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  • 4 weeks later

Sentinel Powersets Advice part 1 : Primary

 

Ok, I've played through all the primaries and secondaries to a reasonable extent by this point, and I figure it might help some people if I proffered a bit of advice about the sets. I have earlier guides in here, but things have changed and experienced has been gained. Ignore those, profit from my experience. This will, of course, be based upon my preferences, but also will be numbers based since I'm rather a performance oriented kind of player. For the offensive side this will be primarily focused on single target DPAS, which is damage per activation second. This is what ultimately defines how much damage you can do with a power because chains of attacks incorporating optimal DPAS attacks will take down a hard target the fastest. Hence sets which have a bunch of high DPAS attacks will be the kings of taking out AVs , monsters and other high HP enemies. One caveat, animation times listed in game are not animation times in practice. Due to artifacts of how things are actually animation and the game clock, there is a distortion which ups animation times, and it falls proportionally heavier on faster attacks. This is known as ArcanaTime based on the initial poster who discovered it. You can look this up or use a formula to calculate it- (round(time/0.132)+1)*0.132

 

Some sets are more focused on AOE, but really with the AOE target caps on sentinels (6 for (most)cones, 10 for bursts), you will always lag a bit in that are. The other thing which makes up in mass damage is the fast recharging tier 9 nuke, which puts you back on the map. I tend to build sentinels around recharge simply because I want the nuke up as often as possible. There's a few sets which can be solid on AOE (lots of 10 target attacks), but they usually give up some on DPAS.

 

My other considerations are convenience of play (is there a gimmick required for this to work well), and aesthetics. Personally I don't really like sets which require you to build a stack of X to make Y work better. I generally like sets which just perform well all the time no matter if I'm playing like a methed up squirrel at a keyboard. I'm playing a game, and beyond the effort of carefully maximizing my build, I don't want to work too hard about playing to my powers when I'd rather spend the brain effort of analyzing and dispatching threatsI also prefer to play by hover blasting. Some sets make this either much less convenient or near impossible. As to aesthetics, I like things which aren't excessive in their graphics, and there's some amount of appeal to things which look like old school comic book art. This last bit is of course just my taste and yours may well differ.

 

I will treat each set individually in a fairly condensed fashion. There's plenty of resources which will provide the numbers (even in game, but those do need some caution) in game or out. I'll start with offensive sets, then defensive. I will also include some useful binds which should make your life easier. I don't use mids, so I don't make builds for people. I concoct a build as I play the character up through the levels. The following advice is very general, you should look up builds on the sentinel forum after that, or devise your own.

 

Archery:

This set has a lot of high DPAS attacks. Stunning shot, perfect shot and blazing arrow are all excellent DPAS, not sentinel top, but good for all being in the same set . The tier 9 nuke is nice because it's ranged , but it is somewhat low damage with a 95 second recharge for some reason. You will want to use a bind like

/macroimage Rain_of_arrows "Rain of arrows" "powexeclocation target Rain of arrows" (there's an error in this with the token in your tray, but the button will work).

This macro will enable you to work the power by picking a target and hitting the button rather than picking a target location. Alternatively you can use

/bind lshift "pow_exec_name rain of arrows"

which will drop the power on a space designated by a shift left click. One thing to note about this set, snap shot is pure crap, skip it. It has horribly low DPAS. Update: The tier 9 is now on the normal 90 second recharge. so my main reservation against the set is gone. I've since made a new alt using it, and it does work quite well especially if you make a nice chain of perfect shot, stunning shot, and blazing arrow. This is a devastating single target chain which will melt bosses. The tier 9 still has the issue of variability. It's potentially 1, 2, or 3 hits of damage, and it rather disappointing if you get just the one, and the values are comparatively nerfed compared to other ATs. 

 

Assault Rifle

This is a very AOE focused set (3 cones, and 1 burst). The set is very strong on single target DPAS now with 2 attacks in the 70s and ignite at 133. However you cannot chain the three by themselves without a fair sized gap, so you need to squeeze in something appreciably lower (60 DPAS or so) . IMO it's a good idea to put a knockback to knockdown IO into M30 grenade to avoid scattering targets. The set is a nice simple drive where you just target and shoot, no need for any binds. If you are more concerned with AOE, this set is fine, though you can do better. Also the nuke is a bit on the weak side being the next worst to archery. Nuke are remarkably consistent across sentinel T9s except archery and AR. 

 

Note on archery and AR: On blasters the tier 9 nukes actually recharge faster (60 secs) and do lots more damage. Also since they do lethal damage, that can be a pain since by end game many, many critters highly resist lethal damage.

 

Beam Rifle

This set is a touch deceptive in the numbers because in game published numbers at character creation roll in the damage over time effects of disintegrate condition into all attacks where it applies. This distorts how good a lot of the attacks look. In a sustained chain of attacks, as on an AV, it is valid so for hard targets the set is good as long as you have disintegrate as part of your chain. The set is also appreciably better in AOE than the blaster version as the snipe is traded for a neat chaining burst power-refractor beam. The nuke is a solid ranged nuke with good damage. The disintegrate mechanic where it 'infects' other targets on its own in a random fashion is kind of fun to watch. This set gets a 2 thumbs up for being both effective and fun to play.

 

Dark Blast

The set is loaded with utility function, but seems to trade off damage for this. All attacks apply a -to hit debuff, which should help keep you alive, and you even have a self healing attack. . My view, however, is your secondary is to keep you alive, and your primary is to keep them dead. I don't like crossing these things over. The high DPAS attacks are pretty good (antumbral beam and abyssal gaze), but not top tier among sentinel single target attacks. The nuke is a PBAOE which makes you mix it up to deliver it. This isn't all that hard to pull off usually, but if you're accustomed to hover blasting safety, it greatly increases risk. Not my favorite set. I did a replay on it recently, and was definitely in 'meh' territory. It's not outright bad, but you can do better.

 

Dual Pistols

Again we have a set which gets distorted numbers from the in game listing. Once you get to swap ammo, it has appreciably better DPAS than is listed on the in game numbers. The animations are often kinda long, but the damage from incendiary ammo keeps up the DPAS. Average DPAS is pretty high, though none of the shots are top tier in sentinel single targets. The nuke is another PBAOE. For me I can't stand the animations since you're playing games with guns when you should be shooting, not showing off. I probably would like the set a lot more if they had alternate animations where you just take time to aim instead of the odd stuff. If you can stand the animation and don't mind the PBAOE nuke, it's not a bad set.

 

Electrical Blast

Yet again we have a set which gets distorted impressions from the in game numbers. This time it is because there's a mechanic in electrical blast now where an infection shock is applied by attacks and they count this under your single target damage. However, even when you take this out the single target damage is very solid. The burst AOE actually has great DPAS itself, which is an oddity for AOE powers. There is a hold included which is nice, and the nuke is a good ranged one. I like the look of the lightning bolts a good bit, so this one stands as my top sentinel attack set. The shock mechanic pads your AOE damage, and your attack chain is good for single targets. One thing to note, don't skip voltaic sentinel. This is an odd little power which produces a toggle based pseudo pet which blasts with the tier 1 blast from time to time. It is a nice bit of free damage, though you can't really predict what it will bother to target. It is indestructible, so you don't have to worry about losing it. While the damage isn't really all that hot, it does build up the shock mechanic for you and that's well worth the power slot and toggle cost. 

 

Energy blast

The damage numbers for the set are actually legitimate in game. The DPAS is OK. Nothing is top tier, but nothing is awful. The tier 9 nuke is PBAOE. You do suffer for doing knockback in varying degrees. Some powers do it all the time, some do it as a random chance. Personally I dislike knockback, and having it in every power is like a penalty to me. Aesthetically it's a great set with a strong feel of Jack Kirby or George Perez in the blasts with little bubbles in them (look at the art and you will get me). If you can deal with the knock back, or even like it, the set is OK, though not top tier.

