Focus Spec for the win

[Crabbok]

Here is why I like the focus spec, especially for PVP.

 

Better Medals, easier points, more kills. Not only does the endline have a nice slow, but my favorite thing about this line is the enhanced damage for Force Sweep.

 

I leap in, (which gaurantees sweep will crit), grab someone with Force Stasis, (Which boosts the base damage of my next sweep), and then hit sweep. It usually does around 2.5-3K, but sometimes even more. In my late 30's I got over 3300 a few times with a stim. There's something deeply satisfying about jumping into a group and hitting force sweep for over 3K on 4-5 different sith. Plus you can easily get your 2.5K medal as your first attack. I imagine at 50, (I'm only 41 now) with enough gear I could probably break 5K with it. Plus this line allows me to use a more defensive spec, which helps since I like to jump in the middle of groups in pvp.

 

I'm not saying it's the best, but out of all 3 specs, I can get the most medals in PVP with this spec due to the high damage.

[GhostCE]

I'm really enjoying the focus spec too. I am level 50 with a decent amount of level 50 pvp gear and my force sweep hits for about 4k on all targets. So far, I've had the most success with focus in PvP

[MBirkhofer]

So much burst.

 

there are several combo options.

 

 

Complete burst dps+lockdown:

Leap, exhaust, stasis, sweep. zStike, blade storm, dispatch. A soft target will probably die to this outright. The CC lockdown of crush+stasis may seem wasted, but the dps it puts out is HUGE. Then sweep will drop them below 20%. World pvp, with kira, or another dps companion will likely let you kill just about anyone outright. In group pvp, an ally might CC you, or heal your target. As well as your own single dps might not quite be enough, esp vs a tough target to go full burst like this.

 

Extended dps burst:

leap,exhaust,zstrike,bladestorm, sweep, stasis,leg slash, crippling, zleap, sweep. dispatch, slash/zslash/kick as needed.

You can sweep three times in 18s with exhaust-stasis-exhaust. This damage output is very very high.

 

Crush and even stasis hit quite hard as focus. +30 surge, and 7% force crit. (granted a combat will also get the force crit)

Edited December 30, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Saetun]

nice to see some love for focus going on. I have always liked the tree. Watchman just seems so clunky in pvp and on anything other than elites/champions in pve, with most of the healing/dot going wasted as most things die before you ever really get the benefit of it's abilities.

 

I just wish force sweep had a touch more range, as most mob packs in pve are setup so that you always end up with one or two that are just out of range.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Saetun

[MBirkhofer]

yes, that is focus's weakness. Sweep is aoe on YOU. and it is NOT instant. the damage is done at the end of the animation. with knockbacks, roots, speed buffs, leaps, input lag, etc. There is a reasonable chance of sweep missing. Edited December 30, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Crabbok]

Well Focus's other weakness is the lack of building Centering. It's much slower than the other lines.

[MBirkhofer]

that... I don't find much of an issue. while early focus ZEN is the strongest Zen. late game, its good, but actually pales in comparison to force crush/sweep.

Its still good, but your core damage is not slash anymore. a strong slash is just a good dump when your crush is on CD.

Zen is just for building focus late game. Or spamming trancendance, as again, you don't really need Zen for focus dps anymore.

[Koltenkosters]

Can someone provide a good Focus spec and rotation? I know its still early but this would really help me out. Thanks

[acko]

I have just gone Jedi Sentinal and would appreciate a guide where to put my points and a good rotation.

 

Could I be so bold to ask about setup for keybinds, as there seems to be so many skills to use dont know which skill to use:)

 

Only early days for me yet tho at lvl 13:)

[Jinook_Phi]

This is the spec I am building at this point, Im currently Level 28 and its working out so far. I may fine tune this post Level 40.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bZhMMZGrRrdbRbhR.1

[MBirkhofer]

This is the spec I am building at this point, Im currently Level 28 and its working out so far. I may fine tune this post Level 40.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bZhMMZGrRrdbRbhR.1

I highly recommend you change a few things.

 

1. gravity. reduces movement impairing moves focus cost by 1. As far as I can tell.. this is ONLY force crush, and leg slash. A bit weirdly worded, considering its only 2 moves. and almost sounds bad, considering its only 2 moves. but force crush is also core dps and core snare. You really want that point.

2. shi-choo mastery. 20% armor pen is really nice.

 

things you don't need.

1. offhand mastery. This... is bad. offhand attacks normally, only account for like 3% damage tops. so, this talent is increasing a max 3% of your damage.. by 33%.. so like 3 points for 1% or less dps. But its even less then then really, becuase...

Force crush, stasis, sweep, blade storm don't use offhand damage at all. And they are a good 50% or more of your dps. So offhand mastery would be giving a focus spec sentinel like .5% dps increase. That. is terrible.

