34 réponses à ce sujet

[Simbacca]

I was just now coming to the realization, after getting my Turian Sentinel to lvl 18, that I was so far off on how to properly play the class. We all are, well most of us.

I always believed you had to choose one of three distinct playstyles with this Sentinel: a) Max Tech Armor for defense, max the passive, and carry the heaviest guns, rarely using skills, Ignore Tech Armor, max Overload, Warp, and Passives, run with just a light/med Assault Rifle (due to turian passive) playing a caster like the Engineer, or c) Max Tech Armor for cool-down, max Overload for crowd control, carry a light/med Assault Rifle, a hybrid of the two.

Judging from every build I've heard mentioned online, seems everyone else thinks it one of these three ways too. Hell I even built my Turian using method c). I built him doing everything I could to minimize Overload's cool-down while Tech Armor would be up.

While running, chain-lightning neural-shocking, and gunning (with just a scoped Mattock) my way through waves today I noticed something... I rarely have my Tech Armor up anymore, and always deactivate it at the start of a round. I can spam Overload faster and mow them down at long range through the Mattock's scope. The only time I activate tech armor is when I'm about to round a corner into a hot zone. And just as I was about to charge into a mass of smoke for some close quarters clean-up, I thought to myself half-jokingly "heh if I only ever activate Tech Armor right before I run into the heart of chaos, it'd be nice if I choose the Damage Protection boost at rank 6 instead of Power Cool-down..." That ellipses lead to it striking me like lightning.

In ME3, Tech Armor was never meant to be always on.

We had it all wrong because we were used to ME2's idea of Tech Armor, the one that used cool-down to cast and the one that sent a shockwave out on it's own.

This Tech Armor is different. It doesn't use any cool-down to cast, and the player now has manual control over the detonation. It's an active ability now, no longer a passive one. ME3 Sentinel is only meant to activate Tech Armor just moments before he needs it, and is meant to deactivate/detonate it just moments before he no longer does.

Tech Armor is now about switching between crowd-control (or defense stripping) mode and tank mode on the fly.

That's trade off between being able to have a high overall damage reduction bonus on ME3's Tech Armor and just extra shields on ME2's Tech Armor. Now you have to continually reassess which play-style you will need in the next minute in advance instead of just activating and forget.  One second you're rapid firing chain-lightning neural shocks and wrecking foes through your scope, the next you're tanking up to revive your ally downed in the thick of it.

Now I wish I realized this sooner, before I choose my Turian's rank 6 Tech Armor evolution

Modifié par Simbacca, 23 février 2012 - 04:00 .

[tangalin]

Personally I use the tech armor all then time and play it like a krogan lol

[Bhatair]

I don't know, I don't find it that hard to keep the cooldown of Overload short carrying a sniper rifle and a pistol with Tech armor up all the time. It's about .5 seconds longer than my engineer's overload, and the engineer has maximum cooldown reduction.
I don't think I've ever used the detonation very much. It's easier just to shock them and take potshots for their head. I've only played up to silver though, no idea what goes on in gold.

[Jestina]

Turian, yes...the human is kind of gimped. It just feels like a broken support class...and for support I can do better with an engineer.

[goofyomnivore]

the human sentinel isn't too bad it plays much better without Tech Armor, but then you're just an Asari without stasis.

The Turian is simple but effective with chain overload spam

[Hiero Glyph]

On Gold, when you need to activate your Tech Armor it is already too late. I understand what you are trying to say but the class is simply gimped in so many ways currently. Compare Tech Armor to Fortification, where the benefit of removing the skill is instantly noticeable. Imagine if instead of detonating, Tech Armor was used to increase the damage of your skills for the next few seconds. Now you would be able to remove Tech Armor and spam your skills with improved effectiveness and once done, reapply the Tech Armor for more protection. This would be a proper application of Tech Armor and fit entirely with the theme of the Sentinel.

Heck, they could even revert back to when the detonation effect happens automatically when your shield is depleted so that you have the bonus instantly in a jam. As the detonate ability would be automatic they could then add the cooldown back to when Tech Armor is cast, allowing you to drop the armor and cast instantly as well. These few changes would make Tech Armor so much more viable while still keeping it balanced.

Think of the context... You activate Tech Armor and fight normally. When you need some extra oomph, you drop your Tech Armor and spam your abilities. If the battle goes well or really badly you reapply the Tech Armor and continue on. If you get caught unaware and have your shield depleted the Tech Armor detonates, instantly providing you with added damage to the nearby enemies and more damage for your skills.

