So I re-rolled a Scoundrel and will never look back.

[Fiachsidhe]

I gotta be honest, as a Sentinel I hated it, until I geared up and then I was taking class bosses several levels below recommended, the fights were close but i won many.

 

Sentinel/Marauder is THE hardest class to play. They require a full use of your abilities and has very little room for error. Once you do get this process down you're capable of doing massive damage. Some of the best in the game, and your raid utility is great.

 

Trust me, I understand your frustration. They can be very annoying and even simple mistakes can end in repair bills.

 

Bottom line, play what you like. If it isn't fun, don't do it. I'm sorry you don't like Sentinel but it's good you found something you enjoy. It's your fifteen a month.

 

I love my Sentinel, personally.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Fiachsidhe

[McVade]

I still don't understand the requirement that the class has to be easy to play. Where did it say that in the contract you signed with BW? If the class is too difficult or not powerful enough, why are you still playing it? Reminds me of Einsteins definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

And for those Sage's who can solo champs. That content is not designed to be soloed. Just because you can doesn't make other classes underpowered.

 

It's a love/hate. Right now, hate outweighs love, but not enough for me to reroll.

 

I intend to suffer loudly until such a time where the hate far outweighs the love in which case, I'll probably just unsub (not much for alts), or they fix the class or, somehow, I cross a threshold between casual and pro where, suddenly, everything makes sense and the class becomes amazing and 300k in a warzone is done in my sleep, always, like some elitists claim they do.

Edited January 28, 2012 by McVade

[-Arcane-]

i quit my sent at 45 a few weeks ago and rolled a scoundrel, now level 50. the difference in difficulty between the 2 classes is enormous. i did not lose a single class boss fight on my smuggler from 1-50. not one. on sentinel i was broke from repair bills and having to go away and re-gear myself and my companion just to beat a class boss.

 

on sentinel, if i had an amazing WZ i might get 6 medals, everything would have to go perfectly. more often than not i would finish mid-field with 4 medals. as a dps scoundrel, 5-6 is a baseline and i regularly get 7+, dealing 200k damage without too much effort. when i see a sent/marauder in a WZ i say here is an easy kill. their 1 utility/non-dps skill is force choke (lol) or they can disappear and run away for a couple of seconds (scoundrels have this skill too btw, except it doesn't wear off after 4 seconds!). i was expecting at 50 to see some beastly marauders in WZs which might make me return to my old sent, but so far in several dozen lvl 50 WZs i have only ever come across 1 marauder who provided a challenge.

 

i can sneak up on (or avoid) anything in the game using stealth, and if i get sick of dps, i can respec, to a healer! oh, and did i mention that regardless of spec i can cc anything for a minute? but wait, there's more: scoundrel's 2 best companions (healer and sniper) are ... wait for it ... also smugglers! this means i can pass on all my old gear, not once, but twice down the chain. so i have companions with awesome gear and have never had to buy them a single piece. this includes passing on endgame pvp gear that gets duplicated from bags.

 

sentinel has zero utility outside of being a mediocre dps.

 

i am not trying to say scoundrels are awesome (although IMO they really are), i am just making the point that anyone who says "sentinel is fine, l2p" needs to go and try some other classes to see just how bad sentinels really have it. they need to up their utility by adding at least some kind of cc or a better aoe.

 

i feel like i was duped into playing a half baked, broken class for the first couple of weeks after release. re-rolling was the best move i ever made.

 

 

 

Another one falls to the sentinels learning curve without ever understanding how powerful the class is.

 

 

Have fun on easymode ranged dps, if i meet you in warzones you are a free kill for me.

[jdela]

For those that have zero issue with PvE (forget PvP for now) can you answer these questions:

 

- What is you level?

- What is your current spec?

- What was your average level vs content? (+3 levels, -1 level, even, etc)

- What companion(s) do you use and for what purpose?

- How was your equipment?

- Computer specs?

- Do you experience lag, if so how much (low, not often, never, high, etc)?

 

I generally do okay with my sentinel. I don't die unless I get a real difficult boss mob or do something stupid. Voss has been a different story entirely, but I experience a general lag on that planet (first planet this has happened) and I think it has a real big negative impact on this class.

 

The other issues that are noticeable to me:

 

- Ability delay is still in existince, kick vs channeled abilities is a good way to see this.

- Abilities that mis-fire are killer when they are your focus builders.

