Focus Sentinels?

[erkolindham]

Hello,

 

I'm playing a 33 Sentinel atm and i am really enjoying it, especially as it's a bit more challenging than playing my Commando .

 

I am currently Focus-specced, and apart from the "getting-used-to-1000-buttons" thing i think it's working pretty well. I'm mainly interested in PvP but i'm doing some PvE on the side, especially FP's and the class quests.

 

But seeing from this forum, Focus-sentinels seems to be the less talked about. I see countless of posts where Watchman and Combat are compared, but not much on Focus. So after i have been reading a lot of posts i'm thinking of speccing to Watchman instead, as it seems to do better DPS than Focus in PvP. is this true? I'm really looking more for an enjoyable experience rather than being a really hardcore button-presser (i know it comes with the Sentinel package, but some specces seems more easy than others).

 

Any advice on this is appreciated.

[Xiij]

Let me start with this: I don't pvp on my sentinel, I am primarily pve. But, if you're primarily pvping, at your level you're probably better off staying focus. The focus skill tree is the "pvp" tree for sentinels. I have heard that at level 50 some people use watchman / focus for pvp. Check the pvp thread for more info on focus sentinels though would be my guess. Either that or look at the marauder threads.

[erkolindham]

Yea i guess i'll be going back to Focus. I played around with Watchman (i'm currently L35) but in a WZ a fellow Sent (L38) did double DPS than me with Focus. But still, Watchman is more fun than Focus i think. I think all speccs are OK in PvE (up to 50). Focus seems to be the way to go for burst damage, and Watchman seems more to be a DoT kind of specc.

[Quangus]

I am a Focus Sentinel from the day i chose my ac for my jedi knight back in december and still am today. From my experience most of our kind go the watchman/annihalation way with some believing in the combat/carnage tree. I was the only Focus Sent back then on my server before transfers came. So yeah, we arent that many.

 

As for damage and efficiency, i have met good sentinels of all 3 trees who constantly top damage charts and are literally beasts in duels. Even if some of them claim that their spec is superior to others, I, imho believe that it matters more the player behind the keyboard in the end. U are at ur best if u play the spec u are most comfortable with, period. When i tried watchman for some time i found out for example that my survivability increased because of the nice self-healing. I was better at duels too. But no matter how much i tried i coud never top the damage i did with focus. And more importantly, focus was more fun for me and so i stayed with it. Hope this coud help u a bit

[DarkSaberMaster]

Hello,

 

I'm playing a 33 Sentinel atm and i am really enjoying it, especially as it's a bit more challenging than playing my Commando .

 

I am currently Focus-specced, and apart from the "getting-used-to-1000-buttons" thing i think it's working pretty well. I'm mainly interested in PvP but i'm doing some PvE on the side, especially FP's and the class quests.

 

But seeing from this forum, Focus-sentinels seems to be the less talked about. I see countless of posts where Watchman and Combat are compared, but not much on Focus. So after i have been reading a lot of posts i'm thinking of speccing to Watchman instead, as it seems to do better DPS than Focus in PvP. is this true? I'm really looking more for an enjoyable experience rather than being a really hardcore button-presser (i know it comes with the Sentinel package, but some specces seems more easy than others).

 

Any advice on this is appreciated.

 

i have played Focus from about level 27 up to 50. I just recently went the Combat spec. Not because I didn't like Focus, but because I like the single target damage that Combat does. Focus is a very fun and able spec in both PvP and PvE. I especially like it in PvE because you can get all of the trash mobs crowded around you and then wipe them out with a powered-up Force Sweep. Plus the bosses went down pretty quickly because of it, too. Also Zealous Leap is great for utility and does just as much damage as a regular Force Sweep.

 

In PvP, people would always encounter me thinking I was the Watchman spec until I gave them the 5-6k surprise lol. The reason why most here choose the Watchman spec is because of the additional healing and utility it offers the group. I had tried Watchman and it just wasn't my cup of tea. If you don't like pressing a lot of buttons and watching your buff bar, Watchman definitely ain't for you.

