Sentinel QoL

[Gobbledigook]

First off i would like to say the Developers in this game are outstanding in what they have done so far. Best i have seen in any other game i have tried.

 

But i do think the sentinel class is due a decent rework sometime soon. But until then could be have one of the options below implemented to give the Sentinel a temporary QoL fix?

 

1) Increase the target cap on powers to the equivalent of blasters cap (16). The Sentinel would still be at a much lower damage scale so i do not believe this would be a step too far.

 

2) increase the damage scale to 1.1 or thereabouts. With reduced targets they would still be behind Blasters or Scrappers and still lower in the damage scale.

 

As it is the sentinel has reduced targets and reduced damage (and Range) which together is weakening the class too much.

Edited December 13, 2021 by Gobbledegook

[aethereal]

Quality of life changes mean "changes that minimally affect balance, but remove some kind of annoyance or provide a streamlined way of performing an action in the game." Changes to damage scalars or target caps across a whole AT are the opposite of QoL.

 

Rightly or wrongly, I doubt they'd make a major change to class balance in advance of a whole rework.  You won't likely see changes like this unless they decide that this kind of change is the long awaited sentinel rework.

[Cancrusher]

I'm not against your suggestion (I certainly don't think it can hurt the class) and I do agree with your assessments of the AT, but I think aethereal is correct, here.  The Devs are very focused and methodical about how they go rework old content and introducing new content.

 

I do hope they prioritize updates to the class sooner, rather than later, though.

[Gobbledigook]

15 minutes ago, Cancrusher said:

I'm not against your suggestion (I certainly don't think it can hurt the class) and I do agree with your assessments of the AT, but I think aethereal is correct, here.  The Devs are very focused and methodical about how they go rework old content and introducing new content.

 

I do hope they prioritize updates to the class sooner, rather than later, though.

Probably but it can't help to hope.

[Cancrusher]

No, indeed.  And there's nothing wrong with putting your suggestions out there for consideration.  It'll give them more options to muse over when they do finally decide to tackle the project.  👍

[TheZag]

Just my opinion,  i think the devs undertuned the sentinel on purpose to avoid them becoming the best AT in the game.  They ended up being so cautious that they made it possibly the weakest instead.  If they had assault primaries added (dominator secondary) i think it would really open up their possibilities.  With a tweak to opportunity,  keep its current effects and add that your attacks do more damage to enemies that are closer than 20 feet away.  That gives their armor a purpose while rewarding the extra risk of being in melee range.

[EyeLuvBooks]

Let me begin by begging everyone to stay on-point as I just discovered the 8-page Sent thread locked for straying off-topic.

 

That being said, I do agree that Sents need a role to fill within the party. They don't do DPS like Brutes or Scrappers, they can't hold aggro like Tanks, they don't do ranged DPS like Blasters and they don't have Controls other than the soft kind. They're cool but they don't do anything really well.

 

One of the suggestions I saw on the other thread dealt with the Inherent being changed to inflict more damage and/or debuffs the more enemies were in front of them. It sounded like something worth looking into at least.

 

I would rather see the Sent's Inherent changed rather than trying to alter the various powersets etc. It seems to be less work and more continuity if we start with the Inherent.

 

The definition of the word Sentinel is 'a guard or soldier who watches over others or possibly guards a place.' The Defender Inherent Vigilance grants them an End discount when their team begins to lose Health. What about altering Opportunity so that Sents do more ST damage when solo but more AoE damage the bigger their team? That way solo players aren't punished with lower damage but the Sent gains a distinct role as an AoE specialist on big teams.

[RikOz]

I agree some sort of adjustment needs to be made. Perhaps looking at Endurance costs, or an inherent Recovery boost. One of my frustrations with the AT is that the reduced damage (compared to a blaster with the same power set) obviously leads to needing to make more attacks in order to defeat enemies, and that often leads to running out of Endurance at inopportune times, in situations where the equivalent blaster would not. Particularly with certain Endurance-hog power sets. It's much like playing melee against CoT ghosts stacking ToHit debuffs on you, so you're wasting Endurance on multiple missed attacks.

[A Cat]

It was mentioned in that locked thread before the bum fight, but disconnecting the inherent from the T1 and T2 attacks, and making it a separate button, would help a lot. As is, it forces you to take and use some pretty shit attacks, which certainly doesn't help the low damage situation. I would also be in favor of more damage period. Lacking buildup like a melee class does a lot to hamper damage. The melee DPS classes also have inherent that inherently (sorry) increase their damage by huge amounts. The gulf between Sents and the melee DPS classes is just too much. I feel like they were going for 90% of melee DPS damage, but ended up with 60% or something (adjust those two percentages to whatever better reflects reality, I can't do math).