New Water/Super Reflexes Sentinel Seeks Expert Advice.

[Exqzr984]

Hello!

 

I have been playing for a month and really enjoying the game (great news on becoming official)  After getting a SF/SR Brute to 37, I started a Water/SR Sentinel and found it very much to my liking.  So I worked on it and got to 50, saved up 100 Million and ... Now I am at a loss on what to do.

 

The more I read, the more confused I get.  Alpha Power, Procs, Soft caps, Mule powers, x set vs. y set.  Etc. - I cant see the light for the avaiable data. I am hoping that one of the Sentinel Masters is kindly enough to walk  me  through on what powers I should take with how many slots in each and what sets I should place in them.    I am an open book on this and sincerely appreciate any advice.

 

My prefered play style is as tanky as possible while still doing respectable damage.   I like getting up close and personal with the Villians.    

 

If this has already been answered, my apologies, I read some old posts on building this type of sentinel, but afterwards still had no idea what was best for a Tanky Water/SR.

 

 

[FupDup]

For Super Reflexes, you'll want the first 8 powers for sure but you can ignore the final power (Elude) because of its very harsh crash and it's kind of redundant with the rest of your kit. There is a choice between Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler - You should definitely take Master because it's a clicky absorb power that also gives you toggle mezz protection in your earlier defense toggles. 

 

For Water, you can choose to skip either the first or second basic attack. Hydro Blast has a higher DPA so you should probably skip Aqua Bolt there. For AOE attacks, some people choose to skip Water Burst. If you intend to take one of the melee AOE attacks from an epic pool, you could skip it, but if you don't then I'd probably keep it. Dehydrate does have a self-heal effect but it's kind of weak so it's probably best to just treat it as a normal attack power. Besides one or maybe two skips you'll want to pick the rest. 

 

Since you mentioned getting up close, you will likely want to invest into one of the epic pools for a single target melee attack at least (they hit pretty hard and Water Blast could really use the extra single target damage). While you're there you could also pick up a melee AOE attack, which would allow you to skip one of the AOE's from Water Blast (like Water Burst) while still having plenty of AOE damage options. 

 

"Alpha" power refers to the incarnate system that you unlock after level 50. The Alpha slot is basically a global enhancement that applies to all applicable powers. For example, the Agility alpha power would boost the defense, recharge, and endurance modification of every eligible power you have equipped. 

 

"Mules" refer to powers that you take for their ability to carry certain enhancements, rather than the actual power's abilities. For example, you might take Tough from the Fighting pool to slot Gladiator's Armor +Defense and Steadfast Protection +Defense. Any power that offers defense can be used as a mule to carry Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge, etc. 

 

"Soft cap" refers to the amount of defense you need to make enemies miss 95% of their attacks - They always have a minimum 5% chance to hit no matter what happens. In most content this number is 45%, which Super Reflexes can hit very easily. For incarnate content, the NPCs have a to-hit buff so this raises the softcap for that content to 58.75% (we call it 59% for sanity). Because Super Reflexes is entirely reliant on defenses, and because of how high its defense values are, I think it's worthwhile to push over the 45% number here (I would shoot for low to mid 50's here but your mileage and goals may vary). Even when playing non-incarnate content, going a little over 45% can give you a buffer against enemies with defense debuffs. Just remember that the enemies will ALWAYS have at least a 5% hit chance. Going over the softcap is for life insurance against debuffs and/or incarnate content. 

 

For slotting, I usually allocate 5-6 slots for proper attack powers and 3-4 for most armor stuff. Some sets offer strong enough enhancements that you could get away with just 4 slots on an attack power if you didn't want the 5-slot set bonus. 

 

If you want more specific guidance I could throw together a build...I'd just need to know your travel power preferences and which epic pool you'd want to pick (you'll probably want one if you like to get up close and personal). 

Edited January 5 by FupDup

[Exqzr984]

Hello and Thank you very much.

 

Currently I have all the Water Attack Powers and All the SR powers. I 6 slotted every attack power and I kind of get the feeling its overkill :).

 

So, if I read you correctly, I should drop Elude and Possibly Water Blast (I like the knockdown though) and the Aqua Bolt.

 

I went into Electrical powers with the idea of having the aura, the hold  and a team heal, but none of these  seem to be worth the investment. 

 

I lover hover, fly and Eavasive manuevers - the last one seems to push me over the 45% DEF I have read about and now undertand a little more about the soft cap.

