I've been running 29.8% to 30.7% (~600 - 650) crit for a while now in all specs. It may be just me, but I find it consistently outperforms when compared to lower crit ratings. Without using SB on dummy parses, I consistently turn in 4.4-4.6K. On 16-M HM operations boss pulls (except Torque and Underlurker - SS), I usually outperform our SS and DF slingers.

Has anyone else found that BW hit Scatterbombs with the same nerfbat they hit Fylby with? Might as well have just removed the ability from the game! Thanks for screwing up yet another fun class to play guys!

Grats to all you Exit Area folks!

Thank you oh so much for this...balderdash! And thanks also for even looking at Sents/Maras PVE needs! Has anyone in your combat team ever even played a Sentinel in the new operations? I'd love to know how you don't get BBQ'd, blown up, or whittled away to nothing! I'd love to know which guild you play in that would say they'd be happy to have you in the raid on your sentinel! Poppycock - all of it! I've mained a sentinel for over 2.5 years and now it looks like I'll have to wait for new operations to potentially play it again. So thanks again.

Shadowed downed Revanite Commanders - 16 man HM http://i.imgur.com/e1uNndA.jpg

Shadowed has downed, in 8-Man HM: Sparky, Bulo, Torque Malaphar Sword Squadron Underlurker - http://i.imgur.com/BW9eb51.jpg Revanite Commanders -http://i.imgur.com/MJEwLjp.jpg I neglected to get screenies for the ops' two first bosses, Sword Squadron, Bulo and Torque kills as we normally run 16-man.

Shadowed downs Underlurker 16-man HM http://i.imgur.com/pkGnieA.jpg.

I'm hoping the Gunslinger/Sniper community can help with some input or verify my findings. I've recently experimented with various degrees of crit ratings. My slinger is currently in about 50% min/maxed 192/198 gear. Following conventional wisdom, I've kept my crit rating ~250. Over the course of the last week, I boosted this way up to a ridiculously high 615 crit rating without adding any new gear. I've seen an average of ~200 dps increase in 1 million HP dummy parses (15) and about the same increase in operations boss fights (Rav/ToS) in both SM and HM. My average APM is consistently around 43.6-44.3 (dummy) and in excess of 40 in most of the ops boss fights. My question is whether anyone else has experimented with high crit rating levels for SS and if you've seen correspondingly increased dps results....or are mine simply aberrant and lucky?

Shadowed downs 16-Man HM Sword Squadron. http://i.imgur.com/XlY80EP.jpg.

I completely concur with the OP. We run (or attempt to) 16-man HM progression on The Shadowlands and have encountered all the noted bugs since launch. We have players with a myriad of ISP's who may or may not experience lag/fps issues. You may as well hang a sign up outside the operations' instances, especially on Tuesdays, that says "do not attempt this operation in 16-man today). I've had to retire my main (sentinel) since Torque + melee + lag = BBQ'd - every time, regardless of timing/awareness/skill: ToS (Sword Squadron) lags nearly as badly quite often. The sheer disdain for players' experiences in game or the complete incompetence in rectifying the noted issues, demonstrated by EA/Bioware, has ruined the fun of raiding to overcome the challenge presented by the HM operations. The performance issues have cost my guild many players in these 2.5 months and by the end of March may see the entire guild retire form the game. BW has spent far too much energy on Cartel Market and other non-essential stuff, and fixing said stuff, that should have been spent fixing the game content. We are far past the point where "because: Star Wars" will keep end-game players in the game. We muchly deserve to have BW come forth with specific plans and time frames to implement fixes!

Shadowed finally downs Torque 16-man HM. http://i.imgur.com/vYlRMvW.jpg

Perhaps you speak of the mechanic in the Torque fight where the repair droids are summoned and then do nothing, or Coratanni beating on the escape pod, or Underlurker failing to leap and dropping the cross where it stands. with a number of the raid dying when it turns red despite being in their proper places...yes I'm sure this is all working as intended. Also working as intended must be the wild FPS swings from 10 to 90+ experienced by myself and my raiders whose locales span the continent...this must obviously be working as intended as well. Since we only do 16-man, we're well aware that many guilds are clearing on 8, as have we. We are also aware that some 16s have been fortunate enough to clear most/all the bosses. I can only speak to what we've encountered over the last month up to and including last week on 16 HM. I'm sure all of this is an LTP issue.

Ok...so here we are at the 27th of January and with the last 2 maintenances you've "fixed" slot machines and an achievement. You lot have your priorities completely messed up! How about you fix the real problems with the thrice-damned game!!! Lag (goes without saying) broken boss mechanics (Torque 16 HM repair droids, Underlurker, Bulo lifters, etc.) Those of us running these ops to progress through the challenge of them would like to be able to do so without having to contend with bugs that are now coming up on two months old, making them impossible to complete! Seriously??? This is what you expect us to pay for? Or are you trying to tell us we have to keep trying them, hoping foro that one pull where the lag lowers, the mechanics work and we make no mistakes during the op? Get your S**t together while there are still people who wanna play and do end-game; SM is has gotten old really fast!

Greetings. I’m posting this on behalf of my guild to express our substantial on-going frustration with Bioware’s seeming inability to resolve the bugs and lag/FPS issues in the pve operations: The Ravagers and Temple of Sacrifice. Ours is one of the few remaining 16-man progression raiding guilds in the game and possibly one of only two left on the Shadowlands. Attempting either of these operations in 16-man HM is a somewhat masochistic seeming endeavour. Many of my raiders encounter lag of varying degrees in the Quatermaster Bulo and Torque boss fights that hamper their ability to play/survive the encounter. Our frustrations are at the point where a goodly number of my raiders are considering quitting the game since raiding is no longer fun and progression attempts are somewhat less enjoyable that a root canal! So, I’m posting this to request a developer response providing me with firm timeframes for the implementation of: a) Bug fixes for the operations b) Resolution of the lag/FPS issues Your prompt attention and response is appreciated.

