Watchman Guide (PVE) for Patch 3.2.1.

[Ardarell_Solo]

WARNING: AS OF PATCH 4.0. MOST OF THIS GUIDE IS OUTDATED, ESPECIALLY CONCERNING ROTATION & GEARING.

CHECK OUT OOFALONG'S GUIDE FOR 4.0.

 

(I might do an uptdated German version of this, if people are interested, though)

 

Version: Patch 3.2.1, last Update June, 22nd 2015

Changelog:

June 22nd: Added English Introduction

June 22nd: Added Appendix

July 6th: Translated into [jumpto=Marauder]Marauder lingo[/jumpto]

 

Table of Contents:

 

 

1. [jumpto=Einführung]Introduction[/jumpto]
    
    
   
2. [jumpto=Utilities]Utilities[/jumpto]
    
    
   
3. [jumpto=Lichtschwertform]Lightsaber Form[/jumpto]
    
    
   
4. [jumpto=Rotation]Rotation[/jumpto]
   
   1. 
      
   2. [jumpto=Opener]Opener[/jumpto]
      
   3. [jumpto=Grundrota]Basic Rotation[/jumpto]
      
   4. [jumpto=Filler]Fillers[/jumpto]
      
   5. [jumpto=Konkrete Rota]Complete Rotation[/jumpto]
      
   6. [jumpto=Vereinfachte Rota]Simplified Rotation[/jumpto]
      

 

 

[*][jumpto=Tipps zu Wachmann-Fähigkeiten]Watchman Abilities - Tips & Tricks[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=AoE-Schaden]AoE-DPS[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=Fernkampf]“Ranged“ Combat[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=Defensive Fähigkeiten]Defensive Cooldowns[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=Gear]Gearing[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=Appendix]Appendix: How this is not a "guide", Acknowledgement, Pretzels & Lederhosen[/jumpto]

 

 

[aname=Einführung]1. Introduction:[/aname]

 

Hello fellow Sentinels,

 

This is a translation of a guide I’ve written for German players. You can find the original version here.

 

The German version first and foremost tried to make the knowledge collected by accomplished Sentinel and Marauder players like Gorband, Oofalong, Macedonicus, Stippling and all the other frequent posters in the English class forums accessible to non English speaking players. You will find a lot of stuff redundant, if you’re familiar with their excellent work. I’ve still decided to do a full translation, since the guide doesn’t make much sense if cut into pieces. The stuff about 3.2.1. rotation is work of my own and meant to lead you down the road I’ve chosen to take for this build of Watchman. Mind you: If this is the best route to go, is still up for debate, as you can see in this thread.

 

Please forgive me for not translating into Imperial lingo just yet, as doing German->English was quite challenging for me already, since I’m not a native speaker. So please also forgive me for mistakes and strange ways of saying things. Without further ado, here's how the original guide starts:

 

 

Patch 3.0. substantially changed Watchman playstyle: Force Melt, a new 18 secs long dot, was added and Cauterize’s dot duration was increased from 6 secs to 12 secs. What’s more, the proc resetting Cauterize’s cooldown was eliminated. Since then Cauterize doesn’t have a cooldown anymore.

 

Patch 3.2.1. changed things around again quite a bit: Force Melt’s duration was shortened to 15 secs and Cauterize was brought back to a duration of 6 secs.

 

It’s the last change that puts Watchman playstyle a bit closer to what it was pre 3.0. – if you chose to play the rotation I will describe. Further below I also included a short section describing a simpler rotation that clips Master Strike. You may find that one superior for several reasons also explained there.

 

The playstyle I have chosen does about the same DPS as pre 3.0. However, it is substantially more difficult to pull off imo.

 

I think the spec has become more efficient with its 3.2.1. build. Thanks to shorter dot duration we lose less dps when target switching and we have better burst. AoE dps has also increased as a result of shorter Cauterize and improved dotspread. Atm I can reliably do 5050 DPS on the 1 Mio. HP training dummy. If all goes well, a bit more, current personal best in 198 gear plus 204 tank MH hilt is 5244.

 

 

A few basic remarks about the nature of this guide:

 

I just listed what I found out to be best for me when doing HM/NiM raids personally. There may be better options for gearing/rotation/utilities etc., but I can’t discuss all of them in this guide. I’d love to do that with you in the thread following my OP, though. So go ahead, if you have ideas, corrections, comments etc. and thanks in advance for your efforts!

 

I won’t be explaining all abilities and talents in detail. If you’re unsure about certain characteristics, please check your ability window.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Utilities]2. Utilities:[/aname]

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOFRQA

Since Disciplines Calculators both on Dulfy and torcommunity seem to be broken atm, here's a link to a picture of that Utility setup: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/151013/tzgq2mol.jpg

 

That would be your standard progress build and should be good to go for most encounters. It brings a good mix of raw dps, mobility, incoming damage reduction and additional resource generation (being focus starved is our biggest problem in 3.2.1.).

 

 

If you want to be more offensive, you can replace being healed under Saber Ward (Zealous Ward) with “Jedi-Promulgator”, which will allow for more frequent uses of Rebuke:

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOFREA

Picture: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/151013/yy5kfve9.jpg

 

 

For bosses that require a lot of movement like doing rifts on Monolith HM or phase one of Master/Blaster HM, I’d recommend this:

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOCQ8A

Picture: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/151013/krzqmlw5.jpg

 

<- "Ardor" and "Fleetfooted" allow using a faster Transcendence every 30 seconds without spending Centering for that. So you don’t lose dps by skipping Zen for Transcendence anymore. Apart from the speed buff the increased defense of 10% can also be helpful in tough progression fights with high incoming damage on the group and/or tanks. You get that for 10 seconds every 30 seconds in this build!!

 

 

If there’s a lot of adds to kill you can add “Trailblazer” to the standard build (e.g. instead of “Zealous Ward”), so your spammable Cyclone Slash does more damage. I find that to be hardly necessary, though, given the increased AoE dps we get from frequent Cauterize dotspread.

 

If you want a lot of extra resource, you can include „Adamant“ in your build. With it you generate 4 extra focus every time you’re stunned/ccd/knocked down.

 

Shortened cooldown of Pacify via "Watchguard" is nice for Underlurker adds. The Purge on Force Camouflage offered by "Expunging Camouflage" is valuable for dots applied by Ruugar in HM.

 

Enhancing your Guarded by the Force with „Enduring“ is not that useful imo: If it is, there’s probably something wrong with your group’s strategy. Anything that enhances Leg Slash or applies/enhances slows and stuns is primarily designed for PvP.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Lichtschwertform]3. Lightsaber Form:[/aname]

 

Watchman is played in Juyo Form. It applies burning dots to your target and stacks up to 6 times, increasing damage with each stack applied to your target. Your stacks last for 30 seconds.

 

Dots applied with Overload Saber, Force Melt and Cauterize heal you for 15% of the damage caused, thanks to the talent “Merciless Zeal”. Activating Zen will also heal your group for 1% of the total health of each player (that’s 6% in total).

 

Your burns also have a 20% chance to generate one focus via talent “Plasma Blades”, but there’s a rate limit of once per second to this.

 

Added to this, critical melee hits on targets affected by your burns will also generate 1 focus, rate limit is three seconds here. That’s the reason why increasing critical chance in your gear will enhance your total dps beyond what would be the sweet spot for critical chance just considering ability damage alone.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Rotation]4. Rotation:[/aname]

 

Offensive Buffs:

 

Before explaining when to use which lightsaber attack, here are some abilities we can use off global cooldown. They may be even more important than our rotation itself and give Sentinels their unique identity:

 

Valorous Call: Immediately generates 30 Centering.

 

Inspiration: Increases damage and healing done for your group by 10% for 10 seconds at a range of 40 meters

(Only use at the command of your group leader. Consumes 30 Centering.)

 

Zen: Makes your dots autocrit. What’s more, in addition to your self healing your group is also healed.

(consumes 30 Centering)

 

 

[aname=Opener]a. Opener:[/aname]

 

Even though there is no real rotation in Watchman anymore, opening the fight is pretty much the same every time: It’s about generating focus, applying your dots and using Merciless Slash three times. Here’s how you can do that:

 

Before engaging the enemy build 30 Centering using “Introspection” with the talent „Contemplation“ (if you’ve included it in your selection of Utilities).

Pro-Tip: If dps requirements are tough, but you also want to select many other utilities, you can chose „Contemplation“ before engaging and do Introspection until 30 Centering. Then you reset utilities and chose your desired selection of utilities without “Contemplation” and still engage with 30 Centering ready. This is also possible by running into exhaustion Zone around Terror from Beyond and the likes via Centering you build from incoming damage via “Stoic”.

 

FORCE LEAP + OVERLOAD SABER (mid air)

ZEALOUS STRIKE

 

MERCILESS SLASH

FORCE MELT + ZEN + VALOROUS CALL + INSPIRATION + ADRENAL

CAUTERIZE

MASTER STRIKE

DOUBLE SABER THROW(on proc und if 5+ focus – else Strike)

CAUTERIZE + OVERLOAD SABER

FORCE LEAP

 

MERCILESS SLASH

ZEALOUS STRIKE

CAUTERIZE

FORCE MELT

Filler (Double Saber Throw, if not used before)

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH...

...-> Rotation / Filler priority system

 

<- After using Merciless Slash three times its cooldown is decreased from 12 seconds to 6 seconds thanks to the talent „Accelerating Victory“. Now you play in blocks of 4 GCDs with Merciless Slash heading each of these blocks.

 

 

[aname=Grundrota]b. Basic Rotation:[/aname]

 

Using these core abilities:

 

Merciless Slash (costs 4 focus, refunds one when used)

Overload Saber (costs 3 focus – since it’s off GCD, it’s activated on cooldown immediately)

Force Melt (costs 2 focus, but one less for each use of Merciless Slash via talent „Accelerating Victory“. Thus it will be free most of the times.)

