oldskool

Which just goes into the argument of how Blasters can be played safely by stacking additional defensive measures. That particular outcome boils down to "no $#!%" kind of observational ability.

@BrandX The low tier Red Fortune benefits are capped. It's the same S/L benefit in Reactive Defenses. So one of the sets could swap out 2 slots for some other set or even go for a 3pc LotG for minor HP gains. Everything else looks great though. I think the concept of Dark/Nin is pretty awesome @EnjoyTheJourney. Let us all know how it turns out!

"Effective" should be defined. There is a scale of difficulty in this game that can be chosen by a player. Not every AT, or even every build within an AT, is capable of accomplishing all of the same content by itself. When it comes to team contribution there are a number of issues inherent in the current meta, the IO system, and general balance disparity.

@Galaxy Brain, this is really good stuff. I for one, like the "safety" metric as it is. I think the methodology chosen gets the point across. The amount of defense added by CJ and Hover is minimal. The mobility aspect of each is obvious to me. It helps to try to ensure effective use of the various kinds of range attack (cone, TAOE, standard, etc...). The outcome of which sets are safer than others is the entire point of how the test was designed. To go back and re-do all of it with a more substantial defensive stack is to skew results for a certain outcome. If the concept of reading the results was "X set is actually safer than this because with Y defensive stack makes it so", then I think the test was successful. There is no need, in my opinion, to go back and placate others to prove that Y defense stack makes X set better. Doing this treads more into the realm of establishing how a build comes together to resolve a problem vs highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each individual power set.

Then I misunderstood. That changes my response to your build is fine then if you're happy with it. Defining goals is where the refinement happens. So dumping a ton of cash is easy. Using that cash to make sure it meets your standards is something different from fully optimizing the use of said cash. You can squeeze a lot of performance out of a character with an unlimited budget. That performance doesn't even need to be tuned to the point of peak optimization since the game doesn't require that. Furthermore, the difference in damage often isn't that big a deal. Improving your total DPS over a long period of time by 10% sounds like a lot. However, in reality we're talking about shaving off several seconds of time here and there. In a group situation you're probably not going to notice the difference from a moderately optimized build vs a fully optimized build. And, it looks like your understanding of recharge impact is fine. So, new rhetorical question. What is your goal? Is it softcapping with a bit of damage improvement? Is it really pushing damage to the limits? Is it exploring set bonuses to their fullest? If it is something in between that then you're already on track.

The use of AOE + clean-up mess tactic is the vast majority of play and the general focal point of team play. So worrying too much about rotations isn't necessary, but I do elaborate on it a lot to explain my slotting logic. Also, understanding how those powers interact becomes useful when you do face off with a singular enemy while solo, or if you want to burn down a target on a team. As to the above, you're learning. From the macro level perspective you're not really using a proc build. It is just that the sets happen to have a proc. It really just becomes a fairly common build tactic vs one that is actually focused on using procs. The slotting of Dehydrate could use refinement. It has 18% recharge modification which lowers the chance that the two procs would fire off. That lowers the potential damage of the power which is counter productive (only if the goal is to maximize the procs... otherwise it doesn't matter). Still, the two procs there raise the damage of Dehydrate in those two slots over what you would have gotten from raw damage % increases. If you swapped out the Acc/dmg/end/rch from Dehydrate and used a dmg/end enhancement you're overall damage would go up a bit. Is it worth it to you to improve the average by 16 pts? We're talking such small numbers here it can get a bit silly to be highly critical of it, you know? Still Dehydrate is the only power that is running procs which isn't a major focus. Going all in on procs would be including procs on multiple powers that you use frequently. Whirlpool, Steam Spray, Dehydrate, Hydro Blast, Water Jet, and maybe Geyser. Doing that is giving up set bonuses for gimmick. Sure, it is a gimmick that will increase damage, but it is still a gimmick. Also, a build like that is likely going to require Tactics to bring your accuracy back up since you could give up a lot of native to-hit chance from slotting even at the basic level. I do not want to say such a build is impossible to pull off with Ninjutsu, but it probably would be stretching things very thin if you want to soft cap positionals. Super Reflexes is easier to do this with since the secondary isn't nearly as reliant on other sources of defense as Nin may potentially be. I think most people start to notice that Nin, while gaining access to AoE earlier, can potentially struggle to soft-cap AoE positional defense due set bonus availability in Sentinel powers. That statement is a little generalized because I cannot assume all builds are the same. Melee PBAoE sets can help fill that gap, but if you're not using those your options start getting pretty limited. P.S. -- Going with a really heavy proc slotting approach can go one of two ways. It can potentially add a significant punch to your damage. It can also potentially make your character worse. It is my opinion, that Sentinels aren't quite the proc monster potential AT that ones like Defenders, Controls, or Tankers can be. Sentinels just don't always have the defenses to get to the more obscene levels, EASILY, like the aforementioned ATs can. Sentinels can however, find plenty of room for balance to use procs to enhance a weakness or further boost a strength. Again, BIG generalization because a proc-centric build can exist with some power combinations and appropriate planning. However, it is an advanced way to do it. It also requires some very specific planning. That planning doesn't jive with how I like to play. It forces me to plan a power like Tactics at points where I personally may not want it when I wish to exemplar down for lower level Task Force or even general door missions. Yes, I have fully Incarnate kitted out purple set monsters and I still like running Positon 1 and 2. So sue me.

