SenTheFortress

Cool, thanks for the fine tuning here. My intial thought was using Ice arrow since I can take it much sooner, therefore being able to use it for exemplar much more often. But given that people rarely run low level content above +2 Not, I probably don't really need it and Cyro would be better with a longer recharge. Fair point, leave that for a Sentinel or a dedicated debuffer. I wasn't intending to go for % DMG bonus, cut the fat from the build, by all means. Very good point, I guess that's a part of the lesson I missed. This is a good general tip as well. Yep, I was accounting for +4 always. I left accuracy floating in the 100%ish range minimum to account for To-Hit debuffs, But if you don't think it's very relevant, tune it closer to 95% by all means (I suppse Upshot and build up procs help with this on their own). Ha, unfortunately I'm very adamant on flight specifically for this character. More of an RP thing. Nice, you shaved off a bit more, thanks for that! I figured since the END recover/Drain ratio is similar to "Rambo" it will be just fine, but I'll consider swapping Alpha's if end becomes an issue.

Hi all, I've spent a few hours reading through the links Nemu provided. I decided to try to make this AR/TA Blaster build from scratch by considering what I've learned, especially regarding slotting for Ranged Defense from efficient sources and being a bit more loose about perma-haste and recharge in general. It compares well with the "Rambo" build, I didn't even look at or reference it at all when making this, so I think the lessons learned were truly learned. So thanks Nemu. There's probably some optimizations to make but I think I'm starting to get on the right track. scoutythespeedyv2(1).mbd

Thank you for taking the time to write all of that information. No problem, I wasn't taking it being criticized I just needed to mention the VASTNESS of my ignorance since dealing with a new player is moderately rare. I still feel behind, but people like you are helping me learn one day at a time. Truly appreciated, back to the drawing board, I'll look into the links you provided.

You raise a lot of good points, most of them can be answered with this: I don't know. I'm just following what other people do blindly because I have no idea what I am doing. I'm a tiny fish talking to whales here. (3 months of experience in CoH, never played previously). I am not qualified at all to make my own builds to be honest. It'll probably take me years to catch up to experienced players like you. I do appreciate the input and the education. As of right now, instead of my initial build, the comparison to make would be with the build that Atletikus had cooked up. I did make a variant that drops the HO's and reorders the powers to my preference for exemplaring (the function/stats are almost identical though besides my change to flamethrower & burst over their choice of slug and ignite). Just examining both, they are much more comparable (the recharge rate difference is about 10% and sports better resistances in exchange for relying on purple inspos to get the def soft cap as needed instead of reaching it naturally). This is kind of what I'm working with now. Do you think this is more reasonable in terms of what you were talking about? Atletikus build - Sen edit, HOless (Assault Rifle - Tactical Arrow - Arsenal Mastery).mbd Edit: Well for some reason I can't upload any files to the site (Error Code: -200) so this link is dead. I guess you can just look at Atletikus' original version above, it's mostly the same after all. Just pretend the HOs are gone and there's a Aegis: P/SR & RD: SDR slotted somewhere instead of a recharge IO on Upshot and 1 less slot on weave. .....I wasn't kidding about the incompetence.

It depends, this build does want some mules for LotG, hover and evasive maneuvers from the flight pool help provide this. If you exclude fly, you lose EM, so then you need 2 more powers to slot LotG and idk if the alternatives are all that great. You get 1 extra power, but when I look at a lot of these blaster builds you're working with/only accounting for 1 or 2 slots the Fly power was using. You basically have to start from scratch to account for this (not great for a nooby like me), or pick something that can be useful with 1 slot. Also tldr: I wanna GO FAST and needed to justify it in some way (mostly incompetence).

> As I already mention, I used your attached Icesphere build as the basis for my tinkering, so the power choices apart from Flash Arrow (which is meh) are yours. This doesn't make sense, they are Icesphere's choices, not mine. You could have ran as wild as you wanted with it. Throw it away and do something completely different if you want! If you think there is a more viable way to build it, I'm 100% open to it. My "choices" are just copying other people. I don't know how to build characters with nuance yet (been playing for 3 months). In regards to Arsenal Mastery... Oh, you know what MIDS says Body Armor only gives S/L res, I was undervaluing it for sure over Temp Invul. They have pros and cons, TI isn't just "better" in almost every way. Thanks for pointing that out, I probably never would have noticed. I'll consider Ethereal shift, thanks for mentioning. Right on, I try to plan around having at least 32.5% to hit the softcap w/ a small purple when you need it. I think i'll reconsider using Arsenal Mastery since it's better for flavor. That "Rambo" build is cool, but I want to fly. Maybe I can borrow ideas from it at least. Thanks for all your help.

