Please remember to follow the Code of Conduct and try to keep conversations civil. This goes for all involved members in this topic. I’ll be going through the thread cleaning things up shortly.
On the topic of movement skills, it’s something which we’ve discussed a number of times, and while there is certainly some things that may change, we’re unlikely to see any sort of larger scale changes any time in the near future, or before 1.0.
As other users have pointed out, it is our intention that all classes have unique and distinct movement skills. While each movement skill can be simplified to a certain level that can make them seem similar, the two which are very similar are teleport and transplant.
As far as sentinel movement skills go, if we’re talking about “mobility” skills (excluding things like warpath), sentinel currently has 3, with strong variations in addition. Lunge, Shield Rush, and Volatile Reversal. In Addition, sentinel can spec into dash with javelin, which causes them to move to wherever the standard is (including if it’s attached to an enemy). Sentinel’s movements all tend to lead him towards a target - which is by design. That’s the general idea of a Sentinel is they’re a soldier that goes into the fray, not skirts the fray like a Rogue or Sorcerer.
In exchange, Sentinel has more options to bear the brunt - for example while Sentinels cannot escape some things as easily, more often than not they can simple use rebuke to tank through it instead. Sentinel is not intended to play like a light and nimble class but instead be a heavy steadfast fighter. However, that playstyle is not completely ignored - you can use the Paranoia Unique helm to make lunge no longer require a target - which follows the purpose of many Uniques to be able to extend a class playstyle by offering some new unique mechanic or power. As far as being invulnerable during movement, Volatile reversal offers this by default, and Lunge can be specced into it.
We do not feel Sentinel is lacking any movement options or flexibility at the current time.
That aim is absolutely fine for me. Although I feel Rebuke is not a skill that feels very good in that regard, atm. I’m really looking forward to an overhaul if that skill. It’s a great tool to tank big nukes from bosses when timed correctly. For larger crowds, it is not working that well. Because the damage that applies after channeling is often not enough to kill enemies around you. So you just delay taking damage. You are good for as long as you channel. After that enemies begin to hurt again and during the channel nothing happened to make the situation better. While channeling you can’t move, so you can’t walk out either.
I’d really love to see a knockback after the channel to give the player the room to escape after Rebuke. Warcry is a much better defensive skill in that regard.
Or some kind of damage reduction buff. Currently you can get resistances that are kind of pointless if you already have maxed them. Getting a boost of Endurance Threshold or even plain “less damage taken” would be nice.
So if you improve the tools for the Sentinel to really sustain that playstyle, this would be great. Currently I don’t see it working as you say.
Agree with you regarding Rebuke… I have tried it a few times as some way to tank things you cannot avoid, but the problem I have is very much the same as your comments…
You have to sacrifice a skill slot to get the 2 ish seconds of only partial invulnerability with some very minor regen/mana etc. with totally irrelevant things like res boosts… Added to that anre perhaps more importantly, the “after channelling end” boosts are literally just afterthoughts - especially when you compare it to another much more useful skill…
I think a knockback would be the bare minimum that that skill should get… and if, based on the devs comments on Sentinel play ideal, then Rebuke needs to reworked to be far more useful… I would suggest it becoming a proper defensive only invulnerability skill with no dps and perhaps provided temporary CC type features (Stun, Knockback, Chill, Slow etc) via node choices and linked to gear - eg. if using a 2handed weapon, Knockback is further, if using a mace, you stun on end of channelling, or shield, you rush forward a few paces, or even proc Void Reversal if you have it on your toolbar…
If this made it possible for a Sentinel with Rebuke to withstand some one-shots, that, to me at least, would fit into the devs comments on targetted Sentinel playstyle.
Yeah. Almost any skill has at least one viable build guide somewhere because people like lizard make kind of a challenge out of this. I’d guess that rebuke is one if the least played/favourite skills (for a reason).
Imho, the skill feels very underwhelming and clunky.
Rebuke is in a strange spot. It almost fits the “If a skill/item/spec etc is strong enough, people will play it regardless of how clunky it is” metric. For predictable damage sources it’s incredible, but horrible to use otherwise and takes up a whole skill slot to do it.
I doubt many seriously consider it outside of pushing very hard bosses (and probably swapping to something else for trash) or those playing around with rudimentary thorns builds.
Having VK and paladin myself my only complaint is that shield rush cost too much mana even with the 6/6 mana reduction node its crazy. Otherwise it has 3 varied options to use which is pretty good.
