Patron Pools

[ninpon78]

Anyone tried these out yet? Curious as to how good they are in comparison, and if anyone has tried Psychic Mastery. If so is mind link worth?

[Astredax]

I use psychic mastery.  Main reason to use it is for link minds and/or psychic shockwave.  Shockwave is a pbaoe on a short cooldown, which is great for a sentinel since it will hit more enemies than and is easier to aim than our cones.  It also has some minor -recharge and CC, but I don't notice that so much. 

 

Link minds combined with maneuvers will see you giving the team around 8-9% defense to all.  It's nowhere near widow numbers, but it's a nice bonus.  More importantly it helps a number of sets softcap solo, so I'd say that's its main purpose.  It's what lets my fire/bio softcap, so that extra 5.5 defense from link minds is a pretty big deal for some characters. 

 

Mind probe has a high DPA so it's quite good too, although the recharge is a little long. 

 

I don't see much use for dominate or mass hypnosis, but dominate could be good if paired with dark/ or elec/. 

[Force Redux]

From Soul, you can get Darkest Night with -to hit and -damage. Let's you be a mini debuffer. With Soul it's only on a 10 second recharge, too.

[Extor Prime]

Is there any functional difference between Electrical and Moo masteries?

[Force Redux]

Is there any functional difference between Electrical and Moo masteries?

 

I understand the Moo mastery comes with some udderly loud sound effects...

 

<_<

 

(I don't know)

[nihilii]

If Mids is to be believed, Mu got the standard patron elec fences, while Electricity Mastery got the "haha we didn't look too closely at what we ported" treatment: Chain Fences is a straight copypaste of the controller power, with 30 feet radius and 8s recharge.

[Sunsette]

Mids is correct. The Epic Pools break down this way:

 

Electricity is the best option for the all-around sentinel. I slot Grav Anchor chance for Hold in my Electric Fences and three Hami-O Dmg/Mezzes (which seem to affect the strength of the proc hold, so low chance to proc but high duration when it hits) and I'm basically a discount controller that can tank. One more power selection (that I'm strongly considering) and I can do solid ST disorients too. It has a solid heal, but the heal can't be used soloing.

 

Psionic is the support sentinel APP. Link Minds isn't great for soloing due to its high animation time, but you can do powerful sleeps with good ST damage holds and a very high damage close range attack.

 

Fire is here for melee sentinels, especially if you really needed an IO bonus from a PBAoE that you'll actually use. On paper, Cremate isn't as good as Mind Probe or Havoc Punch, but it's a less resisted damage type than Psychic and way faster cooldown. It's also higher base damage per animation second than 95% of a Sentinel's primary repertoire, and the self-heal works best in a cluster but will do OK solo. Fire's immob is to keep enemies from running, with AoE grouping a secondary concern.

 

Ice is also here for melee sentinels -- it trades out the self heal and PBAoE damage for PBAoE controls and minor effects to reduce the damage your main target deals.

 

Ninja is def dropping, a hold, and a placate -- it's for Sentinels who want to be in the middle of the action but aren't focused on damage so much.

 

I have not seriously looked at Dark or the Patron Pools as of yet but they show a lot of this kind of forethought. Like, you don't go Mu Mastery if you want wide AoE immobs; you go Mu Mastery when you want to lock a few targets down while doing OK damage, and go harder into end draining as a build conceit ending in getting a pet that also does End drain.

 

TL;DR: Sentinel epic pools are really, really interesting and essential to understanding and making the most of the class. With different epic pools you can actually role switch between your different builds, which is something the other ATs don't have. The epic pool is where you settle your class down into melee, support, control and what flavor it is. None of the options make you harder into blaster or tanker though, which is why I think it tends to get overlooked (and electric works best for the blaster with minimal investment).

 

I'm getting ready to build a second Sentinel build that goes more heavily into controlling as a build conceit for teaming.

[Force Redux]

That's a great breakdown Sunsette!

[Fedifensor]

I don't think Fire is just for melee Sentinels, especially if your primary is also Fire.  I play about as ranged of a Sentinel as you can get, and Fire looks appealing both for the AoE Immobilize (great in combination with Rain of Fire) and the PBAoE Heal.  I can stay back with the blasters and controllers while the melee types run in, lock foes in place, and heal should the squishy characters get in trouble.  Plus, should something get into range, Fire Sword Circle in combination with the PBAoE can decimate most foes.  Or, I can skip Fire Sword Circle and get a Hold to lock down a troublesome foe (like Sappers). 

 

Fire also has the advantage of benefiting from all the bonuses of Molten Embrace, for those going Fire/Fire/Fire.

[Sunsette]

Those are some good points, Fedifensor -- I think if your Primary or Secondary set has additional synergies like that, that's absolutely something to note.

 

However, while you can go ranged with fire mastery, unless you have a major source of knockback in your build elsewhere, I think you'd be better off going electric. Paralyzing Jolt does better damage, costs less end, is the same magnitude, has a faster range, much faster recharge, much better accuracy and it drains end and recovery. Its status effect is slightly worse (disorient vs. hold). Chain Fences is straight-up better than Fire Cages if you aren't dealing with Knockback; half the recharge, better range, and significant end draining and recovery redux.

