oldskool

I'm real late to this party, and I am bound to make some mistakes here that may have already been addressed. So in the original proposal of item #2 on Sentinel mark. This is 100% uptime? If T1, T2, or T3 apply a 10s non-stacking debuff that is overwritten whenever it is applied again, how is this not on all the time? I'm not opposed to that necessarily. What that would do is allow for Sentinels to switch targets and apply the debuff. However, against tough targets this is on all the time as it currently looks. One big problem about the Sentinel is that as you level one up Opportunity has a window of 15 seconds of feast gameplay. After that there is a downtime of variable length directly related to global recharge. If players wanted to build for reduced downtime, then improving global recharge is a key aspect to consider. Misses end up being the driver of longer downtime, but it is certainly possible to get 90% meter within 13 seconds on every single primary. Assault Rifle can do it in 11 seconds but the cost to overall DPS isn't worth the gains. Now, players that care about nothing but damage don't care about Opportunity at all. They care about Mind Probe and Dominate. Hell, your primary at that point really doesn't matter. Which version of Opportunity you leverage doesn't matter either. Offensive Opportunity in high end builds with extreme recharge and procs doesn't count for much total damage. If this feature were scrapped tomorrow my main would lose 3 DPS. The resistance debuff however, is a huge deal. Even if it is resisted somewhat by an enemy resistance debuffs increase damage noticeably. Having a 15% unresistable debuff with the possibility of constant application of the T1, T2, or T3 is an absolute YES PLEASE. You have no idea how much I'd abuse the F out this. One of my character's T1, with procs, still recharges almost every second. The T3 recharges within 2 seconds. Then, on top of this we can grant ourselves and our party a damage buff. That's on top of the damage derivative from Offensive Opportunity which can be compounded by -15% unresistable debuff plus Achilles' Heel, plus Fury of the Gladiator, plus powers? Sign me up. I want this yesterday.

@Galaxy Brainthanks for sharing here. I often miss discussions about the AT outside of this subforum.

You're welcome! Really happy I could guide a new comer towards the wonderful world of Blapping. You may experience a lot of defeats early on, but that is also part of a long standing joke tradition of Blasters earning debt badges. Dual Pistols is my favorite ranged attack set precisely due to its flexibility. Not ever power has the same level of value universally across all archetypes. For example, Piercing Rounds can kinda suck for damage on some builds. However, Defenders can really leverage the default resistance debuff it comes with (standard ammo is when you don't run any of the elemental types). This is because Piercing Rounds for Defenders grants the maximum -20% resistance shred that the power is capable of. For Corruptors that is -15%. For Blasters and Sentinels that is -9.6%. That -20% works with other powers that also reduce resistance like Tar Patch in Dark Miasma. Using Dual Wield for its knockback potential has a bit more value on Blasters than it might on a Sentinel. Suppressive Fire can be completely converted into a damage power on Defenders with relative ease. It is by default a better damage power on Sentinels. On Blasters that power can either be skipped, used as a hold, or used creatively like on Defenders and so on. Loads of potential for lots different types of gameplay to explore. Have fun!

