buff MM!! Seriously!!

You mean to tell me that the bland footstomp is enough to flatten all your henchmen standing amidst a 16 man team piled on top of an AV, dropping PBAoE buffs like candy?

I'll be perfectly honest, the AV section of the fight is usually too short to care and I keep my henchmen right next to me. My bots take hits. Quite a few even, but they still very rarely die.

If zombies or ninjas are somehow that much more fragile than my bots (and you can't blame IOs, because those don't benefit henchmen. I don't have either of the +resist uniques), then keep this in mind: Your pets have ranged attacks and AVs are a small portion of the fight. So for a little while you have to micromanage with defensive/follow and attack. You're not at full effectiveness for the AV. Or you resummon the Genin/zombies a few times. Big flippin' deal.

/Willpower has built in psi resistance, very high energy defense, and enough +regen to make a /regen blush, and rikti have zero -regen abilities, so the more rikti you pile on your /willpower, the less likely he is to die. So your point is pretty invalid. I've solo'ed about half of the pylons before they respawned, back in like i16 (i got bored, and wanted to see how far i could go before i saw them reappearing on the map) on my bot/traps and i think i lost 2 pets..

Just because you can't play MMs correctly doesn't mean they need to a buff, cuz if they did get a buff, then people like me and Dechs will be stream rolling iTrials with our eyes closed and one hand behind our back limiting our bind usages.

It takes time, and effort and research to be good at some classes, and if you don't want to do the work, don't expect to know the class right away. Masterminds are not 'toggle and go' classes. They aren't even 'debuff and go' classes. Its a hybrid class that can carry many different roles.
Are you using your debuff from /pain correctly? Do you have provoke? Are you keeping aggro off your mercs to allow them to build up their damage? Do you have damage procs Are you buffing them as best as you can with /pain? Do you run your PBAoE +regen /pain power?

Between world of pain, pain bringer, and your 2 single target heals, and your PBAoE heal and PBAoE +regen, your merc/pain should be pretty nice. Especially with the added damage from /pain in the form of +damage (from pain bringer and world of pain) and -res (from anguishing cry). You'll have to basically live in melee to do it, but as the mercs already run into melee anyways due to crappy AI, you may as well adapt to it, and take advantage of your buff/debuffs/heals to keep them alive.
AoEs actually do about 75% less damage to a MM then they do to a brute or tank (or really any other class) due to bodyguard mode. See, the range on bodyguard mode is about 60ft, and the largest AoE is about 45ft (void i think) so if you abuse the range limitations of bodyguard mode you can take less damage from AoEs, and keep your pets alive all at the same time. And, if you want to play tankermind, get some personal resistance, as that lowers the damage your pets take from bodyguard mode.

Take for example, fireball, its a decent AoE that a lot of mobs have, and does about 100 damage. Well, about 80 of that is fire, 20 of that is smashing. If you have 33% smashing resistance, and 10% fire resistance, then you would've only taken 72 fire damage, 16.4 smashing damage, then bodyguard mode kicks in, and you actually only take about 18 fire damage, and 4.1 smashing damage. Your pets *assuming they are in range of said fireball) each take the original 100 damage (unless they have resistance of their own) then they take about 9 fire damage, and 2 smashing damage for a total of 11 damage, instead of the 12.5 damage they would've taken if you didn't have any resistance.

And, any form of AoE +regen, or +healing will allow you to basically soak damage via bodyguard mode for as long as you have endurance.

You need 3 basic things to solo AVs. 1) -regen 2) survival 3) damage

And, if you have enough damage, you actually don't need -regen, you just need a ton of damage, and a way to survive the damage the AVs do to you.

Out of all the mastermind secondary, /dark, /poison, /traps, /TA, /thermal, /storm, and /pain all offer forms of +survival (be them heals, or massive -dam, -tohit debuff, or +def) and either straight up -regen (/dark, /traps, /thermal, /poison) or +damage/-resist which basically do the same things.

