oldskool

None of the ammo powers disable procs.

"Effective" is highly subjective. What you're asking is the fundamental nature of how Energy Blast works. You knock enemies back and you do damage. That's going to translate into any other AT with access to this kit. You can build for ranged defense on any AT and so this doesn't make the Sentinel a unique choice. The only real question is if any of this matters to you when exemplaring down for low level Task Forces. That may be a key feature where the mez protection gives you an easy-mode perspective of the AT. I don't ever write this in the Sentinel forums, but why not just make a Blaster?

Sentinels are never good for teams, solo, logging into, looking at, cosplaying as, or recommending. The only good thing about the Sentinel, and apparently its entire purpose, is to create shitposts. That's the true power of the AT... its to troll everyone. 🤣

Thankfully, for the poor Sentinel it does not market itself around its inherent. It markets itself as a damage dealing AT that is more durable than a Blaster and can handle the aggro it gets. That's the paraphrase of the AT's description. At no point does it say that it assists its team to do more damage or any other fluff text like it. The entire concept of the Sentinel being some kind of warped support AT is born from forum posters. Now, as to whether or not it brings enough to a team that is debatable. It may not go as far as some like, and that is understandable.

Why would an inherent ability do anything for a team that is equal to an entire suite of powers?

Don't over think it. There are a number of directions you can take which can all be valid choices. Without knowing more, the best you can hope for is pretty generic advice. No reason you can't have these two pools. I'd highly recommend Fighting too for Tough and Weave, but you don't *need* them. Same goes for Speed to get Hasten. These are all just quality of life powers that can help support a goal, whatever yours is. Energy Aura and Energy Blast are both pretty straight forward sets. So here goes with some really general advice on both: Energy Aura; find some set you can afford that appeals to you. You really only need the Defense, Defense/End, and Defense/End/Recharge to get a good balance of cost reduction and coverage. You could also use a Defense/Recharge for a slightly higher defensive boost if the minor end benefit of the triple IO isn't worth it to you. Slot this way for all your defensive powers. Add 4+ slots only if you are going for specific set bonuses beyond that range. Some defensive sets have very good bonuses between 4-5 and very few are worth going all 6 slots. A key to managing endurance with Energy Aura is keeping Energize up as much as possible. Energize has a 30 second duration and a 90 second downtime. You can make this effect permanent with high enough global recharge. However, for the sake of simplicity, using 2 slots with 2 generic level 50 IOs is a good start. You could boost those IOs to +4 each and have 11 seconds of downtime. Power Drain can could then fill the gap. You may eventually feel that dumping Power Drain is comfortable, but I'd at least start a build with it. It can be a nice effect to leverage. On top of the use of Energize/Power Drain, endurance-related procs are also great. Panacea, Numina, Miracle, Performance Shifter, etc... Your Accolades will also help. You have to go out of your way to not be swimming in endurance with Energy Aura. Use 2 slots in your resistance passive or toggle (Kinetic Dampening or Power Armor) for the two +3% global defense IOs (Steadfast and Gladiator's Armor). That's a nice +6% to everything that stacks with all your other powers and bonuses. That's it for Energy Aura. You don't need to slot Entropy Shield and in general your slot use can be around 3 for everything else. Follow the advice above to get within mid 20% to low 30% to all damage types except for Psionic. Weave with at least 3 slots, like the above, and a generic level 50 IO in Hover will get you into the 30% to low 40% range. You can close the rest of the gaps with very specific build plans, but you're getting real close to near softcaps. Energy Blast; If you slot two of your attacks with both of the Sentinel archetype origin sets at the purple quality (Superior is the title) then you're going to hit upper 30% on Smashing, Lethal, and Negative defenses (your weak points). Turning on Stealth will push you just over 40%. Minimal slotting on Stealth should get you low 40's on nearly every type but Psionic. Easy peasy. Attack wise, you can skip Power Blast. You should keep Power Bolt due to its Opportunity effect. If you're still in a lower recharge build, then take everything else. If you skip Power Blast in Energy Blast, and Overload in Energy Aura you will still have room to take the following: - Stealth - Fly - Hover - The new Evasive Maneuvers - Boxing or Kick - Tough - Weave You'll have 1 free power pick left. Done.

