If you had a free day to start the ULTIMATE sentinel

[honoroit]

 

Tomorrow I have a free day, and I've NEVER rolled sentinel. 

 

Is /bio the business? 

Is dark blast insane? 

 

Do you rad/rad in madness? 

 

Where do you say to yourself 'this can only be on sentinel'? 

 

What would you choose, what would it be, if you had one day to get hooked hard on sentinel? 

[Max Firepower]

Beam/Bio has been surprisingly good.  Mind you, I rarely solo, so...

[Bill Z Bubba]

Fire/Bio. Hands down.

I've done beam/bio, fire/nin, fire/sr, ice/sr, rad/regen, nrg/inv, nrg/nrg and those are just the ones I've not deleted within a few levels.

 

For absolute purity of tankmagery goodness, fire/bio all the way.

[Luminara]

Ignore them.  They're crazy.  I know they are because the voices said so.  Play Archery/Energy/Ninja Tool Mastery with Cross Punch and Air Superiority.  Pew pew and AAAAAAAAHHHHH all in one.

[OrionX]

Fire/Ele

 

Well we all know why we like fire.

I have never been a fan of bio as I don't feel it's tanky enough for sent/blasty/brutey.

If you want the 25% offense go run a blaster as you can IO slot it better.

 

I love /ele on senty/brutey.

I can cap ranged def and get all but toxic near the cap.

It has an end drain so I can skip ageless and pick barrier.

Between the def/res and barrier there is no reason one should ever die.

I do like fire/rad too as it is pretty tanky.

[SethPaine]

I recently discovered CoH and none of my characters is level 50 yet so bear in mind the following may be completely irrelevant at high level and with a better knowledge of the game.

Having said this, I have made a few sentinels, mostly playing around the themes you mentioned (fire/beam rifle coupled with bio/energy aura/electric aura) and here are my impressions:

 

- Primaries (fire and beam rifle): as much as I love tossing fire balls left right and centre, I have vastly preferred beam rifle: it feels more "organic" with skills chaining in a smoother way. I have also preferred BR for AE situation. Not that fire can't handle them, but I find the spread of disintegration coupled with the couple of skills I have much more efficient. At identical difficulty level and on the same mission, I struggled much less completing the mission with BR.

 

- Secondaries:

-- Bio: I've read everywhere bio is the be all end all of secondaries. It may be at high level but so far (all my sentinels are in the 20-30 range), it has been way more fragile than the 2 auras and had more energy management issues

-- Electricity / Energy: to be honest, my impression is that these 2 are almost identical main difference being one focuses on resistances (electric aura) and the other on defense (a lot) and resistances (a little bit). So far (again, this may change at high level or with slotting for those who know what they are doing, i.e. not me), energy aura feels much more sturdy than electric aura (i.e. defense seems so far to be a higher priority than defense).

 

One final thing I have noticed is I have tried with and without a "combat fly" option (fly, hover, etc). These powers have greatly improved my survivability. Although most ennemies seem to have a ranged attack, the ones who would primarily focus on melee (brawlers for instance) seem to have weak ones which I suspect is what lead to this improved survivability. I would strongly suggest you pick one (whichever you prefer, fly just sucked more energy than hover but this wasn't vastly noticeable (except on the bio builds)). They can be a bit annoying when you want to use cones but they have made overall my life easier.

 

I have personally settled on a BR/energy aura toon and am very happy with it. I'm not trying missions for 6 players (I keep that for my mastermind) but she breezes through missions in a fashion none of my other sentinels do.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Edit: Another thing to mention, I believe BR has a higher inherent accuracy than fire which in turns mean I have to slot one less accuracy enhancement in each power for comparable "to hit" result. This has left me with easier early slotting options on my BR sentinels. Once again, this may be moot at high level but from my newcomer's perspective, it certainly added to the overall enjoyment of the set 🙂

Edited October 30, 2020 by SethPaine

[nihilii]

Elec/Bio is IMHO the "this can only be on Sentinels".

I'm not talking about sheer power, although that build has it in spades as a result of what I'm actually talking about.

From the Elec side, you get a proper T3 blast and your no-damage hold turned into a proper T4 blast. Coupled with Voltaic Sentinel, it suddenly makes your single target damage competitive with Fire Blast.