 

Let’s take a look a the basic structure of our rotation with the abilities meant to be used on cooldown. Just for explanatory reasony we skip Overload Saber for now, so we can understand the basic pattern more easily:

 

 

MERCILESS SLASH

FORCE MELT

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

FORCE MELT

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

 

So now let’s add Overload Saber. Due to its cooldown of 12 seconds it goes in every other block. After the Opener it will fall right after Merciless Slash and you should keep it there, even though you could actually move it forward by one GCD. BUT: Merciless Slash refunds one focus (at the least). If you use Overload Saber before, you risk being out of focus for Merciless Slash. If you do it the other way around though, the same initial amount of focus will let you activate both.

 

Including Overload Saber we get this:

 

MERCILESS SLASH + OVERLOAD SABER

FORCE MELT

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH + OVERLOAD SABER

Filler

Filler

FORCE MELT

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH + OVERLOAD SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

FORCE MELT

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH + OVERLOAD SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

FORCE MELT

 

MERCILESS SLASH + OVERLOAD SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

MERCILESS SLASH

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

 

So far, so complicated. However, what’s really difficult, is using those filler spots the best way possible. That works with ability priorities, since 3.2.1. Watchman will create completely different situations in the same encounter due to ability procs and RNG on passive resource generation.

 

Your highest priority is: Make sure you have enough focus to maintain your basic rotation!

 

Which means, that depending on bad or good luck with passive resource generation via „Plasma Blades“ and „Burning Focus“ Zealous Strike, Leap or even Strike can be your top filler priority:

 

 

[aname=Filler]c1. Priorities of Resource Generating Fillers: [/aname]

 

Zealous Strike (grants 6 focus)

Force Leap (4)

Force Stasis (4)

Strike (2)

 

Abusing Force Stasis:

 

The rotation described here has a „Worst Case Sequence“ in it, regarding required resource. It looks something like this:

 

Merciless Slash

Cauterize

Master Strike

 

Merciless Slash + Overload Saber

Force Melt

Cauterize

 

That monster will cost you 13 focus and has no spot in it to build any focus over its course. But our focus bar can only hold 12 focus! So can we play this “Worst Case Sequence” with good luck on our passive focus generation only?

 

No (although good luck with it helps), since you can abuse Force Stasis for that: You will get 4 focus over the course of 4 seconds that way.

 

For example: We’re in the GCD before first Merciless Slash of that sequence and we’re at 11 focus. Using Strike or any other focus building skill would cap us at 12 focus and all additional focus generated by that skill would be wasted.

 

Using Force Stasis instead will grant continuous focus generation after Merciless Slash has been activated, so additional focus generated over Force Stasis’ duration will not go to waste. This way you will master the “Worst Case Sequence” quite comfortably.

 

This is assuming you’ve anticipated this sequence and already built focus for it in advance – plus Force Stasis has to be available in the first place. (Which is why I reduce it’s Cooldown for parsing via Utility „Pulse“, but don’t tell! ;-))

Once you’ve ensured there’s enough focus for your basic rotation, the priority of our pure dps abilities applies:

 

[aname=Schadens-Filler]c2. Priority of DPS Fillers: [/aname]

 

Master Strike (0) and Cauterize (2)

Double Saber Throw (0) on proc

Dispatch (3-1) / Slash (3-1)

 

Master Strike and Cauterize are both number one. Now what’s that supposed to mean?

Master Strike does a littles less damage per activation/GCD than Cauterize, but it has a long cooldown attached to it and does/takes 2 GCDs of good damage. Thus it makes sense to delay Cauterize for it, as it has no cooldown and can thus work as a second priority dps filler that can be easily shifted around. But be careful: You only gain dps by prioritizing Master Strike over Cauterize, if you manage not to delay Cauterize for too long. That obviously works best, if you have Master Strike in a block with 3 filler GCDs and then cram Cauterize into that one as well.

 

However, you can put Master Strike in a block that also has Force Melt in it as well, if you use Cauterize shortly before and after that block. Managing this is above all a question of good resource management (again!), so you’re not forced to delay Merciless Slash, Overload Saber or Force Melt. You will have to decide on the spot, if you can afford Master Strike.

 

If things do go wrong, though, here’s a little trick: Say you’ve activated Master Strike and realize that you lack focus to continue the basic rotation afterwards. In that case just cancel Master Strike after the first two hits (GCD 1) and put a focus builder like Zealous Strike, Force Leap or Strike in the second GCD instead. This will of course cost you dps, but much less than blowing up your basic rotation would with no focus left for doing Merciless Slash after Master Strike and thus also displacing Force Melt in your rotation.

 

 

Double Saber Throw actually also does more damage per GCD than Master Strike. But it’s lower in priority, since it’s only played on proc. You’re ok, if you use it as long as that proc is still there. It’s simply higher dps if you manage to squeeze in both Master Strike and Cauterize in your rotation successfully than it is using DST but then having to use weaker fillers in other GCDs.

 

 

Dispatch / Slash are used very rarely to not at all. In most situations you’re better off capping focus with Strike than dumping it with Slash. Our rotation just has too many phases with high resource requirements with no chance to build any. I hardly use Slash at all in my rotation.

 

Here’s an exception: I’m almost focus capped, my next Merciless Slash is two GCDs away, nothing else needs to be used in those GCDs (meaning no dot refreshment or DST proc) and I have a big focus builder available. So I do: Slash – Zealous Strike OR Force Leap – Merciless Slash.

 

It makes a bit more sense to play it risky on the resource side for Dispatch, since that one does a lot more damage than Slash. But it still does less than a procced DST – and DST is free!

 

Apart from that you generally use Dispatch on targets that will die so soon they’re not worth dotting up anymore.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Konkrete Rota]d. Complete Rotation:[/aname]

 

Very well, but what does that mean in practice? That guy writes a wall of text and I still don’t know what rotation I’m supposed to play!?!

I’m sorry, but that’s exactly how 3.2.1. Watchman is different from 3.0.: There IS no scripted rotation anymore. Just like before 3.0. you need to react to given situations on the spot and decide which abilities to use next.

 

Doing that in 2.X., the deceisive question was: Did I get my proc on Cauterize?

 

Now it is: Do I have enough focus for my basic rotation – and maybe even enough to risk including Master Strike?

 

I’m aware that a lot of players (myself included) like to see complete rotations in DPS guides nonetheless. You can check out those in the two parses I have linked:

 

5243

5080

 

<- Just click the link „ROTATION“ there. Since I play in German, so are the logs. I might add a complete translation here later. For the time being, here are the English translations for the German abilities:

 

Gnadenloser Hieb = Merciless Slash = Annihilate

Lichtschwertüberladung = Overload Saber = Deadly Saber

Machtschmelze = Force Melt = Force Rend

Kauterisieren = Cauterize = Rupture

Doppelter Lichtschwertwurf = Double Saber Throw = Twin Saber Throw

Meisterschlag = Master Strike = Ravage

Hieb = Slash = Vicious Slash

Erledigen = Dispatch = Vicious Throw

Eiferschlag = Zealous Strike = Battering Assault

Vorstoß = Strike = Assault

Machtstasis = Force Stasis = Force Choke

 

Tapferer Ruf = Valorous Call = Frenzy

Zurechtweisen = Rebuke = Cloak of Pain

Zen = Zen = Berserk

Inspiration = Inspiration = Bloodlust

... Angriffsaufputscher = Adrenal

 

 

Additionally I recommend taking a look at the

of the second parse I linked below. It shows what’s most important for 3.2.1. Watchman: How much focus was available at which point of the rotation and what ability was decided to be used considering that. If you can understand those decisions, you have found the key to the playstyle described here.

 

What’s important to know: Especially the first of the two parses went incredibly well. I was very lucky with passive resource generation. Chances of playing one of those parses with the rotation they turned out to have are near zero: You will find yourself having less focus at certain points, so you will need to play differently there. Then you will have more focus at other points, so you can chose something stronger for that.

 

 

 

VIDEO:

 

This is a video of the rotation explained and except for the last 10 seconds, it’s pretty much what it’s meant to be:

Parse: http://parsely.io/parser/view/37430

 

 

 

Tip for your quickbar:

 

You might want to consider putting your damaging abilities into your quickbar according to their priorities, left to right, and activate cooldown texts in your preferences. That way you can see what you need to do next and plan ahead for the focus required.

 

However, you need to keep track of your dots in your target’s debuff bar, since Force Melt and Cauterize don’t have a cooldown attached to them. On the long run you should try to get a feel for those dots and know by heart when they will expire. Which is actually not that difficult with Cauterize: Apply, count abilities to three, reapply – or delay for Master Strike…

 

 

[aname=Vereinfachte Rota]Simplified Rotation:[/aname]

 

As far as I can tell from my own experience in parsing and raiding, the rotation I described above does maximum DPS for 3.2.1. Watchman. But there is a much simpler rotation that does little – if at all – less DPS. I’m not going to describe it in detail here, but here’s what you do after the Opener (which is the same as above):

 

MERCILESS SLASH (+ every other block OVERLOAD SABER)

Filler

CAUTERIZE

Filler

 

Filler Priorities:

Force Melt as soon as run out

Master Strike, clipped after first GCD (that’s the key to this rotation)

Double Saber Throw (on proc)

Slash/Dispatch (rarely used in this rotation, but a bit easier to fit in)

 

Same thing with fillers here: Your top priority is building focus, so Merciless Slash, Overload Saber, Cauterize und Force Melt are not delayed. -> In doubt use Zealous Strike, Force Leap or Strike first.

