oldskool

@Sunsette bravo! It is nice to see the format with some life in it, and that really gives me some inspiration on how to approach those sets I want to review. @Sovera, et al, you are touching on a point that I have tried, maybe even clumsily at times, to bring up. I don't mean this in a "I told you so" manner, but you are touching on something I have observed. Chasing 45% defense has opportunity costs as well as damage costs. I have seen many Blaster builds that do less damage than what an optimized Sentinel is capable of. This is despite the difference in base damage modifier. Part of the reason on how a Sentinel can so dramatically close the gap is tied to a few things. Some sets, but not all, made out incredibly well on single-target (Archery/Psionic/Dual Pistols/Dark Blast) because their rotation is different. Archery on Sentinels has no need for either Snap Shot or Aimed Shot. Instead you can run Stunning Shot - Blazing Arrow - Perfect Shot. Compound this by running Musculature vs Agility (common on Blasters) and already being able to hit 45% defense due to a secondary and Sentinels start looking good. Blasters will always do more AoE damage and always have more burst potential (Aim + Build-Up) and always make more out of Fulcrum Shift. However, for those times where the Blaster isn't running extreme buffs, the Sentinel's consistency makes them highly competitive. Hell, I have seen Defender builds that can be within spitting distance of some Blaster builds. Stacking defenses in a vacuum can be just as foolish as it is to make judgments on Primary power sets without considering damage procs.

I write a lot about Dual Pistols, and I should probably compile my ideas on it as reviewer. Assault Rifle is also one that I play, and I don't mind doing that too. I'll offer some insight on Ninjutsu, Dark Armor, and Willpower. I think I have a firm understanding on those. I will provide a secondary analysis of Dark Blast because I am an unashamed Dark power fan. I also recently made a Psionics character for a hypothesis. I'll share my thoughts there. I don't mind tossing my two cents on Archery too. Of the characters I have made, both the Psi/Nin and Archery/Nin have had some of the highest hypothetical damage out of my Sentinels builds. I don't bother with Fire because I already know it is good.

No problem. I have around 25 characters which is a lot of mouths to feed. In order to make sure they all have food at the table I also play the market manipulation mini-game. It really isn't that complicated. There is a thread about it in the Guide section and there is a YouTube video or two that will walk you through very well. I log in to my little sales person hero and spend around 10 to 15 minutes when I can to make sure the sweat shop is running. I put them to work building things, converting IOs, and then unloading for profit. I price my stuff put it on the market, and log out (or join friends for missions) since they don't often sell immediately. I'll happily play other characters even if I am not logging in to a farm (which I really can't stand), and know I am making money with my side hustle. I'll even start on that road on other characters too for giggles, but I often just email myself the valuable things for my crafter who then becomes the rich uncle. You may not think you have money now, but use that guide and you won't worry about affording purples. You can get to a point where your own little factory workers start ensuring each new alt can have a little nest egg. Eventually getting billions isn't out of the question.

Funny, I actually have a Mercs/Rad that I really love conceptually. It's not 50 yet, and I haven't spun it up on Justin to test. I'm also very aware that the powers you listed don't work on the pets. Doesn't matter to me. I love me some Accelerate Metabolism, even if it is only for me solo, and I LOVE me some Fallout on teams! I have a /Rad Controller, a Rad/ Defender, and now a /Rad MM. It is one of those fun sets in teams where if people die, you can just shrug and not worry about being yelled at. You can nuke the site from orbit, as it is the only way to be sure, press that shiney Vengeance button, AND then revive their mutant behind from death. So I can do all that AND get a lot of dakka-dakka-dakka action with the Mercs?! .....Oh yes.. Oh yes please!

