Possibly Sentinel?!!!?

[Snarky]

This is a weird one for me.  I am trying to mesh my “fictional vampire” from some bad fiction i write with a workable AT from CoH/V.  The problems are many.  The close calls fall around me like artillery shells in no man’s land. Which one will be mine?

 

I started with Brutes.  After a long time on a Dark/Invul i was encouraged to try Dark Dark.  It was a good suggestion.  A very good representation. Tough, a self Rez, very Dark.  No ranged powers.  Fury.  A slave to the CoH melee/agro box and 7 ft attacks.  
 

Tanks.  More survivable than Brutes.  Less damage. Still melee
 

Scrapper less and more

 

Stalker ditto
 

A Corruptor.  So damned close.  Healing others?   Squishy. Sigh, so damned close.  
 

A Blaster!   So much sweet sweet damage.  No self rez.  Kind of…. Let’s just say not sturdy.  
 

A Dominator!   So cool, decent ST ranged damage, controls to not be as squishy.  Hmmm.  Wait, what? Domination and Dark build up are both rainbow effects?   Can we just leave it out for the sun.  Let it die, just let it die.  
 

A Controller.  Very cool. Very Dark.   Very cool.  No self rez, squishy, no damage.  
 

A Defender.  It is like a Corruptor.  Just… okay, moving on.  
 

Hmmm.   Now I will own up to smack talking Sentinels.  But….   It has toughness.  Not like a Tank, but enough for story.  Self rez.  Okay.  Spell caster, ranged damage and things like Darkest Night ( Dark^3 ) Hmmm.  Damn thing checks off every box from short story.  
 

Anyone know if this Sentinel thing has rainbows coming off its Dark powers or if Netherworld Tentacles are white like Blaster/Soul Patron/ Soul Tentacles, or some other rainbow, bright glow, pretty princess BS?   

Edited April 27 by Snarky

[Glacier Peak]

The VEATs are exactly what you're looking for - especially the Arachnos Widow. It's got better than Sentinel ranged and AoE damage, it's got Tank-levels of damage mitigation, it's got lockdowns and soft-controls, and you'll be able to solo +4/8 all content in the game or add fantastic buffs to any team with double stacked leadership buffs.

 

Arachnos Widow can also be male.

 

Edited April 27 by Glacier Peak
Oops I added Melee in my initial post

[Lines]

No rainbows on a sentinel. A crosshair will appear around whomsoever you deem fit to fall prey to your dark biddings.

[Clave Dark 5]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

A Blaster!   So much sweet sweet damage.  No self rez.

I've been told this is a great power (more dmg, it heals, you can rez!), and it's one anyone can get to taking if they want.  I've got it in the build for my current Dom, but haven't leveled high enough to get it and try it yet though:  https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Unrelenting  Maybe someone else here qualified can talk more about it - maybe even you!

[MonteCarla]

Sentinels get a big glowing crosshair under their targets when their Inherent kicks in. You can't customise it and it could be as immersion-breaking as the Domination rainbow.

[Xaddy]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

A Blaster!   So much sweet sweet damage.  No self rez.  Kind of…. Let’s just say not sturdy.  

I believe Rise of the Phoenix is available from the epic pool for blasters if self-rez is what you seek. They even changed it so you can use it before you die. The closer you are to defeat, the stronger the attack. (but if you die, my guess is you have to wait for it to recharge before you use it. 

But, Glacier Peak could be on to an avenue you should explore. The VEAT. Someone who's a fan of redside such as you, it just makes sense to try one out before you look at a Sentinel. But that's just my worthless opinion. 

Edited April 27 by Xaddy

[Scarlet Shocker]

5 hours ago, Snarky said:

A Controller.  Very cool. Very Dark.   Very cool.  No self rez, squishy, no damage.  
 

 

Please...

 

try a Dark/Poison controller. No self-rez but those are less than necessary these days with P2W and bonus stuff. You will be very pleasantly surprised, it can be made to fit with your theme and is surprisingly robust. Don't eschew the T8 Poison hold - it's a good mule and stacks with your other abilities. You will kill stuff you find surprisingly difficult to kill on other ATs.

 

You can also PVP exceptionally well. (Not sure if that's a USP that grabs you but it does mean you can adventure in PVP zones with confidence and do things like getting nukes & shivans without fear)

[Snarky]

21 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

Please...

 

try a Dark/Poison controller. No self-rez but those are less than necessary these days with P2W and bonus stuff. You will be very pleasantly surprised, it can be made to fit with your theme and is surprisingly robust. Don't eschew the T8 Poison hold - it's a good mule and stacks with your other abilities. You will kill stuff you find surprisingly difficult to kill on other ATs.

