other warm bodies with a brain. Though, given the skill level of some players, I might be better off with bots.

I have a certain way I like to do things, which includes a bunch of different facts, but does NOT include "important" things like efficiency, risk avoidance, ease and so forth. I don't really like playing with other people, as what they want to do is very different from what I want to do. Seeking to be on a team, therefore, is pretty much stupid, because why would I want to specifically LOOK to play the game in a way I don't want to?

Of course, being on a team with total strangers isn't always a bad thing, as long as I set my mind that I won't be doing what I want. It's good for a mission or two every few months. But why would I want to LEAD such a team? People say "Well, just ignore them and do your own thing!" but that doesn't work. I can tell when people are satisfied and when they aren't, and since I don't feel like spending ALL MY DAMN TIME recruiting more people because the current ones left, I don't bother to begin with.

It's a simple matter of cost vs. effect. Leading a team costs, and it gives ABSOLUTELY NOTHING back for that cost. So, why bother?

People who say Mercs suck are simply looking for something much more powerful than the game requires and don't find Mercs to present enough opportunities to get there. At least, that has been my impression. In terms of pure gameplay, though, Mercs aren't bad at all.

A few things that seem to have carried over from the wayback days is damage. Yes, I will admit, growing up a Mercs/Traps Mastermind back in the I7 days was tough, because both the Spec Ops and the Commando weren't using a lot of their attacks. Spec Ops wouldn't use their snipes unless they were really far away and the commando wouldn't use his Long Range Missile Rocket and sometimes not even his Full Auto. Pet AI fixes changed that, and they now use everything at any range it will fire. This has done a lot of good for the set's damage.

Something else that seems to bother people is control powers. I don't know why everybody keeps saying that they suck and they're never used right when I keep seeing enemies either stumble around stunned or stand around coughing pretty much the majority of the time. What's more, with two Spec Ops stacking controls, I'm seeing bosses held, at least for a while, pretty much every time I meet one. Stacked with the Poison Gas Trap, I routinely see even elite bosses held for a while. Sure, it's not controllable, but with two holds and two stuns, it's not that unreliable, either.

As for cones, I keep seeing that "5 foot cone" mentioned, which doesn't actually mean anything. Those are 5 DEGREE cones at 80 feet range. Even if we're counting the distance of the cone across at the range of 80 feet, that's still not 5 feet. It's actually more like 7.4 feet. Yes, it's a narrow cone, and yes, I can see how that would put them behind, say, bots, who have a 15 DEGREE cone on their Full Auto Laser, but in actual practice. Mercs still work.

Generally speaking, especially when it comes to Masterminds, NOTHING sucks. Given that I can take Mercs and spend the majority of the game never using my secondary, I don't think there's anything that's actually bad to choose. 'Sides, it's nice to play around without a lot of scatter for a change.

It should be technically possible to run a fairly simple, say, Perl script and have it generate 999 text files which call each other in order. The problem is that you really can't summon AND rename at the same time. I checked the cmdlist, and there are only two commands to rename a pet: /petrename and /petrename_name. /petrename renames the pet you have currently targeted, and you can't have a pet you haven't summoned yet targeted.

/petrename_name, on the other hand, renames a pet with a given name, but pet names vary for a number of reasons, most notably when one pet dies and you summon another before the first one's corpse has faded. In these cases, the game appends a 1 or a 2 at the end of the pet's name. Now, I'm not sure if it still won't just find the best possible match and rename that (you can order your Drone with just "Dr," for instance), but even then, you have the problem of having to summon them FIRST, and rename them only AFTERWARDS. I'm not sure if that's even possible, but even if it were...

Well, there's a final problem. You have one power that summons three pets. There is practically no way to script it such that it would follow each pet's individual number without reading each pet's CURRENT name, and since you can't read variables off City of Heroes (that I'm aware of), the best you can do is just increment all three pets' names simultaneously, regardless of whether you summoned all three or only summoned one.

