oldskool

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.

Does toxic even work this way? Most attacks with a toxic damage component are tagged "melee_lethal" or "ranged_lethal". Toxic damage didn't exist when the game launched and there wasn't a delivery method like "toxic" or "ranged_toxic" or "melee_toxic". So there wasn't actually a method to ever avoid anything purely listed as toxic damage (e.g., Hydra, Zombie barf). If it is a Wolf Spider shooting you with rifle fire, or a Bane hitting with you Venomous Ray, or a Widow firing Poison Dart those are all "melee_lethal" or "ranged_lethal", perhaps "ranged_energy" for the Ray. Their damage components get applied to your respective resistances (Lethal/Toxic). Things could have changed though, so I am asking if it works that way currently because it didn't always in the past.

You're welcome! Its not a hassle. Super Reflexes offers a choice of Practiced Brawler (clicky mez) or Master Brawler (baked in Mez, clicky Absorb Shield). So you have a choice here on which version of mez protect you take. The animation for Master Brawler is pretty fast. You will unlikely have it on auto cast as you probably would Practiced Brawler. So it shouldn't feel as disruptive. The Nin clicky mez will pause to animate just like Practiced Brawler and mine is on auto cast. People have different views about what is or is not an endurance hog. I don't feel Invulnerability is any worse than any other set that happens to include toggles. Every defense secondary tends to feel like it is an endurance hog prior to being able to slot higher quality enhancements into Stamina at level 22. The exceptions will likely be Regeneration, Willpower, and Bio Armor due to Quick Recovery and the perks of Bio Armor (Inexhaustible, Efficiency Adaptation, etc.). Besides, the reality is that attacks will drain your endurance more than the toggles ever will. Toggles may slow the rate of recovery but they don't exactly floor your blue bar by themselves. Toggles seem like a scapegoat for low quality enhancements (or none at all), loads of misses due to poor accuracy, or any other common combination of factors that exist while leveling up.

@Corstapik Two attack routines for the below build: Melee range - Dominate -> Mind Probe -> Abyssal Gaze -> Antumbral Beam -> Life Drain. Ranged only - Dominate -> Abyssal Gaze -> Antumbral Beam -> Life Drain -> Gloom ^ Gloom is filler and only around to occasionally trigger Opportunity. For pure ranged mode, Gloom should be at the end of the sequence to trigger Opportunity after the chain is complete. If the Opportunity Strikes proc triggers, swap Life Drain and Gloom. Simple. To make room for the things you'd like, I decided to skip Physical Resistance and Environmental Protection. These two would only net you 8% more resistance which isn't enough to cap Smashing/Lethal. 60% resistance to S/L isn't horrible and Hover gets you 34 to 39% defense. You're 1 small inspire from soft cap plus multiple sources of -5% to hit. Not only that, but Dull Pain caps your hit points and it is permanent once you have Ageless Incarnate. The attacks above do at least +50 more DPS than the other builds. However those builds are far more sturdy which is a nice advantage there. The build below could also be designed some other ways too. It is not the be all end all only way to do it. *edit: Slapped the Frankenstein's monster below in only a few minutes and forgot the data chunk. I didn't save the build since I needed to rush out the door. Ugh, sorry. One thing about the below that I also want to stress. Its not friendly to leveling. So if you're in the mid-levels don't worry so much about efficiency right now. You just don't have the slots available to make a true build. You should have enough to cover some defense and some offense. You won't cover all of it. Also, I normally do not build in such extreme proc heavy manners. Doing so often requires Incarnates to close gaps and I hate leaning so heavily on the Destiny slot to fix things. So you can, and really should, merge some ideas from Hyperstrike and the things below. When I say you don't need to soft-cap defenses when running Dark Blast, I mean it. I've run two variants of Dark Blast with different secondaries (Regen and Dark Armor) that aren't close to what Invulnerability offers. I've run +4/x8 Fire Farm maps with Dark/Regen. Its risky, as Regen is generally, but it is doable. That pairing has less than 20% defense and less than 30% fire resistance since it wasn't designed to farm but the map is used to stress test. Much of that survivability stems from using a Stealth proc IO in Sprint and opening with Blackstar. Blackstar has a -35% to hit debuff that can hit 10 targets. Anything that isn't outright defeated from Aim (plus Gaussian's Build-Up) during Blackstar is going to be practically blinded. Anything else that wasn't immediately struck is going to eat an Umbral Torrent where up to 6 targets can get knocked on their ass plus take a -5% to hit debuff for 10 seconds. Clean up with Dark Obliteration for another 10 target hit and -5% to hit debuff. Or clean up with a Judgment of your choice like Ion/Void but again, Incarnates... bleh. Anyway, that's how playing DB/Regen can survive 4/8 Fire Maps solo. If that build can do it, then there is no reason DB/Invul can't too while also surviving far more even on less of an investment. /end Rant. 😉 Hero Plan by Hero Hero Designer 2.23 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Level 50 Magic Sentinel Primary Power Set: Dark Blast Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery Hero Profile: ------------ Level 1: Gloom Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), CldSns-%Dam(37) Level 1: Temp Invulnerability UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(46), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46) Level 2: Umbral Torrent PstBls-Acc/Dmg(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), PstBls-Dam%(3), ExpStr-Dam%(5), FrcFdb-Rechg%(5), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(46) Level 4: Boxing Empty(A) Level 6: Abyssal Gaze Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg(7), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(7), GldJvl-Dam%(40), GldNet-Dam%(40), CldSns-%Dam(43) Level 8: Aim RechRdx-I(A), GssSynFr--Build%(9) Level 10: Dull Pain Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(11), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(11) Level 12: Dark Obliteration SprSntWar-Rchg/+Absorb(A), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg(13), SprSntWar-Dmg/Rchg(15), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37) Level 14: Fly Empty(A) Level 16: Unyeilding UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(17) Level 18: Antumbral Beam SprOppStr-Rchg/+Opportunity(A), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg(19), SprOppStr-Dmg/Rchg(19), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), CldSns-%Dam(50) Level 20: Durability Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(21), Prv-Absorb%(21) Level 22: Tough StdPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(23), GldArm-3defTpProc(23) Level 24: Weave LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(25), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25) Level 26: Life Drain Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(27), GldJvl-Dam%(31), TchoftheN-%Dam(31), CldSns-%Dam(34) Level 28: Invincible LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(29), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(29) Level 30: Hasten RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31) Level 32: Blackstar Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Arm-Dmg(33), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(33), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(34) Level 35: Tough Hide ShlWal-Def(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(36), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(36) Level 38: Mind Probe Hct-Dam%(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Hct-Dmg(39), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Hct-Acc/Rchg(40) Level 41: Dominate Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Apc-Dam%(42), UnbCns-Dam%(42), GldNet-Dam%(42), GldJvl-Dam%(43), Dcm-Build%(43) Level 44: Link Minds LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), LucoftheG-Def(45) Level 47: Hover LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 49: Afterburner LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl Empty(A) 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 Clr-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift Run-I(A) Level 2: Health NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(48), Pnc-Heal/+End(50), RgnTss-Regen+(50) Level 2: Hurdle Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(48), PrfShf-End%(48) Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon ------------

