MasterMind::RELOADED

The Mastermind is one of my favorites archetypes. I won't go into the powers in any detail. This is not a power training session, nor is it a tactics and strategy lecture. This thread is about ideas, brainstorming and imagination that would lead to the renovation of a very cool archetype that has grown stale and dry over the years. Let us begin storming our brains, because it will be very important for any who reply to this thread to take the ideas here and post their own. I will address The Mastermind Archtype as a whole and categorically address each minion set.

Mastermind: Everybody knows you don't get to choose their appearance. You either get Zombies, Ninjas, Mercenaries, Punks, Beast or Demons and they are what they are. I would like to see the ability to customize their appearance. Not all soldiers wear gray/black, not all punks look like a retro 80's rock band and not Necromancy is strictly limited to zombies. I will make two main points

1. I would like to see customizable choices for minion appearance i.e. costumes

2. I would like to see genre specific minions with powers unique to their type.

Beastmaster: The beastmaster is a great idea that flopped on introduction. You have a sad mixture of North American winter wolves, African Lions, and a fantasy Winter Wolf that looks like it came straight out of the Dungeons and Dragons monster manual. It is such a bad blend of creatures the whole set makes no sense. The bees and ravens are ok, take it or leave it. But this set falls flat on its face. My ideas to improve the set are.

1. The way it is now the Beastmaster is a huge anachronism, the creatures are out of place. Make the creature specialize like the villian epic sets do at 24th level. at 24th level you can pick a genus/class of creatures like Simian, Canine, Feline, etc...Example being if you choose Simian you get 3 monkeys, 2 baboons, and a an exotic boss type like a Mountain Gorilla for a boss. If you choose Feline you get 3 Jaguars, 2 tigers, and a Male King of the Beast lion with a huge main and a paralyzing roar. At least they will look like they belong together. If not genus/family animal types then pick an environment type, Jungle, Savanah, Mountains, Desert, etc....North American Woodlands should include Wolves, Bears, Pumas and a Boss Grizzly or something. I would like to see Avian choice so you could birds. Even Fantasy creatures like griffons, gargoyles and dragons and the like would be awesome.

2. Wild Zoo: You need a power like the thugs have. They have gangwar. The beastmaster needs "WILD ZOO" that releases 13 enraged animals. I would love to see 13 angry poop flinging monkeys getting aggro. lets face it even a chimp is 4x stronger than a man, they should be able to do some amazing melee.


Necromancy: I would love to see a way to evolve this set that includes more undead types, like vampires, werewolves, and ghouls (have you ever noticed its ALWAYS a full moon in Paragon.

Robotics: cool idea, but they are soooo dang loud when they run, improve them like you did clockwork in Praetoria. bring them up to the 21 century and give them treads, wheels or a sound that is not so obnoxious, I know they will always block doors but they don't have to drown out the sounds of the glowies in the missions, its uncalled for.

Ninjas: Not much to say, but they need to use more caltrops like the knives of artemis does, they drown you in caltrops. and perhaps some status attacks with flash and smoke bombs from the ancient world. give the ninja some teeth and allow them to use some status attack methods, you will see more ninja in the streets.

Demons: They look like somebody took the head of a cow from the desert from an old worn out Western movie and stuck it on a 'thingy' for a body type. the underling demons should look like gargoyles or at least (given the nature of hell) you should be able to customize your demon types. I just like gargoyle appearance. I even like the otherworldy human appearance with exotic black skin, pointed ears, glowing eyes, etc.... right now all we have are a bunch of screaming, farting, burping obnoxious beasty types that nobody wants to listen to for more then a few missions, let alone an entire task force.

Thugs: Awesome Set, well done, we just need choices in how they dress and be able to customize their appearance

Mercenaries: Another Awesome set, same thing, customize their appearance. Be nice to have a gangwar type power with this one instead of "serum" just let them have "RAID". 13 soldiers armed with rifles and flashbang grenades, just a thought.

