Force Redux

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As a pet-class lover myself, welcome to City of Heroes! Demons/Dark is one of the strongest pairings in the game. I have one at Incarnate level and its one of my top characters both for visuals, fun factor, and taking on the game content. I don't do any builds any more in Mids character builder, but if you search this subforum you can find some posted builds for this combo. General recommendations: Demons: get all three pet powers, Hell on Earth, both pet buffs, and choose one or more of the attacks (I take the ranged whip power, which helps me either pull or help debuff damage resistance). Six slot the Hell on Earth when you can with all six of the Mastermind Invention Origin (IOs) enhancements that provide a buff aura that boosts Damage Resistance and Defense of your pets. This is essential for making pets tough enough to handle content at higher levels/purple conning. Start with the Defense ones first, then add the Resistance ones, depending on price. Its a damage buff power that also spawns some fragile minions, but its actually best used to mule the pet IOs so they don't need to go into your Demon power slots. Slot the Demons with accuracy, damage and some END reduction. For basic IOs, 2 Accuracy, 3 damage, 1 Endurance reduction. Don't both with recharge. For more advanced slotting with invention origin enhancements, see some of the other guides). Demon Prince especially likes to suck down his blue bar (endurance) so he benefits from some advanced slotting. He can also take a damage proc in his lineup as most of his powers have a slow component than can trigger the damage (again see advanced guides). the two buff powers are fine with one Endurance recuction each. You can delay the Whip attacks until you have time, as you have quite a few powers to take up through your twenties/thirties. When you do, basic slotting is Accuracy, Damage x3, endurance, recharge. Dark Miasma: you want everything except Black Hole (which is not in synch with how the game actually plays). Petryfiying Gaze (your single target hold) is not mandatory, but can be handy to take out annoying lietenants (such as Malta Sappers), or stack with your Dark Servant/Demon Prince's own holds (Demon Prince especially as he spams his ice hold), letting you take down Bosses. Don't pass up on Howling Twilight, as although its a ressurection power, it actually comes with huge debuffs and an AOE stun for control. In fact, most powers in Dark Miasma serve multiple purposes. These will be your meat and potatoes powers: Twilight Grasp. Tar Patch, Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, Shadowfall. Lead off with Fearsome Stare, its a big cone and it not only makes targets afraid, but also debuffs their To Hit/accuracy. Or you can lead off with your toggle debuff, Darkest Night. Slot Darkest Night with -To Hit and some END reduction. Slot Fearsome Stare with -To Hit, not fear, as the fear lasts long enough, and its the stacking -ToHit that you want. Dark Servant is a handy pet. Slot him (or her) also with -ToHit, as he has absurd levels of it, especially in its point blank debuff aura Chill of the Night. His heals, holds, damage are all secondary and work well enough without any focused enhancements. While Demons are tough, and Shadowfall and pet aura IOs add greatly to that, Dark Miasma really does't buff, so you must be proactive and maintain your debuffs on your foes. Dark Servant will help when you get it, though its supplemental, as you can't control it. Dark requires a bit of concentration, unlike say Force Field, where you can fall asleep at the wheel. Other powers: Leadership - at the very least, take Maneuvers and Tactics. if you have room you can take Assault. I generally don't. Speed - I take Hasten on all my builds, as having powers recharge faster is too good to pass up. Flight - I take Hover, Fly, Group Fly and possibly Afterburner. You can take what fits your theme. I like Group Fly because while it may annoy some teammates, it helps my pets on the rare occasion Z axis maps cause pet pathing AI to go wonky, running along beams or jumping up and down off ledges, etc. Some folks really enjoy the keybind commands for masterminds, but I get buy admirably with just my basic GoTo/Stay and Aggressive/Defensive/Passive commands 99% of the time. How intricate you want to get with controls and emotes and all that extra fun stuff is up to you 🙂 Leveling up: I can't stress this enough, do NOT speed level. City of Heroes/Villains has some great missions and story line. (yes, the earlier blue side stuff, can include some clunkers or repetative missions, but overall...its really good). For your first time playing through either blue or red side, stick with the story missions. Read through dialog. Look at and read your clues in the clue window. There's so much good stuff, background history and references, it would be a shame to miss it by jumping into a farm group or speed radio XP team. Take your time, enjoy. This game has some deep lore in it, some of the best original stuff I've come across in MMOs. I may have missed a few things, but you get the general idea. Have fun. If you are on Everlasting, feel free to grab me at my global (@Force Redux) and I can jump on my Demon/Dark and do some missions with you. I may even have a few IOs I can help you with. I don't level many new toons these days and I'm happy to do story missions, etc.

