Build Request - All Electric Sentinel

[Scarlet Shocker]

I dusted off my all Elec sentinel this weekend for the Wedding missions and I realised how much fun she was. But it's a crap SO build and hasn't been respecced after 50.

 

It's fully Incarnated to at least T3 (some T4s IIRC) and I've got a full set of Cupid's IOs to slap in it.

 

But I've been struggling to come up with anything like a good build.

 

I have a full set of Titanium Coating - not great, I know and I'm pretty inf poor in comparison to many so I don't want to go purples and specials more than necessary.

 

In terms of pool powers Combat Jumping & Hasten is mandatory and I quite like Experimentation - Speed of Sound is fun and I like Toxic Dart and Adrenal Booster - partly as good mules (AB takes a couple of Rectified Reticles which is a cheap thing.)

 

I also note that Lightning Reflexes is stated as improving recharge time and movement speed. Recharge is -20% so added to Hasten (70%) does that reduce recharge by 90% prior to slotting?

 

in the builds I've come up with I've managed to get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over the 75% Max Resistance except for Toxic and Psionic which are around 50% each. That seems like overkill. Is there any advantage to exceeding max Resist?

 

I also noticed that in action it's pretty good at End drain and I rarely run out of End even in an SO build being very active. Can I increase -End on foes to cripple them?

 

I also don't wanna take Voltaic Sentinel. If it's anything like as crap as it is on Blasters I really don't like it. Feel free to convince me otherwise or maybe do not 🤣

 

Thanks in advance. I look forward to seeing what you lovely folk come up with.

[Black_Assassin]

For starters, read/digest/absorb these two threads as the will help you generally

 

 

 

Regarding Elec/Elec:

 

I have attached my build below, which I have experience it breezing through most content. I aimed for two things: High melee defense (39% is what I managed and then rely on Barrier to cover the rest) and high damage (proc and slotting)

 

I must stress that Elecs damage is really good because Tesla cage is really strong with the procs as is the Havoc punch. 

 

I haven't necessarily gone speed of sound because I am not a fan. Have always used CJ and Super speed in 99.9% of builds. 

 

You are welcome to see my slotting choices and play around with the options. Maybe swap the purples out for a cheaper set whilst you use the above threads to build up your inf to fund the expensive build.

 

I tend to look at what set bonuses have been taken and then find the cheaper alternative. For example:

 

 

would then become:

 

So with the purple/pvp slotted variant you are looking at roughly 75-85M? vs obliteration set at roughly 10-15M.

 

re Voltaic, I like voltaic and think its worthwhile having, especially when I find I have nothing better to pick instead. It helps a bit with DPS and draining and you only have to summon it once per instance. So its set and forget.

 

Re going over the hardcap for resistance: not useful unless in situations where enemies debuff resistance. For example Longbow Nullifiers and their -res grenades. 

 

Re end drain: elec/elec/elec is end drain central. Unfortunately it is -recovery that is important as they just recover endurance and can attack again. Only short circuit has -recovery and its only a small -40% debuff, so just think of the endurance drain more as a boost to your damage from the Shocked mechanic more than anything.

 

My advice: Slot cheap Common IOs and cheap IOs where you can to get the enhancement values as high as you can (acc/damage/end/rech) then build your inf and merit stache and slowly invest in your final OP build (mine for example if you wanted to)

Examples of cheap IOs:

Ranged: Ruin/Thunderstrike/Entropic Chaos

TAoE: Detonation/Artillery

PBAoE: Multistrike/Cleaving Blow

Healing: Doctored Wounds

Resist: Just mix res and res/end from different sets until you can afford Unbreakable Guard sets

 

A bit of a ramble, but hope it helps?

 

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor)2.mbd

[Black_Assassin]

Visual if needed:

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

Thanks for your input guys. I found those both very useful, and reassuring because this was the best build I'd come up with prior to that and it seems to be pretty on par with yours. Maybe that really is just the best we can get a Sent like this and in that light I'm not unhappy with what I came up with.

 

Again, way OTT with the Res, but probably impervious to res debuff so if I can keep mobile and not spend my time in Melee (which she's not designed for anyhow) I could be ok.

 

I'm hoping the link provided gives anyone interested insight into how I've built it!

Crimson Charger - Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor).mxd

[Riverdusk]

Big fan of voltaic sentinel myself, at least since it was buffed a while back to shoot a lot faster.  It is basically at minimum a free extra 50 or so dps if it is fully damage slotted, not even including the bonus shock damage.  (Base damage 34 x 1.95 divided by its 1.25 second recharge).  That's about half way to taking down an even level AV solo all by itself.  Also comes with a base 1.4 accuracy so it needs almost no accuracy slotting.  No animation time beyond the initial cast on a mission, and it isn't going to get detoggled/suppressed on a sent because you have mez protection, so sent is where it is best.

