oldskool

I enjoy my Pistols/Traps Corr and also play a Dark/Pistols Defender. Either of those power sets offer debuffs.

As stated before, your biggest challenge with endurance is coming from both the lack of endurance and accuracy. Attacking is the largest drain on your endurance bar. Missing frequently means you need to keep spamming more attacks in order to land a hit which in turn drains more endurance. In the early game while just leveling up naturally, you should prioritize accuracy because consistently landing attacks will shorten combat and thus reduce endurance spend. Once you have 1-2 accuracy (2 is ideal), go for a single endurance mod to help reduce how much you spend per attack. As you level up and have more slots, then you can start adding in more damage as you go. Also, when you are starting out and loading up on attacks you should have something available. Hasten isn't going to help a whole lot in an early game set up like this except for maybe single hard encounters like at the end of a story arc. Still, Hasten is going to force you to spend more endurance for only slight improvements. Hasten is a great power, but it has considerable cost to it before you finish a build with set bonuses, etc. to really maximize it. Going into level 30 I wouldn't really worry too much about IO sets. IO sets aren't going to help you as much as specific individual unique IOs. I highly recommend: 1) The Performance Shifter Chance for Endurance proc. Park that in a Stamina slot. Even if you just leave the other two slots as SO's a good bit of your endurance challenges will start to fade. 2) Miracle and Numina Uniques with Endurance Recovery. Get both as you can afford them and put them into Health. These will change your life. Eventually, save up for the PvP health unique which has a chance to proc healing and endurance. That too will help you out. If you are doing a lot of Story Arcs, and the occasional Task Force you can stock up on Merits and use those to buy the recipes for the level 30 IOs above. That will save you some cash and set you up for the long-term.

Have you tested this build yet? "Hasten barely needed, due to the FF procs" is a big claim. There are a number of very deceptive elements in how Mids reports effects that do not work in actual play: 1) FF procs don't stack. You're going to get only 110% global recharge when the effect procs. Your uptime is going to be gated by the number of targets you can leverage. You're not going to exceed any builds that go for perma-Hasten with your current strategy. 2) It looks like some of the slotting strategy is to go after +3 and 4% global damage buffs from various sets. Just know that global damage is only base damage and not your enhanced damage. 3) Gaussian's in Tactics is worthwhile for the defense boost on builds that need just that little bit of extra defense. However, that Build-Up proc will very rarely proc when you play solo. If you are granting the Tactics buff to a full party of 8, then it will check the procs off team members each interval. This means it can have a better chance to go off in teams, but it is near worthless solo (proc rate is so small as to not provide much damage benefit for the slots). 4) You could spare a slot in Molten Embrace and Assault by using a +5 IO instead of 2 individual IOs. 5) The damage provided by Molten Embrace and Assault doesn't offset the higher base damage of Suppressive Fire and Executioner's Shot. Those two attacks are pushed off late in the build in order to boost weaker attack's base damage. I'd swap the order of the selection. You're better off with better attacks first, and then adding damage boosting elements later. Hopefully that helps get some perspective on some potential changes you could make.

I care a lot less about the survivability of my Sentinel builds. Therefore, whatever I did would have some tradeoffs involved. I'll think about it though if some inspiration hits me to explore the pairing. The recharge bit is just an option. You don't have to do it. There are plenty of builds that don't push too hard for things like permanent Hasten uptime and they can complete content in this game just fine.

Ah, I was mostly looking at your original build and not the second one, sorry. I wouldn't say what you have is "misslotted". That would be pretty arrogant of me if that were my approach. Instead, I wanted to just chime in on some of the underlying mechanics which involved the set bonuses themselves. However, since you seem to know this already my posts weren't really necessary. Also, since you revamped your build into something showing what you are deliberating choosing to chase for reduces a need to keep discussing it. So no, not "misslotted", but definitely not how I would build or play this combo. However, that's an awesome thing in COH where you can make whatever you want within the confines of the game's framework. So, I really should just say good job you seemed to have made something you are happy with.

