oldskool

Primary Sets... Oh boy... its the sexy power time. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, thoses, thems, or theys, we're about to talk about the DAMAGE powers. WOOOOOO!!!! The only powerset I have not messed around with in a test environment or live is Energy Blast. That's it. I've talked with others about it, and I get its fundamentals (I've played it before in other ATs). So I'm going to toss some ideas about it, but that's not the same as expertise with it here. I've played, either in test or live, the following sets and some more than once: Archery (3 times) Assault Rifle (4 times) Beam Rifle (4 times) Dark Blast (Twice... slacking) Dual Pistols (4 times) Electrical Blast (Once) Fire Blast (Once) Ice Blast (Once) Psychic Blast (4 times) Radiation Blast (Once) Sonic Blast (Once) Water Blast (3 times) Yes, that is 12 out of 13 sets. My current live favorites are Dual Pistols, Assault Rifle (I do love an underdog), Beam Rifle, and Water Blast. I do not play these because they are the highest DPS characters I have. They aren't. I just genuinely love playing those characters more than the others. Quick run downs... GO!!! Note 1: The following are my opinions. I want to keep my views within the realm of the AT in question and not try to apples to apples compare outside of that. So if you're scratching your head about why there aren't more direct comparisons, please read the other posts about such vacuum comparing. The colors for the sets are purely fun and has nothing to do with any kind of quality ordering. Note 2: Since these are my opinions there will be some operational bias. I've tried to be as objective as reasonable with the analysis. I've played a few of these sets not only more than once with a different pairing but different build configurations too. I'm taking an awful lot of time to share my thoughts, but I can respect disagreement. Archery I think Archery gets a bad rap. It is understandable criticism due to how it all works. Its still largely a perception issue when compared against sets within the AT vs outside the AT. Within the Sentinel AT, Archery is honestly pretty good all things considered. It can completely ignore the use of Snap Shot/Aimed Shot and focus just on Stunning Shot, Blazing Arrow, and Perfect Shot. Stunning Shot is that good. Pros: Fast attacks, always something available, better than it looks on paper Cons: Lethal damage resistance can be a downer, lack of slot options to abuse procs, redraw annoyance when stepping out of the set (I'm not fond of weapons suddenly appearing on my characters, YMMV) Assault Rifle Assault Rifle gets a bad rap too, and in general I agree with that. Assault Rifle gets a lot of AoE swapped out for single target attacks. Those attacks seem to be all over the place and it makes trying to build with it very tough. I've settled on a build that uses AR and currently I love it. I abuse the absolute hell out of recharge and procs to make the single target better than it typically trends. Incinerator is a deceptive power. Put the procs that it can take in it. Worry not about its core recharge if you can manage it. All you need is to get that sucker back on line within 4.224 seconds if you use Burst and Slug. If you're a player that loves full sets vs frankenslotting for procs, then yes AR is likely going to disappoint you. Still, it has multiple AoE options since it gets an "extra" in Flamethrower. Flamethrower breaks the general mold of; cones unlock at level 2, TAoE unlocks by 12, and then variables. Flamethrower subs in at 18 and it is quite strong even with its limited target caps. Pros: Shell casings on the ground and fire comes out your barrel. Gains Aim unlike other versions. You can do some interesting things with procs in Buckshot/M30 Grenade, Incinerator, Burst, and Slug. Disorienting Shot is an oddly strong T2 power can be a flexible addition to a build. Cons: Plan to bend over backwards to make it work. Its fun if you do, but will likely be disappointing if you're unwilling to use procs. Full Auto could use a quality of life pass on its long animation. Redraw annoyance when stepping out the set. Beam Rifle Beam Rifle is an odd duck, but it is a wonderful Sentinel set. Its quite possibly the best version of it in the game from a general functionality stand point. Beam Rifle swaps out its snipe for another AoE. AoE is generally lackluster on other versions of Beam so the chaining attack it gets is a welcome addition. Furthermore, this set plays with -resistance (and some other debuffing) in Piercing Beam. Piercing Beam can handle another -resistance proc (12.5% from Annihilation). All of that stacks with Opportunity to let you bypass more damage than it appears. Pros: Flexible build options, solid single target, unique mechanic, added AoE, and interplay with the inherent built in Cons: May not appear as strong on paper as it is in play, Cutting Beam is still a 'meh' power. Sudden weapon redraw Dark Blast (pure white because all black would be hard to read!) Dark Blast is a solid all around set and I have very few complaints with it. This is about as close as the AT gets to having a set with a Parry like ability. The melee kids their +def attack and still get Dark Melee. Sentinels just get Dark Blast with its stacking -5% to-hit debuff and the stupidly powerful Blackstar. Blackstar on other ATs can have a far higher debuff but its base cooldown is longer. A lot of Sentinel builds that go for high recharge can expect Blackstar to be available every 25 seconds (plus or minus 2 seconds). The debuff lasts 20 seconds. This means this power is granting a defensive debuff that lasts almost as long as the cooldown. A 3-7 second downtime isn't that much and the damage it does is pretty standard Sentinel T9 nukage. Pros: Loads of positive changes to Umbral Torrent, solid attacks generally, even better attacks if using procs, and loads of to-hit debuffing Cons: Might feel weak if not pushing recharge and/or procs. Life Drain kinda blows without damage procs. Dual Pistols I've grown to really enjoy Dual Pistols. It is somewhat an odd set like Beam Rifle. Dual Pistols never had a snipe to begin with and it never had Aim. It only upgrades one power, Suppressive Fire, and that's about it. It is one of the few sets in the entire AT that can be uniquely compared across all other variants as it is largely the same. However, the change to Suppressive Fire defines Dual Pistols within the Sentinel. Without the change to Suppressive Fire, Dual Pistols would be a carbon copy of every other AT. With Suppressive as it is, Sentinel Dual Pistols has additional options. I really don't care what AT you play. Dual Pistols is one of, if not the, most flexible tool set in the game. Very few sets have access to the wide range of attack chains that Dual Pistols is capable of, and the set can also change features of its effects. Due the variable nature of the powers, Dual Pistols works incredibly well with damage procs. That helps it pick up a lot of damage it may otherwise lack to some players. Though in reality what Dual