stryve

Don't forget Ailment Resistance and Second Wind will swap places as to available level.

I am somewhat confused as to what this section means. Especially the fourth bullet point with Psionic Armor.

Ran another set of tests with purpose-created toons. All using War Mace/Stone Armor, slotted with standard level 50 IOs (no set IOs), with no Incarnates and no Inspirations. War mace because it has a wide cone, a narrow cone, and a PBAoE. Stone Armor for the damage/debuff aura, general effectiveness, and similarities across all three ATs (disregarding the T9, which I did not take). Only differences in power choice or slotting were Scrapper Confront (Taunt on Brute & Tanker) and Brute Superior Conditioning from Energy Mastery (Conserve Power on Scrapper & Tanker). All tests run at -1/x8 to ensure maximum enemy group size without overwhelming non-set defensive values (the Scrapper in particular could not reliably survive +0/x8 groups). Three runs with each AT using Galaxy Brain's Office Mission Simulator. Average Times AT Time Scrapper 10:53 Brute 8:12 Tanker 9:24 The Scrappers lower toughness hurt it more than runners here. The Immobilize and Slow field from Mud Pots helped mitigate against runners, but even without I think the four defeats over three runs would have totaled more time taken. Also may have just been bad RNG with spawns, as both the Brute and Tanker saw multiple spawns with no Bosses each run, while I can't remember any without at least two Bosses for the Scrapper. The Brute went down once, while the Tanker was rarely threatened. Better builds and/or players may see different results. In retrospect, War Mace may not have been the best choice, since Crowd Control has a 10 target cap on Brutes and Scrappers, while Shatter has a cap of 5 on all ATs. Also, the End usage was pretty harsh across all ATs.

Personally, I like patch holds, at least as they are currently implemented on Live (Dark, Earth, Arsenal). I even prefer Location AoE over Targeted AoE for such patches, though I am aware this is a contentious opinion. I also feel that Gravity in particular is well suited to leveraging the advantages of a patch Hold. Really, I only have a few complaints about the new patch holds as presented in RC1, and the last isn't actually about the new patches at all. Something about the transition to "True Pseudo-Pets" is causing issues not seen with existing patch Holds on Live, which is definitely problematic. If this can't be resolved, I would support shifting to Adaptive Recharge for the new patches and leaving existing patches as they are on Live. I prefer the flexibility offered by Location AoEs over the convenience of Targeted AoEs, at least for Mez patches. Given the choice, I would take a 180 second base recharge over the initial 16 target Hold. But then, I've long thought 240 seconds base (or max, with Adaptive Recharge) is excessive for AoE Holds. What do they offer that warrants such a massive increase compared to a Blast Set T9 with almost the same Mez plus massive damage on a 125, 145, or 170 second base recharge? I am annoyed that 4 of the seven Arsenal powers that interact with Containment are being reduced from 100% to 33% chance of triggering Containment. I understand that this is probably to bring all pets and pseudo-pets into alignment with the changes this Page, but it's still aggravating.

