oldskool

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. 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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.

Taking all the powers and seeing what you like is generally the advice I prefer to give. 😉 The low levels might feel bumpy as you start to build things up but it should get better. Anyway, I hope the character goes well! I hope you enjoy it, and if you have questions feel free to ask. I'm also just a PM away if you'd rather do that.

You're skipping Pistols and Executioner's Shot which are the highest DPA single-target attacks in the entire set. You've replaced those with Dual Wield and Suppressive Fire slotted with utility sets on a damage dealing AT. If I were you, I would go on to Pineapple and test this first before committing to it. Your damage enhancement in Dual Wield is 21.75%. Your damage enhancement in Suppressive Fire is 0%. If this was me, I'd be WOEFULLY disappointed in its damage. I couldn't imagine playing this in exemplar content as it is entirely dependent on Mind Probe and Piercing Rounds for damage in bursts of damage only. There is no coherent attack sequence with those two powers as they can't recharge quickly enough to chain. So your filler options of Dual Wield and Suppressive Fire have next to no damage enhancement. Getting 71% resistance and 45% defense at the expense of doing any meaningful damage seems like you're just working against yourself. Also, Mids has a bad habit of over inflating values at times and it has never had the correct scalar for Sentinels. I can assure you as a matter of fact that Executioner's Shot will out damage Piercing Rounds in a contest of use over time. Pistols, despite its low damage per hit, is one of the highest damage to animation ratio attacks in the set. Pistol is literally second only to Executioner's Shot in terms of DPA. These are easily verifiable in game vs reading the bullshit in Mids. Edit: Below is how I might do it. I cobbled this together kinda quickly just to be more helpful than this post was originally. Obviously, I am trading out 46% melee defense for other things. I do not feel it is necessary to do that with Dark. Especially not if you pairing up a Stealth IO (which I left out) with Cloak of Darkness and Hail of Bullets. Hail of Bullets dropped from stealth will give you +10% defense for 5 seconds and has a high chance to knockdown at the end of the animation. That chance is 100% guaranteed if you use standard ammo vs any of the elemental ones. This is a pretty safe opener even with less defense. You can follow-up with Obscure Sustenance to super charge your regeneration and recovery. Speaking of, with Accolades and Cardiac Incarnate you wouldn't worry about endurance in the first place. You could even consider swapping to Musculature for more damage. I do not trust my version of Mid's on its resistance reporting. It shows me all resistances are overcapped beyond 75%. It does this on my Water Blast/Dark Armor build too, and it is wrong. Hasten is in this build. Even if you want to be lazy at 92% recharge your core single-target attack sequence is still sustainable. While Hasten is running it just makes everything smoother. It puts Obscure Sustenance in a sweet spot of sub 20 second recharge too. Juggle Executioner's Shot - Pistols - Suppressive Fire - Mind Probe (when in close) - Pistols for days. You won't run out of endurance so Defensive Opportunity isn't necessary. Link Minds has actual slotting so it's effect is now perma. You have Hail of Bullets (which is only "OK" as far as T9's go), Bullet Rain, Empty Clips, and Psychic Shockwave for AoE. Empty Clips recharges quite fast and should be available most of the time. Piercing Rounds is not a very good AoE. Don't get me wrong, because I do like it, but its unique cone property is more frustrating than "cool". Sentinels do not need it but it is a fine option. Drop Suppressive Fire if you are so inclined and swap in Piercing Rounds. If so, slot Piercing Rounds with only some of the Positron's Blast set (ignore the any of the /recharge) and use the last 2-3 slots for Impeded Swiftness damage proc and Annihilation's resistance debuff. The defensive slotting in the build chunk is survivable. It's pretty close to how I built my Water/Dark though that build ignores Hasten in favor of Maneuvers for more defense. The offensive slotting is how I run my own Dual Pistols build. So I can tell you from experience that on the offensive side that works, and the defense side does too. 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I'm in a Bio Armor is as good as you built it camp. I apply that same mantra to any AT that takes it and not just Sentinels. Like Nihilii states that what Bio gives up it gains on Sentinels. It is one of the few options in the AT for an offensive oriented secondary on an offensive oriented archetype. So if you're looking to maximize damage then Bio Armor is quite good. If you're looking to soft-cap defenses and hardcap resistances with an easy build then this may not be the set for you. You can push Bio Armor pretty hard on closing its defensive holes through planning out IOs and again that isn't unique to the Sentinel. What I feel is unique to the Sentinel is that you do have to get a bit more creative in the approach. Melee ATs just have straight up more IO options than a pure ranged AT. Bio Armor has this reputation of being amazing, and it is well deserved, but people rarely stop and think about what it takes to do it. Some of that rep started in places like Reddit with predominately folks rolling Tankers who both greatly needed a damage boost and can more easily offset Bio Armors weaknesses. Sentinel Bio Armor has a lot going for it if you invest in it just like any other set.

