Combat does have more team helpfulness, while still putting out a respectable amount of damage. I personally do not run with a premade most of the time, so I really like the feel of Watchman better. Here are my reasons: Low cooldown on Force Kick for interrupting healers (4 second interrupt on 6 second cooldown). No or low minimum range for Force Leap which is also good for interrupting healers Force Leap is off cooldown more often Force Camouflage is a longer stealth and makes you run faster Bleeds heal you on crits (and the party after popping Zen) High production of Centering Merciless Strike is very damaging I would recommend trying both of them, see what feels better for you. Use it for at least a week, to get the true feel for it.

Reserved for more future posts

Reserved for future posts

Welcome to the Sentinel/Marauder Advanced Class Guide! This is the go-to compendium of knowledge for The Fanatical Swordsman on the Sentinel and Marauder advanced classes. This is a work-in-progress, and will be updated as much as possible. For the most up-to-date information, the original article this is based on is here. LAST UPDATE: Update 1.4 Note from Geldarion: The Sentinel is my 3rd level 50, but it is actually one of my favorite PvP playstyles I have encountered. For readability sake, since I am used to the Sentinel, I will use the term Sentinel occasionally as the overall descriptor of this class-type, especially for things that are true of both classes, such as discussions of general tactics. However, I will refer to the specializations by both their names, and I will show builds for both the Sentinel and the Marauder, and I will refer to skills in a manner as such: Jedi Knight skill name/Sith Warrior skill name. Most builds are links to my website, TheFanaticalSwordsman.wordpress.com and the articles which I have written about the builds. Included with the actual builds are step-by-step analyses of the talents I took and why. Oftentimes, sacrifices in one area must be made for another area's advantage, and I spell those out there. Also, some builds are accompanied with strategies for their use. Any and all constructive comments and questions are welcome! Roles and Overview The Sentinel is a damage-dealing machine. Two blades, one purpose. The Sentinel is also one of the few classes that can give group buffs, including a huge burst damage boost. Interrupts are also a specialty of Sentinels, as we have a 4-second interrupt on a 8-second cooldown (6-second talented). Sentinels can consistently outrun most opponents, have superior escape skills, and can unleash a frightening amount of damage consistently. Focus All Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors function of off a resource called Focus/Rage. Knights and Warriors have a maximum of 12 Focus/Rage pips at a time, and generally start combat with zero. Skills such as Zealous Strike/Battering Assault and Strike/Assault add pips and skills like Merciless Strike/Annihilation spend pips. These are lumped together into “Focus/Rage-builders” and “Focus/Rage-spenders.” Most of the Sentinel’s and Marauder’s best skills and hardest hitting attacks are Focus/Rage-spenders. There is no innate regeneration of Focus/Rage, but certain talents can increase the production of pips, and certain talents can produce pips in ways unrelated to skill-usage. The following skills are ways to build Focus/Rage: Strike/Assault Force Leap/Force Charge Force Stasis/Force Choke Zealous Strike/Battering Assault Zen (in Shii-Cho) The following talents augment Focus/Rage generation: Focused Slash/Enraged Slash (Watchman/Annihilation) Focused Leap/Enraged Charge (Watchman/Annihilation) Burning Focus/Empowerment (Watchman/Annihilation) Jedi Crusader/Cloak of Carnage (Combat/Carnage) Combat Trance/Blood Frenzy (Combat/Carnage) Centering/Fury Centering/Fury “stacks” are another kind of resource that the Sentinel and Marauder have to manage. These stacks range from zero to thirty, and are built primarily by using skills that spend Focus/Rage pips. Having fewer than 30 stacks is of no benefit, but once 30 are stacked, there are three skills that can be used that will consume all 30 stacks. Two of these skills are group buffs as well, and the third is a group buff in Juyo form and of solo benefit in Ataru and Shii-Cho forms. All of these skills are off of the global cooldown, and so can be used in a rotation with no loss of damage. Zen/Berserk Zen/Berserk is the first stack-consuming skill. It is learned at level 10 and mostly benefits the Sentinel/Marauder. This skill’s effects depend on which stance you are in. Regardless of stance, it has six charges that will have to wear off before stacks of Centering/Fury can be built again. If you are in Juyo (the primary form of the Watchman/Annihilation tree), this skill makes your next 6 bleeds auto-critical hits and heal the other three people in your party. If you are in Shii-Cho (the primary form of the Focus/Rage tree), Zen generates 2 Focus/Rage pips every 0.5 seconds for each stack, for a total of 3 seconds and 12 Focus/Rage pips. If you are in Ataru (the primary form of the Combat/Carnage tree), this skill reduces the Focus/Rage pip cost of Slash/Vicious Slash, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash by 1 and reduces their global cooldown by 0.5 seconds. Transcendence/Predation Transcendence/Predation is the primary, most-available group buff the Sentinel/Marauder has. It is available at level 22. This skill buffs the party’s melee and ranged defense by 10% and increases the party’s movement speed by 50% (80% with the talent Fleetfooted/Unbound). This buff lasts for 10 seconds. This is the only buff that is currently Ops-group-wide, i.e. it helps all 8 of your team members, not just the 4 in your party. Inspiration/Bloodthirst The last buff comes at level 44, and it is the only one with a cooldown (a whopping 5 minutes). Inspiration/Bloodthirst buffs the party’s outgoing damage and healing by 15% for 15 seconds. Use it early in boss-fights so it can be used twice per fight. This only buffs the 4 people in your group, not the entire Ops group, so it is useful to put one Sentinel/Marauder in each group. Building Centering/Fury The following