project Collaborative Project: A Guide to Sentinel Sets

oldskool · November 6, 2019

@Save-vs-DM, great job and thanks for reminding me there are a few powersets that I have not addressed as write-ups (that I said I would!). So this is a nice kick in the pants reminder that I need to get around to Assault Rifle, Archery, and Psychic Blast as promised. Life's been busy and maybe can I devote some of my vacation time this month to knocking that out. The idea for the write-ups are there but I just haven't published them.

There are a few minor errors here and there (spelling/grammar) that could use a second pass. Still good stuff!

I do have one other quibble though. Both Charged Bolt and Lightening Bolt apply the same 20% resistance debuff as a part of the overall Opportunity mechanic (as it currently exists - subject to change at some point apparently). Charged Bolt and Lightening Bolt have separate secondary effects related to Offensive and Defensive mode which hold value to each player/build.

Your statement about not being a min/max player is fine, but I'd reconsider stating that both of these attacks are necessary. At least in such a blanket way. It is true that Charged Bolt is necessary to use Offensive Opportunity but the merits of that plus the power itself should be individual choices. If a player can formulate a competent attack chain without either Charged or Lightening Bolt then these powers aren't really mandatory outside of their link to the inherent. The inherent as of right now isn't so powerful that having both the T1 and T2 are build makers or breakers. Just something to think about.

Save-vs-DM · November 8, 2019

Both good suggestions. I'll get around to editing it and making another pass for grammar soon.

Save-vs-DM · November 10, 2019

Just a note that I went through and edited my guide for spelling, grammar, and "man I was a bit drunk when I wrote this." I feel like it reads better now and has better advice.

Sarkastik Observer · December 7, 2019

This is amazing and I'll keep an eye on this thread. Thank you!

oldskool · December 11, 2019

Primary Powerset: Assault Rifle

Low to Medium Single-Target Damage*, Medium to High Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (3 Cones, 1 Targeted), Medium Control, Low Debuff Potential

* Procs and proper planning can change this.

It has been a busy year since the last time I had the opportunity to write one of these. For my first of these return write-ups, I'm going with Assault Rifle.

So, casual reader you're noticing a lot of low and medium characteristics with nothing rated (as my opinion) high. There is a reason for that. It is my opinion that Assault Rifle is an underperforming set as it currently exists within the Sentinel AT. Assault Rifle (going forward let's just use "AR"), is not unplayable. Its just not as good as other options and nor is it as good as its reputation in other ATs (which isn't that great to begin with). Let's caveat though what I mean by reputation and walk through why I view this set the way I do.

AR has a reputation as an AoE-centric set. For the other ATs, they get 3 cones, a targeted AoE, and a location AoE (Ignite). The other four powers are single target but only one of those does noteworthy damage (Sniper Rifle). Furthermore, the tier 9 (T9) power Full Auto has a shorter than normal cooldown which also pushes the AoE-centric concept. The Sentinel turns this all on it's head.

While I admit I have a sour opinion of AR in its current state, please do not take that as me stating aversion to playing it. You can make an effective character here but it isn't the most effective character you can make. How effective that character can be is the entire point of this write-up, right? Anyway, enough complaining and let's do some pro/con talk.

Update: I'm going to leave the original text above in this revision. I've decided to revisit Assault Rifle and my opinion has changed on it pretty dramatically. It really isn't as bad as I originally thought and that was due to my own stubbornness on not feeling like I could let an attack drop. None of this update is to say that Assault Rifle suddenly shifts to top tier, but more to say that you can make this work in a build without it being total garbage. I think if you come at this set as a former user from any of the other ATs you're going to be disappointed. Hell, you may be disappointed by other features of the Sentinel in general. My warning on that is; don't be narrow minded here. I did, and I was wrong. Well kinda. Assault Rifle does need some buffs, but it isn't a total loss as may look at first glance. Also, much of my new found opinion is 100% build related. Assault Rifle, just as baseline, does kinda suck. Again, this just circles back to the sentence with "you can make this work". In order for it to push higher damage there are some tough choices on dropping powers. More on that later.

Pros -
Sentinel AR takes steps towards improving its single-target damage. The four single-target attacks you get can create a competent attack chain (with or without Hasten!) while leveraging some crowd control too.
Sentinel AR gets Aim which is something all the other ATs lack and can add to burst AoE or single-target.
Sentinel AR Full Auto hits 10 targets and the cone is slightly wider.

Cons-
Sentinels as a whole have lower target caps on AoE powers and this cuts the target caps on cones by 40%. Its a significant AoE damage loss and it hurts an identity of this set (partially due to the loss of Ignite on top of the reduced caps).
Sentinel AR Full Auto doesn't really gain much, if anything, from the Tier 9 normalization across all the primary sets.
The high direct damage in Sniper Rifle may be preferable to the high damage-over-time in Incinerator.
Beanbag is replaced by Disorienting Shot (not necessarily bad). Disorienting Shot, a T2 power, has the highest DPS out of the entire set (that is arguably bad design).

While the options for single-target are a potential improvement the overall output isn't as high as it should be especially when combined with the severe gutting of AoE potential. Edit: Also, it shouldn't take a player abusing damage procs to make this single target shift something better than it is baseline. When just viewed at face value attacks like Incinerator look pretty good, and Slug looks fairly bad. IO procs can reverse this while also pushing the damage potential of the set. That's not a great place to be in. Assault Rifle isn't alone here but when we get into some advanced slotting/rotation ideas you may see what I'm talking about.

Last point gets highlighted because I feel it deserves more weight. What the Sentinel version of AR gains in single-target it gives up in AoE. Unfortunately, I do not think what it gains is an even trade (especially not considering just basic SO's/IO's), but honestly it isn't all doom and gloom. AR is still a playable set with some flexible options. [Update - I still stand by this, but my view overall isn't extreme. This is more of a critic on the design in the most general sense I can think of.]

Moving on...

All Sentinel primaries were changed to match the concept of the AT. Assault Rifle was changed substantially from what it was and plays almost like a totally new power set. Let's now look at the changes themselves to further drill home my feelings.

Tier level	Other Archtypes	Original Target Cap	The Sentinel	Sentinel Target Cap
1	Burst	-	Burst	-
2	Slug	-	Disorienting Shot	-
3	Buckshot	10	Buckshot	6
4	M30 Grenade	16	Aim	-
5	Beanbag	-	Slug	-
6	Sniper Rifle	-	M30 Grenade	10
7	Flamethrower	10	Flamethrower	6
8	Ignite*	16	Incinerator	-
9	Full Auto	10	Full Auto	10

*Making Ignite here an exception since it does not have a direct transport into the Sentinel version.

So tiers 1, 3, 7, and 9 have the same powers and placement. There are effect changes, like target cap reductions, within those tiers but otherwise they are familar selections. The other tiers either have new powers (Disorienting Shot, Aim, Incinerator) or a juggling of power selection (Slug, M30 Grenade).

If you're still with me, then we'll explore how to make chicken salad out of chicken droppings. OK, may be it isn't that bad. Still, if you dip a turd in gold you'll still have a turd. Do I really hate this set? No, but if you put lipstick on a pig it is still a pig. OK, I'll stop. All kidding aside let's go over the basics, which I promise will be briefer than this introduction, and then into the meat/potatoes of everything else.

Beginner's Overview

Sentinel AR is NOT a complicated set. It is a bit power hungry though. Normally, I would include a section on what powers to skip right after all of the slotting opinions. I'm not going to do that here. I highly recommend you consider taking everything. You could potentially skip some combination of powers depending on your tastes, but if you do I'd really take a deep consideration as to why you're bother with this set at all.

Also note, I generally do not make a big fuss over the T1 or T2 powers of the Sentinel. I know some players are dead set that you take both the T1 and T2 in order to fully maximize the Opportunity mechanic. Let me just state that the reason why I recommend taking both Burst and Disorienting Shot has absolutely NOTHING to do with the inherent. None, zero, zilch. Burst is a decent power in its own right with some properties we will explore in the slotting section. As noted elsewhere, Disorienting Shot is the highest DPA power in the entire set. The bulk of your actual DPS (that is damage over a period of time vs just the metric of each click) is built on a foundation set in Disorienting Shot. Remember, Sentinels do not have the AoE-godhood of their Blaster-ish parents but do have some of the single target focus of their Scrapper-ish ones. If you start skimping on the single-target in Sentinel AR, then what's the point? You'd be better of playing a Corruptor, Defender, Blaster, or even a rifle-focused Spider. Anyway, enough of that. Let's move on to what is under the hood.

Slotting

Basic Slotting

Did you know that the Sentinel inherent, as it currently exists, always provides a debuff to enemy defense and resistance? Yes, its an all the time -5% resistance and about -3 to 5% defense. Right out of the gate all Sentinels have some innate accuracy benefits as long as one hit has landed already. That makes this section very short and sweet. You can focus in about one Single Origin quality accuracy enhancement or level 25+ Generic Invention Origin accuracy enhancement then call it a day (unless you want to push +4 level shifted enemies at which point you do need to think about more accuracy). You neither need nor want more than three damage enhancers when discussing these bare-bones style enhancements. Endurance cost reduction is nice to have about 1 of but Recharge reduction can be an even better investment.

Why recharge reduction? Well, let's circle back to that note about attack sequencing and the number of powers. For a single tough target you're going to have gaps in your attacks. I don't recommend using AoE's as single-target fillers since they get costly on endurance drain (Buckshot can fill in the void though). So improving recharge in your heavier hitters like Slug/Incinerator is recommended to help punch past higher resistances.

Advanced Slotting

This is where the fun begins and also where the logic on why I say "take everything" makes a little more sense. Remember too when I said that you can put lipstick on a pig as a joke? Procs are kinda the lipstick that gets put on most Sentinels. Sentinel AR has a few opportunities for damage/utility procs and these greatly improve performance.

Burst - This power imposes a defense debuff in addition to the default negative defense from the inherent. This also means this power accepts Invention Origin sets in the Defense Debuff and Accurate Defense Debuff categories. You'll find Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff, Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage, and Shieldbreaker: Chance for Lethal Damage here. Achilles' Heel is worth putting here even if the chance to proc isn't a guarantee.

Disorienting Shot - This power is an honorable mention. Despite not having many proc options, it is still worth considering the Decimation: Build-Up proc here as well as the PvP toxic damage one. The reason being is this power is easy to reduce on its recharge making it available after every shot of Slug. You're effectively fishing for procs with this power so may as well use it in that realm.

Slug - This is your other single-target power with proc options outside of just the damage category. This power can take Knockdown/Back sets which opens up Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge and Explosive Strikes: Chance for Smashing damage. This power is more effective at delivering damage procs than Burst and has more options than Disorienting Shot. If you're not using procs in your loadout, then I recommend skipping this power. If you are going to use procs, then take Slug. Make sure you give it the Explosive Strikes and Gladiator's Javelin proc for it to be worth using.

Incinerator - Also an honorable mention. This power doesn't take sets outside of Damage, Archetype Origin, or Event. Archtype Origin (ATO) is the potential gem here. Opportunity Strikes has a proc that is "Chance for Opportunity". What this means is that every activation of the power has a chance (its small) to grant a burst of Opportunity meter which can potentially fill the bar completely. The superior (purple) version of this ATO has a proc-per-minute (PPM) rating of 2 (basic is PPM 1). PPM is one of those metrics where the lower the number goes the more certain characteristics like activation time and base recharge matter. Incinerator has a long-ish animation AND recharge which are both solid candidates for this type of proc. I'm not saying you have to put this ATO into this power. Instead, I am saying if you are looking for a spot to place it, then this isn't a bad one for it. Alternatively, I feel this is a much better place for Apocalypse than any of the others with some consideration being put towards Disorienting Shot (due to its spammability).

Buckshot, M30 Grenade - Both of these can take Knockback/Down sets. Again these can take the same ones as Slug but I'd also consider Sudden Acceleration for the Knockback to Knockdown conversion especially in M30 Grenade. Alternative you could use the Summer Blockbuster set and benefit from that set bonus (which can be pretty good).

Full Auto/Flamethrower - I don't have any special tricks for these. I typically favor pushing global recharge and these three are great places to do it. The Sentinel ATO set Sentinel's Ward functions nicely in AoE powers since each hit has a chance to trigger its proc (the effect is absorb). The proc's actual effect isn't that great but the full set bonus is pretty solid.

Final note, since AR is very cone heavy the Sentinel ATO set offers a range improvement at about 3 pieces. You can split this up into multiple powers and the range increase also widens cone range. That will be in addition to direct IO enhancements like Positron's Blast +Damage/+Range. Something to think about.

What to Skip?

If you can get away with taking all of the powers in Sentinel AR, then I think you should. You gain 3 AoE powers, 4 single target, Aim, and a nuke. That's going to make power picks and slotting very tight. Still, you can skip some powers to make room, and it isn't the end of the world. Let's deep dive into this.

Single Target:

Burst or Disorienting Shot - Ideally you should strongly consider taking both. If I had to completely drop one, it would be Burst, but there are a number of caveats that come with that. If you're concerned that dropping Offensive Opportunity is going to be a big damage loss, then don't be. The bonus damage is unenhanceable and contributes very little in overall DPS with a fully fleshed out level 50 build. If you're still leveling... take it.