Pistols gives up in burst it more than makes up for in consistency and flexibility. Pros: Fun animations if you're into the movies inspired by them. Potentially fast animating single target and AoE attack cycles. Potentially far higher damage than you'd expect with procs. Cons: Hail of Bullets is a bit long on the animation but high on the cool factor. Piercing Rounds can take a total backseat on Sentinels, it is skippable. Lack of Aim means no options for quick bursts of +dmg which can disappoint some players. The lack of aim makes the set feel weaker on Pylon tests than it really is. Sudden Weapon redraw Electrical Blast Electrical Blast is another set where the Sentinel version may be one of the better variants. The set offers some considerably strong single target (with the right build of course) and two AoEs that hit in a sphere (Ball Lightening and Short Circuit). While one of those AoEs is PBAoE, it does break the routine of Cone + TAoE that many of the sets use. I have very little complaints about Sentinel EB. Its a very strong set within the context of the AT. Pros: Zapping Bolt and Tesla Cage are a lot stronger than they look. Good AoE for the AT as a whole. Some proc slotting capacity in Tesla Cage. Cons: Thunderous Blast is slow, but other than EB is a great set. Energy Blast Noted, I hadn't bothered to play EnB yet. However, lets talk changes. Energy Blast has a lot of single target options. A lot. More than you really need. While some of the animations are bit long the set can still be a hard hitter. Power Burst, Power Push, and Focused Power Bolt can take on at least 2 damage procs, and a global recharge proc. While it can be hard to get all of the bonuses you may want while frankenslotting like this, you really only need to do it for these 3 powers. They can be considerably stronger than they look when constructed in this manner. I'd say that's a plus. Nova being available faster is also a nice perk but otherwise EnB is kinda boring to me. It fits the Ironman vibe so bad it hurts, but I don't play a character like that. Pros: Potential in using IOs to work around the sets faults. The big hitters of the set are probably a lot better than they look. Doesn't require as much back breaking as Assault Rifle to get it to work. 😉 Cons: A lot of things to consider as work arounds like knockback, do you want to use procs, just how far do you take those procs, and somewhat disappointing AoE. Fire Blast I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one. This is the dead horse everyone beats. Pros: Its Fire Blast, you know its good. Cons: It over shadows everything else because its Fire Blast. Can be endurance heavy. Ice Blast Friends, I like Sentinel Ice Blast. If you could throw virtual stones at me, you might just do that. However, I'll explain why I like it. Sentinel Ice Blast is different. It changes up some powers and to some folks that is not in a good way. However, I like that Ice plays differently. Sentinels in general aren't that focused on whatever CC was in the attack in the first place. So Ice follows suit and removes a hold (yikes!). Still, Ice Blast is a proc carrier that few talk about. It was also a highly regarded PvP set due to that Sleep power many people hate. That purple placate proc in PvP does things that are mean. So mean. Still, for PvE, Ice Blast can be converted from what looks like a crappy blast set into something that hits like a truck. Chilling Ray can also include at least 2 general damage procs. Bitter Ice Blast can potentially take 3, and Bitter Freeze Ray can potentially take 4(!). That's not include two purple damage procs. Ice Blast is the set no one is talking about and maybe should be. Its AoE options can feel a little limited with just Frost Breath (I like the alternate animation personally) and Ice Storm. Ice Storm and Blizzard are decent places for the Sentinel ATOs, especially Opportunity Strikes. Ice Storm, Blizzard, and even Rain of Fire/Rain of Arrows will check a chance to trigger that proc on summon. It works, I've done it, and I highly recommend it. Pros: Waaaaay better with procs. Decent secondary effects. Better options on AoE than it sounds. Cons: Can be a total crap build if you're not careful. Changes to the powers may rub old players the wrong way without bothering to adapt. Highly reliant on Ice Storm for good AoE coverage which has a long cool down. Can get endurance heavy. Psychic Blast Psychic Blast is a deceptive set. Psi damage in general is wildly poo pooed on through the phenomenon of "common forum knowledge". Common forum knowledge would tell that you just cannot do damage with Psi powers in the end game. At least the hyperventilating arguments I have read would lead you to believe that is true. It's not. At most, the highest resistance of a robot minion is 60%. Most Arachnos robots are 50%. While it is true that many factions in the high end of the game have some resistance to psi, it is often in the realm of 20%. Guess what, boo f*ing hoo. Any smashing or lethal damage player had been dealing with 20% damage resistances long before level 40. Cry me a river. What Psychic Blast loses in whatever resistance it comes to, it more than makes up in brute force. Scramble Thoughts was converted from a CC power to a mini-T9 selectable at level 26. It is one of the few CC power conversions that was left in its tier and its damage reflects it. So what if the animation is 3 seconds? It hits like mini Psychic Wail at a single target. This power is as close as the Sentinel gets to Energy Transfer and Screech in Sonic is pretty freaking close. The AoE options of Psychic Scream and Tornado aren't nearly as impressive. They're serviceable, but not great. Pros: Potentially high single target damage. Potentially stupidly effective against AVs with no Psi resistance and bypasses the resistance in obnoxious powers like Unstoppable/Moment of Glory. Cons: Limited proc options, but doesn't really need them. AoE options are on the 'meh' end. Radiation Blast Rad Blast is honestly quite straight forward and it has a huge amount of potential. Its as good as you invest in it, but boy when it hits its stride it can do some damage. Rad has 3 AoE, one of those a PBAoE (YAY!! Set diversity!) and some pretty strong attacks in Cosmic Burst/Proton Stream. Proton Volley will be missed, but Sentinel Rad is still pretty good. Since inflicts -defense, it comes with a lot of slotting options to vastly improve its damage. Again, if you're not fond of or willing to use procs or whatever other tools exists, then the is going to disappoint you. However, if you want to explore various slotting options, then Rad Blast can be converted into a fairly strong set. This is one of the few sets I prefer on Defenders, but the Sentinel version can be as decent as you make it. Pros: Lots of potential. 3 AoEs other than the T9. Lots of -defense debuffing which is nice for your teammates. Laser can shoot out your eyes. Cons: Its only as good as you invest in it, has a PBAoE T9 AND as a regular option which may turn off some players. Sonic Blast HARRRAAAAAAAWWWW!