Sentinel Roll

[Eagle299]

Does anyone else think that the Sentinel Roll was as useless as I did? I mean, there are some battles where you're pretty much forced to use one to survive, but I consider this more poor game design choice than any real usefulness. Any time you used one, you had to give up 1/3 of your offense to take hits. And more often that became 2/3 because in such battles, your Sentinel almost invariably needs a dedicated medic to keep them going.

What made them think this was actually a good idea?

[VeloZer0]

I don't think it was outlandish to include it, however having a playstyle that includes damage sponging is a little eclectic in a game that a) restores your HP at the end of every battle and b)grades you based on time.

Had they tweaked the battle system it probably would have been more useful in everyday combat.

[Iwrestledabearonce]

By the way, not to be rude or anything, but I think you meant Role? :P
And I also found it kind of lame... I used the guide, and it always said to use one later in the game, but I never did... I got by just fine with Relentlass Assault or Aggression... but I guess I did use it for whenever I needed to heal with Combat Clinic, even though Lightning is a :bou::bou::bou::bou:ty healer ;(

[leftay]

Agreed. I found the Sentinel role useless especially when your party was just Snow and Hope and the game strongly suggested that Snow should be a sentinel in a lot of the battles then..Hope just couldn't get the job done with Snow just using Vendetta! -____- I really like the names of the paradigms with sentinels in them though like Attrition and Strategic Warfare :D

[Jessweeee♪]

I liked it. It only really grated on my nerves when I got in some trouble and found myself using MED/SEN/MED for long periods of time. Luckily whenever that happened I just had to rethink my Paradigm strategy and there was no longer any need. Having a Sentinel role made it easy for me to keep up the offensive at all times, even when I needed some major OH GOD EVERYONE IS DOWN TO CRITICAL healing. (Though my favorite "safe" Paradigm was definitely SYN/MED/SAB).

[Eagle299]

Agreed. I found the Sentinel role useless especially when your party was just Snow and Hope and the game strongly suggested that Snow should be a sentinel in a lot of the battles then..Hope just couldn't get the job done with Snow just using Vendetta! -____- I really like the names of the paradigms with sentinels in them though like Attrition and Strategic Warfare :D

Yeah, I remember that bit. The game telling me to protect Hope. By taking hits for him. No. Just No. I like seeing Hope get hit anyway. And Snow was my only half decent offensive tool. I just redid my Paradigm deck. I think I left one paradigm with Sentinel in it, which was solely for healing.

[Zora]

Sentinel was definitely a very situational job. It was useful to have a paradigm that included sentinel (usually COM/MED/SEN) when you needed it.

I was a bit more annoyed though at Sazh. I can tolerate a role being situational, especially given both its users are both excellent characters battle-wise. But Sazh felt like a very situational character: His only good role was synergy. His strength and magic, well, when your strength is below that of the game's main healer (Van'ille), something is wrong. Hope eventually got all of Sazh's synergy, just Sazh gets certain Synergy (such as the really useful haste) a lot sooner. But, even so, the only time I used Sazh was when I couldn't have healing and synergy compounded on the same person (i.e. Hope), which only happened on a few occasions. Otherwise, I just used Hope and survived on Lightning's healing.

[Jessweeee♪]

Really? I found Sazh to be almost as strong as Lightning. Well technically half as strong, but he hits twice as much, so it evens out.

[Draniei]

I only used the Sentinel Role against the Velocycles whenever they would use gattling gun. Either that or my characters would die.

[Zora]

Really? I found Sazh to be almost as strong as Lightning. Well technically half as strong, but he hits twice as much, so it evens out.

Huh? Sazh hits twice as much? :|

...So basically, his attack is actually twice as much as it was displayed.

[leftay]

Really? I found Sazh to be almost as strong as Lightning. Well technically half as strong, but he hits twice as much, so it evens out.

Huh? Sazh hits twice as much? :|

...So basically, his attack is actually twice as much as it was displayed.

I get how Sazh hits twice as much since he has two guns (right? o_O :confused:). But whenever I use him his attacks are so weak... ;___; and he's one of my favorite characters!

[Jessweeee♪]

Really? I found Sazh to be almost as strong as Lightning. Well technically half as strong, but he hits twice as much, so it evens out.

Huh? Sazh hits twice as much? :|

...So basically, his attack is actually twice as much as it was displayed.

Yeah, notice how when his gun is split in two he hits twice, and for the fourth attack when he sorta folds it into a shotgun it hits once, but much harder.

[Ouch!]

End game when you have the accessories to get Sazh's strength over 2,000, his blitz is supposedly one of the most powerful attacks in the game.

As for Sentinel, I think I used it once.

[champagne supernova]

I found the Sentinel role quite useful. There was one option that made the person in the role heal him or herself, allowing the other two to focus on attacking the enemy. So, had to use Combat Clinic less.

And Lightning is an useless medic.

[Xurts]

Like Zora said, Sentinels are very situational. You rarely need to use them, but when you do they make certain fights a cakewalk. Prime example is Cid. First few attempts he kicked my ass, but once I used a sentinel it was like "lol, this is easy."

Lightning is an amazing sentinel because of her elude ability. Unlike other sentinels who need a steady stream of heals to keep alive, Lightning avoids most attacks so she rarely ever needs healing. Leaves me free to pound away with com/rav or rav/rav all I want.

Sazh has two guns, but they hit for half of what normal characters' attacks do. So he does the same amount of damage as anyone else given that they have the same stats. That's the problem with Sazh: his stats are awful. Magic is his strongest, but his crystarium is so diluted with strength nodes that he just becomes useless once Hope learns offensive buffs. He's like Lightning in that his str and magic are balanced, but they're only like half as good as hers.

[Jessweeee♪]

Yeah, Hope is the better Synergist (my only issue was that he took forever to learn Haste and it makes such a huge difference) but Sazh was great for when I wanted two of them to buff up in a hurry.