Shadow or Sentinel

[Lium]

So, I've been leveling a shadow and currently have her at level 19, about to ding 20. I'm also leveling a sent, and have that character at 12. I've known I wanted to be a shadow since the class was announced (I'm late to SWTOR due to moving across country and working a new job) so I couldn't wait to finally log in and get to playing my balance shadow.

 

The problem is it's not all I thought it was going to be. Leveling has been a bit of a bore though I do like the ability to stealth past mobs I don't want to fight. Sometimes it can be really fun but other times not so much.

 

By contrast, Jedi Sentinels seem fast and furious. Dual wielding lightsabers and leaping into combat and all that jazz. Plus, they kill stuff really, really fast. However, both are still at really low levels, so I'm just wondering if shadows pick up as they get higher in levels? I wanted to play a melee DPS but with good group utility, hence the shadow. But the fun factor seems to be with the sentinel.

 

Any veteran shadows out there that can provide feedback?

[arunav]

The Knight story is much better, for starters.

 

As for which class is "better" for group utility and endgame, currently Sentinels are clearly better at DPS than Shadows. In my opinion (and probably that of many others), they also have way better looking armor, i.e. actually look like Jedi. You have to go out of your way at endgame to get a good look for a Shadow, one that isn't the same as every other Shadow anyway.

 

In both PVE and PVP, Sentinels' DPS is better. Shadows make for good tanks, however, even after the recent nerf. That is something you cannot do at all with a Sentinel.

 

In endgame PVP, Shadows are very well-rounded, though Sentinals do a ridiculous amount of damage and are probably more fun to play. I play a Shadow simply because I ended up grinding the WH set for him.

 

If you like tanking, stick with the Shadow. Otherwise, I would favor the Sentinel for DPS and the class story.

[Lium]

The Knight story is much better, for starters.

 

As for which class is "better" for group utility and endgame, currently Sentinels are clearly better at DPS than Shadows. In my opinion (and probably that of many others), they also have way better looking armor, i.e. actually look like Jedi. You have to go out of your way at endgame to get a good look for a Shadow, one that isn't the same as every other Shadow anyway.

 

In both PVE and PVP, Sentinels' DPS is better. Shadows make for good tanks, however, even after the recent nerf. That is something you cannot do at all with a Sentinel.

 

In endgame PVP, Shadows are very well-rounded, though Sentinals do a ridiculous amount of damage and are probably more fun to play. I play a Shadow simply because I ended up grinding the WH set for him.

 

If you like tanking, stick with the Shadow. Otherwise, I would favor the Sentinel for DPS and the class story.

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I've been leaning towards the sentinel a lot. And the story already grabbed me from the get-go. Shatele Shan reaches out to you right away and it kind of seems like you're playing what is essentially KOTOR 3.

 

I like my shadow but since I'm not really into tanking, I think I'll go with my sentinel. I'll level my shadow to 50 eventually.

[Morrolan]

The Knight story is better and in general I prefer PVEing as a Knight. But in terms of PvP I prefer my tank Shadow, Knight is too squishy for my play style in PvP.

[ArchangelLBC]

I have a 50 shadow and a 43 Sentinel.

 

I actually liked both stories, though personally I think the consular edges out the Knight Story (though haven't finished the Knight story!) This is down to personal preference imo.

 

Leveling I personally think that shadow is somewhat easier. Shadows get their healing companion in the middle of Nar Shadda, which is the 4th planet you visit (second after Coruscant) whereas Sentinels don't get theirs till a good chunk of the way through Balmorra which is 3 planets after Nar Shadda none of which are short if it's your first time. Basically Sentinel will be resting after every fight and that definitely gets annoying.

 

Shadows also, as you noticed, get stealth and this allows them to not have to fight mobs twice (if quick travel is down) and in some instances even solo Heroic 4s without every touching a thing. Also as a Tank spec I straight up solo'd several Heroic 4s on Hoth and Belsavis. Also at 50 I can solo my Black Hole weekly on shadow, including the Heroic 4. A feat that I feel I'd be hard pressed to replicate on my Sent (the same goes for some of the Belsavis heroics too).

 

PVP wise (if you choose to level that way) Sentinel doesn't really come into it's own until the late 30s or even the early 40s. Can't really speak to PVP on Shadow as I didn't PVP on shadow till 50 but I can imagine it being pretty viable early on.

