sentinel Ice primary a bit unpopular

[desarix]

Is it because the damage is so-so? I get that they have not adjusted it but I always loved the animations and the fact that you had some crowd control element in it. I've recently come back to play and kind of fallen in love with sentinels although from the traffic here I would assume it is not a popular AT.

 

Anyone have a good ice primary build they find good or is it really not as good as some of the other primaries. I suppose fire has the most damage. I have a dual pistol/ninjitsu build I adore and am in 30's. However I would like another build I can try out for fun. Isn't creating alts a creed on Homecoming.

[Maelwys]

15 minutes ago, desarix said:

Is it because the damage is so-so? I get that they have not adjusted it

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=blaster_ranged.ice_blast.freeze_ray&at=blaster
https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=sentinel_ranged.ice_blast.chilling_ray&at=sentinel

That's why.
 

On Sentinels they took most of the Ranged Blast sets; then removed the Snipes + "normalised" the Nuke recharge + reduced the maximum target caps of most AoEs.
However they also adjusted most of the single Target mez effects (e.g. holds) to ensure they dealt appreciable damage and had similar CC durations.
For most sets this has been a buff - Tesla Cage from Elec Blast actually deals pretty good damage on a Sentinel.
However Freeze Ray from Ice Blast already dealt decent damage; and they absolutely gutted it. They reduced its damage, nearly doubled its activation time and made it a sleep instead of a hold.

Ice Blast is still reasonable on Sentinels, but unfortunately it's not a top-tier set; even when fully procced out.

Elec Blast on the other hand is surprisingly good on Sentinels.

 

Edited February 4 by Maelwys

[desarix]

Okay thank you so much for the explanation. I shall abandon the idea and check out electric blast instead. Dark has an element of control to it too , hmm might consider it also.

[Maelwys]

I'm not a huge fan of Sentinels; however the one that I still play occasionally is Dark Blast.
As a set it's a little bit lacking in AoE damage but has nice ST (especially when procced out) and doesn't need to close to melee range for anything except the Nuke.
It's also got very good synergy with the likes of SR, which is better than usual on a Sentinel due to Master Brawler.

(Mine's a Dark/Energy Aura; but I did dabble with Dark/SR!)

[desarix]

I'll check out the build thread for some ideas .

[Maelwys]

Sentinel - Dark Blast - Energy Aura.mbd

Chain/DPS Math:

Spoiler

And FWIW here's my last attempt at getting Ice Blast to work:

zSentinel - Ice Blast - SR (Elec Mastery).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - SR (Leviathan M).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - SR (Psionic M).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - Electric Armor (Elec Mastery).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - Electric Armor (Leviathan M).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - Electric Armor (Psionic M).mbd
zSentinel - Ice Blast - Energy Aura (+Procs).mbd
 zSentinel - Ice Blast - Energy Aura (+Rech).mbd

Chain/DPS Math for the /EnergyAura variant:

Spoiler

 

[desarix]

Oh wow you really did try. I appreciate the builds thank you. I will try the Ice blast/SR ahh well be mediocre and never succeed but the it might be fun. Or I'll be the coward and play Electric Blast .🤪

Edited February 4 by desarix

[FupDup]

In regards to Chilling Ray and other Sent snipe replacements (I'm counting Freeze Ray as a snipe here due to its uber damage and unlock tier), I made a spreadsheet to compare just how much each one of them lost: 

 

 

Chilling Ray lost the most compared to its Blaster counterpart, and by a pretty extreme margin. For reference, the majority of Sentinel attacks only have a 2.5% lower DPA than their Blaster counterparts (nukes and snipers being the main outliers, plus the stun attacks like Tesla Cage).

Edited February 4 by FupDup

[desarix]

That is a 50% loss 😟. Psychic also. Well that puts it in perspective. Archery and Electric seems to be one of the least affected and perhaps is better, all things being equal but blasters have other tools to increase their damage. Looking at everything you have posted so helpfully I understand the disparity and reluctance of people playing sentinels.

Edited February 4 by desarix

[Maelwys]

22 minutes ago, FupDup said:

Chilling Ray lost the most compared to its Blaster counterpart, and by a pretty extreme margin. For reference, that majority of Sentinel attacks only have a 2.5% lower DPA than their Blaster counterparts (nukes and snipers being the main outliers, plus the stun attacks like Tesla Cage).

Agreed. And unlike some of the other powersets listed, this especially hurts Ice Blast users because the power in question was such a big part of its optimal attack chain.

Which means that in order to make a viable attack chain on an Ice Blast Sentinel you're forced to either suffer using Chilling Ray or some combination of one of the lower-DPA T1 and T2 blasts and/or an Epic attack (which isn't as viable these days since Dominate was nerfed!). All of which drag your DPA down. The only saving grace of the set is that Bitter Ice Blast is still good (at least until you look at Blaze)

Elec Blast on the other hand came out waaaaaay ahead because not only did it gain in Snipe damage; but it also got handed a viable extra attack in Tesla Cage AND some of the best performing Epics Pool Powers (Elec Mastery's Havoc Punch + Shocking Field; or Mu Mastery's Thunder Strike) are thematically aligned with it.

[Hogunn]

Elec/Elec on Sentinels is awesome. I have two attack chains that floor whole enemy group’s endurance. A great hold. A great heal. Regen. Recovery. And decent resists. Baddies just stand there and blink at you while you pick them off. 