Ok, ran through the Tankers I have rough analogues of on other ATs. All tests performed using Galaxy Brain's Office Mission Simulator at +4/x8. All toons adjusted to have Musculature Radial Alpha, Reactive Core Interface, and Assault Hybrid. No active usage of Incarnates. I did use Blue Inspirations when I screwed up and ran myself out of Endurance a few times, but none aside from that. Character AT Time Ice/Stone Brute 7:52 Ice/Ice Scrapper 9:21 Ice/Ice Tanker 11:40 Shield/Kin Tanker 16:54 Kin/Willpower Scrapper 10:53 SR/MA Tanker 14:55 MA/SR Scrapper 9:24 First, I wasn't expecting that particular Brute to do so well. Guessing it's a combination of Brute Punchvoke keeping things grouped well, Stone Armor being better than Ice Armor for damage, and a just plain better build than the Scrapper or Tanker. Second, these runs just cemented my previous conclusion about melee cones: anything less than a 120° arc isn't going to get much value out of higher target caps without aggressive re-positioning for better angles once a fight starts. Ice Melee's Frost actually has a cap of 10 on Scrappers & Brutes, but I still wasn't getting more than 5 most of the time. It also has a radius of 10ft on all ATs, so increased radius doesn't help much there. On the other hand, cones are part of my single target rotation on several of my Tankers, so I appreciate that damage hasn't been decreased. Third, lack of ability to hold aggro definitely hurts Scrapper times. I felt that the most on MA/SR, though it was still pretty noticeable on Ice/Ice, with Kin/Will being the best. At least as far as having to chase runners goes. Fourth, the damage decrease for PBAoEs is very noticeable, especially with sets that don't have cones or damage auras to lean on. My SR Scrapper and Tanker in particular have builds about as close as can be between those ATs, with identical attack chains. Some of the difference in time is down to Scrappers being better at clearing hard targets like Bosses and EBs, but just mopping up the Minions and Lieutenants was notably slower on the Tanker, despite having to chase down runners on the Scrapper. Tanker Kinetic Melee's Burst does solidly more damage per target than Repulsing Torrent on Live but significantly less on Beta, as well. There's a point after which it is faster to do more damage to fewer targets than lower damage to more targets, and the proposed Tanker AoE changes are well past that. Lastly, since all of these are full builds from Live, there's a fair bit of variance just from set bonuses and differing power choices. There might be value in testing otherwise identical SO builds across multiple ATs just to reduce variables, though that would have to be run lower than +4/x8. Don't know if I'll be able to work up the energy to do it myself, unfortunately.

Have some extra time today, so I've been trying out my Tankers in Galaxy Brain's Office Mission Simulator. Nothing valid as a comparative test yet, mostly just familiarizing myself with the mission (so I don't was time hunting for a missed group) and re-familiarizing myself with a few toons I haven't been playing lately. My major initial impression is the performance differences between cone radius and arc. In general, I find arc is more important than radius for consistently hitting more targets in the middle of combat. I had a decent selection of cone sizes between Ice Melee, Dark Melee, Kinetic Melee, and Titan Weapons: Ice Melee - 10ft 90° Dark Melee - 7ft 120° Kinetic Melee - 40ft 45° Titan Weapons - 10ft 120° Even with a shorter reach, it was easier to hit 5 or more targets with Dark than Ice in the middle of combat. The extra reach wasn't useless, especially on approach, but even with active repositioning I was more likely to hit fewer than 5 targets with Ice. Titan Weapons had the best of both worlds, but still required active positioning to consistently hit more than 5 targets once mobs started moving. Kinetic Melee is an outlier in multiple ways, and requires jumping entirely out of a group to leverage the cone; I was lucky to get more than 2-3 hits while surrounded. These were all run at x8 to be clear. I'll try to run some more controlled tests later, with comparisons to Scrappers and Brutes.

There's also Tear Gas from Arsenal Control. I've used all three, and as far as actual control goes, new GDF is about the same. Pretty solid at locking down large groups, though the slight delay before initial pulse can let mobs react before freezing. Bosses and other mez resistant mobs may need a few pulses to stack Mag before being Held, which means they need to be kept within the field. Absolutely excels at long fights and any time multiple groups can be funneled through a specific area (pulls, ambushes, etc.). In terms of direct damage, none are great (Shadow Field doesn't actually do any damage at all). With GDF qualifying targets for Impact damage from other Gravity powers however (Lift, Propel, Lift from Singularity) , I'd say it comes out ahead. Gravity also has a built-in method of moving mobs directly with Wormhole, which is not present in Arsenal or Earth. The changes to Black Hole will give Dark a similar option, though the mechanics are different enough I don't know how the utility of each will stack up against the other. Finally, Singularity is amazing at grouping mobs and keeping them in one spot...at least until it randomly decides to flee. The new pet controls will give Controllers an advantage over Dominators there, but Teleport Target works decently at getting Singularity where you want it.

