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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

Sentinel is the trash class for PVP


Sivithian

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Just wanted to vent a little bit. I've rolled a Sith Jugg and Jedi Sentinel as my light and dark side mains.... Jugg does everything so well, can live for a long time and do a decent amount of damage (even getting on the very top of the boards). *********** Sentinel just dies very fast in PVP unless you have a dedicated healer...What gives...? Can I change my Sentinel into a guardian? This is awful.
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A well played sentinel can be one of the most dangerous people in a warzone, it just requires a higher skill level than lots of other classes. Juggs have generally been one the classes that are good for newer players due to their lower skill floor.
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A well played sentinel can be one of the most dangerous people in a warzone, it just requires a higher skill level than lots of other classes. Juggs have generally been one the classes that are good for newer players due to their lower skill floor.

 

I guess im just not seeing it. I definitely see Sentinel shining in PVE for sure. It's just in PVP.... maybe I require a guild or group instead of Solo...I can 1v1 pretty well but as soon as it becomes group combat I'm dead. 2v1 im dead. As a Jugg or Guardian I can swing it for awhile. Just kinda sucks because I pushed my Sentinel all the way from start to beginign with class stories and all... I miss out on anything if I roll a Guardian 60 token?

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Like the previous post said it take a lot of skill to play this class, I do 2v1 all the time and I win in them a lot but if its more than that you get destroyed (but anyone would). Also going up against a sniper/gunslinger who knows what they are doing you get destroyed.

 

Play the class to 70 get all of your defensive skills and you will come to see how strong the class is and it depends on what discipline you play as well, each one has a different feel to them so that helps with your experience for the class; In my opinion Carnage/Combat and Fury/Concentration for PVP and Annihilation/Watchman for PVE if the other group has a good healer DOTs don't really do much it terms of damage.

 

Don't waste your money on a Token!!

Edited by weeklymar
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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Just a general question, but are those numbers that high due to raid buffs and other classes debuffs (like sundering, etc) that makes those numbers alitle more artificially higher? Because by myself, just parsing on the Ops dummy, I can't for the life of me figure out how to hit 9k on my combat sent, the best I've gotten is 8.1k after about a 5 min parse with no adrenals used with mostly 240/246/with 248 sprinkled in. My apm is multiple parses is about 50-55 and I feel like the rotation is pretty solid, consistently getting 3 abilities in my Ferocity window. I just don't get how people get such high numbers on those raid bosses.

Edited by DenariusJay
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Just wanted to vent a little bit. I've rolled a Sith Jugg and Jedi Sentinel as my light and dark side mains.... Jugg does everything so well, can live for a long time and do a decent amount of damage (even getting on the very top of the boards). *********** Sentinel just dies very fast in PVP unless you have a dedicated healer...What gives...? Can I change my Sentinel into a guardian? This is awful.

 

Thing is (what i guess is your "issue") is that jugg has for example Enraged Defense, which gives health back. Sentinels doesn't have stuff that gives health back, so you won't be able to just take dmg then pop dcd's. Need to use defensives to mitigate damage. Also, there are some good utilities for some extra survivability. For example "Cut Loose" and "Zealous Judgment" from last tier are both really good utilities.

 

And ofc you are gonna go down if focused and got no healer, but isn't that what's supposed to happen?

 

And honestly, if focused, juggs are squishier than sentinels.

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Just a general question, but are those numbers that high due to raid buffs and other classes debuffs (like sundering, etc) that makes those numbers alitle more artificially higher? Because by myself, just parsing on the Ops dummy, I can't for the life of me figure out how to hit 9k on my combat sent, the best I've gotten is 8.1k after about a 5 min parse with no adrenals used with mostly 240/246/with 248 sprinkled in. My apm is multiple parses is about 50-55 and I feel like the rotation is pretty solid, consistently getting 3 abilities in my Ferocity window. I just don't get how people get such high numbers on those raid bosses.

