Coyote

For example: with the right IOs and damage procs, my build's Psychic Wail will be up at the start of every fight, and do a 12 second Stun to 10 targets with a nice radius. And a -70% Recharge debuff for 20 seconds. Oh, and 500 damage. It gets followed by Engulfing Darkness (APP power) that with procs is about 370. These are up every fight for damage equivalent to Blaste-level nukes, with solid debuffs and status effects. The Electric Blast one has a similarly strong opening salvo except that I think it does a bit less damage but zeroes out the Endurance of the targets hit. Both characters still have some follow-up AoEs like Psychic Tornado, Ball Lightning, etc. Yes, a Scrapper's AoE salvo is up faster, but does it matter? This is still up every fight except for facerolling teams (in which case, does it matter much?), puts out debuffs or controls that limits return fire, and puts out a lot of damage when you want it, at the beginning of the fight. As Frosty said, the AoE damage is solid, it's the single-target DPS where they're not that good. Even with a proc-designed build that takes advantage of having both a longer-recharge attack in most sets and access to a Hold with longer recharge, it's still hard to build a top single-target DPS character with a Sentinel. But they survive well enough to last longer against a boss, and clear the trash pretty well for a character with solid defenses. I am not arguing to say that they're a top AT, or that they don't have problems, especially teaming at the top levels. But I don't understand why you're picking on their AoE damage, which to me looks like their strength (well, that and a solid mix of range/defense), while their single-target weakness and lack of team abilities are their weaknesses.

I don't think it's worth the time to go through all of this, so I'll say a few short pieces: 1: Comparing an 8' PBAoE against 20-25' AoEs/PBAoEs? You'd expect higher damage from smaller AoEs. 2: I don't know about others, but I see major control/debuff effects on Sentinel nukes that make them useable as openers that shut down spawns in addition to doing a good amount of damage, while most Scrapper AoEs are far more damage oriented. 3: Crits aren't on demand. Their chance to occur should be calculated, and the base damage of a power multiplied by the chance to crit bonus, rather than just saying that they happen a lot and then going on assuming that "a lot" is "all the time". That's not good math, if you're going to go so deeply into math. 4: By the same type of argument, ranged damage taken is a lot less, so handwaving away a Sentinel's benefit from having even moderate range doesn't feel right. 5: Similarly, Sentinels will take damage far better than a Blaster. Sentinels with Defense sets will have Defense Debuff Resistance, and they all also have status protection. Granted that Blaster clearly do far more damage, but arguing that Blaster defenses are equivalent to Sentinel defenses at range, ignoring the large differences, and then fixating on 1% difference in base stats for Sentinel vs Scrapper defenses, just seems myopic. This is getting long, so I'll try again to shorten it: your arguments may be right. And they may be wrong. But you're not giving them a good mathematical grounding, leaving aside the whole opinion about what is better and more important when looking at different abilities. And as long as you're going to treat opposing arguments as irrelevant while saying that yours are overwhelmingly important, it's not a discussion that's worth having. To me, Sentinels seem fine... a bit lacking in value for a team due to lacking a focus even more than Scrappers, but still decent enough and excellent soloists.

Well, yeah, but that's because I was comparing the power vs power for a Dominator, who have both powers but don't have Containment. If Controllers had Mud Pots, it would probably get the same Containment effect as Hot Feet, so the ratio should remain even between Controller Hot Feet vs a theoretical Controller Mud Pots.

I went with Psy/Dark in Praetoria. It seemed to fit the milieu, and Dark Armor's high Psy resists should help a lot against the most annoying enemies there (Seers). SR would also do well since it's type-independent, but it has a click mez protection.

I'm not sure, given the relatively popular opinion that TW's damage is an outlier and not really balanced... that it is reasonable to use the outlier set's most damaging AoE attack as "one such example" and implying that this is the normal damage for Scrapper AoE attacks. TW is unbalanced, using it as the point to which other sets should be balanced is not going to result in better balance. I'm not saying anything about Sentinel damage, good or bad... or about the comparison between Scrapper and Sentinel damage. Just that balancing arguments are best done when using balanced powers/powersets for comparison.

