refresher on pet buffing/slotting?

Greetings,

I returned a month or so ago from a long absence and I'm a bit rusty on slotting my controller/dom pets.

Generally, I've been slotting 2 ACC/2 Recharge/2 Damage or 2 ACC/2 Recharge/2 End Mod on my gremlins.

Currently, I'm playing a F.rad controller and an elec dom. I also have a fire/kin and an ill/kin controller waiting to be dusted off.

I've heard that pets are no longer affected by speed boost but I'm not sure on that. Also, based on detailed info in the enhancement screen, I think I may be overslotting on accuracy.

Can someone give me a refresher on the pet mechanics, specifically pet buffing and slotting? I'm not sure what's current and I didn't find much in a forum search.

Thanks.

lv 32 pets on controllers are permanent (I think it's the same for dom's), so you might want to cut on recharge. If going with ordinary SO's, I'd go 3 acc and 3 damage, or 2 acc, 3 damage and 1 recharge (to bring it up a bit faster if the pet dies). There's also the IO sets you can looks into, which usually max out damage and acc, with a bit in the way of endurance reduction. As for speed boost on pets, I believe it only affects run speed now, but not the recharge on the pet's attack. Hope this helps!

Standard slotting on Controller pets is to start with 1 Acc, 3 Damage. For most pets, I usually start with Acc/Dam and Dam from Blood Mandate, Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End from Brilliant Leadership. Then I change it later.

Recharge is not all that important because the pets are permanent . . . except for Fire Imps and Electric Gremlins, who die with regularity. For those two types pf pets, Recharge is helpful to re-cast them when they die. Fire Imps also are one level lower than other pets -- as part of the Dev attempt to reduce the overpowered damage of Fire/Kins.

Personally, I like to slot Fire Imps the same way I slot Phantom Army -- 4 Expediant Reinforcement (leave out the Dam/End and the Resist proc), plus the two triples from Call to Arms. That gives you max Damage and Recharge, good Accuracy and some nice set bonuses.

As for buffing, you can buff standard pets for everything EXCEPT Recharge. The ability to buff pet Recharge was removed a while ago to help pets have a standard attack chain. Removing the ability to buff a pet's recharge resulted in a great deal of "nerdrage." A lot of Fire/Kins now refuse to take Speed Boost because buffing the pets is mostly useless (although the Fire/Kin could use it to buff the team, but Nooo -- but that is another subject). Illusion's Phantom Army can't be buffed at all.

Thanks guys for clearing that up. I knew the pets were perm but wasn't sure on the buffs exactly.

Seems like you're always answering my posts lately Local Man. Thanks for the slotting recommendations.

So how do the set bonuses work on slotting the pets? They would trigger once you cast them, but wouldn't they wear off after a couple mins? Or does it trigger once and stay on as long as the pets are running/refresh every so many seconds like a toggle? It would seem that only the global +res/def IOs would be the only ones you would really want from the sets. I am pretty sure I am missing something here.

The resist and defense buffs are single-piece set bonuses. They generate a buff aura around the player that shuts off if you exemplar more than three levels below the level of the IO.

That makes sense on the Globals, so how do the other parts of the set bonus trigger on the pets?

All the other set bonuses from the pet sets work just like set bonuses from other sets -- a global bonus on you. For example, 4 Expediant Reinforcements have a 6.25% Recharge bonus. That works the exact same way as a 6.25% Recharge bonus from having 5 Decimations in a ranged damage power. 6 Blood Mandate will give a ranged defense bonus, just like 6 Mako's Bite in a melee power.

so the set bonuses are always on? I thought they only triggered when the power was activated.