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOWL!!!! BLEEEEEEERG!!!! I used to love Sonic Blast. Played a Sonic/Sonic Corruptor long ago. I honestly can't stand it now. 😉 Still, Sonic has some changes worth talking about. For starters, Sonic cones hit more targets than other Sentinel cones do (with few exceptions). All the cones hit 10 targets. Screech does damage. No wait, scratch that. Screech does a TON of damage. Screech used to be that kid you hated on Saved by the Bell. Well, not here. Screech no longer has a damage rating of 8. Screech does damage as if it were a mini-Dreadful Wail (well a high portion of it). Screech can let you skip Shout and still do very respectable damage all while still lowering resistance values. That's pretty awesome! Pros: Screech is the power you want to play Blackbolt, kinda... like if Blackbolt whispered "SCREECH". Still, Screech makes this set for Sentinels as well as the higher limit on the cones. Otherwise, it would probably suck. Cons: The sounds are obnoxious. Sometimes it is endearing, but other times not. I just keep the sound off when playing it. Cones. You get a cone, you get a cone, you get a cone! Lack of proc options. Can look weak, but the multiple resistance debuffs help on teams. Water Blast Never played this on live. This set, kinda like Dual Pistols, was one of the sets I really really wanted to try. Like Dual Pistols, I love it on the Sentinel. Unfortunately, Water Blast doesn't change much on the Sentinel. There was no snipe to replace and no CC power to convert. So instead you get a swapped selection between Dehydrate and Whirlpool. Big whoop. BUT!!! Water Blast retains higher than normal target caps across its powers. So while many cones hit 6 targets, Steam Spray hits 10. This puts Water Blast in tight competition with Fire Blast for AoE damage potential and gives it unique target caps for the AT like Sonic Blast. That's not a bad deal. On top of that Water Blast plays well with proc options. Want to push stupid damage on AoE? Proc out some powers! Want to improve single target? Put some procs in powers! Even without damage procs, Water Blast still does very good AoE. Its single target is where it struggles, and that's common on all the ATs, but procs help. Like Dual Pistols, this is one of the few sets where direct comparisons can happen. I don't suggest going into those rabbit holes because all they do is turn into navel gazing exercises, but it could be done. Pros: Slotting potential!! I like powers with options! Great AoE on an AT where people bemoan its AoE. Cons: Single target damage is pretty weak without procs or focus on the Tidal mechanic to fire off Water Jet twice.

A Damage Discussion Revisited... Before I go into rambling about damage vs the other ATs, I want to add some points of clarity. This work is not intended to be a fanfest of my undying love of the Sentinel. I recognize its flaws. I've built more than a dozen of them. I think I have a pretty solid grasp on what the AT does and doesn't do. Clarity point #1, Sentinels can be total crap if you build it as if you were playing another AT. Sentinels have some advantages all their own and if you decide to ignore it in favor of playing it differently, so be it. But, please recognize when you treat the AT like garbage in build you get garbage outcomes. This point is also true of any other AT in the game. What's a bit different here is that you cannot roll your face on the keyboard as a Sentinel player and "win". Its not like a Stalker or Scrapper that will just fart out damage regardless of what build you give it. Sentinels can be accessible and easy to play but build decisions can get complex. Clarity point #2, Complaints on Sentinel damage do have some merit especially under the realm of point #1. Also, note before that I recognize how cumbersome the Opportunity mechanic is. I would really love to see some kind of change to simplify the AT to make it more accessible while improving it at the same time. Still, players can work around the short comings of the AT if they'd like to learn how. Its not nearly as bad as it is often made out to be. Clarity point #3, Argue points made from quoting Mids with caution. Realize that the numbers tend to be off and verify in the game or ask someone that actually plays it. Saying wild things like Sentinels do less than Defenders in damage isn't true at all times. It may be conditionally true in certain circumstances, but even that can have some awfully blurry lines. Clarity point #4, All things considered, I do think it is a reasonable complaint that Sentinels may have an optimization ceiling that is much lower than several other ATs. If you really like the Sentinel and wish to optimize it, then go for it! Just know that other ATs can potentially get more out of the same investment. That's an awfully big statement though. It assumes a LOT about what every player seeks in there character or the content they enjoy playing. As a general metric, I like to run +2/x8 content when solo. Its not so difficult that enemies turn into bags of hit points while offering just enough reward to my time ratio. Sentinels can handle +2/x8 content with a wide range of builds and run it fairly safe. Running +4/x8 starts to get tricky as some Sentinels handle it easier or some may just totally falter. Sentinels can solo taskforces and handle some AVs just like many other ATs can. Its not so bad that you can't dabble in most of the content the game provides. Just temper your expectations. Within #3 I'll compare my Dual Pistols Defender and Sentinel. Defenders will hit 16 targets with Bullet Rain and Sentinels will hit 10. Since the Defender hits more targets it must do more damage right? Well, not necessarily. There are a lot of factors to consider before we leap off the hyperbole ledge. Both my characters run ATO sets in this power. Neither character has a damage proc in this power. It is as close to an apples to apples comparison one could hope for. (Its not perfect, and it never can be) In a solo situation with full Vigilance Bullet Rain does slightly more damage on my Defender than it would on my Sentinel. This is also considering maximum target saturation for both ATs. Its closer than it sounds though in real play. What this means is my Sentinel is doing more damage per hit than the Defender is while the Defender hits more overall targets. BUT WAIT, There is more. My Defender has an AoE -resistance patch effect. That will contribute to the Defender squeezing out some more damage. My Defender has Soul Drain and fully saturated that can add around 400 more total damage. My Defender's per shot damage is still less than the Sentinel but contributes more total damage across multiple targets. What I want to really stress in that paragraph is that the Defender above is a build. It is a build that can potentially do more damage, overall, than the Sentinel running the same set in an AoE situation. It completely ignores all other powers and potential Epics of the Sentinel. This is why arguments in a vacuum are completely disingenuous. If my