Beam Rifle Advice?

[Seroster01]

Decided to make a Beam Rifle/Bio armor character & having played him a bit he seems pretty strong.  My primary question is a relatively simple one; usually I only take the T2 ST power for my Sentinels, but given how Disintegration spread works I thought adding the T1 to my chain might be optimal.  Of course that requires I take some other power out of the build & the appropriate # of enhancements to make it a useful attack.  I also haven't reached high enough level for Piercing Beam, so maybe that will increase the amount of spread I get?

 

Anyway, if folks have some feedback on this or tips/tricks for BR in general, I'd love to hear them!

[KnightSoul]

Lancer shot will be auto spread Disintegrate soon^tm.  And I actively dislike Offensive Opportunity, its useless on damn near anything short of an AV.  Things pop in a half a tick without it. It just eats the endurance help Defensive Opportunity gives.  If you can get an attack chain that works without Single Shot, more power to you.  I'm not yet slotted with enough recharge to ditch it without overusing Area attacks.  But some day.  Some day.

[Destlin]

Why is everyone skipping the first ability? That is the only way to proc offensive opportunity the last time I checked.

[Six-Six]

Here's a very detailed write up by Sunsette.

 

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Seize the Opportunity

One of the central mechanics for Sentinel is the archetype's inherent power, Opportunity. Opportunity has two effects:

1. All damaging primary, secondary, and pool powers the Sentinel uses inflicts a small amount -def and -resistance to targets for 15 seconds.

2. Sentinels have a third combat bar (besides Health and Endurance) that grows as the Sentinel makes attacks, and decays when the Sentinel has neither attacked nor been targeted for an attack for several seconds. This decay is very slow and can take about 2 minutes to empty from a full bar. The bar does nothing until it is very close to full. When it is very close to full, a red circle will envelop the T1 power and a green circle will envelop the T2 power. Using and hitting with either of these powers will completely fill the bar and trigger either Offensive Opportunity (T1) or Defensive Opportunity (T2).

 

Both triggered versions put a targeting reticle around the struck foe for 15 seconds. This targeting reticle reduces the foe's damage resistance by -20%. Unlike many other sources of resistance reduction, this reduction cannot be resisted. This is a moderately powerful debuff, although it bears noting that debuff focused support characters can put out a lot more resistance reduction. For a high level sentinel, this is the most powerful part of Opportunity. At high levels, if one opportunity misses, it is usually not worth it to wait for it to recharge -- go for the other opportunity type instead as soon as possible, unless you really need the endurance savings from Defensive. However, low level sentinels will care more about which type they activate.

 

1. Offensive Opportunity (Red Circle). In addition to the above effects, while Offensive Opportunity is active, the Sentinel deals approximately 20% extra base damage to the primary target of their attacks, with all damaging primary, secondary, and pool powers.  If the attack has no target (as with point-blank or 'melee' AoEs), it does not get this benefit. This base damage scales with global damage bonuses, but does not scale with enhancement bonuses to damage. Thus, this is a lot of extra damage at the lowest levels when your enhancements are weak. At high levels, when you have various incarnate proc effects and fully enhanced powers, this is about 10% extra damage before including procs, and won't affect your best AoE attack at all as an Energy Blast sentinel.

 

2. Defensive Opportunity (Green Circle). In addition to the reticle effect, while Defensive Opportunity is active, the Sentinel gets a fairly significant amount of endurance back on a successful hit, and a minor amount (about 2-3% of base) of health back on a successful hit. Defensive Opportunity is all but worthless at the lowest levels, but begins to shine in mid-levels. Whether it continues to be of use at the highest level depends greatly on how much resistance you have and how much endurance you burn.

 

After 15 seconds, Opportunity will end, the bar will drain, and you'll have to start all over. You can expect roughly 50 to 60% uptime for Opportunity during a fight once you have a full attack chain.

 

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So if you don't take your T1, you still get the 15 sec. -20% res. with your T2.

