oldskool

I've helped someone make a build that does something like this. It used Boxing, Cross Punch, and the Epic melee for blappermode with some mixing of the ranged attacks to fill the gaps. Seemed like a fun experiment. With the right Epic melee you can make a pretty high damage Sentinel (as far as Sentinels go at least) so its not as silly as it sounds. Obviously its Kheldian in name only as the Sentinel lacks all of the benefits of being in that AT, but for a fun concept build you can make it work. Will it be "optimal"? Maybe not (depends on how you approach it), but it should get the job done regardless.

In a manner, you're asking for someone to craft you a build that is also reading your mind as to what you want. Whatever anyone hands you won't be what you envision. If you want all of your attacks to have Sudden Acceleration KB/KD then plan for all of your attacks to have 1 occupied slot. Then you work backwards (maybe forwards?) from there. Do you want a set like say.... Entropic Chaos? That one caps out at 5 slots. Are all 5 pieces valuable to you? If so, then now you're looking at 5x Entropic Chaos + Sudden Acceleration for the KB/KD. Building your character doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. What's your goal for the secondary? What are you looking to accomplish with it in actual play? What will make you happy with it? When you say "this is a concept build not min/max" - what is the concept? Why does "not min/max" even matter? If the latter is due to costs, then what are you trying to get at? If the build is truly concept-based (for whatever that means) and you don't see it as needing to be min/max how is anyone supposed to help? Furthermore, you mention you want KD/KB change IOs in the attacks, you want flight, hasten, and tough/weave. How much more of a build do you need? Exact slotting on some nebulous description that doesn't mean much outside of what you want? To me it looks like you have a build already. That's 5 attack powers with at least one slot dedicated to changing knockback/knockdown, flight, hasten, tough/weave, and a secondary all picked out. I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I just want to understand what you're expecting to get out of this discussion. I'm not sure if anyone around here has a price list on every IO set in their back pocket either. Do you want to know what powers are good out the two sets you're talking about? Do you want to know what some slotting strategies are to get you to your goals? (If so, what are those goals?) Give us a little more, and many of will try our best to help you get there.

There are still several power sets missing write-ups because no one ever devoted the time to do it. When I originally started contributing it was with sets that I actively played either on the live HC servers or in an isolated environment. So any sets missing have nothing to do with how good a set it is. If you search the general subforum with key word "regeneration" you'll find a lot of chatter about it. To more directly answer this though, regeneration is actually a very good secondary on Sentinels. Hell, Sentinels arguably have the best version of regeneration that exists in the game right now. There are still limitations on what regeneration can handle, but that can be true for anything. Beam Rifle is also a very good primary and it gains an additional AoE attack that no other AT gets. So you're picking two power sets where the Sentinel gains something over its cousins.

Most horrible to play: Bots/Force Field. Why? I found it boring AF not because it's not capable. Some of the most fun I ever had on live: Ninja/Storm. Why? Chaos.

I overlooked this comment before, but this is really worth coming back to. There has been another instance where someone had Gaussian's in Tactics (maybe 2, 3 builds?). I went into this elsewhere, but not here. There is obviously a misunderstanding on how this works. Gaussian's doesn't work this way, and I have tested this. Running Gaussian's in Tactics does not make the proc run all the time. The proc has a 5 second duration and toggles do not check that frequently. Toggles pulse once every 10 seconds and then they roll the dice based on the proc per minute calculations (PPM). Gaussian's has some wonky behavior here in a toggle. During the pulse the proc checks against allies including the player. The PPM factors that get included are things like Area Factor. Tactics has a huge area factor. A proc like this gets floored into the ground on % chance. The math yield something like 2.5% chance to trigger BUT procs can never go below 5% or above 95%. So every pulse of the Build-Up proc has a 5% chance to apply to the player. That's 5% chance per ally in range. That's your team mates and their pets. If you're grouped with a bunch of Masterminds that is a lot of rolls of the dice to apply the buff to yourself. For solo, you may see it trigger once every 12 minutes like I did. This kind of slotting of Tactics can work with some team oriented builds however if you want actual control over when it triggers put it in a power you activate.