Defender didn't have a -resistance power OR run Soul Drain it would not do significantly more damage than my Sentinel. This also completely ignores that my Dual Pistols Sentinel runs Offensive Opportunity which improves my per target AoE damage. None of this is to suggest that Sentinel AoE is superior to any of the other ranged ATs. Its not. I can't make an argument in good faith that would suggest to you that Defenders, Corruptors, or Blasters can't do better AoE damage. AoE matters a lot. Clusters of weaker enemies are a large part of the game. However, what I do hope the takeaway is, is that Sentinel AoE isn't that bad either. Furthermore, the above example is assuming solo vs 16 targets. In an actual test while solo full target saturation isn't always possible. Its more guaranteed while teaming. I can guarantee you my Sentinel can handle high target engagement better than my Defender in solo situations at the least. My Defender needs to set things up in order to make rampant damage spam safe. My Sentinel does not. My Sentinel can just dive and go to town. In a team situation my Defender's damage drops by 30%. Without full Vigilance + AoE -resistance + Full Soul Drain, or even full target saturation the Defender's overall AoE damage contribution plummets. On the completely opposite ends of that spectrum are the Corruptor and Blaster. Corruptors generally get better and better in group AoE situations where their Scourge ticks can contribute more. Blasters just do more AoE damage period. In the case of Dual Pistols the higher base scalar plus Defiance contributes not only more damage per hit than the Sentinel but also greater overall coverage. Still, my Sentinel can manage around 70%* of a Blaster's damage in AoE. I'll take it. *[Edit: I shouldn't have put a percentage here. It can easily be misconstrued and taken out of context. That's my fault. I had in my mind to compare a power vs power. This is not a generalized all Sentinels do 70% of a Blaster's damage in all AoE situations. This was a "my Sentinel in question was getting awfully close to the Blaster I made despite the advantages of being a Blaster". I didn't design the Blaster to be weaker. It had the same budget, similar slotting where applicable, but obviously different priorities due to how power pairings work. I wanted to make as close to a range vs range comparison between the two as possible, and it can't be perfect. That too is part of the problem in making such comparisons. If I had used a melee-based secondary the damage results would skew sharper in favor of the Blaster. Builds do in fact matter. In situations where a Blaster can fully leverage maximum target caps plus cooldown-based damage buffs (i.e., Build-Up) the damage disparity can be more like a Sentinel doing upper 50 to low 60% (pure range vs range). That's pretty much looking at raw powers in a vacuum without considering real play. However, if you look at a power like Bullet Rain with similar enhancement between the two, the Sentinel is doing about 82% of a Blaster's damage with that specific power. That remains true all the way to 10 targets. In real play my Sentinel uses an additional AoE from the Epic pool that helps. In reality, my Sentinel's powers do about 30 to 40 less damage than a Blaster's with similar slotting per shot before Incarnate choices. In real play, my Sentinel requires no set up of enemies with CC in any way. It can just dive in and handle business. Not all Blasters can do that, but there are numerous builds that do. Regardless, in real play the total time to take out enemy spawns with the Sentinel vs the Blaster was far closer than it seems. This is due to enemies having finite hit points and how damage was spread between them. On paper, it can be a very true statement to make as Sentinels doing 50% less damage, but in real gameplay the difference can be as little as a single use of a power. So we're talking seconds worth of kill speed. However, your mileage may vary. Builds matter here and they matter enough that they can make these kinds of broad stroke comparisons awfully blurry and very misleading.] None of the above takes into account team support. That's an entirely different strain of argument about what's better between Defenders or Corruptors. There is no denying that a strong Defender or Corruptor bring a lot to the table beyond just damage. Sentinels on the other hand are not completely empty handed due to how the inherent works. Its just not the same scale. Single Target is a different animal. Context matters and context matters a lot. My Sentinel builds often do more damage to single targets than a Defender or Corruptor build would with the same set. Though there are some very very heavy caveats here and build choices absolutely matter. Still, my general experience is that the Sentinel's single target damage is a strength of the AT. Historically pure ranged damage options lacked for single target due to old snipe mechanics, but the Sentinel changes this. Blaster comparisons can be total wild cards on single target due to the inclusion of early melee attacks which are usually far higher on DPA than ranged attacks. A well thought out Blaster is a force of nature. A well thought out Sentinel isn't that far behind. Look dear reader, I recognize that the Sentinel isn't going to blow away hordes of enemies in AoE. There isn't a whole lot I can do to make them exceed any of the other Ranged-oriented ATs. So I do not bother to build up the perceived weakness. Instead, I often try to focus on improving single target because I find more bang for my buck improving that. I'll explain why. Sentinels can have different attack cycles than Defenders/Corruptors/Blasters. Sentinels just play differently. They do not have a snipe but instead have some form of replacement power that fits in the cycle all the time. There is no need to figure out how much bonus to-hit you need in order to max out a snipe. There is no need to run Tactics to gain that boost. Sentinel snipe replacements are there and they just work all the time as is. It is a remarkable boon to the AT that is so completely ignored and misunderstood it is mind blowing. Now, the change recently to fast snipes did create a very large power spike, especially for Blasters, but Sentinel single target isn't a total loss. Its more a strength of the AT than a detriment. I won't bore folks with dissecting another mock vacuum run of Defender single target vs Sentinel single target or any other AT. Hopefully, you get the point. I've spent an awful lot of time talking about ranged ATs. They are hands down the most commonly cited power set comparisons around. What we don't often chat about is the melee ATs. Sentinels have far more in common with ScrappersStalkers than they any other AT in the game. Sentinels aren't just an armored Blaster. They are also a ranged brawler. Melee damage historically had far better single target damage than it did AoE damage. There have been exceptions to this since the game went live, but that was a general design decision. Over time newer sets seem to break