So, why does the Mastermind ATO set suck?

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Precedent has been set for a "multi-aspect" enhancement component to this ATO's with "Control Duration" in Will of the Controller.

Also a great point... I would definitely love to see the Recharge portions replaced with this sort of +Special enhancement... it would be exceptionally cool for Bots, Thugs, and Demons Tier 2, and Ninjas and Necromancy Tier 3. Mercs would get something of the short end of the stick, but, it's already been acknowledged (I think by Synapse, on the Beta forums) that Mercs is overdue for a review in the future anyway.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Just a minor point: The Pet Damage sets came out when the Invention System was first introduced and the Recharge Intensive Pet sets came out some time after. Pets being made immune to recharge altering effects happened well after all that. So the Pet Damage sets having zero recharge bears nothing out considering that the change to pets was made quite some time after they were introduced.

...

The MM ATO set's not terrible, but it's not nearly as appealing as most of the other ATO sets.

As it stands, proc aside, it's got worse enhancement values and set bonuses than several Pet Damage and Recharge Intensive Pet Damage sets, on top of being strikingly inferior to the other ATO sets :/

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Can you throw it on Soul Extraction, or /Dark's Fluffy, or Hell on Earth, or Gang War, or a thousand other recharge intensive pets that MMs can get ahold of?

I believe it's been mentioned that it can work with HoE, SE, and GW. I haven't seen mention of it working with Dark Servant or not. However not all sets get recharge intensive pets (ie Ninjas and Mercs). Actually overall there aren't that many recharge intensive pets for MMs.

Find me something on my Bots/Traps MM I can usefully place it in please.

And by usefully, I mean where the Recharge will actually have an impact on my gameplay, since resummoning pets doesn't happen often enough to warrant losing other enhancement values for the AoE Defence.

bah, turn Serum into an AP Ammo buff for a pet or something. Give the commando some irradiated rounds :P like giving them Achilles' Heel IO proc but as a power instead of an enhancement--mercs aren't that awful if you have that io slotted into the soldiers and spec-ops, since they can at least sorta make up for their horribly over-resisted lethal damage. And take the grenade away from the stupid medic since his range with it is shorter. Bad as an arsonist when it comes to getting gibbed.

My feelings exactly.

The Mastermind ATO set should be good for every Mastermind.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

I'd be happy if it were good for any mastermind.

Seconded ... and that goes double for any Mastermind who doesn't have access to Recharge Intensive Pets.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I LOLed but then I have to admit that it is good for a mastermind* but not so much for a Mastermind.

*(I am not saying I am buying them up to re-roll them with enhancment converters. That would be devious.)

However, those are not simply +controlduration enhancements. It's a Hold/Immob/Disorient/Sleep/Confuse duration enhancement.

there would be no nice way to have a +Special like that. About the only way to really do it would be having the Global IO in the MM ATO set do an aura that gives the pets a state to enable a special power (like how some TW powers require momentum to work at all).

But that would require going through and adding powers to each and every pet.

Are you sure about that? Because so far as I'm aware, you can only have 6 ATIO's on a single toon, you can have 6 normal, 6 Catalysed or a mixture of each adding up to 6 total, but so far as I'm aware, you can't have the same enhancement twice in catalysed and non catalysed form.

From http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/ATO :

"Standard and Superior enhancements of the same type are mutually exclusive; a character cannot slot both Blaster's Wrath: Accuracy/Damage and Blaster's Wrath: Accuracy/Damage (Superior)."

:edit: ah, you edited while I was looking things up and writing this, I'll leave this here for the link in case it's helpful to anyone.

Of course there is (and I thought what I was proposing was an obvious parallel, though maybe my explanation outside of my own head was flawed)! You just listed it. Make it affect a variety of things like "Control Duration" does.

Make it a Heal/Def/Res/Immob/Hold/Slow/Stun/etc. enhancement - basically make it enhance everything that isn't End/Dam/Rchg/Acc. Just label it "Secondary Abilities". A bunch of the enhancement will obviously go to waste, much like the "Control Duration" does but it'll make it that much more unique/useful for Masterminds.

