Help, I need some advice on Itrails

[Lusiphur Malache]

Congratulations to this thread from me.  I got a Demon/Thermal to 50.  Due mostly to my ability to read and a lot of good advice and bad advice that I learned to ignore.  Now the hard part is here, Itrails.  Did a regular BAF and a badge run and had no problems with either.  BAF is easy, now comes the things, I have no idea what to do.  TinPex, DD, and the other incarnate things.  When should I be aggressive or passive with my pets or dismiss them altogether?  Help me Obi-Wan, I'm in over my head here.

[Lunar Ronin]

The only time you ever need to dismiss henchmen is when you're about to enter the final mission of the Tin Mage TF.  There's few or no beacons for henchmen to follow in the Praetorian underground area, so henchmen never make it through the doors.  When you're outside the last underground door, then you should resummon, re-equip, and re-upgrade your henchmen ASAP.  Other than that, there's never any need to dismiss henchmen.

 

If you're just taking out trash, like most of BAF, or Underground, it's fine to keep henchmen on aggressive.  When outside during the TPN Campus Trial, you want to keep henchmen on a very tight leash so that they don't attack cameras or Praetorian citizens so you'll need to carefully control them.  When inside the buildings, you can set them back on aggressive.  As for putting henchmen on passive, you do that when the league is trying to obtain certain badges.  Like for BAF on Keep Them Separated or Triple Threat on the Magisterium trial, should a league leader order people to stop attacking when the AVs are at 5%, you put your henchmen on passive at 6%.  Same for Avatar Assassin badge in The Underground trial.  For Bunker Buster on the Keyes Trial, just put your henchmen on passive for that part.

 

Some Incarnate trial leaders will tell you to dismiss your henchmen thinking that they will somehow cause certain badges to fail, like Avoids the Green Stuff or Avatar Assassin.  They won't unless the Mastermind is played badly, but you should respect your Incarnate trial leader's wishes for that trial.  Generally, Incarnate trial leaders that ask for henchmen to be dismissed don't play Masterminds or rarely play Masterminds and don't understand the AT.

Edited August 4 by Lunar Ronin

[Uun]

A couple of considerations:

• During Incarnate content, your T1 henchmen will receive a +2 level shift and your T2 henchmen will receive a +1 level shift. This stacks with any level shifts you have from Alpha, Lore or Destiny. As a result, all you henchmen will be at your combat level during all Incarnate content.
• Tin Mage and Apex are technically TFs not Incarnate Trials. They're limited to a team of 8 and Lore and Destiny level shifts don't operate. All foes will be lvl 54 and you'll be limited to 50+1.
• As you progress through the trials, the AVs (and some bosses) have increasing level shifts: +2 in TPN, UG and MoM, +3 in DD and +5 in Magi. I don't recommend running TPN, UG, MoM or DD without at least a +1 level shift (+2 preferred for DD). You need to have Lore and Destiny unlocked to run Magi, but most leaders will want you to have at least a +2 level shift (+3 preferred).