oldskool

May as well ignore all the tools available to the other ATs while you're at it.

This side tangent is such a weird argument in the context of all of it. Dual Pistols is one of the only ranged sets in the game to not have both Aim and a Snipe. You can literally design the exact same attack sequences across all the ATs with Dual Pistols. The biggest exception is how one handles Suppressive Fire. Seeing as how Sentinels, Defenders, and Corruptors can all have a far easier time closing defensive gaps than Blasters, those ATs can explore a lot of damage in procs. This is one of the rare sets where a Sentinel build using Dual Pistols can potentially do more damage in a purely ranged contest than its Blaster counterpart. AoE will always be largely better on a Blaster, but the single target potential is a lot more blurry than it may look.

In a very simple way of looking at yes, the DoT is gravy and the general numbers of the base damage remain the same. The DoT duration is also very short. So its more like additional damage on a small delay. I think Piercing Rounds has one of the longest versions of the DoT at 3 seconds. That number may not be exact, but it is most certainly shorter than you can get the cooldown of the power to be in a practical build. That does also ignore the fact that the split damage type when running an ammo power will check against a different resistance with the potential to grant you more damage overall to susceptible enemies. Suppressive Fire is always a hold when running any of the elemental ammo powers. Suppresive Fire's default mode is stun when no ammo powers are active. That's it. Easy peasy. Suppressive Fire doesn't gain many of the other perks from the ammo system either. It doesn't gain a DoT with fire ammo, for example. Suppressive Fire is unique though that its modular damage ratio is different from most of the set. The elemental damage ratio is about 50/50. Suppressive Fire is a fine hold power on non-Sentinels and can be jury-rigged into a damage power with procs for non-Sentinels. For Sentinels, Suppressive Fire's hold/stun durations are dramatically reduced and the power overall has a damage increase. Of course, it can still take on procs to push its damage further making it more a build decision vs a utility power. Hail of Bullets will always keep its defense bonus it grants (duration is 5 seconds~). Hail of Bullets will have 100% chance to knockdown at the end of the animation with standard ammo. Running any kind of element will change the knockdown chance but not completely remove it. Chemical ammo's debuff does not stack with itself but will stack with other sources of damage debuff. Piercing Rounds is not particularly good as an AoE power nor is it particularly good as a ST power. It can offer some utility to Corruptors and Defenders though. For Defenders, it brings a -20% resistance debuff in standard ammo. For Corruptor's that's -15%. For Blasters/Sentinels it is -9.6% and the rest of the set can brute force past that damage contribution with procs and rapid animation times. PR can do interesting things with procs. Most notable is the Annihilation resistance debuff proc. PR has a pretty decent chance to trigger it for being an "AoE" due to its narrow cone nature. This can let you stack yet another source of -resistance when running standard ammo. Its worth considering for the team utility at the expense of some personal damage. Pistols, the first power, is actually quite strong for its damage-to-animation ratio. So don't under estimate it. Its second only to Executioner's Shot. Suppressive Fire can become a very heavy hitting power though its long recharge may not make it rotational unless you're a Sentinel (again, their version is different). Dual Wield can be decent with procs added but it can also be substituted for Empty Clips. Bullet Rain is your AoE with the best coverage so may as well take it. Note that several powers can take the Force Feedback: Recharge proc. That's Dual Wield, Executioner's Shot, Empty Clips, Bullet Rain, and Hail of Bullets. You don't need all of those powers to hold that proc but the AoEs will check against every target. Don't under the value of Decimation: Build-Up in one of your attacks either. You don't necessarily need the full set, but the proc can be woven repeatedly in your ST attack cycle. If you're not using the long animating Piercing Rounds, then all of the other regular attacks have 1.848 second animations or less in the case of Pistols. This can lead to full attack routines (where your longest recharge power) is available within 5 seconds, depending on your global recharge of course. I occasionally see folks bemoan the "long animation" times of Dual Pistols. It seems like total BS to me. Hail of Bullets and Piercing Rounds are the only powers that are longer than 2 seconds. Everything else is less animation time. I think there is a perception that due to Piercing Rounds unlocking at 26th level must mean that it is the strongest power. Its not. Its optional.

Dual Pistols trades out Aim for Swap Ammo and it loses on some burst damage there. I'd think pairing Dual Pistols with a secondary that includes Build-Up would be a welcome addition. Empty Clips and Bullet Rain can be a quickly recharging AoE damage combo but another AoE with decent coverage would be welcome too. You can potentially skip Suppressive Fire and Piercing Rounds as a Blaster. Both/Either have their uses but they aren't must haves without some specific gameplay elements in mind.

Its a pretty good set, but it isn't so good you should create a build around it. I did swap a 5x Positron's with Bombardment in my Water/Dark Sentinel. The minor recharge loss wasn't a big deal and it got me 2.25% more S/L which is nice. Dark Armor is a bit finicky to cap S/L resistance through IOs alone and the set has always had a weakness to in energy resist. I don't have a slot to spare for the full bonus but the large resistance perk would be nice to have. Regeneration is another secondary where Bombardment can play a role in the build. And for whatever its worth... Dark Armor is viable. All of the secondaries are viable. All of them. What is optimal or not is a different question.

