The age old question

[Frosty15]

The age old question: How do I keep my pets alive? Im new at masterminds and it seems some secondaries are better than others to keep pets alive. Im thinking /FF or /dark may be the best. Thoughts?

[PeregrineFalcon]

/FF, along with the Leadership pool and the Medicine pool, is very good at keeping MM pets alive.

 

/dark and /sonic are also good, but not as good as /FF.

[Frosty15]

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[DocMidknight]

  A few things to remember that the pet unique IO's go long way in helping your pets resist/defenses numbers as well as running them in defensive or BG state to mitigate some of the damage they take.  Have yet to try FF but I can speak very highly of dark with regards to masterminds.

[Ridiculous Girl]

some secondary synergize really well with certain MM primaries... trick arrow despite not having a heal is really good, i have a ninja/TA and a robots/TA because both sets have their own built in heals. thermal pairs well with demons, since the shields double up with the demon shields, so your pet get close to resistance cap really early.

[evetsleep]

56 minutes ago, Ridiculous Girl said:

some secondary synergize really well with certain MM primaries... trick arrow despite not having a heal is really good, i have a ninja/TA and a robots/TA because both sets have their own built in heals. thermal pairs well with demons, since the shields double up with the demon shields, so your pet get close to resistance cap really early.

 

My favorite part about trick arrow and MM's is that I don't need to re-apply shields to pets I have to resummon.  That gets really old for some tough battles.  It's also nice that TA works really well with fast moving teams.  This means that when I'm playing super aggressive with my thugs/ta I don't get too upset when the arsonist goes off to do arsonist things and pays the ultimate price.  I can just quickly resummon, toss upgrades, and carry on.

 

To the OP, there is some nuance to your question where the answer will greatly depend on the MM primary.  I'm pretty sure I have just about every MM primary/secondary combonat this point and the only one I really had a hard time with was poison.  So it is possible to take different strategies to keep your pets alive depending on what kind of pets you have.

 

BUT importantly not too long ago Homecoming made the pet summons recharge super fast and cost far less than they used to.  This made resummoning not being nearly as painful as it used to be.  I stress out far less when my pets die because of this. You have to keep in mind that your pet's, other than the boss, are lower level than you (generally speaking), so when they get hit, it'll hurt.  I think you should get comfortable with having to resummon every now and then, even if you max out defense.

 

Even with my ninja/force field mm, whose pets have ridiculous defense, will die from time to time.  It happens.

 

 

[Warlawk]

On 2/27/2025 at 10:59 AM, Frosty15 said:

The age old question: How do I keep my pets alive? Im new at masterminds and it seems some secondaries are better than others to keep pets alive. Im thinking /FF or /dark may be the best. Thoughts?

 

In my experience /Time is the baseline sturdiest secondary in the game. Specific pairings of course can really elevate things but you can drop /time into anything and it will be good. Amazing defenses, a great heal, a bit of blue bar love for your pets and a nice aoe -def/res debuff that you can get on a short recast with the +Rech that time offers.

[UltraAlt]

On 2/27/2025 at 1:59 PM, Frosty15 said:

The age old question: How do I keep my pets alive? Im new at masterminds and it seems some secondaries are better than others to keep pets alive. Im thinking /FF or /dark may be the best. Thoughts?

 

I play leveling content

I tend to stay in defense mode, stay with my pets, and jump into the middle of battle.

 

Lately, the best secondary I have found to keep pets (and teammates) alive is by far Electrical Affinity ... https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Electrical_Affinity

 

I'm a character conception player, so it really doesn't work for me to use it with Beast Mastery, Demon Summoning (unless going petless), Mercenaries, or Thugs.

Using it with Necromancy, Robotics (come with the power https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Robotics#Maintenance_Drone), and petless Demon Summoning (when treating teammates as pets), it does a really good job.

 

Usually, I will target all powers through whatever highest level henchman I have out.

The electrical heals and buffs jump from one character to the next. So if you are near the targeted henchman there is a good chance that you will get healed and buffed as well (as well as all your nearby henchmen).

Quick-recharge heals, buffs, and a static forcefield that you drop where you and your henchmen will be standing.

 

Also, I also must add that there are some critical enhancements that can help keep your pets alive.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Command_of_the_Mastermind:_Recharge/Pet_%2BAoE_Defense_Aura

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mark_of_Supremacy:_Endurance/Pet_%2BResist(All)_and_%2BRegen_Aura

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Edict_of_the_Master:_Defense_Bonus

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Commanding_Presence:_Taunt/Placate_Resist (don't think I ever bothered using this one, but it might come in handy in some cases)

 

[Nemu]

Sure certain combinations can keep henchmen alive better than others but play style will go a long way towards you being a better mastermind in spite of the support that may or may not be available from your toolkit.

 

I find the following playstyle changes help keep my henchmen alive:

 

1 - take the alpha strike yourself (this means building for some level of self mitigation). get the drop on your enemies and land some debuffs and soak the retaliation so your henchmen can get to work.

 

2 - focus fire with all henchmen so they don't aggro everything, the quicker something dies, the less incoming damage that pets will suffer. Pets that do their own thing means they are all going to attack different targets which means those targets all live longer which means they all have more time to kill your henchmen.

 

The poorest MMs are the ones that don't take the time to control their pets, but I also find those fancy MM binds needlessly convoluted. Petcomall attack/stay/follow defensive/goto are the only ones I ever use. No need to segment them based on tier/name and have some sit back in BG mode. In this day and age when it's relatively easy to make sturdy builds, the value of separating your henchmen for BG mode is greatly diminished. And like I wrote above, I find absolutely no value in separating your henchmen offensively.