I don't believe there is any way to do this automatically, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to want to do it manually, so it looks like it can't be done.

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I think I'm more excited about what this means for the future than the feature itself.

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This is pretty much where I am. I mean, I LOVE the feature, let me tell you. I've been wishing for this for the last five years, and I'll run that thing into the ground from overuse But when I think about what that means for the future... Man, this could be by far the biggest thing ever.

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... Mastermind primaries, for example, do not show up as customizable, ...

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Now that I've seen more of the screenshots, including the one that shows what Audrey (from Plant Control) looks like when tinted? I know that BAB and the other developers are busy at SDCC this week, but can you please spare a minute to explain why mastermind minions' uniforms, for at least the original four (mercs, ninjas, zombies, bots) aren't tintable but controller minions are? I know that you have tintable color palette versions of those models available, I can see them (as allies) in Mission Architect. What's stopping you?

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It very likely has to do with the fact that the appearance of Mastermind Henchmen is the culmination of a rather very complicated combination of circumstances. You don't just change the base model for the henchman, you also have to account for the upgrades, and we're already seeing the cracks in the system with the Thugs bug where if you upgrade them while they're upgrading, the latter upgrade won't alter their costumes. It's likely coming, but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything over colour tinting like what you can do to custom NPCs in the Architect, or at most a couple of extra models sets in the same theme.

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-Power Blast/Power Burst/Tenebrous Tentacles

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Technically different (e.i. longer) but practically indistinguishable from the Flares/Power Bolt/etc. animation.

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Not true. Those powers are a pronounced cast forward with open hands.

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Oops! I meant to say "identical to the Power Push family." It seems to me that Power Blast is a short "hands forward" with a blast whereas Power Push is a short "hands forward" with a... Blue whirlwind miniature version of the universe... thing.

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-Blazing Bolt
-Bitter Freeze Ray/Thunderous Blast

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I'm pretty sure those either use the same animation, or use animations incredibly similar to each other.

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If I remember correctly, BBolt is taking a dump followed by pushing hands forward.

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I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a "watch left hand, watch right hand, both hands forward" as Bitter Ice Blast and what Energy Transfer looked after the change, but before the appeal to kill the head movement. Incidentally, I feel the head movement should be killed on all powers that share that animation.

I believe what you're describing is closer to the Energy Melee/otherwise unarmed Assassin's Strike.

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-Tesla Cage/old Flares
-Rain of Fire/Ice Storm/Blizzard

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Again, I'm not sure if those are technically different or not, but they look like the same animation.

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Former have hands at a 45 angle forward, latter have them 45 angle to the sides and head back.

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Right! One is cast forward, the other cast up. Understood.

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-Neutron Bomb/Repulsion Bomb

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Neutron Bomb I haven't seen, but doesn't Repulsion Bomb use the same animation as the Power Push family?

[/ QUOTE ] That's Force Bolt. This is the "make stuff over head and throw" family.

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Doh! Force Bolt, right. I've no idea what Repulsion Bomb is, then

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AR:
Burst
Slug/Buckshot/Beanbag/M30 Grenade/Sleep Grenade
Sniper Rifle/LRM Rocket
Flamer
Full Auto <- MIGHT be /Flamer
Ignite


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I'm fairly sure that Flamethrower and Full Auto share the same animation, yes. If not before, then certainly now, after the changes. I suspect Ignite may share the Burst animation, but I admit it seems like a stretch.

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Archery:
-Snap
-Aimed
-Fistful
-Blazing/Explosive/Stunning
-Ranged
-Rain of Arrows

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I highly suspect that Snap Shot is simply a sped-up version of Blazing, Explosive and Stunning shot, and aside from the big wind-up (which I think was partly present in the other Archery attacks before they were shortened) of Ranged Shot, it looks like it has if not the same, then almost the same animation. Fistful of Arrows is indeed different with using the bow horizontally, but I highly suspect Snap Shot has the same animation, maybe a little sped up.