I'm curious to know how you think Beam Rifle, even with procs, is going to go so far ahead on damage that is Blaster levels of DPS. Procs in Refracter Beam and Overcharge are good, but they aren't that good. The Sentinel as an AT has a 0.95 damage multiplier. The Blaster has a 1.125 multiplier before Defiance stacks. The above is ignoring resistance debuffing from procs, but in general both ATs can use the same sets in the same powers. In the case of the Sentinel vs Blaster Refractor is another opportunity for Achilles' Heel. In practice its not that big of a game changer. Depending on the Sentinel primary, and slotting plus total recharge, there can be variance in uptime on Opportunity's largest debuff. Its not that difficult though to have a 50% uptime in a fully realized build. However, in a non-optimized build Opportunity uptime can be all over the place so that 20% resistance debuff is not a 20% damage increase. Even the Offensive Opportunity bonus damage effect isn't that great in a final build as it only contributes about half of its baseline value when you consider damage enhancements. There are Sentinel sets that had their power load outs changed to the point where their best single-target options are in fact better than their Blaster counterparts (when considered purely in a vacuum and Defiance is ignored). Then there are sets like Beam Rifle that aren't that dramatically different. Then to further muddy the waters the to-hit buff changes for sniper attacks add damage. Blaster Beam Rifle gets Penetrating Ray which is a pretty boss power. On top of that, as a sniper attack it can take the Manticore Toxic proc on top of the Javelin PvP proc while still getting a 5 piece bonus out of the deal. This also completely ignores that one of the Blaster ATO sets includes another purple quality proc that can be mixed and matched with Apocalypse. Anything you can slot into Overcharge on a Sentinel a Blaster can too. So now you're looking at comparing Refractor Beam (multi procs) vs Penetrating Ray (2x procs). Without playing with those numbers lets call it a wash (and I really doubt it is). Now you have base damage comparisons of Disintegrate, Lancer Shot, Piercing Beam, and Overcharge. The Blaster wins on that contest before Defiance even starts. For Refractor Beam to really take advantage of its damage potential with procs, it needs to be hitting multiple targets. AoE's with procs vs single-targets aren't nearly as reliable on average. Is Refractor with procs a nice multi-target nuke? Yes, and in this case it gives the Sentinel something the Blaster set doesn't have. Evaluating primary sets without context to a build is going to really distort the reality of these powers. Sometimes I like to use Archery as a horse to beat on. Archery's single-target and AoE potential is an interesting contrast between Sentinels and Blasters. Blasters hands down have better AoE potential and it isn't close. The change to Rain of Arrows severely weakens what Sentinels ended up with while Blasters have a potentially 14 second cool down T9. It really is a big deal in both theorycraft and practice. Single-target wise Sentinels have Stunning Shot to choose from vs Snap or Aimed Shot on Blasters. Even given the sniper changes the potential here can favor the Sentinel before Defiance kicks in. You realize that potential through a build though because comparing the sets in a vacuum won't show it. However, there is more. Blasters have an entire secondary devoted to damage and a couple that are more utility. So we can't compare Aimed Shot - Blazing Arrow - Ranged Shot (Blaster) vs Stunning Shot - Blazing Arrow - Perfect Shot (Sentinel) anymore. Furthermore, for the Sentinel to get even close to competitive with its Blaster cousin its going to need to account for Incarnates like Musculature Core Alpha. That's part of why a build makes the difference. Most Blasters don't go for pushing damage in the Incarnates and many, many builds do not push procs. They can though... So I made an Archery/Tactical Arrow Blaster that gets just shy of 45% on Smashing/Lethal defense (edit: Was thinking of my Defender that DOES raise this defense. The Blaster hits mid 30's.) and 40% ranged defense (edit: this number is correct on the Blaster). I purposefully skimped on defense to play with procs in the secondary (Tactical Arrow). Now the attack sequence comparison can substitute Electrified Net Arrow with multiple procs (the procs are responsible for upfront damage vs the loooooong duration DoT) and Ice Arrow with nothing but procs. Since the Blaster benefits from pushing to-hit at 22% to maximize Ranged Shot, this has a side benefit of making a lightly slotted accuracy Ice Arrow REALLY powerful. That's because a power like Tactics becomes a no-brainer choice and 6 slotting it with Gaussians adds defense. Such synergy! 😃 So I end up with a new comparison of Electric Net - Ice Arrow -Blazing Arrow - Ranged Shot (Blaster) vs Stunning Shot - Blazing Arrow - Perfect Shot (Sentinel). The Blaster doesn't need to run Musculature to utterly crush this comparison. AoE is no longer just in the Blaster's favor it becomes light years different considering damage procs in EMP Arrow and Glue Arrow. The durability of even 40% defense is still really damn good, and Tactical Arrow has great endurance management. We haven't even compared the burst potential of when Upshot is active. [Edit: My Blaster Build had two evolutions. One where Electric Net had procs but the overall defenses were lower, and one with slightly more defense focusing on Ice Arrow. Since I don't play this character anymore the exact slotting is gone into the recycling bin but I can get fairly close tinkering it back into Mids.] Granted a lot of Blaster builds I see do not go there. A lot of them get tunnel vision on 45% defense and quite frankly the AT already does reliable damage. Its when a Sentinel build does lazer like focus on damage, while having high durability by default, that the AT can even start to dream about nipping at the heels of a Blaster that is truly optimized for max damage. Your run of the mill highly optimized Sentinel will probably compare well with even the most lazy Blaster. And in this I'm ignoring Fire Blast because I won't compare Fire Blast Sentinels vs a Water Blast Blaster running Devices. In AoE the Blaster is still going to be great, but single-target the Sentinel will likely be stronger, again before Defiance. Fire Blast on Sentinels is in its own tier all by itself and leads even heavily procced primaries like Radiation/Dark Blast/Dual Pistols/etc by a good bit. There is a reason why Fire Blast is popular and it really is the king of damage on Sentinels. So again, saying that Beam Rifle on Sentinels gets "ridiculous" and "Blaster levels of DPS ridiculous" is really dubious in the realm of raw set vs set comparisons without any build considerations at all. In a manner, you may have been spent the last 2 weeks doing things we have tested since April of last year or maybe not. Maybe you are even on to something that others haven't though of. I don't know, and I'd still love to see what you've come up with.

I'll have to load the data chunk later to see some of the more granular details, but in the meantime I'll toss my 2 influence about set choice. The Sentinel is a damage dealing archetype. As a damage dealing archetype it has reduced effectiveness in any secondary "support" effects. Effects like defense debuff, resistance debuff, negative to-hit, self healing, and so on. You're never going to bolster your powers through enhancement in the manner that at Defender or Corruptor can. It's just not going to happen. Both of those ATs can, and will, run circles around you in their debuff potential. When you take an archetype like the Sentinel and try to convert it into a jury-rigged Defender, then said Defender can also run circles around you on damage too. This is one of the few times I will ever say that a Defender will out damage a Sentinel. Generally it is hyperbole, but in cases like this you really are better off playing an entirely different AT if the goal is push secondary support in your attacks. A Defender will out perform your debuffs in their primary power set alone. Then, if said Defender even remotely specs into damage their second will still out perform this build in debuffs while also doing more damage too. I'd recommend leaning into what the Sentinel's role is, damage. Use damage sets in powers like Whirlpool, Geyser, Dehydrate, and so on. This looks like a build aiming for less expensive sets, and that's totally fine. Go for what you can afford, but don't sacrifice damage for other things. Sentinels are already pretty durable by default and if pushing to soft cap defenses with a budget build is going to gut your damage don't do it. The return on investment just isn't there. I see you have only the Sentinel Ward set in Steam Spray. That set has great bonuses but the proc is hot garbage. The absorb shield is disappointing in practice since it does quirky things like get effected by enemy level which will grant you something like 15 pts of absorb against a level 54 enemy. I'm not criticizing the placement of this set. Honestly, it is fine in Steam Spray. I'm just letting you know how the proc works in practice to temper expectations. I do not see the Opportunity Strikes ATO at all. The Opportunity Strikes ATO justifiably gets a bad reputation because that proc too is underwhelming, most of time. There are a small number of attack sets that can make good use of that set though. Water Blast is one of those exceptions. The Opportunity Strikes set can work very well in Whirlpool, Geyser, Water Burst, or even Water Jet. Generally I prefer something else in Water Jet, but due to its interaction with Tidal Forces its worth mentioning. I also agree that if you are going to bother with the Annihilation set at all, then Whirlpool is the best spot for it. I also agree with the above that Power Drain is over slotted. You can even skip that power if you like.

