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I have Burst of Speed with 3x Blaster's Wrath (the Recharge pieces, including %Fire) and 3x %Damage. It is a reliable source of damage on top of popping into combat. I have Inner Will 2-slotted with Heal/Recharge, no set bonuses. This is the power I keep on Auto... sometimes it is "overkill' on the mezz recovery, many times it is not. I find that it is rather trivial to maximize Global recharge on Blasters without worrying about Hasten, I also picked up Rune of Protection as the backup mezz protection.

My BR toons are mostly on stand-bye these days, but from memory, my Sentinel's attack chain is: Distintegrate -> Lancer Shot (same Target, to spread) -> Refractor Beam (or another AoE, even Piercing Beam which it is possible to get good at positioning for AoE). After this, it is usually alternating among (Disintegrating) targets for the ST attacks. Sentinels can leverage Vulnerability more-or-less at will, so when compared to my Defender BR I find myself focusing much more on spreading Disintegration than any other tactical choice, especially considering BR debuffs. Annihilation in Piercing Beam is a slight compromise as it is %-Resistance along with the set's inherent attribute boosts.

Maybe I don't understand this post. It reads to me like this is saying the CoX Giant Monsters are too hard, which I don't think is true. In my experience the CoX Giant Monsters have a floored 1-in-20 chance to hit most player characters, and I am pretty sure all of the GMs shuffle between single-target and AoE attacks. If the characters have any sort of resists.. or ya know... have a strategy that involves getting the GM to focus fire on a character with resists... then the limiting factor for GM defeats becomes dealing damage (to overcome the "sack of HP" -> Regeneration, plus whatever resistances the GM has)... as was noted above. The one giant monster that seems to catch some players defense values by surprise (in my experience) is the Arachnos Flier; because this spawns in a level 50 zone and spawns its own varieties of (lots of) minions, players fighting the flier have to be prepared in ways they don't exactly need for Kraken, Paladin, or Babbage. My personal experience has been that most random pairs of level 50 ATs with incarnates) can handle most any of the nu Giant Monsters... and a single level 50 with debuffs can lead a small squad of lower-level characters with any sort of attack chain to whittle down most Giant Monsters that are not in level 50 zones. Different ATs have to change things up of course, and some will be relying on Lore pets for the necessary damage. Standing in place and button mashing may not work for nuEochai for example. For the most part, I think the nuGM changes were pretty mild... mostly added resistances, some health boosts for low-level zone GMs, and in rare cases some long-timer AoEs. Those aren't particularly problematic for veteran level players, especially if they are willing to change up tactics. AFAIK, the only open-world GM with an "unavoidable damaging attack" is Eochai's Pumpkin Patch, which is a location-based AoE. I suppose folks can argue about Paladin's Pulse, but I think that attack is avoidable... if not it is at least possible to get out of its range. Circling back to the debuff: Anything in the game with a large sack of HP will regenerate significant HP via the regeneration formula... just like players do. Debuffing giant monster regeneration is important! Raising the base health of some of the GMs was a good idea IMO, but this was more of a way to draw out the length of GM fights (for small teams) than it was to make the GMs particularly dangerous. Longer fights only make them more dangerous because of RNG and streakbreaker.

Here is a single macro to do what @Yomo Kimyata suggests, to self-target, just make sure there is no trget selected in the reticle. I picked Tar Patch, but any power (and macro image) can be selected. /macro_image "DarkCast_Aim" "TARP" "powexec_location me Tar Patch$$powexec_location target Tar Patch"

Personally: I think Iron Man rules are somewhat silly, as all players can choose to take self-rez powers from pools. There is also the "all it takes is a sloppy league leader to murderize anybody" effect. by the common assessment of the silly Iron Man thinking: I'd say you were dead, Kev.

The -Regen effects of some Beam Rifle attacks are good, but I think they are not nearly as important on a Sentinel as they are on something like a Defender, because of the wide difference in (ranged) damage scales between those AT. I'm sure there are some corner case content where the BR -Regen can manifest itself, but for most play I'd focus on Sentinel DPS.

Players may want the loot, but they don't always want to make sure the events respawn. As long as it is more common for multi-boxers and "dedicated monster hunting teams" to leave extra spawns around, I see no reason for solo GM hunting to be considered taboo.

My BR Sentinel went with: T2 Single Shot, 6x Sentinel's Ward T3 Cutting Beam, 6x Ragnarok T4 Disintegrate, 6x Opportunity Strikes T5 Aim, 6x Gaussian's T6 Lancer Shot, 6x Apocalypse T7 Refractor Beam, Centriole, Guidance, 4x %damage T8 Piercing Beam, 6x Annihilation T9 Overcharge, Frozen Blast +Javelin Volley (Acc/End/Damage/Recharge) + 4x %damage Because it is such a single-target focus of the set, and with a Sentinel's choices for secondary being what they are, I felt like I needed all the attacks after the T1/T2 choice (plus Aim). I didn't feel like the character really came together until I had Refractor Beam (slotted).

