Psylenz

Lightning Storm takes Entropic Chaos, just sayin'

The best beast mastery character name I have seen so far was on Exalted: Timmy in the Well

Temporal selection is, however, VERY useful for increasing the regeneration of a pet, especially the little guys. Which pet doesn't like +damage?

Chronoshift also boosts regeneration and recovery, while only your mastermind and non-pet allies get the recharge boost.

Flying over Steel on my magic carpet en route to dispatch/// I mean get information from Lady Jane on my new Dark Dom

A number of combinations come to mind for team support. You can't go wrong with Sonic/Kin, Ice/Cold, Fire/Thermal. What kind of 'team support' do you favor?

It's ALIVE!

I will be looking for more mastermind teammates after 5PM . Dr. Scotch is feeling pretty full of himself now that he has his chill mastery frozen armor to go with the scotch and soda.

I cannot speak for ricodah, but when we did an all-MM ITF and there were 4 (?) gang wars and/or living hellfires. It was no gimmick, the crew totally owned the big bad Cimeroran/Nictus beast.

I will add that Rad Blast for an empath is particularly good, even if you confine your attacks to the single target proc monster neutrino bolt targeted through your favorite damage dealer, the single target stun of cosmic burst to knock out bothersome foes, and at least one good AoE attack (electron haze, irradiate, neutron bomb all have their benefits).

The rad attacks take less endurance, which means running the leadership toggles won't put you in a bind if you need to use empathy abilities. A constant sequence of neutrino bolts, especially packing proc punch will make a difference.

I have four masterminds on Exalted. Each would jump at the chance to do this, even four tries

Last night we ran a lil ole Sis Psyche with 5 Masterminds and 1 Rad/Dark Corruptor. Easy as can be, smooth as silk, set on +1/X8. Much XP was had by all. Sir Hextor got his accolade on Tex Morrow.

It's kind of counter-intuitive, but a Necro/Storm is very very capable.

Three things jump out at me looking at this build:

1. Howling Twilight is under-slotted. This can be used pre-emptively as an AUTO HIT low mag stun (which stacks nicely with dark pit), AUTO HIT Slow/-Recharge, as well as the advertised team AoE heal.

2 A Veteran respec into leadership seems like a strong course of action. Assault is almost 20% additional damage for you and your teammates. Manuvers base defense is 3.5% across the board. Tactics provides 12.5% increase in to-hit, PLUS the boosted perception for the sneaky arachnos and resistance spawns.

3. I am not seeing the synergy right away from the power mastery powers. Some defender abilities such as EM Pulse, Accelerated Metabolism, the sonic, thermal, and forcefield buffs feature a strong synergy with Power Build Up. I tend to favor the dark mastery for my dark users or else electric mastery for endurance replenishment. Dark mastery features oppressive gloom, dark consumption and soul transfer, which I like on my nuking defenders. Dark pit + howling twilight + oppressive gloom would look <ahem> STUNNING on your defender.

Other minor quibbles: most of my /dark users take hasten for faster HT, TP, fluffy respawn, and nukes. Fluffy should take at least 5 of a nice accurate to-hit debuff set. His base PbAoE Chill of the Night debuff is ~30%. That is BIG. Almost all of the dark servant's powers apply tohit debuff as well. Putting a single slow in Tar Patch is more than ample, more is overkill. I don't like wasting accuracy components in it. I usually just slot two generic IO recharge reductions. I usually 6 slot shadow fall, pumping as much defense, resistance and kb protection as I can afford. Shadow fall is unusual in that it provides resistance to psionic damage; so slotting resistance pays off.

Finally, is there anything better than Spiritual for the incarnate alpha slotting of a Dark Defender?

All the previous advice I would pay attention to. There are ways to shed aggro as well. On my defenders, I often 'cross' the battle scene. This gives taunts, aoe attacks, dark/shield/empath/invincible auras a chance to grab the aggro from that pesky guy chasing you. I don't always play or stay in melee, but my support characters stay close and cross the field when necessary.

Baa

I think that a Buff/melee-range-attack (weapon or otherwise) would be fine. We already have such things on redside. I call them Night Widows and Bane Spiders. The attacks aren't as deadly as stalkers and the buffs aren't as complete as regular defenders, but the model exists!

I am home. Catch you all in game. Be there or be... a tetrahedron?

You can contact me @psylenz. I am usually online after 6PM during the week now. @Model Nine can get you hooked up. @TopDoc is another.

I was thinking of all the debuff - purely debuffing set of TA with 4 empaths (for the 8 Adrenaline Boosts). Consider 8 Flash Arrows with the irresistible tohit debuff on a hard target.