- Doc lags for me and I can LoS him, so sometimes he just doesn't heal. I usually camo and after he gets beat up for a bit he seems to wake up.

 

I really feel like we can use just one more interrupt. It would be a huge help against some of the stronger mobs. It stinks that so many of abilities only stun on weak mobs.

 

But I think that the issues with the sentinel are caused a lot by lag and the ability problems. This class requires good timing and the use of most of your abilities. Lag does not help in this respect and I think makes this class much harder than say a ranged class that can disable multiple opponents. When you have to hit an ability 3 or 4 times to generate focus, you are in for a world of hurt. I know that at 47 I cannot do heroics (2 or 4) on my own as others have claimed, I don't see a way to do it solo. Maybe I just suck, but two golds or a gold and a silver in heroics are tough or worse.

 

*edit spelled planet wrong

Edited January 28, 2012 by jdela

[jedistreen]

I played an operative (scoundrel mirror) rerolled to a jedi/trooper (play either/or depending on my mood) and have never looked back.

 

It works both ways. So you weren't feeling good about playing a sent, and switched to a scoundrel? Good for you. This wasn't a class issue, it's a play-style thing.

[Talorra]

For those that have zero issue with PvE (forget PvP for now) can you answer these questions:

 

- What is you level?

- What is your current spec?

- What was your average level vs content? (+3 levels, -1 level, even, etc)

- What companion(s) do you use and for what purpose?

- How was your equipment?

- Computer specs?

- Do you experience lag, if so how much (low, not often, never, high, etc)?

 

Level 50

 

Watchman. I've changed a few skill points here and there as I learned how things complimented each other, but I've never left Watchman.

 

On level or +1, with the exception of Taris because I did everything I could on Tython and Coruscant. I was +2 or +3 when I got there. And once you hit 50, you're on level with everything you're doing anyway (Ops, Hard Mode FPs, dailies).

 

Kira 95% of the time, Doc for lolkilling champions, and T7 for the ones he was required in.

 

Once I got a full set of oranges I stayed in oranges and upgraded the modification slots as often as I could. I'm now in a mix of Columi/Rakata ops gear, but I long to go back to the looks of my Bladefury set.

 

Orange sabers as well, with up to date modifications in each slot as I levelled. Tionese MH and Columi OH now.

 

From dxdiag

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

Processor: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Memory: 4096MB RAM

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275

Display Memory: 2668 MB

Dedicated Memory: 877 MB

Shared Memory: 1791 MB

Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)

 

Lag, as in game lag? Yes. Ability stuttering/lag? Not since they patched to fix it. Before the patch, yes, but it wasn't keeping me from playing well.

 

For what it's worth, here's my ops progress:

 

Eternity Vault - 8 man 4/5 Nightmare, 16 man 5/5 Normal

Karagga's Palace - 16 man 5/5 Normal

[perato]

Another one falls to the sentinels learning curve without ever understanding how powerful the class is.

 

 

Have fun on easymode ranged dps, if i meet you in warzones you are a free kill for me.

 

given that you seem to think scoundrels are ranged, i can't say i find that threat particularly convincing.

[jdela]

Level 50

 

Watchman. I've changed a few skill points here and there as I learned how things complimented each other, but I've never left Watchman.

 

...

 

 

Thanks for the information. I am curious to see if there is any relation to how the class plays versus the specs of your computer. The class seems to me to require a good amount of fluid actions and perhaps that can not be achieved effectively with lower end machines.

 

I for example, do not have as good as a machine as you do and I still experience ability stutter and some ability lag. It may be a me problem and not a game problem.

[-Arcane-]

given that you seem to think scoundrels are ranged, i can't say i find that threat particularly convincing.

 

 

Scoundrel? just as easymode as Gunslinger but with more burst.

 

 

And still a free kill.

[biowareftw]

i quit my sent at 45 a few weeks ago and rolled a scoundrel, now level 50. the difference in difficulty between the 2 classes is enormous. i did not lose a single class boss fight on my smuggler from 1-50. not one. on sentinel i was broke from repair bills and having to go away and re-gear myself and my companion just to beat a class boss.

 

on sentinel, if i had an amazing WZ i might get 6 medals, everything would have to go perfectly. more often than not i would finish mid-field with 4 medals. as a dps scoundrel, 5-6 is a baseline and i regularly get 7+, dealing 200k damage without too much effort. when i see a sent/marauder in a WZ i say here is an easy kill. their 1 utility/non-dps skill is force choke (lol) or they can disappear and run away for a couple of seconds (scoundrels have this skill too btw, except it doesn't wear off after 4 seconds!). i was expecting at 50 to see some beastly marauders in WZs which might make me return to my old sent, but so far in several dozen lvl 50 WZs i have only ever come across 1 marauder who provided a challenge.

