Why MM's can sometimes be really frustrating...

I have to say, from a concept point of view, I love the idea behind the MM archetype. If that was all there is to it, I'd always be playing MM's. The issue is, the MM archetype seems to have really big ups, but also really big downs.

I've been playing a bots/dark (made when cov first came out, just never finished the char). I think most people would rank that as one of the more powerful MM combo's. In most cases, I agree. As long as things go right, it can be downright ridiculous. In the ideal situation, I DN/tar patch/root a group, my assault bot fires his incendiary missiles, none of my bots use any knockbacks for the next ~2-3 seconds, and the entire spawn is wiped out. All that's left is picking off a few stragglers. At times like that, I feel entirely too powerful.

Of course, if my assault bot shoots his fire missiles at that one guy that ran off, or keeps cycling through attacks skipping fire missiles for a while, it's easily possible for me to be 45 seconds into the fight and still have killed virtually nothing. As much as I love that attack, I'm not a big fan of how it almost defines my aoe damage output.

Another thing I absolutely hate is when a spawn pull didn't go as planned, my bots pull agro, scatter to every corner of the map and die off while I desperately try to spam goto to get them back into a tight group so I can heal. I swear they're programmed to ignore me at times like that because they always have some more important things to do before they'll consider following that command.

Then there's certain enemies that really suck. Longbow will wreak havoc on the bots if I can't keep agro off them, if a malta zeus titan or gunslinger even looks funny at my bots they'll all drop over dead from one attack. Council werewolves happily ignore the tar patch slow and need crazy immob stacking to stay put, meaning as soon as the fire appears on the ground, they scatter to every corner of the map, only to come back and start 2 shotting bots (I swear a council map with werewolves takes 3 times longer than normal to clear). Now granted every AT has villain types they struggle with, they can typically deal with it by popping some pills, MM for the most part can't since the inspiration system is pretty crappy for them.

Of course I could cherry pick the villain types I want to fight, which the architect certainly made easier. Especially some of the enemies that are popular farm missions on hero side are stupid easy to wipe out all day as MM. The only issue is, this gets rather boring and it feels like I'm just "grinding" my way up then instead of actually playing the game.

Anyway, my point is. MM's are very powerful, I realize that. We can do some insane stuff. However, of any AT I've played, MM's can also be by far the most frustrating AT to play. I really wish something could be done about that, because I love the concept, but every time I play an MM for an extended period of time, I just remember why I prefer classes that don't depend on 6 pets that have the attention span of a 5 year old on LSD.

You think Bots are stupid?
Try Ninjas.

You have not even BEGUN to stupid until you've dealt with Ninjas.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Zombies will run after everyone and will literally aggro the whole room while you're not looking

I just got my Thugs/Dark up to 47 yesterday, solo most of the way. I don't think I would have gotten this far if it weren't for the Mastermind binds already set up in CityBinder. One button for bodyguard mode, another to tell the dummies to attack while still in bodyguard mode -- that way I can usually get the thugs to focus on the toughest target. Still, the Arsonist runs off to commit suicide on a regular basis -- I can live with that even if he doesn't.

Having recently leveled up my first Robot MMs (2 different ones, Traps and Poison), I have to say they were a JOY to deal with compared to Ninjas and, to a lesser degree, Necro. Ninjas have +RunSpeed so it can be astounding to see how much of a map they can aggro when they meet a burn patch or caltrops.

Masterminds have two minor flaws, which are really based on the fact that they are otherwise incredibly powerful. One is that it is very hard to "squeeze" anything else out of them. Most other ATs have some sort of mechanism that allows them to up their burst damage for a short time, and can use Inspirations and slotting to push the usage of their Powers to even higher levels. Masterminds essentially do a small amount of damage with an extremely fast fire rate, and Inspirations are really only 1/6 as effective. So while they are extremely predictable, they also have a very slow, steady kill rate. Fortunately, this kill rate's more than high enough, it's just it's probably a little higher than the other AT's average because it's still lower than that other AT's best.

