What Sent combo best showcases what Sentinels excel at?

[Warshades]

27 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

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

 

That's interesting, considering it's not even part of the armor set on sentinels and requires epic pool powers. I can only hazard a guess the clones have a pool of power sets and when it chooses electric armor, it does so from the standard electric armor set and not the ported over and changed sentinel version. Maybe worth a bug report, not sure if they still hand out the bug hunter badge or whatever it's called.

[mistagoat]

20 minutes ago, Warshades said:

 

That's interesting, considering it's not even part of the armor set on sentinels and requires epic pool powers. I can only hazard a guess the clones have a pool of power sets and when it chooses electric armor, it does so from the standard electric armor set and not the ported over and changed sentinel version. Maybe worth a bug report, not sure if they still hand out the bug hunter badge or whatever it's called.

Oh yes! That would explain it! My clone felt like it had more resist than it should have so maybe it was using the tank set.

[UltraAlt]

5 hours ago, Shadowstormprime said:

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?

 

It is fun. Have to love https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Seismic_Blast#Meteor

[Shadowstormprime]

10 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

It is fun. Have to love https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Seismic_Blast#Meteor

haha I bet! I dig the animations as well. Do you feel it functions fine when it has to operate in melee range?

[Octogoat]

3 hours ago, mistagoat said:

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

 

 

The shading gives him metal moobs

[mistagoat]

4 minutes ago, Octogoat said:

The shading gives him metal moobs

Sadly, his armor is a hand-me-down from his big sister. Times is tough in Paragon City!

[Frosticus]

I enjoy my elec/stone/psi.

Fwiw you don't have to pair elec with a sapping armor, thunderous blast and short circuit are more than enough. I think elec is in its best form on sents.

 

Stone armor is great on all the ATs and adds nice fire dot. 

 

Psi app brings nice proc'd attacks in probe, dominate and psi Shockwave. All have capped proc rates for 3.5ppms.

[UltraAlt]

7 hours ago, Shadowstormprime said:

haha I bet! I dig the animations as well. Do you feel it functions fine when it has to operate in melee range?

 

Why would my character be in melee range if they are a Sentinel?

[Shadowstormprime]

46 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Why would my character be in melee range if they are a Sentinel?

I get that. What I mean is I assume you’re not hovering with Seismic and more likely to get into melee range at SOME points. Do you feel it is still sturdy enough to hold up?

 

I imagine it is. Stone Armor seems tough, and Seismic brings some nice control via KD’s.

[Black_Assassin]

6 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Why would my character be in melee range if they are a Sentinel?

 

The strongest attacks available to sentinels are the melee punches in the epics 🤷‍♂️

[UltraAlt]

5 hours ago, Shadowstormprime said:

I get that. What I mean is I assume you’re not hovering with Seismic and more likely to get into melee range at SOME points. Do you feel it is still sturdy enough to hold up?

 

Yeah, not hovering for sure.

My Siemic/Stone is only level 29. They hold up pretty good based on the way I play the character.

 

But I do try to say back from melee range as much as I can.

[UltraAlt]

1 minute ago, Black_Assassin said:

The strongest attacks available to sentinels are the melee punches in the epics 🤷‍♂️

 

I'm not even sure I have Sentinel up high enough to get epics, but I guess I will look into that.

[Black_Assassin]

7 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I'm not even sure I have Sentinel up high enough to get epics, but I guess I will look into that.

The only epic without a single target melee is Mu which gets PBAoE Thunderstrike instead. 

 

Havoc punch from elec is the strongest but Smite and Mind Probe from Dark and Psi respectively are also both strong candidates. 

 

They have long recharges so like being proc bombed with high global recharge builds. 

[tidge]

I don't have many Sentinels, but one combination I tried that "felt right" for a Sentinel is Beam Rifle/Energy Aura. What follows is my opinion of each primary/secondary, and why I like them on Sentinels.

 

Beam Rifle is a fun set, but as a Blaster Primary I find that it generally under-performs for Blasters compared to other choices, for large spawns. I like it on Defenders, but for Sentinels (with their Secondary) it feels like the Sentinel port of BR simply synergizes well because of the ability/need to pick targets and not worry at all about keeping a distance from any of them. I don't notice the downgrade in damage scales as much for Beam Rifle.

