nihilii

Zumberge nailed it. It's worth putting extra emphasis on AAO being a strong taunt aura. Taunt auras aren't a given on scrappers, and they're very helpful to let you keep everything nice and tight for your AoEs when you're solo (or lacking any brute/tanker on the team). That is to say, if all scrapper sets had similarly strong taunt auras, scrappers would tend to be better choices for just about every secondary that isn't resistance. Damage is king, and (given equivalent sets) scrappers deal more damage than brutes once IOed out. This wasn't always true, but ATOs have shaken up the equilibrium towards making scrappers even more damaging and brutes even sturdier. So when you look at /shield, a defense-based set with strong +damage buffs, it's a no brainer. Even the amount of resistance you get will bring you, with IOs, flirting with the 75% res cap without going over. There's nothing wrong with a /shield brute, but it's a set that seems custom made for scrappers.

Absolutely, you're right. I'd go as far as to say for any specific challenge, there's an AT better suited to it than a Sentinel. Still, it's fun to see how far we can go with what we like! Just got done soloing a Tin Mage, which was... interesting. The hardest part of solo Tin Mage is not Neuron or Bobcat, but the gigantic DPS sponges nicknamed "Goliath". Before some build improvements a couple weeks back, I plain couldn't outpace their regen with Lore + daggers, and even now it remains difficult. On top of that, I had a ridiculous string of bad luck in the final mission: - start to fight Bobcat, server lag comes in with the Goliaths; that particular lag where it seems mostly smooth, but you've got spikes on your netgraph and so you get "skips" in gameplay and in your power tray every now and then. It's so bad I end up having to pull back. - now the 2 Goliaths are out and patrolling for me, might as well take them on first. As I get one of them down to 1/3 health, I'm hit with the alpha slot bug where you're suddenly considered NOT alpha slotted until you switch alphas - which requires being out of combat, and makes you fight as a level 46 against lvl 54s in the meantime... Obviously had to pull back. But hey, I can reslot and come back fast enough it will be hardly more than a bump in the road, right? - except I ended up running low on insps, so I had to pace them out near the end. Lore pets are out... Goliath has a sliver of health left... And whoomph. I take a 800 hit from one of them and a 1100 hit from the other before I have a chance to react, and go down. Indeed, a brute could have fared much better in those same circumstances. It's about having that extra leeway for mistakes. Eventually the bots went down, then came Bobcat alone (no real trouble if you fly, she's down to Shockwave and Focus), followed by Neuron (fun fight for a fire/rad with all his clones: you can't expect to hit him with your nuke, but on the flipside you get guaranteed end refills from Ground Zero). Final time: 1 hour 30 minutes... Not one of my finest moments. :D

