oldskool

I'm biased to Willpower since I have one. Tanker Willpower can get you softcap defense to the typed (Psi is a little tougher) and hard cap your Smashing/Lethal resistance. Psi resist can get pretty high, even hard capping if you want, but the other resistances are trickier to hit 90% on. You do get some hit point booster with High Pain Tolerance and then some sweet regeneration with enemy saturation. Against Smashing/Lethal enemies I don't notice my health move because I regenerate whatever pathetic damage does hit me pretty quick. Now, Willpower's taunt is attached to Rise to the Challenge and it is weaker other sets. So you may want to seriously consider taking Taunt from the primary if you lean towards skipping it on some combos. I too have a DA tank and also an Invulnerability tank. Invul is just classic and therefore, I recommend it. I haven't played much of Super Reflexes (made one, but didn't go far with it) on a Tanker, but that too has some interesting possibilities.

Make sure you run on foot to the mission door without any powers and when you get to the mission door let the pushup emote cycle 100 times. Then you go solo the AV in record time. If there is a situp emote (haven't checked), then do that 100 times too. Its the only way.

Stalker Dark Armor isn't so different from the others that you couldn't borrow some ideas off the other ATs. Its not like the IO sets change between the ATs. For example, the Reactive Armor set can be just as good for Stalkers as it is for others. Stalkers make the following trades in Dark Armor: Death Shroud is replaced by Hide. Cloak of Shadows is replaced by the Passive (forgot the name). Everything else is the same. All the sets you see in the resistance toggles on any Scrapper, Brute or Tanker build will be just as applicable to a Stalker. The slotting for Dark Regeneration won't be any different other than your own personal preference. I'd suggest taking a peek in the Scrapper thread on Dark Armor builds because the resistance caps are the same and they also gain access to Shadow Meld. So there is a lot in common there with the Stalker. You just replace slotting concepts for Death Shroud with more defense-based sets since you have Hide. One thing that I find nice about the Stalker version is that since it only has the 3 resistance toggles the endurance drain in the secondary is a bit lighter. Obviously end drain going to increase if you add in Cloak of Fear and Assassin's Strike can make an attack chain endurance heavy. However, you don't have to worry about Death Shroud AND Cloak of Fear. I have a couple Dark Armor characters now across Sentinel, Tanker, and Scrapper. I'm planning out another one, a Stalker, and I'm using the same logic I put into those other ATs into the Stalker. I often decide on taking Oppressive Gloom or Cloak of Fear but I generally don't take both. I often take Oppressive Gloom since there are more attacks that can stun vs fear. The to-hit debuff is nice in Cloak of Fear, but the attack check is so low as a baseline that I don't rely on it. Decisions decisions. Some people don't like Soul Transfer, but I've grown to love it. I used to skip it on live, but I take it every time now. I love the theme of it.

A Saiyan in City of Heroes would be a character that door sits screaming for most of a mission until they've finally achieved enough power to face down the final threat for an amount of time equal to the time spent screaming. I'd totally play this, and sometimes I do when I just sit and scream at my monitor.

A Homelander build is really easy. Steps: 1) Make a character 2) Flag RP to "on" 3) Be a horrible person Step #3 maybe better off with RP flagged in the Rogue Isles where being a jerk may be seen more as tongue-in-cheek.

