Personally I would say that it doesn't sound like a particuarly suvivable AT. Basically your only form of damage mitigation is having your pets take aggro and that is going to be hard if you're kicking out a lot of damage yourself.
True, but is it any less survivable than Blaster is the question? I think the distraction of pets would still give you more survivability than what Blasters tend to have.
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Well, the name's been used for other "hero MMs" before. Not sure I'm all that fond of it - not least because assist targeting does not work in PVP, so that's an entire area of the game you're starting at a serious disadvantage with.
Not sure how well it'd work mechanically in general, in any case.
This idea has come up a lot. I like the concept myself, though I'd probably execute it differently.
Targeting through my pets? No thanks, that sounds like a painful gimmick. I'd prefer an inherent that either boosts damage (Maybe an inverse Supremacy; you do more damage with pets by your side) or survivability. (Bodyguard Mode or similar)
I'm guessing the Commander could share sets and pets with the Mastermind (saves the devs work after all) but what would the pet set blasts be replaced with?
The pet set blasts wouldn't be replaced, though they'd be buffed for higher damage mod. So, for example, a Fire/Thugs Commander would run around punching things with fire and shooting fire and have a few Pistols attacks as backup, similar to how a Pistols/Fire Blaster has Primarily pistols attacks and then a few Fire attacks. This is especially relevant as each Minions set includes one AoE and Assault sets are generally AoE light.
I'm not sure how painful targeting through pets would be, but I admit that on my Mastermind I do it as often as not. My general strategy is follow around whichever one of my pets has the lowest HP and switch between Twilight Grasp and my attacks, switching pets if injury levels change, or following allies instead of they need the HP.
That being said, the inherent I'm really wanting here is an Assist/Flanking/Teamwork sort of deal. If targeting through is too much of a hassle, I'd love to hear other methods of doing it.
An Inverse supremacy could be nice, buffing your damage based on how many of your Henchmen are nearby. I would like one that would also let you work with allies though.
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I would think that having a primary with attacks and then a secondary with massive attacks (pets) would be way over powered unless the pets were massively gimped. In any case the toon would faceplant almost instantly since he would be doing the most damage and would have zero defense/resists.
UNLESS that inherent you're talking about were the survival form. Not a bodyguards type but maybe a direct defense/resist based on number of pets nearby. 3%/minion, 5%/lt and 7%/boss would make 22% defense total at max. That would at level 35, however, and that's a long time to wait for any real defense. Plus as soon as your pets started dying off not only would you be getting more agro but your def would be dropping.
No, I just can't see any way this would be at all survivable. Not yet, anyway.
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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Blah blah blah, yes, I know, unlikely to see any new archtypes, this is for fun, blah blah.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, I've noticed that, EATs aside, the only AT to have any truly "Unique" powers is the Mastermind. And it makes sense because it's powers are so interesting, but I was wondering what it would take to make an AT like the MM that didn't step on the MM's toes.
I was thinking an AT called "Leader" or "Commander." Rather than the MM's 'lead from the rear' policy, the commander would be an Assault/Minions Archetype, focusing on mixing it up along with his minions.
He would have higher HP and damage mods than the current MM, a tradeoff for not having any real form of mitigation. Also, he would not be able to use Bodyguard mode.
His Inherent would be called "Flanking." The Commander would gain a bonus to hit and damage as long as he was not targeting any opponents. How would this work? It would mean that you would be encouraged to attack via "assists," attacking your ally's target or attacking the target of a pet. (Perhaps more for choosing the target of a human rather than the target of a minion.) Alternatively, give him a bonus to damage against foes that allies are also targeting, though this might be a bit more complex. I was thinking giving all attacks, say, +25% damage if your current target cannot be the target of the attack would be cleaner, but I'm not sure how the system works.
An Assault primary coupled with a Minions secondary would give the Commander about 10 attacks total, depending on his primary, with a fair mix of melee and ranged. Obviously, damage mods would have to be balanced with the assumption of pets, though pets would come later than for a Mastermind. The first two powers of Mastermind would be reversed, allowing the Commander to take a pet at level 1 rather than having to start with two attacks.
Overall, the Commander would be focused on using his own attacks coupled with his pets to inflict damage, and while he'd be less survivable than the Mastermind and would spend a lot of endurance re-summoning pets often, he'd be able to easily switch between AoE or Single Target damage, Melee or Ranged, depending on how he orders his pets.
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