Discussion: What the best skills to slot with Sentinel AT Enhancements?

[Exqzr984]

Hello,

 

I have been thinking about this of late and I wanted to see if there was a consensus or some insight on this topic.  

 

Specifically what skills or skill types are best for  placing your Sentinel AT Enhancements.  For example, do you find they are best suited for Melee, Ranged, PBAOE, Long Cool Downs, Short, High Damage... Etc.

 

For myself, I have tended towards placing them in Ranged Single  Target with Low to  Medium Cool Downs  - because they affect self.  I have also placed them in cone AoEs, but I honestly can't make an arguement as to why I am doing it this way or if this is best use..

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Edited June 30 by Exqzr984
Spelling

[FupDup]

A lot of people put them in AOE powers because AOE powers tend to be less effective at proc bombing than ST powers. 

 

As someone who doesn't usually proc bomb, I tend to lean the same way you do with short/medium recharge ST powers because the choices for ST ranged

damage sets are severely limited while ranged AOE has a wealth of good options (in terms of set bonuses). 

 

I wouldn't put them in melee powers because those tend to be in much smaller supply than ranged powers on a Sent, which makes them prime candidates for stuff like Hecatomb, Avalanche, etc. that can't go anywhere else. 

Edited June 30 by FupDup

[Exqzr984]

58 minutes ago, FupDup said:

A lot of people put them in AOE powers because AOE powers tend to be less effective at proc bombing than ST powers. 

 

As someone who doesn't usually proc bomb, I tend to lean the same way you do with short/medium recharge ST powers because the choices for ST ranged

damage sets are severely limited while ranged AOE has a wealth of good options (in terms of set bonuses). 

 

I wouldn't put them in melee powers because those tend to be in much smaller supply than ranged powers on a Sent, which makes them prime candidates for stuff like Hecatomb, Avalanche, etc. that can't go anywhere else. 

That all makes sense.  I am going to take a much closer look at the effect of these enhancemnts in Gameplay.  I never really gave them much thought is was just standard for me to buy them. and slot them where it seemed to make sense.  And as I do this more questions come to mind - (answers to which I can not find on through a search).

 

Does anyone know...

 

1. What is the amount of Absorb on the Sentinel's Ward?  How long does is passively last?  Does if proc off "CAST" or "HIT".

2.  For Opportunity Strike.  Is this Proc actually good?  How long does it last and does it proc off of CAST or HIT?  At 1 per minute, I wonder if this particular Enhancemt set can be left over for a purple set (wherein you have the option to do so).  For example the set Bonuses from Ragnarok seem of more use and if one had to choose between the two, would Raganrok be a better option?

3. How do Sentinel AT enhancements stack up to others in general is the feeling they are better, worse or about equal to the others?

[Uun]

8 hours ago, Exqzr984 said:

1. What is the amount of Absorb on the Sentinel's Ward?  How long does is passively last?  Does if proc off "CAST" or "HIT".

The standard version is 120 hp and the superior version is 180 hp. Both last 30s and are 2 PPM procs that require a successful hit to trigger.

 

8 hours ago, Exqzr984 said:

2.  For Opportunity Strike.  Is this Proc actually good?  How long does it last and does it proc off of CAST or HIT? 

This proc adds 7.5 (standard) or 10 (superior) to your Opportunity bar, causing it to refill faster. Both require a successful hit to trigger. Since the changes to sentinels, it's pretty "meh".

 

I generally slot the sentinel ATOs for the enhancement values and set bonuses. Because they have high recharge values, I typically slot them in powers with long cool downs (usually one of them in the nuke).

[tidge]

10 hours ago, FupDup said:

A lot of people put them in AOE powers because AOE powers tend to be less effective at proc bombing than ST powers. 

 

As someone who doesn't usually proc bomb...

 

I think that for most cases, this is backwards thinking. AoE tend to be better for %procs because even though the individual %proc rate is smaller, because most mobile critters tend to cluster, hitting three or more enemy mobiles tends to "guarantee" a firing of the %proc, even if the recharge in the AoE is relatively high. If you get more than one %effect (like %damage, %-res) then the player is ahead of what might have happened with a single-target attack that also got %damage. Also: Many AoE tend to be lower damage than a similar-level single-target attack, so %damage adds more relative to what a single-target could do.

 

Conversely, most single-target attacks are relatively fast-recharging (12 second or less), so they have inherently worse %proc rates... on top of maybe only getting the effect on a single target.

