oldskool

And now I feel like I am reading my own posts. 😁 This pretty much echos my thoughts that the inherent is cumbersome for most players. On top of this, the AT can respond very well to the IO system, but without that level of understanding builds can falter for it. I do not find the Sentinel to be a forgiving AT on builds and this is in contrast to how I feel about other ATs. This is not the same statement as "anything you build is optimal". No, this is more a statement of the lines between what is viable and what are optimal in other ATs are bit more blurry. Having consistent inherents and higher base damage scalars contributes everything to this. Not just a lot... My posts trend towards being wordy because I also tend to feel that the "problem" is a bit more complex than it looks. We could easily make a single sentence problem statement, but that doesn't mean the analysis is so simplistic.

@Zerethon I get where the spirit is, but to be fair a mezzed Blaster can still use a few attacks due to how Defiance works. Its not the same as being able to use their full kit, BUT... and this is a big one, there are several Blaster sets that value using those attacks anyway. I don't think it is worth the time to toss around numbers like X percentage of Y AT's damage. This is still just too much vacuum conversation.

For point 1... I suspected that may be the case. You'd need a lot of red inspires constantly. Not sure that's a fun way to go about it. For point 2... Turn off all toggles (Assault, Offensive Adapation, Musculature, even Opportunity... turn it all off). When you turn everything off the only thing boost the T1's damage is your global damage modifier. That's just 7% making that attack deal 56 dmg (7% of 52.83 brings the new damage to just over 56). Now, turn on Offensive Adaptation. The damage will go up to 69. That's the only damage modification you'll have until level 45. That's not much. Its basically just running 1 generic damage SO in a power for the bulk of its life. Having Devastation in your other builds turns that 56 number into 115. Turning on Offensive Adaption (if you exemplar) brings it up to 128. 128 vs 69 at that level. Not quite double the previous build, but close enough. Once you get back into level 45 you can get Musculature back, and eventually Assault. If you did exemplar down you'd lose some damage modification due to the rules on that, but having damage enhancement is better than no enhancement at all. Now, given all of the sources you have in your second build you would need far fewer red inspirations to cap your damage and that really was the core of that point. Mid's is using Opportunity to grant you 5% bonus damage and can slide up to 25%. That's not how it works and it is better to just turn off the inherent when evaluating damage in Mid's. Otherwise you get this skewed perspective of damage. Of course you could use that slider and tinker with it in a hypothetical manner where you're guessing the general impact of the resistance debuff at a given point in time. I don't recommend putting a lot of stock in that though. Second build makes more sense. Its not quite how I'd do this, but if that's your flair you gotta do you. The changes in build 2 add a significant boost to your damage output though. Almost a 1/3, maybe even closer to 1/2 of your former DPS capability. Its a big difference. I do not understand the Theft of Essence in Parasitic Leech. Have you used this power? That proc is such a waste of time there. Parasitic Leech is going to boost your endurance recovery per target up to 5. That Theft proc is going to look like a droplet in the ocean because that power should sustain your end all on its own. I much prefer recharge to narrow the downtime as much as possible. I'd really try to get the cooldown lower. 75~ seconds or so being pretty ideal. That gives you 45 seconds up and 35 seconds down. That power also builds absorb per target too. So having a 5 slot heal set with recharge (either Doctored Wounds or Panacea) are pretty much ideal. Actually, if you have a mountain of cash I highly recommend trying to get Panacea in all 3 of those heals. I guess one could be Preventative Medicine, but the depends on how tight your slots get. I tend to play Bio Armor as if it were Regeneration but with mildly better mitigation layers. That's pretty much where I come from. If you're going to use a Stealth IO to get into range for Blackstar, (and you should... you did), feel pretty good that the power in question is going to massively debuff targets on its own. I'd much prefer proc damage in the single target powers, personally. Abyssal Gaze, Antumbral Beam, and Life Drain are all good proc carriers. Gloom or Dark Blast are a coin toss for you. Doesn't really matter which you take. The Sentinel ATO's have excellent bonuses but pretty crappy procs. I tend to push those full sets into different powers. For example, I may put Opportunity Strikes in either Dark Obliteration or Blackstar. Ideally I'd want Blackstar running the purple PBAoE set because it is that good, but I've used it in one of the Epic PBAoE's instead which works just fine too. Then, I'd normally put Ward in a Cone, but Umbral Torrent is better with a KB to KD so that set would likely go into either Dark Obliteration or Blackstar (which ever didn't have the Strikes set). The Ward set is generally better, in my opinion, in powers like Dark Obliteration, and Strikes is better where it can trigger more reliably (like Blackstar). In either case, prepare to be underwhelm as both procs do suck.

