Sentinel PVP struggles

[kmufc]

Hi

 

Ive been playing since early beta and have decided to play a sentinel for the first time, im only level 21 but im really struggling in PVP at the moment, im i right thinking that sentinel's will struggle in PVP at low levels or im i doing something wrong lol?

 

Out of the all the classes this is the hardest class to play at low level in PVP currently for me.

 

Im using the Watchman tree currently as i believe that is the best tree until later levels? then Combat is the tree to use?

 

So all in all will it be easier to PVP when a higher level

 

Thanks in advance.

[DarthMerritt]

Don't worry, you're not alone. I remember struggling with my Sentinel early on too. It will get much better later on when you get more defensive cooldowns, utility skills, and a hard hitting top level ability, but you can still be an effective class at the lower levels too. A few things to keep in mind:

 

1) You're not a tank so don't play like one. Try to avoid mindlessly jumping into the fray and instead act like more of a skirmisher. Fight on the edges of the battle or wade in for a quick kill and then wade back out. Sentinels have medium armor and nice defensive cooldowns, but that won't hold up for long if you draw too much attention to yourself. I like to either assist my teammates in a kill or pick on a ranged attack or healer whose attention is elsewhere. By the time they realize the threat you pose, it's often too late for them. You can afford to be much bolder at higher levels, but for now you'll need to pick your targets wisely.

 

2) If possible, run up to enemies to start the fight. Save your leap for if they knock you back or if they try to flee. You don't have much in the way of ranged abilities yet, so it's paramount to stay on target as long as possible so you can continuously deal damage.

 

3) If you get rooted or snared at mid range (5-10m), don't panic. Even at your level, you have two attacks that can hit from there: Deadly Saber & Blade Storm. Use one or both of those until you can get back to within 4m range.

 

4) Focus management. Try to always keep enough focus to use Overload Saber and Cauterize as soon as they come off cooldown. This can be achieved by using Zealous Strike as often as it's available and by mixing in a few basic Saber Strikes to your rotation. Also try to use Master Strike on cooldown since it's your hardest hitting attack and it uses no focus, which makes it the perfect filler attack while you wait for Overload Saber & Cauterize to become available again. Against skilled players you'll have to set it up first (using on a stunned player or someone who's already used their knockback), but at lower levels you can usually get all 3 ticks of it in without even setting it up. Also, at low levels I recommend steering clear of Slash for the most part. Later on it has a chance to bring Cauterize off cooldown, but until then it's a waste of focus IMO. I'd rather save that focus for other abilities.

 

5) Guaranteed damage. When fighting a tank or an opponent who pops their defensive cooldowns, it can be difficult for a Watchman Sentinel to dish out meaningful damage. Aside from your burns, there are a couple of things you can do against someone like that. The first of which is a little known ability known as Riposte, which is a guaranteed hit and can be used anytime regardless of global cooldown. This is a skill I tend to dump from my hotkey bars at higher levels, but at lower levels I find it pretty useful. The other one is Blade Storm, which hits hard and is a force attack so it's far more likely to land. For non-Combat Sentinels it is extremely focus inefficient, but the fact that it's pretty much guaranteed damage, hits hard, and can be used from up to 10m away, makes it worthwhile IMO.

 

6) Get used to dying. As a Sentinel, you're a bit of a glass cannon and you're going to take your lumps on your way to greatness. As you get better defensive/utility skills like Pacify, Force Camo, Guarded by the Force, Awe, etc, your up time will be much longer and as you get more offensive/mobility skills, you'll be able to dish out more damage and stay on target longer, which will hopefully lead to quicker kills and less damage taken. In other words, it gets much better at higher levels so stick with it!

[MagikFingerz]

Thanks a lot for that post. I am in the same situation as OP on my own sentinel, and I really feel like a glass cannon like you said. Very informative!

[kmufc]

Thanks alot DarthMerritt!

[Darthanimus]

Ok I just had to reply to this thread as its a huge problem for me at the moment. I have a level 55 sentinel, he is outfitted with pvp gear and it is all augmented (where possible). My problem is that they are the hardest class to play, they are a number of inherent problems with the class that is just down to (in my opinion) bad game design. Firstly it doesn't get better later in the game you still die just an incredible amount of times and it is terribly frustrating. Secondly I find it hard to swallow that a melee class with medium armour can be weaker than a class that wears light armour eg shadow or assassin. Thirdly I have augments in my gear and I still cannot seen to inflict major damage on opponents, their stuns, slows etc mean that my speed means nothing, and the force camo has a cool down that is quite frankly too long. I could go on for ages and I have bearly touched the surface of the faults with this class. The jedi sentinel as a damage class is not as effective as other damage classes such as consulars, smugglers etc and I wish that I went guardian rather than this lesser class. I love my character and the idea of the sentinel, but it does not work in practice without some major changes.

 

Could I just add that I have read and applied much advice from many sources on how to play as this class and it has been to no avail, as a result I have been close to deleting my sentinel and starting again as a guardian many times

[DarthMerritt]

Again, I feel your pain. I totally sucked as a Sentinel the first time around and ended up shelving the character for a while out of frustration. Not too long after that I switched servers for unrelated reasons and made a new set of characters and now I have my second lvl 50 Sentinel. Leveling the new Sentinel through warzones was a piece of cake since I knew the mechanics and most importantly, I had seen some great Sentinels & Marauders in action and did my best to mimic the things they did.

 

Reading information on the class and how to play it is helpful, but what really helped me the most was playing with and against some really great Sent/Mara players in warzones. Try to find out who these players are on your server and see if you can learn a thing or two from them, either by watching them, fighting them, or just politely asking them a few questions. The next best thing would be to watch some warzone footage of good Sent/Maras in action. The ones with commentary are the best, but if the video quality is decent you can still learn a lot by watching the ones that have dubstep or whatever music playing.