are ways to build Centering/Fury: All Focus/Rage-spenders Valorous Call/Frenzy - instantly builds 30 stacks - 3 minute cooldown (untalented) Valor/Short Fuse (Watchman/Annihilation) Defensive Forms (Combat/Carnage) For a complete chart of all Focus/Rage and Centering/Fury building tools, their effects and their locations, see the original article (HTML is finicky in these posts). Force Leap/Force Charge Force Leap/Force Charge is very useful and very dangerous. You can use it and its long root to stop people in the fires in Huttball then run off, turn around, and Force Stasis/Force Choke to hold them in the fire while they roast. You can clear large distances with the Huttball safely in hand. You can jump up from the pit up to the edge and run straight into their goal. However, Force Leap/Force Charge is dangerous because when you jump into the fray, AoE damage can whittle your health to nothing. Also, using Force Leap/Force Charge to attack a Sage/Sorcerer or a Commando/Mercenary will probably result in you being knocked back on your butt with either a slow or a root for your trouble. Approaching these classes, it may be better to just run up to them with either a speed boost from Transcendence/Predation or even better, Force Camouflage. The 3 Specializations The information is in spoiler tags to keep things clean, there are no actual spoilers present. Watchman/Annihilation Combat/Carnage Focus/Rage Author’s Favorite PvP Spec: Watchman/Annihilation This build is about killing healers while simultaneously becoming one (sorta). Your DoTs can heal the party with each tick while in Juyo after popping Zen/Berserk, and DoTs just generally keep you alive, even when Zen/Berserk isn’t up. Healer-hurting skills like your interrupt (Force Kick/Disruption) are on a short cooldown, Force Leap/Force Charge has its minimum range eliminated and its cooldown reduced, and you are able to run farther and faster in Force Camouflage as well. It should be noted that Overload Saber/Deadly Saber is off the global cooldown, and thus can be used almost immediately when off cooldown. When attacking, the general rotation is: As can probably be seen, there are three phases per stack of the Merciless/Annihilator buff. The first phase is stacking bleeds and setting up Merciless Slash/Annihilate. This involves Force Leap/Force Charge and Overload Saber/Deadly Saber, followed by Merciless Slash/Annihilate and Cauterize/Rupture. The second phase is only present once we have stacks of Merciless/Annihilator going, and it consists of firing off Zealous Strike/Battering Assault followed by Blade Storm/Force Scream. Zealous Strike/Battering Assault are used in the very first rotation to build pips for Merciless Slash/Annihilate, so it is not yet off cooldown. The third phase is a stalling phase, mostly consisting of alternating Slash/Vicious Assault (which requires 3 pips, but returns 1 for a net cost of 2) and Strike/Assault (which builds 2), but is also a good phase to make sure that your opponent is slowed, has a healing debuff on, etc. You just want to make sure you are ready for Force Leap/Force Charge to come off cooldown with 5 pips. Bleeds will be returning pips occasionally, so that will help in the extra management. I did not really take that into account above, but there will surely be extra pips lying around that you will want to put to good use for slows and healing debuffs, etc. It is very important to have certain parts of the rotation down pat, such as the Force Leap/Force Charge -> Overload Saber/Deadly Saber combo. In PvP, there are very few times where it is simply following a rotation, so the large rotation above is highly idealized. The main thing is you try your best to hit Merciless Slash/Annihilate when it is up, hit Overload Saber/Deadly Saber when it is up, and hit Cauterize/Rupture when it is up. My personal spec for use in Warzones is the Healer-Killer Juyo Sentinel 33/8/0 build. PvE Strategies When using Watchman/Annihilation group heals from bleeds, be careful on fights like Eternity Vault’s Dark Council, where it debuffs you if you heal another player. You should use Transcendence/Predation or Inspiration/Bloodthirst instead, because it does help the other players, but you do not get the debuff. Use Inspiration/Bloodthirst at the beginning of boss-fights, so it can be used twice in the fight. It is useful to have one Sentinel in each group for this skill, as it is only group-wide, not Ops-wide. Use Dispatch/Vicious Throw every time it is off cooldown and the boss is under 30% health. The current set bonus for the PvE gear makes it only cost 2 Focus/Rage untalented, and with the talent Focused Slash/Enraged Slash, it only costs 1 total. Keep Rebuke/Cloak of Pain on cooldown for fights that involve AoE damage. Though you are not being directly attacked, it does absorb AoE damage and return some to the source, increasing DPS and lowering damage taken. Transcendence/Predation can help speed people up in the platform phases of Eternity Vault on Soa and Gharj. Learn how to effectively interrupt. Some fights like Jarg and Sorno in KP require a good Sentinel/Marauder to keep Sorno from healing. On the 4th boss in Karagga’s Palace, the G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator Droid, you can build both Focus/Rage and Centering/Fury on the droid before the boss fight even starts. Just start building and when you reach full stacks, let the leader know so they can start the fight. Every PvE build should consider having the following abilities, as they are all Tier 1: Watchman/Annihilation Valor/Short Fuse (2 points) – Increases Centering/Fury building rate by a large amount. More of this is always good. Focused Slash/Enraged Slash (3 points) – Slash/Vicious Slash, Dispatch/Vicious Throw, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Merciless Slash/Annihilate return 1 Focus/Rage when used. This just helps with resource management, which is good, regardless of the situation. [*]Combat/Carnage Dual-wield Mastery (3 points) – Increases damage done by offhand lightsaber by 36%. Straight up damage boost, which is your role in PvE and PvP both. [*]Focus/Rage Insight/Malice (3 points) – Increases Force critical chance by 6%. This is