Calling it now, sentinal will fall flat and lost in forgotten lands, just like Beta ray bill got,
Kabam's too scared to rework champs and make them perform like juggernaut and hulk.
And call it conspiracy theory or whatever but the reason Kabam is introducing so many heroes focused on "end game cOntent" is because next Everest content will never some sort of Anti-Aegon thing going on, playerbase will lose its mind and Kabam will have a good laugh and will say,
"Lol lol, recently we have released heroes like Enchantress, Northstar 🤮 and also have reworked Sentry, try them." 💯
You want another juggernaut? The BG take any fights? The champ that you can blind pick for ̣90% of BG matches?
I just hope Kabam listens to the community this time and replaces the Incinerates on champs like Sentinel and Prowler with Plasma. It probably shouldn't be that hard to do, just keep all the numbers the same, but change the debuff type.
Calling it now, sentinal will fall flat and lost in forgotten lands, just like Beta ray bill got,
Kabam's too scared to rework champs and make them perform like juggernaut and hulk.
And call it conspiracy theory or whatever but the reason Kabam is introducing so many heroes focused on "end game cOntent" is because next Everest content will never some sort of Anti-Aegon thing going on, playerbase will lose its mind and Kabam will have a good laugh and will say,
"Lol lol, recently we have released heroes like Enchantress, Northstar 🤮 and also have reworked Sentry, try them." 💯
You want another juggernaut? The BG take any fights? The champ that you can blind pick for ̣90% of BG matches?
I just hope Kabam listens to the community this time and replaces the Incinerates on champs like Sentinel and Prowler with Plasma. It probably shouldn't be that hard to do, just keep all the numbers the same, but change the debuff type.
if he's changed to be a mutant destroyer, it will devalue the defensive utility of already existing mutant champs (onslaught, dust) and any upcoming mutant champs (and possibly other classes), so a quick debuff swap might literally affect a year's work of planning.
i know we ask for stuff, and i wanted sentinel to be changed in the first page too lol, but it's not quick and easy and clearly not a design they want.
Maybe we're focusing too much on his Incinerates via his sp2 because it's the quickest burst of damage he has in his kit. And being a mutant killer doesn't mean the champion has to inflict Plasma debuffs/passives. Nimrod only inflicts Shock debuffs/passives (or Incinerates with synergy) and he still is one of the best mutant counters in the game.
And Sentinel is a mutant killer because he has access to 3 ways of damaging his opponent, he can use his Incinerates on his sp2, he can use his Shocks on his heavy attack and he can use his Armor Breaks on his sp1 to make him hit harder on his basic attacks. And yes, those Armor Breaks don't seem much but we have to remember that when the Analysis is complete, his specials will cost 30% less power and debuffs have +50% duration and +100% ability accuracy, which means you can build up to a near sp2 and launch multiple sp1 in a row, you will stack those Armor Breaks and then you can hit pretty hard after launching them. That allows him not be a viable option against nearly every mutant champions even though he won't be (one of) the best option(s) against every mutant champion when damaging them.
Him being a Robot allows him to be a good option against Omega Red and Mr Sinister. His Incinerates allow him to counter Dust His heal block allows him to counter Mr Sinister, Weapon X, Sauron, Toad and Sabertooth. His armor breaks allow him to counter Colossus and Emma Frost. His Coldsnap and Frostbite immunities make him a great counter to Iceman. He can reduce by up to 50% the potency of any instant damaging effects which mitigates the damage he can receive from Havok, Bishop, Omega Red, Sauron, Jubilee and Dust.
Him being able to counter a good amount of mutant champions while not having to rely on one source of damage to damage them makes him a mutant killer. Not like Nimrod can for example.
I also think he will be a great all around champion. He can counter Killmonger, Attuma and some of the Armor Up Tech defenders in the game (IIR, CASW, Omega Sentinel, Red Skull, etc..), he can even take on Korg, Electro, Void, Bullseye, Annihilus, Galan, Spider-Ham, Man-Thing. And he won't be the best defender but he can be annoying in some BGs metas or in AW defense if placed correctly.
