Always losing One Battle Drone Per Battle
By
Bookkeeper_Jay,
Posted on: 2009-06-08 08:09 in Masterminds
I'm not sure how relevant it will be, but I play a bots/ff mastermind and I rarely lose my bots. I run the difficulty level 5 and I don't even have any invention sets (I just started playing again a month ago). My general strategy is set bots to aggressive, sit back and watch things die. I don't do much, so I don't draw a lot of aggro. Of course, if I do, I just pop my panic-button personal force field.
I think I owe my survival to stacking defense. I tried to build my character to stack as much defense as I could. I use maneuvers and dispersion bubble, as well as slot my protector bots for defense buff. Between those three, it rarely even seems necessary to use the single target force fields.
You didn't mention using the shield drone. I'm not familiar with traps, does it have one? If I were you, I would invest in that power, as the stacking defense really pays off.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
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You didn't mention using the shield drone. I'm not familiar with traps, does it have one? If I were you, I would invest in that power, as the stacking defense really pays off.
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On Bots/Traps you get the Force Field Generator for yourself and Bots. The Proctor Bots also will double bubble the other bots but not you. I have the FFG fully slotted with IO's as do my other powers. It appears from what you said that Bots/FF may give more sheer protection against most lethal blows and also gives your Bots more protection if you solo them on aggresive attack mode.
All I can say is what I have has worked so far. Please note that my MM is only level 41, and I haven't gone one on one with any AV's, so I'm not sure of his survivability there.
I don't have any doubts, but I still can't say for sure.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
Maybe you could get confront/provoke, to try to keep the mobs on you, while using bodyguard mode.
From what I can tell, using Seeker Drones first would also be a good idea, since it lowers the enemies change to hit, and damage potential. Lastly, summoning the traps/mines at YOUR location before you engage, then using provoke to bring them to you should work.
Even then, loosing just one Battle Drone in a tough fight isn't much.
P.S. Glad to see I'm not the only one suffering in this Phoenix weather 
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Maybe you could get confront/provoke, to try to keep the mobs on you, while using bodyguard mode.
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I used to laugh at MMs who took provoke >_> Now that I'm back and playing an MM again, I'm starting to realize just how brilliant an idea this really is.
Even though I don't plan on tankerminding specifically, just having it to keep the suicidal henchmen from being clobbered would be a big help, at least for me (Don't have it yet on either of mine, but planning on getting it on my Bots/ soon 
)
... and I swear I think someone installed Windows ME on one of my prot bots when I wasn't looking.
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... and I swear I think someone installed Windows ME on one of my prot bots when I wasn't looking.
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The prot bots collide with their summoned seeker drones quite often and need to be "recall friended" to get unstuck usually. It's something that's already fixed in the i15 beta.
And for the record, it's actually Vista.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
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Being that this is my first MM, I tought I would start out with Bots/Traps since this is what was advised by me in previous forums as being the best to start out for a noob MM. Anyways, currently at level 45 and always learning new techniques and tactics on beating bosses and such.
The first thing I am learning is how best to use body guard mode. When I first started out, I used to send my Bots in haphazardly in "Target Lock Aggressive Mode" without realizing that I am pretty much screwed once I get hit and my life bar drops down considerably. Sometimes I will use the "foxhound" technique if a Boss starts to run away down a tunnel such as in the Rikti base and I send my hound dog bots in after them. Sometimes this works if I am alone and not being attacked by others and can re-spawn them when needed. The majority of time though, I will always use "Defensive Follow Mode" or Bodyguard Mode when I go into battle.
Now, with that being said, it seems that my techniques are still not the best since it seems that I am loosing an average of one of my three Battle Drones at the start of each major battle. What I normally do is jump right in next to the Boss and set-up my goodies/traps, Triage Beacon, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap, Trip Mines then set out my Seeker Drones and then go to work. I try to draw aggro so they won't focus on my bots but it seems I still end up loosing one upfront.
So, if anyone else has any techniques they would like to share with me because currently I have been playing on level 4, going up against EB's but would really like to crank it up to max level 5 and go the AV route but I need to polish my techniques first before I can even attempt this. Thanks!
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Wait, your worried that for major battles your losing a single drone?! *laughs* On my ninja/poison I am nasty against EB's and bosses. The character also has two well slotted 'heal other person' powers and keybinds to quickly target each pet. In battles where I agro an entire heavily populated room or am fighting an EB (depending on the EB) I tend to lose about 6 pets total, sometimes more. In fact I tend to have to resummon/buff them on the fly in such battles.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
On my thugs i always lost my fire toon. On my imps, i always lose 1. lol. Same things happen to me.
There's always one Battle Drone that insists on running into melee. It's related to the tendency of the Medic and Arsonist to do the same thing. It's actually programmed into the AI, any group of "critters" is designed to split up like that to give the players a better chance of defeating them. Unfortunately in a Mastermind's case, AI designed to make the critters easier to defeat is a bad thing.
There are two ways to deal with it. One is to ignore the fool and let him get killed. I actually have keybinds specifically set up to browbeat the most common culprits for my various MMs. The other is to use goto to call him back, or to move in and support the meleer with your Secondary powers. Usually if he can defeat whatever drove him into such mindless rage, he'll calm down and fight the rest of the spawn at range.
Another possibility is to team him with your Assault Bot. Set your two "tame" Drones to one keybind, and the moron and your Assault Bot to the other. That way if he runs into melee, you can send your Assault Bot to either follow him or provide cover fire. Of course, that doesn't help if one of your other bots start acting up, but I've found nine times out of ten it's the same one.
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And for the record, it's actually Vista.
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Someone never tried ME. 
I can actually use my Rig that has Vista on it, ME probably wouldn't boot.
Battle Drones are fodder for stronger enemies.
