oldskool

Including a data chunk below to contrast with the above. The build below eases off the defense stacking for a bit more global recharge, a bit more damage slotting, and more damage from Incarnate options. Perhaps having two different builds on opposite ends of the spectrum can help others craft something like prefer in the middle. Of course, they could also use either build as is if it fits a preference. Other notes: The build is fully ranged, no melee. One could swap things around and bring a melee attack in from the Patron/Epics. You could cannibalize all the slots from Snap Shot/Aimed Shot to 5 slot and Hecatomb a melee attack like Mind Probe/Cremate/Knockout Blow. The left over power between Snap Shot or Aimed Shot needs only an accuracy, see below for why. I include both Snap and Aimed Shot for illustration. Technically, neither is critical to the attack routine. Stunning Shot -> Blazing Arrow -> Perfect Shot is easily repeatable. Perfect Shot needs to recharge in 3.16 seconds to be completely gapless. The current build is about 0.15 seconds off of that target, but it may not be that noticeable to you (it isn't to me). If you want to drive that gap down, then pick either Snap or Aimed Shot and use 5pc Decimation. Swap the slots from either Fistful or Explosive Arrow to 5pc Ragnarok. Congrats, you're over 170% global recharge and the cooldown of Perfect Shot will be 3.21. Ageless Destiny will also make this a non-issue. I would not suggest using any of the non-damaging Alpha mods with Archery, at all. Archery's fast hits plus low damage per shot compound with each other to give an impression of lackluster damage. Musculature really does help. The procs aren't guaranteed but they are welcome damage increases over time. Degenerative or Reactive Interfaces provide solid DPS increases too as well as worthwhile debuffs. Spectral can be interesting as an alternative. Diamagnetic isn't needed, but can work too I suppose. Obviously, if the build is running too many expensive sets, then one should use what they can afford. If that's the case, then Snap/Aimed Shot become filler powers. You really only need one once you start enhancing recharge in the powers and global recharge (even if only a little bit). Ideally though Archery should get to a point where it prunes out Snap/Aimed Shot from the routine because either of these are significant damage losses vs focusing on the three high damage powers. Durability, Stamina, and Health are stacked to make your endurance issues go away. This is how I built my Beam/Invul. I opted to do this so I didn't feel a need to lock myself into Ageless as a Destiny. This is also why I push global recharge so hard in many of my builds. I like having options. That said, there is an Ageless variant with defense debuff resistance which is sweet to have. Barrier and Rebirth also become options. Most of the typed defenses are at least 31%. This is just 1% off a milestone I like. Still, a single small purple inspiration will push you to 44%. Barrier at its lowest buff would make this 36%, or the Melee Hybrid defense variant is also a possibility. Defense booster temp power will take this up too. 32% defense is comfortable enough to handle +2/x8 solo especially if it is Smashing/Lethal damage. +3 is possible once you Alpha shift, and +4 will always feel risky without a Destiny running. That's my own experience doing this across a multitude of characters and different ATs. YMMV. I built up Psi resist a bit. That's also a bit of illustration. I happen to like a little bit of resistance padding there, but a different set is fine. I tend to skip travel powers a lot these days but Snap or Aimed Shot could be replaced with Super Jump or Super Speed. Alternatively, Combat Jump could be replaced with Hover and Fly could be taken or whatever else sets anyone's sails. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1476;692;1384;HEX;| |78DA65944B4F135114C7EF74A640A1409142790AE5356DE953DD2BF28A3C122289D| |B662857186D86A6AD46967E053768F00BB8317E03DFBAF1B953A30B778AF2484CDC| |99F1CC9C3FAD66266D7E9D73FFE77FCEB973A7CB376682F7E76F9E154ADB74D1A85| |4F2ABD2AA9A962C36AE164C6915A470AE46FA468E57F2170D6B43AEA7A7CA854D59| |DE1EAEC567E465695564FA8275FD5AD1926563CD2C9AD56DD1BAB2B5554CCF991B9| |BA4DB6876EF564B52AE87DD9F4BD25897E5CAA659CAAFC9AA113C0E9648DC375B32| |0BE97A05A37C35BF6C54AA54B7877AD2E9FB5017B86C9FD875829A48DD66667698E| |76244C5D5A822A6B8B1DC18A88371E6231D52F25376FFF7C9C0F7316954D668AAE2| |1722A789C41FCD65D2C7F7299BEF5382EF9F508E9F73FC7EF836C0B709BEF13BCCC| |45D30A9BAB94F757E0694AB344E0A37D674CFE7729A660BC037B0CFFAE69FE037A6| |FE1DDC63C67F309F916F0B725B304710FD07314F1BE668C31CFA57CE55A8A156CE1| |5AD365DE2415C8876EC723B7639845D0E6197A3D8E5E754B903953B723CC9892C98| |620EA7C10C338ADD50A97227EA74A24E1875C2A8338C3AE76977BAA0EDBAC53EDD3| |BE0114FD6F39B394BDA086B95484675F37B4E315F50BFBDE8B7F70BEBFB3E831F98| |273F829F40F43B47BEFDECEBEB779AA1D840180C31359A69109A4168A2079C3F7AC| |87C493D0CA187A1F75C63F41DF88A39F61A7C03BE65CE530F23F01F81FFC422FB4E| |FC624E91661CF38F3B1B31486BDDCC11EA2F86B5987B029B441C3412424CC27B12D| |E49F49E44EFDD949F668D4843B3467959C4B251C72B2006B4DADB4C1FE7545D893B| |EFAEF3E6D876C2B39AF544729EC8694FE48C27B2E489AC68B5FF01A1B89140A8F6D| |6DBFBCDB4AAFCBB7A588FF8944B78AA519EBE61814FE38127EBA81E51159C4F1FCE| |A76F8F9F9D76C85CEC24B0D69E8BD47FFF056FDEF799| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Degen is great against tougher enemies as the debuff it brings is an indirect DPS gain and the toxic DoT is a nice side perk. Reactive's DoT is one of the strongest and great for minion mulching but its debuff isn't that amazing against tougher foes (who will likely resist it heavily). They are practically the opposite of each other in both effect and choice of content. Several of the others can have interesting interactions with gameplay but aren't typically the favored options to speed up defeating enemies.

Glad I could help!

Most important thing... Are you having fun with it?