 

Finally, I took Leadership Manuevers for yet more DEF.

 

My poor attempt at set slotting is in order down for the water powers (again I have them all 6 slotted)  Thunderstrike, Detonation, Devastation, Prevetative Medicine (thought heal would be good in Dehydrate) Gaussians, Impeded Swiftness, Ice Mistrals, Annihilation,  and finally Bombardment.

 

On the SR side I only have Doctored wounds on Master Brawler.  I had no idea where to start on filling the other SR powers as none of them are 6 slotted.  Finally I have 3 slots in Stamina with Performance Shifter.  

 

I think my resistances are very weak and my primary goal would be to get them as high as possible.  Im more then willing to sell off my current sets to buy better ones.  

 

Any builds sent my way, would be well received. 

 

 

 

[FupDup]

Unfortunately, Super Reflexes is not really designed to get high resistances because that's just not what it does. It's almost a pure defense set. The best you could do on that front is picking up Rune of Protection from the Sorcery pool, but that would require you to drop a few other powers to fit it in. I'm working on a build right now and I'll post it in a little while. 

[FupDup]

Here is the build. The main thing to be aware of is that my building style is a bit different than a lot of other peoples'. Many prefer to load up several attack powers with damage procs rather than filling out sets like I do.

 

I tried to make it fairly durable but those resists aren't gonna get much higher without finding a way to fit Rune of Protection. I actually made the very unusual decision to not slot the Ragnarok ranged AOE set in order to push the resists slightly higher using Bombardment (Hasten is already permanent without it). I kept the Elec epic pool for now but that could be changed if you desire. I didn't fill out the incarnate abilities on it. 

 

Another note is that Evasive Manuevers will only buff your defenses outside of combat. The moment you shoot somebody, the defense is removed. It does still give you extra mobility and anti-fly protection though so it still has a bit of value. And it can act as a mule for Luck of the Gambler (not that Super Reflexes is lacking in that department). 

 

Water SR Elec - Sentinel (Water Blast - Super Reflexes).mbd

Edited January 5 by FupDup

[Exqzr984]

Thank you again, I will study it with care.

[drbuzzard]

If you're SR, just go for defense, there's just not enough to build on for resistance (yes I know there's the scaling resistance with damage, but you'd have a hell of a time getting that high enough to save you). If you want defense and resistance, make an energy aura or invulnerability sentinel. Energy aura is easy enough to softcap defense with fairly respectable resistance. 

 

SR has plenty enough defense for a sentinel job. Contrary to my own delusions at times, sentinels are not tanks, and should not be aggro magnets. You can build pretty durable sentinels, but they don't hold aggro well enough for it to be worth it really. 

[Exqzr984]

Hello Dr. Buzzard,

 

At the risk of sounding elementary, I undstand that by Defense, you mean focusing on the Defense *Stat*, which I further undertand is *softcapped * at 45%.  I am not sure if you are suggesting that I ignore the RESIST stat completely and instead focus on?  More offense?  IF that is true, the issue for me in applying your advice would be .... how?

 

For example, I read a post from 5 years ago that went nto some detail about Water Sentinels and SR secondary.  In partciular 2 knowlegeable posters comented on  what conceptulally was the best approach.  Most of that converstation wa s way above my head.  I further researched Sentinels in general and would read things (again oten posted some time ago) that Ragnoark was the best for Primary and I shoudl mule up on Toughness.  Trying to fugure out what this meant led me to the wiki for Ehancement Sets.  From this I undertand I need to go to the Auction house.  I search for Raganarok and find one of them costs on average 15 Million Influene.  On me at the time I had 10 Million credits to my name, most of that donated.

 

This leads me to reading a very detailed guide on the Auction House, I apply the advice offered and I am able to make enogh to have a respectable budget (one week later of grinding).

 

And all that leads me back here becuase I still don''t know if Ragnarok is my goal - a long term one  - and even if it was, what to do after that.  

 

From the perrspective of a new player... I find many of the posts assume the reaader alsrady as a BA in CoH and default to PHD type discussion.  I respect the knowledge of those who have put in the work.  That said, my current level of eductation CoH wise would  not be higher than a relative grade 5.  

 

I suspect that new players in general experience much the same as I do.

