New build that makes a huge difference in pvp.

[RakeHoxven]

Hoxven's Light Side Jedi Speedbreaker's guide to PVP

 

 

 

Introduction:

I am not very good at writing guides so bear with me. This is going to be a simple guide and I will explain the abilties I use, the Stat priority, the ways to use it effectively, and I will also mention how it can be changed to fit different playstyles. I will also list the cons of the build and the myths that surround the ability combinations.

 

 

Abilities:

 

 

Trancendence: Trascendence is the ability specific to sentinels that normally increases the movement speed of you and your partners by 50%, costs 30stacks of centering, and increases the defense of you and your partners by 10% (mellee and ranged). Transcendence lasts for 10 seconds.

 

 

Force Leap Force Leap has a 30meter distance, interrupts the target, immobalizes the target for 2 seconds, and causes an X amount of damage based on gear buffs and stats.

 

Before going on to talk about the other abilites, I am going to further talk about the two abilities above since they will be improved by other skills the most:

 

 

Skills that benefit Transcendence:

 

Valor: Valor improves the centering built by using force abilities by 2 and reduces the cooldown on valorous call by 30 seconds. To use Transcendence, Zen, or Inspiration, Valor is a very important skill to put points into.

 

 

Focused Pursuit: This skill is useful for Transcendence because it increases the speed (of you and your party) by 30% when transendence is being used. It might not seem that it does but from what I have seen if you are out of combat and members of your party is in combat they will move slower with your transcendence buff than you do but when both out of combat you should all get the 80% speed increase (from what I have observed)

 

 

Inner Focus: This skill with 2 points in it refunds 10 stacks of centering per person in your party that is close to you during the duration of transcendence - you count as 10 stacks if nobody is in your party and companions from you and your friend count toward this. So if you use transcendence and two people are in your party and are close to you during the duration of transcendence (It might be you and your friend and one of your companions or one of his), you will get 30 transcendence refund. 30centering refund is the amount of centering for another trancendence so you can get transcendence constantly in planned situations.

 

 

Skills that benefit Force Leap:

 

 

Close Quarters: This is a must have for this build. Other builds suggest that you should only put 1 point into this but since the other builds have more focus building skills you really need to put two points into this. Force Leap is your bread and butter beecause this build uses meaneuverability much more than other builds for sentinel.

 

Blurred Speed: Reduces the cooldown of force leap by 3 seconds for 2 point investment.

 

 

Stagger: Increases the immobilization of force leap from 2 to 3 seconds.

 

 

---------------------

 

 

For meaneuverability and maximizing the ability to take advantage of opportunities for your meaneuverability Transcendence and Force Leap are the bread and butter of this build.

 

 

Note: The Skill Valor refunds 2 extra points focus per force ability activated. Cyclone Slash activates without an opponent being necessary and with the Skill Quick Recovery Cyclone Slash should cost 1 focus. With 1 leap you should be able to build 3 focus, adding a zealous strike will add 6 focus. Each focus point is equal to 4 centering points with one use of Cyclone Slash if Valor and Quick recovery are maxed out.

 

 

 

Forms:

 

 

1. Juyo - build 2% damage each hit on an enemy, stacks up to 5 times, and also with Juyo mastery 3% increase of burn critical strike chance every stack of Juyo and Searing Saber 30% increase to burn damage, Juyo is what I pick.

 

 

2. Shii-Cho - Zypher sounds great and I have tried it. What I realized is this build only uses 2 force abilities - Sweep and Force Stasus. Force Stasus is a 50 second cooldown so 3 less seconds won't make a big deal. Sweep is a 12second cooldown and makes a difference to be 9seconds especially if choosing to invest in felling blow instead of singularity. The only issue with this is that the stats for this build are going to be high Critical strike anyway and even investing in felling blow might not justify the switch to Shi-cho for a 3 second reduction on sweep and the loss to increased damage from Juyo and critical strike damage of burns.

 

 

3. Ataru - another hybrid build but not an option for this one.

 

 

Note: I choose not to use Watchguard because I use close quarters to make up for it. Close Quarters with 2 points in it gives 0distance interrupt so on a healer you won't have to back up in order to use it. Pacify I have found to be situational so it dones't matter to me if it has 10 seconds more cooldown on the 60seconds and my force kick is 2 seconds longer form 6-8 but I can also use for leap and Status so i'm not too concerned about that.

