Master_Zaprobo's Guide to the Modern Mastermind v1.0b

Foreword
This is a guide in progress, and is planned to be released once the forums go live (in conjunction with a Mastermind powerset listing guide I also have prepared). It is intended to be a "one stop shop" for those wanting to learn about effective play for a Mastermind. It is not, however, a min/max guide, nor is it a "numbers" post. I'm sure others will oblige us!

I have posted this early so I can get a little feedback for additions and/or improvements! Enjoy!

Welcome: Introduction
Welcome to Master Zaprobo's Guide to the Modern Mastermind. As one of the most innovative and technically complex new Archetypes to the "City of" franchise, the Mastermind warranted a lot of discussion, close developer interaction and investigation during the beta stages of City of Villains.

Working through the Powers (Overview, Supremacy, Henchmen Powers, Synergystic Travel, Leadership Pool) and Play (Overview, Henchmen Progressions, Inspirations, Pet Controls, Macro and Keybind Commands) sections will give you an excellent basis to start playing.

Welcome: Thanks
Many thanks need to be handed out for the information contained in this guide. Apologies for anyone who feels left out or marginalised - it's not intentional!

Ryko_Nailo - Powerset Lists
ICF_Zombra - Henchman Powers
Positron - Cryptic Studios Mastermind Liason
Pohsyb - Cryptic Studios Developer
AlmightyFork - Cryptic Studios Henchmen AI Programmer
Con_Artist - Robotics Trailblazer

Powers: Overview
The Mastermind, in overview, is a Damage-orientated Primary (through their henchmen) with a Support Secondary. Any Mastermind Primary powerset can be loosely defined as follows...

Attack #1
Summon #1
Attack #2
Upgrade #1
Attack #3
Summon #2
Hench Support #1
Summon #3
Upgrade #2

This makes planning very simple in the abstract, as you will know what levels your key powers arrive, and which you can skip. As a quick reference, you should count any henchman related power as indispensible (Summons, Upgrades, Support) which gives you a minimum of six primary powers to take.

The Mastermind Secondaries are support powers (loosely akin to Controller Secondaries, both in function and effectiveness). These allow you to support, and defend your henchmen in battle as well as your teammates. The number of Secondary powers you will want to take will be dependant on the secondary, and your own playstyle. For instance, Forcefields favours a "hands off" approach, allowing your henchmen to do all the work whereas Dark Miasma is a lot more involved.

Powers: Supremacy
The lynchpin of the Mastermind Archetype is the Supremacy Inherent Power. This elevates the henchmen from being weak player-driven NPC's, to the pont of being as damaging and as accurate as the Mastermind himself.

It gives (roughly) a 15% bonus to your own henchmans Accuracy and Damage in a 65 foot radius around yourself. This power requires line of sight to your henchmen for it to function correctly. An intelligent Mastermind will, therefore, stick close to the henchmen for this bonus.

Powers: Henchmen Powers
Independant of the Mastermind themselves, each henchman has a specific set of powers. These can be upgraded twice - once with each upgrade power. These upgrades will stay with the henchman until it is defeated, unsummoned or you zone (zoning meaning leaving an island zone, exiting or entering a mission).

You need only use the upgrade power on each henchman once, but each will need to be upgraded individually. The two powers grant specific abilities, and so for the full range of abilities both upgrades will need to be used on a henchman.

There are a two abilities of henchmen that bear further explanation. The first is that Battle Drones (Robotics Primary) and all Ninja Primary Henches (after certain upgrades) will gain the "Super Leap" skill. This is represented by the same buff icon as the Leaping Power "Super Jump", but is not the same power. Super Leap will only be used to reach high-up ledges, gantries, buildings, etc. Your henchmen will not use it to travel.

The second is the henchman auto-summon. In order that you do not leave your henchmen behind, they will auto-summon to you if you ever get 170 yards precisely away from them. If you are mid-Super Leap, or mid-Flight they will appear next to you and fall. Running, they will appear next to you at each 170 yard interval. The henches do have to be exactly 170 yards or more away so if they are chasing after you and are 169 yards from you when you stop, they will have to run the entire distance to you.