 

Another advantage of that rotation – and it’s a big one: Clipping Master Strike makes it like an instant ability, thus basically eliminating our only channeled ability. With only instant abilities in our rotation we become extremely mobile!

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=Tipps zu Wachmann-Fähigkeiten]5. Watchman Abilities - Tips & Tricks:[/aname]

 

Zen

After 3.0. you should ideally activate it when you have one stack of Overload Saber left on yourself and two stacks ticking on your target. When raiding you might want to use it earlier – if you notice your group is low on health and you want to help out healing, so your group can survive a difficult phase.

 

Overload Saber

Is just as important as Merciless Slash and should also be used on cooldown. If both abilities are available, you need 7 focus in just one global cooldown, as Overload Saber is off GCD.

 

Forcing extra ticks:

 

Stacks of Overload Saber are (roughly speaking) only applied with Lightsaber attacks. Using a force attack inbetween will have the applied stacks of OS continue ticking. That way you can force extra ticks.

 

The best moment to do this is once you have one stack of Overload Saber left on yourself: Using a force attack will delay applying the last stack to your target and the second stack will tick twice.

 

Works with these abilities: Force Melt, Force Stasis, Force Sweep, Blade Storm.

 

The way Force Melt is placed in the rotation I described will have that happen automatically ever so often, if you keep Overload Saber right after Merciless Slash.

 

Force Stasis is a good option instead of Strike, if you have one stack of OS left, need focus and can’t use Leap or Zealous Strike.

 

Blade Storm is a bad idea in most cases, since it’s far to expensive (4 focus).

 

Force Sweep can be used, if you’re supposed to do AoE damage anyway and you have enough focus to afford it. But that’s pretty tricky.

 

 

 

Force Melt

Is free after using Merciless Slash twice and has 10m range. That also makes it a good opening ability in case Leap isn’t available and you have to run to your new target. Its first tick comes 0.5 seconds after activation. If you have 30 Centering and one stack of Overload Saber on you left, you should activate Zen 0.3 secs after using Force Melt. (This will also give you one extra tick of OS as described in the spoiler above).

 

Merciless Slash

Our strongest direct damaging ability. Use on cooldown as explained in „Basic Rotation“. Every activation grants two stacks of “Merciless”, each stack reduces Merciless’ Cooldown by 1.5 secs. Stacks up to 4 times, so cooldown of Merciless Slash goes from 12 secs to 6 secs. -> You want to keep those 4 stacks up no matter what, they last for 30 secs. If they are about to fall off, Merciless Slash is your first priority, even higher than your dots!

 

Cauterize

That’s your best deal talking DPS per basic focus cost (apart from free Force Melt). Never clip the dot: Use three different abilities after Cauterize, then’s your first chance to reapply. After 3.2.1. Cauterize ticks are stronger, because they don’t tick as often. As a result it’s less important not to enhance Cauterize ticks with Zen, though they are still the worst option in comparison with Overload Saber and Force Melt. Then again you can’t really avoid having ticks of Cauterize under Zen anyway…

 

Master Strike

Still does a truckload of damage, even though is has been nerfed with 3.2.1. (well, technically actually buffed, given the shortened cooldown - then again it’s hardly possible to use on cooldown in Watchman). Its long duration makes it the worst offender that will possibly delay uptime on Overload Saber, Force Melt oder Merciless Slash. That’s why you need to anticipate those 2 GCDs, i.e. 3 secs in your rotation.

Pro-Tip:

 

Master Strike’s third and final hit occurs at about 2.7. secs through the channel.Try and activate your next ability right after that moment and cancel the channel doing that – the rest of those 3 secs is wasted time! This takes a bit of practice and little to no lag. Beware: If you do it too early you lose Master Strike’s final and strongest hit. So doing this is risky business, but possibly pushes your APM (attacks per minute, should be roughly 46 in Watchman spec using this rotation).

 

 

Double Saber Throw

Nice DPS, even on single target and free: Hell, yeah! Only use on proc, though: Ability will highlight in your quickbar (by default) thanks to talent “Mind Sear”: Our dot ticks have a 20% chance to double DST’s damage (every 18 secs max). Obviously great AoE ability, as explained below.

 

Dispatch

Our execute, useable on enemies with less than 30% of their max health. 10 m range. Sadly, Dispatch is tough to fit in 3.2.1. rotation as well, since it will cause severe focus issues and will likely destroy your basic rotation.

 

Blade Storm

Blade Storm in Watchman?!? L2P!!! Well, we only use it under very unlikely conditions: You’re drowning in focus (11 or 12), no higher priority skill is available, Slash will consume too little of the focus available, because “Adamant”/”Jedi-Crusader” are generating additional focus. Which is basically saying what you were thinking: Never! ;-) Wait a minute: Never, except you can’t get in 4 m range of your target, but 10m is ok. Bam, Blade Storm! (if you have the focus. If not: Force Stasis first. See section “Ranged” Combat below).

 

 

 

 

[aname=AoE-Schaden]6. AoE-DPS:[/aname]

 

Watchman received good sustained AoE capabilities with 3.0. thanks to dotspreading. You will see this on those annoying (actually, I love ‘em ;-) trash mobs in Temple of Sacrifice. Dotspreading means that Force Sweep will spread the dots applied by Force Melt and Cauterize to all target it hits, if one of them had the dot running. Wow!

 

3.2.1. reduced Force Sweep’s cooldown to 6 seconds (to match shorter Cauterize) and buffed its damage. So now we also have good burst AoE dps!

 

We even have an AoE Rotation. Just use the basic rotation and replace Merciless Slash by Force Sweep and put Cauterize in the middle of the filler spots:

 

 

FORCE SWEEP

FORCE MELT

CAUTERIZE

Filler

 

FORCE SWEEP

Filler

CAUTERIZE

Filler

 

FORCE SWEEP

Filler

CAUTERIZE

FORCE MELT

 

FORCE SWEEP

Filler

CAUTERIZE

Filler

 

FORCE SWEEP

Filler

CAUTERIZE

Filler

 

Filler priorities as always: Build enough focus with Zealous Strike and Force Leap. And then:

 

Merciless Slash

<- mere filler in AoE situations. Used primarily to keep up stacks of Merciless and Accelerating Victory, so Force Melt stays free.

 

Double Saber Throw on proc

<- Dotspread will reliably give you this proc, since Force Sweep has dots tick on multiple enemies, considerably upping the chances (one of the reasons we have a rate limit on passive focus generation from Dots. Dem darn PvPers!! ;-))

 

Cyclone Slash

<- Your AoE focus dump instead of Slash. Actually gets used more often in AoE rotation than Slash in single target rotation, since Force Sweep is cheaper than Merciless Slash.

 

Overload Saber

<- If you want more dps on your main target and/or you’re drowning in focus and want to dump it inbetween GCDs.

 

 

Splash-AoE: If you’re supposed to do dps on your main target and just want to hit adds at the same time: Simply use your normal rotation and try to include Force Sweep as a filler. Prioritize Double Saber Throw a bit higher than you normally would and skip Master Strike for those two changes.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Fernkampf]7. „Ranged“ Combat:[/aname]

 

Double Saber Throw (costs 0 focus, only attack to use from more than 10m range)

Force Melt (costs 0-2 focus)

Dispatch (costs 3 focus, refunds 1)

Blade Storm (costs 4 focus)

Force Stasis (grants 4 focus)

 

You know those situations all too well as melee dps: You can’t get in 4m range of the mob you’re supposed to attack thanks to some stupid AoE-void around/in front of him or other melee dps punishing mechanics that have no counterpart punishing rdps (end of rant ;-). Where was I? Oh yeah, what do you do in that case: Use abilities that are not part of your standard rotation like Blade Storm. The ones listed above are all usable from 10m, DST even from 30m. Force Melt makes sense, too, even if it’s still on your target: If you have nothing else left to do from range, just reapply it early. That way you don’t have to once you’re in melee range and can use the GCD for something else later.

 

If you anticipate a situation like that, build focus for Blade Storm: That one’s an expensive bast***rd and our only focus builder from 10m is Force Stasis – on a whopping one minute cooldown…

 

 

 

 

[aname=Defensive Fähigkeiten]8. Defensive Cooldowns:[/aname]

 

Force Camouflage

Decreases your aggro, making you a more unlikely target. Use it in the right place of your opener (e.g. after second Merciless Slash) resp. depending on mechanics after a tank swap or after boss dropped aggro. Might also do it if you have adrenal, clicky relic and Zen running at the same time. A DPS who gets targetted by the boss will very soon be dead, especially without heavy armor. And dead DPS don’t do damage, meaning they don’t do their job.

Force Camouflage is also good to cheese certain mechanics. E.g. you can stand in stupid Coratanni’s Canons and resist Blaster’s knockbacks. It’s not nearly as OP as Hold the Line on a much longer cooldown, but hey, it’s not so bad after all. Go and experiment with it and please post your findings here.

 

Guarded by the Force

Reduces incoming damage by 99% for 4 sec, making you almost invulnerable for the duration.

 

Saber Ward

Our best defensive Cooldown – on a very long cooldown. Use for damage spikes, obviously.

 

Rebuke

Smaller defensive Cooldown, does decent damage on enemies as well. Might want to save it for bigger attacks, especially if you’ve run out of your major defensive cooldowns.

 

Pacify

A very powerful ability to protect your group: Reduces accuracy of the mob by 90% for 6 secs. Meaning your opponent will hardly be able to hit you and thus do any damage at all! Not useable on bosses, but on a lot of trash and adds (e.g. on Underlurker, Torque, Commanders, Draxus, Corruptor Zero, Bestia etc.). Your healers will love you for using this frequently!