That's a really good build @Anmorata. I run less defense and resistance for more recharge as a matter of personal preference. I'm very survivable as long as Dark Regeneration is available. That's not so much a critic on the build but just a different perspective of experience. As long as Dark Regen is available to heal you, it is very difficult to die with Dark Armor. My primary build leverages control options during some solo play through Touch of Fear, Cloak of Fear, and the backup Placate. Is this necessary? Not really, but it is fun to make a boss cower in fear as both Touch and Cloak stack. Placate I take as a backup because I find I miss it if I skip it. The Stalker's Guile proc turns Placate more into a nice to have utility vs a must have to leverage gameplay. With enough recharge and end recovery, especially through stacking Superior Conditioning & Physical Perfection, Ageless Radial becomes attractive mostly for its DDR protection. I personally need neither the recharge nor the end benefits. Barrier also works well for me since I'm neither softcapped or hardcapped in defense/resistance. One of these days, I will complete a Patron arc to unlock Soul Mastery. I may create a second build to include Moonbeam for more damage and Shadowmeld for the pocket defense buff. I enjoy my current build too much to dump it entirely.

Soul Noir is the best thing that happened to this game, period. 😉

Scrappers don't get Superior Conditioning do they? Body Mastery opens up Conserve Power as a choice which can be nice to overkill. Physical Perfection unlocks after at least one pick in that set (Conserve Power vs Focused Accuracy). Superior Conditioning is available to Brutes and Stalkers though. Regardless, any of these choices will help. One thing Werner mentions really needs emphasis.... If enemies cannot kill you within Dark Regeneration's recharge window - they can't kill you. This may make spamming DR and watching its cooldown far more active (and maybe a little stressful at time) than you care for. The Theft of Essence proc for +endurance makes spamming it possible though you may need other endurance sources if it doesn't trigger (happens sometimes). Having more defense stacked up will give you breathing room and softcapping will likely make using DR a once in a while thing. I have played Dark Armor on all the ATs. With IOs and Incarnates the endurance issue isn't really an issue anymore. That feels more like a hold over from the core game or those wanting to play only with basic IOs or SOs. For example, running all of the DA toggles plus other pool powers (Tough/Weave) can easily push your endurance consumption to 2 end per second in just toggles. Baseline endurance recovery is around 2 end per second. It is also possible to stack on enough toggles to passively drain your endurance to zero... without any enhancements to reduce it. When you start to slot endurance reductions then it gets manageable. With IO's can you lower toggle costs (running multiples) to 1.5 to 1.8. The fewer toggles the lower the end drain. However, your end recovery can go over 3 end per second maybe even into 4 end per second if you slot Physical Perfection + Accolades. Then the passive procs of Performance Shifter and Panacea will generate more end than you can spend in attacks. This really can be a non-issue with proper planning. Also, as Werner said, your primary doesn't matter. Its all about the planning.

