Masterminds: Praet zone events and a mini rant

I think you might have linked to something you shouldn't have, DarkGob. Might want to check that.

Anyway, I was mostly kidding with my accusations, though they are accusations rooted in the facts that Masterminds are punished in ways other ATs are not in certain encounters in this game (mostly "end game" content.)

Don't take it so seriously Dark, I don't think anyone really believes Posi actually hates masterminds except possibly for the headaches they cause him in regards to designing and balancing content. That being said the newer content (specifically the Preatorian zone events and the new TFs) do come accross as somewhat anti-MM.

In the case of the new TFs MMs have two major issues. First fighting +4s hurts them worse than other ATs. Most have their damage reduced to 48% of it's norm against +4s and while that is true for the MM and their T3 pet the damage from their T1 and T2 pets is cut proportionally more (to about 33% and 19% of the damage they'd do against enemies that are +0 to the MM). Additionally the need to move around precisely during combat is significantly more difficult for the MM, especially given the issues with pet AI. Ideally MMs need more precse control tools to keep their pets positioned correctly.

There's also the issue with the summoner Nictus in the final encounter in the ITF. Teams with MMs actually using their pets are punished for that, as the summoner's power counts each pet as an extra player, and ups its blooms accordingly.

I honestly believe that very few - possibly none - of the development team prefer playing Masterminds themselves, and making sure they get Mastermind players into closed betas doesn't seem to be a very large priority either.

I think most of it just boils down to the fact that they don't test with Masterminds before releasing to the public, because they just assume Masterminds will perform at or above par, like they always have before, without considering how changed mechanics will actually effect them.

I just have to say, that any conspiracy theory where devs are out to get Masterminds is lunacy and that's not what I red from Zep's post. I could be wrong, but I read his post as saying that positron said he hated some of the technical issues surrounding Masterminds, and that's it. No hidden agenda or mustache twirling.

And all I was saying is that it seems that the dev team has fallen into the trap of thinking that issues surrounding henchmen are of less priority than issues facing other AT's powers, because other AT's control their powers directly making issues seem more impactfull to the player. That's why I compared the AI to a blaster being forced to run into melee on activation of a ranged attack. It seems like the henchmen's issue would be lesser, but really it's the same. That henchmen uses powers on behalf of the Mastermind. If that henchmen's doesn't activate it's power correctly the Mastermind is as sunk as that blaster would be. Though maybe slightly better off as the mastermind might have a better chance of disengaging while the henchman dies.

But like the title said, It was a mini rant. I have no clue what the Devs are working on. They could've, for all I know, been trying to fix those problems from day 0. The issue I had is that it isn't fixed yet and we know just as much today about the issue as we did in the begining, and that's just that the problem exists. Well I guess I learned /releasepets. Thanks for that, I'll be sure to try that!

Sarcasm, jokes, and witty banter aside. I was only attempting to vent and bring this issue out front and center. No assumptions as to developer intentions, if they knew hopefully they'd mention something. The zone event thing was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Castle sez:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Castle Looking at the data, all AT's are within a few percentiles of one another for these events. Masterminds are not even the lowest of the ATs.

This makes me wonder if Masterminds just need to be using their secondaries more along with their pets. Don't remember how much I used mine the last time I did an event but I'm gonna give them another shot later today. I mean for god's sake, if I can get Clockstopper and Keeper of Secrets solo, I should be able to get these badges.

Success on Takedown Artist, but only because I was using my secondary powers 1. way more than I usually do, and 2. way more than was necessary. (And just to clarify, I did have all my pets out and attacking, although I did make a point to use my debuffs first before directing them to attack. Bots/Dark, for the record)

I'm not really pleased with how this is working, but the fact that it's at least possible to get the badges solo is good to know.

EDIT: Protester achieved, although this time it was without pets. This is mostly because my pets stopped following me after I zoned in Nova from Imperial, and wouldn't resummon after dismissal (I tried twice, then gave up).

EDIT x2: Further weirdness: Upon taking the train from Nova to Neutropolis for that zone's event, my Bots summoned right next to me when I arrived. Previously in Nova my pet list had been empty after I supposedly "dismissed" them. Followed me up the train station steps and outside, then refused to follow again. /releasepets allowed me to resummon.

Got Laureate. I teamed with a Kinetic Melee/Willpower Scrapper (much lower than my level 50). Bots out, hitting the debuffs frequently. I got the badge, Scrapper did not.

Conclusion: Use your secondary more than you usually do, even if you could easily solo the event without using it that much, and you should get the badge.

Oh yeah, well MY uncle works for Nintendo.

Look, I clearly misunderstood your meaning based on how others interpreted it, but no, one dude's "eyewitness account" doesn't really hold a lot of meaning for me. Sorry. Sounds like you got some cool SWAG though.

EDIT: Want to clarify that I'm not calling you a liar.

Would a petless Thug MM have less trouble getting these badges?

Would a Dual Pistols Corruptor? (Honest answer - don't know, but probably.)

When I got these badges I used one of the following ultra-super helpful methods of participation.

Summon thugs, upgrade, and after the event side was set put them on follow/aggressive while I spammed every power I had.

Or

Didn't bother to summon thugs, and I spammed every power I had.

Both of those methods have suceeded, in fact, those methods have yet to fail.