Force Redux

In my experience, the Necro pets behave well. Zombies and Knights start at range, then move into melee. Lich stays at range. He'll often be behind you as you position near melee to heal and debuff (on my Dark). I've heard that the Knights can get range locked into Gloom or whatever, and needed a Go-to prompt, but I've never experienced it. Having played Bots, Necro, Mercs, and Thugs extensively, my opinion is that Necro pets are the best behaved and predictable of those sets.

Tossing my vote in for FF. Bubble every two mins, shoot at things with primary. Go even lazier: Robot FF Mastermind. Let the bots shoot for you. 😃😃😃

I'm always happy to see any defender. However, I'll admit I get a particular kick when I see Trick Arrow, FF, Sonic, and a Dark defenders. They all hold a special place in my heart. And I like the things they can do for a team. Plus I like underdog sets (FF, Sonic, TA).

I am still playing around with it, but currently SA knock-down proc and two recharge. The damage is icing on the cake. It's primarily awesome for control/mitigation. Large area too. I'll probably put some damage procs in it after some research.

I'll try to post a build I have for my own Earth/Time controller, Earthen Ancient. The character is only in his 30s, however and it's a leveling build, but I did come up with a first draft incarnate build that I could post. It's slot and power intensive. There's a lot of good powers to take and not much to skip. I feel very handy in teams, but solo it's slow. 😛 Good thing you want a team build. I'll try to get the data chunk up tomorrow.

I didn't take Web Envelope on my Thugs/Time/Mace. The slows and KD procs from the pets (SA in Bruiser and OF in T1s) seem to keep most things in arsonist's burn patch. For my Necro/Dark I went with Heat Mastery for Bonfire. It keeps things also in one place for easy destruction and is up all the time. Plus SA KD proc in zombies and OF KD in Lich plus native KU/KD in Knights assures the same soft controls as my Thugs. Things flopping all over the place. Doesn't help with AVs, but with everything else it's golden. For Necro, I really like Dark. It's active mitigation, because you have to use your Darkest Night, Fearsome State, Fluffy, etc to control and debuff for protection rather than buffing Defense through the roof. However it's exciting, active playstyle that's far more effective than it appears on paper. Someone else did the napkin math on another thread this week, and Necro/Dark is the only power combo that has enough-ToHit debuffs to floor even AVs when stacked. This effective combination made possible by Dark Fluffy and Lich. All that said, I think necro time is a very solid contender. Time offers a bit more mobility, some solid carry-around-with-you-buffs and some soft controls. If I didn't love my necro dark so much I probably would go with necro time.

Scorpion Shield incarnate caps you to Smashing, Lethal, and Energy (and are some toxic resists) which are the three most popular end game damage types. In most trials and many SFs you will be catching aggro and splash damage. E shield is a huge boost to personal survivability. If you solo or play an smaller teams with a dedicated tank, you probably don't need it. I went Heat Mastery on my Necro/Dark for Bonfire (which is awesome for damage mitigation), and I built for extra Ranged defense to add on to all the -To Hit he and the pets can stack. But I still miss Scorpion Shield's always-on protection, sometimes.

Hi Generator. Very welcome. I believe it's the T2 blast. It's a good enough mostly seamless attack chain for me, as I didn't want or need a fourth attack or Offensive Opportunity. As Teirusu mentions above, BFR was also unneeded based on recharge.

Thanks for this. I've almost finished up my Thugs/Time and really enjoyed the tankyness and damage. Not as versatile in it's toolset as my Necro/Dark, but a good all-rounder. Bruiser with Fury + Temporal Selection = Brute Lite (tm). Sometimes I'll toss it on the Arsonist if he's not particularly suicidal it is super buffed on a team and has extra longevity.

I really enjoy mine with my Dark/Ninjitsu, Smoke Dragon, pulp era hero.

My personal recommendation is SR or Ninjitsu. Both cap DeF easily, cheaply. SR for the best DDR and toggle Mez resists. Ninja for innate heal and stealth.

Someone asked me for a build, so I'm posting my WIP build. Ice Armor has a nice refreshing absorption shield toggle (Frigid Shield) that helps prevent a lot of damage over time, but it does need slotting to be at its best. Ice also offers good buffs to overall max health (Hoarfrost, Frost Protection). It also offers Icy Bastion, one of the best crashless T9s in the game, +40% resist and regen/recovery + mag protection. Use it vs those Psi and Fire mobs. Although I find Psi mobs are more annoying for debuffs than damage. Up for 30 seconds, I have it down to just over 2 min recharge. Not too bad. Speaking of debuffs, Ice Armor is immune to slows for recharge/speed debuffs. This build is a WIP, but I've got it to 48% S/L, 55% E/N and 25% Ranged with one target in Moisture Absorption. This build assumes Alpha Agility.

I'm so very glad to see this feature. Thank you for bringing it to the forum's attention 🙂

I'd be willing to contribute a couple of builds I've become very comfortable with over the years. Bots/FF and Necro/Dark.

nice! It's always handy to bring back those minions as quickly as possible...I like a bit of endurance reduction too, both to help the pet's blue bar, as well as my own. Serves double duty! 🙂

What Mechano said <--------

Let the Opportunity Bar build. When its full, the sentinel can use it to create a buff that lasts for x seconds. Kind of like Domination for dominators. It should not be affected by global recharge. Perhaps 30 second buff with 90 second downtime. So up 1/3 of the time if there is active building. The Opportunity Bar should be ability-agnostic, that means any primary set attack builds it, and its use is not tied to the T1 or T2 attacks. The buff should be group wide (so to enhance their appeal in groups) and will scale with the number of group members (up to 8). Everyone affected (perhaps up to 48 targets, so a raid) gains the following: Exactly what the buff should do (boosts to damage, end reduction, heal procs, etc, I leave to others. But it should to at least one offensive thing and at least one defensive thing).

old post, but perhaps this will help: degenerative has the orangy debuff proc. and the toxin damage proc is also visible as a little green spray. Not sure about the others.

Recharge enhancement in pets only affects their summoning recharge time. It will not reduce their own attacks. Still useful to have. Especially for your tier 3 pet.

The best defense works vs an attack. They do not stack. So if you have 25% ranged defense and 45% Energy defense, and are attacked by a ranged energy attack, your 45% Energy defense is what will be used. Frigid shield is amazing, really helps prevent death be a thousand cuts and reduces the blow of more damaging attacks. It's another layer in Ice's yummy protection. @ParaBruce I'll try to get my own build up later. Ty @Hyperstrike for posting your build!

The Absorption toggle makes this armor set shine at level 22. With Bastion, at T9, I'm sure it's even better. This on my new Ice/Ice. Some good layers: Defense Absorption Health boost Resists I could toss my build up if you like. Probably far from perfect as I'm used to positional Defense sets, but I'm working with capping S/L/E/N.

Throw a OF KD proc in the zombies too. It's hilarious good mitigation! Did that in my Necro/Dark, was great way to keep things from attacking. 🙂

No nerfing. Just boost the low performers.

IIRC EverQuest 2 summoners had a spell to store their pets fully buffer while either traveling or in areas pets were a liability. It's been years since I played my necromancer however...

That's a good build, Hyperstrike. To be honest, I've played a lot of MMs into their 50s/incarnate since starting HC (bots/cold, thugs/time, Necro/dark, demons/dark, beasts/time) and bots/FF remains my favorite.