Master Zaprobo

As an aside, looks like we might be shaping up a bit of a rumble between the heroes and villains in RV.

Looky-Linkie

Come along, and join the fun! (and lets try and keep it balanced )

Citizens of the Rogue Isles,

Communication monitoring by Arachnos Research and Development has ascertained that the foul machinations of the Heroes of Paragon City are afoot once again - this time they are planning to thwart Lord Recluse's plans in the far flung future we call Recluse's Victory.

We need all villains above the Threat Level of 40 to muster to Grandville just before 1400hrs GMT to form a counter offensive. They must not be allowed to stop Lord Recluses' dominance of the future.

Repulse the heroes! Show them what true "villains" can do. For those of you of a more mercanary bent, there are other benefits of fighting in this zone - if we fight well, and earn our Temporal Points to Lord Recluse's satisfaction you will be given access to an Arachnos Mini-Blaster. These are smaller versions of the formidable war machines fielded in RV.

Zone: Recluse's Victory
Restrictions: 40+
Time: 1400 GMT
Date: Sunday 26th November 2006

So, fight for what you believe in - the ascendancy of Arachnos or your own profit - but whatever you do, destroy those heroes!

In the name of science!
Master Zaprobo

What? Heroes invading our glorious sovreigns' realm? Oh, you must be asking for a pounding...

... to arms villains! To arms!

Well, I'll be popping along on one of my few Union characters to have a look at this event

My money is on the Peacebringer with self heals, tanking and blasting modes. Any chance we get to see the form on these competitors? Builds in advance (sans slotting, natch)?

[ QUOTE ]
I thoughed I saw somewhere a build with spiderlings in it, wich patron is that or did I forgot to put my googles on?

[/ QUOTE ]

All Patron Pools except for Masterminds have a pet as the final power.

Since we're kind of onto general bugs, etc....

Mastermind Combat Logs
Unlike temporary pets like the Shivan Destroyer, a Masterminds' pets do not properly report their damage in the combat log. Worse, they actually leave gaping big holes in it where the reports should be.

Makes reading the log hard! And for some of us who use HeroStats and other third-party applications it makes some of the tracking useless!

Proposed Fix: Make it work same as temporary pets? Gotta be a bug!

Workaround: None

Hence "may need" - I have no idea how the AI works - just that it needs fixing somehow

I'd recommend my "Stamina Leadership Build" from here opting out the Leadership powers (Assault/Tactics) for the other two attacks.

Maybe its having played on MZ most, but in PvP I actually prefer my Robotics/FF Mastermind as I have a good number of tricks up my sleeve to deal with most situations.

Rarely defeated, though I can always be forced into retreat My weakness tends to be Telemining */Device Blasters (but only when I don't spot them first!)

Previously it was reported henches don't often get the 2-3 second hover, allowing you to chain it to travel through the air - making it only any good for travelling along the ground.

Maybe its fixed?

I'm sure by now several people may have noticed issues with the artificial intelligence of Mastermind henchmen are still there. Many discussions in the US Forums testify to the fact (including a new official thread), and its been a while since we did this locally too.

So, from the previous listing and as far as I know these are the issues we have identified previously and their status...

Ninja Criticals Remains
Burn Patch/Caltrop/Toxic Gas Fear Effect Remains
Team Aggro Remains
Group Flight Remains
Group Teleport Remains
Stuck Henchmen - Lifts in Missions (Kalgoras) Partially Resolved
Auto TP and Stay Commands (Soul Warden) Remains
Recall Friend + Stay Command (Canine) Remains
Oranbega Portals and Pets (Canine) Remains
Missions with Freaks (Kalgoras) Unknown
Newly Summoned Henchmen Resume Dead Orders (Silver Weasel) Unknown
Passive -> Grant Invis -> Goto -> Aggressive (Sinergy X) Unknown
The Goto Jerks (Soul Warden) Remains
Force Shielding Priorities (Soul Warden) Remains
Robotics vs. Thorn Tree (Dr E Genius) Unknown
Merc Weapon Redraw (Sinergy X) Unknown
Melee vs. Access to Melee (Tchalla) Unknown

Could people who can give a definitive answer if the Unknown problems have been fixed please speak up

Next up are the newly identified AI bugs I've encountered ingame. These may not be game breaking (MM's are getting to L50 just fine), but it certainly puts a cramp on a lot of styles and sets.

