You're right, you can't have people standing next to each other with smash being so OP. However, you failed to consider a few things: Map design: Some maps are designed in such a way that you can't always expect people will be able to stand far enough apart to avoid an OP AOE burst like smash. For example, the choke point hallways in voidstar or the raised platforms in huttball. Melee Clumping DPS should be coordinating their damage on targets so you'll likely have 2 or more melee bursting down someone. It's perfect for a smash monkey to do damage on multiple targets when melee clump together.

People are not understanding the issue. It's not that smash is OP 1 vs 1. It's that the hardest hitting ability in the game is an instant AOE. The problem becomes worse when there are several smash monkeys running around ( as there often are) smashing an area and obliterating anything standing near by. There is no defense or amount of team coordination that could possibly nullify several smash monkeys. If smash was huge spike damage on a single target only there would not be anywhere near as many complaints about it.

3-4 dps can blow up a SINGLE person. No doubts about that. The thing about smash monkeys is they not only blow that person up, but anyone else standing next to them. That's why smash monkeys are OP, the AOE component.

The problem isn't that smash monkey is OP one-vs-one like you make the problem out to be. The problem is smash is the hardest hiting ability in PVP and it's an instant AOE. The problem becomes worse when a bunch of smash monkeys are wiping entire areas out instantly. I don't think you'd see nearly as many complaints about smash monkeys if they could only hit that hard against single targets.

Okay smash is just disgusting and it needs a nerf. It the hardest hitting ability in the game, it's instant, and the worst part it's an AOE. Smash monkeys are most devastating when there are bunch of them in a single warzone. You can't heal through or defend against several people smashing you at once. You die and anyone around you dies instantly. BW needs to balance this, it's just way too strong when the strongest ability in the game is an instant AOE. Gotta turn smash into a channeled interruptable ability or give the big damage component to a single target only ability because right now the spec is so good it's creating an imbalance the more smash monkeys you bring to a WZ.

So little info on this "expansion". A new area to quest in for $10.... that's it? No mention of class changes, new FPs, new Warzones.... nadda?

I guess my argument with inflammation is that the snare has unreliable up-time and consequently I have to spend the 2 focus on leg slash anyway..... This diminishes the value of the talent for me. My preference is to leg slash for the more reliable 12 second snare and invest those 2 talent points into something else. Regarding my point in insight: DoTs are Internal Damage, based on force power and also utilize force crit. I had that extra point floating so I put it towards more crit. I experimented with the extended camo time yesterday and after some consideration I may drop the points from force fade. It's value is more in utility that is arguably situational (avoiding targeting/damage for 2 seconds longer). I'll probably pick up focused leap instead with those 2 points. I see your argument but I disagree and prefer to have the option of interrupting something immediately. Latency and server/client interpolation can be horrible in this game at times and I wonder how reliable 1/2 close quarters really is.

Running with: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Sentinel#9fe828clc-22k-6 Ya, only having 1/2 close quarters is stupid. 2/2 serves as another interrupt. Between a 6sec kick, 12 second force charge interrupt, force stasis, and awe you can chain interrupt a caster down hard. I don't bother with inflammation despite the 50% snare buff it got as the snare time only lasts 6 seconds and cauterize's cooldown doesn't always reset with merc slash/slash in time to reapply the snare. Bioware should really move that talent up the tree and have the snare apply for 12 seconds so we don't need to leg slash anymore. Jedi crusader is worth it imo. Rebuke has a short cooldown and watchman in PVP can blow the focus fast.

Full resolve should affect roots.

Yes, sentinel is a late bloomer. Go watchmen when you're 40+. There is a sharp learning curve for sentinel pvp, so exercise patience. My pvp spec: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIrRrRrcGzZhMZo.1

I agree completely. Sentinels need to be brought down in terms of complexity, otherwise I think having a slight dps advantage is fair.

My 2c on sentinels... Ya it's a really high skill floor. My sentinel is 50 and in near full champion gear atm. TLDR version: It took a while to learn how to play this class effectively. PVE Leveling is painful until you get your healer companion, then it becomes way easier. Sentinel is very strong in PVP. I was terrible until I learned my class' strengths and learned how to exploit the weaknesses of others. Basically you need how to learn how to deal with classes that can kite you. Biggest lesson I learned in PVP: just how valuable force cloak is as a distance closer/damage avoider. I used to never use it and now it's my main oh **** button. I use it constantly. The class has so many abilities and cooldowns to keep track of and it's a little silly. I expected at 50 to train a new ability called "the kitchen sink". I find some enjoyment in the complexity of the class. There is a lot of group utility that I bring that I don't believe any other class can provide. Having a complex class should be rewarded if played well with really high damage. I suspect other classes are capable of more damage and have it way easier though.

I think the OP is just naive. The "I can't have fun so no one else should" attitude is juvenile.

Agreed with others. I'm a 50 sentinel and the emperor fight seems ridiculously hard. I wiped 4 times on the trash just to get to him.

Ya not a fan of this server queue. Most of my guild preordered and were placed on vornskr and this morning I've been in queue for 40min and I still haven't got in. I'm sure my guild would LOVE the option of transferring the entire guild to a light server. This is ridiculous how many light servers there are and only a handful of servers are getting used by everyone.