Psychic Blast / Dark Armor

[Cetrix]

Hi there,

 

Made a sentinel a couple days ago, which is now level 40. Besides my roleplay concept-wise, I like both sets, however still have some doubts for my level 50 PvE build.

Psychic / Dark seems to fit well each other, for the CC abilities (stun, sleep). I want to have a good CC sentinel, with mid-to-close range aoe fighting (pbae, cones). 

 

 

Here are my questions :

 

Quote

 

PSYCHIC BLAST (PRIMARY)

 

1 - Mental Blast, Telekinetic Blast : any skippable ?

 

Are Mental Blast (1st power) and Telekinetic Blast (2nd power) mandatory in each build, because they proc Opporunity (respectively Offensive and Defensive) ? Have hard times to make a decent build with enough powers to get 5 LOTG slots... I need to skip as much powers as I can. Would be a pain if I have to get, for example, Mental Blast only to proc Offensive.

 

2 - Psionic tornado : bad damage, too long animation ?

 

I don't really like this power, damages are low (?) and with a terrible animation (3 sec ?). Others AOE are cones (Psychic Scream) or PBAE (fast recharging T9, 2nd pbae from epic pool, and toggle pbae stun Oppressive Gloom from Dark Armor). Shall I skip it and still be OK ? 

 

 

Quote

DARK ARMOR (SECONDARY)

 

3 - Tenebrous regeneration, Obscure sustenance : any skippable ?

 

Both powers sounds weak to me... Only +REGENERATION, and +RECORVERY (only with Obscure sustenance). Are they skippable ?

Miracle, Panacea, and so on can be slotted in Health inherent fitness. Or am I missing something ?

 

 

Quote

 

PSIONIC MASTERY (EPIC POOL)

 

4 - Dominate (Psionic epic power pool) : any good for rotation ?

 

Obviously for roleplaying reasons, I'll get Psionic Mastery. It even seems to be good with the buff Link Minds (more +DEF, more LOTG !).

Is Dominate any good in ST damage rotation ? Maybe with procs ?

 

5 - Mass hypnosis : worth it in combat rotation ?

 

Very situational to save the day, or must have every time it's up (to break toggles, reset targeting) ?

 

6 - Link Minds : perma ?

 

Is it possible to perma-use it ? Not very skilled with maths. 😉

 

 

 

Thank you !

[drbuzzard]

I can answer psychic blast questions, but have not played dark armor. 

 

1. You really only need one of the first two attacks since the actual offensive and defensive opportunity add ons to the resistance debuff are pretty meaningless by high level. I only have one of them on my psi/wp. 

 

2. I have psi tornado on mine, but I am considering dropping it for the reasons you list. Yes, it is an AOE which the set is a bit short on, but the deficiencies are clear. I think dipping into psi pool and getting psychic shockwave is a much better solution. Popping that off right after psychic scream makes for some very nice PBAOE damage. 

 

4. dominate is actually pretty good damage, has good range, and there's a good selection of hold damage procs which can be put into it. 

 

5. No, it's a sleep and those are generally crap IMO unless they do something such as damage. Mind probe is well worth your time instead since it does serious damage and will be a good place for a melee set. 

 

6. 90 second duration, 300 second recharge means that it is possible with perma hasten. If you slot it for max recharge, and have the 170% global floating around from perma hasten, your recharge time will be (1/1 (base) +1 (~100% recharge in the power) +1.7 (global recharge from perma hasten and what's needed to get there) * 300 = 81 seconds. 

[oldskool]

9 hours ago, Cetrix said:

PSYCHIC BLAST (PRIMARY)

 

1 - Mental Blast, Telekinetic Blast : any skippable ?

 

Are Mental Blast (1st power) and Telekinetic Blast (2nd power) mandatory in each build, because they proc Opporunity (respectively Offensive and Defensive) ? Have hard times to make a decent build with enough powers to get 5 LOTG slots... I need to skip as much powers as I can. Would be a pain if I have to get, for example, Mental Blast only to proc Offensive.

 

2 - Psionic tornado : bad damage, too long animation ?

 

I don't really like this power, damages are low (?) and with a terrible animation (3 sec ?). Others AOE are cones (Psychic Scream) or PBAE (fast recharging T9, 2nd pbae from epic pool, and toggle pbae stun Oppressive Gloom from Dark Armor). Shall I skip it and still be OK ? 