My Thugs/Time is my beefiest and tankiest MM combo and like TheSpiritFox, can run +4/x8 S/L farms, although for time's sake, I find it quicker to run +3/x8. Minion death is negligible. Most runs do not see a T1 minion death, even with arsonist's suicidal tendancies. Part of this is due to the new pet AI changes, they stay in range of my buffs/heals/auras. The other is the amazing support that Time brings to the already top tier Thugs. I run them in aggressive, I never tankermind. Where I lose pets is when I'm on a team where the map scatters them (layer cake rooms) and they lose the aura bonus and access to my heals/buffs. I find that Group Fly is a good answer to this, to prvent the pet AI from going berserk with some difficult pathing on anything with a wierd Z axis (such as some of the Orangega cave maps). The rest is all practice, and learning the AI. I do not use a numberpad keybind, The most common commands I use are "GoTo" and "Follow" on all pets on 99% of content. It may be that MMs just aren't your thing, also. I've always loved pet classes, no matter what the game is. A big difference in later content is getting your Alpha slot to +1 level (T3) so your pets are bumped up as well (this and all six pet IOs). This is the single best thing you can do to help pet survivability.

Thugs/Poison conceptually comes to mind. But IMO Poison is best for big game hunting, not necessarily for grouping in trials and TFs. It can work, but that's not its strong point. It lacks protection for you and the minions, which is the weakness of MMs, and relies on debuffs. Its heal is...okay. I'd probably recommend Thugs/Pain to sort of keep up with the concept - the drugs dealt nullify pain and trauma and heal up the minions, and also weaken foes. Pain is better for MM pets and overall gaming than Poison due to some buffing and AOE healing. Its not going to be Thugs/Time but its a solid combo.

by air, i imagine you mean AoE? Yes, Staff does have better AOE, its one of the best sets for it, and does benefit from the recent buffs. However, MA's Dragon's Tail also benefits from the AoE improvements (with its singular aoe), and you can now get Dragon's Tail IIRC by level 16, which is much better. So MA isn't entirely bereft. I personally like the +Defense vs All Positions and All Elements (no Psi or Toxic) that Dragon's Tail offers. vs. Guarded Staff's 15% vs lethal / melee, but its really just apples and oranges, since they are well balanced vs. each other. If you do NOT have any form of DDR (ie, Electric Armor) from your Primary, I would go with Staff. The extra +5 defense vs. Melee is what you want to help buffer debuffs and Melee is where the most danger will come from. However, if you do have DDR from your Primary, I would lean toward Martial Arts, because you get a whole lot more Defense to spread across types/positions and you're more likely to keep it and not have it debuffed. Of course, the most important thing is, which visuals do you enjoy looking at over and over? Which sound effects do you prefer? That's really important. Other considerations: Staff has no 'No Redraw" option. Staff unfortunately has (IMO) a rather limited selection of models, most of which I find ugly. They need an elemental staff (fire, electrictiy, cold and darkness). And a Rularuu staff. 🙂 Staff has a little bit of range. Staff has its builder mini-game with its forms. Newer power set, so a bit more polish numerically. MA can be tweaked to be either mostly kicks, or more punches. I like the kicks better, personally, because the Street Justice moves are more punchy to me. MA allows you to do some control via KD, KB and Stun. You can actually do some serious stun stacking if you build for it. Its a bit random, but it is an option. MA lets you CHUN LEE kick Hellions into outer space. Honestly, this has more value than can be put on paper. And older power set that shows a little bit of age (in that the stuns are mostly % random and could use some increased reliability). There are also a lot of Single Target powers, so you won't need them all, just pick the three that work for you. There's no bad choice, I personally would decide how much AOE you can live with , think about how you enjoy the visuals/sounds, and what fits your concept best. These are both solid secondaries for Tanks.

Shield/Martial Arts. Looks stylin', decent (if not great) AoE, solid ST, and the bets thing about Tanker MA is the Storm Kick +Defense, which makes iCapping Defense super easy. Plus add in +damage, resists, and +ally Defense aura from Shield. Only thing I wish was different is the clicky mezz protection. Got enough regen to not worry about needing Aid Self, either. Even on farm maps. Solid all-rounder.

Obviously a feature toward your debt badges!

/em hold torch

Cutter, please immediately reroll to Brute to save the universe. Thank you.

Demons/Dark master race checking in 😀😀

This was mine but FF/Sonic as a Defender. Effective, especially for teams. A bit slow for solo. And you have to like cones. I enjoy mine for MSRs

Getting destroyed in a custom AE map, but it's helping me figure out my build. Now 49...

The ability to stow pets was present in EverQuest 2. Very handy. Would solve a lot of problems here.

Duly noted, and in retrospect I agree with you. I like your suggestion.

I find Repulsion Field is more fun to use, and with it's smaller size, generally more useful. If I had to choose... I'd go Repulsion Field. That said, I grabbed both. But I only have a proc'd out Force Bolt for personal attacks.