Erratic1

I suspect you may have been a victim of +Recharge as goes endurance, not toggle cost (well, Lightning Field...). Blood Frenzy increases how often you can attack and Lightning Reflexes also increases how often you can attack. Blood Frenzy's endurance discount helps offset how much faster it makes you attack but that leaves Lightning Reflexes not being accounted for. The play experience would be running low on endurance and detoggling. If you were running Lightning Field as well, I am not surprised at there being endurance woes. I think the idea is that you pump out higher dps because you are attacking more, but your overall endurance cost is the same. Your survival consideration is higher dps means foes die quicker and have less time to damage you. Still, Resistance setss can take a bit of time in comparison to Defense sets to come into their own.

I have a 50 Rad/Shield scrapper, so I can speak to how the combination feels. In short, think of glaciers--inexorable but not quick. The damage is great and the area splash and damage aura clear out trash handily. However it is not a zippy, quick, mash button wildly style of play. It's a ballroom waltz, not a tango. The other thing about the combo is it is a bit endurance hungry. It is not the hungriest I have played but it is hungrier than average. My solution was to on top of slotting endurance reduction in every attack and full slotting Stamina was to slot Performance Shifter, Panacea, take Physical Perfection and slot Theft of Essence, which can mult-proc on a Contaminated hit.

I forgot all about TT today! I didn't get to show Warboss the character he provoked to make from the last TT on Torchbearer. 😭

Perhaps by not selectively quoting it out of context? The full statement was: That speaks to the context of being at blaster level damage as "ranged scrapper" would imply given Blasters and Scrappers are supposed to be on par in terms of damage. You removed the qualifying statement and misrepresented what was being said.

What is inaccurate is your reading. Nowhere have I stated that Sentinels HAVE the damage output of blasters. I have opposed the notion of moving them up to it either directly or indirectly by baking in debuffs.

If the notion was that Opportunity was supposed to be a boost to damage and survival then depending on what it gets replaced with small boosts to damage/defenses do no strike me as being out of line.

Darn it, I did not need a 41st character, but now you have me thinking of pairing Savage Melee with Energy Aura since Entropic Aura gives a recharge boost based on the number of nearby foes. IIRC, Blood Frenzy stacks to roughly 24% recharge. In the middle of a group with Entropic Aura you could add another 40% to be at 64% Recharge with no Recharge actually slotted!!! Good thing Energy Aura comes with Energy Drain, as the build will need it. Edit: Blood Frenzy will stack to 20% not 24%. As for Entropic Aura...

Being a primary damage dealer does not necessarily mean the same thing as hitting as hard as some other AT. Corruptors and Defenders do spend some of their time on buffing, debuffing, and healing. When I play my Kinetics defender more of my time is typically spent doing those things than delivering damage--which is typically being used to debuff the target so others can deal even more damage than Fulcrum Shift and Power Siphon already allow them. There is precious little of my time on my Sentinel doing anything other than blasting--my secondary powerset being about keeping me safe and working and not requiring a lot of time to get value from. And unlike my Blaster, no time is ever spent being mezzed or knocked around and less time is spent maneuvering so things do not get close. The freedom to continuously put out damage means something. Granted there is time spent getting into range every now and then. And yes, I consider the Defender (and moreso the Corruptor) as dps ATs. They just are not top tier ones in team situations, at least not directly. But if the damage output of the team is doubled by my Fulcrum Shift that damage happened because of me. Bringing another Blaster would not have increased the team's damage as much. In the realm of the game where people feel their team needs a particular AT the want Blasters and Scrappers for dps, Tankers and Bruisers to take alpha strikes and hold aggro, Controllers, Corruptors, Defenders, and Masterminds for healing, buffs, debuffs, and control, etc. Certainly the import of "ranged scrapper" suggests more damage, but as I noted in my first post in the thread, it seems to me a bit unfair for Sentinels to be at Blaster damage output levels and have considerably better survivability. There should be some tradeoff for being able to better take hits and ignoring status effects other than range and AoE target caps. If that is hitting less hard than a Blaster, I am finexwith it just like I am fine with my Corruptors hittingbless hard for the buffs/controls/healing they have. But I do want people to have a reason when a Sentinel joins the team to expect some gain other than someone who will be good on their own.

I think you should have ignored obviously crazy people.

I am unsure what is deceptive, especially when you echo my point by looking at the range of damage on various ATs. As for "appeasing" people, if AT does not matter much at end game, why are you expecting to feel needed by a particular change when it is clear nobody is needed? It is not about appeasing people, it's about make a difference where a difference is meaningful.