 

Thunderous Blast is originally the slowest recharging nuke in the game. Probably, the devs saw it fit to balance the ability to use it at range, and its massive endurance drain. On Sentinels, TB gets the standard base recharge of 90 seconds while keeping range and massive end drain. On a highend build you're opening every fight with that nuke, and you're sapping all your enemies to 0 or close to it.

 

This all makes for an unique Elec Blast experience. Where other versions are filled with complaints about end drain being useless and damage being too low, Sentinel Elec Blast fixes all these aspects.

 

Now for /bio.

Offensive Adaptation + Athletic Regulation + Genomic Evolution. That's it.

We're not talking about damage, nor survivability, nor anything we tend to name in these discussions. However, those three powers together give you something unique: massive unsuppressed movement speed. As in, "pretty close to the speed cap with just Sprint" fast.

 

Not necessarily the best combo (although probably up there). But when it comes to unique aspects you won't get somewhere else, look no more.

[Luminara]

24 minutes ago, nihilii said:

Offensive Adaptation + Athletic Regulation + Genomic Evolution. That's it.

We're not talking about damage, nor survivability, nor anything we tend to name in these discussions. However, those three powers together give you something unique: massive unsuppressed movement speed. As in, "pretty close to the speed cap with just Sprint" fast.

 

God damn it.

 

Now I have to make another sentinel.

 

THANKS A LOT.  😠

 

P.S. ❤️

[Luminara]

Whoa, back the truck up.  Genomic Evolution doesn't buff movement speed.  It buffs range.

 

Two powers to bump noggins with the run speed cap.

 

I'm going to pee myself.

[Underfyre]

I concur, Elec/Bio Sentinel is the bee's knees. Even pushing for defense you will have a higher damage output than other secondaries.

[honoroit]

Thank you for all the inspiration and insights! 

So sentinels all about the recharge on nukes which hit less hard, but are up more frequently. 

 

I love the idea of archery/en with pool powers to give you some nice slotting options and hard enough hitting attacks. 

 

Fire is tempting... But I fear I'd feel like a blaster wannabe. 

 

So... I must try elec/bio I think - maybe a sapper that works! 

 

 

(edit: luck voltia seems to fit better, and is appropriately scarred and crazy. Can sort of see this in the costume designer) 

Edited October 31, 2020 by honoroit

[Galamane]

Anyone have a electric/bio build? 

[Underfyre]

This is the one I use. Emphasis is purely on damage output.

 

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Edited November 1, 2020 by underfyre

[DreadShinobi]

On 10/30/2020 at 11:01 AM, nihilii said:

 

 

Now for /bio.

Offensive Adaptation + Athletic Regulation + Genomic Evolution. That's it.

We're not talking about damage, nor survivability, nor anything we tend to name in these discussions. However, those three powers together give you something unique: massive unsuppressed movement speed. As in, "pretty close to the speed cap with just Sprint" fast.

 

 

This alone is the only thing that pushed me to make a sentinel-anything. Bio armor specific to sentinels offers a truly unique play experience. My fire/bio is the only character I have that doesn't have super speed or speed of sound. Athletic Regulation is arguably the best movement speed power in the game, being that it is a passive, compared to similar things like Siphon Speed that need to be maintained. Not needing to run super speed also does noticeably cut down your endurance usage (I am not one who cares to detoggle it in combat)

 

Outside of that, Bio offers a massive absorb shield and regen buff on a low cooldown, keeping in mind that Absorb protects you against all damage types. The heal which doubles as a free medium blue inspiration coupled with 55% endurance drain protection offers little fear of bottoming out your endurance with little build investment. You can be quite survivable without softcapping your defenses letting you invest in other things like procs and global recharge.

[DreadShinobi]

On 10/30/2020 at 11:31 AM, Luminara said:

Whoa, back the truck up.  Genomic Evolution doesn't buff movement speed.  It buffs range.

Yup and you also get 10% range buff on /both/ sentinel ATOs. This largely makes up for the shorter base range that the archetype has and puts it ahead in some cases.

[drbuzzard]

On 10/30/2020 at 7:19 PM, honoroit said:

Thank you for all the inspiration and insights! 

