holy crap! I am leveling an Sin right now, I'm bored of my Sentinel if I'm honest and really am loving that Deception tree... i'm getting used to how it works... man that's a crazy huge hit, i'm guessing that has to be maul with an exptert buff, or maybe that "inspiration" mirror? Against low geared cat? 8k is like holy crap

vanishing hack has been reported plenty of times. I've had it happen to me too man. Cheap ****.

combat ussually isn't focus starved depending on how you spec... you should be taking talents when you're playing that give you focus while you're being hit or build centering while taking dmg so that you can reduce your focus usage with Zen for example. Zealous strike has a really short cooldown in Combat past a certain level if you spec for the perk. I seem to always have 3 to 6 focus in Combat. Freakin' Smash spec is always high on the Focus because of zen and free force sweeps. Watchman gets lots of free Focus and shorter leap cooldowns and range to build up. summary; shouldn't be an issue. Just keep leveling

Sentinels are great for PvP but build wise, Watchman in PvP isn't the best, but probably until lvl 40 you wouldn't want to use the other trees. Up till lvl 20 though, use your Focus tree, since you have limited skills and most lower talents in Focus are perks for the low level skills you do currently have. Combat can be useful but really your dps will be horrible until you can get Percision slash and then really still to be honest won't be that great till 40 with Bladerush. Watchman is a good tree for PvE but higher level healers will just cancel out your burns in PvP if they know what's good for them. Google search for Watchman builds and you'll get loads of hits I'm sure.

Assasin or Shadow hybrid in PvP is overall probably the most useful class you can play. If you want to just do huge DPS numbers a Sentinel/Marauder or a Gunslinger/Sniper. If you want to heal, Operative or Scoundrel.

make Smash's AoE a little more tame... make it a targeted player takes the full smash but everyone around him takes %50 of that smash or the buff from the leap or singularity a debuff on a target not a buff to the warrior/knight. You still get viable burst, and good AoE but not 6k crits to 5 people.

I always have a lowbee toon on the PVP grind because I find it's really fun and more challenging in some ways, yet easier in others. Firstly, depending on your class it's harder to do your job when you don't have all your abilities. Typically until your 30s it's hard to have 'a build' or anything like that... you have a handful of abilities, enough to heal or dps or tank but really not many. Once you're in your 40's you essentially have the tools you do at 50 except for your top skill which in most cases isn't that special. the big difference is most people tend to just death match, more so then 50 pvp imo... people want to go out there on their lvl 40 rage jug and smash the level 15s to oblivion not caring about the ball or guarding nodes... which to me is really funny because I currently play a Scoundrel scrapper and reck anyone 1v1 and often 2v1 but I tend to hang out in the endzone for goals in huttball and we win a lot of then 6-0 which I find to be a lot of fun. I leveled my commando to 50 through class quest and PvP and a little bit of FPs and loved it in PvP. I leveled my Juggernaught through PvE and didn't have as much fun. Lowbee PVP is a lot of fun... but dealing with twinks can be just as annoying, in fact more so then having to run against a bunch of EWH players waiting for their rated team to come on.

If you want to PvP at the end game Watchman is less and less popular now until they make your burns uncleansable by healers. The majority of your damage is going to be from Cauterize and Overload saber and a healer can just cut off all that whole rotation with the click of one button that has a shorter cooldown then your entire rotation does to pull off. When they nerfed Watchman they made it unreliable in PvP and that's why you see every other Sentinel in Combat or Focus (i'd say 70% focus 20% Combat 10% Watchman these days). BUT if you're heart-set on Watchman it's not a difficult rotation . Pick your victim Force Leap when you're flying through the air, use Overload Sabre When you land, Zealous Strike (1 stack of OS) Cauterize (2stacks OS and Merciless Slash (SLash if MS is on cooldown) then pop Zen if you can... then typically Masterstrike or slash till you dump focus. You should have a 6s interupt, this is very important. Use rebuke when you're in a fight, use Saberward if you're in a close fight or against another OP class like a Powertech for example. Use your Force Cammo a lot (you can spec to have a lot of extra run speed and longer duration, this is your most useful cooldown). Try out Focus if you're lvl 40, watch some face smashing loldps ****. Combat is a lot of fun too, especially for huttball if you're playing to win and not deathmatching.

