Mrip Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) So I leap in, overload, zealous strike, cauterize and merciless slash. Maybe throw in some leg slash and crippling throw. With all of that on cooldown what do I use? I feel like I'm spending way too much time just whacking on people for minimal damage until one of their teammates comes along to destroy me. When I play my merc I feel like Sentinels rip me apart but when I play a sentinel I open on BH healers and I swear their health bar doesn't move. Once I put those abilities on cooldown what do I do? Just strike and slash until the the cooldowns come back up? When I see screenshots of guys doing 700k+ I know I must be doing it wrong but I cna't figure it out. Edited March 23, 2012 by Mrip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaspark Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 >came in to offer some advice >see that OP mentions a watchman rotation without so much as a hint he is watchman spec >that feel when people don't even clarify what spec they are because they think no one uses combat >sadfrog.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_midnight Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 One thing I can tell you is to space out your melee attacks after you overload saber. It stacks up to 3 times but can't stack faster than every 1.5 s. Add a force attack like force sweep, blade storm, force stasis, etc. in between so you don't waste one. Of course, you'll have to prioritize, DoT's vs. burst. Master strike and force stasis are good at filling in the gaps between cooldowns. Force camo can also give you some time. If that fails I just use strike to build up focus, although this may be where my game falls short. So the lesson there is, don't mis-manage the cooldowns of your abilities. If you do, you'll just watch yourself get killed. Those enormous numbers you see are from skilled players with skilled healers in long, drawn out fights like Voidstar and Alderaan. Those kinds of circumstances are rare, though. In a good match I'm getting around 250-300k. Anyone who claims to be doing 700k+ regularly, or without acknowledging sick their heals were is full of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal-Sharran Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 So I leap in, overload, zealous strike, cauterize and merciless slash. Maybe throw in some leg slash and crippling throw. With all of that on cooldown what do I use? I feel like I'm spending way too much time just whacking on people for minimal damage until one of their teammates comes along to destroy me. When I play my merc I feel like Sentinels rip me apart but when I play a sentinel I open on BH healers and I swear their health bar doesn't move. Once I put those abilities on cooldown what do I do? Just strike and slash until the the cooldowns come back up? When I see screenshots of guys doing 700k+ I know I must be doing it wrong but I cna't figure it out. Leap (4 Focus) OS (1) Zealous (7) Cauterize (5) Merc Slash (1, maybe 2 if Burning Focus procs) What ELSE would you do with both Zealous Strike and Leap on cd, along with the fact you now have no Focus? Strike/Slash. Beyond that, I don't know what to tell you. I personally know of two good Merc healers on my server who I simply can't kill solo. It's impossible (currently, but when 1.2 hits and makes healing more resource intensive...*evil grin*). Right now Merc/Commando healers are just stupid OP. So if you're getting torn to shreds by a single Sent while healing on your Merc, you're doing something wrong. We simply do not have the dps to stop you. Combined with your uninterruptable bubble, stun, knockback, and apparently your utterly RIDICULOUS instant cast heals that I can't interrupt, and your ability to cleanse my dots... But back to the original question, our main abilities are of course Merc Slash, Caut, OS, Zealous/Leap. When those are all on cd, just fall back to your Focus dump. Always weave in Master Strike when feasible, and unlike what somebody else in the thread said, don't ever touch Blade Storm. That's just bad baddy bad talk. Unless somebody is out of range, this monster Focus vampire is strictly off limits. We have no talents to improve it or reduce the cost. Master Strike and Stasis are the best gap fillers, and Sweep (currently, not when 1.2 hits) is really cheap. Also (currently, not when 1.2 hits) you can spam Cyclone Slash to dump Focus and build Centering to bring Zen up more often, even with no enemies nearby. And no, second poster, only people who don't care about being good try to PvP as Combat in its current form. I'm sorry, people will still disagree, but it's true. Come 1.2, we shall reevaluate Combat viability in PvP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keja Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Once I put those abilities on cooldown what do I do? Just strike and slash until the the cooldowns come back up? Yes. When I see screenshots of guys doing 700k+ I know I must be doing it wrong but I cna't figure it out. Minimizing your downtime (by staying alive, especially) is critical. Gear also plays a role. Also realize that total damage dealt doesn't mean much if your team doesn't win. Play for the objectives. One thing I can tell you is to space out your melee attacks after you overload saber. It stacks up to 3 times but can't stack faster than every 1.5 s. The global cooldown (GCD) is 1.5 seconds. Unless you use Riposte or the first two ticks of Master Strike, you're not hitting more than once every 1.5 seconds. There is no need to space out your attacks. So the lesson there is, don't mis-manage the cooldowns of your abilities. It is really simple: keep your main abilities (Zealous Strike, Cauterize, Overload Saber and Merciless Slash) on cooldown. Any time you're fighting, and these abilities aren't on cooldown, you're not maximizing your damage. Don't sit around with 30 stacks of Centering. Liberal use of Zen not only significantly boosts your damage, it also provides a good deal of healing. You should aim for at least a 4:1 or 5:1 damage to healing ratio (if your team has good healers, you may not get this). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keja Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) I personally know of two good Merc healers on my server who I simply can't kill solo. It's impossible (currently, but when 1.2 hits and makes healing more resource intensive...