StrikerFox

Few things: Double slot LotG in Maneuvers or Weave instead of Hover. Maneuvers/Weave has a higher end cost and provides a larger +def bonus. It will improve the build's end gain and give more overall +def. Cloud Senses would probably be better than Dampened Spirits in Darkest Night and Dark Servant. Also maybe Fearsome Stare as well. Slot the Preventive Medicine unique in Maintenance Drone (Instead of Health). It will provide +8.75% rech. Is the build at +43% def? Could probably softcap if Shadow Fall is slotted with some +def. Slot LotG so Vengeance can be dropped. Or Shield Wall/Reactive Defense to save a slot. Try dropping Blessing of the Zephyr in Evasive Maneuvers for a Steadfast KB redux in Equip Robot for a small end bonus. Are Explosive Strike in Battles Drones and Protector Bots worth it now? I haven't really looked at the new Bot attacks after the i27.5 change. Maybe the Call to Arms unique would be better. Maybe drop Web Envelope for Charged Armor or Murky Cloud. It will buff resistances by a significant amount. CA can probably get S/L/E to +75%; MC can probably get F/C/E/N to +75%. Slot Tar Patch with Stereocilia HOs (slow/rech/end). I mean you have slows, stun, knockdown, fear and Spectral. I don't think you will miss Web Envelope. Or Drop Web Envelope and Vengeance and take Murky Cloud and Dark Pit. Just for some Howling Twilight/Dark Pit shenanigans. Overall it's a good build. I'm sure it will do great even if no changes are made.

It's probably worth it if Cupid's Crush can be fit in without affecting the build/pet slotting much. Just to add more pet mitigation since their survivability seems to be a pet peeve for some players. I have it planned out in Necro/Dark, Ninja/FF and Thugs/Time (In Gang War) with little impact to the overall builds. Might test Cupid's Crush with Cognitive Interface and Controls Hybrid to see if it improves any.

Just did a bit of Soul Extraction proc testing VS a pylon (On Beta). Casted SE 9 times, Unbreakable Constraint triggered 0 times. Cloud Senses 186 times, and Touch of Nictus 92 times. Averaging that out, Cloud Senses procs about 3.4 times per SE pet, per cast (About 1 proc every 1.45 sec). Touch of Nictus procs about 1.7 times per SE pet, per cast (About 1 proc every 2.93 sec). Thought maybe purple procs doesn't work on SE so retested 3 times with Ghost Widow's Embrace and it didn't trigger either.

I don't think there are any other options. OF KD proc would be decent but probably only really good if SE is perma-ish. I don't believe SE pets have heals so not sure why Mids' shows they can slot them. I would probably slot a pet aura IO and improve Lich's debuff or mez.

The build could use the Glad Armor +3% def. I don't think hold procs work on Soul Extraction, at least not anymore. I tested it a long time ago and it did trigger at one point but haven't noticed it lately.

It looks like your pets are softcap already without Fortify Pack/Lion's Roar active. T2 and T3 have an inherent def of +12.4%, T1s have an inherent +11.1%. Arctic Fog +5.63%, Maneuvers +3%, Edict/CtA uniques +10% and Ice/Glacial Shields +17.4%. That puts the Dire Wolf and Lions at around +48.43% and Wolves at around +47.1% to M/R/A (When within range to the MM).

War Mace! I want to make the stalker version of "omg War Mace + Energy Aura so strong!" hero.

It's been awhile since playing, so maybe it's been changed, but the Panacea unique is great in Dark Empowerment. It has a chance to proc on each pet every 10 seconds.

Not sure if everyone knows this but Mids' has a set bonus search feature. Click the WINDOWS tab in Mids, and scroll down to SET INSPECTOR. In the pop-up window, pick what's needed in the three drop down menus. Resistances, Smashing and 3% for example. It will list the IOs with the three prerequisites and the number of IOs needed to get it.