 

what you're basically trading is:

 

• moderate but fast attack

• a minor -reg

• chance for KD

• chance to spread Disintegrating Effect 

• 15 secs of +20% base damage

 

in exchange for

 

• 1 power pick

• possibly 6 extra slots

 

 

[Sunsette]

To add to this, most BR attacks have kind of a low base damage in the attack itself. Where they get their damage numbers up is that:

- They have a source of -Res

- They do bonus damage after the shot if they hit someone with the DoT first

- Multiple attacks have -Def, meaning you can slot even more -Res in both your ST and your AoE

- Their T9 is really damaging but still on a reasonably short cooldown and it's very easy to use.

- Four AoEs and three of them are targeted spheres, the most convenient type.

- Native large amount of -regen makes effective solo DPS against bosses and higher much better.

 

I use Offensive Opportunity on occasion, because it's not useless, but with nine toggles it's very hard to argue with Defensive Opportunity as most of my choices.

[Destlin]

Thanks Sun, I really was wondering because I don't have a BR yet and was thinking of playing a BR/Regen if i could make it work in pines. In a group where it is a bit more forgiving with team buffs do you find yourself still hitting defensive to keep up endurance?  And very good write up on Six Six's part.

[PaxArcana]

Why is everyone skipping the first ability? That is the only way to proc offensive opportunity the last time I checked.

 

That's precisely WHY many people skip that first ability: Offensive Opportunity is kinda crap except against really, REALLY tough opponents.  Like, stuff that's at least Red to you, or better, purple (AVs, GMs, EBs that're +2 or better to you).

[oldskool]

For Beam, Single Shot and Cutting Beam are skip options. 

 

As to the T1 vs T2 debate, I'd suggest trying to not view it so much in a vacuum.  A lot of sets have stronger T2 attacks than the T1, but this isn't a universal truth.  Also, some secondaries make it where you don't need Defensive Opportunity much or even at all.  Some builds may value the utility of both and some may only need one. 

 

The only effect from Opportunity worth anyone's time is the -20% resistance. 

 

 

 

[Sunsette]

Thanks Sun, I really was wondering because I don't have a BR yet and was thinking of playing a BR/Regen if i could make it work in pines. In a group where it is a bit more forgiving with team buffs do you find yourself still hitting defensive to keep up endurance?  And very good write up on Six Six's part.

 

I still tend to hit defensive even in groups with good team support because I play Sentinels on permanent scrapperlock and go for the most high risk/high reward scenarios; I can't expect the support to risk themselves the same way, and because RNG can strike at any time, it's good to have the heals from Defensive already kicking in at the first opportunity, not panicking because I just lost 55% of my health bar and there's 12s until Energize comes back off of CD (the downside of having your heal also be your Endurance management ability).

 

However, if I were the type to play more defensively and stay with the team -- absolutely. It does not take much team support for my Endurance to end up on the positive side, and I know if I got any sort of Ageless Destiny once my BR unlocks that slot, it'd solve all my end problem (but I'm probably going for either Clarion to make BR's various debuffs crazier or Barrier so I can comfortably +4/x8 Psi groups).

[Destlin]

Man to be fair I'm so in love with radiation armor i totally biffed about there being a need for heals. I guess without absord/recovery shield the defensive op would be a lot more valuable. I shall remember this for my sents with other sets.

[Seroster01]

Had a question that isn't BR related & if it doesn't get answered I suppose I can make another thread, but in the interest of trying to keep thread counts down I'll ask here:

 

Does anyone know how much Water Blast's Tidal Power increases the damage of Water Burst & Geyser?  I've got my BR/Bio to the same level range as my other recent Sentinel creation & BR seems MUCH better at ST, but WBs AoE seems much stronger.  This could be due to the differences in set mechanics, including both the fact that the damage of BRs AoE seems a bit delayed after cast, that I usually delay my AOE to see if I can proc some Disintegration spread, & that Tidal Forces -> Water Burst is a great opener.  I'm also aware that WB has an abnormal max target count for Sentinels.  But whatever the reason, Water Burst and Steam Spray seem much more bursty than Cutting Beam & Refractor whatever-it-is. 

