First Sentinels... next Tankmages?

[Rylas]

Let me preface this with the fact that I know not to expect too much anytime soon considering the limited resources the dev team are working with. I'm grateful to even be playing again, and pretty much all I'm doing here is entertaining a hope for down the road.

 

That said, the concept for Sentinels was once considered too OP to think about. But here we are, slightly weaker blasters with slightly weaker Scrapper survival. So, what could be next? A slightly weaker controller version of the Sentinel who have practically no attacks or damage? Are there balance issues that would be too difficult to work around?

[Nostromo21]

I just rolled an ice/ice Sentinel. I don't recall them being in CoX when I stopped playing - are they a new class the SCORE devs have created perhaps...? Or are you just saying these are not viable or underpowered? I also noticed you can get your super travel power at level 4 - wasn't it always 14? :-/

[Trickshooter]

I just rolled an ice/ice Sentinel. I don't recall them being in CoX when I stopped playing - are they a new class the SCORE devs have created perhaps...? Or are you just saying these are not viable or underpowered? I also noticed you can get your super travel power at level 4 - wasn't it always 14? :-/

 

Sentinels were added by SCORE, yes.

 

Travel powers at level 4 was changed in Issue 21, as part of adding 5th powers to every travel pool powerset.

[Charistoph]

A Control/Defense Archetype or Defense/Control Archetype won't fly.  Control as a primary without any other offensive capability would require vastly upgrading the damage or control which would make Controllers jelly, or making it a blast version of the Blaster Secondary (Blapper) of a mix of Blasts and Control which would then make the Sentinal Archetype seem pointless or vice versa.  Control as a Secondary would be so weak that it would be even worse than the Primary.

 

A Defense/Blapper Archetype would be better which mixes melee and control MIGHT work out, but I'd switch the first control power with a basic melee power and move the first control to the second tier of the set.  I think that this would have been a better title of Sentinel (i.e. a guard type), but them's the breaks.

 

Another Archetype to consider would be mixing Blapper and Pets to have a less supportive Mastermind style class, even having it be Blapper/Pets.  It would slow down Pet propagation, but make for an interesting choice setups.  Even a Pet/Blapper could work as well.

 

I just rolled an ice/ice Sentinel. I don't recall them being in CoX when I stopped playing - are they a new class the SCORE devs have created perhaps...? Or are you just saying these are not viable or underpowered? I also noticed you can get your super travel power at level 4 - wasn't it always 14? :-/

 

Towards the last couple of issues, Fitness was made inherent and roughly the same time the other Pools were set up so that you could travel at Level 4.

 

But yeah, Sentinels were never available on NCSoft's servers.  (it may have been in development as part of the i25 stuff?)

[Nostromo21]

Cool thanks guys, I'll persevere with him for a bit longer & go back to my MM main if it all becomes too much (or not enough :).

[Rylas]

Control as a primary without any other offensive capability would require vastly upgrading the damage or control...

 

Aren't Controllers now a control primary without any other offensive capability?

 

A Defense/Blapper Archetype would be better which mixes melee and control MIGHT work out, but I'd switch the first control power with a basic melee power and move the first control to the second tier of the set.

 

I would agree this kind of approach would probably be more viable. Defense/Control-Melee. Maybe Tank Multipliers with Scrapper caps on defensive, and Defender damage multipliers and controller level mez. Limited range powers to keep them very much "in the thick of it".

[Residualshade]

the only thing i would like to see is Melee/Support

 

i want to play Kinetic Melee/Kinetic

[Charistoph]

Control as a primary without any other offensive capability would require vastly upgrading the damage or control...

 

Aren't Controllers now a control primary without any other offensive capability?

 

As a base damage consideration, Control sucks outside the pets and Propel.  It's only when Controllers received their ability to double the damage that they were considered to have any real damage capability.  Before that, only Illusions and Gravity were considered viable because of Illusion's army and Gravity's Propel.  The only reason Dominators are any good is because of their Assault set which provides the bulk of their damage capacity.  Also consider that some of the Support powers are more offensively minded than others.

