My thoughts on the game and Sentinels.

[Zotix]

Hey guys, this is my write up currently of my view on the Sentinel. I'm level 50, and have mainly been playing the Watchmen spec. I'm writing this in part to see if others feel the same, and partly to get my thoughts out on to paper. In my opinion, the game feels slightly rushed. There are things that I will talk about that in no way should have made it into retail. I would like to believe that Bioware has a large patch that will be incoming to fix quite a few issues, but couldn't get it out in enough time for release. I will be breaking this down into two sections. The first section is general issues that affect the game as a whole; while the second section will be about Sentinel related issues and my view on them. There might be some overlapping but I will try to minimize it.

 

Issues with the game:

 

1) Extremely long load times. There are issues with this. I'm on a SSD and it can still take the game up to half a minute to load the later levels. Last night, when queuing up for Warzones with friends, one of my friends was on Corellia, and it would take 4+ minutes to load Corellia after coming out of a Warzone. He's on an i7 3.3ghz, 8GB of Ram, 580GTX, no SSD. Load times like this should not be that long. At times it would be faster for him to kill the client, and log in from scratch. There is an issue here with loading the larger zones out of a Warzone. Also, there should be no need to do the loading that the game does after alt-tabbing. Even on my SSD it's 3-4 seconds after alt tabbing to have the game playable again to where I can move my character. That's enough about the load time, as I'm sure everyone has seen it and experienced it, it needs to be improved.

 

2) Player vs Player hit detection. This is the biggest issue for me currently with the game. There is a major issue with landing abilities on other players in PvP. This isn't as noticeable with ranged DPS as it is with melee. I ping 50ms to the server so I know this isn't an issue with connection. As it stands using abilities on players there is an issue with hitting a button and the time it takes for the ability to actually land on a target. It can sometimes be as long as 2 seconds after you press an ability for it to register on a player in a Warzone. This needs to be smoothed out as soon as possible. I'm not the only one noticing this. Every one of my friends has noticed this and it makes PvP feel extremely clunky. Landing interrupts is extremely wonky, as if you don't hit the button in the first half of the cast bar, there is a large chance the ability won't land until after the enemy has finished casting. As I said, this only applies to players; against MOBs this is not an issue.

 

3) Ability being used, using the GCD, but not actually using the ability. This issue is just as damaging as #2, but is not restricted to PvP. There is a bug currently in which you use an ability, it activated the global cool-down, does the animation, doesn't use the ability. No damage is done, and the actual ability cool-down is not applied. This is not the same thing as a miss, or lack of accuracy stat. This bug can also be tied to the double animation bug in which if you use an ability it will do the starting animation twice before completing the whole animation. It is damaging when you have to an ability two, three, sometimes even four times in a row to get it to land. Moving from your spot can help fix it, but not always. It is very damaging on a class that requires an extremely tight rotation to deal damage, when you have to use an ability 2-3 times to get it to work. That's 5-6 seconds of lost time dealing damage. This needs to be corrected ASAP, as it's prevalent in PvE and PvP.

 

 

4) The UI. I do believe we are getting a UI that can be customized, and possibly mods in the future, but it does need to be stated. The UI right now is not good. On a class that requires centering stacks, force generating/ expending, procs, etc. It's too much looking at different areas of the screen and not enough eyes on what is going on, on the actual playable area. This is only one aspect of it. Not being able to move windows around is rough, as well as using the Galactic Trade. You can't view mods in gear while viewing the GT. No searching on the AH is rough as well. One has to believe there is a major overhaul of the GT coming very soon, as it is in a state of shambles currently.

 

5)The size of spaceports, and the time it takes to go from ship to quest hub, and back. This is a long tiring process. It's not bad the first few times you do it, but after that it really starts to get old. Most spaceports are a 30-45 second run just to hit the zone to an orbital station. Then once you've reached the orbital station it's another 15 second run to get to the shuttle that takes you to to your ship. It's the same going from your ship to the first quest hub on a planet. I don't know how people in testing didn't complain about this extensively, as it is long enough to make you notice each time you do it and have it become annoying.

 

 

These issues really hamper the fun I'm having with the game currently. The order of importance is as listed as above. #1 needs to be fixed fast. I can assure you, once the majority of the player base gets into the bigger zones they will get annoyed with long load times. #2 and #3 need to be a huge priority as well. PvP feels clunky currently, there is no other way to describe it. In fact, it's one of the most clunky PvP experiences I've had, and I've played MMO's since 1997 with UO. I do believe with a few tweaks on their end it can be fixed, it doesn't seem like it is impossible to fix, but then again I'm not a video game developer. I do have hope that the issues can be ironed out in the next 2-3 months.

