Watchman vs Combat for Leveling?

[Varom]

Which is better for leveling and what exactly does each one do? Also what are the pros and cons of both trees

[snakeIL]

Watchman, first I was combat, but then I changed to Watchman and I must say its better.

[Typhares]

Yes watchman for leveling because you get better talent at lower level (overload saber, self heal etc) but at higher level I think it's still pretty much up in the air.

[AstralProjection]

I was Combat the whole way, but the general consensus seems to be that Watchman is superior, and that Focus is definitely superior if you're a PVPer. Most of the people I know who switched trees for Watchman or a new non-Combat spec say it made their Sentinel a lot more fun to play because they sucked less (we don't really suck at all, we're just a hard class to learn/play) ; ) Edited January 11, 2012 by AstralProjection

[Nyliana]

Watchman, first I was combat, but then I changed to Watchman and I must say its better.

 

Despite liking combat playstyle more, I agree with Snake

[Fullbeard]

I firmly beleive that watchman is the wrong way to go for levelling.

 

The reasoning is that the majority of fights you do is standard mobs or 1 strong and 1-2 standard.

 

you want to burst down the standard mobs fast and then take the strong one solo, watchman does not have good burst, especially compared to combat.

 

Watchman is more viable at 50, since it excells in sustained damage, but doing having a spec based on applying 6 seconds dots on mobs you wanna kill in 2 secs makes it a pure waste.

 

The best levelling spec is the spec that takes the 2 standard mobs down the fastest, and thats combat especially from level 33.

 

Charge one, blade rush, zealus strike / blade rush - movs to other mob and hit with the 100% crit Blade storm that tends to oneshot the next standard mob, and then both mobs are down in less than and then you go and take down the strong mob.

 

With watchman you can charge, apply cauterize, zealus strike and strike (and then hope that its enough for the dot) and then movs to next mob to merciless slash/strike - since you kinda have to save the overload saber for the strong mob since its your bread and butter as well as relying on cauterise is open.

 

Combat is by far superior in levelling, and i actually beleive that focus is better as well for taking the classic one strong 2 standard spawns.

 

/F

[Maefly]

Combat or Watchman to level 20, preference, after level 20, Watchman is easier. Not to say Combat isn't viable its just that watchman allows you to put out a good deal of damage while not taking any via stasis.

 

After level 43ish, Focus is the way to go (7 global cooldowns to kill a pack of 3 standard) until you get to 50 then it's your choice for end game tree.

 

Of course people have leveled all the way to 50 in each of the trees so they are all viable with varying degrees of difficulty and efficiency.

[LordAposno]

I was combat spec and loving it till I hit level 25 and Tatooine. There the fights became increasingly harder as a combat spec sentinel. The higher level I earned the harder and less effective combat spec became. I respeced to watchman at level 30 and instantly all the fights became manageable and I was much more effective. Elites my level and + or -1 were almost impossible as a combat spec. With Watchman elites are no issue. Its a fun spec that makes my sentinel much more effective against elites, in groups and general content.

[Wotch]

I started out leveling as combat from 10 to about 22 or so and switched to Watchman. I switched back to Combat at about level 28 and I must say I had far fewer issues as Combat overall.

 

From what I can tell your spec doesn't really matter until you hit about 25 when the playstyle between Watchman and Combat really diverges.

[Barachiel]

I was combat spec and loving it till I hit level 25 and Tatooine. There the fights became increasingly harder as a combat spec sentinel. The higher level I earned the harder and less effective combat spec became. I respeced to watchman at level 30 and instantly all the fights became manageable and I was much more effective. Elites my level and + or -1 were almost impossible as a combat spec. With Watchman elites are no issue. Its a fun spec that makes my sentinel much more effective against elites, in groups and general content.

 

The irony here is, my experience was identical, but opposite. I had the same hellish difficulty spike, but switched from Watchman to Combat at lvl 29, and that made it a *little* easier. That being said, I still had to get a leveling partner to finish off my own story missions, due to all the Sith Elites being thrown out. Now I've got Doc. Maybe I'll give Watchman another chance.

[Weizzeger]

From lvl 15 to 50 I was Combat. Never had a single issue, spare the last boss of my class story, and loved every moment of my experience.

 

Watchman and Combat (I haven't tried Focus that much, as I don't intend to PvP too often) feel quite different as far as play styles go, so you just have to go with what you love. If you love what you do and how you do it, you'll be better at it than something that someone else says is "optimal."