 

You can also PVP exceptionally well. (Not sure if that's a USP that grabs you but it does mean you can adventure in PVP zones with confidence and do things like getting nukes & shivans without fear)

I do not, ever ever ever PvP.  Unless you play chess.  I am a moderately grumpy 1600-1700 player.  
 

it HAS to be Dark Dark. Preferably Dark Dark Dark.  Is there a 4th Dark.  I am being told just my attitude.  Okay, I will work on 4th Dark.  

[Snarky]

Okay... What am I missing?  I know they buffed Sentinel damage a while back.  But the MiDs numbers I am seeing do not make sense. Unenhanced MiDs values:

 

                          Blaster     Sentinel

Dark Blast           62.56       61.17

Gloom                110.1       107.7

Umbral Torrent   60.06        58.72

Abyssal Gaze      132.7       129.7

Life Drain            102.6       100.3

Blackstar             250.2       194.6

 

Am I being catfished by MiDs?  These are fresh open no hidden buttons clicked "naked" MiDs numbers....     

[Jiro Ito]

Nobody said Warshade, so, Warshade?  Dark energy damage.  Armors.  Tank mode.  Ranged damage.  Self rez.  Steal essence self-heal.  Steal essence self-HP buff.  Steal essence self-rez.  Explode dead enemies.  Steal essence to create pet.  Steal essence self-endurance.  Pretty vampiric.

[BjorJlen]

   Hmmm... I honestly did not think a Warshade did all of that via stealing essence. How dependant on enemy's is it (like is a single enemy enough for it)? I think I'm going to have to do a bit more research on the matter here (anyone got a good one or two places to start by chance?).

   And Snarky, those Mids numbers sorta look right to me, though I am no expert. Looking at them though like you listed, sorta makes me wonder why some would rather play a Blaster then a Sentinel (besides the range difference of course, which IS annoying). I mean, with the exception of Blackstar (with it's 55.6 difference), the rest is only a few pts difference. In the long run, sure that can be a factor, but in the mid & short run I wouldn't think so. In either case, I'd be interested in seeing what you wrote as its the basis on what you want to make. Might give me (and us too?) a better idea on what you are shooting for (visually I mean, instead of just Dark, Dark, Dark, and... Dark 😁)...

   Ohhh, and if anyone can come up with a 4th Dark, my bet is on you Snarky... 😉

[Sovera]

You can also NOT use your Sentinel inherent and not have the crosshair show up if it breaks immersion.

 

As for the raw numbers they don't tell half the tale. What ever you may think you're seeing the Sentinel will do half the Blaster's damage in practical terms, further compounded by the icky target cap.

 

This gap is shortened by the fast nuke allowing to have it at each spawn unlike a Blaster.

[FupDup]

2 minutes ago, BjorJlen said:

And Snarky, those Mids numbers sorta look right to me, though I am no expert. Looking at them though like you listed, sorta makes me wonder why some would rather play a Blaster then a Sentinel (besides the range difference of course, which IS annoying). I mean, with the exception of Blackstar (with it's 55.6 difference), the rest is only a few pts difference. In the long run, sure that can be a factor, but in the mid & short run I wouldn't think so.

Those numbers can all be verified in City of Data as accurate. Snarky posed this question on the Sentinel forum and this is how I answered it:

 

Most of the gap between Blaster and Sent comes from these factors: 

• Blasters get way more melee attacks (Sents only get 1 in their epics) and the game favors melee over ranged
• Most of the Sentinel sniper replacement powers are a bit weaker DPA-wise than their Blaster quicksnipe counterparts (Zapping Bolt is actually stronger than Zap but that's an outlier)
• Blasters get a stacking damage buff from Defiance
• Lower target caps on most AOE powers

To answer Snarky's question for this thread, as to whether he wants to try a Sent, that does indeed depend on what he's looking for. Sents are in a weird spot where they don't have a strong focused specialty at one specific thing like most ATs do. Rather, they're more of an all-rounder that is decently good at several things. Some have likened them to "Ranged Brutes" in that kind of way (Brutes sort of sit between Scrappers and Tankers rather than specializing). Sents are self-sufficient and adaptable with a focus on mostly ranged but with a bit of melee mixed in via their epic pools and certain primary/secondary sets (including Dark). 

 

For those familiar with Battletech/Mechwarrior, I would compare them to a medium or a lighter heavy class Battlemech. Or maybe someone like Soldier 76 from Overwatch, The Soldier from TF2, etc. 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Jiro Ito said:

Nobody said Warshade, so, Warshade?  Dark energy damage.  Armors.  Tank mode.  Ranged damage.  Self rez.  Steal essence self-heal.  Steal essence self-HP buff.  Steal essence self-rez.  Explode dead enemies.  Steal essence to create pet.  Steal essence self-endurance.  Pretty vampiric.

vampire, not squid.  HP Lovecraft Call of Cthulu weirds out even old vampires....