Just another way to think about it... When you start pushing recharge into the realm you the following thing can be run without much of a gap: Water Jet -> Dehydrate -> Hydro Blast. You'll build enough Tidal Force for double Water Jet on the first pass. Double Water Jet has an internal cooldown of 15 seconds. By the time that happens, the same sequence will align with that barring no missed hits. This also means Hydro Blast would automatically trigger Defensive Opportunity since you'd also be building meter to 90% before that event happens. Aqua Bolt becomes a mule or just the occasional Offensive Opportunity trigger. Water Burst gets pruned because Whirlpool + Steam Spray is plenty of damage as it is. Have fun deconstructing it.

Fair points above. Geyser, and most T9's, will have high chance to trigger a given proc despite how area factor may influence things. That's the benefit there for having a very long cool down. This makes certain proc effects, like Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge, pretty interest effects to place there. You can have a high degree of probability that the effect will go off on the cast and it being an AoE helps in this case. However, you're also right that due to the nature of a power like Geyser, you probably want to reduce its cooldown for more frequent availability. A nice benefit for most Sentinels is having a T9 available in a 23 to 26 second cooldown range if you build a lot of recharge. That's potentially very significant when you align that with Aim's cooldown plus the Gaussian's Build-Up. It ends up being quite a bit of damage and even more so since Water's version of Aim buffs Geyser. Whirlpool has a lot of potential, but do exercise some caution there. Don't conflate chance to trigger on cast as being the same as chance to trigger per target. The proc effects are not guaranteed to hit all targets. You can have a situation where a target does not receive a proc effect at all and others might. Whirlpool does offer the chance to improve some general damage output by combining both the Achilles' Heel and Annihilation resistance debuffs. Due to the factors of Whirlpool, it is also pretty good at triggering Opportunity Strikes even with the full 6 slot set. Whether or not you decide to proc out your AoE attacks or your ST attacks is a matter choice. Single target damage on Water Blast is one of the lowest out the sets and compensates by having fairly high AoE damage. You can potentially even this disparity out by putting procs in some of the single target attacks. At least, that is what I opted to do. Dehydrate, even with common PPM 3.5 procs, is still going to trigger those effects over half the time. That's not bad. Steam Spray may be pretty close, if not a little better, but the decision to build that way is just one way of doing it. Another thing to be mindful of is your attack chain and how coherent it will be pushing tons of procs. Then, on top of that, your endurance drain per cast. Steam Spray has a base 20 second cooldown. Whirlpool has 60s. Steam Spray costs 18 endurance per cast. Whirlpool costs 15.6. On the other hand, Dehydrate costs 8 end and recycles every 8 seconds. If your goal is create situations where your have large moments of burst, then procs in attacks like Steam Spray aren't a bad way to go. However, if you have to give up some recharge in the attack then your attack chain can suffer. On top of that, when you fight the big bad guy you'll still need to leverage an AoE as a single target attack which will drain your end. That means you need to rely more Seishen-teki Kyoyo where the cast time is going to be a DPS loss. My Water/Dark character has 162.5% global recharge. Steam Spray recharges in 6.08 seconds for me with 66.25% recharge modification since it carries a set. It still costs me 15.62 end per cast due the endurance reduction of the set which isn't a lot. Dehydrate does slightly more average damage per cast due to the procs it carries potentially every 3 seconds for 1/3 the cost. If I change my build slightly I can get 3 procs in Steam Spray with some better end reduction at the cost of 5% global recharge (157.5%). The average damage goes up by 30 pts over Dehydrate yet has a 7.77 second recharge time and still a high end cost though slightly reduced from how I currently slot it. However, Dehydrate still maintains a better damage-per-activation metric. Hell, even Hydro Blast can. Water Jet most certainly does. You're ideas aren't wrong if AoE burst is what you want, but the above is just there as stuff to think about. Its burst vs sustain damage. I know that concept can be casually dismissed at times, but things like bosses, elite boss, and arch-villains do exist. I find it very inefficient to pound away at those kinds of enemies with a high reliance on area attacks. Some sets can be exceptions to this like Fire Blast's Fireball is just too good not to use (and mine has procs there too).

