Lewisite

Well. Jumping (Acromatics/Combat Jumping) can be good if you think you will suffer from holds and knockbacks and that sort of thing.

Super speed is nice because it also grants a stealth, and if you already have a stealth power it basically makes you invisible.

If your build isn't really weak against those then it doesn't matter.

Buy the surf board and use that :P

/releasepets works fine, honestly. Its annoying but if you use that its not a huge deal anymore, it'll always be at a mission entrance after all.

As a bonus... if your a Necro/ you can use soul extraction on them Sort of eases the annoyance.

I'd go with Thugs. Necro is actually quite good too, if you can put up with melee. You can get up a lot of pets with Necro/Dark, soul extraction is actually surprisingly powerful -- I like it quite a bit more than Gang War, even if its not quite as fun. My Necro/Dark has easily solo'd some pretty badass mobs. Using fear for control works excellent with that combination.

That said. Thugs are generally better than Mercs. Mercs spec ops let the set down hard, and they are never getting fixed. Spec ops control will not help you much in the field, they use the powers poorly. An awesome thing about Thugs is the Enforcers leadership is very powerful, and it'll work very nicely with the -ToHit from /Dark. Thats a good combo and it'll serve you well.

When the devs claim there is a technical reason for not allowing total or near-total pet customization -- they are lying. Its a matter of work involved and nothing else. Its programming, the compiler will do what you tell it to and that is all there is to it. Its not a matter of database size -- if it is then upgrade the machine in question.

I've never looked into what language they are programming in or what sort of software they run their servers on, but ultimately it shouldn't be that important. The problem is that it is a fair amount of work -- and maybe thats understandable for some people... but then I do pay to play this game, and this feature has been asked after for literally years now.

They should just buckle down and get it over and done with. Basically, I'm saying -- Look, I'm willing to pay for it. Make it something we purchase from the market to cover the development costs and its a done deal, a system exists for that now so go ahead and use it. I'll buy it and be happy with it. I'll go this far even, I'd still pay for it if it cost twenty bucks. I'd pay for it if it cost ten bucks per MM toon. That, I think, would be worth the effort on their part to just go ahead and do it.

Obviously the answer is just to allow free-form pet customization like many MM's have been asking for since CoV came out. Their political reasons are a load of nonsense and obviously no one here buys any of that for a second. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but this is extra-true since the class went pay-for. Some limits would be fine, but giving them decent uniforms or whatever would go a long way toward making you feel like a real mastermind -- I mean, what comic book MM have you read about that doesn't have his own special uniforms for his goons?

Christ, the Monarch has custom uniforms for his goons even.

I've been asking for pet customization since the class came out. So yeah, that. Bad AI can be worked with even if it occasionally gets you killed at the start of the game. Also, if you do any RP at all ... standard pets just look wrong and really limit your theme choices. I wish they would just add it in already... especially now its a paid class.

I have a io'd out mercs/dark at fifty. He does fine, you want to keep the s/l/e def as high as possible grab aggro lots with that aoe taunt. They'll clean up nicely for you mercs really do need their io's however, more than any other mm primary. Keep in mind that your spec ops are very weak compared to every other lt-type pet. I call them "spec oops" because ncsoft is just plain jerks for not balancing them after all this time. Pisses me off actually. They do get paid to do this kind of stuff after all, but you couldn't tell.

I doubt honestly however that anything, ever will compete with bots/traps.

Too many non-programmers post about AI code. People who aren't programmers should have the good sense to not talk about code, about how hard or easy something would be to implement because you don't know what your talking about. If you don't know what your talking about you shouldn't be talking about it. Common sense, right there.

AI code doesn't have to be that complex, and in this game, its probably nothing more then a few paragraphs of text. I've written AI code for other games before. (Quake, actually, sure its dated but it was far more complex than this game's AI).

Understand this: Video game AI is not like making a *REAL* AI at all. People confuse the two it seems because they equate video game ai as being similarly challenging. Its not. Video game AI is extremely limited and usually quite simple. It doesn't have to be very complex.

Our pet AI sucks because the programmers got extremely lazy and we get to pay for it, and thats the truth of the matter. They probably copied most of the pet ai from the regular mob ai and added a few lines here and there for some mm specific stuff. The code is obviously very bad because the AI is filled with special cases like fleeing from fire and other stuff that overrides more reasonable actions.

Anyone whos actually done even a little bit of game programming -- however amatuer -- should be able to pretty much imagine what this code looks like without any difficulty, programming isn't any sort of mysticism, its very logical and straightforward once you are familiar with the language.

The pet ai isn't a deal breaker for me, but it does irritate me everytime I play the game, which shouldn't happen. I buy my subs year at a time, and even when F2P comes out that won't change anything for me... its not like I'm going to rage quit after all these years or anything. Its just very annoying and I wish they would just spend the time to fix it and instantly make every MM (and other pet classes) happy.

Oh man.

