24 réponses à ce sujet

[Kidd Supreme]

 So I'm posting for the first time (at least I think its the first time I posted, can't be sure) and had a question to the community. As most of you, I am a fan of the Mass Effect series. Enjoyed the first one to death (grabbed every single achievement) and I am working towards the same goal in ME2. I originally beat ME2 over a year ago, and put it down to play some other games. With ME3 just around the corner, I wanted to finish out my NG+ Insanity runthrough so I can start up on ME3 in March immediately. 

Here is the thing - I get worked. Seriously. It seems like the only reason I get through any of the story missions is by persistence or dumb luck. For instance, take Kasumi Stolen Memory DLC. That last fight on the platform before the end of the DLC? I died a combined 237 times trying to pass that thing (yes, I actually kept count). There is a side mission involving supplies being destroyed by mechs that you have to destroy before they obliterate all of it. I had to quit out of that just because I had enough trouble bringing 1 mech down, let alone 3.

So I keep reading on mass ME related forums that the Sentinel is overpowered. I'm trying to figure out myself why the hell can't I be overpowered? Is my playstyle that broken? I'm a level 30 Sentinel who continually is hiding behind cover spaming Heavy Reave to try to do crowd control. Anytime I try to pop up for a shot with my AR (Mattock now I believe), its like my armor gets destroyed in less than 2 seconds and I'm trying to find the Tech armor.

I looked on Youtube, and observed all these other Sentinels just running up on people and having a grand old time working the enemies. I so much as step outside of cover for a moment, and I'm looking at the "Mission Failed" screen. My current spec'd Shep is:

Throw - Level 4 (Heavy Throw)
Warp - Level 4 (Heavy Warp)
Tech Armor - Level 4 (Power Armor)
Overload - Level 1
Reave (Bonus) - Level 4 (Heavy Reave)
Defender - Level 4 (Guardian)

Because of the NG+ I have access to ARs, so I use the Mattock. As far as armor is concerned I have been using the Blood Armor  (heard it was good to use with Sentinels).

As far as playstyle, as stated before, I normally go straight to cover and position my teammates so they don't instantly die. I proceed to focus on debuffing an opponent so my team can mow them down. It is rare that I pull out my gun to shoot (since I always seem to instantly lose my shields when I do).

So, I'll be the first to admit, I'm probably doing it all wrong. I need help, if you guys/gals can spare some. I know that I can struggle towards the end of the game (dying over and over while slowing making progress) or pick up some skills/techniques to make the game easier. Anything you folks can spare would be appreciated.

Please don't let me the lamest Senintel Shep in the universe. Thanks again!

[mcsupersport]

NG+ is the hardest way to play on insanity early, and the reason is every enemy is level 30 and unlike late game, you have no upgrades. Once you get hardened shields, cooldown upgrades, and weapon upgrades you will be much stronger. The 3 mech mission to save crates is probably one of the hardest missions unless you know a trick or use stasis. I don't play Sentinels much so I can't really comment much on your build, but You may want to swap Energy drain for Reave, since it kills enemy shields and builds your own, while Reave is good, it is close to Warp.

[goofyomnivore]

Assault Armor and Shotgun Training with the Geth Plasma Shotgun is optimal. NG+ is tougher until you get 2 tech upgrades then it is about the same. Although Kasumi's Mission it is very very very very hard if it is one of the first missions you do on NG+.


Here is a tiny excerpt of a Sentinel with GPS and Assault Armor and how I play it. It isn't NG+ but the concept is the same.

Modifié par strive, 03 décembre 2011 - 07:56 .

[capn233]

Good tips above already. I would agree and say that you are playing it "wrong."

Reave definitely has to go. I didn't use energy drain on my sentinel (did on my engineer, think he needs it more). I took AP ammo... I also leveled warp and overload both to max. Do what you will, but throw CD is fast enough that I would only invest what is left after maxing warp, overload, tech armor, passive, and AP... and then a pt in cryo blast (or whatever, I don't remember exact pts).

Yes to using Assault Armor. It makes you much more survivable. The partial refill for your shields when it goes down is very helpful. Additionally, spamming tech armor is not so bad as it resets the CD of your squad... so if you are taking useful squad mates with you then their powers get spammed too. Take people with useful powers. I end up taking Miranda and Garrus a disproportionate amount of times on every playthrough... it doesn't really matter as long as you use what they have effectively. One thing you will notice is this sort of steers you into an Assault Sentinel mode. Trying to play caster isn't as easy as you will be spending your own cooldowns on tech armor. But when you get the chance you can mix in a warp or overload. This is more or less why I don't bother with Energy Drain or Reave. It just makes it harder to keep your tech armor up.  Not saying caster Sentinel is bad or the wrong way, just that it is more difficult on insanity.

