Zerethon

Maint bot is alright, heal robot (Repair) was never an auto-take but it was useful at times, as Neiska pointed out, it's not as contested as other things (Moving -regen to the masterminds still crap-tier attacks, for instance) Overall, the bot's alright and since you get buffs/heals/etc from your secondary it's actually pretty darn alright in the long run.

Yep, if you're wanting to go Def over Res, Ice is just as mean in a lot of ways as /elec, little trickier to build as you need to work in a Travel power and whatnot, but you can also get the usual suite of perks from def IO sets really easy.

I main an Elec/Elec/Mu Sentinel, /Elec is basically SR, but resistance based, you get the free travel/recharge passive, Power sink + Elec attacks lets you totally nuke groups endurance So most enemies can't even attack you, and Mu gives you AOE to go with wanting to be close (For sink/short) in the form of thunderstrike. In short, it's a thematic combo that can tear through most content without too much trouble Oh, and you get a self-heal that doubles as an end cost reducer, so you can basically attack forever. /Elec is good with anything, to the level that i can take my Ele/Ele/Mu build, and replace Elec/ with literally any other primary and the build still works basically the same. You just trade the end drain for Whatever gimmick the primary has.

Maining an Elec/Elec/Mu Sent for a while, It's pretty much what everyone else has said, you kinda become an untouchable god. might take a second longer to kill things, but they can't fight back without end and can't really hurt you at all. + A note, if you're Elec/Elec, you can do a zero travel build, Sprint+Swift+Lightning Reflexes combined with concealment pool for stealth/slottble NR which gives you 2 luck slots for recharge as well. Gives you a LOT of build flexibility as well for epics/secondaries, haven't respecced my own build even after the changes to elec, but as-is it still destroys pretty much anything that crosses it's path, as long as you know target priority (If it's toxic and you're elec armor, kill it fast)

I'll send you a message with the full mids build, but here you go (Stats are L50, just IO's/sets, no boosted IO's or incarnates): (One minor change i just noticed, i have the synapse proc in STAMINA instead of an Endmod/Rech Perf shifter, and a different synshock in Short Circuit nowadays, i'll correct the file/build before i send it) Doing the ouro intro arc i was on +1/x8 with no issues even on the shivan mission that i farmed a few times for the 200 shivan defeats badge (So that's +1x8 at Level 15, scaled down), +1/+2 x8 rikti misssions are easily solo'd, Neg/Psi you could do better, but they're a bit rarer and the heal/regen makes up for it, especially with SentWard procs and energize I've got enough defense across the board to not care most of the time anyways, +4/x8 takes some extra movement if you're solo, but in a team, what bit of aggro you get or splash damage isn't generally even scary. Incarns i run Agility Radial Alpha with Preemptive core interface for even more endurance drain and defense, Assault for hybrid to help with damage when needed. Ageless for more rech. Ion Judgement Cage form + Storm elementals because why not fully be the fun police? more or less, even scaled down to the earliest TF's +0/+2 x8 is doable, and the higher the level the easier it gets, L50+ +1/+4 is all equally doable, as long as you prioritize the right targets or just nuke all their end to 0 and keep it there Even GM's/AV's are easily tanked if you shred their end to nothing, carry some standard-issue poison daggers for the -regen and you can even solo quite a few. It's definitely not as speciallized as some builds, or as purely deadly/durable, but it also can basically plow through enemies with little care. Regardless of what they are (Just watch for toxic damage) And yes, there's no travel power until technically 50, you don't need it. LR+Swift+Sprint+NR/AR/BR can hit over 80mph run speed, without NR/AR/BR you run around 65-70mph with just sprint, once you get infil it's an LOTG holder but it replaces NR/AR/BR when you're not scaled down. You can swap it for power surge while finishing the build to help with resistances in sketchy situations, but mind the crash. Oh yeah, never forget that the heal has a +regen and -end cost effect as well, so even if you're not NEEDING it as a heal, it's still worth popping for those buffs

Elec/Elec! Remind your enemies that there is ABSOLUTELY no fun allowed within 10 yards! Any theme works, especially true if you like retro/tech themes. I personally main an Elec/Elec/Mu and it's absolutely a riot to play Watching various GM's/AV's stand around with no endurance doing absolutely nothing is great, or just entire groups of enemies staring menacingly with weapons drawn, doing nothing 😅.

