oldskool

Secondary Powerset: Willpower Medium Elemental Defense, Medium Smashing, Lethal and Psionic Resistance, Low Clickyness High Hit Point Increase, High Health Regeneration, High Endurance Recovery, Low Defense Debuff Resistance, Low Defenses to Smashing and Lethal Damage, Low Resistance to Elemental Damage Willpower: A Fireside Chat I'm starting this write-up a little differently. I'm starting it with the title referring to the communication protocol from Franklin D. Roosevelt. When FDR went on the radio in the 1930's and 1940's the intent was to have a heart to heart talk. When you think of being near the fire place of a home, the fireside portion of the chat, you think warmth and comfort. That warmth and comfort is Willpower. I remember when Willpower was introduced in Issue 11. That same issue brought with it so many wonderful customization changes as well as the Dual Blades set. Both of these new power sets were created for the melee archetypes. This bit of City of Heroes history is important. Willpower was designed as a melee set and as a Sentinel defense set it still has many roots from its melee cousins. There is good and bad to this and the rest of this write-up will shed some light on what that is (and how to overcome some of the short comings). More on that in a moment though. The creation of the Willpower set has roots in a lot of lessons learned from the core armor sets to the CoH game. Willpower ended up being a hybrid concept of ideas spanning several sets and offered new solutions to many complaints which are now out dated. For example, Tankers never had a version of Regeneration. That archetype had players that wanted to make a tougher version of a Wolverine-esque character but just couldn't. Willpower offered a solution for that. Psionic damage was a hole in many, but not all (e.g., Dark Armor), power sets. Willpower offered a solution for that. Almost all defensive sets, with the exception of Regeneration, were very toggle heavy. Stamina used to come much later than it does now. Willpower offered a solution for those endurance issues. Willpower can also be summed up best by its own flavor text on Paragon Wiki: "You aren't Invulnerable. Bullets don't bounce off of you, and if you are cut, you bleed. You are, however, tough, grizzled and strong willed. It takes more than a little cut to keep you down! Willpower offers a strong balance of healing, damage resistance and defense. While you have no real vulnerabilities, you can't quite deal with 'alpha strikes' as well as some other protective powers." Its still true in 2019. Beginner's Overview Willpower is very likely the easiest power set in the game to play. You have nearly zero reactive powers to deal with. The only reactive power in the set is Resurgence, unlocked at level 35, which requires you to be defeated first. Once used, you pick yourself up off the floor and gain some bonuses to retaliate against those that put you down. It is very much in theme of the set but also one that requires you to face plant first. The only pro-active power in the set is Strength of Will and that is the capstone found in level 38. That's it. That is how active Willpower gets and it isn't all that active even with those powers. Willpower's simplicity and almost entirely hands off game play lends itself well to completely casual play. This is going to be true from level 1 to 50 and every step between or beyond. Its as warm and comforting as sitting by a fireside. Do you want to just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride? Willpower is for you. If you're looking for an ultimate defense set to really push the boundaries, then Willpower is probably not for you. In fact, Willpower comes out a little behind its melee cousins with the conversion to Sentinels. A quick critique and word of warning. As stated earlier, Willpower was designed for melee and it has inherent issues with that legacy. That legacy is also tied to the invention system. Willpower responds very well to invention origin (IO) set bonuses. Specifically it responds very well to MELEE invention origin set bonuses. Note how Willpower grants low levels of Smashing and Lethal defense natively but grants higher levels of resistance to that type. Melee powers have multiple sets to address this but the ranged blast sets do not. Sentinels can work around this but you may need to be creative with your slotting. Furthermore, Willpower's premier regeneration tool, Rise to the Challenge, was designed to increase the regeneration rate per enemy. The Sentinel variant to this power is called Up to the Challenge and it does not grow in strength per enemy. Instead of power growth per enemy, Up to the Challenge has a higher baseline regeneration at all times, but this baseline regeneration does not compete with a fully saturated Rise to the Challenge. Then there is the issue of maximum hit points which Sentinels do not have a lot of naturally. So with no reactive shields or heals Sentinel Willpower can come across as somewhat thin at times. This can seem a little worse as well when you combine lower max hit points with a lower max regeneration rate. I do not intend for the above to crush your dreams of playing Willpower. This is a fireside chat, and I want to be realistic. Willpower is still a good set. It can even be a great set for a certain style of play and mindset, but it is not nearly as potent as its melee counterpart can be. Slotting Willpower builds should practically build themselves. It is not a complex suite of powers or effects and it doesn't really require a lot of attention. The one power that brings some dual purpose is High Pain Tolerance. This power provides both maximum health and resistance. On common IO, or even Single Origin, you can put 3 health and 3 resistance here. For your passive regeneration and endurance recovery 2-3 slots is fine. Your toggles will only ever need 3-4 slots. Resurgence needs nothing at all, and Strength of Will can function just fine on 1-3 slots. Willpower really is that simple. The only reason you'd ever 4 slot your toggles is to include 1 endurance modification. If your endurance needs can be met without that, then just focus on the defense bonuses or resistance bonuses. Willpower's simplicity allows you to focus more on your offense not just in game play but in slotting too. Skippable Powers Most players actively build their characters to avoid the annoyance of defeat. Resurgence lets you bypass the load screens and hospital trips but post-defeat powers often aren't ideal picks. You can completely skip this power as Awaken inspirations will also do much of the same function. Resurgence does grant damage, to hit, and recharge bonuses in its package of effects. So it isn't completely terrible, but it is very niche. Strength of Will is another choice to consider skipping. This power grants a boost to all resistances, increases your endurance recovery, and actually boosts your resistance to crowd control further. It does come with a mild crash and the power cannot be improved with recharge modification from any source. It does last several minutes and it can cap your Smashing and Lethal resistance which doesn't happen naturally otherwise. Advanced Slotting Willpower is easy to play but IO building can be a lot more art than science. I am going to present several options below. It's the most complex part of the Willpower set and even then it really isn't that challenging when you have an idea of what you need to shop for. As mentioned earlier, Willpower does very well when picking and choosing IO sets that actively seek to close some of its gaps. One of Willpower's most notable gaps is Smashing and Lethal defense which is the most common damage type in the game. Players will want to increase their defense to this category but there is no need to try to soft-cap. The defense soft-cap is 45% for most content and the Incarnate soft-cap is 59%. There are significant opportunity costs in both power choice and slotting that come with raising defenses. This also doesn't include influence (which is tied to your personal time) costs to buy more potent sets. Sentinels benefit a lot from engaging in ranged combat where retaliation fire is often weaker than melee attacks. Use