Slug - This is the weakest single target attack out of the 4. If you play a build seeking mostly full sets then this power is likely going to fall to off to the side. At best it becomes a filler in an Hasten-less build or a set mule. It does have knockback which gives you a mitigation skill, but that is of variable use to Sentinels in general. What's nice about this power though is that it does take Explosive Strike: Smashing Damage giving it an extra 3.5 PPM damage proc. The recharge of this power (8 seconds) is low enough that a high global recharge build can make effective use of damage procs. They should trigger roughly 50% of the time. So the average damage and DPS of this power with procs actually makes it competitive for some builds. TL;DR - Skip if you're pushing lots of recharge + full sets. Take if not running Hasten OR you want extra mitigation. Consider taking if pushing procs.

Incinerator - This is the second highest DPS power for single target. It, like Slug, is going to offer variable use depending on build. Incinerator certainly offers the widest range of use for all players, but this power isn't an automatic top pick. There are a lot of considerations for this power. 1) It works well with the Opportunity Strikes ATO set for whatever that may be worth to you. 2) It's base damage is quite high, but it is a Damage-Over-Time effect. 3) It has poor proc options like Disorienting Shot and frankly Disorienting Shot is a better place for the Apocalypse proc due to just how fast you can spam it. 4) For builds pushing high recharge + full sets this power has a home in your loadout. 5) For a build really wanting to abuse procs you can skip it.

AoE:

If Assault Rifle has a history of being an AoE focused set, then why would one ever contemplate skipping these powers? Well, because they aren't that great in the first place on a Sentinel.

Buckshot or M30 Grenade or Flamethrower - You could skip any one of these or perhaps even two if you plan to take an Epic/Patron AoE (e.g., Psychic Shockwave/Fire Sword Circle, etc). Buckshot's fairly high damage for a 6 target cone within the Sentinel AT. It's also got knockback focused into a cone. Personally, I find that easier to manage than M30 Grenade (without the KB/KD IO) and Buckshot is extremely exemplar friendly if you wanted to go really low in levels. That said, you can consider dropping it. M30 Grenade hits 10 targets but its damage is rather low. With a KB/KD IO its scattering effect becomes a less obnoxious mitigation tool. For regular damage dealing this power pretty much needs to hit all targets for it to be its most effective. Flamethrower's base damage is rather high but it is a damage-over-time effect. It's also a cone that hits 6 targets (like Buckshot). If Flamethrower hits all 6 of its targets it will slightly out damage M30 Grenade when it hits all 10. Flamethrower is deceptively good but you can skip it if you don't like cones. Also, Flamethrower has a 20 second base recharge. Both Buckshot and M30 Grenade can take the AoE PvP damage, Explosive Strikes, and Positron's Blast damage procs. Flamethrower really only has the PvP and Positron.

Aim and Full Auto - There is no reason to skip Aim if you care about damage. There is no reason to skip Full Auto despite its shortcomings within the Sentinel AT. FA is still a T9 and it is still worth opening into a target rich environment before you use other AoE powers.

Rotations

This is going to vary a lot due to power recharge and slotting decisions. However, what I try to accomplish is the following:

Burst -> Disorienting Shot -> Incinerator -> Disorienting Shot/Filler -> Slug/Filler

I like to try to lead with Burst to both place the defense debuff and hope that Achilles' Heel goes off to make the other attacks stronger for 10 seconds. I'd shoot to get my recharge high enough, both within Disorienting Shot and globally, to be able to fire Disorienting Shot again after Incinerator. Slug, if taken, can be a filler afterwards if Burst has not come off cooldown (possible if it is a proc mule). Buckshot can also be a single-target filler but I don't recommend doing that with the other AoE powers.

Edit Notes (The methods below work with Perma-Hasten levels of recharge or 175%+)

Another method to go for is to drop Incinerator and proc out Slug.

Burst -> Disorienting Shot -> Slug -> Disorienting Shot OR Burst -> Disorienting -> Burst -> Slug

Burst: at least 2 dmg + 1 Achilles' Heel. Disoriening Shot: Apocalypse (proc only) + PvP damage + Decimation Build-Up OR just the PvP damage with Decimation. Slug: 2 dmg procs + KB/KD IO OR Apocalypse proc + PvP + Explosive Strikes.

In a long duration fight (like an AV), Burst will trigger Achilles' Heel and that is a damage increase even if it is resisted partially. Disorienting Shot is spammed so frequently that Build-Up is going to go off, and the Apocalypse proc has just over a 40% chance to trigger per activation. Slug's just a reliable source of damage with 2 procs at this point. Furthermore, this combo builds Opportunity to just over 90% in around 11 seconds. In just 2 passes you should have enough meter to trigger Opportunity and your 3rd Burst will be an Offensive Opportunity activation. If that misses, the next shot will trigger Defensive Opportunity.

Here is a proc theme with Incinerator, Slug, and Burst relying solely on global recharge while the powers hold a few procs (Purple proc + Decimation in Incinerator).

Burst -> Incinerator -> Burst -> Slug

At one point this seemed worse to me than it really is, but in some further testing (and shuffling of procs) its gotten better. At 185% global recharge Incinerator can cool down in 4.21-ish seconds. That works very well as Burst - Slug - Burst takes 4.224 seconds to animate.

Disorienting Shot -> Incinerator -> Disorienting Shot -> Slug

This combo requires Incinerator to recharge in 3.96 seconds. Disorienting Shot has surprisingly high DPA but its fast animation and cooldown make it poor for procs. Plus, it can't take that many. Still, this is a decent chain to pursue if you're pushing full sets in Disorienting Shot/Incinerator though Slug really should get procs to make it worthwhile. Burst can be an alternative to Slug and it will require Incinerator to recharge even faster.

Just because:

Burst - Incinerator - Disorienting Shot - Slug

You can probably pull off the above with most build ideas because Burst/Disorienting Shot/Slug can all be available pretty frequently with either global recharge investment or directly in the power. Incinerator can also be lowered from 12 seconds down into the 2-3 second range.

180% Recharge+

Burst -> Disorienting Shot

This is also possible at very high levels of recharge, but ultimately it isn't worth it. It looks good on paper but both attacks do lower upfront damage which can be regenerated. If you're in a realm of 180+ recharge, then strongly consider using Incinerator to apply procs as it can be a great carrier. Still, this two-shot chain works very much like a Soldier of Arcanos using Single Shot -> Burst.

Complementary Choices

AR has some damage faults but it does have a lot of knockback. Disorienting Shot is also a stun. So this set brings some control that plays very nicely with pretty much any secondary you'd want. Any secondaries that can softcap without too much hassle (Super Reflexes, Ninjutsu) open the door to advanced damage slotting (e.g., procs) with little loss on survivability.

Disorienting Shot can stack magnitude with Oppressive Gloom in Dark Armor. The abundance of knockdown works very well with Regneration and Willpower.

Bio, Fire, and Radiation armors all offer some additional damage boosting benefits which are very welcome inclusions to AR.

You can find synergy in AR across most, if not all, of the secondaries making that decision pretty safe. Since AR has a lot of ranged cone attacks you may also find value in the Sentinel Epics/Patron pools that offer an area of effect Immobilize. The elemental nature of those may clash with some themes but Fire Mastery isn't too out of the ordinary with Flamethrower/Incinerator.

As far as power pools go, Hasten is still a great choice as always. The additional global recharge can add flexibility to your attack sequencing as well as choice. You can drop some attacks with enough recharge or streamline which ones you activate. AR can be quite flexible in that regard.

Incarnate Abilities

I'm hesitant to offer hard line prescriptions here. Incarnates are best used to either shore up weaknesses or expand on strengths. You're also not locked into how many Incarnate powers you pick up. You're only limited to what you can slot at any given time. I have multiple powers in the Destiny category that I can swap out as I see fit. That said, it is tough to make blanket recommendations for a primary only and not a character. I'll try though!

For Alpha slots, this is going to vary based on what defensive power set you use. The Cardiac options can help resistances but also offer some endurance management. End management can be a welcome choice to manage end drain. The Vigor options may be a nice perk for regenerating sets. Agility and Spiritual both have good uses but also bring additional recharge reduction which does impact your chances to trigger procs. If you're not heavily invested in procs, then either of those may be for you. The Musculature options bring more damage, and Intuition Radial does too. I lean heavily towards Musculature but these options are matter of preference.

There are several good judgments like Void, Pyronic or Ion. Pick one based on their secondary effects and/or if you like their targeting method (PBAoE, Cone, etc.).

Interface is fairly generic across all damage dealers and Sentinels are no different. The Degenerative chance for reduced hit points is a very good option for tough targets like Archvillains and Giant Monsters. Reactive can be good for clearing out hordes of weaker enemies. Diamagnetic can be good to add some defense due to the to hit debuff it brings.

Lore pets were all standardized and as such there is no specific category I recommend.

Destiny is going to vary wildly based on a complete character. You can't go wrong with Barrier as a generic choice, but the others will have uses depending on your secondary choice. Ageless works like another form of Hasten but the value of the effect degrades over time. Ageless can be a good option for builds needing more recharge which is especially beneficial to ones heavily invested into procs.

Hybrid options generally lead towards the Assault toggles. You have two options of Radial or Core. Radial adds a chance to do damage and Core adds a chance for a stacking damage buff. Which you decide on will depending on how much you team vs solo. For the soloer the Core stacking damage buff is pretty good for AR. If gaining damage buffs from others isn't that reliable then Core is probably the better generic all around pick. Radial is going to matter more to players that gain consistent outside damage buffs and are frequenting hitting the damage cap.

Edited April 24, 2020 by oldskool
Many revelations after doing some more experiments.

oldskool · December 11, 2019

Primary Powerset: Psychic Blast

Low to Medium Single-Target Damage, Medium Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 1 Targeted, 1 PBAoE), Medium to High* Control (Soft - Slows/Knockdown, Hard - Stun/Sleep), No Debuff Potential

Psychic Blast. It is time for a Psychic Blast write-up and it feels long overdue.

Psychic Blast gets a lot of crap thrown at it and there is an awful lot of hyperbole that exists about psychic damage. In my opinion, Psychic Blast for Sentinels has a lot of potential. At first when I started this write-up, it was a unique one in that I wanted to discuss the use of the Sentinel Epic, specific Psychic Mastery, as a means of pushing damage higher. I've since decided to keep this to the format of the others I have created to reduce my own play style bias. I'll certainly discuss Psychic Mastery later on, but it is more important to keep the format of the above consistent across each entry.

With that out of the way, let's chat about the set's strengths and weaknesses. As I noted above, I do believe Psychic Blast has potential. Over the course of 2019 I've seen a lot of nay-saying on this. The takeaway from those chats is that people have very different expectations on character performance. "People have very different expectations on character performance" <-- That right there is a hugely important statement to keep in the back of your mind while you read this write-up. My performance expectations when I play a character are often LOW (I admit I am easy to please as a COH player). Doesn't matter the AT or the set. I do not start-up characters based on flavor of the month concepts. Now, that does not mean that I will not try my best to squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of a specific build that I can. When I say Psychic Blast ranges low to medium that is build specific. However, it can be easier to find that low performance rating in Psychic Blast due to higher level resistance scale and power configuration. These things combined can make for a perception that Psychic Blast is crap. It doesn't have to be and that is considering its current state (which is better than it is given credit). The Sentinel version of this power set has changes to it that make it different from Blasters, Corruptors, and Defenders. You can build a moderately damaging Sentinel with Psychic Blast that will have bursts of high/low performance against very specific enemies that have low/high resistance to your attacks.

In the previous paragraph I mentioned Resistance. Let's take a moment to talk about that 500lb gorilla. This topic is a part of the reason why Psychic Blast can have such a variable level of performance across ATs and it is a source of genuine frustration. I do not want to undersell the opinions and complaints about how demoralizing high resistance to psychic damage can be. However, let's also realize that psychic resistance is not immunity. You'd think that once you level up to 40 that all of your damage is just completely resisted due to some of the casual commentary that gets tossed around. I won't mince words. The hyperbole is bullshit. The frustration is legitimate, but the extent to which some of it gets expressed treads into the realm of fantasy. Just because the Carnival of Shadows enemy faction has a baseline 20% resistance to psychic damage on every member doesn't mean your world is coming to an end. Players of Lethal and Smashing sets had to deal with that for most of their existence in the leveling process. Resistances aren't the only issue that creates a perception of poor performance though.

Another avenue of frustration on high resistance is that the default power structure on the other ATs includes some low damage attacks. Other ATs (Blaster, Corruptor, Defender) must choose between Psionic Dart and Mental Blast. May as well ask the player which eye they want poked. Then you have a weaker version of Will Domination in those sets, and a Scramble Thoughts that does no meaningful damage. The best attacks for the Blaster are Telekinetic Blast and Psionic Lance. The best attacks on the Sentinel are Will Domination and Scramble Thoughts/Telekinetic Blast (these two are close in DPA). Sentinels are not shackled to attack routines that need to really on the otherwise crappy default T1 and T2 powers. Last point on this horse. Sentinels have 3 Psychic Blast powers that do TRIPLE digit direct damage (Will Domination, Psionic Strike, Scramble Thoughts). The other ATs do not. Finally, the Sentinel has no bonus to hit shenanigans or hoops it needs to jump through in order to use its best attacks. Psychic Blast on the other ATs really does need a fully powered Psionic Lance in order for it to not be a mediocre set and the Sentinel doesn't need to bother with any of that.

