Warshades

Tried to implement some of these changes and got the following in return. With regards to glad armor set in Frozen Armor, it wouldn't really benefit me as it only boosts cold/fire resist and it's primarily a defensive toggle. The one major issue I see from removing the full ATO set is that I lose the 5% range defense. While I'm not trying to soft cap this as I can rely on the -tohit and even regen from Drain Psyche, 22% to range feels a bit low. I swapped Grant Invisibility for Subdue and moved the slots from Fearsome Stare/Living Shadow to get it slotted. Also changed super speed to Infiltration to get back the LotG mule. Dominator (Darkness Control - Psionic Assault)5.mbd

Thanks for reviewing. Tbh, I was messing around with where to place purple sets for the recharge and picked up Living Shadows at some point, but you're right about it being unlikely that I'll ever use it. I'll switch it to Shadowy Binds and slot it with an Apoc set to get better ranged ST damage in rotation. Regarding AVs if I were to try to solo, I should be able to upkeep perma confuse with Possess to be able to close in and use Mind Probe/TT safely as part of my rotation. In a team scenario, shouldn't be to much of an issue to fight close with buffs from teammates, AV focus on a tank/brute, and standing behind an AV to avoid cones. Considering the lack of slots/procs in TT, I could even delay the power pick and get the ranged Subdue or Mental Blast instead to have a better ranged rotation. Mid's was showing Drain Psyche at 114% acc to +3 (assuming there's not a bug somewhere that's counting more than I actually have). Switching to Shadowy Binds with Apoc set would drop it to 102%. May load it up later onto test server to see if that accuracy is accurate. If it's not, I could slot it with D-syncs and an accuracy IO, or else a 5 piece panacea and acc IO.

Looking for some critique and any suggested improvements that can be made for this dark/psi build. I was initially going to go for permadom without relying on Hasten, but didn't quite like some of the sacrifices to get there. Theoretically, this build would get permadom without Hasten just by changing Psychic Shockwave to a 5 set Armageddon slotting, but I feel like more slow resist with Avalanche would be a better investment. The goal for the build is to be all around useful for anything between dealing with mob spawns or clearing AVs. Mostly designed for lvl 50 content, but Drain Psyche should take care of any endurance issues when exemplaring down. I'm not fully decided on the epic, but I did like the max HP from Hoarfrost and the usefulness of Sleet for -res. Any input would be appreciated. Dominator (Darkness Control - Psionic Assault)4.mbd

I guess my point, which I should've stated more clearly from the beginning of the topic, is that I tend to team more than play solo. I can see how playing solo, you'd get good usage out of TS against leftover bosses. On a team, I can open with LR and SC, but teammates are also opening their AoE attacks and bosses don't quite have the high amounts of HP left at times to justify using TS. This does depend on the make up of the team as not all PUG teams have great dmg to completely negate TS as a useful power.

Do you still find it to be that good in practical applications when you're on a team and fighting mobs? That higher dpa only factors in in ideal circumstances when you can guarantee that you're hitting TS with hide status/proc and that the target is still even alive by the time it hits, something that a pylon clear time test allows. Pylons are a single target dmg test, you can literally skip LR and SC if you're prioritizing pylon clear speeds. You also didn't use LR in that video for the test whereas fighting through general TF/mission content, I like to use LR any time I can against mobs. Maybe if every single mob you engage has an AV or GM where you can take advantage of the crit dmg from TS and the target staying alive to get that dmg by the time it hits, then it would win in dpa under those ideal circumstances. I'm looking more so from a practical content use. You don't lose much against AV fights using JL over TS. Additionally, the time it takes for the target to die matters, especially with an activation as long as TS. Another factor is how much HP the target has left when the hit happens. You can have amazing dmg from TS while hidden, but it doesn't mean much if by the time you hit, a boss has a sliver of life left and you would've still ended that boss using JL and getting a crit from hide. To be clear, this isn't to knock your comment about TS dpa and it's usefulness, I'm just trying to point out that teaming and doing missions/TFs isn't the same as fighting a pylon. Even the splash dmg will only factor in if there are enemies close by to your target, something that isn't guaranteed as minions and lieutenants die quickly, mobs can be immobilized by a controller/dom, and they can be knocked down and prevented from grouping up, particularly when you open with LR and SC. I would personally love for TS to be the better power pick as I dislike the visual look of JL animation, but there have been to many instances where I either may as well have not used TS at all or could've finished the target with JL.

Any armor set that helps with endurance would be a good pairing as stone melee tends to be endurance heavy. Bio and ice would both help, shield not so much.