this rule and we can all blame popular demand for that. Still, Sentinels trend towards a focus on single target. Why else would they include new ranged ST attack options that bolster that method of damage while having reductions to their AoE? Sentinels are not AoE-focused like Blasters. Does this mean Sentinels do more damage than Scrappers/Stalker? Not usually. Scrappers/Stalkers gain a lot more control over their critical rate through their ATOs and that contributes a lot of damage to both. Sentinels have similarities to Stalkers in how their secondaries are designed and their general mitigation has a lot of parallels. Sentinels have a lot of similarities to Scrapper in the care free nature of just offense. Still, pure melee has had a large advantage in DPA for a long time and that hasn't changed. So while a Sentinel may not bring the single target pain train like any of the melees do. It definitely has wider coverage on AoE. Many melee AoE's have an 8ft radius. Many of the Sentinel TAoE's have a 15ft radius. Sentinel T9's can hit multiple targets within 20ft spheres while doing heavy damage. There are 19 melee power sets. So this is not a perfect comparison of the 13 power sets within Sentinels. There will be winners and losers. However, when speaking to general strengths, Sentinels offer some ease of use of hitting multiple targets as they run around. The AT is not entirely dependent on foes being clustered into tight groupings to get maximum effect. This too isn't as bad as it sounds in real play. Alternative Damage Sources... OK, enough with AT comparisons. Comparisons like that can have so many holes that Swiss cheese gets jealous. So try not to do it. So if Sentinels aren't total crap, what gives? How does a min-max minded player tolerate just a plebeian AT? If your really give a crap about doing damage you look at all the tools available. Damage procs are a tool. Damage procs can dramatically improve damage. Not all Sentinel sets can take advantage of them, but the ones that don't also don't often need it. You poo poo on the existence of procs at your own peril. This method stacks with managing Opportunity uptime as the -resistance works with procs. Ok, a less intrusive method is the include of high DPA melee and mixing it up with the kids. Sentinel Epic/Patron options have some really great side-grade attacks like Knockout Blow, Mind Probe, Midnight Grasp, or Havoc Punch. Some of these have very long recharges and some don't. Sentinels have a theme of weird lopsided functionality in the epics. You may see speak of the king, Dominate. Char and Netherword Grasp are also good runners up due to their animations/cooldowns. What works for these holds is their IO slotting properties, i.e., more procs. These powers can often take a full set of slots of nothing but procs. They'll often have chance to fire that it is as close to guaranteed as you can get. Its significant damage if you want it. So you'll see recommendations of stacking Melee + Proc Enabled Hold. That method is a bit messier for the Opportunity management method. However, this method couldn't care less about Opportunity as a mechanic. The DPS addition of this combo while stacking on other procs in primary powers can be high enough to make you forget the inherent. It is that strong. Alternatively, there is Tashibishi from Ninja Tools. This just a renamed Caltrops. If you like Caltrops, then you'll like this power. Its the same functionality as you find elsewhere. Much of the Ninja Tools is pretty 'meh', but caltrops if pure win if you've ever enjoyed using it before. It does damage for its duration and it will proc when spawned (if slotted that way). Its a good power with its default slot or several. Its a highly underrated pick because it isn't as sexy as Mind Probe + Dominate and it makes things run away. Still, it can be a nice alternative for the power and slot conscious.

It feels time to construct a thread to share some experiences about the AT after playing it for the better part of a year. When I first came to HC, probably right around this time, I wasn't sure exactly of what I wanted to play. I created a bunch of ATs and recreated old characters. I'm sure many of you understand. I saw the Sentinel and it got me curious. It was new, not many people knew anything about it, and it seemed like a challenge to play/build. I had tried to play Dual Pistols a few times but it never worked out for me. I didn't really care for it on Blasters (still don't) so I tried it on Corruptors/Defenders. My support sets always felt too busy for me to really enjoy Dual Pistols. Well, Sentinels come along and many of the armor sets are fairly hands off allowing me to fully focus on the attacks. YAY! Right off the bat... I want to try to keep bias to a minimum. Its not possible to fully remove my own bias, but unchecked bias helps absolutely no one. Unchecked bias is a very common lens to view the Sentinel through. 500lb Gorillas... Damage. The Sentinel is a damage AT. It isn't a tanker, it isn't an off-tank, nor is it a support set. Its a damage AT. Its a damage AT that incorporates some group support through its inherent but that is subject to change. When it comes to damage the Sentinel is often compared to entire ATs with little regard for any component pieces. It is, possibly unfairly, compared to ATs in light of recent changes to those groups as well. This is where the unchecked bias becomes a problem. I think the disparities are blown way out of proportion. I think that people's unchecked bias doesn't allow them to go past a certain point with the AT and then make sweeping comments about it as a whole. Make no mistake, there is some truth in those arguments, but they can get distorted very quickly. Metrics... Let's note that Mids just isn't accurate for all things for just a moment. When I just jumped into the game to check the info screen on one of my characters I noted a 43 damage difference between the game and the planner. Doesn't sound like much, but this exacerbates the unchecked bias. Let's talk ranged damage scalars for just a moment. AT/Class Scalar (ranged) Blaster 1.125 Corruptor 0.75 Defender 0.65 Sentinel 0.95 When you step back and look at the numbers as they are it doesn't look so bad does it? However, this isn't the full story either. Inherent Mechanics: An Ugly Monster of Unchecked Bias... Corruptors, Defenders, and Blasters have inherents. Corruptor Scourge grants an increasing chance to double damage when health goes below a threshold. Defenders gain bonus damage while solo. Blasters gain damage while attacking. The 3 ATs previously mentioned all have fairly straight forward inherents. These make great sounding boards for arguments on effectiveness in a vacuum. The Sentinel inherent is far more complicated than it needs to be. It is confusing, sometimes counterproductive, removes a sense of player agency, and is difficult to quantify. It is no wonder to me why some people dislike the AT or are adverse to playing it. Opportunity as a mechanic is not easy to use nor is it easy to understand. What's it do