Sentinels in PvP?

[Chalkarts]

Are Sentinels a good pick for PvP combat?

I want to make a good character for the Arena.

Sentinels are a blast in PvE, how do they do in real combat?

[Gobbledigook]

Isn't PvE real combat then? 😛

 

Just pick a Psi/energy blaster. job done.

[oldskool]

I'm not sure on the current state of PvP, but Sentinels were definitely a popular choice for a while last year. 

 

In PvP you want exotic damage types.  The less resisted it is, then the better.  This makes Dark Blast, Ice Blast, and Psychic Blast popular picks.  The purple sleep proc can placate and both Ice/Psi can take it.  

I don't think soft-capping is a goal for PvP. It wasn't previous due to how the zones work plus sky high to-hit/accuracy.  You want healing and ideally absorbs.  Regeneration and Bio Armor were popular choices for that reason.  Bio has the added benefit of adding damage which is always welcome in PvP.  

[MJB]

it depends what kind of pvp you want to be doing. in large team pvp (like 8v8's) sentinels are outclassed as damage dealers by blasters, and aren't significantly tankier to spike damage if at all

 

however, for zone and small pvp (1v1, 2v2) sentinels can be really good, though not all sets are created equal.

 

for primaries your main worry is to get as much damage as possible, which ice/ and dark/ are currently the best for a think, ice doing a bit more damage but dark bringing some extra utility, both sets can be procced pretty heavily. rad gets a special mention here as also hitting decently hard and being able to slot the -res proc, which in some matchups can be pretty powerful. im afraid i cant recommend psi (my first pvp toon was a psi/regen) as it just doesnt do enough damage and cant be procced very well, though the chance for placate proc in will dom is nice... its just not enough. i have heard tell of a legendary elec/ sentinel you end drains people like a boss.

 

bear in mind that damage type isnt very important because most things have more or less equal resistance to everything in pvp, mostly because squishy res shields/tough/etc give res to everything in pvp instead of just smash/lethal

 

no matter what primary you go, you will want to have dominate from psi mastery or netherworld grasp from dark mastery, these will probably be your hardest hitting attacks.

 

/regen is the king of sentinel 1v1 builds, against non-spike damage you are ridiculously tanky. /bio can work too with the same idea of just having loads of heals, while also have utility like end drain resist and so on. other secondaries can work, just avoid all the defence based armours, sentinels get the same dr curves as the squishies and so defence is just pretty nonviable. ive been theorycrafting a /fire build for a while but ive never been able to make it work 😞

 

if you head over to indom youll often see people like "eternal one" looking for 1v1's on his ice/regen sent if you ever went to see it in action. there are also vods around of a double sentinel team winning a 2v2 tournament, and an ice/bio coming third in another 2v2 tournament, though both of these tournies are several months old now and the meta has evolved somewhat 😛

[Chalkarts]

On 5/2/2020 at 11:49 AM, MJB said:

 

 

/regen is the king of sentinel 1v1 builds, against non-spike damage you are ridiculously tanky. /bio can work too with the same idea of just having loads of heals, while also have utility like end drain resist and so on. other secondaries can work, just avoid all the defence based armours, sentinels get the same dr curves as the squishies and so defence is just pretty nonviable. ive been theorycrafting a /fire build for a while but ive never been able to make it work 😞

 

I'm working on a Willpower Tank right now, a weird labor of love ive been trying to complete since Live.

I have been stacking every possible, available +regen boost from IO sets, regen at the cost of all things.

The tank I did this with in Live was pretty obnoxious in the arena, very hard to kill, long fights.

I think I want to do something similar with a sentinel.

If I were going to do this with full passive regeneration in mind I'd go Willpower again, my attack would have to be rad, being able to 2 slot analyze weakness for 10% regen in every attack is nice.

But if I were to ease off a little and just pick the best attack power for PvP, I'm not sure which way I'd go.   I like the idea of Dark because, as a total passive regen build, making my enemies miss gives me more ticks between hits.

 

So it's really between rad and dark.  

Make me harder to hit or make them easier to hit, tough call. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Chalkarts

[MJB]

bear in mind that depending when you left live, you may or may not be familiar with the pvp diminishing returns mechanic, which regen is effected by.

 

however, max health is not affected by DR and your regen is based on your max hp, so regardless of your choice, getting as much hp as possible will get you more regen than stacking loads of regen bonuses. 

 

 

if you wanted to tryhard, i would say go dark, you also get life drain which would synergise well with the concept

[Chalkarts]

1 hour ago, MJB said:

bear in mind that depending when you left live, you may or may not be familiar with the pvp diminishing returns mechanic, which regen is effected by.

 

however, max health is not affected by DR and your regen is based on your max hp, so regardless of your choice, getting as much hp as possible will get you more regen than stacking loads of regen bonuses. 

 

 

if you wanted to tryhard, i would say go dark, you also get life drain which would synergise well with the concept

I was thinking Dark as well because it will make them miss me.  Every time they miss me is a tick of regen of a ton of HP.