Again, thank you for this

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-Fire Blast/Blaze/Ice Blast

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Fire Blast and Ice Blast use the "tossing" animation, if I remember correctly, but Blaze uses the "cast" animation that Fireball uses.

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-Ice Bolt/Dark Blast/Neutrino Bolt

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Incidentally, isn't that the one?

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-Power Blast/Power Burst/Tenebrous Tentacles

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Technically different (e.i. longer) but practically indistinguishable from the Flares/Power Bolt/etc. animation.

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-Bitter Ice Blast/Energy Torrent/Ball Lightning

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If that's what Bitter Ice Blast uses, what does Freeze Ray use? I thought it was the backhand toss?

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-Proton Volley/Sniper Blast/Zzap

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Plus Moonbeam, but yeah - every snipe without a weapon, minus Blazing Bolt.

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-Blazing Bolt
-Bitter Freeze Ray/Thunderous Blast

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I'm pretty sure those either use the same animation, or use animations incredibly similar to each other.

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-Tesla Cage/old Flares
-Rain of Fire/Ice Storm/Blizzard

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Again, I'm not sure if those are technically different or not, but they look like the same animation.

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-Neutron Bomb/Repulsion Bomb

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Neutron Bomb I haven't seen, but doesn't Repulsion Bomb use the same animation as the Power Push family?

Please understand that this isn't an attempt to argue. Those are genuine questions and/or observations. I'm surprised how many there are to list, though. I haven't played any Defender/Corrupter restricted sets, so most of the Dark and Rad powers I'm not familiar with, and I can't really judge animations based on seeing other people use them a few times.

Still, these are animations shared between Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Electrical Blast, Radiation Blast and Dark Blast. I'm not sure if Sonic Blast and Mental Blast really count, what with them having some animation unique to them, but I know at least Telekinetic Thrust and I suspect Telekinetic Blast are borrowed from the "cast" animation, I suspect they may, partly. In the case of Blast sets, though, it seems like animation is secondary to effect, and that can make adding customization to them a bit easier. Hell, Assault Rifle and Archery practically use the same animation for all 9 powers

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To me, this is one step removed from letting us shoot our powers out of devices of our choice, provided BABs wants to give every dang powerset a weapon choice

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I think you just blew my mind even more than the devs already had with this possibility. Sure, it would be more work, but with what they're doing I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't at least be possible now.
Suggestion when the devs have time for it (post-GR, I'm guessing): alt animations for ranged powers where it's shooting out of a wand or staff.

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Very much what I'm hoping to see. Practically speaking, though they really DO try to shake things up, most "blast" powers share the same 5-6 animations between all sets that have them. There's Energy Blast's Power Bolt with two fists closed, Energy Blast's Power Blast with two palms open, Fire Blast's Fireball with one palm open, Fire Blast's Fire Blast that's more of a toss, Ice Blast's Freeze Ray that's a backhand toss and... That's pretty much it. I suspect a few "cast" animations from support sets may be used here and there, but for the most part the animations are all the same. It's the effects that differ.

And that's not a bad thing. Really, when you look at a character who fires a variety of, say, eye beams, do you REALLY care about which way he squints and how he tilts his head, or do you care about ZOMG LASER EYE BEAMS! COOL! But with that in mind, it should be possible to retain blast power EFFECTS, but give them alternate animations that consist them shooting out of different parts of the body. Of course, making them all the same isn't cool, but you don't really need more than half a dozen of variants to shuffle around in each set just to prevent the motion from being repeptitive, and you can rely on set effect to carry over the actual power.

What does that mean? Well, most powers are fired from our hands. Let's take Energy Blast as that's purely hand-based. What would that mean for it? Well, for one, you could have power blasts coming out of your solar plexus with, say, the Teleport animation and a few derivatives. Or, perhaps you're more of a thinker and you want to have Power Blasts come out of your head (they're too broad to define it any close to eyes, mouth or forehead, so "head" has to do). Or maybe you want them all one-handed? That ought to be doable, as well, though Power Bolt may be a tad problematic.

