I wrote a nice 'what i know now' post about them (got a change to play last night), but i got a 'cant find page' error so i lost that info.
I'll try later to make a nice post again 
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Ok, minor bit i saw so far from my lvl3 MM.
Your MM gun will be dual pistols, wich really looks ugly. Draw animation is a bit long and, unlike other MM's, the 2 first attack powers you can get do either minor or moderate damage. I thought all others have moderate/high damage sets. Good thing, the 2nd power has knockdown (not back) effect, about a 30-40%ish chance to do so.
I only have the first thugs, punks, they are pretty ok.
-The summoning is done with the "Striga Warwolf Wistle" animation, bit lame but i couldnt think up any better animation anyway. Like Mercs, they come run in.
-The damage is comparable with ninja, instant damage unlike Merc DoTs. Unknown if higher pets have also instant dmg.
-They have 2 ranged (same dmg), 1 melee (wack with pistol).
-They do not have any resist/mezprot inherented, as the info says they gain alot boost from your IA and leadership pool.
-They dont have any form of sprint/jump buff, minor annoying once you have swift or using sprint/travel.
-The things they say when attack and where you dismiss them are kinda funny ('Later' when you dismiss) but gets boring after a bit.
-Outfit is always the same (tshirt-jeans), only the face (like merc) and hairstyle changes each time (buzzcut, mowhack, plain etc).
-First upgrade (as i heard) gives them dual guns, equal to the 2nd attack power the MM can get.
As said, the pistols look kinda ugly. Kinda cowboy gun, silver and too big, hopefully the other pets get nicer weapons.
As for now,
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Outfit changes with the 1st upgrade to a vest with tattoos down the arms.
The upgrade animation was really wrong when I did it used it last night, its the same as the Merc's upgrade (toss a can at them and then they glow yellow for the odd second while they cange), it was way out of time, like watching a singer mime a song and they are ten seconds behind the track, the delay was that long.
All I know is that the enforcers have leadership, and depending on how much of an effect it makes I might skip out leadership powers and go for something like medicine or stealth. Anyone got info on the gang war?
'Ugly pistol'? Looks like a .50 cal Desert Eagle to me...sure, it's not the prettiest of guns, but it kills things stone dead while making big holes in them in the process. Which is kinda what you want in a gun, no?
EDIT: Sorry, that's my MM's pistols. The Punks' pistols are not quite so good looking, and resemble perhaps a chromed Colt Python .357 with the 6" barrel. Of course, given the lack of detailing, they could just as easily be Colt Anaconda .44 Magnums, or some completely unrelated pistol. But they work, and still remind me of being in the middle of a John Woo film... 
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All I know is that the enforcers have leadership, and depending on how much of an effect it makes I might skip out leadership powers and go for something like medicine or stealth. Anyone got info on the gang war?
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It sounds (and I'm going to make a Thugs MM for testing purposes soon) that Thugs will gain proportionately more from the Leadership pool than any other MM and hence it may be even more preferential for a MM to use Leadership rather than another pool.
I suppose you have a point there, 2 leadership pools gotta rock, and besides that, now I think about it when the enforcers get detoggled(by nullifiers or CoT mages) the leadership will turn off, and the AI may get bugged or something.
Luckely i can copy my robot/poison build straight into thugs-version, having leadership, healing and nice debuffs
Lvl5 now.. see how it goes in the weekend.
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Enforcers, second level thugs.
These guys are relatively nasty, though their damage is all DoT. Same draw animation when upgraded as other pistol users, but without they use a rifle draw animation. No special abilities on their attacks that I noticed.
- Summon uses whistle emote again however they climb up through a manhole cover. This takes a while.
- Use an uzi (actually looks like assault rifle enemies use) or 2 uzi's (when paired they DO look like uzi's) when upgraded. Damage done is similar to merc pets and is all DoT.
- They grant the +Acc(Through upgrade 1) and +Def(Natural) leadership powers to any other nearby thugs only (not you or other players), unknown if two of these will stack as I only have one, but assumed so.
- They have a resistance to lethal Damage. Thanks to their leather jackets apparently.
