oldskool

Ideally this is handled like how Daybreak Studios dealt with Project 1999 and the EverQuest license. It sounds like this is what may be going on since Homecoming is non-profit, but I have no idea what depths of stupid NCSoft is capable of. Since the code for privatized servers of COH is out in the wild, it seems incredibly short-sighted to take the Blizzard route. Also, the Blizzard case is very different in that the product (World of Warcraft) had an active for profit driven service being run. COH is an intellectual property, which has monetary value, but it has no real competition with the parent company (NCSoft). So if Homecoming went away, I'd be sad to not play with people randomly, but It wouldn't mean I couldn't play COH. I can just as well spin up my own virtual machine and keep it offline. So a license agreement seems the smart way to go.

My feedback here is simple... THANKS! The crash on singular use Rage ruined the re-roll of my main and favorite character that I brought back from live. I even respeced OUT of Rage and felt handicapped for it. Or, I could click Rage and be a punching bag for the hordes of enemies. It felt like a no win situation. That was incredibly demoralizing to the point of abandoning the character I wanted to play in favor of me deep diving into Sentinels (so shiney, so new). This change of crashless Rage for single use application... almost brings a tear to my eye. I mean it was a few weeks ago I reassessed my build and added Rage back. It is one of the final powers in my build because I thought... maybe it will be buffed. I didn't plan to use it, but it was there because I felt like it needed to be. Now... I see this proposed change. This change makes me excited because I go back to my beloved homage character and play it without feeling completely kicked between the legs every time that power drops off. I never minded the bugged version on live. The damage debuff wasn't a problem for me. The defense crash HURT though and it was compounded with negative damage. All in all, that combination of debuffs sucks not just because it feels like bad game design but also sucks the fun out of characters. Risk vs reward game play is a fair point, but no one plays anything to feel useless unless that person is just masochistic (not a kink shame, but if you are masochistic you like it anyway!). If the future is that Rage doesn't screw over players on one stack of the buff, or whatever the implementation is, then I am all for it.

Pretty much what I say to trying to build a lot of defense on most Sentinels too. The defense-based sets make it easier to soft-cap but they often need to because their resistance is lower. I find I can get away with a lot less defense on a lot of Sentinel builds in general play than I might with Scrappers. Then again, I don't try to solo everything in the game on every character I play. So I guess I just accept the weaknesses and move on. For those that can and do solo stuff like the ITF, bravo. Its just not for me. I have no idea if any of my characters even *can* solo it. I just don't bother to find out! 😄

