This page will show you some of the best Sentinel builds in Mass Effect 2. Here, you’ll find details on the best abilities to pick, the best weapons to equip, including what heavy weapon to choose. Also, you’ll find what armor works best for the build.

Sentinel Overview¶

The Sentinel, like the Soldier and Engineer, is a core class in Mass Effect 2. The Sentinel shines at being able to deal with all forms of protection the enemies may have due to them having access to both Warp and Overload. Also, they have great survivability thanks to Tech Armor that boosts your shields.

Best Sentinel Build¶

This build revolves around your Tech and Biotic Powers whilst keeping your survivability up from Tech Armor.

Powers¶

This section will go into more detail on why the Powers are chosen for this particular build.

Overload¶

Overload is the de facto Power to use when you want to strip the enemies of their shields. We choose the Heavy Overload Evolved variant as this increases the damage to Overload allowing you to do take the enemies shields down even quicker.

Warp¶

Warp is great to use against enemies that have Barriers or Armor, and on top of that, it can stop health regeneration as well. We choose the Heavy Warp Evolved variant as this increases the damage to Warp allowing you to do increased damage to Armor.

Tech Armor¶

Tech Armor is a unique Tech power exclusive to Sentinels. At max rank, it’ll increase your shields up to 100% of your base shield value, although it doesn’t take account of your armor increasing your shield strength, Assault Armor will replenish 50% of them when your shield is destroyed which is the reason we went with this variant of the Power. Furthermore, Tech Armor doesn’t need to be reapplied, just put it on at the beginning of a Mission, and it’ll stay on indefinitely until it gets destroyed. It’s worth noting that the other variant is arguably better for this build as it takes away the second shield Assault gives you, but it’ll increase your Biotic Damage by 15% and your shield strength to 100%.

Defender¶

We max out Defender to get all those Health and Cooldown passives allowing you to take more hits, and cast more powers. We choose the Guardian variant for the better Power recharge, and slightly increased health.

Bonus Power: Energy Drain¶

Squadmates typically have two missions associated with them: their recruitment mission, and their loyalty mission. The recruitment mission will add them to the squad for you to deploy as you see fit, while their loyalty mission will increase their competence both in storyline and in actual gameplay. In the latter case, this will unlock their fourth (bottom-most) power for them to invest in, as well as allowing you to assign this newly-unlocked power as a bonus power. This can be done by using the “Advanced Training” option in the Research Terminal, and will set you back 5,000 Element Zero every time you reassign a bonus power.

Shields are what keeps the Sentinel alive, and to that end, we pick Energy Drain as our Bonus Power. You need a way to deal with enemy shields, and while the class has Overload by default, there’s no good reason to drop points in it when you can use Energy Drain instead, disabling enemy shields and fueling your own at the same time. It’s a power with excellent synergy with the Sentinel’s class-defining power, Tech Armor, making it an excellent addition to the Sentinel’s arsenal.

Weapons¶

This section will talk about what weapons are best for this particular build.

Heavy Pistol¶

The M-5 Phalanx was originally added as DLC in the original Mass Effect 2, in the Legendary Edition, it can be purchased from Ratch, who resides on Tuchanka.

What makes the M-5 Phalanx so effective, is that it’s highly accurate due to its built in laser, and it hits like a truck with 109 base damage. Like most handguns, it’s better to use against enemies with armor, or as a weapon to fall back on if you run out of ammo in your primary or the enemies close the gap, making it harder to snipe them.

Submachine Gun¶

The M-12 Locust was originally added with the Kasumi - Stolen Memory DLC which is Kasumi’s loyalty mission, in the legendary edition, the mission is available once you acquire Kasumi at the Citadel. The weapon can be picked up during the mission, or if you miss it, as a mission reward.

The Locust is one of the strongest SMG in the game, especially at mid to long range due to its pinpoint accuracy, and low recoil. This makes it act more like an Assault Rifle than a SMG.

Advanced Weapon Training¶

During the Mission Collector Ship, you’ll get the choice to get Advanced Weapon Training, this will allow you to pick another weapon type to add to your arsenal, that your class wouldn’t normally be allowed to use.

For this build, either choose Sniper Rifle so you can equip the M-92 Mantis, a very powerful Sniper, or choose shotgun and use the Geth Plasma Shotgun if you want a little range or use the M-22 Eviscerator for its stopping power.

Best Heavy Weapon¶

The M-100 Grenade Launcher is the first Heavy Weapon you’ll get in the game, you’ll get it during the Mission Prologue: Awakening. The reasoning behind choosing this, is its crowd control capabilities which as a Sentinel using this build, you won’t have much of.

Best Armor¶

Best Squadmates¶

Because the Sentinel can deal with all the protection stripping on the enemies, and they have great survivability, the only thing you really need to supplement that is more DPS. With that in mind, take Garrus equipped with a Sniper, and Grunt to push enemies away from cover, he’s also great if you’re getting swarmed by husks. Miranda is always a good shout as she can handle anything, but she’s more useful if you need someone to strip the enemies’ protection, which is what you’ll be doing.