Nice to see you here @Bopper. Just to add some more thoughts. SR's got you covered on defense. Enduring can be slotted to stack endurance recovery as if you were running Willpower. What you don't get out of the box is accuracy. When you start playing with procs you reduce overall global set bonuses. Some of the most available bonuses around are +accuracy. The Kismet +6% to-hit unique helps offset losses and only costs 1 slot within all of the ample defense powers you can have. I'd considered it. When attacking enemies that are +4 levels over you the accuracy you have will drop considerably. You can set this in the configurations in Mids vs the default 75%. Drop it 39% to see if you're still in the 95% range against +4 enemies. That accuracy is relevant if you plan to exemplar below level 45. Your Incarnates can make you into a 50+1 therefore changing endgame enemies into level 53's. To hit them reliably, change the settings to show 48% as the base accuracy of your powers vs 75%. That will help you start to map out what the build is going to look like when you start gutting set bonuses for procs and will tell you if you need to add in Tactics on top of the 6% Kismet. This is all about just how far you want to go too. You can run lower accuracy but you will miss hits against higher leveled enemies more often. Dark Blast as a set has two gems when it comes to proc slot opportunities. Abyssal Gaze and Life Drain. Abyssal Gaze can take on all of the normal ranged damage set options, accurate to-hit debuff option (Cloud Senses), and holds. The Hold category lets Abyssal Gaze use the Unbreakable Constraint proc which is a substantial damage gain. An Epic Hold (like Dominate) can have a longer cooldown allowing for a more reliable proc chance for the same proc. So that is something to consider. If you're not using an Epic hold for that purpose, then by all means consider Unbreakable Constraint in Abyssal Gaze. Life Drain, in my opinion, is a rather lack luster power on Sentinels but it has multiple proc options (ranged damage, accurate to-hit, healing). If you take this power, then it should have as many procs as practical in order to make it worth casting. The heal isn't that great and its overall damage isn't either. Overcoming to-hit/accuracy/endurance/ED damage... You can get decent accuracy in your powers and some endurance reduction in just 3 slots. You can get fairly high to ED-range damage in those 3 slots too. The Alpha slots can push your enhanced damage well over 100%. There are a number of ways to handle this. One way to go is use 3x Thunderstrikes. Use only the Acc/Dmg, Acc/Dmg/End, and Dmg/End. Use boosters to increase these by +5. That will get you to 59.62% Accuracy, 89.92% Damage, and 59.62% Endurance. Musculature Core Alpha pushes my damage modification to 126.16%. Alternatively you could slot a +3 Hamidon Nucleolus Exposure, a generic level 50 damage IO, and a Dmg/End of your choice. That will get you 38.30% Accuracy (which in one of my builds is 92% accuracy vs 95% --- against +4's), 98.66% damage, and 33.13% endurance modification. With Musculature Core Alpha the damage enhancement becomes 130.91%. Another ways is to use some of the Winter IO sets. Specifically the Accuracy/Damage and Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (i.e., Winter's Bite). Some of the other sets in the AoE categories (i.e., Frozen Blast) also have a Dmg/End too. Finally, you could eschew worrying about endurance entirely and just use 2 slots to push enough accuracy to hit whatever level range you intent to play in plus a bit of damage. Then you can cram in 4-6 procs if you really wanted (you'd likely need Tactics for the ability to hit). If you seek to ED cap damage (prior to Alpha slots) then you will eek out a slight DPS gain. You may sacrifice some endurance but you may be able to handle that depending on your build. You can certainly handle it if you're planning to run Ageless. Again, exemplar content can be considered to determine if your endurance drain will be impacted much (if at all). I happen to use 3x Thunderstrikes in a lot of my builds due to the minor bonuses within that set (some end recovery and ranged defense). Any of the other methods can be good choices if you weigh the consequences. For me, a loss of -4% over-ED damage modification isn't that much of a worry. I've spent a lot of time writing about the ability to hit, but attack sequence is also important. That will be designed by your global recharge. If you intend to mostly use Abyssal Gaze, Antumbral Beam, and Life Drain, then you won't need to worry too much about the slotting of either Dark Blast/Gloom. You're forced to pick one, but you're not forced to devote a lot of slots to it. So if neither are integral to your attack chain, then you don't need to worry about damage procs there. Instead decide if you want to slot it to mule a set or not bother with it beyond a single accuracy enhancement (it needs to successfully hit in order for the inherent to work). Finally, when trying to push damage the highest it can go for Sentinels the strongest power set isn't a primary set. Its Psychic Mastery for the combination of Dominate and Mind Probe. Other epic choices with a relatively quick recharging hold + melee attack are also good (i.e., Fire Mastery or Darkness Mastery).

If your end use with all toggles is 1.51 then that isn't as bad as it sounds with having 3x Performance Shifters. I say that from experience. 😉 The Theft of Essence in Dark Regen will also be pretty noticeable when fighting groups of enemies. You should be fine. If you really feel you need more end management, then Cardiac Alpha and/or Ageless in the Incarnate options can eliminate that worry for any content upto level 45 (lower level exemplar stuff not so much). So are your 45% defenses truly that in game while Hide is combat suppressed or what Mid's is reporting with it turned on? Mid's shows Hide's full stealth defense. Hide's combat defense is more like Shadow Dweller's and that single LoTG should enhance Hide to 2~% defense. So turn off Hide and add 2% back to get an idea of what the real defense is. As the post above notes, without a data chunk it is hard to say as one would have to rebuild everything just to see what you've done. Even if your true defense is a bit lower, Cloak of Fear will slow down incoming minion damage while you deal with them. Dark Regeneration's cooldown is also another factor to keep in mind for staying up right. The quicker it is available, the more often you can drain health and potentially get endurance back. These two things both help offset some lower defenses if that is the case. Stalker DA really doesn't need to be constructed like a brick house as you aren't tanking damage. You have no Death Shroud to generate aggro and Cloak of Fear will terrify enemies. The more defense and resistance you can build the better, don't get me wrong, but it isn't necessarily as important as it is on say a Scrapper due to how all the mechanics work. Also, how does this build handle knockback? I don't notice any of the anti-KB IOs like Karma, Steadfast, or even the travel power ones. It'd be nice to have at least 1 of the 4 KB protection IOs for PvE (I personally try to go for a bit more).

I can confirm this too. Not only they can be slotted, but they also fire off regardless of ammo type. I've been running procs in pistol powers since last Summer.

I've recently gotten my AR/SR to 50 and she's been a lot more enjoyable. SR is what makes it work. The bonus recharge helps me hit 190% global and the high defense lets me decide just how far I can push damage procs. The procs allow AR to do some damage. The recharge can even let me ignore Incinerator which I have found to be a damage increase. AR definitely needs work as a set, but SR at least lets you jury-rig some effectiveness.