 

So with this gear and the wright (Rotation), you should be able to get a higher dps especially on dummy, I'm hitting 8,3 k and i have 230er gear on my sentinel and I'm pretty bad playing sentinel. Just search another guide for combat Sent and study some parses on parsely, hope you find out what you're doing wrong. :)

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Just a general question, but are those numbers that high due to raid buffs and other classes debuffs (like sundering, etc) that makes those numbers alitle more artificially higher? Because by myself, just parsing on the Ops dummy, I can't for the life of me figure out how to hit 9k on my combat sent, the best I've gotten is 8.1k after about a 5 min parse with no adrenals used with mostly 240/246/with 248 sprinkled in. My apm is multiple parses is about 50-55 and I feel like the rotation is pretty solid, consistently getting 3 abilities in my Ferocity window. I just don't get how people get such high numbers on those raid bosses.

 

It's most probably your apm. On the dummy it should be close to or even above 60 on carnage/combat. Which is another reason that this spec is so hard to play.

Also, do you use the health mods for the dummy? I'm not a 100% sure about carnage since it procs Vicious Throw anyway, but sub 30% is generally a dps gain, so if you don't use the health mods, that's another reason.

Oh and in the case of the linked raid challenges and maras/sents: They use cloak of pain in that phase which also gives a decent dps boost since you're constantly hit with aoe.

And yes, most groups use raid buffs for this phase as well.

So it's a lot of stuff that simply adds up. Some comes with experience, some with practice, most with a combination of both and the last and least important bit is gear.

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A well played sentinel can be one of the most dangerous people in a warzone, it just requires a higher skill level than lots of other classes. Juggs have generally been one the classes that are good for newer players due to their lower skill floor.

 

no it just requires babysitting

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It's most probably your apm. On the dummy it should be close to or even above 60 on carnage/combat. Which is another reason that this spec is so hard to play.

Also, do you use the health mods for the dummy? I'm not a 100% sure about carnage since it procs Vicious Throw anyway, but sub 30% is generally a dps gain, so if you don't use the health mods, that's another reason.

Oh and in the case of the linked raid challenges and maras/sents: They use cloak of pain in that phase which also gives a decent dps boost since you're constantly hit with aoe.

And yes, most groups use raid buffs for this phase as well.

So it's a lot of stuff that simply adds up. Some comes with experience, some with practice, most with a combination of both and the last and least important bit is gear.

 

This response is general, referring to some of the content from your response as well as to the OP themself.

 

You do need to use the mods on the dummy to get a realistic appraisal of how it will function live. The speed of the spec is both it's greatest asset and potential difficulty. The faster you pump out the moves the better the DPS will be in theory [speed alone isn't enough you need to doing the sequencing of rotation, procs and landing your hardest hitting attacks in every ferocity window. The speed makes it so that you will have to react that much faster to outside influences that will enivitably effect you such as raid mechanics, getting stunned, and getting your rotation back on track when you make a mistake as quickly as possible. It's not that the rotation is particularly hard, it's just extremely unforgiving of mistakes. Any Ferocity window that you are not getting 4/3 attacks in each as they alternate is a DPS loss and you can't make up for it. You just gonna start again getting your rotation back in proper sequence again as quickly as possible so as to limit the effects already in play from a mistake or outside influence that got in the way.

 

Sub 30% is a DPS gain with VT and you need to be clipping into every ferocity window you have. DST for berserk window, VT for non beserk window.

 

You're going to make mistakes sometimes, just human nature, things will get in the way, and RNG plays it's part [miss chance, crit change, damage roll range, procs and relics, etc]. You said it pefectly "So it's a lot of stuff that simply adds up. Some comes with experience, some with practice, most with a combination of both and the last and least important bit is gear."

 

When mistakes or other factors effect your rotation, proiritize getting in back in sync as quickly as possible, because if the attacks you want in your ferocity window aren't lining up with it, your just gonna get caught in a repeating cycle of non-maximized windows which will kill your overall dps. If you need to take an extra second or two to wait, as bad as that is, it is more important to get your rotation back in proper sequence than a slight dps loss caused by missing a GCD. If nothing else if you need to wait that extra GCD or two to line the sequence up again, just use a basic attack, it's better than nothing.