Now, while the primaries do different damage types (thugs/mercs/ninjas are mostly lethal damage, zombies is toxic/negative, demons is fire/cold/toxic, and robots are energy/smashing/fire) if you build to their strengths and work as a mobile team, then you can keep just about any of the pets alive. You have to play to the strengths and weaknesses of the primary AND secondary you picked. If you don't, then you'll run into problems.

See, while the AI is a fickle thing, if you learn to handle it differently, then it won't matter what your pets do, as you can adjust on the fly and deal with it. I use very few binds, and basically only rotate between my bodyguard mode bind, and my 'attack my target' bind when i need it. I don't use goto, and i don't use stay, and i basically let the pets and their fickle AI run wild.

I also solo GMs, and jump head first into marauder, and i'm generally the first one to any of the chambers/weapon caches. The tether on the MM pets is about 115 yds, which is easy enough to get to with super jump, super speed, and teleport. Fly is slow enough that the pets can keep up with it, so if thats your travel power of choice, then the pet teleport option may not work best for you.
See, that's your problem. Your being very narrow in your thought process on what is overpowered. Dechs wasn't saying that running +4/8 content solo is overpowered, he wasn't even saying that being able to solo GMs and AVs is overpowered, he said that doing BOTH of them on 1 character with EASE is what makes bot/traps overpowered.

bot/traps can solo AVs once they get poison trap, so around level 20, especially with inherent fitness. The -regen and forced animation from the vomitting of poison traps allows you do solo AVs pretty safely, even without provoke (web nade to keep them still, acid mortar to debuff them, toe bombed poison trap to debuff regen, and FFG to provide defense)


While mercs, ninjas and zombies 'under perform' in your eyes, its only when you compare them to thugs/demons/bots, and only in specific cases. Zombies have a LOT of -tohit, and all of the pets have a self heal of some kind, which makes them very durable, especially with an active or even semi-active secondary *like /dark, /ff, /thermal, /traps, /pain*

You have to understand that some secondaries will do things better then others, and synergy between primary/secondary powersets really helps them shine. Pairing merc and poison together doesn't have a whole lot of synergy due to /poisons lack of AoE debuff, and AOE heal, and merc/ being full of buggy AI.

Ninja/poison on the other hand, with its focus on melee damage allows you to leverage Noxious Gas, and the debuff allows you to kill down single targets very quickly (if you can keep the ninja's alive, they actually perform the HIGHEST single target damage of ALL the pets)
As was already mentioned, the bodyguard range is 60ft, and you can move a lot easier then your pets, so if you reposition yourself relative to your pets you can stay in bodyguard mode, and allow the AoEs to miss your pets, without killing your pets.

I personally have had very little problems with my MM in trials, and i don't have have 'stay' or 'goto' set up on any bind or macro. Its all 'follow' and 'attack my target' but i position myself in a way that leverages my buffs/debuffs and prevents my pets from being eaten alive from AOEs. (that and all my pets rock at least 48% def to everything but psi, so they don't get hit very often to begin with)

its all a matter of playstyle, but saying an ENTIRE AT needs a buff OR nerf due to a personal opinion that its just 'too much of a learning curve' is just a horrible idea no matter how you spin it.

But until that time you a free to play any other AT you like..

QFT

This is the main Issues.
Just because one set performe well and others don't, that doesn't mean we don't need a buff. Beside of what it have been already say the fact is that the lv,dmg, and resistand of the end game and incarnation trial make pets do like 40% of his normal dmg.

My first MM was a Merc/Poison. I stopped playing it because the redside market stank, teaming redside was difficult, and it moshed enemies so easy it was kind of boring (I was hoping the active secondary would help, and it does to an extent, but not quite enough).

That character is level 34 and has done fine vs. AVs, even when lackeyed up to help out lvl 50s. I truly have not played it much since I-12ish, I get a level or so every 6 months. I will likely be playing it again more regularly, once I get bored with the iTrials.

My Dem/Storm is a pleasure in the iTrials, although I do have a solid IO build.

Thats not funny even in the slightest. You shouldnt do that. No need to reply, you and i both know what you meant.

