Watchman 3.0 Recommendations

[LifeOfMessiah]

With all the changes to the various classes in 3.0, and the introduction of the new discipline system, I am curious to hear what other fellow Sentinel Watchman have done in their rotations to maximize their potential DPS. Would love to hear thoughts and what they think is the best rotation for a watchman now.

 

Also am curious as to what utilities Watchmans have been spending their points on in the new system.

Edited December 5, 2014 by LifeOfMessiah

[DomiSotto]

I would like to know as well.

 

For now, I have two mini-sequences I mix and match in between, the Assault, Deadly Sabre-Battering Assault-Rupture-Annihilate and the Charge-Crippling Slash-Gush-Smash, and I throw in the Ravage, Deadly, Choke and Vicious Throws as I can, and power up with Berserk/Bloodlust whichever available.

 

Now, please tell me how to do it right!

[Beyrahl]

Believe scream is better then smash in annihilation, but isn't this about carnage/watchman

 

Nothing really changed rotation wise, don't let it confuse you. The new move replaces the old, no longer have a ranged root, it's melee and blows compared to other classes atm.

[Bugattiboy]

Well KBN and Emperor-Norton have both quit their sentinels, or so I've heard, which sucks because we need guides more than ever right now and neither of them want to do because they no longer enjoy the AC.

[ShadowTech]

I'm fair from perfect with the spec (def not as good as some of the top sents, current or other wise), and I've got some questions regarding the spec as well, but I've compiled what I've figured out in this thread here. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=780319

 

Maybe someone has seen something that I missed.

[DomiSotto]

Oh, zut, sorry, Watchman was first in Sentinel Class, and Annihilation is first in the Mara in the blog, so I assumed that was the translation

[Tapkoh]

Oh, zut, sorry, Watchman was first in Sentinel Class, and Annihilation is first in the Mara in the blog, so I assumed that was the translation

 

Watchman and Anni are mirrors. Combat/Carnage and Concentration/Fury are the other two pairs. Carnage and Watchman are not the same.

 

edit: forgot they changed the names on rage/focus

Edited December 5, 2014 by Tapkoh

[DomiSotto]

Okay, hugs! I kindda like smash because of the endless multiple mobs (I use the roar as well, because I am unduly fond of cc's). I'll try adding the scream as well, see if it helps a bit.

 

The way they did it, though it doesn't feel there are less abilities, does it? I need to figure a way to kill things faster, or I won't last long in the new content.

Edited December 5, 2014 by DomiSotto

[Atlanis]

Well KBN and Emperor-Norton have both quit their sentinels, or so I've heard, which sucks because we need guides more than ever right now and neither of them want to do because they no longer enjoy the AC.

 

Understandable. The Nerfbat is swinging our way since Beta. At some point even the best players find that despicable Gunslinger or Sage far more satisfying then their beloved Dualwield Class.

 

Well we will see, Concentration seems interesting due to its flexibility. Combat seems interesting due to the Zen-Period, I must look into that. Watchman seems to be the most viable in Raidenviroments for me not only due to the unique Elemental/Internal - Debuff for Targets.

 

I won´t jump to conclusion and will wait for 3.1. to roll out.

 

Well I will leave it to the "Elites" to write up guides and stuff, someone who is not part of the "Top" Guilds will just be ridiculed even if he may have a point.

[sloasdaylight]

With all the changes to the various classes in 3.0, and the introduction of the new discipline system, I am curious to hear what other fellow Sentinel Watchman have done in their rotations to maximize their potential DPS. Would love to hear thoughts and what they think is the best rotation for a watchman now.

 

Also am curious as to what utilities Watchmans have been spending their points on in the new system.

 

This is what I've been using so far for an opener (note - I am still leveling, but this general rotation has seemed to work very well for me on all mob types, as well as during the solo mode FPs, YMMV):

Leap + Overload Saber

Zealous Strike

Cauterize

Force Melt

Master Strike

[dcaleb]

Now that I can gain balance from introspection I basically always pop Zen before the fight starts so that I get crit burns on whatever I choose to target first. The only time I don't bother is if it is a total trash mob without even a single strong in it.

[TarkTrain]

Did some number crunching and comparison between old skill tree and new discipline for Watchman yesterday. To preface this post, keep in mind this is all very theoretical (based on tooltips and average damage formulas), we'll have to see how it plays out with actual parses as more data becomes available. Please let me know if you see any mistakes, or things that would work better and I'll update.