I feel that's potentially complicated. For a moment, take a glace at the secondary response (scroll down past my wall of text to the second quote). I'll wait. 😉 Ok, so the most generic answer I can offer at this time is this; put the ATO's into a power that has nothing better to take. That's about the best advice I think anyone can seriously give regarding the ATOs. It's probably also a good TL;DR for everything here that follows. 😄 Now, there are some cases in very specific build decisions that can give you more direction on where those ATOs can/should go. There are very specific powers in specific sets that can make better use of the Opportunity Strikes proc than others. So in short, there is some variance in the decision making at least from my explorations into this question. More specifics... The Sentinel's Ward proc has a PPM value that is fairly high (5 or 6 at Superior). The Opportunity Strikes proc has a PPM value that is rather low (2 at Superior). Both of the procs include a hefty amount of recharge within the IO itself. That hurts the Strikes proc right out of the gate making it more difficult to build for. Anyway, like any proc with a lower PPM value the most ideal spot for that is going to be a power with a longer recharge and perhaps a long-ish animation too. The Ward proc is a little more forgiving due to its higher proc value and can work in a few more options. The chance to trigger these procs is per target too so that makes 10 target AoEs pretty nice options depending on what other sets might work for a given build. I do not want to casually write off that these have no use or value. If you look at a set like Psychic Blast and Scramble Thoughts you'll find this is actually a pretty good candidate for Opportunity Strikes. The animation is long, the recharge is one of the longest for single target attacks in the AT, and the power has few other proc options. In my testing of it, Scramble Thoughts worked out to being a decent place for that ATO. Decent to me is over the mid-teens in probability because my general dice rolling straight up sucks. If I can get to 1 in 5 chances (or within 1-2% of it), then I can grit my teeth and bare it. Anyway, the proc in that power helped me get some more up time on the resistance debuff which is beneficial to reducing some the annoyance of psi resistance later on. Dark Blast's Antumbral Beam also worked with the proc (better in practice than on paper). In Dual Pistols that specific proc is too unreliable for my tastes. Dual Pistols is actually compromised of fast animating and fast recharging powers. The faster animating attack chains possible for Sentinels include powers with proc chances of 8-13% per activation. Now, that's something to potentially work around granted that you can cycle each activation every few seconds. So instead of a more reliable chance per shot, you add more rolls of the dice over time. That really just doesn't work well for me in practice. By practice I mean both in real play and in testing (I've spent hours messing with this damn proc). That said, Piercing Rounds has turned out to be far more reliable for trigger that proc than I would have first thought, but that power doesn't work as well for my build. My build utilizes damage procs across the fast animating powers and the sheer brute force of those procs is better for my purposes. So in the case of Dual Pistols you do have a power (Piercing Rounds) that can be a good single target attack or an AoE filler. If you wanted to use the Strikes ATO there, then the question becomes "Is this a mule or a focal point of the build?". Sorry to prattle on about Dual Pistols, but it is the set I play the most. It is also an interesting case study with these procs. Dual Pistols has a number of valid attack chains due to damage proc potential and Piercing Rounds works in a couple. Dual Pistols also has fast animating attacks and fast recharges like Fire Blast. So you can make an assumption that Fire Blast may not make a lot of use of the Strikes proc either. Piercing Rounds has a cousin power in Beam Rifle that can also be a decent candidate for the Opportunity Strikes proc if nothing better works for your build. This means the generic game mechanics decision point, at least in my experience so far, is that powers with a rough 2+ Arcanatime animation and 15 second recharge are serviceable spots for the Strikes ATO. That's single target. Any AoE that hits 10 targets has a chance to trigger per activation and some powers are pretty good for it too (See Water Blast: Whirlpool). That means that targeted ranged T9's can also fill your bar per activation but that doesn't really do much to improve Opportunity up time. I call out targeted ranged T9s specifically due to the set options not being as good as those in the PBAoE category. Really though, I'm speaking to a comparison of very rare set options (Ragnarok vs Armageddon). Armageddon (PBAoE) has a damage proc and Ragnarok (TAoE) does not. Armageddon feels like a no-brainer for adding damage to a T9 but some Primaries Sets include a PBAoE within the set (e.g., Radiation Blast: Irradiate). So even then there is no hard and fast rule that should be followed about how to use the ATO. Anyway, the randomness on the Strikes ATO makes it difficult to plan for and therefore I say... don't bother planning around it generally. The Ward proc is a bit more forgiving and works even in powers with faster animations and shorter recharges due to the PPM value being what it is. You can also get a lot of chances per target in AoEs to generate the absorb. However, that absorb appears to be subject to enemy strength and so its real practical value can drop into the toilet due to that. I've seen that proc grant a +19 absorb on level 54 targets. Yay, right? Preventative Medicine gives me far more. This one is easy. The procs, in general, are not worth building around but the set bonuses are worth using. The sets have good bonuses that you can break up (for the ranged % increase) or go all in on (for defense/recharge).

I think the advantages are kinda obvious. Scourge is helpful for doing damage in groups and Defenders have better debuff numbers. Defenders really don't need TA to hit a softcap on Smashing/Lethal defense or Ranged defense. You can do that with IO sets and supplemental powers. Corruptors can too but methods aren't identical. If TA doesn't have the strongest debuffs, then this set should be no more appealing on a Defender than it should be on the Corruptor. Unless you're basing the entire build decision around Scourge and Oil Slick? I'm a little confused about bringing up the value of the debuffs. If damage is the fundamental deciding factor here, then have you looked at what an Archery/Tactical Arrow brings to the table?

FOOT STOMP -> HAND CLAP FOOT STOMP -> HAND CLAP "Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise Playing in the street, gonna be a big man SOMEDAY You got MUD on your FACE, you big DISGRACE Kicking your can all over the place, singin' We will, we will rock you We will, we will rock you" FOOT STOMP -> HAND CLAP FOOT STOMP -> HAND CLAP 😄 Couldn't help myself!! Anyway, so far I love these changes, and I'm very tempted to consider rolling Dark Armor/Dark Melee as a Tanker on these changes. I was already on the fence about it, but this would seal the deal. I for one, welcome our new Tanker overlords (been long overdue).

So @Knottewe has a version pretty much along what I had in mind. However, I'd swap the IOs and number of slots in Whirlpool and Geyser. Whirlpool can be rotational and due to its long base recharge has a good chance to grant you an opportunity burst each time. At least, that has been my experience. Geyser works too, but I like Force Feedback in there if I can get it. So instead of me just flipping two powers, I am sharing two other variants. Both of these are essentially the same but one uses more expensive rare IOs than the other. The first one is a little more proc oriented for damage at the cost of defense. This build actually has more defense than my Dark/Regen which has about 19% to the 3 positionals. The to hit buffs help a lot though, but I said I like to lean into the glass cannon-ness. Oh yeah, and I added Second Wind. It does have a long cooldown, but it is another heal. It also scales in strength with how low your health is. I kinda like it, but to each their own. And some IO swapping for more recharge intensive sets. Both would use Musculature Core for the Alpha.

