How to fix Sentinels

[Rathulfr]

2 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

it seems to me a bit unfair for Sentinels to be at Blaster damage output levels and have considerably better survivability

 

It not only seems unfair, but it's also completely inaccurate.  The base damage modifier of Sentinels is currently 0.95, but Blasters are at 1.125.  Blasters also get Defiance, which significantly increases their DPS.

 

Are you laboring under the misunderstanding that Sentinels can do the same damage as Blasters, just because they have the same primary power sets as Blasters?  If so, then that's a fundamental flaw in your arguments.

 

(edit) We need to disabuse this notion of Sentinels being "Blasters with armor", because it's not accurate.  "Ranged DPS with armor" is a more accurate description, but the devil is in the details:

 

• Lower base damage modifier
• Lower defense/resistance cap
• Decreased range and AOE target caps
• No snipes, no Build-Up, no melee, no controls
• Most powers work differently than their equivalents in other ATs.

 

All of the above are the trade-offs for being "ranged DPS with armor".  Sentinels are not "Blasters with armor".

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Rathulfr

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm following this thread with interest.  I only have one sentinel (mid 30s, Beam/Bio) which is a real monster!  The title of this thread really struck me, since I don't understand what is broken about the class.  Maybe you sentinel pros can enlighten me?

 

It seems that each class has strengths and weaknesses, and that is reflected in part in the damage scalar (in this case, ranged damage) and in part in survivability.  I think a simplistic view of it (my strength!) is something like:  Blasters get 1.125 ranged damage, and are super squishy; dominators get 0.95 ranged damage but have control for soft survivability; corruptors get 0.75 ranged damage and buffs/debuffs; defenders get 0.65 ranged damage and better buffs/debuffs; and controllers get 0.55 ranged damage and control.  (Of course, I'm ignoring inherents.)  Then we have sentinels, who are middle of the pack on damage, but off the charts on survivability.  I guess I don't understand why sentinels need a damage boost?  I see that as part of the tradeoff.  If you want more ranged damage but less survivability, roll a blaster, right?

 

Now, I'm absolutely behind changing the inherent for sentinels, mainly because I only use it by accident and I cannot say it makes a difference in my effectiveness.

[Rathulfr]

25 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I only have one sentinel (mid 30s, Beam/Bio)

 

You'll start to notice the problem once you get into your 40s, and especially at end-game, when everyone starts out-gunning you.  Sentinels are good at low levels, but then flatten out at higher levels.  Everyone else gets really good at high levels, when they get their slots, IOs, set bonuses, etc., while Sentinels become kinda "meh".  Still fun, though.  Just not as powerful.

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Rathulfr

[Erratic1]

35 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

 

It not only seems unfair, but it's also completely inaccurate.  The base damage modifier of Sentinels is currently 0.95, but Blasters are at 1.125.  Blasters also get Defiance, which significantly increases their DPS.

 

Are you laboring under the misunderstanding that Sentinels can do the same damage as Blasters, just because they have the same primary power sets as Blasters?  If so, then that's a fundamental flaw in your arguments.

 

 

What is inaccurate is your reading. Nowhere have I stated that Sentinels HAVE the damage output of blasters. I have opposed the notion of moving them up to it either directly or indirectly by baking in debuffs.

[Rathulfr]

2 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

What is inaccurate is your reading. Nowhere have I stated that Sentinels HAVE the damage output of blasters. I have opposed the notion of moving them up to it either directly or indirectly by baking in debuffs.

 

Your exact quote was: "it seems to me a bit unfair for Sentinels to be at Blaster damage output levels and have considerably better survivability".

 

I don't know how else to read that?

 

[Erratic1]

Just now, Rathulfr said:

 

Your exact quote was: "it seems to me a bit unfair for Sentinels to be at Blaster damage output levels and have considerably better survivability".

 

I don't know how else to read that?

 

 

Perhaps by not selectively quoting it out of context?

