What Sent combo best showcases what Sentinels excel at?

[One IV All]

1 hour ago, Uncle Shags said:

I haven't played one myself, but I read someone here talk about how sentinel seismic meteor was extra fancy when you combined the reduced sentinel CD with the seismic -rech gimmick.  Supposedly super fast. 

Yeah I have heard the same. I’ve messed around with the idea of a Seismic/Stone Sentinel that is kind of an “Earth Bender” type of theme.

[Ozztick]

I have a L50 DP/Bio/Psi that I have loved playing since L1.  Although I have been looking for builds & ideas, there's not much around.  I like the sentinel play style.

[Heatstroke]

3 hours ago, Ozztick said:

I have a L50 DP/Bio/Psi that I have loved playing since L1.  Although I have been looking for builds & ideas, there's not much around.  I like the sentinel play style.

If you havent.. Download Mids Hero Builder. Dont rely on other peoples builds. Ive seen a lot of builds that look like they were built by a lunatic. Learn what you like and what works for you, and sometimes discovery is the greatest thing. I never saw a Dark Bio Sent... Never saw a build and it turned out to be one of my best characters. 

[Black_Assassin]

28 minutes ago, Heatstroke said:

If you havent.. Download Mids Hero Builder. Dont rely on other peoples builds. Ive seen a lot of builds that look like they were built by a lunatic. Learn what you like and what works for you, and sometimes discovery is the greatest thing. I never saw a Dark Bio Sent... Never saw a build and it turned out to be one of my best characters. 

 

There's a certain popular thread that has some really questionable builds, especially for sentinel.

[AlwaysAPrice]

On 3/19/2025 at 5:50 AM, mistagoat said:

To that end, if I wanted to make a Sent that was guaranteed fun and effective as it's played up, what would you suggest? It doesn't need to be the best damage or the tankiest but rather the combo that is most likely to make it click for me, the most likely to make me say "oh okay this is where Sents shine, I get it!"

 

Beam/invuln did it for me. Two sets I'm not particularly thrilled with on any other AT but the sentinel version of Invuln is great and Beam seemed to synergize well with the AT's gimmick. Quickly became a favorite build overall, not just favorite sentinel, and is a fun & functional ride all the way up.

[Renatos1023]

I like Sentinels because, as someone else mentioned, you can fill the damage or alpha breaker roles as needed. Because of this, most of my Sents use a defense based secondary as I find it easier to fill the alpha breaker role that way. My two fave Sents that I like to run are:

1. Dark/Nin/Dark - I went Dark with primary and ancillary pools because the stacking -Acc helps boost your defenses even more. Nin also has some good powers to help keep you upright when you do get hit.

2. Fire/Stone/Fire - This was a concept build, but also very fun once you get soft-capped defenses. Fire helps to melt mobs quickly, and I took the AoE immob from the ancillary pool to help keep things under RoF. 

 

Both of these have no problem finding teams and/or running point when needed. 

[Snarky]

Beam Rifle / Willpower will be quite an easy and powerful journey to 50.

[FupDup]

I wouldn't call Willpower "powerful" but it would at least be easy in the mechanical/brainpower sense. 

[Heatstroke]

15 hours ago, AlwaysAPrice said:

 

Beam/invuln did it for me. Two sets I'm not particularly thrilled with on any other AT but the sentinel version of Invuln is great and Beam seemed to synergize well with the AT's gimmick. Quickly became a favorite build overall, not just favorite sentinel, and is a fun & functional ride all the way up.

 

 

I tried it.. didnt like it.. I think ill try it again... maybe I need a better concept for it.. 

[Octogoat]

Fire/rad/fire

[mistagoat]

Okay, I think I'll be starting an Electric x3 in a couple days. 

I took some inspiration from Black_Assassins build and adjusted it to a leveling build. This is the first draft. Any advise?

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor - Electric Mastery) pre50 v1.0.mbd

Edited Saturday at 03:11 PM by mistagoat

[Warshades]

30 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

Okay, I think I'll be starting an Electric x3 in a couple days. 

I took some inspiration from Black_Assassins build and adjusted it to a leveling build. This is the first draft. Any advise?

 

I can take a look later when I'm off from work, but after fully IOing my elec/energy/elec and testing a bit, I would strongly suggest considering the AoE immobilize (chain fences iirc?). Once you sap a mobs end, they will start running all over the place. Should not be an issue in a team environment as the minions/lts will die to quickly for them to run away far, but if you plan to solo then I would recommend it.