 

Energy Aura is an armor that I find to be a real mixed bag for melee types. It is a satisfactory performer once it covers most of what you need it to cover... but I find (on melee) that eventually I run into a large spawn of some enemies where things go pear-shaped... and in melee it can be difficult to single out the "most problematic" enemy when things are going sour. The Sentinel certainly has similar weaknesses, but with a ranged primary I find it a lot easier to focus fire on one (or more!) enemies in a spawn that are the source of my trouble. For melee I usually have to rely on some other power pick (Combat Teleport, a ranged pool attack, whatever) to deal with those. Also, starting a combat from range helps minimize the occurrences of those sorts of circumstances.

[UltraAlt]

10 minutes ago, tidge said:

Energy Aura is an armor that I find to be a real mixed bag for melee types. It is a satisfactory performer once it covers most of what you need it to cover... but I find (on melee) that eventually I run into a large spawn of some enemies where things go pear-shaped... and in melee it can be difficult to single out the "most problematic" enemy when things are going sour. The Sentinel certainly has similar weaknesses, but with a ranged primary I find it a lot easier to focus fire on one (or more!) enemies in a spawn that are the source of my trouble. For melee I usually have to rely on some other power pick (Combat Teleport, a ranged pool attack, whatever) to deal with those. Also, starting a combat from range helps minimize the occurrences of those sorts of circumstances.

 

What stands out for me with Energy Aura is the partial stealth of https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Energy_Aura#Energy_Cloak

 

 

[evetsleep]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

What stands out for me with Energy Aura is the partial stealth of https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Energy_Aura#Energy_Cloak

 

Except in this case, sentinels don't have the stealth power (Energy Cloak), so like a number of sentinel secondaries (and in some cases primaries) they play very different than other versions of their power sets.  Instead of Entropic Aura they get Entropy Shield (effectively the same except the +recharge is a flat 20%), Power Armor (+resistance to all and +HP), and repelling force (+defense to all), and instead of energy drain they get Power Drain (just does +end/-end, unlike the melee version where you get +def).  I actually find that in later levels I don't really need Power Drain and often just pre-pop Energize to get the -End discount where as with a melee version I often would use Energy Drain to get the +def that it offers.  So playstyle changes a bit.

 

There is nothing wrong with playing a ranged sentinel btw (from my view), but there is a lot of damage to be found when you start to get ancillary powers (if that's your bag).  For me, it often depends on the primary...if the T9 is a PBAoE, then I often dip into an ancillary pool which provides additional PBAoE's to chain them together.  Since the recent buff to sentinels I feel like a perform a lot better this way (for my playstyle).

 

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Black_Assassin said:

The only epic without a single target melee is Mu which gets PBAoE Thunderstrike instead. 

 

Havoc punch from elec is the strongest but Smite and Mind Probe from Dark and Psi respectively are also both strong candidates. 

 

They have long recharges so like being proc bombed with high global recharge builds. 

 

It will come down to - for me - the epics fit with my character conception. 

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, evetsleep said:

Except in this case, sentinels don't have the stealth power (Energy Cloak)

 

Yeah, I thought the wiki was taking me to the correct section of the page but it dropped me on the Brute section.

Possibly too tired when I looked it up. I knew the set had a stealth power an though that was cool.

[tidge]

5 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

It will come down to - for me - the epics fit with my character conception. 

 

After a short duration attempt to "get moar damage" across multiple characters/ATs by leveraging Epics/Patrons... I've pretty much been ignoring Epic/Patron pools unless they fit my concept or otherwise don't clash with my character concept. even with the (semi-)recent lowering of level ranges at which I can select an Epic/Patron pool, I typically feel like the powers simply come too late in a build to end up as a "key design feature" for most of my concepts.

 

My feels/approach should not be taken as a criticism for the game mechanic or those who get really excited about them! I still get really excited when I have a primary/secondary/AT concept and there is at least one epic pool that fits just right.

[Uun]

10 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Why would my character be in melee range if they are a Sentinel?

