FupDup

On Regen you'll probably want the full kit. Second Wind is useful for capping your HP (very important for Regen) or helping you get up if/when you die (and if you wanna be Deadpool that fits the theme). Dismiss Pain is useful for the same HP reason, and it can carry one of the various global procs that normally go in Health if you want. On Moment of Glory, as long as it gets you to the res and def caps you can focus its slotting on recharge for max uptime (and stick stuff like LOTG in there). Piercing Rounds is safe to skip because the animation is pretty long. The damage it does in one hit is actually fairly hard but it's an opportunity cost that locks you from doing other stuff while you watch the fancy animation. It's not useless but it's kinda superfluous, especially if you're already kinda low on slots to begin with. For Lotus, 8ft PBAOE is the same radius that most melee AT's get on their PBAOE attacks (including this same power). It's not huge but if you're in the middle of a mob you'll hit enough of them to justify it. I can't speak for the fancy sounding smoke bomb power. The damage and to-hit debuffs could help your survival a bit, especially if you want to be in the thick of melee. Your call on this one. The Opportunity Strikes proc is kinda weak, it just helps your inherent debuff have a bit more uptime. The real reason to pick the set is for the set bonuses, which are pretty nice. On a set like Regen you can get away with just 5 slots since the extra defense bonus at 6 slots won't apply here much (do whatever you want with that last slot, if you choose to take it).

This is currently unpossible due to how janky and haphazard the implementation of shield was. It's not just about having a weapon or not, it's about having a completely free left hand. Ideally, shield should have had an option (or make this the default way it works) to mount it on the side so that the left hand can still hold stuff or at least shoot hand blasts. Look at this cheater here using Assault Rifle and Shield: In our archaic game, IDK whether or not it would be possible to have the shield attach to the side of your character's left glove piece similar to how holstered weapons work (except in this case it would stay "holstered" forever unless you toggle off all the shield powers maybe). That's the first potential workaround I can think without knowing anything about the spaghetti that holds this game together. As for meta/gameplay discussion, the set has a lot of potential on Sents because so far all armors that lacked sustain on other ATs were given it on Sents, and the lack of sustain is the main weakness of the set. The scaling damage boost would either be made static (similar to WP's scaling regen) or replaced with a sustain power. Shield Charge could maybe be replaced by Shield Throw if we found a way around the animation issues, or just replace it with another sustain power of some sort. Grant Cover would be pretty great here because you could protect backline teammates with it, whereas the current version is more about helping melee teammates who are in the thick of it with you (as a melee AT).

I like slotting IO sets as early as possible to start building up set bonuses. Sometimes I might use a placeholder set until I reach the level threshold for what I wanted in the finished build, if necessary. Thankfully ATOs, Winters, PVPs, and Overwhelming Force can be slotted at level 7. When you're done, you can unslot them and put them in your SG base for the next alt to make use of. PVPs in particular often give you a little bit of KB protection at 3 slots, which can let you deal with low-level knocks before your proper KB protection powers come online. EDIT: Also, for attack powers in early levels you can lean on the 5 free prestige enhancements that can be picked up at P2W.

The travel power stacking thing only applies to proper travel toggles. For auto speed buffs like inherent fitness or Athletic Regulation, those don't conflict with anything. We can see this by looking at powers in City of Data. Here is Infiltration: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pool.invisibility.invisibility&at=sentinel Note the blue key icon stating "Stacks per attribute by key TravelBuff." That's the sign that it can't stack with other stuff. Athletic Regulation: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=sentinel_defense.bio_organic_armor.athletic_regulation&at=sentinel No blue key icons, so you're free to stack it up.

The word on the street that I heard (source: trust me bro) is that the reason that Sister P got killed off was because she was another character made by Jack Emmert, rather than being chosen for best storyline material. Much of the point of Who Will Die was just to give Jack the middle finger by killing his characters after his departure.

