drbuzzard

Yeah, honestly, of the secondaries I've tried (WP, SR, Energy, Elec, Fiery, Ninjitsu, Regen)- all of them are perfectly fine for soloing. Some have different ceilings than others, but they all play pretty easy.

Actually energy is great, but make what you want (it has the same recharge boost as SR if you didn't know that, it's hidden in the mez protection power). SR is quite good, if you want a defense based build. Regen is actually quite good on sents, as they reworked it for the AT. It has a very solid feel to it. I also like electric or fiery, as both are basically resistance with a goodly bit of regen.

Except you keep forgetting it's def + end recovery + absorb heal + scaling resists (even if you don't like them). The absorb heal (assuming you take the toggle status protection) is actually pretty good.

I think Captain Powerhouse has already said there won't be assault primaries added. The idea of the sentinel is ranged/defensive and it will stay that way (and I like that fact). Melee attacks do become available in the epic pools if you really feel a need.

I think you would be hard pressed to find someone to argue with this. Sentinels simply do too little damage for a DPS class. Their inherent is lackluster on top of that. If those two issues are resolved, I think they will be fine. I still enjoy playing them, but they really only become fun to play after you get the fast recharging t9.

Yeah, I have a ninjitsu at 50 as well, but I hate click status protection. Otherwise it's a very good set, I agree.

Doesn't geyser require you to be on the ground? i think there was some power which did it (not whirlpool). I don't play that one much.

Yes, when there is something which nullifies defense (Ruularu, DE crystal emitters, are the real culprits, I don't find vengeance to be nearly as bad) then SR crumples fast. In a mixed environment with many damage types, and even a goodly number of debuffs (the aforementioned cases are massive to hit bonuses, which is a different kettle of fish) it holds up well. I've done some fairly good with with my water/SR, though I don't like him as much as some other sents because he's ground bound due to the primary. I like my sentinels flying. To be quite honest, with the exception of psi and toxic holes, energy aura is probably the best of the lot. It's easy to softcap, it has decent resistances (think in the 30s or so for a lot of things, and toughness really helps), and a solid heal which also gives regen and endurance discount. Now there is a nicely layered set of defenses. If it weren't for the holes, and the reduced defbuff resistance (it has some, but not SR levels), I'd say it was a clear winner over SR.

Nice of you to include a swipe there at the end. So you list off a whole bunch of heals/regen (absorb is just a different pool of hit points being healed- if you believe otherwise you have no grounds whatsoever to criticize anyone for not understanding anything). Yes, and a smidge of resists which is all you get from the set (11% after enhancement is a smidge). I do find it funny that the absorb in regen is a big deal, but SR having it as well is something you just brush off (not to mention the scaling resistance is on the order of the regen resistance). I have both SR and Regen sents at 50 now, and both are incarnated out. I think I might have a clue about what I speak. Can you say the same? I know what each set can do in practice. That's not speculation- that's a road test. SR is more durable. That's just the way it is. I actually like how regen plays, and I'm glad I made one up, but I know what each set can handle, and SR handles more.

There's a reason I switched my sonic/dark to sonic/energy.

I know this will sound odd, but if you have not tried the regen version which is on sentinels, you should. It is a reworked version of the set, and it is actually quite good. It's not the nerfed into paste version which every other AT has. It actually manages to capture some of the feel of old regen, but still maintains a cap at what you will crumple from when you exceed that cap.

Going by pine since it's what I have access to right now: Blaster combustion base damage at 50: 83.42 Tanker combustion base damage at 50: 57.83 So we assume the tanker boost from .8 to .95 which means *1.18 or so and the tanker is now doing 68.6. This means the tanker is doing about 82% of the damage of the blaster without even accounting for defiance. So yes, his numbers were way the heck off.

I can answer psychic blast questions, but have not played dark armor. 1. You really only need one of the first two attacks since the actual offensive and defensive opportunity add ons to the resistance debuff are pretty meaningless by high level. I only have one of them on my psi/wp. 2. I have psi tornado on mine, but I am considering dropping it for the reasons you list. Yes, it is an AOE which the set is a bit short on, but the deficiencies are clear. I think dipping into psi pool and getting psychic shockwave is a much better solution. Popping that off right after psychic scream makes for some very nice PBAOE damage. 4. dominate is actually pretty good damage, has good range, and there's a good selection of hold damage procs which can be put into it. 5. No, it's a sleep and those are generally crap IMO unless they do something such as damage. Mind probe is well worth your time instead since it does serious damage and will be a good place for a melee set. 6. 90 second duration, 300 second recharge means that it is possible with perma hasten. If you slot it for max recharge, and have the 170% global floating around from perma hasten, your recharge time will be (1/1 (base) +1 (~100% recharge in the power) +1.7 (global recharge from perma hasten and what's needed to get there) * 300 = 81 seconds.

You might want to actually understand the numbers at all before you bring them up. You are so drastically wrong that it went well past funny.

This simply isn't true. As mentioned by others, this sort of thing varies by AT. A blast power in a defender secondary will do completely different amount of damage compared to if it is found in a dominator assault secondary (and I'm reasonably sure neither would be 80% of blaster damage, which itself isn't really a fixed value due to defiance). Once upon a time, when there was just CoH, you could make some reasonable generalizations about primary vs. secondary, but with the current number of ATs, no such generalizations are valid.

