oldskool

I'm sure some of you have seen the other breakdowns in the General subforum, but if not here you go: Levels 2-31: Levels 32-49: Level 50: Dual Pistols, quite possibly the most experimented with powerset around but not enough to hold the interest all the way to 50. 😉

Sentinels aren't squishy Blasters and you really don't need to soft-cap defenses. Invulnerability can still hit the low to mid 30's on typed defense with some playing around on the powers. That's more than enough defense to cap through the use of inspirations as needed. Do you want specific travel powers? Do you want a specific Epic/Patron pool? Combat Jumping and Super Speed can work together but Combat Jumping and Ninja Run cannot.

Yup, fair question. So while the above build is very very defensive, it gives up a LOT of damage. Not a little, but a LOT. A recharge intensive build could condense the attack chain to just Gloom -> Abyssal Gaze -> Antumbral Beam. The slotting of the Ward set in Abyssal Gaze could be dumped in favor of having Apocalyspe there plus the Unbreakable Constraint proc. I agree with Opportunity Strikes in Antumbral Beam but I hardly ever use all 6 pieces. Again, that build is very defense-oriented which is one way to do it, and it is fine. A heavy recharge build is going to yield more damage and allow you to go for Musculature as an Incarnate vs Agility. A more proc heavy build is going to yield more damage too. Some of the powers in the set, like Life Drain, can use a number of different damage procs turning it from a pathetic power into something that is worth taking. Also, would you want to keep the Tier 1 Dark Blast even if it is only there to give you the option for Offensive Opportunity?

Sentinel Ice Armor is dramatically different from the Tanker version. Icicles is replaced by Moisture Absorption, there is no Energy Absorption (replaced with Frost Protection), and Hibernate is exchanged for Icy Bastion. In some ways, Sentinel Ice is more like Stalker Ice Armor. The sleep toggle isn't available though. I haven't played Sentinel Ice Armor though. I'm trying to think of a theme to go with an Ice Blast/Ice Armor/Ice Mastery character.

Hate to break it to you, but planners are broken for Beam Rifle on Sentinels (Edit: Actually, check out the new version of Mid's here if you can. The new version 2.6.0.3 is correct on what Refractor can take). Refractor Beam isn't a single target attack and will not accept Apocalypse. Opportunity Strikes and Superior Opportunity Strikes are mutually exclusive. You can only have one or the other, not both. Likewise for Ward. You're heavily focused on trying to raise up defenses but the slotting on Ablative Carapace and Rebuild DNA are too light for my tastes. I'd recommend adjusting your expectations on where your defense numbers will actually end up and perhaps consider building more for recharge. That's not to say you can't build up defense and use Ageless Incarnate to close the recharge gap, but I personally do not care to build that way. I go for global recharge and perma-hasten to make sure powers like Ablative Carapace/Rebuild DNA have sub-30 second recharges. This means that absorb from Ablative is up on demand and you have the bonuses from Rebuild DNA up all the time. This also lets me cut down the recharge on Parasitic Leech substantially allowing it to be available around 50% of the time. That's my defense. High regen and absorb. You don't need to fully complete every set either. I'm sure someone else will post a build before I will, but if they don't I'll try to get around to it. Edit: There are some good ideas though like how you slot Health, and the IO's in Tactics aren't a bad choice. However, with the IOs of that build you wouldn't ever need to turn it on. 😉 Your accuracy would be enough.

For whatever reason, my brain went DB and thought DP. Oops! Dark Blast and Invul work well together. The build below is good. I'd still be interested to know what you like or don't like as you can build the pair a couple of different ways.

Has Mids updated the damage scale of Sentinel's yet? The last version I used still has their damage listings lower than they actually are. I've also never been that fond of endurance sapper builds in general so I really can't comment on building for it.