I have no issues running multiple toggles on Dark Armor, but I do dump influence into it to pull it off. That's getting Performance Shifter in Stamina ASAP as well as trying to get as much recharge as possible to run Obscure Sustenance within its 20% endurance window (about every 20 seconds or less if possible). The standard toggles in the set really aren't that bad. It is just Cloak of Fear that is expensive. CoF can take a few procs but the base accuracy is very poor (60%). So you'll need to get creative for CoF to actually hit things. I did not bother with CoF on my Water/Dark/Psi build. I focused on Oppressive Gloom and stuns. Geyser and Psychic Shockwave can stack magnitude with Oppressive Gloom which I find valuable. Cloak of Fear doesn't really have any synergy with Water Blast (no to hit debuff, no fear) and I didn't want to chase methods to add synergy (Diamagnetic Incarnate/Dark or Soul Mastery).

Totally understandable. Also, thanks for sharing the build so I can see how it all meshes together! Now some of the choices make a little more sense. I also want to say that getting to 33% ranged defense is pretty impressive and you have Hover to play keep away from melee. That's in addition to the controls from Water. I'll tinker with some ideas and see what I come up with. I will say, I happen to like running Sentinel's Ward in Water Burst and Opportunity Strikes in Whirlpool. Since you're not using purples, I won't either, and I'll see what shifting around slots/sets gets. Anyway, what you have looks good at first glance and so I'm not thinking that anything I do is going to be a dramatic change.

You had me at "Mind over Vegetable". LOL

The disintegrate mechanic is bugged in that it does not require the Disintegrate power in order for the spread to happen. So you can currently just fire off Lancer Shot (or any other power really) and completely ignore Disintegrate as power. Lancer will spread the effect to other targets when it should not do this by itself. Its on the list of bug fixes in the Test Server subforum so this will be fixed. This is now fixed per the patch notes today. Also, the build looks fine.

Even without seeing the rest of the build, my gut reaction is you're probably over thinking it. Sentinels don't play like Brutes/Scrappers so the defenses part isn't nearly as big a deal as it is for melee. The absorb shield for Sentinels is quite good. Hover blasting also makes /Regen pretty safe since you can reduce or remove melee threats. Also, 62.5% recharge without Hasten is pretty low. Then again, my bias on building /Regen is to embrace some of the glass cannon/twitchy gameplay aspect. I'm also a little behind the times in having a preference for recharge in my /Regen (by extension Bio Armor too). You could make up recharge a bit with Ageless Incarnate, but Barrier is a good idea too. Barrier will make you indestructible for a short duration but its lowest ranking is still around 5% defense/resistance. I've solo'ed content comfortably with less defenses at +2/x8 and had to be on my toes with Reconstruction/Second Wind on +4/x8. That was paired with Dark Blast though so the to hit debuffs helped a lot. I have teamed with a Psychic/Regen with far less defense and she survived in +4/x8 just fine without any Incarnates slotted. Hell, she was last woman standing a few times alongside my Sentinel. So, all that said, what "endgame play" concerns you? Also, to answer the question of what is "ideal" is also going to be linked to what is "ideal" on offense. As in, you push defense as high as practical without compromising the offensive output of the primary. That can get complicated since it involves a deeper dive discussion into slotting in general but especially your damage powers. Some offensive primaries have a lot of slotting potential for extra damage via procs and some don't. So that will depend on how comfortable you are with complete (or nearly complete) sets for their bonuses vs adding multiple damage procs if available for your powers. That can be very much the opposite end of the min/max spectrum to building for very high defenses. Basically, each slot potentially presents an opportunity cost associated with it, and your build will develop based on how much value you place on various traits. Probably doesn't help saying any of that, but it is how I approach building all characters.