To get the most out of Sentinel you need to get close enough to the bad guys so that tech armor shockwave actually staggers people, that is why you see so many videos of them running up to people. You aren't usually survivable enough to foolishly charge early without upgrades, but that depends on numbers somewhat. Staggering several baddies will diminish the volume of fire you are receiving a lot. I would recommend getting the AR or the shotgun when you get the chance since Sentinel is best at med to close range, IMO. If you are good with the Viper you can make it work though. The scope when casting warp is somewhat annoying to some people though. Since you already took AR's you have access to the most ridiculous gun apparently... get in people's face and use it. I preferred the Tempest as my SMG bc I would charge and then unload into people at very close range with it. Otherwise perhaps think about the Shuriken. I don't like the Locust for a close range SMG, especially when you have an AR to cover mid-long range and AR or pistol for anti-armor.

I usually play Kasumi's mission third after I get the Normandy. Mordin, then Garrus, then Kasumi. Agree with above about getting that tech upgrade when you swing by the Citadel to get Kasumi. After her mission, if you have her in the squad due to tech armor squad cooldown reset you can spam improved flashbang all over the place... Or take one squad mate with warp and one with lift and spam warp bombs all over the place.

Modifié par capn233, 04 décembre 2011 - 06:36 .

[HolyAvenger]

I'm going to disagree with some of the advice here. I'm playing a Sentinel (on Insanity) at the moment, and I'm not a huge fan of CQC, so my build is focused on defence-stripping and long-range combat. I play a Sniper-Caster, with Power Armour. I'm looking for the extra power boost over the knockdown and headshots for damage. I actually find this to have pretty good synergy with Kasumi, especially for killing mooks- one overload will take care of shields, and then let Rapid Shadow Strike do the rest (especially if you knock some health off first as well).

I like to play the class as vanilla as possible, but if you really want to use a bonus power, I can't go past Stasis.

[nocbl2]

You need Power Armor, the Archon Visor(DLC), and Stasis. Stasis. Stasis. STASIS!

The Stasis Drop is probably the most useful ability in the game. Rocket Drones literally just drop dead, and on pulled or Thrown enemies you'll have similar success.

Also, use your health. What I mean is, don't be afraid to lose some HP.

Modifié par nocbl2, 04 décembre 2011 - 02:10 .

[ryoldschool]

I have been posting videos of my current insanity run in this forum ( thread here ) . I agree with most of what was said in response to your post. I don't play NG+ ( I like to spend points after each mission to change my character, etc ). I am playing it on the humorous side ( went with heavy cryo blast and throw ), but I did have to play through the whole game. Sentinel is not OP, meaning that its soooo easy - you can easily die if out of cover, but it is powerful.

My thoughts:

(1) I did Kasumi mission right away when my character was weakest - use the Arc projector for the hard parts.

(2) Once you get the three tech upgrades + maxed passive your squad power reset is better than anything you can use yourself. I took a mate with a long cooldown ( jack's shockwave) + Mordin on horizon and tore them up with the squad reset feature. That is why I took an ammo power as bonus - you already have too many powers to spend cooldowns on.

Modifié par ryoldschool, 04 décembre 2011 - 02:45 .

[Gallimatia]

HolyAvenger wrote...

I'm going to disagree with some of the advice here. I'm playing a Sentinel (on Insanity) at the moment, and I'm not a huge fan of CQC, so my build is focused on defence-stripping and long-range combat. I play a Sniper-Caster, with Power Armour. I'm looking for the extra power boost over the knockdown and headshots for damage.

Assault armor would always be better even without the knockdown. 9-15 % extra power damage does not in any way shape or form compare to the +50 % shield refill.

Only under very specific and unusual circumstances will the small power bonus have a meaningful effect. Say allow Shepard to strip a shield where it would not happen without it. Meanwhile the shield refill will always allow you to keep on the offensive when your tech armor is set off. If the offensive consists of using abilities at range or a shotgun up close is immaterial.

[RedCaesar97]

Gallimatia wrote...
Assault armor would always be better even without the knockdown. 9-15 % extra power damage does not in any way shape or form compare to the +50 % shield refill.

Only under very specific and unusual circumstances will the small power bonus have a meaningful effect. Say allow Shepard to strip a shield where it would not happen without it. Meanwhile the shield refill will always allow you to keep on the offensive when your tech armor is set off. If the offensive consists of using abilities at range or a shotgun up close is immaterial.