This needs to be a thing.

Agreed. This is a good a point, and I do happen to swim in influence like Scrooge McDuck.

Have you read/flipped through the sticky at the top of this subforum yet? https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6950-collaborative-project-a-guide-to-sentinel-sets/page/4/ I'm linking page 4 which has a write-up for both Energy Aura and Electrical Armor on the same page. The author of the Electrical Armor write-up played Beam Rifle/Electrical Armor. They ran some tests against AVs, solo mind you, proving the pair does enough damage to defeat them while also surviving them. The author of Energy Aura also played Beam Rifle and posted a write-up on page 2. On Page 5 another person contributed a write-up to Electrical Blast. There is no need to over think how Beam Rifle pairs with anything. It has little synergy by itself with the secondaries. I'm not saying there is 0, but when there is synergy it is so slight that it doesn't really matter. The original question was has anyone played with BR and Electrical or Energy Aura. The answer to that is yes. There are discussions about it to the point where people included write-ups on the individual sets in the link above. I've played some Beam/Energy Aura. The pairing is good because both sets are good. If I were so inclined to play with Electrical Armor instead I could say the same thing. This why there is little point in splitting hairs over it. Electrical Armor and Energy Aura have some similarities in resource management. A better question becomes how do you feel about heavy resistance sets vs heavy defense sets? That's personal preference that you need to decide on because either of these paired with Beam Rifle work well.

Good question. I've never run it in a toggle and I've never looked into what would happen if I did. [Edit: The answer is that even passive powers check once per 10 seconds (just like a Toggle) but in this case the "proc" has a longer duration than the "check". It should function fine. <- while true, Numina doesn't run a PPM calc so it functions differently in toggles/passives. While either are fine it is the lower powered passives like Health that are ideal places for it.] My usual approach to endurance passives is 3 slots. 1 Performance shifter end mod, 1 PS proc, and 1 generic 50 IO. Both of the end mod IOs get +5 boosters since the set bonus doesn't matter if I exemplar. I like to swim in endurance on my characters if I can manage it. 😉

That's an exaggeration. The Carnies as a collective enemy type have a 20% resistance to psychic damage. Malta and Council robots have 60%. The psychic spider bots are a little less than the typical robot. The minions in those groups do not resist psi by 80% to 90%.

PPM calculations include modified recharge not just base along with other things. Global recharge bonuses do "modify" how the power cools down but does not interact with the PPM calculation. Whirlpool has a massive area of effect (25 ft) which needs to be take in to account. On the plus side, Whirlpool has a base animation time of 2.03 seconds (non-Arcanatime) and a base cooldown of 60 seconds. This should result in a rough 90-92% chance to trigger PPM 3.5 procs. You start adding recharge and that drops. Spiritual and Agility T4 grant 45% reduction if the power didn't have any modification at all (so not considering global bonuses). Whirlpool drops from being near guarantee to a coin toss per target. This isn't so bad if you account for it. The average loss in DPS is single digits, but it does imply that not using those Alphas at all would be better. Geyser has an area of effect of 20ft, a 2.93 animation time, and 90 base cooldown. All these things considered and this power far exceeds the PPM cap of 95%. This means adding recharge isn't so bad. In fact you can still add some recharge and keep a 95% proc chance. Even with the modification of Spiritual you're probably still in an 80% chance ballpark for PPM 3.5s. That Force Feedback won't go off everytime BUT that's FINE. This is an AoE where the chance to trigger that specific proc checks all targets it hits. So you still have a really good shot at gaining the benefit. The average damage from the proc chance dropping below 95% here is also small potatoes. When I said slight DPS I mean slight. What stood out though was that you'd gain a slight positive shift in overall average DPS without using that Alpha slot at all. You'd gain a slight double digit increase in DPS done (single target and AoE) by switching to Musculature. Now, what further compounds my decision to bring that up is that your global recharge was 163% with the opportunity to run Ageless. You'd have a burst of recharge followed by a normalization of 173% global for the remainder of the duration. That's a pretty solid place to be in my opinion. Running Spiritual at that point is shaving off low single-digits worth of seconds on these powers for the cost of adversely affecting the probability in Whirlpool (more so than Geyser). I'm not sure that is worth doing, but I can be very wrong too. Edit: I'll often run a purple set in the T9 with 59% recharge modification. I don't expect proc triggers every activation but the chance is fairly high anyway. So more often than not the effect I want happens but whiffs occur. It does suck in those situations since the power has a base cooldown of 90 seconds. However, I generally run these at 24-26 seconds after all changes are considered. Again, not so bad. I run 5x Opportunity Strikes in Whirlpool knowing full well the proc only has something like a 20% to trigger on a single enemy but it will still check against its target cap. So that can be 10 rolls of the dice that net me Opportunity meter (its a set amount). More often than not it triggers in large packs. Even against single enemies that proc chance isn't horrible. It is often worse in most single target attacks.