 

The full statement was:

 

Quote

Certainly the import of "ranged scrapper" suggests more damage, but as I noted in my first post in the thread, it seems to me a bit unfair for Sentinels to be at Blaster damage output levels and have considerably better survivability.

That speaks to the context of being at blaster level damage as "ranged scrapper" would imply given Blasters and Scrappers are supposed to be on par in terms of damage. You removed the qualifying statement and misrepresented what was being said.

[SmalltalkJava]

I think...   that sentinels need to take advantage of procs as much as they can.  Kind of like defenders that want to push their damage up.   I’m not a math wiz but I “feel” that pushing pure damage slotting on attacks yields less overall damage per attack. 

—- slot like this on what you can manage. While balancing set bonuses you want— 

 

acc/damage 

acc/damage/endurance 

proc

proc

proc

proc

[Yomo Kimyata]

13 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

 

 

You'll start to notice the problem once you get into your 40s, and especially at end-game, when everyone starts out-gunning you.  Sentinels are good at low levels, but then flatten out at higher levels.  Everyone else gets really good at high levels, when they get their slots, IOs, set bonuses, etc.

 

Why don't sentinels get good when they get their slots, IOs, set bonuses, etc. if everyone else does?  That doesn't make sense to me.  I'll work on getting mine to 50 and see what I think.  Right now, it's arguably the most powerful character I've ever played at that level. 

 

I wouldn't mind if sentinels were below everyone else at end game.  Someone has to be.  But if everyone else is at 1.0 and sentinels are at 0.6, for example, then I'd definitely consider a rebalance.  Can you spitball an approximation how you think they rank now?

 

Maybe this is some sort of "new car" syndrome.  This game, both in Live and HC, seems to have a track record of introducing new sets/powers that are demonstrably superior to existing sets/powers, so maybe people are disappointed they aren't getting the ranged damage of a blaster with the defenses of a scrapper? That would certainly be overpowered in my eyes.

[Rathulfr]

21 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Why don't sentinels get good when they get their slots, IOs, set bonuses, etc. if everyone else does?  That doesn't make sense to me.  I'll work on getting mine to 50 and see what I think.  Right now, it's arguably the most powerful character I've ever played at that level. 

 

I wouldn't mind if sentinels were below everyone else at end game.  Someone has to be.  But if everyone else is at 1.0 and sentinels are at 0.6, for example, then I'd definitely consider a rebalance.  Can you spitball an approximation how you think they rank now?

 

Maybe this is some sort of "new car" syndrome.  This game, both in Live and HC, seems to have a track record of introducing new sets/powers that are demonstrably superior to existing sets/powers, so maybe people are disappointed they aren't getting the ranged damage of a blaster with the defenses of a scrapper? That would certainly be overpowered in my eyes.

 

The main problem with Sentinels is lackluster damage, especially at higher levels.  One would think that this problem is solved by IO sets, but there simply aren't that many IO sets that offer significant bonuses to damage for Sentinels. 

 

IO set bonuses were designed in such a way as to compensate for inherent weaknesses common to ATs.  For ranged DPS classes, most of the IO set bonuses are aimed at improving recharge, regen/recovery, defense/resistance, and protection from status effects.  This is why it's easier to build a tanky Blaster than it is to build a blasty Sentinel.  But Sentinels already come with these baked into their secondaries, and there aren't IO sets they can equip to improve their damage.

 

Sentinels consistently rank at the bottom of the DPS barrel in PvE, considerably less than one would expect with a 0.95 base damage modifier.  Corruptors and Defenders have a significantly lower base damage modifier, but their buffs/debuffs and inherents compensate for that, allowing them to easily out-damage most Sentinels.

 

Finally, nobody is asking for Sentinels to get "the ranged damage of a Blaster with the defenses of a Scrapper".  The proposed requests are to give Sentinels a minor bump in the damage department, increasing their base damage modifier from 0.95 to 1.0, and perhaps to increase their defense/resistance cap from 0.7 to 0.75 (to match all other ATs except Tankers and Brutes). 

