Sentinel Overview¶

The Sentinel, like the Infiltrator and Vanguard, is another mixed role Class in Mass Effect 1. The main difference with Sentinel however, is the fact that their whole playstyle is factored around both Biotic and Tech abilities, with zero weapon training at all. This is less understated in Legendary Edition compared to the original, you might not get the useful weapon talents, but you can still use the other weapons to varying degrees of competency. You can also offset a lot of the Sentinel’s weaknesses by bringing along Squad members such as Ashley, Garrus and Wrex to provide the firepower. As a Sentinel, you don’t have access to any Armor talents so you’ll need to rely on keeping Barrier up while keeping your distance.

Sentinel Bonus Talent¶

The Sentinel already has a broad range of Talents at his disposal, with most of the heavy hitters covered so there isn’t too much in the way of choice for them. In the original, the clear winner was the Assault Rifle Talent which requires you to beat the game first. As mentioned above though, the changes to weapons in Legendary Edition makes this less desirable, even if the ability itself is useful.

Taking Assault Rifle however, if this is your second time through the game, will give you some much needed firepower to all your other tools and will make you less reliant on your other squad members. The increased damage from the passives alone will make your firepower pack a punch and you’ll be able to cover every situation with ease.

If Assault Rifle is not an option however, the only other clear winner is Singularity, the one vital Biotic missing from the Sentinel’s kit. Lift is already an incredible disabling ability and Singularity is just more of Lift in a larger area of effect, what’s not to love. If you do take Singularity, prioritize maxing this before Lift.

Weapon Talents¶

As mentioned above, Sentinel has no default Weapon Talents in Mass Effect 1, less of an issue with Legendary Edition’s changes. Having said that, it is still possible to raise the damage of Pistols without having to complete the game and take a Weapon Talent as a Bonus Power, and that’s with the Sentinel Class Talent. Not only will it reduce the cooldown of your Biotics and Techs, but it will also grant damage increases to Pistols, which are a much more viable weapon in Legendary Edition.

Other Talents¶

The Sentinel Talent is one of the more useful Class talents in Mass Effect 1, providing nothing but vital boons for the Sentinel and you’ll want to put some early points in there to make sure you have it maxed by Level 11 as you unlock your Specialization. Outside of the usual investment on Charm or Intimidate, consider if you want your Shepard to handle the Electronics and Decryption although this is usually better left to someone like Garrus should you decide to take him.

You’ll want to work on getting Lift unlocked via 7 points of Throw early on as it’ll be one of your go to abilities and don’t neglect Barrier as not only is it useful for Defense, you’ll want to unlock Stasis to make the most of your Specialization. Hacking is useful against the numerous amount of Geth that you come up against but Medicine is less practical and not worth the early investment.

Once you complete the Assignment UNC: Rogue VI, you’ll gain the ability to evolve the Sentinel Talent, with your options being Bastion or Medic. The main draw of Medic is that you’ll get reduce the recharge time for First Aid and Medicine, Talents that tend to be on the less useful side of Mass Effect’s Talents. Instead, Bastion is the clear winner for Sentinel, with this, you’ll get even more reductions on all of your Biotics along with advanced versions of Barrier and Stasis. Barrier will gain a shield regen which helps your survivability but Stasis is the main lure here, this will allow you to damage any enemies that are in Stasis, turning it from a simple shutdown talent to a potent attack.

The final decision to make is when you unlock Spectre Training during the story. Be sure to put a point in there right away to get a nice 5% boost to your health and then consider taking it as far as Unity, beyond that, only return to this once you’ve maxed the more important Talents.