Sent vs Shadow

[Tanerin]

Hi All,

 

I have been playing the game since launch, and really cannot decide which class to stick too. I have leveled both 20 and have had fun with both of them! I really love to tank in PvE, so I know that narrows it down to Shadow... but i really love PvP and the aesthetics of dual light sabers and play style of watchman DPS.

 

So i have a few questions that hopefully allow me to narrow down which class to play as my main to 50. I am more of a PvPer than anything else.. and i love to guard targets and taunt them with the shadow.. but again i love the DPS of the sent.

 

Aesthetics

1) Do shadow's ever get more aestheticly pleasing saber moves? They seem so boring compared to the Sents acrobatic gameplay.

 

PvP

2) Can a shadow DPS as hard as a sent and still survive without all of the Sents defensive cooldowns? It seems like you lose a lot of survivability to get on par with Sents.. but as i said above I'm still relatively low level on both.

 

3) I love the fact that i can forceleap to someone as a sent, apply my dots, and know that i have a relatively high chance or winning 1v1 if Zen is up. I know that i will have pacify and camo and another force leap very soon if they are trying kite me. I have not really felt that powerful with the shadow.. does our execute ability change that?

 

4) Who would you fear more in a warzone if one suddently attacks you.. assuming equal gear and skill? Which one are you most likely think "oh crap, this class is focusing me and i need help now" rather than to shrug off as annoying.

 

General

5) If you had to pick, which class would you choose and why?

 

Thank you for your help in advance.

[Vegathegreat]

Hi All,

 

I have been playing the game since launch, and really cannot decide which class to stick too. I have leveled both 20 and have had fun with both of them! I really love to tank in PvE, so I know that narrows it down to Shadow... but i really love PvP and the aesthetics of dual light sabers and play style of watchman DPS.

 

So i have a few questions that hopefully allow me to narrow down which class to play as my main to 50. I am more of a PvPer than anything else.. and i love to guard targets and taunt them with the shadow.. but again i love the DPS of the sent.

 

Aesthetics

1) Do shadow's ever get more aestheticly pleasing saber moves? They seem so boring compared to the Sents acrobatic gameplay.

 

PvP

2) Can a shadow DPS as hard as a sent and still survive without all of the Sents defensive cooldowns? It seems like you lose a lot of survivability to get on par with Sents.. but as i said above I'm still relatively low level on both.

 

3) I love the fact that i can forceleap to someone as a sent, apply my dots, and know that i have a relatively high chance or winning 1v1 if Zen is up. I know that i will have pacify and camo and another force leap very soon if they are trying kite me. I have not really felt that powerful with the shadow.. does our execute ability change that?

 

4) Who would you fear more in a warzone if one suddently attacks you.. assuming equal gear and skill? Which one are you most likely think "oh crap, this class is focusing me and i need help now" rather than to shrug off as annoying.

 

General

5) If you had to pick, which class would you choose and why?

 

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

the reality is that the way sentinals are designed they will always be the best 1v1 class in the hands of a good player

 

the amount of defensive cooldowns coupled with the self heals from zen and dot damage during minor moments of snare, thing is this class is extremely unforgiving if you make a mistake with your defensive cooldowns

[Skeptical]

I have a level 48 Shadow and I rolled a Sentinel to level with a friend.

 

I can't go back to my Shadow after playing Sentinel. Sentinel Watchman is the class for me.

 

It's a solid spec that is straight forward in strategy but complex in "rotation". I play more improve "what do I need to be doing at this moment in time" as opposed to finding an "optimal I have a robot va-jay-jay rotation".

 

Shadows Infiltration spec just doesn't bring anything to a group other than an out of combat Mez.

 

As far as Shadow's aesthetics go? It's horrendous. Shadow gear and Consular gear in general are just horrible. The thing is Knight gear isn't much better. You have decent leveling gear but the end game PvE and PvP sets for Sentinel look like some middle school kid's crappy notebook drawings.

 

Shadow's end game PvP gear has Burkenstocks though so I can't decide which is more retarded.

 

Either way you go aesthetics for both classes end game gear sucks. Who knows when we'll see a change in that respect but I'm sure it won't be any time soon.

 

As far as Shadows getting cooler animations:

 

You'll get Clairvoyant Strike at 30 and it looks cool and all but get used to seeing the same 3-4 animations over and over and over.

 

Clairvoyant Strike x 2 then Project.

 

Shadows do get way more CC and escapes than Sentinels but Force Leap is way more useful than Force Speed and Force Cloak.