So on one hand there is truth in that psi damage is the most resisted damage type in the game. However, that comes with a LOT of caveats. First off, psychic resistance isn't that prolific in the early levels. The Clockwork for example are actually pretty great targets for a leveling psychic character. The Clockwork King... maybe not so much but his minions you will destroy. Not all Archvillains are heavily resistant to psi. Hell, there are several of them that use Moment of Glory or Unstoppable. You know what those offer 0 protection against? You guessed it. Psychic damage can do extremely well against specific enemies. Likewise, against specific enemies it can be frustrating. Most notable are enemies that are mechanical in nature (the Clockwork are not robots - they are psychic constructs of a single mind). Malta, Council, and Arachnos robots all have at least 60% resistance to psychic damage. Make no mistake, that SUCKS, but we have tools to lessen that impact. Finally, as I express in the paragraph above the Sentinel version of Psychic Blast incorporates an additional power into the mix capable of doing triple digit direct damage hits. You can make an attack routine out of just those powers due to their long animations and a high recharge mod build. Higher direct damage is better against higher resistance than their tickle attacks in T1/T2. The DPS won't win you a Pylon killing award for speed, but it is a lot less frustrating than it is elsewhere. At least, that's my experience over playing a multitude of Psychic characters.

Psychic Blast is FAR from perfect but it is not in the same category of comparison as it is on the other archetypes. Since there are few ways to build in greater damage than adding recharge, Psychic Blast can legitimately be constructed in a manner that is roughly middle of the pack out of 13 primary sets. It is mediocre more often than it is poor, and with IO's and Epic powers it can be a lot better than you might think.

Still interested? Have you spit out your coffee because someone has said this set isn't total crap? Then let's read on.

Beginner's Overview

Psychic Blast received some changes just like all of the Sentinel sets did. These changes are honestly pretty decent and the inclusion of Sentinel Epics, as they are, are HIGHLY advantageous to a certain kind of building.

*Word of warning about Psychic Blast. The set has a lot of long-ish animations to the powers. This is a blessing (for procs - more on it later) and a curse. So caveat emptor and all that. You've been warned.*

We all know by now that Sentinels have both an Offensive and Defensive mode tied to the T1 and T2 powers. I highly recommend forgetting about this and just stick with TK Blast. Defense Opportunity gives your enemies a -20% resistance debuff and quite frankly that's all that matters. The bonus energy damage from Offensive Opportunity is not strong enough to offset the total waste of a power slot that is Mental Blast. I'm being harsh with my criticism of Mental Blast here, but that is because it needs to underscore the point. Mental Blast blows and you really won't miss Offensive Opportunity because it isn't that great either.

Besides my utter disdain for Mental Blast, what you take or skip is going to be entirely your preference. Psionic Lance, the snipe power of other ATs, was replaced by Psionic Strike. I'm not a big fan of Psionic Strike but its damage per hit is not horrible. Note, this is the damage that happens when you actually land the attack. The animation to this power is rather long and it severely effects it damage-per-activation. The DPA of Psionic Strike is pretty bad for its tier, but it will hit like a truck when it lands. So it's not efficient but Psychic Blast has a problem with that in a broader sense.

Now, you may be rushing to open up a builder like Pine's to check out some of these traits. You may run over Scramble Thoughts and see its Arcanatime animation while thinking... "Oldskool, hold the phone that power SUCKS!". I'd then suggest, that no... it doesn't. Yes, Scramble Thoughts has a massive animation time. However, let's zero in on the story here for a moment. Scramble Thoughts any where else does pathetic damage. So now, look away. Now look again. Look away. Then look again. Scramble Thoughts on the Sentinel is the only other power that kept its crowd control effect while gaining a massive damage increase. The only other set that got to keep a similar power in the same tier was Sonic Blast. Scramble Thoughts is like a micro, single-target, nuke version of Psychic Wail. I didn't stutter. Scramble Thoughts is pretty powerful for another reason and that is how it works with procs. More on that in Advanced Slotting.

Sentinels also get Psychic Scream which is a ranged cone. All in all its not a bad deal. This helps the Sentinel Psychic Blast player by adding in some AoE that the set historically lacks across the other ranged ATs (excluding VEATs). That said, Psychic Blast still has weak AoE options for damage dealing but its crowd control opportunity gets a bit of a boost in Psychic Wail's availability. Give and take and all of that.

Before we move on. I also want to list out some damage-per-activations. The current version of Mid's Reborn is wrong on several powers. For starters, Scramble Thoughts only shows 13 damage. It's DPA shows a 4. That's horribly incorrect. Baseline at 50 this power does 188.07 damage. It's DPA is about 60. Psionic Strike shows a damage value of 193 and a DPA of 66. It's real damage is around 137 with a DPA around 50. Will Domination shows a damage of 87 with a DPA around 66. It's real damage is 103(!) and the DPA over 80. Telekinetic Blast is over inflated too. It's actual damage is slightly lower and its DPA is around 60.

You have to take planners with a grain of salt. Telekinetic Blast, Will Domination, and Scramble Thoughts are the highest DPA powers in the set outside of Psychic Wail, the final power. These are not accurately reflected outside of the game.

*Special Note: Fortunatas. In the introduction I refer back to the cousin set of Psychic Blast as it exists in the other ranged ATs. I didn't mention Fortunatas, nor did I mention full psychic Dominators (Mind/Psi), and I was a bit torn on doing so. I have a Fortunata, and I love the VEATS in general. Making a direct comparison here has a LOT of holes in it, BUT I cannot ignore that there are going to be play style similarities. You can make a fully ranged offensive Fortunata that has a ton of defense that mimics a Super Reflexes (albeit without the defense debuff resistance or scaling resistances) character. I tend to find that a fully ranged psi blasting Fort is about on par damage-wise (considering prolonged conflict) as a Psychic Blast Sentinel. The advantage of the Fortunata though is animation time and general attack rate. Fortunata's have much faster animation times in their favorable attack chains than the Sentinel does. This will absolutely create a sense that the Fort handles business swifter and more deadly than the Sentinel. Additionally, the Fortunata has team buffs the Sentinel lacks and it makes a hard contest. My personal Fortunata build runs a mix of melee and controls vs full ranged psi damage. My Sentinel build (Psi/Nin) was more like an homage to that concept as a work to test some ideas. I like it too but for very different reasons. There is no denying that Fortunatas are performance powerhouses and it can make for a very tough choice depending on what you're going for. If you're dead set on making a Sentinel, then do so. If you're not happy with the idea of long-ish animation times AND you wanted to build a defense-base ranged psychic, then strongly consider a Fortunata if it can fit your concept/goals.

Slotting

Basic Slotting

Short and sweet version. I like 1 accuracy and 3 damage when considering the bare-bones basic kinds of enhancements (Single Origin, and non-set Invention Origin). That covers 4 slots for all attacks. If you want 5 or 6 slots then consider adding in some endurance and recharge to taste.

Advanced Slotting

As always, I look for powers that can leverage the special Invention Origin nuggets like procs. Psychic Blast has some better potential than one may think at a first glance and it gets even better with an Epic Power Pools (specifically when using Holds). Procs matter a lot for this set. Not just because they can add substantial damage, but also that they can diversify your damage. You don't have many attacks that deal anything beyond psi. So finding a way to bring in other things like Toxic, Smashing, or Lethal can help overcome the resistances that tend to be the most annoying (e.g., robots).

Single-targets:

*Note - See the Beginner's Overview towards the end on the DPA issue and builders like Mid's Reborn. The numbers are not accurate as they are in game! The opinions below are based on the in-game reading on the power tips.

Telekinetic Blast - This power does both smashing and psionic. That smashing component is a reason WHY you should take this. Diversify your damage types and you'll have less frustration. This power helps add some diversity by itself but it can also take Explosive Strikes: Chance for Smashing Damage. There is the PvP ranged damage set that has a chance to add Toxic damage. Bite the bullet. Spend the cash. Add that Toxic proc to EVERYTHING.

Will Domination - This power is quite solid. This is my favorite spot to put the rare set Apocalypse at 5 pieces for the recharge benefit, the negative damage proc, and a 6th slot for a Toxic proc. You could also go with Decimation for recharge plus its Build-Up effect proc (but there are better places for that) or Devastation which has a hold proc for more pseudo-control. Will Dom is a sleep power which means it can take on the Chance to Placate proc from the very rare sleep set if you are set on pissing PvPers off.

Psionic Strike - This is pretty straight forward, and I generally skip it. If I didn't I would slot it with whatever I didn't put in Will Dom or Scramble. Its not a huge priority power.

Scramble Thoughts - I know my bias here is that this power's potential is exciting to me. I wrote a thread months back trying to figure out more uses of the Sentinel ATOs and Opportunity mechanics in a general sense. This power was something I toyed around with. Scramble Thoughts has both a long animation and a long recharge time. It is one of, if not the only, single-target power out of all of the Sentinel primaries with a rather reasonable chance to proc the very low trigger rate in Opportunity Strikes: Chance for Opportunity. That chance is still under 50% but it isn't in the upper teens like it is in many others. As a refresher, the Opportunity Strikes unique has a small chance (PPM 1 - basic version, PPM 2 - purple version) to grant a burst of Opportunity. When your Opportunity meter fills up you can pick one lucky winner to be the recipient of a 20% damage resistance debuff. So again, remember how psychic damage is heavily resisted late game? This power has a fairly good chance at improving the up time of that 20% debuff by making your Opportunity available more frequently. I rarely say that a power should have X or Y IO set. However, this is one of those exceptions. Opportunity Strike's benefits more from this single-target power than any other across the entire AT. Will Domination has better DPA making it a better candidate for Apocalypse (and this will be more clear in Rotations below). So you may as well enhance this power with its one unique prospect. Alternatively you could put the Decimation set or the proc in here too. Again, slap a Toxic damage proc in here. Even with the recharge modifications the long animation will still give you pretty frequent activation of your procs.

Multi-Target:

Psychic Scream - Its a ranged cone with some recharge slow. Generally I go with a fairly boring Positron's Blast or some other set with bonuses I may want like Annihilation.

Psionic Tornado - This can knockback which opens some options in Force Feedback, Sudden Acceleration, and Explosive Strikes. Its not a bad place to put Sentinel's Ward either.

Psychic Wail - PBAoE means you can get another purple set with an actual damage proc (Armageddon's Fire damage). This is a great spot for PvP set's chance for resistance debuff and its got a very high likelihood of going off. More resistance debuffing the better.

Honorable mentions:

Force of Will's Weaken power has a resistance debuff and can take on Achilles' Heel's chance to reduce resistance further. It also fits a psychic theme as well as being a proc mule too.

Dominate in the Psychic Mastery pool can take on 4 damage procs out of the Hold category turning it in to a monster of a power. It too can take on a Toxic damage proc as well as Decimation's chance for Build-Up.

Rotations

Here are some ideas:

Scramble Thoughts -> Psionic Strike -> Will Domination -> Telekinetic Blast

or Scramble Thoughts -> Will Domination -> Psionic Strike -> Telekinetic Blast (tacking on TK BLast at the end can make for easier Opportunity activation)

or Will Domination -> Telekinetic Blast -> Psionic Strike

or Telekinetic Blast -> Will Domination -> Psionic Strike -> Scramble Thoughts

or Telekinetic Blast -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts -> Will Domination

or Telekinetic Blast -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts -> Psionic Strike -> Will Domination (depending on how low your recharge is).

Scramble Thoughts has a baseline 3 second animation. That's where you need target for recharge on Will Domination's modification. I have around 175% global recharge with 59.62% modified recharge in Will Domination (no Incarnates influencing it further). That brings its recharge down from 10 seconds to 2.99 seconds. So a heavy recharge build is necessary in order to sandwich Will Domination and Scramble Thoughts. If you're not going for high recharge then you will need to have a bit more filler like Psionic Strike.

or with Psychic Mastery

Dominate (ideally Build-Up proc here) -> TK Blast -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts > Will Domination

or Mind Probe (Only when in melee) -> Dominate -> Will Domination -> Scramble Thoughts -> Will Domination

You could sub in Telekinetic Blast (ideally) or Psionic Strike as filler.

Complementary Choices

Secondary wise your options are pretty open. As always, I recommend pushing procs when running a secondary that can soft-cap defenses. My Psychic Sentinel was using Ninjutsu but Super Reflexes is also great.

Psychic Blast pairs thematically and mechanically with Psychic Mastery. Psychic Shockwave is also a good AoE power to include if you dropped Psychic Scream and that can open up Link Minds which is also wonderful.

Force of Will is thematically appropriate to Psychic Blast while also bringing some much appreciated debuffing in Weaken.

Hasten is one of those powers that feels essential here. There are a lot of long animation times in these attacks, but also some long recharge too. High recharge is the backbone of squeezing out the most damage this set is capable of by pruning out the weakest attacks (Mental Blast, Psionic Strike). However, this really ONLY matters in pretty extreme content. While I am not a huge fan of Psionic Strike, it does hit hard just at the expense of an animation time that is too long for its tier. If Psychic Blast ever got a buff, a reduction in animation time would be a huge win for improving its overall damage. That said, I find pushing recharge here invaluable and that also pairs extremely well with Regeneration and Bio Armors where their reactive click heals also value high recharge.

Dark Armor has disorienting in Oppressive Gloom which pairs very well with several of the powers. Even the Cloak of Fear offers some synergy with the recharge debuffing. See, feared enemies will only attack you once provoked. Even when they do attack they won't attack again for several seconds. So on top of that AI fiddling you can also impose another bit of recharge slow to go with it.

