Sentinels in Escape

Gears 5
#20

That does sound awful. Good thing I didn’t run into those or I’d have lost the will to bother with that hive for the day.

But outside of the Sentinels, Robotics can be useful with the precision bleed, which will finish off an Enforcer DB after an active EMBAR headshot. Not sure how good the Markza bleed is but it helps in taking the Stump down. The Sentinels were the main problem because of shield sponging. And that it comes back up far too quickly for how much ammo is wasted into it(unless a Salvo or GL is shot at it, Tri-Shot’s also more limitedly good).

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#21

Ugh, I jumped back in and got into a game with a Marksman who kept doing the same thing: using his ult at the stump encounter. Maybe it was the same guy, lol. Yeah, he got it back eventually, but by that time the venom would’ve already been pushing because the sentinel fight took way too long. I tried to tell him in chat but he wouldn’t listen. Maybe he didn’t understand, or was stubborn. May have figured he was carrying us because his kill totals were so much higher than ours. Thing is you can be good but still make bad decisions. Because of this decision, he was leaving us in a very poor position. Not having his ult to deal with the sentinels quickly, with us not being classes with the ability to deal with sentinels well either, drew that fight out forever and doomed us to venom baths. I just had to leave after three times in a row him doing the same thing.

#22

You called!

#24

Now I just did it myself as Marksman and I named the lobby, “Be a class that doesn’t need blue ammo” to ensure there wouldn’t be any ammo issues. I think we got the toughest spawn, probably the one that you got. A Tactician and a Blademaster joined. Tactician was AFK and died at the pods. Blademaster didn’t need to do much except maybe keep a few trackers and rejects off me. I goofed up my ult in the first act, but didn’t matter. Ran through my ammo and made it to second act easily, then I filled up in the saferoom. The Tactician woke up there. Turns out he wouldn’t have been useful in first act anyway since we didn’t get any explosives.

Cleared the next area and Tactician got a salvo and a GL. I resisted using my ult at the stump. The first time I killed it easily anyway by active longshotting the red part over and over as it was situated to where it was exposed and couldn’t shoot me. On a subsequent attempt it took much longer though, because it wandered out into the big room and pinned me down. Also I kept missing shots due to connectivity issues that cropped up.

The attempt that took a long time to kill the stump meant the venom was already pushing far into the large final area by the time the sentinels arrived, but never mind because I just got behind cover, used the ult and dealt with them anyway. But, that run made me see how if the stump battle takes too long then the sentinels can come out at a time when you can’t really fall back and things can get a lot more hairy. Probably best to bring along a class that deals with the stump quickly and easily (e.g., Gunner) just incase it ends up in an awkward position for the Marksman to kill.

#25

I did master with striker on malfunction and got approximately 80% of the kills, and even with blade master 80%+, mac can also be really successful in some of the rooms with boltok being able to oneshot Deebees head lights and drop sentinels faster then ever before, even marksman is OP on this hive aswell dropping all the main targets with ease, I don’t see much use for Clayton on this hive minus like one room or reflect projectiles maybe. Robotics expert is somewhat fine I guess but it definitely held you and your team back more then most the other classes will.

#26

I found him very useful, except mostly as a complement, not the main killer, since 99% of my malfunction runs have had a dominant Marksman whether it was me playing him, or somebody else. The build to use is: freeze resist, bait armor, heavy capacity, heavy charger, reflect shredder.

Now, he isn’t very useful until he gets a trishot or salvo, but the upside is he (shouldn’t) need any blue box ammo, and he doesn’t need to fear the freezing deebees like everyone else does. Maybe he carries a gnasher and enforcer just to ward off trackers and rejects at first. In second big encounter he should get a trishot or salvo. Now, he can carry the team to the saferoom if the Marksman happens to have a hard time or die (I had this happen once). Since he doesn’t rely on any guns, he is perfect to retrieve a longshot or gnasher should the marksman or infiltrator die.

