Sovera

Quite.

4 star teams are highly specialized. You don't bring a Tanker to do damage in one of those.

There is no such as enough offense 😄 The faster you k-.. arrest mobs the sooner they stop hitting back. As usual it's all min maxed. You are at 77% with one stack of the Tanker's ATO, but with a second and Barrier's 5% you are pretty much permanently at 90% once engaged in combat. (Barrier's buff is perma after all). You are also at 40% defense to S/L and it goes to 45% once Barrier is up. To be honest lower level content where Barrier is not available is not hard content that requires 90% to resists, but a third stack of the ATO while unreliable to have is still possible. If you exemplar a lot you can swap the slotting of Greater Fire Sword with Fire Sword. The single target rotation is Greater Fire Sword, Scorch, Fire Sword, Scorch. Including Incinerate would be a little bit more damage but A) it would mean leveling and exemplaring lower than 28 with only one attack. And B), Incinerate is still a slow ass 5 second DoT. But switch Scorch for Incinerate if you want. Your problems with KB will go away with the combo of having the -KB IO in Fly (or whatever other travel power you've decided to use) and the S/L defense. Just one or the other will still get you KBed but the combo of both will be enough. Don't tarry on getting the -KB IO since it's a single item and costs only 2ish million. I have no idea as to how long you've been playing and your depth in CoH so if I over-explain this next part just forgive me: - While leveling you won't have access to the superior versions of the IOs but buy the regular versions when you have money. Start with what is cheapest and go up. At level 50 you can upgrade the normal versions to Superior. - Remember to always buy Attuned IOs instead of Crafted IOs. - If you know how to use the base teleporters replenish your defense inspirations. While leveling they will do a lot more for you than slotting your armors early on. - If you don't know how to make money then then check the guide in the signature. Make a (small) effort at actually using the Converters, but if you don't want to bother then it is absolutely viable (it's how I play most of the time unless doing iron man challenges). - There is no reason to wait to start slotting IOs. Even if you don't like the character in the end you can still transfer the bought IOs to an alt or sell them back in the AH. So start as soon as you can for the sweet sweet bonuses. Tanker (Fire Fire).mxd

You don't need the three Leadership powers. They don't add much other than the illusion of support. If you don't take Fiery Embrace (or Burn) there is no real point in taking Fire either. If you're still interested I can post my last Fire/Fire Tanker build for slotting ideas.

I would add more recharge to Overload. Having it faster seems of more interest though in solo I find the extra recharge does not help as much since in my experience Sentinels take longer than 30 seconds to finish moping a group. But still, it's the principle of the thing when even ED recharge still has the procs having max chance of going off.

It's also one of the (few) sets where if people like pylon breaks we can break one in 3 minutes, fully range, completely based on Elec. Most hover around 4 minutes. 3 minutes is my standard on non Moonbeam Brutes. It is a bit ficticious as it depends on depleting the blue bar to have the electrified mechanic and without a blue bar bottomed out it does not get those times. I remember testing at the time and having normal Sentinel times on a pylon until I started using the nuke to deplete the pylon's bar early in the test to have the mechanic in full effect. Once depleted there was no difference between using the nuke or not, but until the bar is completely out using it matters. And, also, Elec is very satisfying in that the sapping actually works despite being all on damage. PPs don't trigger MoG because drained, Minotaurs don't trigger their T9. It feels good to make this happen. That said the pet could have used MM coding to be auto summoned (does not follow into a new map, does not follow if using an elevator inside a map, can and does get stuck in geometry and does not auto teleport like MM pets do. In all these cases it needs to be resummoned if and when the player notices it is missing).

Doubtful. Depends on the TF of course, but it has been a long time since I saw any AV take more than 30 seconds outside of mechanics reasons (Romulus or whatever since he respawns 4 times, Reich guy with the extra resistances we need to use the temp power to negate, etc). I HAVE seen teams crumble against an AV and just give up (Market Place set too high level, ITF with low level characters and a bad comp and set too high level) but this is the cream of the cream in the rare soup. I have not tested a Rad Armor Sentinel against an AV but I did test a Bio Sentinel with the 25% power turned off (since Rad has no extras and the Sentinel version has no -res either) and predictably it went from 4 minutes to break the pylon to 5 minutes and change. I assume this would be the time for a non-bio. Trapdoor tests @Ston ran with Sentinels put the Rad Armor comfortably ahead of Bio for regular missions though. And I do mean comfortably, not things like 30 seconds ahead. So it's a matter of picking your poison. Me being me playing a Rad or Bio would lead to when I played with Brutes and Tankers and if I am playing a Tanker I miss the extra damage of a Brute and if I am on a Brute I miss the sturdiness of the Tanker.

