Grimm2

Took my beefy spines/stone/energy brute boi out for a spin against the new CoT +4/×8. He's incarnated and all that, and he needed all of his tricks to survive. I love seeing more varied mob types in a spawn. At that difficulty you still get 2, 3, maybe even 4(!) bosses in a spawn, and they can be any mix of Ruin, Madness, Agony, and the Dark ones. So much -def and -res, along with the Ruin magi having a personal def boost along with their Dispersion bubble? Low health nukes? Yow. Got feared a few times too, which made for tense moments. Got Falchion'ed for 600 or 700 damage too. I Barrier'ed and insp'ed though 3 or 4 missions, died quite a few times. Worse than Arachnos, they're terrifying, it's great.

Assassin's Strike is basically a melee Snipe. Both have an interrupt time where if you're out of combat and hit or move during it, the attack fails and you've spent the endurance. It was meant to be a higher risk/ higher reward kinda thing. Since then, things have changed, and both have a quick version that occur in combat, do high damage, but less then the interruptable version. Your best bet might be opening with a non-AS power. If you're lower level, training yourself to pause and AS might be worth it, as a successful AS also lands an AOE -to hit and terrorize .

My DP/SR/psi pretty much lives in melee. Pbaoe nuke, Cryo hold in Suppressive along with the stun/recharge debuff in Psy Shockwave cut down incoming attacks. Things will run away and come back while I'm working on the bosses. Rad Armor would increase the rate at which the minions are defeated, SR is tougher, I'd wager.

Lol! I wouldn't mind if Unstoppable had a crash that could be managed. The name connotates that you, y'know...can keep going.

I never used Unstoppable; did you mean to quote someone else?

Tankers do get the benefit of increased target caps on Throw Spines, Spine Burst, and Ripper. Teamed it's not such a big deal. Solo/ AE farming, where the target density is high and you can take a moment to position, it's very nice. I agree that you can't go wrong. Any AT is best served by focusing a boss right off the bat, peppering Ripper and Throw Spines as they recharge. I know OP has Stalker at the bottom of the list, but their Spines is also very good. Trading sustained dot of Quills for a huge fast ST attack, constant AOE for Build Up recharges, and keeping every AOE the set has its actually a lot of fun. Add in a snipe and bosses are actually in real danger from you. .... time to dig out my old spine/stone stalker.

I'll affirm that Fire Melee is very good now. They sped up Greater Fire Sword and Combustion, and the swords do -def opening up proc options. Two pbaoe's are very easy to use. In s/l AE farms, my bio/fire tank slays the EBs faster than the fodder, who are under constant assault from the pbaoes. It's good.

No, unfortunately, but they could alternate for 100% uptime.

I'll second this, just posted my Brute build for this in the recent Scrapper forum post about Spines/ Stone. I can do +4/x8 s/l AE farms on mine, but often do missions in DA or PI or exemp. Stone Armor can be built very sturdy without Granite, no HP bonus goes to waste, innate +perception, a dash of +recharge, the Brimstone proc is good, softcap s/l/e/n/psi def... if I did another, I'd be tempted to do Savage.

Here's what I've been running, as a Brute. It's not updated with the new power level availability, I took mostly primary/secondary powers until 32, then started adding in Fighting, took Focused Acc at 35. I've been running Agility Radial alpha, I imagine you'd want Musculature Radial. This is not a budget build, but it can give you a framework to shoot for. I was shooting for 3k hp, 100% slow resist, and some buffer defense above 45%. The buffer is helpful, but a distinct choice that I'm sure takes away from other areas of the build. Fat defense debuffs still hurt, like from Arachnos, and those revamped BP radiation bosses, and the lower F/C defense means that Malta Gunslinger bosses need attention...but not much else phases him. You'd also cap HP with fewer bonuses and Earth's Embrace, I imagine. For budget picks...the pbaoe 6-slot combo of 3 Eradication/3 Cleaving Blow is good for adding E/N def. Reactive Armors are helpful, Ice Mistral's Torment is understandably not a top set but because of that you can pick them up cheap. Throw Spines actually has a slow worth enhancing, 40%, as opposed to 16% for other Spines attacks. A Force Feedback +recharge proc in Ripper can shore up recharge early on too. Brute - Spines - Stone Armor Dwarven Battlerager.mxd

You're thinking Bio Armor, but it's good advice! Theft of Essence proc works great in Rad Therapy.

I have the Brute version, spine/stone/energy. Nearing 150 very levels? Gloom would certainly help ST damage, but it didn't fit the concept. Extra endurance and focused acc is good, though. 1. It's good enough. I skipped Impale for Barb Swipe, and tossing in Swipes is very fast and stacks a lot of dot damage. Maybe you want to train Impale instead to get bigger crits, though? 2. Do get Throw Spines. It's a set that prompts you to flail at a boss, and everything else dies by association. Throw Spines is a pretty fast cast, and the DPA is comparable to Impale. A 10-target Impale with brimstone procs sounds pretty good. 3. Do get both auras. Bleeding out by DoT is part of the jam here, lean into it.