 

This spec is all muscle memory and it behoves the user to gain experience in its use in any form. Dummy parsing is a great way to get that muscle memory engrained and to maintain the level of skill you have gained by practicing it's flow. Think of it as kata in the martial arts. Not exactly what it's going to be a in real fight but it keeps the muscles in practice and makes it second nature.

 

Just to give the OP an idea about the relivency of APMs. APMs are very important, but they are not the end all, you can still pump out good dps if your in 58+ There are latency issues as wel, as connectivity issues that effect APMs and you will do more APMS at some points than others due to these sorts of tech issues that ebb and flow.

 

This I did last night and it was 59 APMS just as I finished it. Always a good idea to see what you are actually doing afterwards because during your attention is focused on the rotation and adjusting. I've been playing a Carnage Marauder for over 5 years now and experience plays its part. There are a few others I know of who have surpassed this, I'm still working on getting fully geared. I'm 246/and 248 currently. Just to give the OP some ideas.

 

http://parsely.io/parser/view/278746

 

Carnage is Life =]

Edited by WayOfTheWarriorx
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It's most probably your apm. On the dummy it should be close to or even above 60 on carnage/combat. Which is another reason that this spec is so hard to play.

Also, do you use the health mods for the dummy? I'm not a 100% sure about carnage since it procs Vicious Throw anyway, but sub 30% is generally a dps gain, so if you don't use the health mods, that's another reason..

 

Never heard of these health mods, is this something additional I have to download?

The way I'm parsing right now is I load up starparse, click the "parse" button then just start attacking the dummy, lol. I basically attack him for about 5 min or so, then step back, alt tab back to starparse and see what the end result is. I never get above 8.1k, but its weird because as I analyze the dps during the parse, I seem to float around 8.4ish and even spike up to 9k quite a few times during the parse, but when its all said and done it just ends at 8k or 8.1k. I don't know if its factoring in the last couple of seconds of not doing anything into the overall DPS total, but if it is then I imagine that would skew the end results. I did a parse last night my apm was 57 and still only 8k :( sad face. (I don't use any adrenals, I like to get an idea what I'm doing without adrenal buff)

 

I mean I know I need improvement, I do biff the rotation quite abit and couple times I get hit with low rage going into a Ferocity window which just F's everything up, lol. But I feel like my last parses I was really doing better but the number doesn't change. I mean carnage isn't my main spec, I parse higher on my sniper, but I would love to git gud with carnage.

 

How do I go about getting this health mod?

Edited by DenariusJay
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Never heard of these health mods, is this something additional I have to download?

The way I'm parsing right now is I load up starparse, click the "parse" button then just start attacking the dummy, lol. I basically attack him for about 5 min or so, then step back, alt tab back to starparse and see what the end result is. I never get above 8.1k, but its weird because as I analyze the dps during the parse, I seem to float around 8.4ish and even spike up to 9k quite a few times during the parse, but when its all said and done it just ends at 8k or 8.1k. I don't know if its factoring in the last couple of seconds of not doing anything into the overall DPS total, but if it is then I imagine that would skew the end results. I did a parse last night my apm was 57 and still only 8k :( sad face. (I don't use any adrenals, I like to get an idea what I'm doing without adrenal buff)

 

I mean I know I need improvement, I do biff the rotation quite abit and couple times I get hit with low rage going into a Ferocity window which just F's everything up, lol. But I feel like my last parses I was really doing better but the number doesn't change. I mean carnage isn't my main spec, I parse higher on my sniper, but I would love to git gud with carnage.

 

How do I go about getting this health mod?

 

Training Dummy health and stat modules are sold from the little repair droid on your ship that you unlock. They set the dummies to have an actual health total so you can beat it down to 0.

 

I believe you can alter the stats/health of the fleet training dummies too, but im not sure I usually just use my ship.

Edited by thepilk
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Training Dummy health and stat modules are sold from the little repair droid on your ship that you unlock. They set the dummies to have an actual health total so you can beat it down to 0.

 

I believe you can alter the stats/health of the fleet training dummies too, but im not sure I usually just use my ship.