You're getting the point or not? If sentinel gets plasma, then the next few mutant defenders will get plasma immunity, and it will create a cycle of interactions lol.
Agreed. I always think it is shortsighted when players argue that a "simple fix" is all that is needed, when in reality making the game requires balancing a whole lot of different things. Players lamented there being no good Mutants until Dazzler/Onslaught, and that has a lot to do with how hard it is to create a new champion that is (A) Different from other Mutants while still having a shared identity and (B) Not being instantly canceled by Nimrod. As a similar argument, a lot of players seem to continue to lament how Kate Bishop wasn't voted in as a 7-star (even though it makes sense at the time that most players would not vote for her), but seem to ignore that if she was a 7-star, a lot of new content/new defenders would have Anti-Kate abilities. I shudder at the thought of Anti-passives existing merely because there exists a 7-star Kate. Things don't happen in a vacuum.
On the second argument that posters are bringing up - that a comic book mutant killer should be a game mutant killer - that has never been a valid argument for why things should be different in a video game. It is funny that the comic lore doesn't line up with video game performance, but when you have swords that don't cause bleed, characters getting blown up by planets during specials, or Nick Fury outperforming any number of superpowered characters, that entirely demonstrates that lore is not a valid enough reason for a character's kit to be different.
Maybe we're focusing too much on his Incinerates via his sp2 because it's the quickest burst of damage he has in his kit. And being a mutant killer doesn't mean the champion has to inflict Plasma debuffs/passives. Nimrod only inflicts Shock debuffs/passives (or Incinerates with synergy) and he still is one of the best mutant counters in the game.
And Sentinel is a mutant killer because he has access to 3 ways of damaging his opponent, he can use his Incinerates on his sp2, he can use his Shocks on his heavy attack and he can use his Armor Breaks on his sp1 to make him hit harder on his basic attacks. And yes, those Armor Breaks don't seem much but we have to remember that when the Analysis is complete, his specials will cost 30% less power and debuffs have +50% duration and +100% ability accuracy, which means you can build up to a near sp2 and launch multiple sp1 in a row, you will stack those Armor Breaks and then you can hit pretty hard after launching them. That allows him not be a viable option against nearly every mutant champions even though he won't be (one of) the best option(s) against every mutant champion when damaging them.
Him being a Robot allows him to be a good option against Omega Red and Mr Sinister. His Incinerates allow him to counter Dust His heal block allows him to counter Mr Sinister, Weapon X, Sauron, Toad and Sabertooth. His armor breaks allow him to counter Colossus and Emma Frost. His Coldsnap and Frostbite immunities make him a great counter to Iceman. He can reduce by up to 50% the potency of any instant damaging effects which mitigates the damage he can receive from Havok, Bishop, Omega Red, Sauron, Jubilee and Dust.
Him being able to counter a good amount of mutant champions while not having to rely on one source of damage to damage them makes him a mutant killer. Not like Nimrod can for example.
I also think he will be a great all around champion. He can counter Killmonger, Attuma and some of the Armor Up Tech defenders in the game (IIR, CASW, Omega Sentinel, Red Skull, etc..), he can even take on Korg, Electro, Void, Bullseye, Annihilus, Galan, Spider-Ham, Man-Thing. And he won't be the best defender but he can be annoying in some BGs metas or in AW defense if placed correctly.
This is some good analysis. But I think it misses the mark on what I'm trying to say. Beyond the armor breaks (which aren't any more potent with the buff, except they have longer duration so perhaps they can be stacked higher as you said, even though that runs into diminishing return issues), Sentinel still doesn't have a reliable way to damage Havok, Onslaught, Bishop, Kitty, or Iceman. These (but especially the first three) are the most prevalent mutants in competitive game modes. Sentinel's buff is clearly aimed at being potent in BGs, it's why he gains extra analysis at the start of a BG fight. Yet he's incapable of damaging those most common mutant defenders. We can theorycraft all day about the fights he can possibly take, but it seems like a massive oversight to make a buffed champ inept at fighting the champs that will actually be on the opposite side 95% of the time.
