masterminds
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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Masterminds
It's hard to get a much more iconic villainous archetype than the Mastermind. Most of the City of Heroes choices can make perfect sense for both factions, but if you're calling in legions of battle droids to fight your opponents, you're really half a step away from building a laser to destroy Newark. (Although that might just be throwing good lasers after bad, there.) That doesn't mean that the players have no right to play on the faction they want, just that... it's a bit harder to see the archetype as particularly heroic. But we're not here to talk about the thematic elements of the class (or at least not just for that). This week it's time to look at what is also one of the most recognizable archetypes in City of Heroes by virtue of its uniquely overwhelming system of minions. So whether you're new to the game as a whole or just to this particular archetype, click on through for an examination of what it means to be a Mastermind.
The Daily Grind: What unique class is your favorite?
There are certain classes that are nearly ubiquitous. Even if your game veers toward a class-free system, it's almost inevitable that you'll have a warrior-shaped bundle of abilities that pokes things with sharp weapons until they fall down and die. But while virtually every game has the big four options (fighter, rogue, cleric, and mage by other names), there are also classes resistant to pigeonholing, the sort that only exist within that particular game. Summoners in Final Fantasy XI, Dervishes in Guild Wars, Masterminds in City of Heroes, Wardens in Lord of the Rings Online. While some of the aforementioned classes might have vague counterparts elsewhere, there's nothing else that captures the same feel, and that makes them more memorable in the long run. So what's your favorite unique class (or set of abilities that are loosely shaped like a class) in a game? Are they your favorite class to play, or just the one that felt the most distinct? Do you still play the game in question for that class, or have you since moved on, hoping to one day recapture the fun in a new setting?
The ties that bind
User Monorail over in the official CoX forums has come up with an indispensable program for those players running through Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. What started out as an easy to make bind program for his Mastermind (the villainous archetype that controls hordes of minions) turned into something much more. CityBinder creates custom binds for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, and saves a profile for each character, making updating them a snap.CityBinder will create a hoary host of binds that include (but aren't limited to) SpeedOnDemand binds, MM binds for commanding henchmen, setting aggressive/passive state, a pill popper bindset, and even basic chat, slashchat, autoreply, target-tell, and quickchat. CityBinder was created using Lua and the IUP Portable User Interface making it easy for new binds to be added. Check the CityBinder Project Page for news and forums. All new releases can be found at CityBinder Release Files. As veteran CoX players know, binds make the game a lot more fun. If you want to have a more enjoyable experience as your bashing Arachnos, flaming Longbow, or just doing a little street cleaning in your friendly crime infested virtual neighborhood... grab this program and leave your worries behind.