At least you'll read this... Scramble Thoughts is the single hardest hitting power in the entire AT. It out performs Psionic Strike. Will Domination has the best damage to activation ratio in the entire kit, and you skipped it. Telekinetic Blast is also very good. In fact, Will Dom, TK Blast, and Scramble all out perform Psionic Strike for general efficiency. Mental Blast is the worst power out of the entire kit, and you really don't need it. It can be nice to have for Offensive Opportunity, but Offensive Opportunity is only going to add 15-20% bonus damage of the base power. In the case of Scramble Thoughts that can be a nice 35-45 damage, but this damage is reduced by resistances separately. Just how much Offensive Opportunity adds in overall DPS is pretty variable. At best it may be adding 10~ DPS, but usually it is about half that. Psionic Tornado is actually not that bad in comparison to Shockwave. The Gaussian's set in Link Minds is one of the last places I'd ever think to put that set. You're WAAAAAY over your needs for accuracy/to-hit and the Gaussian's proc is pretty much wasted there. The defenses are quite solid. The actual potential damage here isn't that bad and that's despite my criticism of the build. Its just the damage could be better, and you don't need to break your budget it for it. You'd just need to change power selection. Then, if you ever felt you wanted to go for a different take with other sets you may push damage even further.

I guess there are a few ways to build a Sentinel 1) Build it in a manner to make do something it is not really intended for 2) Build it in a manner that escalate defenses 3) Build it in a manner that escalate damage 4) Build it in a manner that finds a happy medium (1,2, and 3 don't need to be mutually exclusive) This build looks a lot like #1 and nothing like any of the others. You mention mostly solo and looking for sturdy defense and decent DPS. For the later part, "decent dps", we need to define what decent means. Generally, when I see someone make a build that leans on a lot of defense they are using offensive enhancements that happen to have defense. Something like piling on Thunderstrike. That set has a few +ranged/energy/negative defense bonuses while also primarily enhancing the damage of the power. Some folks go to pretty extreme lengths to improve Bio Armor's defenses in that manner, but they still fundamentally involve damage. This build is a completely different extreme. If you changed your entire build plan to actually incorporate sets with damage in it, then you'd see a pretty big shift in DPS. Then, if you decided to you wanted to go a "proc route" you could see a potential shift in DPS yet again. The build, as it is, looks like there are some holes in your understand of how this game fundamentally works. I don't mean that to be insulting. I'm looking at your build and noting it primarily runs on base damage for most of the game. Dark Blast, the T1, does 52 pts of damage. Do you really want to be stuck with doing 52 pts of damage most of the game with that attack if you could be doing at least double that? Your damage improvements are coming from 7% +all damage set bonuses, +10.5% from Assault, Offensive Adaptation, and Musculature Radial (+33% to the powers directly). I hope you realize every single one of those can also stack with regular damage modifications like you have in Dark Obliteration. So this begs some questions. 1) What do you intend to solo? -- Note that anything over +0 difficulty gets a scaling resistance to effects ON TOP of its normal resistance. No matter how much you enhance the small to-hit debuff in your attacks higher level difficulty enemies are still going to ignore significant amounts of it. So you've decided to trade 90-100% damage for 2% to-hit that in reality will be reduced anywhere from 20% to 80%+. Also, the to-hit effects from Dark Blast attacks stack. Not only is it not worth the time to enhance that effect you don't need to because it will just build on itself even in combat. 2) What do you consider decent dps? The build as it is HAS to run Offensive Adapation in order to not completely tickle enemies to death (or arrest). This build is also heavily reliant on being over level 45 to ensure it can access the Alpha slot and Assault. Mind Probe alone ain't going to cut it, and this build would be very slow in exemplar content. 3) What do you consider "sturdy defense"? Is that the defense bonuses themselves or general mitigation? Bio Armor and Dark Blast have pretty decent durability on their own, but this build is a bit extreme. 4) You don't need Hasten if your global recharge is 163+% without it turned on... wow. Why? I do not make it a point to tell people how to play. You need to make a character that you want to play. I will not however allow myself to ignore signs in a build that indicate that the user may be missing some core aspects of game mechanics. That's what I see here. Friends don't let friends play inefficient builds, and that is exactly what this would be. If you already realize this, then please forgive me if I seem harsh. That's just not my intent at all. You'd be far better off deciding if you want to spend a ton of influence on shoving Winter Sets everywhere for +defense while also improving damage. Alternatively, you could ease off set bonuses for defense and look at mixing either damage enhancement + procs, or all procs. Bio Armor works very well with high recharge, and if you can get some more hit points along the way that's great too. The bulk of your durability is going to be linked to Ablative Carapace, Rebuild DNA, Parasitic Leech, and Blackstar... not BS set bonuses for +defense. Those kinds of set bonuses are nice, but seem to miss the mark on what Bio Armor actually does. Adding more +defense absolutely can make life easier, but you also don't have to do that. Last thought. Depending on what path you decide to take, there are also other sources in this game of bolstering +defense. Those include purple inspirations, Barrier Destiny Incarnate, and the Defense temporary power from the Pay-to-Win vendor. The latter lasts 1 hour for trivial amounts of influence and can stack for 8 hours. I'd build for procs, personally, because I value pushing damage over trying to be tankier. In the end, this your character and you do you.