I can answer part of @Rudra question about henchmen and nuGMs. For most GMs, it is exceptionally rare that I lose more than one henchman at a time to any GM attack... and I'd say that 80% of the time I resummon a henchman right at the feet of a GM... which is not smart, but I've got a LOT of the aura thing going on. I'l target another nearby henchman or pet, and cast the defensive/resistance buff on that, as soon as I see the new henchman appear in the pet window. Some fraction of time, the new henches are defeated, but it is uncommon enough that I haven't changed my strategy (for most GMs). The hench buffs act like AoE casts, so I can get the newly summoned buffed before I can select them (watch the pet window to see this work). There is one other thing I try to do with GMs... I try to make sure that they have something to hit so that their streakbreaker is less likely to come up in one of the GM big attacks. This isn't a particularly well-considered strategy, but it's something I'll do, often by having a simple buff pet out to be hit by the GM. The other reason I don't try to summon new henchmen away from the MM (when fighting GMs) is because most MM henchmen will immediately move to be adjacent to the MM... and my MMs are almost always in the thick of it, base-to-base with the GM anyway. I may as well get the MM auras on the henches ASAP.

Knockback is an effect that gets magnified by level shifts, perhaps this is what you are seeing? If not facing something that already suffers more KB (e.g. Clockwork) an enemy that cons less than white will take KB instead of KD (with no special IO slotting).

As with at least one of the other recent 'spreadsheet' efforts (the "why don't I ever see six %damage"?), I think this question about trying to spreadsheet individual MM+henchmen survivability misses the point. The henchmen aren't a player class, the henchmen (can, if directed) increase the survivability of the Mastermind and/or (can, if directed) increase the DPS of the Mastermind. As with the previous %damage spreadsheet effort, this ask is simultaneously too complicated (for many reasons, including the presence of the MM, and whatever the MM is doing) or would too simple to be meaningless (because henchmen, even if not in bodyguard mode don't go off on missions by themselves). My PoV is that this question (second quote box) is missing a lot of fundamental mechanics about not just the MM class but also the game environment, some as detailed by @Rudra above. My own experience is: MM's are perfectly capable of surviving content, but they have to: Build for it, Defenses first for themselves and the henches Use Bodyguard mode and keep henches nearby to have "MaxHP Pool" Don't ignore resistances of the Henchmen... to a point Adjust tactics as necessary

"Disappointment" is a good way to describe my experience with Water Jet. On paper, it looked like it would be a key attack for Water Blast, but in practice it always disappointed. I kept it in my build for (what turned out to be) far too long in an effort to make it work. There are a few higher-tier powers that have had similar outcome for me... sometimes using such a power a different AT can make such a power work better, but I don't think Water Jet falls into that category.

I tried it, and found it lacking. I also had better power options to support the playstyle I wanted, and I already had a single-target attack from the Water Blast set. The Devs did fix one problem that it used to have: consuming Tidal Power on a miss, so it is improved.... but like I wrote: it requires both the use of Tidal Power, and the first use to hit, and the second 'enhanced' use to hit in order to see benefits.... and that assumes that the player is waiting around for the stars to align for both Tidal Power and Water Jet to be ready to even consider using them... which often means trying to juggle the other attacks so as to NOT consume Tidal Power. If the Enhanced Water Jet wasn't tied (tide?) to consuming Tidal Power, and was more like Arcane Bolt's "Arcane Power" effect (which is a standalone) I'd be personally less bothered by trying to juggle maximizing its potential... but without the (unreliable, and attack-chain-pacing) Enhanced effect, I felt like I was doing less DPS with Water Jet than without it. When I team with Water Blast users I keep an eye out for "ENHANCED!" and I simply have yet to see it occurring often enough for me to change my opinion.

Excellent graphics, but I found it to be a mediocre attack... and the Tidal Force (which is what allows "Enhanced Water Jet" to occur) is IMO better used on another attack. For build-crafting purposes, I also don't find a late-choice non-snipe to be the best place to look for enhancement set bonuses, except to possibly swing into Winter's Bite.

There are only two reasons IMO to take Hasten: The character intends to use so few attacks that they need Hasten to sustain the chosen attack chain, and (related) There is one (or more) extremely long recharge (or otherwise cornerstone) power that requires the extra global Recharge (e.g. Domination on some builds)

Is Brine's -MaxHP and -Resistance not providing (enough of a) force multiplier effect? I can see why as a single-target power it may not be optimal for clearing large spawns, but I would think that against harder targets it would certainly help (modulo purple triangles), if only for the aggro-grabbing potential.

Does Health slotting in Brine affect the -MaxHP of a target critter?

Are the posters being shouted down, or are they being given suggestions?

