BGSacho

Powerboosted farsight + maneuvers is not enough to softcap the defense on pets by the way. The most you can get is around 35%(~21% farsight, ~4% maneuvers, 10% MM auras) still pretty far from softcap. /Time is really good for MMs in general. It's an all-around solid set. However, here's some pros and cons of Demons/Time compared to other top picks - Demons/Cold and Demons/Dark: + Time has a lot of free tohit to reduce the need of accuracy on pets. Cold has decent -def debuffs to do the same thing. Dark struggles here. + Time has a nice AoE heal, but not as good as Dark's. Cold has no heal. - Time has very little -regen, both Cold and /Dark can maintain an effective -500%. + Time has some endurance regen, but not a lot. Dark consumes a lot of endurance, but has ways to mitigate it(Theft of Essence). Cold doesn't know what this "endurance" thing is and why people complain about it. + Time offers decent protection for the MM for tankerminding. /Dark offers a mix of protection and debuffs which can help you tank. Cold is more of a support set for the Demons themselves + Time offers good defense, but so does Cold, without requiring to go into Power Boost. Power Boost means no Bonfire, or no Epic Armor for the MM. One nice thing about Demons is that Ember Shield + Epic Armor gets you to capped res without requiring you to take fighting. - Time offers some -res, but the least out of the three. Dark can stack tar patches and Cold can stack sleet, and also has Heat Loss. You can also compare Time to Thermal - Thermal has an AoE heal, decent -res, decent -regen, and it maxes out the existing durability of demons. In general, Time's a solid choice, but so are many of the others. It doesn't have so many downsides as much as it's just not the best at anything in particular.

The maximum uptime Gaussian BU can have is about 50%(well, 52.5%), since toggles trigger procs every 10 seconds and Gaussian lasts 5.25 seconds. On enforcers this gives you a maximum damage contribution from it to about 42% damage(52.5% chance for 80% damage). Even at 50% ED, Enforcers would gain about 11 dps vs about 16 from a proc. Gaussian might be worth it over regular acc/dmg if the uptime is high enough. You already want to slot achilles heel and the 2 damage procs into enforcers, and probably at least 1 +def, so there's not much room for stuff anyway.

This question used to bug me a lot. Initially I was very dismissive of assault - MM pets already have about 225% damage, so assault can't be contributing that much. When I finished my pet damage calculator I went back and did the numbers on assault vs a fully slotted and procced out damage power. For reference, Lash does about 40 dps at 1.8 EPS(endurance per second), assuming you're spamming it on cooldown with a reasonable amount of global recharge(100%-ish). Demons do about 80 baseline dps(before enhanced damage, procs, etc), so assault is giving you about 9 dps at 0.27 EPS(assuming you just slot 1 endurance in it). This actually makes it a very efficient power for damage if you have power slots to spare and are struggling for enhancement slots. For the rest of your questions, I've also spent hours upon hours tweaking the final slots and powers in my build, and I don't really have a definitive answer. Gloom is really nice, you're going to be in the thick of it if you're tanking already, combos well with Howling Twilight(mag 4 aoe stun!), and is fairly cheap. I play solo a lot so I don't put a lot of value on vengeance, but it might be really good for you. I've actually taken Victory Rush in many of my builds, especially before they're completely kitted out - you can go full ham on the damage spam for 2 minutes, really helps mission clear times. Here's some other powers I've experimented with: CROSS PUNCH - this is my favourite power ever, but it's so unthematic for a Demons/Dark "sorcerer". Cross Punch does so many things for you: - it gives you access to the pbaoe -res proc, which MMs don't really have access to(noone takes charge mastery). This on its own pretty much makes it a top tier pick, as -20% res is a bigger damage contribution than pretty much anything else you can slot, even vs AVs it's better than a damage proc. - it actually does respectable single target damage - it's about 20% worse than Lash at 32 dps, 1.98 eps. However, it's not a single target power, and you can quite often engineer hitting more than 1 enemy with it - speaking of hitting stuff with it, every enemy hit gives you a +10% recharge buff for 6 seconds. Yeah, every enemy you hit. Fooling around with this and fold space, I've managed to hit up to 5 enemies with it. It also casually gives +5% tohit for each enemy hit, because why not. - 50% recharge not enough for you? You can also slot force feedback into it. I heard you like recharge, so I put some recharge on your recharge. The drawbacks of Cross Punch, especially for Demons/Dark, is that it takes a lot of power slots(5), plus you don't really need fighting. But the power is so powerful, it tempts me all the time. Speaking of -res, one thing Demons/Dark doesn't have access to is Achilles Heel, which is why thugs aren't too far behind in terms of -res. Experimentation has Corrosive Vial, which can fit both Annihilation and Achilles Heel, and proc them very reliably. Unfortunately, it's also quite expensive and doesn't really have 100% uptime, and the AoE is not too impressive. There's also the question of what to take to get to it - injection is kinda sorta useful for minions, but requires way too much micromanagement, maybe if it lasted 2 or 3 minutes instead of 1. Toxic Dart is just crap for MM. Adrenal Booster is kinda meh. I'd rate Experimentation roughly on the same level as sorcery. Weaken Resolve is another way to grab Achilles Heel for bosses, but it really doesn't do anything else, and you need to dedicate a few slots to get the accuracy up to par...meh. The rest of the pool isn't very interesting, but Unleash is pretty good for /Dark, if you use it to softcap your defenses just before tough fights. Aid Self + Field Medic is a great way to restore your endurance, but it feels like a huge waste on /Dark - you take 3 powers just to recover endurance, since you don't care at all about the healing. That's all I've experimented with.