Not knowing exactly how you're built on them, there's still a lot of potential issues. Blasters do quite literally live and die by damage and CC, and they can handle +4/x8 pretty easy depending on the enemies and their powers, if the enemy group has a lot of mez effects and damage you don't have a combo of decent res/def too, you're dead. If they don't, you roll right over them. And i've said it before as well, but ANY build should be rock-solid without any incarnate powers whatsoever, and it's the biggest trap in the game. After all, if you build yourself entirely around the idea of always being 50+3 with all your T4's available, what happens when they're not there? You die, a lot. An Example It's a ridiculous combo done entirely for a laugh, and uses munitions just because i love watching LRM wipe the floor with things, that said, with zero incarnates it's got close to 50% S/L Resist with Body armor of all things, and it's scaling is ATROCIOUS and has some helpful defense to all from IO's/stealth/weave, combine Dark and Time and those defenses are a whole lot more impressive when you have Absorb and healing mixed with debuffs and CC. Even scaled down it's still a pretty scary combo. Is it as destructive as like, my Elec/Elec or Sonic/Rad sents or any of them? Naw, it's still easily nuked from time to time, but the raw damage i can put out in just my opening attack is absurd compared to sentinel damage.

Pretty much any blast set with a projectile delay at the right range, so long as one is a single projectile. EG: Fire blast -> Flares works, but Flares -> Fire blast doesn't (Unless there's a lot of lag or something) This is because the attack has to successfully connect to trigger the effect, so if it's still in flight and you lob the other attack, it still has the "Proc" effectively on it, and won't lose it even after the first attack hits. As for the OP, yeah, sonic is pretty hilariously good on sentinels, i built a sonic/rad around this idea and it's as absurd as you'd expect, with my /Elec & /SR Obsession, Sent /Rad was a no-brainer since it has a Quickness/Lightning Reflexes type ability in it, and at 35, you get even more AOE Fun with Ground Zero, plus you have innate absorb to go with the resistance and SWard Proc So kinda like my Elec/Elec/Mu you play like a scrapper a lot of the time, GZero heals and does PBAoE Damage to go with all your existing AOE, and the Res/Absorb combined with a free travel power means you can just jump in, go splodey, and reposition to meter the incoming damage easily. In a team? you're a terrifying mashup of a Rad defender/troller and a scrapper.

To be fair, at least one of them can be amazing when (ab)used right with other mods. Having the absorb proc in the right skills can add a hilarious amount of survival into your build, and the 2 sets combined buffed up to the superior versions adds 20% Range/Recharge to everything. I combine them with unbreakable guard/reactive defenses/aegis/Prev. Medicine/etc that all have multiple +res/def bonuses attached Won't say my builds are cheap, but generally they're hitting cap/softcap to everything they already have natural bonuses to, i wouldn't try to cap resist to toxic on my elec, rather, i just focus on exterminating enemies that heavily do that type of damage first and cap everything else that i can. ALSO, don't fall into the incarnates trap or T9 traps, make sure you leave things like T9's or mystic/willpower/epic clickies off and focus on getting your defenses as good as you can, better to have 73% resist or 44%+ Defense across the board, than 31% + T4 alpha to hit softcap or something. Getting SK'd down in content becomes murder at that point, because your defense is relying on something that only works @ 50+ or likely 38+

I primarily run an Elec/Elec/Mu and as oldskool pointed out, sentinels take a LOT of building to get to that +3/+4 x# range, fully built, all T4 incarns, yeah, you can do a LOT especially when combined with temp powers, but the investment and time can wear on you, especially if you're going for this as your first-ever sentinel build. i made it harder on myself, as while /elec is absurdly strong, it also doesn't get any innate defense, other sets like /EA are much easier to build-out (EA Even has a heal) but suffer from other holes. As the general rules still apply You need enough damage from skills/procs/debuffs to be able to take them down in a reasonable amount of time, and you need to be able to avoid or soak enough damage to not die in an alpha or from single un-dodged hits. Tough/Weave/Stealth/Combat Jumping/Etc. are useful to have on top of your secondary both for holding IO's (LoTG, etc.) and for the overall survival increases that they have. For AV's, -regen, -def and -res are all VERY powerful to have, along with control effects if available, and your own end recovery and sustain become extremely important, as fights can last for potentially many many minutes of just endlessly firing off attacks.

