oldskool

This is the best compliment I could get. Sometimes it may not seem like it, but I really don't view my own ideas as gospel. And this is a fair criticism. Thankfully for everyone that reads this, I don't talk to the developers. For all I know, they have no idea I exist and may have never read a word I've written. So any ideas I throw around are really just that. Ideas tossed at the wall. I have 0 expectations that anything I think should happen will actually happen. 😉 The only thing that seems very likely to happen is that Opportunity as we know it is going to change. Target caps will likely not change. Both of these things have been stated before, and those aren't my words.

A melee-ish Blaster can leverage this. At least, that is the approach I have for my own Dual Pistols and Martial Combat character. Dual Pistols gets me a PBAoE T9 (Hail of Bullets), and a sphere AoE (Bullet Rain). Then, on the melee side I have teleport that AoE's and another PBAoE in Dragon's Tail. I'm less interested in using Empty Clips since it is a power that doesn't hit targets behind me, and the entire point is try to get in the mix. Now, that's a risky way to play prior to 50, but it can be done. It should get safer the more you invest into the character, but there is always some risk. I say so what though. The debt badges do not collect themselves. Anyway, so Blapping is one way to just get in the mix and get dirty. You could also go with some melee AT sets that are a bit more AoE focused. Its not quite the same as making use of sphere attacks, but it gets you close to the action. So sets like Spines, or Staff for instance will get you up close and personal even hitting things behind you. For Spines in particular, this can work well with its toggle and a toggle from a second (Fiery Aura, Dark, even Bio). The burst attack, while a true PBAoE, kinda sucks so you'll see folks saying NOOOOOO. I use it, but use it sparingly. For a different approach, I'm not afraid of jumping into PBAoE range on a Rad/Rad Defender. You do get a PBAoE attack AND you can spread the love on debuffs just right there. I mean, yeah, you could do it at range, but where is the fun in that? Dominators can also be an absolutely blast when played in this kind of manner. The Dom approach is control all the things. Then you go in and "arrest" enemies that are totally helpless. The fun factor goes up by 9000 points if you punch them in the face. Maybe not pure PBAoE style, but some sets aren't bad it.

To the underlined, it most certainly does not. Not only does that list assume 500% recharge, it doesn't use any enhancements at all. Every chain is calculated off base damage and some of the "optimal chains" seem completely arbitrary. The Water Blast chain incorporates Aqua Bolt, a power that is generally regarded as a skip option, and it assumes Water Jet's enhanced values. It doesn't do that once, but it does it twice in the same chain which is, to be blunt, impossible. Some of those attack chains assume the use of a T9 at the start and run a sequence until available. Some don't go that far. Some don't even add the T9 at all. That list has its uses, and you note that, but for others that haven't looked at that sheet need to know it should be taken with a heavy amount of salt. A single grain just won't do.

Electric Affinity should be there if you're running the most current version. Have you visited here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/74-forum/ in a while? I'm not sure how you built DP on a Blaster, but you could potentially do things differently on a Corr. Depends on just how much you like certain secondary effects or powers. Defiance could influence a choice on some powers within a Blaster (i.e., Piercing Rounds contributing more damage bonus) that consideration doesn't exist here. I tend to consider the following powers must haves: Pistols Executioner's Shot Swap Ammo Bullet Rain Hail of Bullets Everything else depends on where I see the build going.