 

Fire Blast

This set is probably the damage king. It has 4 single target attacks where 3 of the 4 are very solid. A recent revision to the animation of fire blast cut the time substantially, and it is now 70 DPAS or so. This means you can chain fire blast, blaze, and blazing blast for a very mean chain. It is not possible to remove knockback from blazing blast since it is both knockback and repel, so don't waste any effort on it.  The nuke is also PBAOE (but high damage). Blazing blast is what turns me off about the set, if you either like that or can deal with it, you can't object to the set's damage. Fireball is another very high DPAS AOE attack. The other AOEs are a rain and a narrow cone, so I consider this less of a great AOE set than it is commonly billed as. Looks are great with lots of burnination to make you happy. You won't likely go wrong picking this set.

 

Ice Blast

The strange numbers from the game strike again. For reasons I don't understand, both in game listing and City of Data (which takes from the game database) list Chilling Ray as hitting twice when in fact it does not. This doubles the DPAS and makes the set look like DPAS king because it would have 2 attacks over 100 DPAS. In actual fact, the set is merely upper tier with one attack at 117 DPAS (bitter ice blast) and the rest appreciably lower (next best is 67). AOEs are a little weak since there's no burst. You have a rain, a nuke rain, and a cone (cones are generally weak sauce on sentinels). Since your nuke is a rain, you might as well use both in sequence and that's how I play it. Nice thing about rains in that while they can't hit more than 10 targets at a time, as targets are eliminated, they hit something else, so effectively have a higher AOE target cap. Here's some useful binds for the set since you're using location based rains:

/macro B "blizzard" "powexeclocation target Blizzard"

/macro IS "ice storm" "powexeclocation target ice storm"

The set is generally quite strong and definitely a top tier one. The damage error is a bit annoying though. Looks are fine.

 

Psychic Blast

Oddly enough this is the best version of the set across ATs. The single target DPAS is very solid with a 100 DPAS attack and 2 near 70. Avoid mental blast like the plague it is, with the worst DPAS of any sentinel single target attack in the primaries. AOEs are not brilliant with a cone, and a DoT burst. The nuke is another PAOE which I disfavor. A bit of a warning, while psionic damage can shine at times (for example the EBs in an ITF go to unstoppable and psi damage goes right on through), it is really weak against robots, and robots get very common at higher levels. If you're fighting the right stuff, the set is fine or even above average, but when it's against the wrong targets, it really lags.

 

Radiation Blast

This has a fairly meh set of single target attacks, with no very high DPAS (75 is top), and OK for the rest. The AOEs are a PBAOE, a knockback cone, and a burst with overly slow animation. The nuke is also a PBAOE. About the only positive to this set is it can take more procs if you're proc happy since all attacks do a little bit of defense debuff. There's really no good reason to take this set. Animations are fine, so at least it looks good.

 

Seismic Blast

 

This set has some plusses and minuses. It contains the DPAS king of sentinels with enhanced stalagmite coming in at 150. That's damned good. However you have to charge up for it with other attacks, and you are required to be standing on the ground (so no hover blast for you). Otherwise the blasts are pretty OK, with none overly low (except non enhanced stalagmite) and one at 75. There's 2 AOEs before the nuke, with a cone and a burst. The cone is fast animating, but still only 6 targets. The burst also has a fast animation, but damage is a bit delayed. The nuke is also location based, and has a fair bit of lag before it hits. This can be plenty annoying on teams where you drop your nuke on corpses that that team has already dispatched.

This macro will make your life easier.

/macro M "meteor" "powexeclocation target Meteor"

or

/bind lshift "pow_exec_name meteor"

The animations are very flashy and can obscure a lot of what is going on in a battle, so I tend to find them annoying, but YMMV. I should reiterate that this set very much depends on you standing on the ground since you get a knockdown field benefit from charging up your powers, and it's best attack also needs it. I initially tried a hover sentinel for my first attempt at this set and it was markedly lacking in effectiveness. If you don't mind standing on the ground, and can time your nuke use carefully, it is powerful. I just find the downsides in appearance and convenience too much for my taste. It gets a conditional thumbs up.

 

Sonic Attack

Sonic is a solid middle of the road set which resistance debuffs targets along the way. Nothing wrong to say about that. It used to be far worse, but got some love recently. A couple suggestions for the set would be skip the tier 1 for the tier 2 as the DPAS on tier 1 is rather poor. On a perma hasten build you can chain shriek, shout, screech for a pretty solid single target routine. Siren's songs is now a badass cone, not to be skipped. I suppose all the cones now do reasonable damage, but Siren's really stands out. The nuke is another PBAOE which is a bit annoying especially in a set based on cones which are all about ranged positioning. This is a perfectly good set these days. It may well not be my favorite, but there's no loss going with it. 

 

Water Blast

 

This set is probably the king of sentinel AOE. It's got a cone which hits 10 (anomalous), a burst for another 10, and effectively a rain, all before your tier 9 ranged nuke. This is a whole lot of mass slaughter (er, mass arrest?), and if you want an AOE focused sentinel, it's a solid choice. Single target is a bit weak with only 4 of them (effecively 3 since one is a self heal, but it's actually better DPAS if slotted for damage than the first 2, which are simply lousy), and the high damage one is conditional on charging up (which makes it quite good at 100 DPAS). Personally I find the graphics to be too busy and screen filling, so I don't play this anymore. If you don't mind that, it's a great set for AOEs, just not for beating down AVs.

 

 

Edited by drbuzzard
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Sentinel Powersets Advice part 2 : Secondary

 

Now we get to the defensive sets. In many ways these define sentinels as they are (almost) the only ranged damage AT which has a defensive secondary powerset (VEAT and EATs are exceptions) with status protection. The secondaries are quite varied, and many are quite good. Really only one do I actually consider to be simply lousy (Ice).

 

Like last time, I don't intend to go into every power, and give you slotting and build advice. I will give you my impression based on playing the set as to what is important, and what can be skipped. Mind you this is based on my play style, which favors easy and not overly busy. I like sets where I can just turn stuff on and stay alive with minimal response on my part. People are enjoy being more involved in their damage mitigation will disagree with my points. Take this for what it is, free advice garnered from trying all the sets fairly extensively (depending on how much I liked them of course). There will also be my aesthetic considerations again, though in armor usually you can avoid issues for most sets as minimal FX options are available.

 

There are basically 3 types of sentinel defensive styles. The first is mostly defensive, which includes super reflexes, ninjitsu, and energy aura. The second is resistance/regen, which is dark armor, electric armor, fiery aura, radiation armor, and regeneration. The remainder are a mix of stuff with dabbles of defense, regeneration, heals, and resistance. Given that defense can be soft capped, while resistance is capped at 75% you'd think that defense has the edge, well you would be right, but both the resistance and hybrid sets have their strengths as well.

 

Bio Armor:

Here you have the damage king version for sentinels because of offensive adaptation under environmental adaptation. This gives you both a toxic damage add on as well as a 25% damage bonus. This adds up to a lot (especially now that sentinels have a damage scalar of 1.1). Defensively the set is a mixed bag of heals, resistance, defense, absorption, and regeneration. It leans heavily on the heals and absorption to keep alive, and I find the set to be very busy. If you want to make things a bit easier (which still using autoclick on hasten) try this bind:

/bind w "+forward$$powexec_name ablative carapace"

 

It will cast your absorption power every time you move forward if it is ready. The downside is you can't queue up an attack and move forward. TANSTAAFL.

 

I find the set to be too clicky and busy for my tastes, and even the minimal FX mode still takes over your costume and looks like crap (YMMV). I've played four bio armor sentinels to 50, and while I appreciate their damage superiority, they are not my thing. They now gather dust. If you want to be damage king, go for it. If you want an easy to play secondary, don't.

 

Dark Armor

Here's a fairly straight up regeneration/resistance set which includes which include a couple of powers designed for melee survivability via controls. I see three problems with those powers:

A) They are low magnitude, so bosses will ignore them, and bosses hurt you.

B) They either eat your life or your endurance, and why would you want to have that happen?

C) What the hell are you doing in melee on a ranged primary character with minimal melee attacks?

