StrikerFox

I like your builds a lot, especially build 2. Build 1 is softcap to M/R/A so Scorpion Shield isn't as important. So I'm just going to talk about build 2. -Charged Armor from the Mu Mastery pool would be much better than Temp Invulnerability. You can still cap S/L resistance and gain a lot of Energy resist as well. -You have so much S/L resist that you can still hit the 75% cap without Tough toggled on. Leave it off and just have Tough as a mule for Steadfast and Glad Armor. Moving the second Glad Armor slot to Stamina would produce a higher amount of recovery than GA's set bonus. -I don't think the Gaussian BU proc is worth it in Combat TP. It probably won't work on sussudiopets and your only attack is Lash. -I'm not a fan of Traps + Fly since several powers requires the player to be grounded to use. Triage, Mortar, Poison and Trip would be useless if flying higher than a few feet off the surface. -Acid Mortar needs accuracy to hit it's targets. It's base -def debuff is probably good enough. Only keep the Achilles' proc and 3 or 4 slot Annihilation. Triple slot Blessing of the Zeyphr in Hover to gain that +AoE def back. -Tier 2 pets, Demons, are so far into the red for damage. I recommend to swap their slotting with the Demonlings. Drop the damage Superior Mark of Supremacy for Overwhelming KD to give them more mitigation. Being able to knockdown their targets actually helps a lot. Or swap damage SMoS for a resist IO, slotting in Demon Prince can be changed and the build would still be S/L res capped. Are you planning on getting incarnate powers? It will likely change your build a bit. Regardless I think the builds will play well even if you changed nothing.

Achilles' is fine just in one tier pet, though two would be ideal. Soldiers would be the best spot, Spec-Ops 2nd, Commando... not that great. I have it in Spec-Ops because Soldiers are overloaded with other IOs. Did some hit roll testing VS +4 Council. Soldiers have +60% accuracy, Spec-Ops/Commando with +33%. The first 3 groups fought are without Serum. Serum is first used at the 2023-02-15 17:30:56 mark. It looks like it takes about 3 seconds to kick in. Commando = Ironhide Spec-Ops = Mirage/Smokescreen Soldiers = Cliffjumper/Beachcomber Medic = Red Alert I just had pet hit rolls set up but it shows enemy tohit rolls too. Also shows Gale, Freezing Rain and Storm Elementals (Tsunami Mami and Tornado Tonya). It looks like Spec-Ops mez powers have less inherent accuracy. Flash Bang, Tear Gas and Web Grenade chance to hit were often 7% lower than other attacks. Other attacks had 85-95% chance to hit. Maybe 85% to start but as soon as -def debuffs are applied and/or Serum is added pets hit 95% of the time. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have used Freezing Rain during the testing since that applies -def debuffs too. I'm pretty satisfied with their accuracy. Could it be better? Yes. But there's no slotting I'm willing to sacrifice to improve it. If you check the attached file, click ctrl + f and search "chance to hit, you rolled a," and look for above pet names for their hit rolls. Click "Find Next" to scroll quickly. I should also say Council is pretty much everyone's punching bag. Accuracy could suffer severely vs other enemy types. chatlog 2023-02-15.txt

Serum buffs are pretty significant. Did some testing, Soldier's end was around +26%, Spec-Ops at +23% and Commando was at +60%, and none of them had end issues when I ran Serum frequently. I think pets could be built with less accuracy. Supremacy + Tactics + Serum + pets applying -def debuffs, allows them to hit pretty easily. My soldiers has +60%, Spec-Ops +33% and Commando +33% acc, and they didn't have problems hitting +4 Council. I'll probably retest to analyze pet hit roll numbers sometime soon. I would replace slots saved from acc/end with damage procs and Achilles'. Also Overwhelming KD in Soldiers. They provide a significant amount of damage for Mercs.

AM range is about a 50' radius. Tested in RWZ VS dummies. Just by comparing the max distance AM will launch grenades at dummies VS Supremacy range. Supremacy has a 60' radius, AM's range is slightly less than that. If I stand right behind the counter/barricade, Supremacy shuts off for my bot (Bot is positioned right beside the Rikti dummy). If I drop AM further back than where it is in the screenshot, it won't fire.

I remember having a SS/Fire Tanker I used to farm. Some big wig showed up in game and everyone flocked to the zone for a meet and greet. His character in game was literally Statesman. So I'm there with a crowd of people and when I clicked on him, saw he was only level 27 or something. I offered to farm him, he declined. Next issue, i6, a few months later, Burn was nerfed to oblivion. Taunt/aggro had a 10 target max. Movement speed got a penalty when attacking. It hurt farmers severely. Dreck farming became nonexistent. I like to think I was the cause of that. Haha!

