Elec Blast: A quandry.

[DocRadio]

I constantly see references to elec blast as underperforming and meh.

 

Yet on sentinels I see it listed as a desirable set.

 

I use Elec blast on my Elec/Kin corrupter and generally I'm fairly pleased with it. Even if you don't factor in Fulcrum shift which dials any blast set up to 11. Especially ones with decent AoE options. Also in the old days I took an Elec blaster to 50 without the benefit of IO set benefits. I hardly found it meh.

 

Yeah I know the sets between the various ATs are different, but is there something specific about the sent variant that makes it worthwhile?

 

[Underfyre]

Electric on Corruptors is better than people give it credit for.

[Galaxy Brain]

Its much different on sentinels as its Single Target weakness has been 100% flipped around! It has a t3 blast with a 1s cast time, and a to blast+mez in Tesla Cage, as well as a quickly charging nuke that drains end hard. Its much more "efficient" on sentinels I'd say.

 

On other ATs though, the set has an identity crisis where due to its design it is really only good when paired with something that helps it sap endurance (power boost, power sink, transference, etc) in order to do kts shtik. It has OK aoe, but very poor ST in practice and when you compare its utility outside specific synergies to maximize drain it falls behind other utility blast sets.

 

Sentinels bypass that by giving you lightning bolts instead of electrical bolts lol.

[DocRadio]

1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Its much different on sentinels as its Single Target weakness has been 100% flipped around! It has a t3 blast with a 1s cast time, and a to blast+mez in Tesla Cage, as well as a quickly charging nuke that drains end hard. Its much more "efficient" on sentinels I'd say.

 

On other ATs though, the set has an identity crisis where due to its design it is really only good when paired with something that helps it sap endurance (power boost, power sink, transference, etc) in order to do kts shtik. It has OK aoe, but very poor ST in practice and when you compare its utility outside specific synergies to maximize drain it falls behind other utility blast sets.

 

Sentinels bypass that by giving you lightning bolts instead of electrical bolts lol.

Thanks. Guess I'll build that Triple Elec sent I was thinking about. (any second someone will chime in and say elec/bio is better, but I'm already doing water/bio.)

 

[Underfyre]

Bio is better with everything because it uses the same proc numbers as every other AT with Bio, it didn't get a "watered down" version for Sentinels like Fire did. If Fire's damage scaled with enhancements like it does on Tankers/Brutes/Scrappers, Fire would be king. But hey, at least we didn't get the same treatment Stalkers did.

[Hjarki]

4 hours ago, underfyre said:

Bio is better with everything because it uses the same proc numbers as every other AT with Bio, it didn't get a "watered down" version for Sentinels like Fire did. If Fire's damage scaled with enhancements like it does on Tankers/Brutes/Scrappers, Fire would be king. But hey, at least we didn't get the same treatment Stalkers did.

The Sentinel version of Bio doesn't get the damage/-resist aura, which is most of the reason to take the set in the first place (at least for melee AT; it's slightly less useful for fighting at range).

[Steel]

6 hours ago, DocRadio said:

Thanks. Guess I'll build that Triple Elec sent I was thinking about. (any second someone will chime in and say elec/bio is better, but I'm already doing water/bio.)

 

 

You may want to consider Energy Aura if you prefer defense over resistance-based armors.

It's not that hard to softcap S/L/F/C/E defense and unlike ElA you'll have kb protection while hoverblasting. Power Drain is similar enough to Power Sink too if you want to go the sapper route (PD saps 33% in a 12ft radius, PS saps 40% in a 10ft radius).

[DocRadio]

7 hours ago, Steel said:

 

You may want to consider Energy Aura if you prefer defense over resistance-based armors.

It's not that hard to softcap S/L/F/C/E defense and unlike ElA you'll have kb protection while hoverblasting. Power Drain is similar enough to Power Sink too if you want to go the sapper route (PD saps 33% in a 12ft radius, PS saps 40% in a 10ft radius).

I considered, but I really do prefer resistance over defense. Plus I'm using Energy Aura with a Dark blast sentinel. And yeah I know... probably garbage build, but I want to see what I can do with defense, and accuracy debuff combined with even more debuff with diagmetric  from the incarnate.

 

[Vulf]

I made a Beam Rifle / Invulnerability Sentinel just for the fun of being a space soldier in power armor. I'm at level 27 now and he's now my 2nd favorite character. I have no idea if he's actually any good.

[Galaxy Brain]

2 hours ago, Vulf said:

I made a Beam Rifle / Invulnerability Sentinel just for the fun of being a space soldier in power armor. I'm at level 27 now and he's now my 2nd favorite character. I have no idea if he's actually any good.

Beam Rifle is super good on Sents!

[Vulf]

Sentinels seem to get a unique Auto power in Invulnerability called Durability, that doesn't actually do what the description says.