 

 

 

 

Stats:

 

 

Strength: Good for improving damage and Critical Strike

 

Power: Good for improving damage

 

Experience: improves everything in PVP

 

Surge: Improves critical strike damage

 

Crit: Improves critical strike chance

 

Accuracy: reduces the chance of missing

 

 

 

 

Stat Priority

 

1. Critical Chance (the last priority on other builds, or so they say ) . This build is foremost about getting in, taking advantage of a situation, and getting out without dying. You're not going to sit there DPSing with somebody thinking you pressed the right key. You float like a butterfly and sting like a bee - meaning - wait for the opportunities to take advantage. Sweep gets 19% extra critical chance from insight and swift slash. Since you won't be using Zen you want your burns to crit as often as possible because of Searing Saber gives them 30% more crit damage and Juyo the 3% increased crti chance per stack. If Sweep crits with sungularity you'll see some high numbers and a good way to kill 1 player after a force stasus. Remember Pulse makes your status uninterruptable - one force stasus = 4 singularity always. Remember critical heals on burns heal you with mercelous zeal and zealous leap hits like a truck if critting.

 

 

2. Surge. If crit is your most important stat - of course tied with expertise for pvp which is on all pvp gear so you don't need to worry about expertise - Surge is just as important - it might be more important but diminishing returns and all that make it probably close to equal with Crit.

 

 

3. Expertise is the best stat for pvp but since it is on all gear you don't reall need to worry about this one.

 

 

4. Accuracy is good but again it's on most all pvp gear so you don't have to worry that much about this one. 94-95% works just fine in pvp for me and I am saving up for Battlemaster for my main gear.

 

 

5. Strength and Power are about tied. Strength helps minimally with crit and Power does slightly more increase in damage but no small crit increase. You'll get strength on all your gear anyway most imes and Power is not worth getting since you'll focus more on Crit Surge and Accuracy.

 

 

 

 

Stat priority: Crit/Surge/Expertise/Accuracy/Strength/Power

 

 

 

The rest of the replies to this thread has many situational explanations of how this build can be effective and I will type them out at a later time on this thread. The build stat link is below:

 

 

Build Name: SpeedBreaker

 

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIbRrorZZrr0rdMM.1

 

 

 

 

 

(reserved for future use)

 

 

(Name of build creator: Rakehoxven/Hoxven)

 

 

 

Myths of this build:

 

1. Transcendence only effects 3 party members: no

 

2. Transcendence has a small radius: with cyclone slash you should be able to get to 30 centering pretty simply if you don't get 30 refunded. the radius of the buff benefit is pretty big.

 

3. Transcendence only gives your party 50% increased speed: If you are not in fight mode but your party members are they will move slower.

 

4. This build has no damage: With the correct stat usage you will see some pretty good damage but float like a butterfly sting like a blee: with the speed you have and a 0distance leap and an extra zealous leap you should always find where you are most useful and take advantage. There is a lot of benefit from working well with group members as well.

 

5. You're doing it all wrong, choose x skill and y skill instead: Please choose skills for your playstyle but others aren't wrong if they get the best utility out of different skill or gear choices.

 

6. This isn't something new but it doens't work and it sucks: with 1.7million subscribers, nothing is going to be new for 1 person that many other people have not tried. However, this is a build that makes it work and not just trying something out and it not working. Take for example the watcman build, I am sure many people tried the watchman skills but the person who created it meant to share knowledge to help other people most who weren't sure how it would be best optimally used to understand how it works and how to use it optimally. I strive for the same purpose.

 

 

 

p.s. another two variations of this hybrid build are http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIbRrzMZ0MZRrRrzbM.1

Edited March 14, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[ztee]

Basically this build is based on a permanent 80% transcendence buff to party. As I write I just made the republic on Ilum turn the tide against the sith.

 

Bring down the sith. Sentinels now very helpful in PVP (especially huttball, and very nice in ilum)

 

 

I won't bore you with details because I assume before you try this build you have tried others.

 

 

I'm not going to write a long guide. I'll just link the spec here. You figure out how it works.

 

 

 

For the Light Side!! For the REPUBLIC!!

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIbRrkrZZrr0rdMo.1

 

 

 

(reserved for future use)

 

 

Name of build creator: Rakehoxven

 

or not very helpful at all by not being able to kill a thing or survive more than 10 seconds ..... but wait, we run faster and have 10% increased defence!?

 

i could see how it would be funny to play, but really not that great for teamplay ...

[RakeHoxven]

moved to first post. Edited February 28, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[Egnyte]

Hmmmm, interesting build. I think it would be more powerfull if you took the 2pts from Jedi Crusader and put them in Felling Blows or Singularity. Thereby acquiring the core utility from Focus (increased AOE damage) and keeping the self heals and slow of the Watchman spec. Don't know if its worth sacrificing Force Exhaustion or Merciless slash with the accompanied increased damage at the top tier of those specs. But the increased utility is attractive to say the least.