 

I simply skip cloak of darkness and cloak of fear, and don't feel I've missed anything. The set has an OK base regeneration level, and this spikes well up when you use obscure sustenance. That power also boosts your endurance recovery, so use it any time it's available and a target is within 30'. Otherwise you have OK resistance to most damage types, particularly strong against psionic, and weak against energy (this will hurt you). There's also minimal defense in cloak of darkness, not enough to try to chase IMO. As long as you keep on obscure sustenance the set is pretty survivable, but not among the best. Soul transfer is pretty damned powerful (magnitude 30 stun, yes I said 30, not I'm not kidding, I stunned Maurader in a Lambda trial with this power) self rez, and is well worth taking. Your death could well save your team, and since those two mez auras are to be skipped, it costs you little to take it. The set lacks knockback protection so you'll need to IO that.

 

Electric Armor

This is the highest set of resistances you can attain on a sentinel. It covers all damage types except toxic with the non tier 9 power, though negative energy is a bit lower than the others (but not too far if you slot up grounded for resistance). It has a regeneration power, and a heal, so survivability isn't bad at all. You get a nice 20% boost to universal recharge in lightning reflexes, and that never hurts. The tier 9 is very skippable IMO as it has a hard crash, and uptime isn't all that great even with perma hasten. You can also get away with skipping power sink if you need to as charged shield gives you a boost to maximum endurance and IO slotting can keep your blue bar happy. It isn't bad to have power sink if your build isn't too tight. Your immobilization and knockback protection are in grounded, and that requires you to be on the ground (hmm, subtle name choice there). I've gotten away with a hover sentinel with electric armor and it works OK, with IO and power pool power choices covering for it. I still took grounded for the negative energy protection though. Is this the toughest set out there? No. Is it a soft set? No also. It enables you to take and shrug off damage at a reasonable rate. I've been forced to pull Nighstar and Seige during BAF trials with a sentinel because the brutes present were too soft or scared. I lived without much trouble.

 

Energy Aura

This may be my favorite sentinel secondary as it is a good solid defensive set which also packs in a fair bit of resistance and a heal. As it is typed defense, it's a bit harder to stack it up to soft cap compared to the positional defense sets of super reflexes and ninjitsu, but it can be done (with the help of the alpha agility slot in particular). You get a nice recharge bonus, and endurance recovery, so all in all, it's very solid and survivable. Heck if they back scaled this set up for tankers, I'd be on that like white on rice. Oh yeah, skip the tier 9, it's just more defense and you should have already taken care of that.

 

Fiery Aura

I feel this set usually gets an undeserved bad name. Is it the most resistant set? No way. Does it boost damage the most? Nope. However, the resistances are acceptable, and couple with the two different healing powers, you get a pretty durable sentinel. Cauterize really is a great power when slotted up, and even if you do push your luck too hard you should have rise of the phoenix to come back and hurt the ones who done you wrong. Skip burn, it really doesn't do you much good. Consume could use some love IMO, but you probably want it anyway. Molten embrace is a small damage boost, but more damage boost helps especially now that sentinels have a good scalar. I suggest slotting RotP for damage and recharge. I throw in a summer blockbuster knockback to knockdown as well (only one that works in it). This set also lacks appreciable knockback resistance so you'll want an IO for it.

 

Ice Armor

Doesn't it seem ironic that Ice Armor is a hot mess? This is a mostly typed defense set which does defense poorly. It has an absorption shield which might block a single attack from an even level minion. You do get an endurance recovery power, but since you have to lean on that to get your defense up, you can't really use it for endurance. Oh well. The tier 9 is at least a decent oh crap button which makes you durable (resistance, recovery, regeneration), but for only 30 seconds on 300 recharge, though with no crash . If you didn't get it already, skip this set. It's the worst of the lot.

 

Invulnerability

This is a pretty solid set which hybridizes resistance and defense. If you work really hard you can get to softcap, but it is no trivial feat and requires mind link to pull off from the EPP (at least it did for me). You will have capped l/s resistance if you just throw in toughness. The heal is a bit too slow, but the absorption shield is nice. Skip the tier nine since it's low uptime and crashes hard. This is a solidly durable set with no serious downsides.

 

Ninjitsu

Here we have the first of the positional defense sets. It also offers a good heal and endurance recovery power, so it covers all your bases. There's a hiding power which gives a damage boost when you attack from hiding, so nuke away with it. Only things I dislike on this set are that it has weak defense debuff resistance, and the status protection is a click and not a toggle. Bleah. I want that autoclick for hasten damnit. If you're not fixated on easy perma hasten and don't mind click status protection, this is a well rounded set. It's not for me, but it may be for you. Oh yeah, the tier 9 is another pile on the defense thing which shouldn't really be necessary. Skip it or use it as a LotG global recharge mule.

 

Radiation Armor

This is definitely a resistance/regeneration set, but even tosses in an attack (PBAOE) and a good absorption shield. It's pretty durable especially if you keep up the absorption.

Again use:

/bind w "+forward$$powexec_name particle shielding"

so you can auto click hasten.

Many people are big fans of the tier 9, since it boost all kinds of stuff, but the fraction of up time doesn't appeal to me so I skip it. YMMV. This is a solid set, though not one of my favorites.

 

Regeneration

You really should try this set. This is what regeneration should be on all ATs, but all the rest of them can do is watch in envy. The set leans on regeneration and heals, but the cornerstone is a toggle based absorption shield which replenishes quickly. Under fairly low load this feels a whole lot like the old glory days of regeneration before it became the nerf bat pinata. The tier 9 I consider to be there mostly to store a LotG global recharge and nothing else. Potentially you can skip second wind if you like as an awaken inspiration will get you alive without stun since resilience auto negates it. If I had to pick a downside to the set, it would be waiting to 20th level to get your status protection. Then again getting to 20th will take you 2 DFBs, then Positron 1&2 if you keep your 2XP on. No big deal. This set is very fire and forget. Set your 2 (yes, only 2, really) toggles and go kill things. If you bite off too much, hit reconstruction. Did I mention you should try this set?

 

Stone Armor

This is a mostly defensive set, though fire and cold are resistance only, and you do get OK l/s resistance. You're pretty limited to playing on the ground, so I can't say I'm the biggest fan. Brimstone armor adds a fire damage proc as terra firma gives you help with to hit and accuracy so there's some offensive boost. Geode is a nice 'oh crap' power if you start taking a beating. This set is a lot like Ice Armor but not a hot mess. There are appearance issues I don't like, and you are basically stuck ground bound if you want it all to work. This means it's not my bag, but it may be yours. By no means is it a bad set.

 

Super Reflexes.

Once again sentinels get the best version of a set that other ATs use. Sentinels get the wonders of both toggle status protection, and an absorption shield. This is the original positional defense set, and it's pretty easy to softcap it. Heck, with agility alpha you can incarnate softcap. Defense debuff resistance (DDR) is the best in all the secondaries and you get a 20% universal recharge boost to make attaining that perma hasten all the more easy. The absorption shield should be kept up all the time so here's that pesky bind again:

/bind w "+forward$$powexec_name master brawler"

A case could be made this is the most durable of sentinel sets because of the combination of DDR and the absorption shield. You want a tough sentinel? Here's your go to.

 

Willpower

This is another set which gets dumped on a lot. Is it the best? Oh certainly not. Is it the worst? Nope, Ice has the safely locked up. Honestly this is a nice, easy, turn on your toggles and blast set. You get decent resistance to lethal and smashing, decent defense against the other stuff, and a big pile of regeneration so you can push your luck a little bit and still scrape by. Is it a good set if you want to play like the infamous methed up squirrel? Indeed. Oh yea, skip the tier 9, it likely won't save you anyway. You're probably better off with the self rez if you're gonna be that crazy. You'll need the rest of the set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by drbuzzard
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I think your comments on Sonic Blast refer to a now-outdated version of the set (both on Sentinels and on others).  Siren's Song now does the most damage of the three cones, and Screech does good damage on all Sonic Blast characters, not just Sentinels.  There were also some cast time adjustments.

 

EDIT:

 

There are some other errors here.  You refer to Ice as a "mostly positional defense set," but it's typed defense, not positional.  You also refer to the T9 as though Sentinels got Hibernate, but Sentinels (along with Stalkers and Scrappers) get Icy Bastion, a 30 second big +resistance-all clicky with no crash, not Hibernate (the heal yourself in a block of ice power that Brute and Tanks get).

