drbuzzard

It's actually a really bad heal. It's a great regen and recovery booster however. It's better used preemptively.

I don't mind bio armor, and should probably try it again with a primary I actually like. Sentinel archery is not exactly the best of the bunch, so my archery/bio sentinel languishes.

I view obscure sustenance as the key power in the set. Sure, get your resistance up as far as you can (so fighting pool is a good idea), but you can pump up a huge amount of regen from this power and it will keep you alive. It does need enemy fairly nearby (30+ feet, so only fairly) to work, but the range isn't too bad, and it is a PBAOE, so you don't need to target or anything, just click. It also comes with a huge amount of accuracy, so you don't need to slot for that. I think I put a preventative medicine set in it (love that 8.75% recharge boost) and I have a general permahasten build (I made BR/Dark) so this comes up quite often, and it is worth it to use every time.

If they translated over the sentinel version, it might be nice. Otherwise, I'd not bother with it and just do willpower.

Molten embrace basically costs a very close approximation of zero endurance. Assault is plenty endurance expensive. That's a pretty good distinction to me. Fire also gets cauterize plus a strong and fast recharging heal. I've never said fire was the best, as I recognize there are clearly better options (pretty much any of the defense based sets except ice). However it's not a complete loss. And yes, sentinels do too little damage. We all know it, have said it, and have complained about it. Maybe I'm not a twink enough at heart, but I still enjoy playing my sentinels even though <gasp> they are not the most powerful AT out there.

As always, bring the odd guy who doesn't worry too much about single target (and thus pylon times), I will say radiation is pretty good if you like PBAOE builds. Using psychic shockwave, irradiate and atomic blast for an AOE chain (and actually, you can irradiate, PS, AB, Irradiate, PS in pretty short order on a perma hasten build) makes it into an AOE reaping set. Yes, burst powers will work about as well (fireball, water burst, etc.) but not even having to target just makes it very easy. I did go the proc route on rad simply because there's so many cheap ones available. Lady Gray procs are dirt cheap, so throwing one in is about as close to a freebie as you can get. I just don't build around the procs (because then I wouldn't be taking spiritual alpha).

As I said, I play a flying sentinel, burn only works on the ground, and if you're flying, you don't really worry about people being on top of you.

In my view, you can't have too many AOEs. Well that's not true, I did drop whirlpool because it's bad for making AVs run. I kept and often use all the other 3.

Odd, my fire/fire sentinel works fine IMO. I simply ignored burn since it really isn't practical (for many reasons). Given how tight my builds are, I'm generally have to have a skip over power in a set, and burn most certainly was one. If fire blast is ever good on a sentinel, then it certainly is fine on a fire/fire since /fire has a damage boosting power, so why not get a boost to arguably the highest damage primary. Yes, if you come in thinking you will be using burn, I can see disappointment in your future, but I run mine as a hover blaster who only swoops in to drop inferno and psychic shockwave, then move back out for the rest. Fiery aura on sentinels is actually more survivable than I had imagined since you can attain l/s cap if you work towards it, have decent other resists, (50ish), have a continuous pulsing heal in cauterize, and on top of that healing flames is a lot of healing on a fast recharge. I think it's just a matter of expectations. Sure, more damage would be better, but that is an AT wide issue, and burn certainly isn't going to be a solution.

I should note in regards to the aforementioned TF bug, it didn't happen on the ITF I just ran at +2.

OK, I've noticed a bug in the new patch, and it is a new bug since I didn't see it yesterday. It seems that in task forces the difficulty setting chosen by the leader sometimes defaults back to +0 instead of what was set. I ran a market crash this morning at +2. The first two missions ran at that difficulty with mobs of level 52-53. We got into the final mission and everything was level 50. I was lead on my lvl 50 character with the difficulty set at +2. I did not switch that. I was first one into the last mission. Later on, me on a different character and someone else running a Yin TF, we did the first two missions where the enemies were lvl 25 (lead was a 50 exemplared down). When asked if we could up the difficulty by someone, the lead stated that it was already set on +2. Upon entering the last 2 missions the difficulty setting was apparently as set, and we were fighting 27s.

