FupDup

SuppFire is still important to have, but you just have to make to use either Fire or Ice ammo (Toxic does more than standard but way less than Fire/Ice).

A few further tips: When you can, slot a Performance Shifter: Chance For +End proc in Stamina because that lets you get more recovery past the enhancement-diversification cap for the power Also consider slotting the procs from Panacea, Miracle, and/or Numina's Convalescence in Health because those also help your recovery in a big way Energize grants you an endurance discount for a while after use, so you may want to use it primarily for that purpose rather than its healing ability if you need the extra endurance With enough recharge you can make this end discount be permanent or almost permanent (reactivating the power just before the buff ends Various IO enhancement sets come with set bonuses to recovery, maximum endurance, and/or endurance discount which can help when you get the money for them Playing a round of the DFB trial can let you pick a temporary power to improve your recovery Make sure you turn off your travel powers during combat (Sprint, Athletic Run, Fly, etc.) Slot Voltaic Sentinel with a little bit of endurance reduction because it's a toggle power At the START vendor, you can purchase a few charges of the Recovery Serum power (for a low cost) to use as a temporary crutch until you can properly slot out the build

The only argument I have against Meteor gaining bonus damage is that Sentinels would unfortunately be exempt from it due to how the devs chose to design Sent nukes (always equal base damage to each other no matter what). Other features like letting it land faster would help all 4 applicable ATs. Or I guess the devs could make a target cap exception for Meteor on Sents similar to how Full Auto and Rain of Arrows both use the Blaster caps still. Or perhaps handle it as DoT since those seem to be allowed to go over the "normalized" base damage values (like in Overcharge for example).

Unfortunately we don't have alternate FX for DP that gives it energy rounds, and BR's two-handed rifle doesn't quite hit the same feel/look as Mr. Jango above. I guess we could say that you're using slug throwers (a real thing in Star Wars) to hunt Jedi (because bullets can't be deflected by Lightsabers).

In regards to Refractor Beam, the description calls it a chain power but its actual function is just a normal targeted AOE like M30 Grenade or Dark Obliteration. It will thus proc about the same as one of those other powers. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=sentinel_ranged.beam_rifle.refractor_beam&at=sentinel

Mando would be DP/Invuln, armed with some of those new scifi looking pistol models.

Opportunity is kind of like the Brute's "Rage" bar (the coding literally refers to it as rage). You build it up slowly over time and while attacking. Eventually when it's full, you can use the Vulnerability clicky button on a single enemy. This applies some debuffs to them, the most important of which is a -res debuff, and these debuffs ignore purple patch effects. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.vulnerability&at=sentinel The most important thing is that since this power only affects one target, it should normally be reserved for big threats (bosses and higher). Sometimes I like to use it on annoying minions or LTs like Sappers but it should mostly be used on bosses, EBs, AVs, and GMs.

And here is my defensive-focused stab at it. One thing that I should explain is that there are a few instances of "frankenslotted" powers where I was trying to avoid certain set bonuses like max HP. On most armors max HP is very very good to have and you should pursue it, but on Invuln specifically your max HP is already over the cap by default so it's a wasted bonus here. I also tried to avoid repeating the same bonus more than 5 times because anything over 5 will not count any more (ran into this with the 10% regen and 1.5% smash/lethal resist bonuses). The exact order of unlocking powers can also be debated (i.e. many people like to pick up Hasten much earlier), I just threw them together in order of unlocking mostly. OddPiranha Stormtrooper - Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Invulnerability).mbd

There's a fair bit to critique here: *Slotting Overcharge and Refractor Beam for defense debuff instead of damage is going to hurt your damage output, badly. They need damage sets. *If you only picked Psionic Mastery to get Link Minds, you can drop Dominate or Psychic Shockwave from the build to make space for other powers (they aren't going to do much with just a normal accuracy IO slotted). However, I feel like that are much easier ways to get extra defense for you and your team (pool power Maneuvers) that doesn't require taking two prerequisite powers if you don't intend to use them. *You should really pick up Aim from Beam Rifle, unless you really want to go with the meme of Stormtroopers not being able to aim. 😛 *Invincible should be slotted for defense, not to-hit buffs *Stamina and Health should be slotted with at minimum a Shifter proc and Panacea proc respectively *The various armor powers really don't need to be 6-slotted, it's not giving you much or any extra armor *Lack of global recharge buffs from both set bonuses and Hasten *Super Jump can be slotted with the Winter's Gift 20% slow resist piece I'll whip up a tweaked build in a little while but I'll get this post out now. My build will focus more on the survival side rather than piling on damage procs like most veterans do, they can post their own builds for that.

