3 DPS Trees, are they all comparable?

[Toogeloo]

For PvE purposes, are all 3 DPS trees doing similar amounts of DPS that you could literally run any of them and not gimp the damage output of the group as a whole?

 

Also, if the three specs are comparable, is there a certain spec that is more "friendly" to use over others (ie less procs/buffs/debuffs to watching for, or fewer abilities to be concentrating on rotating in or prioritizing)?

Edited July 14, 2012 by Toogeloo

[Belly]

For PvE purposes, are all 3 DPS trees doing similar amounts of DPS that you could literally run any of them and not gimp the damage output of the group as a whole?

 

Also, if the three specs are comparable, is there a certain spec that is more "friendly" to use over others (ie less procs/buffs/debuffs to watching for, or fewer abilities to be concentrating on rotating in or prioritizing)?

 

You won't gimp your group, Focus is more AoE based, so you could break some cc's

 

Watchman is about keeping your dots up, which can get a bit intensive, combat is fairly straightforward by comparison.

[Huggsnotdruggs]

Focus is very fun but has little to no place in ops. if has significantly lower single target dps which is what you are there for. combat is something you can pull off in ops, it has impressive burst. watchman however is the highest single target dps with the addition of some helpful aoe heals every few seconds which makes the healers life a little easier. that being said, they are all viable for something but as far as raiding goes, if you dont bring watchman, or at the very least combat to the event then you are working against your team

[Toogeloo]

So if I am reading what you said right, Watchman is the best dps, but at the cost of being more complicated since you have to pay more attention to procs, buffs, and debuffs, and dot durations, and Combat is less dps (but not as little as Focus) but easier to play?

[Stealios]

So if I am reading what you said right, Watchman is the best dps, but at the cost of being more complicated since you have to pay more attention to procs, buffs, and debuffs, and dot durations, and Combat is less dps (but not as little as Focus) but easier to play?

 

Pretty much yes.

Although i find watchman very 'natural' to play, if you know what i mean. It's has a certain flow with it, where as combat can get a bit boring due to bladerush spam from time to time.

 

My personal preference is watchman for PvE purely because of the selfheals, makes a healers life a lot easier.

[Belly]

So if I am reading what you said right, Watchman is the best dps, but at the cost of being more complicated since you have to pay more attention to procs, buffs, and debuffs, and dot durations, and Combat is less dps (but not as little as Focus) but easier to play?

 

This is basically it, yeah. You'll have to keep your DoTs up to keep the DPS high, but combat's damage is straightforward. I prefer combat, but i'm more of a PvP guy and it just flows better for me. In PvE I might switch to watchman, because your enemies are more predictable, you have more time to manage your DoTs accordingly

[Toogeloo]

Can Combat surpass Watchman if the player struggles to watch Procs and DoT Timers occasionally? Like, do you have to manage your dots perfectly in order to surpass Combat as a Watchman? I have a tendency to sometimes forget to refresh my dots on my Sage, or sometimes cast them early so I don't forget to refresh them. I kind of want to avoid having to watch the buff bar again.

[Stealios]

Can Combat surpass Watchman if the player struggles to watch Procs and DoT Timers occasionally? Like, do you have to manage your dots perfectly in order to surpass Combat as a Watchman? I have a tendency to sometimes forget to refresh my dots on my Sage, or sometimes cast them early so I don't forget to refresh them. I kind of want to avoid having to watch the buff bar again.

 

Not really an option to forget them since they are your 2 main priority abilities, if you do forget them you lose almost 40% of your dmg in the longer fights.

But, since the cooldown of your dot's is longer than the dot it self, it basically means you have to reapply every time they come of cooldown.

[BlznSmri]

After the recent change to Precision Slash the Combat Sents in my guild are starting to pull ahead of the (comparably geared) Watchmen Sents, and if they'd actually fix Opportune Attack then it would definitely be on top. The important thing to remember is that the last two fights in this tier of content (Colonel Vorgath and Kephess) favor bursty Direct Damage more-so than DoT dps.

 

Also, I don't recommend Focus because I'm completely biased against it and I don't think it works well for sentinels.

[AidanLightwalker]

After the recent change to Precision Slash the Combat Sents in my guild are starting to pull ahead of the (comparably geared) Watchmen Sents, and if they'd actually fix Opportune Attack then it would definitely be on top. The important thing to remember is that the last two fights in this tier of content (Colonel Vorgath and Kephess) favor bursty Direct Damage more-so than DoT dps.

 

Also, I don't recommend Focus because I'm completely biased against it and I don't think it works well for sentinels.

 

To my testing, this is true. My combat sentinel is pulling ahead of watxhmen now in compareable gear. And there are 2 things being looked into for fixes in combat.

 

1.). Oppertune strike - is not buffing or next focus spender with an increase of 10%

2.). Saber Storm is no longer increasing the critical strike damage of atura procs. Been broken since 1.2 when they changed atura damage from force to weapon damage. A very gifted player dug into the client files and there is a thread about it already.

 

Once the devs get those two issues fixdd, there will be no doubt, combat will be well highier than watchmen. Say what you like, I embarse watchmen sentinels on a daily baises on Bastion.

[gunte]

To my testing, this is true. My combat sentinel is pulling ahead of watxhmen now in compareable gear. And there are 2 things being looked into for fixes in combat.

 

1.). Oppertune strike - is not buffing or next focus spender with an increase of 10%

2.). Saber Storm is no longer increasing the critical strike damage of atura procs. Been broken since 1.2 when they changed atura damage from force to weapon damage. A very gifted player dug into the client files and there is a thread about it already.

 

Once the devs get those two issues fixdd, there will be no doubt, combat will be well highier than watchmen. Say what you like, I embarse watchmen sentinels on a daily baises on Bastion.

 

Show us some numbers then, after all anyone can talk.