usually useful as one of our hardest hitting attacks, Blade Storm/Force Scream, is a Force attack. It is not always good though, since in the Combat/Carnage tree there is a talent that makes Blade Storm/Force Scream an auto-crit under most conditions. PvP Strategies You can increase the size of your opponent’s casting bar in your UI options so it is easier to see what is being cast so it is more convenient to interrupt healers. At the beginning of Huttball, Civil War, and Novare Coast, a speed boost at the beginning can be very useful. Use Valorous Call/Frenzy and Transcendence/Predation to get a quick speed boost for the entire group. Generally, as Transcendence/Predation is the only Ops-wide buff, you should stick to using that for the most part. The other buffs can be useful, such as using Zen/Berserk to stay alive when defending a turret, or if you are with your half of the Ops group and you need the extra damage or healing power from Inspiration/Bloodthirst. When interrupting healers, watch for the big heal and interrupt that. As a starting point: For Commandos/Mercenaries, watch for and interrupt Medical Probe/Rapid Scan For Sages/Sorcerers, watch for and interrupt Deliverance/Dark Infusion For Scoundrels/Operatives, watch for and interrupt Underworld Medicine/Kolto Injection [*]Watch for damage-absorbing bubbles. Don’t blow all of your cooldowns on enemies that are using bubbles. You can usually spot them because they glow a certain color. Look for green bubbles on Smugglers/Agents. This is actually a +100% Dodge buff, so melee and ranged attacks are the only attacks affected by it. Feel free to use Force attacks like Force Stasis/Force Choke, Force Sweep/Smash, and Blade Storm/Force Scream. Look for dark-blue bubbles on anyone. This is probably a guard bubble. There is more than likely a tank nearby guarding the target. If you can spot a grey honeycomb pattern under the feet of a nearby tank, they are the one guarding. Try to separate them. Light-blue/light-purple bubbles are usually from Force Armor/Static Barrier from a Sage/Sorcerer. This buff is a damage absorbing shield, which bursts after a certain amount of damage. There is no way to bypass it, so think of it as a temporary health bubble that needs to be DPS'ed through. Saber Ward looks like a red bubble, which you probably know. On other Sentinels/Marauders, this is not such a big deal, but on Guardians/Juggernauts, the first couple of seconds of this are huge defenses. Don’t blow your big attacks. Guarded by the Force/Undying Rage doesn’t look so much a bubble as it does an aura. It is blue for Sentinels and red for Marauders. Wait out the 4 second duration, then kill them. [*]Speaking of using Guarded by the Force/Undying Rage, remember it takes 1/2 of your health away while giving you 99% damage reduction. You want to hit this at about 5% health or less, so it doesn’t take a lot of health away, but be aware that it will only mitigate 99%. If you hit it at 2 health, then yeah it only takes away 1 health, but any attack hitting for 100 or more will kill you. [*]Watchman/Annihilation specced players can use Force Camouflage as a short term stealth that can get you up to the door in Voidstar without being noticed. [*]Use Rebuke/Cloak of Pain when heading into what looks like a big brawl. Try to keep it on cooldown, but it is best used when you know you will be taking consistent damage. [*]You can be a great help to a ball-carrier by jumping ahead of them and using Awe/Intimidating Roar to mez everyone around the goal-line. Every PvP build should consider having the following abilities, as they are all Tier 1: Watchman/Annihilation Valor/Short Fuse (2 points) – Increases Centering/Fury building rate by a large amount. More of this is always good. Focused Slash/Enraged Slash (3 points) – Slash/Vicious Slash, Dispatch/Vicious Throw, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Merciless Slash/Annihilate return 1 Focus/Rage when used. This just helps with resource management, which is good, regardless of the situation. [*]Combat/Carnage Dual-wield Mastery (3 points) – Increases damage done by offhand lightsaber by 36%. Straight up damage boost, which is your role in PvE and PvP both. Defensive Forms (2 points) – Builds 2 Centering when attacked. This is not as useful in PvE, since Sentinels/Marauders should not be taking aggro, but in PvP, this is a great boon, as you will be attacked quite frequently (much more than you like, in fact). There are also some ancillary effects to this talent that may or may not be useful in PvP, depending on the lightsaber Form that is being used. [*]Focus/Rage Insight/Malice (3 points) – Increases Force critical chance by 6%. This is usually useful as one of our hardest hitting attacks, Blade Storm/Force Scream, is a Force attack. It is not always good though, since in the Combat/Carnage tree there is a talent that makes Blade Storm/Force Scream an auto-crit under most conditions. Crew Skill Selection Crew skill selection can be important to a class’ progression. Only one crafting skill may be trained at a time, and the options that are really useful for a Sentinel/Marauder are Synthweaving, Artifice, Cybertech, and Biochem. Armstech is utterly useless for this class, and Armormech, while able to make Smuggler/Agent medium armor which can be worn by a Sentinel/Marauder, cannot make anything with Strength on it, which is the real stat for Sentinels and Marauders. Jedi Knights have companions particularly suited for Slicing (+2 crit), Synthweaving (+5 crit), Biochem (+5 crit), and Investigation (+1 crit). Sith Warriors have companions with bonuses to Treasure Hunting (+5 crit), Synthweaving (+5 crit), Investigation (+2 crit), and Bioanalysis (+2 crit). By virtue of these, Jedi Sentinels should think about going Biochem or Synthweaving, and Sith Marauders should strongly consider going Synthweaving. Related Articles on The Fanatical Swordsman PvP Talent Build: AoE, Force Shii-Cho Sentinel – 5/2/34 PvE Talent Build: Armor-piercing Ataru Sentinel – 5/32/4 PvP Talent Build: Mobility Ataru Sentinel – 5/34/2 PvP Talent Build: Healer-killer Juyo Sentinel – 33/8/0 Beginner’s Guide: The MMO Trinity – DPS SWTOR Beta Top 4: The Knight Class