 

The mods will only work on the dummy on your ship. [There are two types of dummies you can have on your ship one is meant for PVP simulation and one is meant for PVE simulation. The mods will only work on the PVE dummy]

 

I think what you are thinking of with regard to the fleet dummy is the bolster option you can use on those but that's different that applying the armor and health mod.

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Never heard of these health mods, is this something additional I have to download?

The way I'm parsing right now is I load up starparse, click the "parse" button then just start attacking the dummy, lol. I basically attack him for about 5 min or so, then step back, alt tab back to starparse and see what the end result is. I never get above 8.1k, but its weird because as I analyze the dps during the parse, I seem to float around 8.4ish and even spike up to 9k quite a few times during the parse, but when its all said and done it just ends at 8k or 8.1k. I don't know if its factoring in the last couple of seconds of not doing anything into the overall DPS total, but if it is then I imagine that would skew the end results. I did a parse last night my apm was 57 and still only 8k :( sad face. (I don't use any adrenals, I like to get an idea what I'm doing without adrenal buff)

 

I mean I know I need improvement, I do biff the rotation quite abit and couple times I get hit with low rage going into a Ferocity window which just F's everything up, lol. But I feel like my last parses I was really doing better but the number doesn't change. I mean carnage isn't my main spec, I parse higher on my sniper, but I would love to git gud with carnage.

 

How do I go about getting this health mod?

 

Carnage is extremely fast [it's the fastest spec in the game], practicing the rotation on the dummy will help you improve your DPS with it. Just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

 

Carnage is not forgiving of mistakes however. If you fail to have sufficient rage for your ferocity window attacks its a DPS loss. If the hardest hitting attacks you have which are what you always want to be using during your ferocity window are still on cool down [due to the rotation being out of sync for example] and you put less damaging attacks into the window this is also a DPS loss. Unfortunately such instances that cause the DPS loss can't be made up. Consider them missed opportunities. That's not necessarily to say that the end result will be poor, if the rest of your parse things go well and your on the ball the results can still be good, they will just not be quite as good as if you had not made the mistakes [which we all due at times no matter how good we are]. Had you not made the mistakes your end dps might come out lets just say 8.8k, but because you did the end result might come out to be 8.6k. [There are alot of variables of course].

 

Dummy parsing is extremely important if you want to improve and I recommend it highly. It increased my DPS for certain. It helps with the building of muscle memory, so that the rotations becomes more and more natural to you and you have to give it less conscious thought. Dummy parsing alone will not make you good in live action fights to the same degree. On a dummy you never have to move or are effected by any game mechanics like u would be faced with it an Operation or an FP. So your DPS in live fights will likely be significantly lower than your best dummy parse. That's perfectly normal.

 

Two things that might be holding your DPS back some are rotation and resource management. The proper rotation will provide you with enough rage on it's own to insure that you have the sufficient amount of rage to use the proper attacks at the right time [your ferocity window]. If your rotation does not allow you to align your hardest hitting attacks available for the ferocity window your DPS will suffer for it. Using a proper rotation is obviously paramount as it dictates how high you can potentially get your DPS. So you want to make sure you are using an optimal recommended variant of the said rotation. There is more than one rotation that works but they are very similar to one another with only minor variations. [i don't use the proscribed rotation, I use a slight variant that i came up with that seems to work better for me. I've been playing a carnage marauder for over 5 years].

 

Other factors such as APM [as you mentioned] can be effected by latency issues, lag, and other tech related things. That's something else to bare in mind. Also, obviously gear plays its part and proper stat allocations. Also, Differences in DPS output, using the identical rotation and stats/gear are perfectly normal. Even by 100s of points. That's just RNG playing it's part in things [Crit chance, miss chance, damage rolls, etc.] - You also mentioned "hanging" at the end of the rotation. That absolutely can effect your dps final result. But when you use the health mod, it will automatically stop the parse the second the last point of damage is done so as to prevent "hanging effects". If you accidentally attack after that tho within a second or two it can still cause that hanging effect. Unfortunately this can happen in live action as well sometimes and some mechanics force downtime which lowers your DPS by a ton [theoretical DPS - End result number, not the damage you have done]. That can happen to anyone though regardless of class or spec.