TL;DR: This is long, sorry. This isn't a beatdown session against anyone either. This is just about perspective. Here's the deal. Many months ago when another one of these threads sprouted elsewhere (I think in "Suggestions") one of the devs here chimed in. That is where the idea of "ranged Scrapper" comes from. Furthermore, it was stated that Sentinels will get looked at sometime in the future. It is also very likely Opportunity is going to go bye bye as it currently exists. This in turn spawns long discussions about what could be as well as comparisons to what is currently the inherent mechanic. So from a dev perspective, Sentinels should be more like a ranged Scrapper. That would suggest more like a non-babysit team contributor that does damage albeit largely at range vs being largely in melee. So making them lone wolf opportunists isn't necessarily outside the realm of possibility. HOWEVER, one of the initial ideas floated was that the Sentinel fulfill a kind of "watcher/spotter" role having some kind of group buff. That buff initially tossed around had to do with team accuracy/to-hit. I really doubt this is going to happen, but who knows? So you may very well get your tactical support gimmick. So when the idea of "How to change the inherent" comes up it has me consider that the current implementation of Opportunity is probably going to go away. That means the current -res is likely to just get replaced by something else. Does that suck for me? Yes, yes it does at least potentially. If it goes as well as it did for Tankers, then I think I'd be pretty happy. Is it better for the community? It seems very much like it could be given that I am largely out numbered by those that scream to the heavens about how much they seem to loathe the AT as it is (you can step outside the Sentinel subforum to see that). The Tanker buffs recently showcased a series of thought by the HC devs. That is one where having an inherent that imposes a -resistance debuff shouldn't exist. The team doesn't seem that enthusiastic about allowing those kinds of things to exist beyond certain procs and support sets (select primaries not withstanding). What happened with Tankers is that the general damage that Bruising used to provide was rolled into the AT itself. This turned out to be a net gain for most, if not all, builds. So, it stands to reason that if the Sentinel absorbs X percentage of -resistance effectiveness into its core AT damage modifier then its general damage will increase. This sounds great on paper. Depending on how high that AT mod goes, it may not be enough. Hell, even that change alone will likely never be enough for some folks. Now, I'll see if I can explain why as best as I can. Sentinels have modified range set AoE powers. These powers within the other ATs have target caps of 10 for cones and 16 for spheres. Sentinels cap at 6 for cones and 10 for spheres. There are some outlier sets like Sonic Blast where all the cones hit 10 or Water Blast's Steam Spray that hits 10 or other rare powers that may hit something else. The trend of 6 and 10 holds for most of the AT. Right now, I can log in and stare directly at a Blaster that does 243 enhanced damage with a 16 target cap sphere and a Sentinel that does 210 enhanced damage with a 10 target cap sphere (same power, different ATs). Against 10 targets the total damage dealt is going to be in favor of the Blaster, but not isn't that huge a gulf. Even with Defiance pushing more base damage, we're not looking at anything that is as drastic as some claim. That is... until you run in full groups where the possibility of facing off against 16+ targets becomes more common. Then the Blaster is suddenly hitting 60% more targets, at a high base scalar, includes an escalating damage buff that is consistent, and has potential access to Build-Up in the secondary. Sentinels aren't going to catch up to that with a core damage buff. (Note: I'm not sure they even should catch up. It just happens to be one of the biggest points of argument on Sentinel effectiveness... target caps. The lack of hitting all the things makes Sentinels less effective and therefore either less fun or outright useless to some.) There is no implementation of any kind of non-DPS inherent that is going to close that gap. We're talking about a Blaster moving from doing over 2K damage in that one power to doing over 3K damage. That's just (ranged) spheres. (Ranged) Cones can potentially be just as bad. Still, when looking at this through a really narrow lens (which is almost all of these discussions) one can total up all potential damage dealt by a Blaster in AoE vs Sentinel in AoE showing the Blaster is going to come out FAR ahead. That's never going to change with just a damage buff unless the Sentinel's damage buff is so high that it exceeds a Blaster's per target damage. That would be a horrible decision for game balance though. It would make Sentinels monsters that could potentially eclipse several ATs in that realm. Single target. Blaster/Corruptors/Defenders gained a lot from the fast snipe changes. Dominators did too by extension, but their attack routines aren't as easy to make side by side comparisons with. Any Scrappers or Stalkers incorporating Moonbeam/Zapp made out like bandits too, but they already did in some cases. Anyway, snipes