Also, every Sentinel should have a Biotic and a Tech ability, not two biotic ones.

Modifié par Hiero Glyph, 23 février 2012 - 04:21 .

[IlluminaZer0]

Human Sentinel is kind of weird in general as he lacks a combination of tech/biotics. He is biotic/biotic/unique. That is already a strange combo of abilities for the Adept/Engineer hybrid class.

Odd thing about Turian is that he is generally played as essentially a Soldier with Overload. While TC's strategy sounds savvy, the way the later Tech Armor abilities are designed seem to contradict that playstyle approach. (+ability potency while Tech Armor is active, lowered cooldown penalty...)

I don't really see how Sentinel is the Adept/Engineer hybrid anymore. Tech armor in general just seems strangely designed. Why does Tech Armor give a melee bonus for the Adept/Engineer class? Seems like that was purely designed to compliment the Krogan rather than promote Adept/Engineer hybrid shenanigans.

Modifié par IlluminaZer0, 23 février 2012 - 04:34 .

[FFLB]

I built my human Sentinel to have fast cooldowns, with all skills maxed out except for Fitness. It actually plays pretty well for me compared to either of the Adepts. The 25% damage reduction is quite handy to prevent one or two potshots from taking me down.

[Locutus_of_BORG]

Yeah, I thought I had a similar epiphany, Simbacca, but after farming up some other classes (got Turian Sentinel right from the get-go, so it was my first character), I find my Sentinel kinda clunky and weird still. I'm not smooth and my playstyle doesn't feel right when I use the guy.

I'm still missing ME2's Sentinel right now, just for the smooth, straightforward way that version could play.

[Sisterofshane]

Locutus_of_BORG wrote...

Yeah, I thought I had a similar epiphany, Simbacca, but after farming up some other classes (got Turian Sentinel right from the get-go, so it was my first character), I find my Sentinel kinda clunky and weird still. I'm not smooth and my playstyle doesn't feel right when I use the guy.

I'm still missing ME2's Sentinel right now, just for the smooth, straightforward way that version could play.

I find it useful for taking out certain types of enemies, not necessarily playing as a pseudo-vangaurd.

Guardians for example?  Use warp and assault rifle to take care of the accompaning assault troupers, then turn on tech armor, take out my shot gun and take out the guardian from close range.

[Jamsxo]

So there's a cooldown penalty for having Tech Armor on?

I've been debating on this all week on how I should play a Sentinel, as I was more of a run-and-gun Shotgun Sentinel on ME2 Insanity. This did not work so well on Gold challenge in Co-op.. Sentinel was my first character to 20 so I haven't touched it since, especially because we can't respec and I feel I f'd up my build. I've been thinking of switch to a power-oriented Sentinel when the game goes live. But after reading all these posts, would going pure power Sentinel be worth it? Does Tech Armor punish cooldowns that much (fully maxed with any penalty decreases)?

[HolyAvenger]

Hmm you make a good point OP.

I'll try this out on my next run.

[Legendaryred]

Overload all the way, i don't even bother with tech armor. Mowing through waves is really easy and good crowd control.

[Mr_Steph]

I constantly have tech armor on and can spam abilities just fine. Probably because I use the Phalanx and Tempest which barely anyone does.

[UK Wildcat]

Nope, no way to tell if class is balanced in real game or not, but I'm pretty sure that the point of having tech armor is probably to use it.

[tomcruisejr]

UK Wildcat wrote...

Nope, no way to tell if class is balanced in real game or not, but I'm pretty sure that the point of having tech armor is probably to use it.

This.

Noone wants to play a engineer without drone/incinerate, which is what the OP is doing. Its even worse as human, you're a gimp asari adept with or without your shield on.

[G3rman]

Simbacca wrote...
This Tech Armor is different. It doesn't use any cool-down to cast,

I read this as..

"This Tech Armor is different, it understands why its species had to be wiped out the last time around."



...

Modifié par G3rman, 23 février 2012 - 07:05 .

[clerkenwell]

Yeah, I've tried this, but for me it didn't make the class any more fun.

Forget arguments of overpowered/underpowered for a moment. You can tweak pretty much any design to make it balanced. Tech Armor is just dull as dishwater in ME3. You have it on, or you don't. You can detonate, but the situations in which that's useful are so few and far between, and lets be honest, you'd probably be better off just overloading anyway.

Personally, I think you could make it fun again pretty easily.

First, give it the same radius as Nova.

Second, get rid of the evolution that improves melee damage and the tier 6 damage protection evolution.

