William_Valence

And I just checked. The Mastermind AT set goes into the summons. So 2% damage for the AT with the lowest damage modifiers, that often skips personal attacks anyway and isn't transfered to the pets, weak Toxic resistance on the 5 slot, and a primary defense bonus in the 6th slot that's just barely more than the 5th or 6th slot secondary defense bonuses in Blood Mandates. The 10% AoE defense might be valuable for a combination that doesn't have the best defenses, like Ninja/Thermal or something, but I really don't see it as valuable.

Add to that terrible enhancement values for a Summon Power and you have the biggest loser (not in the heartwarming way) of AT enhancement sets.

Masterminds and their summon powers are too obtuse to follow the same template as other ATs for their set. It needs a big overhaul.

Actually I haven't tried it with bot's so I cant confirm for Set's that have multiple pets without melee attacks, but with Demons and Necromancy the Ember Demon and Lich both respond differently but end up the same. The Lich will stay at range for a much longer time, and in a normal mission setting might not have enough time to decide to move into melee. However If the Lich is given enough time without attacking (I.E His power recharges cycle to create a few second timeframe of inaction), he will move to a point 20' from the target. While he's there, he doesn't move. I've had the Zombies attacking for some 20 minutes. He never moved.

The Ember Demon seems to want to move in much sooner. I'm not sure if it's the PbAoE buff, but he takes position 20' from the target a great deal sooner. However he also doesn't move from that position.

Interestingly enough, it seems as if one of the Thug Leutenants tries to stay away, but ends up deciding to Brawl the target. Obviously forcing him into melee range. However, I have yet to see more than one pet stay away. The dark servant doesn't have any melee attacks, yet it charges in beautifully while the Lich remains content in the back.

You know for all the complaining about the defender's heal bonus...

Just thank God your set isn't as terrible as the Mastermind one.

I was finally able to articulate what it is with Necromancy that I have an issue with. I was on a TF and someone said they don't like the playstyle, goofing around I made joke about how I was currently playing one, but in a serious moment I said:

"But I wish they weren't so Binary" actually I think I spelled binary wrong, but whatever.

My issue with Necro, is that it's method of survivibility either works or it doesn't, and the situations where it works are far fewer than the big 3 (Bots/thugs/demons) without having so much of an offensive advantage to compensate.

Add to that the issue that has been presented before about how Zombies (the henchmen) don't recieve an adequate T2 upgrade, I think I've come up with a nice buff for Necromancy to bring it more in line with upper tier summon sets.

Add a power to the T2 upgrade that would be given to the Zombies (the henchmen) This power would be an auto power called "Death Rattle". Death Rattle would be a 15' autohit AoE that debuffs tohit by 5% (enhanceable), damage by 10%, and has a 3% chance to apply mag2 fear for 10s (unenhanceable) that pulses every 1s.

Against an even con enemy with no resist and standard Zombie slotting, the three Zombies should debuf tohit by 12% damage by 24% and have a minor chance to fear the enemy for 8s.

Add to that the Lich. Necromancy would have the potential to Floor the Tohit of a group on their own, with the weakness of power recharge and Critter power aiming, as well as providing a damage debuff to complement it's resistances. A debuff that would be weaker against enemies that have resistance themselves.

This would be a resource-lite change, Needing only the PbAoE Fear power Icon (used by Cloak of Fear) and numbers. An aura would not be needed as it isn't any more neccessary to show the boundry of this power as it is for the Dark servant's PbAoe or any other aoe debuff.

Should it become an issue with players trying to stealth, the power might need to be tagged as not alerting enemies.