Well first... CONGRATS!!!!! Second, what you have ain't bad. It never hurts to get a second set of eyes on a build so I'll tell you what I think is a point or more to consider. 1) Your defense is a bit lopsided. Its awesome that it is as high as it is to Smashing, Lethal, Fire and Cold. However, you could scale that back a little bit if you wanted. Invincibility gives you more defense the more enemies that are in range. (It scales to hit for you as well!). At 10 targets you hit 59.5% defense to S/L which is amazing and would be very nice if you wanted to be tanky in Incarnate content. If you're not looking to tank though, do you need it be that high? Invincibility plus that Kismet IO make Focused Accuracy superfluous. The other reason I bring this up is that Energy attacks can be annoying too, but your overall defense to that category isn't as high. In the build below, I wanted to shoot for a rough 32% defense to most things. That's a very common sweet spot I like to go for. This means with full saturation of Invincibility you'd hit 46% S/L and 42% to E/N/F/C. Not quite Incarnate tanking, but again does it need to do that? 2) You skipped Dull Pain. Its a big hit point buff. Your build has 1729 HP. The build I made has 1662 HP... but Dull Pain makes this 2554 while it is active. I didn't include Hasten to make it perma and probably don't need to go that far. Still, Dull Pain is worth having even if you just use it for the healing effect it can provide. 3) You could probably scale back some costs from the Winter sets if you consider #1. 4) I'd swap the slotting of Psi Blade and Greater Psi Blade (I did in the build below). You could also run only 5 pc of Hecatomb + the Unbreakable Constraint proc from the Hold category in GPB. That would get you an additional purple quality proc in that power. You don't need it, but it is an option for more damage. 5) I usually don't push off build-up powers, but I kept to the idea here. I'd rather have Combat Jumping earlier with that Kismet unique there in case you exemplar for lower level TFs. That's about it for commentary. As you can tell its not much. I just have different preferences and milestones I like to hit. I find no reason to skip out on Mystic Flight if you want it. Same goes for Laser Beam Eyes. Hell, I frankensloted it to get you some minor Energy/Neg resistance just to mule. However, if you want to zap some enemies it also includes the Achilles' Heel chance for resistance debuff and its general defense debuff is enhanced a bit. Its not much of an attack as you have better options, but if you want to use it for utility, then go for it! For Incarnates, the world is your oyster as a Brute. These aren't as dire to choose as they look and don't stress yourself worrying which is the strongest or blah blah. You're not locked into your choices as you can craft any number of Incarnate options but you can only equip one from each category at a time. So you could have side grades as alternative choices depending on content. Alphas, you could go for Musculature to get some damage, but it isn't critical for Brutes. Agility is an option to squeeze a bit more defense and recharge as you're not heavily reliant on damage procs for functionality. Agility would get Dull Pain near perma, and Ageless from the Destiny section would help lower that downtime more. So you don't need Hasten here which is kinda neat too. Cardiac could be another consideration for endurance relief and it would boost your elemental resistances a bit. Its not critical either. Destiny, you have a lot of options here. Its like the question of watching either Bad Boys 2 or Point Break. Its not a matter of which one you watch, but which one do you watch... first. Barrier will close some defensive gaps, Ageless will get you some offensive push, and Rebirth is underrated for its healing. Interfaces, I usually recommend either Reactive or Degenerative. They are the best bets for general damage improvement, but you do you. Hybrids, you probably want to look at either Assault (for damage options) or Melee (for defensive options). You can pretty much ignore the others. Lore, pick what you like. There are some very clear winners for specific things, but in general they are relatively balanced. Judgment, Ion is simply one of the easiest to use since it chains to targets and has huge range. Might/Void have some debuff potential, but there is no right or wrong choice here. Take what suits you. [Edit, because building is fun... OPTIONS] Option 1, mostly the same character with a few things shuffled. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1442;667;1334;HEX;| |78DA65944B6F125114C7EF856929050A145A8AE5D1D62903A552B035F119136D6BD| |492903471DB20DEC2288106A891A51B5F892E7451973E176EFC086A7D6C357E101F| |896B8387397F5BCD4C98FCB8FFF3BAE7DC9929DE58F6BE3E77F3B4909EB3F572BBB| |D71A6B5DD51AEF58AA91A15E51474B9E88E5AF24651D595CA95DA66B36156781567| |CBB2DA548DB6CA9D6F5CDFAE3754AB7CD9AC9B9DAEF0969ACD7A6EBDD9AAA856971| |76BAABC6536AA3E6BB16A566B1D5AF9FF9AAEA856BB666E4557B6CC4A6E853255BB| |1BC572BB43E1BCB709DACE2CDDB77481AB3720AE110A9A98BB0A6E8255E67C0D349| |96FFA61D28A758808FD896B423FECB46C8732B43634715B870BE59741CDB23902A0| |97A9F9C011E6A09FF996A29C9CDFE94C733E5D070D660A751E5133035C470CF4E81| |277741E7ABFB20B9D0DA1B32174368CCE86D159009DBD23B8B9B2E69EE28E323130| |8E0E136092798FEA7950CFF39235EF0BF00973E429F88C1978CE1CA78DFAB89EF48| |D494B337E0B6BA2EF097E4CC1BFC4B6837970113CC274509E20A610B4A6E0242584| |E8106618C60CC398E13466A891EF18CE730CBB180F830166907C22F089C067023E1| |3F0B94F93886212D1ACC3D20ECC8129662C0D66980983F991A226A5B4F24F227F02| |F913C87F97F2C739BF8C67F9C48C571CFF806C49D44E9E626DEA2478143CC69C3E0| |E9E607EA2A819F43683DAA95F7C42C645E66EFFBDC149CDA6FF7F063F909A862D0D| |5B0636371D4B16B6EC43AE37BFC3F4902D873DE77684E5BFF018FCCC3E0B5F9885A| |FE02E31444F16C5E691378FBC05E48D697BEF36FDFA4FC39C4DC9DB94824D59B429| |4B3665B5AFC8525FE9ADD9AC256DEF2B20A4A5B803F46EB3D2FB364C56F9AFF5C7B| |EE29097F824462FF02447A7F924BEDBA27EEE2B5262168398C51FC7FFE1BE| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Option 2, drops Mental Strike. You should be able to chain Psi Blade - TK Blow - Psi Blade - Psi Blade Sweep and allow Greater Psi Blade to be available. Dropping Psi Blade Sweep from that sequence means you'd need GPB to recharge within 4.884 seconds. In order for that to happen, you could drop a power for Hasten, but I really don't think you need to go that far. I haven't messed with Psi Melee though so I have no idea how this interacts with Insight and therefore, I could be very wrong about what to prioritize. So the below is an option but should be weighed with caution. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1444;667;1334;HEX;| |78DA6594CB6F125114C6EFC060A54081BEB1A54FCAA39429D89AA8D134D13ED25A1| |21213B70DE2948E1268801ABB74E523D1852EDCFA5CB8F14FF0EDFFE2AB6AE2DAE0| |99F93E6B951B26BFB9E7DCEF7C67EE9D217F6DD1FF62E5FA82D27C672BC54663E34| |C7DA7697AF2C5B255722B191D72459CE046DEAC98A6516858B5AA55C22C8ACCA2B9| |69561BA6B15ABDBA53A99AF5E245AB62357795BF50AB558CF3B57AC9ACEF069CC9B| |255DE6A5AD53252EB66715B26C13F934B66BDB1656D4796B6AD92B12495CABB1BF9| |62A32972743628ED4CC97523A6385A1E754590D3D5A1CBE42678B84C6E819D16F8D| |296698E5653037213D555E8A8DBC9DD8C312575B5B00E5D08F4FBC900D8D54506C1| |FBD2981B5AE56EC950B7A49A0711CD93867BEAB9CBE1ED1836D776EA7806F7F8533| |0F1907C443E06534FC0D7A2F252EBDD436CFA2BF991FC04663E935F409798FAD8A5| |CFE9F295DC07B01FEE404C6E12B21F49B03B41A6C0B7B22AC8B5C179CDA9D89B25E| |7C0FE63A05B9CC25C1B66BD7ED69F64DD18EBBE91553D3C939EE4BFB97712ED63AE| |EFBF9C2E1E03C87906FAE03BB886271D5C066757C97360EE9772CEFC8E9C4084BB1| |849E3548E4C937170244126C1F155F0BDA88634DBB8A50FD17798BEC3F4CDD137B7| |02F64BAF513E47949A919FC8DD955E46D9CBE869788C9D228F9327D8C3497201DA0| |FA29A405DD704EB4EF69221302CDE535C33C53571E6E23DA037AC5492FD25EFD91E| |5E957A002F9FE4D2E84F4FE7109BC992336406CC18A05F3406EB19AC37CB7ADDD24| |F1639951DC79731ACEF7FD3F2B3DFCCE9B648B62D926B8BCCB545E6DB22CB76442B| |D891D67A5BB6A0EFFF0B28CD897843FBDF766BAF53B2EC5DCBA0F7EF7F632EED02F| |6535FE33B3A8E73FA76509784EEC7411DF7C8C53D728D2967FE1BFF89DA91| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

