HunterIV4

I must admit, I had no idea that Indomitable was a low population server, it's where I started my first characters and just stuck with it. I admit I've played mostly solo, though, as all you crackheads high speed players tend to finish missions so fast I'm still trying to figure out where to go. I guess this benefits me, as I get the XP and events, but I genuinely had no clue that my server was low pop. Now I know, lol.

I have to agree with the OP. I don't play the absolute end game content and so the new sentinel feels really good. I don't know if it will change when I'm decked out with IOs but the leveling process on the AT is very smooth and the new vulnerability feels easy and intuitive to use. I tend to shove it on a LT or boss and between movement and fighting time it feels like it has more uptime than I expected, and the snappy application feels like it doesn't mess with my attacks. With low cooldowns, moderate damage, and solid defenses, the AT solos at low levels very smoothly, and I rarely feel overwhelmed. Would a scrapper hit harder with better defenses? Sure, maybe, but I find actually hitting everything is a lot harder with scrapper, and I have to spend a lot more time chasing down runners, whereas the sentinel can blast, fight around corners, and overall just fight fairly smoothly. I don't know if the AT is "top tier" or anything but it certainly feels better than it used to. I'm playing DP/regen right now with a character based on Alucard from Hellsing and it fits the concept perfectly. Even if a blaster is theoretically stronger my sentinel feels more stable, less bursty (so less downtime between packs), and I haven't had to actually rest even once for the first 20+ levels, let alone died, which is pretty rare for me on most ATs. I dunno if that has to do with the changes or my playstyle, but I'm certainly going to be messing around with more sentinel builds now that they aren't a chore to play!

Thank you, I'll give it another shot. I did have a summon macro but I was using my own location, which would sometimes spin me around, which was annoying. I don't use the number keys for activating powers on any of my characters and use EDSF for movement so I admit my setup is a bit strange, but it's a habit I got into after years of WoW raiding (I move with EDSF and activate powers with WRGVCXAQTB, with shift+ for second row and ctrl+ for third row, I hate reaching for number keys while trying to move around). Instead I use the number keys for inspirations. It's a similar idea, though, to using the binds. I'm not entirely sure why I'm struggling so much with it. I've played MMs and kheldians and didn't have as many issues with controls. I didn't know about the automatic target of target feature, that's neat, although the sentinel never seems to keep aggro when I'm soloing (maybe I'm too low level?). I've also died several times when I didn't notice the sentinel was too far away for the chain to reach me and my heal whiffed, heh. I'm only using IOs for now since I'm not convinced I'll want to invest in the character, maybe that's the problem? Dunno, feels really squishy, even under the cage (although not getting knocked over every 3 seconds is nice). I probably got spoiled since the last character I leveled was a tanker, lol. I appreciate the assistance!

So elec/elec really fit a character concept I wanted to try and so I rolled an elec/elec defender. It works OK, and there are plenty of good builds out there for me to find, but I've been struggling on how to actually PLAY the darn thing, particularly when soloing. I get that you can use your buffs on the galvanic sentinel to chain them back to you, but constantly having to hit my "select Sparky" macro before buffing is more tedious than when I play an MM. The buffs seem to wear off very quickly and I'm constantly having to rebuff, resummon the sentinel, and the combo feels incredibly "clicky." It works, don't get me wrong, but I'm 13 levels in and I already feel like I'm having to work twice as hard as other sets to solo effectively. Am I trying to do too much? Is there a shortcut people use to make this more manageable? It seems like there's so much advice out there about how to build various combinations but very little advice on how to actually play those combinations. Maybe the combo just isn't for me, which is fair, but I figured I'd see if people had any advice before giving up on the character.