Animation times and base recharge times influence chance to trigger procs. Aqua Bolt is a very fast casting (1.188s Arcanatime) and fast recharging (3s) power. This means that the default chance to trigger a given proc, even like Lady Grey, is actually fairly low. The Build-Up proc's innate chance to trigger, the proc-per-minute rating (PPM), is even lower than the Lady Grey. Other powers in your kit like Hydro Blast, Dehydrate, or even Water Jet will have high chances to trigger those effects. The high the chance to trigger the effect, then the more average damage that the proc will contribute. For Aqua Bolt to be truly worth slotting in that manner you'd have to use it very frequently in order to roll the dice as often as possible. Even then, Aqua Bolt is likely a better carrier for a set bonus and the proc plan pushed to a different power that can abuse the mechanics like Dehydrate.

I run heavy proc caltrops on some characters. I find it fun, but do temper your expectations. What generally doesn't happen is this... "You cast caltrops" -- ALL procs go off against ALL targets. The above isn't reality. You may find a target doesn't get hit by a proc at all or a target may get hit by multiple procs at once. The ability to potentially get another -12.5% resistance from the Annihilation proc is pretty fun but just don't count on it being a constant. I'm usually only looking for the procs to do anything relevant at the point of the pseudopet spawn vs constant proc explosions over the duration. That isn't realistic either. If you have the slots left over to explore this option, then go for it. It can be fun, but it may not be as potent as it looks on paper.

You're welcome! Keep the ATO that you got with merits. You can convert them into superior with a catalyst (each enhancement needs a catalyst). Those can be a little pricey if your budget is tight right now, but you can basically make what you have into the purple (superior) quality version later on. So all is not lost!! Maximizing procs is really just loading up on them. If a power can take multiple procs, then you put those procs into the power. Now that's really dumbing it down, but it is a general concept. What's tricky about that strategy for slotting is the more procs you add the less general enhancement benefit you gain AND you lose out on set bonuses. What I mean by general enhancement benefit is attributes like accuracy, endurance, recharge, and damage. You could load a power with nothing but procs (if it had them available - not all powers do) but there is a high chance that your average chance to hit a higher level enemy would run in 60% range. With that big of a hit gap the benefits of stacking damage procs becomes more of a liability than it does a benefit. Also, since you're missing out on direct recharge enhancement you'd want to have global recharge enhancement to ensure your attacks still have smooth transitions with little downtime. The more recharge you gain the less likely you need to hold onto powers that don't compare well to your heavy hitters (since they're available more often). So in order for a build idea like this to work you'd need to look for sources that can give you back everything you lose out on to procs. [I'm also generalizing here. There is a lot more to proc calculations than this and there is a guide for it around the forums.] The easy, but expensive, way to build recharge back is stacking Luck of the Gambler with as many purple sets that make sense. That's 5 x 7.5% from the LotGs and 5 x 10% from the purples (or as many as you can get away with). There are potentially other sets to boost your recharge too and these might be sought after sets (Positron's Blast, Decimation, Preventative Medicine, Reactive Defenses, Red Fortune, and so on). To build back some missing accuracy you can use powers like Tactics and/or an IO like the Kismet +6% to-hit. Ninjutsu can be tough to deal with on streamlining your attacks down by skipping set bonuses to allow for proc stacking. Even then, Sentinels don't always do that well with trying to proc out every single attack. Defenders/Corruptors may get away with that a little bit better since certain support sets dramatically alter the fundamentals I just listed (i.e., Time Manipulation or even Kinetics). So Sentinels probably want to pick either their single-target powers or their AoE powers to get silly with procs. Do not take that as gospel (anyone reading really) because I've seen the occasional build that goes all in. Anyway, having a much higher budget for the stronger IO sets gives you a lot more wiggle room to close gaps while exploring alternative damage options like procs. All that said, its a mouth full, you do not need to do any of that. If you are happy with what you have, then that is all that truly matters. It can be fun to talk about min/maxing, but that is just a different side set of end game. Costume slots and design being the other side of true end game. 🤣

