Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide: Sentinel (Mass Effect 1)

Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide: Sentinel (Mass Effect 1)

The Sentinel Class specializes in heavily supporting the Squad when it comes to employing Biotic and Tech Abilities. Combining the best of both Specialties allows them to debuff and to immobilize enemies with ease. Examples include Throw, Sabotage and Overload. With Throw, they can push targets as far away as possible to knock them down. With Sabotage and Overload, they prevent enemies from inflicting firepower damage and destroy portions of their Shields, respectively.

Compared to other Classes, the Sentinel takes a while to get used to due to their lack of sufficient Weapon Talents. They don’t have the Pistols Talent, and instead, gradual enhancements to this Weapon can be accessed via their Sentinel Class Talent. As such, ranking this up provides incremental accuracy and damage boosts, which are not enough to quickly kill enemies unless they constantly activate the Marksman Ability.

The Medic Sentinel Build provides additional support by reviving fallen Squadmates and restoring larger portions of their HP with First Aid. Additionally, this enhances the time by which enemies remain knocked out, making them highly vulnerable to incoming attacks.

Sentinel Talents and Abilities (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’ll talk about the different Biotic, Tech and Combat Talents that you should focus on to make the most out of your Medic Sentinel Build. Note that the number of Talent Points I’ve allocated is based on reaching Level 50 in Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition, or 25 if you’ve selected the Legendary Mode.

Biotic Talents and Abilities

There are 4 Biotic Talents that you’ll have to put sufficient points into in order to effectively control enemies. These are Throw, Lift, Barrier and Stasis.

Throw

Throw is a remarkable Biotic Talent and Ability because it lets you push enemies from across the room while inflicting Force Damage. This is very important to the Sentinel because they have limited options when it comes to tackling enemies up close. At higher ranks, you can efficiently kill targets thanks to the Throw and Lift combo by hurling them over ledges. Note that there are some creatures like the Geth Rocket Drones and Geth Armatures, which are immune to this Ability because of their airborne characteristic and sheer size.

Since the first few ranks of Throw are readily available, you have to immediately invest points into it. This Talent remains relevant at higher levels given that your Weapon Damage will not attain its maximum potential. You should aim to reach Master Throw at Rank 12 to hurl enemies farther away from you and to greatly boost Force Damage.

Lift

Lift is an AoE Ability, which suspends enemies in the air, rendering them useless while making them prone to more damage. What’s even better is that once the duration of this Ability expires, they take fall damage by hitting the ground. Just be careful to use Lift against enemies running towards you. This causes them to hover above you, thereby exerting extra effort in turning around before finishing them off.

At higher ranks, enemies are immobilized for a longer period of time. Since Throw will have to reach Rank 7 to unlock Lift, you’ll be allocating points into this Talent midway into the game. This shouldn’t be an issue since you have other Biotic and Tech Abilities at your disposal. I highly recommend gaining access to Master Lift at Rank 12 in order to widen its range, thereby impacting more enemies while lengthening the duration of staying afloat.

Barrier

The Sentinel is the only Class that doesn’t have the Basic Armor Talent at the very least. As such, they don’t have the Shield Boost Ability, which restores a portion of their depleted Shields. Because of this, they need to rely on Barrier for their survivability especially in critical situations. Barrier enables them to absorb massive damage without impacting HP. However, remember that there are still some Ammo Mods like Proton Rounds, which can pierce through Shields and Barrier.

Regardless, I suggest investing points into this Talent as soon as possible to boost your durability since you can only wear Light Armor. You should aim to reach Rank 12 to unlock Master Barrier in order to maximize the strength of your Shields. Additionally at Rank 6, you unlock Stasis, which I’ll discuss next.

Stasis

Stasis locks any type of enemy in place to prevent them from using any of their Weapons and Abilities against you. The drawback however, is that none of your Squad can damage them in this state, unless you choose the Bastion Specialization for your Sentinel. Because of this, I don’t recommend putting too many points into Stasis considering that we’re opting for the Medic Specialization. Allocating 4 points to unlock its corresponding Ability and to lengthen the duration should be enough to stun a powerful enemy for more than 12 seconds while your Squad eliminates the others.

