Sovera

He thinks dedicated tankers take damage :D:D:D

Imagine antagonizing/intimidating an enemy to a point they would rather stand on a puddle of burning napalm just so that they can hit you.

You can play a hero and still use the red side epic powers.

I see you've just met Diantane. We've had the guy around for a few months and every so often he will make a thread and drop some of these nuggets of wisdom. Then vanish, not reply or refute. Cycle repeats after a few weeks.

Working on a Dark/Bio atm. Dang, Dark animations and skills make it sluggish as heck, but I can't complain about the damage. The selling point to me is the quick AoE with two 1.2 powers.

Under level 20 everything works and especially a MM. The woes of MMs start at level 54, AoEs. and fast moving teams (though Speedboost ought to alleviate the later). Kin provides no defenses and only some resistances and minions are too dumb to when pulled from the group for them to go back on their own so they will be out of range for the heals. But. If you are having fun it is the only thing that really matters.

Your opinions are always interesting, Dian, but they remain opinions. You're entitled to them, but at some point you ought to decide if the world is against you and everyone is wrong, or if you are the one that is wrong.

I preface this by saying I did not reinvent the powder and with how there are only so many 'winning' ways of Tetris-ing the IO bonuses others surely came up with the same answer. But, for new players or what have you here is a /bio build that can be paired with pretty much anything. Why Bio Armor? Bio Armor is one of the best armors currently in the game if for no other reason that the Offensive Adaptation grants a 25% damage boost. But then it also has an absorb shield (that also does a small heal), three endurance recovery tools in Inexhaustible, Drain DNA (which also does a small heal) and Parasitic Leech (which triples as a small heal, an absorb shield, and an endurance recovery tool). For other ATs there is argument to be made that Bio Armor is, maybe, a bit squishy, but this is not a problem for Sentinels who will usually be outside of melee range either because being a ranged AT or because they will be safely hovering on top of the mobs close enough to use all their PbAoEs if such is the case, but outside of their melee range. Why not Bio Armor? Aesthetics and theme are important too. Having fun is not quantifiable. Not everyone will be into Bio Armor's looks even with minimal FX and sadly Ablative Armor and Parasitic Leech still make an ugly carapace that mars the otherwise less glaring Minimal FX options. Slotting. The Sentinels's ATOs compete with the Brute ATOs for which are the worst in the game. As is the case with most ATOs the bonuses are great, but the special (a chance for Opportunity and an absorb shield) are inconsequential. As such they can be slotted into AoEs which are by dint of their nature not specially good for damage procs. This frees the single target attacks to have at least or two damage procs to help things along. After playing Sentinels somewhat extensively I went from the true and tried 45% defense to a more humble 33%. The hovering out of melee range, the nuke that helps decimate half a spawn, and how a single small purple inspiration (12% defense) pushes the number back to 45% in case of getting too much agro has served me well. Trapdoor tests were done where I could not safely hover out of the way and the 33% defense was enough without even using a small inspiration. Three example builds: Example 1: We don't have a convenient AoE to place our ATOs. If the build happen to use a T1 for a smooth rotation then the T1 is good place for it since T1s usually are bad for damage procs (usually only 15% to 20% chance to go off). In this case changing from full ATO slotting to 5 Decimation and one damage proc increases the damage in.... seven points. Not 70, just 7. Dark/Bio is an example of this since Umbral Torrent is both aggravating and useful and in order to remove the aggravating part then a knockback to knockdown IO is needed. At that point since we broke the 6 slot bonus we might as well slot a Force Feedback proc which leaves four slots. The quick witted reader might look at the nuke and ponder why not slot the ATO there. Which is a valid point, but a sizeable loss of damage. Nukes have such a long cooldown that any and all procs going in there will have a maxed out chance to go off. Slotting Blackstar with a full ATO would have it do 560 damage. Slotting it with damage procs makes that go to 777. So switching from procs to ATO is a 28% damage loss. The still astute reader will notice how the nuke has no accuracy slotted. That is because the nuke is never ever going to be used without Aim being used first which takes care of that. Sent (Dark Bio).mbd Example 2: Beam/Bio. We have two AoEs we can slot our ATOs into. Great, problem solved! Since Heavy Shot takes a Force Feedback proc it would go without a damage proc with the usual slotting and so it took the Apocalypse set in order to have one. With 44% chance for the damage to go off it's decent. Sent (Beam Bio).mbd Example 3: The nuke is a rain power. Rain powers take very badly to procs so there is hardly a point in slotting procs in there. Because of this the nuke can take the ATO. Sent (Ice Bio).mbd

Same as before I reckon (but did not actually test for myself): when it procs it gives 3-5 points for the opportunity bar.

Cloudburst is good damage though. You say 'instead of Cloudburst' as if we were rich in ST attacks, but without Cloudburst we would be using the T1.

You're preaching to the choir, Windy, I'm not the one in need of convincing (Windball/Dust Devil, lezzzz gooo!). But I'm saying the devs always look at a set in it's globality and not in a per power basis.

