Best Ranged Sentinel

[Snarky]

Considering all powers and attack chains and leaving out PBaoe and such what are some of the best Primaries.  Will probably pair with Will unless Elec makes it in the top might pair that with Invul

[IronJuke]

I dunno ... but I just made a Fire/Fire Sentinel, as Fire secondary has some good damage boost.

Invul is a great power set but I like it more for Tankers than Scrappers for instance. 

[Snarky]

Yeah Inv is. A great set. I tend to pair it with Dark melee on brutes. The synergy is insane.  I am dabbling around with a few Sentinels and really starting to like Ice Willpower. It is a middle of the road damage at best but it is 109% ranged and I enjoy the concept and costume.

[oldskool]

For damage:

 

Fire is generally pretty strong.  It's probably up there for Sentinels too. 

 

Beam Rifle certainly feels strong for Sentinels, and it is also a good set for Blasters. 

 

I wonder if anyone has tried Sonic.  It looks like it has potential.  As a person that plays Sonic/Sonic supports, it is really nice to see a chance to ignore Shout and use Screech instead.  May still need Shout as filler, but I wouldn't be surprised if allowing some gap works out better to allow Shriek, Scream, and Screech only.  I haven't tested it though. 

 

Ice and Electric for Sentinels may be good here too.  Not certain though. 

 

For utility:

 

Dark is always strong.  I'm planning a Dark/Regen and it feels pretty exciting.  Life Drain totally optional. 

 

Water also looks good for the utility but I haven't had first hand experience with it. 

 

 

I personally only used the weapon sets so far (Assault Rifle, Beam Rifle, Dual Pistols) other than Archery.  I already have an archer on a different AT.  I'm pretty happy with how the powers work out so far.  I don't get dismayed by the two lethal sets.  I've played AR before. 

[Extor Prime]

Of all Sentinels I rolled on Justin, I'm enjoying Electric the most (as evident by my thread about it). For secondary, WP is nice, sturdy and simple.

[XaoGarrent]

Try a Water/Bio. Fun fact: If you color it just right, some of the Bio Armor stuff can look a little like pearlescent coral.

 

Water is just a strong set in itself, boasting higher than average damage and moderately strong utility (knock up, a smattering of defense/speed debuffs and even an AoE stun). Bio boosts your damage harder than any other Sentinel secondary (as far as I'm aware, anyway), while still being beefy to boot. You're going to want that damage boost because Sentinel damage is crud on a stick, Bio actually makes it kinda alright, especially as it adds extra damage as toxic, which isn't too commonly resisted.

[Snarky]

I have gotten a few Sentinels to the 29-28 range.  Dark/will Ice/will Energy /will but last night I started a Ele/Invul. I am very impressed. At level 17 now.  Making sure I get my banks.  Probably try to do both Posi Penelope and Synapse today.  He might be my unicorn lol

[XaoGarrent]

I have gotten a few Sentinels to the 29-28 range.  Dark/will Ice/will Energy /will but last night I started a Ele/Invul. I am very impressed. At level 17 now.  Making sure I get my banks.  Probably try to do both Posi Penelope and Synapse today.  He might be my unicorn lol

Just be warned that Invuln anything is heavy on endurance. Sentinel Invuln has one less toggle, but is a more expensive AT overall, so start making room for endurance reduction enhancers early, and slot up Stamina ASAP.

[starjs]

The problem with sonic is that the base damage of the power set is lowered to compensate for the -Res it provides. The base damage is lowered by more than the -res helps, or at best, barely breaks even.

 

The only 'good' Sonic set is the Defender, which gives twice the -res for twice as long, and does comparable damage to the Sentinel version, before Vigilance is accounted for.

[Rejoicer]

See my post on my Dark/Ninjitsu sentinal! It's a blast and easily the easiest character to solo with I have ever had.  Decent damage, stealth, decent defenses, debuff foes and both END and HP heals!

[nihilii]

The problem with sonic is that the base damage of the power set is lowered to compensate for the -Res it provides. The base damage is lowered by more than the -res helps, or at best, barely breaks even.

 

The only 'good' Sonic set is the Defender, which gives twice the -res for twice as long, and does comparable damage to the Sentinel version, before Vigilance is accounted for.

 

This isn't quite accurate. The base damage is appropriate for each attack tier.

 

Shriek, recharge 3s, damage 42.04

Scream, recharge 6s, damage 66.06

 

Ice Bolt, recharge 3s, damage 42.04

Ice Blast, recharge 6s, damage 66.06

 

Of greater importance, Sonic on Sentinels benefits from the increased damage on mezzes. Screech does 114.1 base damage. This is excellent for Sonic, because we're not locked into the god-awful Shout and its 3 seconds animation anymore. Instead, we can run Screech - Shriek - Scream. Faster, higher damage, longer -RES too.

 

It's true Defenders get so much more out of Sonic Blast compared to Corruptors and Blasters, but Sentinels make for a valid Sonic choice too thanks to these different dynamics.

 

 

[Erratic1]

Running Sonic/Bio and it is a wonderful combination.

