oldskool

I have this combo at 50. My DB/DA doesn't bother with Hasten. I have 82.5% global recharge which is enough to run Blinding Feint - Attack Vitals (Ablating Strike, Vengeful Slice, Sweeping Strike) on repeat. That combo takes 5.28s to animate (with Arcanatime) and with some boosters in the Dmg/Rec in Blinding Feint its gapless (BF for me recharges in 5.24s). Dark Regen is available every 12-ish seconds which is fine. I also took the Sweep combo (Power Slice, Typhoon's Edge, One Thousand Cuts), but I do not need it. Typhoon's Edge is a decent enough AOE plus Death Shroud plus Sweeping Strike. I happen to like 1k Cuts though so I have it in my build. I skipped Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom for my own reasons though they are easy to fit in to the build if you want them. Soul Transfer is conceptual so I took it. The rest of the character build is devoted to plugging mitigation holes to make it more tanky. With Cardiac Alpha I cap Smashing/Lethal resist, nearly cap Psi and hit over 60% Fire/Cold/Negative. Energy and Toxic land at 40%. Defenses are all in the 30+ range and I didn't take Shadow Meld (which is a great option too). The pairing works very well regardless of your level of optimization desires. BF-AV combo is enough damage and it is incredibly easy to build for. DA is just a solid secondary that can be pretty flexible too. In practice this pair is a really hard one to build "wrong". Hell, everything about my character is designed around "just enough". Just enough defense that a small purple will soft-cap or nearly soft cap all positionals (AoE is 2% shy of that). Just enough resistance except Energy/Toxic - both hard ones to plug for non-Tankers. Just enough recharge to make my attacks seamless.

I only agree that Stunning Arrow is easy to skip. The others all have various uses and ESD is the opposite of suck. Its over powered.

The perception there may be a bit of both. Sentinels do have spikey damage reliant on an inherent that is impossible to have 100% uptime on without actively trying to build for it. Even then, uptime isn't a guarantee. Water Blast in particular has high AoE damage potential but unfortunately rather low single target damage potential. Water Blast is a great set to experiment with in order to overrule both of those conditions, within reason of course, due to how IO's and the AT operate. Things to look forward to: 1) Including a 1-2 punch pairing in the Epic sets. You can take any of the decent melee attacks and combine it with a hold power using procs to add a tremendous amount of damage. That bonus damage does come at a steep price though. You need to be level 35 in order to unlock it, and you likely won't see much use of either if you exemplar too low. If you only play at 50+, then that doesn't matter much at all. 2) Water Blast is loaded with proc opportunities. These can greatly push Water's low-ish ST damage into a realm where it can be a bit more tolerable. I don't really bother with pushing multiple procs in AoE powers, since I don't feel it is necessary, but Water's got options there if that is your bag. Water Jet - Dehydrate - Hydro Blast is a really simple sequence to run that doesn't take really complicated build mastery to use. When Tidal Forces allows it, you'll get an extra Water Jet. Still, almost all of these powers have access to the Slow category for Impeded Swiftness in addition to the basic ranged PvP toxic proc. Several other powers have access to others like Knockback - Explosive Strikes set (e.g., Hydro Blast), or defense debuffing (Dehydrate). 3) Whirlpool makes unique use out of the Opportunity Strikes ATO proc. Opportunity lasts for 15 seconds once you've build it up. In a high recharge build you can potentially bring Whirlpool's recharge down to 16-18 seconds. The Strike's ATO proc will grant you +37 meter, or about 1/3 of the bar needed to use Opportunity, against any targets it hits. It checks against all enemies in its field of effect and applies the benefit once. Against the full 10 target limit on the power that is a lot of chances it goes off. Even against a single enemy this proc chance is around 20+% all by itself (considering the 5pc set's recharge modification). That's as good, and often better, than a lot of ST powers. The proc chance will go up if you use no other sources of direct recharge beyond that single ATO proc (it has an unavoidable recharge mod in it). The difference with ST powers is they will often grant you 100+ meter whenever they trigger but their base recharge often isn't enough to make it reliable (some powers are outliers though). Still, Whirlpool makes this option a bit more reliable, especially in big groups, where you know you can get a third of next opportunity in a single casting. This will mean you're second Hydro Blast (if using Water Jet - Dehydrate - Hydro) will automatically trigger Opportunity. That's roughly 11 seconds depending on if you take advantage of Tidal Forces to use another Water Jet. Spamming your AoE can be slightly faster. Defensive Opportunity doesn't sound like much, but it is still -20% resistance. You can also combine with Annihilation's -12% and Achilles' Heel -20%. Water Blast can get a lot better. You should still temper your expectations because it likely won't be super amazing without abusing Mind Probe + Dominate, but it can definitely shine very well on Sentinels.