 

If re-working their inherent [planned by Captain Powerhouse] can accomplish the same things without changing those modifiers, then that would be acceptable, too.  But that still wouldn't translate to "Blaster damage with Scrapper defense". 

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Rathulfr

[drbuzzard]

I find it odd that nobody seems to care about the fact that sentinels are intentionally AOE limited (and they clearly are except for the T9, and even that has a low cap), and for a steamrolling team, my resistance debuff suggestion doesn't actually mess with that design decision. If they are to be buffed in damage (which has been expressed by CP), I have to imagine it will be in keeping with the overall design scheme which includes that AOE limitation. Say you add something like criticals- What will then have to give? Will they nerf AOE powers? Will they buff single target powers? I think my solution manages to change very little in that context which barring hyperbolic stuff like 'blaster damage with scrapper defenses' is really in keeping with the important metrics of the game -ie. how fast does an AT manage to reap rewards. As is well known, AOE damage reaps rewards, be it influence, recipes, salvage or experience. You can be the very god of single target damage and that won't mean squat. 

 

Adding my resistance debuff model in practice means the sentinel, if he gets his blast off first into a large spawn, will debuff it, say, 10%. That's nowhere near the neighborhood of 'blaster level damage'. By the time he lays down more attacks to keep that stacking very little will be alive if he's on a team. Yes, on hard targets making that resistance debuff stack up to, say, 50%, will make the sentinel a considerable contributor, but he won't ever be a farmer. 

 

I am willing to entertain suggestions like criticals, but I'm not overly convinced they will be by the devs since I think the risk/reward question looms, and an actual understand of the reward side of it (which means dispatching hordes of targets, not the fairly uncommon AV) means keeping a lid on AOE ability. It's pretty clear that the current design of the AT leaned this way. They have resistance debuff as the cornerstone of their inherent, they just don't do enough of it consistently enough to keep up in damage. I quite enjoy the AT, and truly it is my favorite, but I know it is rather lacking. It needs some help, but I don't want it off the reservation breaking things, or changing it a great deal from where it is now. 

 

 

[oldskool]

10 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

I know it applies a 4.5% (iirc) resistance debuff all the time. I think that the defense debuff might only be in Offensive mode (or do you get a to hit buff? I don't recall, it's too small to be of note IMO). 

Power Analyzer shows 5% resistance debuff from any attack.  There is also a -3.75% defense debuff applied at all times.  

Offensive or Defensive mode only inflicts a -20% resistance debuff. 

[oldskool]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I'm following this thread with interest.  I only have one sentinel (mid 30s, Beam/Bio) which is a real monster!  The title of this thread really struck me, since I don't understand what is broken about the class.  Maybe you sentinel pros can enlighten me?

I don't know if anyone thinks Sentinels are broken.  They do seem a little undertuned both on defensive powers and their offensive output.  The mechanics of the inherent having two different modes tied to the T1/T2 powers creates a perception of removed player agency if one feels they have to have both effects in order to fully realize the AT.  

To sum up, there are arguments about the AT being clunky (T1/T2 issue) and a perception of weak damage.  That perception of weakness is amplified when making cross AT comparisons as apples to apples view points on AoE powers.  

I do agree with some of the undertuned thought on the damage and defense.  However a lot of the discussions like this one here conveniently ignore how Sentinels have different single target attack chains vs Blasters.  AoE is pretty obvious on the difference there but the single target can be a lot more blurry.  The issue with realizing that blurred line comes down to builds though.  A Sentinel can be built to focus on its single-target strength and do some pretty competitive damage.  However, I am willing to bet most people don't go for that.  Instead I see talk in game, and the occasional build ideas, about almost doing carbon copy building on Sentinels as if they were Blasters.  What I mean here is that a set like Thunderstrike is very valuable to Blasters for that defense bonus.  However to Sentinels Thunderstrike is a good set but depending on your secondary you can probably do better.  

 

Sentinels can afford to build more damage into their sets up through procs than most Blasters can.  There are some Sentinel primary sets with higher single target DPS than their Blaster counterparts prior to fully engaged Defiance.  Archery is one example of that.  Since Sentinels can have attack chains with better DPA their overall sustained damage has potential there.  