Sentinels have quite a few PBAoE attacks. Almost half the T9s are PBAoE, plus you have Irradiate, Short Circuit, Ground Zero, Engulfing Darkness and Psychic Shockwave.

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

Sentinels have quite a few PBAoE attacks. Almost half the T9s are PBAoE, plus you have Irradiate, Short Circuit, Ground Zero, Engulfing Darkness and Psychic Shockwave.

  

You might need to run in to use a nuke like a blaster does, but, in most cases, you don't want either archetype standing in melee range of your opponents if you can help it.

[Heatstroke]

22 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Why would my character be in melee range if they are a Sentinel?

 

Because as a Sentinel, depending on build and power choices, you arent relagated to only doing ONE thing. You can actually do fill multiple roles. 
 

My Rad/Rad Sentinel can happily stay at range and cycle Neutino Bolt, X ray Beam. Cosmic Burst and Proton Stream at single targets. He can use a heavily proc'd Electron Haze amd Static Discharge from Epics as ranged Cone Attacks.. but he can also be a PbAoE melee terror with Irradiate ( a 27% defense debuff as well as damage), a heavily proc' Ground Zero, Atomic Blast Nuke.. which is a 37% defense debuff AND a Mag 3 Hold.. and for desert.. ThunderStrike.. 

I have other builds like Storm/NRG Sentinel that stays completely at range. No PbAoE or Melee attacks. 

 

[StriderIV]

43 minutes ago, Heatstroke said:

 

Because as a Sentinel, depending on build and power choices, you arent relagated to only doing ONE thing. You can actually do fill multiple roles. 
 

My Rad/Rad Sentinel can happily stay at range and cycle Neutino Bolt, X ray Beam. Cosmic Burst and Proton Stream at single targets. He can use a heavily proc'd Electron Haze amd Static Discharge from Epics as ranged Cone Attacks.. but he can also be a PbAoE melee terror with Irradiate ( a 27% defense debuff as well as damage), a heavily proc' Ground Zero, Atomic Blast Nuke.. which is a 37% defense debuff AND a Mag 3 Hold.. and for desert.. ThunderStrike.. 

I have other builds like Storm/NRG Sentinel that stays completely at range. No PbAoE or Melee attacks. 

 

I play a Time/Rad Defender very much the same way. I love the flexibility of AT’s in this game 💪

[Erratic1]

On 3/25/2025 at 12:19 PM, mistagoat said:

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

 

Clones and Duplicates (Protean Arc) cheat and have powers you do not have at the levels where you encounter them.

 

I have a screenshot somewhere of my duplicate on the Protean Arc hitting my character for over a 1000 damage when the character in question was in his low 20s.

 

Edit: Found it...My double has Crushing Uppercut, which he used from stealth for the crit hit.

 

Edited yesterday at 04:09 AM by Erratic1

[Warshades]

13 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

You might need to run in to use a nuke like a blaster does, but, in most cases, you don't want either archetype standing in melee range of your opponents if you can help it.

 

As someone that likes to play in melee range, I'll play just about everything in melee even if I don't need to. I found elec/energy sentinel to be extremely fun for me. I play it more like a brute/tank by going in for the massive end drain from Short Circuit/Energy Drain and then blast away without having to worry about getting hit because most of the mob is not only drained, but also has high -rec debuffs applied preventing them from getting any endurance back to attack. Sentinels truly are one of the best sapping ATs in the game imo, and it makes them extremely good playing in melee to make use of their sapping ability. Thunderous Blast may be ranged AoE nuke, but it's just as effective, if not more, when launched from melee range (and to be clear it's more effective because I've likely completely end sapped the mob if I'm in melee when I'm firing it off and can get bonus damage from hitting end drained enemies).

 

Granted, I also built my sentinel to be soft capped to most damage types and have high resist through set bonuses so being up close and in the fight wouldn't cause me to die, or even be concerned about dying.

 

The nice thing is that there are many ways to play to game, you can easily play Sentinels completely at range. You can even split the ATO set that provides an early range boost bonus so that the range on most of your attacks is more similar to that of a blaster/corruptor/defender.