Your ideal attack chain juggles a sleep and a stun while you have knockback potential too. Crowd control, even soft control like recharge manipulation, works wonders with passive heal sets like Willpower.

Finally, any sets that provide extra damage (Bio, Fire, Rad) are welcome additions.

Incarnate Abilities

I'm hesitant to offer hard line prescriptions here. Incarnates are best used to either shore up weaknesses or expand on strengths. You're also not locked into how many Incarnate powers you pick up. You're only limited to what you can slot at any given time. I have multiple powers in the Destiny category that I can swap out as I see fit. That said, it is tough to make blanket recommendations for a primary only and not a character. I'll try though!

For Alpha slots, this is going to vary based on what defensive power set you use. The Cardiac options can help resistances but also offer some endurance management. End management can be a welcome choice to manage end drain. The Vigor options may be a nice perk for regenerating sets. Agility and Spiritual both have good uses but also bring additional recharge reduction which does impact your chances to trigger procs. If you're not heavily invested in procs, then either of those may be for you. The Musculature options bring more damage, and Intuition Radial does too. I lean heavily towards Musculature but these options are matter of preference.

There are several good judgments like Void, Pyronic or Ion. Pick one based on their secondary effects and/or if you like their targeting method (PBAoE, Cone, etc.).

Interface is fairly generic across all damage dealers and Sentinels are no different. The Degenerative chance for reduced hit points is a very good option for tough targets like Archvillains and Giant Monsters. Reactive can be good for clearing out hordes of weaker enemies. Diamagnetic can be good to add some defense due to the to hit debuff it brings.

Lore pets were all standardized and as such there is no specific category I recommend.

Destiny is going to vary wildly based on a complete character. You can't go wrong with Barrier as a generic choice, but the others will have uses depending on your secondary choice. Ageless works like another form of Hasten but the value of the effect degrades over time. Ageless can be a good option for builds needing more recharge which is especially beneficial to ones heavily invested into procs.

Hybrid options generally lead towards the Assault toggles. You have two options of Radial or Core. Radial adds a chance to do damage and Core adds a chance for a stacking damage buff. Which you decide on will depending on how much you team vs solo. For the soloer the Core stacking damage buff is OK for Psychic Blast. If gaining damage buffs from others isn't that reliable then Core is probably the better generic all around pick. Radial is going to matter more to players that gain consistent outside damage buffs and are frequenting hitting the damage cap.

Edited February 20, 2020 by oldskool

Angel of Dust · December 11, 2019

Is it cool if I do a review of the fire secondary set? I've just gotten my fire/fire Sentinel to 50 and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the set...

Plus, I really want to do a fireside chat... about fire! 😄

oldskool · December 11, 2019

42 minutes ago, Angel of Dust said:

Is it cool if I do a review of the fire secondary set? I've just gotten my fire/fire Sentinel to 50 and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the set...

Plus, I really want to do a fireside chat... about fire! 😄

Go for it!

More perspectives are what this is all about!

Angel of Dust · December 11, 2019

Quote

Sentinels as a whole have lower target caps on AoE powers and this cuts the target caps on cones by half.

I was, I must admit, a bit disheartened to read this, given how my fire/fire is built. Is the target cap half on all AOEs, or is it different for targeted / location / PBAOE vs cones?

Edited December 11, 2019 by Angel of Dust

oldskool · December 11, 2019

47 minutes ago, Angel of Dust said:

I was, I must admit, a bit disheartened to read this, given how my fire/fire is built. Is the target cap half on all AOEs, or is it different for targeted / location / PBAOE vs cones?

Most ranged cones hit 10 targets. Sentinel cones hit 6.

Most ranged sphere attacks hit 16. Sentinel spheres hit 10.

I was working off some memory this morning and I went too harsh on the commentary. So I need to go back and fix that. Thank you for point that out!

Angel of Dust · December 11, 2019

1 minute ago, oldskool said:

Most ranged cones hit 10 targets. Sentinel cones hit 6.

Most ranged sphere attacks hit 16. Sentinel spheres hit 10.

Well, good thing I eschewed Breath of Fire, then. Any idea on PBAOEs (*coughInfernocough*)? Also, big thanks for the info! Given the lack of documentation for Sentinels, this is super important to know!

Quote

I was working off some memory this morning and I went too harsh on the commentary. So I need to go back and fix that. Thank you for point that out!

Glad to help! 🙂

oldskool · December 11, 2019

9 minutes ago, Angel of Dust said:

Well, good thing I eschewed Breath of Fire, then. Any idea on PBAOEs (*coughInfernocough*)? Also, big thanks for the info! Given the lack of documentation for Sentinels, this is super important to know!

Glad to help! 🙂

Inferno hits 10 targets.

Sentinels have a formula on their powers. There are several that are exceptions to the "rules" below.

Most Sentinel sets have the following properties:

A T1 power that engages Offensive Opportunity and generates 8 Opportunity meter per hit.
A T2 power that engages Defensive Opportunity and generates 13 Opportunity meter per hit.
A Cone attack that unlocks at level 2 that hits 6 targets. (Electrical, Fire, Radiation, Sonic, and Water have a larger AoE in this tier).
An Aim power (or equivalent) by level 6.
A power that was converted from a CC effect to a hard hitter by level 8 (Sonic Blast and Psychic Blast are exceptions)
A bigger sphere AoE that opens at level 12 (Fire Blast gets Breath of Fire which is a cone, Radiation gets Electron Haze - otherwise this tier is fairly standardized).
Level 18 is roughly standardized across the board. Generally this is a single target heavy hitter but there are some pockets of difference.
Level 26 can be a bit more utility with additional cones/AoE/heavy hitters/utility (Life Drain)
Level 32 all T9 seems to have the same cooldown (and therefore, similar base damage modifiers) and target caps (10).

So some sets have their quirks as you gain levels but there is a very general familiar sense to how they all progress.

Riverdusk · December 14, 2019

Was just looking at starting a Dual Pistol Sent and enjoyed @oldskool's guide. Very good job.

However, I also stumbled upon something just tonight that I never knew about them and I've never seen anyone else mention (not that I couldn't have easily missed it of course). That is that using Cryo ammo gives you a +33% range buff! The only place it is even mentioned is on the actual "Cryo Ammunition" power you get after taking swap ammo. Its text reads "Cryo Rounds are more aerodynamic, being able to travel a greater distance" and under power info it shows, " +33.30%% strength to range on self. Ignores buffs and enhancements. unresistable"

That actually puts all the single target DP attacks back to the same as a blaster's range I believe and makes Empty clips, ironically, have better range on a sentinel than any other AT. You have to give up the nice extra damage of the fire ammo, but I thought that was a cool little thing (excuse the pun) they added for sentinels to make the cryo ammo more useful in some situations. I have a dp defender as well and didn't see that same text on the defender version of cryo.

I thought that should be added to the guide, unless it was already added somewhere and I missed it.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Riverdusk

oldskool · December 14, 2019

13 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

Was just looking at starting a Dual Pistol Sent and enjoyed @oldskool's guide. Very good job.

However, I also stumbled upon something just tonight that I never knew about them and I've never seen anyone else mention (not that I couldn't have easily missed it of course). That is that using Cryo ammo gives you a +33% range buff! The only place it is even mentioned is on the actual "Cryo Ammunition" power you get after taking swap ammo. Its text reads "Cryo Rounds are more aerodynamic, being able to travel a greater distance" and under power info it shows, " +33.30%% strength to range on self. Ignores buffs and enhancements. unresistable"

That actually puts all the single target DP attacks back to the same as a blaster's range I believe and makes Empty clips, ironically, have better range on a sentinel than any other AT. You have to give up the nice extra damage of the fire ammo, but I thought that was a cool little thing (excuse the pun) they added for sentinels to make the cryo ammo more useful in some situations. I have a dp defender as well and didn't see that same text on the defender version of cryo.

I thought that should be added to the guide, unless it was already added somewhere and I missed it.

I'll test it when I have the time to confirm if it works or not. Bio Armor has something similar that currently does nothing.

Riverdusk · December 14, 2019

4 hours ago, oldskool said:

I'll test it when I have the time to confirm if it works or not. Bio Armor has something similar that currently does nothing.

Certainly. It did seem to work from the quick testing I did by just getting to a rough distance and aiming at hellions in Atlas park and trying fire ammo and getting "out of range", immediately switching to cryo and it let me shoot.

oldskool · December 17, 2019

Primary Powerset: Archery

Medium to High Single-Target Damage, Medium Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 2 Targeted), Low Control, No Debuff Potential

Growing up I was never a fan of Green Arrow and his quiver of gimmick arrows. A boxing glove arrow? Lame! Then as I got older the absurdity inherent in comics became more apparent and so I started to love the idea of gimmick arrows. Hawkeye, well... I never got into his solo stuff (my neighbor did), and I've never been a fan of the Avengers comics with the exception of West Coast Avengers for a brief run in the '90s. For me, archery heroes had to live up to Green Arrow. This was a character that I didn't appreciate as a kid but grew to enjoy a bit more later on. Even his Errol Flynn as Robin Hood costume was totally lost on me, until it wasn't.

When the original game introduced Trick Arrow it took a long time for me to get around to playing it. I did though, and I enjoyed it quite a bit for its active style. So of course when CoX came back the Archery Sentinel was on my list of projects to tinker with early on.

Archery in the context of CoX has a history of being a more AoE-centric offensive set much like Assault Rifle. Just like Assault Rifle, Archery has a very short cool down on the T9 power Rain of Arrows. Rain of Arrows, like AR's Full Auto, has a default 65 second cool down where the average T9 power has 145 seconds. Except on Sentinels where it doesn't. So players familiar to Archery from other ATs will likely view the changes to the Sentinel version as a bit jarring. There is also a tendency to view all of the ranged primary sets in relation to how Blasters/Corruptors leverage their AoE advantage. Sentinel's on the whole don't work like that. Also, don't be too fooled by longer cooldown of Sentinel Rain of Arrows. It's actually a pretty solid T9 since Homecoming patched it in March 2019 to have a 2 second animation time. For whatever it is worth, Rain of Arrows here ends up as one of the stronger T9s. I've felt for sometime that Archery ends up being almost a poster-child for what the Sentinel is. It is a mid-range single-target specialist that also happens to have moderate AoE output when compared to the close quarters damage dealers.

So why do I think of Archery as a poster-child of the Sentinel AT? Well, the Sentinel flips the current paradigm of how ranged sets work on their head. Ranged sets historically had an AoE bent and suffered in single-target for a number of reasons. Sentinel Archery flips its former reputation on its head. However, unlike Assault Rifle where this flip is a mere attempt, Archery is a bit more successful. What the Archery Sentinel gives up in some of its AoE reputation (which honestly still isn't that bad) it gains in single-target DPS (Assault Rifle on the other hand does not).

Gather your quiver and let's slide down this rabbit hole like Legolas on a shield firing at orcs!

Beginner's Overview

I happen to like Sentinel Archery, but I do not currently play it. This isn't a jab at the set, but I happen to like the quirky trick arrows available elsewhere. Still, Archery was one of my first planned characters and it is very possible I will revisit it down the road. I spent a good bit of time developing some builds early on (I've spent a lot of time on the Test Servers) and so here we are.

Before we get into some power chat, let's talk about one of the things Archery is really good at. Speed. The core speed listed for many of the powers are 2 seconds or less. That's not counting how the actual game clock functions (otherwise known as Arcanatime). Blazing Arrow has the longest animation followed by Perfect Shot but these don't feel dreadfully slow. Even accounting for Arcanatime your attacks still fire off quite fast. Recharge on your single-target attacks is also considerably quick meaning you should almost always have an attack at the ready. When you get attacks that both animate and recharge quickly there can be a bit of a base damage drop off. So hitting highly lethal resistant enemies can create a perception of weakness in the set even if the attacks are more efficient than that. Dual Pistols has the exact same problem with high rate of attack but low damage per hit that is compounded when facing highly lethal resistant enemies.

OK, so power basics. All Sentinels have to pick between a T1 and a T2 just like any other archetype. Except in the case of the Sentinel part of the inherent is linked to which of these two powers you pick. The very first choice in the list will always trigger Offensive Opportunity, and the second choice in the list will always trigger Defensive Opportunity. Whichever you pick, or even if you take both, doesn't matter for this set on a well thought out build. If you're going to play a secondary set that can passively cover your endurance drain (e.g., Bio Armor, Willpower, Super Reflexes) then you likely won't need the second power in the list. Just take the very first one to keep the ability to trigger Offensive Opportunity in your back pocket... er, quiver.

So after a decision which of the first two powers to take (one or both) what else should you skip? You could skip Fistful of Arrows if you like. Fistful of Arrows on the Sentinel hits only 6 targets vs 10 targets in other ATs. Fistful of Arrows is also a cone power which may not work with your style. Other than that you should be taking everything else. You'll notice Stunning Shot was moved down from a level 26 power pick and made available around level 8. Do not be fooled by the mechanics of how Stunning Shot works on all the other ATs!! Stunning Shot on Sentinels actually does damage. Stunning Shot has very high damage-per-activation in this set. You really should take Aim, Explosive Arrow, Blazing Arrow, Perfect Shot, and Rain of Arrows while you're at it.

