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.

Ope, another necro. But yeah, if we had at least color customization, that would be superb. If we could have drop-down options for minions like selecting weapons, or deciding how we want to throw our Fireball, that would be sublime.

I can fully get behind this. I've never been a fan of PvP, but I always loved the various PvP zones. Actually getting stories there, with contacts and possibly TF/SFs would be great.

There are lots of things in CoH that existed for 20-some odd years that have been changed in Homecoming to better suit more modern design philosophies. FF as a powerset existed since launch, and that saw a revamp. Some of the +Max HP powers have been replaced with +Absorb powers (sometimes with a regen component). Many of the ancillary pools just got huge redesigns. Sniper attacks got a major overhaul. The argument that "it's always been that way, don't change it" defeats the purpose of even having forums to discuss power balance and potential changes. The confusion debate always has a small handful of people obsessed with how it works, and a large part of the community just not even playing the moves because they don't really care for them. Mind Control is one of the least played controller sets for a reason. You almost never see them. The people who love them love them, but are few and far between.

And just out of curiosity, is there a reason the new Dark Mastery power sets will come with Murky Cloud instead of Dark Embrace? Most of the sets come with your smashing/lethal protection toggle, as that tends to be the most common damage received from all enemies regardless of faction. Is this to better synergize with Fighting -> Tough? I do love the overall changes to streamline, balance, and standardize Ancillary Pools though. Just curious about the thought process behind Murky Cloud. 🙂

I was loving the new Arsenal sets, though apparently I just don't like playing Dominators, lol. I'll probably go with an Arsenal/Traps Controller when it goes live. I'm hoping we can get non-gun versions of all the powers though. Controllers don't get a secondary set with assault rifle mechanics, so pulling out a gun just for non-lethal things seems a tad strange. If I could just THROW various grenades, or fire a sleep dart from my wrist, or shoot the freeze ray from a pistol, I think it would make the set much less limiting to build characters around.

I'm hoping that in the future, alternate animations can be selected. Like how Martial Arts has some more boxing-themed fist animations to replace all the kicks. It would be nice to have the gun options and a separate set of thrown grenades. The main one that would be an issue for that is the Cryo Freeze Ray. I'm not sure how much work it would take to map the particle effects onto a pistol or a wrist-fired blast. I also like how they've experimented with mutually exclusive powers in the Sentinel Super Reflexes set. You could pick Master Brawler or Practiced Brawler, the latter being the same old mez protection buff all other SR sets have, but Master Brawler upgraded your defensive toggles permanently in exchange for being vulnerable to those control effects. You couldn't take both, and they unlocked at the same level. This could be used for sets like Arsenal Control that have really broad power fantasies and power options. Like, if Taser Dart was a possible Energy damage alternative to Cryo Freeze Ray that still provides a hold effect but with a different, less gun-themed aesthetic. Pick one single-target hold, and the other becomes inaccessible. Honestly, a lot of power sets could benefit from this, but again, I'm not entirely sure how much programming work it would take to implement.

A question for the Homecoming development team: Are there any possibilities of collaboration between any of the existing servers, like Homecoming and Rebirth, in the future? I thought I'd read something regarding servers possibly consolidating to expand their player bases now that there's some stability in the long-term viability of these servers, but I can't remember where I read that.

My statement is one that's been plaguing the game since launch. If that disagreement still exists and can get people so heated, it still stands to show that devs should at some point at least consider addressing it.

It was literally Mids Reborn: Battle Axe: Taunt. But perhaps they have adjusted since. Changing to other sets in the Tanker secondary list is showing -100%. In that case, my mistake, and I'll own that. However, Taunt still has a target cap that limits the number of people affected, and not all effects activate immediately, as the animation on a move can delay effects. For example, knockdown happens at the end of Ripper, not the start of its animation. Likewise, if the enemy queues up a move before the Taunt range debuff is applied, then it will go off as if the range was never decreased to begin with. To test this, I would suggest: 1. Try taunting one enemy alone at a distance, and continue to run from that single enemy, never letting them into melee range. 2. Keep refreshing the Taunt to see if at any point they do any ranged attacks despite being out of range. If they still fire at range after the taunt has been refreshed constantly, never dropping off, this could mean that the current implementation on AI reduces what the AI thinks its range is rather than its actual range. However, other range debuffs like Hurricane affect other players and enemies as expected. This means either they programmed Taunt differently and still labeled it as a range debuff when it isn't (which should be fixed in the power description to clarify what it's really doing), or the effect simply isn't up as fast as enemies are alerted to your presence (they queue attacks before the -Range applies). If they never fire after that first initial volley so long as you maintain distance, then the range debuff is likely just delayed. That said, my main point about -Range is more about how it works with regards to Hurricane, as this is meant to be a support/control ability, not a taunt. The way Hurricane works, the target's range is reduced by more than half. This could make for a good way to debuff enemies that rely on supportive powers like buffs, debuffs, and control. It would also require enemies looking to focus fire to get closer for other forms of communication, which still upholds my design goal of a silence aura. It also wouldn't be the only debuff affecting those enemies. It would be a small portion of what it does, but still have value.

But it does seem you're more interested in fighting than having a productive discussion of the game mechanics. You've also clearly shown that there IS community tension regarding this issue that should be addressed, further proving my point that perhaps the Homecoming devs should look into a more long-term solution than "less loss is better than full loss." I'd rather not spend the rest of my day off going in circles with someone who doesn't even know the mechanics of the game as they currently stand. I was just dropping a suggestion for the devs. Maybe it isn't a solution they use going forward, but hopefully it can help them at least come up with solutions themselves that address the community's mixed views on confusion. If the fact that even mentioning these tensions is enough to garner such negative responses, then clearly something needs done.