PyroBeetle

TBH I have found that my Rad Tanker does just fine without slotting for defense. Pump the resistance pump the regen and pump the recharge. Proc bomb and enjoy.

A tiny bit of a necro, but Chess.com also supports Human v AI and can also expand into playing online

Greetings and welcome back, I am at work now, but have a L50 Elec/EA sentinel at home. I will copy his build for you later but her e are some things to consider. I built the toon on the concept that Drained mobs cannot shoot back, and he functions very well at draining mobs. He spends a vast majority of his time in melee range, due to the nature of some of his powers, the drain in EA and short circuit, and he also took the aura in the Electric epic. General strategy is to fire off Thunderous Blast and Ball Electric and shoot on into melee, what isn't dead is drained, follow up with the Electric Immob and then finish off with short circuit and ST blasts. When Thunderous blast is not available I look for problem mobs before dashing in and make sure to gun those down first (looking at you sappers etc.) Obviously there is a rhythm that is learned, but it is generally playable and a very good combo follow8ng the above basic strategy. I skipped the T1 Blast as it was not needed in the final build. Actually the build was posted here in another thread, you can find it by searching posts I made with explanations etc. Again fun pairing and welcome back.

I have found the same thing actually, not meaning to thread jack, but the new cone with a 1 second activation time is very nice, for leveling particularly, or if I have to stay at range, as is having another AoE, even if it is a chain. I do not use the Mental cone due to its long animation, but did find during beta that soft capped S/L/E/R while running Closet of Confusion made for a fun build.

You are very welcome, and I am glad that you got to stick to your concept. As to your question, its not just the cones to AoE that makes a large difference, but that the tractor on Axe Cyclone pulls the mobs together nicely. I hope the tractor effect remains an Axe thing, because it is still Lethal damage, and needs a perk to help it. Melee cones are always usable from above to hit crowds, pop and shoot style. Jacobs Ladder suffers from activation time issues as well though. As far as the targeted close range AoE goes Street Justice used this even on live, and moving Pendulum there is a good balance. Where you might see a change is in the other Lethal T9s to make them more like Cleave.

Although not listed above, If you are wedded to the Axe, and really why wouldn't you be, endurance and recharge are going to be your bridesmaids. I highly suggest Energy Armor, which will give you the tools to manage the endurance and a bonus to recharge. In addition, you also gain a stealth power. I tried Axe on other concepts and found them playable at incarnate levels when I could use Cardiac to offset the endurance, but with Energy Armor, I could play at every level. Regards,

There was also the problem with the Brimstone messing with the sleep, but overall, I just am happier with Bio. One of the attractions of Stone was Terra Firma increasing range to help the cones. Bio doesn't need to make a similar sacrifice.

Greetings, Coming back to Homecoming after a year away and found some very nice changes had been made to Sentinels. I attempted to roll this toon as a Sonic/Stone but was less than enamored of being on the ground as a primary ranged toon, so I decided to give it a go with Bio. It is not that Stone was bad, but it was too easy to get swarmed with the cap limitations, and the temptation to run in with the T9 as an opener when solo was...well too much for me to withstand, which was also contributing to the aforementioned swarming. I wanted to take advantage of the cones and have found, solo at least, that the cones are the most efficient way of mowing down a group, and I tend to only use the T9 when I am part of a team, or as a closer, not an opener. The build is below. It does manage to achieve soft cap defense to E/N/F/C, and soft cap resistance to S/L, even in Offense Adaptation, with the Incarnates chosen. The 3 Cones also are matched at 75 Foot Range, which is deep enough to get nice coverage. Some tips and tricks: the cone chain I use is Sirens, Shockwave, then Howl or duck in and Nuke. The mitigation in the primary attack chain is awesome. The Incarnates chosen were Cardiac Radial Paragon for the Range and Absorb Boosts, as well as keeping the Endurance in line, Ageless Radial Epiphany for the Global Recharge as well as to top off Slow Resist, and Assault Radial for the damage boost. Because it is not showing Health was slotted with the two remaining Health Uniques, and Stamina was slotted with Performance Shifter Unique and Performance Shifter EndMod. Regards,

Having played multiple Sentinels to Incarnate levels, I have to say, compared to a build that leverages props, you are going to feel like you are tickling mobs, not blasting them. Set bonuses are tasty, but Sentinels path to damage is to leverage procs.