that to your advantage and plan for that with inspirations. With complementary power pools, you can realistically push 30-33% defense to most types which is 1 small inspiration (12.5%) shy of that 45% soft-cap. Basically, don't go overboard on building defense but do consider building more of it. It is also worth mentioning that Willpower does not have much in the way of defense debuff resistance (DDR). So no matter how much of a buffer you build, that defense will come crumbling down from certain enemy factions. Plan ahead when facing those groups (Arachnos, Devouring Earth, etc.) with inspirations vs trying to break the bank covering all the bases. First thing to note when browsing IO sets for defense bonuses is that these bonuses are almost always paired. Typed Defense (Smashing/Lethal/Fire/Negative/etc.) will almost always pair with a corresponding Positional Defense (Melee/Range/Area). Willpower's core defense power, Heightened Senses, is Typed Defense. Ideally, you want to build on that strength but sometimes you can work around it with the defense pairing system. The pairings work as follows: Melee pairs with Smashing/Lethal Range pairs with Energy/Negative AoE pairs with Fire/Cold The Resistance Set category has several options to help raise your defenses. Reactive Armor has several small typed defense bonuses in its 3rd, 4th, and 5th tier bonuses. Unbreakable Guard has a larger melee defense bonus at the 4th tier of bonuses but this comes with moderate Smashing and Lethal defense. Aegis offers a lot of large AoE defense which pairs with moderate Fire and Cold defense. The other resistance sets do not offer much in the way of defense that really matters. Impervium Armor offers Psionic defense and resistance but this is rarely worth pursuing. Of these choices, I often recommend Unbreakable Guard since there are 3 powers native to Willpower which can take it and it is pretty easy to find enough slots for the 4 piece set. All characters have access to Brawl and that power can be enhanced for slotting. You'll never really use it but it can hold a set. This is known as "set mule". Kinetic Combat has a large melee defense bonus at 4 pieces which brings with it a moderate Smashing and Lethal defense. The bonus provided by Kinetic Combat is slightly larger than Unbreakable Guards and this means that you can stack 5 each of both sets. You don't need to do that but it is possible. If you're trying to push your defense numbers up, then these sets will likely be core components to your strategy. The defensive powers, Indomitable Will and Heightened Senses, can take on any of the standard defensive sets. I generally don't recommend enhancing Indomitable Will since its purpose is very narrow. However, Indomitable Will can be a worthwhile place to socket multiple Defense Set uniques (Shield Wall 5% Resistance, Reactive Defense 3% Resistance, Kismet 6% Accuracy, etc.). I tend to recommend a full slotting arrangement for High Pain Tolerance since the power is quite diverse in what it can take. I often prefer to place the 3% defense global uniques (Steadfast/Gladiator) along with 4 each Unbreakable Guard (one of which is the Hit Point increase). The base resistance to High Pain Tolerance is low making a it a nice place to put these uniques that would detract the enhanced value of stronger powers like Mind Over Body. You could also put these uniques in Strength of Will if you wished since pushing enhancement there will quickly take your Smashing and Lethal resistance beyond the 75% hard cap for Sentinels. How you slot Quick Recovery, Fast Healing, and Up to the Challenge is going to depend a lot on what you feel is missing from the build. The Healing and Recovery categories have a number of really great set options at varying levels of influence cost. Sets like Numina's Convalescence or Miracle have some low hanging fruit benefits in their tier 2 & 3 bonuses. Doctored Wounds, Panacea, and Preventative Medicine have global recharge which is going to benefit your primary more than anything. Health and Stamina are both weaker versions of Fast Healing/Quick Recovery. This makes Health/Stamina a better place for muling IO sets and the other two better for enhancing the power. Complementary Choices Willpower is not that hungry for slots and it will do well with any Primary Power Set. However, since Willpower does not have a lot of active mitigation it tends to do best with sets that bring some other form of defense with it. Any form of crowd control (e.g., Stun, Hold, Knockdown/Back, etc.) will give you some valuable seconds for your regeneration ticks to restore any lost damage. Any sets that actively slow (e.g., Ice, Water Blast, Dual Pistols - Cryo Ammunition, etc.) attack rates will give a similar amount of breathing room though not quite as dramatic. Lastly, sets with other debuffs (e.g., Dark Blast, Dual Pistols - Chemical Ammunition, etc.) will either create miss chance or lower incoming damage which work well with the layered defense nature of the set. Willpower offers a lot of low to medium defenses and it gains a substantial amount from power pools that add to its defense (e.g., Concealment, Fighting, or Leadership). Even though there is no active heal, I would not recommend Medicine. Aid Self comes with an interrupt mechanic and most often enemies will hit you which defeats the purpose of the power. Hasten does nothing for Willpower, but it may compliment your Primary. Willpower is so versatile that there is often something from each of the pools that can work with it. Even if those choices are just for set mules. Epic pools are nice to have but not necessary. There are some power items worth a look though. Any immobilize will help keep enemies out of close range and will spare you from the more severe melee damage hits. Psionic Mastery is a fantastic all around pool with good offensive choices, Mass Hypnosis (if you like Sleeps), and Link Minds which can help close the defense gaps even more. Darkest Night, in both Dark and Soul Mastery, is also an option bringing both a damage and to hit debuff. Incarnate Abilities There are a number of options for Incarnates and there isn't truly a right or wrong answer. What you take will depend more on which blast set you are pairing it with as well as general character goals. Alpha: Vigor and Spiritual both improve healing which relates to regeneration. Cardiac will mostly be noticeable with Smashing/Lethal resistance and the endurance modification isn't necessary though it will certainly streamline offensive game play. Cardiac is an option but not necessarily an optimal one. Agility will improve defense but it requires several defense powers to see real benefit. Other Alpha options will largely benefit your Primary Power Set like Musculature, Intuition, or Nerve. Spiritual and Agility also have recharge modifiers which will benefit your Primary Power Set far more than it ever will for Willpower. Interface: I often reserve this slot for the Primary Power Set. Diamagnetic is an option to add -to hit and this can be somewhat effective for run of the mill enemies (e.g., minions/lieutenants) but won't really do much against more powerful enemies that are the real threat. Destiny: Destiny is also a fairly open slot. You won't typically cap your elemental resistances without Barrier. You won't cap your regeneration rate without Rebirth. You don't really need Ageless for Willpower, but the recharge may be welcome to your offense. Clarion offers Defense Debuff Resistance which is also a weakness of the set, but you may be better off with Barrier or Rebirth. Hybrid: The Hybrid slot is often reserved for damage dealing, but the Melee and Support options deserve a mention too. Willpower has no need to ever be in melee range but some Primary Power Set do have Point-Blank Area powers. The Epic/Patron pools bring some very powerful melee attacks. If you think your hero/villain/rogue/vigilante will be more of a brawler, then the Melee hybrid slot can make you tougher for a duration. Melee Hybrid improves based on enemy count. The Support option might interest some builds that are taking a more laid back approach, do not care for the Assault Hybrid, and wish to add more defense without taking Barrier.

