oldskool

Fixed that. Smashing/Lethal/Negative/Psi/Fire/Cold are all the ones with the easiest time to raise. Energy and Toxic are tougher, even on a Tanker.

I have this combo. You can get away with a lot due to what Staff brings to the table. Guarded Spin can get you to the melee/lethal defensive soft-cap with a bit of help by your build. This means you don't need to go all out on defense. Cardiac Core can help you close the cap on Smashing/Lethal resistance, but again this depends on what direction you took to build it. Musculature Core is the bee's knees for adding more damage, but I opted for quality of life. I only skipped Placate and Cloak of Fear from their respective sets. I have little use for Placate but I view all of the Staff powers like a set of tools. Cloak of Fear just offers me too little for the endurance but Oppressive Gloom at least works with Sky Splitter. Shadow Meld is nice, but optional. You could go with the endurance boosters in the epics instead if you like. Try to build for 32.5% melee defense at least. Guarded Spin will push you further. Try to build for 70% smashing/lethal resistance. Then go for as much recharge as you can muster. Don't forget to socket some KB protection IO somewhere. Shouldn't be too bad as long as you aren't trying to soft-cap everything, hard cap all resistances, and then skimp out on recharge/damage.

Defensive already restores endurance. This kinda reminds of me of some of the suggestions thrown around last year. Like folks would say the AT needs a 10% damage boost over what Mids was reporting. Which was like "Well, you're in luck because the in game scalar is 0.95 not 0.75". Or other humorous musings like giving 5% damage buff. People didn't notice that their powers already impose a minor defense and resistance debuff at all times. What got me to notice was seeing powers that have 0 debuffs on other ATs have them in the Sentinel power description. These effects also show up under a Power Analyzer used against targets. The inherent for Sentinels is utterly cryptic and clunky. It is no wonder people hate it because it isn't easy to understand nor is it easy to use. On top of that, it isn't at the level of class defining that others end up as like Domination or Fury. So on top of tweaks, it also needs a clear description of what it does. Flavor text is nice and all but it sucks for making informed decisions.

I've never noticed the bar depleting faster based on target choice. When I was testing this last year it seemed pretty constant regardless of target priority. Post combat, the bar will deplete after a delay sort of like Domination and Fury. In combat there is very minor decay but it is offset by the frequency of attacking. At least that has been my experience. You don't need 100% meter to trigger the inherent either. The rings will appear as soon as you hit 90 out of 100. In both cases, the target of the opportunity will receive a -20% resistance debuff for 15 seconds. This is highlighted by a big target under the enemy. The color of the target matches whatever color you have chosen for your power. Yes, you can have different color targetting flashes for your T1 and T2 if you want. Your teammates will now do more damage to this specific target for the next 15 seconds (or until it drops). That's the extent of the team effect. The Sentinel gains a personal damage or resource restore (restore = both health and endurance) buff depending on which version of opportunity is running. Offensive mode gives bonus energy damage, that was appearing to be proc-based, and that bonus damage is unenhanceable determined by base damage of the power. So the more you push enhancement diversification into a power, the less meaningful Offensive Opportunity becomes. For my characters running 132+% damage enhancement Offensive Opportunity contributes somewhere in the ballpark of +3 DPS overall (give or take a point or two). Defensive Opportunity isn't enhanceable either nor does it scale well, for the healing, in later levels. Defensive Opportunity does return endurance and it appears to be the exact same amount regardless of character build. The endurance return can be very noticeable when hitting 10 targets with an AoE. That and the resistance debuff make Defensive Opportunity fairly valuable otherwise it isn't worth worrying about. Offensive Opportunity is better for damage but only in such a minor fashion.

You're trying to do too much. You seem to try to do too much in every discussion on builds I've seen. I too like to tie concept to characters, but I have to scale things back in these games. Also, if you're questioning the durability contribution of Invulnerability as a secondary powerset through the lens of level 13, then your expectations might be a tad too high. I haven't found my Sentinels to be all that squishy in comparison with Stalkers/Scrappers of similar levels. Hell, even at level 13 for a Tanker you can feel a bit squishy but at least Dull Pain is easy to fit in before 10th level. My thoughts... Skipping Aim is a big mistake. If you think the damage of the character is slight, then why skip the one power that gives you bursts of damage? Yes, it has a cool down but it has 10 seconds of uptime. You can build for 25-30 seconds of cooldown. That's significant damage you're leaving on the table. Power Push is literally the best attack in the entire set and you're skipping it. Cross Punch without slots is a waste of time for damage. It looks like you'd like to have a little bit of a melee attack routine for close quarters. Air Superiority, Boxing, and Cross Punch does very, very, very little damage*. If you keep this slotting your ranged attack sequence is going to do 4 to 5 times the damage. If you think the damage is anemic now at level 13 using just the blasts, you ain't seen nothin' yet. (*I helped someone build an Emma Frost character that mixed the pool powers with some blasts for fun. If you take both Boxing and Kick then Cross Punch gets a bigger boost. Cross Punch with slots can do decent damage all by itself. Not slotting any of that though is pretty much a waste of your effort. Unfortunately, Energy Blast is a bit hungry for powers and slots making this hard to pull off.) Leviathan Mastery has Knockout Blow. That power is worth getting, but only if you plan to slot it. It can give you that Super Strength punch that you seem to be looking for. Boxing/Air Superiority are pretty much garbage though. Blasters and Dominators mix ranged attacks and melee attacks FAR better than the Sentinel can. Melee for Sentinels is nearly an afterthought since the worth while selections are so backloaded (level 35+). I have an homage character similar to yours. They weren't full energy in form, but very similar in scope to the Eternals. So the character could do a lot of things like manipulate energy, use super strength, be durable, use telekinesis, and be a telepath. That character was a Gravity/Energy Dominator at one point, and is now currently an Invulnerability/Energy Melee Tanker. The Dominator gets the power selection fairly right but the durability is the trade off. The Tanker gets the melee right, with Lazer Beam Eyes for flavor, and the durability right. That build has to give up all the other esoteric effects. The overall slotting isn't worth discussing because an IO build can have very different allocations vs an SO build. Like you may not want 4 slots in Weave when you can get the set bonus you want in 2 or even 6. The best thing you can do, is build this character as a Sentinel first and rationalize your character's concept to it second. Make this a container for what the character can do in this game instead of trying to mimic another medium. You'll be far happier with the character because of it.

