Sentinel: A Good Class that's Bad.

[Inraika]

Its a really good class, but its garbage.

 

Why do I say this? I say this in regards to our community and my own personal insight to this class.

 

The sentinel community is far and wide the most divided community on the forums, half believe the class is perfectly fine as is, which it is. The other half believe the class needs some buffs because of how it under-performs, which it does.

 

But that doesnt make much sense now, does it?

 

From what I can gather from the forums and my own personal insight is this.

The class is a powerhouse, capable of rocking the other team with high DPS and is able to top damage in a lot of cases, yet, this is very situational.

 

The sentinels damage is fine, we currently have some of the best in the game, however we have little else.

 

We are more or less a situational class, with a healer we have both the damage and survivability that can lead us to great things, but without it we die easily, in a lot of situations. In groups the same thing occurs. With the focus tree we have some of the best AOE and damage, and if we are not being targeted, we dominate. Yet while being solo, it is hard for us to escape and survive.

 

It is not our damage that needs change, its something else. Let me give you a bit of a personal experience.

 

The other day my partner was leveling her new Sith Assassin, shes new to these games and wanted to try some PvP, she got in and was having trouble so I decided to show her some pointers to PvP.

 

I was shocked.

 

This class was incredible, while it didnt have quite the damage of my higher level sentinel, it had so many more options while being over 20 levels below with over half the skills and only a few points into her tree. Strong CDs, Stuns, knockback, stealth, everything, while also being a hard hitter.

 

This seems balanced, sure, I mean, a lot of of nice options in turn for some damage right? well no.. thats not quite it. The fact that this class has these all these options while it can still dish out damage close to ours is not balanced. With these options it has increased survivability, meaning it is on the field longer, which in turn creates more opportunities for stronger team presence. So in a team setting, this class is much stronger. And this is just one class in the game.

 

The sentinel has the perfect damage, it just needs a little more of something to truly set it on par with the other classes in the game.

I understand we have great CD's, a nice stealth option and a few stuns/roots. But we just need a little buff to push on on par.

 

This isn't even touching on our PvE, which again is very divided amongst the community, I believe our class is played differently then others, while it could be that it is harder, it could be something entirely different, this is up for debate. I believe one of THE MAIN ASPECTS of this is the fact that our class struggles if NOT geared, while with good gear we do fine, seriously, look at the community and those defending the sentinel almost always say they are in full - almost full orange gear, weird huh? However, this is still unbalanced as the majority of the other classes find it easy in normal gear (green, blue.)

 

tl;dr

Sentinel has great damage, it just needs something little to set it on par.

 

So what do you guys think it needs?

Personally, I think our strongest abilities for survival lie in our Force Camo and CD's, if these could be buffed slightly in someway, (perhaps making force camo last longer?) could make us an on par class with the others.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Inraika

[Csdabest]

I do admit. I have seen sent hit 250 300k mark. But everytime I seen it happen they were in a premade where teamwork was there with healers and support and they rocked ****. They increased the DPS because they didnt spend time being dead during the match with the respawning and all that goodness. Their offhand weapon is is poorly scaled with their mainhand weapon compared to other classes. doing roughly around 30% dmg of the main hand AFTER ypu specc 3 skill points into duel weild mastery for a whopping 36% increase which is bearly noticible.(Its not. Its almost as if the skill doesnt work) That means if your main hand is doing 500 then your offhand is doing 150 dmg with the 36% increase. If you didnt have those 3 points specced into it. your offhand would do around 96 damage compared to the 500 damage your main hand does. which is garbage. You might as well have rolled a guardian who at the same time can do around 600 damage w/o the extra lightsaber who gets Sheild generators and usage of heavy armor if they spec in to the DPS category. Now..... That shows Sent do need a buff in damage. But not overral. Just better percentage in their offhand lightsaber to make going pure dps w/ med armor worth it compared to those who DPS tanks w/ heavy armor and sheild generators. Also they need to reroll what the Centering does for each class.

 

Zen for Shi-cho-No cost for Slash technique for duration

Zen for Ataru-Reduces cost for Blade rush and Slash by 1..

 

Which would your rather be in. Zen for ataru doees not compliment the energy damage it does for every successful melee it does Nor does it compliment the 3% accuracy increase for granted armor peircing to do direct damage.

 

Sent class has potention to be a very good glass but they have some things they need to fix.

[John_Locke]

all we needed was heavy armor , but then dps guardians would be silly , so we ended up fked

 

So imo , boldy we need a 10-20% passive damage reduction ...

Edited January 12, 2012 by John_Locke

[HaleTheFreeVoice]

i think our main problem, and this is just my opnion, is that we have like no force powers...like legit powers, i dont even feel like a jedi its pathetic, we have no push or pull, no offensive attacks, i hate how if you want to use the force and be good with a light saber u pretty are shoved into the consular class....a jedi shadow? thats the dumbest class ever, the double bladed attacks (all like 4 of them) or terrible lol and your gear always loooks stupid

[Inraika]

all we needed was heavy armor , but then dps guardians would be silly , so we ended up fked

 

So imo , boldy we need a 10-20% passive damage reduction ...

 

Good move, but I think 20% would be far too much, 10% would be amazing, but if we ever get any, I'd expect more like 5%.

[JCVM]

...