I guess Mids still lets people use both the regular version of the ATOs and the Superior. That doesn't work though. You could change the set in Hydro Blast to just Thunderstrike. That'll get you your ranged defense back up. You could slot Steam Spray in a similar manner to your other AoE powers. To make sure the procs trigger as frequently as possible you want to be mindful of recharge from enhancements, not sets. So in the case of Detonation you could replace the Damage/Recharge with Damage/Endurance/Range. You're not maximizing procs for damage here. You're just adding a proc here and there to add a little something extra. Its a totally fine way to go, but if you wanted to get more extreme then it would also require a vastly different approach. Since you stated that this is about the budget you're willing to tolerate there isn't a whole lot else I'd change. Your melee defense would be a little lower, but that could be fixed by a Steadfast or Gladiator's 3% defense to all. I would not recommend using another Shield Breaker in a power like Dehydrate just to get your melee defense up. Aqua Bolt is a pretty lackluster power and the loss of enhancement to damage isn't that big a deal. Screwing over Dehydrate would be far more noticeable for very little gain. Having 43% melee isn't that bad when enemies have to get in your face. You have Whirlpool to slow, and knockdowns to reduce that threat. It wouldn't be worth the hassle to hinder any of your big hitters for minor defense boosts. Money making is an understandable hurdle if you've just come back. While money making can be pretty boring for some, there are a few guides in the Market subforum that you may find helpful. As you run content, like Task Forces or complete stories, you can get reward merits. You can use reward merits to either A) make money passively or B) bypass the high cost of market-based enhancements. So while you don't have some of the more expensive IO's right now, and the ATO's tend to be in the same price range as things you've mentioned, you could afford it. IOs sets like Winter or Purple ones run around 20+ million per slot. Sounds like a lot now, but it probably won't be so bad months from now. Still, for a budget build what you have works within the confines of the limits set. Also, keep the slotting in Water Jet and Geyser. Neither of those Superior ATOs are game changing. You could swap either, but its not going to move the needle much.

Please do!

Not quite. Abyssal Gaze has 5 procs. You could easily swap something for Cloud Senses if you don't want two with Psi damage. You could, potentially, go with all 6 slots as procs. Antumbral Beam has the three damage procs that are available to it. I opted not to put Decimation: Chance for Build-Up, but I definitely thought about it. Life Drain has 3 common damage procs and those are there as the purple proc is in Antumbral Beam. You could potentially put a Decimation: Chance for Build-Up or Theft of Essence here. I'm not sure it is worth doing that. Dark Blast has a rough 30% chance to trigger a PPM 3.5 proc if it had zero recharge in it at all. Frankly, the average damage boost for that isn't really worth giving up the set bonus in my opinion. You could totally do it if you wanted, but you'd drop 10% recharge, and 2.5% ranged defense in process of picking up a small amount of DPS. Gloom isn't necessary for regular use here as Life Drain's average damage supersedes it. So stuffing it full of procs doesn't make a lot of sense if its only use is to exploit double Opportunity.

I don't disagree. BTW, I actually think it is great that you're enjoying the DP/SR build you have and I also think it is great that you're expressing how it runs in +3/x8. I think it is incredibly helpful to have another voice saying "yes this AT can perform on this level" beyond my own.

I didn't chime in on your other thread about it, but since you bring it up here... Dual Pistols can run around 205-215 DPS prior to getting your Alpha slot unlocked. That's considering a build with procs and the more you stack the higher the DPS gets up to a point. This has been tested by 3 different folks, my self included, and the results on builds have been pretty consistent. The damage is "low" when compared with builds that are pushing meta combinations. However, if one bothered to look at some builds earlier on the Pylon thread they'd find some results of 180+ even on ATs known to be doing more damage. Its a whole beauty is in the eye of the behold thing while simultaneously reinforcing the idea that procs are very powerful and build decisions matter.

