What rotation do you use to maximize the tidal stacks and play well for Water Blast

[desarix]

As a  sentinel I am very interested in Water Blast since it works differently from my other Sentinels. I am however of the opinion I am not maximizing my damage potential and using the mechanics properly since I just started playing it. I think I also paired it with Bio and am therefore quite a busy bee what with trying to keep an eye on whether to use defensive or offensive adaptation. So far I have left it at balanced since I'm a little too busy in groups trying to keep the attacks and whirlpool up for the encounters.

 

I would appreciate any advice on how to play this Water Blast/Bio build since it seems to be quite an interesting mix and could perhaps be very well done if I know how to play it effectively.

 

I am using Underfyre's build. Of course I am far from level 50 just in my mid 20's so everything is not even slotted well. I would like to develop a good rotation or be aware of some of the common mistakes with these types of combo mechanics. I would be grateful for any help.

Edited February 7 by desarix

[BazookaTwo]

Your combo sounds very situational, and that's not a bad thing, I tend to use tidal+AOE most of the time for openers, and once everything is flopping I target the boss for single target until the AOEs are back up. You build tidal stacks with certain attacks, and spend them when you get the orange ring. 

 

One of the single target blasts does a tidal quick recharge. I'd put the Decimation build up  proc in that power. Anything with kb can use a FF +recharge, but especially AOEs. Whirlpool is especially great for its proc options. 

 

I leave Ablative Carapace on auto on pretty much every bio character I play. 

 

As far as rotations? I would apply AOEs with secondary effects first, then do the same with ST. 

 

I tend to push recharge on my heaviest AOEs but I pay for that in end cost. 

 

 

[Hjarki]

For ST, I tend to go AB->HB->AB->WJ->WJ, with Water Jet as heavily proc'd as possible. Dehydrate instead of Hydro Blast is also an option.

Edited February 7 by Hjarki

[tidge]

On Blasters, I skip Water Jet. I just want to get that out of the way so that my bias is not unknown. I don't want to repeat the reasons here, but some HC changes a while back so that Water Jet doesn't consume Tidal Power on a miss make it better than it was. The short version of the Blaster/WJ story is that single-target WJ was keeping me from optimal AoE damage from the Blaster and reducing spawn clear times.

 

Sentinels are not Blasters natch, and unless the secondary has some (likely PBAoE) %damage potential, I wouldn't be quick to skip Water Jet. IIRC Sentinels only get one potential PBAoE %damage power Parasitic Leech (T9) whereas other Bio Armor ATs get two.

 

For early levels, I think your attack chains will be a little uneven, so I wouldn't sweat figuring out a near-perfect one yet. As you level up and get set bonuses you will probably find yourself doing less swapping between Adaptations as well. Eventually work Tidal Forces into the build. It is a middling sort of build up (IMO), but it will help a lot at higher levels.

 

Good luck!