If we wanna talk about a real missed opportunity, my fantasy for the inherent would be to make it kinda like the old version that had a split between offensive and defensive, but as separate clickies with a shared cooldown so you aren't forced to pick both the T1 and T2 powers. They'd build up over time like Vulnerability does. Offensive makes you hit harder and more accurately, maybe even add a little range IDK. Defensive makes you tankier and maybe applies a taunt proc to your attacks, letting you be a sort of offtank for a short time. Takes the generalist/adaptability aspect to a new level, basically making them like "Bio Armor: The AT."

My problem with the "endgame" is that almost all of it is co-op, meaning that every blueside and redside alt will end up retreading the same territory. The story arcs up to level 50 are more replayable because most of them are faction segregated, so at least a hero and villain will be doing different stuff (and blueside especially because there's more contacts and zones to take a slightly different path each time). I want moar level 50 stuff that is faction segregated. And I don't mean level 45 contacts that scale up to level 50 like MJ, I don't count those. I mean stuff that only unlocks at 50 specifically (such as incarnate arcs). Or at least do it like Pandora's Box and Who Will Die where they cover similar events but with different angles that make them feel fresh. DA tries to do that with the whole "stab the goddess" thing but that feels like it was just tacked on at the last minute because everything plays out exactly the same before that one final choice.

Since Sents have armor that does also mean that they will rarely have VT get detoggled due to mezz (one of the drawbacks to making it a toggle). It's only appropriate that the literal Sentinel archetype gets more mileage out of a Voltaic Sentinel than the others. 😁

Psionic weaknesses are generally deliberate because psi's whole thing is that most targets don't have protection against it. You can see this in armor set descriptions in the character creator. Toxic, however, is a bit weirder. Originally the game didn't even have specific typed toxic defenses at all, toxic attacks only used positions (ranged, melee, AOE) but the HC team added it later. After this addition, there are still some powers that lack toxic defense. Also noteworthy is that there are no IO set bonuses for toxic defense, but there are bonuses for psi defense. Since psi and toxic are bundled together for resistance bonuses, I think that all existing psi defense bonuses should also get toxic defense for consistency and because they're currently a bit niche in use (if you're not starting with a high psi def value on an armor set like Stone or something then the bonuses aren't going to help much). Toxic kinda feels like the "new Psi" in the sense that it's harder to build for using IO's (can only grab resists, usually in 6-slot bonuses, while Psi has typed defenses and two different single-slot pieces for resists).

I can't speak for him, but my guess is that since it's a toggle that means it gets dropped if you get endurance drained or mezz'd, whereas a clicky would persist until its duration expired (or the owner died). As a toggle that also means a slightly higher continuous endurance load that needs to be built around vs. a periodic clicky.

Early today I saw this happen at the end of Belladonna's arc now too, this time with Praetor Sinclair vs. Chimera. Interesting that they used different names that time.

Generally I'd only use flashbacks just to grab a badge/accolade if needed, so not very often. On my first hero and villain toons I did flashback most or all of the arcs available at that time but nowadays I don't spend enough time on each alt to do that. It also makes the leveling up experience more replayable since I can pick different paths for each alt (instead of playing everything with every alt).

In regards to element mixing, Sentinels can take a good swing at that too. You could do something like Storm Blast primary (ice and electric), Stone Armor secondary (stone and fire), and then whatever epic you want (ice, fire, or elec probably but could also mix in some dark/soul if you're feeling spicy).

