oldskool

Once you've gotten around 45% defense to melee/range/aoe you're pretty golden. There is a reason to push a little higher to pad out your defenses vs enemies that debuff. However, you sprinkle to taste in this recipe. If you're hoping to survive Incarnate content by yourself, then you want around 59% defenses to those categories. If you're not pushing bleeding-edge content, then you don't have to go this far. So, defense wise you're golden. Maybe even a little high. You're not really going to get more out of your resistances, but Master Brawler is the key to filling that hole. Plus, as your health goes down your resistance goes up. As mentioned, SR on Sentinel isn't nearly as squishy as it looks on paper unless you purposefully chase content with auto hit mechanics (why even play SR if that would be the case? 😛). Keeping in concept is going to be a you thing. My Sentinel is a bit more conceptual around the movie Equilibrium and semi-head canon of Wesley in Wanted (more movie in bullet curving (lol)). Beam/Traps Corr was mentioned, but shout out to DP/Traps Corr (I play it so I am biased) since Mando is more about pistols than carbines/rifles. If you wanted, you could look into Ninja Tool Mastery and go all Dark Saber with a white core and black aura for some of the tech swords. Din doesn't use carbonite so that may be more in line. Of course if we mean "mando" as in generic to the entire creed, well then *anything* works. OK, now that is all out of the way. Here are some things to think about. Sentinel DP is not reliant on Piercing Rounds. Take it if you like, but your base global recharge is over 180%. This means that you will have Pistols, Suppressive Fire, and Executioner's Shot available almost always. Therefore, you won't have room to fire off the sluggishly animating Piercing Rounds unless you just want to. PR works best as an AoE when hitting its target max (3) but it is pretty poor overall vs 1 target. Yes, it has more direct damage than say, Pistols or Suppressive fire individually. Yet, you'll be able to shoot those powers more often in nearly the same animation window and most certainly during the cooldown of the power. Piercing Rounds shines the best on Defenders, and then Corruptors when using Standard Ammo for the high resistance debuff. Blasters can make some use of that utility, but there are better powers available for damage in their kits. Sentinels have the worst debuff and better options for faster/smooth gameplay cycles. Now, all that said... play what you like. Use the power if you want. I'm just pointing out it is not an optimal power for damage (it is very misleading and should get an animation reduction to improve it). Slotting: Decimation is good for the 5pc bonus to recharge if you need it. However, the 6th slot isn't that important and the Build-Up proc looks great on paper but isn't as strong as it sounds in actual practice. A solid strategy here is to run the 5pc Apocalypse set (with the negative proc) + Unbreakable Constraint (Chance for Smashing; you have it in Block of Ice) for a double dose of two PPM 4 105~ damage procs. This change alone will spike your Suppressive Fire's damage to exceed Piercing Rounds on average. You could also run a set up like I describe below with Executioner's Shot/Pistols. Executioner's Shot can take the slotting you have, but the 6th slot in the set isn't necessary. So, you could go either 5 slots in the power just for the set recharge or add another proc. You could also go with 3 slots of Thunderstrike (Acc/Dmg, Dmg/End, Acc/Dmg/End; +5 these when you can) and then 3 damage procs. Procs like Explosive Strikes, Impeded Swiftness, Achilles' Heel, Touch of Lady Grey, etc. are all damage increases for your build. Executioner's Shot lacking a high amount of slotted recharge is OK when you're pushing a ton of recharge. You could also use this exact same slotting strategy in Pistols (3 of a kind set + 3 procs). Pistols having a high amount of slotted recharge isn't necessary since it refreshes very fast already. Your limiter is animation time. Your animation windows are around 1.8 seconds except for Piercing Rounds or Hail of Bullets. Getting 2 attacks in the PR animation windows increases your attacks per minute which leads to more damage. If this is a bit too min-max, then ignore it, but you can squeeze more out of Sentinel DP if you want. I've done it. It is possible, I promise. If you dropped Piercing Rounds, move the ATO into Empty Clips. You don't *need* Elude, but its endurance benefit could be handy if you wanted. I prefer using the Preventative Medicine set in Master Brawler and put the Numina proc in Health. Block of Ice could just swap the damage proc for the other enhancement it has access to. This keeps the 10% recharge bonus if you want. Alternatively, 4pc Basilisk Gaze is another small ranged defense bonus, recharge bonus that stacks with Luck of the Gambler, and saves you a slot. Investing heavily into CC isn't necessary when you start doing more damage. So there you go. Food for thought.

