Playing the Sentinel in a Group

[ahnog]

The other day I found myself in a group with a Sentinel who had really great DPS (damage per second), but he didn’t know some of the basics about working with a group in a MMO. This is a short tutorial on grouping for the benefit of new players.

 

Roles

 

There are three basic roles in a group. First there is the tank. The purpose of a tank is to make all of the bad guys hit him (this is called “holding aggro). Second there is the healer; he regenerates your hit points when you take damage. Third there is the DPS whose purpose is to do damage.

 

Crowd Control (CC)

 

Before the battler begins, or right after it starts, some classes have the ability to take enemies out of commission. This allows the group to focus on the rest, and then get around to the mobs that are controlled. The idea is that you do not want to break CC before it is time to do so.

 

Targeting

 

Finally there is the question, “which of the bad guys should I attack?” You must choose the correct target or the group will not function well. The general rule is that you should always be on the same target that the tank is on. This way instead of healing all of the group members the healer should only need to heal the tank since he has all the agro. There is an exception to this general rule: If you are fighting a boss, or have tought targets versus regular ones, go for the regular ones first so they don't aggro the healer. (Form Mordeguy: Like others have said, kill order is weak > strong > elite > champ."

 

 

Companions

 

Your companions are also broken up into these three categories. For the Sentinel, your first companion is a tank. T7 will get agro on all of the members of a mob if you send him in first. Then you can take each of them down one at a time. You have a healer, two tanks, and two DPS in your companions. Find out which is which as you serve the DPS role.

 

Conclusion

 

If you study and use these group basics you will always be welcome in a group.

Edited August 19, 2012 by ahnog

[Orarr]

What class do you play so I can hit their forums up with a "How To Send An Email In Game" tutorial?

[The_Bunmaster]

The general rule is that you should always be on the same target that the tank is on.

 

No please, kill orders are from weak to strong. A dps can 2-3 shot weak/normal mobs

 

EDIT: Typos

Edited August 18, 2012 by The_Bunmaster

[Stealios]

 

Targeting

 

Finally there is the question, “which of the bad guys should I attack?” You must choose the correct target or the group will not function well. The general rule is that you should always be on the same target that the tank is on. This way instead of healing all of the group members the healer should only need to heal the tank since he has all the agro.

.

 

Not true.

Job of the dps is to kill the biggest part of a group while tank holds aggro of the toughest enemies.

Kill order for dps is and should pretty much always be: weak>strong>elite>champion.

By doing that you reduce overall damage taken for the entire group and this results in the healer having to do less healing.

 

At least think a little bit before you post a 'How to'

[Achyuta]

No please, kill orders are from weak to strong. A dps can 2-3 shot weak/normal mobs

 

EDIT: Typos

 

Exactly... Our job is to take out the weakest first while the tank keeps agro on the strongest one

[Mordeguy]

Like others have said, kill order is weak > strong > elite > champ.

 

Only when there are multiples of the same type and the tank has them attacking him/her should you focus the tank target. Killing the packs of weaks first makes life so much easier on your tank and healer. Shadows and to a lesser extent vanguard tanks can get away with grabbing aggro on everything pretty easily but guardians need the dps to properly assist.

 

I see a lot of dps do this when I'm healing my guardian buddy, she will pick up the strongs and elites and the dps will start going all out on them, ignoring the weak things. Meaning she has to run over to them and hit them with aoe, gaining more aggro and taking more damage when the dps should have wiped them out in the first few seconds of the fight.

[ahnog]

The other day I found myself in a group with a Sentinel who had really great DPS (damage per second), but he didn’t know some of the basics about working with a group in a MMO. This is a short tutorial on grouping for the benefit of new players.

 

Roles

 

There are three basic roles in a group. First there is the tank. The purpose of a tank is to make all of the bad guys hit him (this is called “holding aggro). Second there is the healer; he regenerates your hit points when you take damage. Third there is the DPS whose purpose is to do damage.

 

Crowd Control (CC)

 

Before the battler begins, or right after it starts, some classes have the ability to take enemies out of commission. This allows the group to focus on the rest, and then get around to the mobs that are controlled. The idea is that you do not want to break CC before it is time to do so.

 

Targeting

 

Finally there is the question, “which of the bad guys should I attack?” You must choose the correct target or the group will not function well. The general rule is that you should always be on the same target that the tank is on. This way instead of healing all of the group members the healer should only need to heal the tank since he has all the agro. There is an exception to this general rule: If you are fighting a boss, or have tought targets versus regular ones, go for the regular ones first so they don't aggro the healer. (Form Mordeguy: Like others have said, kill order is weak > strong > elite > champ."

 

 

Companions

 

Your companions are also broken up into these three categories. For the Sentinel, your first companion is a tank. T7 will get agro on all of the members of a mob if you send him in first. Then you can take each of them down one at a time. You have a healer, two tanks, and two DPS in your companions. Find out which is which as you serve the DPS role.

 

Conclusion

 

If you study and use these group basics you will always be welcome in a group.

 

Thanks guys. I was trying to make a fast, general rules tutorial; shouldn't have left out so much on the targeting section. Edited.