Yes, Sab is the answer to survivability problems on the GS. Maras/Sents are my favorite people to see coming on my GS, because they are honestly the easiest for me to kill. Knowing when to use your cooldowns is literally the make-or-break thing here. I won't claim to have a 100% success rating with Sents and Maras but I do have a very high success/failure ratio. I also have a Sentinel that is also really big into PvP, so I have both sides of this as well. If the Sniper I am going after gets out of cover, he is mine. That is pretty much the make-or-break thing here for me. If he stays in cover, then I am probably screwed. I can't interrupt anything he does, which is kinda my favorite thing to do lol. I love being a healer-killer, so I am very, very quick on my interrupt. I have actually tried to use it on a Sniper a few times on my sentinel without thinking lol. Force Jump is useless for the distance-closing, the root, and the Focus building while they are in cover. I will say that if you have a class that really bugs you in PvP, play that class for a while. You learn their tricks. As a Sentinel my favorite thing to do is to stealth up to a Sniper, hit him really hard, then hit my speed buff after he hits all of his cooldowns and line of sight him. Why? Because I know that annoys me as a Gunslinger. But if am rooted on my Sentinel, well then I am screwed lol. But it is just a giant chess game at that point. Will he pop Evasion right before I use Merciless Strike and completely dodge my hardest-hitting attack? Will he be specced DF and have resistance to my DoTs? Will he have 2 knockbacks or only one? Will he have Incendiary Grenade? Will I be able to get my Guarded by the Force off in time, or will I not notice that the rate at which I am losing health accelerates under 30% because he has specced Cold Blooded? Have to play against the situation, not the class. That is why it bugs me when people say that SS is the "hard-counter" to Marauders, or something similar. It sounds as if you HAVE to do that spec to win. You don't, you just have to use the tools you have and the knowledge of their class. Really, I think that the classes are irrelevant. There is always something that you can exploit.