 

i can sneak up on (or avoid) anything in the game using stealth, and if i get sick of dps, i can respec, to a healer! oh, and did i mention that regardless of spec i can cc anything for a minute? but wait, there's more: scoundrel's 2 best companions (healer and sniper) are ... wait for it ... also smugglers! this means i can pass on all my old gear, not once, but twice down the chain. so i have companions with awesome gear and have never had to buy them a single piece. this includes passing on endgame pvp gear that gets duplicated from bags.

 

sentinel has zero utility outside of being a mediocre dps.

 

i am not trying to say scoundrels are awesome (although IMO they really are), i am just making the point that anyone who says "sentinel is fine, l2p" needs to go and try some other classes to see just how bad sentinels really have it. they need to up their utility by adding at least some kind of cc or a better aoe.

 

i feel like i was duped into playing a half baked, broken class for the first couple of weeks after release. re-rolling was the best move i ever made.

 

As a 50 BM scoundrel I lead dmg every game. Problem? People like you can roll them and do horrible warzone dmg, but still kill people one on one. Now they are getting nerfed to oblivion and will be the worst melee spec by far in the game.

 

As a mid 30's annihilation spec? I @$%% on level 40-49's and lead dmg every game unless I am defending. My mortal strike makes healers cry. Noone complains. If I have a trinket and rebuke up I can SLAUGHTER an operative that is 40-49 (which is the most powerful they will ever be).

 

To top it off I usually have no chest piece on and look like the character Wooderson from the movie Dazed and Confused.

 

What am I saying? Thank you for quitting sentinel, instead of asking for this class to be dumbed down so that I get nerfed due to crappy ranged getting killed by crappy melee.

 

http://imageshack.us/f/822/swtor2012012819263973.png/

 

All the good sentinels know that scoundrels/ops are garbage after their opener and that the class will be useless after the nerf. This sentinel even LAUGHS about how easy it is to kill them.

 

 

But whatever nothing I say is going to matter. This class will prob get buffed into absurd levels, then overnerfed all because people have no idea how to play. They will prob give us something like bladestorm lol.

 

BTW my scoundrel name was Liu-kang on the Fatman Server and I pretty much #%^@ on the entire empire with that character. I am 100 percent telling you right now that sentinel/marauder is better. They scale better, they have more utility and they have no downtime. I can't wait to find a pocket healer so I can go around doubling the damage I did on my scoundrel, when I was already leading dps on him lol.

[TheOriginalTrey]

To be fair to the OP, the first character I rolled was a sentinel, and I was having a lot of trouble DPSing. Mind you, this is my first experience in an MMO, I was not specing my character correctly, I had no idea that the sentinel skills were under a separate tab from the trainer, and I was using Kira as my companion.

 

After a few dabbles into the other classes, I've finally settled on playing a Guardian and I am loving the ability to switch between tanking and DPS. However, I have decided to either roll another sentinel or a marauder after I'm done with my Guardian because I did not give the class the chance to shine due to my own inexperience.

[Morniel]

And for those Sage's who can solo champs. That content is not designed to be soloed. Just because you can doesn't make other classes underpowered.

 

Sentinels can also solo champions, at least the ones from the Belsavis heroic daily quests ("A Lesson is Learned" and the stasis generators). Granted, your gear has to be pretty good, Doc's gear has to be pretty good, and you have to be watchman specced. Even then, you have to play well and use all the right abilities and cooldowns. If you do all this, the champions are actually somewhat 'easy.' I tried them as combat as well and couldn't kill them, though I came close - the healing (and perhaps extra damage and defense) from watchman is too good.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Morniel

[biowareftw]

To be fair to the OP, the first character I rolled was a sentinel, and I was having a lot of trouble DPSing. Mind you, this is my first experience in an MMO, I was not specing my character correctly, I had no idea that the sentinel skills were under a separate tab from the trainer, and I was using Kira as my companion.

 

After a few dabbles into the other classes, I've finally settled on playing a Guardian and I am loving the ability to switch between tanking and DPS. However, I have decided to either roll another sentinel or a marauder after I'm done with my Guardian because I did not give the class the chance to shine due to my own inexperience.