Slotting

Basic Slotting

All Sentinel attacks impose a minor debuff that makes hitting and doing damage a bit easier (doesn't stack on itself). So this means you can likely get away with 1 basic accuracy and 3 damage for your first 4 slots. Archery, like Dual Pistols, can give you an available attack at all times if you're taking most of the set. Constant fire is a huge drain on endurance and so at least 1 endurance reduction is a welcome addition. 1 recharge is also a nice final touch to Stunning Shot, Blazing Arrow, and Perfect Shot for consistent hammering of tough enemies.

Advanced Slotting

Archery doesn't have any wide ranging options when it comes to utility or damage procs. Archery is largely stuck with the Ranged Damage categories and the Stun sets aren't noteworthy for adding damage. So Archery isn't a candidate for making a proc monster, but there are still procs that are worth having. Decimation has a unique chance at giving you Build-Up which is probably best put in Stunning Shot (more on this Rotations). Blazing Arrow is a good candidate for the Apocalypse very rare damage set to add a chance at negative damage. Perfect Shot isn't a horrible home for the either of the Sentinel ATO sets but ideally that would Opportunity Strikes since the recharge bonus comes at 5 pieces. If you can get the set bonuses you like within 5 pieces, then consider using a 6th slot in these 3 attacks for the PvP proc chance at Toxic damage. That can help add a bit of damage diversity to overcome resistances.

The AoE's are in a similar boat with the exception of Explosive Arrow. Explosive Arrow can make use of the Knockdown/Knockback sets which does open some utility/damage potential in addition to the basics in the AoE Damage sets. When Explosive Arrow goes off it will toss everyone it hits, that doesn't resist it, around with rag doll physics. The Sudden Acceleration set has a proc that will convert that knockBACK into knockDOWN. The Summer Blockbuster set also has a similar switch effect in its unique. Explosive Arrow can be turned into a pretty hard hitting attack when you stack procs like Annhilation's chance for resistance debuff, Positron's Blast's energy damage, Explosive Strikes' smashing damage, and you could even add in the Force Feedback chance for recharge.

All in all, there isn't too much to expand on here. Archery is very straight forward so how you go about picking sets is likely to be influenced by your secondary power set.

Rotations

I highly recommend trying to build for recharge. Ideally you want to make an attack chain out of just 3 powers.

Stunning Shot -> Blazing Arrow -> Perfect Shot

Above should be a goal. Stunning Shot used as often as possible gives you more rolls of the dice to get that Decimation Build-Up proc to go off. Stunning Shot needs to recharge in at least 3.828 seconds. More importantly, Perfect Shot needs to recharge in 3.16 seconds to not have a gap. This means Perfect Shot wants to hit 99%+ recharge modification and also having 170%+ global recharge. The Agility Incarnate can make the above rotation gapless if you're building towards perma-Hasten (or very close to it).

If you're not pushing high recharge, then you can fill gaps with either Snap Shot or Aimed Shot. Depending on how you've slotted Explosive Arrow, this could also be a potential filler.

Archery's not complex. Get recharge to fire off your 3 best single-target attacks and to make Rain of Arrows available as often as you can.

Complementary Choices

I'm not a big fan of weapon redraw even if it doesn't have a mechanical impact. However, it is hard to ignore that Force of Will includes an early pick power that has a valuable resistance/defense debuff. That power can be further enhanced with Achilles' Heel or other damage procs.

Hasten is also very handy in adding 70% more global recharge to help players squeeze out the best damaging attacks as frequently as possible.

As far as secondary power sets go, sky is the limit. Archery has 0 debuff powers natively in the set. Archery has very little actual crowd control. Stunning Shot is not a reliable stun, the duration just isn't worth pushing, and Explosive Strike is a KnockBACK which has some limited use.

While Archery has very limited IO proc options, the secondary sets that can easily soft-cap defense (Ninjutsu, Super Reflexes) can still lend you the highest level of flexibility in IO placement. Sets like these can almost guarantee you extra damage from the PvP Javelin set since sets like Thunderstrike aren't as important.

The sets with native damage increase (e.g., Bio Armor, Fire, Radiation) bring some welcome additions to what may be perceived as "weak" damage due to resistance hurdles. Otherwise, pair Archery with whatever you like. The Sentinel Epics can add some damage if you chose to take the melee attacks or add multiple procs to the holds. However, these choices will provoke spontaneous appearance of your bow in your hands or the redraw animation.

Incarnate Abilities

I'm hesitant to offer hard line prescriptions here. Incarnates are best used to either shore up weaknesses or expand on strengths. You're also not locked into how many Incarnate powers you pick up. You're only limited to what you can slot at any given time. I have multiple powers in the Destiny category that I can swap out as I see fit. That said, it is tough to make blanket recommendations for a primary only and not a character. I'll try though!

For Alpha slots, this is going to vary based on what defensive power set you use. The Cardiac options can help resistances but also offer some endurance management. End management can be a welcome choice to manage end drain. The Vigor options may be a nice perk for regenerating sets. Agility and Spiritual both have good uses but also bring additional recharge reduction which does impact your chances to trigger procs. If you're not heavily invested in procs, then either of those may be for you. The Musculature options bring more damage, and Intuition Radial does too. I lean heavily towards Musculature but these options are matter of preference.

There are several good judgments like Void, Pyronic or Ion. Pick one based on their secondary effects and/or if you like their targeting method (PBAoE, Cone, etc.).

Interface is fairly generic across all damage dealers and Sentinels are no different. The Degenerative chance for reduced hit points is a very good option for tough targets like Archvillains and Giant Monsters. Reactive can be good for clearing out hordes of weaker enemies. Diamagnetic can be good to add some defense due to the to hit debuff it brings.

Lore pets were all standardized and as such there is no specific category I recommend.

Destiny is going to vary wildly based on a complete character. You can't go wrong with Barrier as a generic choice, but the others will have uses depending on your secondary choice. Ageless works like another form of Hasten but the value of the effect degrades over time. Ageless can be a good option for builds needing more recharge which is especially beneficial to ones heavily invested into procs.

Hybrid options generally lead towards the Assault toggles. You have two options of Radial or Core. Radial adds a chance to do damage and Core adds a chance for a stacking damage buff. Which you decide on will depending on how much you team vs solo. For the soloer the Core stacking damage buff is pretty good. If gaining damage buffs from others isn't that reliable then Core is probably the better generic all around pick. Radial is going to matter more to players that gain consistent outside damage buffs and are frequenting hitting the damage cap.

Edited February 21, 2020 by oldskool

jonwol2 · December 17, 2019

Has anyone provided a breakdown for Bio Armor yet or has the knowledge to do so in the near future? This set is completely lost on me and I’m trying to determine where exactly it shines (and maybe falters) compared to other sets. I’ve been looking for a set to pair with BR and Bio is what I fell on.

Also I know it’s been mentioned a ton but I have to reiterate that this thread is extremely helpful and informative. I had given up on Beam Rifle prior to reading Sunsette’s guide. After reading and learning quite a few new tricks, rotations, etc. I have picked the set up again and am having a blast. Looking forward to more content in here!

oldskool · December 17, 2019

Primary Powerset: Dark Blast

Medium (though towards the lower end of that spectrum) Single-Target Damage, Medium Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 2 Targeted), Low Control, High Debuff Potential

When this project was set forth I had committed that I would write up a number of sets. This entry here is the very last one of those that I have committed my time to. It's the last one I am going to write in 2019, and it happens to be a set that has a lot of history/meaning to me. Now, in 2020 I may dive into other sets in this thread but for now I am ending it on a note with a set that was a favorite.

I think the very first character that I ever made was an Energy/Energy Blaster followed by an Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster and then an Invulnerability/Energy Melee Tanker. I scrapped those (but I do currently play Invulnerability/Energy Melee) and eventually made a Dark Melee/Dark Armor Scrapper. I loved that character so much I took it to 50. Somewhere along the way I made a Dark Miasma/Dark Blast Defender. I loved that character too. The Dark powers aren't just my inner emo kid having a great time but the to hit debuff is just one of the most satisfying effects to have access to in my opinion.

Dark Blast on Sentinels may not look like much in terms of damage on paper, but it is actually quite good if you consider IO options. Furthermore, the debuff potential of the set is pretty massive within the confines of the Sentinel target cap.

Dark Blast on Sentinels is probably my favorite version of the set which is slightly different from the Blaster version and very different from the Defender/Corruptor version. Let's take a quick peek at power structure before getting into the other details.

The Blaster version is the closest cousin to the Sentinel version but there are still some differences. The Dark Blast that exists in Defender/Corruptors is weighted towards control.

So the Blaster version isn't that great at AoE and Blasters in general are supposed to be good at AoE. The Sentinel version of Dark Blast trades out Tenebrous Tentacles for Dark Obliteration which is generally available to archetypes like Brutes in their Patron picks. This is already starting off as a great change. Umbral Torrent for Blasters is a damage-over-time cone. Umbral Torrent for Sentinels is all direct damage with a strong knockback. Umbral Torrent on Sentinels does about 10 less damage than the Blaster version. This too is a very good change. So far, the Sentinel's greatest changes are to the strengthening of its AoE vs its Blaster counterpart. That's RARE.

Single-target wise, Sentinels always lose out on the snipe and the lack of Moonbeam is a shame. In the place of Moonbeam, Sentinels get Antumbral Beam which doesn't compare all that well, but it is a serviceable hard hitter. However, the Sentinel version of Abyssal Gaze has considerably buffed damage at the expense of a hold effect that is barely an after thought. Sentinel's version of Gloom does less damage due to scalars but in general the single-target damage has a firm foundation. Finally, Blackstar on Sentinels has a base cooldown of 90 seconds vs 145 seconds. This change is incredibly strong due the debuff that Blackstar has. All in all, Sentinel Dark Blast is a very solid damage set with potentially broken levels of to hit debuff against 10 targets.

Beginner's Overview

Hello there beginner! If you've read through the introduction you'll likely find the positive aspects of Dark Blast to be fairly glowing of a review. Dark Blast is solid but it is not perfect. The damage-per-active (DPA) that contributes to higher damage-per-second (DPS, or a metric of damage over time) is a bit spread out. While there are several hard hitters they also come with some long-ish animation times. Additionally, Sentinel Dark Blast is still fairly damage-over-time heavy within its best single-target attacks BUT its AoE is more direct damage than its cousins elsewhere.

Dark Blast is a set that makes for some hard choices on what to skip. You can find use out of everything in this set. The very first power pick, Dark Blast, is your weakest attack pick but it is linked to Offensive Opportunity. You can absolutely skip this power and never miss Offensive Opportunity if you don't want it. Gloom, the second pick, will trigger Defensive Opportunity and that also imposes a 20% resistance debuff which is the most important part of the inherent anyway.

Other than skipping Dark Blast, you may consider skipping Umbral Torrent if you are opposed to cones (but it is a rather strong attack) or even skipping Life Drain. Life Drain is a utility power and the self heal isn't that powerful. Furthermore Life Drain's default DPA isn't that great. However, Life Drain does make use of IOs if you so choose. It is a very flexible power in designing in damage with the IO system (e.g., damage procs) or leveraging the heal. Take it or leave it. Either way, Life Drain isn't a mandatory choice.

Slotting

Basic Slotting

I'm fond of a single accuracy once you hit Single Origins or Invention Origins of level 25+. Then add in at least 2 damage, 3 if you can, and consider both 1 endurance AND recharge reduction. Your 3 best single target attacks are Gloom, Abyssal Gaze, and Antumbral Beam. These all have long recharge that will create gaps in attacks without some modification. Plus, they can be a little endurance heavy.

Advanced Slotting

Every "Dark" set in this game has access to at least 1 power that can take Clouded Senses the Accurate To Hit Debuff set. That set has a damage proc that can add additional negative damage. Every attack can take on a PvP set that also includes a damage proc. That means every power you take can at least include 2 damage procs. These add up.

Not only does Dark Blast play nicely with offensive IO sets, it also plays pretty nicely with the Sentinel ATO sets. I ran with Superior Sentinel's Ward in Gloom for a long time. Each activation of Gloom had a chance to grant me a damage shield due to the proc (the Ward effect). Antumbral Beam was fairly consistent with triggering Superior Opportunity Strike's Chance for Opportunity. What that proc does is it grants you a burst of Opportunity meter making you hit 90% faster and activating the Opportunity mode against a target. So there are some utility decisions to make and just which path you take is going to be dependent on your overall build. Just know that Dark Blast has some great flexibility in how you use IOs.

Beyond the very generic advice above, there are some specific powers that noting. Those are Abyssal Gaze, Umbral Torrent, and Life Drain.

Abyssal Gaze is a hold, and while that hold duration is low it still gains access to the category. There are 4 damage procs available across 4 different sets. That is on top of Clouded Senses and what is in the normal ranged damage category. The very rare hold set, Unbreakable Constraint, is an excellent proc to add to this power if you can afford to do it. That proc adds considerable direct damage to this damage-over-time power. For a while I ran this power with 5 pieces of Apocalypse plus Unbreakable Constraint meaning this power had 2 damage procs out of the very rare sets. That's two chances at dealing 107 additional damage with rare chances they both go off.

Umbral Torrent is a knockback power which opens it up to several great IO sets. You can, and probably should strongly consider, adding in a KnockBACK to KnockDOWN IO. That will convert this power into a nice additional layer of defense that won't irritate your teammates. On top of that you can still add in another 3-4 damage procs here (PvP, Positron's Blast, Clouded Senses, Explosive Strikes) or add in the recharge utility of Force Feedback. Of course, you could mix and match. Umbral Torrent's flexibility in slotting makes it a great pick even if you don't normally like cones.