I feel much the same way. I tend to prefer Dual Pistols on anything other than Blasters. Dual Pistols is an underrated attack set that can often be tossed into the discard bin. Blasters, in particular, are a hyper focused damage archetype. Blasters excel at leveraging burst damage and really just damage in many forms. Dual Pistols lacks a snipe power which is a large burst damage attack as it exists in other sets. Also, the T9 power for Dual Pistols (Hail of Bullets) has a long-ish animation time that puts you into melee range. That long animation can hinder the high burst damage concept some folks go for. None of that is to turn you off of playing with Dual Pistols on a Blaster. You do you. However, you may come to find that a lot of players like to make their Blasters as ranged-only specialists. If one goes down that path, then Dual Pistols can be a bit disappointing vs some other sets. This loops back into the lack of snipe and long animation of the T9. A T9 which happens to put you into a position you may not wish to be. So taking that opinion you can start to look at how other ATs function. Defenders can bring some damage but that isn't what their role is about. Their role is about making other players do moar damage. Yeah, there are exceptions, kinda, but this is the general idea. Dual Pistols has an entire mechanic designed around swapping ammo to grant various effects. Effects like lowered damage mitigation of your enemy (standard ammo on certain attacks) or lowering their damage output (chemical ammo on almost all attacks). Defenders happen to have the highest possible modifiers for this purpose which can potentially make this set really flexible if you want to explore that playstyle. Corruptors are very similar to the Defender as they both have access to supportive sets. The Corruptor just makes that a secondary effect vs a primary effect. Corruptors have the second highest modifiers for all of the alternative effects that Dual Pistols have. So this is a somewhat happy medium between doing damage and bringing some team support. Sentinels do not have access to the full range of damage dealing powers that Blasters do NOR does that AT have the same base modifiers. However, the Sentinel is conceptually the kind of AT that can sit back and pew pew with impunity. I personally feel that Dual Pistols is far more successful on the Sentinel for this kind of play than it is on the Blaster. I know that there will no shortage of folks willing to argue this, but I really do have my reasons for it. Now, back to Blasters. So since the Blaster version of Dual Pistols lacks a snipe and it has a melee final power, the Blaster version here can excel as a close quarters combatant. This is what is often known as the "Blapper". The Blapper is the kind of Blaster that isn't too afraid to mix it up into melee like a Scrapper might (Blaster + Scrapper, right?). Dual Pistols can be a highly effective Blapper. You can choose to skip certain long animation powers (e.g., Piercing Rounds) and substitute that with melee attacks. This can create a fairly fluid sequence of attacks built around the attack "Pistols" and "Executioner's Shot". You can then opt to skip almost everything else, except for your ranged area attacks like Bullet Rain, and leverage high damage melee instead. Note, Sentinels *can* do this eventually, but it isn't nearly as effective at the moment. Sentinels are just more comfortable at sitting back to pew pew. Pairing Dual Pistols with other Blaster secondaries known to be good Blapper sets is a worthwhile way to go. For me, this means I make a character where I don't feel like I am ignoring half the kit and try to find a balance between the two. Unfortunately, Blapping isn't really for the faint of heart. It isn't for everyone. I probably wouldn't recommend it to a new player, but once you get the hang of it the concept feels incredibly powerful. This playstyle can get a lot safer the later one gets in the build process AND with a significant level of investment into the Invention system. So it can be rather advanced. Synergistic sets for Corruptors and Defenders are any sets that bring resistance reduction. So there is a rather long list of that. Really, any of the top tier supportive sets (e.g., Radiation Emission, Dark Miasma, Time, Cold, etc...) have something in their kit that works well with the Swap Ammo system. For Sentinels, any of the more self-contained defensive secondaries (e.g., Invulnerability, Super Reflexes, Energy Aura, etc.) can allow for some damage exploration that other pairings just lack. For Blasters, there is a world is your oyster view, and you're going to find a lot of worthwhile recommendations here.

Well the Sentinel hasn't gone through a review pass, yet. So any of the older posts about how Water or Bio works are still valid. You could pick and choose whatever makes the most sense from any number of posts. Your most effective expenditures are going to be into the following quality of life procs: 1) Steadfast 3% defense to all 2) Gladiator PvP 3% defense to all 3) Shield Wall PvP 5% resistance to all 4) Reactive Defense 3% and scaling resistance to all 5) Numina Regen/Recovery 6) Miracle Recovery 7) Performance Shifter (not unique but still a good investment) 8) Panacea Health and End restore proc 9) Luck of the Gambler Recharge% as you can afford them -- not unique either but big bang for the slot and costs. That list will likely eat up a good bit of your budget. It is well worth the investment though. When it comes to fleshing out the rest of the build you could just as easily run with level 50 generic IOs until you get more funds to run something else. There isn't that big of a difference, at least in damage, between some generic options and lower tier sets. This is because the kinds of sets that the Sentinel has access to aren't that good to begin with. This is why the higher damage efforts come with much much higher investment. The Sentinel is playable with that but it absolutely requires heavy investment in order to even start to tread water in the extremes of "the meta". In other words, temper your expectations. Also, there is no one way to play your character. Since you have hit level 50 you have a build. It may not be finished, but you have had to have selected powers and distributed slots already. What does this build look like? Maybe some folks can offer pointers on where to put certain sets into slots you already have vs making you respec the character.

