Demons/Thermal: Any chance for control?

[Korlac]

I'm rocking a Demons/Thermal build and I'm absolutely loving it. The demons are tanky and do great damage, and thermal is great support with good buffing, healing, and debuffing. The only thing I feel like I'm missing is some control of the battlefield. The T3 Demon Prince does provide some control, but can anyone make a recommendation as to what other powers I can pick up from the other power pools that would help with control at any level, incarnate and lower?

[TheSpiritFox]

Bonfire from the fire pool, an immob of which there are many that would work. Those are the main ones. I would say given your set and that bonfire matches you can't really get much better than a power that you can literally leave at the default slot, drop in a sudden acceleration, and its already awesome. 

[Korlac]

9 hours ago, TheSpiritFox said:

Bonfire from the fire pool, an immob of which there are many that would work. Those are the main ones. I would say given your set and that bonfire matches you can't really get much better than a power that you can literally leave at the default slot, drop in a sudden acceleration, and its already awesome. 

I didn't realize Bonefire would work as a control power. I guess I never paid attention to the knock back effect of that power. I could get that and Char which as a single target hold and that might get me where I want to be power-wise.

[DocMidknight]

 with bonfire I'd suggest putting in a knockback to knockdown IO to keep them on their backsides instead of pushing them back and causing pets to go chasing.

 

[Korlac]

Thanks, that's exactly what I did and I'm already seeing a stark difference in my fights. I also took Char and put that purple IO (I forget the name) it was pricey but worth it. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Korlac

[TheSpiritFox]

On 1/26/2021 at 8:53 PM, Korlac said:

Thanks, that's exactly what I did and I'm already seeing a stark difference in my fights. I also took Char and put that purple IO (I forget the name) it was pricey but worth it. 

Bonfire can make a ton of survivability difference for your pets. Sometimes it hits every single person in the spawn, sometimes only half, but that's a solid 3 seconds usually of no damage incoming from everyone flipping on their back. Sudden acceleration turns it into a reliable if unpredictable hard control for groups. It always hits some of them, and enemies not attacking are just enemies not attacking. 

 

Char is actually a great mule for damage procs. 1 acc 5 damage procs and with a high recharge build the procs often have a 90% proc rate, letting you do like upwards of 600 damage with char potentially. My demons/dark took the fire pool up to rise of the nix for moments where I cascade and char is loaded with procs as a random extra damage attack that like can finish off a boss pretty well sometimes. 

[Psylenz0511]

On my demon prince, I slotted a couple(?) pacing of the turtles in with some slow enhancement. It shaves a little damage off but I noticed the greatness of the slow effects more, especially when the prince gets around to wielding greater ice sword circle. Bonfire to me is nearly a no-brainer for my melee pet masterminds. On my demons, I would split my stance, I would put the two lieutenants on attack/aggressive with the demon prince and the little demonlings on follow defensive. I would poke and prod my hellfire demon to be on point taking out the high priority targets like super stunners and sappers. This way I only micromanage one pet, the others will follow the aggro drawn on my mastermind. If I need to get more aggro on my mastermind, that is what "Crack the Whip" is for. Your living hellfire is kind of controllerish in the way it absorbs aggro, and hence damage to you and your pets, like seeker drones do for robots and trappers.