 

Excellent post right there, very much in line with my own observations, having played a Sentinel to level 47 and several other classes in their 30s (with the best pvp gear I could get). Sure, the game should be balanced around level 50 PvP wise, but I am almost there with my Sentinel and I am able to compete with some 50s (unless they clearly outgear me). While my level 30s are not a good representation of what actual PvP is going to be like at 50, it already indicates their considerable utility advantage as opposed to the Sentinel.

 

Almost every other class has either protection capabilities (shields, taunts) or healing capabilities, as well as a range of stuns (in some cases all of these above!!). We don't get any of these. True, our Force Camouflage is amazing, but then pretty much only usable once a fight. Then the Transcendence is great as well, but again it doesn't award medals in PvP for buffing our team mates with extra defence and movement speed, and further doesn't allow for either additional control of the enemy or some sort of cc breaker.

 

What I have noticed is that I can do well with my Sentinel - if I give it every last drop of effort and play with intense focus; and even then, there are many situations where I get outright dominated if sufficient support from my group is lacking. Other classes have less of a hard time, they require less skill to play in order to achieve their potential. In many cases the same amount of effort put into playing other classes allows for notably better results.

 

Finally, I want to touch on the issue of medals/MVPs. Sentinels almost never get MVPs because they neither add protection, nor healing to the team (the occasional MVP for an excellent match is pretty much all we can hope for despite excellent play). That happens although we buff our group with transcendence, are excellent at locking down healers and are capable of delivering some of the best dmg in the team if supported. On top of that, we are very limited in terms of the medals we can achieve - unless you are Biochem (and PvP rewards shouldn't be balanced around having one particular profession) you won't be able to get any healing medals at all. Same goes for protection - and this is despite the fact that we have Rebuke which we can use to shield ourselves, as well as applying transcendence to our entire group to boost their defence (maybe add a medal for us here?). Healers have a similar issue here, they are limited to 3-4 medals despite amazing performance, but at least they get some love with regards to MVP (often attain some of the highest numbers for MVP votes - regardless, their medals awarded should be buffed). Comparing this to the 10-14 medals some of the other classes can reap - even without healing potions - is frustrating (I am sure you all agree here).

 

Bottomline is, we need either a self- and/or group heal other than the watchman self heal from criticals, or some more utility/protection/cc-breaking and applying capabilities so that we are able to compete utility wise in PvP. I would dearly like to see an ability that allows to convert 30 centering into say 20% hp (just enough to get the 2.5k healing medal on level 50) - this ability should be applicable to either oneself, or to group members. Alternatively, one could apply a HoT effect (say 15% of HP over 8 seconds) plus a shield that absorbs 5k or so damage. That way we can get our hands on a protection medal as well as a healing medal to provide us with a little bit more utility balance. Also, please note: This ability wouldn't buff us to an extent where we are OP, because we have to use our centering for it instead of using it for something else. True, it allows us to survive a little longer, and furthermore gives us the ability to be of more use to our team, which I think is something we dearly require - but making this choice comes at a cost of lower burst/damage as we use the centering mechanic to heal/protect (other classes don't have to make that trade off! Or it's a fraction of their main resource mechanic, while 30 centering takes some time to build up, and then it only can be used once).

Edited January 13, 2012 by JCVM

[Tobzzz]

Besides maybe some low level buffs to help the leveling process, the class is perfectly fine at 50. In pvp i destroy people, top damage 90% of the time, and in pve i do insane dmg often pulling agro off tanks. Its a hard class to play in pvp so if u cant handle juggling all the abilities reroll. Properly played sentinels are one of the strongest classes. There are tons 50 imps **** scared of me.

[Inraika]

...

 

I agree with what you said about the medals thing, also the ability to conert 30 centering into a 20% heal is a great idea as well. I believe that would balance a lot, its right up there with a passive upgrade for damage reduction for me.

 

Well said.

[Inraika]

Besides maybe some low level buffs to help the leveling process, the class is perfectly fine at 50. In pvp i destroy people, top damage 90% of the time, and in pve i do insane dmg often pulling agro off tanks. Its a hard class to play in pvp so if u cant handle juggling all the abilities reroll. Properly played sentinels are one of the strongest classes. There are tons 50 imps **** scared of me.

 

Damage is not the problem, we have nothing else, I bet 90% of the time, you're assisted in some way.

[Ruskyandrei]

i think our main problem, and this is just my opnion, is that we have like no force powers...like legit powers, i dont even feel like a jedi its pathetic, we have no push or pull, no offensive attacks, i hate how if you want to use the force and be good with a light saber u pretty are shoved into the consular class....a jedi shadow? thats the dumbest class ever, the double bladed attacks (all like 4 of them) or terrible lol and your gear always loooks stupid

 

I agree with this 100%.

 

I have recently switched from my well geared 50 guardian dps to a sentinel for the added buff options in Ops and groups (Inspiration etc, we had no sentinel).

 

I am finding the class ok, but by no means a jedi. My guardian felt a LOT more like jedi than this. I had force push, i had a nice long saber throw.

 

As a sentinel, I have...... er..... oh right force camouflage... not bad but that's it ? o0

[Xzenthal]

Ye sentinels lacks some flavor. Where are the spinning sword attacks and flashy moves we shoudl atleats get in lack of cool forcepowers? I don't even mind our abilities if we atleast could have some cool looking attacks.

[thegooser]

yeah i am limited to 5 to 6 medals at most if i am lucky. They should deffinatly let us turn centering into a 20% heal with a 1 min cooldown or a 20% heal over 8 seconds.