[drbuzzard]

Yes, the defense stats, melee, ranged and AOE. Once you get to the softcap (45 as you say), there's not a heck of a lot of a point in more (though incarnate has a higher softcap of 57%, so if you're paranoid enough you can shoot for that). My SR sentinels are built around defense and recharge primarily so I can get the nuke up more often (tier 9 blast set power) as it is your best AOE attack by a large margin in basically every set. Before I had a lot of resources I'd chase the spiritual alpha incarnate set to help getting myself to perma hasten and as much recharge as possible. Then I noticed that you can get both defense and recharge if you use agility, so I did that a lot. If you're not familiar with the alpha incarnate power, it gives more boost to all stats as if you'd slotted for it, beyond the normal limitation of ~100% imposed by enhancement diversification. Agility can cover some defense gaps for you while also getting you more recharge. My own builds end up using musculature (damage boosting alpha) these days simply because I can get to perma hasten without using alpha anymore (it's just more expensive in IO sets). 

 

If you'd like some buying suggestions, I can do that. If you're not rich, don't worry about purples (ragnarok for example). They are somewhat nice, but not really worth the influence if you don't have piles. The marginal improvement offered by ragnarok for recharge is only 3.75% (10% vs 6.25% for positron set). Most ranged damage sets are relatively cheap (I say relatively only, 2-3M or so for rare IOs). There are a number of guides on how to amass wealth using the auction house and IO converters. That's probably your best bet for getting you what you want for your builds. If you don't feel like being a trader, play kill most Imperious Task forces in Cimerora. They will net you about 13M per run and are a good bit of fun. They also fill quite fast. The merits gained can also be used to pick up things which are really steep in the market (like the purples if you want them). 

 

To pump up defense I pretty much always end up with fighting pool, even though you will have a waste power in boxing. However tough is useful for taking steadfast protection +def and the gladiator's armor +3 resistance uniques. Between those two you get 6% defense to all, which is a fairly big deal when you're chasing it. You won't need to actually run tough for these to work, and it is somewhat of an endurance hog. Slotted up, weave gets you another ~6% so you will run that. 

 

Sorry if I don't offer up builds, but I stopped using the planning software a while back. I prefer to just build or respec using experience. I can juggle the numbers I need in my head well enough. 

Edited January 6 by drbuzzard

[Exqzr984]

Thank you DrB!  Good Advice, all of it.

 

I have taken your words and the build suggestion of FupDup and I have a much better Idea of what to do. 

 

Still figuring a lot out but progress has been made!

[stryve]

Greetings, and (belated) welcome to CoH!

 

In general I agree with what FupDup and drbuzzard have said, but I figured I could expand on that.

 

First, the Homecoming Wiki is a great resource with lots of articles and general information.  I recommend checking it out for more in depth questions, if you haven't been able to find answers here on the forums.

 

Now, let's try to go over some terms.

 

