Sentinels in a bad place?

[Razdek]

So for the first time I thought I might give leveling a sentinel a go while 12xp was on. I have to say, I am feeling extremely underwhelmed with the class compared to others. Is it just me or are there 1000 passive abilities to push that are only self buffs instead of attacks? Also zen build-up seems extremely slow, and oh god do I feel extremely squishy - squishier then my sorc was because at least he had decent heals! Are sentinels currently the laughed at ugly kid at school? Cause I feel like I am wasting my time leveling one right now.

[SevusAmast]

If you're levelling solo, Defensive Forms should help with the Centering generation. In fact, it's considered a "must-have" utility even at endgame, so you should definitely make sure you have that.

 

One thing that Sentinels do have are a bunch of powerful defensive cooldowns - Saber Ward, Guarded by the Force, Pacify, Awe, and Force Camouflage should all help tremendously with your survivability.

 

That said, many people do consider Sentinel to be the weakest Advanced Class in the game, at least at this point in time. Personally, I still very much enjoy my Jedi Sentinel and my Sith Marauder, but I also don't play endgame Ops or PvP with them.

[Razdek]

Thanks for the feedback. I've been struggling with survivability and at this point I don't have a lot of those abilities yet, which might explain why. I also switched to concentration spec, which seems to be a more balanced skill tree atm as its the shared knight tree. Seeing how I go from there.

[Svarthrafn]

I love playing my mara, mostly pvp with occasional pve. You just have to deal with and accept that if your defensive abilities are on cooldown (which they often will be, due to some long cooldowns), you are basically made of tissue paper. Edited May 10, 2015 by Svarthrafn

[Costello]

Sents are in a bad place.

 

Having been a while since I have seen the knight story and with 12xp a chance to see it again I decided to level a sent, hell I have 3 years experience with the mechanics how hard can it be! We are horribly squishy, lack much in the way of CC's and don't do great damage. And this is the leveling process where we get 12 basic coms a mission.

 

It will be a long and slow process luckily the current experience will have long periods between fights as you may have to travel across an entire planet to get to the class quest. Make sure you have at least one defensive cool down ready if you are going into a group of more than 1 strong and 2 normal mobs. Use your companion to attack a mob before you leap in so that they soak the damage on at least one attacker even if they aren't a tank.

 

The difference between my sent and my merc who uses a fusion missile prior to the fight to stun normal and weak mobs or death from above to stun normal and weak mobs or any number of missiles that stun weak and normal mobs or dots spreads, gets to hide behind heavy armour and has self heals is massive.

 

But the combat team think a couple of changes to utility make all the difference and the class is where it should be. All honesty best advice in the world is to shelve your sent and wait for a fix (though this may not happen) as a constantly underwhelming experience my make the story less fun as well.

[jauvtus]

I was leveling a mara before the 12xp and I had no problem with survivability either in PvE or PvP. But again I play a sent for almost 3 years now. For newbies who started with a merc or jugger for example, mara will be incredibly hard to master.

[Cuiwe]

So for the first time I thought I might give leveling a sentinel a go while 12xp was on. I have to say, I am feeling extremely underwhelmed with the class compared to others. Is it just me or are there 1000 passive abilities to push that are only self buffs instead of attacks? Also zen build-up seems extremely slow, and oh god do I feel extremely squishy - squishier then my sorc was because at least he had decent heals! Are sentinels currently the laughed at ugly kid at school? Cause I feel like I am wasting my time leveling one right now.

 

Sents are in a VERY bad place in endgame PvE only. PvP is easily solved by an additional layer of CC immunity or thing like that. Perhaps even restoring Crip.Throw would restore Sents in PvP. Here are the discs and where you should play them:

 

-> Watchman/Annhilation: Endgame PvE. The buildup time is too large for PvP(it was even prior to 3,0) and while levelling...what's the point? What has such an amount of health and/or armour that will warrant using this? Plus, in the endgame where the name of play is tank n spank, you can apply your DoTs in peace.

 

-> Combat/Carnage: Levelling. It's also ok for all the other modes of play. What makes this exceptionally fun to use while levelling? The speed, the ease and the overall dmg and the method thereof. It could be considered spammy and braindead easy(you spam stuff until you build your Zen/Bloodlust and then use that concurrently with Precision/Gore so difficult!), but the application of that spam is just so fun.

