Sunsette

I don't dispute your characterization as it pertains to a low to mid level character too much -- though I'll note that personally speaking, my blasters can sometimes do better than a sentinel solo just from the better kill speed -- but at high levels, the frailty of a blaster is overstated. As far as the opportunities, not only do corruptors do more damage than Sentinels, they frequently drop far bigger debuffs while being very survivable. Opportunity isn't nothing, and corruptors are overtuned, but as much as I want to promote the class, I haven't seen a scenario where anyone -- even people really, really familiar with the game's mechanics -- goes "great, we got a sentinel". It's more "we got everything we need, so sentinel is fine". We're not useless but we're not good. The scale difference is relevant btw because it means Sentinels are still locked into taking a lot of defensive choices in pools in order to soft cap. If I could at least have freedom to take things I want to take instead of struggling to make caps just to feel barely more survivable in most things at 50 than a blaster, I'd be more sanguine about the class.

It's a bad idea. A few of us die hard blues actually sneak over for brief periods now, where we just wouldn't go over under any circumstances at all before. Without Null the Gull, given the low populations of these servers to begin with, people would just go blue and never come back. Two exclusive factions is just a bad gameplay mechanic that many MMOs repeated because WoW got lucky with it and in every single case, low population ended up making that choice a pain in the ass later on. Even in WoW -- CRZ was introduced in significant part to handle that particular problem.

+1 Obitus. That's pretty much my issue with it. As a solo AT, it's significantly inferior to Brutes and Scrappers -- and Brutes serve a strong group function. As a team AT, it literally provides less to the team than any other AT. No support, no threat, mediocre controls, meh healing, and the HP and scale difference with scrappers is enough that we're more subject to a string of bad luck. One of these two should change.

Hasten is mostly important when you have non-attack abilities with an uptime about a third to a quarter of their base recharge.

The vehicle travel powers really just need to make it so they don't cancel your existing toggles. I'd deal with everything else if it meant that I didn't have to put five toggles back on every time i move half a mile.

It's both. Defensive Opportunity is better if you have literally any endurance or health issues aside from the lowest levels. Before enhancements, incarnate, etc. it's about +20% of the base damage IIRC again, but it doesn't scale with any of those, so it's more like... 5% by the end

So I've given this some more thought. Here is my proposal. TACTICAL COMBAT: As a Sentinel, you strategize during fights to find key openings which you can take advantage of. You gain a toggle power called Offensive Tactics As you engage in combat, your Sentinel bar slowly increases (and decays likewise out of combat). When the bar is maximized, you gain a passive benefit. - While aggressive tactics is active, your endurance is increased by 10%, and you gain a stacking damage buff (like a miniature Fury) up to a maximum of +50% based on the bar. - While aggressive tactics is NOT active, your base HP is increased by 40% of base, and your threat multiplier increases up to a maximum of +100% based on the bar (tanker multiplier). In addition to the above, you may also use the Opportunity active power when the bar is maxed. This does the following: - Aggressive Opportunity: Puts a reticle on the target. While opportunity is active, the target takes -35% Resistance and -35% Defense, unresistable. - Not-Aggressive Opportunity: Puts a reticle on the target. Taunts the target with each attack you make. While opportunity is active, the target takes -25% To-Hit and -50% Damage, unresistable. An opportunity lasts about 15 seconds, after which it drains the bar, so you lose the stacking portion until you rebuild it again. I am sure the numbers need work, but it addresses many of the clumsiness issues and allows a Sentinel to say, breeze through most of a mission building the bar and then only using it when they really need it. Aggressive is most similar to the current iteration of opportunity now, but is significantly increased given how large of values can be dropped by defenders and corruptors with overall better packages. Feel free to criticize my number choices if they seem off, but do not overly focus on them -- the idea of using toggles to manage opportunity and spending the bar only when you want to both appealed to me.

Will any of these changes carry over to the other Energy offensive sets? I believe every single Energy Attack Powerset is considered lackluster at the moment.

yes. I am NOT good with WP names, apparently. :)

It was created by the devs. This is the newest powerset builder and it contains info on it.

