Is there such thing as a tankinel?

[TheZag]

Ive never made a sentinel before but i wanted to give an unconventional build a shot and any wisdom is appreciated.

 

I decided to do some limited tanking as a sentinel with provoke so i fired up mids and started going through a few different power combos.  Invulnerability was my first thought but after giving it a run through mids,  the resistances were low.  Like real low.  S/L was capped at 75 but the rest were like 30.  I know its not a tanker but with a tanker i can get almost everything to 90.  I checked some others and dark had good resists and regen but defense was low.  Im not expecting amazing numbers but i was thinking i could push it a bit better then ive been able to do so far.

 

I settled on a water blast/super reflexes sentinel since i can at least get all the positional defenses above 45% and resistances will rise some as hp falls.  The heal over time from water looks promising but i wont play much till this weekend.

 

I can post the actual build if needed when i get home and ill look around the forum too but havent seen anything on tanking with a sentinel yet.  So any advice is appreciated and if water/SR is a bad combo feel free to say so.  Im open to other powers and can reroll the character if necessary.

[Gobbledigook]

You need Taunts to Tank really. Unless you just mean surviving.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Gobbledegook

[TheZag]

Ill be taking provoke with 6 slots.  Not as good as taunt but we had a defender tank hamidon with it.  My plan is to have a tankinel, a scrapinel, and a 'normal' build.

[BurtHutt]

I think you can make a pretty durable Sent. Maybe an off-tank. I have a good FIRE/BIO Sent and my ELEC/ENERGY Sent is softcapped to all Def. 

[KaoticKarl]

Oh just GREAT! 🥺 

Now I want a Shield Sentinel... with DP guns

 

Would be hella fun, especially running Fiery Bullet Rain into Charge, then straight to Hail of Bullets

[Saikochoro]

Energy aura can be made very tough. It’s easy to softcap typed defense and has enough freedom in it that you could take rune of protection to bolster up your defenses. 
 

I think was able to get some respectable resist out of my dark blast/invuln sentinel. I’ll have to check back on my build to see what they were, but it seemed like it was going to be quite tough. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Saikochoro

[Hardboiled Hero]

I spoke about something like this with @oldskool a while back and was left under the impression that it probably isn't really worth it.  Accepting the caveat that you can theoretically build any AT to "tank", sentinels aren't actually any better for this than most other AT's (In my opinion).

 

  With that said, your experience in mids wasn't some kind of miscalculation.  Sentinels have a slightly below average health pool and their defensive powers are, I believe, on the same level as a stalker..  which is to say the lowest of any of the "defense power" AT's.  Of course their are ways to improve that, but you have to give up something in order to do so.  If you're increasing your tanking ability, you're not helping the sentinel's notably mediocre damage, for example.

 

  You're going to need one power pool in order to get some taunting, but you still will need some power pools to increase your defensive capabilities.

 

Now the difficulty of tanking would, of course, change depending on what content you're trying to do and whether you have some friends willing to work with you.  If you really want to build a tanking sentinel, that's cool.. just be aware it won't be as easy as it seems, and you may need to limit yourself to tanking certain content or working with certain people.

 

  

[Six-Six]

About half of my sentinels are built as tanks. I took lightning field from Elec mastery and slotted a damage IO. this seems to take care of the aggro, at least those within melee range. Another one is Arch/Nin which is specifically built to be the tank of all archer runs. does really well.

[TheZag]

MIDS build Water/SR

 

this is the early version of the mids build that im going with at the moment.  of course once ive played more ill probably learn some things are and arent needed and have to go back and adjust things.  im already thinking i might not need rehabilitating circuit or chain fences and just take the water AoE instead or get kick and cross punch to have a bigger melee chain.

 

the totals in the resist area are with 50% hp.  at 40% the resists start to get decent so i expect it to survive with all the positional defense and self healing.

[oldskool]

I highly recommend you read into this thread for some ideas on the pros and cons of what you're doing. More importantly, consider the difficultly being talked about here and the level of innate fragility of the AT. If you're still set on this, then by all means go for it. 

 

However, you're likely going to be the trailblazer here because "unconventional" builds are that for a good reason. They are hyper niche and there for your own fun and experimentation. They aren't wildly adopted because of that niche place (aka, often times they just aren't good beyond one specific thing; if they are good at all).
 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by oldskool
And, I thought of that previous discussion because SR was proposed as an idea. It was shot down for reasons. If you're not looking to do serious bizniz content it doesn't matter. Neither does the build, really; That's the greater point.

[Greycat]

Trying to remember who it is, but we do have a Sentinel that shows up and herds and pulls on MSRs fairly effectively.

 

I do have an elec/elec Sent I won't call a "tank," but will put her in harms way during Rikti invasions - she can soak a number of dropship blasts before worrying, and I'd rather have her take them than some lowbie. Bit specialized there, though.

[Xeph]

I think this pursuit of thought is actually one that hasn't been properly vetted for Sentinel's. Many folks tend to focus on their damage aspect which... I'm sure everyone who posts on the forums is familiar with.

 

One of the first characters I made was a Dark/Ice Sentinel when I discovered Homecoming. And I sincerely enjoyed playing her. I can almost hear the question now... "How did you make it work???" And the answer is rather simple, albeit probably disfavored, I quit trying to do damage. Now don't get me wrong, Snow Spirit can drop a hard target when she needs too, but that isn't her strength.