 

Mental Blast is currently a trash power.  It sucks.  It sucks a lot.  Offensive Opportunity really won't add that much damage once you start building in quality enhancements for damage.  I'm talking even 3 Single Origins (so level 22+).  

The resistance debuff from Opportunity is triggered from either of those powers.  Telekinetic Blast also has far better slotting options since it can take on enhancements from the Knockdown/Back category which allows for some build creativity.  

Psionic Tornado is a targeted AoE.  It animates in 2.5 seconds or so with Arcanatime.  While Psi Tornado does a little less base damage than Psi Scream, 'Nado hits twice the number of enemies.  Tornado has an enemy cap of 10.  Like Telekinetic Blast, this too can take on the KB/D sets which opens some options.  Psi Scream has a target cap of 6 with an Arcanatime animation of 2.9.  Scream has some value for the -recharge, and it does slightly more damage.  However it isn't as efficient as Tornado can be against larger groups.  If you can take both, then I'd encourage it.  If you want to skip one and take Shockwave from the epics, then I'd actually skip Scream here not Tornado.  I often try to take both.

You didn't bring up Psionic Strike.  I'd encourage you to tinker with it and see if you like it.  It can do considerable damage per hit, but its actual damage-per-activation ratio is pretty poor.  

You've mentioned long animation and I sense (with my own Psychic powers) that is kind of an issue for you.  So you may be inclined to look at Scramble Thoughts as a toss away power.  It's not.  Scramble Thoughts has two important features going for it that make it unique for Sentinels.  First, this power has a base recharge of 20 seconds.  Second, it has an animation around 3 seconds.  I know that animation sounds gross, but hear me out...  This power has one of the highest chances to trigger the Superior Opportunity Strikes ATO proc.  That proc, the purple version, has a PPM of 2 and Scramble Thoughts is the only single-target skill in the whole AT where this ATO is work a damn.  I state this with importance because the current implementation of Opportunity includes a 20% resistance debuff.  That debuff is VERY important to your high level play since Psionic damage is the most resisted damage type against high end enemy factions.  

So in summary, the important powers: 

TK Blast (you have to take one)
Will Domination (This power is honestly broken AF with a base DPA just under Psychic Wail... that wasn't a mistype.  Its your second most damaging power next to the T9.) 
Psychic Focus (your AIM) 

Psychic Tornado (your most efficient AoE - 10 target cap)

Scramble Thoughts (special slotting attention)

Psychic Wail (T9 - 10 target cap)  

That's it.  You can feel free to skip Mental Blast, Psychic Scream, and Psionic Strike (if you like).  

You can potentially run an attack chain of Mind Probe (if in Melee) -> Dominate (because it is amazing with procs) -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts -> Will Domination.  You won't be exemplar friendly with this attack chain but you can easily sub in TK Blast -> Will Dom... etc.  May need Psionic Strike if you do that.  I'd have to play with a build to find out.  

Also, may I introduce you to Force of Will?  Weaken Resolve grants you another source of negative resistance and it can take the Achilles' Heel proc for more -resist.  This power doesn't do damage on its own, but it can take on the Lady Grey and/or Shield Breaker procs.  The base animation and recharge makes those fairly reliable sources of additional damage while making all your other hits matter more.  

Wall of Force is a cone with a lot better slotting potential than Psychic Scream.  Unleash Potential has its merits too.  These may be too much to squeeze in to your build, but they are thematic as well as being decent substitutes.  

 

9 hours ago, Cetrix said:

DARK ARMOR (SECONDARY)

 

3 - Tenebrous regeneration, Obscure sustenance : any skippable ?

 

Both powers sounds weak to me... Only +REGENERATION, and +RECORVERY (only with Obscure sustenance). Are they skippable ?

Miracle, Panacea, and so on can be slotted in Health inherent fitness. Or am I missing something ?

 

 

Tenebrous Regeneration is 100% regeneration without enhancement.  Health is only 40%.  Put your endurance management procs into Health and consider actually enhancing Tenebrous Regeneration.  

Skip Obscure Sustenance at your own peril.  The +recovery only lasts 30 seconds.  However, the effect has a cascading feature (not reflected in Pine's/Mids) where the strongest version of it only lasts 10 seconds.  So for 10 seconds the power is at its maximum, for 10 seconds after that it is a bit less powerful, and for the final 10 seconds it is far weaker.  The health regeneration aspect runs for a total of 60 seconds but its maximum potential is around 20-30 seconds (I forget exactly, but I detail in the write-up in the stickied thread).  Anyway, aim to get enough recharge to refresh this power at least every 30 seconds for the endurance benefit.  If you can get this down to 16 seconds or so, I can promise you that your endurance drain will be an after thought.  Also, unlike other powers such as Dark Regeneration this one only ever needs 1 target in range.  