The following is the list of powers that henchmen will start with (for each primary) and what each upgrade will grant them.

<hench powers - TBC>

Powers: Synergystic Travel
For a Mastermind, Super Jump and Super Speed will leave behind your henches if you have to travel with them. This means that overall you will need to be stopping every 170 yards (the distance at which henchmen with auto-resummon next to you) to ensure your bodyguards are with you.

Taking the two Group Travel Powers into account - Group Teleport has a reduced range compared to Teleport itself but this is liable to be livable with decent slotting. It also has an effect in PvP of disorientating your foes, as they can't be wholly sure which direction you went. Also, to be able to move your entire entourage while immobilised is a Good Thing (tm). On the downside, your henches will not have any power to keep airborne if you are TPing through the air, so lag will be your enemy, as will Endurance Maintenance.

Group Fly will again enable you to move your entire group (read: henches and you) around easily enough and will allow for interesting "Drop Zone" tactics (switch to Hover/Fly, and you have paratroopers, without the parachutes!). You should be able to travel near the skybox limit, and be able to be fairly safe. Endurance drain won't be as extreme as Group Teleport and it is more functional "out of the box". On the downside, there are a good many -Fly powers and no -Teleport powers (aside from the obvious holds, etc.)

In the end, if going for group travel you will probably opt for Group Fly, as it is nominally the "safer" of the two for pure navigation.

Powers: Leadership Pool
The Leadership powers (Manouvres, Tactics and Assault) are all usable with your henchmen, and are an excellent choice for adding additional resistances, accuracy and damage. Not only will these add these three, Tactics also adds Perception (resists stealth abilities) and Assault gives resistance to Taunt powers.

In terms of slotting with enhancements, the damage bonus of Assault can not currently be increased and hence will require less slotting than Tactics (which can be slotted for ToHit), Manouvres (which can be slotted for Defense) or Vengeance (which can be slotted for Healing, Defense and ToHit) though all may want to be slotted for Endurance Cost.

Vengeance (the final power in the Leadership Pool) can not be used with henchmen. However, it can be used on fallen teammates to provide a bonus for your henchmen.

Play: Overview
The Mastermind plays like they have their own "Team in a Pocket". While a Mastermind does get three Primary attacks, these are inefficient when compared to the power of their henchmen.

Using henchmen requires a certain degree of micromanagement, and is almost like a Real-time Strategy minigame with City of Villains. An effective Mastermind is one that pays close attention to the Health, Stamina and Deployment of their charges, and assists them closely using their Primary and Secondary powers.

Henchmen are considered by mobs in "City of" to be of a higher threat than you as the Mastermind and hence will attack them first, if you and your henches in range and your Mastermind is taking no aggressive action. This is not a true "Taunt" effect, but often emulates it, as an attack from your henchmen can draw aggro away from you (this does, of course, render it useless for PvP). The only time where this will not be true is for ambush and mission ambush spawns (commonly found in the bank robbery missions). These are specifically targetted at your Mastermind, and will (for the most part) ignore your henches.

Henchmen can travel with you across a single zone, or an entire mission map. They can not, however cross boundries or enter/exit mission maps with you. You must resummon them on the new map or zone.

Play: Henchmen Progression
As you level up in City of Villains you gain access to more summon powers and more henchmen. Your first tier summon will (at L18 and above) provide three henchmen. Your tier two summon will provide two henchmen (at L24 and above). However, the more henchmen you have, the lower their level will be relative to your own. Two henchmen from the same tier will be summoned at your level, minus one. Three henchmen from the same tier will be summond at minus two.

The following table maps your potential henchmen numbers as you progress (assuming you take summons as soon as they are available).