 

Instead I'm able to take on a huge amount of aggro, survive it, and slowly but surely burn it down if my team isn't available to assist. And I'm not limited by range... I can do this in the pile or outside of it. Provoke is a great tool to help me keep the mobs where I want them, and have always enjoyed having that tool available. Even with so many folks chasing that 45% Def Softcap - a Sentinel is still going to out tank a squishy AT.

 

@TheZagI think you've made good choices for your Tankinel (Water/SR), the only other one that might have a little better synergy is Dark/SR. You still get a health drain attack, and your attacks debuff the enemy accuracy - making you just a little tankier.

 

Best of luck on this pursuit, I look forward too hearing the results. ...think I need to go roll up a Dark/SR Sentinel now...

[Bill Z Bubba]

5 hours ago, oldskool said:

And, I thought of that previous discussion because SR was proposed as an idea. It was shot down for reasons.

 

Sounds like heresy to me.

[Erratic1]

Just got out of a Synapse with a Sentinel (character level 44 with set IOs) was doing an impressive job of tanking despite the lowered level of Synapse. She mentioned something about needing to pick up Taunt.

 

At one point my basic IO slotted Stalker went to try to help her out of what looked like a tight situation. Yeah....she was fine. I was too after she finished everything up and I picked myself up off the floor with an awaken.

[Wavicle]

You can, with Provoke and possibly the Hybrid Taunt aura. Although the 75% Res cap will hurt you, Control abilities can help, especially AoEs, so that includes any tier 9s with Stun or Hold or Knockback or -ToHit.

[TheZag]

I dont think it was on that mids build but the plan is to take the melee hybrid with taunt aura,  the 120 second duration barrier destiny and the interface with -5% damage or -5% to hit,  whichever i feel is performing better after trying both out.

 

The defenses will be over 45% but not by much and the resists dont really kick in till 40% hp so its mainly evading almost every attack and healing up when i do get hit.  There are several power transfer: chance to heal in addition to the slotting that i usually do in health and stamina.

[DreadShinobi]

You're better off going for soft control via aoe immobilizes in their ancillary pools over soft control via provoke, ideally both if your character's purpose is utility tanking. 

[Hyperstrike]

As some have said, Sentinels lack the soft control to ACTUALLY Tank.
Now, can they be built durable enough to ACTUALLY survive in a Tankish manner?
OH MY YES!
My DP/Inv Sentinel is a beast!

[TheZag]

To clarify the reason for this project a bit - i already have some tanks and brutes that are uber leetsauce pwnzor omgbbq never die, never need heals.  And my friend that likes to heal and says its boring when im tanking.  So im trying this to see if i can allow a little chaos into the tanking to add a bit of excitement to the groups.  It may end up being too chaotic but using a scrapper instead will probably be too easy.

[Linea]

3 hours ago, TheZag said:

i already have some tanks and brutes that ... never die, never need heals. 

Try duoing 801 +4x8 at 801.7 or above, or the ASF at Ruthless or above (You'll likely need a 4-man team for the ASF AV dps-check at Vicious or above levels).  Eventually you'll set them hard enough that you'll die.   ...   Outside of that, and a few other situations I can think of, yeah, a well built tank only very rarely dies.

 

801: Solo +4x8 801.2 is standard and any tank of mine that failed it would be scrapped, that may be a bit harsh for others.  Any Tier 4 IO Tier 4 Incarnate tank should be able to handle something between 5 and 7.  A very good tank should be able to solo survive up to 12 (801.C, C is 12 in Hexadecimal).  The 801 sentinel referred to above can handle 5 nicely, but struggles in 7 without a team.

 

ASF: I feel like any Tier 4 tank should be able to survive Ruthless outside of the Self Destruct, AVs, and similar situations.  Relentless, I've not gotten to test enough yet.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Linea

[TheZag]

18 minutes ago, Linea said:

Try duoing 801 +4x8 at 801.7 or above,

 

I forget which one it was that we tried to duo.  We killed 1 of the elite bosses and that was it,  i died every time after that without killing another.  I maybe could have done better if i built specifically for it but his builds are hami tank, aoe damage, and general tanking.

[Black_Assassin]

8 hours ago, TheZag said:

And my friend that likes to heal and says its boring when im tanking. 

 

I notice that I am being missed as rez fodder

[TheZag]

14 minutes ago, Black_Assassin said:

 

I notice that I am being missed as rez fodder

 

Just think how many times you will die when my tankinel is protecting you.

[Black_Assassin]

10 hours ago, TheZag said:

 

Just think how many times you will die when my tankinel is protecting you.

 

If i'm on one of my sentinels, probably still quite often XD

[Teirusu]

On 12/19/2021 at 9:45 AM, Greycat said:

Trying to remember who it is, but we do have a Sentinel that shows up and herds and pulls on MSRs fairly effectively.

 

If you're talking about the Everlasting MSRs (Judging by your signature) that would be me.

 

Jane Zim - Energy Blast/Energy Aura/Electricity Mastery - Mids Data Link

 

Yeah, as it's been mentioned, Energy Aura is pretty good at making a Sentinel pretty durable against most content in the game.  Being at or near the Def soft-cap is pretty great.  Psi/Toxic damage is about the only weakness the set has and you can build/play around that fairly well without too much fuss.

 

Between Fold Space, Lightning Field, Chain Fences, Nuke.. makes for a pretty good off-tank.  I'm generally head-longing to groups to get the first strike when I'm teaming with little issue.  And that's without even thinking about Destiny and Hybrid.  Those are just icing on the cake really.  Basically emergency buttons, depending on the situation.  You can certainly toss in Provoke, if you wanted too.