Onlyasandwich

Not a bad baseline! End consumption is pretty manageable, and accuracy is pretty solid in most powers. Most of your power choices are sensible as well. A little overkill on ranged defense bonuses though. not the worst thing to have a little pad, but you could edge back and juice damage with more procs in some places. A few general insights: Acid Mortar would benefit from additional recharge. I have tested it with various procs, and didn't find it worthwhile return. Multiple casts of the mortar stack their -res, and you can get good overlap with better recharge. You haven't used the Scourging Blast ATO set. Splitting this into 2 sets of three helps you double up on recharge with little sacrifice. One of these triples would do well in Acid Mortar (all the elements but the proc that have recharge) The extra recharge on Aim isn't a great return. Consider swapping one for the gaussian buildup proc. I also don't find Caltrops worthwhile for procs, though some disagree. It's a very slow return. I go baseline with a set IO that includes Range/Slow plussed out. The extra range is pretty nice for flexibility in battle., as otherwise it's a bit short. I wouldn't go Energy Mastery. You don't have much that really benefits from the power boost effect of power build up (FFgen and Seekers don't inherit it as they're pets), so it's basically just a really long recharge build up. You'll get better resists from Mu, and can grab Power Sink if you really want an extra end tool. Extra lotg in combat jumping does almost nothing. Rain of Arrows is painfully underslotted. Procs are nice to add here, but it deserves good baseline enhancement. Poison trap needs accuracy to hit. The procs are nice, but you need local accuracy and preferably some recharge here as well. Ranged Shot, like Rain of Arrows, needs actual enhancement beyond procs. Sting of the manticore has a really efficient 3 slot range defense bonus that would help you shift away from high investment bonuses like the 6 slot Gladiator's in Temp invuln, which isn't really doing much for you beyond the 6th bonus. Seeker Drones are your main opener. I highly suggest slotting for -tohit, as they stack powerfully for it. Each Seeker pops its own 15 ft aoe of -tohit. They also eat the alpha strike. By the time things can target you, their damage and tohit is gutted. Cloud senses even offers a Ranged defense 6 slot bonus if you want to keep leaning on this power for defense bonuses. There's more that I would do if building for myself (incorporate slow resist, balance things out with more procs in my ST attacks are among them), but this is where I'd start! Although it is by no means 1:1, here is a recent traps defender I made. You might find some of the slotting philosophy useful for reference. Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd

I can't import chunks into the latest mids (copy/paste won't work!) Mind attaching a build file?

Hi folks! I've been slowly revisiting a few builds impacted by the last page update as I find inspiration, and this guy is the latest round. I'd love some input on final tweaks, as well as your perspective on the current state of epic power pools in general. Previously this guy ran Electric Mastery mostly for the superior damage types in the armor, with power sink as a backup for end. However, Temporal Bomb takes some end pressure off, and I feel like the current build gets by just fine without additional end support, so would like more utility out of my epic. What I've gone for: Softcap Melee and Ranged Proc optimized attacks where there's an interesting baseline to leverage. Slow resist. Max hit chance against +3's. Stack as much recharge and S/L resist as I can find without sacrificing the above. Slotting questions: I have a couple clear flex slots (2nd in triage, 5th in maneuvers). They both feel pretty solid, but perhaps you see a better place where they could add great value? Of special note would be the potential of swapping one or both to a 4th Shield wall and/or a 6th Ragnarok for the exotic resists. However, they're mostly for resists that have low baseline totals, so relatively low impact. @Psyonico mentioned trying the overwhelming kd proc in acid mortar for the flat 20% kd chance. Has anyone tested this? Sounds like it could be meaningful secondary mitigation. Power questions: Do you see other epic opportunities with great benefit? I like that I get very clear utility out of every Dark Mastery power here, and nothing is purely a mule. Stun stacking with Lancer and Overcharge is hard to pass up, especially with no extra animation time. I tried Psi mastery initially, hoping that the new TK would be fun. However, I found the epic version to be super trashy garbage. I don't understand why they had to hit it so hard! Double the recharge, half the targets, and half the radius of the Mind Control power. I know it shouldn't be full power, but it's just too much. What is your experience with this power? Have you found good uses? I have grown to greatly dislike cutting beam over the years. Just unsatisfying dpa even procced, and a narrow cone. Do you feel this is misguided? Am I alone in thinking Defender epics in general are pretty lacking outside of the armors these days, unless you really want a melee attack? I understand they may be doing further epic passes later on now that they've normalized some things - looking forward to it! Note that procs are disabled in charged shot to avoid ffback skewing. Build: Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd Chunk:

They'll affect other pets, so useful as a mule on a mastermind so they can invest more productive slots in their minions.