 

9 hours ago, Cetrix said:

PSIONIC MASTERY (EPIC POOL)

 

4 - Dominate (Psionic epic power pool) : any good for rotation ?

 

Obviously for roleplaying reasons, I'll get Psionic Mastery. It even seems to be good with the buff Link Minds (more +DEF, more LOTG !).

Is Dominate any good in ST damage rotation ? Maybe with procs ?

 

5 - Mass hypnosis : worth it in combat rotation ?

 

Very situational to save the day, or must have every time it's up (to break toggles, reset targeting) ?

 

6 - Link Minds : perma ?

 

Is it possible to perma-use it ? Not very skilled with maths. 😉

 

 

Already mentioned Dominate.  If you put damage procs in to it, then it is amazing for you.  Mind Probe is also amazing.  

Mass Hypnosis isn't worth it in my opinion.  You can stack stun between Psychic Wail, Shockwave (if taken), and Oppressive Gloom.  You'll neuter the threat of minions with just Oppressive Gloom.  Sleep is cute for solo, but even then this is probably overkill. 

Link Minds can be made perma.  It cannot take normal recharge enhancements but it can take IO sets with recharge in the enhancement.  Like it can Defense/Recharge, Defense/Endurance/Recharge, or Endurance/Recharge. 

Edited November 1, 2019 by oldskool

[Cetrix]

@drbuzzard & oldskool : wow, such argumented advices ! That's perfect.

 

I'm also happy to see that I had some good feelings about Psychic Blast set. Note that if I didn't talk about some powers, they were fine to me. I like Scramble Throughts for its high damage and stun effect, for example. Now, I have to make a few choices in regard to my 50 build.

 

About Darm Armor, I'll give a try to both Tenebrous regeneration & Obscure sustenance, if i'm not short on slots.

 

Dark Armor seems very expensive to min-max... 75% RES, 45% DEF seems unreachable, without pricey IO sets and Incarnates.

 

Time to open Pine's Hero and work hard !!

 

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Cetrix
deleted [bold] text

[drbuzzard]

There's a reason I switched my sonic/dark to sonic/energy. 

[oldskool]

2 hours ago, Cetrix said:

Dark Armor seems very expensive to min-max... 75% RES, 45% DEF seems unreachable, without pricey IO sets and Incarnates.

You're not going to softcap defenses on Sentinel Dark Armor and you really don't need to.  With Link Minds it is possible to get around 30-32% to Melee/Range/AoE.  I'm not convinced it is entirely worth chasing beyond 30% personally.  

75% resistance ain't gonna happen beyond Smashing/Lethal and in order to do that you're going to need to focus a lot of sets to make it happen.  Reactive Defense has a Smashing/Lethal bonus, Preventative Medicine has a Smashing/Lethal bonus, and so on.  Those are some sets I stacked on my Water/Dark and she has 71% Smashing/Lethal.  However, she also has the Reactive scaling resistance so that does pad that out as her health goes lower.  Her Melee defense is 30% and 28% to the others.  

My Water/Dark had a similar plan to what you're going for.  Just soft controls (in her case more Knockdown) and use that to help pad out the defenses.  

Take it all as a layered approach.  71% Smashing/Lethal resist, 30% melee defense, and a whopping 1100% regeneration during the height of Obscure Sustenance (75 hit points per second!) on top of mass knockdown and/or Stuns (Geyser + Oppressive Gloom) is more durable than it should be.  

You can push some pretty silly levels of resistance for a short duration with Sorcery's Rune of Protection (effectively hard capping almost all resistances!) but that takes out a lot of other powers.  

Anyway, good luck!  Toss out the build here if you still feel you need some help.  There are plenty of folks that don't mind tossing out their 2 cents. 

[Cetrix]

@drbuzzard : /Dark is for roleplaying/visual purposes. Even given that, I want to maximize the build as much as I can. 

 

@oldskool : here we are for the build, 1st try. Had to grab all tier 3 Incarnates to "finish" it.

Kept the Mass Hypnosis, and Psychic Scream, both powers I like to use.

