Sovera

Was updating the guide so if following it I suggest starting from the start again. Regarding the use of Tough and Weave it is to reach the magic numbers of 45% which Stone Armor by itself does not. I stick to around 33% instead since small purple inspirations then push things to 45% which frees slots. But even so it requires Tough and Weave , and Maneuvers yes, and the kitchen sink 😄 The build will not be leveling friendly though so if you want I can take a gander and make it more newb/cheap friendly. Do say what powers you'd like though. Teleport was mentioned?

I'm not sure how much of this is not perception though. Playing with a friend I honestly feel it kills at the same speed of my previous Elec/Bio Sentinel. But it had pretty terrible trapdoor times (safe, but slow, 6-7 minutes if I recall correctly) which seems about par de course for Sentinels. The thing with pylon tests is that they are a static target we wail on for a couple of minutes which favours Storm Blast, so it's down to Trapdoor. The slowness is prep time is felt though. To be clear other than some (in my opinion hyperbolic) wording from Crysis I stand by you both.

I thought we were talking about the meta? It's the normal way to play when in a regular team that kills so fast we barely manage to land a few hits. Any other team or content and we stick together.

No particular synergies, but nothing working at odds. What sort of travel power do you favor?

I still feel you're exaggerating what is a real issue. A melee cone with mediocre damage is helping more (survival included) than all the procs from both ground effects? Plus the modified effects from using the blasts? I would need to see some actual numbers including slotting before taking this at face value. You're right about the rest with the exception Sentinels feels like Storm was made for it instead of the reverse. It's the one AT that has no secondary buffs or debuffs to keep up and can just blast until kingdom come. But yeah, the devs were firm on their vision (I'm getting Jack Emmet flashbacks) though I am at least thankful that the firm stance on Storm Cell's recharge was changed. It just does not fit in the meta and saying it is a hipster set helps nothing since hipster sets are by their very nature niche. Are we planning for the 1% or the 99%?

Wee bit hyperbolic on the Crosspunch thing. Gimme some numbers on Trapdoor or something. As for the rest, sure, maybe. As a Sentinel I leapfrog ahead of the team and have most of the spawn dead before they arrive but that's annedoctical. Truth is that no single person is important in a full team. Back loaded or front loaded if all things die in 15 seconds what difference does it make?

I will agree on that. No reason for a 20 second recharge on a skill that fails if we miss our target. Plus all the other reasons you've mentionsed It's just plain bad. Give us a lightning ball instead. It seems like the usual reasoning this game has where PbAoEs do more damage and are better than cones, despite cones hitting less enemies and needing to be aligned, which would look like common sense to have cones recharge faster and do more damage. But no.

Updated build now that Mids has Storm Blast. Sentinel (Storm Blast - Bio Armor).mbd Made a couple small changes: - One wast was swapping the Apocalypse set over to Hailstones instead so that it too would have a damage proc. It also helps feeling better to press that button and not be lagging so far behind the others (308 damage when all other attacks do 450. With the Apocalypse it goes up to 355). - The other was taking the super expensive Superior Blistering Cold for a more humble Kinetic Combat. We do lose 15% recharge resistance and a bit of Recovery but neither are particularly needed IMO.

Yes, because we pushed for the recharge to go down to 60 seconds. It was 90 seconds before. Thankfully Booper allowed it since it makes a large difference. Chains suck for several reasons: any miss stops the chain and there is always a 5% in there. The damage also does not feel anything special so I don't even know why it has a 20 seconds recharge as if it was the Spin of ranged attacks. Regardless slotting for pure damage or bonuses is fine too, we don't need to laser focus on procs. I'm only playing on a Sentinel so my views are skewed but it behaves well enough at level40-ish. I need a bit more play time and money for gear to see how it develops.

