Sovera

An ice patch animating in 1.57 instead of 3.7 will make a big difference. It may be worth revisiting my Fire/Ice tanker.

Always once minimum. While leveling I put an extra slot in Hasten and Build up to reach 95%+ recharge, and there is no point in slotting the melee Winter sets since the normal version only gives 1.85%, so I instead use four slots instead of five and slot Kinetic Combats for 3.75%. Level 50 is also when I swap from Kinetic Combats or Obliteration sets to purple IOs. So, of course, a respec once at 50. And then there's my latest Sentinel where I put an extra slow in Aim while leveling and had to respec out, then took Punch instead of Inferno at 32... and had to respec out, and then reached 50, respeced, and then later decided i didn't need epic pools and respecced AGAIN.

I'll post more on the thread I started, but the Fire/Fire is behaving very well. Burn was key to make me feel like I'm doing damage on a Sentinel. I have it at level 50 and all IOed out. Just lacks incarnates. Earlier today I was in a TF and had a phone call. We were three or four stalkers, a controller, a defender, and me as the sole sentinel. Up to then we had been killing without a prob at +1, but pushing it to +2 made mobs spawn as +3. When I had to take the phone call things went to hell. Wipes, people trickling back and getting killed. I finish my call and interrupt the 'we should reset the mission' with a 'wait, c'mon, you did it without me'. And then low key went in, Aim + Gaussian, Inferno, Burn, Fireball, Rain of Fire, start picking at the enemies. We get a -second- pack of mobs as a patrol that joins in. A few die again, I hide behind things to break LoS, heal up, drop another Burn. Aim has recharged, go into another Aim + Inferno. Heal has recharged, use it. We cleared it. After that I just asked to let me go in first and there were no other wipes 😄 This is what I do on my Tanker, but it was pleasant to achieve the same result on the Sentinel.

Not at all. Reading back I can see my answer wasn't in the best phrasing. But, yeah, I speak only for myself anyway, but after a ton of Sents way early in HC and a big emphasis on Bio as -the- damage boosting secondary and never being satisfied I find Burn bridged that gap (for myself anyway). I haven't thrown it at a pylon or anything and Burn can be hit and miss while also lacking the total damage it will do on a Tanker due to agro keeping mobs in place. But I think that as long as we accept our role as a magnet to a tank's back I have satisfying HP dips all around me by pushing buttons which is something I didn't have. But in truth I find the same with Tankers. Despite Bio being the OP thing I have consistently Fire Armor to behave better for damage. Burn at level 18 beats Adaptation at level 6. We press it, things die all around us. And with the Sentinel it is what happens as well. Honestly meleers get the full package in CoH thanks to early design that stratified in place. It's why that I, an avid ranged player who never ever ever touches melee in other games, will come to CoH and only play melee. No CC, sturdy defenses allowing to shrug most damage, most of the time self heals. And some of the best damage in the game. Then we have ranged who are plagued by CC, are squishy (often needing to reach 50 -and- IOed to the gills, and never examplar, and even so should never be in melee since 5% hits hurt tremendously at +5 and no resistances backing it up). In exchange they have... uh... Um... Aah... range, I guess? Wide AoEs. Burst with their nukes. Sentinels straddle the line with the caveats we all know about the AT but at least for me this build ends being satisfying. Heck, I'm playing with a friend who was tanking for our teams and I was all aaaaah, so calm, so relaxed. I just press buttons. I'm out of the way, no debuffs are hitting me. Positron low level CoT with their enormous -def and -acc debuffs? Who cares, I'm not in range of Darkest Night or Earthquake and the ghosts are hitting the tank so I can Aim and AoE stuff down. Sometimes I get agro but since I'm floating out of melee ranged there is a lot less damage and a purple or two keeps me safe. No need to worry about chasing mobs and all AoEs are larrrrge. So, that's my answer as to why not a Scrapper/Brute. It's different from what I'm used to 🙂

Yeah, you missed what I wrote... We need to go into melee to drop Inferno and/or Burn, then we can hit the space bar for two seconds to be flying out of the way. Why not? Indeed, why not. Choices. Because a Scrapper/Brute is melee and a Sentinel is ranged. Because we get a nuke to open every fight with. Because we don't need to twiddle our thumbs with a frown as Maiden stays in her blue circles. Take your pick, and stick to Scrapper/Brute if it is what you like to play.

