Proud to be a Sentinel! A few tips to L2HF (Learn to have fun)

[jbrunken]

First off, this thread isn't about "L2P" thread. I don't make any claims to be "awesome" and I've never broken 150K dmg in a WZ. These are just my thoughts on what has made the class more fun to play for me.

 

Second, in regard to the OP/UP debate, I'm in the "it needs some minor adjustments" camp. I don't think the sentinel needs wholesale changes, but a few things to even up the playing field would probably make it a pretty tough class to beat.

 

Finally, I do mostly PVP, so I can't comment too much on any PVE issues with the sent. My personal experience has been that PVE has been pretty easy, but it moves a lot slower than PVP (at least when you are soloing). Most of my thoughts below will be from a PVP perspective.

 

Ok, now for some tips that have made the class more fun for me.

 

1) You'll have more fun in the WZ if you worry less about your final damage count and more about the objectives. There are a lot of other classes that can do a lot of damage with a lot less effort. Sentinels can play a pretty important role in each of the three warzones. If you play the right role, you'll have respectable damage numbers in the end.

 

2) You are not a tanking machine. Avoid fights that you can't win (namely packs from the opposing team). My experience has been that the opposite team tends to like to focus down the guy with 2 sabers and we don't have any really affective way to heal ourselves. You're best off to just avoid the situation. Caveat: If a good healer has your back, you can wreak some havoc against small packs of players.

 

3) Learn to use #2 to your advantage. You can distract a large group of the opposition and then vanish with force camo when your health is low. This can give the ball carrier, bomb planter, etc. the time they need to get the job done. Often, this will frustrate them and make them spend even more time trying to kill you off which works against them from an objectives standpoint.

 

4) Things get a lot better at about 40. I'm not going to lie and say that there weren't some frustrating times as a sentinel, but at level 40, things seemed to get a lot better, between the second set of PVP armor and new abilities/skills. Between these (and a good dose of personal experience) my survivability seemed to go up quite a bit.

 

5) Positioning is super important in the war zones (especially in huttball). Before I became more "situationally aware", it was very frustrating getting constantly knocked into the fire, lava, etc by all of the classes that have knock backs. However, once I learned to expect it, I started immediately positioning myself for the inevitable. It will always happen some, but with a bit of effort, you can negate their effectiveness quite a bit. The same is true for voidstar and alderan. Use terrain to prevent ranged classes from having a field day with you.

 

6) Targets of opportunity are the best. Yes, we can go 1v1 with any class, but it's not very often that you get that opportunity in the war zones... Someone always crashes the party when you're trying to beat down a sorc from 100 to zero. For that reason, pick your targets wisely. If you see a player that has 25% health left, finish them off and then move on to the next. Similarly, don't beat your head against a wall trying to beat down someone who has someone else healing them. It's a losing proposition. Either switch to the healer and make them pay, or use force camo to exit the situation all together.

 

7) If you're like me and not adept at all things keyboard, look into the Razor Naga mouse.

 

I could probably go on and on but I wont...

 

I'll be happy to elaborate if anyone has questions and happy to learn if anyone has comments suggestions.

 

My final though it this. Sentinel is not an easy class, but it's a very fun/rewarding class once you get through our big learning curve. If a relatively old & slow guy like me can do it, just about anyone else can too!

[jbrunken]

Oh, one other Huttball tip I wanted to mention...

 

"Jumping" can make all of the difference in the world when you are trying to use force leap. There are many spots on the map where a well timed jump will allow you to force leap to the opposing ball carrier if they are on a level above you.

[AngusFTW]

My final though it this. Sentinel is not an easy class, but it's a very fun/rewarding class once you get through our big learning curve.

+ 1,000,000

i think i've just gotten over the learning curve and i've been playing since early access (mainly pve tbf and with a lot of uni exams making long breaks before i got to 50, i'm also fairly new to mmos as well so.. yeah) but i've been having a blast with my sentinel once i worked out how to actually use a lot of my attacks. We do have a lot of abilities and its a lot to remember. There has been a few great abilities that i totally forgot i had access to within the past few days..

The guide at the top of this page is enough to get you started as well.

Edited January 29, 2012 by AngusFTW

[icbeodragon]

Oh, one other Huttball tip I wanted to mention...

 

"Jumping" can make all of the difference in the world when you are trying to use force leap. There are many spots on the map where a well timed jump will allow you to force leap to the opposing ball carrier if they are on a level above you.

 

This and the above x 1000000

 

All you have said is without a doubt true and fundamental to the class.

