FupDup

If the enemy mezzing you is something high ranked (as opposed to a minion or such), it might take a little while to whittle them down with just a basic T1/T2. Especially since many blast sets often skip either the T1 or T2, so that just leaves one of them depending on how the user built it. And you might be in the middle of a mob when you get mezzed (not always a 1v1), especially since Blasters are a melee AT. What's more useful than the damage is that you could choose to slot the mezz protection ATO proc in the T1 or T2 to try to use it as a "break free" button in these cases, but I don't like to rely on RNG.

I feel like Energy Aura already fulfills the role of a "forcefield" armor set that can also be used in other themes as well. Just look at the power names...Dampening Field. Kinetic Shield. Power Shield. All we need is a graphics option for bubbles and it's perfect.

I'm not so sure that Willpower would be a good starter armor. Mechanically speaking it's very simple, but it doesn't have much in the way of crisis-management tools or oh-shit buttons. It can be sort of like Blasters or Doms where you'd have to rely on killing/mezzing enemies faster than they can kill you (proactive approach), rather than being legit "armor" that can take it on the chin without thinking too much (passive approach). I'd recommend something like Energy Aura as probably the best "noob armor" because it's very mechanically simple and it covers just about everything you could want (regen, click heal, endurance management, global recharge boost, good defenses, decent resists, modest defense debuff protection). Depending on the AT you also get stealth (melee) or passively capped HP (Sentinel). For melee characters, I'm not sure Super Strength is the best choice here because a newer player might not know how to deal with the massive crash from Rage.

I saw a forum post of somebody using recolored Psychic Blast as an eye-beam substitute, because most of its attacks have an option to shoot from the forehead, which is close enough to the eyes that it can pass the smell test. That's pretty much the only option at this point.

Kind of...the fluff behind it is that you're more or less using your "mental power" to push your body beyond its normal limits. You could work a character concept around that as being either a normal human who is highly disciplined, or using psychic power to enhance it. It only has middling protection against psi damage though, and it doesn't have offensive powers like psionic characters normally demonstrate (psychics like Jean Gray tend to be known for being glass cannons). A proper "Psi Armor" would have the strongest psi protection of any armor and some offensive tools like a damage aura and/or an AOE attack of some sort (like what Rad Armor gets).

Shouldn't it be Beam Rifle because Guardsmen use Lasguns?

Psi Armor would be dope actually, as another offensive set preferably.

I try to use a thesaurus and/or character name generator to try to find things that are close enough to what I originally wanted. In one case I actually came up with a better name than my first idea because of trying to find an unreserved substitute. I definitely won't tolerate stuff like a 1 in place of an l or such anymore, though I admit I did use such tricks with two of my earliest characters here.

I just wanna point out here that the HP caps on Sents are in fact lower than Scrappers: 2000ish vs 2400ish. Also, the base values given by armor powers are slightly weaker. For example, Temp Invulnerability gives 22.5% resists on Scrappers but only 21% on Sentinels. A similar trend exists for all directly equal resist/defense powers between the two ATs. Sents have a work slightly harder with set bonuses to make up that gap. I'm on "Team Sentinel" for sure in this debate, I've got over a half dozen of them at level 50 so I'm no hater by any stretch, I just want to keep the facts straight here.

Aged like milk.

For the test, would we just log in and derp around with random missions and stuff on our own during the time frame, or is there highly specific content that would be done?

I don't know how that dog has enough self-control to not just jump on top of that table and start devouring everything immediately. Is it a realistic plushie?

I don't know what ATs/sets the thread creator has been using, but maybe a solution here could be to try to find an AT that is good enough to stand on its own but not quite strong enough to be "godly." Sentinels might be an idea for this, being something of a jack of all trades with moderate ranged damage and moderate armor. Maybe do an offshoot build like a Huntsman VEAT. Could do a Corruptor or Defender that isn't using the best meta sets, I dunno. It would help to know what the OP has used so far.

Join the closed beta and you'll find out. (See signature link)

I just thought up another change overnight...the +5 Steadfast Protection resist/endurance piece can be replaced with Unbreakable Guard res/end. The result is that gain 2.25% more en/neg resists in set bonuses and a tiny bit more S/L resist because it would give stronger enhancement to Tough. Another change could be replacing Thunderstrike in Lightning Bolt with 5 slots of Winter's Bite. This would give you a bit more energy/negative defenses and save 1 slot, and would bring your slow resist up to 95%. For that free slot, you could choose to slot something for survival like more a regen or psi resistance proc, complete the Synapse set in Short Circuit for 4.5% en/neg resistances, or add a damage proc to Tesla Cage for a little more offense, or maybe something else.

I was wrong about Position - The 6 slot bonus is actually just toxic/psi resists, not recharge. I must've been thinking of a different set. I deleted that line from my previous post to avoid further confusion. It can stay at 5 slots. I chose Lightning over Voltaic Sent because your first build didn't have VS, so I presumed that you didn't want it. I guess Lightning does also have some benefits in that it does AOE damage (and also helps a little bit with ST in close range) while Voltaic is purely single target. Also, depending on the clearing speed of your team, the VS might or might not be able to keep up all of the time. You can go either way with it really.

