How can I convince my ninja to use a good first strike?

I've my ninjas MM up to Jounin, and she has Grant Invisibility, so her ninja has stealth, but no matter what I do, he always opens up with that crossbow. He's invisible!!! He could be doing a critical attack as his first move!!!!! But No. He seems to think the crossbow is the best first move. If not that, then he'll use caltrops.

Are there any macro type commands I can use to do this?

Sadly, I don't hink there is. There's no way to adjust how often they use which attacks they have, and once you get attacked in BG mode, or you click attack, they will start attacking right then and there from whatever distance they are currently at when commanded.

If you are at range, and you tell your pets to attack, they will attack from range with their ranged attacks until nothing is recharged. Then, and only then, will they move in close to attack with melee powers.

Use to "go to" comand to tell them to get right up on the mobs. Once they are there then us the attack command. Most of the time they will unleash with the melee then. Some thing will still give you trouble, namely patrols and ambushes. Moving mobs and things that attack first will still trigger the crossbow of lame instead of the katana of doom.

Grant Invisibility does not place the Jounin in a, "Hidden" status. They need the second upgrade to open with a critical. Until then, they can only Crit after Placate or Smoke Flash.

I recently got Team Teleport on my Ninja/Poison MM and it's worked reasonably well. It lets me keep bodyguard on and get everyone into position. Most of the time, my ninja all bust out the melee when they appear close and start to take fire.

Beyond that, the only other advice I can give is the "goto" command and live with the one Genin who won't put away the throwing star or the Jounin who refuses to live by the sword.

Unfortunately the Rogue Isles seem to have gotten ninjas from the special ed division of the ninja academy.

Sadly, even using Go-To commands wont force hench to use melee attacks. Sometimes when I order my jounin into melee range first.... they still use the dart exclusively.

While *most* of the time pets ai goes well,at others it just blows.

I've had bubblebots doing melee only on tf's,I had my brute on my thug mm run around and hand clap a baddie all around the map (I counted 8x),I've had my medic think he is Rocky Balbo,knights who thought they are wizards,and ninja's who don't want to be Bruce Lee.

I think it's one of those things sorta like rain on a sunday morning it just happens....or it could be a continued problem with pet ai one that is always there lurking..sorta like a redheaded stepchild everyone knows about him but nobody wants to deal with him.

Grant Invis doens't help your Jonin Crit melee, they have to Placate on there own (upgraded) or you have to Smoke Flash them into Hide.

I use my "I" key bound for Genin and Jonin to GoTo Defensive and put them right on top of the target, "O" does the same for Oni when I want see a Smoke Flashed Fire Sword Crit for the fun of it.

Between Bodyguard Mode, Attack my Target and those 2 GoTo's my Ninjas seem to perform well enough. (Paired with Trick Arrow for maximum operator PITA)

Good Luck

Group TP you and yours right into the mobs!

No, srsly, that's what I do. Ninja/Storm.... I just use Group TP to get them right into the action. They open with their hardest attacks when they have the choice.

You have to account for recharge...

But argue that all you want, atleast they will have the choice... I honestly get to spend more time targeting the next mob than having to assist them as by the time I drop to the ground from the TP atleast 2 mobs have hit the floor.

I did it as an experiment to see if the competency of ninjas, damage output etc would go up... made a build that had it by 20 and went to town on a ninja/storm. I pop the occasional support power, but other than that, let the kiddies run free! A Patron cone immobilize and they couldnt have been happier.