• Alpha Power:  As FupDup said, this is the first of the Incarnate Powers which can be unlocked after reaching level 50.  The Incarnate System is... complex, so I'd recommend looking up a dedicated guide or visiting the Wiki.  One thing to remember is that Incarnate Powers are only active at an effective level of 45 or higher.  So if you join up with a lower level team for whatever reason (low level Task Force, Flashback Arc from Ouroboros, etc), your Incarnate Powers will be inactive.
• Procs: Many IO (Invention Origin) sets include an Enhancement that have a chance to produce an additional effect when the power they are slotted into activates.  A lot of them cause extra damage (such as the Chance for Energy Damage in the Positron's Blast set), but there are many other effects as well.  This isn't strictly limited to IO Enhancements either; basically anything that causes "Chance of X" on power activation can be considered a proc.
• Soft caps:  As noted by FupDup, this refers to the point of diminishing returns for increasing Defense stats.  Roughly 45% for normal content, 59% for Incarnate content, and possibly higher for Hard Mode content.
• Mule powers:  Again, FupDup explained this clearly.  Some powers aren't chosen to be used, but instead just to carry a particular enhancement/set of enhancements.
• X set vs. Y set:  This is a very subjective topic.  IO sets give bonuses for slotting more of the same set in the same power, but what bonuses varies wildly.  Additionally, sets have a variety of level ranges: 10-50, 10-30, 20-40, 30-50, etc.  Generally the higher the level the larger the enhancement given, but a slightly lower base enhancement might be worth it for the set bonuses, especially as total value of enhancement of a particular stat (Defense, Recharge, Damage, Endurance Reduction, etc) approaches the maximum.  In the end it comes down to what you are looking for, and what you can afford to buy.
  • On a related note, Set Bonuses are lost when a character exemplars more than three levels below the level of the Enhancement.  Something to be aware of when playing lower level content.
• Uniques:  Some IO sets have individual enhancements that can only be slotted once in a build.  Generally slotting them gives a special bonus.  Very Rare sets (Purples) can also only be slotted once, but aren't usually referred to in the same way.
• Mez:  This refers to the various status effects that can be inflicted on a character.  Hold, Immobilize, Disorient (Stun), Sleep, Confuse, Terrorize (Fear), Knock (Down, Up, Back), Repel, Teleport, Fly, Only Affect Self, Untouchable, Afraid (Fear), Taunt, Placate.  Some crossover with Debuffs, especially Slow.
  • Mez Protection:  All mez powers include a Magnitude, most commonly between 1 and 3 though some are higher.  Magnitude stacks with repeated application.  If the total magnitude of mez is less than your Mez Protection (for instance, Sentinel Practiced Brawler grants 8.3 protection against most effects) you will completely ignore the effects.  If the magnitude exceeds your Mez Protection, you will affected until it wears off.
  • Mez Resistance:  All mez powers include a duration.  Resistance reduces the duration, so the effect will wear off sooner.  This also makes it more difficult to stack Magnitude in order to overwhelm Mez Protection.
• Global Recharge:  Anything that grants a recharge bonus across an entire build without actually counting as direct enhancement.  Quickness from Super Reflexes, Haste from the Speed Power Pool, and Recharge Time set bonuses all count.  Recharge Enhancement from Alpha Incarnate Powers do not, oddly.
• The Law Of Fives:  While a character can slot the same (full or partial) set multiple times in different powers, they cannot benefit from more than five copies of each named set bonus of the exact same attribute and amount.  The exclusion of more than five of the same bonuses is based on the name of the bonus and not its value. For example, a character can benefit from up to five global benefits of Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Recharge Speed, which gives a global +7.5% bonus to Recharge Rate, as well as up to five set bonuses of +7.5% Recharge. That's because the first bonus is named "Luck of the Gambler: Recharge Speed" while the second is "Huge Recharge Bonus". One can find the magnitude and name of the bonus listed in the Combat Attributes window. (Pulled directly from the Wiki)
• Auto Fire:  Under default control settings, holding the Shift Key while clicking on a power will set that power to automatically activate every time it recharges.  This can only be done with a single power at a time.  Not to be confused with Auto Powers, which are just always active without consuming Endurance and will not appear in your trays.

I feel like there were few other things I wanted to include, but I've lost track of them at this point.

 

Finally, some specific advice for a Water Blast / Super Reflexes Sentinel.

 

I don't have much to add for Water Blast beyond what's already been said.  I usually end up taking all but the first or second powers in a Sentinel Blast Set, but that's certainly not required.  

 

Super Reflexes on the other hand is probably my favorite armor set in general.  In general I concur that only Elude is undesirable; it can be made into an 'o shit' button, but I don't find the trade offs to be worth it.  I have seen some arguments for skipping Quickness, but can't put much stock in them.  Flat 20% increase to Global Recharge plus a boost to Run and Fly speed, with no slot investment required, what's not to like?

 

The set is a bit different on Sentinels than on other Archetypes, but consensus is the change is positive.  The two main points of divergence are Master Brawler and Enduring (replacing Practiced Brawler and Lucky, respectively).