 

Watchman seems to rely on DoTs and a very tight rotation. While I'm sure it's effective, it just didn't sit well with me.

 

Combat is for someone that likes beating someone's face in till you see bone. It has a semi-slow build up phase followed by a dump phase. Build phase consist of putting everything up and on CD; Blade Rush, Cauterize, Precision Slash, Master Strike, till Centering is capped. Dump phase begins at 30 centering: Inspiration, Valorous Call, Zen, Relics/Stims, Blade Rush spam while keeping Precision slash up. Repeat (long CDs when applicable).

 

Combat is intuitive in my opinion, and works fantastic if used properly: single target obliteration. When I got Doc, I had very little downtime (at last!) since he'd agro everything I wasn't beating to a bloody pulp, then I'd just pick them off him while he kept healing himself. Combat finished, I'd mount up, and he'd be back to full when I dismounted- back to healing me before himself when he pulled agro on the next pack. If I got into a REALLY bad spot, I just use Force Camo and the target would go beat on Doc till I felt comfortable taking it back.

[BenRislove]

I really think combat works wonders while leveling, I don't want to deal with DoT application on random mobs, and combats' burst is better.

 

Focused Slash (in the watchman tree) should be your first 3 points. it's annoying because you get everything 3 levels "late" in combat, but precision strike and blade rush don't make up for 1 FOCUS off your primary damage ability.

 

Personally I went combat basically the whole way, I heard all these cool stories about watchman, and they are true, but you don't kill strongs/normals any faster (probably a bit slower) You do kill elites faster, assuming they don't have ways to interrupt your rotation.

 

If you can keep overload saber on 3 charges for ~15 seconds, you're going to be ahead of combat, but you you get interrupted or anything like that, you have a different problem.

 

Maybe i'm just lazy while leveling, but watchman wasn't a noticeable gain for the 5 levels I tried it, and I haven't had any problems on any fights with combat.

 

I use t7 and make him tank, then I kill everything and he takes some damage, which you can heal to full in .5sec by mounting up who needs a healer?

 

if you're having problems leveling, Masterstrike stuns normal guys, so use it on normal guys, blade storm is way overcosted until talented, so until mid 30's you're just slashing things, a lot.

[MatzahMaul]

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I am thinking of starting a Jedi Sentinel to have as an alt. My main is a level 26 Juggernaut and I enjoy the class mechanics.

Most people seem to think this class is harder to play successfully compared to most of the other classes and I enjoy a challenge.

 

Burst is more up my alley as far as play-style, but from reading this thread and a couple others, it seems Watchman may be the way to go. It seems to be stronger with Strong and Elites. While Combat is faster with the standard enemies. My way of thinking says "What does it matter which spec takes out the weak enemies fastest?" The standard enemies do not concern me at all, anyone can take one down. Does not matter if it takes three seconds or five.

 

I would like to hear more on the pro's/con's of each spec as I have not even started my Jedi Sentinel. I may or may not change my mind by the time I reach level 10.

[Weizzeger]

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I am thinking of starting a Jedi Sentinel to have as an alt. My main is a level 26 Juggernaut and I enjoy the class mechanics.

Most people seem to think this class is harder to play successfully compared to most of the other classes and I enjoy a challenge.

 

Burst is more up my alley as far as play-style, but from reading this thread and a couple others, it seems Watchman may be the way to go. It seems to be stronger with Strong and Elites. While Combat is faster with the standard enemies. My way of thinking says "What does it matter which spec takes out the weak enemies fastest?" The standard enemies do not concern me at all, anyone can take one down. Does not matter if it takes three seconds or five.

 

I would like to hear more on the pro's/con's of each spec as I have not even started my Jedi Sentinel. I may or may not change my mind by the time I reach level 10.

 

Again, it's rather strait forward. I don't understand what the challenge is with the class, as it becomes obvious what to do after a while.

 

It entirely depends on your play style.

Do you like to whittle down your opponent slowly but surely with a moderately complex but effective rotation? Go Watchman.

Do you like a simple, smooth, rotation followed by an explosion of fury? Go Combat.

Do you like PvP? Go Focus.

[MatzahMaul]

Again, it's rather strait forward. I don't understand what the challenge is with the class, as it becomes obvious what to do after a while.

 

It entirely depends on your play style.

