Overload/ Deadly hasn't spread stacking DoTs with AoEs since Denova came out (or shortly thereafter), instead it will apply one stack to the first three targets hit and consume your Overload/ Deadly Saber stacks. Sure, it's more damage to the adds, and thus better AoE, but I personally don't feel the damage is enough to justify its consumption of the stacks, especially since Sentinels aren't an AoE class unless they're Focus specced. Twin Saber Throw is still like the greatest thing ever.

That's nice, doesn't change the fact that you get something that's functionally the same (HiB Ion Cell spread), cheaper and more frequently (assuming you only use Explosive Surge after Storm with the Static Surge proc), and a better AoE attack that does three-to-four times the damage of an Explosive Surge in roughly the same time (Pulse Cannon with the Pulse Engine proc) with no target limit, i.e. it hits that 6th mob your Explosive Surge missed. If Explosive Surge hit harder, I can see it being useful, but as of right now, it doesn't warrant the four talent points required to make it useful.

I would assume his talent tree looks something like this. With this he gets the snares from the HiB - Ion Cell Spread and Riot Gas. And just from seeing him tank for myself (as either dps or heals), Pulse Cannon is used every time it's available. It also helps that Pulse Cannon doesn't have a target limit and hits about twice as hard as Explosive Surge (assuming both stacks of surge are used) for the effective duration (3 second channel vs two global CDs). Pulse Cannon's AoE threat is even better considering the Pulse Engine proc that makes it tick twice as fast.

6% To force crit affects Cauterize which is a (marginal) gain, Swelling Winds only benefits AoEs, sure, but those points are there to get you the point in Swift Slash, which increases Dispatch crits by 7.5%, which throughout the fight is more DPS than having one or two more Zens. When compared to the alternative talents, Focus back on Rebuke procs, Snares for various abilities, Riposte lowering the CD of Rebuke, Slows from cauterize and heals from cauterize, those 6 points in Focus are better geared towards increasing your DPS.

While slash does hit harder than Blade Rush based on tooltip numbers, the forced ataru form proc and everything else that procs from Blader Rush/ Ataru means that Slash is useless once you get Blade Rush.

In a raid environment with incoming damage and Defensive Forms talented (as opposed to Jedi Crusader) you're still going to be able to activate Zen frequently enough (ideally every time master strike is off CD, if not faster) to get use out of the 4 pc bonus with 1 point in Valor. Not taking that third point in Focused Slash could hurt your dps more so than not having 2 in valor because it allows RNG to really affect your Focus generation for the worse, and since you only build Centering off of abilities that cost focus it could lead to fewer Zens than the other method.

KBN, I love you for this. I've been struggling to wrap my mind around the best priority list for the spec for a while now. I was actually about to send you a message to pick your brain about combat spec (I want to update my old guide) before I saw this. Just a quick question though before I go practice this myself, how frequently do you have Zen up when Master Strike is off CD? On the dummy with a single point in Valor it works out almost perfectly so that I have Zen + PS + Master Strike (amazing burst!), but in boss fights it doesn't work out quite so well. I personally always try to only use Master Strike with Zen, but is it worth using a full 3 second MS if you can't line it up?

As someone that used to maintain a guide (well, the only PvE Guide at the time) I'll probably throw my vote in behind KBN, he's done the most theory crafting for Sentinels for what I've seen, and while I disagree with his augment suggestions (the old Power v Mainstat argument) right now they're probably the most knowledgeable about the dirty details of the class.

I've played JK since launch and I have not used those abilities once. At all. Ever. Pointless *********** abilities.

If you use it for PvE there's really no reason not to. You're gonna be missing a few percent of damage reduction, but in PvE as DPS the only damage you should be taking is unavoidable. For PvP don't even bother. Wear the proper level armor, damage reduction is everything.

That's actually about 200 less than Annihilation single target still.

OOooooh. That makes so much more sense... The highest I've got on my current character is like 1200 something, on AMR's Character builder I get 1293.5 as a sentinel/ mara with all power and ****. http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/fd0a227f-edc5-40d7-b0b8-427b273d7439 Vigilance/ Vengeance Guardians/ Juggs can get as high as 1317.4 http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/0abbfe12-b5e5-407d-910e-0b939c8f6e16 Gunslinger's are kind of ridiculous capping out at 1408... http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/b1322efb-9509-417f-82fd-33fc04a06b72 And Commandos even more-so with 1485. http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/b05b6b03-62fb-4483-b139-3acaa538662d Gonna go check out snipers now... Think they'll be along the lines of Commandos...

