Does anyone know why TOR decided to redefine the Sentinel?

[Sylriana]

Admittedly this is a sort of pointless topic, but I've been a bit curious on this subject for a bit and wanted to know if anyone had any opinions or insight.

 

Basically, in KOTOR ( and after some research, the EU in general ) the Jedi Sentinel was the halfway point between the martial focus ( Jedi Guardian ) and the force focus (Consular) with an occasionally noted increased willingness to learn and use common tech... essentially the star wars equivalent of a fantasy setting's battle mage.

 

In TOR though, the sentinel is redefined as the balls-to-the-wall killyoudead lightsabers specialist, and the battle-mage title instead goes to the Shadow (which is apparently a subtype of Sentinel in some versions of other things.)

 

Not sure where I was going with this post.. but.. yeah.

[gtmach]

I think it delves down to the point of Guardian sounding like you guard people, hence it's a tank.

 

My only issue was that I never understood the justification for the lightsaber variants. In all honestly a Jedi uses whatever blade feels right. Dual sabers is just as melee damaging as double bladed. Why a sentinel only uses 2 blades is beyond me.

 

Tag that along with how a Jedi Shadow, a stealther, uses a double bladed lightsaber. I mean that's as flashy and unstealth-like as you can get.

 

But whatever. I love the game and all its quirks.

[Keihryon]

Personally, I wish the Shadow/Assassin wasn't gimped if they chose to use a 1 handed blade.

I don't think IA's are gimped besides the little extra max damage they get with a sniper rifle over a blaster rifle. of course, I only got a Sniper to 20 and don't know if they get any skills that require a sniper rifle, but so far he hasn't. Same isn't true for a Shadow.

[Loriqquin]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GameplayAndStorySegregation

[Quething]

Probably to make life simpler on themselves.

 

The Guardian/Sentinel/Consular thing was invented for KotOR I, to map the traditional warrior/rogue/mage format onto the "Jedi" concept, so that an RPG that made you play as a Jedi could cover those three basic roles. You had your combat-focused tanky class, your skill-focused stealth class, and your glass cannon magic class. These were pretty easy to implement because those are roles that RPG developers have been working with for decades, and they only had to be balanced against each other. They didn't have to implement two different playstyles for Soldier and Guardian, because the whole point was to seamlessly transition from one to the other.

 

In SWtOR, you don't go from one class to another. You pick one and stick with it. Non-Jedi have to stand equal to Jedi. That means that every class has to have a unique playstyle, every class has to have a unique storyline, every class has to have a different set of mechanics in order to feel interesting and reward the player for their choice. Sticking with the KotOR system of scout/smuggler/soldier for non-Force users and guardian/sentinel/consular for force users would mean *six* storylines per faction, *six* separate energy mechanics, *six* different primary stats and thus gear tables...

 

They saved themselves all that work by making Sentinel and Guardian into subclasses of the Jedi Knight. And indeed, Sentinels still fill the traditional "rogue" slot of the Force users (which in a skill-less, combat-only game means moderate suvivability, high single-target melee DPS), while Guardians still fill the traditional "warrior" role (high survivability and either tanking or melee DPS. Though traditionally we should be better at melee AoE). Now, Shadows are a bit of a weird case - Shadow/Watchman are the two advanced versions of the Sentinel path, and as stealth users obviously still a rogue class, no idea what the tank thing is all about - but you can't split two classes into three, you have to go to four, and I suppose Force-based stealth probably makes more sense from a Consular than a Knight.

 

 

All that said, if your Sentinel/Shadow isn't rolling yellow saber crystals as soon as you can get them no matter how many blues/greens the game feeds you as quest rewards, I judge you.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Quething

[Jorander]

Probably to make life simpler on themselves.

 

The Guardian/Sentinel/Consular thing was invented for KotOR I,

 

It was around quite some time before then. We saw the gaurdian and consular appear as classes as early as the first d20 version of the SW RPG, and shortly after that, I believe before, or concurrently with KotOR, we got Saga Edition, which included the Sentinel.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Jorander

[ToEasy]

I asked the same question. I really don't understand why they did this but what ever.

[tausra]

I think it all comes down to BioWare needing a name for the advanced class and not wanting to further complicate the lore. So they swapped their perspective on the Sentinel, while only fudging the lore a little.

 

Sentinels were always the middle ground guys who did the grunt work of rooting out the dark side and protecting parts of the galaxy. Well now change the perspective, the Sentinels were the guys who were on the frontlines during the first wave of the Sith Invasion. These people worked the same sectors their whole lives, until the Sith came. They pillaged planets and slaughtered people the Jedi worked with. Jedi shouldn't give into emotion, but how could they not be angry? Now the Sentinels are different, they're militarized and ready to reclaim what was taken and avenge the fallen.