Jeremia_Bane

1. Make toggles suppress in forms, not deactivate.

I know people hate on the shields cause of perma LF, but thats a long way away for fresh PBs that don't want to powerlevel and its just annoying especially in regards to powers like hover. Sometimes i feel like i have to toggle a bazillion things on, which really takes the fun out of shapeshifting.

2. Pulsar is just bad. Its already approaching useless in solo and it IS useless in teams, besides if i invest in a 3 sec cast minions should be dead, not stunned(and i don't mean turning this into a damaging power, just that its alot of casttime for taking out minions for a limited time). Maybe give it +1 mag like the WS version, which is awesome solo and in team, or a decent -tohit effect from the bright flash it supposedly creates.

3. Access to ancillary to be able to address holes in the powersets without having to rebuilt them entirely.


Personally i have some issue with many abilities the khelds have, which are just plainly not fun. Like Luminous detonation or the first two attacks. MMs primary attacks are stronger than those.

Im not saying increase the max damage of the AT(in nova form, though i wouldn't complain about it). But it would be nice if some human form attacks where a little bit more like radiant strike, and a little bit less like brawl.

For ninja/ i would recommend nothing besides /Storm. It can keep them alive, no mean feat in itself.

Incidentially /storm is also the only subset that allows slotting recharge intensive pet IOs, which means 10% more resistance and 5% more defense. Ninjas, imho the set with the worst innate defenses, needs these extra IO auras more than any other set. But the real deal with storm is the massive -tohit, a quickly recharging mag 2 stun that stacks oh so nicely with charge masteries EM pulse for 5 mag aoe stun, stealth for better positioning, -recharge and Freezing Rain which almost trivializes content.

P.S.: Hurricane has -range, which has some interesting effects on the AI of some ranged foes.

I advise /Time for Beasts/. Its just an awesome set and more reliable than /Dark imho. All of that -recharge really takes the cake imho, also the heavy reliance of dark on -tohit makes it a bit of a one trick pony. Don't mistake me, its a very good trick, but its still the only one you have.

/Time on the other hand offers a really nice mix of -recharge, -damage(at a point of your choice, not the choice of the mob with DN on it), +def and -tohit. I also prefer /times heals over /darks for melee pets because its more reliable and works better on moving targets(which beasts definitely are).

Time also has some nifty tricks like -def and +tohit powers, which can just be what you need if you face -tohit auras(like hurricane, ugh) yourself. Also distortion field is awesome as an opener and i prefer it over FS. Oh and you can easily get /time to permahasten levels with chrono shifts +50% recharge, which incidentially makes that also perma.

Bots/traps doesn't have pets at the softcap for defense coupled with a horrible heal. The protector pets are also notoriously bad at reapplying their bubble midcombat not to mention they are only affected by one bubble each and have zero defense to start with and no resistance to smashing to boot(hello all you SS themed enemies).

I really feel Bots/Traps doesn't do aswell vs stronger enemy groups. Not enough def, built in failing cascade via protectors, FFG can be killed or "mispath", no real heals and slots etc. Its well and nice for soloing some AVs due to massive -regen or unproblematic enemy groups, but otherwise i find it lacking.

I mean just compare it to Thugs/Time, you can almost softcap ALL your pets just between Farsight and enforcers. Also you get all 5 pet auras without sacrificing a single slot in your petpowers(which will softcap them all easily) and then you get a -14% tohit aura ontop of that and two AoE heals just to feel better.

Edit: I don't find Beast/ to be squishy at all. On the contrary, the only set that feels tougher is maybe demon(and thats situational depending on what damagetype they face). The lions especially are easily the toughest LTs i have ever seen, between their high resistances and defense plus selfheal. First MM that i set UP the difficulty while fighting vahzilok, and thats plenty tough in my book.

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...type.php?at=10 should contain anything you need.

The set isn't bad at all imho. It has insane stats even if you completely ignore the recharge. +82% accuracy, +102% damage and 82% endredux.

