Help on pet targeting tricks.

right now i'm using the default menu thing and it's so small. what tricks do you use to target your pets? (mostly for quick healing issues etc...)

thanks

I don't. My main MM that relies on healing is my /Dark, and I select my pet by running up to stand next to him. My target is the foe.

I have found targetting more of an issue for my Ninjas/FF, though. Not really for bubbling, I just take each in order and recharge the shields as they wear off. However, I have a macro set up to select a specific target and hit him with Smoke Flash.

I expect this would be a bigger issue on Pain, and possibly Poison. For them I would probably set up a keybind thing, like part of the numberpad system to give them commands.

I use the Target_Friend_Next command to cycle my targetting between pets - it isn't perfect, especially if your pets are moving around which can cause you to bounce back and forth between pets and if you are grouped up it will also cycle through allies in the group (and their pets) but it is a quick way to switch your targetting to a pet when solo. I map it to one key and my heal to another, like this:

/bind NUMPAD0 "target_friend_next"
/bind DECIMAL "powexec_name cauterize"

for a /thermal MM - this lets me hit numpad0 to cycle between pets and the del/. key next to it to use a single target heal. You can substitute any single target hal for cauterize.

I recommend setting up binds to target each pet either using the six page-navigation keys (insert, home, pgup, delete, end, pgdn) or the numpad operations keys (as described in the numpad guide).

I add ctrl+ to the keys as well, because I use the key by itself to select the pet to issue a command, not target them directly.

If you're not using just /petselect # from the order on the pet menu like this:
/bind insert petselect #

then you'll need to use unique naming:
/bind insert petselectname NAME

sounds good. is there anyway to always show their health bars over their head without mouse over or targeting? it would be nice to look at the fight instead of the bars lol

I bind the keys on the numpad to select teammates and RTYFGH to select my pets, with +-./ reserved for whatever buffs I have. Since I do things this way on all my characters, the only difficulty I have is adjusting between toons with different power sets.

it would be nice if the bind command system was more flexible.

one command:

target pet, heal, target previous would be nice

Controlling your Henchmen is something of an Art form, so the controls used are probably going to differ from player to player.

Personally I have to admit I'm a big fan of text file based numpad binds for Masterminds.

My two Robot MMs, for example, use numpad keys 1-6 for targeting and issuing orders to the six henchmen, numpad keys 7-9 for Attack, Follow and Goto and decimal "." for Stay. Pressing NumpadEnter toggles between using the above pet binds (as well as selecting "all Pets") and changing the binds on numpad keys 1-8 from pet_select to team_select. Commonly-used Buffs are bound to Divide and Multiply, and Numpad0 is usually an ally-targetted Heal.

In other words, if I've been buffing/selecting pets and want to select the 4th teammate down in my team window and hit them with "Aid Other", I'll hit NumpadEnter (Select Pets --> Select Teammates) and press Numpad4 (to select that teammate), then tap Numpad0 (my bound key for using the "Aid Other" power). If instead I've been buffing/selecting pets and want to tell all pets to attack my current target, I tap NumpadEnter twice (Select Pets --> Select teammates --> Select Pets) and hit numpad7 ("Attack" command).

So I can control and buff any of my henchmen or teammates with only the numpad keys.

However, whilst this is brilliant for fine control purposes, it gets tiresome quickly to have to do this all the time in regular play for each spawn encountered... so as "Common Shortcuts", I also have other power tray Macros and Keys bound as follows:

"Tray #2" = "All Pets Attack this target",
"Tray #3" = "All Pets GOTO here",
"Tray #4" = "Boss and LT Pets attack this target, Minions keep doing what you're doing",
"H" = "Heel/All Pets Passive Follow",
"B" = "Full Bodyguard Mode/All Pets Defensive Follow",
"G" = "All Pets Aggressive" and
"V" = "Minions on Defensive Follow".

So if I want my pets to attack stuff but still keep reasonable personal defenses for my Mastermind, I hit "G" and "V" and use "Tray #4" (with an enemy targetted) to attack. That puts my three minions into Bodyguard mode but tells the Boss and LTs to attack my current target and keep attacking other stuff after they're done.

The Bind files are below if you're curious, note the "bindloadfile" instead of "bindloadfilesilent" on the numpadenter - this is so I get a prompt letting me know if I'm currently set to [selecting teammates] or [selecting pets] whenever I tap numpadenter.

[robot_pets.txt]
numpadenter "bindloadfile c:\Games\coh\mm\robot_team.txt"
numpad1 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\alpha1.txt$$petselect_name Alpha 1"
numpad2 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\alpha2.txt$$petselect_name Alpha 2"
numpad3 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\alpha3.txt$$petselect_name Alpha 3"
numpad4 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\delta1.txt$$petselect_name Delta 1"
numpad5 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\delta2.txt$$petselect_name Delta 2"
numpad6 "bindloadfilesilent c:\Games\coh\mm\assault.txt$$petselect_name Epsilon 1"
numpad7 petcom_all Attack
numpad8 petcom_all Follow
numpad9 petcom_all Goto
decimal petcom_all Stay
subtract "powexec_name Equip Robot"
add "powexec_name Upgrade Robot"
numpad0 "powexec_name Aid Other"

[robot_team.txt]
numpadenter "bindloadfile c:\Games\coh\mm\robot_pets.txt"
numpad1 "team_select 1"
numpad2 "team_select 2"
numpad3 "team_select 3"
numpad4 "team_select 4"
numpad5 "team_select 5"
numpad6 "team_select 6"
numpad7 "team_select 7"
numpad8 "team_select 8"

[text files for individual henchmen... rename as appropriate]
numpad7 petcom_name "Alpha 1" Attack
numpad8 petcom_name "Alpha 1" Follow
numpad9 petcom_name "Alpha 1" Goto
decimal petcom_name "Alpha 1" Stay