So for comment #1, yes. That's basically how the adaptions work. Defensive will increase your mitigation options at the expense of damage and offensive does the opposite. There is still the efficient adaption which is neutral to both extremes while giving the player some quality of life perks like endurance relief. For comment #2, yes. Bio armor can be tough while offering more damage. Plenty of folks run offensive adaption all the time and feel survivable. Another quick overview of powers: Hardened Carapace, Environmental Modification, and Evolving Armor are the 3 mitigation toggles. With SO's alone these provide the following stats: 23.4% Defense to Energy, Negative, Fire, Cold 11.7% Defense to Psionic 46.8% Resistance to Smashing/Lethal 5.9% Resistance to Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold Bio Armor functions similar to Willpower in that it has asymmetric coverage in mitigation types. It has no Smashing/Lethal defense but it has moderate Smashing/Lethal resistance. It has very low elemental resistance, but rather high elemental defense. On top of the asymmetric coverage, Bio Armor has two click powers that are intended to be use frequently. Ablative Carapace is a regeneration and absorb shield buff. The absorb shield functions like bonus hit points and this is a strong mitigation layer to have. DNA Siphon offers a hit point and endurance recovery buff while also debuffing regeneration of enemies (and taunting them). It is worth noting that DNA Siphon can be slotted as an attack. It can take on the procs available to attacks or the set bonuses that the PBAoE category offers. It is also reasonable to slot it like a heal. Genetic Contamination is an offensive toggle that works as a damage aura like Death Shroud, Lightning Field, or Blazing Aura. This power also applies a damage debuff to enemies. Parasitic Aura is a long recharging enemy targeting personal buff power. The more enemies it hits the stronger the personal effects (e.g., regeneration buff) becomes. The duration of the effect is 45 seconds with a 270 second cool down. This power can take more than just one category of enhancement depending on what a build needs. Taking in all of the above, what does this mean for IOs? 1) You do need to find some means of increasing Smashing/Lethal DEFENSE. This can be done with 4pc Unbreakable Guard in Hardened Carapace/Evolving Armor, both +3 global defense uniques (Steadfast/Gladiator's Armor), and various set bonuses found within melee and PBAoE categories (e.g., Kinetic Combat, Obliteration). 2) You should find some ways to improve your elemental RESISTANCE. This can be done with the Superior Might of the Tanker ATO as one option. The ATO proc can stack up to 3 times for an additional 6 to 18 resistance. The stacking frequency depends a lot on where you put it, but if run in Genetic Contamination you can get around 2 stacks fairly regularly. Some powers, like Knockout Blow, can practically guarantee 3 stacks when used on cool down but this is heavily dependent on the primary. At a minimum this ATO accounts for +6 resistance to all with the Superior version. Both +resistance uniques (Shield Wall 5% and Reactive Defenses Scaling 3%+). Both of these add another boost to all resistances. Fire and Cold resistance bonuses are rather common and fairly easy to raise even by accident. Energy and Negative resistances can be a little harder to obtain. The Superior Gauntleted Fist ATO set offers 6% E/N resist for 3 pieces. You could potentially split this set for 12% E/N. Shield Wall at 4 pieces offers 4.5% E/N resistance. Gift of the Ancients offers 3.75% E/N resistance at 5 pieces. Unbreakable Guard offers 2.25% E/N resistance with only 3 pieces. Sirocco's Dervish offers the same bonus at 3 pieces and Touch of Death offers a smaller benefit at 3 pieces. As mentioned previous, you should try to push defense to at least 32% (easy for elemental types, potentially tricky on S/L). If you wish to push to softcap, it is possible but considerations need to be made about trade offs. What would you be giving up by doing pursuing that strategy? Is it worth it to you? Getting up to 90% Smashing/Lethal resistance isn't that difficult, but raising the other elemental types can be. This why I suggested a break point around 50% before. One could go higher, possibly, or lower depending on what they want to do. The elemental resistances are a weakness of the set, but proactive use of powers like Ablative Carapace/DNA Siphon/Parasitic Aura are the work around powers. If one could squeeze out more recharge into the build, then this too is a reasonable strategy. Recharge makes the 3 proactive powers available more often while also supporting offense. Beyond the above, I'm not sure what else to say. Bio Armor, like Willpower, is just as dependent on the IO choices you make in your attacks as it is on the secondary itself. There are so many variations in how you can approach a build that it becomes impossible to craft more direct recommendations without telling someone how to play their character. This is why a build discussion is far easier to handle than just talking about Bio Armor in a vacuum, because the power set doesn't work well in a vacuum. Edit: I decided to tinker around with a few builds to toy with some slotting strategies, etc. In the first post I replied to I already mentioned the basic number of slots that are handy. For core mitigation toggles, that's 4 (3 of a mitigation, 1 end). That corresponds nicely with 4x Unbreakable Guard, or 4x LoTG (if you want some accuracy buffs), or 1 LoTG + 3x some other set. For the 3 heals, one could either go for minimal slots to just cover some recharge or go all the way to 6 slots for defense bonus. It really depends a lot on the build plan vs just the power itself. The reason I stress this repeatedly is due to global recharge. Enough global recharge can make DNA Siphon/Ablative Carapace cool down in less than 30 seconds (the duration of the power) on minimal slots. Anyway, with the way I build characters I find it very hard not to hit at least 40% E/N/F/C defense and bare minimum 31% S/L defense. That's due to me looking to improve damage in the secondary. If I wanted to go all out on just defense, Bio Armor can soft-cap everything but Psi with IO investment. I also find it very difficult to build a Bio Armor Tanker that can't achieve 90% S/L resistance even running Offensive Adaptation. The elemental resistances can easily hit 30% even with Offensive Adaption. Defensive Adaptation would push those over 40%. Barrier and/or Melee in the Incarnate selections can improve those weaknesses further.