The one thing that the Power Percentages @ 50 list tells me is player behavior does not equal knowledge. That might sound harsher than I mean it to, but that Sentinel list of powers taken really shows a trend on behavior vs game mechanics. For example, in Dual Pistols the power Dual Wield is taken more often than Pistols. Its pretty close, and people probably take both more often than not due to the inherent. However, there is a trend of assumption that the very first power of any given set is weaker than the second option. This just isn't true in the case of Pistols vs Dual Wield. So either people do not realize the potential of Pistols, or they just don't care for the animation. Either way, Pistols doesn't necessarily need a buff just because more people take Dual Wield. Hell, Dual Wield could probably use a buff as it is unnecessary in a lot of level 50 builds for Sentinels. Another interesting and extreme one is Assault Rifle. More people take Burst or Slug over Disorienting Shot. Disorienting Shot doesn't need a buff. Its the highest DPA power in the entire version of the Sentinel AR set. Slug is, in my opinion, hot garbage but people take it 92% of time per that list. Slug honestly needs the buff or the damage of Disorienting Shot moved to it or something. Dark Blast... Blackstar is taken 63% of the time. I'm willing to bet this is because the power is PBAoE and most people want their Sentinels in ranged combat only. I seriously doubt the performance of that power is the reason why it is picked so infrequently because it is a monster at debuffing. People also Life Drain more often than they take either Umbral Torrent or Dark Obliteration. That is just absolutely confusing. I get that Life Drain has a heal component, but the two AoE's of the set do considerable damage. Where Life Drain is actually kinda pathetic for its Tier as it does less DPA than Gloom and its heal is only 6% vs 10%+ on other ATs. So I'm going to make an assumption its popularity is due to the utility/gimmick of the heal despite that heal doing very little for most builds. I could go on and on, but it looks a hell of lot like for Sentinels there is a big trend of behavior that stems from how those sets perform as Blaster/Defender/Corruptors than the how they are in practice. People only take Stunning Shot in Sentinel Archery 62% of the time?! That has to do with how the tool tip reads at power selection or how that power does virtually no damage on others. Stunning Shot for Sentinels is pretty great. I can understand some not liking the look of the arrow itself, but the effectiveness of the power is there.

No, not even close. That isn't what is being said at all. First off, Tankers and Scrappers have a damage dealing gap on melee of 0.8 vs 1.125, respectively. Fortunata's ranged scalar is 1.0. Sentinel's have a ranged scalar of 0.95. Their base damage isn't nearly so far off from one another that this is anything like me saying "A Tanker is on par with a Scrapper for damage". Second, what was being said is this... A ranged-focused psychic damage heavy Fortunata can handle content at level 50 just fine. Sure, there are enemies that ignore significant Psi damage but it is not so much of an issue that it isn't playable. Since that specific brand of Fortunata is psychic heavy and doesn't experience much in the way issues, then a Sentinel shouldn't either. I happened to concur with @tjknight's assessment. That's it. Fortunata Training shares the following powers available in Sentinel Psychic Blast: Mental Blast Telekinetic Blast Psychic Scream Aim Psychic Tornado Psychic Wail So again, not so unreasonable of an observation as it may seem to you. What I did not state: 1) Psychic heavy ranged only Fortunatas are optimal 2) There are no differences in game play or damage scalars 3) There is no hang ups from resistance heavy enemies 4) That X is on par with Y -- The statement was that the damage type of one build of Fortunata is not dissimilar to the Sentinel in question. That's it. 5) That "here is a build proving X is on par with Y"

A fully ranged Fortunata isn't that different a case. You can build for purely ranged Psi damage which means the attacks you take aren't dissimilar from a Sentinel in terms of type. So a point can be made that if you don't run into issues with that character there is little reason to suspect that a Sentinel will be hurt any more than the Fortunata. Having run both, there really isn't that much of a difference in terms of offensive play. The differences are more in how the support powers from the secondary of the Fortunata interact with groups vs how Sentinels have no such option.

To be fair to EA, Negative Energy defense isn't that bad a hole to plug, Toxic is rare and often auto-hit when it is bad, and Psi is overrated. Most Psi-only attacks are tied to crowd control and often not that threatening in damage anyway. Negative is most certainly a weak defense on EA but it isn't that bad to plan to hit 45%+. Also, not many enemy factions use NE attacks anyway. Both sets are good at 50 but the kind of content you can push solo is going to be different. Bio Armor for Sentinels will struggle a little against Smashing/Lethal foes only because their innate defense is low to the most common damage type in the game. You still have decent resistance to that and a few absorb options plus regeneration to help pad things out. In a group, you won't notice that much unless you are purposefully putting yourself into positions better suited for a tanker/brute. In short, both are good but they are also good at very different things.

