Frosticus

Ya I was trying not to get too engaged earlier in our conversation as I felt I was sitting on something pretty sweet. I thought it would peg over 1k dps. I still think it could. I mean my main pc just died a couple weeks ago so Im using a laptop that can barely eek out 20fps on lowest settings and I'm surely not as tight on execution as I could be. Plus there are still many possible build tweaks from procs to seeing which pet benefits most from soulbound buildup (I want to eventually try it in hell on earth). Also I'm not attacking nearly as much as I could/should be which would directly translate to more -res for all the pets/summons and additional personal dps. I'm confident there are some other builds out there that can push unreal numbers. Getting the damage down in game is the issue though. For instance I'm not happy that I had to take provoke. I felt that my personal aggro should keep things focused on me. I mean my dps is way higher than any of my pets when you attribute the storm powers to me. But AV/EB/pylons keep focusing on my pets sooner rather than later in most fights. I'm not sure why people shy away from MM's. The first character I ever seriously put into the pylon game was a bots/storm and for the time it performed exceptionally well. I eventually moved on to ill/cold troller due to some bugs in the bots, but I still feel that is an incredible combo once you factor in the -regen from assault bot and could potentially tackle most anything.

Yes to this! changed up my two favourite sets so much for the better (storm and traps).

dunno how crazy thugs might get with guassian, but I jumped over to test on my demon/storm/mace to get an idea of where it could end up due to the force-multiplying synergy of the build. Tiny bit lower than I thought to be honest (vacuum performance vs actual play i suppose), but the build isn't complete so I have something to strive for on the actual character. 900+ dps (sub 50 sec) vs pylon is not uncommon for the build.

demon/storm/mace pets in passive while I taunt, cast hell on earth to the prince, start timer when the first little monkey is pooped out and makes for the pylon and i command attack. No bodyguard used unless I take a hit cause another will kill me. Test server (mine just dinged 50, wanted to get a taste of the potential) T4, musculature, degen, ageless No hybrid crafted No lore No insp, temp, etc Definitely has a bit more potential. I didn't bother with crafting a hybrid, nor made any refinement tweaks, and I can't find superior ATO's on test. I wanted to use lash, but the short range opens my pets up to the aoe so crack whip it is, but even that can still get your pets aoe'd. 15 runs best 3 - 48-51 sec 5 - 53-60 sec 4 - 70-80 sec (various pet wipes) 3 - 2-3min (near total pet wipes) 3 bonus runs petless (whip/storm) no insp, temps, etc best 2 - 201 sec, 209 sec (pylon died same time as me haha) worst - dead Petless - 319 dps Best w/ pets - 926 dps http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1468&c=690&a=1380&f=HEX&dc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

King? Sure storm benefits illusion pretty well, but illusion brings relatively nothing to storm. That's a strong performer because both sets are individually strong performers. There is no real synergy beyond them being strong in and of themselves.

I didn't check the pet combat log. I just sat webnading a blue con lut (and later some green minions). damage procs in the above mentioned powers were not doing much. I had hopes that a proc in mortar would be similar to a proc in lightning storm, but it doesn't seem so. I may try them out vs some full groups though. And I haven't extensively tested, just put in like 15 min. So ymmv.

No alpha as the troller is stalled at lvl 41. As far as rech goes: mortar - 1 lvl 30 rech poison trap - 1 lvl 30 rech seekers - 3 lvl 30 rech trops - no rech

You'll likely be disappointed with your testing results for traps. -damage procs in acid mortar make no appreciable dent in a single blue con lut. over the life. Even with 2 mortars out. -achiles is a bit better just based on the fact that it lasts awhile when it triggers. -damage proc in seekers (i had hopes for this one) i was unable to see it trigger in 10 or so applications. I use a target bind to summon them on target. -procs in caltrops are nearly useless. I still keep the -res one in there though. I usually triggers once over the life of the power (vs 1 target). -damage procs in poison trap seem useless -i haven't tried procs in either of the mines tried them out on my grav/traps as I'm always seeking a bit more damage for an otherwise perfect pairing.

Something i like on my MM is that I split mark of supremacy into 3 sets of 2. =30% rech. Greatly lowers reliance on purple set bonuses which can be beneficial overall.

blasters. but I feel like I'm lumping their other recent buffs in and then comparing them to blasters of old. So that might not be accurate.

If you look at an ill/cold that pretty easily pushes 400+ dps vs a pylon and then take away -regen of benumb you still have close to 300 dps coming from illusion and personal attacks. Now /storm is busier than /cold but I suspect your above estimation of 600 of the 700 total dps coming from storm for your ill/storm is not quite accurate. Also keep in mind that illusion is a bit inflated vs pylons as you get 100% containment damage. Not a huge issue, but it does skew the results vs what you'd normally achieve against a hard target. That said, there is already a merc/storm in another thread that has surpassed 500dps vs a pylon. There is good reason to think that either a different primary and/or different optimization could see decent gains. edit: defender storm also has stronger freezing rain and stronger lightning storm in addition to stronger leadership/weave/epic powers so softcapping is quite a bit easier allowing more slotting flexibility. if your /storm is genuinely contributing 600 dps then a storm/son defender would have no issue eclipsing that just by force multiplying the storm powers.

yes. but it generally isn't a huge deal unless you are struggling to keep your pets alive. The higher costs, plus constant resummoning/buffing can be taxing. If you keep your pets standing then even /storm isn't very challenging to manage in terms of endurance.

yah I felt the same about force of thunder from /elec for a bit too. its utility is a bit better than the /dark one granted but if you more think of it as double stamina rather than some sort of health power then the powers are solid. a blaster with lots of endurance is pretty deadly.

havent tried it but I think you get a short rech bonus if you deactivate the toggle.

tested it out. it works well. fires the +rech without enemies. now the question is whether i want to add a KB>KD IO and get some acc in it for mitigation uses.

yah i thought i had an undiscovered synergy when i rolled my fire/atom blaster awhile ago. I was giggling at the potential, but then got a bit sad as I dug into it. That said, positron cell does do -def, but as you say it doesn't take -def sets, but rather -tohit/accurate tohit debuff, which the power does not do. I suspect it is a bug, but at the same time ponder if I really want them looking closely at /atomic because the aoe hold is probably a little overtuned. negatron slam does take -def sets though (unless i'm losing marbles. despite what mids says ), but requires melee, but beta decay keeps egging me to go there anyway.