Second act he should get another heavy early to tote with him. Then at stump, he can run out with his ult, make short work of the stump and hopefully most of the deebees around it too. His ability for making that stump fight as short as possible is very underrated. Now he should have a trishot and a salvo with 30+ shots to help with the final big fight, but again, Marksman still carries it here. He at least needs to kill one of the sents. If he flubs up and fails to kill one of them, then Gunner may still be able to take one out with his salvo or trishot though.

Well, then you’re a better striker/blademaster than probably 99% of players. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten one of those on my team who did anything notable in this hive. The three classes I’ve done Malfunction with since it became the weekly are Marksman, Gunner, and Demo. Only with Marksman did I do the brunt of the killing though and I think either he or Tactician are mandatory to guarantee being able to deal with the sents.

#27

I ran this hive yesterday for the weekly and do remember the sentinels.

I was the anchor and activated the shield when they flew near us. They can’t get you if you have the size boost, but just hover in place beating their head against the wall trying if you get near.

Then you can fire back for +50% damage. (In this case it was +130% with the venom damage card). And your teammates have no pressure either and can shoot it up too.

#28

Course I have. I mentioned it above. 4 Sentinels in one Escape act… 6 if you either forget to lock a door behind you or go down both paths, is just complete overkill. But the rooms they spawn in also often make it much more annoying to get rid of them in too.

The point of the subject is that if you’re not going to straight up cheese the Sentinel with “wall hacks”(nickname, obviously) X-Ray, or immediately blow them out of the sky with Demo artillery and/or explosives from that class or Tactician, they are beyond ridiculous a lot of the time.

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#29

Haven’t tested the new Anchor on this hive, and don’t think I’ve ever even done it with him on the team. Maybe he can do the sents too now, like you say, since he’s been buffed. Regardless, Marksman or Tactician is the easier choice IMO. Also, if you choose Anchor, ammo sharing will need to occur if a Marksman or Infiltrator is on the team. I find that doesn’t work out most of the time in random lobbies.

Yeah, not sure why people were filing this hive under the “easy” category when it first came out. I never found it to be that easy. I think any hive that requires one or two specific classes at high levels/high skill just to be able to advance shouldn’t be considered one of the easier hives.

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#30

I’ve died several times in the waves 45,46, 47 because of these things you will only get rid of them if you have a sniper just like you will only get rid of a boss if you have a kait, jd or clayton

#31

I’m playing a fair bit with Marksman recently and getting better slowly. I don’t have many issues hitting shots until I use X-Ray, then I go to pieces! Or they are so far away and moving I hit one before X-ray ends. When people almost insta kill the swarmak, do they do that with X-ray?

I also struggle to take down sentinels as quick as snipers I’ve played with.

#32

Icy-precision on weakspot, he dies when the blister pops thanks to the damage-multiplier from freezing.

Same as Stumps, they have their DB-Face still attached to it. Sentinels have it in the middle, behind the shield.

Play Gatekeeper if you need to get a feeling for how to hit it consistently.

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#33

Swarmak weak spot is the blister to freeze?

#34

Mhm, middle of the body in X-ray

#35

Thanks, wondering how many more weak spots I don’t know or get wrong :joy:

#36

Left thigh on rejects? - Leeches on the Stump also count as a weakspot.

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#37

“nearly two whole ■■■■■■■ hours trying to do the second act in Malfunction where we didn’t fail repeatedly because of lack of player skill but the Sentinels pulling constant BS or if we did beat them then we almost always lost a player to the freezing Enforcer”

I feel you, but finally getting it done felt really good.

#38

Is that a weak spot ? I tend to shoot it out so they fall down and explode when getting close, but I didn’t see critical numbers there. Mhhhh maybe I aim too low.

#39

Were you gents not using Marksmen I take it?

Makes a joke out of those ■■■■■■■.

#40

Nah soloed on Anchor, only Insane for silver.
Marksmen good point, but the weapon selection there is absolutely not too my liking.
Hate the embar.
Marksmen is one of the few classes I could still use gold cards on too…mhhhh