AgentForest

This is just Petcom_all attack with extra steps. I'm just asking for the player to have more agency over how they initiate combat.

A controller's main job is cc to try to mitigate the alpha, but currently you still are the one absorbing that aggro especially when soloing, in which case you DO want your pets being the first ones targeted. I want my cc moves protecting my pet from the initial wave of attacks rather than myself. Even if I have Imps or a Fly Trap, better them than me, and I'll still be dropping Vines or Flash Fire to weaken the first wave of attacks.

Are you fighting -1 no boss encounters, because most bosses resist the AoE mez moves so you'll usually only stop basic minions and some lieutenants, which is only a portion of the alpha strike. And it still means you going in first to eat their first wave of attacks because your pet won't. By that logic you should go in before the tanker and eat the first wave of attacks because you're stunning or holding so many that it won't matter. I'd like to be able to send my pet in then cast Earthquake and Stalagmites to protect HIM. from the alpha.

I think the main advantage of MMs is that they get stances and more complex commands like "Defensive Stance" to absorb a portion of the damage you take and attacking anyone who targets you with abilities, They also get more complex commands like "GoTo". I don't necessarily want Controllers getting all of these things just the option to tell your pet to engage a target before you go in. It's a basic feature of pretty much any MMO Class that has pets even pets that function like those of Controllers/Dominators, like essentially always being in "Follow Aggressive" mode. It's mainly a relic of older engine capabilities that other pets didn't get any QoL updates when Masterminds launched.

That is essentially what one of my suggestions was, but people atttacked that idea already because they didn't want to accidentally send their pet off because they happened to be slamming their face on the keyboard or something at the time. I Had considered linking the petcom_attack macro directly to the T1 and T2 powers of the sets, the single-target holds and immobilizes. But just giving Controllers/Dominators access to that specific pet command macro might just be the easier solution, since a player can always keybind their hold and that macro to the same button anyway if they want to. My Thug/Sonic MM has petcom_attack all linked to the same button as Sonic Siphon since both help me focus down targets and area typically used on the same target anyway.

Which is why I started a thread for discussions of possible solutions, and didn't personally hack the game code to implement initial suggestions without any dialogue or testing. The Sentinel used to have a similar mechanic to what I suggested, but they made it a separate power for reasons not unlike yours. So perhaps the "petcom_attack all" macro is the best solution, since it avoids all of the issues people have with making it an aspect of your base powers themselves.

Target an enemy WITH AN ABILITY. I then explain how it could be limited specifically to the first 2 powers that are single target as well. At no point did I say that your pet should run off the moment someone is "selected." I said when an ability is used on them. Rudra, I feel like you only exist to flame these forums. You seem to follow people and take their comments out of context as a regular hobby.

I'm curious to know your method of engaging then. How do you start a combat so that your pet gets the aggro? I don't mind constructive criticism or advice on forum posts, but "maybe you just do it wrong" isn't really helping anyone. I try my best to make my posts as friendly and respectful as possible, and was trying to open a discussion on something that to me seems a bit of a relic of an old game system that has had improvements since. Before Masterminds were added, there weren't really the systems implemented for better control of your pets. And as I said, I wouldn't want the Controller pets to have all the functionality of a Mastermind pet. It's just that pretty much every MMO made since CoH launched has addressed this issue before, and later expansions gave us the tools to solve it in CoH.

Almost every build guide promotes choosing sets to get your character, regardless of class, as close to at least the defense soft-cap as possible.

That's not what I proposed. You misrepresented my post. I said a tool to let you order a pet to attack if you wish. Not that the pet just immediately targets anything you have selected. It would be an active choice for the player.

Can we get more control of our non-Mastermind pets? Before anyone gets upset with me, let me explain and elaborate. I love Masterminds, and I don't want their niche being taken from them. I don't want pet stances, go-to, or bonuses for being near you. Controller pets essentially fight in Aggressive stance constantly. Perfectly fine. But if you have a tanky pet like Animate Earth, it's hard to get it to actually tank for you because it won't really engage until you put yourself close enough to be at risk. So unless you have a fully decked out build with sets, good defenses/resistances, and some other tools to survive the initial alpha strike, your pet is rarely taking aggro until it's already too late. And not every build should require you min-maxing to have stalker/scrapper defenses as a dedicated support class. My proposed solution would be pretty simple. Most MMOs with pet classes have at least something like this. Just make it so the moment you activate an ability that's targeting an enemy, your pet engages. To some extent they do this, but I feel like their move priority is a little off. Animate Earth does a slow Hurl Boulder before running in, making you take the brunt of the opening attacks. If those with melee attacks would prioritize those moves during the first few seconds of combat, they'd actually do their job better. Though, the simplest solution might be to just make it so Controllers and Dominators get the "petcom_all attack" macro. No stances, no complex commands. Just the ability to send the pet before yourself. This could even be baked into the first two moves of the set to accomplish my previous suggestion. Use your single-target control move on something, and the pet is commanded to attack that target. There are a handful of hyper-optimized builds that don't have issues with this, but I don't think every controller build should have to strive for that design requirement.

Oh hell yeah, someone was playing BG3 recently ❤️

Most tank/brute Ancillary pools grant a fairly consistent selection of features: 1. Mild ranged control like immobilizes 2. Harder ranged control like single-target holds 3. A ranged blast attack 4. Some sort of aggressive support move like debuffs, either in an area, or stronger but for a single-target 5. Sometimes a ranged area attack (cone or targeted AoE) That's what Dark Mastery is giving them. Just because dark themed control and blast attacks all have -ToHit attached to them doesn't mean that's their primary purpose. Fire blasts come with damage over time as a secondary effect rather than a debuff. That's just how fire blasts work. Dark blasts come with -ToHit. That's their thing. The aggressive support move in Fire Mastery I'm pretty sure is Melt Armor, an AoE debuff to defense and resistance. For dark powers, Tar Patch was chosen to fill a similar support purpose. Also, that's a super welcome ability on a front-liner. Keeping enemies from getting away while making them die faster? Yes, please. This set is right in line with the rest of the tanker/brute sets.

Yeah, after having played the set as a Controller and a Dominator, I have to agree with Arcane. It works rather effectively. The lack of an immobilize is only mildly annoying for Controller Containment crits, but I had paired it with Traps, and the Web Grenade let me focus down targets with Containment just fine. If you don't want to pick a support set with an immobilize, you can always just socket some recharge and hold duration into Cryo Freeze Ray. The rest of the set is very effective at just causing general chaos among enemy ranks. You basically have an ice slick that does caltrop damage, and a confusing smoke bomb that lingers in an area. These with a little bit of cooldown reduction are your bread and butter. Enemies just don't do much. When you need something more robust, you have an AoE stun and an AoE hold, the former also causing more -ToHit, and the latter causing -Damage. Even those who resist your control effects tend to just fight so much worse. Area sleep moves are mediocre and should all have some sort of debuff associated for when they wear off, but even if you ignored the sleep moves entirely, the set is still really strong.

Just wanted to bump the idea of more support classes. Guardian, Protector, Justicar, Champion, whatever we call it, the game could use it. Sentinel is fantastic, and it's been a while since we got another.