Does anyone use sentries against bugs diff 7+?

[Fraktal]

I just don't see the appeal. 9 times out of 10 you are surrounded by bug breaches and you see more bugs than blades of grass.

Sentries just die instantly in the chaos.

I honestly don't see the appeal of playing this game on these difficulties unless you choose THE loadout. We all know the one.

[Pedro Prypjat]

if u place them a bit away from the mass, it can work. but most of time its just pressing the panic button.

[Gizmat]

Sentries at higher difficulties are actually pretty nice distractions if you use it like one. Chuck your sentry opposite to where you’re retreating and it’ll distract plus takedown bugs.

Alternatively you can try to chuck the stratagem on high ground so they don’t get swarmed so easily, but I like the distraction route best.

[MartyrSaint]

Sentry ontop of a medium-ish sized rock is utterly invincible.

[Bigamo]

i use ONLY sentries as i am a techmarine!

[Myth Alric]

They are great, since they kill lots of stuff and also distract the bugs so you can make your escape.

[Eudicots]

They help when running through a map by taking out enemies behind you and acting as a distraction pulling aggro.

[Fraktal]

I'll give them another go.

Recoilless/gatling/autocannon turret/orbital laser is my current setup.

[Iron Breaker]

ems and regular mortars, key is to just throw them slightly off the area behind terrain or in trenchs etc cuz enemies only care about line of seight, if they dont see the mortar then it just gets to run havok

[Henry Kissinger]

I have gatling turret with the 50% extra ammo, saving up for the health one and they're great on suicide missions. Usually get 20 kills on the smaller more annoying guys while the team deals with armored enemies. You just have to make sure you don't pop it by a bunch of chargers/focus chargers going to it. Sounds like you're just placing them in bad spots or at bad times maybe?

[Peter Griffin]

I usually run either Autocannon Mortar Sentry Rocket Sentry Gatling Sentry or Shield Pack, Grenade Launcher / Rail Gun, Rocket Sentry Mortar Sentry. The sentries help out a lot on late game difficulties but they have to be used right. I usually play with 3-4 people so if I didn't have my buddies running other stratagems like 500kg bomb I'd probably switch to those.

[Spartykins]

gatling can work sometimes against trash until a charger/titan focuses it

may work better with the turning upgrade I guess

[Dreepa]

Don't use sentry next to an elite.

Throw it far away where no enemies are, OR set it up on a hill before it gets chaotic, if you can.

But overall, I agree that they are harder to use vs the bugs than vs the bots.

[Flailmail]

Originally posted by Fraktal:

I just don't see the appeal. 9 times out of 10 you are surrounded by bug breaches and you see more bugs than blades of grass.

Sentries just die instantly in the chaos.

I honestly don't see the appeal of playing this game on these difficulties unless you choose THE loadout. We all know the one.

they work well if your not running the typical "rush to everything" build with orbitals and airstrikes, but they require synergy with other sentries/yourself to work correctly, ontop of proper placement. Sit with a long range armor peeler (recoiless does wonders) and pick off the rushers kites in the middle of the map or on high ground, keep your sentries on CD for when you know you have to engage, place them properly and your going to have the most kills on your team while also providing a crazy amount of support, and your teammates will thank you that every heavy near them gets it armor peeled.

The problem most people have with sentries is they use them like an orbital strike or as a panic button; they do not work this way. you have to throw your sentry well away from you (while also well away from/not in line of sight of things that are not aggrod) in order to kill what your kiting, and your almost always better off just killing it yourself or losing its aggro. (you can use sentries to lose aggro from kites as well, tesla has a very high "threat" and aggros heavies almost instantly, and does wonders to stack them together for AOE).

The machine gun sentries arent useful on higher levels, period, your more than capble of taking out trash mobs with a shottie/pistol, and you need to do so to keep your sentries on the right targets: armor. Use the auto cannon sentry to take out all heavy targets (does so beautifully and can take out multiple if theyre at a distance) the rocket sentry as a substitute for when its down (does a decent job). And you can use your tesla in many ways: either inbetween your sentry(ies) and its targets to kill trash and draw aggro (placed strategically this can mean heavies have to walk a long way to the turret, then a long way back to you, as they will always go for the tesla first) Or you can place it directly beside your turret, as it will keep it clear and prevent it from "jamming" when a bug gets too close to it. The tesla also will kill all targets that are not heavily armored with ease, even within a few meters of their deployment; because of this you can call it directly ontop of swarms once you know there are no heavies present.

The tesla will arm within 25m of walking near it, you can dodge its strikes but if it arcs from another target... good luck, your better off never going within 30m of it and treating it like an orbital strike. It will arc off of targets and hit you will prone as well. Because of the 150 sec cd on the tesla as well you can safely use it as a panic button to draw aggro far off of you and clear yourself for your next barrage from hell that your going to be dumping into the bugs.

