Thanks to the holiday double-experience bonus, I've leveled up an alt using Pulswave's excellent Hexed build. Having a zillion pets running around is a lot of fun! Mass chaos, I admit, but a real blast to play. And because of the superstat combo (INT/PRE, supplemented by REC/END gear) and running in the Sentinel role, energy is not a problem at all even with all those pets out.

I've tweaked Pulsewave's build a bit as I've played, getting rid of Summon Shadows and Sigils of Ebon Weakness just because having to cast those before combats was slowing me down. Instead, I added a couple of additional pets -- the Air Elemental and the cherubim from Ritual of Radiant Summoning (set free to roam with the advantage). Yeah, having a flaming imp and a winged angel running around seems a bit of a thematic clash, but it's already a bit chaotic with a four-armed hulk of clay, a couple of dogs, a see-through wind thingie, and a walking lump of shadow. :) The concept I'm running is a magical monkey who was once the guinnea pig pet of an evil wizard who finally set himself and the rest of the guy's familiars free.

Because all of the pets are leveled up to max, they do a lot of damage. I can run instances on Elite and basically just point the pets at the next group of targets, sit back, and watch them kill everything before I sweep in to loot. Because of Aura of Radiant Protection and Inertial Dampening Field, as well as the cherubim healing things sporadically, the pets remain pretty much invulnerable. There's always Arcane Vitality to fall back upon if things get dicey, but I don't end up using it much. Instead, I supplement the pets' damage with the AoE of Shadow Embrace (which also buffs up the Void Horror's attacks).

The big surprise is just how much DPS this build pumps out. In a couple of Clarence battles, I actually topped the DPS list. I know, I know... I'm as surprised as you are.

However, I've got a couple of good DPS builds leveled up already, as well as a decent semi-Tank. I was wondering how I might tweak this build to be more of a Healer/Support character. Leaving the build as-is, I've got one open power slot but no more advantage points. I suspect I'll have to take something away to add a more Healer-centric power. After all, there's no rez in there (self or others), and I have my doubts as to whether Arcane Vitality can be an effective enough heal to qualify as a Healer role. On the other hand, the defensive benefits the pets are gaining will also apply to a team, and all that damage reduction can be really helpful.

What do you think? Suggestions?

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anon: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 6: Super Intelligence
Level 13: Super Presence

Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Shadow Embrace -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 6: Spirit Reverberation
Level 6: Magic Carpet Flight
Level 8: Aura Of Radiant Protection -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 11: Void Horror -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 14: Binding Of Aratron
Level 17: Arcane Vitality -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 20: Command Animals -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 23: Ritual Of Ebon Summoning -- Unbound Ritual, Rank 2
Level 26: Tyrannon's Familiar -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 29: Air Elemental! -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 32: Ritual Of Radiant Summoning -- Unbound Ritual, Rank 2
Level 35: Inertial Dampening Field
Level 35: Lightning Flash
Level 38: ???

Talents:
Level 1: The Grimoire
Level 6: Diplomatic
Level 9: Negotiator
Level 12: Lasting Impression
Level 15: Investigator
Level 18: Prodigy
Level 21: Amazing Stamina

P.S. Special thanks to Pulsewave for his excellent work on this an other builds!

P.P.S. I imagine it would be fun to create a couple of thematic variants of this build -- perhaps one focused on a menagerie of animals or one focused on a bunch of mechanical-looking minions.

I'd remove binding of aratron unless you PvP, crowd control outside of ego storm has minimal use in PvE. Circle of Arcane Power could be a decent replacement, and give you enough energy to sustain heals with so many pets.
I'd also get rid of Spirit Reverb since you probably won't have too much CON with Super Pre. You could take Molecular Self Assembly instead, and use conviction with iniquity for healing. Replace arcane vitality with Conviction R3, and move the points from Shadow Blast to Iniquity. Because it doesn't cost energy, it should be much easier to use along with so many pets. But you'll want to stat some CON, maybe from PvP gear, +20/+20 CON/PRE and +55/+55 CON/PRE Defense gear. This might be a problem if you don't like sigils, but starting in the sorcery tree gives you access to a lot more pets earlier, and without all those shadow powers, you could replace Void Horror, because by taking away Summon Shadows, you've lost some synergy in the build, and could probably do better going without it.

Unless I'm misunderstanding how the build is working, Spirit Reverberation and some added REC from items/talents is a key part of why there aren't a lot of energy issues despite all the pets. In a typical combat, after "releasing the hounds" on a group of enemies, I'll toss out Shadow Embrace to add to the damage and bump up the Void Horror. Things go down very quickly this way, and I seem to always have plenty of energy.