I doubt there would be a conclusion to a debate on Why Sentinel over Blaster. The question on its face feels like a zero sum game. As if the reason for wanting to play a Sentinel in the light of having access to Blasters must mean that a Sentinel is better than a Blaster. Perhaps, that logic isn't applicable to everyone in this thread, but it would be naive to believe this isn't a thought process of others. Anyway, Sentinels can farm if that is what you want to do with it. That is not the same as saying they are more efficient than other archetypes. If you're just looking for an excuse to make one, then what is holding you back? Is it a sense of making something that isn't optimized to complete a map in 4 minutes but instead completes it in 6 minutes? If that's the case, then make a Blaster or a Brute or a Scrapper. (Edit) Hmm, that last bit sounds harsher than I intend it. Blasters/Scrappers have higher damage caps [multipliers] (duh, I know), but that matters if all you're doing it crushing Red inspirations in a Farm to complete it as fast as possible. That means either of those are going to do more damage than a Sentinel [when at the damage cap]. Either choice of Blaster/Scrapper is going to be a risk vs reward scenario vs building a far safer Brute that is very efficient in relation to the investment. You probably already know this, but I feel it is worth stating purely due to the nature I already expressed in the very question of "Why Sentinel over Blaster". The follow-up of "for farming" can honestly expand this to "Why Sentinel over [Blaster/Scrapper/Brute/Tanker/Defender/Corruptor/VEAT/HEAT/etc...]". That's just a giant circular argument waiting to happen when the real answer is just "do what you enjoy". There are times where I don't feel like logging in on my purpose built farmer and just run farm maps on whatever character I happen to be playing. Want to farm on a TA/Archery Defender? Do it. It can be done. It just won't be fast. Same can be said for a lot Sentinel builds.

Definitely doesn't work like that for all Sentinel sets. I can't speak to Sonic doing weird things like filling your bar, because Empty Clips most certainly does not do this. Empty Clips (a cone), and Bullet Rain (targeted AoE) both generate 13 Opportunity. Doesn't seem to matter if you hit 1 target all of them. It's 13 pts, period. Dual Pistols is my most played Sentinel, and I have a thread about this very thing elsewhere on this subforum. PBAoE's do not seem to interact with Opportunity very well, but change when using the Opportunity Strikes ATO proc. Hail of Bullets (T9) is one such PBAoE and it generates 1 Opportunity per activation. Just 1. I've tested this a few times, and it definitely only adds 1 point to the bar. With the Opportunity Strikes ATO Proc, it *can* fill the bar completely. (0 to 90+ in one activation). Geyser (T9), in Water Blast, is a Targeted AoE. It definitely generates more than 1 point of Opportunity. In fact, there is a rough trend on single target attacks of the T1 power granting 8 Opportunity and all of the other single target attacks granting roughly 13 to 14 pts depending on base recharge. AoE's vary between 13 to 20+ depending on type. Like Umbral Torrent, a cone, generates 21 but Empty Clips, a cone, generates 13. So there is variance based on sets and factors which may relate to animation/base recharge. I haven't extensively gone through all the sets yet to confirm exactly how it works on that granular of a level though. So far, my findings are observational and on going.

From Page 1 of this thread: Opportunity - All attacks impose a minor resistance and defense debuff (about 5%). This does not stack per attack but can stack per Sentinel. Sentinels have a 3rd meter called "Opportunity" and it works in some ways very similar to Domination on Dominators. All of your attacks fuel the Opportunity meter. When the meter reaches 90 out of 100 then your Tier 1 and Tier 2 attacks will gain a circle around them. The Tier 1 attack triggers "Offensive Opportunity" and the Tier 2 triggers "Defensive Opportunity". You'll have to land a successful hit with either of these attacks to trigger their specific mode and it will fill the meter completely and hold it there for 15 seconds. Everything below lasts for that 15 second duration. These modes are not intended to stack but some claim to have done it (probably a bug). Both versions of "Opportunity" always impose a 20% resistance debuff on a single target. This appears as a giant target under a single foe (the color of this matches whatever your power is colored - so these modes can be different colors if you want). Offensive Opportunity adds minor energy damage per attack and this is regardless of target. So you gain the buff even against enemies without the giant target under them. Defensive Opportunity adds minor health and endurance return per attack regardless of target. In a nut shell, that is it.

At baseline, no enhancements, Piercing Rounds is only slightly behind Pistols and a bit ahead of Dual Wield. Swap Ammo does not change the actual DPA of these powers, but Mid's seems to lump the Damage-Over-Time into the DPA metric. So, if you did want to lump the DoT in (from Incendiary Ammo) and make a DPS comparison between these powers the gaps change. Pistols changes from being fractions ahead of Piercing Rounds into being several whole numbers ahead. Piercing Rounds will still be ahead of Dual Wield but the gap is a few whole numbers less. Piercing Rounds has a very long recharge. You need PR to recharge in 4.224 seconds in order to run Piercing Rounds -> Pistols -> Executioner's Shot -> Pistols without a gap. That full chain takes 6.864 seconds to animate. You absolutely have enough built-in recharge to run Executioner's Shot -> Pistols -> Dual Wield -> Executioner's Shot* because your Executioner's Shot animates in less than 3.03 seconds. (It was one of the first things I looked at) That chain takes 6.732 seconds. Because you can fire off Executioner's Shot twice vs using Pistols twice, the shorter animation attack chain is going to be very competitive. We're talking single digit levels of DPS though so really you can pick and choose which you wanted to run at any given moment. *You could also consider Executioner's Shot -> Dual Wield -> Pistols (repeat) if you're good on endurance at all times. This will let you trigger Offensive Opportunity without disruption. Dual Wield builds the exact same amount of Opportunity as Suppressive Fire so I can say from experience it works as stated. 😉 Anyway, the build looks like it achieves your goals which is pretty awesome!