Fixed for you. (Just teasing... 🙂) Recharge and procs often go hand in hand. It isn't as much of a mutually exclusive situation as you state, but it is definitely mutually exclusive with set bonuses above 3 slots. There can be benefit in building up with deeper sets, but it also helps to understand what sets are the most beneficial. That is fundamentally the point I was trying to get to for the OP. They are stacking a number of bonuses which may not glitter nearly as golden as they think. So maybe some different sets would be more appealing knowing that stacking 12% regen in multiple powers could be swapped for something else. OR... maybe regen is the way to go for their goals. I don't know their life. There is no one way to skin a cat here. Sometimes what is optimal for one particular mode of play isn't as great at others (proc stacking doesn't contribute to mitigation strategies directly which have its own pitfalls too). The OP did note they don't intend to take alpha strikes so maybe worrying too much about mitigation and HP recovery can be reduced for other avenues. *shrug*

TL;DR: You're not getting nearly as much bang for your buck chasing sets with % Regen or Damage as you may think. Hit points are always worth it, but the idea of "effective hit points" is also a thing. EHP can come from other mitigation strategies which Radiation Armor is already pretty good at with both absorb and Meltdown as possibilities. You may, or may not, want to completely reconsider your approach to how set bonuses interact with game mechanics. This may, or may not, completely change your entire build. I don't quite know how I would build Rad/Rad here, but there are somethings you may benefit from knowing. You're looking at full set bonus percentages, but it also appears you're missing some contextual data around them. For example, dropping out a set with 12% Regen changes your health return from 45hp down to 43hp. 2 hit points of regen. Increases your resistance is a more substantial mitigation tactic (as is defense). 3% damage is *base damage*. So, if you have a power doing a base of 50 then it is 3% of that, and not what you modify it to be with enhancements. This doesn't mean there isn't an impact. Given your current build, losing out on 3% global damage is roughly a 4 DPS loss. Procs vs sets. Procs work better with less recharge slotted in the power but more global recharge from other sources. You could completely dump the concept of running Devastations and use procs. You could drop all the way to just 3% global damage, but with running 3 procs (Proton Stream could get 4 with Apocalypse) you'd increase your DPS by at least 30% more than what you have now. Endurance management can be a problem, but you're running Rad Armor so it shouldn't be a huge deal. And with more global recharge you could get away with just 1 recharge IO (+5) in Aim and end up with potentially the same recharge time. This can spare you a slot. If you're going to use 2 level 50 IOs, then you can stop at +4 and save yourself some cash. The additional +1 on both isn't significant. With Meltdown, you shouldn't need a Rec/Resist pairing. Just recharge. With 160% Global recharge (Hasten + Ageless Destiny) you'd have 131 recharge on Meltdown (two +4 lvl 50 IOs) vs your current 189. I'm using Ageless here to simulate what could potentially be possible with more +10% global recharge sets (can only use 5 for 50% and you may not be able to fit all of them in) placed strategically in the build. The final recharge with more optimization in Ageless would be higher which also comes with its own benefits.

I run Super Reflexes. Bio Armor has a few reactive powers which are clickable. That is where the "clicky" can come into play. Invulnerability has Dull Pain and Unstoppable as click powers. Unstoppable, in its current state, can be skipped but who knows what the Homecoming team will do with T9 defense powers in the future.

Good is pretty subjective. In my opinion, Sentinel Willpower isn't as competitive with some alternatives like Energy Aura or Invulnerability. That doesn't mean the build can't or won't work. It just means that Willpower on Sentinels isn't as strong as it can be on Tankers or Brutes (where higher health caps is more significant with regeneration). Sentinel Invulnerability comes with its own endurance management (unique to the AT), a passive small absorb shield, and all of the current buffs to psi-resists. In essence, Sentinel Invulnerability does everything Willpower does, but does it better. (Or, you can't regenerate like WIllpower can, BUT Dull Pain can work as an on demand heal which is just better than passive regeneration any day of the week). Energy Aura is just amazing on any AT that has it. If you want more damage while still having the mixed resist/defense feel plus healing, then Bio Armor is Willpower's final form. Dual Pistols is a great set though, and I enjoy it FAR more on Sentinels than I do on Blasters. The only competition for fun with Dual Pistols is Defenders and Corruptors (of which I happen to have with the set as well).