Just compare it to either Sov or SA, more damage than the former and far more accuracy than the latter. Complaining about its setboni is a bit strange considering the setboni of the two other noncommon sets, 4 out of 5 setboni of Sov are ... well anticlimatic is putting it nicely. And SA actually has even worse boni imho.

I had it happen even in midfight on a new lowbie beast/sonic. The pets just suddenly charged mightfight into a near group as if they had attacked me, which wasn't the case though. Its kind of rare though.

I like it, though i would try to get hasten in for perma chrono shift, which would also perma hasten, kinda neat. The way i see it you have a couple neat abilities on semi long timers, like slowed response, temporal selection, fortify pack or even distortion field.

Probably would drop tactics for it, not a fan of that.

Meh im not a huge fan of dark. Its full of awesome powers that gravitate between win and total fail. Like those 5% of the time your big heal won't land. Its ALWAYS when three minions are low on health and then before its recharged they spread out, then once you got everything perfect ... ups target dead or OOS, need a new one ... 2 guys dead ... pisses me off to no end.

Or how about those big groups on officemaps, where the enemies are spread out over like 2 rooms and a floor? Yeah good luck with FS hitting all of them, you know which one won't get hit? The Boss. He'll come around some corner and nuke half your pets with some AoE before you can slap DN on him.

I mean stuff like that happens all the time to me, its still a stupidly powerful set, but its also damn annoying because stuff usually will go wrong in the worst possible way at the worst possible time.

Huh? MM are the toughest healer possible, or what do you mean with the HP comment? I mean with BG mode your nigh on invincible. A brute or scrapper may be tougher, but not by much.

Then again your ninja/thermal, so i see your point .

P.S.: Please use BG mode, hearing you talk about pets in passive feels like a throwback to the dark ages :/.

I would rate beast above demon for your stated reasons + cause of its superior range and the latter two attacks in beast having -fly. Which is hilarious, besides cone AoEs with -fly are kinda rare AND awesome.

Just a heads up regarding TA, you can't just walk out of a glue arrow. Unlike a tarpatch the glue arrows effect sticks(pardon the pun) to the target. Also you can get it perma easily. I just have a hard time seeing him being able to get "in your face" with a permanent -180% run speed while being unable to fly or jump and having to face a immob power ontop.

Also a word about the damage, glue arrow debuffs recharge and poison arrow reduces damage. OSA will make his pets try to flee, which they can't due to absurd -run speed levels of combined OSA and glue arrow. The trick is they are not immobilized, they can still move, just very slow. So thats what they will try to do, instead of ... oh attacking you.

Also you have mag 3 hold(that does nasty things to his and his pets endurance btw) with 35 feet radius and your oilslick will put him(maybe) and his pets(very likely) on their face regularly. You also have a single target hold that stacks with your AoE one for mag 6.

And i seriously have trouble seeing him being able to heal through an burning OSA + the Assbots inc swarm missiles while having completely debuffed resistances. I mean he only has -tohit to protect him and his (at debuffed resistances) squishy pets, and even that will mean squat against OSA and inc missiles since they count as untargetable pets that spawn right under him. And whats stopping you from moving out of range with your pets and watch him burn from outside his heal range? Whats he gonna do, yell at you? He will have no heals, no resistances, no defenses while being almost unable to move and standing in a burning knockdown AoE with -90% perception range.

Anything that can counter that can counter anything any MM can do.

But really, Glue Arrow is 90% of the set in PvP imho. Its just sooo awesome, especially with the borderline exploit level effect burn patches have on our silly pet AI.