I agree. When Power Armor breaks, you are left with only health. When Assault Armor breaks, you are left with shields. Assault Armor actually allows you to cast more powers before having to reset your armor, since you always have shield left when it breaks. With Power Armor, you tend to re-apply your Tech Armor more often to keep the damage bonus, which you do not actually need. With a 6 second (or more) cooldown, Tech Armor really cuts in to your casting ability, even though the Sentinel can have the shortest cooldowns.

As someone else put it (sorry if I cannot remember who): Power Armor gives you a 100% shield boost. Assault Armor gives you a 75% shield boost, but 50% shields when it breaks. Essentially, Assault Armor gives you 125% shields, 25% more than Power Armor. 

Modifié par RedCaesar97, 04 décembre 2011 - 10:05 .

[HolyAvenger]

RE: Power Armor

This is only an issue when your shield breaks. Mine don't very often. Cool downs on powers with a maxed out passive and upgrades means I rarely if ever re-set my Tech Armor and I tend to use combat focused squadmates so re-setting their CD isn't a priority either.

15% isn't negligible when combined with other bonuses- you can get another 15% from your class passive...it all adds up.

[RedCaesar97]

HolyAvenger wrote...

RE: Power Armor

This is only an issue when your shield breaks. Mine don't very often. Cool downs on powers with a maxed out passive and upgrades means I rarely if ever re-set my Tech Armor and I tend to use combat focused squadmates so re-setting their CD isn't a priority either.

15% isn't negligible when combined with other bonuses- you can get another 15% from your class passive...it all adds up.

It most certainly adds up. I am not disputing that. You mentioned you do not like close quarters combat and that you are playing a sniper-caster Sentinel. Do you place your squadmates in front of you or behind you? I always try to be in front of my squad, so I end up taking all the enemy fire. That may be why I prefer the greater survivability of Assault Armor. I also prefer the Guardian evolution for maximum cooldown.

[HolyAvenger]

It really depends on a mission by mission basis- I know that Sentinels make a great "tank" due to their Tech Armor...sometimes I'll take a Jacob/Grunt team and sit in the back with my Viper and make headshots and sometimes I'll take Jack and Samara (Derelict Reaper) and lead from the front. But I use cover heavily and my Tech Armor will only go down if I've made a mistake. Generally I find that my armor just doesn't go down often enough to make Assault Armor worthwhile.

[Gallimatia]

HolyAvenger wrote...

RE: Power Armor

This is only an issue when your shield breaks. Mine don't very often. Cool downs on powers with a maxed out passive and upgrades means I rarely if ever re-set my Tech Armor and I tend to use combat focused squadmates so re-setting their CD isn't a priority either.

15% isn't negligible when combined with other bonuses- you can get another 15% from your class passive...it all adds up.

It does not add up in favorable way. It's not multiplicative but additive and all working off the base (the number you see when you get the ability). The 15 % bonus from power armor will not give your powers 15 % more damage except when you have no other bonuses at all. When you have other bonuses, from class passives and upgrades, it will give less. With three regular upgrades (the magic number) and the raider passive power armor would only give (1+3*0.10+0.15+0.15)/(1+0.30+0.15)-1 extra damage, roughly 10 %.

This is when the bonus comes into play at all and in full which often times will not be the case. You can't take more than all shields or more than all life using overload/energy drain/warp.

Presumably cooldown upgrades also work of the base which if so (contrary?) means that the more reductions you have the more effective additional reductions will be. If for instance you have the cooldown upgrade and the guardian passive the "5 % helmet" will give you a 1-(1-0.20-0.30-0.05)/(1-0.20-0.30)=10 % cooldown reduction (twice as much as one might think?).

Assault armor has obvious and completely game changing benefits (compared to power armor). Power armor and the minor damage boost only comes into play under specific circumstances. Notably(?) if you are planning on disappointing Tali (miss out on +10 % tech damage) and don't have the Kasumi DLC (another 10 %) I think you need power armor and the raider spec to fully drain regular shields of level 30 oppponents with area abilities. Similary you may need the combo to fully take the armor of husks with area reave. These are the kind of obscure scenarios where Power Armor has a tangible benefit given a suboptimal play style (where you frequently use Sentinel Shepard's damage abilities and have stuff like reave to begin with).

Obviously you can complete the game on insanity using power armor without your shields ever breaking but if you are having problems and dieing like the OP Assault Armor offers way more survivability at a very low cost. The difference is significantly bigger than compaing numbers like 75+50 and 100 would imply because the invunerable second when the shield breaks comes at a more opportune time and 1 point of shield can eat a heavy rocket if one point of shields is all you have which means two increments of shields is greater than their sum.

Modifié par Gallimatia, 05 décembre 2011 - 03:22 .