 

We should probably build some sort of guide to the Ancillaries and Patron Power Pools for Sentinel, it feels much more important across the whole of them than it did for the ATs I tried before.

 

I'm experimenting with Fire more heavily right now, having been Electric for a while -- I think I'll come back and make Electric my build 2 and focus on control there. The damage increase compared to my primary powerset is significant. Cremate hits very hard and Fire Sword Circle's 40s base recharge means it has a high chance to proc additional damage, making it a strong alpha. My only complaint with Fire Sword Circle is that its range is very small; I've slotted Cremate for Range so it has the same 10 foot range as Fire Sword Circle and it helps me estimate what will and won't be hit.

 

The biggest thing to note about the epic powers that I didn't before is that the more your build uses them, the faster you will lose endurance. They are very costly. I have 115 Endurance, have 3.43 End/S Recovery, and the Performance Shifter and Panacea procs. I still have to use both Energize and Defensive Opportunity to recover endurance when I'm going ham on AOE. Granted, I also have ten toggles.

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[Tankshock]

I think the Epic pools are probably less useful to Sents than any other AT.  They really just don't add much, unless you are enjoying the renaissance aspect.  They don't add much to either damage or survivability.

[Force Redux]

I think the Epic pools are probably less useful to Sents than any other AT.  They really just don't add much, unless you are enjoying the renaissance aspect.  They don't add much to either damage or survivability.

Something like Darkest Night from the Soul PP definitely adds to survivability.

[Sunsette]

Survivability increases:

Most of the APPs have a single target hold of high magnitude, often one that does good damage too. With the exception of Rularuu (overwhelmingly psionic damage, have to-hit buffs), most psychic enemy groups only have a few characters who are responsible for the to-hit buffs/defense debuffs/psychic damage that result in death. Even seers usually are placed in mixed groups with energy/smashing-based soldiers. Targeting these characters saves your life. There are also a few AoE mezzes or soft controls -- if you can survive the alpha (with a purple, for example) and spam Chain Fences, the psychics will be too drained to be a threat. As gmredux points out, Dark Mastery has -to-hit on every attack, which effectively increases your defense. That's especially valuable for resist-based sets or holes in defenses.

 

Several also include AoE heals on moderate cooldowns, which benefit a lot from full six-slotting with Numina's or Preventative Medicine.

 

Damage increases:

- AoE damage abilities help for primary powersets that are low on damage options.

- Most of the melee attacks are comparable or higher damage per animation-second to the primary powerset's suite.

- Mind Probe in Psychic Mastery is very high DPA-S although it comes with the caveat that psy-damage is heavily resisted by a lot of non-living enemies. It's literally higher DPS-AT than every attack in the Fire Primary Powerset except Blaze. It's -also- a hold! And it inflicts -Recharge!

 

Yeah there's nothing that blatantly screams "TAKE THIS TO FILL YOUR HORRIBLE DEFENSE VOID" like Blasters in Mace Mastery, "THIS IS FOR YOUR ENDURANCE AND ACCURACY PROBLEMS" like Brutes or Scrappers, etc. But Sentinels don't suffer from having a huge gaping hole in a basic area, they just sort of fall a bit short in multiple areas but have a pretty good package overall.

[Fedifensor]

Those are some good points, Fedifensor -- I think if your Primary or Secondary set has additional synergies like that, that's absolutely something to note.

 

However, while you can go ranged with fire mastery, unless you have a major source of knockback in your build elsewhere, I think you'd be better off going electric. Paralyzing Jolt does better damage, costs less end, is the same magnitude, has a faster range, much faster recharge, much better accuracy and it drains end and recovery. Its status effect is slightly worse (disorient vs. hold). Chain Fences is straight-up better than Fire Cages if you aren't dealing with Knockback; half the recharge, better range, and significant end draining and recovery redux.

Let's be honest - Chain Fences is the result of a bad port of a controller power, and it will eventually be nerfed.  Outside of that, I find the functionality of Warmth as a PBAoE better than the chain heal of Rehabilitating Circult, and the PBAoE of Fire Sword Circle a better choice of attack than the attacks under Electricity Control.  So, chances are that I'll still go with fire.

[Sunsette]

The rest is entirely up to taste, of course! I don't really see why Chain Fences is going to be nerfed, though -- I compared it to the Controller version and it's already significantly adjusted from that, so if by 'bad port', you mean it was lazy, I don't think so. Misjudged? Eh, maybe? I do think Electric is the best "I can only take one APP power and I'm soloing" choice for AoE, but Psionic has the best single target choice at the entry tier, Caltrops is kind of famous for being powerful with the right slotting, etc. It doesn't strike me as stand-out to the point it's going to be obviously nerfed.

[oldskool]

Sentinel Epic/Patrons do have some very neat options. 

 

My builds are so tight on powers and slots I just can't fit them in.  I *may* do that with my Dark/Regen but it is going so smooth on Justin with what I have, I have no reason to change my plan for more toys.