I guess I'm not being clear, and therefore not being helpful, for which I apologize. Force Feedback is an awful set. I'm not suggesting you slot the set. Just a single proc from it, same as I'd suggest only ever slotting a single thing from Sudden Acceleration (which is a better set but not that good as I recall). Unlike overwhelming force, they're not good sets on the whole. I don't think that value of AoE defense is very useful either without being a lot higher, and it's pretty hard to build for AoE defense. With your earlier build, your AoE defense is so low that it only ever becomes relevant if an attack is AoE Based and not based on any type at all, which only occurs rarely with toxic. Pretty much just Devouring Earth to worry about on that front. One thing you may find slotting Sudden Accel is that even if you fully boost the damage slots, it will be a bit weak, and it will eat up a lot of end (though you have so much this may well be tolerable). I understood you didn't plan to use Fire Cages, but I wanted to make sure you knew they were actually pretty helpful. If you still don't want to use them normally, though, that's of course entirely up to you! I will not make further mention of it. You're pushing recharge but not using the ever-popular Gambler's Luck, so I'm going to assume that's for price reasons (though I see purples so I'm not sure). To err on the side of safety, I'm going for a budget build here; you don't need boosters, but they'll benefit from having them. These builds will look a little different with an actual budget. Since you haven't said anything about Char, I assume you wouldn't mind if I swapped it for another power to reach Warmth -- it's slotted just for the set bonuses. Overall this puts you to almost softcap on S/L, softcap on E, whenever you press a small purple. I considered building more on the resistance front, but it doesn't look good to me. While it's easy to accrue small S/L resist bonuses, it was hard to get to it amounting to much. Dropping Strength of Will can get you Concealment which makes your slotting requirements MUCH easier as a global defense buff, at the cost of some hover speed. Better to not die a lot than to need a power to recover from death. Potential further adjustments can get you into the fighting pool for bigger and more survivability. I'm sure I made decisions you dislike in this example, but I hope this is helpful. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Rathstar: Level 50 Science Sentinel Primary Power Set: Energy Blast Secondary Power Set: Willpower Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Power Bolt -- SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprOppStr-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprOppStr-Rchg/+Opportunity(7) Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- ImpSki-Status(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(7), Ags-Psi/Status(9) Level 2: Power Blast -- SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg(A), SprSntWar-Dmg/Rchg(13), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprSntWar-Rchg/+Absorb(17) Level 4: Fast Healing -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Prv-Absorb%(19), RgnTss-Regen+(21) Level 6: Power Burst -- Apc-Dmg(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(21), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Apc-Acc/Rchg(23), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Apc-Dam%(25) Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27) Level 10: Indomitable Will -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(27) Level 12: Fly -- Flight-I(A) Level 14: Hover -- Frb-EndRdx(A), Frb-Fly(29), Frb-Stlth(29), DefBuff-I(31), DefBuff-I(31) Level 16: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(31) Level 18: Explosive Blast -- SntWar-Acc/Dmg(A), SntWar-Dmg/Rchg(33), SntWar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), SntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), SntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SntWar-Rchg/+Absord(34) Level 20: Quick Recovery -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(34), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), PrfShf-Acc/Rchg(36) Level 22: Mind Over Body -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(36), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(37), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(37) Level 24: Aim -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(37), RctRtc-Pcptn(50) Level 26: Focused Power Bolt -- Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thn-Dmg/Rchg(39), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40) Level 28: Heightened Senses -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(40) Level 30: Up to the Challenge -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(42), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(42), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(42), NmnCnv-Heal(43), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(43) Level 32: Nova -- SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(43), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Arm-Dam%(46) Level 35: Resurgence -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 38: Strength of Will -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A) Level 41: Fire Cages -- EnfOpr-Acc/Immob(A), EnfOpr-Immob/Rng(46), EnfOpr-Acc/EndRdx(46), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(50) Level 44: Cremate -- KntCmb-Knock%(A), KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(48), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(48), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(48) Level 47: Warmth -- Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(50) Level 49: Afterburner -- Flight-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- KntCmb-Knock%(A), KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(9), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(11) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EffAdp-EndMod(A), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc(17), EffAdp-EndMod/EndRdx(19) Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 1: Opportunity ------------