*Sigh* Alright then, since this post has devolved into personal attacks and banter anyways, let's play that game, shall we? I have been around CoX since BEFORE "Through the looking glass" back before level 50, costume editing, or really any of the modern conveniences we all know and love. And my lazy descriptions of something not relevant to the board shouldn't be taken as gospel, or a full descriptor. But, lets address those big 3 and their mechanics. (And yes, at one point, i know that TA was 4 out of 9 powers location targeted. Hence my comment about it having too many for a while) OSA is weird, it's always been weird, and it should stay weird. It's basically the only power in the game where you spawn an attack-able object that causes a delayed secondary effect, you drop the oil slick, and then either intentionally ignite it with direct damage, or you hit it with an AOE that triggers it to ignite. It's been a minute since i've pulled out any of my /TA's on homecoming, but it was originally ONLY fire that could ignite it. Which meant you either needed Archery's fire arrow, a flavor of fire blast, a fire proc, or a teammate with fire damage to trigger it. This made it basically the only power IN THE GAME with an elemental requirement to use it fully (A distinction i'm 90% sure was still true til' live closing) and hence, weird, it meant if you had no personal native way to trigger it, you couldn't actually use all of the power. Again, weird, but not "Bad" by any means. Disruption arrow is just, disruption arrow, and arguably one of the best powers in the set alongside acid arrow and EMP, being the trio of "Screw this group in particular" and there's not much to be said for an AOE -Resist power, other than the fact that like OSA it was a location-target effect, which had it's upsides and downsides. Though yes, old Disruptor was a particularly annoying griefing tool And EMP being just "Usable" is the fact that yes, it is a long-duration M3 hold, but the problem is that basically everything it was capable of 1-hit mezzing on non-trollers is inconsequential in most teams, since the fodder is usually dead instantly, but it is a slick opener when solo, just the downside of being treated like a blaster ult (Massive cost + no end regen on self after use) because it did damage to some targets and held was rather....annoying. However, -regen is arguably one of the strongest effects in the game, it's basically a requisite for solo-killing AV/M/GM level enemies, but sets like /Cold (Post I12) kinda do it better, since Benumb and the ilk can be perma'd and AOE -Regen isn't valuable in most situations, excluding things like LRSF/STF And lets not even touch the homecoming version(s?), since we're talking about the old days here. So yes, i always considered it "Usable" or "Good" and it was never a skipped power, but most of it's effects were found in less-janky forms in other sets (Cold, Rad, Thermal, Etc.) so it was basically just a serious stun with a heavy downside. Why use /TA when i can use /Therm or /Cold and get the same kind of debuffs without the end crash downside? The answer was always the MIX, TA was always good because it was basically all debuffs/controls as a trade for lacking support effects, i remember it being a fairly popular PVP set because of Glue/Entagling arrow being a reliable -fly effect without relying on epics like webnades By far not my personal most-played set, but also not my least-favorite set in the game by far either. I will gladly defer to you for in-depth knowledge on the set, as we will naturally have differing opinions/expertise.

Just swap Fire aura for Elec armor and you can run 1 build 😁since /elec has better coverage for resists and a better heal + Gets a free travel power so you get an extra pick for giggles. My Spines/Elec and SS/Elec can easily clear the +4/x8 Fire farms while also still being able to tank basically anything in the game with relative impunity. It IS slower to farm with though, no burn or fiery embrace, but that's a trade i'm willing to make for the easier build I'm curious as to what is "Unplayable" right now, as i assume it has more to do with actual content and not AT's And Trick arrow (Which i assume you mean by TA) Was never unplayably bad, especially when built well, it was just Niche, due to redraw you basically had to be Archery/TA to not slow down your rotation and the sheer stupid number of "Ground" targeted effects that should have been just TAoE make it tricky to play well. Plus it was also just weird with things like oil slick/ignite and also having an anti-machine power that was just "Usable" against non-machines for it's T9. But this is the sentinel board, not the Corr/Def/MM/Etc ones.