- Come in tanktops, biker leather trousers and a small selection of skintone, faces and hairstyles. When upgraded they get a sleeveless leather jacket.
- upgrade one grants 2 uzi's rather than one. They attack more frequently and occassionally seem to use a toned-down full auto.
- No movement abilities.
- They can be slotted with +acc buffs (for their leadership skill) and -def debuffs. So they probably do both of these, though I haven't noticed the -def yet so it's probably in upgrade 2.
I'm not a specialist at comparing powers and the like, so the above may have inconcistencies with what they actually do. This is just what I've seen.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
Hm.. thats pretty interesting.
Your thugs can become good figthers then, specialy with /dark if you tone down mobs acc/dmg/resist. instant damage imho will be way faster then the Merc DoT's (when mobs hp left at 10 and Merc1 starts a 5-5-5-5, Merc2 still can start his 5-5-5-5 when the first 5 hits of Merc1, highly annoying with Mercs...).
Based on bubbles of the robots, i gues they gonna be stacking. Cant wait for the big pet and the upgrade power
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Yeah, the bots were the reason I assumed they stacked too. I really want the big pet now....oonly 10 levels.... 
Although 2 levels till gang war, which sounds interesting in itself, though also as though it could easily be overpowered. I'm interested to see how they've handled the ability to summon a large number of temporary pets.
EDIT: After rechecking enforcers DO have a resistance. To lethal damage.
EDIT THE SECOND: Maneuvers is available from the start with Enforcers. Tactics requires the first upgrade.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
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- They can be slotted with +acc buffs (for their leadership skill) and -def debuffs. So they probably do both of these, though I haven't noticed the -def yet so it's probably in upgrade 2.
[/ QUOTE ]Most rapid-fire lethal attacks have -def component, so the -def slottability is propably just their uzi's.
Oh, ok. Didn't know that (which shows you how reliable my info is ). Haven't seen any of the debuff style icons on anything my enforcer shoots, but I'll look a bit closer from now on.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
I like the Thugs set, but I'm still debating a secondary. I was originally going to go /dark as it's one of the most powerful, but I want something more 'concept'y' and something different hehe
I am pretty much thinking End game as I do with all my chars, so the Thugs set is the one which actually has it's henchmen split into 2 types, with the exception partially of Necro.
Tier 1 and 2 are ranged, tier 3 is melee (Necro Lich is close ranged, rest of necro all mainly melee).
I think the thugs will be great, as the biggest, strongest pet is also the melee'r so you should get the best return on buff powers etc. compared to the other sets, where you can't rely on the tier 3 to soak up the agro.
Admittedly the lower tiers look more AoE so will draw some agro later on, but at least you can send the big guy in to absorb the alpha
So now I need a secondary that can help Thugs the most.
1) Dark: Great AoE heal, great AoE debuffs for damage resist, accuracy and also fear. Plus a Rez...hmm still about the best.
2) Poison: Weak heal (but no hit roll), great debuffs but mainly single target. Last power looks great to cast on the big boy. Decent Rez..
3) Traps: Decent Damage resist debuff in acid mortar, some nice utility with force field gen, and some fun mines for a more 'set up' approach. This could be a pain with a pet that uses fury.
4) FF: Great def, especially with changes in i7, however no heal or -dam resist powers, and the final power is a sod with a melee pet.
5) TA: The dark horse Awful starter set, however has some neat tricks later on and decent debuffs, but needs tons of powers...tough to fit everything and some key pool powers in.
Overall I'm leaning towards poison now for a change from the tons of /dark's we may see
Dark still has the best stuff, however maybe with some future tweaks the other sets can be brought up to compete a bit
I built a thug MM on the test server, got into a full team of other thug MM and we blazed away through the levels
Massive fun what with all the noise and the empty shells lying around
Anywho, I have trouble finding a 2ndary that works with it. I'm thinking dark would work best mostly for that great heal. At the moment I have traps but I'm not too impressed.