Edited by aethereal
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51 minutes ago, aethereal said:

I think your comments on Sonic Blast refer to a now-outdated version of the set (both on Sentinels and on others).  Siren's Song now does the most damage of the three cones, and Screech does good damage on all Sonic Blast characters, not just Sentinels.  There were also some cast time adjustments.

 

EDIT:

 

There are some other errors here.  You refer to Ice as a "mostly positional defense set," but it's typed defense, not positional.  You also refer to the T9 as though Sentinels got Hibernate, but Sentinels (along with Stalkers and Scrappers) get Icy Bastion, a 30 second big +resistance-all clicky with no crash, not Hibernate (the heal yourself in a block of ice power that Brute and Tanks get).

I thought they didn't push through all the sonic fixes? If I'm wrong, I'm happy to hear that. I was under the impression that all the objections got them canned. 

 

I'll update the ice thing as well. Thanks. 

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9 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

I thought they didn't push through all the sonic fixes? If I'm wrong, I'm happy to hear that. I was under the impression that all the objections got them canned. 

 

Nope, they went through!  Live patch notes here:  

 

The quick-and-dirty version is:

 

  • the res debuffs were made partially non-stacking
  • Cast time reductions for: Scream, Shout, Howl, Shockwave, and Siren's Song
  • Damage buff for Shockwave and Siren's Song (and Screech, but not for Sentinels)
  • But for Sentinels, all the cones went to 6 targets instead of 10
Edited by aethereal
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4 minutes ago, aethereal said:

 

Nope, they went through!  Live patch notes here:  

 

The quick-and-dirty version is:

 

  • the res debuffs were made partially non-stacking
  • Cast time reductions for: Scream, Shout, Howl, Shockwave, and Siren's Song
  • Damage buff for Shockwave and Siren's Song (and Screech, but not for Sentinels)
  • But for Sentinels, all the cones went to 6 targets instead of 10

Weird, not sure how the heck I missed that. I was really looking forward to the changes, then I thought they were canned. I'm glad to hear that, my sonic/energy will see sunlight again. 

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3 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

Bio Armor:

I find the set to be too clicky and busy for my tastes, and even the minimal FX mode still takes over your costume and looks like crap (YMMV).

 

A lot depends on (a) one's theme and/or (b) willingness to design around the effects.

 

MB.thumb.jpg.bad4e0239c7b8a0df58b46e6f14e433b.jpg

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  • 4 months later

Primary Powerset: Storm Blast

Med-High Single-Target Damage, High Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 2 Location, 1 Chain), Med Control (3 knockdowns), Med Debuff Potential (Slow, Knockback/down, To Hit)

 

 

New Page, new blast set, and it got ported to Sentinels with everyone else. 

 

Beginner's Overview

 

So this set’s gimmick is increasing your power when using abilities inside your Storm Cell (Tier 4 ability). When abilities are used on targets inside your Storm Cell they will have additional effects applied, and the Storm Cell will have the chance to proc one of three types of lightning; focused, split, and spread which will hit one, two and four targets. In addition to Storm Cell adding lightning procs, your Tier 9 will also add more lightning procs, and increase the chance that they will happen. If there are targets within the cell it will remain stationary, if there are none it will slowly move along with you. Very slowly. Like hopefully it has recharged by the time you move to the next pack of mobs slowly.


 

Slotting

 

Basic Slotting

 

Standard spiel on the basic end of slotmenting. The vast majority of the attacks have a 1x multiplier, so you're going to have to effort into hitting stuff. At +0 that means your base hit chance is 75%. To get that to the maximum hit chance of 95% you will need to enhance it by 27% by whatever means are available. One level 25 Accuracy IO is sufficient to that end. Changing enemies to +1 will drop your accuracy to 65%, that will take 47% enhancement. A level 50 IO is only 42.4% before boosting, so you're going to have to start stacking. I'm not going to break it down further, but like I say in all of my write-ups, hitting at all is more important than hitting hard. Lightning Strike has a 1.2 multiplier which means that 75% hit chance starts at 90%. Category Five has a 2x multiplier and will not need accuracy enhancements at +0. In fact it doesn’t need them at all until +4.

 

 Advanced Slotting

 

One thing to know about this set is that Chain Lightning is one of the very first abilities to be flagged as a “chain” ability. This means that its Area Factor for proc chances are 1 + Targets, which comes out to be 8.5 after the 75% modifier comes in, which means that it has an atrocious proc chance. Lower is better for an area factor. The next thing to know is that two of your four AoEs are pseudo-pets, which also have atrocious proc rates, in addition to being limited to triggering once every 10 seconds. The only AoE that you should even consider for procs is Jet Stream, which also has a relatively low proc chance. What does this mean? Chase set bonuses and raw damage.

 

In this write up I’m going to explain things about each ability a little more in depth than I would usually because it’s a brand new set, and it has some quirks to it. I'm going to explain the quirks. Or at least mention them if they're minor.

 

 

•    Gust -  Of the two starter abilities, this one wins the damage race as usual, but for wholly different reasons than it would in the old days. This one wins because under Storm Cell it does additional damage, where Hailstones has a chance to knockdown. Suck it again, T2 ability. As is my usual slotting habit, mule the Winter IO here. The Winter IOs are just a fantastic source of defense bonuses, and they add a fairly high amount of damage, accuracy and recharge in their superior form.

 

This ability has a 20% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Hailstones - As previously discussed, this ability does less damage than its T1 sibling. Personally, I don't really focus on exactly what manner of damage mitigation my primary is providing me. Unless it's Dark with its -To Hit debuffs. Then it's a central role. But this is not that. This is a single target, 1 second knockdown. Which is what the lightning strikes from Storm Cell are also already doing. So lots of knockdown in this kit. If you took this for damage mitigation purposes, follow T1 slotting anyway.

 

This ability has a 40% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Jet Stream - Baseline, this ability has a repel, like Blazing Blast from Fire Blast. From what I understand, you can slot KB>KD into this ability to circumvent the repel--unlike Blazing Blast--but it isn't something I've personally tested. Under Storm Cell, the repel is replaced with a knockdown. So if you aren't keen on being that guy that's throwing enemies every h'wich-a-h'way, make sure they're under the Cell.

 

This is your only ability that is viable as a proc bomb. It has 4 damaging procs, Annihilation and Force Feedback available. Setting it up as a proc bomb with all 4 procs (and 2 other set pieces) will give you a 27% increase in damage over just putting the whole Bombardment set in the power, for example. So you can go that route, or throw sets in there.

 

This ability has a 40% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Storm Cell - One thing to know about this ability is that it does not inherit any damage boosts your character has. Do you have a bunch of inspirations up? Adorable, it doesn’t care. It only cares about enhancements. Oh, you have it up and it isn’t doing any damage? That’s because its damage comes from Lightning procs that happen at varying percentages (20%-70%) from your other abilities. To quantify this at the highest levels, maybe the lowest, I don’t know, but at the highest levels, it’s a 30% damage per second increase, not just a 30% damage increase, a damage per second increase.

 

Something to consider here is that this is somewhat of a “set up” ability. You set it up over a mob without agro, then you start your attacks. On a Sentinel it only has a 40ft range which is well within agro range at +0. The combined might of the two Sentinel IO sets can net you a 20% range boost, but this is an inadequate amount to get you out of agro range. I mean you can break the sets up to get the bonus 5 times for 50%, but… that’s kind of a stretch to me. I’d rather just put a raw range IO in at that point. Of the sets that give range enhancements, Artillery gives some good set bonuses and the most range. Positron would be next, and Detonation would be absolute last.

 

Storm Cell does interact with Bio Armor and Fire Armor, but only minimally, as it uses the AOE formula and uses the parent’s Area Factor. Just think of it as another half a point of damage being tacked on to those procs.

 

Also, I’d consider re-coloring the ability to something easier to see.