As Uun pointed out the accuracy debuff is the real reason I take FA, even though the extra acc does allow to move some slots around. Tactics does not serve this purpose since the extra acc it provides just gets debuffed. A bit like Maneuvers. *daydreams about a FA similar that provides resistance to defense debuffs* Ahem... anyway, yeah, Focused Accuracy simply turns off all accuracy debuffs in the game which is a bit OP, but is not AoE as Twozero pointed out which makes the Sentinel's version even more OP.

I'm a big proponent of Focused Accuracy. I have no meleers without it. So of course I took it on the Sentinels in the beginning, but then I realised I don't need it. The same mobs that were a nuisance about this on my meleers were inconsequential on my Sentinel. All I really need is the perception unique slotted somewhere to get past smoke bombs. This is more of something I noticed than a 'play it my way', but it's how I found out. And I -really- have not a single melee character without Focused Accuracy.

Bio for best all rounder. Defenses, shield, heal, endurance AND a damage boost. It's like the other armors aren't even trying! Rad for second-best-but-actually-sorta-best-for-regular-gameplay mostly thanks to the second nuke as an AoE backup. Can't go wrong with dual nukes every spawn. Not as sturdy as Bio (IMO) and going into melee to land the second nuke steals from the safety of being ranged. Storm Summoning for all-rounder offense. Yes, it needs prep time, but it damages, it debuffs, it CCs, and all we do is hit our damage skills. Pity we could not revert the travel time of the drizzle attack because it hurts the damage. I would even take a damage hit to have the attack land either instantly or in half the travel time. I don't even use Epic Pools on my Sentinels since they suck for what they do (again, IMO) so I cast a vote at random for that.

Softcap is only for one thing and that's defense. Usually 45% is 'enough' but some armors can get higher because they are built for defense. As others pointed out there is a mix of defense debuffs (not a problem for super Reflexes who is immune to these), higher level enemies having more accuracy, and incarnate mobs, that make building for more defense profitable. This is very much dependent on what content you usually do. If incarnates much, then building for more might be good (around 59%. I say might because 45% is already pretty close and if taking damage it is simpler to ear a small purple inspiration than refit a whole build, or there might be a team mate who does defense buffs). If sticking to 'normal' content then building for more defense is probably not worth it since it being there or it not being there will not be noticeable. Your next question is resistances. There is no softcap for resistances. As you've pointed out resistances have a hardcap (so do defenses but it is much harder to reach which is not the case of resistances) and building for more than 95% gives nothing. It is a pet peeve of mine to see Tanker builds in the forums happily showing off their 120%+ resistances since they could scrounge slots or change their slotting to have less resistances and still be at 95% then place those slots elsewhere. Since resistances resist resistance debuffs (which is not the case of defense) there is not much point in in building for more than 95% except in some very niche situations (certain groups do an unresistable -resistance patch) but at that point what you need is to kill mobs fast or play smart instead of trying to build for more resistances just because there is that one niche group that does the thing. The playing smart thing is anathema in CoH since the game pushes so much to standing one's ground, gird one's loins, square one's feet, and then slug it out until one or other is killed. So when a situation calls for finesse, a bit of kitting, paying attention to mechanics, it meets unprepared players.

You are correct. I'll change my previous posts.

Yes.

I'm fairly certain we could level side by side me and my empty slots and you with SOs, and we would not notice a lot of difference outside of spreadsheets, if any, by the time we hit 22. The stat clamping is a thing, and SOs stats are static which do not even level with us unlike set IOs, Plus SOs remain expensive for what they do, and they go bad every three levels. All of this for a couple of hours which is how long it takes to solo to 22 or half that if in a team. SOs are a relic who are not relevant. Might as well craft level 10 generic IOs because those at least won't go bad in three six levels. But it does not bug me that SOs exist or that people use SOs,

I would really like to slot my level 50 recipes at level 1. I won't have the slots, of course, but once slotted in its slotted in and I don't need to think about it. The low level IOs are made for a game where we level extremely slowly and then there's a point in scrounging for every point. But in modern CoH between double XP and all the facilities we do not spend long enough in the low levels to warrant the trouble of slotting them. If I'm leveling the normal way with access to my piggy bank and my enhancement tables then I level with empty slots barring the F2P freebies until level 10, then slot event IOs and ATOs. I will usually slot nothing else until 22 which is usually about the time I finish soloing Posi 1 and 2. I will buy some generic IOs to fill my empty slots and then I loiter until 27y-ish which is when I can slot the last of my high level IOs until I reach 50 and respec to put in purples and scrounge a few slots from Hasten/BU. If I'm doing my by-now-usual way way of leveling without piggy bank or my enhancement tables then little changes. I will have no money for ATOs or event IOs so I level with only the P2W freebies until 22 and by then I have enough merits from soloing both Posis to fill all my slots with level 25 IOs. After that as I slowly make money I replace them with ATOs and set IOs that I will be using in my final build and keep slotting generics in my new slots. At no point does it come across I should go looking for a Pounding Slugfest instead of just throwing a generic IO into a slot. By all means don't remove the low level IOs, but they are a waste of time IMO. I would rather see all recipes craftable at level 1 (even if their bonuses at not accessible until later) instead of leveling with empty slots or craft nonsensical lowbie IOs. I can't be the only one that only throws generics in until the we reach the timegated levels.