Just my own personal preference, but I am not fond of slotting 6x Numina in active powers. The ranged defense bonus is nice and all, but I prefer putting the proc into a passive skill so it is always on. In Recon the proc will run after you activate the power but it will last a good bit. I tend to find that cumbersome but you may not notice if your pretty proactive on Recon clicking. I'd consider the Decimation Build-Up proc in Lancer Shot. You should be using that power often and having even a smallish chance to boost damage for 5 seconds is nice to have. Attack sequence wise, you want to open with Disintegrate (and the Opportunity Strikes set makes since here even if the chance to trigger is low) follow-up with Lancer Shot and finish with Piercing Beam. Ideally you repeat those 3 attacks until your target drops. When your Opportunity meter hits 90 to 100% then fire off Single Shot to trigger its effects. Against an AV you'll use Single Shot to apply its debuff but you shouldn't spam it if you can. Just drop the health regen and go into using your stronger attacks. Apply Offensive Opportunity/debuff as needed. Second set of Performance Shifter in Quick Recovery would be nice too. The proc is generally better than a generic IO. If you do use generic level 50 IOs then consider adding boosts (if you haven't already. i can't view the build right now.) to them when you can afford to. Some of your other set powers can benefit from boosts too, but I don't often prioritize them.

That will vary depending on how the build is constructed, what power set you're talking about, and what kind of content we're talking about (solo vs team). The linked post has a spreadsheet calculator where you can plug in the metrics to see which works best for your set up. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/7404-what-the-hell-is-doublehit-a-hybrid-assault-guide/?tab=comments#comment-67414

This is the core of why posting builds without context isn't helpful! 😆 Flight is there because it is a travel power and most people like travel powers. I have no idea what you like, but figure you may want a quality of life power for movement. Flight is also a popular power among players. So figure a base 50/50 shot that Flight may be a good generic pick. Also, as a Tzimisce, there are some monstrous looking wing options to match the vicissitude look that Bio Armor can bring. Maybe the user name holds no relation there, but maybe it does? Why else would anyone pair Dark Blast which has vampiric undertones with Bio Armor? I digress... If you're taking Flight then it is a logical step to take Hover. Hover provides some defense, which is welcome, and functions as in combat 360% movement. Hover is slower and less endurance heavy than using Flight in combat which can feel unwieldy. The final stepping stone on movement in that particular tree is Afterburner which makes you fly even faster. Need it? Not at all. Athletic Regulation makes you move faster even on the ground and using Ninja Run (from the Pay-to-Win vendor, it's free) plus regular Sprint can be plenty fast. I often skip travel powers unless I absolutely want it to match a concept. If I am skipping a travel power I will still often take some select powers from the travel pools. Hasten, in Superspeed, is a global recharge buff that is a straight up power increase. It's not mandatory, but it is so helpful that taking it feels like it sometimes. Combat Jumping, in Super Leaping, is very similar to Hover. CJ is a light weight (low endurance cost) defense to everything power (less than 2% to all) that also helps in vertical movement in combat. Want to bunny hop over enemies? CJ will help with that. Ninja Run, while free, is very endurance expensive and does not work with Combat Jumping (one will deactivate the other). So for running to a mission I toggle Ninja Run + Sprint, and in combat I may only run Combat Jumping as endurance allows. The basic powers of Swift and Hurdle need no extra slots but they will buff your other movement modes. P.S., And if this were a Vampire the Masquerade homage, I'd recommend the possible inclusion of the Psychic Mastery pool in a final build. You can make some the effect look like blood and some the powers fit higher Auspex powers. If I'm off here, then just ignore all that. 😄

If it makes you feel better, I can confirm this works. Having done this on a Radiation Emission/Radiation Blast Defender does turn Rad Blast into a monster set. Not only are you debuffing resistance with those procs you are also debuffing defense. This in turn creates substantial bonus damage to teams, hell even solo. I generally do not slot more than 1 Achilles' Heel in my characters. The reason is a two-fold. 1) Lots of veteran players include at least 1 of these so the uptime has a good chance at being 100% in groups I roll with. 2) I often run recharge heavy build as it is. This usually means my Achilles' Heel carrier is being used somewhere around every 3 seconds to 5 seconds (depends on set, power use in the situation, and so on - you get the idea though). Essentially I am fishing for proc chance by increasing frequency of use. Power sets that can make use of Achilles' Heel, Annihilation, and Fury of Gladiator make for really good core damage sets for the Sentinel AT considering how Opportunity works. Are you sure on Irradiate vs Atomic Blast's proc chance? Atomic Blast has a longer animation and 90 second cooldown vs Irradiate's shorter cooldown and 20 second cooldown. Both have the same radius so the longer cooldown on Atomic Blast should all but guarantee it procs vs Irradiate. Irradiate is still a great place to put procs and increase frequency. I don't know if I'd say it has a better chance to trigger in a vacuum though.