Dark Blast will have synergy with everything precisely due to the to hit debuffs. This is actually a slightly bigger deal on Sentinels. Since you said you don't want to spend a billion inf on the character then the debuff actually helps close defensive gaps that you'd normally handle with IOs. Invul, as mentioned, is good since it has high resistances but I don't recommend building overboard on defenses. You really don't need that much defense on Sentinel Dark Blast post-32. Blackstar, the T9, does a lot of work for you. I'd try to pair it with something that lets you utilize the Clouded Senses Negative Damage proc + Gladiator's Javelin proc in each of your attacks. Some attacks, Abyssal Gaze/Life Drain, can take on more proc options which is a substantial damage increase. This shifts Dark Blast from low-moderate damage to upper middle tier damage or a little higher depending on RNG. It is a very noticeable difference. That's a long term goal though since it will cost you influence to do, but it is very worth the consideration. Super Reflexes can be fairly inexpensive to build up defenses on and the to hit debuff helps pad things out. You will not soft-cap positional defense without some IOs but that's why Dark Blast works so well. Ninjutsu is very similar to Super Reflexes but it matures far earlier. You gain access to all of your positional defenses before you're even out of the teens where SR has to wait for AoE defense in the 30's. Nin is practically done by level 28 and that's only if you decide to take Bo Ryaku (slight resistance to all, slight knockback/down protection). SR can have a hands off version of status protection in Master Brawler where Nin is stuck with a click variant. Also, Nin has a KB/KD hole that SR never has to worry about. A simple IO can fix that for Nin, but again it is an expense you may wish to consider. The to hit debuff helps Nin's defense debuff resistance hole too. Nin has less of that DDR than SR does so adding miss chance is welcome. Since Dark's damage on single target is a little on the lowish side, not considering damage procs, it pairs well with Bio Armor too. Bio Armor gives it the damage boost it needs, and Dark helps close the Smashing/Lethal defense gap it has. We could go on and on like this. The to hit debuff offers something in every single Sentinel set. Dark/SR or Dark/Nin for fairly low cost but decent performance are good choices.

Its a bit better than that. Its the Dominator scale (0.95). 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.

^ I agree. Without boring everyone with a diatribe on their differences, the only real answer to the question is this: I find it fun. That's why it is Sentinel over Blaster for me. Its fun. Really nothing else matters and every point I could come up with about DPS on one or the other is irrelevant in light of what I enjoy logging in to. Fun is all that matters.

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.