What to do with the rest of the slots is a good question. Here's some options: - some +def - CJ, hover(+fly optional). Makes up for the loss of Weave and gets you close enough on defense that you can pop a purple to softcap yourself in tough fights. - the new teleport powers - especially fold space is great at bunching up stuff. Fold space, root them in place, blast their face. Works well with hover, since you can hover-aim your Fearsome Stare/Tentacles/Crack Whip to hit everyone. - sorcery? Not really a powerful pick, but thematic. Enflame is very good DPE, arcane bolt can replace Lash/Soul Storm(it uses the same purple proc as Soul Storm, but Lash + Arcane Bolt is heavy on the endurance). Spirit Ward is meh but it's okay on the gargoyle(the prince has enough def to shrug off most hits compared to it). Rune of Protection is nice in tough fights, and just as a quick break free, plus it's one more place to slot more unbreakable guard!@# There's a theoretical 50% res, 45% def build replacing the epic armor with fighting + sorcery + mace mastery, but it's pretty far away from your current concept, and requires a lot of slot and power sacrifices.

You're right, you can reduce the endurance usage significantly by just dropping fighting. You only need ember shield + your epic armor(dark embrace) to reach 75% S/L + 1(negative in this case) res. Weave isn't really getting you to def softcap, you'll be relying on your debuffs for that anyway. You'd need to slot Summon Demons with some +resistance to achieve this, I usually slot Res + Res/End from Unbreakable Guard. Unbreakable Guard is an amazing resistance set for /Dark. x2 UG gives end discount, which scales all your end recovery. x4 gives +S/L/Melee defense and +Max HP. I also use that in the epic armor. I think your build has taken way too many primary attacks, especially for /Dark, you just won't have the endurance to spam them, and it's putting a lot of pressure on your slotting. I would drop Tentacles down to 2 slots(x2 Annihilation for the end bonus, which is actually superior to end recovery in your build) and consider if you really want to keep Lash and Crack Whip both, depending on whether you feel you need more ST or more AoE(I always prefer more ST). I don't think the full sets in Lash/Crack Whip are as good as frankenslotting the powers. Use force feedback to make up the lost recharge, you will still come out ahead on damage. Fill in as many procs as you can, enough accuracy to hit reliably(~30%-ish) and damage/endurance if there's nice 2 or 3 slot bonuses. For example, my regular slotting for Crack Whip is x2 Annihilation, x2 Positron, FF, 1 damage proc(bombardment/javelin/explosive, doesn't really matter). If you use soul tentacles often and use crack whip for damage, you might even consider dropping x2 Annihilation for 1 damage proc + 1 acc/dmg/end slot instead. Similarly, Lash can be slotted with Hecatomb x2, force feedback, 2 more damage procs and something that gives acc/dmg. Same idea for Soul Storm, except here you can also take recharge to hit slot bonuses without worry. The major difference between Lash and Soul Storm is a tradeoff between damage and endurance. Lash is significantly more DPS, but also significantly worse DPE(damage per endurance). Since you're suffering from both slot and endurance problems, I'd drop Lash or Crack Whip in favor of Soul Storm. Once you drop 1 or 2 of the damage powers, you'll have some slots to work with. Here's some powers I think are underslotted or overslotted: Twilight Grasp - needs one more Acc/Healing to cap out accuracy, this is one of your most spammed powers so it's worth it. The slot bonus also gives +9% global accuracy which is nice as well. Fearsome Stare - doesn't really need the damage proc unless you plan on spamming it, the damage contribution is fairly small Dark Servant vs Darkest Night - Night is actually a pretty weak power and not worth slotting IMO. It's useful for tough fights because it layers -damage on top of your powers, but you wouldn't really want to use it all the time. If you are using it all the time, I'd definitely drop one more of the attacks. Instead, the slots should go to Dark Servant for 5 Siphon + Cloud Senses damage proc. The Dark Servant produces a *ton* more -hit and -damage, it's way better to buff that and have enough recharge to keep it up constantly. Speaking of recharge, you can take hasten instead of focusing so much on slotting recharge sets. I think Tar Patch deserves an extra recharge slot, it's a bigger damage contribution to have it up all the time, or even better, to be able to