The other is that due to the way henchmen support each other, and the MM through Bodyguard, they can be vulnerable to cascade failure. Anything strong enough to take out one or two minions usually turns into a rout of the rest, and then you have to retreat and regroup. When it works, it works well, but when it fails, it fails quickly.

This is somewhat different from Tankers, which have a tendency to hang on even when things are going south. Fortunately, Brutes have much the same capability as well.

I have never found any archetype improved as vastly by binds as masterminds. Seriously, without good binds, they are different animal. I tend to play with:

Shift+click as 'go to' (Otherwise known as get back here, I gave you missiles and you want to punch stuff? Heal, boy!)

Alt+W as attack target
Alt+A as follow
Alt+S as 'Stay' (Otherwise known as stand your ground and shoot)
Alt+D as defensive (Alt+A then Alt+D=Bodyguard)
Alt+Q as passive (Otherwise known as: I don't care who started it, BEHAVE!)
Alt+E as aggressive (Otherwise known as "Eh, I gave you powerboosted bubbles, go nuts!)

Since I use WASD and a mouse to move any ways, this means that I simply click shift or alt to control all that the bots do. I highly recommend it. (All this done via CityBinder)

While I know that bots are the best behaved pets (And nowhere near as bad as zombies - never played ninjas) I do agree that it is frustrating the way the set is designed.

The Assault Bot and his swarm missles are AWESOME and can melt whole groups in seconds if they can't escape, but when you see those missiles chase after the one mob that is legging it away my heart sinks.

Without those missiles there isn't much to Robotics as far as damage goes. Having not played the other sets to high level are they as reliant on one attack as much as bots?

Edit: The other thing that baffles me is how the stay command is ignored, it really should mean what it says, especially since afaik every pet has at least one ranged attack. My bots would last a lot longer if they would stay under my Dispersion Bubble!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

I completely agree with my pets being annoying. Even with just mercenaries, I tell my Spec Ops to attack, and the rest of my pets go after, even through they are on defensive. Which means, ATTACK IF i'm ATTACKED. Not rush out like idiots, and they too seem to ignore my "Go to" commands, when I try to get them to stay in my Triage or under my Shield.

To the OP, I am a little surprised by your post. I love playing my MMs and I have never had the issues you describe. In fact my only problem with playing MMs is that it is so easy sometimes I'm a little bored.

Learn to get out of bodyguard mode sometimes. If you want a great pull, put yourself just out of LoS, put your robots behind you out of LoS and hit passive, then peek around the corner and range shoot something (anything not in the center of the mob) and run backwards (it doesnt matter if u miss or not) wait two seconds and hit all attack, wait one second and hit all aggressive (just in case u get stunned). Half the mob will be dead before u take a second hit.

You have to watch your pets obviously. Most people love bodyguard mode all the time, if u do then use it, stand in the middle of a mob in bg and hit immobilize on whatever you want dead repeatedly, no immob?, use air superiority repeatedly (great power). If it still manages to run (rarely) just hit nearest target all attack and let it run away, it will come back after everything else is dead.

Most people love bg mode all the time, I get into all aggressive a lot. You have to watch your pets. I just run around in all aggressive if I see something tough I hit all attack and back pedal, wait 2 seconds, if they look ok, run in and hit a heal, if it looks bad fast, keep back pedaling. If I see the pets run away just hit all passive, some will trot back to you, hit bg and respawn whats dead.

I am not the greatest player in the world and I rarely die with my MMs, even early levels. Honestly you have to go out of your way to die as an MM.

Some basics to remember, that are obvious, that you know, just to keep fresh in your mind ALL the time.

Always All Attack one target at a time, i dont care if there are fifteen minions tickling your feet, if there is one Lt still in the group kill it first. Then All Attack the first minion, etc. etc. If you divide your pets damage by even two enemies nothing will ever die.

A good immob is priceless. Use Air Superiority if your secondary has no low lvl immob.
Air Superiority is for everyone even if you hate flying.

You must heal your pets. A lot. Even if you hate it and its boring get into the habit. Take Heal other if you have even a little trouble keeping your pets healthy. If other players tease you about needing two heals ask them to show you their debt badges because you dont know what they look like and never heal them.

Goodluck and have fun with the set.