Not surprised by: Dual Pistols popularity, from both forums here and Reddit. A little surprised on Blasters though. Ice Armor lack of popularity. We hardly talk about it here and I've started to focus my eye of Sauron on it. Regen popularity - Its strong for PvP. Top 6 power pairings are all theme linked. Electric, Fire, Rad, Energy all pairing with their secondaries. Dual Pistols and Willpower is seamless game play. Dark/Dark is peanut butter and jelly. A little surprised by: Lack of Ninjutsu popularity in general as well as Super Reflexes. These are predominately tied to Dual Pistols as a pair but little else. Assault Rifle being in 15th place as a combination with Willpower. I get why the pair works but just surprised it is more popular than I would have thought. Invulnerability not being that popular beside having a lot of pairings with Energy Blast (Ironman inspirations most likely). Other notes: I wonder just how many of those 424 Psi/Regens are PvP builds. The ability to use a Fortunate Hypnosis (Placate Proc) in Will Domination is obnoxious as hell combined with stacking CC in Scramble Thoughts + Dominate. Same goes for Ice/Regen also a strong PvP build. Pleasantly surprised to see a wide range of Dark Armor representation. Per the popularity list, it doesn't seem that popular but per the pairings it is scattered across the lists.

That's my thoughts too. Though, I'll probably keep them for situational use.

I have a SS/WP that is very Superman inspired. I run: Fly Hasten Boxing, Tough, Weave, Cross Punch Gotta have Laser Beam Eyes. Cross Punch + Foot Stomp is my AoE.

Given the context, I'd vote Invul. There really isn't much of a pro/con discussion its more about emulating the World's Finest. Plus, you already have WP on a character you love. The Energy Mastery Epic can net you Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection which help on endurance until you max out Ageless. So I wouldn't too much about that.

Oh, this character isn't defense soft-capped yet. It isn't fully finished on Incarnates either. Barrier works like a large purple inspiration for me and its always there in my back pocket. Now that's just T1 Barrier. It was practically free to me and I don't really plan to invest in it too far. I also dabble in maps with Elite Bosses so having the boosted defense is welcome when I get in over my head with those. I will eventually respec and at that point I will want Ageless at T4. I just don't have the materials for that yet. Edit, I feel I have the exact opposite experience with inbound damage. I usually go in and introduce myself to as many enemies as I can. So "alpha strike" isn't really 1 group. Its me juggling the aggro cap with multiple groups for the first few seconds until I pass judgment. 😉

- Not yet, I've noticed the +Absorb varies based on targets. I've had it grant me +1000 when hitting a level 1, and +19 when hitting level 54's. It's an on going experiment, but I'm all for seeing other player results! - Have not seen it stack but each AoE hit DOES roll the PPM 6 chance. As such, I often prefer this in a 10-target AOE but that varies based on primary/secondary pairs. - See point one, not once has the Ward been a noticeable effect on any content that matters. If you play any of the secondary sets with an absorb the proc will just be a drop in the ocean. It is noticeable, in how tiny the effect is, on secondaries with absolutely no absorb to begin with (e.g., Ninjutsu). So where you put it matters very little. The Opportunity Strikes proc also sucks the more and more I dig into it. Though there are some primaries that seem to make better use of it than others. Still, for the utility these two procs should hypothetically be giving the real results are very underwhelming so far. Now, that said I haven't tried the Ward proc in a Tier 9 yet. Generally I wouldn't do that because there are often better things to be putting into those, but it is possible that the activation of an Ultimate may make the Ward yield a bigger shield.

This looks a lot like a build I had crafted as something I want to move towards eventually. I'm not currently running Winter sets but instead use 5pc sets + resistance debuffs in Spine Burst (Gladiator's Fury)/Fire Ball (Annihilation). I'm using Barrier to soft-cap me before taking the alpha when I get started. This allows me to use less purple inspires at the start of the mission and only occasionally convert reds as needed. Since I didn't buy into Winter sets at the start of my build, I focused more on recharge than anything else and used Incarnates to close the gaps (like Barrier). This means Consume is still necessary for me but its not like endurance is out of control either.

