An electric / SR sentinel build

[EnjoyTheJourney]

The build in the attached PDF was requested in-game as a possible endgame sentinel build. It's not an optimized build. And, it's probably not a good build to take into 4 star or otherwise challenging incarnate content. But, it's pretty solid for regular content such as ITFs, Tin/Pex, etc, and it exemps down well all the way to Posi TFs. 

Hopefully reading through it sparks some helpful ideas for others. 

Edit: Haven't posted a build in a long time and forgot something obvious. The Mids file is now attached and it's probably easier to work with for many posters here. 

 

 

Electric SR sentinel build.pdf

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Super Reflexes - Mu Mastery).mbd

Edited August 7, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney
One more file added

[Wimbochismo]

I noticed your other thread on soloing ITF. I'm assuming that you're using this build or a similar one to do it? I don't have as much insight into soloing ITF, but there may be ways to squeeze more dmg out of the build.

 

Since I don't know about what you absolutely need to pull this off, I'll just pose some questions/thoughts to see if we can't cut some fat out of the build. 

• Is Unleash Potential doing much for you? SR is already very survivable. I think you may be using it as an "oh crap" defensive/regen boost, but have you felt like you really need it? It involves several power picks and you may be able to tighten things up. Going Leadership for instance.
• As another advocate for going Leadership/Tactic's, your accuracy against +4's is a little off. The biggest offender's are really Tesla Cage at 80% and Electrifying Fences at 85%. I think ITF mobs can buff defense? It may be worth it to overshoot accuracy.
• Resistances. SR's feature is that when you lose health your resistances shoot up. It's most definitely nice having an additional resistance buffer so you don't get 1 shot. Master Brawler is a huge absorb though which prevents this. How often are you getting chunked down and in danger on the ITF? If this doesn't happen often, we may be able to cut back some resist. I also find it hilarious on teams if my health ever goes to 40% it just completely stops going down.
• AoE clearance. Not sure how relevant this is. Targeted AoE's/PBAoE's on Sent's are 10 targets so are more desirable. Proccing Ball Lightning and potentially proccing Short Circuit along with maybe a full set in Thunderous Blast will be the best clearance/dmg.

 

I'll post my Seismic/SR build for reference on how to tighten it up a bit. In my build I could get away with almost fully proccing 3 total powers. It's at more than perma Hasten, but it's also my lolwtf 5 sec recharge Meteor build (if you add Force Feedback procs). Not 100%, but these considerations may help when soloing ITF.

Seisent best$$.mbd

Edited August 13, 2023 by Wimbochismo

[Wimbochismo]

Something else I just thought of. I know you mentioned runners in the other post. 

 

Alternatives instead of Electrifying Fences - unless you need it for the aoe immob? You should be ok defensively to get into melee to land one of the Patron/Epic attacks. This also gives you a higher dpa attack over Charged Bolts to weave in for single target dmg spikes.

 

I've seen people stack holds on AV's, I'm not sure what mag you need to achieve it. Since you have Tesla Cage procced, perhaps 5 slot Hecatomb Knockout Blow instead, with the 6th slot Lockdown chance for +2 mag hold? Another is Midnight Grasp for the single immob.

[Mythical Creature]

This is what my Electric/SR sentinel build looks like. I can do Trapdoor on max difficulty in about 7 minutes.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Thank you both for your feedback. On reflection and after a bit of testing damage could use some improvement. 

 

I didn't try a trapdoor run before, thinking that with a quick recharging nuke and two other fast animating, quick recharging AOEs that AOE would be in a good place. But, it took nearly 10 minutes to clear a trapdoor run a little while ago. Both single target and AOE damage were responsible for that because bosses took too long to defeat and minions and lieutenants didn't fall fast enough to AOEs.  

It may be that force of will should go. That would make room for more and better attacks. 

I like the use of chain fences and lightning field in the sample build. It should noticeably improve AOE damage. 

I'll explore some possibilities on the beta server. 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

After some testing with trapdoor runs and with teams, the AOEs were tweaked to improve their damage. The ideas given earlier and Mythical Creature's sample build were very helpful for making adjustments. 

 

It's true that accuracy is a bit low for +4s. But, most battles take place at +3 or less, so accuracy has been set to match that. With a year layoff before recently returning perhaps that way of slotting accuracy needs to be re-visited. Is slotting for +3 mobs now a not-so-good way of slotting accuracy?  

