73 réponses à ce sujet

[weirdscientist]

Apologies in advance if this has been posted already. Decided to change my play style from one of staggering offensive awesomeness with a vanguard to one of patient defensive efficiency with a sentinel. I will try my best to ignore my twitchy tendencies.

The sentinel has 6 powers in which to allot your points (7 if you add on a bonus power).

Throw
Warp - need throw 2
Tech armor
Overload - need tech armor 2
Cryo blast - need overload 2
Defender
Bonus power (can't decide which one to choose yet, maybe warp ammo)

If I'm not mistaken, we get a total of 50 points for a level 30 Shepard. I've decided that I want to max out the following: Warp (Heavy, 12 total points with throw to unlock), Tech armor (Power armor for the extra power damage bonus, 9 total points since it starts out with 1), Overload (still trying to decide between heavy or area, 10 total points) Defender (Guardian for the extra power cooldown, 10 total points).

When added up, that's 41 total points, leaving me with 9 to spare. I could max out whatever bonus power I have, leaving cryo blast empty. Or I could retrain, take that point away from the bonus power and max out cryo blast. I'm not that thrilled about maxing throw, but if there is anyone who thinks it's worth it, I'm all ears (er eyes). As far as a bonus power, do any of the shield powers stack with tech armor? (again, my apologies if this has been discussed at length in another post). Any advice is appreciated. Thanks 

[Kurupt87]

shield powers stack, but i'd advise an ammo power bonus to boost your wep dmg. cryo blast is pretty darn powerful, area throw is also good, fast cooldown and area stagger/knock down. you'll have to decide whether once stripped of defences you want to warp/overload the next and shoot the defenceless guy, or finish off the first one with an ability. find which you prefer and roll with it.

[Darnalak]

Hasn't really been brought up, I'm going to post my sentinel Guide this weekend after I chop up the videos I've been taking.

To your questions:

I recommend Area Overload. (for any "normal" shielded mob area overload will wipe all shields, anything boss/elite will take multiple shots anyway).

Based on your spec, You'll be playing "Commander" shepard rather than "Commando" Shepard. That being the assumption, I'd recommend Taking an Ammo Power, I won't get into the OMG THIS ONE'S BETTER debate, but basically your two choices should be between Warp ammo and AP ammo.



Your strengths will be stripping defenses, and letting your squadmates finish them off (No, this doesn't mean you'll be incapable of killing, just that you have powers to annihilate ALL defenses on short cooldowns). I recommend 1 or 10 points in cryo blast (everything in the middle is a waste in my opinion, 3 seconds is plenty of time to annihilate anyone who's frozen, but AE Cryoblast is awesome).



Regarding shield powers: DON'T. There is NO situation where hitting barrier/gethshield/fortify is worth giving up your cooldown, ever (did I mention, ever?).



My first insanity playthrough was using a setup very similar to what you're doing. I stayed back, ordered my troops around tactically, smeared enemy defenses, synergized my biotic/throw and warp with Samara/Jack/Miranda/Jacob when applicable, and generally made the galaxy my playground. By far the "safest" trip through Insanity imho. You'll enjoy it. #1 thing to remember as this particular build though: KEEP YOUR SQUADMATES ALIVE!

[bevey2176]

I have not completed my insanity run but I have just gotten through the collector mission and a bunch of loyalty missions. I play with assault armor probably because I like to melee people and I just got off of my vanguard insanity run. I recommend AP ammo over warp ammo because your weak points as a sentinel is armor you have warp and overload for barrier and shields respectively but usually on insanity you find yourself breaking down armor more often than any other barrier and not to mention it give a larger bonus to red health. With me playing with assault armor i don't find a need for cryo blast once they are stripped of shields/barriers/armor I can basically run in and kill the rest by chain casting assault armor. Even though I love cryo blast I dont find it necessary.

[Darnalak]

See, now Bevey's playing Commando Shepard that one's not nearly as easy (More on that this weekend!)

[Recnamoken]

I'd max Heavy Warp, Power Armor and Guardian. Overload up to three. Ignore Cryo. As a Bonus Power you'd be surprised how awesome Armor Piercing Ammo is.



I agree with Darnalak. Sentinels are a support class. They can kill, but they are a lot better on stripping the defenses. I take Garrus and Mordin. Garrus has Overload and a Sniper Rifle. Mordin has Incinerate which is very, very useful.

