oldskool

@Wavicle retested, same mission... Master Brawler can definitely get turned off. It does in fact stop showing the white circle around it. That said, my other toggles did not drop, but Master Brawler absolutely did. I don't have video software to capture it, but this is now the 3rd time I have seen this behavior. The +4 mission had 55's in it. I had 4 bosses which I suspect may have contributed to being overwhelmed. I started a new mission at +2 difficulty. I could not replicate the same behavior.

I play a Willpower/Super Strength Tanker from time to time. The changes to Willpower are pretty damn good. I was very much hoping to see Resurgence get a treatment like Second Wind in Regeneration. This did not disappoint, and the in-kit heal was a welcome add on. Strength of Will was one of the few T9's out of the box that was decent for what it was, and so I will miss the longer duration from before. In trade, I get a MUCH stronger defense steroid which the set didn't have. Willpower can struggle a bit raising up defense layers like some other sets, and Strength of Will letting my temporarily cap all my resistances (due to what I had for slotting on Test) was a majorly welcome change. Overall, no notes. Good changes no bugs noticed during my session.

I tried Rage and that -20% resistance debuff took my Tanker's resistances from 90% to 70%. Immediate respec into Unleashed Might. That Rage debuff is *brutal* for Tanks, on the flip side, I like Unleashed Might. I also really like having Handclap as a damage option. I was using Cross Punch to supplement AoE with Footstomp, but there is now some options in the primary. I appreciate that. Overall, I liked the changes with the exception of Rage. That new crash is not fun when a resistance set gets so heavily punished with that effect.

Spent a bit more time on this tonight, and in some actual missions vs Pylon BS. Additional things to note: 1) The tool tips have the critical damage listed next to 0.0% chance to X damage. I like that. 2) Against regular content the criticals are working as intended, and their damage is much more notable than the Pylon test last night. It looks like my tool tip Executioner's Shot has around 270~ damage and my critical hits were over 100 damage. 3) Seeing "Critical" when using Bullet Rain was pretty satisfying even if the damage in the chat window wasn't that great. The Sentinel ATOs could definitely use a pass at some point down the road. Chance for Opportunity could be a bit more interesting with these changes and the Sentinel's Ward is just lack luster. None of this is news, both the ATO procs are just... lack luster even if their full set bonuses are worthwhile. The Vulnerability feature of tagging extra targets... I love it. All-in-all, very positive changes. I'm hopeful that players running primaries with Aim are happy even if the T9 doesn't get boost. All that should do is alter some strategies, but still. I like the direction this is going in.

I also came across a situation where Master Brawler detoggled. Its possible I may have gotten stacking overwhelmed in the mission I was running. Level 50, +4 content, x8 party size vs Carnival. There were a few instances where Tenebrous Tentacles was absolutely immobilizing me but there was no indicator that I was Immobilized. I could not move. In the second instance of this, I got Immobilized, dogpiled, and then held all toggles dropped off. When I was getting mezzed I could see Master Brawler was not actually active but my other defenses were. I don't have enough of a sample to really pin point what happened but it does seem like something may be bugged in Master Brawler.

I like the convenience of Master Brawler being a toggle even if the fact it has a constant toggle cost is a downgrade from the previous Sentinel version. In the previous Sentinel version I would spend the endurance for an effect with the no end cost benefit of mez protection. It may have been a bit too good to be true. New Master Brawler has a standard toggle cost for ...just mez protection? It certainly feels a bit weak in comparison to other toggle mez protection powers. Ironically, Practiced Brawler will carry a perception of being "better" because it does more upfront even if the absorb effect in and of itself is nothing to write home about. In other words, I see almost zero reason to change my Scrapper or Stalker SR builds to swap from Practiced Brawler. I want to click that power on cooldown. Now, when I do I also get a minor absorb too. There isn't that much incentive to swap to Master Brawler besides the perception of it being convenience at the cost of it constantly requiring endurance on an already toggle heavy set. I guess that extra toggle use gives some relevance to Elude since that has recovery built in. Unfortunately, Elude's cooldown is so much longer than the effect it isn't that useful as a supportive power. New Elude likely has the biggest impact on users still leveling up where a burst of defense may seem reasonable while still fleshing out slots with SOs. Also, it can have some value for the regen/recovery if you spec into it via enhancements but the downtime doesn't make it as reliable. At level 45+ (for exemplar play with Incarnates), Elude has an identity crisis where it doesn't really contribute much that is new. Frankly, the healing is pretty much made obsolete in my opinion at this level range by Rebirth's constant healing; something I already do. All in all, the changes here don't really pack the punch to make them feel more impactful. I think it is entirely reasonable to view what happened to Master Brawler as effectively a nerf (removed its absorb, forced an end cost) to Sentinels and traded some of that functionality to Practice Brawler for an effect that in a practical sense no one even asked for. Additionally, I doubt players are waiting for that right moment to click Practiced Brawler and so the absorb just seems strangely placed. Lastly, Elude doesn't feel that impactful for the changes. I actually have Elude on my Sentinel. I use it occasional for the endurance boost which is really unchanged with this test other than the obvious benefit of no crash. However, my use case is niche, and even with the change to the power will continue to be... niche. The changes made aren't genuinely enough... BUT... I do think building on a heal in Elude is something Super Reflexes is missing as a set. The lack of native healing is one of the more commonly brought up weaknesses and is a role a T9 could fit into. Elude could be an inverse of Moment of Glory. MoG gives Regen a bunch of defense and resistance the set doesn't have. Elude could give SR resist and regen it doesn't have. Edit: You know... since my feedback so far is that PB's absorb feels out of place, and I can certainly see a reason to not give it Master Brawler.... The idea of having absorb in this powerset could be a role Elude takes on. Having an extra health layer may be a nice compromise vs replicating resistances or just giving regeneration rate.