Cool build, I do have some questions to ask regarding it. You said excluding flamethrower is questionable, but I use it it in my build. You don't use it in yours, did you mean Ignite instead? Part of the big discussion on my previous post was Flamethrower is really good and should be used. You say Glue arrow is "meh" but you still include it in your build. Was it intended to have Ice Arrow slot here? I might be inexperienced compared to most, but Glue Arrow has been the absolute best attack in my arsenal, Less kitting, keeps them clumped up for AoE effects for my self and my team. Especially when exemplaring down (which I do very frequently). Do you think Force Mastery is not worth using? Temp invul is much better than Body Armor if you have end to spare. Personal Forcefield seems like a good "oh shit button", I've heard some of the squisher archetypes like having something like this at times. Is the extra bump for your Team using Leadership and Surveillance worth losing some personal survivability? Or do you think it is more a preference thing? The END drain is pretty similar, so I'm not concerned with that. Thanks for taking the time, I might try this one out of the test server at some point.

Hi all, newish player here. I really want to give the MM archetype a shot, I've settled on Necro/Dark. I've looked at this form a ton and gathered up builds and information. It seems there are quite a few ways to tweak this power selection, and appearently some changes happened to the AT last year (before I ever played the game at all). Many of the builds I've found are from BEFORE this MM update happened, So I'm looking for some guidance on what I should select, or if there are tweaks to make. I've found 4 builds that seem interesting to try.: - Force Redux's build - has a great breakdown, but it not updated to the current MM updates. It's lighter on res, only focuses ranged def to reach the softcap when needed and seems to use Soul Extraction to it's maximum effect. It has no blast attacks, wondering how detrimental this is these days and the blasts come with summons now and Life Drain IMO is a fantastic attack. - Styx - which seems to want moderately high res and is getting close to softcapped def without much help. It leverages more set bonuses for a strong player character, giving up some damage potential and pet buffs. - Red One - which sports extremely impressive resistances and still manages to slot some power into the pets. Lower Defenses, but with res like that and to hit debuffs... it still seems fine. This one is missing blast attacks as well. I would be the most interested in this style, but i'd like to use some blast attacks. Not sure if it's possible to get res like this, pet buffs and blast attacks all at once with changes. - Icephere - This one seems to me more focused on offense, lowest in terms of defenses and res, but sports good slotting for pets and a well slotted Life Drain for the player character to spam when needed. I guess my questions are; how necessary are the blast attacks? Personally I'd like to use at least one. Softcap def? Needed or no? This seems to be all over the place. I will admit Force Redux's advice to hit softcaps with a purple inspo seems like the best idea, but high res sounds really interesting and I think i'd rather lean that way considering -to hit from Dark attacks. Personally I like Red One's idea, but it is the least refined of all the builds. If there is any guidance anyone could provide, it would be appreciated! Scouring forms of things you don't understand all the nuances of can be exhausting, especially when there is a lot of old information floating around. Sorry for the word vomit. Icesphere - Mastermind (Necromancy - Dark Miasma).mbd Necro-Dark MM - Force Redux.mbd Red One - Necro - Dark - MM - High Res.mbd Styx - Mastermind (Necromancy - Dark Miasma).mbd

Interesting, I haven't seen anyone use the Force of Will pool in any Dom builds I've looked at so far. Do you use this tactic yourself? Got something on mids? --- Also, I converted IS's Ice/Dark/Ice into Fire/Dark/Ice, using equivalent powers from the Fire Control pool and using the same set bonuses. How does it look? is it viable? Once thing that is different, I needed to replace Coercive Persuasion (Artic Air) with Armageddon (Hot Feet) to maintain the recharge bonus, but extra accuracy was gained, so I made a variant that uses less accuracy enhancements, since it's less needed when using Armageddon. See build 2 (skippable, roughly the same thing). Sen's FC - DA - IM - DOM conversion build.mbd Dominator (Ice Control - Dark Assault) ICESPHERE.mbd Sen's FC - DA - IM - DOM conversion build 2.mbd

