Any Focus sentinels there?

[Necrosado]

Hey guys, first of all this is my first post here, so take it easy on me

 

Currently lvl 46 I am Focus spec http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501ZhMoZGMRrzfzrfz.1

 

I have been reading lots of posts on how combat and watchman are very good and deal massive dmg. I have tried combat prior to 1.2 and it just sucked, so I changed to focus and have been with it since.

 

I play several WZ a day and usually I am the top dmg or at least on the 3 top ones.

 

I know that with focus you don't have much survivability, but most of the times I can take 1v2 kill at least 1 and sometimes even kill the 2nd if I manage to save some cds.

 

My rotation is usually:

 

Force leap > Zealous > Force exhaustion > Strike > Force Sweep > Blade Storm > Dispatch

 

And that usually kills most targets. When it doesn't I usually add a force Stasis and then depending on the cds another Force Sweep or a Master Strike.

 

When there's a large group of enemies, I usually jump in with Zen active (Shii-Cho form of course), Force Sweep and then Slash them up for something between 600 to 900 dmg on 2 targets.

 

Fully buffed my force sweep hits from 3.5 to 4k, which I think is pretty good.

 

I wonder if there are any other Focus sentinels out there and what are their rotation and play style.

 

Cheers!

[Necrosado]

Not a single reply?

[Stealios]

Give it some time lol.

 

I'm most of the time watchman, but I always like switching specs at random.

When I'm playing focus spec I pretty much do the same as you do overall (which is also the essence of focus spec).

Build up towards that huge force sweep. I can hit it for around 5-6k if I crit.

The one thing you might want to change is force leap as 'general' opener, if it's possible to just run to a target i'd do that and open with zealous strike. If you get a KB then it's easier to get back on target

 

And with focus it's definitely possible to get as much dmg as a combat or watchman, just means you need to do you aoe's in groups & not on single targets.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Stealios

[Tynestar]

I play a 5-4-32 focus spec. I wanted to play something a little different from all the watchman specs that proliferate the WZs. It doesn't have the self healing as WM but it does have others nice abilities like zealous leap and a 45 sec GBTF (with the BM gear bonus). It is a fun spec and while people will claim WM is the only way to go, it does fine.

 

My build is different than yours as I don't take master focus and instead take gravity for the FE and sweep discount and I take 2/2 in inner focus. I want 4 stacks of singularity to max out my sweep damage as it is the big hitter. I do use master strike but its situational and not nearly as frequent as when I sweep. In a tight packed area like the control point of navarro (sp?) or the bomb points, hitting 5 targets for 5k can really put the other team's healers behind the 8 ball.

 

My rotation is similar but not always set in stone. The two things I try ensure is to get felling blow and singularity on the target. Most of the time it is a force leap/exhaustion combo later followed by a zealous leap/stasis combo on a tough target or the next one.

 

I'm going to disagree with the above poster as opening with force leap isn't as bad in this spec with your second leap to close the gap from a knock back. The only time that's a real problem for me is if I'm not careful on a walkway and get knocked off. Or if I get a full tele-specced sage who has their knock back talented to root. But for our force sweep, I want the felling blow buff (from a jump) and the singularity buff (from either exhaustion, stasis or zen) to get the 5-6 k auto crit. Felling blow is important to me to ensure the crit of the sweep.

 

As always, YMMV.

[DrizztDragonz]

Going to have to agree. Been Focus specced since leveling to 50. Love the spec and think it does just well for WZ and PvE for that matter. Yes it's a buildup to our one big monstrous dmg dealer, Force Sweep, but it's not like we can't do anything outside of that. My Spec is 3/7/31 as I am close to 100% hit with that spec and I did take Master Focus cause of PvE. As stated we may not have all the self healing from Watchman but honestly in most WZs it's not going to matter when 3-4 IMPs are pounding on you. This way with Force Sweep you'll put a hurting on all 4 of them and have your teammates finish them off.

 

Also, I agree, I would hit Force Exhaustion right after FL as you want both the Felling Blows and SIngularity available once you Zealous strike and have the focus for Sweep.

[Keypek]

Question for you more experienced folks as I am going to try focus spec. Moth balled my sentinel because I never like playing fotm toons but i love the character to much not to play so figured I'd give focus a whirl since watchmen is the fotm atm. Anyway, I know you are discussing basic rotations here but just checking to see if you focus peeps would start most fights by doing...

