Sentinel Help

[RedKillJoy]

As the title says, I could use some advice with sentinels. I have a guardian dps at 55 but I wanted to give sentinel a shot. I have heard a lot from my guildmates about what specs to use for what etc, but I wanted to find out a few things:

 

First, I have heard that the best PVE spec would be watchman, especially for ops, as many of my guildmates have sentinels in that spec, and most of our dps consists of watchman-spec sentinels on raids. Is this true? Or is it just a misconception from pre-2.0?

 

Second, I know that balance spec(aka smash) is supposedly the best for PVP, but do either of the other specs have any sort of utility for PVP, or should they not even be considered?

 

Third, my GM has stated before that a great leveling spec is combat, but again you should switch to watchman for ops once you hit 55. Now, my question about this is this: is combat still a viable spec for ops? Or does watchman still reign as top dog when it comes to damage/utility terms?

 

I hope that I'm not just beating a dead horse by asking these questions, but I was kinda hoping that I could get more than just "watchman is the only spec to use" which i get a lot of when I talk to my guild.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Memo-]

The best Combat parses perform higher than the best Watchman parses. Things are, of course, very situational and depend on the fight, but Watchman isn't "better" by any means.

 

*Focus spec is great for PvP, yes, but it works well in PvE as well. Watchman is very hard to play effectively in PvP, but again, Combat excels there. Their single-target burst potential is far greater than that of Focus, they have additional roots and bring an additional group utility in the form of faster Transcendence.

 

Don't go for Watchman just because it seems popular. Combat is harder to master, but it is a very fun spec to play and the bursts are insane. Watchman and Combat are both good specs for leveling as well, Focus not so much.

[Delta_V]

Combat will definitely perform better than Watchman in some fights *cough* Titan XI *cough*, but which one you choose ultimately comes down to personal preference.

 

Combat is all about boring periods of strike - blade rush - strike spam interspersed with the absolutely insane burst of precision slash windows. Watchman will never hit as hard as Combat's precision slash windows, but it just keeps up a constant stream of damage without any down periods. Some people prefer the burst-wait-burst-wait playstyle of Combat, while others prefer the steady rhythm of Watchman.

[RedKillJoy]

Thank you both for the quick replies, guys! I asked a friend if I could borrow his account and parse combat and watchman to see what kind of numbers I could get, and I would like to ask a couple additional questions:

 

#1: It seems like watchman does about 300 more damage per second than combat, but it also heavily depends on the burns, as they were about 30% of the damage being put out. Combat on the other hand relies heavily on the damage of blade storm and blade rush, as both of these made up about 39-40% of the dps combined. However, I will also admit that I used zen far more in watchman than in combat, mainly because I wanted to be able to squeeze in blade storm after the precision slash/master strike combo, especially if my blade storm was buffed. Am I actually losing dps because I'm not using zen often enough? or should it matter?

 

#2: I was in a raid last night that I saw one of my guild's watchman-spec sentinels sit in the sandstorm on dash'roode(or however you spell that) before we went to go fight him doing his self-heal move, and I noticed that he was building stacks of centering. However the only skill in the trees that I see that allows you to do that is in the combat tree, very high up there, in like the second-to-last tier. Was wondering how he was able to do this when I know he wasn't spec'd into it.

 

Again, thank you for the quick replies!

[Hikaru_Kuma]

 

#2: I was in a raid last night that I saw one of my guild's watchman-spec sentinels sit in the sandstorm on dash'roode(or however you spell that) before we went to go fight him doing his self-heal move, and I noticed that he was building stacks of centering. However the only skill in the trees that I see that allows you to do that is in the combat tree, very high up there, in like the second-to-last tier. Was wondering how he was able to do this when I know he wasn't spec'd into it.

 

Again, thank you for the quick replies!

Almost every sentinel have 2 points in defensive forms " Builds 2 centering when attacked" your friend was sitting on the sandstorm to get hit and build his centering.

Combat sent can build up his/her centering before the fight by using Introspection with 2 points in Contemplation. Watchman cant do this, we have to use environmental damage like the sandstorm in snv or the water in tfb terror fight to build up centering before the fight.

[RedKillJoy]

Ah, that's what it was. Thank you for that helpful bit of info. Will remember that for future.

[Memo-]

Thank you both for the quick replies, guys! I asked a friend if I could borrow his account and parse combat and watchman to see what kind of numbers I could get, and I would like to ask a couple additional questions:

 

#1: It seems like watchman does about 300 more damage per second than combat, but it also heavily depends on the burns, as they were about 30% of the damage being put out. Combat on the other hand relies heavily on the damage of blade storm and blade rush, as both of these made up about 39-40% of the dps combined. However, I will also admit that I used zen far more in watchman than in combat, mainly because I wanted to be able to squeeze in blade storm after the precision slash/master strike combo, especially if my blade storm was buffed. Am I actually losing dps because I'm not using zen often enough? or should it matter?

 

What you are seeing now is simply that you got the gist of Watchman better than of Combat. I find it's very hard to do horribly wrong on Watchman, you could pretty much be just mashing buttons and get good DPS out of it. Combat is more complex, though. You are correct in assuming that you are using Zen too sparsely: I use it immediately as I get 30 centering, and I would only seem to better for it. You can check KBN's Combat-guide for more information generally, but I'll try to give a few quick pointers. You get maximum benefit from Blade Storm, if you use it as such (assuming Opportune Attack) has procced:

 

PS+Blade Storm > [any two attacks] > Strike/Zealous Strike > PS+Dispatch > [any attack] > Blade Storm

 

Blade Storm's CD is 9secs, so this rotation gives you the maximum uptime within PS-windows - and yes, it really is beneficial to push the second PS-window back by 1 GCD. By "any two attacks" I mean Blade Rush or Twin Saber Throw (if you have Zen active, you can get Master Strike right after BS and then follow it with BR) and by "any attack", again, BR or TST. I often end up with this as well:

 

PS+Blade Storm > Blade Rush > Blade Rush > Strike > PS+Master Strike > Blade Storm

 

Only use TST over BR within PS-windows if you cannot spare the Focus. It is also generally best to use Master Strike ASAP when it gets off cooldown, meaning PS-windows isn't always the best solution. Very hardcore Combat-players are starting to add Dispatch immediately before the second PS, as because of the delayed animation the damage is also delt later, making it possible to get an extra attack into the PS-window. Haven't gotten to this practice myself, yet.

 

I currently parse 2900+ on very good runs, but my gear is very much a mess. Haven't tested Watchman pretty much since 2.0 hit, got to gearing for Combat and now "on the air" switching isn't possible because of the +3% accuracy from Ataru Form.

[RedKillJoy]

Okay, I kinda figured that me not using zen more lessened my dps by a good amount....not surprised there. And I did find it harder to get the rotation "perfect" in combat compared to watchman. I have been reading KBN's guide on combat and I have to say it seems very complex, but the numbers he posts are the stuff of nightmares for healers in warzones. And there is a tank in my guild who I would love to see try and hold aggro against this stuff....he already complains too much about not being able to.