I have run Sentinels exhaustively at the start of HC, then got completely bored by the mediocre damage and dumped the AT. I recently spent many months playing Tankers, specifically the Fire Armor variant. Having reached a point where I needed a change I started looking at Sentinels again (nothing like time to gloss over old faults) and started theorycrafting something together with that Tanker experience... and I think it worked out well. So with all of that said I think this is the first time I felt a Sentinel was doing good damage. Dropping into melee will not be a problem since anything that can grab agro will steal it from us and regardless the end build will have 45% S/L defense (with Barrier's 5%) and averaging 60-65% resistance to most. Combined with the ability to just float a bit out of melee range and Healing Flames recharging in 13 seconds I've taken the ITF's last boss' auto-hit without much concern. No one needs to live in melee and be subjected to all the hard hits and debuffs that live there. Leveling build:

I wanted to play something else than a Tanker and decided on a Fire/Fire Sentinel myself. I always battled against the mediocre damage of Sentinels but after months and months of Fire Tankers I have a healthy respect for the damage Burn brings and decided to give it a try with a Sentinel. I mean, harm it surely won't do. Only done both Posis but it's been fun actually. Been so very long I've just hovered our of the way and do pew pews. The end build will have 45% to S/L (with Barrier) and around 60% to S/L and 58% to E/N (with Barrier). 128 seconds Hasten is decent. I do reckon it is 100% not a solo build though. Rain of Fire will make enemies run, Burn will make enemies run. Surviving should be easy as always on a Sentinel. Just hover up in the air and do pew pews. Then follow the Tank and drop Burn and Inferno.

You go to Options, Configuration, Exemping&Base Values, then change Base ToHit to 48. This is for +3 mobs.

Done the praetorean arcs only once on a Fire/Ice. It was an incredible slog since we are stuck at level 10 for so incredibly long and I only had Frost for AoE. It was nice to get it done just to get an idea of what it was all about (though I only did flashbacks which I assume are not the full Praet experience) but I would not do it a second time. So based on that I might say yes, ditch the character and start over. Stalker isn't bad. Perhaps Savage so that you get an early cone you can use, or Claws Scrapper so you get Follow-up and Spin. Remember to turn it -1x1 if you want it done quicker. I complained it was a slog on the Fire/Ice melee tanker but I was running it at x4.

I'm not trying to push you to change your mind, but if you have enough accuracy to hit +3 without FA or a Kismet then you just need to decide if you are to fight +4 under level 45. Just because I don't does not mean that you don't don't either. I'm glad you're happy to go though 🙂

It may be a Brute thing 😄 Nothing wrong to be excited though, it's good to have that happy passion about something. Never apologize for being passionate about something. Furthermore about Tanker things in the Tanker forums 😄 You didn't ask for it but since I recently made a Bio/MA build I'll drop it here and maybe you'll get some slotting inspiration from it.

You know, I never did test that LotG thing myself, I just asked on the forums and was told it was so. I should actually check it and see for myself but the gains are so minimal I never bother boosting LotG's 7.5%. Still, it will be worth it to check. I went and tested it myself. I exemplared myself down to Yin which is the earliest TF the LotGs are active (I thought it was Synapse, but apparently not). A level 50 LotG: 7.5% did not give the recharge bonus. An attuned LotG did. So if you're using a level 50 crafted you won't get the recharge bonus. You can use a level 22 LotG and then boost it, but that will make it give 15% defense which is about 1% less than an attuned version gives at level 50. Regarding the Kismet I confess I have my Mids set to show the accuracy against +3 and with FA on. I don't see many, if anyone at all, who does content under level 45 at +4 so I didn't take that into consideration. Content at +4 is usually done at 45+ which is where the Incarnate level boost happens making +4 enemies into +3. At 45+ without FA and without Kismet most attacks are 100%+ hit chance (max is 95%) with the exception of Fault (60% without Kismet or FA. It could do with proper slotting), Tremor (91%, acceptable), and Stone Mallet (78%, easy to fix if you replace the Damage IO from Hectacomb for a second Hami. This puts it at 98%). So, for +3 enemies, you need neither Kismet nor FA to reliably hit. FA's real moment to shine is facing -ToHit enemies like CoT or Banished Pantheon, or DA Tsoo who take a delight in making us whiff for minutes on end. While Ice Armor has debuff resistance to -perception (like the Smoke Grenades from Arachnos) it doesn't have the -ToHit resist that FA has. So it can be a niche thing but it's a nice one slot wonder for these moments. What Myshkin said regarding EA is correct as well. It has a -very- wide radius since it's 12y native +6 from Tanker inherent, so a gigantic 18y PbAoE that will surely hit all enemies in a pack if you jump in first. Even with the Endurance slotting if you hit 10 mobs you get 6% defense. If you're in a team that kills fast enough you can double stack it (even without FF procs it recharges in 20 seconds and lasts for 45 seconds). But even without double Stacking you're well into Incarnate defense territory with those 6%. If 45 seconds later any are still alive they are so few in numbers that they won't be able to do enough damage to outdo your regen.