I don’t know that I’d say oversight as much as overly cautious design. Maybe in testing Sentinel really was broken/over powered with plasmas over incinerates but I don’t think that would be the case. I don’t think plasma would make for a full hard counter to the top mutants, Sentinel would just make more sense as an option than it does with incinerates being actively punished by some of them.
We need to play with the buff to find out but on paper I don’t see Sentinel taking a spot in BG decks or being a top questing option to handle mutants so I’m not sure where the buff lands.
As a perspective from a huge X-Men fan: Sentinel isn't supposed to be the definitive, Unstoppable killing machine. That's Nimrod.
Sentinels were dangerous partly because of the totalitarian regime they represented; but because they were great big tireless machines that came in numbers; and didn't rest or sleep; and even if you defeated one, more came behind them
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Mutants regularly defeated individual sentinels - they just couldn't defeat the sentinel regime.
As a perspective from a huge X-Men fan: Sentinel isn't supposed to be the definitive, Unstoppable killing machine. That's Nimrod.
Sentinels were dangerous partly because of the totalitarian regime they represented; but because they were great big tireless machines that came in numbers; and didn't rest or sleep; and even if you defeated one, more came behind them
"" />
Mutants regularly defeated individual sentinels - they just couldn't defeat the sentinel regime.
What book is that top image from?
Google images, so I don't know, I'm afraid.
Looks cool, though 😉
Here's another favourite of mine with a much older comic showing Cyclops Vs sentinels:
As a perspective from a huge X-Men fan: Sentinel isn't supposed to be the definitive, Unstoppable killing machine. That's Nimrod.
Sentinels were dangerous partly because of the totalitarian regime they represented; but because they were great big tireless machines that came in numbers; and didn't rest or sleep; and even if you defeated one, more came behind them
"" />
Mutants regularly defeated individual sentinels - they just couldn't defeat the sentinel regime.
What book is that top image from?
Google images, so I don't know, I'm afraid.
Looks cool, though 😉
Here's another favourite of mine with a much older comic showing Cyclops Vs sentinels:
This is some good analysis. But I think it misses the mark on what I'm trying to say. Beyond the armor breaks (which aren't any more potent with the buff, except they have longer duration so perhaps they can be stacked higher as you said, even though that runs into diminishing return issues), Sentinel still doesn't have a reliable way to damage Havok, Onslaught, Bishop, Kitty, or Iceman. These (but especially the first three) are the most prevalent mutants in competitive game modes. Sentinel's buff is clearly aimed at being potent in BGs, it's why he gains extra analysis at the start of a BG fight. Yet he's incapable of damaging those most common mutant defenders. We can theorycraft all day about the fights he can possibly take, but it seems like a massive oversight to make a buffed champ inept at fighting the champs that will actually be on the opposite side 95% of the time.
He not only has increased duration thanks to his Analysis being completed and his awakened ability, he also has 100% to inflict Armor Breaks through his sp1 when the Analysis is complete. That makes him able to stack those Armor Breaks and have them last around 14/15 seconds.
But going back to what you're trying to say, I want to say that you chose 5 Incinerate immune mutant champs which means you only think that Sentinel only reliable damage output is his Incinerates debuffs. However, that is not the case, of course his Shock debuff and Armor Breaks might not do as much damage than his Incinerates but there still are there for him to have reliable sources of damage other than his Incinerates and it allows him to take on Kitty Pryde and Iceman.
Then, for Bishop, Havok and Onslaught, you might want Sentinel to inflict Plasma but this debuff is still an energy based debuff so you don't want to apply it to Bishop and Havok. And you don't want to apply Plasma debuffs on Onslaught because he will inflict Neuroshock on you and since Sentinel is a #Metal champ, he won't be able to remove them.
