First off let me say. I have been waiting patiently for someone to play a high level Sentinel enough to actually have some reliable thoughts to say about the AT without being too biased about it being "new and not original", "bad combination" or my favorite "bah humbuck".
Now I am of course biased as well as are we all but I love playing every aspect of this game (least pvp but have done so) and blasts with defences actually sounds like a wonderful combination in my opinion.
I also did the mistake of thinking: Blaster primaries with Scrapper secondaries, that sounds nice (or horrible if you're not excited about it like me). This is a big mistake. These are not blaster primaries and they certainly are not scrapper secondaries. They may be very similar but there are some big differences wich lends themselves very nicely to this particular combination.
Without going into detail about every single one there are the following differences between blasters and sentinels:
Primaries
No snipes, this is actually a huge change that makes a lot of sense for the AT. Instead you get a single target blast with great damage. For some sets that is a gamechanger (I'm looking at you electricity blast), for others its a bit of a bloat . I love that particular change and I feel like I can easilly make a nice single target chain out of any powerset without having to try to perma-hasten to keep attacking.
Damaging utilities, so what I mean is that in most sets you have some sort of hold, disorient, sleep, what have you and they used to be a nice addition for a blaster to keep things in check while you murder the other stuff. For a Sentinel those kinds og powers have gotten a pretty big damage buff included in the utility it still gives. In a set that is not as scared of incoming damage this is great as now you can pick and chose how you slot those powers, do you want more damage with a short mez to detoggle opponents? Or do you want a good mez that incidentally does decent damage. These powers are really gonna shine with the right frankenslotting I'd think.
Secondaries:
No damage auras, Or any other type of aura that puts you in a forced melee. This is actually a pretty huge change from the other AT defense sets. You are not forced to stand in a huge chunk of mobs to get the damage out that you need. Seeing as the Sentinel is a mid-range its pretty ncie not to have to hug the damage. Instead every defence set gets a new type of power. For example willpower will get you a huge chunk of regen with its toggle regardless of foe position.
Other changes, By this I mean that every single defence set has been altered more than a little for the Sentinel. An example is regen that has no Instant healing click but instead has a power as a toggle as it used to be, albeit a very changed version of the old power. Now it gives an absorb health pool every few seconds that stacks up to some set amount. My own experience with this is that the power is actually crazy good.
Epic power pools:
Now this is something I can finally talk about, having gotten a high level Sentinel now that has had an opportunity to see what's out there and test some stuff.
Every pool seems to follow the same theme of powers to chose from
An aoe root
A medium damage melee attack
A single target stun/hold
A PBAOE damage attack (somtimes with added bonuses)
A power unique to each set (Dark gets an anchor debuff, Elec a damage toggle, Ice gets snowstorm and so on)
At first I was disappointed in the choices. But after some consideration I came to the conclusion that it was actually mostly fine. My initial reaction was mainly because my high level Sentinel has Dark Blast and as such I all ready have a single target hold that I use in my damage rotation (slotted for damage). So my first reaction was biased out of me not feeling the set did enough for me. I have changed that perspective about the mez portion of the set. That is its strength I would say. Having an AT that survives well at mid-range against decent opponents sounds like a perfect match for an aoe root and an added single target mez. Not to mention that some primaries would love an aoe root that also gives -knockback to contain some of their own inherent knockbacks.
I do however not see the need for a medium damage single target punch in the slightest. Every Sentinel blast set has extra single target damage powers added to them as I have all ready talked about. Why would I ever want a mediocre punch to get me into melee?
The AOE's are a nice addition for some primaries. The Sentinel nuke seems to leave minions with a sliver of health fully slotted so a PBAOE as a follow up can be a good addition to the nuking.
Then there is the unique powers. I haven't tried them out myself yet so I will reserve judgement. On paper I do think they have good potential (the dark toggle gives -damage and -accuracy to mobs wich sounds like a match made in heaven for my regen Sentinel).
Lastly I'd like to say that the two I have been playing are an Ice/Rad (26 atm) and a Dark/Regen (mid 40's atm) so I haven't tried out the AT with any IO sets yet. I have given some thought to what kind of global buffs I'd want and I might shoot for +damage and ranged/aoe defence and see how that works out. It will require some testing.
If anyone wants to talk shop about the AT or join me in missions to see how incredibly well I survive even the most ridiculous situations on my Dark/Reg then give me a shout @Project Nova (play on Excelsior)
Go hunt. Kill. Skuls.