True, but it will hit for 75% additional damage now as opposed to 100%

Basically from the looks of things datamined by Darth Hater that they posted all BW's doing is reducing the number of Singularity/ Shockwave stacks and adding a damage buff after using Sweep/ Smash. Mind you that this is just datamined stuff and hasn't appeared on a PTR or anything.

You'd be fine at 95%. After that the only attacks that will miss on players would be Assault, unless you're fighting against a Consular/ Inquisitor. Consulars and Inquisitor ACs have 10% Defense as opposed to 5% defense before modifiers (rating, defensive CDs, cover and so on).

Have y'all seen some of the Datamined **** on darth hater? (note, some of the focus stuff is geared towards guardians).

Bringing your guardian into raids will in no way gimp your group. That said, I'd say play the class that brings the most utility to your group. Guardians have armor pen and can off-tank for a short period of time when **** hits the fan. Focus spec is also "better" for Guardians than it is for Sentinels incase you need to bring in extra AoE. Sentinels have Inspiration and Transcendence as far as raid utility goes, and depending on the spec they have amazing sustained dps (Watchmen) or ridiculous burst dps (Combat). The only thing that truly gimps a group is a bad player (or a DPS Scoundrel, just sayin lol). Note: The Scoundrel thing was a joke peoples, please take this time to ice yo nips before you get up in arms.

I really don't understand people like you, the ones that essentially beg for homogenization.

^^^^^^ This I switch depending on the fight and my role in each, however there's nothing really wrong with keeping the points in Swelling winds.

I lol'd a bit. About 60% of Annihilation's damage comes from talented abilities. Another 15% is from Rupture + it's bleed. All that damage comes from talents that affect Juyo form (increase DoT Crit chance by 15% with juyo's inherent damage stacks) and talents that directly affect bleed damage. Then there's also the talents that affect Force Charge, allowing the spec to have the resources to use the abilities. Simply stating that one spec require fewer "specific" talents to augment abilities is laughably wrong. As of right now, fully optimized Rage (for pvp, don't even bother bringing Rage into progression PvE right now) is to stack all Power and Surge Mods/ Augments, so at best, with the class buff they'd have around 20% base crit chance. What should happen is that they should remove the auto crit from smash, buff Crush and Obliterate (possibly even include more talents that affect Blade Storm) to increase Rage's single target damage potential and change the Dominate talent to only increase Crit chance by 20%. You've also got to remember that in a single target fight (i.e. Boss fight) Smash is only about 30% of Rage's damage making all those talents that directly set up Smash to hit like a semi a bit of a waste because it falls behind in between smashes. This would help bring balance to PvP and help make the spec comparable for PvE.

What's your spec, percentages and have you read either of the guides linked in my signature? I was pulling those numbers in Tionese gear...

The thing that makes Rage a better Team spec than Annihilation isn't just that Smash hits 20% harder than Annihilate and more frequently, it's that 40% of Annihilation's damage and survivability is cleanse-able. Smash is already hitting one target harder than Annihilate, and if it hits two targets Smash just did more damage than Ravage with full stacks of Juyo form. A skilled player can build 30 stacks of Fury in about 15 seconds. That's full rage and 4 singularity stacks every 15 seconds not counting Choke or Crush and not even using Frenzy. Rage's burst may be less than Carnage but it requires less setup and execution time than Carnage and is far more difficult to deny (Leap in + root > Knocked Back > Leap in a gain with another root). I'm not saying nerf the spec, I'm saying balance out the damage it does. Remove the Auto Crit from Smash, buff single target damage.

He's right though. Rage isn't the easiest to counter and it's a terrible PvE spec outside of Trash and all of two current tier fights (Trandoshan phase of Kephass and Add Duty on The Writhing Horror). Rage NEEDS tweaking and more balance between Single Target and AoE. Four abilities and two globals and I just hit up to five people for 5-7k (three abilities if I'm playing a Jugg), and I can do it again in about 9 seconds. Smash hits on average for 20% more damage than Annihilate and multiple targets, not to mention that unless you manage to keep Annihilator stacks up you have 10.5 seconds before you can use it again on top of it costing 5 rage. Hint: Those abilities are Frenzy, Berserk, Charge and Smash. The second cycle is Crush, Obliterate, Assault/ Battering or Slash then Smash once it's off CD (this is with you still having excess Rage). The third Smash would be done using Choke for shockwave stacks + Rage and Charge for the Auto Crit, using Assault and Vicious Slash to lower your Smash CD (assuming you didn't have enough Fury to use Berzerk again). It's so damn easy to build Shockwave stacks and you rarely have to wait more than 9 seconds to use Smash again if you stay on your toes.

Statement. Opinion on statement. Counter opinion (NO UR WRONG) No U No U No U... And so on, regardless of who's correct.

Ah, understandable lol.