It would just enhance the amount Lick Wounds heals for. Like if LW heals for 150 hp unenhanced, slotting a +33% SO would bump it up to a 200 hp heal. But if a heal/end IO/hamio is slotted, the end portion will improve the pet's recovery on top of their heal.

AM is dropped at your feet and it launches TAoE acid grenades. It works in melee but it's not melee. Can tell by the IO sets that can be slot be slotted in it. I consider PT a nice to have but not really essential. FFG is way more important. Triage Beacon with Panacea proc to pump out more heals/end for everyone in range. Seeker Drones isn't great but I like that it follows the MM.

More or less my own playstyle. I usually team and rarely ever enter melee. Luring targets to the Poison Trap just seems like a waste of time for me, especially when the team is moving quickly. I did put Trip Mine in there, more because I like the immediate damage it would produce when detonated.

Protector Bots still have their heal. They have Repair with the second upgrade, and can be enhanced with heal IOs. Though, a couple of attacks were added to Protectors, that they didn't have before, so they may be healing less frequently.

I would probably build something like this. It should be softcap to everything with the Protector Bot's shields. Or possibly go with less damage resistance to take Bonfire and Fire Ball. Is Team TP and Group Fly still frowned upon? I wouldn't mind using TTP if it can drag Mortars/Beacons around or use the death-from-above, Group Fly tactic. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1769;797;1594;HEX;| |78DA65944B4F534114C7FFB7770AB480504A799437C85B0A55D1F84A8C3C16D22A0| |A02BA21150A3481B6A190888FE867D044572EFC0C2E8C8A0F16EEF443282F515113| |60E1C2D4D3397770BC4ED2F437E79C39E73F73666EF8466FDE87F7A1B3300A7B662| |3A9D47838925A88CECFC5E293EEE1E8C44C3C319B985E3241239B7EFEBFEEF1A1C5| |B9B9443C7039713DB1109B48F934D7B9C5A9A9C0F07C2499827B3091980D0C25A3D| |1C90289A16864323A9F9A8925F3E5BC3F363DB3108B4FE7296F9226FEBE646C22A0| |650C2F5ACA96CA48461BFD5E3833A20C58234DD31DFA0FBAE0C01E4199201811641| |110F8685AD0E3909085ABECBA29FE4D43D3231CE2C651863C742B38C67000C7199E| |5355637F31D2C48F213D9D78C2504FE766EA2126DA5967B1825B54D4A96FC589CFA| |655688BA1105F147C6528C23705DB045E8165273749A531B3514249AB045A51AA60| |8F1705B1CB709B6ABB0CADB60B2B0E99AE18ABA69457823505EB0C65D850B0C9B55| |F53ED5C6D97CE5CD50D3FAEF049FBF18912BB042AB1EB906A2A31C6AE6AF80C19EC| |21FDF95A1A918F42F6EC8754E337649A5AEC70ED5A0C98D27287B21568ABCD02B5B| |A161E4356AA43B1021FC31B52EED14B7A30C09E4308317420ACE082828B0C5E12EC| |D556C38BEECC5B316190C7A7758326691AA0AEC86E28BBA314413ECC3A74724F1A7| |098E12D692BD79B538E616185BCE39083D8204FB38B60545896256E6013B6322E81| |BBE4A8D02F4605D6B8034D5857B0C1D08C4D06413AABF47B5BA50EB341B56285E4D| |5E85BACA1E252C33289ABD73759CF17CF45F9AD8BD78C5F0CF7485DA37EFB1BB1CA| |3B69C309870527159C7258BD39ADE00C4309E96DD1F5B6B0DECC53B45A5D4421ED7| |AB3DAE9CCA5AA97B49380BE38A0DE7150BDE35714D2A58774E1A90A79C61016D047| |3A5D69334823DD8190CD4E69B37917ADC8611814DA5729B3D4E0A5DB6EFD7325537| |670F5EFFF7B5AF8A5FCB079A8C279435E912C8CF087210775FC867EDA62C97A9F15| |E5E081FA303E745807FB8821A32C7D895606B595E951BB61CC6EB86637F4B6D94EB| |09F0CE5BAA18F0CB9BA21E4B5E5906357F0B1EE5BFF0013AEEA4C| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

I don't quite understand. What power did the Maintenance Drone (tMD) get that the Protector Bots lost? I kind of like tMD. It's not close to being the best T7 but it's more useful than Repair ever was. Also tMD seems to heal more frequently than the Protector Bots do. Tested by taking Group Fly and dropping all Bots from max height in Atlas. tMD healed 6 times (251.38 HP ea) VS Protector's 4 times (193.91 HP ea), in the same time frame (When tMD blew up). Tested with a level 42 MM, build 2, so there are no enhancements slotted. It would have been great if tMD had a PBAoE or TAoE heal as well as ST. The worst T7 imo is Ninja's Smoke Flash (SF). It feels like a downgrade to me. Building aggressively for recharge will get SF's recharge down to around 20 seconds. All pets will crit for one attack, when there's a pretty good chance that one/two of them were going to crit anyways. Before i27.5, we were able to get SF's recharge down to around 5 seconds. Buffed ninja would have a good chance to crit for 10 seconds. In the end, multicasting SF, alternating between pets, would average more crits overall. The only thing we're really saving on is endurance. Spamming SF before the changes was rough on end.

