Prot-Bot "rule of thumb" slotting

Hey there,

Simply enough, is there a "consensus" slotting of Protector Bots, both in common IOs and Set pieces? The boys are currently at Acc/2*Heal/DefBuff/2*Dmg, but I haven't given this character any deep thought, since, well, if I'm being honest, probably COV beta.

Later on,
Gate

Don't slot any heals as this does more harm than good tbh

They need some amount of end redux in there too or they'll floor their endurance pretty rapidly during long fights.

Some will say 2 Defense buff IOs for max bubble and then 2 hit and 2 damage.

I say depends on your secondary. With Traps I can get defense cap and not even think about Protector bot bubbles. Dark can give you defense cap through Hit Debuff on mobs, though I'm not crazy about relying on that sort of thing. I have a dark electric and it can be problematic at times. Force Field, well your pretty much all defense on this one so not an issue. Poison and Pain I can see where you might want to consider how much defense your protector bots are handing out.

I never seen anyone say slot for heals.

What Scene is referring to is the AI. The AI will not use its heal unless it can get the full effect off. If the heal is 800 HP, and your drone is missing 799 points, he won't be healed. What tends to happen is the bot then dies without ever getting the heal. The recharge on the heal is fast, so smaller heals more often do better for you.

Anyway, the way I slot depends on "budget."

SOs/Common IOs: 1 ACC, 1 END, 2 DMG, 2 DEF

Set IOs: Blood Mandate (priority to triples) and 2 DEF common IOs.

Purple IOs: The three purples that didn't go into Assbot, plus a Blood Mandate ACC/DMG/END, plus 2 DEF common IOs.

Four blood mandates (every piece with damage) and two defense IOs is my go-to slotting on protbots. I've also done 3x nucleolous, 2x defense IOs, and the explosive strike proc, but end issues rear their ugly heads. Maybe the cardiac alpha would help that, but I don't have it on any masterminds yet. Never slot for heals; it only delays how long the protbots wait to use their heal as they won't waste a single point overhealing. This means that if they can heal for 500, they won't heal until the target has taken at least 500 damage.

edit: scooped by Dechs, damn stale tabs

Okay, thanks for the explanation!

Gate

Like all multi-purpose pets, Protector Bots really benefit from Hami-Os. Two Accuracy/Damage, one Damage/Mez, and two To-Hit/Defense/Endurance (or To-Hit DEbuff/Def Debuff/End if you don't mind using the debuff HO in buff sets bug) gives you 66% accuracy, 33% stun, 66% endurance, 40% defense (or ED capped with the debuff HOs) and ED capped damage from five slots. You can use the sixth to add a stun IO, a heal, another defense, an Acc/Mez HO if you like hunting high level enemies, a pet aura IO... or just save a slot. You don't get any set bonuses but I generally find Protectors have too much to enhance to get any of the really good bonuses and I can do without a little recovery or regen in exchange for 10-12 SOs worth of enhancement.

i did 3 acc/dam hamis, and 3 debuff/end hami's.

12.21% def shields are pretty. Especially with double stacked on my assault bot, with my FFG covering everything up.

I did three acc/dam HOs, 2 defense debuff/end HOs and a generic Healing IO. Personally I find that the extra healing does more good than harm but YMMV. I suspect the reason is that I play very Tankermindy (I have Provoke and 2 of the blasts so I can hold aggro pretty well) and therefore damage is more evenly distributed meaning that the chances of a sudden spike killing a bot is lower and so the higher HPS is more useful than lower HPS but faster reaction.

Besides the obvious (Acc/Dam) I like to slot for Def, Stun, and Endurance in the Prot Bots. Def because it helps you and helps your bots, Stun because it actaully seems to make a difference, and Endurance because the Prot Bots will run out in long fights if you don't.

The heal slotting is a rumor, imo. No one has ever posted anything really conclusive to prove that Prot Bots won't heal until the mag of the heal has been exceeded. However, slotting for Def and leaving the heals alone seems to work just fine, so there's not a big reason to challenge that rumor. Someday I'd like to test it for myself though.

I tend to consider prot bots almost pure support: 1 acc/dam HO, 1 heal/end HO, 2 level 50 def buff IOs, and the +def and +res pet uniques. I hope to one day replace the 2 def buff IOs with def/end HOs since prot bots seem to use even more endurance now than in the past.

I, personally, have my prot bots slotted with the two pet-aura uniques, Sovereign Right's Acc/End, a heal IO and a two defence IOs. I find one heal gives a good balance between "amount healed" and "frequency healed", two defence IOs give bubbles of around 11.5 (and thus 23 with two, which softcaps the Battle Drones and Assault Bot when coupled with aura, Force Field Generator and Manoeuvres), and a little bit of accuracy and endurance reduction never hurt anyone.

I'm also a Mastermind that uses personal attacks, so whatever my Prot Bots are lacking in damage, I make up for them. Worst case scenario, I'm Traps, so I can toe-bomb with Trip Mines (I can't count the number of times I've finished off a tough mob petless thanks to Trip Mine.)

I frankenslot 2 Acc/Dam, A Dam, a Dam/End, A Def, a Def/end.

Will be changing as I just got my Acc/Def Nerve alpha.

I'm on a full set of Blood Mandate. No problems here (bulk of the End use is Seeker Drones, which are flagged as damage, so the End Rdx works fine).

I'd not worry about the heal slotting, personally and as */FF I can ignore the +Def slotting (though a single +Def wouldn't be difficult to fit in, I just rely on my Nerve Radial Alpha Slot instead).

So MZ's Prot Bot Rule of Thumb would be "Little Def, Little End Rdx, the rest Acc and Dam" (which mirrors my old SO slotting of 2x Acc, 1x End Rdx, 3x Dam).

I have my Protectors using the acc/rech and dam/end from the purple set, plus Blood Mandate dam/end and damage, and two common level 50 defense IOs.

This gives me 33.13 accuracy, 95.3% post-ED damage, 49.7% post-ED defense, and a very nice 59.63% endurance discount (and 33.13% recharge, but that's not really important).

I have it set that way to ensure they can reliably hit targets, which they can do since I have Tactics, and make sure they actually hurt. The defense commons are there because the other bits have enough endurance reduction that it can shoot grenades all day, and when it bubbles me it's actually worth something. I probably could have replaced the Blood Mandate: Damage with a dam/mez Hami-O, but I figured the set bonus for HP, tiny though it was, would serve me better than turning a four second stun into a five second stun.

For the curious, here's a chart I made sometime ago showing how much accuracy you need to give your pets 95% change to hit based on what level enemies you are facing and whether you have Supremacy and Tactics (I used a value of 11% for Tactics which is slightly underslotted).