Things of note for the build below: 1) Yes, it is using boosters in a few powers to help push some numbers like defense/accuracy. However, the end result lets you hit enemies that are +4 to your level without the need for the endurance drain in Tactics. 2) Your current build can run Power Bolt - Power Blast - Power Push on repeat. That takes 4.356 seconds to fully cycle. The build below uses Power Burst - Power Push - Focused Power Bolt. That takes 6.464 seconds to cycle. It also does about twice the damage. Power Bolt gets taken purely to trigger to Offensive Opportunity once your meter is full. There is NO reason to use that attack at all. Power Burst - Push - FP Bolt can be run indefinitely at the recharge in the build (180%). 3) Hasten isn't using any boosters, but some boosters will make it perma (+3 in both drops it to 120.9 second recharge). 4) Note, Energize is now effectively permanent. 5) Aim with the Gaussian's set will give you better occasional burst damage when the Build-Up proc triggers. This has a 25 second cooldown, just like Nova. That's a big improvement over the default 38 seconds on your current Aim and 31s Nova. 6) If you're bothering to take Flight, do take Afterburner -- or don't bother. You can cap flight speed with just Hover and vendor based jetpacks. The build below takes Afterburner for fun. 7) You don't need Chain Fences if you slot KB/KD IOs. 8 ) You don't really need any of the Sentinel ATOs, but Opportunity Strikes is in FP Bolt because it can be a decent spot for it. If you don't give an F about the knockback in Energy, then you could go nuts with full sets. You could also go for more damage procs. 9) The original build pushes a lot of elemental defense at the expensive of a lot of endurance drain. You should be able to live with just "high" Negative defense unless you are purposely facing a lot of Dark Blast using enemies. Generally Smashing, Lethal, and Energy are the more common types at end game. Psychic, Cold, and Negative aren't really worth considering though Cold is married to Fire in set bonuses. 10) Your Incarnate Alpha option will be more favorable towards Musculature Core which is a pretty big damage boost vs Agility which will not be much of a damage boost at all. One could shift around some sets and what not for preference. I just made this pretty quickly to illustrate that the build could be improved by thinking about it in a very different manner. Good luck! | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1480;710;1420;HEX;| |78DA65934B4F13611486BF69A7C2502E2D97722B3005612897D2021A351A23B6189| |126448CBA6B1A3AB6639A29694B026A34FE055DA0D19D08BAD08D46FD291A75E556| |40054417A69E99F372493A69F3CC9CEF9CF3BEDF2DBE18AD7E7DE1FE5921D59ECF2| |60B85C4AC6E160D53CF56C6178AC9A29133053DFE2B19A3A0C68D74A6A84EE8EAB5| |4CB2A85ED4526A34A75E8F5658097B6589CB4933ADA7423153CFA7971213D4B3783| |018D56FE86641DF1B3DB7904F0AF74C2E970D4D66ADE655F6FBECBCAEA76A386C45| |0D335D677F4DEBC9949E2F648CF9B6D8BC3117DAEF1BCBEA73893849E9F9A516B2D| |34BFF4D4DE029C9E21921228BE135E6C80AB80A7E936D2EF5D1B764D7384593C435| |1B4EA222863799917F34DC218B9F1A5245C9251D77D8B93DA3E018F3E838780C84C| |E2DD27142C7099D010F73A89119F1327F918E0B3AAE27044D114796C147CC96C7E0| |538BB26883CE16D556A0B6E2257BA87C01AE30AB9E83ABCCEA35E63DF2A8B04749F| |9EEE4B175E636F575A3AF3BCCF9B5436088E9898023CC7A787293A11AAE15353DBC| |FEB749AB8EB5445D80633BA4E18586F7BDB0D7BEFE0DB3F12DF88EE9FBC0353E682| |C52BF06AC6FC3367B0EEE3007FE807F997728B709B94DC8D590AB2157DB652AE4BD| |193E9BB16FBFC9672B7CB67E65FDB62FCCCE8FE06766E013B3073E5F058568E77E8| |E769C2F3FCE9B7F8B35BB49B303FBD031C8F3EC047749BB0BDA5D67789DD5D3E009| |F02433700A84B683FA76631FBA4BF40827457AB112BD3EC93EE57DCD6084DDF48D3| |265CAED476E3F5622689F5C45043DCC4803D34BB98398E5E024D70F4D8197987769| |174270137AC84E854F8830626168F8E5FD5B4D3FCBF54059245C16B19AE15E23325| |696335E16992E8BCCC8FB775E487644F1D04DE64869BD8A46A122E1646F1EC41CD2| |559E833C25D9B7540EF0DC370ED7F573DD8FC3750F783D1CCBA0CA393783D6AC5CB| |6F67FC35DF7F0| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Frigid Shield needs a pass by the team and I wish it worked like the Blaster version. Moisture Absorption is a small defense booster, but more importantly it adds to your max endurance. Mid's isn't showing the impact to endurance gain per second by using MA and adding 15+ end to yourself. Duration is 100s and base recharge is 60s. Icy Bastion grants you recovery and regen on top of everything else it does. Doesn't really matter if you're running Ageless with the endurance recovery aspect. Still, it is a crashless T9 which will likely cap a few of your resistances with less downtime than Rune of Protection (an alternative if you want it). Can you live without those powers? Maybe. Ice Blast can be a little heavy on endurance consumption vs what I am used to playing. I'd take the approach of seeing how the rotation feels and then determine just how valuable things like Moisture Absorption are (from an end management perspective). Icy Bastion is one of things you can layer with Ageless at its peak, but still you could probably get by without it if you really wanted. Barrier is also an option. I changed my Ice/Ice/Ice baby build. So stop, collaborate and listen. This ice build is back with a brand new invention. Currently hitting 39% smash/lethal defense, 35% fire/cold, and 44% energy/negative under Moisture Absorption. Psi is low, but thems the breaks. Resistance 29% smash/lethal, 36% fire, 30% toxic, cold capped, and the rest nothing noteworthy. Icy Bastion puts Smash/Lethal at 74%, caps Fire and toxic while putting Energy/Negative to 54%. I wanted to get as close to 32.5% defense to the major types as possible for use with purple inspires. This let me put some damage procs into Chilling Ray, Bitter Ice Blast, and Bitter Freeze Ray. Those three make up the bulk of the rotation, and under Ageless can be the rotation. Ice Blast used as filler and Ice Bolt taken purely to trigger Offensive Opportunity if practical (Defensive is prioritized for the endurance per hit for 15 seconds). I only bothered with Frostbite in Ice Mastery to combine with Ice Storm and Blizzard.

As I allude in my response, there is no reason at all why you can't do both. Pistols with 2x PPM 3.5 damage procs should trigger at least 1 of those 30% of the time assuming 0 recharge enhancement in the power. Decimation: Build-Up would have something like an 8-10~% chance to trigger per activation. The floor on triggering (heh) that event chance, as pointed out by Red before, is 5%. So even enhancing recharge to the point where it would drop the Build-Up proc chance from its native rate to less than 5% will still yield 5%. Then the Chuck Lots Of Dice™ method of using this attack frequently gives you more opportunities over time to try and get the event to happen. Powers like Executioner's Shot, Dual Wield, or even Suppressive Fire all have 1.848 second Arcanatime animations. It isn't that hard to get Pistols to recharge within that time frame and you can skip Hasten to do it too. How fast you want to hammer out powers like Piercing Rounds or Executioner's Shot become the guiding lights on where your final recharge needs to be. Obviously, that ignores other core powers like Overgrowth where you may want it to be active as close to perma as feasible. All of that is exactly why I use Pistols between each attack and it is also why I put it in this thread here. The Defender has the opportunity to make use of multiple sequence types depending on how you're approaching the slotting and what the goals are. Also, in other words, the Build-Up proc in Pistols is worth it and it doesn't matter much if you enhance its recharge. So that's an option to run 5 pc Decimation for a recharge bonus OR just frankenslot the hell out of it. Nature can cover you on endurance costs and to hit if you can get Overgrowth on all the time. I was toying with ideas on this last night since the pairing is really interesting. 😉 Edit: Some more food for thought. On the 3 characters I mentioned before these run either Musculature Core (Sentinel) or Intuition Radial (Defender and Corr). In all cases 3 slots are devoted to granting me enough accuracy to guarantee hitting +4's even in exemplar content and some slight endurance modification to reduce costs. My damage modifier on my Sentinel in all of my attacks with procs is still 132%. With Pistols having a rough 30% chance to proc on a PPM 3.5 proc that's still adding an average 20 pts of damage per attack. That's pretty considerable damage given the baseline of the power itself while also having the option to meet or exceed ED in damage modification with the right Alpha Incarnate. I also checked my Defender and I did change my split slots on the ATO to just parking them in Empty Clips and Bullet Rain. I have another 5x set in Piercing Rounds and Hail of Bullets. On my Defender I only have 2 frankenslotted powers (Pistols and Executioner's Shot) as Dual Wield is a coin toss power for me. I leverage Piercing Rounds for the debuff more than I care about personal DPS.

