Some ideas to spice up the Sentinel Inherent Power

[Runaway]

I realize that I’m late with this, but I haven’t played in 3 years and I chose to make a sentinel when I returned. When playing it, I can’t help but notice how bland the opportunity mechanic feels. Hence this complaint/suggestion post. I've seen that I'm not the only one who feels that Sentinels are not right atm, but still I’m sorry if I’m flogging a dead horse with this.

Why I think the Opportunity/Vulnerability mechanic is bland:

1. The Vulnerability debuff name perfectly describes what it does, but the name + application feels thematically non fitting to me.
2. Vulnerability is a non stackable debuff, which makes it weak in large group settings. Having almost every buff/debuff be stackable has always been one of the things I love about coh, and now there’s this one archetype defining inherent power that doesn’t stack.
3. The opportunity meter might just as well not be there. There’s no way to directly affect it, all one can do is wait for it to fill, which makes it just like a recharge. Vulnerability could have had a 15s up time and 20s unenhanceable recharge and gameplay wise, it would feel almost the same.
4. The application of the inherent is done with an extra button that thematically doesn’t fit within the primary powerset, which is also inconsistent with how inherents of other archetypes work afaik. It seems out of place and tacked on afterwards.

My suggestions:

1. Rename Vulnerability to something more thematic, for example “Opportunity Target”.
2. Stackable “Opportunity Target”, with diminishing returns. Simplified numbers:
   1. 1 stack = 15%
   2. 2 stacks = 23% = 15+8
   3. 3 stacks = 30% = 15+8+7
   4. 6 stacks = 45% = 15+8+7+6+5+4
   5. Every extra stack of “Opportunity Target” after that, increases it with 3%.
   6. The diameter of the visual effect target reticle increases with each stack.
3. A more involved Opportunity Meter:
   1. Increase the “Opportunity Target” duration to 30 seconds.
   2. Setting an “Opportunity Target” costs 100% of the full bar.
   3. Leave the opportunity bar recharge at 60 seconds for going from 0 to 100%.
   4. When your active “Opportunity Target” is killed (it doesn’t have to be by you), then your opportunity bar is fully recharged & the sentinel gets a small stackable buff called “Opportunist”.
   5. “Opportunist” lasts 30 seconds and buffs offence in some small, but not insignificant way. Examples: +10% accuracy/damage/recharge or 15% recharge/speed or ... Exact stats subject to balance calculations + testing.
4. Fit the application of the debuff within the primary powerset:
   1. When the opportunity bar is full, certain (or all?) single target attacks of the primary powerset, will set the current target as the “Opportunity Target” upon initiation of the animation (so before the attack even lands).
   2. The application of the “Opportunity Target” debuff must be done before it lands, so that the attack itself benefits from it. This application is unresistable.
   3. And no more separate incongruent “Vulnerability” skill.

How I imagine this would work gameplay wise:

• If you miss an opportunity, then you’ve got to wait 30 seconds for it to come around again.
• But if you choose your opportunities wisely and don’t waste any, then you can chain them indefinitely & get some nice buffs going.
• In a setting with a tough boss without side mobs, the up time of the defence debuff will be less. But as an upside, more than 2 sentinels will be able to contribute to debuffing the boss. 
• In an aoe dps setting, instead of spreading your single target damage around so that everything dies roughly at the same time, the “Opportunity Target” mechanic + the "Opportunist" buff encourages you to not do that and instead blast down your chosen opportunity target as fast as possible.
• Imo this last point is what would give sentinels a unique playstyle without infringing on the territories of the other archetypes which share the same primary powersets. It can make a playstyle that wouldn’t be optimal for the other archetypes, the optimal playstyle for a sentinel.

 

Not directly related to the opportunity mechanic, I also wish that some of the nerfs to primary attacks were lessened. The much shorter range on aoe attacks feels especially bad on my sentinel, since having a different range for the aoe and for single targets, makes it so that they can’t be part of the same ranged attack cycle. Yes, it makes it so that I play my sentinel play different than I would play a blaster/corruptor/defender with the same powerset, but this has been accomplished in a negative way. There’s a reason why all those attacks had the same range. Sentinels should be encouraged to play differently than blasters by positive reinforcement, not with punishment 😉

[tidge]

On 10/25/2025 at 3:22 PM, Runaway said:

I realize that I’m late with this, but I haven’t played in 3 years and I chose to make a sentinel when I returned. When playing it, I can’t help but notice how bland the opportunity mechanic feels. Hence this complaint/suggestion post. I've seen that I'm not the only one who feels that Sentinels are not right atm, but still I’m sorry if I’m flogging a dead horse with this.

