Sentinel
 
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Electronic attack ships are mobile, resilient electronic warfare platforms. Although well suited to a variety of situations, they really come into their own in skirmish and fleet encounters, particularly against larger ships. For anyone wanting to decentralize their fleet's electronic countermeasure capabilities and make them immeasurably harder to counter, few things will serve better than a squadron or two of these little vessels. SHIP BONUSES
Amarr Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
Ship Attributes
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2 (0/2) 
4 
3
27 MW 
235 tf
350 m/sec
265 m³
Summary
The Sentinel is a highly mobile platform for capacitor warfare and weapon disruption, backed up by an unusually large drone bay for a frigate. Like its larger relatives the Curse and Pilgrim, the Sentinel has bonuses which increase the range and power of energy neutralizers and nosferatus. To support capacitor warfare, it also has a bonus to its capacitor recharge rate. It retains the bonus to weapon disruptor strength from its base hull, the Crucifier, but does not have the Crucifier's bonus to disruptor range.
The Sentinel sees little use in PvE combat. In PvP, it can be an effective solo hunter against small prey, able to immobilise a target and slowly chew it to pieces using its drones. Unlike the Curse and Pilgrim, it has no stealth capability, so opponents will see it coming. It is also a very effective small gang PvP ship, able to serve as a powerful force multiplier. For weapon disruption pure and simple, though, the Crucifier is a better choice, as it has bonuses to range as well as strength, and costs a fraction of the Sentinel's price.
Skills
As with any Tech 2 ship, the Sentinel deserves good general support skills and fitting skills. Capacitor support skills are especially important to support energy neutralizers. Since the Sentinel's DPS potential is low, it is worth having Tech 2 drones and good drone support skills to squeeze as much damage out of the ship as possible.
Electronic Attack Ships should be trained to level IV before undocking the ship. The bonuses attached to the EAS skill for the Sentinel are massive—e.g. 80% extra neutralizer range per level—and since this is consistent across some comparable ships too (such as the very useful Keres and Hyena), it can be worth training the skill to level V in the medium or long term.
Tactics
The Sentinel is typically fitted with capacitor warfare modules in the high slots, relying on drones for damage. The dronebay is huge for a frigate (60 m3), but this is balanced by only 20 Mbit/sec bandwidth. A typical loadout might use 2 flights of damage drones and 1 of ECM drones. With only 4 mid slots and 3 low slots, there are tough trade-offs to be made between tank, propulsion, tackle and weapon disruption. For solo or very-small gang PvP, the ship will also typically fit a warp disruptor. If a mid slot is set aside for a weapon disruptor, pilots must choose between tracking disruption and guidance disruption, and it can be worth bringing one of whichever module is not fitted in the cargo hold, in case there is a need and opportunity to refit.
In solo PvP, the Sentinel usually kites, trying to stay within disruptor range but outside of scrambler range. It begins fights slowly, as its neutralizers will take a little time to drain the target and as its DPS output is anaemic. Provided the Sentinel can survive until its target's capacitor is dry, it can usually achieve full range control. The solo Sentinel's engagement options focus on other small ships and on highly capacitor-dependent ships (ironically including many Amarr hulls); ships with numerous and/or bonused drones, with a capacitor booster, or with zero-capacitor weapons (projectile guns and missiles) will stand a much better chance of driving it off. It is hard for a Sentinel to lock down several enemies at once, and it cannot go all-in on an isolated target by overheating hull-mounted weapons, so groups will be a difficult problem even if they are split up.
In small gang PvP the Sentinel's job can be simpler: identifying threats on grid and shutting them down. It can kill off capacitor-dependent DPS, and it can also contribute to screening, because neutralizers can make opposing tacklers dead in the water, albeit not quite as instantly as a scram or web will.
Outer Ring Excavation Ships
