*** Sentry (Dark Avengers) ***

Unknown

I've wondered about whether or not World Rupture was really meant to stack with Sacrifice in the way that it does. Logically, part of me says "yes", while the other says "no".

-- Yes, because the way the current design of World Rupture works results in an "earthquake" effect, which is thematically valid for the skill.

-- No, because of the million and half posts on why Sentry is P2W broken of the forums.

The 430k ISO question here, which still has not been formally answered by the devs, is whether or not strike tiles are intended to interact with World Rupture tiles or not and what to do about the skill in either case. The core problem here is that skills tend to be assigned costs in a vacuum. By itself, a maximum WR generates 2368 damage as a 3-match skill. Comparatively, the new Captain Marvel's Black will generate 2504 damage as a 3-match skill, suggesting that the skill is fairly priced.

But, what to do about the skill's interaction with Strike tiles?

-- If the answer is "yes, they should interact", should Sentry be able to self-generate a 575 Strike tile? What if that was changed to an Attack tile? This would still allow other characters to generate Strike tiles for WR, but not so much as to be unstoppable or at least buy moderate amounts time for defenses to be prepared. One could argue at a 575 Attack tile would still be quite deadly, but not in a 2-turns away from annihilating the opposing team deadly. (Problem: Yellow doesn't generate Attack tiles, and would likely require a change in color to Black. Problem 2: Fury can generate a Strike tile of that magnitude with Escape Plan. However, a fair argument could be presented that 4****s should be allowed this capability as part of their capabilities.)

-- If the answer is "no", then either a new type of tile is needed (which is reinventing the wheel), or the skill needs to be fundamentally changed. Is the purpose of the skill to be a board shakeup with damage? If so, a similar effect would be generated by performing an X-Force slash on the center of the board, which would allow Strike tiles to stack on the ability once, which is likely the intended behavior of the skill. (Problem: If changed to a direct damage move, how much damage should the skill generate and require as a cost? The price of the skill would have to be completely reworked based upon the intended damage output of the skill. Problem 2: If the skill is changed to generate a high damage value, isn't that the same as another Supernova outside of the board shakeup?)

What are everyone's thoughts on the matter?

Unknown

If World Ruptures damage (and self damage) became single target it'd be a lot more balanced. Still huge damage as a combo, but no more 1 minute wins from boosts. Having to collect ap for a second combo to do similar total damage seems much closer to parity with other characters.

It'd have the side effect of making him more generally usable (1 healthpack every few matches is semi sustainable where 3 is not) and less pay2win (boosted shield hopping), both of which are positives for the game.

Phaserhawk

Because they choose the tiles to go off one by one is the key issue here. If they all detonated at the same time you would not see anywhere near the damage. You would get some awesome cascades but because strike tiles trigger each time damage is created, it would only trigger a singel strike tile response. It's why OBW abuses them, her bonus damage occurs after her match damage, but why Magneto's red only triggers them once even though he does bonus dmg it's because his dmg is laid out all as one, then strike tiles trigger, where obw's is tile match + strike tile + bonus + strike tile. Sentry's is similar to OBW, each tile creates dmg independently thus triggering its own strike tile. This is why Storm's Hailstorm or multiple Molotove cocktails only cause one strike tile trigger, becasue all the attack tile dmg happens at one time and only creates one trigger.

If World Rupture was indeed not meant to do this, then it's not a strike tile problem, it's that they need to fix how the tiles explode. And even if they do this, then I'm still very happy with my 3/5/5 build.

