StrikerFox

Played The Secret World for a few years. I enjoyed it until they rebranded the game to The Secret World Legends. Revamped the battle system, added more p2w features. Regrinding from zero was too much, it lost my interest. Also played some mobile game on and off. Marvel Strike Force, The Walking Dead, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Raid Shadow Legends. Raid is the only one I'm still playing.

Cool build! I would probably try to 4 slot Shield Wall into Focused Fighting, Focused Senses and Evasion. Just for the E/N +res. Spread out the LotG +7.5% to CJ, Link Minds, Enduring and/or Dodge so that no +rech is lost. Move the Winter's Gift to Combat TP. I don't know much about Sentinels but noticed the ATO2 was skipped. Maybe slot that in Hail of Bullets and put Armageddon in Psychic Shockwave. If endurance isn't an issue, scale it back. Drop the Performance Shifter procs for Power Transfer for some random heals. Maybe change Musculature Radial to Core. Add Numina's if it's less than ideal. Sentinel (Dual Pistols - Super Reflexes) - psi mastery2.mbd

Slot the Ice Mistral (Chance for cold damage) if you can only fit one; add Impeded Swiftness (Chance for smashing damage) if you can fit two. This is currently how I have pets slotted. Meant to be used with Musculature Core or Radial Alpha. Soulbound probably isn't ideal in Demons but I wanted the damage procs in other pet tiers. But it might not be bad since the Hellfire Gargoyle's damage aura can trigger it.

I would stick with MA. Love the animations. MA was available at launch in 2004 and still looks fantastic. Crane Kick, Dragon's Tail and Eagle's Claw are favorites. Also like the Cobra Strike alternate animation. Sort of like a lunging palm strike. As for endurance, here are some tips to try to keep it under control: Select the rec buff pet at the P2W vendor. Slot end redux in powers early. Add slots to Stamina early. Consider boosting end redux/mod IOs to +5. Slot IO set bonuses that improve recovery. Slot IO set bonuses that adds +max end. Slot IO set bonuses that provide end discounts. Carry a tray of blue inspira. Consider the Duelist badge for +max end (Logout arena). Consider the Clubber badge for out of combat +rec (Logout Pocket D). Toggle off travel powers in fights. Slot Panacea unique in Health at lvl 7. Slot Miracle unique in Health at lvl 17. Slot Performance Shifter proc in Stamina at lvl 18. Work on the Atlas Medallion at lvl 23. Finish asap. Slot Numina unique in Health at lvl 27. Consider Conserve Power at lvl 35. Work on Portal Jockey at lvl 35. Finish asap. Consider Physical Perfection at lvl 41. Slot Performance Shifter proc in Physical Perfection at lvl 41. Consider an end redux/end mod Alpha at lvl 50. Consider Ageless Destiny at lvl 50. Consider Support Hybrid at lvl 50.

I recommend slotting the +dam res pet uniques (Sovereign, Expediant, Superior Mark of Supremacy). Just to lessen incoming damage. Your pets are already at softcap defense. Bot shields +13%, Insulation/Deflection +18%, Dispersion +12%, Maneuvers +3% = +46% defense. Edict of the Master can be skipped. Energy Manipulator set in Stamina is pretty useless. The build would get more recovery from slotting 2 end mod IOs. Equip Robot can slot dam resist IOs. It's a good mule for Steadfast and Gladiator Armor uniques. Upgrade Robot can slot heal IOs to improve the Protector Bot's Repair power. Looks like you chased some +acc for the build. But the only power that could use it is Pulse Rifle Burst. Which has +96% acc slotted in it already. You can more end gain than loss by taking the slots in Assault and placing them elsewhere. Numina's in Health for example. But in the end you have softcap defense and heals. The build will still take you far in the game.

If diligent cycling Fortitude, Empathy would work out well. Softcap defense, great heals, Recovery Aura would allow less end slotting. Clear Mind for mez protection.