Also worth noting that Brutes and Tankers have a cap of 2500% which compounds with their high hit point caps. I've played both a WP Brute and Tanker. The Tanker build before shutdown was designed for max hit points and high regen with full saturation of Rise to the Challenge. It was pretty godlike back then. Rebirth Incarnate also makes Brute /Regen look like the original game version when Instant Healing for melee was an overpowered toggle that capped or nearly capped regeneration rates all the time vs what it was transformed to. @Ghost907I think it is a good thing to take a deep dive look in to Regeneration on Sentinels to see if there is a way to optimize the set. I played the original game off and on for years. I've played melee AT Regeneration to 50 before, and it's cousin set, Willpower, to 50 about 6 times now. My asking about hit points for your build vs raw regeneration numbers was a little more like Socratic questioning. ;) Sentinel Regeneration comes with an actively restoring absorb shield which translates into its own form of health returned per second. When designing a Regen Sentinel, that should also be taken into account to determine just how much damage is restored after the fact. Regeneration has always had thin values for resistance and defense. Building up defense is almost always more effective mitigation than building for resistance and that had been a long time strategy for general building best practice. Due to how regeneration ticks work in game, the real strength of Regeneration as a set was the clickable heal backbone powers. Since those powers often come with long-ish recharge by default other methods of increasing availability via global recharge in turn increase survival. Increased recharge has a side effect of increased damage out put. That matters considerably more for /Regen than many other sets since the playstyle becomes an arrest the targets before they send you to the hospital. Regeneration can handle battles of attrition but struggles against initial retaliation (aka the Alpha strike) and is susceptible to large singular hits (mostly Bosses+). I came from mostly playing melee in the early years and eventually moved to playing control sets before original server sunset. I still have a get them before they get you mindset when making characters, but I am very interested in other takes on how to go about it.