Psi Mastery is the strongest Sentinel Primary. 😉

What were you expecting to find? What kind of holes did you think the epics need to fill? Sentinel epics all have the same theme. They provide crowd control and melee options; both single target and area. These two features aren't prevalent in the primaries. Many of the these sets also have a final wild card power that influences defensive mitigation in some form. That can be additional direct defense like Link Minds, a debuff like Darkest Night, or a heal like Warmth. Patron pools follow the same kind of trend in all other ATs with a final summon power. Several Sentinel epic powers begin with AoE soft control. This could be Frostbite which is an AoE Immobilize. AoE Immobilize may not sound like much but in practice it is amazing to have as an option. Sentinels do not have any kind of aggro aura. Enemies will disperse and run when you AoE them. However, that changes if you lock them in place with an AoE immobilize. Yeah, you need to slot it for it to be effective, but thems the breaks. Several of the single target melee powers are high DPS options that can increase damage output. Any AoE melee power expands your IO set options dramatically. Single target holds may not sound like much on paper either. However, all Sentinel primaries are variant versions of the ranged attack powers. Ice Blast may be known to have several holds on other ATs. Well, that doesn't happen here. In order to get your extra hold you have to dip into the Epics. Many of the CC powers in the Sentinel realm were converted to true damage powers at the expense of their CC potential. So these powers lack that former utility for better damage. You pick that former utility back up in the epic pools. If you want to abuse procs, then those same hold powers are quite powerful. That isn't unique to Sentinels but adding more damage does in fact plug a perception hole of the AT. Ice Mastery has some potential for theme with your power choices. If you opt to use Ice Storm, then having Frostbite seems like a natural enhancement to that power. You can decide after that if any of the other powers are worth while. Keep in mind too, Sentinels have a lot of tight balancing. Their epic choices aren't the mandatory picks for raw power gaming that other ATs may have. You can absolutely power game through proc abuse, but the basic powers themselves aren't intended to work that way. Psi Mastery is probably the all around winner for usefulness. Mass Hypnosis can have some value in solo play and some TFs. However, it is Mind Probe that is the real gem out of the two choices. Mind Probe is a fantastic ST power. Dominate is one of the best holds we have access too both as a real CC power or as a converted damage increaser. Dominate animates and recharges rather quickly vs many of the alternatives. Psi Shockwave is "meh" on damage per target but the target cap is higher than Frost Breath. More targets hit = more damage dealt. The damage type here also diversifies the kind of damage you deal. Link Minds is just more defense for you and your team. On top of that there is a minor +to hit bonus. What can you skip in Ice Armor? The entire set? -- I kid... I kid... (kinda). Frigid Shield in its current state isn't worth using. This is utterly shameful and disappointing. Whatever code error exists here needs to be fixed as it doesn't contribute to your survival in any meaningful way. Keep this power in mind if they ever buff it, but for now you can dump it. Frost Protection gives you additional slow protection, but that is about it for where its value lies. Hoarfrost alone can help you cap hit points as well as Accolades and set bonuses. Frost Protection's additional passive HP becomes a complete waste. The Cold resist is also likewise lost in an ocean of +resist to that type. Permafrost may be of some value to you for holding a resistance set, but the benefits of the power itself are kind of "meh". Take any of the +defense powers. You need all of them. You will need to supplement these with additional pool powers anyway. From there you can use set bonuses to raise defenses into the low 30's or even possibly into the 45% soft-cap range. You don't *need* 45% defense for all the things, but it is helpful. Icy Bastion is a T9 that is worth having. It pretty much makes Ice Armor playable in 50+ content and it works well layering other effects like Barrier Destiny.

Sometimes I like to use Ageless Radial Epiphany instead of Core. That's the variant with DDR. Not all of my Sentinels have the same level of end spent per second as a build like Fire Blast. Dominate, Mind Probe, and Fire Ball can get hella expensive when you're chain casting them. So the Ageless Core Recovery buff has a lot of appeal. However, this may be overkill for some other builds not abusing this. Those may not spend as much end per second (also won't achieve as much damage dealt) and so the Radial option may work out. Barrier is also a really good choice. 100% agree on the value of the Nin T9. There is a lot of DDR in that one power and it is really low without it (or Radial Ageless). The only Sentinel I currently have that gets close to that level of end use is Psi/SR so these ideas are worth considering there too.