 

your first and second points are something every sentinel should repeat to themselves.

 

That said you are selling the class just a tiny bit short when it comes to attacking groups. I'm not sure if you are 50 yet, but a favorite thing to do is jump into a pack of imps, Awe them, then stealth away/ back to my team. Always fun on Alderaan.

[jbrunken]

This and the above x 1000000

That said you are selling the class just a tiny bit short when it comes to attacking groups. I'm not sure if you are 50 yet, but a favorite thing to do is jump into a pack of imps, Awe them, then stealth away/ back to my team. Always fun on Alderaan.

 

I just hit 43. I haven't had Awe for very long, so I'm not accustomed to using it yet. But thanks for the tip!!!

[Taranthule]

The Razer Naga tip for me is the most important one

With that mouse playing sentinel is a breeze. Mainly because i'm also not very good at using xx-keyboard binds. I have 20 (9+shift 9+ mid mouse + shift mid mouse) abilities bound to my razer, it really helps me out a lot!

aerfcx I use for CC and 12345 for debuffs.

[OldxLady]

First of since you yourself mentiond damage, and never breaking 150k, I must say you are doing somthing wrong. Sentinels are pure DPS class and should always be on top of Damage (As top kill aind actualy kills, just who you tuch).

If you are not, it just means you are not doing your job, which is killing enemies DPS and Healers. So, yes Damage is important, and a sentinel should evade guarding anything, like turrets or what not, as thats the job of the tanks who should hold it until backup comes.

 

I must also say, that Sentinels should not fear big groups. As Sentinel you shine best in a 1v2 fight. As you prety much let your team fight 2 less enemy, where 1 of them should be the healer.

And no, sent have tons of survivability. I mean (should be) 30s --> 20% damage reduction? Saber Ward? Force cloak? Force Guard? And if you combine this with health pots, "Healing" buffs in the Warzone and Adrenalins, you can win most 1v2 fights. Its all about planning, and position yourself so the enmy thinks they have the uper hand.

 

That said, Sents still need alote more skill to be as valiabel as lets say a Sorcerer. Not a bad thing, but sure like hell aint a good thing either ;p

 

PS: Just saw some one saying that you should use "Awe" for "Lolz" in a Warzone. Well let me say 1 thing L2p. As the only thing you are doing is almost maxing out enemies Resolve, good job.

Edited January 29, 2012 by OldxLady

[jbrunken]

First of since you yourself mentiond damage, and never breaking 150k, I must say you are doing somthing wrong. Sentinels are pure DPS class and should always be on top of Damage (As top kill aind actualy kills, just who you tuch).

If you are not, it just means you are not doing your job, which is killing enemies DPS and Healers. So, yes Damage is important, and a sentinel should evade guarding anything, like turrets or what not, as thats the job of the tanks who should hold it until backup comes.

 

This may be true to some degree in a pre-made, but in a pug, you play with the hand you are dealt.

 

I could easily top 150K in most matches if all I cared about was doing damage, but I'm very objective minded. I've seen Sentinels do a lot more damage than me in a match and be a lot less useful to the overall match (like letting the ball handler walk by and score why they were fighting a group of other players).

 

Damage is not the end all be all of this class.

[OldxLady]

This may be true to some degree in a pre-made, but in a pug, you play with the hand you are dealt.

 

I could easily top 150K in most matches if all I cared about was doing damage, but I'm very objective minded. I've seen Sentinels do a lot more damage than me in a match and be a lot less useful to the overall match (like letting the ball handler walk by and score why they were fighting a group of other players).

 

Damage is not the end all be all of this class.

 

Yes, but you have to be offencive about the objectives. So instead of guarding 1 Turret or guarding the ball carries, you should be offencive and move to where the imps are. Are they fighting on the left turret, than leave mid and move to the left turret to prevent imps from caping it. Is your teams ball carrier running without any enemies on him, go and extend the range to take out any potential enemies that might want to get close to the guy having the ball.

 

So what I am trying to say is Sentinels are there to prevent things for happening. Enemy scoring, friendly ball carrier dieing, turret stolen, bomb planted and so on. And by offencivly doing objective you get tons of Damage points and will end up on top.

 

Remember it much harder to finish objectives for the enemy when they cant get close to it as a Sentinel keeps fighting tham.

Edited January 29, 2012 by OldxLady

[icbeodragon]

First of since you yourself mentiond damage, and never breaking 150k, I must say you are doing somthing wrong. Sentinels are pure DPS class and should always be on top of Damage (As top kill aind actualy kills, just who you tuch).

