What spec are you leveling with?

[Rankith]

Just curious, Im going watchman as thats the spec I intend to end wih.

[misieek]

Just curious, Im going watchman as thats the spec I intend to end wih.

 

watchman after 40 combat for blade rush

[Littica]

Going to try Focus

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501ZhGMZGrRrzbodGR.1

[MBirkhofer]

For those that weren't in beta.

Avoid leveling combat.

The power gains in that tree really do not come into play until MUCH later.

level 27 for your first "real" damage gains.

Then level 43 for a "complete" package.

the early talents in combat are basically raiding talents, or really minor buffs that don't come together until they get the level 43 blade rush buff to complete them.

 

Focus offers some SERIOUS power really early.

Its ZEN buff is probably the strongest of all 3. That in addition to crit chance and extra damage on slash, gives you a TON of damage early. As well as extra AOE.

This especially true for early pvp. Given a second leap at 20, and that extra burst/damage with zen.

While later game Focus swaps to focusing on CC moves, and sweep.

 

 

Watchmen is pretty strong 10-50.

 

 

So I would say, do not level combat 1-27. Go focus for that. At 27, decide if you like focus and want to stay that. Or swap to combat at that point. 27 for combat is when you get the 100% crit chance bladestorm. Which is huge. Then shortly after prec strike.

Again, those buffs are nice, but even then, focus is still more damage overall., so you might want to stick with focus all the way to 43.

43 in combat now gives you blade rush, and the -1 focus cost on blade rush(which is t1 in focus). A 1 focus cost blade rush during Zen, and 2 normally, is now a functional damage tool. And its buffing Ataru to actually work effectively, as well as giving that shorter CD 100% crit bladestorm. Individually, these tools don't do much, combined its powerful. so, its not very good leveling. But post 43, you can put them all together effectively.

Edited December 14, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Itesh]

Can someone post a link to the talents I should take in the Focus tree? Or just what I should take in what order?

[Venator-Falco]

As much as I have read the why nots for going Combat that is what I am doing.

I played through to 26 as Combat, and found it lots of fun. Maybe it isn’t the most powerful (Can’t comment as didn’t play any other build) But it was a good difficulty level that kept me on my toes while letting me level consistently.

[OmicronZero]

As much as I have read the why nots for going Combat that is what I am doing.

I played through to 26 as Combat, and found it lots of fun. Maybe it isn’t the most powerful (Can’t comment as didn’t play any other build) But it was a good difficulty level that kept me on my toes while letting me level consistently.

QFE

 

I've heard people talk non stop about how Combat isn't a viable tree until very late in the game, how Watchman and Focus are better, and of course that Guardians are just better overall (they can tank!). Yet here I am, playing a Combat Sentinel. I too played one in the beta, and I never ran into any of the 'problems' I've heard people bemoan- in fact I found it fun.

[CivicTiger]

I find Combat fine.

 

People just jump on the band wagon. As soon as one person thinks one spec isn't good everyone will believe him and say the same things they are, without even trying all 3 specs.

 

Makes me lol.

[Garrlor]

I find Combat fine.

 

People just jump on the band wagon. As soon as one person thinks one spec isn't good everyone will believe him and say the same things they are, without even trying all 3 specs.

 

Makes me lol.

 

Same, I found combat to be a good spec for leveling. I will go watchman until I can pick up Ataru Forms, but then respec once I am there. I just cant see the point of a build that is centered around self healing Dots when I am leveling with my wife who is a healer by trade (Or pro boo boo kisser as she puts it lol).

 

Maybe Watchmen is better for people who plan to play solo, I dont know. But as far as I can see from a quick look at the trees you have the capacity to do a hell of a lot of burst DPS as a Combat specced Sent.

[Trewavas]

Hey folks,

 

this is merely theory-crafting as far as I am concerned (never played a sentinel further than level 15 which means I haven´t seen anything yet), but wouldn´t it make sense to choose combat instead of watchman for pve soloing?

Combat looks like burst damage, while watchman describes the good old dots. One quickly defeated opponent means one guy less dealing damage to you, whereas the ticking dots leaves them alive a little longer.

 

Any weak points in my thoughts?

[Garrlor]

Hey folks,

 

this is merely theory-crafting as far as I am concerned (never played a sentinel further than level 15 which means I haven´t seen anything yet), but wouldn´t it make sense to choose combat instead of watchman for pve soloing?

Combat looks like burst damage, while watchman describes the good old dots. One quickly defeated opponent means one guy less dealing damage to you, whereas the ticking dots leaves them alive a little longer.

 

Any weak points in my thoughts?

 

That is also my opinion. Watchman is good for longer fights where your Juyo mastery comes into play. When you are levelling you have to chain pull mobs and hope you are getting enough healing from the Dots to keep you up from what I can see.

 

Just personal opinion though. Plus if you talent into Rebuke as combat you can get focus from being hit, how is that a bad thing

[MBirkhofer]

As much as I have read the why nots for going Combat that is what I am doing.

I played through to 26 as Combat, and found it lots of fun. Maybe it isn’t the most powerful (Can’t comment as didn’t play any other build) But it was a good difficulty level that kept me on my toes while letting me level consistently.

 

the game isn't hard, so its not like any one of the specs are unplayable or anything.

 

The question is more pvp, or just plain speed.

 

Mathematically, combat is behind the other two for quite a while.

Watchman has its 10% damage buff innate, and its burns ignore armor. And both npcs and players have a good chuck of armor.

 

at level 25+ npc armor and hp starts scaling quick. Watchmans self heals and burns will go a LONG way in aiding soloing vs silver/golds.

And focus also has much more damage early, then combat.

Which has no burst at all until 27 for the blade storm crits.