Watchman and Combat are the popular choices in PvE both have things they do that contribute to the group. Both have good sustained DPS, Watchman has better sustained DPS. Combat has more burst dmg for burn phases of boss encounters. If you have two Sentinels in your raiding groups it's probably a good idea to have one watchman and one combat for if you're on the final boss fight in EC you need to burn down the boss in phases very quickly, the quick single target burst dmg from Combat sentinels can really help you reach these goals. Then again if you don't have a combat sentinel it won't matter. They don't bring as much to the group in terms of utility that a Watchman would (the healing from zen which isn't much but it's at least a little bit, the shorter cooldowns on the interupts so on and so forth) but in a short window a Combat Sentinel will do insane amounts of burst. Guardians often will get relegated to their tanking role. I don't know a lot of Guardians that get to DPS in raids that often even though they're perfectly viable to do it.

interesting post by the OP, although using '5k' is not really that reliable... gear is everything in PvP... i think we all know that Smash/Sweep is the scramble in your eggs in PvP. Lately I've been running around on my Sentinel which I often switch around specs for laughs and just to not be another contributor to the whole "DERPSMASH" epidemic going on. The hardest I've ever hit anyone in PvP was with Masterstrike's last tick which I hit someone for 7k with... no one should be able to hit anyone regardless of gear gap or circumstances for that hard... I think that besides Derpsmash and lolertech DPS on all the classes is fine in PvP (ymmv)

i like the ttk in this game. GW2 the TTK is way to long. I played Warhammer online and I could kill a target in 2 or 3 global cooldowns in that game if I wanted to. I think our TTK is actually right where it should be. just my 2 cents

Snipers and DPS Powertechs are the only two classes I think twice about going after without any sort of support. Snipers are at least relatively easy to evade but Powertechs are much more difficult. I pop pacify on them force cammo and say 'cya later' if they target me. I tend to play Combat or Focus in PVP depending on how I feel when I log on, Combat is far easier to deal with Snipers then Focus since that whole spec is just a 1 trick pony (maybe 2 tricks) while Combat you can pacify from a longer rage when they knock you back and cammo out of their root. Getting in their face after they use their knockback basically is going to force them to use whatever other cd's to keep from eating your 3 shots from master strike, or at least that's what I tend tos ee these days... a lot of Snipers will take the first 2 hits and then flashbank on the 3rd strike (which tends to be that 5k+ tick + the bladestorm a split second later). It can't be said enough that LOS of a sniper is your best weapon, and then letting Gunslingers or Commando's deal with them while you chase around their healers. I avoid snipers because they' are such a good counter to Sentinels if especially that Right hand tree (can't remember the name, never played a sniper but did play a slinger)

thanks, I've been having back pains the last few months carrying pugs in general. This should help a lot. Thanks!!

the 4 piece bonus is pretty epic when you are focus spec especially, you're smashing people for7k and **** it's good for combat too, leap in rooted masterstrike will almost 1 shot someone unless they're pretty geared.

i made my scoundrel and have worked out his gear for a similar purpose, to annoy the crap out of twinks... I wouldn't say he's a twink because his gear isn't optimized in any way but I've got 400 cyber on him and he's in all purple mods and armorings for his level, and his gear is augmented... 14k hp in wz is pretty good without talented into the HP bonus. He's just well geared for his level. I bet easily I could spend a little time to make sure all his **** was purple and straight up pimped out at 49 and quit wz with 30s like some of these fools do... but why.. I like pvp at lvl 50 for the most part, even if you get rolled for the first week or two lolz it's fun to run into a twinked out Focus marauder and rip his face off before he has a chance to even think about popping 'guarded' because, well it's just about the funniest thing you can do in game.