 

If you primarily play in teams, you can go for Havoc Punch to get another high dmg ST attack which really packs a punch when proced out.

 

I think I personally prefer defensive sets for Sentinels, they just don't have a lot of HP to take many hits on a resist armor set, but I'm sure electric armor will be equally effective as energy. Once enemies are drained of their endurance, you won't have many attacks coming your way. 

[Black_Assassin]

2 hours ago, mistagoat said:

Okay, I think I'll be starting an Electric x3 in a couple days. 

I took some inspiration from Black_Assassins build and adjusted it to a leveling build. This is the first draft. Any advise?

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor - Electric Mastery) pre50 v1.0.mbd 41.4 kB · 1 download

 

Looks good to me. My only observation is Havoc and Tesla cage have low accuracy to +3 and +4s but will be fine vs +2s unless you get outside team buff help.

[Warshades]

I made some small changes to the build, though it does increase the cost a bit.

• Changed Sentinel's Ward set to Zapping Bolt and made it superior (the cost IIRC is the same regardless if you buy the superior version or not).
• Gave BoL the Ragnarok set instead (the knockdown proc is useful here and can be a nice opener as you enter to do Short Circuit and Power Sink) and did a 2 piece Superior Opportunity in Charged Bolts instead to get the 10% range boost.
• As @Black_Assassin stated, the accuracy in Havoc and Tesla are below 95% at +3. Switched out 2 procs to get the acc/dam and acc/dam/end winter set IOs here.
• Did a 3 piece winter set in the nuke with 3 damage procs, does bump the average damage.
• Moved a slot from Power Sink to Charge Up for a recharge IO to get the recharge more in line with the nuke.
• 1 end mod/rech HO is plenty for Power Sink, you could leave it at lvl 50 initially and bump it to 53 later when you have more inf. IIRC I got them for 12 mil a piece when IO'd my Sentinel 2 days ago.

Overall this bumps the accuracy on Tesla and Havoc to reach 95%, gives you pretty good recharge debuff resist at 90%, ups your fire/cold resist, and you get a slightly higher melee/s/l defense from using the superior version of Sentinel's Ward set.

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor - Electric Mastery) pre50 v1.5.mbd

[Black_Assassin]

8 hours ago, Warshades said:

I made some small changes to the build, though it does increase the cost a bit.

• Changed Sentinel's Ward set to Zapping Bolt and made it superior (the cost IIRC is the same regardless if you buy the superior version or not).
• Gave BoL the Ragnarok set instead (the knockdown proc is useful here and can be a nice opener as you enter to do Short Circuit and Power Sink) and did a 2 piece Superior Opportunity in Charged Bolts instead to get the 10% range boost.
• As @Black_Assassin stated, the accuracy in Havoc and Tesla are below 95% at +3. Switched out 2 procs to get the acc/dam and acc/dam/end winter set IOs here.
• Did a 3 piece winter set in the nuke with 3 damage procs, does bump the average damage.
• Moved a slot from Power Sink to Charge Up for a recharge IO to get the recharge more in line with the nuke.
• 1 end mod/rech HO is plenty for Power Sink, you could leave it at lvl 50 initially and bump it to 53 later when you have more inf. IIRC I got them for 12 mil a piece when IO'd my Sentinel 2 days ago.

Overall this bumps the accuracy on Tesla and Havoc to reach 95%, gives you pretty good recharge debuff resist at 90%, ups your fire/cold resist, and you get a slightly higher melee/s/l defense from using the superior version of Sentinel's Ward set.

Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Electric Armor - Electric Mastery) pre50 v1.5.mbd 43.48 kB · 1 download

 

 

I think the idea was that the build was meant to be something that maximises the value and the power output, so a cheap (relatively) levelling build XD

[Warshades]

47 minutes ago, Black_Assassin said:

 

I think the idea was that the build was meant to be something that maximises the value and the power output, so a cheap (relatively) levelling build XD

 

I kinda figured, which is why I didn't add more purple sets like Armageddon lol. I'd still say it's worth getting the Apocalypse/Unbreakable dmg procs for Tesla and maybe mixing in some acc/dam and acc/dam/end from sets to get the accuracy up. Doesn't really need to be winter sets, but they do offer some of the better bonuses for 2-3 pieces.

