Omega-202

Except it would increase damage because -resist means more damage for everyone, including the Sentinel. It just makes the whole class even more boring than it already is, while stepping on the toes of Sonic blast users and Defenders and Corruptors in general.

It's the most boring solution in this whole thread. Notice how nobody seemed to like it?

I get it. It might not be the flashiest or coolest idea, but support stance auras just seems too straight forward and effective to not seriously consider. I can't think of any missing roles that a Sentinel could otherwise fill, and customizable Jack of All Trades (which we are missing) is something they are close to doing already. My overall pitch is: - Raise damage scale from 0.95 to 1.0 - Raise defense scale from 0.70 to 0.75 - Range and target caps can stay as is to give then a "medium range" feel - Maybe keep some aspect of the passive -resist on attacks, especially with Tankers losing Bruising - Give them 4 aura stances with solid range (60 ft) with various bonuses. For example they could be a) Damage and movement speed (named Countercharge) b) To hit, perception and regen (named Alert) c) Defense and recovery (named Fall Back) d) Resist and recharge (named Last Stand) ...or some other mix and match, with appropriate "Sentinel" names that sound like something that fits "someone who guards something".

Then the question becomes: what is the Sentinel "gameplay loop" because by all accounts they don't have one. The Oppostunity mechanic is janky and doesn't properly feed into a good gameplay loop because it forces you to make non-optimal choices in order to make use of it. In my view, they have no role on a team, even less so than Scrappers. And we all know how historically Scappers have been ragged on for lacking a niche for long stretches of the games life. Sentinels don't take damage that well, and are the squishiest non-squishy. They deal better damage than support classes, but less than the other offense classes. They offer very little to no team support. And even all of those things are not even hard and fast because there are plenty of tanky squishy builds that beat Sentinels and plenty of support classes that pump out better damage. So back to your point, and why I see nothing wrong with stance auras: currently Sentinels have no gameplay loop and no team role so we need to give them one. One option is to make them the "customizable" Jack of All Trades class by letting them fill in a team's lacking factor with a team support stance aura. Yes, this makes them similar to EATs but EATs already do everything current Sentinels do, but better, and they are hampered by lack of customization. So overlap between the EATs and Sentinels isn't really an issue because you can't have a Fire Widow or an Ice Warshade. To your "theme lock" issue with Sentinels: all ATs are a bit theme locked by their inherent. You don't have calm Brutes or non-sneaky Stalkers. I see no reason stance-auras is not perfectly in theme for a Sentinel ("a soldier or guard who is assigned to protect a person place or thing"). Seems like a team support (especially defensive ones) stance-aura would be perfectly in theme.

I 100% disagree. "Stances" are already part of the game's design (as mentioned, see Bio armor, Pistols, Staff melee) and in practice, they are nothing more than mutually exclusive toggles, jist like the original design of the defensive power sets when the game was first released. Heck, how is "bodyguard" on a MM not basically a "stance" inherent by a different name? I feel like you're projecting your personal preference on this one and disguising it by pretending that Paragon Studios would agree with you. I am all for a "stance" like system for Sentinels, but I really think that they would help the AT the most if they were team auras, in addition to personal buffs. In my experience, Sentinels are currently fine to decent solo and they really struggle in teams where they just don't contribute enough. And it's not like having the stances be auras wouldn't also help the Sentinel while solo, as they'd still get the benefit. Edit: Also the idea of "finding a more interactive way" being a requirement for an inherent is silly. Need I remind you what the inherent is for Scrappers? Soldiers and Widows? Kheldians? Defenders? Basically half of the inherents in the game are literally just a small passive bonus that you have no control over.

I would recommend VEATs or one of the solid Corruptor combos (Fire+Time, Kin or Dark). Any of those will be able to solo anything the game can throw at you and also be a huge benefit to any and all teams. I am partial to Crabspiders personally. Walking buff beacon, near MM level pets, nearly unkillable, near Blaster level AoE damage and a constant -20% resist debuff on enemies from Venom Grenade. Basically the second best at everything the game has to offer in one package.

