Watchman / Annihilation Rotation

[Firolas]

Yeah think Oofalong is right...enthusiasm for Watchman/Anni is most likely at an all time low especially for PVE.

 

I hear its suppose to be better in PVP (I have no idea why) but in PVE its awful.

 

Since 3.2.1 I ran it through dailies/FP and hated it...was already unhappy with how it ran since 3.0 hit and this was the last straw. Played Anni since day 1 of SWTOR in PVE but not now...My favourite toon now sits on fleet collecting dust.

 

Dont want to play Ruptilation. Oh and Force Rend/Melt stinks (and no I don't underestimate it, just plain hate it).

 

Taking nothing away from the hard work you guys are doing, working out rotations and that..its great what you do but this was a champion horse that bioware have kicked to death and then ask us to ride.

 

Sad times for Anni/Watchman

[Kadra]

BW announcement:

New iconic abilities for each class, everything you can expect from a Bioware RPG when you level up.

Right, everything we can expect. We want moar! abilities we can't use in the rotation. I really hope they are not planning on adding some Squeezing Force Handshake on, say, 13 sec CD, the crushing power of which we should never underestimate. :-)

Edited June 16, 2015 by Kadra

[zannne]

Either way I'm kinda surprised that I'm not seeing many Sentinels / Marauders parsing after 3.2.1. I'd really like to learn what all of you guys are doing rotation wise and if I'm maybe betting on the wrong horse all the time...

 

I've been parsing, but haven't had a successful rotation that hasn't made me feel good yet lol. I was parsing 4600 without adrenals prior to this new patch, and I put down like 4200 and made me sad lol.

[TACeMossie]

BW announcement:

 

Right, everything we can expect. We want moar! abilities we can't use in the rotation. I really hope they are not planning on adding some Squeezing Force Handshake on, say, 13 sec CD, the crushing power of which we should never underestimate. :-)

 

Hopefully it will actually be a replacement ability this time. Such as:

 

Burning Leap/Rending Charge

 

or

 

Burning Strike/Rending Assault

 

3 guesses what these abilities are replacing

[zannne]

So I'm getting roughly 4200-4250 out of the parses that i've been doing. Full 192 with 6 piece set. How much higher should I be doing optimally?

 

EDIT: I've gotten it up to right at 4300 by bumping my crit up to 204, but i can't seem to get any higher.

Edited June 16, 2015 by zannne

[Ardarell_Solo]

So I'm getting roughly 4200-4250 out of the parses that i've been doing. Full 192 with 6 piece set. How much higher should I be doing optimally?

 

EDIT: I've gotten it up to right at 4300 by bumping my crit up to 204, but i can't seem to get any higher.

 

I guess you should be at sth like 4700 ideally, but I can't really tell, as I haven't played 3.2.1. in 192 gear. If you want to, you can PM me a link to your log and I can take a look at what you're doing and what you can possibly improve on...

[Ardarell_Solo]

Parsely seems to have corrected the DPS of my best parse from 5250 to 5244 so I edited my posts accordingly (just so you know and don't get confused by posts quoting my post ^^). Edited June 16, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[oofalong]

Parsely seems to have corrected the DPS of my best parse from 4250 to 4244 so I edited my posts accordingly (just so you know and don't get confused by posts quoting my post ^^).

 

I presume you meant 5,250 to 5,244

[oofalong]

So I'm getting roughly 4200-4250 out of the parses that i've been doing. Full 192 with 6 piece set. How much higher should I be doing optimally?

 

EDIT: I've gotten it up to right at 4300 by bumping my crit up to 204, but i can't seem to get any higher.

 

Can you upload a log?

 

I suspect you are not maximizing every GCD, which means it takes you more than 1.5s to activate your next ability. This may be due to human reaction time and/or lag.

[Ardarell_Solo]

I presume you meant 5,250 to 5,244

 

Sure and that's what I wrote. Didn't I?

[zannne]

I guess you should be at sth like 4700 ideally, but I can't really tell, as I haven't played 3.2.1. in 192 gear. If you want to, you can PM me a link to your log and I can take a look at what you're doing and what you can possibly improve on...