I get that these 3 champions are common defenders in BGs and AWs but so are Attuma, Galan, Killmonger, Dust, Mr Sinister, Weapon X, Omega Sentinel, Red Skull, Absorbing Man that he counters and these are not the only ones he counter or can take on. Focusing on 3 mutant champions to say he's not a mutant killer and should have access to Plasma when inflicting Plasma on those champs will actually punish you isn't really the way to go in my opinion.
And what would be necessary to make him a full counter/hard counter to those 3 champs would absolutely make him broken. The consequences would be that Kabam would need to create nodes that counter Sentinel and champions that are even more a pain than Bishop, Onslaught and Havok.
This buff ended up being more defensively focused than offensively. Right now, Sentinel is reliant both on Shock and Incinirate immunity on his opponent than ever for nuking potential. Though also gotta add, that i tested his sp1 rotation, and he does surprisingly well with it.
Right now, despite being mutant hunter from the future, he cannot answer most of Meta mutant threats. Simply because in terms of design, most mutant defenders have adapted to energy damage-reliant nature of tech champions from the past. Onslaught, Bishop and Havok are clear examples of this. Bishop and Havok can still be theoretically taken down with Sp1 rotation, but it isn't safe or better than what specialized tech nukes can provide (such as Infamous iron doom or Prowler).
Also, there are several top tier mutant defenders, who simply demand having niche utility to function against them. Domino and Magneto want you to have ability accuracy modification immunity or additional one in base stats. Again, Havok demands armor up buff or threat of taking plasma detonation damage. Kitty Pride wants prowess control or miss counter, without it she can be deadly.
What ends up happening, is that Sentinel ended up with list of several not top-tier defenders that he can counter well, such as Sauron, Toad, and Emma Frost. And meta relevant Wolverine X. But he is unsafe or suffers tremendously against others. Weirdly enough, Sentinel in battlegrounds will feel better into Mystic, Science and even Cosmic defenders. Simply because of the fact that they don't mess with his abilities that often as mutant class.
Right now, the only way for Sentinel to be hugely relevant on attack, is to make some of the niche defenders i listed above to be relevant again, or give him more utility to handle existing threats.
Comments
if they gave sentinel degen or plasma or whatever they'd have to come up with another nimrod/onslaught/dust strategy all over again later.
i know we ask for stuff, and i wanted sentinel to be changed in the first page too lol, but it's not quick and easy and clearly not a design they want.
Maybe we're focusing too much on his Incinerates via his sp2 because it's the quickest burst of damage he has in his kit.
And being a mutant killer doesn't mean the champion has to inflict Plasma debuffs/passives. Nimrod only inflicts Shock debuffs/passives (or Incinerates with synergy) and he still is one of the best mutant counters in the game.
And Sentinel is a mutant killer because he has access to 3 ways of damaging his opponent, he can use his Incinerates on his sp2, he can use his Shocks on his heavy attack and he can use his Armor Breaks on his sp1 to make him hit harder on his basic attacks.
And yes, those Armor Breaks don't seem much but we have to remember that when the Analysis is complete, his specials will cost 30% less power and debuffs have +50% duration and +100% ability accuracy, which means you can build up to a near sp2 and launch multiple sp1 in a row, you will stack those Armor Breaks and then you can hit pretty hard after launching them.
That allows him not be a viable option against nearly every mutant champions even though he won't be (one of) the best option(s) against every mutant champion when damaging them.
Him being a Robot allows him to be a good option against Omega Red and Mr Sinister.
His Incinerates allow him to counter Dust
His heal block allows him to counter Mr Sinister, Weapon X, Sauron, Toad and Sabertooth.
His armor breaks allow him to counter Colossus and Emma Frost.
His Coldsnap and Frostbite immunities make him a great counter to Iceman.
He can reduce by up to 50% the potency of any instant damaging effects which mitigates the damage he can receive from Havok, Bishop, Omega Red, Sauron, Jubilee and Dust.
Him being able to counter a good amount of mutant champions while not having to rely on one source of damage to damage them makes him a mutant killer. Not like Nimrod can for example.
I also think he will be a great all around champion.