 

Transcendence

Increases movement spead of your whole group, very nice for Monolith HM rifts and Master/Blaster HM. If you need to increase your own movement speed only, better use Force Camo with Utility “Force Fade” (granted you don’t have to use it as aggro dump anytime soon) and use your Centering for Zen. Or chose a build that has Transcendence off the Centering system.

 

 

Trash/Adds: Interrupt using Force Kick, stun packs of mobs using Awe, hard stun opponents for 4 secs with Force Stasis. And don’t forget: You can disable droids (Yeah! ;-))

 

 

 

 

[aname=Gear]9. Gearing:[/aname]

 

Main Stat

…ist Strength, obviously. Always chose armorings with more strength on them. Always chose “unlettered” modifications (e.g. Advanced Deft Modification 38, instead of 38A or 38B).

 

Secondary Stat

This is about power vs. critical chance.

 

Pure damage calculations favour power and suggest very little critical chance. But critical hits on burning targets give us extra focus and thus possibly allow for a much stronger rotation. I get hightest DPS at about 250 points in critical chance (in 198 gear. I’d recommend 220 for 192 gear).

-> Go and experiment for yourself, how much critical chance gives you best DPS. I wouldn’t go higher than 300, though.

 

Tertiary Stats

Accuracy, Surge and Alacrity. Hands off anything else.

 

You have 10 slots for tertiary stats: 1 earpiece, 2 implants und 7 enhancements (head, chest, hands, pants, shoes, mainhand, offhand).

 

For gear level 198 you use those 10 slots this way:

 

6 accuracy

3 surge

1 alacrity

 

In addition you use one accuracy augment to get to 100% accuracy.

Rest of your augments should be strength: It’s a bit better than power for Watchman, but you don’t lose much dps going power, so take whichever is easier to obtain. If you use power augments you can have a little bit more critical chance in the rest of your gear (critical chance is generally easier to obtain than power).

 

For gear level 192:

 

7 accuracy

2 surge

1 alacrity

 

 

Gearing up go accuracy first, then push surge.

 

This is assuming „good“ enhancements. “Good” enhancements are the ones that have the highest secondary stat (power or critical chance) available for the respective level of gear. They are generally found in gear from operations token drops, but not in gear bought for commendations. Ziost gear (190 - Citadel) is an exception, it does have good enhancements (though bad lettered modifications).

 

 

"Turbo"-Watchman:

 

There’s a gearing option that goes for a lot of alacrity: All augments are alacrity in that build instead of strength or power. It’s a lot of fun to play, since your rotation is very quick and fluent. But that build is slightly inferior on the dummy and I’d absolutely advise against it when raiding: Your dots are significantly weaker in that build due to the lack of mainstat/power. As a result you lose a lot of dps once you can’t attack the boss because mechanics and “stupid”. That means giving up the greatest benefit of being a dot spec. Melee unfriendly content of Patch 3.X. aggravates this.

 

 

Relics

Best Combination is, in this priority to obtain:

- Revanite Relic of Focused Retribution

- Revanite Relic of Serendipitous Assault

 

You can replace the SA relic by a power clicky one (Relic of Boundless Ages), if a fight requires tough DPS checks in a certain phase (speaking Raptus challenges in last tier of Ops). For sustained dps using a clicky relic is a bit weaker than the double proc combination.

 

 

 

 

[aname=Appendix]Have fun, happy raiding and good luck & loot to all of you![/aname]

 

PS: What I've written here is not the best and by no means the only way of playing, gearing and building your Watchman. It’s just what I do and what works for me. I never meant to write a guide, since doing that always seems to imply that the method described wants to be the optimal one. I also lack the methodological competence to actually prove my point beyond the practical experience I use as a basis for what I’m saying.

It’s just that fellow SWTOR players have been asking me several times how I do stuff. Explaining that via Mumble or chat is quite time consuming and repetitive, so I finally decided to collect my answers to questions I'd been asked. That’s all this is meant to provide and I would be happy, if other players might benefit from it.

 

PS#2: A BIG THANK YOU TO OOFALONG goes in here! Reading his stuff and exchanging ideas with him over the years has improved my understanding of the class greatly and I wouldn't be half the Sentinel I am without him. What's more, he's a great guy to talk to and if we had more people of his kind, this game (and not only this game) would be a much better place! I say Cheers to you!

 

PS#3: So who are you anyway and why do I even care?

Beats me. But since some people seem to want to know: I'm yet another soccer fanatic from Munich, Germany. Yes, that makes me a Bavarian, but no, I haven't owned - let alone worn - any Lederhosen since I was 6 years old and I don't like drinking beer (I like pretzels, though) and no, you cannot sleep over at my place for Oktoberfest.

I'm also way too old to be obsessed with computer games the way I am. I started playing SWTOR, my first and yet only MMO, in February 2012 on my Sentinel El'ethon. Going from playing solo stuff exclusively to PvP, I eventually met a very nice person on Carrick Station who took me to Eternity Vault inspite PvP Sentinel bad. Thanks a million times over!

I've now found my one and only true love, the German semi progression guild Taking the Jawas to Alderaan on server T3-M4. We're at 4/5 HM in both Temple of Sacrifice and Ravagers - mainly because I am bad and keep standing in stupid, obsessed with the intricacies of my dps rotation. So, when raiding, do yourself and your group a favour and don't be an El'ethon: If in doubt, save your a** and forget about everything I've written here! ^^

Edited October 29, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Ardarell_Solo]

[aname=Marauder]Marauder Translation: Annihilation Guide (PVE) for Patch 3.2.1.[/aname]

 

Version: Patch 3.2.1, last Update June, 22nd 2015

Changelog:

June 22nd: Added English Introduction

June 22nd: Added Appendix

July 6th: Translated into Marauder lingo

 

Table of Contents:

 

 

1. [jumpto=MEinführung]Introduction[/jumpto]
    
    
   
2. [jumpto=MUtilities]Utilities[/jumpto]
    
    
   
3. [jumpto=MLichtschwertform]Lightsaber Form[/jumpto]
    
    
   
4. [jumpto=MRotation]Rotation[/jumpto]
   
   1. 
      
   2. [jumpto=MOpener]Opener[/jumpto]
      
   3. [jumpto=MGrundrota]Basic Rotation[/jumpto]
      
   4. [jumpto=MFiller]Fillers[/jumpto]
      
   5. [jumpto=MKonkrete Rota]Complete Rotation[/jumpto]
      
   6. [jumpto=MVereinfachte Rota]Simplified Rotation[/jumpto]
      

 

 

[*][jumpto=MTipps zu Wachmann-Fähigkeiten]Annihilation Abilities - Tips & Tricks[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=MAoE-Schaden]AoE-DPS[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=MFernkampf]“Ranged“ Combat[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=MDefensive Fähigkeiten]Defensive Cooldowns[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=MGear]Gearing[/jumpto]

 

 

[*][jumpto=MAppendix]Appendix: How this is not a "guide", Acknowledgement, Pretzels & Lederhosen[/jumpto]

 

 

[aname=MEinführung]1. Introduction:[/aname]

 

Hello Marauders,

 

This is a translation of a guide I’ve written for German Sentinel players. You can find the original version here and the Sentinel version one post above this one.

 

The German version first and foremost tried to make the knowledge collected by accomplished Sentinel and Marauder players like Gorband, Oofalong, Macedonicus, Stippling and all the other frequent posters in the English class forums accessible to non English speaking players. You will find a lot of stuff redundant, if you’re familiar with their excellent work. I’ve still decided to do a full translation, since the guide doesn’t make much sense if cut into pieces. The stuff about 3.2.1. rotation is work of my own and meant to lead you down the road I’ve chosen to take for this build of Annihilation. Mind you: If this is the best route to go, is still up for debate, as you can see in this thread.

 

Please forgive me for not translating into Imperial lingo late, as doing German->English was quite challenging for me already, since I’m not a native speaker. So please also forgive me for mistakes and strange ways of saying things. If you find any unfamiliar combination of letters, they’re probably German words I missed to translate, and if you find any Sentinel terms, it’s also my bad. In both cases please comment and I will correct. Without further ado, here's how the original guide starts:

 

 

Patch 3.0. substantially changed Annihilation playstyle: Force Rend, a new 18 secs long dot, was added and Rupture’s dot duration was increased from 6 secs to 12 secs. What’s more, the proc resetting Rupture’s cooldown was eliminated. Since then Rupture doesn’t have a cooldown anymore.

 

Patch 3.2.1. changed things around again quite a bit: Force Rend’s duration was shortened to 15 secs and Rupture was brought back to a duration of 6 secs.

 

It’s the last change that puts Annihilation playstyle a bit closer to what it was pre 3.0. – if you chose to play the rotation I will describe. Further below I also included a short section describing a simpler rotation that clips Ravage. You may find that one superior for several reasons also explained there.

 

The playstyle I have chosen does about the same DPS as pre 3.0. However, it is substantially more difficult to pull off imo.

 

I think the spec has become more efficient with its 3.2.1. build. Thanks to shorter dot duration we lose less dps when target switching and we have better burst. AoE dps has also increased as a result of shorter Rupture and improved dotspread. Atm I can reliably do 5050 DPS on the 1 Mio. HP training dummy. If all goes well, a bit more, current personal best in 198 gear plus 204 tank MH hilt is 5244.

 

 

A few basic remarks about the nature of this guide:

 

I just listed what I found out to be best for me when doing HM/NiM raids personally. There may be better options for gearing/rotation/utilities etc., but I can’t discuss all of them in this guide. I’d love to do that with you in the thread following my OP, though. So go ahead, if you have ideas, corrections, comments etc. and thanks in advance for your efforts!