I shouldn't have assumed!! When I think farms, I tend to think fire. I held off on running S/L AE maps on my SS Brute until Foot Stomp and some slots for it. After that, yeah it got better. On 100 mill, you can afford every one of those endurance procs that @Werner mentions and still have funds to spare. The Panacea will be the most expensive, but you can often get reasonable prices on the others. You may see Miracle with recent sales over 20 million. Don't bid that high. You can just as easily purchase it or a few million in the same price range as Performance Shifter/Numina. I'd also recommend getting a Force Feedback Chance for Recharge into Foot Stomp. That IO also isn't that expensive and it will jury-rig some global recharge into your build without breaking the bank on stacking Luck of the Gambler's or purple sets for a bit. You can flesh out your powers with common IOs for a while and leverage inspirations to fill the gaps. Take the difficulty raises slowly. You don't need to jump into +4/x8 with Bosses as soon as possible. You should be able to drop +4 bosses at 50 with full purples but the clear speed isn't the same as having T4 Incarnates. Even the first level shift at T3 Alpha is a very noticeable difference and gets better with making the Judgment hit harder at higher ranks too. I always keep and convert IO's, but I pay special attention to certain ones... Always keep defense IOs. That's Red Fortune, Serendipity, Reactive Defense, etc. Keep them, always. Craft them, and use enhancement converters to make them into Luck of the Gamblers. You can convert any LoTG using the "In set" conversion to potentially get the Global Recharge IO (or any others you may desire for your build). Sometimes it takes some flips, but I am willing to bet you that you will save yourself a few million here and there. Keep every PVP recipe. Craft them when you can, convert them into the Gladiator's 3% Global, and Panacea if you can. That too can save you millions. It doesn't take much to price check how much an Immobilize PVP IO sells for vs say Gladiator's Javelin. If you can squeeze out several more million by converting that Immobilize into something more valuable, then absolutely do it. Keep every Purple recipe. Do the same thing as the PVP recipes above. Even if you never intend to use a Fortunata's Sleep IO you can convert it for a chance to make an Armaggedon or Hecatomb which does have value for your build. You can potentially save tens to hundreds of millions by using enhancement converters plus dropped recipes.

Working on Water/Dark/Psi. Mostly this is for groups vs farms (I have 4 Brutes capable of that already) but if I get her leveled up soon I'll let you know what she can do. There is always the test server too for experimenting with expensive builds.

Its nothing like original Regen. The only thing close to that is running Rebirth/Melee Incarnates and only for a short duration. Sent /Regen trades out Dull Pain as a click for a passive but the healing functionality gets rolled into the revive (Second Wind). Instead of a click regeneration boost, you get a toggle absorb. Everything else is pretty much the same. All powersets that have weapons (Assault Rifle, Archery, Beam Rifle, Dual Pistols) have a "no redraw" option.

I used AE Ticket rewards to buy and flip rare salvage for seed money while using AE solo. I'd start with the Witch Tunnels since it is not a threat and each run would net me a few levels. I used the seed money from the rare salvage to flip the market game. While waiting on IOs to sell (just a few at a time) I continued on and made sure I built the following powers for slots -- Fire Shield Temperature Protection Plasma Shield ^ Goal here is to get 3x Attuned Aegis by level 22-ish (which I did). Attack wise, I added slots to Blazing Aura and Quills to prioritize Accuracy/Endurance with level 25 common IO's at level 22. I was already building towards Weave from level 6 and had that online by the mid 20's. By level 25 I think I had mid-upper teen's in fire defense and 90% fire resist. I pushed team size at that point as the enemies were no real threat with the ability to convert inspirations. Its just a bit tedious waiting for the auras to chip away health and slowly using other attacks as endurance allowed. By the time Ripper + Burn comes online, the difficulty can go up to +2. Then it is a matter of fleshing things out as you go. I got lucky and converted some PVP recipes to the 3% global and the Panacea proc as I was going on. So well before level 30 I had both 3% globals as well as Aegis, Weave, Maneuvers, Hasten, Ripper and Burn. I built this way based on a mild budget build. I still have another version for a later respec that will take on Winter IOs and let me free up some powers for more AoE damage. I'm in no big rush as this character makes money hand over fist but that cash is fueling characters I actually give a crap about. ;)

This is great stuff! Thank you so much!