Oh man, my favorite char is Shadovolt, Elec/Elec/Mu mastery AKA "Mr. F*** yo' End Bar" Blappers were my blueside go-to for live pre-GR, so a stuck-in high defense ranged DPS was a dream come true. Ignoring all my nitpicks, i still have the most fun on HC running any one of my small army of sents (But most commonly shado) and just harassing enemies to death in creative ways, made an Energy/WP Recently JUST for punting fools across the map at mach 4. If/When the jankiness gets dealt with? I will more or less live on my sents when i'm not farming 😅

And i still stand by my original statements, my 2 most played and rolled classes on homecoming are my old love stalkers, and my new love sentinels. Blazing blast didn't kill that at all, rather re-highlighted the fact that this AT basically hasn't been touched since it's inception and opened that old wound. See, sentinel damage is fine, the EFFECT of opportunity is fine (The mechanic is flawed due to poor design and implementation) and they play fine. That's the problem though that i think is at play here. It's TOO "Fine" - Why dedicate any effort if the AT is fine? sure it annoys us that some changes/powers make absolutely no sense, but it's still fine so just ignore it, Right? I Mean, dealing with blazing blast was easy enough, i just swapped it for fire breath and the char feels a lot better to play because i'm not randomnly yeeting my target out of my shenanigans or melee range, but that doesn't make blazing blast NOT badly implemented when compared to the other modified powers. Most of which (Excluding a couple, like power push) are basically just "Snipe with no snipe charge or requirements" Hence my slapdash comment from earlier in this thread. In some cases, entirely new powers were made to replace things like damage auras or taunts, but then in basically all the primary sets, nobody has ever gone through and re-done the descriptions to match the new effect (Tesla cage for instance, still says "Minor" damage, like so so many other powers) And opportunity, well, there's been like 700 billion ideas thrown around, and it's still the same janky domination palette-swap it's always been. Did you know some sentinel sets are more broken than others by some peoples definition? Because you can STACK it? any set with 2 slow projectile attacks (Ice, fire, dark, etc.) that have fast animations can actually double-stack Offensive and defensive replete with the double vuln across up to 2 targets, which still doesn't make it "Great" because of it being reliant on actually hitting something to trigger, but it does mean certain blast sets have an "Unfair Advantage" by design. So no, my perspective hasn't changed. It's just an old wound of coming back and us still being riddled with jank that causes the occasional jarring kick out of my happy fun time of draining every AV/GM of their entire end bar.

Like most people, i've been here since the Original Score server went public, the original meltdown, the false threats that nuked it, etc. and i would gladly take a couple days out of my free time to use the same tools they are or even some others that i have access to to literally fix the descriptions, fix broken powers and possibly even throw in some overall community tweaks to the class and just send them the files. Heck, at least a year ago now, i was highly active in the sentinel rework threads bouncing the ideas/balance around from the board. Yes, sentinels are inherently a "Flawed" AT because high defense + Pure ranged damage is an inherently OP combination, but this is also CoX where even blasters now can use incarns and IO sets to do similar builds with several times the damage and nearly as much defense, and breakfrees are cheap to carry a couple. In short, we KNOW it's an ancient experimental AT that was made just to learn how making new classes worked, it's just annoying that after this long of homecoming being up, nobody seems to have even poked anything in the class to even try to fix super-old issues with it. Despite basically thousands of threads/tickets/posts/etc both pointing out and/or offering fixes I'm positive i'm not the only one with any GDev experience that would gladly take up the Sentinel Dev role for a while to fix them up.

