JediDave

I don't think "power creep" is the right term here, since the change to containment damage was unrelated to the change in pet control, and still leaves controllers behind doms in damage. I also would argue your italicized point here implies that instead of using powers to lock down enemies, controllers are not constantly commanding pets, which I don't believe is the case. Or you misinterpreted what I was trying to say. I meant "drop and start blasting" as in if the pet dies, my dominator keeps shooting things, and doesn't care that the pet is down, (like a crabbermind) but if a controller pet dies, I will try to resummon them asap because I need a meat shield and damage source (this was still the case pre patch). The dom pets have always felt like a nice bonus, but controller pets felt like a key part of their strategy before and after the patch. That is what I meant, that a controller feels significantly weaker without a pet, and a dominator feels like a complete character without the pet, and can still keep "blasting." By which I meant blasting, not holding, since one aoe at the start of a group is all the controlling a dom needs to lock them down until they drop. Honestly, the only time I or people I've chatted with in game regularly use the pet commands is when a pet runs off after a low hp enemy that wasn't locked down and risks aggroing another group. Maybe focusing attacks on an AV for some, but by and large, it's 90% the same controller strategy that was there pre patch. I can see a few pets, like singy, being able to benefit more from movement commands, but even then the old tp target strat probably still works better. I think the exception for me, and when I use the pet commands most, is with my arsenal controller to have the gun drone run in before me to grab aggro when solo, and that takes one click per group. Still able to keep tossing holds and debuffs just as much as pre patch.

Keeping in mind that the balance of the game is intended to be focused on basic SO level builds, I believe the pet change was only on controllers because they are much more pet dependent than dominators. Yes, a proc'd out controller can clear all but the bosses in a group pretty quickly without pets, but base level controllers really need the pets in order to do much damage. And solo they have a whole secondary set that is usually very team oriented and can benefit their pets. It made more sense to give them some control over such an important aspect of their AT. Meanwhile, most dominators will do just fine with or without their pets, since they have a whole secondary to deal damage as well as higher base damage on their primary. Really, my controllers with pets use them as a key part of their game plan, but my dominators use the pets more like my crabbermind does, just drop 'em and start blasting.

If you want to go full fire farm with it, then you'll likely want a build 1 and build 2 at a trainer, because fire farm specific builds tend to be pretty bad in most other content. And for any future builds you make, you seem to be falling into some common traps for people newer to making builds. Don't feel like you need to get 5-6 slots of a single set in each power. Looking at weave, for example, you have 6 slots of LotG in there. 3-4 is fine, with 3 getting you near/at the ED cap on defense, and then a 4th slot if you want more endurance reduction or the acc set bonus. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have incinerate and greater fire sword, 2 powers that should have 4-6 slots in them, at the base slot alone. On a brute, you can definitely get away with lower damage from enhancements because of fury, but a single slot isn't going to do much for you. I understand having res/def goals, but if the attack powers you take give a set bonus that adds to def/res stats, then they are doing much more for your survivability than 6 slotting fire shield and plasma shield, which give much less resistance after 3 slots and near no benefits after 4. For a fire farm specific build, you may need to slot them with 6pc for a specific set bonus, but those builds also put burn or another aoe on auto then afk for 5-10 minutes while things die, using no other attacks.

Nothing about this change is trying to "undo the user's preferences" here. It's just the default state for controllable pets on literally every controllable pet. That includes MM henchmen as @Psyonico mentioned, as well as Lore pets which affect every AT in the game. And it is also a 10 second fix as mentioned above. Copy and paste this into your chat bar one time and that character is set the way you seem to want it forever. /bind w +forward$$petcom_all aggressive

I mean, just having AM and Hasten both on gets you half the recharge value you need. And with MM having higher end cost and lower debuff values, keeping AM's recovery up is very nice. More Hell on Earth is also nice. Keeping Lingering radiation up on AVs is nice. It'd be overkill if it wasn't relatively easy to grab, but 3 sets giving +10% recharge by default, a couple LotG, and just a couple other bonuses should get you there. If he's just debuffing with rad, that's 2 toggles and then nothing. The main complaint was that the character felt like they weren't doing much beside watch the henchmen defeat things. The whips give ~9% resist debuff each. This character can debuff MORE and feel more active with one or more of the whip attacks. I don't think all 3 should be taken, but at least 1 so they can actively contribute to bosses and AVs going down almost 10% faster. The whips are mainly there as a debuff, so they also are one slot ACC powers that won't steal slots from other things. Unless they want to proc out the aoe, which would deal decent damage.