2. stagger. +1s root on leap. ok. leap in. stasis/exhaust/sweep. honestly, you really do not need this. those points could be elsewhere.

3. uninterruptable ms. I dont even use MS anymore with focus. It gets no talents. sweep/bladestorm/crush/stasis/zleap. I can BARELY fit slash in my rotation.

no npc will interrupt ms. And it wont stop knockbacks/stuns in pvp. Which, again. I dont use MS anymore anyway.

Edited December 31, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Maddoxtor]

4k(6k with surge "trinkets" provided you did your homework and got your reusable Surge Adrenal and Surge Idol) aoe or 5 guaranteed 2k crits from overload saber, short CD interrupt, 3k+ hitting merc strike, better focus and centering generation. I know what Im picking.

Not to mention well timed knockback screws your entire damage output.

Focus is overrated, properly played watchman ***** on any current spec.

 

As much as Id love to have more viable PvP builds theres just way too many benefits in the watchman tree. This halfassed attempt at semi-ranged medium armor support dps just doesnt work. Having to stay stationary during Force Statis with build that is based around force just kills the entire tree.

(guardians can actualy remove the channel from statis for those who arent aware, focus tree needs the same treatment, as opposed to removing the interrupt from stasis)

Edited December 31, 2011 by Maddoxtor

[MBirkhofer]

you underestimate how hard sweep hits.

 

As well as the damage and utility of force crush stasis.

 

A point of knowledge for crush and stasis.

crush ticks for 5s. It deals its first hit instantly. 6 ticks of damage over 5s. +final crush.

Stasis does the same. 3s channel. 4 ticks of damage.

 

My current 45 crush is 266/tick. +707 final.

I also have a 35% force crit rate, and 91% crit damage on force attacks.

Stasis is 393/tick. 1572 over 3s.

Also has 35% force crit. and 91% crit damage on force attacks. and builds 3 focus, and stuns. (sets up sweep)

 

Hell, my master strike is only 2126-2424. but, it has 10% less mh accuracy, 7% less crit %, 30% less crit damage. And up to 222 damage has a 60% hit chance due to offhand acc.

Yeah, Im going to say flat out, my stasis does more damage then master strike on average. Never mind +focus, and stuns.

Can it get interrupted? sure. anything can. But its still a stun.

And I can do it 13s more often. thats 22% more frequently.

Edited December 31, 2011 by MBirkhofer

[Maddoxtor]

Everything does more damage than master strike

Having up to 6k sweeps Im pretty sure I dont underestimate the damage, but its far from reliable as the animation is horrible. And after sweeping and bladestorming you are left with mediocre 8s interrupt and barely any damage, yeh you can spam slash, but when i resort to slashing my bleeds are still there, hitting like truck.

 

Unreliable stun and relatively long CD/low damage snare doesnt make the tree any better.

Its nice your stasis hits "so hard" but can you for example do 6k+ dmg from bleeds while your stasis is ticking? And if you get knocked back during sweep cast? You are in trouble.

 

Sure the 100% crits are tempting, but then again Watchman gets same treatment with zeal.

As much fun as it is to play it just isnt good tree. Once your sweep is gone you are sitting duck waiting for cooldowns tickling stuff for only portion of damage watchman would do while waiting for his merciless strike CD.

 

Id be the first person in line for having all trees equaly viable, but it just isnt the case right now and going anything but watchman is gimping yourself, sure it might be fun but its just not ideal.

 

In the end, everyone will play what he enjoys and you have my full support in tearing people apart as focus sentinel. I just dont want everyone to think its THE build to go for when PvPing as the title implies as there are more optimal specs for PvP, especialy if you plan on doing more then just pugging warzones.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Maddoxtor

[MBirkhofer]

Everything does more damage than master strike

Having up to 6k sweeps Im pretty sure I dont underestimate the damage, but its far from reliable as the animation is horrible. And after sweeping and bladestorming you are left with mediocre 8s interrupt and barely any damage, yeh you can spam slash, but when i resort to slashing my bleeds are still there, hitting like truck.

 

Unreliable stun and relatively long CD/low damage snare doesnt make the tree any better.

Its nice your stasis hits "so hard" but can you for example do 6k+ dmg from bleeds while your stasis is ticking? And if you get knocked back during sweep cast? You are in trouble.

 

Sure the 100% crits are tempting, but then again Watchman gets same treatment with zeal.

As much fun as it is to play it just isnt good tree. Once your sweep is gone you are sitting duck waiting for cooldowns tickling stuff for only portion of damage watchman would do while waiting for his merciless strike CD.

