Seeking advice for a Sentinel/Sage duo

[Pekiti]

My situation:

I recently returned to playing SWTOR after a year or so of absence, because my wife suddenly took an interest in playing it. This would be her second time playing an MMO, so she is *very* inexperienced. After playing (as a duo) some Imperial characters up through 20-ish level, my wife decides she wants to play a 'good guy, Jedi type'. After some discussion, she decided she wants to play a Sage (to try being a healer, and to fight at range instead of melee, which was kind of overwhelming for her during the Imperial days). I chose Sentinel, because I wanted to do damage more than I wanted to tank (she'll need someone to heal, right?). I have played both Operatives and Sorcs to 50 in the past, but I have no experience as melee/saber-wielder. While I figure I can give my wife decent advice on how to build/play her Sage, I'd like to find a guide (or get some detailed advice) on how best to build/level my Sentinel.

 

Unfortunately, every guide I have seen is oriented to players who are:

1) already at or near the level cap, or

2) planning on doing lots of PVP, or

3) constantly participating in 8-16 man ops/flashpoints/whatever

 

We are just two players and two companions (no guild, etc). We do PVE only, and we pretty much try to do *every* quest offered to us, no matter how difficult it is supposed to be (we got beat down on a Heroic 4 a couple of times before we came back and won it on the third try). We also do gathering/crafting (Artifice and Cybertech) so we can keep our gear in good shape (...and have the 'required ' blue lightsabers, because 'everyone knows only bad guys use red sabers'...). We are interested in having fun/succeeding as we level to 50, but we are definitely NOT the kind of folks who worry about being 'optimal' in damage/etc.

 

I'm about to buy Treek for my wife, because she has come to despise Qyzen Fess (she swears he's the same lizard who lost to Kirk when we were kids, and yes we're 'old people' LOL). I've heard that Treek makes a great tank or healer, so I might get Treek for my companion too, even though I kind of like the T7 droid.

 

So...can you guys suggest a spec and/or rotation for a noob Sentinel who currently travels with an inexperienced Sage (and probably a couple of psychopathic Ewok mercenaries, very soon)? Any helpful combos/synergy between the Sage/Sentinel would be appreciated, too, because I want the wife to feel useful/helpful (and she isn't sure if she wants to be 'a healer' or 'a nuker', she just wants to be 'involved in the fight' not 'standing around waiting to push a button').

 

We're on Ebon Hawk, so if you see a couple of yokels standing in the middle of Coruscant oohing and aaahing over the tall buildings and such, wave hello. And tell us (again) how to find the Cantina...

[Cotlu-Hunlon]

I can't think of any particular synergies between Sentinel/Sage, or any other classes for that matter. No class is designed to have kind of dependence on another specific class, just on the trinity of Tank - Heal - Damage.

 

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For your sentinel class, you didn't mention which tree you are using so I'll describe them to you, in case you haven't decided yet:

 

Watchman

Uses damage over time abilities, very single target focused and is good for Flashpoints and Heroics, and if played correctly gives you self-heals (sounds like you want your wife to heal you and keep busy so maybe this isn't for you)

 

Combat

Single target focused again and pretty difficult to play to a decent level, so I wouldn't recommend it to you, being new at melee

 

Focus

This is the tree I would recommend as it is focused on damage to multiple targets and burns through packs of bad guys faster than the other two trees. This will also draw all the agro giving your wife a chance to be involved healing your rapidly falling squishy Sentinel life-bar. Here's what I would recommend build-wise http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bcZhzZfrrkbGzRffz.3

Put the 5 points into Watchman tree first as that will help you by giving you a lot more resources to use on abilities, then start working your way up the Focus tree.

 

Treek is a good tank or healer, but also homogenises your class, and you end up not using your companions and getting conversation affection and funny one liners and the such.

[Alucardess]

What I will say that works well together is the traditional DPS/Heals.

 

I'm going to go into specifics because the poster above me went pretty well into general ideas.

 

Given that your wife is a Sage Healer, I would recommend Focus for low levels. I would be using this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bcZhMZfrMkbGkRffz.3. Focus is known for really fast AoE trash clears but you won't get that until around level 25 if you go full into Focus. If you go 5 into Watchman and then Focus, you'll have your AoE Crit Force Sweep at level 30. Bear in mind that Focus, while having amazing AoE capabilities, has arguably one of the worst single target sustained in the game, so if you intend to go into end-game raids I'd recommend also learning one of the other two trees.

 

As an initial rotation, you won't have anything until level 25, which is when the spec starts putting itself together. Once you get all 3 points into Singularity, Zen will give you 3 stacks of Singularity, which will cause your Force Sweep to do 100% more damage. Both Force Leap and Zealous Leap will give you Felling Blow, which is also in the tree, which will give your Force Sweep 100% to crit. So generally at that point before every Force Sweep you want to make sure you've either Force Leap'd or Zealous Leap'd.

[Pekiti]

Thank you for the advice!

 

Focus does look like a great choice for me at this point, and I'd already put 2 points into Momentum(?) so that I could Force Leap to my next target, then use a Blade Storm for zero focus. We hit level 14 this morning, and the wife got her bubble power (Force Armor?) while Treek replaced Qyzen as her companion. Treek is very amusing, plus she's got a decent AOE attack that doesn't break Whirlwind/CC, and does great healing. This let the wife concentrate more on ranged DPS and bubbling, so she's thrilled. In her words 'I always have something I can do now, its awesome!'. Together we steamrollered through the Esseles flash point (though I suffered from some kind of horrible bug at the final cutscene, where I kept getting disconnected). I'm basically able to jump from pull to pull nonstop, and except for one embarrassing fall-to-my-death, I'm really enjoying the Force Leap thing and AOE melee.