 

So overall leveling is easier with the Shadow in my opinion, but the fact is that leveling is easy period. Shadow is somewhat less annoying maybe but that's all, and finding someone to do the heroic dailies with you isn't all that hard and absolutely all of them can be 4 manned whatever the quest might say.

 

Here's my question: What do you want to do at endgame?

 

If you think you'd like to tank endgame PVE raids then clearly Shadow is your choice and I have to say that it's a lot of fun.

 

If you'd like to DPS endgame PVE raids then go with sentinel because they are hands down the best melee DPS in the game, and sadly Shadow doesn't even belong in the same conversation as them (which is NOT to say that it can't be done, but anyone who doesn't think Sents do this better is kidding themselves).

 

If you'd like to PVP at endgame then you should know that I find both classes to be pretty strong in PVP, but in very different ways. Shadow has a ton of utility which makes it very fun, is an absolutely great 1v1 spec (one of the few that Sents/Maras have trouble with!) which can fill a variety of roles. Sentinel however brings that great melee damage into PVP and are actually considered one of the two "OP" classes in PVP atm. Hopefully this won't see the class nerfed as that would be a real shame in my opinion, but in the meantime they have very good survivability, very good damage, and great utility, especially in combat spec.

 

However as someone who once faced this decision, let me offer door 3 and say "both".

 

Hope that helped!

Edited August 22, 2012 by ArchangelLBC

[Altheran]

You wrote you play balance... From my experience, DoT spec is better on Sent (Watchman) than Shadow (Balance).

 

Sent's DoT don't make a drop in DPS because it is an on-melee-hit-proc DoT an its activation is off-GCD, while Shadow as to use a proper ability with a GCD which create a "hole" in the DPS. I also find that Force in Balance lack of easiness to use as a Shadow because the UI don't let you pre-activate it (make the Target ring appear) before you're off GCD.

In addition, Sent's DoTs provides you more healing because you have more crit chances on these DoTs to proc healing, and the healing itself is stronger.

[Lium]

I have a 50 shadow and a 43 Sentinel.

 

I actually liked both stories, though personally I think the consular edges out the Knight Story (though haven't finished the Knight story!) This is down to personal preference imo.

 

Leveling I personally think that shadow is somewhat easier. Shadows get their healing companion in the middle of Nar Shadda, which is the 4th planet you visit (second after Coruscant) whereas Sentinels don't get theirs till a good chunk of the way through Balmorra which is 3 planets after Nar Shadda none of which are short if it's your first time. Basically Sentinel will be resting after every fight and that definitely gets annoying.

 

Shadows also, as you noticed, get stealth and this allows them to not have to fight mobs twice (if quick travel is down) and in some instances even solo Heroic 4s without every touching a thing. Also as a Tank spec I straight up solo'd several Heroic 4s on Hoth and Belsavis. Also at 50 I can solo my Black Hole weekly on shadow, including the Heroic 4. A feat that I feel I'd be hard pressed to replicate on my Sent (the same goes for some of the Belsavis heroics too).

 

PVP wise (if you choose to level that way) Sentinel doesn't really come into it's own until the late 30s or even the early 40s. Can't really speak to PVP on Shadow as I didn't PVP on shadow till 50 but I can imagine it being pretty viable early on.

 

So overall leveling is easier with the Shadow in my opinion, but the fact is that leveling is easy period. Shadow is somewhat less annoying maybe but that's all, and finding someone to do the heroic dailies with you isn't all that hard and absolutely all of them can be 4 manned whatever the quest might say.

 

Here's my question: What do you want to do at endgame?

 

If you think you'd like to tank endgame PVE raids then clearly Shadow is your choice and I have to say that it's a lot of fun.

 

If you'd like to DPS endgame PVE raids then go with sentinel because they are hands down the best melee DPS in the game, and sadly Shadow doesn't even belong in the same conversation as them (which is NOT to say that it can't be done, but anyone who doesn't think Sents do this better is kidding themselves).

 

If you'd like to PVP at endgame then you should know that I find both classes to be pretty strong in PVP, but in very different ways. Shadow has a ton of utility which makes it very fun, is an absolutely great 1v1 spec (one of the few that Sents/Maras have trouble with!) which can fill a variety of roles. Sentinel however brings that great melee damage into PVP and are actually considered one of the two "OP" classes in PVP atm. Hopefully this won't see the class nerfed as that would be a real shame in my opinion, but in the meantime they have very good survivability, very good damage, and great utility, especially in combat spec.

 

However as someone who once faced this decision, let me offer door 3 and say "both".

 

Hope that helped!

