aetherson

I definitely don't think that an AT needs to be defined by its inherent. What even is the Defender inherent? A self-damage-buff for solo only? The reason that I think a Sentinel may want a somewhat more stand-out-ish inherent than most is that they're a damage-only class that is unlikely to do better damage than Blasters, Scrappers, or Stalkers. Stalkers and Brutes stand away from Scrappers with unique AT elements that really do make them play differently. Sents kind of want the same thing, I think. Now, does the Sentinel need a super strong team role? No, I don't think it does. But if it's going to be the lowest-damage of the damage-dealing ATs, it's going to feel the competition with the other ATs more keenly than they are. If what it brings to the table is the same as Scraps, Stalks, and Brutes, but less of it, and also no aggro management, then... that's a legitimate problem with the AT and it could use something.

To be clear, I think that Sentinels need something more going on than just a damage boost. They also need a damage boost. Your proposal, I feel, largely says, "We'll give them a damage boost and that damage boost goes by way of a single-target resist debuff, and so that's the other thing that they mostly get -- a resist debuff that amplifies team damage to a single target." That damage amplification is significant, but it's single-target and I feel that that's not a highly compelling role in the current meta. I think there are only a few times when you really are like "oh shit, we really need to up our damage against a single target," and if you are in that situation, you probably want to up your damage A LOT against that single target and you're looking for like a sonic defender or something that can give you a much larger resistance debuff. So what I'm saying is, give the sentinels a damage boost that's just a damage boost, not a resist debuff -- that allows you to be more generous with their own damage and it scales better against high-level opponents -- and then pair that damage boost with something they offer the team that's not a resist debuff. My suggestion was a powerful but short-lived accuracy debuff, but maybe it's something different. If we want sentinels to watch out for the team, maybe it's a long-recharge team-level 10 second "god mode," where you just give people a little breathing room when they're about to be overwhelmed. Or maybe it's like... their area attacks also spawn a pseudopet in the middle of enemy spawns that taunts opponents briefly and gets them to bunch up close (I don't know that that's actually practical with game mechanics). Or something else that's a little unique. Unfortunately, with the current meta, it's hard to find stuff for sentinels to do in full teams that isn't obviously stepping on other people's toes, since so many of the mechanics in the game are low-value in the current meta.

I was suggesting a short recharge time because it sounded like something that you might not get right the first time. Like, if there's a very specific place you need to teleport to and other objects are bumping you out of the way, it might take a few tries to get yourself in the right place, and it'd be obnoxious to wait for 2 minutes between each try. I have never had this particular thing happen to me (besides once I got stuck inside a base portal back when they were "solid"), so I'm not totally sure what the scenario is that people are worried about.

If that's the goal, I'd give it a fast recharge but a 5-10 second interruptible cast time.

I know how damage resistance works. So the deal is, resistable damage resistance always increases damage by the amount it says on the tin. So, let's say you do 100 damage, with a 15% resistance debuff, against +0 opponents. Against an opponent with a 0% resistance to your damage type, you do 115 damage, or 15% more than you'd do if you didn't have the resistance debuff. Against an opponent with a 50% resistance to your damage type, you lower their resist by 7.5%, to 42.5%. So you do 57.5 damage, or 15% more than you'd do if you didn't have the resistance debuff. Against an opponent with a 90% resistance to your damage type, you lower their resist by 1.5%, to 88.5%. So you do 11.5 damage, or 15% more than you'd do if you didn't have the resistance debuff. An unresistable debuff is weirder. In the same situations: Against an opponent with a 0% resistance to your damage type, you do 115 damage, or 15% more than you'd do if your didn't have the resistance debuff. Against an opponent with a 50% resistance to your damage type, you lower their resistance by 15%, to 35%. So you do 65 damage, or 30% more than you'd do if you didn't have the resistance debuff. Against an opponent with a 90% resistance to your damage type, you lower their resistance by 15%, to 75%. So you do 25 damage, or 150% more than you'd do if you didn't have the resistance debuff. Like, I think people get scared by hearing "your resistance debuff drops from 15% to 7.5%," but it's super unclear to me why we would want a character with resistance debuffs to add much more effective DPS against high-resistance opponents as against low-resistance ones. What's the game design goal here? Is the idea that high-resistance characters are like puzzle bosses that demand specific approaches? That doesn't feel like it's an element of CoH design. Is it just a general sense that high resistances are overly powerful against a few characters (like lethal and psi-oriented characters)? I think there's a plan of record to make a big change to enemy resistances and try to make them a little more sensical, and that sounds like the right response to that problem, not give out a bunch of unresistable resistance debuffs. That's a surprising assertion to me. Is Achilles' Heel really unresistable?

Currently they can produce 25% resistable about half the time, with a high likelihood that some of that time will be wasted due to target death. Unresistable resistance debuffs seem quite unlikely to me overall. It makes the resistance debuff very swingy in value. A 15% unresistable resistance debuff against a lot of enemies is the same as a 15% resistable. But if you're applying psi damage to a robot, it's like a 40% or so resistable debuff. Against a capped target, it's like a 150% resistance debuff. I don't honestly see a lot of reason why we should want that in the game. I think that the basic problem with resistance debuffs is not standard resistance, it's the purple patch. We have this situation where the purple patch magnifies its effects against people who rely on resist debuffs. So: If I do 115 damage base, then I do roughly half that against a +4 opponent, so 57.5 damage. If I do 100 damage base and a 15% resist debuff base, then against a +0 opponent I do 115 damage, just like the person above, but against a +4 opponent we half both values and so I do 50 damage with a 7.5% resistance debuff = 53.75 damage. (Actual values are a little different because it's 48% damage and debuff values, not 50%, but you get the idea). Monos King suggested earlier that unresistable debuffs are still affected by the purple patch. Assuming that's the case, I don't think there's a good case for unresistable debuffs for sents. Unresistable debuffs make good sense for small debuffs that you want to still be meaningful against AVs. AVs have no special resistance to resistance debuffs and these proposed debuffs are not small. I think it's also worthwhile to ask: why a resistance debuff? Why not just Moar Damage? Moar Damage scales better against the purple patch, it's just superior solo. On a team, resistance debuffs have a magnification effect. Does this actually give sents a meaningful team role? Maybe. I don't think that teams typically have a hard time with single targets in the current meta. Maybe in the case of a few specific scenarios it'd be worthwhile. But sents are never going to compete with defenders/corruptors in terms of their ability to debuff resistance.