So I have the following Pistol using characters: DP/Nin Sentinel (working on a DP/SR to replace - I just like SR more) Dark Miasma/DP Defender Dual Pistols/Traps Corruptor In all of those cases they all use very similar strategies. I 6 slot Pistols, Executioner's Shot, and 1 other power for ST damage. The AoE powers usually get 5-6 slots depending on what I need in the build. That 1 other power is Dual Wield for Defenders/Corruptors and Suppressive Fire for Sentinels. The Sentinel version of Suppressive Fire can out perform Dual Wield when considering the Unbreakable Constraint PPM 4.5 damage proc. For Defenders/Corruptors, Suppressive Fire can be a hard hitting power with all of the Hold procs but the base recharge is very long (20 seconds vs 8 for Sentinels). I'll typically devote 3 slots to cover Accuracy, Damage, and Endurance. Then 3 slots go to procs. I tend to favor Executioner's Shot for Achilles' Heel and Pistols for Decimation: Build-Up. The other two slots get damage procs (Apocalypse goes to Executioner's). Dual Wield can take Impeded Swiftness, Explosive Strikes, and Gladiator's Javelin. The Traps Corruptor swapped out the more utility procs for another damage since things like Acid Mortar can take Achilles' Heel instead. Hail of Bullets can take Armageddon with the Chance for Fire proc. Also, it can take Fury of the Gladiator: Resistance Debuff. I think you can see the trend... Stack resistance debuff in multiple sources and abuse the hell out of it. Piercing Rounds, even if you want 5x Positron's Blast, is a pretty good place for Annihilation's resistance debuff (only 12.5% though). The Defender version of Piercing Rounds using default lethal ammo gives you a -20% resistance debuff. I find it worthwhile it to keep this utility for Defenders but I don't bother with it on the other ATs (Corruptor's get a -15% version and the "DPS" ATs get -9.6%). Piercing Rounds - Pistols - Executioner's Shot - Pistols would want Piercing Rounds to recharge in 4.224 seconds. This is possible with a lot of recharge but running standard lethal rounds gets you -resistance (plus procs) and -defense from both Pistols and Executioner's Shot (plus procs). Executioner's Shot (if running Achilles' Heel) - Pistols - Dual Wield - Pistols would want Executioner's Shot to recharge in 4.224 seconds too... This is far easier to accomplish on less global recharge. The damage can also be surprisingly good on a Defender especially considering Intuition Radial and the possibility for Soul Drain. I'd recommend using some form of elemental ammo since Dual Wield will KB. Unless you like KB. This leaves Empty Clips and Bullet Rain. I often use these two as my set bonus carriers. They absolutely can take on procs and that is a possibility too. I just happen to like building up my ST damage since I feel DP does decent, but not great, on AoE by default. These two powers can be available quite often once you enhance their recharge BUT Force Feedback procs do work. I've experimented with FF procs in Hail of Bullets, Bullet Rain, and Empty Clips. It works, but I dropped the idea for other general build considerations. When you start looking at the buffet table of procs with this set it is totally open ended. Go NUTS with it!

The LOTGs are special and they stack with actual set bonuses. So the 5x LOTG + Panacea is working as intended.

Where your build is at Agility is a DPS loss compared to Musculature with or without perma-Hasten. Being a few seconds from perma will be corrected by Ageless. So technically you've got the foundation already without tweaking further. Even without Ageless weaving in the occasional Charged (or Single) Shot isn't that horrible.

All of the sets have use. I happen to like Dual Blades, but I don't PvP.

That person may not give a quick reply since the thread is from December and there is nothing to flag them this question even exists. So... @Seroster01, you've been paged. Not everyone cares for how Whirlpool works making it a possible skip. I play a Water Blast/Dark Armor and I skipped Steam Spray. This is mostly due to not wanting to deal with the cone (though the target cap makes it worth considering) due to how I play it. The loose slot from hover, if taking CJ, could go into Maneuvers for a Def/End to reduce some cost a bit. The current flight slot in Hover looks like it may be wasted anyway since flight speed looks over capped.

