Controller Pets & the +Res/+Def IOs

[ThrillMill]

I ding'ed 32 on my Grav/Traps last evening and immediately picked up Singularity. When I hit 33, I expect to put 3 more slots into it. So, while reviewing Pet IO Set, I noticed that 2 of them offer a +res and +def bonus for pets. I was curious to know if this will boost my Singularities Res and Def %'s?

 

Any info would be great.

 

Thanks!

[Erydanus]

Yes the mastermind pet aura items will affect your singularity. I think defense is better for it as it has high resistances already to certain damage types. IIRC, even though you slot these globals in the pet power they work by giving you the player an aura of protection so the benefit is only there when it's near you acting as a sidekick or pocket tank.

 

I will say these are not high priority items to get though. Singularity is a very tough ball of energy. It will not often die. If something is killing your singularity you should probably run for your life. On live I did use both Edict of the Master and Sovereign Right globals and did not feel that they made a big difference to Singy.

 

I would focus on slotting singularity for damage first and then maybe some hold first with only a small amount of accuracy as it seems to have higher than normal base accuracy, by a LOT. (3 dam 2 hold 1 acc while leveling.) Ideally at 50 slam 3 Peroxisomes in it, then an acc, and then with the 2 spots you have open you could use maybe 1 or 2 of the pet special IOs. I would recommend you go for Soulbound Allegience Chance of Buildup.

 

I wouldn't bother putting any recharge in Singularity. It only affects your recast time and it's persistent and durable. 

[ThrillMill]

Yes the mastermind pet aura items will affect your singularity. I think defense is better for it as it has high resistances already to certain damage types. IIRC, even though you slot these globals in the pet power they work by giving you the player an aura of protection so the benefit is only there when it's near you acting as a sidekick or pocket tank.

 

I will say these are not high priority items to get though. Singularity is a very tough ball of energy. It will not often die. If something is killing your singularity you should probably run for your life. On live I did use both Edict of the Master and Sovereign Right globals and did not feel that they made a big difference to Singy.

 

I would focus on slotting singularity for damage first and then maybe some hold first with only a small amount of accuracy as it seems to have higher than normal base accuracy, by a LOT. (3 dam 2 hold 1 acc while leveling.) Ideally at 50 slam 3 Peroxisomes in it, then an acc, and then with the 2 spots you have open you could use maybe 1 or 2 of the pet special IOs. I would recommend you go for Soulbound Allegience Chance of Buildup.

 

I wouldn't bother putting any recharge in Singularity. It only affects your recast time and it's persistent and durable.

 

This. This is exactly what I need to know. I feel like a babe in the wood when it comes to the Controller lifestyle. It's been a humbling experience from the word go. I had become so accustomed to just running up and punching things with my brute; I lost my ability to accurately navigate the battlefield safely.

 

Ery, if you have the time I would love to hear your thoughts as it relates to slotting other Gravity powers. I'm getting myself in trouble on teams with Wormhole and Dimension Shift and I'm not 100% I've slotted them correctly to begin with. Could I also ask you if you've taken Crush, the Level 1 single-target immobilize? I know it sets up containment which I love but I enjoy Lift as both an attack and a control medium a good deal better. Also, any chance I could get recommendations on Crushing Field. I know I want Gravitational Anchors "Proc for Hold" IO in it. I'm also thinking of slotting it for damage as I lack any meaningful AoE damage powers.

 

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to my query. Big help. 

[Fedifensor]

I prefer using both +Resist IOs for Singularity, to get the resistances to 70%.  Defense is also a good choice, but I can’t sacrifice more than two slots for those IOs and still hit the Enhancement Diversification limits for damage (at least not without sacrificing too much accuracy).  70% resistance + the defense I can give the Singularity from Maneuvers and Farsight makes it durable enough that I don’t have any problems with its survivability.

[ThrillMill]

I prefer using both +Resist IOs for Singularity, to get the resistances to 70%.  Defense is also a good choice, but I can’t sacrifice more than two slots for those IOs and still hit the Enhancement Diversification limits for damage (at least not without sacrificing too much accuracy).  70% resistance + the defense I can give the Singularity from Maneuvers and Farsight makes it durable enough that I don’t have any problems with its survivability.

 

Excellent, Fed!

 

One of my goals for my Grav/Traps is to reach the S/L soft cap. FFG goes a long way towards this but helping my Singy with Maneuvers and FFG + the Pet Defense IO sounds like a good idea. 

