No more medals since I got to level 55?

[StepTNT]

This may sound odd but I'll try to summarize it: before becoming a Subscriber I was stuck at level 50 with the full Campaign Weaponmaster's set (Jedi Sentinel using the Watchman tree) and I was quite good in PvP (getting more than 8 medals almost everytime, even without PvP gear).

 

Now I subbed and I got some pieces of the Conqueror Weaponmaster's set (this should be the one that a Sentinel can buy with WZ commendations) plus some pieces of the set that you can buy with Basic Commendations (I don't remember its name).

 

The problem is that, in the last week, I won something like 1% of the WZ that I played in, always ending with less than 5 medal (sometimes even 0) and I did not became a noob as soon as I subscribed.

 

I don't understand why, with quite a better gear, I can't play as good as I did before.

Not to mention that I can't even kill someone which is attacking someone else (and so is not focusin on me) while I got killed ALWAYS in just 3 shots.

 

This thing is really making me hate the PvP.

 

Yesterday happened that an Operative stunned me coming stealth from behind, with his first hit half of my HP were gone and the second one killed me. And this happened about 5 times in the same match, I wasn't even able to deal a single hit to that player.

If I try to do the same (attacking someone from behind to gain a little advantage), I can't kill even with 10 hits and this is so frustrating.

 

Not to mention that I am quite useless against healers because their healing rate is something like 2x my DPS.

 

Can you please help me and telling what's wrong with my build (or maybe my style of playing)?

 

For your info, I'm using the rotation described here http://www.noxxic.com/swtor/pve/jedi-knight/sentinel/watchman/rotation-and-cooldowns

 

Thank you for youe help

[HBCentaurion]

1) Don't use Noxxic as a guideline. It's bad. Really bad.

 

2) Level 55 PVP is a whole another ballpark than lowbie PVP. People are better geared (maxed out expertise) and some of the players even have a braincell (compared to lowbie PVP where there is a shortage of braincells).

 

3) The better PVE gear you have - the worse you will do in PVP.

 

4) Stepping into lvl 55 PVP with anything less than 2018 expertise (which gives you 60 % damage boost on players, 37.5% damage reduction and about 25 % healing boost irc) is going to be painful. I suggest that you get the PVP relics asap, and buy level 45 blue armour (which will bolster to 2018 expertise) until you have enough commendations for a full PVP set.

Edited February 28, 2014 by HBCentaurion

[StepTNT]

Right, so the first step is to avoid using Noxxic.

I really got used to the that site though, can you suggest a good replacement?

 

Btw, I'm quite sure that I've got more than 2000 expertise (or something around 1900).

I'm a few commendations away to finish the Sentine PvP set but I'm not buying anything else because some pieces have lower stats than the Basic Commendation's set.

 

Is there any kind of guide to get good stats in PvP?

I don't want to waste much time in this because I need to level up some other toons, but I really want to have a nice PvP set and a PvE for my main character, and I have no clue of what to buy

[jack__]

To put it simply, there is a huge difficultly spike between 30's and 55 pvp. People are generally a lot better and have greater coordination. Firstly, gear wise you should get MK-9 strength or power augments off the gtn. They make the biggest difference in pvp. Secondly, watchman is not the best spec for pvp, for pvp you should try to play combat or focus spec (focus is getting nerfed soon though), as they are much more pvp friendly with more burst and harder to shut down damage. Also leading on from that noxxic is an awful source for information. The class guides on dulfy.net or even better on the sentinel class forum is a much better source for class info.

 

Edit: sentinels have the easiest time gearing since they can chose from 2 different sets of gear, challengers and weaponmasters as they both have the same set bonus. For the secondary stats you pretty much on want power and surge in your gear. A little accuracy in your gear can do good, but make sure you never go over 100% melee accuracy or 110% force accuracy. Likewise a little bit of critical rating is beneficial however every point of critical rating you get you sacrifice 1 point in power since they are both in the same item slots.

Edited February 28, 2014 by jack__

[gblXsw]

plus some pieces of the set that you can buy with Basic Commendations (I don't remember its name).

 

The gear you buy for basic comms is way better than Campaign gear in PvE, but not in PvP! Due to bolster the stats for Campaign gear are buffed while in a warzone, Basic Comm gear on the other is too high rated and thus will give you less Expertise. Avoid wearing anything above 66 blue in a Warzone (except for dedicated PvP gear of course).

[Cordorian]

one other thing. watchman is not really the optimal tree for a sentinel in pvp, it has rather long ramp up time and has to stay on target for a while. In 55pvp burst is the first rule for dps. The other two sentinel tree are better for pvp because they are way burstier. In pvp you have healers and tanks flying around and some of them actually know what they are doing, so if you don't burst down your target quickly a healer will heal him, a tank might taunt you and give guard to your target and for watchman in particular the healer might cleanse your dots... if that happens you don't do any damage.

So maybe try combat or focus.

Watchman is not totally bad for pvp, but surely not optimal in the current setting.