change things. Even if we brought Sentinel's core AT modifier right up to that of the Blaster (1.125) the Blaster still has an edge. That is because there are no real apples to apples ST rotation comparisons between Sentinels and Blasters beyond Water Blast. Sentinel sets that did not have a winner in the "lacks a snipe" set will still be behind their Blaster counterpart. That's not just because of Defiance (though it is a contributor to that), but also has a lot to do with the innate damage scaling of snipes. What I'm getting at is this. If Sentinels only get a baseline damage increase to their AT modifier, and Opportunity gets replaced by a non-DPS inherent, there is a real good chance threads like this pop up again. The baseline damage mod is not the only issue at play. It is target caps, it is certain power DPA ratings, and it also involves a lot of player bias. The last one is hard, if not impossible, to change, but the others could be carefully addressed. Anyway, this is why I have beat the drum of adding critical hits. Its not because I want something lazy. It is not because I want Sentinels to be uninteresting. It is for the following reasons: 1) It is a fairly simple way of improving general damage contribution without allowing core DPA mechanics and design to get out of control. [There is a dev thread about how new powers are created. Pushing baseline AT damage modifiers higher and higher could cause some serious unintended consequences for future powers. So I keep it in mind.] 2) It is a change that makes the Sentinel more accessible. It would remove the need for the inherent to be linked to any specific power. 3) No other ranged using sets have criticals from 100% health to 0. Corruptor Scourge is a different animal and its overall contribution is balanced against Defender Vigilance. One is a more team-oriented damage buff (Scourge), and the other a more solo-oriented damage buff (Vigilance). 4) Critical hits seems like a simple and fair compromise for a team that is hosting this for free. I've been very vocal, for quite some time now, that while I am generally happy with my Sentinels I am still OK with any changes that make the broader community happier with it. I do not think a base damage increase + non-DPS related inherent is going to move the needle. I do not think many people truly appreciate just how much damage even a 50% up time on a 20% resistance debuff effect actually brings in real play (Edit: I also recognize there is a very fine line from overstating this effect. So I keep my flame resistant underpants on.). People cannot immediately see its effects and therefore it gets ignored. That's how human perception works. Critical hits, despite seeming to be uninspired, would allow for the AT to have a very minor baseline damage improvement. It could either remain at its current 0.95 or shift up to 1.0. The critical hit rate could be throttled down to whatever Scrappers have. It doesn't need to be like the Stalker in this regard. The reason why I have that concern is due to Sentinel T9 powers. Sentinels with Aim + a critical T9 could do pretty extreme damage. Still, given that most Sentinel T9's do less than a Blaster's, this wouldn't be too big a deal as long as the overall base damage doesn't go too far from where it is. [Edit: There has been great contributions from other posters bringing up some Scrapper AoEs on shorter cooldowns that do substantial damage within the time frame of a Sent T9 cooldown. So again, Sentinels completely wiping the floor against max targets in one power can be a potential concern depending on how it was implemented. This is also why I fundamentally hate Sentinel vs Blaster circle jerk sessions. They completely ignore Scrappers and it also trends toward ignoring the conceptual ideal of what Sentinels were supposed to be.] As to the second quote... Is Brute damage equal to a Scrapper at full Fury? Generally, no. Brutes even at full Fury do have substantial sustained damage, but Scrapper critical hits create bursts. Even without the critical hits Scrappers still have a higher base damage which should give them an advantage. Now, that isn't to say there aren't going to be variances between the ATs. Primaries are not created equal. So a Staff Fighting Scrapper may do less ST than a Brute running War Mace. The individual player builds also create an X factor. Still, generally a Scrapper should be doing more (even if slightly) on average. [Edit: P.S., should and actually do are different things. 😉] Edit P.S.S. I know I brought up Blasters a lot here. I can't express in words how much I despise that comparison game. Beyond the statement that Sentinels were conceptually ranged Scrappers, there is no other real metric point for comparison. There hasn't been any stated "DPS ATs are supposed to 300 DPS or that DPS ATs are supposed to 200 DPS". We've seen "Titan Weapons is going to get looked at" and many of those builds are capable of pushing 400 DPS. I've seen commentary by the devs that Stalkers are the highest damage single target AT right now. Many of them can easily hit 300 DPS. The old forums used to praise numbers like 180-200. So it is very possible that Sentinel DPS is just fine and that the power creep elsewhere is skewing whatever baseline the devs want. Frankly, we don't know.