Ah, one of the set normalizations from the last page then. Mids is missing a lot of stuff related until the next update. I wonder if the one I still have slotted will still work. I know set bonuses don't, but am guessing the proc would. Sort of silly that they take pet sets though, as basically all the enhancement values within would be useless. Of course ranged damage never made sense either.

I think Seekers doesn't get nearly enough credit in general. Its -tohit is a bit higher than mids suggests. Corruptors get -5 per seeker, which is enhanceable to ~9%. This may not seem amazing, but it stacks per seeker! ~18% -tohit is pretty hefty, and the 15 foot radius is good enough to get strong overlap, not to mention the stacking -20% damage debuff. They also take the Decimation buildup proc, which doesn't sound useful at first. However, It actually procs the effect on the caster, and does so with more reliability than pretty much anything else that could take it! 90% chance with no recharge slotted. This means a great opener also buffs your damage, giving you even better followup on that opener. Especially good on a Corruptor.

I love that most everything is a reticle target, so I can shoot through floors and from behind walls. There are so many persistent patch effects that I feel like a true master of the battlefield, especially when combined with /TA. Damage is surprisingly great as you noted. Some powers don't proc out as well as you might expect (sleep grenade), but still do very solid damage alongside their control potential. The gun drone is a freaking champion as well. There isn't a power I don't like in the set.

I love that Controllers give me so many different fun approaches to a battle. Do I drop an aoe hold, engage with my soft control layered with other tools, summon in a pet, play with positioning, or maybe just open up the damage cannister if my defenses are up for it? All of the above! My favorite controllers have a lot of really effective buttons to push, and therefore backup plans for interesting situations, whether it be a resistant group (can't slow those war wolves!) or overaggro chaos. I really enjoy powers that let me layer in procs so damage is a powerful side-effect of doing all the fun stuff I already wanted to do, rather than focusing on blasts to melt things. Sneaking procs all throughout my build so everything just layers on the hurt is very satisfying. I agree that defense is more effective as a strategy to keep yourself alive than resist, but typically it involves too much sacrifice in terms of recharge and proc opportunities. Resists can come incidentally alongside an epic resist shield, and I can instead focus on maximizing damage and leaning on raw control power to survive. Some sets lend themselves to a defense strategy more easily. /Dark, /Time, and /FF, and /Traps are especially good on that front. Doubly so for /Dark and /Time, as they include endurance tools as well, which open up slotting.

In some cases they have a slight edge in defense due to the values brought by hide.

While it will work well enough on a scrapper, stalkers have the best version of staff. You lose innocuous strikes, one of the most skippable powers, but gain: A proper build up Assassin's staff, which goes a long way towards making up for staff's lacking ST. The best staff form built in without having to pick a power. In all a very convincing set of advantages. With bio specifically, scrappers do get a taunt aura which is nice.

Sub 50s have strong xp incentives to run the wst. They will run it anyhow. Additional incentives for 50s helps keep interest in the content and more team engagement.

Given the choice, I'd pick the psi resist. You have a reasonable base in Rad/ so it has a meaningful impact against Psi heavy groups, while the regen will be barely noticeable. You'd probably get more mileage out of the FFback procs here, though I generally try to maximize both. With cross punch in its current slotting, I'd probably prefer a Fury of Glad proc instead.

Journey's build hits some good totals, but it's worth noting that end management will not be sustainable. This would be viable if you're okay relying on ageless and only working 50+ content. I'd recommend stepping back and not stressing too much about maximizing defense and resist. Fighting Pool is a tough sell for end sustainability. You may find more success with: Getting as close to Ranged Softcap as possible, but don't make big sacrifices to get there. 35+ is pretty good, and will be supplemented by debuffs. Epic resist armor. This gives you a meaty layer even without Tough. Embracing your diverse tools. Seekers have a hefty tohit-debuff, and make a great alternate opener when Flash Bang is down. This and/or Smoke Canister can make up the difference to softcaps. Tear Gas is one of the best aoe holds around. It's persistent, can be thrown from behind walls, and comes with a healthy damage debuff. Tranq isn't an easy skip on a controller. It's a pretty decent blast, shuts down problem bosses and even AVs in one shot for a breather when needed, and the sleep, even when interrupted, messes with mob AI such that their attack chains are very noticeably disrupted. You have a lot of great things you can splort out of that gun - use them aggressively!