 

If you are liking Focus, stay in that tree. It is a great spec and very powerful if you take the time to learn and get good with it. Hope this helps.

[arkitip]

The reason people prefer Watchman and Combat for team play is simple. Watchman can take a healer or turret out of the game entirely, and Combat brings CC and 80% move speed buff.

 

Focus has that reliance on 1 move that is not ideal in PVP. Ask Commandos/Mercs.

[erkolindham]

I am a Focus Sentinel from the day i chose my ac for my jedi knight back in december and still am today. From my experience most of our kind go the watchman/annihalation way with some believing in the combat/carnage tree. I was the only Focus Sent back then on my server before transfers came. So yeah, we arent that many.

 

As for damage and efficiency, i have met good sentinels of all 3 trees who constantly top damage charts and are literally beasts in duels. Even if some of them claim that their spec is superior to others, I, imho believe that it matters more the player behind the keyboard in the end. U are at ur best if u play the spec u are most comfortable with, period. When i tried watchman for some time i found out for example that my survivability increased because of the nice self-healing. I was better at duels too. But no matter how much i tried i coud never top the damage i did with focus. And more importantly, focus was more fun for me and so i stayed with it. Hope this coud help u a bit

 

This is so true. I think i read these forums too much, relying on people who have played Sents rather than what i like myself. When i specced Watchman i ripped the button-setup from the sticky topic at the top of this forum. Nothing really worked for me so i specced back to Focus and made my own button setup and it's working much better now, even though i still need to learn the buttons ^^.

[Gongsarong]

you have to try them at 50 to compare. at yout lvl some skills are still missing.

 

for pvp the best tree depends on the way you like to fight.

all trees are almost even in pvp and have there ad- and disadvantages.

 

i wouldn`t recommend focus, but that´s just cause i don´t like the playstyle

 

beware when you compare the trees. watchman and combat do single target damage and focus do a lot of aoe dmg

[bliapis]

Ive played with all specs both in pvp and pve (end-raids).

 

Watchman is about 100dps higher than combat and combat is about 100dps higher than focus.

 

Focus is much fun and able spec as people say and very effective too as what it does, it does it nicelly.

 

There is not much utility with Focus though - if you try to forget the fact the pressure u put to the healers when they have to heal through a team-wide empowered smash.

 

Watchman is no brainer as the damage it does and the burst you can complete is pretty awesome, plus the longer and speedier version of our camo.

 

Combat is quite capable again as its all about single target in a flash. When u throw the penetration debuff alongside a nice master strike - which also grounds the target - and finish it off with saber storm, you can potentially dish out 15k damage. Its not few times i downed a sorc in one burst.

 

In the end, play whatever you like and try to master each spec, because imo, we are the only class which the DPS trees are SO freaking interesting and different.

 

Focus build in pvp:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/4482/screenshot2012062212045.jpg

 

edit: i rotate through all Trees, i like em all , so i play watchman for a while, the focus then combat and back again.

Edited July 5, 2012 by bliapis

[Memo-]

I'd just like to repeat what others have already said: play whatever suits you. Hardcore players will tell you that Watchman is the way to go, but it doesn't need to matter. What matters is you enjoy the game, and to enjoy the game to the maximum, play the spec that is most fun to play.

 

This comes from a Focus-player (first character was a sentinel from early access, always was Focus-specced and won't probably be changing). You say you can dish out 15k in a single burst with Watchman, but this isn't something that couldn't be done with Focus. People seem to think that Force Sweep is the only thing there is, but you have to remember that to set it up you'll be already dealing anywhere from 3000 to 6000, add a well-delivered Force Sweep and that's an additional 5000, then finish up with Master Strike for 6000 more.

 

The only reason I would be changing away from Focus is the additional CC-breaker and improved speed of Combat. I might go Annihilation on a future Marauder though.

 

//Here's my build, built entirely on my own tastes without any regard to any guides: www.torhead.com/skill-calc/#501GMzZGrobdforfzZb.2

Edited July 6, 2012 by Memo-