Can we like, combine Mastermind pets and stuff?

So I was thinking about one of my favorite ATs, Masterminds, and what I enjoy and don't enjoy about them.

I find Masterminds at the lower levels to be a great deal of fun. Oddly, this fun factor decreases as I gain levels. One of the big reasons behind this is because once you hit 26 and get your final pet (It's 26, right?) suddenly you have this huge annoying army following you everywhere and stumbling all over themselves while you run around. The problem is worse in narrow corridors, of which CoH has plenty, when your pets run into each other and jockey for position in trying to follow you. Then you tell them to attack something and a T1 leads the charge while the rest have a pathing freakout as they try to slowly funnel past one another. This usually causes the T1 to die immediately and oh boy you get to resummon his stupid face and spend your whole end bar upgrading him again.

Meanwhile, I play on one of my lowbie MMs and things are just so much more orderly. I have two, maybe three little dudes following me around, it's easy to keep them all relatively healthy, and I'm never drowning in a sea of "HAI MASTER I WILL BRAINS THEM"


My suggestion is to allow us, once we get all of our pets, to combine them into one or two much, much stronger pets. Some kind of super scary zombie hulk, or an enormous demon overlord, or one of those huge, club-wielding Oni, or some titanic metal gear(!?). Thugs could have a... uhm.... they could have.... ...And soldiers could get a.... big... soldier... guy? Look I dunno, you guys think of something.

I think it'd be cool, and even come with its own downsides. One pet means bodyguard mode does less for you, and once your giant friend is felled, you're out of backup. Until you resummon, I guess. But it wouldn't be easy! Oh no, summoning that one hella badass would require a ton of endurance.

Or maybe I'm the one weirdo who likes only having a few pets.

You're not actually required to take all of your pets. Problem solved.

I've heard of some people, if they're in caves, especially if they're on a team in caves, will only summon the second and third tier of pets

As it is I don't like the suggestion.

However.... I think you are onto something else entirely. With the incarnate system right around the corner, I can EASILY see something like this being an option. Based on your powerset, you could get a "final" incarnate power that can be your ultimate pet. While this ultimate pet is active, you can control no other pet.

As far as summoning, I think it's safe to say.... your entire endurance bar is 100% gone.

While I've got the point with Alpha where there is literally so much +def flying around that it's usually ME killing my pets off via [Detonator], I do know the feeling of 'Ye gods, I prefered you when there was just one of you and he conned yellow to me...'

Also, who am I to turn down a Giant Mecha Boss pet? /Signed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I'm with Sensei on this one: I don't think you've quite hit the solution, Baka, but we're getting closer.

Another possible fix to this might be to flag the last pet to go tanker every time you tell everyone to attack with petcomall.

It just never made sense that a Bruiser with INVULNERABILITY-type powers would say "hey, Pyro, you go first."

"Vhat's dat, Sandvhich? Kill dem all?! Good idea!! Aaaahahahahaha! Cry some moar!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Wait, so, if I had a bots MM and combined them, would that be like Voltron/Power Rangers?

Incarnate pets.


Bots: Giant mech akin to Titan Class robots. 3 rocket attacks (1 of those being hellfire missiles), ranged burn patch, grenade launcher, giant plasma beam (cone high damage)

Ninjas: A giant TRUE oni with an iron club (Boss/elite boss level war mace)

Thugs: 2Pac. <.< No? Yeah I've really got nothing for this one unless you just go with the standby of a really strong SS/Invuln brute with Leadership that affects the whole team

Zombies: This one is obvious, you have to have a very large undead Bruce Campbell with a chainsaw for a right arm, a left arm capable of using various ranged dark-themed controls, offensive attacks, and maybe twilight grasp.

Demons: Archdemon. No idea what to do for the spells there

Mercenaries: Previous suggestions match pretty well... either a woman or a "Huge" scale guy with a big rail gun and an ammo backpack. Give him full auto with a very short cooldown, a grenade, a kick from martial arts and a punch from some other set and you're straight.

It would be cool if it was a power, like you had to have all your pets out, and upgraded and then hit it and they would all be replaced with this one or two more powerful pet(s).

That way masterminds would have the option to have more/less powerful or less/more powerful

This sounds like a really good idea.
It would have downsides so its not all YAY BUFF.

Example using Bots:
you lose having 2 pets applying FF and heals. If we say go for the Malta Titan approach they lose all FF and Heals but get more HP, more Def (or Res?), more damaging attacks.

Also to balance it out it could be a "Final Upgrade" power (bonus power/inherent at say level 30/32?) that uses 50% end but also adds in all the "upgrade" powers as well so you dont have to summon x3 (T1, T2, T3), upgrade x2 + Final Upgrade. Ohhh the mish is over while waiting for my end to come back so I can finish my pets...

The bonus/inherent power level would also be so you get used to the idea of having 6 pets running around so if you dont want to use the Final Upgrade power and have 6 pets you know what your getting into to. You are forced to use 6 pets for a few levels. It also a way to futher enhance the AT.

I remember when I got my first T3 pet (bots) and I was like OMFGW00T I got me a huge fracking robot and didnt stop running around like an idiot for ages in pure unadulterated joy

Getting that again with OMFGWOW - I just merged 6 pets into 1-2 Fracking HUGE pets of doom and destruction. FEAR ME!!!!!!!