DrInfernus
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Posts posted by DrInfernus
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1 hour ago, macskull said:
This is what makes Sentinels so frustrating from a design standpoint - they were so worried about stepping on the toes of Blasters that they kneecapped the AT out of the gate. In a solo situation that’s probably fine but in a team situation you end up with an AT that only brings damage but is outpaced in many cases even by Defenders and Corruptors, both of which are also acting as force multipliers for everyone else on the team. If Opportunity were reworked to not be so clunky and be more valuable to a team, Sentinels would at least bring something other than subpar damage.
This is contrary to statements from that person over the last two years which have continued to describe the design and intent of Sentinels as ranged Scrappers. In that case, either the creator of the AT has no idea what they are talking about (a possibility) or the AT as currently implemented fails to meet its intended design goal (a much greater possibility).
I think you’re right to be honest. For all they probably started out with the design intention to create a ranged scrapper, they quickly pivoted to - as you excellently put it - ensure they ‘didn’t step on blasters’ toes’ to the extent that they decided there wasn’t actually any room for another ranged damage dealer at all.
With the underlying numbers they baked into the bones of the AT, they never even gave Sentinels the potential to compare with the damage output of blasters. That seems like a deliberate design decision they made along the way, despite their initial intentions.
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21 minutes ago, macskull said:
I believe it was you who said Sentinels are a “utility” AT rather than a damage AT and I’m having difficulty understanding exactly what you mean by that. A Sentinel isn’t capable of tanking (where “tanking” = managing aggro) significantly more than any other non-Scrapper/Brute/Tanker AT unless they dip into the presence pool since their armor sets lack taunt auras, their attacks lack a taunt effect, and they don’t get a taunt power to manage aggro. They have a higher threat level than other ranged ATs (2.5 vs 1) but threat level is only part of the equation for threat generation. A Sentinel can’t reliably pull enemies off a teammate.
Sentinels also lack much in the way of support powers. They do get a few in their epic pools but those are generally too weak to be consistently useful. About the most useful support a Sentinel brings is offensive opportunity, and even then it’s a mediocre debuff that is only available periodically on single targets and also requires the Sentinel to take a specific power but also to use it at the correct time before accidentally using a different power and wasting the opportunity (puns!).
So if they’re not an aggro management AT and they’re not a support AT... what are they? The AT text at character creation describes them as “powerful ranged combatants.” The guy who created the AT has at multiple points described them as “ranged Scrappers.” Both those make Sentinels sound like a damage AT to me.
A far better example of a “utility” AT would be Kheldians because unlike Sentinels they can deal high damage at range and deal respectable damage in melee and manage aggro via dwarf form.
Yeah that’s how I described them and I stand by that. Of course Sentinels can’t tank (I said they can take alpha) because unless they go presence pool (which is a much watered down version) they can’t taunt or hold any aggro.
But my Sentinels are my only characters who can be comfortable in every situation thrown at them. They are able to take alpha, where squishier ATs can’t. They can get in the melee if need be with full protection and confidence or they can blast from range without a down tick in output. They don’t have to worry about mez at all like many other ATs. They’re much more survivable than most and don’t need any looking after. Meanwhile, they have just enough damage to take down an AV solo too, although admittedly it can be slow.
There isn’t another AT who can do that other than, as you say, Epic ATs. To me, that adaptability and versatility has a lot of value, both in terms of my experience of the game and whilst contributing to a team.
And yes, the person who created Sentinels may have started out wanting to design a ranged scrapper, but that’s not what he designed, and I’m more than fine with that. As I’ve said, looking at the numbers and bare bones of Sentinels, it’s hard to see any evidence of a desire for notable damage output.
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9 minutes ago, oldskool said:
A problem here though, is the Sentinel was designed to be a damage dealer. This has been stated before and that the conceptual inspiration was leveraged against Scrappers. I forgot which post it was in, but this goes back to 2019.
It is completely fair to criticize the Sentinel's merits for the role it has been assigned. It is justifiably underwhelming for a wide range of reasons when viewed against its cousins in the melee ATs. When viewed explicitly against ranged only Blaster builds and more offensive Corruptor builds there is additional, and valid, challenge to the implementation of the AT.
And, yet, I haven't actually read anyone disputing the fundamental flaws of the Sentinel in this entire thread. Instead it is more a debate about just how bad that scope really is. The truth of this matter is that is perception. If people want to build their Sentinel with full IO sets and try to play exactly like a Blaster with an armor set, then I can see how they'd be disappointed. Sentinels that want to push more damage are also pretty cookie cutter and I can see why that is perceived as boring to some. At no point does a Sentinel exceed a Blaster on AoE, which was a core design feature of the original Blaster, and so these comparison just spiral out of control.
