Yuanakil

HC's Cipher posted an announcement on the HC Discord stating that Reberon/Pleiades shut down. While some of us may find that getting to 50 is easy enough on HC, I believe that it wouldn't hurt to give those starting over with HC a bit of a boost. Additionally, if there was one server dedicated to newbie leveling, that would give the "refugees" a good Schelling point.

Please consider opening a Homecoming new server with an XP buff in order to accommodate for the potential influx of players who just lost their non-HC servers.

How do I get on the beta server, and what's the best way to provide feedback? I would love to help out. EDIT: Thanks, folks!

I explained some of the noteworthy aspects of water above, chuef among them the handling of the passive and tidal power, the latter of which actually plays quite well with my goals as a dps. Unfortunately, the raw damage just isn't there. I may try another sentinel at some point, but first I'll need to overcome my disappointment... and get my dom up to 50 so she can finance the new toon's 0 influence gain.

The issue isn't my build. Soloing is fine, but group contributions are where, I feel, sentinels are lackluster. Can't tank, can't dps, and unreliable with their passive unless you want to waste even more dps on holding your bread and butter powers in reserve. I agree that accuracy stacking is a problem. Overall, it just doesn't feel as good as it did at lower levels.

First, thank you so much! I've always been a fan of MMOs, and this is the best MMO experience I've had in years--even better than CoX under NCSoft. I wish I could donate already to show my appreciation, and also to support future development and additional shards, but I guess I'll have to try and catch the donation period next month. I hope you can become a non-profit soon, in the expectation that our community can pay more than is needed, leading to an even brighter future. Additionally, I'm hoping you nerf bio armor and buff sentinels (let them tank or do more damage), but those are minor issues in the face of the improvements you've made to the CoX experience via their addition. (My sentinel is my only 50 so far, and my 40 bio tank is lovely to play.)

My Sentinel is now 50. I noticed a substantial dps drop in the 40s, and of course I'm still too squishy and non-taunting to tank. It's made me feel like I have to play other toons in order to contribute. Please fix?

I think this is perfectly reasonable and a desirable feature. Can somebody with the knowledge say how easy or difficult this would be to implement? It seems simple on the face of it.

I have what I think are three very solid suggestions for improving sentinels. So far, my sentinel is my favourite, and I would love to see not only her but also other builds better supported. Per a comment on this reddit post: "42 (as of writing) Water/Regen I have a mostly positive opinion of my sentinel. Please bear with me while I break it down. Leveling: Sentinel feels weaker until 32+ and slotted, at which point it feels like it holds its own solo or grouped. I recommend at least DFBing one up to 22, slotting it, and giving it a whirl. Soloing: The AT feels very solid, and quite safe, but it's slower than a brute or scrapper. The overall effect is bland. The exception to this is when you challenge yourself; I think dedicated soloists could get a kick out of a sentinel. Grouping: Contrary to what other people are saying, I found two very clear niches in groups. In most circumstances, by which I mean fighting hordes of enemies, I serve as a sort of offtank, pulling aggro at the start of the fight with heavy burst AoE damage, recovering, and picking off individual targets. I fall into a sort of mid-range groove--not running up to melee enemies, nor keeping at a distance, but trapping mobs in the right spot for the squishier team members to help blow up. That smoothly transitions into the second niche, which is essentially just taking advantage of the sentinel passive to let my team nuke big bads. Yes, a blaster or scrapper may selfishly hit harder, but substantially buffing an entire team's damage for free is amazing. In both cases, I feel rewarded for charging forward and blowing things up, which I think is the ideal play experience for a sentinel. Complexity: I think this depends mostly on your build. I would guess that good sentinel play is moderately or very complex for most players. This entails properly triggering your passive (meaning with your fast attack). Water Primary: Water is an extremely complicated set to play, because you have to repeatedly make split-second decisions about targeting, which payoff power to use, and whether or not it's worth building up tide first. However, I think it's also very well suited to a sentinel for three reasons. First, the inherent CC and burst-heavy AoE nature of the set is perfectly suited to the mid-range role I described above. Second, Dehydration is a really great attack that serves to help you recover from initial aggro. Third, and *MOST IMPORTANTLY BUT LEAST OBVIOUSLY*, your basic rotation--light attack, heavy, light--feels like it's designed around the sentinel passive. You're usually trying to target the biggest single threat, you're spamming the attack that triggers vulnerability, and, since you almost always use your heavy attack right after your light attack, you will almost never accidentally trigger the defensive mode. (Unfortunately, that means you can't *intentionally* trigger it, but, frankly, it might as well not exist for all practical purposes.) Regeneration Secondary: Regeneration pairs well with an end-hungry set like Water, since it gives free bonus recovery and passive buffs. It also works well for the initial AoE aggro role that my sentinel plays, as it provides bonus max hp, and an absorb as needed. Being able to pick myself back up is nice too, though I almost never need to. I have to imagine that other sets, with more toggles and actives but less burst protection, do not pair well with sentinel primaries. Epic Pools: These feel lackluster because they don't have anything to do with the sentinel's defensive half. SEE SUGGESTION BELOW!!! Overall Impressions: I enjoy my sentinel, but it seems like your mileage will vary heavily based on which sets you use and your intended playstyle. If you want top personal dps, this isn't for you. If you want to main tank, look elsewhere. If you want to support, get good at nailing the passive to the right target. Worst Problems: 1) The offensive passive is useless if everything is dying left and right, and it's counterintuitive (or just plain wrong) to hold back. 2) Most (meaning active and end-hungry) secondaries do not suit the aggro tank playstyle, and they could actually hurt dps. 3) The defensive passive is useless and decreases dps when triggered. Suggestions for Improvement: 1) Merge the passive triggers into one effect that debuffs the enemy and buffs/heals/absorbs the sentinel. This reduces the likelyhood of feel-bad situations and reinforces the sentinel's dual nature. 2) When a target dies while under the effect of the passive's debuff, it should restore a chunk of the sentinel's endurance based on the remaining duration of the debuff. This would help end-hungry builds to function and make the passive more useful in AoE situations. 3) *MOST INTERESTINGLY*!, please, PLEASE, replace three powers in each epic pool with PokeVoke, a single-target taunt, and an AoE taunt! (That is, brutes' hidden aggro-grabbing passive.) If not all three, at LEAST PokeVoke, perhaps stapled to a def/res/hp buff. This would make me so happy... (Edited to include epic pool considerations.)" Edit: Upon further consideration, adding pokevoke only to the epic pools would mean that sentinels still can't hold aggro at most levels. Perhaps add it as a hidden passive, a new baseline active (like how MMs get extra actives), or an addition to a passive or toggle in each secondary set?