This should all be currently POSSIBLE given the technology for altering animations, though obviously also involve a LOT of work for BABs and minions. I don't want to sound ungrateful, so I want to say - I'm VERY, VERY pleased with what we are getting, but the potential door this opens for further additions in the future is simply... Intoxicating

What may or may not be currently even POSSIBLE is giving people the choice of whether to use weapons or not. Weapons aren't exactly power effects. They used to be, but they were turned into costume items with weapon customization, and costume items appear to be set up per powerset, and I've seen no evidence that what CLASS of weapon you use is customizable. An AR Blaster can pick from a selection of assault rifles, but he cannot pick to use, say, a pair of handguns. Even if his animations could be altered, he would likely still be locked into using that selection of weapons. I'm guessing, of course.

The transition needed to make actual WEAPONS be a power's emanation point (and making them customizable, of course) is giving the editor the ability to pick weapon CLASSES, including none, from which people could choose, and to tie the act of picking those to choices the players make. I'm not confident it has this functionality at this time, specifically because this isn't about just giving us a bigger pool of custom weapons, but rather a selection of pools of custom weapons based on what we want to use.

The other big problem is weapon draw. It takes time to draw the weapon, and this has been considered as a balancing variable in weapon sets. Allowing, on the one hand, non-weapon sets to use weapons has the potential problem of introducing draw to sets that didn't previous have it. Allowing, on the other hand, weapon sets to not use weapons has the potential problem of removing draw from sets that have it. This is no longer a cosmetic addition, it is a genuine balance concern which cannot simply be handwaved away, and will likely be a major principle stumbling block towards the last bastion of power customization functionality - allowing us to fire our normal powers out of weapons.

But think about it from a practical standpoint - how much RAW POTENTIAL would such a change have? Some people bah humbug power colour customization because they were happy with the colours of their powers anyway, but look at how many, many people were asking and voting for energy blades. But an Energy Blade is a rather specific idea. What, however, if you could pick a weapon for, oh, I don't know... Energy Melee? That could be say... A blade. That is made of energy. Because it has to deal energy damage. An energy blade, as it were. Hmm... Granted, there's the problem of Energy Melee dealing Energy and SMASHING damage, but that was just an off-the-top-of-my-head example.

The potential for such a functionality is HUGE, to the point where it borders on letting players CREATE their own sets by tweaking and customizing existing ones. Sure, it may not be PRACTICAL customization as the powers are the same with the same power effects, but being able to turn something as outlandish as Energy Blast into an Energy Rifle is... Well, as close to a new powerset as we're likely to get without out-and-out making a new one from scratch. Even with just what we're getting in I16 (which is a WHOLE FRIKKIN' LOT, let me restate this), you can turn Energy Blast into the same "Light" Blast that Legacy Chain casters use.

This is this game's primary strength, by a very, very wide margin. It gives us the tools to make characters, but the tools allow us to twist, turn and morph their original design into characters that are truly our own, and truly unique. I16 is a giant step towards a better ability to customize, and I look forward to what other wonders the future might bring.

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Sidenote: An interesting thing I just recently discovered about acid mortar is that while it has a long range it will only fire at mobs reasonably close to you - so if you have an enemy that it isn't currently hitting, moving up to the target helps.

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Hmm... That's good to know. My Traps Mastermind is also Mercs, so I tend to stay at long range, but I'll definitely try that. I'm tired of losing Acid Mortars to knockback + Web Grenade.

And I wasn't really trying to criticise your playstyle, so much as I DO agree that Thugs are a LOT more control-intensive than some other sets, specifically for the Bruiser. I don't know if his AI has been fixed (I pray that it has) but getting him into melee was pretty much ALL I ever did on my Thugs/Dark Mastermind last I played him. I mean forget about the rest of the henchmen, forget about my secondary. Everything I had to do was stand around and make sure the Bruiser is in melee range.