I missed that, now i have to go look up what happened with THAT, because i'm curious now. The thing though, is it's been at least ~750 days with no changes to boot to what is more or less some Excel files, but a new zone, some costume updates, whole powerset "Balance" changes and more have all happened So why SHOULDN'T we critique them for sentinels still being in a sorry state with powers that were heavily modified from their base versions as drunken experiments that make what has been an pretty dang fun AT to play an occasional utter nightmare of jank if you don't spend 4 hours poring over the "Stock" and sentinel sets to see what was changed, commit that perfectly to memory, then build around it because nobody went through and edited most of the power Descriptions, despite having gone through the secondary sets and modifying/editing powers all willy-nilly sometimes for no reason at all other than "Balance" or something. Like why did /Nin get a stealth power, but energy aura had it's stealth removed entirely? With the big update that's planned, it definitely wouldn't hurt to have someone look over and dig through the AT, and at least fix the broken descriptions and fix some of the powers that have either dumb changes, or holdovers from their original versions that don't work for the role they fill for sents.

Honestly, a lot of it feels more slapdash than skilled. Some sets (Like my beloved Electric blast) Work perfectly fine, no random stupid, the damage is OK and the increased damage on the hold works well for making it a DPS staple if you know your anim/cooldown times so you can do speedy chains of hits over and over It's just, the messed up descriptions and constant missing updates for primary/secondary powers combined with the seeming lack of Care for the ONLY custom AT on the server, makes it a bit painful when you spend a while levelling a new build, only to find that it's painful to play because you didn't realize that this port has some idiotic change (Like Blazing blast) What we seemingly really need is someone on the dev team to dedicate like, a day or two to go through, update descriptions, and remove some of the stupid changes, and then they can spend some time looking at like, 2 years of data and tweaking the classes powers and ports to start improving them overall.

Exactly, the problem here is that it's Blazing blast, which like every other sentinel set is a Snipe converted into just a click damage power to act as another part of your DPS rotation, it's a bleedin' Tier 8 ST attack However, for fire in this case, somebody was absolutely drunk, tacked a bunch of dumb onto it, and basically ruined what should be one of the most useful powers in the set. and then did NOT CHANGE THE POWER DESCRIPTION TO INDICATE THE EXISTENCE OF THE DUMB overall, i feel like as i go through more sentinel builds, i'm going to find a lot more dumb changes/"Tweaks" hiding in powers now that probably contribute heavily to the meh-ness

It's because it's not just KB. It's got a random hold, mag 3-ish KB, and a mag 8 REPEL, so you can turn the KB to KD but the repel will still push enemies.

I noticed, was basically gone for a year, came back, and we're still in the same kinda "Meh" state, not unplayable, but still lagging behind because some super easy basic fixes/changes haven't even been ATTEMPTED let alone actually done

It's as amusing as it is annoying, it's basically a staple of your DPS rotation but against 99% of enemies you just keep pushing them around or tossing them out of your OWN damage effects (Because i totally enjoy throwing people out of my fire rain radius 😕) I Mean, it's so annoying i got rid of it for now, every other "Blast" converted snipe is basically just the snipe attacks, dunno why they felt fire of all sets needed a hold, knock and repel all tacked onto the death beam. when none of it adds to the power in the first place.

Why the absolute HECK Blazing blast has a mag 3+ knock and a Mag 8 REPEL attached to it now? I thought it was someone else in the team, until i went to do the incarnate arc and realized my lazer was a yeet lazer Was this always a thing and i just never read the power, or is this new? hadn't played this char in like a year.