 

If this was my first MMO? I wouldn't play a sentinel/marauder.

 

Once you get some experience and something like a g500 mouse and bind scroll up and down and all the buttons to hotkeys and control/shift modifiers? Then you will enjoy the class a lot more.

 

But yeah if you want to be Jedi melee and you are new to mmo's? Guardian/jug is definitely the way to go. Assassin/shadow isn't hard either.

 

Both are much, much harder then ranged and that is because you have to hit keybinds while moving. That and ranged in this game were given stupidly easy spamfest dps cycles.

[crimsiden]

honestly sentinel is the worst melee dps in the game...All you pros would do even better if you would accept it and rolll something else... But you strive to play this game handicapped.

[Altsein]

- What is you level?

50

- What is your current spec?

Combat (Never respecced, always been a combat)

- What was your average level vs content? (+3 levels, -1 level, even, etc)

HM/NM Operations and HM FPs

- What companion(s) do you use and for what purpose?

Doc when i am by myself or Lord Scourge (Which is champion geared).

- How was your equipment?

Full Columi set

- Computer specs?

Laptop i7 2.0 GHs GTX 485m 8 GB Ram | Running it on HDD even tho i got an SSD (Should try putting the game on the SSD)

- Do you experience lag, if so how much (low, not often, never, high, etc)?

Las as in internet latency or just computer stuttering? If the later, yes i have. Only on Ilum and first boss of Karaggas Palace.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Altsein

[brutalcabbage]

I see all these "hatin posts" I have to agree with the OP and even though my Sentinel and Scoundrel are lowbies. Scoundrel owns all.

The aoe, dots they have and a lot of "get out jail free cards" to play. low cool down flashbang, "ball kick" (my fav) They are beast. To be quite honest. I play my toons pretty nasty. I don't mean I am the best but I do tend to win a lot of fights. It's all about the right spec for the right job, THAT and most of the players base are avg skills at best. I run into a few people that might give me a run but most of the time it's because they are 25 lvls higher than I am. Scoundrels I feel are built for these games that BW set up. I play my guy to win not just kill people. Spec for low cool down for dots, aoes and you can hold off over 1/2 their team easy till someone spawns to help you. It's almost cheating. I have always been a team players and Scoundrel is a nasty super fun class. It ain't all about the dps imo.

[JerokTalram]

So...I have a scoundrel/gunslinger alt as well. I have a shadow alt.....a juggernaught alt.....an imperial agent...blah, blah. Sentinel is hard to play. However.....I started out focusing on the Combat tree, the Ataru form tree. IT was nice ,and worked for awhile. I died but it wasn't too overly bad. Then when that stopped working I thought ok, I must not be lasting long enough. Shi-Cho gives you defense bonuses, I'll work off of that tree then. Respecced.....and it worked for a few levels, and a planet or two maybe. But then I started dying, and dying, and dying. Couldn't stay a live. Respecced into the watchman tree and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Groups I couldn't kill before now I am mowing DOWN! It's a learning curve. You have to play to your characters skills and weaknesses. So far...yeah every other class feels WAY OP! However....I am finding that when I play my sentinel correctly I feel just as OP! And my guildies have heard me cuss and rant and just generally be in a fowl mood over my sentinel. THus the other alts....but I like the sentinel...he's 41...and I want to complete the game with his story line. THe other classes have cool story lines as well, but I started with the sentinel, and now that i am in watchman tree...I at least feel like I can be effective. Just a few thoughts and personal experiences with the Sentinel class. I like it....could be a little more user friendly, definitely could use a good AOE. That actually works. But other than that. I like it.

 

The Problem is we shouldn't all have to play watchman or a watchman based spec. I don't want to play the FOTM and shouldn't have to. Either Sentinel is broken or some elites are just too hard for their level (I personally believe the second is true).

 

On HOTH, they don't even hide that the bonus Elite for one mission is too high. He's level 41 on a level 38 mission. And no not a Heroic either. I filed a bug report on that one. Though most times the boss elite will be your level but after fighting it, you realize that it's tougher than any other elites at this level. Way tougher.

Edited January 31, 2012 by JerokTalram

[JerokTalram]

Sorry you feel that way. Even though you may think this, i would totally disagree. I have a level 50 Sentinel, level 50 Gunslinger and level 44 Commando and Level 41 Shadow. I have to say my sentinel is still my best class. Can non stop chain pull mobs, solo heroics and never had any problems leveling. I never had problems with any of my classes, but specially not with my Sentinel. I do extremely well every match in pvp and I do just as much damage as my gunslinger with the same gear, only difference is as a Sentinel, I can chain pull groups of mobs without every having to slow down. Sorry you are having problems but it is definitely you that needs fixing, ... not the class.