Couple things about Beam and the inherent. Your instinct about not really needing Charged Shot for Defensive Opportunity is sound. You may miss it if you exemplar but chances are Energize will still hold up. Players seem to wrap their heads around Opportunity as if it is necessary to have access to both. Hell, I thought that when I started playing Sentinels. From my experience, needing to take both the T1 and T2 is all in one's head. The damage effect provided by Offensive Opportunity is not so high that it is earth shattering post level-22. That damage additive cannot be enhanced so once you start increasing the quality of your damage modification with SO's and common IO's around level 22 the value drops for Offensive. Defensive Opportunity has value to some builds. I have used it on Dual Pistols/Ninjutsu as a method of avoiding the need to click my endurance heal. That method gives me an option of regaining health & endurance per target struck while still using a clickable that does damage OR I can just forsake damage for an immediate hefty endurance heal. For my Dark Blast build I completely skipped the T1 and took on the T2 (Gloom) not for Opportunity but because that power was the better choice for the build. So Opportunity can offer some tactical play for certain builds. Opportunity does not offer tactical play for all builds. Energy Aura already has a lot of really good endurance management so yeah, Defensive Opportunity isn't nearly that important. To be fair though, as I stated before, Offensive Opportunity isn't that amazing either. Since I've beaten the horse of Opportunity value enough I'll put this into context of Beam Rifle. You have a choice between Single Shot and Charged Shot. So, what to pick? Well, ideally you want to run Disintegrate -> Lancer Shot -> Piercing Beam (or some variation of that sequence) as often as possible without the need to rely on your lowbie attacks. So in an ideal world where you have the recharge to support those 3 good powers your choice of T1 or T2 changes a little. Single Shot has a debuff attached to it that has some value against hard targets like AVs and it also provides you Offensive Opportunity. Charged Shot's damage is a little better if we ignore the debuff and it also has the option of taking the Force Feedback recharge proc. However, if your use of the power is light then whatever procs you put in that power really don't matter. So I may lean more towards Single Shot, but really the choice here isn't a game changer. Your planner is out of date. Refractor Beam cannot take Decimation. If you aren't going to use Charged Shot much, or at all, then I'd highly recommend putting that ATO in Refractor Beam. Your version of Mid's won't allow that but you can do it in game. Alternatively you could put either ATO in Overcharge too. You have some very rare sets in your build plan, so I may as well suggest you put the Apocalypse set in Lancer Shot vs the Strikes ATO. The Opportunity Strikes ATO can go in Disintegrate, Piercing Beam, or Overcharge -- dealer's choice. If you take that set, then consider taking the chance for Opportunity proc. The proc isn't the most amazing thing the world but a random chance for more Opportunity meter has its merits (sometimes). I'd also consider putting the Annihilation chance for resistance debuff into Piercing Beam. (Edit: So the one thing about Opportunity that is worth your time is the -20% resistance which is applied regardless of the T1/T2. The Strikes proc can improve uptime on that debuff even if it is unreliable.) In short, prioritize slotting Disintegrate, Lancer Shot, and Piercing Beam. Refractor Beam is a good AoE so I'd 6 slot it with either the Ward ATO (has a chance to trigger per enemy) or go with damage procs (it can take a few). Cutting Beam is fine as is. Overcharge... I feel you can take it or leave it at 5 or 6 slots. I do like a 6th slot there with Achilles Heel, but I find I can also live with just 5 slots for a set bonus. That leaves Single/Charge Shot. Which ever you take you can slot it as little or as much as you like. You don't need to fully slot it since it shouldn't be a staple attack for you but you'll want some accuracy to land Opportunity as well as when you exemplar down. By dropping an attack you'll end up with more slots even if you devote a few to Disintegrate, Lancer and Piercing Beam. So if you can manage it try to 6 slot Aim with Gaussian for the extra defense. The largest bonus from that set is positional but you will still get some extra padding on the typed defenses. Without playing with it more that's the bulk of what I have. Oh, before I scuttle off. You can go into the options of those planners and change your accuracy in the exemplar options. Against a +4 target you'd have an effective 39% base to hit. You can lower your base to hit in the exemplar section of the option down to 39% and the planner will recalculate your accuracy for all attacks. I bring that up because you're running multiple copies of 4x Luck of the Gambler (9% accuracy bonus), the Kismet to hit AND Tactics. If your adjusted base to hit still shows a base accuracy over 95% you've got too much accuracy which may be better slots elsewhere. Keep in mind, once you get to T3 Alpha in the Incarnate system that level shift will boost your accuracy even against level 54 enemies (who would be effectively level 53 to you).

