Morganite

Hmmm. I'll preface this by saying that my DS/Dark isn't all that high level yet, so some of this is based more on discussions I've read in other posts and my experience with similar powers in other things.

-With a click heal as powerful as Twilight Grasp, it's probably not worth your while to slot up Health that much.

-I'd honestly recommend just putting two or three RechRed in Tar Patch and have done. Movement slow isn't likely to do much as mitigation for you, since the demons are going to charge in anyway. It might be different for a ranged-preferring primary, but even then the slow is already pretty good. And it's not something that'll be clicked so often that endurance is such an issue; you'd be better off getting some endred in something that can (and surely will sometimes) be clicked more often, like Twilight Grasp.

-People say the pets start having serious endurance issues once you've got both upgrades if you don't slot some EndRed. (May not apply to all tiers, but I'm sure someone will speak up on that part.)

-Petrifying Gaze needs RechRed more than EndRed. You probably won't need it all the time, but when you need it, it's good to be able to stack it, or hold multiple enemies, or have less time you have to deal with whatever's that dangerous if it misses...

-Electrifying Fences isn't really much of a damage power, enhanced or not. If you want this, it'll probably be to make things hold still for AoEs. (It's what I usually read about MM's taking the immobilizes for anyway.) So rather than damage, I'd suggest slotting some immobilize duration and a bit of recharge. (You can probably find some sets for this very cheap.)

-Morgan's usual sig style is going to look like another entry in the list, isn't it?

In the sense that you don't need it for farming with the right build and mission.

Of course, if you ever want to do anything *but* farming on the character, Flashfire starts looking nicer to have...

-Morgan.

Psionic Tornado? Lower damage, but faster recharge, and it gives you something better for fire-resistant enemies. The cast time is apparently much longer though.

-Morgan.

That would be quite understandable, except the enhancement used in the posted build is the defense/recharge, not the one that provides global recharge. (Which would appear in the forum export as "Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed".)

It is entirely possible that the op actually *does* have that one, and just put the wrong thing into Mids. In which case I'd still suggest replacing the LotG end/rech with a defense, but other than that I'd see nothing especially wrong with the slotting on those powers. (Indeed, the build as posted is pretty close to perma-hasten if the two def/rech are replaced with two def/recharge bonuses.)

-Morgan.

I don't get it when people say to slot Char for damage. At low levels, maybe. But at high levels, if I'm facing a single target my Imps will make short work of it, and if I'm facing multiple targets, I'll have AoEs to throw around. I slot char for control, because if I'm using it, it means there's something I want to lock down, and I want it to *stay* locked down.

Not much point in putting recharge reduction in Combat Jumping and Tough, since such things don't detoggle when mezzed anymore. Combat Jumping doesn't need EndRed either, it's super-cheap as is. If you really want that regen bonus in Combat Jumping, I'd at least replace the EndRed/Rech with Defense. But I'm not sure it's really worth it. Weave's also an example of "doesn't need recharge", but there you're going for a set bonus. Might as well get the 5-bonus of red fortune if you're going to have the fifth slot at all though.

I also don't see much need for the EndRed in Super Speed, since that's a power that shouldn't normally be on while you're in combat, and out of combat it doesn't cost enough to matter.

Why slot Siphon Speed for slow? This isn't a power I use with the desire to slow things. I use it for the recharge bonus and the fast unsuppressed movement during combat. I'd recommend just using common accuracy and recharge IOs.

Siphon Power is rather underwhelming once you've got FS. I'd put a common accuracy in here, but that ought to be enough.

You may want to consider the Soulbound Allegiance Chance for Build Up. I've heard it can be a pretty impressive boost, since your pets get the chance every time they attack.

-Morgan.

The question is, how useful is having an imp out all the time?

For that matter, how useful the imps are in general is something I've been wondering about. Trying to plan ahead on my slotting, what I want in most of the powers is pretty obvious. But these things, I'm not sure.

-Morgan.

I figured the question was just focusing on enhancement slotting for those things. `.`

I'd missed the Maneuvers on the Enforcers. Kind of weird, that one. They'll take ToHit Buff sets for their Tactics, and Summon Demons will take resist sets, but you can't give Defense sets to the Enforcers? (Then again, Protector Bots won't take them either. Interesting.)

-Morgan.

If a pet has abilities which boost those things, you can slot enhancements to improve them. (The only one's I'm aware of are the Ember Demon's Ember Shield, and the Protector Bots' Force Shield.) However, there's a certain amount of argument on whether it is worth enhancing these effects.

There's also the defense bonus aura and resistance bonus aura IOs, which provide significant bonuses, but only if your pets stay close enough...

-Morgan.

...

Okay, did some further testing, and it looks like you're right. Cranked up the level on a council mission I had (since otherwise they'd be capped), had the ember demon attack the same mob with the knockback/acc IO and with it replaced with a damage TO. Same tohit rolls shown in pet combat every time. (With variation based on whether or not I was in range for Supremacy.)

I don't know if it's a display bug or if it's a things-that-should-be-enhanced-not-being bug, but I'm pretty sure there's a bug here. (Hopefully, it's supposed to enhance even powers that don't have knockback/whatever, and they'll get it to do that. More slotting options is a good thing.)

-Morgan.

There's reports of problems on some controller pets too.

I hadn't had any trouble with my Bots/Storm on some maps, but on others it was just unmanageable. Bots all over the place, leading to enemies all over the place, just couldn't keep them controlled enough.

-Morgan.

Check out this page on ParagonWiki: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Call_t..._Aura_for_Pets

So, there's two things. Yes, it's supposed to be on even when the power hasn't been used, that's how globals *are*. And the recharge intensive pet ones also give a 40' aura, the 20' is a display error.

-Morgan.

So, I've been contemplating Plant Control for a while, since it sounded like an interesting set, but I need a character concept too if I'm going to stay interested. While thinking about the secondaries I thought of something that's at least hilarious to *me* for Plant/Cold...

I'm not sure how well it would actually work though. Don't have any experience with shield-using secondaries, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of discussion or guides on cold domnation.

Anyone have any advice for me?

-Morgan.

If you check out the MM section, there's a thread about this issue with the range-focused pet sets too.

I haven't noticed any difference with my fire imps, but then they've always been crazy.

-Morgan.

I've never found that to be a problem.

In fact, I usually use Gale as soon as it recharges in most cases, but it's very rare for anything to even look in my direction once the bots have opened fire.

-Morgan.