Highest damage sentinel?

[Calzano]

I know Sentinels aren’t the best damage wise but I was just curious if anyone knows the best builds for them as far as damage goes. I’m just curious to see . I have a procc’d out elec bio sent and it’s damage is obviously not blaster level but it does some decent dps for a sent and is fun to play.

 

I would like to hear some other good combos people have played

Edited January 8, 2021 by Calzano

[Erratic1]

I would imagine just about anything */Bio is going to do pretty well. As Fire was designed to be the highest damaging set Fire/Bio should do particularly well and is a popular combination (I have one myself). I am half tempted to make a Sonic/Bio, which would capitalize on debuffing the target's damage resistance in combination with the damage boost from Bio's Offensive stance. But since I dislike repeating sets on ATs and already have a Fire/Bio sentinel, it is not a combination I would expect to get around to soon.

[Six-Six]

I would agree with the fire/bio.

However, going off on a tangent here, but I think you're looking at a gift horse in the mouth. I believe that the power of sentinels isn't their (oft-discussed lacking) damage, but their various debuff talents. that said, fire/ then becomes one of the weakest primaries because all it has is damage and no secondary effect in its attacks. Ice has slows, rad has def debuff, dark has to-hit, pistols have all three, and so on. And the sentinel armour makes sure you can get up and personal to dish out your debuffs. that said, I often play my sents like tanks. a few of my stand out sentinels are Elec/elec, archery/nin, Sonic/Ea, pistols/Dark, and water/bio; I have an energy/rad that's fun to play, but not as strong since she's due for a respec--she's one of my earlier toons so her build is one made by a noobier me. I also have a fire/fire but I compare him too much to my fire/fire blaster. 

[Rathulfr]

22 minutes ago, Six-Six said:

I would agree with the fire/bio.

However, going off on a tangent here, but I think you're looking at a gift horse in the mouth. I believe that the power of sentinels isn't their (oft-discussed lacking) damage, but their various debuff talents. that said, fire/ then becomes one of the weakest primaries because all it has is damage and no secondary effect in its attacks. Ice has slows, rad has def debuff, dark has to-hit, pistols have all three, and so on. And the sentinel armour makes sure you can get up and personal to dish out your debuffs. that said, I often play my sents like tanks. a few of my stand out sentinels are Elec/elec, archery/nin, Sonic/Ea, pistols/Dark, and water/bio; I have an energy/rad that's fun to play, but not as strong since she's due for a respec--she's one of my earlier toons so her build is one made by a noobier me. I also have a fire/fire but I compare him too much to my fire/fire blaster. 

 

I've found Fire/*, Ice/*, and Elec/* Sentinels to be the hardest hitting.  I prefer Energy/* for thematic reasons, but its damage output is underwhelming.

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Rathulfr

[brasilgringo]

Probably Fire/Bio/Fire for AOE with strong single target.  I have an Elec/Bio/Psi that traded off some of the AOE of /Fire ancillary for the better single-target of Dominate and Mind Probe.  On Sents, Elec primary is nearly tied (*nearly*) with Fire for damage, at least ST.  Elec primary is neat on Sents, different than blasters.  I don't like the Fire/primary change on Sents of making the Blazing Blast snipe replacement do repel (even the KB-KD IOs don't affect it that much).   

As others have pointed out, damage isn't really a Sent's sweet spot.

[Frosticus]

proc'd out dark/bio

[oldskool]

Psi Mastery is the strongest Sentinel Primary. 😉 

Edited January 8, 2021 by oldskool
Not Psi Blast... Mastery... the epic set. I'm serious.

[Underfyre]

Fire/Bio is the highest dps, followed VERY closely by Elec/Bio. I made a dps sheet about this, find the thread. It's fallen back a bit because I haven't pushed out any updates on it for a bit so I haven't bumped it up.

 

At some point middling sets with /Fire start overtaking the lower dps sets that are paired with Bio. Radiation is the last damage boosting secondary, but it's too click heavy for my tastes.

[Calzano]

1 hour ago, underfyre said:

Fire/Bio is the highest dps, followed VERY closely by Elec/Bio. I made a dps sheet about this, find the thread. It's fallen back a bit because I haven't pushed out any updates on it for a bit so I haven't bumped it up.

 

At some point middling sets with /Fire start overtaking the lower dps sets that are paired with Bio. Radiation is the last damage boosting secondary, but it's too click heavy for my tastes.