So I loved the entire response, but very much like what stated "like" isn't enough even for this sentence. There will be nothing but disappointment if one tries to do a Blaster vs Sentinel comparison. Sentinels just don't have the AoE that Blasters have. However, depending on a build it can get pretty close on single-target sustained damage. Sometimes that can even exceed some Blaster builds. A Sentinel vs Stalker/Scrapper isn't going to win on single-target even if it nips at the heels of those ATs. A Sentinel can do significantly more AoE damage than either of them. Sentinels really do exist in their own bracket when it comes to what is or is not valuable to a team. A question like "Why bring a Sentinel when you can bring a Blaster" is almost certainly going to be focused around clearing trash mobs as fast as you can since AoE is godly in CoX. You know what we don't ask enough of in these forums? Why bring a Scrapper when you can bring a Sentinel to an AV fight? Most high-end Sentinels won't exceed the single-target of most high-end Scrappers but they can get pretty close. Furthermore, the Sentinel is going to help clear the content on the way to the AV better than most Scrappers due to those Aim + T9 nukes they can drop. Then you have the protection from the secondary + easier times to kite while doing damage (if necessary) adding a whole new layer of survival that melee ATs don't have. Sentinels could use some tweaks for sure, but they aren't so bad that they have no place. I think the AT to AT comparisons can get pretty myopic. We can spend so much time looking at what Sentinels don't do that we lose sight of what they can do.

Easy now. We've got a lot of Ninjutsu fans in here that may not take to kindly to folks saying "less optimal". 😉

Its not quite "one player ... just nuke an entire spawn regardless of archetype". Judgments are powerful but they aren't that powerful. Judgment do allow everyone an opportunity to contribute where maybe they didn't quite have it before. No judgment is going to turn a Controller into a nuking monster like a Blaster, but if everyone is leap frogging the cooldowns on it you're going to drop minions/LTs within seconds while severely damaging bosses. But if you have two people dropping judgment at once then most of the targets are going to be defeated. It only takes a little bit of clean up to finish a spawn. There have been times where I have run to the next group, my T9 is on cooldown, and my judgment is on cooldown, and the only power I get off is 1 application of Bullet Rain (1.848 second animation) before target is dropped. That's not just the judgments doing it, but everyone else contributing. Still, less than 2 seconds to defeat a spawn isn't an unreasonable or even unrealistic expectation for Incarnate enabled players to achieve. Once everyone's judgment is on cooldown things will slow down, but once they are back... its speedy defeats all around. Furthermore, its not like every team up at 50 is with a full 8 of Incarnates unless you happen to know them. I still get into pick up groups with folks below 50 or just at 50 with barely their full IO loadout. So don't sweat it too much. Most groups leveling steam roll content and that doesn't change at 50. The only thing that changes is that it can be faster and in some cases it can be extremely fast. That's all.

I agree with the points already brought up. However, there is a question related to "pulling" and "Do people play this way?". The answer to that question is a generally no. I have been on groups where someone playing a tanker has insisted on trying to line of sight pulls to "speed things up" by piling enemies into a neat cluster on them. That can work for some groups and it can work in lower levels. You will often find at the level 50 and beyond level that groups just make everything explode. The Incarnate system grants everyone an extreme damage area of effect power. Blasters will usually be the top burst AoE damage dealer, but everyone can contribute something in the post-50 game. It isn't unrealistic to run around clearing pack after pack with one or two folks dropping a judgment + T9 nuke, and then in the next pack someone else does it. Not only is handling mass groups of enemies post-50 trivial, but it is also creating a lot of identity crisis issues across archetype. The ability for practically everyone to contribute to massive AoE damage makes control less important. Specific controls like sleep become essentially worthless outside of soloing. Having a character devoted to being a speed bump for enemy damage, like a Tanker, is unnecessary when all threats are on the floor in seconds. There is specific content where roles can be more important but majority of teams will likely just steamroll everything. Sentinels fill a damage dealing role in practical terms. Just how good they are at that is a source of argument, but there is nothing wrong with the community at large having multiple DPS options (Blaster/Stalker/Scrapper/Sentinel).

The obvious choices are going to be sets with additional effects that stack with Radiation. Sets like Sonic Blast (more negative resistance), Dual Pistols (multiple options within ammo), Dark Blast (to hit debuff) and so on. Defenders aren't hurting for choice when it comes to secondary sets with good utility. If you haven't played with Water Blast yet, then I'd recommend taking a look at it. Water has some debuffs but more importantly it has some unique mechanics with its Tidal system. If you're inclined to build for IO procs you'll find Water has a lot of options. The set also has a lot of AoE attacks.