 

The concealment operative is a pure burst class, they can take you down insanely quick (these days), if you don't use your CD and don't get out of their stunlock. Little tip use awe asap.

 

get a full set of pvp gear asap or go with RANDELS advice and get those 46 blues on the GTN (look at his sticky thread). full conqueror can be obtained in almost a week just doing the dailies and the weekly. you definitely need augments and need to be stimmed to really be competitive.

 

55 pvp comes harsh to a lot of people getting there freshly. You just have to get used to it and don't think the lowbie bracket indicated anything. Also you might just have had a bad streak (happens sometimes), or the opposing fraction has better and more organized players on your server.

 

You can also check the sentinel and marauder forums on PVP advice and builds. Noxxic isn't really good and you probably get more competent advice there. Also remember contrary to common believe sentinels or not exactly the easiest class to play in pvp (unless you go focus, but that will be thing of the past soon as well).

 

I hope you don't get totally deterred from pvp, because it can be fun, but it takes some investment of time and some willingness to overcome the initial frustration, combine with the will to get better.

[StepTNT]

Right, thanks to everyone.

 

Let's see if I got you.

 

I should follow this guide http://dulfy.net/2014/02/11/swtor-sentinel-dps-class-guide/#1 using the Combat skill tree for PvP while I can still use the Watchman for the PvE, correct?

[Cordorian]

dulfy's guilds a good, but they are pve orientated. If you just start over with combat, they give you some indication on how you would play the spec in optimal conditions for sustained damage. Those you hardly ever get in pvp.

 

For example. if you get optimal conditions in combat against a single player (who is not paying much attention to you, or you are at full resolve)

the rotation : Zen > Battering Assault > Blade Rush > Precision Slash > Master Strike > Dispatch > Blade Storm

 

Is a sure kill, but you wont get that off too often, since you get stunned, knocked back or pacified or whatever.

 

Combat is one of the harder specs to play, because you have to adjust all the time need to respond quickly to both your procs and what your opponent does. It takes quite some practice to get good with it. So i refer you to the Sentinel and Marauder Forums again, since some of the better combat/carnage players don't hold back with valuable advice there.

 

I also tend to advertise this stream as an example of a well played combat sentinel http://www.twitch.tv/bleezlord/profile

 

You can use both watchman and combat fine in PvE btw, and to get an intial feel for it would even recommend you try combat in pve first. It is usually good for bursty fights, but isnt too far behind watchman in sustained dps, it is just a bit harder to play.

[Uber_the_Goober]

 

Is there any kind of guide to get good stats in PvP?

I don't want to waste much time in this because I need to level up some other toons, but I really want to have a nice PvP set and a PvE for my main character, and I have no clue of what to buy

 

Yeah, the first stickied post in this forum.

[teclado]

I think others have put you on the right track. Watchman is bad for pvp due to the DoTs being cleansable. Read L-RANLDE's guide(s). Focus is EZ mode for sentinel pvp, but is soon to be nerfed. Combat is very strong, but difficult to play well. Burst > all in pvp. For example, some pvp specs (e.g. infiltration shadow) are terrible for pve due to poor sustained damage, but excellent for pvp due to awesome burst.

 

Here is L-RANLE's guide: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=707204

 

^^ The TL;DR is: don't use 66 purple mods or higher - you will have diminishing returns when bolster takes effect. You're actually better off with makeb 58s or 61s or even 46s. You really want max expertise in a warzone, after bolster takes effect (2018 expertise). The other two major factors: augments and stims. If you are not augmented, you are hurting yourself. If you do not use stims (the prototype nano-infused types), you are hurting yourself. It can cost 2.5 or 3 million credits for a full set of purple 66 augments (advanced <> augment 28), so that is no small undertaking. Just do what you can, or go with the cheaper 66 blue augments to start with. Stims are pretty cheap - 6-8K credits for a two hour boost of ~170 main stat and ~ 60 power (off the top of my head), so there is no reason to not use them.

[Vodrin]

If you decide to go combat just remember that a target that is paying attention to you can shut down your damage quite easily by stunning you after you hit precision slash. Be unpredictable when you use it in your rotation. Try never to be the first melee to attack a target, and always make sure opportune attack is up when you use blade storm. Spec all your roots, and make sure you spec the root/snare break on force cammo. Do all that and you will do fine.

[Neoforcer]

This may sound odd but I'll try to summarize it: before becoming a Subscriber I was stuck at level 50 with the full Campaign Weaponmaster's set (Jedi Sentinel using the Watchman tree) and I was quite good in PvP (getting more than 8 medals almost everytime, even without PvP gear).

 

Now I subbed and I got some pieces of the Conqueror Weaponmaster's set (this should be the one that a Sentinel can buy with WZ commendations) plus some pieces of the set that you can buy with Basic Commendations (I don't remember its name).

 

The problem is that, in the last week, I won something like 1% of the WZ that I played in, always ending with less than 5 medal (sometimes even 0) and I did not became a noob as soon as I subscribed.