There is a persistent rumor going about, that Sentinels have better ranged than melee attacks. I'm glad to see that it's merely a rumor 😁

Is that an example of You Fu?

Dark puts out good single-target damage for Controllers, and Cold makes it a lot easier due to strong -Resist and -Regen. Cold has -500% which can be made perma, and other than Traps this is about the highest you're going to get. Not having a self-heal IS a challenge... the -ToHit from Dark is noticeable and will make it easier to survive AVs due to lower incoming damage, but incoming damage will still happen and when you're depending on just regeneration then you really have to throttle incoming damage down a lot. Also, AVs that put out -Defense are going to be really nasty. Not unbeatable, but really difficult. Plant/Storm is, IMO, a better pair overall... but it does suffer from the bag-of-single-trick that Plant is prone to. Facing Nemesis, Longbow, and Rularuu with it is painful. The Stuns from Storm help, but it's still a tough slog against them. Storm's damage output is really nice, so it's actually equivalent to -Regen from other sets, so I don't really consider it as much worse than Cold against most AVs. It's less effective against high-resist AVs, but frankly unless the AV has a lot of 50% resists, you can usually power through it by the application of more explosives to the problem (in the form of Tornado/Storm). But Cold really helps with -Resist, -Regen, and -Heal.

Do not pass GO, do not collect 200 Incarnate Threads, go straight to Dark Jail 😛 Well, if you really really REALLY must skip the set's main fight opener, go ahead. Concept/like trumps efficiency in almost all cases. Actually skippable are the single-target and AoE Immobs... I like Living Shadows even on a Dominator, but I can see skipping it. I also think you won't be taking all of the Savage attacks... between a single-target Hold, Call Hawk, Vicious Slash, and the AoE attacks, I don't see that there will ever be time to use Maiming Slash except in a lower level leveling build.

I think this is the best way to derail this train wreck before it crashes... or some other way of Brutifying a tangled metaphor. So continuing... so far I'm calling it pretty even, with one crit to each side. LeoG is up 14-12 at halftime on the strength of a fumble. Not so sure about a recovery, but there definitely were some fumbles in the first half 😉

Dark/Sonic, as Frosty says, but with both Petrifying Gaze and Dominate procced out, using a Shriek - Scream - Shriek - HOLD cycle for single-target DPS, and enough -Res boosting the effects of all of the -Dam to make AVs hit like a Hellion. No, like a Hellion's girlfriend.

My Plant/Savage: Optional: change the 6xWinter set in Unkindness to 5xPositron and Achilles. You gain Recharge, lose AoE Defense. Note: this is an Incarnate build using Ageless for Endurance management, you will want to put slots into Health (for Miracle) and Stamina while leveling up.

There's also soloing the Sewer Trial 😉

Interesting. AFAIK, the Accuracy has to do with their powers hitting mobs, not with the summons power bringing up tentacles. The patch should be following, though it may have a limited aggro radius so you're better served to go into the next spawn. The only indicators are a slight weird noise, and I think it leaves a trail if it follows you through water.

Yeah, I think he's fine AS LONG AS Drain Psyche hits. I wouldn't normally worry about it hitting since you assume he's using it against multiple mobs. If it does miss, he's in trouble until it recharges, but usually he'll have multiple targets unless he's solo against an AV. He'll have to go slow for a while, but I think it will be rare enough that he's not using DP on enough targets, that he shouldn't redesign to build for more End management. Now, if he could just move a slot or two around and get more into Stamina, that may not be a bad idea. But I don't think it's a situation that will turn out to be a major problem for the character.

Hm. I'm not sure what a good recovery is, then. He has 4.5 or so with Drain Psyche running at a single target, so ... while it's down (and it has a longer downtime than I like to see usually), he does have endurance issues, but I don't think he'll bottom out in 15 seconds, and when it hits 1 target he's fine, and when it hits 2+ he'll max out his Endurance during its duration. I mean, not many builds hit 4.5 EPS recovery in the 20s, even if it's only a 2/3 uptime depending on how many sets he has active at a particular level. I'd be quite happy to run something with this kind of recovery, although I'd want more Recharge anyhow for Domination, which would then push Drain Psyche to a 6-8 second downtime.