I recommend swapping the Suppress Pain and Painbringer slotting. The Panacea +heal/end proc has a chance to trigger on allies within range. Teammates, pets and MM. Screenshot of a test below. Numina, Miracle, Regenerative and Preventive uniques were tested and only worked on the MM. I like frankenslotting pets to try to make them more survivable and deal more damage. I wouldn't worry about their accuracy too much. Between Tactics + perma World of Pain + Supremacy, they will have a +25% tohit buff. I would swap the Tough and Rune of Protection slotting. S/L res can easily be capped at +75% even with fewer slots in Tough. Though more slots in RoP will help other damage types too. Rearranged some slotting around to help explain what I mean. Mastermind (Demon Summoning - Pain Domination) IDK2.mbd 21 points of KB protection is a lot. Especially if you plan on flying around often. KB isn't bad while flying. Just sort of spin around, head over feet in the air, recovering quickly. Example in video below. I don't believe there's any KB protection slotted on this test build (Possibly +4). The hit will happen a second in, at the 6m12s mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xlnF1dSXS0&t=6m11s Few other things: I like powers like Enforced Morale as it provides quite of bit of mez protection that pets often need. I like getting Anguishing Cry as close to perma as possible. So that it's up for each fight and perma during long fights. Rune of Protection is nice but 3 power picks feels like a lot to get it. Four slotting Shield Wall will provide +4.5% res to E/N which the build is weaker to. Don't be ashamed to take some mule powers. Just to get that extra LotG. Power Transfer in Stamina probably isn't needed. Higher regen thanks to Supress Pain, constant heals from Nullify Pain, should do the trick. For the Alpha slot, Musculature over Vigor would be ideal. Even with no changes, I think your build would play very well. Teamed and solo.

I can't imagine there are a lot of ways to leverage it. Kelika2 mentioned it's great on Grave Knights, as their damage aura can trigger it. I'm guessing pets with faster and more consistent attacks. Just to fit as many hits as possible into Soulbound's 5s duration. Also more attacks = more chances to proc. Ninja's Genin should be pretty good. Soldiers are alright but Medic not as good. The attack that triggers the BU buff, does not get the buff/extra damage. The attacks following (Within 5 secs) will. The log posted of the Soldier shows this. I think pet attacks with long animations would benefit less. Like Commando with a 4s Flamethrower and Full Auto cast time. Say Flamethrower triggers BU, but does not get the buff. The cast time eats up most of the buff duration. The Commando might get one attack following with the extra damage. though I haven't done any testing on this. Soulbound would be less useful on pets with non-damaging powers like the Lich, Ember Demon, Spec-Ops etc. I tested Soulbound on Gang War before and it was borderline useless. Their attacks are so infrequent that BU would wear off before they get their next attack in. Tested 4 GW summons, 6 minutes of GW pets, extra damage only occurred twice. BU buff percentages are different depending on what tier pet it is slotted on. T3s get +50% tohit/+100% dam; T2s get +40% tohit/+80% dam; T1s get +30% tohit/+60% dam. In case it helps think of a way to leverage it.

Just tested it. Single Soldier, no procs, no Interface, no Achilles'/-res debuffs. Just MM Provoking and Soldier attacking with the Soulbound proc. +122.9 damage slotted. The Soldier's damage per attack should stay consistent with the only variable being the buffs it receives from Soulbound. Scrolling through the logs, each attack jumped between three different numbers. Base damage, single Soulbound buff and double Soulbound buff. Damage below is damage-per-tick as all the Soldiers attacks are DoT. Log also attached if anyone wants to see it. Soulbound proc'd 162 times on a single Soldier in about 16 minutes. An average of once every 5.93 secs Base Buff Buffx2 Quick Burst 11.62 14.31 17.01 Light Burst 9.21 11.35 13.49 Burst 10.94 13.47 16.01 Heavy Burst 25.93 31.94 37.95 Full Burst 15.21 18.73 22.26 Assault Rifle 3.92 4.83 5.74 chatlog 2023-11-15.txt

Slotting four PT and a Panacea proc is pretty good. Did some testing awhile back and it averages out to 1650 hp/min; 27.5 hp/sec, heal on a Brute. It's a large amount for 5 slots.

I lean towards Damping Bubble because it provides enhancable DDR for you, pets and teammates withing range.