Well I got a wild hair and respecced into the build above instead of going to bed on time 😛 So, I'll answer some of my own questions... There are other toons I have that are better at AoE, but this guy isn't terrible. As long as I'm not hammering out Psy Shockwaves (which gives its procs some rest time so slower interval casts are more meaningful), endurance is still ok. Upkeep on Link Minds is ok with a handy keybind. 4-procced powers are very very nice!!! Really cool build, do recommend, very fun to play and glad it's in my stable. 👍

@oldskool, it's so dope to hear from you, thanks for taking the time to respond! It's been a busy end of the year and I haven't played much myself, but I wanted to give a general update about this character. I have been playing a slightly modified version of my last posted build, and it is a ton of fun. The procced single-target chain is very effective, and Sentinel SR is just fantastic. There are a few downsides/weak points I've identified. I am endurance stable in the ST chain, but if I go too hard with AoE, then I hemorrhage endurance. Psychic Shockwave is the major culprit here. Mids has the incorrect damage value for this power, it hits for 37 base damage, at level 50. It is poo-poo, yucky poo-poo, as far as defeating foes goes. I manage to fit 3 dmg procs in it with 5 slots invested, and it is better, but I have to pace my useage of both Psychic Shockwave and Bullet Rain to be nice to the blue bar. AoE damage is not the build's strong suit. I enjoy my elec/ea/elec Sentinel better on that front. On teams I launch my AoE chain to open, then look for bosses. It has AoE, it just doesn't...feel great, I guess. Finally, I love your suggestions for slotting the 3 primary attacks, @oldskool. Attached is a build with the suggested changes, my 2 concerns are needing Link Minds to hit Ranged def softcap, and the aforementioned endurance instability. I wonder if endurance will be stable in the ST chain without endredux slotting in those 3 powers. All feedback welcome! Sentinel (Dual Pistols - Super Reflexes) - psi mastery.mbd

I recommended this combo, and have been on a bit of a sentinel kick lately. I haven't done regen on anything before, but I bet aiming for slow resistance and bursting what you can down in the MoG window so that your absorb and regen handles the rest of the incoming damage is the way to go. Your accolades and set bonuses can give to a lot of HP, so you might be able to save some slots on your max-HP powers. I've been enjoying the heck out of a dp/sr/psy sentinel, and highly recommend pistols/supressive/executioners slotted with 3 thunderstrikes (acc/dmg, dmg/end, acc/dmg/end) and 3 procs each. With good global recharge, every shot is a good chunk of damage. I spend most of my time using cryo ammo for the range buff and mag 4 boss-stopping hold in suppressive. I love that hold. Detoggling chill of the night, preventing a phase shift, or just stopping a boss from becoming a track star. So good.

You could also go DP/regen/ninja training Sentinel, though you wouldn't be able to sword until 35. It's a better version of regen, I hear.

Sentinels Elec Blast is very good at sapping. Target caps end up preventing you from zeroing the entire spawn at once, but you have: Thunderous blast around every 25 seconds. Charge up, the build up clone, enhances end drain for its duration. Short Circuit, for extra aoe -recovery Sparky, while dumb, will hit the AV or boss once they're alone. Musculature Radial enhances both end mod and damage, making you better at both your jobs. Mine is /EA, but I don't need Power Sink to sap. It's a really fun ride, and Elec/ is no slouch in damage.

Awesome feedback @Lhanis and @StrikerFox, thank you! I incorporated suggestions from you both and ended up with improved recharge (perma-Hasten), HP, and e/n resist. I waffled on the Superior Opportunity Strikes set, as the proc is just OK, but extra range enhancement is always nice. As DP has cryo ammo which gives a constant 33% range buff, I'm leaning towards Armageddon in Hail of Bullets for the extra proc damage. Here's where it sits currently. Sentinel (Dual Pistols - Super Reflexes) - psi mastery.mbd

The defense in this build looked way too high, and I only just now figured out what was wrong. Hail of Bullets was toggled on, oops. Without that error, the build is sitting at the def softcap, and Link Minds offers a comfortable buffer. Going to scour for other misleading toggles now...

Looks like my lastest project is a dropout from Night Widow school. Amazingly, I've never given DP, SR, or Sentinel Psy mastery a fair shake, and was itching to make a new Sentinel. I've dug into the forums and made a build to aim for, using @oldskool's basic frame of Pistols/Suppressive/Executioner each with 3 Thunderstrikes and 3 procs. I ended up with something at Incarnate-defense levels, a hair off of perma-hasten, and...I dunno, tell me how it can be improved! At level 40 so far and it's really, really fun to play. I think the endurance is OK, and I figure that 60% slow resist is probably fine what with defense dodging most attacks. More slow resist is a great quality-of-life, but I'm not sure I could improve it without giving up recharge or proc damage. Sentinel (Dual Pistols - Super Reflexes) - psi mastery.mbd

I'll bite. Please explain how this isn't a non sequitur.

I've had a savage/bio brute at 50 sitting unbuilt for the longest time, a re-vision of a toon I had on live. Your post reminded me of this, so I got cracking, based a build for him off of my Bio tankers, and built him out, sans purple sets. I took him out on some radios at +3/x8, and it was very smooth. 69% s/l res, 38 e/n def, 27 s/l def. Basic principles: High slow resist, decent recharge supplemented by a FF +rech, Focused Acc/Tactics for debuff protection (why'd I take both? Probably should have taken Focused Acc and Taunt, or Superior Conditioning). Accolades will greatly improve regen, and Ageless Radial will protect from high defense debuffs or regen debuffs. It doesn't have shred, but you can switch it easily enough. Brute (Savage Melee - Bio Armor).mbd

Got it! I was trying to use the legacy import instead of the datachunk import. Thanks for modernizing the build and reposting it. You squeezed in more resistance than I expected in this...do you use Conserve Power after Retsu drops?

Claw/inv scrapper was one of my mains on Live for a long time. Shiny, tough enough to tank, great taunt aura. I've been giving time to stuff i haven't played on Live, but maybe I'll retread this combo. There's nothing to do but claw with this build!

Here's what I've been using, we have a lot of the same ideas, but somehow I got some more defense in there. Bio on a Tanker is very beefy with all that slow resist, but does enjoy large crowds more than smaller. The power levels are off in this old build...I got Hasten in early, Focused Accuracy at 35, and put off fighting until the 40s. Tanker - Bio Armor - Spines - Kali Ma.mxd