Until the courageous Mids devs tackle the convolutedness that is Storm and incorporate it in the program I am using Water to sub for it. Chain Lightning uses Targeted AoE so I took Water Burst. Hydro Blast takes a Force Feedback proc which is what Hailstones does as well, so perfect. Mids devs came out as the unsung heroes that they are. Next reply has the actual build. Updated program can be found over https://midsreborn.com/ Powers are taken as I did for leveling (read the Gust part) with a 5k jetpack bought from the P2W vendor until I got to Fly. I later toyed with the idea of replacing Intensify with Fly since it will not affect the build much either way. This was a slow leveling with generic IOs for part of the way so here are some observations: - The set will feel like a watered down ranged version of Radiation Melee where we focus on a boss and incidental damage takes care of the spawn. To support this I suggest using /optionset ShowVillainName 1 and /optionset ShowVillainBars 1 - It takes too long to prep up so be prepared to be flexible and drop Storm Cell on one group, then alternate with Category 5 on the next. Even in a duo playing at +1x8 it was common to have the boss at half HP by the time I was finished dropping both ground skills, popped Intensify, and finally started with blasting. In a full team it will just be frustrating trying to do the full prep each time. - I leveled with Gust until 24 and when I took Cloudburst I respecced out of Gust. I would not advise this on generic IOs as by Synapse/Yin it was only mild gap-ey with Hasten up but leaving me with 5-6 seconds of downtime when Hasten was not up. With how the set works the gaps made me double dip into lost damage with the mechanics of Storm Cell and Category Five. For those not aware of the mechanics both Storm Cell and Category Five will do random attacks if we use our Storm powers on targets in them (we don't need to be in them, just our targets). The gaps both mean I was doing less damage by waiting for the powers to recharge but also less damage from Storm Cell/Cat 5. Gust would have fixed this. - At level 30-ish I got three Decimation sets and the rotation was smooth already which leads me to think that if someone is leveling with generics then keep Gust until late (40-ish, maybe more), but if having money to purchase the IOs then at 25 it is fine to transition off Gust. This will leave hardcore exemplaring (Posi 1 and 2) without a third attack which Chain Lightning only poorly substitutes but exemplaring to Synapse already has three attacks. With how such deep exemplaring kills so many bonuses even Synapse is bound to be gap filled though but there are no simple solutions since Gust is not needed once we have our three big hitters. Maybe I can work some replacement slotting so that Gust takes over a mule but sadly ranged sets don't have S/L which is what I wasted slots on. - I leveled without Inexhaustible or Rebuild DNA up to 24-25 ish and it was a nightmare. Not even Recovery Serums could keep my blue bar up. So I heartily suggest pushing a power back (Intensify, maybe?) and level with at least Inexhaustible. By level 30-ish I had Rebuild DNA as slotted in the build and found my endurance problems to have been solved, but I do not have Tough and Weave running yet. - I also leveled without Jet Stream since I loathe cones. This made the AoE pretty poor but it was fine-ish since I was playing with a friend who would help. For pure solo the lack of Jet Stream would make for slow killing. Chain Lightning is okay but did not warrant the 20 seconds recharge since it's secondary effect of endurance drain is fluff. But it's easy to do a Lightning Strike/Cloudburst + Hailstones + Chain Lightning rotation in AoE situations. - Once I got Category Five the AoE felt fine. Ish. I could mostly mow a +0 spawn before Cat 5 ended and didn't even have Intensify slotted. With the help of the FF proc in Hailstones and Hailstones getting extra KD chance in Storm Cell I have zero complaints about recharge. Things are up when needed. - Cloudburst, Lightning Strike, Hailstones, repeat, makes for a smooth rotation without particular gaps even by level 30 and I don't even have LotGs etc slotted in. The DoT nature of both Cloudburst and Hailstones will make for overkill but it is what it is. Lightning Strike is the goat btw. I keep Hailstones last so the Force Feedback duration is not eaten by animation times. Not a worry later on with more global speed and might make Hailstone sit better after Cloudburst. Cloudburst does good damage, but between travel time and DoT it's common to be wasted damage and that's why I use it first. - Dropping two ground based powers, then using Intensify and THEN starting to do damage is a hefty ramp up, but Sentinels have the defenses for it and I did not try to be fancy: just flew on top of a group's head and then placed everything. To make things easier I used binds: /bind shift+1 powexec_location target Storm Cell and /bind shift+2 powexec_location target Category Five. Replace shift+1 for whatever keypress you'd like then target an enemy to drop the powers. If preferring another method consult https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Powexec_location_(Slash_Command) - Speaking of Intensify the damage boost numbers are very mild (25% damage boost as opposed to 50% from most Sentinel sets) but adds an extra 20% chance of making Storm Cell/Category Five do damage. This means drop Storm Cell + Category 5 and THEN use Intensify so all attacks have the extra 20% chance. - The build went for 33% defense to most since I found this enough when playing a Bio Sentinel (even slotted for endurance Rebuild DNA still heals us). This is more so with Storm that causes mobs to slowly panic-run while debuffed. If things get bad a small purple can be eaten that will put the build at 45% defense. Later on Taishibishi (Caltrops) helps if solo as a one slot wonder (auto hits, ready to be used at every spawn) by adding it if needed as it creates a zone that mobs will refuse to enter thanks to the fear effect Caltrops has. This is not strictly needed with Storm and thus it is a flex power. I would not bother using it on a team, but your mileage may vary. I found the build to be fairly nice. It has a certain Controller-ish aspect to it where dropping all our ground effects causes a lot of soft CC and keeps things fairly safe for our team. Even not fully slotted the damage was nice even if by Sentinel standard so not super super but things dying at a reasonable pace. Much better than Water for example, and animations crisp and fast unlike Radiation. The AoE was not amazing but I blame my stubbornness in not taking the cone. With that said I feel Storm can take a role of straggler mopping since Storm Cell/Cat 5 will usually still be going once the squishy minions have soaked the initial brunt. I will report once I get some pylon times.

