I don't understand Sentinel, please help

[EnjoyTheJourney]

8 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

Ok, sent this Fire Armor build into +4/x8 Trapdoor.  Encountered no issues whatsoever.  Wasn't even using Accuracy Inspirations because I forgot those were a suggestion for Trapdoor testing.  No deaths, not even close.

 

Couldn't figure out how to get to Cimerora or missions containing their faction easily on beta.  Try again tomorrow if I can figure that out.

 

Don't know how to export that little data build so this is the best I can do:

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1464&c=671&a=1342&f=HEX&dc=78DA5D93C94F136118C6BFA153B02D3B85964D6C815AB6A1A088D18351110ED0A4827A334D85B1D434055B70397AF4EA85936B5CC085BFC4056F2E785711352E514FF5ED3C8FEDC44926BF779EEF7BD76FBEE8A5B1CAF5892B8794567D349DC8E5E2336666299531D3CE6822999A5585A742DE967F7A7C3A91499A73C6782A6BC68F88CB526B7169CC3C6B6672A6AC99D9CBF1C3CBD984F2C41616D2C6783A959C5F725BF6CCA269CE55412EA8A94CB2C6FA9A3213736636379F5AF41F5B4CCD1AC5B0D1E57854F2484CBF54D223EF4248F1C93BD575C190AE5A6E803B6F92B7C8DBE0AE3BE06858A859BEBAFAE1B0B4B29FE42F70C76F72183C1FA28BE4D35EE996E67D4DBE019BDE929B60CB3BD025E373309FA351B334DD4BD682E593C853FE1DCC4A3E277C9CCEFE324B730F900658394846C0EA2170597C2BE85B71976BF7C0DAFBE403B07E955C03F7CB6C5CF055AE00E67540340F358F4F8C765D05A5A72A6865557D9CEF7F3C287E35D8E3A8E19C039C7380730E70CE17A4E63AD65CB78AB975AE910FC94760D763F209A8492D0D381BD590974739446964E64666EE62E6103387FE80BAECF5B1131F4FC7CF53F1F3942E4A75CDACAE7918930AED0177EF2547C87D60CF285827F15B19BF95F1DB18BF8DF1EB654F3B3B68E7D4AF4ACE0EE6EC788A4E079E91CFC917A0B141BE04D7E58A04E91B7C8F3E7B3F901FC1FE2DF213B90D7E13DF6EFA769F400FBD27C1C118799C9C0623336083F411E69F121E11E80EE515AD8FBDF5B17F8F6806356313BEAA49A908B508F79D2B5C75CD59D0F26D7AF1C6173EE594A7EC8A0B51627AF19E2ACDDAB5ED168535699D98ED67BB1686F6A5A469DA29E4EF0960265FED6BD778BE2BE0A4FC7A4358CB4FF84A76CC5DB2CFD8EC84CD3E6DB383DE92BDD555B2576CF1D78225FB2FFA90E249

Get the midnight squad badge in Night Ward, by entering the Midnighter's mansion on top of a hill, near the base portal in Night Ward. Then you're free to enter Cimerora anytime. 

[DarknessEternal]

Thanks to @EnjoyTheJourney I was able to test Cimerora with that no-cap build.

 

In summary, they are much, much harder than Trapdoor mission.  Cimerora isn't part of the game I've ever explored, so I didn't have much idea of what they did.  I died a lot at the beginning.  Eventually I figured out how to attack their groups though and started killing them without danger.  So, on a character I played less than 2 hours against a faction I'd never seen, I was able to take that no-cap build into no danger territory.

 

I imagine anyone who put some time into their character would blow me out of the water on that.

 

I'm not sure I could have the same consistency with a Blaster actually.  So I've finally found what Sentinels do.  Thread objective achieved.

 

Sentinels are Blasters who can solo much more difficult things, but still not the most difficult things.  That's a pretty small niche, but I guess it's a niche.

Edited May 21, 2021 by DarknessEternal

[drbuzzard]

Actually I know of blasters who've soloed +4x8 ITFs, so I don't know that the sentinel even has that niche to themselves. 

 

IMO sentinels are nice easy introductory characters. 

Edited May 21, 2021 by drbuzzard

[Bill Z Bubba]

14 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

Actually I know of blasters who've soloed +4x8 ITFs, so I don't know that the sentinel even has that nice. 

 

IMO sentinels are nice easy introductory characters. 

 

I did it at max diff MoITF rules with my fire/bio sent. I did NOT succeed at the two hour limit.

[DarknessEternal]

20 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

Actually I know of blasters who've soloed +4x8 ITFs, so I don't know that the sentinel even has that niche to themselves.

That's pretty amazing then.  I can't even imagine how right now.

[drbuzzard]

7 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

That's pretty amazing then.  I can't even imagine how right now.

Yeah, I have no idea either. I sure as hell couldn't. 

[Sovera]

12 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

Yeah, I have no idea either. I sure as hell couldn't. 

 

Really? It doesn't seem complicated to me. A Blaster's nuke recharges in 40 seconds ish. Kill one spawn, wait until the 40 seconds finish running, kill the next. It's not how we would usually play the game (use nuke, next spawn ignore it and kill the spawn without it), but for a hard setting aiming for Master of it's definitely how I would do it. Perhaps even throw in a modicum of stealth with an IO in Sprint or something.

 

Most mobs would be skipped with that single IO (maybe take Super Speed and put the IO there instead in order to 100% ignore mobs) and the oracles could be found in the first mission without killing all. The ambush at the top of the hill can be skipped by not taking the path and just freeing the last oracle on top.

