How do you guys practice confirming off of c. M? The training mode option for random block is a bit too random since it might block the first two hits and then eat the third one and I feel like it’s mind fucking me. I’ve been playing drones from the early days of vanilla and now I’m slowly trying to start playing Sentinel and this is one of my biggest problems with him. I lose damage because I’m expecting people to block me more often than they do and I just cancel into flight and can’t follow up.
Usually, the best hit confirms come from his active armored attacks, preferably st. 
. My common hit confirms are from j. :h: 's more than anything, but most importantly, the common hit confirms from Sentinel are:
[LIST]
[]j. or flight
[]j. :h:
[]j. :s:
[]st.
[]:h: Drones
[]cr. (this one I usually get off of its active armored frames, or off an XFC)
[/LIST]
Personally, I let my assist do the confirming for me(tatsu), I don’t have the reaction to confirm off cr. and Im certain its impossible to confirm of st. so I let tatsu do all the work for me. My advice to you will prolly be to test if any of your assists allow you to do such, otherwise I guess just practice practice practice.
I’m one of those people who’re still stuck in the first month of vanilla and still use Sent as anchor so no assists for me. When Sent IS in with assists, he doesn’t have anything to really help with hit confirms. I guess it’s practice time for me.
Well who are his teammates? You’d be surprised how many assists help him confirm. But yea if your running him on anchor then practice is pretty much the only answer I have for you.
Also, found this [media=youtube]iJX3mef6oYs[/media] video, some footage of ray running sent on point for a couple matches around the 2 minute mark. Some really nice stomp pressure going on there.
Finally, not sure if you guys care, but ill share it anyway. I finally got the hang of the guard break, oh my God, it feels so good. Seems like if you dash late enough you nullify pushblock, not sure if this is exclusive to sent(doubt it) but its good to know.
My team is Hulk(AA)/Deadpool(Katanarama)/Sentinel(Drones). Now that I think about it, katanarama might work. Not an ideal use for the assist but better than nothing I guess.
After doing mediocre at NCR10, I decided to switch it up. I was tempted to replace Spencer on my team and soul search, but ultimately decided to make on minor adjustment to my team, which was to run Machine Gun assist on Chris rather than Landmine.
The purpose behind this was so that I would have more inclination to keep Chris alive so once he runs low on life, I can play my other two characters and retain a pretty good assist. Furthermore, if my team gets lopsided (by triple TACs, DHCs, or via snapback), I can fight as Sentinel with a good assist.
Worked out fantastic as a result. Sentinel works very well with projectile assists (Disruptor, Plasma Beam, Unibeam, Daggers, Machine Gun). The ones that have multi-hits to keep opponent somewhat on lock-down are huge bonuses. I find Arthur Daggers to be very good.
My point being, just because Sentinel is the last slot doesn’t mean he has to anchor with level 3 X-factor. Sometimes I bring the robot early and let it rock. Sentinel has very good ways to punish assist calls with HSF, and level 2 X-factor + assist, is better than solo level 3 X-factor in my opinion.
I also find that Sentinel can perform extremely well with a strong horizontal assist. I’ve been using plasma beam and it’s great for clearing the screen and allowing you to get up close.
The coolest thing I found was how much it helps Sentinel’s zoning game, especially against teleport characters or just holding a life lead against certain characters. Typically I use Sentinel’s mouth laser and use that normal as an opportunity to call plasma beam, then cancel into bomb drones to protect myself as bomb drones stay out no matter what. Repeating this sequence can be surprisingly effective against certain characters and will protect you from assists like Vajra, but obviously it’ll get blown up by certain hypers and well timed grabs. If you’re worried about staying safe you can always cancel to HSF too.
Don’t forget when he’s anchor that you have lv4xf drones. Those things saved my life so many times i’ve lost count.
also, try to differentiate between the 3 versions of drones. bombs is good for when you have somebody that’s a teleporter. they allow you follow up with cr. and combo.
the other two (up and down) are great for zoning with vertical/horizontal giving you complete controll of the screen and then when you see them make a wrong move (i.e. do something other than trying to block) you can Plasma Storm or HSF and dhc if need be.
