OneWhoBinds

Okay, these are just some of my opinions, I by no means consider myself a master...

But... I look at this, and I think your shooting yourself in the foot.

Impale is one of your single target attacks. You don't have a lot of those, so you need every one you can get! I can appreciate that Enfeebled Operation give you 3.13% more melee defense... but I'm not sure that's significant enough to warrant not slotting it AS an attack!

Similarly, the damage from Consume is minor. On an End heavy build like this, you need to slot up its End Mod, more than its damage.

A full set of Numina's Convalescences? In Healing Flame? The ranged defense you get from the set isn't worth it. Move one slot to health, and pop the unique in there. Use 5 Doctored Wounds in Healing Flame.

Consider investing in the Gladiator's Armor's +3% Def Unique. With the Hero/Villain merits system, it is no longer laughably impossible to get it, just... tedious as you run the same missions over and over to get the merits you need for it.

You're wasting a lot of possible bonuses with this build. Again, I know, you REALLY want that melee defense... but you are wasting, at the very least, one 9% to-hit bonus in this build.

I take it this isn't supposed to be a leveling build, right? Because if it is, you need to take Combat Jumping much, much sooner!

Finally, I just personally can't see playing such an End-heavy toon. You may want to consider sacrificing some of your defense to bolster end drain, and bring up your resistances (28% Energy resistance? That's a serious hole!) I think you should still be able to eke out around 30% Melee & S/L defense...

Oh yes, I forgot...

You need to remember to pet End reducers into your Tier 2 and 3 pets! With their auras, they will be burning through endurance like mad.

I don't really think its worth slotting up any of the secondary effects the demons bring with them (Heals & Resist for the Ember Demon, Sleep, Hold, and Slow for the Prince.) So a full set of Blood Mandate is probably a good idea for these.

+Recharge is still quite beneficial for /Thermal, especially at the higher levels.

Be sure to throw the +Resist and +Defense pet uniques into Hell on Earth - Those help a lot in keeping your pets alive... at least as long as you stick near them.

Go for a +Defense shield (Frozen Armor or Scorpion Shield.) I found that it wasn't difficult to build in around 30% (or more) smashing/lethal defense (Scorpion Shield will also allow for an equal amount of Energy Defense...) Between that and Bodyguard with your Resist-heavy pets, you should be quite tough. (Between all the various +Resists, all your pets should be sitting around 75% Smashing/Lethal resistance, with varying degrees for the remainder.)

Speaking of which...

If you do this, take Crack Whip and/or Provoke. You want the enemies focused on you, not your pets.

Quick and dirty /Storms basics:

Gale: You're forced to take it, but don't waste slots on it, unless you find yourself with an overabundance, and can afford to six slot it. Then it can be used as a set mule. You... aren't likely to have that many slots.

O2 boost - Typical heal, provides stun protection. A Single Target ally heal is a very good friend for any Mastermind... so take it, slot it up (at least to 5 slots) and you're good.

Snow Storm - Not the most useful power. Can be good to help keep things in the rain, and grounding fliers, but not essential. Take it if you can work it in, but don't feel too worried if you can't.

Steamy Mist - Take it, and slot up its resistance. It's not really as helpful as others - Demons already get good Fire and Ice resistances. But the Energy resist is nice, and the more resistance is always welcome. If you can six slot this one, adding in some defense is also good.

Freezing Rain - Get recharge in this, use it often. But you knew that already.

Hurricane - The tricky power of the set. Great for personal protection, not so great for scattering everything hither and yon. You'll have to learn how to really use this power before you can get good performance out of it. Here's a tip - it's actually larger than the visible cues would indicate.

Thunder Clap - Ahahahahah... right. Don't take this power. Not unless you want to stack it with something from your Epic pool... and even then, you probably don't want it until you have the Epic power.

Tornado - The other power that can cause insta-fail as a Stormie, Tornadoe can be devastating in some situations... but only causes chaos and disorder in most. Don't use it unless you know it won't cause more problems than it is worth. It is, however, another place you can add the Recharge intesive pet sets to, and get their lovely uniques. (of course, you've already got that in Hell on Earth...)

