Psylenz

Good news, firm data. I checked the paragonwiki, it didn't help much. Abyssal mending aka cauterize doesn't get much detail. You say look at the detail info for the enchant and abyssal empowerment. Is that in game? on Mids? I don't want to be snarky, just trying to quash a false memory of my own.

I would like to PM the specific 'powers guy'. I hate to admit; I don't know who that is now. Would someone please clue this geezer in as to whom I should bother?

Is it even possible for the ember demon, after applying enchant demon, for that pet to use the single target ranged heal power "abyssal mending" to heal the mastermind?

Paragon wiki links abyssal mending to cauterize, and doesn't not distinguish any special mastermind features that I noted.

Thank you for any assistance.

I will try to add briefly - many stormies have many themes that they are able to accentuate aspects to their liking. In the long, long ago of Issue 1, radiation blast on defenders was considered very good because in the low to mid levels, every teammate's accuracy benefitted. Maximizing defense debuff is out of fashion, but when you do find an AV resisting 80% of debuffs, there is no such thing as too much defense debuff. Resistance debuff is another feature. Even back in the days of the poster of renown, the Mighty Storm, whom I hope we see in F2P again, the Diso-queen stacked stuns: dark pit, thunderclap, tornado and now the dark mastery even has a PbAoE toggle of stun to couple/triple up with other storm stun features. My Storm/DP sought to keep the AoE debuff/attack going since DP has debuff features, too.

First, let me say: I have a level 50 Storm/Dual Pistol Defender on Virtue. It was a fast and enjoyable ride. I didn't use AE

Storm is a swiss army knife. Remember, even like a swiss army knife, it isn't nearly as effective if all the blades are 'out' at the same time. There are three stages in storm fights. Position, debuff, kill. Many times groups are tightly packed by tankers in the middle. Position doesn't take long. Debuffing is always AoE style with the storm primary, but your secondary stacks so it counts, too. The kill phase is when your AoEs cut loose. Storms have AoE debuffs, dual pistols has 3 very nice AoE attacks that make the kill phase successful.

Please refer to Midnight_Tempest as my comments are intended to augment what that poster described. Gale and Snow Storm are truly the minimalist slotting powers. I always aim for two slots: accuracy for gale, endurance reduction for snow storm. Another caveat: between snowstorm unenhanced for slow and freezing rain unenhanced for slow, the combination of those powers will always bring the spawn to the slow cap - they can't go any slower, don't waste slow slots unless you have an IO set favorite you are aiming for.

My preference for Gale has increased as my veteran months click off. Gale has one very, VERY important feature, much like some controller powers. Gale will interrupt the alpha strike from your foes. Especially on blaster/defender teams the kb isn't as onerous to the teammates. Also, many tanks do not mind shifting taunt tactics to taunt to corner, dead ends or tight rooms in conjunction with your stormy preferences. Gale is indeed the Super Scooper you described. That way, your use of hurricane for positioning takes less time. It CAN be used as an oh-crap power in certain bleak cases, but certainly not every case.

Steamy mist is another six-slotter in my book. ~45% end reduction, defense, resistance and the power takes both defense and resistance sets. This is where you can get your -kb proc for your hero. You can slot set enhancements that improve mezz protection and psy blast resistance. It will take LotG 7.5% enhancements, too.

Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm are definitely six-slotters, thunderstrikes especially in Lightning storm, and both can take procs to the extent that their function is still supported.

Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm are terrific set-defining powers for debuff and damage. One trick with Lightning Storm: with a flight power, I take hover, position the storm higher, so that the bolts strike downward and reduce splaying the foes from the debuff zone.

Ack! Risking TL;DR!

Hurricane and Tornado are my favorite stormy powers. Hurricane was nerfed shortly after PvP started shaping up. Some ATs complained hurricane was too powerful. Now, the knockback pulses are further apart. I sometimes catching myself in Issue 1 mode Less is more. Hurricane debuffs to-hit at the slight edge grazing. Knockback is further in. Shorter range from the stormer is the repel feature. Treat it like a scalpel and not an ax. If you are truly in need of moving a group, bounce in and debuff them all, and run to where you want them to follow you, preferably around a corner.

I talked about the kill phase earlier. The ultimate kill zone for a stormy is the corner office. Aggro them INTO the room, excuse me mr. tank, excuse me mastermind pets - stormy coming through. They will follow you right in unless molested by your team. Block the door with hurricane, and then cut loose with everything - lightning storm, tornado, aoe attacks, and the kitchen sink (if you have a gravity controller teammate ) Even if they bunch at the door, it is a corner, and easily a nice kill zone in all that.

