Normalize Sentinel's power attack ranges

[Mystoc]

I am so used to playing other ranged archetypes and being able to do single target attacks into targeted AoE ones and vise versa from the same range. Its muscle memory at this point for me when playing a ranged class to chain attacks this way which is why it feels so clunky having this be different on sentinel. making targeted AoE attacks 60 yards instead just 40 yards seems like the ideal fix to me.

 

all other targeted AoE attacks on other archetypes match their single target range. Defender Corrupter Blaster you name it they don't have less range on their targeted AoE attacks so why does sentinel?

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5 by Mystoc

[Mystoc]

first time I have received no response on a topic, does that mean no one feels strongly enough either way on this to comment anything?

[FupDup]

52 minutes ago, Mystoc said:

first time I have received no response on a topic, does that mean no one feels strongly enough either way on this to comment anything?

Sentinels are an unpopular AT, so discussions about them tend to slip through the cracks unless those discussions are shitting on them. 

 

On to the topic, yeah it'd be nice for quality of life but the power devs seem to think that the armor secondary is super omega extremely powerful, which caused them to place a lot of extra limitations on their primary and inherent powers that most other AT's don't need to deal with. 

 

Another thing is that many of these AOEs do actually have shorter range even on the other ATs. Like Flamethrower and Buckshot are also 40ft on Blasters for example. Fistful of Arrows is 50 ft. Some go out to 60ft, some go all the way out to 80ft, it's pretty inconsistent. So if we normalized all of them to 60 on Sents, this would actually have Sents out-ranging the other ATs in some cases.

 

To avoid that, I think the rule should instead be that they're allowed to share the same range as the normal version capped up to 60 feet max for most sets and 75 for Psi (because Psi has extended range). 

Edited October 5 by FupDup

[Psyonico]

39 minutes ago, FupDup said:

Like Flamethrower and Buckshot are also 40ft on Blasters for example.

These are all cones, he specifically mentioned Targeted AoEs, which, to my knowledge, are normalized to 80 feet on non-sentinels

[FupDup]

6 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

These are all cones, he specifically mentioned Targeted AoEs, which, to my knowledge, are normalized to 80 feet on non-sentinels

Since cones take the same TAOE enhancement sets, my brain lumped them all together. 

 

It looks like rain-type powers are only 60 feet on non-Sents but most of the others do tend to be 80 except for a few nukes (90 Meteor and Rain of Arrows, 60 Thunderous Blast and Blizzard). 

Edited October 5 by FupDup

[Mystoc]

1 hour ago, Psyonico said:

These are all cones, he specifically mentioned Targeted AoEs, which, to my knowledge, are normalized to 80 feet on non-sentinels

 

Yes exactly what I mean exclude cones but make TAoE match the ST powers range which would be 60 yards.

 

the reason I think it would be a good change is anyone who is already used to ranged combat is used to being able open with any of the two power types and then using the other, sentinel being the one outlier on this makes using its ranged powers just feel super awkward and clunky.

Edited October 5 by Mystoc

[Luminara]

57 minutes ago, Mystoc said:

yards

Feet.

 

And the AoE ranges are shorter for the same reason the target caps are lower, to provide a measure of parity with scrapper AoE capability.

[Mystoc]

4 minutes ago, Luminara said:

And the AoE ranges are shorter for the same reason the target caps are lower, to provide a measure of parity with scrapper AoE capability.

 

at the price of making the combat awkward compared to every other ranged archetype they do this? you play any other ranged class and are used to flow of combat bet then get mismatched ranges on sentinel. If they really need to curve sentinel AoE power mismatched range is not the way to do it.

 

scrapper is just played way more than sentinel by a huge margin, and I know that if sentinels TAoE suddenly had 60 range this fact would not change. Some people just prefer ranged combat better then melee that is why sentinel is picked over scrapper, if you compare them in any other way scrapper just comes out on top.

 

 

[FupDup]

1 hour ago, Mystoc said:

 

at the price of making the combat awkward compared to every other ranged archetype they do this? you play any other ranged class and are used to flow of combat bet then get mismatched ranges on sentinel. If they really need to curve sentinel AoE power mismatched range is not the way to do it.

 

scrapper is just played way more than sentinel by a huge margin, and I know that if sentinels TAoE suddenly had 60 range this fact would not change. Some people just prefer ranged combat better then melee that is why sentinel is picked over scrapper, if you compare them in any other way scrapper just comes out on top.

 

 

What Lumi is referencing is a past statement by one of the power devs that Sentinels were designed as "ranged Scrappers" rather than an "armored Blaster" or whatever. This design philosophy is likely the root of most issues faced by the AT. Even with that supposed design philosophy, most people rightfully still compare Sents to Blasters and other ranged ATs because the entire reason Sents were created in the first place was to provide a ranged blasting playstyle paired with the safety of armor. 

 

Sentinel AOE power was already curved pretty massively by reducing their target caps to mirror those of melee ATs, so including the range reduction on TAOE's is just another layer of annoyance on top of that (multi-layered interlocking nerfs is a staple of Sentinel kit design it seems). 

[Uun]

I tend to play to the lowest common denominator. If my shortest attack range is 40 ft, I'll fight at that distance or closer. All my sentinels have at least 2 PBAoE attacks, so I drop into melee range quite a bit and drop back for the cones. 

 

Note, both the sentinel ATOs have +10% range as a set bonus.

[tidge]

17 hours ago, Mystoc said:

first time I have received no response on a topic, does that mean no one feels strongly enough either way on this to comment anything?

 

I disagree with the suggestion. I have plenty of non-Sentinels with a number of different ranges in attacks.

 

My personal opinion is that Sentinels have some longer ranged single-target attacks (than their cones/what-not) to hit enemies that run away from them, not to snipe at a distance or do things like "hover-blast".

[Mystoc]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

 

I disagree with the suggestion. I have plenty of non-Sentinels with a number of different ranges in attacks.

 

My personal opinion is that Sentinels have some longer ranged single-target attacks (than their cones/what-not) to hit enemies that run away from them, not to snipe at a distance or do things like "hover-blast".

 

to be clear I am not asking for cones to be changed they consistently have lower range across all archetypes so should stay that way.

 

what I ask you to do is look at targeted AoE attacks you will see 99% of them have ranges that match their single target range. they are outliers you can find but very few, the standard practice for ranged powersets is for ST and TAoE's to have the same range.

Edited October 6 by Mystoc

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Mystoc said:

What I ask you to do is look at targeted AoE attacks you will see 99% of them have ranges that match their single target range. they are outliers you can find but very few, the standard practice for ranged powersets is for ST and TAoE's to have the same range.

 

So you want them all to be lowered to a common value? Why?