[*]I did not know about slotting boosters in Pine's: thanks for the pro-tip. [*]I 6-slotted QR for the damage buff and defense. I 3-slotted Stamina for the +HP and +Recovery bonus. [*]I grabbed Fire Cages to get to Warmth. I plan to slot Sudden Acceleration into Explosive Blast, which includes the KB-to-KD proc. [*]Strength of Will is the tier 9 power available at 38: I trained it at 38. [*]I took Fire Mastery to get to Warmth, so that I could have a self-heal available. Using your tip to 2-slot it with 50+5 boosted Recharge, that's available every 13 seconds. [*]My goal for Hasten is to kill faster! I like my attacks to rotate quickly. ;D I feel like a dummy! I just woke up and I mixed up your T9 and your general anti-mez toggle, ahahahaha. I don't recommend six slotting for fire defense like ever, not enough uses fire. (It's like what, Circle of Thorns, Malta robots, one type of Arachnos... fire is semi-common but there's not a lot dedicated to it and it usually comes with smashing or lethal and doesn't show up with dangerous side effects very often). Damage bonuses are gratis, don't go out of your way for them. I really don't think you'll need that extra recovery from three-slotting like at all in Stamina. I have significantly less Endurance generation than you do and by way of the fact that I use a lot more Fire Mastery skills more actively than you, I use a lot more Stamina to begin with. It gets you a slot back. One of the great things about Energy is Force Feedback procs -- it's an unbelievable amount of recharge you can slot on a lot of attacks at very low cost, and only Nova and Power Push regularly throw people hard enough to mess up formations such that you should really take a hard look at KB to KD rather than Force Feedback. It does mean giving up six slots on a lot of attacks, but there's not really a lot of attacks that need the sixth slot set bonus, either. Being able to Fire Cage so you can ignore KB to KD slotting is also really, really great since the only things that won't be grabbed by a single application of Fire Cage are also really unlikely to be KBed either. I mix up whether or not I cage based on how badly the enemies need soft controls -- I'm less likely to cage when facing Rularuu, for example, because I want them to spend time animating on the recovery.

Alpha Slot: Musculature Core or Radial; depends on whether you want to go just for damage or if you want to make your endurance draining even more brutal faster. Judgment: Ionic is the best flat-out. While there are some uses for others if they fit theme, Ionic was really made too good and it also fits your theme, so. Interface: Degenerative is never bad. Reactive is less good on a Sentinel than a Blaster. Diamagnetic will help you and groups soloing by improving hard target kill speeds and your survivability a little bit. Lore: If you're grabbing a lore pet for general soloing, go down the support tree. A lot of pets are really good at that. If you're grabbing one for incarnate trials or to otherwise get pure DPS, Cimerorans are best at single target DPS. Destiny: Totally up to you. Figure out what you want and need most often. With the exception of incandescence though, all of these buffs are basically worthless after 30 seconds, which makes Ageless Core a popular pick; 30 seconds of infinite blue bar every 2 minutes basically alleviates almost anyone's end concerns. Hybrid: Assault Hybrid gave me much better results on a Sent than Assault Core, and I think it's much more OK to have highly variable offensive output (2 min on, 2 min off) than it is to have highly variable defensive strengths, so I stay away from Melee Hybrid even though I blap.

Disclaimer: Familiar with Energy/. Not so familiar with /WP. - Your Energy Defense is good, your S/L is not. WP doesn't need as much as some others, but I haven't played it so take my comments on your secondary with a grain of salt. - You only need two slots in Hasten, not three. You can simulate the effects of Enh Boosters in Mids by pressing + on your numpad while selecting the enh Two 50+5 Recharge Reduxes work well. - Too many slots in Stamina and Quick Recovery for too little benefit. - You grabbed fire cages. Consider replacing the KB to KD proc in Explosive Blast once you have Fire Cages, and replacing it with the Force Feedback proc. - I feel like you're going for kind of a discount build, but you can go discount build and still get a lot of Psi D easily so you're strong versus something. - You left Strength of Will too late, trust me, you are gonna feel the pain of doing that. Grab it much earlier. - Why did you go three powers into Fire Mastery if you were going to one-slot all of them? - What's your goal in having Hasten? What does it help you accomplish? Knowing that will help me make comments.