 

TL : DR: The watchman sent has been hit pretty hard with the nerf bat (I am calculating a theoretical loss of about 300 DPS on my sent at L55) UNTIL you get the Force Melt ability at Level 57, which gets you most of the lost DPS back. Effectively this means that damage has been taken away from your instant damage abilities (plus some from cauterize burn) and is now dealt out over time. Watchman can still kill high health single targets with the best of them, are probably a little better against mobs, and still have a ton of great utilities for ops.

 

Brief Summary of Watchman Changes

High health single target: still solid, especially once you get force melt

 

Burst damage: other than merciless slash, I don't see much in the way of burst damage. Biggest hit was to Dispatch, with a damage reduction of about 15%.

 

AOE: twin saber throw damage has been reduced by about 33% (although watchman does have a chance of getting a 100% damage buff), but Force sweep now has a utility point to increase it's damage, and it also spreads burn effects, so the effectiveness seems to be largely based on how much health the mob has since it will take a few GCDs to apply all the burn effects and force sweep them to the group.

 

Burn Effects: Due to loss of some passive skills and nerfing of others, the critical chance and damage on burn effects is down (about 13% less chance, and 15% less crit damage), although this is mostly offset by the addition of the merciless slash debuff making the target 7% more susceptible to all internal/elemental damage.

 

Juyo Form: Damage buff (now 1% per stack, down from 2%) and critical chance buff (now flat 2%, down from 1%/2%/3%) per stack of Juyo are both down. So at full 6 stacks, you basically have 6% damage buff instead of 12%, and 12% burn crit chance instead of 18%. However, Zealous strike also adds an effect that makes targets 5% more susceptible to all melee damage, which partially offsets the loss. Furthermore at L59, you also get a passive skill that will build stacks of Juyo and Merciless 2 at a time so you will get up to "full power" more quickly.

 

Rotation

Unlike most of the "added" skills for other classes, which were intended to replace an existing skill with a more effective version, the Watchman's added "Force Melt" appears to be an actual addition. So you essentially now have three burn effects to manage: Force Melt (18s duration), Cauterize Burn (12s duration), and overload saber. In addition there is a passive skill "Accelerating Victory" which is applied by Merciless slash and reduces the cost of "Force Melt" by 1 for each stack (with 3 stacks it's free). Once you have built up your 4 merciless stacks, merciless slash is on a 6s cooldown, so 3 cooldowns (to build up three "Accelerating Victory" stacks) =18s, just in time for your Force melt to finish burning and you reapply for free. Because the cauterize burn is now a 12s duration up from 6s, this creates a little bit of long rotation that repeats every 24 GCDs.

 

Just like before, you can break the rotation down into Merciless Slash windows (6 in this case). Every 3rd window you are applying Force melt, and every other window you are applying Cauterize. As before, Overload Saber should be on cooldown at all times since it is off the GCD. Zealous strike has a 15s cooldown, meaning it will not fit nicely in any rotation (eventually using it immediately off cooldown would mean interfering with another ability), so I did not include it below, but you want to use it whenever you need focus and you are not interfering with MS, FM, or Caut. The other thing to keep in mind is when to convert your centering to Zen since it will give your next six burn attacks a 100% crit chance. There is probably an ideal time to activate Zen so the "right" burns are getting the critical bonus, but I did not do any computations for that. Whew, so that is a lot to keep track of (though I'm sure there are those of you who will have, or already have, it down in no time). So I think it would look something like this (MS=Merciless Slash, FM=Force Melt, C=Cauterize):

 

1) MS, C, Filler, FM

2) MS, Filler, Filler, Filler

3) MS, C, Filler, Filler

4) MS, Filler, Filler, FM

5) MS, C, Filler, Filler

6) MS, Filler, Filler, Filler

Repeat

 

Fillers should be used to ensure you always have at least 5 focus ready to start an MS window (non Cauterize windows you can get away with 4). You could flip the timing of FM and Caut in relation to MS (Caut before MS, FM after), but the rotation above should be easier for managing focus since if Cauterize comes before MS you must have 6 focus to do both, if it comes after you only need 5 (since MS refunds one).