Which sounds like a lot of Blasters in general. Many already play as "lazy" and try to hang back at range. All the time just blasting in to the horizon. Never their mind on where they were. Hmm? What they were doing.

Sentinel as a team character for the sake of being more team conscious is an odd choice, but you do you. Maybe this will kick off some training wheels and you will see the might of the Defender later on. 😏

To me, there is some obvious decision making here that shows some misunderstanding of this all works together. Like Dominate is taken but slotted with a full set. Dominate gets touted as being this amazing power to take but the context there requires damage proc abuse. Just using Dominate slotted as an attack misses the mark. Fire Blast vs Flares may be coming from this long standing "common forum knowledge" that a T2 power is just better than a T1 power. This BS gets spread around in a lot of places and folks rely on others that sound authoritative. Also, the basic damage numbers of Fire Blast *look* better than Flares. So that is also a failure of the game detailed tooltips if folks don't understand what DPA is. The build has *zero* area powers. It skips Fire Ball, and Ground Zero. Fire Breath and Rain of Fire are understandable to skip. However, the build even skips Inferno. Perhaps the OP doesn't want to be in melee range, but this begs the question of why Mind Probe? Again, was this power taken because people said it was amazing? Maybe. I'm making a lot of assumptions here but after viewing hundreds of builds this is my impression. Anyway, I agree with the chasing the ranged cap and missing the mark. What is also really enlightening there is it is "ranged" defense. This leads me to believe even more the intent here is to play solely at range hence the skippage of Inferno and Ground Zero. Improvements to the above would be focus more on doing damage vs worrying about tanking at range only. Radiation Armor is already incredible for durability due to the layers it has. Sure, it doesn't have defense but it doesn't need much their either. There are a few strong Fire/Rad builds around the forums that can be copied if damage buffing is the goal. Some of those even have high melee/smash/lethal defense.

FYI, all Sentinels are pretty freaking tanky at ranged only combat. That includes Regeneration which is the worst mitigation set out of all of them. You're probably over thinking that a good bit. Fiery Aura and Ice Armor have the absolute worst endurance management out of the bunch. Dark Armor's endurance power is quirky but potentially powerful when you understand how it works. All of the other sets have comparable endurance management. Each Sentinel set has something to help with endurance even if that melee variant didn't (e.g., Invulnerability, Super Reflexes).

As above. Max end makes improvements to recovery more effective. My own Beam/Invul has a 4 end per second recovery because of a high amount of overall endurance. That end recovery rate is on par with what Willpower is capable of. The advantage Willpower has is innate psionic resistance and higher passive regeneration. That's really about it. Invulnerability doesn't need 700% regeneration. Sentinel Invul not only has Dull Pain, which can work as a direct heal, but also has a passive absorb barrier in Durability. Invulnerability has an easier time hitting 75% smashing/lethal resistance vs Willpower. Not saying you can't cap with Willpower. I'm saying it is easier with Invulnerability. The +defense coverage is also uniform on Invulnerability vs the lopsided variance of Willpower. It makes hitting at least 32% defense to all but Psi much easier. (btw, F psi. Worrying about it isn't worth the time.) Invulnerability does come with some passive to-hit. Tactics will pile on more. You're going to be well over the accuracy cap with both. You can have plenty of room to load some damage procs and still hit +4 enemies before Incarnates.

It would be on the lower end of most AoE costs but moderate end of single target. Keep in mind AoE vs ST isn't the only factor on how endurance works.

Ah, that's not what I consider the tool tip. I'm referring to the detailed power breakdowns where you see the effects. I didn't even notice the "All DMG" in the short power description. That makes more sense for the confusion. That is a typo. Dodge doesn't do this.