An image from Pine's + the written build below.

 

NOTE : Hasten, included in the 193% recharge (cumulative total window). Dunno if perma, but Link Minds is (@drbuzzard).

NOTE 2 : "cheap" build, without purples, etc. May improve it later, if I keep this hero as a main.

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Psycaster: Level 50 Magic Sentinel
Primary Power Set: Psychic Blast
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Telekinetic Blast

• (A) Kinetic Crash - Damage/Endurance/Knockback
• (19) Kinetic Crash - Accuracy/Damage/Knockback
• (21) Kinetic Crash - Damage/Knockback
• (25) Kinetic Crash - Recharge/Endurance

Level 1: Dark Embrace

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (17) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge
• (37) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
• (39) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Aegis - Resistance

Level 2: Psychic Scream

• (A) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage
• (11) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime
• (13) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• (13) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (15) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (15) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff

Level 4: Tenebrous Regeneration

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (5) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (23) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance

Level 6: Will Domination

• (A) Tempest - Accuracy/Damage
• (7) Tempest - Damage/Endurance
• (7) Tempest - Damage/Recharge
• (9) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (9) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
• (11) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)

Level 8: Murky Cloud

• (A) Aegis - Resistance
• (39) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
• (40) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge

Level 10: Obsidian Shield

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (17) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (21) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
• (37) Aegis - Resistance

Level 12: Psychic Focus

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 14: Fly

• (A) Flight Speed IO

Level 16: Obscure Sustenance

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (36) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime

Level 18: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (19) Reactive Defenses - Defense
• (37) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance

Level 20: Cloak of Darkness

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge

Level 22: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (23) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 24: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (25) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
• (31) Kismet - Defense/Endurance
• (31) Kismet - Defense/Endurance/Recharge

Level 26: Scramble Thoughts

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (27) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (31) Devastation - Chance of Hold

Level 28: Boxing

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 30: Tough

• (A) Reactive Armor - Endurance
• (39) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (43) Reactive Armor - Endurance/Recharge
• (48) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance

Level 32: Psychic Wail

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (33) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (34) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 35: Mass Hypnosis

• (A) Induced Coma - Accuracy/Recharge
• (46) Induced Coma - Chance of -Recharge

Level 38: Oppressive Gloom

• (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure

Level 41: Dominate

• (A) Tempest - Accuracy/Damage
• (42) Tempest - Damage/Endurance
• (42) Tempest - Damage/Recharge
• (42) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (43) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (43) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)

Level 44: Psychic Shockwave

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (45) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (46) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (46) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 47: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (48) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• (48) Shield Wall - Defense
• (50) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance

Level 49: Link Minds

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (50) Red Fortune - Defense
• (50) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty

Level 4: Ninja Run 

Level 2: Swift

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Edited November 1, 2019 by Cetrix

[oldskool]

58 minutes ago, Cetrix said:

@oldskool : here we are for the build, 1st try. Had to grab all tier 3 Incarnates to "finish" it.

Kept the Mass Hypnosis, and Psychic Scream, both powers I like to use.

An image from Pine's + the written build below.

 

NOTE : Hasten, included in the 193% recharge (cumulative total window). Dunno if perma, but Link Minds is (@drbuzzard).

NOTE 2 : "cheap" build, without purples, etc. May improve it later, if I keep this hero as a main.

Definitely props for set choices using some cheaper sets.  Slotting is pretty sound since it is tough to get a lot of defense on Dark Armor.  

 

Couple notes: 

 

You don't really have 193% recharge.  You have 193% for a few seconds during Ageless.  The peak of the buff drops off pretty quickly before the duration completes.  You'll more often than not run around at 133~ish% recharge (during the bulk of Ageless) and 123% for all content under level 45.  Your defenses are really good but Support Hybrid will have periods of downtime.  Still, the combination of your regeneration, resistance and defense are going to serve you well.  Good job!

 

You can go with Dominate - Will Domination - Scramble Thoughts - [slight gap] - Will Domination - TK Blast most of the time.  You could lose the gap and drop TK Blast during the height of the Ageless buff.  Without Hasten active you'll resort to using AoE attacks as fillers.  Not a big deal since most of time a single-target chain only matters against Elite Bosses+.  Generally you'd just hammer out Psychic Scream and Shockwave to clean up after Wail.  