The damage scale of the Sentinel AT is off, it constantly lowers DPS of damage procs regardless of recharge, and some of the powers are flat out incorrect. You can get an accurate gauge of on how an attack chain can be built due to recharge and get a semi-accurate view of what a version would look like without gaps. That's about as far as I go with giving that DPS calculator any semblance of validity. You said your highest DPS Sentinel was a Fire one with 197 DPS. One of my earlier test cases on my Dual Pistols/Ninjutsu build had the DPS calculator telling me I'd pull around 150-160 DPS. An actual test of that averaged 230* (about 6 minutes on a Pylon). That was a ranged attack sequence experimenting with multiple powers I no longer use. I've changed a lot of things since then and streamlined my attack sequence greatly from that point. I haven't re-tested to see what the new DPS is, but I know from actual play that stuff goes down faster than it did prior to my testing. So definitely take that calculator with a big helping of grains of salt. *Edit: I don't even have the old build around anymore so I can't say exactly what the slotting was like. I just remember taking the Pylon down in 6 minutes which was a nice decrease from other times that started with 12 minutes, then 8 minutes, and then down to 6. That was before I streamlined my proc selection and placement, removed the ATO's entirely from my single target sequence, and with the Barrier Destiny. This was a test about how I may actually play the character not at all anything resembling a Pylon DPS race. If I wished to go back to test, I'd need to run Ageless for the endurance because in real play I use the Nin Click endurance restore which is a DPS hit every time. Or if I had substituted Dual Wield to trigger Defensive Opportunity, it would be less of a DPS drop, but it would still be one. Ageless would completely remove that issue and let me focus entirely on my attack chain plus gaining Offensive Opportunity every 13-ish seconds as I do in live play. Just adding some clarification as to where my methodology was since it wasn't truly aimed at seeing how much DPS Dual Pistols is capable of. It was more about answer the question of "how does this work in real play, and do I really like Barrier here". The answer to the latter part there is, I have Barrier and Rebirth crafted before Ageless, so yeah. 😉

That's pretty neat. How is the actual survival of the build without Parasitic Leech? Is Ablative enough when combined with the defenses to completely dump the T9? I've been considering dumping PL, but I haven't bothered to try, yet.

It is absolutely a nice build that focuses highly on defense at the expense of some offense. The damage it is capable of isn't bad though. Between Offensive Adaption and Incendiary Ammo, the ranged only attack chain (Executioner's Shot -> Pistols -> Dual Wield) is OK. Suppressive Fire is probably a set mule since that power will be behind Dual Wield when under Incendiary Ammunition. You don't have the Decimation Proc in there so it looks like you may have taken that into account. There are really no procs at all in this build and so that is one of the best times to consider Agility as an Incarnate. Piercing Rounds could be skipped but it can mule that Purple set so its all good. You could run Standard Ammunition for the resistance debuff, but I have never found that worth the time on Sentinel DP. AoE has a lot of nice options. Nice job! Did you see the other thread about this topic?

Agreed. No reason to run both on any character. They both disable enemies but do it differently. If you're interested, Psychic Shockwave in Psi Mastery can potentially disorient too (aka Stun) in a point-blank area. Darkness Mastery or Soul Mastery both have attacks with to hit debuffs as well as Darkest Night. So you could get some synergy out of the Epics/Patrons. The slows from Ice will keep anything stunned close by for a bit so there is that.

Not a Mid's/Hero Builder data chunk, but I describe my plan here: I've done a respec since then so Dual Wield is now the default slot, its only there for Defensive Opportunity, and I put that set into Piercing Rounds which I use for AoE/Solo. The sets I mention for Nin haven't really changed in months now. I only tinker with how I slot attacks and which I take. At this point, I have everything out of both the Primary and Secondary in DP/Nin but no one really needs to do that. It just suits my play style for this particular character.

