[I heart Sentinels]

I love sentinels because they have something blasters don't. The ability to relax a bit. Playing a blaster is playing on the razor's edge. One mistake can get you face planted in a nanosecond. My sentinel can screw up and just pop healing flames. Unless I get one shotted I at least have time to consider a retreat. And then of course... status protection. A ranged class with built in status protection... even if you eliminated every other benefit from sentinels, the status protection would make up for it.

 

Yeah! That's a good way of putting it. And for me, knowing I've got that safety margin is stress-relieving enough that it genuinely helps my game play. Some people thrive on jittery tension when they game, but I'm not one of them. I do better when I can think and plan without worry.

 

[Sell me a sentinel]

Personal opinion: I'm leveling a water blast/willpower sentinel, closing in 30, and...wow. Literally, I have never felt so little worry about either my health or my endurance. Physical limitations make it very hard for me to play melee, so my experience is nearly all ranged, and it falls into two broad categories: doing stuff and being constantly starved for endurance until fairly late in the game, scrounging blue inspirations at every possible moment, constantly re-toggling on the stuff that got shut down in the last zeroing out; and being okay in endurance because I'm basically not doing anything (robots/force field mastermind, say).

 

This is fun. I get to be very active - and water blast is very handy to have on a lot of task forces and missions, where being able to disable so many enemies again and again is significant for the whole team's well being. It's not that I'm invulnerable in the literal sense. The character can be overwhelmed and defeated. It's that while I'm not yet defeated, I always have useful and enjoyable things to do. I have never been so active, so happily, while playing in the ranged zone where I'm happiest, contributing usefully to team efforts and soloing at a good pace when alone.

 

I will never be one of those people pushing the boundaries of the possible - I'm too old, too slow, too gimpy, too etc etc etc. The best I personally can manage is very much middle of the pack, and that's on a good day. :) Sentinels are a force multiplier for me, turning my available effort into better outcomes, which make me happier. So that's my sales pitch. If you like ranged play (and not everyone does, and that's okay), and you're not in a mood or situation to be providing support and/or wrangling pets a lot at the moment, sentinels will give you an empowering good time.

 

(On the Synapse task force I did this afternoon, there was one (1) moment where my endurance bar dipped below 50%, and my health bar never did. So that meant that support didn't have to spend a lot of time tending to me, leaving them that much freer to help our de facto tank and squishier characters, and my up time was, at least by my standards, very very high.)

 

Edited to add: this post wishes to thank its intellectual sponsors, Sovera, Kelly Rocket, Sunset, and Heraclea. You four have given me most food for useful thought about sentinels, and I appreciate y'all.

 

[So much fun! Water/Rad]

I will be looking forward to your guide. :)

 

[Incarnate choices for illusion/radiation?]

Thanks!

[Incarnate choices for illusion/radiation?]

As 50 draws near, I realize how little I know about incarnate choices for controller in general or for ill/rad in particular, and I'd welcome some commentary.

 

Alpha: Spiritual looks handy for someone who won't be doing billion-inf builds for a while, moving that glorious perma dawn closer. :) Intuition looks like it'd enhance radiation's work.

 

Judgment: Um, I have no idea. They all look pretty yummy to me. Ion and Void look appealing in terms of consequences.

 

Interface: Same deal here. Degenerative and Diamagnetic are appealing in that "makes me clap and go 'again, again!'" way, but that's not, like, an actual strategy.

 

Lore: Memory is telling me that I liked the Polar Lights on live because I'm a flight junkie who's in the air whenever possible.

 

Destiny: Barrier is appealing to the bubble junkie in me. (Yes, I have multiple addictions. It's sad.) Ageless seems like it might also contribute to the perma hunt.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

[Energy sentinels w/o knockback conversion]

Thanks to both of you, too! I love it when explanations go beyond yes/no; I'm learning a bunch, and glad of it.

 

[Energy sentinels w/o knockback conversion]

Just to clarify, I'm not writing off KB -> KD. Just the opposite. My natural reaction is to panic and load up every knockback-generating power with one.