For statement 1, Pistols is stronger than you give it credit. No, it won't put out big orange numbers, but it is deceptively strong. It is the 3rd best attack (behind only Executioner's Shot and Suppressive Fire) when considering standard ammo only. That's unique to Sentinels. For the other Dual Pistol using classes the power is actually the second best attack regardless of ammo type (and I mean actual Dual Pistols the set not having pistol attacks like Thug Masterminds get - their version of Pistols is legitimately weak). If you ever used the fire ammo power, then Pistols becomes the second best attack in the set, period. It takes an IO build, specifically 2 purple damage procs, to make Suppressive Fire the #2 power regardless of ammo. If you decide to not enhance Executioner's Shot for damage, then Suppressive Fire can actually become the best attack, but I don't advocate for that. For statement 2, I just want to clarify that I don't believe that. The placement of Opportunity Strikes depends on what primary we're talking about. Some sets can make use of it in their single target chains better than others. Some sets may want to consider it in a T9 or other AoE power, but I really don't think that is the best approach there either. To each their own though. (Edit 1: For double clarity... I'm not a huge fan of proc chances less than 20% in single target chains. That means 1 out of every 5 uses the proc can go off. That's a minimum, but ideally I want better odds than that. Especially for a random chance that is prone to trigger when my Opportunity bar is at 100% already for the next 15 seconds... yuk! Placement of various sets can turn conventional wisdom on it's head depending on what you're trying to do. I know a rule of thumb is putting Apocalypse in the highest DPA power. Generally this is good, but you can abuse some proc chance by not blindly doing this in all primaries. Psionic Blast is an example where putting Apocalypse + Unbreakable Constraint in a power like Dominate [Psi Mastery] yields results while putting 5pcs of Opportunity Strikes into Scramble Thoughts gets you roughly 45% chance for opportunity bursts. That means Psionic Blast can have really high up time on Opportunity's -20% resistance to help it's post-50 issues against psi resistant enemies. At least seems it work on paper, I started one up and I want to mess with it more. I also want to mess with using Opportunity Strikes in Whirlpool on my Water Blast since the base recharge is so long. So yeah, it depends is the best answer I can give. Edit 2: for Dual Pistols I prefer Armageddon as a purple set for Hail of Bullets since it has an additional damage proc available [chance for fire] that is virtually guaranteed to go off every time. By virtual I mean over 90% and you can not have 100% chance to trigger anything under the current PPM rules. 😞 I also highly recommend Fury of the Gladiator chance for -resistance, but that is optional.) For statement 3, that depends [edit: again!]. Not all T1 and T2 powers are created equally. Some sets really do have lack luster powers in that spot, but that is not true of all sets. Assault Rifle is an example where both the T1 and T2 are integral components to an optimized attack chain. That's completely ignoring that Opportunity is even a thing. In fact, the T2 (Disorienting Shot) in Assault Rifle is the highest damage-per-activation attack in the set! So the decision on what attack to drop in a given primary for an Epic/Patron power is going to vary from set to set.

I want to second the opinion part here, but include a caveat to it. Most of the builds flying around are not leveling builds. Sure, you can level with these plans, but they likely won't be as effective since they are also paired with specific invention bonuses chosen by the player. Not having those bonuses can create gaps in your attacks or perhaps you don't have all of the endurance recovery yet. Having Defensive Opportunity available while you are leveling through organic play does offer some benefits. Offensive Opportunity grants you some bonus damage that cannot be enhanced as you level. The unique quirks of each Opportunity, other than the -20% resistance they both have, diminish with a maxed out build. So while Aqua Bolt might be better damage per activation in the end, having Hydro Blast may actually be a benefit to you right now. I'd suggest playing what is the most comfortable for you as you build towards 50, and then maybe consider using one of the 5 free respecs you get to later refine power selection if you feel it is necessary.

