Uh.... 'expect him'? You mean you are kicking before there is a cast bar? It only works on a cast. When you see the cast bar come up, you kick. It stop the cast, and locks him out of that ability for a few seconds. It won't prevent him from casting it unless you interrupt it. Also, use stasis as a second interrupt, to stop his big damage casts. The fight is actually a lot easier than you think. He was a pretty challenging boss, the first time through, until I learnt to interrupt.

He might not. I do. What is the point of a DPS surviving an extra few seconds if they do no damage? Not that I am asking for this, but as a comparative point, what if when a Sorc/Sage popped a bubble, their healing was reduced by 30%? It defeats the purpose of the class/spec. We, sentinels and marauders, are a damage class with a number of ways to help us keep damaging, to keep us in the fight smacking heads for longer. If you begin to take away our ability to stay in the fight, you begin to remove our ability to do our job; kill. Our cooldowns ease the burden on healers, as we are generally the ones in the dead centre of the furball. In a 1v1 situation, GBTF is a powerful tool. It can swing the battle one way or the other. In a group situation, its use diminishes due to the increased likelihood of being CC'd, or focused. What I see in this thread, and many other FOTM 'NERF X' types, is people using a 1v1 situation to justify changes to a group situation. GBTF has not changed since launch. But TTK has. Sentinel damage as a whole has not changed. Certain specs did. Nerfing the class across the board because of a few related, but non-class/spec specific reasons, is short-sighted. Issues of TTK need to be addressed and balanced before we start screaming for the removal of ANYONE'S abilities. There is more than one problem here, and it is not all on the Marauder or Sentinel.

No, no, I totally get that, and agree completely. But the higher expertise is giving them an even greater advantage. Not only do they have more aim/str/cunning/will, they also have more expertise. Their gear gives them an advantage in every area. I understand wanting to separate PvE from PvP. What I don't understand is giving one set of PvP'rs an advantage over another set of PvP'rs, based on who wins the most, or spends the most time in WZs, or has a lifestyle that allows for grinding. PvE is about gear, stats, etc. PvP should be about the competition. Some ability to customize my gear to my specific spec is needed and wanted. But I don't want an artificial 'leg-up' for either myself or the competition. I want to be able to choose power over accuracy, but at comparable values. I want to be able to make my character look how I want, but I don't want stats that make someone of the same class better than my character, in a PvP setting. I don't like expertise, and I don't like a gear disparity in PvP. It isn't 'fun,' it isn't 'challenging', it is annoying. If I am beat by superior player, hats-off. If I am beat cause I screwed up, my bad. If I am beat because the other guy hits harder, and takes less damage than me, I am pissed. You cannot have a competition where one party gets to pump steroids, and the other team only gets water.

I think expertise is a terrible idea. I get the so-called 'reasons.' We don't want the dreaded elitist PvE snobs running about in their high-end raid gear destroying those pure PvP'rs who don't gear grind (snort). This I agree with. I am neither a raider, nor a PvP'r; I am both. As a result, I have neither fantastic Raid gear, nor am I full BM, let along part WH. However, at present a fresh 50 is at a severe disadvantage. Yes, they can purchase recruit gear and bridge the gap. They are still at a disadvantage when stacked up against all BMs, or WHs. And this divide will only get worse as new levels of Expertise are introduced. It is a problem now. What will it be like in the future? The system is designed to be a grind. I get this. But, honestly, the argument that it is to 'stop Raiders from dominating' is pathetic. The exact same problem now exists, with the added bonus that good PvP'rs have the superior gear. Not only do fresh 50s have to pit themselves against the skill of the other team, but they have to deal with the other side's superior gear. In the end, all other things being equal, the team with the better gear is going to win. Why? Cause they do more damage, take less, and heal more. Honestly, I just want my damn gear so I can finally answer the question of, 'Do I suck, or is it cause my entire team is in PvE/Recruit gear, and the 8 guys on the other side are all BM, or better?' Right now, it is tough to answer. I do know that the best PvP I have had in Swtor are the few games where we were all of equal gear level. Funny that.