[Hitback]

On 2/4/2025 at 2:52 PM, desarix said:

That is a 50% loss 😟. Psychic also. Well that puts it in perspective. Archery and Electric seems to be one of the least affected and perhaps is better, all things being equal but blasters have other tools to increase their damage. Looking at everything you have posted so helpfully I understand the disparity and reluctance of people playing sentinels.

 

Ice is still around 4th place among primaries in terms of dps. For me, the real hit was the T9 standardisation. Blizzard had a longer cd, but better dmg. Now all T9s do roughly the same damage, except Blizzard takes 8 seconds, whereas most other nukes are instant. Archery is pretty bad for Sent, unfortunatelly. Its ST is bad even for Blasters, except Sents also lose the spammable Rain of Arrows that carries the Blaster version.

 

Elec is the clear winner, like others have said. Not only do they get Zapping Bolt and Tesla Cage, but they can actually play the end drain mini-game successfully because Sentinels' Thunderous Blast is so spammable. Opening with drains their entire blue bar so that all your other attacks can do zapping damage.

 

If you can tolerate the disintegrate mini-game, Beam is also a top-tier set, better than the Blaster version.

Seismic is also up there, but having to stay on the ground removes your ability to hoverblast, which sentinels are so good at.

 

On 2/4/2025 at 3:04 PM, Maelwys said:

Elec Blast on the other hand came out waaaaaay ahead because not only did it gain in Snipe damage; but it also got handed a viable extra attack in Tesla Cage AND some of the best performing Epics Pool Powers (Elec Mastery's Havoc Punch + Shocking Field; or Mu Mastery's Thunder Strike) are thematically aligned with it.

Don't forget Ion judgment being a thematic fit.

[Psiphon]

Personally I prefer ice to electric. You can drop blizzard and ice storm and then use ST damage or frost breath to stack the damage. 

I've tried Electric Blast on every AT that it's available on and always felt a bit meh to me. 

I'd go ice blast. 

[Maelwys]

9 hours ago, Hitback said:

Archery is pretty bad for Sent, unfortunatelly. Its ST is bad even for Blasters, except Sents also lose the spammable Rain of Arrows that carries the Blaster version.

 

There's one thing that Archery still has going for it... Rain of Arrows is the only power Sentinels get across all their Primaries (there are one or two such as Ground Zero on their secondaries) that has a target cap higher than 10.

[desarix]

I am not a hover fan. Never enjoyed moving around with it and only play with combat jumping. I am really clumsy with hover I keep running into wall lights and get stuck in some protrusion or another and have to back out then go back forward so I will lag behind. I already lag behind constantly and it is not as if I am not pressing the forward as hard as possible. I am always the last one into a mission as it is. Why does everyone move faster than me.

 

Anyway hover is out but I picked up Storm, yeah, yeah I know but it is a fun set. I need to put one overwhelming force on my Jet Stream but otherwise it looks like an interesting set. It is rather an unexpected flavour and one I might enjoy. Has CC in spades. Yeah I am one for CC. My very first (well first of the ones I kept) on live was a gravity/empathy controller.

 

I've just fallen in love with Sentinels and people were arguing on Excelsior yesterday that no one picks them for the end game groups. Well not that I ever expected to be picked as I am a really bad player but I play fun sets and what I enjoy. It used to be MMs I made like 30 different ones and when I came back recently I found I no longer relished playing them because I'm now using a controller to play so the fact that there are far more buttons to press it became a chore to manage so they have been relegated to  another page or pages.

 

Worst comes to worst I'll solo end game. Probably sobbing ''waaaaaaaa nobody wants me'' ever so often.

 

I love changing secondaries and after swearing up and down I will not enjoy Bio fell in love with it but I need to have variety I never make two toons with the same secondary. I want to try a Beam Rifle build, may be paired with Stone Armour. 

[Psiphon]

12 hours ago, desarix said:

I am not a hover fan. Never enjoyed moving around with it and only play with combat jumping. I am really clumsy with hover I keep running into wall lights and get stuck in some protrusion or another and have to back out then go back forward so I will lag behind. I already lag behind constantly and it is not as if I am not pressing the forward as hard as possible. I am always the last one into a mission as it is. Why does everyone move faster than me.

 

Anyway hover is out but I picked up Storm, yeah, yeah I know but it is a fun set. I need to put one overwhelming force on my Jet Stream but otherwise it looks like an interesting set. It is rather an unexpected flavour and one I might enjoy. Has CC in spades. Yeah I am one for CC. My very first (well first of the ones I kept) on live was a gravity/empathy controller.

 

I've just fallen in love with Sentinels and people were arguing on Excelsior yesterday that no one picks them for the end game groups. Well not that I ever expected to be picked as I am a really bad player but I play fun sets and what I enjoy. It used to be MMs I made like 30 different ones and when I came back recently I found I no longer relished playing them because I'm now using a controller to play so the fact that there are far more buttons to press it became a chore to manage so they have been relegated to  another page or pages.

 

Worst comes to worst I'll solo end game. Probably sobbing ''waaaaaaaa nobody wants me'' ever so often.

 

I love changing secondaries and after swearing up and down I will not enjoy Bio fell in love with it but I need to have variety I never make two toons with the same secondary. I want to try a Beam Rifle build, may be paired with Stone Armour. 

When you say that some think that Sentinels aren't picked for end game groups what were you referring to? 

I've got loads of Sentinels amongst other ATs and have never had a problem joining a team with any of them.