stack it(yes, the -res stacks!). I normally slot Howling Twilight more(more end and recharge) because I use it often, but that's more of a personal preference. I think the pet slotting could use a bit of optimization. You can slot 4/6 Command into Hell on Earth + 2 auras - I think that's more efficient than the current slotting. The rest of the summons don't really need the recharge, and with enough fiddling, you can fit 1 aura in demonlings and 1 aura in prince or demons. Here's the build with some of my suggestions. The pets still need more fiddling to achieve acc/dmg/end goals - I normally slot them with Intuition Radial in mind so I don't have a slotting ready without incarnates. There's a lot more that can be done with the build, and I think it's definitely worth dropping 1 more attack so you can fill those unused power slots with useful stuff(CJ, hover, fly, plenty of other choices to be made). Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Mutation Mastermind Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Demonlings -- ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(A), Empty(3), SprMarofS-Dmg(3), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg(5), SprMarofS-Acc/EndRdx(5), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(7) Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- ThfofEss-+End%(A), TchoftheN-Heal(7), TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(9), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal(9) Level 2: Lash -- Hct-Dam%(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(11), TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(11), TchofDth-Dam%(13), FrcFdb-Rechg%(13), GldStr-%Dam(15) Level 4: Darkest Night -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 6: Enchant Demon -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 8: Crack Whip -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(19), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), PstBls-Dam%(23), Ann-ResDeb%(23) Level 10: Tar Patch -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43) Level 12: Summon Demons -- SprMarofS-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), UnbGrd-ResDam(25), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(27), Empty(27), Empty(29) Level 14: [Empty] -- Empty(A) Level 16: Shadow Fall -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), GldArm-ResDam(29), Rct-Def/EndRdx(31), Rct-Def(31), GldArm-3defTpProc(31), GldArm-End/Res(33) Level 18: Hell on Earth -- SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(A), SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), SvrRgh-PetResDam(34), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(34) Level 20: Fearsome Stare -- SphIns-ToHitDeb(A), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(34), SphIns-Acc/Rchg(36), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(36), SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 22: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(37), Rct-ResDam%(37), Ksm-ToHit+(37), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(43) Level 24: Tactics -- AdjTrg-ToHit(A), AdjTrg-ToHit/EndRdx(39) Level 26: Summon Demon Prince -- SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg(A), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx(39), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Empty(40), SlbAll-Build%(40), ImpSwf-Dam%(40) Level 28: [Empty] Level 30: Howling Twilight -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42) Level 38: Dark Embrace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(42), UnbGrd-Max HP%(42), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(50) Level 41: Soul Tentacles -- Ann-ResDeb%(A), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43) Level 44: Soul Storm -- GldJvl-Dam%(A), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(45), NrnSht-Dam%(45), Apc-Dam%(45), UnbCns-Dam%(46), UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(46) Level 47: Dark Servant -- SphIns-ToHitDeb(A), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(48), SphIns-Acc/Rchg(48), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(48), SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(50), CldSns-%Dam(50) Level 49: [Empty] -- Empty(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(15), Pnc-Heal/+End(17) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), SynSck-EndMod(17) Level 2: Cold Demonling Level 26: Demon Prince Level 12: Ember Demon Level 2: Fiery Demonling Level 2: Hellfire Demonling Level 12: Hellfire Gargoyle Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run ------------