As far as this topic goes, I agree Buff MMs. Make the tier 2 pets the same level as the MM move the tier 1 pets up a level so they 1 under the MM across the board. Give em a 10% hp boost and damage boost and make it so that body guard mode doesnt have that stupid range restriction and that would be a good start to buffing this AT. I remeber back in the day when the devs gave MMs BG mode and was all like MMs dependant on pets and all that yakkkity smack. If that holds true then Pets should also be affected by the MMs slotting and IO set bonuses as well. Pets are the MM's life source without them they are dead. No other ATs survivability is so closely tide in to pets like that. All other ATS slot and most of their powers are affected by enhancements and set bonuses save for the lowly MM in which case 75% or even more of the enhancements dont benefit the MM or the Pets he/she is so closely tied into. That needs to be fixed and addressed. But of course the nay sayers will come in with all that no no cause it will make x set more oped than this set blah, Then offer up some highly confusing alternative solution that envolves more Math than NASA uses to launch rockets. Bleh


Blah blah bots/thugs meh Primaries arent OPed for MM's its always the secondary which is really gonna sync well and make the primary shine or not sync well and suck three ways to sunday. As with any AT your mileage may vary depending on the powers you chose.

Also how they are slotted and how person plays.

Players think they are going to jump into masterminds and its play as usual. Fortunately today teams will cover up how much you suck and players for the most part are slotted real well so if a brute is fighting one group and you "accidently" pull another group, more then likely he can handle that other group. Plus you will have other players on the team that could handle that group as well. But get that player solo and it becomes apparent how much the suck comes into effect.

You think I wouldn't mind playing a warshade or Peacebringer ? I would love to. I have 2 in there 30s. But I haven't played them so long I am still trying to get my head around the play style and all the powers ( yes I have read the MFing warshade stuff and re-read it, takes a bit to soak in and grasp ). Yea I could just join a group and just wing it. But one that is not what I'm about and two eventually someone calls you out. Again not me, and finally all I am doing is enforcing crappy habits and a crappy play style.

I'm far, far from a leet player. I rely on others to do the number crunching and I just ask the questions. The reality is I use myself as a base line. My thoughts always are if I suck and I can do this, then this guy or gal has real issues.

So I tend to look at post like this with a crooked eye. This is why I asked to see the build ( and was ignored ). This is why I went through the OPs past postings to find out what I can and re-asked again ( and was ignored again ).

But coming here and boasting about one thing and then crying about another. I think you need to show players look this is my build and I am getting my backside handed to me.

Is it me ??
is the content ??
Is it both ??

The Devs fail to address a game wide Pet AI issue, but you think they are going to make things better for melee based mastermind pets ?? Give us level increases ??

Keep holding your breath..

Trust me I would love, love, love for someone to keep this thread handy and toss it back in my face when they do. But it's not gonna happen in this game and under this game engine. Maybe in CoH 2.0

You do realize there was a time when MMs didn't have bodyguard mode right?

And the Archetype worked just fine back then. How can over 75% of the enhancements (we're talking actual enhancements right? not set bonuses) not affect the MM, when they affect the secondary of the AT, as well as benefits the slotting of the primary? There is nothing to fix, no other AT has BUILT IN 75% resistance to EVERTYHING. We're talking even Hamidon's damage, things that are flagged to be unresistable, and a MM can take as much as 75% less damage from them.

Pets are expendable. yes, they are the MM's main source of damage, but a MM still has their secondary, which has the same debuff values as corruptors and controllers. yes, it costs more endurance for a mastermind, but thats because they have the ability to focus entirely on their secondary while their primary is handled via binds of macros, which don't require any recharge, or waiting to work.

Aside from the lower hitpoints of the pets (which are still just as high, if not higher then the Masterminds hitpoints) the level difference of the pets is made up by the fact that each of the lower level pets have multiple pets. the t1 pets have 3, so while they are -2 level to the MM, there are 3 of them, which more then makes up for the purple patch. the t2 pets are in the same boat, there are 2 of them, so being at -1 is more then made up. The t3 pet is even level to the mastermind, and usually does the most damage and has the best survival (higher resistance/defense in addition to the highest hitpoints)

If you are having problems with masterminds then its your own issue, its not an issue of the masterminds themselves. while we would LOVE a buff, its just not needed as masterminds can steamroll both AV/GMs and missions set for 8 players with ease. Heck, most MMs can enable rest, set their pets to aggressive, and go afk, and when they come back the entire room is cleared.