As someone that likes to play in melee range, I'll play just about everything in melee even if I don't need to. I found elec/energy sentinel to be extremely fun for me. I play it more like a brute/tank by going in for the massive end drain from Short Circuit/Energy Drain and then blast away without having to worry about getting hit because most of the mob is not only drained, but also has high -rec debuffs applied preventing them from getting any endurance back to attack. Sentinels truly are one of the best sapping ATs in the game imo, and it makes them extremely good playing in melee to make use of their sapping ability. Thunderous Blast may be ranged AoE nuke, but it's just as effective, if not more, when launched from melee range (and to be clear it's more effective because I've likely completely end sapped the mob if I'm in melee when I'm firing it off and can get bonus damage from hitting end drained enemies). Granted, I also built my sentinel to be soft capped to most damage types and have high resist through set bonuses so being up close and in the fight wouldn't cause me to die, or even be concerned about dying. The nice thing is that there are many ways to play to game, you can easily play Sentinels completely at range. You can even split the ATO set that provides an early range boost bonus so that the range on most of your attacks is more similar to that of a blaster/corruptor/defender.

SS is actually one of the best candidates to procbomb because of rage. The +dmg and +tohit buffs from rage essentially negate the need to slot for damage and accuracy, this is further helped by musculature alpha which helps with dmg enhancement. The trick is getting a good amount of global recharge when you're missing out on recharge from set bonuses because you're putting in 5+ dmg procs in your attacks. Force feedback chance for +rech is a good way to do so, and as it so happens, a lot of SS powers and even Shield Charge can take that proc. One thing to consider before going with ss/shield is that shield is very much reliant on defense as the primary dmg mitigation, followed by resists and just being able to kill faster thanks to AAO dmg buff and shield charge. It has no inherent heal or regen buffs. If I were to do this combination, I'd probably pick a tank as they have higher base defense values from their toggles and it is possible to build up to 65% positional defenses so that even with the -20% from rage crash, you're still at soft cap. Endurance will also be an issue for the combination, though this is relatively easy to fix for lvl 50 content by making Ageless core destiny (which you would want for the recharge help that wouldn't negatively impact proc chances). If you plan to exemplar down for lower lvl TFs and such, I would plan accordingly as you won't be able to rely on incarnates. Also as an FYI, using alpha incarnates like Spiritual that boost recharge count as if you're slotting a recharge enhancement into the power and will lower proc chances of going off. Global recharge from Hasten, set bonuses/lotg +rech/FF +rech, and Ageless destiny incarnate will not. Another excellent proc bomb combination is radiation armor (has 2 nukes you can fill with procs) and even bio armor. You'll still feel the impact of the def loss even on a resist focused set like rad armor, but having the near 90% resist cap to most dmg types (again, easier on a tank) makes it sting a lot less than on a hybrid set like shield. I would personally go with a tank first if you plan on proc bombing for 2 main reasons: Easier to survive (higher values on armors and higher base HP) Tanks have increased AoE radius for many powers, making it easier to hit all enemies in mobs (this buff didn't affect some powers like Foot Stomp, but it had a high base radius so wasn't really needed) It may seem counter intuitive to build a tank for damage, but at high content and/or once you're IO'd, the main job of a tank is to take the alpha strike dmg and maintain agro of enemies (easily done by gauntlet inherent and taking taunt). In some ways, quickly nuking mobs so fewer things can attack and kill you can also be considered as building towards survival through offense, something about a saying that the best defense is a good offense? 😄 Personally, rad/ss is my favorite pairing for procbombing, but I would also pick ss/bio before I would go to shield.

I did not factor splash damage in as that is very variable. I was only looking at the damage done to a single target. Even from the brief 2 days where I ran the stalker with TS, it was rare that splash damage would ever factor in. Mobs were often already down after LR + SC, or else would be immobilized from a troller/dom and wouldn't group up for the splash damage to be a big factor from Thunder Strike. I think that at lower levels, if you exemplar often, you might feel more use out of the splash damage as most ATs are missing their big hitting AoEs, but at lvl 50 I was mainly only getting the ST damage (and that's assuming the target didn't die before it hit). If anything, the knockdown from LR + SC actually makes it harder for any remaining enemies to group up together.

Nice, I really appreciate the number crunch. I ran a quick DPA comparison yesterday between CB and TS before respecing out of TS and saw that CB's DPA pulled way ahead of TS, but I didn't compare it to HP or JL. I'll also change up AS to run the 3 ATOs, 2 damage procs and probably replace the 3rd with the +5 dam Hecatomb as that should offer more damage consistency and give another small recovery bonus. I'll change the interface to degen as well. I've gotten used to running reactive on nearly everything, but you are right in that some of the benefit would be lost if -res isn't applied by the first nuke and that's not counting overstacking of reactive from other players. This will hopefully be the final version that I respec into now.

