Intrigued

Hey guys, been reading up on MM's after finally ordering my CoV (pretty much just to get the CoH extra stuff for now). I've read Master Z's Mastermind Guide 1.2 or whatever (nice work btw) and am definately thinking about starting a Mastermind for a play around. Few questions though

Looking at the powersets i was intending to start up a
Ninja/Trick Arrow
build but as of yet havent seen one of these about. Whats wrong with them? I know Trick Arrow doesnt have a heal or a status protection, but it feels just an easy choice seeing as though you wouldnt have to re-draw your bow changing between primary and secondary attacks....

also iv heard of people avoiding teaming with MM's because they make it too easy or summin. Any of you high level MM's seen much of this? you and ur pets gettin lonely?

well thats pretty much it. Cheers

Shnyet AWAY

i have no trouble teaming. just send out offers in my SG and usually get at least 1 person to team with. from what i can gather, people that have teamed with me seem to get xp quick.
i dunno if i lvl quicker solo or not, sometimes it seems that way. im necro/dm and keep the team well healed. plus the old zombies virtually tank most of the mobs, keeping the team members mostly safe from harm. we usually go off my lead. send the pets in first to draw the primary aggro, while the rest of the team sets up all their holds/AoE etc. think it gives them more chance to do as they please

Trick arrow is generally viewed as a 'gimped' set, as it is fairly weak, and doesn't really have any exceptionally good powers like the other sets (For either defender or MM)

I've noticed an oddity on Defiant where the number of low level (pre 15) MMs is much lower than the mid-20s.

I'm currently using an alt mostly as my MM is part of a duo and I don't want to power away from my friend. So I've made a Dark Kinetics specifically for teaming with Brutes and Masterminds (especially necros / other meleers). So I'd say that your MM should be better off since you'll be lower level than the initial wave of MMs who are all up at 25 now and thus will have fewer "rivals" for team spaces.

Trick Arrow is considered weak. You should have something to heal your pets. Dark Miasma & Traps seem to be the two most common secondaries, and lots of corrupters have them too.

My main is Ninja/Dark at lvl 30. Its a lot of fun and a suucessful set. But I was also intrigued by trick arrow so I have created a Ninja/Trick Arrow whish is currently at lvl 10.

The Ninja set is the hardest to duo with trick arrow has neither set has a heal on it. So I have taken Aid Other on medicine which up to press works fine, 2 slotted with heal I get a 57 heal with a fairly quick regen that I have no problems getting off in combat.

In trick arrow itself I am using entangle which is excellent, really fast refresh and with a little minion jiggery pokery I can get my ninja to just stand firing bows at entangled mobs. Glue arrow is awesome but has far too long a refresh even 3 slotted with recharge I find myself only using it in boss or big fights, its almost like I cant justify it for a 2 mob fight.

Last one I took at 10 was Ice arrow, which im in two minds about. It has a slow recharge again so multiple applications to hold a boss is nigh impossible and the hold doesnt seem to last long, maybe that will change when I slot it some. I dont know the specifics of Flash arrow as I havent taken it yet.

Overall though I found it good fun being a bow bunny using the Ninja Aimed Shot and all the tricks on the TA set.

True, given that you can probably skip Fitness (my Necro certainly can) you could reinvest in the Medicine pool to make up for no healing.

As i said there's loads of */Dark MMs and Corrupters out there (my mm included ) so it might be nice to play something a little different. It's why I went Kinetics.

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.

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.

Also since your Endurance and Health are usually pretty Ok as a Mastermind you are one of the few ATs that have little need for stamina. So in the teens / early 20s you have all those nice sounding secondaries which others have to wait until the mid 20s to get. So my level 22 feels powerful because he has the like of Fearsome Stare, Shadowfall and Howling Twilight, which I would have had to leave if I was a corrupter, for example.

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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.

You should certainly try a MM out, it's a very different experience to any other AT. I went for robots/FF and it took quite a while to get off the ground, but by about level 20 I was playing on fairly hard difficulty, and by the time I got the last pet I was at max, storming though missions like a hot knife through butter!
MMs are very powerful in the right hands, and it's pretty easy to get the right hands too. They'll be nerfed soon I'm sure, since only Heroes/AVs can't be taken solo, so enjoy it while you can!