Do you like to whittle down your opponent slowly but surely with a moderately complex but effective rotation? Go Watchman.

Do you like a simple, smooth, rotation followed by an explosion of fury? Go Combat.

Do you like PvP? Go Focus.

 

 

See, I like the way you put across combat. Burst has always been more of my play-style, compared to constant DoT type damage.

However, how do each compare with doing elites or champions? Like I said, I read that Watchman is better, but is there much of a difference?

[Karzi]

Burst is more up my alley as far as play-style, but from reading this thread and a couple others, it seems Watchman may be the way to go. It seems to be stronger with Strong and Elites. While Combat is faster with the standard enemies. My way of thinking says "What does it matter which spec takes out the weak enemies fastest?" .

 

Watchman can change to shin cho or whatever before a zen and use the aoe slash to sweep out non-elite/non-boss enemies quickly. Watchman's thing for me is how fast it builds zen with the low level talents in combat added to its own at the high end of watchman.

[bear_toe]

I was combat spec until i reached level 25 and tatooine much like the other user. I had full upgraded blue gear upto or close to my level... thinking that it would mean less deaths but wow...

 

a same level elite would give me quite a bit of problems. Out of frustration, i switched to watchman and it has been a lot easier. Definitely a lot less deaths.

 

sucks though, i really like the playstyle for combat, but watchman is surprisingly easier. I'll continue scouting around to see how i can make combat playable, but right now, seems like every story point i'm reaching will have one elite mob or a few silvers in the mix to deal with at the same time.

 

it's quite possibly because i'm using kira rather than the T7 tank.

Edited February 4, 2012 by bear_toe

[Kellindell]

I find watchman to be great against golds and even silvers. But against standard mobs its awful. If you are with someone its even worse.

 

In PvP it felt not so great until 25. At that point you can Overload saber X3, cauterize, and force stasis and just watch the health go down while they sit and do nothing. Drop a heal debuff on them as the stasis ends and finish them off with another rotation.

 

My only problem with watchman is (and I guess its because I dont have merciless slash yet) the rotation feels clunky. Overload, Zealous, cauterize, strike to get the third Overload on them, and then I have nothing to do thats worth while. I have alot of stuff I can use, but none of it is effected by my talents, and that seems really odd to me.

 

Combat for leveling was amazing, simply amazing, but focus is cool too because you open up with an auto crit force sweep on AOE mobs and when your centering builds up to blow Zen and murder people with 6 slashes.

 

All the high level sents on my server SWEAR by watchmen for PvP. I see its effectiveness, but isnt fun to me. The rotation seems odd, and It doesnt have any fun tricks or combos, its just running around applying dots and a healing debuff and doing it all over again.

 

With combat you root with your healing debuff, you still can use slash as a focus dump, or get decent damage from blade storm. I feel like combat and focus have more fluid rotations, and more fun tricks you can do.

 

Watchman may ignore alot of your basic JK attacks as far as talents go, like stasis and blade storm, but you cant ignore what it can do in PvP. Your damage will always be high top3 even in bad gear. And the pressure you can put on someone if you stick to them in undeniable. If you find killing the most fun thing in PvP, go watchman. If you like to play around with skills more, try focus or combat.

 

 

I firmly beleive that watchman is the wrong way to go for levelling.

 

The reasoning is that the majority of fights you do is standard mobs or 1 strong and 1-2 standard.

 

you want to burst down the standard mobs fast and then take the strong one solo, watchman does not have good burst, especially compared to combat.

 

Watchman is more viable at 50, since it excells in sustained damage, but doing having a spec based on applying 6 seconds dots on mobs you wanna kill in 2 secs makes it a pure waste.

 

The best levelling spec is the spec that takes the 2 standard mobs down the fastest, and thats combat especially from level 33.

 

Charge one, blade rush, zealus strike / blade rush - movs to other mob and hit with the 100% crit Blade storm that tends to oneshot the next standard mob, and then both mobs are down in less than and then you go and take down the strong mob.

 

With watchman you can charge, apply cauterize, zealus strike and strike (and then hope that its enough for the dot) and then movs to next mob to merciless slash/strike - since you kinda have to save the overload saber for the strong mob since its your bread and butter as well as relying on cauterise is open.

 

Combat is by far superior in levelling, and i actually beleive that focus is better as well for taking the classic one strong 2 standard spawns.

 

/F