Word of caution... That attack chain will drain your endurance extremely fast.  You're looking at a rough 5 endurance per second for all of that plus your toggles (1.46).  Obscure Sustenance will grant you around 5 endurance per second (that's including Stamina + Accolades) for 10 seconds before that buff drops off. 

 

I'm working on my 5th Dark Armor character (I've made 2 sentinels, a tanker, a scrapper, and a stalker).  Every time I tend to weigh in heavily on Cardiac Core as my Alpha of choice.  I do love Musculature and Radial is a decent idea.  However Cardiac is going to dramatically cut down on the costs to your attacks and Psychic's can be pretty expensive.  In messing around with your build Cardiac shaves off enough endurance drain to put your consumption just under 5 endurance per second.  So for 10 seconds you shouldn't notice your blue bar move too much.  After that you'll notice and your Obscure Sustenance will have 16 more seconds left to recharge putting you into the 3rd phase of the buff.  I'm totally spit balling this since I don't play Psychic Blast with Dark Armor, but I have played a lot of Dark Armor now so just leveraging that experience here. 

 

You don't have perma Mind Link.  The non-Ageless recharge would have around a 16 second or so downtime.  Still, you have a lot of various defenses in the low 20's or into the 30's.  So you're doing pretty good there.  2 Membrane Exposures (which aren't cheap) would help shave more off that downtime.  Another option is to try and frankenslot it with Defense/Recharge from sets with +5 boosters.  Membranes would be the most dramatic path to take and +3 versions would be a big drop in recharge reduction.  You could also push more global recharge with more rare sets elsewhere, but that'd be a longer term project.  


 

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by oldskool

[Cetrix]

I'm on the build review since you posted. Damn, have a headhache ! 

 

Question : having 2 same sets in 2 differents powers, the set bonuses don't apply for the 2nd one ? Have it for +RES set bonuses. And it's weird, not for global recharge...

Edited November 2, 2019 by Cetrix

[Cetrix]

And 2nd try, had to make some sacrifices (and still no purples, but 3 Hamidons with 1 of each being cheap at AH) in order to reach, to me, a beautiful 93.8% recharge (163% with hasten) and keep my DEF/RES as high as possible.

 

I went for all the global recharge I could.

 

Notes :

- Not sure about Tenebrous Regeneration slotting, but had to take that juicy 8.75 global recharge. Obscure Sustenance remains naked, except with the Regenerative tissue (+Regen).

- Let's go for Cardiac Alpha !

- Alas, damage could  be low on some powers (Basilisk's Gaze on Dominate, but with 2 damage procs).

- I will redo the build properly with smart level sloting.

- Telekinetic Blast as a mule... with a KB set.

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Psycaster: Level 50 Magic Sentinel
Primary Power Set: Psychic Blast
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Telekinetic Blast

• (A) Kinetic Crash - Damage/Knockback
• (9) Kinetic Crash - Damage/Endurance/Knockback
• (19) Kinetic Crash - Accuracy/Damage/Knockback

Level 1: Dark Embrace

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance
• (15) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist
• (17) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance/Rech/End
• (21) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)

Level 2: Psychic Scream

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (13) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (15) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff

Level 4: Tenebrous Regeneration

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (19) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (21) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• (36) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb

Level 6: Will Domination

• (A) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (7) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (7) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (9) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (11) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (50) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)

Level 8: Murky Cloud

• (A) Aegis - Resistance
• (39) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
• (40) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
• (40) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge

Level 10: Obsidian Shield

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (17) Titan:Peridont Shard

Level 12: Psychic Focus

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 14: Fly

• (A) Flight Speed IO

Level 16: Obscure Sustenance

• (A) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration

Level 18: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed

Level 20: Cloak of Darkness

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge
• (37) Kismet - Accuracy +6%

Level 22: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (23) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 24: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (25) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
• (25) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
• (31) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (31) Red Fortune - Defense
• (40) Red Fortune - Endurance

Level 26: Scramble Thoughts

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (27) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (31) Devastation - Chance of Hold

Level 28: Boxing

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 30: Tough

• (A) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance
• (37) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (39) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Recharge

Level 32: Psychic Wail

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (33) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (34) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 35: Mass Hypnosis

• (A) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Recharge
• (39) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Endurance
• (43) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge
• (46) Call of the Sandman - Sleep/Range
• (48) Call of the Sandman - Chance of Heal Self