Life Drain isn't much on paper. However, Life Drain has access to the healing sets. This means Touch of the Nictus (Negative Damage) and Theft of Essence (Endurance bonus!) are both on the table! The animation time of Life Drain is fairly slow too which further improves the chance to trigger these. No, none of these will hit 90% chance but frequency of activation is something you can also consider. Also, just brute forcing proc chance by adding in more procs is another consideration. I've seen builds planned where the player fully enhances this power for healing because it wasn't a part of their real damage rotation. I'm a BIG fan of flexibility in builds even if I don't always find room for powers like this one.

Rotations

I'll update this since there are a number of ways to approach rotations depending on what powers were picked and how they were slotted. I'll start by showcasing what you can pull off in a high recharge build (where Hasten is effectively permanent or very close to it). In one of my original Sentinel builds (Dark/Regen), I had built up to 195% global recharge and Antumbral Beam had 100% modified recharge. The attack chain below was possible with a very slight gap.

Antumbral Beam -> Abyssal Gaze -> Gloom

You could mix these up as you see fit depending on how it will impact Antumbral's placement due to its long recharge. However, that Gloom tacked on the end can make your life easier. Every one of these attacks will build 13 opportunity meter per successful hit. Your first pass of this combo builds 39 opportunity meter. If Antumbral Beam triggers the burst from the ATO, then Gloom will trigger Opportunity without much thought on your part. If that doesn't proc, the second round will build up to 78 meter. By the time you start your 3rd pass you're guaranteed to trigger Defensive Opportunity with Gloom. If you decided to pickup Dark Blast you could drop it to this attack routine before Gloom to activate Offensive Opportunity. Your choice.

If you do not build towards extreme levels of recharge, then you will need some filler added into the mix.

Antumbral Beam -> Abyssal Gaze -> Filler -> Gloom

Filler can be either the Dark Blast power or Life Drain. Dark Blast's placement will likely activate your Offensive Opportunity every 3 rotation (barring any Opportunity Strikes procs if you have it). So you may wish to swap Gloom/Dark Blast around depending on your needs.

Complementary Choices

Dark Blast is the little black dress of Sentinel powers. It goes with everything! There isn't a set in this game that doesn't benefit from your enemies getting a higher chance to miss you. There are some other things to think about though.

Life Drain adds some direct healing to Super Reflexes which it lacks. Super Reflexes doesn't get access to AoE defense until late or through power pools. To hit debuffs will fill in the gaps until you can use IOs to close them.

Dark Blast, as a set, does love recharge. Sets with powerful click abilities like Regeneration and Bio Armor also love recharge.

Dark Blast thematically works with Dark Armor. Dark Armor for Sentinels does have some to hit debuffing in Cloak of Fear and Dark Blast is the only primary set that will stack more on it. Furthermore, Dark Armor can be expensive to build (I've done it TWICE on Sentinels and once in every other AT now). The to hit debuffs are welcome additions to help close gaps. Blackstar's massive -35% to hit debuff for 20 seconds is practically a Defender primary that can have the cool down dropped to 23-28 seconds.

Dark Blast does have some mediocre damage, without IO improvement, so sets that add damage (Bio, Fire, Radiation) can help out. In short, you can't go wrong adding Dark Blast's defensive benefits to any of the second power sets. You can get very tanky with Dark Blast.

Incarnate Abilities

I'm hesitant to offer hard line prescriptions here. Incarnates are best used to either shore up weaknesses or expand on strengths. You're also not locked into how many Incarnate powers you pick up. You're only limited to what you can slot at any given time. I have multiple powers in the Destiny category that I can swap out as I see fit. That said, it is tough to make blanket recommendations for a primary only and not a character. I'll try though!

For Alpha slots, this is going to vary based on what defensive power set you use. The Cardiac options can help resistances but also offer some endurance management. End management can be a welcome choice to manage end drain. The Vigor options may be a nice perk for regenerating sets. Agility and Spiritual both have good uses but also bring additional recharge reduction which does impact your chances to trigger procs. If you're not heavily invested in procs, then either of those may be for you. The Musculature options bring more damage, and Intuition Radial does too. I lean heavily towards Musculature but these options are matter of preference.

There are several good judgments like Void, Pyronic or Ion. Pick one based on their secondary effects and/or if you like their targeting method (PBAoE, Cone, etc.).

Interface is fairly generic across all damage dealers and Sentinels are no different. The Degenerative chance for reduced hit points is a very good option for tough targets like Archvillains and Giant Monsters. Reactive can be good for clearing out hordes of weaker enemies. Diamagnetic can be good to add some defense due to the to hit debuff it brings.

Lore pets were all standardized and as such there is no specific category I recommend.

Destiny is going to vary wildly based on a complete character. You can't go wrong with Barrier as a generic choice, but the others will have uses depending on your secondary choice. Ageless works like another form of Hasten but the value of the effect degrades over time. Ageless can be a good option for builds needing more recharge which is especially beneficial to ones heavily invested into procs.

Hybrid options generally lead towards the Assault toggles. You have two options of Radial or Core. Radial adds a chance to do damage and Core adds a chance for a stacking damage buff. Which you decide on will depending on how much you team vs solo. For the soloer the Core stacking damage buff is pretty good. If gaining damage buffs from others isn't that reliable then Core is probably the better generic all around pick. Radial is going to matter more to players that gain consistent outside damage buffs and are frequenting hitting the damage cap.

Edited February 20, 2020 by oldskool

oldskool · December 18, 2019

17 hours ago, jonwol2 said:

Has anyone provided a breakdown for Bio Armor yet or has the knowledge to do so in the near future? This set is completely lost on me and I’m trying to determine where exactly it shines (and maybe falters) compared to other sets. I’ve been looking for a set to pair with BR and Bio is what I fell on.

Also I know it’s been mentioned a ton but I have to reiterate that this thread is extremely helpful and informative. I had given up on Beam Rifle prior to reading Sunsette’s guide. After reading and learning quite a few new tricks, rotations, etc. I have picked the set up again and am having a blast. Looking forward to more content in here!

I'll share my thoughts with the class, but this won't be in the format of the write-ups I've done so far. More streaming consciousness (I probably should have formatted this like a write-up).

First off, I'll share my impressions on what I think Bio Armor is before I answer what I think it is good at and what I think it is weak at.

Sentinel Bio Armor is a mixed mitigation set with a lot in common to both Willpower and Regeneration. Unlike other sets, both Willpower and Bio Armor have their defense ratings linked to the same resistance types. Where one rating is high the other rating ends up being low (or non-existent).

For example, Willpower has higher resistance to Smashing/Lethal damage than it does defense to that type. Likewise, it has lower resistance to Energy damage and much higher defense to that category. Bio Armor is designed in a very similar way. Bio Armor has higher defense to elemental damage than it does resistance, but offers moderate resistance to Smashing/Lethal where it has no defense.

Regeneration is a set that relies heavily on a reactive style of play using click heals. There is some proactive measures like Moment of Glory, but that isn't a big focus of the set. Generally you wait to see if you've taken enough damage to requiring using Reconstruction or Second Wind. Bio Armor can also have some reactive play as it has a click heal. However, Bio Armor has more opportunity for proactive play with its two absorb powers. You can begin a fight by adding an absorb shield before you start, and you can use the tier 9 power early in a combat to super charge that same strategy.

Bio Armor also includes passive resource management in the form of regeneration rates and endurance recovery bonuses.

Bio Armor is unique in that it has 3 different modes that enhance, and sometimes hinder, these core mechanics. The Defensive Adaptation will enhance your core mitigation of resistance and defense at the cost of reducing some damage output (it applies a penalty). Offensive Adaptation will enhance your damage output at the expense of some resistance (it applies a penalty there). Efficient Adaptation enhances your resource restore and is neutral to your damage output and mitigation. There are some other features within the Adaptations, but as a 30,000 ft view that should get you an idea.

What is Bio Armor good at as a Sentinel:

- Self-healing of all types be it passive (regeneration), reactive (click heal), and/or proactive blocking (absorb)
- Damage output. Offensive Adaptation is one of the few ways to add direct damage to any Sentinel build.

What is Bio Armor weak at as a Sentinel:

- Capping things. Its not all that efficient at capping all defense or resistance types.

- Handling big groups early on. Bio Armor sometimes get s a hyperbolic reputation as being virtually indestructible but that doesn't happen easily or without investment.

Now, when I bring up "capping things" that isn't me saying that you cannot cap your resistance (75%) to Smashing/Lethal through additional powers or IO sets. You can, but you're unlikely to do that for all of the others. This isn't me saying you cannot hit the soft-cap (45%) to some of the damage types, because you can. Hell, you can potentially stack enough defense on Smashing/Lethal to hit 45% using the Incarnate system. What I mean by not being all that efficient is what is your overall return on investment by going all in on that kind of IO stacking or Incarnate choice? Is that level of durability worth the expense and the possibility of giving up other options? In my opinion, no. However, there players that would say yes.

It needs to be stated that the lack of efficiency here isn't necessarily a fault of the power but a problem within the IO system. There are more IO sets in the melee categories with various defense types than there are in the ranged power categories. Just look at the melee range AoE power IO sets. There are sets with Melee and AoE defense. Then, if you look at the Ranged counterpart there are nearly zero. In the single-target melee category you have sets that boost Smashing/Lethal, Melee, and Ranged defense. In the single-target ranged category you have.... Thunderstrike that buffs only Ranged defense. This is not really counting the Winter event sets that can offer large boosts to some of these defense types but these IOs can be pricey too. In other words, the melee version of Bio Armor has a distinct advantage in closing its defensive gaps through the IO system purely due to the overt favoritism in melee set design.

While there are builds around this forum that seek to soft-cap defense on Bio Armor, I often tend to recommend going for recharge instead. I find Bio Armor to be plenty durable if I am being proactive with Absorb shields and the T9 power. Pushing recharge makes it play similar to Regeneration in that respect and it creates a considerable uptime on Parasitic Leech. Pushing recharge has the added benefit of making my attacks more available so it is a more offensively minded style of play. Finally, that kind of build strategy is more independent of full IO sets or even the Incarnate system (where I can shoe-horn in more defense anyway).

Yup, I should have just written a write-up. 😉

Edit: For giggles, I have a Beam/Bio Sentinel. Her backstory is heavily inspired by the movie District 9 as she was a task force member set to investigate Rikti wreckage and was caught in a blast where she was infected by a retro-virus. The retro-virus allows her to change aspects of her metabolism (the adaptations, the run speed increase), and her DNA alteration allows her the ability to power and fire an alien rifle. I applied a similar story to my Spines/Bio scrapper who keeps the Bio Armor crusty armor look plus the quills. His version is similar but his more overt appearance and body weaponry was a bit more Agent Venom.

Edited December 18, 2019 by oldskool

jonwol2 · December 18, 2019

1 hour ago, oldskool said:

I'll share my thoughts with the class, but this won't be in the format of the write-ups I've done so far. More streaming consciousness (I probably should have formatted this like a write-up).

First off, I'll share my impressions on what I think Bio Armor is before I answer what I think it is good at and what I think it is weak at.

Sentinel Bio Armor is a mixed mitigation set with a lot in common to both Willpower and Regeneration. Unlike other sets, both Willpower and Bio Armor have their defense ratings linked to the same resistance types. Where one rating is high the other rating ends up being low (or non-existent).

For example, Willpower has higher resistance to Smashing/Lethal damage than it does defense to that type. Likewise, it has lower resistance to Energy damage and much higher defense to that category. Bio Armor is designed in a very similar way. Bio Armor has higher defense to elemental damage than it does resistance, but offers moderate resistance to Smashing/Lethal where it has no defense.

Regeneration is a set that relies heavily on a reactive style of play using click heals. There is some proactive measures like Moment of Glory, but that isn't a big focus of the set. Generally you wait to see if you've taken enough damage to requiring using Reconstruction or Second Wind. Bio Armor can also have some reactive play as it has a click heal. However, Bio Armor has more opportunity for proactive play with its two absorb powers. You can begin a fight by adding an absorb shield before you start, and you can use the tier 9 power early in a combat to super charge that same strategy.

Bio Armor also includes passive resource management in the form of regeneration rates and endurance recovery bonuses.

Bio Armor is unique in that it has 3 different modes that enhance, and sometimes hinder, these core mechanics. The Defensive Adaptation will enhance your core mitigation of resistance and defense at the cost of reducing some damage output (it applies a penalty). Offensive Adaptation will enhance your damage output at the expense of some resistance (it applies a penalty there). Efficient Adaptation enhances your resource restore and is neutral to your damage output and mitigation. There are some other features within the Adaptations, but as a 30,000 ft view that should get you an idea.

What is Bio Armor good at as a Sentinel:

- Self-healing of all types be it passive (regeneration), reactive (click heal), and/or proactive blocking (absorb)
- Damage output. Offensive Adaptation is one of the few ways to add direct damage to any Sentinel build.

What is Bio Armor weak at as a Sentinel:

- Capping things. Its not all that efficient at capping all defense or resistance types.

- Handling big groups early on. Bio Armor sometimes get s a hyperbolic reputation as being virtually indestructible but that doesn't happen easily or without investment.