That Footstomp slotting has the Superior Avalanche proc in it. So his Footstomp is likely to send things flying. Both procs are entirely unnecessary.

The best response. Slotting Taunt can be a viable strategy for using the bonuses in sets like Mocking Beratement or Perfect Zinger. No added slots, 4 slots (for some bonuses) or all 6 slots. Any of these can be correct depending on what you're doing.

I'd think one would consider Agility more for the defense and recharge boost vs endurance. The end reduction boost Alphas (like Cardiac) can be far better than the end modification Alpha (Agility) as they also reduce the end costs of your attacks. Musculature Core would be fine if you feel comfortable with everything else. No Alpha slot is going to make that dramatic a difference for your elemental resistances like Energy and when you get surrounded by 10 targets Rise is giving you 162 hp a second. That should be plenty. The Superior Might of the Tanker can stack 3 times if you can get it to happen that fast but still even 1 instance of that buff is 6% more resistance. So your Smashing/Lethal resist will cap as long as you keep applying the ATO. My own WP/SS Tanker uses Knockout Blow for that ATO and I can stack 3 times. I'm also pushing more recharge at the expense of defense (I sit around 37% to most types with Psi at 32.9%). My non-S/L resistances get just over 50% and Strength of Will gets me to just under 70% to everything that isn't capped for 2 minutes. I know some folks think it is an auto skip, but I've always used it. I only regenerate 130hp with full RttC saturation and I've never been dropped by S/L mobs in normal content. So you could conceivably back off of the defense you've built. This is especially true on TW since Defensive Sweep can handle your Melee defense, but I understand if you want to avoid casting that power every 10 seconds or so. Other Incarnates to consider: If your end management feels right, then Barrier will close a lot of gaps for you. Melee Hybrid Core is resist-based and builds per enemy in range like RttC. With these you could juggle their uses and close a lot of gaps in your resistance. For AV/GMs, diamagnetic will get ignored like it never happened. Degenerative though will reduce their HP and as a side effect their regeneration. Regardless of which you pick, always bring Envenomed Daggers that you can purchase in order to reduce their regeneration rates. Otherwise, you may feel those fights are tickle-fests since your recharge isn't high enough to really push TW damage in the first place. Your potential damage isn't bad, but it isn't optimal since Arc of Destruction has such a long cooldown. You'd end up weaving far more Crushing Blows than you could Follow Through. If your goal is to push defense harder than offense, then I wouldn't really bother changing up much.

While a guide would be nice, there are a lot of caveats that need to be considered. Bio Armor responds well to the IO system, but it takes more than just slotting in Bio Armor to make the character effective. Some power sets are largely self-contained where they require very little outside help in order to meet their mitigation goals (like Super Reflexes). Bio Armor's merger of IO system use is going to be dependent on your secondary and pool power preferences. That word preferences is really important in my opinion. Not everyone likes travel powers, or some like specific travel powers, some like the Fighting Pool, some want to build without it, and so on. Since Bio Armor works well with the IO system, expense is also something that needs to be taken into consideration. Anyone with an unlimited budget can create an amazing Bio Armor (or any) character. You can soft-cap multiple, if not all, defense and have high resists. The Incarnate system can also play a role here. In other words, Bio Armor character builds are more about the complete package vs just the primary. All of that said, Bio Armor is kind of like a hodge podge of design decisions from Willpower and Regeneration. You have layered defenses like Willpower along with some active/reactive healing potential like Regeneration. Willpower builds often seek to raise Smashing/Lethal resistance and get as high on typed defenses as possible. Bio Armor builds should be seeking some ideas there. Regeneration can work very well with an emphasis on recharge to bring heals up often. Bio Armor builds can make use of lowering its 3 click powers too, but on some Tanker builds these may not be the clutch heals they are on Scrappers/Brutes/Sentinel/Stalkers. For defense toggles, a basic idea is to 4 slot them with 1 end and 3x resistance OR defense. For passives 1-3 slots depending on taste of its type. For passives with multiple effects the slots can expand up to 6 and basic slotting can be a mix of effects (3x endurance buff + 3x heal, or 3x heal + 3x resistance, etc.). For damage toggles, like Genetic Contamination, I like a mix of accuracy and endurance before damage though I nearly always 6 slot them. Damage toggles are completely idiot proof damage add-ons that will work even if you get distracted chasing your cat off your keyboard. Furthermore, damage toggles can be a good choice for the Might of the Tanker ATO proc (the full set ain't bad either). This will passively trigger the bonus resistance effect for you and has the potential to stack multiple times (up to 3) without any real thought from the player. The more enemies around you, the more likely the stacking. I have it slotted that way on my Dark Armor Tanker. It works. For the healing powers, especially within Bio, you need to evaluate for yourself how necessary these are to your survival. I personally want Parasitic Aura to have the highest uptime I can on any AT because I find the power to be very strong. This means I want to devote some slots there, but it really depends on where the rest of my build is going. DNA Siphon and Ablative Carapace can range in slots depending on recharge goals. The more global recharge you build, then more available these become. It is very possible to get their cooldown to meet their durations even on minimal slots. Still, I like at least 3 slots in all 3 of these heal powers if I can manage it. Now, for specific IO set bonuses there are a number of ways to skin the proverbial cat. You need to evaluate what your goals are and where the priorities need to be for the content you're shooting to do (regular, incarnate trials, a mix). Know too that there are various resources in this game that can give you temporary bonuses and those too may weigh into your build plan. Temp powers and inspirations can be as much a part of a build idea or playstyle as the IO plan itself. Current influence/infamy budgets are also a factor. A plan for a future respec if your dream build is too expensive is also a factor. I like to build towards "just enough". Just enough damage that I don't bored with a character, and just enough defense to survive standard content. For iTrials, there are boosters, teammates, even secondary builds if I really want to push it. I tend to play a lot of generic team-up content and solo. So I like all-around builds. General goals: 32.5% defense puts you 1 small purple inspire away from 45% defense. Barrier Incarnate will grant you 5% defense and resistance at its lowest point. Melee Hybrid can buff your defenses and regen. Temp Powers can make you immortal in situations. 90% resistance to at least Smashing and Lethal damage which is the most common type. Energy resistance is ideal for 50+ content, but you get what you can get here. I don't suggest breaking your character to shore-up a single weak point. Global recharge, and ideally Hasten, especially for Bio to make things like Parasitic Aura up more frequently. However, this greatly depends on what secondary is involved. Also, if I have an idea to build high defense/resistance already, then the heal powers start to lessen in priority. Sounds complicated? It should, because not all of these decisions translate into characters that all players like. That's the 500lb gorilla in the room of writing guides. You can't please everyone and sets like Bio Armor are so flexible they fit multiple playstyles on the Tanker. The higher your budget the more of a God you can create but a guide should not assume everyone is dropping $500m to $1b per character in order to make it function. If you have a specific pairing in mind, then it is FAR easier to talk about that combination than it is to offer advice in a vacuum.

