Looking for some sentinel advice

[Ravanel]

I love to play my jedi sentinel plus the knight story, but I've always been doubting how to pick from the skill trees. Update 1.2 forced me to look at my jedi sentinel spec again and I was hoping to find some advice from more experienced sentinels here.

 

I love AoE DPS, but always had the feeling the Focus tree is a bit of a one-trick pony. Is this correct? And has this changed a bit with the update? I'm not sure what to spend my points on. I like to go pure DPS, preferably AoE. If the playstyle is much of the same though, I'd rather spec for single-target DPS. What are your experiences? All tips, also general sentinel tips, welcome.

 

My sentinel is level 20 (11 training points to spend) and doesn't do PVP.

[Temeluchus]

I love to play my jedi sentinel plus the knight story, but I've always been doubting how to pick from the skill trees. Update 1.2 forced me to look at my jedi sentinel spec again and I was hoping to find some advice from more experienced sentinels here.

 

I love AoE DPS, but always had the feeling the Focus tree is a bit of a one-trick pony. Is this correct? And has this changed a bit with the update? I'm not sure what to spend my points on. I like to go pure DPS, preferably AoE. If the playstyle is much of the same though, I'd rather spec for single-target DPS. What are your experiences? All tips, also general sentinel tips, welcome.

 

My sentinel is level 20 (11 training points to spend) and doesn't do PVP.

 

Focus is very much a one trick pony, high AoE damage crits. I played it for a while on both my Sent and Mara, but for me it quickly got boring.

 

Combat got buffed enough to make it more viable, it's very bursty and can decimate targets quickly. the near constant speed buff can come in handy as well. It suffers from survivability issues that the other specs don't have imo.

 

Watchman is still the way to go for me, burns ticking damage, nice burst, and added heals from the burns for you and your party are quite nice.

 

Since you don't PvP if doing the max amount of damage is your main concern than all the recent parses from combat logs(my own and other people that are far more knowledgeable than myself in this area) are showing Watchman as the highest dps, followed by Combat.

 

The difference in the specs is only a few hundred or so, so you can just pick what is the most fun for you and still contribute great dps to your group/Operation.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Temeluchus

[StJohnLimbo]

Can't beat Watchman for leveling up. It has consistent dps and the healing will keep downtime low and enable you to kill mobs that you could not do otherwise. It is also a tremendous boost to your group inside of a flashpoint. A reduced cd and zero meter minimum range on force leap is very nice too. Watchman works very well in pvp, both random world encounters and warzones. Watchman is about bringing more to the table than just single target damage.

 

Now if you want nothing but single target damage, then go Combat. When you pool up a bit of force and string attacks correctly Combat will do a lot of damage (to one target). Personally I would recommend going Combat, if you wanted to, in the 40's. Watchman's top tier skill is a bit of a disappointment since armor affects its output. Compared with Combat's armor reducing traits, Combat has a much better time at doing lots of damage to any class type. Watchman gets around this with the use of burns, which will do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, while healing you and your party.

 

Both skill trees are very fun and both require a different mind set to play effectively. As far as Focus goes, don't know, haven't tried it and I don't have any desire to in the near future. Since v1.2 both Watchman and Combat are essentially the same as before. Their play styles remain unchanged, they have just been made better.

 

Watchman: team player, better pve survivability, burns with heals.

Combat: more damage possible from a single attack, bigger crits, single target nuker.

[SteveGarbage]

Focus is just about all Force Sweep, even after the patch. Actually I think it's become less viable since they changed they moved the Tier 1 sweep skill from Watchman to Focus and changed its effect from focus reduction to increased damage.

 

Watchman still appears to be the premier spec for PVE leveling, since it has the most utility and survivability. It's tougher to manage the other two, but once you get a feel for it it's immensely powerful.

[Ravanel]

Thanks a lot all for the advice. It is always nice to hear how things really turn out from end-game players (reading the descriptions is always still theory-crafting) , especially if it makes so much sense.

 

Too bad that my suspicions about the focus-pony were right, but I'll be going for the Watchman-tree then: the healing-through-crit-dots thing sounds like fun and if it's the best DPS-wise too I'm totally sold. Thanks again for the help!

[Grahame]

I'm not sure what you guys meen with the "focus is a one trick pony" statement. I played watchman @ level 50 before 1.2 and enjoyed it. Since 1.2 I experimented with Combat and Focus specs. Combat felt faster paced than Watchman did, especially with the Zen decrease on melee GCD. I can't say I mastered the spec though.

 

I then switched to Focus and I love it. Building up a big sweep feels very similar to building up your burn stacks on Watchman. Force leap or Zealous Leap grant Felling Blow which make your next Sweep an auto crit (lasts 20 seconds). You buff Sweep further by stacking Singularity 4x. You get these from Zen, 4 seconds of Force Stasis, or tics of Force Exhaustion. You probably know all this. When Sweep is on cooldown you still have a lot to work with, just as much as Watchman does when Overload Saber is on cooldown. IMHO this is a better way to compare the two play styles.

 

Watchman is centered around maintaining burn stacks and maximizing Merciless Slash; single target focus. Focus feels like it trades that extra burn damage onto Sweep and trades Merciless Slash for Zealous Slash and Force Exhaustion. Focus single target makes up a bit for it's lower damage with more 10m range attacks (small discount on Blade Storm too).

 

Sorry for rambeling a bit, Focus seems underrated on the forums. Try it, you may like it.

 

TLDR: Don't dismiss Focus as a "one trick pony." It makes up for lower single target damage with range and greater AoE capabilities.

 

Grahame

50 Jedi Sentinal

<Eternal>

[elmergosh]

I'm a L50 Watchman Sentinel and for endgame PvE it's tops =) Though Combat seems perfectly legitimate as well. I leveled my character in Focus spec because I, like you, loved the huge AoE damage. In terms of endgame, whenever I see a Sentinel in Shii-Co form I immediately try to educate them further (for non-PvP) =P

 

I haven't played Focus since pre-1.2, but from what I read in the patch notes and see in the skill tree, BioWare tried to make Focus a semi-respectable single target dps tree as well. It of course isn't; not for endgame anyways. It appears that besides Force Sweep, you're basically relying on Strike/Slash, with some Blade Storm mixed in (remember things that boost your Force Crit chance and/or damage will increase Sweep, Blade Storm & Stasis damage).

 

Given the fact that you won't have one of the main elements (and the burstiness) of Watchman until at least L40 (Merciless Slash), I think Watchman wouldn't be that more exciting to level than Focus. I'm positive all 3 trees are viable and Watchman would have an edge on fighting bosses in your class story (which are a joke really). But at the end of the day, 95% of what you need to kill are trash mobs and those go down quick & easy with uber Sweeps =)

 

Anyways, it's late, I'm tired and rambling. My point is that, unless you're set on using one and only one spec for the rest of your SW:TOR days, it's a perfectly viable and fun way to level with Focus tree and then switch to Watchman at L50. I know, it's exactly what I did =P But welcome to the wonderful world of being a Sentinel! Such a fun class to play =)