 

•   Intensify - This ability increases your damage by 25%, which is half of normal for a Sentinel. In addition to that modest increase, it also increases your chance of lightning strikes in both your Storm Cell and your Category Five by 20%. I’m not super sure about putting a recharge enhancement in this alongside the usual Gaussian. Generally, a final Sentinel build will have its Aim type ability recharge down to around 30ish seconds, coinciding with their T9 that shares a 90s cooldown. If there is any recharge at all in your T9, it will recharge faster. With Ragnarok in your T9, you will most likely have 74.5% recharge in it, depending on the specific slotting you chose. In the end, lowering the cooldown by 5 seconds isn’t going to make or break your build, if you need the slot, save it here.

 

•   Lightning Strike - This is the standard snipe replacement. This is also the most optimal place for the Apocalypse set. Skip the ACC/RCH, add an additional proc, it has that 1.2x accuracy bonus, it’ll be fine. It’s also the most optimal place for the Opportunity Strikes proc. So you can put that entire set here if you want as well. I mean, if you aren’t chasing the E/N defense for 6-slotting the OS set, I’d consider putting the OS proc at the end of the Apocalypse set to achieve pure optimal slotting prowess. It’s only minorly better than putting it in Cloudburst tho. So maybe just put the OS set there and add more damage to this ability by putting the Gladiator’s Javelin Toxic proc on the end.

 

Storm Cell adds a 50% chance to stun to this ability.

This ability has a 60% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Chain Lightning - The first “chain” flagged ability in the game. So it has a horrible proc chance. With that in mind, there are several sets to toss in here to get what your build wants. F/C defense? Frozen Blast set. You can grab a 5% range bonus out of 2-slotting Bombardment. If you go that route, 3 slots in Annihilation can grab you some of that rare E/N resist. Sentinel’s Ward is also unused up to this point, so you can put that here for Melee/S/L defense and 10% recharge.

 

Storm Cell adds an additional endurance drain (primary target) to this ability.

This ability has a 60% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Cloudburst - The final piece of the puzzle for your attack chain. If you want a place to put Opportunity Strikes, this is it. Put the full set, get your defense bonus.

 

Storm Cell adds a movement debuff, and a To Hit debuff to this ability.

This ability has a 60% chance to proc lightning.

 

•   Category Five - This ability, like Storm Cell, also has a chance to proc lightning strikes of its own, but only for single targets. Given that this ability already out damages the average T9, that’ll do just fine. In addition to doing chonky damage and even more lightning procs, it also increases your chance to proc lightning by an additional 7.5% which increases over 20 seconds and caps out at around 27%. It averages out to about 20.8%. On top of that, it doesn’t have an “inner radius/outer radius” damage. So it's technically an Intensify that's also a minor Storm Cell that's also a major source of damage. What a time to be alive.

 

So, major source of damage. Ragnarok. Bring about the end times. Anything less would be a personal insult to this ability. You can 5-slot the set here if you feel so inclined. As previously stated, procs don’t do well here, so tacking one on the end of this isn’t super needed.

 

 

 Skippable Powers

 

•   Gust or Hailstones - As I said, Gust does more damage, Hailstones does more control. Pick your poison.

 

 

Rotations
 
There is largely just the one rotation. 

 

Lightning Strike -> Chain Lightning -> Cloud Burst -> Filler

 

Depending on your filler and your slotting, this may or may not be a gapless rotation. Chain Lightning has a relatively long 20 second recharge. At high levels of recharge this will get down to around 5.5 seconds, but with a 3 ability rotation you aren't killing much time. Gust activates very quickly, Hailstones and Jet Stream kind of slower. The DPA of a procced out Jet Stream will be lower than Hailstones with Winter's Bite in it, so I would only use that if there are multiple targets. The longer activation of Hailstones and Jet Stream are enough to yield a gapless rotation. If you go with the epic attacks, Dominate and Sting of the Wasp are also very fast like Gust, where Havoc Punch is slow like Hailstones. Havoc Punch also has a very long recharge, so it will have to be subbed out.


 

Ancillary/Patron Pools:

 

So I’ve done some testing of late. Lightning Field will provide a similar dps to Ninja Tools and its access to Achilles’ Heel, and Dominate and its proc bombyness. Lightning Field also kinda vibes with the Storms. Picking one of those 3 will get you the damage you desire, one way or another.

 

 

I’m not going to list complimentary choices or incarnate choices for this write-up. I believe in you.

 

Edited by Underfyre
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  • 3 months later

Primary Powerset: Seismic Blast
High* Single-Target Damage, High* Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 2 Targeted), Low-Medium* Control (2 knocks), Low-Medium* Debuff Potential (5 -Defense, 1 Stun)

 

Seismic. The old new kid on the block. Initially released in Issue 27, Page 3, then ported over to Sentinels in page 5, Seismic Blast has some interesting mechanics going on for it, but it's largely a straight ahead blast set. The primary damage type is Smashing, with a sprinkle of Fire damage on the T9. The mechanics essentially require that you be on the ground, so this is a set you can pair with Electric Armor or Stone Armor and take advantage of their ground based effects since you'll be there anyway.

 

If you are not on the ground, you are severely limiting this set's power. This not a set for hover-blasting.
  
Beginner's Overview
 
The secondary effect of this set is -Defense. This is nice in the sense that you need less accuracy to hit stuff once the debuff is in place, but you still need to hit stuff for the debuff to be placed to begin with, so banking on that isn't something I really take into consideration. I just slot normally and be thankful that I have additional procs available that I wouldn't have had before. Overall, this set has a very high damage potential.

 

Slotting
 
Basic Slotting

 

This set has the standard 1x multiplier on all abilities but the snipe replacement and the T9. The snipe replacement has the standard 1.2x, and the T9 has the standard 1.4x. Read my other write-ups if you don't already understand the ramifications of these numbers. If you do understand them, go with your standard slotting for those powers.
 
Advanced Slotting and Information

 

Since Seismic Blast debuffs Defense it opens up the Defense Debuff and Accurate Defense Debuff enhancement sets in most of your abilities. This brings 2 damage procs and the much coveted Achilles' Heel -Resistance debuff. Debuffing resistance is essentially a +Damage proc. Being that none of these sets also increase damage, I would exclusively be using the 3 procs they provide, and not using the sets for their bonuses. You aren't a Defender, you aren't there to provide debuffs. Those are just frills that come along with your presence. You are there to do damage.

 

When attacking from the ground, this set has a passive that builds as you use abilities called "Seismic Pressure." Baseline you start at -20% and each ability adds 2 stacks of Seismic Pressure at 15% a piece, so 30%. This is your percent chance that Seismic Shockwaves will proc and three of your abilities will gain additional power: Rock Shards will do roughly 27% more damage, and do it all up front instead of an 80% cancel on miss damage over time, Stalagmite will do the damage that an ability with a 12 second recharge would be doing, and Seismic Force will lower the base recharge of all other Seismic abilities by roughly 25%, except your T9 that is lowered by 16ish%. In standard map clearing, I would use this ahead of everything else simply to get Meteor online faster. When facing single hard targets, I would use it on Stalagmite.

 

Seismic Shockwaves puts a 15ft radius earthquake around you that has a 5% chance to knockdown enemies. Nothing to bank on, but nice when it happens.

 

The final frill of the set is mentioned in passing on the set's description, "the cooldown of other Seismic Blast attacks is slightly reduced." So when you are grounded, your recharging attacks will receive a cooldown reduction every time you use one of your other Seismic Blast abilities. The reduction formula is 1/(1+Recharge). So baseline, you have a 1s recharge reduction when you use your other abilities. This is the number you will see in City of Data. As you accrue more recharge in your abilities and global recharge, the reduction will get whittled down, but even at some serious recharge numbers you aren't likely to see it go below 0.2s. This applies to every Seismic ability that is current recharging except for your Seismic Force ability.


•    Encase/Shatter - In a final build, the line between Encase and Shatter is negligible, even when taking your Interface (or any other) procs into account. Until Interface procs, Shatter is better. So from that perspective, do whatever you want. Your first to abilities will largely be relegated to mule status in your final build, so yeah, I guess you can mule the Defense Debuff sets here if you're desperate for something they provide. In my experience, Sentinels are after the defense cap just like everybody else, so there's 3.13% Melee and 2.5% AOE defense to be found in Shield Breaker. Winter's Bite gives 5% F/C/E/N defense. If you're looking for recharge, the Defense Debuff sets don't provide that. My standard is generally to put Winter's Bite set in the T1/T2, but if you would rather have more Melee defense, you can go with Shield Breaker, that's the only thing that deviates from the norm.