*evil grin*). Right now Merc/Commando healers are just stupid OP. So if you're getting torn to shreds by a single Sent while healing on your Merc, you're doing something wrong. We simply do not have the dps to stop you. Combined with your uninterruptable bubble, stun, knockback, and apparently your utterly RIDICULOUS instant cast heals that I can't interrupt, and your ability to cleanse my dots... Yes, a Sentinel does have the dps to stop any healer (though an Operative/Scoundrel can vanish and get away)...it just may take a while. Save your cooldowns for after they have used theirs - when Mercs/Commandos bubble, simply build up your focus and centering. When the bubble drops, pour on the heat and Kick the first heal, Stasis the 2nd, Kick the 3rd, Awe the 4th, Kick the 5th...they shouldn't have lived to the end of that. Keep Crippling Throw and Leg Slash up as well. Even if you're not outright killing them - which you may not be, if they greatly out-gear you - they aren't healing their team which is enough to turn a fight. Edited March 23, 2012 by Keja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorSeven Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 >came in to offer some advice >see that OP mentions a watchman rotation without so much as a hint he is watchman spec >that feel when people don't even clarify what spec they are because they think no one uses combat >sadfrog.jpg What spec do you think he is if he's using Merciless Slash? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaspark Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 What spec do you think he is if he's using Merciless Slash? uh, watchman? you know, like I said it was? or did you not understand it? he didn't say "PVP Help please (watchman)" or anything like that, he just said "PVP Help please" and then goes into the watchman rotation the point I'm making is that so many people just default to watchman that they don't even clarify that's what they use. in other words, no one uses combat, and that makes me sadfrog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal-Sharran Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) Yes, a Sentinel does have the dps to stop any healer (though an Operative/Scoundrel can vanish and get away)...it just may take a while. Save your cooldowns for after they have used theirs - when Mercs/Commandos bubble, simply build up your focus and centering. When the bubble drops, pour on the heat and Kick the first heal, Stasis the 2nd, Kick the 3rd, Awe the 4th, Kick the 5th...they shouldn't have lived to the end of that. Keep Crippling Throw and Leg Slash up as well. Even if you're not outright killing them - which you may not be, if they greatly out-gear you - they aren't healing their team which is enough to turn a fight. Unless they have enough healing from instant casts to mitigate your damage. I'm not getting defensive, you don't know me and vice versa. So who can judge? I'll just say this. The two specific Merc healers I'm talking about are full BM (where I am full Champ) and I can kick/stasis/awe all I want, they somehow manage to heal themselves sufficiently without casting. Between Kolto Missle (instant), Kolto Shell (instant), Energy Shield (can't interrupt, increases healing received by 10%), Emergency Scan (instant)...they have enough uninterruptable healing to make them virtually impossible to kill. Sure, I can wear them out given enough time. But even smart use of my CDs generally isn't enough when they are competent. Throw in the fact THEY can stun and knock me back, plus every WZ has LOS objects to run around...I'd like to see a video of two equally geared and skilled Sent/Merc going at it without outside interruptions. I want to see how you supposedly kill this Merc, solo, in a reasonable amount of time (sticking on them until they run out of ammo is not reasonable). *edit* Their instant cast purge currently dispells our Crippling Throw debuff (fixed in 1.2), as well as our burns. It's cheap and instant and on a....5 sec cd? So good luck keeping your burns up for maximum dps. Edited March 23, 2012 by Mal-Sharran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrip Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 Thanks for the help all. Very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourMomWasHere Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Even if you're not outright killing them - which you may not be, if they greatly out-gear you - they aren't healing their team which is enough to turn a fight. This. I may not be able to kill that Merc, but if they're focused on keeping from dying, someone else is going down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevvy Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I'm considering macro'ing Overload Saber to Force Leap, so that every time I Leap, I use OS. But Maybe I shouldn't do that... o_O What say you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcwsfu Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I'm considering macro'ing Overload Saber to Force Leap, so that every time I Leap, I use OS. But Maybe I shouldn't do that... o_O What say you? I just bought myself a Naga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevvy Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I just bought myself a Naga Nagas own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derian Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 I'm considering macro'ing Overload Saber to Force Leap, so that every time I Leap, I use OS. But Maybe I shouldn't do that... o_O What say you? Just from the way I play SEntinel I would be reluctant to do that. Sometimes you can waste a charge on a target ou dont need to use it on (About to die etc) It's a rare situation, though. Probably not a bad idea if you're just starting out on the class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagyo Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Isnt it a bannable offence macroing those actions? I have a naga myself, and I just want Bioware to once and for all say that "Yes, its illegal to use macro in SWTOR even if you're using the SWTOR Naga mouse", not that legal wording they posted which can be misinterpreted by anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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