IMHO after playing a few hundred lvls of Mastermind, complete control would overpower the class. The randomness of the attacks keeps this AT in balance with all the other ATs. There are several guides to bind writing that would improve gameplay a ton.
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Off topic:
Is their a way to have pets attack your target while keeping them in defense mode instead of attacking random enemies? I would like to mass my fires while keeping my pets near me for the dmg mitigation and +status for them. Just curious.
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Okay my best advice, play aggressively. Put all your pets in defensive/follow and attack first yourself. Pets will defend you when attacked and wont fly off the handle and run all over the place
Lets see what I can say to help here. This is in no particular order.
Pets' attacks have recharge times, and keeping them from using some attacks, or even just having them use them less often will hurt their DPS, as there will be times they are not attacking. A fix to this would be to get them to use ranged attacks in melee range.
You can set the attack bind to remain Defensive, just right click the attack button on your power bar (I assume you're still using the default attack, defensive, and passive buttons here), and click edit. Change the word 'aggressive' the 'defensive' and then they will attack the one target, then return to you when it is dead.
I agree with wanting to set a preference to stay together, or stay in melee, or something. Ranged attacks work fine in melee range, and as a /pain MM, having them all within the AOE heal ranges would be nice, and would keep them alive longer than having them stay back, and get shot.
I also agree with trying to get the medic to focus on healing. have had other merc Masterminds mention that too.
Anyways, welcome to the world of Master Minding. Your post sounds very demanding, but to be honest, that is the sign of a good Mastermind, you want/like to be the boss.
The medic can't be relied upon for healing or using his stimulate. The spec ops can't be relied upon for their controls either really. Play as it's not there and compensate for the loss.
Overpower eh? Ok, so then let's not mess with the powers if it would be the doom and cause the rise of the nerf. But, what about the position control? Making your pets scatter, cluster, or surround a target/area doesn't seem overpowering to me.
Just a lowly lvl 22 MM
Merc/Poison
My reasoning for wanting control over what powers were used would be more to have my pets use ranged attacks against classes that have high melee attacks and melee attacks against those that have significant ranged attacks. I agree that keeping them from using all of their attacks lessons the DPS, but as the saying goes "all money aint good money." I'd like to play some pets close to the chest for protection for me or them, have some favor status attacks over straight up attacks for obvious reasons (unless the foe in question is immune then take that and turn it around).
Thanks for the info on messing with the target attack thing.
I appreciate the feedback on my position control as well.
just a lowly lvl 22 MM
merc/poison
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But, what about the position control?
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We have that through binds.
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My reasoning for wanting control over what powers were used would be more to have my pets use ranged attacks against classes that have high melee attacks and melee attacks against those that have significant ranged attacks. I agree that keeping them from using all of their attacks lessons the DPS, but as the saying goes "all money aint good money." I'd like to play some pets close to the chest for protection for me or them, have some favor status attacks over straight up attacks for obvious reasons (unless the foe in question is immune then take that and turn it around).
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Believe me, I understand the want to remove useless powers from their arsenal. I'd remove stim from the medic since all he does is spam it randomly. Remove brawl from the majority of my pets would also be high on the list.
Regardless of the fact the AT is called 'Mastermind', limitations were set for balance reasons.
Most of the rest of the advice in this thread is wrong. Sorry Gypsy, I respect you as a player, but your advice is not 100% correct.
Mastermind pets cannot be commanded to give out specific attacks. This is correct. However, mastermind pet AI prefers certain attacks. It also really likes attacking, so if it has attacks that are recharged that it cannot use, it will attempt to put itself in a situation where it can.
By this, I mean that you can predict what a mastermind pet will do. The thugs bruiser for instance, really likes knockout blow and foot stomp much more than his other attacks. He also has hurl, his only long range attack.