There is 0 reason for MM buff, outside of fixing the AI so ranged pets stay ranged, and melee pets stay melee. While i personally feel Ninjas may need to be looked over, as they have no inherent healing, and limited inherent resistance/defense, they still have the highest single target damage of all the primaries, assuming you can keep them alive long enough to deal their damage. The name of the game is also AoEs, so single target MMs really aren't all that useful. Its not the fault of the MM, its just how the game has been made to be played.

Again, just because YOU can't play MMs, doesn't mean they need a buff. Just means you need to learn to play better.

I work in the safety industry. Sloppy language has consequences.

Heh.

So an entire at should be balanced around endgame content when no other one is?

You do realize that I was in COV beta so of course i know MMs didnt always have BG mode. All you did was skim over my post picked out the things you wanted to flame me for and then move on without really adding anything useful to the thread. You didnt even bother to read my wall of text in it's entirety. Fact is I been playing masterminds for a long long time sonny boy and another fact is I play them well. That doesnt mean that I havent noticed A TON of blatantly obvious issues with the AT. The DEVS already stated in the past when they gave MMs BG Mode that the AT was and always will be pet dependent and as such were balanced around PETS. Your post basically in a nutshell told me to not look at that fact and focus in on MY secondary more. That being said some of the secondaries suck too. But w/e mileage may vary. I have several Great MM builds. I always will hold a special little place in my heart for the MM. I know how to adjust fire when need be and adjust my tactics when need be. But playerskill can only take you so far, ESPECIALLY when there so many obvious shortcomings with the MM AT. So many obvious unfair things like pets that can heal unable to take Healing IOsets,
or benefit from the set bonuses. That sir no matter what you say isnt fair or right. And thats just one of several examples of how the mastermind AT as a whole gets screwed over.

Boy stop. First of all stop assuming. I never once said I Cant play an MM. That was all you. I never said that there arent a few mastermind primaries that can do super duper awesome stuff. That was all you. I dont think I want to be balanced @ the fact that you personally can do all the stuff you say you can do. And I aint saying i believe you can do it either. I personally never seen you do it so at this point its just random gibber jabber from some random guy. Make a vid of you doing all this wonderful powerful stuff with YOUR mm and then maybe I am more inclined to believe you. IN any case just because you "SAY" you can do all that stuff with "Your" MM doesnt mean I can do it with my MM.
And just because i cant do it with my MM doesnt mean I dont know how to play an MM. Boy Stop. Dont use this thread as a way to personally attack a guy you dont even know its not cute and not appreciated. Fact is no matter what you say MMs get the short end of the stick hands down. I think i know when and why BG mode was Implemented. The shear fact that they implemented it says that they were aware of problems with the AT. BG mode wasnt and still isnt the endall/beall blanket fix for MM. Before BG there were problems and there are still problems after it that need addressing. So before you write off another player because according to you they apparently cant play an MM because they cant solo AVs OR GMs or do all the super duper bad stuff you can do, do yourself a favor and dont. Go play your super duper bad MM and leave the rest of us with problems with our MMs alone. And i bet this so called great MM is a bot MM. Boy stop.

First off, wall of text for the lose.

Secondly http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...7941000579334#

Duo ITF, with a MM and a Dom.

Thirdly, MMs don't need a buff. Show me this post please The MM secondaries are the same numbers of corruptors and controllers, with just slightly higher endurance values. Do corruptors and Controllers need a buff too?

The point is if I can do all these super duper awesome things WIHOUT the buff your mentioning, then with the buffs I can do all these super duper awesome things AND THEN SOME. And we'll get posts about people saying MMs need a nerf.

Give me numbers, give me facts, because there are plenty of people in this thread that have already told you they can do all these super duper awesome things, and just because you can't, you want a buff? Adjust to the situations at hand, Obviously you can't, as your preaching for a buff on a AT that really doesn't need it.