 

Sentinels have generally smaller AoE of course.

 

11 hours ago, Exqzr984 said:

Specifically what skills or skill types are best for  placing your Sentinel AT Enhancements.  For example, do you find they are best suited for Melee, Ranged, PBAOE, Long Cool Downs, Short, High Damage... Etc.

 

My opinion is that the Sentinel ATO sets have set bonuses that are worth significant slotting... that is, more than three in a single power, so I'll have them usually 6-slotted in a couple of the early single-target powers. Which ones depends on what other sets I intend to use in single-targets. I suppose some players may look at the potential for getting lots of 10% Range bonuses, but I'd consider that a waste on Sentinels who don't need to stay at range.

 

A note on Franker-slotting the Sentinel ATO. The only piece I'd consider NOT using with the other five is the (Superior) Sentinel's Ward Recharge/%Absorb. Six of that set gives a health Global +Recharge bonus... and generally Sentinels would probably need it because of their armor secondaries... but if the Sentinel had a 40+ second recharging AoE and the Sentinel had inferior resistances, and that attack was going to be used regularly, I have found that these sorts of %Absorb piece (such as from the Entomb Winter set) can help with surviving certain types of fights. I wouldn't recommend this choice (over 6-slotting) without some serious consideration of the rest of the build... Sentinels have pretty good HP caps, and they are the only AT I have that has hit the AT HP cap without incarnates and without specifically choosing primary/secondary and specifically building to do exactly that... so %Absorb could just be overkill.

 

 

[Exqzr984]

Alright, so there are multiple viewpoints on the AT slotting, which I guess applies to Proc slotting in general.

 

Quick cool down skills, long AoE skills?  or something in between.  Reasons for the varios ideas all seam reasonable to me.  

 

Recently, I have been experimenting with Slotting the AT enhancement in longer cool down AoE (a 180 from what I was doing before).

 

What I found that I like about this is that the Proc is essentially guaranteed to happen at the moment you use these "bigger" skills.  Which essentially makes them "predictable"  Thus, when I cast Geyser with Sentinel Ward, its 30 second cooldown I know that WARD goes along with it.

 

Where I can see this being particularly useful is with a PBAOE with a long cast.  Because you know that you are probably going to take some aggro during the cast and for sure lots of it right after, so proccing a WARD has a natural synergy to it.  That said, would a Ragnarok with a Knockdown be a BETTER damage migitator than a 180 healh ward? (thank you Ulun for that information).

 

 In my most recent build (Ice/Stone) I tried using ONLY the proc ehancements for the AT sets (because as already pointed out, the range benefit seems wasted to me, especially on this very close range build).  I put them both in Frost Breath along with 4 other Procs and I am quite liking the result.  I am  about to do my level 50 respec and I think Im going to put them in Blizzard.  Thus when I cast it I should get a Ward on each cast and an opportunity on every other cast.  I believe this will significantly up its utility and predictability.  In short am ignoring the set bonuses in favor of the Procs only.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 30 by Exqzr984
spelling

[TheMoncrief]

I'm currently considering Voltaic Sentinel for one of them on my Electrical Blast Sentinel. The proc won't do anything, which is technically a downgrade from what it does in other powers, but only technically. You can't put any useful procs in Voltaic Sentinel anyway, so no loss there. I think this is pretty ideal for Electrical Blast, as long as you're willing to take and slot Voltaic Sentinel, which I know many people just skip. But I like it.

[kelika2]

Most of the time:

ATO1 in long recharge non-nuke attacks.  The only time I noticed an extreme boost/fit was in Water Blast's Water Jet.  one for maximum recharge at all levels, another for more chances of it to go off for more rage

 

ATO2 same thing.  the absorb isnt great but still has plenty of recharge for a strong attack

[Sovera]

In the same way as Brutes the procs are bad and just about useless. The BONUSES are good though so don't skip on slotting the ATOS. But since the procs are near useless there is pretty much not much point in thinking too hard.

 

My own way to do it is:

- Is my nuke a rain? Then one can go there as rains don't proc well (or at all).

- Is my nuke NOT a rain? Then it does NOT go there as proc bombing the nuke increases it's damage in 30% and Sentinels need all the damage help they can get.

- Will I be using my T1 or T2? One of the ATOs goes there as T1s and T2s proc badly due to their fast recharge.

- Do I have an AoE? The other ATO goes there as AoEs tend to be bad with procs anyway.