How do I force henchmen to stay close?

How do I prevent my henchmen from charging into melee? I'm playing a robotic/thermal build right now and this problem consistently gets me killed on tougher missions, one or more bots will just charge into melee with a distant enemy, often gaining agro from previously un-engaged mobs in the process. So how do I force my henchmen to stay close to me, and in range of my healing powers?

That's something I'd like to know as well >_<

Henchmen AI can be... er... odd. Short of a passive stay - which doesn't do you much good - they'll decide to go running in because that's whatever attack is recharged, as I recall. There's no "Stay at ranged" setting, for instance, either.

Even a goto command will let them run after stuff. About all I can suggest is get your keybinds and keep a tight rein on them. Maybe setting up a bind or macro as /petcomall pas fol (passive/follow) for emergencies. (Think I remember that right.) Though you'll want to slap them back into bodyguard or retarget them right after, or you're at great risk of going squish.

Might want to just post in the mastermind forums, too - someone else may have better ideas. But that's what I can think of at 6 AM.

See my Guides and Tutorials

You have to be an active and aware Master. AI has very little I in it truth be told, and the common expectation people have with MMs is that they're largely fire and forget. Against certain foes and on teams, this is not true.

When I play my MM, I keep my minions in range with a liberal mix of Attack and Bodyguard mode commands. Ideally speaking, I rarely use the Attack command in the first half of the fight anyway, because if I'm solo or in the lead position on a team, I want the aggro on me, because BG mode is a much more effective way to keep myself and my minions on our feet.

So basic formula:
1 Personally attack or debuff the enemies, so they're very mad at me.
2 Let my pets do their business while I keep debuffing or healing.
3 Once the initial wave is passed and several targets are dead or wounded, I switch.
4 Tap my BG mode button again to reel all my guys in
5 Then pick a target and tell them to attack (typically I go from weakest to strongest target). Repeat 4-5 until the spawn is gone.

This can change against certain foes. Enemies with AoE attacks that scatter my guys, or debuffs that I need to move everyone out of get special treatment. I've also become keenly aware of which enemies are likely to run, and when. If I'm in BG mode of my specific target runs, I reel my guys in before one can chase them. Like I said, it pays to be an active and aware leader of your guys.

Of course, the higher level you get, the more likely you are to WANT that runner to pull in another group or four. The right MM is a killing machine, and even spawned for 8, you can't get enemies fast enough.

I always set up the Alt power tray on my MMs with 3 macros: Alt-1 for "petcomall attack" to focus the attack (editing the default Attack macro to remove the Aggressive part), Alt-2 for "petcomall goto", and Alt-3 for "petcomall follow" (agaiin, using the default macro icon 'cos it's cool) to get them to disengage, though not go into Defensive mode. I use the standard numpad binds for most things, however, and keep the individual pet controls open for those rare occasions when I want a specific tier 1 or tier 2 pet to do something without affecting its companions.

robots arent that bad of offenders for this, they do occasionally run off, but the worst offenders of this are the merc medic and the thug arsonist

the thug arsonist between the time i get him and the bruiser, i would have to resummon him every mob just about, once you get the bruiser he gets a little better because the bruiser holds aggro good, but until you get the 2nd training power hes pretty much the "defender who thinks hes a tank"

as for the OP, theres really no way you can stop it because thats the way the AI works

well ive always liked the petcom_all att def i think its the command. what it does is make the pets attack the target then theyll keep attacking it but are in def mode which means after that anyone that has hit you they move to attack them which keeps them inside of one group as long as another group dosent attack you. of course wase rinse reapeat with it as you need i hope it helps that little command does wonders for me.

/bind [key] petcomall goto defensive

Spam this at your feet. That's what I do.

One thing to remember is due to the way the AI is set up, one member of any given group will always try to close to melee. This is an advantage when you are fighting against that AI, and so you don't necessarily want to give it up. In short, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, you have to deal with the same stupidity from your allies as you do with your foes.

One way to deal with the problem is to try to control which henchman chooses to be the "sacrifice". Normally, a henchman on Aggressive tends to be chosen more often than one on Defensive. This is why I keep my Arsonist on Defensive on my Thugs, this tends to keep him out of melee a good part of the time. Another thing to remember is that if he runs out of ranged attacks and has a melee attack recharged, most henchmen will try to use it. This is another of the Arsonist's problems, as he has three attacks with long recharge times, increasing the chance he'll be standing there with nothing to do. Making sure all your henchmen are fully upgraded with increase their number of options, reducing the chance of that one melee attack being the only one recharged.

Using Goto or the Defensive command can help, too. Changing a henchman's stance seems to reset his AI and make him decide what to do all over again. Setting a henchman to Follow also forces the henchman to stop firing for ten seconds, which can clear his "attack queue" AND allow some of his attacks to recharge.