He's spot on. There's a variety of different build approaches for that secondary. Some go for using the mez, some layer defense on top, some just optimize the healing and resistance. There's lots of different ways to get good use from dark armor.

Yeah, have a fire/fire sentinel, and blaze is a great attack. Though one should note that only sentinels got the fixes to defensive sets. Normal invulnerability on any other AT will still suck for endurance.

I think it would be independent of secondary. It's about sequential use of the cones.

Yeah, I click powers with my mouse as well. I accept it probably makes me a bit slower than the best players, but I like to keep my fingers on the movement keys.

Taking master brawler over practiced brawler puts you status protection into your first two defensive toggles. Then master brawler is an absorb shield click power. Basically it gives you a pool of faux health which doesn't regenerate, but you can get the recharge pretty short on it. So basically you trade the utility of click status protection for the absorb shield and the ability to use auto click somewhere else.

Oh, don't get me wrong, my dark/ninja has hasten in a perma recharge state, it's just that you can only have one thing on auto click and I put it on the status protection instead of hasten. This means I have to pay attention to hasten clicking which I find a bit annoying when I'm busy.

You should try beam rifle, it's actually better on sentinels than elsewhere. It might turn your view of the AT around.

Actually I was skeptical of invulnerability on a sentinel before I made one, but they really are better than you expect. You probably suffered most of AR being a poor choice on sentinels. Durability slotted up gives you an 20% boost to your endurance, and that washes through everything and makes all the toggles quite manageable. Now I don't solo much, especially leveling up before a build is done, but I didn't really have much issue with my radiation/invulnerability sentinel. Now that the build is done, it has quote good performance, especially against lethal/smashing opponents.

Honestly I think sentinels have the best version of SR in the game so you should enjoy it.

