Sentinel Guide: For players having trouble

[Venator-Falco]

Question though: Should I use Blade Storm or Slash? BS does more damage but Slash can proc Ataru hits. Obviously, use Slash with Zen.

 

Without Damage counters & Metrics this is all a bit hard to measure, but my opinion (From a Combat Perspective) is that BS is they key attack you are building up for. Rush, Precision, Master Storm is the sequence you want to use for maximum damage. Now obviously because everything is on separate timers you can’t always get this, but Rush, Storm & Rush, Precision, Storm are very easy to time in.

 

Also for cleaning up trash I find the best sequence is Leap, Opportune, If the mob is alive Zealous otherwise change mobs then Zealous, Rush Storm and if the mob is still alive Pommel. If I am jumping into a load of Mobs I use Sweep instead of Storm to stun every one, and that leaves, Rush, Precision, Storm available for the third mob.

 

So in a perfect scenario you follow the following Leap, Opportune, (Mob Change) Zealous, Sweep, Pommel, (Mob Change) Rush, Precision, Storm, (Mob Change) Leap, Opportune. You have now killed 4 standard mobs in 10 strikes.

 

If things don’t work perfectly you can throw in a Slash or Master to clear up mobs (Chose by how much health they have left), or just use cyclone to clear the lot once they are all weakened. This is where play style and choice comes into it.

 

So in Short, Against big mobs if you set up for it Blade Storm is Lethal, against small mobs it sets you up for a Pommel strike and is still in its self nasty. Or you can set up for it and watch mobs turn to red mist.

[nubzz]

Honestly, I don't think there *is* a 'weaker' class. Not how I would define 'weaker' anyway. Every class has its ups and downs. Things are very well balanced, and each class has its role to play, its rock meets paper situation. I will not argue that the sentinel is HARDER to play - I took a break for several weeks and leveled a vanguard to 42 before returning to my Sent - because Sentinel can be very frustrating. When played well, they are a blast to play.

 

But the margin for error is extremely small with the class. Miss a CD, fail to position properly, or blow defenses too early, and you're cooked. Other classes have it easier in that the class is more forgiving. You can afford to be sloppy, or slower. In the case of ranged classes, positioning means very little. But, again, I think this is balanced because if the Sents could be as sloppy, if the same one-three button play style was implemented for Sents, we would be OP.

 

Once again, I do not think that having a class requiring more effort equates to weaker. Until I can see reliable metrics for DPS and Burst to compare to others, I feel my damage is superior to many. It just takes some effort and, yes, skill to dish it out.

 

Have to disagree, I like to be optimistic but once again reality strikes. We have many different classes with different skills. Some are going to be stronger than others and that is the way of the mmo. When a class takes more skill to play well not to mention better gear than another, yes it is a weaker class.

In regards to your thinking we could have two classes with one skill, that one skill does a bit less damage for one class but you would argue that said class is just as strong, you only have to play it better. Makes no sense at all.

[Venator-Falco]

Have to disagree, I like to be optimistic but once again reality strikes. We have many different classes with different skills. Some are going to be stronger than others and that is the way of the mmo. When a class takes more skill to play well not to mention better gear than another, yes it is a weaker class.

In regards to your thinking we could have two classes with one skill, that one skill does a bit less damage for one class but you would argue that said class is just as strong, you only have to play it better. Makes no sense at all.

 

And this is where everyone falls down.

If I mash button A and do 100 damage on character A

And mash button A and do 80 Damage on Character B you would say character B is weaker right?

But what if character B has an other button that also does 80 damage but if hit before button A Makes button A do 150 damage?

Now Character A Does 200 Damage in 2 Button mashes, and Character B has either 160 damage if it plays poorly or 230 Damage if it plays well.

So Character B is harder to play, but if played well it is stronger.

Thus you have the Sentinel

Look at what Precision strike, blade rush, Zen do.

Look at how to make Opportune and Pommel strike work for you Then you will learn to play the Sentinel

[elmergosh]

I started off this game never having played an MMO or really many other online multiplayer games. In fact, besides the original KotOR 1 & 2, I haven't played a whole lot of video games in general (hand-eye coordination sucks and Wolfenstein 3D scarred me for life =P).