 

The Sentinel is a much tougher class to play well than most people think and when played poorly it is kind of a sad sight (trust me, I've been there ). But it's not in any way, shape or form underpowered and in fact has the potential to be one of the best damage dealers in the game.

 

For your lvl 55, you might want to look into optimizing your Partisan gear. You want 100% melee accuracy, rougly 70% surge, 0 alacrity, little to no critical, and then try to get as much strength & power as possible. Sentinel pvp gear tends to come with way too much accuracy & crit. Stacking power will give you the most bang for your buck right now.

[Darthanimus]

Well thanks, I will certainly put your advice into practice.

[iheartnyc]

It could also be a problem with your talent build. Care to post?

 

Some basics:

 

1) Get a full set of augments - experiment with the might and overkill, depending on your build.

2) Get full partisan, then a couple of conqueror pieces while you're min/maxing your partisan

3) You should have a combination of weaponsmaster, challenger and vindicator pieces - if you don't have at least two of each of these, you did something wrong

 

Strategy wise:

 

1) Roll with a healer

2) Bust your CDs

3) You're using your off-skills like rebuke, master strike and saber throw right?

4) Don't use force sweep unless there's at least two targets and you have 3 stacks of singularity

[Darthanimus]

Thanks for the advice.

 

What do you mean talent build?

 

If I mix up gear wont it matter that I lose set bonuses? What pieces would you recommend I get from the sets? I do have might and overkill augs in too

[Aetrus]

I'd love to see your skill tree setup, Darthanimus. And I wonder what your expertise is at. After the early 30s, my marauder has been great. Before then it was total trash. I was dying a minimum of 10 times per game and it was very frustrating. After about lvl 33, I had enough defensive skills and points up the skill tree to where everything started clicking.

[iheartnyc]

Thanks for the advice.

 

What do you mean talent build?

 

If I mix up gear wont it matter that I lose set bonuses? What pieces would you recommend I get from the sets? I do have might and overkill augs in too

 

Talent build = your skill tree. You can do a screen capture and we can see if there is anything obviously wrong with it.

 

Set bonuses are the same for armor across challenger and weaponmaster. You want some of the vindicator weapons and earpiece/implant.

 

I've done some playing around with both the might and overkill augments and honestly, it's really hard for me to tell a difference if you should go all in one way or the other, particularly if you are also going to play combat/watchman once in a while.

[iheartnyc]

I'd love to see your skill tree setup, Darthanimus. And I wonder what your expertise is at. After the early 30s, my marauder has been great. Before then it was total trash. I was dying a minimum of 10 times per game and it was very frustrating. After about lvl 33, I had enough defensive skills and points up the skill tree to where everything started clicking.

 

If I don't roll with a healer, I almost always get most deaths, but also usually top damage by a good margin Because I play regulars like I would play rateds (very aggressive and trying to push their backline).

[Darthanimus]

Thanks, I chose a weapon master skill tree, and using the skill points left over I chose to increase the centring I gain (combat damage tree). I will mix up the gear now on your advice. I just want to add that I don't have a problem with the pve aspect so much, it is mainly with the pvp, I have an expertise rating of nearly 2000, does it have to be higher?

[Darthanimus]

Ok so I looked at a few sites (inc videos) and it really helped my sentinel game, being more efficient with abilities (e.g. rotation) and correct tactics mean that I have doubled my medals and damage dealt in pvp matches. This is still an ongoing process for me, and I aim to master this class eventually. Still I would like to add that the sentinel class is far more hard work that all of the others, requiring more thought, tactics, and general effort, but because of the inherent difficulty that comes with playing this class it makes the rewards that much better.

[PhatMcMuffins]

DarthMerritt, thanks for the tips. I've been having a tough time (I usually play an op healer or decept sin) since coming to the sentinel. I'll do real well one wz, then get messed up and used as bait the next. These little tips sound like they will help out quite a bit.

[dcgregorya]

Hi

 

Ive been playing since early beta and have decided to play a sentinel for the first time, im only level 21 but im really struggling in PVP at the moment, im i right thinking that sentinel's will struggle in PVP at low levels or im i doing something wrong lol?

 

Out of the all the classes this is the hardest class to play at low level in PVP currently for me.

 

Im using the Watchman tree currently as i believe that is the best tree until later levels? then Combat is the tree to use?

 

So all in all will it be easier to PVP when a higher level

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Pre-30 the only builds worth taking are hybrid builds. For level 21 this is the build I would run :

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5010cZMMZdM.3

 

And I'll explain each:

 

1) Focused slash - Maximizing amount of slashes you can do. This is your biggest spam attack at this level.

2) Jedi Crusader - Maximizing energy regen.

3) Defensive Forms - Want to get Zen up ASAP for energy. This used to be better when slash was AOE with zen but its still ok.

4) Insight - one filler to get to tier 2 you'll continue up this tier until 30-ish you can respec and look at combat or full focus.

5) Swelling Winds - CD reduction on force sweep.

6) Momentum - free blade storm.

 

And the basic idea is to keep rebuke up as much as possible and dump your focus as much as possible. Single target = leap, blade storm, snare, focus build, slash dump spam. AOE = sweep on CD, slash spam, not much else you can do at this level.

 

Note - this is for level 21. Obviously later as you level slash becomes less desirable. In my opinion trying to maximize watchman at level 21 is counter productive. That spec does not get good until 32-35.

Edited May 17, 2013 by dcgregorya

[YanksfanJP]

Having leveled a Marauder to 50 back in the day, and working on a Sentinel as we speak, I will let you know that Sentinels don't really start to feel powerful in PvP until you get to level 40-ish. Once you do make it there, it's like a light bulb goes off and all of a sudden you're a powerhouse.