Warshades

If you want SGF to fire more often, you really need to avoid slotting recharge into the power, which doesn't work out well if you put the whole set piece in it. What you could do is split the set into 2 sets of 3 pieces each if you want to plug the negative resistance a bit more (not really worth it imo) or just slot the 1 SGF proc and avoid and recharge boosting enhancements in the other 5 slots in SL. I can take a closer look at the build after work today and see if I can offer any adjustments to make it more tanky.

I'll upload 2 quick builds I did, one is focused on damage by procing out your attacks (double stacked rage will handle accuracy and damage boosting the attacks). The other is focused on survival by attempting to layer on defense/resistance as much as possible on top of your regen. I assume you took hover as a slot mule for LotG +rech and removed it (I don't particularly like hover personally and more importantly, I don't think it's a good fit with foot stomp). Hurl is plane bad, just don't take it. The one thing worth changing/adjusting (if you're having issues with KB from Council) is putting in more -kb protection uniques and/or set bonuses. You could easily swap the slow resist in SJ that's on the survival build for a blessing of zephyr KB protection. On the damage build, I'd probably replace the 3 piece unbreakable in Mind Over Body to a 3 piece gladiator armor to get a bit more KB protection built in. Damage - Tanker (Willpower - Super Strength).mbd Survival - Tanker (Willpower - Super Strength).mbd

Thanks for posting. I'll have to look into possibly slotting a Pacing of the Turtle and/or Trap of the Hunter if I want to also get 45% def. The 3 Thunderstrike in LS is also helpful and could change the winter set that I have in mine. Will have to see if I can find some extra slots to put those into Roots. Skipping spirit tree is more of a personal dislike for the power, cast time is to long and it doesn't follow you around. Though if you want to get more recharge on your build, you could look into replacing the 5 piece Numina's for Panacea. This would be a bit costly since Panacea is a PvP IO set.

Been wanting to try this combination for a while and have heard some amazing things about it and some less amazing things (endurance is certainly looking problematic). Haven't played /storm since live and have been looking through various slotting suggestions for Creepers, Tornado, and LS. Came up with the following build, but would welcome any improvements that can be made. Regarding some of the choices I made and questions I ran into: I heard that BU proc can help in Tornado from another older post (if this is not the case then I can switch the Soulbound to a 4 piece Expedient instead). I contemplated putting a full Artillery set into BoL to get more range defense, but as that still wouldn't put me at soft capped range and I should be running SoC every mob, I figured I would go with the proc option in it and settle for 35% range def. Mu mastery is there mostly for Power Sink as I don't know if even ageless core destiny would save the endurance on this build, at least past the first 60 seconds. Not sure if I'll even run tactics to save endurance, was mostly picked up to get another LotG mule in vengeance which could occasionally help as well. Hurricane: not a fan of the repel or endurance drain, skipping it for those reasons. O2 Boost vs Gale: don't really see the point of slotting either, took O2 Boost as a mule for Preventative unique. Vines: likely won't be using this often, but may come in handy if additional mobs get pulled or ambushes flow in. The ATO set is there for both the recharge and range defense set bonuses. Achilles proc in Freezing Rain: didn't really see a better power that I could slot it in. I know it won't proc often, but better some than never I guess. Only other place I could put it is Fly Trap which according to the wiki has 3 powers that deal -def, so maybe that's a better placement for it? Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

Well, I might have to try rebuilding this from scratch and see if I can get something better up as it feels like there are very few changes I can make without impacting some part of the def/resist that I built. For now I just swapped the sets in MG and SL and added a slot to SL from temp invulnerability since I could afford losing some s/l defense to put in the heal IO. Also replaced the 2 piece superior avalanche in dark consumption as I realized I was well over the 100% recharge debuff resist. I may change the 2 obliteration pieces to fury of the gladiator so that I can remove the slot from SJ and put it elsewhere. A 3 piece gladiator armor set in tough or resist physical damage is tempting to get a bit more KB protection built in, or even just a kb resist unique. I'll try this build out with leviathan mastery for now and see how it feels, if needed I can easily respec back into /soul later if I don't like it. This is where it's currently at with ageless radial (>60 seconds past) and 1 foe in range of invincibility. Thank you both for your inputs into the build @tidge and @Zect Tanker (Invulnerability - Dark Melee)3.mbd