You're welcome! Gloom's 20% res debuff is Defensive Opportunity. It will be available on a single target for 15 seconds and have a downtime related to how long it takes to rebuild to 90% in the meter. So its not nearly as reliable as something like Achilles' Heel would be, but it is still a good effect on tough targets. I don't want to get into a drawn out discussion on the failures and merits of the inherent though. Gloom's base damage is actually higher than Life Drain (90 vs 86). The higher base damage and faster cast time makes it have better DPA. However, Life Drain has more proc potential and that slightly favors Life Drain. So if you went with a proc LD it becomes a viable replacement to Gloom. Why chase FF procs when you can just build for perma-Hasten? I'd think that's the entire point behind picking Super Reflexes, Energy Aura, Electric Armor, or Radiation. Take a gander at the build in the block below. It has 185% global recharge which is more than enough to perma your Hastens. I didn't change any powers to do it. I just changed the slotting. BTW, KO Blow has a base 40 second recharge which really puts a hurt on that plan. Thunderstrike isn't much better at 36 seconds. The Epic pools with some Goldilocks zone potential would be Psychic Mastery, Dark Mastery, and Fire Mastery. Those sets have a melee power which animates and recharges within reasonable ranges while also doing respectable damage. The holds in those sets can be made to work but Dominate is the best for the whole Goldilocks zone set of attributes. What I mean by this is the animation and recharge impacts to proc chance are juuuuuuust right. Not too long and not too short. Opportunity Strikes is hot crap for the proc. The entire set bonus is pretty good though. The Sentinel Ward set is the same way. The bonuses are pretty good and the proc itself is absolute garbage. That said, the build below includes both because the set benefits can be worth it. Its also how the build goes slightly above 45% defense while also attaining 185% global recharge. Anyway, I don't think you'd gain much for using Ragnarok since the point of that set is 10% recharge which is already included. I don't want to tell you how you should build or play. So everything below is 100% up for revision by you or anyone else. Its not intended to be considered "perfect". However, the slotting strategies should serve as an illustration of what I am talking about. Couple other points... In the originally posted build a conceptual attack routine of Antumbral Beam, Abyssal Gaze, Gloom, Dark Blast sounds fantastic on paper. However, there is a pretty significant gap there before Antumbral Beam becomes available again. So if you went into the Window options and clicked "DPS" Mids will tell you that attack chain does 191 DPS. Its also bull$h!t. Abyssal Gaze to DB is 4.884 seconds of animation and that gap (0.39 seconds) before the next AB will lower the DPS which isn't accounted for. Still, this is actually a good chain to shoot for because Gloom is a really good T2 and Dark Blast, despite is low per target damage, is a good T1. However, if you up the recharge you can dump Gloom for Life Drain. You can run Antumbral Beam, Abyssal Gaze, Life Drain, Dark Blast (Mid's won't count DB in the routine which is silly). There is still a gap, but it is significantly smaller (0.12 seconds). More damage is loaded into Abyssal Gaze and damage from Antumbral Beam is spread into Life Drain. You could still use Gloom if you like, but it will likely lower some damage over time. That just hypothetical napkin mathing and in real play you probably won't notice. The only time really nitpicking this kind of rotation counts is if you're gunning for AVs where piling on that much damage can matter. You could tinker with the slotting in DB and Gloom. Sometimes I mule Apocalypse 5pc for the recharge and put the proc into a power that has no recharge modification (i.e., Antumbral Beam in this example). You could change that up and go a different direction. The difference is likely going to be small.