I whipped this up fairly quick as I am not currently playing this combo (conceptually a character like this exists as a Controller). What's done above is also fine, but I felt like building one myself. 😉 This gets you 195% global recharge, 37% ranged defense, and includes Nightfall since you requested it. It skips the Fighting Pool entirely because it is optional, not mandatory, and Dark Embrace is a fine substitute for Tough in either mastery. DE just comes a bit later than you may like. Power Boost was included because why not. There is a lot of -tohit available and you can still Hover like a boss. I didn't use boosters in Tactics, but if you did that plus Kismet would get you 22% tohit. You could get full damage on fast snipe Moonbeam. Howling Twilight is included because even if you solo the -500% regen debuff it has will be nice to have against Elite Bosses or AVs. You could drop it, but I cannot personally bring myself to do that. 😁 | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1466;682;1364;HEX;| |78DA6594CB4F135114C6EF4CA762694B0B7D01E5594A9F505A75E32B26801885264| |4125D4E86324063759A694960E95FE1CED75A513746DDFA8E0B8D1235EA4E7C6C54| |121377A41EE67C29243369F36BBF73CFE37E77668AAB939EF553974F08C93751D16| |A3575C230CD956ADD309D456DA95C7208BA5AE81B6D06D4B3DAA5257D2137A99917| |D4714AAA77EFC6C657161739522C6BB58B9A70CF1A46253755292F2DD783D6EF195| |D5BD0CDDA72B9AACEEB75ADD512E7AABABED0C16B0DB3A4ABC6A27ABE5CA9444F56| |CBA5DC6EFD3963A5A216A9A76EAE75D25809FA7A6481ABE114F768E2822246EE324| |76F81B7C175E6D81DE663A9992B89086B4321E6138A71B821A4ACB0342FF572A097| |E31D6B990DF035F88639F216FC4949BD8A784AC59C9CEB70DE97ADD8BE47E00366F| |221D327B3EDB45669892B96B63F090E335BB741D969F119D577615E17E6F5531D37| |EAB8D3BCDE9302134C3FEA2451C7458DBD12E7784392A5B57DE2B9DA3E33FD5F986| |3DBC2DA9B9B727CE8ED6BD0259E53623BAAB4A34A4710F4330BD3EC74E12FF305C9| |01B81BF8CAAE057F809BCC38DC8C7F07BF31B58C1021EE2787D02F8C7E61F42BD19| |A08668A5CE51D74DE04AF31FBAE33076E303B085D70B0ABC05A771E1C414E8E5918| |65BEA41E519C747483E7EBF908BE67F67D60C6C8B95E9E49EAC5A90D80015AD28FD| |EFDC731D731E6E061F0087894B94A56C6E0432C2C593D8622E001F6F915FD1D86CF| |C3F039019F13F03701BF93F0770C7EAF518914F696C2DED2D85B1A7B4B636F9B1E2| |1B2B82BB2D8D33C9D418EE713B941D64458883CD6E571763D4AF3C9A4CFCE1D359D| |692A8D8C2D9AB729059B72D0A61CB229A7771449B2BACCD8A2B3CA9E7782A5B8FCC| |D3742E3572B529BD13FBB8A2C9DE39D296788F42C2B837C1ABF6D595B7BB3B6F8E9| |94FF8157F89CFF036EA5F5D7| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

There are going to be multiple ways to handle this. What I did for a DB/Dark Scrapper was just let the DB combos speak for themselves. I opted to focus on just the Attack Vitals and Sweep combos to keep the recharge demands simple. You can Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals (Ablative/Vengeful/Sweeping) for far less than trying to squeeze out the highest damage options that do not use combos at all. Attack Vitals isn't horrible damage so don't feel like you need to go beyond it, unless you want to. Sweep combo is totally unnecessary but since I was using 1k Cuts as a mule any way it was an option. Typhoon's Edge, Sweeping Strike (or whatever its called) and Death Shroud are fine. So you could skip Nimble Slash if you're not using any combos with it and 1k Cuts for the same reasons. In Dark Armor, you have nothing that stacks with Cloak of Fear so you could opt to skip it. Oppressive Gloom and Soul Transfer are also optional. I highly recommend getting up to at least 32% melee defense if not higher. You can potentially get into 40-45% range for melee, smashing, and lethal defenses. Its the most common type and it will go a long way towards keeping you alive. You should try to raise your Smashing/Lethal resistance as high as possible, but I found it a bit tougher to cap on a Brute so I went Scrapper instead. Note that Dark Armor is fairly weak to Energy and Toxic resistance. Both of these are tough to raise really high, but it is possible to get them in a 40-50% range. Finally, Dark Regeneration is your life line. The more available DR is, the harder it is to take you out. A Theft of Essence chance to endurance is also well worth the slot.

Hi again! Invul grants you defense against multiple typed defenses (Smashing/Lethal/Energy/Cold/Negative/etc...). Bio Armor grants defense against a slightly more narrow band of those defenses. Therefore, Staff's Guarded Spin closes the largest gap with Bio Armor since it has no real native Smashing/Lethal/Melee defense. Staff isn't well known for its damage (edit: single target that is), though it does have multiple AoE offerings, and so Bio Armor once again helps to close a gap for damage output (Offensive Adaptation, Damage Aura, etc.). Staff is a very cool set and would work just fine with Invul, but I'd think Bio Armor pairs better since the two bring more synergy.

It was a joke to represent that all of the primaries are good.