DPS meta > than all according to some very vocal people. Sentinels are essentially a DPS only AT, they really don't offer anything else beyond this, and are the lowest on the totem pole. The lower damage gets people to question its role, then said people try to pigeon the AT into other roles, and then they realize it sucks at that too. This isn't that complicated. The Sentinel is just an underperforming DPS AT with an incredibly low ceiling for optimization. If a person is willing to do all of the bending over backwards it takes in order to tread water in the extremes of the DPS meta, then the AT can be adequate at best. The quality of said DPS is also variable based on observer where adequate to me may be substandard to someone else. Substandard could come from any number of explanations and nitpicking where the bar for what is acceptable ranging somewhere around 250~ DPS (an easy ranged-only Blaster build can do this in its sleep). You could increase your potential damage by changing the slotting in Tesla Cage. Take a look at changing out your current set bonus with 5pc Apocalypse + Unbreakable Constraint (Chance for Smashing Damage). This would be a substantial DPS increase if you opted to go this route. That is, so long as you hit with the attack. 😉 This change would get you closer to the baseline DPS needed to just barely exceed the average regeneration rate of an AV. You wouldn't have enough damage to take one down quickly with your set up (they'll likely hurt you faster than you can hurt them still), but it would be a big change for sure. Tanky-wise, Tough and Weave would be part of the recipe here. There isn't a secret set of 5-6pc bonuses that I think you are missing. You've already found that 5pc LotG is a big S/L resist boost. Any other resistance sets would be in opposition to slotting in your other powers (i.e., Short Circuit, Thunderous Blast, etc.). So, this is less a specific set selection topic and a consideration for a full rebuild from the ground up. In other words, there isn't a whole lot more you'd do here to push the needle on tankyness. You don't have enough base resistance to make Incarnate Alphas like Cardiac or Resilience worth your time for this. Same can be said for healing. That power, enhanced, is only offering 16% healing. You could potentially push this with Incarnate choices at the expense of damage and defense. The Spiritual and Vigor Alphas could get you into an 18% to 19% (Vigor Core only) healing bonus. You could get funky with some other Incarnate choices too. For Hybrid, take a peek at Support and Melee. Melee likely less appealing due to your Hover use, but Support may be more interesting to you. In Destiny, Rebirth works as a heal for everyone and is something different from the usual Barrier/Ageless you may see. Also, Rebirth works very well with Super Reflexes when you dodge most attacks.

I'll rephrase into mechanics you're more familiar with and that you have stated already. Plus, I play SWTOR so it is relatable to me. In SWTOR, parsing 21k is "good" but there is room for improvement when the top end players are pushing 26k+. Sub 20K in SWTOR; non-NIM raiding just having fun = 130 - 170 (This is effectively playing on single origins) 21k in SWTOR = 170 to 230 in CoH. (This a huge range of build tweaking from early IO investment even to some purples) 26k in SWTOR = 300+ in CoH. (Mostly high quality gear, focus on specifics of the build, practice with attacks per minute) A fully purpled out IO build with plenty of practice behind it, is on par for looking at SWTOR parses of top players with gold augments. The DPS range in CoH is vastly larger on HC than it ever was in the live game. Also, you noted before that you're not looking for the best, and yet you're settling on 400 as a baseline. This is equal to top tier elite hardcore raiders in other MMOs. In other words, this discussion comes across like someone asking for an Edmund's report on a "good car" then making the final determination that the only good car in existence is the Porsche 911. My point here is this. The Porsche 911 is a top end performance machine with a cost that is prohibitive for the vast majority of the market. Is it something to strive for in your life? Sure. Is it attainable? Potentially. Will most people have one? No. Can you drive from point A to B for less? Absolutely. CoH builds are like cars. You can spend a fortune on high performance, but you don't need to do that if you're only driving to get groceries. If you're already touching 400 DPS with your own character, then that is actually amazing in the context of this game. If you're able to hit 230-270, then that is above the average. The latter is also mostly overkill for the majority of the game. 400 DPS is on the extreme side. In reality, "average" DPS is *less than* the regeneration rate of an AV*. It is FAR easier to hit slightly above average DPS on DPS characters, but it is a fallacy to assume that most players do hundreds of DPS in this game. A large group of players just like to roleplay or play for fun or whatever. And "dps" as a concept largely doesn't matter here anyway beyond e-peen stroking. Doing hundreds of DPS is most impressive for single targets, but the only enemies that comes close to mattering on is if you are soloing Archvillains or Giant Monsters. Otherwise, the high potential of area damage on an AT like the Blaster smooths out the rest. Furthermore, at some point the majority, or all, of your squad will be leap frogging a Judgment power and wiping enemies repeatedly. Hell, there is a really large thread in this forum full of builds that many people adore and almost all of those pull DPS well under the potential of what the kit is capable of. *Consider that CoH's old dev team wasn't really that great at balancing numbers. Fire Blast, for example, is an outlier set with far more damage packed into it than other sets. Ice Blast also has some outlier scalars that make it excel. There is a massive difference in performance between Fire Blast and almost everything else. Sets like Beam Rifle aren't necessarily high performers because of their base numbers, but the combination of base numbers plus effects. Some effects, like regeneration debuffing and resistance debuffing, are incredibly powerful for what they are.