The perception of "broken" damage is very real. I think the severity of the issue differs among users, and that is at the heart of the argument. There are and always have been very valid criticisms of the AT. There are very valid criticisms of the IO system and how it can be used to expand damage. Despite what some may think of me personally, I've never felt any different. I do get tired of hyperbole very quickly and these kinds of threads can get awfully heated. That doesn't mean I ever stopped recognizing a disparity or stopped respecting others views. My take is just different, and my perception of how deep the problem is isn't as large as some others. It is probably my own personal failure to fully capture that in these kinds of discussions over time, but it is something I have always felt. Boosting the damage of the Sentinel would be meaningful because it puts them into the same realm as other damage dealers. Whether or not that is interesting is something entirely different. Is Scrapper or Stalker critical hits interesting? Is Defiance interesting? Is Fury interesting? Maybe for some folks any one of those are interesting. To me, they are just mechanics that get used in a game that has a shallow series of options. If the Sentinel isn't interesting to anyone right now, that can be potentially attributed to its damage reputation. Will it be more interesting if it gets a buff? That's far too subjective to create any meaningful conclusions.

Um, people have. Hell, it is one of the most popular versions of "beat the dead horse" that exists on these forums. I've said it a few times in this thread, and elsewhere. Comparing Blaster primaries, or any primary to primary, in a vacuum is a near worthless exercise. Despite what the horrible character creator leads people to think, Blasters are not, and never have been, a pure ranged DPS class. It's goal was to do "damage". It is supposed to be the master of damage. It can engage at range, it can do lots of AoE, and/or it can engage in melee. The secondaries of the Blaster contribute just as much to their overall potential as their primary. To compare Blaster range primaries is to assume the vast majority of those players are running */Devices or */TA while simultaneously ignoring all other powers within those particular sets (i.e., Taser, Caltrops, Glue Arrow, etc.). Sentinels really don't have that much in common with Blasters besides some powers within their primaries. However, Sentinels play very differently. That's due to both the secondary being defense AND the changes made to the blast sets themselves.

I run Lancer Shot with 3x Thunderstrikes, Apocalypse Proc, PvP proc, Decimation Proc. Piercing Beam 4x Positron's Blast (Acc/Dmg, Acc/Dmg/End, Dmg/End, Proc), Bombardment Proc, PvP proc (why not?). Disintegrate runs the other 5 pcs of Apocalypse. I currently have a PvP Toxic proc there. Its average expect damage is 29.99. I could live without it, but I don't want a respec for that one slot. Refractor is moving to 3x Positron (Acc/Dmg/End, Acc/Dmg, Proc), Bombardment, Annihilation, Achilles' Heel. That keeps 94.48% accuracy for me even against +4's. The 4x Positron helps in Piercing. Anyway, the average damage of my Lancer Shot is in the realm of 445 dmg. Piercing Beam is at 410. These are the backbone of the damage routine. Refractor Beam carrying both -res procs that could trigger 1/3 of the time seems like a sound plan. I have far less recharge than you do (running Invulnerability atm) and I'm not reliant on Dominate. I just run the core powers as I don't care for weapons magically appearing with the no redraw (and regular redraw is a turn off). Adding any of the Epic powers would push my DPS higher, but I'm not that concerned about it. Super Reflexes would tighten up my recharge a lot due to Quickness, but as it is my Piercing Beam is available every 5.41 seconds which is exactly where I want it.