I'm not seeing a lot of love for the Saboteur spec here! I used SS up through 49, then tried it in the 50 bracket and liked it. But that was in the first month, now with much higher armor values, people learning how to mitigate white damage more easily, etc, SS has fallen by the wayside of a lot of Gunslingers in favor of the DF build. I will say that DF seems to put out more damage for me, especially when playing against heavily armored targets. Plus it is more mobile. That being said, Saboteur keeps me alive, and I almost never lose a 1v1 with Sab. Knowing when to pop your cooldowns is important. It comes down to how you like to play. For me, living through everything is important. If I am alive at a turret or a door in ACW, Denova, or Voidstar then it doesn't get capped. I can hold mid in Huttball almost indefinitely, and grab the ball every time and pass it up to my teammate for a 6-0 game. My kills may only be 8 in that game, but 7 of them were solo kills or killing blows, because I was taking down the few people who tried to get to me at mid. So yes, SS may be very feasible (though less so at 50 than in the pre-50 bracket), but the others are more useful for things other than the juvenile obsession with that big number at the end of the Warzone.

Yes, my favorite spec is Sab generally, but Riiquiem, who has been a great contributor, prefers DF. I have recently been trying to get into DF, because of the buffs it got in 1.2, but I haven't abandoned Sab as my favorite. By current build I am trying is http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700ZrMZGbbkrrGdGR.1

Will you be continuing the trend of having all of the legacy perks in 1.3 purchasable by very high amounts of credits?

What are the full stats on each training dummy? You gave us the armor on the operations dummy, but what is the expertise on the warzone dummy? As you have said, it is the single most important stat with regards to PvP, so we should probably know the values on the dummy to be able to do analysis. Thanks!

The way I see it, I join a Warzone to fight for my faction. If I lose one point and quit, it is letting everyone down. I personally hate it when people leave, especially when we are not really losing by that much, because it definitely seals the deal for the rest of us when we are undermanned the rest of the fight. For the sake of the well-geared players who actually care, you should either commit to the Warzone that you get placed in, or not queue. It is poor sportsmanship to leave mid game and leave it to the rest of us experienced players with a conscience to try to turn a slightly bad situation around. Before Recruit gear came around, there was a guy in one of my Warzones with 11k health at level 50. He was a Vanguard too. Instead of getting mad and rage-quitting the Warzone, I finished the Warzone, and we did lose (not necessarily blaming that guy). Afterwards, I sent him 5 blue level 49 armorings that I whipped up, and he responded thanking me and told me that he was a fresh alt of a very seasoned PvP player. That player later invited me to a guild run of his of EV and KP, and we did 8 bosses in one night. He is also at 20k health now lol. Kindness and loyalty comes back around, as does baling and betrayal. I remember names that leave frequently.