• Master vs Practiced:  While I do recommend Master Brawler over Practiced Brawler, there are a few advantages to Practiced Brawler: Investment and total potential Mez Protection. 
  • Practiced Brawler is  One Slot Wonder power, really only needing a single Recharge Enhancement for full value, which leaves more slots available for other powers.  Additionally, Practice Brawler stacks with itself if the recharge is reduced enough (usually through sufficient Global Recharge bonuses) to activate again before the effect wears off.  In extreme cases, it can even triple stack!  The downside is that this only works because Practiced Brawler is a click power:  you have to remember to take time out of your attack chain to activate it.
  • Master Brawler on the other hand adds the same base level of Mez Protection/Resistance to your first two Defense Toggle, Focused Fighting and Focused Senses.  This means that as long as those toggles are active you will have Mez Protection and Resistance, with no further power activation necessary.  The Master Brawler click power instead grants you a variable level of Absorb Shield, which is a great 'oh shit' button and synergizes well with the rest of the set.  The main downside is that if for some reason you drop your toggles (say, running out of Endurance, or accidentally selecting the wrong button), you lose your Mez Protection.  On the mixed blessing side is that the Absorb Shield directly benefits from more Enhancement slots, and Heal/Absorb IO Sets have some good bonuses, which may mean fewer slots to allocate elsewhere.
• Enduring:  Enduring is unique to Sentinel, more or less replacing Lucky from other Archetypes.  It addresses two weaknesses of the Super Reflexes set:  non-positional Psychic Defense and Endurance Recovery. 
  • Basically, there are few attacks that are not tagged for Positional Defense (Melee, Ranged, AoE) and will therefore completely bypass Super Reflexes defense values.  Most of these attacks are Psychic, so the Psychic Defense from Enduring will cover that hole.  However not all, or even most, Psychic attacks lack a Positional Defense; frankly it's pretty rare. 
  • Given the above, it may be more attractive to concentrate on enhancing the other side:  Endurance Modification.  Super Reflexes has three toggles you'll absolutely want, plus whatever others you pick up form Power Pools.  Combined with with the costs of your attacks and such, your Endurance Recovery may not be able to keep up, especially when facing enemies that cause Endurance Drain (Malta Sappers, Freakshow, Arachnos Mu, etc).  Running out of Endurance causes your toggles to drop, which is usually followed by a trip to the hospital.  Just having the power is a pretty good boost, but is it enough?  On the other hand, enhancing Defense also enhances Defense DeBuff Resistance, which means you shake off Defense Reduction debuffs a little faster.  Your Mileage May Vary.
  • The downside of Enduring verses Lucky is that you have no Auto power granting AoE Defense.  The amount of AoE Defense granted by Evasion was increased to compensate, but that means you don't have any from SR until level 28. Additionally if you drop that toggle for any reason, all your AoE Defense goes with it.

One often missed or misunderstood aspect of Super Reflexes is the Scaling Resist built into the three Auto Defense powers (for Sentinels Agile, Enduring, and Dodge).  Each of these powers grants Damage Resistance to all except Toxic and Psychic, and the amount of Resistance granted increases as your HP declines (going from 0% to around +25% at maximum).  This Resistance cannot be enhanced (you cannot slot Resistance enhancements or sets in those powers), but they do stack with each other, for a total of around 75% at maximum.  Of course, the Sentinel Archetype has a hard cap of 75% Resist, so anything over that (due to set bonuses, Power Pools, buffs, etc) will be more or less wasted. 

 

Now, the tricky bit is that the Scaling Resist does not kick in until you are at 60% of Max HP, and doesn't max out until you are under 1% Max HP.  That can mean that the upper limits don't help much, since you may not have enough HP left to take a hit even with the increased Resistance.  There are two main ways around this.  First is to get a base level of Resistance so you hit the hard cap before being quite so low on HP, which can usually be covered well enough by basic set bonuses without chasing it.  Second is to to increase your Max HP since everything works on percentages, so you will have more total HP at the same percentage of Max HP.  Unfortunately, Sentinel Max HP caps at 2088, and Super Reflexes doesn't include any easy way to increase your Max HP.  

 

This is where the synergy with Master Brawler comes in:  Absorb Shields don't count towards current HP.  So, you have a click power Absorb Shield that increases the amount granted the lower your HP is, combined with Damage Resistance that automatically increases the lower current HP is.  It is entirely possible to have near max Damage Resistance ( 75% for Sentinel), soft capped Positional Defenses, and an ~1000 HP Absorb Shield.  That won't make you invincible by any means, but it's a pretty potent combination.  

 

Master Brawler does have a base Recharge of 60 seconds and a duration of 30 seconds, but you shouldn't have much trouble getting the Recharge down to at under 30 seconds.

 

Final random bit of advice.  Super Reflexes has lots of spots to put Defense Enhancements, which means you have plenty of room for the special Defense Set Enhancements:

• Kismet 6% ToHit (Unique)
• Gift of the Ancients Def/7.5% Run Speed (stackable 5 times)
• Reactive Defenses Scaling Dam Res (3% - 13%) (Unique)
• Luck of the Gambler Def/7.5% Rech Time (stackable 5 times)
• Shield Wall TP Prot/5% Res(All) (Unique)

 

Hope all this helps!

[Exqzr984]

Thank you for the help!

 

I am now much more confident on what to do

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8 by Exqzr984
new information