oldskool

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

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

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

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

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

That too is a great question. I don't always build in the Epics on Sentinels. I frankly don't try to push maximum damage with every single pairing because ultimately the builds don't necessarily work as well in practice as they do on paper. If I am tight on slots/power picks, then I'll snag an AoE immobilize and call it a day. If I don't need an immobilize, then I like Tashibishi in Ninja Tools. If I really want to go deep in an Epic, I'll take Psi Mastery largely for Link Minds. The Mind Probe + Dominate combo is undeniably powerful, but its not something I always go with. My Psi Mastery picks with my Water/Dark is a default slot Mass Hypnosis (which honestly is quite good out the box), Psi Shockwave for MOAR AoE, and Link Minds. I have a Beam build that doesn't bother any of the Epics and it functions just fine for my tastes. Below is what I would consider a bit extreme. Its Dark/Fire and it uses procs at the expense of defense. Dark Blast is innately defensive and Fiery Aura is offensive (largely due to Burn). I feel there is a pretty big build conflict here with trying to proc out the powers to push damage while trying to shore up the defensive short falls in Fiery Aura. I was tinkering with another version that uses more full set bonuses (something Fiery Aura wants) and the damage gets cut dramatically. The damage largely gets pushed on to Burn, but Burn also has some use conflict with Hover. I kept it, but I personally would pass on the travel powers other than Combat Jumping (immobilize protect all the time vs limited with Burn). Anyway... Here is one stab at it. I slapped Intuition Radial because it offers a lot and I was exploring some outside the box logic. You could run whatever you wanted for an Alpha but if you push procs, avoid Agility/Spiritual. Barrier is on option for Destiny to get you better defense/resistance or Ageless for sustain/recharge, or Rebirth for passive heals (its underrated imo). For Hybrid you could also consider the melee options to plug some holes. When using Incarnates like that, know that you'll be weaker without them below level 45. You could always run a second build with cheaper IOs for exemplar content and shuffle things around if you wished. Even with the above in mind, the build would still have some better than expected durability due to Blackstar. When I had ran Dark Blast/Regen, the big to-hit debuff worked wonders for me. I had around 16 defense to most things. Just keep in mind I wasn't trying to push too hard beyond +2/x8 difficulty. Not all builds can both survive and curb stomp +4/x8. Thems just the breaks. For AVs you might want to seriously consider temp summons like Shivans if melee feels too dangerous or you don't want to constantly hover out of range. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1469&c=706&a=1412&f=HEX&dc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dit: Ok, so this is a bit more of a balanced approach. Probably not perfect, but I tend to prefer playing a bit more well rounded. With Cardiac the resistance to Smash/Lethal is capped and endurance is more manageable. Life Drain adds a little bit of health return and possibility for Theft of Essence (probably won't go off too often). The high amount of to-hit in Blackstar can buy time for Cauterizing Blaze to heal and make Healing Flames a bit less stressful. I'd suggest testing these to see what works best before spending influence/time on it. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1452&c=693&a=1386&f=HEX&dc=78DA6594594F135114C7EF6DA7425BCA569652360BC25028D38E600C2212156B54488824BE360D8C65B429A4C5441FFD0E26B844638CEB0B2F1AF543B86F01D47777484C7C743C33FF4325994927BFE9B967BBE73F77A6CE4F54AD1CBD382E64F5E17CB654CACC188525B360E47D53D99C392BECAB82EEE8963D73325BC81973DA44B67836738842965ACB4B13C669A35032B4B469142F640E9E2B6645707A6121AFA5F3666E7E29E03CCF2C1AC65C8DF3386964E78C6269DE5C0CC1CDF6320BB9E8914573562BA74D9B4523334595286B847AE9A5FB8D2AF8B214718DA02AA276997919ECB8C2BC0AEEED234A8E69A6877645C4224CDD2B84AE886412D477836F550EA118F9443836CF43E62350790C069E822354C78B18E9FD813CCA77F01DE5F3713EDF0DDBDF2F765C671EF3383E955F3C4E4F810462DEABD080627C150FD8E73E18BFCDBC0BF6DF61DE03FD14E8C79EBDFE4689B56EF4993881FC83BFC10F5427C87582AF15C756F58AF90CAC7ECE7C010EBE04835427845811B2E812A334851AAE5C338CCADD29E610A8EF0157A9721D4FA54E47E7F52966026CD0C0A641708CF2871D6D2C19DE40170DDFC02EEAA611B565E380BDDB4AD1C4ACA3B566AC799A792291003304AE513F2DDC4F0BAB146595A2AC4E5BBD178C607A61CADBCA355B6FA1C78E9BE001EAB59DF3B58FC1B66B3F7384B90FEC1D05D7A9874E56A3F333F6B5F3137395B906C6D6598D8FE04A5C882EEEA58BDFC0EEAFE025EAA507793D3DD2879A7F11D72BF05FD25EFA58CD3E474D2F590658CD015633C16A26B6D4D441857C359EB0C6134EF284933C61D124448A2BA4D8A74D299F69FAD955CFC4ED136B9F17CBEA77ADA65C16DD65197259865D964997655A299F7A211D8BBFB67CA6AD9F015A95DB5737FE5B3CF21476A31E97CE57478D61EEBF5C519BDBA336A180FA078C2FE32D180F13E063FD03C2C7F2C0 Here is a Fire/Dark too just for sake of comparison. Fire does substantial damage even with full sets. I opted to put Psi Mastery in there because Dominate is great and Link Minds is also great. This runs a lot of toggles though so Cardiac is there to offset costs as well as bring resistances a bit. Overall healing is limited entirely to Obscure Sustenance which isn't that great at direct healing since it is a regeneration boost. Its handy, but Dark Armor has no +hit points to speak of so the high regen isn't as awesome as it sounds. Still, this doesn't seem too horrible on paper. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1453&c=679&a=1358&f=HEX&dc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dit: After thinking more about these, either would be fine to run. Hell, the original builds from the OP are fine to run they just need to include the mezz protection powers that they lack or otherwise, what's the point of playing the Sentinel in the first place? Furthermore, there is a LOT of missing context here. There is no real discussion on what difficulty the character would be played at. That matters. It actually matters a lot. You can hunt AVs as a Sentinel on +0 difficulty just fine and there isn't a lot of bending over backwards needed in order to do it though temp powers speed things up. Some builds will be faster than others but that isn't uncommon across the ATs. What gets tricky is when one wishes to start chasing +4 AVs or doing things like solo TF runs at max difficulty or the like. Finally, the Sentinel ATOs are affected by the purple patch. That meaning that if you hit a higher level enemy than you the effects of the procs are weaker and its pretty dramatic in my experience. That needs to be fixed and it mostly certainly can impact performance in a negative way.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.