I'm looking to make a themed build (Dominator), that uses some combination of Dark/Ice/Fire - (In any combination of Assault, Control and Mastery as long as it uses all 3 elements) anyone got a suggestions on what combination to use? Just wondering if this is viable at all. Dark can be subbed for Soul if that ends up as the Mastery element. Dug up a build from IS's dropbox (Dark/Fire/Ice M). How's that look? I found another variant with (Fire/Ice/Mu M), so I made a quick swap to Soul Mastery to fit my theme (since these two pools have equivalents that will slot the same enhancements). It's probably a little worse than the original, but I'm wondering if it's viable still. If anyone has a build to share, drop it here or any advice would be appreciated. Dominator (Darkness Control - Fiery Assault) Ice Mast(1).mbd Dominator (Fire Control - Icy Assault) Soul Mast - Sen edit of ICESPHERE build.mbd

I'll link my original post about this combination in case you want the full background/previous variants: The important bit is the last comment I made: "After lots of experimentation, I came up with this build. Dropping a few attacks and switched to Force Mastery (this has a much better res power and two convenient mules within the pool and still works for flavor as these can be tech related). Adding another toggle means more END consumption, so I tried to ease Temp Invul in by slotting for a little more END. If it's still end hungry I have the option to drop a proc or two from Flamethrower or Glue Arrow to pick up some END set bonuses or further reduce Temp Invul's end drain. Might be too end hungry with EM and TI active, but we'll see with testing. Just wanted to post this here if anyone looks back at this post in the future. " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just wanted some feedback about this build I reconstructed. It's based on Icesphere's AR/TA/AM from the google drive (posted here). It's been converted to use Flight over Leaping and taking Force Mastery over Arsenal Mastery. This lets me pick up convenient mules like PFF and FoN. I think it trades a tiny bit of damage output and slightly more END drain, in exchange for better buffers to survive rough situations. Just wanted to see if what I've done is viable, or if someone can point out some improvements to make. Thanks! ICESPHERE's Blaster (Assault Rifle - Tactical Arrow - Arsenal Mastery)(1).mbd Scouty - Blaster - AR - TA - FM.mbd

After lots of experimentation, I came up with this build. Dropping a few attacks and switched to Force Mastery (this has a much better res power and two convenient mules within the pool and still works for flavor as these can be tech related). Adding another toggle means more END consumption, so I tried to ease Temp Invul in by slotting for a little more END. If it's still end hungry I have the option to drop a proc or two from Flamethrower or Glue Arrow to pick up some END set bonuses or further reduce Temp Invul's end drain. Might be too end hungry with EM and TI active, but we'll see with testing. Just wanted to post this here if anyone looks back at this post in the future. Scouty - Blaster - AR - TA - FM.mbd

Hm, someone else told me it was 90% a long time ago, I guess they are mistaken or perhaps they were confused about the 90% proc rate max chance like you said. Regardless, those are very good things to think about. Forgoing recharge on proc heavy powers is the way to go then. Thanks for the insight. I think I am going to experiment further, I might want a different power or two and some set bonuses from those could be better. -> this is what I currently have after messing around for awhile SEN's Variant Blaster AR-TA-AM (original designer - Icesphere) v3.mbd

One question that was unanswered was the accuracy softcap. I believe it is 90% correct? I was told that my Sniper attack at 89.7% (basically 90%) was too little, is there something specific to Sniper attacks that I don't know about? (first time using one). And for sure, I've made like 3 different blasters and this is the first one that made me say "yep, THIS is it.".