 

I wouldn't criticize a new, returning player for flogging a dead horse, but I definitely think that there may be some lack of perspective from lack of familiarity (with all the other ATs). Sentinels really do have their own niche, so there has to be some tempering of expectations. Specific to Opportunity... it is probably the most reliable and effective debuff in the game available to players... but debuffs generally are not OP... they are most useful against specific targets in specific circumstances. Sentinels already got a rework for Opportunity, and it is IMO in a pretty good place.

 

On 10/25/2025 at 3:22 PM, Runaway said:

Not directly related to the opportunity mechanic, I also wish that some of the nerfs to primary attacks were lessened. The much shorter range on aoe attacks feels especially bad on my sentinel, since having a different range for the aoe and for single targets, makes it so that they can’t be part of the same ranged attack cycle. Yes, it makes it so that I play my sentinel play different than I would play a blaster/corruptor/defender with the same powerset, but this has been accomplished in a negative way. There’s a reason why all those attacks had the same range. 

 

I have numerous Blasters (among other ATs) where the ranged attacks most definitely have different ranges. More than one of these (specifically with Archers/Trick Arrow users) have involved me specifically slotting certain attacks for Range, just to smooth out the differences. [BTW, global range boosts increase the range differences between attacks, even as they raise the minimum range of all attacks] This might be less noticed because Blasters get extra attacks in their secondaries that Sentinels typically don't get.

 

[Runaway]

Vengeance is very strong in certain settings, but it doesn't fit in. My complaint wasn't about the strength of it, but about the way how it is implemented. To me it looks a meta skill, kinda like the p2w attack skills, something tacked on to the game that doesn't fit in with the rest of the game. And for me, finding out that the current opportunity is nothing more than a time based recharge + that the debuff doesn't stack, were also both disappointments. Hence my suggestion for a rework.

 

I've gotten over the range difference by now. On sentinel the attack chain that annoyed me was 60-60-40, while it was 80-80-80 on a blaster, but another power in the set (electrical blast) was then much better than the blaster version. So you give some and you take some, not everything has to stay the same.

[tidge]

On my first Sentinel... I *hated* the shorter ranges. I suspect this was mostly due to my idea at the time that for blast sets "range = survivability"... and partially due to me forgetting that below level 15, there isn't that much difference between how the different ATs play. Once I got that Sentinel above level 20, I was pretty much unphased by the shorter ranges.

 

Personally: I like playing in melee too much to make Sentinels a "first choice" for me. I do enjoy sentinels when I have a concept that wants to lean heavily into the blast primaries for all (or almost all) of my offense. I'd get more offense (obviously) if the Sentinel had something like Scrapper criticals, but that's an inherent I think every AT would like to have.

[LightMaster]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I'd get more offense (obviously) if the Sentinel had something like Scrapper criticals, but that's an inherent I think every AT would like to have.

I would agree with Sentinel getting some sort of crits, but do keep in mind that each crit-esque system works differently in requirement.

• Scrapper’s can be at any time but at up to 10% chance, or 54% max (with the 50% crit proc) with both ATOs.
• Stalker is similar, but guaranteed from Hide and works differently with Assassin’s Strike where you gotta click Primary powers to increase it’s chance of critical hut for that signature power. I also think it also has higher or guaranteed crit if hitting a Sleeping foe.
• Controller have a two-in-one with two split components; the chance-based crit being Overpower where it increases in Magnitude for the mez statuses, and the double damage component where the Controller always double damage is dealt to mezzed enemies in Containment; most of the Controller’s pets can also inflict Containment with a 33% chance.
• Corruptor uses a system similar to Scrapper’s crit called Scourge, but never crits over 50% of max HP, then increasingly have a chance of dealing double damage (or triple in case of Ice Blast’s Blizzard) up to 100% chance at 10% HP or lower. This allows Corruptor to significantly catch up in burst, DoT or even overall damage with the good timing, luck and setup, and makes Scourge immensively effective against bosses with high health such as most AVs. All that with a bigger target cap vs melee ATs, and watch the damage numbers skyrocket.

For Sentinel specifically, I thought of maybe making Vulnerability making the enemy receiving double damage within the first two/three seconds from the Sentinel (or even multiple!) to help with giving Sentinel having higher ST damage.