Vanden

It sounds like you don't like well-designed and varied content!

Doing nothing for seven years makes for a good epic?

But it is...

What defense-based characters would not already have DDR? (Remember, the game is not balanced around IOs.)

Well, Beguile, but that's a Day Job power.

See? I do it to everyone!

Even myself!

Maybe not in pure damage, but in their mix of damage and survivability, yes. My Blaster and Scrappers can't solo EBs at their normal difficulty settings without dipping heavily into tier 9s and inspirations like my MM can. (Yes, I do have an MM.)

But that's not your end bar, and moreover it's just one or two pets. One or two pets running out of end doesn't completely shut down your damage output, and it certainly doesn't drastically reduce your survivability like every other AT.

Only SOME ATs have powers dedicated solely to keeping their health up. And anyway, an MM's distribution of his health and damage output among multiple entities is also their greatest strength.

We've been through this! The Blaster doesn't have to pay End prior to using Blaze because he pays End when he uses Blaze.
We've been through this too! The fact that pets directly increase survivability in addition to providing damage output combined into the same powers is one of the main reasons they're so expensive!

And yet again, the reason the Blaster doesn't have to pay end to have the ability to do something is because he spends end when he uses it instead of in advance.

How is a pet dying truly different from a Blaster just missing? In both cases they have to spend more end to achieve the same effect they would have if the bad thing hadn't happened in the first place.

No, the Devil's advocate can be right sometimes.

Also, you haven't disproved my main point: that MM upgrades are costly because they're an investment in future End-free damage.

The Devil's advocate also doesn't necessarily disagree with his opponent. I agree that paying so much End constantly in a trial is a real bugbear, but I can't agree that the costs should be reduced in all cases. If it's possible to do only in trials, then yes, sure. In non-trial content, however, MM performance is just too high to justify it.

We're all squishies who die on incarnate trials here.
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Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.

Sounds exactly like what happens to my Blaster.

So what you're saying is, MM pets are actually BETTER than regular attacks because they all directly increase survivability? Because only some attacks increase survivability, and then only indirectly. Sounds more like a justification for higher End costs than an argument against it to me.

Pets can die, attacks can miss. Then maybe you die, or you pay more End to try again.

Also I thought this thread was about upgrades and you don't need to upgrade your pets for them to take aggro off you or use Bodyguard mode.

A Blaster can't use Fireball or Blaze without paying an endurance cost no matter what! But you, MM, after using that prerequisite power, can use Fireball, Blaze, Fire Sword Circle, and Burn as much as you want for free.

And MMs having to resummon and reupgrade more against stronger enemies is a lot like everyone else simply having to attack more to go through all their HP. It's More End on both sides of the table.