CaptTastic

I don’t have a Water/Regen but got a couple of Regens. Superb set on Sentinels imo. For what it’s worth, in your shoes I’d be slotting for the following: • Recharge: Not as important as melee Regen ATs, but still nice to have Reconstruction and MoG up any time you might need them. Water has a decent amount of AoE soft controls too, which also serves Regen very well. Another second they can’t attack you is another second of Regen. • Ranged def: You don’t need soft cap here. Not even close in fact. Getting to around 25% will make a big enough difference. • HP cap: You’ll need accolades to get there, but definitely aim for it. More HP means more Regen, after all.

Also can’t forget the good old Fire/Bio too, of course. Definitely the most like an ‘armoured blaster/ranged scrapper’ of my Sentinels. The combo doesn’t seem to be as much in fashion as it once was but I’d still highly recommend it.

I think the new content is getting harder, but it’s still much easier to solo than stuff was back before IOs, set bonuses and Mids. With the newer content, such as Sister Valeria, a lot of it is just having enough patience and persistence to find a way. Might not be the usual way, but I think that’s a great thing.

Hi Strider. You know me, got builds floating around for everything! Will see what I can dig out when I get a chance 👍🏻

I must admit that I’ve never experienced anything on his list. Not even once. I’ve been left a bit of a loner too without a SG or a regular group of friends to play with, so literally everything I do on CoH is in random PUGs, and only ever found them inclusive, kind and helpful.

Apologies for coming to this topic late, but I’d like to add my voice to the debate if I may. I have never enjoyed farming personally, but never seen any problem with those that do. It’s what they enjoy doing, how they want to spend THEIR time, and it doesn’t impact me in any meaningful way, so I don’t see any need for the anger some direct at them. It’s not my place to tell them how to play CoH or judge. At the same time, I have a huge amount of gratitude for the Devs, and the last thing those people should be accused of is trying to spoil anyone’s fun. Every bit of fun that any of us have in CoH is because of the Devs. Let us never forget that. So I guess what I’m saying is that my position is one of compassion. Fire Farmers: I sympathise with you. It must be frustrating to feel you’ve lost a part of the game you love, and doubly so when your honest expressions of those frustrations are met with the gloating of others. I’m certain the Devs are just doing what they honestly believe is right for the game, though, as they always have done. And, personally, I think they’ve done a great job with that.

Recently I’ve grown very fond of my Psi/Regen/Psi. With accolades it’s easy to get to the HP Cap, giving her around 70HP/sec Regen. Add the three self heal procs and you get a big boost on that very often too. When combined with the absorb shield and the stacking PBAOE stuns, the PBAOE knockdown, and the single target hold snd disorient, it becomes very hard for anything group to even get past your absorb, never mind out-damage the Regen. MoG a great power to hit in a rare emergency or for alpha, and got a good self heal every 15 seconds too (although very rarely need it). Just a really nicely balance combo. Highly recommended.

As others have said, I’d say it was more a playstyle question than anything else. Seismic is played best from the ground so a set with at least some PBAOE would probably work well. It also depends on how much inf you’re willing to sink into the build. If it’s not much, SR is usually the best choice. If it’s a lot, I’d say Regen and Invul are a level apart from the rest from my experience - IF you spend heavily and spend well. But that’s just my experience and perception.

Well no, I think you’ve missed my point too. First of all, I love Sentinels and have very little love for Melee-based ATs. I have a fire/fire/fire sentinel myself, and I built it like you have. Get in the melee, inferno, burn, fire sword circle, fireball. It’s a fun AoE toon. But it’s not really doing much a fire scrapper or brute isn’t doing there and doing better. I’d never discourage anyone from Sents. Love them more than any other AT, so go for it. For me though, while fiery aura helps damage, it doesn’t make a Sent into a damage build, because it’s not a damage AT. That’s all I meant. Didn’t mean to offend and apologies if I did.

But then the age-old question: If you’re happy to spend most of your time in melee in search of damage, why not just role a fire scrapper or brute?

I meant the lack of atmosphere in a team compared to live was a Discord thing. SG teams a little different as most people know each other, but in general teaming there is very little (typing) talking compared to Live. Think that’s a shame really.

It’s quite hard to advise really, as an ‘oddball’ build is, by design, a little misshapen. NRG/Dark: I’d say both are mid-range power sets individually and probably don’t have any special synergy. NRG blast I actually really like, although there is a ‘knockback tax’ if you want knockdown too. Also very little real proc potential with NRG blast. Dark Armour is largely your standard resist set. It’s good at it, might draw you into melee more than other sets. If that’s not your playstyle, it’s worth considering. Nothing to fear in melee as a Sentinel though. Dark/NRG: Negative energy is one of the least resisted damage types around and it has very good proc potential. The -tohit also stacks well with NRG Armour’s defence, which will come in very handy when facing Psi damage. NRG Armour is a really nice set. One of my personal favourites. Not as easy as SR to soft cap but easy enough. Elec epic will also add to NRG’s sapping, though not by much. —— If I was picking from those two, I’d go Dark/NRG, but that’s just me. My favourite ‘oddball’ build was Rad/NRG/Psi, which I’d definitely recommend checking out.