Yes you will have to resummon one or two, but that's life, eh?
You even so much as look at Tier 1 pets and they fall over, bah...
Yea, it's not when the T1 pets go down now and then you gotta worry. It happens every so often. It's when your T2 pet, or BOSS pet goes down that you know you might be in trouble.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
As for normal fights, my typical pattern on my bots/traps is to send in seeker drones and as they get shot at to throw down a poison trap. This gets the enemy held, and i get shot at, which gets my bots firing. After that I'll open up with my other traps.
Some things that might help- do u have maneuvers? Yes bots have defense, but the closer u get to soft-cap, and of course the more defense u have in general, the less they will die. My bots right now, outside of the protector bots, have 46% or so defense to all but psy, which means they dont get hit much. This is with the prot bot bubbles (two lv. 50 def IO's in prot bots), FFG, maneuvers, and the defense aura pet IO. Which brings me to another point, if u save up your money and buy both pet uniques and slot them in, they will help keep your pets alive as well. 10% resistance can easily mean the difference between getting one-shotted or not, and if they arent one-shotted, it means they can be healed.
I do lose pets here and there, but it is often because one of them chases a guy down a hallway when im not looking or something. Or the battle is really intense and I have like 40 guys shooting at me at once. Every AT was meant to have a limit and weaknesses, otherwise the game would get boring eventually.
I always lose my zombie 'Moe' in battles, and have to run around the rest of the mish with just 'Larry' and Curly. No biggie...I usually don't care and I don't usually resummon Moe until Larry or Curly bites it too.
It wouldnt be an issue at all if it was cheaper and faster to summon pets on the fly.... I mean.... Thats what an MM does! Keeps sending waves and waves of minions after an enemy! Cant very well do that when it takes a long time to send the next wave.... "Hey you lazy bums! Wake up or I'll lash you!" 
my bots/traps replaces probots far more often than the drones.
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I always lose my zombie 'Moe' in battles, and have to run around the rest of the mish with just 'Larry' and Curly. No biggie...I usually don't care and I don't usually resummon Moe until Larry or Curly bites it too.
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How awkwardly similar.
The enemies always kill either Akon or Lou Albano first.
I always lose at least one genin (that's why all 3 are named Meatshield) per battle on my ninja/pain mm. I concentrate on keeping the oni/jounin alive since they are far more useful.
I have provoke on my bots/storm mm and took provoke. Taunting enemies into commiting suicide in your hurricane is quite hilarious.
slot Protector Bots 3 Defense Buff/2 Damage/1 Accuracy
slot Force Field Generator 3 Defense Buff
i also grabbed Aid Other over Repair. Repair's cooldown is too long and is a waste on the Battle Drones.
Another nifty trick i learned is caltrops force a fear reaction in most enemies. lay some of those down and they wont attack, instead they will try to leave the caltrops thus allowing for more mitigation
and as others have said: lead off with the seeker drones. They not only will absorb the Alpha attack but also Debuff Tohit (youm ay want to slot them for -Tohit to stack with your huge defense.. thats what i did)
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
Here what you do.
That drone, when he runs in close to all the mobs by himself:
1). Select him. use the petsay command to make him say "I am a moron!!"
2) Click "detonator"
3). Click the "Battle Drones" power to make a new drone.
4). laugh and laugh at your newfound "volunteer" as he repeats the behavior over and over.
Liberty server
Eldagore lvl 50 Inv/ss, co-founder of The Legion of Smash
3.5 servers of alts....I need help.
May the rawk be with you.
Arc #'s
107020 Uberbots!
93496 A Pawn in Time
Wait, detonator? How do you access that? Is there a way to directly access pet powers I'm not aware of?
detonator is the tier 9 power in traps, OP said she was bots/traps.
Liberty server
Eldagore lvl 50 Inv/ss, co-founder of The Legion of Smash
3.5 servers of alts....I need help.
May the rawk be with you.
Arc #'s
107020 Uberbots!
93496 A Pawn in Time
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I'm not sure how relevant it will be, but I play a bots/ff mastermind and I rarely lose my bots.
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I have Bots/FF and I love it. I think that it unfairly gets a bad name for being boring. First, the guides say to skip personal attacks, and that's a mistake at low levels. Second, you're not ordering your pets around enough and mashing things with Force Bolt. These things will make you more active.
Just my 2 Tickets, but I do things Bots/FF rep is undeserved.
Being that this is my first MM, I tought I would start out with Bots/Traps since this is what was advised by me in previous forums as being the best to start out for a noob MM. Anyways, currently at level 45 and always learning new techniques and tactics on beating bosses and such.
The first thing I am learning is how best to use body guard mode. When I first started out, I used to send my Bots in haphazardly in "Target Lock Aggressive Mode" without realizing that I am pretty much screwed once I get hit and my life bar drops down considerably. Sometimes I will use the "foxhound" technique if a Boss starts to run away down a tunnel such as in the Rikti base and I send my hound dog bots in after them. Sometimes this works if I am alone and not being attacked by others and can re-spawn them when needed. The majority of time though, I will always use "Defensive Follow Mode" or Bodyguard Mode when I go into battle.
Now, with that being said, it seems that my techniques are still not the best since it seems that I am loosing an average of one of my three Battle Drones at the start of each major battle. What I normally do is jump right in next to the Boss and set-up my goodies/traps, Triage Beacon, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap, Trip Mines then set out my Seeker Drones and then go to work. I try to draw aggro so they won't focus on my bots but it seems I still end up loosing one upfront.
So, if anyone else has any techniques they would like to share with me because currently I have been playing on level 4, going up against EB's but would really like to crank it up to max level 5 and go the AV route but I need to polish my techniques first before I can even attempt this. Thanks!