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[Tactic21]

As a returning player an obvious question is... "what is a sentinel?"

Is it the main powerset of a blaster and the secondary set of a scrapper?

What is the special ability of sentinels? it looks like it charges up and there is also a passive self-buff that resists accuracy debuffs?

dual pistols / regen maybe a good choice?

thanks!

[Warshades]

7 hours ago, Tactic21 said:

As a returning player an obvious question is... "what is a sentinel?"

Is it the main powerset of a blaster and the secondary set of a scrapper?

 

Essentially yes, a ranged armor set character with a few caveats to be aware of. The main point, as far as I know, was to offer players an AT that can use ranged blast attacks for a primary and have the protection/survival of a scrapper. 

 

Some of the caveats worth mentioning and being aware of:

• Unlike blasters, corruptors, and defenders, the Sentinel's AoE attacks have a target cap of 10 instead of 16.
• They in general will deal lower overall damage compared to Scrappers/Stalkers/Blasters/Corruptors. The benefit is that you can play a ranged set while having mez resist and armor/defense for protection, they can be a better solo experience compared to trying to do so with other ranged characters.
• Blast power sets have been altered slightly, Sentinels do not get a snipe attack (if the blaster/corruptor/defender versions had one).
• Some variations in powers and damage values.
  • As an example, Tesla Cage on electric blast for Sentinels does massive damage whereas it does nearly no damage on blasters, corruptors, and defenders (unless proc'd out). Electric blast is actually perhaps strongest on Sentinels partially because of this and a new shock mechanic for electric blast when enemies are drained of endurance (which armor sets like Energy Aura or Electric Armor can help with their draining powers to add to Short Circuit and Thunderous Blast). 
• There are some changes to the secondary armor sets and they are not direct ports from a scrapper version.
  • As examples, Invincibility from Invuln and RttC from Willpower do not scale from nearby enemies surrounding you. Along with some other changes or unique/different powers. 
• Your max HP is on the lower side with Sentinels so I wouldn't really recommend regen as an armor pick (not that it can't eventually be made effective with the right investment and build, but hp/sec regen rate scales with max HP and you will have less as a result). Generally speaking, defense focused or mixed defense/resist armor sets tend to be easiest and most durable to play on Sentinels (though you are not a tank so if you tend to team a lot and rely on other melee chars to take alphas, any secondary will work out fine). 

7 hours ago, Tactic21 said:

What is the special ability of sentinels? it looks like it charges up and there is also a passive self-buff that resists accuracy debuffs?

 

Not sure if this is up to date, but essentially it's a debuff that also causes any other debuffs used against the target of Vulnerability to be more effective as well. This is actually really useful against AV/GM fights. but generally not worth clicking over launching an attack against regular mobs/bosses. 

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Vulnerability

 

7 hours ago, Tactic21 said:

dual pistols / regen maybe a good choice?

 

The game is pretty easy and forgiving so any combination of power sets can and will work. I prefer regen on higher max HP chars personally, but as mentioned that if you team a lot and have a melee char on the team that can soak up alpha hits, it won't really matter if you use regen. If you're intending to solo at +4/8x, I would suggest picking a more durable armor set. 

 

Haven't played DP on Sentinels so not sure how well it performs here.

 

Edit: Meant to also add that sentinels have a slightly shorter range on their blast attacks compared to blasters, corruptors, and defenders.

Edited 13 hours ago by Warshades

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Two key perks for a sentinel are ...

1. Rapidly recharging nukes. They do less damage than blaster nukes. But, they're available about every 25ish seconds with good global and local recharge. It feels good to be able to nuke most new spawns at least once. 
2. Vulnerability is a sentinel-specific single target debuff that scales very well against higher level enemies and has high uptime. Only one instance of vulnerability can be applied to an enemy at a time. But, it is a really good debuff and a valuable contribution to a team to use it against harder targets when you can.

One not-as-great thing is that cones have a 5 target limit for sentinels, instead of the usual limit of 10 targets for ranged cones. Also, sentinels don't have as much range on their ranged attacks as other ATs. 

[Triumphant]

This, along with Brutes, are one of my 2 favorite ATs.  There were primarily 2 things that jumped out at me, which you may find very different from playing a Blaster (and weirdly, no- it's not that Sentinels are more resilient, although- yes, that is true too):

 

1) They have better mez protection than almost any AT in the game (No more worrying about keeping stocked up on Break Frees or hammering your T1/T2 attack buttons while waiting to become unfrozen)

 

2) The range of attacks is much more limited than Blasters and Corruptors.  This was the most challenging thing for me to adjust to, at first, but once you get comfortable operating within that more limited range, you'll find the AT can be extremely effective.  The Sentinel enhancement sets will boost this range a bit, which helps alleviate the issue and once you hit incarnate levels, you can take incarnate sets that will extend range, as well.

 

As far as powersets go, I highly recommend Fire, Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, and Energy Blast for attacks.  Super Reflexes has always been my favorite defense set on Sentinels, with the new Psionic Armor a close second, due to some very interesting powers in the set (Aura of Madness is my favorite of these, and several others pair well with Dark blast health draining attacks).