The entire AT is just fine, the primarys do as much or more damage then other ATs, the secondaries allow a MM the freedom to keep thier personal army alive, and while the set bonuses don't affect pets, why should they? So many other things affect pets (IO auras for one, leadership for another) why add set bonuses to the mix? So you can have 7 times the set bonuses as any other AT?

What exactly are you proposing? That they redo the entire AT because you feel it doesn't work out, even though other people can do some seriously nasty things with MMs that other ATs can't even dream of doing? Oh.. but you cant do that, so obviously the AT needs a buff, and it can't possibly be a player issue. Yeah.. guessing your wrong.

No

Flash Arrow: MM (-3.75% Tohit) vs Controller/Corruptor (-5% Tohit)
Poison Gas Arrow: MM (-15% Damage) vs Con/Cor (-20% Damage)
Acid Arrow: MM (-15% Defense) vs Con/Cor (-20% Defense)

Forge: MM (15% Tohit, 30% Dam) vs Con/Cor (20% Tohit, 40% Dam)
Heat Exhaustion: MM (-37.5% Dam) vs Con/Cor (-50% Dam)
Melt Armor: MM (-15% Defense) vs Con/Cor (-20% Defense)

Hurricane: MM (-22.75% Tohit) vs Con/Cor (-30% Tohit)

There are more powers than just those 7. Masterminds pay a higher endurance cost for lesser benefits.

Some of my characters

I stand corrected. I coulda swore MMs were on the same level as corr/controllers for debuff values (I'm at work now though, so i don't have access to mids or in game numbers)

I'm guess the addition of the pets are meant to balance that out though, which may or may not actually work out. I know MMs suffer from higher endurance costs as means to balance out the 'summon/upgrade/forget' playstyle they can achieve with durable pets.

You also have to keep in mind that Supremancy gives +25% damage, and +10% tohit to all the pets, which pretty much negates the purple patch debuffing the -2 and -1 pets, on top of whatever buff/debuffs the MMs secondary can provide.

What MM only problems? My bot/traps has zero issue doing things any other AT can do, and i can do quite a few things that most ATs can't do.

LMAO Like i thought bots, thanks for proving my point. And your wrong MM secondaries DO NOT have the same numbers as controllers and corrupters. It's less and with higher endurance costs. I dont have time to go digging through 2 years of old threads showing you old posts from devs and doing number crunching for you is out of the question. Go do your own math if you want numbers. And i do beleive that this whole thread is mainly about the Primaries of MMs and less about the secondaries. If you dont MMs to get buffed then get out of this thread go start one about how MMs dont need a buff. This one is for "buff MM!! Seriously!! Dont let the door hit you on the way out.

On a different note your video really only proves the point that the gap between bots/thugs and other mm primaries is way too big. Nerf Bots/Thugs or Buff the other primaries accordingly. Also, your video would have more credibility for this post if it wasnt chock full of temp power usage. Also, how come everytime someone talks about the MM primary needing a good fix/buff everyone always starts talking about the secondaries. I love the MM secondaries, i just hate how most of the primaries are f___ up save for Bots/Thugs. Plus I aint asking for some super duper buff that will make them OPed i just want a few things i think would fix the primaries.

1) Your set bonuses should effect your henchmen.
2)Your Boss and LT. Henchmen should be your level. You minions should be one under you.
3)There should be AN AI command that allows you to specify if you want your henchies to prefer range or melee
4)Body Guard should have its range increased to at least a 150-200ft radius and all your powers that affect you and your team should affect them as long as they are in BG range
5) Pets that have specific abilities like heals and such should be able to take those set IOS as it stands now only a couple abilites can be enhanced through IOs and none of your pets benefit from the set bonuses which isnt fair cause everyone elses primaries benefit directly from the set bonus's such as +damage +tohit+ whatever


I dont think that is too much to ask for. They are your attacks after all. And as such they should benefit the same way everyone elses attacks do. So you coming on here showing us a video of how A BOTS mastermind can duo some tf with a dom right after the end of my post says that if you do have a mm its Probably bots is pretty funny and ironic to me.

