Stasis Sentinel
Drake Shepard was always a team player. A career soldier, an exemplar of the best that Alliance has to offer, he singlehandedly protected the civilians during the Skylian Blitz. Fearless and loyal to the soldiers under his command, Drake commanded the Alliance forces to the victory!
Skills
You are a support character, but that doesn't mean you can't do some damage. Tech Armor allows for extra survivability and Squad Incendiary Ammo from James helps to mitigate low damage of SMGs which are the only weapons this character has access to. Stasis bubble helps to control entire groups of enemies, including dangerous ones like Phantoms and Guardians.
Tech Armor: Durability, Power Damage, Durability
Your protection. With low damage of your weapon you'll be forced to stay out of cover for longer periods of time and extra protection is much needed, especially with armor bonuses geared towards weapon and power damage.
Offensive Mastery: Influence & Duration, Squad Bonus, Force & Damage
Focus on supporting squadmates and power augmentations. More duration for Stasis and more power damage are always nice.
Fitness: Durability, Squad Bonus, Fitness Expert
Survivability. Similar reasons to Tech Armor. Your Shepard needs to be alive to heal others. Also unique to the Sentinel class Rank 5 evolution helps to boost squadmate survivability.
Stasis: Stasis Strength, Recharge Speed, Bubble
Your crowd control tool. Cerberus is the most susceptible to its effects with only the Atlas mechs being able to resist it. Phantoms are frozen, Guardians drop their shields, Engineer turrets explode if frozen at the right time. A very power tool in Stasis Sentinel's arsenal.
Gameplay
The playstyle focuses on using Stasis bubbles in conjunction for crowd control, backed with James's Squad Incendiary Ammo with Explosive Burst evolution to deal with armored enemies.
The most problems were early on, before getting Squad Incendiary Ammo with Explosive Burst evolution from James. After that, it all went smoothly. And, of course, finding my favorite SMG only near the end of the game was not great at all. I also learned not to hold onto my medi-gel reserves.
Squadmates
I took James and Garrus wherever I could. James is pretty much mandatory for his ammo power and I took Garrus to Overload shields and barriers, coupled with James's Frag Grenades. Their powers were as follows:
James
Frag Grenade: Damage, Max Grenades, Shield Overload
Incendiary Ammo: Squad Bonus, Headshots, Explosive Burst
Arms Master: Weapon Damage, Shield Recharge, Fortification
Garrus
Concussive Shot: Force & Damage, Recharge Speed, Shredder
Overload: Damage, Recharge Speed, Shield Damage
Turian Rebel: Weapon Damage, Power Damage, Sniper Rifle
Equipment
Weapons
SMG: M-4 Shuriken -> M-12 Locust
I was forced to use Shuriken through almost the entire game since Locust is locked on Horizon. I used High Velocity Barrel and Power Magnifier mods on both (version II). Power damage helped to augment James's incendiary ammo and penetration helped to pierce Guardian shields and Cannibal plating.
Armor
Head: None
Chest: Serrice Council
Shoulders: Armax Arsenal
Arms: Serrice Council
Legs: Hahne Kedar
Together this set gave me +20% power damage, +20% weapon and +10% headshot damage.
Gameplay videos
(full playthrough of the vanilla game starting from level 1)
Priority: Mars
N7: Cerberus Lab
Priority: Eden Prime
Priority: Palaven
Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation
Priority: Sur'Kesh
Attican Traverse: Krogan Team
N7: Cerberus Abductions
N7: Cerberus Attack
Tuchanka: Turian Platoon
Tuchanka: Bomb