 

Since cauterize is no longer on cooldown, and if the above is too complicated, you can use caut in every MS window (every 6s), which will cut the rotation and complexity in half from 6 MS windows to 3 MS windows, but you will lose some damage since the attack portion of caut (which is relatively weak) uses up an extra GCD. So that would be:

1) MS, C, Filler, FM

2) MS, C, Filler, Filler

3) MS, C, Filler, Filler

Repeat

 

More in Depth Summary of Ability Changes (these are based on looking at my 55 sent damage before and after 3.0, same gear, same level; ‒ means worse, + means better)

=== General Changes ===

‒ Loss of 3% Accuracy Buff from Skill Tree (this accuracy is lost and not made up for in any other way, you currently need more accuracy enhancements to get to 110%/100% than you did before at all levels)

+ 1H Saber: 180 Rating Hilt now does 578-868 Damage (up from 575-863)

+ 180 Rating Barrels and Hilts now have 1157 force/tech rating (up from 1151)

 

=== Abilities Common to All Sentinels ===

‒ Loss of 36% Off Hand Weapon Damage from Skill Tree (combat gets back 25%, watchman and concentration lose this damage)

= Slash: Very minor tweak to damage (less than .1% change)

‒ Dispatch: Damage Reduced about 15% (ouch!)

+ Zealous Strike: Damage Increased about 6%

+ Zealous Strike now makes targets 5% more susceptible to melee damage

‒ Master Strike: Damage Decreased by about 13% (ouch!)

‒ Twin Saber Throw: Damage Decreased by about 33% (although Watchman have a decent chance of getting a 100% damage buff from mind sear proc)

 

=== Watchman Specific Abilities ===

‒ Juyo Form: Damage buff per stack of 1% (down from 2% per stack)

‒ Juyo Mastery: Critical chance now flat 2% per Juyo stack (instead of 1%/2%/3% per stack)

+ Merciless Slash: Damage Increased about 2%

+ Merciless Slash now weakens target to take 7% more damage from internal/elemental attacks

‒ Cauterize (attack portion): Damage Decreased about 2.5% (note the watchman tree skill “Repelling Blows” now increases direct attack of cauterize by only 5% instead of 30%, but is accessible at L16 rather than L26, damage calculated at L55)

‒ Cauterize (burn portion): DPS has been effectively reduced by about 40% (one application of cauterize does more damage, but over 12s, instead of 6s, same number of ticks (6))

‒ Overload Saber: Damage Decreased by about 5%

‒ Insight (old focus tree): 2%/4%/6% force critical chance gone (typically 4% loss for watchman)

‒ Searing Saber: 15% critical damage buff (down from 15%/30%)

+ Force Melt: New burn ability that adds 300+ DPS depending on your gear

[DomiSotto]

The ability referred in the blog as the "Force Gush" is actually called "Force Rend" in the game, and for Sentinels it is the Force Melt. Yes?

[Atlanis]

Signed, basicly what I noticed:cool:

[Morrolan]

Just like before, you can break the rotation down into Merciless Slash windows (6 in this case). Every 3rd window you are applying Force melt, and every other window you are applying Cauterize. As before, Overload Saber should be on cooldown at all times since it is off the GCD. Zealous strike has a 15s cooldown, meaning it will not fit nicely in any rotation (eventually using it immediately off cooldown would mean interfering with another ability), so I did not include it below, but you want to use it whenever you need focus and you are not interfering with MS, FM, or Caut. The other thing to keep in mind is when to convert your centering to Zen since it will give your next six burn attacks a 100% crit chance. There is probably an ideal time to activate Zen so the "right" burns are getting the critical bonus, but I did not do any computations for that. Whew, so that is a lot to keep track of (though I'm sure there are those of you who will have, or already have, it down in no time). So I think it would look something like this (MS=Merciless Slash, FM=Force Melt, C=Cauterize):

 

1) MS, C, Filler, FM

2) MS, Filler, Filler, Filler

3) MS, C, Filler, Filler

4) MS, Filler, Filler, FM

5) MS, C, Filler, Filler

6) MS, Filler, Filler, Filler

Repeat

 

Thanks for that, what about Master Strike? In 1 of the filler spots?

[Ardarell_Solo]

I'd put Force Melt directly after Merciless (higher priority) and put Cauterize on 4th GCD (every second block - do never clip it!). That way you can also hit Melt everytime you get the visual proc highlight (easier in raids).

 

Master Strike goes in every 3rd Cycle, but not in one that has Force Melt in it (you will get focus starved for the next block otherwise).