Reading over my other post I realize it is a little misleading, and this is correct. It wasn't my intent, but that's what I get for trying to respond quickly. 😉

So I tend to assume Tough, Weave, Maneuvers are a given. That's typically how I go with it and probably how I'd do it. Second Wind was missing. It's not just a revive. It is a heal that gains power based on missing health. I'd take it. You could replace it with School of Sharks if you like. I'd probably slot Gravitational Anchor (purple set) in its place for a little more recharge. You could also potentially substitute that with an offensive set or even a Winter set for AoE defense. Arctic Breath feels unnecessary, but if it is theme go for it. If I made a proc-based build with the same skeleton as the OP, the overall defenses would fall to 16-ish with Weave and about 13% without. I'd still shoot for more recharge though and play keep away while soloing. I'd probably eat purple inspires like candy. You can get 2x Performance Shift Procs, Panacea proc, and Defensive Opportunity. Endurance shouldn't be a big problem. Passive healing is a little deceptive in the builders too.. With Accolades, you can hit nearly 1800 hit points which regenerates 47 hp a second. You back that up further with the heal-over-time in Dehydrate, Defensive Opportunity, the Panacea proc, and Reconstruction for bursts (Second Wind too if taken). Need a nice burst of recharge? Geyser can slot Force Feedback which should activate most of the time. I just went with 2x Thunderstrikes in Hydro Blast and Dehydrate. A 3rd Thunderstrike (dmg/end) would reduce costs a little and grant a small range defense bonus. The Thunderstrikes are just a nice and cheap way to get some accuracy/damage. You could go for a Hamidon Nucleolus Exposure if you wish. A common level 50 damage IO plus the Hamidon would net more damage. Below is a thought experiment. You can tackle this combo in a number of ways, but if you're blowing a budget up why not push damage? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer ------------ Level 1: Hydro Blast (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (37) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (39) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 20 (39) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30 (39) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic): Level 50 (40) Decimation - Chance of Build Up: Level 40 Level 1: Fast Healing (A) Numina's Convalesence - Heal: Level 50 (43) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (43) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 50 Level 2: Water Burst (A) Superior Sentinel's Ward - RechargeTime/Chance for +Absorb: Level 50 (3) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50 (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50 (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50 (37) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 Level 4: Reconstruction (A) Panacea - Heal: Level 50 (5) Panacea - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (5) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (7) Panacea - Hea/Recharge: Level 50 (7) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 Level 6: Dehydrate (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (31) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (31) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic): Level 50 (33) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50 (33) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage: Level 50 (33) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30 Level 8: Tidal Forces (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance: Level 50 (9) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff: Level 50 (9) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge: Level 50 (19) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance: Level 50 (25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance: Level 50 (25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up: Level 50 Level 10: Instant Regeneration (A) Panacea - Heal: Level 50 (11) Panacea - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (11) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (17) Panacea - Hea/Recharge: Level 50 (19) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 Level 12: Whirlpool (A) Superior Opportunity Strikes - RechargeTime/Chance for Opportunity: Level 50 (13) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (13) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (15) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50 (15) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50 (17) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 20 Level 14: Fly (A) Empty Level 16: Quick Recovery (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50 (43) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50 Level 18: Water Jet (A) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative): Level 50 (45) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (45) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (45) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (46) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50 (46) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30 Level 20: Integration (A) Panacea - Heal: Level 50 (21) Panacea - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (21) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (23) Panacea - Hea/Recharge: Level 50 (23) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 Level 22: Dismiss Pain (A) Numina's Convalesence - Heal: Level 50 (46) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (48) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge: Level 50 Level 24: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50 (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50 (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50 Level 26: Steam Spray (A) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (27) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown: Level 50 (27) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (29) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (29) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50 Level 28: Resilience (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All): Level 50 Level 30: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50 (31) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50 Level 32: Geyser (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy): Level 50 (40) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (40) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (42) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (42) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 50 (42) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge: Level 50 Level 35: Second Wind (A) Panacea - Heal: Level 50 (36) Panacea - Heal/Endurance: Level 50 (36) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (36) Panacea - Hea/Recharge: Level 50 (37) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 Level 38: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50 Level 41: Boxing (A) Empty Level 44: Tough (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance: Level 30 (50) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 30 Level 47: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50 (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50 (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50 Level 49: Moment of Glory (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50 Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Opportunity Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Run Speed IO: Level 50 Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Run Speed IO: Level 50 Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 50 Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO: Level 50 Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50 (3) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50 ------------