Here is a revised variant, swapping some stuffs around and boosting whatever didn't benefit from staying attuned. I reordered some of the powers, but you can probably swap the positions of Boxing and Stealth (I didn't notice that until after posting this). Sentinel - Helmut Spargle v2.mbd

The first thing that sticks out is that it looks like Mids is giving you your defense values out of combat...Stealth's defense buff is heavily reduced in battle. Evasive Manuevers doesn't give you any defense in battle (but it does help with mobility). You can go into your options/configuration go to the Effects & Math tab, under the Suppression area you can click the checkboxes for attacked, ActivateAttackClick, and MissionObjectClick. This will display your true defenses. Tesla Cage should be slotted as an attack power, because unlike other ATs, the Sentinel variant of this power does real damage. Charge Up should hold the Gaussian Build Up proc. Hasten should be 2-slotted with boosted 50+5 recharge IO's. Power Armor should be slotted for both Healing and Resistance, because it boosts your max HP as well as resists. I'm not sure if Chain Fences is really necessary here, and it might be getting smashed by the nerf hammer in the future so maybe consider swapping it for something else. I'll post a revised version of the build in a while, still running some missions in-game.

Wouldn't this kind of thing piss off our NCSoft overlords, and possibly get this place shut down? Let's not risk that.

You're allowed to be a member of those groups, you're just not allowed to claim that your character is the supreme ruler of them.

Here is the build. The main thing to be aware of is that my building style is a bit different than a lot of other peoples'. Many prefer to load up several attack powers with damage procs rather than filling out sets like I do. I tried to make it fairly durable but those resists aren't gonna get much higher without finding a way to fit Rune of Protection. I actually made the very unusual decision to not slot the Ragnarok ranged AOE set in order to push the resists slightly higher using Bombardment (Hasten is already permanent without it). I kept the Elec epic pool for now but that could be changed if you desire. I didn't fill out the incarnate abilities on it. Another note is that Evasive Manuevers will only buff your defenses outside of combat. The moment you shoot somebody, the defense is removed. It does still give you extra mobility and anti-fly protection though so it still has a bit of value. And it can act as a mule for Luck of the Gambler (not that Super Reflexes is lacking in that department). Water SR Elec - Sentinel (Water Blast - Super Reflexes).mbd

Unfortunately, Super Reflexes is not really designed to get high resistances because that's just not what it does. It's almost a pure defense set. The best you could do on that front is picking up Rune of Protection from the Sorcery pool, but that would require you to drop a few other powers to fit it in. I'm working on a build right now and I'll post it in a little while.

For Super Reflexes, you'll want the first 8 powers for sure but you can ignore the final power (Elude) because of its very harsh crash and it's kind of redundant with the rest of your kit. There is a choice between Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler - You should definitely take Master because it's a clicky absorb power that also gives you toggle mezz protection in your earlier defense toggles. For Water, you can choose to skip either the first or second basic attack. Hydro Blast has a higher DPA so you should probably skip Aqua Bolt there. For AOE attacks, some people choose to skip Water Burst. If you intend to take one of the melee AOE attacks from an epic pool, you could skip it, but if you don't then I'd probably keep it. Dehydrate does have a self-heal effect but it's kind of weak so it's probably best to just treat it as a normal attack power. Besides one or maybe two skips you'll want to pick the rest. Since you mentioned getting up close, you will likely want to invest into one of the epic pools for a single target melee attack at least (they hit pretty hard and Water Blast could really use the extra single target damage). While you're there you could also pick up a melee AOE attack, which would allow you to skip one of the AOE's from Water Blast (like Water Burst) while still having plenty of AOE damage options. "Alpha" power refers to the incarnate system that you unlock after level 50. The Alpha slot is basically a global enhancement that applies to all applicable powers. For example, the Agility alpha power would boost the defense, recharge, and endurance modification of every eligible power you have equipped. "Mules" refer to powers that you take for their ability to carry certain enhancements, rather than the actual power's abilities. For example, you might take Tough from the Fighting pool to slot Gladiator's Armor +Defense and Steadfast Protection +Defense. Any power that offers defense can be used as a mule to carry Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge, etc. "Soft cap" refers to the amount of defense you need to make enemies miss 95% of their attacks - They always have a minimum 5% chance to hit no matter what happens. In most content this number is 45%, which Super Reflexes can hit very easily. For incarnate content, the NPCs have a to-hit buff so this raises the softcap for that content to 58.75% (we call it 59% for sanity). Because Super Reflexes is entirely reliant on defenses, and because of how high its defense values are, I think it's worthwhile to push over the 45% number here (I would shoot for low to mid 50's here but your mileage and goals may vary). Even when playing non-incarnate content, going a little over 45% can give you a buffer against enemies with defense debuffs. Just remember that the enemies will ALWAYS have at least a 5% hit chance. Going over the softcap is for life insurance against debuffs and/or incarnate content. For slotting, I usually allocate 5-6 slots for proper attack powers and 3-4 for most armor stuff. Some sets offer strong enough enhancements that you could get away with just 4 slots on an attack power if you didn't want the 5-slot set bonus. If you want more specific guidance I could throw together a build...I'd just need to know your travel power preferences and which epic pool you'd want to pick (you'll probably want one if you like to get up close and personal).

On Excelsior, there's a mid evening run in The Abyss (5:00 PM central time) and a late night run in The Hive (9:00 PM central time). As for the suggestion, I don't see much point in it because The Abyss is already fully co-op enabled. I wouldn't be upset it The Hive got similar treatment but I just don't feel any urgency in it.