SENTINELS !!!! SHOW THEM WHO YOU ARE !!!!

[FupDup]

45 minutes ago, Vulgaris said:

My only lingering gripe is sents still have the damage tax on their T9s while getting the recharges set longer. I know blah blah scrapper "design" parity but IMO Either the damage tax stays or the more active and aggressive cooldown does. Both feels off.

You're specifically talking about Rain of Arrows and Full Auto, right? Those are the only two that get hit in both damage and recharge. 

 

They're definitely a very weird case because the devs tried to balance all the Sent nukes against each other in a vacuum, even though Sents inherited their primaries from other ATs where these powers were not normalized like that. It works fine for most long recharging nukes but those two in particular are pretty wonky.

 

On the bright side, these two share the same target caps as their Blaster counterparts at least (16 for RoA, 10 for FA) and Full Auto can be paired with Aim to make up for the damage loss (sucks for RoA though lul). 

Edited September 2 by FupDup

[TheMoncrief]

The badmouthing of Sentinels seems to be almost exclusively an artifact of forums and General Chat. I have literally never had anybody say anything bad about my Sentinel when playing the AT. Nobody been like "Sorry, no room for you, we're looking for a real AT!" or anything like that when trying to join a team or league for anything. When actually playing, Masterminds seem to get more actual hate. But it's trendy in the forums and General Chat to trash the Sentinel AT as useless. Meanwhile, in actual play, people will take whomever shows up to most content, only starting to gatekeep when attempting real hard mode try-hard stuff like 4-Star TF's and the like.

 

I do wish the first thing that showed up when somebody asked anything about Sentinels wasn't "Useless AT, just a weak Blaster with training wheels, don't even bother" from the usual suspects. In most aspects of CoH, the community has no tolerance for negativity, except toward Sentinels.

[Triumphant]

I mean, after the most recent updates, I feel like Sentinels are actually in a pretty good place right now.  Sure, some power sets don't perform as well as others, but that's true of any AT, really.

[Psiphon]

On 9/2/2024 at 12:20 AM, Vulgaris said:

My only lingering gripe is sents still have the damage tax on their T9s while getting the recharges set longer. I know blah blah scrapper "design" parity but IMO Either the damage tax stays or the more active and aggressive cooldown does. Both feels off.

Pretty certain Sentinels have a shorter recharge on their T9s and a smaller AoE and max targets. 

[Koopak]

I appreciate the enthusiasm and will agree that the community underrates the AT after it's rework. I don't turn my nose up at sentinels, even in my 4 star teams.

 

However... They still don't have a super solid role, they don't bring enough damage to justify their place in an optimized team nor enough of any utility. A blaster can mitigate the mez issue easily nowadays, and corruptors still outperform them hard. Their debuff is great in solo and small groups, but in an optimized team, it's barely a drop in the -res sea. And the added durability is the same as a stalker, which is to say, not a lot in end game content, especially when that will be handled via support.

 

All of this is to say, sentinels still don't shine in end game. But then neither do controllers or any VEAT but crab. Anyone who dunks on them for any content below 4 stars though is just repeating the meme from before the rework.

[FupDup]

8 hours ago, Psiphon said:

Pretty certain Sentinels have a shorter recharge on their T9s and a smaller AoE and max targets. 

He's probably referring to Full Auto and Rain of Arrows, which both have lower alpha strike damage and longer recharge than their Blaster counterparts.

 

Technically they're "balanced" when compared relative to other Sentinel T9s, but when compared to Blasters they do stand out as major outliers. 

[Skyhawke]

I’m a recent Sentinel player, but after running a Dual Pistols/Invul one to 50+, I’m definitely a believer and my newest character is an Elec/Invul Sentinel on redside. Brutal solo and you can really do some fun stuff on teams. Wish I’d played one way before now.

[lemming]

My latest Sentinal is a Storm/Dark.   Lots of fun and things just melt around them.

[midnox]

I love sents. I have 30, or so, all level 50. My main is Cosmic Nomad (eb/ea) VL 727. I find them to be the most well rounded AT, great for both solo work and teams. I encourage everyone to roll one up.

[Heatstroke]

Current Sentinels Builds

 

Fire/Rad/Fire

Water/Ice/Ice

Psi/Regen/Psi

Dark/Bio/Dark

DP/SR

Elec/Elec/Elec

Storm/EA/Mu

 

Thinking of makine a Sonic/Inv/Psi

[Flat Line]

On 2/16/2023 at 2:57 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I wouldn't call it cruise control.

 

Soloing an AV-level Clockwork King on a solo Synapse became a bit of a heart-in-mouth experience... but did it. With the very last scrap of END, no inspirations left.

 

BTW, Agent Chernekoska ("Black Cat") is Dual Pistols/Ninja/Ninja, and a hell of a lot of fun to play.

I might reroll my Egon-clone Ghostbuster (Beam/Ninja) at some point with a different Secondary.

Any other fun ideas?