 

 

Issues with the Sentinel:

 

There are issues with the Sentinel, no doubt about it. To what extent and how bad, that's up to the player. My personal take on it is that the Sentinel has a few issues currently. Our CC (or lack of it), dealing with being CC'd, Force generation, and ramp up time. I will explain my thoughts on each. I would also like to state, I am in no way a master of the class, but I have put in 50 levels with the class, and am a veteran of MMO's for 13+ years. My opinion is in no way the way it should be, but this is how I'm viewing the class currently, and what I feel could be changed or altered to make the class a bit better.

 

1) Synergy of abilities. There are abilities that Sentinels get that make me wonder what their logic was in making them. We have two abilities that require incapacitated targets to deal damage, these have little to zero usefulness in PvP. Slightly more-so in PvE. We have a single target channeled stun. This makes no sense whatsoever. They give a Sage a ranged instant stun, and a Sentinel a ranged channeled stun. Sage's should have the channeled stun, and Sentinels should have a 4m instant stun. A ranged channeled stun has zero synergy with our class.

 

2) Dealing with CC from other classes. The game has given certain classes many, many forms of CC. Sentinels have no way to deal with all of this. Force Camouflage and Force leap are our only ways to deal with this. Force leap is a force generator, so it needs to be used often to allow us to even think about dealing damage. If you force leap in, you immediately get knocked back, and snared. Now leap is on cool-down, and no way to get back in there. Huttball is a nightmare for this as the ranged sit up top. Resolute is not enough to deal with CC, especially with the Resolve bar not working at all. You pop Resolute, and are immediately CC'd again either by the same class, or by another class. Sentinels may deal the most potential damage, but if you aren't able to get on a target and stay on them, you have lost DPS. I think having a knight specific CC break, or a CC break that can proc somehow would be very beneficial, and would go a long way.

 

3) Extremely high ramp up time to deal significant damage as well as force generation. I really think that Sentinels need a third force generator. I find myself waiting on force quite a bit when Zealous Strike, and force leap are on cool-down. It also isn't a great idea to have one of possibly two(if specced) gap closers be a major force generator. In order to deal damage you have to use a gap closer, and not have it for when you might actually need it to close a gap. If I leap onto a target, Leg Slash, Zealous Strike, Cauterize, Overload Saber, Merciless Slash or Blade Storm, and then I'm basically hitting strike for the next 4-5 seconds until I can use either Force leap or Zealous Strike again. If I get knocked back it's Force Camo and get out if I get targeted. It's 7-10 seconds before I can even start to deal real damage to people. This also leaves me with very little force for a kick to interrupt or fire off a Riposte.

 

The ramp up time to deal significant damage is way too long IMO. It's 5-6 abilities before you start seeing damage popping up, that's 7-10 seconds. This is further complicated when you encounter the bug that I listed in the first section #3. If you are having to hit an ability 2-3 times before it goes off that's 3-4.5s in global cool-downs alone. This can leave you in a bad spot. Our rotation or Priority of abilities is extremely tight even when everything is going right, there is little wiggle room. When you have to use an ability two or three times before it goes off your entire rotation is screwed. Merciless Slash's cool-down reduction buff can disappear, Master Strike and Overload Saber cool-downs can start to overlap, it get get pretty sloppy really fast.

 

4) Companion issues. At the mid 30's as a Sentinel you get access to a healer companion. This is a much needed boost to our leveling. He allows you churn through packs of MOBs with minimal downtime, compared to without him. About 10 levels later there are issues with him that start to show through, and I'm not sure what has caused them. There are times that "Doc" will not heal you at all. Other times it takes him 10-15 seconds to start healing, other times he will just DPS even if you turn off the DPS abilities. This wasn't apparent at first, but somewhere around Voss I started noticing more and more problems with him. I think the developers need to take a look at his usage of abilities, and why he gets into these DPS over healing loops at times. I do know there is one issue with force leaping to a target, and him being just out of range of healing and just in range to DPS, so he is forced into a DPS mode, and doesn't move into healing mode. This isn't the only issue, but it's one that I have noticed and am able to replicate regularly.

 

I know this is a bit long, but I needed to get my thoughts out and written down. I do enjoy the game aside from these issues, but they need to be fixed in a timely manner. This post is a mix of bugs and issues that I feel hold the class back, and ways I feel that the class can be improved. I appreciate anyone that takes the time to read this in it's entirely and I look forward to any discussion regarding any of my points above. Again, thank you for reading.

[MBirkhofer]

desync is a major issue atm. And it really hurts me as a sent, more then ranged dps/healers in pvp.

 

Desync is when your client and the game don't agree what is going on at the same time.

You leap to a target, and they have moved, so you land where they were, not where they are. you are now out of melee range.

Targets teleporting up and down cliffs.