Sure, and because someone will chime in on it. It's not built for the "Insane Deeps" it's more about smashing END off enemies (Including AV's and up, naturally) though originally i had some slotting for more spike damage on certain powers (Zpping bolt, tesla cage) Chance to stun is comical in elec builds and should probably be unique just for this edge-case....But it's not and for a heavily offense focused build, it's a thing of beauty, if i had the extra slots i'd slot a few for even more CC Build: Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Shadovolt: Level 50 Magic Sentinel Primary Power Set: Electrical Blast Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: ------------ Level 1: Lightning Bolt SprOppStr-Rchg/+Opportunity:50(A), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg:50(3), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43) Level 1: Charged Armor Ags-ResDam:50(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx:50(5), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), Ags-ResDam/Rchg:50(46) Level 2: Ball Lightning SprSntWar-Rchg/+Absorb:50(A), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg:50(3), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), SprSntWar-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(50), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(50) Level 4: Conductive Shield UnbGrd-ResDam:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(5), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(34), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(46) Level 6: Zapping Bolt Dvs-Hold%:50(A), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), Dvs-Acc/Dmg:50(7), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(25), Dvs-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40) Level 8: Aim GssSynFr--Build%:50(A) Level 10: Energize Prv-Absorb%:50(A), Prv-Heal:50(11), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(11), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(19), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(40) Level 12: Tesla Cage Lck-%Hold:50(A), Dvs-Hold%:50(13), Dvs-Acc/Dmg:50(21), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(50) Level 14: Stealth LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), Rct-ResDam%:50(15), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(15), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34) Level 16: Static Shield Ags-Psi/Status:50(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx:50(17), Ags-ResDam:50(17) Level 18: Charged Shield RgnTss-Regen+:30(A), RgnTss-Heal/EndRdx:30(29) Level 20: Grounded GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A) Level 22: Hasten RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(23), RechRdx-I:50(23) Level 24: Combat Jumping LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), GifoftheA-Run+:40(25) Level 26: Short Circuit FuroftheG-ResDeb%:50(A), Obl-%Dam:50(27), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(27), SynSck-EndMod/+RunSpeed:50(36), SynSck-Dam/Acc/End:50(37) Level 28: Lightning Reflexes Run-I:50(A), Run-I:50(29) Level 30: Kick Dmg-I:50(A) Level 32: Thunderous Blast Rgn-Knock%:50(A), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Rgn-Acc/Rchg:50(43) Level 35: Power Sink PrfShf-End%:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg:50(36) Level 38: Tough Ags-ResDam:50(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx:50(39), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), Ags-ResDam/Rchg:50(39) Level 41: Electrifying Fences GrvAnc-Hold%:50(A), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx:50(42), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Rchg:50(43) Level 44: Thunder Strike Arm-Dam%:50(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Arm-Acc/Rchg:50(46) Level 47: Weave LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(48), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx:50(48), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48) Level 49: Power Surge StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A) Level 1: Brawl Dmg-I:50(A) Level 1: Opportunity Level 1: Sprint Clr-Stlth:50(A), Clr-RunSpd:50(31) Level 2: Rest Heal-I:50(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift Run-I:50(A), Run-I:50(36) Level 2: Health Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(13), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(19) Level 2: Hurdle Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina PrfShf-End%:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod:50(9), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg:50(9) Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon Level 50: Ion Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Preemptive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Control Radial Embodiment Level 50: IDF Core Superior Ally ------------ Datalink: Shadovolt Build Summary: Decent DPS, high END Drain/rec debuff, VERY high resists (Near cap or capped to 5) and hovering around the 20% Defense mark basically across the board, pretty speedy as well with ninja run on (80.5mph) Downsides: Not super fast to kill, no real extra damage types for resistant enemies, and Energize is occasionally necessary just for the end discount in long fights, especially in non-incarnate content (EG: Anything under 50+ level) Overall, though. Suuuper fun to play, you pretty much only need 1-2 hits or a nuke and a group of enemies is permanently out of end, aside from maybe 1 lucky random dodge where they get a poke in before you nuke their end again, and in teams, you basically become a secondary controller. Fast recharge on TB combined with cages pretty much ensures you have a bunch of useless punching bags staring at you, instead of groups of enemies Solo, well, everything is equally difficult if it can't attack you.