 

valorous call > Zen > Leap (whichever) > force sweep

 

And of course go into a rotation until valorous call and zen are both up at same time... just curious if i am missing something here that this would not be a good idea to start every fight with cause you want to save VC for something else.

[Tynestar]

valorous call > Zen > Leap (whichever) > force sweep

 

And of course go into a rotation until valorous call and zen are both up at same time... just curious if i am missing something here that this would not be a good idea to start every fight with cause you want to save VC for something else.

 

By popping VC then zen you will gain 4 stacks of singularity so after a force leap you will get both buffs up for a max sweep provided you talented 2/2 in inner focus. There are times when this works very well (ala a big knot near the sides or at the door of dread star). It is a third way to get 4 stacks of singularity. And you can then spam slash to get extra hits til zen wears off.

 

But generally, I don't do this as I tend to pop VC for other reasons like using trancendence to get back into the fight or at the start of a WZ to get the raid to an objective faster. So its more situational thing for me what ability to use VC on. That's just how I find I use my VC.

[Keypek]

By popping VC then zen you will gain 4 stacks of singularity so after a force leap you will get both buffs up for a max sweep provided you talented 2/2 in inner focus. There are times when this works very well (ala a big knot near the sides or at the door of dread star). It is a third way to get 4 stacks of singularity. And you can then spam slash to get extra hits til zen wears off.

 

But generally, I don't do this as I tend to pop VC for other reasons like using trancendence to get back into the fight or at the start of a WZ to get the raid to an objective faster. So its more situational thing for me what ability to use VC on. That's just how I find I use my VC.

 

All right, thanks for response. Yeah literally tried focus for the first time last night on my 43 sentinel. Didn't even practice in pve and went straight into WZs.... it went... mixed results while I fumbled around trying to learn the class lol. But I was always top or second in damage amazingly the four WZs I did.

 

The synergy for getting 4 stacks of singularity is a bit strange to me still. Need to figure out what to use and where. But was fun putting that *** smack down aoe when I had them.

 

So is the absolute only way to get singularity by doing force stasis, exhaustion, or popping Zen? Cause it seemed like I'd get stacks from some where else at times. Like I'd look down and be like "whoa, I have 4" and go aoe the crap out of some peeps. But I may just be a noob which is possible.

 

Also, is it possible to stack more then 4 singularity.... and if you had say 6 singularity and used one aoe would you then have 2 left or does it wipe em all out even though it only uses 4?

 

I know, try it myself but am at work and bored so figured I'd see if someone knows the answer before the day is up.

[Tynestar]

You can get 4 stacks of Singularity in three ways. By force Exhaustion, Stasis and popping Zen. And you can never have more than 4 stacks at a time. Zen grants 4 stacks immediately while FE and stasis both create 1 stack for each tick of the ability. Its for that reason that there is usually a strike filler between a FE (or stasis) and force sweep in there to allow the 4 stacks to build up.

 

Conventional ways to combo is to force leap, zealous strike force exhaustion, use a strike filler and the you should have 4 stacks to get the most out of force sweep. The one two punch is a leap to set felling blow and then one of the 3 ways to build singularity.

 

Hope that helps.

[FadedSpark]

Use force stasis as your opening crush instead of Exhaustion. It has a longer CD and gives you some bonus focus.

 

Other than that, yep, that's it in an instant.

 

PS: Keep awe on one of your hotbars where you have easy access. Mass target AOE was the only good thing about my focus build, it wasn't very punchy single target.

[damican]

Focus is awesome at leapig in doing a bunch of aoe dmg then pittering out. PvP you dont have much time on target so something like watchman who can leap in get a lot of dot going on and maybe a giant merciless slash and then pop zen when they get knocked off just seems to be far more effective.

[Funick]

I usually run watchman, and watchman is a better spec in most situations but as the imp competition is basically gone on my server, I've been running focus to smash all the bads that much faster, that and getting 6k+ crits every wz is fun. I find focus actually better against assassins now that the buffs last longer, I just have to make sure not to waste a sweep while they are immune but otherwise I can bypass their high defense chances with all those force attacks.

[Jeffor]

I've only ever been a focus sentinel and I really like it. Shii-Cho form is a good balance or offense and defense and I love that it darn near impossible for players to kite me. It seems that I always have a leap of run speed ability available when I need it. Even against single targets I can put up some nice numbers if I really get on it. Plus I liked that focus sentinels were the road less traveled when I started out. I really only PVP but I have success in PVE when I need to.