This except for one thing; Slash you don't want to use right away until you have built up as much Focus as you can. You would also want to use Master Strike or Force Stasis before Slash as Master Strike does a ton of damage, especially if it crits, and Force Stasis I have noticed helps get more ticks out of your burns if you use it after Cauterize and Merciless Slash is still on CD. Slash simply costs too much focus and doesn't do enough damage to use it straight away. Once all your other heavy hitting abilities as well as Cauterize are on CD and you have tons of focus to spend, Slash will deal the most damage fastest. Just remember to keep your eye on Cauterize and Merciless Slash for the CD to end, and always always always Cauterize before Merciless Slash, and always, if you can, use Overload Sabers before Merciless Slash.

This this this. Again it has to be said that no one's specs are perfect, but they work for them. Personally, I also prefer those three points in Steadfast as opposed to Insight simply because with full Columi gear we really do have a high enough crit chance/crit damage rating to begin with. An extra 2/4/6% force critical chance will not do so much, especially when Watchman is all about DoT's, those crits go fast. In the Focus tree where its all about building up a huge critical Force Sweep, I can see the viability of the skill. Not for Watchman though. Plus, I have just a bit over 103% accuracy with my points in Steadfast. Meaning I am no longer missing a single strike/burn and I have a little armor penetration to my attacks. I am doing more damage than I would putting those 3 points in Insight. As for my gear, I have Tionese boots, mainhand, and offhand, Columi head, chest, legs, and implant (augmented w/Might), and Rakata bracers (augmented w/Might), belt (augmented w/Might), and Rakata implant. My gloves are the equivalent in stats to the Tionese, but no set bonus. My earpiece and relics are PvP Recruit but they are there until I work up enough dailies to get my Rakata earpiece and Campaign relics. So yeah my stats are pretty sick right now and I don't even have a "full" Columi set.

Guarded by the Force now has a 30 second CD, lasts 1 minute, and gives us 100% damage reduction and healing increased by 50% as well as increases damage dealt by 20%

This. Also people seem to forget that the healing from Watchman isn't meant to "heal" us up all the way, its meant to keep us up longer to keep fighting and keep doing damage. Also, talk to any healer and they can tell you that it gives them a huge break from healing the Sentinel. It's not a lengthy break, but its one that can make a difference in a fight. Do not also forget that popping Saber Ward or Guarded makes our Zen heals even more effective since we're mitigating tons of damage. Overall, try out both Combat and Watchman at Level 50 and see which one you like the most. They are both different trees with different rotations, skill sets, and applications in fights. Neither is "better" than the other, they both have their perks. Also, make sure you are properly geared. Speccing Watchman or Combat or even Focus won't matter at all if you don't have good gear equipped.

Are you doing a proper Watchman rotation? Because I have rolled both Combat and Watchman and Watchman has more sustained damage over time. It's just the perk of the tree. Combat does more damage in quick bursts, but not as much as what a Watchman can put out over a longer fight.