Here is another example. The one below is based more on recharge without needing an Incarnate to perma-Hasten. The damage it is capable of is very similar but it requires half the number of attacks to get there. So in the first one, you're looking at using something like: Pistols -> Executioner -> Dual Wield -> Empty Clips -> Pistols. That's without getting lucky on Force Feedback letting you use Executioner sooner. The routine of the build below is Executioners -> Suppressive Fire -> Pistols, all day long (Bosses+ are the only enemies where an attack chain really matters. For everything else, just spam AoEs and pick things off with Pistols/Dual Wield). Dual Wield is purely a mule for the ATO, and whenever you feel you want Defensive Opportunity you have a chance to trigger the Ward proc. Its not a huge benefit either way. Same can be said for the Opportunity Strikes proc in Executioner's Shot. Its nice when it happens, but don't count on it. Instead it is there for the set bonus. Actually, the Opportunity Strikes and Apocalypse sets are totally interchangeable between the two. I just figure, that may as well get the best chance to proc on the Unbreakable Constraint by having less modified recharge into that power. So that's why it is set up the way it is. Your two major heals have 25 second cool downs and Parasitic Aura has a downtime of only 32 seconds. I basically just used the way I built Bio Armor on my other Sentinel and just tossed in one way of building Dual Pistols. I skip travel powers pretty frequently and I don't usually pair Dual Pistols with Epic/Patron powers. It just messes up concepts for me. Anyway, maybe this will also give you some ideas. Good luck! Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.3 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Level 50 Magic Sentinel Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Hero Profile: ------------ Level 1: Pistols Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg:50(46), GldJvl-Dam%:50(46), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(48), ShlBrk-%Dam:30(48), AchHee-ResDeb%:20(48) Level 1: Hardened Carapace UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(43), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(45), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(46) Level 2: Dual Wield SprSntWar-Rchg/+Absorb:50(A), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg:50(43), SprSntWar-Dmg/Rchg:50(43), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(50), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(50) Level 4: Environmental Adaptation Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(11), Rct-ResDam%:50(11), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(37), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(40) Level 6: Empty Clips PstBls-Dam%:50(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(7), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:50(9), AchHee-ResDeb%:20(50) Level 8: Swap Ammo Level 10: Adaptation Level 12: Bullet Rain PstBls-Dam%:50(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(13), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:50(15), Ann-ResDeb%:50(37) Level 14: Inexhaustible Empty(A) Level 16: Ablative Carapace Pnc-Heal:50(A), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux:50(17), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), Pnc-Heal/Rchg:50(36), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg:50(37) Level 18: Executioner's Shot SprOppStr-Rchg/+Opportunity:50(A), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg:50(19), SprOppStr-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(34), TchofLadG-%Dam:21(36) Level 20: Rebuild DNA Pnc-Heal:50(A), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux:50(21), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), Pnc-Heal/Rchg:50(23), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg:50(31) Level 22: Hasten RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(23) Level 24: Maneuvers LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(25), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(25) Level 26: Suppressive Fire Apc-Dam%:50(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), Apc-Dmg:50(27), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(29), Apc-Dmg/Rchg:50(29), UnbCns-Dam%:50(31) Level 28: Athletic Regulation Run-I:50(A) Level 30: Kick Empty(A) Level 32: Hail of Bullets Arm-Dam%:50(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Arm-Dmg:50(33), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), FuroftheG-ResDeb%:50(34) Level 35: Genomic Evolution StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A), GldArm-3defTpProc:50(36) Level 38: Parasitic Leech Pnc-Heal:50(A), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux:50(39), Pnc-Heal/Rchg:50(39), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg:50(40) Level 41: Tough UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(42), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(42) Level 44: Weave LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(45) Level 47: Combat Jumping LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 49: Assault EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 1: Brawl Empty(A) Level 1: Opportunity Level 1: Prestige Power Dash Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint Empty(A) Level 2: Rest Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift Empty(A) Level 2: Health Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(5), Prv-Absorb%:50(5) Level 2: Hurdle Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina PrfShf-EndMod:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc:50(3), PrfShf-End%:50(3) Level 8: Chemical Ammunition Level 8: Cryo Ammunition Level 8: Incendiary Ammunition Level 10: Defensive Adaptation Level 10: Efficient Adaptation Level 10: Offensive Adaptation ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1521;705;1410;HEX;| |78DA6594CB4F135114C6EFB453B0D09657A1D0177D00A5AFB155176A3444458D914| |6227F403381B18CD6B6E960A24BFF0517BA72E1D28D1B8DBA752F3E563E109F31EA| |023051A3AEEA99391FA57126697E77CEB9F77CF77E734F4B97673D774E5E9D1192E| 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Welcome