<hench summon levels - TBC>

Play: Inspirations
Not only is a Mastermind able to use inspirations themselves, they are also able to "inspire" their henchmen with every inspiration type but the Resurrection types (Awaken, etc.). This can be critical to break a Hold on a henchman, improve their damage or defense and even to heal them.

You can simply drop the inspiration on your henchmen, or on their listing in the pet controls (assuming they are in normal inspiration trading range).

Play: Pet Controls
When you first summon a Mastermind Henchman, you will be presented with the "Pet Controls". These default to a "Simple" mode where you will be able to command your henchmen using three preset "macros". These are Attack, Follow and Heel. Versions of these that will command all your henchman should already be present in your powers quickbar.

Henchmen have different stances:

* Aggressive: Attack anything hostile that comes within detection range.
* Defensive: Attack anything that attacks me or my master.
* Passive: Don't attack anything.

They can also be given different commands:

* Attack my Target: Attacks the thing you currently have targeted.
* Goto: Goto a spot designated by the player.
* Follow Me: Follow the player around.
* Stay: Stand still in this area, do not follow. (Stay is basically a "Goto the spot you are currently on")
* Dismiss: Destroys the henchman.

These can be used in combination. So "Aggressive/Follow Me" means "Follow me around, attacking anything that we get close enough to". Or "Passive/Attack My Target" means "Go attack this specific guy, and when you are done, don't attack anyone else."

The preset "Attack" actually commands your henchman to aggressive stance and to attack your target. "Follow" will be familiar to City of Heroes Pet Controllers (as this is their pets default mode) as it sets your henchman to aggressive stance and to follow you. "Heel" sets the henchman to passive mode and to follow you.

You can set the pet controls to two other modes - to command individual henchman, and to switch to Advanced Mode.

In individual henchman mode, you will be able to command any of your henchmen individually with either the Basic or Advanced controls. You can, of course, drag and drop these indiviual commands to your powers quickbar (enabling you to command specific henchman, or groups of henchmen).

In advanced controls mode, you will be able to pick any individual stance, and any individual command, rather than being "stuck" with the fixed preset macros. However, if you are wishing to have this level of control, I would severely recommend using macros or keybinds to do so.

Play: Macro and Keybind Commands
All henchman commands can also be issued from the chat box, as well as a few extra ones, in the form of "slash" commands. This makes the creation of macros and binds extremely simple. The slash commands (and syntax) are as follows:

/petcom {stance} {command}
/petcom_name {henchname} {stance} {command}
/petcom_pow {summon power} {stance} {command}
/petcom_all {stance} {command}

Each of the "petcom" commands can be followed by one stance (Defensive, Aggressive or Passive) and/or one command (Goto, Follow, Stay, Attack or Dismiss).

Examples...
/petcom passive (tell current pet to be passive)
/petcom_name "zombie 2" dismiss (tell "zombie 2" to leave)
/petcom_pow Protector attack aggressive (tell all pets created by the "Protector Bots" summon to attack your target and be aggressive)
/petcom_all goto defensive (tell all pets to goto a spot and be defensive)

Please note that all of the words after the command, the game will search for a best match, so you don't have to type in the full words:

/bind mbutton petcom_name 2 att def

That would bind a command to the middle mouse button to make all pets with a name containing the number "2", to attack and be defensive. This could be a henchman named "2pac", "R1-D2" or even "Time 2 Die". This is useful in creating sets of henchmen across summon types.

The other

/petsay <{command}> {message}
/petsay_pow {summon power} <{command}>{message}
/petsay_name {henchname} <{command}>{message}
/petsay_all <{command}>{message}

The "petsay" commands work the same way, but will allow you to have your pet say something or execute a command. The most common command is to have them /emote which can be seen in the following example:

/petsay_all <em praise>Pohsyb is the Greatist!

That will make your henchmen bow and worship "Pohsyb". Any henchman speech will appear in the "Pet" channel (light blue), which acts the same as the local channel does for players (it is not zone or server-wide). Pet Chat will have a prefix of your character name (in brackets) and then the henchmans name.

 

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