(1) I almost always team as well. I happen to greatly enjoy the Protean story arc and so do it on every character. (2) Sentinels are a dps class, but I am pretty sure that when you are in the character creator nearly every other class with the exception of Controllers and Masterminds is listed there. Doing dps covers a very wide range. (3) I admit I have not done nearly as much in pushing veteran levels as I could have, so far preferring to work character ideas as they come to me over polishing their post-50 forms. Even putting half of them on the back burner for various reasons (did not evolve to play as I expected, or requires more influence expenditure than I am prepared to make at this point) that still leaves me with ten characters in their 30s, five in their 40s, and five at 50+. However, I think when looking at where the population bulge is for actively played characters is I have that ground pretty well covered. (4) Most ATs feel pretty superfluous as you near 50. The Tanker is wondering what role he is serving when spawns die instantly, the Blasters feeling outshone by other ATs which may not kill quite as quickly but do so quickly enough while bringing other benefits to the team, the Controllers feeling a lot like the Tanker, etc. So good are the various ATs at that point that you see "degenerate" teams of single ATs forming. Tanker Tuesday is a cross server, scheduled event. Pure Defender teams go back to the early days of the game. I have seen pure Mastermind groups form (shudder to think what that must be like in a cave). And just this week I was invited to an all Sentinel supergroup. Point here being that endgame, chocked full of IOs, who is filling a team slot is pretty meaningless. It's in the lower game that AT matters. (5) As I noted, I agree that Sentinels need something when it comes to teams. I just do not agree that more damage or buffing damage is it. The name of the AT does not suggest damage powerhouse nor damage enabler. In fact, I would go the opposite way and instead have Sentinels redirect a portion of damage dealt by their targets to themselves for a duration after being hit. If that is too hard to code, then a damage debuff on their targets.

Yes, that is what they were designed to have. And in exchange for their controls and buffs/debuffs they get crappy damage. What precise downside do you want to give Sentinels for top level damage, second best defenses and now, at your suggestion, debuffing? I literally (as in your reply notification made bleep) just soloed Protean with a level 23 Sentinel. Of the 40 characters I have, each of which I invariably do the Protean arc with (excepting the two controllers because that would be exercise in frustration) I have precisely two others who have done it--a Reflexes Tank and a Mastermind. The Reflexes Tank relied on not getting hit and even then had to retreat twice and rest up to do it. The Mastermind ran out of pets once, got put down, and managed by summoning pets, waiting for cooldowns to reset so as to be able to resummons during the fight as needed, and then facing Protean. The Sentinel? One pass, no retreats, popped 4 Respites. Its as cake walk as I've ever done against an AV at that level. All I had to do was stay in constant motion (so much for the notion that range is not a defense you were putting out) and between good damage, healing, and an absorption shield it was not a problem. The controllers, defenders, and corruptors of the world? They would have been in for a world of hurt. I would agree Sentinels need to bring more to a team. Debuffs do not strike me as that something they need to be bringing. There's the level 50 blaster I just finished levelling last week. Yes, Blasters do mondo damage. Something about glass cannon. It does not take much going wrong for a blaster to face plant.

Thanks for the reply. Makes sense.

I am curious what the issues are.

Why not give them radial healing around the target and themselves too? Oh, and have them buff all friendly units within 255' range with extra damage, resistance, and defense? And while we're at it, Sentinels should spawn pets with each attack (which die upon zoning...wouldn't want to get out of hand).

Specific sets on all ATs traipse across role lines, sure. With proper power set choice one can make a controllery blaster or a buffy controller, or whatever. That is wholly different from implementing an AT-wide mechanism which tramples on what another AT does. And at the point where Sentinels get Scrapper level damage, which is what Blasters are supposed to have in exchange for weak survivability, what is the point in having Blasters...longer range?

Late response, but Resistance Debuff is the realm of Defenders and Corruptors. So your proposal would step on their feet with neither of those ATs dealing Blaster level damage nor having the inherent survivability of Sentinels. Seems a bit unfair.

Thank you everyone!

Having started an Ice/Time Corruptor this past weekend and having found him more enjoyable than several other Corruptors I have had, I am surprised to see the negative comment near the beginning of the thread.

I played in Beta, in release, and tried multiple times to take a Blaster up, but invariably something just didn't click. Most attempts felt off by their mid-20s while a few made it into their 30s. Finally, with Beam Rifle/Martial Combat/Mace everything felt good the entire way. In truth, I suspect Beam Rifle did most of the lifting for getting me over the hump since seeing Disintegration appear over multiple heads in a thrill, though Martial Combat providing endless endurance played a part. Not sure yet what to do with a 50 Blaster, but looking forward to finding out.

Allow me to second the above comment regarding Poison. You can make a character that functions with it, and I have done so more than once. But I also had experience playing a lot of Defenders and Corruptors at that point. While Fire/Kinetics and Fire/Time are both solid suggestions, let me also toss Ice/Time out for consideration. What you end up with is a damage dealer with a side order of control. This gives you the ability to face groups solo because you can delay incoming attacks to so great an extent. Because you have three holds, keeping boss mobs locked down is simple (and two of your holds deal damage).

Tanker armor abilities start with higher base values meaning they take less damage out of the box, get more value form enhancements, and have an easier time reaching defense/resistance caps. All secondary set attacks provoke, so a Tanker has an easier time holding aggro. At any given level with similar investment before IOs come into play a Tanker will be more survivable and hold aggressive better than another AT*. *There may be a few edge cases where another AT may equal/surpass a Tanker in a particular aspect, but as a total package with equal resources, I think they would fall short.

Since I did not quote you, I think you are confused.

I have a Mind/Savage Dom I started recently. Fun, though I can see no end of influence consumption in his future.

By definition, applying to most everyone is not a narrow way of looking at things...it covers most everyone. Personally, I would not be so hasty in replying so as to miss things like that, but you do what makes you happy as it is not meaningfully annoying to me.