Tankerminding is extremely effective with certain secondaries, like /Dark and /Time, which have an AoE heal and decent personal defenses. While the tl;dr of tankerminding is "just tank for your pets", there's a lot more to it if you really dedicate yourself to the playstyle. Let's take Demons/Dark/Mu for example - a pretty classic build where the pets have 80% S/L res, you have 75% SLE res, and about 20%-ish def(can get to 32% S/L def as well). So what does tankerminding there mean? Well, the prince will have almost 45% def and 75% res, so he's a tanky boy already - you don't need to take care of him. So you're actually 2 tanks and 5 dps. The gargoyle is also fairly tanky, sporting 80% res and lower def, so he's going to be your offtank. The ember demon is not tanky at all, but it doesn't have a melee attack, so it will keep at range by itself. The demonlings are the most problematic - while they are tanky-ish(75%-80% res), they don't have a lot of hp so they can be gibbed easily. What does tankerminding mean in this case? You go in an take the alpha, the prince and gargoyle following behind you. You keep the demonlings at a goto behind you while you're setting up fearsome stare/darkest night/tar pit. You spam your attacks(Lash, Crack Whip, electric shackles) on the most dangerous mobs to keep threat on them. Once you have "control" over the fight, you can push in with the demonlings to allow them to use their breaths and melee attacks. While doing all of this, you need to make sure you're keeping all your pets in your twilight grasp range for emergency heals. All in all, the fights are very dynamic and fun.

My favourite is Demons/Dark. I think choosing that as my first character when I started here really helped me stick with the game - Dark is a blast to play from level 1. It also feels like you have real impact on what's happening, and the skills you use and decisions you make matter in the outcome of the fight - landing fearsome stare on everything in the opener, always keeping in range of all pets for twilight grasp, clutch howling twilights to rez allies and disable rough spawns, basically every Dark skill you cast feels good to use. The animations of Lash and Crack Whip feel like they have real impact, like you're really hurting your opponents. The demons are also very varied and each has a different role to play, so there's always more to pay attention to and micro if you want, but they're also good enough at doing things on their own so it's not required. The whole set also feels like a coherent roleplay choice. I also often pick Sorcery with it, to add to the fantasy, although I don't think that's the best choice from a powergaming POV(even with the recent buffs). It also helps that there's some really cool looking "evil sorcerer" robes, and the badass "broken wings" that you can put on your character to make you really look like a demonic sorcerer from hell commanding his underlings. It just feels cool.

Yes, and it's recommended to do so, alongside the 2 +def auras and optionally the 2 +res auras. Where to slot them is more complicated and really depends on the rest of your slotting, but generally each pet requires around 4 slots to get its acc/dmg/end to reasonable levels, and then it has 2 slots for procs(jounin) or auras(genin/oni).

