khaine_star

Not impressed by this new bone. I don't use defensive as it gives less control to me. My default for all my pets is follow/passive. Stops them from going after things I want them to leave alone. This also stinks of masterminds are expected to play more blaster like. The only reason a Mastermind needs a shield of any sorts is when they go blast happy. If you let your pets do most of the damage, like they are supposed to, then the Mastermind rarely gets hit.

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hide/stealth type power

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A bit like shadows fall? Which you already have in your secondary.

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Area effect knockback, centred on MM

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Your liche has a cone knockback already.

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Area effect Immobilise, centred on MM

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You could just use fearsome gaze which is a semi immob and a tohit debuff.

You see thats the problem. The primary/secondary combinations and the powers of your minions can cover the majority of powers. The sniper attack is the only thing that a Mastermind does lack.

The patron pools are full of powers I cannot see a use for. I usually play as a debuffer while my pets rip the enemy apart. So I have few if any blasts (at work atm and can't remember my exact build) they draw aggro to me instead of the fodder. So more blasts would be more aggro which would be more deaths. The armours and shields are of little use as I don't draw much aggro due to letting the pets get on with the slaughter while I debuff. Even the new little feature-ette for masterminds (passing damage onto your minions) strikes me as something I will get very little use out of. The minions are there to take the abuse not me. If I am not getting hit then shields and damage pass on are useless.

If you want dumb minions you should see the zombies. I have one zombie that does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants.
Follow me/passive = Why are you going the opposite direction to me?
follow me/aggressive = Don't just stand there stupid.. attack.
go to = run in a circle.

Sometimes the AI gets confused. Sometimes it just gets stupid.

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I have just read your suggestions, but I must say that I don´t like them too much.
These effects would be quite powerful, so in order to balance them they could only grant miniscule amounts of boost... and that way they would be hardly worth taking because we have better tools in our primaries and secondaries.

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Not really. They could be excessively powerful and still not unbalance the game. Just look at unstoppable or MoG. Both very powerful moves. Each has weaknesses and recharges that stop them from being game ruling powers.

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And I think I already mentioned that I would not be looking forward to having another pet buff. My robots are already strong enough to clear normal maps on highest difficulty without much interference (other than orders) on my behalf, so how much fun would it be to make them even stronger? (And I don´t really see them transforming into Coralax either.) I don´t have to be able to go afk while my little helpers do Infernal. (Warning: slight exaggeration )

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My thoughts on the patron pools where that they would be more like the Epics from the heroes side. The would flesh out what you don't have, but since Masterminds are already a bit 'jack of all trades'. It is difficult to see how the can be fleshed out without stepping on the toes of the primary/secondary combinations. My Mastermind is necro/dark. All I can see the patron powers doing is duplicating things I already have or don't want/need. My thoughs were that if you cannot give something that they don't have then supercharge the ones you do have.

Level 41 AR/Dev/Mun Blaster here. Since ED hit the servers I have logged on about 4 times with my blaster. Each time I managed to grab more debt than xp. With ED nerfing the hell out of my DPS I have found that my defender has far more survivability and DPS and he is empath/elec/elec. For me the fun of playing a blaster is a far distant memory. Now all I have are aggro magnets and debt rockets.



The blaster known as khainestar was last seen sitting on the steps near the town hall in Atlas. Muttering about these new whipper snappers and their fancy new bows. All the while stroking an aging rifle and sobbing gently

Past about level 20-30 desperation is a faceplant waiting to happen. At no point have I seen the desperation bar go past about 25%. Mainly due to the fact that when it starts to move I am usually either perma-mezz or running for my life. When I face enemies that can stun and take 70%+ hp in one blow I am not hanging around on the off chance that a piffling extra amount of damage might save me. Desperation reaks of "blasters need an inherant, give them anything". It is usless to me solo and in a team the enemy doesn't tend to be directing attacks at me so my health doesn't drop. The attacks that are directed at me are either faceplanters or healed very quickly. So desperation stays at 0.0 and I get no boost from it.

As for a replacement for it how about as your health goes down your resistance goes up. If you are going to get slapped around for an inherant to work. You may as well get something worth it. Real defiance instead of desperately trying to take them with you.

I dropped some suggestions for the mastermind patron pools here. But upto yet there has been little comment on them. Anyone got any comments on the powers I suggested? or ones to suggest yourself.