Third, replace those with an evolution that increases detonation damage to shields/barriers/armor (like Nova) and an evolution that restores shields when you activate Tech Armor (like Charge or the final evolution of Adrenaline Rush).

Fourth, change it so that the cooldown occurs on activation, not detonation.

If you do that, then all of a sudden you have an awesome Tech Armor that can be used offensively and defensively. It opens up new strategies like detonating and then immediately following up with another power for a ton of burst damage. Or double-tapping to detonate and quickly boost your shields back up when you're in trouble. That's the kind of Tech Armor I want.

[IlluminaZer0]

clerkenwell wrote....

+1, like the suggested changes.

I'm actually surprised that Tech Armor doesn't have equivalent radius explosions to Nova. Then again I avoided Sentinel (as I never got Turian and thought human Sentinel boring) and have never seen any Sentinel detonate their tech armor.

Modifié par IlluminaZer0, 23 février 2012 - 07:17 .

[goofyomnivore]

First off give the Human Cryo and Throw instead of Warp and Throw.

Rank 4 Power Damage or Protection
Rank 5 Power Recharge or Durability
Rank 6 Power Synergy or Assault

Power Synergy - 50% cooldown reduction when using biotics on an enemy afflicted by tech or vise versa while Tech Armor is on.

Assault - 15% Damage Reduction 100% Detonation Radius and Damage.

That would create two different Sentinels while encouraging the use of the Armor. You could reach 55% damage reduction with a 8.2m and 580 damaging detonation or a hybrid caster who is a little tankier than the Engineer and Adept.

Modifié par strive, 23 février 2012 - 08:06 .

[The Makatak]

Did anyone notice you can make your powers more powerful by having Tech Armor on as one of its applications? So you fire slower, sure, but how many times other than against Atlases do you ever fire warp more than once? Not often, even as an Asari Adept. So in exchange for not being able to hit as often, you hit with your abilities a little harder.

To me, the Turian Sentinel is supposed to be kind of like old school WoW warlock, a tried and true debuff class. You can strip an entire group's shields with one Overload instead of two and then gun people down with an assault rifle. Your warp can melt one face while you punch the guy over here and you don't have to worry about getting a biotic explosion for the damage. And when sh*t gets real, you blow that tech armor. Though I haven't really had to use it, as I stick with Bronze mainly with that character. I'm not too happy with the Revenant where he's at and it's what I think would or should work best, and maybe it does closer to 20. We'll see.

[nicethugbert]

Hiero Glyph wrote...

On Gold, when you need to activate your Tech Armor it is already too late. I understand what you are trying to say but the class is simply gimped in so many ways currently. Compare Tech Armor to Fortification, where the benefit of removing the skill is instantly noticeable. Imagine if instead of detonating, Tech Armor was used to increase the damage of your skills for the next few seconds. Now you would be able to remove Tech Armor and spam your skills with improved effectiveness and once done, reapply the Tech Armor for more protection. This would be a proper application of Tech Armor and fit entirely with the theme of the Sentinel.

Heck, they could even revert back to when the detonation effect happens automatically when your shield is depleted so that you have the bonus instantly in a jam. As the detonate ability would be automatic they could then add the cooldown back to when Tech Armor is cast, allowing you to drop the armor and cast instantly as well. These few changes would make Tech Armor so much more viable while still keeping it balanced.

Think of the context... You activate Tech Armor and fight normally. When you need some extra oomph, you drop your Tech Armor and spam your abilities. If the battle goes well or really badly you reapply the Tech Armor and continue on. If you get caught unaware and have your shield depleted the Tech Armor detonates, instantly providing you with added damage to the nearby enemies and more damage for your skills.

Also, every Sentinel should have a Biotic and a Tech ability, not two biotic ones.

THIS! + 10000...........

Incidentally, another option could be to use a tech ability to set up a warp bomb, or some other tech/biotic synergy.

Modifié par nicethugbert, 23 février 2012 - 10:26 .

[sirus1988]

Just today I relized something about the tech armor that really set me off. while in tech armor it slows down your powers' recharge speeds considerably (I believe by 80%). thank god i didn't put any more than one level into the tech armor upgrade. I like a quick recharge speed. I don't think I will use the tech armor again.

[Jamsxo]

sirus1988 wrote...

Just today I relized something about the tech armor that really set me off. while in tech armor it slows down your powers' recharge speeds considerably (I believe by 80%). thank god i didn't put any more than one level into the tech armor upgrade. I like a quick recharge speed. I don't think I will use the tech armor again.

The thing is, why would you play a Sentinel without Tech Armor when you can just play the pure counter part class of pure biotic or pure tech?