This sort of talk would probably be best over either the Suggestion forums or the Gold Standard discord and then beep Booper instead of railing lost in the Corruptor forums But you guys do need to not see things in a vacuum. Chain Lightning may suck (well, there is no 'may' involved) but the set has Storm Cell and Cat 5 helping with the AoE damage. Tests like Trapdoor or whatever comparing performance have more weight instead of directly comparing powers. My own change for Chain Lightning: Windball (like fireball, geddit?), same coding as fireball, but animation is a mini Hurricane (smaller radius, fast swirling FX expanding from point of impact and then shrinking back to nothingness). Damage a bit lower than fireball since its secondary effect would be an implosion effect stolen from Axe Cyclone helping mobs stay inside the two ground effects we put down.

The power needs Ion's coding. No one pops Ion and goes 'shit, it missed that first target'.

After finally reaching level 50 and playing the game while slowly picking up the accolades I feel a bit conflicted on Parasitic Leech. As it is the endurance is slightly too much on the red, but I have not picked the accolades yet which will add another 0.28, nor Musculature's 33% that will add another 0.32. At reaching level 50 I ended up taking Parasitic Leech instead of the caltrops. ...and I find even as a one slot wonder I am using it to replace Ablative when I need heal/shielding, and using it instead of Rebuild DNA when I need endurance. In either case I get the other side of the coin be it heals as well when wanting endurance or recovery as well when wanting heals. I played around with taking the slots from Rebuild DNA and give them to Parasitic as well and the numbers were pretty decent with getting as much as something like 1.5 extra recovery with a single enemy, or as much as capping out recovery if hitting five enemies. The only reason I did not go for it was two fold: - Rebuild DNA does not need targets. Parasitic Leech does. Anyone who remembers the old Consume from Fire Armor will remember the absolute *pain* that was needing endurance, only one enemy in range... and Consume missed. Try again in one minute. This is something relying on Parasitic Leech is bound to make happen. - The power of Parasitic leech lays on being a five target AoE. Even as a one slot wonder there is a hefty 464% regen and 215% recovery if hitting 5 targets which is a compelling reason to leave it as a secondary heal or recovery tool one slotted wonder. But because of carrying a second recovery tool I'm now pondering whether the 45% Musculature is not more logical. What restrains me would be relying on Parasitic and have to go through the 2.1 animation. Going from 2.97 to 3.57 will be already very good, but also going from Rebuild DNA giving 48 endurance (ignoring the proc in it for now) to 54 will also help to tilt the balance. At that point Parasitic's value will go down. But caltrops if of dubious use for a Storm Blast-erino. I was playing DA with a small group of friends and when we split I kept soloing spawns. Not at great speed, because Sentinel, but, +4 (no level shift yet), and it's a 33% defense build and no inspirations were being used. I was even pulling two groups sometimes. Storm may not be the wet dream of a power focused player but it handles fine and the -tohits and panic run-ing it inspires plus all the KD does wonders for ourselves and the team. Right now I'm leaning towards keeping Musculature 33% as this should/will minimize extra clicks to keep endurance up, take Parasitic, remove the proc from DNA, giving the slot to Parasitic, then +5 two Heal/Rech IOs and keep it as a second (third really since both Ablative and Rebuild DNA heal) back-up. Maybe not truly needed, but nothing else seems really useful to pick either. Numbers on the test server show that hitting a pylon with no Musculature slotted does 215 damage. With musculature 45% it does 246, and with Musculature 33% it does 238. Some quick maffs says the 45% damage boost increases damage by 14.4% and the Musculature 33% damage boost is a 10.7% increase. Damage loss is a staggering 3.7% and the reason why I seldom take the 45% version. I think 3.7% is not worth when it will add 2.1 second animation clicks to the gameplay. Best instead save those for back-up heals and thus keep Musculature 33%. Welcome to my TED talk and here is the latest iteration. Once I settle for one I will go through the thread and deleting the other versions: Sentinel (Storm Blast - Bio Armor).mbd

Added more info including the accolades and more details on easy money making, then it was getting to be so spammy that I spoiled everything.

As Oldskool said that mechanic is now gone. Instead you get a clickie called Vulnerability which makes mobs take more damage when hit. It's not a super important clickie though and I reserve it for archvillains. Dehiydrate does heal you which is one of the perks of Water. Heals are something that Stone Armor lacks since it relies on regeneration instead. Keep it in mind for the future if you find yourself being whittled to death but it should not be a big thing since Sentinels get little agro. This is the extreme cheapness build. Really not needed since money is pretty easy to make even just selling merits: A more normal 'cheap' build. Does not have the same defenses as the first so carry small purples to use if suddenly taking too much damage. Also, cheap being relative since Decimations are 3-4 million a piece and the ATOs are 7-9 million a piece. But you can easily buy one by one and just throw it on top of the previous extreme cheap build without worrying about using Unslotters. In the end as you keep making money you can then slowly transition to the expensive build bit by bit as well even though you will then want to use Unslotters and not slot over and destroy stuff worth 3-4 million. You can then save those no longer needed IOs for your next character or just sell them back to the AH. With this build you're already at 90% of the maximum potential and the original expensive build just adds a bit more damage and finishes rounding up defense:

Check out the Prestige Sprints, one of them does a slide FX you can then recolour at a trainer/tailor and might be more fitting than having a stone golem sprinting around like mad. This is the expensive build. You get two free powers to do what you'd like with (these usually are taken up by travel powers). Aua Bolt is the weak link and could/should be replaced by Dehydrate, but it's up to you. Just swap the slotting if you do. If you would like a cheap/leveling build during the time you're picking up money to buy all the things let me know.

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.