 

 

Watchman and Focus Zen centering buffs are also both magnitudes better then Combats.

This is another huge factor. And the difference between the 3.

Focus's is the best of the 3.

0 focus slash. And aoe. Even at base slash this is the strongest of the 3. but focus BUFFS slash a ton. (As in, if you are having a hard time with angral, or another story boss as combat, swap to shii-cho, and use zen/slash, and you'll probably beat them. the 5% damage and 7% def+ zen damage will be what you need likely)

And, as said, focus slash is beast. 15% crit, 11% damage buff, aoe. Tears bosses, and players up.

Watchmans, aoe heal, and crit is pretty strong too. Not uncommon to see a watchman sent in a BG with 40-60k healing.

All combats Zen does is reduce the time to use the 6 slashes from 9 s, to 6s. And reduces the cost from 18 to 12. And your slash has no buffs to it. This is terrible until you have 2 focus bladerush. lvl43. (Even then still weaker then the other two)

 

Focus also then has its +10centering after transcendence. another very strong pvp tool.

 

Its not that combat is bad. Its just that combat relies on many talents working together to function. and you need all the parts to get it to really come together.

Ataru is terrible at first. you need 7 talent points just to get its baseline, and the real damage burst of the crit bladestorms. The entire tree is built on making ataru procs more and stronger. While other trees have bits and pieces that work separately. Focus has its +slash talents you get in its entirety pre 25. Then you start building your sweep/leap combo. and late focus is exhaustion/stasis. Watchman is heals, burns, and merc strike at the end. More evenly distributed power gains.

Edited December 15, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Lynear]

What companion do you use with your Focus leveling build?

[Riddickcz]

How good is the watchman's self healing? Self healing is the only part Im missing in the combat tree. Im not worried bout the damage much but the self healing might be the cutting edge to convince me roll Watchman instead.

[MBirkhofer]

How good is the watchman's self healing? Self healing is the only part Im missing in the combat tree. Im not worried bout the damage much but the self healing might be the cutting edge to convince me roll Watchman instead.

 

The heal isn't a life saver. If you played wow, think bloodthirst heal, or second wind.

Small heal that overtime will add up. But will do nothing vs focus fire, or constant damage.

[Juumanistra]

For what it's worth, I've opted to try Combat, though my baby Sentinel has only hit L11. (And I haven't left the Republic Fleet yet!)

 

Combat looks, in terms of its play-style, a good deal like a Fury warrior. So if it does limp along in mediocrity for a while...well, I'm ready for that, too. As I took my Fury warrior up to L85 with Cata, and you don't really get to start truly playing the spec until you hit L70 and can grab Titan's Grip or Single-Minded Fury.

[Ghingis]

Combat all the way, leveling with my PvP specc just to get used to everything.

[Kurotoshiro]

Combat, because it's fun to play

[Phanty]

Level 28, combat all the way!

[Nacixems]

im 26 atm, been doing combat. its challenging and fun. sure i get beat on elites and sometimes u struggle, but its fun. however it seems to be taking off atm and im enjoying it alot.

 

the issue is deciding weather to pick an upgrade for my compan. or me. and if my compan. which one. atm i have 2 i have to try and upgrade, and it gets expensive, unless ur running flashpoints and getting comindations. its kind of hard.. but keeping them upgraded helps.... a ton imo.

[Flippa]

I am also leveling combat! I love it! I get top 5 on damage in pvp usually and kill things very fast. I see no reason to not level it! Extra off-hand damage and fast stacks of centering make damage very easy to dish out!

[Herbey]

Watchmen burns things down quite nicely. I say watchman till 43 as others have suggested. Combat just takes off too slow. I played combat up to lvl 30 in beta. I mostly did warfronts. My damage output is MUCH better in warfronts now that I am watchmen.

[Jorha]

Watchmen burns things down quite nicely. I say watchman till 43 as others have suggested. Combat just takes off too slow. I played combat up to lvl 30 in beta. I mostly did warfronts. My damage output is MUCH better in warfronts now that I am watchmen.

 

 

100% agree here. I played Combat in the weekend beta up to 23 and now combat up to 26 and was doing just fine solo'ing and was always top 3 damage in warfronts while maintaining Objectives but when I switched to Watchman last night I have just been blowing away everyones damage and doing a little healing as well.

 

I will prob stay watchman to try out Merciless Slash and then go back to Combat.

 

 

tldr: play what you like any of them are viable but I feel like combat is a little under watchman until you can fill out the whole tree.

[FobManX]

So far I've leveled as Watchman. Yeah it's damage takes a while to build up but it is the best spec for taking down those pesky elites as those fights are always a bit longer. Normal grind mobs are easy enough no matter what spec you play.

 

I'm considering going Focus though as it's got some really nice talents in the bottom of the tree, but I want to at least mess around with Overload Saber as well(I'm level 18 at the moment)and I'd like to try Ataru Form as well.

 

How much does it cost to respec? Also, does the movement speed boost you get from that early Combat talent stack with Sprint?

[Jorha]

So far I've leveled as Watchman. Yeah it's damage takes a while to build up but it is the best spec for taking down those pesky elites as those fights are always a bit longer. Normal grind mobs are easy enough no matter what spec you play.

 

I'm considering going Focus though as it's got some really nice talents in the bottom of the tree, but I want to at least mess around with Overload Saber as well(I'm level 18 at the moment)and I'd like to try Ataru Form as well.

 

How much does it cost to respec? Also, does the movement speed boost you get from that early Combat talent stack with Sprint?

 

 

Watchman is the way to go imo I have yet to try Focus and combat is good but I think it just needs the talents at the end of its tree to really shine. Speed buff does not stack with sprint.