Overall this looks good. Couple things though... Spiritual Alpha is actually going to result in a slight DPS loss for this build when considering the AoE powers with procs. Spiritual and Agility Alphas function as if they were direct enhancement to your powers and not as global recharge. Using Spiritual behaves just like you slapped a level 50+ IO into Whirlpool and Geyser. It gives them 45% enhancement where they didn't have it before. This will impact the procs calculations in a negative manner. Its always the first bits of enhancement that have the largest impact to PPM calculations too. Consider a swap to Musculature for more damage or maybe even Vigor Core for boosted healing/end management. I think the recharge as it is should be fine. You're at 163% which isn't bad at all. Add some +5 boosters into Hasten and you'll only have 5 seconds away from permanent (assuming you drop Spiritual). Ageless will give you 10% global recharge at its lowest rating which goes a long way in filling the gap. You've got a good baseline here. Water Burst gets a boost in damage with Tidal Forces but Steam Spray is more direct against a narrow focus of targets. Water Burst also has the benefit of hitting enemies behind you. Still, this is a really minor thing. If you prefer Steam Spray keep it. I prefer Water Burst since it is a sphere and it lines up well with Geyser/Whirlpool. I don't need to make sure I am aiming properly. Caveat here for me, I run Dark Armor with Oppressive Gloom so herding cats into a cone isn't appealing. I'd rather just smack them all in a sphere. 😛 I'd really, really, really, reconsider the slotting choice of Tactics vs Tidal Forces. You can go 2 slot Tactics. My preference would be Adjusted Targeting (1 full To-hit, and 1 To-hit/end = 14% vs 15.8% from Gaussians x6) that will yield you a 2% global damage increase as icing on the cake. You'd have 100% accuracy against +4 enemies in your least accurate attack (Water Jet). Running no to-hit power will be a loss on to-hit against +4's and there isn't too much I'd shift just to squeeze in the Kismet unique. So I agree with Tactics but not the slotting. Shift the 6 slots to Tidal Forces with the full Gaussian's set. Using Gaussian's in Tidal Forces/Aim vs Tactics is going to yield you more reliable activation of the +Build-Up proc in that set. Using that proc in Tidal Forces means you will have a pretty good chance of it triggering every activation. That's every time you use Tidal Forces, and ideally this is right before Geyser, you've got a good shot at also having Build-Up for 5 seconds. This isn't how this procs works in Tactics. In Tactics it will check after many seconds and it will roll on all allies in range. If you're soloing that's just you and the AoE modifier of Tactics is enormous. In effect running Gaussian's in Tactics has something like a 2% to 2.5% chance to trigger per every pulse of the check which has a long internal interval. Thing is, all procs have a floored chance of 5%. Not a lot better. This changes though when you group up. All allies check the proc. All of them. That includes pets. I run Gaussian's in Tactics on my Masterminds for this very reason. My pets contribute to a chance of Build-Up on me which gives me a cute damage boost when I fire off my attacks. Yes, my Masterminds use attacks because otherwise I find the AT boring AF. 😉 Anyway, Gaussian's in a power like Tidal Forces/Aim gives you more control over the event (the proc), but running it in Tactics can make for some interesting shenanigans in groups.

Welcome! Since you're new I'm not going to post a final build just yet. Posting builds without context isn't really as helpful. Posting builds in that manner is far more valuable once you know more of the ins and outs. You can see the reasons for the decisions and you can go from there. Leveling: There is no harm in just picking up everything as you go. One problem that Sentinels do not have is lack of choice in powers. The way the primary and secondaries work create situations where an early build of all 9 powers from each is a perfectly valid approach. It works that way leveling and can work that post 50 too. You trim powers when you know what you're doing and you have specific goals in mind. Being new, I don't know how you'd be there yet. Bio Armor benefits a lot from its own internal synergies and dependencies. Regardless of how you go in the end plan to take all 9 powers. You will need to make some considerations on priorities in the early levels though. Prioritize Environmental Adaption as pick by no later than level 14. Earlier can be better, but level 14 is a tier in the game where things change. This is linked to how the classic game worked. What I mean here is that Environmental Adaption is your crowd control resist power. Many enemy factions start to introduce more crowd control in the level 14+ range. Enemies like the Trolls (knockback/knockdown), The Lost (sleep/hold), and The Outcasts (knockback/down) start to become more common place. They get more dangerous than they were at level 4. I'd also prioritize Ablative Carapace, and Rebuild DNA. Those are pretty important as self heals usually are. Adaptation is also important. Get it as early as you can. Inexhaustible is good, but you can push it off a bit into the 20's. Resistance to slows and end drain aren't as obnoxious early on. For Dark, plan to take everything at first too. Take both Dark Blast and Gloom fairly early. Take Umbral Torrent too and Aim as soon as you can. Take Abyssal Gaze when it feels comfortable to do so but not much into the expense of your Bio Armor powers. Take Dark Obliteration at 12 and try to take Antumbral Beam at 18. Maybe something like this: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1310;528;1056;HEX;| |78DA6D93CD4EDB401485C7C429F92101C24F12270E490818481581DA3D2A8476D3A| |8A82CBAB4ACD4A46E5D1B394682258FC38677297F6AFB0E6D7983F4C67326D8184B| |D1999C99F3DD99EB71EFAC3B73F5EE629749F97DDB180EF523D3F12DC7B453BD53D| |FF02DD761E3679A7E8A98D23F1ACEC0FCDCE91ADE377D8F527E7332D5358F4D6768| |76F62C57FFE00D0CC7EAEB6FBCEFAEC7B287AE6B77DEDAD6E08B1F1EE7F8783CB49| |C4181FF73BDBEA9BBC7FA27CBB6958313ABDF79AC30AEDAA3A2A6775EA26D6DD0EF| |87C6F08C64A690ECC86C4A8DAADC80B6B9163749A520936098ABBD8C6A037AAD612| |9F125F05FA8514D819102FF8632096412C864B0764E28320564B2D4E724CFB0E42A| |F7EE34DE7EF2A469ACCB402FE90C697E86D13DADCBA25E16F566D4A8E6512F8F7C9| |9F239F42087B9CDDAF3AAD0DA59CE4FCCB6D01FE86A3BAA3F692FF3D8CB3CF652C0| |1E1685A2DE323275E22F80BF20B8D0563BAAB7C45F027F09FC65704B42C15790291| |1BFC8CFCA8A75EEFD224E199C32380AF255A1E26E80D3244E059C0ADE519A5E900A| |4F85F79BD82B60AF805D579F28D80DD13F6237C1698A3B48DE1AFAB2867EAC0B6D4| |775F4CC539527DF060B16B0AFC1CD4F06B7662B36BB1D737662CEAB98F33AE6BC8F| |3987F2E42B6252E0A4E726DFC8E84F86667176093DFCF7E84D4938B3F644FF86731| |BDC7B08E7F0AE5B500D5A197F3BA85D0D8D6BA1F17FF2ACD54D| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| As for a more "final" build, that is more complicated. Everyone has their preferences and there are a lot of approaches one can take with both of these sets. My own preference for Bio Armor is to focus on global recharge and Hasten uptime. More recharge means powers like Ablative Carapace, Rebuild DNA, and Parastic Leech are available more frequently. I lean on these heavily with my Beam Rifle/Bio Armor build. Recharge builds also have interplay with Dark Blast. Blackstar is a very powerful attack and debuff. The more frequently you can use it the better. Being able to line up Blackstar and Aim around every 25 seconds should be a goal. Do not be put off by the melee range on Blackstar. If you jump in and use Parasitic Leech/Ablative Carapace first you can tank some hits before Blackstar either wipes everything out or makes the remaining enemies miss you more often. Dark Blast as a set has a number of options from using various procs to using full set bonuses. That gets really complicated and what is the best on a scale of min/max is pretty much user preference. CoH isn't that great about cookie cutter builds. I'm sure one can be made, but the variations possible make it impractical to bother. Besides, CoH isn't so demanding that one build something "the best way". As long as you can complete the content you want to complete, then it is a good build.