Thanks, I think.

Generally I don't care. I also feel that way about several other ATs because the characters that exist within those domains aren't built to give a flip about their inherent. Opportunity only really shines, right now, when a target is going to live long enough for it to matter. That's generally a limited list of enemies like AVs/GMs. When the cross hairs do go off, then I know that everyone is doing more damage. That's nice, but... I could be happy with something else too. My Stalkers, Scrappers, and Brutes are all more reliant on the ATOs that bolster their inherent than the inherent themselves. Stalkers and Scrappers get even more reliable criticals plus Stalkers get near on-demand Build-Up. Brutes can help push their Fury building to more predictable levels, at least mine do. Dominators have it kinda flashy, and their builds have been very reliant on perma-dom for a long time. So it matters a lot there. However, I don't count on Containment with my Controller. I don't count on Scourge on my Corrs, or Vigilance on my Defender. Hell, I rarely build around Bodyguard on my Masterminds. I make use of it, but it isn't something I go out of my way for either. Then again, my MM isn't a "tankermind". Not all ATs are that reliant on their inherent power. I think that's OK. Inherents are just there working in the background for most of the ATs. I think that's more of the core issue for a lot of folks, myself included, and given the nature of Opportunity being so different tends to rub folks the wrong way. You've got some interesting ideas about how Opportunity could work so keep on fighting the good fight. For me personally, I couldn't care any less about it.

Big edit since I was thinking out loud. Refractor Beam isn't as reliable on proc triggering as Mid's suggests. It suggests it is 90% chance to fire without recharge, but it has an area factor like a sphere so it is much lower. Still, Refractor Beam is worth considering as a part of both an AoE and ST routine. Refractor Beam can hold both Annihilation and Achilles' Heel resistance debuff options while also incorporating damage procs and/or Force Feedback's recharge. So with some of this new found thought, I'm going to switch around the enhancements in my current Refractor Beam and Piercing Beam. PB's chance for damage is actually pretty good for a cone and Refractor becomes a really good AoE debuffer. Between the two, that's a lot of potential -resistance (general opportunity, activated opportunity, Annihilation, Achilles' Heel, and Piercing Beam... holy crap). Then, on top of all of that goodness, Single Shot can debuff some regen. Its a lot of potential damage that isn't well reflected in the planner. So, right now I'll stick with my core routine of Disintegrate -> Lancer -> Piercing Beam -> [options]. The Option block can be Refractor Beam for debuffs/AoE/faster meter build -> Single Shot OR just Single Shot since it is repeatable. I originally went into a lot of other possible combinations including Charged Shot. After digging into all the options a bit more, Beam Rifle turns out to be more flexible than I original thought, and I already found it flexible.

I had a Dark/Regen for a while, and I used that pairing on the Test server too for a long time. It was one of my go-to combos for stress testing early on. I've run it in +4/x8 with as little as 16 defense to melee/range/AoE. So pushing high defense is sort of a measure of taste and just how you play the combo. I favor trying to get 160%+ global recharge on /Regen or /Bio. Actually, I try to do that on most characters, but I tend to feel it is more important on those two due to reactive mitigation powers. So there is a lot of YMMV on Sentinel Regen when it comes to defense stacking. I'd prefer to proc out the attacks and end things faster than worry about extending battles of attrition.