 

I won’t be explaining all abilities and talents in detail. If you’re unsure about certain characteristics, please check your ability window.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MUtilities]2. Utilities:[/aname]

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOFRQA

 

That would be your standard progress build and should be good to go for most encounters. It brings a good mix of raw dps, mobility, incoming damage reduction and additional resource generation (being rage starved is our biggest problem in 3.2.1.).

 

 

If you want to be more offensive, you can replace being healed under Saber Ward (Blood Ward) with “Cloak of Rage”, which will allow for more frequent uses of Cloak of Pain:

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOFREA

 

 

For bosses that require a lot of movement like doing rifts on Monolith HM or phase one of Master/Blaster HM, I’d recommend this:

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/13/swtor-disciplines-calculator-swtor_miner/?link=dGEAAAE8AwEAFwEFAwoOCQ8A

 

<- "Relentless" and "Unbound" allow using a faster Predation every 30 seconds without spending Fury for that. So you don’t lose dps by skipping Berserk for Predation anymore. Apart from the speed buff the increased defense of 10% can also be helpful in tough progression fights with high incoming damage on the group and/or tanks. You get that for 10 seconds every 30 seconds in this build!!

 

 

If there’s a lot of adds to kill you can add “Path Carver” to the standard build (e.g. instead of “Blood Ward”), so your spammable Sweeping Slash does more damage. I find that to be hardly necessary, though, given the increased AoE dps we get from frequent Rupture dotspread.

 

If you want a lot of extra resource, you can include „Inexorable“ in your build. With it you generate 4 extra rage every time you’re stunned/ccd/knocked down.

 

Shortened cooldown of Obfuscate via "Subjugation" is nice for Underlurker adds. The Purge on Force Camouflage offered by "Expunging Camouflage" is valuable for dots applied by Ruugar in HM.

 

Enhancing your Undying Rage with „Undying“ is not that useful imo: If it is, there’s probably something wrong with your group’s strategy. Anything that enhances Crippling Slash or applies/enhances slows and stuns is primarily designed for PvP.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MLichtschwertform]3. Lightsaber Form:[/aname]

 

Annihilation is played in Juyo Form. It applies bleeding dots to your target and stacks up to 6 times, increasing damage with each stack applied to your target. Your stacks last for 30 seconds.

 

Dots applied with Deadly Saber, Force Rend and Rupture heal you for 15% of the damage caused, thanks to the talent “Hemorrhage”. Activating Berserk will also heal your group for 1% of the total health of each player (that’s 6% in total).

 

Your bleeds also have a 20% chance to generate one rage via talent “Bloodlust”, but there’s a rate limit of once per second to this.

 

Added to this, critical melee hits on targets affected by your bleeds will also generate 1 rage, rate limit is three seconds here. That’s the reason why increasing critical chance in your gear will enhance your total dps beyond what would be the sweet spot for critical chance just considering ability damage alone.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MRotation]4. Rotation:[/aname]

 

Offensive Buffs:

 

Before explaining when to use which lightsaber attack, here are some abilities we can use off global cooldown. They may be even more important than our rotation itself and give Marauders their unique identity:

 

Frenzy: Immediately generates 30 Fury.

 

Bloodthirst: Increases damage and healing done for your group by 10% for 10 seconds at a range of 40 meters

(Only use at the command of your group leader. Consumes 30 Fury.)

 

Berserk: Makes your dots autocrit. What’s more, in addition to your self healing your group is also healed.

(consumes 30 Fury)

 

 

[aname=MOpener]a. Opener:[/aname]

 

Even though there is no real rotation in Annihilation anymore, opening the fight is pretty much the same every time: It’s about generating rage, applying your dots and using Annihilate three times. Here’s how you can do that:

 

Before engaging the enemy build 30 Fury using “Channel Hatred” with the talent „Brooding“ (if you’ve included it in your selection of Utilities).

Pro-Tip: If dps requirements are tough, but you also want to select many other utilities, you can chose „Brooding“ before engaging and do Channel Hatred until 30 Fury. Then you reset utilities and chose your desired selection of utilities without “Brooding” and still engage with 30 Fury ready. This is also possible by running into exhaustion Zone around Terror from Beyond and the likes via Fury you build from incoming damage via “Brazen”.

 

FORCE CHARGE + DEADLY SABER (mid air)

BATTERING ASSAULT

 

ANNIHILATE

FORCE REND + BERSERK + FRENZY + BLOODTHIRST + ADRENAL

RUPTURE

RAVAGE

TWIN SABER THROW(on proc und if 5+ rage – else Assault)

RUPTURE + DEADLY SABER

FORCE CHARGE

 

ANNIHILATE

BATTERING ASSAULT

RUPTURE

FORCE REND

Filler (Twin Saber Throw, if not used before)

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE...

...-> Rotation / Filler priority system

 

<- After using Annihilate three times its cooldown is decreased from 12 seconds to 6 seconds thanks to the talent „Swift Demise“. Now you play in blocks of 4 GCDs with Annihilate heading each of these blocks.

 

 

[aname=MGrundrota]b. Basic Rotation:[/aname]

 

Using these core abilities:

 

Annihilate (costs 4 rage, refunds one when used)

Deadly Saber (costs 3 rage – since it’s off GCD, it’s activated on cooldown immediately)

Force Rend (costs 2 rage, but one less for each use of Annihilate via talent „Swift Demise“. Thus it will be free most of the times.)

 

Let’s take a look a the basic structure of our rotation with the abilities meant to be used on cooldown. Just for explanatory reasony we skip Deadly Saber for now, so we can understand the basic pattern more easily:

 

 

ANNIHILATE

FORCE REND

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

FORCE REND

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

 

So now let’s add Deadly Saber. Due to its cooldown of 12 seconds it goes in every other block. After the Opener it will fall right after Annihilate and you should keep it there, even though you could actually move it forward by one GCD. BUT: Annihilate refunds one rage (at the least). If you use Deadly Saber before, you risk being out of rage for Annihilate. If you do it the other way around though, the same initial amount of rage will let you activate both.

 

Including Deadly Saber we get this:

 

ANNIHILATE + DEADLY SABER

FORCE REND

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE + DEADLY SABER

Filler

Filler

FORCE REND

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE + DEADLY SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

FORCE REND

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE + DEADLY SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

FORCE REND

 

ANNIHILATE + DEADLY SABER

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

ANNIHILATE

Filler

Filler

Filler

 

 

So far, so complicated. However, what’s really difficult, is using those filler spots the best way possible. That works with ability priorities, since 3.2.1. Annihilation will create completely different situations in the same encounter due to ability procs and RNG on passive resource generation.

 

Your highest priority is: Make sure you have enough rage to maintain your basic rotation!

 

Which means, that depending on bad or good luck with passive resource generation via „Hemorrhage“ and „Bloodlust“ Battering Assault, Leap or even Assault can be your top filler priority:

 

 

[aname=MFiller]c1. Priorities of Resource Generating Fillers: [/aname]

 

Battering Assault (grants 6 rage)

Force Charge (4)

Force Choke (4)

Assault (2)

 

Abusing Force Choke:

 

The rotation described here has a „Worst Case Sequence“ in it, regarding required resource. It looks something like this:

 

Annihilate

Rupture

Ravage

 

Annihilate + Deadly Saber

Force Rend

Rupture

 

That monster will cost you 13 rage and has no spot in it to build any rage over its course. But our rage bar can only hold 12 rage! So can we play this “Worst Case Sequence” with good luck on our passive rage generation only?

 

No (although good luck with it helps), since you can abuse Force Choke for that: You will get 4 rage over the course of 4 seconds that way.

 

For example: We’re in the GCD before first Annihilate of that sequence and we’re at 11 rage. Using Assault or any other rage building skill would cap us at 12 rage and all additional rage generated by that skill would be wasted.

 

Using Force Choke instead will grant continuous rage generation after Annihilate has been activated, so additional rage generated over Force Choke’s duration will not go to waste. This way you will master the “Worst Case Sequence” quite comfortably.

 

This is assuming you’ve anticipated this sequence and already built rage for it in advance – plus Force Choke has to be available in the first place. (Which is why I reduce it’s Cooldown for parsing via Utility „Strangulate“, but don’t tell! ;-))

Once you’ve ensured there’s enough rage for your basic rotation, the priority of our pure dps abilities applies:

 

[aname=MSchadens-Filler]c2. Priority of DPS Fillers: [/aname]

 

Ravage (0) and Rupture (2)

Twin Saber Throw (0) on proc

Vicious Throw (3-1) / Slash (3-1)

 

Ravage and Rupture are both number one. Now what’s that supposed to mean?

Ravage does a littles less damage per activation/GCD than Rupture, but it has a long cooldown attached to it and does/takes 2 GCDs of good damage. Thus it makes sense to delay Rupture for it, as it has no cooldown and can thus work as a second priority dps filler that can be easily shifted around. But be careful: You only gain dps by prioritizing Ravage over Rupture, if you manage not to delay Rupture for too long. That obviously works best, if you have Ravage in a block with 3 filler GCDs and then cram Rupture into that one as well.

 

However, you can put Ravage in a block that also has Force Rend in it as well, if you use Rupture shortly before and after that block. Managing this is above all a question of good resource management (again!), so you’re not forced to delay Annihilate, Deadly Saber or Force Rend. You will have to decide on the spot, if you can afford Ravage.

 

If things do go wrong, though, here’s a little trick: Say you’ve activated Ravage and realize that you lack rage to continue the basic rotation afterwards. In that case just cancel Ravage after the first two hits (GCD 1) and put a rage builder like Battering Assault, Force Charge or Assault in the second GCD instead. This will of course cost you dps, but much less than blowing up your basic rotation would with no rage left for doing Annihilate after Ravage and thus also displacing Force Rend in your rotation.