Thugs Brute using Handclap/Hurl Boulder to Exclusion
The final henchman in the Thugs Primary is designed to be a Brute - a melee thug. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he is overly fond of a non-damaging attack (Handclap) and a ranged attack (Hurl Boulder).

Proposed Fix: The recharge times on these may need to be modified from their normal so that the Bruiser is more inclined to go for a melee attack chain.

Workaround: Micromanagement, or not using all the upgrades on the Bruiser

Uneven Terrain Causes Stuck Henchman
This one has been around forever but it ought to be addressed, perhaps in a fix to resolve all stuck pet issues. If a henchman is summoned on uneven ground there is a high chance of them getting stuck.

Proposed Fix: What I'd like to see is that any henchman on Follow who is not undertaking any attacks and has not got any closer to a MM since the AI last checked (every 10 seconds?) gets auto-TP'd. Exclusions for mezzes obviously need to be made.

Workaround: Find flat ground when summoning. Hard to do in some missions!

Henchmen Attacking Untargettable Objects (CoT Crystals)
This has been around forever and I find it odd I've not noted it in these posts before. Henchmen can see and target things that players can not - lava, CoT Crystals, invisible NPC's, Arachnoid Webbing, etc. A lot of these things can not be hurt/are intangible.

Proposed Fix: The AI needs an upgrade so that things that are known intangible/undamageable are no longer considered as valid targets.

Workaround: Passive Stance makes them ignore these sort of things, but Passive is not perfect as it cuts off Bodyguard and Henchmen Buffing

Thugs Upgrade Costume Changes
Not encountered this one myself, but heard about it plenty of times to include it on the list (even though the devs are probably sick to the back teeth with it ). Thugs seem to have a costume change problem, whereby the last upgrade applied denotes the costume they are in.

Proposed Fix: Coding needs to be changed so that if the L32 Upgrade is applied, no further costume changes take place. The code should be mapped across all henchies, just in case too!

Workaround: Annoyingly, reapply the L32 buff

Seeker Drones (Robotics) Getting Stuck
Been happening a while, but quite consistantly these days so I'm considering it an AI problem. Seeker Drones summoned by a Protector Bot are dumb. Very dumb. I can run around a mission and a Seeker Drone left by the entrance can be there when I get back! Problem with this is, if all four Seekers from your Prot Bots get stuck, then thats half your L32 Upgrade not in play until they despawn.

Proposed Fix: They need the same sort of code fix as stuck pets - checking their distance from and progress towards their summoner and auto-TPing if needed.

Workaround: None, they're that dumb. Maybe Recall Friend if you're very bothered!

---

That's all I've got, so over to the Mastermind community! What other bugs have you seen of late with the behaviour of henchmen? How are you working around it? And what kind of fix/behaviour would you want to see?

What is it about villains that they're all angsty and write blogs?

Yep, for the one mission I needed was much fun! The Gladiator badge was an added bonus!

I was in RV last night trying to get the 1000 Points needed for the temporary pet power. Unfortunately, there were a few heroes simul-capturing pillboxes - most likely going for the pillbox badges - who kept resetting the zone.

So, I called in some cavalry and proceeded to play RV how it was probably designed. With me and another Mastermind we concentrated on shutting down the heroes pre-captured pillboxes, taking out the heroes as we went (Stone Tanks take ages to die in Granite!)

This went really well, as the Heroes captured more pillboxes, we recaptured others and the Temporal Points score soared nicely.

Later, we got another Mastermind join us so we set one person on seek and destroy duty. Keep the heroes hopping! Alas, it seems the three of us were too successful. After shutting down a Blaster, a Tank, a Controller and a Scrapper we were out of foes, we were the only people capturing pillboxes and so we won the zone.

I was 100 points off the reward. So frustrating!

Now, this may sound like a decent PvP story, and well it was unless you watched Broadcast - the Granite Tank was telling us to "find our own pillbox" and the Scrapper was saying "Can't we let the zone reset".

Come on people! If we'd have fought a bit longer back and forth with pillbox captures we could have all got the 1000 Points and walked away with something more than just a few notches closer to a badge!

I think people have really lost their perspective on this zone...

Mmmm, would love to get my hands on Bone Collector to complete off my low level badges - so, if'n you don't mind...

It Burns! It Burns!
/macro Stp! petcomall pas stay
Hencmen complaining they're burning? Get the wusses to stop in their tracks by setting them to Passive/Stay then issuing attack commands without changing their stance again.

This will override their "Flee all over the map" behaviour in most cases (though I wish they'd fix that bug!)