though? Opportunity will always impose a minor resistance and defense debuff on enemies struck by the Sentinel. There is no thought or action required. If you successfully hit, then the target gets a debuff pairing (-resistance and defense). This effect does not stack from the caster and it can be resisted. It will work alongside other sources of the same debuffs. So additional resistance or defense debuffing still build from the caster as normal. Against most content this translates into more damage not only from the Sentinel but by teammates too. Everyone gets to take advantage so the Sentinel functions like a Bard might from other games. You multiply damage and no one ever recognizes your contribution. That's the passive portion of the inherent. The activated portion is a separate mechanic and has multiple parts. Confused? Good, because this part may cross your eyes. I'll try to keep at a 30,000ft level. Sentinels have a 3rd bar called "Opportunity". Its a meter that functions like a Dominator's inherent "Domination". Hell, when you fill the bar near max you glow... just like a Dominator. Unlike the Dominator, this meter does not hit a "perma" status. Some builds can create situations where Opportunity's meter mechanic feels more like a Brute's Fury. ...Crap, I said I would try to keep this simple, but it just isn't. So all attacks have a specific amount of meter attached to it. For example, all T1 attacks grant +8 meter to the bar. This has been consistent across every single primary set I have tested. T9 powers can grant 30+ meter. Many of the single target attacks grant +13 meter. Cones can generate 16-18 and TAoEs can range 18-20's. The exact amount of meter generated is not uniform across the sets. Generally, if an attack has a longer set of recharge and/or animation it will trend towards more meter. For ease of use though, it is pretty consistent to observe all T1's as granting +8 and virtually all other single target attacks as granting +13 (includes the T2). At 90 meter the T1 and T2 attack choices will gain a ring. The T1 power will always trigger "Offensive Opportunity". The T2 power will always trigger "Defensive Opportunity". There is a catch... You have to successfully hit first. If you miss the attack Opportunity remains full until you successfully land attack or leave combat. Technically, if you miss the chance to trigger the inherent's active mechanic you just continue to build meter until you spend it. What activing Opportunity does (general): Once triggered, Opportunity will last 15 seconds. The effect below will last until the target is defeated. The specific modes are independent of the target's state. Regardless of hitting the T1 or T2, the target struck will receive a -20% resistance debuff. This debuff can be resisted and it stacks with all other -resistance sources. In other words, it is its own source. This debuff allows all other teammate striking the target to gain a damage boost. Bard complex, no one cares that they are doing upto 20% more damage and that you were the cause of it. Offensive Mode: This grants a proc-like effect that lasts for 15 seconds. The effect applies to all attacks dealt during the duration. The effect cannot be enhanced and functions off a percentage of your base damage. So the weaker the attack the smaller the effect's hit. AoE attacks can spread more damage during the duration. Defensive Mode: Its similar to Offensive Mode but applies a minor health and endurance restore for the same duration. Once again, this is tied to all successful hits and can apply to AoE powers. The game will directly tell you how much health you gain but the combat window will only say "you also gain some endurance". You do in fact gain endurance. The endurance feature is the strongest perk of this effect as endurance is a much smaller pool than health. Even at low levels I have found the endurance restore to achieve a state of neutral drain. That was tested without any endurance reduction in attacks or toggles. The higher in level you get and the more end drain you apply the hard it is to maintain that equilibrium. However, once you start modifying endurance spend in attacks and toggles, the perk starts to pay you BACK endurance spent. The faster your recharge, the more frequently you hit, and the more frequently you hit successfully the more endurance you restore. Crap on the healing effect all you want, but the endurance restore can be very powerful for an inherent if you bother to pay attention. Should you focus on one opportunity or both? That's a great question and it is impossible to answer in a vacuum. Offensive Opportunity cannot be enhanced meaning that the more you push your own ED cap on damage modification the less it contributes. Still, Offensive Opportunity is usually a positive DPS gain but it can be so relatively minor that you can skip it. Just how good this effect becomes is very related to how good the carrier power is and whether or not it holds any significance to your attack cycle. It is possible to net a tiny fraction (or sometimes even lose) of DPS triggering Offensive Opportunity by using a T1 power with no other enhancement beyond accuracy. If you treat the T1 as a regular part of your routine, then the effect becomes just added damage. Still, it isn't so significant that you stress about it. Same goes for Defensive Opportunity. Defensive Opportunity's strongest benefit is probably the endurance gain. That can have noticeable effect during the entire leveling spectrum, but its contribution can drop off sharply with a well designed build. Still, some secondaries do struggle with recovery and the T2 can benefit those (more on this later). My advice is this... run both the T1 and T2 to explore the options while leveling. Worry less about it once you hit 50 and just use the best attack out of the two if you need to prune a pick/slots. The strongest aspect of the activated inherent is that -20% resistance which is available in either mode. How to Use Opportunity Organically... Simply don't worry about it. That's the easiest way to view it with a full build. I spent an awful lot of time linking the animation, recharges, and meter values of the attacks I use in my characters. I could tell you the average expected time in seconds it takes for my Dual Pistols Sentinel to hit 90% meter. I've designed the attack sequence to include Opportunity without much thought on my part. All I need is the muscle memory of what powers to click and that's it. Basically what I do is I tag the T1 or T2 at the end of my attack sequence. I generally try to limit my attacks cycles to just one of the two, but not all primaries can or should do that. If you would generally use a concept of T1 (or T2) -> T3 -> T1 (or T2) -> T4, just reverse it. T4 -> T1 (or T2) -> T3 -> T1 (or T2). Doing that will usually result in triggering Opportunity at the soonest moment without much worry. Sometimes you'll miss and that sucks. Still, if you try to trigger Opportunity as close to 90% of the meter as possible you can usually improve the overall uptime of the