Its not a great proc since there is a limit on how much Opportunity you need (90+ out of 100) and a time period where further procs do nothing (do not gain opportunity meter while the effect is active for 15 seconds). The low PPM value makes including it in single-target dubious in its value as Opportunity itself doesn't contribute enough damage to eclipse proc stacking. Therefore, those ATOs may find a home in either filler attacks (single-target) or AoE attacks to increase the odds of trigger the effect (proc chance per target). Some Sentinel sets have funky Opportunity building effects which can combine with the ATO proc to essentially fill your bar with minimal effort. Sonic Blast cones and Flamethrower in Assault Rifle all come to mind. Still, building your character around the ATOs is largely a waste of time unlike how other ATs can have fairly critical choice in their ATO placement. The set bonuses can be worth it, but the procs aren't by themselves.

I think a lot of responses are skirting around the issue of subjectivity here. If 400 DPS is "good" for a Blaster, then 99.99% of the player base is royally screwed. There is no way the majority of players are hitting this number as a baseline. AoE is more likely, but not single target. Especially not on ranged only builds that aren't specialized to the gills. The Pylon thread *is not* the majority of this game. It is the upper 1% of the player base that are hardcore min-maxers and genuinely curious about pushing limits. I don't state this to bash those folks, I love them to death and respect the hell out of those contributors. However, this should not be where you place a bar to make a generalized statement about what is good. Maybe, good to you, but just understand this is actually exceptional, even unattainable, to many others. Someone else already mentioned a bar of being able to out damage AV regeneration as being a target metric. That's around 150 DPS. That's OLD numbers and much of the game hadn't scaled (until some of the new content on HC) in over 15 years. Back in the old live game the original Pylon thread had people wetting themselves flexing their 170-190 DPS. Congrats on sub 2 minute Pylon time. This likely has a lot to do with your years of playing MMOs, being into focused play like that, and doing research on what makes a strong build. You're in a small group of the player base with that level of ability and execution. Please take that into consideration.