It's been like this since forever. I think since live. I worked it into Fire Armor to give it 45% to melee, ranged and AoE which also works for Rad Armor and Bio and etc.

I've changed a few things. It doesn't mean it's necessarily better than what you have though. A few things to remember is that you had more than enough accuracy going so no need for the Kismet. Boosting the LotG means you'll lose the 7.5% recharge if you exemplar down. Also, even with accolades the build will guzzle endurance since you've skimped in recovery slots in Health and Stamina. Not slotting Energy Absorption for endurance will hurt even more since your consumption/recovery ratio is catastrophic with Stone Melee being end heavy. I would personally remove the slots from Taunt or such and place them in Health and Stamina. A six slotted Adjusted Targeting in Focused Accuracy has a nice row of useful bonuses if you'd care to break slots from Chilling Embrace or Fault. That said Energy Absorption will help with your endurance without a doubt but you'll be spamming it for dear life. For single target situations it will be unable to keep up with your endurance needs but that's when you can use a Recovery Serum.

Dis:

I would personally not worry too much about psi. I play Fire Armor with no (native) psi resistances or defense and it does well. It does well on a few accounts: - If only some mobs are psi then target them first (Fortunatas in the Arachnos faction for example). - How often do you fight psi mobs? I find not much outside of Seers. When it happens I can pack a few purples if I get into trouble which segues into... - ...most of the time nothing survives long enough to hurt if we are playing in a team. Ice does lack the quick recharging heal Fire has though. - Barrier. Great panic button. - Like most things psi is usually associated with a Smash component so Smash/Lethal defense actually works on some (most?) psi attacks, while also working for everything else in the game. It depends on your playstyle and what factions you face more often. In the same vein I go with my softcapped defense into incarnate content and don't notice a huge difference (teams melt the enemies too fast) VS incarnate softcaps. Your mileage may vary but it's something you can test and see since my viewpoint is colored by a fast recharging heal picking up the slack. Now looking at the posted build I'm leery at all the boosted IOs. They are great if you never ever intend to exemplar but once you do you're going to start losing bonuses depending on how far down you go which is not something that will happen if you just leave them attuned. There is also no point in boosting damage procs or globals like the Shield Wall or Kismet Accuracy. I confess I don't agree with some of your slotting. There is no great point in adding damage procs to Fault since it will never turn be turned into a damaging skill. Hurl is not really worth the power pick either, though if you like the skill and it's thematic then that's fine, but riddling it with procs isn't as helpful when you're hunting for bonuses. Overall I think your goals are reached, but @Infinitum is one of our Ice Armor gurus though so if he wants to pipe in you might get more out of him.

It's the left side, I think. The one that says the buff lasts for 120 seconds. That means it can be kept up 24/7 even though the last minute is only 5% defense and 5% resists, but that lets us aim for 40% instead and then let Barrier handle the rest. For most of the game 40% is enough but if you're in trouble or it's hard-er content, or even to save your squishies (it's a great team wide buff) you get those 5% left. Radiation Siphon does need the Contaminated mechanic which is RNG, but Fusion forces it, so when you run to a new pack you can do Fusion, Atom Smasher (forced Contaminated), Siphon (heal from Contaminated), Radioactive Smash (forced Contaminated), etc. As for Brawl and Boxing, yes, its just for the 3.75% defense bonus, they are not meant to be used and just 'carry' the bonuses along (muling). But the build is not lacking. Everything is properly slotted, good recharge values, maxed damage, good Hasten numbers (could be better but Beta Decay and the Force Feedback proc in Radioactive Smash will help) so those six slots are not strictly stolen from other places you could have given them better use other than the Mu epic pool (which is a valid choice too).