Finally got a chance to hop onto Brainstorm again this evening. Decided to run around SW Kallisti Warf for a bit, trying out various patches on 50+ groups. Sleep Grenade, Liquid Nitrogen, and Tear Gas are all still showing the same 33% Containment proc rate, unfortunately. So is Tri-Cannon, but that was expected since it's explicitly called out in the Controller Pets section. I did pay a little more attention to Tear Gas, as it occurred to me I'm not entirely sure what " set stacking to replace" means. Bosses that stayed in the cloud were Held after a pulse or two, so it's still stacking Mag. After thinking about things for a few days, the changes to pet/pseudo-pet Containment proc rate are probably to bring Arsenal in line with what other Control sets are getting in this Page, which is... understandable. I'm not particularly enthused about it though, especially in regards to Sleep Grenade (since the damage portion is a single burst on impact, rather than a continuing pulse like Liquid Nitrogen or Tear Gas). I'd much rather a higher percentage was used for proc rate across the board. It's not like even 100% would be breaking any DPS records.

Testing between Live and beta, I did notice a slight improvement in mobs falling back asleep after waking up in Sleep Grenade. I also appreciate the duration/recharge changes to Tear Gas, even if it comes with decrease of potential damage (16 ticks of 12.2 vs. 12 ticks of 17.75 with the same slotting). However, the "significant impact when combined with the new 3s rules for Controller Containment triggers after sleep is broken" mentioned in the Design Notes is really not in evidence. The reason for this is simple: of the seven powers in Arsenal that can trigger Containment, four now only have a 33% chance to do so. The only powers left are Tranquilizer, Cryo Freeze Ray, and Flash Bang. Two single target powers and an AoE Stun with low enough damage it's only worth mentioning for completions sake. I have tested on Beta while tracking Pet Combat, and the other four powers that can trigger Containment (Sleep Grenade, Liquid Nitrogen, Tear Gas, Tri-Cannon) are doing so about 33% of the time. On Live, all four are triggering Containment 100% of the time. Unless I'm missing something, the significant impact here is the massive reduction in Arsenal's ability to leverage Containment at all. Additionally, there's something odd going on with the Power Details in the Enhancement screen on Beta. Tranquilizer including Containment in Average Damage never was fixed after Arsenal went live, possibly something similar is happening with Sleep Grenade, Tear Gas, and Tri-Cannon on Beta? Liquid Nitrogen has always been off just because of how the power works, but it's even worse on Beta now. Here's a comparison of Average Damage as shown in Power Details on Live and Beta: Average Damage Power Live Beta Sleep Grenade 96.79 128.63 Liquid Nitrogen 476.55 953.91 Tear Gas 195.26 243.47 Tri-Cannon 178.84 357.45 And here's a comparison of Listed Damage as shown in Power Details on Live and Beta: Listed Damage Power Live Beta Sleep Grenade 1x96.79 1x96.72 Liquid Nitrogen 5x119.14 5x119.12 Tear Gas 12x17.75 16x12.2 Tri-Cannon 4x14.9 4x14.89 4x14.9 4x14.89 4x14.9 4x14.89 As can be seen, despite Listed Damage displaying as very slightly lower on Beta, Average Damage displays as significantly higher. I'm sure these are just due to the quirks in how Power Details calculates things, as has happened many times before. Finally, Liquid Nitrogen and Tri-Cannon have no mention of the current 33% chance for Containment, even if both very definitely have it.

Tried out Rime and the new Icy Bastion on my Ice/Savage Tanker (I do not have Hibernate on Live), since it was a themed build I've never been happy with. Max HP is lot lower without Hoarfrost, but ~1200 Absorb from Rime makes up for that quite well. Rime and Hoarfrost require about the same amount of total Recharge to make perma, which I managed to maintain through the Respec. The faster cycle time could be annoying if you don't like having to interrupt your attack chain that often, but much like Energize I consider it worth the click. I even managed to make use of the untouchable regen from Icy Bastion. Admittedly by accident (I forgot to double click), but it worked out pretty well. Barring major changes, I plan to respec this Tanker once the update hits Live. I also have an Ice/Ice Tanker and Scrapper that will stick with Hoarfrost, since I like where they are and don't want to juggle things around too much. Finally, I'll have to see how Rime does on my Energy/Ice Sentinel. I managed to make the set work on Live, but it took a lot of effort and I tend to agree with Heatstroke about Moisture Absorption (not to mention Frigid Shield).