No pressure, am I right? I'm not going to preach that my ideas earlier are "better". It is just a different take. Regen on Sentinels can do pretty well with its absorb shield. It was always extremely expensive to build up defense on melee Regen and unfortunately Sentinels don't get access to sets like Mako's Bite/Touch of Death in the same quantities. I'm not sure it is necessary either. So the tinkering I was doing has far less defense and resistance, which I expected, but better damage potential. So it's a different idea, not necessarily a better one. As I was toying around I noticed the OP didn't take Maneuvers and basically is pushing a bunch of elemental defense via the Winter sets. It's honestly a really interesting way to go. What I'll post later has somewhere around 178% recharge, a lot less defense, more hit points and 4x procs in Hydro Blast/Dehydrate. And I don't even know if I would actually go that route myself. I know it is something I am exploring for my Water/SR but SR lets me get away with pushing damage. It's why I paired it that way in the first place. 😉

You're welcome. I figured that high defense was the goal and it is pretty obvious with your choice in sets. Going at this from a Scrapper perspective also makes sense. It's good you're getting out of that mindset. Even though there are similarities, a Sentinel can play very differently even if it is up close and personal. I brought up Dreadful Wail and Oppressive Gloom for a reason. That's because they stun. Screech also stuns. When everything you face is walking around punch drunk you don't need to worry that much about their retaliation against you. You can just arrest everything to your heart's content. In some ways this pair is kinda like a Tanker Energy Melee/Dark Armor idea as that primary is very stun heavy. With your CC potential you shouldn't need to really push defense at the expense of your offense. Eventually you will get to Incarnate options post-50. You have a number of choices to go with for the Alpha slot. The Cardiac line, specifically Core, works as an enhancement effect to all of your endurance reducers. It also boosts resistance enhancements. Both of these things can work real well running Cloak of Fear. I'm not sure you actually need CoF in your build due to the stun potential, but you should explore it since you're still leveling. You could also go the Musculature routes for pushing your damage enhancements. The Radial option also modifies some endurance. Intuition Radial offers some interesting perks as well as some damage like Musculature Radial. Musculature Core is your pure damage option. Justin is the test server. When you open up the Tequila client and look at the list of servers to join, pick the Beta client. When you log in the only server name option is "Justin". You can level up to 50, make whatever Incarnate abilities you want, and give yourself all of your enhancements if you like. The Beta subforum has a few posts sticky at the top to really help you make the most of the experience. You can then run that test version through whatever process you wish. It beats spending $20-25 million per Winter IO only to realize you never needed it for whatever content you prefer. 😉

People do silly stuff all the time. One time I got side-eyed on my Grav Controller with a quaint passive-aggressive comment of "You can always tell when a Gravity Controller is around" which was a jab on the knockback out of melee. Of course the targets getting KB'ed were DEAD, but just the existence of KB is enough to make people mad. This was despite the fact their target was already dropped before their attack animated. I remember thinking to myself, "spend less time chasing near dead enemies and more time switching to LT's/Boss -- that I'm CONTROLLING and not hitting with Propel". Also, Handclap with KB to KD + FF: Recharge is not only stylish but good potential utility. @Steampunkette running around creating leave-nados looks fun all on its own. I love it!

Dark Armor can be tricky to build on Sentinels and there are a number of ways to handle it. You have a lot of good ideas on what sets to use, but I do wonder a bit about the character goals. The reason I ask this is I see Winter sets in your build. I know that part of the answer here is "defense bonus", but those suckers cost a considerable amount of influence. For the same level of cost or effort (merits) you could also go for the very rares with 10% global recharge. So what kind of content are you hoping to survive with this build? Sonic is a set that has better than normal target caps on its AoE powers since they are almost all cones. You only took 1. Again, tying in to the statement about above defense, it feels just criminal to slot Thunderstrikes in Screech vs Apocalypse. Screech is one of the hardest hitting primary attacks for Sentinels and a set like Thunderstrike just feels so... "meh". I completely understand the rationale for going after the ranged defense from Thunderstrike, but why? What are you concerned will hurt you at range? I'm a fan of Rune of Protection, but not slotting it feels so weird to me. Obscure Sustenance does no real damage to speak of. Obliteration is a fantastic set for both recharge and melee defense, but again, what are you going for? Obscure Sustenance only ever needs 1 target for its effect and its base accuracy is very high. You can completely get away with a bunch of passive IO accuracy set bonuses and just socket that sucker with a Healing set. The potential regeneration on Obscure Sustenance gets really good with enhancement and it is even better when you can activate it as often as possible. Cloak of Fear AND Oppressive Gloom seems like overkill. I'm not a huge fan of Cloak of Fear, but if I took it, I would absolutely use Siphon Insight. The -to hit debuff isn't amazing on this power though. It's great at making minions pretty helpless, but you should be hammering them with AoE in the first place. Minions just aren't a threat and the -to debuff is going to be ignored by anything that is. Anyway, your head is in the right place here, but this also circles back to some of my other commentary on defense stacking. What kind of content are you concerned about here? Your Dark build is very heavily focused on being in close range. You have means of initiating fights on your terms (I see the Stealth IO + Cloak of Darkness+ Dreadful Wail + Oppressive Gloom). You can completely turn off the threat from the pitiful masses and you have Rune of Protection + Obscure Sustenance to mitigate Bosses to Elite Bosses. I'm real biased to trying to play to a Secondary's strengths and in the case of Dark Armor melee defense is where I would worry the most. Melee damage IS the biggest threat and ranged elemental damage can be a joke. Psychic enemies are pretty much your prey of choice and not many Sentinels can say they just have 0 fear of Carnies. Not like Carnies are a huge deal, but they are obnoxious. Dark Armor makes them just flies on your windshield. Unbreakable Guard is a great set at 4 pieces on Dark Armor. Your head is in the right place on Obsidian Shield. I'm also fond of Reactive Defenses and Weave's not a bad choice there either. I'd probably look to add Preventative Medicine as a full set in Obscure Sustenance (that's because I actually do that on mine). That will get a large recharge bonus but also more endurance discount. You don't need to chase as many recovery procs with Sentinel Dark Armor either. You could easily run the Panacea proc in Health as the only proc there. You could 3 slot Numina in Tenebrous Regeneration and keep the Performance Shifters as is in Stamina. Obscure Sustenance used on cool down should easily keep your endurance topped off along with Defensive Opportunity. What you have isn't wrong, and it is a way to do it. It just may be a little more than is needed. Have you tested this on Justin?