Cardiac Core would also help for the over level 45 content (and helps offset Darkest Night). Below is a thought experiment. Resistances to focus on are S/L/E. You get N from the powers and most sets so not a big deal. F/C/T/P aren't that big a concern, but are close to 50% (except toxic; not worth it imo). Defense will take a hit here, but your resistances going up is pretty durable. Keep in mind too, Obscure Sustenance is a large buff to your regeneration rate. The highest aspect of it lasts long enough for you to refresh it fairly quickly. By significant, you're looking at about 54~ hit points per second at the peak of the buff which is backed up by 70~% resistance to the most common damage type. You're *going* to get hit. Sentinel DA doesn't have enough IO slotting options to really softcap defenses (other than Range, Energy, Negative) *and* still boost resistances. Well, you *can*, but not with Darkness Mastery. I'm not sure Engulfing Darkness is really doing much for your build so I dropped it. However, the slotting idea is good enough for Darkest Night. Engulfing Darkness has a base to-hit reduction of 5%. Enhancing that isn't worth your investment when you consider that higher level enemies will likely only take a -1% debuff from it. Netherworld Tentacles and Grasp slotted purely for utility. I'd probably do something different here, but those sets have good break points. Annihilation has a nice E/N resistance boost and the set contains a source of resistance debuff. I don't worry about the knockback in Umbral Torrent here and focus on stacking the large Energy/Negative resistance benefit. Energy is common enough later on that it is worth trying to close that gap. Between the defense and resistance (with 50~ hp per second regen) this should be fairly comfortable. It won't be a primary, or even secondary, tank but it is survivable enough. Cardiac Core will cap S/L/N resistances and guarantee 50%+ to everything but Toxic (Psi may still be slightly behind). Endurance management should be pretty easy and even here Darkest Night isn't a 2+ end per second total drain. Attacks, like Umbral Torrent, go from 15~ endurance per use down to 9. You're never going to compete with a Blaster as a Sentinel. So, the loss in direct damage is a tradeoff to try to get more sustained damage. The nice thing about building like this is that the endurance management challenge is mostly resolved in the IO sets and configuration. Ageless would certainly be the icing on the cake but you may feel fine without it. This means a few things: 1) Barrier becomes an option with its 5% defense and resistance pretty much at all times under T4. This too will guarantee capped resistances and at least 32% defense to several things. 32% is a nice number as 1 small purple inspiration is all you need to get to 44-45% defense (accounting for whatever remainders exist on your character sheet). 2) Musculature Core opens up if you're not in dire need to run Cardiac Core. This is a significant damage boost in any content you can run Incarnates with. 3) Could even investigate Intuition Radial. I *really* like this one on Defenders, Corruptors, and some Controllers. Here, it would make Blackstar impose a -42% to-hit penalty (assuming even level) for 20 seconds and Darkest Night bumps up to 18%. On top of this, you still get a decent damage enhancement bonus to your attacks as if you used Musculature Radial. 4) Generally a better feeling of empowerment to experiment vs being pigeonholed. You do leave a lot of potential damage on the table with this build style because you give up all the proc damage options. However, just like with the AR/Regen, you have to consider the tradeoffs vs the benefits that matter to you. I can tell you, from experience with this set, that running it at 62%+ resistance is enough if you're also capable of controlling minions (i.e., with Oppressive Gloom and/or Cloak of Fear). If you have enough recharge to keep Obscure Sustenance up within 20 seconds, then the overall game play is a LOT smoother. I have not tried the build below, but I have run testing with Dark Blast/Dark Armor. I've played Dark Armor extensively and a good bit of my hero roster uses that or Dark Miasma. Psionic Mastery is also very good with Dark Armor on Sentinels. Psychic Shockwave has a stun which stacks with Oppressive Gloom creating a magnitude 3 stun. Link Minds is another defense power that can help push defenses up to 28-32% without any Destiny Incarnate help.

MIDS is going to mislead you on endurance management with Sentinel Dark Armor. If you socket proc IOs in Obscure Sustenance, then you will see your endurance recovery with the maximum benefit that power provides. Just know that this benefit only lasts 10 seconds. Obscure Sustenance has 3 tiers for both the health regeneration and recovery it provides. The health regeneration aspect runs for 1 minute (it starts off high and then degrades to a weaker benefit). The stamina part of the power only lasts 30 seconds with the highest benefit only lasting for 10 seconds. You definitely have enough recharge to refresh Obscure Sustenance for most of the high benefits (tier 2 recovery lasts 20 seconds), but having Darkest Night active will be a noticeable drain with constant attacking. You also don't have enough endurance reduction in your attacks to keep up with the potential drain. Also, also, enemies that are higher level than you will resist your to-hit debuffs. Darkest Night + Blackstar is a lot of negative to-hit. The constant application of the lesser versions from your attacks is also not an insignificant thing. However... just know that whatever numbers you see in MIDS are going to be *considerably* less the higher you move the needle on level of your enemies. Defenders can get away with stacking stuff like this because their base numbers are absolutely massive. On paper it may sound like a Defender doing the same thing is pushing to-hit down by 45% with a single power. However, it is going to be a lot less. Still, a third off a power like on a Defender is still considerable. On Sentinels... it is not nearly as impressive. Still, hats off. This is a very hard combination to tinker with. I wouldn't expect much out of it, but it can be fun to play.

Not really. Reactive is good. I prefer the higher chance to trigger damage because the side effect is resistance debuffing. Resistance debuffing can be resisted (lowering its actual effect) and matters a lot less on weaker targets. Also, it isn't like the T4 ignores the debuff. It includes it, but at a reduced chance to trigger. A lot of enemies will be defeated before I reach max stacks anyway. The enemies that won't die that fast are better off with a different Interface if max effect is what I am going for (and I don't do that in all cases). If I spent more time specifically chasing big game hunting (like AVs), then I would likely use Degenerative because its side effect is very powerful. However, I don't think that is necessary for casual enjoyment of the game. I can also switch as needed and so in some respects the argument is a moot point for me. However, for someone just building up your Incarnate materials pick the ones that you think you will have the most fun with. The Incarnate options like Interface, Destiny, Judgment, etc... are not useless. There may be niche options, but it is really difficult to make universal recommendations that impact things in the same manner for all situations. That just doesn't exist as your choices have tradeoffs.