 

So, 2 powersets which have almost no real damage affects would be rather boring.

[Skele101]

The idea of new archetypes is intriguing. I like Sentinels and think its a great alternative to Blasters and Corrupters. I hope things like this is something they consider continuing to implement. And who knows, perhaps building new power-sets in the future could be fun as well.

 

I have no expectations of this however; the Homecoming team has enough on their plate without attempting to add new features.

[Charistoph]

I have no expectations of this however; the Homecoming team has enough on their plate without attempting to add new features.

 

Agreed.  Currently stability, both electronically and legally, are of the top-most concerns at this point, and should be.  Modification of the system can start being planned once they can keep the servers afloat without 2000 man queues.

[Marshal Valor]

From what I had heard the Sentinel was a Dev AT that never made it into the live game. I had read that it was developed by Paragon Studios but thanks to NC Soft shutting down the game, the Sentinel never saw the light of day.

[Charistoph]

Moving the PowerSets around shouldn't be that hard.  What would be hard is adding in the inherent abilities of the Archetype in question.

[Rylas]

I have no expectations of this however; the Homecoming team has enough on their plate without attempting to add new features.

 

Agreed.  Currently stability, both electronically and legally, are of the top-most concerns at this point, and should be.  Modification of the system can start being planned once they can keep the servers afloat without 2000 man queues.

 

If only had I acknowledged that and clarified this was down the road wishful thinking. Oh wait...

 

Let me preface this with the fact that I know not to expect too much anytime soon considering the limited resources the dev team are working with. I'm grateful to even be playing again, and pretty much all I'm doing here is entertaining a hope for down the road.

 

Lighten up, entertain fun ideas. It's not the worst thing to be doing on the forums.

[Chance Jackson]

Not to derail but I would love a dominator assault with defense sets archetype

[Skele101]

Not to derail but I would love a dominator assault with defense sets archetype

 

Ohh that could be neat. What other archetypes can we think up?

[Reiska]

The main other AT I'd like to see at this point would be one that combines melee sets and support sets.  Don't really care which one is primary and which one's secondary.

[Charistoph]

I have no expectations of this however; the Homecoming team has enough on their plate without attempting to add new features.

 

Agreed.  Currently stability, both electronically and legally, are of the top-most concerns at this point, and should be.  Modification of the system can start being planned once they can keep the servers afloat without 2000 man queues.

 

If only had I acknowledged that and clarified this was down the road wishful thinking. Oh wait...

 

Let me preface this with the fact that I know not to expect too much anytime soon considering the limited resources the dev team are working with. I'm grateful to even be playing again, and pretty much all I'm doing here is entertaining a hope for down the road.

 

Lighten up, entertain fun ideas. It's not the worst thing to be doing on the forums.

 

Lighten up yourself.  Neither one of us were thinking about shutting this thread down, and I guess you missed the part where I put in some analysis on options.  All either one of us did was acknowledge the space we all are currently at.

[Nostromo21]

Why not just go totally freeform, throw ALL of the powersets into one giant pool and let us pick any primary + any secondary...? <EG>

[Rylas]

Why not just go totally freeform, throw ALL of the powersets into one giant pool and let us pick any primary + any secondary...? <EG>

 

Balance issues, more than likely. But back in the day, some people wanted it so that you could pick across powersets within the Archetype primary/secondary. For example, if you were a tanker, you could pick your tier 1 power from Stone Armor, and then pick your tier 2 power from Ice Armor, etc. And interesting idea, but probably just as problematic.