If you're gonna proceed with this, something to note here is that Sentinel Dark Armor is kind of weird in regards to the clicky heal power. On most ATs Dark Regen gives you like 3 health bars in one click but costs a truckload of endurance. On Sents, Obscure Sustenance (the replacement) costs only a modest amount of endurance and gives you a decaying regen and recovery buff that starts high but tapers off over time similar to Destiny powers. You'll want to spam it frequently to keep up the higher buff levels rather than waiting until you're at low HP (multiple castings don't stack but they do reset the timers). https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=sentinel_defense.dark_armor.obscure_sustenance&at=sentinel It's also wonky because it's coded as a 35ft PBAOE but it only hits one target. IMO it should've just been an ST ranged attack with similar range as most Sent primary ST powers.

Sent cones are normally 6, not 5. Random example: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=sentinel_ranged.assault_rifle.buckshot&at=sentinel There are a few oddball 10-target cones like Full Auto, Siren's Song, and various epic pool powers.

A very large amount of Blasters' damage edge comes from their secondary set melee attacks, so if they stay entirely at range the gap does get a fair bit smaller (especially if the Sent uses an offensive armor like Bio or Stone). Other sources of disparity include the sniper replacements usually having lower DPA than quicksnipes (except Zapping Bolt which is actually stronger than Zapp) and that Blasters get a stacking damage buff via Defiance. But on the other hand, Sents all have a -res debuff that ignores purple patch so that makes the comparison that much muddier. In general, Sents' damage weakness gets severely over-exaggerated. They ain't Blasters but they also aren't unproc'd Controllers or Petless Masterminds either. There's still gonna be a gap but it's not some gigantic chasm-sized gap. Now, as to why Sents aren't favored in hardmode, it mostly comes down to the game's mechanics favoring massive support buff/debuff stacking to the point that the optimal team comp is usually one melee AT (Scrapper or Tank) amped up by a mixed harem of 7 Corruptors and/or Defenders. Sents are a class that choses to give up a bit of damage in exchange for self-survival, but the amount of survival they gain isn't going to be enough to tank in hardmode and they aren't specialized at any particular duty (metas usually favor specialists over generalists).

Those numbers can all be verified in City of Data as accurate. Snarky posed this question on the Sentinel forum and this is how I answered it: Most of the gap between Blaster and Sent comes from these factors: Blasters get way more melee attacks (Sents only get 1 in their epics) and the game favors melee over ranged Most of the Sentinel sniper replacement powers are a bit weaker DPA-wise than their Blaster quicksnipe counterparts (Zapping Bolt is actually stronger than Zap but that's an outlier) Blasters get a stacking damage buff from Defiance Lower target caps on most AOE powers To answer Snarky's question for this thread, as to whether he wants to try a Sent, that does indeed depend on what he's looking for. Sents are in a weird spot where they don't have a strong focused specialty at one specific thing like most ATs do. Rather, they're more of an all-rounder that is decently good at several things. Some have likened them to "Ranged Brutes" in that kind of way (Brutes sort of sit between Scrappers and Tankers rather than specializing). Sents are self-sufficient and adaptable with a focus on mostly ranged but with a bit of melee mixed in via their epic pools and certain primary/secondary sets (including Dark). For those familiar with Battletech/Mechwarrior, I would compare them to a medium or a lighter heavy class Battlemech. Or maybe someone like Soldier 76 from Overwatch, The Soldier from TF2, etc.

Opportunity Strikes just gives you a little bit of +Opportunity when it triggers, which means you get to have a bit higher uptime on your inherent clicky. Specifically, the purple version gives you +10. It's an okay proc but it's not going to be a gamechanger. Really the main reason to slot it is for the set bonuses that the set gives you. If you don't want or need the bonuses then it's entirely optional. Sentinel ATO procs are comparable to Brute ATOs in this way.

Yes, these numbers are correct, as we can verify in City of Data. Which part is surprising? Were you expecting a larger gap between the two? If that's the case, most of the gap between Blaster and Sent comes from these factors: Blasters get way more melee attacks (Sents only get 1 in their epics) and the game favors melee over ranged Most of the Sentinel sniper replacement powers are a bit weaker DPA-wise than their Blaster quicksnipe counterparts (Zapping Bolt is actually stronger than Zap but that's an outlier) Blasters get a stacking damage buff from Defiance Lower target caps on most AOE powers

I don't play Doms so I don't really have a horse in this race here, but clicky mezz protection buttons aren't a good comparison because they actually have some situational advantages over toggles (can't be disabled by sapping, stackable protection, lower end cost over time). Domination doesn't really come with a trade-off or consideration like that. It's kind of just an old school design.