I'm currently running Mid's Reborn 2.6. I won't be able to post a data chunk build until after work. I'll see what I can come up with though.

The more and more I consider /Regen on Sentinels, the less attracted I am to trying to push hard for defenses. If you're already making a mostly ranged build, then that is a pretty solid defense in and of itself. Plus Water slows and knocks down. You should be able to buy time to regeneration. Focus on recharge FIRST because that makes Second Wind/Reconstruction available more. That's your real "regeration" just as it always has been for all versions of the set. All that said, I hate the Winter ATO's for the most part and try to avoid their overpriced and overhypedness like the plague. You can build reasonable defense by accident by just focusing on more rational aspects to the build. Building for resistance is a waste of your time. With more recharge you can prune your attack chain down and you shouldn't need Aqua Bolt. You can keep it to mule a set or trigger Offensive Opportunity, but it should start to take a back seat. Water Blast can get incredible with damage procs. Even though you don't need the heal from Dehydrate, check out the types of damage procs it can take from all its sets. I'd reconsider it and try to rig in more damage output. I like the Opportunity Strikes ATO as a possibility in Whirlpool because that set is good at 5 pcs, it can proc there due to the long ass recharge, and you should use Whirlpool pretty much on cool down. Slap a -resist in there too and call it a day.

Let me know if this works. Also worth noting that Dual Pistols vs Radiation Blast has some variance in slot allocation due to different powers. I only use 3 procs and 3 Thunderstrikes as a bit of a cost break vs @Knottewe's build. If I had the Hami's for it, I'd probably consider it. There is no kill like overkill! | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1443;673;1346;HEX;| |78DA6594CB4F135114C6EF6DA7145A0A2DEF770584165A86565DA8D1982862E425A| |1892BB54EE815069B69D3D64497FE0B3E579AB874E346A36EDD8B8F9D8FB8F7C543| |FD03C633733E8BC94CDAFC3AE77EDFBDF73B97CBE2F599E627676E9E10B2E554D1A| |856F33965D54C4B1583B9555359AB4A384F90BEF17F23F915C35A53057DC5289846| |CD2C59F993E4ACF5D6C767D415655595BE645A1B66AD7A4D44964BA5A23E6BAEAD9| |3602DE4BEE5CA4A155ADD9F0BCA28A84A75DD2C87595874947DA7CBE6AABE37A951| |B99A5FA47554E5460F6D678CBEA1A4C06307C423425613530FC087E02B9F10ED9A9| |8DEF4B9EFD369BFCBB38E57BA5E9FE8946E2DDD014699E12424C2D6E4178DFD1F98| |D98FE027F033B3993C7EECC9FF9E6BDA3BE6D06B66629339F986997ECB8C9037006| |F00791A90A701791A9123811C8906E2A0265A927C4CE495C194A30D8AC6C7AC9DA3| |B126646D42D610B28690759E3461D604C27F78EEE6DFE036B36507DC65467F3117C| |81B713B658B884D8F58A44A2B92B4DEE75D44EF31F7DF026F837798E377A1236F0C| |DE58966B6D19708A399C0675E628BAB244DE7678DBB778771D3FC1AFCCAE6FE077E| |6D00FA6A4F675B25774BA29FC54E946DFBABBA4DBE79E6EB08719A3157BF137D2FB| |92CFA8EF05F89439F00C7CCE3C479E7E9E57F41FE0D54768AD41AEC9419CDF10D84| |6FA38D6881FE7A4FB8E8147C0C3E8C851A646F38D60EF2338F3519CF928CE3C469A| |3168C6A01987661C9A655A3B898E260D9E7BE2327801BCC89CBC04E699619A3F858| |EA6DC8E36514547721D2B8A2E21325065E6B91B035AFD66D3C7716E4C38F7D5B91D| |B63DE919CD782A594FE5A0A772C85359F05496B5FAFF00213943B47EC3EDAD108DC| |AFF4777F62A3E799E13FA8639953647EF094D6C7B5CBB7B1529713F7CB8377F01DC| |0DF0EA| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Ah, that's good to know! Looks like the new version of Mid's Reborn fixes a lot visual stuff that was throwing me off too!