The downsides to this build are as follows:

1) Teammates who forgot the first part of basic training where they tell you to hit the ground when sentries are firing; they should be placed correctly, of course, but that being said i've watched many teammates run in front of a line of turrets and get shredded in half, just to get mad at the turrets for it xD... If there is a line of turrets teammates need to go around the line of fire or know how to kite/dodge correctly, also doesnt hurt to pay attention to your radar and see where they are going to be firing. Same with a tesla, just walk around it at a distance, not hard to learn, but people are dumb.

2) Teammates are attracted to tesla turrets like flies on sh*t. You can mark them, explain the 30m distance to them, it wont matter... they'll still walk into them constantly even when one has been covering their back for the last 2 minutes. I dont know if its just not apparent but they have quite a range to them, especially when they arc off of other targets. Because of this you should ALWAYS have a line of sight on your turret, keep an eye on your teams position, and be ready to shoot the turret before they run into it or when its done its job to prevent this situation to begin with.

3) Your not going to be the quickest when clearing out bug hives and their holes, let your teammates do this and work to support them with AT and small arms fire until the bug breaches happen (proper positioning and turret + rockets to clear all the heavies and make your teams life easier rather than running into the bug hive with them). Someone running the meta build: sheild pack, railgun, orbital/airstrike; can easily run to bug holes and spam a few orbitals then run away and the hole will be clear, but they cannot deal with the massive kite they drag around the map the entire game, thats where you come in.

4) Be ready to kill your turrets once they're done killing the intended targets, if not they're pretty stupid and will fire at unaggrod patrols and cause more bug swarms/breaches; you need to control them and their positioning in order to prevent unwanted attention. Putting them with their backs to walls, rocks, and even sometimes in crevices to control their line of sight and firing line is essential.

5) Be ready to be kicked randomly from matches because the majority of players dont understand the advantage of working together in this game, and all seem to run the exact same boring build. Theres also a very common misconception that sentries should only be used on the defensive maps (kill bug #) but the maps are so small that the sentries are actually relatively useless and your better off just bombing the bug breaches before they become an issue; The enemies all spawn within 50 meters of the center of the map as well, which imo is poor design for a defense map. It would work better for sentries if the enemies actually came from a distance, but they dont.

6) The recoilless rifle eats ammo like crazy, and isnt very forgiving when missing a shot. It helps to find a POI that has not only ammo but something to climb ontop of to get a better line of sight.


Pros to this build:

Essentially a sniper with a howitzer.

Your teammates are going to love the sheer amount of carnage following them all map as they wont have to deal with heavies or kites getting out of control as your able to easily mop up hordes of chargers and bile titans.

You can use sentries to clear out any POI (or even multiple at a time if the map is being nice and gives you a good overwatch) that has multiple heavy targets on it if you can place them at an advantage and clear the trash mobs quick enough. Using them offensively to clear out whole sections of the map is quite easy to do, just make sure your paying attention and assisting the turrets so they don't "jam" up or keep firing at trash when armor needs to be prioritized.

This is the epitome of a long range support build, as the range limits from throwing a stratagem quite literally limit them to people who are within 50 meters of a target. This allows you to do the opposite, and sit 100-300m out from targets while still delivering heavy firepower.


Reccomended: Breaker shottie, auto pistol, impact grenades, light armor with +2 grenades, recoil-less rifle, missle turret, auto cannon, tesla turret.

Role: Long Range support + heavy clearing along with the ability to wipe out any size horde of smaller targets (providing the heavies drop fast enough)

The main mistake people make with sentries is thinking they can use them on the fly, it takes practice to do so well, and even then one teammate who doesnt know how to kite (or what the concept is even) can ruin the whole thing for you by kiting everything into you instead of just running around while your turrets destroy everything.

It doesnt work well with idiots on your team thats for sure.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Flailmail:

Originally posted by Fraktal:

I just don't see the appeal. 9 times out of 10 you are surrounded by bug breaches and you see more bugs than blades of grass.

Sentries just die instantly in the chaos.

I honestly don't see the appeal of playing this game on these difficulties unless you choose THE loadout. We all know the one.

they work well if your not running the typical "rush to everything" build with orbitals and airstrikes, but they require synergy with other sentries/yourself to work correctly, ontop of proper placement. Sit with a long range armor peeler (recoiless does wonders) and pick off the rushers kites in the middle of the map or on high ground, keep your sentries on CD for when you know you have to engage, place them properly and your going to have the most kills on your team while also providing a crazy amount of support, and your teammates will thank you that every heavy near them gets it armor peeled.

The problem most people have with sentries is they use them like an orbital strike or as a panic button; they do not work this way. you have to throw your sentry well away from you (while also well away from/not in line of sight of things that are not aggrod) in order to kill what your kiting, and your almost always better off just killing it yourself or losing its aggro. (you can use sentries to lose aggro from kites as well, tesla has a very high "threat" and aggros heavies almost instantly, and does wonders to stack them together for AOE).

