Keeping Demons Alive at High Difficulty

[Darkir]

Outside of just being /time, how can you do it?

[PeregrineFalcon]

The Force Fields secondary is very good at keeping pet alive. Especially if you also pick up Maneuvers.

[TheSpiritFox]

By picking a secondary that really helps them out. 

 

I would rank, in terms of keeping demons alive, the best sets in this order. Elec > Nature > thermal = Dark>time>everything else. 

 

Then its a matter of proper slotting and powerset use. My demons/nature is tough as nails, can tank any +4x8 spawn in the game as long as I only pull one spawn. My demons elec can stand in fire farms and survive. 

[Elthenar]

Elec is that tanky? I've never really fooled with it

[Coyote]

Elec is that tanky. I don't think that Nature is generally tankier than Time, but perhaps it works better with Demons due to stacking Resists. But any of those sets specifically mentioned by @TheSpiritFox should work with the caveat that Dark is not a buff set but a debuff set so you have to make sure you're not allowing fights to add spawns that aren't debuffed.

[jojogladco]

Standard disclaimer, I only play solo and only at level 50 so I can't say how the combo does leveling up or in a team setting.

 

I've been playing Demons/TA and it's rare to lose a pet.  Between Pet Uniques, unresisted -tohit in flash arrow, unresisted -damage in PGA+Ice Arrow, +resist in EMP Arrow, KD in whip attacks keeping problem mobs on the ground and Oil Slick Arrow melting mobs the Demons don't get hit often enough to outpace their own healing.  

 

 

[TheSpiritFox]

29 minutes ago, Coyote said:

Elec is that tanky. I don't think that Nature is generally tankier than Time, but perhaps it works better with Demons due to stacking Resists. But any of those sets specifically mentioned by @TheSpiritFox should work with the caveat that Dark is not a buff set but a debuff set so you have to make sure you're not allowing fights to add spawns that aren't debuffed.

 

I would say it's tankier than time because between the absorb which you can perma, the aoe stacking heals, the resistance buff, you end up with demons that can take a serious pounding that nature is capable of outhealing pretty well. You gotta get it set up, including the toggle, but once the toggle is up on a spawn and such, I haven't had issues with +4x8 spawns of any type on my demons/nature. The demon prince gets pretty damn close to capped resists. 

[Neiska]

Personally I would rank EA as the tankiest set, if not among all sets, certainly among masterminds. You get a heal, absorb, status immunity to pets, a -10 dam AOE and a -20 dam ST (that stack for -30% on a single target), and more. And it pairs very well with demons. You can res cap every pet you have. By that I don't mean just the MM pets, but also the little cinders as well as lore pets. All my stuff was res capped. They never "died", they would time out and despawn. It was "that" though. However, EA is entirely defensive minded, the only offensive buff it gets is like a 10% damage buff, and thats about it, for your pets anyway, You can also get effectively infinate energy with EA, leaving your destiny incarnate slot open for other things instead of ageless, which is also a nice bonus.
 

But if you don like /ea there are other options -

 

Time is a contender as you mentioned, particularly with mace mastery due to power shift shinanagins. Its got strong healing and you can easially hit the defense cap, but the /time doesnt really stand out on anything else. It is solid and relialable though, and Shift makes a good emergency button.

 

I had good results with /thermal too. The buffs stack, you get a few good debuffs too, and a good heal. I consider it a buff set with perks. But my demons/thermal does okay, even on hardest difficulty.

 

I have heard good things about demons/dark, but I never tried it. Not a fan of the reactionary playstyle of /dark, but it is definitely potent!

 

But for my personal vote, so long as you dont mind being "absurdly" tough, I would +1 to EA. My demons/ea was so tough I could go afk on the highest difficulty maps (+4/8), go make myself a sandwitch, a cup of coco, come back, and still be fine. "Thats" how tough it can be. I have MMs far tougher than any tank or brute I have made, and my demons/ea was my toughest. But my Robot/EA isn't far behind.

 

Hope this helps!

[Maxzero]

Demons/Cold did well for me.

 

The def and res synced up well enough for both res and def to be near softcaps for both.

 

The -res stacking made it extremely strong offensively.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Maxzero

[Coyote]

4 hours ago, Maxzero said:

Demons/Cold did well for me.

 

The def and res synced up well enough for both res and def to be near softcaps for both.

 

The -res stacking made it extremely strong offensively.

 

I like /Cold as the secondary for Demons. It's not as tanky as some of the other options, but it's really not far behind, and it's way better on offense than all of them except for /Dark, and it's still ahead of /Dark. While being a lot less finicky about having to manage a debuff toggle.

[DreadShinobi]

I have a demon/kinetics that does just fine. It is more high risk/high reward playstyle. Demons and the personal whip attacks in the set offer good -res with good proc slotting opportunities (lash can hold 6 dmg procs). Transfusion is an amazing heal for mms. With fulcrum shift capping out your damage, it functions similarly to a kin/sonic defender, but with much more damage. Increase density is also one of few ways to provide knockback protection to your pets. Having team purple insps on hand and keeping open bids on them makes for easy softcapping as needed.

[Arbegla]

I'd put my hat in on demons/thermal. With the resistance stacking, the heals (and the pet heals) and the debuffs you get, you can handle a lot of a beating, even without the Auras.

[Force Redux]

Demons/Dark: control and debuff things into mewling kittens, heal when necessary, do evil laugh emotes!

[Grindingsucks]

Just remember- they're demons.  They don't die.  They discorporate and return to the fiery pits so that they can be re-summoned and tormented eternally, without end.

 

It's your duty to repeatedly send them to their doom, like a good evil master.  Embrace your purpose.  😆  

[Black Zot]

4 hours ago, Grindingsucks said:

Just remember- they're demons.  They don't die.  They discorporate and return to the fiery pits so that they can be re-summoned and tormented eternally, without end.

 

It's your duty to repeatedly send them to their doom, like a good evil master.  Embrace your purpose.  😆  

 

Conversely, looking after their well-being makes them much less likely to turn around and maul you if your hold over them slips for any reason.

[kelika2]

Have two Demon Masterminds, being level 50 with all slots available.

 

Demon/FF, first one.  had a nice time with it and frustrating other times with autohit or high acc crap.  Currently shelved and only used for GM hunting/low level groups

Second one was Demon/Thermal.  Those Aura IOs are huge.  These are my demons resists.  Since their personal quirks vary cold/toxic can be higher than this.  Prince is at 85% s/l resist however.

 

Demonlings slotting:  2 acc/dmg hamis, 1 acc/dmg/end blood mandate, 3 aura IO buffs.  One of them being Command of the Mastermind rech/aoe def.

Garg slotting:  2 acc/dmg hamis, 1 acc/dmg/end blood mandate, 2 heal/end hami, 1 aura IO buff.  Golgis are optional for you but I like my garg putting out some decent healing while the endurance half helps both of them.  If you dont care for a golgi, replace with a Ribosome (end/res) to bump up the flame shield up to like 14%

Prince slotting:  2 acc/dmg hamis, 1 acc/dmg/end blood mandate, 1 raw 50+5 endredux, 2 aura IO buffs, one of them being the ATO2 Endurance/resist

 

Gargs and Prince use tons of end, all the endredux helps them.

 

 

[kelika2]

Oh and one last thing, when the patch hits and pets recharge gets normalized/baseline I will be moving stuff around.  Like 4/6 Command of the Mastermind and 2/6 ATO2 in Hell on Earth

 

I forgot the name of the second ATO set.  But the idea was to really maximize the acc/dmg/recharge from both ATO sets AND get both Recharge set bonuses.