Sentinel Fiery Aura has Burn. Sentinel Radiation Armor has Ground Zero. Are you considering Dark Armor's Obscure Sustenance an attack? It only does 10 damage, and it despite what it looks it should do, it is just a single target effecting power with a 35ft radius. I've put procs in it, and it doesn't function like Dark Regen. The original description by CP was "Ranged Scrapper". The Sentinel was supposed to do average DPS with periods of burst that put it on par or above Scrappers. CP seems to feel this AT is not meeting the design intent and that the inherent is not contributing enough to the AT. Given that Tankers lost their -resistance and had it rolled into the AT modifier that seems to be a possible path for Sentinels. CP even stated that the inherent will get reworked into something else (possibly). So the lots more damage stuff in your comment... 1) Sentinel range and AoE caps... unlikely to change 2) Sentinel inherent... very likely on the chopping block 3) Sentinel base AT modifier... very likely going to go up 4) New Sentinel inherent very likely to happen When? Who knows. Probably sometime after Issue 6 or maybe even next year or maybe never. You mentioning the 1.5 scalar to put them on par with Blasters... so this is EXACTLY why I said before that the AT scalar should move upwards BUT the inherent needs to help in DPS. It would make far more sense to keep the scalar in a reasonable range and add critical hits in some fashion. That idea is more likely to happen and have an impact than removing the AT and completely redesigning it from scratch. Having the AT's core modifier go outside the bounds of any other existing AT is probably a poor long-term decision for the game. Am I a huge fan of this idea? Not really. I get it seems lazy and all that, but my expectations for a complete overhaul are about as high as having snow during a Florida Summer. I may be alone here, but if they pushed the current version of the Sentinel off to a "Legacy" AT classification and totally abandoned it in favor of something totally new.... I'd likely be incredibly pissed off. Like, that would easily push me to another private server or even away from the game. Not that my feelings matter to the devs here, but it would be a pretty big slap in the face for something I've invested a lot of time in. Who knows that may even be a possibility.

This is making an assumption that the Sentinel is a hybrid of support and damage. That didn't seem to be the case when CP chimed in last Fall.