You probably won't need range increase if you can find a way to 3 slot the two ATO sets at least (and one is very worth taking to 5 or 6 slot, the other is reasonably worth taking to 6, so that's easy to do). Together in their Superior versions they grant +20% range which gets you to almost blaster. Frankenslotting them or combining with their lower versions gets you to +35 to +40% (over a Blaster), and doing it with their non-superior versions can get you to a whopping +70%. Love the name Ann Ionic -- she needs a pet sidekick named Cat Ionic.

Personally, yes, though I would note I prioritize survivability above all, everything else comes second. I work really hard on getting damage up, but never at the expense of survivability. So that's my general bias, it may not be a good or helpful one for you. I'd try to get to the 30s on E/L/S defenses. Resistance on Sents has to compensate for the fact that they have about 8% less HP than scrappers and about 15% (relatively, I think in the absolute sense it's only 7.5 vs. 7%) less defense and resistance scaling than scrappers. That'll add up fast. Cutting so many seconds off of your T9 is something you will appreciate but you'll have to be careful taking on high level enemies without a tanker or brute present. One thing you may want to consider is investing in Chain Fences, which has a longer range and higher target cap than the rest of your attacks and lets you get started on the endurance draining early.

Personally, I prefer having my Chance for Build-Up in Aim (the PPM system means that it will trigger every time you Aim, regardless of how low you've brought the recharge) and a recharge, then single-slot tactics with a Cytoskeleton +To-Hit/-End. Your defenses strike me as a bit low with those resist numbers, but that shouldn't be a huge issue given how fast you can drain end.

You know, I hadn't gone back and re-evaluated my Alpha since before I even hit 50. I forgot how small that amount of recharge is when you're stacking lots. This discussion was useful for me, Oldskool; thanks. Got some new ideas to work on for my build 2. =) Build 1 is for soloing or psuedo-scrapping but I'm trying to make my second build stronger in a team. Yeah, I personally have no issue with skimishing on Sentinels so PBAoE's do not even register as an issue to me. So I can see what you're saying about Power Drain. The only Sentinel I have that doesn't have a PBAoE at all, is my Beam/Will. Link Minds has a 90 second duration and can be made perma with recharge. Yes, it has a roughly 4 second wind up time, but you'll have well over a minute of duration on it before you recast. To each their own though. I brought it up because it is yet another direct defense layer to stack with other things like Weave. With your example build, doesn't seem like it would be necessary, but the OP did ask to know about options. I've used Link Minds on other ATs and the animation is something to consider, but I had gotten used to it from playing a Widow and Mind/Psi/Psi Dom. Anyway, the feedback is still good. Hasten is also a to each their own. Depends on how much the OP values recharge. As to the Incarnates, Agility shaves off less than 2 seconds off of Full Auto on my AR/Bio Sentinel while dropping my best attack by 19 per shot, but my next hardest hitter drops by 37. Musculature, is hands down the damage increase in a contest of Alphas. Agility does get me perma-hasten and reduce times off my Secondary but doesn't appreciably alter my attack chain. So from a minor durability perspective Agility is nice, but Musculature is the winner for damage. That above comment about the 2 second reduction also applies to all my Sentinels. Hail of Bullets on my perma-Hasten DP/Nin goes from the current 25 seconds with Musculature to 23 seconds with Agility. Yet, Executioner's shot loses 38 damage. Since I have a gapless attack chain that 38 damage per rotation of Executioner's Shot (not to mention the attacks) nets me far more damage than using Hail of Bullets 2 seconds faster. It's something I've given a lot of thought to. Anyway, I appreciate the insights Sunsette and that build looks pretty awesome! P.S. So leveling up my Beam/Will power, I used Defensive Opportunity so many times I could count it on one hand and still have digits left prior to level 22. At 22 when I took Quick Recovery, I started using it even less. Beam has some long-ish animations. You just don't hammer attacks as fast once you get the real damaging powers post Disintegrate. Since there is so much animation wind-up, I'd think a 30 second long endurance reduction power like Energize would go a long way. Yeah, you can still have Charged Shot in your back pocket for when Energize is recharging, but in a final build I seriously doubt you'd keep it. Anyway, another good point but I wanted to clear up my perspective.

