prae

I think he has one sleep power, so that's the only time it'll proc -- if you want the -Rech effect, I'd use the one from Pacing of the Turtle. It'll have a proc chance off of nearly all of his attacks and abilities (all but one, I think, including one of his toggle auras).

I'd drop Maneuvers -- that hold is nice to have around and the Maneuvers bonus for masterminds is pretty small (2.25%, I think).

If you play your necro/dark as a pet-heavy controller (and if you skipped the attacks, that's pretty likely), Soul Mastery supplements that very, very nicely. My necro/dark is ludicrously effective with controls, especially with the Lich and Dark Servant focus-firing.

His biggest drawback is the almost utter lack of direct damage without the pets -- barring procs, I don't have any.

I've also gotten good results from slotting Slow sets in the demon prince -- since he's all ice, pretty much everything he does (except for Frozen Aura) has a slow effect, so it complements nicely. As a bonus, Impeded Swiftness has a chance for smashing proc and Pacing of the Turtle has a chance for -rech (20%) proc.

In my experience, Acc/Slow, Dam/Slow, Acc/End and proc from Pacing of the Turtle plus the Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End from Blood Mandate is pretty sweet. You also get a bit of recovery and accuracy for your actual mastermind, which is always helpful.

Yeah, same here. Not to mention -def (which can take another -res proc), KB if you want it, stun and taunt aspects. With my perma-Hasten (I went that route rather than go for soft-capped defense), it's non-stop AOE (and pet) craziness.

Just so you know, you can put the two Recharge Intensive auras into Hell on Earth (or Soul Extraction, or Gang War), then fit the other two into your henchmen tiers for a total of +10% Def and +20% Res.

I've found that frankenslotting the Acc/Dam and aura from Sovereign Right and Edict of the Master with the Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End from Blood Mandate works pretty well if you put it in the lowest tier for most primaries. The Acc and Dam bonuses come out at 86.38%, per Mids', which I find high enough for most purposes -- also, since the lower tier rarely has End issues, it works out pretty well.

*/Dark, too.

It used to be that you could use something like "/petcompow lich dismiss" (or do it via the mouse) and the pet would leave a targetable corpse behind, on which you could then use SE. Resummon the original pet and on you go. Now dismissed pets do a "leaving" sort of animation instead of falling over dead, so you can't get the extra pet without something actually dying -- which can be rare on a Necro/Dark.

With the Edict of the Master +Defense and Maneuvers, you'll break 45 on your positional defenses in the low thirties. It's pretty awesome (though the Genin won't be softcapped against most spawns, due to their -2 level).

I already did once -- I'm planning on going back with my difficulty settings lowered back down.

Ninjas/FF works just fine (mine's level 44 now). There were a couple of rough spots earlier, but now I usually play her at +1-2/x3-4, depending on my mood. The Medical pool (Aid Other, at least) is pretty much a must-have, but other than that it's a remarkably flexible build.

Every time you summon them. When they go across zones with you, sometimes they'll be upgraded and sometimes not; if they are, they'll go through the animation when you enter the zone.

Mine's actually a mix of those two -- I'll open by sending the Grave Knights and Zombies in on goto/defensive (switching them to attack/defensive their target when they get close), then drop Fearsome Stare while they're running. Darkest Night goes on whatever big guy there is, then Tar Patch. By that time, the melee pets have usually finished off their first target and maybe two or three others. Meanwhile, Fluffy and the Lich are throwing debuffs, controls and heals all over the place.

Nothing wrong with goto/aggressive, by the way -- but since I'm usually right on top of the melee pets anyway (to keep them in Twilight Grasp radius), I like them automatically bouncing back to Bodyguard if I don't sic'em on someone else. My Lich just stays on defensive/follow most of the time, though on tricky spawns I'll direct him at the mobs my melee pets aren't working on.

I actually tested this pretty rigorously for a day or two--I haven't seen any pet that I summoned in-mission get elevator-locked. If I'm running with a group, I'll just "/petcomall dismiss" and resummon if we go into a map that I know is going to have more than one elevator.

First two characters I did the event on, I was on a team of 4-5, got all six badges (four banners, GM and "everything") in a single go.

Actually happened to be playing when the new event went off in Nerva today (first time I hadn't been in the middle of something), so I jumped in. There were four teams (none of them full) running, and with a little coordination we brought down all four banners with about five minutes to spare. The GM got dropped in under five minutes, to boot. Great time.

What time does it roll (today or in general)? I've been wanting to get in on one...