Some food for thought. Passive +damage from sets is something you add to base damage. Now, look over the two hardest hitters besides Blackstar which are Abyssal Gaze (112 dmg) and Antumbral Beam (145 dmg). Work backwards and remove a 4pc Devastation set. You just lost 3% damage to all. That's a loss of just over 4 pts of damage on Antumbral Beam. Worth it? Now, remove the Acc/Dmg/Rch Apocalypse from Antumbral Beam and swap in some Acc/Dmg instead. Notice the damage go up because the proc average changes. You can repeat that with Abyssal Gaze by removing the recharge carrier in the PvP set and just replace it with Ghost Widow Acc/End. You could gain some more damage in Abyssal Gaze with Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing. You could gain around +30 pts of average damage in Life Drain by using the PvP proc, Touch of the Nictus, and Cloud Senses procs. For good measure you could have the Theft of Essence. A Nucleolus Exposure +3 could go there for Acc/Dmg and a Thunderstrike Acc/Dmg/End could also work. You could of course mix and match. Sentinel Life Drain has the lowest healing modifier out of all of the ATs. What Mid's is showing as 6.67% is not a typo. The other ATs have Life Drain that heals 10%. That includes Masterminds. Compound a baseline 6.67% health return on top of an AT with fairly low hit points and SR has no other measures of building that up. Life Drain used for healing on Sentinels kinda sucks. I think a fair point can be made that Life Drain, slotted how you have it, when combined with Master Brawler can pull more weight than it may with some other combos. So that's something to think about, but I'm not real sure it is worth it. I have a couple of /SR Sentinels and the lack of a heal, even without Defensive Opportunity which I don't bother with, hasn't been a problem. Its also kind of a shame to not see the Gaussian's proc in Aim. That proc in Tactics won't check often if you run solo more than you team. If you team more, then just ignore this concern because there can be a solid case where it can be better. Still, one more thing to think about. I'd think you'd end up doing more damage scrapping the entire mentality behind chasing +damage bonuses. I know it was something I did earlier on last year, and I was wrong. With SR there is a very high potential to hit very high recharge (well over 170%) and I think there is room to grow in the build there. The defense side is fairly easy to deal with and this is where the magic happens. SR gives you room to play with procs because your defense and recharge have innate boosts few other sets can even hope to get (Energy Aura being the runner up). What you have is totally fine if that is what you want. You do you and all that. However, if you're wanting to push it further there is certainly room to explore more options. P.S. And I see no reason why the build as is couldn't handle +2/x8 or better once you get your Alpha slot to T3.

The Luck of the Gambler recharge IO is its own bonus but it is limited to the rule of 5. So you can have 5 of that IO but you can also have 5 sets that also grant 7.5% recharge. This breaks a rule but the IO itself is not unique nor is it a set bonus. Hence why it is so valuable for builds. If there is a hard cap on defense it is so high as to be practically useless. For most content having 45% defense is generally considered "enough" but even going over that number is fine. There are enemies with enhanced to-hit values or enemies that can debuff your defenses. So going over 45% gives you buffer. Incarnate content has a higher soft-cap which is around 59%. You could, hypothetically, hit this number if you wanted to but I generally do not bother. Inspirations exist to help pad things, many group mates often run Maneuvers, and things like Barrier help. Retsu is the single highest source of defense debuff resistance in the Nin set. This is yet another difference from Super Reflexes. Super Reflexes has more DDR spread out across its powers. Nin has less of it, but then consolidates that power into the T9. So the power has some value, but there is little reason to go out of your way to enhance it. If you're running at the soft-cap without that power, then you likely won't use Retsu beyond the niche power it is. I usually turn off Ninja Run at the door of a mission and turn on CJ. Or many times I forget to do that and just run around with Ninja Run active and be lazy about it. I do this a lot on almost all characters. 😄

Boosters in Mids made easy... Right click the enhancement. Cursor over the enhancement. Press the + key to add boost. Press - key to remove boosts. Alternative method. Go to the top bar and find "Slots/Enhancements". Find "Set all relative levels to..." and select the boost you want to add or remove. Do note, this will add boosts to enhancements attuned by default (i.e., ATOs, Winter Sets) which will give you some results that aren't realistic. I rarely spend the cash to boost every enhancement. I generally target Hasten for the two generic IO's I place there first, Assault's single endurance IO for that reduction, and then prioritize powers which haven't yet hit 95% accuracy to whatever difficult I want to hit. That's a real simplistic method, and not truly reflective of all my thoughts, but it should help get you where you want. You have 5 LotG already (Ninja Reflexes, Danger Sense, Shinobi, Manevuers, Weave). You can't stack it higher than that so the Concealment pool is wasted for that purpose. You'd need to go from 175% global recharge to 180% global recharge in order for Hasten with +3 boosters to refresh in 120.6 seconds. With two +4's that's 119.9 seconds. Two +5's is 119.7 seconds (not worth the expense). You can hit 180% global recharge with 5pc Adjusted Targeting in Aim. This will lower your defenses to ranged just below soft-cap. A power like Combat Jumping (1.75% def to all - unmodified) will put you right back to soft-cap against most enemies.