Very solid list of general advice. Thank you, you've given me a lot to think about. So it's best to consider yourself at -4% if you're using stealth for DEF bonus, that's very important to know the exact number. What's the softcap for accuracy? I thought it was 90%? Sniper Rifle is sitting at 89.44%. All the other powers seem to balanced around 90% as well (if they are using procs). I haven't even thought about Incarnates yet, but I'll probably choose the ones you suggested. Also something to note, this character has a specific RP and they have no superpowers so only tech based powers are on the table (which this combination succeeds at doing very well). ---- So since I'm losing some DEF from stealth in combat, I was thinking I could make up the difference somewhere else. So I swapped out the Apocolypse set for Sting of the Manticore, giving it more Accuracy (if it needs it, like you said) plus a juicy 2.5% to ranged DEF which is much more useful than the HP bonuses of Apocolypse. This gets me to 35.7%, so -4% will get me to 31.7%, The cost is 20% less base damage (and maybe a weaker proc, idk how they work exactly), but with some recharge + interrupt included in the deal. Then I can get the last 0.9% I need from Artillery, by moving around the Frozen Blast from Flamethrower (Was Ignite) to Glue Arrow (It gains the Immobilize Proc instead of Knockdown, then a Recharge/END bonus, losing 1 Damage proc). Then Artillery can be slotted into Flamethrower, going down 1 damage proc (but get 30% more base damage). That gets me to 32.6% (36.6%) when stealth drops in combat. I'm going to ease off a tiny bit of END recovery like you suggested and drop a Stamina Slot for adding the Achilles' Heel proc to Surveillance. I've honestly not been sure if I wanted Ignite or Flamethrower. I think you sold me on Flamethrower, so I swapped that in (which is thankfully seemless since it can take all the same enhancements). I think it feels good with some of your suggestions, idk if i went about it in the most optimal way. Let me know what you think (if you want to that is). SEN's Variant Blaster AR-TA-AM (original designer - Icesphere) v2.mbd

Did you feel like going all-in for ranged defense was lacking in some way? Would have slightly lower ranged defense, but have a bit more in other categories be better? I noticed yours was much more focused on Smashing/Lethal res and ranged defense specifically. Just trying to learn nuances of character building in this game. ty!

Cool, thanks for the write up. I kinda figured Evasive Maneuvers would be fine to take. Yep, only taking one of the T 1/2 Powers, going for Burst for flavor reasons (but like you said either one between Slug and Burst is fine). Currently it's sitting at a decent 37% ranged defense, which falls short of the soft cap but I don't think Blasters can really get perfect defenses without sacrificing a lot of damage potential. (correct me if I am wrong). Icesphere's build had even less defense since Evasive Manuvuers gives you a lot more in comparison. I generally would trust Icesphere's balance on this one. 37% (25% previously with Stealth over EM) ranged defense with 4 attacks procced-out and 4 used for filler/set bonuses. Seems like a good place to start at least. <- Edit / I did not understand EM completely. I missed the part about EM losing the def bonus when you attack, Since I'm taking a hit to DEF, I think what I will do is drop "Grant Invisibility" so I can pick up Stealth to helps stack DEF with Infiltration, Hover and Weave. Think that's a good idea? < Edit / And now I'm learning that Stealth abilities don't stack. So I guess Stealth / Grant Invisibility it is (since it gives more DEF). I'm now sitting at 24%/33%/24% (M/R/Aoe) for defenses (with everything else being 24% or 34%). For Res I am at 37% Smashing and Lethal res with about 20% in everything else except Psi. Does that seem decent? (you can check the build yourself below), I'm a newish player, so I always second guess myself with any build decision. Thanks again. SEN's Variant Blaster AR-TA-AM (original designer - Icesphere).mbd

You didn't really have to look at EDIT 3, but you did anyways, so I think you like it! So yeah just swapping Burst for Slug would give me basically what I want. No need to make it more complicated than it needs to be. My only other question is, Is "Evasive Maneuvers" a bad pick over "Stealth" from the Concealment pool? Seems like it does a lot more since I'm in the flying pool already as a preference over leaping.