Why do you think you failed? If your in-game character sheet is showing less than 45% are you using the basic or superior versions of Sentinel's Ward and Frozen Aura? Invul on Sentinels has no foe requirement. Neither does Sentinel Willpower for that matter. Ice Bolt is better than Ice Blast. Bitter Freeze Ray is worth slotting as an Attack. You could probably reduce slots in Snow Storm (and your S/L defense) to add a bit more to Bitter Freeze Ray. That should improve some damage and especially so if you keep using damage procs there. Damage in general will feel better once you get your Alpha slot finished and I'd recommend you go the Musculature path. Assault and Interfaces can also boost your damage so it won't feel too so much like being Captain PillowFist which is pretty common for Sentinels chasing full sets vs proccing out attacks.

1) I've never paid attention to Toxic and Psi resistance on other ATs. That said, I can assure the game's tool tip doesn't say "resistance to all damage". Agile, Dodge, and Lucky explicitly detail which resistances scale and those don't include Toxic and Psi. Again, I haven't ever bothered to track those resistances so I could be wrong. However, the game doesn't call them out. This is no different on the Sentinel but the Enduring is just a replacement for Lucky. 2) The one mechanical benefit Practiced Brawler has is that it can stack magnitude. I don't think that is worth it, but it is possible. Master Brawler is less "perma" in practice and more "available when I need/want it". This is because the duration of 30 seconds isn't relevant to a finite pool of temporary hit points. The game will streak breaker you and you will get hit. Those +400 hp (if you enhance the absorb) will vanish if you get a lot of unlucky hits. I've had it drop off within seconds and then have breather room while I just dodge everything. Then the cool down is over and I can put the shield back if I need it. I don't constantly refresh this skill and only do so as I feel it is necessary. 3) I wouldn't bother enhancing the Psi defense. I suppose one could do that if they had spare slots. I generally don't spare slots for that purpose nor do I bother enhancing Agile or Dodge. I just don't feel those are necessary investments on Sentinel SR but YMMV. Positional defenses only include positional defenses. They do not include psi defense. Psi defense is there for that purpose. What really happens is the game often uses two flags for attacks. One flag is a mode and other a damage type. So an attribute on an attack would look like "ranged_psionic" or "ranged_fire". The game will check which flagged defense category you have that is higher and use that to calculate results. So an attack like Mental Blast may have "ranged_psionic" in the game files. This means your ranged positional defense would check against that attack if that is the high value (and it should be). However, some powers like Dominate were flagged (and I think they still are... but haven't checked) as "psionic". So your ranged defense is useless there. Since Dominate is a hold power with a low damage effect you'd hardly notice this hitting you in practice due to the hold resistance and insignificant damage. There is no toxic defense in the game so any attacks typed as "toxic" without melee or range or just going to hit you. Some boss fights are like that and Vaz vomit is just toxic. My impression is that Sentinel SR is ahead of other versions. This is due to Master Brawler, Enduring and getting the Stalker version of Evasion. All of these things combined make it much stronger than the melee counterparts. The only exception for giving this a run is the Tanker version because the scaling resistance is amazing on that AT. Experience wise I actively play a Dual Pistols/Super Reflexes Sentinel and an Assault Rifle/Super Reflexes Sentinel. I've also played SR on a Tanker, Scrapper, and Stalker.

Willpower just isn't as strong on Sentinels as it is on melee. You can make Willpower fairly durable but Sentinel's don't have the hit point scaling to really abuse regeneration rates. The regeneration toggle on Sentinels doesn't scale with enemies, period. It is a flat rate. You can build around 700%+ regeneration with 2000 hit points. That's not nearly as impressive as what melee builds can achieve, even Scrappers. If all you do is hover at range and pew pew then Willpower is fine. *Any* set is fine if that is your game plan. However, the investment it takes to push Willpower's defenses to compete with other, stronger, sets will quickly show you how fragile Willpower really is. Willpower is OK on Sentinels. It isn't terrible but it isn't great when compared with other options. Invulnerability for Sentinels had an overhaul. It is functionally superior to Willpower in almost every way except against Psi damage. With the right set items you can plug that psi resist to modest levels while having a clutch heal in Dull Pain. Sentinel Invulnerability is quite powerful.