 

 

Twin Saber Throw actually also does more damage per GCD than Ravage. But it’s lower in priority, since it’s only played on proc. You’re ok, if you use it as long as that proc is still there. It’s simply higher dps if you manage to squeeze in both Ravage and Rupture in your rotation successfully than it is using DST but then having to use weaker fillers in other GCDs.

 

 

Vicious Throw / Vicious Slash are used very rarely to not at all. In most situations you’re better off capping rage with Assault than dumping it with Vicious Slash. Our rotation just has too many phases with high resource requirements with no chance to build any. I hardly use Vicious Slash at all in my rotation.

 

Here’s an exception: I’m almost rage capped, my next Annihilate is two GCDs away, nothing else needs to be used in those GCDs (meaning no dot refreshment or DST proc) and I have a big rage builder available. So I do: Vicious Slash – Battering Assault OR Force Charge – Annihilate.

 

It makes a bit more sense to play it risky on the resource side for Vicious Throw, since that one does a lot more damage than Vicious Slash. But it still does less than a procced TST – and TST is free!

 

Apart from that you generally use Vicious Throw on targets that will die so soon they’re not worth dotting up anymore.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MKonkrete Rota]d. Complete Rotation:[/aname]

 

Very well, but what does that mean in practice? That guy writes a wall of text and I still don’t know what rotation I’m supposed to play!?!

I’m sorry, but that’s exactly how 3.2.1. Annihilation is different from 3.0.: There IS no scripted rotation anymore. Just like before 3.0. you need to react to given situations on the spot and decide which abilities to use next.

 

Doing that in 2.X., the deceisive question was: Did I get my proc on Rupture?

 

Now it is: Do I have enough rage for my basic rotation – and maybe even enough to risk including Ravage?

 

I’m aware that a lot of players (myself included) like to see complete rotations in DPS guides nonetheless. You can check out those in the two parses I have linked:

 

5243

5080

 

<- Just click the link „ROTATION“ there. Since I play in German and as a Sentinel, the logs aren in German Sent lingo. I might add a complete translation here later. For the time being, here are the English Marauder translations for the German Sentinel abilities:

 

Gnadenloser Hieb = Annihilate

Lichtschwertüberladung = Deadly Saber

Machtschmelze = Force Rend

Kauterisieren = Rupture

Doppelter Lichtschwertwurf = Twin Saber Throw

Meisterschlag = Ravage

Hieb = Vicious Slash

Erledigen = Vicious Throw

Eiferschlag = Battering Assault

Vorstoß = Assault

Machtstasis = Force Choke

 

Tapferer Ruf = Frenzy

Zurechtweisen = Cloak of Pain

Zen = Berserk

Inspiration = Bloodthirst

... Angriffsaufputscher = Adrenal

 

 

Additionally I recommend taking a look at the

of the second parse I linked below. It shows what’s most important for 3.2.1. Annihilation: How much rage was available at which point of the rotation and what ability was decided to be used considering that. If you can understand those decisions, you have found the key to the playstyle described here. I know this is tough, if you’re not familiar with Sentinel icons, but unfortunately I don’t have a Marauder toon myself...

 

What’s important to know: Especially the first of the two parses went incredibly well. I was very lucky with passive resource generation. Chances of playing one of those parses with the rotation they turned out to have are near zero: You will find yourself having less rage at certain points, so you will need to play differently there. Then you will have more rage at other points, so you can chose something stronger for that.

 

 

 

VIDEO:

 

This is a video of the rotation explained and except for the last 10 seconds, it’s pretty much what it’s meant to be:

Parse: http://parsely.io/parser/view/37430

 

 

 

Tip for your quickbar:

 

You might want to consider putting your damaging abilities into your quickbar according to their priorities, left to right, and activate cooldown texts in your preferences. That way you can see what you need to do next and plan ahead for the rage required.

 

However, you need to keep track of your dots in your target’s debuff bar, since Force Rend and Rupture don’t have a cooldown attached to them. On the long run you should try to get a feel for those dots and know by heart when they will expire. Which is actually not that difficult with Rupture: Apply, count abilities to three, reapply – or delay for Ravage…

 

 

[aname=MVereinfachte Rota]Simplified Rotation:[/aname]

 

As far as I can tell from my own experience in parsing and raiding, the rotation I described above does maximum DPS for 3.2.1. Annihilation. But there is a much simpler rotation that does little – if at all – less DPS. I’m not going to describe it in detail here, but here’s what you do after the Opener (which is the same as above):

 

ANNIHILATE (+ every other block DEADLY SABER)

Filler

RUPTURE

Filler

 

Filler Priorities:

Force Rend as soon as run out

Ravage, clipped after first GCD (that’s the key to this rotation)

Twin Saber Throw (on proc)

Slash/Vicious Throw (rarely used in this rotation, but a bit easier to fit in)

 

Same thing with fillers here: Your top priority is building rage, so Annihilate, Deadly Saber, Rupture und Force Rend are not delayed. -> In doubt use Battering Assault, Force Charge or Assault first.

 

Another advantage of that rotation – and it’s a big one: Clipping Ravage makes it like an instant ability, thus basically eliminating our only channeled ability. With only instant abilities in our rotation we become extremely mobile!

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=MTipps zu Wachmann-Fähigkeiten]5. Annihilation Abilities - Tips & Tricks:[/aname]

 

Berserk

After 3.0. you should ideally activate it when you have one stack of Deadly Saber left on yourself and two stacks ticking on your target. When raiding you might want to use it earlier – if you notice your group is low on health and you want to help out healing, so your group can survive a difficult phase.

 

Deadly Saber

Is just as important as Annihilate and should also be used on cooldown. If both abilities are available, you need 7 rage in just one global cooldown, as Deadly Saber is off GCD.

 

Forcing extra ticks:

 

Stacks of Deadly Saber are (roughly speaking) only applied with Lightsaber attacks. Using a force attack inbetween will have the applied stacks of OS continue ticking. That way you can force extra ticks.

 

The best moment to do this is once you have one stack of Deadly Saber left on yourself: Using a force attack will delay applying the last stack to your target and the second stack will tick twice.

 

Works with these abilities: Force Rend, Force Choke, Smash, Force Scream.

 

The way Force Rend is placed in the rotation I described will have that happen automatically ever so often, if you keep Deadly Saber right after Annihilate.

 

Force Choke is a good option instead of Assault, if you have one stack of OS left, need rage and can’t use Charge or Battering Assault.

 

Force Scream is a bad idea in most cases, since it’s far to expensive (4 rage).

 

Smash can be used, if you’re supposed to do AoE damage anyway and you have enough rage to afford it. But that’s pretty tricky.

 

 

 

Force Rend

Is free after using Annihilate twice and has 10m range. That also makes it a good opening ability in case Charge isn’t available and you have to run to your new target. Its first tick comes 0.5 seconds after activation. If you have 30 Fury and one stack of Deadly Saber on you left, you should activate Berserk 0.3 secs after using Force Rend. (This will also give you one extra tick of Deadly Saber as described in the spoiler above).

 

Annihilate

Our strongest direct damaging ability. Use on cooldown as explained in „Basic Rotation“. Every activation grants two stacks of “Annihilate”, each stack reduces Annihilate’s Cooldown by 1.5 secs. Stacks up to 4 times, so cooldown of Annihilate goes from 12 secs to 6 secs. -> You want to keep those 4 stacks up no matter what, they last for 30 secs. If they are about to fall off, Annihilate is your first priority, even higher than your dots!

 

Rupture

That’s your best deal talking DPS per basic rage cost (apart from free Force Rend). Never clip the dot: Use three different abilities after Rupture, then’s your first chance to reapply. After 3.2.1. Rupture ticks are stronger, because they don’t tick as often. As a result it’s less important not to enhance Rupture ticks with Berserk, though they are still the worst option in comparison with Deadly Saber and Force Rend. Then again you can’t really avoid having ticks of Rupture under Berserk anyway…

 

Ravage

Still does a truckload of damage, even though is has been nerfed with 3.2.1. (well, technically actually buffed, given the shortened cooldown - then again it’s hardly possible to use on cooldown in Annihilation). Its long duration makes it the worst offender that will possibly delay uptime on Deadly Saber, Force Rend oder Annihilate. That’s why you need to anticipate those 2 GCDs, i.e. 3 secs in your rotation.

Pro-Tip:

 

Ravage’s third and final hit occurs at about 2.7. secs through the channel.Try and activate your next ability right after that moment and cancel the channel doing that – the rest of those 3 secs is wasted time! This takes a bit of practice and little to no lag. Beware: If you do it too early you lose Ravage’s final and strongest hit. So doing this is risky business, but possibly pushes your APM (attacks per minute, should be roughly 46 in Annihilation spec using this rotation).

 

 

Twin Saber Throw

Nice DPS, even on single target and free: Hell, yeah! Only use on proc, though: Ability will highlight in your quickbar (by default) thanks to talent “Pulverize”: Our dot ticks have a 20% chance to double TST’s damage (every 18 secs max). Obviously great AoE ability, as explained below.

 

Vicious Throw

Our execute, useable on enemies with less than 30% of their max health. 10 m range. Sadly, Vicious Throw is tough to fit in 3.2.1. rotation as well, since it will cause severe rage issues and will likely destroy your basic rotation.

 

Force Scream

Force Scream in Annihilation?!? L2P!!! Well, we only use it under very unlikely conditions: You’re drowning in rage (11 or 12), no higher priority skill is available, Slash will consume too little of the rage available, because “Inexorable”/”Cloak of Rage” are generating additional rage. Which is basically saying what you were thinking: Never! ;-) Wait a minute: Never, except you can’t get in 4 m range of your target, but 10m is ok. Bam, Force Scream! (if you have the rage. If not: Force Choke first. See section “Ranged” Combat below).