 

Id be the first person in line for having all trees equaly viable, but it just isnt the case right now and going anything but watchman is gimping yourself, sure it might be fun but its just not ideal.

 

In the end, everyone will play what he enjoys and you have my full support in tearing people apart as focus sentinel. I just dont want everyone to think its THE build to go for when PvPing as the title implies as there are more optimal specs for PvP, especialy if you plan on doing more then just pugging warzones.

 

18s crush is long cooldown? and its low damage? what? Did you miss the part where I just explained it hits hard. it hits harder then merc strike, and master strike.

It also does more then overload sabre.

And sweep is on a 9s cd. bladestorm 9s too. Trust me, Im not defenseless without double damage/crit sweeps. As if between crush-stasis-crush, I can't do 3 sweeps in 3 cd's.

Focus is not just viable. it excels in pvp.

[FourTwent]

As much fun as it is to play it just isnt good tree. Once your sweep is gone you are sitting duck waiting for cooldowns tickling stuff

 

 

this is the issue I had with the force tree. but i will say i only used the focus tree until early 30s

 

boy is it awesome early on when you go against a full group of weak pve mobs. but if there's an elite in there, or if you're doing pvp. you're sitting there, twiddling you're thumbs pretending to do damage while those are on timer. plus any of the 3 trees doesn't have an issue taking out a pack of weak mobs, killing them with one sweep is nice, but are you really having issues taking out a pack of weak mobs anyway?

 

the more you level the more eiltes/champions you start to see, and force is not putting up the damage needed for them. at least in my opinion

 

i switched to watchman and have not had any issue with any elites/champions. or even like 2 strongs with some weaks around them.

Edited January 1, 2012 by FourTwent

[Maefly]

The Focus tree is a really fun tree to play and has some serious group PvP advantages. I ran it in the late 40's and for the first few days of 50 while pvping with friends. Being able to pin someone down every 18 seconds while putting out a lot of AoE damage is very useful and everyone likes to see those big numbers come up especially with a Valorous call + Inspiration + trinkets + stim sweep. 6k is easy even in late 40s gear.

 

However, like others I can get sweep to hit maybe 75% of the time. The rest of the time I play Miraluka pinball as I bounce from AoE knock back to AoE knock back. Exhaustion helps a bit with this but there still is a lot of luck involved in actually landing a sweep on the intended target...more so if there are multiple targets who might be ccing you.

 

Add to this the slight (and of course by slight I mean large) pvp synchronization issue and the prioritization of animation over action and you're left out of range far too often. And that's if they are just moving around. If they start fighting back or stunning, aoe knock back, pushing, rooting, or mezzing you, it's nearly impossible to keep a target in the 10m sweep radius.

 

Yes, Focus hits hard but has some serious focus generation issues. I found myself striking more often than I would like and struggling when leaps are on CD. It's like a huge cannon for the first 3 or 4 GCD then I slap people with my wet-noodle-lightsaber until my cannon reloads 8 or so seconds later. And 8 seconds is an eternity in PvP.

 

On the other side, you have easy to apply dots that tick no matter how far you get knocked out, less buggy animation, and much more available focus and centering. Watchman does do less burst damage, I don't think that's a question but it does allow for consistent damage in the current PvP environment while Focus has an unacceptably high "oops, missed" rate.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Maefly

[NJoyTheSilence]

Focus is better as a guardian. They have a talent that makes sweep do 30percent more damage, put up higher numbers, and wear heavy armor. Focus specced guardians are better than focus specced sents, just how it is. Edited January 1, 2012 by NJoyTheSilence

[MBirkhofer]

Again, I don't understand this thought, that focus revolves entirely around sweep. Its like that big number clouds peoples eyes on how much damage and utility the rest of the tree provides.

your bladestorms are buffed just as much as combats. particularly true with a decent amount of crit gear.

Already asserted Crush hits HARD.

 

guardian vs sent focus is a real question. 30% on sweep is ALOT. And it is really hard to find much to counter that.

The most obvious is centering. amusingly, while focus Zen is its single biggest strongpoint pre-crush. 40-50 focus Zen becomes less and less useful. Crush/stasis/sweep/bstorm damage is so high, that even free slashes aren't as good. And this is where transcendence with its +10 centering after use, gets really nice. esp in pvp. pve... ok, not as much.

 

Sentinels have more mit then dps guardians. Quite a bit actually. Trancendance. Guarded by the force on a 45s cd for focus pvp. Awe. Rebuke. Pacify. Force camo.

4% more damage reduc in sent focus and def forms.

Guardian focus has better focus gen. 1/6s taking damage. combat focus active, and talent buff. sabre throw, and shorter cd on sabrethrow.

