Pet Master build: could use some advice

amazingproton

Basically this build focuses on the Pets doing 90% of the damage. So everything is to focus on their damage and defense potential. Supposedly, this theoretically makes you nearly invulnerable while in groups.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Presence (Primary)
Level 10: Intelligence (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Brilliant
Level 9: Intimidating
Level 12: Enduring
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Diplomatic
Level 21: Shrug It Off

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Tyrannon's Familiar
Level 6: Aura of Radiant Protection (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Sigils of Radiant Sanctuary (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Ritual of Radiant Summoning (Rank 2, Unbound Ritual)
Level 14: Sigils of Ebon Weakness (Mystic Transference)
Level 17: Command Animals (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Ritual of Arcane Summoning (Rank 2, Unbound Ritual)
Level 23: Ritual of Primal Summoning (Rank 2, Unbound Ritual)
Level 26: Inertial Dampening Field
Level 29: Support Drones (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Arctic Beast (Rank 2)
Level 35: Air Elemental (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Vala's Light

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Hover Disk (Rank 2)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Presence: Repurpose (3/3)
Presence: Grandeur (3/3)
Presence: Moment of Glory (2/3)
Presence: Force of Will (2/2)
Commander: Evasive Action (1/2)
Commander: Rapid Response (2/2)
Commander: Create An Opening (2/2)
Commander: Multitasker (2/3)
Commander: Well Trained (2/2)
Commander: Savage (1/3)
Sentinel: Eternal Spring (2/2)
Sentinel: Caregiver (3/3)
Sentinel: Sentinel Aura (3/3)
Sentinel: Moment of Need (2/3)
Mastery: Commander Mastery (1/1)

What Could be done to improve upon this build. I have been away for a while and I don't know if something got nerfed or if something is better and could replace an ability.

Remember this build is focused on Pets, and Pets are the primary mode of damage. I've tossed in heals to provide some usefulness and to keep damaged pets alive longer in tough fights.

flowcyto

Well, most of the controlled pets are lacking in base dmg. Its fine to have some of them for the control and minor buff/debuff options they provide, but I'd have at least one temp pet/summon in there to help out w/ damage primarily. You dun really need 2 healing/support oriented pets w/ both an aoe heal, Sigils, Pres PSS, and AoRP- I'd prob ditch one of them and maybe one more of the other pets.

Summon Nightmares are decent for dmg and have the perk of 'fixing' some issues w/ pet AI not attacking sometimes- summoning them on a target usually kicks other pets into action. Drawback is they only last per target or upto 20 sec. Summon Shadows is also noteworthy in being quite considerably the best summon for dps (unless you get lucky and summon 3-4 entities w/ Collective WIll, but you lack control powers for that) and also giving 3-target cannon fodder for random spells; they have a cd on cast and a 20sec duration, but once you get gear the cd will be shorter than their max duration anyways.

I'd also prob ditch the ebon sigils in this build. Again you have plenty defenses and support already- you need an attack ur own toon can use, cause otherwise all ur doing in combat is patch aoe healing pets/allies, end building, and laying non-dmg sigils. If you want to further debuff any enemy dmg, you can always choose an attack that disorients or fears (sonic arrow, shadow shot, ego blast, etc), and then you'd have more to do in combat as well.

I mean, almost completely nixing ur own dmg doesn't sound like a grand idea to me, esp when pet AI can act up or you go into, say, a Burst or Rampage and ur pets keep getting axed. You also lack a toggle and/or an energy unlock.

You'll also have a hefty energy penalty w/ so many controlled pets out (temp/summons don't have that penalty, since they have to be re-cast). Just something to keep in mind.

Pets also inherit half or ur crit and crit severity, so if you want more dmg from them then Dex/crit isn't a bad idea.

Here's how I'd re-tool ur build:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Presence (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Shadow Blast (Rank 2, Psychotic Break)
Level 6: Aura of Radiant Protection (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Spirit Reverberation
Level 11: Tyrannon's Familiar (Rank 2)
Level 14: Ritual of Arcane Summoning (Unbound Ritual)
Level 17: Arcane Vitality (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Compassion
Level 23: Summon Shadows (Rank 2)
Level 26: Sigils of Radiant Sanctuary (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Ritual of Primal Summoning (Unbound Ritual)
Level 32: Ritual of Radiant Summoning (Rank 2, Unbound Ritual)
Level 35: Void Horror (Rank 2)
Level 38: Air Elemental (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Hover Disk (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Presence: Repurpose (3/3)
Presence: Selfless Ally (2/2)
Presence: Moment of Glory (3/3)
Presence: Force of Will (2/2)
Sentinel: Caregiver (2/3)
Sentinel: Sentinel Aura (3/3)
Sentinel: Moment of Need (1/3)
Sentinel: Wither (2/2)
Sentinel: Genesis (2/2)
Commander: Rapid Response (2/2)
Commander: Create An Opening (2/2)
Commander: Multitasker (3/3)
Commander: Durable (1/3)
Commander: Savage (2/3)
Mastery: Commander Mastery (1/1)


