Demon Endurance

I'm not familiar with how demons work, but the protector bots put out 11% in defense when enhanced. Each. Since only one of the two demon pets benefits from the resist enhancement and the base resist value is relatively low, I don't think it's worth enhancing.

Considering that you're pain, yes, the healing he does may not need enhanced.

I generally do not go for set bonuses on my MMs. Right now, mine hits the S/L/E softcap without set bonuses. Recharge is always nice, as well as +HP/regen for more effective bodyguard mode, but outside of that? Not much helps.

Seeing as this is your first MM, are you familiar with bodyguard mode? With six pets in supremacy range on defensive (stay, follow, or go to), you have an effective 75% resist all. If you keep most of the attention, not much in the game can do enough damage to kill you, especially since you have Word of Pain and some healing to keep you and your bots topped off.

This proc works in the pet it's slotted in and has a chance to fire on the MM himself when he summons the pet. It's an incredible damage boost that has a chance to happen for every target that pet hits. It is the single best enhancement I have put in my mastermind, and it's sitting in the Assbot. I put one more enhancer from SA in it for the humongous regen bonus, which again helps bodyguard mode substantially.

(emphasis mine)

As far as I can tell, that appears to just be a display bug. The values for ember shield are still the same as when I first summoned the pet - 5% s/l/t, 6.66% fire and 3.33% cold for me and double those numbers for the pets. The demons inherent resistances haven't increased either (apart from the level scaling). The real problem is that +damage is being capped as if it was schedule B (~60%) rather than schedule A (~90%). (not the case - see posts below correcting this)

Is the top Demon more of a controller? Or is he a heavy hitter? I was thinking about, eventually, putting the Soulbound proc in my Rank 2 (level 12) demons, since there are 2 of them. I wonder which Demon will be best for it?

Lewis

The damage enhancements in Summon Demons are not increasing the resistance values of Ember Shield. It is a display bug in the enhancement screen window only.

I believe that is also just a display bug as I think someone tested that the pets' damage is actually being increased correctly.

That's a good question, and one that I can't answer since I don't have a demon summoner of my own. Keep an eye on your pet combat tab, and maybe run HeroStats, although I don't know if it can track each pet's damage separately. Find out who's doing the most damage, and put the proc there.

Thanks. Editing my posts to reflect this.

Someone's said that this is also a display bug, and the ember demon is still getting the correct damage enhancement.

-Morgan.

Thanks for the correction guys, good to know.

I guess I should have realised that the display bug would propagate down into the individual power displays .

I know about bodyguard mode, but does it only work with stay, follow or go and not attack? I ask since I changed the initial "attack" macro MM's start with (just to start getting familiar) to "Attack Defensive". I also noticed that BG mode didn't seem to do anything when I did this. I take it this means for it to be effective, I need to attack first and take the retaliation before the demons engage? And yes, the plan was to stack some moderate Ranged/AoE defense (~25%) and use the BG mode to gain the effective resistance increase (compounded by ember shield and the Soul S/L shield later). Then just Nullify Pain and Suppress Pain to keep going. Also, does the BG mode damage get reduced BEFORE it hits your pets by your personal Resistance?

This would also explain the provoke "tankermind" talk I am reading about.

I still plan on keeping at least 2 BM's fully slotted, but yeah, loosing one 5th set bonus and swapping in the SA proc on the best pet seems pretty ideal. Just a matter of which is the best pet. Seems like the tier 1 pets will get the highest proc chance, though they may go down quickly.

Yes, bodyguard mode does not work in Defensive Attack. Further, if you tell them to concentrate fire on a single target, your henchmen will not return to bodyguard mode until all aggro is cleared and they return to follow.

That's one option, and a very good one. If I were you, I'd open with anguishing cry then go to town with your -res debuffs in the whip (Slot for accuracy/end/recharge. They don't do damage worth enhancing.).

Keep in mind that henchmen will also engage when other henchmen are attacked. I use this on my Thugs/poison. I order the bruiser (and only the bruiser) to attack, then the others open up once he's been attacked.

If you want to be able to attack with a substantial portion of your army while retaining a good amount of bodyguard mode, I have another suggestion that my bots/traps uses. Make a macro that orders only the Demon Prince, the Hellfire Demon, and the Hellfire Demonling to attack your target. This will focus the attacks of your heavy hitting pet plus the two pets who stack -resistance. The three remaining pets are left in bodyguard mode (you will take 2/5 of all damage, effectively 60% resist all). Using a strategy like this will allow you to quickly down big nasty targets within a large group and maintain a good level of safety.

Sounds like a good plan. If you're not terribly attached to your patron, I'd like to suggest taking the Scorpion defense based shield and trying to finish off softcapping S/L. It's not a clear cut better way to go, but it's what I'd try. Then again, I don't know demons or pain that well.

Interesting question. Best explained by example.

Six henchmen out, each with 50% resistance. You have 50% resistance as well. 1000 point attack hits you. Your resistance makes it a 500 point attack, then bodyguard mode kicks in. You take 125 damage and each henchman takes 62.5. The henchman's resistance does not reduce that 62.5 damage. It is essentially typeless damage that came from you.

*nods* I'm one of them. Bots/traps, provoke on auto, +2/x8 is not a problem. Higher and I have to be careful.

I would not suggest this. Those pets don't have a large selection of AoE attacks and don't hit very hard to begin with. Yes, there's three of them, but I really think you'd be better served putting that proc in the Demon Prince or the Lieutenant demons.

Yeah, you'll be nigh impossible to kill, just watch for mez attacks.

As Spitting Trashcan said, it won't stack, but even Health negates the self damage. Suppress Pain is going to be overkill (in a good way, of course). Having no minions able to attack you is great, and the pseudo-taunt effect will help you "tankermind."

I'm a bit rusty, since I haven't actually made the macro in a while, but what I think you want is this:

/macro kill "petcompow Demon_Prince attack$$petcomname [Hellfire Gargoyle's name] attack$$petcomname [Hellfire Demonling's name] attack"

If there's spaces in the pet names, replace with underscores.

As an additional clarification, slotting resist does increase the resists provided by the ember shield.

Also, re: the main topic: I frequently slot end reducers in my pets. Tier 2 thugs, bots, tier 3 bots & ninja are the worst offenders IIRC. Tier 2 & 3 demons are an addition to that list. I've got two levels left before I can chime in on the end usage of the l32 buff, but I suspect it will be mitigated by just slotting a dam/end and an acc/dmg/end.

Of course... a/d/es are REALLY expensive right now :P.