Yes, this bug is still ongoing despite the attempted fix.

*whispers* Fire Armor4life.

With the changes there is no need for granite anymore.

Both have a second PbAoE to help with a Sentinel's ailing Aoe, but Burn has a tiny radius and half its damage is DoT, so with no agro aura the mobs run away and half the damage is wasted on air. In a team it's ok as we can just follow a tank and drop the napalm by their feet. But at that point Rad does the same and is more durable while the PbAoE is also huge and coincides with the nuke's CD which means there is always double nuke time during Aim/Gaussian's window. That said Burn has a couple nice things going for it: - Recharging faster means using it more often. That's always nice. - Burn's scatter effect makes things safer for a ranged solo character (though we usually can just Hover out of melee range anyway) as all that fear has mobs ignoring us to leg it. Frankly it is not really that much when compared to Rad where the nuke makes for much more effective AoE and it remains sturdier. Sturdier-ish anyway, I felt fragile on my Elec/Rad as Sentinels are truly not built to rely on resistances. Bio remains a more solid option in terms of defense and much better still for ST than either Rad or Fire, but lagging behind both for AoE. So it's a matter of picking what matters most for you. In terms of regular gameplay the distance between Rad and Bio is probably shorter even in ST since we go into a group of enemies and double nuke which means even bosses will have eaten plenty of damage. But in terms of hitting an AV/pylon we don't use the nuke since it has such a slow cast time and Bio pulls ahead again. But we face AVs about 5% of the time anyway. I've been meaning to try a Storm/Rad since Storm would easily help Rad's survivability between -tohit, KBs, and etc, and Rad would help Storm's not all that great AoE (if we skip the cone) but the trick to surviving is more often just kill things fast (which is not Storm's strong suit to put it nicely) so a Fire/Rad might be the most optimal Sentinel for general gameplay once we stop thinking about pylon times.

I've said my piece on this. I just wanted to add you keep repeating Burn was hugely nerfed and it only was for ST damage, which I'm accepting. No AoE should be a good ST attack. For AoE the damage ended up being roughly the same since Powerhouse tweaked the numbers to make up for the damage loss of all procs going off a second time. This was something I worried about and gave feedback on and tested as Powerhouse tweaked things and churned patches. Burn being a good ST attack was nice for some sets that lack good ST attacks or have awkward recharge times, but I accept AoEs should be for AoE and ST attacks for ST. Even so it's still good enough to use even when just two enemies are present. But i digress. Buffs for Fire Armor!

*waves* Somewhat veteran on fire armor. Consume is up every one minute give or take ten seconds. Now the endurance regain has been buffed to never miss I honestly have no beef with it. Being immune to sapping is a bit niche but invaluable. Obviously Consume alone is not enough to keep a blue bar healthy and most my characters used to run on fumes juuuuust before the recharge on Consume had elapsed but I went around that by tweaking my builds to replace the hefty cost of Maneuvers for the slim and svelte Combat Jumping, and, on Tankers, making all my builds not need to have Tough toggled on to still reach 90% to S/L. With these changes and picking the accolades the blue bar is healthy. But it's all moot. There is no need to do these changes or even pick the accolades when we can buy Recovery Serums for a true pittance. The times where our blue bar is on fumes and we A) don't have someone in the team throwing recovery buffs, B) don't have someone in the team throwing Ageless, C) the team is actually hitting an AV where we wail on something for a full minute non stop, are rare but if and when they come up then we can pop a Recovery Serum. I won't speak for DC though.

Really? I would understand if you said Plant. But Mind? Really?

First mission of the Market Crash TF. It is borderline a farm map with a paint of officialness.

That's where the whole 'tied to speadsheet' thing comes in. At the time there was talk of adding something to Fire Breath to make it better, like having a super long DoT, but NPCs also got it, and though the angle was requested (I mean, just make Fire Breath akin to Frost, right?) the dreaded spreadsheets came in and it was decided the set was already at capacity to add more power into it.

As Vanden said, and then remember to save your keybinds so all other new characters you may make automatically have that.