 

Practice your rotation, get it into muscle memory, with that your confidence will improve and it will make it flow easier for you. Mistakes will happen, use them as learning experience and practice how to recover from rotational mistakes that throw your rotation off. Very important to get it back on track as quickly as possible to prevent further DPS loss. It's not a hard rotation to remember, but because it's so fast you have to react that much faster to outside influences that can effect it so In actual practice it does require a higher skill set than many other spec rotations do. If you practice it, and don't give up, in time you will reap rewards from the effort.

 

Assuming you are equally skilled in the specs, you won't likely get more DPS out from Carnage than from your Sniper [unless it's marksmen spec, Engineering and Virulence have a higher potential DPS ceiling than Carnage. But I can tell that some of the top parses for Carnage are into the 10 k range. I've hit 10.2k myself, there are two or so others who have gotten a bit higher than that even in the 10k range. But most us who have hit into that range are long time players of the spec. You can look at the rotations of some of them by looking on parsely.com and choosing the rotation link which will show you what they did throughout the entire parse. I'll include mine so you can see an example. http://parsely.io/parser/view/278746

 

I hope this helps some. Don't get discouraged by some bad parses or not achieving yet what you are aspiring to just yet. Just keep at it and use every opportunity for experience as they are all learning lessons. Best of luck.

 

Carnage is Life =]

Edited by WayOfTheWarriorx
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Just wanted to vent a little bit. I've rolled a Sith Jugg and Jedi Sentinel as my light and dark side mains.... Jugg does everything so well, can live for a long time and do a decent amount of damage (even getting on the very top of the boards). *********** Sentinel just dies very fast in PVP unless you have a dedicated healer...What gives...? Can I change my Sentinel into a guardian? This is awful.

 

Don't take this wrong but this is definitely a L2P issue - luckily it sounds like you're willing to learn. Sentinel is a meatgrinder on offense and has some very strong defensives. The thing is, these defensives are not used in the same way as the Jugg's. The playing style is totally different - as a Jugg, you're facetanking through the fight and beating people down in the middle of the action. As a Mara/Sent, you're running around the edges, hitting and running, shredding the ranged DPS and healers. You should always be moving as a Mara while as a Jugg you're a lot better at and standing and trading punches. They play completely differently.

 

Most of Mara's defensives are actiives and one of the best is technically an offensive cooldown (Pacify + utilities, on your Sent.)

 

Have you read Hayete's guides? They are pretty good as far as skill breakdown goes:

 

https://www.hayete.net/combat-carnage

Edited by stoopicus
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Don't take this wrong but this is definitely a L2P issue - luckily it sounds like you're willing to learn. Sentinel is a meatgrinder on offense and has some very strong defensives. The thing is, these defensives are not used in the same way as the Jugg's. The playing style is totally different - as a Jugg, you're facetanking through the fight and beating people down in the middle of the action. As a Mara/Sent, you're running around the edges, hitting and running, shredding the ranged DPS and healers. You should always be moving as a Mara while as a Jugg you're a lot better at and standing and trading punches. They play completely differently.

 

Most of Mara's defensives are actiives and one of the best is technically an offensive cooldown (Pacify + utilities, on your Sent.)

 

Have you read Hayete's guides? They are pretty good as far as skill breakdown goes:

 

https://www.hayete.net/combat-carnage

 

Marauders do have some excellent DCDs, there's no question of that, but, in the state of PVP as it right now, they are often not OP to the task if you do not have a healer on your team. The other classes have some self heals, but Marauders don't [Anni has some very minor ones] and when your enemies can all regain some of their health and you can't that will catch up to you at a certain point. The DCDs will help get thru fight number 1 ok, but now you are going into fight number two with only half your health and potentially going up against opponents who's health is no so low and when they see you with only half your health and see your holding two glowy sticks, they know that damage you have already taken isn't going anywhere, and they'll often leap for the kill.

 

In my experience, when you do not have a healer in your group, the survivability isn't all that great. That you have 3 minute cooldowns on your two main DCDs, insures that you are going to spend at a minimum at least half of your average length WZ without an active DCD. - In a 12 minute WZ, that equates to 12 seconds of Undying Rage, and 36 seconds of Saber Ward, which accounts for less than one minute of that 12 minute WZ.