I likely will not respec my Psi/Regen Scrapper for that reason. Pretty happy with how it is now, and testing with Ailment Resistance and Reactive Regeneration showed about the same performance. On the other hand, I do remember leveling him up, and Dull Pain's long recharge was very painful before I started getting things properly slotted. Finally finished comparative testing on my Rad/Regen Sentinel, as I was a little more methodical than with the Scrapper. This is an old toon, with a build that predates the major Sentinel rework, but he still does pretty well. Full T4 Incarnates, all four +End/Max HP Accolades, etc. Between power enhancement, Accolades, and set bonuses, Max HP is at the cap for the AT; Second Wind is slotted with a single Recharge Red and mostly used for Rez when I get overwhelmed. I was very worried about loosing the Absorb shield from Instant Regeneration (95.17 every 3 seconds, capping at 475.86), since it's great for soaking alpha and then giving some breathing room for general regen to work during a fight. Porting the toon over to Brainstorm with no build changes, the differences in Regen Rate and Debuff Resist are very apparent: Losing the Absorb hurt, but nearly doubling the resting Regen Rate makes up for a lot. To ensure an equivalent test on both sides, I ran the Welcome to Vanguard arc from Levantera in RWZ on both live and beta, escalating difficulty from +1/x6 to +4/x6 at the end. That arc has enough spawn density to easily get well over the agro cap shooting you, so x6 just means a few less bosses than x8. Overall, performance seemed pretty even between the two. Getting the attention of multiple groups at +4/x6 pushed me to the edge and kicked me over if I wasn't right on the ball, but that's what Second Wind is for. I was honestly expecting an experience closer to what Taoquex reported earlier in this thread, but it's just not what I saw. Now, a lot of that is probably down to build choices, as I have a fair bit of DEF and Resist from Pool Powers and set bonuses which with capped Max HP likely let me eat the alpha long enough for Reactive Regeneration to kick in. Pretty sure I saw my Regen Rate hit ~150 hp/sec at least once during the worst of it, though I unfortunately didn't think to grab another screenshot. Adding in Reconstruction and the occasional MoG was usually enough to keep me up long enough to reduce incoming fire. Overall impressions of the changes for a Sentinel: Trading Absorb for greatly increased Regen Rate works out about even. Decreased cast time for MoG is greatly appreciated; feels much smoother to activate, especially reactively. Adding +20% Debuff Resist to all categories may not seem like much, but it has a noticeable effect in practice and gives a better base to build from.

My two Regen toons are a Psi/Regen Scrapper and a Rad/Regen Sentinel. Dove into trying out the Scrapper right off, running PI radio missions. This toon has Dull pain perma on live and kept that with Second Wind on beta, but gets there with Ageless Radial (T4). He also has T4 Musculature Radial, but no other Incarnates yet. First batch of missions were all Carnies, so I decided it was fate and all testing was done with Carnies. Breezed through +1x6 and +2x6 with no issues. Increased to +3x8 and was just having to be a little careful... until I ran face first into a series of merged groups with 4-6 bosses between them, evenly split between Master Illusionist and Dark Mistress. That many debuffs dropped me real fast, plus all the Phantasms started overwhelming my KB Protection. Faceplanted a bunch (Second Wind's auto-rez was working just fine) before I started retreating to recover and string them out. Instant Healing and Reconstruction just weren't enough to keep me up otherwise. After the first group I respeced into Reactive Regeneration to see if it would make a difference, but the end result was about the same. Which is really an improvement for consistency, since I was seeing about the same performance with a toggle as with a long-recharge self-buff click. Then I decided to compare performance with live. Turns out I can still mostly manage +3x8 Carnies, but just 2 bosses in a regular sized group are likely to take me out. Overall, the increases to Debuff Resistance was very noticeable between beta and Live. The Carnie defeat power barely moved my blue bar on beta, but I still had to keep an eye on it on live. Ageless Radial caries a lot of weight there for both, but even then the higher floor made a big difference on beta.

