Sentinel Secondaries

[moghedan]

The secondary you choose can really make or break your character.

 

For a defensive set, you should know, none of them give very much in the way of damage defenses or resists, and some of them are just plain BAD at everything.  They all do all seem to keep you from suffering the effects of sleeps and the like, and they all seem to have a power or two that gives you a larger boost of strength for a short term on a long cooldown.  I have not included those powers in the writeup values, only those that have 100% unassisted uptime.  At high levels, some of the power sets can get 100% or close to it uptime on these cooldown powers.

 

ALL VALUES ARE UNENHANCED.  SOs can double the values, IOs even higher.

 

This is designed as a simple apples to apples comparison for those with no access to a i25 character planner.  My personal bias will show a more positive reaction to the sets with Endurance Recovery, as the ability to continually power attacks as fast as they will cycle is what sets the Sentinel apart from the Blaster.

 

 

 

BIO ARMOR

 

Bio is a decent set with middle of the road resists and defenses.  It has a very limited health regen at 190%, and a 10% health boost.  It does have a generous 150% recovery, and only costs 0.52 end per second to run the set toggles, tied with regen for the lowest.  This set adds a lot of persistent physical changes to your body while those toggles run.  It has an adaptability power that changes the way that some of the other powers function, like more resistant , more damaging, or more endo friendly ((The effectiveness of this power is still a point of debate.  I have no first hand knowledge)).  This secondary is usually considered a good choice.

 

 

DARK ARMOR

 

This is bar none the worst secondary and the secondary chosen by most of the people that immediately go out and bash the AT as useless.  It is very toggle heavy, and for all those toggles, it gets less defense than Hover and Midline resists.  It also is the only secondary with Stealth.  It has a little more health regen than Bio at 240%, but no health boost.  It has no added Recovery or max end, and those toggles cost 1.48 end/sec, the most of any secondary.  It does have a self rez, and not a single other thing to recommend it.

 

 

ELECTRIC

 

Electric gives no defense but has one of the better sets of resists.  It has 340% health regen, but no health boost.  It has no enhanced recovery, but adds 10 points to the pool.  It costs 0.94end/sec to run the toggles, one of the highest costs, but it does include a 20% haste buff.  This is a middle of the pack set, good enough, but not as good as some of the others.

 

 

ENERGY

 

Energy has better than usual defenses but weak resists.  It has no enhancements to Health Regen, Recovery, or pool sizes, costs the second most at 0.99 end/sec to run the toggles, and has nothing at all special about it.  It has a 90 second CD/ 30 second active that reduces power costs and gives recovery... if it was a full time power, the set would still be less powerful than some of the others.

 

 

FIERY

 

No Defense and decent Resists, Fiery has no bonuses to Health Regen, Recovery, or Pool Size.  However, it costs just 0.79 end/sec to run the toggles, and that includes a 10% Damage Increase, a constant 1.5% of health HoT, self heal, and self rez.  It does have an extra attack power in the set that has some Recovery effects based on the number of hit targets.

 

 

ICE

 

Ice has some of the better defenses in the secondaries, and near immunity resists to Cold.  No Boosts to Health Regen or Recovery, but it does have a 10% boost to Health Pool.  It has a fairly low cost of 0.81 end/sec, and has a second "ABSORB" health pool that is used before the Health Pool.

 

 

INVULNERABILITY

 

Has the best resists in the secondaries (50% more than average), and some defense as well.  No bonus to Regen or Recovery rates, but it does have a 10% bonus to the endurance pool.  It also has a self heal to recover the damage that does get through its resists.

 

 

NINJA

 

NINJA has 16% Defense and 7% Resist to everything, which is better than most secondaries even without accounting for the lack of coverage holes.  No bonuses, but it costs only 0.78 to run, and has a decent Endo Heal, Self Heal, and an AOE Cone Blind attack.

 

 

RADIATION

 

Considered one of the better secondaries, RADIATION lacks defense but has decent resists.  No boosts, but it only cost 0.73 end/sec to run, and that is an impressive powerset with 20% haste, a self heal, and an Endo heal.  Also has an Endo siphoning attack, that might give it the most Endurance to pump into 20% haste boosted primaries.