 

Can you upload a log?

 

I suspect you are not maximizing every GCD, which means it takes you more than 1.5s to activate your next ability. This may be due to human reaction time and/or lag.

 

http://parsely.io/parser/view/38517/4

 

Here was my best parse last night. First problem was probably trying to parse at 5 am in the morning.... So it's probably pretty bad. I tried basing my rotation off of what I could read in Ardarell's log, but I didn't study it that well, so that's probably why its bad, and it was 5 am.

Edited June 16, 2015 by zannne

[oofalong]

http://parsely.io/parser/view/38517/4

 

Here was my best parse last night. First problem was probably trying to parse at 5 am in the morning.... So it's probably pretty bad. I tried basing my rotation off of what I could read in Ardarell's log, but I didn't study it that well, so that's probably why its bad, and it was 5 am.

 

A couple of quick notes without actually digging into your rotation:

• You didn't use and adrenal. This is fine, but it's necessary to get one of those top parses.
  
• Your APM is low at ~44 especially since it is driven up by 5 uses of Cloak of Pain, which provides no DPS benefit on a dummy parse.
  
• Looking at the 'Ability Usage' tab, we see that Deadly Saber was not used on CD. At worst, there was an almost 8s delay in using it once.
  

 

I am going to look a bit more closely at the actual rotation, but these were a few things I quickly noticed.

[zannne]

A couple of quick notes without actually digging into your rotation:

• You didn't use and adrenal. This is fine, but it's necessary to get one of those top parses.
  
• Your APM is low at ~44 especially since it is driven up by 5 uses of Cloak of Pain, which provides no DPS benefit on a dummy parse.
  
• Looking at the 'Ability Usage' tab, we see that Deadly Saber was not used on CD. At worst, there was an almost 8s delay in using it once.
  

 

I am going to look a bit more closely at the actual rotation, but these were a few things I quickly noticed.

 

Yea I saw him use rebuke at the beginning and couldn't remember if he used it any more in the rotation. But on the adrenal, that was one of my questions. If I was parsing 4600 without adrenals in 3.0, how far off should I roughly be from that now?

Edited June 16, 2015 by zannne

[oofalong]

Yea I saw him use rebuke at the beginning and couldn't remember if he used it any more in the rotation. But on the adrenal, that was one of my questions. If I was parsing 4600 without adrenals in 3.0, how far off should I roughly be from that now?

 

An adrenal adds at least ~30 DPS however, if it is timed with Bloodthirst and/or Weaponmaster's buff its benefit will be greater.

 

Are you asking the difference between 3.0 and 3.2.1 parsing? Or was that a typo and you meant parsing at 4,600 in 2.0?

[zannne]

An adrenal adds at least ~30 DPS however, if it is timed with Bloodthirst and/or Weaponmaster's buff its benefit will be greater.

 

Are you asking the difference between 3.0 and 3.2.1 parsing? Or was that a typo and you meant parsing at 4,600 in 2.0?

 

I was parsing 4600 in 3.0 with the rotation that Stippling posted on Dulfy. I didn't have a reusable Adrenal so I didn't use Adrenals in my parses. I parsed today and put down 4311, but still am not satisfied unless that's somewhere close to what I should be parsing without adrenals now in 192 gear.

[Ardarell_Solo]

http://parsely.io/parser/view/38517/4

 

Here was my best parse last night. First problem was probably trying to parse at 5 am in the morning.... So it's probably pretty bad. I tried basing my rotation off of what I could read in Ardarell's log, but I didn't study it that well, so that's probably why its bad, and it was 5 am.

 

Thanks for sharing your parse. Here's what you can do to maximize your DPS:

 

 

• Keep Annihilate on Cooldown. That's by far the most important thing to do in this spec. You've delayed Annihilate by 22 GCDs over the whole parse, that's more than 5 Annihilates you're missing there. It seemed to me you prioritize Rupture over Annihilate, but Rupture has less DPS/activation.
   
   
  
• Your Force Rend application is not precise. You renew it early sometimes after 4 GCDs instead of 9 and very often after 8, which is one GCD too early.
   