I just tinkered with your build in Pines. You're capped on multiple sources of regeneration and you aren't gaining any bonuses fro those. You can only get benefits from 5 IO sets. The Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge is a special one that stacks with itself and other sources that are not LotGs (e.g., Panacea's 7.5%). I count about 7 sources with 12% regeneration as IO bonuses (2 of these do nothing for you at all). There are also several sources of 10% regeneration which are suppressed. You are technically regenerating quite a bit per second, but your overall health is around 1700-something in Pine's. You could ease off the regeneration percentages, since you're over cap on set bonuses, and find sources of more IO set hit points. That might lower the regeneration number, but the higher hit points is a better buffer on direct damage. We'd be looking at less regeneration per second in the low single digits. You could also benefit from other IO global perks like those from Steadfast and Gladiator's for 6% more defense. Other sets could yield you other +defense perks to get you over 20% if you were interested. You could also just chuck down inspirations if that is the plan. Either works.

True! Forgot about that in my other reply. Pine's accounts for the old % method and doesn't accurately reflect the actual PPM value or its chance to proc. It tosses around 58% in just about EVERYTHING then shaves off more average damage for every bit of recharge increase. The game doesn't handle procs like this so it makes a very deceptive view of how much damage these contribute per power.

Pine's seems to continue to calculate all sources of recharge, including global recharge, and this isn't how the game actually does it. Pine's also tells me DP/Nin with T4 Incarnates should be doing around 178 DPS which is frankly F*ing laughable. I ran a series of pseudo lazy tests prior to finalizing my build on Justin first. That was around 234 DPS (edit note, found my test notes! 🙂 ). Knowing what I know now, my current output is better than that. Take Pine's with a grain of salt. It's useful, but it some of the metrics are straight bullshit.

The support player in me has a heart attack seeing this, but I can get why a Blaster would go for moar damage! 😉

Shameless plug, but I have updated some of the write-up on Dual Pistols on page 3 of that thread. Dual Pistols is a really nuanced set that can be run a number of ways and that is something I find truly refreshing in this game. I get the complaints that I see from Blasters about it, but I can't help but feel it misses the forest for the trees. So I'll reiterate that I really do enjoy the Devastation Set use you present since it works so nicely with changing Suppressive Fire from a Stun to a Hold via Swap Ammo. It also takes advantage of the longer recharge value in Executioner's Shot since the PPM value of the proc is 3. Have you done a side-by-side comparison of building up the 720-ish% regen with pushing more max hit points? Perhaps you can save a slot here and there by going with 4 each Numina vs just pushing the ED of regen values. Numina at 4pc gets you some more hit points along the way as well as a global healing bonus which will stack 5 times (like all other bonuses do) IIRC. That bonus should effect regeneration rate too since it is considered a form of healing. You have a lot of potential sources of high health bonuses in the sets you're currently running so you might cap on 5 sources pretty fast. I can't pull up Pine's here so I am really just spit balling ideas, but generally pushing hit points was the path to greater regeneration values. While the high percentages are nice on paper, the real number you want to consider is hit points per second. High max health = more health restored even at a lower overall Regeneration %. Your build may already be on point for that, again I can't see the numbers myself, and if so you can just ignore all of the food for thought above

I think its well within line of the topic. This thread is about both Dual Pistols and Regeneration, and we're chit chatting about Regen specifically. The different perspective on why you decided to slot the way you did can be valuable information to others. It is actually far more valuable to me than just seeing a dump of a Pine's build. Often people just dump builds but never really explain where their head was at when they did it. This allows individuals to make all manner of assumptions in order to fill in the gaps without questioning the source. Your take here is certainly interesting and it is a serviceable build. I was just curious as to the thought process since there is no way in hell, outside of Incarnates, you're going to touch the regeneration cap for the AT. If you're going to eventually run Incarnates like Ageless then the slotting you're going after now is going to be overkill during the height of the Ageless buff. That would smooth out over time giving you a bit more buffer for the duration. The Melee Hybrid would also give you a big regen boost when surrounded. So my thought on asking "why" here is also a little tied to opportunity costs with the attacks. Devastation has sizeable hit point bonuses though so I can see a reason for that set even if I am not a big fan of the Hold proc itself. That's absolutely my own bias for how I prefer to build Dual Pistols and characters in general. Anyway, it looks like a clever solution for making a survivable DP/Regen.