Level 38: Oppressive Gloom

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 41: Dominate

• (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
• (42) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge
• (42) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
• (42) Basilisk's Gaze - Chance for Recharge Slow
• (43) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (43) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)

Level 44: Psychic Shockwave

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (45) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (46) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (46) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 47: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (48) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• (48) Shield Wall - Defense

Level 49: Link Minds

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (50) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
• (50) HamiO:Membrane Exposure

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty

Level 4: Ninja Run 

Level 2: Swift

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Edited November 2, 2019 by Cetrix

[C U R S E]

I am personally leveling, a Psi Bio Sentinel, only level 30 up to this point, but very impressive. I think Psi blast for sentinels has some of the hardest hitting attacks, paired with Bios offensive adaptation, it hits like a truck. I really don't understand some people's rationale, but I have psychic strike in my rotation and it hits hard. One important aspect of telekinetic blast is your Force Feedback proc, whick gives u a nice 100 percent recharge for 5 seconds. I think bio with it's shield and heals is the IC ng on the cake. I am not too familiar with dark armor, but heard it's very end heavy and provides no endurance buff.

 

[oldskool]

6 hours ago, Cetrix said:

And 2nd try, had to make some sacrifices (and still no purples, but 3 Hamidons with 1 of each being cheap at AH) in order to reach, to me, a beautiful 93.8% recharge (163% with hasten) and keep my DEF/RES as high as possible.

 

I went for all the global recharge I could.

 

Notes :

- Not sure about Tenebrous Regeneration slotting, but had to take that juicy 8.75 global recharge. Obscure Sustenance remains naked, except with the Regenerative tissue (+Regen).

- Let's go for Cardiac Alpha !

- Alas, damage could  be low on some powers (Basilisk's Gaze on Dominate, but with 2 damage procs).

- I will redo the build properly with smart level sloting.

- Telekinetic Blast as a mule... with a KB set.

I'd swap the slots of Tenebrous Regeneration with Obscure Sustenance.  Putting that Preventative Medicine set into OS reduces the cooldown from 22 seconds to 17 seconds.  Portions of Obscure Sustenance can be enhanced.  Moving the set there not only improves your regeneration (from over 800% to over 1,000%) it improves the uptime on the strongest part of the endurance benefit.  

With a 17 second cooldown you can refresh the power, as long as a single target is in range, on the tail end of the second part of buff's cycle.  That will give you more endurance over the long run.  With the current recharge you'd refresh it at the beginning of when the buff is at its weakest point.  5 seconds won't make or break this build, but it is what I would do. 

[oldskool]

2 hours ago, C U R S E said:

I am personally leveling, a Psi Bio Sentinel, only level 30 up to this point, but very impressive. I think Psi blast for sentinels has some of the hardest hitting attacks, paired with Bios offensive adaptation, it hits like a truck. I really don't understand some people's rationale, but I have psychic strike in my rotation and it hits hard. One important aspect of telekinetic blast is your Force Feedback proc, whick gives u a nice 100 percent recharge for 5 seconds. I think bio with it's shield and heals is the IC ng on the cake. I am not too familiar with dark armor, but heard it's very end heavy and provides no endurance buff.

 

I mentioned my rationale in this thread.  I acknowledge that Psionic Strike can hit hard, but it has a damage-per-activation (DPA) that is rather poor in conjunction with the rest of the set.  If you're building towards using an Epic Pool like Psionic Mastery then Psionic Strike becomes a superfluous power choice in the build.  Psionic Strike may hit fairly hard when it lands but you can get more damage over a period of time by not using it.  So its a matter of burst damage vs sustained damage.  Psionic Strike is good for one but not both.  As always, I will state that a high level of min/max isn't necessary in CoH, but it is a form of thought exercise that some people do enjoy.  

Whatever you heard about Sentinel Dark Armor is only partially accurate.  Dark Armor can be endurance heavy as it includes an extra defensive toggle over all of the other sets.  Dark Armor comes with 3 resistance and 1 defense toggles as the backbone mitigation set up where most secondaries only have 3 toggles at most.  So right off the bat Dark Armor has one more toggle that costs 0.26 endurance no other set has.  No one is forced to take Cloak of Fear or Oppressive Gloom.  No one is forced to run both of them at the same time.  Though to be fair to Oppressive Gloom its cost is pretty low.  