Edited Sunday at 02:22 PM by Warshades

[FFTMime]

I'm leveling a Fire/SR Sent right now with only ranged defense. I'll just try not to get in melee instead! Enjoying it a lot so far. 

Blasters on live never had enough damage to justify their design point. Granted it's a lot of damage, and necessary in a scant few conditions. I never could get one very far due to having to cross the hump once you're not in baby levels but before you can really deal damage. Just felt so bad. If I'm going to be team reliant, I massively preferred my controller Space Cat anyway. I guess I could have had someone power level me, but I always felt bad about resorting to that. 

 

Maybe I'll figure out a blaster I actually want to play. One day. 

[evetsleep]

11 hours ago, FFTMime said:

I'm leveling a Fire/SR Sent right now with only ranged defense. I'll just try not to get in melee instead! Enjoying it a lot so far. 

Blasters on live never had enough damage to justify their design point. Granted it's a lot of damage, and necessary in a scant few conditions. I never could get one very far due to having to cross the hump once you're not in baby levels but before you can really deal damage. Just felt so bad. If I'm going to be team reliant, I massively preferred my controller Space Cat anyway. I guess I could have had someone power level me, but I always felt bad about resorting to that. 

 

Maybe I'll figure out a blaster I actually want to play. One day. 

 

One of my older sentinels is fire/sr (SR is just good on everything honestly).  I LIVE in melee range with this particular toon.  Even relatively early on it was at (or near) soft cap (thanks to defense amplifiers being dirt cheap at lvl1 and lasting for 8 hours).  In my case I picked up spring attack early (and proc'ed it) and later on did Fire Sword Circle from the Fire Mastery ancillary pool.  I basically jump into the middle of packs and start releasing AoEs and when the only the bosses\eb's are left I can start to unload the single target attacks.  I tend to prefer AoE's on sentinels since they have a larger target cap compared to cones and this particular combo leans into it and it meshes well with a melee range approach.

 

Most of my sentinels (with a few exceptions) tend to be in melee range since, once you start to have ancillary pool, it feels wrong to leave all that damage on the table.  SR should be fairly safe to play this way and if you haven't given that a go I'd recommend it.

[FFTMime]

38 minutes ago, evetsleep said:

 

 (SR is just good on everything honestly).

The sentinel version of SR certainly looks, uh, weird?

[UltraAlt]

On 3/19/2025 at 8:50 AM, mistagoat said:

To that end, if I wanted to make a Sent that was guaranteed fun and effective as it's played up, what would you suggest? It doesn't need to be the best damage or the tankiest but rather the combo that is most likely to make it click for me, ...

 

I've said it a bunch, but I'll say it again.

I'm a character conception player. And I strongly believe that you will have more fun playing a character if you enjoy the concept of the character you created.

And ... I'm pretty obviously and alt jumper.

 

I have 14 sentinels. 

Electric/Electric

Energy/Energy

Dual Pistols/Bio Armor

Dual Pistols/Willpower

Archery/Ninjitsu 

Beam Rifle/Energy

Beam Rifle/Invulnerability

Beam Rifle/Regen

Beam Rifle/Willpower

Seismic Blast/Stone

Psychic Blast/Energy

Sonic/Energy

Fire/Fire

Fire/Fire (a clone of the other one on a different server)

 

I wasn't intentional not trying to double-up on characters with the same primary/secondary (except for the multiverse clone). I just think up a character conception and try to figure out the best archetype and power sets to use to craft it.

(I made the fire/fire clone as part of a clone invasion of Victory. I only have clones over there, but some of the Victory clones have different archetypes and power sets on (an)other shard)

 

 

On 3/19/2025 at 8:50 AM, mistagoat said:

the most likely to make me say "oh okay this is where Sents shine, I get it!"

 

I think this part is more about learning to play the Archetype.

If you try to force an archetype into being something that it isn't you're fighting an uphill battle.

 

What most people seem to miss about Sentinels is https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Vulnerability 

"By analyzing the weaknesses of your enemy, you make them vulnerable to attacks and detection."

"You must have at least 50% of your Opportunity meter to use Vulnerability. Opportunity meter builds automatically at a rate of 100% over 60 seconds.