What exactly doesn't make sense? It is incredibly difficult to max out resists to all types on Dark Armor for non-Tankers. Scrappers, Brutes, Stalkers, these are all in the same boat with you. You should be able to get to the upper 60% range on Smashing, Lethal, and Psi with some planning. Energy and Toxic are notorious holes in the set and incredible pains in the ass to improve even for Tankers. You can temporarily max out, or get nearly max, resists to all types with Rune of Protection if you're willing to take some Sorcery powers. Optimizing damage has a lot of "what abouts" going on. Dark Blast as a set can make use of multiple damage procs. Damage procs push damage but the more you add the less deep IO set bonuses you get. It is a trade off. At level 35 you can access Epic/Patrons and those contain varying degrees of good to great powers. Dark Mastery fits a theme, includes some to-hit debuffs, and contains some great powers. Smite is pretty good for a single-target attack, and Engulfing Darkness is also very good. Netherworld Grasp can be converted into an attack by adding damage procs. The Tentacle power isn't worth your time, and Darkest Night can quickly turn into a trap pick if you aren't careful. Otherwise, this pool is fantastic for theme/damage. Psi Mastery is also a gold standard for adding damage with Mind Probe, procced Dominate, and access to Link Minds which can be great. Here are some other recommendations: 1) Try to aim for getting into the 50% range to all resists except Energy/Toxic. You may get those to be higher depending on your IO set preferences, but try to plan around them as a weakness. 2) Try to aim for getting your melee, range, aoe defenses to 25% to 32%. Dark Blast has a lot of to-debuff and Blackstar can be an amazing contributor to your survival. 3) Try to get Obscure Sustenance's recharge as low as possible. This has a cascading effect and its strongest benefit is around 10 seconds long. Try to cast this around that 10 second window but don't let it delay longer than 20 seconds. The full endurance benefit drops off after 30 seconds and the full health regen is a full minute. Still, the strongest benefits are in the first 10 to 20 seconds. 4) Try to get Blackstar's cooldown as low as you can for both damage and defensive benefit (it is an amazing T9 on Sentinels). Overall, think in layers and realize that Dark Armor on Sentinels is more of a jack-of-all-trades master of none set. Dark Blast gives you lots of to-hit debuffs to give you breathing room on anything short of AV/EB/GMs. Dark Armor has modest, not particular high, resists without IO bonuses taken into account. It has some baseline defense in Cloak of Shadows which other pure resistance sets don't get. This power grants you some minor stealth and another +Stealth IO can compliment it. Obscure Sustenance is a deceptive power. It grants a very large health regeneration benefit for 10 seconds and then it starts to degrade. One build I had got almost 1,200% regeneration for 10 seconds with a 6 second cooldown for it. Its like playing a Regeneration character but having some resists and defense on top of it. Obscure Sustenance does not operate like Dark Regeneration does. Use Obscure Sustenance as early as you can get a target (ideally after Aim + Blackstar) and then maintain its strongest benefit you can on cooldown. Do not use it is a reactionary power like you might with Dark Regen. This one is a proactive power that needs some maintenance by the user.