[AngusFTW]

So because one sentinel was a bit of a n00b to mmos you figured all sentinels are like that?

[theStirge]

Really, you rarely want to be hitting the same target as the tank until that's the last thing standing, unless there is a particular mob that must be burned down immediately(the droids that summon all the other droids in Karagga's Palace, for instance. Creeper Droids? Something like that) out of the normal kill order of weak>normal>strong>elite. You do want to hit what the other dps is hitting most of the time. Weaks and normals you're usually okay handling by yourself and in fact might die before both of you can get on them anyway, but everything else should be focused down.

 

I'm mostly talking about trash pulls in flashpoints, here. Boss fights are whole different animals and strategies change from boss to boss, and operations are yet again even more different animals, but the general rule that dps handles the adds while the tank holds the boss is usually in effect.

 

If you are an immigrant from WOW(or one of its many clones), this can be a hard habit to get into as it is counter to how most fights went in that game, but in SWTOR the tank usually does not want to try to hold aggro on every mob in the pull. Very often he will die a horrible death if he tries as the healer simply cannot keep up with incoming damage. With rare exceptions, the mobs in SWTOR do very close to the same amount of damage no matter how tough they are(in many cases the squishier mobs actually do more damage), so your number 1 priority is to reduce the number of sources of incoming damage as fast as possible, as opposed to the WOW standard of the toughest things also being the hardest-hitting by a wide margin and needing to be put down first while you ignore all the little guys as inconsequential.

[grallmate]

So because one sentinel was a bit of a n00b to mmos you figured all sentinels are like that?

 

I gotta say its a fair observation. I've come across maybe a dozen good Sentinels in my 8 months of play. I've come across over a hundred that liked to ignore the weak/normals, facepull, Force Sweep next to CCed mobs, leap to CCed mobs, stand next to the tank after the mob has been turned away and just generally ignore normal group etiquette.

 

Not saying its all Sentinels/Marauders (I know it's not), but there definitely seems to be a theme there. I guess it comes with being a FotM class and having 2 glowbats to wave around. Probably doesn't help that they are heavily over represented either.

[terencechan]

This is the biggest crock I have read in a long time on this forum. Seriously, do u know how to play the SWTOR design or is this another copying and pasting from a WoW raid guide?

 

1. Sentinels gain focus by attacking weak mobs first (FP)

 

2. Sentinels will pull aggro irregardless of what you hope to believe of ur tanking uberness. That is why there is a 'Force Camoflague' threat dump button is available to this class.

 

3. Sentinels gain extra damage potential if attacked, and have an awesome range of damage mitigation buttons to survive this turn of events.

 

Let me not go into how to play a tank in a group..geesh

[orangenkaiser]

I know the OP, he doesn't even know his own job, let alone someone else's job. Just ignore the trash he posts.

[ahnog]

I know the OP, he doesn't even know his own job, let alone someone else's job. Just ignore the trash he posts.

 

Thanks Orange, I love you too.

[ahnog]

This is the biggest crock I have read in a long time on this forum. Seriously, do u know how to play the SWTOR design or is this another copying and pasting from a WoW raid guide?

 

1. Sentinels gain focus by attacking weak mobs first (FP)

 

2. Sentinels will pull aggro irregardless of what you hope to believe of ur tanking uberness. That is why there is a 'Force Camoflague' threat dump button is available to this class.

 

3. Sentinels gain extra damage potential if attacked, and have an awesome range of damage mitigation buttons to survive this turn of events.

 

Let me not go into how to play a tank in a group..geesh

 

The day I can't hold tank on a Sentinel is the day I quit the game.

[Stealios]

The day I can't hold tank on a Sentinel is the day I quit the game.

 

Start playing with some decent sentinels then. Unless it's on operation bosses & you're campaign gear, at some point you'll lose aggro if the sentinel knows how to play

[ahnog]

I have to see for myself so I've started a Sent..

[vizsanity]

Yeah I pull aggro like a mother f***er hence I'm usually guarded.

 

By the way this was a hilarious read. Thanks to the OP because I was having quite a stressful day.

[Mordeguy]

Start playing with some decent sentinels then. Unless it's on operation bosses & you're campaign gear, at some point you'll lose aggro if the sentinel knows how to play

 

It's not really that hard to hold aggro against any class since the threat buff for tanks. I rarely lose it without needing to taunt or guard unless its on something I just haven't hit very many times.

[Stealios]

It's not really that hard to hold aggro against any class since the threat buff for tanks. I rarely lose it without needing to taunt or guard unless its on something I just haven't hit very many times.

 

I'm talking about trash groups in ops etc. Not the boss fights.

There is no way you hold aggro from 5 champions when a sentinel isn't beating on the same target as you are.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Stealios

[Mordeguy]

I'm talking about trash groups in ops etc. Not the boss fights.

There is no way you hold aggro from 5 champions when a sentinel isn't beating on the same target as you are.

 

That circumstance is not unique to sentinels. Any class could pull aggro in that situation. My sentinels know how to focus targets.