A comical rendition of an incredibly frustrating example of what I mean by the method of survivibility working or not working is would be when I was running tip missions. I got the one where you have to fight a bunch of Miss Thystles. After curb-stomping the first ambush, I was fighting the PPD guys and there were two more ambushes. Miss Thystle was all "Rawr" and I was all "Fearsome stare!" and she was "Rawr!" and I was all "Hey Lich y u no Fearsome stare?" and he was all "I already used it! It's recharging" and I was all "Hey Lich y u no Tentaprobe?" And he was all "I already used it! It's recharging!" And I was all "Hey Lich y u n...*dead*" And of course, the powers were fresh once I returned and summoned, allowing me to beat the Thystles senseless.

I know Masterminds are not considered underperformers, but with the resource lite nature of this suggestion it might be possible for it to get snuck in. Either way I'd like to know what people think of it.

Out of curiosity, how many Dark Armor characters do you have?

Halloween Eochai in Grandville Has .5% Regeneration regen For 353.4 HPS, this is according to a power analyzer and the combat attributes.

With a 500% debuff (GMs have AV resistance, Yes?) they would end up with .325% regen or 5% evey 15s instead of 10 which looks to be 235.6 HPS.

My Necro/Dark took out Halloween Eochai the other day, and would be able to drop Scrapyard if he'd stop running like a little...yeah.

I'm sure I could drop the regular mosters with him. That is if they don't run like they're being butchered.

Stupid Scrapyard

So lately, I've been exploring some of my characters stories and one method I've been using is coming up with iTrials for them. This made me curious about what other people could come up with. So with that said, if you were given the ability to make one of your characters into the focus of an iTrial:

Which one would it be?

What would the story purpose be?

How would you explain both, your character holding up to a league of incarnates and it's need to lose?

What mechanics would it have?

Where would it be located?

And how would it effect the story in the future?

An example:

1. Necromicus
2. To introduce into canon Incarnate level power without the need for the Well, and a Segway into a more Powerful Praetorian Hamidon.
3. The character is defending his home and source of power meaning he not only lets loose, but fights alongside his various dimentional counterparts.
4. Depending on player actions, he would switch between his various counterparts each with varying strengths of Buffs and Henchmen, as well as their own special ability triggered by certain player actions. Then, in the next phase fight a powerful GM.
5. It would be located on an Island graveyard known as The Mausoleum, found on a Cimeroran Island
6. Necromicus would be tricked into believing the Hamidon stole his book. He would fight the Hamidon, trying to retrieve it, giving the players time for other fights. However, the Well would be hateful of Necromicus' power and would make the Hamidon stronger. Necromicus would be overwhelmed and captured, and would make for a useful Hospital in the eventual Hami trial if rescued.


So, what would your's be?

It's too late for it to happen, but I think stalkers should have originally been Melee/Support.

With the stalker's Original values, give it Mastermind Buff/Debuff mods. Then, while hidden, give it the ability to:

1. Not notify mobs with Their support abilities
2. Do "Critical Support" while hidden
3. Not lose hidden status while using support abilities

This way, the stalker would have been the Premier Support character while hidden, with the potential for Burst damage while coming out of hide.

Sadly it's too late for that, but that's how I would have done it.

I've got every /Sonic power including Sonic Repulsion. I've got three uses for it.

1. To help squishies in a bind because the aggro magnets picked up too much. It doesn't always work, as the radius is too small and often (Mostly ITFs) the squishy can still be one shot.

2. To help less sturdy melee characters (seriously). If a scrapper, or Blapper keeps dying I'll start collecting blues and give them the ball. I'll say "I've got plenty of blues, use the corners, and you practically have Elude tell me if I should drop it."

3. I'll give it to characters in Pocket D with Disruption Field, and they get to be a Disco ball.

No kidding, this games been on it's deathbed since the GDN, and ED, and the reduction of Hami enhancement values, and the EM nerfs, and the Botz nerf, and the Meow farm nerf, and the Monkey farm nerf, and the regen nerf, and hami damage that made Phantom army and phase shift pointless, and the purple triangles, and the purple patch, and the Items of power/Original Cathedral of Pain. Man, they've changed so much stuff that players have completed and earned this game should shut down any day now.