The TL;DR - Keep your current build as you continue to build up more influence. Whenever you do get that dragon's horde of funds for an expensive build, do something OTHER than what was offered to you because it sucks. The more expensive build would be capable of slightly higher damage, but in all honesty it is pretty crappy given the expenditure. This is especially true when the question is about which does more damage. It looks like someone is giving you advice based on how both sets behave in other ATs and doesn't really stop to understand how either works as a Sentinel. Regen on Sentinels includes an absorb shield. Regen on Sentinels can be fairly sturdy all by itself and especially so at ranged gameplay. Electrical Blast on Sentinels isn't quite the same as it is on say, a Blaster, but the slotting looks a LOT like someone is feeding you Blaster ideas. The inclusion of Havoc Punch is nice, but there isn't really enough recharge to really push its value. Lightning Field makes absolutely no sense based on the defenses in the build. What's the point? While I get the general slotting choices on Maneuvers and Weave, there is a better way to go about it. Fly without Afterburner isn't really worth it. May as well just keep Hover and forget the rest. I'm going to continue to be frank. The use of the Winter sets isn't well thought out, the slotting of Tesla Cage is laughable, and overall the build is pushing a lot of defense for little gain. In other words, the defense slotting is all over the place. There is no real rhyme or reason to any of it. There is so little damage gained there would be little reason to spend that influence and swap away from what you already have. Agility Core? Why the F would someone suggest that to you? Agility is adding around 1% defense. The recharge benefit isn't meaningful enough to burn the Incarnate materials for since the build isn't pushing much recharge in the first place. Here are my suggestions: Determine where you want your character to play from. Do you mostly play ranged? Do you want to use some melee in your back pocket to clean-up, or would you like to play psuedo-scrapper? The latter question will determine Havoc Punch's real value to you and whether or not you should bother with Lightning Field. Tesla Cage should be handled like a damage power. You should consider at least 5 slots of a damage set and ideally +1 slot for a proc. If you don't want to use the Epic Holds, then Tesla Cage can take on another purple proc (Unbreakable Constraint - Smashing Damage). Ideally, this power should have 2+ procs. You won't always need both Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt. You could drop Lightning Bolt BUT it isn't a bad power really. I tend to prefer Regeneration built for recharge and then hit points. If you do plan to stick mostly at ranged, then the Sentinel version of Regeneration can survive very well even with low-ish numbers on defense. At least that was my experience. Recharge does a lot for this combo. First, recharge makes powers like Reconstruction, Second Wind, and so on available more often thus improving your reactive defenses. Second, recharge makes your offense available more often. Sentinels have a hidden gem in their AT. Shorter cooldowns on T9s that can line up with Aim. You skipped Aim in your original build. That power is worthwhile. You can potentially have both Aim and Thunderous Blast available on the same cooldown cycle. The ability to pop Aim + Thunderous Blast is the burst damage combo that Sentinels have. This can be done every 25-ish seconds with recharge investment. Finally, pushing recharge in your build through bonuses means your Incarnate options open to more damage. You don't need Agility or Spiritual if your baseline build already gets you near perma-Hasten. Musculature Core ends up being far better and you aren't shackled to only one kind of Incarnate. You could absolutely work towards multiples of each Incarnate category.

I decided to log into the Sanctuary team's server and check out their changes. For those wishing to see what it may be like to play a Sentinel along the lines of what some of these suggestions, I highly recommend you do so. I think it is very unlikely that Homecoming will implement Sentinels (basically change them to that scale) in the way they do. Warning though, stuff is a little unpolished, but this is what I found so far: Opportunity doesn't exist. The bar is there and the icon in the bar is there, but this works like Defiance on Sanctuary. Each of my blast powers was granting me a damage bonus. The blast sets have a lot of commonality with the "norm". Unfortunately, they do not include snipes but they do revert changes to CC powers. So powers like Suppressive Fire (Dual Pistols) are identical to their Blaster/Defender/Corruptor counterparts. The secondaries are carbon copies of Scrappers and in some cases Stalkers. Their version of Ninjutsu is the Stalker version complete with Hide at level 1 and Caltrop within the set. This also means you get PBAoE damage auras in the sets that had them. Freezing Ray exists there... its just a hold. The Sentinel ATOs are not implemented yet since they seem to be tinkering with the implementation to make it different. So far it seems like a direct Blaster primary + Scrapper secondary. AoEs retain their original target caps. Assault Rifle is almost identical to the Blaster version except Sniper Rifle is still replaced by Incinerator. That means no Aim, but you do get Ignite. Disorienting Shot is replaced by Beanbag, etc... So far some powers also do not work at all. Dual Pistols (my go-to) can't seem to access Swap Ammo despite selecting it, and Bio Armor's Adaptation is also missing. Conceptually the Sentinel is described as a sturdy Blaster with the ability to distract (I guess hold some aggro momentarily?). So a place out there in the wild west of private servers does exist in order to test at least some concepts being tossed around. You could potentially see for yourself just where things are lacking (or not) with these suggestions in at least some capacity.