I play Dual Pistols/Nin, and Dark Blast with Dark Armor. Both sets you have here will get a lot better when you invest into it. Dark Blast may not look like much on paper (base damage is lowish), but it does like damage procs. Every attack can include a Clouded Senses chance for negative damage. Every attack can take the PvP toxic damage. Abyssal Gaze can take the Unbreakable Constraint chance for smashing damage AND Ghost Widow's Embrace chance for psionic damage. Abyssal Gaze can hit like a truck with 2 purple procs (Apocalypse + Unbreakable). If you can get enough defense to cover the soft-cap (or even within a percent or two due to the -to hit in DB) without using your attacks to get you there, then you can add a decent amount of damage to your ranged attacks. Since DB likes to be close range for Blackstar, the Ancillary/Patron melee attacks are also a good potential addition to your attacks. These are transformative to Sentinel damage if you don't mind being in the face of enemies. I don't like them on weapon sets, it breaks immersion for me, but they are strong options to enhance your damage output. Consider one, but also know you don't need one. Shinobi-Iri really should have more slots when you can spare them (I know you're only 36). It is defense to all 3 positions. I prefer the stealth IO in Sprint. I can toggle it on and off as needed without losing defense. Kuji-In Sha only covers 1 resistance type. I'd rather have 3x recharge so I can heal more often if talking just basic IOs. Bo Ryaku is actually fine with one slot, but YMMV. Don't sleep on Blinding Powder. Confuse is amazing and it doesn't knock you out of stealth like your attacks do. Even if you don't feel you need to use it, it has really good IO potential. Seriously, look at what Coercive Persuasion does. It is a purple set, but look at what it improves globally. It is incredibly useful to Sentinels. Anyway, glad you are enjoying the pairing. Dark powers are always good utility, and Sentinel Nin is quite strong with IOs. It is a really good pair.

The Ward set has the best proc in terms of how often it can trigger out of the two sets. Disintegrate and Refractor Beam are the two powers I'd consider for it. Disintegrate is my lead in power and the proc has a good chance to trigger. The power of Disintegrate also has few options for other damage procs to really push output anyway. Refractor Beam has a lower chance to trigger on a single target, but it will have a chance to trigger for every target hit (up to 10). The Strikes proc isn't that great and Beam doesn't have a lot good options for it either. Disintegrate is 'meh', but the default recharge reduction means it can smooth out your attack chain. The proc would just be icing on the cake if you're not already planning to put the Ward there for the better chance of additional defense layering. Lancer Shot is better served with Apocalypse but you could go 5pc Apocalypse + Strikes proc and likely get around a 1 in 4 chance of every Lancer giving an Opportunity burst. Piercing Beam has around a 15% chance to trigger the proc, but it could make use of the 5pc (all but the proc) to reduce the recharge of the attack and streamline everything. I agree with Sunsette that Overcharge is hard to evaluate since it behaves strangely but the recharge reduction in Strikes is better than Ragnarok so there is that.

Can't speak for the OP, but in my case it is no worse than any other set with 3 base line toggles. Cloak of Fear is the only toggle in the set with a base 0.52/s end drain. Obscure Sustenance helps manage endurance as well as regenerate health (and heal). The resource returns all degrade over time but the cool down can be reduce to make it effectively permanent. You just need a victim volunteer to siphon from.

1 end 3 resist/defense/heal for all toggles except Indomitable Will. I usually just leave it at base 1 slot. If you want more Psi defense then add some slots. Strength of Will either 1 resist or 3. I actually like to slot it, but many don't. High Pain Tolerance 3 of each resist and heal. Fast Healing 3 heal Quick Recovery 3 stamina. You can generally keep the number of slots the same even with an IO build. When you get more comfortable with Willpower you can start shifting slots around to make more use out of it.

You don't need to worry about soft capping /Dark. Your build is going to have a lot of soft control by default (slows in primary, stun in secondary) and that is your mitigation. Then combined with Obscure Sustenance, which is seriously no joke of a power, and Dehydrate you have a lot of health padding through heals. I have a Dark/Dark/Dark project and it has around 27% positional defense to all. I don't bother with Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom, or Soul Transfer because Dark Blast has enough -to hit I don't need it. Any of those 3 powers are still useful though. Originally, I was going down the Psi Mastery path for Mass Hypnosis, Dominate and Link Minds for a kind of classic vampire theme. Link Minds took the build from 27% to 32% defense. Again, I don't need it with the -to hit I have baked into the primary. If you're using Darkest Night, you may not need to push past 25-27% either. Do note, -to hit can be resisted but it won't be a big deal for weaker enemies. Cardiac is a solid choice for /Dark.