Easily one of my favorite pairings in the game. Soul Mastery can also be a good alternative and opens up Soul Storm. I'm not offering a hard sell here, but instead just pointing out another conceptually good choice. Not necessarily. You should try to gain as much ranged defense as you can muster, but you don't need to softcap everything. Dark/Dark has a lot of to-hit debuffing and can bring a lot of CC. You should be able to neuter most regular enemies (minions, LTs, Bosses) with your tool kit. Any additional defense you have personally is gravy and helps protect you against any enemies that aren't controlled, debuffed to hell, or aggro from afar. I'd suggest considering a +Stealth IO somewhere to go along with Shadow Fall. That should let you use Blackstar in relative safety. Other things to consider are proactive uses of Fearsome Stare (slotted for to-hit debuff vs fear duration) + Darkest night as an opener combo. Petrifying Gaze + Soul Storm (if taken) are two holds that could either lock down two LTs or lower or a single boss. Dark Pit + Howling Twilight OR Oppressive Gloom (if Dark Mastery) stacks Stun. Fluffy (Dark Servant) is also there to help floor to-hit bonuses. Consider Intuition Radial as one possible path for an Incarnate Alpha. Its one of my favorites for builds like this vs trying to use Agility for a tiny percentage of +defense. People take Howling Twilight for solo play too. The power does a lot more than just ally rez and can be just as effective as a preemptive use power as a reactive one.

It was one of the first sets I explored. Snap Shot is linked to Offensive Opportunity. The bonus this provides is an additional proc of energy damage on all attacks for 15 seconds. The bonus damage is a percentage of your base damage and cannot be enhanced. This bonus damage translates into single digit DPS at 50. Its not much, but its something. Aim Shot is linked to Defensive Opportunity. The bonus of this mode is all hits restore a small amount of health and endurance. It doesn't look like much at first glance but the endurance restore does pair well with rapid fire attacks. This may look disappointing while leveling as the effect is linked to successfully hitting and early on offensive options feel limited. Both versions of Opportunity apply the same resistance debuff to a target (the big target symbol under a single enemy) but the effects described above apply to all attacks for the full duration. The value of either of these only matters so much in how well your endurance is managed. If you have solid defenses, then the heal aspect of Defensive Opp gets greatly diminished. If your endurance is under control, then that too makes Defensive Opportunity look less attractive. If Defensive isn't necessary, may as well take Offensive Opportunity for the minor damage buff. Now, that said, none of that discussion on Opportunity matters much if one of those attacks happens to have a DPS benefit to your attack routine. So to recap, you ultimately want the best choice out of the first two powers for general damage first. You worry about the kind of Opportunity after you answer that question. Then you determine what your build needs. At least that is how I approach it. Archery's strongest single-target attacks are Stunning Shot (unique to Sentinels, well unique that it does damage), Blazing Arrow (common power), and Perfect Shot (unique to Sentinels). Your choice of Snap Shot or Aimed Shot matters a lot less the more recharge you stack. If you're not quite at a point where you can run just 3 attacks gapless, then Aimed Shot has slightly better DPS than Snap Shot. I highly recommend you take both Snap Shot and Aimed Shot while leveling to see for yourself which power you like. You gain enough respec/retcon options on the way to 50 that you can easily drop an attack once you've finalized things. For my Invulnerability Sentinel, I have everything in the set except for Unstoppable. I do have Fighting for Tough/Weave, Speed for Hasten, Leadership for Maneuvers/Assault, and Combat Jumping. I use jetpacks for flight or just run. It fits the character and Sprint + Ninja Run is pretty fast. With the new Synapse IOs (I have 2 in Stamina) my run speed is over 60 mph with a 42ft jump height. Getting to missions isn't that bad if you know a map well, but if not then consider something faster. I do recommend Leadership as a pool if you can fit it in since it benefits teams. Fighting is totally optional. It really only matters if you want to cap off Smashing/Lethal resistance and Weave is a strong defense power. Just how tanky you get is a matter of personal preference. If you want to reduce some durability for other powers, then go for it.

I haven't played that combo, but I've played both sets with other pairings. Archery is a pretty good set overall. There are a few caveats to be aware of though. 1) Archery is largely lethal damage which tends to have a lot enemies with resistance to it (it ranges from mild to high). 2) Archery has some quick animating and recharging powers. This usually means damage per hit is lower and that compounds a poor perception with #1. Archery can be pretty effective with high recharge investment to prune attack use down to its strongest components (Stunning Shot/Blazing Arrow/Perfect Shot). It takes a lot of recharge to do that, but it can be worth doing. The AoE options are decent for the AT. Invulnerability: 1) It has an endurance power unlike any of the melee versions!! 2) Invul does have a hole to psi damage, but it isn't that bad. You can work around it or close that gap. Travel power is totally up to you. I happen to play a lot with just Sprint + Ninja Run from the Pay-to-Win vendor but that may conflict with your theme. Sorcery's Mystic Flight may be neat for you if the character can dabble in a little bit of magic. You gain both fly and a teleport in one power. The fighting pool for the melee attacks it has isn't worth it beyond Cross Punch. You don't need it though. At level 35 you gain access to Epic/Patron pools. These contain some melee attacks and some of them are pretty good. Still, you can just run a fully ranged attack chain and do just fine unless you really want to do the most uber-extreme-damage. Edit: I happen to enjoy Archery so I'm pretty biased. 😉 Corruptors/Defenders/Blasters all have expanded options to make more of a Green Arrow type with trick arrows. However, even the Blaster secondary (Tactical Arrow) can run just bare minimum powers but may not fit the armor wearing theme.