I have been thinking about the MM love. I think it will be that your pets linger after you are dead. So instead of MM goes splat pets all fall down. It is MM goes splat. Pets go vengence mode. 2 mins later pets fall down.

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Must... resist... kink... jokes... wrong... forum... auuugghh...

Just asking since several people baaaah'd at it a bit - "Full Aggro" was one name it got called. But will trust the Syn.

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I was the one that dubbed it "Full Aggro". However I will join syn in the slaping if you don't take it. Flamethower then FA is still a good damaging combo. It just doesn't make sure everything goes down any more. Anything that doesn't go down will dance on your face if no one is holding the aggro. I may knock AR alot but one thing it has over any other blaster primary is a level 32 power you can use in a standard attack chain.

My Blaster shouts out

"safety off, full auto"

And although this is a blaster section, my defender calls

"Thunder rolls, Lightning strikes"

Not amazingly funny but there you go.

I will add to the pet stupid gene comments. I have one grave knight, and it is always the same one. That likes to dance with the enemy. He runs up to them and then jigs backwards and forwards before the rest of the pets take it out. Doesn't matter if he is the first one there or the last one there. He is also the pet that likes to bring gifts. An enraged spawn, a miffed boss and on one occasion an annoyed hero. He just takes off, belts them once then comes running back to me. Regardless of if I issue commands or not.

I am guilty of the SMASH mentality

/bind f10 "local $name SMASH$$em tarzan"
/bind f11 "local YYAARRGGGGGGG$$em tarzan"
/bind f12 "local $name SMASH puny $target$$em growl"

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So wonder why they couldn't kill me then? Guess I'll have to go back and have some more fun to try and find out.

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Probably missing a lot. Also if you have health and rooted you are going to heal up as they try to hurt you.

As for a fire tanker taking out a stalker. Just wait till you see MISS then drop a burn patch. It only takes one hit to drop hide then they get chewed up so fast it's not funny.

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I wonder what the best two primaries together are. Probably something boring like Ice/Ice for double stacked Chilling Embrace and capped defence before Energy Absorption.

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What about stone/fire. granite armour, mudpots for slow, blazing aura, then burn em, burn em all.

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Incidentally, am I the only Stone tank out there slotting for Slow? It still seems a rather good effect to me.

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I slot 2 end, 1 slow, 3 taunt. it's always done a good job for me.

Well I have topped my poor old empath for not wanted in a team. I joined one with my AR/Dev blaster, entered the mission and was told, "sorry we wanted a real blaster" and got kicked from the team.

What I find amazing is that after being basically chased by people because I was an empath for 30 levels. I get AB slot it up, get the leadership pool and slot it up so I can become a team build monster. Only to have teams not want me. I have now heard the ultimate as well which leaves me fearful for my tanker. "We don't need a healer, we have a granite".

What has happened to the poor old empath? I have not been able to get teams with my empathic defender for weeks. The few teams I have found running tell me that they already have 2 empaths so don't really need any more.

It seems that there are either no teams that need an empath or no-one willing to team up with me.

Have I just been unlucky or does other empaths have the same problem?

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Buckshot - Cone. No idea as it didn't fit my concept.

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My blaster has it slotted with 3 knockbacks. as the damage is so low its not worth trying to cause damage but the "get away" factor is nice.

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Ignite - Not in my build - don't know much about it.

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It is burn by another name without the immob protection. used with caltrops, or webgrenade can be used for chipping small amounts off the enemies health, or to stop some enemies from running though doors. Nice party trick too.

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Full Auto - Heard it's been nerfed in both dmg output and recharge time.

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It used to be "HAHA Eat lead foul miscreants". Now it's "I am going to DIE!". Should be renamed Full Agro.

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- Cloaking Device: I don't know the numbers, but this seems to have better DEF and less end drain than Stealth, plus no movement penalty.

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If I remember correctly it is the same def, slightly less end and no movement penalty. However since they made it so that if you throw a smoke grenade the stealth drops it is of little use on its own.

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- Trip Mine: BANG!

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Surely you mean,
fiddle
fiddle
fiddle
fiddle
BOOOM
Miss

The damn things take 2 accuracy rolls. One to see if they go off and another to see if they hit. To me this makes them less reliable damage dealers than ignite.