First off I would like to say welcome! Because I myself have a Level 50 Sentinel specced Watchman and have loved it since early on. What you need to know first hand is that Watchman is primarily a PvE damage spec, but it is also very useful in PvP as well so don't discount it. Watchman relies heavily on DoT's and burns, so you'll do more damage over a longer fight, and you'll be able to stay up longer than the other two Sentinel spec trees as you can self heal with your burns. By level 50, your tree should look like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIbRrRrfsZhG.1 Now for rotation. When you are leveling (not sure what level you are right now), only put points into the Watchman tree; those points in the Combat tree will come after you've put all the points in Watchman that you see in the skill calc I linked above. By level 40 you should have Merciless Slash, the top tier ability for Watchman and a very integral part of our rotation. As a Watchman, you need to keep your Focus up as often as you are spending it; having no focus means we cant use our best abilities. With that in mind... Start off your rotation with Force Leap whenever it is off CD, since this builds up your focus and places root on the enemy. Then, use Cauterize, Zealous Strike, Overload Sabers, then Merciless Slash. This is why we love Merciless Slash; Mind Sear in the Watchman tree, when all 3 points are in it, gives Merciless Slash a 66% chance to finish the cooldown of Cauterize (effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds). So, rotation thus far is Force Leap, Cauterize, Zealous Strike, Overload Sabers (for the extra burn damage for 3 saber hits) then Merciless Slash. At this point you need to watch for the CD on Cauterize; if Merciless Slash finished the Cauterize CD, use Cauterize again. This allows you to keep DoT's up on your target to maximize damage. Also, do not forget that using Merciless Slash grants Merciless, for 15 seconds it lowers the cooldown of the next Merciless Slash by 1.5 seconds and stacks 3 times; meaning your Merciless Slash will have a 7.5 second cooldown with 3 stacks of Merciless. This is great because Merciless Slash is our highest damage single strike ability, but with a high focus cost you need to keep your focus up. After you get that rotation up (or if Merciless Slash does not reset the Cauterize CD), you will need to keep DPS up and build focus while you wait for those CD's to finish. Master Strike or Force Stasis are great because they build up a few focus and by the time you finish channeling them, the CD for Cauterize and/or Merciless Slash will finish. Cardinal rule for Watchman; ALWAYS use Cauterize BEFORE Merciless Slash. If you use Merciless Slash first, then you can only get 33% chance with Slash to reset the CD for Cauterize, which is not worth it for the focus cost of using Slash. So always Cauterize, then Overload Sabers then Merciless Slash to maximize the CD reset for Cauterize. Once you hit level 47, you can train Dispatch, which is our main finishing move ability. When an enemy drops under 30% health, you can use Dispatch to deal up to around 2200 damage I believe it was. Against normal mobs and Strongs/Elites, this is a great ability because it will, a lot of the time, outright kill them in one hit once they drop under 30% HP. In PvP as well, this will many a time just kill anyone under 30% HP. Dispatch is more likely to finish an enemy under 20%, but use it whenever you can in your rotation to quickly finish fights. With the Watchman spec and with 2 set bonus from raid gear (Tionese, Columi, or Rakata), Dispatch will cost only 1 focus, making it a great damage dealer for very very low focus. Another thing, Centering. Speccing Watchman is great in that it is the one tree that allows you to build Centering stacks the fastest (along with Defensive Forms from the Combat tree). This means that you will be able to pop Zen, Transcendance, and Inspiration more often. Alongside Valorous Call (level 50), you will maximize your team's effectiveness as well as your own. Inspiration has a long CD but is great to pop during a boss fight when your team needs the extra damage and healing (15%). Transcendance is very useful in both PvE and PvP; pop it in PvP to increase your team's movement speed by 30% and defense by 10% to last longer and get to objectives faster (or reach other players quicker). PvE, its great overall. Zen is our one Centering ability that only supports ourselves, but is very very important as a Watchman. You need to pop Zen early and often as a Watchman. Not only does Zen increase our crit chance by 100% for 5 stacks (for 5 attacks or 5 seconds), but it increases healing done with our burn attacks. Alongside the Watchman spec, Zen maximizes our heals through burns. Popping Zen before using Cauterize means we can keep ourselves up for a good amount of time, important because we are squishy. You can also use Master Strike after popping Zen for massive damage. Zen technically helps your healers because it's less work they have to do to keep you up in the middle of a fight. Just as well, using Saber Ward or even Guarded by the Force before popping Zen and using Cauterize will keep you up for even longer, because you are mitigating tons of damage (25% for Saber Ward, 99% for 5 seconds with Guarded) while you are healing yourself, meaning you can heal for more since you wont be taking as much damage to negate the healing done. All in all, Watchman is a fantastic spec. Once you work the rotation I gave you above, as well as putting the points in the proper place in the skill tree, you will maximize your damage and your effectiveness in combat, as well as survivability. Don't forget to use Rebuke to reciprocate damage back to your attackers (pop Rebuke mid-Force Leap flight). Also, our two interrupts are Force Leap (12 second CD) and Force Kick (6 second CD), so make sure you consider them in your rotation when fighting bosses in PvE or fighting other players in PvP. Hope this helps!

Very true, I can agree on this. Very valid point. I wouldn't mind if they threw in a new ability or two, or buffed current ones, to maybe give others a better chance at countering Guarded.

Seems Sages and Sorcs are the ones that whine the most about Sents or Marauders or the other DPS classes that out DPS the Sages and Sorcs. Not saying that's your reasoning, mind you, but I've seen a lot of them. You guys got way too many nerfs, for the record. I was livid when I saw the nerfs.

I rest my case.

You brought up many ways to counter us, yet you claim its because we are OP. Okay. When you actually attempt those methods to counter us in PVP, and succeed (because you likely will), then I may listen to you. EDIT: Also, for the record, I am one who does not believe we need heavy armor. I am fine with medium armor, I honestly don't see the problem there. Probably bad Sents/Marauders whining about armor. Oh well.

I only changed my story once, and that was because I omitted something from my original post here. You also forget I'm replying to your brainless taunts as well as the OP who brought up the silly "Guarded is OP" rant.

You shouldn't try to 1 on 1 a Sent/Marauder if you do not know how to counter them and beat out their defensive CD's. Tanks and DPS/Tanks with healers give us trouble easily yes. Dunno how that invalidates my point, if anything it strengthens it. I've been in those fights. We can get easily destroyed by that combination of two man teamwork. PVP is all about teamwork anyway. But if you can't 1 v 1 you don't know how to play the game, simple as that.