Following the trend of Stupid Scrapper Tricks and Crazy Controller Tricks, what have you all been up to with your Sentinels? I've had some luck doing the following (on a tricked out fire/rad/psi, making ample use of inspirations): 1.) solo Apex in under 25 minutes consistently. I find this especially fun to do, because our ranged advantage plays out against the Blue Stars of Doom, and it's at the sweet spot of difficulty where you can die if you slip up but it's not overwhelmingly frustrating. To top it off, with a reward of 40 merits, 1 empyrean and 1 component at the end, it's never wasted time. 2.) solo a master STF up to tower Recluse (finished up tower Recluse with my second account hovertanking). Anything before the patrons isn't particularly threatening, with honorable mentions to Silver Mantis and her massive defense debuffs, and Aeon and his clones. For the patrons, I abused flying to fight Scirocco alone, then Mako alone (Mako and Scirocco pulled together), then GW alone (flying again), then Black Scorpion last. Ghost Widow is always a threat on a master STF, knowing she has a 1/12 chance to land a near instakill move in Soul Storm! So I made sure to pack up a bunch of reds for that one, as well as use Storm Elementals for Lore so they could fly too. 3.) solo a master RSF up to the final phalanx (finished up with a second account permadom confusing Penelope Yin... no guts all glory :D ). No real hurdle, and quite a thrill to take on the Vindicators all at once. :) 4.) solo a master ITF. Is it even worth mentioning, when blasters do the same on +4/x8 and scrappers speedrun it in 35 minutes? Well, I find it a decent challenge anyway, what with Rommie superjumping all over the place and defense debuffs flying everywhere! 5.) solo most lvl 54 AVs 1-on-1. Given that my "1" includes trusty Lore pets... ;) Although they aren't a necessity for most AVs. I find Sentinel damage mitigation against AVs to be spectacular, because our lack of aggro control means the AVs tend to cut and run pretty often. Some seem more cowardly than others, the Arachnos big timers are content to stay and take a pounding. 6.) solo GMs, all the way up to lvl 50 (Giant Monsters have a hidden level even though it doesn't show). Heavy Lore and Envenomed Dagger use, with the toughest ones it's sometimes about keeping their regen stable through Envenomed Dagger + DPS until Lore is up again. 7.) duo the Lambda trial with a SS/bio brute friend... which made me think it *should* be soloable, and might be pretty fun to do so as you'd have to switch between each of the two paths to keep the timer going and collect your 10 grenades and acids. I don't understand why pickup leagues clean the outdoors before jumping inside, as you can get in right away and get credit for mobs in the courtyard. 8.) solo +4 Market Crash, aka Crimson Prototype really. -regen doesn't work on this bad boy! So sheer DPS it is, through Lore and attacks, all the while avoiding the robot's endless -maxHP moves. This is once again a situation where lacking aggro control helps us, as you can pull back for a few seconds and let your Lore pet grab the aggro, then move back in and attack again. I wonder if Sentinels could: - solo RSF. Perhaps the mass sleep strategy could work, on a Sonic/*/Psi? Open up with Siren's Song and chain Mass Hypnosis for mag4+ sleep. But there's two issues with that, each use of Siren's Song will wake them up for a few moments which is an opportunity for Numina to do her thing (I think she casts Clear Mind?), and Mass Hypnosis doesn't last all that long either. Another option could be to exploit flying again as to clear the flying Phalanxers first. It seems like they even have different jumping ranges, too - BAB climbs on the globe easily, and Synapse does too sometimes, but I've never seen Yin or Manticore get up there. So perhaps this could be exploited to clear Positron, Citadel and Numina first, then BAB and Synapse, then Manticore and Yin. - solo STF. This is tough because we don't have -range in Confront or Taunt like meleers. The hovertanking strategy + Lore is already hard enough to pull off solo, what with repairmen and the arachnos flier. I'm honestly not sure how to even approach this. In a non-master attempt, one could go all out and use temp powers like shivans I suppose, while kiting Lord Recluse to the best of your abilities. - solo LGTF. Hamidon being the tough spot, with the healing mitos and their insane resistance while not mezzed. Do we even have anything capable of breaking through their hold resistance? Or is there any trick besides that? - solo Khan/Barracuda In *theory* we should be able to do this, at least the Barracuda version (I think Reichsman's Unstoppable is less potent there?). In practice, it's quite a test of endurance. So what about you? Share your cool accomplishments!

Disorients tend to have a recharge of 90s for controllers, so to lump them in with holds on the basis there is one nuke (Atomic Blast) with hold as an effect makes for a shaky comparison. But it's true in this day and age the 240s recharge on holds seems higher than warranted. It's hard to see any problem that would arise from putting them anywhere between 180s and 120s.

Bump. I've gotten this bug 3 times in a row in an Apex TF (I'm soloing on a timer, so I quit/restart every time for a "clean" start). Does anyone know what causes the bug to trigger specifically? I've noticed I seem to get it more often than not when I'm the first to enter the mission (whether I'm solo or not), but not sure beyond that. Starting to think I'll just use another alpha and switch to my first choice 10 seconds in.

Isn't it Hur for huge characters and Arh for male characters?

I ran into that mission just the other day and elected to solve the problem by spamming resurrections and attacks. After about ~60 deaths (damn you, +3 Time Stops), I managed to thin the herd and get out. :P Fun as it was, yeah, it's probably a little broken...

I hop by Atlas all the time and never experience game lag. Mobs rubberbanding if you try to streetsweep, yes. But I think server lag (as opposed to client lag) is grossly overstated for everything else.

I consider the Jump Pack my Coyote time. YMMV!

Lacking Aim is pretty rough in a post-PPM/Gaussian Buildup world. DP was designed with a crashless nuke and without a snipe... Then snipes were significantly improved and nukes made crashless. Rough! I think it could definitely get a little something extra now.

This sounds super cool. Save for the "no Vanguard / no Longbow" part. :P The less restrictions the better!

I think this should be achievable for any sentinel powerset as soon as level 1, with insp drops and situation awareness. Now as for which one would be best suited to the task... Interesting question. Perhaps Dark Blast for the primary, with -tohit on every attack, a KB to KD IO in the cone and a hold on your early big hitter. Coupled with Energy Aura, for a nice mix of defense compounding that -tohit. Plus some resistance, an awesome heal and end management, basically all the powers you need to slot all your survivability uniques as early as possible.