Where did I write "great effect"? Are you conflating optimize with "great effect"? Optimize: to make the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource). I already noted that Opportunity, as a mechanic, cannot achieve the heights of ones like Domination or Fury. That doesn't mean you can't optimize it. That is to make the most effective use of the inherent as it currently exists. The inherent doesn't work as well as you would like it to, and I can certainly empathize. That is a problem. That doesn't change the idea that the inherent can be made to work better than you're suggesting it does. I have multiple Sentinels that I have done this with. It is a fundamental part of my build strategy with the AT. However, that is also my complaint with the inherent. People shouldn't have to do that level of deep dive on it for it to work at faction of effect when compared alongside other ATs. Optimization on a Sentinel doesn't reach the level of optimization on all other ATs. That doesn't suddenly mean that players can't optimize the AT. This goes towards the opportunity cost of such optimization and whether or not it is worth it for an individual to pursue in the first place. As it stands right now, it probably isn't worth for a broader audience. Yet another reason why the AT could use a review. I actually really enjoy the endurance sustain from Defensive Opportunity. I'm not sure where I wrote that "I truly believe the defensive is amazing and well worth the tax". I know there is an "if" before that, but I don't think I came close to suggesting that line of thought, at all. I think you're putting some words in my mouth in both of these statements. I'm not mad. Just noting this. While you haven't had any survivability increase from it, I actually have. Every hit for the next 15 seconds will restore both health and endurance. The endurance is a flat rate too. This effect does function on AoE and it works best when combined with a 10 target attack. I've definitely noticed the health recovery when using AoE, not ST, during my play. That health return is in no way shape or form better than the kinds of clickable heals within certain Secondary sets. However, it isn't something that should be so casually dismissed either. Will the health return completely save you if you bite off more than you can chew? Not all. Will the health return buy you a few seconds to click a heal or convert inspires to a green? Yes, and this has been my experience with it. Also, can I live without? Yes to that too. I don't always take T1s or T2s. I take one because I have to, and I use them for a variety of reasons. As I said in the very first statement of this reply, I like the endurance sustain it can provide with some builds, but the health return is an after thought. Finally, not once in my original post did I sing praises about the mechanics of Defensive Opportunity. I didn't mention those mechanics at all. It is one instance of -5% which is available from every attack all the time (doesn't stack) and a second instance of -20% which is available only during Opportunity. This can be seen with a power analyzer. That makes it a bit worse. There is the lowest hitting attack again in bold. I'll repeat myself; not all T1s are crap. More to the point though, not all "low hitting" attacks are wastes of time. While those attacks may not have the largest numbers their efficiency can be quite high. Some primary power sets actually value their T1 or T2, but not all of them do. For example, Beam Rifle has no real need for its T1 or T2 outside of the extra mechanics they provide. You'll interrupt your otherwise higher damage attack routine with a lower attack once per 13-15 seconds. I think you're overestimating how much of a damage decrease that is especially when combined with Offensive Opportunity that will be effecting every attack against every target (because that's how the energy proc works) for the next 15 seconds. I also feel the same way if we're talking the inclusion of Mind Probe and Dominate. 1 use of an attack once per 15 seconds isn't that awful, or doesn't need to be, if you're enhancing the power. (Edit: There is an issue of player agency and choice in the inherent that does not sit well with others. That is a reason why I have suggested decoupling the inherent from those attacks or making the inherent stronger where using those attacks is more meaningful. I think you circle around this point and I can't help but feel that the illusion of choice is a core issue to you. At least, that is how I interpret the issue for many.) Final thought on Offensive Opportunity because I'm sure I'll catch flak for it. What I'm not saying is this... "Offensive Opportunity is great!". What I am saying is that the difference of singular digit DPS loss over a period of time from using a T1 to trigger that effect is very likely offset by the bonus damage granted to all attacks (including AoE) for the next 15 seconds. The total value will vary if you're playing any of the sets that can push Offensive Opportunity uptime higher than others. The damage bonus from Offensive Opportunity is also somewhere in the single digits for DPS gained. Basically the loss of DPS and the gain of it could be a wash with the only thing making any lick of a difference is the resistance debuff. This is yet another problem. The damage bonus gain from Offensive Opportunity isn't so high that it overvalues against Defensive Opportunity. Ultimately, what really matters is the follow set of questions: 1) Is your T1 or T2 the better choice of the mandatory attacks? Pick the one that does the best DPA for a final build. Pick both if it is a rare set where both lowbie attacks can be rotational (e.g., Sonic Blast, Dual Pistols, etc.) 2) Is your build one that actually makes use of the T1 or T2? If yes, place this attack at the end of the chain if possible in order to maximize uptime the easiest. 3) If playing a set with high endurance costs, then consider favoring the T2 over the T1 OR take both to expand your options. Another note that is 100% important in my opinion. When discussing the buff of the AT and review of its primary powers, I am not... I repeat: NOT, talking about the inclusion of Mind Probe/Dominate. Mind Probe/Dominate are separate, but related, issues. When I discuss the 3 points above, I am assuming we're talking about powers available within a primary with rotations not dependent on pool powers that unlock at 35+. That is where I think the core problem of the damage balance lies. If it wasn't that big an issue, then damage procs turning sets like Radiation Blast into power houses wouldn't be a discussion. You're also cherry picking specific combos like Defenders taking Sonic, or TW especially with procs. Like how do you reconcile making an argument that Titan Weapons, which is known to be over-performing, using resistance altering procs is in any way a fair comparison to the Sentinel as a whole AT? Especially when talking about an inherent vs clear build choices. This is the kind of hyperbole that drove me to write that long response in the first place. I originally didn't want to bother at all with this thread, but I'm not good enough of a person to ignore this kind of stuff. I care a lot of about the Sentinel. I have 10 of them and more than a few billion influence spread across builds. If the AT is going to get improvements, I sincerely want non-hyperbolic discussion to drive that change. Look, I feel for you that you feel the inherent is 95% useless. I also don't think you're alone in that line of thinking. I completely disagree though. I don't think the inherent is useless (that doesn't mean I think it is great either, it isn't) but more to my original point - it is far more complicated than it needs to be. In fast moving groups, the inherent is an afterthought. However, I find that to be the case for a LOT of ATs. That's not a perception I think of as being unique here. Also, I don't like how the inherent has its most successful use against singularly tough enemies like AVs. That's a level of focus that doesn't really have a place in the game. A resistance debuff is nice team support since it is a damage multiplier but basing the entire inherent around it is clunky. Its even worse that it is limited to a single target and has a downtime that can be longer than the duration if you're not actively building to change that.

You're welcome! Glad I could help. You can build up both Agility Core and Musculature Core. That just really costs time. You can then swap between the two for when you feel like you need Agility for the defense/recharge or Musculature for more damage. With Musculature your Hasten will have 3 seconds of downtime and Piercing Beam will have a gap after your next Lancer/Disintegrate. Though Musculature is a pretty big damage gain and Charged Shot isn't that bad on DPA as a filler (given how you've slotted everything). You may still want Ageless, but consider Ageless Radial for the DDR. Ageless Radial should shorten the gap on your second and third Piercing Beams enough that using a filler won't be worth it. If you were intent on keeping Agility, then yeah swap to Barrier for total utility plus silly levels of durability. Rebirth is also well worth it. I have Rebirth on my squishier Ninjutsu character and it is pretty awesome.

