Mad Grim

Beast Mastery is not that bad, in its current state I would put it just above Nin and Merc, due purely to how survivable it is. The ONLY problems are slightly less DPS and very few AoEs. Defensively they are perfectly fine, offensive is the issue.

As for the others, no, no nerf there. As stated, there are existing sets that are just as good or better than /Time.

Um, is this how normal people see iTrials? I feel sad now. Mostly I end up staring at walls so my computer doesn't die.

Anyhow, that said, seems like you had an awesome time. The above is also the explanation for why I didn't try to sign up.

Actually, I agree with Reppu here. Stalkers needed a buff, Stalkers got a buff. Said buff did nothing to harm any other AT, and merely helped one that was struggling. It seems to me that no one should be complaining here. But, of course, people must complain, for if a thread was made and everyone agreed... my god, what would become of the world?
Everyone is pointing out AoEs- But there is not one set, not one, where stalker has more. However,t here are plenty where it has less, as it should due to being single target focused. However, it did less single target than a Scrapper. Scrappers could make just as good a single target chain, but do better damage since they had a higher modifier. Now Stalkers actually get the highest ST DPS and everyone whines.

My ancient kheld. Ignore the set bonus thing, that was for the other thread and I couldn't be bothered to take a new one.

Stalkers got a buff that they sorely needed. Citing them having a bunch of 'toys' means nothing. Yes, they have a bunch of stuff, and all of it adds up to them just barely out-damaging Scrappers in single target DPS- which is what they were designed for in the first place. Its is not the quantity, but rather the quality- Stalkers get a bunch of little toys that hey need, Scrappers are just fine without them and need nothing new.

That said a Size Up thing would be cool, due to it not being in any way a buff. However, this should be extremely low on the Devs' substantially long 'To-Do' list.

Ok, look at it this way- Does Charged Armor resist so much more damage than the Soul equivocation that a good 50% of the minions in a mob stunned doesn't offset it? As well, EF is not necessarily better than the Soul equivilant, it is just easier to use and doesn't look as cool.

Anyhow, that aside, I always prefer Mace due to liking Defense.

Oh and you can easily stun all of them by moving about a bit.

Sonic is GREAT with Beast. Beast have respectable natural defense and resistance, slot Sonic buffs well and get the unique IOs. You can get your pets near 80% resistance to S/L/C, with about 50% to all else.

The pets start out with about 10% to all positions, raised to 15% with the unique IO. 19% with maneuevers, and then 41.5% with a properly slotted Fortify Pack. Very near the soft cap for defense and hardcap for resistance.

If it isn't worth it to be able to stun every minions every spawn, and everything below Elite Boss every other spawn... then at what level would you consider a stun power worth it?

Its hardly like AVs are any more difficult, at least the ones I've found. Outside of Trials, of course, I've never gathered a group up so i could enter one solo. Every AV I've encountered solo has dropped like a rock.

And no, no daggers. Just kicking, slicing, and burning.

Now, see, the reason I brought this up is because you brought up that MMs couldn't do it as well as some other stuff, and I can't remember why that was brought up.

And yes, it is a showing of ability, of a very certain ability. It is not a showing of a set's viability, granted, but of a specific player's ability. To go up against a GM solo is not stupid, it is simply fun. To fling yourself at the best the game has to offer, to be met with something that lasts more than twenty seconds, that is fun.

And with /Time, what it lacks in -regen it makes up for with pet survivability. Even with Ninjas I rarely lose any. The lucky shot will take one out, but they are all soft capped to all positions.

And, no, it is not the pets that make it possible, it is the pets that make it easy. Ok, so perhaps they aren't the fastest... and I still have trouble believe that a Defender or Corruptor can out-damage Ninjas in single target DPS, but it is simply easiest to do on an MM. As a Defender, Corruptor, or Controller there is always that chance of simply being oneshotted. With an MM you have something like 5000 health.

And obviously the statement that 'nobody cares' is inherently false if you are arguing with someone who does, in fact, care.

Ok, admittedly those CAN do it, but asside from the Crabterminds I have trouble believing they could do it faster.

Illusion can do it easier no doubt, but much of their damage is Illusionary. In a long fight with a GM, that means you are sacrificing a good 50% of your damage.

A Defender has to same trouble- yes, they can survive with the proper secondary, but I highly doubt they can work up a ST DPS to match MMs.

Corruptor, same thing to a lesser degree. Yes, after half health your damage basically doubles, but I still fail to believe it out damaging a raging MM.

ANd as for Traps and Poison being the only viable ones... I've solo'd Adamastor, Babbage, Paladin, Ghost of Scrapyard, Jack and Eochai (both separately and simultaneously), Kraken, some Monsters on Monster Island, a Rikti Pylon, Deathsurge, and Caleb on my Ninja/Time MM, all quite easily (except Jack, that fear is terrible). I've also done it on a Demon/Thermal MM with Ghost of Scrapyard, and Dark Miasma seems like it would have little trouble. Sonic and FF could do it too, with a Primary that has properly high damage or -regen.

/Storm is the only one I see being almost hopeless trying to solo a GM on, due to the vast majority of its mitigation being rendered useless.

Yes, if you aren't going the global nerf route, and instead the global buff route, those are all great suggestions.