I've grown to like the Build-Up proc vs an extra damage one.

Not sure what you find useless. General notes: Enhance Focused Fighting, Focused Senses, and Evasion to at least 54%. You can do that on just 3 slots. Dodge and Agile can run the default slot to 3 slots. Depends on just how "useless" you find something like Weave and/or Maneuvers. Tough with both 3% globals. Combat Jumping or Hover. Weave with 54% enhancement. Gaussian's set in Aim. The outline above gets you 43.1% Melee and Ranged and 46.7% AoE. Just turning Maneuvers on without any slots puts Melee/Range at 45.4% and AoE oat 49%. You could completely skip Maneuvers from the build if you wanted. Other notes: Both of the Sentinel ATO sets include 5% to melee and ranged defense. If you use the ideas here on slots (3x total in Focused Fighting, Focused Senses, Weave, Evasion, 2x in Agile and Dodge) then you're in spitting distance of softcap. Both of the 3% uniques in Tough and both ATOs complete the defense cap if you have Combat Jumping/Hover. If you don't want CJ/Hover, then some of the other powers can be enhanced to close that 1.75 to 2.03%+ gap. You still have 51 slots to allocate elsewhere. Edit: Example build below. This gets you just over 45% to the M/R/A without too much trouble. Global recharge 196.3% for spamming Stunning Arrow -> Blazing Arrow -> Perfect Shot without too much issue. You could take or leave Aimed Shot for Snap Shot. The Ward set in your level 1 pick is just fluff and it may or may not trigger when you use it. Don't really need it anyway but the bonuses are nice. You could shift around what sets are where to your own preferences. Both sword powers from the Epic pool are there for having a sword. Linkle uses dual crossbows but Link does use a sword/shield as well as a bow. So the sword powers are there purely for the homage to Legend of Zelda if one wished to use them. They aren't mandatory. The powers could be dropped completely for travel powers and the slots could shift elsewhere. That will drop recharge down some, but the slotting in either Rain of Arrows or Fistful could be changed to the purple set to recoup a portion of the loss. The attack chain would likely need a filler like Aimed Shot or Snap Shot to compensate. Incarnates could be whatever you want. Agility isn't needed so much for softcapping but the recharge would be welcome. The benefit for Agility is if you find the sword powers offensive to the Linkle concept then the recharge boost drops the need for a low level filler attack. The build isn't heavily reliant on procs so this choice isn't detrimental. Musculature is also an option for more damage. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1447;690;1380;HEX;| |78DA65944B4F135114C7EFB4534B4B29AD407996165A680B74E8A80BE323C6889A2| |8104213373EEA081728694AD342824B177E0137F85AE26BE346A32E7DE2C6E7CE07| |BE766E10133F403D33E74F4332934E7EBDFF7BCEB967EE39F78E2D8FF8EE1FBF744| |828FE2305A352C9656571315F9405F7B8B1B854360AC27CDCF4B66ECDE4268DE2AC| |9CD60E97A7E664F962A4A68FC81959AC482DBB5492E5DCA49C29C86559110D130B0| |B05ED587E768ECC661BADD1A834A665B932972FF9B6C6259AF45A836C49CAE9CEA3| |A5FC94568B3D9E2FCE1BB931A3B2484BB6513A7DF43E4D083C5597F8A80AA1ABA2F| |F03F88699780BBE03DF334F27C94DB17C1DA259B134B5050C30CF908D021B05730E| |D83A60F38C7270720EAAF389B0B4EEC7CC9E07E04366EC11F339F9B890B7EB2621A| |18A1D37C01566E82AB3ED1A33759DF922C1E5307DDDF71C56BCBABBE02AD37B0BBC| |CDF4DD619EA3EFF1B0AFE2F9EDB4B4F406F325C5AD47DCFA75D67CBF98FEEFCCC00| |FF02773E032C73D4B711B789F94863AC5CAD3AF320D9A6BC45CE315B64FAF305FD1| |9A41AC19D459DB99018798CD69664863A68699E7296E13E23661CD66ACA9D006B57| |05CD152A54738496945255BCD3F61DAD95DFC157A88C72AD9B4C3A61DD5EE40B53B| |50ED35CAB81319777EE34EEA5A073F31BB3F835F98A9AFCC0B947198E38B709A3BE| |135C58BA07B22E89E28BA278AEE89A27B7AD03D5314A71779F622CF18F28C21CFA0| |9B4F8869D3B7896AFD034F32436493443E49C459A5D883C8677090777A6800EC079| |3A8628A994B09A1C1473BC8DAF001702FB88FA9EF67F6D2DA19542F632EA87B840E| |76A9B5534D3FB37AF329F3AC9A27A65A1DB0CD666C8A6E5376DB943D3665D4A64CA| |8B82248512CC513A89DF6EA86B7763B6076D3BBEDBE38C53B1AEFE1DD8E9FE0DEFC| |63F3FABBDD0B27248E13D21FE53DF90F4321EED6| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Ok, so I took the original build and decided to craft two. First one should be a bit more affordable. It still has some semi-expensive choices like LotG, but I do love that set. [Note: After dropping these I didn't really pay a lot of mind to any set overlap. There may be some and that was just me not checking my work. I usually do... 