effect. Once the duration ends you rebuild as fast as possible (more on this later). You rinse and repeat. Why does the above work the way it does? I've found that I can often achieve 90% meter by the time I hit that T3 power on the 3rd sweep of the routine. This means that when the T1 (or T2 - these can be interchangeable for the purpose of this discussion) is used next it will automatically trigger the inherent once the target is hit. If you run the reverse of the routine what happens is you often generate 90% opportunity during the use of the T1. This will NOT trigger the inherent. The T1 cannot be the power that gets you to 90%+ meter. It has to come AFTER that condition. If the T1 is the power that generates you're 90% meter condition, then the next attack will go beyond 100% (since it almost always grants +13 meter). That delays the triggering of the Inherent by 1.188 to 2.64 (or higher) seconds. I've almost always had positive DPS gains doing this but some primaries might not pull it off. Still, it is worth exploring as an option. You could also completely ignore this advice and do what you want. Opportunity, AoE, and the ATO... The previous commentary is focused on single target. However, what about AoE? This is a big can of worms. There are a wide range of ways to build your Sentinel, but I'll still share some my findings on what works for me. I tend to prefer both ATOs in AoE powers. Superior Sentinel's Ward has good set bonuses, but the proc is total crap in difficult content. The absorb shield it provides is affected by the purple patch and therefore its benefit is severely reduced. I've see it proc for as little as +14 Absorb against +4 enemies. I've seen it grant well over +1000 when I shot at a level 1 Hellion in Atlas Park at level 50. Do not take this set for the proc. However, the proc does check per target in AoEs. I have not noticed it stacking with itself but it can have a high chance to go off in an AoE. Its not great, but it is something. Superior Opportunity Strikes is also good for set bonuses. The proc can be total crap in single target situations, but it can have potential in AoE. The proc is similar to the Ward one. It will check against enemies but doesn't appear to stack effect. You can turn an AoE power from generating +18 opportunity to generating +37.5. It can make your T9's grant you half a bar. It can trigger again if activated against a large group and you get lucky. The other night I had back to back procs. My bar filled to max, I ran Opportunity, and when it ended I filled to max in a span of less than 10 seconds. Many, many months ago, I saw someone talking about Sentinel opportunity working like being a ranged Brute. They just kept filling their bar over and over. AoE is how you do that. You could slot the Strikes set in any AoE you prefer or even a T9. The full 6pc set has 100% recharge modification. I have a Sentinel with this set in the T9. That power has a 23 second cool down due to the set and global recharge (185%). Hitting 10 targets with that power has a pretty good chance of granting significant meter. Several other Sentinels I have run the set in their 10 target TAoEs and in teams I notice a significant uptime on Opportunity. Pairing this strategy with taking the T1 to trigger Offensive Opportunity can allow a person to have significant uptime on the bonus damage. Even if that damage effect is low, it still applies to all attacks. To recap, I tend to find that in fast moving group scenarios the Sentinel can potentially hammer out a lot of Opportunity use due to the above strategy. Single target is far more difficult to optimize. This is largely due to the Strikes ATO having a PPM value of 1 (the basic version) or a PPM value of 2 (superior) depending on version used. I have only had success triggering that proc in very select powers within specific primaries. For example, Sonic's Screech or Psionic Blast's Scramble Thoughts trend towards higher than proc chances than many other powers. Slotting that ATO in a T1 power that has a 1 second animation plus 4 second recharge will likely land you around the default proc chance of 5%. It may trigger so rarely in quickly available powers that you'd think it is totally useless. For single target, I'd agree. Try to find space in AoE if you bother with the proc or otherwise its value is pretty much garbage. Most Sentinel primaries can easily rebuild opportunity meter within 13 seconds in their single target chains when considering higher states of recharge. Even without that, you could potentially hit 50% uptime. The longer your attack chains lag the greater the gap gets. With AoE powers and the ATO the difference in uptime can be significantly less. Food for thought. I've noted before that Sentinels aim to pick up a lot of pennies. The pennies being bits of damage that are available in various forms to offset the perception of the AT being "low damage". Playing with Opportunity uptime is one way to do that. Its not the only way to do it, and can pair with others.

It can be. I do not always recommend skipping the T1 or T2. What I usually try to suggest is that neither are so critical that they are must haves. It is always up to the player to make a final decision about what works best for their build. Offensive Opportunity will almost always add a positive gain in damage but the amount it adds is variable. It is largely build dependent and linked to the goal of the user. Generally I see single digits worth of positive gain and not so much of it that I'd always miss it. So if you're looking to pick up all the pennies you can, then take it. Otherwise you can skip it and likely not miss taking out enemies a few seconds faster. Defensive Opportunity heals many of my level 50's for only +22 health. Whoopie F*ing do on paper. That healing is directly tied to attack frequency so the faster I land blows the more incoming health I can get. It can be a nice side grade on soft-capped defense characters that can dodge attacks while slowly gaining health. The effect is in no way a replacement for stronger healing effects but it does stack. The big benefit from Defensive Opportunity that I do discuss is that it also restores endurance. That effect is noticeable in the low levels as it can effectively let you break even on costs but once you start reducing end drain you can gain possible returns. Is Defensive Opportunity enough to warrant taking it over a T1? Again, not necessarily... A lot of Sentinel builds can handle endurance very well. Not all of them do (e.g., Ice Armor, Fiery Aura, Dark Armor). If you're experience with a secondary is one where the set is giving you a lot of end (pretty much all the others), then this endurance benefit in the T2 means little. So what you're left with is evaluating the T1 vs T2's DPA. Which of these two powers is just better doing damage without worrying about the mechanic at all. So that's why you'll see the recommendations you see, at least from me. I think about the DPA first, the build needs next, and finally view Offensive Opportunity as a luxury perk to take LAST.