 

 

 

 

[aname=MAoE-Schaden]6. AoE-DPS:[/aname]

 

Annihilation received good sustained AoE capabilities with 3.0. thanks to dotspreading. You will see this on those annoying (actually, I love ‘em ;-) trash mobs in Temple of Sacrifice. Dotspreading means that Smash will spread the dots applied by Force Rend and Rupture to all target it hits, if one of them had the dot running. Wow!

 

3.2.1. reduced Smash’s cooldown to 6 seconds (to match shorter Rupture) and buffed its damage. So now we also have good burst AoE dps!

 

We even have an AoE Rotation. Just use the basic rotation and replace Annihilate by Smash and put Rupture in the middle of the filler spots:

 

 

SMASH

FORCE REND

RUPTURE

Filler

 

SMASH

Filler

RUPTURE

Filler

 

SMASH

Filler

RUPTURE

FORCE REND

 

SMASH

Filler

RUPTURE

Filler

 

SMASH

Filler

RUPTURE

Filler

 

Filler priorities as always: Build enough rage with Battering Assault and Force Charge. And then:

 

Annihilate

<- mere filler in AoE situations. Used primarily to keep up stacks of Merciless and Swift Demise, so Force Rend stays free.

 

Twin Saber Throw on proc

<- Dotspread will reliably give you this proc, since Smash has dots tick on multiple enemies, considerably upping the chances (one of the reasons we have a rate limit on passive rage generation from Dots. Dem darn PvPers!! ;-))

 

Cyclone Slash

<- Your AoE rage dump instead of Vicious Slash. Actually gets used more often in AoE rotation than Vicious Slash in single target rotation, since Smash is cheaper than Annihilate.

 

Deadly Saber

<- If you want more dps on your main target and/or you’re drowning in rage and want to dump it inbetween GCDs.

 

 

Splash-AoE: If you’re supposed to do dps on your main target and just want to hit adds at the same time: Simply use your normal rotation and try to include Smash as a filler. Prioritize Twin Saber Throw a bit higher than you normally would and skip Ravage for those two changes.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MFernkampf]7. „Ranged“ Combat:[/aname]

 

Twin Saber Throw (costs 0 rage, only attack to use from more than 10m range)

Force Rend (costs 0-2 rage)

Vicious Throw (costs 3 rage, refunds 1)

Force Scream (costs 4 rage)

Force Choke (grants 4 rage)

 

You know those situations all too well as melee dps: You can’t get in 4m range of the mob you’re supposed to attack thanks to some stupid AoE-void around/in front of him or other melee dps punishing mechanics that have no counterpart punishing rdps (end of rant ;-). Where was I? Oh yeah, what do you do in that case: Use abilities that are not part of your standard rotation like Force Scream. The ones listed above are all usable from 10m, TST even from 30m. Force Rend makes sense, too, even if it’s still on your target: If you have nothing else left to do from range, just reapply it early. That way you don’t have to once you’re in melee range and can use the GCD for something else later.

 

If you anticipate a situation like that, build rage for Force Scream: That one’s an expensive bast***rd and our only rage builder from 10m is Force Choke – on a whopping one minute cooldown…

 

 

 

 

[aname=MDefensive Fähigkeiten]8. Defensive Cooldowns:[/aname]

 

Force Camouflage

Decreases your aggro, making you a more unlikely target. Use it in the right place of your opener (e.g. after second Annihilate) resp. depending on mechanics after a tank swap or after boss dropped aggro. Might also do it if you have adrenal, clicky relic and Berserk running at the same time. A DPS who gets targetted by the boss will very soon be dead, especially without heavy armor. And dead DPS don’t do damage, meaning they don’t do their job.

Force Camouflage is also good to cheese certain mechanics. E.g. you can stand in stupid Coratanni’s Canons and resist Blaster’s knockbacks. It’s not nearly as OP as Hydraulic Override on a much longer cooldown, but hey, it’s not so bad after all. Go and experiment with it and please post your findings here.

 

Undying Rage

Reduces incoming damage by 99% for 4 sec, making you almost invulnerable for the duration.

 

Saber Ward

Our best defensive Cooldown – on a very long cooldown. Use for damage spikes, obviously.

 

Cloak of Pain

Smaller defensive Cooldown, does decent damage on enemies as well. Might want to save it for bigger attacks, especially if you’ve run out of your major defensive cooldowns.

 

Obfuscate

A very powerful ability to protect your group: Reduces accuracy of the mob by 90% for 6 secs. Meaning your opponent will hardly be able to hit you and thus do any damage at all! Not useable on bosses, but on a lot of trash and adds (e.g. on Underlurker, Torque, Commanders, Draxus, Corruptor Zero, Bestia etc.). Your healers will love you for using this frequently!

 

Predation

Increases movement spead of your whole group, very nice for Monolith HM rifts and Master/Blaster HM. If you need to increase your own movement speed only, better use Force Camo with Utility “Phantom” (granted you don’t have to use it as aggro dump anytime soon) and use your Fury for Berserk. Or chose a build that has Predation off the Fury system.

 

 

Trash/Adds: Interrupt using Disruption, stun packs of mobs using Intimidating Roar, hard stun opponents for 4 secs with Force Choke. And don’t forget: You can disable droids (Yeah! ;-))

 

 

 

 

[aname=MGear]9. Gearing:[/aname]

 

Main Stat

…ist Strength, obviously. Always chose armorings with more strength on them. Always chose “unlettered” modifications (e.g. Advanced Deft Modification 38, instead of 38A or 38B).

 

Secondary Stat

This is about power vs. critical chance.

 

Pure damage calculations favour power and suggest very little critical chance. But critical hits on bleeding targets give us extra rage and thus possibly allow for a much stronger rotation. I get hightest DPS at about 250 points in critical chance (in 198 gear. I’d recommend 220 for 192 gear).

-> Go and experiment for yourself, how much critical chance gives you best DPS. I wouldn’t go higher than 300, though.

 

Tertiary Stats

Accuracy, Surge and Alacrity. Hands off anything else.

 

You have 10 slots for tertiary stats: 1 earpiece, 2 implants und 7 enhancements (head, chest, hands, pants, shoes, mainhand, offhand).

 

For gear level 198 you use those 10 slots this way:

 

6 accuracy

3 surge

1 alacrity

 

In addition you use one accuracy augment to get to 100% accuracy.

Rest of your augments should be strength: It’s a bit better than power for Annihilation, but you don’t lose much dps going power, so take whichever is easier to obtain. If you use power augments you can have a little bit more critical chance in the rest of your gear (critical chance is generally easier to obtain than power).

 

For gear level 192:

 

7 accuracy

2 surge

1 alacrity

 

 

Gearing up go accuracy first, then push surge.

 

This is assuming „good“ enhancements. “Good” enhancements are the ones that have the highest secondary stat (power or critical chance) available for the respective level of gear. They are generally found in gear from operations token drops, but not in gear bought for commendations. Ziost gear (190 - Citadel) is an exception, it does have good enhancements (though bad lettered modifications).

 

 

"Turbo"-Annihilation:

 

There’s a gearing option that goes for a lot of alacrity: All augments are alacrity in that build instead of strength or power. It’s a lot of fun to play, since your rotation is very quick and fluent. But that build is slightly inferior on the dummy and I’d absolutely advise against it when raiding: Your dots are significantly weaker in that build due to the lack of mainstat/power. As a result you lose a lot of dps once you can’t attack the boss because mechanics and “stupid”. That means giving up the greatest benefit of being a dot spec. Melee unfriendly content of Patch 3.X. aggravates this.

 

 

Relics

Best Combination is, in this priority to obtain:

- Revanite Relic of Focused Retribution

- Revanite Relic of Serendipitous Assault

 

You can replace the SA relic by a power clicky one (Relic of Boundless Ages), if a fight requires tough DPS checks in a certain phase (speaking Raptus challenges in last tier of Ops). For sustained dps using a clicky relic is a bit weaker than the double proc combination.

 

 

 

 

[aname=MAppendix]Have fun, happy raiding and good luck & loot to all of you![/aname]

 

PS: What I've written here is not the best and by no means the only way of playing, gearing and building your Annihilation Marauder. It’s just what I do and what works for me. I never meant to write a guide, since doing that always seems to imply that the method described wants to be the optimal one. I also lack the methodological competence to actually prove my point beyond the practical experience I use as a basis for what I’m saying.

It’s just that fellow SWTOR players have been asking me several times how I do stuff. Explaining that via Mumble or chat is quite time consuming and repetitive, so I finally decided to collect my answers to questions I'd been asked. That’s all this is meant to provide and I would be happy, if other players might benefit from it.

 

PS#2: A BIG THANK YOU TO OOFALONG goes in here! Reading his stuff and exchanging ideas with him over the years has improved my understanding of the class greatly and I wouldn't be half the Sentinel I am without him. What's more, he's a great guy to talk to and if we had more people of his kind, this game (and not only this game) would be a much better place! I say Cheers to you!

 

PS#3: So who are you anyway and why do I even care?

Beats me. But since some people seem to want to know: I'm yet another soccer fanatic from Munich, Germany. Yes, that makes me a Bavarian, but no, I haven't owned - let alone worn - any Lederhosen since I was 6 years old and I don't like drinking beer (I like pretzels, though) and no, you cannot sleep over at my place for Oktoberfest.

I'm also way too old to be obsessed with computer games the way I am. I started playing SWTOR, my first and yet only MMO, in February 2012 on my Marauder El'ethon. Going from playing solo stuff exclusively to PvP, I eventually met a very nice person on Carrick Station who took me to Eternity Vault inspite PvP Marauder bad. Thanks a million times over!