Didn't click the poll. There are several of those things that could be possible fixes when combined but no one change is going to "fix" the AT. Personally, I think the snipe power replacers are fine. Lacking snipe isn't the issue and it never was. Repel isn't an issue, its also only in 1 power in 1 primary, but I wouldn't regret seeing it removed from Blazing Blast. Lacking Build-Up wasn't an issue. Aim has more To-Hit in the first place. I actually like some of the uniqueness of the AT from its Blaster/Corruptor/Defender cousins. Opportunity uptime isn't much of an issue either. I'm honestly a bit surprised this can even be seen as a 40-50% uptime kind of thing. Do people that really want additional damage not consider trying to optimize the Sentinel inherent at all? Do you just ignore that Stalkers and Scrappers have means of optimizing their crit rate? I mean I seriously doubt it. Maybe Fire Blast isn't the best measuring stick for how Opportunity works. Other primaries like Psychic Blast, Water Blast, and Assault Rifle (yes, Assault Rifle) are capable of far better than 50% depending on how you build it. BUT, that is also a problem. Maximizing opportunity is build dependent. Maximizing opportunity is possible but it isn't nearly as easy as it is on other ATs. The Sentinel ATOs also really suck for this, with some primaries being an exception, and therefore the AT doesn't have an easier means to accomplish this like the Scrapper or Stalker do (who seek to maximize criticals with their ATOs in specific powers). As I stated in the previous sentence, the Sentinel inherent can have wildly fluctuating uptimes on a wide range of builds. That is an issue. A blanket assessment that all Sentinel primaries are only capable of 40-50% isn't accurate though. I have multiple characters capable of sustaining higher than 50% uptime minimum with a few primaries capable of going towards 60%. You really can't reliably push uptime like a Dominator's Domination or a Brute's Fury. The sets that can do it would be outliers. If anyone built for recharge, at all, the meter should be building to 90% in under 15 seconds (because that's the duration you want to beat). Most recharge intensive builds should be building 90% meter in 13 seconds with some that can do it in just over 11 (Assault Rifle - very specific build). Sets that can more reliably trigger Opportunity Strikes will see momentary bursts of higher uptime. The fact that most enemies drop before a full Opportunity duration (15 seconds) runs is also a problem. It locks out 20% resistance debuff, which is extra damage, for the remainder of a fight. As a mild compensation Offensive Opportunity will still continue its procs against anything else for the rest of the time limit, but you have to take the power it is linked to. This is a problem for a lot of players. AVs don't resist Sentinel debuffs more. They resist them all the same as long as the effect can be resisted at all. Despite that, negative resist in any form is almost always the best bet for improving one's damage beyond adding additional procs. This is why I develop my characters the way I do. To try to get as much uptime on Opportunity as possible. The way opportunity works, for most sets, is like this: The T1 grants 8 meter (its the only attack to do that). The T2-T4 grant 13 meter with a few outliers granting a point higher or more. It only takes 90% meter in order to activate an opportunity of your choice. You can map out just how fast that takes with calculating animation times of your chain then adding how much meter they build per activation. There is 0 reason to use a T1 or T2 in a normal rotation if there is an alternative power that is stronger. Instead what you do is you slip in that T1 or T2 as needed. Conversely, I found great success in tacking on my Opportunity spender at the end of my chain that was pre-calculated to trigger the effect. For example, I'll use Executioner's Shot - Pistols - Suppressive Fire - Pistols. I don't do this just because it works out well as DPS on paper. If Opportunity didn't exist, where I put Pistols doesn't matter unless I have a specific effect proc (e.g., Achilles' Heel) in it. No, I put Pistols at the end of that chain because Suppressive Fire will be the last attack I used that takes me from below 90 meter to 90+. That means my next Pistols use (as long as it hits) will trigger Opportunity without me having to worry about it. That's fine on AVs/GMs. It can feel like a waste against anything less than a boss and even more so on groups. That too is a problem. Also, not all primaries have completely crap T1 powers. There are several primaries with T1s or T2s that are core skills in a fully matured rotation. Placement of where that T1 or T2 ends does impact uptime and that does have a very real impact on DPS done over a long period of time. Its also FAR too complicated for what it is. AoE powers grant more opportunity meter per activation with 10 target spheres granting more than cones. Ranged T9's grant opportunity. Melee T9's (PBAoE) grant... 1 pt. Seriously. I've tested it a few times. So some primary sets blessed with a ranged T9 can start their attacks with Aim + Nuke, get more than 1 pt of meter, and continue into the rotation to build towards 90%. The disparity between powers and sets is also a big problem. Been a while since I have tried Radiation Blast so I'm not sure if powers like Irradiate (PBAoE) also generate 1 pt or if Short Circuit is like that (haven't checked yet). In other words, here are my "issues" with the Sentinel after having played it since April of 2019: 1) The inherent is far to complex to maximize for what it ultimately yields. I've gotten used it, but it is obvious that other players do not care for it at all. I'd MUCH rather the inherent be easier to use or at least more broadly applicable. No other AT needs as much work in order to leverage its inherent like the Sentinel does. Dominators can build for recharge, easy. Scrappers can put their critical ATOs in strategic places, easy. Stalkers can put their ATOs in strategic places, easy. The other ATs have inherents that just work behind the scenes without a lot of thought needed (e.g., Scourge, Vigilance, Gauntlet, Fury, etc). Bodyguard on Masterminds takes some thought on using a mode, but it isn't exactly rocket surgery. 2) The changes to snipes over the last year-ish have probably widened any initial damage gaps between all of the ranged ATs. 3) The Tanker changes have absolutely widened damage gaps. 4) The Sentinel pays a number of taxes for just existing. It pays a scalar tax on its powers to not exceed Blasters or Scrappers while getting potentially over shadowed by other ATs. It pays a scalar tax on defense powers, within its own secondary, so it doesn't overshadow Scrappers/Stalkers. Sentinels are plenty durable. Though same can be said for Stalkers these days. Or... Even many Blasters. Sentinel durability is a tax on damage due to a fear of being overpowered that not only doesn't exist, but likely never existed. Some possible solutions: 1) Inherent rework. Whatever that ends up being it needs to be broadly accessible to the player base or otherwise the effort will likely be a waste of time. 2) General damage tweaking. I'm not sure if just changing the scalar upwards is enough. Maybe it is but there are power sets in general that also need a look. 3) Just general secondary scalar consistency. I think 70% value on the Secondaries makes no sense. Sure, you can build the AT to be durable and hover-blast, but is that really worth knocking the entire AT's modifiers down 5%? A 5% reduction because it is possible to hover blast? I doubt that was the real balance reason, but it is what it looks like. "Range is its own defense". My biggest peeve here is the modifier seems to bleed into everything like Life Drain's heal. 4) Some role defining. I don't think this needs to be overly complicated. The Sentinel should be a damage dealer but how it gets there needs refinement. This can tie back to points 1 and 2 or both. 5) Certain Sentinel Epic powers are disproportionately powerful. The Epic themes aren't created equal, at all. Some have very good single target melees and holds which can be mini-nukes. The idea that these powers can be such cornerstones to a build is a blessing and it is a curse. It is somewhat unique that Sentinels can gain so much damage out of their Epics. However, at the same time it is a really big loss if you exemplar below the accessibility of those powers. I don't want Sentinel epics to be useless because I rather like many of them. I'd much rather the swing of DPS to be less dramatic. Overall though I think the Sentinel gets a very bad reputation for what it is. Overall its balance is actually refreshing. However, current power creep will turn people off from the AT and continue to push wedges until it is addressed in some form.