 

Thanks for sharing, I will give this a whirl and see how it goes

[Egnyte]

or not very helpful at all by not being able to kill a thing or survive more than 10 seconds ..... but wait, we run faster and have 10% increased defence!?

 

I'm not sure if this would be true. Focus spec sacrifices Enduring and Shi-Cho mastery for Merciless Zeal. I know Merciless Zeal is a percentage chance while the others are pure damage reduction talents, but those heals stack up fast and may make up for the loss in damage mitigation.

 

As for not being able to kill anything, the hybrid gains from the increased utility (Merciless zeal, Zealous leap, etc) and damage (Swift Slash, Insight, Saber Strength, Focus slash, Overload Saber, etc) of both specs from the lower three tiers. Unless you test this out you can not say conclusively that you won't be able to kill anything due the sacrifice of any one of the top tiers of the Focus or Watchman spec.

[AetherMcLoud]

I fail to see how getting 10 Zen after Transcendence makes it permanent. Also, AFAIK, the 80% speed are only for you, your party still only gets the 50%.

[thepilk]

I fail to see how getting 10 Zen after Transcendence makes it permanent. Also, AFAIK, the 80% speed are only for you, your party still only gets the 50%.

 

The box in Focus actually refunds 10 centering PER group member who recieved the benefit of Transendence. So its possible for it to refund 30 for instant reuse. Whether this is unintended, or by design with a mislabled tooltip is unsure though.

[RakeHoxven]

I'm not sure if this would be true. Focus spec sacrifices Enduring and Shi-Cho mastery for Merciless Zeal. I know Merciless Zeal is a percentage chance while the others are pure damage reduction talents, but those heals stack up fast and may make up for the loss in damage mitigation.

 

As for not being able to kill anything, the hybrid gains from the increased utility (Merciless zeal, Zealous leap, etc) and damage (Swift Slash, Insight, Saber Strength, Focus slash, Overload Saber, etc) of both specs from the lower three tiers. Unless you test this out you can not say conclusively that you won't be able to kill anything due the sacrifice of any one of the top tiers of the Focus or Watchman spec.

 

zealous leap is a big hitter for 3 focus and it works well with the rotation.

 

 

The hard hitter is slash since it costs 2points and with some good crit/surge the added 15%crit will make it crit most of the time. Slash critting is maybe same as 1 merc slash in damage and slash costs half the focus and no cooldown.

Edited February 28, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[RakeHoxven]

I fail to see how getting 10 Zen after Transcendence makes it permanent. Also, AFAIK, the 80% speed are only for you, your party still only gets the 50%.

 

 

I know you're wrong because I have been rushing long flashpoints all night and at some point we had to run back half of the instance to pick up some guy that revved by mistake... I used probably 20 transcendences each way and my partners and I ran at the same speed.

 

 

so that's busted sorry.

[Asphen]

I did play something close to this for a while.

 

 

- I did like it

 

- You do get back 10 centering back per person that gets the speed boost. So yes, you can get 30 centering back instantly

 

- yes, that is intended. It is in one of the early patch notes.

 

- Zealous Leap was fantastic because I overan targets sometimes and jumped back on them.

 

 

Things I didn't like:

 

- You still get into alot of head-to-head fights. Your power is lacking in these compared to other specs.

 

- The 'range' that you give other people speed is very small. It was hard to measure, but if you could hit them with Force Sweep, they would get your group speed buff when you pop'ed it. Otherwise, no. The range was very small.

 

- I'm 100% certain that running around made me more of a target than I already was.

 

 

In the end, I ended up switching to a different spec. However, I will agree the spec does have merit.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Paralassa
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[RakeHoxven]

I did play something close to this for a while.

 

 

- I did like it

 

- You do get back 10 centering back per person that gets the speed boost. So yes, you can get 30 centering back instantly

 

- yes, that is intended. It is in one of the early patch notes.

 

- Zealous Leap was fantastic because I overan targets sometimes and jumped back on them.

 

 

Things I didn't like:

 

- You still get into alot of head-to-head fights. Your power is lacking in these compared to other specs.

 

- The 'range' that you give other people speed is very small. It was hard to measure, but if you could hit them with Force Sweep, they would get your group speed buff when you pop'ed it. Otherwise, no. The range was very small.

 

- I'm 100% certain that running around made me more of a target than I already was.

 

 

In the end, I ended up switching to a different spec. However, I will agree the spec does have merit.

 

The radius is HUGE dude. Been running around with three pubbies through flashpoints all night. I saw how big it was (sometimes covering 2 rooms).