Double Posting because I hit character limit cap: Personally I'd strongly recommend the Radial Assault Hybrid rather than the Core for Sentinel, I got a lot better results out of Radial. Other than that, I agree with Oldskool; there's not really a lot in the non-Alpha Slot choices to consider that's not standard.

I don't play Beam/, but I do play /Energy. I agree with much of what oldskool said, but not everything. - Skippable Powers: You can get away with skipping both the T8 and T9 in /Energy. The T8 is good, but not great. Taking the T8 will make it much easier to skip Defensive Opportunity but I'm not sure Power Drain synergizes well with Beam/ since I haven't looked at Beam closely to see if it's got a lot of PBAOEs. I generally recommend respeccing out of Defensive Opportunity later if you don't need it, not skipping it up front. Energize's cooldown is just too long as a lowbie. - Link Minds is an iffy suggestion to get Psi D because it has a long damn animation. The reason to get Link Minds is because you want to support your party boosting their Psi D, not particularly because you want to get your Psi D up. /Energy has enough Resistance powers and Sentinels have enough ranged attack powers that it's fairly easy for you to reach Psi D softcap as Energy and get a decent amount of resistance. Softcapping Psi D will require you to slot some Devastation sets though, which are a mild DPS decrease compared to Decimation/Glad Javelin/etc; it may not be worth it for you if you don't go solo against Arachnos/Rikti/Rularuu/Seers often enough. - Energy Armor is really, really easy to softcap all defenses with if you grab Agility. It's going to be harder if you grab Musculature instead. Agility will increase your damage indirectly by allowing you to use your T9 a lot more often, which is a sizable damage increase for Beam even Single Target from what I'm seeing in Pine's. Musculature is a straightforward damage increase. Which is better for you straight-up, I don't know, just noting that. Whichever power eventually gets Apocalypse will be your standout damage dealer by far and having it on a low recharge will also boost your damage a lot. - Personally speaking, Hasten was never worth it with EA. I tried it on recommendation when I first was starting out and Hasten notably made Energy Management as a fresh incarnate worse and there's nothing absolutely crucial for /EA to keep perma. The most useful thing to perma from your secondary is Energize and you need it less if you're not having the Hasten mini-crash! It took up a power slot, it locked me out of a pool I could use to get more defense, I wasn't convinced. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Chandeliere FireNova: Level 50 Magic Sentinel Primary Power Set: Energy Blast Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Power Bolt -- Dvs-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Dvs-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), Dvs-Dmg/Rchg:50(3), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Dvs-Hold%:50(7) Level 1: Kinetic Shield -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(7), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(9) Level 2: Kinetic Dampening -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A), ImpArm-ResDam:40(9), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(11), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(11), UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(13) Level 4: Fly -- Flight-I:50(A) Level 6: Power Blast -- SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprOppStr-Dmg/Rchg:50(21), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(21), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(23), SprOppStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), SprOppStr-Rchg/+Opportunity:50(25) Level 8: Hover -- Srn-Fly:50(A), Srn-EndRdx/Fly:50(17), LucoftheG-Def:50(19), LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(19) Level 10: Aim -- RechRdx-I:50(A), GssSynFr--Build%:50(25) Level 12: Power Push -- Apc-Dmg:50(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), Apc-Dam%:50(29), Apc-Acc/Rchg:50(31) Level 14: Afterburner -- Frb-Fly:50(A), Frb-Stlth:50(39) Level 16: Entropy Shield -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 18: Explosive Blast -- SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprSntWar-Rchg/+Absorb:50(33), SprSntWar-Dmg/Rchg:50(33), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), SprSntWar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(34), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(34) Level 20: Power Shield -- ShlWal-Def:50(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:40(31), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx:50(33) Level 22: Energize -- NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg:50(A), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg:50(31) Level 24: Power Armor -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(36), ImpArm-ResDam:40(36), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(36) Level 26: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def:50(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(37), LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(37) Level 28: Repelling Force -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(37), Rct-ResDam%:50(39) Level 30: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(39) Level 32: Nova -- ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg:50(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), ScrDrv-Acc/Rchg:50(46), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(46), ScrDrv-Dam%:50(46) Level 35: Fire Cages -- HO:Perox(A), HO:Perox(40), HO:Perox(40), JvlVll-Acc/End/Rech:50(40), JvlVll-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech:50(42), JvlVll-Dam%:50(42) Level 38: Cremate -- Hct-Dam%:50(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Hct-Acc/Rchg:50(43), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), HO:Centri(45) Level 41: Tactics -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(48) Level 44: Kick -- Empty(A) Level 47: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam:40(50), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(48), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(48) Level 49: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def:50(A), LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(50), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(50) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:50(A) Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I:50(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(13), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(15) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod:50(15), EndMod-I:50(17) Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany Level 50: Phantom Radial Superior Ally Level 50: Pyronic Radial Final Judgement Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve ------------