At the start of a battle, the thugs bruiser will begin by attacking his target with hurl since he is not yet in range of an enemy to melee. While hurl is recharging, he'll run into melee range, since he has no attacks other than hurl at a distance, and hurl is recharging. He'll knockout blow as soon as he gets into range, then he will foot stomp if there's anything in range (even if he's not in the best place to do it). Then he'll chain his other attacks, and wait for KO Blow and Foot Stomp to recharge. If enemies flee or get knocked back, he'll typically hurl, then chase them.
I'll use an example from Mercenaries. Spec Ops are highly useful pets with very nasty controls. Their controls have a range of 70 feet, while their normal attacks reach much further, 150 feet for the snipe, and 100 feet for their assault rifle bursts. Their AI is also somewhat different. If they're told to attack and are very far away from their target (> 70 feet) they'll attempt to snipe. If they're out of range of their bursts, they'll run to 100 feet or so after the snipe and start firing bursts. They'll continue to cycle bursts and snipe there - they won't attempt to get closer. This is probably due to SCAR Burst's 3 second recharge, but I'm not sure.
If they are closer than 70 feet, they'll fire controls and will not snipe at all. They typically prefer to use tear gas first if it is available, then they'll fire flash bangs and finally web grenades. After that, they'll focus on firing bursts.
If they are very close, within 20-30 feet, they will fire their controls, fire their bursts, and rush into melee and attempt to rifle butt. Occasionally the rifle butt outprioritizes the controls, so this is not an ideal situation unless the controls are recharging.
Now occasionally gremlins get in the pet AI. They do not follow the algorithms perfectly. Spec Ops are probably the best example of this. When I summon my spec ops fresh and give them upgrade 1 and 2, position them about 60 feet outside a spawn and tell them to attack, sometimes they shoot flashbangs or web grenades first. It -really- sucks when they shoot web grenades first, but it happens sometimes. Since I have 2 of them though, typically one of them fires an AoE control.
I usually don't give them upgrade 1 until the middle of battle for this reason - that way they don't have rifle butt or flash bang, so they almost always do tear gas and don't charge into melee. Then, I give them upgrade 1 - it doesn't really matter if they rifle butt at this point or not, since spec ops do kind of awful damage, so them using rifle butt (pretty good single target stun) is a good thing. They also will eventually get around to shooting their flash bangs. Then, after the spawn is over or typically when it's almost dead, I dismiss and resummon my spec ops. When the spawn is over, I toss upgrade 2 to a soldier (which upgrades the spec ops too), open the next spawn with tear gas and repeat the process.
Other mastermind pets have similar tendencies. The Lich prefers fearsome stare and petrifying gaze, grave knights prefer their bigger attacks instead of their quick ones. This takes a little bit of study on your part to kind of figure out their quirks.
One last thing on the medic, is that if he's out of close combat, he tends to only use his rifle and heal/stim packs. He is a pretty reliable backup healer to be honest (he doesn't stim you almost ever, which is super annoying) - but he does like to get in close quarters too much and it tends to get him in trouble.
Which part do you mean Auspice, I've left a few post in this thread.
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Mastermind pets cannot be commanded to give out specific attacks.
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With the right macro setup, you can use your spec ops to snipe targets. Move them to a location that snipe is the only power in range. Order them to "stay", target the mob and attack. You must quickly move them again otherwise they will run in to use other attacks.
Man, I hate to double post after making a giant wall of text, but I thought I would give some more advice.
I have a 50 merc/psn. Let me tell you, it's one of the worst possible mastermind PvE builds in the game. It's pretty nice in PvP, so if you're keen on that, you'll probably like your build. However, I absolutely hated leveling merc/psn in PvE and was incredibly happy when I finally hit 50.
That being said, here's how pet controls work.
Your pets have 3 basic commands and 3 stances.
The three commands are 'attack', 'follow', and 'goto.' Technically there is also a 'stay' command. The icon and function of the command is identical to a goto command if it were issued at the pet's location.
The three stances are 'aggressive', 'defensive', and 'passive'.
