HowlingBlade

Once I get to the point of getting Ageless unlocked I'll give that a whirl. Your Fire/Rad and my Fire/Fire basically do the same thing. Except I traded out fire sword circle for burn, but I appreciate the added support that Rad armor adds to the arsenal.

From my (scant) experience in the leveling process, I think it boils down to the following; Scrappers deal more consistent damage across a tougher enemy, given the highest base melee scaling for damage plus critical hits. Stalkers burst harder but aren't consistent in their output as they have less outright scaling, but they can crit more often and have assassin's strike. Brutes will soak the hits better than the Scrapper or Stalker, and mechanically punch back harder, but it boils down to how much fury they have. It will be consistent damage, but it's never going to surpass the guys who need a little bit of lady luck on their side. Tankers just eat hits for days and bomb large groups of enemies for consistent, albeit lower, damage values. They're really the pinnacle of "I can do this all day." In a one on one fight, the other three melee folks will probably finish the fight faster, but the tanker will finish the fight alive.

Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't using something like Dark for the -toHit, or Rad for -Defense, or Ice Melee for the Ice Patch shenanigans be considering "bringing utility" to the table? Sure, none of them are inherently direct buffs, per se, but all of them are going to help make things "easier" by providing a backend gain? Or, because of the Incarnate system, IO system and ATO system those bonuses are made defunct and irrelevant? Sure, none of the above really bring the best to the table in terms of damage, but they seem to be offering more than just "punch X target to dea...I mean arrested".

I ended up kind of blending both inputs - I started with Musculature, and I also had the threads to make Cardiac to see the difference. And honestly? it's tough to say which one *feels* better. More damage does feel bloody fantastic, but so does not worrying about my End consumption for the first time in 50 levels. That said... I still feel like, in groups, Musculature feels more useful. Especially for wading in with my fouty-odd second cooldown Inferno pops.

What a Ride... First off, thank you for all of the input, thoughts and suggestions regarding Sentinels as a whole. As of last night, F1R3B4T has finally reached level 50, thanks in no small part to an awesome little Kill Most ITF team I joined in on. I've learned a lot about the demi blaster/scrapper/I blow myself up lifestyle of the Sentinel, and it has been a rather enjoyable trip and it would appear to be far from over. But now...I have to get into Incarnates and that system doesn't seem very intuitive. Reading through it, I see a lot of field value of trying to build either Musculature or Cardiac for my Alpha slot, which is the only one I currently have unlocked. For those more seasoned than I, what is your preferred Alpha, and why?

So, of the four you isolated out, which would you determine as most "fun" - I have dabbled with a low level lightning/stone sentinel who is going to take Fire Mastery as well (Storm, Earth and Fire...HEED MY CALL!)... Although I suppose I should have taken storm summoning instead. Dangit.

See you kind of nailed on the head why I was interested in Fire Mastery on top of all the other fire, beyond a thematic point. I get added controls, a single target attack, an AoE attack AND a radial heal. A little bit of everything, to try and fill in holes where I find them. I do appreciate the points others have made about different build concepts and build styles; obviously everyone is going to play their own way. My way tends to be "charge in, use fire cages, use fire ball and then inferno. Whatever is left gets the flare/blaze treatment". I'm simple like that.

@mistagoat My sentinel is now 36/37 and I did grab the fire rings to help set up for the inferno bomb, but I'm not going to lie and say that the temptation to run an elec/I dunno what armor I want yet isn't there. I ran last night with someone playing a character named "Ionic Flux" and they were a ball of destruction. @Black_Assassin I'll have to take a look at that build later.

So, I recently began my Sentinel journey after suffering the usual abysmal case of alt-itis and not really being 100% happy with anything I have landed on. While I enjoyed other classes, I hadn't found a happy character wherein I said "Ah-hah! This makes me Happy!" Then I made F1R3B4T. A fire/fire Sentinel who now is level 27 and, appropriately, feels like he has absolutely no chill. I am thinking, looking forward, of picking up the Fire Mastery set once I get there. As someone who is new to the game (I played for about a year at launch and now on and off for a few months on Homecoming), what kind of merry mayhem awaits me as I level this pyromaniac-turned-hero of a character? What suggestions do people have for someone who is fairly "green"? Thanks in advance!

This entire forum has been an enlightening read. Thank you @Underfyre for your efforts in putting all this together in the spreadsheet. I had never taken a look at the sentinel before, made a fire/fire one and have been having the absolute blast of my life living the battlemage dream.