So sentinels all about the recharge on nukes which hit less hard, but are up more frequently. 

 

I love the idea of archery/en with pool powers to give you some nice slotting options and hard enough hitting attacks. 

 

Fire is tempting... But I fear I'd feel like a blaster wannabe. 

 

So... I must try elec/bio I think - maybe a sapper that works! 

 

 

(edit: luck voltia seems to fit better, and is appropriately scarred and crazy. Can sort of see this in the costume designer) 

Archery is a kind of a dud on sentinels since the standardization of nuke recharge means that rain of arrows, which is normally (on every other AT) a 60 second recharge, goes up to 90 second recharge on sentinels. The single target stuff is OK, but archery as a set is always made by the fast recharging RoA. 

 

I'll second the elec/bio- it works quite well, and while it was mentioned that you run stupid fast, it also makes you hover at flight speed. 

[honoroit]

8 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

I'll second the elec/bio- it works quite well

lvl 27 so far, had to farm some 300m inf for the getting started ios. 

 

Hardy enough, and enough of an attack chain to not be too fussed about no attacks in the secondary. 

 

Heal is super useful, and up often. You do move quickly. 

 

I need lotg slots, took stealth, will probably do stupid fighting pool. 

 

Was peeping the blaster forums. They vehemently trash elec. There's some key changes made in sentinel, but I do worry I'd see a fire torch a map and be jelly. 

 

End drain seems effective at low levels. Emptied Babbage no bother on a synapse tf. 

 

Extreme damage hold is the superstar right now. 

 

I took the 2nd blast, even though some don't, as without there was gap in my attack chain. 

[drbuzzard]

Nice thing about that elec hold, vs. fire which lacks one, is it allows a good number of damage procs if you want to play that game. 

[honoroit]

4 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

Nice thing about that elec hold, vs. fire which lacks one, is it allows a good number of damage procs if you want to play that game. 

arent they going to spoil all our fun with proc changes soon?  no idea what's intended.

[drbuzzard]

56 minutes ago, honoroit said:

arent they going to spoil all our fun with proc changes soon?  no idea what's intended.

Personally I think they need to since procs have come to dominate over actual damage capacity of sets. They really do distort the hell out of things. But yes, I do think they will address them at some point, and it will make a lot of the guides here outdated as many are very proc focused. 

For the moment though, I do throw some procs in here and there, though I usually aim more for set bonuses for recharge or defense.

[Zepp]

I was looking at Bio, and you can hit the flight speed cap (sans Afterburner) with Hover.

[Bill Z Bubba]

23 minutes ago, Zepp said:

I was looking at Bio, and you can hit the flight speed cap (sans Afterburner) with Hover.

Yea, I don't get the whole movement nerf that's on beta right now. Seems pointless to me. Movement powers should stack. I'll be quite annoyed if I find my fire/bio sent's hover speed ends up on the nerfed list, but I expect it.

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Yea, I don't get the whole movement nerf that's on beta right now. Seems pointless to me. Movement powers should stack. I'll be quite annoyed if I find my fire/bio sent's hover speed ends up on the nerfed list, but I expect it.

 

Those changes appear to be limited to powers which duplicate other powers' movement mechanics, powers which are essentially copies of specific movement powers, as opposed to powers which buff movement speeds.  If that is the case, unless there's a Hover clone in either Fire/ or /Bio (i can't find one), neither set is likely to be affected.  Bill' Stank will be fine.

[Underfyre]

3 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Yea, I don't get the whole movement nerf that's on beta right now. Seems pointless to me. Movement powers should stack. I'll be quite annoyed if I find my fire/bio sent's hover speed ends up on the nerfed list, but I expect it.

I'm honestly ok with not being at maxed out fly speed simply because I'm level 50. Movement speeds need to be nerfed to make it worth enhancing them.

[Shock Star]

I have an Elec/elec that I'm very proud of.

 

Elec*2 isn't for everyone as it isn't very damaging on its own. It's very weak against toxic damage, but the key to making it work is investing in a common feature that Electric Blast and Electric Armor have in common. Once you learn to make use of it, Malta will look like a complete joke to you.

 

EDIT: Sorry about being late to the party. Just wanted to post something to consider for your next Sentinel.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Shock Star
Late to the party