I suppose that's also why LR and SC don't break the hidden state with them being pseudopet summons? I am surprised that tankers are the only ones where it's different. To be honest, really feels like I'm in a bind. I had respec'd into the second build I posted to test it out and just finished running a 54 KM ITF not long ago. While this is a case specific scenario, with a kin on the team and FS buffs, enemies were dying insanely fast to the point where by the time a Thunder Strike would hit, the enemy would likely have been dead. I also found it helpful to not be stuck in a long animation and cycling quickly through Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, and Chain Induction to build up focus for a hard hitting AS felt really nice and made a noticeable impact on the ST damage against the EBs/AVs. On the other hand, having a FotG -res proc would also help damage output a lot as well. Now it kinda feels like a choice between running a long animating TS or a combination of Jacob's Ladder, Chain Induction, and either Charged/Havoc Punch to build focus up quick and still be able to get the -res proc in. I'll probably stop respecing on live to try out all these changes and start doing so on the test server first. Considering Jacob's Ladder and Havoc Punch have similar animation times, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I may go with Charged Brawl, Jacobs Ladder, and Chain Induction as my 3 quick focus building powers. I can then put a 5 piece Armageddon and FotG in JL and do the Winter Set in SC as you mentioned. I appreciate the build you put together, I'll give that a whirl on the test server with the slight attack power changes. Now that I think about it, the main reason I was even trying to put Kismet into the build was because I was originally trying to slot Shield Charge with the Armageddon dam/rech piece instead of acc/rech and it was a bit low on accuracy and I ended up going back to acc/rech but never removed Kismet lol. Overall, the build feels incredibly good so far, amazing AoE and ST damage output. Only managed to craft ageless core so far as I needed a quick endurance fix, but will get to musculature and reactive T3s tomorrow. Edit: speaking of the interface slot, do you find degen with -max HP to be more useful for stalkers?

Alright, so after testing it out, Kismet definitely does not work in Grant Cover. Made some changes to put Kismet into hide instead. I also swapped Thunder Strike for Charged Brawl. With hide on, the Red Fortunes in Deflection boosted to +5, and an extra reactive defense: def in Maneuvers, it does barely scrape to melee soft cap. I could also get there easier by doing a full ToD set in Havoc Punch, but I'm considering trying out either CotS +chance for heal or Fortunata Hypnosis +placate chance in Havoc Punch, has anyone tested and found either to be useful? I suppose that Jacob's Ladder would be a more useful power to put this in and if I can get over that very aesthetically boring and unfitting animation, I can maybe try it out there. Will at some point move the powers around so I get Charged Brawl earlier for whenever I do exemplar down. I'm also considering dropping Grant Cover for OwtS instead, but a little hesitant as it does drop my DDR by a solid amount. I suppose that with me being just barely over soft cap, any defense debuffs will result in cascading failure regardless if I have GC or not while soloing, and perhaps with teams I'll get enough additional defense buffs to not have worry about it. On the other hand, I also built in so much resist that it feels like I wouldn't really benefit much out of OwtS. Also added in the Hecatomb proc into AS, still keeping the 5 piece ATO for the global recharge. Build is still low on psi resist, but that's fine by me at this point. Feels like it would cost to many slots and resists in more useful damage categories to try and build that up. Updated build changes below. Stalker (Electrical Melee - Shield Defense)2.mbd

I appreciate all the replies. I'll take an unslotter and test if kismet is working in Grant Cover or not, didn't consider that it might not. Can make some changes if it doesn't, but I think it should hit soft cap (counting the none suppressed defense from hide) by just swapping with CJ. I kinda really hate the look of Jacob's Ladder animation, to the point that I will avoid it at all costs lol. I'll look into slotting damage procs in AS and not going for the full ATO set. May also go with Charged Brawl instead as I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the long animation time of TS. Would probably end up with better DPA and faster focus gains to cycle AS more often. I'm one of those players that doesn't like using inspirations and I try to build without having to rely on them. I think I may go ahead and replace TS with Charged Brawl though. I've been finding that the long animation time kinda hurts and sometimes I'll lose a stack of focus as a result of being stuck in TS. The build actually is soft capped if you count the ~2.1% or so defense from hide that doesn't get suppressed when you attack and are broken out of hide (assuming mid's is correct about those numbers). I de-toggled it so it doesn't display the additional ~4.3% or so defense that does get suppressed when attacking or out of hidden state. I will take a look at the changes you made and try them out. I fully agree on taking that recharge slot out of BU as I found that the instant recharge proc goes off pretty often, no point in wasting the slot on it. I'm not as happy about the idea of dropping hasten though.

That's interesting, considering it's not even part of the armor set on sentinels and requires epic pool powers. I can only hazard a guess the clones have a pool of power sets and when it chooses electric armor, it does so from the standard electric armor set and not the ported over and changed sentinel version. Maybe worth a bug report, not sure if they still hand out the bug hunter badge or whatever it's called.

Both of these are good points. I was mainly aiming for high resists and including psi with that, but it is pretty rare to encounter for the most part and this is overkill. I normally mostly play lvl 50 content so definitely wasn't considering exemplaring, good call on kismet into Tough Hide as well!