COmbat spec wondering if i need to go watchman

[Angelsgrace]

ok folks here's my current spec

 

http://www.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/sentinel/18/?build=002300010000000000000000000003203220212012200120023001002020000000000000000000000000

 

first off i have NO interest in PVP, and to my mind the constant damage done by me using this spec and rotation i have no problem keeping focus , putting out high consistent damage..

 

my rotation consists of force leap into the fight, zealous strike, strikex2 (this give me a full focus, then use rotation of blade storm precision slash, master strike, and cauterize , filling in with blade rush/zealous strike/strike as needed for cool down. once 30 stack of centering is built i use the 6 strikes of blade rush with the extra aturu form strike .

[Samoth_Nomad]

You're rotation is a little off imo.

Combat doesnt need cauterize. It really has no place in a combat build.

Try this.

Pop Zen, Leap, Blade rush, Precision Slash, Masterstrike, Blade storm

Spam Blade rush during CD's and hit Blade storm as it comes up(ideally with zen when avail.)

Use strike, zealous strike as needed for focus, but dont worry about building focus all the way to the top, as some of your skills will refund focus.

NO cauterize, riposte or slash. get them off your quickbar.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Samoth_Nomad

[LagunaD]

Concerning your skill point allocation, Debilitation, Merciless Zeal and Stagger are all pretty much useless for PvE.

 

Jedi Crusader is not useless, as it will generate significant focus for you. Fleetfooted is better than Stagger for PvE, as mobs/bosses will snare you fairly frequently. Insight is a better place for the last skill point than Merciless Zeal.

 

Good advice above regarding ability selection. Cauterize, Riposte and Slash are not useful for Combat. Strike should only be used as a last resort, only when you have no usable focus-spenders and Zealous Strike, Master Strike and Force Stasis are all on cooldown.

 

You want to keep the Blade Rush and Combat Trance buffs up at all times (if either is missing, use Blade Rush to refresh), and use Blade Storm whenever possible if you have the Combat Trance buff that makes it auto-crit.

Edited July 15, 2012 by LagunaD

[AidanLightwalker]

Omg!! With the info in here, no wonder people are seeing watchmen numbers highier. None of this info is even close to right. NONE OF IT.

 

Leap - zealous strike - blade rush - precision slash- blade storm- master strike- blade rush

Leap- zealous strike - precision slash - blade storm - blade rush spam

 

The two rotations are diffrent based on whether master strike will be up. If it is, waste opportune strike proc on precision slash because the difference in damage is better if you can get both blade storm and master strike within precision slash (and yes you can). If master strike is not going to be available, use your oppertune proc on blade storm. Never use blade storm without precision slash and combat trance up. If those two are not up, use blade rush instead. Now those are opening rotations. So leap drops out after the fight starts. You can use stasis instead of slash i stead if its up.

 

Make sure to use dispatch when available and time it with precision slash. Rotate out master strike for dispatch at that point. Clmbat is a beast and I out perform watchmen sentinels all the time but you really have to get personal with the spec and parser.

Edited July 16, 2012 by AidanLightwalker

[AidanLightwalker]

Use zen right away, even if going into a master strike. And If you are going througb the blade rusb, precision slash, blade storm, master strike combo, AND you have more than 6 focus AND zealous strike will be up after your master strike, then yes you can slip ripsote in before master strike if it procs.

 

Making it Blade rush- precision slash- blade storm- ripsote- master strike. Very bursty in pve and pvp. I've won alot of pvp battles with that. And parsed some good numbers on bosses as well.

Edited July 16, 2012 by AidanLightwalker
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[Samoth_Nomad]

Omg!! With the info in here, no wonder people are seeing watchmen numbers highier. None of this info is even close to right. NONE OF IT.

 

Dude, the only difference between what you posted and what I posted was the placement of blade storm. I find the first rotation of blade storm much more effective when finishing master strike. I almost always get a 5000+ point crit. After that, Like you said, Always make sure trance is up. it's a matter of personal preference. I parse 1650-1700 dps and I am always at the top of the raid meter for EVERY op. I must be doing something right.