[bevey2176]

I played commando shep but I mean on my missions with geth(tali's reqruitment) I used Garrus + Miranda with tripple area overload it wasnt even a fair fight easiest geth fights ever. But you cant die if You make sure that all enemies have no barriers/armor/shields and you chain cast assault armor and they get hit by it by the time they get back up your armor is back of cooldown if guardian spec.

[weirdscientist]

@ bevey: I was sorely attempted to take assault armor. Being a vanguardian at heart, I'm all about assault mastery and bashing people's faces in. Too bad sentinel can't get a shotgun until the collector ship mission But the extra power damage with power armor is too tempting to pass up, especially since I'm going to be spamming warp and overload. And because of the spamming, I'm going guardian for 30% cooldown reduction.

@ darnalak: I sympathize with bevey's commando shepard play style. That's all I've been doing as a vanguard since I got the game last month. I know I'll be going through withdrawal at first. But I might fall in love with the sentinel. Anything is possible. Interesting that both you and kurupt give props to cryo blast. But isn't the cryo effect only useful enemies once they're down to health? At that point they'll be gunned down in short order, though it's fun watching a krogan freeze as he's charging at you I look forward to reading your sentinel guide this weekend.

How about energy drain as a bonus power? I know it seems redundant since overload is already available. BUT it gives you some shielding back in a pinch, which is very useful when you don't want to lock yourself up with a long tech armor cooldown (6 seconds vs. 12 seconds). I can see it's utility maximized during missions against mercs and geth where there are shielded enemies galore and lots of bullets whizzing by. The advantage with overload is that you get synthetic stuns and weapon overheat effects at higher ranks...hmm, I think I just negated my argument for energy drain, ha ha Thanks for the responses guys. Keep 'em coming.

Modifié par weirdscientist, 26 février 2010 - 04:59 .

[Cloaking_Thane]

Cyro blast works great w/ AP Ammo or just Heavy pistols in general.



Pop, pop,pop, Freeze, Pop pop. I have fun w/ it, esp w/ moradin.

[Kurupt87]

cryo blast is good because its aoe and a frozen target takes 100% more dmg(so a frozen target is a dead target, even a krogan, plus allies seem to hit ragdoll/frozen enemies more often), but yeah it only affects health. the only problem being that the 4.5s cd, while not prohibitively long, esp once upgrades and passives are got, stops you from spamming warp/overload on the next target, while throw can be reduced to around 2s. what i meant in my post is, in clearer language- once you have stripped an enemy of defences, do you either finish him with your guns and use warp/overload on the next guy while killing the first with a teamate/your guns, or do you strip him then use throw/cryo blast on him before moving to the next guy. if you do the first, then an ammo power is best for you, if the second then its obviously better to max out cryo or throw.

[BanditGR]

weirdscientist wrote...

@ bevey: I was sorely attempted to take assault armor. Being a vanguardian at heart, I'm all about assault mastery and bashing people's faces in. Too bad sentinel can't get a shotgun until the collector ship mission But the extra power damage with power armor is too tempting to pass up, especially since I'm going to be spamming warp and overload. And because of the spamming, I'm going guardian for 30% cooldown reduction.

@ darnalak: I sympathize with bevey's commando shepard play style. That's all I've been doing as a vanguard since I got the game last month. I know I'll be going through withdrawal at first. But I might fall in love with the sentinel. Anything is possible. Interesting that both you and kurupt give props to cryo blast. But isn't the cryo effect only useful enemies once they're down to health? At that point they'll be gunned down in short order, though it's fun watching a krogan freeze as he's charging at you I look forward to reading your sentinel guide this weekend.

How about energy drain as a bonus power? I know it seems redundant since overload is already available. BUT it gives you some shielding back in a pinch, which is very useful when you don't want to lock yourself up with a long tech armor cooldown (6 seconds vs. 12 seconds). I can see it's utility maximized during missions against mercs and geth where there are shielded enemies galore and lots of bullets whizzing by. The advantage with overload is that you get synthetic stuns and weapon overheat effects at higher ranks...hmm, I think I just negated my argument for energy drain, ha ha Thanks for the responses guys. Keep 'em coming.