That said Tar Trap + Storm Cell are a good pairing.

Not really much of a point in sapping stuff though. Most things are dead before the sapping is complete and without some hefty -recovery all the NPCs need is 1 endurance to fire whatever attack. I would stick to whatever brings extra endurance to make up for the hefty endurance costs, and if possible some extra recharge might not hurt though it's not 100% needed. Just Hailstone with 50% KD proc chance in Storm Cell should be enough to make recharge sweet enough. Definitely endurance or recovery which does bring us back to having /elec as a good choice, and thematic to boot.

On one hand I am someone who got to a point where I had most TFs memorized and would jump ahead and go to an objective instead of killing everything along the way (Synapse in particular with pre-emptive 'anyone got a teleport when this mission ends?'). On the other there are certain TFs where this is not really welcome such as of Posi 1 and 2, or Yin. Partly because they are fast already, partly because they are at a level where low level characters crave sweet sweet XP. Synapse is a different beast because it is so long, but I've trimmed it to just under an hour with these antics.

I find you a bit thin skinned, Snarky. Just an observation instead of an attack, though it is your (repeated) posts about this sort of thing that prompted this opinion. That said some of your peeves are perfectly justified. I too would not touch a +4 TF while leveling. But I find the weaker/dumber/more puzzled the team the more fun it is for me. I just like the extra ordeal of pushing through especially since my characters tend to be able to solo most things so the wipes don't tend to affect me. That said I've tried to duo Market Crash about three times with a friend and we always stall on the last boss what with the friend unable to survive the adds and me having to run from the debuff making the boss regenerate its HP. Plenty easy on a full team but hard on a duo that is not specialized.

Good to see you're still around as well, mate, and, well, the damage 😄 Though part of what makes Bio appealing is a bit lost on Storm since the pseudo pets don't fully inherit Bio's extra crunch. But I find no reason to skip on extra damage when Bio is perfectly sturdy on a Sentinel to tackle on most things. Because of this I might consider Stone Armor skinned to look like ice just for some extra recharge and Brimstone, but Storm is endurance hungry and Bio has the tools for that.

Storm/Cold Corruptor seems like a nice match with Sleet being thrown in first and then Storm slowing things who are trying to move away from Sleet. Plus other than some largely fire and forget buffs and some debuffs only needed for tougher targets Cold is mostly just to throw Sleet which allows going ham with Storm. That said Storm/Bio Sent for me.

I was interested when you mentioned pylons and AVs because of prospective numbers. But then you veered into maths. Not aimed at Puma but it would be interesting to have more numbers posted. Back in the Fire Armor tuning page after each patch I'd either hit some pylons or do a Trapdoor and report on my findings. I feel this to be a bit lacking with Storm testing currently. On one hand we've had some mention of Blasters killing it in Trapdoor (under three minutes) but was that because of Storm or despite Storm? Blasters are a mixed bag for these tests because Storm is pretty defensive so it gives them leeway to go ham with their secondaries. But any other AT that has access to it lacks a damaging secondary. And yes, I know, Storm Summoning is there, but despite the brouhaha about it being so amazing it's a slow DoT based low numbers set. What it does great is adding bonus damage on top of the blast set, but no one will go around using Storm Summoning and expect to kill mobs at any decent clip without the help of their blast set. Not to mistake Storm Summoning with this thread's Storm Blast.

You don't really need to build for 45% defense on a Sentinel, especially on teams. But you can, it's just overkill. Drawing from my own experience I think a middle ground of 33% defense suits a Sentinel better, and when, if, taking damage then gobble a small purple to reach 45%. But it may be a dozen missions before feeling the need to eat a small purple. Even solo I did the Trapdoor test with 33% defense and did not even need the small inspirations since we open with a nuke and mop up with AoEs which reduces a pack's size to half. Bigger things noticed: - No need for Tactics either since most your powers are already at 120%-ish/140%-ish to hit +3 enemies even with the Kismetic unique removed and both Tactics and Mind Link turned off. Smaller details: - Replacing the two generics for two Preventive Medicine will add 2.5% S/L resistance. - Replacing two LotG in Maneuvers for two Reactive Defenses will add another 1.5% S/L. - 5 slotting Brawl with Hectacomb hurts my soul. I would place those slots in Reconstruction and place a full Panaceia there if you are hurting for recharge. Then the spare slot could go to Integration for yet another two Preventive Medicine for another 2.5% S/L. - You have the Shield Wall 5% resist unique slotted in but not the Reactive Defenses 3% resist. - The slash proc in Dreadful Wail is going to be resisted more than a Eradication energy proc. - Amplify with no slots is recharging in 35 seconds. Your nuke is recharging in 26 seconds. Try to spare a couple slots for Amplify in order for both clickies to align. - Replace the damage in Dreadful Wail for recharge/accuracy. If you do decide to try lowering your ranged defense to 33% you will have more slots to play around with, but keeping it at 45% will work just as well so it is your character and your decision.

