sentinel Semi-Reworking the Sentinel into a tanky ranged AT (or, really, anything to make Sentinel better)

[tidge]

45 minutes ago, Uun said:

Sentinels have multiple fast cycling PBAoEs/TAoEs in addition to the nuke. Scrappers typically have no more than one.

 

This feels more like an observation that the Blaster primaries were ported to Sentinels instead of the Scrapper primaries.

[Rudra]

51 minutes ago, tidge said:

1 hour ago, Uun said:

Sentinels have multiple fast cycling PBAoEs/TAoEs in addition to the nuke. Scrappers typically have no more than one.

 

This feels more like an observation that the Blaster primaries were ported to Sentinels instead of the Scrapper primaries.

I'm not sure about the purpose of this statement. With modifications, it is the Blaster primaries on Sentinels. Sentinels are basically shorter range Blasters with armor sets rather than manipulation sets. (Edit: And yes, since they get full armor sets, they lose out on the damage and range.)

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Rudra

[tidge]

10 hours ago, Rudra said:

I'm not sure about the purpose of this statement. With modifications, it is the Blaster primaries on Sentinels. Sentinels are basically shorter range Blasters with armor sets rather than manipulation sets. (Edit: And yes, since they get full armor sets, they lose out on the damage and range.)

 

The "statement" is a "no duh, Sentinels have (essentially) Blaster primaries"...yet for me the "Ranged Scrapper" take is more true to my experience. Sentinels don't play like armored Blasters for me... and if I am being honest about my own initial perceptions, trying to play a Sentinel like an armored Blaster was a disappointing experience.

 

"Sentinels are armored Blasters" is one take, but for me... Sentinels and Blasters play very differently. My Blasters tend to be Blappers, and because Blasters are much more fragile, they don't get played like the armored classes. As I wrote earlier... the main playstyle difference between Scrappers and Sentinels is that in fights, Sentinels have a LOT more targets of opportunity compared to Scrappers (because of the 8 ft melee range). Blappers have even more targets of opportunity than Sentinels (longer ranges) but my Blasters are trying to cycle AoE and spawn-wipe before they take too much damage... the armors of the Sentinels mean that they can be a lot more casual, and their poorer damage/AoE (compared to Blasters) makes them feel a lot more like Scrappers who happen to have range > 8 feet.

 

The change to Vulnerability was IMO enough of a re-tinkering for Sentinels. There are a handful of individual powers in sets that I could support being revised, but (writing only for myself) I feel that because Homecoming has been nearly endlessly porting primary and secondary power sets between ATs that many of my perceptions in this spectrum have been dulled... Sentinels get rather ho-hum (less effective) Blaster primaries combined with secondaries that can be 'set and forget'... so I can see why people have different opinions about how to categorize them.

 

EDIT: I suppose I should add this... There is an AT that (to my experience) plays like an "Armored Blaster", the Arachnos Soldier. We don't get much variety in the types of "blasts" with either of the paths obviously. For my feels, a Soldier that focuses on the melee is a lot like a Blaster doing similar from the secondary melee picks, but it is the ranged attacks on the Soldiers that get the job done.

Edited 10 hours ago by tidge