That too is a great question. I don't always build in the Epics on Sentinels. I frankly don't try to push maximum damage with every single pairing because ultimately the builds don't necessarily work as well in practice as they do on paper. If I am tight on slots/power picks, then I'll snag an AoE immobilize and call it a day. If I don't need an immobilize, then I like Tashibishi in Ninja Tools. If I really want to go deep in an Epic, I'll take Psi Mastery largely for Link Minds. The Mind Probe + Dominate combo is undeniably powerful, but its not something I always go with. My Psi Mastery picks with my Water/Dark is a default slot Mass Hypnosis (which honestly is quite good out the box), Psi Shockwave for MOAR AoE, and Link Minds. I have a Beam build that doesn't bother any of the Epics and it functions just fine for my tastes. Below is what I would consider a bit extreme. Its Dark/Fire and it uses procs at the expense of defense. Dark Blast is innately defensive and Fiery Aura is offensive (largely due to Burn). I feel there is a pretty big build conflict here with trying to proc out the powers to push damage while trying to shore up the defensive short falls in Fiery Aura. I was tinkering with another version that uses more full set bonuses (something Fiery Aura wants) and the damage gets cut dramatically. The damage largely gets pushed on to Burn, but Burn also has some use conflict with Hover. I kept it, but I personally would pass on the travel powers other than Combat Jumping (immobilize protect all the time vs limited with Burn). Anyway... Here is one stab at it. I slapped Intuition Radial because it offers a lot and I was exploring some outside the box logic. You could run whatever you wanted for an Alpha but if you push procs, avoid Agility/Spiritual. Barrier is on option for Destiny to get you better defense/resistance or Ageless for sustain/recharge, or Rebirth for passive heals (its underrated imo). For Hybrid you could also consider the melee options to plug some holes. When using Incarnates like that, know that you'll be weaker without them below level 45. You could always run a second build with cheaper IOs for exemplar content and shuffle things around if you wished. Even with the above in mind, the build would still have some better than expected durability due to Blackstar. When I had ran Dark Blast/Regen, the big to-hit debuff worked wonders for me. I had around 16 defense to most things. Just keep in mind I wasn't trying to push too hard beyond +2/x8 difficulty. Not all builds can both survive and curb stomp +4/x8. Thems just the breaks. For AVs you might want to seriously consider temp summons like Shivans if melee feels too dangerous or you don't want to constantly hover out of range. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1469&c=706&a=1412&f=HEX&dc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dit: Ok, so this is a bit more of a balanced approach. Probably not perfect, but I tend to prefer playing a bit more well rounded. With Cardiac the resistance to Smash/Lethal is capped and endurance is more manageable. Life Drain adds a little bit of health return and possibility for Theft of Essence (probably won't go off too often). The high amount of to-hit in Blackstar can buy time for Cauterizing Blaze to heal and make Healing Flames a bit less stressful. I'd suggest testing these to see what works best before spending influence/time on it. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1452&c=693&a=1386&f=HEX&dc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ere is a Fire/Dark too just for sake of comparison. Fire does substantial damage even with full sets. I opted to put Psi Mastery in there because Dominate is great and Link Minds is also great. This runs a lot of toggles though so Cardiac is there to offset costs as well as bring resistances a bit. Overall healing is limited entirely to Obscure Sustenance which isn't that great at direct healing since it is a regeneration boost. Its handy, but Dark Armor has no +hit points to speak of so the high regen isn't as awesome as it sounds. Still, this doesn't seem too horrible on paper. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1453&c=679&a=1358&f=HEX&dc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dit: After thinking more about these, either would be fine to run. Hell, the original builds from the OP are fine to run they just need to include the mezz protection powers that they lack or otherwise, what's the point of playing the Sentinel in the first place? Furthermore, there is a LOT of missing context here. There is no real discussion on what difficulty the character would be played at. That matters. It actually matters a lot. You can hunt AVs as a Sentinel on +0 difficulty just fine and there isn't a lot of bending over backwards needed in order to do it though temp powers speed things up. Some builds will be faster than others but that isn't uncommon across the ATs. What gets tricky is when one wishes to start chasing +4 AVs or doing things like solo TF runs at max difficulty or the like. Finally, the Sentinel ATOs are affected by the purple patch. That meaning that if you hit a higher level enemy than you the effects of the procs are weaker and its pretty dramatic in my experience. That needs to be fixed and it mostly certainly can impact performance in a negative way.

Now that is a great question. Dark/Fire is a pretty tight build since there are a lot of defensive holes in Fiery Aura and Dark Blast really likes recharge. Its tough to balance both without considering Incarnates. I'd need to play around with this a bit more to find something I'd enjoy before I bothered to share it. I'll try to keep the Flight pool in mind and those Epic powers since they were part of your original builds. I probably wouldn't bother with them personally, but I get the appeal.

I didn't mention anything about Bio Armor specifically, sorry. Other IOs to push defenses can include, but are not limited to: Both 3% global defense uniques (Steadfast and Gladiator's Armor) 4 pieces of Unbreakable Guard (for melee defense) in a few resistance powers. Splitting up Archtype Origin (ATO) sets to spread various defense bonuses around (e.g., if a 5% bonus exists at 3 pieces you can split between two powers). Winter IO sets (e.g., Blistering Cold) often come with large Fire/Cold/AoE defense but some also have melee defense. This option gets expensive. There are numerous other sets here and there that could pile on to close defense gaps. If you view a build as a series of problem solving functions, then you'll find there are a number of ways to get to an outcome. Some are better than others, of course, and they all require some form of trade off. Its that value of what you're trading off where personal preferences play a significant role. Giving up minor defense for quality of life or giving up quality of life for maximum effect. These can become pretty big questions.

Follow-up can include the Gaussian's Chance to Build-Up. Focus can include the Decimation: Chance to Build-Up. Any of the -defense effect attacks (Slash/Eviscerate) can include the Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff. Any of the Point-Blank AoE power can potentially include a Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Resistance Debuff. Using Follow-Up, Focus, and Slash should be givens within a core attack routine. Those 3 powers are ideal candidates for including those utility procs as well as any other modifiers you wish to use (i.e., Mako's Bite: Chance for Lethal, Touch of Death: Chance for Negative Damage, etc.).

Just an even leveled purple patch will still reduce that debuff down to just over -4%.

TL;DR: You may be searching for a resolution without a problem. The challenge with Nin is that it can have its defenses stripped by enemies capable of doing that. The T9 power, while similar to Elude in /SR, gets you some defense debuff resistance. There is an Ageless variant in Incarnate options that can also provide you with DDR. Claws/Nin shouldn't need the recovery option from Ageless anyway (it'd probably be nice but perhaps overkill). "Painful" on defense-based characters is going to be subjective so please don't feel a need to toss out the baby with the bathwater if you like your Scrapper. The game has things like resistance inspirations and the like that are intended to pad things out when you need it. Now, as for Inv vs Bio and Claws... I'd prefer Claws on either a Scrapper or Tanker but it isn't horrible on Brutes. Claws is a really solid set. Invul can have an easier time capping resistances and gaining higher defenses than Bio Armor. That's also true on Scrappers. Invincibility scales defense on the number of enemies making it very valuable. Invul's big weakness is Psionic damage but you can find numerous IO options these days to help raise it. You add on capped or near capped hit points with Dull Pain and the Brute can handle some Psi damage (which can trend towards being overstated anyway). Bio Armor can be amazing when designed well. It does not cap its own resistance easily nor does it soft-cap defenses easily. You do that through using various IOs. Bio Armor is far more offensive of a set than Invulnerability is and really should be treated as such. So while you can cap/soft-cap certain things doesn't necessarily means you should if doing that would otherwise hinder offensive gains elsewhere. What do I mean by this? Well, Claws has a few options for taking on resistance debuff procs. That means you're unlikely fully 6 slot a set into those powers for defensive gains. That negative resistance is very helpful in allowing your damage type to bypass mitigation of enemies and chew through hit points faster. Another feature of Bio Armor, kinda like Radiation Armor, is that is also has absorb. Absorb shields functional like additional hit points and the Bio Armor T9 can apply a pretty significant amount of that. Its enough that Bio Armor on Scrappers can also be quite durable despite having lower resistances or defenses. That usually leads me to trying to push recharge on Bio Armor builds as I tend to play it a lot more like Regeneration than say, Willpower. In either case, you still need to be somewhat mindful of defense debuffers because neither set is going to completely remove that threat. However, they both handle additional damage mitigation through direct hit point gain (Invulnerability) or pseudo-hit points (Bio Armor). Brute damage is still pretty good even if Scrappers have potential to be faster at it. Bio Armor includes more damage options and the damage aura is a nice place for the Fury generating ATO.