Well sure, you've exceeded the 45% soft cap which is going to create a buffer against debuffing enemies. It doesn't change the fact that 40% DDR on its own isn't that amazing. Defense debuffs are still pretty high by default with the common vector of rifle/sword hits carrying -7.5%. So in your example the first hit against your defense will still keep you 0.5% above the soft cap. If the enemies miss before the duration of the debuff ends, then you're defense goes back up. Also, it is likely if you get hit a second time (and go below the cap) the first debuff falls off before a big problem starts to happen. Bio Armor has a real hard time achieving 50% to all types. Hell, it has a hard time going past the mid 20's for smashing and lethal. Against radiation blast enemies, your defenses will last longer, but not against broadsword enemies. So I stand by my statement that it takes high values of DDR for it make significant differences in light of so many base game debuffs being large by default. You can make that DDR go further by exceeding the soft cap, but that isn't easy on Bio Armor. It also isn't realistic for most players below 50 and there are plenty of enemy groups with -defense from levels 1 to 50.

I'm not sure a section like that needs to exist. Fun is subjective. If someone wants to use the Ninja Tools for more -defense on Dual Pistols, then there really is a place for that. Especially if you want to use an ammo power that removes the -defense component. Plus the debuff stacks so there really isn't such a thing as too much. I know your comment in that example was purely an off the cuff one, but what you or I value for our builds is going to be completely different to someone else. The best community offering, to me, is one that explains the strengths and weaknesses of a set. Perhaps provide some guidance on the merits of shoring up a weakness, or how playing to a strength is better. Another point about being good friends to other players is helping to avoid what Hjarki mentions on page one. Slotting for a secondary is going to influence the primary and the reverse of that is true too. For example, Bio Armor looks amazing on paper for all of its damage bonuses. However, we see a lot of players trying to shoe horn in extra defenses to try and softcap everything. This leads to slotting decisions with end results where the final attack chain probably isn't making much use of the damage bonus in the first place. So why bother taking Bio Armor at that point when perhaps another secondary would allow better performance? Here is where discussing the slotting and the strengths of a set like Bio (primarily it's absorbs/regen/healing) should help lessen the worry that many players have... surviving to do damage. There aren't many trap options in CoX, but there are some. Those mostly come from the way certain IO's look in something like Pine's that lack mechanics/context. One notable offender is Gaussian's: Chance to Build-Up in Tactics and Decimation: Chance to Build-Up in certain powers. These look great on paper, but in reality they don't work that well without a lot of thought given to them. Chasing 6pc Gaussian's in Tactics for Dual Pistols, for example, compromises build options for very little return on investment. Those are the kinds of trap options player really do need to be warned about. The rest is going to be up to the player.

To be fair, DDR really only offers noticeable returns when you have extremely high values to it. I'm not aware of a defensive set that is actually immune to defense debuffs. Even Super Reflexes can lose percentage points from their defenses if enough enemies chip away at it. AV's with big defense debuffs will make a dent in them too. 41.5% is nice to have, but enemies often have high amounts of -defense in the first place. I mean it's better than nothing, and people should consider it, but it won't exactly save you either.

Hah! I posted in their thread about DP and secondaries. Any expertise I may have is only because of the people that contribute to the forums. Plenty of people here have given me a great deal of inspiration to go back to the drawing board numerous times like Zepp and BrandX. I also found some great inspiration in the Defender and Corruptor boards on using the debuffs of the set. But, the pair has sort of become my pet project lately, so there is that.

