7 réponses à ce sujet

[cap and gown]

I started an insanity run with a Sentinel and I am becoming frustrated with my tech armor. I took it up to rank 3 (Shepard is currently level 7) and it still melts away as fast as warm butter in a blast furnace. At this point I am thinking the only reason to have tech armor at all is so I can get Overload unlocked. Refreshing it causes a very, very long cool down. I think I went through the whole gunship fight on Kasumi's mission and refreshed the tech armor just once or twice just so I could reset Kasumi's cool down. The rest of the time I didn't bother since it would just get in the way of casting.

 

I don't see that tech armor actually adds to survivability. Shields go down sooooo fast that having another 187 or 250 points in shielding seems worthless. My engineer got through insanity just fine by staying in cover. This Sentinel can't stay out of cover any longer than the engineer without having the shields go down. In fact, I think tech armor makes things worse becuase it seems as though shield gate goes away if tech armor is active.

 

[Locutus_of_BORG]

Well TA actually gives you an extra shield gate, plus an extra 75% shields, so it does make a difference for survivability. And with the Assault Armor evolution, you can basically kill everything in the game by letting TA detonate on enemies and continually re-activating it. I'd post the video up, but I remember having this discussion with you before so you've probably seen it already.

 

TBH, I think you might be expecting a bit too much from this class so early on in the game. The ME2 Sentinel actually really sucks until you're almost levelled all the way up. IMO, the class depends on having all its powers and passives up and working together in order to be effective. But at your point in the game your have neither weapon DPS or strong debuffs/CC to work with, so naturally you are struggling a bit. I'd encourage you to press on though; none of the other ME2 classes can pull off what the Sentinel can in the late game, so it'd be a shame if you miss out on that.

 

Try the God-build: Geth Shotgun, Assault Armor, Stasis and Guardian for CD. Spam Throw, Overload and Warp. Abuse the hell out of Stasis. For me, no other build felt more unstoppable (and unlike the Vanguard, it's as bug-free as ME2 classes get).

[ImaginaryMatter]

With the Sentinel in ME2 I found the burst from TA is as important as the extra shields (which is why the Assault Evolution is much better in my opinion). The Sentinel almost has to be played like a Vanguard, you want to have that aggressive play mentality. As you found on Insanity, that extra bit of shielding isn't going to last long so you have to utilize the burst. Personally, I prioritize Tech armor and the Guardian passive first, utilizing almost exclusively Tech Armor and weapons at low levels.

 

At early levels there are generally two strategies I go with:

 

For enemies who are spaced apart you want to find one who is further off to the side, preferably near some cover. Like a Vanguard you want to run at him, using the extra shields and then the stun from the tech burst to draw in close. At that point you can quickly dispatch him from near melee range (weapons fired within melee range get a damage boost). The weapon I find most helpful for this is the Shuriken, as a single clip is enough to kill a basic enemy if all the bullets connect -- think of it like a shotgun. At that point you can get behind cover, reengage the armor, and find the next straggler to repeat the strategy. An additional benefit to this is it allows you to flank your enemies. That way when they pay attention to you they leave their backs exposed to your squadmates mates who deal a decent amount of damage.

 

For the larger groups I prioritize stripping down their protection within range of the tech burst. Since weapons have multipliers against shields and armor they go down quicker than health. By doing this, when your armor detonates it'll knock a few of them on their butts, allowing you to concentrate on those still standing or running out of cover to melee them while they are down. Generally I try to find a nesting spot for my squadmates before I flank the enemy so they get caught in the crossfire.

 

At later levels the Sentinel just gets better with age.

[cap and gown]

I find it interesting that a lot of people play the ME2 Sentinel as a CQC class, while BW clearly thought of it as a caster class, while in ME3 BW starts out the Sentinel as if it is a CQC class (starting weapon is a shotgun) even though it plays quite well as a caster.

 

Same thing happened with the Infiltrator. Designed as sniper class, often played as a CQC class. (At least until MP EDI came along.)

[capn233]

You might as well ask why you can't Charge with impunity early game. 

 

Before you get the good upgrades and max a power + passive, most classes are pretty weak.  Sentinel is not an exception.

 

The reason people play it as a CQB class is that Assault Armor has great protection and CC combined into one power.  It also means you can become powerful earlier.  The general way would be to take Stasis as the bonus and leave it at one point.  Put your points into Tech Armor and max to Assault, and then max passive to Guardian.  If you are taking the appropriate squad members, they will be doing the casting for you (Overload, Warp, etc), while you run in, stagger enemies with Tech Armor, then reset it and use squad powers again.