My MA IDs:
Fiend Space: 211464
On the Arsonist, 3rd level 1 thug. Seems mainly area effect damage and doesn't have any special abilities other than new inherent resistances. Personally I think it seems on a par with other first level thugs. But with all the numbers on screen and moving at a rate (boy thugs attack fast) It's difficult to tell.
- Same summon as other lvl 1 thugs naturally.
- Wears baggy trousers with a flame motif and t-shirt. Has a couple of skin and hair variations. Puts on a sleeveless uniform jacket with first upgrade.
- Resistance to lethal and fire.
- Starts with molotovs. Small Area of effect, reasonable damage. Causes less on an individual target than other thugs I think but sets things on fire. Also Gains flame breath with upgrade 1.
- Flame breath seems to cause slightly more than normal thug attacks, but over time, and sets target alight, cone area of effect and quite short ranged.
And gang war. Nice little skill, the posse it summons are pathetic individually but that's to be expected. Reasonable length, about enough for a handful of enemy groups if you're quick. Target an enemy and they summon round it and attack it and any groups nearby. After that they follow you round and it seems you or they need to get hit and/or run right into enemy groups before they respond. You can't give them orders (as stated in the skill description). Summons around 10 members using the basic thugs summon. They look like basic thugs and use gang style low level weaponry (sledgehammers, axes) and small pistols. I also swear blind I saw one throw a rock...
EDIT: Also enforcer leadership skills do stack and affect other masterminds thugs as well. This was expected but is worth noting as confirmed.
If I've missed anything feel free to correct me. I'm tired and am working from memory. I'll check this all in the morning and make any addenda when I log in and look again.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
Hm.. minor dissapointed about the 3rd lvl pet. Was hoping he was a SS-style wacker, would make the lvl38 become awsome power (all other 3rds are mostly ranged).
Do they also have some mezz attacks or will they be in the 32 upgrade power? (drones get them from the 32 upgrade, that stun grenade - mercs have them with 1st upgrade).
Still a bit 2-side, but i think the thugwar power will make me just give a 'i like thugs' rating (though serum is a realy cool power too )
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Ashen is level 18 by the sounds of it, and doesn't have the 3rd Henchman. He was talking about the 3rd 1st tier Hechman you get at level 18.
The 3rd Hench at 26 does sound like he will be an SS Brute, wonder what his secondary will be as a Brute, if he has one that is.
oooh sorry, totaly misread.
tier, pets, thugs, henchman.. too many words
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[ QUOTE ]
The 3rd Hench at 26 does sound like he will be an SS Brute, wonder what his secondary will be as a Brute, if he has one that is.
[/ QUOTE ]Invul, most likely.
Yup, lvl 18. The arsonist is indeed the third, first tier pet. Much like mercs get the medic. I'm sorry if my post was worded confusingly.
EDIT: The arsonist - Wears baggy trousers OR tucked in trousers and combat boots with a flame motif and t-shirt. Has a couple of skin and hair variations. Puts on a sleeveless uniform jacket with first upgrade.
Also one of my thugs at least, theorised the arsonist, appeared to have scourge. May have been a bug as it hasn't ocurred in a while.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
I would imagine he just has built in high resistances.
I really should do something about this signature.
Aye the Article describing the powers on the Front page says:
Calls one massive Bruiser. He is strong, tough and has a mean temper. As a Brute, he will generate Fury and deal more damage the longer the combat lasts. His Super Strength powers means he favors hand-to-hand combat. He has resistance to Lethal and Smashing Damage and some resistance to Fire and Cold Damage. You may only have one Bruiser under your control at any given time. If you attempt to summon another Bruiser, the power will fail. (Recharge: Very Long)
Sounds very much like a variation on Invuln with resist elements Although I doubt we will really see any obvious powersets on henchies...we don't on the other types, so I suspect no visual clues hehe
I'm interested to see what sort of damage he puts out at full fury....
so he is the ultimate poison buddy. Since all melee powers (i gues hurl will be included) having the lvl38 poison power would make him way stronger
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Anyone got info about powers for thug pets? AFAIK the tier 1 pets - Punks! - got dual wield with the first upgrade...anything about enforcers? Guess it's too early for the Bruiser...