[BjorJlen]

Snarky...
   You can always choose not to use the other forms you know. Just go Human Warshade all the way is all (or in your case, a Vampire Warshade... Hmmm, come to think of it, that IS an interesting concept...). You can do it!!! 😛

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Okay... What am I missing?  I know they buffed Sentinel damage a while back.  But the MiDs numbers I am seeing do not make sense. Unenhanced MiDs values:

 

                          Blaster     Sentinel

Dark Blast           62.56       61.17

Gloom                110.1       107.7

Umbral Torrent   60.06        58.72

Abyssal Gaze      132.7       129.7

Life Drain            102.6       100.3

Blackstar             250.2       194.6

 

Am I being catfished by MiDs?  These are fresh open no hidden buttons clicked "naked" MiDs numbers....     

 

Umbral Torrent is 78.3 for sentinels.  The rest is correct (amazingly).

 

What happened to your Dark/Invulnerability sentinel?

[Snarky]

8 minutes ago, Sovera said:

You can also NOT use your Sentinel inherent and not have the crosshair show up if it breaks immersion.

 

As for the raw numbers they don't tell half the tale. What ever you may think you're seeing the Sentinel will do half the Blaster's damage in practical terms, further compounded by the icky target cap.

 

This gap is shortened by the fast nuke allowing to have it at each spawn unlike a Blaster.

I get the icky target cap, but I was considering Doms pretty seriously (rebuilt one with all purples) until I ran it for 5 minutes and remembered why I stopped.  F-ing rainbows.  Rainbows?  On a Villain AT?  Seriously???

 

But why is Sentinel damage half, when I can clearly see the ST DPS (on paper) looks very close to a Blaster ST DPS?

[Snarky]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Umbral Torrent is 78.3 for sentinels.  The rest is correct (amazingly).

 

What happened to your Dark/Invulnerability sentinel?

not dark enough

 

[Sovera]

4 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I get the icky target cap, but I was considering Doms pretty seriously (rebuilt one with all purples) until I ran it for 5 minutes and remembered why I stopped.  F-ing rainbows.  Rainbows?  On a Villain AT?  Seriously???

 

But why is Sentinel damage half, when I can clearly see the ST DPS (on paper) looks very close to a Blaster ST DPS?

 

Didn't we have a whole thing a few days ago because someone looked at Brawl in Mids and though it was a viable skill? Mids is great (long live the Mids god devs and may their pantheon last a thousand years) but it does not give a whole picture.

 

Regardless with double XP and all it's not a big problem to spin one alt up. And let me know when because I haven't made that character on whatever server you're playing.

[Snarky]

5 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

Didn't we have a whole thing a few days ago because someone looked at Brawl in Mids and though it was a viable skill? Mids is great (long live the Mids god devs and may their pantheon last a thousand years) but it does not give a whole picture.

 

Regardless with double XP and all it's not a big problem to spin one alt up. And let me know when because I haven't made that character on whatever server you're playing.

i actually have a 50 dark dark sentinel stripped and parked in the garage.  (and no one was surprised)

 

i just spun this crazy build on MiDs and am starting the respec on it right now in my base enhancer/parts dept.  

 

 

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.01.mbd

Edited April 27 by Snarky

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

i actually have a 50 dark dark sentinel stripped and parked in the garage.  (and no one was surprised)

 

i just spun this crazy build on MiDs and am starting the respec on it right now in my base enhancer/parts dept.  

 

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.01.mbd 42.87 kB · 1 download

 

 

You could work in Tough and be at the S/L cap, and then move some slotting towards more E/N.

 

No Gaussian in Aim either? Boo!

 

You have no Hover or Combat Jumping so you're just using Sprint for combat mobility? If you like Mystic Flight that's fine though, but consider Hover + Fly and then an aura from the tailor for fancy glyphs, mebbe?

 

You can boost your nuke by triple proccing it which one of the few times I recommend it since Sentinels need the help. It would go from 666 (I see wut you did there!) to 774. You do lose the global accuracy but according to Mids you grossly overcapped, so much so the Kismet can go and still be at 150%+ against +3 enemies. I'm trying to find out where this coming from (found it, you had the useless Decimation proc slotted in and it was messing the numbers). The Sentinel nukes only need damage, endurance and recharge, and then triple procs, because accuracy is handled by Aim. Because of Aim slotting any accuracy is a waste unless doing high level plays of alternating Aim and nuke due to how fast the team is going.

 

Honestly you don't need both Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom considering how bad both are (you can fear and stun minions, not even lieutenants) though I suppose you could keep Oppressive Gloom and stack it with Abyssal Gaze to hold bosses, assuming you even go into melee and stay there. But this can definitely be a theme/aesthetic thing so fair.