Now, when I bring up "capping things" that isn't me saying that you cannot cap your resistance (75%) to Smashing/Lethal through additional powers or IO sets. You can, but you're unlikely to do that for all of the others. This isn't me saying you cannot hit the soft-cap (45%) to some of the damage types, because you can. Hell, you can potentially stack enough defense on Smashing/Lethal to hit 45% using the Incarnate system. What I mean by not being all that efficient is what is your overall return on investment by going all in on that kind of IO stacking or Incarnate choice? Is that level of durability worth the expense and the possibility of giving up other options? In my opinion, no. However, there players that would say yes.

It needs to be stated that the lack of efficiency here isn't necessarily a fault of the power but a problem within the IO system. There are more IO sets in the melee categories with various defense types than there are in the ranged power categories. Just look at the melee range AoE power IO sets. There are sets with Melee and AoE defense. Then, if you look at the Ranged counterpart there are nearly zero. In the single-target melee category you have sets that boost Smashing/Lethal, Melee, and Ranged defense. In the single-target ranged category you have.... Thunderstrike that buffs only Ranged defense. This is not really counting the Winter event sets that can offer large boosts to some of these defense types but these IOs can be pricey too. In other words, the melee version of Bio Armor has a distinct advantage in closing its defensive gaps through the IO system purely due to the overt favoritism in melee set design.

While there are builds around this forum that seek to soft-cap defense on Bio Armor, I often tend to recommend going for recharge instead. I find Bio Armor to be plenty durable if I am being proactive with Absorb shields and the T9 power. Pushing recharge makes it play similar to Regeneration in that respect and it creates a considerable uptime on Parasitic Leech. Pushing recharge has the added benefit of making my attacks more available so it is a more offensively minded style of play. Finally, that kind of build strategy is more independent of full IO sets or even the Incarnate system (where I can shoe-horn in more defense anyway).

Yup, I should have just written a write-up. 😉

Edit: For giggles, I have a Beam/Bio Sentinel. Her backstory is heavily inspired by the movie District 9 as she was a task force member set to investigate Rikti wreckage and was caught in a blast where she was infected by a retro-virus. The retro-virus allows her to change aspects of her metabolism (the adaptations, the run speed increase), and her DNA alteration allows her the ability to power and fire an alien rifle. I applied a similar story to my Spines/Bio scrapper who keeps the Bio Armor crusty armor look plus the quills. His version is similar but his more overt appearance and body weaponry was a bit more Agent Venom.

Thank you so much for this detailed write up!

As a side note, I love your district 9 adaptation for your bio! Very clever! Do you possibly have a build you could post for your beam/Bio?

oldskool · December 19, 2019

On 12/14/2019 at 2:42 PM, Riverdusk said:

Certainly. It did seem to work from the quick testing I did by just getting to a rough distance and aiming at hellions in Atlas park and trying fire ammo and getting "out of range", immediately switching to cryo and it let me shoot.

Tried this against a Pylon since they do not move. Cryo did add range. Write-up updated.

The "ignores buffs and enhancements" does appear to be accurate. The Combat Attributes window shows a total of +53% range effect, but reality of test was more like a rough 30% increase to the base range of Executioner's Shot (base range 60ft). It appears to widen the cone of Empty Clips slightly too. I don't currently have Piercing Rounds, but I'd imagine it would make it easier to hit the maximum of 3 targets (which isn't terribly hard with enhancements).

I don't have a Blaster using DP, but my other characters do not have this benefit in Cryo ammo. However, they have vastly superior debuffs so they don't really need it. 😉

Edited December 19, 2019 by oldskool

drbuzzard · January 14, 2020

Ok, finally finished the last of my project to try every sentinel secondary (and take them to 50). The last one was the Dual Pistol/Ice Armor build. While I started it before I got around to trying dark armor, I ended up making a Beam Rifle/Dark Armor build and it ended up much better than I expected so it got to 50 because I liked playing it (I'm a big fan of BR on sents). The DP/Ice eventually got dragged across the finish line, and I can't see myself spending the effort on incarnating it out properly. I'd have to like it first.

I'm going to do a more in depth analysis of all the sets I'm familiar with in the context of my builds. This will skip assault rifle and energy because just perusing them shied me away from them. I dislike knockback quite a bit. Energy is loaded with it and AR has a fair bit, so I see no reason to annoy myself. I've played both sets in the past (back on live), so they hold few mysteries or appeal for me.

I think up front I should explain my design philosophy for my way of building sentinels. First off, it should be recognized that they are a bit low in the D for a DPS class. This is fairly universally accepted. Their biggest strength damage wise is their tier 9 nuke on a 90 second time. While it 'only' hits 10 targets, it hits them quite hard, and a case could be made they are the best AOEs in the game. Thus I feel that doing everything to leverage that is how you make the best sentinel offense possible. This means you get your recharge boosted as much as possible- so permahasten is basically a must. This will not make you a single target death machine and get you good pylon times. I really don't care about that, so if your goals lie in that direction, you should ignore my advice. Others offer counsel in that direction.

Then my approach to the protective secondaries is to figure out the strength of the set and play to that. So for resistance sets, I try to push the resistance as hard as possible. For the defensive sets, I try to softcap. For mixed sets, I try to softcap defenses that are possible, and push resistance as high as possible (getting to 75% can be often done for l/s).

An interesting thing I figured out when doing all the secondaries, is how most of the ’pure’ resistance sets really come out feeling like regeneration sets. This means electric armor, fiery aura, radiation (radiation is a bit off an oddball in this, but will be addressed when I get to my ice/rad sent), and dark armor. All of them can achieve high resistance values for a lot of types, and maintain constant levels of regeneration or pulsed healing (fiery aura). So while people usually say sentinels are lousy with resistance sets because of their relatively low health (compared to other ATs with defensive powersets), I found that the resistance/regen combo usually made them quite resilient. Regeneration actually has some fair amount of resistance (and with tough can get above 50% resistance), so it might be considered with these.

The most durable sets, however, are the strongly defense based sets. This means SR, Ninjitsu, and Energy aura. All three of these can be softcapped to most things relatively easily (with weave and set bonuses). EA has psionic and toxic holes, but it adds in a fair bit of damage resistance to a lot of types, so it almost verges into the hybrid types.

The last two sets, Invulnerability and Ice Armor are sorts of hybrid sets. They have mixes of defense and resistance, with fairly balanced quantities of both. However, I found that it only worked out for Invulnerability and not for ice armor.

I will address particulars in each build section.

drbuzzard · January 14, 2020

My first level 50 sentinel was a psychic/willpower build. Hence, I’ll start with that

Psychic Blast

This set often gets busted on because people view psionic damage as being very resisted. While it is by some enemies (robots in particular, though it varies by robot), it’s not nearly as commonly resisted as lethal, nor to the same degree. It does have the strength of bypassing some defensive powers which are very frustrating for every other damage type (untoppable, moment of glory). It’s not a really good proccing set since there’s not a lot of good secondary effects with damage proc potential. A plus is that there’s 2 powers well worth skipping, and I’ve found in my time making builds, the ability to have more freedom to take non primary/secondary stuff is nice.

The sentinel version of the set is solid, with the normal base number of AOEs (cone, burst, and PBAOE T9). It has some very heavy hitting single target attacks, so it could be looked upon as more of a single target set. Though given that sentinel sets all get at least 3 AOEs, you don’t really have an issue of any set being all that AOE weak.

I’ll go down through the powers and give some commentary. The considerations are for when you are done with the build. As you level up, you might have to weigh things differently as a full attack chain beats gaps any day.

Mental Blast- pure garbage. Long animation coupled with low damage means it’s a really crappy filler unless you want to lower your DPS. It is the worst DPAS of all sentinel attacks. It's really that bad.

Telekinetic Blast- in contrast to the T1 attack, this has a fast animation and good damage. Be glad this is a primary so you don’t have to take the T1. Only downside to this power is (IMO) the knockback. As I’m no fan of knockback, I drop a knockback to knockdown into it. I view this as an annoying tax, but the DPAS is worth it. Think I have 5 thunderstrike (for defense bonus) and a knockback to knockdown in it.

Psychic Scream- decent enough cone attack. Of course as a sentinel cone it is limited to 5 targets, and cones are always a bit inconvenient to use. However it is your first available AOE, so you will take it, and ultimately, you might consider keeping it if you don’t grab one from the epic sets. Skipped it ultimately due to playstyle.

Will Domination- This is the best single target attack in the set with a high end DPAS of 87, which beats most set's top one. It does add sleep which is a crap mez (IMO) and isn't particularly proccable. I have five of apocalypse in this (no proc).

Psychic Focus- aim by another name. Drop a Gaussian proc into it and use it before you nuke. Don't put in any recharge or you will screw up the proc rate on Gaussian.

Psionic Strike- while this does hit pretty hard, the animation is unreasonably long, so it actually hinders you DPS in a chain. Skip it (once you can).

Psionic Tornado- this is an interesting AOE. It’s got a nice targeting style (like a fireball, burst at target), and has a very nice knock-up side effect. The downside is that it is pure damage over time and the damage is a bit low and slow. However, since it is easier to target and affects more, so I prefer it and use it in my final build. I have 5 ragnaroks in there with no proc.

Scramble Thoughts- This is the hardest hitting power of the set, but like in a lot of the sentinel sets it has a rather long animation, so the actual DPAS is only so so (59). You will want it though since it makes for a big chunk of your attack chain.

Psychic Wail- As I might have mentioned elsewhere, the strength of sentinels is their 90 second recharge T9 nuke. It’s the gem of every set, and your build should be made (IMO of course) to focus on dropping it as often as possible, on as many targets as possible. If you can drop other attacks in to support it, all the better. This one hits for the normal damage of the sentinel nukes, and it’s pretty damned good damage. It also adds a stun on top of it which is nice. With aim (psychic focus) and possible build up (from the proce) added in, it lays down a wallop. The six sentinel’s ward superior are in this.

Willpower- this is a great set for easy play. It’s basically a set and forget secondary with very solid survival potential. It combines resistance, defense, and regeneration. I managed to cap lethal and smashing resistance to 75% and get defense to fire/cold/energy/negative energy to around 40% which means you are quite survivable owing to the high regeneration level you get from the set. The main weakness would probably a lack of debuff resistance (on defense, resistance inherent resists debuff). Also, regen debuff will hurt.

High Pain tolerance- as a T1 secondary power, you have no choice, so it’s a good thing this is actually a good power. It boosts your resistance and your maximum HP. Given how small the resistance numbers are, the return on resistance slotting is a bit smal so I just used resistance procs in it, the 2 +3 def and the +7.5% HP . I also have 2 50+3 heal IOs in to boost HP. (so 5 slots total)

Mind over Body- this is your basic resistance shield for lethal, smashing and psionic damage. You will want to take this. This is a good place for an aegis set(4 slots).

Fast Healing- self explanatory regeneration power which you really should take. ~150% regeneration after enhancement is worth your time. You can drop a heal set into this if you have the slots. Numina’s has a nice lethal/slashing resistance number, so consider that (though it does take 5 slots for that). If not, consider 2 lvl 50+3s and some procs. I did the 2 slots.

Indomitable Will- this is your status protection. Of course you will take it. It also offers a bit of psionic defense, but the number is low enough that I don’t bother to enhance that aspect. Nice thing though, is that this defense aspect means it is a place to drop a luck of the gambler global recharge (that is all I slot into it). This is actually a very nice status protection power since it also works against confusion, which is not commonly done.

Up to the challenge- this is your big regeneration power (200% base). While the version on the melee sets potentially can get you a lot more regeneration, this is always at a pretty good number, and you don’t have to be in the mix for it to work. I have a numina set in there.

Quick Recovery- more endurance recovery is a no-brainer. You take this and you slot this. I have a performance shifter proc, the end mod from the set and a lvl 50+3 IO.

Heightened Senses- this gives you a negligible defense against lethal and smashing, but an acceptable start for fire/cold/energy/negative energy. I think I put a goodly bit of luck of the gambler in here to get to the lethal/smashing resistance (5 slots- 6 is diminishing returns with the psi/toxic as they just aren’t common enough damage).

Resurgence- meh a self rez power. Since 2 inspirations is about the same, easy to skip. There’s probably a better power to choose somewhere in a pool. If you have the bright idea of dropping an endurance or healing proc into it, don’t- it won’t work.

Strength of Will- I should start this first sentinel commentary with my general disdain for defensive T9 powers. They all have overly long recharge such that they are only Oh Shit! Powers. Alternatively inspirations do that as well, and eventually so do incarnate options. Devoting a bunch of slots to these powers is something I consider a waste as you can get better returns from set bonuses to your defenses which are up all the time. However, as such powers go this one isn’t awful. It boosts resistance and endurance recovery, and has a fairly mild crash. It also has a relatively short recharge time which can’t be lowered (as opposed to the older T9s which have huge recharge times that need to be lowered). I skipped it.

Pool powers- This is of course a flexible business to some extent. However, given my design philosophy here’s not that much flexibility. I always take a travel power, I have yet to make a sentinel without fighting pool because the return is so large, and I also think permahasten should be a goal on every sentinel to get your T9 up as often as possible. Now if I didn’t abhor superspeed as a travel power, this might be a bit more flexible, but I do, so that’s basically locking in 3 out of four. My last pool choice was concealment for stealth to hold luck of the gambler global recharge (I do a lot of this). I really enjoy flight (with afterburner) and hover blasting, so that’s the travel choice. It would be possible to take leadership instead of concealment since between secondary and flight, you only need 1 more place for LotG. I didn’t. Really what it comes down to eventually is taking powers you know you don’t intend to add slots to because you need those slots elsewhere. Tough got 4 aegis and weave got 5 LotG.