I find a lot to agree with in the statements of my colleague Senator @PeregrineFalcon, I have things to say about one comment... As I have written before (elsewhere): A Mastermind has to adjust playstyle, tactics, and expectations more than any other AT depending on content, teammates, and difficulty. Different folks can have different opinions about whether this is "fair", my personal attitude is that this is just one more thing that makes the MMs so unique to CoX and I find it worth embracing. Tankers, RNGesus bless them, screw up *my* MM play more than any other AT. As soon as I'm teaming with a Tanker that has half-of-a-clue how to play the AT I have to make adjustments. I don't think it is wrong that I have to make adjustments to play with others.

Ultimately, I think the choice will come down to the play style and character building preferences. Water Blast will offer more instant gratification in terms of doing damage, while Storm Blast is likely to yield more damage-over-time (partially because of what Marine should be bringing to the table) for large spawns handled by solo play. My opinion on which powers to skip for each secondary: Water Blast T1 Aqua Bolt, because you will take T2 Hydro Blast. T7 Water Jet, because it is a single-target attack power that relies on too much going right to yield returns Storm Blast T1 Gust, too situational and you will take T2 Hailstones. All the other powers work quite well as Defender attacks. Personally? I would lean into Storm Blast, because of the pseudopets, the possible AoE soft controls (knockdowns) and the Damage-over-Time, and the %proc-ability of the secondary. I like Water Blast, its biggest advantage (for me) would be that I'd be focusing more on targets than geography of the battle map. Storm Blast can move critters around, which could be a disadvantage for some players.

That's a valid point. On my Defender, I typically try to immediately use the Fast Snipe, and then cast a Damage-over-Time power, and then a fast cast attack. Some debuffs also require accuracy checks, so not-missing-when-it-could-be-important is a partial consideration. On DPS characters, the Build Ups/Aims are for things that go high defenses, like Moment of Glory. This is me replacing red/yellow inspirations with a click power... on some blasters I have the recharge time around 22 seconds, with a near 90% proc chance! As for theory-crafting builds: if there is a power I want to have early in a build (often a T3 Pool power) that I know I'll be using (or otherwise relying on, like Rune of Protection), then often I'll delay the Build Up/Aim power... because those things that go high defenses start to show up in the 30s. The extra ToHit and Damage is only speeding up defeat times, I don't consider the Build Ups/Aims to be that critical. Mileage varies if the set it is in needs a secondary effect from them (like Water Blast). My Water/Atomic took both build ups, but took the Atomic one first.

IMO: Directing henchmen is one of those skills you have to get somewhat good at, and then it becomes necessary to make some (character) design/play choices about how to support your skill level (as a player). I have some tricks I pull off with my henchmen, but I'm no master... rather I try to build my MMs so that they can handle somewhat difficult content and then adapt to the variables within that content... like RNG deciding that the enemy AoE nuke is going to roll low enough to hit my entire squad at once! Writing for myself, I prefer Robotics above all other Primaries because the henchmen are ranged attackers. I can deploy them and be pretty much assured that they will be where I want them to be. I have to support them by keeping aggro, and my design choices have been (1) maximize their defenses and (2) Maintenance drone! For the Primaries that include more melee... I find myself having to be a lot more careful about controlling both the henchmen *and* the battlefield. It is a personal limitation of my own that I have a lot of trouble keeping track of my retinue, however many scampering critters there are from spawns in x8 play, and try to pay attention to the geography of whatever map I am on. I suppose staying in Bodyguard mode all the time is one approach, but I don't find that to be a particularly efficient way to work through content. For a while I've been observing other MM players, especially recently in open-world Giant Monster fights (since the introduction of Monstrous Aethers). Almost universally I see every other MM player (and there are a handful of players with multiple MMs, so there is some bias) do nothing more than simply dogpile a GM... this strategy isn't reliable solo, so several of those MMs dual-box or triple-box. and lean into spamming heals. This is basically a strategy that works in most non-AV, non-GM fights for a solo MM... so I'm not at all surprised that this is how the multi-boxers play against GMs.

This combo is an absolute hoot! With the passives from Martial Arts, leveraging Burst of Speed pretty much allows for a seamless shift between melee and ranged combat. Combat Teleport allows other combinations to do the same, of course. It may not feel much like "Havok" but only because classic Havok is IMO pretty much designed to be a ranged-exclusive.... which might be more "Sentinel" than "Blaster".

Energy Blast / Martial Arts Blaster.

Henchmen, not pets. Homecoming already has implemented much faster re-summon timers. While it is true that a MM cannot immediately target a newly summoned henchmen, it is possible to target an already existing henchmen or pet (at least I haven't found anything in the pet window I couldn't target) and cast the empowerment buff and it will be applied to a newly summoned henchmen. I mention this workaround, because not being able to immediately target a newly summoned creature, but still be able to affect it with AoE, is a feature of the game engine. It isn't specific to MM henchmen. See Rezzing enemies, or newly summoned enemy pets/minions/whatever. I try to summon henchmen outside of obvious AoE, depending on what I am fightining. The only empowerment buff that makes sense to me to "bake in" to the actual summons is the first empowerement... my argument has long been that it makes no sense that the first empowerment comes before both the T2 and T3 summons. However... recent changes to what can be slotted in those powers is a useful improvement over what we had before.