Also, a question to fellow sentinel users: Why is it that people still play this character on some Day 1 type shit? He can do so much more than just “spit, spit, cr. on block, launcher whiff hsf”. I swear I get so sick of seeing shit like that and I know some of you all feel the same (maybe…lol)
Same reason why everyone thinks he is unplayable or some shit, cause peeps play like they are allergic to training mode, and the few times they go to train the last person they ever practice with is their “assist” character. There still exist sentinels today who are incapable of performing flight combos, and I understand not going for them when your in xf3 and just tryna kill off an opponent, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a sentinel die because they either didn’t have the bar for a plasma storm(due to their unoptimal combo) or didn’t do enough damage. Heck, the famous bionic marn situation coulda been avoided if marn had just practiced the goddamn robot.
I understand not everyone doing fly/unfly pressure, that shit ain’t easy. But basic shit like hard drive loops and flight combos really shouldn’t be like nuclear physics or some shit.
/Rant
A simple j. :s:, st. , st. :s: j., j. , j. :h:, :qcb: :s:, j. :l:, j. , j. :h:, j. :s:, Rocket Punch :l:, Plasma Storm does about 800k and is self sufficient in most cases. It makes me sad that people do shitty combos (no-fly) and get crappy damage with a super that 9 times out of 10 results in a DHC.
SadFace.jpg
Sentinel hitconfirms for me are mostly about intuiton and prediction, rather than reaction. I kinda know when I’m gonna hit, I can see their defense crack.
Confrming off cr. m is hard, but thankfully launcher isn’t too bad on block (and it’s commonly pushblocked at that)
sometimes you’re too far to launch and you need to be able to hit confirm to rocket punch tho. Learn this distance.
Never really thought of this way, but it makes so much sense. I always beat myself mentally when I actually hit a c.M but I cancel into fly mode.
In x-factor, I just random launcher like a maniac. Sometimes do three in a row. Eventually it must hit. It’s safe enough and the hitbox is kind of derp. It sounds scrubby (and it probably is), but it’s a good “get the hell off of me” move. From there you can quickly plan something maybe.
just don’t launch smart danties, you’ll get reverbed into death every time.
(so against 99% of dantes it’s safe because HURR DURR SENTINEL GONNA MIX ME UP I MUST PUSHBLOCK)
A lot of Sentinels I see don’t utilize his air game and people tend to forget about his flight being 0f.
In my honest opinion, more people need to start going IN THE AIR with this character than on the ground because I believe that’s where he’s strongest. air :l: is stupid, air is stupid, air :h: is stupid and air :s: also stupid. can confirm off of any of them during your air pressure.
instead you’ll see a dude (who hasn’t fully learned the character) do this blockstring:
or just this
and every time I’ve seen those done it gets punished and boom, dead sentinel. i think (you don’t have to take it seriously since i’m still at scrub status) what more Sent users should do for blockstrings is mix it up between cr.**/**standing and/or crouching Neutralize then cancel into up/down/bomb drones or Rocket Punch, pressure even more with plasma or HSF and I think with this more robots would be alive in the metagame.
Or just do what RayRay does ffs lol
“his flight being 0f.”
I’m pretty sure this is not true. If it was true you’d be able to attack post flight with no delay. It would be marvel 2 speed.
Here is some proof that his flight cancel is 0 frame:
[media=youtube]ltBkfPypCeo[/media]
*Credit to video goes to Onslaught2000 and for finding this useful technology.
The reason he cannot attack with no delay (that I’ve noticed) is that his air and air :h: take some time to come out naturally; they aren’t that fast. The only exception that I see is his un-fly :l: which is fast but has very little range.
No. That’s proof that his un-fly is 0 frames.
Flight has start-up.
My bad, I meant to say un-fly. You are correct that Flight has start-up frames.
I’m guessing that’s also what Bloo was talking about also, the Flight-Cancel
yeah that’s what i was trying to say last night. i type too damn fast >>