That's it! If you scroll through some of the text there is a line... "I made a spreadsheet". I've used that.

I tend to prefer the higher chance to damage vs side effect on Interface, and I tend to prefer the proc-like effect of the Hybrid Assault. There was a spreadsheet, its likely buried somewhere around here, that would show you the general output of the two Assault Hybrids. The stacking damage buff can be better than the proc effect, but for my characters the difference was so slight it didn't matter to me. How are you liking it so far? Seems like you're having a good time. Also, you can build any number of Incarnates for each type. You can only equip one, but you can have several stored. So, if you build one Interface vs the other and then find out one is better later... you can *always* switch it once you build it again. There are also ways to gain a lot of Incarnate materials by farming the Dark Astoria missions. One of those missions can be completed in 15 minutes or less.

1) You're unlikely to gain significant resists with this *and* maintain proc slotting. The reality is the range sets just don't offer the same kind of mitigation bonuses that the melee counterparts do. This can make things more difficult on the Sentinel where a Scrapper/Stalker/Brute may be able to get higher numbers. 2) Opportunity as a mechanic isn't that great in the first place. Skipping out on Lightning Bolt vs Charged Bolts is a generalized DPS decision vs core Sentinel inherent one. Charged Bolts has a faster animation time and recharge which can work out better when weaving attacks. This is really a distinction that makes more sense when you look at high recharge building or try to optimize attack routines for really durable targets. The entire question of "should I take offensive or defensive opportunity" is often a footnote. 3) Blinding Powder is fun and it feels somewhat function due to the full purple set and proc. It is not a game changing power in any sense, but I highly recommend that people play with it for a bit to make their own choice. 4) I ran Seishinteki Kyoyo with a full Performance Shifter set and that proc does work in that power. However, if I am using that power, then I am not using a damage option. The more time you spend working in end management, the less time you are hitting things. This may lead you to take Ageless Destiny which then kinda begs a question of why bother with this power in the first place and then why bother with Nin at all? That said, Ageless does have an option that includes more Defense Debuff Resistance which Nin lacks. So... maybe a moot point.