For Dark Blast I decided to look at the actual numbers in City of Data to illuminate the comparison. T1: Dark Blast Blaster: 62.5615 Sentinel: 61.1712 T2: Gloom Blaster: 13.7635 (DoT) Sentinel: 13.4577 (DoT) T3: Umbral Torrent Blaster: 60.059 (10 targets) Sentinel: 58.7244 (6 targets) T7/T4: Abysmal Gaze Blaster: 44.231 Sentinel: 43.248 T5/T7: Moonbeam vs. Antumbral Beam Blaster: 139.3 base using quick form (had to use Mids for this) but it can vary based on your to-hit bonuses, or 247 slow form, 150ft range Sent: 168.8325 (no variability), 60ft range T6/T5: Tenebrous Tentacles vs. Dark Obliteration Blaster: 8.4458 upfront, 6.2562 DoT, mag 3 immobilize, 40* cone, 10 targets Sentinel: 55.0541, 15ft circular AoE, 10 targets T8: Life Drain Blaster: 102.6009 damage, 120.4759 heal Sentinel: 100.3208 damage, 80.3173 heal T9: Blackstar Blaster: 187.6845 and 62.5615, 25ft radius, 16 targets, 145s recharge Sentinel: 137.8187 entire radius, 56.7669 bonus in 8ft center radius, 20ft radius, 10 targets, 90s recharge So the basic verdicts: Most ST attacks are pretty close, with some only losing a few decimal places of damage. The sniper comparison is murky because of their variability. The self heal is noticeably weaker for some reason. AoE is also murky because Dark Oblit easily stomps Tenebrous Tentacles but Sents have a weaker Umbral Torrent (in terms of target cap). The nukes can be debated because of the tradeoff of more targets and larger alpha strike vs. faster recharge (potential sustained damage edge at the cost of lower alpha strike). However, these numbers fail to consider the impact of Blasters' Defiance buffs as well as Sentinels' Vulnerability buffs. Defiance can vary but Vulnerability is a flat 15% resistance debuff (also debuffs secondary protections to stuff like end drains etc.) that helps everybody on the team. All in all it's probably not going to be a giant difference because the damage gap between the 2 AT's is nowhere near the size that it used to be. Contrary to popular belief, Sentinels do in fact inflict greater damage than a petless Empathy Mastermind built using SO's. Much greater, in fact. I still maintain that if you don't care much for melee and don't want to deal with mezz, Sents will probably tickle your fancy more accurately than Blasters who usually need to take a more "proactive" approach to survival (kill or mezz them before they do the same to you) and have a greater dependence on consumable items to prop up their defenses. Sents can just "stand and deliver" without a care in the world, armor set depending. Speaking of which, knowing what armor sets you'd be interested in would make this comparison easier because some are quite a bit better than others...

Some have said that a Blaster without melee is like a Sentinel without armor, which is at least true in terms of flavor/feel (only one Blaster secondary without melee, compared to a whole bunch of Sent secondaries without melee AND Sents can't pick up melee ST attacks until level 35 and they only get 1 there). Blasters are designed such that their strongest attacks are usually melee. A pure range Blaster isn't going to be kicked off of teams or anything, and can still contribute fine, but it kind of misses the point of the AT (excluding Tac Arrow of course). I have a just a wee bit of a bias here, but I think Sents would fill your intended fantasy (mostly range, mezz protection) more accurately. And Dark Blast is pretty nifty on Sents due to having Dark Oblit as a part of its kit. Also the range gets pretty close if you slot the ATO sets (crappy procs but good set bonuses, similar to Brutes).

This seems to happen in a few other places where there's an enemy that starts neutral/friendly but then respawns as an enemy, without deleting the original one. I reported something similar for Captain Castillo in a Talos story arc.

I've thought of something like this for one new specific AT - A blend of melee, armor, and support sets, with each of those components being condensed down into like 6 or 7 powers each instead of the usual 9 (combining multiple powers together where possible, i.e. Empathy's recovery and regen auras become one aura or mixing S/L armor powers with E/N and/or F/C). And nobody mention Rebirth's Guardian please, I'm talking real melee (i.e. Battle Axe, War Mace, etc.) not assault and I'm talking real armor with stuff like Shield being available. Besides the probable coding nightmare that could be for just one AT, letting anybody do it could have some unforeseen consequences even if we did manage to make the code work.

The minimum hit chance will always be 5% no matter what. Having extra -tohit can help you either reach that 5% point with lower defenses and/or give you a buffer against def debuffs. But it ain't going below 5% ever. Tohit debuffs can be resisted by some enemies (like AVs) so keep that in mind here. For Darkest Night in particular, it does also apply a massive damage debuff to all enemies in the area so it can still help your survival even if your defenses are capped, as well as helping any squishy teammates you might have.