Have you seen Master Zaps numeric keypad controls?

Fantastically useful, it lets you choose by your minion type so, for example, you can set the Tier 1s to tank one group and set the Tier 2 to attack that loose lieutent thats harrassing your teamies.

I still have the default "Attack Aggressive" and "Follow Passive" commands bound as 1 & 2 on the numbers row as panic buttons but in combat the numeric controls are great. They'll let you place your minions using the goto command. I'll send them right into the midst of a group on passive and when they get there set to aggressive for a second, to grab aggro and then get them all to attack one mob and switch them back to passive.

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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.

bah, dam that acursed NumPad, iv got a laptop so lack the deliciousness that is a NumPad, but im ok at binds n macros so hopefully i'll b able to do a bit of jiggery-pokery to sort it out. My blaster has a ton of binds set at all the keys around my movement so it should be ok

oh and yeah i was planning on taking medicine pool to compensate for the lack of heal and mez protection in Trick Arrow. The set just looks really well rounded and controllery to aid my ninja's. Im a blaster at heart, and to just sit behind my minions would feel a bit off, id have to be doing SOMETHING, even if its just sending in a Flash arrow at the start to decrease the alpha strike on my beloved minions.

Cheers all

Shnyet AWAY

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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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Oh soz. Didn't realise.

I keep the "Follow Passive" command bound to normal 2 so I can mash it repeatedly screaming "HEEL, HEEL" at the monitor when wanderings occur. Like Crufts with rotting corpses

Don't have much to add to what's already been said, but I do want to point out that Flash Arrow is a good way to spare your pets from taking a full alphastrike. Or at least, I find it useful for that.

I don't have flash arrow, so the flashy thing I use to divert alpha strike from my pets is, umm, me!

A quick arrow from extreme range followed by "RUN AWAY!" will pull the mob right past my pets, who happen to be loafing behind a rock, or a wall, with stance set to aggressive... Mob runs past and hey presto, they have three ninjas up their bums.

Then I can bounce back to support range, so they get their bonuses from having me nearby and annoy bad guys with the puny arrows I do have on hand.

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bah, dam that acursed NumPad, iv got a laptop so lack the deliciousness that is a NumPad, but im ok at binds n macros so hopefully i'll b able to do a bit of jiggery-pokery to sort it out.

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I know of one fine fellow of an MM who has all of his pet commands mapped to Shift + Movement keys, so that he doesn't have to use two hands, so you can certainly do that with your lappy.

Good luck!

To be honest I just lost interest in MMs recently. It's silly but the reasons are just my personal style really :3

I was excellent at controlling them (never accidently aggroed or blocked teammates) and never really died or had difficulty fighting. Nope. My problem was that once I got to two pets I felt like I had too many lol.

Strange thing to say but I prefer the personal touch of just having 1 lil minion that's my equal. Problem is I can't justify ditching the little ones either as each seems to have it's own role so I kinda jumped off the AT instead ^^;

Luckily most people won't have this problem so have fun and I hope you enjoy being a master of minds :3

You don't need to use the numpad for these handy binds, by the usual Zaprobo

http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/sh...fpart=1#249679

I have yet to use my pets on passive for anything other than the stay command, when I wnat them not to try and defend me Or when very occasionally pulling a high level mob. I do have lost of binds though Main ones I use would be attack and follow (heel) I also have goto and wait close at hand. In battle I pick every target, or just about, I find that this way I can encourage them to attack at once and quite often the alpha strike knocks the mob flying, depending on who is atacking me, they either themn move in or I switch them to the next target.

I find my pets especially now that they are fully slotted and above 32, will work best if I can get them into the open I then knock the enemies into walls over balconies etc. The worst problem I have with agro is Darkest night, when active it agroes surrounding mobs, if I forget to deactivate it on runners they can agro a huge amount before they get out of range

NUMBER ONE TIP



get a corruptor friend with Kinetics and the Speed Boost power.... nuff said. (the result is me currently enjoying what i call "superdine zombies")

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NUMBER ONE TIP

get a corruptor friend with Kinetics and the Speed Boost power.... nuff said. (the result is me currently enjoying what i call "superdine zombies")

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I've so much fun doing this to MM minions since last night (dinged level 20). Heck I was doing it to strangers on the street.

Zombies on crack are fun