I was in the middle of writing a reply before Plainguy chimed in to add more context and I had to drop it. So, my apologies because without more information you can get misled. Incinerator should have a 3.03 recharge time, down from its base 12 seconds, in order to mash the sequence of Incinerator -> Slug -> Burst against hard targets. If all you care about is minion mowing, then stack your damage into your AoE instead, but you may struggle a bit more on LT's and up. "Struggle" as in feeling as if you are chipping health when Incinerator is not available because Burst is effectively tickle damage and Slug isn't that efficient without some procs. So, at 190+ % global recharge *and* 95+ % enhanced recharge, Incinerator can be available after the animation cycle of Burst + Slug. Burst and Slug do not require any recharge enhancement because their window of availability is going to be bound by the other powers in the attack sequence. So first cycle, you're putting Incinerator on cooldown, then Slug, and finally Burst. After Burst finishes its animation, you'd want to have Incinerator active. Burst has a 1.188 animation + Incinerator's 2.244 = 3.432. If you can have Slug available in 3.432 seconds or less without any recharge enhancement in the power, then I highly recommend frankenslotting it with damage procs instead. This will improve Slug's damage beyond the ED damage cap. Here is a way that I go about enhancing a power like Slug. Thunderstrike's 3pc bonus still grants you some range defense. The Acc/Dmg, Acc/Dmg/End, and Dmg/End enhancements will get you the 3 pc bonus and will not enhance recharge in the power. This allows you to socket Explosive Strikes, and Gladiator's Javelin which are two procs that do 71~ dmg when they go off. They aren't guaranteed but you're still looking at about 20-30 average damage per slot (likely higher in play but never 71 *on average* in each) which is pretty good. Remember, Sentinel *base* damage is what is enhanced by damage %. Any kind of damage increase is only raising that number. Slug's base is less than 100 damage. So with a 3% global damage buff in set bonuses you're not even getting +3 damage to that power (you would to Incinerator, Flamethrower and Full Auto though). You can run similar slotting in Burst too. 3pc Thunderstrike and then 3 open spots for procs like Achilles' Heel, Touch of Lady Grey, Shield Breaker, or Gladiator's Javelin. I may be a little off, but I think the proc chance in Burst is about 30% for each of those individually. An alternative method of using Burst, and trying to fish for procs, is to go Incinerator -> Burst -> Slug -> Burst. You'd need enough recharge reduction, ideally globally, to ensure Burst is available only after Slug's 1.848 animation (server clock speed; this is known as "arcanatime" from old old testing in the live game). Incinerator can then recharge in 4.224 seconds. This is a DPS loss, but so is playing AR in the first place (I kid... kinda). [Edit note: When I say "dps" loss the context of that is important too. Average damage could drop by less than 5% using Incinerator, Slug, and Burst x 2 (on paper you're really looking at 2-3% less assuming Musculature Core Alpha to help raise Burst/Slug). It is a *loss* but it may not be a largely noticeable one. Go for the selection of powers and effects you care about as the top priority because the min-max ceiling here isn't that large. So, the shortest possible cooldown on your strongest possible powers *is* the best DPS. However, alternative slotting and gameplay practices may create slight drops in performance. If a loss of a few DPS points, which are also only measurable on targets with HP capable of sustaining long durations of focus targeting with Opportunity, are OK to you, then do what is most fun. A lot of DPS arguments get into the weeds of absurdity and I have to be real careful to not present my thoughts through some elitest kind of mindset (I don't play that way; at all).] You may be asking "Why this?" and "Why is Burst talked about so specifically in last place?". Sentinels, as in players seeking advice; not the bleeding edge players that min-max to the gills, can struggle with dealing with more spongey targets. This is especially true when people start thinking their build *has to perform* at +4/x8 (it doesn't). However, even on +2/x6 or 8 enemies like Bosses on solo maps can feel like a slog. A set like AR is going to feel even worse. Anyway... Using any of the Sentinel T1 or T2 powers *last* can often guarantee a triggering of the Opportunity mechanic without a lot of conscious thought by the player. Its just muscle memory at that point. Why though? OK, so the carrier power for opportunity, like Burst, *can not* be the one that both meets the condition (90% meter) and also be the trigger at the same time. Therefore, you want your attack powers to go in an order that builds you 90-100% meter *before* you use a power like Burst. Adding it last makes it a lot more mindless and removes decision making in the heat of the moment. It is also, almost always, a significant way to increase your damage on single targets. [Edit 2: OK, So I know I harp a lot about single target, but "ugh I can't kill bosses" or "ugh, I do Defender damage*" is a common complaint in Sentinel-land. Its where my head is at when trying to present ways to fix it. The AoE is often overstated as a problem given that most teams at a high level are all leap frogging Judgment powers in the first place. *I can make some reasonably powerful Defenders so this comment of doing Defender damage is almost always a "lawlz, have you see what some Defenders are capable of" in my head. However, I understand the sentiment of beating enemies to death with a wet rag versus the perception of using a sledgehammer.] Now, AOE tips. Meter building for Opportunity is going to be entirely different with AoE powers and especially so due to Flamethrower cheese. For absolute overkill on meter generation, slot the full 6pc Opportunity Strikes set into Flamethrower. Open with this power against multiple targets. You will likely fill your bar to 100% (you actually can gain WAY more than 100pts of opportunity with this which is wasted) immediately. Opportunity lasts 15 seconds. Flamethrower can easily be available every 5 seconds meaning you can potentially be near 100% uptime when you have a target rich environment. The Opportunity damage buff, from Burst, is going to be better than the defensive one for Regen, imo. So again, use Burst. Another fun benefit of really high recharge is having Full Auto available ever 22~ seconds. If you put the Superior Ward set into FA, then you 95% enhanced recharge in that power (helps get you that sub 24-25second time with global recharge). You will also proc that absorb every time you use FA, but the ward proc is pretty crappy. [Edit 3: The above on FA availability also dovetails into Aim availability. Sentinels get access to Aim. Other versions of AR do not. This can allow for minimal slotting effort in Aim. Like, 1 Gaussian chance for buildup plus 1 common lvl 50 recharge IO. This can allow for a nice Aim -> FA -> AOE Spam rotation nearly every spawn which can be easy to overlook and ignore as a benefit. You combine that with the bug in Flamethrower, and you can have some decent (though not great) AoE potential on Sentinel AR. You're not going to impress the hardcore Blaster fans (ever!), but you're going to contribute far more than some may think.] So, in Buckshot and M30 Grenade you could go with some minor set bonuses, again, to explore procs. You may want one Knockback to Knockdown conversion, but you could also add Positron's Blast, Bombardment, Explosive Strikes, Force Feedback, Annihilation, and so on. What about defense? Obviously pushing damage slotting like this isn't going to stack much defense. You could still get to 16-22% positional defenses and likely much higher on Energy/Negative by using Weave, Maneuvers, and Stealth/Hover/Combat Jumping. [Edit 4: There is a strength in keeping range on Sentinel Regen. One of the big hazards of playing Regen is being in melee range where enemies can pound on your low defenses and resistance. The base regen rate can't keep up (Boost rates with Instant Healing and Destiny Healing can be significant though). This is less of a problem if you can maintain range for longer. Enemies like the Cimo's have 1 range attack but multiple broadsword attacks. It is better to risk their javelin toss vs being in range of taking Hack, Disembowl, or Headsplitter. Therefore, you don't need to max stack defense/resistance on a Sentinel like you may on a melee and this too is why Regen feels so much better on the AT. A passive regenerating absorb barrier is also nice to have.] This is like managing a scale. On one end you have damage. On the other hand you have defense. You could make this pretty tanky but do pitiful damage. You could build for more damage and be more fragile. You don't really get both with this pairing. Still, this long article on how to squeeze the most damage out of Sentinel AR *may* be helpful. Maybe not. 🙂

