My 1st Sentinel, Nrg/Inv. HELP!

[Gobbledygook]

So. not only is this my 1st Sentinel, this is my 1st non Scrapper/Brute/Tank. Since Issue 1.

So I came here for some guidance.

/Inv is my favorite armor set in the game, and fits the concept I have for the character. Energy blast also fits the concept. I'm pretty sure I have a good idea how to handle the secondary, even with the changes that were made to it. My question is the primary. I know nothing about the pew pew sets. I know that as a melee player, I'm not a fan of knockback, so I plan to have Sudden Acceleration kb to kd IO in my attacks. Also, what attacks are mandatory, or which are skippable?

I mostly play in PuG's, TFs, occasionally solo.

[Sunsette]

imo:

 

KB to KD IOs are mandatory in the AoE attacks, but entirely skippable (and in fact, should be skipped) on the single target. Better targeting and better positioning outweigh the loss of an enhancement slot just so you don't kick around a single enemy that cons red or lower that you're focusing on beating right at that moment.

 

The best two ST attacks are Power Push and Focused Power Blast. As long as you have one out of the T1 or T2, that's enough -- I prefer the T2 because Defensive Opportunity is better than many people give it credit for, but you only need one. I personally take both, however.

 

I think the biggest question in Energy is "do I want Energy Torrent or do I want Nova".

 

Energy Torrent means I'm focusing on being ranged because cones benefit a lot from additional range. I want to slot +range, I don't care so much about KB on single targets since it can work great with the cone.

 

Nova means I don't want knockback ever; everything needs to stay grouped as tightly as possible because I'm basically melee.

 

I don't think a build benefits a lot from having both because ET's cooldown is so short and its damage so average while Nova is a really powerful alpha with a long cooldown that even fully IO'ed you're gonna use like twice a pack at best. Both depend heavily on positioning while Explosive Blast is positioning agnostic basically and great for tripping people but the lowest damage by far of them.

[Gobbledygook]

Thank you, Sunsette. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I appreciate your input, and will refer back to this post when working in Pines.

[Sunsette]

So I wanted to share a recent discovery of mine.

 

I'd originally been on the Energy Torrent side of the split I told you about. Thanks to some recent build changes (heavy into Fire Mastery) I've been embracing my inner scrapper and closing in at melee range a lot -- which means Nova instead. Because I now carry AoE immobs, I no longer need the KB to KD IO at all, as long as I make sure to immob first.

 

I tried out the Force Feedback Chance to Recharge IO where I'd been carrying KB to KD in Explosive Blast. I only changed Explosive Blast. The procs are constant and there is a Feedback (hah) loop when you have high recharge, because you're spamming the same thing over and over again. I now have Nova up every 20 seconds or so, and I'm not using hasten at all. It has been enormous for my damage output, this is just absolutely ridiculous. It functionally doesn't increase my Single Target damage because Explosive Blast is so bad for ST damage and Nova is only about 10% better for ST than 2/3 of my rotation (15% worst than my best attack), but it does enormous amounts for my AoE damage. Given that AoE is usually considered a weakness of the Energy Blast set, this is highly notable.

[CaptTastic]

I don’t put KB>KD IOs in my single target NRG attacks. You tend to kill what you attack so it shouldn’t bother anyone.