Regarding how the build was tested, nobody would ever confuse me with somebody who is actually good at running Trapdoor. I miss jumps sometimes five or six times in a row, get hung up in the geometry, and make all manner of other errors. But, this particular sentinel now does an easy and relaxed 8 minute trapdoor run, using all defensive measures along the way (absorb consistently up, wait a few seconds until the next spawn if it allows key powers to recharge first for a good alpha, destiny used when up, etc). Single target rotation execution has been adjusted to include AOEs ahead of charged bolts and is now about 280 DPS without working that hard on optimizing damage done. In teams this sentinel is quite efficient at clearing spawns because the AOEs are up so often and they have pretty good DPA. Their frequency of use and quick animations (well, other than the nuke) helps to make up for their ten target cap. 

This character is intended to be able to serve as the "tip of the spear" for most groups, capable of taking most alphas and being the center of attention for most AVs and GMs while teaming. With that in mind, the attention paid to increasing most resistances not only reduces the risk of one shots, but also causes resistances to hit their ceiling noticeably sooner than they otherwise might as damage is taken (basically, trying to leverage passive resistance increases from SR and make them stronger).

 

Unleash potential from Force of Will also helps when serving as a team's "tip of the spear" because sometimes your character will get defenses debuffed or take big hits when (s)he is taking alpha or getting a lot of love from an AV or GM. Unleash potential is also a way of at least partially neutralizing mobs that bypass defenses via large +to hit bonuses or special abilities. Unleash potential isn't used that often. But, when it is used it tends to be quite impactful. 

 

Edit: New build attached

 

Wizard of LIghtning - Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Super Reflexes - Electrical Mastery),v2.mbd

Edited August 20, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Wimbochismo]

3 hours ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

After some testing with trapdoor runs and with teams, the AOEs were tweaked to improve their damage. The ideas given earlier and Mythical Creature's sample build were very helpful for making adjustments. 

 

It's true that accuracy is a bit low for +4s. But, most battles take place at +3 or less, so accuracy has been set to match that. With a year layoff before recently returning perhaps that way of slotting accuracy needs to be re-visited. Is slotting for +3 mobs now a not-so-good way of slotting accuracy?  

Regarding how the build was tested, nobody would ever confuse me with somebody who is actually good at running Trapdoor. I miss jumps sometimes five or six times in a row, get hung up in the geometry, and make all manner of other errors. But, this particular sentinel now does an easy and relaxed 8 minute trapdoor run, using all defensive measures along the way (absorb consistently up, wait a few seconds until the next spawn if it allows key powers to recharge first for a good alpha, destiny used when up, etc). Single target rotation execution has been adjusted to include AOEs ahead of charged bolts and is now about 280 DPS without working that hard on optimizing damage done. In teams this sentinel is quite efficient at clearing spawns because the AOEs are up so often and they have pretty good DPA. Their frequency of use and quick animations (well, other than the nuke) helps to make up for their ten target cap. 

This character is intended to be able to serve as the "tip of the spear" for most groups, capable of taking most alphas and being the center of attention for most AVs and GMs while teaming. With that in mind, the attention paid to increasing most resistances not only reduces the risk of one shots, but also causes resistances to hit their ceiling noticeably sooner than they otherwise might as damage is taken (basically, trying to leverage passive resistance increases from SR and make them stronger).

 

Unleash potential from Force of Will also helps when serving as a team's "tip of the spear" because sometimes your character will get defenses debuffed or take big hits when (s)he is taking alpha or getting a lot of love from an AV or GM. Unleash potential is also a way of at least partially neutralizing mobs that bypass defenses via large +to hit bonuses or special abilities. Unleash potential isn't used that often. But, when it is used it tends to be quite impactful. 

 

Edit: New build attached

 

Wizard of LIghtning - Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Super Reflexes - Electrical Mastery),v2.mbd 43.35 kB · 2 downloads

 

Very nice! Thank you for explaining the thought process behind the build. You made some great decisions to pull off all your goals and squeezed in some good set bonuses.

 

As to the accuracy, +3 is more than fine for the majority of content. I just usually run +4 ITF a lot or do the new Hardmode content where extra accuracy seems to help (anecdotally). You could probably take this character into HM's up to 3 star? not sure of a good metric for this.

 

Voltaic Sentinel is an annoying end drain, but you managed to offset it nicely. It's nice consistent damage. I don't know if this matters for you, but Musculature Radial has end mod. It will help electric powers drain mobs faster for more Shocked. It's not showing in mids, but the end mod on Charge Up is also nice.

 

I played with it and Ragnarok in Thunderous Blast can be replaced with Annihilation equivalents (2 set endurance). This only changes the recharge on it by around 1s, with a very minor loss in accuracy and dmg. This frees you up to 5 slot Ragnarok in Ball Lightning or Electrifying Fences (probably EF). That gets you perma Hasten.

 

I don't think that the Javelin proc in Zapping Bolt will go off all that often. If you find yourself getting low on end when going all out, maybe shift the slot to Enduring or something else.

 

You really made a beast!