I'm encountering some buggy behavior with Arcane Power. Initially it was working normally, but after some testing in the Rikti War Zone, it appears to have gone haywire. Rarely, I'll get the Arcane Power proc, and it will work normally. Example: 2021-04-09 22:20:15 Readying Arcane Bolt. 2021-04-09 22:20:17 Arcane Bolt is still recharging. 2021-04-09 22:20:17 Arcane Power bursts through your body! 2021-04-09 22:20:17 Arcane Bolt missed! 2021-04-09 22:20:17 MISSED Crey Juggernaut!! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 95.31. 2021-04-09 22:20:18 Arcane Bolt is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:20:18 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:20:18 Readying Arcane Bolt. 2021-04-09 22:20:20 Arcane Bolt is still recharging. 2021-04-09 22:20:21 HIT Crey Juggernaut! Your Arcane Bolt power was forced to hit by streakbreaker. 2021-04-09 22:20:21 You hit Crey Juggernaut with your Arcane Bolt for 88.26 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:20:21 You hit Crey Juggernaut with your Arcane Bolt for 88.26 points of Energy damage [ARCANE]. Most often, it seems to not trigger the extra damage, but instead it recharges Arcane Bolt twice in a row: 2021-04-09 22:14:52 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:14:54 Arcane Power bursts through your body! 2021-04-09 22:14:54 HIT Crey Juggernaut! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 2.00. 2021-04-09 22:14:54 You hit Crey Juggernaut with your Arcane Bolt for 81.47 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:14:55 Arcane Bolt is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:14:56 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:14:59 HIT Crey Juggernaut! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 20.12. 2021-04-09 22:14:59 You hit Crey Juggernaut with your Arcane Bolt for 81.47 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:14:59 Enflame is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:14:59 Arcane Bolt is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:15:01 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:15:03 Headman MISSES! Rikti Rifle power had a 5.75% chance to hit, but rolled a 46.10. 2021-04-09 22:15:04 HIT Crey Juggernaut! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 57.43. 2021-04-09 22:15:04 You hit Crey Juggernaut with your Arcane Bolt for 81.47 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:15:04 You knock Crey Juggernaut off their feet with your Arcane Bolt! 2021-04-09 22:15:04 Arcane Bolt is recharged. Or here: 2021-04-09 22:21:55 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:21:56 Crab Spider Slicer MISSES! Longfang power had a 5.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 49.83. 2021-04-09 22:21:57 Tarantula Mistress MISSES! Mental Blast power had a 5.75% chance to hit, but rolled a 67.06. 2021-04-09 22:21:57 Crab Spider Slicer MISSES! Longfang power had a 5.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 88.97. 2021-04-09 22:21:57 Arcane Power bursts through your body! 2021-04-09 22:21:57 HIT Tarantula Mistress! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 80.13. 2021-04-09 22:21:57 You hit Tarantula Mistress with your Arcane Bolt for 82.38 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:21:58 Arcane Bolt is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:21:59 Tarantula Mistress MISSES! Telekinetic blast power had a 5.75% chance to hit, but rolled a 72.30. 2021-04-09 22:22:00 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:22:02 HIT Tarantula Mistress! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 13.60. 2021-04-09 22:22:02 You hit Tarantula Mistress with your Arcane Bolt for 82.38 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:22:02 You knock Tarantula Mistress off their feet with your Arcane Bolt! 2021-04-09 22:22:03 Tarantula Mistress MISSES! Mental Blast power had a 5.75% chance to hit, but rolled a 90.94. 2021-04-09 22:22:03 Arcane Bolt is recharged. I haven't been able to trigger the behavior by using other skills, although they have their own problem. I seem to get a lot of "dud" Arcane Power procs: 2021-04-09 22:27:08 Arcane Bolt is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:27:08 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 18.87 points of Toxic damage over time. 2021-04-09 22:27:12 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:27:13 Infantry MISSES! Rikti Pistol power had a 5.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 78.00. 2021-04-09 22:27:13 Improved Drone MISSES! Drone Blast power had a 6.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 73.61. 2021-04-09 22:27:13 Lash is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:27:14 HIT Chief Mentalist! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 74.61. 2021-04-09 22:27:14 You feel Arcane Power crackle at your fingertips. <-- arcane bolt doesn't recharge 2021-04-09 22:27:14 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Arcane Bolt for 76.04 points of Energy damage. 2021-04-09 22:27:15 You activated the Lash power. 2021-04-09 22:27:16 HIT Chief Mentalist! Your Lash power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 35.95. 2021-04-09 22:27:16 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 78.09 points of Fire damage. 2021-04-09 22:27:17 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 18.87 points of Toxic damage over time. 2021-04-09 22:27:17 Chief Mentalist MISSES! Mesmerize power had a 6.50% chance to hit, but rolled a 41.47. 2021-04-09 22:27:17 You feel Arcane Power crackle at your fingertips. <-- arcane bolt still doesn't recharge 2021-04-09 22:27:18 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 18.87 points of Toxic damage over time. 2021-04-09 22:27:18 Arcane Bolt is still recharging. <-- ! 2021-04-09 22:27:19 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 18.87 points of Toxic damage over time. 2021-04-09 22:27:19 Improved Drone MISSES! Drone Blast power had a 6.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 63.53. 2021-04-09 22:27:20 You hit Chief Mentalist with your Lash for 18.87 points of Toxic damage over time. 2021-04-09 22:27:20 Infantry MISSES! Rikti Pistol power had a 5.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 38.51. 2021-04-09 22:27:20 Arcane Bolt is recharged. <-- full 7s recharge 2021-04-09 22:27:20 You activated the Arcane Bolt power. 2021-04-09 22:27:22 You feel Arcane Power crackle at your fingertips. <-- yet another dud 2021-04-09 22:27:22 Arcane Bolt missed! 2021-04-09 22:27:22 MISSED Chief Mentalist!! Your Arcane Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 97.95. 2021-04-09 22:27:24 Chief Mentalist MISSES! Dominate power had a 6.50% chance to hit, but rolled a 78.58. 2021-04-09 22:27:25 Lash is recharged. 2021-04-09 22:27:26 Improved Drone MISSES! Drone Blast power had a 6.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 21.96. 2021-04-09 22:27:26 Infantry MISSES! Rikti Pistol power had a 5.00% chance to hit, but rolled a 49.61. 2021-04-09 22:27:26 Chief Mentalist MISSES! Mental Blast power had a 6.50% chance to hit, but rolled a 9.81. 2021-04-09 22:27:28 Chief Mentalist MISSES! Mesmerize power had a 6.50% chance to hit, but rolled a 14.85. 2021-04-09 22:27:29 Arcane Bolt is recharged. <-- notice full 7s recharge