Edit*Thought I was responding to a diff topic. Still waking up here

I have a demons/ at 50 with incarnates, and a /rad troller at 50 with incarnates, but have not played them together, so some of this is "in theory" and some is from first hand experience. As far as feeling like you're just letting pets kill stuff, there are a few main reasons you likely feel that way. You have none of the mm attacks. I'm not suggesting you take them all, but at least one will help you feel more active. I'd say Corruption if you want to get big targets down, and crack whip if you want to get some aoe damage and debuff. The whips don't do much on their own, and can honestly be slotted up with just an acc if you want, but the debuff is helpful and will give you something else to do. I suggest corruption over lash because it's up faster and will keep you busier a bit more if that's the vibe you're shooting for. The overall damage difference is minimal if you're only taking one. If you do slot it for damage, Lash may be better with the procs available and a longer base recharge. Crack whip has a lot more proc potential being TAoE, but if you just want to start hitting bosses, the more frequent attacks may return more for you. Don't know how much power selection wiggle room you have, but more attacks will stack the debuff and let you start contributing a lot more with a constant 18/27% res debuff. Radiation is a pretty inactive set. For the most part, you toggle debuff the target you think will last longest, then on AVs/GMs you hit lingering radiation whenever it's up. I will say, I think you should take enervating field. I see you aren't built to 50 yet, so maybe you were going to take it at 47/49, but it really should be grabbed asap. It makes you lose slower and the enemies lose faster. Radiating Aura is also an odd skip on a MM, even with demons having some default healing. Checking their health and making sure the demonlings are capped out and less likely to be one-shot is also going to keep you busy. Then I have some tweaks I'd make on the build. Leadership is good, and you should take it. But I would normally stop at maneuvers and tactics unless you have very specific reasons otherwise. Assault is fine, but overall minimal and you already have a lot of high end use toggles. Vengeance is nice, but I normally prefer panic buttons to be used pre character dropping. If you are new enough to MMs to think it can target dead henchmen (a lot of players think that at first), you are out of luck, as it must target a player character. If you get a lot of use out of it, go ahead and keep it, but I'd usually side against it until a 47/49 power pick when the rest of the build is good as is. If you were able to stack a ton of ranged defense, I'd go with the set you have in AM. But that doesn't seem to be the case, so I'd go with 6 piece of Efficiency Adapter I believe (I am awful at remembering set names and don't have mids access at work. 5% recharge on the 6th slot, has a plug icon, the one you have on mutation in the screenshot). You have a lot of powers 6 slotted with sets that don't need to be. The pets and hell on earth should be franken slotted. The set in Summon Demons should be split 2pc per henchmen so you get the +10%rech bonus 3 times. Then each henchmen should get some combo of dam/acc/end to get them close to the ED cap on damage and enough acc to hit 95% on +3 targets. Tactics and radiation infection help there, but unfortunately, Mids won't show an exact figure on how much lower RI will drop the requirements, so I'd say 85-90% should be a good ballpark once they are debuffed. Then you want to squeeze in the 2 +10% Res enhancements on pets, the 2 +5% defense enhancements, and if possible, 1-2 damage procs on the prince, as both slow set damage procs will go off on just about all his attacks. Better to have his dam% a little lower and have a proc than 95% damage and no proc. Hell on Earth gives you another power to squeeze in all the uniques, and can get 4 pieces of reinforcements to give some recharge bonus. Maneuvers can probably stop at 7.5% recharge, def, def/end and maybe a 4th slot if you want the +acc bonus (def/end/rech gives best stat value next). Lingering Radiation needs 1 acc IO and if it's more than a couple seconds off perma, a rech IO. Tactics I would also swap to 5 pieces of adjusted targeting. The Build up proc there affects your damage and the whips aren't doing enough base damage for that random boost to do much. Power boost isn't doing much on radiation. Or demons really. It at best boosts your defense values on hover/maneuvers/scorp for a few seconds and can sort of be a panic +defense power, but that's really it here. I would honestly swap epic pools to fire and proc out fireball and take fire shield and a procced out char as well. Mu mastery can also be good. The best you're getting from mace mastery is the aoe immob imo. Hover should probably drop one of the fly speeds for a kismet +tohit. If you go with a resist epic shield, the 2 +res uniques would also be good here, but don't do much without the base resist from a toggle or outside buff. Spirit ward is fine, but with it only targeting one ally, you're not getting a ton from it here. If you want it, it's not hurting anything, but I wouldn't feel bad about dropping it on a MM. Choking Cloud is a good pick on MMs if you solo a lot. If you typically are teaming, it won't feel as effective, so it's up to you. I'd put 1-2 end reductions in it and a +2 mag Lockdown enhancement. IF you are dead set on keeping Vengeance, I would pair it with Fallout. It's kind of an all or nothing pick imo, either take both or take neither. If a teammate dies, you get to fire off a mini nuke with a great debuff, then vengeance buff the team, then rez them. A lot of my suggestions give +rech% here, and getting AM and Hasten both perma is part of the reason. Both together give +100% recharge, which will help with proc'd epic powers, keeping recharge slotting on LR low, and making hell on earth come back faster. With perma AM your endurance should be good, but I'd still toss at least a miracle or panacea into health. Ideally both and a numina if you end up with room.

