Focus Spec Guide

[Aznryoga]

I have played this game extensively and I would like to believe with relative success. I don't have a good enough computer to be able to record vods for you guys to see, but hopefully this guide will give the community some insight and we can improve as a whole.

 

1. Why focus? First of all forget combat. I find combat's mobility and damage comparatively low (damage partly influenced by the lack of mobility, ataru form proc bug. I can have another wall of text on why combat's damage kind of sucks, but I'll stop here). Combat's survivability is also low compared to focus or watchmen.

This leaves only two choices, watchman or focus. Let me say this, watchman is also an amazing spec. Self heal, group heal, fast centering building (lol cyclone slash costing 1 focus and building 4 centering even when no one is around?), force leap improvements, elemental damage(making heavy armor targets cry), improved force kick. If I had to summarize this, watchman spec is definitely more of a sustain spec, with above average burst from zen and merciless strike.

What focus spec has going for it is its better burst (aoe too) and defense against burst. I will be going over these in more detail in this guide. I guess why I choose focus is how warzones are set up. There are too many situations where players are stacked up. My friend who just hit 50 can force sweep up to 3.5k, where I (full champion except for weapons which are bm) hit 4.5k on light armor targets and over 5k if I use adrenals and inspiration. Further more, with focus spec's added defensive capability, you survive longer when getting beat on by multiple targets, which in my experience happens often in warzones.

In a way it all comes down to one's playstyle. And I'm not saying that focus can't 1v1 another player (it can), or that watchman can't jump into a pack of players (it can). But each spec has what it does better, and as watchman I find myself looking for more individual fights, or trying to kill healers (important job). However, as focus I am able to be in the thick of things, stopping caps on voidstar, nodes in civil war. The defensive capabilities of focus also allows me to be a better(my opinion) ball carrier than I would as watchman.

 

2. This is the spec I run with and in this section I will explain why I pick these skills and a little into my play style.

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

 

Focus

Tier 1. Master focus is needed due to force stasis proccing singularity, shorter cd = more damage. I skip stagger because I just do not feel the need of having 1 extra second on force leap. I would rather do more damage from insight. I usually follow up my force leap with a force exhaustion.

Tier 2. The only mandatory skill here is zephr. Even if you don't use blade storm, shaving 3 seconds off force exhaustion's cd is necessary. And it reduces force sweep's cd by another 3 seconds. The other talents at this tier are all okay. 1 focus off blade storm is nice (another gripe on combat, focus has almost the same buffs for blade storm that's more economical). second wind can crit (how i get my 2.5k heal medal). Swift slash more of a personal choice, I like my slash to crit more than I want stagger(t1) or pulse (t3). Same goes for second wind

Tier 3. Mandatory is zealous leap. Saber strength because I prefer more damage. I will go into why I buff slash so much later. It actually annoys me greatly that I don't take pulse. I am not good enough to calculate how much damage I have lost from having my force stasis pushed back. But since I can't see it, I just prefer to take talents that I know gives me a bonus. This may change in the future if they ever release a combat log or someone smarter than me calculates this for me.

Tier 4. Felling blow, singularity both mandatory. This is where your bread and butter burst comes from. Unwavering focus is amazing, too many times I'll channel master strike and see someone try to interrupt it. For the record, master strike is your 2nd highest dps spell, only over shadowed by your buffed sweeps. Inner focus is good, what most people do not know is that you get 10 centering back for each target affect. Transcendence has a 30 meter range, so if you have 2 allies within that radius you can keep transcendence up 100% of the time. Granted, I didn't list this talent as mandatory because I can see a player saying that he/she wants to use zen more and this talent is a waste. But seriously, 100% uptime for transcendence is amazing.

Tier 5. skipped agility training because of transcendence. Take this if you don't use transcendence. Gravity reduces the cost of your force exhaustion and leg slash, and no it does not reduce the cost of a talented cauterize. Shii-cho mastery is mandatory, it gives your attacks (all of them except the 2nd half of cauterize) around 6-7% more damage on a heavy armor target. Almost makes shii-cho form as good as juyo except less damage against medium/light armor targets.

Tier 6. Both mandatory. With a pvp 2 piece? or 4 piece bonus, you have guarded by the force on a 45 second cd. Meaning you spend 1/9 of your game in a state of invulnerbility.

Tier 7. Force exhaustion. Take it, use it, love it.

 

Combat

Tier 1 Here is where it gets really interesting. I don't find myself that focus starved. I prefer to do just a little more damage on each of my attacks, which I think adds up. You can take jedi crusader if you like. It really isn't that much of a difference. Defensive form is required, 2% less damage adds up, plus the extra centering.

Tier 2. Although I don't take any point in this tier, there are still talents worth looking at. Steadfast is nice for accuracy if you dislike missing, but I would just rather get accuracy from gear (once again someone can prove me wrong with better calculation). Defensive roll is also nice, you're jumping into objectives, which is usually aoe hell filled with missiles and lightning. Focused leap is also a viable skill to take if you find another rotation to use. Currently I don't need it.