Supernova
=========
Lvl 3 1391 base dmg to enemies 261 dmg per red to enemies 209 dmg to self per red max 7 red tiles
Lvl 4 1791 base dmg to enemies 261 dmg per red to enemies 209 dmg to self per red max 7 red tiles
Lvl 5 1791 base dmg to enemies 261 dmg per red to enemies 137 dmg to self per red max 9 red tiles

So lvl 3 red at best does 3218 to enemy to self 1463
lvl 4 red at best does 3618 to enemy to self 1463
lvl 5 red at best does 3618 to enemy to self 1233

This is vs. green which even if it didn't trigger strike tiles can still do 2784 dmg by itself. You are only losing out on 400 dmg in maxed red, where as green you lose out on almost 700 dmg by not going to lvl 5. And if they ended up doing this, it would make sacrifice even more important so you could still do a lot of damage meaning 3/5/5 would be the only build. At least right now you can argue 5/5/3 since Daken can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you and doesn't require you to use sacrifice. But, that permanently locks you into Sentry/Daken combo where 3/5/5 lets Sentry pair up with other since he can do his WR/Sac combo with most dmg to enemies and least to self.

wymtime

I have Sentry at 4,5,0 level 127 and I do think I want to go with a 5,5,3 build. It is easy to pair him with a strike tile player and even with his yellow a 3 covers it still adds 400 damage to each World Rupture. I have been pairing him with BP and I usually get BP yellow strike tile off before World Rupture and then I have 3 powers that can do over 3k AOE. I think anyway you build him 5 in green is a must right now. For me with true healing he is my defensive team, or shield hopping as he still kills EVERYONE but I find that I don't get attacked nearly as much when I leave him on Defense.

Unknown

I remember fighting sentry once with enough protect tiles for me to counter a world rapture's damage to my team but kill the entire opponent team instead. Is there a way when I use sentry to counter the damage to my team with my own world rapture?

over_clocked

Sentry's WR Countdown tiles should be randomly separated into 1-, 2- and 3-turn CDs (their amount stays the same), with 1-turn CDs doing 50% of the listed damage, 2-turn CDs doing 100% of the damage, and 3-turn CDs doing 200% of the damage because 3-turn CDs need to be crazy. There, problem solved. Insta-nerf against Hulk and with Hood.

wymtime

Baltias wrote:

I remember fighting sentry once with enough protect tiles for me to counter a world rapture's damage to my team but kill the entire opponent team instead. Is there a way when I use sentry to counter the damage to my team with my own world rapture?

Maybe Spiderman plus Falcon?

Phaserhawk

To me there are really only 2 viable builds for Sentry 3/5/5 and 5/5/3. World Rupture is wayyyy to good not to have it maxed. The only other option is 4/5/4 but that's terrible as you hardly increase your dmg, but you take max dmg. 5/5/3 is great, but it forces you to rely on a strike tile creator to help World Rupture. My only issue with Supernova isn't the skill itself, it's just that the dmg output at lvl 5 isn't all that much more than lvl 4 or 5. You have to have 9 tiles out to max it. So if there are 7 or less red tiles on the board, all you get over lvl 4 is the dmg reduction, and all you get over level 3 is the dmg reduction plus an extra 400 dmg. Experimenting with Sacrifce more, that is lethal unto itself

Unknown

i am really beginning to love sentry more and more, despite always having injured after each battle. Paired with daken is simply sex. Hope to gain more covers for him for coming predator and prey pvp...

Unknown

Baltias wrote:

I remember fighting sentry once with enough protect tiles for me to counter a world rapture's damage to my team but kill the entire opponent team instead. Is there a way when I use sentry to counter the damage to my team with my own world rapture?

You could heal beforehand, but that's about it. Self damage like Hulk black, Juggernaut Red, and Sentry's, well, everything isn't affected by either team's strike or protect tiles.

Unknown

my sentry is currently 4/5/4, is 3/5/5 that much better? i feel like 4/5/4 might be a little better on defense but would like to hear some opinions please.

Spoit

Pjoe0211 wrote:

my sentry is currently 4/5/4, is 3/5/5 that much better? i feel like 4/5/4 might be a little better on defense but would like to hear some opinions please.