The fact that you would even use riposte shows how little you understand focus management vs. dps. It's useless and a waste of focus, especially now that PS is off the GCD.

[AidanLightwalker]

Dude, the only difference between what you posted and what I posted was the placement of blade storm. I find the first rotation of blade storm much more effective when finishing master strike. I almost always get a 5000+ point crit. After that, Like you said, Always make sure trance is up. it's a matter of personal preference. I parse 1650-1700 dps and I am always at the top of the raid meter for EVERY op. I must be doing something right.

The fact that you would even use riposte shows how little you understand focus management vs. dps. It's useless and a waste of focus, especially now that PS is off the GCD.

 

I can see how you would think that but its wrong. WHEN oppertune attack was working (it's currently broken as of 1.3) it would only give you a 10% increase on master strikes FIRST tick, which is the weakest tick. Blade storm benifits more at that time then master strike. And I get resource managment and there plenty of times when your in zen and you can end up resource capped (which is really bad in any game) where if you can slip it in during a presision slash duration, you should. You actually fully utilize you resources while getting a nice hitting inside that buff duration.

 

I don't disbelieve your dps is good, I'm just know it could be better.

[AidanLightwalker]

This is assuming that you are using zealous strike on CD, cause you should. Think of it as a focus dump. Its off the gcd and 100% armor pen cause of precision slash. 3 focus is not alot if you are in zen and transitioning from blade storm to master strike and had 6 focus with <= 4 secs on zealous strime. You do not want to slow down your resoirce generation but at the same time, you really don't want to clip it either. Edited July 16, 2012 by AidanLightwalker
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[Samoth_Nomad]

I see what you're saying and I will give it a run on the parser. I just got defensive when you posted that EVERYTHING I posted was WAY off, when, in actuality our rotation is very similar. I think both of our rotations would give the OP a HUGE burst in dps.

[LagunaD]

I can see how you would think that but its wrong. WHEN oppertune attack was working (it's currently broken as of 1.3) it would only give you a 10% increase on master strikes FIRST tick, which is the weakest tick. Blade storm benifits more at that time then master strike.

 

Master Strike is not a focus-spender, and the Opportune Attack buff has never, and will never, affect it or be consumed by it.

 

I find it amusing that somebody comes into a thread, presumes to lecture everyone else that everything they've posted is wrong, and then attempts to back it up with an absurd claim that anyone who has bothered to read their tooltips would know is nonsense...

Edited July 16, 2012 by LagunaD

[AidanLightwalker]

My apologies for offending anyone. Was just crabby and get so tired of people ragging on combat, to the point I'm touchy on the subject now. Sorry dude.

 

In a perfect world I would take Biowares tooltips a game law but so many of them are broken or wrong. Maybe its just my sample data and the descrepency in my master strike numbers is just min maxing with the tick ramp up. I will have to take a closer look at some older logs now since oppertune strike is broken. It wouldn't suprise me to find that either a.) I'm wrong on the master strike/ oppertune or b.) it was broken then too and wasn't working right either. At this point nothing would suprise me.

 

Again, sry for the over the top respones.

[AidanLightwalker]

Master Strike is not a focus-spender, and the Opportune Attack buff has never, and will never, affect it or be consumed by it.

 

I find it amusing that somebody comes into a thread, presumes to lecture everyone else that everything they've posted is wrong, and then attempts to back it up with an absurd claim that anyone who has bothered to read their tooltips would know is nonsense...

 

After looking through some old combat logs. I was wrong. disregard most of what I posted in here. It appears that I don't know what I'm talking about and alot of the information others have posted is actually correct.

 

My apologies to whom ever may or will have read my comments.

[Angelsgrace]

well from what i have read, it seems that i have the spec close to correct in most eyes, and it really falls down to personal play style and getting the rotation down that i find works best for me. as long as there are 2 dps specs for a single class, there will always be controversy over which one is best for whom.