I originally posted a short version of this in the 2.2 PTR feedback forum on 3-2-2015, and in general discussion on 4-8-2015.
The Sentry icon is useless for all Demon Hunter builds that use Sentries.
From the 2.2.0 patch notes:
"Now displays a buff icon indicating how many Sentries you have active."
It's Bugged!
The first reason why this icon is useless is because it's bugged. You can prove it to yourself. Go to any area of the game. Invite a friend there. Have him stand next to you. Plant all your Sentries around him, then port back to town.
When you get there, ask him how many Sentries he sees around him. He will say, "None." Now look at your buff icon. It might not be there. Or it might be there. And it might say any number on it from just the bare icon, to the maximum number of Sentries you had planted.
When you port to a new area, the icon will tell you you have some number of Sentries sitting there, when you have none. When you plant your first Sentry, that number will increment, but it will be a lie. You will never know how many Sentries you actually have summoned unless you just keep pushing the button long enough to know that there must be at least the maximum number sitting there by now.
So the first problem is that the Sentry buff icon is unreliable. I thought they might have fixed it for patch 2.3, but they haven't. It's still bugged.
It Doesn't Help The Player!
In my mind, there is a difference between an "active" Sentry, and one that just happens to be sitting on the ground five screens away, even if it is still adding to the M6 damage bonus.
For me, an "active Sentry" is one that is on the screen with me, shooting at the monsters I am shooting at, and helping in the fight.
As it is now, the Sentry Icon always just says 5 (or 3, or 2)...it never changes, even if there isn't a single Sentry anywhere on the screen.
And if I am not playing an M6 build, then that number on the icon means absolutely nothing to me, because I don't get a damage bonus from just having a Sentry sitting on the ground somewhere; it needs to be on the screen with me, shooting at the monsters I am shooting at.
Recall that once you move out a range of the Sentry, when it's off the screen, all action and fighting stops, except for when an M6 fires it's Hatred spender. Then the Sentry will fire at an enemy at least one screen away, as long as the enemy is within range of the character.
Also, I need to know at a glance, in the heat of battle, when I can't see anything on the screen but skill and ground effects, when to summon a new Sentry into the fight. The icon is beyond useless in helping me do that: it always says "5." So for a non-M6 build, it might as well not even be there.
When I originally posted this, the overwhelming response was, "Who cares how many Sentries are on the screen? I only want to know how many I have adding to my damage bonus." That was before the introduction of the Unhallowed Essence set.
Now, I'm sure the overwhelming response will be, "Who uses Sentries anymore?"
So be it. The core problem remains; the Sentry icon is useless for all Demon Hunter builds that use Sentries, whether any particular player cares about that fact or not.
To reiterate, I mentioned this in the 2.2.0 PTR Feedback Forum on March 2nd, but I guess Blizzard never revisited this item.
How To Fix It!
Knowing only how many Sentries are on the screen with the character might not be that useful to the M6 player. Although each of those Sentries on the screen are adding +280% weapon damage per second to the fight, an M6 player might not care about that, and just want to have Sentries planted to get that +100% damage bonus for each Sentry, no matter where it is.
On the other hand, knowing how many Sentries have been historically planted, even though not a single one of them may be on the screen with the character, would be absolutely useless to any player not playing an M6 build.
So the Sentry icon needs two numbers on it. One in the bottom-left corner of the icon to show how many Sentries are on the screen and shooting at monsters, and one to show how many extant Sentries there are in total.
[...]
So the Sentry icon needs two numbers on it. One in the bottom-left corner of the icon to show how many Sentries are on the screen and shooting at monsters, and one to show how many extant Sentries there are in total.
Thoughts?
I don't know how difficult it would be to discern "active" from "inactive" sentries from either the user's perspective or the coder's but I like the idea of being able inform the user of that data. Wishlisted.
I haven't played DH or specifically Mara for a very long while now. I know there was an issue with Helltrapper and misreporting when changing zones but I thought they had fixed that. Sorry to hear that they haven't. Perhaps when or if Mara, or some other sentry heavy build, comes into favor again it'll get yet another look? Until then, I wish you luck.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We", "Everyone" - Argumentum ad populum. "You people" - Argumentum ad hominem. "Your dumb" - Contractionem absum.
I think the icons are working as intended. The important thing is that the icons report the buff you get from M6. This is the only thing that matters. The fact that active sentries don't really exist is beside the point. I state that the intent is that you aren't penalized for entering a new floor in a rift. It is bad enough that you have drop new sentries each time you change floors but it would be inappropriate in rifts to lose your buff. So starting a new floor with sentries active seems appropriate. Remember the icon was added because of player requests to know if they had to drop more sentries to keep their buff maximized. As long as the icon is indicative of the buff the icon is fine. If the OP actually got his request it might end up as a nerf when you change floors during rifts. I doubt this is what is being requested.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I originally posted a short version of this in the 2.2 PTR feedback forum on 3-2-2015, and in general discussion on 4-8-2015.