What I think needs to be fix though is that the Sentinel needs to be a bit more intuitive on this and evening out its performance would help a lot.  You shouldn't have to write a dissertation on the exact number of damage procs to use into specific power combinations in order to get just get competitive with the other damaging ATs.  Scrappers/Stalkers/Brutes/Blasters all perform well out of the box and investment in them just makes them better.  Sentinels get better with investment too but that investment does seem to require a lot more advanced understanding of the IO system.  That's just bullshit and it should be adjusted.  

So no, I don't think Sentinels are broken.  Hell, I don't think they are all that weak either.  Its been awhile since I leveled one from scratch though so it could be I have gotten so used to running 3 procs in the bulk of my attacks I've lost sight of why people say they are weak.  I dunno.  I see people claim Dual Pistols are weak too and I cut through 54's like a chainsaw.  I have some Stalkers/Scrappers that can do it a bit faster but I don't find it so noticeable to be the issue that some claim it is.  We're all different though so to each their own. 

[nihilii]

10 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Sentinels consistently rank at the bottom of the DPS barrel in PvE, considerably less than one would expect with a 0.95 base damage modifier.  Corruptors and Defenders have a significantly lower base damage modifier, but their buffs/debuffs and inherents compensate for that, allowing them to easily out-damage most Sentinels.

Within the range of my own personal experience. this doesn't feel accurate.

 

My Fire/Time corruptor struggles to reach 240 DPS.

My Fire/anything sentinels can go well beyond 300 (and get pretty close to 400).

Even my Dark/Invul Sentinel, using nothing but Dark Blast attacks, does ~270 DPS!

 

I can't see a non-Storm Defender outdamaging most Sentinels. I think even for say a Storm/Fire defender, it would be tough to outdamage most Sentinels in anything that isn't a static fight like a Pylon test.

Even if we moved the discussion to target caps, I don't feel hitting 16 targets instead of 10 with your nuke and AoEs would make up for that nuke recharging twice slower. This is admittedly harder to measure, so more subjective. Personally, my own Sentinel flow goes

1) Aim+Nuke+AoE = most lieuts and minions dead

2) focus ST attacks on the 1-2 bosses while dishing out AoEs when sensible = bosses and remaining minions/LTs dead

3) move on to next group and repeat

 

Total encounter time, 30 seconds per group at most. Completely acceptable by my standards on any AT I play. I'm slower on Corruptors and Defenders, simply because the nuke can't be up for every fight - and increased nuke damage still isn't enough to wipe out bosses, so time must be spent finishing them up regardless.

[Rathulfr]

18 hours ago, oldskool said:

Power Analyzer shows 5% resistance debuff from any attack.  There is also a -3.75% defense debuff applied at all times. 

 

I guess I never noticed it, then.  If so, then that's probably sufficient, and we won't need to add any more defense debuffs to Sentinel attacks.

 

That said, I'd still like to see the base damage modifier increased to 1.0, and the defense/resistance caps raised to 0.75.  Or to get the functional equivalent as part of a new, simpler inherent.

 

[Bossk_Hogg]

On 11/12/2019 at 3:57 PM, SmalltalkJava said:

I think...   that sentinels need to take advantage of procs as much as they can.  Kind of like defenders that want to push their damage up.   I’m not a math wiz but I “feel” that pushing pure damage slotting on attacks yields less overall damage per attack. 

—- slot like this on what you can manage. While balancing set bonuses you want— 

 

acc/damage 

acc/damage/endurance 

proc

proc

proc

proc

Sorry, a damage AT shouldn't be scraping by on procs. That's screwing them out of their set bonus, which just makes them fall further behind. The issue is their shitty damage. Tanks will be outdamaging them significantly after the tanker upgrade patch. 

 

Sents need a damage buff by about 15% across the board, with some sets looked at in particular for balance. Energy has 3 sidegrades in terms of DPA, all of which are lackluster at around 50 DPSA, which is on par or less than a tanker's tier 2 attack currently. 