Im done...anybody that wants to elaborate please do.. these are just ideas and I look forward to any and all who want to add to it. Thank you for your time.....Im done.

Oh opinions, opinions.

I liked some ideas but others seem a bit too much...

Right now I've not got the time, but later I'll try to do a reply that covers everything, and why quite a bit of it can't be done.

Someone mentioned Steam punk robots and zombies. I thought that was a great, great idea..

Necro needs something like a hit debuff aura or something. They just have nothing to offer compared to Robots or Demons and Thugs. Yes their attacks are Hit debuffs, but the issue is in between the pets attack and IF they hit with the debuff.

Would like to make a Rocker type Undead pet. Or bride and groom undead pet.

Beast master I' m with you on the pet comments. They had sooo many choices and they really, really fell short with this idea. I don't know which came first Umbra Beast or Beast master pet. I would guess Beast master pet and they just added that silly shadow to Umbra Beast which is yet another travesty.

I would seriously go for a strict 2 shots and your out policy for pet creation. You have to buy it and click an accept policy. Now you can customize your pets. But if you make ladies of the night thugs or stripper robots BAM your toon is reset and you have to repurchase the customize again. You do it again, BAM toon reset no more customization for your account as it relates to masterminds.

Try to buy it again and a message pops up that says sorry your too much of a ****** to pick this option a 3rd time.

The devs have higher priorities then fixing MMs.

Don't hold your breath for MM love. It'll happen right after they fix the base editor.

What?

MM love before Base Editor for sure. Alot of people want to keep their "exploited the system" SG bases as it is.

Alrighty.

First of all, the changes to the T7 powers are not possible. Yes, it would be cool to have a beastly or ninja gang war, but the Cottage Rule would not allow it. Basically any power cannot have its base use changed. So rather you must improve the powers that already exist. Beast has a great T7, really, doesn't need changing. What they need is just a few more AoEs and some customization. Or rather, you could just change the Dire Wolf's PBAoE to be larger, stronger, and faster recharging to make up for the fact that it's the only good AoE they get.

Ninja T7 should just be made an AoE. Ninjas should also be given a minor Vengeance, so that the few ninjas you have the stronger they are. Also, currently their defense is more decoration than anything, it should be increased, especially on Genin. I can understand having no resistance, but they should have some defense to make up for it. Oh, and cusomization. I don't like the Oni's existence, it doesn't fit. However, you can't completely redo the powers hand in hand with customization, because that would create a link between alternate animations and stats which doesn't exist. Changing the animations in Mind Blast does not affect the powers, it would be similar for MMs if it ever happened. Most likely we'd wind up with an alternate "fire ninja", which I can tolerate. But before alternate forms, I'd like to be able to color them like Controllers can do with their pets.

Mercenaries need some help. The T7, Serum, is pretty lame. Making it an AoE and removing the crash would give Mercenaries the sort of defensive power that Beast has, but less sustainable and stronger. Make the Soldier's Full Auto a wider cone. Shorten the recharge on all of Spec Ops' support abilities by a ton. Take Flash Bang down to 35 seconds and increase the stun. Change Rifle Butt to the ranged stun in Assault Rifle so they run in less. Tear Gas should have a recharge of ~60 seconds and the damage debuff should last the same. Increase the damage on SCAR Snipe. Increase the Immob on Web Grenade so it can be perma without enhancements. If these guys are supposed to be the support then make them actually be support. Make their stealth actually useful, a strike from stealth should crit automatically and the run speed reduction should be removed entirely. Right now spec ops are pretty much lame.

Demons are fine, robots are fine, thugs are fine, necro is probably fine but reducing the recharge on the T7 wouldn't hurt.

As for robots getting treads... how would they jump? Rocket boosters? If the noise (and for demons too) really annoys you (doesn't bother me), I hear there are ways to remove sound files from the game so that you can't hear those specific sounds. A LOT of people did it for the Umbra Beast.