I play Water/Dark. My power loudout is similar but my slotting is vastly different. I happen to lean on primary attack powers over the epic ones. This is a matter of preference, but I am also fully aware of just how much damage Mind Probe + Dominate does. I only use that combo on exactly 1 character. I have a tendency to exemplar quite a bit so I don't find a high value in having my offensive capacity backloaded to level 35+. On the character that I do this I don't exemplar. It breaks their functionality. I'm going to walk through your build and toss ideas around in no structured order because that is how my brain works. Cloak of Fear. This power has 0 synergy on Sentinels when it comes to stacking the Fear effect. Fear is OK but since it only targets minions the value is a bit diminished. The to-hit debuff is a nice feature, but it also requires that the power hits first. You have no accuracy in that power and its base accuracy is absolutely terrible. This works by design though because the pulses come out rather fast. So it will do what it needs to do eventually. That said, it isn't nearly as reliable for mitigation as it seems especially given the high endurance cost it comes with. That damage proc won't be contributing much either. Oppressive Gloom, Water Blast, and Psychic Shockwave do have synergy. You have a number of stun powers that stack with each other. This does work. I run this. Fun fact, Whirlpool slows enemy speed. Stun forces them to walk vs run. Enemies try to run out of Whirlpool. When enemies are stunned and in Whirlpool they try to walk out... slowly. Water Blast has enough AoE options with large enough range that the stunned "drunk" walk doesn't save them from Steam Spray, Water Burst, or Geyser. I don't use an AoE immobilize in my build and I've never felt a need for it. Link Minds has a long animation but otherwise it is a great power to layer more defense. If you use 5x LotG in that power you can drive down the recharge while also getting a 3.75% S/L resistance bonus. This is one of the set bonuses that helps me hit 68% S/L resist without considering Cardiac or other resistance Alpha slot in the Incarnates (which would get me closer to 75%). Since I have the 3% scaling resistance not being right at 75% isn't a big deal. As my health goes down that resistance value goes up. I skipped a travel power to use Maneuvers and Combat Jumping. Ninja Run works for the character. You could skip Cloak of Fear and pick up Maneuvers. You could even build for flight speed and just run Hover. You have loads of options. Cloak of Darkness is worth more than the slots you gave it. It is the same value as Weave. Speaking of Weave, I use the exact same slotting strategy in Cloak of Darkness, Weave, and Maneuvers. You could use Red Fortune if it is cheaper than Reactive Defense. The set bonus at 2 pieces is identical. I tend to use 3pc Aegis in several of my resistance toggles for Aoe/Fire/Cold defense. I do use 3x Steadfast +Gladiator unique in Obsidian Shield. This is because I was going to use the KB IO and 3% defense *anyway* and I opted for the extra slot for full Steadfast to get the Resist/End IO. That also happens to net me small hit point bonus. Why not right? Speaking of hit points... If you have to ask if you were building for too much regen then the answer is almost always yes (I always like to build in more recovery to a point though). That answer also holds true for Regeneration, Willpower, and Bio Armor all of which are heavily invested in passive regeneration. Regeneration is the worst form of damage mitigation but it also scales with hit points. Stack your hit points higher and you start to regenerate more health per tick. There is an argument to be made about striking a balance, but in general stack hit points first. Your passive healing will fall in line naturally. You have a right idea about Obscure Sustenance and recharge. I see that Heal/Rch IO there. However, there things you may not know about how this works. First off, that power has tremendously high accuracy. The base accuracy is enough all by itself. I run some Preventative Medicine in that power (S/L resist bonus in the low set range). That Theft of Essence proc will hardly ever go off. This power isn't Dark Regeneration. It is unnecessarily penalized as an AoE since it has a sphere it works in but only hits one enemy. Procs in that power suck pretty bad. This is the opposite of Dark Regeneration in the melee version where procs can be a great idea. The direct heal on Obscure Sustenance is pretty much garbage. However, this power spikes your health regeneration for a minute. That spike starts really high (which Mids shows, mind you) and it goes down a sliding scale 2 more times over 60 seconds. Your endurance recovery spikes too but only for 30 seconds. The strongest endurance benefit lasts 10 seconds. Having this power recharge within 20 seconds allows for you to have high uptime on the stronger aspects of the effect. That final endurance recovery scale isn't that great. Tenebrous Regeneration can be fine with just 1 level 50 health IO. It can be nice with sets too. What you do is totally up to you. It is a good power but it may drop in priority. Attack wise I don't disagree with the powers in either build. However, you may want to take some ideas on slotting from Underfyre. I personally do not bother with proccing out all attacks. I value some damage % increase in my AoEs and focus procs into select single target attacks once I get the base damage improvement I want. Either path is a viable one.