 

 

REGEN

 

REGEN offers no defense at all, and only 8.8 resist, which it gets late in the powerset.  However it does get an second health pool in the form of an absorb shield that regenerates very quickly and takes damage before the actual health pool.  It recovers health (once lost) at a rate of 365% with a minor 6% increase in the pool size, and recovers an extra 30% of endurance at a rate of 155%.  Its toggles cost tied for the least at 0.52 end/sec and it has a Self Heal and a Self Rez.  Considered a good powerset, best for those that take occasional small doses of damage, weak once the absorb shield is expended.

 

 

REFLEX

 

Has 18 Defense to all, the highest value for all secondaries.  No Resists.  No boost to Regen or pool size, but it does have a 30% boost to Recovery, for a total of 155%.  Toggles cost only 0.78 end/sec, giving Primary power sets lots of Power while boosting them with 20% haste.  Considered a Top Tier Secondary, slightly edging out Radiation as the best 20% haste secondary.

 

 

WILLPOWER

 

Considered the best powerset for its ease of use, great as long as you don't ask too much of it.  It has a little Defense and a good enough resists, the best regen at 415% on top of a 20% health boost for even more regen, a 30% recovery boost, and it costs 0.83 end/sec to run the mostly toggle and auto powerset.  If it all goes bad, has a self rez.

[ParaBruce]

About Bio Armor:

 

I'm finding the damage burst available via Offensive Adaptation to be pretty significant: if it takes me three zaps to get a bad guy without it, it'll take two with it. This is particularly helpful with Water Blast, which I love but which is (sensibly enough) still in that a-bit-undertuned launch condition.

 

[Delusionist]

Actually Fiery Armor does have recovery; Consume has an ongoing buff to recovery after the initial END drain. I’m finding that many of the descriptions don’t have all the info, you actually have to look at the details of each power to see all the nuances. The replacement for the snipe has a repel and an unenhaceable mag 4 hold.

[FUBARczar]

Somebody is an invuln fanboy...  just a couple things,

 

Bio is great, the damage buff is good, it has absorb power too; and the Adaption toggles do make a noticeable difference between them

 

EA is a great set for Sappers, and in general, its one hole to fill really is Psi, its heal is a clone of Elec Armor and also has +regen and endredux after the heal, and has +20 Haste

 

Ice has Icy Bastion and Icy Bastion and everything else, also would be a legit choice for sappers

 

Dark is not that bad, you get a set of good resists, stealth, no one ranged is going to run Cloak of Fear, so there goes .52 e/s or 1/3 of that end cost for the set, and you get a +recovery/+regen power in Obscure Substance " 60.24 heal on self unresistable +172.00%% regeneration rate for 10.00s on self unresistable +172.00%% regeneration rate for 20.00s on self Ignores buffs and enhancements unresistable +100.00%% regeneration rate for 1m 0s on self unresistable +60.00%% recovery rate for 10.00s on self unresistable +38.00%% recovery rate for 20.00s on self Ignores buffs and enhancements unresistable +10.00%% recovery rate for 30.00s on self unresistable"  Straight from in-game, and Cloak of Darkness has 2xs the Def. as Hover

 

 

 

 

[FUBARczar]

Somebody is an invuln fanboy...  just a couple things,

 

Bio is great, the damage buff is good, it has absorb power too; and the Adaption toggles do make a noticeable difference between them

 

EA is a great set for Sappers, and in general, its one hole to fill really is Psi, its heal is a clone of Elec Armor and also has +regen and endredux after the heal, and has +20 Haste

 

Ice has Icy Bastion and Icy Bastion and everything else, also would be a legit choice for sappers

 

Dark is not that bad, you get a set of good resists, stealth, no one ranged is going to run Cloak of Fear, so there goes .52 e/s or 1/3 of that end cost for the set, and you get a +recovery/+regen power in Obscure Substance " 60.24 heal on self unresistable +172.00%% regeneration rate for 10.00s on self unresistable +172.00%% regeneration rate for 20.00s on self Ignores buffs and enhancements unresistable +100.00%% regeneration rate for 1m 0s on self unresistable +60.00%% recovery rate for 10.00s on self unresistable +38.00%% recovery rate for 20.00s on self Ignores buffs and enhancements unresistable +10.00%% recovery rate for 30.00s on self unresistable"  Straight from in-game, and Cloak of Darkness has 2xs the Def. as Hover