I've this once, and I will say it again. There will always be a camp of players that will never, ever, value the Sentinel until it does more damage than a Blaster is capable of. Full stop. There is just always going to be this debate no matter what the devs redesign until the Sentinel is so brokenly overpowered there is no disputing why anyone would ever play it.
I’m honestly not sure about that. I mean, looking at how they were designed: The lower damage multiplier, the AoE cap etc... the fact you load up the game, start a new Sentinel, and it shows a 7 under ‘damage’... I mean, defenders get a 6. That puts Sentinels considerably closer in designed damage output to defenders than blasters. I just think they can’t possibly have been designed as damage dealers considering they weren’t given damage dealing tools.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with that. I LOVE my Sentinels. Got 4 incarnate ones. But there’s nothing in their nuts and bolts that I’ve ever seen that suggests they were ever intended to be specific damage dealers. There is nothing but restrictions on their damage output everywhere you look within the ATs design.
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May I just interject and stress again that the blaster v sentinel ‘debate’ (and I use that term in its loosest possible sense) is only even remotely relevant if Sentinels are designed to be a damage-dealing AT - which they are not.
All that blasts is not a blaster, nor supposed to be.
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1 minute ago, arcane said:
Yeah, it’s not that I actually think Electric Blast is as good as Fire on paper, it’s that I value variety more than the relatively negligible difference (at least negligible if you aren’t clocking your run times to the second on every little thing you’re supposedly doing for fun).
I’m with you 100% 👍🏻👍🏻
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10 hours ago, arcane said:
Electric Blast is absolutely fine unless your goal is unconditionally to achieve the absolute best numbers at all time, regardless of what the margin over the next best thing is. Hardcore organized PvPers have to do this. Pylon time nuts have to do this. Etc.
If you’re like me, and you already have several characters with Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Beam Rifle, Psionic Melee, etc... and you have given up on the PvP scene and only continue to create new characters because trying new powers is FUN? Electric Blast has zero issues in that case.
I’m bored of fire blast to be honest. I mean, it’s a lovely set, that’s why I have used it so much on so many different characters, but I almost felt like I was playing City of Fire Blast at one stage.
Decided to make something new based on concept alone (a nuclear reactor) and made an Elec/Rad/Elec Corruptor. Just as much fun as anything else I’ve played.
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1 hour ago, ScarySai said:
I can almost hear the blaster mains laughing at you.
Just to stress something here I feel is important if I may. I am a blaster main. I’m not laughing at him. I’m agreeing with him.
I respect your opinion and your preferences and see no reason to argue with you. We all invest our time and love into this game and it’s only right we get to enjoy it and experience it however we want to. But I would ask you refrain from attempting to talk for others please. Your opinion is sufficient 🙂
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On 5/11/2021 at 10:40 PM, Obitus said:
The main problem with pretty much all balance discussions on the forum is that a large portion of the playerbase doesn't seem to do or care about content that isn't Council farms or the ITF. Or they run exclusively in 8-man Incarnate teams when they do harder content.
It never ceases to amaze me; you make an uncontroversial statement about e.g. Blapper durability, and like clockwork fifteen dudes will jump in with variations on, "my blaster never ever dies," "learn to play," etc. Meanwhile, if you've spent any time at all trying to solo at high difficulty levels across a variety of the game's content, it should be obvious to you that just about all builds have pretty glaring weaknesses, which will be emphasized against at least one or two NPC factions. This is doubly true of builds that rely almost exclusively on IO +DEF bonuses, which are very strong; don't get me wrong, but by no means are they comprehensive.
With regard to Blasters specifically, you also quickly realize that their clear speed isn't actually very high in the absence of Controllers or Tankers/Brutes (or anything with a taunt aura) to prevent scatter. Incidentally, Sentinels have a huge advantage here because their Epic Pools give them access to AoE Immobilize powers. Even without taking one of those, though, Sentinel clear speed is at worst tied with Blasters at the high end, IME.
And all of this is before you get into some of the more advanced soloing tricks, e.g. soloing AVs or even TFs. In keeping with the theme that all builds have weaknesses, the best builds for soloing hard TFs are also terrible at AoE clear speed (Illusion Controllers and Mind Dominators)--but if you want something that's good at both, a Sentinel's a pretty good choice.
That said, and in the general case, meleers are the true tank mages, as Oedipus said above. This has been the case, more or less, from day one.
To highlight your rather magnificent point: Both my Fire/SR Sentinel and my Fire/NRG blaster have solo’d a MoITF on the same settings. The blaster did it around 3 mins quicker.
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As usual, the ‘insane damage or not worth playing’ lot tend to skewer the reality of Elec Blast. Yes, Elec blast isn’t as high damage as it could be, but it’s good enough.