This, for me, is a big problem. It wasn’t like it on Live and I wonder if it’s more a Discord thing, if people are now just used to talking their way through games on a headset. I remember using Team Speak back in the day, but typing was the rule, now it’s the exception. I find it really frustrating as Discord is hard for me. I have a stutter and play through the night mostly, when others in my house are asleep, and I don’t want to wake them up talking. I don’t mind leading at all btw. Actually quite enjoy it. But, as you say, trying to build a ‘team’ in terms of atmosphere and experience is the hardest part by far.

It can be hard to play Sentinels after blasters, admittedly, as the damage struggles to compare. They generally solo great though, so I’d not discourage you from the AT itself. I’ve quite recently solo’d a fire/invul all the way to 50, starting in Preatoria, and he was soloing x4s by the late-20s. AR just doesn’t showcase the AT well at all though 😞

I love Praetoria arcs, so I’d slog it too. Mind, double xp boosters definitely take the edge off the slog in general these days. Also think that an AR Sentinel will be a slog no matter what you do!

NRG definitely doesn’t have the soft control that Elec does. Elec is really nicely balanced, one of the best balanced blaster secondaries out there I think. That said, bonfire from Fire Mastery with the Sudden Acceleration KB2KD can probably provide the soft control that’s needed, and it’s decent damage too on top. Both are great choices, as is temporal. Temporal is the safest set I think among the three with good mitigation tools, Elec the balanced option, and NRG probably the ‘f**k it!’ extreme option. There probably isn’t a ‘best’, just a best for whichever player is using it. As for AVs, @StriderIV, -Regen won’t make much different on a blaster there. Your only real chance is to out-damage the Regen. My Fire/NRG has successfully solo’d every AV so far, including a solo ITF. Malaise was the toughest as he seems to have a lot of auto hit attacks that bypassed ranged defence. They tend to all drop in 2-3 mins though, so orange insps got me through that one. Don’t usually need any inspirations though.

Yeah I definitely get what you mean, but I suppose I just see soft control across every single powerset in the game. It’s sort of a constant in CoH, so hard to really take into account when analysing what makes an AT unique. My way of thinking is that, for example, tanks are armour set and melee damage set, trollers are a control set and a support set, defenders support and ranged damage, etc. But blasters are ranged damage and melee damage. It’s all just semantics at the end of the day though, isn’t it?

NRG is just an, in my opinion, unrivalled box of tricks from a self-buffing point of view. Energize is the best sustain power for me. Boosts Regen a lot, gives a self heal, and huge end redux. You have the usual damage buff, and boost range too. So you combine that with the incredible damage of fire, and it’s just a Rolls Royce of a build. Great in teams and eats through everything, including AVs, solo.

I would describe Blasters as Pure Damage. They’re literally given nothing else and in that sense the AT is wholly unique.

When it comes to rage I’ve never really been bothered by the -Def or -End. However, the -Dam winds me right up! That’s the element of Rage I’d love to see changed. You’re meant to have super strength but for ten seconds every minute you can’t even bruise a minion? Come on... that’s not really on theme.

Fire/Temp is a fine choice. I’ve probably got a build somewhere but almost all blasters generally benefit from Recharge and Ranged Defence. Know plenty go for Scorpion Shield too for S/L/E defence, but I find a resist shield + ranged serves you better. Can also recommend Fire/Elec, but for me Fire/NRG outshines everything.

Sentinel worth a mention as their version of screech is a high damage attack AND stun as opposed to just the latter. -Res from Sonic blasts also stack on -res from opportunity.

I’m happy to lead, particularly when playing my tank, because think tanks tend to ‘lead’ a team in gameplay regardless. I just send out a message on LFG: “Just about to do some radios missions. Anyone at a loose end is welcome to join me. All welcome” That kind of thing. People always join then I just ask anyone if there is any content they want to specifically do, and tend to go from there. Only thing that gets a little annoying is all the typing. Not during gameplay itself but filling again when people leave. That can get frustrating, but obviously if you do TFs that’s not a problem.

Brutes are just more selfish Tanks who trade responsibility for carnage. Some like the responsibility, some like the carnage, so all is good surely? I play Blasters, Corruptors, and Defenders, primarily as I like range. Only thing I’d say from a squishy(er) player’s point of view is that whichever one you choose - Brute or Tank - please do it well. I want a tank to take responsibility and taunt (with actual taunt, not an aura) and not run off and try to bring carnage, and I want Brutes to bring the carnage and not try to be a responsible tank and lead us (tauntless) into situations in which you can’t protect less durable teammates just because you know you can survive it. But then again, I’m old now and a bit of a traditionalist. A good tank and a good brute working together is a thing of absolute beauty in team play.

In end-game, though, say you have a high recharge perma-hasten build as many, or even most, blasters do now, your big ranged attacks work just as well in melee as they do from range. My Fire/NRG for example has Blaze or Blazing bolt, or both, up every 4 seconds, so never far away from firing off a big attack. That said, I do also have Smashing Haymaker in the build because, you know, sometimes it’s just nice to punch something in the face 😂