Help me Obi-Wan, I'm a Sentinel noob!

[poneez]

I have always been dps, from dice and hexes to MMO's. Hard core, kick them in the face and make your tank work like hell to keep them off of you kind of dps.

 

I am the five night a week raider in a server's top raiding guilds in other MMO's. I'm not looking for that in SWTOR, I am tired, I like that I can have a buddy and molo through a lot of the content. I also like that I have not had any trouble finding other folks that need help through some of the stuff I did too. Everyone has been friendly.

 

After an enjoyable week of tooling through missions and story lines from Thython to Tarnis, I have come to the demoralizing conclusion I am not wrapping my head around producing reliable dps with the various abilities. I am also not getting the spec trees. All of which is making me crazy. Usually I pick things up pretty fast.

 

Are there parsers? Combat dummies? Builds? Boss fight burn suggestions? I am glad to read up, I am not asking anyone to tell me their "burn secrets."

 

I am a PvE player, PvP isn't a healthy environment for me, I spend too much time using the /headdesk command.

 

I am loving the game play, the graphics and the clothes.

 

Yeah, the clothes, half of any MMO for me is the sartorial style allowed. I AM starting to get adaptive armor and I will SO be the best-dressed hawtest Sentinel of my server once I get a healthy credit and com balance. PM me if you want to contribute to that cause

Edited January 18, 2013 by poneez

[Bugattiboy]

Yes, there are parsers. MOX Parser and SWMoniTOR are the 2 most popular ones. There are also online combat log analyzers. TORParse.com seems to be the most popular one.

 

Free dummies are on the Gav Daragon.

 

And you might want to check out the [Guide] The Watchmen and Combat PvE basics thread. It's helped out a lot of people.

[poneez]

Thank you for the pointers, this was exactly what I was looking to find.

 

And yes, I am search function challenged.

[Lanja]

Hey there. Which of the 3 skill trees are you putting most of your points into? I went Watchman, though I've heard that Combat is now quite good for PVE as well. I hear that the Focus build really shines in PVP.

 

If you're Watchman spec'd the fairly standard opener is: Force Leap (to close and build focus...it also interrupts) > Overload Saber (in the air so next 3 attacks will apply a 6s burn) > Zealous Strike (builds focus) > Cauterize (applies its own 6s burn in addition to OS burn) > Merciless Slash (your top-of-tree attack). I tend to follow that with Master Strike (3 second channel attack) and picked up Master Focus (2) in Focus tree to up its damage and reduce its cool-down.

 

The 2 main (and trickiest) things to manage as a Watchman Sentinel are the timing for your burns and the variable cool-down time for Merciless Slash and Cauterize.

 

Every time you hit with Merciless Slash, you reduce the cool-down of the next Merciless Slash by 1.5s. This effect stacks up to three times, but only if you're applying the next Merciless Slash before the reduced cool-down effect expires. This can be a bit tricky as the initial window between end of cool-down and expiration is small and Merciless Slash takes 5 focus to use. So you've got to keep busy dps'ing but also keeping an eye on cool-down and amount of focus available so you can drop the next Merciless Strike on someone as soon as it is available. If you can keep that rolling, and maintain 3 stacks, you're looking at a 7.5s cool-down on your most potent attack.

 

Cauterize is tricky as well. It applies a 6s burn and has a 15s cool-down, but Merciless Slash has a 66% chance, and regular Slash has a 33% chance, to immediately end its cooldown. The trick there is a) keeping an eye when it's variably available and b) timing the application of new 6s burns to keep it up as much as possible, without "writing over" an existing Cauterize burn with a new one. (fFor example, in the opener above you do Merciless right after Cauterize, which often makes Cauterize available, but you're still just a couple of seconds into the 6s burn of the first Cauterize and would want to hold off and attack or two and THEN reapply Cauterize.

 

Other tid-bits: - Whenever your target has 30% health or lower hit it with Dispatch. - Whenever Overload Saber is available, use it. - Spec 2 pts in Valor (Watchman) and 2 pts in Defensive Forms (Combat) to maximize Centering generation. Every 30 pts of Centering you can pop Zen which means your burns auto-crit and give you and your group a trickle heal. - If you're knocked back and force leap's not up yet, hit'em with Crippling Throw as you close.

 

Also, a couple of combos I like for clearing trash are a) Blade Storm (stuns as you're running to close) followed by Pommel Strike (lots of damage, but only to stunned target); and b) Leg Slash (applies a slow) followed by Opportune Strike (like previous, but works on slowed or stunned). Leg Slash only costs 2 focus; and while Blade Storm costs 4, neither of the follow up attacks cost any focus. Moreover, neither combo puts an attack you need for bosses on cool-down.

[poneez]

I have put base points into combat and have been staring at the rest of the tree wondering, so this is also quite helpful.

 

My room mate has been playing SWTOR for quite awhile, but he's a PvP guy and he told me focus was great for PvP but not so much for a PvE Sentinel. However, I am certainly looking at the various information because I want to make sure the build I use is for the type of dps I'm used to - I will be better at it then

[planet_J]

Watchman is a lot of setup for maximum potential...

 

Combat is little setup for maximum burst...

 

Each one has different talents that make it handy...but I feel watchman gets good earlier than combat which is really a late bloomer. Combat is more mobile...watchman has 0 minimum range forceleap which is a massive boost to focus generation...

 

Just have to see what you like...but watchman is probably easier solo until about 40ish

[SalBasss]

Also, a couple of combos I like for clearing trash are a) Blade Storm (stuns as you're running to close) followed by Pommel Strike (lots of damage, but only to stunned target); and b) Leg Slash (applies a slow) followed by Opportune Strike (like previous, but works on slowed or stunned). Leg Slash only costs 2 focus; and while Blade Storm costs 4, neither of the follow up attacks cost any focus. Moreover, neither combo puts an attack you need for bosses on cool-down.

 

Personally I prefer to use Opportune Strike right after Leap, since Leap applies a slow effect anyways (although it is short). That way you aren't using any focus on Leg Slash, and it doesn't use a charge of Overload Saber either.

[Lanja]

Personally I prefer to use Opportune Strike right after Leap, since Leap applies a slow effect anyways

 

Nice! I'll have to try that when there's a nice tight pack of folks as it would drop 1 before going into the whole ZS, CtZ, MxS opener. I tend to use Opportune a little later, esp. when the mob is spread out. Typically I'll clear the core of it with FL-ZS-CtZ, MxS and Master Strike, then rush one corner (Blade Storm en route) and apply pommel then do Force Leap to opposite corner and apply Leg Slash and Opportune. With your suggestion (and Opportune's short cooldown) I could probably do both and skip the leg slash (as there's Force Leap involved in each). Thanks!

[Niko_Motsin]

http://www.noxxic.com/swtor/pve/jedi-knight/jedi-sentinel/combat

 

I use noxxic for some tips and advice, I really enjoy the combat spec for PvE.