 

The cysts would be harder but full BU (+Gaussian) + Aim + nuke + all AoEs would do a lot of hurt. Depending on secondary even more hurt (leftovers of BU + Aim powering Burn, or dropping Ice Patch, or whatever. I was on a team with a /Ice Blaster who soloed cysts while the the rest of the team went the other way). The ambushes don't need to be fought and for extra bonus points just leave all cysts at a sliver of HP instead of breaking them, then do all cysts at the same time since they don't regenerate HP.

 

The climb up the hill with all the generals should not be complicated since the previous strategy kills most mobs and then the EBs can be hoverblasted with near impunity. Computer would need to be stopped at each wave of robots, but, again, BUAimnuke and then hoverblast until dead before resuming computerizing. AVs who can't fly aren't a problem as their ranged attacks are seldom dangerous and so both AVs would not be much of a problem IMO.

 

Last mission is just more of the same. Stealth in, nuke, clear mobs, wait for 40 seconds to elapse. Repeat. Last boss pull the fluffies who will fly up but the AV will not.

 

 

I'm not sure on which Blaster I would do this. A Water Blaster would have poorer ST, but poorer is subjective when it's a high octane AT like a Blaster, and the great AoE and ranged nuke would clean things up easily while according to Mids a Dehydrate frankenslotted would heal for 15% HP every 3-4 seconds (or 21% HP with three combos) which coupled with hoverblasting should be near immortal. Being fully ranged I might say go TA to be fully ranged with a bonus of Slick Arrow lining up with the nuke meaning its original purpose of being a giant sized Ice Patch works just fine for extra survival (for the cyst packs for example), or use something to make it go on fire and it's another super wide (25y 15y radius) biggo AoE adding to the melting of faces. Water's nuke also recharges faster and the FF procs the build allows would make it recharge even faster diminishing the 35 second wait.

 

Fire would just kill faster overall. Not as good AoE but it would light up Slick Arrow by itself which is good and not good since having mobs flop can be of service, but the ideology of dead-mobs-don't-hurt-back is pretty valid.  Nuke recharges about five seconds later, but it has no FF procs unless choosing a secondary that allows it. It forces to go into melee range which is generally not healthy but should not be deadly as long as having stealth to have the opening strike.

 

Ice would have poor AoE in general (Ice Storm is a bit crummy and Frost Breath is a joke) but still serviceable with the above strategy of lining it with the nuke.

 

Rad has definite promise barring the slooow animations. Rad/Rad can nuke one spawn and kill the leftovers as they cough and wheeze from the nuke's secondary effect, and then Radioactive Cloud can be used for the next pack for another fit of coughing. I found it pretty safe because of this. Solo both can be staggered to keep a group coughing until everything is dead.

 

 

Regardless of primary/secondary the basic gist is 'stealth, nuke, wait for nuke to recharge, obvs build for S/L or Range defense'.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Sovera

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

<snippage>, but for a hard setting aiming for Master of it's definitely how I would do it. Perhaps even throw in a modicum of stealth with an IO in Sprint or something.

 

<general strategy and water blast snippage>

 

Fire would just kill faster overall. Not as good AoE but it would light up Slick Arrow by itself which is good and not good since having mobs flop can be of service, but the ideology of dead-mobs-don't-hurt-back is pretty valid. <more snippage>

The original quoted post didn't even mention MoITF, it was soloing +4/x8 (BillZ brought up MoITF in the reply). So you could use the safer strategies you list off or just say heck with it; it's just a matter of patience if you're allowed to use inspirations and deaths don't cause a failure.

 

Also, while I haven't specifically tried it, Water Blast should be able to light up Slick Arrow also: Steam Spray deals Fire damage.

[Parabola]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

Slick Arrow lining up with the nuke meaning its original purpose of being a giant sized Ice Patch works just fine for extra survival (for the cyst packs for example), or use something to make it go on fire and it's another super wide (25y radius) biggo AoE adding to the melting of faces

The blaster version is smaller than the Trick Arrow one. 15' I think. I'm not entirely sure but it might keep the same graphic so it looks a bit confusing but its area of effect is noticeably tighter.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Point is, even in the 2nd mish with the tunnels, there's *always* a spot at the roof you can hover-blast from with impunity.

 

Honestly, AVs running away are the absolute worst part of soloing the ITF for me on any character that can't lock 'em down. Granted, I have yet to make the attempt with anything except my armored characters.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Bill Z Bubba

[Hew]

So, the first ever sentinel I have both liked, and found relaxing to play, has been an elec/regen/whatever (do we get patron pools?!?!). Elec will sap them in no time flat, especially opening with nuke + the drain power, allowing me to kill things at whatever slow speed I want.

 

It is super relaxing.

[PyroBeetle]

I use an Electric/Energy/Electric Sentinel for the same reason...it might not be the fastest around but it is one of the most reliable characters I have played. Relaxing is a good word for the playstyle.  My alpha combo is available every 25 seconds, and if I havent killed all of the first spawn I will move onto the next, the helpless end drained bosses might follow me into the next group, they die shortly thereafter. I did the wolf world mission from Unai Kamen, notoriously cannot be snared, and routinely had 3 or 4 groups running off at slivers of health only to return and die.

 

Something to remember with Sentinel, the nuke can be a regular AoE in your chain.

[Gentoo]

Sentinels are great for new players. You can attack like a blaster, but not faceplant. You don't have to know what you are doing or how the game works in order to survive.

[Hew]

True story! I was tanking-ish on a +2/+3 team in first ward last night with great success! (elec/regen) That was even without SO level boosts, malefactored down to below 22.