Here be Dragons

🙂 And this is why I think that /Devices is best.

Personally I find that /Devices blasters have the best stealth in the game, albeit, not until level 20. Between the -perception in Smoke Grenade and the unsuppressable 15' stealth component of Field Operative, you can do things no other stealthy character can achieve. And, yes, you will need to add a Stealth IO into a travel power such as Sprint. Or perhaps pair with Superspeed, but I can't remember is SSpd still stacks with Stealth powers. P.S. I usually put an Extend Range SO/IO into Smoke Grenade. Don't bother with to_hit_debuff, as the 5% base is not worth enhancing. It is the -perception that is so useful

I do a fair amount of soloing my characters, usually setting difficulty to +0/x3* (include bosses) by level 4 or 5, for the added xp. This is regardless of chosen AT. What works well for me is to grab 8 hours of the 3 Amplifier buffs from the START vendor. Slot the START Dam/Rech/%dmg IOs into attacks, though not in 4 second attacks because the saved time from +recharge is trivial. The quick recharge powers get a couple of Dam SOs. Endurance hungry AoEs get 1 end red SO. I find that quickly killing mobs is a far superior defense, rather than adding a trivial few percent defense from extra slots in all defense powers. At level 7 I will slot a Panacea +health/+end IO in Health, and a Kismet +to_hit IO if I have a defense power. Run a DFB at around level 7 and grab the buff that you seem to need the most. Sometimes the Accuracy buff, or often the Recovery buff, very occasionally I will take the Defense buff for a powerset such as Super Reflexes. *Side Note: Don't solo the last Posi 1 mission at more than x1, unless you feel very confident that you can handle multiple EB versions of your character with powers that you can't even yet access :/

Sometimes I would like a Warshade/Peacebringer that has Nova attacks, but without looking like a floating calamari. Can a prismatic costume overide the squid form?

You appear to be complaining that the game has gotten harder? But the opposite is true. When I started playing CoH, it was on a Storm/Psychic Blast Defender in Issue 6. Because of my timezone, I mostly soloed. Soloing the Hollows with no travel powers, no Stamina, only Training enhancements, no ability to turn off bosses, no boost to low level accuracy - that was harder than what you describe. Today with Single Origin enhancements being available from level 2 onwards and a little planning of Power sets and slotting, most builds can solo the types of encounters that you describe, even if they have no self-heal or armor. On almost any build, I am usually soloing with notoriety set to x2 or 3, with bosses, from about level 4 onwards. For a low level toon, Praetoria often delivers the type of experience that you describe, in addition to timed waves of ambushes that find you despite stealth! For many builds, soloing is not the same as steamrolling through content with a team. It can require some tactical play, such as pulling foes, choosing what to debuff, being aware of other mobs that might be aggroed. Even many comic book superheroes have to use tactics to win. Batman typically picks off minions and lieutenants, before tackling larger groups. And then he will be using smoke or flash grenades to minimise the incoming damage. For me, those early days of CoH were both challenging, and rewarding. This is a game that I have loved for almost 20 years. My personal feeling is that the Homecoming team are doing an excellent job at preserving and continuing to develop its legacy.

There was a recent change to the forums coding. I now get the following error message: " forums.homecomingservers.com Checking if the site connection is secure Enable JavaScript and cookies to continue forums.homecomingservers.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding. Ray ID: 768f20e938b8aad1 Performance & security by Cloudflare " Until a few days ago, the site did not need JavaScript or cookies turned on to browse it. Now, according to this disingenuous error message, I have to WEAKEN my security to be secure. Please revert this unnecessary change that makes users have to choose between reading the forums, or weakening their own security!

It wasn't that sentinel sonic blast was an outlier to other AT sonic blast aoe's, it was that it was an outlier to other sentinel aoe's. Adherence to a vague guideline espoused when they were designing Sentinels. Sentinels have been observed to under perform in terms of contributing to teams, yet there is no apparent re-evaluation of that original guideline. My experience on +4 ITFs is that between Elite Bosses, Bosses, and Lieutenants, most mobs have significantly more than 6 targets standing, even after a well placed blaster nuke. I also don't believe the suggestion that, after the rest of the party has done significant damage, it is fine that a sentinels proportion of the damage increases from abysmal to poor. At incarnate level, many blasters can have comparable defenses to most sentinels, but the sentinels are still carrying the reduced damage AND reduced target caps which were supposedly to compensate for their increased durability. My impression is that as high end content becomes more of a major focus on Homecoming, sentinels are dwindling into insignificance. Please understand, I love the concept of Sentinels, and was very happy with my Sonic/SR incarnate. But that was an outlier that has now been adjusted down to superfluous in incarnate content.