And what level were those snowmen? Was the purple patch involved? Its been a while since I bothered to pay attention, but I think both procs are impacted by the purple patch which is just bonkers. The Ward set most certainly is. This is why I was able to get +1000 absorb off a level 1 Hellion in Atlas park but get around +14 absorb from level 54 targets. I feel like I saw similar behavior from the Strikes ATO where it would generate something like +100 meter off weaker enemies and a bit less as difficulty scaled. AoE powers with the Strikes proc have been pretty consistent at around +30~ opportunity with some funky powers double dipping. Powers like Flamethrower or any of Sonic's AoE will build meter faster and seems to work with the proc. Its kinda useless in that respect if a power is already generating 80% meter for it to have a random chance to build 100%+. Anyway, more thorough testing is helpful and I ended up giving up on the effort since no one seemed to care. It was already an easy conclusion to make that there are better ways to build the AT than to rely on its ATO procs.

Eh, don't feel that way. Sentinels have a 0.7 modifier on mitigation powers vs the 0.75 of Scrappers/Stalkers. That's vs the baseline 100% of Tankers. What this means is that 0.05 difference is slightly lower values on the defenses and on top of that Ninjutsu has lower values than Super Reflexes. So in order to softcap the positional defenses on this secondary you do need to stack it from multiple sources. If you're OK with using Barrier to cover the remaining gaps you can get 5% defense and resistance at the lowest values almost all the time once you hit T4 there. Ironically, Nin gets its AoE defense earlier but due to distribution of IO sets can have this weird issue where you miss out on softcapping that one. Here are some things to think about on fixing that. 1) the full Gaussian's set. You've got 5 pieces. I'd go big or go home here. If I can't get all 6 then I usually just go 1 generic recharge IO and the proc in Aim. That'll save you some slots if you can't the 6th for the defense benefit. 2) Performance Shifted 6 slots. A full set of Performance Shifter in Seishin-teki Kyoyo would softcap your AoE defense (+3.13%). 3) Hasten can run on 2 slots and the use of enhancement boosters (just +4 each) reduces the need for that 3rd IO. So if you look at cutting slots on step 1 and 2 you could get the remaining AoE defense if you felt like it. You could have a few other slots to spare for Tough if you wanted. Good low investment powers for the final 3. Tashibishi (aka Caltrops) from Ninja Tools. This is a love it or hate it power. If you love it, then you're going to see the utility it can bring to give you some breathing room. If you hate it, then you'll ignore this. ;) Combat Jumping or Hover. Either one of these with a single common defense IO will get you near 45% (just over 44%) to AoE without you having to mess with any of your current slotting. Assault. Sure, it's really a really low damage boost to just base damage, but it will still add a few DPS to your rotations. On top of that it will also apply to any team members so it works as a mild force multiplier. A common end reduction with boosters makes the end drain not too terrible. If you have any spare slots make sure you get the 3 commonly recommended health uniques (Numina, Miracle, Panacea). Those 3 plus Stamina and Seishin-teki Kyoyo will cover your endurance just fine. I'd consider putting a +Stealth IO in Sprint. I'd put one of the +resistance uniques in Kuji-In Retsu. You could put the other in Combat Jumping/Hover if you like or not at all. Up to you.