One day, I hope melee henchmen will learn to GOD DAMN GO IN MELEE and maybe then I'll be able to have some freedom of action, but until then... Ugh.

There's no reason why this time cannot be calculated on the fly, as well. We all know the recharge of our powers alters dynamically based on recharge speed buffs and debuffs, and the icon swell reflects this. I don't believe anyone would be thrown off if he saw his power would recharge in two minutes, walked into a Wide Area Web Grenade and suddenly saw it would recharge in four.

I'm not sure you could rename a henchman AS you're summoning it, but if you can, it should be possible to do this through recurrent bind files, bound to a button. Each time you summon, your bind would summon the henchman, rename it, then fire the next bind file in the chain, rebinding your summon button to rename your next henchman the next number in the chain.

That would, however, require a WHOLE LOT of bind files, as you can't really use variables in the game and I'm not aware of an easy way to capture in-game events for the purpose of editing and out-of-game text file.

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As for active - I do nothing BUT active MM'ing. I firmly believe in staying in bodyguard mode as long as possible and pretty much only play secondaries that let me keep attention on myself. Storm and traps are my favorite so far - I like dark as well but find it TOO easy, I like things to be somewhat challenging. I have a necro/pain at L30 on whom I took provoke and use that and my veteran attack to pull and keep aggro as long as possible.

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Personally, I find that Masterminds have Mastermind henchmen controls for a reason. While it's technically possible to run around in Bodyguard mode and support, I find that to be an inferior tactic for at least some situations. Control of the henchmen is vital, in my eyes, both to keep them from running of gaining extra aggro, dropping off cliffs, following runners and so forth, as well as to ensure you keep your henchmen inside the radius of whatever buffs/debuffs you've laid down. Can't count on how many times I've had to force my henchmen on passive and back over the DAMN Triage Beacon and next to the Acid Mortar.

As well, things like Caltrops, Burn patches, Rikti Monkey gas, Titan Missile Swarms and so forth, can cause henchmen to run around like idiots, running for miles and either getting themselves killed or bringing lots of extra aggro with them. Sometimes it's a lot easier to just watch, say, Longbow Flamethrowers or Scrapyarder Demolitionist and move-order your henchmen just as the Burn patches are spawning. It takes a second for the "BE STUPID!" command to overtake the AI, and if you're quick about it, you can get them out before it happens.

Speaking of Burn patches, some things are DEADLY to Masterminds in a very big way, much more so they are for any other AT, and it's often best for them to DIE DIE DIE first. Hell, a couple of Longbow Flamethrower minions gave me more trouble than bloody Miss Liberty! Focusing fire on them so they can die before they do too much damage, or, ideally, before they get a shot off at all, is often important, or at the very least very helpful.

I'm not dissing Tankerminding, of course, but there is plenty of merit to be had in controlling your henchmen.

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The biggest problem I have with a lot of the primaries is the pre/post 32 issue. I don't like a set that is either meh or under performing for 32 levels and then awesome after that - its one of the reason I don't play many controller sets (other than illusion and mind). I tend to get bored with most of my characters in the high 30's/low 40's anyways so having to put up with suckitude for 5/6 of the life of my character just doesn't go over with me.

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That's really not a fair assessment for ANY Mastermind, really. I won't deny that some powersets are better than others, but I've played most of them and NONE can be said to suck. The whole AT is overpowered. You couldn't suck if you bit on a jet engine. When an AT has damage, survivability, support and often control all neatly wrapped together in one package and can often FORGET it has a secondary, you're never going to suck.