Its a new year, and while this could have been a new post (some nice necromancy here), I could go into some lessons learned. Lesson 1... Your "squeezing out the max" is an *incredibly* low bar with this build. Seriously, the optimization ceiling is not super high with this because of how both AR and Regen work. Lesson 2... Lesson 1 is a sad but very real truth. Lesson 3... AR does its best damage with absurd levels of recharge. Talking 190%+ with Hasten and may really want Ageless if you're not getting it in set bonuses. Lesson 4... Flamethrower ticks multiple times for the opportunity meter. It shouldn't, but it does. None of the other powers in this kit do that, but Flamethrower can nearly fill your bar against full targets. Lesson 5... Regen also does well with really high levels of recharge. Lesson 6... Stacking regen in bonuses for the sake of getting more health return is a waste of effort. You want actual hit points, defense benefits, recharge, to-hit, accuracy, damage, and then somewhere later down the road... regeneration percentage. And that's it. Assault Rifle has a lot of powers and they can all have some merit depending on how you slot them. You could dump a few from the build and it really depends on preference/goals. Regen has very little it should skip, like Second Wind is a possibility and maybe Moment of Glory, but it too can be really tight on powers. Don't expect the world from either of these power sets, because right now that's delusional. However, Regeneration is the best version of the set on Sentinels in many ways, and Sentinel AR can be real fun. And fun is all that should matter.

I highly recommend you read into this thread for some ideas on the pros and cons of what you're doing. More importantly, consider the difficultly being talked about here and the level of innate fragility of the AT. If you're still set on this, then by all means go for it. However, you're likely going to be the trailblazer here because "unconventional" builds are that for a good reason. They are hyper niche and there for your own fun and experimentation. They aren't wildly adopted because of that niche place (aka, often times they just aren't good beyond one specific thing; if they are good at all).

Fun is subjective though (still not disagreeing with the broader point you're making). The thing about Sentinel /Dark is you really need to be willing to play into what it offers. Yes, you can skip the last three powers, but if you do then you are kneecapping what makes the set unique. That difference is maybe a bit more pronounced on Sentinels because of all of the other flaws that exist (not to mention the high competition from other re-imagined sets like Invulnerability or Super Reflexes). If anyone's idea of playing an edgelord pew-pew character is to include /DA, then they need to strongly consider being in closer range vs trying to hover blast 24/7. Otherwise, what is the point of picking it? Honestly, I'd argue the same thing for Stalkers whom give up on Deathshroud. What is the point of taking DA there if you're going to ignore the CC toggles? It makes the set really really niche on both ATs. At least with Brutes, Tankers, Scrappers you get a damage aura plus Dark Regen (where Stalkers would just be left with DR). It becomes an alternative to Fiery Aura or other mitigation secondaries with a similar schtick. I don't remember when it was, but I think I tossed around some suggestions like dumping the cloaks for the ranged control variants. Like Fearsome Stare and Dark Pit. Some of the Sentinel secondaries need some significant reworks to make them more interesting than they currently are. 😞

It is really worth restating, in my opinion, this point here. Blackstar's debuff is massive which is truly a saving grace of the Dark Blast for any thing it pairs with. I've used this same strategy with Regen too and it can work. However, debuffs like this lose value the higher the difficulty runs BUT +2x8 is 100% reasonable for most (if not all) Sentinel pairings. There are other Sentinel combos that can deal with harder content and keep pace on damage better, but modest difficulty is absolutely doable.