Tornado, Mr. Twisty, is a buzz saw. He chews, he debuffs defense, he stuns, and he kills MoG Paragon Protectors DEAD! Indeed, he is the golden parachute when the rikti hit the fan. I use him to pull if I want a fraction of a room less than all or greater than 2 (caution: I use this when I can block a door like the funny tech room with the buff/debuffing labs in the four corners.) His AI has improved over the years, his 'leash' is a bit shorter and more substantial. Part of positioning, you can bounce freak tanks endlessly on tornado's head while you pin the freak in the corner of the room with the 'cane. Mr. Twisty switches targets when he achieves knockback (some theorize when he debuffs defense) but for sure, he sticks to kb-resistant foes and chews until his time is up or the foe is defeated. Mr. Twisty is NEVER defeated. Another thing to recall, in a hot fight, when Tornado runs out of targets, there is a lull, he WILL come back to your defender, knocking things out of his way to defending your defender. My stormies ask, can I use tornado here, not: oh no, can't use tornado, I don't have stone cages.

Thunderclap stuns minions, tornado stuns minions, suppressive fire stuns minions. Storm/DP alone can, not always, stun bosses.

/rant - this post was not intended to be this long. Also check out Draggyn's budding storm resource.

Since we have shared some war stories, in answer to the thread topic:

Yes, an empathy defender's secondary matters in that yes, you have a secondary, you should contribute without hurting the empath's primary function to buff the team to maximum effectiveness.

Does it matter which secondary? I don't think it matters terribly which, but I myself might stay away from archery. Having just typed that - Rain of arrows from an empath as a non-crash nuke would be gravy on any balanced team attack. I have posted previously: I like having single target stuns and holds available to defenders to help controllers and dominators take out nasty targets like sappers, sky raider engineers, vahzilok embalmed cadavers, etc.

Thirdly, this breakdown should apply to ALL defenders. For my defenders, I plan builds not so much as to whether I take leadership as to whether I take vengeance because the defender modifiers are so compelling to take as much leadership as is possible within the most effective functions of your defender.

I have a different approach, maybe inferior, but it's what I usually do especially on /dark masterminds. As my /dark levels up I heavily slot it for -tohit. Darkest Night and the blasts early on do not have all the slots to effectively debuff -tohit. As the build matures, and I get slotting more heavily in set and additional slots in other /dark powers, I flip my slotting to 5 pieces of Glimpse of the Abyss. I trade the -tohit for increased recharge and the accuracy set bonus to help the accuracy beyond the enhancement diversification limit.

Also, I am usually at least level 38 and have Dark Servant's extra -tohit to bolster the debuffing. Chill of the Night makes Dark Servant a tohit debuffing beast.

Dominators really are their own animal for play-style and utility. They deal much more damage than controllers. Their controls make them sturdier than blasters. They have flexibility between melee and ranged attacks and controls.

Because of the amalgamation of controls and attacks, going from a controller to a dominator might be compared to going from a controller to a warshade although the attacks are different in a lot of ways. Dominators crave getting their domination activated so the pace resembles the pace if not the attacks of brutes that try to get the fury bar established. Early on, dominators struggle with endurance issues (but inherent stamina goes a long way to fixing those problems) as much as prepubescent brutes struggle with endurance. Fast activating attacks early on are important to dominators whether they are range or melee.

With domination, dominators are absolute BEASTS. Holding, stunning, sleeping bosses with a single activation is a huge shift in favor of the character. My favorite is electric control/electric assault. With this particular dominator, there is favorable diversity in potential incarnate alpha slotting. I would also say because of the play-styles, differences in dominator primaries play as differently as defender primaries -- they really allow a lot of individuality.

Ku Ku Ka JU

Historically, before a lot of proliferation, Dark/Rad and Rad/Dark were both very popular defender alts that leveraged the benefits of the complementary sets. I assume you are radiation primary / dark blast secondary.

I have a level 44 Rad/Dark defender on Virtue. It is surprisingly effective. The safest place is next to your radiation anchor; fire away at the targets at range with dark blast to debuff them as well. If this character is paired with an effective tank, possibilies seem limitless. My defender uses the Rad Infection/Enervating Field + Lingering Rad + choking cloud and EM Pulse combo as my primary Raison d'être. The debuffed, held, and stunned do not fight back.

One caveat, a number of tanks like to draw more attention than their 15, 16, 17 limit on taunt can maintain. Your defender's debuff auras can peel off more than enough to get your defender killed as choking cloud doesn't hold things on a moment's notice.

In general, I would work for -recharge and proccing out the good stuff

Grant Inviz so you can stealth with your FFG hidden for toebombing.

Traps is my latest maturing defender set. I too feel like the team speed leaves behind or makes superfluous a lot of the trapping.

I pray for large spawns, big groups, close together. The tank tackles the first group, then, I run THROUGH the first group and place acid mortar halfway between the current and next spawns. This works quite often favorably.

I usually save the poison gas trap for chewy mobs. I drop seekers as soon as available. Caltrops I drop in slow dying spawns. That gets hard to judge because incarnates will use an AoE nuke. (I need to convince my teammates to use ventrilo/skype.)

I use dark blast, some cones, AoEs; tenebrous tentacles is more useful than you might think on AVs. I run leadership, too. I think even at break-neck pace, my trapper has a lot to offer.

If you are doing a search for players in a certain zone, try searching by level instead. It seemed at one time most players between 1-15 were in Preatorian because many like leveling up in the new zone. There are lots of instanced missions in Praetoria.