So, what you're saying is, you're unhappy that people aren't playing the same as you are? They aren't putting stock in the same things you are? And because you don't find this special event fun, it should end early? I was having a tremendous amount of fun with the plague. I am sorry you are not having fun, but this is a temporary thing and asking for it to stop because you don't like it is, frankly, rather self-centred. The game will return to the usual humdrum soon enough. Until then, just deal with it. Again, it is an EVENT, not a change in the status-quo.

Entirely dependant on spec, but for Combat I stack Power and surge over anything else. With the precision/rush/storm combo, you have a chance for auto-crits, so surge is what you want. On watchman, crit might be a better idea, given that crits will return health from your DOTs, but I haven't done watchman in a while and, to be honest, have no real intention of going back. However, surge is ALWAYS a good thing. Power is an across the board thing. Boosts DOTs, base damage, everything. Unless something drastic has changed in 1.2, accuracy has always been... lackluster.

Hmmm... Odd sentiment. I agree with you on the ******* premades who mock the PUGs. Don't understand that logic. But I group up with my guild to do PvP because they are my guild. That's what you do in an MMO; you group up to do things. It's not about needing the advantage, really, but more about working together for a common cause. I'd do the same thing if there were no guildees on, or none of them were interested in PvP that day; I'd organise the PUG. It is the same thing as in organised sports; you organise to accomplish the same goal. Again, we don't 'brag' when we win against a complete PUG, because most of the time it is painfully obvious they had no strategy, no plan, no organisation. But if we beat another Premade, then yes, we'll pat ourselves on the back. Don't paint all 'Premades' with the same brush.

For myself, I found Sentinel in the 32-37 range to be a chore. It got easier once I had Doc, and easier still once I was high enough to get the core skills of whichever spec I was running. Between 34-41 I ran watchman, before that combat. Went back to combat once I had enough points for Rush, and things are fine now. Sentinels - can't speak to guardians, I haven't got mine off Tython yet - seem to be harder than most of the other classes I have tried. At least in certain ranges. They take far more patience and dedication to learn what you can and cannot do. I wouldn't say they are more 'limited' than any other class, but you do have to approach things from a different angle.

Again, this topic just keeps comin up. Amazing. This is PRE-RUUSAN REFORMATION. The Reformations took place in 1000 BBY, when the Council decided that too many of their order kept falling to the Dark; that their Order could not be trusted to follow the Code, and thus a more strict interpretation was needed. Thus we see the Jedi of the 'prequel' era. Monastic, celibate monks, who shun emotional connections, and largely stagnate for fear of straying to the Dark Side. This is why Anakin was needed, in fact, because it created an imbalance within the Force. While the Jedi stopped learning, stopped pushing the bounds of their knowledge, the Sith did not. The quest you are speakin of annoys me precisely because it flies in the face of previously established Lore. But, then again, that brings up numerous other points and ultimately one devolves into an argument of 'Which Lore did Bioware use to create this story?' Bottom line is, the Expanded Universe allows for marriages between Jedi in this era. It holds those Jedi who devote themselves utterly to the Force - and, therefore, do not love or marry - as paragons. But there is no discouragement of pursuing relationships. I suspect in order to maintain 'continuity' with the movies - which is what the vast majority of people will know of 'Star Wars' - they remade the Jedi of the films, with a few tweaks. Not everyone is as much a geek of Star Wars Lore as myself and others on these forums.

But... but... that is precisely what Science-fiction is! Granted, Star Wars is not true science-fiction, but science-fiction, by definition, is rooted in real world scientific, economical, political, social, and cultural theory, with a few minor changes - or 'advances' - extrapolated and played out. If it has no basis in the real world, it is not science-fiction. L. Ron Hubbard had a fantastic definition of it in the beginning of Battlefield Earth, and you can read it here, if you care to: http://www.lronhubbard.org/science-fiction.html On the topic at hand, yes it bothers me, on occasion. I write, myself, and try to always write with the real-world in mind. Again, because this, as I see it and define it, is science-fiction. Science, with elements of fiction, to tell a story. But Star Wars, much as I love the universe to death, is not science-fiction. It is fantasy. So I cut it a bit of slack. Besides, I think the tactics in a universe with the limitations - or lack there-of - of Star Wars would be wholly unrecognisable. Gunpowder revolutionized warfare, as someone pointed out with WWI. Imagine starships in orbit. Weapons that fire rounds at the speed of light. Shields. Mini-nukes. Power-armour. Nano-materials. Cryo-weapons. Any one of a dozen 'technologies' that are common place in Star Wars would alter warfare in our world in entirely unpredictable ways.