 

Instead of increasing max hitpoints, it gives you a pool of temporary hitpoints that regenerate. And adding Heal enhancements increases the pool. The other half of the power is an Increase to max Endurance that can also be enhanced, which increases your total recovery.

 

That and the toggle that increases Accuracy seemed like a good fit.

 

Anyway, I didn't think a Sentinel's job was to be a main damage dealer. I viewed it as a self-sufficient attacker that can use its inherent to tag enemies and increase the damage that team mates deal to them.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Vulf
Spelling

[oldskool]

On 2/9/2021 at 10:01 AM, Vulf said:

Anyway, I didn't think a Sentinel's job was to be a main damage dealer. I viewed it as a self-sufficient attacker that can use its inherent to tag enemies and increase the damage that team mates deal to them.

Good points, and yeah Durability is a strong selling point for Sent Invul it is the reason I recommend that set.   

I don't necessarily agree or truly disagree with the quote.  However, I'd like to add some additional thoughts to it.  "Main damage dealer" is a concept in people's heads.  CoH has scaling difficulty.  There is no need to have a "main damage dealer" on 8 person teams in CoH.  Having players running some damage capable character speeds things up.  It certainly makes TF easier and especially so at lower levels.  However, there is no "main DPS" here.  This isn't an MMO with only 4 team slots devoted to tank, heal, damage, control.  Whelp, only one spot for DPS that's GOTTA be me.  Then, if I am the only DPS the pressure is higher to make sure I'm the best there is at what I do.  Yeah, none of that exists in CoX where a lot of play time is spent crushing radio missions or engaging in other team content.  

The only true damage-focused AT at the expense of all else is the Blaster.  Are they main damage dealers?  Scrappers are, and have always been, self-sufficient attackers.  Same goes for Brutes.  Stalker can do it now too.  What makes them main damage dealers?  Is it having a high Pylon take down metric?  If that is the only gauge, then what about Masterminds or Controllers that can pound a Pylon with 700 DPS?  Does this make them main damage dealers?  

The argument can get pretty absurd.  As always, I have to note how I recognize faults in the AT but "damage" is just overstated for its importance.  That said, it can be pretty easy to make a crappy Sentinel which ends up disappointing some players and very difficult to make a unique Sentinel that is bleeding edge.  

[DocRadio]

On 2/11/2021 at 7:53 AM, oldskool said:

Good points, and yeah Durability is a strong selling point for Sent Invul it is the reason I recommend that set.   

I don't necessarily agree or truly disagree with the quote.  However, I'd like to add some additional thoughts to it.  "Main damage dealer" is a concept in people's heads.  CoH has scaling difficulty.  There is no need to have a "main damage dealer" on 8 person teams in CoH.  Having players running some damage capable character speeds things up.  It certainly makes TF easier and especially so at lower levels.  However, there is no "main DPS" here.  This isn't an MMO with only 4 team slots devoted to tank, heal, damage, control.  Whelp, only one spot for DPS that's GOTTA be me.  Then, if I am the only DPS the pressure is higher to make sure I'm the best there is at what I do.  Yeah, none of that exists in CoX where a lot of play time is spent crushing radio missions or engaging in other team content.  

The only true damage-focused AT at the expense of all else is the Blaster.  Are they main damage dealers?  Scrappers are, and have always been, self-sufficient attackers.  Same goes for Brutes.  Stalker can do it now too.  What makes them main damage dealers?  Is it having a high Pylon take down metric?  If that is the only gauge, then what about Masterminds or Controllers that can pound a Pylon with 700 DPS?  Does this make them main damage dealers?  

The argument can get pretty absurd.  As always, I have to note how I recognize faults in the AT but "damage" is just overstated for its importance.  That said, it can be pretty easy to make a crappy Sentinel which ends up disappointing some players and very difficult to make a unique Sentinel that is bleeding edge.  

For me the Sentinel is the answer to the question, what if blasters had defense and status protection?  Sure I know Sentinels don't stack up to blaster damage... but they don't have to. They can survive long enough to deliver the damage that they do have, where as blasters have a huge rough spot until you can cobble together some defenses. And yes, a well slotted blaster can do some amazing stuff.  My pistols / martial blaster is amazing even though pistols is considered meh. But that's because I specced her out for defense. And it was kind of hard going until I got my defenses IO set slotted. With my sentinels I have way more flexibility. I can build for recharge or raw damage, or even more survivability. Also once you get status protection Sentinels are kind of a cakewalk. Personally I don't understand why people default to saying they're weak or don't have a role. I think they're amazing.

[Coyote]

10 hours ago, DocRadio said:

Personally I don't understand why people default to saying they're weak or don't have a role.

 

It is because some people think that the role of a Sentinel is the same as that of other characters: Defeat your opponents, survive, complete the mission successfully.

And others think that characters should have a specific role on a team... buff, debuff, damage, tank, control, etc.

 

The former like Sentinels because they do the overall job well.

The latter dislike Sentinels because they do specific jobs poorly.