I play my Archery/Tactical Arrow in the spirit of my old Trick Arrow/Archery Defender. So my selection of toys includes everything from the secondary and treats them like Defender-lite powers. Except Glue Arrow which mules damage procs. I was on the fence about using damage procs in Electric Net Arrow and Ice Arrow, because c'mon that's broken stuff, but opted not to do it. So I say... why not both? 😉

Singy and Fluffy are complete BFFs too. I feel that the later sets like Time and Dark just opened so many doors to Gravity. Sure, those sets are amazing on every control primary but I just thoroughly enjoy Time Manip with Grav. The extra control in the secondary is everything I ever wanted for one of my favorite primaries in the game.

Rad Blast is OK. You can check out Defender and Corruptor builds for ideas on what to do there. Just replace the snipe with the Sentinel equivalent. I'm not a fan of X-Ray but it has value for Defensive Opportunity. For Rad Melee, I'd not worry about trying to soft-cap defenses. You can, and should, pursue some defense boosting through pool powers but chasing high defense values is trade off to more damage potential. That said, there are good melee oriented set bonuses like Unbreakable Guard which can make close range safer. I'd probably lean into that strength and get scrappy.

Not at the moment, but I can tell you what sets I use as best I can from memory. I use 3x Luck of the Gamblers in Ninja Reflexes, Danger Sense, Weave and Maneuvers. I use the LotG global in Combat Jumping. I use the full Reactive Defense set in Shinobi-Iri, but there are other ways to slot this with the travel sets. I also 6 slot Preventative Medicine into my click heal. Those sets all provide the bulk of the non-purple recharge. I 6 slot the endurance restore with full Performance Shifter for the 3% AoE defense. Coercive Persuasion is slotted in Blinding Powder for all of its merits. I mule the Shield Wall Global in the T9, but you could steal a slot from Health and slap that in any of the other defenses. I have a Positron's Blast (5pc only) in Empty Clips, Sentinel's Ward in Bullet Rain, and a purple set in the T9 (Armageddon specifically, but Ragnarok would do the same for others). I have Opportunity Strikes 5pc sitting as a mule in Dual Wield. I only ever use DW to activate Defensive Opportunity. DO lets me keep a steady stream of attacks in AoE packs without ever having to get animation locked using the /Nin endurance restore. I still use that power, but DO lets me use it only in emergencies. The proc didn't seem to do much for me so I rarely worry about where it goes for Dual Pistols specifically. That leaves my other purple set, Apocalypse, to live in my Executioner's Shot. That's 111.x% recharge before Hasten. This sets me free to slot Pistols and Suppressive Fire with procs. I could quad slot these, but I do prefer having some endurance reduction from 3pcs of Thunderstrike. The set bonuses are just icing on the cake. Anyone could go at this a different way and still come out with good results. This is just what I found works best for me. Health is slotted pretty much standard with procs and Stamina only has 2 pcs of Performance Shifter. With lucky procs, this is all I ever need, but I have a few other layers (Defensive or Clicky) to keep me going. I have had risk of running out of end on tough fights like AVs and I didn't have blue inspires. I think I drain something like 1.3 end a second and my attack routine is over 4 endurance a second. Anyway, that made me revisit how I was handling endurance so I made changes. I decided to focus more on my single target output hence the procs. However, I don't feel my AoE is all that bad. I can juggle Empty Clips and Bullet Rain with a minor gap. I usually open with Hail of Bullets into Void Judgment then Bullet Rain and finally Empty Clips. I will also toss around some caltrops (Tashibishi) to create some NPC confusion to exploit AI behavior or use Blinding Powder as an opener to obnoxious enemies like Malta.

I triple proc 2 attacks and double proc 1 with my DP/Nin. I have 181% global recharge, 46% melee defense, 49% ranged defense, and 44.98% AoE defense. Hasten recharges in 119 seconds (enhancement boosters). I don't use Force Feedback at all, but did at one point.

I've only ever dabbled in Electric attacks from a Dominator perspective, but the Sentinel version looks like a promising set. I'm about as fond of Radiation as I am things Dark, and Radiation Blast has a lot of potential for damage procs. In edition to the Achilles' Heel proc, the set can take the Lady Grey, Shieldbreaker, and Javelin damage procs. That's a pretty good chunk of damage for even a power as lame as the T1. -Res procs will also skew effectiveness on solo tests but it does get a bit murky on teams. The -res procs do not stack effects. On teams where everyone has an Achilles' Heel, it is probably a bigger benefit to have a damage proc in its place. That's really just some Devil's Advocacy since I do not build my characters that way. I tend to enjoy grouping with random people so I like making my characters as self sufficient as possible. This strategy works well when I solo. There is a valid argument to be made for being a bit more selfish in your build choices on more dedicated groups. Anyway, I greatly enjoy reading your ideas on the various sets!

The other sections offer a lot of broadly applicable things to a pretty wide audience. Maybe there will be more discussion on those topics than specific sets. I'm hoping I can get to crafting some write ups for the other sets I dedicated myself to this week. Maybe some of the defensive sets. Dual Pistols turned out to be far more complex to write about than I originally anticipated. Even Friday I was tinkering with some options and discovered something new I liked. The other blast sets I opted to discuss are more straight forward topics and hopefully won't be nearly as long.