I'll chime in with @Frostweaver. Ranking the primary sets by themselves is a nearly worthless endeavor. The reason why I say nearly and not completely, is because there is some slight value in reviewing the potential on each set. So ranking primaries has the following problems: What are the parameters of comparison? -- No power set works in a vacuum. Period, full stop. This is true across every AT. Even seemingly passive secondary defense sets may be able to open doors for improving damage where another set can't or won't. There just isn't a really good way to say 1, 2, 3, 4, ,5, etc... and have it seriously hold any weight. Why? Well, what use is it if I told you Sentinel Fire Blast does 180 DPS, and Sentinel Electrical Blast does 182 DPS? How does this help you when you then pair those sets with X, Y, or Z defensive set? What happens when you, the player, end up with a build using Electrical Blast averaging out 120 DPS, but mine does 270? The Sentinel subforum does have a spreadsheet in there about ranking primaries. The author had to use certain assumptions and apply them universally. Reality check, most players don't optimize to the Nth degree. So those results can be completely misleading. Often times, questions of "what's best" has the hidden "I don't want to waste my time playing a gimp character" motivation. That's a fair concern. Most, almost all really, of the Sentinel sets were retooled from their Corruptor/Defender/Blaster cousins. While there are winners and losers, most of the sets are fairly competitive with one another when taken in the context of the archetype itself. That's not too horrible a place to be and means you can make something fairly decent out of just about any primary/secondary combo. Again, some sets don't play nicely with others or some sets have certain struggles. I've written a lot about in the Sentinel subforum. With a little bit of searching there, you can find a lot of answers. Now, ranking Corruptors against primary vs primary starts running into the exact same issues. There are Corruptor secondaries fully capable of carrying the damage of the AT by themselves. Storm is, potentially, a very powerful secondary on Corruptors and even better on Defenders since they get primary modifiers. Sets like Kinetics can push the damage of a Corruptor very high. You can do that with several sets. Sure, ideally Fire Blast on Corruptors may be the best choice for just raw damage with Kinetics, but that doesn't mean all of sudden other primaries gain no benefit. TL;DR: Vacuum comparisons have far too many variables to draw any worthwhile conclusions. A character's general effectiveness is in how intelligently crafted your build is. Just playing the FoTM power sets doesn't necessarily guarantee you the most powerful character. In some ATs it can, but in Sentinels you can just as easily break a good power combo as you could turn around some lackluster pairings.

All of this just needs to be emphasized.

The original big red cheese was largely a Superman clone without the heat vision or frost breath. His ability of strength, durability, stamina, speed, and flight were basically the same. He also had superior intelligence and wisdom. The original Captain Marvel/Captain Thunder, did not hurl lightning bolts as the Mu epics would suggest. The newer version, post New-52, can as the new incarnation of the wizard Shazam. The original call to Zeus, through the shout of Shazam, had the lightning bolt directed at Billy/Captain Marvels current location. This was later changed by writers into an offensive maneuver where Billy could dodge the bolt and allow the mystic blast to hit someone else. Captain Marvel used this against Superman more than once.

I don't think you really missed anything. I'd probably drop one of the Blistering Colds in Blinding Feint for Gaussian's Build-Up proc. It'll be a nice little damage boosting surprise when it goes off. You don't really need the extra fire/cold defense from the full bonus anyway.

It is up to you; It's your character. Usually when I speak about damage potential, I'm talking about adding in procs. Electrical Blast can make use there in Tesla Cage, but you seem wary of going too far from sets for defense. That's OK, and this pairing doesn't need to go too nuts over it anyway. So I won't go too far down that rabbit hole. Still, think of damage potential via frankenslotting IOs as being on one end of a seesaw and full defensive benefits being on the other. When you start to add more of one of those options the of the end is going to have fewer options. My initial response wasn't really intended for you to completely dump Lightning Field if you wanted it in favor of Short Circuit. It was just more of a statement to engage in discussion. These are just some of the ways I may approach this build. You could mix and match whatever you like. I generally do not use any travel powers and I don't ever double up on them. If that's a quality of life feature you want, then by all means go for it. Its tough to keep those features and stack a lot of defense on Regen as there is an opportunity cost of missing things like Maneuvers/Combat Jumping. Still, you can make that up through using defensive amplifiers via the Pay-to-Win vendors as well as through the Incarnates I mentioned before. #1 Least defense, better damage potential (compared to the other two) #2 More melee defense to make using Lightning Field safer. Damage is roughly the same. #3 Lots more defense. Somewhat less damage.