Brutes are generally better with damage auras since Fury makes them more powerful. All powers adhere to the recharge cap regardless of things like FF +recharge. There is a ceiling on that availability you're not going to break with that proc. Still, if you can squeeze out an extra second or so of availability, why not. Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear are far more valuable for their CC than proc deliveries (even if no damage exists in the Stun sets). Toggles check procs every 10 seconds, not per pulse of the power. Cloak of Fear has a very low base accuracy. So every time it misses during that 10 second window is a time where a proc never landed that extra damage. You're unlikely to see multiple foes being tagged by procs without also running something like Tactics. You'd be piling on a lot of endurance drain to experience a gimmick. The procs there just aren't reliable enough to justify the endurance cost. There is an argument to be made about the merits of CoF as both a mild CC ability (due to how fear works) and its minor to-hit debuff. I personally no longer find the power worth it. That includes having run it with Dark Melee to purposefully stack fear with Touch of Fear (its a cute gimmick but completely unnecessary in an IO world). If you're willing to use some inspirations and other tools like envenomed daggers, then AV hunting isn't exactly out of your grasp. This is why I highly suggest you try to get at least melee defense to 32%. That means a small defense inspire will get you an additional +12.5% defense (so 44%+). You could also use the defensive booster temporary power or other things. These tools aren't cheating. AVs have very high regeneration rates and resist a ton of effects. If you don't have enough damage, then they will just regenerate whatever you do to them while largely ignoring the tiny debuffs you apply. Dark Blast can be turned into a pretty hard hitting primary with damage procs in Abyssal Gaze/Life Drain. Enough that it becomes competitive to other sets like Fire Blast. Fire Blast can do pretty heavy damage all on its own and in many ways is very flexible in build designs. Either of these sets can accomplish your offensive requirements. Dark Blast/Fire is going to be better defensively than Fire/Dark. Fiery Aura on Sentinels comes with a heal over time and a direct heal power. That is worth its weight in gold as you don't need to rely nearly as much on green inspirations. On top of this, Dark Blast brings a -35% to-hit debuff in Blackstar. Its massive. Its duration is 20 second too. Remember when I said you can drive the cooldown on the T9 to 23 - 26 seconds? That means you use Blackstar on cooldown to maintain its debuff (even against AVs this is high enough that it will still inflict some noticeable - though minor - debuffing). Any time your enemies spend missing you is you buying time to heal up through toggle and Life Drains. Fire/Dark has a lot less defensive synergy. Obscure Sustenance is no where close to Dark Regen as a heal. So you're stuck with temporarily high regeneration (Obscure Sustenance has a tiered effect I have written about multiple times in this subforum) and that's about it for the extra mitigation. Otherwise you're just relying on whatever defense you stack and resistance you can muster. Dark/Fire is far better at battles of attrition but Fire/Dark still has potential to be quite damaging even while running full sets or Cardiac Alpha. In the case of Fire/Dark, I'd think you'd have a FAR easier time justifying the use of Winter IO sets for more defensive gains as the overall slotting potential of Fire is minimal (and it really doesn't need extra proc damage). TL;DR: Brutes are largely better at damage aura use and their general AoE hammering is very, very effective at high fury. Between Dark/Fire and Fire/Dark one is definitely more defensive in nature and the other more offensive. Though the reality of which is what isn't that obvious.

You're on the right track with both ideas but they could still use some refinement. The Fire/Dark, as it currently is, has a slight edge especially at range. The Dark/Fire catches back up in melee due to Smite. In both builds you completely skipped the crowd control protection powers (Obsidian Shield [Dark] and Plasma Shield [Fire]). Those powers you skipped would protect you from holds, sleeps (Plasma Shield), fear, and stun (Obsidian also includes the latter). Both sets trend towards more melee and you'll likely get eaten alive the moment anything CCs you. Fire Blast doesn't offer much beyond more damage so it doesn't necessarily bring synergy with Dark Armor. However, Dark Armor on Sentinels plays a bit differently from the melee ATs. Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear are entirely optional if you intend to Hover Blast. I disagree with @CaptTastic here. Obscure Sustenance has longer range than Dark Regen does and it doesn't trigger off multiple targets since the effect doesn't stack. You don't use that power in the same manner as you would Dark Regen. Obscure Sustenance is more of a maintenance power you cast to grant yourself its bonus where Dark Regen works more like a snap "oh shit" heal. As long as you hover within 35ft of an enemy you can tap a single enemy with Obscure Sustenance on cooldown and reap its benefits. I've honestly really soured on Cloak of Fear. The accuracy in it is horrible and its endurance cost is massive. If you really want a to-hit debuff in a toggle, then use the Purple Proc in Oppressive Gloom. Not only does Oppressive Gloom have legit base accuracy by default, it costs substantially less. If you're fully intent on holding enemies up close, then Chain Fences + Lightning Field + Rain of Fire sounds fine on paper. Last note on Fire Blast just to keep this from turning into a novella. If you plan to run Cardiac with Dark, then I do think Fire Blast is a good choice. Dark can get expensive if you use Cloak of Fear, but Fire Blast IS is expensive to chain Blaze - Fireball - Blazing Blast. Oh, dump Fire Blast (the attack - not the set 😄). You should build without it and go with Flares. Flares is much better in general and can be much better considering a total build revamp. Dark Blast can bring synergy with any set. So it's actually a pretty intelligent choice with Fire Armor. Fire Armor lacks in mitigation and Dark Blast brings an absolute crapload of to-hit debuffing in Blackstar. Furthermore, Blackstar is PBAoE and so is Burn. I don't think you can hover very far and still use Burn. So that's something to think about. I could be wrong through. I just haven't tried it in years. You've got the right idea with Abyssal Gaze; proc the hell out of it. You skipped Life Drain though which can do very similar things. With procs it is quite powerful. Hell, with high enough recharge you could run Abyssal Gaze, Antumbral Beam and Life Drain only as your ranged attacks. So Gloom vs Dark Blast is a coin toss. Take Dark Blast if you can get your endurance under control otherwise Gloom can help due to how the inherent works. When in melee, Smite, can either replace or supplement your range attacks. I actually rather like the Dark Mastery pool and especially when paired with Dark Blast due to more to hit debuffs. I'd probably push the slotting you have in Burn to Engulfing Darkness. So, fun ideas... Both primaries bring a PBAoE T9 power. That means both can take that Fury of the Gladiator debuff with a clamped 90% chance to proc it. That also means both can run the Armageddon set. However, that Engulfing Darkness ain't a bad place for those IOs either. The Opportunity Strikes ATO can be useful in the T9 for both recharge reduction and high burst of near guaranteed opportunity meter. I have a few characters with 23 second recharges on their T9. Opportunity runs for 15 seconds. 15 - 23 = 8. You can effectively turn your T9 into an Opportunity generator and drive down the lag between Opportunity uses. It does work. However, I'd only bother to do this if you're running a worthwhile PBAoE that can take the Armageddon/Fury combo. Otherwise putting those in the T9 is very strong. Unless you plan to group with 6+ members per group that Gaussian's Build-Up can better off in Aim. If you group with big groups, and especially ones bringing pets, then Gaussian's in Tactics can potentially be better. Still, you lose total control over the proc that way vs Aim and that can be a significant kick in the pants if you time your Aim + Blackstar/Inferno. Cauterizing Blaze is a heal over time power. It's not regeneration. Its heal over time. That's generally better and that power is worth considering. If you plan to get into the melee realm of things with either build, try to plan on getting 32% melee OR to damage types you plan to engage in commonly (like Smashing/Lethal). The more defense the merrier, but I've found 32% is a nice sweet spot especially for playing in +2/# difficulty missions. If you start to go for +3 or +4 enemies solo, plan to get pounded on in melee. You can hover of course, but both builds as you have them benefit in melee. You don't necessarily need to softcap, but the more defense you can stack with high resistance the better off you are. The more mitigation you can layer in general, the better off you are. That said, Dark/Fire has a lot of potential mitigation there (to hit debuffs, multiple heal sources, resistance, etc..). I have a Water Blast/Dark Armor/Psi Sentinel. She can handle some fairly rough fights as long as she can leverage the stuns she brings (Oppressive Gloom/Geyser/Psi Shockwave) and she includes some additional healing in Dehydrate. I have 32% defense from multiple sources and fairly high resists without Cardiac. She runs Musculature Core Alpha for damage and as with all things in this game... downed enemies are the best mitigation.