There's not a lot that brings as "complete" of a package as VEATs. You've top tier damage (at melee and range), more than enough durability for the hardest content and some of the best team support available. You're the perfect set up for the current meta of "fill a team of 8, set the mission to max settings, and run as fast as possible". No set up, no fuss, just steamroll. I totally feel you. All I can recommend is try a Soldier if you feel like it, or the next closest things I've found are Stalkers, Scappers and Blasters. Stalkers and Scrappers can be built for a bit more damage output with similar durability, but without the team buffs (usually). Blasters give you even more damage, with less durability. I tried Sentinels and couldn't stick with it because performance-wise, they're just bad versions of Fortunatas/Crabs. Since my Crab and Fort, my favorite has been my Elec/Invuln/Mu Stalker.

I can't really tell what you may be doing wrong, but "lack of damage" really doesn't make much sense from my experience, so it has to be something you're doing incorrect with your attack chain or playstyle. Even at lvl 40 against +2 or +3 enemies, Venom Grenade>Frag Grenade>Suppression can reliably be cycled on loop with no gaps. Solo, after the first loop, all minions in a spawn are dead. After two loops, all Lts will be dead. Then you just need to mop up the bosses. I've played basically ever AT and there aren't any others in the game that can chain AoEs that effectively, and outside of Nukes, there aren't a lot of builds that can level a full spawn that fast. And beyond that, even if you feel that your damage is not up to snuff, with my build, all 3 AoEs are also applying -Res so you're helping the team do more damage with their attacks. Regarding the pets, at lvl 40, the Spiderlings should be more than permanent and the Disruptors are at or near permanent. Yes, they time out, like all non-MM and non-Controller primary pets. I'm not sure what you expected. Respawning them is less than 5 seconds and can be done as you run to the next spawn after they die, especially if you get used to jump spawning so you keep moving during the summoning animation. Maybe its not for everyone, but I know for sure that the build works and is one of the most effective and indestructible AoE builds in the game.

Ok, kind of off topic, but why not just attune the performance shift IOs? Sure you lose a smidge of enhancement between 21-27 on the End mod one, but you gain a smidge between 28 and 50. Seems like an obvious benefit to just attune and call it a day.

I second the tram drone theory. Had it happen to my TF once when the mission was directly under the train station. Ever since, I have tried to tell my team to head north immediately after exiting the mission, away from the trains.

A lot of what the OP is saying about Blasters is just wrong. Others have already gone into it, but I really don't think the OP really knows how the ATs work to make a proper suggestion for changes. If you don't understand the current situation (which the OP obviously doesn't), then nobody should take your suggestions seriously.

I had a lvl 50 Sonic/Energy on live that played exactly like this. I haven't remade him on HC, which should be telling enough. It's an interesting and decently effective setup for what it does, but good god is it slow. Siren's song the group, pick out anyone that was missed / the boss and hit them with a combo of Screech/Bonesmasher/Total Focus to lock them down, then pick the group apart 1 by 1. Totally safe, but also a snails pace way to play. In groups, Siren's Song is essentially useless and your bread and butter AoE's in Howl and Shockwave have terribly long animations. Although, he was a lot of fun in zone PVP, pre revamp. In RV, he could shoot off a Screech from ridiculous range to drop any squishies and then close in and hit them with Scream, Shout, Bonesmasher and a TF as they woke up. For melee types that would eat the Screech, he would hit them with Snowstorm and make their live's miserable kiting them around and just pop Hibernate if things looked bad. To the OPs question: Sonic isn't bad on a Blaster, it's just not optimal. I still need to get to revisiting it on a Defender, especially if I can proc it out to help with the damage.

The title of this thread is "When Will There Be Any Actual Content Coming To This Server?" The inclusion of "Actual" is just a shining beacon of passive aggressive, suggesting that what has been added isn't real. Stop pretending you don't have an axe to grind. You didn't come in here with innocent intentions. And it takes a total lack of self awareness to say "every time I post, people are jerks to me" and not think that you're the common factor.

You're leaving out the part where he has a grudge against Leandro and the rest of the private server squad for booting him. So he's asking for more free content from some of the exact same unpaid volunteers who he previously pissed off. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Yeah....you totally seem unbiased, against drama and totally without any ulterior motives. That single sentence paragraph riddled with persecution complex issues is really convincing us that you're a stable individual who's asking good faith questions.

From your OP See, I am not buying it still. If you're not interested in the drama, why are you specifically asking about the central figure to any "drama" surrounding the game.

