Quick Links
The Sentinel isLast Epoch’s resident knight class. Equipped with sword and board, the Sentinel takes the fight directly to the enemy, focusing on melee combat and high defenses. Each of its three Class Mastery options expands one or more of its capabilities, from the holy magic-centric Paladin to the armor-enhancing Forge Guard.
The Sentinel has a few decent starting options in the early game, letting you experiment with different builds early. If you want to power through the early game with the best setup, here’s everything you need to know.
Sentinel Starter Build Example
While you won’t be a base Sentinel for too long, you may need some direction on where to get started with the class, especially if it’s your first time playing as one. Below, you can find some recommended Skills to use, where to put your passive points, and some early-game Uniques to watch out for.
Skills
The Sentinel’s starting abilities are primarily melee-focused, beginning with Vengeance and shortly unlocking Warpath, Hammer Throw, Lunge, Rive, Shield Bash, Javelin, and Void Cleave by leveling up, and Rebuke, Shield Rush, Multistrike, and Smite through the passive tree.
Out of all your early game options,Rive is one of the best, paired withLunge for mobility. Shield Rush can also be used as a secondary mobility option to make getting through the campaign faster.
Specialize in Rive and start making your way through the left side of the skill tree to increase the skill’s damage. If you plan on choosing the Forge Guard later, you’re able to also get an early taste ofForged Weaponsthrough Rive’sBound Weaponnode, which gives the skill a chance to summon one when killing an enemy or hitting a boss.
On the right side of the tree, get theFlurry, Rending, Cadence, and Double Slashnodes. This will make your Rive comboskip the third strike, while making the first and second strikes haveincreased attack speed and Armor Shred Chance.
TheProjection of Warnode grants a bit of added AoE, butincreases the Mana cost of Rive, so only pick this node if you can sustain the additional cost.
Rive, Lunge, Shield Rush, and whatever else you put on your bar will carry you until you unlock your Class Mastery choice, at which point things will change depending on which one you pick.
Passive Tree
The core Sentinel Passive Tree is mostly defense-focused, which is great later once you’ve unlocked your Class Mastery and can scale certain skills based on things like Armor, Block Chance, and Health, but doesn’t help much early on. Because of this, you’ll most likely end uprespeccing your Passive Trees later on.
Until then, however, put your first passive points intoOverwhelmandJuggernautuntil they’re both maxed out, then put a few intoRelentlessuntil you unlock the third tier of passives. If you’re using Rive with theProjection of Warskill tree node, toss a few points intoTime and Faithfor some extra sustain.
Once you have 20 points in the core Sentinel tree, save the rest of them until you unlock your Class Mastery.
Gear And Uniques
As for your gear as you level up, focus on damage-increasing stats for your primary skills like Rive. Anything that grantsPhysical Damage, Attack Speed, and Strengthwill greatly improve Rive’s damage and thus your clear speeds.
Movement Speedis also another important stat to get as high as possible, for obvious reasons. Prioritize this stat when looting new Boots.
For Uniques, there are a few early-game options that will make this build a lot stronger, like theHammer of Lorent, especially if you use it withRive’s Foe Cleaver node, but keep in mind you won’t be able to equip a shield for Shield Rush.
For one-handed weapons,Taste of Bloodis a decent option thatscales well with Physical Damage, whileHumming Beecan be useful forgetting around even faster.
Advent of the Erasedare also very strong early on, as they will greatlyincrease your Movement Speedand start dropping as early as level 16.
