What Sent combo best showcases what Sentinels excel at?

[FupDup]

I'll just repost this handy little chart comparing the various Sent epic melee attacks:

 

Thunderstrike was listed twice to see both the main target and  splash components separately, since it's the only one that has some AOE built in. 

[Warshades]

5 hours ago, FupDup said:

However, KOB has access to Hold procs, which can give it an advantage in that realm

 

This also partially depends on the primary. Elec blast as an example already has Tesla Cage where you can slot the higher damage Unbreakable Constraint proc, but going with KOB would allow you stack holds on bosses so it could provide some benefit there. While I prefer Havoc Punch, you could in theory get 3 hold powers by running Tesla Cage, KOB and Spirit Shark Jaws (which also can proc well and sending a shark at enemies is kinda fun).

[Wolfboy1]

I'm waffling between a Storm/SR or a Storm/Psy...but really cant decide on which one to do.  Never played Psy but ive played SR and it held up very well.  Any advice?

[KaizenSoze]

11 hours ago, Wolfboy1 said:

I'm waffling between a Storm/SR or a Storm/Psy...but really cant decide on which one to do.  Never played Psy but ive played SR and it held up very well.  Any advice?

SR is a defense set with high DDR , recharge bonus, absorb.

 

Psi is a resistance set with an absorb, regeneration, cloak, debuff resistance. Yes is has some defense, but no DDR. So, I ignore the defense. 

 

Both are good Psi is requires more clicking than SR. I prefer Psi when paired with Elec blast. Not sure about storm.

[Underfyre]

3 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

Psi is a resistance set with an absorb, regeneration, cloak, debuff resistance. Yes is has some defense, but no DDR. So, I ignore the defense. 

 

Hey. HEY! VIRTUALLY no DDR, sir.

[Sovera]

Defense debuffing is not something a Sentinel ought to worry about much, just like accuracy debuffing. Which is the opposite of a meleer who should worry about both depending on the faction.

 

My current favorite remains the Water/Bio. ST is better than the Elec which was, at the time, my best damage dealer, and it oozes AoE on top of two sources of FF procs. If anything I might consider Water/Stone but in my experience Stone can't keep up with the endurance demands which aren't much of a worry for Bio what with Inexhaustible and Absorb DNA.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

SR provides softcap positional defenses within reach with IO sets, a good amount of DDR, absorb with master brawler, and scaling resists as life totals decline. The heal in water blast's "dehydrate" can address that key gap in survivability tools provided by SR.

After the recent buff to sentinel's water blast damage, water/SR is a really solid combination. 

[KaizenSoze]

This is by far the best Sentinel I have tried. Durable, rapid end drain mostly due to a very fast recharging nuke, something only Sentinels get.

[Bionic_Flea]

I haven't tried all the flavors, but my favorite was fire/fire.  Reasonably tough with a heal and crazy AoE damage.

 

[Heatstroke]

my Best Sentinel Builds so far.. 

 

Fire/Rad is definitely my go to. Single Target.. AoE.. and PbAoE.. Self Buffs.. Self Heals....Good resistances.. 

Elec/Elec is the best sapper in the game.

Dark/Bio. Single target.. check.. AoE's Check, Survivability.. Check.. Holds... check.. 
 

 

[Heatstroke]

On 9/5/2025 at 11:27 AM, KaizenSoze said:

This is by far the best Sentinel I have tried. Durable, rapid end drain mostly due to a very fast recharging nuke, something only Sentinels get.

 

I want to try this.. but I need them to make an animation without all the stupid little floating skulls.. that kills it for me. 

[Linea]

I have a Water/Ena sentinel that solos 801.6. It's a conversion of Angel Hornet crossed with Ciaraine. The dps is meh, but the armor is solid. Psionics are a tricky weakspot, but she manages.  I also did an AR/Nin that's rock solid in standard content and psionics.  But I really just don't like AR.  If I could put the Crab Gun instead of the AR on the front end I'd love it.

[StriderIV]

On 9/4/2025 at 9:12 AM, Sovera said:

Defense debuffing is not something a Sentinel ought to worry about much, just like accuracy debuffing. Which is the opposite of a meleer who should worry about both depending on the faction.

 

My current favorite remains the Water/Bio. ST is better than the Elec which was, at the time, my best damage dealer, and it oozes AoE on top of two sources of FF procs. If anything I might consider Water/Stone but in my experience Stone can't keep up with the endurance demands which aren't much of a worry for Bio what with Inexhaustible and Absorb DNA.

You have the Water/Bio build floating around Sov? Seems like an AWESOME combo.

 

Edit: Scratch that amigo, found it in another thread. Thanks for throwing it together!

Edited September 12 by StriderIV
Update

[Kalean]

Probably the best spread for both Survivability and Damage together is a Beam Rifle / Super Reflexes Sentinel with Softcapped Defenses and some resistance statting so you hit resistance cap around 35% health, at which point virtually all attacks miss you, and the few that make it through do only 25% of their intended damage, and Master Brawler adds an absorb layer to help tank those without getting your health % higher.  So you can just sort of hang around at 35% life forever.  And Beam Rifle is just the best damage, period.

That said, Water/SR is a great AoE alternative.  At the moment, Sentinels have hands down the best version of SR.

 

If you want more showcasing, Psy Armor goes great with Elec for Sapper builds,  I think KaizenSoze has a build not that different from what I tested it with, and I recall it being able to solo +4/x8 with careful play.

 

Bio is a great damage boosting armor set, and is thematically neat.  

 

Unfortunately with the archetype change, Sonic is no longer particularly great on Sentinels, though it's still fun.  Originally, Sentinels had a type of opportunity that would heal based on DPS output, and sonic had a lot of high target cap AoEs, so you could just wade in and soak up an alpha strike and not care because you would heal it all back by attacking. 

 

Elec Psy feels a little like that now; keeping Devour Psyche stacks up while enemies' endurance and recovery are floored means that the giant regeneration buff Devour gives you can heal you back up on its own.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 04:57 AM by Kalean

[capricorpse]

This thread has inspired me to explore some Sentinels, maybe dust off an old one.

 

I have a Psi/EnA/Psy around level 40/45 that I remember tanking solidly during a team wipe and felt powerful, good sustain and the knockdown was helping a lot.  Probably needs a respec.

 

I want to try Sonic/SR.  I love the sonic blast FX animations, the energy pulses are very compelling to me.  I am thinking SR because the FX look similar, but I am very open to suggestions about what else to pair it with.  Was thinking Psi armor because I've not really tried it yet.  I'd do anything except maybe Bio armor because it's so ugly, but maybe it can be customized to be less ugly.

 

I also want to try Storm Blast on a Sentinel.  I have a storm/storm corruptor that is fun and chaotic, but both sets kind of demand focus so I'd like to see what Storm Blast does when it's the star.  For that pairing I'm open to whatever armors, but I tend toward Energy Aura because I love it on Scrappers.  Maybe Psi armor is better here.  

 

Anyway lots of great stuff in this thread, thanks

[Frosticus]

For me it's elec blast.

Tesla is actually good. Zapping bolt is good. And the nuke is a sapping machine up every spawn. 

 

I realky like a t9 /nin build. In that regard my elec/nin  is borderline unstoppable. 

 

For those that are uncomfortable with that type of play I also liked /rad. It has great debuff protection and i actually prefer the static and predictable nature of the +rech and untethered heal compared to the melee version of the armor set.