Blast From The Past made me remember what was (IMO) the crippling problem with Sentinel League

Namely: ridiculously rare "Sentinel Reward" mod that literally enabled the league mechanic which was Recombinators.

In my whole 70'ish days of Sentinel League i had that modifier, literally, 3 times. Each time It failed to stick while breeding.

Without this mod chances for recombinators drop go as low as mirror shard-out-of-harbinger levels (obvious exaggeration... but not really).

Now in just those 5'ish days i was far more lucky, managing to get also 3 such sentinels.. and each one of them also failed with breeding (lucky me xD)

Either way... If Sentinel will, hopefully, go core, it'd be damn nice if recombinator drop chances werent as limited as "have this one and only modifier or there's no mechanic for you"

What do you guys think?

I would much rather have sentinel buffed monster packs as sextant mod. Press a button is hardly a league mechanic. I hope they wont add it as is, to much micromenagment for something that doesnt feel in any way, shape or form different than normal maping.

I bought mass unID'd rare i84+ sentinels of all types at a steep discount and got quite a few sent mods, and some that stuck around for 10+ recombo passes.

If you were in SSF, then you saw far less sentinel rewards. As with all RNG, the economy of scale applies.
To be entirely fair, I had 6+ quad tabs full of each type of sentinel at one point, and cooking them all down produced maybe ten fully charged sents with any tier of "chance to drop a sentinel reward". It was stupidly uncommon.

Back during sentinal, I didn't super care or engage deeply with the mechanic (i.e I didn't really combine them, just used them as I found them). I felt like I found plenty of recombinators, I still have some in standard as I didn't use'em all during the league. I haven't done the blast from the past (see aformentioned didn't super care for sentinal, was a fine league but nothing I'd jump to play again).

My big issue is the timing, if you screen delete as Path encourages, it felt kinda hard to really use them in a way that felt useful. Combined with just the core of how PoE handles drops, it felt like pulling the lotto arm in a very real way, and seeing how rarely it felt it paid out, unlike other events (or the core) where you don't feel that arm pull as sharply (i.e there's not a clear, willful keypress you're trying to optimize) so it's a lot easier to overlook the thousands of misses between the hits. This for me added to a sense of nilihilism and just resulted in me not hitting the button nearly as often as I would engage in say, Kalandra maps which had a similar feeling of 'eh' returns outside of the new stuff.

I'd wager some combination of that, and the dubious issue of balancing recombinators, is why it never ended up going core.

Sentinel did not went core after the first time after the official league. Doubt a simple even is going to change that.

I hated sentinel mechanic tbh i'm not sure why ppl like it.
Was just additional layer of micromanagement filling whole stash tabs and rerolling/combining them 24/7 ... lame and annoying. Also pretty mandatory to use them which was even more lame.

But Recombinators are pretty awesome and would like to see them in core, maybe just a rare drop like those Reliquary Keys

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Rikku wrote:

I hated sentinel mechanic tbh i'm not sure why ppl like it.
Was just additional layer of micromanagement filling whole stash tabs and rerolling/combining them 24/7 ... lame and annoying. Also pretty mandatory to use them which was even more lame.

But Recombinators are pretty awesome and would like to see them in core, maybe just a rare drop like those Reliquary Keys

People didn't like the mechanic as much as they like the rewards. Recombinator crafting enabled some really OP items, including glvoes with Level 4 Empower, stacking fractured mods etc.

I doubt people like it for buffing mobs to the point that white mobs can one-tap you. :P

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ArtCrusade wrote:

People didn't like the mechanic as much as they like the rewards. Recombinator crafting enabled some really OP items, including glvoes with Level 4 Empower, stacking fractured mods etc.

I doubt people like it for buffing mobs to the point that white mobs can one-tap you. :P

Quite the opposite for me, I didn't use any recombinators during Sentinel as I don't enjoy nor usually engage in crafting, and adding even more RNG upon an already RNG-heavy process wasn't for me. I should add that I don't enjoy gambling, not do I find it the least bit exciting in real life.

I did really like using the sentinels while mapping though. Sure it was an instant juice button, but you could use it situationally to great effect when timed right. While still a fairly basic mechanic, I found it fun just the same. Combined with other mechanics, it added to the excitement as it added more risk.

Even though the combining of sentinels was a bit tedious, I'd like to have the sentinel mechanic back, even if just for an occasional alternative to other juicing methods such as delirium.

From my perspective, leagues such as Sentinel and Scourge were great as they offered something for both those who enjoy mapping and for those who like crafting/gambling.

Crucible on the other hand wasn't that great for me, as it offered next to no loot or excitement and was pretty clunky in execution as well. It was great for those who wanted to gamble for crazy items though. Ultimatum was another favorite of mine, but I'm sure It wasn't appealing for some.

I wish we could get an upcoming league mechanic that adds something to the mapping experience soon, even better if it add something for the crafting enthusiasts as well, as the last four leagues haven't added anything worthwhile to maps.

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insectbrain wrote:

I wish we could get an upcoming league mechanic that adds something to the mapping experience soon, even better if it add something for the crafting enthusiasts as well, as the last four leagues haven't added anything worthwhile to maps.

For sure! I'd love if we could stay in maps. Last few mechanics took you outside of the mapping cycle and while I still liked that content, I'd much prefer something simple for once

Sentinel Map Craft with Atlas Passives could be fun?

Something along the lines of:
Additional 2 Empowered Common Packs of Monsters
Additional 1 Empowered Rare Monster

With Atlas Passives choice of adding Empowered Boss

Also maybe additional Sextant to add a pack of Empowered Magic Monsters.