I don't frequent the Dominator forums much, but for Defenders you have folks like Bopper and Redlynne who haunt there frequently. I tend to find their posts very well thought out.

These and the Guassian's proc (in Tactics specifically) were also tested in the Defender forums. If you haven't checked that subforum out, I highly recommend it. Sentinels and Defenders are kindred spirits in using one of their powersets to open slotting options like procs (at least prior to many of the "Proc Monster..." threads).

The Sonic cones hit more targets than many of the cones in other Sentinel Primaries. So while you may not care for them, they are more functional than many of the other sets. Most of the Epics have only 1 good PBAoE power with varying levels of use. Fire Sword Circle is probably one of the strongest direct damage ones maybe followed by Engulfing Darkness. For simplicity, I'll take Tashibishi from Ninja Tools if I can devote some slots to it for damage procs. I do not mind if enemies run since I run all ranged attack chains, but enemies will try to flee the effect area. So that may turn you off.

With Super Reflexes helping to push perma-Hasten, you will never need both of Ice Bolt and Ice Blast. Super Reflexes can sustain itself on endurance well enough that Defensive Opportunity becomes superfluous and the healing also becomes unnecessary due to Master Brawler plus procs like Panacea and the new one in the End category. Honestly, with Master Brawler granting me over 400 absorb on my two SR Sentinels, I find the heal from Panacea is all I need, but I included Power Transfer twice because I could. Take Ice Bolt since it grants you Offensive Opportunity, and that in and of itself is a mild DPS increase at 50 due to how it works. Here is the order of strength of Sentinel Ice single-target powers: Ice Blast = Ice Bolt -> Chilling Ray -> Bitter Freeze Ray -> Bitter Ice Blast. The latter two are the ones you're going to want if all you care about is damage. From Darkness Mastery, Netherworld Tentacles is going to be hot garbage without dedicated proc slots. I see you're trying to push more to-hit on top of having 50% defense, but why? You can't be immune to being hit in this game. 5% chance will always exist and streak breakers will ensure something tags you at least once out of a full cluster of enemies. Adding on more to-hit debuffing isn't going to stop the inevitable. This is why Master Brawler is soooo F*ing good on Sentinels and layering passive healing like Power Transfer/Panacea can get you near immortality. If you're thinking of using the to-hit debuffs on AV/GMs, then just know they will resist that effect heavily. Darkest Night out of the Darkness Mastery pool has a base 10% and even fully enhanced will drop into the single digits. The best thing about that power is the damage debuff but that doesn't matter nearly as much if you aren't getting hit often in the first place. Plus, Darkest Night is a fairly large end drain and your end management isn't that great. Forgive some of the build below if you will, it is really early, and I came up with pretty quick. - Sentinel ATOs - In general these suck. The Ward effect is pitiful since it is effected by enemy level. Do not expect this to save your bacon because it will likely grant you an absorb shield in the teens vs the hundreds. Opportunity Strikes seems to work pretty well in AoEs if you can manage it there (i.e., nothing better to slot). Opportunity Strikes will work in Blizzard, I've checked, and it will trigger once. When it does go off it will give you a large boost which can likely cap your bar or get you close (I've seen it add 37.5 meter like similar powers - Whirlpool, Ice Storm, Rain of Fire, etc.). The recharge for Blizzard is 23.43 seconds. That puts availability at 8 seconds after each Opportunity cycle which is pretty good. The Sentinel ATOs are valuable for their recharge and other bonuses though. Ice Bolt will be a mule and only trigger your Opportunity so the Ward set there is purely for bonuses. Enduring - This has some end benefit and the two procs you want. Stamina gets one too, if you want it. Bitter Ice Blast/Bitter Freeze Ray - You want some accuracy/end/damage here and 3x Thunderstrikes aren't bad for that. You could handle this a few different ways too and those IOs can be +5'ed for more benefit. What's really important though is adding damage procs to those attacks because that is how you push damage in this case. Netherworld Grasp does this too on a whole different level. Smite is a pretty good attack and it would replace Chilling Ray in melee. At range I guess you could weave in Ice Bolts. Engulfing Darkness opens up