 

The T9s could shake things up even more depending on how much bonus 3 stacks of Tidal Power gives to Geyser.  It's a tough call for me right now cause BR seems really great for harder targets, but AoE damage is one of the main reasons I was trying Sentinel.

 

This also prompted me to think about the following: how long does the Disintegration effect actually last?

 

Thanks for any responses folks.

[Sunsette]

Disintegration effect lasts about 10 seconds. I don't have numbers on tidal power.

 

BR catches up on AoE damage when you get to the T9; if you have enough global recharge, it does really obscene damage about every 30 seconds, as opposed to the standard Sent T9 doing fine damage every 25 seconds. Water also has better target caps. If you're really interested in AoE with the Sentinel, Water and Sonic are the strongest choices, imo, with BR, Fire, Ice, Dark and Elec coming in somewhere after it but still fine.

[drbuzzard]

For Beam, Single Shot and Cutting Beam are skip options. 

 

As to the T1 vs T2 debate, I'd suggest trying to not view it so much in a vacuum.  A lot of sets have stronger T2 attacks than the T1, but this isn't a universal truth.  Also, some secondaries make it where you don't need Defensive Opportunity much or even at all.  Some builds may value the utility of both and some may only need one. 

 

The only effect from Opportunity worth anyone's time is the -20% resistance. 

 

 

I tend to avoid the T2 attacks myself simply because the benefits of defensive opportunity are too tiny for me to care about them, so I'd rather have even a slight damage boost. It seems to me that every sentinel secondary has tools for endurance recovery and self healing (or at least some absorption). Hence I just don't see the defensive opportunity utility.

[Destlin]

Disintegration effect lasts about 10 seconds. I don't have numbers on tidal power.

 

BR catches up on AoE damage when you get to the T9; if you have enough global recharge, it does really obscene damage about every 30 seconds, as opposed to the standard Sent T9 doing fine damage every 25 seconds. Water also has better target caps. If you're really interested in AoE with the Sentinel, Water and Sonic are the strongest choices, imo, with BR, Fire, Ice, Dark and Elec coming in somewhere after it but still fine.

 

Would it be possible to see that build? I have my fire/rad sent doing 500 damage every 30 secs with unbuffed inferno and my water/bio doing 520 every 20 seconds with gyser. I am having problems getting the BR T9 to perform this well and I could definetly use some direction.

[Sunsette]

Disintegration effect lasts about 10 seconds. I don't have numbers on tidal power.

 

BR catches up on AoE damage when you get to the T9; if you have enough global recharge, it does really obscene damage about every 30 seconds, as opposed to the standard Sent T9 doing fine damage every 25 seconds. Water also has better target caps. If you're really interested in AoE with the Sentinel, Water and Sonic are the strongest choices, imo, with BR, Fire, Ice, Dark and Elec coming in somewhere after it but still fine.

 

Would it be possible to see that build? I have my fire/rad sent doing 500 damage every 30 secs with unbuffed inferno and my water/bio doing 520 every 20 seconds with gyser. I am having problems getting the BR T9 to perform this well and I could definetly use some direction.

 

I'll try to put one together for you later today but Pine's and the version of Mids Reborn I was last using -- haven't updated yet -- both had different serious bugs in BR's Refractor Beam that made it impossible to correctly slot my whole build.

 

Off the top of my head though:

+20% from Energy Aura

+70% from Hasten

+37.5% from LotG x5

+12.5% from Posi's Blast x2

+20% from Superior ATOs

+10% from Apocalypse

+10% from Ragnarok

 

then consider the 5-set of Ragnarok is in Overcharged Shot boosted to +5s and I get like a 33s recharge time. (Sixth slot is Achilles' Heel for the Res debuff, I skipped the chance of knockdown in Armageddon).

 

275.15% recharge

 

125/3.7515 = 33.3 sec.