I've never had more fun than running with a full teams of MMs or full team of Stalkers. I enjoy seeing a massive armada of pets converging on a group of enemies. Back during live, I was in an all Stalker SG. It was pretty quick, stealth in, AS, couple hits, on to the next group and repeat. If there are any all MM or Stalker SGs out there, hit me up. I'll gladly join.

Serum lasts for 60 seconds with a diminishing return. With a 250 second base recharge, most IO'd builds will probably have it recharge in 75 seconds. A 15 second downtime. Commando doesn't need much end reduction slotted to function efficiently. None of the Merc pets do. Soldiers had +26% and Spec-Ops had +23% end redux during that test run. I made a video of Mercs/Storm vs Council yesterday that i posted in another thread. Enemies are +4/x8 so the fights lasted a bit long. Pets were slotted the same as my Beta test run and endurance was not an issue at all. I would be satisfied with Soldiers/Spec-Ops having +25%, and Commando with +50% end reduction.

Don't give up! Someone once recommended to, "Slot up Gale and put it on auto." Once I did that, everything became much better. Seriously overpowered vs enemies with little to no KB protection, and that feels like 90% of the game. Slot Gale with the Sudden Acceleration KB2KB, Annihilation debuff proc, acc, end and range. Get it's recharge down to around 3 seconds and targets can be KB again as soon as they get up. Here's a vid of Mercs/Storm fighting +4x8 Council. Note that my build isn't respec with the i27.5 changes. Pets have no res/def slotted in their upgrades; Serum cooldown is quite long. I was pretty lazy with the O2 Boost. At the very end, I die as soon as I bump into enemies with KB resistance.

Commando's endurance isn't bad when running Serum. I did a pylon run, Commando had +66% end. End bar didn't move when Serum was activated. As time went on, it dipped down to around 80%. I think if Serum downtime is 25 seconds or less, endurance would be a nonfactor.

Consider dropping Maneuvers, avoiding the Leadership pool entirely. Base defense each Enforcer provides is +8.4%, +16.8% total. Add 10% from Edict/CtA and +20% from PB/FS. Pets will be around +46.8% def, already softcap. With Scorpion Shield + PB/FS + Steadfast + Glad Armor, your MM would be softcap to S/L without Maneuvers and Weave as well. Energy defense will be at around +40% which is pretty easy to get if you want to softcap that too (2 slot Basilisk's Gaze, 3 slot Thunderstrike, 5 slot Superior Winter's Bite etc). PB+FS provides more +tohit than Tactics. Also Enforcers have Tactics of their own, so pets won't have much trouble hitting. Though Leadership Tactics provide some confuse/fear protection and Assault provides taunt/placate resistance. In most cases, they're not needed. Could also technically drop Superior Command of the MM +AoE def and still be softcap. I kept it, have it slotted in Gang War as I want it to have a quicker recharge.

Just tested on Beta, and defense values for Glacial and Ice Shields are the same with or without PB.

Assault Rifle/Energy Manipulation Blaster. Build for +range and toss in perma-Boost Range. In the BAF, I was able to snipe Nightstar at her spawnpoint while standing at the edge of the tennis court.

Sounds so weird that I had to test it. My Ninja MM is bare bones right now, stripped to IO another MM. Planning to pair Ninja with a different secondary down the road. Not 50, not a boosted IO, but my MM did get the +7.5% recharge bonus. The Ninjas also got their added defense, but had to dismiss/resummon to get the +def to apply. First try, summoned Ninjas, used Train Ninjas, checked their defense % and they were normal base value for each pet tier. Slotted LotG +7.5%, re-trained and their defense didn't change. Dismiss, resummon and trained and then they had the added +def buff. Someone posted an issue with Mercs not getting their def buff a month ago or so. Sounds like something is definitely bugged.

Yes, they work in Necro. Necro pets do not need to heal for the regen/end buffs from the uniques to be active. They're just always on. I'm guessing it works on Bots but probably triggers on the Protector Bots since they're the only pets that actively heals. Maybe I'll test them on the Maintenance Drone later. Edit: Tested. None of the heal uniques trigger on the Maintenance Drone. Protector Bots can get Numina's, Miracle and Regenerative Tissue buffs when healing another bot. The target heal pet does not receive the regen/end buffs.

