Need some advice on a custom group
By
dugfromthearth,
Posted on: 2009-04-25 24:38 in Mission Architect
I would replace Electric Blast on the minions with Electric Assault, or preferably Energy assault. -End Mod powers are REALLY annoying for players to deal with. Also, the Defiance bonus on blaster sets is a pain in the backside.
Change the Electric Minion to a LT. Electric is too annoying to give to something that will spawn so often.
The minion choices are a bit rough, especially when you consider that an Empathy or Pain Domination lt will, as its first action, drop Clear Mind (or equivalent) on one of the minions, making it controller-proof.
You typically don't want to give minions (that you plan to be... minion-easy) tanker sets of any sort. Improved defense or resistant makes the minions harder-than-expected to kill, and tanker secondaries do a ton of damage when given to mobs - the numbers on tanker attack powers are built around the scaling down of damage that tankers have - something mobs do NOT have.
Consider giving the minions standard level scrapper regen as the secondary (which has no visible signs and doesn't make them harder to kill) so as not to make them scary.
Giving control powers to mobs is a great way to exclude low-level characters. Most have no way of dealing with them, and if control is the mob's only attack then it'll be stacking those holds and immobilizes on people. Its not atypical to have a lt in every single group, which makes using inspirations to deal with holds less feasible (especially at lower levels where you can't hold that many).
Also, as stated, consider the Assault powersets from dominators rather than blaster primaries. Anything with a blaster primary can still shoot through holds which is rough on controllers or groups that rely on control for damage mitigation.
And yeah, end drain stinks nomatter how thematically appropriate electricity is 
The more I work with custom groups, the more I think they need, in addition to Standard, Hard, and Extreme, a "Substandard" rating!
Most of the weapon-based sets seem pretty tough, which is annoying from a story perspective, since in a City of Heroes and Villains, someone carrying a baseball bat or a shovel should be shorthand for "NOT a super."
What about this lineup? I already toned them down a bit, taking away various experiments with Inv, SR, and Willpower secondaries. Regen purposely chosen for minions for its uselessness.
Blackhorse Auxiliaries - these are supposed to be the "support" gals for Ashley Porter's Blackhawk-esque squadron:
Minions:
Blackhorse Commando - Auto Rifle/Regen
Blackhorse Mechanic - War Mace (Pipe Wrench)/Regen
Lt:
Blackhorse Officer - Auto Rifle/? (tried Regen and Willpower)
All Std/Std now.
The Blackhorse Mechanics are supposed to be "ground crew hastily summoned to duty," but the War Mace seems inherently nasty, making them the real dangerous people. I really don't want to lose the pipe wrench, though, because it looks perfect!
I was really surprised at the trouble these gals were giving my 27th level Claws/Regen scrapper. I'm not sure if the opposition is too tough, or whether I and/or my character suck, or what....
Ok, so basically don't use anything except energy assault, dual blades, and regen?
Or, with the variety you have in your custom group, you could mix in one or two "annoying" sets, and let players deal with them...kinda like we somehow managed to deal with those pesky mobs in standard groups for five years. Get some friends to playtest it, and if they think it's too hard, or if you get feedback that it's too hard, change it.
I do think having two minions with WP is too much, those things take a long time to kill.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Well, the problem is that a lot of the sets that are thematically appropriate for minions... are rough in the hands of minions. The real solution lies in them working on how critter powersets work. Ie, the tanker attack sets need to be SCALED DOWN damage wise, and the special abilities inherent to the sets need to be removed.
Minions.. even Lts... don't need to make critical strikes, nor be able to attack through holds.
The more I get to know the MA system, the more hastily thrown together it seems on an internal level. I think they need to just hunker down and do the work to make things run as people would assume they'd run as far as custom mobs go.
For the time being, if you want content that is accessible to low level players... use standard villain groups that don't get all these strange and unexpected boosts from their inherent powersets.
as a general rule minions should use attacks with no mez or -end or healing. Give std willpower or regen as defense.
throw mezzes, healing, etc on lts.
but mezzes, -end, and -recharge generally mean it won't be feasible for sub lvl 10s (and maybe in the teens). Of course players are learning not to take on custom mobs at those levels.
I made a custom group for an MA arc of mine, and upon testing it, it seemed to be too hard. I reduced a couple areas from Hard to Standard, and changed a couple of powers, and I was just wondering if this group still looks like it would be too hard:
Minion SS/WP (Standard/Standard)
Minion Electric Blast/Electric Manipulation (Standard/Standard)
Minion Energy Blast/Willpower (Standard/Standard)
Minion MA/SR (Standard/Standard)
Lt. Gravity Control/Pain Domination (Standard/Hard)
Lt. Electric Melee/Invulnerability/Flight (Standard/Standard)
A couple of notes. Level range is 1-54. It is a robot group, so I really wanted the defensive aspects to not be very visible. Also, the MA/SR minion only appears in the last two (of four) missions. The bosses on the missions are all custom, I'm not worried if the boss fights are a little harder, but I was just having a heck of a time with even the minions. So what do you think? And any suggestions as to what I could use to keep it challenging, but not too hard? Thanks in advance for looking and for any advice.
Arc 180901: Flight of the Dreadnought