The infamous "sentinel vs druid" question.

Kreemuv

So. I've been kind of popping up around the realms lately. Have a couple level 65-70 characters with single/bi trans kicking around that are like 250 years old and never had much footing in any city/org and I am not feeling really adventurous with them. On a whim I started up a newbie Troll Sentinel. Always loved the idea of sentinels and made an alt or two years ago and had lots of fun bashing and using voyria traps/swoop to surprise the Horkval Monk newbie griefers and stuff that would pop up from time to time. I notice they've changed their skillsets up and was wondering how they stack up to Druids now.

Here's my thing. I like the idea of PvP, but I know I'll never have the time or dedication to become anywhere near elite. So any sort of min/maxing and ultimate PvP class doesn't hold much weight, though I'd like to be able to scuffle and do group combat. I also don't like being dependent on buying a ton of stuff to be able to hold my own, and have heard some about sentinel combatants going through venom like crazy, and now it looks like they don't get access to concoctions(I think they used to, right?) anymore.

I've also heard grove skills are much more portable now, balancing druids in/out of their grove instead of being pretty weak out, and decently tanky inside.

So, it seems like early on I should be focusing on Meta anyways on either of these. And as the lessons come in, I'm just not sure if I'd enjoy woodlore/skirmishing over being a little more independent/utility oriented with groves/concoctions?? I must admit woodlore/skirmishing kind of pique my fancy a bit more, but the druid route has always seemed a bit mysterious to me and ultimately seemed like it might suit my actual playstyle more than my imagined playstyle.

Thoughts on the dependence on comms versus combat ability. Tankiness? Group Combat? I really want to stay Troll as well, and I love races aren't really chosen for pure min/maxing now.

Borran

I'm going to put in my vote for Sentinel. Mainly because every Druid I've ever played has frustrated me to no end with being unable to fight in any real capacity. 

Ahmet

Borran said:

I'm going to put in my vote for Sentinel. Mainly because every Druid I've ever played has frustrated me to no end with being unable to fight in any real capacity. 

If you want mindless combat, Sentinel.

If you want immense amounts of utility while being able to adapt to just about any situation, as well as an immense RP base, Druid.

Just my personal opinion.

Rom

Ahmet said:

Borran said:

I'm going to put in my vote for Sentinel. Mainly because every Druid I've ever played has frustrated me to no end with being unable to fight in any real capacity. 

If you want mindless combat, Sentinel.

If you want immense amounts of utility while being able to adapt to just about any situation, as well as an immense RP base, Druid.

Just my personal opinion.

What? Sentinel is incredibly versatile, far more than Druid is now.

They are both fantastic classes, group combat monsters in their own ways unique from eachother. They are tanky with active curing and solid armor.
They're both pretty great 1v1 too, Druid requires -much- less lesson investment for entry level combat though. Druid is also much easier to approach for combat if you don't have a lot of prior experience, they have a lot of basic limb damage setups with simple 1/2/3/4 counting of hits. Sentinel is a bit more complex with entity summoning, variant limb damage, use of afflictions and such.
Druid has a lot more going for it for you, I feel. You should note that Concoctions is not a Druid class skill anymore though. They now have Reclamation in its place, which is pretty underwhelming for more casual achaea-ing. You can use it to 'reclaim' areas, spreading your claim over a stretch of rooms, and in these claimed areas you can do things like revive people from their corpses, damage your foes, heal your allies, and some other more utilitarian stuff. Groves is super portable now, you won't have any problems with it being too tied down.

Borran

I liked your post, Rom, because you gave props to both. However, I feel that Sentinel is the more combat versatile class, while druid utility is just more of a convenience.

Metamorphosis-wise, Sentinels can do anything that a Druid can do, minus Wyvern morph. And the fact that Druids don't get Basilisk morph is a big set-back for me because when I did play a druid, gaze and glare were the hindering I needed to stay alive sometimes.

Groves vs Woodlore: Groves has its bees and it is useful for transportation or utility when fighting exterminators, but you fall more into a support role with this. Woodlore gives you traps with multiple functions, useable anywhere. Stealth abilities, including the ability to never be followed. Pets with multiple functions, interchangable on the fly.

And the big one: Reclaimation vs Skirmishing: Reclaimation takes a lot of prep work to be useful and I hear is easily countered. Skirmishing added many levels of strategy to Sentinel combat. I haven't managed to gain full understanding of them all yet, but just putting together all the pieces, I can see the potential.

tl;dr Rom's smarter than me, but I still think Sentinel is better for combat, Druid is better for... doing Droodly things.

Ahmet

Yah. If you like bashing faces in, Sentinel. Just about anything else, Druid.

Krypton

Rom said:
in these claimed areas you can do things like revive people from their corpses, damage everyone, heal everyone, and some other more utilitarian stuff.

FFTY

Rom

I'm aware, but I thought that might be a bit confusing.

@Borran Sentinel probably is better for combat but my point was the Druid is probably better for Kreemuv overall.

Ahmet, I think I misinterpreted the second line of your post, sorry.

Cynlael

Ahmet said:

If you want mindless combat, Sentinel.

setalias derp tunesmith rapier pesante/wipe rapier/envenom rapier with curare/jab target/queue add class sing limerick at target

dor derp <-- for however long it takes for one of them to stick for longer than a second
-->proceed to lock them.


Bard definitely requires thought amirite... Sentinel easily takes more effort to kill people nowadays than Bard does.

Tankiness: Sentinel. Group Combat: They 'bout even these days, both very nice to have in LoS/Rush wars. Upkeep wise, Sentinel is a bit higher largely because of venoms, but they aren't that expensive anymore since they're not Serpent-only with tradeskill changes... Armour/Shield/Weapons are all exceptionally cheap unless you want a 'really cool' looking one.