The first big MM lesson is the use of bodyguard mode. You have an inherent called Supremacy that buffs your pets' tohit and damage. It is a pbaoe aura that has a 60 foot radius. Your pets will not get it if they exit this radius or if you lose line of sight with them. You can check the Supremacy status of each pet if you show buff icons in your pet window.
If a pet is in defensive stance, is NOT being issued an attack command, and has the Supremacy buff, it is eligible for bodyguard mode. While a pet is granting you bodyguard mode, it takes a share of the damage for you. The exact math for this is dmg/(2+bg) where dmg is incoming damage, and bg is the number of pets in bodyguard mode. Each pet will take one share of the damage listed dmg/(2+bg) while you will take 2(dmg/(2+bg)). With 3 pets in bodyguard mode, this is a 60% damage reduction. With 6, it's 75% damage reduction.
THE COMMANDS
The attack command tells any pets you order to go after your current target. If you try to tell them to attack a friendly or you have no target, they'll look at you weird. This command causes pets to exit bodyguard mode, and overrides any goto commands you may have issued. Therefore, if you want pets to go to a particular place and fight (typically used to set up cone damage), you are better off putting them on aggressive or getting the enemy to attack you, then your pets will retaliate.
The follow command tells your pets to follow you. For the most part, your pets will stop what they are doing and follow you, even if they are fighting. I hit this command probably 100 times a mission. After being issued a follow command, pets will stop attacking for about 10-ish seconds and will usually not engage the enemy for any reason unless told to go aggressive or given an attack order. Occasionally this does not happen. If you want to be absolutely sure that pets will return to you, use the passive stance along with the follow command to clear their AI, but keep in mind that passive stance disables bodyguard mode.
The goto command tells your pets to move to roughly a particular place - it'll give a white targeting circle like a drop patch, for your pets to move to. Melee pets hate this command. I highly recommend not using it on melee pets as they will get dumb, run out to melee something, run back to their goto location, then run back out to melee. It is highly annoying. It is however useful for ranged pets for many reasons, including lining up cone damage, keeping them at a distance, or getting them to use specific attacks (I'm looking at you, Spec Ops). Pets will -usually- obey a goto before their AI decides it wants to attack something but this is not always the case. If you absolutely want them to go somewhere without distractions, passive them.
THE STANCES
Aggressive stance is by far the worst stance ever and most MM players should only rarely use it. It tells your pets to attack anything they see, as long as it doesn't interfere with the command they've just been given - well, most of the time. Sometimes they'll ignore gotos and follow orders to run around and attack. Be very careful when using aggressive stance - I typically only use it when I am very certain that I need to be in it or my pets will contribute nothing (target switching to attack constantly keeps you from using secondary powers as effectively, etc.)
Defensive stance should be considered the default stance. Your pets should be in defensive stance 99.9% of the time. If pets are in defensive stance, they will attack any enemy that showed aggression to you or one of them in the last 30 seconds or so. If an opponent is held or feared or something for a very long time, it may drop off their hostile timer. In general, you'll want to keep pets in defensive, and take a hit to get your pets to rage on the enemies.
Passive stance tells your pets not to fight or do anything unless you specifically tell them to do it. I rarely use it but it has its uses, especially in pulling or getting pets to do very specific things. For instance, you can passive spec ops, then attack from very long range to have them pull with their snipe (then tell them to follow, so they don't run in guns blazing).
HOW TO DO IT
Binding keys is pretty easy.
The command is /bind key function
So for instance you wanted to bind the numpad 0 key to send me a tell saying I'm a jerk, you could do /bind numpad0 tell @auspice, "You are a jerk."
So how does this work for you?
/bind numpad7 petcom_pow Spec attack
is a command that, when you push the number 7 on your numpad, both of your spec ops will attack. Petcom_pow tells all pets summoned by a certain power to attack. Since the only power with the word 'spec' is Spec Ops, only the spec ops will get the command. If you did
/bind numpad7 petcom_pow o attack
ALL the mercenaries pets have O in their summon power (sOldiers, spec Ops, cOmmandO) so they will all attack. There's an easier command for that, though...