Maybe I should have said archtypes? I totally get what you're saying. This is all ties back to the perception problem. In the character generator when you're selecting what to play you'll see ratings. A Scrapper clearly does more damage than a Controller. So it stands to reason that when I build this hero it should be doing noticeable damage. That is the role it has. You're counter point is that every AT needs things like accuracy, damage, and endurance. Yet, I don't think that's the point. I think the idea is more that the Sentinel is a primary damage dealer yet it doesn't live up to expectations of others in the same grouping. I don't want to put words into @Wavicle's proverbial mouth, but I think that is gist of what they were getting at. (I doubt I'm helping anyway 😬)

Isn't it the point that other damage oriented builds will grab their attacks slot in whatever manner and generally feel like they contribute? I get the perspective there even from both sides of the argument. Perception problem, once again, for sure but this perception problem is very likely going to cause real change to the AT.

I'm of two minds on that. Yes, it is a bit disheartening, but also it supports arrays of other builds. I'd hate for the Epics to suddenly be less useful, but I'm also not super fond of their disproportionate strength. That may sound like double think, but I am genuinely conflicted in how I feel about as I get other people's point of view.

Just to clarify something about epic holds + melee and doing damaging. I think something may get lost in translation. In order for those factors to be relevant they also have to be combined with high recharge. I've seen a few builds incorporating a melee because they were told it was high DPA and the general DPS wasn't much higher than some all ranged builds. There is a sort of convergence of effects that has to be met in order for the highest levels of damage to happen. The epic hold with procs + a melee are a big part of that equation, but they aren't necessarily the only part. Also, I play only 1 Sentinel with this combination of things out of many. I have many more pure range only builds that are still capable of 250~280 DPS. That's still not as high as some Scrapper, Stalker, or Blasters, but it isn't a bad place to be either.

Its not subjective to state that using Dominate + Mind Probe is an increase in DPS over any build that doesn't use it. Its observable truth backed by game mechanics and math.

Completing a max diff ITF and doing the most possible damage in the shortest window of time aren't the same metric. Dominate with multiple procs all by itself is a DPS increase. Mind Probe is too for that matter.

For single target a "high end" Sentinel needs to lean on epic pools. This is no different from Scrappers/Stalkers that lean on Zapp or Moonbeam. Sentinel epics offer some high DPA melee attacks like Havoc Punch, Cremate, or Mind Probe. On top this there are the ST Holds which are ripe for abuse just like what Blasters could, hypothetically, do. So many higher end DPS Sent builds almost all incorporate Dominate (multiple procs) + Mind Probe + 2-3 other primary powers (which ones depend on the set). The triggering of Opportunity can be totally organic, i.e., Flares being an easy to use filler, or it could be deliberate. With pretty specific build strategies the damage can go well over 300 DPS but the conditions do require that the enemy be durable enough for it to matter. Opportunity spans 15 second blocks of time with another entire period of building it back up. High recharge can contribute to shortening that window. Almost any Sentinel is capable of 150~DPS even at pure range. I've pushed over 200 DPS on Assault Rifle, and it is one of the worst sets of the bunch. Water Blast's ST is also really low, but its AoE is pretty fantastic. Anyway, even Water Blast can do 150+ DPS with proc damage involved. AoE-wise, it depends. Sentinel AoE range is larger than a Scrapper. Scrapper spheres are often 8ft. Sentinel's can have 15ft and their cones are far wider. Couple this with the two ATO bonuses to range increase and even narrow cones like Piercing Beam/Piercing Rounds start consistently hitting max targets (3). This is FAR easier to pull off than Headsplitter but to be fair HS does a crap ton of damage. Early Scrapper builds in the Pylon thread have reports in the 180-250 DPS range. It has been that over time with people experimenting with easy to get Incarnates plus more -resistance debuff IOs that DPS has inflated substantially. The PPM changes too. Determining a real analysis from that thread is a bit of a headache. If you want to see just how good summoned NPCs you can get that conclusion by knowing how much Summon Spiderlings is contributing. Or if you want to know just how much damage a procced out Enflame can do on a stationary target, well there you go. Anyway, I think broad statements like Sentinels do more damage than Scrappers/Stalkers can be a bit much. It kinda depends on the player build. I know my own Stalkers do WAY more damage than my Sentinels do. The reason for that is I take the same methodology to my Stalker builds. My Dark Melee Stalker can easily do upwards of 900 damage on Midnight Grasp. How do I know it is 900 damage when it is all DoT? Because when it crits it does all of its damage right now. I've had a few moments of Build-Up coming off cooldown 3 times in a row. Its not uncommon to have it pop back to back. 2 times is pretty rare, but 3 times is like Christmas all month. So I think generally speaking the average Sentinel DPS ceiling is much lower, but that doesn't mean it can't up out some good numbers when built for it.