You could essentially pick anything out of your list and meet the parameters you set. Almost every AT has combinations of power sets with some weakness to some aspect of the game. Its pretty hard to get around that and Sentinels aren't any different. If you really like Ice Blast, then go for it. If you want to push its single target damage further, then several of the powers can use damage procs to do that. Any of the highly recommended secondaries like Energy Aura, Super Reflexes, Invulnerability, and so on help enable proc builds a bit easier. However, any of the Sentinel pairings can pull it off if you're willing to give up some defense in the process. So yeah.. the answer is potentially anything. There isn't an easy fix to your altitis. You'll just have to work on the 1,000 character slots you are granted like the rest of us junkies.

The most recent version of Mids does have Seismic Blast and Stone Armor. Its not a combo I play, but the powers are most definitely there. If your current version of Mids isn't updating, then you may just need to try a clean install of the latest version.

There is no inherent synergy between Ice and Dark. Due to this, you can completely skip Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom, and Soul Transfer from Dark Armor. You could focus on just what resists you can build up and some ranged defense and almost completely ignore the melee-centric elements. Obscure Sustenance has a 35ft range, and you will need this power for sustaining endurance, but otherwise you don't really need to be that much closer. Now, if you want synergy there are a few sets that come to mind. 1) Dark Blast has negative effects on to hit which really only has synergy with Cloak of Fear. Is that worth doing? Well, you can decide that one. 2) Psychic Blast has some synergy with Disorient stacking in Scramble Thoughts and Oppressive Gloom. 3) Psychic Mastery also has some synergy in the above using Psychic Shockwave. 4) Any sets with knockback/up can buy you some time to regenerate during Obscure Sustenance. This can include Water, Energy, and potentially Dual Pistols (only with non-elemental ammo though). That's about it. Sentinel Dark armor isn't a particularly good set. Overall, it has far more weaknesses than it has benefits. Slotting ideas which can boost damage (i.e., procs) conflicts with how demanding Dark Armor can be to shore up its weaknesses. You can have a functional character with whatever you chose, but optimizing it for maximum performance is difficult to say the least. I played a Water/Dark/Psy Mastery character for a while. It is an effective pairing but it isn't especially powerful. It was fun to stack disorients (Geyser, Psy Shockwave, Oppressive Gloom, etc.) and have even bosses do the drunk walk while I pew pew in peace.

You may want to swap the sets in Scream and Dreadful Wail. It looks like you did yourself a disservice in saying you can't build your way out of a paper bag. The build seems fine; good job!

"Soon" may not be that soon. If you want, you could post your build and others could help you navigate your way out of the paper bag. 😉 I think helping you with what your concept is, as it would be in MIDS, is going to be FAR faster than praying on one of the 5~ posters in this subforum actually playing your combo.

Why wouldn't that be ideal? Hell, I do this quite a bit when I am looking for inspiration on how an individual set works.

Better is subjective, but in the spoiler tag below is a build that can show you some idea on what can be done. I only used 47 of the total slots in order to get to 160% global recharge, 45% to the 3 positional defenses, and a reasonable selection of powers for a coherent attack sequence. So no, SR doesn't necessarily demand much in the way of slots, BUT that also depends on how many pool powers you are willing to take. The build below uses Tough to mule the two +3% global defense IOs (a significant 6% defense boost across the board) and Weave which is also a solid power of +all defense. Combined, these two powers will get you at least 11% more defense to everything. I like taking Maneuvers for another defense to all as well. If I have room, then I will grab Assault too for additional global damage BUT its only 10% of base damage so it isn't that important. There are 4 power slots open in the build below to flex in whatever travel power you want and/or explore some Epic pool choices if you wished. Since the total slots spent are under the maximum, you could even build out the Epic powers more if you wanted. Given that the general defense, recharge, and recovery is already handled with half the build you could do whatever else you wanted with this. It can only get better. 😉

I wouldn't sleep on Lancer Shot, and proccing out Single shot to the gills isn't nearly as worth doing as it looks on paper. That power will activate those damage procs about 30% of the time. It isn't really that consistent on the way the slotting is allocated and it hinders other aspects of the build because of it. Tactics will not be providing you that Gaussian's damage buff very often if you solo and still only seldomly if you are in a full group. Its a good place to mule a nice set, but uh... SR doesn't need those bonuses with more thoughtful slotting elsewhere. Anyway, you can get by with either Single Shot or Charged Shot. Both have their value. If you want to keep the proc-based approach, then maybe keep Charged Shot but change the slotting. You could get more out of Apocalypse in Lancer Shot.

