Noob Sentinel

[Drakaras]

Hi everyone,

Please don’t think I haven’t done my “homework” researching the sentinel’s forum, but I’m still a little confused what spec is “the best” or should be while leveling after 1.2.

I have a 50 GS and around 40 BH, but my Sentinel is only 16.

I’m really enjoying leveling him, however I can’t decide what path to follow, Watchman or Focus.

It seems to me and please, it is just a very limited view, that watchman is more like a PvE tree, while Focus is PvP.

Having in mind I don’t care about PvP, should I keep investing my points into watchman tree?

Thank you in advance!

[Ryat]

If you are strictly doing PvE then Watchman is the way to go. Recommend this tree starting with Dual Mastery (yes I know its in Combat, trust me) to get fullest effect from both of your blades as early as possible.

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

I find it does fairly well in PvP as well but I don't PvP much either.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Ryat

[dmsSW]

I personally think Watchman is a good way to go for PVE and PVP. I like both specs, but prefer Watchman.

[Smuglebunny]

Watchman is the way to go for all gameplay. Focus and Combat are good too but I prefer watchman due to the damage on target and healing. 1v1 its hard to lose. You put 2 dots on them(overload saber and cauterize) and pop all your defensive cooldowns and keep hitting them with Merc slash and Master strike you win they die. As you are doing tons of damage while getting tiny heals from your crit burns and if you pop zen they are all crit.

 

Force leap, Overload Sabers, Zelous Strike, Cauterize, Merciless slash,ZEN, slash/riposte, master strike, stasis...etc...

[Ghost_Spectre]

If you are strictly doing PvE then Watchman is the way to go. Recommend this tree starting with Dual Mastery (yes I know its in Combat, trust me) to get fullest effect from both of your blades as early as possible.

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

I find it does fairly well in PvP as well but I don't PvP much either.

 

Thank you for your skill tree example. I'm just about to hit twenty and it seems I've followed what you have (5 Combat / 2 Focus) by accident. I'll level up the rest of the way using Watchman.

 

The question I do have concerns combat. Between the two, which is more suited for PvP once I decide to venture into the Warzones? Most of my time was spent spliting between the two subclasses of the Consular, so the Sentinel is new to me. What I am concerned about at my current level and beyond, which is the best rotation for managing my DPS? Thanks.

[Drakaras]

If you are strictly doing PvE then Watchman is the way to go. Recommend this tree starting with Dual Mastery (yes I know its in Combat, trust me) to get fullest effect from both of your blades as early as possible.

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

I find it does fairly well in PvP as well but I don't PvP much either.

 

Thanks a lot guys for the tips!

Ryat, somehow my first points went to Dual Mastery. I think I just guessed it right, ehehe. I will keep investing in Watchman.

Oh, one more thing, I should be running Juyo Form all the time, right?

[Ryat]

I don't use Juyo, I prefer Shii-Cho for the free Slash (plus it gives you one Focus from Focused Slash) when you pop Zen. I have seen others use Juyo though so it is more of what you prefer rather then one works better than the other.

[elmergosh]

I levelled Focus and it was very fun =) Since most of what you eat are trash mobs, the ******ity of Force Sweep makes life easier. But once you are working on hardmode flashpoints and operations, Focus is way too AoE-"focused" and doesn't have enough single-target damage to give you the raid dps you want to put out. I do miss it on the trash mobs though =( I've never played Combat but I've heard good things about it, and I think it's very competitive with Watchman + gives armor debuffs that (I believe, I honestly have nothing concrete) help increase the damage of the entire raid. But I am willing to wager that a Combat-spec'd Sentinel will pull aggro far more often than a Watchman Sentinel due to its burst-ier nature. Again, little experience with Combat so these are just semi-educated guesses.

 

With that said, I'm presently Watchman spec'd and put out the most single-target damage of anyone in the operations I have run. In fact, once mastered and honed, I almost want to call myself OP =P (Pleeease don't nerf me!) Which I think isn't bad as we are a dps-only spec. So what we lack in versatility should give us a slight edge in what we do best: dps =) (Though honestly I end up tanking a lot hehe)

 

HOWEVER, I believe you'll find that levelling as a Sentinel is fun no matter what you do =) If I could do it all over again I'd probably respec once a week and have fun with them all.

 

Note: As a non-PvP'er, I can't say much about that, but I've heard all have their advantages and disadvantages for PvP. I'd try out all of them and see what suits your playstyle best, just make sure you're not Focus-spec'd when you're running endgame PvE =P (Trust me on that)