And you'd be correct. The radioactive bosses I meant are not the AV though, but yes, popping a purple or two is enough for them. Pity I can't tell them apart from the Darkness bosses who are a lot less dangerous.

Awesome is, perhaps, stretching it a bit 😄 And a proc only procs on the enemy it triggered it. What he means is that the Fear/ToHit procs only work on the main target since the Fear/ToHit only affects the main target. Damage procs will work on everyone in the radius since damage does hit everyone.

...it wasn't an attack on you or your self worth, Lumi -_-

And then gently sanding their HP down.

Speaking of fun, it really is subjective. Yesterday night I was just vegetating when I saw a call for Terra Volta 2. It was a bit late but I figured I could do with the XP (and merits) so I joined. First mission we were fighting +2 mobs, okay, sounds good. Team is chatty and there is hardly a moment with the chat going quiet. Second or third mission I stay behind to kill some of the Freaks who had ressurected and notice it is taking a looooong time to kill it. I chalk it to my poor slotting and being on a Tanker but god dammit, it really is taking a lo-... The mob was +5. Ooookay I mention it on chat, a string of lol and lmaos follow and someone pipes in that that explains why they were doing so little damage! Last mission rolls in, we are protecting the reactor and someone goes 'Damn,,, this guy is +6'. I check, and true enough, the Freak boss we are collectively whittling is indeed +6. And then we get a +7! This could have been a complete shitstorm. But, we had a Kin that was doing their very best to keep us topped in HP, endurance and buffing the damage. We had people throwing Cold shields on everyone so even +6 and +7 only managed to kill a controller once or twice when the room was an ocean of purple names. Even with the kin we were only whittling enemies, but no, no shitstorm, we were giggling like loons and making up stories on how our grandchildren would still be fighting Freaks while we discussed who would marry whom between us and how we had to be quick to consummate and give birth between waves. ...it wasn't a very refined and elegant sort of fun, but it was fun 😄

Most of the time I don't care what I am hitting and will just spam my attacks. Once something is dead the spam will choose a new target for me and I'll just keep on wailing. This is not optimal in the sense it is better to hit on a boss than on a minion that will die in my next AoE volley anyway, but I will click on the enemies I want to hit because trying to tab target one mob in a ball of mobs is not going to work well. Perhaps we will have the devs finding a way to add a 'boss' tag that we can use to tab with bosses taking precedence, then lieutenants. That would be a (small) dream come true. Edit: Clicking on a boss is much easier if we turn on the names and HP bar for enemies in options.

As you have seen yourself CoH is not the kind of uber hard game that demands a ton of optimization to survive what end game it has. So your build is going to do fine and keep on doing so. Just take that in mind when I make a few suggestions and take them in that spirit instead of something you should aim for. I suggest you grab Barrier with the 120 second option. With it this build your defense against smash and lethal will go up to 45% and your resistances (with two stacks of the +res proc in Radioactive Smash) will be capped other than cold and psi. The slotting in irradiated Ground is optimal and will low key add passively to your single target damage. You did not have Radioactive Siphon, I'm not sure why. I mean, other than the lenghty animation and the horrible animation 😛 But each time you siphon the Contaminated mechanic you get a hefty 650 HP which is a hefty 26% of your total HP (with accolades, grab those when you can since they add around 400 HP). With Irradiated Ground creating the Contaminated mechanic, plus Fusion forcing it each time you hit something you can be swimming in heals. You did not have Particle Shield slotted which is a darned shame since it's one of the reasons to go Rad Armor. Use it on cooldown since it adds recovery and a shield is a pre-emptive, not something you use after being hurt. Also changed the slotting of your Fusion which it too was unslotted for some reason. With this new slotting you'll get 130% damage instead of 50%. It recharges fast enough to be available at every new spawn so you can always start the fight with Fusion + Atom Smasher while Irradiated Ground is ticking under the damage boost too. Because I needed the slots I've ditched the Mu epic pool (in my experience Lightning Fences does not add much and just messes with mobs clustering close to you (yes, even when we wait for them to come close)). Focused Accuracy usually can be a niche pick but is worshiped when we face Banished Pantheon, or Tsoo, or Circle of Thorns., or anything that desires to mess with our accuracy (it's more for the debuff protection that it is taken than the accuracy, but that too is not bad to have). This is a personal choice though and you can just swap things around back to how you prefer them, but I find Atom Smasher and Irradiated Ground (in particular with this new slotting) to be enough while we wail on a boss.