Edit: There is no reliable selfheal outside /dark. /Thermal and even /pain is a joke asfar as selfheals are concerned compared to the beastly twilight grasp even without considering him getting it 2x due to his dark servant. You will loose every time if you let it get down to his heals vs your heals. You need to hit him hard and fast, stop him moving around as he pleases and as plainguy mentioned mess up his pets AI as much as possible. Look at it this way, you might not be able to heal yourself, but he and his pets will not be able to get in your face. If he and his pets can still "tank" the damage your dealing out despite all your debuffs and controls ... any other combination will neither increase your damage nor make his healing less effective. Thus if his heal is the problem you still will be unable to kill him with any other combination.

The thing is, at heavily debuffed resistances his pets should die as fast as a ninjas genins, in other words almost instantly. If you are that worried about the damage you will receive take one of the armor powers of the ancillary pool powers, that will do you more good than any of the poor selfheals the other sets have access to.

Also to put things into perspective, Twilight Grasp is 4 times as strong as thermal group heal and between him and his pet he has two of them. Why would you even waste your time trying to use THAT? Times Temporal Mending is even worse and its regen buff gets handily slaughtered by twilight grasps -regen.

God, that damn forum just ate a huge post of mine because it logged me out while typing it up.

Basic summary:

I believe the spreadsheet linked earlier to be inaccurate, it lists genin as having triple the average dps than an assault bot, and lists his freaking incendiary swarm missiles(which if you are not familiar with, can almost slaughter an entire group on their own) with doing 20 damage, ie. sub tier 1 pet brawl strength. I think it also does not take level difference into account, tier 1 pets tend to fight enemies 5-6 levels above them.

Also melee pets take time to get into melee, especially without proper micro(ie. only using a single attack/passive macro) hurting their actual damage in team situations against anything but AVs massively. Not to mention they are severely affected not just by damage but also by status effects flying around in melee range, try standing with a SO equipped defender next to the brutes/scrappers/tankers in a battle to get a "feel" for what your pets will experience. Oh and as a extra try doing that with a AV 5 level above you while already being down to 500 HP, feel it? Thats how being a genin "feels".

Last point i think was the slotting imbalance. Ninja/Thermal will not only be unable to slot the 10% res and 5% defense auras from recharge intensive pets, they will also be forced to slot the 3 auras they can fit into the actual MM pets(and you do need them) lowering the amount of slots available for actual combat/damage purpose.

For example if you put an aura into each pet, and an achilles heal proc into jounin, you can only 4 slot them for accuracy/damage/endurance. A thugs, necro, demon or any /storm will be able to get all 5 auras without sacrificing any petslots. So not only will he gain +10% res and 5% defense over you, he will also have 3 more slots available for stuff not dedicated to survivability in his pets. Also the ranged pets that can accept them will apply procs like achilles heel -res alot faster than melee pets who have to physically run over to their target to apply them.

I also had some encouraging words to go for it still, for concept sakes and coming from a defnders pov etc blabla. But honestly im not in the mood to retype all of that due to that forum glitch. Just imagine some encouraging words here, your heals will make the combo feel alright till level 20 or so anyway. Its only when when bosses and later LTs start onehitting your pets that you start thinking about doing things a bit differently the next time around.

Edit: In the original there was something about taking into account things like the monstruos -regen of bots or even the lesser -res of demons for AV/EB fights aswell. Thats worth QUITE a bit of dps, and with a weak group(due to people leaving and having a incomplete team or whatever) is far more likely to be the difference between making it or not than a couple more or less dps on a mere (dead)pet.

Your primary line of defense is BG mode from your pets, if you take enough damage through that to require a heal your pets are about to die anyway and no amount of selfheal is going to keep a MM up without his pets BG mode.

The dark heal is a bit of an exception here because it is a AoE heal stronger than pretty much any self heal. That being said, i doubt you will be able to reliably kill a demon/dark MM with a cookie cutter thugs/traps setup or something like that. Immobilizing a MM together with his pets in a burn patch atop of a burning oil slick while stunned however sounds like a good idea. Grant invisibility will be your friend to arrange that.

Maybe the flash arrow will even prevent him from targeting you if you keep your distance, which would be pretty bad considering he needs a target for his heal.