back! Dual Pistols and Bio Armor sounds like a cool pairing. I don't play that combo myself as my Bio Armor is paired with a different primary. Just going to toss an idea out here for you... I'd stick with standard IO's for as long as possible if expense is any concern. The reason why is because Bio Armor is "OK" most of the time, but can become very powerful under a lot of investment. Keep in mind, Bio Armor was a MELEE set. The Homecoming team still has not created a wide array IO set options within any of the Ranged categories that apply MELEE defensive benefits. Bio Armor on Sentinels has pretty abysmal Smashing/Lethal defense (Bio Armor is a typed defense set) and there are next to no options within the ranged IOs to fix this. This is a very big reason why Bio Armor requires a lot of investment. Its to close defensive gaps. Furthermore, Bio Armor, like Regeneration, benefits massively from global recharge which requires some slotting considerations as well as some more expensive IO sets. Its not unplayable, but there is going to be a significant difference in performance moving from a Standard IO build to a fully purpled out one. That difference in performance may not be nearly as great going from Standard IOs to just "cheap" IO set build. Since Bio Armor likes recharge (to try and have Rebuild DNA/Ablative/Parastic available on demand), I try to get around the initial start up costs by abusing Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge. You have access to 5 powers that can accept that IO. Hail of Bullets is practically guaranteed to proc it and Bullet Rain will have a nice chance per 10 targets to trigger it too. You can keep your fingers crossed that Dual Wield, Executioner's Shot and/or Empty Clips will trigger it for you to keep things flowing. The defenses in the build below hang around 19-23%. You're not going to get a whole lot more than that on a low cost build without potentially compromising something else. That's just the reality of it. On the topic of "cheap", you do need to consider putting some money into some of these sets. Sets like Unbreakable Guard are really good at closing some of the gaps of your Smashing/Lethal and Melee defensive gaps. Each piece will range in cost from 1.5 to 3 million but generally not much more than that. Low bid on them and keep with patience. Kinetic Combats can bounce all over the place on price too, but you can sometimes get a deal. Almost everything in the build below can be bought for some where between 1 to 4 million per slot depending on when you can get lucky with your bids or how desperate you are to buy it now. Its a FAR cry from spending 20+ million per purple IO. In fact, the build below has absolutely 0 in the way of unique IOs or anything ultra expensive (No PVP IOs, No ATOs, No Purples). The sets I choose are there to boost a bit of global accuracy and a small amount of recharge. That recharge is there to just make sure your attack chain is functional with as little gaps as possible. That's also the reason why I have both Pistols and Dual Wield. You'll basically juggle those on cooldown and fire off Executioner's Shot as a priority. Empty Clips is as useful of a single target filler as it is as an AoE clean-up. Also, these powers exemplar well. Pistols is 6 slotted the way it is not because I like that full set, but more because it is a bit more future proofing. You can use all of these powers in whatever final build you want by just swapping out the current IOs with something more powerful. No clue what a Mega-Man build would use with Electric Mastery so I'm only guessing that Havoc Punch and Lightening Field are of interest. Again, these aren't there because I'd use them. Its pure shot in the dark since you didn't really say what your current build is like. Anyway, hopefully this gives you some ideas on what is possible. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.3 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Level 50 Magic Sentinel Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery Hero Profile: ------------ Level 1: Pistols Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(A), Dcm-Acc/Dmg:40(17), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx:40(19), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg:40(19), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(21), Dcm-Build%:40(21) Level 1: Hardened Carapace UnbGrd-ResDam:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(23), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(25) Level 2: Dual Wield Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(A), Dcm-Acc/Dmg:35(3), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx:35(3), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg:30(9), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:25(11), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(11) Level 4: Empty Clips PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), PstBls-Dam%:50(5), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:50(7), FrcFdb-Rechg%:21(9) Level 6: Inexhaustible PrfShf-End%:50(A) Level 8: Swap Ammo Level 10: Adaptation Level 12: Bullet Rain PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), PstBls-Dam%:50(13), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:20(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(17) Level 14: Environmental Adaptation Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(25), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27) Level 16: Ablative Carapace Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(27), Prv-Heal:50(29) Level 18: Executioner's Shot Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(A), Dcm-Acc/Dmg:40(29), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx:40(31), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg:25(31), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(31), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(33) Level 20: Rebuild DNA Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(33) Level 22: Recall Friend Empty(A) Level 24: Teleport Empty(A) Level 26: Kick KntCmb-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx:35(34), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg:35(34), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(34) Level 