Maintenance Drone is better. Though arguably, no additional slots in either is still solid. I did some MD testing awhile ago and slotting an IO set increases it's heal value. It does not increase MD's HP, frequency of heals, quantity of heals etc. MD heals 4 times before self destructing regardless of slotting. MD base heal is 267.72 hp per heal. Single IO (+42.4%) - 381.23 hp. Boosted single IO (+53%) - 409.61 hp Double IO (+83.3%) - 490.73 hp Boosted double IO (+95.9%) - 524.5 hp Triple IO (+99.1% heal) - 532.5 hp. Full IO set (+97.5%) - 528.75 hp Did a bit of testing. Group Fly and falling from max height in AP. Just to see how often Protector Bots heal until MD self destructs. 10:06 - MD 4 heals/PB 3 heals 10:08 - MD 4/PB 2 10:11 - MD 4/PB 3 10:13 - MD 4/PB 1 10:15 - MD 3/PB 4 Crossed out 2 PB heals at 10:13/10:14 as MD self destructed already. 10:15 MD just did nothing after 3 heals. Info shows PB Repair has a 30s recharge, MD shows a 2s recharge.

Slotting a single heal IO will only improve Necro pet's regen rate. Dark Empowerment increases the pet's max HP and in turn, increases their regen. It will not work on Ninjas or Bots. The improvement a single heal IO on Necro pets will be minimal, probably around 0.1-0.2 hp/s.

It was tested back in Nov/Dec 2022, a bit after i27.5 was released. Necro is the only pet where the heal uniques will constantly stay active when slotted in an upgrade. I speculate it has something to do with Necro's increased HP from Dark Empowerment. Ninjas can proc them when they heal themselves. Protector Bots can proc them (Only on themselves) when they heal another bot-mate. The only heal uniques that can trigger on pets are Regenerative Tissue, Miracle, Numina's and Panacea. Other uniques to consider on pets are Kismet in Ninjas and Mercs. Impervious Skin in Necro, Mercs and Bots. Kismet and Impervious Skin are always active after upgrade. Pets do not get the KB protection from Steadfast, no +max HP from Unbreakable Guard etc

Frankenslot the pets. Pets can get good stats, the pet uniques and the most useful damage procs by frankenslotting. The sacrifice being some of the IO set bonuses will be lost. The only set bonus to keep is the +30% recharge from split SMoS. Lose the SCotMM set, including +AoE def IO, as the pets will have equivalent softcap with Darkest Night running.

The great thing about Dark is it doesn't need a ton of recharge for it to be great. More recharge is nice to have to get Tar Patch/Howling Twilight up sooner, but really not essential. The other powers do not need the heavy recharge. Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, Dark Servant and Shadow Fall. Even Twilight Grasp slotted heavily will cooldown in 2secs, slotted moderately for recharge will cooldown in 2.5secs. So many slots and power picks are dedicated to chase +recharge that it lessens the overall build in survivability and damage. I recommend building just enough to get Hasten close to perma. Drop the Concealment pool for the Fighting PP/Smoke Flash. Maybe drop the Flight PP for some MM attacks if flying isn't a theme. Get S/L res to cap with Tough+alternate IO slotting. Slot up the pets to utilize damage procs. Maybe take Electric Shackles and Petrifying Gaze to hold AVs and to have two proc monster attacks. Add the Steadfast and Glad Armor uniques so that the build will have equivalent softcap def to enemies affected by Darkest Night and Fearsome Stare.

Not at home right now but can post it later. It was pretty straight forward. Chrono Shift, Hasten and Spiritual Alpha are the main picks. Set bonuses, five +10% (Split SMoS, 4 piece SCotMM in SE). Alot of +7.5% with LotG, Basilisk Gaze and Panacea. A few +6.25% like Decimation and the newer end mod IO set (Forgot the name). +5% recharge from Dark Watchers in Time's Juncture and maybe more. Preventive Medicine set in one of the heals. It still managed to keep all the pet uniques and most of the damage procs. So there were no IO set bonuses from Call to Arms/Expedient. The build skips the Fighting PP and slots the Steadfast/Glad Armor uniques in the pet upgrade. Mace Mastery for Scorpion Shield and PB. Stealth and Grant Invisibility as mule picks for LotG. It's a revamp of my Thugs/Time build with perma Gangwar.