This is the largest failing with Sentinels...the lack of build variation because one EPP choice makes the AT almost viable and none of the others do. I have multiple Sents at 50, and ultimately the only ones that feel right are ones that leverage Mind Probe in their attack chain. To the point that is being made regarding Regen. Sentinel Regen should be ported over to other ATs, the HC team got so much right with it. Other ATs should keep the original Dull Pain though, even if it is another click. Regen would not be broken on tanks, you would have to leverage winter sets for slow mitigation, which would reduce recharge opportunities. Also being hit by every other nasty debuff that is thrown around by some groups, it just would not stack up against the top performers without significant buffs, which would kinda defeat the point of having nerfed it into the ground.

I havent really been using the Mids values, I use in game figures. I think the general SR framework is yours anyway for the SR Claws tank...In game it results in 58.something Melee and 53.something Ranged and AoE, sufficient for anything I have run it through so far.

When I came back to Homecoming from some time away, I was struck by the thread the unloved SR/Claws tank, and tried the build and found it quite enjoyable to play. It was very smooth leveling, and well nigh immortal. However, there was just something missing. Having played tanks of various stripes over the years both live and on homecoming, I really missed having a damage aura. Lo and behold, Radiation Melee had a damage aura, and I had some familiarity with the set, having created a Rad/Fire Farming Brute in 2019, before the double inf nerf. Having done some research here on the forums, I decided to throw one together, and viola, a fun and playable build. By way of comment, there is very little low level AoE on this build, so while you are effective in team play at low levels, I have done Posi 1, Posi 2 and Synapse with teams and no AoE so far. You can do an effective job of gathering, if your team will let you, and I think I saw my HP bar move once during those TF. I did level up the build on IOs and the procs in IG, so doing things the old fashioned way works just fine. Think I threw in the LotGs as I leveled too. The damage powers are sufficiently spread apart to allow you to focus on one, then the next and fill in your defenses between. Once IG and then Atom Smasher come, you will be happily chewing away at x8, though I do not suggest going that high before Atom Smasher. A brief comment on Devastating Blow - I tried it, and did not love it. Even solo, things were dying to my procs in IG oftentimes while the animation for DB was still powering up. The attack chain is seemless, just replacing Radiation Siphon with Char every third cycle. The heal from Radiation Siphon ends up being superfluous in most regular content, but can be useful in incarnate content. I am always open to suggestions on improvements, but the build has been playing very well so far. I am aware that going with the Gloom and Dark Obliteration route would objectively be better, but didn't fit for thematic reasons. If going that route, I would add in either taunt or Super Jump to replace Melt Armor.

SR is basic and boring and...damn effective. Pairs extremely well with claws, but does very well with most primaries. The lack of an end management tool and the late AoE defense are cons, but small ones. I have never felt the need for a heal on my SR toons.

I seem to have gone in a different direction than the rest of you. I was hoping to finish playtesting the build before posting it, as I do not have the Incarnate abilities yet, but it works just fine without them. As has been stated, the lack of DDR can become an issue if things go sideways, but I have built in a little cushion with the choice of Barrier. Ageless is always a possibility. Geode can be used between fights as needed to buff up the end, especially against drainers, but the build runs well for minutes at a time without. Evasive Maneuvers is there only for fighting anti flyers and as a LotG mule, and for long distance travel. Focused Accuracy is there for the emergency situations if you get swarmed by accuracy debuffers, and the frankenslotting takes care of the debuff of slow and recharge, things that I find horribly annoying. This is designed to be a universal build, and the ideal Claws attack chain runs with hasten, which is perma with a single proc of FF +Recharge (both Shockwave and Focus carry it). Comments are welcome, as this is my first scrapper in a long time

The answer to all of this would be to have Burn do overriding fear again, which made me drop from live CoH back in the day when they did it. The fact that Burn is so overpowered, and that sets basically allow you to create an unkillable, in fire farms at least, character, is the issue. However, if people want to play the game that way, let them play the game that way. It is what they enjoy.

Realize this is a thread necro, but the suggestion is there already. I would like to modify the suggestion to this. Update the SR set to the standard for Sentinels. They already have the choice to keep Practiced Brawler or move the status protection to existing toggles and gain a click heal in Master Brawler. Promulgating this option to all SR sets incorporates the original solution while giving those that prefer the click able status protection the option to keep it. And with multiple builds it gives players an expanded option to tailor their build to the situation.