As I said, not a huge issue. But it is an issue I've had with Temporal Bomb from Traps, and I really like Temporal Bomb. Additionally, being Rooted/Immobilized until you cancel the toggle is annoying. Back to the Tanker/Brute side of things, I have an Ice/Savage I've never been entirely happy with. I'll be trying out Rime and Icy Bastion eventually, but it's not at the top of the list yet.

From the other side (Scrappers and Sentinels), the double click is a minor annoyance. I do worry about failing to double click in the middle of combat. Could happen due to player forgetting, clicking another power too soon, or the system just not registering the second click.

Personally I've found the trick for Traps on fast moving teams is to cycle one, maybe two traps per fight until you run up against a hard target. Trying to get everything out every fight just means constantly playing catch-up without accomplishing much.

Knowing SirBronco, it's more likely to be a Regen Stalker. In any case, here's a rundown of non-temp self-rez powers. Armor Sets: Dark Armor - Soul Transfer Fiery Aura - Phoenix Rising Regeneration - Revive Willpower - Resurgence Power Pools: Presence - Unrelenting Ancillary Pools: Blaster Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Controller Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Defender Dark Mastery - Soul Transfer Defender Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Corrupter Dark Mastery - Soul Transfer Corrupter Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Dominator Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Mastermind Fire Mastery - Rise of the Phoenix Epic ATs: Peacebringer Luminous Aura - Restore Essence Warshade Umbral Aura - Stygian Return I might have missed something, but that should be all of them. Overall, looks like you can only get two self-rez powers on a character without temps. Unrelenting from the Presence Pool (an easy pick for you), and then one from either an armor set or an Ancillary Power Pool.

Beam Rifle comes to mind, with the snipe being exchanged for a Targeted AoE. Also, Disintegrate gives a 12.5% damage boost, which can be stacked once for a total of 25%.

Quick build I threw together. Undoubtedly there's a lot of room for improvement, but it should at least give a starting point. Hero Sentinel Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21 ────────────────────────────── Primary powerset: Assault RifleSecondary powerset: Super ReflexesPool powerset (#1): LeapingPool powerset (#2): FightingPool powerset (#3): LeadershipPool powerset (#4): FlightEpic powerset: Fire Mastery ────────────────────────────── Powers taken: Level 1: Disorienting Shot A: Superior Opportunity Strikes: Accuracy/Damage3: Superior Opportunity Strikes: Damage/RechargeTime3: Superior Opportunity Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime5: Superior Opportunity Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance5: Superior Opportunity Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 1: Focused Fighting A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed7: Luck of the Gambler: Defense7: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance9: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance/Recharge9: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge Level 2: Focused Senses A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed13: Luck of the Gambler: Defense13: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance15: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance/Recharge15: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge Level 4: Buckshot A: Superior Sentinel's Ward: Accuracy/Damage17: Superior Sentinel's Ward: Damage/RechargeTime17: Superior Sentinel's Ward: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime19: Superior Sentinel's Ward: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance19: Superior Sentinel's Ward: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime21: Superior Sentinel's Ward: RechargeTime/Chance for +Absorb Level 6: Agile A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed21: Luck of the Gambler: Defense23: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge Level 8: Slug A: Apocalypse: Damage23: Apocalypse: Recharge/Accuracy25: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy25: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance27: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 10: Master Brawler A: Preventive Medicine: Heal27: Preventive Medicine: Heal/Endurance29: Preventive Medicine: Endurance/RechargeTime29: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime31: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance31: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb Level 12: Aim A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build Up31: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge Level 14: Combat Jumping A: Kismet: Accuracy +6% Level 16: Enduring A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge Level 18: Boxing (Empty) Level 20: Dodge A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense34: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge Level 22: M30 Grenade A: Bombardment: Damage34: Bombardment: Accuracy/Recharge/Endurance34: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge36: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge/Endurance36: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage Level 24: Quickness A: Invention: Run Speed Level 26: Flamethrower A: Bombardment: Damage36: Bombardment: Accuracy/Recharge/Endurance37: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge37: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge/Endurance37: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage Level 28: Evasion A: Reactive Defenses: Defense39: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance39: Reactive Defenses: Endurance/RechargeTime39: Reactive Defenses: Defense/RechargeTime40: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime40: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage Level 30: Ignite A: Bombardment: Damage40: Bombardment: Accuracy/Recharge/Endurance42: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge42: Bombardment: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge/Endurance42: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage Level 32: Full Auto A: Ragnarok: Damage43: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy43: Ragnarok: Recharge/Accuracy43: Ragnarok: Damage/Endurance45: Ragnarok: Chance for Knockdown Level 35: Fire Cages A: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize45: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Recharge45: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Recharge/Accuracy46: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Endurance46: Gravitational Anchor: Chance for Hold Level 38: Maneuvers A: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)46: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance48: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 41: Tactics A: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Endurance48: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge Level 44: Assault A: Invention: Endurance Reduction Level 47: Tough A: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)48: Gladiator's Armor: End/Resist50: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3% Level 49: Weave A: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance50: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge50: Red Fortune: Defense ────────────────────────────── Inherents: Level 1: Brawl (Empty) Level 1: Opportunity Level 1: Sprint A: Invention: Run Speed Level 2: Rest A: Invention: Interrupt Reduction Level 1: Swift A: Invention: Run Speed Level 1: Health A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance11: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery11: Miracle: +Recovery Level 1: Hurdle A: Invention: Jumping Level 1: Stamina A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End