[Erydanus]

Ery, if you have the time I would love to hear your thoughts as it relates to slotting other Gravity powers. I'm getting myself in trouble on teams with Wormhole and Dimension Shift and I'm not 100% I've slotted them correctly to begin with. Could I also ask you if you've taken Crush, the Level 1 single-target immobilize? I know it sets up containment which I love but I enjoy Lift as both an attack and a control medium a good deal better. Also, any chance I could get recommendations on Crushing Field. I know I want Gravitational Anchors "Proc for Hold" IO in it. I'm also thinking of slotting it for damage as I lack any meaningful AoE damage powers.

 

• Wormhole is one of my favorite powers in terms of sheer fun. I have had a lot of problems with things getting shot all to heck with it despite trying to fly up and mess with the angle so as to try to slam them point blank into the floor and not spray them. I haven't reached it on my reroll of my original Grav controller yet but I was going to experiment with the Knockback to Knockdown IO you get from the summer blockbuster. If it works the way I expect it does, it will cause mobs to be teleported and land in a pile, fallen down and not sprayed. The real benefit from Wormhole to me was not to control mobs in the sense of delaying them coming to my groups but to drop them into damage patches and to feed my tank fresh meat. She'd put down her fire & ice patches and want more; actually the team I ran with had a lot of GTAOE so when we finished off the group we initially engaged, I'd try to grab a group from the side to exploit those damage fields still being in play. I remember an Eden Trial where the team was so vicious I was just literally throwing mobs at them like branches into a woodchipper. Wormhole was a foe delivery system!
   
   
   
  
• Dimension shift has changed since I last played but I would only ever use a phase shift in 1 circumstance: the team is about to be wiped and we need to intangibilize the foes and withdraw or regroup. Phase shifts just piss everyone off, at least it's now a toggle. I have always skipped this power.
   
   
   
  
• Lift has been changed since I played. Lift now specifically receives an extra damage packet if you use it on someone affected (not currently HELD by, AFFECTED by, like the slow effect is still on them) Gravity Distortion. That raises its usefulness above the immobilize. However, I took Crush anyway because I slot it as a (dot) blast. Honestly its biggest value is it is a mag FOUR immobilize which is pretty much there to make a boss take containment damage. The immob duration is fine out of the box ... so blast slotting is fine. Death is the strongest control. Except for Freakshow and Cimmerorans, as they self rez and have rezzers, respectively. Propel also gets this bonus "impact" damage and now has a small AoE knockdown and knockback effect that simulates the effect of a large object flying at 1-4 people.
   
   
   
   
  
• Crushing Field. Mmm it's damage is pretty low. All the controller AoE immobs are except plant's, it's double the other ones. If you look at Mids the baseline damage is 9 1/2 for Crushing Field vs 31 for Crush and 50 for Lift. When something does 1/3 of your basic damage the return on slotting it for damage is pretty questionable. On historical live I desperately slotted it for damage - I think I used Peroxisomes  - and a damage proc maybe and it still just ... wasn't good for damage and ate up 6 slots. It's a great tool, especially since I run Grav/Rad so planting everything in lingering radiation/enervating field/radiation infection and locking them in place with an immob is hugely helpful. As to gravitational anchor's proc well ... maybe? is it really that helpful to have a rando mob be held by the immob? If you have the $ and want the set for its bonus I mean sure. I just would 3-slot or 4-slot that thing now (probably frankenslot it) and put my eggs in another basket. If you find you do spam it constantly a damage proc might be worth it to you.
   
  I think the main value of the AoE immob is keeping things in a spot so your acid mortar, poison trap, seeker drones, trip mine, and time bomb are all hitting them. Speaking of which after you place all that hardware, maybe you can wormhole the mobs onto them? If the knockdown conversion IO works like I think it will, that should be EFFING DEVASTATING. And by the way, there's your AOE damage that you're not coming into yet.
   
   
   
  
• At the end of the day Gravity is a single target damage focused set. Your secondary and your epic pool are gonna be where the AOE comes from. With Lift and Propel we can do single target damage that blows us way ahead of any other controller; great soloing, less valued on a team. But not without its place.
   
   
   
   
  
• One more thing about Singy. Singy has Crush, Lift, and Gravity Distortion and has them at approximately double the damage of a controller (because he doesn't get containment) and will spam them. The reason I said slot 3xDmg 2x Hold 1x Acc while leveling is that having your mini me out is a lot off extra damage and also sets up a lot of control. Since you just got it and have probably not slotted it up yet, you can do a little experiment to check one thing. Don't put any accuracy in Singy at first and put his combat log in a window tab by itself so you can see it later. And then see if Singy misses with any of his attacks.
   