 

Which is why looking at the percentage changes and intensities is hugely helpful. Thank you! I was looking for a way to feel comfortable without doing that, and you delivered. :)

 

[Energy sentinels w/o knockback conversion]

Maybe I'm just a wimp, or a noob, but I'm scared of wading into the waters of team play without a bunch of knockback-to-knockdown conversion slotted up ASAP. Folks who do without, talk to me about what you do, please. What helps keep knockback fun for you without it being anti-fun on task forces and such?

 

[Most minimal settings for Shadow Fall graphics?]

Thanks, though I wish there were something for just the one power. I am glad to know about the option.

 

[Most minimal settings for Shadow Fall graphics?]

I dislike character-obscuring powers, kind of a lot. But I also love character concepts that happen to really want to make use of Dark Miasma and such. Does anyone have advice on appearance tweaks that will make Shadow Fall as un-obscuring as possible?

 

[Bots/FF - to primary attack, nor not to primary attack]

Thanks, both of you!

 

Much agreement on the fun of Repulsor Bomb at work.

 

[Bots/FF - to primary attack, nor not to primary attack]

In the end, of course, the choice is mine, but I'm curious how others of your assess the tradeoffs. Should I load up on at least a few of the direct attacks in Robotics and join the fun, or should I let the bots do the shooting, take support pools, and be the supportive one? I'm curious how the different approaches go when I hit endgame content, in particular.

 

[Show only my buffs on teammates?]

Just as a heads up, there is a secret option to let you filter out toggles as well as auto-powers.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5424.0.html

 

It's not quite "show only my powers" but it gets you pretty close.

 

I use it all the time. It is a big help, but...particularly at high levels, it's still a vast amount of information to sort through in a format that is less than ideal (to put it mildly) for anyone with weak eyesight and/or any of many learning disabilities and such. I'm glad it's there, but it's less than halfway to the thing I'm wishing for here.

 

On the other hand, certainly can't hurt to repeat this info! Lots of folks have never heard of it, and I'm happy to relay it.

 

[Pets, Personal Attacks, How do you like to build your character?]

I came here for talk about personal attacks (like forum drama). I was disappointed.

 

Out of long-standing appreciation for your contributions to CoH community and play, I'm happy to help, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings.

 

[Show only my buffs on teammates?]

I couldn't begin to guess at the possible hidden complexities behind this task, but I would really, really like a third option on buff display alongside teammates and pets. Going from showing all buffs to showing only deliberately cast ones helps, but I'd love to be able to see just the buffs my character cast. It would make doing my buffing job significantly less stressful - for those of us with aging and/or weak eyes, the info overload is a real problem sometimes.

 

 

[How much do you micromanage your pets?]

I started off doing all kinds of complex fiddly things with pets, then gradually realized that - for me, as opposed to some much better player - it wasn't really paying off. Five or so commands do it for me.

 

[I have had a blast running a dark/ninjitsu sentinal!]

A question about the stealth. If I want to run to the back of a mission and team teleport, is Shinobi-iri enough for the job? Or does it take Super Speed and/or a special enhancement as well?

 

[How good is Beast?]

My beasts/kinetics character is up to 24, and I'm very much enjoying it so far. Buffed-up beasts can dish out a lot of damage very quickly, and it's fun to watch.

 

[Ill/rad and Overwhelming Force: advise, please]

Interesting! I'll review with that in mind. Thanks!

 

[Mind/Psi Build Request]

Count me in as also very interesting in seeing a build for this combo.

 

[Ill/rad and Overwhelming Force: advise, please]

That's clear and useful. :) Thanks!

 

[Ill/rad and Overwhelming Force: advise, please]

Makes sense, thank you!

 

[Ill/rad and Overwhelming Force: advise, please]

I'm collecting Overwhelming Force enhancements from the summer event. Would they go particularly well in some specific ones of my attacks? Or would I be better off spreading them around between multiple attacks?

 

[fire/fire]

With sentinels, it's essentially always a good idea to take the first two powers. They build charge quickly, and the first triggers Offensive Opportunity, the second Defensive Opportunity.

 

[Water Blast/Storm Summoning build request and discussion]

I wouldn't skip either of the first two, because they're the most rapid ways of building tidal power, or Whirlpool, because it's a very handy bit of CC. Dehydrate, maybe, particularly if you've got healing covered some other way?

 

Tidal Power gives a significant oomph to dps, and secondary effects in some cases. It's good stuff, use it early and often.

 

Steam Spray does seem skippable.