Couldn't be bothered to read the rest of these posts, as I've got the general feel for how this is going. You want my class nerfed. We don't run away. We run, we die. if I am popping GBTF, it is because it IS a last ditch effort. I have expended all other abilities, all other strats, and I am on my last legs. Why in the 7 hells would I try and run at that time? Present my back? Right. Remove 50% of my damage? What's the point, then? I may as well run. I have no real way of preventing you from chasing me, and if you are ranged, you're shooting me the whole time I am running. That's provided you don't root me, of course. And say I am fighting one of those pesky sage/inq types who have bubble. If my so-called 'bubble' is nerfed, what about theirs? I find those quite annoying, making my fights take longer than the two global cool-downs I want my fights to last. Nerf them! You talk about 'constructive' criticism, but all I see in your OP are posts SUPPORTING your call for a nerf. There are several people who have already pointed out why this is a bad idea, or ways to counter. You are griping. The ability, in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing is great. But an average joe just delays the inevitable.

Just to add my two cents, Bejarid is correct. Watchmen is not superior, it is just different. I played combat from 1-32, then switched to watchman until about 40, before going back to combat. During the 30-40 range, especially before doc, watchman was great. The healin kept me up longer, and the burns meant that if I did have to bail, the NPC was still takin damage. But Watchman doesn't put out big numbers, from what I have noticed. That isn't to say the damage is terrible, it is not, it is just spread out. Combat, on the other hand, can do some serious hurt in a very short time; great, as you tend to be squishier. For PvP, the two play differently, and ultimately have different roles. I really miss Watchman's 0 distance leap, and reduced Kick CD. But I cannot live without Combat's auto-crit and Displacement. Also, when talented, Combat has a second semi-CC breaker in force camo. Again, Bejarid has the right of it; play all of them, find your niche. Each is going to match you differently, and while I loved Watchman, Combat suits me better, and I cannot get the same scores while in Watchman.

Incorrect; These is pre-Rusaan Reformation, which means any Jedi was capable of running for political office. In fact, many Chancellors were Jedi. There were some rulers who were Jedi. For some reason, and I am very disappointed by it, BW decided to make the Jedi in their game reflective of the post-Ruusan, prequel-era type. IE, monastic hermits. Jedi of this time are not forbidden marriage and children, nor are they forbidden love, possession, tittles, etc. They are taught that balance should be at the centre of all they do, have and think. At several points in the Republic's history, the Jedi have, in fact, as an Order ruled the Republic, until such time as the Order felt that the people could be trusted to rule justly. The Jedi are the Guardians of the Republic, not its servants. They serve the Force, and that is all.

I completely agree. I didn't go into specifics, as I didn't think it was necessary. My point, as you elaborated on, is that a republic can be democratic, but it is not, by definition democratic. The Old Republic is not a democracy. Rome was a Republic but was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Democracy, or a Democratic Republic.

I have no idea what point you're trying to make. Can you explain? What does money have to do with counting at 1 number a second?

You seemed to have dropped these: , . ; Fascinating that you have 'noticed' something no one else has. Especially those of us who HAVE powertechs/vanguards specced to utilize mentioned abilities.