In terms of raw power, FA is a lot more impactful provided that you can spare the blue juice to run it. You could try using it only when you need it rather than keeping it up all the time, but that requires some extra attention paid to it (I am very lazy and inattentive). If you already have other things like Tactics and/or Kismet then there's less need to have it. SC isn't super strong but it's incredibly low maintenance (auto power) and can give you a slight periodic healing effect if you slot Power Transfer in it. It's something that you can just pick up and never have to worry about afterwards. As a lazy person, I like this even if the raw power isn't super high. So really the deciding factor should be how your endurance situation is looking and/or what other accuracy/tohit powers you have picked already.

It took me all of these days to realize that the thread title is actually a pun. The thread title is that Sentinels are a "missed opportunity." Sentinels' inherent is called Opportunity. Get it? Please clap.

According to Mids, the unenhanced values on a Sent are: Brawl: 22.24 Boxing: 61.04 (with Kick trained) Kick: 67.47 (with Boxing trained) Cross Punch: 102 (with both trained) So basically the first two are around the strength of a T1 blast attack, give or take (some of the weaker ones are around 50, most are 60ish). Most T2's are gonna do around 80, with some going up to 100. Cross Punch could be compelling for the self-buffs it gives and holding Force Feedback, but Boxing and Kick seem more like a concept thing rather than a powerful choice in terms of meta/statistics. Epic pools are where you get a real ST melee attack, but only one (and usually a PBAOE too, depending on the pool).

Body Mastery (Superior Conditioning + Physical Perfection) would be nice for QOL on builds that want to stack leadership toggles (extra blue bar sustain). And they'd also improve green bar sustain too if you slot them with Power Transfer, so double whammy. The pool fits their theme perfectly, being pretty much an extension of their inherent trait Conditioning.

I said 'armored' melee. Blasters are largely melee but they're not armored. As for tweaks, it's hard to comment on that without the raw details but I do still stand by the concept/playstyle of range/armor here. Even if we got altered assault sets that got nukes added, it wouldn't hit the same fantasy as a character like War Machine or Iron Man like it currently does. I'd rather work with the design we've got now, like for example increasing their HP/defensive stats up to Scrapper par to amplify the survival difference between Blasters and Sents (which is currently smaller than it should be IMO).

I mean...Sents do literally have a lower HP cap than Scrappers and lower defensive modifiers, meaning they often need to work harder in terms of IO building to plug their holes. But on the flipside, some armor sets like Invuln and SR get some huge advantages on Sents over their other variants. So it's a mixed bag.

Assault sets in practice are mostly melee because that's where your most damaging attacks usually are, so basically you've just made an alternate Scrapper. Especially since Scrappers themselves can already pick up several ranged attacks in epic pools, which can get pretty close to playing like an "assault" build. Or heck, some Sent primaries mixed with some melee epics can also be pretty Assaulty. And since Blasters themselves are pretty much an assault AT already (their "secondaries" are their real primaries most of the time), you've not increased their differentiation from Blasters either. You'd also lose nukes, which is kind of a big thing to give up even with the adjustments that Sent nukes have (faster but weaker nuke is better than no nuke at all). You'd lose some existing themes like Beam, Storm, and Pistols but gain Savage and Martial I guess. Range/Armor was a largely nonexistent playstyle/niche on the live server, hence why Sents exist now. The execution of that concept has some kinks to work out, but the concept is what's important here. We don't need a fifth armored melee AT. We probably don't even need four of them. The most I'd accept is adding another melee attack to every Sent epic pool for those who want this playstyle, but I'll cling to the only range/armor AT in the game with my cold, dead hands. My pipe dream would be to lean into the range thing even more by offering replacements to all existing PBAOE's in Sent primaries and secondaries with ranged equivalents, but still allowing people to pick the old ones (like Sent SR does) for those who want them.