It's not a matter of opinion. The TK set was a broken mess and was pushed to live on a few servers. I checked out the recent Crab changes and literally laughed at what they'd done. They took the famed AT that could solo clear the RWZ pylons and literally gutted it into a shell of its former self for no other reason than "it didn't feel like we wanted". The other new ATs I've seen vids of are either broken in functionality, broken in strength or both. These aren't opinioms, they're simply true. And I'm not defending HC. There's a lot that can be complained about, and I have. But this is just not one of them.

No, my point is that those other servers are setting an unreasonable expectation for "new stuff" because their "new stuff" is garbage. I'd prefer quality updates or no updates over garbage updates. And quality updates take time and effort, which is in short supply for a volunteer development team. The only reason the other servers have any updates is because they're willing to give you trash.

Like the completely broken Telekinetic Assault set that still doesn't work right last I checked? Or the ridiculous changes to VEATs from COXG? The fact that they thought that Crabs are underperforming and needed to be gutted and redone is laughable and shows that they have no idea what they're doing. Instead, here they're working on things in increments. We may see some new stuff, but it goes through a test server, where people make sure it makes sense instead of being updated and changed based on the whims of people who have no idea what they're doing. Testing and rolling things out takes time, especially with a volunteer team.

Not everyone wants to go on Discord to organize a simple ITF run. On HC, you never have to even think about that, but on those other servers, there aren't even enough people on at once to PUG a TF. Regarding the lack of content roll outs, have you completed all of the content available right now? You've done every TF? You have stars next to most of the story arcs in Oro? You have a handful of characters with T4 incarnates? If not, what the hell are you asking for more content for? And if you have, well great, but maybe you should play some other games if you have that much free time. You burned through 10 years of accumulated content in 6 months, maybe take a break. I'm going to agree with Myrmidon though. This seems like a backhanded way to try and shill for the other servers. Are you tired of playing with the same 5 people over on Rebirth?

The Widow will almost certainly have better single target DPS than the Striker, but that's assuming she stays alive. My (limited) experience with the Widow is that she's basically suicidal and gets her face bopped by any AVs (and more threatening bosses) before you can even react. Proximity definitely plays into the aggro calculation so the fact that she runs right up to give the AV a hug usually makes her dead. For AVs, and hard single target damage in general, I'd just suggest proccing out your single target attacks to maximize DPS, having a Lore pet with -regen, stocking up on Venom Daggers and making sure you clear adds quickly so your pets stay focused.

I don't understand what the issue is. I have never not been able to get the IO I wanted. The AH might not have the recipe, but the IO itself is usually posted. And if not, every IO recipe can be bought with merits. Worst case, make one in set and use converters to convert to what you want. I have a feeling that OP is doing something wrong with the AH interface. It makes no sense that the can't find any of the IO that they want. I have basically never seen 0 of something listed, let alone "everything".

Look for the glowie in Swan's room and keep going on the mission chain once you complete the mission. He's not in the mission, you find out he's been kidnapped.

The summons are nearly identical to their NPC enemy versions, so the Arachnos faction entry for each NPC on paragonwiki is a decent place to get an idea. For me, the Striker was the deciding factor for me between Soul and Mu. The Widow only has one range attack and is otherwise going to charge into melee immediately. That usually means that they're charging out of your auras and directly into their death. The Striker on the other hand will stick to you like glue. And with the 2 Disruptors, you get 3 pet Ball Lightnings being shot off at the start of combat each spawn. Add those 3 Balls to your Crab alpha strike and everything in the spawn melts. The Widow only has Spin for AoE and the radius is pathetic so its not helping a ton on AoE damage. The only bonus I find for the Widow is its single target damage being better. Are there other reasons that you're considering Soul over Mu? Gloom and Detonation are definitely better than ML and Ball Lightning, so there's pros and cons to both.

It can definitely use some buffs, but it is far from useless. I've said in other threads: Drop OM in the center of a spawn>Venom Grenade>Frag Grenade>Suppression will wipe a +3 group nearly as fast as any other nuke in the game, with OM exploding halfway through the Suppression animation. And the enemies will cluster on the bomb due to the taunt, making the most of your other AoEs. Also, while it has a longer recharge than other "nukes", at Crabbermind recharge levels (~300% recharge) you're looking at 90 seconds. That's enough to have it up every 3 spawns or so. At lvl 50, you'll have Judgement powers on similar recharge timers. So essentially, you have one spawn for Judgement, next spawn gets OM, third spawn gets nothing, but your teammates probably have a Judgement ready, then rinse and repeat.