Geyser does! Also, I ran Psy Mastery for Link Minds to pad defense and Psy Shockwave as the other Disorient source. Other than that not much synergy. (I totally forgot about Shockwave in that build) The knockdowns also work too to help control crowds. It was a quirky thing to play and a labor of love.

I had a Water/Dark that I was playing a good bit before I retired her. I agree with @underfyre. The Sent version of DA is the worst possible version of the set across all ATs. There are a few things that make DA really strong on the melee ATs. Those things are: 1) Dark Regen. 2) The IO system is heavily skewed towards melee primaries. 2 is probably the most important consideration to make. Melee ATs are spoiled for choice with multiple set opportunities to leverage PBAoE (which carries melee defenses) and melee attacks (also heavily favoring S/L/M with even some range). Furthermore, the IO system in general can essentially close all the endurance gaps of DA on melee. Dark Regen skyrockets as an absurd healing tool under these conditions. Effectively, if a pack of enemies cannot kill you in the time it takes for DR to recharge, then they likely can't kill you at all baring sapping your endurance. Sentinels have *neither* of these advantages, at all. Ranged attack sets are largely skewed towards range defense and TAoEs have range and AoE defense. Yet, DA still keeps two melee toggles and a short range sustain power. OS is a neat power with interesting mechanics, but is the polar opposite of Dark Regen. OS is not an "oh shit" heal. It is a multi-tiered regeneration and recovery buff that loses half its effectiveness over the course of 30 seconds (really at the 20 second mark) and runs for a full minute with the remaining health regen. Anyway, I ran Water/Dark with about 32% defense to everything, 68% S/L resist, enough recharge, and procs. I had to leverage stuns from the primary and Oppressive Gloom to reduce incoming threat from minions (whom can be dangerous in high numbers). It actually worked, but it wasn't the strongest thing I have ever played from an offensive front (even for Sentinels). She was fun, but I grew bored of it and took the enhancements for spare parts. Can you make Dark/Dark/Dark work? Yes. Will it exceed anything else you can do on this AT? Not really, it can have its moments, but its not a good pairing here (unfortunately).

You could equally have kept it to yourself. It isn't like those of us that offer advice about the AT are trying to gaslight people into thinking it is something it isn't. There is really nothing more worth talking about with your post. You said it. Its done. It wasn't as clever or original as you may have thought. For everyone else, just drop it and move on if you can. Do we really need more threads spiraling out of control where we just end up being assholes to each other? I don't think so. Drop it.

Two of the most memorable names from playing live involved MMs. True heroes of inspiration. One MM was a Thugs/Storm character where the "hero" was a pornstar with a NSFW name. The thugs were her bodyguards to keep away fans. There was an entire backstory around the name, powers, and the thugs. It was just so... "chef's kiss'. The player was hilarious af to talk with.

Go for it. Feel free to use some other fillers, like corn, to pad out the backstory. Toss it at the wall, see what sticks.

Nerf Regen!

The servers are not ready for the might of the poo tossing poo golems. Earth Blast + Stone Armor? I can see the new characters now... A normal monkey was a part of a school field trip to a waste treatment plant. The monkey [substitute character name] was bitten by radioactive poo. They gained the ability to protect themselves with poo and fling it. Fling it with mighty strength! Add auras for gas or even use the nature ground effects (fertilizing everything as you run!). Its too powerful, Bill. Too powerful.

Thanks! I missed this while reading the notes on my phone and it was easy to gloss over the call outs to Sentinels. I've also seen on Reddit that Earth Blast had some time issues on conversion to Sentinels (true or not, I have no idea...).

Or maybe some of these changes are writing on the wall that the Sentinel overhaul is going to be pretty deep. Perhaps that is why Sentinels aren't getting any changes, not even the ones to Electrical Blast, or (Oops, I missed that Electric Blast does apply; fixed!) any of the new sets or proliferations. Why do that now when the AT itself may be overhauled later. Obviously, I'd more than just really like some communication here, but the sentiment that it is a dead class to be forgotten for evah is a bit extreme. If that were going to be the case, then just let us all know so we can strip our characters down before they delete the option to play Sentinels further. What is going to suck though is the power balance is going to shift once again towards *everything* else which is just going to further creep the divide of the Sentinel (which started somewhat behind and is now exacerbated further... FUN). I'm sure we can all look forward to a new future series of shitposts about how bad Sentinels are or how we're all mentally deficient for continuing to play it. Can't. Wait. /popcorn