As some of the other posters stated its about timing and proper ability usage. First off its important to know and understand your ccs as a watchman. A word of warning though, when done properly your burst damage is low but survivability is high. The first thing to remember is leg slash/crippling throw are extremally effective at mitigating movement and healing. Leg slash can also proc a overload saber charge so should be a priority in your rotation. The second thing is proper usage of zen, dont just pop it when its available, wait until your dots are up. Also i tend to go rebuke at start, saber ward at 75% guarded by the force at 20% force camo dependent on whether you need to close the gap or if your almost dead. Save awe when your dots are on cooldown and use force stasis if hes channeling. I also typically get pacify on after my dots are up because its usually at that part of a rotation that enemies are at there heavy damage output abilities, so that 6 second diminish is overwhelmingly powerful. Finally force kick... way to many sentinels do not utilize this properly or understand what it does. It interrups a targets ability and causes it to be unusable for 4 seconds... thats huge! You have to remember that everything has a cooldown and if you forcekick something with a long cooldown that ability is wasted. Your more pro pvpers wait specifically for certain abilities to force kick because they know by heart all the abilities in the game and there cooldowns, but alot of us are not at that level. I simply just spam it when its up and surprisingly damage and healing is greatly mitigated.

Its exceptionally simple as to why you feel merciless slash is underrated. First and foremost the cost. Obviously you did the math and figured you can get 2 slashes in but as previously stated thats an extra global cooldown. As stated again merciless slash + strike takes the same amount of time as 2 slashes, costs less focus (merc -4 strike+2) and drops a full 3 proc of overload slaber vs 2 with 2x slash. The second thing your doing is looking at actual damage. The average damage of slash is close in terms of its minimum damge and its maximum whereas your merc slash has a huge damage gap possibility. Another factor involved is the mob itself and its damage resistance, something that combat spec avoids because of precision slash. Now comparing a masterstrike vs a merc slash you have to take into account that it is a channeled ability that can and in hard fps or heroic dailies often time does get interrupted meaning that mega damage is mitigated significantly. So if your going with a watchman build do remember that end game watchman is entirely based on the dots and not the burst. Dots ignore armor hence there effectiveness and the zen spam that pushes easy crits is nice as hell. So i agree with almost all of this threads posters that any option is viable either merc slash and strike or going with 2x slash, cauterize for your overload saber stacks.

Yea.... im with all the other posters here... Your nerd rage is a little to high and you should take your manprin. Sentinel is by far not the weakest dps, and by sounds of it you dont know what your doing at all with a sentinel. Considering your pve your either going watchman or combat and surge doesnt apply to either barely at all. Sentinel gets a very low diminishing return from crits/surges and relys on either dots or burst dps which is effected by power. This is based off the following: Sentinels unlike other damage classes can spam high damage abilities practically non stop with little concern over resource management (ammo/force etc.) Because of that lack of resource need we as sentinels can spam high damage abilities constantly. If your depending on surge for the majority of your damage then you are way doing it wrong because then your depending on your crit chance which even if your gear is crit spec you will find that your actual chance to proc a critical hit is not that high. Even if your watchman with zen up a high surge build wont do anything for you because of the mitigated damage output from your other non burn abilities. Your priorities for non str/endurance stats should be acc/power/surge/crit/other if your watchman or acc/power/crit/surge/other if combat. Before nerd raging perhaps request some advice on how to do your class

I disagree that the sent/mara builds are better. In both circumstances its based entirely on the player not the class specifics. Mara/sent is a very straight forward class... latch onto your target and go crazy. Assasins/shadows require a little more discretion and planning but in the hands of a skilled pvper can and easily deal with even the highest pro mara/sents. Simply because of all the utility they have at there disposal.

If it isnt already keep dispatch on your bar as a closer. Because of its high damage and 10m distance with low focus cost it makes for a great killblow shot to anyone below 20% health. As far as slash vs bladestorm slash is better overall for the stated reasons but, sometimes bladestorm is more beneficial depending on circumstance. If your able to maintain staying on top of your opponent (which you should) slash is obviously the better choice. But if you have an exceptionally mobile opponent that you cant latch onto bladestorm helps get extra damage on while your burns do there thing. As stated its situational and depends on what your fighting.

First off as watchman, you have that one ability that gives a % that resets cauterize cooldown. Granted merciless slash benefits from the same ability, it also uses 3 more focus (remember you should have the ability that refunds 1 focus after using slash meaning its actual cost after activation is 2). Meaning you get 2 1/2 slashes per merciless. Now why is this important? The one ability called valor. It gives 2 centering per force ability used, so the more slashes you use the more centering obtained meaning more zen crits or transcendence pops. Also in terms of damage per focus used, overtime slash spamming out does merciless slash considering its lack of cooldown, lower cost and ability to almost consta spam it.