 

 

Let's just picture you have a friend that is a watchman spec. He jumps to a sorc with leap, gets pushed back... so the build stickied says not to leap at the beginning. Ok, start over, run to a sorc, get pushed back, leap to a sorc, sorc pops root, Resolute to get out of the root, sorc pops shield and temporary speed boost.

 

Ok forget that. Watchman runs to a sorc, gets pushed away after burn, leaps to the sorc, Leg Slashes costing 3 focus and 1 global cooldown,

 

Rotation, run to an enemy, get pushed back or the enemy gets away, jump to an enemy, use overload saber in air, then zealous strike, then leg slash, then strike merc slash strike.

 

not even to mention he might have a friend which makes it two pushes... So pop force camo and guarded by the force and hope they don't hael each other so you can get a dispatch.

 

 

OR

 

 

bust out 80% transcendence for your friend who is a sentinel. Bam Bam Bam, leap, get knkocked back? run back, overload saber, zealous strike,cauterize, maybe Merc Slash from burning focus or jedi crusader.

 

Sorc pops temp shield and temp speed after rooting... so what, chase him down.

 

 

Not to mention all your skillset... or the other classes that benefit.

 

 

 

 

profit

 

 

 

 

 

also... a level 1 player in my group on tython will run faster than a level 30 on a teir 1 speeder. Close to running as fast a teir 2 speeder and only 30% less speed than a teir 3 speeder.

 

 

 

And if sith figure out it is me that's making my party fast... I have force camo, awe, guarded by the force, and I can kite them, 10% of my health heals when using resolute, pacify, force status them that can't be pushed back, and leap away.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Paralassa
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[RakeHoxven]

hrmm I have just discovered there is absollutely no need for jedi crusader.

 

 

Which is a good thing... frees up two points to spend elsewhere.

 

 

my updated build looks something like this.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bIrzrzrZ0zZrr0rdMo.1

Edited February 28, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[Xerain]

- I'm 100% certain that running around made me more of a target than I already was.

 

i lol'ed!

 

 

and to the OP, don't you play on the Swiftsure?

Edited March 3, 2012 by Paralassa
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[Psybin]

This is hardly new or original....

 

Why take an un-interruptable master over singularity? At least singularity would give you something that hits hard...

[Hizoka]

please tell us what server you are on so we can make fun of you.

[RakeHoxven]

This is hardly new or original....

 

Why take an un-interruptable master over singularity? At least singularity would give you something that hits hard...

 

 

You can play with it as you wish as most builds people like to mix it up. The main objective is to get the 80% transcendence all the time.

 

The top of the focus tree has great skills, every one of them. But with a leap that is 10m range and 15 seconds cooldown it isn't all that often you wil be getting the immediate crit. With this build you can have a 0distance leap at 12 seconds that roots for an extra second and like you say, you can get singularity. With a high crit from gear you have a pretty good chance of a crit on it too without waiting for 10meter leap on a long cooldown.

Edited February 28, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[Psybin]

I'm a great believer in trying different things out. Whilst I do get a lot of information from these forums, I tend to test things before commenting on it. I play watchman, because I have found it does the best damage for me, and gives me great utility. But I regularly try combat and focus and hybrid builds. Even if the prevailing advice is against it. Unless you try, how can you know for sure?

 

I have tried a build similar to the one posted. I called it the road runner. And whilst it was fun, I found the damage severely lacking. And that was with taking singularity. Without it, I cant see you being able to DPS your way out of a paper bag...

Not taking singularity when you could seems very odd to me. Especially when the points have been put into such lacklustre talents.

[JustinxDuff]

Hybrid specs are a bad idea as a Sent, fyi.

[Miraodus]

Sorry RakeHoxven...this build is nothing new or original. You're more-so "the first person to actually bother posting this build" person instead of the "creator" of it. I thought up of this build awhile ago as soon as I saw that we had enough points to get 2/2 Valor and 2/2 Inner Focus.

 

Maybe I'll try my own variation of it someday just for some S&Gs in Warzones but I simply don't feel that it's a viable build in competitive pvp as it lacks focus into what makes Watchman or Focus shine. It'd be interesting to see how many people go "ZOMG! Their team is speed haxxoring!!" though.

 

Anyways, I commend you for taking the time to post this build but know that you aren't the creator. Most people (thankfully) don't post up EVERY build that they think of otherwise these forums would be even more cluttered with "How's my JK Sentinel spec?"

[gunte]

Sure running around like a madman is fun. Trying to kill anything when you hit as hard a a wet noodle is not. I honestly think most opponents would regen health faster than you can damage them.