Quick observation summary: I played my L50 Dual Pistols Sentinel on Brainstorm last night for a short run at a Pylon using Incendiary Ammo. The 40% critical hit damage was turning out to being very similar to the proc damage in my powers. For example: Executioner's Shot with Apocalypse had the Chance for Negative damage reported 62 negative damage in the combat log. Due to my enhancement slotting (126% damage with Musculature Core Alpha) the critical damage with this power was 69 (niiiiice). That is not quite 40% of the power's reported damage against the Pylon, but very close. Suppressive Fire with Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Smashing damage reported 62 smashing damage in the combat log. My critical damage was also 62. In Dual wield I had similar findings where the overall damage value of the critical, with a power with lower total damage, was more on par with average damage procs. About 40~ish damage per crit. The damage increase is welcome. Any damage buff to Sentinels is still a damage buff. However, in practice this is not particularly overwhelming and in some cases pretty 'meh'. I do intend to test a bit further with the AoE powers but given what I see so far, the lack of critical hits off T9 powers is a bit perplexing. I presume there are internal metrics which we don't have showing a certain degree of imbalance or at least cause for concern of imbalance. The change also feels like a more conservative damage buff and is not, again in practice, that heavy handed. Another consideration is that for sets with AIM the outcomes may be much more wildly in their favor. Dual Pistols does not get that benefit and cannot prep a "Aim -> T9" damage drop. So, that may also be a reason.

I have not tested anything yet, but in just reading the listing all I can say is... THANK YOU. Even if some of these changes don't make it, I think the fact you put them out there to test warrants the thanks. Why? Years ago those of us playing Sentinels got asked about what kind of changes we wanted to see. There were loads of great comments, and the team made significant improvements to the AT. However, what I just read in this list is something I had asked for and felt would have been improvements to the AT. And... I finally see it happening at least in some form. I couldn't be happier. I'm ecstatic about the critical effect, but more than that... The 70% to 75% shift on the defenses brings a smile to my face. I'm also overjoyed to see the Ninjutsu, Willpower, and T9 changes. Brutes getting higher base HP will make some of character's lives so much easier like how much more of a struggle it can be to cap HP on Brute Regen than it is on Tankers, Scrappers, etc.. Now, it will be easier for everyone. Simply amazing. Super Strength getting an option to move off Rage? OMG... HELL YES. Can't way to test these... I have so many builds positively impacted by what I read here.

I hadn't been as actively reading up this upcoming Issue, but I stumbled on the changes here: There are changes in this mix floated about from several years ago. The implementations for all of these are not the suggestions, but the outcomes are. For example, several of us had proposed changing the defense values to match Scrappers going from 70% to 75%. I know I had been a proponent of critical hits, but the way the implementation looks is pretty cool AND keeps to the vision described years back. I.e., the Perception benefit, the use of the meter building up, etc. Reigning in the critical damage to being 40% is pretty nice. I'll be testing these as I have time, but that is really limited unfortunately. Still, I encourage others to check it out and provide feedback. These are changes many of us asked for years ago, and I'm excited to see them. And... They make sense given the scale of the game is going to go up with the new changes so Sentinels do need damage relevance. Also, defense changes help keep pace with the shifts but will make lower levels better too. Other changes for other characters I play have me excited to play CoH more than I have in several years.

