any focus pvp build that's good? or is it just better to go combat or watchman

[Macabakur]

Hi, so I have multiple 50's, two's multiple right? I havent really given pvp even a real try and I want to now, my guild wants to get a ranked team together and that sounds very fun. The question comes from trying my gunslinget in pvp and just being unhappy with it, so I've decided to try my sentinel who I haven't played in a bit. Now he's been watchmen since I first made him and I think it's time to try something new. I've heard a lot of stuff about how focus stinks but all that Just makes me want to try it more haha. So I guess I'm looking for assistance.. So can anyone help me? What do I need to know, what's the optimal rotation following my leap? If all of this is answered on the previous pages I apologize I'm really excited to try this, so if anyone's out there with wisdom on focus tree pvp I'd big time love to hear it. Thank you so much .

 

Hey also, oh if that last paragraphs a bit long I appologize, but I have one more question, key bindings. Since WoW I've used the bars they gave me didn't realize until just recently I could remap them how I like. I've since started using shift and alt as modifiers to the 1- (my iPhone doesn't have this key the last one but ive heard stories and seen some stuff of more effective and easier and more intuitive systems, but I couldn't figure out how to apply them to me. I'm not noob been gaming since 1995 on MUDs and finally made the transition to graphical with WoW but still I really could use some help figuring out a system I can understand and feel comfortable with. So once again sorry for another long paragraph feh I feel like a nub oh we'll, is what it is. Any help with either or both of my issues/topics and you'll be my BFF forevah and Evah x 419

 

 

oh, but ya, acceptyed also on here, why is combat/watchman better, ghael's watchman right now I was just thinking it'd be fun to switch it up, k k thanks, any thoughts, ideas or suggestions highly encouraged.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Macabakur

[jbutl]

Focus is fine for pvp. Some will tell you that the only way to go is watchman. That's a fine argument, but it's not necessarily true.

 

I'm a 50 sentinel War Hero. I have about half BM gear. I do very well in warzones. I'm consistently at the top or slightly behind the top of damage charts, getting 7-8 medals per game. Some of that may be due to gear, but I was getting 5-6 medals and placing in the top 5 in damage before I was BM.

 

I use this rotation:

 

Force Leap>Exhaustion>Zealous Strike>Force Sweep>Slash>Zealous Leap>Force Stasis>(Force Sweep or Dispatch)>Slash>(repeat, replacing FL with ZL if attacking a target in close quarters)

 

The basic point of your rotation as Focus is to hit your force sweep so that it maximizes damage. Get the autocrit proc from FL or ZL. Then, build the 25% damage increase from FE/FS. Then, hit Force Sweep. Then, start building your procs back up, using slash as a filler. You can spec into slash so that it crits basically 50% of the time. So, most times it will do 1.5k per hit.

 

Additionally, Second Wind is a nice skill to have, and it regularly heals me for 3.5k, which is usually enough to put me over the top in a tough fight. You can also throw in Pacify and Riposte at the beginning of your rotation if you're dealing with a melee dps. Similarly, your bladestorm will usually crit if you're specced into inreasing force critical chance (which you should be). SO, you can hit that if everything is on cooldown (shouldn't happen but it might). All that is situational though.

 

It's a bit harder to kill healers as Focus spec than Watchman. But it's not significantly more difficult. Focus seems to have a little more burst, and a well timed, fully prepped Force Sweep with an adrenal or relic active will be more than enough to finish off most healers. It's just a bit different b/c you really have to rely on out-damaging the healing as and using your interrupts wisely as opposed to basically spamming interrupts as a Watchman.

 

Also, 1.2 is giving Focus a buff IMO. Zen is now going to serve the same purpose as FE or FS. So, that'll mean higher damage output than the currently already high dmg output (my opinion).

[Belly]

I had a focus guardian for a good while, I can't imagine them being all that different from sentinels. I just felt like a one-trick pony, though you can do some serious damage, with well timed lolsweeps.

 

I went combat with my sent for the same reason you want to go focus, it is said (until 1.2 at least) to be weaker overall than watchman, but some nice fixes are coming for combat and focus that should make us happy pandas

[Mal-Sharran]

Focus is fine for pvp. Some will tell you that the only way to go is watchman. That's a fine argument, but it's not necessarily true.

 

I'm a 50 sentinel War Hero. I have about half BM gear. I do very well in warzones. I'm consistently at the top or slightly behind the top of damage charts, getting 7-8 medals per game. Some of that may be due to gear, but I was getting 5-6 medals and placing in the top 5 in damage before I was BM.

 

I use this rotation:

 

Force Leap>Exhaustion>Zealous Strike>Force Sweep>Slash>Zealous Leap>Force Stasis>(Force Sweep or Dispatch)>Slash>(repeat, replacing FL with ZL if attacking a target in close quarters)

 

The basic point of your rotation as Focus is to hit your force sweep so that it maximizes damage. Get the autocrit proc from FL or ZL. Then, build the 25% damage increase from FE/FS. Then, hit Force Sweep. Then, start building your procs back up, using slash as a filler. You can spec into slash so that it crits basically 50% of the time. So, most times it will do 1.5k per hit.

 

Additionally, Second Wind is a nice skill to have, and it regularly heals me for 3.5k, which is usually enough to put me over the top in a tough fight. You can also throw in Pacify and Riposte at the beginning of your rotation if you're dealing with a melee dps. Similarly, your bladestorm will usually crit if you're specced into inreasing force critical chance (which you should be). SO, you can hit that if everything is on cooldown (shouldn't happen but it might). All that is situational though.

