Newbie(?) MM questions

[Neural]

Why do my animals seem to draw and keep aggro so much better than bots/thugs/ninjas/demons/mercs?  I've tried different mm builds, but with everything but the wolves/lions it seems like I pull aggro myself a lot more often.

 

Is there any reason to use Train Beasts once you have taken Tame Beasts?

 

Is there any reason to put any additional enhancement slots into these two powers?

 

I really enjoy my Beasts/Nature-Affinity toon, but I'd like to play a different style sometimes (I can only take the idle howling/growling stuff for a few hours at a time before I just mute the game).  I have a concept in my mind for a superhero that uses bots as well, but I've found bots rather difficult to work with because the mobs keep switching aggro to me.  Is this because they have a number of ranged attacks?

 

Are commonly discussed builds for masterminds here on the forum aimed towards solo or team play?

[khy]

You will ALWAYS want to use BOTH train and tame beasts. Each of the two upgrades gives your pets different abilities. It's the same for all MM upgrades - the upgrade power you get at level 6 adds new abilities, and the upgrade power at 32 adds EVEN MORE abilities. Usually the abilities granted by the level 32 upgrade are also AoE, while the level 6 one is normally single target.

 

For example, Merc soldiers. By default the soldiers have a Burst attack and a brawl. When you use Equip Mercenary, they also gain a 'heavy burst' attack which does more damage than the normal burst. And when you use Tactical Upgrade, they get Full Auto, which is Heavy Burst with an AoE cone.

 

If you use Tactical Upgrade, they'll only have Burst and the AoE burst - not the heavy burst attack. So they end up having 2 out of their 3 possible attacks. Their DPS is definitely lower without the heavy burst as part of their rotation, so by using both equip and upgrade you end up doing much more damage.

 

Dogs are the same way, though off the top of my head I don't remember what power Train grants versus Tame. I ought to get the info from live and put it on the Wiki so I can see it while I'm at work... But I do know you'll want to upgrade your dogs with both, so they have all their attacks available to them.

 

I wouldn't bother putting any enhancement slots into those two powers, I usually drop a single level 50 EndRec in them and call it good.

 

 

As for aggro, this page might help : https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Threat

 

The TL;DR is that ranged attacks generate less threat than melee ones do, so pets that get in melee tend to hold aggro better. Other things factor into it, such as what you're doing when you gain threat - are you debuffing? That generates a fair amount of threat. Are you using AoEs while your pets are using single target attacks? Are you healing? Stuff like that is important to note, since the situation can vary on circumstance. Your secondary and whether or not you're attacking from melee or ranged can have significant impacts on how much threat you have versus your pets.

[Neural]

Thank you.  That clears a lot up there.  I was a bit overwhelmed with the difference between the pets and the non-pets, but the ranged/melee aggro mechanics being different makes a lot more sense.

[fireawayx]

First, I would familiarize yourself with Bodyguard Mode if you haven't already: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mastermind_Strategy

 

Generally, it isn't always a bad thing to draw aggro from your pets - the tier 1 pets in particular are often very squishy - and when soloing you'll usually want to live in Bodyguard mode for that reason. In a group setting you'll mostly need to try and protect them from AoE. Get used to resummoning and accept that your pets are going to die sometimes, especially during the leveling process. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to keep that from happening, but it will.