Fast snipes have changed the set a little, for the better. It used to suffer for a lack of a genuine top level single target attack, but the snipe helps massively there too. You can also proc out Tesla Cage to fill the void too.
In my experience, Elec blast could do with some help. The Sentinel set is much better, for example. But I don’t think anyone should be put off playing it.
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48 minutes ago, Mezmera said:
Don't get too comfortable with that, the most likely day to be fired is Friday even if it's your day off, they even made a movie about it.
Thanks 🤣🤣🤣😂
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On 1/20/2021 at 5:52 PM, Gentoo said:
Increased range would make a world of difference for the tentacles. It is just too short range.
This is why I paired dark blast with NRG on my dark blaster. Boost range + two cones + two more cones from Soul Mastery = pure AoE joy.
On the wider issue... I don’t want to get involved in any arguments here. I just want to say I like Dark Blast on blasters and see very little reason, personally, to change it. It’s a nice set 🙂
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I have no in-game friends or SG, so PUGs is all I get 😂
So all I’m taking away from this thread is how bad I must be to play with 😂😂
Ah well, at least it’s Friday 😁
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Oldskool has been pretty comprehensive there, as usual.
Of I may ask the OP, though: What type of gameplay are you building for? A lot of people ask for feedback and advice on builds without actually stating what they hope to get from it.
Will you be mostly teaming? Does it need to be exemp-friendly or are we talking just an end-game build? If soloing, are you looking for a +4/x8 build, or something a bit less extreme?
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4 hours ago, MTeague said:
This.
OMFG maybe you needed to fire off TWO attacks instead of one to wipe a mob. Break out the opera singer belting out the tragedy. You still mow through content plenty fast enough. If you deeply care about speed-running, and if it really deep-down matters to you, that you cleared a map in 4 minutes vs 6, then OK, Sentinels are not for you.
I will never give a flying leap about my clear times.
Neither do most people I team with..
Precisely how I see it too. We lost CoH altogether for seven years, so why anyone would want to speed through it now is completely beyond me.
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I’m not sure Sents are underused, but I think they are misunderstood. A lot of people on CoH tend to look at the game very one-dimensionally, that dimension being Damage. If you view the game through that prism then, yes, Sentinels are poor.
Personally, I’ve never looked at Sentinels as a damage-dealing AT. It’s more of a utility AT as far as I’m concerned. It can adapt to any requirement really. It can take alpha strike if need be, it can hover blast, it can comfortably survive in the melee, it can solo.
It doesn’t really need anyone’s help either. No tank on a team to take aggro? That’s fine, you don’t need one. No buffers? Also fine. You’re good. No debuffers? Won’t make much of a difference to you. No heals? Meh, you’ll be okay.
A sentinel isn’t the most powerful AT, but it’s the most adaptable and independent, and that comes with a damage price I guess.
As for value on teams... I’ve been on teams where I’ve been very thankful for a Sentinel around. Sents are always the last to die, and one has got a team back up and running after a wipe more than once by dragging a mob away from players ready to pop wakies. Their T9 being used on every mob tends to make life much easier for everyone else too. I’ve been playing a defender before, many times, that is taking aggro and a Sentinel has saved my bacon. Why? Because it was at range with me so could see I needed help whereas the tank couldn’t.
The problem is, the people who will tell you Sentinels bring nothing are the same people who want you to believe they are single-handedly doing everything, so acknowledging Sentinels will never fit their narrative.
I main a blaster btw.
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3 hours ago, Krazie Ivan said:
there are also groups of "great players" who fall into the "great builder" category, & have made long lasting friendships through the same teamwork & comradery... they just tend to use build & game mechanics knowledge to play together differently than the avg player. even in the days of SOs, there were builds & game knowledge & playstyles that drew these people together (for example: use Wayback to find the "Nerf these people nao" thread ...most of them are still close friends). it's not "more so" or any less, it's just a different type of the same sentiment you mentioned.
completely agree that you can't just hand a player the best build & expect they'll be a great player due to it. i've preached about learning the "why's" in the build forums forever. 🙂
Oh absolutely. A great player is a great player with or without a great build. It’s just another arrow in their quiver.
And someone who isn’t a great player before a great build won’t be one after either. They’re just borrowing someone else’s quiver.
Ultimately, absolutely no substitute for playing a specific character extensively, builds included.
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2 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:
The only respecs I’ve done have been the result of power changes (Tankers, Trick Arrow).
All of my builds are planned and crunched before a character ever hits level one.
I’m the same in terms of planning a build.
Still respec plenty though. That first super-crunched obsessed over Mids build is always just the starting point for me. Never yet found a build I can’t improve with experience of actually playing the character.