People are pushing for softcapping defense at least partly, and that needs leadership and weave if you're working with a non defense secondary. Personally I don't bother on the resistance sets. They have good enough damage mitigation as long as you don't decide you need to be a tank. Don't solo huge spawns or eat large alphas, and don't tank AVs and usually just tough to top up your l/s resistance is good. My ice/rad is my lowest sentinel, so I can't claim to be expert on rad, but I don't think it looks to play a whole lot different from my fiery aura or electric armor ones.

As I get another sentinel almost to 50 I think I've noticed one important really nice thing about sentinels (which may be obvious to others, but I'll comment anyway). They are a well designed AT conceptually (mind you they need a bit of a tune up to get where they ought to be as DPS AT, but conceptually they are well thought out). Almost all the primaries (a couple are duds) have been well tuned to deal with their concept as a tough, mid range damage dealer (mostly small numbers of targets). The adding of damage to control powers was a good way of doing this (and swapping out snipes for good attacks, which suits the mid range notion). Really though, the secondaries is where the Devs shined on making the sentinels. I've now played the majority of secondaries into the 40s, and many of them are simply the best versions of those power sets in the game. For example, every single one has some form of endurance support power. They can be as simple as quick recovery, something which sucks endurance out of enemies, or just a power which ups total endurance (and hence recovery). This is really quite a nice feature and allows you to just play without having to worry too much about endurance management (mind you we end up piling on defensive toggles and making trouble for ourselves anyway, but that's a self created problem). I've about finished up a elec/regen sentinel. I played regen back in the day when it was godly, and then nerf bat after nerf bat beat the every living crap out of the set till it was unrecognizable, and I won't touch again - except on a sentinel because sentinel regen is a whole different kettle of fish. On sentinels they used a combination of toggle absorb, some resistance, and a fair helping of regen to give you a lot of feel of the old regen (pre GDN), but with a ceiling on it where if you push it too far, you are meat. I find it actually a good bit of fun to play, as you can be fairly mindless about it as long as you don't push your luck too hard. You simply take damage, and small quantities are easily ignored. Current regen on other ATs is a clicking game, which I have no desire to play (yes sentinel regen has a couple of clicks, but you really don't need to use them all too much). That's just one example, but ninjitsu, super reflexes, energy aura, electric armor, fiery aura, all play quite a bit differently than their melee versions, and I'd say for the better. The secondaries are really well thought out and good examples of putting together a variety of tools to get a build to a certain level of durability where you can feel powerful, but not game breaking.

But what if they are polite enough not to complain but hate it anyway? I don't complain about it in PUGs, but I know my enjoyment of the game is diminished by people scattering targets willy nilly. I also put KB->KD procs in KB powers if I have them. Being considerate, and hoping others are in turn doesn't make you shitty.

I concur with this suggestion. Romulus seems rather over inclined to panic and runs away when you don't even use a rain or anything such. I'm not even sure what sets him off as he was running from my sonic/EA sentinel when I was soloing that TF. I don't think any of my powers have a fear component.

I'm sure I will be heartbroken to miss a teaming opportunity with you.

Yeah, I honestly had not heard of this particular option either and I've used Null a fair amount. There's a heck of a lot of options in all the bird menus.

Honestly I really wish people would stop with attempts to herd anymore. It seems that far too many people don't understand the aggro or AOE caps which make herding both worthless and dangerous. I used to herd back in the day when it was effective and efficient. It is no longer either, and far too many people seem to have missed the memo.

A single player who decides that everyone around them has too accommodate their play style is the problem child here. Everyone else has to go to Null the Gull just in case they encounter you? No, a punt is a much simple solution. You can solo or find people that don't mind. The onus is on you for trying to make others play your way. As for knock back, while there's the occasional player who handles it well, it's one of those where 90% make the 10% look bad. The number of times I've had a nuke popping off to empty ground because some knockback happy genius just cleared the board of targets without actually killing them is beyond counting. Recently I was in an argument where a tank stated their policy that if someone disrupts aggro, then they can deal with the mess (in this particular case it was a rain power, rather than knock back) and the tank will move on to another spawn. I supported the tanker because if they are expected to run around like a chicken with their head cut off chasing scattered enemies, both efficiency and fun go in the tank. I'm not one to tell others how to play (even group fly, rains, knock back), but that play style comes with the consequences be it dealing with your own aggro, or being kicked (which is very deserved for causing effects on other players that they cannot mitigate at the time).

This is why I find that hover sentinels are the ones I like the best. You keep clear of melee most of the time, and blast with fair amounts of impunity. Of course if you want to drop your PBAOE, you must close, but you can deal with that brief close quarters encounter. In any case, even on my floor bound sentinels, ranged is handy since you don't have to run around constantly. It's also very handy for picking out high value targets like surgeons or sappers.

Except you happen to be wrong. SR has defense, defense debuff resistance (and a lot of it), scaling resistance at low health, and an absorb power (if you go for toggle mez protection). By contrast, regen which seems to be what you think is the winner has regen, heals, absorb, and a small smidge of resistance. With relatively low HP on sentinels regen is hardly the best tool to have as your defensive anchor, and while you can add defense and a bit more resistance, the defense really is an egg shell in this case without any debuff resistance.