Sentinel stat priorities?

[relnix]

Just want to make sure I'm equipping the right stats.

[Fascion]

Your bread and butter stat is going to be Strength.

Willpower is at least a little bit helpful to us, but should be avoided like the plague, short of ungodly ratios to the aforementioned primary stat.

 

Endurance is good for little more than HP. You want enough to not die all the time, but not so much that it starts eating into your DPS. The amount needed will largely depend on what you are doing (50 grind, PVP, Ops, etc...)

 

 

 

Now, here is where it get's interesting...

 

Accuracy, when over 100%, serves to reduce the liklihood of your enemies avoidance in combat. This will most likely be a stat solely for Ops, though a little bit of it never hurt anyone.

 

Power increases the damage of all attacks/heals. Given that we are more of a sustained DPS class, some might argue that increasing the power in each and every swing is a good thing. This is potentially your secondary stat.

 

Critical rating serves to increase the liklihood of critical hits. Without much effort, you can expect to hit 20% or so. By default, crits deal 50% increased damage. This is another potentially secondary stat, weighted fairly equally with...

 

Surge. Surge increases the amount of bonus damage you will see from your critical hits. This stat will undoubtedly be your tertiary, as, by default, crits occur often enough for even non-crit builds to see benefit.

 

 

 

To be honest, though, it's all fairly relative to what you plan to be doing. Different builds may call for different stat priorities. For example, a 'Combat' build has a guaranteed critical about every 9 seconds, so it may favor Surge more highly than Power or Crit. Folks who do a lot of PVP may favor Crit over Power for higher spike damage, and may even want some extra Endurance for longevity. The Ops crowd, after much theorycrafting and testing will probably find some golden ratio of these three stats to make for the perfect DPS build.

[relnix]

ahh i see thanks....what is an Ops though?

[sCaryDeth]

Operations. As in SWTOR's version of Raids.

[relnix]

i see,,,i have another question....whats the skill rotation for combat spec?

[Garrlor]

i see,,,i have another question....whats the skill rotation for combat spec?

 

Depends on your level to be honest with you. At level 35 I normally open with a Leap>Zealous Strike>Precision Strike. Then, hopefully my ataru form has procced so I have an auto crit Blade Storm, which is next in line. I will use slash as a filler to give an Ataru form one last chance to proc my Auto crit, then hit Bladestorm.

 

I find that using a master strike following a precision strike produces good results.

 

At lower levels, simply use Bladestorm whenever it is off cooldown, and only use Cauterize on a strong/elite mob. Master Strike should also be used early in a fight.

 

Stat wise, you want to stack strength, as it increases our damage output more than power. I would assume that it is similar to WOW in that each point of strength gives us more of a boost to damage than power does by itself, but I dont know for sure yet.

 

Secondary stats are between crit, accuracy and surge. As a combat Sent, you will find accuracy isnt a problem due to Ataru form and talents (6% bonus accuracy straight off), your main hand special attacks will always hit an on level target due to this fact.

 

Personally, I am looking to stack more surge/crit than anything else. When you have maxed out the tree you can control when you get your Auto Crit BS procs using Blade Rush, which increases the value of surge by a hell of a lot. Its like having 1 attack every 9 seconds that hits like a train, with 100% armour pen to go with your focus building attacks too.

 

At this point I would say a Precision Slash>Blade Rush>Blade Storm combo is the way to go, with everything else being a focus generating filler move. Lots of sustained Burst DPS, great for PVP and PVE.

[Venan]

Depends on your level to be honest with you. At level 35 I normally open with a Leap>Zealous Strike>Precision Strike. Then, hopefully my ataru form has procced so I have an auto crit Blade Storm, which is next in line. I will use slash as a filler to give an Ataru form one last chance to proc my Auto crit, then hit Bladestorm.

 

I find that using a master strike following a precision strike produces good results.