That sounds like a very fun combination. I think it could be John Wick! 

[Teklord]

I used Halloween to level my Electric Blast/Energy Aura/Mu Sentinel Giga.Watt up to 50. I find Electric Blast is just so good on Sentinels. I am running 4 single target attacks and 4 aoes counting the nuke.  All the AOEs are 10 targets and all are radial. Energize comes online at level 10 which means you are not dealing with endurance woes as long as you are exemped past level 10.

 

All my powers have good DPA and Giga.Watt is a team player. I generally don't build soloers nowadays because that isn't what I want from COH. If I want to be alone I just gather badges.

 

 

 

[Proteus50]

On 10/25/2024 at 12:07 PM, Teklord said:

I used Halloween to level my Electric Blast/Energy Aura/Mu Sentinel Giga.Watt up to 50. I find Electric Blast is just so good on Sentinels. I am running 4 single target attacks and 4 aoes counting the nuke.  All the AOEs are 10 targets and all are radial. Energize comes online at level 10 which means you are not dealing with endurance woes as long as you are exemped past level 10.

 

All my powers have good DPA and Giga.Watt is a team player. I generally don't build soloers nowadays because that isn't what I want from COH. If I want to be alone I just gather badges.

 

 

 

 

 

Agree 100% Electric Blast IMO is best on Sentinels. It really shines there. 

[WuTang]

On 10/25/2024 at 11:07 AM, Teklord said:

I used Halloween to level my Electric Blast/Energy Aura/Mu Sentinel Giga.Watt up to 50. I find Electric Blast is just so good on Sentinels. I am running 4 single target attacks and 4 aoes counting the nuke.  All the AOEs are 10 targets and all are radial. Energize comes online at level 10 which means you are not dealing with endurance woes as long as you are exemped past level 10.

 

All my powers have good DPA and Giga.Watt is a team player. I generally don't build soloers nowadays because that isn't what I want from COH. If I want to be alone I just gather badges.

 

 

 

 

TL is a beast...can't speak for his weak ass (j/k) Sentinel but my man knows how to play.

 

Seriously though, Sentinels do get a bad rap, I think. I've played on many teams where the Sentinel did very well. My kid built a decent Ele/Fire Sent and he's an asset every time we've rolled an ITF together. But I hear the same type of remarks about Brutes, why build one when there are Tankers and Scrappers... In the right hands any AT is powerful. The wrong hands are obviously the naysayers.

[Heatstroke]

10 hours ago, WuTang said:

Seriously though, Sentinels do get a bad rap, I think. I've played on many teams where the Sentinel did very well. 

 

This is one of the reasons that I started this post originally. Many people give Sentinels a bad rap. What I have found is that when I am playing depending on which Sentinel I am playing I can fill in a role very nicely.  Damage Dealer. Debuffs, Depending on build can take an Alpha if needed and probably survive.  Most of my build have a good mix of Single Target and AoE. Some of the build have some holds to help with locking down annoying things like Sappers and annoying LT's in mobs.. 

Being multi faceted is NOT a bad thing. 

[biostem]

I have 2 sentinels that are an absolute joy to play, (Dark Blast/Super Reflexes and Dual Pistols/Ninjitsu).  Once I got them properly IO'd-out, I could lead from the front as well as even contributing a little support via the fire or elec APPs.  I find that, despite lacking any hard taunt abilities, being sturdy enough to go in first and attack distant enemies really plays into this "lead from the front" approach!  If I had to leverage one complaint against them, it's that most of their APPs/PPPs merely offer more attacks, and not enough utility/support powers, (though I suppose the addition of a few more cone/AoE attacks is nice)...

Edited October 30 by biostem

[Benchpresser]

Working on my 4th Sent currently.  I 50'ed a DP/WP, Elec/Elec and a Archery/Ice.  My newest is a DP/SR called Hardboiled, I have to say I forgot how easy it was to IO a SR toon... loving it!  Next up after him would be a Stone/Stone Sentinel... something about stoneblast is soo satisfying

[Wolfboy1]

On 10/29/2024 at 9:27 PM, biostem said:

I have 2 sentinels that are an absolute joy to play, (Dark Blast/Super Reflexes and Dual Pistols/Ninjitsu).  Once I got them properly IO'd-out, I could lead from the front as well as even contributing a little support via the fire or elec APPs.  I find that, despite lacking any hard taunt abilities, being sturdy enough to go in first and attack distant enemies really plays into this "lead from the front" approach!  If I had to leverage one complaint against them, it's that most of their APPs/PPPs merely offer more attacks, and not enough utility/support powers, (though I suppose the addition of a few more cone/AoE attacks is nice)...

 

Oh yeah, I found out the joys of a Dark/SR Sent not to long ago...as an incarnate and IO'ed out Sent he is a flying BEAST!  Damage wise may be a bit low but man...he just does not worry about being hit at all and just can stay there and fire off one attack after another to whittle down the mobs and just not worry.  Love him!