Quote from: thilenium on Jan 03, 2025, 10:43 AMAre you listening red? ^^
Of course.
Granted, cone attacks are "not everyone's cup of tea" because they're rather sensitive to tactical positioning. But that just raises the bar on Player Skill required to employ cones usefully, which I don't necessarily see as being that detrimental. In my case, I feel gratified when I'm able to catch all the $Targets I wanted to within my cone attacks.
Quote from: thilenium on Jan 03, 2025, 10:43 AMIt only made me dislike cone attacks more. Long activation times and mediocre damage.
Depends on the powers and the build, of course.
Most AoE attacks will do less (raw) damage than a single target attack will, but like the saying goes ... they make it up in volume. So AoE attacks do "more damage" in parallel, but less damage "sequentially" against single targets.
Which is more valuable to you depends on your playstyle and the opposition you want to optimize for.
Quote from: thilenium on Jan 03, 2025, 10:53 AMMMs are time-inefficient in my eyes now.
Depends on your expectations and the engagement strategies you make use of. There are multiple paths to the same objective, with some being better than others at achieving desired outcomes.
Speaking from my own experience, I've found that Tankerminding in Bodyguard Mode is massively advantaged if as a Mastermind I've taken personal attacks (1 single target and 1 AoE being my personal preference, minimum, if global recharge is high enough). By opening engagements with a personal attack from long range, I draw aggro onto myself and any ranged response from my $Target(s) will prompt my MM Pets to retaliate without an Attack command, sustaining Bodyguard Mode. So I've got the aggro to start with, damage that hits me gets divided out amongst the Pets (Bodyguard Mode) and all the Pets focus fire ranged attack in retribution onto whoever attacked me first.
This prevents my MM Pets from rushing into melee (where they'll take the most damage and pull the most aggro) while forcing Foes to advance to my position, during which time my MM Pets continue to cycle ranged attacks. In a lot of situations, a Minion Foe will get defeated just in time to faceplant right in front of my MM, without a single melee attack being thrown (in either direction). All of this happens in just a few scant seconds (with Ninjas), consumes remarkably little endurance from my MM personally, and really brings to bear the advantages of "Many Against One" in being able to focus fire from 6 MM Pets + 1 MM using personal attacks to achieve really quick results ... which of course can be repeated with remarkably little effort.
To put it simply, a Mastermind "played like a brute and damage dealer" might not be quite as successful as a Mastermind who is played a bit more tactically. Rush in and punch stuff (in a Rage) isn't exactly the Way of the Mastermind, so a different mentality is needed in order to exploit the MM AT's strengths while minimizing its weaknesses. If all you want is "hit stuff until they fall down" in your gameplay, then Mastermind probably isn't the best for you. If you're highly prone to
Scrapperlock (and those of us who are know who we are!) then Mastermind probably isn't for you.
Playing a Mastermind well is more of a "herding cats" type of experience that requires you to "know your enemy and know yourself" in order to win (almost) every battle. It's not about dropping ACME anvils onto everything in every situation or circumstance ... so you need a lot more situational awareness than is necessary for most
Scrapperlock mentalities.
Hope that helps.
Quote from: thilenium on Jan 03, 2025, 10:55 AMI tried the archetype warshade and after that did not bother with the peacebringer. Wayyy too many buttons to press and situational stuff. also difficult to comprehend what does what. not relaxing at all.
Kheldians are COMPLICATED.
Almost as complicated as Masterminds, since Kheldians have different Forms (or "modes" or "stances") of gameplay that they can optimize for.
Needless to say, the Tri-form Kheldian is THE most complicated, while also being the most versatile.
In a lot of ways, if you can handle playing a Kheldian, particularly a Tri-former, you should be able to handle a Mastermind. Both require a LOT of keybind file help to be able to manage and control "all the stuff you can do" in a logical manner in order to be able to exert SOME (pre-fab) control over all the stuff you can do.
I personally would NOT want to play a Kheldian without a well organized set of keybind files that load to control different attacks in different Forms, precisely because of the issue you cite ... too many buttons to keep track of.
For what it's worth, I honestly think that the Warshade is the "more complex" of the two Kheldians because the Warshade feels somewhat "necromantic" in actual gameplay. A LOT of what makes a Warshade powerful has to do with CORPSES (Mires, Stygian Circle, Unchain Essence, Dark Extraction, Eclipse, etc.) which makes Warshades partially dependent on their opposition to reach their maximum potential.
By contrast, Peacebringers are more "self contained/self reliant" in that they don't "need" Foes (dead and alive) to augment their powers. So Peacebringers don't have the same kind of "situational dependency" that Warshades have, making their performance more "even" and predictable in actual gameplay, which often makes them simpler when compared to the more complex situational stuff that Warshade can (and should) get up to with their powers.
Peacebringers "reach IN" for their power and strength.
Warshades "reach OUT" to steal a measure of their power and strength.
This makes Peacebringers feel more even keeled to play, while Warshades are more of a roller coaster (higher highs, but also lower lows) which takes more getting used to managing and controlling as a Player. For this reason, I would recommend anyone new to Kheldians to start with a Peacebringer before branching out into a Warshade, rather than taking the reverse path.