As Pulverizer said money making is only as hard as you wish to make it. Some people will embrace farming, others will play the market, but once at 50 money rolls in. The main tip is selling your merits and all this requires is adjusting your targeted play time (try to stick to either TFs or Ouroborous missions and avoid radio missions). This is how I played and made most of my cash. Do check the guide in the signature on some tips and keep in mind you should expect some 'casual' 40-50 mill a day by doing a single Tinpex (30 minutes total) and Hami (ditto) with just selling merits. So 'expensive' builds costing 600-700 mill can be achieve in two weeks-ish but actually sooner because we are only counting on selling raw merits while you're actually still getting inf from killing mobs on top of salvage/recipes. Regarding your build nothing seems too out there in your request. I would say not to dismiss Hasten out of hand since it has no visible graphic when in use and Bio is hungry for recharge, but, your character and your theme so your decision. Even if you decide to only use SOs I would still buy generic IOs either since they don't turn red every three levels while leveling, but as Pulverizer said in that case there is no actual need for a 'build' since it's just a case of stacking heal and recharge on heals and accuracy, damage and recharge on attacks. With what Pulverizer posted you have at least an idea of which powers to take. If you need more info do post and we'll try to help.

Even though tempers (mine mostly) were a bit frayed last time I posted I would like to ask for a test on that earlier iteration of Storm Cell recharging faster. I don't recall the numbers being talked about other than there had been an attempt at making it recharge faster and duration being halved, but the consensus being 'it was not good'. I don't particularly like this 'trust me' approach. But at some point this was discussed and tested so the devs were at least open to the idea even if it got scrapped. But rather than having a nebulous 'trust me on this' I would ask for that old iteration to have a few days in Brainstorm so more players can give it a whirl. If the consensus is that no, it really is not good, then carry on, but since it seems to be what most(?) players are asking for it would be nice to give players a chance to chime in instead of having the choices already made for them based on a 'trust me'.

Cat 5 is a special power though. Even though it holds a place we would traditionally call a 'nuke' it would not be too unlikely to compare it to a Build-Up or even Aim sort of power. It is less about doing damage by itself and more about making your other powers do more damage (that seems to be the intent and a mirroring of Storm Cell but with added bonus damage from Cat 5 itself). This is very much a non traditional way of doing things and thus it cannot be a direct comparison. I'm not going to say it is a good or a bad experiment but it is an experiment on doing things differently. But because it is not a traditional nuke it requires being tested outside of the normal box we put nukes in. This requires actual gameplay tests such as Trapdoors or whathaveyous. In this more complete test encapsulating Storm it does look like it works well (someone posted a three minute Trapdoor with a Blaster). If you can muster the energy I would say try a couple Trapdoors (or whatever you might feel like) with that Radiation character and a couple with the Storm and even if it is not super scientific with so few runs but give us the metrics you got from it.

Sure, should be the end result. Mind that Radiation Melee is a bit anemic these days what with the change made to Irradiated Ground. That skill did a good portion of the lifting.

So we're saying that 28-30 seconds recharge for a linchpin power is too long even for normal casual teams, and the offer we get is bumping it to 40 seconds? As I would say to anyone else who would suggest it, not sure if trolling. No, of course not. And I will be completely honest here that this offer smells of that 'see how bad we can make it? Doesn't this make the previous offer more appealing?' which worked 100%. Yes, keep it as it is if the other option is making it even worse. We are in a focused thread, a majority (we may need a poll to clear doubts on if it is indeed a majority) points out en masse a flaw of the set but we get a no, this is not the feedback we want. Honestly I'll drop out of this and may whatever come out be palatable unlike the effort at balancing the new pool powers so much they turned into unpicked powers.

We keep on comparing oranges to apples. A camp wants to have more recharge so it can be applied sooner. The other camp says placing it down faster does not matter because the power is perma. Basically one camp is talking about regular gameplay (short combat) and the other is talking about fighting AVs (long combat). We spend 95% of the time doing regular gameplay and 5% of the time fighting AVs.

I would, but I keep hearing about 'trust me bro' instead of actual arguments. My argument is that a typical fight does not last longer than 30 seconds. If it means the recharge is down to 1 minute then with just generic IOs and Hasten it ought to be up every 20 seconds or so. Alright, counter argument, your turn.