If you are not, it just means you are not doing your job, which is killing enemies DPS and Healers. So, yes Damage is important, and a sentinel should evade guarding anything, like turrets or what not, as thats the job of the tanks who should hold it until backup comes.

 

I must also say, that Sentinels should not fear big groups. As Sentinel you shine best in a 1v2 fight. As you prety much let your team fight 2 less enemy, where 1 of them should be the healer.

And no, sent have tons of survivability. I mean (should be) 30s --> 20% damage reduction? Saber Ward? Force cloak? Force Guard? And if you combine this with health pots, "Healing" buffs in the Warzone and Adrenalins, you can win most 1v2 fights. Its all about planning, and position yourself so the enmy thinks they have the uper hand.

 

That said, Sents still need alote more skill to be as valiabel as lets say a Sorcerer. Not a bad thing, but sure like hell aint a good thing either ;p

 

PS: Just saw some one saying that you should use "Awe" for "Lolz" in a Warzone. Well let me say 1 thing L2p. As the only thing you are doing is almost maxing out enemies Resolve, good job.

 

That's rather small minded of you. Doing such can either delay them from grabbing a cap and/or force them to waste their cc breakers on a mez.

[OldxLady]

That's rather small minded of you. Doing such can either delay them from grabbing a cap and/or force them to waste their cc breakers on a mez.

 

Not realy, as you said you went back to the team, than I asume your team was attacking the point. If not you just waistad your best CC on nothing.

Also, that said if you do use Awe, than you should take out the lowest HP target, not just waist the CC and run away like a chicken. At least than there is hopes that some one will actualy use theire CC breaker to help out theire team m8 ;p

 

PS: People are not stupid, and wont pop theire CC if there is no enemy around. And most people do know that mezz will break on damage, so most will let it run until the time runs out or some one attacks them.

Edited January 29, 2012 by OldxLady

[jbrunken]

The Razer Naga tip for me is the most important one

With that mouse playing sentinel is a breeze. Mainly because i'm also not very good at using xx-keyboard binds. I have 20 (9+shift 9+ mid mouse + shift mid mouse) abilities bound to my razer, it really helps me out a lot!

aerfcx I use for CC and 12345 for debuffs.

 

lol, I haven't bound that much stuff (I'm not coordinated enough). I just have the top toolbar bound to the main keys and the bottom bound to the "alt" version. I do it this way because I can easily reach the alt key on my keyboard without hitting the wrong key. I seem to have all kinds of problems hitting the wrong key when I bind things to shift of control.

 

I have my middle button bound to kick so I can quickly flick it with my finger (something I'm used to from playing WoW with my logitech mouse).

 

As you can tell I suffer from a lack of coordination...

[jbrunken]

So what I am trying to say is Sentinels are there to prevent things for happening. Enemy scoring, friendly ball carrier dieing, turret stolen, bomb planted and so on. And by offencivly doing objective you get tons of Damage points and will end up on top.

 

Remember it much harder to finish objectives for the enemy when they cant get close to it as a Sentinel keeps fighting tham.

 

I think you and I are pretty much saying the same thing. Those are all the things that I focus on when I'm in a war zone. How much damage I end up doing is always my least concern, but (in most cases) doing my job well will lead to decent damage.

 

I'm only level 43, so I'm still learning, so I'm sure my damage will keep going up considerably as I learn how to make better use of our wide range of skills.

 

As I said in my original post, I don't claim to be awesome and there is a lot left I have to learn. Everyone had different levels of skill and coordination. I think the items listed in my original post apply to just about everyone, even those who aren't necessarily "UBER" when it comes to mastering a complex class like this.

[IronFirewind]

 

1) You'll have more fun in the WZ if you worry less about your final damage count and more about the objectives. There are a lot of other classes that can do a lot of damage with a lot less effort. Sentinels can play a pretty important role in each of the three warzones. If you play the right role, you'll have respectable damage numbers in the end.

 

Sorry but I stopped reading here because that is all anyone needs to know about PvP.

 

The very second you stop caring about the e-peen stats: damage/healing/tanking done, killing blows and k/d ratio, and start caring about doing whatever it takes to hlp your team win the game, the sooner you start having FUN.

 

Sentinels and Marauders are one of the strongest and most rewarding PvP classes in the game. Yes they have a learning cliff rather than learning curve but it is very rewarding to play them. A smart group will know what a Sentinel brings to the team and will know exactly what they can do. Yes the "Death or Glory" playstyle is fun to do but a smart Sentinel will also know there's a time and a place for the whole "suicide DPS blaze of glory" thing.