Appreciate this, I do know he can end drain really quickly but didn't know the specifics of his resistance to -dmg. Since I am soft capped with 1 foe in range, I may as well go radial ageless for the debuff resistance as you said. It does drop my resists a bit, but still nearly hard capped with 2 stacks of SMoT so I can settle for that. I'll look into reworking some things around radial ageless and fitting a heal IO into SL. With regards to more DPS, I don't know how worthwhile it is going in that direction. Dark melee can have a good ST rotation going, but when most of it's AoEs with the exception of ToF are on ridiculously long cooldowns, I figured that damage is the one thing I would be sacrificing with this build. As you said, it's difficult to build and excel at all factors, I tend to leave focusing on damage for armor sets that help directly boost it like shield, bio, radiation, and fire. I'm okay with that as I'm not really looking to use this thing to solo +4/8x content, just be able to sustain until the team kills off the mobs/AVs, which thankfully won't be indefinite to where debuffs would kill me. I appreciate the help and pointers. Will post an updated version soon with the changes. This is always a good test with all the debuffs and exotic damage that they do. Shadow shard mobs at +4 are no joke.

I mad some adjustments to your last build to improve it's sustainability when farming. For fire farms specifically, it's especially useful to hit 45% fire def, although you could stick with your build and pop a single purple insp to hit that mark. I also added Burn and Fusion to the build, both are extremely useful for boosting damage and you really don't need to go so deep into leadership pool, Maneuvers is enough as a LotG mule and small defense boost (you could also consider dropping Maneuvers for Combat Jumping which consumes almost no endurance and distribute the 2 extra slots in Maneuvers to Consume). This build does have slightly lower global recharge, but hits similar resist/defense marks. A bit less on psionic, but it's not very common to encounter. I would also suggest using enhancement boosters on important recharge powers to make the recharge IOs +5, I did so on Hasten and Fiery Embrace (you can hit/hold + key on keyboard while hovering over the IO you want to put in to boost it's level in mids). Ideally more slots in Consume would be nice, but would probably have to rework a lot more of the build to get that. I personally use/slot Consume as a damage dealing power on my farming fire armor brute, but you can adjust it to boost max HP as well, would be more useful in general content as @WuTang stated. fire aura radiation melle v6.mbd

For alpha incarnate, Musculature is a good pick. Both shield (AAO toggle + shield charge) and fire melee (combustion + FSC) excel in doing damage and musculature can boost that further if you choose to proc out some attacks. The endurance modification will also help a bit with endurance which shield can struggle with. I would go radial musculature. Interface may depend on who you ask and what your goal is. Degenerative and reactive interface slots are most useful and you can't go wrong with either. However, because they are so popular, you could end up teaming with a bunch of players that are running those interface slots and there's a limit to how many stacks of -max HP or -res can be applied (iirc it's 4 stacks). If you plan to solo and want a mob killer tank, I'd probably suggest reactive radial for the -res. Degenerative may be more useful for AV/GM fights, I would also go radial here. Again very generally, you want the 75% chance to be for the additional DoT damage and the 25% chance to be for whatever other effect is on whatever interface slot you choose.

I tend to always go for 4 to get that e/n resist unless I'm just slotting the unique. I know it's overkill, but I still want to reach for high resist and soft cap def. The entire point of going with DM for this combo is that the additional -tohit helps in case of defense debuffs and DM also has an extra heal in Siphon Life. While I tend to avoid recharge boosting alphas, in this case proc chances weren't a big deal for me since the goal of this build isn't to maximize damage but durability. Even the 6 slotted purples were to get and build up the toxic/psi resist. I'll also normally 6 slot preventive medicine if I'm going to already put at least 4 slots as I did in my build, but additional slots felt hard to come by and I wasn't really gaining anything out of 6 slotting DP since it already puts me at HP cap and should be permanent (at least with incarnates). I'm not normally against Kismet unique, but lack of slots and access to Soul Drain with some good recharge on the build makes it feel like I shouldn't need it. While not perma, it nearly is and with 10 targets would give more +tohit than I would ever need. The patron attacks were less about filling out an attack chain and more about getting a multi target -tohit in Dark Obliteration. I suppose this is probably irrelevant as with saturated invincibility, I shouldn't be at risk of having my defenses fail in most situations and AVs are resistant to -tohit debuffs so it would be worthless there. My 2 other considerations were Psionic Mastery to get Psi Tornado (would require dropping 1 power to get it) or possibly even Leviathan patron for Arctic Breath. Not a fan of cones especially on a tank, but I can't deny that the -res would be useful so teammates can kill faster. I'm open to changing the patron pool pick. Did a quick swap of /soul to /leviathan to get Arctic Breath. Agility alpha may hurt slightly here, but hopefully not by much with a base 32s cooldown. Tanker (Invulnerability - Dark Melee)2.mbd

