Sentinel's Looter Mod needs some help

[JackBeloved]

I was super excited for Looter when Simaris started to offer the mod. I usually keep any attack precepts off my sentinel so that I can level my weapons as quickly as possible, but having my Carrier worry about all the looting was a great concept! I ran out and collected synthesis targets for days to earn the rep and buy Looter, and on my first mission with it equipped, I noticed some serious problems.

1) The cooldown on the skill is ridiculous, making the mod nearly useless. Crates are most often together, and after the first shot, I had to stand and wait 4 or 5 seconds before my sentinel would fire again. I could easily walk around and melee all the crates before my sentinel shot a second time, so what's the point? Plus, if the purpose of the mod is to delegate looting to the sentinel in order to free you up to focus on enemies, then you'll never be staying still in an area long enough for the second shot.

2) Targeting is also a big problem for two reasons. First, the initial recognition and firing is pretty slow. Like in the first point, can usually run up to a crate and melee it before my sentinel ever fires a shot. Second, my sentinel seems to target the center of the crate, not the part that's available from my sentinel's position. For example, many crates are against walls that have columns or radiators or some sort of thing sticking out a little, obstructing some of the crate's silhouette. My sentinel often fires into these obstructions and doesn't hit the crate, even though a good chunk of the crate is sticking out past the obstructing piece.

3) The animation also seems to slow things down even further. Once my sentinel finally notices a crate and decides to fire (which I usually have to stand around and wait for), it rotates to face the crate and then leans forward as if lining up its shot. Why? The sentinel weapons always seem to fire in whichever way they need to from the 'face' when attacking enemies, so apparently the weapon can fire in a wide range. Why does the Looter mod need to force the sentinel to take even longer to line up a shot?

In short, the idea is great and wanted, but the actual in-game execution renders the mod nearly worthless. To make it usable, please, cut the cooldown entirely and drop the animation (although I appreciate the work whoever put into it for this), and teach the targeting system to go for exposed parts of crates. Also, as a suggestion, Looter-initiated shouts would be perfect if they were fully silent, so that the sentinel didn't ruin stealth, but I can see how that might be a check and balance to make players really think about bringing it along.

Thanks for a great game and all the work you put into it! Keep it coming!

 

[NinjaZeku]

2 hours ago, JackBeloved said:

I usually keep any attack precepts off my sentinel so that I can level my weapons as quickly as possible

You could still use your Sentinel for status infliction, though.
Sweeper Prime and Prisma Burst Laser, loaded up with 60% dual stats and +Fire Rate Mods, are somewhat beastly in that regard :D

Okay, back on topic, I agree wholeheartedly, Looter was an immense disappointment
(me having a thing for AoE weapons - not least Ignis and Primed Reach Orthos Prime - doesn't help lol),
it really needs some help to be worth using, especially when it competes for Mod space with gems like Medi-Ray.

Hmm ... for those obstructed container issues though, did you have Punch Through on your weapon?

[Azamagon]

It would be fine with a low-ish cooldown (say 3 seconds) if the Looter mod was something more akin to a reasonably big AoE blastwave which only hurt loot crates and such. With that, it could also be silent, it could also remove all needs for animation lockdowns (think of it as a "onehanded" cast for Sentinels), and it could (if it isn't already?) make it be able to be used without having a weapon equipped.

[Bipp]

+1 to this.

Another companion ability I can barely rely upon and so don't use and trust it to do what I need it to do.

The rest of them need some love too. U19 make it happen, DE!

[Hypernaut1]

it shouldve been a "rumble" ability. hopefully they have time to change this in the future, using the sentinel weapn makes the mod useless.

[MichaelSD]

On 6/7/2016 at 0:49 AM, Azamagon said:

It would be fine with a low-ish cooldown (say 3 seconds) if the Looter mod was something more akin to a reasonably big AoE blastwave which only hurt loot crates and such. With that, it could also be silent, it could also remove all needs for animation lockdowns (think of it as a "onehanded" cast for Sentinels), and it could (if it isn't already?) make it be able to be used without having a weapon equipped.

If some is looting / collecting marks uses an ignis. The aoe of the ignis without par.

To make Looter usable give it a "sentinel ignis" which only works on creates. Hell, make it a separate weapon, which can be levelled.