[Venture]

Why not just go totally freeform, throw ALL of the powersets into one giant pool and let us pick any primary + any secondary...? <EG>

 

Balance issues, more than likely. But back in the day, some people wanted it so that you could pick across powersets within the Archetype primary/secondary. For example, if you were a tanker, you could pick your tier 1 power from Stone Armor, and then pick your tier 2 power from Ice Armor, etc. And interesting idea, but probably just as problematic.

 

That I'd like, i've always wanted to see an "Elemental" mage type having a mix of fire, ice, water, earth etc

 

Also can't remember who said it wasn't but Sent is 100% a score creation.

[Chance Jackson]

Not to derail but I would love a dominator assault with defense sets archetype

 

Ohh that could be neat. What other archetypes can we think up?

 

I've been wanting an IDF Epic AT &/or EPP/PPP ever since I saw one of their soldiers had a "macross missile massacre" type power.

 

Now that I think of it dominator assault powerset could be just added to sentinel or melee ATs it doesn't need it's own AT.

[Charistoph]

Why not just go totally freeform, throw ALL of the powersets into one giant pool and let us pick any primary + any secondary...? <EG>

 

One word, Inherents.  Those abilities which are chosen by Archetype can have a huge impact on the game.  Could you imagine the imbalance of a Controller with an Assault Secondary, or with it as a PRIMARY?

[Venture]

you could also totally break a toon...

 

stone armour/kinetics tank

 

he could Siphon speed and run with granite/rooted but wouldn't actually have any attacks...

[Rylas]

Balance issues, more than likely. But back in the day, some people wanted it so that you could pick across powersets within the Archetype primary/secondary. For example, if you were a tanker, you could pick your tier 1 power from Stone Armor, and then pick your tier 2 power from Ice Armor, etc. And interesting idea, but probably just as problematic.

 

That I'd like, i've always wanted to see an "Elemental" mage type having a mix of fire, ice, water, earth etc

 

Also can't remember who said it wasn't but Sent is 100% a score creation.

 

Even that could get overpowered. Sticking with the Tank example, opening up power selection across the tier levels you could have this:

 

Tier 1: [bio] Hardened Carapace – +Res(Lethal, Smash, Toxic, Disorient, Sleep), +Regen

Tier 2: [Elec] Lightning Field – PBAoE DoT(Energy), Foe -End

Tier 3: [bio] Environmental Modification – Self Toggle, +Res(Hold, Knockdown, Immobilize), +Def(Energy, Negative, Fire, Cold, Psionic)

Tier 4: [stone] Mud Pots – PBAoE, DoT(Fire), Foe Immobilize, -SPD

Tier 5: [Rad] Radiation Therapy – PBAoE, Minor DMG(Energy), Minor DoT(Toxic), Foe -Regen, Self +HP

Tier 6: [bio] DNA Siphon – Click, PBAoE Minor DMG(Lethal/Toxic) Foe -Regen, Taunt, Self +HP, +End

Tier 7: [inv] Invincibility – Toggle: PBAoE, Foe Taunt, Self +DEF(All DMG but Psionics), +To Hit

Tier 8: [shield] Shield Charge – PBAoE, Superior DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown

Tier 9: [bio] Parasitic Aura – PBAoE, Self +Absorb, +Regeneration, +Recovery, Foe -DMG, -Speed, -Recharge

 

So not only would I have some enviable survival in defense and some resistance, but I'd have 6 PBAoEs to melt through most mobs groups while debuffing them in multiple ways (as they buffed me in return). It would be overkill. And it only took me 10 minutes to look through the power sets to come up with this. I'm sure someone could make something even crazier.

 

[Wolf Bonne]

I've been messing around on a personal server as it has pretty accessible tools to pick and choose whatever combinations of abilities you want without any limitations. I've always been interested in what a free form, open ended system would look like, and now we actually have the tools to actually play and test most of our pie in the sky ideas. Only limitation is what's in the game, but it happens to include all the wild NPC exclusive abilities as well.

 

I always wanted to be a MasterMind with a melee secondary over a supportive set, and now I have it, and it's great.