Indeed, you get the same bonus as stalkers: invincibility turns into unconditionally high +def +tohit. On top of that, you get a sizeable bonus to your overall recovery, including set bonuses and procs, through Durability giving +10 max end, *base*. Those levels of mitigation while sitting at range make for an exceptionally sturdy character.

Bump for great justice (this is the only topic the search function returns for "born in battle"). Has anyone managed to get the Born in Battle accolade? Or is everyone just giving up and getting Portal Jockey?

It's worth noting Sentinel T9s get their damage normalized. So Hail of Bullets doesn't get much of a decrease in recharge, but doesn't get as much of a decrease in damage either. Sentinel Inferno does less than half the damage of Blaster Inferno, for example. If you're referring to the Mids animation time, this was buffed in a patch back in June. My Archery Sentinel has no complaint. :)

My own SR/TW tanker has been a breeze to play. :D Definitely going to second the "build for resistance, not regen" suggestions. You'll reach 90% S/L under duress (the tanker ATO easily stacks twice, sometimes three times, for an additional +12% to +18% res). It's the kind of character where you plan for Rebirth and end up realising you're taking on everything before you've even unlocked it. With most +4/x8 factions, surviving consists of 1, jump in, 2, walk away from the keyboard. Now if only PB wasn't a click so we could have an attack on auto. :) And TW being TW, you end up with respectable damage output. On my weirdo build that skipped Follow Through (I wanted as little to do with Momentum as possible - it messes with my brain, literally), still managed to beat down Hro'Droth, Honoree and their x8 adds at the end of LGTF, solo, no Lore. The biggest challenge to this character hasn't been defense, resistance or regeneration... But endurance drain! I got utterly wrecked by STF Lord Recluse, and anything with significant drains generally implied a struggle of balancing attacks and detoggling myself, despite Conserve Power. TW is end heavy and has no tools to help SR's complete lack of ability in that regard, so that's one thing to think of.

Blasters played well are no joke. But there's that pesky "played well" requirement... Sentinels allow for more mitigation than barely softcapped S/L + ranged. Which lets less twitchy players have their fun too.

Why are we still here? Just to suffer? Every night, I dream of long legs... And long arms... Even fingers... The body I've wished for... the concepts I've lost... won't stop hurting.

Cheers! I hear you. It really does feel amazing to get in that range on such a convenient character. Sentinels are the ultimate "quality of life" AT, and to do what feels like highend DPS makes for cozy gameplay. To give credit where its due, the whole idea of extreme epic frankenslotting came from Sunsette's thread on PPM here as well as her excellent guide promoting epic pools.

Aw :( It kind of feels like it should be possible to go to 220ish and maybe beyond with just a plain swap from Flares to Power Bolt and Blaze to Power Push? Significantly less damage on PP, but also running the chain gapless. I posted my build in the Pylon thread which might or might not give some insight: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1253.msg58036.html#msg58036 But perhaps I'm wrong and/or the tradeoffs are unacceptable. Energy gets a raw deal in being "forced" to slot a KB to KD proc in PP. Either way there's an issue where the supposedly best powers of the primary sit unused. If something is to be done with Sentinels beyond bugfixing and inherent rework, I'd love for devs to take a look at longer animation times and speed them up as much as possible while retaining the feel - or even bumping damage just a tad if that's easier. IMHO, higher tier attacks should always have better DPA by a healthy enough margin you want to include them.

