Centering - How? Why? What the...?

[Pitchwife]

Hi all,

 

Obligatory disclaimer: I have googled, I have tried digging in the forum, and have not found this answered. I may have missed a thread, and if so I apologize.

 

I understand that my Sentinel has "Centering." I have read the text "[a]ctivating an attack that spends focus and defeating opponents builds Centering." But for the life of me, I have no idea how and when it goes down or when it goes up. I accidentally stumbled across the Mandolorian Heroic, alone, and had a pleasurable half-hour of constantly using my abilities and dropping enemies, and the Centering meter never dipped off of 30. I've been in story encounters where I lost sight of the counter (having given up trying to manipulate it), then noticing that it had dropped to 8.

 

I'm 23rd level and have never, NEVER, activated the Zen ability, which I understand is not normal. I'm not the type to say this is a bug, clearly I need to "learn to play" as the cool MMO kids say these days. So please, someone - explain to me the ways of stacking centering?

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Pitch

[EasymodeX]

1. Your Centering stacks is a small buff icon on your buff bar. Your buff bar is above the left side of your ability bar.

 

2. Every focus-spending attack builds 2. Killing blows on stuff builds 1 or 2 IIRC. Talents can build Centering as well in various ways.

 

3. After 60 seconds of not building Centering, your stack will expire.

 

4. At 30 stacks, you can consume the stacks to activate your Zenstuff and stuff. Now go kick some ***.

Edited December 30, 2011 by EasymodeX

[AeetesSixFive]

Centering is to activate our Zen, which you already stated, and theres some neat things that you get later on we can use centering on that are more support buffs. But centering is built by using abilits such as Slash it uses focus and grants us the number of focused used in centering, I believe. When you activate your Zen, which can help a lot in situations, different forms effect what happens when you pop Zen. Like I said it can be really helpful and almost always a DPS increase. You wanna try and use Zen as much as possible.

[Pitchwife]

OMG...

 

I.. ugh. I have to try this when I get home tonight. But somebody tell me this - does the number on the centering counter go down as you get closer or go up?

 

This may be the biggest herp derp in my gaming career...

[seven_deadlies]

Zen and Transcendence both burn off that stack of 30. In fact, neither can be used until you have 30.

 

For the most part, I run around in Shii-Cho form. So when I hit Zen, my Slash activates without burning off 3 Force. You can do that 6 times before the free wears off. I tend to use that during big boss fights when I just want to mash Slash repeatedly.

 

If you use Juyo form, hit Zen, then hit them with Cauterize, you get a small Heal over time. Somewhat helpful when your pet or party needs a little healing. Not a substitute for a real healer in the group! =)

 

Haven't used Transcendence at all, so no clues there.

 

Basically, Centering has uses, so long as you remember what to activate, in which order, and when.

 

But... I'm not one for clicking 500 buttons as I play. So it depends on the situation, at least until we can macro abilities.

Edited December 30, 2011 by seven_deadlies

[EasymodeX]

Centering builds up to 30.

 

Edit: Don't sweat it: the game never mentions the mechanic and you're not the first to overlook the tiny, non-color coded buff bar that counts as reason #2578 why SWTOR has the worst UI released for an MMO in the past decade .

Edited December 30, 2011 by EasymodeX

[Pitchwife]

Well you're too kind; my stupidity is even worse. I *saw* the damn thing, but it was almost always on 30 and I mistakenly assumed (yes yes, I know the jokes) that since that's where it was when I first saw it it would eventually lower until the ability was ready.

 

I have had access to Zen for forever after all. Thanks all, I'm all better now.

[Zhakul]

There is also a talent at the first level of combat tree called defensive forms. It gives me centering everytime I am attacked and it is giving me a full stack of it off a single silver mob. Very nice.

[Ryat]

What is really awesome is to have Focused Slash in the Watchman tree maxed out. With Zen active you actually build Focus with Slash.

[Dredknut]

^ x2

 

Also, something I discovered the other day... I typically run around in Juyo form for the increased dps as that is all I have available at my current level. However, when you pop Zen in Su-Chii (or wahtever) mode, your Slash ability is not only free for 6 uses, but it also hits the closest mob to your target as well.

 

I figured I'd hotkey the different forms and switch if I needed some additional AoE in Su-Chii form.

 

When switching forms, all accumulated focus is reduced to zero. So, you can switch forms mid-fight, however you have to start building focus from 0 all over again.