You hit stasis on a target. it starts casting. They appear to be hit by it. Then magically are out of it, and your stasis is NOT on cooldown. This kind of thing makes managing skills and cooldowns murder, as you are never 100% sure if something actually went off like it should have, when you hit the button. Especially when trying to combo 4-5 abilities in a specific order. And then notice one or 2 never went off.

Edited December 26, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[TheOfficialGOAT]

I agree with your post entirely. When I force leap in and the target has moved this totally nerfs me because we are burst damage and there is little to no way to get back to the target while keeping up focus unless you leap back in (assuming your focus spec using the second leap).

 

The focus generation I can handle and have learned to deal with it but the flaws in the system vs real time combat is absolutely horrible. A target 1m away can evade my 5m AOE? Almost always if I fight on a sloped area my sweep will miss the target whether I'm right on top of them or not. This is a bug I have seen and have experienced in games before.

 

I don't lag much I have a steady connection and fast PC but my channeled stun and AOE stun don't work. I can channel my stun onto a target and he breaks out of or continues to run around while it's being channeled, then I can AOE stun the target and not touch him but yet he comes out of it. This is in 1v1 encounters so damage doesn't break the CC. The CC system on this game is ridiculous, I normally play ranged DPS/CC and I even think its a bit much.

 

Even if they do add some system that prevents instant CC after breaking loose, there will be an exploit to get around it. I have experienced this in games before as well.

 

I don't really have any problems with classes being overpowered in the game, I know some classes are my anti-class and try and avoid them and take what I know I should be doing. Say a healer or ranged DPS. One thing that is ignorant that BW did was make the ranged classes auto face target, this is major in combat as with the current issues with the system. If one class has it all should, seems as if they tried to sneak that in there while developing the game. You wouldn't want to think a logical person would make few classes do this and others not.

 

The GCD's in this game are stupid, if you want a burst class you give me 1.5sec CD on all skills? Seriously BW ***? What were you thinking when you did this, this is the most childish system in the game. It's what hardcore PVP is about burst damage and being able to negate it and provide an offensive if you can stay up. I mean seriously this game ins't about skill its about what class you play. Skill during PVP should be from knowing your class and being able to defend/attack any other class based on your knowledge of the game and reaction times. There is no reaction time in this game because everyone gets a break because of the GCD's... This is so boring in PVP when we all set there just waiting on some GCD's when the skill never went off in the first place. The GCD's system is just stupid and should be erased from human history. Also, some skills are way to powerful to be used together so apply a shared CD for them so you can't just two shot someone within 2seconds. I understand this, but for every skill is a bit retarded. We can't weave strike for focus/damage because of this, our combat stance (assuming your combat spec) has less chance to proc due to this. Seriously I think its stupid and real PVP takes skill and this isn't skill. (I know lots of people will disagree with this and I understand, that is your opinion just like this is mine.)

 

The PVP in this game is slow, slow, and slow again. I can stay up during a zerg... That is ridiculous and should not be able to happen which is related to GCD's... Again stupid system. I enjoy the game I'm just very annoyed about the childish systems put into place to please the casual PVPers. I don't play MMO's to PVE or do RAIDS I play for the PVP. If you just want to RP or PVE that's understandable but why should everyone else have to build around what the occasional PVPer wants?

 

This game wasn't built for the PVP now and I realize that and almost feel as if I wasted money and time trying it out, I had high hopes that it would be great but it wasn't and it still has time to fix itself and I hope I can stand the issues long enough to see it done.

 

On a side note, the graphics are horrible, no one can dispute that.

 

Everything stated is how I view the game at its current state and what I hope can be fixed, if this offends anyone I apologize in advance this is just what I think.

 

Edit:

Also please add the ability to move the UI to the top of the screen so we don't constantly look at the bottom to see what buffs/debuffs we have on us, how much focus we have, and to see your targets buffs/debuffs. As well as the ability to see targets target. That way you know who they are going to focus fire (zerg).

 

Another thing, why isn't there anything that increase attack speed? (To my knowledge there isn't?) It doesn't really matter since we have the GCD's anyway so not sure why I'm questioning this, maybe cause its needed?

 

Why decrease run speed in combat, we all have the buff so why take it away? It would help out every class in the game, helps with kiting, helps with melee, helps with healing... Don't understand why they would take that away? Slow down PVP?!? Again another childish thing I don't understand.

 

I don't know if others have this problem but some skills say force camo I have to be stationary to cast it. Things like this make it difficult to play our class.

 

Last thing: fix the skill read outs, they do not do what they say.

Stuns-Stun

Slows-Slow

CC-CC

These things do not work in PVP even after they have already used their CC break ability. This is the most annoying thing, you count on a skill to do what it says and it doesn't.

Edited December 27, 2011 by TheOfficialGOAT