the Fury of the Gladiator -20% resistance proc. You should use it. Defenses drop a bit. 48/48/47 is still a respectable set of defense and damage should be considerably higher than what you started with. There are still some Gift of the Ancient Speed buffs, and you get the Flight suite (Fly/Hover/Afterburner). Hasten is still perma. I'd recommend Degenerative or Reactives for Interfaces vs Spectral but YMMV. You could also consider Rebirth Radial over Barrier if you wanted, but I do enjoy Barrier on multiple builds. Barrier will grant you a minimum of 5% defense and resist so that is something to consider. It is very very tough to include everything you seem to want (4 powers in Darkness Mastery, 3 powers in Fly, meaningful damage, 50%+ defenses while also stacking multiple to-hit sources). Another thing to consider is exemplar content. I think you'd want a second build to include more low level powers (basically everything skipped) for running content where you cannot access your full suite of powers. I personally just run Chilling Ray/Bitter Ice Blast/Bitter Freeze Ray with damage procs and I am happy enough with that. I use Frost Breath/Ice Storm too but I am not one to make multiple builds per character since I have so many to begin with. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1480;701;1402;HEX;| |78DA6594CB4F135114C6EFB453A12DEF42CBA3D0428596160A55176A34248A18041| |202891BC15ACBA5546B695A4C70E9BFE0C68D92B83171E35FE273E773EF46404C8C| |0BB59E99EFB3103B69F39BF9EE3973BF7BEE3DB3B03DDDF4FCF2FD2965B45C2C642| |A95F4B22E6EE58BBAE05AC8E4F259655D0DF2EFF9A7A79732C59C5E4BCE6675FA82| |646C856A23D37A5D172B3AB97CB7A4CBE925BD5ED0DBBAA2BC8B9B9B85E44C219FD| |BD86AC6BD759B2FE65AEDA7799D59D3E5CA46BEE4B19F974B5AAFF55E2AE5B3C9C3| |5767CAB7D30B329B2EDFEB163B31F9FF8C2A5E55977A6B2A953255F40DF9028CBF2| |45F81E3AFC16BD60B0C3BD7A9BA0C5B3BD6097ADAC0261FB822B106638DFF621B19| |DBC858AFD4CA094FCA1951B66688E6A2E6AACAA57E455154518C8604A23CCF1C36A| |FCB6C6E8C99EEB0134E82604B3F1819008F8740B7BCCC0B87CAFB5BD06FAA76D19A| |A1399A4DB9894A7C23E9063332572B57D6FA00F3B73D24F750A98E1FE01FF1DCCE6| |AB73F86E78E2760E70E9942AEFF8BC3F6E07F6AD8748A171FBDF8FCD0BA03E0C009| |ACC194982EC4B8BA0EA00DEC82E13D707C9FFC064E7C07872437805C2360D7B3417| |59355F1DD43DF3DF4DB4BFFBDF41DA4CF60869EEE60376F4A7DFA58D7BE712B5676| |C62F21DCCDFE39CC6F1DC710E7087D46BDC29FC877E0E07BF203F911CC4AEE106B3| |3C4D315E1E98AF074ED48CC30CFC4701C351E19211364148CC6C0D5517489E52976| |1EDAE839F23479068C9F05535358CF8AE426989B60CDC6661133C6DA8CB156138F9| |47D9652DCF31B3269927B91E47A2678DE56656C9263931C4B712C68D6BA597E5697| |DC1AB57AD4EA9C6A355E373A59A7A4EA949375CAA93A65FEA8C23D5E34F97110CDB| |0A3DC6DB5BEAE7EF5D4BE07CA60C6DEA1E630AE6265E615ACCC1C4455778FE6C550| |D57DCF916F0B3BD0C10E748411D3C20E9CF309108B6B267028FC054EF4E7CA| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Oh I didn't take it as criticism at all. I just want to caveat that I do not consider my builds "be-all-end-all". I often find myself shuffling slots around every few months on my favorite characters to squeeze out some tiny bit of performance that I felt was lacking here and there. As you play with a build for a prolonged period, you start to find that what sounded good on paper may not work as well as you thought. Build boredom can also set in, or in general preferences can do a 180 degree turn. As of now, I wouldn't bother running the ATO sets in powers like Blazing Arrow or Perfect Shot, for example. I'd try to fit them elsewhere and maybe do something else in those powers. That means I would likely shift Apocalypse out of Stunning Shot (maybe). I've done a complete rebuild of my Dual Pistols/Ninjutsu character in order to run a bunch of the powers from Ninja Tools. My IO choices let me completely drop Maneuvers (everyone, clutch your pearls!!) and still maintain 48%+ defense. I don't think that loadout will replicate with Archery as the recharge needs are different, but it wouldn't stop me from maybe experimenting more.

Simply because Combat Jumping is cheaper to run from an endurance perspective than running Sprint is. Shinobi-Iri already makes you run plenty fast at the mission level so my preference is to not run additional speed powers (Sprint/Ninja Run) indoors. It was also built on preferences from a different character I play that runs Ninjutsu and so the slotting was similar there. In the end, that slot is "extra" as it didn't feel necessary anywhere else. YMMV That build was also posted months ago, and if I were to do it over again I would likely change some things. So if there are IO placements that don't work for your style, then by all means shuffle things around until it works for you.