Before I make any recommendations about attack chains, what do YOU want as an attack chain? I ask this because Sentinels have a couple of paths they can take. Some are better than others at different things (I find there is more to the game than just damage. 😉). I do have some specific recommendations about your placement of some sets though. This is because they do not work as well as they seem on paper. Opportunity Strikes has good set bonuses, but that proc kinda blows for Dual Pistols*. The proc per minute rating on it is almost as low as it can get (Standard is 1 PPM, Superior is 2 PPM). Since the chance is really low, it favors attacks with long base recharge and ideally a long cast time. Piercing Rounds checks some boxes on that, but because it has an area factor that lowers the chance to trigger it. The other single target powers in the set animate and recharge too fast to make the proc worth while. You might have a 1 in 5 chance of having it go off, and I have had it go off when my bar was already full then never trigger when I needed it. Of course, YMMV. Now, I have found in some sets Opportunity Strikes can be slightly more beneficial but that is another post. That said, I actually dropped the proc from my build and put 5pc of it in Empty Clips purely for the recharge bonus. *Catch on this is directly related to attack chain. Sentinel's Ward is the opposite of Opportunity Strikes. It has a very high base PPM rating meaning it is a very functional proc in almost any power you would want. Even area powers. In area powers it also has a chance to trigger per target. Dual Pistols has a lot of built-in accuracy on its attacks. You don't need Tactics. Additionally, that Gaussian's proc will activate once in a blue moon and only if the stars are in proper alignment every 100 years. I could understand 6 pcs for the defense bonus (which still isn't worth it), but the way it is currently in your build, I'd suggest you pass. Dual Pistols cannot shoe horn in Build-Up and make it functional through procs. It just doesn't work in the world of PPM values. However, Dual Pistols does have a ton of power set diversity going for it and that means damage procs are where you make up the lacking damage. Resistance debuff procs like Achilles' Heel are the key to creating a work around for the missing Build-Up. Your build includes a lot of the Winter sets. It makes your defenses highly lopsided to Fire/Cold. I'd reconsider trying to improve your Smashing/Lethal defense. I'm not sure the Aegis set is doing you any favors for your build. I'm fond of Unbreakable Guards for the Melee/Smash/Lethal defense it grants at 4 slots. It also provides some endurance discount which is nice. If you want, you can also 4 slot Brawl and/or Boxing for Kinetic Combats to push Smash/Lethal higher. I like to try to hit around 30% for Smash/Lethal/Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold. I can make up the rest with inspirations. For Stamina and Quick Recovery, I like Performance Shifter here. At least the End Mod and the Proc. I often try to get a 3rd there for the bonus hit points which are useful to Willpower. The Numina Proc is better in Health than it is in Up to the Challenge. The Panacea proc doesn't translate it's values in Pine's, but I think it is better than the heal mod from Miracle. I'm not a big fan of Regenerative Tissue for Sentinels, but that is also personal taste.

That's a good question. I'm pretty open. I'm pretty open to even trying something new and adding some feedback too. I happen to gravitate towards underdog sets on the Sentinel anyway as I have 0 opinions on Fire. Dual Pistols has fun opportunity for analysis compared to all the other AT's. I've also made a Dual Pistols Corruptor which in many ways drove me to experiment more on the Sentinel. I also have experience with a few of the secondaries especially since they were ones I played as other AT's on live. Examples are Willpower (I had 4 characters with it) or Dark Armor (my first lvl 50 in 2004). Obviously, I have an opinion on Ninjutsu since I play it more than my other Sentinels. I can also just toss around ideas to the group too. I'm flexible.

First off, I am humbled by the call out. Thank you! Second, this sounds like an awesome, but big, undertaking! I'll help if I can. I've been considering writing up something of a guide or so at some point myself.

Justin has been a life saver! There has been some misinformation floating around about how procs work in Toggles that cost me some time and money. In actual testing of that, I learned a lot. This came after making that character and only having some cursory glances at "effectiveness". When I play I group almost 100% of the time. So efficiency was hidden by others contributing to the team. It wasn't until I really started scrutinizing my build that I realized I needed to re-evaluate everything. So I did. I've changed so many things in all my builds it isn't funny. I have a Dark/Dark project that will likely see a few iterations before I actually finish it. I may title that project "Putting Lipstick on Pig, or How I fell in Love with an Underperforming Set".