You're looking at an older build.

And some of that is a good bit of gatekeeping too. A degree of "balance" is really hard to take seriously given how this game is built. Instead, arguments around DPS come across like "you can't be better than me" or "you're not playing this game right because how I play is correct". This game is incredibly hard to balance in the respect of +/- 5% for the DPS ATs since support ATs can debuff DPS-adjacent attributes. This can create situations where support ATs function at a stronger level than their offense step up would suggest they should. The alternative here is to ensure that the offensive capability has to be counter balanced against the permutations of debuff support in an AT. This ultimately is a crappy way to deal with balance because not all support sets are equal in distribution on debuff (some don't do that at all). This game is never going to solve the Kinetics challenge for solo play where a player can buff their abilities to cap by kicking all other combinations in the balls. So, yeah... I don't wanna see a change in the IO system where is set to purposefully enforce a concept of DPS-Tank-Support trinity that exist elsewhere. Customization is what keeps me playing this game. Remove that, and you remove my desire to keep playing. Of course, my opinion doesn't matter since this is free, but still...

I don't have a specific recommendation on primaries because they are all pretty good. However, 4 of the weapon sets (Staff, Broadsword, Titan Weapons, Katana) include a +defense power which can make the early levels a bit easier. Secondaries are a bit different. I would never tell you to avoid a set if you wanted to play it, but some do have some things to keep in mind which may turn you off. Regeneration - This is a more advanced set to deal with and may feel exceptionally squishy as a first time melee player. Any sets with a damage aura (Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, etc.) - These sets are great for adding more damage, but the damage aura will likely get you more attention than you may want. This can also lead to being overwhelmed early on which may lend to a sense the set is squishy. Pretty safe/easy to play picks: Energy Aura Invulnerability Shield Defense (works well with Broadsword for more defense in melee early!) Willpower All of the above have a mixture of damage mitigation options built in and Willpower is one of the most hands off secondaries in the game. It can feel a bit squishy early on as you build up, but it smooths out later on. Note, Willpower's Rise to the Challenge has a taunt element to it, but by the time you start using this the set is beginning to mature. Also, RttC regenerates health faster with more enemies so it isn't that bad. Still, this may add a layer of complication you may not be interested in. There are a lot of other secondaries to pick from, and if I didn't list them it doesn't mean for a second they are bad. They just may have quirks about them that add to complexity or have other features which may lend a bit more thought to how it plays.

I don't recall saying it was a problem to begin with. My point is that there was a point in time where the design of the Sentinel had its own set of merits vs the Blaster AT. All of the improvements to the Blaster are essentially resolving a set of problems that the Sentinel no longer solves. Snipes, not being rotational placed other lower tier attacks as being the go-to set up for more common damage cycles. The Sentinel spreads out its damage across other options like reducing the CC on certain powers and improving their damage. This makes it to where the Sentinel's baseline attack cycle is less spikey but also more consistent than the Blaster's. However, that isn't how this functions in the current game as it is easy enough to just have burst damage on demand in your rotation. The Sentinel's shorter cooldown and more available "nuke" could be countered by the Blaster's longer cooldown consequence-attached nuke (obviously that no longer exists).

Quick snipe with 22% to-hit was planned on the Test Server and never rolled out to Live, sure. However, the removal of that requirement and the current state of snipe powers *is* a HC thing. That happened in I26 Page 2.

Wasn't there a time when the Blaster T9's drained all endurance and had some other limitation to "balance" its damage? Also like how until Homecoming changed it, the snipes weren't really rotational powers like they are now. There was a point where the idea of how the Sentinel is now faired better in the "balance" that currently exists.

I really doubt there is a combination of powers that is going to change their opinion based on the nature of their post. Some people just do not like the Sentinel AT, period. There is no amount of discussion that will get them to enjoy the AT.

There is an (un)healthy bit of "I know but I don't wanna" as well as a good bit of gatekeeping involved.