 

I don't understand why, with quite a better gear, I can't play as good as I did before.

Not to mention that I can't even kill someone which is attacking someone else (and so is not focusin on me) while I got killed ALWAYS in just 3 shots.

 

This thing is really making me hate the PvP.

 

Yesterday happened that an Operative stunned me coming stealth from behind, with his first hit half of my HP were gone and the second one killed me. And this happened about 5 times in the same match, I wasn't even able to deal a single hit to that player.

If I try to do the same (attacking someone from behind to gain a little advantage), I can't kill even with 10 hits and this is so frustrating.

 

Not to mention that I am quite useless against healers because their healing rate is something like 2x my DPS.

 

Can you please help me and telling what's wrong with my build (or maybe my style of playing)?

 

For your info, I'm using the rotation described here http://www.noxxic.com/swtor/pve/jedi-knight/sentinel/watchman/rotation-and-cooldowns

 

Thank you for youe help

 

Your hitting full optimized gear obraon pvpes you will get wreaked at first while having low medals do to being under geared to every one else. That being said make sure you augment your gear as well since augment play a big part in your damage. You will have to take your licks in pvp to get obroan geared also like other said noxic is not very good

[StepTNT]

You opened a new world for me, there are a LOT of things I didn't knew, and know this becomes clearer.

 

I know about augments, I'm just waiting to have my final set to get them because I don't want to waste the MK-9 Kits.

I'll se if I can try Combat in PvE, maybe through dailies and stuff like that.

 

Thanks to everyone, I'll keep you updated

[Uber_the_Goober]

You opened a new world for me, there are a LOT of things I didn't knew, and know this becomes clearer.

 

I know about augments, I'm just waiting to have my final set to get them because I don't want to waste the MK-9 Kits.

I'll se if I can try Combat in PvE, maybe through dailies and stuff like that.

 

Thanks to everyone, I'll keep you updated

 

I love your attitude. Cheers to you.

 

Ya hear that all you QQ'ers!?!?! Be like THIS GUY!

[teclado]

I know about augments, I'm just waiting to have my final set to get them because I don't want to waste the MK-9 Kits.

I'll se if I can try Combat in PvE, maybe through dailies and stuff like that.

Regarding augments, here's what you can do. Get some modifiable orange or purple shells off the GTN that you like the looks of. Augment those. Pull the mods from the conqueror / obroan gear and stick them in your augmented GTN gear. When trading conqueror for obroan, you only have to trade the shells, the mods don't matter. So keep the conq shells in your cargo hold (although a new gear tier is coming in April, so it would then be an obroan -> new gear trade).

 

Combat is pretty decent for PVE. Watchman is a little easier solo due to the self heal DoTs. I run dailies with my combat sentinel in my augmented conq gear + doc and it is a piece of cake. I'm sure that watchman has slightly better potential for soloing heroics, though.

[Vodrin]

You opened a new world for me, there are a LOT of things I didn't knew, and know this becomes clearer.

 

I know about augments, I'm just waiting to have my final set to get them because I don't want to waste the MK-9 Kits.

I'll se if I can try Combat in PvE, maybe through dailies and stuff like that.

 

Thanks to everyone, I'll keep you updated

 

I would recommend getting orange shells for all your non-relic, non implant/earpiece slots. You can rip the mods out of the PvP gear and insert in orange shells allowing you to only ever need one set of augments for those slots even if you upgrade gear.

[Neoforcer]

You opened a new world for me, there are a LOT of things I didn't knew, and know this becomes clearer.

 

I know about augments, I'm just waiting to have my final set to get them because I don't want to waste the MK-9 Kits.

I'll se if I can try Combat in PvE, maybe through dailies and stuff like that.

 

Thanks to everyone, I'll keep you updated

 

Find a set of good looking orange gear then augment those piece so you can put the obroan armoring mod and enhancement in to the orange gear. Don't forget to optimize what gear you do get the gear off the vender does not have ideal stats for your class. IE power, crit and surge for the spec you are running find other who are in your class doing good damage in a warzone and ask them nicely what you want to stack with what spec. ask more then one person as well so you get good info some people in this game can be mean when it come to giving out tips

Edited February 28, 2014 by Neoforcer

[Cordorian]

Just wanted say, more threads should evolve like this one. On person asking for help, because he has trouble getting started with 55pvp and without any insult or anything, he get valuable responses that help him out. A flicker of hope on this forum

[StepTNT]

Just wanted say, more threads should evolve like this one. On person asking for help, because he has trouble getting started with 55pvp and without any insult or anything, he get valuable responses that help him out. A flicker of hope on this forum

 

Lol, before subscribing I spent soem time on this forum and I must admit that I was a little scared before posting this because I was afraid that it could turn into some "noob, learn to play instead of complaining" kind of topic.

 

But I'm really happy that I got good responses, and I'm starting to do a lot better in my lvl 55 PvP