 

With that said, I originally started not realizing I should stick to a single skill tree, but by L20 or so I went full focus tree. Focus tree "focuses" on the aoe ability force sweep. When you get over L40 (whenever u get singularity & force exhaustion), this spec (IMO) is the easiest at taking out trash mobs quickly and easily without trying very hard. If you have a mob with 1 strong and 2 or 3 or 15 relatlively close regular/weak NPCs, all you need is to target the 1 strong and

 

Force Leap (activates felling blows to autocrit the next force sweep) > Force Exhaustion > Zealous Strike (builds focus + gives ur singularity a chance to build to 4) > Force Sweep

 

BOOM. Weak/normal NPCs are almost always dead, 25-50%+ of the time the strong is dead (depends on gear) or at worst requires a blade rush or just turn on master strike which usually kills the guy before it's finished. We're talking 3-4K+ criticals on EVERYTHING near by.

 

Some notes: #1 thing --- If you're grouping and targets are CC'd, YOU ARE BONED

Well, not completely. You're going to need to get familiar with the aoe range of Sweep and BE SURE your target is in range but the CC is not in range. Not too difficult really. But if you're doing a Hardmode flashpoint and 2 things are CC'd with the target in the middle, you might as well swap out your lightsaber for a rubber chicken. It's best to suggest to your groupmates targets to CC so that you can still use aoe on the rest of the mob.

 

As Force Sweep is the target ability, when you go after a group of non-cc'd Elites, you will do about 4K dmg for each person in the mob. If there are 4 Elites not CC'd, you will do about 16K damage every 20 seconds not including the buildup dmg before sweep(the wait is mainly on Force Exhaustion). I'd say that's not too shabby =P.

 

BUT the problem with the focus tree is that on a single target, doing 4K damage (not including everything else you attack with) every 20 seconds is pretty sad. I play on PvE server and now that I'm getting into raiding I had to switch to Watchman spec, which I have FAR from mastered. I may also try combat spec at some point, this thread has given me a lot more hope for it than I had read elsewhere =P

 

Notes for secondary stats: I find (and many have disagreed) that surge is the most important secondary stat for the Focus tree. We get A 100% CRITICAL on Force Sweep + 50% extra damage on your force sweep from 4 singularity + 30% dmg on your force criticals from Focused Resonance near the top of the tree.

Other than surge I'd probably say power to get additional sustained damage.

 

Question: Anyone have any reasonably solid idea about accuracy? Melee starts at 90% and force starts at 100%. I try to take as little of this as possible (sometimes it's not an option to take anything else) and I def don't spend skill points on Steadfast. But maybe I'm wrong. At one point I had accuracy close to 100% by switching my mods and felt like I was getting eaten alive not killing quick enough.

 

Other thoughts: As I said I've respec'd Watchman to hopefully do better on raids. I can't stand to see ranged dps chump my Jedi hero of the galaxy ='( Watchman is touted as the best for endgame PvE so I'm hoping I can start contributing my fair share soon. I only tried PvP once but the lag was so bad I decided I'd probably never do it again.

 

Tips/cautions:

*DON'T ruin CC's by using Force Sweep or Cyclone Slash or Slash when it is buffed to hit more than 1 target. You will get yelled at by your group and rightfully so.

*As Sentinels we seem to have some aggro problems and often pull aggro off of the tank when grouped. Use Force Camouflage to drop threat quickly and try to get out of harm's way while maybe using a defensive cooldown for when you pop out of camo.

*If the healer uses an aoe heal, be sure to be in range of it. When grouping, tanks are designed to take damage and are the main focus of healers. Us poor melee dps'ers usually need to figure out things mostly on our own and try not to take as much damage even as squishy as we are.

 

Note to BioWare: Please fix the aggro issues with the Sentinel. I've heard it may have something to do with the many stun-ish abilities we have. When hitting strongs or elites+, they cannot be stunned w/ most of our attacks and I don't think that should give additional threat if it's not actually stunning anything. Just my thoughts.

 

Last word: Sorry for the huge post =P

[Rafaman]

Great discussion. Love the rotation stuff. It is really interesting that a few of us have derived a very similar execution. This my first MMO and have arrived at my rotation through trial and error. So feel free to make suggestions. I'm always tweaking and improving what I can. I'm a level 47 Combat Sentinel and it has been a blast! Challenging and rewarding to say the least.