While sent has focus reduc tools. 1 focus sweeps, vs guardians 3 focus sweeps that deal 30% more damage. And focused slash +focus.(esp good with zen)

Guardian has a free blade storm after a leap(either one), while sents just have 3 focus storms. These combined give the guard a bit more burst. Leap in. crush, sabrethrow, 3 focus sweep. free storm.0focus sent, leap in, crush, zstrike, 1 focus sweep, 3 focus storm. 2 left. 9s cd on storm though. you'll be using it more often then leaps. Esp true as blade storms 10m range means you will often be using it when not in melee range, and dont want to waste a leap onto someone.

 

awe aoe mez vs aoe slow on guardian.

Guardian has guard.... but.. again, dps guardian is actually softer then a sent. would not be wise to use.

force push interrupt. damn nice indeed.

Enure. not remotely as good as sent def tools.

Taunts are decent.

sabre throw is very good. arm pen debuff. +3 focus. long range. a great opener, allowing leap to be saved.

Guardian leap. Get out of jail free card. as well as a damage reduc on that target. More mobility is always nice.

 

sent.

zstrike. low damage/melee, but 6 focus.

rebuke. is awesome. and you know it. +centering. 20% damage reduc for fairly long term. damage reflect.

zen, transcendence, inspiration. The +speed is godlike in huttball, civil war, voidstar after taking out doors. just plain kiting.

leg slash. yeap.

crippling throw. yeap.

pacify. 1vs anything/one? yeap.

force camo. is ok.. honestly, I dont feel its as strong as others feel. I pop this and always seem to keep getting hit. maybe 1 in 10 times it actually works enough for me to break out, and drop getting hit. need to hit it earlier?

guarded by the force. 1% godmode. Mixed bag skill. if it works, its an iwin button. if it doesn't, you died. fixing input lag will make this 100% better. as it is, I often hit this, only to have nothing happen. and thus die, as I only had 3kish hp. When to use: obvious time. when low and still fighting. a healing pot is 4.5k. Make sure your heal, will heal more then you do to yourself.

valorous call. meh. Pretty much only exists to give that 30 centering for start of game trans. Which granted is awesome. will get your team to huttball, or center alderaan node first. team WITH this, has a huge advantage over team that does not.

 

1v1 anything one. leap in. stasis 3s. pacify 6s rebuke/trans 30s. sabreward.6s. guarded by the force 5s (wait till around 2-3k to hit this, use healing pot immediately after)... 50s of near invulnerability? ok. Npcs as a sent are a joke using this combo. This also works on players though.

[Cancrizans]

Ya idk what it is, but I have a lv 32 Sentinel who was combat and rerolled on another server to play with friends, and decided to try Focus out...and I am really pleased with it so far. For some reason I seem to have less downtime and I just kill stuff faster and easier. Not entirely sure why, but the tree has some nice utility and very useful talents for questing and killing mobs.

[NJoyTheSilence]

Ya idk what it is, but I have a lv 32 Sentinel who was combat and rerolled on another server to play with friends, and decided to try Focus out...and I am really pleased with it so far. For some reason I seem to have less downtime and I just kill stuff faster and easier. Not entirely sure why, but the tree has some nice utility and very useful talents for questing and killing mobs.

 

Doesn't saber throw also build focus? I think I would give the edge to guardian focus specs. The tree feels built for them.

[MBirkhofer]

yes, that was listed. But they also dont have zstrike.

[Saetun]

Just wondering if one of you more experienced focus users would be willing to share your spec. I have one I have been using, but not sure I am happy with it. Very similar to the spec that was posted earlier in this thread.

[MBirkhofer]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bcZ0MZGbRrdrMdGR.1

 

should note. I skip a number of the focus skills leveling, and come back to them after I get the points in other trees.

1 in pulse. 1 in agil training. don't need inner focus till 46ish as well.

Quick recovery AND def forms are really good when you get there too. 1 point in each first, before finishing them off.

[MBirkhofer]

A couple notes on focus.

 

1. as discussed in the pvp thread.

inner focus appears to be bugged.

I have 1 point in it, and its should give 5 focus after transcendence.

What it is doing, is going 5 focus per party member after trans.

me +companion=10. 4 man flashpoint/pvp group=20.

 

 

2. force crush ticks 6 times. 1 instantly, then 5 over 5s. Consider that for damage dealt.

AND. singularity applications.

Force sweep does its animation first, and will deal the damage AFTER 1.5s.

crush 1.5s GCD. 2 applications of singularity will be applied. sweep immediately. and it will land with 3 or 4 applications applied.

 

And then crush will tick for 2 or 3 time MORE. applying stacks of singularity, again. And will be up for your next 9s cd sweep. singularity lasts 15s.

Edited January 2, 2012 by MBirkhofer