Sentinel Dark Armor has a brand new power with some unique mechanics called Obscure Sustenance.  In some ways it works very similarly to Drain Psyche vs Dark Regeneration (melee Dark Armor).  On activation Obscure Sustenance will heal the player if it hits a target (the amount is minor) and then it will grant 3 buffs to both regeneration and recovery.  The duration for each regeneration and recovery buff is different but the effects stack.  So for 10 seconds all 3 regeneration and recovery buffs will run at the same time.  Once the first set of buffs fall off the other ones will continue for another 10 seconds and then drop off too.  For 10 seconds after that there is a minor recovery buff that persists then fades and the minor regeneration buff continues for 30 more seconds.  So in summary, Obscure Sustenance has a 60 second cool down that grants series of regeneration effects that run its course over 60 seconds and it grants a series of recovery buffs that run their course over 30 seconds.  

Sentinel Dark Armor can easily support all of its toggles and then some but it really needs to manage the up time of Obscure Sustenance in order to do it.  Sentinel Dark Armor doesn't have a passive endurance buff but it most certainly has an active one. 

Edited November 2, 2019 by oldskool

[Cetrix]

I'm back, level 50 (regular leveling) and fully slotted (Attuned) with this build (same as above, with switch Obscure Sustenance / Tenebrous Regeneration slotting).

No Incarnates yet.

 

Feedback :

- Indeed, it's endurance heavy ! Cardiac is mandatory, i'll work on this ASAP. Obscure Sustenance is handy, but it can fail because it needs an alive target, and it can miss. Note that you can cast it from a long distance, and also can fail (bad game design). 

- I regret a little bit Psychic Scream, both PBAE are enough. It's OK, not a big deal. Maybe I will switch it later with Psionic Strike or whatever, with a deluxe build (purples, ATO...).

- 45sec T9 PBAE is... REALLY delightful ! Love it, along with 10sec PBAE Psychic Shockwave (Psionic Mastery). Both are stun powers !

- I don't really see the point with Oppressive Gloom. Maybe a combo with both PBAE stun ?

- Feeling very tanky in teams, with both defensive powers/stats and control powers.

 

Overall, Psychic / Dark / Psionic sentinel is a good combo.

All damages powers have control (1 hold, 3 stuns, 1 sleep, 1 KB). AOE Sleep and Aura stun adds more. A mini-controller on its own. Like it very much.

My build has good defenses, but the damage could be slightly better with a more pricey build (or remove some attuned, then upgrade). It's still satisfying.

 

Thank you all for your advices, it was very useful to me.

 

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1518&c=713&a=1426&f=HEX&dc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

 

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by Cetrix

[Cetrix]

All my T1 Incarnates are slotted now, except Hybrid.

 

Classic ones : Cardiac, Degenerative, Seer, Ageless, Ion.

 

But... I have an idea. Psychic Blast and Psionic Mastery are, not only damage, but also control powers (Mag 3). 

What about strenghten that with Incarnates ?

 

INTERFACE : Cognitive (confuse proc, and psionic proc).

HYBRID : Control (chance for +1 Mag to control powers, chance for psionic proc on controlled ennemies, and a useless, for sentinel, status protection).

(JUDGEMENT : why not Void, for the PBAE, because i'm always in melee).

 

Did anyone tried this ?

 

 

 

 

 

[oldskool]

14 hours ago, Cetrix said:

All my T1 Incarnates are slotted now, except Hybrid.

 

Classic ones : Cardiac, Degenerative, Seer, Ageless, Ion.

 

But... I have an idea. Psychic Blast and Psionic Mastery are, not only damage, but also control powers (Mag 3). 

What about strenghten that with Incarnates ?

 

INTERFACE : Cognitive (confuse proc, and psionic proc).

HYBRID : Control (chance for +1 Mag to control powers, chance for psionic proc on controlled ennemies, and a useless, for sentinel, status protection).

(JUDGEMENT : why not Void, for the PBAE, because i'm always in melee).

 

Did anyone tried this ?

I've yet to try Cognitive or Control on any character I have.  That includes the Controllers, Defenders, and Masterminds I have.  I generally find more value in Intuition Radial since it offers a lot of things I want.

I've not heard good things about Control Hybrid, but I've never bothered with it.  I either go for Assault, Support, Melee, or Clarion depending on the archetype.

You can have more than one of a given Incarnate category.  The only drawback is investing time into getting the salvage necessary to craft it, and you can circumvent a lot of that time by running the Dark Astoria missions repeatedly though flashbacks.  So you won't necessarily lose anything but time for experimenting.