Thanks for the great write-up. I've pretty much decided on the sentinel, and am really only playing that exclusively now. I still love my shadow and will get it up to 50 someday (probably after I level my sent) but for right now the sentinel is getting a lot of love.

 

And even though I'm still a lowbie (just now going through Ord Mantell, so I'm close to level 20) the class is sickeningly fun. Nothing like flying into mobs and cutting them down really fast. You feel OP and groups are hard pressed to keep up with you! Especially once Kira joins you. It really does feel like Star Wars. Two jedi literally carving up entire rooms in little time. (Kira freaking hits like a beast.)

 

I'm not an RPer but I was doing a heroic 4 on Coruscant (In the Deed I think it was) and my toon and Kira leaped at two separate elites at the exact same time and proceeded to down both of them. I had a trooper with me and even he was like, "That was sick dude". Or something like that. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty cool. :-)

 

The only drawback is I seem squishy. I always have to sit down and rest after every fight and if I get in over my head, I'm pretty much done. On my shadow I don't think I ever died...

 

Anyway, I like both classes, but for me, I have to give the edge to sentinel.

[Elyx]

the squishyness unfortunately remains your healing companion offsets taht quite a bit once you get him though. downside to that is you don't get him till your mid-30's.

 

I play mostly Sith warriors (2 juggernauts so far, starting a 3rd), and just started my own sentinel last week. the warrior/knight class is very engaging to play. I actually started with my consular, and started my Jugg because the SC rotation felt a bit dull. but they do pick back up in the later stages, and they're DPS is quite competitive at higher levels (though sentinel is still top...Bio swears its only by 5%)

 

I think the key is that with sentinels it's simply EASY to get the dps out. an SC, whether they are balance or Infiltrate, take allot of micromanagement of DoT's and complex skill use. easy to play, hard to master. the Sentinel is simply straightforward...and flashy to boot

[Feoktist]

Bio swears its only by 5%)

Yeah well they're all secretly lvling sentinels then, there was one sentinel in our const.. Man I haven't seen any other PvE char make even 75% of what he was doing single-target in their insane DoT spec. Although on mob packs even I sometimes out-dps'ed him in full tank

[jediatticus]

i've got a 50 marauder, 50 guardian, and 50 shadow and marauder dps is much easier to pull off. you will run into a lot of shadows in pvp running a hybrid wherein they use really only the base abilities (double strike, project, shadow strike) and force in balance. but the reality is they're cutting their dps in half to make way for ~15% more kinetic/energy damage reduction and an easier rotation.

 

the balance tree especially takes a lot of practice. it's a lot of watching for procs and maintaining dots. getting off force in balance without burning too much time can be a challenge. and as someone said before, 2/3 (force breach, sever force) balance shadow dots are low damage and waste a gdc. the lack of burst in that regard is made up with double strike, shadow strike, project, and force in balance hitting so hard. that said, balance shadow and marauder both in full campaign, differences in dps are negligible. balance shadows also have the benefit of ranged attacks, some 30m, others 10m, with only the lightsaber attacks being limited to 4m.

 

the other thing to note is that balance shadows in particular aren't especially good until at least the mid-30s-early 40s.

 

ulility-wise, the sent gets the edge; watchman zen heals the party, they get a raid speed boost, and a party damage/healing boost whereas shadows have a combat break (which can be used as a revive) and some cc's.

 

and lastly, while shadows are capable of pulling comparable or better dps (depending on the fight) if they're played right, they do not have an aggro drop aside from their combat break, which is on a 3 minute cooldown. and the rotation of a shadow can cause aggro issues. the starting combo of force in balance and project on force potency charges will break 11k with a double project, and that's usually enough to pull aggro as soon as a taunt ends, even through guard. the shadow is an amazing class, but if you're looking to get into endgame i'd recommend sent over shadow for now, though if you're looking for a challenge, go with the shadow

Edited August 26, 2012 by jediatticus

[Raltar]

The Knight story is much better, for starters.

 

This is 100% opinion because I found the Knight story to be as generic and predictable as it could possibly be. I found the Consular storyline to be much more interesting.

[Jayshames]

Well, apparently there's an upcoming update to tweak some classes so if this is true i'd probably bet on sentinels/marauders being changed in some manner. Personally I prefer my assassin over marauder because of stealth and the ability to tank or DPS, whereas marauder is just DPS all the time and can get boring. Plus the fact I feel like im jumping on the boat playing the most OP class atm when on marauder.