😞]. If I were to go for a cheaper build I don't know if I would worry too much about 45% defense anywhere. Ice Armor is a very difficult set to build in and Water Blast is incredibly power and slot hungry. The two of these together make some tough choices. Still, the cheaper build turns out to do a bit better on single-target due to damage procs. The AoE is still decent and chance for recharge procs should help things out too. The more expensive build gets really close to 45% defense on Smash/Lethal/Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative during Moisture Absorb. Aqua Bolt is a filler and benefits from being pretty cheap so I opted to focus fewer slots there. Since it animates and recharges very fast it isn't super great with PPM calcs. You'd need to hammer the hell out of that power in order to push beyond its low PPM value and Water Blast just doesn't work well that way. Still, you can prime things with Hydro - Aqua - Dehydrate - Water Jet [slight pause] Water Jet again - repeat. That works if Hasten is running or not. In the cheaper version Dehydrate carries the chance for +Endurance. I left it out in build #2 purely as example. The build would likely benefit from it over time. In either build use Whirlpool early for its ability to both debuff resistance (it has good PPM vs 10 targets) and chance to give you a third of your meter in one shot. Hydro Blast, Dehydrate both give around 13 meter. So early on you're looking at 2/3 of the meter being filled up. During Hasten here you could run Hydro Blast - Dehydrate - [slight pause] Hydro Blast - Water Jet - [slight pause - due to how Tidal Works here] Water Jet - Aqua Bolt [Offensive Opportunity auto triggers if it hits] then go about repeating except for Whirlpool. *Edit, so my Ice/Ice Sentinel hits 45% to types other than Psi during MA. The slotting priorities and power choices were a good bit different. Also, I didn't try to use pros with the build and went full sets everywhere. That may actually be the better way to go when dealing with Ice Armor if you really want to push 45% defenses. If you can be comfortable with 32.5% defenses then one small purple inspiration softcaps you. That potentially opens up more build choice. Cheaper one... | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1450;680;1360;HEX;| |78DA65944B6C52511086CF854B2BD0965769292DA5D096F21221746FD4AAD13E243| |6D125B929478A2225174CECB26AD5B59B1A1F0B13ADBAD18546DDBAB73E763EE25E| |63AA26AE0D0E77FED2566E201F77CECC3F73E6CC61F6E254D793A32BFB85D273A8A| |CD56AF97959A9972AB2DC39A7D52FE85A59349F4EFA0E6EADE44F6A95A22CA44E6B| |75A9E70F5254DDDF5A9B926764A52653C71664FE807E7E4917F6DCD2523975A45C2| |A2ED66DC6EFF9AA94856E3637ADA54AD161BCCD48AD20F5DA62A9EA3F5C2D2DA4B6| |5535FD5C7E9612497DD947B58CD377282AF03454718F905145EF5DF0B549088F2AF| |A364CC67B5F875988802A5622B4AE183126E1558CB5D15ED0C90C44E142BA0A749D| |D075AE2B868E7B99F5DDABAC3F4C31668EB1983FA886ADE33DF886D9B5C1EC790BB| |E635EA79A2CC86739C1358C4D83B3E01C7322C71C89F29934F3753EE61AF63C02EF| |336D0FC07566D743E615CA67450FACDFCCACFB1DFCC10C91BE1DFAF6AF5CA7EF23F| |889E9FF0C7E610EA1E79749BF9BF5457788FB768D6C0EE474A0EF49F43D89BE8729| |A70B7D70DD264C90E61A73F826780BBCC3B453133C1C233CA39C2B483A5EE878717| |E119C5F1CF310F7F13EE36E9E0B2BE9F4A3BEFEBFC2B0C5A6D927F68719269F01F6| |510612AC170357697F83881F9CE4FDEC4D8359E655F209C027801E84FE9BBD31AA3| |D88BE075FB1F6C84BF019F89C197A0162064D545F18BD08C37629C277A599731C75| |455057047599292E8ABAA2F0496677EF41259F047C12A87D1F6ACE600F2EF249C12| |7B5E5D3BBDBF7694C88347CD298BD0C662FB3C91C525BF79A3EF488B3B1E6AD6DDE| |914623DEB69A6EB364DA2CD936CB649B65A6CD92535BFF0442312C5667EB9E37366| |DB48A3957307BBFB66D26E5147A775C3166550DF1FE7EEE8C8B72DCEF9D7137709E| |6BE008FBFC03E592DFCD| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Expensive one... | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1444;683;1366;HEX;| |78DA6594494C136114C7BF69076A299496826C9DAE50DA528656399A18153122182| |2891E9B09FD846A2D645A133DE27EF6E24913131770BDB81EBD83CBCD25DE351135| |F16CEA9B797F81642699FC66DEF6FDBFF7E69BE973E3AD4F0E2DEF158AFF40C5A8D| |58AB3B25A2F5765C573D4A89F358D8AB02E0FDDFDFF3DC56346755E96F413465D9A| |C5FD9455EFDBF48DCB93B25A93FAE13959DC679E593445DBCCE262459F28CF2F50C| |47C8BFD36BB2465A9DD7E9C9246499AB585F2928F032B5664DFC1A5F29CBE55D530| |4F17A76921699EEF212D837487D3025743883D9648B7584E1115DBA68A2E7A28A8A| |2A393B93300FE71DBCCFEA5304D155A1A29A2D1A43C566DDFD0237085995D65E61E| |30471E5AF48808E5BA91EBFEC0BE81F7E01AB8CE4CBD45CD77CC6BA4B58973D5A61| |86B6A0E831AD31F61764499B134CFC25ACFB3EAB26D3B56C03BCCD6BBE03DA6FF3E| |F312ADE7E5DEB8BCDFB85ECB77F007334EF57DA8EFFBCA3A631F99F14FE067F00B3| |3F986EA87547191EAB7611E6D7161FBAE92AD1D6BB6631E01CC2310622668CD20FA| |10CCB3D66C813992638EEACCC228F30AD50DA16E6892B5774E80479851AADB85BD7| |4DD663D3D37C15BCC580FFABA8EF59AE95DF3081735B91B7BE96ED025DC64E9C597| |D53BC6CAFBF2608119D9C5D522DD8AFD655D2695FD50D98F9C3072C2C849505D8D6| |3146D985545C001DA41143B88BEE66E675E31479F81CF998517E04BE6D38C1009AC| |9DC0B493987672837921C527C98A1984BE14F4A5A04F257D69D4496382194C30831| |315A49861C40C232687981C62BC14A3738CD011E3235B1E5DCE2779CF6175DBA9B6| |3B7F2A639D69EBA4341A598737EFB0141C96DD0ECB98C332E5B0CCA89BFF05A1D81| |66F60F3B437365AC8AB6CF7FEDAB2B894E3E8DE24718818E78EFF7464FDDE9E759D| |BF42D70D30C63DF90739DAE7E7| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