Would appreciate a second look over on this build to see if there's anything I could improve/change. This is mainly meant to be a durable tank, the stats in the image are from 1 foe in range of invincibility and 5% res/def from barrier. Alpha agility to help with def and recharge to get DP perma. Soul mastery for the additional target AoE -tohit against mobs. Was considering taking DN for the -dmg debuff against AVs, but not sure if there's anything that I would actually need to use it for, maybe tanking LR in MLTF. Tanker (Invulnerability - Dark Melee).mbd

It's a good build overall. A few minor things: You'll get more recovery from slotting the end mod in crystal armor to stamina instead. All your attacks are over 95% acc to +3 without kismet, so that can save you a slot to put elsewhere, maybe a 5th LotG +rech. Given your high global recharge, you could consider swapping focused accuracy to hasten. At the very least, this will increase how often you can use fold space. The build doesn't have much recharge debuff resist. You could potentially sacrifice a few minor resist bonuses to 2 slot some winter sets to get more (such as replacing 2 obliteration in FSC or 2 ToD in incinerate), but that's up to you. Could consider switching achilles -res proc to FSC since it can hit multiple enemies. Not sure how the proc rate is in FSC, but switching to 2 winter pieces and 3 scirocco pieces you can avoid any recharge buffs to maximize proc chances.

At what difficulty level are you looking to solo at? Soloing difficulty can vary greatly depending on if you want to solo missions to be set for a team of x8 with bosses or not as well as how much higher in level you want those enemies to be. If you're planing to solo at +0/1x, you can do so using SOs or basic IOs without difficulty. The higher the difficulty you want to be able to solo, the higher the cost of the build usually ends up being. Regen isn't really a sturdy armor set to begin with, especially if you are attempting to solo with it at high difficulty settings. It has no inherent defensive toggles/passives, low resist values, and not that great regen rate since the amount of HP regen/second depends not only on the regen rate, but also the amount of max HP that it's being applied to. Since sentinels don't have very high HP, they don't benefit as much from regeneration. Iirc, the sentinel version of regeneration focuses more on absorb shields rather than direct regeneration. Perhaps stating what difficulty level you're trying to build towards being able to solo will help with others designing an affordable build to handle that difficulty level.

Stone is a mixed def/resist set, somewhat similar to energy aura or shield defense with some unique things to it like EE giving it max HP cap and a bit of regen from rooted. I could easily make up the s/l def loss from weave by splitting the superior stalker's guile set into 2 sets of 3, but making up the e/n defense would be a bit harder. Currently would be sitting at this without hide on if I were skip fighting pool. Alternatively, I could keep fighting pool and replace Geode, CJ, and SJ to get the Adrenal Booster and end up with something like this. Higher s/l resist and I can similarly find a slot (probably miracle +rec) to put into Energy Punch and split the stalker's guile set to end up with 46% s/l def and 39% e/n before hide. May end up having to try both and see which version I like better.

Also, would Adrenal Booster be worth fitting into this build? I would likely drop SJ, Geode, and CJ to fit it in, but the effects are quite strong for 1 minute bursts and would help with stunning and keeping AVs stunned. Haven't used Adrenal Booster in any builds before.

Quick rework per the suggestions, ended up moving the extra slot in EP for a kismet in hide. While technically all powers are at the minimum 95% to +3 without it, it's also extremely close to barely being over. Slightly higher average damage on AS and slightly lower on TF, but the flow of TF opener and hide proc triggering makes a lot more sense to then follow up with a crit ET. Proc'd out BoL more as well. Stalker (Energy Melee - Stone Armor)3.mbd

Thank you, will work on changing the proc and set placements tonight.

As I seem to be on a stalker alt-itis mode right now, I've decided to make a high ST damage stalker as an alternative to the high AoE damage elec/shield build. Thus far, came up with this and would appreciate any input/changes that can be made to improve it further. I originally had a full set preventative medicine in EE, but switched to panacea to get another +rec slot in health. I'm a tiny bit below e/n soft cap with hide suppressed, but not overly worried about it. Stalker (Energy Melee - Stone Armor)2.mbd

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.