On defense, the enemy is doing something wrong if you get to 14 red anyway, whereas if it's not being held for thor, 8 yellow really isn't that much for the AI to get, and even if it lasts only a few turns, it can do quite a bit of damage

OnesOwnGrief

Spoit wrote:

Pjoe0211 wrote:

my sentry is currently 4/5/4, is 3/5/5 that much better? i feel like 4/5/4 might be a little better on defense but would like to hear some opinions please.

On defense, the enemy is doing something wrong if you get to 14 red anyway, whereas if it's not being held for thor, 8 yellow really isn't that much for the AI to get, and even if it lasts only a few turns, it can do quite a bit of damage

11 Red. Its quite possible for the AI to cascade into that or green easily.

Ryz-aus

Pjoe0211 wrote:

my sentry is currently 4/5/4, is 3/5/5 that much better? i feel like 4/5/4 might be a little better on defense but would like to hear some opinions please.

I think 3/5/5 is worth changing to if you have the covers, because it makes it easier to pair sentry with someone other than daken (like hood) and offense matters so much more than defense - especially with sentry, because you'll save him for late pushes or when you're ready to stop playing for a while due to the self damage. I would't spend HP on a respec though - I was using 4 4 5 because those are the covers I had, and didn't have any problem shield hopping with him and got some defensive wins.

Unknown

Pjoe0211 wrote:

my sentry is currently 4/5/4, is 3/5/5 that much better? i feel like 4/5/4 might be a little better on defense but would like to hear some opinions please.

easily 355, use daken and hood... fire off world rupture (the more of daken's stirke tiles the better), wait one turn, put sacrafice down, use hood's rank five intimidation and laugh your way to the bank

Dauthi

5/5/3 is the best build. If you are using Sentry it is for defense. Maxing out his yellow then hoping the AI will be competent in placing it is a pretty big long shot, and not worth it compared to red. The AI cannot mess up his red or green, making it hands down his best build.

Phaserhawk wrote:

My only issue with Supernova isn't the skill itself, it's just that the dmg output at lvl 5 isn't all that much more than lvl 4 or 5. You have to have 9 tiles out to max it. So if there are 7 or less red tiles on the board, all you get over lvl 4 is the dmg reduction, and all you get over level 3 is the dmg reduction plus an extra 400 dmg. Experimenting with Sacrifce more, that is lethal unto itself

It is here where people lose focus. 3/5/5 is a great offensive build because you can use yellow then green for a great combo. However he is a defensive character, not offensive, due to his self infliction. This means 5/5/3 allows the AI to use your character much more effectively. Let's face it, it is extremely unlikely AI will use yellow then green for a perfect combo. In fact you will be lucky the AI or player doesn't match (or destroy in some way) the yellow strike tile instantly destroying it. I would say the chances of this happening is much higher than not having enough red on the board for Supernova to devastate the enemy.

over_clocked

And we all know how much defense matters.

Spoit

he is THE offensive character.

Unknown

Let's say there are 7 available matches on the board, and there are 9 yellow tiles, there it's a straight 33% chance the AI will place Sacrifice in somewhere that can be immediately matched (one of those 7 matches is likely a yellow one and 33% chance the placed tile is in the 3 that can be matched). That's a high but not unreasonably high risk to take for defense. It's certainly no higher risk than Escape Plan which is placed on a completely random tile, since the act of collecting yellow AP generally reduces the availability of yellow matches on the board. Note that the fact the AI might then immediately match its own strike tile is rarely a drawback because it's not like the human player wouldn't immediately match it if the AI didn't take it.

Unknown

Dauthi wrote:

5/5/3 is the best build. If you are using Sentry it is for defense... 3/5/5 is a great offensive build because you can use yellow then green for a great combo. However he is a defensive character, not offensive, due to his self infliction.

What most people are using him for is shield-hopping, and 3/5/5 is THE build for racking up a couple of wins in no time flat. Self-damage is a non-issue if all you're looking for is a quick blitzkrieg followed by re-shielding. If you are using him as a defensive character, lots of luck to ya, but don't assume that's his universal designation in most people's rosters, because it's not.