Once again, prospective changes appear aimed solely at the pvp side of things. How about looking at Sent/Mara’s viability in the pve environment – specifically the new ops. Currently, unless the player is one of the lucky few not overly affected by the ridiculous lag, sents are all but unplayable competitively in HM Ravagers or ToS – these contain some of the most inhospitable melee environments yet introduced into the game. Notwithstanding the dumbing down of the spec and this unfortunate state (lag/bugs) and presuming this is addressed at some point, the mechanics of many of the fights (Sparky, Torque, Pearl, Sword Squadron, etc) necessitate a great deal of movement: whether to chase the boss or get out of “circles” and other danger zones. For combat sentinels, this results in a dps loss: anyone who spouts that “the class is balanced to take this into account” is on crack. If we look at the other classes, the majority of them have the option to choose a utility that allows their hardest hitting abilities to be channeled/cast while moving; but no such love for combat sentinels. Additionally, the new three second precision window is not overly useful – with normal latency and/or any movement meaning you get one ability within the window if you’re using PS->MS->CB every other PW. Most other classes have seen their AoE capability in all specs increased: Forcequake and Sweeping Blasters being exceptionally powerful while the changes to Cyclone Slash leave it somewhat short, even by comparison to Commandos’ Hail of Bolts improvements. My suggestions for improving the viability of combat sentinels in pve are: 1. Add a utilty allowing MS to be channelled whilst moving, 2. Revert the PW to 4.5 seconds, 3. Change Cyclone Slash to Whirlwind (360°) Slash – retaining the Ataru form strike on each opponent hit, but adding a refund of focus for every 6th hit, 4. Add a version of Guardian Leap – mostly for a “get out of Dodge” consideration where mechanics/environments result in nearly instant death if movement is not immediate (e.g. Torque – floor vents), 5. Revert GbtF to having the health cost paid on activation, 6. For the love of all that’s holy, get rid of the utterly pathetic new set bonuses and revert to the old set bonuses – add in the new 2 pce bonus to make the six piece set bonus. As I do not pvp I am not overly concerned with sentinel issues in that environment; others have voiced their concerns on that front. I lead one of the few remaining (it seems) 16-man progression raiding guilds and main a combat sentinel. Since 3.0 released, I’ve been forced into playing a ranged class due to the lag/mechanics combinations in order for us to even begin attempting HM progression. Once the lag issues are resolved I’d like to revert to playing my sentinel and would like some of the hamstrung aspects of the class addressed to improve its viability in a distinctly melee unfriendly pve environment.

This has not been addressed yet it seems. While in ToS last evening, I was sitting at a latency of more than 4 times my usual latency and was experiencing frame rates varying from 50 fps (standing still) to 4 fps (in boss fight). It was almost unplayable. There were only 32 people in our "instance" as well. Most of my guild members are encountering this to a greater or lesser degree and even the most stalwart lovers of the game amongst them are grumbling about not playing until this issue is resolved. BW, you'd best figure out a way to resolve this ***** quickly lest you start to lose players in droves!

Congrats to The Chandian! GJ folks!

Grats folks!

Congrats folks!

Thanks T for taking on the task of updating this for us. I also will say welcome back to Bawoni and The Chandrian. As to the issue of legitimacy of kill posts/claims, methinks that we must trust in the system that has worked thus far. Where there is proof, be it documented, video, or anecdotal, of exploitation or other form of cheating then the claim must be repudiated. Given that claims of honourable achievement will likely be suspect henceforth, I submit that a guild attempting a world or server first kill should have some means of establishing the veracity of their kill claim should they succeed: the most obvious means being via video evidence. Should Shadowed be in position in the future to be contending for a "first," I will be ensuring we have appropriate supporting evidence to our claim. I don't feel that a guild/player(s) that was previously found to have made an illegitimate claim should be banned from making future claims. It is entirely reasonable however, to expect future claims from these sources to be fully supported by whatever unaltered evidence Tealik and/or the community might require for their claim to be held as valid.

We're looking for a few more dps to flesh out our NiM progression team. Ranged dps are preferred but not mandatory. Please visit http://raidordie.com to fill in an application or message Liira or Tealik in game for more information.

Guild Name:Shadowed Faction:Republic Focus: Casually Hardcore PVE Progression, Raiding, Casual pvp. Website: http://raidordie.com. Application on webite. Note: applicants must be aged 18+ Recruiting: Yes: NiM capable dps. GM: Liira Co-GM: Tealik

Grats Undercon!

I've done about 15 dummy parses with this build since reading this entry. I noticed that my average parses are now 3.5K+. Some luck with the crit rng resulted in parses > 3.6K.

I will agree with the OP in that a bit of a reduction in the RNG impact on this class, especially Combat would be desirable. Barring that, don't do a damned thing to it, save my personal wish would be to reduce the focus cost of Blade Rush or increase its damage slightly. I've mained a Combat sentinel for almost 2 years now and despite all the changes to the class and the nerfs, a Combat sent is still the most fun to play in my view. It's a frenetic dance of chaos to play and requires a ridiculous amount of focus to play well: you will wear your fingers to nubs doing so. While our raid utility is evident only every 5 minutes now, notwithstanding use of transcendence, a well played sentinel , or even 2 or 3 of them are more than beneficial to have in end-game operations. After the demise of the much adored Flyby, Sents are now again on par for damage output in ops with the only other pure dps class in the game: Gunslingers.