That's a pretty good take on it as it is. I'm not sure you really need Tactics. There are pros to having it, but Assault isn't an awful choice for Sentinels either. There is a coin toss on enhancements between TK Blast here and Psionic Strike. Psionic Strike can do a non-trivial amount of direct damage but it comes with the cost of having a very long animation time. Its animation and damage ratio aren't quite as good as TK Blast. TK Blast has the advantage of being partially smashing damage. I'm on the fence about that one. If total time to arrest isn't that big a deal then having an attack like Psionic Strike can feel a bit better against things like robots. Have you given thought to your Incarnate options yet? I'd still suggest looking at Musculature for the Alpha, but there can be reasons to use something like Spiritual here.

There is an old saying... "F' 'em if they can't take a joke." -Bette Midler Haters gonna hate and zealots gonna zealot.

@Rathulfr, thanks. You sell your own advice too short. I think you often present valuable insights since we both have different perspectives on how to approach the AT. As I said yesterday, what you present isn't wrong.

I've written about Willpower a number of times. There is a synopsis of it in the sticky of this subforum, and if you scroll down a bit there is a discussion on Fire Blast/Willpower to another curious user. I somewhat disagree with @Rathulfr about pairing Fire with Willpower. In fact, the advice I give on pairing Fire Blast and Willpower comes back to everything @Hjarkiis discussing. That is using Winter sets in order to bolster defense. I don't generally like recommending that path, but it certainly a possibility with Fire Blast and Willpower. You can build up to 40%+ defenses while still having high hit points, regen, and modest resistance. Fire Blast is self contained enough that it isn't hindered that much by the loss of procs. Now, what @Rathulfris really saying about pairing a highly offensive primary with Willpower on Sentinels relates to the leveling experience. There is going to be a very big gap in how Fire/WP plays from levels 1-49 vs how it will play with full nuts-outs superior versions of defensive heavy IO sets at 50+. So I only somewhat disagree because some narrow bands of primaries plus Willpower can work out reasonably well at endgame. Some combos will have a slightly smoother transition from level 1 to 50. Few, if any at all, accomplish both while simultaneously keeping a majority its damage (referring to overall damage potential, not ED capping) intact. Willpower is an OK set on Sentinels. With the right primary and a plan at 50, it can probably be very good. However, IO set diversity on Sentinels just isn't at the same level as it is on melee ATs. That makes closing Willpower's (and by extension Bio Armor) gaps more tricky. Its not impossible, but it just doesn't come across as intuitive to me. YMMV though. Some folks love WP in all its forms. Here, it trends on taking a backseat. Invulnerability is nearly better in every way in this AT. The biggest difference there is Psi resist and that can be overstated on occasion.

There are some fair points to consider here. Still, I prefer defense-based. This has worked out in practice far more than it hasn't. Furthermore, I'd be very cautious in recommending Winter sets as a universal defense hole plugger for the Sentinel AT. Those kinds of builds are the precise reason why there are numerous threads in this subforum running on for 5+ pages of people bickering about damage. Any other AT with a higher damage multiplier and more consistent inherent can easily make use of the Winter sets without the loss of performance that Sentinel's experience. Loading up on Winter sets to gain several of those +5% bonuses can be a fine strategy with a limited number of sets. Those would be the ones with the least amount of options to explore damage proccing exist (i.e., Fire Blast, Archery, Psychic Blast, Electrical Blast - partially). I get that many folks do not like that procs help raise Sentinel damage to what becomes more competitive with other ATs. However, that is reality of the current game implementation. So yes, what you present is certainly an option. It is why I point out Radiation and Electric armors specifically vs also talking about Dark Armor in that same sentence. Radiation and Electric both have other consistent effects that make them better than just resistance-based. Their particular layering of mitigation options works well with any level of defense investment where the more is the merrier. However, this idea does not work with all Sentinel combinations. The Defense sets are generally easier to do this with, and still allow for flexibility in damage dealing. It is a more universal approach vs a specialized one.

