Leafy_Bug Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 (edited) Dear All, I play watchman as some of you know and parse quite high on the dummy can go above 3k, however, in certain fights I seem to end up focus starved and have to resort to that damn strike ability to build focus back until my focus builders come off cooldown. I am trying a new priority list on the dummy to maintain a healthy supply of focus for high hitters while reducing the low hitters such as slash. I am testing at the moment and I was wondering if you can have a look on my parse and suggest other ways to build focus than spamming strike like a madman so to say . I do not think I am doing a few abilities right because in this long parse i had 3 moments where I had zero focus even though I had a different approach than usual . I would like to learn a more efficient play style so any feedback would be much appreciated. Link is here. Edited August 29, 2013 by Leafy_Bug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaos_KidSWTOR Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Dear All, I play watchman as some of you know and parse quite high on the dummy can go above 3k, however, in certain fights I seem to end up focus starved and have to resort to that damn strike ability to build focus back until my focus builders come off cooldown. I am trying a new priority list on the dummy to maintain a healthy supply of focus for high hitters while reducing the low hitters such as slash. I am testing at the moment and I was wondering if you can have a look on my parse and suggest other ways to build focus than spamming strike like a madman so to say . I do not think I am doing a few abilities right because in this long parse i had 3 moments where I had zero focus even though I had a different approach than usual . I would like to learn a more efficient play style so any feedback would be much appreciated. Link is here. Best way to do it in my opinion is to have 30% Force Crit Chance. With your DoT's then having a 1 and 3 chance to crit compared to a 1 in 4 (if at 25% crit) or even lower your DPS may suffer slightly but you will have less focus issues. (side note try to also get melee crit to 30% because if you crit on a Melee attack on a DoTed person you also get 1 Focus.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta_V Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Your focus generation from dots is actually not dependent on critical hits. The Plasma Blades talent gives your burns a 30% chance to generate 1 focus when they do damage, regardless of crits. The only focus generation that is dependent on crit chance is from the Burning Focus talent, which causes critical hits with melee abilities on a burning target to generate one focus. The only extra effect that is dependent on critical hits from your burns is the self-healing from the Merciless Zeal talent. And trying to get to 30% melee crit will increase your focus generation, but you will have to sacrifice so much power that it will still be a dps loss, even if you don't have to use strike as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunte Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 You don't seem to be using strike more than you should, in general as long as you never exceed 12 focus (or *would* exceed it if it was possible) you can't really screw up in terms of overusing it (other than say using strike instead of zealous strike even though you're below 6 focus) but that kinda goes without saying. Now slash, there are two situations where you want to use slash, one of them is where the other choice is strike and you are at >10 focus. The other is when you didn't get the cauterize proc from merciless slash in which case you also want to make sure you don't overuse it and end up not having enough focus for Overload saber and the next merciless slash. In general try never to use slash when it CAN'T proc cauterize (that can only happen every 6 seconds) since it's very expensive for mediocre damage. Your slash% is a bit higher than mine is, i rarely ever see it above 7% in my parses while yours was 9+. It's not a huge differance but it's something. Also remember having maximum uptime on your dots is essential, don't be late with Overload saber even for one global cooldown. I saw a few times you clipped cauterize as well (used cauterize while it was still running on the target) try to avoid this as you lose DPS. Other than that i'm not sure if there is much else, might i ask what your stats look like at the moment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafy_Bug Posted August 30, 2013 Author Share Posted August 30, 2013 (edited) Thank you all for your input. I have some pointers and will experiment. My gear is BIS 72 with zero crit, 99.51 acc and 71.08 surge. As previously mentioned, I can change my gear a bit and parse higher than 3k on the dummy but that is not the point of this thread. I have noticed, compared to other sentinels/maras, that my playstyle is very messy. Running out of focus is not something that needs to happen and I need to find a way to prevent this while keeping my numbers high. Last night I saw Frog's mara Bastilla in 16M NiM and he once or twice dropped to two focus but other than that his focus supply was way better than mine. Now I don't fracking understand the mara terminology to compare his priority with mine but it must be better as I end up with ZERO focus in long fights and then I have no leap or zealous strike. I end up using strike to make sure I keep my merciless. This does not happen often but when it does I am getting very annoyed as clearly I am making some mistakes I should not do. I did not have these issues pre 2.0 when my crit was 38%. Regarding cauterize, you are completely correct. I sometimes reapply it right before it expires and this is a bad habit I picked up in raids. We are two watchman sentinels and god forbid if I remember which dots are mine, especially, when I am raid leader as well. This is my sentinel's PVE gear. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Edited August 30, 2013 by Leafy_Bug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafy_Bug Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 I bump this thread to thank Gunte for his input. I took his advice and I parsed a bit today. I am very close to running a long session without ending up focus starved! In the dummy parse i will post I have had no issues sustaining my focus while keeping a very nice dps number. Lowest focus level was 2 but zealous and leap were available to refresh it. Thanks again Gunte and this is a parse that is very efficient and with plenty of focus. I send you a 6 pack . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunte Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 I bump this thread to thank Gunte for his input. I took his advice and I parsed a bit today. I am very close to running a long session without ending up focus starved! In the dummy parse i will post I have had no issues sustaining my focus while keeping a very nice dps number. Lowest focus level was 2 but zealous and leap were available to refresh it. Thanks again Gunte and this is a parse that is very efficient and with plenty of focus. I send you a 6 pack . Im glad i could be of assistance! *awaiting 6-pack* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennethdale Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 (edited) Thank you all for your input. I have some pointers and will experiment. My gear is BIS 72 with zero crit, 99.51 acc and 71.08 surge. As previously mentioned, I can change my gear a bit and parse higher than 3k on the dummy but that is not the point of this thread. I have noticed, compared to other sentinels/maras, that my playstyle is very messy. Running out of focus is not something that needs to happen and I need to find a way to prevent this while keeping my numbers high. Last night I saw Frog's mara Bastilla in 16M NiM and he once or twice dropped to two focus but other than that his focus supply was way better than mine. Now I don't fracking understand the mara terminology to compare his priority with mine but it must be better as I end up with ZERO focus in long fights and then I have no leap or zealous strike. I end up using strike to make sure I keep my merciless. This does not happen often but when it does I am getting very annoyed as clearly I am making some mistakes I should not do. I did not have these issues pre 2.0 when my crit was 38%. Regarding cauterize, you are completely correct. I sometimes reapply it right before it expires and this is a bad habit I picked up in raids. We are two watchman sentinels and god forbid if I remember which dots are mine, especially, when I am raid leader as well. This is my sentinel's PVE gear. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 I'll have to try these tips out as well as sometimes I can get into a similar situation. Though my biggest question mark is why I can put out significantly better DPS on boss than on a Dummy but that is neither here nor there. For reference, Leafy: Burn : Bleed Centering : Fury Zen : Berserk Transcendence : Predation Inspiration : Bloodthirst Valorous Call : Frenzy Strike : Assault Zealous Strike : Battering Assault Slash : Vicious Slash Force Leap : Force Charge Master Strike : Ravage Merciless Slash : Annihilate Cauterize : Rupture Dispatch : Vicious Throw Overload Saber : Deadly Saber Blade Storm : Force Scream Twin Saber Throw : Dual Saber Throw Force Sweep : Smash Cyclone Slash : Sweeping Slash So a typical Mara opening would look like: Force Charge > Deadly Saber > Battering Assault > Rupture > Annihilate > Ravage = Force Leap > Overload Saber > Zealous Strike > Cauterize > Merciless Slash > Master Strike Hope that helps (the credit for me knowing that goes to Oofalong's guide and my wife for playing a Sentinel and asking me oh so many questions). ~~Edit~~ Didn't get a chance to try this on a dummy but I did today in raid and it helped a ton with Focus generation. Thank you Gunte! Edited September 2, 2013 by kennethdale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafy_Bug Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 I'll have to try these tips out as well as sometimes I can get into a similar situation. Though my biggest question mark is why I can put out significantly better DPS on boss than on a Dummy but that is neither here nor there. For reference, Leafy: Burn : Bleed Centering : Fury Zen : Berserk Transcendence : Predation Inspiration : Bloodthirst Valorous Call : Frenzy Strike : Assault Zealous Strike : Battering Assault Slash : Vicious Slash Force Leap : Force Charge Master Strike : Ravage Merciless Slash : Annihilate Cauterize : Rupture Dispatch : Vicious Throw Overload Saber : Deadly Saber Blade Storm : Force Scream Twin Saber Throw : Dual Saber Throw Force Sweep : Smash Cyclone Slash : Sweeping Slash So a typical Mara opening would look like: Force Charge > Deadly Saber > Battering Assault > Rupture > Annihilate > Ravage = Force Leap > Overload Saber > Zealous Strike > Cauterize > Merciless Slash > Master Strike Hope that helps (the credit for me knowing that goes to Oofalong's guide and my wife for playing a Sentinel and asking me oh so many questions). ~~Edit~~ Didn't get a chance to try this on a dummy but I did today in raid and it helped a ton with Focus generation. Thank you Gunte! Thanks for this. Now I can track mara stuff and see how it applies to my sentinel . 6 pack for you as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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