I don't know if you have seen "BuffBars" from the Lord of the Rings Online plugin database, http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info361-BuffBars.html The thing I really liked about this was it allowed you to have a small list of your buffs with the names in text next to them, as well as a countdown timer. This was really nice, as some of the icons looked similar. On a related note, the weaker bleeds left by the Smuggler's Dirty Fighting talent "Nice Try" have the same icons as the original bleeds, so knowing which version is on the enemy is next to impossible in battle. An option for the buffs in this way would be a good way to delineate them. Also, I want to be able to hide the portraits. They are unnecessarily taking up screen real-estate.

Dantooine must be added, because we want to see what happened there after KotoR II. Dathomir would be really cool though. I haven't seen it in any other game.

Nope, Tanno Vik is like several other companions that have Aim on their armor. That is because they are technically not Force users, so they need stuff from Armormech, which only makes Aim and Cunning items. He is a melee tank, yes. Outfit him with Vanguard equipment, and he will be quite happy. Troopers that went Armormech are in a good spot, since every last one of their companions uses Aim gear. Hope this helps!

1. Tulak Hord 2. Kas'im, the Blademaster 3. Mace Windu 4. Yoda 5. Luke With regards to the discussion on Yoda, he most certainly could've been the best swordsman. What most people seem to be forgetting is that swordplay is rarely about strength, size, or reach. As a fencer myself, I can't tell you how many times I have seen a "sure" win turn around because, simply put, the person was outsmarted. Swordfighting is about anticipating your opponent, speed, and skill. Not size or strength. I have fought guys that I literally would've expected to kill me. Some of them might be 6'7", 300 lbs (thinking of two particular sabre fencers), and speed and finesse beat them. The speed and intelligence to change direction quickly and adapt to constantly shifting strategies is probably what made Yoda great. His "knowledge of all but one form" leads me to believe he didn't practice them as much as know how his opponent would react and fight based on what form they were using. He obviously used Ataru, but the knowledge of the others is what made him great, not what he used per se. By the way, compensating for reach, one can practice a swordfighting style known as "in-fighting," which is a very close style, to prevent reach from influencing the fight. Short arms are actually an advantage to a point, because of the contortions one must go through to keep oneself defended against in-fighting if one has long arms. Oftentimes, in-fighting is achieved through specific blows that force openings, creating space to move in close, turn, and use the blade across the body, similar to a right cross in boxing if a fighter is standing with the left foot forward.

Why are the companion bonuses to crafting so random and uneven? For instance, the Trooper is the obvious choice if you want the best possible Armormech, as it has a companion with +5 crit on Armormech, +5 crit on Scavenging, and +1 crit on Underworld Trading. By contrast, the Jedi Consular has no really good options, as its crits are for Armstech (2), Scavenging (2), Diplomacy (2), and Underworld Trading (1). Armstech is pretty much useless to a Consular, and I guess if you went Cybertech the rest of it could be useful, but it is much, much farther down in usefulness than the Trooper.

Corso Jorgan Doc Teeseven Elara Risha Guss Yuun Kira Khem Mako Qyzen Forex Bowdarr Vette Akaavi Tanno Kaliyo I have, as of right now, a 50 Smuggler, 50 Trooper, 34 Knight, 26 Bounty Hunter, 19 Agent, 18 Inquisitor, 16 Consular and 11 Warrior. All of the characters are male (so only the respective romance options). I actually like most of the companions down to probably Akaavi. I have placed all of these in spoiler tags, so read if you want, but they might contain some spoilers (no major plot points, I don't think). Corso Jorgan Doc Teeseven Elara Risha Guss Yuun Kira Last one for the thread, though I plan to do the rest of these on my blog. Khem

This is the spec I have been using with good success http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bfRRodfdkqZMcoZb.1 I noticed, however, that I am taking a lot more Alacrity talents than you guys are. Any particular reason why you aren't? I like having my heals going off at ~18-19% less time with the Alacrity I have on gear + from talents.