[McVade]

I would change to Shadow in a heartbeat. Yes, 1v1 potential is a little weaker but damage is comparable and the group utility a Shadow brings just hands down buries a Sentinel. Between Guard on healers, a legitimate knockback, stealth and the option to role-change to mix things up, Jedi Sentinels are disarmed in that utility department. Edited January 31, 2012 by McVade

[Skeptical]

I would change to Shadow in a heartbeat. Yes, 1v1 potential is a little weaker but damage is comparable and the group utility a Shadow brings just hands down buries a Sentinel. Between Guard on healers, a legitimate knockback, stealth and the option to role-change to mix things up, Jedi Sentinels are disarmed in that utility department.

 

I think you're suffering from the grass is greener syndrome.

 

Sure you can use Guard as a Shadow but you're in light armor and unless you are Kinetic Combat (tank spec) and using a shield generator AND in your tank stance you aren't going to live long enough to soak up damage or use your escapes.

 

I've had fun using AoE taunt, then Force Cloak to buy a group member who is being focused a bit of time, but you can't reliably use guard as any spec other than Kinetic Combat.

 

I have a 38 Defense Guardian too and I tried out Kinetic on my Shadow. If you want a tank Defense Guardians have better solid mitigation. Shadow tanking's downside is RNG related.

 

Sentinels have WAY more survivability than Infiltration and Balance Shadows.

[ChimDeathmonkey]

I played both in beta (not the open version) and I preferred the play of a Sent. My first beta toon was a Shadow, mainly because of the double sided saber.

 

To me the Shadow just seemed lacking in challenge and damage. I will admit I only got to 26 before a server wipe, but I was/still in love with the complexity of the Sent from next beta session on.

[Skeptical]

I played both in beta (not the open version) and I preferred the play of a Sent. My first beta toon was a Shadow, mainly because of the double sided saber.

 

To me the Shadow just seemed lacking in challenge and damage. I will admit I only got to 26 before a server wipe, but I was/still in love with the complexity of the Sent from next beta session on.

 

Einhorn is a man! "Your gun is digging into my hip."

[ChimDeathmonkey]

Einhorn is a man! "Your gun is digging into my hip."

 

Gotta love when they are all scrubbing their tongues after finding out

Edited January 31, 2012 by ChimDeathmonkey

[Tanerin]

Thank you for the responses - i think i am getting the "grass is greener" effect between the two classes!!

 

It seems like pvp wise shadows (tank-spec) help the team more with their support and tools and may lead to more wins, while Sents do greater damage and take people out.

 

Does that kind-of some up the pvp playstyles?

 

 

As far as PvE endgame goes, are Sents good for nightmare flashpoints, etc?

[Skeptical]

Sentinels who run Watchmen spec bring more to a group PvP and PvE setting than a DPS Shadow who shouldn't be using Guard in the first place.

 

In warzones where no healers are present a Watchman's meager heals will make a difference. A DPS Shadow's guard won't.

 

I ran Flashpoint the other night and the healer commented that he didn't have to heal as much as usual and was able to DPS more. Watchman DoTs tick HoTs for the entire group.

 

Shadows just don't have that kind of group contribution.

 

DPS Shadows work best in hit and run situations that don't leave them in the thick of battle. Sentinels have tons more survivability even without using Cooldowns.

 

I'm telling you, I played 48 levels of Shadow and 26 levels of Sentinel. Sentinel is a better all around class and it just keeps getting better. Shadows are great for soloing PvE and PvP content and they have better burst damage, but Sentinels have better sustained damage and that means more in extended PvE encounters and against well coordinated PvP teams.

 

Kinetic Combat Shadows are probably about on par or slightly below Sentinels in PvP because they don't do as much damage, have slightly more durability, and can only mitigate damage on one target via guard as long as they are in range. Watchman heals mitigate damage to the entire group and they have much better overall DPS.

 

In PvE Kinetic Shadows will trump Sentinels because they are tanks and tanks seem to be few and far between on my server. They are really simple though and suffer from mind-numbing repetition in combat.

 

Sentinels on the other hand require much more split second micromanagement and are therefore much more engaging.

 

I will say that if I wasn't playing with a Razor Naga that I probably would not enjoy playing Sentinel as much. With a Naga I can map all of my defensive and offensive cooldowns to my mouse, along with my Relic buff, stim buff, and PvP buff and heals, while my left hand handles the attack strings, interupts, and intercepts.

[firesprite_ea]

I am a lvl 50 sentinel (currently at watchman)and I play with lvl 50 shadow (konetic/inf hybr. but after this new patch will be full kintetic+balanced) and lvl 50 healer sage (we always pvp/pve as a group together).