I know. Its not the only bug either. Some AoE powers count meter per enemy struck and in turn double dip on Defensive Opportunity. Assault Rifle Flamethrower, every single AoE in Sonic Blast, Beam Rifle's Refractor Beam, and so on. Not all AoEs do this. Dual Pistols most certain doesn't and Radiation's didn't.

All attacks impose -5% resistance and defense. This does not stack higher from the same Sentinel since the Sentinel's inherent is the source. This should stack with other Sentinels though as they should be their own source. I haven't used the enemy scanner during grouping though because I really don't care that much. Still, the -5% can be found if you scanned a target while solo. That's easy to confirm and it is listed in the power tool tip too. Opportunity activation imposes a -20% resistance debuff on top of the basic one for 15 seconds. This is the source of the giant target under enemies. The color of this is determined by whatever color you make your powers. I've used Red for Offensive and Green for Defensive before. Opportunity meter tends to be about 8pts for T1 powers, and roughly 13pts for all other single target powers. AoE powers have some variance between 14-21 pts and T9's don't seem uniform either. At one point I was registering only 1pt for PBAoE T9s but many of them now seem to register 25-30pts. Offensive Opportunity is somewhat variable. Offensive Opportunity creates a proc-like damage effect that is based on a percentage of the parent power. So T1's generally do the lowest at about 15% and then it scales up on other powers to around 25%. So a T1 will likely add a separate damage effect of 8 points and other powers would add 20-25% of whatever the base power did. This separate damage is effected by the resistance of a target. I've seen it go up when my debuffs are in place, and go down against tougher enemies. Defensive Opportunity seems fairly static. I've seem to consistently gain around 20-24pts of health per hit and small portions of endurance (2-4 pts) per hit. Would it be overpowered to include both effects at once? I don't think so. They're kinda neat, but they aren't that strong. Having Offensive more consistently accessible would be a general damage improvement, but it has more limitations compared to Defiance.

Space Ass or Schindler's Fist would be quality Nick Cage films.

