How can I effectively play a Sentinel in multiplayer?

I've never played a Sentinel at all in any of the games proper, so I have very little experience with their basic playstyle. As most of my experience has been with Vanguards and Adepts, I'm having trouble trying to figure what the Sentinel's strengths are and how best to play to them. I'm playing the Turian Sentinel, as I don't have a Krogan one unlocked yet. The Krogan seems like it'd be more melee-oriented, which would suit my playstyle more I think, but is currently not an option.

So far, I've been playing mostly as a shield/armor remover, using Warp and Overload to burst through enemy defenses. However, Tech Armor seems like it'd be handy, but the 60% hit to my cooldown reduction when using it feels like it really hurts my ability to pump out the debuffs. I mostly only use it during the more static waves, like hacking or disabling indoctrination devices.

I'm unfortunately rather consistently coming in at or near the bottom of the scoreboard when playing with my Vanguard and Infiltrator friends (though having played one, I know Vanguards can be difficult to even come close to in score). I'm level 13 and just don't feel as effective as they are.

Do I need to focus on using my weapons more? I do have difficulty with this, as I barely used weapons at all on my Vanguard. Am I supposed to focus on tanking? What can I do to improve my Sentinel game? Advice for both bronze and silver/gold play is welcome.

Solution 1:

You need to work on using your weapons more, they are a class that specialize in taking armor out of enemies and stunning them for a second with overload and than shooting them for the kill.

The tech armor is probably used best for when you use it and have to take some bullets before you can do anything about it. Also helps some on the 11th wave depending on your team, the 30% reduction in damage can help keep you a live a little longer to put the final bullets in enemies.

I typically use the M8 lvl 10 with the sentinel and no other weapons. I put the piercing mod on and the scope. This way I can get an assist in from a distance as a vanguard jumps in for the kill or infiltator kills them.

Overload is probably the best skill, with the stun ability and to take out half the armor or all of the armor of some enemies (not counting, geth prime or atlast). And with them stunned you can zoom in pop em in the head and move on to the next, which by than your overload will be more than ready to hit next target.

Same tactic applies for silver for the most part. For gold I have limited experience there.

Solution 2:

The turian is my favorite sentinal. I use it to fill the role of crowd control stunner on silver and gold matches to assist infiltrator snipers and engineers. I use a pheaston and predator, an assault rifle amp, cryo ammo, and shield boosts.

The first skill I build is shield /health straight to rank 6 then evenly build warp, overload, and power damage, useing only 3 points on tech armor. build overload for multiple targets and warp for damage and explosions. Useing cryo ammo to freeze enemies allows you to use warp to cause a cryo explosion.

Although this build may not put you at the top of the board when the fight is done, it will get you to more victories, and is a welcome addition when a gold group is nothing but infiltrators and engineers.