Primal summon howls- so I kept that, Radiant heals and is more sturdy than drones, Void Horror does more dmg on targets you Fear w/ Shadow Blast, Shadow Blast can Fear (and Stun for Wither), Arcane summon can off-tank w/ its challenging strike debuff, you can siphon the Familiar, Air elem does good dmg (for a pet) and some aoe + disorient, Shadows for more dmg, and radiant sigils to buff you and ur pets/allies in a nice area. Compassion will auto-stack in combat once you get Sentinel's aura (why I took that tree first), and Commander makes pets a good bit easier to manage. Spirit Reverb works when you attack feared targets, and also scales off of Constitution.

I gave ya Dex as a SS for more pet dmg, but you may want to still get some Rec/End/Int for energy when leveling. Also gave you a longer range aoe heal, and ranked it up.

Ofc, some of these choices are just my own pref, so don't take this as gospel since many powers/pets could be inter-changed. Hope that gave you some more ideas, though.

ajanus

Did they change how AoED works with pets?

If not, then Pet Masters without Black Lightning makes me sadface.

flowcyto

You dun need AoED w/ pet builds. Its an option that has benefits, ofc, but its own opportunity costs and drawbacks. I actually like AoRP cause it means less time healing or resummoning pets and teammates, some would like AoPM for its stat boosts for themselves and allies, and ofc AoED is the pure offense option that boosts pet dmg the most.

The only aura I wouldn't advise at this point is AoAC. W/ the other 3, ya can pick varying reasons why each are good. Really just depends what the user wants or can put up w/.

But yes, if he wants to go the more offense route (not sure if so cause this build started very defense-oriented) AoED is the best aura for that in general. Its not the only good choice, though.

amazingproton

I don't think you can have too many defenses. I don't plan on PvP. I have this build to be Invincible in PvE, and having extra defenses helps toward that fact.. and having more pets vs personal offense seems more to fit the theme of a Pet Master.

Basically, Pets do practically all the damage, and I sit in the back and support. I get nearly infinite source of energy, and Mobs don't come after me.

With all those pets, mobs can't kill all of them before I can summon more.



Does your build offer that? I only say because I'm not exactly the best at building characters... So I'm not sure the complete reasoning of your choices..

Also you didn't mention any Talents. I need to know what Talents will benefit this build you offered.

I don't mind giving it a try, but I don't wanna waste a Retcon.

flowcyto

Like I said before, its not so much about taking more damage for urself over ur pets at this point- its more about adding basic user functionality. You had/have such an extremely-pet centered build that you forgot to actually give urself attack powers.

You have no attacks of ur own aside from the End Builder There's really no need to go that far, man. Esp since most controlled pets are somewhat interchangeable and only add a base dps of about 50-80 each (even the lowest dmg basic attacks in this game- blasts- start around 250-300 base dps, and have more stats scaling them up than pets). You will have an easier time dropping one of those pets or sigils and picking up an attack spell for ur own.

I mean, what if ur pets don't need healing, or don't need re-summoned (which should actually be the majority of time)? Do you just stand around end building then? You could grind/kill quite faster if you helped ur pets w/ an attack of ur own.

Also some fights in this game, like rampages, burst alerts, Cybermind- have a bad habit of killing pets easily, so having a non-pet attack of ur own would be more efficient in those cases than re-summoning low-dmg pets that don't last long. Also, pet AI can be buggy or unresponsive at times, so having non-pet powers can help when that kicks in.

I mean, even my build of it has 8 pet powers. That's a ton of pets. If I were to use it I'd drop a pet for another heal or defense like Palliate/absolve, and/or an AoE attack. Even 6 pet powers is good for a 'pet master' build.

Ofc, I'm not saying use my exact build, but I wanted to focus on the more useful (imo) pets/summons while not depriving you completely of offense as the pet master.


Oh, and I didn't post talents cause what you had was fine. In the end talents don't matter as much, but my own pref is to pick up the 3 combos of +5 SS/+5 SS, and 3 others that are +5 SS /+5 non-SS- choosing the non-SS you most want.

ajanus

Few things:

1. You can't compare each pet power to a dps power. Reason being, you can't use 2 dps powers at the same time, aside from Power Armor...you CAN use pet powers at the same time. Could you imagine the power of Pet Masters if each pet power did the same as a Blast power?