I actually like shadow somewhat more because of the much higher survivability and the amount of tricks she has in pvp.

 

For pve we have our own roles but I should mention that even though she has a tanking build, the dps is ver very nice. Sure, I usually kill mobs faster, but she is very close AND she does it wil considerably less threat to her life (sure, we have a dedicated healer in pvp / pve but still).

 

For FP/raids. Well, she is a tank and to my mind kinetic shadow has lots of goodies to tank well, stay alive and all in all be ver very useful. Add to that the fact that she can switch to pure dps and you have a wondeful class that can successfully fulfill two roles.

 

In pvp shadow has a lot of useful skill. It is literaly impossible to escape her (run on 20 sec CD that also removes all movement impairments, 5 sec force/tech invilnerability with cleance added to it on 45 cd, force pull, stun) and she can rip ppl apart extremely fast. Add to that the very very good survivability with autoheals every 4.5 sec...

On sentinel I do more dmg overall and usually have more solokills. But I do die much more often and have harder time staying ontarget as a watchman. When I play combat I have much less problems with keeping a target near me (two roots ftw) but i become even more squishy (no invuln on force camo, no self heals and no quick interrupts) so it is kinda tradeoff.

 

When we duel I almost always win when I attack her out of stealth (when we play out such a situation). However when she opens from stealth ... it is GG. Thing is, kinetic shadow has nice ways to combat watchman specced sent (for example cleance removes all the burns and makes her immune to them for the next 5 sec, then she can stealth and open up with another backstab).

 

In the end, both classes are pretty impressive but right now I am leveling a fresh shadow exclusively for pvp because I had much more fun with it

[Bluedeuce]

Shadows and Sentinels are both great classes.

 

I can't comment on pve but in pvp Shadows have more utility with their stuns, knockbacks, taunts, guard, mez and stealth. In a group fight a shadow should actually be paired with a sent to harass backlines ( healers and ranged dps ). A shadow can effectively lockdown a healer while both burn them down. Infil Shadow's do great burst damage which causes major problems for healers as they can't just heal right through trivial sustained dps. You are creating a big health deficit on a single target and making the healer spend more resources to heal one person. The sentinel is there to apply a great amount of constant threatening damage. Paired together nothing will last very long against the two and neither class will take very much damage. If a target goes to the sent, taunt him off with your two taunts and use your cc. If a target focuses on the shadow tank it for a bit, then vanish into nothing while the sentinel builds his rage.

 

Damage wise the sentinel has more sustained dps and less burst. Infil shadows have massive burst and less sustained and aoe damage. Balance shadows have both to a lesser degree.

 

From my experience 1v1 a watchman sentinel vs an infil shadow goes pretty much like this.

 

Shadow stealths, sentinel tries to unstealth ... shadow mezzes opens with spinning kick, starts his rotation ( 2x CV > trinket / adrenal > project > breach > shadow strikes on proc )

 

Sentinel recovers casts rebuke and saber ward and resolute to try to absorb the massive burst. Starts his attack Zealous strike , overload, caut , strike x2 , merciless slash etc.

 

Shadow saves cc break for choke ... if no choke or after he breaks choke he cleanses his dots and vanishes ... if the sent cannot unstealth he mezzes the sent , heals up while mezzed and before he can come out he goes back into stealth to reopen.

 

Now at this point the shadow has his stun , his low slash , his saber defense and force potency should be off cd. He has a larger health pool and more tools, plus he chooses when to reopen with a full resource pool. Sentinel has pacify and if he's not stupid guarded by the force and camo. A smart shadow will take the opportunity to let the sent's rage go down and mez/reopen. When camo goes off , force sprint away and heal until the sent comes out. When guarded by the force goes up low slash and wait the 6 seconds out.

Sent should be well in range for an execute after shadow reopens as long as he doesn't waste it on guarded by the force. If a Shadow controls the pace of the duel, he wins. If he doesn't know how to counter the sents cd's the sent wins easily. If a Shadow is stupid and tries to go blow for blow with a sentinel he will lose. If a sentinel cannot keep the shadow engaged he will lose. That's pretty much it.

 

 

That's from my perspective. Of course there are many , many things that can differ.

It boils down to this. Both are pretty skill intensive, both are great duelists. It really, really depends on your playstyle on what you enjoy. Good luck =)

[Celadore]

The thing about opinions is most people think that while everyone else has 'opinion', they themselves have 'fact'.