 

Anyway, worth it just for the number of times something has a bit of health left and my attack misses and I'm ready to be annoyed, only for the volt buddy to kill the thing off for me.  Happens amazingly often even when I have 95% to hit.

 

I actually took it over power sink.  As you said, endurance doesn't seem to be an issue anyway, and neither does draining even without it.  I found I wasn't using it much.  Energize is enough imo.

[Black_Assassin]

I am looking over your build and I have some comments/observations I would like to make since we are on the topic of discussing builds.

 

I think you will find this build is anaemic in its damage for a few reasons:

1. You have not taken an epic pool - for sentinels this is the place to acquire an attack or two that have generally great DPA and can add to your attack chains. The current flavour pick is electricity mastery which works thematically and opens you up to get Havoc punch which has a hefty 111DPA which would make it your second strongest attack just behind Zapping bolt at 120DPA. This is unslotted so doesn't take into considering damage procs which boosts it significantly and will make it your strongest DPA attack.

2. You have not slotted Tesla cage at all, this is not a hold, it is a blast that has a hold component and should be treated as a damage power. In your build currently Tesla Cage has an 81DPA due to the large number of damage buffs you have accumulated throughout the build. For comparison, at ED values of damage slotting this will increase to 141DPA and if you slot like I have with damage procs increases again up to 264DPA. So you are really missing out on some considerable damage opportunities there. (even with Adrenal Booster active you still only manage 99DPA.)

3. Your AOE will be lacking as you have really under slotted Short Circuit and no electric mastery means no Lightning field to continually provide you with AOE damage. There are also many other AOE options in the other epics for example I really like Dark Mastery as you get Smite that is still strong and offers many damage procs and Engulfing Darkness, which is a similarly really nice PBAOE option that can be heavily slotted for proc damage. Fire/Psionic/Weapons all offer similar damage options, its really just how you wish to pick and flavour your build. 

 

 

General build thoughts: 

You seem to be relying on Power Surge? I used to do this on my previous build, it is really quite fun actually. Obviously this comes with the caveat that you really need to be in power surge all the time to have your survivability because you have under slotted everything else so much that you likely will need to rely on power surge. I used to use Burnout to increase my time in Power Surge, it could be something to consider if you want to push towards this playstyle? Just a thought.

 

Otherwise, generally I disagree with only two slotting energise. Its your only heal and will be what keeps you alive for a few extra seconds to get your next rotation off to potentially survive a fight. Charge up is probably over slotted, I would pull slots from there to give to energise. Much in the same way I would pull slots from Power Surge (leave at 2 slots of recharge to maximise the uptime) and give those to Tesla cage to boost the damage there. 

 

I don't think assault is adding much to your damage overall, I would be looking at dropping that to pick up at least 1 epic power attack. You could pick up an AOE immobilise to help stay safe (but sacrifice the option of a powerful single target attack) or pick up one of the melee attacks to hit hard on demand. 

 

I also think you can free up slots from Static shield, Grounded and Lightning Reflexes to slot up Short Circuit so it actually does some damage. 

 

Also RIP Voltaic Sentinel 🙏

 

[Heatstroke]

 From childhood Arthur Ames suffered from constant spasms and seizures. As he approchaed puberty he was also seemed to develop a type of ADHD. His mind was always moving, he was constantly active, running around and had trouble sleeping. Then one day Arthur while at home with his parents, he released a pulse of energy that knocked out every electrical system in the house. His parents took him to GIFT and they discovered that Arthur was a metahuman that drew enegry from an unknown force that seemed to focus on energy and velocity. This force which Arthur dubbed "The Juice" increased his speed, reaction time, thought processes, and even his healing Factor. The constant influx of energy increased the electical charge in Arthur's body allowing him to create and even absorb electrical attacks. Arthur is also highly resistant to energy based attacks. He can even boost the speed of others. Arthur now works with GIFT as the hero

"Overdrive".

 

 

 

This is my build.. I made him and kind of an idea of a Electric Super Speed Character. Based of the characters " Juice " from Justice League Unlimited and " A-train" from the Boys.  While I did not build in any defense in the build I also have a T4 Barrier Incarnate built for tougher things that I can switch to. He plays very well as a sapper quickly draining mobs down to zero end to limit their attacks and to increase the chance of the " Shocked " mechanic to trigger. 

 

OverDrive Sentinel BuildThreeVS - Electrical Blast - Electric Armor.mbd

Edited February 27 by Heatstroke

[Scarlet Shocker]

Great feedback people thanks.

 

I've got her almost fully slotted now. She seems to be very tough in almost all situations I've encountered - but due to the events I've been running a  LOT of Weddings of the last couple of weeks, so perhaps that isn't the best test. In those she's been pretty well invincible except last night where she got faceplanted unexpectedly three times with almost no warning. Full health, then non. I didn't look in the stats afterwards but I think there's enoguh here to be going on and I've got about 46.327 respecs available if needed 🤪

[Scarlet Shocker]

Also, I take the point about no epic power. I might look at that.

