New to Sentinel; looking for advice

[Deathstalker_]

I did some basic poking around before starting characters to get an idea what I wanted to do, and finding that the Jedi Sentinel was primarily damage-based made it the obvious choice for an offensively-minded person such as myself. However, I'm a bit lost on the skill trees of the class, and most of the guides here are a bit over my head, so I want to get some advice.

 

I've currently invested in the Combat tree, and my basic battle strategy looks like this:

 

1. Force Leap to get into the fray and build 3 Focus.

2. Zealous Strike to build an additional 6 Focus, putting me at 9.

3. Slash until I run out of Focus

4. At this point, Zealous Strike is generally still on CD, so I use Strike until it's ready to go.

5. Repeat Steps 2-4 until all enemies are dead.

 

Now, I'm only at Level 17, so I'm nowhere near end-game. However, I like to figure out where I"m going, and I currently have no idea. My current skill allocation looks like this. I have no idea if I've made decent choices, or what skills I want to watch out for and make sure to pick up later, or what an optimal Combat Rotation would be, either for now or for end-game. I also hear a lot of stuff about stacking AIM (which I understand the point of), but everything I'm finding is all Strength and Endurance, so I've got boosts to Damage and Health, but can't hit very well. I realize the advice I'm going to be getting will be geared for end-game, which I'm not at, but can anyone give me any insight into making a decent character as I work towards end-game?

 

Also, I'm primarily playing PvE, but I'd like to be able to break into PvP later without having to completely respec. I know I won't be as optimal as I would be with a full respec, but I don't plan on going full PvP anytime soon. When the time comes to go full PvP, then yes, a full respec will be done. However, for now, I want to be able to jump between PvP and PvE without having to find a respec station.

 

Also, where do you respec? I suspect I need to make some changes to my character, but can't remember where to respec at. I'd just check the tutorial in-game, but I'm actually getting ready to leave to run some errands, and while I"ll have a smartphone that can get at the web, I won't have access to the game for a few hours.

 

Finally, I apologize for asking for so much; I prefer to have a much better grasp of any character I play than I currently do on this character, and it bothers me. I really do appreciate any advice anyone has.

[Lanja]

Let's start with stats. Of the four "main stats" (Strength, Aim, Cunning, Willpower) you want Strength and only strength. The others do literally nothing for you. As a Sentinel, the only points you should have any of the other three should be what you pick up from finding datacrons (for the experience).

 

After that comes Endurance. Everybody uses Endurance as it is the basis of your health points. If you were a Guardian and looking to go tank, you might even be skewing toward that over Strength, but as a Sentinel you are all about doing damage. You'll want as much Endurance as you can get, but not at the expense of more Strength.

 

After that there are tertiary stats that you'll want to pick up, but the exact amounts and balance between them isn't really of consequence until you get to end-game. Of all the options, you'll want to look for Power, Accuracy, Critical and Surge. Of those, I'd emphasize Power over the others when you get the chooice. As a Sentinel, Defense, Shield, and Absorption are of zero real use. (If you find a piece of gear with Defense on it that also has better Strength and Endurance on it, by all means, but don't look for it).

 

You'll also see Alacrity on some gear, while that's supposedly useful to all classes, I think the general consensus (and my personal opinion) is that it is useless for all Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior characters. You can pack more attacks into the same space of time, but it doesn't reduce the cooldown timers of your attacks, so best case scenario you get an extra filler attack in now and then...meh...stack power.

 

Turning to your skill point choices, Steadfast and Defensive forms are both good choices. While I have Defensive Roll on my Sent, I probably would have put those 2 points into Dual Wield Mastery first. You'll also want to drop 2 points into Valor from the Watchman tree to max out the rate at which you generate Centering (which makes all kinds of good things happen).

 

While you'll likely take some points in each of the three skill trees, you'll focus in on one of them as your chose "spec". My Sentinel is Watchman spec'd, so i don't have a lot of insight into the mechanics of the Combat tree. (You'll find lots of info on that elsewhere on the forum though.) I can say that Combat has the best "burst-on-demand" damage of the 3 Sentinel specs. I've heard that focus management can be a bit of a challenge. It is also supposed to be equally good at PVE and PVP. Watchman spec is about "sustained" damage. Its techniques lay on DOTs, or "damage over time", i.e. an attack hits, does initial damage and then continues to do per-second damage for several seconds thereafter. It has the potential to do more damage than Combat, and is a bit easier on focus management, but doing peak damage requires keeping all your burns up on a target, which can be hard if there are pauses in the action or if you're dealing with multiple targets. Watchman also has quicker interrupts and some self-healing abilities which makes it a bit more robust survival wise. However it is the weakest of the three in PVP because healers can easily clean those DOTs off themselves or a team mate, which neutralizes a big chunk of your damage potential. Focus spec specializes in AOE or "area of effect" damage, where one attack does major damage to multiple targets in the area. It is probably the weakest of the three for PVE content, but is widely acknowledged to be the top Sentinel spec for PVP.