  Ever.
   
  Because there was a group of us that had a suspicion that Singy only needs accuracy if you're fighting +3s and higher, or foes that debuff accuracy or have super high defense. But that could certainly have changed. But this is why I think at 50 a really good combo is 3 peroxisomes, 1 acc, the Edict chance for buildup, and 1 defensive IO (def or res, your preference). The other issue is your epic pool. If you go with a Patron pool you can also put those pet defense aura procs in your Arachnos minion and they'll share its protection with Singy because, again, having slotted those globals it counts as a set bonus and the aura is on YOU not them.
   
  Edit: let me clarify this I realize I was sounding like he was auto-hit or something and that's not the case; I was just trying to be dramatic. The thing is, two of his powers are 90% accuracy base and back when, we thought he had like a 10-20% innate accuracy buff which puts him over the cap so that he'd only be missing on those attacks on the 5% auto-miss chance if he was fighting up to say about a +3 or fighting heavily buffed foes (more likely I think). Lift is baseline accuracy so 75%+ a possible pet innate accuracy boost = you're still only rarely missing even level foes. But anyway this is why I think you only need 1 acc in him and then it doesn't have to be the first thing you slot. 
   
  

 

 

 

 

 

[Redlynne]

This is what I do with my Singularity slotting in the build I posted ...

 

Level 32: Singularity

• (A) HamiO: Endoplasm Exposure (+2 Acc/Mez)
  
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance: Level 31
  
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 31
  
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge: Level 31
  
• (34) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets: Level 30
  
• (34) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus: Level 25

Expedient Reinforcement

(Singularity)

•   1.5% Resistance(Energy,Negative), MezResist(Immobilized) 2.5%, MezResist(Held) 2.5%, MezResist(Stunned) 2.5%, MezResist(Sleep) 2.5%, MezResist(Terrorized) 2.5%, MezResist(Confused) 2.5%
  
•   3% DamageBuff(All)
  
•   6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
  
•   10% Resistance(All)
  

Sovereign Right

(Singularity)

•   10% Resistance(All)

 

Note that the Endoplasm Exposure increases the duration of all Mez effects, which benefits both Crush (Immobilize) and Gravity Distortion (Hold) when cast by Singularity.  Using a 4-slot of Expedient Reinforcement unlocks the +6.25% Recharge set bonus.

 

This makes for a reasonable balance/compromise in the slotting of Singularity, I'm thinking for Accuracy, Damage, Endurance, Recharge, +Mez durations, +Resistance (to Singularity) and finally Set Bonus(es) ... in my opinion.  Your mileage may vary, of course.

[ThrillMill]

Thank you Ery and Red for your heroic run down of the Gravity lifestyle. I think I'm going to have to come terms with the fact that I'll be a mild menace on teams and a touch slow solo'ing. Which is all well and good because I still rather enjoy the set. If you're willing, able and can find the time; I'd like to post a series of final builds for your review.

 

The first is a purely defensive build that reaches the softcap for S/L & Nrg/N.Nrg with a little S/L resistance and solid global recharge. The other focuses on 75% resists to S/L and falls within a small purple for softcap to all but psi/toxic. The builds are exceedingly tight, forcing me to skip out on beloved powers like Triage Beacon, Caltrops, Time Bomb and Dimension Shift. 

 

Currently, I'm sitting at 36 and while on teams I'll generally open by super speeding + Celerity Stealth IO into a mob, plant Poison Gas trap then zooming back to cast Acid Mortar > Seeker Drones > Gravity Distortion > Propel.

 

When solo, I'll open with seekers to take the alpha > Crushing > Acid > GD > Propel > Lift > GD till dead. Singy has been a controllers best friend while solo'ing. Especially while I'm mezzed.

 

I'll get to work on the builds and post them back here. Thanks again for your help. 

[Erydanus]

I actually don't like to give feedback on builds other than tuning powers here and there, and general choices. Lately I've been finding it wearying, so I will not be adding further comments. I'm sure you're well on your path to a solid build or two for your preferred playstyle!

[ThrillMill]

I actually don't like to give feedback on builds other than tuning powers here and there, and general choices. Lately I've been finding it wearying, so I will not be adding further comments. I'm sure you're well on your path to a solid build or two for your preferred playstyle!

 

Thanks, Ery! I appreciate your assistance. Here's hoping we get to team on Live someday. Cheers. 

[Erydanus]

Yesssss I could team with you and ....

 

 

I do play mostly on Excelsior but terrifyingly I have a defender on Everlasting.