You could consider that IO set sort of a throw away set. It grants an absorb shield which is nice to have but trying to guarantee its proc in a power like Midnight Grasp becomes an overall DPS loss for little survival gains. Midnight Grasp and Siphon Life will be better carries for damage procs (like the Mako Lethal) which will grant them better average damage returns. Finally, the build is already easy to weave Shadow Punch between Midnight Grasp and Smite Siphon Life. So its spammability will eventually trigger its proc, but the build isn't reliant on it. I also like to split that set into 2 powers to boost Energy Resistance a bit further, but the posted build looks like it has some Incarnate tanking in mind without worry of external support.

Edit: Re-thinking this... If you're fresh 50 and you don't have your level shift then any +4 content is going to be bumpy. If you do get into the melee mix in the ITF, then level 54 goons have a good chance to rip you up. Sure, against 1 on 1 your defenses have a 5% chance of you getting hit. Against multiple that chance starts to become more likely over time. Also, the streak breaker can be a bitch. Broadsword attacks have a 7.5% defense debuff. Sentinel Invul's DDR isn't very high. With the buffed accuracy on +4 enemies and a couple of unlucky hits your defenses will start to go down. I'm sure you know that, but I feel it is worth pointing out. A comparison of a fresh 50 vs 54's isn't exactly a fair comparison. I happen to like using Disintegrate - Lancer - Piercing Beam. Lancer triggers the disintegrate effect 100% of the time now, and Piercing Beam will get bonus damage. Piercing Beam does have a resistance debuff attached to it, but against +4's you're not going to be seeing the full -9.6% effect. Also, you're damage in general is weakened against +4s. Again, not really a fair place to compare. Single Shot, against a tougher target, will grant you up to 100% regeneration debuff. Against AVs that can be significant DPS gains. Offensive Opportunity's bonus damage effect will yield you something like 3~ DPS over time much like Assault. Its not much, but Sentinels pick up a LOT of pennies. Adding 1 PvP toxic dmg proc to Disintegrate and Lancer Shot can net you more DPS too. I put 5x Decimation + 1 PvP toxic in Disintegrate. One of those Decimation's is the build-up proc. Over time you will trigger it and for 5 seconds you'll get bonus damage. Yay! I put 5x Apocalypse in Lancer with 1 PvP toxic. Piercing Beam is largely fine as is. You can put the Sentinel's Ward set in either Cutting Beam or Refractor. You could put 5x Opportunity Strikes in Overcharge plus Achilles' Heel. If you're willing to come down on defense you can build up your damage by shifting set bonuses around. Invulnerability is already very durable and you'll max health easily with Accolades. It shouldn't be a shock that SD/WM does more damage. Tankers just got a boost to their damage scalar. War Mace has been a very strong melee set for a long time. Melee in general has higher base damage. Plus Shield also pushes damage. Tanker Changes + General Melee Superiority + War Mace Outlier + Shield Defense = not a fair comparison to much in the game. Incarnate wise, I think you're pushing way too much defense on an AT that doesn't need it. Musculature Core and Reactive Radial are both solid all purpose damage boosts. Degenerative Core is also good for tough targets but may be bugged right now. Assault Radial is my preference over Core but that is kind of a toss up.

This is a fair point and worthy of me explaining my choice of words there further. Cloak of Fear has 5% to hit debuff for a cost of 0.52 end per second with a 60% accuracy hit check. Against +4 enemies that's 26% accuracy. In contrast, Cloak of Darkness is 5% defense with a 0.26 end per second cost and no hit check. Weave is also 5% defense for 0.33 end and no hit check. Maneuvers is 2.28% defense at a 0.39 end rate. Maneuvers is kinda pricey on end but it also has no hit check. Cloak of Fear isn't a bad power at all in my opinion. I agree with you on that. However, I do find CoF to be a niche power that needs to be evaluated in a given build plan. My Dark/TW could potentially include that power (I may even do that) and the endurance cost itself isn't much of the problem in a full build. For me its finding the slots to make its to hit check, because it has to hit in order for that debuff to be of any use, work. So when I say its not my favorite for this pairing what I really mean is this: 1) I don't have the slots right now to offset the low accuracy for its endurance cost. 2) I have no need for the extra mitigation - Defensive Sweep is a part of a 10 second block of attacks. This puts me at 48.5% melee defense as long as the attack doesn't miss at all. My accuracy takes my level shift into account so my miss rate is 5%. This isn't a character I exemplar with as it is backloaded on power. If I did exemplar my miss chance with Defensive Sweep expands to 10%. 3) My damage, prior to the patch, is such that clearing minions is trivial. The fear isn't a big deal for mitigation with this build, and enemies that are defeated have fewer chances to hit in the first place. Additionally, TW includes Knockdown which is mitigation all on its own. I often see an idea that Cloak of Fear is a reason to take Dark Armor. (I'm not putting those words in your mouth its a generalization) To me, the reason to take Dark Armor boils down to these concepts: 1) On a Tanker you can cap Smashing/Lethal/Negative/Fire/Cold/Psi with a good IO plan. You'll likely cap Energy with 2 stacks of Superior Might of the Tanker. Toxic will be the lowest unless you specifically try to target it with sets. In other words, Dark Armor is a great heavy resistance set with no reliance on a T9. 2) Dark Regeneration is amazing when build right. 3) Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom, and Soul Transfer are all niche powers making them optional tools in your kit. That flexibility on build choice is a huge draw to me. 4) Its a sexy looking set with Soul Noir. When I recommend against Cloak of Fear it isn't due to the power being a bad pick. It is due to weighing its function vs other available options. Its endurance cost isn't the only thing heavy about it. It wants slots in order to make it more functional too. That's a cost that needs to be considered. Agreed on both points. Though I highly recommend all those things. If you manage to build enough recharge to run Rend Armor - Follow Through - Arc of Destruction - Crushing Blow - Follow Through then you're going to be using around 4.5-5 endurance per second. During Momentum that attack sequence can be complete in just under 6 seconds. My toggles, including Assault, cost 1.93 end per second (I don't always run Assault). With Cardiac that drops to 1.49. With conserve power my total cost to run toggles plus an attack chain is right around 4 end per second. Without Accolades I have 3.85 end per second. With Accolades I have over 4 eps. Conserve Power just makes pushing the most extreme attack chain easier. For most enemies that is overkill so Conserve Power isn't necessary. Defensive Sweep is also a fine bridge power to give defense and lower overall endurance cost (at the expense of damage). When I run Conserve Power it is during solo play and/or against tough targets where having a highly damaging ST chain in my back pocket is worth doing. No one needs it though. P.S. I too use Ageless for DDR.