[SpirtikusTor]

^ x2

 

Also, something I discovered the other day... I typically run around in Juyo form for the increased dps as that is all I have available at my current level. However, when you pop Zen in Su-Chii (or wahtever) mode, your Slash ability is not only free for 6 uses, but it also hits the closest mob to your target as well.

 

I figured I'd hotkey the different forms and switch if I needed some additional AoE in Su-Chii form.

 

When switching forms, all accumulated focus is reduced to zero. So, you can switch forms mid-fight, however you have to start building focus from 0 all over again.

 

Su-Chii Epic. Sorry for being off-topic.

[Fryseboks]

You stack centering when you use focus-spenders.

 

As watchman I can use zen pretty much every other fight or so, with the +2 focus-building talent.

 

It's really good and should definately be used a lot. Self healing and damage in juyo form is great with it when fighting elites and can really save you, and in Chii Sho form it's great for AoE.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Fryseboks

[Dredknut]

Su-Chii Epic. Sorry for being off-topic.

 

 

There are now officially 3 different names for the same form found in this thread...

 

Su-Chii

Shii-Cho

Chii-Sho

[SpirtikusTor]

 

There are now officially 3 different names for the same form found in this thread...

 

Su-Chii

Shii-Cho

Chii-Sho

 

:D Funny stuff

[iwanbo]

All the tool tips in game say what to use centering for and if it builds/uses centering.

 

The tool tip for Zen says that it converts 30 centering and lasts for six charges, and that each form has a different effect:

Shii-Cho - Slash costs no focus and strikes one additional nearby enemy.

Juyo - Increases the critical chance of your burn attacks by 100% and causes burn damage to heal your party for 1% of max health each tick

Ataru - Reduces focus cost of slash and blade rush by 1 and reduce their global cooldown by .5 seconds

 

There are also talent points you can use to improve how quickly you gain centering points. In combat there is "defensive forms" which with 2 points in it says it will build 2 centering when attacked and that the effect only procs every 1.5 seconds. There is also Temperance which will give you one centering for every enemy you kill.

 

In Watchman there is Valor which gives you one centering when using abilities that spend focus.

 

In Focus there is Inner Focus which with 2 points into it gives you ten centering when Transcendence ends.

 

It's all pretty much explained in-game on the tool tips, you guys just have to read them.

 

I do want to point out in this thread that the tool tip for Inner Focus is incorrect (or it's bugged). It says that with 1 point in it you will gain 5 centering when Transcendence ends, and with 2 points in it you will gain 10 centering when Transcendence ends. This is incorrect. With 1 point into it you will get 10 centering, and 2 points into it you will get 20 centering. I'm Focus specced on my 35 Sentinel and I basically spam Transcendence nonstop since I build centering so quickly.

 

Hope this helps some of you.

Edited December 31, 2011 by iwanbo

[SowanutZ]

so can someone give me a step by step example of how to do this? im new to this and lost as fudge!!!

[yillin]

so can someone give me a step by step example of how to do this? im new to this and lost as fudge!!!

 

Step-by-step of what? Building and using centering?

 

Step 1: Enter combat

 

Step 2: Use abilities that COST focus. Strike, leap, and zealous strike will not build centering. Slash, cauterize, blade storm, force sweep, etc. will build centering.

 

Step 3: When centering reaches 30 then zen, transcendence, and whatever the third one is called will light up. If you want to use one of those 3 abilities, press their hotkey. If you used zen, your 30 centering will disappear and be replaced by a similar looking buff that starts at 6. You now have roughly 30 seconds to use those 6 charges. For Shii-cho, your slash hits 1 extra target and costs no focus for the next 6 uses of slash. For Juyo, your burns (damage over times applied by cauterize and overload saber) will have a 100% crit chance for 6 ticks and heal you and your party for 1% health. For Ataru, your slash and blade rush both cost 1 less focus (2 focus now) and their global cooldown is 1.0 second instead of 1.5 for the next combined 6 uses of the two attacks (but honestly, if you have blade rush, you don't use slash anymore). Transcendence replaces your centering buff with a transcendence buff that lasts for 15 seconds I think. Third one does the same and lasts for 30 (?) seconds.

 

Step 4: Reap the benefits of your centering. Once it ends, go back to step 1. If you don't use your centering stacks, they will be lost after 60 seconds from the last one you earned and you will have to start over from 0.

 

 

 

If you are going up the watchman tree and you grab all of the valor talent and the defensive forms talent from combat, you can have max centering every battle with a group of enemies and multiple times against elites and champions.

Edited January 11, 2012 by yillin