The Sentry icon is useless for all Demon Hunter builds that use Sentries.
From the 2.2.0 patch notes:
It's Bugged!
The first reason why this icon is useless is because it's bugged. You can prove it to yourself. Go to any area of the game. Invite a friend there. Have him stand next to you. Plant all your Sentries around him, then port back to town.
When you get there, ask him how many Sentries he sees around him. He will say, "None." Now look at your buff icon. It might not be there. Or it might be there. And it might say any number on it from just the bare icon, to the maximum number of Sentries you had planted.
When you port to a new area, the icon will tell you you have some number of Sentries sitting there, when you have none. When you plant your first Sentry, that number will increment, but it will be a lie. You will never know how many Sentries you actually have summoned unless you just keep pushing the button long enough to know that there must be at least the maximum number sitting there by now.
So the first problem is that the Sentry buff icon is unreliable. I thought they might have fixed it for patch 2.3, but they haven't. It's still bugged.
It Doesn't Help The Player!
In my mind, there is a difference between an "active" Sentry, and one that just happens to be sitting on the ground five screens away, even if it is still adding to the M6 damage bonus.
For me, an "active Sentry" is one that is on the screen with me, shooting at the monsters I am shooting at, and helping in the fight.
As it is now, the Sentry Icon always just says 5 (or 3, or 2)...it never changes, even if there isn't a single Sentry anywhere on the screen.
And if I am not playing an M6 build, then that number on the icon means absolutely nothing to me, because I don't get a damage bonus from just having a Sentry sitting on the ground somewhere; it needs to be on the screen with me, shooting at the monsters I am shooting at.
Recall that once you move out a range of the Sentry, when it's off the screen, all action and fighting stops, except for when an M6 fires it's Hatred spender. Then the Sentry will fire at an enemy at least one screen away, as long as the enemy is within range of the character.
Also, I need to know at a glance, in the heat of battle, when I can't see anything on the screen but skill and ground effects, when to summon a new Sentry into the fight. The icon is beyond useless in helping me do that: it always says "5." So for a non-M6 build, it might as well not even be there.
When I originally posted this, the overwhelming response was, "Who cares how many Sentries are on the screen? I only want to know how many I have adding to my damage bonus." That was before the introduction of the Unhallowed Essence set.
Now, I'm sure the overwhelming response will be, "Who uses Sentries anymore?"
So be it. The core problem remains; the Sentry icon is useless for all Demon Hunter builds that use Sentries, whether any particular player cares about that fact or not.
To reiterate, I mentioned this in the 2.2.0 PTR Feedback Forum on March 2nd, but I guess Blizzard never revisited this item.
How To Fix It!
Knowing only how many Sentries are on the screen with the character might not be that useful to the M6 player. Although each of those Sentries on the screen are adding +280% weapon damage per second to the fight, an M6 player might not care about that, and just want to have Sentries planted to get that +100% damage bonus for each Sentry, no matter where it is.
On the other hand, knowing how many Sentries have been historically planted, even though not a single one of them may be on the screen with the character, would be absolutely useless to any player not playing an M6 build.
So the Sentry icon needs two numbers on it. One in the bottom-left corner of the icon to show how many Sentries are on the screen and shooting at monsters, and one to show how many extant Sentries there are in total.
Thoughts?
I don't know how difficult it would be to discern "active" from "inactive" sentries from either the user's perspective or the coder's but I like the idea of being able inform the user of that data. Wishlisted.
I haven't played DH or specifically Mara for a very long while now. I know there was an issue with Helltrapper and misreporting when changing zones but I thought they had fixed that. Sorry to hear that they haven't. Perhaps when or if Mara, or some other sentry heavy build, comes into favor again it'll get yet another look? Until then, I wish you luck.
"We", "Everyone" - Argumentum ad populum. "You people" - Argumentum ad hominem. "Your dumb" - Contractionem absum.
I think the icons are working as intended. The important thing is that the icons report the buff you get from M6. This is the only thing that matters. The fact that active sentries don't really exist is beside the point. I state that the intent is that you aren't penalized for entering a new floor in a rift. It is bad enough that you have drop new sentries each time you change floors but it would be inappropriate in rifts to lose your buff. So starting a new floor with sentries active seems appropriate. Remember the icon was added because of player requests to know if they had to drop more sentries to keep their buff maximized. As long as the icon is indicative of the buff the icon is fine. If the OP actually got his request it might end up as a nerf when you change floors during rifts. I doubt this is what is being requested.