Hooooooooooooowl Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawrgh Suddenly everyone in the community is using Sonic Blast. 😄

Edit note: I opted to reframe my thoughts. Would you not question the existence of the Sentinel if it were similar in some fashion to the VEAT? If so, then what is the point of the VEAT? What is the point of the Sentinel? These also feel like rhetorical questions given how homogeneous ATs can get within the IO system and the degree of overlap that exists in powersets. VEATs are great ATs in my opinion too. However, the VEAT is also very different. The VEAT can be a number of things depending on what it is you're looking to do. It isn't all that fair to compare the VEAT to the Sentinel as the Nightwidow/Fortunata/Bane/Crab experience is vastly different. The similarities that exists are the potential to do damage at range and have personal protections. Beyond that, the ATs are like comparing apples and tofu. Whether or not a VEAT brings more to a group is a matter of perspective. Certainly, they bring the capacity to provide team wide buffs due to their lower endurance cost Leadership options which also stack with the power pool version. However, what debuff effects is the Nightwidow providing? In some ways the use the term "debuff" seems to be looking solely at Venom Grenade. Venom Grenade is a very potent power, but it is just one effect out of many others. This pushes the Soldier side more towards a force multiplier but that isn't the only thing Soldiers (both Huntsman/Crab variants; even some Banes) bring to the table. Sentinels having less dps is also really ignoring how builds matter and what can be done with the AT. If you only look at the Sentinel through the lens of using full sets and only ranged attacks, then sure. However, the whole DPS argument is flimsy at best when using such generalized statements. Sentinels can be made to do enough damage, even solely at range, to overcome AV regeneration. That's a minimum of 150 dps. Is it the same level of other ATs capable of 400+ dps? Of course not, but it is still enough damage to participate, meaningfully, in all content of the game. The Sentinel may struggle for those trying to speed run specific objectives, but those are also self-imposed limitations. Back to Venom Grenade for a second. VG is a very big reason as to why the Huntsman is even a thing. The first two powers in the kit aren't that great without having negative resistance. The Crab's damage is also heavily linked to using its pets and even its melee attacks have better DPS than the ranged counterparts. So saying that all Soldiers are by default doing more dps than all Sentinels is factually inaccurate and also rather absurd. Nightwidows are predominately melee and they are exceptional at it. An expensive Nightwidow is a force to be reckoned with. These can do more damage than several other options within the ATs. So it isn't really fair to suggest that Sentinels should be compared to these. Not much actually compares with a well built NW. Fortunatas can play a similar role to a Psychic Blast/Super Reflexes Sentinel. I get the appeal to make the comparison. I did this during my write up of the Psychic Blast set in the sticky of this subforum. Sentinels can be designed using this combination to perform FAR better than you may think. However, the fundamental designs are also very different. Fortunatas can also dabble in melee while taking advantage of both Follow-up *and* Aim. A hybrid Fortunata plays a bit more like a Frankstein's Monster of a Dominator than it does in any sensible comparison of the Sentinel. VEATs are, by their very nature, capable of being jacks-of-all-trades. Sentinels aren't. Furthermore, the VEATs (and HEATs) have increased resistance caps which further enables their ability to play a number of roles. The Sentinel is just a damage AT with a poorly implemented mechanic. TL;DR: The Sentinel isn't that complicated. The Sentinel is a damage-oriented AT with some fundamental design flaws. Comparing it in its currently known flawed state to other ATs with very different roles is not a great method of argument. The purpose, which was the original question, can be answered rather simply. The purpose is to have fun and this is universal. The objective of the AT is to do damage. A perspective that criticizes this effectiveness is valid, but searching for some hidden meaning here is a path to disappointment.

This seems like a really narrow-minded way to look at the Sentinel and all other ATs in the game. Khelds in Nova are the only characters with innate hover to enable pew-pew at range without leveraging other abilities. By this logic all other ATs in the game are melee because enemies will try to rush into range. Even Controllers would be melee because they do not innately root on attack and require a power selection for such control as well as hover. You may be looking for deeper roles/design than CoH is going to provide and that won't exist in the Sentinel regardless of what the devs do.