I don't play my Sentinels in a vacuum. However, I think you're missing some of my points and conflating them with something else. I'll restate my point if that helps clear it up. Dual Pistols can run an attack chain of Executioner's Shot -> Suppressive Fire -> Pistols with enough recharge. Opportunity highlights at 90%. The aforementioned attack chain is over 4 seconds long. The 3rd time you hit Suppressive Fire you will have built up 94 Opportunity making the third Pistols attack automatically trigger Offensive Opportunity. That's not perfect world sorcery. That's just math. The attack sequence is over 13 seconds in length and every 3rd Pistols shot will be a use of your Opportunity. Dark Blast can also do this by using Antumbral Beam -> Abyssal Gaze -> Gloom (or Dark Blast). Every T1 attack generates 8 meter. All of the other single-target attacks generate 13 to 14 meter. You can make Opportunity predictable and you can adjust your attack chain to accommodate it. Archery doesn't need its T1 or T2 in its attack chain. Its best attack sequence has Stunning Shot, Perfect Shot, Blazing Arrow. That means when Opportunity lights up, you can insert Aimed Shot or Snap Shot at your leisure. Psychic Blast can built similarly and so can Beam Rifle. Again, none of that is perfect world day dreaming. You can legitimately map this out and execute it in the game. Furthermore, you gloss over the notion that I don't care enough about who is on the receiving end of my Opportunity in most content. When Opportunity is just a part of my attack chain, it really doesn't matter if I nail a minion with it or an LT in most groups. Everything gets arrested so fast it doesn't matter. Besides, the side benefits of Opportunity (+damage or +resource) apply to every enemy hit for 15 seconds. So it doesn't matter who had that resistance debuff because their buddies are still going to get smacked with bonus energy damage or return heal/endurance to me. If I am going to fight a hard target like a Boss/EB/AV/GM they are going to be the focus of my attacks anyway and therefore they are getting tagged with Opportunity naturally. I realize that the effort I have put into learning Opportunity is not something that most players care to do or even has bothered with. That's why I am all for seeing a change to something less frustrating for the broader player base. So my Devil's Advocacy wasn't just imagining something in a vacuum. Its me describing how I play not just one Sentinel, but several of them. There are 13 Primary Sets. I've played 8 of them. Half of those have 0 need for both the T1 and T2 to make a competitive attack chain. Other sets where I do use both the T1 and T2 (e.g., Water Blast, Assault Rifle) I do not worry about which version of Opportunity goes off. I don't delay my attack chain because the Opportunity side effects aren't so massive they make or break my damage when playing in mission maps or deleting trash targets. Even against AV's which version of Opportunity doesn't make a big difference in my time-to-kill. Its the resistance debuff that matters and that is provided from either version and resistance debuffs really only matter against hard targets. In other words, what you view as a problem is something I have learned to play around it. It doesn't bother me that much, but I do empathize with others do feel it is a clunky inherent. Anyway, I'm on your side even if I disagree with the perception of what the problem is.

Have you played with Time Manipulation yet? I think everyone needs to experience the joy of that set be it on Mastermind, Corruptor, Defender, or Controller. Its just so good. I'll vouch for Plant/Nature. Its not only thematic but it is strong. Nature is really solid support set and looks great. Plant/Storm was an idea too as was Earth/Storm and Earth/Nature for my Druid theme. I just went all in on plants and its not disappointing. Gravity/Time is just a nerdgasm and it is effective. Gravity/Traps may hold some amusement of Wormhole -> Bomb. Its not a combo that I love, but fun with Wormhole is a thing. Darkness Control. You haven't played Dark yet! I have a Dark/Dark and I love it. You already have Dark Affinity so I'd consider throwing out Dark/Time since both would be new experiences.