I tend to lean towards the following secondaries: Super Reflexes Energy Aura Invulnerability Ninjutsu Any of those 4 trend towards being some of the easiest to build while also including enough perks to be worth their while. You can soft-cap any of those 4. Invulnerability may not be as easy, depending on the build, but it most certainly has the potential. Most of the other sets range in effectiveness. I generally lean towards defense-oriented secondaries for lower hit point cap ATs like the Sentinel/Stalker. However, Radiation Armor and Electrical Armor are very strong resistance-oriented sets. There are only two secondaries that I would caution taking. Fiery Aura and Ice Armor. Fiery Aura gives up too much, in my opinion, for what it gains on Sentinels. Ice Armor only really works with a big investment in IOs, and even then it has multiple powers that really suck. Both Fiery Aura and Ice Armor from Sentinels incorporate powers that exist in Homecoming Blaster secondaries. The Sentinel versions of these powers pale in comparison. Ice Armor on Sentinels has Hoarfrost, just like the melee version, and it can be made perma. That will cap your HP if you give even any passing thought to it plus collect your accolades. This turns one of the final powers into a near useless choice that really just gives you more slow resistance. Fiery Aura and Ice Armor are generally big losers on Sentinel endurance management tools when viewed against the other sets design choices. Sentinel Ice Armor does include Icy Bastion like Stalkers for its T9. Its an awesome power that has a really long downtime. You can make either work, but you may feel like pulling your hair out while you level. For primaries, well you can generally make any of them work. Sentinels aren't exactly Pylon time award winners, but they can be made more effective than their reputation may sound. There are certain power sets that trend towards being better than others, but most of the sets can turn out well if you're not completely turned off by damage proc slotting. Assault Rifle and Energy Blast tend to be the sets that have the steepest hill to climb when looking at pure full set bonus builds. Even with damage procs they'll only ever be "OK". Archery can seem to struggle for some player's tastes. Archery doesn't have much going for it in the way of additional proc slotting potential which in turn lowers its optimization ceiling when compared to some other sets. Still, despite its perceived failings I tend to enjoy Archery. That set just works better with a very high amount of recharge to cut out the need for its weaker starting attacks. Water Blast is a solid set but its single-target is notably light. You can build this up, again with procs, but the highlight to the set is its strong AoE potential. Since many players navel gaze at the lower caps on AoE targets of the Sentinel, Water Blast offers a set that overrules that design choice. Sonic Blast does too for that matter, but I'm not a big fan of it. Electrical Blast actually is a solid Sentinel set if you'd like an alternative to Fire Blast. If you're feeling bold and like the proc idea, then Ice Blast can be turned from chicken crap into chicken salad. Psychic Blast, if you don't mind some of the hurdles it faces, has the hardest hitting single target power out of the entire AT. Dark Blast is a flexible set and includes a bit more mitigation than other primaries. Do not bother taking Life Drain for the heal. Sentinel Life Drain has the lowest healing percentage out of every AT in the game. Do take that power if you want to proc it out and convert it into a more effective attack.

Just curious. Between the two builds there are things that stand out that may be more beneficial to a PvP-oriented build. For starters the use of both Super Speed and Super Jump stands out to me since those are common there. Then you have a lot of Knockback protection, far more than necessary for PvE but would potentially have value in PvP. I started working on a build of my own to show what I was thinking of, but I stopped because I thought maybe you're looking for non-PvE ideas. What's most important for you? Are you really wanting high defense or more damage or a combination of damage/recharge? I don't think its possible to do everything with this build. Maybe I will come up with a few different build ideas and just illustrate what I am talking about. You can then decide what you like or don't like.

Is this for PvP or PvE?