 

Lancerx, you're a god. I never heard anyone else claim to solo heroic 4 at or just below is level other than you.

[JerokTalram]

I still don't understand the requirement that the class has to be easy to play. Where did it say that in the contract you signed with BW? If the class is too difficult or not powerful enough, why are you still playing it? Reminds me of Einsteins definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

And for those Sage's who can solo champs. That content is not designed to be soloed. Just because you can doesn't make other classes underpowered.

 

My sentinel doesn't usually have problems with Champions. It's the odd elite that's way overpowered for his level that he struggles with.

Edited January 31, 2012 by JerokTalram

[rakuenCallisto]

I love the idea of $1,000,000. I don't feel entitled to it though.

 

This is one, if not THE most obnoxious *********** post I've read on these threads - and that's saying A LOT.

[Skeptical]

I bet captain reroll a FotM Operative will look back today after he plays the changes to his precious new class.

[EasymodeX]

Lancerx, you're a god. I never heard anyone else claim to solo heroic 4 at or just below is level other than you.

 

I've solo'd heroic 4s up to 2 levels below me while leveling. If I really tried I could push a level-1 or equal level heroic 4 with some cheese waiting or wiping, if that particular one was weak to Sent mechanics.

Edited January 31, 2012 by EasymodeX

[Hezakia]

I bet captain reroll a FotM Operative will look back today after he plays the changes to his precious new class.

 

Actually the changed worked out in favor of Scoundrels, welcome to stun lock hell. Yes scoundrel is easier to play then Sent, But sent IMO is way more fun/challenging/rewarding + the bad *** factor.

[Calibretto]

I think you make one really good point in your post, and it has to do with passing on equipment to your companions. As a Guardian I was having to find droid parts, gear with Cunning, Willpower, Aim and Strength all separately to deck out my team. It was a real pain in the butt and resulted in multiple untouched companions.

 

Switching over to my Trooper, outside of M1-4X, Jorgan uses Aim. Elara uses Aim. Tanno Vik uses Aim. You know what Yuun uses? Aim. It means that I'm able to easily gear up my entire team with cast off items so if I ever need to use them while they might not be cutting edge they're up to snuff. I feel like this is a WAY, WAY better system than collecting gear for multiple different classes.

[JaTrigger]

The truth is that the Scoundrel, unlike the Sentinel, is easy to learn but hard to master. The Sentinel, on the other hand, is goddamn hard to learn but, once you have the basics down, easy to master. And it depends on which tree you're playing, as well, when talking about the Scoundrel. If you're in Sawbones, you're going to make a lot of friends in PVP, but this is really not comparable to a Sentinel. In Scrapper (my spec at level 53), things get more complicated. If you're configured as a Glass Cannon (highest burst, lowest defense), and you have a good rotation worked out and are properly geared, then you'll solo anyone easily except Pyrotech Bounty Hunters and Tanking Juggernauts. Juggernauts can pop up Saber Ward and Invincibility, as well as Enraged Defense and Sonic Barrier, which is pretty much the death of your burst. As soon as you let SF rip on them, if they're remotely well played, up goes the defenses and the next seven attacks in your rotation go to hell. In the Dirty Fighting Tree, you have a better chance at killing these kinds of people, but you're not going to burst down anyone.

 

TBH, the well-played Scrapper/DF will whip a Sentinel/Marauder in PVP, unless the following conditions are in place:

a) The Sentinel is being guarded

b) The Sentinel or his guard is being pocket-healed

c) The Sentinel is level 55.

 

However, the Sentinel has a decent chance of outshining a Scrapper/DFer to the max in PVE. The Focus Generation system is actually really useful; I always say it's the best type of energy, followed by Sage/Sorcerer upgraded Force Power, followed by Scoundrel/Operative Energy, with Gunslinger/Sniper, Shadow/Assassin a fair way behind at BH/Trooper Heat/Energy Cells at a strong last. Anyway, what the Focus/Rage system means is that, as long as you manage your cooldowns carefully and are being healed/not tanking, you can exert a huge amount of DPS on a boss over a long time.

 

After I get my Scoundrel to 55, I'm going to level my Juggernaut and then, probably, a Sentinel.