Necro/Dark is a favorite of mine. Necro/Time would be my next pairing choice. Equivalent softcap defense PB/Farsight + Edict/CtA + Maneuvers + Time's Juncture. Easier to get perma Soul Extraction (30sec recharge) with Chrono Shift. Solid heals and +regen powers. Dark just has niftier tricks. AoE res debuffs, AoE stun/rez, Fear cone and a 7th pet. Though it's near impossible to get perma Soul Extraction. Cold is alright though it doesn't have a heal and can't get pets to softcap. With some aggressive slotting around +37.5% def. Ice/Glacial + Edict/CtA + Maneuvers/Arctic Fog. AoE can softcap with SCotMM. PB doesn't work on Cold shields.

I always put the Guile proc into AS so that the following power has a chance to crit, and also so that AS has the least chance to turn into the slow version. I usually put the Mark proc into the weakest power in an attack chain or into an AoE. Mark's BU chance can be activated by any attack but for it to work, the power it is slotted in needs to be used once when entering a new zone/mission. Having it in an attack chain or AoE ensures the proc gets used early. Don't slot it in a mule power. The amount of slots dedicated to ATOs usually depend on what set bonuses are needed for a build. Whether chasing S/L +def/res, +acc, +dam, +recharge etc.

Awhile ago, I made a build in Beta that could run [BU]-AS-Abl-SS-Abl-repeat seamlessly paired with SR. Built hard for +recharge. Ablating recharged in 1.28secs, had +121% recharge slotted in the power (With Agility Radial Alpha) and +247.5% recharge bonuses from Quickness, Hasten and IOs slotting. Hasten was perma with no IO slotted in it. It was actually fast enough that Moonbeam recharged in 5.1secs, so it could be integrated into the chain. [BU]-AS-Mb-Abl-SS-Abl-repeat. The build wasn't great. All it had was softcap positional defense and a heal. Everything else was non existent, even DDR was on the low side for an /SR build. +65% or so. Damaged seemed good but felt like an overall dps loss due to lack of damage procs. Also because Musculature was skipped in favor of Agility. For anyone interested, here's the build. There are probably a few ways to improve it without losing the +recharge. Stalker - DB SR 4B.mbd

I remember testing that. Spectral Minions with the Gladiator's Javelin proc. It did not activate at all for them... But now that I think about it, I think their attacks are melee. If any of the SM attacks apply a -tohit debuff, Cloud Senses proc should be tested as well. Edit: I just tested it. Neither range or Cloud Senses proc for Spectral Minions. They didn't trigger any for 150 secs of nonstop attacks. chatlog 2023-10-12.txt

It looks a lot easier get enough +recharge to perma Fortitude on 6 pets than it is to get perma Hasten. Fort has a 120s duration, 60s base recharge time, so it needs to recharge in 20s to cycle it between 6 pets. +200% recharge should be close to enough. Around +75% recharge slotted in Fort + 70% recharge from Hasten + 55% from LotG/set bonuses will get it there. +200% recharge bonus. If we account for Fort's cast time, 2.5s, it would need to recharge in 17.5s. It would need around +92.5% recharge from LotG/IO set bonuses. +237.5% recharge bonus.

I never really played IM before but looking at it on Mids', I see your dilemma. What attack chain are you currently using? Is Freezing Touch the best attack to use after AS? I'm not sure how crits affect DoT damage... Like do all ticks crit or just the initial damage? Or does a snipe after AS produce higher dps? If FT is the better power following AS, I'm guessing the one of the best ST attack chains would be AS-FT-IS-snipe-IS-repeat. If a snipe is better following AS, one of the best chains would probably be: AS-snipe-FT-Fr-IS-repeat.

I don't quite remember how snipes work but it was changed a year or two ago. Something like when using a snipe out of combat/before attacking or being attacked, the snipe is slow and interruptable. If using a snipe while already in combat, the snipe is fast. It works similar to Assassin Strike on Stalkers. Also more +tohit bonus increases snipe damage.

Biggest peeve is their movement speed. Pretty slow, barely getting attacks when on a fast moving team. Pets got my back, waaaaay back. "Let's get 'em, guys! Charge!... Guys? Guys?!"