 

 

 

 

[azamean]

I've found Regen to be extremely powerful. You're forgetting that the self rez also acts as a scaling Dull Pain when used alive depending on how much hp you have when you use it. If I pop it when I'm at orange HP I'll get around +700 max HP, and its permanent with regular slotting. This drastically increases how much HP/sec you're regenning. I was also able to cap defense very easily.

[Galaxy Brain]

Just saying, blasters all have a nutty 50% recovery boost now

[ParaBruce]

They do? As of when, and where does one find these things out? (I like knowing.)

 

[Galaxy Brain]

They do? As of when, and where does one find these things out? (I like knowing.)

 

As of the i24 beta on live, and that was ported to here as well. You can check out the "sustain" powers on Paragon Wiki under the i24 changes, as well as the secondary powers on blasters themselves. They all now carry some form of massive recovery boost and anti chip damage (via regen or heal over time) to greatly boost survival against more trivial things as well as greatly decrease downtime.

 

The blaster forums may have additional info :)

[GritIron]

A minor revision to Electric, It has an Endo Reducer in its heal.

[moghedan]

""they all seem to have a power or two that gives you a larger boost of strength for a short term on a long cooldown.  I have not included those powers in the writeup values, only those that have 100% unassisted uptime.  At high levels, some of the power sets can get 100% or close to it uptime on these cooldown powers.""

[ParaBruce]

Thanks for clues!

 

[Ninjaboy]

Quick take from what I've learned so far -

 

Def > Resists for Sents.

 

 

Offensive secondaries sets -

 

Bio - 25% damage boost in Offensive mode

 

Fire - 10% passive with Molten Embrace

 

Ninja - 20% first attack breaking stealth

 

Rad - 33% under the effects of Meltdown

 

 

All will stack with Assault from Leadership Pool.

 

Highest overall DPS seems to be coming from BIO in Offensive Mode.

 

 

My favorite secondaries -

 

 

/EnA - +HP, Mega resistance vs. Defense debuffs, +TP Resist, +Repel resist,  Lots of Endurance recovery including a sapper ability, in set heal, Overload also grants more HP, +20% to recharge, Overload hard caps your +DEF for 3 mins making you extremely hard to kill. The highest overall passive +RES for a +DEF Set except for no Psi resist.

 

/Bio - Plays a lot like +WP and Regen. You can stance dance like a Warrior in WoW. Activate your shield in Defense mode then change to offensive mode to attack. Will not be as "unkillable" as some of the other sets end game because you will not hit the RES or +DEF cap on Parasitic Leech.

 

/Ninja - Decent set. You can max out the +DEF provided by your main shields early game. You give up a lot of utility vs. EnA for the Psi protection that could be outfitted (somewhat) late game. The extra damage on first attack out of stealth is interesting along with the extra movement speed.

 

/Electric - Solid+RES but Sent resist cap at 75% instead of 90% for other melee. You can get hit for big numbers even at 75% resist. Why are you getting hit though? lol

[MaliceStar]

'Def > Resists for Sents.'

 

For a Sentinel, I'd rather have strong resists than defense. All it takes is a lucky hit, then everything goes downhill from there.

 

 

'/Electric - Solid+RES but Sent resist cap at 75% instead of 90% for other melee. You can get hit for big numbers even at 75% resist. Why are you getting hit though? lol'

 

Tankers and Brutes have 90% cap, Scrappers have 75% like Sentinels. Both Electric and Radiation Armor are high resist sets that have strong, fast heals that also grants decent regeneration over time.

[Astredax]

'Def > Resists for Sents.'

 

For a Sentinel, I'd rather have strong resists than defense. All it takes is a lucky hit, then everything goes downhill from there.