[SmalltalkJava]

3 hours ago, Bossk_Hogg said:

Sorry, a damage AT shouldn't be scraping by on procs.

I agree

[oldskool]

21 hours ago, Bossk_Hogg said:

Sorry, a damage AT shouldn't be scraping by on procs. That's screwing them out of their set bonus, which just makes them fall further behind. The issue is their shitty damage. Tanks will be outdamaging them significantly after the tanker upgrade patch. 

 

Sents need a damage buff by about 15% across the board, with some sets looked at in particular for balance. Energy has 3 sidegrades in terms of DPA, all of which are lackluster at around 50 DPSA, which is on par or less than a tanker's tier 2 attack currently. 

"Screwing them out of their set bonus"  - Don't you think that depends on specific builds vs generally?  I have multiple Sentinel builds now and skipping some set bonuses to include procs hasn't been a detriment at all.  Hell, its the reverse!  I feel more that if I don't use procs that I fall behind my own goals.  I haven't had much trouble in covering my recharge, defense/resistance, or self sustain needs by skipping some set bonuses for procs in the slightest.  I'm in agreement with most of your points, but just not there yet on this one. 

[Menelruin]

Hmm, going the opposite way of damage....

 

You can currently pick blast sets to lower a mob's acc, defense, or damage resist, but there's no toxic blast (yet?) to lower a mob's DAMAGE directly, unless you count DP's toxic ammo.  What if all Sentinel attacks applied a damage debuff as well?  Thus by attacking, they're also defending allies....as well as making themselves better able to stand up in a medium-range brawl (as compared to blasters that need distance as a form of protection).

[Crysis]

On 11/12/2019 at 4:42 PM, Rathulfr said:

 

You'll start to notice the problem once you get into your 40s, and especially at end-game, when everyone starts out-gunning you.  Sentinels are good at low levels, but then flatten out at higher levels.  Everyone else gets really good at high levels, when they get their slots, IOs, set bonuses, etc., while Sentinels become kinda "meh".  Still fun, though.  Just not as powerful.

 

I now have five lvl 50 Sentinels.  Your statement is true in that once T3/T4’d out, EVERYONE gets really good at high levels.  But I don’t see this any differently for any of my Sentinels.

 

I really would appreciate a buff, but I’m starting to think I don’t need it.  I routinely run my Sentinels on +4x8 content and steamroll far faster by myself than 50% of my other alts with similar incarnate power sets.  Heck, on my Fire/Rad/Fire Sentinel I didn’t even need incarnates to do +4x8 quickly from around 48 onwards.  My Beam/Bio, DP/SR and others aren’t quite as powerful, but they are still right up there with my top 7 alts.

 

My only issue is the lack of melee attacks.  I’ve got armor, I’m gonna tank, I’m gonna be in melee.  Give me a couple of melee attacks, swapping out one or two of my ranged attacks for same if needed.  

[Snarky]

I think the AT plays great.  I have not 50d one yet but a lot of various builds up to 35 usually leveling in task forces.  It feels like a hardened blaster.  I personally do not like the range gimp but I understand the decision.  I always wanted a truly ranged blaster.  They were conceived designed and built as Blappers.  A Sentinel is conceived designed and built as a stand at the edge of the chaos and help the team.  With a few minor tweaks I can get my ranged selfish little Blaster out of that. 

[Sovera]

The problem with Sentinels is not their inherent, their target cap or their damage. The problem lays deeper and will not be easily fixed with a quick band-aid.

 

The REAL problem lays in the current City of Heroes. When we sell a Sentinel as 'ranged damage, but with armor so they are sturdy' it makes a newcomer think that there is such a thing as a glass cannon aspect to the game such as playing, say, a priest or a mage in WoW, where gameplay, knowing skills, kitting and etc is necessary to survive, but, always as a glass cannon that cannot take more than 3-4 hits before going down.