I actually have a Seismic/Electric Sentinel that is a lot of fun. Seismic does so much KD it adds a fair chunk of mitigation, which helps compensate for the lower resistance caps. Plus Energize is a decent fast-recharge heal that also grants global Endurance Discount and Regen for 30 seconds (same as on Energy Aura). That combined with +MaxEnd/Regen from Charged shield and End Drain/Recovery Debuff Resistance from Static Shield mean you don't usually have to worry about running out of blue even if you skip Power Sink

Also keep in mind you can anchor Shifting Tides on an ally or pet, which is one reason Marine pairs so well with Masterminds and Controllers. Barrier Reef works alright for that, even if you have to recast both every few minutes. Still saves some time on the per-fight setup.

Electric and Arsenal Control both have AoE Sleep patches that will continuously reapply Sleep for their duration. Don't remember the specifics on Electric, But Sleep Grenade from Arsenal just needs a few Sleep/Recharge SOs to be reliably permanent.

A few things about Enduring on Sentinels. First, Enduring grants Psionic DEF, Endurance Recovery, DDR, and scaling Damage Resistance (Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy). Enduring replaces Lucky from SR on other Archetypes (except Stalkers, who swap Lucky with Hide), trading Auto AoE DEF for Auto Psionic DEF and Endurance Recovery (the loss of AoE DEF is added into Evasion, the AoE toggle, but that does mean if your toggles drop you loose all AoE DEF). DDR and scaling Damage Resistance are both present in Lucky on other Archetypes. The Psionic DEF does cover one of the holes built into SR, but the values are low enough it's not much of a difference even enhanced to ED cap. Considering how rarely one encounters Psionic attacks with no Positional component, it's probably worth slotting DEF Enhancement for the increase to total DDR more than the Psionic DEF itself. The Recovery increase is pretty great (30% boost base, compared to 25% from Stamina), and the lack of any built-in sustain is absolutely a weakness of SR on other Archetypes.

I've had a lot of fun with Storm/SR, personally. Solo I generally stand in the middle Storm Cell / Cat 5 to encourage mobs to stick around, though Chain Fences helps with that once it's available. Picture: Text:

So, to start off I don't consider myself an expert builder. I do well enough, but there are plenty of folks around who can eke out a lot more from their builds. In fact, I really got started reading through the old 'Collaborative Project: A guide To Sentinel' thread. The thread is no longer stickied, but still has lots of great content. You just have to be aware of what has been deprecated by the changes in Issue 27, Page 5 a couple years ago (mostly any mention of Offensive/Defensive Opportunity and the AT's low base damage modifier; Armor sets came out unchanged). If you want a really in depth look at Dual Pistols, I highly recommend oldskool's post here. He updated it in May of 2023, so it's fully compliant with the set as it currently exists. For Energy Aura, Sunsette has a great writeup here. That one was never updated, but the Armor set is unchanged. I built my fist sentinel using that as a guide (BR/EA), and didn't need to change anything after the Sentinel balance pass Issue 27, Page 5. I do have a few bits of advice from my own experience. Most folks have their own build style and preferences; I lean towards set bonuses over procs, and tend to prioritize Global Recharge, even if I often skip taking Hasten. I also spend a lot of time Exemplared so I prefer builds that work all the way up, not just as a post 50 Incarnate. For Sentinels specifically, I try to get a seamless three-power single target rotation. Dual Pistols: Empty Clips is a cone but does decently in a single target rotation before Executioner's Shot is available, the the End cost is a bit steep. Suppressive Fire works best when running one of the Swap Ammo toggles. Using Standard Ammo (no toggles) at level 50, you do two single digit ticks of Lethal Damage, and a Stun. Cryo and Incendiary Ammo both do around 200 Cold or Fire, while Chemical Ammo does around 100 Toxic. They also swap the Stun for a Hold. Here's a screenshot of the Power Details from my DP/WP Sentinel, confirmed in actual combat: Piercing Rounds is very similar to Piercing Beam from Beam Rifle. Extremely narrow 3 target cone, essentially a line. In practice a single target power that occasionally gets 1 or 2 extras as a bonus. High damage per hit, 9.6% Resistance Debuff, very long cast time. Piercing Rounds is actual worse on that last: 2.5 seconds as opposed to 2.33. I like Piercing Beam but could never get into Piercing Rounds. Guess that little bit extra Cast Time is just too much. Hail of Bullets is a PBAoE, which is little annoying since everything else in the set can be used at range. It does give a short Positional DEF boost, though. Cryo Ammo gives a 33% Global Range Boost while toggled. I am uncertain how that interacts with other Global Range Boosts (such as from the ATO sets, or from Bio Armor Offensive Adaptation), but it's still nice to have. Energy Aura: Like all Sentinel Armor sets, Energy Aura is a little different than on other ATs. For instance, there is no Stealth built into the set. However, different does not equal worse. Kinetic Dampening is equivalent to Dampening Field, an auto RES power. Trades END Drain RES for Negative, Toxic, and Slow RES. Energize comes earlier than on other ATs, but is just as good. Main thing is really the END Discount (60%), so I always try to get the recharge equal to the 30 second duration. Entropy Shield is your Mez Protection toggle, but also provides DDR, End Drain RES, and a flat 20% Global Recharge Bonus. Takes no sets, only Recharge and End Reduction enhancements, so slap a single End Reduction SO/IO in and call it good. Power Armor is an auto power that increases HP and resistance to all damage types. Not huge amounts of either, but still well worth the pick. Repelling Force is another auto power, this time for all Defense. Again, not much, but still well worth it. Power Drain is the only power in the set that requires being in melee with enemies. Power Drain has no +DEF component, unlike Energy Drain from other ATs. Strictly self +End, foe -End/Recovery. Situationally useful, more so if your End Recovery can't keep up with expenditure. Overload is a typical old-school T9: huge bonus, crippling fall-off, base recharge long enough to make even 50% uptime difficult. In conjunction with Power Drain it is possible to manage the fall-off, but it isn't exactly recommended. Skip or use as a mule for set bonuses/unique IOs. Now, for actual builds, here's one I threw together tonight. Not sure what your preference for travel powers is, but Combat Jumpin/Super Jump could be swapped for Hover/Fly without issue. Really, everything past level 26 is a matter of preference, so don't feel obliged to hold to everything exactly. Also, I usually get my Primary and Secondary out of the way first, but it wouldn't hurt anything if you wanted to shift things to get a travel power in sooner. 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I've done both DP and EA on Sentinels, though not together. Both are solid sets, in my opinion. In general you can make EA quite survivable without heavy investment, leaving more room offensive slotting. I'll try to put together some more specific advice when I get home from work.