Official Thread for Mastermind Feature: Bodyguards
By
Agent_Draven,
Posted on: 2006-05-01 13:04 in Developers' Corner
DoooOoOOOOOoOMMMm!!!!
j/k! 
Cant wait to test. 
Relevant question, does this apply to the pets gained through temp powers, secondaries, the heavies, and / or Thugs Gang War?
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Relevant question, does this apply to the pets gained through temp powers, secondaries, the heavies, and / or Thugs Gang War?
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You can't set Pets to defensive stances, so this should only affect Henchmen.
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Relevant question, does this apply to the pets gained through temp powers, secondaries, the heavies, and / or Thugs Gang War?
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You can't set Pets to defensive stances, so this should only affect Henchmen.
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Yeah but the Heavies go through stances.... At least I think they do....
My thug seems to go CRAZY when put into bodyguard
Played with it real quick
All Henchies in BG took a nasty AoE(I think) Nuke attack from a 41 Boss(i'm level 39) and I was standing afterwards.
Dropped down into yellow close to red health.
Initail reaction is it seems to work well, even with Henchies on Def/Follow the majority ofthe time things went down pretty quick.
Side note, the reduced recharge time on our tier 3 Upgrade is damn sweet, it charges almost as fast as the level 1 upgrade. 'Course now we's got's to slot that stuf for endurance reductions...
<'x'> I'll just switch my recharge enhancers to end redux <,<; easy! <'x'> Less you were already 3 slotted with recharge
That won't work. Slotting endredux on a pet is like giving them Stamina -- it reduces the cost of their attacks. It doesn't reduce the cost of summoning them.
That said, I like this change. If things are really hitting the fan, I can replenish the minions over and over. The longer charge on the boss unit means focusing on keeping it alive, though, as a good tradeoff.
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I really like the Provoke my pets have now in their attack chain. How does it rate to other taunt powers?
Is there any chance to get a "bodyguard" button in the default or advanced MM controls? I'd love to just have one click to set my 1st tier henchmen cover me.
I don't know if this is Bodyguard related, but hey - It's a MM problem.
Since I7, robot Protector bots are no longer using their repair ability (in any stance). In another thread, TheDuce has reported that Mercs are not using stimulant/healing either.
Hope this gets fixed before live 
Since Im sure this is a bug related to the bodygaurd, maybe maybe not. I already saw one post about this elsewheres.
Seems to be working as intended. Pets take dmg for me, as long as they are in range.
Seems to be a bug with my heal bots, not healing when I switch them to agressive, attack my target.
So I tried again, got rid of all the bots, resummoned, found a big set of mobs, used attack my target, agressive as I do live server. When my bots got 3/4 health down, none of my protector bots were healing.
Just read another thread about someones medic not healing, seems to be a thing across the board.
Other then the bots being "jittery" IE not wanting to stand still, even without the presense of a mob.
Did notice I cannot command my pets in PFF. No comment on this change in the patch.
I do like being able to upgrade and go in missions now alot faster , a good fix for teamed missions, and great fix for dying so much in pvp.
However im sure this is just a healing bug in the intial release. Good luck Devs, so far though, the other changes I really like.
Though I can understand the change to PFF, Im just bummed because it was my favorite way to keep from being repetitively TP foe droned.
Ditto on the ProBots not healing. One thing I did notice is the second upgrade recharges MUCH quicker now, about the speed of the first upgrade...hope this is another of the buffs they were talking about.
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That won't work. Slotting endredux on a pet is like giving them Stamina -- it reduces the cost of their attacks. It doesn't reduce the cost of summoning them.
That said, I like this change. If things are really hitting the fan, I can replenish the minions over and over. The longer charge on the boss unit means focusing on keeping it alive, though, as a good tradeoff.
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He was referring to the upgrade at 32, not the actual pet summons.
Mercs, ALL mercs, have a brawl attack that I'm not sure is intentional or not. I remember back in beta when they were first put in, mercs had a brawl attack that was taken out because of it's low damage and the mercs' preference to fight in melee.
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That won't work. Slotting endredux on a pet is like giving them Stamina -- it reduces the cost of their attacks. It doesn't reduce the cost of summoning them.
That said, I like this change. If things are really hitting the fan, I can replenish the minions over and over. The longer charge on the boss unit means focusing on keeping it alive, though, as a good tradeoff.
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He was referring to the upgrade at 32, not the actual pet summons.
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Correct!
Took time to get used to but... I love it <O.O> bodyguard is *amazing* >.<;
I learned something (I haven't read this whole thread; sorry if its a repeate); Telling your pets to attack; doesn't change their state anymore!
Thus; you can tell them to attack and *retain* Bodyguard <o.@> at least it was working for me tonight.
Just keep em defensive.
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Took time to get used to but... I love it <O.O> bodyguard is *amazing* >.<;
I learned something (I haven't read this whole thread; sorry if its a repeate); Telling your pets to attack; doesn't change their state anymore!
Thus; you can tell them to attack and *retain* Bodyguard <o.@> at least it was working for me tonight.
Just keep em defensive.
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You mean they're still Bodyguarding while attacking, or, once they kill the target of an AttackMyTarget command, they revert to Follow, and, since they're still on Defense, they go back to Bodyguard once the target is down?
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Suggestion:
Automatically add a Bodyguard Macro to MMs powerbar, similar to the ones already added.
Always remember, we were Heroes.
So far in testing, Bodyguard seems pretty effective. It does tend to mean that I am replacing my henchmen more often, but it also means that I can move through missions somewhat quicker. With the reduced upgrade times, replacing henchment on the fly is no real problem. (though I'm eating blues more often now )
I'm confused.
