Water Blast Sentinel

[BuiltDifferent5]

The Sentinel Gods thread got me thinking it’s time to roll my own Tank Mage.

 

I haven’t played Water Blast since it’s update, so I’ve settled on that. I’m torn on a secondary to pair it with though.

 

Any specific secondaries anyone feels pairs well with Water Blast? Both Bio and Rad Armor seem top tier. I hear Regen is its best self on a Sent. Super Reflexes seems like it’s done some crazy stuff as well. Haven’t ever ran it before, so not sure why it’s great on Sentienls.

 

That being said, I’m open to suggestions!

[Wimbochismo]

Super Reflexes on a Sent allows you to choose Master Brawler and Enduring. It doesn't really do anything for your damage. What it does give you is the ability to easily softcap all positional defenses, get perma Hasten, has DDR, and fixes any endurance issues.

 

On top of that, the Master Brawler absorb can be made perma, and synergizes very well with the set. You're much less likely to get 1 shot with the absorb, but if you lose health the innate resists kick in. The absorb also becomes massive when lower hp, so your hp bar pretty much stops moving down. It's pretty tanky.

 

All of this together means that you don't have to pursue as many set bonuses for recharge and defenses. In terms of slotting it frees you up to proc out and play with powers in your primary and other pools.

[Captain Fabulous]

8 minutes ago, Wimbochismo said:

Super Reflexes on a Sent allows you to choose Master Brawler and Enduring. It doesn't really do anything for your damage. What it does give you is the ability to easily softcap all positional defenses, get perma Hasten, has DDR, and fixes any endurance issues.

 

On top of that, the Master Brawler absorb can be made perma, and synergizes very well with the set. You're much less likely to get 1 shot with the absorb, but if you lose health the innate resists kick in. The absorb also becomes massive when lower hp, so your hp bar pretty much stops moving down. It's pretty tanky.

 

All of this together means that you don't have to pursue as many set bonuses for recharge and defenses. In terms of slotting it frees you up to proc out and play with powers in your primary and other pools.

If you take Master Brawler you can't take Practiced Brawler, which is the set's mez protection.

[Wimbochismo]

16 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

If you take Master Brawler you can't take Practiced Brawler, which is the set's mez protection.

 

Taking Master Brawler further synergizes with Focused Senses and Focused Fighting. They then give you mez protection.

[Sovera]

There is no reason not to always go Bio. The other armors don't bring anything special to the table when Bio is defensive, has a heal that comes with a shield, an endurance clickie that also heals, and comes with extra damage. There is only Radiation Armor for the second nuke at the cost of ST damage.

 

But because Sentinels are so sturdy and (usually) are out of melee range they don't get anything special out of Water either. AoE? Sure, but time gained with Water's AoE is then lost when trying to ST a target.

 

Don't want to piss on your parade though, CoH is not hard enough that it requires the very best. Consider Storm if you want to lean on the tanky angle because all the debuffs do a better job at keeping someone up instead of Water's piddly heal (especially if coupled with Bio who already has two of those). It just doesn't have great AoE... or ST... 😄

 

Water/Rad could be a nice AoE machine once you nuke, then pseudo nuke, then start moping up with the watchamacallit water fireball power. The already ailing ST will just ail further without Bio and with Water though.

 

Another nice pseudo tank is an Elec/Bio. I found I could very reliably shut down Cyclops/Minotaurs/Paragon Protectors by sapping them dry before they used their T9. And it got a nice 3 minute pylon run thanks to the extra damage from the sapping mechanic, though Trapdoor was bad at 7 ish minutes. Perhaps an Elec/Rad might get the best of both worlds though the ST will still suffer, but less noticeable on regular non AV content since whatever is alive will have eaten two nukes before ST comes into play.

[WumpusRat]

On 6/17/2023 at 5:24 PM, Captain Fabulous said:

If you take Master Brawler you can't take Practiced Brawler, which is the set's mez protection.

Master Brawler is the optional mez protection within the set.

Instead of being a click power, it adds mez protection to your first two toggle powers, as well as giving you the clickable absorb shield.

Clickable mez protection has its advantages (in that you can't lose it by being detoggled), but it also means having to pause now and then for it to activate, as well as not having any mez protection at all if it's on cooldown if you die and get back up after activating it.

Personally I always opt for Master Brawler, as running so low on end as to get completely detoggled is such a rare occurrence.

[drbuzzard]

On 6/17/2023 at 6:44 PM, Sovera said:

There is no reason not to always go Bio. The other armors don't bring anything special to the table when Bio is defensive, has a heal that comes with a shield, an endurance clickie that also heals, and comes with extra damage. There is only Radiation Armor for the second nuke at the cost of ST damage.

 

 

Must have missed this when it was posted. I must disagree here. There are a number of reasons not to go bio. I've a number of bio armor sentinels and never play them anymore because I simply don't enjoy it. They are too 'clicky' (to get your damage bonus you must keep ablative carapace up, and there's also the heals which you will need, auto will be on permahasten as always) . They, even on minimal fx, screw up your costume. They lack the recharge boost of other sets which makes perma hasten harder to attain. They have no DDR. I certainly concede they are the highest damage option, but they are defensively much more tricky to play than SR for example. 

 

I like my sentinels to be nice and easy to play. I put on my toggles and blast away. For this super reflexes has become my favorite, though regeneration really isn't bad either. Perhaps it's just that I'm a duffer who wants to be able to faceroll my keyboard. 

[drbuzzard]

1 hour ago, drbuzzard said:

 

Must have missed this when it was posted. I must disagree here. There are a number of reasons not to go bio. I've a number of bio armor sentinels and never play them anymore because I simply don't enjoy it. They are too 'clicky' (to get your damage bonus you must keep ablative carapace up, and there's also the heals which you will need, auto will be on permahasten as always) . They, even on minimal fx, screw up your costume. They lack the recharge boost of other sets which makes perma hasten harder to attain. They have no DDR. I certainly concede they are the highest damage option, but they are defensively much more tricky to play than SR for example. As it is a mixed set, it's also not that hot if you want to softcap it for everything. 

 

I like my sentinels to be nice and easy to play. I put on my toggles and blast away. For this super reflexes has become my favorite, though regeneration really isn't bad either. Perhaps it's just that I'm a duffer who wants to be able to faceroll my keyboard. 

 

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

 

Must have missed this when it was posted. I must disagree here. There are a number of reasons not to go bio. I've a number of bio armor sentinels and never play them anymore because I simply don't enjoy it. They are too 'clicky' (to get your damage bonus you must keep ablative carapace up, and there's also the heals which you will need, auto will be on permahasten as always) . They, even on minimal fx, screw up your costume. They lack the recharge boost of other sets which makes perma hasten harder to attain. They have no DDR. I certainly concede they are the highest damage option, but they are defensively much more tricky to play than SR for example. 

 

I like my sentinels to be nice and easy to play. I put on my toggles and blast away. For this super reflexes has become my favorite, though regeneration really isn't bad either. Perhaps it's just that I'm a duffer who wants to be able to faceroll my keyboard. 

What is this about ablative being tied to a damage bonus?

 

The rest is valid, but Bio is good enough for a Sentinel who stays out of melee. I did Trapdoor with an elec/bio who had 33% and did not need to use inspirations despite the tunnels not allowing to stay at range.

 

But everything you say is true in that someone who values recharge or whose theme does not fit has good reason not to go Bio.

[drbuzzard]

11 hours ago, Sovera said:

What is this about ablative being tied to a damage bonus?

 

Closer examination proves that it does not. I confused hardened carapace with ablative carapace. Derp. Nevermind.