Epic pools- I have found that while looking across the epic pools available to sentinels I almost always end up with psionic pool. Part of this is because I love running ITFs and having a few psionic damage attacks really speeds up killing the EBs in that TF. Also it has a couple of other big plusses. Mind probe hits like a truck and animates fast, dominate can be slotted and procced into a mean attack, and psychic shockwave is a great PBAOE with a great target cap and good damage. Also if you want defense on top of it, link minds is good stuff. For attacks I have mind probe and psychic shockwave in this case, which have a mako’s bite and armageddon respectively (5 slots in each). I also recently added in link minds and it holds 3 shield wall (def, def/rech, and the +5 resistance) and a red fortune def/rech.

Edited June 28, 2021 by drbuzzard

drbuzzard · January 14, 2020

Fire/Fire Sentinel

Honestly I don’t recall if I made this one or the Water/SR one first, but it doesn’t make a big difference, they will all be written up eventually. At first glance, I had some crazy idea that the fiery aura resistance numbers were just too small so I should just focus on healing and add in medicine pool. I was mistaken. It is possible to put up good defensive numbers with this set, and the durability I achieved did surprise me. It is funny that this is one of the 2 sentinels where I bothered to take and slot up the tier 9 (bio being the other) and it’s a power I would normally skip. I’ll explain that madness when I get to the power. On top of fire being better than expected defensively, it offers a nice little buff to damage in molten embrace.

Fire Blast powers

Flares: While this may seem like a minor damage power (and admittedly it doesn’t do big damage), it animates very fast, so the DPAS is good. It also recharges extremely fast, so it’s a great chain filler. Take it, slot it, love it. I have 5 decimations in there (no procs).

Fire Blast: While you may take this on the way up in levels, it’s just not a terribly good power- the DPAS is simply bad, so it has no place in your final build.

Fireball: This is simply a great power by any measure. It does solid AOE damage with a quick animation. Heck, it does better DPAS than fire blast. If you have the endurance, it is no mistake to use this in a chain. I have five of the positron set in here with no proc.

Blaze: It comes fairly early, but it is the best single target attack in the set, and unless my less than stellar memory fails me, the best ranged attack for DPAS among sentinel primaries. It will be the cornerstone of your single target chain. I have 5 decimation, no proc in there again.

Aim: self explanatory. I slotted 3 parts of gaussian in it (including the proc of course)

Fire Breath: As I hover blast, the narrow arc of the cone isn’t too hard to use well enough, and with only 5 targets, you don’t really need a huge cone. I have 5 annihilation in it because it’s fairly cheap, and the bonuses are handy. I was bluffing my energy/neg energy resistance, and this helps.

Blazing Blast: I admit to having mixed feelings about this power. The DPAS is pretty solid, but it does knockback. Now knockback is something I don’t like, but can be controlled with a proc so it’s usually manageable. However whoever cooked up this set decided that knockback wasn’t sufficient to annoy me, they added in repel on top of it so you can’t proc the effect away. I used to have a SBB set in here to control the tossing around of enemies, but with the repel, it was never a full fix. Currently it has all six superior opportunity ATOs.

Rain of Fire: This does good damage, and on your own the fear can be a useful tool of self preservation. However, it also makes groups scatter, and AVs run like bards. As I always team up, I just skipped this one. YMMV.

Inferno: Ah, lovely, lovely inferno. This is among the highest damage T9s (due to DoT after the big blast). It hits very hard. My build is fixated on getting this to fire early and often, and my recharge is around 23 seconds. Every fight starts with inferno as it should. I have the full superior sentinel’s ward in here.

Fiery Aura:

Fire Shield: The basic bread and butter lethal, smashing shield, but with fire resistance and some of your status protection as well. How could you not use this? I have it 4 slotted with titanium coating. Why? Well it’s fairly cheap, and it gives me energy/negative energy resistance, even if only a little bit. All those little bits eventually add up.

Molten Embrace: This is free damage. Damage is good. Endurance cost is basically negligible. If you don’t take this, God will kill a kitten. It takes only endurance reduction, and doesn’t even really need it.

Healing flames: A fast recharging fairly powerful heal is not something you skip. I filled it with preventative medicine mostly for recharge, but the l/s resistance helps too.

Temperature protection. While it would be nice to have the slow resistance from this (the fire resistance is pointless, and the cold resistance is too small to care), there’s better use for a power slot. Skip it. If you do bother to take it, I’d just drop in a proc of some sort and not waste slots.

Plasma Shield: This gets you energy, negative energy, and more fire resistance. It also rounds out your status protection. You would be a fool to skip it. I have 4 titanium coatings in there again.

Consume: You know running all these toggles can get you quite an appetite. That’s when you consume. OK, this isn’t the greatest of the endurance recovery tools as it actually has to hit, and the recharge is fairly long. However the endurance cost is very low which makes it usable when you’ve flaked out and drained your bar almost all the way without dropping your toggles. I have an efficiency adapter set in there mostly for the recharge.

Burn: While I suppose someone might find a reason to take this, I didn’t. If you want to burn things, make a tank or brute. I hover blast, burn is not compatible.

Cauterize: Now this is probably the cornerstone of survivability in this set. It amounts to a decent healing pulse which ticks off quite often. This will keep you alive, and bring you back from bouts of stupid quite well. I have 2 50+3 IOs and the Panacea proc in there.

Rise of the Phoenix. Now this is a power which has been justifiably mocked, since a tier 9 power which requires you to die first seems a bit silly. So why the hell would I have it six slotted and with a full set in it? If you look at the numbers, it’s actually a very high damage attack. I have it slotted with the summer blockbuster set to control the knockback, and honestly don’t mind dying since I can do slightly above nuke damage with it.

The rest of my build rounds out with flight pool (fly, hover, afterburner, 2 LotG procs, and the +5% resistance PvP one), fighting (boxing since I have to, tough with again 4 titaniums), concealment (stealth, invis, grant invis) all with LotG globals, and speed for hasten (2 slots with lvl 50 IOs, spiritual alpha gets it the rest of the way).

Epic pool: I have the psi one, as I always seem to end up. Just mind probe (5 Makos) and psychic shockwave (5 obliteration).

This ends up being a fairly durable build (not as durable as SR, or EA certainly), but not really something to tank with. You can dive in to drop your nuke on things, and most likely you’ll live to tell about it, but you will want to get clear since too much aggro will wear you down (though if RotP is charged up, meh, die and make them pay). As it comes with a damage boosting power in the secondary it is one of the higher damage builds you can do, for both AOE and single target work (though again, proc builds can do better single target). I have a fair amount of fun with this build. This build ends up with 74.7% l/s 75% fire, 51% energy, negative energy, and 21% cold resistance (negligible psi and toxic). As follows my build style, I ignore defense, though you could do a nice job of layering things. This is about resisting the damage and healing it up, and it works pretty well.

drbuzzard · January 15, 2020

Water/SR Sentinel

This is a very effective build that is designed to slaughter lots of targets in a hurry. Water blast is pretty much AOE focused, and is actually a bit weak in single target work. However as it includes a fairly good healing power, this synergizes well with Super Reflexes which lacks a heal. Water has four AOEs in the set, a nice wide cone, a ranged burst, a rain type power (whirlpool may not look like a rain, but it works the same for all intents and purposes), then the nuke which is again a ranged burst. This makes water a very survivable set since you don’t actually have to mix it up in melee, you can keep your distance. This makes it amenable to hover blasting. There’s a mechanic which gets special results from either tidal forces or building up tokens through attacks which give the same effect. This will do a variety of things depending on the attack. I think perhaps that detail is why I don’t play the set so much because it takes a bit more care to have it work well, and I like easy. One rather nice aspect though, is that it mixes both fire and cold damage. Both are not very resisted in play, and using both means if you hit one of the select mobs that does resist one of them, it likely won’t resist the other.

SR on sentinels is, IMO, the best version of the powerset. It adds in a power just like quick recovery, and also gives you the option of switching from a click status protection to a toggle system (making your first two toggles your status protection) and giving you an absorb shield. SR has the best defense debuff resistance around, gives you 20% recharge, and has scaling resistance at low health. It’s really quite easy to get softcap going with it, so with all it has going, it’s a very durable set. The only downside is that you will only want to skip the T9 (Elude) as it is rather redundant since you should be softcapped.

Water Blast

Aqua Bolt; You basic tier one attack It a low amount of smashing and cold damage, but recharges fast. The DPAS is nothing to write home about, but the number is about the same as for the tier 2, so picking one over the other is no mistake. I have it six slotted with thunderstrike for ranged defense.

Hydro Blast: Slower animation but a lot higher damage makes a choice between this and aqua bolt really just a matter of your preference. Arguably if you want to get a good single target chain together, you should take both this and aqua bolt, but i didn’t. I use epic powers and just focus on AOEs.

Water Burst: This is the first ranged burst power in the set (geyser being the second). It does decent damage, and can do knockdown or knockup. Damage is cold and smashing. It’s very similar to fireball, but with a slower animation. I have it six slotted with superior opportunity.

Dehydrate: This is the healing power. I suppose if you’re feeling short on single target damage, you could slot it for damage. I’d only do that if your secondary has a heal, though I think only SR lacks a real heal, so feel free. It does a pretty good job when slotted for healing though. I have it five slotted with touch of the nictus (minus the proc).

Tidal Forces: This is the aim equivalent, but because it boosts the tidal effect, it does less damage boosting (25% vs. 50%). I have it with some recharge and the Gaussian proc.

Whirlpool: While it appears on the ground instead of dropping from the sky, this is really just a rain power. It does area based DoT with a fear effect. The damage is pretty high, like the rain powers, but the fear effect will scatter mobs and make AVs run like bards. I used to use it, but the way it makes AVs run, and does so much scattering I dropped it. I used it have it six slotted with positron.

Water Jet: This is the sole high end single target attack in the set. You will want to take it and slot it up well. It gets a boost from tidal effects and does hit pretty hard. I have it six slotted with thunderstrike for ranged defense.

Steam Spray: This is a nice wide (50 degree) cone that does fire damage. It’s easy to line up lots of targets, and it cheats on the Sentinel cone rules allowing 10 targets instead of 5. It is definitely a worthwhile power to grab. I have it six slotted with annihilation for defense bonuses.

Geyser: This is the nuke, and it is a nice one. It does some smashing and a lot of fire damage. As you will probably run tidal forces before hitting this, it will do stun and knockup. As with all sentinel sets, this is the power you are building for. Get your recharge up to perma hasten, and pop this every combat.

Super Reflexes

Focused Fighting: This is your melee defense toggle. It also offers knockback and immobilization protection if you do master brawler. You need this. I have it slotted with 2 lvl 50 IOs and a LotG Global.

Focused Senses: Here’s your ranged defense toggle. It, with master brawler, includes the rest of your status protection. You need it as well. Same slotting as focused fighting.

Agile: This is an auto power which gives you more ranged defense. You take it. It has the normal 2 lvl 50 IOs and LotG.

Now we get to a choice, you can either opt for the standard from SR- practiced brawler which is a click status protection, which is easy to stack, and is quite good, or take master brawler which puts all your status protection in your first two toggles and then you have a click which gives an absorb shield. As I like to get perma hasten running and have it with my auto click, I opted for master brawler. The absorb shield really is a nice survival tool. I have it six slotted with preventive medicine. If you were to opt for practiced brawler, you could just put a couple recharge IOs in it and be done.

Enduring: This is a basic endurance recovery power which is stronger than stamina. You take it. It also adds a couple of other small benefits, you are going to take it. Who doesn’t need more endurance? I have it with a performance shifter proc and a couple lvl 50 end mod IOs.

Dodge: This is the melee defense autopower. You take it and slot it. (2 lvl 50 def IOs + LotG global).

Quickness: This improves your movement speed (BFD) and gives you a 20% global recharge boost (woo hoo!). You take it and drop in an IO for whatever travel method you like. I have a fly in there.

Evasion: Here you finally get AOE defense, and honestly it’s a touch on the late side to finally be picking this up, but it is what it is. On the positive side, the number is pretty high since there’s no autopower to supplement it. You will take and slot this of course (2 lvl 50 def IOs + LotG global).

Elude: This gives you a massive amount of defense, more endurance recovery, and more run speed on a very long recharge. In my opinion the only value to this power is that you can skip it without any regret.

Pool Powers: I like flying so flight pool, hover, fly, afterburner. Since SR has so many places to put LotG global, I didn’t have to use these. I also have fighting pool, with boxing, tough and weave. I have 2 slots in tough for the 2 +3% def procs, but I don’t run it. Weave is slotted up with just defense IOs and an endurance reduction IO. I have speed pool for hasten, which has 2 lvl 50 rech red IOs (spiritual alpha core covers the rest).

Epic pools: Psychic pool as usual with Mind Probe with 5 slots of hecatomb, and then Dominate with a full lockdown set, though I would probably be wise to redo that for a damage proc set up.

This build ends up as a very durable crowd killing machine. You get to stay at range and just hand out death(er, arrest?) quite fast. Durability is very solid since defense debuff resistance is 75% (best among sentinels), add in a heal from the primary, plus the absorb shield, and you get a pretty tough cookie that with a hover blast approach simply doesn’t die much at all.

Edited January 16, 2020 by drbuzzard

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