Especially since those sets are already disadvantaged in not getting access to call to arms and expedient reinforcement defense/resist procs.

Barring technical issues that we aren't aware of (is there a limit to how many things an enhancement can effect?) that actually sounds like it would work.

And it would be AWESOME.

And yes, I also do agree that Mastermind primaries without Recharge Intensive Pets are currently faced with a unique disadvantage in the modern game, but I'm not sure what, if anything, could feasibly be done about it, since it would basically require several powers to be totally scrapped to fix...

Although considering it further, I don't think anyone would mourn Serum or Repair being removed. I honestly don't know what the popular opinion of Smoke Flash is, I've never been able to get past all of Ninjas' many (many, many, many) problems to actually play the set past 10.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

The simplest possible thing to do would be to allow ALL Mastermind Primary Pet Powers to slot Recharge Intensive Pets.

No fuss ... no muss.
Problem SOLVED.
It's a simple database edit ... which makes you wonder why it hasn't been done yet.

Serum for Mercs is just another one of those Monument To BAD GAME DESIGN legacy bits of coding that really just need to be completely overhauled. First thing I'd do to it would be to turn it into a 60 ft PBAoE (ie. Supremacy radius) Click that affects all Mercs, not just one ... and then go about improving the details of the power.

A friend of mine plays a Robotics Mastermind, and he *swears* by Repair (in a good way) as a Fast Heal for a Bot. Or were you thinking of a different Repair power?

Smoke Flash is ... kludgy. It's basically a Pet Placate (ala Stalkers), but the Hide (and double damage) doesn't wear off for 10 seconds, so it's a bit more like Build Up in that respect. My main problem with the power is the extreme Endurance Cost of it (even when reduced by slotting) and the fact that it affects only ONE Ninja, which you have to Target ... rather than being a 60 ft PBAoE Click which affects ALL of your Ninjas simultaneously. I'd much rather have a PBAoE Smoke Flash that lasted 5 seconds, than a Single Target Smoke Flash that lasted for 10 seconds (and required me to switch targets to use, most of the time). Use of Smoke Flash requires a lot more "Flying the Gauges" in the workload of your attention span, which is a familiar experience to any Empath, World Of Pain or Time Manipulation driver. Without Smoke Flash, you can keep your attention centered on the "action" happening on screen where the enemy is, without needing to be (as) constantly aware of your Pet Status window (and if you have any of them selected as your Target within it).

Of course, one of the ways around that problem is the Target Of Target system ... where you Target a Foe, and whatever THEY are targeting becomes the beneficiary of Smoke Flash (and so long as that's a Ninja Pet, it works).

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Probably not, but at some point balance does need to factor into it.

Most likely they wouldn't be removed due to the cottage rule, but they could certainly be improved. Smoke Flash can be nice on a Jounin (ST) or the Oni (AoE) and it can be made perma, however it costs an obnoxious amount of endurance.

If they did such a thing they would probably just combine the pool of pet sets and recharge pet sets into one set category (which they should have just done from the get-go imo). However this doesn't fix the issue that pets aren't affected by recharge, it wouldn't make sense to give recharge boosting enhancements to pets that don't benefit from it, even with the 2 procs existing that mess with balance.

As mentioned the main issue with Smoke Flash is it's massive endurance cost. The fact that it only affects one pet is fine because it can be made perma. Being able to keep 1 pet in perma crit mode is pretty good. It just costs way to much endurance for it to be viable to do so. If they changed it to affect all pets (potentially without having to retarget) would probably mean changing it to only affect the next attack the pet makes, which would be fine if you could edit their AI, but you can't.

I'd miss Repair.

An uninterruptible instant heal to full with some +end for one of your pets? it's kept my Assault Bot alive more times than enough, even since I got a Rebirth Destiny. The fact that 2 or 3 recharge SO's is all the slotting it really needs is a bonus.

Of course I'd use it far less if they'd fix the blasted AI on the bots so they didn't think that lasers and plasma cannon needed to be used at point blank range.... <sigh>

Basically, you want a Power Boost Aura with the addition of +res.