This is more the crux of your original statement and the answer is probably the same. Though I think that defense really isn't an issue with Sentinels. In practice, Sentinels are actually quite durable. Furthermore, they have improvements to their secondary power sets that melee doesn't get. These changes can be really good in actual play. Sure, not all of the secondary sets are great, but several of them are considered superior versions of the original (e.g., Invulnerability, Super Reflexes, Regeneration). What is the purpose? Why is the damage low? Design flaws is the short answer. The dev team has already noted the lacking performance of Sentinels and mentioned that the AT will change at some point. The purpose was to make a damage-oriented AT like a Scrapper but one that uses ranged attacks instead. The issues with this design are documented in multiple places across this subforum, the suggestions forum, and other areas where this topic turns into a flame-war. Another aspect of threads like this devolves into Sentinel vs Blaster. This is an innately flawed comparison and will ultimately come down to individual preference. This horse has been beaten to the point of being a grease stain on a cement floor. Let's not rehash this again if we can help it.

Theft of Essence works wonders in Dark Regeneration. Most of the time I am endurance neutral when I use that power against multiple targets. Sometimes I am even endurance positive. There are some instances where Theft doesn't fuel the end enough, but it isn't the end of the world. I run minimal sets in Dark Regen and mostly have it proc mule. I do not suggest thinking of it as an extra AoE damage attack. Instead, look at it more like if you have to use the power you're going to retaliate a bit while gaining health back. Also, when hitting multiple targets Dark Regeneration can take you from near death to full health. The more healing % you have the fewer targets are required, but in a target rich environment the risk of death is pretty minimal.

The easy advice on Radiation Armor is this; don't set unrealistic expectations. What I mean there is don't go expecting to soft-cap your defenses working from zero on a budget. Even with a really expensive heavy Winter Set invested build you may not pull that off while also getting everything else one can imagine. Radiation Armor is actually really straight forward. It is resistance-based and allows for you to raise Smashing, Lethal, Energy, and Toxic to moderate levels *without Meltdown*. When Meltdown is active you'll likely cap your resistance on those 4 categories unless you're going out of your way to avoid it. There are multiple healing powers in the kit to help keep you running strong. So, keep it simple. Focus on the resistances first. If you can build up some defenses to about 15%-20%, then great because every bit can help. Rad's intimidating because it is new, but it isn't that complicated in actual practice.

Energy Aura by itself will not get you soft-cap defenses, but you can achieve that with additional powers. The specific slotting of Energy Aura is going to vary wildly depending on more factors than any single build share could provide. Instead, I'm going to give you the powers that you can use to easily soft-cap with using anything more expensive than the two 3% defense globals. Let's just assume you take everything except for Overload. Energize and Power Drain aren't contributing to defenses in this example though they could with certain sets. OK. So Weave, Maneuvers, Hover or Combat Jumping, and Link Minds. Those pool powers, Link Minds comes from Psychic Mastery, will all stack with Kinetic Shield, Power Shield, and Repelling Force. Slotting... At least 3 slots with a Defense, Defense/Endurance, and Defense/Endurance/Recharge (Or Defense/Recharge) in all of the mentioned defense powers except for Hover/Combat Jumping (a common IO is fine). That will soft-cap you on all damage types except for Negative and Psionic. Negative will softcap the moment you use a full Sentinel ATO or some Thunderstrikes in your attacks. You could easily go into 50% Smashing/Lethal defense with the other Sentinel ATO. Psionic isn't worth stressing over. Your resistance to S/L can be 45% or higher but who is to say exactly where this lands without specifically building for that (you shouldn't need to). OK, so there you go. Slotting of Energy Aura made simple. If you skip Link Minds, then your Fire/Cold/Negative defenses will be areas that set bonuses catch you up (S/L/En is easy). You can easily cap those with Aegis in resistance powers or various offensive sets for AoE/Ranged. Your S/L defense may dip a bit below 45% but it isn't a big deal. My personal Fire/EA uses expensive sets so it wouldn't be as useful for someone looking for a cheaper alternative.

^ I think stuff like this is really helpful. Soloing enemies like AVs is a pretty common bar for a lot of players. Sentinels can do this. Maybe it isn't as fast as other ATs but they are certainly capable of it. I solo plenty of things that seem challenging. I do not bend over backwards to build characters to handle all enemy groups like Malta or Carnies. I do just fine on my Sentinels. Most of my Sents aren't even min-maxed on damage. They are just balanced around doing damage that I feel is adequate while having high survivability without hover (though I do gravitate towards specific secondaries). The game isn't that hard even on +4/x8 for most of the content. More enemies on a map just makes progress slower for me due to target limits. That isn't a challenge so much as it is tediousness.