Indont mean to thread necro, but I recently put one of these together. I attempted to use the Teleportation pool in place of the Leadership pool, but found that to be largely superfluous, so moved it back to enjoy the status protection on Assault and Tactics (only toggled on when needed, helps with the end). Recovery Serum is more than sufficient to keep up with the endurance on the build even with the additional toggles, so the only reason to go ageless would be for the convenience or no temp runs. I have been detoggled but never died to it, thanks to the sound of my toggles crashing. Always tough enough to get out, rebuff, and re-engage. Saw another thread for smoothest tank, and this is certainly the smoothest playing build that I have run 1 to 50 and beyond without problems or even thinking in most instances, just muscle memory mashing keys and eating mobs. I'd tend to pop up to use my Shockwave, though not always needed, habit from Scrapper days on live, you really wanted the KB to be KD.

Just like to say that after try Earth with Earth, Temporal, and Ice, I settled on Martial. Martial just works, Upthrust into Burst of Speed into Dragons Tail, jump back into Upthrust into Rock Shards is fun, active and a lot of KD for safety. Also the slow on the toggle is large and helps line up the stragglers crawling after you nicely.

I was going for S/L/E defense with this build to take advantage of the melee attacks. I do get what you are saying about the other slotting and it makes a lot of sense.

It is, sorry was scribbling on a sheet of paper and hurrying to copy into a post... Also can try an alternate slotting for more S/L defense by doing 4 Kinetic Combat in Heavy Mallet and the FF, then moving the Winter's set into Seismic Smash...the build runs a bit hot, so this frees up am additional End Mod IO for Stamina or Mud Bath, the 10% Haste loss from the slotting change isn't a big deal due to all the FF procs.

I have found the damage to be on the low end for a blaster, however the powerset flows well, the noted problems with Meteor aside. On the plus side, the powers in both sets grant that visceral feel, and the knock up on Upthrust is appreciated. The mechanic on the set is also seemless, and the red ring is up by the time Stalagmite is recharged most times...if it is not, my attack chain doesn't suffer as the other ST blasts cycle quickly. I skipped the T1 and the cone in my final build, but have played with them both when leveling and they are useful, especially the cone if you play with the mechanic. It is not Fire Blast, nor Ice Blast, it is its own animal and fun to play.

Did mine the old school way with pen and paper From Primary, all as soon as they come up: Shatter-six slot Superior Defensive Barrage Entomb-five slot Winters Bite and Achilles Heel proc Seismic Force-Recharge (boosted) Upthrust-five slot Ragnarok and Force Feedback proc Tombstone-five slot Sting of the Manticore and either Entropy Chaos proc or Decimation proc Stalagmite-six slot Superior Blasters Wrath Meteor-Artillery(A/D, D/R, A/D/R), Overwhelming Force (Dam/KB, E/R), and FF proc From Secondary, all as soon as they become available Stone Prison-Acc Heavy Mallet-five slot Superior Blustering Cold, FF proc Build Up-Rchg Tremor-five slot Superior Avalanche, Fury of the Gladiator Proc Mud Bath-two slot Performance Shifter, End mod and proc, two slot Power Transfer End mod and Proc Beryl Crystal Seismic Smash-5 slot Hetacomb Odds and ends Combat Jumping-LotG, WG unique, Shield Wall unique, Reactive Defenses Unique Super Jump-two slot BotZ with -KB being one Acrobatics- Boxing-four slot Kinetic Combat Tough-defense uniques, 2 slot Weave-LotG, 2 slot Red Fortune Scorpion Shield-as Weave Stealth-as Weave Infiltration-LotG Hasten-two slot boosted recharge Brawl-as Boxing Health-end unique Stamina -two slot performance shifter

I don't know about better, it is different. I found Energy to be excellent on a Sent, probably tied with SR for the best secondary set.

I have seen a lot of posts mentioning using Cross Punch for earlier AoE when building a Super Strength Character. I have not seen many primary builds. I believe the framework for this comes from Captain Infinitum, but it should be a viable build. Interesting choices: Tough is not really needed for the resists, and because I took both Kick and Boxing to pump up Cross Punch, it is not needed in the final build to open up Weave. I am going for as natural of a character as possible, while still enjoying a travel power. I took Super Jump, (hello Hulk), but Super Speed would have worked as well without the graphics. I am old so tend to run into walls when speeding through a cave. Sprint and Athletic Run are more than enough for me inside. Without Fly, this means that Infiltration serves to slot my 5th LotG, although one could make a serious case for Maneuvers, but I had no slots for it. Comments are welcome regarding the build. I don't normally post with incarnate choices, but for this one I am planning Agility to flesh out the defense and Ageless Radial Epiphany to pump up the DDR.

This...100% this. Build for recharge, forget the combos.