Mastermind Bodyguards a new defensive feature
Setting to Bodyguard - You can set any Mastermind pet to Bodyguard by selecting the Defensive Stance and the Follow Orders. Your pets must be within Supremacy range for this function to work.
Those are the default settings. Defensive/Follow. Unless you change that they will always be in Bodyguard setting. Is there a need for a button? Besides, I keep those commands in my power tray already.
Now, the confusion comes in with the way that's worded. Follow. Do they leave bodyguard mode if I tell them to attack my target? Do they leave bodyguard mode if I send them to a location? (Still within Supremacy range, I mean)
If that's the case, it would only be good for travel and getting shot at when you don't expect it. I almost never travel with my henchman outside of a mission. And I usually see the mobs in a mission before they see me so I rarely get jumped in that case except for the rare times that there are mobs waiting for me at the door when I enter a mission. During boss fights there are times when I have to fall back, and tell my henchman to follow me, bodyguard would be good for that. But...is that all it's good for? Not for regular combat?
I want to clarify this so I know what to look for in Test and see if it's working as intended.
(Since this will be read by a red name I want to put in a plug for the broken pet chat. It shows up in the combat window through 'Damage Inflicted', the only way to get rid of it is to remove DI from your combat window. It's also so light that it's impossible to read. Can we get a fix for that?)
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Suggestion:
Automatically add a Bodyguard Macro to MMs powerbar, similar to the ones already added.
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Change the Follow command from "follow Aggressive" to "follow Defensive".
I hated the "Aggressive" feature of Follow.
Or type in /macro BG petcom_all Follow Defensive
Unless you want the devs to do it because you're lazy. :P
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Suggestion:
Automatically add a Bodyguard Macro to MMs powerbar, similar to the ones already added.
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Change the Follow command from "follow Aggressive" to "follow Defensive".
I hated the "Aggressive" feature of Follow.
Or type in /macro BG petcom_all Follow Defensive
Unless you want the devs to do it because you're lazy. :P
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Or unless I want the option to be easily useable by players who don't understand the macro system? i.e. the reason the prebuilt macros are automatically there in the first place?
This is a thread about feedback todo with Bodyguard, no need to get snippy about a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
Always remember, we were Heroes.
I'm having two problems with it.
First of all, from level 2 to level 5, with Thugs, it wasn't working at all. None of my damage sloughed off to the thug. As soon as I got the second thug, it started working normally.
But the bigger problem I'm having with it is that if minions are in Bodyguard stance, they will not attack, period, until either they or I am hit. Which really, really, really cuts my damage output at the beginning of the fight, because until the enemy actually hits me, they're just standing around pulling their underwear out of their crack.
Would it be considered over-powered if they soaked damage while in Attack Defensive mode? If that's out of the question, is there any reason why Defensive minions don't attack when I do? If I can't have one of those things or the other, then Bodyguard is going to be a very rare situational thing for me.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I did notice one nice feature though: they don't aggro on the individual enemy that hit me, they aggro on the whole spawn cluster it was with. Example: In Follow Defensive mode, I attack one of three Mooks. As soon as any one of the Mooks returning fire hits me, they all open fire on that Mook. When that Mook falls down, they continue fighting until the other two Mooks are down, too. They won't attack anything else until the next one of us gets hit, but they do keep fighting until that spawn is cleared, which is very handy.
For those who are having trouble understanding how you are supposed to have your henchmen attack or move to a location while still having use of Bodyguard, you have two choices:
1) Select your target or targets and send your henchmen to attack it. Then, after combat is engaged, switch all henchmen back to follow defensive. Since they are already taking fire, defensive mode will not stop them from firing.
2) Place a subset of your henchmen in aggressive mode and direct them to attack while another subset remain behind in follow defensive. When the henchmen set to aggressive mode draw fire (because they are attacking) the henchmen in defensive mode will open fire to support them.
The first suggestion will maximize your opening salvo as all henchmen will fire on the foe or foes. However, you are sacrificing Bodyguard for that, and will have no protection until you switch them back to follow defensive during the fight. Of course, since you are likely not going to attack first you should not draw aggro yourself until the battle is well underway.
The second suggestion is safer, as you still retain some Bodyguard, but you lose some of your alpha strike damage. I have found this technique very handy, though, as it ensures aggro is concentrated on a smaller group of my henchmen, and I and my protective henchmen can focus our defense better on them. (Putting it another way, my Protector Bot doesn't get shot as much, which is good since he can't heal himself)
In either case, should you get in trouble and start drawing fire, you can set all bots to Bodyguard mode and get their full protection. If you aren't the one taking fire, you really don't need Bodyguard mode. So it shouldn't be needed for the alpha strike, only later. For the second suggestion, you can stay in partial Bodyguard (sloughing the damage off to your Protector Bot or whatever your defender is) for protection against the occasional fire you may take. Full Bodyguard is for when you get in real trouble.
This thread is solely for discussions regarding Mastermind Bodyguards. From the Issue 7 Training Room patch notes:
Mastermind Bodyguards a new defensive feature
Setting to Bodyguard - You can set any Mastermind pet to Bodyguard by selecting the Defensive Stance and the Follow Orders. Your pets must be within Supremacy range for this function to work.
Damage Mitigation - When set to Bodyguard mode, the Mastermind and his pets share damage from any attack that the Mastermind takes damage from. Each pet takes one Share of the damage, and the Mastermind himself takes 2 Shares. This is in addition to any damage that the pets themselves might incur from Area attacks.
Example: If a Mastermind has 3 pets set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with a 100 point attack, each pet will take 20 points of damage, and he himself will take 40 points. (total of 100 points of damage).
All off topic posts will be removed. Please do not post bugs/feedback/balance issues before testing this content. All bugs/feedback/balance issues should be posted AFTER using the bodyguard feature.