 

3 things I keep in mind before i start my rotation.

 

1. My rotation may change depending on the Boss or pace fight. Need to be prepared to make adjustments on the fly based on interrupt needs or the pace of the fight.

 

2. I always try to know a little bit about my foe or foes before jumping in. Specialist may require a modification to the rotation based on their weakness and or special abilities.

 

3. If the rotation is interrupted due to the "needs" of fight, always go back to the "core" of the rotation and find the order again. I do not want to be flaying away looking for attacks so to speak. Stick with the plan.

 

That said what works for me generally is this:

 

Leap>Strike>Zealous Strike>Precision Slash>Balde Rush>Blade Storm>Master Strike (if available)>Cauterize>Stike

 

That is the core; rinse and repeat. I pop Zen when available and Rebuke almost every fight too. I will throw in Crippling throw late in the rotation and Dispatch as needed too. Crippling throw has become very valuable to me as many silvers and golds are self healing at higher levels.

 

Keep in mind this is a Combat rotation. I don't focus and Cauterize because I'm not interested in DOT. I want my fights to be huge on DPS on the front end with bursts of damage. The longer the fight goes the less advantageous for me.

 

Last, this doesn't exclude other attacks or abilities. I use sweep quite often and as needed with trash especially. And again the fight will dictate some of that. However, I want to keep my focus up as much as I can so other skills may not be used at all. I no longer use Riposte or Slash for that matter. Don't see the need.

 

One last thought. My rotation is also some what dependent on my companion. I no longer use Doc. I now use Scourge almost exclusively. Geared him up a little and now he tanks with the best. So much so that I can now truly solo as a DPS and not as a tank if you know what I mean. It is extremely satisfying when I take down golds with 80% of my life left. My tank may be at 50% or lower, but with plenty left should a patrolling silver or gold wander by.

 

Thoughts and comments are welcome.

[Rafaman]

One more thought about Sweep and grouping. As the previous post points out, it can be very tricky with CC but somewhat necessary too for difficult encounters. Sweep is not in my rotation generally in solo for this reason. I don't want to rely on it too much or get used to popping it regularly. Not anymore anyway, because of the grouping dynamic I need to rely on other things.

 

In a group, I just don't take a chance. As the encounter develops NPCs move and what was once far away from a CC gets closer. So... I go back to my rubber chicken. Lol. Better to constantly do some damage and rely on the group and not knock down a CC.

[OderWolfe]

SWTOR is my first MMO, and I am only a level 20 Sentinel so much of this discussion is above my head so to speak. A few levels back it suddenly dawned on me that I should be using the weapons in a better, more effective sequence and then I stumbled onto this thread. Awesome! I've found it to be very informative and want to thank all of you for sharing your insight.

 

I don't have some of the weapons you have in your rotations i.e. Blade Rush and Precision Strike (I'm assuming I get them as I level up and will have to identify appropriate substitutions until I do), but I notice that no one has mentioned Saber Ward; I use it immediately after (actually during) my Force Leap.

 

Is there some reason I should not be using Saber Ward?

[Marnarth]

For the saber ward question. That defensive cd should be used if your pulling more aggro than your tank comp (ie T7 atthis point for you) or if your about to jump onto a mob with a elite or 2 strongs.

 

Also for an earlier rotation statement you should use blade rush before precision because of how long it lasts so you get the full effect from both.

 

Next to the post of throwing away zen for transcedence i dont think that is a good way to go (trial n error and opinion) because if you pair zen-precision-master strike-blade storm you can take an elite to either death or 10-30% health in about 5 secs.

 

My sent right now is lvl 47 and im using Scourge as my comp heading up the combat tree and having a blast. When you get all the way up the tree make sure to put 2 points into valor on the watchman tree so you can use zen,transcedance almost every 30-45 sec.

 

Lastly i have found and read and tried every spec and this is my opinion and what i found but here it is. Watchman tree is more of a pve tree with great sustained dmg with some heals paired with Doc and your unstoppable. The Focus tree is a great tree but usually better for pvp because of the high aoe dmg it puts out, and the fact that you can use zealous leap on enemies in cover. Combat is the tree that can be great at both if used correctly with high burst dmg and great defensive abilities.

 

*Side note sents dont have a pommel strike thats the guardians.*