They're based off the same powers with the same animations and FX, but with tweaked damage, recharge, radius, and target cap. They're close enough that a name change wouldn't serve much purpose. My semi-related pipedream fantasy would be giving Sents entirely alternate range-focused powers that could replace their primary PBAOEs (including nukes and normals) with different names, like Radiation Blast getting "Atomic Bomb" (ranged AOE) instead of Atomic Blast or such. This would be treated like Sent SR treats Practiced Brawler vs Master Brawler; You could pick the one you wanted but they'd be mutually exclusive. The devs said they never want to do that again though so it'll just stay a pipedream.

I think the dev rationale for doing this was because people complained about the recharge buff making their procs fire less frequently (I will once again say that the PPM formula is objectively bad game design, faster recharge should never be considered a nerf ever), so this was a compromise to keep the old slow recharge for those who want to load up procs while still having the alternate ammo as an option that can stand on its own. I can see this logic on the other ATs where Suppressive Fire used to deal almost no damage in any firing mode, but since Sents did used to deal high damage with normal bullets here, it was stupid to include them in the change. But the devs are most likely not going to revert this, because Sents are generally not allowed to have nice things.

IMO we should just add some bubble alternate FX to Energy Aura since that powerset thematically seems to fit a "forcefield" kind of feel already, minus the FX difference.

My belief is that all rez powers should be usable on living targets to some effect, like what happened with Phoenix Rising. The support AT rezzes thus would/should get the same treatment.

I think if we were going to add a whole separate Power Armor set, it should come with some utility/offense powers because folks like Iron Man have a lot of gadgets up their sleeves. We're also a bit short of offensive/utility armors in general. Let Invuln be the "pure tanky wall of steel" armor set. One possibility could be a ranged AOE missile barrage, as a ranged counterpart to Shield Charge. Maybe a tractor beam to pull an enemy into melee range (Sentinels might get an inverted version that knocks them away instead). Perhaps deploy some Seeker Drones as a tool to eat alpha strikes and debuff enemy To-Hit. It'd be cool if the T9 could be a transformation like Granite that turns you into an enlarged Assault Bot with added firepower or something. Definitely needs some kind of "Enhanced Targeting" toggle with To-Hit and Perception buffs. Kinda just spitballing here.

Field Medic is just a weird capstone power to have in a pool. Like imagine if the final power in Speed was just a clicky that made you run faster for a while. IMO the final Medicine power should've been a PBAOE heal but this might run into the "Cottage Rule" issue. Aid Self and Aid Other shouldn't have any interruption window whatsoever, regardless of what happens to Field Medic. Resuscitate could maybe be changed so that it can be used as a large burst heal on living allies, similar to what was done with Phoenix Rising. Aid Self's endurance restoration should take endmod enhancement and I think the power could even use a weak amount of recovery by default (there are way too few recovery tools in pools and all of them except Aid Self are T3's with extremely long recharge times, one of which is unenhanceable). Lastly, I'd like to see a "synergy" effect similar to what the Fighting Pool has. Depending on which Med powers you pick, other powers get different bonuses, like for example picking Aid Other as your T1 would make Aid Self's heal stronger, but picking Injection would make the recovery portion a bit stronger.

Hitting more targets and having wider AOEs does make sense in regards to helping Tanks grab/hold aggro from more enemies at once.

I'm not arguing against Brute changes here, but it's kind of worth pointing out that Hardmode tends to result in a meta of 7 ranged supports with one melee AT, and that melee actually ends up being a Scrapper more often than a Tanker these days. Scraps are able to fulfill the melee tank role "good enough" when megabuffed by allies/Barrier while providing more damage. Are we going to conclude that Tankers are underpowered from this? Hardmode's meta is kinda sorta fucked, to the extreme, so if even the mighty Tanker of all things can't compete against a Scrapper there, it's gonna be real hard to make a Brute compete without just making them outright better than Scrappers. Again, I'm not saying don't change Brutes, I posted some ideas of mine earlier, I'm just saying that maybe there might be some underlying/overarching metagame issues to resolve so we can get a more clear picture here. And hopefully have a meta that isn't a harem of 7 ranged supports following an armored melee AT of some sort.

Yeah, maybe it could be a -res and -def debuff to enemies instead? Like a reverse-Buildup that achieves a similar effect but by weakening enemies instead of empowering the user.