Jacqueline

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Link?

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The Mastermind Index is at the top of the Mastermind page.

In it you'll find a link to the Master Mind keypad binds which is what I use, although others may use other systems.

By day two of my MM I was feeling a bit awe struck, trying to control my two Genin and thinking "what's this going to be like when I have six pets?" Then I found the mappings and it's all going swimmingly so far, on the verge of adding my fourth pet.

I use the text-file version of the mappings, by the way.

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I don't want a survival MM, whatever that is, but it'd be nice if my ninja could live for more than two seconds against simple minions.

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I don't know what level you're at, but once you can upgrade your ninja, the Genin gain a bow and arrow and then it's possible to keep them alive much longer.

By their nature they're a flimsy thing, our Genin, but only when left to their own devices. Get the mastermind advanced mappings, if you don't already have them, and practise sending the Genin in and out of battle.

You don't have a heal, so just get used to upgrading, setting to attack, sending them in to melee behind their throwing stars and arrows, letting them get a hit in, then pulling them back again. Once you get the Jounin, you can send him in and keep the Genin back, or send all together and they'll go through level mobs quickly enough that you won't have to worry about losing Genin so often.

Once you have the boys working as a team, they can be a beautiful thing, even the Genin.

Right now, survival for them probably means range so you'll have to dip them in and out of battle with GoTo and Heel commands.

Don't forget, you can feed your pets inspirations, so you can always drop a green on a Genin to keep him upright a bit longer.

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Have you seen Master Zaps numeric keypad controls?

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Yes I have - the 4, 6 and 8 referred to are my NumPad numbers. I haven't had the control buttons in my trays since about day two of MMing.

For a few days I tried telling other MMs about them, because I have pet chat showing, so I can see when some are just set to aggressive all the time, but virtually all the other MM I bumped into seemed to think I was saying they didn't know what they were doing, so I've stopped saying anything now.

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True. I find the MM pretty easy but my minions are rarely on aggressive and always on a tight string. I generally use passive attack with them. There's nothing worse than a MM who lets his pets run after runners. Sure fire way to get an Add group.

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Same here - If I'm in the middle of a mob then my boys are on defensive and attack my target, if I'm sending them in to the dirty work from range, then they're on passive and I'll tell them who to stab in the eye for me.

The only time I press "4" for aggressive is when the fight's turned and there's nothing left to do but mop up, at which point I engage Ninja-madness mode and set them free to do their own thing. Always ready with a quick "6, 8" to bring them back if they get naughty.

I don't think I constitute a high level MM yet, but I'll chip in anyway and say that I'm definitely not getting lonely, as a Ninja/Dark MM.

As for it being too easy and the other comment about the number of low level MM compared to the number of mid level MM, I think the first is wrong and the second proves it.

I imagine that a lot of low level MM thought, "pets! cool!", start an MM and then have a good time slicing through early levels with their new friends... Only to discover that, once you get up a few levels, just running around with your pets set to aggressive doesn't cut it anymore. After a couple of missions where you lose control of your pets, they die, then very shortly after you die, it suddenly doesn't seem so easy.

Throw in complaints from team members as your uncontrolled pets aggro another mob before the team's formed up and now life's not so much fun.

A good MM with good pet control is going to make the AT look easy - but I'd expect any good player who knows their toon to make their AT look easy. A bad MM, with poor pet control is going to annoy their team and end up petless, exposed and quite possibly dead.

Wan Kin does well on his own. Hmmm... there's a joke there somewhere, I'm sure.

My resident loonie is Brian Ninja, who's a mild-mannered accountant from Droitwitch during the day, but in Genin-Gray he turns into a nutter who's always off on his own, faceplanting.

This is why Kevin Ninja got promoted to Jounin before him.

Wow.. some scrooges in here, just in time for Christmas!

I like the Ape Master MM and the banana skin attack in particular.

We'd need to turn down the gamma on the baboon's bums though.

I saw a great example of this tonight, with an MM whose pets were aggroing vast mobs the minute we set eyes on them, long before the team was ready and it caused a couple of faceplants.

A couple of comments were made over chat that the pets needed to be kept in hand and his response was to turn them to passive and leave them that way for the rest of the mission, moaning the whole time that his END was out, because he was having to do all the attacking himself.

I made mention of the advanced binds, (which make my Ninja an absolute godsend for me), and he answered "They're on passive now, so don't complain."

So his answer to agro was, effectively, to switch off his pets.

I didn't catch the moment itself, (someone had to do the fighting), but here's a shot of the lady herself just before hand.

Clicky.

Congratulations Sis, it's been great sharing it with you!