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On 4/26/2021 at 4:26 PM, TygerDarkstorm said:
Knockback while solo is great, idk what you're talking about, lol. I used to hate it until I started seeing the logic behind it from others here. If the enemy is ragdolling through the air and then has to pick themselves up, that's more time for you to not be getting hit and pummel them some more. It's great when you're on a squishy AT like a blaster. And you can always get hover and hover above the mobs' heads and turn your KB into KD without needing to spend slots on the KB -> KD IO.
I agree with this, or I did agree with this, back when Blasters lacked survivability. These days I am not sure it’s necessarily true given the options we have to build defence.
That said, I like NRG blast. I personally put KB2KD in the AoEs and consider it a KB Tax on the build. You lose a few slots, but think you gain plenty.
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1 minute ago, DrInfernus said:
(Duplicate post)
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On 4/26/2021 at 7:26 PM, arcane said:
Note that soft caps are good, even very very good, but anyone implying they are anywhere close to necessary is just engaging in hyperbole. Characters are plenty playable in the endgame with very little defense if you simply know what you’re doing. Don’t be afraid to experiment outside of the forum powergamer meta.
Agree with this entirely. Spend too much time on the forums and they’ll have you believing a character who can’t solo +4/x8 content and solo all the TFs is weak and unplayable.
We used to play this game without IOs at all and it was just as brilliant then, if not more so as teams and teamwork meant more, achievements were shared, and friendships were borne of appreciation of quality play - not quality builds.
Rely on yourself rather than your build and you’ll always be ok. Blasting without a tank/brute? Cut down on your AoE use. Fighting mobs who use a lot of AoE attacks? Keep your distance from the tank. Ranged player but teaming with a kin? Get in the mob instead for FS. Got one-on-one boss aggro? Stay on the move as much as you can - and so on.
Great builds will always be an aide to great players. They never make great players.
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On 4/22/2021 at 6:26 AM, DarknessEternal said:
I can't figure out what their purpose is. You're going to end up in melee range anyway, that's just the nature of this game. Why do they have such bad damage and defenses?
If your playstyle is to always end up in melee range anyway, then Sentinels are probably just not for you regardless. Nothing wrong with that either.
I personally love the self-sufficiency and utility of Sentinels. That, for me, is their ‘purpose’. They do enough damage to contribute and don’t need looking after by anyone.
That said, I do think they could do with a little extra, but sure that’ll come.
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Personally, I go with ranged defence primarily on my blasters. There are two real reasons for that:
1) My playstyle is to stay at range as much as possible
2) The vast majority of mez powers are ranged and need to hit you, so ranged defence cap means only 5% of them will. It’s a good way to plug the mez hole.
However, it’s pretty much impossible to be a DP/Martial ranged blaster, so on that build I’d go Mace Mastery and try to get S/L/E/R defence cap. Don’t think I’d worry about resistance too much.
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I’ve got no rants about the latest patch. I see nothing to get upset about and plenty of stuff to like.
I do want to have a rant and rave, though.
I get to play my favourite game again - for free - within a thriving community of like-minded people and skilful players, the vast majority of which enhance my experience of the game. I am able to do that because of the efforts and dedication of the Homecoming team who gave me back my online home. Yes, there are other private servers, but it’s here where the community is. What they have built here, or rebuilt, is special.
So if I want to rant and rave about anything, it’s the fact that their work is subjected to rants and raves. A few years ago, we had cause to rant and rave. We were ranting and raving about the actual death of our game; about the total abandonment by NCSoft of not only City of Heroes, but the CoH community, and long before its time. Compared to that, who cares if your scrapper snipes don’t have as much range as they once did, your rune of protection is available a little less, or you have to do a few respecs?
I haven’t liked everything the devs have done - and haven’t done (Sentinels being left out on a limb and seemingly abandoned, for example) - but I won’t be ranting or raving about any of it. I’ll just continue to play the game I love with nothing but absolute gratitude to those who have resurrected it and continue to try to improve it.
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On 11/24/2020 at 2:30 PM, Meknomancer said:
For a tentacle themed toon its hard to see beyond the dark/?/soul blaster. Tenebrous Tentacles and Soul Tentacles stacked immob and different colours. Take a secondary that requires minimal slotting and slap everything into those for giggles.
I’ve got one of these too. Great fun. I went with Energy secondary so boost range could increase the arc of the cones.
Sentinels. Are they underused?
in Sentinel
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I’m sure that @Captain Powerhouse said ages ago he had Sentinel changes planned, so it sounds like the powers that be already have something in mind.
I agree with the majority here. The solution is to buff Sentinels, not nerf others. And I don’t even think Sentinels would need that much of a change to be brought up a notch or two.