First off, I'm always impressed when people push the resistances on Sentinel Dark Armor up to 75%. That said, I also think this build gives up some potential in the process. I'm not sure if Cloak of Darkness and Stealth work together like this. A Stealth IO in Sprint, for example, absolutely does reduce your aggro radius though. You're basically giving up the chance to run Weave for Stealth and that is absolutely baffling. Then again you're not really gunning for defenses here, but still this makes little sense to me. I have lots of questions for you. How do you intend to use Telekinetic Blast slotted like that? That ATO's proc is PPM 2 and if you're not planning to use TK Blast on cooldown then it doesn't have a great chance to fire off. You have some purples in this build, but you skipped Apocalypse. Why? Was it because you're at the 10% recharge cap? If that was the case, then why use Ragnarok in Psionic Tornado? Apocalypse has better bonuses and a damage proc for your single target chain. There are decent sets within the targeted AoE category for recharge, i.e., Positron's Blast. I guess this question is a bit rhetorical. I can see the reason for these sets is to cap your Fire/Cold resistance. Perhaps my real question is... why bother with this strategy at all? The amount of fire and cold enemies of any real significance is pretty low. So you're dumping resources into capping resistance for some niche content. Maybe I am missing something, so I'm open to hearing what the thought process is. Why value slotting in Psionic Strike over Scramble Thoughts? The choice of which is better should be pretty obvious. Since the game's actual animation times are different from the tool tip's representations Psionic Strike is worse than it looks. Psionic Strike has a base damage that is lower than Scramble Thoughts but their actual animation difference is just over a quarter of a second. This means Scramble Thoughts pulls ahead, but it already did even with your low investment to damage enhancement. Scramble Thoughts just looks like an afterthought here of "Where can I get some more resistance... oh yeah! I haven't slotted Scramble Thoughts yet!". Warmth is a pretty crappy heal. I guess it can heal others so that's kinda neat, but you have 1331 hit points in this build not considering accolade (So I guess it could be a bit better). 15% of that is just barely scraping 200 hp. Even with Hasten running the effective healing per second is around 20-22 hit points (with HP accolades it'd be around 26). Obscure Sustenance provides you with an additional 37hp regen within the first 10 seconds. It will scale down from there for a bit, and scale down a third time for the remainder of its full duration. Obscure Sustenance does last a full minute, but the actual effect degrades over time. It is like a mini version of a Destiny Incarnate. Just some quick changes I'd make in order to smooth out damage. 6 slot Scramble Thoughts and run Opportunity Strikes there. That is the best power to make full use of that crappy ATO. Move Sentinel's Ward to TK Blast. Who gives a crap if this goes off? TK Blast is a great place for it. Use 5 to 6 slots in Will Domination with Apocalypse and just worry a lot less on capping all resistances with Dark Armor. Use whatever slots are left for Psionic Strike. If you intend to use it, just make sure it is ED capped so it can hit hard. Its general efficiency is pretty much crap, but its per target hit is still high. You can take or leave Cloak of Fear. You have absolutely nothing to stack magnitude with and the to-hit debuff requires a to-hit check by the power. Thankfully, the pulse is actually pretty fast which can make up for its abysmal accuracy but keep in mind that tick rate has no impact on the proc that is in that toggle. That proc is bound by rules of how toggles trigger the effect which is about once per 10 seconds. That proc also needs the power to successfully hit, and you're at 55% vs +4's. Needless to say, you could totally live without that proc and never miss you ever had it. Oppressive Gloom is actually quite good with this combo since Psychic Wail (edit, p.s., and Scramble Thoughts) stacks magnitude. Thankfully OG is good on one slot or several. I'd probably prefer 5 slots here if you could swing it, but you do you my friend. Dark Armor can deal with having some lower defenses since the CC toggles remove the nuisance of minions. This strategy doesn't really help you with tougher enemies that will ignore the fear and won't be stunned without Scramble Thoughts or Psychic Wail hitting first. I'd reconsider at least trying to see if you can get more of your defenses into the 20+ range and allow your resistance to focus more on smashing/lethal as it is most common. Energy becomes a very common damage type, but increasing that to 75% through IO bonuses alone is just too big a mountain to climb. You could swap things around and pick up Rune of Protection if having capped resistances was that big a deal. Barrier Destiny can help as could one of your Melee options in the Hybrid Incarnate section. Cool thought experiment, but I think you'd enjoy this character more if you focus on the damage it can actually do vs pretending to be a tank it can never be.

Maybe this was a typo, but Sentinel Invincible doesn't scale per enemy. Its a flat rate. Fire is one of the few sets that has fairly low slotting potential for additional damage. So using the sets as they are to push really high defenses is a fine method. The build as it is doesn't really concern itself with doing the best damage it could, but it should be OK. The powers and enhancements could be tweaked a bit to balance out the damage vs defense ratios. Using any of the damage enhancement Alphas only matters if one cares about pushing damage higher. Agility, Cardiac, or Spiritual can be fine choices all on their own merits depending on what a goal is. "Good build" is a loaded phrase. It means something different to everyone.