Lightning Storm - Recharge, Damage, and use it when you can. The storm doesn't move around, but it brings a very strong punch of energy damage to your arsenal.

For a more in depth view, I suggest reading Silas' guide to Storm Summoning. While aimed at Corruptors, the information is very good.

I hope this helps.

If you don't like FPS, but want to get some idea about the whole Half-Life phenomenon, may I recommend pursuing a "Let's Play" of them?

Unfortunately, I lost the link I had to a good Half-Life lets play, but here's one for a Half-Life 2, & Half-Life 2: Episode 1 Lets Play:

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Half-L...ith Episode 1/

Really, if all you want is a good idea about the G Man? Just watch the very first video for a bit. You'll quickly get the idea.

Some thoughts:

A lot of people have chimed in that Crack Whip is all the Taunt they need. You may be able to get by without Provoke, if you take that.

Petrifying Gaze is a so-so power. If, when you add slots, you can't find enough to really lock an enemy down for a long time... skip it. It is the only other Dark Miasma power I could recommend avoiding. Remember, both the Servant and the Demon Prince are going to have single target holds too...

Don't make the mistake of thinking Dark Miasma for MM is the same as Dark Miasma is for other ATs. Most notably, Twilight Grasp is a much different, weaker thing on MM. With only a ten foot radius around you for the heal, you will be LUCKY if you can hit two of your pets with it. It still heals for a lot, but you aren't going to be seeing Green numbers over all your pets with this power. So keep that in mind.

On a personal note, you may get more mileage out of Recall Friend than Teleport Foe. It's useful for bringing your pets to you, especially when they encounter some piece of geometry that confuses them.

That's all I can really think of, off the top of my head. As a Demon Summoner, you need to be in the thick of things, with your demons. Be sure to emphasize your own personal survival, too! Tankerminding doesn't pay off if you can't protect yourself!

Good luck with your build.

Yeah, chiming in with the rest, here. It really depends on your secondary, and how you like to play it. The more active your secondary is, the more endurance it will burn through, the more likely you will want stamina.

To be honest, /Traps and /Force Fields are the only two that currently exist that I think can easily get by without Stamina.

In general, it's not only about the toggles - although they play a part. You only have 100 points of Endurance with a full Blue Bar. Take a look at the endurance costs of the powers you are likely to be using a lot in battle - do a quick tally of what they cost. I mean, take /Thermal. Within about 10 seconds, a thermal can burn through more than 80 points of their endurance. Without Stamina, they would only get about 16 points back over the course of the cast times of those powers. That leaves them a net of... roughly 33 points of endurance left. Stamina, at the ED cap, with bring that up to about 25... leaving the caster with 42. This isn't considering multiple casts of Warmth or Cauterize - which is the most likely case - or the presence of any toggles. It gets even worse if you are playing a DS, and are spamming some of your personal attacks too.

That of course, it a worst case scenario for a solo /Thermal, but you get my point. A /Thermal would have to take several breaks from the action to recover endurance, so slotting powers for End Reduction AND taking Stamina would be highly recommended.

...And I'm not just asking about powers.

I want details regarding the three Demonlings, the Ember Demon, the Hellfire Gargoyle, and the Demon Prince. I can find their powers on the Paragon Wiki, but I want to know about the numbers behind them. What kind of innate resistance values do they have? How much and what kind of resistance does the Ember Shield provide? How much -Res do the powers of the Hellfire Demonling and the Hellfire Gargoyle do?

Can anyone provide such values, or point me to where they can be found?

Thank you!

I want to like Spines.

Really, I do.

But so far, it's the only Scrapper Primary that I have just not gotten into.

So... rather than dismiss this out of hand, I shall turn to the experts here...

How do you get into and enjoy the Spines set? What do you pair it with? How do you play it? How do you level it?

Any advise for making an enjoyable flinger of pointy, poisonous barbs would be appreciated...

Dark Blast and Kinetics, Defender or Corruptor.

I saw a couple of them about a year ago, and none since. Tried one once myself, but never cared for the survivability and speed of either AT early on.