Hayete's Sentinel Utility Guide

[Bahadori]

Afternoon fellow twin saber fans! I've just finished, and made live, my Patch 3.2.1 Sentinel Utility Guide. The guide is spec neutral and is of course written to my own experiences and opinions. The guide covers the following and has been linked below.

 

- Standard (Basic) Build.

- Specially designed builds for all 10 boss fights through both SM/HM Ravagers and Temple of Sacrifice.

- Build designed for the SM/HM Colossal Monolith instance on Ziost.

- Details and explanations into WHY I have made the decisions I've made.

- Video Guide covering all information in the text based guide (for those who would rather listen than read )

 

As with all my guides and forum posts here please feel free to comment with your feedback and questions. As always I aim to keep my guides and posts informative and progressive. Feel free to talk shop and offer advice and opinions as that is the only way we learn. With that said please no trolling, negative "Sentinels Suck" comments, etc. Doing so will be reported and we already have enough of those out and about. Lets keep this a postive post for those who enjoy the class and are looking to progress Thank you and enjoy!

 

Link: Currently Being Rewritten

Edited July 19, 2015 by Bahadori

[MasterFeign]

I don't understand why people love blood ward/zealous ward so much... I mean its raw heals are only slightly worse than battle readiness/overcharge saber (from the shadows/assassins and depending on what spec you chose), but that's about it. 12 seconds and its on a 3 minute CD... Taking Jedi promulgator/cloak of annihilation instead, is so much more advantageous because you can use it more often, and it's easier for you healers to heal through... Edited June 4, 2015 by MasterFeign

[Bahadori]

I agree with you. For boss fights where mechanics can be solely centered around rebuke it's great. However, my choice on Zealous ward, atleast in the standard build, is to allow those new to the class or those otherwise starting out to have a small healing return in combat. Otherwise my suggestions for Zealous Ward used on specific boss fights are always in response to a mechanic. Pre 3.2.1 Jedi Promulgator was part of my recommended standard build. However all of this is just advice and personal preference/experience talking. Players should definitely do what they think is best. At the end of the day no utility choice should be the "make it or break it" factor to completing an encounter.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

At first i thought you were a whackjob for choosing Blood Ward/Zealous Ward, then I realised that it's a pretty good buffer for healers. I wish the Marauder in my group would follow this to the dot, but for some reason all of the morons in my group take 1 utility build for every fight, and stick with it... even in HM...

[Bahadori]

Yeah everyone is different and has there own opinion on what to run and what not to run when it comes to Utility discussions. For myself, through hands on experience with these bosses, I find that your job is made SLIGHTLY easier when allowing yourself direct responses to certain mechanics through the utilities you choose. For those that do not care to or simply do not want to change for each fight my standard build is more than sufficient enough to respond to each boss fight. While i know some do not agree with Zealous Ward i know for my own health pool (53K) it returns about 1600 HPS when actively taking damage. This is a decent HoT comparable to lower end heals you'd receive from an actual healer thus affording you a buffer to incoming heals. Like i said in a prior response, at the end of the day these utilities are not going to be, nor should they be, the thing that will make or break you passing an encounter.

[DrMeth]

I have to disagree with most of your utility choices, but everyone has their own preferences.

 

And just a tip for others, I normally take Meditation/Brooding, get my 30 stacks, and then respec and put that point elsewhere before a boss pull. I never take Zealous/Blood Ward for any fight just because its not really worth it for a CD on a 3 minute timer. My usual setup for every boss is:

 

1. Cloak of Carnage

2. Brazen

3. Path Carver/Inexorable (depends if there is AoE in the fight or not)

 

4. Defensive Roll

5. Relentless

6. Phantom

 

7. Unbound/Undying

 

The only fight I do not really take Phantom is on Master/Blaster, and instead take both Unbound and Undying.

 

And as mentioned, I take Brooding before each fight pull, get my 30 stacks, and respec to put that point into another talent. I definitely take Unbound for Revan HM for 2 main reasons: During the first floor it is essential in running quickly to get cleansed and to break Force Bond, it not only helps you run quicker but your other teammate as well, Secondly I take it so I can run around the core during the burn phase and keep full uptime (but that comes with more practice), There is no real reason to take Undying/Enduring on Revan HM, imo because the phases where it would matter don't last long enough to use it again.

[Bahadori]

Fair enough. Being that i go over a different build for each fight and you disagree with "most" of my choices would you care to elaborate which ones and why for a different point of view? Furthermore i'm assuming you did not read or catch the part in the guide where i explain your exact mentioning of stacking and respecing. I figure since you reiterated it twice it was an important point for you to make, but it is stated in the guide As far as Revan is concerned with my particular group we have no issues with +50% as opposed to +80% movement from Transcendence. For some it may be more of a benefit than others so to that end you make a valid point in support of it. Thanks

[DrMeth]

No I did see it, I just mentioned it since most people might not read because you have pictures to go along with it. I figured most people would just see the pics.

