MM's and incarnates content, lack of ballace in MM's, huge differences between old and new sets...

Serum IS terrible, and that's coming from the guy whose only 50 Mastermind is Mercs/Traps. Serum is next to useless because it doesn't do enough, it doesn't last long enough, it recharges too slowly (17 minutes? Really?) AND it crashes the henchman it's applied to. To borrow a line from SomethingAwful, that's like saying "You can have this sack full of rats, but only if you let me kick you in the groin 10 times." It's a power that makes things arguably WORSE when you use it and at best does nothing meaningful, and which has a ridiculous cost associated with it. I would sooner use Detonator on a henchman that's in a position to need Serum than use Serum itself... And I took that waste of a power and slotted it for recharge, God help me.

I know there are crap powers in this game (I still consider Repulsion Field to be a shockingly bad idea for a power), but among Mastermind uniques, Serum is by FAR the worst, and it's on a set with pets whose powers suffer the same problems. Spec Ops controls, for instance, are nearly pointless since they don't do enough, don't last long enough and take too long to recharge. I'd say Mercs are about workable right now, but that's only because their AI was fixed to let the Commando use his Long Range Missile Rocket at any range and the Spec Ops to use their snipes at any range. That helped damage significantly.

And to this day, I don't get one thing - why the sugar do Spec Ops get Stealth? Let's ignore for a minute that Stealth is a terrible power and admit that it offers good utility as a means of avoiding unexpected aggro or stealthing past most of a mission. How does that help henchmen for whom "stealth" is pointless? Even if this were complete invisibility - and it's not - you still have four other Henchmen (and yourself) who are plainly visible and will get attacked, and when those get attacked, the Spec Ops will retaliate. It's not like they get a Stealth Strike capability out of it. The only effect Stealth has AT ALL is... To slow the Spec Ops down so they fall behind over long distance.

Once again, Mercs are saddled with a power that does more harm than good, and this one you can't be smart enough to dump for something better because it comes packaged in with your second upgrade. When people complain about Mercs, it's not always a question of performance, though that does enter into it. It's that the design of the whole set is just confusing. It's like all of my mercenaries, including the Mastermind himself, got issued one of these:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

1) Hmmm...havent seen Blaster changes to really decide if the changes are enough. Defenders could use some help imo to make them different in a way from Corruptors to make people think they're just as worthwhile (sadly, my only way to change them is to lower Corr debuff values on things that are equal between the ATs, like -Regen, and even then it might not be a big enough difference).

Still think the melee ATs could use some tweaks to further seperate them, but I find that less likely to happen.

2) Yes.

3) Robots is still considered one of the best! Beast Mastery last I knew, considered one of the worst.

4) Buff team/Debuff Enemies (secondary varies this), guide pets to attack things.

5) Nope.

6) Only if built for it. They can be, at least in Pre Incarnate content. I don't know if they could in Incarnate content, however, this is because I haven't seen any MMs who built themselves to tank.

7) Perfectly fair! That's no different than some melee sets can slot 2 -Resist Procs versus None!

8) By high level content, I'm going to guess you mean Incarnate content, and by that I don't see how those IOs are going to make that big of a difference, when you likely have enough buffing going on with Defenders/Corrs/Trollers/MMs possibly buffing and everyone having Destiny powers.

You sure it's not just that you don't care for how Mercs play? Try a different Primary.

No, but they mentioned reviewing tankers sometime soon.

Yes - Time Bomb.

No, you can do a lot without breaking the cottage rule.

They can tank, do good damage, and buff/debuff, so they are a nice mix.

No, I think it changes depending on team makeup.

Yes they can do pretty well at it too, but I don't consider them to only be tanks.

NO - this should be changed, I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm not sure they are but again I agree that both should be available to all primaries.

I think SpecOps got stealth because it was thematic for them... Remember that the set launched with COV its possible that was the reason; same with Serum it was the kind of 90's/80's U.S. military thing that fit into the set.

Problem is, as you say, the pets aren't smart enough to use stealth effectively.

Captain Den'Rath 53* Merk/Traps MM, Rivona 50Energy Blast/Time Cor,Victoria Von Heilwig 53* Dual Pistols/Traps Cor, Crab Spider Webguard 53* SOA, Accela 53* Bot/FF MM,Valkyrie's Executor 53* Broadsword/Shield Def Scrap. On FREEDOM! @Knight Of Bronze

That and their attacks should at least crit when stealthed...that at least makes logical sense.

As opposed to..that illogical sense that we often speak here

EXACTLY. Not like it would be a massive increase, but snipe criticaling coming out of stealth would help. Otherwise, get rid of it and give them another attack. Otherwise it floats right around the level of being totally useless.

Theme aside, not really sure why they even HAVE stealth if they don't get the critical aspect. Doesn't make a ton of sense.

Granted, MisterD but C'mon really?! Stealth with no benefits? What's the point? The player will "see through" the weak thematics and delete the toon in a heartbeat to roll another MM (dramatics aside).

There's no way for Spec Ops to logically use their stealth unless they stopped attacking altogether or used their attacks in intervals...which the game can't do...or at least not back then.

Oh yeah, I think Bronze Knight and a few others mentioned this years ago but the Spec Ops should get the Assassin's Crit that the PPD Ghost have.

Well they were designed at a different time...the game was SOOO different back then...thinking back on it it's crazy. I'm so glad that we have such an amazing Dev team now.

Any DPS boost that would come about from Fixing Pet AI, though honestly As stated before I think every pet needs revamped to work around the buggyness of pet AI, then tune the DPS to match what masterminds can currently do, but with the ability to focus on something other than tugging a Battle Drone out of melee because he decides to pistol whip someone with his laser gun, and maybe get rid of the level differences I think that causes so many problems with MM pet survival, even with Incarnate Content AOEs flagged to deal half damage to pets AVs are so deep in the purple to -3 pets I do not think it actually helps.

and frankly revamp special ops entirely, they are a mess in every single way.


Edit : sorry about the delays in responding, Gmail keeps flagging my thread subscriptions as Spam.

There are a few things in your post that I agree with, and overall I do feel that Masterminds need a balance pass, but you also have some terribly flawed ideas, and this really exemplifies them to me.

Robotics is still among the very best of the Mastermind arsenal and Beast Mastery is terrible.

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.

Fixing pet AI would not give a direct damage boost, and as I said I would be against it if it meant taking away some DPS that we already have.

MMs as a whole don't need buffs, they need fixes. Fixes to the AI. This should not result in a rebalancing of damage because it is a bug, not a balance feature.

Granted, a couple of sets (Ninjas and mercs, MAYBE beast and necro) do need balance passes. I outlined what I'd do to them early in this thread.