Zvi

Hiyo! I've come across a bit of grumbling about Mastermind pets in early-level PUGs, and thought maybe I ought to share some ancient wisdom somewhere. None of this is likely new to any experienced Mastermind player - and there are good resources out there for more fine control; but if you're just starting out or - like me - just plain lazy, these three binds I've been using since pretty much the inception of the AT'll do ya for most content. You can change these to whatever keys work best for ya - or make macros, even! I play with one hand on WASD and the other on the mouse, so I keep everything pretty close together. /bind e "petcom_all follow def" More than just the button for Bodyguard, this also functions as The Almighty Reset Button - with a bit of hammering. This makes it probably my most-used key. Pets chasing after a runner and threatening to face-pull a whole new pack? Mash this a few times and they'll drop target to return to you. It's important to note that this isn't a hard reset. Just as you can interrupt their actions, the order itself can be interrupted by anything that switches their focus priority - so, basically, mash it and keep mashing it until they've stopped doing whatever it is you don't want them to do. /bind q "petcom_all att agg" The Focus Fire button! This is great for ranged pets, but also good in combination with the third bind. There's really not a whole lot to say about this one on its own. If your pets are attacking something you don't want them to attack, this'll put them back on track. /bind t "petcom_all goto agg" A very underrated button! This one has all kinds of uses; but I mostly use it to move melee pets into melee range - then follow up with 'q' to get them on target. This mostly negates melee pets getting stuck outside of melee range spamming their ranged attacks; though they do sometimes find a way to do so regardless. You can also use this to put ranged pets with cones into a good position for hitting the most targets with said cones. Sometimes it's also fun to just leave 'em somewhere to intercept and ambush - especially if you have lots of traps set out nearby. You could also use passive instead of aggressive, since using the focus-fire button will switch them to aggressive anyway. You can also use this to move them out of things like caltrops and burn patches - though they're as likely as not to just run right back into them once they resume attacking, if they're melee. Basically, managing pets is like managing a bunch of eager puppies - they like to hyper-focus on one 'priority' at a time and you're really just there to change what that priority is by shouting at them until they finally decide to stop ignoring you; which generally doesn't take much - or maybe less than it used to?

The video below shows it better than I can explain it, I think - that's just me trying to drag my mouse in various directions. It does this both at the login screen and in-game (which takes a lot of effort to get into, I might add!). This does not occur on the Live client and only started after today's update to 27.4.4977. 2022-07-12 17-05-56.mp4

Hm; can't really test at the moment, myself - for whatever reason, my cursor snaps to the top-left quarter of the screen every second or so in the Brainstorm client. (This does not happen on the Live client.) Poking about for a workaround.

I have to second this - it's great for Masterminds, or even certain Controller types... but it really doesn't feel like a good set to use for Defenders or Corruptors or anything with more than a couple of buttons to push in their accompanying powerset. Chaining self-clicks would work far better; even if only on a couple of the powers. (I'm on the fence as to whether I'd prefer Faraday as-is or as a toggle aura.)

Tl;dr - experiencing the entirety of the Praetorian story, starting *as* a Praetorian, was a Live project I just never got around to finishing due to the way it hops around all sorts of level ranges - and I'm looking to fix that! The hope is to create a spoiler-free 'map' of where all the contacts, trials, and TFs involved fall chronologically so that I can run through them 'in order' on various characters and see the whole story in a way that makes sense. Following the Wiki's Issue releases, I was able to cobble a starter together - but I'm not sure where the other 30-40 arcs (Provost Marchand, Sgt. Schorr) actually fall. Any help/corrections would be appreciated! 1: Praetorian Starters (1-20) 2: Apex (50 Incarnate) 3: Tin Mage (50 Incarnate) 4: Behavioral Adjustment Facility (50 Trial) 5: Lambda Sector (50 Trial) 6: Admiral Sutter TF (20-40) 7: Keyes Island (50 Trial) 8: First Ward (20-30) 9: Night Ward (20-30) 10: Underground Trial (50 Trial) 11: TPN Campus (50 Trial) 12: Dark Astoria (50 Incarnate) 13: Dilemma Diabolique (50 Trial) 14: Belladonna Vetrano (50 Incarnate) 15: Magisterium (Incarnate Trial) ??: Provost Marchand

Not entirely sure which part of this is a bug, but the text for the power reads: I could have sworn this was actually instant-cast before Page 5; unless that was a /Devices bonus or I'm just misremembering. Either way, it's definitely not instant cast at the moment - in fact, it's the same length of animation lock whether you're in or out of combat - it's simply uninterruptible in combat.