 

 

'/Electric - Solid+RES but Sent resist cap at 75% instead of 90% for other melee. You can get hit for big numbers even at 75% resist. Why are you getting hit though? lol'

 

Tankers and Brutes have 90% cap, Scrappers have 75% like Sentinels. Both Electric and Radiation Armor are high resist sets that have strong, fast heals that also grants decent regeneration over time.

 

I agree that resists are important too, and you're right you can cascade fail with def. The thing is, resist sets are actually even MORE vulnerable to defense cascade failures because they have less debuff resist and have less defense for avoiding -def abilities to begin with.  Yes, it's more reliable in the sense that it will more uniform in the time it takes to die, but...a def character at the def cap will effectively survive twice as long on average than someone sitting at the sentinel resist cap without defenses. 

 

Actually I like elec a lot...as a tanker set.  It's still ok as a sentinel set, but it's just hamstrung pretty hard by the lower caps, especially when you consider something like EA can be pulling 65% S/L and ~30% to the rest while having the exact same healing ability elec has.  It's literally the same ability, Energize. 

[Galaxy Brain]

Tbf, building defense onto a resistance base offers way more mitigation.

[Fedifensor]

I agree that resists are important too, and you're right you can cascade fail with def. The thing is, resist sets are actually even MORE vulnerable to defense cascade failures because they have less debuff resist and have less defense for avoiding -def abilities to begin with.  Yes, it's more reliable in the sense that it will more uniform in the time it takes to die, but...a def character at the def cap will effectively survive twice as long on average than someone sitting at the sentinel resist cap without defenses.

You’re quite correct.  That said, once you’re a part of a team, it’s a lot easier to get +DEF (mostly wasted when you’re capped) than +RES.  Someone running Farsight from Time is giving at least +10% DEF, and a Defender with Force Field will get significantly higher.

[Sunsette]

By the same token, once you're on a team that's that well-prepared, isn't the damage (either directly or through our support inherent) the most important thing we bring to the table, leaving defense vs. resistance less relevant?

[Fedifensor]

By the same token, once you're on a team that's that well-prepared, isn't the damage (either directly or through our support inherent) the most important thing we bring to the table, leaving defense vs. resistance less relevant?

Yes...if it’s truly a well-prepared team, your defenses will rarely be an issue.  However, I find that most teams aren’t well-prepared, especially PUGs (pick-up groups).  My weekly group includes my daughter and a friend’s two daughters, all teenagers.  They’re still learning the ropes, and I find being a sentinel makes me much more survivable in this group than I would be as a blaster.  I’ve survived near-wipes that took out the rest of the party thanks to my defensive set.

[Sunsette]

Oh, I absolutely agree as far as Sent vs. Blaster. I just don't feel like (based on prior experience with Scrappers and Brutes) that Def vs. Res matters very much if you're not formally taking any sort of tank role and are there for your support and damage. If you're an OT that takes on stray lieutenants and stuff, any decent amount of investment should do.

[Ninjaboy]

'Def > Resists for Sents.'

 

For a Sentinel, I'd rather have strong resists than defense. All it takes is a lucky hit, then everything goes downhill from there.

 

 

The thing is you are going to be taking that "lucky" hit as often as a Brute / Tank with +DEF which doesn't happen often at cap.

 

However with +RES you are capped at 75% vs. 90% with a Brute / Tank. the difference could be half your health bar and you have little to no +DEF to avoid. You are going to take everything at minimum at 25% strength which is 2.5x worse than a Brute / Tank.

 

EnA is an excellent set that focuses on the defensive strength of the Sent (+DEF) with some +RES for back up that you can take higher end game.

 

The biggest issue is of course that pesky Psi.

 

 

[graeberguinn]

Can someone explain resist vs defense. I have an Elec/elec sent at lvl 35 and I'm trying to figure out build, io sets, survivability. Thanks

[Sunsette]

II. What Secondary?

There's two mechanical aspects you need to evaluate when deciding your secondary: how well will it help you survive attacks, and how well it'll help you defeat enemies. If you've already chosen a secondary, skip to the next section,

 

IIa. Survival

Very few sets are purely defense (avoiding attacks) or resistance (toughing them out). Due to hidden math that I won't go over here, both defense and resistance get increasingly better the higher each is, up to the defense softcap (45%, plus enemies' base 50% chance to miss) and the resistance hard cap (75% for Sentinels). In simple terms this means that a Sentinel can potentially be hit by only 5% of attacks if defense softcapped, and take only 25% damage if resistance hardcapped. The reality is more complicated.

