Sentinels: PvP godsend, or false prophet?

[Lamb Chop]

I've had some interesting conversations with people in-game about the Sentinel, and so far speculation among most folks is that the Sentinel would be strong in PvP. I'm not personally well-versed in PvP post i13, so I'd rather not speculate myself, but I immediately started digging through the sets and looking for something that could be good. I don't know if Defense or Resistance is better for PvP, but I do know that CC protection is helpful. With that in mind, Bio Armor, Fiery Aura, Ice Armor, and Energy Aura all seem pretty good, while Ice, Sonic, Psychic, and Rad Blast sets seem like the better choices.  How do experienced PvPers feel about the Sentinel within the context of PvP?

[Dan Petro]

Sents with the right build combo's are IMO the dream zone build for the casual player.  You are mixing ranged damage (at some decently potent values on some sets) with somewhere between scrapper and stalker levels of mitigation. 

 

As with most things there are a lot of combos that probably won't work with the way damage is calculated off of animation time.  But something like an Ice/Regen/Dark Mastery will chunk you while having a bunch of heals and absorb to fall back on.

 

Unfortunately they have to wait until very late game (RV) to get their best attack in their epic holds. 

 

[Smoke Signal]

Honestly, I'd rather have a team of /nrg blasters with a good healer and kill everything no matter what they are.

[Zerethon]

Sentinels are....interesting.

 

Goofy combos with stuff like Fiery aura are like really solid scrappers, but some sets that are decent on scrapper/stalker kinda suck on sentinel (Super reflexes for one)

 

If you play like a blaster, you can be an absolutely obnoxious foe, but your durability is basically a stalker without placate or stealth (Or on-demand crits)

 

I would say in the "Vacuum" of Level-50 fully-slotted type fights, they're middle of the road, not quite the one-shot power of a blaster or stalker, not quite the durability of a proper scrapper, but a solid mix in the middle and a fun change of pace.