You can't use Vulnerability on a target already affected by Vulnerability, whether used by you or another Sentinel. The game will tell you the target is invalid, and you won't expend meter. If multiple Sentinels somehow manage to inflict Vulnerability, they don't stack.

Vulnerability is auto-hit. It has a 5 second recharge, and consumes 50% of Opportunity meter. It has the following debuffs, which last 15 seconds, and don't scale based on the target's level relative to yours:

−11.25% defense

−15% resistance to all normal damage types — smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative, psionic, and toxic

−15% resistance to confusion, fear, hold, immobilize, sleep, and stun, causing these status effects to have longer durations on the target

−15% resistance to recovery, regeneration, and to-hit debuffs, causing these debuffs to have a stronger effect on the target

−150' stealth"

This isn't auto. It doesn't automatically drop into your trays. You have to go hunt it down in the powers menu and move it to your tray.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Opportunity_Strikes:_Recharge/Chance_for_%2BOpportunity increase how often you can use Opportunity. 

 

I tend to team mostly so I'll start from there.

 

Sentinels work best midline in a battle formation.

Melee up front and center on the targets. Squishies in the back - for the most part - away from melee range - preferably at their max range if possible. 

Sentinels seem to do best being outside of melee range but in front of the squishies.

 

Sentinels don't have the range of most squishes, and they have armor. So they have to be closer than the squishes and the armor helps take a hit if an enemy tries to charge back to where the squishies are.

 

Solo, I use running tactics to try to spread them out and don't let the enemy close into melee range. I'm trying to pull a single target and then fall back.

 

Range sucks? Archetype enhances to the rescue!

Get +7.5% range increase for slotting two https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Opportunity_Strikes and another +7.5% range increase for slotting 3 https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sentinel's_Ward for a total of 37.5% range increase (which puts you up toward base blaster range).

 

Armor not quite enough? Archetype enhances can help there as well.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sentinel's_Ward:_Recharge/Chance_for_Absorb

 

So, when it comes down to it, if you don't want to adapt to a play style that fits an archetype, then maybe that archetype isn't for you.

The archetype has its own strengths and weakness just like every other archetype. 

[Uun]

1 hour ago, FFTMime said:

The sentinel version of SR certainly looks, uh, weird?

They added a 2nd option for mezz protection. You can take the Practiced Brawler like other ATs or you can take Master Brawler, which moves the mezz protection to Focused Fighting and Focused Senses and adds an absorb shield.

 

They also replaced Lucky with Enduring, Enduring retains Lucky's DDR and scaling resist (the AoE defense was moved to Evasion) and adds +recovery and psi defense. 

[FFTMime]

I noticed. It gives the set a very weird feel so far.

That said, I feel like just about anything would be fine on sents? Because the AT is sensibly built for the game's conditions. Unlike others I could name. As much as I love something like Controller. 

[Shadowstormprime]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I've said it a bunch, but I'll say it again.

I'm a character conception player. And I strongly believe that you will have more fun playing a character if you enjoy the concept of the character you created.

And ... I'm pretty obviously and alt jumper.

 

I have 14 sentinels. 

Electric/Electric

Energy/Energy

Dual Pistols/Bio Armor

Dual Pistols/Willpower

Archery/Ninjitsu 

Beam Rifle/Energy

Beam Rifle/Invulnerability

Beam Rifle/Regen

Beam Rifle/Willpower

Seismic Blast/Stone

Psychic Blast/Energy

Sonic/Energy

Fire/Fire

Fire/Fire (a clone of the other one on a different server)

 

I wasn't intentional not trying to double-up on characters with the same primary/secondary (except for the multiverse clone). I just think up a character conception and try to figure out the best archetype and power sets to use to craft it.

(I made the fire/fire clone as part of a clone invasion of Victory. I only have clones over there, but some of the Victory clones have different archetypes and power sets on (an)other shard)

 

 

 

I think this part is more about learning to play the Archetype.

If you try to force an archetype into being something that it isn't you're fighting an uphill battle.

 

What most people seem to miss about Sentinels is https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Vulnerability 

"By analyzing the weaknesses of your enemy, you make them vulnerable to attacks and detection."

"You must have at least 50% of your Opportunity meter to use Vulnerability. Opportunity meter builds automatically at a rate of 100% over 60 seconds.

