Jibikao

Yeah, the good thing about Muscular is that it allows you to slot one proc damage and you won't lose the overall +damage.

My Bane can only down pylon down to about 50% and then just runs out of juice (no endurance, etc). The problem is the two spiders don't survive long and they add a lot of dps to the fight. Another problem is that I only have one kb protection and when I get hit, I get knocked back.

Not likely. My Fort is all ranged and while it's my most favorite build, she doesn't have enough dps to take down pylon with all range attacks. The only way for her do counter pylon's regen is with some melee attacks.

Haven't tried it with AV though.

Your pets survive because you shoot at long distance and cast the pets behind the pylon so they don't die from pylon's aoe?

Pets do add a lot of damage in long fight but I tried it with Bane and since I am all melee, my pets still die from aoe even though I cast them way behind pylon. After a while, those two spiders just want to go in and melee and die...

The only Thug I've made is a lvl 37 Thug/Trap but he is stuck on Triumph server when I joined that Trapster Superteam. If I remember correctly, Thug/Trap was a beast (in regular content) and mainly because Enforcers are just so awesome. And it is much easier to babysit one boss melee pet than three super-squishy melee pets like Zombie/Genin.

I guess I am just frustrated because I like Necro/Ninja and Merc. The melee pets just don't have enough defense/resistance to stay at melee. The Risk of going in is way higher than the Reward. My DPS is way less when I have to resummon and upgrade and eventually run out of endurance.

Merc has less of survival issue but they have damage issue. I have two procs (AH and Lady) in both Soldier and Spec-Ops but the damage is still kinda low and Merc in general have less resistance than Robot, less AoE (because Merc's aoe are mostly narrow cones and Spec-Ops have no AoE at all), less Defense (no Force Field Shields) and pathetic heal from Medic (VS Protector Robot). The only thing Spec-Ops have is two very-long-recharge control powers and one melee stun which they rarely use and a Stealth power that servers Zero purpose except for Theme.


Let's just say that Merc with Procs deal "decent" damage. Merc without Procs deal very "below-average" damage and quite frankly, I don't think Primary performances should be balanced with sets in mind. Merc should deal "decent" damage without procs.

Exactly. MMs start out very strong because the advantage of MM is:

1. Spend less endurance on your own (although Stamina is now available early on for other ATs)

2. Pets fight for you. They deal decent damage at lower level and they don't normally die in one hit.


At high level when other ATs start putting set defenses and now Alpha, the advantage of being MM seems to vanish and MMs still suffer from mobility issue (pets get stuck, pets are slower to react, pets aggro when the team tries to run/fly to different spots, etc).

Robot/Thug and maybe Demon have an easier time but Necro/Ninja are just lacking. Ninja is supposed to do the best damage but the Risk VS Reward ratio is way out of line. Being melee has way higher Risk and the Reward is only a tiny bit higher DPS. This Risk and Reward ratio isn't that bad at low levels because things can't just one-shot your pets unless you do it at +4 level and enemies are not as tough.

Genin's innate defense is utterly useless. It's only 7% something at lvl 50.

Zombie, while having some resistance, they lack the most important one, LETHAL! Longbows or any gun-related just melt through them like butter. Grave Knight actually has no Lethal and Smashing resistance. Their form of "resistance" is by debuffing with tohit debuff. It really only works against single target but if it's an AV, I rather have my pets stay far so they don't die instantly.

Genins range attack is not bad at all. They have 3 range attacks and 3 melee attacks. In a tough fight, they will contribute more by not dying so often at melee range.

The melee pets are not even good cannon fodders because cannon fodders actually take damage for the team. They die by aoe damage that wasn't even targeting them.

I just think melee pets in general need some serious AoE protection or else it's just too frustrating to play them at high level.

If the dev added critical to Patron powers, then I expect the same for Epic powers. In i18, there was no critical but I tested it again last night i19 to see if they've added, which they haven't. And because my throwing stars can't critical, I am going to respec again.

You think Epic/Patron powers are "lesser"? I certainly don't feel that way. Some of the powers are very good to have including the range attack like Dark Blast.