 

In CoH this has long since not been the case. With IOs we don't truly have glass cannons anymore and for a long time now. Armor? We can use a Blaster and be softcapped. Mez? We can use incarnates to close that hole.

 

So the problem here is deeper because if we are selling an AT saying they should be doing less damage since they are ranged and also have armor and mez protection then a Blaster is just 🙂 as they hear it.

 

But now you could say, but Sov, a Blaster needs to be at high level to have this while a Sentinel has it at a much lower level? Do they? Do they really? Other than super early blooming sets such as SR it still requires to be in the 40s or maybe 50 for a Sentinel to be softcapped unless they use inspirations, and if they use inspirations a Blaster can use them too and be softcapped as well. That leaves mez protection that a Blaster must wait for level 50 to obtain and then not be able to exemp down without losing it, but in a game with AH bought Breakfrees this is not a huge problem, nor do all factions have CC to begin with.

 

Someone might then say, but Sov, during leveling... What during leveling? A casual player can take a week to reach max level. If they play the character for two months before becoming bored what is a week of leveling, or just 2-3 days if they are happily logging on each day to smack bad guys?

 

 

 

Alright, this is not another Blaster VS Sentinel thread here. My point is that the way the game sells classes they are each with their downsides and strengths, but the IO game has changed this so that there are no downsides, so when we are sold a class who is supposed to do less damage AND have target caps AND a wacky inherent because they are oooooh, armored and sturdy and CC protected. the truth is that we are only getting the downsides.

 

And while we can compensate for downsides we can't really augment strengths. We can softcap a character and make them sturdy, but we can't give an AT a (substantial) damage boost. At most we can give lots of recharge to increase DPS (not really a damage boost per se) but the characters who softcapped themselves ALSO give themselves that so the gap is not narrowed down.

[Obitus]

If the standard is (or should be, per the devs), "Scrapper-level damage," then an increase to the damage scalar won't cut it, because melee sets just have better (DPA) attacks, in general, than ranged sets do.  This is why even ranged Blasters historically struggled to match Scrappers in Pylon runs - though of course Pylon tests tend to gloss over Blasters' offensive advantages in normal content (burst, particularly AoE burst).

 

Nowadays, ranged builds can kinda/sorta compensate with heavy proc slotting.  For example, the Sentinel version of Dominate, when fully procced, has higher DPA than almost any other available ranged attack, and it's available to every Sentinel.  But the fundamental problem remains that the balance among ranged attack sets is uneven and, generally, leaves them behind their melee counterparts.

 

This problem is perhaps especially pronounced on Sentinels, whose power selections are oddly divergent from all other ranged attackers'.  Freeze Ray, for example, is the best single target attack for Ice Blasters/Corruptors/Defenders, boasting a high base DPA and the ability slot numerous Hold-IO damage procs - but Sentinels don't get Freeze Ray; instead they get a mediocre attack with a sleep attached.

 

On the flipside, Sentinel Sonic Blast actually makes out like a bandit, because of what the devs did to the Sentinel version of Screech, but as far as I know that is the only case in which the Sentinel version of an offensive power set gains DPS.  There are, of course, cases where Sentinel primaries shine more - their faster cooldown on nukes synergizes especially well with high-utility powers like Blizzard, with its huge -ToHit debuff.

 

But the point is that trying to compare the offensive capabilities of whole ATs is almost impossible with these powerset discrepancies.  Perhaps more importantly, there's no amount of (reasonable) AT-scalar adjustment that will prevent, say, an Energy Blast Sentinel from feeling anemic next to a Fire Blaster.  The live devs more or less acknowledged this problem way back when they standardized the DPA on first/second tier Blaster attacks, but they never followed through on tier three and up.

 

All of that said, I agree with Nihilii.  At the top end, and if you compare like to like, Sentinel DPS isn't all that much less impressive than Blaster DPS, and Sentinel survivability is plenty of compensation.  Blasters have always been a bit underpowered on the whole, due to the old devs' irrational fear that Blasters would take over the world, or something.  Blasters have received a lot of buffs recently, and I like the way they play - but even now their offensive advantages don't quite balance out their utility/defensive disadvantages.  Their offense has always been overrated, and that remains true in the era of uber procs.