Ah yes, my point exactly! *high fives* I admit I failed to elaborate on it earlier, but if you don't know how or can't counter a Sentinel or Marauder 1 on 1, then you need 2 people. 2 people in fact can spank us, but whatever. These two guys can't learn to play the game properly to save their lives.

By your arguments, yes, you need 2 people to beat a Sentinel/Marauder. Because you clearly don't know how to counter us 1 v 1. And thats exactly the problem with PVP'ers in this game, like yourself. You don't know how to play.

You must have again missed that I said a good tank can beat us out 1 on 1, but your idiotic, brainless rants seem to be getting in the way.

I never said they were better than everybody else, try reading my post again. I said the flourish in 1 on 1 situations with the exceptions being 1 on 1 against a tank and, I forgot to mention before, Agents or Smugglers with their cover ability and vast amounts of stuns. I have easily spanked healers and other DPS's in one on one fights, or if they're good the fight goes either way many times. Tanks are tough to fight against 1 on 1 but I've taken a few down. Agents and Smugs are the devil to fight against. The key is to not fight Sents/Marauders 1 on 1, but rather 2 on 1 or 1 on 1 with a good tank or Agent/Smug. If there's a healer keeping a tank up or a DPS up while we are trying to kill the tank or DPS, we won't stand a chance, EVEN with Guarded/Undying. I've been in those fights, they aren't pretty. And like I said before, if you don't have a healer or multiple healers sticking to one DPS or one tank and keeping them up as they fight, then you're clearly playing the game wrong. Healers of course need to look out for other teammates that may not have healers on them, but the point remains.

You don't seem to have graduated elementary school, or even kindergarten so I'll teach you how to count. A DPS and healer is 2 people. 1 + 1 = 2. A tank is one person, 1 + 0 = 1. A tank and a healer is 2 people, again, 1 + 1 = 2. A PVP team consists of 8 people, 8 - 1 = 7 or 8 - 2 = 6. The "team" is the 8 people altogether. Having a DPS and healer or tank and healer together is a way to counter a Sent/Marauder in PVP. And honestly, if you don't have healers paired up with a DPS guy or tank, you aren't playing the game right. Bye.

Had it occurred to you that our we also pop out of our stealth if we attack someone or take any other action within that 4 seconds? Force Camo does not heal us, yeah we move faster and have a damage reduction buff (the percentage I forget which post 1.2, but prior to 1.2 it was 100%, someone correct me on this) and we can't get knocked out of our stealth, but its 4 SECONDS. With a 45 second CD. Your stealth has a bunch of utilities to be used prior to entering combat, ours is a stealth that allows us to escape combat should we need to, if for example we are getting swarmed. That, is balance my friend. You are not winning any of your arguments. As for Guarded/Undying, no, that's not OP either, and I'll tell you why. Costs us 50% HP, 99% damage reduction for 5 seconds (NOT damage immunity, because if we pop Guarded/Undying if we are too low on HP you can still kill us), and its around a 1 minute CD (again, not 100% sure on the CD, someone correct me if so). You seem to forget that Sentinels/Marauders are SQUISHY, meaning we can die just as quickly as your, by your arguments, stupid OP sorcs. Hence, as a DPS class that can easily be killed, we need a huge damage reduction ability(s) to balance it out, albeit at long CD's. It's not a good idea to pop Guarded when at high HP, so its easy to see it coming when we get dropped to 20% or lower HP. The damage numbers should also be a huge frickin hint to you when it is up. There ARE counters. Again, counters balance out what the other class has. Counters for example are CC'ing the Sent/Marauder for the duration of Guarded/Undying, or running away or stealthing away for 5 seconds and come back to finish us off, especially if we don't have a healer on us. The WORST thing you can do is sit there and let us continue attacking you, especially if we are Watchman spec (which I am), in which case we can pop Zen from our 30 Centering stacks (or after popping Valorous Call), hit you with Cauterize and heal ourselves with all the crits and burns we get from using Cauterize with Zen up. It's even worse if we do that and have a healer on us. But again, it can be countered, a fact which you are so seemingly quick to avoid discussing, and instead play the "Its just OP" card. Sentinels and Marauders are probably the weakest of the classes health-wise next to Sages/Sorcs. Countering Sentinels and Marauders takes a small team effort. We can easily wreck you and other DPS/Healer classes 1 on 1, but we have trouble with tanks or DPS classes with healers keeping them up. So, the thing I would tell you, is stop foolishly trying to go 1 on 1 with a Sentinel or Marauder without a tank or healer to help you out, else we can and will end you quickly. There's your answer. Guarded/Undying aren't OP, you're just being stupid when fighting Sents and Marauders in PVP.