Ah ok, that's exactly the values I was seeing. Where can I find the ranged_heal modifier table?

Spirit Ward's absorb seems to be calculated differently than it used to be on live. On live, the absorb value depended on the MaxHP of your target. Now, the absorb value seems to depend on...well, it's unclear what exactly, but it for sure does not depend on the MaxHP of the target. This might be an unintended nerf. The patch notes don't really give a good idea about the intended mechanics, so here's a quick breakdown for a level 50 MM: Live Spirit Ward: 10% absorb of target's MaxHP every 3 seconds, 5 times total(15 seconds). Each shield overwrites the last one. Beta Spirit Ward: 21 absorb every 3 seconds, stacks up to 10 times. For an MM's level of hp, that's about 2.5% hp per tick. The max is about 25% then. Compare casting live spirit ward at the start of combat, vs having a fully-stacked beta spirit ward coming into combat: Live Spirit Ward: 10% * 5 = 50% max healing, assuming you're losing 10% of your hp every 3 seconds Beta Spirit Ward: 25% + 2.5% * 5 = 37.5% absorb, assuming you've lost 12.5% of your hp over the duration I think the only thing I dislike about the new version is that it doesn't scale with the target's MaxHP. Please address whether this is intentional in future patch notes.

Thugs also do lethal damage and they're most likely our highest damage primary. Merc damage is really really bad and quite easy to fix if the devs wish to. Like others said, you can literally just increase the damage of all their powers, across the board, by at least 50%, and you'd still be roughly middle of the pack. Even with all the MM tricks to slot procs in them, they still suck. In my MM damage spreadsheet all the primaries perform reasonably close to each other, within 10-15%, except for mercs and bots. Bots at least have the AoE patch damage stacking and protector bot bubbles, mercs just have nothing.