I had made a Dark/Regen on Justin that I was testing for a while before I just dropped it. Regen on Sentinels is pretty durable but not to the levels of like Invulnerability is or some of the crazy things Super Reflexes, Energy Aura or Ninjutsu are capable of. Regeneration has always had a fondness for trying to layer on extra mitigation since it's base is so heavily geared towards healing. Hover is extremely useful for avoiding melee early, but stacking Tough/Weave/Maneuvers is still a good idea. If you really want Link Minds from Psi, that can also help. Just don't expect to build to over 30% defenses, using things like the Event sets for example for their 5% bonuses, because it can hamper your offense. I don't have that Dark/Regen build anymore, but I think it got around low-mid 20's. Then again, I paired it with Dark because of the to hit buffs. I haven't gotten super far on Sonic. I'm trying to make sure I can skip Shout since I hated that power with a passion on Live. Screech is the backbone of Sentinel Sonic and makes it powerful for single target. Shriek and Scream are within tiny numbers of each other which fits well as a sandwich to Screech. I can't make a claim on the best attack chain on that yet though. There are about 4 attack chains that Defenders can use for Sonic and their version of Screech has a base 20 second recharge (Sentinel is 12?). I'd take a look at their board and see what Bopper has on that. I used the "classic" Shriek Shout Shriek Scream before (or Shriek Scream Shriek Shout - been a while). Shout is just so slow. I'd love to skip it, and I suspect Sentinels can. Edit, here is a thread on Sonic Blast between Bopper and Auroxis. Recharge numbers on Sentinels are different, but the ideal attack chains should be easy to adapt to Sentinels. I don't know how I feel about Siren's Song, but Shockwave and Howl you should take. Shockwave with KB to KD gets better and these cones all hit 10 targets, apply the universal -5% resistance as well as another -9.6%. I keep going back and forth on making a Sonic Defender or Sentinel. I'm really indecisive and both are great for very different reasons.

Pistols likes to play closer to the action and has a T9 that is Point-Blank in range. So any secondary that also like to be in PBAoE range also has some synergy with the set. Additionally, any secondary with innate stealth also plays well with getting into PBAoE range. Furthermore, Pistols does incredibly well with damage procs. The attacks have a lot of diverse debuffs/effects which opens them up to IO's from Defense Debuff (Achilles' Heel, Lady Grey, Shieldbreaker) or Knockback (Explosive Strikes, Force Feedback). Additionally, Suppressive Fire is actually decent damage with base values but gets even better since it can hold 2 purple damage procs. So if you're looking to make the most of the damage the set can offer, then you're likely going to want to get as many procs as you can into your most important attacks. That means you're going to be limiting the options on IO sets to your secondary set/other powers (like Empty Clips)/power pools/etc.. I think Nin offers a lot of synergy to ANY Sentinel Primary that can take on a lot of procs because the powers are so diverse. Since you can tap Defense, Resistance, Heal, Endurance, and Confuse right in the secondary this blows the doors off the creative process. There may be some other secondaries that will let you squeeze out recharge without relying on the primary (SR comes to mind with Red Fortune + LotG), but not many sets have as many options just right inside the kit. Sentinel /Nin has stealth meaning it also pairs very well with any sets that use PBAoE powers (Pistols, Dark Blast, etc.). The Ancillary and Patron pools can also add in a good bit of IO diversity too but this may conflict with what you want. So if you're looking for a total package secondary that allows a lot of creative planning, Ninjutsu has a lot going for it. I say this as having a DP/Nin myself that I have rebuilt a number of times now. I started dabbling in more procs after doing it on a Corruptor and realized just how freaking flexible Nin is for building characters. Nin just checks a lot of boxes. I also recognize I am really biased towards the set on Sentinels. So I suggest exploring what you can do in Pine's and see if you can get to a performance level you like with sets you're interested in. Sentinels have a lot of great options for secondary sets.

^ This is the conventional wisdom for Regen regardless of AT. The answer is not about what is mutually exclusive, but instead what helps the most without compromising too much offense.