It certainly will, but you have to keep spamming it, as the duration is very short, and you'll want enough static built up so it loops back to you if on a team. Easy looping if you're solo and just hitting your Phantasm.

Thanks for the confirm, @FupDup! Looks like a great power then. I've tweaked my build further, and my main dilemma comes down to my level 47 pick. Not sure what I want! What do you think between: Soul Transfer: Fun and sometimes useful, but not all that important of a tool. Takes a good purple set that serves build goals well. Havoc Punch: Can give me the same purple set bonuses, and adds some ST oomph to my chain. I fear that just Charged > Lancer > Refractor > sometimes Disintegrate is not enough. I can also throw a fun melee disorient proc for extra dizziness. A damage proc is probably better, but leaning on the theme : ) Cloak of Fear: Lose the great Purple bonuses. Gain a weak extra mez, extra chance to stack a stun proc in a passive toggle, lose any semblance of end sustainability. Piercing Beam: Can be procced out to proxy in reasonable ST damage, while leveraging some nice -Res. Pretty slow though, won't be getting my purple bonuses if I'm proccing it out to make it worth including in my rotation. Single Shot: Can actually move my Sent Ward ATO set here, and proc out Charged Shot for good damage. Gives me flexible filler. Charged shot could even have a FFback this way. Cutting Beam: I don't want it! Paralyzing Jolt: Lots of extra stun potential, but pretty slow and mediocre DPA. Other things? Maybe there's a great argument to switch epics. I really like what the bigger radius chain fences brings than other epic immobs though, and Lightning field serves my needs well. Below I've included the latest version, which reflects how I'd leverage Havoc Punch as an example. I'd rather go for secondary ranged defense focus than melee defense, as it's overall more effective. However, the sets possibilities don't really lend themselves to this if I'm pursuing a proc and recharge strategy. When Unleash is up, I'm at melee softcap which is pretty nice. Some neat things I like: 31% KD chance per 10/s on Lightning field. 20% flat KD chance per activation on chain fences. Overcharge knocks down, giving me time to hop in there and layer Oppressive Gloom stun on bosses before they can stand up. Note that procs are disabled on Lancer Shot right now so the buildup proc doesn't skew totals. Obscure Sustenance is also still disabled, so my end recovery looks much worse than it is. Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Dark Armor).mbd Chunk: Text:

Hi folks! Whenever I'm looking for new alt inspiration, Sentinel is a great go-to with its weird and interesting interpretations of classic sets. Refractor Beam and Obscure Sustenance are just the ticket! Enough unique flavor to inspire a build, despite having visited these powersets on other ATs many times. The concept here is to leverage moderate stun stacking with: Oppressive Gloom Overcharge Lancer Shot Proc in Lightning Field Alongside Knockdown in: Chain Fences proc Lightning Field proc -to supplement the strong baseline resists, and enable a build that doesn't really worry about softcaps. KD helps blunt the immediate blow so stuns can have a moment to hit. I do have Unleash potential as a fun steroid with good uptime in this high recharge build. My hope is that this is enough to smooth over any sticky situations I encounter that the soft controls and resists start to flounder in. With all my tools online at once, HP/sec is surprisingly strong! Approaching a mini-regen, even. A few questions: Obscure Sustenance has a tiered bonus structure. With my pretty high end consumption overall, do you think this is enough to sustain if I'm spamming it? I have Unleash for part-time backup on end as well. Note that OS is toggled off - obviously +1.18 isn't enough ; ) Has anyone used Performance shifter proc in Lightning Field? I'm wondering if it may be a worthwhile pop-in, but am not sure how it would proc in this kind of power. How is Refractor Beam with procs? I see others noting that it performs well, but my experience with other "chain" type powers (blaster scramble minds, Chain Induction, etc) is that the initial target has a good chance, but sub-targets are pretty bad. Even if just the primary, not so bad here though - works pretty well as a ST power procced out, with better target # potential than most Sentinel aoes. The idea here is to basically live in melee range, allowing OG and LF to do their thing as I stack chain fences to keep things in place. All the while, a moderate amount of things are flopping down, and the stuns are stacking up here and there as well. Overcharge has better uptime on Sents, so I can count on it as a primary control in addition to a damage power. I like that chain fences in EM has a much greater aoe radius than the Mu version, so I can one-shot root the spawn in place. This is also why I avoided any cones - I want stuff I can just pop off in melee range, though can always joust when necessary. I've never much enjoyed Cutting Beam or Piercing Beam on my other Beams - if you have an argument in favor, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Probably the easiest drop/slot siphon would be Soul Transfer. It is a fun power to have around, but could move for the right target if you have a great suggestion. I'm not terribly certain if the ATOs are actually serving me well here. I might be better off dropping these sets entirely and re-optimizing Disintegrate and Charged Shot for something else. I don't think bopping them over to Thunderstrikes for ranged def is worth it though - the recharge trade-off doesn't seem worth it. Build: Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Dark Armor).mbd Text: Chunk:

Reroll as Arse/TA and throw nets 😄 Really though it's true - this is a shortcoming. The set is still quite strong even so.

I think disruption arrow is an exception. This is what allows it to be on such a quick cool down, and not be unbalanced given higher than average values.

Very true! They also don't stack from different casters.

What fun is it if you don't have at least one foolish person on the team to test your limits? 😀

I don't mind the crash too much in this combo! Crashes are more readily handled on sets that can stage a lot of persistent effects while the power is up. If I crash while everything is debuffed to the end of the world, I can bounce back pretty easily. I didn't realize the weapons won't animate - I guess they just sort of splort out of the gremlin I turn into? Surge is partially a mule here, but has decent enough utility in a dire situation, even with no extra slots. I keep both LN and Glue in order to have additional effects to throw down at a moment's notice, and rely less on any one power being available constantly. Also it's just fun to vomit out so many patches. Part of my character's theme is having an absurd variety of munitions. : ) LN doesn't really need any enhancement beyond the one slot here. It has max hit chance, and the recharge is good enough considering all the other powerful effects I have to throw out, along with modest global recharge helping. Even throwing a +5 recharge IO in there only shaves off a few seconds.

I can confirm that in game it behaves as @Spaghetti Betty says. The primary target gets a full load of procs to the face upon contact at 90% (no recharge slotted), while the patch pops any relevant procs on the 10 second pulse. Certainly not what you would expect from CoD, but there you have it! Even so, Sleep Grenade's behavior seems to match what you project. All of this has been very useful in repositioning my own build. I feel like this might be the final landing point for my next respec: Controller (Arsenal Control - Trick Arrow).mbd All of this makes me sort of wish they'd kept it in its original form during feedback. At first I think there was no patch/pseudopet involved - just a procable aoe that slept mobs on a relatively short cooldown. Still, carving a niche for a power almost purely on its procability is sort of silly, so this is for the best.

Thanks! This is the part I wasn't sure of, and would explain the inferiority of ranged AOE here. Oddly, blaster glue arrow, which @Spaghetti Betty pointed out here, has the same 0s recharge on the damage component of its psuedopet, but is actually excellent for procs. Maybe it's not as good as it seems though, and warrants parser testing itself!

I wonder if the key here is that the pace of battle allows the slow field to actually get multiple fires off. Usually patches are not the greatest for procs, as often the mobs are dead before they have the time to fulfill their proc potential through multiple pulses. In most powers, the immediate damage component is more proccable as its potential is realized up front in one go, but though it's still up front here for ranged aoe procs, the math works out poorly. I'm a little lost on what proc math I would actually expect from the stats in CoD for this part of the pseudopet: 100 activate period 0 recharge 20 ft radius 1.167 animation time Perhaps the 0 recharge is killing the formula here? If this part of the power were direct damage tied to the actual power recharge and not a psuedopet, it would proc amazingly well for ranged aoe. In any case, I'll probably just swap to slow procs only and save the ranged aoe slots for something else. Thanks for the insight @tricon! While it's sad that the ranged aoe procs don't do the work I thought they would, shifting to slow procs gave me the room to squeeze in some much appreciated extra end support in my build, and even rounded out some ED in Sleep Grenade itself. Controller (Arsenal Control - Trick Arrow).mbd

The pertinent field is the 7th column (first entry 36666.50). This represents total damage.