Ok, so I came up with something running more "yellow" sets. There are a few orange pieces here and there. However, the big takeaway... no purples, no uniques at all (not even Steadfast), no PvP IOs. Hide is toggled off but would raise the defenses by another 2.35% as it is the same value as Combat Jumping. This softcaps to many types or gets very close. That was the big goal here, try to get as close to soft-cap as possible without breaking the bank. The way things currently run, many melee sets run about 2 million especially AoE sets. These are often sought after by farmers so there are very few really cheap options that would be worth your time. Instead, I just opted to not pick sets costing over 5 mill tops (some sub-level 30 sets still run high). I do highly recommend that you pay for the Numina, Miracle, and Performance Shifter Endurance procs. This build isn't running perma-Energize (though it tries to get close) and I personally like a lot of endurance, especially on Stalkers. You know what you like better than I do so you can shift things around however you see fit. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1456;652;1304;HEX;| |78DA6594CB6EDA5010866D3025DC42204D028190000D849B036AF65512482F0952A| |4485DF4E63A70022E0810386D68D5455FA19BAE7ADD75D3B7E963F4F20674E4F921| |A8B6647D788EFF39FFCC1953BFAAFA7FDC7D77479203875D7D34D2CE4CBDDB11C38| |5FAA5A99B46BFE794E872D31DC78A56175D21D463A3274CA3A1ED9BA6DEE8C4A68B| |5571217A23A1D67A62D81A6BFB97435D0A9CF6FB5DF5C868B54DA3D7F25A4F67032| |19A41EBE789D09B62386A1B03FFF47940EF456B03A3A11EF49B63ADAE8F4C311C4F| |BD45C84D866E3D24E19AB8A46784AC22391E818F99CA13F0297357631E78665A494| |A102A8A744EF964E4933B1CBBF102BC602EB4C03673D7603648EB84D6893DBCF0E4| |85273F3CF9E1290C4F4DD2BAA0753539DFE27350672E9D830D66F8A7D3A208F1E99| |056761778EDE67787C543AAD1631534513C8B32AF7999AB3E30C05C0F32ABA4F141| |E38326024D049A7568E2D0D44813608D1448B287238A0539E60AA664ABCE7882994| |832737BACAF94C10AB3453585D08FD06BCE9778C9DC7A055E816F98A5B78A45999A| |B18C735D9ED0253929B2C24E1C2B709084A3249C28F4CE1AAA5E43D549549D46D56| |9549D46D56DB21885CBE8577671EB1BF811FCC4CC7C6656BE30EF517762B26CB98C| |25790A52E461033E3770920930031AB4E726F6DCC4846631A1594C6816139AFB6F4| |2EFD39E29E44F1578CF0C98437E85F26FE324B73FF014B929B6838EEE201622AF05| |F4AB807E15D1AF22FA5344DF4AE8DB2A6954E456F1C585295646EE322627A6CCBEC| |C495C99FB4AADD33CCE5FAFE66DAB655BA4628BDCB645F66C91135BE45499FD3748| |B215F12CCDBEF8C92F2FADCAF3AB7FAE230EF9217720FF80A7AD64BDF1DBA6F93BA| |F79CF9DCEA3E3F92DEECE3F0393DD35| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

These two statements nail it. I think the two underlined comments are related. I can only make assumptions with how you approached the build, but I suspect you lower some mitigation to gain some damage. Energy Blast does struggle with damage when constructed with just full sets and ED capping damage alone. However, with some proc abuse it can get better. Probably not Fire good, but definitely better.

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=78DA65944B4F135114C7EF3C0AB4E50DA5050A4811861628544D0C021215311A4888246E9B11AE65B416D2D644972EFC0646762AEE8C86B59FC357C0C7C21D3E71A151823A9EDEF3B7106792E63773EE79FCEFB9E776F6FA54F5FA999B9342AB3D95B50B85F4BCCC159D9CCCFA66ED8CB3204A4F25FDDAFED9D3E7ED5C462E26A7ECFC95F4490A29B69797A6E425992BC8E4B423F337D227AEE56D119C5B5ECE26A7B34E66A9D8ACDE67A4BD28F3852567257D5116ED8032CEAF48B958C3BE25572797693BBDE22C24CBB9A79DBC4CCF52394A1D214116FD9E5A028F2BC438C134C4D17EA2A66C3EF1CD1022658A03DFC19FCCC11F60981C3B8887F8FB998550E19A9AE653B68060D6EBE02D5DB1E51DC78C523D836374E313DBBA3F825BCCE794D787BCBE35A16C15D05BB1A52B0D5583EC1BB8AA29BEB0B8F114A3550E704CD543AEEDA7053FEF51F843ECFF92FC83A81184F66A68AF86F6DA279CA736C6B58294A706FDAB71E91163B49B3ACE6CD6FDD7BD6E746D085D1C8A70F736A872032A37BC35D55AE306F89AD9BC09BE614E509D26D56B576FDA655B6A07FCC5B4134284588B1EC22E5BEA356810AAF602F984A137FC80BB13B90BDE63B6DD07D7989BA4B795F5FA5A710A519C4A14A7D08953E98CE0BBD150DFC749773BF6DAEE72BEBE5DA625D8D7FA83EFDFCC1875B983356A1DEA24FD2201BE222D5DD0D235C1FE3DE3CC83A3E031708C9998E43AEB712162E84FEC3DDB7A30813D98BCDBA4B717D3D98BA9E8C354F4B9DCE73BE4D38F3DF53F665BFC1198E29AF1B3A88DE9D4694F03989C013539065992ACC6486242863141C398A0E11DA649BE23E8C84833674CE164A3E6BE3BAD325F8E976E74E9FEB86EC2B33AE2B1A43C96C31ECB118F65C6639933CBFF064253167F7DF9AEBB9F03B4AAED5FDDDEB3E8DA05DE8D798E6811BB79E75F3C515FF7477DE0AEEBDBE02A77DD0C13D8C75D6DDA7BFF0B0DB6FEBA Edit: 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.