If Opportunity were to be decoupled from the attacks, then I'd love to see the effects of both rolled into one thing. I'm not opposed to having a button like Domination that when triggered gives me bonus unenhanceable energy damage, applies a resistance debuff to $Target, and fuels my blue/green bar for the duration. I feel a need to play a little bit of Devil's Advocate with your complaints about the current system though. I do not feel forced to use the T1, period. I do not feel forced to use Opportunity, at all. Hell, for several sets I have designed my attack chain to include Opportunity to the point that I do not even need to think about it. For example, my Dual Pistol build fires off Pistols precisely at 94% Opportunity meter which can be built up predictably every 13 seconds like clockwork. Sure, a missed attack can be a little disruptive, but I also have the T2 which I can substitute. Did I feel forced to take the T2? Hell no. It mules a set. It just happens to be that if Pistols misses I can still trigger the resistance debuff with the other attack. The damage boost of Offensive Opportunity is so small as to not really be all that big of a deal if I don't maintain it every cycle. The resistance debuff is what really matters for damage output not the other perks. Dual Pistols is not unique in being able to do this either. Dark Blast can also be built up to tack on Gloom or Dark Blast after its two hard hitters which will also trigger Opportunity in a completely predictable pattern. Beam Rifle, Psychic Blast, and Archery can be built to have 0 use for the T1 or T2 in their attack chains. The decision to use whatever Opportunity variant in those power sets can be completely flexible and not nearly as disruptive as stated. All that aside, everything I have learned about building attack routines to make Opportunity a thoughtless rotational feature is the selling point for decoupling it from the attacks. The game doesn't teach you how to handle Opportunity making it feel clunky and not everyone is going to have the patience to experiment with it. So if the mechanics changed for the better to appease the wider audience, then I am down for that.

Is it worth it for just your character? Not really. Is it worth it to bring more damage to an entire 8 person team? Yes. If you can spare the endurance and the power picks always take the Leadership powers. They aren't just for you. 😉

In the most basic lowest common denominator sense, I would agree that more control heavy primaries (Mind, Earth, etc.) are widely beneficial to Dominators and more offensive oriented primaries (Gravity, Fire, Plant, etc.) are more widely beneficial to Controllers. Due to the differences in power prioritization, Dominator builds tend to feel more straight forward and Controller builds feel more nuanced. So it is very difficult for me to say one set is better or worse for either because it completely ignores Controller secondaries. Edit: Not saying the question isn't an interesting one. It is. I sat here struggling to really finger point at a say "Yeah, I'd rather play that on a Dominator" as some form of universal axiom. I say this because Mind Control is strong on Dominators for its control but so is Earth. Then I thought "is there a secondary that I feel really matters with Mind Control on a Dom" and I just couldn't think of one. There are multiple sets that work with Mind Control or Earth Control or Ice Control, or well you get the point. Though when I start to weigh the pros and cons of Mind Control on a Controller the secondaries matter to me quite a bit more.

I do have the obligatory Willpower/Super Strength but I don't count that as a flavor of the month. Its more like flavor comic books and all eras. I have started work on a Dark Armor/Titan Weapon Tank because of a costume combo I found that matches a concept. What's the synergy? Well, very little. Defensive Sweep is a welcome power to add more defense but that is about it. Knockdowns can be cute too. There are no to hit debuffs/stuns/fears to stack with Oppressive Gloom/Cloak of Fear making them skippable. Now, both of these do have two mantras in common: "The endurance bar is EVIL and must be punished!" "Your influence gains are EVIL and must be distributed in both sets!" I did not pick these two sets for playing with SOs or necessarily going around doing exemplar content. Both of these sets love them some IOs and the more expensive the better. In fact, that was another reason I really want to pursue this character project. Its all about playing with the invention system to really rig out how I want to approach closing the Energy Resistance gap while simultaneously building in enough endurance management to use some TW attacks. The character is all about the build challenge and it is stylish AF. I'm still tweaking my build but I know the paths to take to hit my goals. Even just messing around leveling it is a beautiful thing, but I wouldn't recommend playing it without some endurance procs.

As many as I can get away with.