I've been tinkering with a few Sentinel changes lately... DP/SR and AR/SR. Both similarly designed and both using 5 procs in Tashibishi (caltrops). This was done with a few rounds inbetween work assignments so the times are as close as I could record while juggling my attention (its give or take some seconds). 😝 DP/SR (T2 Musculature only), Approximately 6 minutes or 360 seconds for roughly 234 DPS AR/SR (same) Approximately 8 minutes or 480 seconds for roughly 207 DPS DP use: Executioner's Shot - Pistols* - Suppressive Fire - Pistols* AR use: Incinerator - Burst* - Slug - Burst* Pistols/Burst swapped with Tashibishi, heal inspires (as needed) or Aim in the case of AR. Neither of these began with their respective T9's as that wasn't the point of what I wanted to see. I just wanted to see how Tashibishi would alter things with 4 damage procs and a resistance debuff. The results are hilarious... Edit: All attacks used in the chain run at least 2 damage procs plus 1 utility where applicable. Suppressive Fire uses an additional damage proc due to my preferences. Put the time estimations in which I forgot.

Time Manipulation is probably one of the most egregious ones that comes to my mind. TM was a newer set before shutdown and it is incredibly powerful with a complete build. Far Sight is a team buff that grants defense to all and it can be made permanent with recharge investment. On top of this, you also get a set loaded with other tricks (a hold, a few aoe control powers, enemy debuffs, healing, and recharge boost to the team). The Force Field Generator in Traps can protect the team from a lot of status effects as well as providing defense to everything. Cold Domination also brings +defense to teammates while offering other effects (slows, resistance debuffing, regeneration debuffing, and so on). Those are just some sets off the top of my head that deal with defense buffs and include other features. Radiation Emission and Dark Miasma are also very strong enemy-focused debuffing sets with a few other tricks thrown in for good measure. I wouldn't steer you away from FF if that's what suites you. You can contribute to teams just fine and if you choose to exemplar down for lower level TF's those force field bubbles can still be very, very welcome.

A thought on when to boost: Boost generic level 50 IOs to increase their effectiveness while also lowering the number of slots needed. What that looks like in practice is using only two slots for Hasten with general level 50 recharge IOs. In your build, applying +3 boosts (booster x3) to each of those IOs will lower the cooldown to 120.6 seconds. With just two lvl 50 recharge reducers and NO boosters the cooldown is 123.9 seconds. With two +4 boosts the cooldown is 119.9 and two +5's is 119.7. So there is some diminishing returns to consider vs a mindset of "+5 all the things!!!". With 3 slots and general IOs, as it currently exists in your build, the cooldown is 118 seconds. You could spare a slot. What you do with it would be up to you and it isn't really that critical. Other considerations: You accuracy against +4 enemies is mostly above 95%, Eye of the Storm is slightly less, so Tactics isn't necessary. You may want it for other reasons, like its Perception buff or whatever. However, for covering your accuracy you're good to go against most things. For single targets, you can sandwich Precise Strike between Serpent's Reach to build focus stacks before Assassin's Staff (Precise Strike - Serpent's Reach - Precise Strike - Assassin's Staff). If you wanted to explore a little more damage you could put that new found slot into Precise Strike and move the ATO out of Serpent's Reach. You could add the Apocalypse 5pc set + Decimation Build-Up. Serpent's Reach accuracy would drop a little without Tactics, but you could +5 the Acc/Dmg/Rch and Acc/Rch Apocalypse pieces to get you up to 94% against a +4 again. You could potentially move a slot else where to grab the Kismet +6 to-hit vs using boosters or any number of other strategies. You mentioned you're in information overload so please don't feel like that idea is necessary. Its not, but it could be a route to take for improvement whenever you're ready to explore it. There are a few other ideas for using Staff attacks that you could consider (though what you have is fine). Mercurial Blow with Achilles' Heel is a possibility. Sky Splitter can be interesting with procs. My own plan for Staff uses both of those attacks minimally slotted for accuracy/damage/endurance with remaining slots devoted to procs. Food for thought.

Why? Because other build decisions (e.g., Incarnates, Epics, etc.) can blur the lines on just how effective Dual Pistols can get with other ATs. Defenders/Corruptors can potentially get Soul Drain to be available on cool down. That makes for a huge replacement to the missing Aim. There is a noticeable damage difference for Sentinels that use Suppressive Fire rotationally as it gain significant damage and cooldown changes. Even without procs, a Sentinel Dual Pistols build can still be competitive to Blaster single-target damage. Complete build packages would change in favor of one AT over the other, but the lines can still be a little more blurry than they appear. That can go out the window if you make a glass cannon Blaster and load up on all the damage options available. Generally Blaster builds don't need to do that, but Sentinel builds can with impunity. A few Defender/Corruptor build options aren't far behind.