Really? The T2 spot was changed. Slug moved out and replaced with Disorienting Shot. Disorienting Shot is a new power that is a spiritual successor to Beanbag. Disorienting Shot, like Burst, is a fast animating and recharging attack. So the Sentinel AR has a very quick 1, 2, punch attack sequence early on. Disorienting Shot can be a pretty good T2 all on its own. Slug moves into the spot of M30 Grenade and doesn't really gain anything with this change which is a shame. Sentinel slug is just a lower base scalar version of the Blaster power just bumped up a few tiers. Slug is somewhat underwhelming compared to Disorienting Shot. This means the Sentinel can potentially value Burst, Disorienting Shot, and the snipe replacement. That's not how I run it. I use damage procs in Slug and devalue Disorienting Shot, but Sentinel AR is actually a complex beast to really understand. I've gotten to a point where it has grown on me because I like how my build turned out, but I've tried multiple combos to get to a place I am happy with. It could use some love for sure. Beanbag is gone. Beanbag is effectively converted to Disorienting Shot and the selection slot is replaced by Aim. Sentinel AR actually gets Aim! Sniper Rifle is gone and replaced with M30 Grenade. The single-target nature of Sniper Rifle isn't entirely removed but it becomes something else. Ignite is replaced. Incinerator is a new power that is a single-target heavy damage-over-time effect. It is like a Frankenstein's monster of a heavy ST attack (Sniper Rifle) and the conceptual idea of Ignite (FIRE!!!!). Burst, Buckshot, Flamethrower, and Full Auto are all in the same positions. Buckshot and Flamethrower have lower target caps, but don't let that fool you. Flamethrower is pretty damn good on Sentinel AR. M30 Grenade is actually a power I skipped and I don't miss it at all. I generally take the sphere attacks on Sentinels, but in this case I felt it wasn't necessary.

{Devil's Advocacy is fun; even if you're preaching to the choir! 😄} The Blaster's damage contribution remains consistent though even if it is entirely selfish. The Blaster can ramp up Defiance against all targets at any point and it will carry over from attack to attack. The Sentinel's debuff can easily be lost in a sea of orange numbers in fast moving groups. It shines the most against targets that live long enough to really compound team damage, but those kinds of events are much more limited (in the grand scope of general play). Even when Offensive Opportunity is applied to AoE situations it is only a fraction as potent as Defiance and Sentinel base damage is lower to begin with. Its tough to suggest Opportunity as being all that impactful at all times as Defiance does something more frequently. Perception problem, for sure, but there is validity in the actual gameplay impact. I do not find Defiance to be all that great of an inherent. I generally find it to be 'meh' at best.

Every single set experienced some kind of change. The obvious stuff is all T9 powers being fairly normalized on recharge. Water Blast had the least amount of change next to Dual Pistols and probably Sonic Blast (I guess Rad too). Those three sets basically keep all the same powers. Water Blast has two powers that switch places (Dehydrate and Whirlpool) but that's about it. Dual Pistols gained damage on Suppressive Fire (which swaps with Bullet Rain for selection) but is otherwise fairly the same. Sonic Blast gained a damage increase on Screech but generally is the same. Being able to dump Shout though is a pretty nice change. All others lost a snipe and gain a replacement. Any other CC powers were changed too. Assault Rifle is almost an entirely different set.

Its not like Blasters don't have access to a ranged hold that they could abuse too. Char may not be as good as Dominate, but it is there. The Devil's Advocate in me also can't help but point out the Blaster doesn't need a procced out Char to beat a Sentinel's baseline damage. That's the point of that side of the argument. Blaster's just have higher base damage and generally are easier to build. I think there is a lot of merit there. Even in the edit I made in the previous post about EB vs EB of the two ATs the trend there is Sentinels follow a more cookie cutter path to raise damage. Blasters could potentially roll their face on Mids and come out with a build that probably works. It may not fantastic, but the level of player agency for build variety is there. At least, that is what I think is the core of the argument, and player agency is something that CoX has a lot of. Its just not very prevelent in the Sentinel AT if you care at all about being in some 5-10% competitive range of X/Y/Z archetype.