Noob1

Well here is hoping my pessimism about this topic is misplaced. I would be pleasantly surprised to say I was wrong. But, I will save the "I was wrong" statement till some tangible proof. I hope I see the day.

What an interesting idea! I don't know if I will implement it, but I for sure am gonna play around with it in mids. Thank!

I dont have hover at the moment just fly. I already figured out the fly up in the air so things can punch you tactic, out of necessity :) I am respecing and will add Hover at your suggestion. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

I used 3 4 sets of thunderstrike in my build plan that gives me my ranged defense. (set of 6 which I used gives me +ranged defense twice within the same set) The side effect is that from those sets i get some good Neg/Eng defense also. Hmmm maybe i can take out one of the thunderstrike sets and put in something against melee damage instead. I am currently trying to rework the build a bit at the moment anyway. So I can see what I can do with the Enchancement sets.... I need to look at the purples, since I haven't used purp sets since I came back to COH and cant recall which ones give + Melee. I assume it is horribly expensive :) Thanks Damage comes in with one or more types (Fire/Cold/Smash/whatever) and along one of three vectors (Ranged, Melee, AOE). Basically EVERY attack has a component from each category. Thus a pistol is a Lethal Damage Type applied on a Ranged Vector. A Rikti Energy Sword is Lethal AND Energy, Melee Vector. This matters because it checks the BEST defense to every keyword on the incoming attack. So you can basically try to raise your vector defenses (also called positional) or your typed defenses. All things being equal (and they never are) positional defenses ARE BETTER - since there are less of them, and once your covered, you have no holes. Further, a Sentinel, being a pure ranged attacker, can often build for just Ranged and AOE Defense - and use some form of flight to avoid most melee. You, being Bioarmor, dont get that option - at least not as much. Bioarmor already slants to TYPED Defense out of its powers. Now, we can ignore that and go for ranged and AOE - but thats going to be overly costly, IMHO, and Psionic and Toxic Damage arent all that common (also, you are Bioarmor. You heal fast). So, we probably want to focus our IOs on Typed Defenses. How much? The common targets for defense are 45% (basically everything hits you 1/10th as much as they would otherwise), or 32.5% (Because thats still pretty durn good, and a small purple will make it 45%). Now, its not utterly wasteful to go over 45%, because debuffs are A THING - but Id not spend much resources on it unless your a Defense Tank. A Bio Sentinel is neither pure defense focused, nor a tank. (theres essentially ANOTHER softcap up in the 50s, because certain special high-end content has special to hit bonuses. Dont worry about that, you wont get to Incarnate Softcap, and you dont want to wreck your character trying). So your sitting at 58.7% Energy/Negative. Im really curious how you got that. Thats crazy nuts high. Thats 'are you sure you dont mean Resistance' high. Thats plenty and lots and more than youll ever need. Id really look at your Smashing/Lethal Defense.. try to get that to 32.5, if not 45 (45 will be painful). Fire and Cold are also worth attention, but if your already at 40% DEF vs Fire and Cold, you likely wont feel a need to chase the last 5%. 'Pure' Cold attacks are very rare, and 'Pure' fire ranged attacks arent that common either unless your fighting a lot of CoT Fire Demons. But Smashing/Lethal are every gun in the game, almost.

I am currently leveling a Bio Armor and in my build plan Smashing lethal defense is at 22.5 and Melee is also at 22.5, I am worried Energy Beam/Bio Armor Sentinel might not be what I am looking for in the end... What Sentinel primary/secondary combos are the hardiest with reasonable investments into Enhancements? Just curious what do you run as a Sentinel?

Hi, Bio Armor is a resist set, but I was trying to get my Defense values up also. I am currently leveling a Beam Rifle/Bio Armor Sentinel. I am at Defense 42% ranged defense 22.5% Melee defense 20% smash and Lethal 58.7 Energy and negative 40% fire and cold 20% AOE What I have no way of knowing is that for sentinel are these values considered ok? What values need to be higher/What can I reach theoretically and how? Any advise is appreciated. Thanks

(If someone wants to this might be a good addition to Getting Started as a third post. If this needs cleaning up feel free.) If you are new to game or have forgotten things after ohhhhh SEVEN YEARS!, this short and sweet post will show you how to find information about in game things, like missions, powersets, Badges, Merit system, and character creation, where to post questions to name a few things. #1 The first thing that helps is to know the link to the wiki The wiki: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page So MUCH information. Use the search box in the upper-left corner of the page. For eample type in powerset and click search. It brings up links to descriptions of all the different powers in the game. (Some of the latest things may not have been added.) Also you can search for names of contacts in the game, story arcs, Badges you can earn, and Merits. Merits can be earned by doing special activities and can be traded in for really good Enhancements which you can slot into your powers to improve them. #2 The is the COH forums: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php There are different topic areas and you can post questions and people will repost replys works like old message boards. You can probably even find builds posted and people talking about em. #3 Pines character designer It lets you plan out your build all the way to lvl 50 if you want this is a link to an article on the forum that was pinned to the discord channel it should be up to date https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,541.msg15109.html Here is a video on really how to use it. video is from before COH came back online but 90% this should be more than good enough to get you using the tool. #4 City of Heroes: Homecoming Discord. It has channels for #new-players #setup-install-help #in-game-help #builds-and-archtypes (though you might want to look for builds in the forums first) #supergroup-looking Welll and lots of other good stuff… Happy heroing!

Blaster Squish, is the whole reason I made my first character a sentinel Energy rifle/Bio is pretty fun. I felt the damage more lacking than i though it would the Misc change for having your lancer attack spread disintegrate should help a lot. All I'm reading is that Blasters might be a little less worse than melee ATs, who were gods among ants for years back on Live. Both Cryptic and Paragon literally reduced the game's death penalty more than once because of Blasters, and blasters were the only AT with that kind of problem. I don't think we're anywhere near them getting out of hand.

Many thanks for the build! I have just returned to COH 2 days ago. I always liked blasters but wished I could get them more survivable, and then I learned of the new Sentinel class! Character is a cowboy from the future I went Energy Rifle/Bio armor (something messed up his DNA a bit in space ala fantastic 4 :) ) I can easily use your suggestion as a super starting point. The sets that you use in the build, what did they cost you overall? Or should they cost overall? I was never an expert player even in the old days, so I don't remember much of the sets you can slot or their costs Can you offer me suggestion on perhaps what to slot on Bio Armor till I accumulate enough inf. Standard equip of cheaply available sets? Many Thanks, Cowboy.