The machine gun sentries arent useful on higher levels, period, your more than capble of taking out trash mobs with a shottie/pistol, and you need to do so to keep your sentries on the right targets: armor. Use the auto cannon sentry to take out all heavy targets (does so beautifully and can take out multiple if theyre at a distance) the rocket sentry as a substitute for when its down (does a decent job). And you can use your tesla in many ways: either inbetween your sentry(ies) and its targets to kill trash and draw aggro (placed strategically this can mean heavies have to walk a long way to the turret, then a long way back to you, as they will always go for the tesla first) Or you can place it directly beside your turret, as it will keep it clear and prevent it from "jamming" when a bug gets too close to it. The tesla also will kill all targets that are not heavily armored with ease, even within a few meters of their deployment; because of this you can call it directly ontop of swarms once you know there are no heavies present.

The tesla will arm within 25m of walking near it, you can dodge its strikes but if it arcs from another target... good luck, your better off never going within 30m of it and treating it like an orbital strike. It will arc off of targets and hit you will prone as well. Because of the 150 sec cd on the tesla as well you can safely use it as a panic button to draw aggro far off of you and clear yourself for your next barrage from hell that your going to be dumping into the bugs.

The downsides to this build are as follows:

1) Teammates who forgot the first part of basic training where they tell you to hit the ground when sentries are firing; they should be placed correctly, of course, but that being said i've watched many teammates run in front of a line of turrets and get shredded in half, just to get mad at the turrets for it xD... If there is a line of turrets teammates need to go around the line of fire or know how to kite/dodge correctly, also doesnt hurt to pay attention to your radar and see where they are going to be firing. Same with a tesla, just walk around it at a distance, not hard to learn, but people are dumb.

2) Teammates are attracted to tesla turrets like flies on sh*t. You can mark them, explain the 30m distance to them, it wont matter... they'll still walk into them constantly even when one has been covering their back for the last 2 minutes. I dont know if its just not apparent but they have quite a range to them, especially when they arc off of other targets. Because of this you should ALWAYS have a line of sight on your turret, keep an eye on your teams position, and be ready to shoot the turret before they run into it or when its done its job to prevent this situation to begin with.

3) Your not going to be the quickest when clearing out bug hives and their holes, let your teammates do this and work to support them with AT and small arms fire until the bug breaches happen (proper positioning and turret + rockets to clear all the heavies and make your teams life easier rather than running into the bug hive with them). Someone running the meta build: sheild pack, railgun, orbital/airstrike; can easily run to bug holes and spam a few orbitals then run away and the hole will be clear, but they cannot deal with the massive kite they drag around the map the entire game, thats where you come in.

4) Be ready to kill your turrets once they're done killing the intended targets, if not they're pretty stupid and will fire at unaggrod patrols and cause more bug swarms/breaches; you need to control them and their positioning in order to prevent unwanted attention. Putting them with their backs to walls, rocks, and even sometimes in crevices to control their line of sight and firing line is essential.

5) Be ready to be kicked randomly from matches because the majority of players dont understand the advantage of working together in this game, and all seem to run the exact same boring build. Theres also a very common misconception that sentries should only be used on the defensive maps (kill bug #) but the maps are so small that the sentries are actually relatively useless and your better off just bombing the bug breaches before they become an issue; The enemies all spawn within 50 meters of the center of the map as well, which imo is poor design for a defense map. It would work better for sentries if the enemies actually came from a distance, but they dont.

6) The recoilless rifle eats ammo like crazy, and isnt very forgiving when missing a shot. It helps to find a POI that has not only ammo but something to climb ontop of to get a better line of sight.


Pros to this build:

Essentially a sniper with a howitzer.

Your teammates are going to love the sheer amount of carnage following them all map as they wont have to deal with heavies or kites getting out of control as your able to easily mop up hordes of chargers and bile titans.

You can use sentries to clear out any POI (or even multiple at a time if the map is being nice and gives you a good overwatch) that has multiple heavy targets on it if you can place them at an advantage and clear the trash mobs quick enough. Using them offensively to clear out whole sections of the map is quite easy to do, just make sure your paying attention and assisting the turrets so they don't "jam" up or keep firing at trash when armor needs to be prioritized.

This is the epitome of a long range support build, as the range limits from throwing a stratagem quite literally limit them to people who are within 50 meters of a target. This allows you to do the opposite, and sit 100-300m out from targets while still delivering heavy firepower.


Reccomended: Breaker shottie, auto pistol, impact grenades, light armor with +2 grenades, recoil-less rifle, missle turret, auto cannon, tesla turret.

Role: Long Range support + heavy clearing along with the ability to wipe out any size horde of smaller targets (providing the heavies drop fast enough)

The main mistake people make with sentries is thinking they can use them on the fly, it takes practice to do so well, and even then one teammate who doesnt know how to kite (or what the concept is even) can ruin the whole thing for you by kiting everything into you instead of just running around while your turrets destroy everything.

It doesnt work well with idiots on your team thats for sure.

I’ll have to try the Tesla lol. I’m afraid I’ll get kicked tho

[Certified Fentanyl Dealer]

Putting them on higher ground helps not only keep them from enemies but also makes them less likely to shoot you and your team.

Unless they're mortars. Those will land on you no matter where you put them because the enemy is going to be on top of you.