 

Splitting the ATOs is really minimal IMO. Sure 20% range, but, heh. There is no point in 6 slotting Dark Blast since you're not building for E/N defenses anyway, but there is also no point in allocating a damage proc since it's a T1 and they are terribad for damage procs. That frees a slot that can go to Aim and the missing Gaussian.

 

 

I'm leery to mess with it too much since the build seems to be a lot about theme but perhaps you can use something from this:

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.01.mbd

 

The last 5% for S/LN from Barrier.

 

Edited April 27 by Sovera

[Luminara]

9 minutes ago, Snarky said:

But why is Sentinel damage half, when I can clearly see the ST DPS (on paper) looks very close to a Blaster ST DPS?

 

Sentinel cones are limited to 5 targets, instead of 10.  Sentinel AoEs are limited to 10 targets, instead of 16.  Sentinels are scrappers with ranged attacks.  That's why they have the same AoE restrictions as melee archetypes.

Pay the complaint about damage no mind.  It's bullshit, because a blaster clone with 96% of blaster damage, full-blown damage mitigation, including status protection, and the same target limits as blasters would so utterly and completely obviate blasters that no-one with more than two brain cells would ever play a blaster.

[Snarky]

5 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

 

You could work in Tough and be at the S/L cap, and then move some slotting towards more E/N.

 

No Gaussian in Aim either? Boo!

 

You have no Hover or Combat Jumping so you're just using Sprint for combat mobility? If you like Mystic Flight that's fine though, but consider Hover + Fly and then an aura from the tailor for fancy glyphs, mebbe?

 

You can boost your nuke by triple proccing it which one of the few times I recommend it since Sentinels need the help. It would go from 666 (I see wut you did there!) to 774. You do lose the global accuracy but according to Mids you grossly overcapped, so much so the Kismet can go and still be at 150%+ against +3 enemies. I'm trying to find out where this coming from (found it, you had the useless Decimation proc slotted in and it was messing the numbers). The Sentinel nukes only need damage, endurance and recharge, and then triple procs, because accuracy is handled by Aim. Because of Aim slotting any accuracy is a waste unless doing high level plays of alternating Aim and nuke due to how fast the team is going.

 

Honestly you don't need both Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom considering how bad both are (you can fear and stun minions, not even lieutenants) though I suppose you could keep Oppressive Gloom and stack it with Abyssal Gaze to hold bosses, assuming you even go into melee and stay there. But this can definitely be a theme/aesthetic thing so fair.

 

Splitting the ATOs is really minimal IMO. Sure 20% range, but, heh. There is no point in 6 slotting Dark Blast since you're not building for E/N defenses anyway, but there is also no point in allocating a damage proc since it's a T1 and they are terribad for damage procs. That frees a slot that can go to Aim and the missing Gaussian.

 

 

I'm leery to mess with it too much since the build seems to be a lot about theme but perhaps you can use something from this:

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.01.mbd 43.97 kB · 0 downloads

 

The last 5% for S/LN from Barrier.

 

yeah, in my rush i made about 400 errors.  as i am actually building it i am moving sets around.  

 

1) is decimation really that bad? (i moved it to t1 blast)

2) am at 60% S/L without tough and no easy way to get it in.

3) traditionally i have mystic flight on nearly all the time on all toons.  not the fastest, not the slowest.  and do you really want to get there 1st on a Sentinel lol?

4) yeah the cloaks are a theme.  and surprisingly effective at damage mitigation.  1 attack not made on me is gold  i need to be in PB range quite a lot for Nuke. and sustain

5) i split for range because i like the range/acc better than the 4-6 bonuses

 

revised build:

 

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.40.mbd

[Sovera]

2 minutes ago, Snarky said:

yeah, in my rush i made about 400 errors.  as i am actually building it i am moving sets around.  

 

1) is decimation really that bad? (i moved it to t1 blast)

2) am at 60% S/L without tough and no easy way to get it in.

3) traditionally i have mystic flight on nearly all the time on all toons.  not the fastest, not the slowest.  and do you really want to get there 1st on a Sentinel lol?

4) yeah the cloaks are a theme.  and surprisingly effective at damage mitigation.  1 attack not made on me is gold  i need to be in PB range quite a lot for Nuke. and sustain

5) i split for range because i like the range/acc better than the 4-6 bonuses

 

revised build:

 

 

Sentinel Dark Dark Dark 2024 v1.40.mbd 43.08 kB · 0 downloads

 

Decimation itself is full of nice bonuses. The proc is complete and utter garbage.

[FupDup]

10 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Sentinel cones are limited to 5 targets, instead of 10. 

Sent cones are normally 6, not 5. Random example: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=sentinel_ranged.assault_rifle.buckshot&at=sentinel

 

There are a few oddball 10-target cones like Full Auto, Siren's Song, and various epic pool powers. 

Edited April 27 by FupDup