28: Athletic Regulation Run-I:50(A) Level 30: Tough UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(36), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(36), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(36) Level 32: Hail of Bullets ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Obl-Dmg:50(37), Obl-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Obl-%Dam:50(39), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(39) Level 35: Genomic Evolution UnbGrd-ResDam:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(43), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(45) Level 38: Parasitic Leech Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(40), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(40), EffAdp-Acc/Rchg:50(50) Level 41: Weave Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(43), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(43) Level 44: Havoc Punch KntCmb-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx:35(45), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg:35(45), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(46), PndSlg-Acc/Dmg:30(46), PndSlg-Dmg/Rchg:30(46) Level 47: Lightning Field Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Obl-Dmg:50(48), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(48), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx:50(48), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx:50(50), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(50) Level 49: Combat Jumping DefBuff-I:50(A) Level 1: Brawl Empty(A) Level 1: Opportunity Level 1: Prestige Power Dash Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint Empty(A) Level 2: Rest Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift Run-I:50(A) Level 2: Health DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), DctWnd-Heal:50(42), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg:50(42) Level 2: Hurdle Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina PrfShf-End%:50(A), EndMod-I:50(40), EndMod-I:50(42) Level 8: Chemical Ammunition Level 8: Cryo Ammunition Level 8: Incendiary Ammunition Level 10: Defensive Adaptation Level 10: Efficient Adaptation Level 10: Offensive Adaptation ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1518;711;1422;HEX;| |78DA65544B6F125114BE03837DD1D2963E684B2985C200E519DD1BB555A325C5D63| |D99D0918E1919643056772E5CBB6C6BFD036EDC68D47FE2C247538D8989DA1AA3D1| |C4183C33E72B923009F9EEFDEE3DE73BAF4B716BC9FBE4C2BDD3421A3A67A896555| |ED76A4DBDA6199EA25AD52BC2FE7AE8173CE6CB6B6AADAA6D64976EA946B9A45B4D| 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Well, Mr. Biggums, the answer to Dual Pistols isn't a simple one in my opinion. Sentinel Dual Pistols benefited a lot from the proliferation to the Archetype. That means you have a lot of options to choose from and your real limiting factor is going to be how many slots do you want to devote to things. I have a write-up on Dual Pistols in the sticky at the top of this subforum, but I'll try for a more condensed assessment here: Pistols is a very good power for what it is. I generally would not skip it regardless of what AT we're talking about. Dual Wield is potentially skippable but this only matters in builds with extremely high recharge. Empty Clips is a cone, and it only hits 6 targets at most. Some people hate cones and avoid them like the plague. Suppressive Fire benefited from the Blast set alterations within the Sentinel Archetype. The damage Suppressive Fire does is only surppassed by Executioner's Shot when using Standard Ammo. With Incendiary Ammo, several other powers can over take this. However, that is ONLY when considering baseline Single-Origin builds or builds using regular damaging Invention Origins (including sets). Damage proc IOs (like Chance for Smashing Damage, etc.) completely change the value of Suppressive Fire and can make it one of the hardest hitting attacks in the set regardless of ammo type. Cocaine is a hell of a drug, and so are damage procs!. Swap Ammo --- take this, or question what you bothered with Dual Pistols in the first place. Bullet Rain, well it is one of your best AoE's. There is no point skipping this. Executioner's Shot is the best single-target attack in the entire set. Skipping this is not recommended, but to each their own. Piercing Rounds is a narrow cone with some unique qualities. You can use this in your single-target attack chain if you want, but you really should build around doing so. That said, this power is optional on Sentinels in the most generic of senses. If you want to get into some real granular discussion on situational uses and IO building with it, I'm more than happy to do so. Hail of Bullets, I can see reasons to skip this Tier 9, but I really don't recommend it. Dual Pistols has no Aim/Build-up so there is no "click burst button -> fire off T9 nuke on spawn" gameplay. It is due to the lack of that game play aspect that some may wish to skip Hail of Bullets. Dual Pistols, again my opinion, is one of the rare sets that has so many reasons to want to use each of the attacks that it can be very tough decision on which ones to drop due to limited slots. That is not to say I think any of the attacks suck. They just have certain circumstances where they perform well vs other sets with more clear outliers. You can make a perfectly serviceable attack chain of just Pistols, Dual Wield, Suppressive Fire, and Executioner's Shot by level 18. Then add on Bullet Rain for AoE, and you're good to go. Everything after that is going to be situationally good or chosen due to some purposeful building. At high levels of recharge, you can completely drop either Dual Wield or Suppressive Fire depending on what kind of IO build you want. This is a rare case where you can make just about anything work very well here. For Invulnerability: You can skip Unstoppable. You can consider skipping Resist Physical Damage and/or Resist Elemental Damage. Both of those passives offer small increases to your resistances but the decision to skip them is highly build dependent. Most players do not skip them but they can be optional. It just depends on what you're trying to do.