I haven't used Piercing Rounds on Sentinel in years. However, I do use it on my Corruptor and Defender characters. Piercing Rounds had a nice buff a few Issues back, but I just hadn't tinkered with the new version on Sentinel. I definitely recommend it for team support and especially so on Corruptor/Defender builds.

Aww, thanks Six-Six. 🙂

As a person that both plays this combo, and also builds into this outcome, I do have some first hand experiences to share. The overall gist in the OP is pretty close in this case. You can definitely push one power with this logic, or... you can do that with multiple powers. Dual Pistols has access to a lot of different set types which happen to have damage proc options. Slows, Defense Debuff, Damage sets... etc... You can potentially fill up one attack with all procs and do some decent damage. But, there is a bit of buyer beware in that approach. That's Stamina. Repeatedly attacking is going to be your highest form of endurance drain and you may have some challenges in managing endurance if you overbuild for procs without minding the drain. Super Reflexes has some built in global recharge. The defense sets can combo into Super Reflexes to really let you push your global recharge very high. That can potentially get you into a lot of actions per minute and Dual Pistol powers, especially the ones with great proc potential, ain't exactly cheap to use while hammering out damage. My personal preference is to slot my single target attacks for additional procs and balance it with some Acc/Damage, and Acc/Damage/End enhancements. So, no, I don't fully proc all my attacks because the endurance drain just isn't fun to deal with. You can fix this with Ageless but... I don't always want to run Ageless. So, I am accepting of a loss of damage in order to have some quality of play, and besides... not stopping my offense is better than having to stop to chew a blue pill or pause damage. If you're on a team... well, then this issue may not matter to you at all and that is a separate consideration to make. Fun things to do here: Suppressive Fire can use the Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Smashing proc which has a pretty solid chance to go off in this power. You can also add in some psychic damage from other hold sets if like. Executioner's Shot is my preference for adding Achilles' Heel because debuffing resistance while solo is good stuff, and the Apocalypse Chance for Negative and your choice of other procs can round this out. Dual Pistols can be surprisingly effective despite its 6second base recharge. You can add in some extra smash damage (knockback set, slow set) and cold damage (slow set). If you wanna go half-way to just bump up damage and also have some endurance mods, then 3 piece Thunderstrike works well. Thunderstrike can get you Acc/Dmg, Acc/Dmg/End, Dmg/End. If you wanna rank those to +5 you could or you could attune them for exemplar play. Either way is great. With Musculature Core Alpha you can definitely hit ED on damage in your attacks while still making use of endurance reduction and fill in 3 slots with procs. For the AoE attacks, I don't really bother to proc bomb for the Sentinel, but on my Corruptor and Defender I do like Force Feedback Chance for Recharge. On other ATs where other powers with long recharge times may benefit your play style, Dual Pistols can be leveraged to make that a bit faster. I know Dual Pistols is not a super popular set, and I don't want to suggest it is some stellar DPS set. However, it is incredibly flexible in how you build it and its versatility can open a lot of different gameplay doors. The *only* AT I don't like Dual Pistols with is the Blaster. I can't get into the set, at all, on the Blaster. But I love it on Corruptor/Defender/Sentinel. I feel the proc use really shines on those ATs where on a Blaster I am overly concerned with using attack slots to spec in defenses. I find I don't need to do that so much on the other 3 ATs. Obviously your mileage may vary. 😄

@SomeGuy And with some changes you could both A) cap your HP and B) increase your recharge. I am not suggesting you make any of these changes, but if you would like to tinker in Mids to see what I see... Replace the 3x Doctored Wounds with Panacea. That will get you close to HP cap (like 4hp shy), and you'll see you're now over capped on 10% regen. To fix that, 3x Reactive Defenses, where ever you wanna put them - maybe MoG with the /Recharge options, would overcap your HP but remove the other conflicts. You could raise your current global recharge up to 181.3% while capping HP. You'd lose some of the resistance buff benefits you had. You would also regenerate around 4 hp/second more - which is negligible. Very doable to cap HP though.

If I made a Scrapper, then I might consider dropping Second Wind once I got my HP capped without that power being active. That is possible with a well slotted Ailment Resistance, IO sets, and Accolades. That said, I'd probably still keep it as a backup heal unless there was some other defensive power I wanted which provided similar or better value to me. In a lot of cases those other options are gated behind other power choices. So, that is another thing to consider too.

Yup, good point. If one builds for Instant Healing instead on a Brute then an expected Regen rate of 600-800% is reasonable while Instant Healing is down.