Why do Protector Bots engage in melee?

Well, the title says it all really - i have a Bots/Traps MM (lvl 25 atm) and i'm getting a bit annoyed by the AI controlling my Protector Bots. They seem to engage enemies at range first, and then run in to melee range (either in Offensive or Defensive stance). As far as i can see, they dont even have a melee attack, so why are they behaving this way? Is this a problem for all of you Bots MMs out there or am i missing something (like i usually am!) The Battle Drones seem to be perfectly happy to stay at range, and im soon to find out how the Assault Bot behaves...

All pets have a Brawl attack. The issue here is that your Protector Bots don't have enough to do at range, so they get down to having Brawl as their only active power and run up to melee, but by the time they get there, they have another power recharged, so they use that instead.

Once you get Upgrade, the Protectors have enough to do that they never get down to having only Brawl active, so they get better. If you're not using Equip on them, or your Drones aren't getting hurt (thus the Protectors don't have to heal them), that might also be an issue.

Looking forward to the day we can choose which powers to disable on the pets.

I agree, this is an annoyance. I have similar problems on my Mercs (the Medic insists on making himself the main target) and on my Thugs (Arsonists tend to run up close and get killed).

Really, for some time now, I've stopped playing my Masterminds, though the issue is largely the "Run Away" AI of the foes. My pets engage, one or two foes run away, and my bots chase them, aggroing everything on the map. The only thing I can do is hit Follow repeatedly until they obey (5 or 6 commands usually is necessary), and wait 5 minutes for the foes to come back.

I mean, my other characters still have to wait, but they don't have bots running around willy nilly aggroing everything in sight.

Thanks very much for the help folks! I dont think i have seen the Protector Bots use Brawl when they get in melee range - mine seem to stand there for a few seconds and then fire off a laser attack, but tbh i dont really pay too much attention to them.

It would probably be to much to ask the Devs to have a Ranged or Melee stance available to us MMs (or have somekind of 'leesh' when they are set to follow, so they dont go chasing runners across the map...) At least i've noticed that Bots seem to be better behaved than my very old Ninja MM (deleted now) - they had the opposite problem of staying back throwing their shurikens rather than going into melee...

Managed to get to lvl 26 at the end of last nights session, so i now have my full compliment of pets - just need to fast-forward time to 17:30 so i can go home and test them out!

Yeah, recently started to play my Bots/FF MM and this problem occurs a lot. I also never saw them doing a brawl attack, besides, I don't even want them to do a brawl attack. I want them(when soloing) to stay under my dispersion bubble. When I see it happen I usually use a goto command on my location but it would really help a lot if they could change the AI for not using brawl(whether they have it or not)

Follow/Aggressive and Follow/Defensive can both be interrupted by aggro or attack. To bring them back in a hurry use Follow/Passive and switch them when they return to a more constructive stance.

Hey, you built them with a hammer arm so they're gonna use it, right?

That aside it can be annoying. Mercs love to do this, although it's worse on the Prot Bots than it is on some of the other ranged henchies with brawl.

What I often do is put the protector bots on passive and everyone else on Defensive (or offensive).

Of course, I play Bots/FF, so I have time between buffs to control individual bots.

I just think of it as the bot taking the 'protector' part of its description very seriously and running in front of me shouting "Stay back boss! I'll hold him off!"

I'd like my bots to get a new power that enables them to jump in front of me to take incoming fire, in slow motion, while shouting "Nooooooooo!"

What I'd like, is for when I tell them to stay in one spot they f'n stay there.

That protector bot AI even overrides the "stay" command and still rushes in. It's annoying as hell. I typically throw down a tar patch between myself and the mobs. Let the bots rip them apart while the mobs try to get to me. That protector bot wants to run to the other side of the patch every single time and engage.

On my Bots/Traps I fight in melee range, always. As long as I can keep a spawn tight, it ensures that myself and my bots are always protected by my force field generator and that everything stays tight for my poison trap and tripmines.

On a typical pull:
I tap defensive follow so for the next few seconds my bots won't go aggro from my seekers being attacked.

I cast seeker drones into a fresh spawn, waiting about two seconds to make sure they have the entire spawn's attention (not waiting can make them aggro you instead as you approach, or your bots).

I tap defensive follow once again before jumping into melee range while seekers are exploding and making the spawn tighten.

I open with my AoE immob, getting as much of the spawn as I can, this also sets initial aggro and keeps it off of my pets.

Poison Trap toward the center of the spawn.

AoE immob again, the moment it's up, on any loose mobs not affected by my first cast.

Acid Mortar.

Caltrops in the middle of the spawn.

Recast AoE immob on any survivors (my Boss Bot has melted most of the spawn by now).

Tripmine at their feet.

Profit.


Not sure how it works for other sets, but if all your bots are already in melee range there's not really a worry of them running off unless you're not doing your job of controlling stragglers.

In short, work with it!

This is another great example of something that I really HATE about this game (despite liking the game quite a bit). How hard would it be to fix this? They are an all ranged henchmen group that need to stay at range to be effective. They have existed for years, and for years, their screwed up AI has been making them run into melee.

It would probably take all of 5 minutes for Castle to go in and remove all melee attacks from them so they never run into melee. But it'll never happen. Nothing enraged me more as a MM than seeing my Assualt Bot run into melee range, then use flamethrower. It's idiotic. I don't care if there are ways around it. I don't care if I can set up macros to avoid it and control my guys manually to make them come back. That doesn't matter. The problem shouldn't even exist to begin with.

Examples of this kind of annoyance can be found all over this game. Stupid little things that aren't working right that could have been fixed 500 patches ago but slip through month after month.