•    Rock Shards - This is a fast casting cone that interacts with the Seismic Forces passive of the set. In its standard form it does its normal damage, then another 40% damage in the form of a cancel on miss DoT. The bonus damage is literally a bonus because it takes it above "formula" amounts of damage. Standard damage is Lethal damage, but the enhanced version is Smashing for some reason. When the ability is used under Seismic Forces it will do all of its damage up front, no more cancel on miss shenanigans. So here you have the choice between chase down some set bonuses, or frankenslot the ability to increase its damage. If you're after set bonuses, you can grab 7.5% AOE/F/C defense from Frozen Blast, 10% Recharge and some Accuracy out of Ragnarok, 4.1% R/3.4% E/N defense from Artillery or like, just a myriad of other choices. Targeted AoE sets have a lot of options. This is a good ability to patch up whatever hole you might have found, and if not just pile procs into it. Do bear in mind that Ragnarok is obviously better placed in your T9, which also uses Targeted AoE sets.

•    Entomb - This is a keystone ability in your rotation. It's relatively slow compared to the rest of the kit, but it comes with respectable damage and it's obviously a better choice than your T1/2, and with a 2.07 activation time, it kinda pads out your rotation a bit. If it was all 1 second activation times you'd need to start subbing in abilities to keep yourself busy. Anyway, you have 3 key, hard hitting single target abilities and 3 big sets: Apocalypse and the two Sentinel ATOs. Since they nerfed Sentinel's Ward, don't fret over putting that in an AoE to get a bigger shield. Hell, I wouldn't fret over the shield it gives at all anymore. I'd drop that enhancement entirely and 5-slot that set unless you absolutely want the 10% recharge it provides. Anyway, the main consideration for this ability is that you WANT Achilles' Heel here. I say there are three big sets, but really, Apocalypse is going into Stalagmite. There's just no arguing that it is best served there. So really it's between the two ATOs in this ability. So do you want to lose 10% recharge, or 5% E/N defense. You can let your secondary decide that. If you went with Ninjitsu or SR, the 2.5% Ranged defense loss won't hurt as much. 

•    Upthrust - So this ability and Meteor have a fun interplay. If you cast Meteor, then immediately follow-up with this ability, they'll both hit at about the same time. It doesn't change anything about slotting, but fun to point out. Once again, this takes Targeted AoE sets, so Ragnarok is out of the picture. Frozen Blast can go here, or one of the many other sets. Slot for whatever bonuses you need like you did with Rock Shards, or proc bomb it if set bonuses aren't a concern. This is also the last ability in the kit that does the -Defense effect, and this ability has a 9% higher chance to apply the Achilles' Heel proc than Rock Shards does. And it hits 10 targets. So it's the better place for AoE application than Rock Shards will be. With regards to whether this ability "hits" before Meteor strike and applies the Achilles' Heel proc before Meteor hits, that's a great question. Test it and let everyone know your results.

•    Gravestone - Your next rotational keystone. Whatever ATO you didn't use in Entomb because you needed to 6-slot it for the full set bonus can go here. Probably Opportunity Strikes.

•    Stalagmite - Like I said, this ability wants Apocalypse. In rotation, you will only have a 40% chance that Seismic Shockwaves will have procced after using Entomb and Gravestone. Obviously it won't be up every time, but it will absolutely be up every other rotation. Even with it up every other rotation, the ability is still better served with Apocalypse than either Gravestone or Entomb would be. Moving on.

•    Meteor - Obviously you want enhance the damage of your T9 as much as you can, and Ragnarok will do that.

 

 

Skippable Powers

 

•    Encase or Shatter - Pick one, you don't need both. Before you have Interface procs Shatter does more damage, so before a later respec, I'd start there.

That's it, this set is power hungry.

 

 

Rotations


Encase -> Entomb -> Upthrust -> Gravestone -> Stalagmite

 

You can obviously sub in Stalagmite whenever Shockwaves procs, but if you're just mindlessly following a rotation, this will guarantee that Enhanced Stalagmites are up and is your highest DPS when staying strictly within the set. It doesn't have particularly stringent recharge requirements, the only one being that Upthrust be down to a 7.2s recharge. Given the way the set works with cooldowns I can't easily give an exact amount of recharge, but a ballpark of 110% total recharge should be adequate to have it ready to go when it's needed. This is not a demanding number.

 

Entomb -> Gravestone -> Mind Probe/Stalagmites -> Dominate

 

The "I took Psi Mastery" rotation. So even with high amounts of recharge Mind Probe has a very long recharge time. We'll circumvent this by alternating between Stalagmites and Mind Probe. Stalagmites will always be enhanced, doing maximum damage, and Mind Probe will have time to come back up. Since we're alternating, Mind Probe will have a full 12.65 seconds to come back online. That means you only need 59% total recharge in the ability to sit nicely in rotation, which translates to more damage through procs. It has 4 procs available, use all of them to maximize damage, or put in Blistering Cold for more defense. If we're pretending that Shockwaves has gone off every time without a hitch, using Stalagmites over Mind Probe will yield higher damage. So if it's coming down to using one of them always prefer Stalagmites if you have that glowy orange circle active.

 

(Lightning Field) - Entomb -> Gravestone -> Havoc Punch/Stalagmites

 

Electricity Mastery rotation. Your new filler will be only Havoc Punch, so you will have a recharge requirement of 11.67s, but now you're not using an additional ability to lengthen your rotation, and the base recharge is 28s instead of 20s. That result's a much higher 140% recharge compared to Mind Probe's requirements, but you probably already have over 140% anyway. This setup will do similar single target damage to Psi, but much more AoE damage. You may or may not being able to stack procs in Havoc Punch, depending on your recharge requirements.

 


Ancillary/Patron Pools

 

There's no Stone Mastery. So no thematic pairings.
 
Psi Mastery. Dominate and Mind Probe are super powerful.

 

Ninja Tools isn't as useful to a set that already has access to the Achilles' Heel proc. It will open up the Fury of the Gladiator proc though.

 

Electricity Mastery will give you Lightning Field which also gives access to Fury of the Gladiator, but it will have a much lower proc rate than Lotus Drop will. As an always on constant source of damage, it will keep pace with Psi and Ninja Mastery.

 


Complementary Choices

 

Like I said, Electric Armor and Stone Armor already have grounded requirements, so they compliment this set from that angle. This set does very little to enhance your survivability beyond the random knockdown here and there, so pairing with a resist set versus a defense set makes little difference. 

 

Visually, the set obviously pairs with Stone. Fire also fits in that vein. 

 

With a good story Bio, Radiation, and Regen seem like they would be an easy pairing.

 

Thematically SR wouldn't make sense to me, as it implies agility, and rocks are not that. Same with Ninjitsu and Energy. Invuln, however, does make sense because a rock can take some damage. 

 

Take those musings with a grain of salt. Just because the set is "Super Reflexes" doesn't mean you can't re-interpret the set to be some other theoretical power set and it's the closest you can get to your vision. For my Water Blast/SR I interpreted SR as flowing like water to avoid damage. You're only limited by your imagination, not mine.

Edited by Underfyre
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  • 3 weeks later

Primary Powerset: Water Blast
Low-Medium * Single-Target Damage, Medium-High * Area of Effect (AoE) Damage (1 Cone, 2 Targeted, 1 area), Medium * Control (3 knockdowns), Medium * Debuff Potential
 
Water Blast is one of them new fangled sets that does a couple of things rather than just one. It isn't just pigeon holed into to-hit debuffs, or knockback, or recharge reduction. The abilities are spread between knockdowns, defense debuffs and slows. You even get an underpowered heal! The set functions off of a combo system called Tidal Power that stacks up to 3 times. Your T4 and T7 gain effects at 3 Tidal Power; your heal will heal for (a little) more, and your T7 will cast in 1 second instead of 1.43 and recharge instantly. Your T3 and T9 will gain damage/effects and deplete your Tidal Power regardless of how many charges you have, so keep that in mind. This why your build up, Tidal Forces, only grants a 25% boost instead of a 50% boost. A 3 Tidal Power Geyser does an additional 74.69 damage, a 62% boost. This also increases with enhancements and damage buffs. That means Geyser, even just factoring the 25% damage boost, is doing over 180% more damage.