Not in this sticky, and not in a sense that I *think* you may be asking. However, there are a number of older threads about the value of the Epic/Patron pools in this sub forum. I'll summarize as best I can and just reduce that clutter into this thread through... 1) Most of the pool choices allow for some kind of movement control (e.g., AoE Immobilize, slows, etc.) with the exception of Psi Mastery which has Mass Hypnosis (useful on some Task Forces). 2) Not all melee attacks are created equal, but they generally are good to have if you can fit them into your build. 3) Not all of the holds are created equal either, but they too can be good depending on build. 4) All of the Epics have some utility power baked in late into the selection. These include Darkest Night, Warmth, and Link Minds to name a few. The value of these varies wildly by pool and by build. A running theme here is you should not look at these optional powers (and they really are optional) in a vacuum. The only exception to this is Psychic Mastery. Psychic Mastery is the undisputed king of Sentinel Epic choices due to proc abuse and innate design of two powers (Mind Probe and Dominate). Those two powers slotted for aggressive play (i.e., procs in Dominate) can eclipse an entire primary's selection of powers. They are that good when slotted in a very specific way. Then, on top of this, you gain access to Link Minds which is another +defense (and +to-hit) source which can be made permanent with enough recharge. The other two powers offered in this pool do not matter in the Min-Max realm though procs in Psychic Shockwave are another option. Dark Mastery, Fire Mastery, and Electrical Mastery offer some competitive options on damage too. Powers like Smite, Cremate, and Havoc Punch are really solid melee attacks. The AoE options of Dark and Fire can be rather strong too (Electric is a bit of a gimmick without the Immobilize). Ninja Tool Mastery is a quirky. The Caltrops variant (Tashibishi) can be fantastic if you like that power. It forces movement from the enemy and when they run (slowly... while taking minor damage) they aren't attacking you. It can be a useful tool to relieve pressure if you get swarmed in melee. This is effective if you're not going for the hover-blaster style of play and it creates space. The range you have as a Sentinel isn't a hinderance when being in close quarters. This actually utilizes that to your advantage as you shoot enemies in the back. There are a lot of AoE immobilize options that unlock at level 35. That's a really nice advantage that Sentinels have that no other ranged AT gets. These are Controller-style powers that can stop movement of multiple targets at once as long as the power hits (these have accuracy penalties - keep that in mind). This can work really well with rain-style powers which also force movement (Rain of Fire, pretty much all of Ice Blast, Whirlpool, etc.). You do not need to go deep into these choices to find value. On almost every Sentinel I make I pick 1 forced movement power. That is either Caltrops or an immobilize that meets the theme of my character (so Ice Blast gets Ice Mastery for that immobilize). I only go really deep into Psychic Mastery on one character and it is to min-max that Sentinel. However, the abuse used in slotting here will likely get fixed at some point (the Homecoming devs are going to do something about procs). So I'd keep that in mind to enjoy whatever you come up with now and understand this is likely to change.

Definitely enjoy this for as long as it lasts. You may know this, but this isn't how Opportunity bar building functions on all primaries. Sonic Blast cones do this and Assault Rifle's Flamethrower does this (Buckshot *does not*). Some primaries can exploit a glitch and stack Opportunity (i.e., running both Offensive and Defensive simultaneously). Whenever the team gets around to "fixing" Sentinels I wouldn't be surprised to see all of this go the way of the dinosaur.

I'm not a fan of Fiery Aura on Sentinels. The mitigation is low, the damage pay off isn't worth it, and Consume isn't as strong as other end powers. That said, if this is something *you* think would be fun, then go for it. There are some folks that have posted about Fiery Aura and actually enjoy it. They may also like getting punched in their crotch, but we don't kink shame here. With Fire, if you're using Burn and Whirlpool get ready to be in melee a lot. Then watch as enemies run from it (even if slowly). By 35 you may want to give consideration to an AoE Immobilize to stop that annoyance. Unlike Brutes/Tankers, Sentinels don't have aggro magnet abilities to keep enemies in the ground patches.

1) Range and building for it is overrated on Sentinels, in my opinion. The default range with hover is more than enough to avoid melee damage. 2) Building for regen rate is a waste of resources. Build for hit points and recharge (you want those clicky powers in Bio available often).