Good idea. I can bring enough Lucks to survive a weaker AV long enough to get an idea. There WILL be a use for Boxing after all!

I don't think the debuff numbers are messed up, since it takes a while to ramp up the debuff, but it feels like it never stops. The AV takes a tiny sliver of damage for the first 30 seconds, then it starts taking noticeable damage, and then the damage just starts pouring through right around the start of the 2nd PA. Diabolique lasted quite a while, though, so clearly the stacks were dropping during her Intangible periods, but other AVs including a +5 (+4 with level shift) didn't last through 2 PAs, with the damage noticeably increasing during the 2nd summons. I do have out: 2 Tornadoes 3 Storms 1-2 Enflame patches 1 Freezing Rain 3 Decoys 1 Phantasm 1 Phantasm decoy (if its imaginary damage does the effect) 1 Mu Guardian 1-2 Energy Orbs That's easily enough entities that if each entity is allowed to stack its own 4-stack of debuffs, it will reach whatever the -MaxHp floor is, if there is any. It's also possible that the maximum stacks limit is just broken. Makes me consider copying the character to the test server, building a -Res interface and seeing if that also has a broken stack limit.

Only real use I can think of is to allow Acid Arrow to 6-slot with procs, because after it hits the enemies have their Defense debuffed, and you could use Flash Arrow midfight to re-boost if a new pack aggros. I don't really think it's worth the effort or idea, just a thought to consider... but as you say, personally I'd go for either a lot of set bonuses or an Alpha with Accuracy.

Flash Arrow is aggro-less... the +ToHit proc isn't affecting mobs, maybe it remains aggroless if that's slotted into it? That could be a free to-hit buff at the start of the fight, if that's the case.

Dark is a pretty good set for Dominators. It brings extra defensive ability, to make up for their lack of a secondary that helps with defense. The damage you get from the pets isn't as relevant as it is for Controllers, but the -ToHit is a lot more relevant. And it benefits from a secondary with Power Up, so that you can boost the -ToHit of an opening Fearsome Stare/Living Shadows combination to around -30%.

Just to note, while that's true with -Res applied by the power because procs usually proc immediately, there are some powers that apply damage after a delay, that would apply the -Res from their own IOs to their own damage. For example, Call Ravens and Unkindness both apply damage after a short time, but if you slot -Res IOs in them like Achilles Heel, the proc fires instantly. So you actually boost the power's own damage with the proc.

I was wondering why Siege, formerly impossible for me to beat due to his huge heal... went down in 2 minutes. So I ran Power Analyzer on Black Swan, who died in less than a minute, and found out that her Maximum HPs were down to about 4k by the time she was dead. I'm using Degenerative Total Core Conversion. Illusion/Storm, so maybe it has something to do with how many different entities are considered as doing damage to her? Maybe each one gets to stack its own set of -MaxHP debuffs? Maybe the stacks aren't limited to a maximum? Her MaxHPs decreased steadily during the fight down to the 4k.

Any /Psy Dominator generally has no Endurance issues in any case until you're down to just the AV and miss with Drain Psyche. Even if it's down for 10 seconds, you're not going to drain dry before you use it again and go back to regaining 6+ EPS. Heck, I think with a single target and DP unslotted for End Mod you still end up with 4+ EPS.

Voltaic won't actually take any pressure off real pets since it can't be targeted, its aggro goes to you. So that's more like you're taking pressure off the pets by attacking, which is always a good idea when you can cap your own defenses but not those of the pets. Also, while VS may not be worth casting IN COMBAT when you can throw out a higher-damage attack in the time, it has a big advantage of being castable before combat, so it's not eating into your combat activations during combat. You usually move faster than your pets anyhow if you're going really fast, so you have the time to cast it before a fight, and if you're not moving that fast then you have time to cast it while traveling. The only real reason not to take it isn't having to summon it regularly, it's just the question of whether it does enough damage to be worth a power pick and several slots. It does get by with less slotting than usual, though, since it really doesn't need Recharge or Endurance, so it's just Acc/Dam. 3-4 slots are enough for it. If you're willing to give up some useful Acc/Dam enhancing in it, 4 Expedient Reinforcement make it useful and get a Recharge bonus, or else 3 Centrioles max it out with just 3 slots.