 

You want to have Master Strike immediately after Merciless so there's one filler GCD open for Focus generation for the next Merciless block (especially if it has Overload Saber in it).

 

You can't avoid having a block like

 

Merciless - Master Strike - Cauterize

Merciless...

 

once in a while. This is a focus killer, plan ahead for it, you will almost need full focus for that.

 

 

<- Gives me 4590 with 198 relic and implant, 192 2nd relic and 2nd implant (rest 186).

 

 

But it's still BORING! (Melee dps with a 36 second rotation? You gotta be kidding me!)

 

WTB Cauterize proc back!

 

 

Edit: Things get less strict, if you clip Master Strike after first GCD like Macedonicus suggests. Especially makes sense, once you have the new set bonus. I hate it, though. Had clipping key ability for DPS gain on Balance Sage and that sucked big time imo, too.

 

Edit #2: I tried to make an assessment of the specc's current state and some suggestions as to how it could be improved. You're invited to comment / join in / whatever you like here.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Ardarell_Solo

[Idaho-D]

All the bad critiques talked me out of reviving my old Sentinel, my oldest character that I dropped because I didn't think it did enough damage for a scrapper archetype. Melee DPS lives on defeating it's foes quickly, that's why you play one over a melee Tank. If it's not fast action BW failed the Class.

[TarkTrain]

I'd put Force Melt directly after Merciless (higher priority) and put Cauterize on 4th GCD (every second block - do never clip it!). That way you can also hit Melt everytime you get the visual proc highlight (easier in raids).

When I was first going through the rotation, this is exactly how I set it up for the exact reason you state. The only reason I decided to flip it, as I stated above, was for Focus management since Caut + MS requires 6 focus at the start of the window, while MS + Caut only requires 5 due to MS refund. If focus management is not an issue, then I would agree, put Force Melt right after MS, and Caut at the end of the cycle.

 

Master Strike goes in every 3rd Cycle, but not in one that has Force Melt in it (you will get focus starved for the next block otherwise).

 

You want to have Master Strike immediately after Merciless so there's one filler GCD open for Focus generation for the next Merciless block (especially if it has Overload Saber in it).

Yes, just what I was thinking, Master Strike should go in one of your [MS, filler, filler, filler] windows where you use it right after MS to give yourself a chance to use a focus generating ability before the next MS window.

 

But it's still BORING! (Melee dps with a 36 second rotation? You gotta be kidding me!)

 

WTB Cauterize proc back!

LOL, agreed 36 seconds is pretty ridiculous.

[ArenRakescar]

This is what I've been using so far for an opener (note - I am still leveling, but this general rotation has seemed to work very well for me on all mob types, as well as during the solo mode FPs, YMMV):

Leap + Overload Saber

Zealous Strike

Cauterize

Force Melt

Master Strike

 

EDIT: I shortened the opener and added an intermediate rotation. Trying to get 3 Merciless Slash into the opener called for too many fillers (and took too long before getting DoTs up again). Still needs a bit of work though

 

Try this:

Valorous Call

 

Opener:

Leap

Zen

Melt

Filler (strike)

Overload

Zealous

Cauterize

Merciless

Master Strike

Twin Saber

Filler (strike)

Filler (slash)

Leap

Merciless

 

Intermediate:

Melt

Overload

Zealous

Cauterize

Filler (slash)

Merciless

Master Strike

Twin Saber

Merciless

Filler (strike)

Filler (slash)

Leap

Merciless

 

And then onto the final rotation:

 

Zen

Melt

Overload

Zealous

Cauterize

Merciless

Master Strike

Twin Saber

Merciless

Filler (strike)

Filler (slash)

Leap

Merciless

 

Zen should be up again for every 2nd rotation, like clockwork.

Mind Sear buff (double twin saber damage) is RNG dependent, but it is usually up in time. Every Force Melt after the opener and intermediate will be free, because you squeeze in 3 Merciless in every rotation.

 

For AOE situations you prolly want to fit a Force Sweep in there after all the dots are running... still working on that. And ofc Dispatch comes into play in the sub 30% segment.

 

To get the most out of Cauterize, it likely needs to 'float' through your set rotation - maybe ahead of every 2nd Merciless Strike, and drop a filler. (Focus permitting).

 

Disclaimer: This all from foggy memory and timings may be off due to the ability delay issue.

Edited January 6, 2015 by ArenRakescar
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