 

Anyway I did read your post but point #1 is the single most important thing ANYONE who does PvP should remember. There have been so many times where I have carried a PUG to victory by myself and gained a ton of MVP votes from it yet had horrible scoreboard stats because they are purely there for e-peen.

 

Point #1 can honestly be summed up as this: "It's not the size that counts. It's how you use it"

[McVade]

First off, this thread isn't about "L2P" thread. I don't make any claims to be "awesome" and I've never broken 150K dmg in a WZ. These are just my thoughts on what has made the class more fun to play for me.

 

Second, in regard to the OP/UP debate, I'm in the "it needs some minor adjustments" camp. I don't think the sentinel needs wholesale changes, but a few things to even up the playing field would probably make it a pretty tough class to beat.

 

Finally, I do mostly PVP, so I can't comment too much on any PVE issues with the sent. My personal experience has been that PVE has been pretty easy, but it moves a lot slower than PVP (at least when you are soloing). Most of my thoughts below will be from a PVP perspective.

 

Ok, now for some tips that have made the class more fun for me.

 

1) You'll have more fun in the WZ if you worry less about your final damage count and more about the objectives. There are a lot of other classes that can do a lot of damage with a lot less effort. Sentinels can play a pretty important role in each of the three warzones. If you play the right role, you'll have respectable damage numbers in the end.

 

2) You are not a tanking machine. Avoid fights that you can't win (namely packs from the opposing team). My experience has been that the opposite team tends to like to focus down the guy with 2 sabers and we don't have any really affective way to heal ourselves. You're best off to just avoid the situation. Caveat: If a good healer has your back, you can wreak some havoc against small packs of players.

 

3) Learn to use #2 to your advantage. You can distract a large group of the opposition and then vanish with force camo when your health is low. This can give the ball carrier, bomb planter, etc. the time they need to get the job done. Often, this will frustrate them and make them spend even more time trying to kill you off which works against them from an objectives standpoint.

 

4) Things get a lot better at about 40. I'm not going to lie and say that there weren't some frustrating times as a sentinel, but at level 40, things seemed to get a lot better, between the second set of PVP armor and new abilities/skills. Between these (and a good dose of personal experience) my survivability seemed to go up quite a bit.

 

5) Positioning is super important in the war zones (especially in huttball). Before I became more "situationally aware", it was very frustrating getting constantly knocked into the fire, lava, etc by all of the classes that have knock backs. However, once I learned to expect it, I started immediately positioning myself for the inevitable. It will always happen some, but with a bit of effort, you can negate their effectiveness quite a bit. The same is true for voidstar and alderan. Use terrain to prevent ranged classes from having a field day with you.

 

6) Targets of opportunity are the best. Yes, we can go 1v1 with any class, but it's not very often that you get that opportunity in the war zones... Someone always crashes the party when you're trying to beat down a sorc from 100 to zero. For that reason, pick your targets wisely. If you see a player that has 25% health left, finish them off and then move on to the next. Similarly, don't beat your head against a wall trying to beat down someone who has someone else healing them. It's a losing proposition. Either switch to the healer and make them pay, or use force camo to exit the situation all together.

 

7) If you're like me and not adept at all things keyboard, look into the Razor Naga mouse.

 

I could probably go on and on but I wont...

 

I'll be happy to elaborate if anyone has questions and happy to learn if anyone has comments suggestions.

 

My final though it this. Sentinel is not an easy class, but it's a very fun/rewarding class once you get through our big learning curve. If a relatively old & slow guy like me can do it, just about anyone else can too!

 

*sigh*

 

I appreciate the attempt to bridge the gap between elitist and casual here, but let's just break down these tips:

 

1. Your damage is going to be bad compared to everyone else's. Ignore it or you'll drive yourself crazy.

 

2. You're a squishy melee character who everyone sees as a free kill, so stay out of melee? (Not quite sure I get this point).

 

3. You use the fact that everyone thinks your class is a free kill to your advantage. When you vanish from sight and run, you'll annoy people that wanted a free kill but didn't get it.

 

4. You suck from 10-39, so deal with it.

 

5. As you are the one Advanced Class in the game without either a knockback or a pull-to, you have to worry about positioning vs. anyone, but they don't have to worry about it when facing you.

 

6. Good tip, but a universal one for any class in any game: attack the ones about to die and finish them off.

 

7. Get a mouse with 11 mouse buttons to play a Sentinel.

 

Did I miss anything? I don't mean to come off as snide, but do you really think these tips are going to inspire people to play a Sentinel to the next level?