Some of the heal unique IOs activate on the Ninja pets but only when they heal themselves. They only actively heal themselves when below 100% HP. Tested Numina's and it works, so chances are Miracle, Regenerative Tissue and Panacea work too (Though I haven't tested them). I tried Preventive Medicine and that did not activate on the pets. Ninja heals have a CD of 45 seconds so the heal uniques should trigger reliably. The buffs have a 120s duration so they should be pretty much perma after the first cast, as long as the Ninjas keep fighting/taking damage. It's nothing game-changing but if your Ninja MM has spare slots and doesn't need the regen and/or end for themselves, it's something to consider.

What kind of +def numbers are you looking to get your pets, softcap or incarnate softcap? Your build, Genin will be at around +53% M/R and +68% AoE. Jounin will be at +59% M/R and +74% AoE. Oni will be at +65% M/R and +80% AoE. That's not counting the -tohit debuff from Time's Juncture. Maybe get rid of the ATO1 +AoE def and either Edict or CtA. All the pets should still be at softcap without them. I would probably slot the pets differently. Their +damage is in the red due to diminishing returns from enhancement diversification. It seems like a waste especially since some good procs could be slotted. Achilles', Lady Grey, Shield Breaker, Overwhelming and Soulbound. Or maybe larger crits outweigh procs usefulness? I'm not sure. The build is slotted pretty aggressively for +acc. Miscellaneous powers with 4 LotG IOs. If they were 3 slotted, the build would only lose about 0.4% def and there would be 4 spare slots to play with. Add a slot to CJ to make up that 0.4% def loss. Add a Kismet to help make up for the loss +acc. Remaining 2 slots could add Shield Wall and Reactive Defense uniques. Also the build is over the rule of 5 for +10% regen from the Panacea and LotG sets. Farsight is perfect for the Cytoskeleton HamiOs since it enhances both def and tohit buffs but they cost an arm and a nutsack.

Alpha - For pets, usually Musculature Core/Radial or Intuition Radial are the best. Just to boost their damage. Other Alpha picks might help the odd pet or a particular power they have, but overall not as useful. Musculature Radial also provides end mod, so it will help with Storm's heavy end use. Intuition improves slow powers which will help your Demon Prince, Coldling and Freezing Rain. Judgement - Whatever you prefer. I usually go the radial side. Vorpal for the +def buff. Mighty/Void for their mitigation. The rest for mez. For Storm, I would choose a TAoE or cone instead of PBAoE. I'm usually on the outer edge of a fight, taking a PBAoE would make me want to go to the center to maximize targets. Interface - Degenerative Radial or Reactive Radial. They've been tested in the past and they provide the most damage for pets. Degenerative being slightly better. Lore - Your own preference. I usually pick them according to character theme. Like for my Necro, I took Phantoms, Mercs/Storm I took Storm Elementals, Time with Cimerorans etc. I'm not sure if it's still the same but I think Longbow, Cimerorans, Banished Pantheans and Warworks had the most damage among Lore pets. I always pick the Core side and never experimented with the Radial buff pet. Destiny - Again your own preference. Pick according to what's needed to round out the build. I usually take Rebirth Radial if my MM does not have a heal. I avoid Barrier if my MM/pets already have softcap def or damage res. I'm a fan of Clarion for it's mez protection which MM/pets often need. Hybrid - Imo, Support Core is the best, followed by Support Radial. Will probably want this for your Storm build as it provides a passive end discount to all powers. Assault Radial is pretty good but it mostly only works if activated before summoning pets (Which is a hassle).

Me? I don't know what I'm doing half the time. The Demon Prince does use Block of Ice (BoI) often as it has a quick cooldown. But BoI is also a slow power. Impeded Swiftness, Ice Mistral, Unbreakable Guard, Widow's Embrace etc, all have the same chance to proc when BoI is used. Advantage of slow procs is every Demon Prince power can activate them, except Frozen Aura. Did a 2 minute test VS a pylon (Attached). Only the Demon Prince (Named Glacial Peril), slotted with acc, dam, end, 2 slow procs and Unbreakable Constraint. -Impeded Swiftness proc triggered 25 times in 2 mins for 57.39 dam each -Ice Mistral proc triggered 31 times in 2 mins for 57.39 dam each -Unbreakable Constraint triggered 7 times in 2 mins for 85.66 dam each chatlog 2023-01-18.txt

Imo, the must have Trap powers are Mortar, Beacon and FFG. Nice to haves are Poison, Caltrops, Seeker and Trip Mine. Web Grenade and Time Bomb aren't worth the power pick.