 

And I absolutely can elaborate. Everyone has a different playstyle but these are my preferences and why I choose them:

 

Sparky: Cloak of Carnage, Path Carver, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- I take this loadout mainly because I keep predation up when he likes to jump around from person to person and it helps me keep up with him while I continue my rotation and if I have to chase adds. Phantom I mainly take for the movement speed increase. Relentless I take so I don't have to consume my fury and not sacrifice DPS. The rest is fairly straightforward.

 

Bulo: Cloak of Carnage, Cloak of Rage, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- Same reasons as of Sparky, I use predation during his Barrage to run around and keep uptime (or in the case that I cannot leap to him if there is a circle in the path or he is facing my direction with a cleave). Rest is straightforward.

 

Torque: Cloak of Carnage, Inexorable, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- The reason I take Unbound/Relentless here is to move out of fire quickly and keep on him at all times. Also, unbound will cleanse shackles off of teammates. Inexorable is great for when you get stunned with shackles to generate rage. I am not usually on adds at all but I don't use path carver. Instead I usually DoT spread with Smash when the boss is near the Deterrents or other adds. You can negate every wookie rage knockback with Force Camo as well but I take Phantom for the movement speed.

 

Master/Blaster: Cloak of Carnage, Inexorable, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Unbound, Undying

- Inexorable is great for generating rage from grenades and during the last phase. Relentless and Unbound are great for helping the raid move out of red without consuming your fury, and I take Undying so I can eat a full laser beam from Master without a sweat while keeping full uptime on him.

 

Coratanni: Cloak of Carnage, Inexorable, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- Inexorable is great for when you cleanse your fire debuff, but you can also use Camo every other one to go into cleanse it and not get stunned if you time it properly. I take Unbound and Relentless mainly for Phase 2 when Ruugar does knockbacks, and it helps the raid get back into positions quickly. I don't take expunging camo simply because I just pop Cloak of Pain for it and let it do damage back at the boss.

 

Malaphar: Cloak of Carnage, Path Carver, Brazen, Cloak of Rage, Defensive Roll, , Undying, Cloak of Annihilation

- Pretty straight forward, but I mainly take Undying to stay inside the shield longer to do as much DPS as possible without taking any damage at that time. Phantom is more for the speed bonus if I have to move around a bit to and from adds. Almost the same as your build minus the Brooding talent after I get 30 stacks.

 

Sword Squadron: Cloak of Carnage, Inexorable, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- Same as your build, again, minus the Brooding after 30 stacks. I take Unbound for additional movement speed for the bomb runner and when spreading out after gravity field.

 

Underlurker: Cloak of Carnage, Cloak of Rage, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Cloak of Annihilation, Unbound

- Again, similar to yours, but after 30 stacks I take Cloak of Annihilation to get Cloak of Pain back quickly for every set of adds that come out.

 

Revanite Commanders: Cloak of Carnage, Path Carver, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Brooding, Unbound

- This is the only fight I actually keep Brooding for the 15 second reduced cooldown on Intimidating Roar. I also take Unbound because it helps for chasing Deron during the burn phase and phases when he is down if you get knocked back (or your teammates). No point to really taking Undying/Enduring here simply because there is no real damage going out at all during the fight until the burn phase.

 

Revan: Cloak of Carnage, Inexorable, Brazen, Relentless, Defensive Roll, Phantom, Unbound

- I explained my reasoning for this above, but sometimes I will take Cloak of Annihilation instead of Unbound (which is helpful during the core burn. The 30% speed bonus is not that noticeable to some but I notice quite a difference during abberations on the core burn. So it comes down to preference. I don't use Undying at all during this fight except for 2 places: HK (either if middle add doesn't die or to help healers with grenade damage going out) and the Core, and the time between these phases doesn't warrant me to take Undying.

 

Hope that helps to see my reasoning. But like I said, everyone has a different playstyle.

[Bahadori]

Thanks for the response man! This is what it's about sharing information and learning from each other, so thank you for taking the time to write that all up. For the most part a lot of our reasoning's minus Brooding/Contemplation (Just personal preference lol) are the same. I did not consider the CC break capability of Predation/Transcendence for the Torque fight so i'll have to try that out. The Cloak of Pain/Rebuke return damage for Ruugar is another one I had not considered substantial but i'll have to try that out. Any extra DPS on him makes sense since his enrage can be a bit tight. All in all great explanation and reasoning's behind your specific builds for those fights and thank you again for taking the time to respond.