WOOOOO!!! 😄

I have not yet written a write-up on Psychic Blast, or any others beyond Dual Pistols for that matter, but I plan to. Psychic Blast as a whole hell of a lot going for it. For PVE its good. For PVP its broken and pretty freaking obnoxious. Since you want to maybe go /SR, then I doubt you're going to PVP. So I won't focus on that. 😉 Will it be an enjoyable ride to 50? If you are interested in the set, then I don't see why it wouldn't be. Robots will always annoy you but that's a cost of doing business with psi damage. Will it be a welcome addition to end game content? Sure. Psychic attacks have a reputation as tickling enemies in the end game. Its a little overstated. Some enemies do resist between 50% to 60% psychic damage but this is so blown out of proportion that it makes it seem like everything resists this much psychic damage. The sky is falling only for Chicken Little. Here is a list from the old boards with a breakdown on psychic resistance and enemy factions (https://web.archive.org/web/20120906114847/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=291898). You build for positional defense with /SR. You can accomplish this by expanding into the power pools for Weave + Combat Jumping. IO sets will help complete the soft-cap. Link Minds will also work wonders and you seem intent to take it (no reason not to). There are so many ways to do this I can't really fit that in one quick response. Also the influence cost, power selection cost, and slot cost are also variables too. It is totally possible to hit 45%+ with a plan. Recovery is baked into the Sentinel set as is some recharge. Actually /SR of any AT makes building for recharge far less expensive than usual which is a nice selling point to the set. You can run into a mob, Psychic Wail -> Tornado -> Shockwave and just stay in melee range if you wished. Enemies have to hit you first which is pretty hard to do when you've stunned a lot of them with Wail, knocked them down with tornado, and made them slower through secondary effects. Damage wise, and it is a valid concern, use procs. Aim for high recharge so you can avoid having to use either of the T1 or T2 in regular rotation. Respec out of Psionic Strike for an endgame build and replace it with Dominate in Psi mastery. Proc the hell out of Dominate. Dominate - load it with as many damage procs as you can. Especially Unbreakable Constraint for a source of Smashing damage and potentially Gladiator's Net for Lethal. Decimation Chance for Buildup is also a nice option here. Gladiator's Javelin offers a toxic damage proc. Take that too if you can afford it. Diversify from psychic only damage and the issues at endgame will be FAR less painful. Will Domination - I personally like Apocalypse here and I keep the Negative damage proc here to diversify the damage. 6th slot gets a Toxic proc to again diversify damage. Scramble Thoughts - it is a slow attack but by God does it make use of the Opportunity Strikes ATO proc. I use the 5 pc set for the recharge bonus plus the proc. The 6th slot is again a Toxic damage. The base cool down and long animation are about as perfect of a condition to reliably trigger a PPM 2 effect like the ATO as it gets in Sentinels. The reason why I suggest this here is a few reasons. 1) Dominate won't take it, 2) Will Domination is higher DPA and better served with Apocalypse, and 3) higher up time on opportunity means more action on a 20% resistance debuff. What I attack with at ranged for Psy - Dominate -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts -> Will Domination. Rinse, repeat. When Opportunity is up, use either Mental Blast or TK Blast which ever you didn't skip. How comfortable your overall endurance management is will be the deciding factor. TK Blast has an edge if you want to exemplar* as it does better damage and Defensive Opportunity is generally smoother than Offensive Opportunity in my opinion. If you're in melee, then say hello with Mind Probe right after Dominate (and hope that the Buildup proc boosts its damage). *For exemplaring, I'd recommend a second build. Much of the goodies that really make Psychic Blast + Psychic Mastery so nice are all late bloomers. This means skipping 1 of the first tier abilities, possibly skipping the cone attack, and skipping Psi Strike. That would mean the 1 first level attack + Will Domination + Tornado in something like the Positron TF. For anything else where you can keep Scramble Thoughts its not so bad. I'll just restate something I find myself always stating. Defense-based sets like Super Reflexes let you maximize damage potential of any primary because you can add procs to everything. There is no reason at all to bother with chasing defensive IOs in your ranged attacks. You only do that if you're wanting to try for the Incarnate soft-cap of 59%. So ignore that Thunderstrike even exists and frankeslot your attacks. Psychic Blast + Super Reflexes is a very solid pairing for PVE.