 

You asked about attack rotations, which I'd be happy to get into with you, if you're interested in Watchman. You'll find lots of good sources on Combat and Focus spec rotations on the forum as well, if one of those is the direction you choose to go. You are early enough in to play around with each of the three to see which you are most comfortable with, and which you enjoy most.

 

In terms of "re-spec'ing", there is a guy on Fleet (and I recall hearing another on Corruscant) where you can go to get your skill points refunded so you can change how they are allocated. I don't recall the location of the guy on fleet, but if you Google it you'll find the name and map coordinates. You can also drop a chunk of credits or cartel coins to get the ability to "field respec", which will let you respec anywhere. If you are a subscriber, you can respec one time per week at no credit cost. Any more frequently than that and you have to pay an increasing price to respec again. I'm not sure how that varies for Preferred or Standard F2P accounts.

[yourlordmoses]

What this guy says might as well be a starter guide to sent. As far as both PvP and pve combat is the only one that does both well it is the one I personally prefer just watch the focus seriously it goes fast and builds slow if you done go about it right. Zealous strike is your friend

[KimbriOnasi]

I'm also looking for advice/information. Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd ask here.

I'm not new to my Sentinel (she was my original toon) but I stopped playing her for about a year since I felt a lot more comfortable with my Agent OP healer.

I have started playing with my Sent again recently and have been looking for more info on Sentinel gameplay and gearing.

I levelled and currently have in her the Focus tree. I don't PvP. But for the majority of levelling and also for dailies the AoE was very usefull in all of the mobs you have to take out. I I also find all of the jumping and smashing kinda fun (yeah, I know "lolsmash"). But I understand that it isn't the "cool kid" for the PvE community so I'm willing to look into (and learn) the other trees.

I'm not great with quick movement. Quick reactions yes (kinda have to be as a healer). But quick turns and camera movements not so much. I've liked the DoT spec on my levelling DPS agent and also the TK tree of the Sage. Watching buffs and procs isn't a problem for me.

Could you all please give me some suggestions/info on the other trees or what I should try? I'm not looking to be top parsing. She isn't my main and won't be the toon I use for OPs progression. I just want to make sure that my alt toon can contribute to my group in HMFP/HMFP55's and perhaps in Classic HM OPs.

Thank you in advance.

[Luckeyduckey]

I'm also looking for advice/information. Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd ask here.

I'm not new to my Sentinel (she was my original toon) but I stopped playing her for about a year since I felt a lot more comfortable with my Agent OP healer.

I have started playing with my Sent again recently and have been looking for more info on Sentinel gameplay and gearing.

I levelled and currently have in her the Focus tree. I don't PvP. But for the majority of levelling and also for dailies the AoE was very usefull in all of the mobs you have to take out. I I also find all of the jumping and smashing kinda fun (yeah, I know "lolsmash"). But I understand that it isn't the "cool kid" for the PvE community so I'm willing to look into (and learn) the other trees.

I'm not great with quick movement. Quick reactions yes (kinda have to be as a healer). But quick turns and camera movements not so much. I've liked the DoT spec on my levelling DPS agent and also the TK tree of the Sage. Watching buffs and procs isn't a problem for me.

Could you all please give me some suggestions/info on the other trees or what I should try? I'm not looking to be top parsing. She isn't my main and won't be the toon I use for OPs progression. I just want to make sure that my alt toon can contribute to my group in HMFP/HMFP55's and perhaps in Classic HM OPs.

Thank you in advance.

 

Watchmen has more utility (heals, damage reduction on target), but requires high uptime on a target, and has a slow build up. Once it's built up, it has the highest DPS (or close). The beginning of parses and fights will start slow, though. Combat has about the same survivability, but less utility (No heals or damage reduction, but has a stronger speed increase). Combat has higher burst, and has about the same overall damage, as it doesn't have a ramp up time, and works well with relics/adrenals due to precision slash. Overall, Combat is proc based (Burst) Watchmen is rotation (DoT). I play both, depending on my mood, and they are both equal in terms of damage. My only suggestion is to try them out.