So I wanted to share a recent discovery of mine. I'd originally been on the Energy Torrent side of the split I told you about. Thanks to some recent build changes (heavy into Fire Mastery) I've been embracing my inner scrapper and closing in at melee range a lot -- which means Nova instead. Because I now carry AoE immobs, I no longer need the KB to KD IO at all, as long as I make sure to immob first. I tried out the Force Feedback Chance to Recharge IO where I'd been carrying KB to KD in Explosive Blast. I only changed Explosive Blast. The procs are constant and there is a Feedback (hah) loop when you have high recharge, because you're spamming the same thing over and over again. I now have Nova up every 20 seconds or so, and I'm not using hasten at all. It has been enormous for my damage output, this is just absolutely ridiculous. It functionally doesn't increase my Single Target damage because Explosive Blast is so bad for ST damage and Nova is only about 10% better for ST than 2/3 of my rotation (15% worst than my best attack), but it does enormous amounts for my AoE damage. Given that AoE is usually considered a weakness of the Energy Blast set, this is highly notable.

Pine's Hero Designer You may also find the discussion here useful to you.

The rest is entirely up to taste, of course! I don't really see why Chain Fences is going to be nerfed, though -- I compared it to the Controller version and it's already significantly adjusted from that, so if by 'bad port', you mean it was lazy, I don't think so. Misjudged? Eh, maybe? I do think Electric is the best "I can only take one APP power and I'm soloing" choice for AoE, but Psionic has the best single target choice at the entry tier, Caltrops is kind of famous for being powerful with the right slotting, etc. It doesn't strike me as stand-out to the point it's going to be obviously nerfed.

Survivability increases: Most of the APPs have a single target hold of high magnitude, often one that does good damage too. With the exception of Rularuu (overwhelmingly psionic damage, have to-hit buffs), most psychic enemy groups only have a few characters who are responsible for the to-hit buffs/defense debuffs/psychic damage that result in death. Even seers usually are placed in mixed groups with energy/smashing-based soldiers. Targeting these characters saves your life. There are also a few AoE mezzes or soft controls -- if you can survive the alpha (with a purple, for example) and spam Chain Fences, the psychics will be too drained to be a threat. As gmredux points out, Dark Mastery has -to-hit on every attack, which effectively increases your defense. That's especially valuable for resist-based sets or holes in defenses. Several also include AoE heals on moderate cooldowns, which benefit a lot from full six-slotting with Numina's or Preventative Medicine. Damage increases: - AoE damage abilities help for primary powersets that are low on damage options. - Most of the melee attacks are comparable or higher damage per animation-second to the primary powerset's suite. - Mind Probe in Psychic Mastery is very high DPA-S although it comes with the caveat that psy-damage is heavily resisted by a lot of non-living enemies. It's literally higher DPS-AT than every attack in the Fire Primary Powerset except Blaze. It's -also- a hold! And it inflicts -Recharge! Yeah there's nothing that blatantly screams "TAKE THIS TO FILL YOUR HORRIBLE DEFENSE VOID" like Blasters in Mace Mastery, "THIS IS FOR YOUR ENDURANCE AND ACCURACY PROBLEMS" like Brutes or Scrappers, etc. But Sentinels don't suffer from having a huge gaping hole in a basic area, they just sort of fall a bit short in multiple areas but have a pretty good package overall.