How to build to WIllpower's strenghts?

[FullEclipse]

I keep hearing that Willpower is awesome so I made a fire/willpower sentinel.  I cannot figure out how to slot this toon. The def and resistance is OK, am I suppose to just focus on regen? Is it possible to max out resistance or def with willpower? Any guidance would be helpful.

[oldskool]

You're in luck. Thankfully, Fire Blast doesn't have great slotting options for damage procs nor does it need them.  You can explore some full, or nearly full sets.  

Are you ready to break your wallet?  Good, because general Willpower on Sentinels is incapable of soft-capping defense of any type, and it doesn't naturally cap its resistance to smashing/lethal damage (at least not without Strength of Will, the T9).  What can turn Willpower from 'meh' to pretty good are IO set bonuses.  The melee ATs have far better options, and generally more numerous powers, in order to make use of the IO system.  Bear in mind, Willpower came out around the same time as IO sets and seems very much like it was tuned with it in mind.  Sure, the old devs could say "nah bro", but c'mon.  Its pretty obvious.  

So how do you turn things around and abuse set bonuses here?  

Things to think about: 

 

Both 3% to all defense IOs.  You can slot these in High Pain Tolerance if you like.  I'd consider 6 slotting that power and combining it with... 

Unbreakable Guard in as many powers as you can stuff it.  That's High Pain Tolerance, Mind Over Body, and Strength of Will.  Strength of Will can have its uses beyond just a mule so consider taking it.  [Forgot Tough, take Tough]

Aim - you get Aim! - Full Gaussian's set grants defense to all types and slightly more to positionals.  

Sentinel ATOs - Both of these give you defense to Range, Energy/Negative, Melee, and Smashing/Lethal.  Use all 6 pieces.  The Opportunity Strikes isn't horrible in Flares since you can potentially weave it between most of your attacks.  The Ward set... pick a spot.  The proc is pretty awful so it doesn't matter much where it goes.  

Superior Winter's Bite.  Put this in a single target attack like Blaze or Blazing Blast if you took it.  

Superior Frozen Blast maybe optional.  Its mostly focused on Fire/Cold and AoE defense.  Call it a maybe depending on your powers and slots.  

Superior Avalanche in either Inferno or an Epic PBAoE (i.e., Psychic Shockwave -- going Psychic Mastery specifically, you'll see why)

Superior Blistering Cold - at least 5 pieces for the Smashing/Lethal defense (5%) in a power like Mind Probe.  

Link Minds (available by taking Mind Probe + Psy Shockwave) - Depending on your overall recharge this may have some downtime, but it can be worth taking.  

Weave 

Maneuvers 

Your choice of Combat Jumping, Hover, or Stealth depending on how many power slots you have left.  

In Fire Blast you can potentially skip the following: 

 

Fire Blast - the Tier 2

Fire Breath

Rain of Fire

 

Skipping those easily opens up opportunity to include Psychic Mastery or whatever other Sentinel Epic/Patron pool your heart desires.  If you opt to skip Link Minds, just try to pick up an Epic ST melee and PBAoE.  Devote some slots there and use the Winter Sets if you're really intent on pushing high defense.  

I'd advise against choosing any of the Alpha slot options that do not provide you with +damage %.  Agility may look tempting, but let Blasters pick that stuff.  Spiritual may seem tempting too for more regen and recharge.  You likely don't need either.  

You should be able to reasonably exceed 32-35% to all of the typed damage other than Psi and achieve at least 68% smashing/lethal resistance when Strength of Will is down.  Strength of Will can cap your S/L resist.  

Now, this is very much a "I don't give two F's about global recharge and all I want is high defense" approach.  Here are some other alternative things to either include with the above or look for later. 

- Barrier Destiny will grant you 5% defense and resistance at its lowest value.  The T4 version is pretty much on all the time.  

- Melee Hybrid options, defense or resistance.  Inferno is PBAoE and so this Hybrid option has some synergy being in melee range.  

- Defensive booster from the Pay-to-Win vendor.  You can buy 1 hour and stack its duration up to 8 hours if I am remembering that right.  

I tend to worry less about soft-capping Willpower, and more about improving recharge.  You can still get around 26-32% to most of the types while improving your attack availability with recharge.  You can leverage any of the other alternative options to boost your defense conditionally.  There are also purple skittles.  

Keep in mind, Willpower has 0 defense debuff resistance.  So no matter how high you stack it, it is always vulnerable to cascading failures as enemies can easily chunk your defense once they start landing hits.  

Edited May 22, 2020 by oldskool