 

No but seriously i fail to see the point with this build, yes 80% run speed all the time, thats it?

[RakeHoxven]

updated the build to have singularity and to include elemental damage from burns (even though they are at a smaller amount) Edited February 28, 2012 by RakeHoxven

[Vodrin]

I understand what the OP is trying to accomplish, but personally I prefer a little less mobility with significantly more punch. I've used this build before in order to get max punch from zealous leap and slash while still having that blade storm to force exhaustion to zealous leap to force sweep burst cycle. If you get a crit on the final tic of FE, on BS, and on ZL you will stack up to 11K damage in the span of 4 global cooldowns, and you can combine that with multiple speed boosts. It's a fun build to run, and very tough to handle 1v1.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bZ0MZGrRrdrRdGR.1

 

The one thing this thread touches on that I completely agree with is that watchman's one significant disadvantage is in mobility. Watchman has a tougher time dealing with roots than either of the other specs. Combat has more root breaks as well as a ranged root to allow you to re-close, and focus has a bunch of speed boosts combined with higher base mitigation. Watchman is dependent on very appropriate use of force leap to re-close after a root or snare, and between burn cycles focus generation can be a real problem against a talented kiter.

 

That said, watchman still has a lot of advantages including having the best sustained damage of the 3 trees, and being the most capable of locking down a caster with interrupts.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Vodrin

[Dangzing]

are you charging 10k for this crap build?

[Vincedaddy]

Lol sooooo bad.. Keep trying bro one day you'll be able to represent that kill trading gear you don't deserve to have equipped.. Well maybe not. Lawl battlemaster

[RakeHoxven]

I understand what the OP is trying to accomplish, but personally I prefer a little less mobility with significantly more punch. I've used this build before in order to get max punch from zealous leap and slash while still having that blade storm to force exhaustion to zealous leap to force sweep burst cycle. If you get a crit on the final tic of FE, on BS, and on ZL you will stack up to 11K damage in the span of 4 global cooldowns, and you can combine that with multiple speed boosts. It's a fun build to run, and very tough to handle 1v1.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bZ0MZGrRrdrRdGR.1

 

The one thing this thread touches on that I completely agree with is that watchman's one significant disadvantage is in mobility. Watchman has a tougher time dealing with roots than either of the other specs. Combat has more root breaks as well as a ranged root to allow you to re-close, and focus has a bunch of speed boosts combined with higher base mitigation. Watchman is dependent on very appropriate use of force leap to re-close after a root or snare, and between burn cycles focus generation can be a real problem against a talented kiter.

 

That said, watchman still has a lot of advantages including having the best sustained damage of the 3 trees, and being the most capable of locking down a caster with interrupts.

 

Thanks for typing this. This is Exactly how I felt when I rolled a Sentinel! I thought, oh yeah, i'm going to be a 1v1 champ superstar and sometimes do so well to take on 2 or even 3! Then I went to Ilum... Turtled in Republic base I was pissed that there is absolutely no use for a sentinel in huge dynamic world pvp. I couldn't possibly get in mellee range to do anything to any sith that was shamefully owning the crap out of the republic. The best we did in several runs of sitting for hours turtled hiding in our bases was pushing out every so often when the sith won and left the area so it reset (then of course they came back and killed everyone until we turtled).

 

It hit me, pvp in this game is more team based than 1v1 and more than that it is situational. Now don't get me wrong, a fully geared level 50 watchman in a skilled players hands is going to kill a lot in wargrounds. However that still isn't going to change the fact that republic loses like 75% of its games (and Ilum Always in my experience).

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone but I feel I have found what makes a difference, it might be very related to only my taste but i'll be playing that speedathon for quite a whilie rushing to battlemaster from highly improved ilums and better killing of anything at running down an enemy with teammates and kiting them continually whenever it is gainful and with 0m 12s cooldown leap with 3 root and 3 generated focus + zealous leap and 80% movement speed buff you better believe I can be anywhere anytime I want to just how i like it.

 

 

1 Force camo that works to competely outrun and move in hiding and heal is satisfying. Also 80% speed in warzones like huttball. I capped for the the time ever running the board with one guardian of the force, so fun. The Warzone that you open the doors the w hole team can kite and heal or run down forces while they try to move to new locations or open doors. 3 cap warzone is useful for reinforcing quickly a challenged position. Wait... I am like 75% of the 1v1 champ that A watchman is... that doens't even matter one single bit to me, but i'm not looking down on anyone that it does actually. Watchman is fun, I just hate losing.

Edited February 29, 2012 by RakeHoxven