If you had a secondary with a solid ranged attack like claws or spines, this would work well to keep bosses specifically on you, but as you've found, this isn't viable to hold the whole group's aggro. The niche this is good for is against AVs who can't fly and have minimal ranged attacks. I've seen a few use web nades and a 2nd character's immob on Recluse in MLTF to some degree of success, but if you try this in a normal mission, it is going to look like you're trolling the team a bit.

I never actually sat down and did the math, just thought "I need this number bigger than 3, and more than that is a buffer for level adjustments" but it's nice to know the tldr section for future use.

Aura of Madness is very good. Ideal slotting late game is 2-3 Hami enhancements for acc/mez, since that will boost the mag on all of it's effects. If you have the inf for +3 HOs then 2 will be enough, but 3 is technically better, if very rarely noticeable. The cheaper option is the dam/mez HOs and maybe you go 2 of those and an acc IO. Damage slotting on it in general isn't going to do much, but the /mez enhancement you get from HOs is great. The damage you take from it is so minimal, I honestly forgot until this post that it deals damage to the player. With Mori up, my regen is hitting 160ish per second, and still pretty high but under 100 without Mori up. The damage isn't something you need to consider. That being said, I have 2 psi armor characters, one tank and one sent. The sent is usually at a decent range from the enemies, and I'm considering dropping aura just because I'm rarely in melee range, and I got just enough set bonuses to make ranged defense capped when teaming with my irl friends' added maneuvers. If your playstyle for water/psi keeps you at range the majority of the time, it may not be worth taking, at least not while leveling and unable to grab Hami-Os

Your definition of impossible is very different from the actual definition of impossible. You have farsight boosted defense, bodyguard mode, and time's juncture boosting your survivability. There is zero reason for you to not also be in melee range. Bodyguard mode means your ninjas' HP is your HP, and the aoe heal is working double time. As for invisibility, grant invisibility is a single power pick and a one slot wonder. Easy fix

No, I would take all 9 powers

/energy is great for going full range. The sustain is target independent, boost range helps thematically, and the T1 melee attack is just giant knockback to get melee enemies out of your face. That being said, if you just want big ST damage at range, corruptor and sentinel are also viable choices with a bit more flexibility, and even a dominator could do what you're looking for. If you're looking for ST damage for AV/GM purposes, corruptors' scourge will help out a ton, and they have a lot of debuff options that will pump up your damage and the rest of the team's damage on that big target. If you just want to delete standard bosses, blaster is still probably your best bet, though sentinel isn't too far behind and can survive a lot better if your team isn't the best. Following your caveats, I'd say Ice/Energy blaster, Ice/Cold corruptor, and Elec/Bio Sentinel are your best bet. Bio I would say minimal visuals and the damage adaptation.

The change was to specifically controllers, so this was not an oversight. Dominator pets and things like Dark Servant or Epic summons also have had zero changes.