It should not. The cool down is 300 seconds. The proc won't do enough to matter with a down time like that. Besides, they won't need it. Vengeance is indeed pretty amazing on teams, but it does require someone to die. It works as a nice base slot power to squeeze out recharge since I have no more slots to devote to Epics/Patron powers. I'm glad you found my ideas helpful. I'd suggest hopping on Justin to test it out for yourself and see how you like it. Edit: Also, thanks for the compliment on "expertise". I think that's a bit of a stretch for me personally. I wasn't going super hard into the numbers on things like proc calculations myself until more recently. I found a list of PPM #'s and an equation to judge for myself after having some disappointing results from initial base assumption out of older knowledge. Also, some pure stubbornness about adapting on my part. So expertise is humbling. I feel it is more "experience" and that experience is... do not go the route I did. Take advice where you can, but take it with a grain of salt. Test it yourself on Justin when you can. Don't take my for it and spend the time/influence only to be disappointed. I have 27 characters and counting because I like making heroes. I don't have the time for all of them though. When I build in Pine's I need to maximize my understanding to fit my preferences, but also not waste resources. So I try to pay forward the mistakes I have made so others don't do it.

For Incarnates I lean towards Musculature, Degenerative, and Assault. Barrier is also pretty good and any lore and any judgement. That said, here are some more ideas on the most recent build. If you really, really, really want Mind Link, you can save some slots by using some Hami-O's. 1 LotG for the Recharge, and 2x Membrane Exposures with +2 level enhanced will bring the recharge down to 88 seconds with your current slotting vs the 94s you have it at. You're pushing a ton of Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold. That's cool, but you could also get a lot more damage out of your powers. You really don't need to softcap any of your defenses. I'm honestly not a big fan of Decimation Chance for Build-Up. That proc has such a low chance to activate in reality, and you have no control over it. It has a 10 second duration and about half of that duration is a lock out period where the effect can't happen again. It would have around a 13% (+/- 1%) chance to activate. First Power - Single or Charged Shot - 5pc Decimation. Ideally no proc here since you'll rarely use this skill. This is purely for the global recharge. If you really need a choice, Single Shot at least has some utility you can make use of. Defensive Opportunity won't do much for you in an endgame build. Parasitic Leech with the slotting above gets you about 7 endurance a second for 45 seconds if used on all 5 targets. Even with just 1 target you're still over 4 end/s. Hardened Carapace, 4x Ubreakable is enough. Inexhaustible, I leave it default with a Performance Shifter. Environmental Adaptation - I like a minimum of 3 slots for LotG Disintegrate - 5x Opportunity Strikes + Javelin's Volley Chance for Toxic - You'll use this alot, put a proc in here. The defense from the 6pc is nice, but I like more offense. Aim - 6x Gaussian's for defense, or 5x Adjusted Targeting (for recharge) + Gaussian's Proc. Gaussian's is only 1.25% defense to all typed damage which is OK. Up to you. Lancer - 5x Apocalypse + Javelin's Volley - again, put another proc here for damage. Ablative, Refractor, Rebuild, Parasitic, Genome, - I agree since I suggested that. 😉 Tough - 4x Unbreakable is fine. Unique or not is also your choice. Unique for HP is fine. Weave - you can either under slot this with 3x defense set like LotG, 5x Red Fortune + 1 LotG or (my favorite) 6x Reactive Defenses. This is a power this ALL defense and it is higher base than Maneuvers. Piercing Beam - 5x Ragnarok or Positron's + Annihilation Chance for -Resistance. You skip Athletic Regulation. I like it. It is also the only source of DDR for Bio. It's not much so I guess it could be optional. YMMV Weave - I like at least 3 slots. Overcharge - Ragnarok or Positron. The cooldown is long and it's base DPA isn't so high that it takes priority over Disintegrate/Lancer/Piercing You can take or leave travel powers. I personally skip them most of the time. For my Beam/WP I actually have more from Leadership (Assault, Vengeance, Victory Rush) and Combat Jumping. You can probably fit those in with a Bio build too. Vengeance mules a LotG but on teams it is sexy stuff. Anyway, just some thoughts. I'm pretty biased to keeping ranged attacks. The Epic/Patrons would open some opportunity for Hecatomb, or other really sweet sets. I don't like swapping out my beam cannon for a melee attack though. Again, YMMV.