I suspect that's not exactly the case. There are packs of different sounds available on the internet as public domain that both MMOs and TV use, and City of Heroes is no exception. Before I15, footsteps on metal were identical to the sound of Power Suit footsteps in Ufo: Enemy Unknown and the sound of Proton Volley is still the same as an Ufo Plasma Cannon auto fire. There are others, but I just can't remember them offhand.

I knew I should have quoted

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ALTERNATE ZONE SPAWN LIKE WHEN A SERVER IS OVER THE POPULATION CAP!!!!! SIMPLE SOLUTION!!!! YOU DON"T WANT TO DO IT GO TO THE NON RAID ZONE!!!!
Ok I used my big voice..... maybe people will hear what I think is the solution to the problem with an otherwise awesome idea.

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Sure. Do that and I have no complaints.

Oftentimes I've sat and wondered "Hey, will this power be ready in 10-20 seconds so I can wait for it before tackling this tough enemy, or will it be another two minutes so I should just go without waiting?" A slowly expanding icon does not accurately represent how close a 17 minute recharge power is to recharging, so I have to guess.

Or here's the other thing. I want to teleport straight to your mission, but my Mission Teleport isn't recharged yet. It looks like it's ALMOST ready, but how "almost" is it? Is it 4-5 minutes so I can drop by the market and dump a few things, or is it 20-30 minutes, so I should just suck it up and leg it? I don't know. I want to recall my entire dead team to me, but my Assemble The Team isn't ready. Is it 2 minutes away from being recharged so my dead team can wait, or is it 10 minutes away so they should go to the hospital?

This has uses. They may not be very important uses, but I'd wager they're at least as important as having the markers on your map spread out when your mouse over them. And while I realise I can just run a third-party programme, this is something that really ought to be part of the game itself, as a quality of life feature.

I'm about as excited about this as it gets with me. Not only are we getting power colour customization, which is all anyone official ever talked about, but we're getting power ANIMATION customization, albeit on a limited basis. This alone exceeds my expectations, as I honestly though we were ONLY getting colour customization.

Now, the animation customization may not be all that much, but look at the kind of potential it brings. Not only does that mean that, with time, more powersets and more powers could have alternate animations made for them, but these alternate animations could work their way to picking WHERE you shoot powers from. I mean all it takes is an alternate animation that, instead of pointing your hands to shoot a fire blast, causes you to peer forward and shoot it out of your eyes. So animation customization, and possibly even a power emanation point customization. To me, this is one step removed from letting us shoot our powers out of devices of our choice, provided BABs wants to give every dang powerset a weapon choice

That last one undoubtedly requires some new tech and, hey, I'm not even certain it's possible, but given everything else we're getting, I've no reason to believe it isn't. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for another couple of years, but it sounds decidedly possible. And, really, that right there provides competition to the much-vaunted competition everyone's using as a boogeyman.

Seriously, it doesn't get much better than this.

I wouldn't object to that, but for the small problem - training can and does take time. Sometimes a lot of time. Specifically, when you don't have a build prepared, you essentially stand next to the trainer, stare at the level-up screen and think. Now, NPCs don't mind. They have infinite patience and besides, it's not like they're going to actually GO anywhere. But people? That might actually kind of suck, specifically since you're GUARANTEED to have people demand to have a 50 stand around while they level up mid-mission. Why wouldn't they?

The other option, I suppose, is to just let 50s OPEN the level-up screen for other people and then walk away, but this comes with two problems. Firstly, the level-up screen doesn't give all the information you might need while levelling up, such as what recipes and salvage you have on hand and what you can Invent. Sometimes, you just want to back out of your level-up screen to look at your Power Attributes. There are a lot of reasons you may want to back out for a sec, but oops! The 50's gone and you have to chase him down and bug him again.

And then even besides that, the idea of training is that you go to a trainer and he TRAINS you. I know it's a weak excuse, but allowing a "trainer" to just open the level-up screen for you and essentially say "OK, kid. Pick anything you like!" That's a bit... Well, odd, let's call it.