Tech Talents and Abilities

There are 4 Tech Talents that you’ll have to put sufficient points into in order to effectively debilitate enemies and to improve the way you heal your Squad. These are Decryption, Electronics, First Aid, and Medicine. Every time you use the Sabotage and Overload Abilities specific to Decryption and Electronics, you throw a tech proximity mine, which detonates after a few seconds. The explosive damage this inflicts isn’t massive but it reduces the enemy’s HP.

Decryption

Decryption has its benefits both in and out of Combat. Immediately at Rank 1, you unlock Sabotage, which burns the enemy for a couple of seconds and makes their Weapon unusable due to overheating. Remember that this Ability will not work properly on enemies that don’t wield Weapons such as Husks. To take advantage of Sabotage, you’ll have to use it once you see Synthetics or robotic enemies to halt their Weapon Attacks. This gives your Squad enough time to swoop in for the kill. You can also use this Ability to detonate fuel tanks in order to cause panic while fatally wounding to nearby targets.

Outside of combat, Decryption is used to unlock containers and objects in order to acquire upgraded versions of Equipment. You also obtain more Omni-gel, which is useful in repairing the Mako’s damaged hull and in automatically bypassing security systems.

At the start, it’s best to invest a few points into Decryption with a total of 9 to unlock Master Sabotage. This improves the damage dealt by tech proximity mines. Moreover at Rank 4, you’re also granted the Electronics Talent.

Electronics

Similar to Decryption, Electronics has its advantages in and out of combat. At Rank 1, you unlock Overload, which weakens the enemy’s Shields and makes them susceptible to extra damage. Once their defenses have been annihilated, you can easily eliminate them with your Pistol. This makes it necessary to allocate points into Electronics as soon as it becomes available. Similar to Sabotage, you ought to activate Overload when you see enemies to deal massive damage to their Shields. In collaboration with Barrier, raising the ranks of this Talent enhances your Shield Strength, which improves durability. However, it’s still important to constantly hide behind covers to protect yourself from incoming attacks.

Outside of combat, you’re able to hack into secure computers and repair larger portions of your Mako’s damaged hull. The best rank to aim for is Rank 9 in order to fully upgrade Overload. With Master Overload, the damage inflicted on the enemy’s Shields are significantly boosted. You also maximize the explosion damage dealt by your tech proximity mines.

First Aid

This Talent restores portions of your Squad’s HP. If you need to constantly heal, feel free to allot as many points as possible. But do note that reaching Rank 6 to unlock Advanced First Aid should be enough for the Sentinel. This already allows you to restore 100 HP per Medi-gel consumption. At Rank 5, you also gain access to the Medicine Talent.

Medicine

This Talent reduces First Aid’s recharge time, allowing you to heal your Squad more often. At Rank 1, you unlock Neural Shock, which temporarily paralyzes an Organic or live enemy while inflicting extra Toxic Damage. Since you’re going to get the Medic Specialization, it’s important to invest a total of 12 points into Medicine. This grants you Master Neural Shock to increase the duration of the enemy’s paralysis and to significantly boost Toxic Damage.

Combat Talent and Ability

There is 1 Combat Talent to help boost the effectiveness of your Medic Sentinel Build and that is Spectre Training.

Spectre Training

This Talent can be unlocked after you become a Spectre when you complete a Citadel Mission within 2 hours of playing. Spectre Training makes your character stronger by raising the accuracy and damage of your Pistol, improves your Abilities, and raises your max HP. At Rank 4, which is enough for the Sentinel, you gain access to the Unity Ability, which lets you revive dead Squadmates while restoring 30% HP and 50% of their Shields. This instantly makes them combat-ready.

Medic Specialization (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’m going to discuss the Unique Class Talent for this Build as well as its evolved form or Specialization upon completing a certain quest. The Sentinel Class Talent reduces the recharge times of all Biotic and Tech Abilities, improves the accuracy and damage of the Pistol, and grants the Marksman Ability. You can only allot a maximum of 6 Talent Points into it.