 

Other than that, maybe get Heavy Throw and Overload 2 (to blow up Pyros).

[Locutus_of_BORG]

There's a few reasons to play the Sentinel as a cqc character, all of which a matter of min-maxing, so feel free to do it some other way if you like. Like capn233 said, AA is better up close than far away, but you also get an awesome CD bonus as a Sentinel, meaning it's good to get in close to spam your otherwise weaker spells. I personally find most biotics are only good relatively close up, since their projectiles are slow.

 

As for the god-build, the GPS is preferred for its versatility: high shot damage, stagger, ammo efficiency and relatively long range. Assault Rifles work, but they compete with the Locust and none of them can OSOK like the GPS can. Sniper Rifles don't mix well with biotics, again because of slow projectiles.

 

Taking Power Armor improves TA's synergy with long-range playstyles, but IMO its bonuses don't amount to as much AA's do. IMO, the ME2 Sentinel is just better suited to cqc builds than to long-range builds.

 

 

Before you get the good upgrades and max a power + passive, most classes are pretty weak.  Sentinel is not an exception.

That's not really accurate. Different classes come into their own at different levels, which changes their difficulty curves. The caster classes start off much weaker than the combat classes.

 

Soldiers, Infiltrators and Vanguards can get by pretty well with just their class powers maxed out, and their additional weapon(s) help make up for the lack of abilities with extra firepower. At the very least they're getting an additional 33-50% ammo capacity from their extra guns. They can also run away or increase their toughness/damage whenever they're in a pinch.

 

The caster classes need their class powers maxed out as well as at least rank or two in all their debuff/CC powers in order to start becoming effective. This is mainly because their starting weapons are limited and they can't really afford to spam bullets from a safe distance nor any way to escape danger (eg: Charge):

 

- Engineers have it relatively good; as Combat Drone does so many things. They just need a couple points in Overload and Incinerate and they're good to go as far as 'controlling the battlefield' goes.

 

- Sentinels need TA maxed ASAP, then they need rank 1-2 in Warp, Overload and Throw. Otherwise they're only good for sitting around and getting shot at because they have durability but no firepower nor CD bonuses.

 

- Adepts need Singularity maxed and then they need basic points in Warp, Pull and Throw before they really start becoming practical. Weapons are their main debuffs, so ammo will be an issue until the Collector Ship. I'd actually argue that Adepts are the hardest class to start on Insanity with because Singularity is relatively weak and Adepts are meant to use a lot of powers at once, while not having the kind of survivability that Sentinels do.

[RedCaesar97]

A lot of people already commented, but I will add my thoughts:

 

1) If you are playing the Sentinel as a caster, trying to use one or more of Overload, Warp, Throw, Cryo Blast, and/or a bonus power, then Tech Armor just gets in the way. I might actually like playing the Sentinel as a caster if I could ignore Tech Armor (modding notwithstanding). Its base cooldown (12 s) is just too long for a caster and even with +50% cooldown from Guardian and Tech Cooldown upgrade, it is still too long to really use it on a caster Sentinel.

 

2) Since trying to cast with Tech Armor kind of sucks, that is why most people prefer to use it as a CQC class, since Tech Armor, particularly Assault Armor is just that good for CQC, especially once you get Guardian and the Tech Cooldown upgrade. Thankfully, you can get the Tech Cooldown upgrade fairly early thanks to the Stolen Memory (Kasumi) DLC. The other posters have already provided their thoughts on this playstyle so I will not elaborate much further on this subject.

 

I do, however, level up my Sentinel much different than Locutus_of_Borg and capn233, as I max Guardian first and then Tech Armor. I prefer as quick a cooldown as possible on Tech Armor before I invest more points into it. But that is just me. 

 

A CQC Sentinel is the only Sentinel I enjoy in ME2. I just hate the ME2 Sentinel since Tech Armor gets in the way of every other build.

[a_mouse]

Don't forget your squad mates.  Even if your focus is ranged combat instead of CQC, tech armor + squad mate powers is very potent.  If you give your squad mates a good combination of complementary stripping and immobilization powers, you can do a LOT of damage while you cower behind cover.  

 

For example, try stripping a couple of enemies in a crowd with your SMG.  Perhaps your shields will break and even part of your health, but at this point you can duck back behind cover and then let it rip with a quadruple pull-warp-recast-pull-warp combo.  Another great one is strip-strip-recast-pull-warp.  And you've never used any of Sheps own powers!  Best of all, after the dust settles you are back up to full health and armor, ready for more...