Simple Mastermind Doctrine & the Two Macros You Need (Beta - need comments!)

Just a detail, DO use equip on the Bruiser, the Knockback was changed to knockDOWN MONTHS ago. Have Fun!

If you are going to command your pets based upon their tier, it is better to use the petcompow bind. One command and you're done regardless of the name of the pet. For example if you want all of your Ninja to attack and then go defensive, you just need to give one command: /petcompow Nin att def

You don't even need to give the full names if you don't want to.

Interesting ideas for sure.

As for me, after 5 lvl 50 mm's, and just starting work on my 6th, I have realized that I would rather have all my pets attack and kill one enemy at a time.

I usually focus on the boss first, as they do the most damage to me. After the boss is dead, then I focus on lieutenants, then minions.

By dividing the attention of my pets, I think it takes too long to kill whomever I am attacking, and gives them more opportunity to hurt me or my pets.

That's just my 2 cents though.

I would say first that I prefer to have both of the Protector Bots or both of the other Tier 2s on the same team. Granted, on of the Proto Bots does have a tendency to run into melee anyway. Still, given that the Proto Bots only have one shield each, and losing them means loss of both shields and healing on your others, I prefer to have them draw as little aggro as possible.

Thus, my division is 1 Assault Bot, 2 Drones for Offensive force, and 2 Protector Bots, 1 Drone for Defensive force.

The other is that I tend to use three macros, not two. I have two attack macros for the Offensive Force, so I can either break them into two groups attacking two targets, or have one part of the force attack while the others stand back and attack in Aggressive mode. For my Bots, the first Offensive Force is the Assault Bot and one of the Drones, while the second is the other two Drones. (One aggressive, the other defensive) For my Thugs, the Bruiser is Offensive Force one, while the two Punks are Force two.

That's probably not necessary, though, and just the unified Attack force should be fine. I would suggest a macro for calling them back as Follow Passive, however, should they run off out of control. And you will need a Follow Defensive macro to cancel that one once they come back.

I just stumbled across this. Fantastic! It sure does help out alot!

I'm now using it on all my MM builds.

Re: The Arsonist. Instead of putting him on follow/passive, I just made him a GoTo bind that lets me pull him back to my location. The reason he dies so often is that his ranged attack chain doesn't recharge fast enough, so he runs int to use brawl. If you interrupt him with GoTo, by the time he gets back to you he'll probably have some ranged attacks recharged.

That said, I'm having a problem: I named my thus Larry, Moe, and Curly, and in the past, Curly was the Arsonist. So My bind says petcom_name Curly. But lately it seems to be random which name the arsonist spawns over, and often Moe will be the arsonist and Curly a thug. I tried petcom_name arsonist but got told I didn't have a pet with that name. help?

This is a great writeup and is basically the system that I have used for my MM.

Another way to use approach this, especially with Necro Masterminds, is to divide your henchmen into groups that emphasize single-target and AoE. I have group 1 as [Litch, Grave1, Grave1] and group 2 as [Zombie1, Zombie2, Zombie3]. This not only allows group one to levy the best single-target damage with aoe debuffs more consistently, but I also have the option of throwing out the majority of my AoE via vomit attacks by holding the second group in reserve or leading with them when the spawn is tightly clumped.

Being aware of the general timers on certain skills that your pets employ should be noted as well, if possible. I will often maneuver Litch or my zombies manually so that their cones will have the most effect. Knowing that your vomit is on 12 seconds of recharge and that Fearsome Stare is up every 20 seconds can lead to effective micromanaging-- particularly with cone attacks and AoEs.

I combine similar Macros as you for general combat with MZ's key bind system found here for micromanaging: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=179054

I've just started getting into MMs and am going to employ this tactic specifically for the mercenary medic. That goofball is always the first to die because he runs in too close away from me and his buddies. With him on bodyguard watch it should keep him alive, me alive, and hopefully his friends alive if he just runs in to heal and comes back to my side.

I can't see breaking up mercs into a bigger secondary group. Their damage is soo frequently resisted and comes in little trickles of damage over time that any further reduction of force concentration would be ineffective. But with a dark secondary, I'm pretty good at staying alive with dark's bag of tricks: huge heal, slow, fear, and to hit debuffs.

Hey, CF,

I like this guide a lot. It would've saved me some grief as a novice MM, and I'll try the system on the next MM I level up.

I do have one thought, which may fall more into Advanced Doctrine, but you asked for feedback, so you're gettin' it ;-)

You make a compelling point about force concentration early in the guide, but it seems to me that you haven't mentioned times when you want to have all of your pets focused on a single mob to the exclusion of others. In my play, those times boil down to the following cases:

1) It's worth the increased risk to take out a high threat target. Sappers, Longbow lieutenants (the ones with the aoe -resist power, whatever they're called), certain DE emanators, and Cimeroran surgeons who are healing a Cyclops who has gone Unstoppable come to mind as examples of this type.

2) Leaving bodyguard mode is low-risk. I'm lucky enough to be able to team regularly with a group of people who are skilled both at playing and at creating effective builds. In these cases, there is usually not much danger in forsaking bodyguard mode entirely, whether because I'm at the defense softcap because of a buff or two, or because aggro is being tightly managed, or what have you. Most of my high level (35+) play is like this. Yes, I'm spoiled. In such cases, there's not a lot of downside to focusing your entire offensive capability on whatever your target of the moment is.

Does this mean it's a bad idea to stick with the Primary/Secondary grouping? No, no. If you had to choose a single playstyle for your entire MM career, the CF doctrine is excellent.

There's also a subset of the second case I mention above: when your team is steamrolling so effectively that the pets are not particularly significant. A real steamroller team doesn't really need the pets much, so in times like that I just leave them in bodyguard mode, keeping them in reserve for targets of opportunity that have escaped the notice of the more efficient killers, and concentrate on applying buffs and debuffs.

Then, of course, there are the times when you don't want to have pets at all (80% of most speed SFs, for example).


But those are all exceptional cases while leveling a MM, which is why I think it's probably more advanced than what you want to tell a newcomer to the AT up front. They'll probably cotton to all of it themselves after a couple dozen levels of being in teams of various skill

Scrap

Thanks for all the constructive feedback!

This guide is now superceeded by the 2009.12.27 edition (and unlikely to undergo further revisions until the game itself changes.)