2. Remember when a normal dpser uses a power, it is usually backed up by both spec tree choices...attacks from a Pet Master won't be nearly as useful due to Commander as one and Sentinel as the other...so it would be in a Pet Master's best interest just to use more pets. They will benefit from Sentinel Aura, Passive Aura, IDF, and Commander, whereas an attack doesn't benefit from any of those at all, unless your Passive Aura boosts it.

3. Pet Masters with only an energy builder as an attack, and AoED, are likely the highest possible dps this game has to offer. You do run into problems with heavy aoes like Gravitar, but learning what to do in those situations will make you a better player.

5. With so many pets out at once, your main toon will hardly ever be targeted by anything, ever. So defenses will mean nothing 99% of the time...and for that 1%, I heard if you press SHIFT, you block incoming damage :biggrin: Most of the time with my Pet Master, I have my energy builder on Toggle, Never Cancel. I walk into a room, spam my TAB and then hit block while my army of pets murder the room. This will also help stop the random pet AI confusion, since you cycled targets, all pets will likely be doing "something."

Just don't fight anything with reflect damage, like Valerian Scarlet...you kill yourself, FAST.

flowcyto

ajanus wrote: »

Few things:

1. You can't compare each pet power to a dps power. Reason being, you can't use 2 dps powers at the same time, aside from Power Armor...you CAN use pet powers at the same time. Could you imagine the power of Pet Masters if each pet power did the same as a Blast power?

I said that cause the OP had no attack powers aside from the end builder. That's why I went into the whole talk of comparing one attack power to the avg controlled pet. You're assuming he had one, to me he had none.

Ofc I wouldn't suggest a 2nd attack of the same type. If its not debuffing, PA, or syngeristic, its redundant.

2. Remember when a normal dpser uses a power, it is usually backed up by both spec tree choices...attacks from a Pet Master won't be nearly as useful due to Commander as one and Sentinel as the other...so it would be in a Pet Master's best interest just to use more pets. They will benefit from Sentinel Aura, Passive Aura, IDF, and Commander, whereas an attack doesn't benefit from any of those at all, unless your Passive Aura boosts it.

In terms of dps, regular attacks have more scalars affecting them and to a larger degree, even if you factor in the Commander tree (which are mostly additive bonuses). Things like sentinel aura and IDF are just for defense (a concept you oddly seem to go against in part of ur post); they don't 'scale' pets up in any way- just keep them healthy.

3. Pet Masters with only an energy builder as an attack, and AoED, are likely the highest possible dps this game has to offer. You do run into problems with heavy aoes like Gravitar, but learning what to do in those situations will make you a better player.

Oh, that's why, you think an end builder is an 'attack'. Well, not in my books- end builder doesn't do enough damage and its primary function is energy restoration- not damage. That's like trying to argue that a power like Ego Choke is an attack, when its primarily a CC, w/ light damage on the side.

But lets take ur model: instead of one pet to one attack power, its one pet and an end builder to one attack power. Alright. The attack power still wins out, though, since most end builders start at ~80-114 dps at lvl 40.The math still doesn't favor one more pet + end builder over one attack power w/ occasional end building (or none, because the Support role's energy management can be made really easy).

5. With so many pets out at once, your main toon will hardly ever be targeted by anything, ever. So defenses will mean nothing 99% of the time...and for that 1%, I heard if you press SHIFT, you block incoming damage :biggrin: Most of the time with my Pet Master, I have my energy builder on Toggle, Never Cancel. I walk into a room, spam my TAB and then hit block while my army of pets murder the room. This will also help stop the random pet AI confusion, since you cycled targets, all pets will likely be doing "something."

Yeah, but Support shouldn't be pulling aggro often by sheer damage to begin w/... unless there's something wrong w/ the group, or you're the one that starts the pull.

And if we're just talking solo stuff, all I can say is: eh, w/e. That content is generally easy enough it doesn't really matter; even w/o a real attack you can still get healgro anyways, and having an attack power doesn't drag the block power off ur hotbar Rather it helps you kill things faster so stuff is less a threat.

kellven

You pretty much got what you need in your original loadout.

I think I used to just go:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Tyrannon's Familiar
Level 6: Aura of Radiant Protection
Level 8: Ritual of Radiant Summoning
Level 11: Ebon Void
Level 14: Support Drones
Level 17: Munitions Bots
Level 20: Inertial Dampening Field

+Sentinel, and fill the rest with whatever. Real problem is that DPS is now exclusively a critmonkey game here, unless you have the raptor horde of yesteryear. Great secondary benefit is turning a pug of mouthbreathers into something that can attempt to complete an alert, but it takes forever to kill anything solo. The devs haven't really thought about pets in years, so almost any actual player attack build will toast even a full loadout of pets, especially in AOE, with the possible exception of a critmonkey pet build rocking black lightning; but even then it's a lot like telepathy, there's always an unqualified better option.