For this set, three-quarters of your damage will be Cold and the other quarter being Smashing. Steam Spray and Geyser are outliers doing Fire(/Smashing) damage. Cold is a relatively low resist rate in the game and fire also being a very low resist rate. Smashing damage on the other hand has a fairly high resist rate.


Beginner's Overview
 
My Water/SR Sent was the second character I made when the servers came back. It's my badger (1371 badges!) and I used it to bankroll all my other various characters. Unfortunately I didn't know crap about Sentinels back then, and most of my CoH knowledge had faded since I last played in I6. I just figured a positional defense set paired with a primary that could heal should be pretty tough. I took Practiced Brawler instead of Master Brawler since nobody seemed to know what it did. Oof. But now I have an intimate knowledge of the set and the AT in general. I mean, it's been 3 years, I better. Anyway, in the early levels you won't be taking major advantage of Tidal Power. Obviously try to use Water Burst when you have some charges built up, but otherwise Tidal Power is kind of just there. Eventually you will get Water Jet and Dehydrate, but the heal on Dehydrate got crippled on its port over to Sentinels, so don't worry much about using it as a heal. Prioritize using your Tidal Power on Water Jet. Initially, Water Blast's claim to fame was that it did massive AoE damage compared to other sets because it exceeded the standard Sentinel target caps. This is no longer the case as of I26, Page 5. The only ability still breaking target caps is Whirlpool, which is a "rain" spell for all intensive porpoises. Fire Blast already has that, as does Archery. So no big deal really. Now the set does above average AoE and below average single target. Have fun with that.
 
Slotting
 
Basic Slotting


All of your single target abilities have a 1x multiplier. After leveling two characters recently "the old fashioned way," I've found that most leveling groups aren't going usually over +1. That means your base hit chance is most likely going to be 65%. That means you'll need at least another 47% enhanced accuracy to be capped at 95% hit chance. Yes, this set has a lot of defense debuffs, but you have to hit them first to apply those debuffs. So either make sure your first ability has enough accuracy to hit, or just assume all of your abilities need that much accuracy. That's going to be 2 level 25 accuracy IOs per ability. Whirlpool has a chonky 2x accuracy, Steam Spray is 1.2x and Geyser is 1.4x. For Whirlpool and Geyser this means you're either above cap already, or near enough to it. Steam Spray still needs love, somewhere around 22% more accuracy, so we'll just call that a single level 25 IO.
 
Advanced Slotting


With Slows, Defense Debuffs, and knockbacks you have a bevy of additional proc options sprinkled across the powers of this set.


•    Aqua Bolt - It's the better of your two starting choices and has access to defense debuff procs. Would I bother slotting procs in this? No. No I would not, but I may as well mention them. This ability will most likely be part of your rotation, so you should at least slot it so it will do a little bit of damage. Winter IO or Thundering Strike if you want that Ranged defense.


•    Hydro Blast - Has a fairly high 50.58% proc chance at 3.5PPM because of it's long cast time, so it's possible this could be turned into a proc monster and be better than Water Bolt, but I haven't checked. For "whole set, mule type" slotting, this is the lower damage option between the two. This ability has access to three more damaging procs from slows and knockbacks.


•    Water Burst - Once touted for its 16 target cap, is a shadow of its former self, which was was very overplayed for what it was. It has a 15ft radius, so in normal play it was highly unlikely that you would be hitting all 16 targets in any single cast. Even at 10 targets it's unlikely to have full saturation. You have to be hover-blasting solo to get everyone clumped up enough for the target cap to come into play. So nice in thought, less so in practise. The ATO procs will have low 11% chance at 1PPM, so you may want to consider putting them elsewhere if you were shooting for the multitarget thing. A full Winter IO set here will get you 7.5% F/C/AoE defense. This ability also has six damaging procs available, so frankenslotting is an option, but you're going to need set bonuses somewhere and this ability doesn't exactly do a ton of damage. Even at 3 TP it only adds 11.89 more damage. It's 25% more damage, but when 11.89 is 25%, that's kinda low. Just keeping it real. On the other hand, if you go full procs with no enhanced recharge you can add another 165.67 damage (when accounting for the 38.48% 3.5ppm proc chance), but it's going to need some accuracy to be effective.


•    Dehydrate - Your underperforming heal with a very long activation time. 3.5PPM procs will have a base 57.58% chance, so this is a great ability to stack procs for your single target attack chain. Especially Achilles' Heel. Just be wary about eating your stacks of Tidal Power with this ability on accident. Despite its long cast time, this power does have a place in your single target rotation, especially when it's holding the Achilles' Heel proc. With an 8 second recharge time the standard damage formula forces this ability to do very little damage. T2 abilities have 8 second recharge times, for reference. So this ability does little baseline damage, and it's supposed to sit in your rotation. Using sets here will not do the trick. Stack on all the procs you can while maintaining your 95% hit chance.


•    Tidal Forces - As I said, this only increases damage by 25%, but also adds 3 Tidal Power. Definitely put the Gaussian proc in this. Try to use it immediately before you use Geyser. Since it doesn't increase your damage a ton, don't feel bad about not slotting it for recharge. Just try to sync its recharge time with Geyser so they're paired up.


•    Whirlpool - Breaks the Sentinel target cap rule and has a more reasonable 25ft radius. This ability summons a pseudo-pet. I seem to get a fairly high proc rate on Opportunity Strikes with it even though it should only be a 6.5% chance which makes me think it works more like Force Feedback rather than a traditional proc. Force Feedback is based on the abilities times rather than pseudo-pet times because pets don't benefit from +recharge. Or in this case, they can't build Opportunity. So I guess it has a 27.12% chance, which does kind of mesh with my observations. This ability has an extensive list of procs available but, I mean, you need to get your set bonuses somewhere and pseudo-pets are notoriously bad for procs. So far we've potentially proc-bombed 2 abilities and muled 1 set in our first ability. I'd look at putting either Sentinel's Ward or Opportunity Strikes here for the set bonuses.


•    Water Jet - This is your "hard hitting" single target ability and plays with the Tidal Power system. At 3 charges your first cast will activate "Enhanced Water Jet" and consume all of your charges. Your next cast will build your next set of TP, so you're already on your way. Being that this is your big hitter, slot it with 5 pieces of Apocalypse with the proc, omitting either the DMG/RCH or the ACC/RCH, and tack one of the three remaining procs on the end. Enhanced Water Jet no longer has a 10 second internal cooldown, so that's nice.


•    Steam Spray - This is a cone with a nice wide arc and a pretty long radius. It also has a pretty long cast/recharge time. This power is also prime for proc-bombage, but it also has a relatively high base damage, so it is viable as a place for a full set. It's a good place for AoE application of the Achilles' Heel proc with a 62.88% base proc chance. If 5-slotting one of the ATOs is in the cards, I'd do that here with Achilles' Heel in the 6th slot. Otherwise just proc-bombing it will do way more damage. We're here for a good time, not a long time.


•    Geyser - Your big AOE ability. Gets boosted dramatically by having more Tidal Power behind it. In the old days this is where I would put Sentinel's Ward, but they nerfed it. So now we'll just put Ragnarok here to squeeze out as much damage as we can. Otherwise, either one of the ATOs will also work for set bonuses.


Skippable Powers


As the "AOE Set" this one doesn't really have much that is skippable. I mean theoretically you can skip Dehydrate or Steam Spray or Water Burst, but either your AoE chain or your single target chain will suffer for it. At least if you skip Dehydrate you don't have to worry about accidentally using your 3 charges on it instead of Water Jet. And I'd honestly skip Water Burst before I skipped Steam Spray.


•    Hydro Blast – Long activation time, lower DPA.
•    Water Burst – It doesn't thrill me. Up to you.

 


Rotations


Water Jet -> Dehydrate -> Aqua Bolt -> WJx2 -> D -> AB


Or just open with Tidal Forces to get to your 3 charges of Tidal Power and start at WJx2.


