This is absolute nonsense. Focus puts out insane burst damage which is invaluable in high level PvP. Zealous leap is incredibly useful for maintaining pressure on healers. The main weakness of focus is that you don't get the 80% transcendence buff. But watchman doesn't get it either. Anyone who thinks focus is garbage obviously hasn't dealt with 2 fully geared focus sentinels on their ***, critting them for 6500 at the same time while force exhaustion double ticks on them for massive damage that cannot be healed through.

Your first problem is that you're using meaningless warzone stats to measure the effectiveness of a spec. Combat does much more burst, and almost as much sustained damage as watchman. Self-healing is irrelevant in high level play, that's what healers are for. 80% transcendence is an absolute must in high level play. Combat builds centering just as quickly as watchman now, and using zen + blade rush spam is incredible on demand burst damage. If all you care about is how high you can get on the scoreboard, then you might as well go with focus, because that's a guaranteed 400k+ every single game. Combat is now the superior spec for PvP. The advantages that watchman offered previously have been taken away, and given to combat.

Any discussion about overpowered classes should be in the context of rated warzones as far as I'm concerned. Operatives are amazing in 1v1, but they are not even close to overpowered in an 8 vs 8 rated warzone setting. Obviously, we don't have the data to back this up currently, but when rated warzones are released, we are going to see a significantly lopsided representation of certain classes within the top 100 teams. Similar to WoW, where 80% of the top 100 teams in 2v2 arena consisted of Druid + Warrior. It was plainly obvious that druids were OP, and they were eventually nerfed. In SWTOR, three of the warzones revolve almost entirely on survivability. Assassins and Marauders are way too hard to kill, in comparison to the damage and utility they bring to the table with guard, taunt, pull, inspiration, trauma, and transcendance. The top rated teams will be overwhelmingly stacked with these 2 classes, and only THEN will it become clear to the community that something definitely needs to be done.

Go ahead and harp on the fact that I re-rolled sentinel, that's cool. One thing to note though, I dropped my sage 2 months ago, way before the 1.2 nerfs were even announced. Sages were UNDER-powered, and the good players knew it. When the nerfs were announced, all I could do was laugh, since the class was already unplayable in a competitive environment. Another thing to note, is that I was posting 2-3 months ago that sentinels were in fact the class that needs to be nerfed, but of course, the know-it-alls on this forum repeatedly told me that sentinels were garbage. Funny how things turned out, right?

I've been reading this forum since early access, and I can say with complete honesty, that I can count on one hand, the number of people who are capable of posting rational, coherent thoughts regarding PvP gameplay. The overwhelming majority of the people who post here, are completely ignorant when it comes to discussions of balance. They view the entire game through their own tunnel vision perspective, which is based off of random warzones that they play with random teamates against random opponents. Sadly, these people represent the majority of the player base, and therefore the developers are forced to cater to their nonsensical whining. The unwarranted nerfs to sorc/sage and op/smugg are proof of that. As long as this forum exists, this game will follow the same cycle as WoW PvP. Each class will be nerfed, and then subsequently buffed, until everyone is forced to roll all 8 classes in order to enjoy the game. I have already been forced to drop my 78 valor sage, in favor of a clearly overpowered sentinel. Now the forum is overflowing with whine posts about my sentinel, and I know that it's only a matter of time before I'm forced to roll something else. Unfortunately I know this cycle cannot be prevented, and this forum is not going anywhere, so I guess I just have to tolerate it. My patience with this community is definitely wearing thin, however, and I know I'll end up quitting, just like I did with WoW.

Incoming 100 posts of baddies telling you what abilities you have, without understanding that these abilities are completely useless against people who aren't horrible. Let me start: LOL UR A SORC AND UR CRYING ABOUT SURVIVABILITY?? YOU HAVE A KNOCKBACK THAT ROOTS PEOPLE, A BUBBLE THAT ABSORBS 5K DAMAGE AND BLINDS PEOPLE AND YOU CAN RE-APPLY IT, A SPAMMABLE RANGED SNARE, A RANGED STUN, AND A SPRINT!!!! YOU ARE INVINCIBLE BRO

Ah, well that makes sense since the exploit is a result of bad netcode and cannot really be "patched" unless they put a CD on force lightning. To answer the OP's question, the reason the crying has stopped is because there was never anything to cry about to begin with. The problem was simply that there were too many sorcs, and not enough people to kill them. Now that marauder/assassin have become the dominant classes, sorcs are getting stomped all day long by melee, so the baddies aren't as annoyed by them as they used to be. In reality, nothing has changed with dps sorcs. Their overall numbers are slightly lower due to lack of instant chain lightning, but their contribution to the team is exactly the same. The weakness of sorcs was always that they cannot escape melee, or any kind of focus fire. This is still the case, but it is now being amplified even more due to the massive influx of melee re-rolls.

