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.

Just tried it and it looks like only one BU per Enforcer at a time. Tested on Beta vs a pylon for about 5 mins, Gang War/double Gang War was used, while staring at an Enforcer's Combat Attributes screen. It never exceeded +40% tohit and +80% dmg.

Do the Enforcers have a chance to get double, triple or even more BUs at one time? I didn't notice it when testing it a long time ago but it would be amazing if they do.

I don't believe the MM counts as a target for Enforcer's Tactics. The MM does not receive the +tohit buff. Though the Gang War posse does. The Gaussian's BU buff will only affect the Enforcers. The more thug pets within range gives it a greater chance to proc on the Enforcers only. T1s, Bruiser and posse will not receive the BU affect.

Here's my build I'm going to eventually respec into. The only reason I haven't is because the Protector Bot's endurance is miserable. They'll be sucking on fumes for a lot of fights. With the Protector Bot's shields and FFG active, the MM will be at softcap to all damage types and positions. Also at +75% res to S/L/F/C/E/N. All the pets should be at softcap to everthing as well. It's probably overkill but wanted to make an MM as tanky as possible. Used so many slots chasing miniscule amounts of S/L res, I'm considering building for less. Let Reactive Defense scaling res do it's thing. This way I could round the build out better. Or maybe patch it with incarnates. Ageless would probably go a long way. Considering some other changes but haven't put much thought into it and haven't had time to play. Mastermind - Robotics - Traps 4F.mbd

Took a stab at it with an old Mercs/Cold test build. Got 157 seconds for 372 dps VS the lvl 54 Rikti dummy on Beta. No inspira or temp powers set through Apex. Though I ran the Power Analyzer beforehand because I wanted to see the dummy's res stats. It's an old test build so I do not have a Mids' file. I took screenshots of it's powers/slotting. Build is not fleshed out at all. Could improve with more +recharge and MM attacks. Incarnates used: Musculature Core Alpha Degenerative Radial Interface Ageless Core Destiny Assault Radial Hybrid (Toggled on). In the video, damage starts at 1:17 and pylon destroyed at 3:54. Run Type: Rikti dummy Archetype: Mastermind Primary Powerset: Mercenaries Secondary Powerset: Cold Domination Time in seconds: 157 (2:37) Hybrid: Yes (Toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: i28pg1 Beta Video Link: https://youtu.be/Dk1xRZ-P2KM Notes: No inspira/temp powers Build: Only a screenshot, incomplete build.

I think Gang War is pretty strong. With incarnates, especially Reactive/Degerative Radial Interface, GW will probably out-dps the Bruiser. That's accumulated damage of the whole Posse, if they can stay alive. Ways to get the most out of Gang War: Slot Musculature Core/Radial or Intuition Radial as GW pets get the damage buff. Slot an Interface incarnate. GW stacks Interface debuffs fairly quickly and triggers it's proc often. Use Barrier Destiny immediately after using GW. If GW is perma, their recharge will sync up well. Activate Hybrid Assault Radial before using GW. GW pets gets the Doublehit procs. Tested and it gets about 102 DH in 2 minutes. GW also gets Hybrid Assault's passive damage buff. GW gets buffs from Support Hybrid. Slot GW with the Overwhelming Force KD proc. They get a significant amount of KD. Tested and it averaged 50 KD in 2 minutes. When pairing with Time, make GW sturdier by using PB/FS immediately after summoning to give them +def. If using another secondary, get mez/debuffs off before using GW. Slot the +def/+res pet uniques as they buff GW pets giving them a more survivability. MM/teammate/leaguemate Leadership powers buff GW pets. The Enforcer buffs do not work on the Posse. For gits and shiggles, use the pet upgrade powers on GW. It changes their costume. One upgrade they get tattoos; two upgrades they get flak jackets.

Few things: Stalker's Guile is best in Assassin's Blade. This will give the following attack a good chance to crit. AB will already have a good crit chance thanks to stacks of Asassin's Focus. The build is missing the Reactive Defense +res unique. Do you plan to continuously use Ageless? If you do, Physical Perfection and Superior Conditioning can probably be skipped. Do you have an attack chain? If Divine Avalanche is going to be used frequently, maybe scale back on the S/L/Melee defense since Divine's +def bonus will stack with itself. Divine is a good mule for a LotG +7.5% if needed. I do recommend Soaring Dragon. It's one of NB's better attacks and is ideal to use after AB to try to get it to crit. Achilles' Heel -res debuff is usually a dps increase when slotted in an attack. If you want to chase F/C res, try splitting the slotting in Flashing Steel with three Avalanche and three Superior Avalanche. This will provide +9% F/C res, +25% res rech/movement and +15% mez res. But the IOs that provide the same stats between the normal and superior versions can't be slotted if you know what I mean. Mids' makes Hasten look perma on your build but Ageless has diminishing return over time (Mids' shows Ageless at full strength when clicked on). Hasten's 118sec recharge time will actually be longer. Even if you make no changes, your build will perform well. I love the stats you got. Good job!

Mids' doesn't show the +res bonuses from the Ember Demon's +res buffs. Your res stats will be higher, S/L/T +15%, F +20% and C +10%. Your S/L will be at +90% (capped at +75%), Fire will be at +42%, Cold at +32% and Toxic at almost +47% as long as the Ember is alive and within 50'. So in most cases, the +S/L res bonuses from Sovereign, Reactive Defense and Red Fortune will do little for your build. Maybe try Murky Cloud from the Dark Mastery pool. Can probably get F/C/E/N to +75% though I'm not sure how high S/L will be without messing up your def numbers. If you're opening with Darkest Night and/or Fearsome Stare, defense may not need to be that high. But regardless, cool build!

Hybrid Assault is finicky and can work for pets. Assault needs to be activate while pets are summoned, then pets will get the buff/proc damage. It resets when entering/exiting a mission so it's not ideal. It will only work 100% of the time if Hybrid is activated and pets are summoned at the start of every mission. It will continue to work with each Assault activation while in the same mission, and the pets do not die. Hybrid Assault Radial proc is indicated with the word Doublehit in the Combat Log. I did a quick pylon run with Hybrid Assault Radial. Defeated the pylon in 79secs, Doublehit triggered 130 times in that time frame. That's probably around 1.7 dh/sec. Doublehit damage ranged between 33-210 per hit. Log attached if anyone wants to see it. chatlog 2024-08-12.txt

I think Hybrid Support always worked correctly, as in pets do not need to be summoned after Support activation. Only Hybrid Assault is bugged that way.