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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5769004" data-attributes="member: 463">I prefer more resilient minions to eg 'exploding' minions like the Orc Savage, at least at Heroic Tier.  I ran a mass battle with dozens of minions on each side, it would have worked great except I used Orc Savage minions - every time a PC-side minion killed one, it killed a PC-side minion too, which really screwed up play balance.  I think exploding minions, if used, are best reserved for Paragon & Epic Tiers.Ranged minions are potentially much more powerful than melee minions.  Per RAW you  can easily make area-burst ranged minions ridiculously lethal.  I find the trick is to use level+5 not level+7 for artillery minion ranged attacks, and do no more than basic 1/2 level +4 damage vs 1 target, much less (say about half of that) on a burst.In general, the best results I've seen have been from increasing minion durability, not lethality.  The big advantage of using minions IME is reduced book-keeping, not 'pile on the damage'.  I recently used 6th level Wraith Figments who had a Damage Threshold of 8 (Incorporeal) - this meant that unless attacked by Radiant damage it took 16 to destroy them, 8 to Bloody.  The 8th level PCs fighting them had no trouble doing 16 damage, & but it gave them exactly the right level of staying power.</blockquote>