I thought the double dip on force lightning was removed? I haven't even touched my sage since the patch so I never bothered to check if it still worked.

I love how people like you just start naming abilities as if they work perfectly in a live game. Let me explain to you what happens in a combat sentinel vs sage matchup. Sentinel saves his leap and runs up to you, because he knows you are going to use your KB right away. Sent uses zealous strike to build focus, and applies leg slash (12 second snare) Sent starts applying heavy damage with blade rush, and auto critting you with blade storm. If you try to cast anything it will be interrupted. Most likely TK throw or force lift. Sent can interrupt 5 abilities in a row without issue by using kick, then stasis, then kick, then awe, then kick. If you are smart you will realize that your only option is to run away or gain distance, so you will use your KB immediately after the snare is applied. Sent uses force camo to break the 5 second root from your KB, and then immediately leaps back to you and re-applies snare. At this point, you need to decide, should you run away again or stay and fight. Once again, if you are smart you will realize that trying to go toe to toe with the sent is suicide because he will interrupt all of your TK throws and put out twice the damage that you are capable of. So, you decide to burn your stun and use force speed to run away. Sent immediately uses cc breaker and hits you with crippling throw which roots you in place. You are already snared, so he simply runs back up to you. Now that your stun is gone, he uses precision slash + master strike for 7-10k damage, and an auto crit blade storm for another 3.5-4.5k. 99% of the time you are already dead at this point, but if not, no worries, he will hit you with a 2.5-4.5k dispatch just to make sure. Now explain to us again how your instant cc / kb / bubble / sprint / mez blah blah blah is going to save you here. Just because you killed a couple of terrible sentinels on your 27 sage doesn't mean you have the authority to speak on this subject. I would destroy your sage 100% of the time in a duel.

I read your post buddy. You are babbling about a hybrid spec that doesn't even exist. I have never met or spoken with a sentinel or marauder who runs anything less than a 31 point build. You are trying to express an opinion that has absolutely no factual basis and is in fact, ridiculous. You may as well be trying to convince people that the sky is green.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nobody uses hybrid specs what are you talking about? Each spec requires a specific stance, it would be stupid to run with any kind of hybrid.

Stop worrying about meaningless stats. Did you keep your teamates alive when it mattered? Did you win the game? That's all you should be concerned with. Any noob can pad stats by doing nothing but AOE heals and staying out of the fray so that he gets more uptime. The quality of the opposition also plays a huge role. If your opponents are bursting people down in seconds, then your numbers are going to be way lower than playing against a bunch of noobs who don't focus fire.

This just in, forum warrior thinks warzone damage actually means something. And that isn't what you said, you were implying that if a sorc uses his CC, he can get away, and that isn't true. If there isn't a ledge to knock me off of, or he doesn't get a peel from his teamates, then there is simply no escape, all he can do is prolong his death.

Are you serious? Don't make me put up some videos of me killing fully geared sorcs in 6 seconds. Sorcs are garbage now, their supposed amazing cc abilities are worthless against me. Obviously I'm not gonna waste my leap. They will knockback root, I will use camo to remove root and leap right back. Proceed to **** them with blade rush and blade storm, after 2-3 hits they know they are going to die so they stun + speed away, at which point I cc break and crippling throw to root them. Now I'm back on them and they have no stun, no bubble, no knockback, and no speed. Precision slash + master strike + blade storm = dead. And that's *if* the sorc has all their cooldowns up and is not pre-occupied with something else. If they are unfortunate enough to be involved in a skirmish already with some of their stuff on CD, then it's just an automatic 12k burst to the face before they even know what's happening. Sorcs were perfectly balanced before this debacle of a patch. Now they are unplayable. Every sorc I see is a free kill and I literally pray that the other team has 5-6 sorcs because that's an automatic win for my premade which consists of 2 sents, 1 guardian, and scoundrel healer.

Terrible opponents. You try playing like that on my server and you'll be dead within 3 seconds every time you step out of the spawn.

Warzone stats are meaningless. I do way more damage than anyone in my guild, but I rarely go over 300k. My damage comes from massive burst on high priority targets. Our sages can do 400-500 per game, but nobody would ever take them instead of me, because I'm the one dropping 20k damage in 10 seconds when it counts.

You will become an absolute beast when you hit level 40, and unlock the 31 point talent for your spec. After level 40, sentinel starts dominating wz's, and it only gets better from there on out.