You don't need energy drain either for survivability or stripping down shields. Tech armor and Overload got all bases covered and if you are running with Miranda often (no reason why you shouldn't, she is amazing) you get an extra overload anyway. Ammor powers are really the best option, since they offer the largest benefit for a Sentinel. As for Cryo, as has been stated, either go for max or simply invest a single point in it. No real reason to stay in between. Bear in mind though that its cd is higher than that of Throw and since you are going for Warp, you will invest points in Throw anyway.

Last but not least, if you are going for a "conservative" playstyle and you are thinking about acquiring Power Armor, I would also consider Raider versus Guardian, especially if you have access to Blood Dragon Armor. Stacking those power bonuses will get you some pretty ridiculous damage with warp, later on.

Modifié par BanditGR, 26 février 2010 - 05:54 .

[weirdscientist]

a08m08 wrote...

As to your skill set up I would say spend those nine points maxing out your bonus skill. Having recently completed a Sentinel insanity run I found that cryo blast usage was few and far between and honestly the 'upgrades' for it only increase the freeze duration by a second or two which is hardly worth it. If you do go Cryo blast I would say one point is sufficient. As for which bonus power to choose, from everything I understand you'll want AP ammo or maybe warp ammo, on my playthrough I used slam because I enjoy biotics. It was useful on occasion for incapacitating an enemy trying to flank me but overall not an ideal choice. I would almost certainly go with assault armor, the damage bonus you get from power armor isn't that significant and odds are you'll get flanked by some sort of shotgun weilding guy and assault armor will save your life.

I think I'll go with AP ammo. Warp and overload will take care of barriers and shields, respectively. As far as what tech armor to go with, I forgot to mention one thing. I'll be using the blood dragon armor as my base, which already grants +15% power damage. Power armor grants this as well, but only when it is active. One could argue, therefore, to upgrade to assault armor in this instance, because even when my shield goes down, I'll always have the +15% power damage bonus from my blood dragon armor. With the assault armor, I get a higher pulse radius, pulse damage, and pulse force AND 50% shield boost after the detonation. The only difference is that power armor gives 100% of base shields vs. 75% with assault armor. But the blood dragon armor also grants +10% to shield strength, so the assault armor becomes that much more protective. Hmm, seems like assault armor is the way to go, afterall 

Man, I'm getting excited about my sentinel run. Can't wait!

[weirdscientist]

@ bandit: You beat me to it. I'll be using blood dragon armor. Hmm, raider grants another +15% power damage.



Blood dragon armor: +15% power damage, +10% shield strength

Assault armor: massive detonation radius, damage, pulse, and spare shielding post-detonation

Raider: +15% power damage, -20% cooldown



Sheesh, who needs to be a conservative sentinel with that setup?

[SmilingMirror]

I've tried ammo powers as a bonus talent for a long time on my Sentinel. Its bad, real bad. You simply don't have the base damage for it to be effective. As soon as you get a squad mate that has squad ammo, i'd retrain to get reave so you can skip the throw line. When you get Tech and Biotic cooldown upgrades and the hard shield upgrade, I suggest you switch to a shield power. You can start tanking then.

ALWAYS buff and wait for your cooldown before you get into a fight, if your shields are about to go down press the tech armor button. Never let your tech armor get destroyed if you can. The cooldown can slow your offensive to a crawl.

Modifié par SmilingMirror, 26 février 2010 - 06:25 .

[Darnalak]

your armor choice comes down to a simple decision: If you're going to mix it up, and get out there with some in your face action, Take Assault, no question. If you're going to hang back, control the battlefield, Then Power armor. The two are very well defined in thier usages

[weirdscientist]

Darnalak wrote...

your armor choice comes down to a simple decision: If you're going to mix it up, and get out there with some in your face action, Take Assault, no question. If you're going to hang back, control the battlefield, Then Power armor. The two are very well defined in thier usages

I'm so conflicted, darnalak. One part of me wants to be open to new experiences and to go with power armor and control the battlefield from a distance. Another part of me won't let go of the hot-blooded, intense vanguardian soul I have developed and still wants to get into people's faces, even if it means multiple "critical mission failures"  It's definitely a nice problem to have. The devs did a great job of making most choices gray instead of black and white.

Modifié par weirdscientist, 26 février 2010 - 06:26 .

[SmilingMirror]

weirdscientist wrote...