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I have had full defiance (100%) twice at 0,1 hp left from fighting.
But you can get it, if you fly to the top of the map and fall down a couple of times.

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That to me just proves how rubbish desperation is.
Tankers use there powers and they get gauntlet
Controllers use there powers and they get containment
Scrappers user there powers and the get criticals
Defenders use there powers and can get endurance reductions.
Blasters have to almost kill themselves to get a glimpse of their pre-ED glory.

I have played my AR/Dev blaster about 3 times since ED. He now has a pathetic popgun. Even Slug sounds like a toy. It used to go BLAM it now goes pop. They even changed the sound so it sounds like what it is. I get a better damage output from my tanker. On the occasions I did field my popper(I hereby rename blaster as popper. As the AR no longer blasts but pops) the scrapper on the team made my dps look pathetic. I attack a minion and hit with slug, burst, buckshot, m30, slug, burst, flamethrower, slug, burst, m30, burst, slug.. the target is about 1/2 hp by now. Then the scrapper runs on having wiped out the rest of the spawn and flattens the minion in a single hit. Critical floats above the damage mocking my attempts to get my inherent to move.

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Controler do damage yay Naff all x 2 is naff all!!

Controlers by far imo have the worst inherant followed closely by blasters!

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I have to disagree on that. I have seen an illusion control ripping through bosses and lieus while I have been stood plugging away with blasts at a single minion. Also to get your inherant to activate you have to use your powers. Blasters have to take a kicking before theres kicks in.

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Its great. You need good aggro control to use it thou. Its definitely not a newbie trick.

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But good aggro control can mean you are taking little to no damage and desperation never kicks in.

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Defiance, however, is more of a case of "ow, ow, ow, ooh look my defiance bar is up" *faceplant*

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Never heard it put better.

I suggested a while back that AB didn't work correctly and got shouted down. I am glad, sort of, that other people have seen this.

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M-30 grenade - never had it, never felt the need for it, generally agreed to be the biggest waste of space in the set!

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I have to disagree. As a stand alone power it is not massively effective. When looked at as a knockdown, soften up power it is very useful. An enemy getting up is an enemy not firing back.

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Smoke grenade, not worth taking if you ain't going to slot it with 3 at least as the debuff would eb so minimal

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Combined with Cloaking device it means you can get very close to some mobs without them seeing you. Excellent for mine or bomb placement.

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careful with full auto, it will lock you down for 6 seconds during which you are a sitting duck for anythign, it has short range and therefore you are likely to be in melee combat before it finishes... mobs run towards you!

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A good tactic is to drop caltrops and trip mines then open fire. Either the fullauto gets them or the mines do.

Buckshot. I would slot for knockback not range increase. It doesn't do masses of damage but is an excellent "argh get away" power.

Tripmine. Would be tempted to put an ACC in there somewhere. The damn thing takes 2 accuracy checks. One to detonate and then one to hit. I slotted them 3 dam, 1 acc, 2 rec. Comes up fast enough.

Ignite. A largely situational power. can be very useful. I use it for area denial. In maps like the sewers with the small doors you can lay it in the door way with some caltrops and enemies won't come through to get you. Any that do get either a beanbag or a buckshot to further disuade them. If you want ignite to be more useful try dropping some Slow enhancers into caltrops. they run very, very slowly burning all the way.

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but I'll probably take a few down with me

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There's the problem. With the inherents tankers can hold aggro, controllers do damage, defenders use less end, scrappers do more damage, blasters take them with you.

At the point that you really don't need any more aggro you can pull aggro off a scrapper by doing more damage. For some strange reason I see that as a bad thing. Also by the time the desperation bar gets its act together and starts to move I am usually running for my life. At no point have I thought 'just a little more damage and I can get him/her/it/that/them'. It's usually more like "aaarrggghhh 1/6 hp left.. runaway"

Usless powers? Look no further than Group Teleport. What muppet put this one in. It snatches me out of my own teleport to take me in a direction I don't want to go. Regardless of what I wanted to do. Group fly is bad but GT is terrible. The only way I can see it being of use is as a mastermind "popup" style attack or as a last ditch attempt to run away.

I will miss you.

How else am I likely to get a team

hope you are not away for too long and the bug pulls you back in.