3,2,1... Blast Off!
Required Powers: Group Fly. PFF/Intangible Powers useful
Hover-sniper annoying you? Had to fire off PFF or a Phase Shift power to escape their wrath? Activate Group Fly while in this state and wait until they stop firing at you for a period of time. Deactivate your protection then immediately issue an Attack My Target command to all your henchmen.

Group Fly buffs your henchies with 10 seconds of independant flight allowing them to go and maul your flying foe, enough so they at least back off!

From RV Tactics Guide...

[ QUOTE ]
Once a side has captured six pillboxes and wins the round, a five-minute timer starts. This is hunting time.

Winners: you get double temporal points for each enemy slain. Now is the time to bring that up to 1000, which will gain you a temp power Robot when the game resets.

Losers: the battle is lost but not the war—you have the ability to reset the clock and position yourself for the next battle.

Killing 100 things (enemy, critters, and turrets) not only gets you straight up temporal points values, but also resets the clock. Remember, if you have 1000 points when the temporal reversion happens, you too get a temp power Robot

[/ QUOTE ]

Bonus Prestige, Temp Summon Power. I so want to arrange a session and get that summon power actually - a mini-heavy would be nice!

Okay, it works well. In combat I run Hover, Dispersion, Assault, Tactics and Scorpion Shield. I float above my bots (to get out of melee and still have enough endurance to Force Bolt and Pulse Rifle Burst to assist.

If things get hairy, I can for relatively short periods of time start running Force Bubble or Group Fly. Enough for a single combat without getting drained out.

Sure, you can drop the attack - but it is handy for finishing off an outlying mob while your bots switch target to make better use of their AoE potential. I still use it now at level 42 so don't discount it as quickly others do. I could even find use for all three blasts, but the build won't take it - too tight on room for good powers so I only took the heavy blast.

Not a found of Resuscitate - I'm not a party healer (though can a little in a pinch) so prefer something else. Aid Self is my plan for 49, though I'm also debating Recall Friend (for stuck bots). Could go either way - I've gone over 40 levels without a self heal, as Respites fill the need since if it goes to hell in a handbasket I fire off PFF.

Its very playable for me. Some may find it tight if they want to run more toggles for longer (e.g. constant Force Bubble). I couldn't warrant losing three slots just to get Stamina, when there were more useful things there, however.

Damn you heroes! Always looking to foil us lawful citizens of the Rogue Isles - we hav every right to self-government and we choose Lord Recluse!

If you want a lil Villain vs. Hero action, Arachnos Research and Development are a Defiant-based RP Villain Supergroup! Maybe a meetup in a PvP Zone one night?

Master Zaprobo entered the lift to the top of the radio tower in Spider City - amongst The Tangle. The inner sanctum, the elderly professor thought, where Lord Recluse and his loyal, well loyal to him, lieutenants plan for the ascension of Arachnos and the downfall of Paragon City. Grandville, centre of the universe.

The man who was once Professor Zaphod Robotnik slumped as he walked. He had been called to the meeting room by his superior Black Scorpion and he suspected why. He also suspected that he may not have a chance of leaving the room alive. Despite having been given a direct order by Arbiter Daos, Master Zaprobo didn't think the insane man who was Ernesto Rodriguez would look kindly on his armour being dented. At all.

As Zaphod turned into the room, the figures of Lord Recluse, Ghost Widow, Captain Mako and Scirocco were conspicuous by their absence. The only hulking shadow the other side of the table was Black Scorpion himself. His attendant scientists were also not in evidence. The two of them were alone. Master Zaprobo's fingers itched towards the trigger emergency teleport unit he had rigged up.

"Ah, Master Zaprobo, good..."
"Sir... you wanted to see me?" the white-haired scientist asked.
"Yes. Yes I did. And not for what you're probably expecting - I should have seen countermanding orders from the Arbiters coming. Trying to kill Dr Aeon was a foolish gesture. A whim. Forget about that. I expect you're wondering why I asked you here Master", the hulking brute said.
"Well, ye..."

Master Zaprobo was slammed against the wall before he could even finish his sentence by a blow that would have killed an normal man. Of course, normal men didn't generally have reverse-engineered Rikti energy shielding.

"What the HELL do you think you're playing at with your pet scientists over at Arachnos Research and Development?", Black Scorpion growled.
"I...", the scientists hand hit the controls for the emergency teleport. The flash of blue never happened - the controls on the ZR Aegis Transponder flashed in error, reporting a teleport dampening field in use. Ernesto looked at the scientist and smiled grimly.