Darnalak wrote...

your armor choice comes down to a simple decision: If you're going to mix it up, and get out there with some in your face action, Take Assault, no question. If you're going to hang back, control the battlefield, Then Power armor. The two are very well defined in thier usages

I'm so conflicted, darnalak. One part of me wants to be open to new experiences and to go with power armor and control the battlefield from a distance. Another part of me won't let go of the hot-blooded, intense vanguardian soul I have developed and still wants to get into people's faces, even if it means multiple "critical mission failures" 

Well your not going to be disappointed. Sentinel is one of the best melee classes along with vanguard.

[Darnalak]

Problem Easily solved. Play twice

[weirdscientist]

SmilingMirror wrote...

weirdscientist wrote...

Darnalak wrote...

your armor choice comes down to a simple decision: If you're going to mix it up, and get out there with some in your face action, Take Assault, no question. If you're going to hang back, control the battlefield, Then Power armor. The two are very well defined in thier usages

I'm so conflicted, darnalak. One part of me wants to be open to new experiences and to go with power armor and control the battlefield from a distance. Another part of me won't let go of the hot-blooded, intense vanguardian soul I have developed and still wants to get into people's faces, even if it means multiple "critical mission failures" 

Well your not going to be disappointed. Sentinel is one of the best melee classes along with vanguard.

One of the best melee classes? I would have never come to that conclusion since sentinel appears to be less combat-centric and more defense-oriented, made more obvious by how its passive skill set labels it as a "defender." But experimentation is the name of the game in ME. As darnalak ingeniously suggested, play it twice 

Modifié par weirdscientist, 26 février 2010 - 06:33 .

[Darnalak]

Ah but Think. In Melee, all classes can hit equally hard. Yes, they don't get the big fat weapons that the combat classes do, but pistolwhipping someone with a SMG hurts just as much as being riflebutted by an assault rifle . Now, that being said, on Insanity, Your Tech Armor isn't quite the get out of jail free card that charge and cloak are

[SmilingMirror]

Darnalak wrote...

Ah but Think. In Melee, all classes can hit equally hard. Yes, they don't get the big fat weapons that the combat classes do, but pistolwhipping someone with a SMG hurts just as much as being riflebutted by an assault rifle . Now, that being said, on Insanity, Your Tech Armor isn't quite the get out of jail free card that charge and cloak are

You can melee much longer as a Sentinel, and the stun lets you get an extra blow in, not to mention it does damage itself.

[Darnalak]

SmilingMirror wrote...

Darnalak wrote...

Ah but Think. In Melee, all classes can hit equally hard. Yes, they don't get the big fat weapons that the combat classes do, but pistolwhipping someone with a SMG hurts just as much as being riflebutted by an assault rifle . Now, that being said, on Insanity, Your Tech Armor isn't quite the get out of jail free card that charge and cloak are

You can melee much longer as a Sentinel, and the stun lets you get an extra blow in, not to mention it does damage itself.

Yep, all true, you just can't stay exposed to enemy fire as long as a Vanguard or Infiltrator. 

[Frostknight187]

I love melee shotgun combo with the sentinel. I play a commando shep using my assault armor to its fullest. Its awesome when charging. For a little help to u (weird scientist) I hope. My build went something like this



Heavy warp 10

Assault armor 10

Throw Field 10

area overload 10

Cryoblast 1

Guardian 10



as a08m08 said that 1 point in cryoblast is sufficient and with guardian the cooldown is pretty fast. Plus I used it a lot against krogan because it helps kill them really fast once they are down to health. I love assault armor and rushing with shotgun in hand or even the smg which does awesome damage at close range. I used throw field for dealing with husks. They are very annoying. And I usually ran with Miranda for party bonuses and Samara with pull field because I just love doing warp bombs. Then I would just set my party members up towards the back of the battle field because their powers actually work off ur line of sight not theirs. And I never really did feel gimped damage wise with the sentinel either because the pistols are great for damage especially the handcannon. Plus when you get the shotgun for getting up close and personal damage dealing is never a problem.

[SmilingMirror]

Its true its slightly harder to escape compared to an Infilitrator, but its not like we have to take cover immediately all the time. I usually just let enemies come to me, strip as many defenses as I can and bash whatever hops behind my cover. (unless its a flamethrower kid)

When their health is exposed, Tech Armor does a good job of knocking everyone down. If their armor/shields are up, it still provides a good half second you'll need to make it out in time, provided cover is close.

Modifié par SmilingMirror, 26 février 2010 - 07:19 .