It's not out of the question, of course, and I agree it would be pretty neat, but it might come with its own set of problems.

The "lackeys" are relatively random. Sometimes there are many of them, sometimes there are a few, sometimes there are none. They're not always the same, and yes, it does make more sense for it to be this way.

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More importantly, a "none" option for ears so they're not annoyingly sticking out when they're supposed to be covered with a mask.

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There are actually a few faces that come without ears, but they're all non-human. I think the bonehead and skull masks do that, and I used Skull for a masked character of mine because I obscured the entire face with the Science Pack goggles and breathers. It worked out quite well. No more stupid ears

Well, I wouldn't expect to glean any meaning from them (just what the hell does Bravo 370 mean, anyway?), but it'd be nice if I at least knew the actual words and letters that were said over the radio, even if they don't mean anything. Some of those are definitely letters and numbers, but some seem to be whole sentences that just come off as one long line of guttural sounds.

Speaking of police, by the way, being around Police Drones also plays some staticky false-police chatter, with one specific one repeating often, and that I've heard in AT LEAST two different movies a couple of shows and one documentary. Then again, I also heard the Frocefields sound on a history programme on Discovery

Good job skipping the entire thread.

Read my edit. I addressed a few Mastermind-related issues, though in light of your reply, they may not be terribly relevant.

Before any of the others catch wind of this, let me be the first to say it - you're going to catch a lot of flames for this. Ignore them. Yes, it's an often-requested feature, but just saying "hero mastermind" will get you in trouble here. No, it's not right, but expect it to happen, and please try to weather it with a cool head.

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Now that I rushed to post the important bit, I can focus a little more on the actual suggestion,

One of the big complaints you'll get against hero Masterminds (aside from GO PLAY COV!!!) is that the Mastermind archetype in general does not fit the heroic mindset. A Mastermind is built on the back of expendable henchmen, who fight, die, are replaced, fight some more, die some more, and essentially stand in front of you to get shot in the face so you don't get hurt. Not to mention that several secondaries have the tendency to blow up or poison their own henchmen.

Granted, you're suggesting new powersets, but the mechanics of Masterminds are what make them as they are. A Summon primary puts the power in the henchmen, and a Support secondary means the Mastermind stands back and buffs/debuffs/heals while the henchmen do the dirty work. This isn't really applicable to a heroic mindset, all that standing back and letting others bite the big one for you.

I've been around the block with this a few times, so I believe a heroic version of this NEEDS to use a different framework. More specifically, it needs to have Summon as a secondary, possibly with support-heavy pets, with a self-initiative primary like Assault or Blast or at the very least Control. This gives the hero the initiative and puts him front row centre, with his followers following behind and supporting him. This has the hero act like a hero should - by taking the risks and protecting his people.

I think the other way you can go forward with this is with a single henchman that you can upgrade (read, give more powers and visual upgrades to) as a primary ENTIRELY devoted to that one henchman. If he goes down, you're following in pretty short order. The secondary can then be support, I suppose, though with a primary that's "all about the henchman," it might be redundant. Call it Control, perhaps. It doesn't really have the "big hero" vibe to it, but it fulfils the role many "pure" Defenders aim to achieve - you're a wimpy, fragile hero whose only real ability is to help others. Only you have one other to help right from your powersets.

Another important point to consider is that Masterminds don't have pets, they have henchmen. While the mechanical difference may be in name mostly, the thematic difference is significant. Pets are mindless animate objects, like a walking pile or rocks or a floating turret. Henchmen are, even in the worst case scenario, intelligent self-motivated entities that could still exist without you, just not as effectively. A LOT of henchmen are outright thinking, breathing people, not "pets" created by their master's power, and I've no reason to assume demons will be any different, what with Circle of Thorns behemoths being so vocal and actually sentient.

The powersets I'm seeing you suggest seem to lean more towards the "animated pets" side of things, and I don't believe that's the source of good mastermind material.