Is the pair good? I think so. I love mine. Is it endurance heavy? Yes, it can be. You can also learn to pace yourself even without IOs like Performance Shifter or Incarnates like Cardiac/Ageless. All of those things will make your life easier later, but while you're learning the pair you will need to slow down at times. Putting an endurance reducer in all your attacks and toggles goes a long way to helping you out. Putting 3 slots in Stamina to make sure you can have some quality IOs +1 Performance Shifter proc go a LOOONG way to fixing your issues. By 35+ you can take Conserve Power and eventually Physical Perfection. That will take care of a lot of it. Titan Weapons will drain a lot of endurance when running its highest damage rotation. You need to be pushing some pretty serious recharge to do that, and that means you're likely running Hasten. Hasten crashes and that hurts your endurance. Plan for that. Dark Regen costs a lot of endurance, but you can work with that. Death Shroud is just damage to all enemies which works even if you are castings something like Taunt. It wants a few endurance reducers early on but this becomes manageable. Its also passive damage which is great. Cloak of Fear, if you take it, should be used tactically. Honestly, Its not my favorite power with this set, and not once have I felt a need to take it. My own Dark/TW is pretty decked out with IOs and it is about as much of a blender as I'm going to make it. Even before the Tanker damage changes it was doing high enough damage that fearing minions with Cloak of Fear was just a waste of time. Oppressive Gloom is similar. Generally, I only take those powers if I am planning to stack something with them, and TW isn't great at that. Pace yourself as you build it up, and pace yourself as you start buying your final IO sets. Pace yourself as you start building your Incarnates. Pace yourself. Once you get a handle on your endurance you'll learn when you can really push your limits. If teaming with support that can buff your endurance you'll be a happy Tanker. Once you complete your build the endurance drain isn't that big an issue anymore. You just might not see that while you first start with it. Pace yourself.

I think you should!! Those attacks can take on multiple categories so they have proc options. My Ice/Ice/Ice just runs the core of Chilling/BiB/BFR and its not horrible. (Edit: P.S., Also curious to know how that Psy/Dark turns out. Lots of Stuns in there plus Stealth should feel super safe for play along side the heavy hitters in the primary. It was a combo I was very close to rolling myself.)

Not a huge shock with Psy. Before I wrote the write-up in the collaboration thread Psy/SR was one of the first experiments. Psy/Nin was next. Currently there is a Psy/WP in my roster as the final evolution of that concept. Will Dom - Scramble Thoughts - Will Dom is available to anyone that wants to push recharge which SR is great at. Add on Dominate and Mind Probe and it gets really strong. Even TK Blast with procs is nothing to sneeze at. Psychic Blast and Psychic Mastery are like a match made in heaven. Its one of the few primary set + epic set that I'd really recommend as a deep dive. I've also done the comparison of the Sentinel with this powers vs a ranged only psy-Fortunata. The Sentinel is really quite good. Enough to make the choice a blurry pick due to all of the other goodies that Widows have. My current Fort runs a mix of melee and psi. This allowed my head canon to free up my concept to revisit a Psi Blast Sentinel. At the moment, I'm aiming to play around with Psionic Strike because I want to explore it a bit more. On paper its kind of a hot mess, but I want to give it another shot. Plus, I like the look of it. While I do cringe at pushing procs hard on holds + a melee, I do like to dabble into the Epics as of late. My two natural origin weapon based concepts (DP/SR, and AR/SR) are a bit more free to push some procs in Caltrops than my DP/Nin currently can. My elemental concepts (Fire, Ice and Electric) all take the AoE Immobilize. That's especially nice for Fire/Fire as I'm using both Burn and Rain of Fire with Fireball spam as necessary. Anyway, I don't want to side track further. Though this does seem like a fine thread to discuss general discovery of the Sentinel as it is all about making effective characters at its core. Why else would anyone care to make a spreadsheet if it wasn't to try and discover ideal power combinations?

Darkest Night all by itself is a bit overrated. In Dark Mastery you do gain access to Smite, Engulfing Darkness, and Netherworld Grasp (I think that's the name??). These 3 powers are all rather decent. You don't need to slot the Epic hold like a micro nuke in order for it to be useful, but it is an option. So with that said, I tend to prefer Dark Mastery over Soul Mastery as I feel the tools are generally more useful. Midnight Grasp in Soul can be very powerful but its base recharge was longer than I cared to tinker with. Another Epic pool that I feel is thematic to the vampire idea is Psychic Mastery. Mass Hypnosis and Dominate are both representative of the mind control powers of the classic vampire. Mind Probe colored red has a quasi blood/life force look to it. Link Minds is you sharing your psyche with others. All of these powers are great and all well within a theme. I have an entire stable of vampiric characters that go all the way back to my first 50. I did play with Dark/Dark/Dark for a bit but ultimately swapped that concept to a Dark/Dark Controller. My Sentinel that fills that concept is Water Blast/Dark Armor with red colorings. For a time, she ran Psychic Mastery doing everything I just mentioned above where the D3 ran with Smite/Engulfing Darkness. Bonus points: Use the Soul Noir with the armors and the "with eyes". Use primary black and secondary red. This will give you glowing red eyes whenever the armor with it is active. For the Aura in the costume menu select the bats, and I prefer when in combat only. Get yourself a macro for the villain pose and use that while in Atlas Park or where ever. It looks pretty rad when using Hover/Fly to pose with shadowy bats swarming around you while armors are up.