 

-> Concentration/Fury: PvP. It's also ok for levelling. It must be noted that the overkill damage on Fury doesn't really help in PvE and when compared to Combat, it's slow and unwieldy. But devastating as all hell. Fury discipline is like a mix of Tactics and Infiltration disciplines. With an added layer of either CC or CC immunity, it could really shine in PvP. It has a burst mode of operation, so it suffers on DPS part, so it's only natural that it isn't used for endgame PvE.

 

Utilities overview:

 

Skillful

 

-> Jedi Enforcer: Nice for an upkeep of Rebuke. Dmg bonus is largely irrelevant. It's nice enough for levelling, is here and there for PvP and useless for engame PvE.

-> Debilitation: Nice enough. Would be better if it allowed JK/SWs to use it while moving, but whatever. It's mostly a PvP utility.

-> Jedi Crusader: Beautiful for resource building while levelling. It also adds a layer of tactics in PvP. Is fairly useless for endgame PvE tho. This one is highly advised.

-> Adamant: Mostly a PvP utility. Could prove useful in other modes too, but the opportunity cost is too large.

-> Defencive Forms: A must have. It eases the secondary resource buildup while levelling, adds an additional layer of tactics in PvP and adds invaluable defencive additions in the endgame. It should be baseline imo.

-> Trailblazer: Useful if you play to actually use Cyclone Slash. In other words, useful if you plan to use Combat/Carnage. Fairly useless in the other disciplines.

-> Reigning Reach: A PvP utility. Useless in the other modes.

 

Masterful

 

-> Incisor: A PvP utility. Fairly useless in the other modes.

-> Jedi Promulgator: It's a deceptive utility to be sure. But when you actually think about it, it's completely useless. Now, if it caused Blade Rush/M.Slash/Conc.Slice and Leg Slash to reduce the CD of Rebuke, it'd be useful. And highly at that. This way it's useless and should be reworked anyhow. They plan to move it into heroic, a move that will KILL this utility.

-> Defencive Roll: A must have. It allows you to facetank AoEs while levelling or in PvP while it allows you to survive some pretty deadly things in the endgame.

-> Watchguard: Nice enough. Especially given how they increased the cd on F.Kick. Is it a must have? I am not so sure. Perhaps during the levelling, but not in the other modes.

-> Pulse: A PvP utility as it stands. It'd be nice if it removed the channel time of F.Stasis like Stasis Mastery of Guardians.

-> Displacement: A very nice utility. The addition of the ability to use Rebuke while stunned and things like that will help you in all the modes. The addition of range to Pacify is only the added benefit.

-> Force Fade: A very nice PvP utility. It COULD have some use in the other modes, but not nearly as much as in PvP.

 

Heroic

 

-> Fleetfooted: A PvP utility. Again, it COULD have some use in the other modes, but not as likely.

-> Expunging Camouflage: A VERY nice utility, no matter the mode. This utility saves life.

-> Force Aegis/Enduring: It buffs your Guarded by the Force. Hence it's a beautiful utility, no matter where you go. I listed it like that because they plan to merge them anyhow.

-> Just Pursuit: It now fully turns Leg Slash into Crip.Throw. Especially if all the other Leg Slash utilities are taken. with that said, a full PvP utility.

-> Zealous Ward: A beautiful utility that buffs your survivability. Useful anywhere.

-> Contemplation: A beautiful levelling utility that you get on level 51(wut :confused:). Sure enough, it adds additional tactics elsewhere, but this should be baseline imo.

-> Ardour: A nice PvP utility. It could be nice while levelling as well. It's overall nice. It'll be a part of Masterful tier.

 

So, a levelling build would most likely look like:

 

Jedi Crusader + Jedi Enforcer + Defencive Forms + Trailblazer

Defencive Roll

Contemplation + Zealous Ward/Enduring

 

A PvP build:

 

Debilitation + Reigning Reach + Def.Forms/Adamant

Def.Roll + Incisor

Just Pursuit + Enduring/Fleetfooted/Expunging Camo/Z.Ward

 

Endgame build:

 

Def.Forms + Adamant + Trailblazer

Def.Roll + Displacement

Enduring + Z.Ward/Expunging Camo

 

As is quite obvious, Sents have quite some issue with utilites. Especially the Masterful tier and Heroic tier(one has nary but one useful utility and the other has more than three usefull-especially in PvP).

 

With all that said, just have fun with your sent! It's an awesome fun class!

 

EDIT: As a Sentinel, I'd would HIGHLY advise you to use your Droid! Forget Kira, that won't work. If you use your droid, it'll make things so much easier. But there is a but. It'll also slow down your resource generation due to you not being hit. This is why Marauder works better. You get your healer practically asap.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Cuiwe