Welcome to Sentinels. I've included some links below because this is not the first time this pairing has been discussed. Maybe those threads will give you some ideas. There are some builds in those as well as a lot of discussion. Sorry I am not posting a build, but I have a reason for that. That reason is that Dual Pistols is incredibly flexible. You can make entirely viable builds in so many different ways with the set. I wrote about Dual Pistols (and Willpower) in the sticky of this subforum (also included below). The Dual Pistol write-up is really long. It is that long because I find the set to be that complex. I also update it as I discover new things. So my recommendation to you, or anyone else taking a look at Dual Pistols, is to explore the set as a first time user. Seriously. Just take everything as you go and see what you like/don't like. Homecoming gives you a free respec every 10 levels. By level 50 that's 5 respecs. I've used far more than that on the live server even after spending hours on the test server playing with builds. To distill this advice even further... Willpower. Its an incredibly simple secondary that doesn't require any attention (no real clicks to manage) and doesn't require a lot of slots (see the second link). You can skip Resurgence (self revive) and maybe Strength of Will (proactive resistance enhancer - personal preference on use). Dual Pistols. For Sentinels the single-target damage attacks mature by level 18. All 4 of them (Pistols, Dual Wield, Suppressive Fire, Executioner's Shot) are valuable in their own way. Only skip one of those if you're planning on having a lot of recharge in your build. Otherwise, don't skip them while you level. Empty Clips can work as a filler for single-target if you like, but it is better for its purpose as a cone attack. Bullet Rain is a targeted AoE meaning it hits the highest number of targets (10) making it very efficient against large groups. I don't recommend skipping it. Piercing Rounds is a unique power that is a very narrow cone (hits only 3 targets) but does high damage at the cost of long recharge/animation time. Both Empty Clips and Piercing Rounds can be skipped if you wish. Hail of Bullets is the final power and it does the most area damage in the set, temporarily boosts your positional defense, and knocks down targets at the end of the animation (variable chance depending on ammunition status - see my write-up for more). Finally, Swap Ammo is the tool that makes your powers flexible in terms of what kind of effects they can impose on enemies. If nothing else, Incendiary Ammunition is a straight up damage increase that you should not sleep on. Check out (Edit: In my reply in this on this link, which was months ago, I talk about chance for Build-Up procs negatively. I currently use the Decimation: Chance for Build-Up in my build. However, I recognize that the chance to activate that on paper is pretty low. In practice it works due to how often I use the power it is slotted in. Still... I stand my statement on being very cautious on trying to shoehorn in Build-Up via procs. Just because a planner like Mid's shows a massive DPS boost during that effect does not translate into actual game play. It can be useful, but it is more advanced discussion as to why.) And And for more in depth reading

You really want to know what Titan Weapons is like for Tankers? Well, its really quite simple. It's kinda like... "Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight Gonna grab some afternoon delight My motto's always been 'when it's right, it's right' Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night? When everything's a little clearer in the light of day And we know the night is always gonna be there any way Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite Looking forward to a little afternoon delight Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ingite And the thought of lovin' you is getting so exciting Sky rockets in flight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight" Ok, maybe not that good but maybe close. "Afternoon delight!"

A good bit of secondaries are mixed defense type. Radiation/Electric/Fire is all resistance. Super Reflexes is all defense. Regeneration has little resistance and mostly active healing. I guess that is its own thing. Off the top of my head the following sets have some amount of resistance (even if small) and some amount of defense (even if small): Ninjutsu Energy Aura Ice Armor Willpower Bio Armor Invulnerability Dark Armor Am I missing any or did I just rattle off everything available to Sentinels?

Fair enough. Water Blast makes good use out of more recharge to smooth out the attack sequence. Bio Armor also makes good use out of recharge to make your active defenses (Ablative Carapace, Rebuild DNA, Parasitic Leech) available more often. So the powersets have a joint benefit in pursuing heavy recharge builds. Water Blast isn't very strong on single-target, but Bio Armor has an adaption that gives bonus damage to compensate a bit. Water Blast has a lot of soft control (knockdown) which works very well with high regeneration secondaries (like Bio Armor can be). So there are aspects of each powerset that help out the other to create synergy. It is a very good pairing when talking pure game mechanics but it could be a terrible combination for someone that didn't enjoy either set. Hope that explains my initial reaction a little better.

You may want the Rebirth Destiny and/or the Melee Hybrid. Willpower on Sentinels never gets anywhere near the max levels of regen possible since Up to the Challenge is a static regeneration number. My Beam/WP has around 750% regeneration. I built for hit points, defense, and recharge while taking on some regen bonuses as side perks. That character regenerates health on par with a Scrapper in melee with some amount of saturation due to enemies. It doesn't really touch my SS/WP Brute that can heal for the same amounts with 0 enemies in range. But that Melee Hybrid will juice your regen for a bit as well as Rebirth. So if you want to have moments of max/near-max regeneration on your Sentinel it is possible with the Incarnate system.

I don't know why it would be a bad idea unless you hate playing the character.

Perhaps some of these other threads can give you ideas. These aren't the only threads about this topic, but these are probably the most relevant (and recent). Threads discussing tanky Sentinels: Different question, similar theme (durability):