I am curious, though... What can solo Giant Monsters better than MMs?

And yes, they are of course defined by their pets. Controllers are not. Mastermind is the pet class, pure and simple. The support set is given grudgingly if anything- The powers have higher end cost, lower effect. If the support numbers were on the level of other ATs MMs would jump from Over Powered to Game Breakers

Alright, an actual well thought post with no insulting words, something I can work with.

Yes, Controllers get pets. No, they are no where near what MM pets are. You cannot direct a controller pet, you cannot use Bodyguard. What Masterminds offer is not simply more powerful pets, or even more numerous pets, but more controllable pets. Pets that you can actually command, albeit not perfectly. I would LOVE to see a controller try to be a Mastermind. As for Corruptor and Defender, they hardly factor in. A petless MM, sure, would be on the levels of a gimped Corr/Def, but MM is a completely separate thing to either. It is rather like saying MMs are gimped Brutes because they both do damage.

If I were going to nerf the vast majority (not everything) I would do it all at once, with the release of a new Issue. Anything else would be absurd, you'd wind up with a 'balance' even more wonky than it already is.

Though, I must admit, this game is more balanced than many I've seen.

Yes, lets nerf ninjas, the set that you claim to be underpowered, which I still find hard to believe.

No. Necro seems to be a good point for a Mastermind set.

Besides, in my opinion the vast majority of the game needs to be hit with an enormous nerf hammer.

Freezing Roar? bad Metrics? What the hell are you even talking about?

Yes, I said specifically that they were cones and how small they were, I was hiding nothing. And I also specifically said that Ferocious Growl was non-damaging, no need to point that out again. You said the set had no AoE- I proved you wrong. With numbers, I heard you like those.

And yes- Bots, Demons, Thugs. All of those should be nerfed.

You say they completely lack AoE over and over and over and it is simply not true. It IS true that they don't have much AoE, but...

Freezing Roar- Cone, 50 foot radius, 30 degree arc, 16 max targets.
Chilling Howl- Cone, 80 foot radius, 20 degree arc, 3 max target
Claw Swipe- Cone, 7 foot radius, 90 degree arc, 16 max targets x2 (two lions)
Terrible Howl- AoE, 15 foot radius, 16 max targets

Not damaging but:

Ferocious Growl- AoE, 15 foot radius, 6 max targets x2 (two lions) 3 mag stun for 10 seconds at level 32

Not to mention that EACH howler wolf at 32 gets and AoE 25% damage 7.5% tohit buff. Each one.

To say they have no AoE is ludicrous.

Howling Twilight is a great power, and is one of the very few powers (only other I can think of is the Barrier incarnate) that is an AoE rez. Also an AoE stun, it can turn a team wipe into a win. Fluffy is the source of quite a bit of -tohit. I would sooner drop Paralyzing Gaze than either of these.

That said I agree with what you said about Time, and personally much prefer it to Dark, for reasons I've stated many times.

Time. Time time time. Time is the greatest MM set, rivaled only by Dark Miasma. The advantage of Time over Dark is the alpha strike... With Time you can get all your buffs and debuffs out before the enemies hit, with Dark that is not the case, it takes a bit to get all the -tohit up and running.

Go with Mace Mastery, get Scorpion shield. Maneuvers and combat jumping/hover, boom you're soft capped to s/l and very near for energy. Add into that to -tohit from Time's Juncture and you get very near the incarnate soft cap without even IOs. With Hell of Earth you can slot all of the pet uniques, for another 10% defense and 20% resistance, add in the Time buffs and the Ember Shield, you have nigh-invulnerable tankerpets. The ember demon has heals of its own to go with Temporal Mending... Temporal Mending is unique in that it is a heal over time. It will heal your pets, and then keep healing them. This is invaluable, because most of the time when you toss a heal at a slightly hurt minion, it will then get hit hard and die before your heal recharges. Then you can add in all the mitigation from the slows and -rech, also help killing things faster with Slowed Response..

Oh, and Chrono Shift makes getting perma-hasten trivial, and then you have no more end problems. Really, truly a wonderful set

Recharge in a pet set is silly, it really is. If you are a good MM, you won't lose your pets so much that you need the powers to recharge faster. The AoE def bonus is good, 2% more damage is utterly useless, and due to the massive amount of recharge in the set the overall enhancement values are rubbish. It is a bad set.

Hm, no, didn't test in trials. I avoid trials if at all possible, would probably be unable to see my pets anyhow.

No, only attacks flagged as granting the power actually grant it. Pool powers are not flagged.

Really, since you've said that I have visited all of my MMs (quite a substantial number) and encountered none of the stated problems. So either the reports are false, overly exaggerated, nonexistent, or I am a unique and special person for having none of my MMs screw up.

Also, none of the (many) MMs I've run with have said anything about the supposed problem. So I guess they are all unique and special people too.

No matter what, if you are doing this in an ambush farm, the data will be false in almost all circumstances. Try it in an actual mission, a repeatable one. Do a lot of Council paper missions and see what happens there, in an actual in-game situation.

New MM sets are grands, but I don't see why people want recycled enemy groups... just seems rather boring.

Besides, if you want an arachnos MM go play a Crab Spider, you get 6 arachnos themed pets.