Your first challenge is going to be trimming down powers because squeezing all of that in is going to be hard. You can skip Resurgence in Willpower if you want. You could skip Strength of Will too, but I'd suggest you play with it first to decide you want it or not. That's about it for Willpower. Willpower slotting is really straight forward and pretty easy. Slap a 1 end redux and 3x of the type (defense, heal, or resist) in the toggles. 2 or more slots in the passives depending on what you're going for. Beam Rifle can utilize almost all of its attacks. You could pick either Single Shot or Charged Shot and ignore the other. You could skip Cutting Beam if you like. That's it. Disintegrate, Lancer Shot, and Piercing Beam are your core attacks. You'll use either Single Shot or Charge Shot as filler. Refractor Beam is unique to Sentinels and worth taking. Aim is useful to line up with Overcharge. 5 to 6 slot your attacks. If you take Fighting you likely know the drill. Leadership take at least Maneuvers and you may not have too much room for more depending on how far you go into Psi Mastery. Speed for Hasten is an easy choice. Pick your favorite teleport power but going too deep is going to be tough. In Psi Mastery you're going to start struggling for slots depending on how you've designed this. Mass Hypnosis can be good on 1 slot for solo PvE. The real gem is Link Minds to get you more defense and a bit more to-hit. That is shared with your team so that's nice. Mind Probe, Dominate, and Shockwave can open up new damage paths but you're spreading thin. It's workable but it will backload the power of the character which can be annoying. Quick Recovery and Stamina with some Performance Shifter +end procs won't make toggles too bad. Turning them all on if you die sucks, but it is what it is. Most important tip... Have fun. Don't over think it too much and enjoy the ride. Another possible choice for Cable is a Blaster, Corruptor or Defender using Beam Rifle and Time Manipulation. Teleport for travel and then whatever else you wanted to squeeze in. Oh, and the other problem is going to be figuring out what to put in all of those pouches you'll need to have on your costume. Thankfully, there are plenty of big shoulder pads. 😛

I do think there are some good general ideas in the build. Good job. I did opt to tweak some things just to show a different way to go. In the first build below I just dropped the proc use. In powers like Touch of Fear they really aren't as good as they look in practice vs on paper. Fury does a lot of the heavy lifting on boosting ToF's damage in practice. The loss of the proc in Midnight Grasp is a damage loss, but you have 2 free slots so picking that back up isn't a big deal. Here is a thought with Gloom and Cardiac vs Energy Mastery with Musculature. What is interesting here is that despite the lack of the extra proc in Midnight Grasp the new attack routine (Smite, Siphon, Midnight, Gloom, vs Smite-Siphon-Smite-Midnight) for single target does more damage due to Gloom. On top of this Cardiac makes the routine easier to sustain *and* boosts the resistances. You lose some AoE damage potential, but it isn't that much. You gain sustain and some resistance. I think the trade is sound.

I think you got some concepts swapped in your statement. Oppressive Gloom has standard accuracy. Cloak of Fear has an accuracy penalty. If you're only going to 2 slot CoF, then I highly recommend going with the */Endurance/* variants for those slots. The damage proc will check once per 10 seconds and it is subject to the hit chance of the power. That chance to hit isn't guaranteed even with Tactics against +4 enemies. Once you get your Alpha set up, it will be better, but still not guaranteed. To make up for this, the Fear pulses pretty fast, but that doesn't influence the damage proc. I wouldn't worry too much about enhancing the defense debuff in CoF either. Reduce the cost to run it and the power works really well as it is. You skipped Touch of Fear though which got a buff and was useful even prior to that when paired with Dark Armor. First, ToF has a substantial debuff. It is the highest modifier of -to hit out all your core options. Second, it stacks magnitude with Cloak of Fear which can fear Bosses and reduce their attack rate. It can fear enemies with purple triangles too when those drop. Lastly, the power does AoE negative damage which ticks with your Deathshroud and benefits from Fury. It also ends up being available more frequently than Soul Tentacles or Dark Obliteration. Food for thought. For Dark Regen, I happen to like running 4x Scirocco (Acc/Dmg, Acc/Dmg/End, Dmg/End, Proc), plus Theft of Essence End Drain and perhaps even Fury of the Gladiator -resistance. I find as long as I can get DR within a 12 second recharge from global recharge efforts most Dark Armor characters of mine are nearly unkillable. Less recharge on the power is good too, but without Theft of Essence you're going to tap your endurance hard. Dark Consumption can't keep up with it by itself. I think you undersell Maneuvers and over think Tactics. The side effects of Tactics are pretty niche in PvE but Maneuvers stacks with everyone's defense. Even a single generic +5 defense IO pushes you up to 40% melee defense. It's almost 4% more defense than you had which is substantial damage mitigation all by itself. Sure, you don't have DDR, but the fewer times that enemies can even start the cascading defense the more time your -to hit has to actually work. This compounds with Touch of Fear. Furthermore, I'd suggest always looking to open with Soul Drain since it is going to boost your ability to hit. Thankfully, Soul Drain already has a high chance to hit so Tactics is even less useful for that purpose. Your endurance slotting could use re-tinkering. Weave, Cloak of Darkness, even Stamina all look underslotted. You're going after high resistances, which makes some sense, but it is at the expense of sustainability. This could be reduced with Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection. That would also allow you move some slots around to bolster defenses even slightly. Cardiac Alpha will also help and get you into the 80% resistance range on S/L and Psi at least. That's pretty darn sturdy for a Brute and having Dark Regen to constantly feed your health pool will make you nearly unstoppable. Currently I run Dark/Dark only on a Stalker which is really durable for what it is, but I can promise you endurance can be a challenge. I spam Dark Regen and Theft of Essence makes that possible that is including Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection. My Dark Armor/Titan Weapons Tanker also has to manage endurance, but doesn't run Cloak of Fear to help in that.