Master Zaprobo sighed, "What do you mean? I send you the latest report a few days ago"
"Reports?! I don't want damn reports, I need new weapons. More technology and devices for Lord Recluse"
"I... we can only test so much - the incursions of heroes into the Rogue Isles has discouraged scientists and various robots from working so closely with us. I need more personnel!"

The brute tossed the scientist aside, his head whiplashing backwards to crack against the boardroom table - the energy shielding giving out a cacophonous screech as it cushioned the blow. He regained his feet, so to speak, by activating his anti-gravity field. Floating back towards Black Scorpion the old man winced in pain.

"I don't care what you think need - I've given you facilities, funding and access. Everyone knows that I am your Patron yet I get no results!" Black Scorpion raised his arm blaster which began to build a charge up. "If I don't get results, then I will find someone else..."

The white-haired scientist shuddered as he lunged for his ZR Aegis Transponder on his wrist to activate a Personal Forcefield. The massive energy concussion fragmented against the forcefield that materialised around him. Black Scorpion tilted his head, inside of his Quatrexin armour.

"I see you do have some technologies that function. Get more then... and I shall overlook your previous failings."
"But the lack of personnel?"
"You're resourceful, Master Zaprobo, I'm sure you'll think of something. Get more people, get me results - I shall be generous in what I will offer you, so long as I get what I want"

Ernesto began to outline the planned rewards for Arachnos Research and Development, as Zaphod could do nothing but listen.

Aye - we're just reshaping the base, getting our scientists in order and getting ready for a wave of new recruits! Really.

Because if we don't Black Scorpion is going to cut my research budget. Again *sighs*

Anyway - as Doc Bot says, hit either of us up via Global ingame

Define a good build? Me, I'm very happy with my own build but not sure everyone would agree with me! The community as a whole seems a bit down on non-Stamina builds but I've found a lot of versatility with my own...

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Master Zaprobo
Level: 50
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Robotics
Secondary: Force Field
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Battle Drones==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Acc(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7)
01) --> Force Bolt==> Acc(1) Acc(7)
02) --> Pulse Rifle Burst==> Acc(2) EndRdx(40) Dmg(40) Dmg(43) Dmg(43)
04) --> Insulation Shield==> EndRdx(4) DefBuf(9) DefBuf(9) DefBuf(11)
06) --> Equip Robot==> Rechg(6) EndRdx(11)
08) --> Hover==> Fly(8) Fly(13) Fly(13)
10) --> Deflection Shield==> EndRdx(10) DefBuf(15) DefBuf(15) DefBuf(17)
12) --> Protector Bots==> Acc(12) EndRdx(19) Heal(19) Dmg(21) Dmg(21) Dmg(23)
14) --> Fly==> EndRdx(14) Fly(17) Fly(42)
16) --> Assault==> EndRdx(16) EndRdx(46)
18) --> Aid Other==> Heal(18) Heal(23) Heal(25) Rechg(25) Rechg(27) Rechg(27)
20) --> Dispersion Bubble==> EndRdx(20) EndRdx(29)
22) --> Tactics==> EndRdx(22) EndRdx(29) TH_Buf(31) TH_Buf(31) TH_Buf(43)
24) --> Group Fly==> EndRdx(24) EndRdx(31)
26) --> Assault Bot==> Acc(26) Acc(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34)
28) --> Repair==> Rechg(28) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
30) --> Personal Force Field==> DefBuf(30) DefBuf(36) DefBuf(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
32) --> Upgrade Robot==> Rechg(32) EndRdx(37) EndRdx(39)
35) --> Detention Field==> Acc(35) Acc(39)
38) --> Force Bubble==> EndRdx(38) EndRdx(39) EndRdx(40)
41) --> Scorpion Shield==> EndRdx(41) DefBuf(42) DefBuf(42) DefBuf(46)
44) --> Web Envelope==> Acc(44) Acc(45) Rechg(45) Rechg(45) Immob(46)
47) --> Web Cocoon==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Hold(48) Hold(48)
49) --> Aid Self==> Rechg(49) Rechg(50) Heal(50) Heal(50)


Still, this is the first build thread for Bot/FF I've seen since I7 so for what its worth heres my planned build (played up to 42, slotting may be a little off in terms of levels taken at).

Hate to say it but it is a PvP Zone, and this will happen - there was 20 of you, a couple of spotters could have taken out a lone rogue...