I've now found my one and only true love, the German semi progression guild Taking the Jawas to Alderaan on server T3-M4. We're at 4/5 HM in both Temple of Sacrifice and Ravagers - mainly because I am bad and keep standing in stupid, obsessed with the intricacies of my dps rotation. So, when raiding, do yourself and your group a favour and don't be an El'ethon: If in doubt, save your a** and forget about everything I've written here! ^^

Edited July 6, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Ardarell_Solo]

Also reserved for additional posts.

[EenVooral]

Great guide man! Kudos to you and Oofa for all of your hard work, and to all of us crazy mf'ers who'll always stick it out with this class, who are PROUD to call a Sent/Mara our Main!

 

And btw, it's a Sent/Mara's RIGHT to be standing in blue/red/purple circles, but when ranged dps does it...whoa!

[TACeMossie]

You only had 1 thing wrong - You missed a translation to Strike from VorstoB (couldn't be bothered getting the alt code as Im on a tablet. And yes, I know its pronounced SS)

 

I might translate to Marauder for you if someone doesnt beat me to it, but it will have to wait till tommorow cause the website always goes down during maintenance and Ill be sleeping when it comes back

[Ardarell_Solo]

Thanks, corrected to Strike.

 

Marauders and I would surely thank you! :-)

[Ardarell_Solo]

And btw, it's a Sent/Mara's RIGHT to be standing in blue/red/purple circles, but when ranged dps does it...whoa!

 

Can I quote you on that next time my raidleader kicks my b*tt for it? ;-)

[Sweeete]

4398

Can someone explain what i'm doing wrong?

Really can't understand...

 

i'm wear 6pcs set bonus, 274 surge(66.16%), 326 alacrity(4.11%), 234 crit(25.10%) and i have 1954 bonus damage

 

i think u will say i'm wear too much alacrity,but i'm feel good in carnage with ~7%(3% from ataru form)

 

is there any mistakes excluding high alacrity?(if it mistake )

[TACeMossie]

Thanks, corrected to Strike.

 

Marauders and I would surely thank you! :-)

 

My computer stopped working and I have to repair it D:

 

Marauder translation delayed significantly

[Bahadori]

Very insightful and well executed. Nice job man.

[Ardarell_Solo]

Hey, thanks for your positive feedback! Would mean a lot to me if this was helpful... I'm curious to hear how this works out for you guys, so please do tell :-)

 

4398

Can someone explain what i'm doing wrong?

Really can't understand...

 

i'm wear 6pcs set bonus, 274 surge(66.16%), 326 alacrity(4.11%), 234 crit(25.10%) and i have 1954 bonus damage

 

i think u will say i'm wear too much alacrity,but i'm feel good in carnage with ~7%(3% from ataru form)

 

is there any mistakes excluding high alacrity?(if it mistake )

 

Hey there, thanks for sharing your parse. Here's what you can try to improve:

 

Your APM is too low for the amount of alacrity you're using, so you're simply not quick enough. Your APM is what it should be if were using just one slot of alacrity.

 

You're delaying Rupture way too often for too long. That's partly because...

 

...you have way too many Vicious Slashes in your rotation. Drop them completely for now! The result in delaying other more important abilities, because you neither have room nor resources for them.

 

You're applying Rend too early quite often. Count your abilities to find the right moment to reapply and/or enlarge target debuff icons, so you really know for sure, when it runs out.

 

Try to stick to the basic rotation will help you with that, too. Everytime you delay Annihilate (which you did couple times), it's hard to tell where Rend is supposed to go.

 

Do Deadly Saber after Annihilate instead of before. It's easier on your rage management, as explained in the guide.

 

Good luck!

[Sweeete]

Hey, thanks for your positive feedback! Would mean a lot to me if this was helpful... I'm curious to hear how this works out for you guys, so please do tell :-)

 

 

 

Hey there, thanks for sharing your parse. Here's what you can try to improve:

 

Your APM is too low for the amount of alacrity you're using, so you're simply not quick enough. Your APM is what it should be if were using just one slot of alacrity.

 

You're delaying Rupture way too often for too long. That's partly because...

 

...you have way too many Vicious Slashes in your rotation. Drop them completely for now! The result in delaying other more important abilities, because you neither have room nor resources for them.

 

You're applying Rend too early quite often. Count your abilities to find the right moment to reapply and/or enlarge target debuff icons, so you really know for sure, when it runs out.

 

Try to stick to the basic rotation will help you with that, too. Everytime you delay Annihilate (which you did couple times), it's hard to tell where Rend is supposed to go.

 

Do Deadly Saber after Annihilate instead of before. It's easier on your rage management, as explained in the guide.

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you for answer and advices. I will try to do smth with my problems

 

And yes, i dont say before, great job man

[EenVooral]

Can I quote you on that next time my raidleader kicks my b*tt for it? ;-)

 

Or, you can just constantly remind them of that time as a tank they forgot to equip their tanking gear and/or OH Shield, or if they're DPS, remind them of that time they forgot to put crystals in their MH/OH, or if a healer, remind them of that time they were dps'ing when you died.

[Excypher]

Nice guide!

 

Keep it up man.

[Ardarell_Solo]

Thanks for your encouragement, guys!

 

Edited the second post to be a [jumpto=Marauder]Marauder translation[/jumpto].

Edited July 6, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Ardarell_Solo]

I just played around with augments to bring tertiary stats as close to optimal/soft cap as possible, on the basis of what Bant had figured out HERE and mixed it with my own findings. Gave me 5284

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Sorry for the 1 month necro, but.

 

Aren't we supposed to sync Force Leap/Charge and Overload Saber? Since they have the same CD, I always thought we were meant to sync them together and use them at the same time, so our 4 GCD blocks would look something like this

 

Force Charge + OS

Annihilate

FILLER

FILLER

 

With the next 4 GCD block starting with filler since the CD on Charge/Leap and OS is not 4 GCD's. Now, I can't go parsing because I don't have PvE gear for my marauder anymore. Just asking because I may start PvE'ing with my Marauder again when 4.0 comes around (I know that 4.0 changes alot with Anni but, it's still got it's basic concept.)

[Ardarell_Solo]

Sorry for the 1 month necro, but.

 

Aren't we supposed to sync Force Leap/Charge and Overload Saber? Since they have the same CD, I always thought we were meant to sync them together and use them at the same time, so our 4 GCD blocks would look something like this

 

Force Charge + OS

Annihilate

FILLER

FILLER

 

With the next 4 GCD block starting with filler since the CD on Charge/Leap and OS is not 4 GCD's. Now, I can't go parsing because I don't have PvE gear for my marauder anymore. Just asking because I may start PvE'ing with my Marauder again when 4.0 comes around (I know that 4.0 changes alot with Anni but, it's still got it's basic concept.)

 

That's one way of looking at Anni rotation and a lot of players do it that way. It's viable, but not optimal.

 

My approach has always been different: To me, Leap/Charge is a resource generating ability the use of which is very situational: Do I really need focus right now or are better abilities available for my rotation (more dps, more resource generation)? Thus Leap/Charge is just a filler and used depending on the situation. Meaning:

 

Core abilities, that should never be delayed, are:

Merciless / Annihilate

Force Melt / Rend

Overload / Deadly Saber

 

Then we have fillers. Those are not necessarily used on Cooldown (or dot refreshment), but accoring to what's available:

Master Strike / Ravage

Cauterize / Rupture

Double / Twin Saber Throw

Dispatch / Vicious Throw

 

But: Even higher in filler priority is building focus to ensure you can use all core abilities on Cooldown. That's where Leap/Charge comes into play: It's the second most important focus builder after Zealaous Strilke / Battering Assault.

 

So you'll find me delaying Leap / Charge quite a bit very often, since Zealous Strike / BA is the better option and if I have enough resource to get Master Strike / Ravage in, I'll do that. Or whatever else is higher in priority and available.

 

 

But (and that's a big BUT): This will totally change with 4.0. With the changes we're seeing, Leap/Charge will basically be replaced in the rotation by Melt / Rend which will generate the same amount of resource on the same cooldown. Plus it will still apply its dot. Since Melt / Rend will thus remain a core ability we must not delay it in our rotation. It's meant to be played on Cooldown, just like you are suggesting for Leap / Charge.

 

Depending on the opener, Melt / Rend will probably not be synced with Deadly / Overload Saber, though, with the opener I'm seeing for 4.0. atm. For we will probably still start most encounters by leaping / charging to our target and I don't think I'd use Melt / Rend right after - at least from what I think might be the best sequence for transitioning to the new rotation...

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

*Giant Snip*

 

Ok, I guess I'll try to learn the new rotation style that 3.0 gave us before 4.0 launches.

[Brdrker]

Ard, I'm playing Sentinel for the first time and am intrigued by Watchman. In your "How To" the links for Combat Proficiency to Dulfy fail to load (404 error). Would you mind stating what your selections are for optimal output (or fix the links)?

 

Thanks.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Brdrker

[Ardarell_Solo]

Ard, I'm playing Sentinel for the first time and am intrigued by Watchman. In your "How To" the links for Combat Proficiency to Dulfy fail to load (404 error). Would you mind stating what your selections are for optimal output (or fix the links)?

 

Thanks.

 

Thanks for pointing that out, looks like Discipline Calculator Tools both on Dulfy and torcommunity are broken atm. Since they're both using swtor_potato's model as a basis, it's probably because that's being changed around for 4.0.

 

I've included links to screenshots of the builds described, until that's fixed.

 

Have fun with Watchman! :-)

Edited October 13, 2015 by Ardarell_Solo

[Brdrker]

Thanks for the pictures... now on to master the "rotation."

[Ardarell_Solo]

Für die deutschen Spieler, die ansonsten nicht mehr ins ziemlich tote deutsche Forum gucken: Es gibt dort ein

 

Uptade für diesen Guide auf 4.0.