 

In PVE this makes no difference at all, and the DCDs are very efficient, but in PVP without a healer you are going to die multiple times no matter what you do. It becomes a battle of attrition, you have to kill a merc' three times' [so to speak =p ] before it sticks, but he only has to kill you once and when he's chucking 40k heat seekers at you, the numbers start to add up and not in your favor. Most of the DCDs are not very good for getting focused by a sniper and a merc at the same time and that happens all the time. And when it does, when that DCD ends, your a dead man without a healer if your enemies are competent. That undying rage is AWESOME for 4 seconds, but after than, your eating it heh, that they choose to stun or slow you for those 4 seconds, thereby denying you from attacking while your defenses protect you in certain instances nullifies it's value as you are no closer to killing them than you were before you used it and now that defensive is gone. Its the Ranged classes that make it difficult, because they can wait your defensives out better than you can theirs, your no threat to them of you're out of melee range.

 

Without a good healer? Gods of War.

Edited by WayOfTheWarriorx
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Marauders do have some excellent DCDs, there's no question of that, but, in the state of PVP as it right now, they are often not OP to the task if you do not have a healer on your team. The other classes have some self heals, but Marauders don't [Anni has some very minor ones] and when your enemies can all regain some of their health and you can't that will catch up to you at a certain point. The DCDs will help get thru fight number 1 ok, but now you are going into fight number two with only half your health and potentially going up against opponents who's health is no so low and when they see you with only half your health and see your holding two glowy sticks, they know that damage you have already taken isn't going anywhere, and they'll often leap for the kill.

 

In my experience, when you do not have a healer in your group, the survivability isn't all that great. That you have 3 minute cooldowns on your two main DCDs, insures that you are going to spend at a minimum at least half of your average length WZ without an active DCD. - In a 12 minute WZ, that equates to 12 seconds of Undying Rage, and 36 seconds of Saber Ward, which accounts for less than one minute of that 12 minute WZ.

 

In PVE this makes no difference at all, and the DCDs are very efficient, but in PVP without a healer you are going to die multiple times no matter what you do. It becomes a battle of attrition, you have to kill a merc' three times' [so to speak =p ] before it sticks, but he only has to kill you once and when he's chucking 40k heat seekers at you, the numbers start to add up and not in your favor. The DCDs are good for getting focused by a sniper and a merc at the same time and that happens all the time. And when it does, when that DCD ends, your a dead man without a healer if your enemies are competent.

 

Remember when I was telling you why I always take Subjugation? :)

 

What you said is true but at the same time things are not nearly as grim as the OP is feeling now, and I think there's scope for him to have a lot more fun with the class with a bit of a change of style, hence my suggestion.

Edited by stoopicus
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Remember when I was telling you why I always take Subjugation? :)

 

What you said is true but at the same time things are not nearly as grim as the OP is feeling now, and I think there's scope for him to have a lot more fun with the class with a bit of a change of style, hence my suggestion.

 

While I have not felt comfortable enough yet to give up another utility for subjugation [which I would love to have], even still, Ruthless Agressor is very good. It really just comes down to the empty time when you don't have DCDs active compared to the amount of time that you do. A decent healer can see you through that though so that is largely mitigated with their presence. It's only when you don't have a healer on your team that you can run into to trouble at times.

 

But I absolutely agree with you, Sentinels/Marauders are FAR from trash in PVP. They tend to be some of the best performers for damage output even if they are dieing alot heh. If you chuck a Mara/Sent a pocket healer? God help those poor bastards who get in your way heh.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I main a marauder (Fury) and not to brag about it.. but even with 230-232 gear rating i kill like i've never done before! You just have to team up or walk with a healer. Yesterday i took 3 players down and had no damage because of the healer. I'm pretty sure that whenever i've 240 or higher gear rating i'll kill evenb more easily. Altho i've to admit that the roation was pretty hard to learn. Its definetely not one of the easier specs to play but it owns when you are good with it. at least that's my experience with my main marauder.
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