Your character doesn't HAVE to be within the targeted aoe heal radius. As long as you have team mates or healable pets within the heal, you can get the +end proccing on you.

Sadly, there IS a significant change! Howl and Shockwave now only hit a maximum of 6 targets, instead of the 10 previously. I am enjoying Sonic Blast on other ATs, but I feel that my beloved incarnate Sonic/SR sentinel is now superfluous on any end game team. I tried asking in the Beta forums and here in the Dom forum for the max targets to be kept where it was for Sonic Sentinels, but that request apparently fell on deaf ears. @Captain Powerhouse did not reply with any reason why Sonic Blast on a Sentinel required this change.

My experience with the Theft +End proc is that it has a chance to proc for the caster for everybody who is healed. Since corr and troller kins don't get a self +end power (apart from Stamina), until level 35, this can keep you blue bar looking healthy through those earlier levels (and when exemped down).

My personal choice for this would be a Plant Control/Electrical Affinity controller. These days I skip the single target immobilise on most of my controllers and take Arcane Bolt instead. Slot with a FF +recharge proc and some damage. In this case, I might instead choose the Force Of Will pool, for Project Will (single target) and Wall of Force (cone); both take the +recharge proc. And then, you can also take Unleash Potential, to add an oh-sh#t defense layer on top of your Faraday Cage aoe resist and mez protection. Alternatively, Electric Control/Nature would be an alternative worth considering. Probably taking the Sorcery Pool for Arcane Bolt, Mystic Flight, and Rune of Protection. Slot a couple of End Mod IOs into Lifegiving Spores and it becomes endurance positive to run, as long as you stand in the area. (Don't forget to toggle it off when you have finished with a mob. I often run off and realise a minute or more later 😕 ) Both of these have synergies that will work solo, but also bring a lot of survivability to a team. I don't see a lot of synergy between Electrical Blast and Nature on a defender or a corruptor. They are good powersets (since the electric revamp), but I'm not sure that the combination is more than the sum of its parts. For a more damage oriented character, you could also consider an Electric Control/Thorny Assault dominator, or even an Electrical Blast/Plant Manipulation blaster. I hope that gives you some food for thought?

Ice/Storm Corruptor is the correct answer, with Scourge providing the icing on the cake! (Although CoD seems to indicate that the Storm secondary powers don't get Scourge 😞 ) With a KB>KD IO, you should also consider Tornado to be a rain power with radius of 7 - a rain which chases your target. I often use the Overwhelming Force proc in Tornado because I want maximum damage with KD, max recharge (including ForceFeedback +recharge), and any additional defense debuff that I can get. Such an amazing power!

@Linea, I always appreciate the thought that you put into your postings. I do think that you are over estimating the AoE damage potential for Sentinels. At x8 settings (whether solo or teamed), the total delivered damage for sentinel AoE powers is severely hampered by the 6 target limit, versus the 10 or 16 target limit on all other ATs. Sentinel Sonic Blast had been an exception, with Howl and Shockwave able to hit 10 targets, which made it viable but far from over-powered. With the Sonic Blast revision in Page 4, the devs are enforcing the 6 target limit on Sentinels. Which is why I am questioning the logic of all sentinels having such a severely limited target cap, especially for level 50+ content.

Mek, I specifically stated that the question is to do with Incarnate (but especially hard mode) content. A Sentinel is no more durable than an IO'd out Blaster, Defender, Controller, or Corruptor. But due to only being able to hit a small number of targets (mostly just 6), and having a low damage scale, and providing little to no support, any team leader should rightly consider whether a team slot would be better employed for just about any other AT. So, yes, solo at up to +2/x4 settings whilst levelling is usually a breeze with a sentinel. But then when you get to 50, a Sentinel is essentially a waste of space on a team.

Specifically with regard to Sentinel Sonic Blast, a 40% reduction in max targets for Howl and Shockwave outweighs the dps *buff*. And as I mentioned in the Sentinel forum, the target reduction for Shockwave also reduces the survivability for the caster (and their team), with an increase of posssibly 200% more incoming damage (assuming a group of 12 foes). An increase to an individual Sonic Sentinels dps is a trivial contribution to team performance against typical level 50+ content. I love the work that the Homecoming devs have been doing to add to this game. And I'm looking forward to the additional hard modes and their rewards. HOWEVER, Sentinels may actually be turned away by hard mode teams because they contribute so little. Sonic Sentinels were previously "somewhat" justifiable, but the combination of the Beta changes will extinguish that argument.