I would spec Assault Specialist and learn how to strafe-kite. It primarily functions off of instant attacks so they can be used on the move while strafing around a target. I used Dorne pretty much from the moment I got her, there was less down time. I was specced heals for quite a while, and when I changed to Gunnery things died faster, but I died more often. After switching to Assault Specialist, I saw the benefits of running around and not getting hit as much. A melee opponent will not be able to out-damage the healing that Dorne puts out. Ranged opponents are a little more difficult, but you can still lay down the hurt pretty quickly with Assault Specialist.

Yeah, I should have mentioned, when I use Flourish Shot, it is usually because I am the DPS focus target, so people often target me to figure out who to burn down. I know as a healing commando in WZs that I often start healing as soon as I notice someone dropping quickly. That is certainly within 9 seconds. If doing 1v1s, I will usually only use it after both DoTs, but before Wounding Shots.

In general, I actually prefer to use Flourish as soon as I start focusing someone, simply because of the healing debuff. Also, to the above posters, Hemo Shot is important to use after other skills, especially at full energy. Consider the following two scenarios: 1. Using it first. This does little good except for the first tick of Vital Shot. Might expire before doing all it can (though not sure, I would have to do the math. If Riiquiem says it doesn't last the whole time, I would believe it.) 2. Using it second. Makes the first tick of Shrap Bomb more powerful and capitalizes on the fact that it is free to use in managing your energy, effectively allowing you to regenerate energy on that 1.5 second global cooldown instead of starting at 100% and staying at 100% with the initial use of Hemo. Makes sense to use it second. @Riiquiem: Thanks for posting the initial numbers on DF and some SS. I ran some on Saboteur on my Warzone training dummy, but university is kicking my butt as well. I will post them when I have time. I would also like Bioware to work out the bugs with the training dummies, as they said here that dual-wielders are doing more damage than they are supposed to, due to the dummies not being able to deflect or dodge. I would love to run numbers after they get that fixed though, so thanks!

Yeah, I am going to try Hot Pursuit for a bit and see. My pre-1.2 spec had the 2 points in Bravado for the 10 energy, but because I was using Cool Head every minute, I didn't seem to need it. We'll see. I'll update as soon as I try it. The endurance from Underworld Hardships does add up to 700+ health now that I am better geared. Might be worth it.

I love Sab for the simple reason of increased survivability. I love having buttons to hit to keep me alive and Sab gives that to me. I have adjusted the guide to show my love for Sab. SS is great for PvE, but it just doesn't have enough going for it in PvP for me personally. I have been playing around with a DF build recently. It is listed in the guide. I love the new Tier 6 talent Nice Try. So much. The only problem is I can't pick which talents I like best in DF, so I take 35 lol. BTW, Vanguards and Powertechs got that burst damage nerfed in 1.2. They can no longer reset High Impact Bolt/Rail Shot more often than every six seconds, which is what was giving them their high DPS. They will still be good, but we will see what the highest DPS really is soon with combat logs etc. So yeah, the guide is now updated for 1.2. Let me know if anyone spots anything awry.

Champ gear is still better than the Recruit set that you can buy for credits. It is still under Battlemaster, but that has always been that way. Not sure what the problem is. You have something the fresh level 50s won't, and you can now start earning BM gear.

This is Geldarion, my main character and a Gunslinger, way back on Nar Shaddaa: http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff232/rewrando5/Geldarionshootingcoin.jpg This is him now at 50 defending a turret on Alderaan: http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff232/rewrando5/Geldariondefendingturret.jpg And this is one of my favorites, and I saw one like it, with my character and all his companions: http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff232/rewrando5/Smugglerandcompanions.jpg

I applaud your courage in coming to the forums after dropping that bomb. I wouldn't have wanted to read the thousands of comments against the company lol. I, for one, am glad that they will have a more polished system, but I do think that at this point it would've been better to go ahead and release and have a patch to fix things. Going back on something you have put so much press into is not a great idea, but I am sure you are just doing what you have to do. I am sure you are aware of how hard this is going to hit your subs because people are too impatient to wait it out. One suggestion I would make is to make the WZ comms a 1-1 ratio to Ranked WZ comms instead of 1-3 for the time being. The reason I say this is it isn't fair to penalize the people who would have skipped regular WZs completely in favor of Ranked WZs, and thus would have geared up much more quickly. Now, only the people with ridiculous amounts of time will be able to get the new gear, and they will quickly outpace those of us that are just as dedicated but don't have the copious amounts of time to get 3x the number of commendations we were expecting to have to grind.