[HolyAvenger]

Hm, I didn't know the maths worked like that, thanks for pointing it out. I'll concede that makes the power boost less significant. I still contend that there's any such thing as a "suboptimal" build/playstyle. The game and classes are flexible enough to do whatever you want with them. With the Sentinel's wide variety of powers, its probably THE most flexible class the game offers. For what is worth, I did disappoint Tali (but I think I got the tech damage anyway? Doesn't Shala'Raan give that to you for helping with the trial regardless of outcome?)...

[Gallimatia]

I got that backwards. She gives you the upgrade if you win the trial, which you can do by disappointing Tali. It's when Tali get's exiled that you miss out on it.

[HolyAvenger]

Oh right. That's the only outcome I haven't yet done.

[ryoldschool]

Gallimatia wrote...

...

This is when the bonus comes into play at all and in full which often times will not be the case. You can't take more than all shields or more than all life using overload/energy drain/warp.

Presumably cooldown upgrades also work of the base which if so (contrary?) means that the more reductions you have the more effective additional reductions will be. If for instance you have the cooldown upgrade and the guardian passive the "5 % helmet" will give you a 1-(1-0.20-0.30-0.05)/(1-0.20-0.30)=10 % cooldown reduction (twice as much as one might think?).

...

If the difference is 5% on the helmet, then its 5% off the base of 12 seconds = 0.6 seconds.  That's not 10% no matter what kind of equations you use.

I've never actually tried to measure if the cooldown works, but its too ugly, imo, to be worth 0.6 seconds even if it does work.  That's the same reason I don't use Blood Dragon Armor for the 15% power damage - you can't see your character's eyes in dialog scenes.

[RedCaesar97]

I believe someone tested the visor when it was released and found that it did not actually give any extra cooldown (it is bugged). I am not sure if I can find the thread or not.

[Gallimatia]

ryoldschool wrote...

If the difference is 5% on the helmet, then its 5% off the base of 12 seconds = 0.6 seconds.  That's not 10% no matter what kind of equations you use.

A 0.6 second shorter cooldown is a 10 % shorter cooldown if the cooldown prior to the change is 6 seconds. 0.6 is 10 % of 6. 6 seconds is the cooldown of Tech Armor with Guardian spec and the cooldown upgrade. Put on the helmet and the cooldown is 5.4 seconds, 10 % shorter. 

ryoldschool wrote...

I've never actually tried to measure if the cooldown works, but its too ugly, imo, to be worth 0.6 seconds
even if it does work.  That's the same reason I don't use Blood Dragon Armor for the 15% power damage - you can't see your character's eyes in dialog scenes.

I've modified the appearance of the capicatator helmet, the archon helmet and the kestrel helmet. Removing the mesh is advisable.

Modifié par Gallimatia, 06 décembre 2011 - 02:37 .

[ryoldschool]

^ Dude, you are killing me. I think you have a future in politics. By your logic then the passive does more like 37.5% cooldown reduction if you calculate the tech cooldown bonus first.

Base = 12
after 20% tech cooldown reduction (2.4 seconds ) = 9.6 seconds
after 30% passive cooldown reduction (3.6seconds )= 6 seconds

That means that the passive cd was worth 37.5 %

[Gallimatia]

That is how it is. The reduction from the passive is greater than 30 % if you have the cooldown upgrade. Like I said...

Gallimatia wrote...

the more reductions you have the more effective additional reductions will be.

To calculate the cooldown reduction you may use 1-(new cd/old cd)=cd reduction like I did with the helmet. In this case 1-(1-0.20-0.30)/(1-0.20)=37.5 %.

That is to say if you have the cooldown upgrade but not the passive and you respec to get the latter your cooldowns will be reduced by 37.5 %, not 30 %. You will be waiting a 37.5 % shorter time for your cooldowns. This is not my way of looking at it. This is the only way to look at it.

[ryoldschool]

No matter how you phrase it the reduction is 0.6 seconds. You can try to fool yourself into thinking its 10% but in-game its still a small amount.

[ryoldschool]

 It turns out that RedCaesar97  was correct.  The visor does not affect the Tech Armor cooldown.

Three tech upgrades + Passive for 30% means cooldown should be 6 seconds.

I mesaured the time for when the cooldown indicator first showed up to when it became a full circle.  This gave me a clear visual indicator to measure ( although the beginning indicator lags the true start a bit )

Without the visor = 5.20, 5.25, 5.25 seconds
With the visor      = 5.22, 5.21, 5.21 seconds

Visor Compare video

[mcsupersport]

RedCaesar97 wrote...

I believe someone tested the visor when it was released and found that it did not actually give any extra cooldown (it is bugged). I am not sure if I can find the thread or not.

This was my understanding, that the Visor didn't work on ANY cooldown.  I never saw who exactly figured it out or their proof.