 

Watchman

Tier 1. Focused slash...did I mention I use slash? No seriously, if you don't want it, you can skip it and put the points else where, I just find that w/out these 3 points slash is not as economical as a blade storm talented. Lastly, with zen and focused slash, slash generates one focus, which is useful. Quick recovery is mandatory. While this is self-explanatory, I want to mention I think alot of player underestimate cyclone slash. It hurts more than slash on 3 targets and only costs 1 focus. 2nd, its a great way to build centering when no one is around. Don't have to use it often, but definitely have it bound to something.

 

One last thing to mention in this part, I don't use riposte. I get this nagging feeling there are probably situations when that extra burst is really nice since its off gcd, but it does less damage than slash and costs 3 focus. If you're good enough to use it, then maybe also look into picking up recompense (t1) and/or jedi crusader (t1).

 

3. Playstyle. You are very tanky. 7% extra damage reduction across the board and transcendence make you rather hard to kill. Not to mention rebuke, saberward, awe, force camou, pacify. Learn to manage cds. One cd you don't need to learn to manage is guarded by the force. I seriously feel like that skill is always up for me when I need it. This is also a very important reason to always have med packs or go biochem for the reusable because of the 90 sec cd vs 180.

 

Stat priority should be str > power > surge > crit. Your force sweep is guaranteed crit, you just want it to hit harder.

 

My single target rotation looks like this. Force leap -> exhaustion -> zealous strike -> master strike -> sweep -> stasis -> zealous leap -> slash/strike x2 and sweep again.

 

Always remember to pop trinkets and kick. Throw in dispatch or blade storm if they're further away. Remember slash does more damage than blade storm with my spec. If the target is being healed you might want to use crippling throw. However, my slash does 1500-1700 costing 2 focus while crippling throw costs 3 focus and do 800-1000. Assuming slash does 1500 making it cost 3 focus would mean my slash does 2250. Therefore doing 1250 damage more than my throw, and for my throw to be worth it the target has to be healed for 6250 within 15 seconds. Assuming you haven't killed the guy with your burst. I am not saying you shouldn't use crippling throw, but understand a healer has to heal your target for alot to make it worthwhile. Another thing is to use force camouflage offensively, you're so tanky it is okay to do so. Getting knocked back by bounty hunters or gunslingers doesn't mean you stand there and take damage as you try to get back to them.

 

Another note zealous leap -> slash its more damage. (problem with zealous leap is that it doesn't stun, so it is not reliable as a gap closer. main uses are to proc felling blow, some extra damage, and getting up a level)

For those that do not know, force stasis ticks 4 times so it will grant 4 stacks of singularity and that you should multiply tool tip damage by 4 and not 3.

You want to mix in cauterize instead of slash against high armor targets, the burn will make cauterize hit for more damage. I believe the talents insight and focused resonance both affect the burn portion of cauterize.

Zealous leap can be used on targets in cover (great closer in this situation, they're not moving in cover)

leg slash -> master strike or slash is not a bad alternative when stuff are on cd

 

Multiple target is a bit different. My single target rotation still works because for sweep hits in an aoe. However I prefer to build up 4 stacks of singularity before I jump into a group of players, giving them less time to react to my sweep. I also use cyclone slash more.

 

remember to use transcendence and zen. slash hitting two targets is an insane amount of dps. While I am on the topic, the idea is to put out pressure against the enemy team. If you're hitting 3-4 targets with your sweeps there is no way a healer can keep up with that kind of damage. Even if you're hitting 2 targets, you can immediately switch afterwards to a healer to stop him from healing.

 

Thats it for now, I will add to this when I have more content and will organize it a bit better later

Edited February 6, 2012 by Aznryoga

[Aznryoga]

reserved for more stuff

[Muldias]

Awesome guide, I want to test this out!

 

thank you

[madro]

good guide and I can agree with. I've tried every spec, though PVP vs PVE vs Raids you could argue different. Overall focus is a good spec.

 

Only thing I wonder is

2 points in defense forms (combat ... 2% damage reduction

 

instead,

going 2 points in defense roll (combat) which gives you 30% AOE reduction. For PVP I think i'd rather take that over 2% overall.

[Aznryoga]

I do agree another 30% reduction against aoe is nice. Defensive form is nice because it is tier 1. Defensive form is important because of the centering building (still need it for when you don't hit 3 players w/ trans), I mean overall damage reduced might be less

[Jeffor]

Thanks for sharing. I wanted to just pick a class and go without going to other sources first and I ended up as a focus sentinel. I really enjoy it. I'm not 50 yet but my trees are looking a lot like yours. I also like it because it seems to be the road less traveled. I am a proud user of the Shii-Cho lightsaber form.