It does take getting used to. I tend to prefer Defenders over Corruptors personally, but I do want to rebuild a /Traps Corr at some point. Always loved that set on that AT. I have a lot of Sentinels but I also play Defenders, Tankers, and Controllers. There are already plenty of brilliant folks contributing in those forums so I don't speak out there that much.

Apocalypse is in Power Push but could be swapped if that was a preference. The slotting on Power Burst could be used in Focused Power Bolt or any other combinations. You all do you. 🙂

Defenders have a lower damage scale than Sentinels. However damage scale isn't really the prime factor to consider for Defender overall damage output. Defender primaries are support sets but these sets include some incredibly potent force multipliers. Some sets like Storm Summoning can be so strong due to pet use they eclipse the damage dealing secondary by quite a bit. Storm Summoning can be so powerful it can make Controllers do ridiculous levels of damage which is well outsider their AT modifiers. So "overall" damage isn't as simple as comparing blast to blast numbers. Same can be said for Blasters who mix melee with ranged attacks. Those brave souls are capable of so much more than their blast sets would lead one to believe.

The Opportunity inherent and mechanic is likely up for some kind of rework. What that will look like is anyone's guess. Whether or not there will be any review of the power sets themselves for buffs is also up in the air. For the most part, Sentinel secondary power sets are pretty good. They scale at 0.7 of the Tanker scale where as Stalkers and Scrappers scale at 0.75. That's about 2~% on defenses and resistances. Not too big a deal but I find it annoying. Sentinel damage scale is 0.95 but the damage issue is compounded with a legacy system that really did pamper melee heavily. In a world where snipes weren't all insta-cast, the Sentinel's snipe replacements had a place in the game. Now they just don't compete all that well. If the inherent doesn't contribute to damage or teamplay then folks might be a bit pissed off. 🙂 That said, Sentinels can do better damage than much of community ever bothers to give it credit. It just isn't on par with the power creep because the AT hasn't had a pass like Blasters (twice now), or Tankers, or whatever is the FotM.

That role was already stated to be a ranged damage dealer like a Scrapper but with a rollercoaster mechanic on damage. It isn't performing in the manner it was supposed to. That's a paraphrased statement. I don't play whatever that is. If oldschool beatdowns include Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, or Street Fighter, then yeah. 😛

So for the first point that is a matter of several long and heated threads about the AT. Sentinel is a very jack of all trades and master of making flame threads. However, Sentinels can be really good at point number two. That is building something that is different and that can be fun for the right player. If you take Cross Punch earlier, then plan to be in a lot melee. This shouldn't be a big deal later on once you start getting the heals and shields. Parasitic Leech is a big cone so being close isn't going to be a problem. Running Cross Punch -> Aqua Bolt -> Water Jet -> Aqua Bolt, etc... is something you can do at high recharge. Cross Punch is really good so that isn't a complaint. If you're in melee range then Steam Spray becomes a nice addition. Both Sentinel ATOs widen the cone and it hits 10 targets. Something to at least consider. You don't need Tactics and Vengeance so you have some powers you could dump if you wanted. Dehydrate could be a filler if your attack chain feels light and it will heal you. You could potentially skip it if you like. I'd consider reducing some of your elemental defense in bonuses and look for melee ones. Your resistance powers can take the Unbreakable Guards for 4pcs which is a nice melee defense boost. At 3 slots you get Energy/Negative resistance which you are weak on. It is worth looking at. Bio Armor here has a bit of defense debuff resistance so stacking defense is a pretty decent plan. I don't have a build per se. I'm tinkering in Mids as I type so I know you can get into the 30's+ on Melee, and each of the elemental defenses. You will take a hit on S/L resistance, but the Bio Armor absorbs are really strong. Sentinels are plenty durable but they aren't close to Tankers. Anyway, what you have has potential just tossing some ideas around to think about other avenues and all that.