Managed to get there. With Ember Demon's buff, S/L/F/E/N will be at +75%. Cold will be at +65%. Swapping IOs around lost a bunch of +recharge and the procs in Demonlings were removed. Also endurance looks worse so that's probably an issue. I think +50% total S/L res is enough unless you're soloing really hard content at 4x8. I just wanted to know if /Dark could get there easily with Murky Cloud. Thanks for trying it out! Darkest Night v4 Dark Mastery2.mbd

Heals, no; resistance, depends. We can't really trust pets to use their heal at the right time, in the correct location and/or target. Consider yourself to be the healer. Anything the Ember Demon and Dark Servant heals is just bonus. Resistance depending on your build and what you're satisfied with. On your build, Demons is slotted with a +46.41% res buff. So S/L/T res will bump up from +15% to around +22%, fire res from +20% to around +29% and cold from +10% to close to +15%. Pet's will get lower as the MM gets an extra 5ish% from the Ember Demon buffs. I don't believe the Ember Demon receives any of it's own buffs so makes no difference to it. Pet-wise, the pet unique IOs will do more for them than enhancing +res on the Ember Demon. +10% res from Sovereign/Expedient or +5% def from Edict/CtA VS +5% to S/L/T, +7% to F and +3% to C (Those percentages are on top of the base amounts). But if you decide to slot for +res, drop the procs from the Demonlings.

Consider scaling back on the S/L res. The T2 Ember Demon provides +15% res to S/L/T, +20% to F, and +10% to C (Which Mids' does not show). Those percentages are at lvl 50, unenhanced. Darkest Night, Cloud Senses over Dark Watchers. Are you going to run with Ageless Destiny? If not, I think the build will struggle with endurance at times, especially if powers are being spammed. Just using Howling Twilight, Soul Tentacles and Soul Storm is over 50 end in 6 seconds. Have you tried building with the newer Dark Mastery PP. Just wondering if more resistances can get to +75%. Ember Demon providing +res to S/L/F/C/T, Shadow Fall providing E/N/P and Murky Cloud F/C/E/N. Tough, Shield Wall, Reactive Defense and set bonuses to top it all off. The Howling Twilight and Dark Pit, double stun combo might be fun. Also Soul Consumption might help with any endurance issues (Though I've never used it). I typically slot the MM for survivability and enough endurance to sustain the build. I slot pets for damage while still integrating unique pet IOs. This is probably how I would slot the pets. Don't worry too much about the T1 pet endurance. Only the Cold Demonling will struggle after 5 mins of non-stop attacking. MinMax Demon Pet Slotting.mbd

Bots/Traps is the tankiest imo. It can be built to have softcap def to all positions/types and +75% res to S/L/F/C/E/N. Bots will be softcap to everything as well.

No bow attacks would average pets about 1 crit every 16.7 attacks (Total of 6% crit chance provided by the upgrades). One bow attack, about 1 crit every 11.1 attacks; two bow attacks, about 1 crit every 8.3 attacks; three bow attacks, an average of 1 crit every 6.7 attacks. I imagine Smoke Flash would tighten those percentages a bit. The faster the recharge, the more liberally used, the smaller the gap. I would probably take at least 2 attacks. Instead of using both attacks every 30 seconds, maybe alternate attacks every 15 seconds. Or if 3 bow attacks are taken, alternate every 10 seconds. Gives time to use other powers while feeling less compelled to launch personal attacks immediately in a row.

It probably depends on playstyle, build, solo, team, difficulty etc. I usually try to take Placate just to feel less like a Scrapper but it's usually my most expendable power. When I do take it, it sits in the power tray, unused most of the time. A lot of missions have glowies with enemies nearby. If trying to speed through it, Placate the enemies and grab the glowie. They won't notice you're there (Even in melee range). Or enemies that detect stealth/invisibility like Rikti Drones, Turrets and Overseers, can be placated as well to avoid detection. The only Stalker primary where Placate is a must have is Dual Blades. Just so the Empower combo is available.