Ya I agree, and when i was leveling having issues 1v1 elites my level I was really worried about the class but I have no such fears now. I was pretty confused with threads listing us as the worst class or melee is useless. I'm top dps in my guild by far and I can solo 2 man heroic dailys on ilum/belsavis. No worries

I dont use riposte as watchman. Just doesnt seem worth it, yes there's no global cd but its 3 for basically a slash(or strike? whatever your focus spender is) when I have other abilites that need my focus. You shouldnt have that much extra focus you need riposte to dump it, I mean I hardly even use the focus spender(slash/strike whatever its called) maybe once or twice as a filler till cd come up or i've spent some focus or need cauterize to come back b/c merc slash failed(at 66% >_<)

Use master strike every time its available and you have either no-little focus or/and your main hitters are on cool down.

So I've cleared EV HM a couple times now and I'm 3/5 rakata, GREAT! Well the problem is my surge went from 75 to 67% switching from columi to rakata. I'm very tempted to take out some of the 58 enhancements and replace them with 56 crit/surge. I am swimming in acc and it's my understanding you only need 10% acc and I have like 13%. I also have rakata earpiece and 1 implant but not the 2nd implant which replaces acc with surge so I could hold out till I get another piece or use (56) crit/surge mods. Bad idea? =/

To all combat sentinels. Stop. Watchman is the top dps for sentinels and its very easy to prove. In Eternity Vault during the council fight the dps are always pitted up against the sith marauders(100K)hp. I kill mine first everytime. Not only do I kill it first but the so called "leet" gunslinger snipe one button dps the one idiot was talking about, had his at 25, and 20% the 2nd run through while the other 2 were at 30%. Every week I prove it. in normal and HM

I also suggest Biochem. However, if you want to pick between artifice or synthweaver I'd say go synthweaver because you can get your rakata belt and bracers easy and with Kira she has a +5 to synth crit. I got artifice to 400 then dumped it for biochem.