 

Defenses are mutually exclusive; an attack is only checked against one of your defenses (Melee, Ranged, AoE, Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Negative Energy, Fire, Cold, Psionic) regardless of how many types the attack has, and it is checked against your highest relevant defense. Since the overwhelming majority of enemy damage involves Smashing, Lethal, or Energy, and backline Sentinels can expect to only be hit with Ranged or AoE attacks, it is relatively easy to build up a good defense even if your powerset lacks any.

 

Resistance, however, is not mutually exclusive; each damage type (Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Negative Energy, Fire, Cold, Psionic, and Toxic) that an attack has is divided and resisted separately. This means that if an attack is 95% Fire and 5% Smashing, your Smashing Defense is very relevant -- but your Smashing Resistance is basically unimportant. If you have no fire resist, you're basically going to eat that attack unprotected, should it hit you.

 

This picture provides a rough estimate of the baseline performance of all Sentinel secondary powersets at 50:

 

All credit for this chart belongs to /u/Reistorm on reddit.

All credit for this chart belongs to /u/Reistorm on reddit.

 

Pure defense sets will perform well on survivability with little investment in extra powers and enhancements, because the defense softcap reduces average damage much more than the resistance hard cap. Defense sentinels get the most freedom in how they build. However, defense can suffer from a string of bad luck, as it is never possible to avoid more than 5% of all attacks in any circumstance; the hits that get through may easily defeat you in one or two strikes. Pure defense sets are very good for backline Sentinels who aren't expecting to be targeted often, but plateau in terms of performance relatively quickly at maximum level with Enhancement Sets; it's easy to get more defense from an item set bonus, but it's hard to get a meaningful amount of resistance to back it up.

 

Defense Sets are Ninjitsu and Super Reflexes.

 

Pure resistance sets have the benefit of significantly removing randomness from the equation, but as noted above, have less pure reduction of overall damage. In addition, status effects are not checked by damage resistance but by various forms of "mez resistance" that are hard to improve. Therefore, it is common for people using Resistance sets to aim for key defenses in the Smashing, Lethal, and Energy fields or Melee/Ranged/AoE fields to reach 32.5% or better. Resistance sets are more likely to carry significant self-healing, which is another point in their favor. This would seem to make resistance sets the best for survival -- and tankers and brutes, with their much higher resist hardcap, would agree. However, there is a status effect known as Defense DeBuff, and this effect is fairly common at high levels. Sets that are purely or primarily defense get some level of defense debuff protection, reducing the loss of defense. Resistance sets generally do not, and can find themselves stripped of virtually all defenses against such enemies.

 

Resistance Sets are Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, and Radiation Armor. There's also Regeneration, which is really kind of its own thing but I don't have space to go over in depth.

 

This leaves the third type of set, sets which inherently offer a mixture of the two. For the Sentinel, most are defense-leaning, and by and large I think these end up the strongest survival sets for a Sentinel at maximum level, but they often take the longest to become useful -- you won't have significant amounts of either defense or resistance until late. To make the most of their survival, you are committing to heavy investment in equipment and defensive powers. However, they often have defense debuff protection.

 

Hybrid sets are Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Energy Aura, Ice Armor, Invulnerability, and Willpower.

[marcussmythe]

*scratches head in confused fashion*  Is it just me, or did Invuln gain a good bit in the translation to Sentinel, compared to other sets?

[nihilii]

*scratches head in confused fashion*  Is it just me, or did Invuln gain a good bit in the translation to Sentinel, compared to other sets?

 

Indeed, you get the same bonus as stalkers: invincibility turns into unconditionally high +def +tohit.

 

On top of that, you get a sizeable bonus to your overall recovery, including set bonuses and procs, through Durability giving +10 max end, *base*.

 

Those levels of mitigation while sitting at range make for an exceptionally sturdy character.