The Binding of Aratron gives an early shadow power in the tree and offers a really quick (and perpetual) control, but I admit that it's not really needed much for the build. Oh, it's definitely a sadistic thrill to keep tapping Binding and watching a helpless enemy get torn apart by the pet horde. But not needed. :) Heck, even a simple Blocking power might be a better use of the points for my play style.

What about something like Psionic Healing instead of Arcane Vitality? Can that power serve as a primary heal? If I can get a single good healing power going instead of the Conviction/Iniquity combo, I'll still have an empty slot for a rez at the end of the build.

I realize this pet-based build won't be the same as a typical healer for end-game lairs. Then again, my experience is that good teams with good players don't usually need a dedicated healer. Most characters are build with some measure of self-sustainability, and having someone with support powers and occasional healing options usually suffices. I teamed up with a "glass cannon" Marksman Archetype build and noticed that the partner became about as invulnerable as my pets with me along. (In fact, at one point, the other player remarked that they were beginning to feel like one of my pets. We'd approach a group, she'd start her build-up attack while the pets went in, and I sat back and watched, only healing occasionally or throwing Shadow Embrace to speed things up a bit.)

However, the frustrating thing is that it's not really possible to test out the effectiveness of group support and healing in the Powerhouse. Yeah, you can check out different power combinations and get an idea of how a solo build might work, but unless you drag an entire team into the PH while testing (...boring...), I'm finding there is a lot of experimenting and expensive retconning involved. Bleh.

Compared to MSA with a CD power, Shadow reverb will give you very little energy, only about 10 when it procs. With high int, you'll be getting 30 energy every 3 seconds, assuming you're using conviction constantly. Shadow reverb mainly scales off CON and only a little bit from REC. But if you have no energy problems so far, I guess it is working fine. Another option is Ego Storm - Malevolent Manifestation with Telepathic Reverberation. You'll have a great source of crowd control + damage + energy with a very manageable cooldown using super INT.

Running in Sentinel with AoRP means you won't be putting out much damage, and your pets will be doing most of the work. It'd probably work better to just have an extra pet for the utility instead of an extra bit of damage.

Binding of Aratron is definitely unnecessary, get something else.

Psionic healing is a charge, which means you're less likely to be able to save a dying teammate. It works better if you have a bubble to go along with it. Conviction Iniquity is useful for your build because it won't give you energy issues. If you want to use a single heal you could also try Empathic healing for a maintain.

I find there are many players out there who do things that frustrate the group. When you're running end game lairs, stupid mistakes like drawing an extra group of mobs out can cause wipes if your tank isn't well built. It's much safer to have at least a reasonable amount of heal on a team, and then heals like Arcane Vitality don't really cut it. Especially if you don't control your pets well, you are likely to draw out lots of extra enemies by accident.

Group support and healing is pretty simple really, as long as you are on the ball with heals. You should be healing at least >1000 per second without any energy issues, and preferably much much more than that. As long as you can hit that, you should be fine.

Okay. Fiddling around with a higher CON and putting in the Conviction/Iniquity combo. Is it better to rank up Iniquity to R3 or to go with R2 + Justice (AoE)?

I'd recommend R3, you usually shouldn't be healing multiple targets anyway, mostly it will just be the tank.

Well, it looks like I'm sort of forced into taking a Ebon Void as a block early in the build just to get things unlocking.

So, going for the Molecular Self Assembly plus Conviction/Iniquity route, I'd end up with something like this:

anon: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 6: Super Intelligence
Level 13: Super Presence

Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Shadow Embrace
Level 6: Ebon Void
Level 6: Magic Carpet Flight
Level 8: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 11: Conviction -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 14: Iniquity -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 17: Void Horror -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 20: Command Animals -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 23: Air Elemental -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 26: Tyrannon's Familiar -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 29: Ritual Of Ebon Summoning -- Unbound Ritual, Rank 2
Level 32: Ritual Of Radiant Summoning -- Unbound Ritual, Rank 2
Level 35: Inertial Dampening Field
Level 35: Lightning Flash
Level 38: Aura Of Radiant Protection -- Rank 2, Rank 3

Talents:
Level 1: The Grimoire
Level 6: Diplomatic
Level 9: Quick Recovery
Level 12: Boundless Reserves
Level 15: Amazing Stamina
Level 18: Healthy Mind
Level 21: Shrug It Off

Superstats are still INT/PRE, with REC, END, and CON thrown in and built up through gear.

No room for rezzes without dropping some pets. Which is totally doable, of course.