Uh.... A republic is NOT a democracy. It shares many similar traits, but the two are not one and the same. Republic: "A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people" Democracy: "Democracy is the ideal that all the citizens of a nation determine together the laws or actions of their state, requiring that all citizens have an equal opportunity to express their consent and their will." They are two completely different governmental systems. Rome, for instance was a Republic at times during its life. People did not 'vote,' however. Senators did. The definition are close, but the differences have vast implications. In a Democracy, every man and woman of age has a vote they may cast. In a Republic, a certain group of the people has a vote. In fact, the Republic could not possibly be a true democracy, any more than the United States, Canada or anywhere else could, because people on Coruscant cannot possibly have a say in what people on Corellia do. For one, the logistics are mind boggling, for another, each world is a separate entity, as each State is a separate entity. But, regardless, both sides suffer from 'corruption.' Both governments are flawed. Politicians in any system where they are 'elected' or 'appointed' are going to do precisely what they need to get said position. To assume they would use only honourable means is lunacy. People are not just. People are not good. At best, we are a mix of right and wrong. We make decisions based on emotions, and sometimes we make the wrong ones. Within the Republic, those with money, power and influence enter government, as they do within our own world. Control the government, you control what happens. This is a fact of life. It sucks, I don't agree with it, I certainly don't like it, but it is a fact. Any history book will tell you this. The difference between the Sith and the Republic? This behaviour, this kind of use of power, is illegal within the Republic. As a member of the Republic, regardless of class, you are called upon on several worlds to deal with this issue. As a member of the Sith, this is par for the course and actively encouraged by the Sith belief structure. They believe that through conflict, through strife, the strong survive. The Imperial Military is an entirely separate entity, being a military, and they believe in following orders, in loyalty to your ranking officers. So, yeah, the Republic has corruption in it, but for the most part we get to do something about it. The Sith Empire is corrupt as well, but it is supposed to be, so who cares? The only group that seems to really give a damn, and work for the common good, are the Jedi. Saving the life of the Jedi Masters benefits the whole, because without them the Order suffers, and if the Order suffers, the galaxy suffers. It isn't emotion. It is cold, hard logic. One Master is more important because of the power and knowledge they possess.

As a level 47 Sent who tops damage/objective marks on the WZ and lays waste to everything PVE, I can confidently say, no they are not. However, 12-15 levels ago, I'd have agreed with you. Sort of. You're obviously frustrated, and people will have said all this already, but Sents get better. You don't have Doc yet. He makes it easier. You don't have awe yet. That gives you a AOE mez. You don't have enough points to max out whichever spec tree you are using. That makes it easier. Without all your abilities, without a healer, without interrupts, and without your defensive CDs popped, sents go down fast. With all that stuff? Not much that can touch us before we take their head off. On another note, you cannot 'confidently' state anything about a class in the 30's range. If you were 50, sure. But you haven't tried the class at the end, with all the bells and whistles. Keep at it, Sent is highly rewarding.

Lack of tools is probably a significant factor. You want to dump points into the Blurred Speed, which lowers the cooldown on Force Leap, and Close Quarters, which will lower the minimum distance to 0m. That is a fair amount of points, so it will take you a few more levels to get there. Also you wanna put points into Watchguard, which will lower the cooldown on kick to 6 seconds. Kick is important. Make sure it is on an easy to use key-bind. You should have it by now, make sure you are using it. At the level you are at, Watchman doesn't have enough points into it yet to really shine. I am really sorry to say this, cause it doesn't help at all, but it does get better. From the way you are talking, it sounds as though you mean PvP, and at that level in that environment, Sentinels are in big trouble. People love to focus us. But don't give up, keep learning from your experiences, and soon enough it will be your turn.

Honestly, I don't think there *is* a 'weaker' class. Not how I would define 'weaker' anyway. Every class has its ups and downs. Things are very well balanced, and each class has its role to play, its rock meets paper situation. I will not argue that the sentinel is HARDER to play - I took a break for several weeks and leveled a vanguard to 42 before returning to my Sent - because Sentinel can be very frustrating. When played well, they are a blast to play. But the margin for error is extremely small with the class. Miss a CD, fail to position properly, or blow defenses too early, and you're cooked. Other classes have it easier in that the class is more forgiving. You can afford to be sloppy, or slower. In the case of ranged classes, positioning means very little. But, again, I think this is balanced because if the Sents could be as sloppy, if the same one-three button play style was implemented for Sents, we would be OP. Once again, I do not think that having a class requiring more effort equates to weaker. Until I can see reliable metrics for DPS and Burst to compare to others, I feel my damage is superior to many. It just takes some effort and, yes, skill to dish it out.