Oh i'm fully aware, it's why i pushed it into the specifically-stated opinion side of that post. I Feel the "Sentinels need more damage" camp, i REALLY do, but sentinels have SO MANY ADVANTAGES already with proper armor sets and everything that if just the damage gets bumped up to be more in-line with blasters, they'll actually overshadow them Keep in mind too, being mezzed suppresses many many powers, so while they can still do damage, it's also at a massively higher risk-case than a sentinel that has protection to that mez. Lets use a stun for example - The sent will take that hit, still have travel, full power access, and full defense....while the blaster can still attack, but now has suppressed movement and defenses due to still being stunned. Things like this get lost in discussion and feelings/opinions very very fast. Yes i know about breakfrees and everything else. in a perfect world you always have a full tray of the right insp at the right time. But nothing is ever perfect. When we're comparing classes, there's always a weakness in an AT What is a base sentinels weakness then? If they get blaster-tier damage with full armor sets, would they still even have one? Lack of CC isn't really a thing due to the design of sentinel blast mez attacks and the EPP/PPP options we have access to...And we can't say lack of melee attacks when we're a ranged DPS. Tanks and brutes have a flaw (Lack of range) Scrappers have a flaw (Also lack of range) Blasters/Corrs/Defs have a flaw (Low armor, no real mez resist) and so on, so if Sents have scrapper-level defense, but a more purely ranged playstyle....What's the drawback? Currently, the trade is Damage for Safety, but the shift is a -TINY- bit too much on the damage mostly due to the overall scale of the attacks we have and the overall clunkiness of the passives (Too many different things trying to work together with zero explanation or QoL) but even in the current state sentinels can be almost "Broken" in the fun way with proper builds These always end up being bloody long because i'm super wordy, point being: The "Fixes" to sentinel should start by reforging the passive and associated effects into a MUCH simpler package with a similar power level, see how that plays out in actual gameplay over a period of time, and THEN look at things like increasing base damage or adjusting the scale of powers in the various sentinel sets. I Mean, who's to say opportunity wouldn't be absolutely broken if the offense/defense effects weren't reliant on first getting a hit and we could have builds with potentially 100% uptime?

In my experience (I know, but this is OPINION, rather than pure hard data, working on that part still) 1.) The idea as a whole is fine, we perform especially in teams pretty much like one would expect a tanky damage dealer to perform, we don't hit big numbers but we hit endlessly. Solo, Sentinels are MONSTROUS when built and played well 2.) Overall, in current state, it's less "Sentinels horribly under-perform" and more "Sentinels are clunky and hard to understand" because the passive has like 8 parts, requires 2 powers to have both options, and has basically ZERO in-depth explanation in game because it's overcomplicated currently. 3.) #2 is paired with the fact that we ALSO have tweaked ranged DPS sets AND secondaries, so they don't build the same as other classes, even stalkers are generally less messed with than sents. Now, the opinion part: The problem here, is sentinels are EXTREMELY durable and EXTREMELY safe, we never actually have to walk into danger territory unless we just want too or have a melee we feel the need to use Yes, at the extreme, blasters can also take a ton of damage, but they still lack things like mez protection and the various flavors of BS sentinels can pull due to having actual armor sets Even at 80% of a blasters damage, sans inherent effect, sentinels suddenly blow blasters out of the water, 20% less DPS is a noteworthy loss, but having your ranged DPS be entirely self sufficient and nearly mez-immune before buffs is a very tempting tradeoff in a LOT of content. A mezzed blaster does 0 DPS after all. And sentinels are MUCH Easier to cap/softcap due to well, armor sets. If we want to come up with a change that buffs the damage, without devaluing or invalidating other AT's in the same role, there's a checklist: 1.) Must be conditional, probably controllable. Not just "Increased sentinel base damage by 50%" 2.) Should be unique to the sentinel ("JUST ADD CRITS" - No.) 3.) Should remove the dependency on having both T1 options 4.) EPP/PPP Power scales should be reworked in the process for sentinel (Sorry Psy mastery, but everyone should be as good as you are. What, expected a "Nerf it!!!?") 5.) Sentinels should do less damage than other ranged AT's still even post change, by a noteworthy amount to trade for their utility, so the final state should be more like Brute vs. Scrapper when talking about Sentinel V. Blaster or other useless comparisons (It should be Sent vs. HEAT/Ranged VEAT not v Blasters, imo) Because again, we're more like a PB/WS without shapeshifts, or a Fort/Crab without pets and free leadership, Sent really just needs something to CLEARLY define it's role and some QoL And we'd be pretty well off.