Dispari

Does PvP count as a reason?

Only rare recipes are available to get with HVMs (Hero/Villain Merits). Uncommons are not. Rare recipes will cost 1 or 2 HVMs depending on their rarity. Uniques and globals, along with some triples and quads will cost 2 HVMs. If you're looking for something like Red Fortune that's uncommon though and not rare, you can't get it with HVMs. And some sets like Kinetic Combat or Performance Shifter will have one uncommon recipe out of a bunch of rares. Other than that, you have to move the slider to the correct level range (no more than 35 for Kinetic Combat, or 40 for Miracle, for instance).

I actually dug these up from my site. I thought I lost them when I reinstalled CoH recently. But I got to do an ITF with Castle in the last beta!

http://meru.xfury.net/images/19beta/castle_itf.jpg
http://meru.xfury.net/images/19beta/castle_itf2.jpg (as you can see, he cheats)
http://meru.xfury.net/images/19beta/castle_itf6.jpg (telling us about the early days)

First BABs and now Castle. What are you up to, Paragon Studios?

Oddly Pum I think I disagree with almost everything you said.

The recharge thing is kind of a necessary evil. It causes bad AI issues. What would you rather have, pets that can't improve their attack chain, or pets that for some reason only use one power in their attack chain because their recharge is too high and they get confused? Randomly activating various attacks with some delay is better than only using Head Splitter and nothing else.

I don't think MM pets should be allowed the one-shot code. That would arguably allow an MM to get by the one-shot code 7 times or more. Pets dying can be annoying but... it happens.

Pretty sure level shift already works with MM pets. In the first mission of the incarnate arc you're shifted to +10. Your pets still con at the correct colors. If they didn't, they'd all be gray.

I don't think sets should apply to pets (they already get super powerful pet set uniques; can players get +20% RES vs all?). But I do think RIP sets should be available for all MMs. Right now they're only available to half. If the idea is that MMs shouldn't get those particular sets then why were Thugs and Demons designed to be able to slot them? It's not like those sets have survival issues and need them. If that was the case, Ninjas and Mercs would have them. If anything there should be more pet-applicable bonuses, not give everything to pets.

I also don't know about the speedrunning thing. Who speedruns TFs anymore with shards to get?

I play MMs in a weird way. I tend to leave my pets on aggressive, because I got used to playing MM before we had bodyguard. I don't like being a "tankermind," I like just having pets around to help out. I try whatever I can to make the pets take damage for me, instead of trying to get hit on my own. But I also try to make sure they stay alive and useful. Resummoning too often is a pain.

My highest and most successful MMs are Necro/Dark/Soul and Demons/Thermal. I also have a Thugs/Trap/Mace MM but you didn't sound like you liked Thugs.

One thing those characters all have in common is they can slot RIP (Recharge Intensive Pet) sets. I think in a way it's pretty stupid that not all MMs can. Regardless, I have all four pet uniques slotted on those three toons. Meaning all my pets have +20% RES and +10% DEF, shoring up their defenses fairly well.

The Thug/Trap has tons of DEF to go around. Forcefield Generator and Maneuvers stack with the thugs themselves, giving them lots of DEF to go by.

The Necro/Dark is fairly fun. They have upwards of 70% RES to things like dark and psi, and between all the -ToHit and healing they get along just fine. I rarely heal them myself due to the small area heal, but they all have their own heals and my Dark Servant goes well. I have about 6 holds between all the pets and powers, and lots of fear and immobilize. Truthfully I actually LIKE when my zombies die on this character, because she can resummon them as ghosts.

The Demon/Thermal has thermal shields to go around. Some of the pets between all the RES buffs have 90% RES going for them. Plus I still have heals, and my pets have their own heals. The demons are very durable, and only die when they do stupid things like chase something into another spawn. I frequently just float through missions on a team doing +2 or +3, with pets on aggressive, without losing them. Although this one is definitely the most work, with all the shields required.

I suppose it depends on what you're playing and what you like to do. You might have not played the "right" combination yet. Or maybe you just need the RIP sets to help out a little. Either way, I like my MMs. I played Guild Wars too; I quit when they nerfed necromancers to the point of not being any fun for minionmaster builds, and came over to play necromancer in CoV. And I never went back to GW. My necro has only gotten more fun to play as the times went on, especially now with incarnate and i19 extra powers.

Personally I hated the "smart" enemies in Guild Wars because they were TOO smart. They were very insistent on avoiding every single AoE attack, cutting down healers, and interrupting any interruptable power as soon as you try to use them.

Working fine here.

Just saying, if everything had mez protection there would be no point to enemies even having mezzes.