Ninja/Time would work really well. Time has the strong AoE heal you'll want when an attack or two get past the defenses of your ninjas, and it has a very easy time capping both your defense and the ninjas' defense. You aren't necessarily locked into an epic pool with power boost, but using power boost then hitting Farsight will drastically increase the defense and tohit values that you have. I think you'd get a lot more out of /time than /kin on ninjas.

It seems like everything is good, but if you're in need of a power and have to drop something, I'd think Fast Healing is the easiest to get rid of. With how easy it is to cap HP, Second Wind can probably be skipped and just make sure you get a few +HP set bonuses, which are easy to grab. MoG could be skipped, but you'll be out an easy LotG mule and panic button. And the last contender is Reconstruction since you would have Second Wind as a big heal if needed. I wouldn't skip more than one of those in a single build, and I really wouldn't suggest skipping any if possible. Feels like Marine affinity, the set has no bad powers so the power selection in the build gets really tight really fast.

When you say a knockdown in shin breaker and crosspunch, do you mean the chance for +rech or the KB>KD enhancement? Because neither of those need a KB>KD as far as I'm aware.

Spider-man uses web shooters, you use web blasters. With how many spider people there are in the multiverse, I don't think that breaks theme. Instead of Oscorp or the Baxter building or a university, this world's Spider-man got his tech from stolen Arachnos gear.

Those stats give some good info, but I think you'll get better feedback with a primary set mentioned for each build as well. If they all have the same primary, that makes it a lot simpler, but if each build has a different primary, that will definitely impact usefulness of responses people will be able to give.

The P stands for Point. It's Point Blank Area of Effect. Has been since '04. Do you instantly macro powers upon getting them? That sounds like it would get tedious very quickly.

Challenge missions in AE designed to be difficult

I'll still have plenty of endurance left to pry on it when you're all tuckered out.

I genuinely don't get this mindset. As pointed out here, there's multiple easy fixes for it, all of which take less than a minute of your time. I personally think the bind to your forward key (w by default) is the one most people will find to be simplest. And on top of it then being identical to previous versions, you still have the new option of stop them from running off into another group chasing a runner.

It won't help while leveling, but this is why I suggest Vigor Alpha for most MM builds. The end reduction and acc on everything makes frankenslotting the henchmen a LOT easier to do without sacrificing too much. The healing main stat is simply a cherry on top for sets that can use it.

1. As a general rule of thumb, whichever proc will be triggered by the most powers that particular pet has. Lich, as an example, can trigger the damage proc for accurate to hit debuff (I'm awful at remembering set names and I can't open mids at work to check) in almost all of its powers, but the fear/immob/hold each in only 1 power, so the Lich will get much more out of the accurate to hit debuff proc. I don't have them all memorizes, but big demon and big wolf take slow, a lot of pets take -def with merc T1 and necro T2 sticking out, and zombies are good with the chance to add knockdown since their vomit is pretty reliable when 3 of them are swarming a group. 2. For the pet powers specifically, frankenslot. Sets like demons/necro/thugs have a power at 18 that allows more slotting pet sets, which helps out a lot. Things like /traps seeker drones and /storm tornado also allow pet sets, which is nice since you'll likely want to cram in the 5 uniques for +res and +def, one of which is a MM ato. I like to split the MM ato into 2pc per summon power to hit that 10% rech bonus 3 times, then fill out damage/acc to cap with as much end red as I can squeeze in. Then remaining slots give procs or things like +def for thug T2 or bots. It's a puzzle to slot them where you're happy with everything, but alpha slot helps once you get to end game. I'm partial to vigor on MM (and most proc heavy builds) for the accuracy and endurance that procs usually don't allow much room for slotting. The heal is nice if it applies, but it's not the main reason I'd suggest it. Pets can still run out of end and will sometimes pause attacks until they get a tick up from 0. 3. I would say T3 but that one is pure preference. Mainly because the T1 need more acc slotting to begin with, so there's less room to squeeze in another (imo) unnecessary slot. And the T3 usually hits significantly harder. Exception would be necro where you'd actually probably be better off with T2, but since they want a couple -def procs, you again get the issue of too many enhancements and not enough slots.