I have multiple threads about both sets. You should be able to piece together some ideas for a build with that. Dual Pistols is a sort of "world is your oyster" set. All of the powers have a degree of value and you really can fashion multiple attack routines based on preference. There are a few powers that truly stand out as must haves (Executioner's Shot), but its ok to toss a coin to pick your favorites. There aren't many sets with so many good picks within the context of its loadout. Dark Armor peaks in power choices by Cloak of Darkness. You're familiar with it from a melee AT though so it really isn't too different. Tenebrous Regeneration is a regeneration passive that is far stronger than Health. I do not suggest skipping it but it can run on minimal slots. Obscure Sustenance is a replacement to Dark Regeneration. This power is very different. It has a base cooldown of 60 seconds and applies multiple buffs to you each with their own duration. In essence, this grants you 3 each regeneration and recovery bonuses that have their own timers. Within the first 10 seconds the recovery effect is at its peak and then drops down 1 grade. For the next 10 seconds the recovery effect degrades down slightly. For the final 10 seconds the effect is at its weakest though still welcome. The health regeneration lasts longer but drops in tiers just like recovery. The full health regeneration effect lasts 60 seconds. This power is effectively perma on health regen out of the box and it stacks with Tenebrous Regeneration. My Water/Dark has hit 1100% regeneration for 30 seconds with the way I built it and averages around 5 endurance return for 10 seconds. That's not including how the power Dehydrate works in Water Blast. So just like in melee DA, you really should plan to invest in recharge for Obscure Sustenance for nothing else other than that juicy recovery buff. If you can get the recharge into the 20 second range or less, then I'd say that's ideal. The rest of DA is similar but the resistance values are slightly less and there aren't as many resistance bonuses to chase due to a lack of melee powers. So just be aware that while you can hard cap Smashing/Lethal resistance you're probably likely to hit 50% without getting creative. At least, that's been my experience. The Dual Pistols set Chemical Ammo offers -7% damage debuffing to enemies so that's an idea for helping out on survival. You can stick to standard ammo too for times you like knockback/down if you need a breather. Incendiary Ammo makes you do more damage. Cryo has some slows and extra range. I'd strongly consider taking Dual Wield here for Defensive Opportunity so you can maintain your endurance inbetween Obscure Sustenance if you do take Cloak of Fear. Oppressive Gloom's stun effect will stack magnitude with Suppressive Fire in standard ammo only. Any other elemental ammo will remove the stun and grant you a mag 3 hold for a few seconds. If you haven't looked in to the sticky at the top of this subforum, I go into both of these power sets in a bit more depth.

I was able to hold my own against AVs without procs by level 45, but this was generic IOs (no sets). It was not enough damage to take one down but merely chip away at it. If I had Envenomed Daggers, then I may have pulled it off. Maybe. I've solo'ed Clamor in the Penelope Yin TF without my Incarnate abilities. This was a more final version with set bonuses and damage procs. No Envenomed Daggers so it was slower than I'd like, and no real DDR so Clamor's Radiation attacks would eat my defense. Still I could run her around the reactor area, and outside of it, and play line of sight games while my click heal patched me up. This was doable but I wouldn't attempted it again. The Collaboration thread is a sticky in this subforum. Page 3 has my 30,000ft overview of Dual Pistols. I purposefully do not go into deep dives on animation times and Opportunity building like I did in this thread. I did in fact have a version with that, but the post length ballooned far more than I wanted. As it is, this is already very wordy and the intent is for people to read it vs flipping tables then walking away. ;) If you feel I missed something or wish to contribute new findings, then I am more than happy to update it as I have previously. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6950-collaborative-project-a-guide-to-sentinel-sets/page/3/#comments

Sorry if the above is the ramblings of a madman. I had a lot of this written down last year and once I decided to settle on a path I tossed my work in the trash (lol). So I've had to search my own posts and walk through my thought processes. I figured I would probably not revisit my attack rotation again until after the Sentinel AT is rebalanced as all of my calculations are tied heavily to Opportunity uptime. A removal of the mechanic as it currently stands would very likely result in me going back to the drawing board. This will be especially true if Dual Pistols ever gets an animation pass, a damage pass, and if procs are nerfed into the ground. All 4 factors contribute heavily here and changes to them may inspire a pretty severe overhaul. So my apologies if the above reads like a giant mess, but I can't stress this enough. This is a set that I have spent A LOT of time with and in thought about. Not all of my experimentation is structured but that didn't stop me from tinkering. What I discovered is that Dual Pistols is remarkably build friendly on Sentinels as there are multiple attack sequence paths one can take with potentially close results.