You can't use Vulnerability on a target already affected by Vulnerability, whether used by you or another Sentinel. The game will tell you the target is invalid, and you won't expend meter. If multiple Sentinels somehow manage to inflict Vulnerability, they don't stack.

Vulnerability is auto-hit. It has a 5 second recharge, and consumes 50% of Opportunity meter. It has the following debuffs, which last 15 seconds, and don't scale based on the target's level relative to yours:

−11.25% defense

−15% resistance to all normal damage types — smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative, psionic, and toxic

−15% resistance to confusion, fear, hold, immobilize, sleep, and stun, causing these status effects to have longer durations on the target

−15% resistance to recovery, regeneration, and to-hit debuffs, causing these debuffs to have a stronger effect on the target

−150' stealth"

This isn't auto. It doesn't automatically drop into your trays. You have to go hunt it down in the powers menu and move it to your tray.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Opportunity_Strikes:_Recharge/Chance_for_%2BOpportunity increase how often you can use Opportunity. 

 

I tend to team mostly so I'll start from there.

 

Sentinels work best midline in a battle formation.

Melee up front and center on the targets. Squishies in the back - for the most part - away from melee range - preferably at their max range if possible. 

Sentinels seem to do best being outside of melee range but in front of the squishies.

 

Sentinels don't have the range of most squishes, and they have armor. So they have to be closer than the squishes and the armor helps take a hit if an enemy tries to charge back to where the squishies are.

 

Solo, I use running tactics to try to spread them out and don't let the enemy close into melee range. I'm trying to pull a single target and then fall back.

 

Range sucks? Archetype enhances to the rescue!

Get +7.5% range increase for slotting two https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Opportunity_Strikes and another +7.5% range increase for slotting 3 https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sentinel's_Ward for a total of 37.5% range increase (which puts you up toward base blaster range).

 

Armor not quite enough? Archetype enhances can help there as well.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sentinel's_Ward:_Recharge/Chance_for_Absorb

 

So, when it comes down to it, if you don't want to adapt to a play style that fits an archetype, then maybe that archetype isn't for you.

The archetype has its own strengths and weakness just like every other archetype. 

All of these sound awesome. I'm particularly interested in the Seismic/Stone. I have a "stone bender" concept that kind of fights both ranged and melee. That combo to me seemed like one of the more "scrappy" Sentinel combos. How did you like it?

[evetsleep]

49 minutes ago, FFTMime said:

I noticed. It gives the set a very weird feel so far.

That said, I feel like just about anything would be fine on sents? Because the AT is sensibly built for the game's conditions. Unlike others I could name. As much as I love something like Controller. 

The only thing that really stinks (to me....so very much subjective) is the Ice Armor port to sentinels.  I've tried a number of times and it just feels far too squishy to be worth it.  Quite a few don't like Dark Armor, but if played in melee range can do quite well (my personal favorite is electric\dark sentinel).  I have (quite literally) every sentinel combo and Ice Armor is the only one that truly isn't fun to me.  I'm sure there are some who would enjoy it...to each his\her\their own.

 

I do agree with the overall sentiment that defense based armors tend to perform better (they're just easier to drive).

[mistagoat]

Well, I got the new Electric/Electric Sent started last night and my buddy started his new Ice/Bio Brute. We started street sweeping in Galaxy up to lvl 6. From there we usually hit the Hollows but we were enjoying the street sweeping so we shot over to Perez till we hit level 12. Then we did Posi 1, just at +1 and I think that got us to 15 and it was a cakewalk, we probably should have bumped it up +2. Then it was time to "Rescue the Mystic", easy peezy! Then we did the first Hollows arc through the crystal at +2 and ended the night at 17.

 

Very early on I struggled with end but that went away pretty fast with Energize at lvl 10 and a Panacea proc. The first 7 power picks were 3 attacks, 3 shields and a heal so it felt very well rounded by level 10/11. Since I'm running with a Brute I'm pretty safe in melee and I'm trying to play it more like a scrapper. It's working great so far, though there were a few times I managed to pull aggro off the brute! Energize saved my ass, gotta get a few more slots in there asap!

 

So far it's been great fun! It feels plenty sturdy and it seems like I'm doing damage comparable to a scrapper at this level.

 

P.S. My clone at the end of Posi already had Lightning Field! I can't get that till 41 at the earliest, wassupwitdat????

 

Sensory Overlord