[moghedan]

You are wasting your time.  People do not come to this board to learn how the Sentinel works.  They come here for the express purpose of confirming their preconceived notion that sentinels are inferior, regardless of how ill formed those notions are.  Use of maths just confuses them.

[Ozium]

 

I wonder if anyone has tried Sonic.  It looks like it has potential.  As a person that plays Sonic/Sonic supports, it is really nice to see a chance to ignore Shout and use Screech instead.  May still need Shout as filler, but I wouldn't be surprised if allowing some gap works out better to allow Shriek, Scream, and Screech only.  I haven't tested it though. 

 

 

 

have sonic/wp/widow sent and works pretty well, set my toggles and just pew pew :)

[Riverdusk]

You are wasting your time.  People do not come to this board to learn how the Sentinel works.  They come here for the express purpose of confirming their preconceived notion that sentinels are inferior, regardless of how ill formed those notions are.  Use of maths just confuses them.

 

It is strange how often I hear that.  I finally went ahead and tried an electric/electric sent and found it pretty good.  Electric blast especially seems better put together for sentinel than any other AT that has it. 

 

Back to the original topic, electric blast is also very good for staying at range, with the exception of short circuit.  You could choose to use it sparingly or not at all really.

[OrionX]

Fire Bio

 

Strong AOE and good single target.

 

Bio can give you a 25% damage boost

 

Been running ut up through many vet levels...no regrets!

[Fedifensor]

Fire / Fire gets a 10% damage boost from Molten Embrace, AND all of your attacks have a chance to inflict damage over time.  Not as consistent of a bonus as Bio Armor, but you're also not reducing your defenses to get the damage boost.

[MechTon]

I'm considering Elec/Rad or Fire/Rad. The /Rad set seems like a perfect mate to both for building up attacks and staying upright.

[Midnight Blue Mage]

I've been playing Beam Rifle/Super Reflexes and it's been incredibly fun; staying off the ground with Hover combined with the SR defense toggles makes you feel very evasive and powerful :]

[Force Redux]

Dark/Ninjutsu. Dark has a great ranged attack chain that meshes quite nicely with Ninjutsu's Defense. Dark also has some good AoE options. Ninjutsu offers solid protection, stealth, speed, heal, end management, some resists, and a god mode without a crash. Thematically they also work well together too.

[Six-Six]

 

I wonder if anyone has tried Sonic.  It looks like it has potential.  As a person that plays Sonic/Sonic supports, it is really nice to see a chance to ignore Shout and use Screech instead.  May still need Shout as filler, but I wouldn't be surprised if allowing some gap works out better to allow Shriek, Scream, and Screech only.  I haven't tested it though. 

 

 

 

Not taking the maths stats in to consideration at all, the sound effects for sonic turn me off. It looked promising (DC's Cyborg has a sonic cannon), but when I tried it, I hear a constant sigh right before the power activation. Even when it's set to cast animation... priorities, I know. =)

[SmalltalkJava]

I tend towards water and ice.  Both have a rain and Target AOE.  On another notes this info may help. I need to look further into it each sets pluses and minuses regarding overall flavor

 

Tier 9

Primary Ranged Nukes

Archery

Assault Rifle

Beam Rifle

Electrical Blast. (But Short Circuit is pbaoe)

Ice Blast (has ice storm and blizzard range AOE )

Water Blast

 

 

 

Primary PBAOE Nukes

Dark Blast

Dual Pistols

Energy Blast

Fire Blast (but has rain of fire)

Psychic Blast

Radiation Blast

Sonic Attack

[Heraclea]

I enjoyed Water/Willpower well enough to get mine to 50.  Water allows one of my favorite debuff strategies, which is to slot Pacing of the Turtle -recharge procs in just about anything that will take them.  There is also a lot of soft control there with knockdown and slows.  Mine is exclusively ranged, no melee attacks, and I use Ninja Caltrops (renamed to something random, but it's still Caltrops) at my feet to discourage too friendly mobs and add still more slows and more -recharge.  This is in contrast to my double electric blaster, who relies a whole lot on PBAoE and is basically a sapper. 

[Novacat]

Water most exemplifies the strength of a Sentinel over the melee archetypes. It also at the same time showcases some of its weaknesses compared to a Blaster (though it also clearly shows how the drawbacks are overwhelmed by the advantages in practice). This is because Water is overwhelmingly AoE.

How many Scrappers can hit ten guys at a time in a 20ft radius? How many Brutes can take two guys 30ft apart out with a single melee cone? But the Sentinel can. Likewise, in large high level groups those target caps and lower base damage can make themselves rather felt. Hitting 2/3 of the enemies instead of all of them is still great, but you can't *not* notice it.

 

Beam's probably the other big Sentinel special, due to adding the Refractor beam where other Beam Rifle users have no such thing. The set handles spectacularly with the missing "ball" suddenly thrown in.

[jofury]

As an earlier poster suggested, Elec/will is a great combo. I have one that is getting well developed as an incarnate now and he is awesome. Enough damage to solo EB and +2-3 easy and able to take good damage too. No end issues at all AND, great mental/psi resistance. Try it, lots of fun.