 

It's a bit harder to kill healers as Focus spec than Watchman. But it's not significantly more difficult. Focus seems to have a little more burst, and a well timed, fully prepped Force Sweep with an adrenal or relic active will be more than enough to finish off most healers. It's just a bit different b/c you really have to rely on out-damaging the healing as and using your interrupts wisely as opposed to basically spamming interrupts as a Watchman.

 

Also, 1.2 is giving Focus a buff IMO. Zen is now going to serve the same purpose as FE or FS. So, that'll mean higher damage output than the currently already high dmg output (my opinion).

 

Please excuse my ignorance, but Second Wind heals for 10% of your health. For it to heal you for 3.5k, you'd need 35000 health, which currently is impossible. Was this a typo, or can it crit? Is it affected by expertise/power? 10% of my 17k is only 1.7k, which is pitiful and not worth it. But 3.5k combined with a warzone medpac...that'd be beastly.

 

*only been Focus twice, fun tree but I prefer Watchman, and both times I skipped this talent because it sounded, purely from the tooltip, to be subpar*

Edited April 1, 2012 by Mal-Sharran

[MinionOfEckerd]

Focus is fine for pvp. Some will tell you that the only way to go is watchman. That's a fine argument, but it's not necessarily true.

 

I'm a 50 sentinel War Hero. I have about half BM gear. I do very well in warzones. I'm consistently at the top or slightly behind the top of damage charts, getting 7-8 medals per game. Some of that may be due to gear, but I was getting 5-6 medals and placing in the top 5 in damage before I was BM.

 

I use this rotation:

 

Force Leap>Exhaustion>Zealous Strike>Force Sweep>Slash>Zealous Leap>Force Stasis>(Force Sweep or Dispatch)>Slash>(repeat, replacing FL with ZL if attacking a target in close quarters)

 

The basic point of your rotation as Focus is to hit your force sweep so that it maximizes damage. Get the autocrit proc from FL or ZL. Then, build the 25% damage increase from FE/FS. Then, hit Force Sweep. Then, start building your procs back up, using slash as a filler. You can spec into slash so that it crits basically 50% of the time. So, most times it will do 1.5k per hit.

 

Additionally, Second Wind is a nice skill to have, and it regularly heals me for 3.5k, which is usually enough to put me over the top in a tough fight. You can also throw in Pacify and Riposte at the beginning of your rotation if you're dealing with a melee dps. Similarly, your bladestorm will usually crit if you're specced into inreasing force critical chance (which you should be). SO, you can hit that if everything is on cooldown (shouldn't happen but it might). All that is situational though.

 

It's a bit harder to kill healers as Focus spec than Watchman. But it's not significantly more difficult. Focus seems to have a little more burst, and a well timed, fully prepped Force Sweep with an adrenal or relic active will be more than enough to finish off most healers. It's just a bit different b/c you really have to rely on out-damaging the healing as and using your interrupts wisely as opposed to basically spamming interrupts as a Watchman.

 

Also, 1.2 is giving Focus a buff IMO. Zen is now going to serve the same purpose as FE or FS. So, that'll mean higher damage output than the currently already high dmg output (my opinion).

 

Could you share with us your spec build? I reached 50 yesterday and I'd like to give Focus a try. Thanks!

[Houdii]

Please excuse my ignorance, but Second Wind heals for 10% of your health. For it to heal you for 3.5k, you'd need 35000 health, which currently is impossible. Was this a typo, or can it crit? Is it affected by expertise/power? 10% of my 17k is only 1.7k, which is pitiful and not worth it. But 3.5k combined with a warzone medpac...that'd be beastly.

 

*only been Focus twice, fun tree but I prefer Watchman, and both times I skipped this talent because it sounded, purely from the tooltip, to be subpar*

 

It is affected by stats and can crit although I think he is exaggerating on the value. Full bm, power/surge mods in every slot and highest heal has been 3.1k but regularly over 2.5k so still a very nice heal. All depends on points tho, focus has so many variations to it, one of those specs where there simply isn't enough points ><

[Jonvuu]

It is affected by stats and can crit although I think he is exaggerating on the value. Full bm, power/surge mods in every slot and highest heal has been 3.1k but regularly over 2.5k so still a very nice heal. All depends on points tho, focus has so many variations to it, one of those specs where there simply isn't enough points ><

 

It is possible he has biochem and sometimes gets the heal while his 15% bonus hp are up from his medpack that would explain a higher crit perhaps.

[jbutl]

If you're fully buffed in an ops group, and you crit it will heal for 3.5K. (Second wind, that is). But, yeah, other times it will regularly get you healed for 2.5k plus. Edited April 1, 2012 by jbutl

[jbutl]

Could you share with us your spec build? I reached 50 yesterday and I'd like to give Focus a try. Thanks!

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bcZ0MZGbRrdrMdGR.1

 

This is my build. Although, you can vary it a bit from this. And some focus sentinels have different builds. Basically, you can afford to take points out of pulse and blade focus and allocate them elsewhere. You don't really need stagger b/c most times in pvp you will be using FE or leg slash which will slow your target well enough anyway so that the extra root second isn't necessary. Dual wield master is pretty much unnecessary in most specs. Although, I suppose you could debate that.

[Macabakur]

awesome guys thanks for all the great replies.

[Rotanartlu]

That is a good spec. I use one in crusader and dual wield master instead of 2 in pulse. Full BM geared war hero here and I never gets less than 500k with that spec I love accidentally criting someone for 6k that runs up behind you.