Best "protection" also means controlling them so they are not attacking you as much. :P

If you are fighting CoT, the best protection you can ever have is to hold/stun/confuse the Lieut Ghosts so their Chill of Nights don't turn your melee into useless.

But to answer your question, if my melee is defense oriented and it's already high enough, then I would want to look for resistance-based buffs (which is not many). If I am resistance-based melee like Electricity Armor, then I would want Force Field or Cold Domination.

Oh I didn't read this part until now. I like this idea. Alpha Slot needs to improve pets more than improving the master. The level shift for tier 1 to become -1 level is very nice.

I can totally imagine once everyone has full Alpha Slots, MMs will be the weakest because the pets don't scale well with set bonuses/alpha slots. Who cares how much your pets can do when they get one-shot so often.

I guess I need to accept the fact that Necro and Ninja tier 1 pets are basically bad cannon fodders and I should just ignore them and let them die because babysit them is not worth it in tough fights. It costs a lot of endurance, time and just frustrate the hell of me.

Are Necro and Ninja balanced without Tier 1 pets? I don't think zombies survive any better than genins because genins at least have 3 range attacks and sometimes one or two of them would stay at range; whereas zombies tend to go in after the first range puke.

Grave Knights and Jounins don't survive any better in extremely situation either. I know my GK die whenever the final boss uses that lightning aoe attack. The only way for me to deal some damage is for my pets to stand away from aoe radius.

Melee pets just can't handle tough situations. I can't imagine using them in Apex or Tin Mage when the mobs are +4 to me. The frustration will make me hate my MMs. I did take out my Merc/Storm last night for a bit. She is doing alright in regular mission but who doesn't? :P

My zombies and knights were one-shot every time they go in and fight the last boss in BSF. It was frustrating. I end up not bother upgrading at all but it kills me that my pets are not my "weapons". They are just cannon fodders that deal pathetic damage when things get really tough. They were not even being "target" by the last boss. They just die whenever there's aoe. I am sure my Necro/Pain has something to do with it because I can't push my tier 1's defense high enough and even with 4 pet unique and World of Pain, the pets still die in one hit.

The only pet that survives longer is Lich but that's because he stands far.


Maybe there is a huge discrepancy between Robot/Thug (and maybe Demons?) VS other Primaries. I just don't like Robots. I see them everywhere and it bores me. I feel the melee pets don't have enough survival to be at melee range. The Genins have no business kicking AVs if they can't survive one hit.

Blah, I tend to like Necro, Ninja and Merc. hehe

Yes, I've tried ignoring summoning tier 1 pets but guess what? Tier 1 pets in Necro actually do decent damage especially they have two aoe (not that it's great but it's better than nothing). And Genins provide a lot of damage (probably the most for tier 1 pets but they also die the easiest).

I've tried taking personal attacks on my Necro but it all comes to down this... if I am going to blast myself, I might as well make a Corruptor. I don't mind blasting but at the rate the tier 1 pets are dying, I really have no option unless I I keep resummoning them and costing tons of endurance and precious time that I could have done something better.

That's the price you pay for having Throw Spines and Spine Burst. :P Spines lacks ST damage in exchange for having the best aoe damage for Stalker.

The good news is you still have Assassin Strike to provide decent ST damage.

Lethal resistance can get really annoying. I feel the worst is Malta though. Malta as an enemy group have on average 30%+ lethal resistance? Those robot bosses take forever to kill.

I heard about this as well. Hunter's pet can deal quite a bit of damage especially as BM.

And I would assume high level raid is where the "hard content" is. It makes sense that the pets can't/shouldn't die that easily by an AoE.

They can start by reducing the damage pets take from all the blue flame in Apex. I can understand when the master gets instantly killed if he doesn't dodged in time but goto the pets can be slow and I am not so sure about constantly team teleporting. For team tp to work, your pets need to be pretty close to you but if you are Necro or Ninja, some of the pets may spread out and it's not like they survive long at closer range against Battle Maiden anyway. The whole fight will just be too frustrating unless I have friends who can take aggro and do good range damage for me (while I try to resummon and upgrade). Of course things seem fine when other people are doing the work for you. :P I actually have conscience when I play games. When I know I am not contributing much, I feel guilty.