I think that is the general understanding. You wouldn't slot a proc in a pet that barely uses it ie. chance for smashing slow proc in a demonling becuase only one demonling has any cold attacks. you would however slot that into demon prince because just about every attack he has will be available to proc it. So it basically becomes a universal damage proc for that pet. Very good returns. Similarly, but less obvious is something like controller singularity. It can take controller ATO's. Now I put the ato damage proc into him because he uses it on both his hold and lift. Whereas I can only use it on a single attack. At which point I have to ask if I'm going to spam gd as much as singularity spams gd+levitate? what about set bonuses on my hold? or other procs? becomes less clear. But it is clear that putting it into singularity helps him rip through enemies quite quickly. For me proc slotting a pet or psuedo pet is rarely at the cost of a slot somewhere else because I only slot them if they are well utilized by the pet (or by my attack). At which point it because a high priority slot placement. The balance point for me more often comes down to proc vs set bonuses.

It's my intention to test this out maybe tonight as I just picked it up on my rad/elec project blapper. The recover/regen is auto upon casting and the kb rolls a tohit, but i'd like to try it out to see how effective it is.

If you are familiar with storm then you prob don't need a build as the pet side is pretty straight forward. The synergy is that demons do fairly significant -res, which makes your storm powers more potent. The other synergy is that demons do ok/decent aoe damage, but it is all cones and damage aura, so they benefit most from packed mobs. So getting them tight with hurricane is effective. Aside from that storm offers a bit of +res and a lot of active mitigation and -tohit so that is often enough to keep them going while the ember demon patches them up. o2 boost for spot heals.

bots/storm can somewhat improve the aoe potential of the assault bot if you are quick and skilled at packing mobs with herdicane and gale

ya plus with beta decay you can get crazy levels of +rech going. it is nuke-tacular

Depends on your standards. each hell imp is about 2/3rds as damaging as a fire imp from fire controllers. You can have 8? out at peak and you can perma the imps (though not all 8!). So over time you could probably count on 3-4 imps average with a perma hasten build. All boosted by the -res that the other demons toss around. Not many fire controllers would dismiss the damage of their imps. That said they run all over the place (like fire imps) and can't be directed to focus fire. But when they are all out and you swarm an EB/AV the damage is significant. If you want more damage and mayhem then they are great. If your build is struggling to keep your other pets standing then they are a great spot for the bonus IO's.

I often don't even summon my demons on my demon/storm if I'm just stealthing missions. Just whip out (pun intended) my storm powers and proceed to whip the boss and crew to death. Usually kill them as fast or faster than if I'd taken the time to summon and upgrade before engaging. On a team as long as you are using your aoe -res, team buffs, or your aoe +dam abilities from your secondary then you are contributing as much as many scrappers :p

Acid Mortar has two significant issues facing it: Self-stacking. Cold, Storm and Dark all 'self-stack'. That means their primary -resist debuff can be layered on multiple times. In early levels, this isn't apparent. But when you're running perma-Hasten levels of recharge, it becomes a very significant factor. So while Acid Mortar may seem like it's comparable to Sleet, Freezing Rain and Tar Patch, it's only about a third their value in a long AV/GM fight. Clunky mechanics. The entire Traps set is an ode to great abilities with serious quality-of-life issues and Acid Mortar is no different. If you're fighting a single target, then it can be effective. Not as effective as, say, Poison, Nature, Thermal, Trick Arrow, Sonic, Radiation or Time (much less Cold/Dark/Storm). But decent enough. If you're fighting an AV/GM in the middle of a crowd on minions, those Acid grenades are frequently wasted on random minions rather than the AV/GM. not sure why you quoted me as I surely wasn't talking about acid mortar considering my response was to the notion that traps really struggles in fast teams and how having an alpha breaker can be of tremendous value sometimes. That said, you should take a closer look at acid mortar and how it functions. It provides approx 80 second -res debuff with a 90 second recharge and a 2.9 sec cast. It definitely "self stacks"

The first of the PA pops out before the cast time is finished. but that said they have to attack to regain taunt. So even with perma PA you've got about a 4 second window where aggro is unmanaged. There's lots of things you could do to mitigate in that time. My personal trick on my old ill/cold is as extor mentioned - phantasm and getting him to use the decoy. Also ensuring you just nailed them with HL and benumb can really help. HL is -300% rech. Even +4 AVs are impacted by that (along with your other -rech powers). Alternately you can respec for the specific target you are fighting. Psy epic may give you a leg up against malaise. Or power mastery and keep cycling in your confuse with power boost. Granted I'm not sure if you'll get enough to confuse at +4 and it is a significant hit to dps but, if you die then dps is really low heh. Finally, unless you are strictly fighting toe to toe for whatever reason then simply ducking behind a crate or corner for a couple seconds while PA regains aggro is effective.