Edited January 30, 2012 by McVade

[jbrunken]

1. Your damage is going to be bad compared to everyone else's. Ignore it or you'll drive yourself crazy.

 

Wrong, I never said your DPS would be bad did I? I just said that you're better off not worrying about it because there is more to this game than how much damage you do. Much of the damage done by other classes is AoE, which I would argue is worthless much of the time. In a nutshell, damage without any context is a bad metric.

 

2. You're a squishy melee character who everyone sees as a free kill, so stay out of melee? (Not quite sure I get this point).

 

I never said Sentinels are squishy. I said we aren't tanks. There's a big difference. Once you understand the difference you can adjust your play for the better.

 

3. You use the fact that everyone thinks your class is a free kill to your advantage. When you vanish from sight and run, you'll annoy people that wanted a free kill but didn't get it.

 

Whether you like it or not, it's a completely valid strategy that works. If you're team is on the offense in huttball and you manage to distract a group of players that would have otherwise been chasing the ball carrier, you're doing your job. Similarly in Voidstar, you can harrass the offensive team for long enough for reinforcements to arrive, you've done your job. The same applies for alderan. It's not all about damage.

 

4. You suck from 10-39, so deal with it.

 

Again, trying to bolster your point by putting words in my mouth. I never said we sucked up until 40. I just said we get some stuff around 40 that makes life easier. Again, there is a big difference.

 

5. As you are the one Advanced Class in the game without either a knockback or a pull-to, you have to worry about positioning vs. anyone, but they don't have to worry about it when facing you.

 

I'm not debating the fact that it sucks we don't have at least one of those. I'm nearly stating that you can minimize the affect of them being used against you with a little thought and as you become a more experience player, it becomes somewhat second nature.

 

 

6. Good tip, but a universal one for any class in any game: attack the ones about to die and finish them off.

 

Yes, but somehow one a lot of sentinels (myself included sometimes) seem to forget.

 

7. Get a mouse with 11 mouse buttons to play a Sentinel.

 

I never said this was sentinel specific. My point was that if you are like me and not great at using a keyboard, then having something like this can make a big difference. This IS pertinent to Sentinels because we have so many abilities that we need to use all the time. I didn't know about the Naga until I read about it in these forums. I was just trying to return the favor and pass that knowledge on to others.

 

Did I miss anything? I don't mean to come off as snide, but do you really think these tips are going to inspire people to play a Sentinel to the next level?

 

You assume that I'm trying to get anyone to decide to play Sentinel. I'm not. There are clearly a lot of people on here who are already playing Sentinel and are very frustrated with the class. I'm just trying to help those people enjoy the game a bit more. Like them I've been just as frustrated and only recently have I really started to understand how to have fun with the class and I (personally) am enjoying it a lot.

 

I'm not a sunshine pumper when it comes to Sentinels. The class has some issues for sure and I'm certain that, given time, Bioware will address them.

 

This whole forum is filled with people who either swear that this class is awesome and that everyone who is having problems sucks, or the equally annoying people out to convince the world that Sentinels are the worse class ever and nobody should play them.

 

The truth is in the middle.

[KinDaSwor]

Thank you. The truth is always in the middle.

[TheoNJ]

Thank you. The truth is always in the middle.

 

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

[Hezakia]

Not realy, as you said you went back to the team, than I asume your team was attacking the point. If not you just waistad your best CC on nothing.

Also, that said if you do use Awe, than you should take out the lowest HP target, not just waist the CC and run away like a chicken. At least than there is hopes that some one will actualy use theire CC breaker to help out theire team m8 ;p

 

PS: People are not stupid, and wont pop theire CC if there is no enemy around. And most people do know that mezz will break on damage, so most will let it run until the time runs out or some one attacks them.

 

Reasons why using Awe on a capping group is important.

 

1. Team is trying to cap a turret and your trying to defend until back up arrives.

 

Pop Awe on group and Force Camo. (as you mention above most people know its a 6 second durration and will break with dmg so they ride it out) Thats 6 seconds right there you just bought your team to catch up and stop the cap. (can be longer if you come out of Awe blow Def. CD's and try and sweep to prevent continued capping = more time bought)

 

2. Voidstar Doors with Zerg on either side.

 

Same as number 1.

 

 

So yeah Awe is insanely useful.

[jbrunken]

Well, I broke 150K for the first time last night. Getting better slowly but surely!