I'm a total one trick pony here. Give me my mm's or give me sweet death. I made a mm back when cov first came out and I never looked back except to make a sonic/thermal corruptor - who actually made it to fifty. I have lots of mm's. Bots/traps, Necro/dark, thugs/storm, mercs/dark. No demons though. Badasses all of em. Thugs/traps the second I can customize my boys (only been asking like 6 years now devs).

Something about having my own team of guys ready working together to defeat stronger super guys appeals to me. Oh and bodyguard, such win. And the classes flexibility... Being both a buffer and a debuffer in the same archetype, but always able to bring the damage.

Mm's wrecked every other mmo for me except star trek since your kind of an mm in that game always anyway.

Cheers!

I gotta say this, I'm pretty jazzed about a new-and-cool secondary for MM's -- and other classes I don't play But we MM's get a new set w007!

Someone had to have said this, but we can finally say we can control "Ti-mu and space-o!"

Just gotta roll up *another* MM, like I needed more or something

Which apparently I did because thats exactly what I am going to do...

... or already did in the future
... but if I already did I wouldn't do it again because I've already done it...
... meaning that if I wouldn't do it again then I wouldn't have one already so I'd have to make one...
... but if I already did ...

*asplode*

My Necro/Dark does very well. In non-incarnate content I find myself waiting and waiting for one of my zombies to die so I can summon a spirit. My grave knights and lich almost never die. You can just heap on the -ToHit with N/D. But yes, the early twenties are horrible for any MM.

I find that /D in general strongly benefits from +Recharge though. I run mine with very-near-permahaste and its pretty strong. Stack on what +end you can though, you can burn through it pretty fast.

You are really waiting for your -ToHit debuffs to start adding up. Controls help, I personally stack on boatloads of fear and it really helps the big fights with lots of enemies.

N/D is a very good set, you'll really like it once your through the doldrums of the twenties.

I don't think barrier is redundant at all...

1) Are you incarnate softcapped? Thats about 60 def. Thats going to be the way it is for probably all the new content as well. I think the devs felt that getting to 45 def and calling it quits was too easy.

2) It still adds plenty of resists, pets always have very average sort of resists. Help keep the one-hit deaths from happening as much. I don't recall what the mininum +RES on T4 barrier is off hand, but it would stack nicely with combinations like necro or thugs that can benefit from two +RES procs.

I think barrier is pretty much pure awesome. Sure -- if you have a very strong defensive build you have other options. But I can't imagine barrier ever being anything less than totally awesome. I think a person could "go wrong" with a possibly less useful destiny choice, but I don't think anyone could go wrong with barrier ever.

Well, Commissar Aleksandr Menshikov has always been a hero, even though he was created before Going Rogue came out by a long time

His history is closely tied with WW2, at least.. Real Earths history of it. I haven't found too many details about Primal Earth's second world war, except something about the Storm Korps and how they were unpleasant chaps or some such.

Anyway, Menshikov's history is very much tied to the Russian view of what he would call the Great Patriotic War. His view of how things went, the west's involvement, etc, are very different than what most of his American friends would think (and actually with good reason).

Hmmm... ok, short version. He became a Commissar in 1939, when Russia was invaded in 1941 he defended Leningrad, where his family lived until the siege ended in 44. (Menshikov was never interested in politics, but was inspired to see to the moral and fighting form of those under him). Due to injuries sustained in battle, and the power of the dark magics he had used to help defend Leningrad, and eventually break the seige.. he died. But he completed a ritual to give himself unlife. Essentially he studied Necromancy as a academic hobby in his youth but hadn't thought to actually practice it until the number of fighting troops in Leningrad started to wear thin, so, he raised them as zombies.

He was awarded the Defender of Leningrad and Hero of the Soviet Union medals before his death, and after his death and continuing unlife, he silently left Russia feeling that the legend around his name was probably best left intact since few people knew of his necromanic knowledge -- and it certainly wasn't in the propaganda.

Menshikov was handsome, quick witted, very charismatic and well liked during the war, but years haven't treated him or his rotting body very well. He is somewhat gruff and course, and his patience wears when the "high ideals" of some of his Hero friends rub him the wrong way. He could be described as ruthless, but possesses a very strong moral core -- he fights to protect the innocent, but more so to punish the guilty. He can still rouse a good speech and invoke strong emotions however.

The undead who follow him are volunteers from the underworld, some share his views on justice and are eager to return fight in the living world -- even if it means doing so in a shabby zombie body. Others are seeking personal redemption for deeds done during their lives (his grave knights are former members of the Oprichniki, they didn't give him their real names, and he didn't feel the need to ask). Its OK if they get defeated because, well, they are just souls riding in borrowed bodies -- its not like they can actually die again

He had no involvement in the cold war at all, aside from stating that he felt it was a stupid waste of time since he felt neither side was insane enough to actually nuke one another. And thats the shortest version of his history that exists anywhere. I should put up a page on VirtueVerse one of these days where I can more accurately describe things

So yeah, he's a former-Soviet Commissar Necromancer, and a good guy Didn't see that one coming I bet ;D