Mass Effect 3 single player: Stasis Sentinel guide (by Vazgen)

ATTENTION: This guide was originally created by Vazgen on the old Bioware Social Network (BSN) forums. I am recreating it here so it does not disappear when the old BSN forums are shut down.


Drake Shepard was always a team player. A career soldier, an exemplar of the best that Alliance has to offer, he singlehandedly protected the civilians during the Skylian Blitz. Fearless and loyal to the soldiers under his command, Drake commanded the Alliance forces to the victory!


You are a support character, but that doesn't mean you can't do some damage. Tech Armor allows for extra survivability and Squad Incendiary Ammo from James helps to mitigate low damage of SMGs which are the only weapons this character has access to. Stasis bubble helps to control entire groups of enemies, including dangerous ones like Phantoms and Guardians.

Tech Armor: Durability, Power Damage, Durability

Your protection. With low damage of your weapon you'll be forced to stay out of cover for longer periods of time and extra protection is much needed, especially with armor bonuses geared towards weapon and power damage.

Offensive Mastery: Influence & Duration, Squad Bonus, Force & Damage

Focus on supporting squadmates and power augmentations. More duration for Stasis and more power damage are always nice.

Fitness: Durability, Squad Bonus, Fitness Expert

Survivability. Similar reasons to Tech Armor. Your Shepard needs to be alive to heal others. Also unique to the Sentinel class Rank 5 evolution helps to boost squadmate survivability.

Stasis: Stasis Strength, Recharge Speed, Bubble

Your crowd control tool. Cerberus is the most susceptible to its effects with only the Atlas mechs being able to resist it. Phantoms are frozen, Guardians drop their shields, Engineer turrets explode if frozen at the right time. A very power tool in Stasis Sentinel's arsenal.



The playstyle focuses on using Stasis bubbles in conjunction for crowd control, backed with James's Squad Incendiary Ammo with Explosive Burst evolution to deal with armored enemies.

The most problems were early on, before getting Squad Incendiary Ammo with Explosive Burst evolution from James. After that, it all went smoothly. And, of course, finding my favorite SMG only near the end of the game was not great at all. I also learned not to hold onto my medi-gel reserves.



I took James and Garrus wherever I could. James is pretty much mandatory for his ammo power and I took Garrus to Overload shields and barriers, coupled with James's Frag Grenades. Their powers were as follows:

James:
Frag Grenade: Damage, Max Grenades, Shield Overload
Incendiary Ammo: Squad Bonus, Headshots, Explosive Burst
Arms Master: Weapon Damage, Shield Recharge, Fortification

Garrus:
Concussive Shot: Force & Damage, Recharge Speed, Shredder
Overload: Damage, Recharge Speed, Shield Damage
Turian Rebel: Weapon Damage, Power Damage, Sniper Rifle


Weapons:
SMG: M-4 Shuriken -> M-12 Locust

I was forced to use Shuriken through almost the entire game since Locust is locked on Horizon. I used High Velocity Barrel and Power Magnifier mods on both (version II). Power damage helped to augment James's incendiary ammo and penetration helped to pierce Guardian shields and Cannibal plating.

Armor:
Head: None
Chest: Serrice Council
Shoulders: Armax Arsenal
Arms: Serrice Council
Legs: Hahne Kedar

Together this set gave me +20% power damage, +20% weapon and +10% headshot damage.



(full playthrough of the vanilla game starting from level 1)
YouTube playlist.