That's it. There isn't a ton of wiggle room for the rotation of this set. Doing anything else will be a loss, and the single target of the set is low as it is. You can obviously insert attacks from your epic/patron sets since most of them have some pretty chonky DPA behind them. Adding one of these will also loosen your recharge constraints. Kind of. Those attacks will want recharge as well. The hitch here is keeping Dehydrate's cooldown below 4.28s, and Water Jet below 3.43s. That's a low 87% recharge for Dehydrate, but a more hefty 192% for Water Jet. Assuming you slotted it with Apocalypse, you have 74.1% of that taken care of, now you just need the other 120% from global recharge. NBD. Otherwise you'll have to pad the rotation with an additional Aqua Bolt. You may be thinking, "Hey, Steam Spray and Hydro Blast both build Tidal Power, can't I use those instead?" Yes. But it'd be at a loss. Steam Spray has a very long cooldown, and Hydro Blast does less damage than Aqua Bolt and a proc'ed Dehydrate, so swapping it in for one of those is a loss.


Psi Mastery Rotation


Water Jet -> Dehydrate -> Aqua Bolt -> Dominate -> WJx2 -> D -> AB -> Dom


Sliding a proc bombed Dominate into your rotation will increase your damage by.. a bit. It's like a 20% increase in DPS. With both Dehydrate and Aqua Bolt being before Dominate, you should have a bit of -Defense in place, so accuracy isn't a pressing concern. Recharge times are: Dehydrate - 5.66s; WJ - 4.82s; Dominate - 6.43s. That's 42% for Dehydrate, 108% for WJ, and 149% for Dominate. As a proc bomb, obviously you want all of that recharge coming from global, which isn't a tall order by any means, but if you need to you can get 41.4% of that out of Unbreakable Constraint pretty easily.


Ninja Mastery Rotation


Water Jet -> Dehydrate -> Aqua Bolt -> Lotus Drops -> WJx2 -> D -> AB


As a proc bomb, Lotus Drops has way too long of a cooldown to fit into every rotation, so it comes in every other rotation. If you're curious, yes, you can toss Sting of the Wasp in the rotation in an attempt to decrease recharge requirements on Lotus Drop, but it will require a massive 261% recharge to get down to the 7.88s required. Your reward for this feat is a lower DPS rotation. Not worth the effort. Numbers wise, you will have to have the same recharge as the basic rotation for Dehydrate and Water Jet. Lotus Drop will need to be down to 12.86s; 118% recharge. Same as Dominate, try to keep this as global recharge and slot everything in this as a proc. This rotation will also increase DPS over the basic rotation, just not as much as Psi. Slotting both FotG and Achilles, even though you should already have Achilles slotted in Dehydrate, will be better than purely damage procs. This will essentially maximize uptime of the Achilles proc.


*According to the spreadsheet, this is a lower dps option than using the melee attack from every single other epic mastery. Just not Sting of the Wasp because of its 10s cooldown.


Electricity Mastery Rotation


(Lightning Field) -> Water Jet -> Dehydrate -> Aqua Bolt -> Havoc Punch -> WJx2 - D -> AB


Havoc Punch has the same 28s cooldown that Lotus Drop from Ninja Mastery does. Everything recharge-wise applies here. Havoc Punch every other rotation. Lightning Field all of the time. This set up is theoretically your maximum single target damage. Probably also Multi-target with Lightning Field going. Havoc Punch can be as proc bombed as you can make it, or just slotted with the Armageddon set, you only need to attain the 12.86s recharge. 


Complementary Choices


Water will kind of pair with whatever you want. There's nothing visually thematic that will go with it (yet), but for the "water" theme you could argue that Super Reflexes or Ninjitsu kind of go with the "flow of water" theme. For a "polluted" water thing you can go with Radiation or Bio, or even Dark. It doesn't seem like you need a reason to pair stuff with Water. It's pretty flexible.


Damage wise, pairing with Bio will yield the largest damage increase. Stone Armor will be next, followed by Fire.


If your predicted build in Mid's is wanting for recharge, Electric, Energy, Radiation or Super Reflexes all have a 20% recharge bonus.


Invuln gives a 10% To Hit bonus, but this set has plenty of -Defense, so I wouldn't exactly say it's needed.


Ancillary/Patron Pools
 
Chain Fences from the Electric Mastery has a 16 target cap, perfect for trapping packs in your 16 target Whirlpool. It also has Lightning Field, but this set doesn't have much of a reason to be in melee range. Not to say you can't just be in melee range for the fun of it, or because Havoc Punch brought you there.


Psi Mastery has the obligatory mention because of Dominate.


Ninja Mastery can unlock the Fury of the Gladiator proc for you, otherwise you already have ample access to the Achilles' Heel proc it would be unlocking for other sets. Lotus Drop has a fairly long recharge, so it would only be popping in every other rotation, bringing its usefulness with FotG down somewhat.


Incarnate Abilities
 
Musculature Core. This set isn't hurting for recovery, and its nearly forced rotation doesn't really need a ton of recharge.
 
Hybrid Assault is your go to. Periodt. There is absolutely no situation where Core is better.


Your secondary will dictate your Destiny slot. If you have an endurance/toggle heavy secondary you can grab Ageless and shore up your recovery while also giving yourself a nice global recharge bonus. If you find your secondary isn’t pulling its weight, you can take Barrier. Otherwise take whatever you want. But yeah, Ageless. Realistically your build should be solid before you go trying to patch holes with your incarnates, but if there was an Incarnate to use for patching, it's your Destiny slot.


Grab an Interface that does a damage proc. The -regen proc from Diamagnetic technically counts towards your dps output, but many monsters have regen debuff resistance, making it not a super good option. So feel free to skip that slap in the face. Otherwise Degenerative Core or Reactive Radial are your theoretical maximums.


 

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  • 5 months later
34 minutes ago, Underfyre said:

 

Well, if everything goes through from Beta to Live, there are going to be changes to rotations and mastery suggestions.

 

Oh? I saw the increased recharge for Dominate, but don't know enough to say how any of the other changes affect things. Unlike some Archetypes, I don't think Sentinels got anything new?

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14 hours ago, HiddenWings said:

 

Oh? I saw the increased recharge for Dominate, but don't know enough to say how any of the other changes affect things. Unlike some Archetypes, I don't think Sentinels got anything new?

 

To say the least, there are a list of changes to the Sentinel. Tons of Primary abilities had their recharge changed to match their damage (bad), or had their damage changed to match their recharge (less bad). All of the Epic Holds and area immobilizes were homogenized (bad). All of the Point Blank AOEs had their recharges homogenized as well (also bad). Like Psychic Shockwave was absolutely gutted (horrible). The only good homogenization that happened was Havoc Punch was made to match its source and filtered through the Epic Mastery standard formulas (amazing), and Lightning Field was changed to make it a DoT that sticks to its target so you're not forced into melee (kinda helpful if you don't want to stay in melee?).

 

The end result is none of the Holds are worth taking for damage anymore. In the before times, there was a back and forth between Ninja Tools and Psychic Mastery. Ninja Tools could unlock the Achilles' Heel and Fury of the Gladiator procs for sets that didn't natively have access to them. The two of those were capable of netting you around a 30% (in up-time) resistance debuff and whatever that meant damage wise. Sets that already had those would benefit more from Dominate packed with procs and the Decimation proc for an 80% build up. So there was a back and forth, one was better here, the other better there. That will no longer be the case. Electricity Mastery is your new king. Exclusively. Enjoy hearing Lightning Field all day.

Edited by Underfyre
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  • 1 month later

Some post up there (from 2022) that said Energy was kind of in the middle but I've been playing it again lately and a lot of times I can 2 shot most targets, 3 at the most, this is just fighting orange and below but mostly yellow/white enemies. still, it really is fun and does a lot, with a lot of just moving through missions and getting things done quickly. Against elite bosses, it does beat them down pretty fast too. The knockback sucks that's really it but it doesn't really bother me. I have no trouble fighting purple targets though. Pairs well with energy aura and fly/hover over combat jumping I think.

Edited by ShimmerDoll
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