Hello all, I found this combination to be really fun as a Blaster. Awhile back when I was really new, I stumbled upon ICESPHERE's stache of various builds they've created. I found one they made for this exact combination - See file: ICESPHERE's Blaster (Assault Rifle - Tactical Arrow - Arsenal Mastery) ---------- I pretty much dig the direction of it, but i wanted to make a few tweaks, just to suit some of my own preferences. So I made this variant - See File: SEN EDIT 1 - Blaster AR-TA-AM My character wants to fly, so I moved to the Flight pool instead of Leaping. Since I did this, I picked Evasive Maneuvers (which can grant a good Def Buff) over Stealth from the Concealment Pool since to me these look like "mules" for slotting LotG and Infiltration already provides stealth. I also moved power placement around to my preferences for exemplaring. The big change was my character's main weapon is supposed to be an Assault Rifle, so I really want "Burst" as an attack, so I dropped "Buckshot". By doing this, I needed to slot some new things to cover some of the lost set bonuses. I did this by swapping out parts of Shield Wall for LotG instead, then Frankenslotting "Burst" to pick up the other few set bonuses and a few nasty procs. My other thought was possibly trying to set up procs on Full Auto instead. Let me know if that's a better idea (though it is competing with 2 other powers for parts of Frozen Blast). ---------- The other option, which is much more straight forward, simply moves Poistron's Blast over to "Full Auto", picking up the unused proc from S Frozen Blast, then putting Blaster's Wrath on "Burst" - See File: SEN EDIT 2 - Blaster AR-TA-AM This is more inline with ICESPHERE's original build, just moves the power placement set placement on Burst/Full Auto. Another way to do it would be to replace "Slug" with "Burst", which is the cleanest and easiest way to do it. - See File: SEN EDIT 3 - Blaster AR-TA-AM ---------- So my question is, what is better from among the three? Is it detrimental to lose "Buckshot" as an attack in favor of Burst? and if I keep Burst, would option 1, 2 or 3 be better? Maybe there's a whole different approach to making this build, you'd like to share, please do! --- SEN EDIT 2 - Blaster AR-TA-AM.mbd ICESPHERE's Blaster (Assault Rifle - Tactical Arrow - Arsenal Mastery).mbd SEN EDIT 1 - Blaster AR-TA-AM.mbd SEN EDIT 3 - Blaster AR-TA-AM.mbd

Yeah agreed. Both ATEs could be buffed a bit and it wouldn't make the AT that much different. At least have Chance for Opportunity fill the meter completely, that way you get to be very liberal with how you use Vulnerability, ya know the signature ability of the class. Sent's Ward is think is fine, If it got a buff (like 2x the amount of absorb) it wouldn't break the game and it'd feel a lot better. But that is crazy, didn't know it used to apply more instances on PbAoE.

Wow, that would totally make you reconsider that for AoE attacks. Would it be that much better than a grip of damage procs, or would slotting that enhancement just for the proc would be the best use for it? Maybe it's way too good. Hard for me to say, given my very short time I've been here.

Been chatting with some folks about this AT, a lot of people want these procs to be re-tooled (and Brute too apparently). I really feel like Opportunity Strikes should just completely fill your Vuln meter, or simply apply an instance of Vulnerability as a proc. Sentinel's Ward is okay, A little extra durability isn't unwelcome but maybe it could be slightly buffed. If you were to change these procs, what would you do? Maybe we can see a change in the future from the HC devs after some discussion and consideration.

That would be sick, not gonna lie. I was saying Chance for Opportunity should just fill the meter, but a "mini version" of Vuln as a proc might be better.

I think you both have some good points here. Sentinels don't really fit into the super optimal meta high stuff, simply because of the design of the AT. So a lot would need to change for that to happen. Vulnerability does it's job against single targets, it's a good debuff. If it were to change, it would have to be a different approach. Thanks for the insight, both of you. Maybe the approach is making Vulnerability slightly better in a different way. How would you feel about the Opportunity Strikes proc just completely filling the meter instead of current amount? I think being able to spam it more often would also help the ability be more applicable often, instead of burning out after 2 uses all the time.

There's a lot of people to reply to, but I'll just start by saying I don't think the Sentinel Archetype needs to change, I think they are solid as is. I'm only considering the change to the inherit AT. I mentioned that some people don't vibe with the AT, I am not one of those people. Just wanted to clear that up. The AT is viable, there's no doubt about that. I'm just brainstorming about what could make the AT better or more desirable for a team. My suggestion about it being a global buff is one possibility, if my suggestion is "weak" then pretend the numbers are HIGHER/BALANCED for the sake of experimentation and comparison. Maybe think about it being a debuff aura instead or a buff. (Maybe a debuff stack on enemies as they are hit? (giving value to the AT's AoE abilities that are generally worse than Blaster's). I made this thread hoping that others (who know the game better than I do) would come up with their own suggestions, but if the whole thing is moot then I'll just go back to my noob corner. I do think that letting Vulnerability stack with other Sents (hell, even itself with 1 Sent) would be cool to see 9as someone mentioned)/ Then again, I realize that being a newer player means I miss a lot of the nuance of something that has a ton of history and veterans (this game). But I thought I'd offer a fresh perspective after diving into this game and putting 100+ hours into the AT. I think the general consensus of the thread is "shut up noob". Which is fair. Vulnerability as-is, is good but niche. Maybe it's better that it stays that way, but I would love to see a better reason to include Sentinels in a team composition. Thanks for the discussion.