Have you checked out the sticky at the top of the forum? Nin and SR are both covered there and its even on the same page! I've also said this before, but I'll do it again: Ninjutsu Pros: More control over your resources (has a click for health and stamina). Earlier access to AoE defense. Access to a quasi-movement power in Shinobi-Iri. Shinobi-Iri also grants some stealth. Possibility of shenanigans with Blinding Powder. More IO set diversity due to the kinds of powers accessible in the set (Confuse, resistance, defense, travel, etc...). That means Nin has potential for an extra purple set (Confusion) which is also a really strong set. Potentially more powers to skip if you don't care about Blinding Powder. This means the set generally matures around level 28 vs 35. One of the most comprehensive mez protections around that also buffs psionic resistance. Cons: Slightly lower overall defense values which can be fixed with a good IO plan. Building can be a little bit of a pain depending on what you're trying to do. Can get slot hungry if you plan to use Blinding Powder to mule all 6 pieces of the Confusion set (it's got damage %, recharge, and ranged defense). Significantly lower defense debuff resistance than Super Reflexes. Static, not scaling, resistance. No KB/KD protection until level 28 and even then it isn't a lot (it's generally enough though). Clicky mez resist. Clicky heals for health/end can feel like an interruption to doing damage. Super Reflexes Pros: Slightly higher positional defenses as a baseline which makes building more of it easier. Evasion has slightly inflated values like the Stalker version since it absorbs Lucky. More Defense Debuff Resistance. A movement speed increase and 20% global recharge modifier. Master Brawler is potentially a strong absorb shield while giving you passive mez resist if you want it. The set isn't very slot intensive or demanding making it rather flexible. Passive endurance recovery. Cons: While slots aren't too tight, the powers are. Elude can be skipped and that's about it. AoE defense doesn't come on line until Evasion (level 35) and you may want to plan on taking Weave in the 20's to give you something for that. No native resistance meaning you have to rely on the scaling resistance buff on an AT with lower hit points making this a bit risky (Master Brawler helps though). Quickness isn't as flashy as Shinobi-Iri nor is there as many quality of life features built in. Passive endurance recovery means you have no immediate means of resource restore. No click heal (once again Master Brawler is kind of a work around). Both of these are potentially great choices. You could say Super Reflexes has a slight power edge to how it assists in performance where Ninjutsu has more utility/quality of life features. Either one of these can be made to soft cap your positional defenses. Super Reflexes can be easier plan for that than Ninjutsu but this is a very very minor quibble.

IIRC, there are two tag types. There are positional tags and damage type tags. For most practical purposes having a higher value in the melee positional is just as good as having smashing/lethal defense. This is because most attacks have both a positional tag and a damage type. The game cares which of those you have with the highest value to determine if you dodge or not. So technically Super Reflexes doesn't protect against "every other damage type" at all. In fact, generally speaking Super Reflexes doesn't enhance any of your typed damage defenses. The Sentinel version has a minor buff to psychic defense in Enduring that the other versions do not get. Is it worth slotting Enduring for defense? Maybe if you have spare slots, but probably not. Psychic damage without a positional type is generally rare and often linked to crowd control. Crowd control powers usually do fairly low damage and you'll often ignore the mez portion anyway. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you're planning to layer other powers from the pools know that those are universal defense to everything. So you could end up like I did where I have over 20% Psionic defense without even trying for it. Is that enough to really stop an attack? Nope, but it isn't worth it to really push it beyond that. I'd suggest sticking to the plan an slot Enduring up for endurance recovery. That's a sound way to go. Bonus note. While Lucky is gone the values of that get rolled into Evasion. This is something Sentinels and Stalkers share in common (since they too skip out on being Lucky).

Sentinel Willpower can struggle at times earlier on since there is zero enemy scaling on Up to the Challenge (unlike Rise to the Challenge on melee). This means if you get swarmed you're not going to heal any faster than if you were at range. This can hurt earlier on as the defense layering takes some work to really build it up. That said, Willpower is very hands off and rather easy to build. With investment down the road it can be "OK". Quite frankly, Sentinel Invulnerability does much of what Willpower does and does it better. The only thing Willpower really has going for it is Psi resistance here and that's generally overrated. Why is Invulnerability so good here? 1) Invulnerability also has an absorb... Sentinel exclusive. 2) The same power that does the absorb also buffs your endurance which buffs your recovery. That means you can have really good sustain on a set that wasn't really known for its sustain. Having Dull Pain is just icing on the cake. Bio Armor, you didn't bring it up but I will, has some similar early game issues to Willpower. The clicky powers it has to heal/absorb reduce that frustration a bit, but the asymmetric defense design is very very similar. Investment into IO sets can help close some holes just like it does on Willpower. Regeneration has a slightly smoother ride earlier on while everyone's defenses/resistances are still building up. Having a regenerating absorb shield helps and then you have Reconstruction to layer that with. Later on the lack of any baseline defense makes shoring up that weakness a very big challenge. A challenge that generally isn't worth it and may not even be necessary to fix depending on what you're doing. Regen and Willpower both lack defense debuff resistance so anything you do build via IO sets is still vulnerable to cascading failure. At least Regen has multiple click powers to respond to that where Willpower does not. This is not assuming the use of certain Incarnate powers to help mitigate either set's weaknesses (i.e., Barrier or the Ageless path with DDR).