So back to feedback on the changes. I think these changes are really good. One thing that wasn't mentioned is the effect they have on new/undergeared MMs, who will be resummoning way more than the ones with completed builds, and thus not bottoming out their endurance anymore. MMs face many unique challenges in handling pets, and I think I can enumerate a few for the devs to mull over: - the uneven effect of purple patch scaling - I think pets should not lose levels, as the interaction between losing levels and purple patch doesn't seem to be an intended effect. To compensate, the baseline effectiveness of pets can be reduced across the board(e.g. by 10%). This would still be a buff to MMs where they struggle the most, e.g. +4/x. - scaling pets with IOs - I don't think this is just a problem for MMs, I think this is a general problem with the game. IOs just provide too much survivability and turn everything into tanks; I don't think this is worth solving as an individual MM issue. - MM auras are a burden to most primaries and just a minor slot tax for the "privileged" ones(demons, thugs, necro). I think this can be addressed without too many changes. - Due to 'auras', MMs are encouraged to always move their pets in one big clump. I don't think this is interesting gameplay. I think 3) and 4) can be addressed by a single, bold change: - equip powers no longer give pets their abilities - just allow pets to use all their abilities or introduce them by level. - equip powers are now a layered buff, similar to destiny incarnate(barrier, clarion). The "baseline" buff can be the same or different for every primary(for flavor reasons). This gives you the effect devs are aiming for - newly summoned pets will be missing the buffs and be much weaker(but not unevenly crippled by missing some of their powers) - you can slot the existing auras into equip powers - this won't affect the other pet classes but will equalize the MM primaries a little bit - (wishful thinking) - sets you can slot into the equip powers would modify the buff, allowing you to choose more offensive/defensive power, to tailor to your secondary. For example, a storm player might want 2 strong defensive buffs for their pets, whereas an FF player would focus on offensive buffs. - since these buffs will be a unique effect for MMs, they can be tailored accordingly without upsetting the balance of other pet users. Hopefully, if the buff powers are expanded enough, this would reduce the requirement for every MM to pick up crutches like tactics and maneuvers just to buff pets *somehow*. It would also allow players to move around their pets a bit more loosely, rather than the rigid deathball that you are forced into now. I know the end goals of my idea are difficult to reach, but I think even the most basic implementation - allowing MMs to slot pet auras into "equip" powers, would be at least beneficial to the weaker primaries.

One thing to keep in mind is that focusing your build on perma gang war might be very underwhelming with Traps. It's difficult to contain the gang in the FFG bubble, and Traps really doesn't have the healing to keep the gang alive - all it would take is 1-2 aoes to go through and your boys will be dead. Time can work if you can align Farsight with Gang War casts, and you have a nice AoE heal. Dark is also quite good at keeping perma Gang War alive, due to the spammed AoE heal and the heavy -hit debuffs which give the boys a chance to survive. All in all the boys are actually not that high of a DPS - they add up to about as much as your T1 pets, or spamming a single well-procced MM attack, so permaing them is a bit of a whatever; They only deal massive DPS when combined with a Radial Interface and Hybrid Radial Assault. This isn't necessarily the case, it largely depends on your build. If you have the endurance for it, some properly slotted attacks can produce about as much DPS as a T3 pet, and keeping your T3 pet out all the time is uncontroversial. But in order to achieve that DPS, you are looking for a power that can abuse damage procs, with at least 1(and optimally 2) purple damage procs, at least 3(optimally 4-5) slots dedicated on procs overall. Dual Wield is okay at that, it's fast, with an OK recharge and can be procced up with a decent amount of procs. Cross Punch is also a great example, because it can not only deliver decent damage, but also -res(leading to way higher DPS than its pure damage numbers) and +recharge(great for your perma-Gang War plan). Having enough endurance, time, and willingness(!) to spam these powers determines how good they are. You can take some inspiration from threads like the Offender "proc monster" builds, where a class with a similarly low damage scale can output decent damage numbers by abusing procs. Also, proccing up attacks has been discussed in this forum many times already, it shouldn't be too hard to search for. Personally, I think the most important thing is to experience MM play at first, experiment with the "basic controls", especially managing your pets, and see what works for you and what doesn't. That will really inform your builds. For example, if you can micromanage your pets well enough that you can keep them in FFG, avoid murderous AoEs and keep them alive, then Thugs/Traps can be very rewarding with its high offensive potential. On the other side of the coin, Thugs/Time's Farsight is easy to keep up on all the pets and might require a lot less micromanagement, but /Time is pretty anemic in terms of offense. Using personal attacks can boost your DPS by quite a lot, but it also draws attention away from using your support powers, and can put you in personal danger. There's a bunch of choices you can make in an MM build, primarily driven with what kind of playstyle you like, and these choices are driven by fairly unique considerations that I think require you to experience MM a bit before you can make an informed decision.

Lash and Crack Whip are great attacks, the Cross Punch thing was just a suggestion(since I saw you were quite focused on picking up recharge in your sets). I normally run Lash and Crack Whip with epic armor builds since I don't take fighting.