He can counter Killmonger, Attuma and some of the Armor Up Tech defenders in the game (IIR, CASW, Omega Sentinel, Red Skull, etc..), he can even take on Korg, Electro, Void, Bullseye, Annihilus, Galan, Spider-Ham, Man-Thing.
And he won't be the best defender but he can be annoying in some BGs metas or in AW defense if placed correctly.
On the second argument that posters are bringing up - that a comic book mutant killer should be a game mutant killer - that has never been a valid argument for why things should be different in a video game. It is funny that the comic lore doesn't line up with video game performance, but when you have swords that don't cause bleed, characters getting blown up by planets during specials, or Nick Fury outperforming any number of superpowered characters, that entirely demonstrates that lore is not a valid enough reason for a character's kit to be different.
We need to play with the buff to find out but on paper I don’t see Sentinel taking a spot in BG decks or being a top questing option to handle mutants so I’m not sure where the buff lands.
Looks cool, though 😉
Here's another favourite of mine with a much older comic showing Cyclops Vs sentinels:
That makes him able to stack those Armor Breaks and have them last around 14/15 seconds.
But going back to what you're trying to say, I want to say that you chose 5 Incinerate immune mutant champs which means you only think that Sentinel only reliable damage output is his Incinerates debuffs.
However, that is not the case, of course his Shock debuff and Armor Breaks might not do as much damage than his Incinerates but there still are there for him to have reliable sources of damage other than his Incinerates and it allows him to take on Kitty Pryde and Iceman.
Then, for Bishop, Havok and Onslaught, you might want Sentinel to inflict Plasma but this debuff is still an energy based debuff so you don't want to apply it to Bishop and Havok.
And you don't want to apply Plasma debuffs on Onslaught because he will inflict Neuroshock on you and since Sentinel is a #Metal champ, he won't be able to remove them.
I get that these 3 champions are common defenders in BGs and AWs but so are Attuma, Galan, Killmonger, Dust, Mr Sinister, Weapon X, Omega Sentinel, Red Skull, Absorbing Man that he counters and these are not the only ones he counter or can take on.
Focusing on 3 mutant champions to say he's not a mutant killer and should have access to Plasma when inflicting Plasma on those champs will actually punish you isn't really the way to go in my opinion.
And what would be necessary to make him a full counter/hard counter to those 3 champs would absolutely make him broken.
The consequences would be that Kabam would need to create nodes that counter Sentinel and champions that are even more a pain than Bishop, Onslaught and Havok.
This buff ended up being more defensively focused than offensively.
Right now, Sentinel is reliant both on Shock and Incinirate immunity on his opponent than ever for nuking potential.
Though also gotta add, that i tested his sp1 rotation, and he does surprisingly well with it.
Right now, despite being mutant hunter from the future, he cannot answer most of Meta mutant threats.
Simply because in terms of design, most mutant defenders have adapted to energy damage-reliant nature of tech champions from the past. Onslaught, Bishop and Havok are clear examples of this. Bishop and Havok can still be theoretically taken down with Sp1 rotation, but it isn't safe or better than what specialized tech nukes can provide (such as Infamous iron doom or Prowler).
Also, there are several top tier mutant defenders, who simply demand having niche utility to function against them.
Domino and Magneto want you to have ability accuracy modification immunity or additional one in base stats.
Again, Havok demands armor up buff or threat of taking plasma detonation damage.
Kitty Pride wants prowess control or miss counter, without it she can be deadly.
What ends up happening, is that Sentinel ended up with list of several not top-tier defenders that he can counter well, such as Sauron, Toad, and Emma Frost. And meta relevant Wolverine X.
But he is unsafe or suffers tremendously against others.
Weirdly enough, Sentinel in battlegrounds will feel better into Mystic, Science and even Cosmic defenders. Simply because of the fact that they don't mess with his abilities that often as mutant class.
Right now, the only way for Sentinel to be hugely relevant on attack, is to make some of the niche defenders i listed above to be relevant again, or give him more utility to handle existing threats.