Sonic/Energy Aura Sentinel This is a pretty solid combination, and combines a nice bit of extra resistance debuff in the primary with a very solid set of damage mitigation tools in the secondary. About the only downside is that sonic is a bit weak in the AOE department, where while it has 3 cones plus the PBAOE nuke, 2 of the cones do very little damage, and hence aren’t really worth slotting for damage (or taking at all, IMO). Thus it rather ends up as a single target set. With the 9% resistance debuff from each time you hit, this stacks up to be a mean hard target killer. Damage is a mix of energy (good) and smashing (meh), but mostly energy so it is good. Energy aura is primarily a typed defense set, but it also throws in fair sized chunks of resistance and a good heal power. It also has an endurance drain to refill the endurance bar. The defense debuff is pretty solid as well, and the status protection power throws in a nice 20% global recharge reduction. All in all this is a solid set for killing and surviving hard targets. Sonic Blast Shriek: Nothing shocking here, just the basic fast animation, fast recharge attack at tier 1. The in game numbers make it look better than it actually is. Because of aracanatime (an artifact of game timing), shorter animation pictures actually animate proportionately longer than longer animation powers. Hence their listed in game DPAS is overstated. The game says 51 DPAS, after accounting for arcanatime it actually amounts to 43, which is not great. If you're building for recharge, you can chain 3 single targets on a sonic and skip this one. Scream: Longer animation and recharge than the tier 1, though of course higher damage. It’s a bit annoying as it is DoT, but not too slow. You'll want this power. Listed DPAS in game is 55, and after aracanatime is 51, so this is clearly better than shriek. Howl: Since the upgrade to sonic, howl now sits as the weak sister AOE. It does about 80 damage at lvl 50 (before enhancement). The other cones do appreciably more. If you don't like knockback and are slot tight so fitting a knockback to knockdown in shockwave, then you can go with howl instead. Otherwise, I'd do shockwave. Shout: The sonic blast upgrade saved this power from being crap to being a very sonic DPAS attack. At 61 DPAS, this isn't bad, though not top tier sentinel. Aim: Of course you need this to seat a gaussian proc and prep for your nuke. 2 slots, 1 recharge, 1 proc. Shockwave: This power now does solid damage, so if either you don't mind knockback or have the luxury of a slot of knockback to knockdown, grab it. Siren’s Song: It's amazing how much upgrade that sonic got in the recent buffs. This power went from mandatory skip, to mandatory take. This is your best AOE short of the nuke, and you'd be making a major mistake skipping it. Screech: Now here’s your ribeye blast. It’s a hard hitter with a short animation. The DPAS for this attack is damned good (there’s few powers in all sentinel secondaries which beat it, I can think of one offhand- blaze in fire blast). It also tosses in a mag 3 stun. That’s a damned good deal. This is six slotted with apocalypse. DPAS is 88, which is quite high among sentinel blasts. Dreadful Wail: A great PBAOE nuke which lays down a mag 3 stun on top of resistance debuff. Couple this with screech and you can operate in a good bit of safety. Build to bring this up as often as possible as it is your best AOE in the primary (rest are 6 target). I have it six slotted with superior opportunity strikes. Energy Aura: This is a strong set with lots of layered mitigation, even against some special attacks like endurance drain. Rather like Super Reflexes, my only complaint about the set is how you have to take almost everything. The only dud power is the tier 9. Kinetic Shield: lethal/smashing and a touch of energy defense. Take it. Use it. 2 lvl 5 def IOs and a LotG global recharge. Kinetic Dampening: This is a passive resistance power. It helps against energy, neg energy, toxic, lethal and smashing. That’s pretty damned good for a passive. It also resists movement debuffs. I have 2 50+3 resistance IOs in it. Power shield: Another defense shield with resistance to fire/cold/energy/negative energy. It's clearly worth taking. Same slotting as kinetic shield, 2 lvl 50 def IOs and a LotG global recharge. Energize: This is another great heal which does a solid amount of healing, 30 seconds of pretty high regen, and conserve power for those 30 seconds. Once you have perma hasten, you can keep this up all the time if you like. Entropy shield: good status protection power which throws in a 20% recharge boost. That’s pretty damned nice considering other sets usually make you take a separate power to get that boost. Just an end red IO in here. Power Armor: Another auto resistance power, but this time to all but psionic. The number isn’t huge, but they do add up. It’s worth taking and slotting. I have 2 lvl 50 resistance IOs and steadfast protection +3% def. Repelling Force: a defensive toggle to all but toxic (so you get a tiny bit of psi defense). It’s definitely worth taking to make softcapping easier. The normal 2 lvl 50 def IOs plus LotG global works well here. Power Drain. This is your blue bar tool. Endurance cost is higher than I’d like for someone you’ll need at low endurance, but it will fill a bar with only 2 targets when slotted up. I have six of performance shifter in here. I must say, when I consider fiddling with the build, this looks like the odd man out. Pools: As usual, I fly. Fly, hover, and afterburner all have 1 fly IO, and hover nestles a LotG global as well. Fighting pool is also in the mix. Tough is 3 slotted with Aegis (for fire defense) plus the gladiator’s armor +3% def. Weave has 4 LotG (including the global). Speed of course is taken for hasten which has 2 lvl 50 IOs in it. Epic: I’ll give you three guesses… OK, too easy- psionic mastery as almost always. Mind probe with 4 slots of kinetic combat (for l/s def). This is the only mandatory one since you want that l/s def boost. I've done dominate and psychic shockwave, but I may switch them out. I'm still playing with the build since the sonic upgrades. I used agility core alpha slot to get both more defense and recharge. More endurance modification doesn't really hurt either. This is likely my most durable sentinel overall, though depending on opposition, some builds might be tougher at times. Possibly a case could be made for super reflexes being tougher because of defense debuff resistance, but it all depends on circumstances (also against psionic, EA is kinda weak).

I remade my first 50 from live (fire/fire tank) as a fire/fire sentinel. I quite like the current version. It's a nice break from the glorious memories of herding up maps not realized by what the game is anymore.

Started in i1 with an AR/Dev blaster. Eventually I found out about the smoke grenade bug which helped, but I never actually exploited it fully. I ended up making a fire/fire tank and rode that all the way to 50 for my first while the blaster languished in his 30s. Getting killed by snipers in FF just pissed me off too much.

Ninjitsu is probably a good choice. The built in stealth and extra damage from hide will be helpful and it is a well rounded set.

Cool, I didn't even notice that. I would put it past fire on AOEs anyway due to the much wider cone (with the higher target cap).