 

Also seriously considered putting FF: Chance of Rech in Single Shot or Charged Shot -- but it's only like a 20% chance and no this is a terrible idea it's basically a coin flip across the period of the cooldown to get at least one active that reduces the cooldown by another 1.33s.

[Six-Six]

Thanks Sun, I really was wondering because I don't have a BR yet and was thinking of playing a BR/Regen if i could make it work in pines. In a group where it is a bit more forgiving with team buffs do you find yourself still hitting defensive to keep up endurance?  And very good write up on Six Six's part.

 

Credit for the write up is all Sunsette's. (s)he's the one who's done all the work and testing. I just read them and share. Sunsette's a god!

[Destlin]

Omfg i thought it was just me. my builds got merc'd by that shit and i couldn't even pull out the bad skills. I might have come up with something i like using my soul mate /rad that works out pretty well for me. I have not decided if i want to make ground zero a crazy nuke or slot it for defense. a shift right slick will show what i have there. Anyway here is what i was able to make. please shout some feedback if you see improvements anywhere. (trying w/o single shot for a while)

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962

http://www.cohplanner.com/

 

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

Daisy Blaze Remix: Level 50 Mutation Sentinel

Primary Power Set: Beam Rifle

Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor

Power Pool: Flight

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Speed

Power Pool: Leadership

Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

 

Hero Profile:

Level 1: Charged Shot

• (A) Superior Opportunity Strikes - RechargeTime/Chance for Opportunity
  
• (3) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (3) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime
  
• (5) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
  
• (5) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (11) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

Level 1: Alpha Barrier

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
  
• (13) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance
  
• (17) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance
  

Level 2: Gamma Boost

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

Level 4: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  
• (7) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
  
• (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 6: Disintegrate

• (A) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  
• (11) Apocalypse - Damage
  
• (13) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge
  
• (15) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (19) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (19) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance
  

Level 8: Aim

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
  
• (9) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
  
• (9) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
  
• (17) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
  
• (33) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
  
• (33) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
  

Level 10: Fly

• (A) Empty
  

Level 12: Kick

• (A) Empty
  

Level 14: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  
• (15) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 16: Fallout Shelter

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
  

Level 18: Proton Armor

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
  
• (23) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance
  
• (27) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
  
• (31) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
  
• (37) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance
  

Level 20: Refractor Beam

• (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
  
• (23) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (21) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
  
• (39) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
  
• (40) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
  
• (48) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
  

Level 22: Proton Therapy

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
  
• (25) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
  
• (25) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
  
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
  

Level 24: Tough

• (A) Reactive Armor - Resistance
  
• (27) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance
  
• (29) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance
  
• (31) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance
  

Level 26: Afterburner

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 28: Particle Shielding

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
  
• (42) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
  
• (42) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
  
• (42) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• (43) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
  
• (43) Preventive Medicine - Heal
  

Level 30: Weave

• (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  
• (37) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
  
• (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 32: Piercing Beam

• (A) Superior Sentinel's Ward - RechargeTime/Chance for +Absorb
  
• (33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Damage/RechargeTime
  
• (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
  
• (34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (40) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

Level 35: Ground Zero

• (A) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown
  
• (36) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (36) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (37) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance
  
• (39) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  
• (40) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  

Level 38: Particle Acceleration

• (A) Flight Speed IO
  

Level 41: Mind Probe

• (A) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  
• (43) Hecatomb - Damage
  
• (46) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
  
• (48) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
  
• (50) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (50) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 44: Overcharge

• (A) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
  
• (45) Ragnarok - Damage
  
• (45) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
  
• (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• (46) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (46) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
  

Level 47: Meltdown

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  
• (48) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 49: Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth
  

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty
  

Level 4: Ninja Run

Level 2: Swift

• (A) Flight Speed IO
  

Level 2: Health

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  
• (21) Miracle - +Recovery
  

Level 2: Hurdle

• (A) Jumping IO
  

Level 2: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
  
• (29) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon

Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany

Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment

Level 1: Opportunity

Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface

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