Which kinda makes me sad that abusing procs in Dominate and taking Mind Probe are such huge swings in DPS. I guess its not that much different from just stuffing the primary powers with procs, but something about relying on Epics as cornerstones just rubs me the wrong way. Then again, I also like to play in content low enough that I lose those powers. So there is that. I have been toying around with some more sets (Fire/Fire/Fire, Ice/Ice/Ice, Elec/Energy, AR/SR, etc.), and I've been having fun with that discovery. Lightning Bolt - Zapping - Tesla isn't horrible if you want to bypass the Epics. For AR, Disorienting Shot - Slug - Disorienting Shot - Burst with multiple procs has been enlightening. SR's Quickness being a driver to get me to 185% global recharge before the generic Ageless recharge bonus. Incinerator still works depending on how you want to slot things, but not using it has been a slight gain. I probably should have included that sustained AoE DPS is a bit silly in general when any of the Sentinels can clear things just fine. Especially after using Aim, but still serviceable even for Dual Pistols. Though sometimes I feel that opinion is held between just you and I. LOL

That's the AoE number from the Rack and Stack cell. Something from the very first cell "Rack and Stack's current rankings should not be taken seriously by any means". Keep in mind, Thunderous Blast has a fairly long animation time (so does Full Auto). Short Circuit also has a fairly long animation time and it is also PBAoE (which may or may not complicate things). Ball Lightening is the fastest animating option in the set and its decent. This might inform someone that perhaps they may wish to consider taking an Epic/Patron AoE option like Psychic Shockwave (or whatever floats someone's boat) to pad out gaps. This ignores Short Circuit's other functionality as well as its ability to accept 5 different procs if you wanted to add them.

You're a player of refined tastes.

While interesting, this list is largely useless for gauging any level of effectiveness. Bio Armor and Rad are both shiney and new so having high levels of player engagement isn't a big surprise. Regeneration's popularity is no surprise at all. It was widely popular, and may still be, within the PvP community. Bio Armor also has a strong following in PvP, for Sentinels at least. Ice Armor has visuals that don't really mesh well with a lot of concepts and that was a trend even in past. Hell, Ice Blast on Sentinels isn't that popular. The two most popular pairings of that primary are Ice/Regen and Ice/Bio both of which can have a PvP focus. Ice/Ice is #26. Ice Armor doesn't show up again until slot #58 with a Water Blast pairing. It doesn't show up again after that until the 100's. I wouldn't be shocked at all if a majority of the player base didn't even know how Sentinel Ice Armor works. If the set doesn't look appealing visually, then no one is going to really dive into it. It doesn't help one bit that no one is singing any praise of the set so the FOTM re-rollers give no F's about it. Not saying anyone should be singing praise for the set, Ice Armor is a pain in the ass, but since no one really talks about it there is no generated interest. No generated community interest + poor visuals (even the minimal effects versions are off putting to some concepts) = low player engagement. Spot 26 and 58 show a thematic pairing. Spot #1 for play at 50 is Fire Blast/Fiery Aura followed by Electric/Electric, Radiation/Radiation, Energy/Energy, Water/Bio. That's the top 5. Fire Blast/Rad is also thematic but effective. That's #6 and I'd suspect that's in large part due to the Pylon thread plus Youtube. After that there is another series of thematic pairings. Invulnerability is in a bottom 3 of sets played at 50. That's BAFFLING to me. Super Reflexes being below Fiery Aura is also kinda laughable. Willpower being where it is also isn't a huge surprise, but it also screams to me that people gravitate towards what they are familiar with. Willpower, in my experience, isn't more effective than either Sentinel Invul or SR. Hell, my SR builds can achieve endurance management on par with Willpower due to Enduring while often pushing more challenging content on top of it. All this list shows is that there is actually very little exploration in the Sentinel AT beyond an obvious thematic pairing or just trying out new powers for the sake of it. That seems consistent with a general consensus of the community at large that the Sentinel isn't that serious of an AT to play in the first place. Pointing out Ice Armor's bug is great, and I'd love it to get reviewed. However, I really doubt that's a reason why it is hardly played. People probably see it in the listing of powers and think "nah, that's not my character". Edit: So why do I think Ice is a pain? - Well, for the leveling experience it can be a little awkward against fire. Against Smash/Lethal or Energy its really not much of an issue. Frigid Shield isn't great. Looking longer term, there are 2 power that grant you maximum health. The double dip on max health would be more appreciated if the HP cap was higher or if most Sentinel builds really worried a lot about melee in the first place. Its real easy to cap HP with Ice Armor (which isn't a bad thing), but I'm not sold on how it got there from a design perspective. Having the same T9 as Stalkers is something that I find welcome. Players can soft-cap the typed defenses with Ice Armor. Just because you can though doesn't necessarily mean you should. In an ideal world with a better Frigid Shield, Ice Armor is a mixed mitigation set like Energy Aura. It's not quite there, in my opinion, but it isn't as terrible as it sounds... once you IO the hell out of it. There are numerous places to slot Aegis to raise that Fire/Cold defense gap. My own Ice/Ice/Ice currently shoots for 32% to everything. That was the original build plan. By pure accident it gets 35% to Fire/Cold and far more to S/L/E/N. I'm OK with that. Hoarfrost as a heal plus maxed out HP by looking at my keyboard funny is fine for handling Psi damage. Icy Bastion has a number of nice perks going for it, but I wish I could have it more often. Since Ice Armor can be built to be pretty functional, once you IO it, I found a lot of opportunity to put procs in the 3 main attacks I use. So the set works but it could use some refinements. Perhaps even a pass for those just trying to level with it since being a decent set at 50 with IOs isn't really a wonderful place to be.