No Lore was used in the harming of these Pylons. Rotation is Blaze -> Mind Probe -> Flares -> Blaze -> Dominate -> Flares. Build: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1499;717;1434;HEX;| |78DA6594CB6F125114C6EF3083087D524A5B4A69A1B640A14C41DDF84AA3B635DA9| |290367167C858463A0905849AE8D2A55B37DD34F5111F7563A27F87CF9DCF9D266A| |5BAB51635C183CCC778A243381FCE67EF79EE7BD77D297A75A1F9EBA3A29A4F6930| |5AD5ACD2EE8C515A3A817EC692D6F2C8AFAE3A07FFFAE9E9DD78A793DA7CE18153D| |7B824C56828DA929FD825EACEAEABC9633B415A354CC1EAF2C972AC29529950AEA4| |259D773ADE6EB9CAE958D62BE637790D32BD525A3DC668E678CFC12F9CBFBA6CBC6| |A2DA709EA91AD93485D32B57FA28A131FA97C2829F9A5DBC5784483985ED35F30DA| |8BC65BE03075E815FA26426B1ED4FD9D45A7F839DBFC09E3FCC5E5A18708AFEFD18| |3FA2E0126C65E9AC04BFAB36A222463E61CDF867F022E528738EF24BC4DEF302DCF| |B84F90C743D673E052B646B675B7BCA06DB24D89560AA60F704731C7137A93E0772| |B43976EBE3BAFACD3A15B1456B9C582339794D1FAF19A65D6FE1B996B830B576660| |FCDB5614E69F3A2FEF61F6CEF0707FF0AB36783B3187FA7581DA845EAE01E756E82| |5DE4CF0D7FC21D428CC7D4630F6B9E04B44BD40F2FF7C37B1FF506EF81E1BB60E40| |EF30118DB00258AD10B5BD15BA347C8A4F8B8421F573FC8D56F53B67EEE9E9FB30D| |72B6235BE89E42F601B60F701742DDE035CA7488331D3A860C42479987C07D87994| |79893F0FF95620FF3C91CBE8593307693B9C65C076337C0F12ED9ECF607EADA28C7| |1D8DD7FD3A4438CC8C81B128981863666979C421DC544F94EB89723D29AEC743737| |19E8BAF23DFC46DF023C55439A67A1A3E27D6E0736259C2785A3699D2EA3789B8A1| |98E31DAA35C9BB92E4D335A0346E35FDEA3B15B328498B92B228072CCA418B32675| |1320A7F1648914CC5D9D9B8C1B56D57E3E60B894FE5CE7FCD2685B0879133244468| |5FB6794F9BEDA2B0FBD66C178416BCCE5F9155F436E3323333639F6B7AD79ADECF3| |7BDCF7AC80C3E6BFF00FFE5FFD2| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Yin is absolutely more dangerous than Statesman + Psyche, by the way. Have you SEEN the damage she puts out?! Girl can hit for 3k-4k on the straight hit part of her attack, then it dots for hundreds per tick for what seems like an infinite amount of time. They weren't kidding with that "most powerful psychic in the world" stuff.

Couple more runs on the Fire/Rad/Psi sentinel, this time without using Hybrid to see just how much it does for me. Albeit it's still slotted, so the passive +10% damage is there. 2:55 - 346 DPS 3:19 - 320 DPS 2:52 - 350 DPS 2:52 - 350 DPS 3:24 - 315 DPS

This is indeed including the Hybrid doublehit in that. I'm using a Fire/Rad/Psi with Mind Probe and Dominate, Dominate procced out with damage procs and Decimation Buildup (again, thanks to your work shining a light on PPM and recharge). Attack chain is Blaze - Flares - Dominate - Blaze - Flares - Mind Probe. This gives me 360 DPS reliably against Pylons, which translates to about 300ish DPS when you factor in Hybrid downtime and a running AV making me bunnyhop after them. Essentially, either I manage to whack them with Mind Probe regardless, or I swap Mind Probe for Fireball in my rotation. (It can be less if we're looking at particularly jumpy AVs, of course. Hi Rommie :D ) Throw in Lore, and oh boy. With a Musculature Longbow Cataphract and -RES from our inherent and the Fury proc in Inferno, we're getting to ridiculous numbers. Your standard lvl 50 AV drops in less than a minute with that setup.

Words of wisdom right there. I empathise with people who see Sentinels and think "almost there, but not quite what I want". It can be frustrating to see potential that falls short. But, people who advocate for radical changes have to realise a lot of us find Sentinels as is to be their favorite toys. It's a hard sell to tell us you want to make our toy different so it's better. Even if for you it'd be an objective plus, for some of us it might feel like you're breaking our toy. IMHO, changes to Sentinels should focus on fixing outright bugs (Blazing Blast doing less than listed damage) or improving things from a number standpoint *without significant playstyle revamps*. Melee in primaries? Yuck. Punchvoke? Here's the funny thing: as much as I'd see Punchvoke as a buff, intuitively, I've found my Sentinel to be my BEST AV soloer. Simply because I can maintain a 300ish DPS attack chain at range while the AV is running for the hills. So I'm enjoying stalker level defenses with an AV that spends half of his time running away rather than attacking - which in practice gives me *tanker* level mitigation, because there's not much you can't survive when you get attacked only once per 10 seconds or so. How about the Crimson Prototype in Market Crash, famous for debuffing maxHP to 1 on meleers? Why, I let my Lore pet run in first and attack right after, and the aggro snaps back and forth between me and my pet, ensuring debuffs never stack to a deadly point. The Sentinel AT in general is full of little gotchas like this where things you feel are hinderances turn out to be boons as you get used to it. We know the Homecoming devs were looking at the inherent, anyway. So let's see what they do with that.