Congratulations you have the most survivable pet Combo, this is not the Mastermind's who play only Bots/Traps forum, there are 30+ other combinations which don't let you softcap your pets and must either tank for them or deal with the fact they can and will drop often enough. Talk like that makes those of us who play /poison start thinking fondly of making you run ANYTHING as a MM with /poison and trying to keep your pets alive without tanking for them.

MM's damage comes from pets, his protection comes from his pets, every other class(Except Khelds/Defenders) are just as powerful solo as in a group, they get more powerful if someone has buffs but they are not dependent on anything except themselves to achieve full power (Not counting drains here) If I face a group of 3 by myself without any pets I can hold them till the cows come home and debuff them into the ground but I'll have a hard time killing them with only three attacks counting brawl. My damage comes from my pets, my abilities make my pets more powerful.


Example 1
As a player I'm smart enough to get out of a burn patch or move around an stationary AoE power.

My pets are not, since my damage output comes from them and they are happy to burn to death and are not intelligent about getting out of things like caltrops and will run from one patch to another since they run at random. With some enemy groups and the new content patches like that (ACU's are worst for this since it's a slow patch and does excellent damage) my pets are more than happy to burn to death unless I play nursemaid to them. A blaster would simply move and keep firing all the time, with my pets I must move them and give up them attacking for a few seconds thus dropping my dps into the ground as well as hurting my protection.

Example 2
Status Protection, pets don't have (much of)any
Blaster gets sleeped/held/immobilized he uses a break free and he's off and running.
My pets and I get slept/held/immoblized, I pop a break free, fine now to either feed each one of my pets a break free or wait for it to wear off

Example 3
A blaster does not have to turn off his shields in order to attack only the boss. MM's must turn off Bodyguard to get the enemy to focus on a specific enemy then switch it back on with Defense/Follow and hope the agro list will keep them focus on the target you want dead.

Example 4
Blasters don't randomly run forward and give Maurader a hug.. well at least not all of them do.

But damn if my pets will, even the pure ranged versions like Mercs/Robots are only to happy to run into melee, and Stay command? They can only remember commands for a max of about twenty seconds and then goldfish like they forget and do whatever comes into their mind, like hugging Maurader.

Our damage comes from our pets, we support our pets and our teams via our secondaries, anything that makes the AI go insane(Patches) or glaring issues (Inability to give them ANY kind of status protection outside of Charion and it's been an issue for three years now that never been fixed and only recently got fixed if you count having to slot the Status resist Destiny) reduces our damage and our effectiveness.

Blaster Damage, or Scrapper/Tank/whatever class you care to name is not dependent on the strange and mysterious AI coding that MM's put up with.

I'm entitled to my opinion, just as much as you, so kindly prove your math or get out. Seriously, people have come in here with prove showing your wrong, and your only responds is 'Well, not with that primary!'

Masterminds have been out since issue 6, and if you have been beta like you say, then its been much longer then 2 years. Good to know your concept of time is as skewed as your concept of this AT.

If you actually paid attention to that video, you'll see that it was made during the i12 beta, and those 2 ATs were able to accomplish things that people, at that point in time, said was impossible to do. Masterminds are more then their primary, and if you refuse to see that, then there really is no hope for you. Secondaries are designed to help out the primary, and once you talk about the AT, you have to talk about everything available to it, primary, secondary, and even epic/patron power sets. If you don't want to, then by all means, stop.

You pets already benefit from Supremacy, giving them +25% damage, and +10% tohit, just being near you. They also benefit from any pet IOs auras you slot, which can give them up to 20% resistance and 10% defense.
Your boss pet is already your level, they actually con a level higher (yellow) then you, as they are considered a 'boss' pet. Your LT pets are 1 level lower then you, yet con white as they are LT pets, and your minion pets are 2 levels lower then you, but con blue due to them being minion level pets.