/bind 7 petcom_all attack
which will make all your pets attack.
Let's get a little more tricky! My mercenaries medic name is "crazyman 2" and my spec ops are "SPEC OPS" and "SPEC POS" respectively. So I can use...
/bind numpad5 petcom_name c follow defensive
to make my spec ops and medic go into bodyguard mode. They'll now provide me with 60% damage reduction. My soldiers and commando don't have C in their names, so they will keep doing whatever it was that they were doing. This does mean you'll have to make creative naming schemes. I admit, naming a character "SPEC POS" is pretty uncreative, but fortunately, my mastermind is not a really creative person, ha.
You can combine any stances and commands in a single petcom command as above. So you can make your thugs bruiser (if you had one anyway) rush into a spawn without Hurling using petcom_pow bru goto aggressive - so he'll use Foot Stomp better.
There's a lot of nuance to it - and pets are ultimately pets that won't follow what you say exactly. You can do the best you can, though, and the tools you have give you a lot of freedom to control their actions.
Re: Gypsy using specops snipe to pull - you don't need to issue a stay command, just get to 71 feet or further and passive them, then tell them to attack. When you see them start to queue the snipe, tell them to follow and be around a corner so after the snipe fires, they'll run around the corner.
Really you can do this with any ranged pet, but mercs do it best because their attacks have gigantic range. Still, you can pull with any pet - just passive all your pets, tell one of them with an 80 foot ranged attack to attack, as soon as he starts to attack, give him a follow command.
Yea I'm aware, I just used spec ops as an example since the OP is a merc/poison. As far as using stay, it's just a personal preference.
I haven't found a suggestion for this yet and before posting it on the suggestions forum I'd rather see if I've either missed it in my searches or if I'm crazy for even suggesting it.
First, I'd like to say that I have no idea how to bind commands to ...... whatever it is you bind them to and unless I have to I have no intentions on learning. (woe is me / I'm sure the tech savvy laugh at the notion that I don't know nor want to learn something so "simple")
Ok so what's my problem. When I go into a fight with my pets, I have no idea what type of attacks they will attempt. I can't exclude any actions from their inventory, or make it so certain attacks are their priority over others. This makes fights pretty chaotic (don't get me wrong I like chaos, I just like to be the source not the recipient). There are times when I would like the medic say concentrate on heals, or the whoever on status attacks. Or maybe I want one to use a ranged attack in melee distance to keep the cluster together for a Targeted AOE attack I or another one of my pets has brewing or to just stay the hell away from that Elite boss or AV so they don't die when their AOE goes off, or even to stay away from each other so AOE attacks don't hit everybody. I think has a Master Mind, this level of flexibility should be afforded to us.
Now to the idea, I would like to have the option of exercising more control over my pets. As in, I'd like to be able to curtail which attacks I'd like them to favor and the distance at which I would like them to stay or weather to cluster or scatter. Whether it be range over melee, or status attack over dmg heavy, or heals over attacks, I think that the master mind should be able to come up with his/her/it's own strategy for how those attacks should be dished out.
Ok that's the what I want. Now to how I want it. I think either a slider bar going from one extreme to the other and preset in the middle would work nicely, or a menu where you see a list of powers and you can adjust them to be used more or less often or what order they should be used in, or something to that effect that I haven't thought of. The intent would be to have those values be preset on individual pet types (ie: knights or commandos, or medics, ect.) and have those pets act accordingly.
The payoff
Masterminds would be able to better control the flow of the battle and not only attack at the time and place of their choosing but also with the strategy of their choosing. And when you control the flow of the battle you control the outcome. No one would have to buy into this if they don't want to. They could leave everything set to the default values. However, those who want to try a different play style would have that option open to them.
Off topic:
Is their a way to have pets attack your target while keeping them in defense mode instead of attacking random enemies? I would like to mass my fires while keeping my pets near me for the dmg mitigation and +status for them. Just curious.
Just a lowly lvl 22 MM
Merc/Poison