My Demons/Dark functions quite well in both BAF and Lambda, I haven't tortured myself with enough Keyes runs to comment really.
I know the generally adopted tactic Union during a Lamda, and I will act counterintuively to that, if the team goes one way, I'll trundle off the other on my own. If I get a follower, thats good, if not, I'm a slow moving dervish of destruction. I even do this for the durret destruction portion, since my pets won't keep up with the team normally.
I'll take out 2 or 3 of the collectables on my own doing this, even with stopping to defeat things on the way, though I find the Lab section rather than Warehouse to be the easiest for this tactic, since i'm more familiar with the layout. Also as an aside I very rarely get the pet stuck bug.
BAF is also quite enjoyable, although getting to Nightstar early means nothing when my mitigation and damage are only halfway there. On Union we always go for 'Keep em Seperated' and going after the AVs there is a breeze, however, going after the Reinforcements, not so. For some pecular reason, standing at that door, my pets refuse to sit still, even before the first reinfocement they are running towards siege or Nightstar constantly, getting out of range and teleporting back. This is when using Follow/Passive, Follow/Defensive, Goto/Defensive or Goto/Agg they all do it, all the time, I keep having to spam my commands to keep them close to me, and alternate which ones i'm spamming.
Keyes, what little experience I have there is a chore of resummoning, pets struggle with the reactors and the need for Z-Axis positioning, they are all over the place. And as I'm slowly trundling along pulling the little buggers after my, I tend to end up with one of those Big Walkers spawn on my.
When things go well for my MM (not difficulty wise, but game mechanics wise) I enjoy her immensly, when the mechanics are stacked against me, I do not.
How the new players will see MMs will be greatly influenced by the Playerbase, and it won't be good, but hopefully a few players will see these as a hidden gem.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by VoodooGirl
[*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*
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Mastermind would easily be my favorite class if they were fixed to the point they should be. I've played one since CoV came out, and have several level 50 ones. Melee pets have always been more of a chore than they need to be, thanks to constantly resummoning and having to mess with positioning. I don't think this issue is ever going to change, sadly. Wen made a really good point in that Masterminds are meant to be a special class not available to everyone after Freedom launches; it'd be nice if they were brought up to that standard.
Running trials on my Bots/Traps is a mixed bag. BAF is plenty of fun; I especially like trapping to my heart's content during the escapee portion, since normally on a team I don't get to make much use of trip mine. The whole trial really works well for an MM; I haven't tried it on a melee one yet, since my melee MMs were sort of retired out of irritation.
Lambda, however, is a problem no matter what. Between the summoning bug and the race to unlock acids/grenades, I usually just say the hell with it and become a nerfed Traps defender until the Marauder fight. The simple fact is we're just not compatible with the "race ahead and take out one target at a time" playstyle. I run into this all the time during LGTFs, or any speedruns, really. We have the option of rushing with the crowd without pets and dying instantly because our HP base isn't strong enough to take glancing blows while running, or we can run with bodyguard on, and when we move out of range since the pets stay behind to fight...then we die. >.>
I love MMs, but they're very, very, very frustrating, and I can see how they could turn new players away.
The Pet AI is something that really hinders this AT immensely. Which I concur it sounds silly that this would be a special AT. I could understand if Masterminds where doing something only Higher end builds toons where doing with less then I can get why. But currently I handle the same setting with my Robot Traps that I can with my AR Traps with less hassle.
I currently cycle the Pet all stay command bound to the numpad Del key with All attack command via the numpad key setup. The issue I notice is once I command the pets to stay they stop attacking which is of course why I tell them to attack again.
On my Traps toon its a bit of a pain when I need to drop a targeted AOE item like caltrops because the all stay over rides the targeting reticule. What eventually happens is the Pet ( Robots ) slowly creep forward between the commands. I eventually need to send the pets a repeated all goto command to get them behind me again. That sometimes of course causes me to loose a few pets as they are running back.
If the pets would just stay in one place and attack mobs that come into range as if they were old school auto turrets it would great for robot traps / FF at least.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Warning long post.
A Master Mind was my first cov character.
I have 50's in Bot's/FF, Mercs/Traps, Thugs/Traps, Demons/Warmth as well as Zombies/Dark 43 and Ninja/Dark 40.
So I have experience in all the ATs but not all the secondarys though I have used all but poison on some other AT's.
It is fairly easy with IO's to soft cap smash/lethal defense making your character very survivable.
The tanker mind aspect is very doable as well and keeps your pets alive much longer hence more effective.
My observation/question comes from end game content or the incarnate trials. On Protector server MMs are seen very rarely in trials. Full size+ mobs and at level 54 make short work of most pets regardless of the characters tactics/build with some MAJOR exceptions.
Bots and Thugs. With FF and/or Traps secondarys.
My builds on the Bots/FF has the character with almost capped resistance and well above soft capped positional defenses. The Thugs/Traps also has almost capped resistance armor and soft capped defenses. In the Thugs case the difference is made up by the fact that Thugs can equip ALL the resist and defense pet unique.
Given the pace of trials the MM is often behind. Having to re-summon many pets and buff. Exceptions noted above. It doesnt help that pets ALWAYS are stuck upon zoning into Lambda (but not BAF for some reason).
Pets cant bypass spawns in the warehouse like most ATs do without major losses. Using grant invis just takes to long and does last long enough to be effective...now if it were made to work like the new method of shields...
Tanker mind does NOT work with the size of spawns and the fact that your usually behind. Closing doors on Lambda trials without resist armors and soft capped def will get you killed assuming your pets are not with you while you try to stealth to the door.
All the MM primaries work ok with regular content but some work oh so much better in end game content. Not all MMs are created equal in end game.
Yes I know the balance is supposedly based on SOs but with end game almost sort of DEMANDING IO builds I think some thought should be made toward base defense and or base resists on the pets to bring the different types to a leveler playing field. Do you guys agree or disagree?
I feel like I am more than contributing on the Bots/FF and Thugs/Traps but feel like a cripple with the others again only in incarnate trials .if only because at some point your GOING to be by yourself coming back from the hospital.
Oh and please fix the stuck cant dismiss without a typed release_pets command BEFORE freedom comes along. MMs are suppose to be a Special AT class for the F2P players not a laughing stock. As well as the AI causing pets to run into melee when they have ranged attacks watches Assault bot run in and slap someone omg.
LvL 50 Dark Dark, Emp/Rad Defenders
LvL 50 Inv/Axe, Fire/Fire, Stone/Stone, Mace/Shield Tanks, EM/Inv
LvL 50 Spines/DA Scrapper
LvL 50 Ice/Storm, Ice/Rad, Earth/Rad, 2 Fire/Kin, Ill/Rad, Grav/FF, Controller Elec/Storm
LvL 50 Bots/FF, Merc/Traps, MM Thugs/Traps, Demon/Thermal