 

I love Power Sink and the end-drain powers and that is -Rec so it is the finisher. To my mind, End Drain is the raison d'etre of Electric in this game so not utilising it means I should be playing a different set.

 

I've actually given VS a spin on an elec blaster and I take back what I said about it. Not nearly as wank as it was on live so I could revisit that.

 

I don't really see the need to slot Energise much more than it is already. I'm doing fine for End, and haven't under most situations, needed much healing. I'm open to correction on that but thus far it seems to be more than adequate. My Regen is a gnats cock under 640% and my max HP a tad under 1300. That said, if you have compelling info to say why I should allocate more resource, I'm happy to know 🙂

Edited Wednesday at 11:50 AM by Scarlet Shocker

[Scarlet Shocker]

I also need to make another point: I intensely dislike the use of the Fighting pool for non-melee characters. I have been known to hold my nose and use it but I really don't like. IT's just always struck me as an inefficient usage of powers and slots to get additional bonuses. I get there is a case for using it but it's a strong personal preference.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Ok this was an interesting exercise:

 

I've taken on many of the suggestions in this thread and come up with this build

 

It's demonstrably worse in every respect. That I found profoundly interesting. TRying to add powers I'd excluded seems to have done a big job of gimping my original build

 

Either I'm misreading suggestions or my original build was a lot better than initially supposed.

Scarlet Shocker Sentinel 2.0.mbd

[Black_Assassin]

The new build looks pretty similar to the old one. I guess you just have different build goals than I do when it comes to sentinels, which is part of the fun of this game and how varied it is in slotting and power pick customisation 🙂

 

Also re fighting pool, elec armour is a resistance based set, so having access to tough to bolster S/L resistance is in your interests. Especially since otherwise you are only around 47%. That's just my opinion though and your mileage on this will vary of course depending on how you pilot the character. 

 

I build and play my sentinels generally as damage first and survival secondary. So my advice will always tend towards encouraging this methodology. Take from it what you want and mould it to your needs. 

 

Could even just take my build carbon copy onto brainstorm test server and see how it compares vs your builds in terms of damage output and survivability. Then you can make your personal build accordingly. That is what I tend to do if I see something I am interested in on the forums.

[aethereal]

Maybe describe what your build goals are.  What play are you trying to support?  Solo?  Group?  Do you want to exemp well?  Normal content/TFs, or incarnate trials, or hard mode?  Do you aspire to solo hard targets like AVs?

[Scarlet Shocker]

4 hours ago, Black_Assassin said:

The new build looks pretty similar to the old one. I guess you just have different build goals than I do when it comes to sentinels, which is part of the fun of this game and how varied it is in slotting and power pick customisation 🙂

 

Also re fighting pool, elec armour is a resistance based set, so having access to tough to bolster S/L resistance is in your interests. Especially since otherwise you are only around 47%. That's just my opinion though and your mileage on this will vary of course depending on how you pilot the character. 

 

I build and play my sentinels generally as damage first and survival secondary. So my advice will always tend towards encouraging this methodology. Take from it what you want and mould it to your needs. 

 

Could even just take my build carbon copy onto brainstorm test server and see how it compares vs your builds in terms of damage output and survivability. Then you can make your personal build accordingly. That is what I tend to do if I see something I am interested in on the forums.

 

It looks similar because if I were to respec I'd reuse all the IOs as best as possible. Primarily for economics but also I don't think that build is so bad as is.

 

As for damage, I don't mind killing stuff slow. I play a LOT of controllers so I'm fine with tickling stuff to death. I also hate speed runs so quick kills are not a thing I deem necessary. In most cases, the primary roll of a combatant is not to win, but more importantly, not to die. Sustainability is a major consideration.

 

I do like the thought of test servering it. I've never tried it. I might persuade a buddy to join me to do some testing.

2 hours ago, aethereal said:

Maybe describe what your build goals are.  What play are you trying to support?  Solo?  Group?  Do you want to exemp well?  Normal content/TFs, or incarnate trials, or hard mode?  Do you aspire to solo hard targets like AVs?

 

This is a good question. I don't often exemp past 50 and if somebody needs help I will bring the character that best suits their needs if I'm exemping as a favour. If I'm doing it because of TF reasons etc or merits, they need to be good but they don't need to be the primary leader. A good example I just went from a Tinpex on her to a Manticore (see related post in GD) and she performed excellently on both. Not invincible but creditably. I do like the idea of takign down tough AVs either solo or in small teams.

 

[Black_Assassin]

If you don't mind using Envenomed Daggers from P2W vendor, then anything can take down an AV. Might take a while though XD.