Before the patch, Watchman was the superior spec hands down. Now, I'd say it's debatable. Neither is better or worse, just different. It really depends on your personal preference and playstyle. Watchman: Damage is more consistent, because your dots roll even if you get rooted or knocked back. Builds centering quickly, which means more zen, which means more damage/self-healing. Much better for interrupting healers. 6 sec kick and close quarters leap are great. However, due to the overall reduction in TTK (time to kill), this is less important now because a couple of good dps can simply burn a healer down without even concerning themselves with interrupting. Much better at 1v1, especially sentinel vs sentinel. Watchman damage is not as susceptible to defensive cooldowns, and the self healing effectively amounts to a couple thousand extra HP in 1v1 situations. No more access to 80% transcendence buff, this is a huge change for me as I use this a lot and I find it invaluable in high level play. Combat: Much higher burst potential. I have clocked over 2,000 DPS with it over one rotation. With Watchman I cannot crack 1600. Precision slash + master strike + blade storm + dispatch combo is absolutely devastating. Bigger numbers, which is more fun to play (for me). I am getting the 5k hit medal almost every game now. Builds centering just as fast now as Watchman does, which means more opportunities to pop zen/transcendence. This was combat's biggest weakness before the patch IMO, so it's a welcome change for sure and I am loving it. 80% movement speed on transcendence. A game breaker as far as I'm concerned. In organized PvP this is a must have. I can't tell you how many close games have been won because of this buff. I don't think I can ever go back to watchman, because I can't live without this talent. Easier rotation. Not to say watchman is "hard", but combat is definitely easier to manage. The only thing you really need to keep track of is combat trance, so you know when to use blade storm for the guaranteed crit. Very susceptible to defensive cooldowns. When I get in a 1v1 with an annihilation marauder and he uses rebuke/saber ward/pacify, I basically cannot even touch him, while he still ***** me through those cooldowns with his burns. So, both specs have their strengths and weaknesses, but I will be staying combat because I love being able to burst people down in seconds with huge crits, and I absolutely need my 80% transcendence buff for premades.

I don't really feel like going to all that effort to prove something so obvious. The 11.4k hit was on an undergeared player, sure, but I still hit for 7-9k on fully geared targets. There is a sorc on my server (fatman) named Rintiiran, he already has 4 pieces of his war hero set, and I killed him in 6 global cooldowns from 100% to 0 while his bubble was up. Before 1.2, that same sorc used to stand there and laugh at me when I attacked him.

The mara/sents in this thread who are lying through their teeth are hilarious. I am running 12 pieces of BM and 3 pieces of champ, and I am frequently hitting people with master strike for 7-9k With all cooldowns popped, I have hit as high as 11.4k with it. The 3rd hit of master strike crits for at LEAST 3800 regardless of the target, and at least 2-3 times per game it crits above 5k. I re-rolled to sent because I knew how OP they would be, and I'm not gonna sit here and lie and say that they aren't. I am 3 shotting people on a regular basis right now, and when I get my full war hero set with augments on every piece, as well as my legacy buffs, I am going to be destroying people. Give it up kids, this class has been OP since day 1, and now it's out of control. I will enjoy it while it lasts, but I have no doubt that a nerf is coming.

There is no such thing as an expertise stim. Your consumable choices are: Strength stim Power adrenal Crit/Surge adrenal Medpac Warzone medpac Warzone expertise adrenal What I do is run with a re-useable strength stim, re-useable power adrenal, re-useable medpac. Then I will use up the Warzone medpac and expertise adrenal when I get them from the pvp quest reward. The best possible buff you can get in PvP is the expertise adrenal, so use those whenever you get a chance. If you don't have any adrenals, then just pick up the buff inside the warzone every chance you get.

The vendor that you see inside the warzone can also be found on the fleet, near the location where you pick up your pvp daily quest. I recommend that you buy all of the level 20 and level 40 pvp gear, because it makes your questing experience much easier, especially on a sentinel. After I hit level 41 and returned to questing, I was basically untouchable for the next 5 levels because of how good my gear was.

This right here, is the answer to your question. The vast majority of players are bad, and they think that topping the damage meter in a meaningless PUG warzone actually means something. When I run with my premade, any opposing team that has more than 3-4 sorcs is an automatic win for us. But, when we see 3-4 marauders and assassins, combined with some mercenary healers, we know we're in for a tough fight. Bottom line is, if you measure the strength of a class by how well it performs in a PUG, then yes, sorcs are massively OP. But for people who play in fully geared premades and know what they're doing, sorc is considered one of the weakest classes in this game currently, and will be even worse after 1.2 hits.

Hey welcome to the thread, how about reading it before replying? Nobody cares about 1v1, as has been mentioned a million times, you can just CC when it's used. The issue is that they can be healed while they are immune.

*edit* double post