Its Arthur the Blaster yelling "Not in the Face! Not in the Face!" while side chatting with the Controller as to why their costume is a moth and not a bunny. Meanwhile... the Tick Tanker is just soaking it up being mighty (which is also his super power).

Heck, you can fear the boss too with Touch of Fear stacking magnitude with Cloak. This was, and still is, one of my favorite things about Dark/Dark. I used this years ago when it was Scrapper only. I used it on my Dark/Dark Stalker, and I would absolutely do this on a Tanker or Brute. ToF adding ticking damage to join in with Deathshroud is just icing on the cake. Fearing AVs when the purple triangles drop is complete joy to me.

Spines/Bio Brute can be a very early aggro magnet, but loads of fun. Bio on Brutes can be a little bit of a chore to raise the resistances on but on the Scrapper you won't feel so bad if you only hit 75% (since it is the cap). Still... fun combo and can be a thematic pairing. EM/Rad also feels a bit thematic as a pairing and would be great on either AT.

There are several threads about this, but one the more recent postings had already started off with a competent result. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/26549-waterbio-build-review/?tab=comments#comment-325591 Water relies heavily on its AoE powers since that is its greatest strength. As a power set, it is somewhat greedy. You'll probably want most of the attacks except for either Hydro Blast or Aqua Blast depending on your preference (No, Sentinels really *don't* need both Opportunity attacks). Water Burst is skippable too. Bio Armor can also be somewhat greedy for powers and slots. That depends on just how far you want to push recharge since healing sets like Doctored Wounds or Panacea can crank your recharge. Generic overview of how Water Blast plays: Build Tidal Power and spend Tidal Power. Spenders include Geyser (increases its power greatly), Water Burst (gains some cold damage and improved knockdown), Dehydrate (buffs the heal), and Water Jet (removes the cool down and increases cast speed). Water Jet has an internal cool down of 15 seconds so you can't just hammer improved WJ over and over. What will likely happen is you will end up dumping stacks into Dehydrate, and/or Water Burst (if you take it). Caveat, this doesn't play like a combo system. You can hold stacks if you don't take all the spenders and just dump stacks on to the powers you want. Whirlpool is an AoE that works like a Rain power so enemies will try to escape it. It's still a really strong ability, but some folks don't like it. The Aim power, Tidal Forces, should be used with Geyser. Its guaranteed full stacks which buffs Geyser considerably. The goal should be to try to get their cool downs to align. So aim to get both in the 24 to 30 second cool down range (this is doable). Bio Armor: You don't get the damage aura. Rebuild DNA is different and Parasitic Leech is a Cone. Furthermore, without heavy access to melee powers or PBAoE powers the melee/smashing/lethal defense hole can be a pain in the butt to fix. Bio Armor is still a heavily offensive secondary here, but it isn't tanky without a heavy investment that may block off damage slotting (i.e., more full sets vs frankenslotting via procs). Since both sets can be greedy on powers and slots adding epic powers maybe a challenge, but it just depends on what you want. None of the epic pools are necessary to make a good Sentinel, but Psychic Mastery *is* the most powerful for extreme power gaming.