My thanks. Anything to use as a base will help.

I have tried to search out a thread on this topic, and I do recall reading something of it at some point, but have been unable to locate anything. So, if someone could point me in the right direction, that would be great. Else-wise: I have seen many people mention 'DR' as though the exact stat numbers are common knowledge. I was just thinking last night, however, that I really have no idea at what point stacking more crit/surge/power/et al becomes pointless, or why this is so. If some kind, knowledgeable MMO mathematician might take pity on me and explain this, I would be very grateful. Also, if it weren't clear, a good 'rule of thumb' on what numbers to shoot for on the Big 4 (Power, Crit, Surge, Accuracy) would be great. Thank you for your time.

I really don't want to troll, cause I hate that, but this... wow. I am not sure how 'requiring more skill' equates to 'weaker.' The CLASS is not weak. It is very well balanced, though it does have some issues that need to be tweaked. It is a more challenging, yes, takes longer to master, yes, and it is not at all noob friendly, yes. Weaker? No, not even a little. A 'weaker class' is a class that has crappy armour rating, crappy damage, crappy utility, and crappy mobility. Sents have good damage. Some might say top-tier, if geared right. Sents have decent armour. We aren't forced into light-armour, are we? Sents have decent utility when spec'd right, and played right. Sents have alright mobility, but only because of lack of CC resistance. Our single issue is we are a Melee DPS without the ability to negate the CC that come our way, or to close the gap reliably when we have been CC'd out of the fight. Remove this issue, and we come very close to the dread 'OP' claim.

Well, this is refreshing. A sentinel thread that does not consist of whining and trolling. *sigh* I am not a serious PvP'r, so let's just get that out of the way. The primary reason I don't PvP, is cause of the CC issue. I don't like the fact that I get Kb'd, and rooted every 30 seconds, and spend a lot of my time in the dead box as a result. Now, I know why I end up there; I'm boss. Again, I am not a PvP'r to the core, I'm a casual across the board kinda guy. A little of this, a little of that. If I had to be incredibly immodest, I'd say I'm a decent sentinel. I frequently land within the top 5 in damage, and very rarely am I less than top 3 for objectives - which is what counts, IMHO. If I can close the gap, I can wreck a lot of people. But that is a big IF. The majority of the people I cross on my server are... decent players. They aren't great, they don't get the basic mechanics of PvP, and they make a lot of mistakes. I have no idea how solid PvP'rs feel, because if *I* notice the mistakes, they must be laughin their butts off. But even with that, it is damn hard at times to do well on the scoreboard, because the vast majority of classes have several ways to deal with us. Now, I don't want buffs to damage. I also don't want more CC, or to have our CC taken off channel. I think it is fair the way it is. Honestly, if we could cc and close to beat them, we'd be OP. Too easily abused, IMO. And as for more damage? Why, we already wreck, if we can close the gap. Buffing our damage would only result in a nerf someplace else, down the road. And with a decent healer, or smart management of our defensive cool-downs, our squishiness can be overcome for the time it needs to hurt the other guy. As I see it, our only real issue is gap-closers. That can be overcome with either new ways to actually close the gap, or by limiting things like root/snare/KB. I am all in favour of a passive resistance through spec. Like, say, adding it to something like 'defensive forms,' or even 'defensive roll.' Gives the Combat spec something a little more appealing, but doesn't put it too high into the spec that others can't benefit from it. As for additional gap-closers... i am not so in favour of that, as I play watchman and I get some decent force-leap action going there. I really like the idea of havin a KB resist inherant to Leap, or even spec'd to be so. TL;DR /sign on the idea of a low % passive resist to KB/Root/snare OR a (spec'd) resist made apart of Leap.

I don't understand; it's one character. Can't you just not use him? I mean, are you required to use him to complete the BH storyline? In what way has the inclusion of a single companion ruined an entire class?