Yes I think I read it after I posted this. My elec bio feels pretty strong for a sent. I hope they buff the opportunity thing though soon. I don’t like it. 

[Calzano]

2 hours ago, oldskool said:

Psi Mastery is the strongest Sentinel Primary. 😉 

Yes I use this. I’m elec/bio/psi with proc in mind prob and dominate

[Erratic1]

Guess I should be happy my character concept fits with taking Psi as epic, though I will have to figure out if it fits better than going Fire.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Erratic1

[Haijinx]

Any of your sturdier Blaster options 

[Saikochoro]

I haven’t been disappointed with my fire/bio/psi sentinel. It has very good damage. I have been disappointed in all my other sentinels, but not that one. That one is pure gold. 
 

I am however in the process of leveling a elec/bio sentinel. Will see how that one goes. 

[Calzano]

9 hours ago, Saikochoro said:

I haven’t been disappointed with my fire/bio/psi sentinel. It has very good damage. I have been disappointed in all my other sentinels, but not that one. That one is pure gold. 
 

I am however in the process of leveling a elec/bio sentinel. Will see how that one goes. 

I think you will like it. Tesla cage with procs is very strong. Short circuit is decent and with psi mastery you get single target dps . I think I will try a fire/bio next and see how it does 😄

[arthurh35353]

Huh. I must be weird to like En/En.

[oldskool]

15 hours ago, arthurh35353 said:

Huh. I must be weird to like En/En.

No kink shaming here.

[Teirusu]

22 hours ago, arthurh35353 said:

Huh. I must be weird to like En/En.

You're not. 

In fact, my current favorite character is my own Energy/Energy sentinel.  And I actually do get compliments on her from time to time.  Sometimes I feel that people look at all of the numbers and that colors their perceptions about sentinels but the numbers only give half the picture.  With a good build, any sentinel can AOE to their heart's content without worrying of the fire back.  Your average blaster, Corruptor, and Defender.. not so much.  Unless you have a pretty tricked out build then you -do- have to worry about drawing too much aggro and face-planting.  Of course, sure, a good tank more-or-less fixes this issue.. usually.

But, on the other-hand, my EN/EN almost literally doesn't care what the team make up is.  In most cases, I just fly in and nuke as fast as I possibly can with very little worries.  Heck, I'll try to out-race the tank of the group, at times, if it works out well.  There's definitely been groups I've been in where, for one reason or another, I was more durable then the actual Tanker/Brute on the team.  If you convert most of the knockbacks to knockdowns, then the combination works quite well in keeping you and the rest of your team safe while also being quite enjoyable. 

Of course, it's certainly not going to be doing the highest damage out there, sure but, in my opinion, still does pretty good damage when you push it.  A blaster isn't going to do as much damage as you if you're nuking spawns faster then they are and/or they're holding back.  But, alot of that boils down to play-style and skill.  In any-case, as far as I feel about it, I'm happy trading some raw damage for more survivability, even if it isn't used all the time.  I mean, being able to pull big mobs of Rikti on an MSR -is- pretty fun, in my book.

[arthurh35353]

That's actually been my experience too. Ran an ITF and I was dying less than our scrapper and brute and even the tank ended up having problems. I was by no means the toughest, but I survived and kept going perfectly fine.

[SwitchFade]

On 1/8/2021 at 3:50 PM, Haijinx said:

Any of your sturdier Blaster options 

Aaahaha. Nice. Sad, but nice.

[Iron Alex]

anything bio.. but from a pvp stand point the strongest I've tested so far in order is ice, beam, psi and fire is tied,  dark but its slow.. electric is good for the fast end drain.. but mine is paired with regeneration so I can't tell.. but yeah if you want damage on any you have to go bio.. then maybe rad.. and fire waaaaay low.. also the mastery play a part in it as well.. best ones dark,psi,ice and I like soul 

[Underfyre]

*/Fire will always put out more damage than */Rad. A 33% damage boost for 60 seconds every ~120 seconds (roughly 15% average) isn't that staggering compared to a constant 10% damage buff that also does additional fire damage.

 

One could argue that /Rad also has Ground Zero to boost up its AOE numbers, but that will depend on how you slotted it and how much AOE damage your primary is already capable of. Over all, Rad is much more click heavy than Fire is, so you'll be spending more time not attacking than Fire which is more time not doing damage.

Edited January 31, 2021 by underfyre