DB is fine. If you like it, then go for it. The overall community for Homecoming is a fraction of the size of live. Having expectations about high amounts of chatter on all powers or combinations is going to lead you to disappointment. A lot of returning players are veterans too. So a large amount of conversation is going to be focused on new powers and new IO set combinations. There really isn't new territory to unlock with Dual Blades, but the lack of discussion doesn't mean it suddenly sucks. DB is usable on any archetype, period, full stop. DB gets better and better with the IO system. That's your 30,000 ft view of it. To get a bit more granular, the DB combo system excels more on Scrappers, Brutes, and Tankers than it does on Stalkers. I do not care for the combo mechanic on the Stalker at all. However, if you build for heavy recharge to only use Assassin's Blades, Ablative Strike, and Sweeping Strike the set becomes one of the top damage dealing primaries. For Scrappers, Brutes, and Tankers you can also build to ignore the combo system. However, the basic Blinding Feint into Attack Vitals combo is easy to build for while still yielding very high returns. DB doesn't really offer great synergy, in my opinion, with any particular armor sets. Instead, it is the choice of armor set that will be working for Dual Blades. If you want a high recharge build to focus on the highest possible damage, then you really want to consider secondaries with recharge boosts like Super Reflexes (you have several choices now FYI). If you don't care about that and don't mind using the combo system, then your secondary doesn't matter nearly as much. I happen to have a Dual Blades and Dark Armor Scrapper. I appreciate the damage aura it brings, but honestly it isn't necessary. DB has AoE options already built in. I'm just adding icing on the cake.

This is better in the Suggestion's sub forum, but how cool would it be to have a Shield Toss Primary to go with it?

Those kinds of classes were the inspiration for playing Dark Armor/Titan Weapons as a Tanker. I wouldn't consider Stalkers much of a "knight". Even if you're going the route of an Anti-Paladin they still are heavy armor wearing warrior types and not shadow skulking rogues. I'd suggest SD/WM Tanker for being the in-your-face brawler type that this kind of archetype suggests.

Exactly. Also, there are no direct Rocky movies after 4 (Creed is a spin off). I also hear there is no other Ghostbusters movies than the one that premiered in 1984.

The short end of it: I don't think it is worth wasting resources to plug the Psi hole. Enduring does provide some defense against Psi, and you can enhance it beyond just endurance mods. You have 2 powers left. Maneuvers, like Weave, is Defense to All so that will add some more Psi defense. Combat Jumping, while running, also is Def to All. You should be able to hit 24%+ without thinking about it too hard. In the Maria J arc you do face off against a lot of Carnies. Note, most of them do not have Psychic attacks. Attendants/Jugglers - these do lethal and energy damage. Your energy resist is very low and your lethal isn't much higher. They shouldn't be hitting too much unless you're pushing higher difficulty where they gain to hit buffs against you. Any Strongman - these do mostly smashing damage and they have a lot of attacks Fencers - these do mostly lethal Any Illusionist - their offense consists of Spectral Wounds (which doesn't hit very hard) and Blind (which also doesn't hit very hard). Seneschals - fire damage of which you have little resistance to. The psychic damage you're likely experiencing is Psychic Visage. That's the PBAoE that goes off when you kill them and it also drains end. There is a very easy way to deal with this... kite them a bit when at low health and don't be too close when they die. This can be tough if a bunch get in your face but taking multiple Carnies out in close proximity means you're eating a lot of Visage blasts. Don't try to tank those if you can. P.S., Your Overcharge slotting is fine as is. It is the least of your worries.

Just one slight nitpick, @underfyre. Defensive Opportunity does in fact return endurance per target hit over the duration of 15 seconds. That's per target hit and it currently includes AoE. That would mean a power like Fire Ball becomes endurance positive against multiple targets. Now, is that a great reason to take Fire Blast in this write-up? Probably not, but it is worth noting that the real value in Defensive Opportunity is linked to endurance return not its heal. Also worth nothing, PPM is clamped to a 5% floor and 90% ceiling. If you're weaving Flares between every attack you're getting a 6%~ chance to trigger Decimation every 1.188 seconds (Fire Ball and Blaze animations) or 1.848 (Blazing Blast). That becomes significant over a longer period of time BUT I do like that proc in powers that can trigger it with more reliability if I can manage it. Dominate is one such candidate.

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.