   
  
• As Oofalong already said, you have to keep Deadly Saber on Cooldown, that's an absolute must.
   
   
  
• You used Smash once (I assume by mistake). Don't do that in single target rotation.
  

 

 

I'd advise you to work your way into the rotation step by step:

 

 

• First try to have Annihilate exactly every 4 GCDs and put Rupture in the second GCD after Annihilate.
   
   
  
• Then get used to the flow of having Force Rend in the first GCD after Annihilate in one block, and then two blocks later in the 3rd GCD after Annihilate. So it's always 9 GCDS inbetween Rend. Skip Ravage for the time being.
   
   
  
• Get into that flow while using Deadly Saber on Cooldown after every second Annihilate.
   
   
  
• If you can manage all the cooldowns, dots and the resources for that, you're ready to try and fit in Ravage and delay Rupture for it (But never Annihilate, Force Melt or Deadly Saber!).
   
  

Edited June 17, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[DuckimusPrime]

BW announcement:

 

Fourth dot to maintain!

[felek_m]

Im also parsing using every tip posted here and I am very grateful for this thread to you Ardarell and Oofalong

Here's my parse 4753. I am not satisfied with this score because it is still lower then before changes (I had 4857)

[Ardarell_Solo]

I've done an update of my German guide for Patch 3.2.1. Since the original version was intended to provide some of the information in the pro 3.0. guides available at Dulfys and the likes for non English speaking players, it trys to cover some of the basics of the class, too - unfortunately without being as precise and extensive as those are.

 

Would anyone be interested in an English translation regardless of that?

 

You can find the German version here

Edited June 18, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Noxlolapb]

Do you even have to ask?

[g_mK]

I'm curious Ardarell. What are you getting right now with new watchman in actual boss fights? Edited June 20, 2015 by g_mK

[Ardarell_Solo]

I will do the translation, but it will take me a bit of time...

 

As for boss fight dps. I kept track of HM fights a bit, cause I was curious:

 

Sparky 4743 (bit higher than before)

Bulo 4428 (bit lower than before)

Torque 4425 (higher than before)

Master Blaster 3781 (same)

 

Malaphar 5291 (same)

Walkers 4410 (bit higher)

Commanders 3415 (higher than in Watchman 3.0., still lower than Combat)

 

Meaning: Better burst better target switching show, as well as bit of lost sustained dps, especially if boss not attackable. Both due to shorter Cauterize Dot duration resp. imrproved Cauterize Dotspread and better Smash on adds

Edited June 20, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[g_mK]

I will do the translation, but it will take me a bit of time...

 

As for boss fight dps. I kept track of HM fights a bit, cause I was curious:

 

Sparky 4743 (bit higher than before)

Bulo 4428 (bit lower than before)

Torque 4425 (higher than before)

Master Blaster 3781 (same)

 

Malaphar 5291 (same)

Walkers 4410 (bit higher)

Commanders 3415 (higher than in Watchman 3.0., still lower than Combat)

 

Meaning: Better burst better target switching show, as well as bit of lost sustained dps, especially if boss not attackable. Both due to shorter Cauterize Dot duration resp. imrproved Cauterize Dotspread and better Smash on adds

 

Interesting, so watchman looks to be doing slightly higher then combat in actual fights, except commanders. I take it that is with 192 MH. What do you get in Underlurker and Monolith?

Edited June 21, 2015 by g_mK

[Ardarell_Solo]

Interesting, so watchman looks to be doing slightly higher then combat in actual fights, except commanders. I take it that is with 192 MH. What do you get in Underlurker and Monolith?

 

Watchman has generally been stronger imo since 3.0. - too much downtime on bosses and with Combat stripped off Cauterize that means zero dps in those phases.

 

But: That was indeed all done with a 204 hilt (tank one, but still 204). As many of you know, I'm not as good in actual fights as I am on the Dummy, so I think the really good raiding players can push this build of Watchman/Anni higher.

 

Edit: Yep, had forgotten Monolith HM: 3144. Haven't done/survived Underlurker on my Sent last weeks :-)

Edited June 21, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Ardarell_Solo]

I translated my German guide for Patch 3.2.1. HERE