Mastermind pets already have their own different Con/level system, and they are balanced around the purple patch. Especially when you consider Supremacy.
There is already a system in place that have the pets prefer melee or range. The problem is with the AI of the entire pet system, which isn't just limited to mastermind pets. This is about the only fix i can get behind, due to it being a game wide problem.
You may want to look this over a little bit, as the range is already a 60ft sphere. Its limited by line of sight, but 150-200ft range of 25% damage and 10% tohit, plus the ability to enable bodyguard mode at that range would be beyond overpowered. No other AT as access to that kind of built in power.
Pets already benefit from heal sets, tohit debuff sets, etc. Take a look over here and here which clearly shows that you can slot healing IO sets into demons, and tohit debuff IO sets into the lich.

No other AT has the abilities that an MM has. No other AT as such a powerful inherent. +25% damage and +10% tohit to each of their pets that are within range is extremely powerful, how would allowing set bonuses help out any? Should pets be able to softcap via set bonuses? What about run speed? or +rech? or even Debt protection? The Invention system was designed to affect the players, not the mobs, and for all intents and purposes, the Mastermind Pets are mobs. They deal with different tables then players do, and follow different rules. If you give them access to set bonuses as well, then they don't follow the same rules mobs do, and you have to rework the entire system to make up for it.
So, if i did the same with a mercs or ninjas would it change your mind? Noone has said that those primaries don't need work, its just that most of the fixes for those primaries just mean fixing the AI. Once that is done, just about all the other problems will be resolved.

To be fair, FF offers more pure defense then /traps does, and /dark and /storm offers similar defenses from +def, and -tohit values. So its not the most survivable pet combo ever. But thanx for playing.

Thing is, why should your pets work like another player? Why can't you move them yourself? They are YOUR pets? Unless you tell your pets to stay inside a burn patch, they will move. Mine do, and i don't touch stay, or goto at all. Bots, demons, heck even mercs will get out of burn patches. What hurts is bodyguard mode compounding the damage, and spreading it around much more quickly. Its not the burn patch themselves.
Blasters protection shields get suppressed when they are mez'ed, but a mastermind (assuming they are in BG mode) still maintain their protection. No other AT gets to keep their main form of protection while under the affects of mez.

OK, lets see here:
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...bie.Resistance
Yep, zombies get protection to sleep, terrorize, and some stun protection, same for death knights, and the lich, as well as all the robots. Lets work on the living primaries.

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...nin.Resistance
Looks like ninjas get protection to confuse, and taunt

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...dic.Resistance
Soldiers get protection to confuse and placate, and the commando gets protection to fear

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...oss.Resistance
Looks like thugs don't have any inherent mez protection, except for the bruiser, who has fear, placate, and confuse protection. Granted, thugs provide leadership buffs, which stack on themselves, and leadership from the mastermind, allowing for layered buffs.

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...nce.Resistance
And to round it out, demons get protection to placate, confuse and stun, with the prince getting some sleep protection as well.

Now, lets look at the secondaries.

/traps offers FFG, which is hold/stun/immobilize protection.

/FF offers dispersion bubble, which does the same thing.

/Pain, /poison and /thermal both offer a clear mind clone that covers all the main mez, plus some of the other ones as well.

/storm offers protection to stun, as well as confuse

Only /dark and /TA offers zero status protection (/dark offers some resistance to fear) to either the MM or their pets. Again, nice try and thanx for playing.

Again, your comparing masterminds to blasters, when the ATs aren't are all close to each other. Can a blaster select /pain domination, or even /trick arrow as a secondary? No? Then you need to stop comparing them to masterminds. You have 6 different pets, and multiple ways to play them out, just because you haven't figured out how to control the pets seperately and maintain a balance between 'protection' and 'aggression' doesn't mean it isn't already possible. To help you out on that course, i recommend this guide on mastermind binds.
That is an AI problem with every single pet in the game, its not just limited to masterminds. Its something that is known issue, and hopefully it will be resolved (hopefully) soon.

I'll give you the AI issues, but as i've already pointed out, all but 2 of the MM secondaries offer some form of status protection, and I've never had any problems getting my pets out of patches of fire, or anything else for that matter. It takes some getting used to, but for the most part, outside of running into melee for really no reason, the AI isn't all that bad.

So again, why do MMs need a buff? OH, because you can't play them correctly and aren't aware of the things they can do. Got it. Can I get a buff too? on MY MMs? please?