 

At lower levels, simply use Bladestorm whenever it is off cooldown, and only use Cauterize on a strong/elite mob. Master Strike should also be used early in a fight.

 

Stat wise, you want to stack strength, as it increases our damage output more than power. I would assume that it is similar to WOW in that each point of strength gives us more of a boost to damage than power does by itself, but I dont know for sure yet.

 

Secondary stats are between crit, accuracy and surge. As a combat Sent, you will find accuracy isnt a problem due to Ataru form and talents (6% bonus accuracy straight off), your main hand special attacks will always hit an on level target due to this fact.

 

Personally, I am looking to stack more surge/crit than anything else. When you have maxed out the tree you can control when you get your Auto Crit BS procs using Blade Rush, which increases the value of surge by a hell of a lot. Its like having 1 attack every 9 seconds that hits like a train, with 100% armour pen to go with your focus building attacks too.

 

At this point I would say a Precision Slash>Blade Rush>Blade Storm combo is the way to go, with everything else being a focus generating filler move. Lots of sustained Burst DPS, great for PVP and PVE.

 

By my understanding you'll want to stack as many physical attacks after your Precision Slash as you can in order to maximize the armor pen. bonus, so throwing in Blade Storm so soon after that Precision Slash wastes it.

 

My suggestion would be to open with Force Leap (if possible)>Zealous Slash>Precision Slash>Slash>Slash>Strike>Blade Storm>Master Strike

 

Then begin anew with Zealous Slash. The idea is to build up a good amount of Focus with Leap and Zealous Slash, giving you plenty of Focus for Precision Slash, and your regular Slash attacks. The final Strike is there to both take advantage of the 100% armor pen. and ensure you have enough Focus for that 100% crit chance Blade Storm. The Master Strike is there ASSUMING that Zealous Slash hasn't come off cooldown yet. Really you only want to hit Master Strike in these moments when you have low Focus and Zealous Slash hasn't come off cooldown yet. In the event that Master Strike is also on CD Strike is always a good Focus-building ability that also has a chance of initiating an Ataru form strike.

 

Edit: Although most of my points about not utilizing BS seem to be wrong as, apparently, it DOES do physical damage and not Force Damage as previously thought.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Venan

[Garrlor]

By my understanding you'll want to stack as many physical attacks after your Precision Slash as you can in order to maximize the armor pen. bonus, so throwing in Blade Storm so soon after that Precision Slash wastes it.

 

My suggestion would be to open with Force Leap (if possible)>Zealous Slash>Precision Slash>Slash>Slash>Strike>Blade Storm>Master Strike

 

Then begin anew with Zealous Slash. The idea is to build up a good amount of Focus with Leap and Zealous Slash, giving you plenty of Focus for Precision Slash, and your regular Slash attacks. The final Strike is there to both take advantage of the 100% armor pen. and ensure you have enough Focus for that 100% crit chance Blade Storm. The Master Strike is there ASSUMING that Zealous Slash hasn't come off cooldown yet. Really you only want to hit Master Strike in these moments when you have low Focus and Zealous Slash hasn't come off cooldown yet. In the event that Master Strike is also on CD Strike is always a good Focus-building ability that also has a chance of initiating an Ataru form strike.

 

Edit: Although most of my points about not utilizing BS seem to be wrong as, apparently, it DOES do physical damage and not Force Damage as previously thought.

 

Lol, I saw your edit at the end there

 

Having tested out BS with Precision or no precision, it does seem to hit for at least 2-300 more damage per crit with precision strike up. You still have plenty of time to get some physical hits in, plenty. To be honest, I changed to Leap>Precision>Zealous>BS when procced. I am a healers nightmare in PVP, as I can knock half a health bar off easy when everything works well. Throw in a slash or strike, with master strike and it can take someone down in about 5-6 GCD's, not bad for a "gimped" class.

 

My wife will attest to this, as she heals me in PVE and PVP, and is amazed at the ammount of focused fire I end up suffering due to my burst DPS.