There are some good ideas in that build, but a number if things you may wish to consider changing. 1) Geyser - swap to Positron's Blast. The stun set does next to nothing for you here. It's already mag 3 at full Tidal Forces and lasts for 10 seconds baseline. Mid's isn't showing that the duration can be modified. Maybe it can be, but making this last 70% long isn't worth skipping out on 90% boosted damage. Geyser is a very powerful T9. 2) Tidal Forces is a better place for Guassian's than Tactics. You'll be short on to hit in this build so Tactics still has value, OR that Kismet +6% to hit would take you from 78% accuracy on +4 enemies to 90%. 1 slot in a power like Combat Jumping is all you need vs keeping Tactics. Also, take Tidal Forces earlier. It is Aim plus it fuels your Water Burst which gets bonus damage under TF stacks. 3) Dehydrate can be a very strong choice. 4) Whirlpool is a good choice. Especially if you plan to use the Opportunity Strikes set in this build. The cast time and cooldown mean Whirlpool will trigger the proc even on one target more than 20% of the time. Water Burst can't boast that. You can configure Whirlpool's recharge to be around 15 seconds which is exactly the same as the Opportunity mechanic. The proc won't fill the bar but it will grant +37.5% per activation. Additionally, Whirlpool can take Achilles Heel and Annihilation resistance debuff procs. Whirlpool is an excellent power though it does have some drawback as a ground patch effect that enemies will try to flee from. In practice it is still worth it. 5) There is little reason to use 5 pieces of Reactive Defenses vs 5 Red Fortune in Frozen Armor. Yea, the unique is nice, but the set isn't that amazing sub 6. At 6 pieces you'd actually get more recharge than that LoTG is providing. So either use 1 pieces, 3 pieces, 4 pieces or 6. 5 + LotG is kinda pointless. 6) Knockout Blow and Arctic Breath aren't doing your damage any favors here. KB is great when slotted well. Its kinda poop when muling a set though. Plus it takes 18 seconds to recharge, and its effectiveness isn't maximized for its placement. See #3 and 4 for replacements. Overtime those can they work out better due to availability and utility. 7) Sentinel's Ward works better in Water Burst or Geyser. 8 If you didn't want set bonuses most of your powers can take on procs and Water Blast is awesome for that. Again, some good ideas here, but the above is a lot of food for thought.

I concur with @drbuzzard. The power is not a replica of Dark Regeneration. It doesn't scale with targets (only ever needs 1) and its purpose is more towards buffing over direct heal. Use it early. Use it often. Eat well. Live long.

Overall looks good. There are some tight decisions there. The Opportunity Strikes full set has 5% ranged defense and it can work surprisingly well in Piercing Rounds. That'd mess with your slotting on Suppressive Fire though. I tend to lean towards 6 slotting Weave or Shinobi over Maneuvers. The values in those are better. You'd get less than a full percentage in gains for just one at 6 slots, but if you're stacking stuff it can add up. Shinobi can also take Blessing of the Zephyr for some range and AoE defense. I bring that up mostly because your range defense is under vs the others. Its not a huge deal. For soloing resistance debuff is good to have. The key is to try and stack it. The Sentinel inherent imposes a minor -5% non-stacking from self resistance debuff and defense debuff on every hit. The Opportunity mechanic applies -20% that does stack with other sources. Achilles' Heel is another -20%. Fury of the Gladiator if placed in Hail of Bullets is another -20% with about a 90% chance to trigger. It is very unlikely any enemies will completely ignore your debuffs. Even with resisting some of the debuff you're still doing extra damage. So I'd say give it a shot, but I'd understand dropping it. Kismet in Hover for 1 more slot may be better than Tactics if you shuffle some other sets and strategies around.