 

Sentinels suffer less from a numerical deficit than what I would call an uninspiring design, or if you prefer, they lack a compelling reason for being (apart from insane high-end solo feats like Nihilii's).  I think the most obvious first step here is to balance ranged sets against each other, possibly give Sentinels a better inherent, and then worry about inter-AT comparisons.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Obitus

[Bossk_Hogg]

Bear in mind that Powerhouse hinted procs are on the chopping block, so at best they're a bandaid. This is ignoring the fact that EVERY AT can use procs, so it's not like Sentinels really gain much ground. 

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/11012-focused-feedback-tank-updates-for-october-1st-2019/page/25/?tab=comments#comment-124449

 

Many sentinel sets simply have poor DPA, and the nukes aren't well balanced. There's no reason Full Auto should be on the same cooldown as the others given that it is a cone and has no secondary effect compared to other set's huge -to hit or stun/hold.

 

Anything with a cast time of 2 seconds or higher needs a damage bump so it's not a net DPS loss. Shout for example is a downgrade if you use it in your attack chain. I know the trend is to just cut animation time, but that just leaves all sets looking the same. There should be a place for slow animating heavy hitters that break the original dev's poorly thought out damage formula. 

[Siderous]

With all the deep thoughts on everything that needs fixing or the depravity between ATs.  I think it comes down to Sentinel's need their own distinct thing or mechanic.  Something that everyone can see an effect/affect for.

 

I don't know if the revamp of the inherent will be enough.  I think if there was some unique mechanic as well as the fix to the inherent, they would not need to adjust the numbers.

 

I'd be happy if all they did to the inherent is decouple it from the T1 and T2, but I would still feel like the AT was missing something. 

 

Something like maybe group combos that the sentinel can set up to either ramp up damage or ramp up team resistance/defenses.  Not even sure if CoH has the capability of something like group combos. Maybe the system tray for unique powers, like what happens with mystic flight teleport, but is triggered by the a sentinel being on the team.  Giving a timed power to hit when triggered by sentinel that would do a big team based power.

 

Crazy thoughts by a wishful gamer.  

 

 

[metacore]

Captain powerhouse has said he wanted to try and have the Sentinel be like its namesake.
Sentinel = "a soldier or guard whose job is to stand and keep watch"

 

So a guardian, someone with some defensiveness = hence the Secondary powersets.
Keep watch = be on the lookout = Inc Perception in a 20' radius (1/3 that of Leadership buffs) - part of the Inherent
Stand Guard = Protect = stop others from getting hurt = Change the -5% Res on all attacks to -7% DAM on all attacks. (leave -ToHit to Dark Blast)
This -DAM doesnt stack from the same Sentinels but can stack from multiple Sentinels so more than 1 Sent on a team has added benefits.

 

Keep the Opportunity Bar but link it to a +ToHit or +Acc buff the same radius as Inc Preception.
0-20% = 0%,  21-40% = 5%, 41-60% = 10%, 61-80% = 15%, 81%+ = 20%
Or
0-30% = 0%,  31-60% = 5%, 61-90% = 10%, 91%+ = 15%
Or even done in 2.5% increments - whatever
[Purely numbers for numbers sake - devs need to apply balance points]

Similar to the Fury mechanic it builds up as you attack (maybe as you are attacked as well?) and degrades out of combat.
This helps both the Sentinel (Solo) plus the Team (Groups)
 

Up the 2ndary Resist Caps to 75% (same as Scrapper)
Up the Ranged Dam scale to 1.0
 

Keep the reduced range as a balance
Keep the lower AoE targets as a balance
Keep the MaxHP as a balance (lower than Scrappers - both Scrapper and Sentinel take no more than 75 damage from a 100 damage attack [when at capped Resist] but the Sentinel cant take as many of those attacks as a Scrapper can)