Not sure how the rules about dots in general are but for the sentinel, I too have noticed that apart from the initial direct damage of cauterize, the following dot will not be reflected. And force melt just goes straight through. There are some mercs that use reflect (intentional or not) at a very low hp, expecting me to fully unload on them and then still dying because of said dots. Force stasis/choke works fine as well. But will have to test it in a safe and seperated environment to be sure.

Try them all. And then play what you feel the most comfortable with. Because that will be the one which you will contribute the most with. And after a while, no matter which spec you choose, you will realize that some are better for certain situations in pvp but that part comes later as I said. If it is strictly between watchman and combat, I will say this from my personal experience: Combat is a solid choice when you have a group but can be frustrating when you are alone. Watchman works in both cases.

For now, sure. But they all are really beautiful and fun to play. Once you master one spec just try the others and when you come back you realize that you are even a little better than before. I don´t know how to explain this but that´s what I felt and I always keep coming back to every spec after some time. It´s like visiting an old friend or comrade again for some new adventures.

I beg to differ: I had games like long voidstars or novare coasts where I could heal more than 1 million as a melee dps and depending on numbers/skill of actual healers in team the difference is definitely felt by me and other teammates. Of course your own healing is what like 1/4 or 1/5 of a real healer but I wouldn´t call it very small. Healing is of course a big factor, no question, in real intensive games no class or spec could do without to perform on the highest level. The big issue here for me personally is and has always been the question of getting shut down. As others have done it, I also did some extensive testing on all 3 specs and that´s including running them through worst case scenarios. For example: If you are queued solo with unreliable randoms and run into full premades who have an eye for you, guess which specs still could deliver the damage reliably. Not saying that you could win such matches but in terms of delivering enough damage to the enemy team that can not be prevented by them, ataru sadly falls behind the other two specs. Yes, master strike is now "instant" even though the damge got lowered a bit. And with enough alacrity you could indeed fit in many abilities like you said during precision windows. All of that helps but in the end the question everytime still is does the player on the receiving end (or his buddies) let you pull it off. If you have games against weak opponents however, ataru does look more effective since it lets you finish them much faster than the other two. But I personally don´t take these games too seriously. With the merc pandemic and more and more skilled players discovering how to really play a sniper you don´t see that many of our class now. And if you do spot one everybody else does and who is gonna get the special cc treatment, the mara/sent some metres in front of you or the mercs/snipers/sorcs fifty miles behind him. You already have to deal with a high amount of random stuns, roots and mezzes in wzs and if you enter some more coordinated stuff of that followed by guarding and taunts against you the odds are incredibly against you, even more so in ataru.

I only take it in combat/carnage. That is exactly how it was in the past when crippling slash would root only in ataru but now the cost is reduced nicely. Any option to control the enemy is always great, espescially for this spec. Unbound should always be taken in warzones, Undying however is kinda meh... If you have a competent healer you won´t need it and if you don´t, 2 more secs on a def cdf which lasts up to 3 mins isn´t exactly practical imho. But that´s just my playstyle.

Well for you, clearly. But that is irrelevant because not many play ranked and take it seriously anyway.

Then you must be talking about solo ranked because juyo and ataru outshine it in group ranked by far. Funny how each has a taste of their own because the majority of pvpers I know consider solo ranked to be the trash one of all pvp modes available. Not saying that I hate it myself, I personally don´t care about it though. But yeah, for solo ranked fury/conc. is the one that is the most user friendly.

While I do agree with the difficulty overall, I have some serious rage issues when it comes to the damn walker parts of chapter 8... This mess of a design was driving me nuts so much that I considered uninstalling at some point. It´s not that I don´t know what to do but here it is really impossible to do this without dying at least a dozen times before finally moving on. I have yet to find footage of someone who manages to get past the enemies without a single death.

This was actually very beautifully summarized. ^^ I might wanna add that from my experience, carnage/combat shines the most when running with a group. Alone, it is indeed the most vulnerable spec to be likely controlled by competent opponents. Fury/Conc. is almost the perfect spec for a lone wolf. That is if you are not playing a stealther alrdy... or a merc... Watchman/Anni works in both. I personally like all 3 specs and occasionally change them depending on how I feel or how enemy compositions are atm. If there are lots of tanks running around saving their taunts for me, juyo is my go to spec because of dotspread. If I have a group of my own, I go ataru for some nasty burst-combos. And if I am alone with randoms who are not very reliable, shii-cho looks the most attractive. For duels it is depends on the enemy class, but here I prefer juyo in almost every scenario. Funnily though, if I duel against other marauder/sentinels, I found shii-cho to be the most effective even though most (including myself not long ago) are convinced otherwise.

Do not LOS Ultimate Shot, let him cast until there are 2 secs left. He won´t do anything else during that time so always use this to heal yourself and Acina up a bit and then shoot him since any attack will interrupt it. I strongly recommend killing the second elite before engaging the boss himself. Whenever he enters "Death from above mode", have the passive button ready to call Acina back and try to LOS him behind some pillars or graves. Hope that helps.

I laughed so hard

Stealthers actually have the easiest time in the toughest fights of KOTET. Why? You go in, sap one elite, kill the other elite and then immediately vanish. As long as you don´t leave the chamber, the dead elite stays dead. Yes, that is true and will happen, intended or not. ^^ Wait till your vanish is free again and proceed the same way with the other add until there is only the boss. Now, before you engage him I strongly recommend waiting for your vanish to be ready again, because if you messed up during the fight you still can reset it without the elites coming back. Once your dead however, you end up at the medbot farther away and the all the GenoHaradan are back. I know I have already linked my video for the fight some pages ago here but in case you missed it and want to see all the phases of the bossfight and what to do before giving another try, i´m gonna put it here again. Good luck. EDIT: This one is even better for you since it shows the perspective of a scoundrel healer.

Figuring out what of these two to use in certain situations and when excatly is one of the challenges I have whenever I play this spec. Since the mara/sent-variant of smash is so superweak nowadays compared to what it was in the old days, one should think that the buffs shouls be reserved to the big (even if singletarget) hitter. And honestly, an inexperienced sent/mara who does just that in combination with other skills to create constant pressure can have "ok" results. But of course, there are times as well when using smash does provide way more damage than the other. Smash gets used by me very often in warzones like Voidstar, Novare, Civil War, occasionally on Odessen and in your example, the Hypergates. Arenas too, if the enemy group allows it. Basically it´s the question of what priority you wanna have in each moment. Is it high burst on a single target, ideally in tandem with other dps? Or is it putting pressure on an enemy team that has grouped up very close. (Like in Voidstar, when they defend the door and I would prefer them to drop simultaneously.) --- In short, if one is not sure (yet) what to use if both are free, use Raging/Focused Burst.

Yes, everybody and their mother should just play mercenary now.

After reading your entire opening post and all the advices the other players have given you so far, I can tell that despite some misunderstandings (or whatever) these advices are definitely very helpful. Since you are a new player in PvP, it may take some time to fully comprehend all the details but that is a normal process and you should not worry too much about it for now. So I won´t add to that. In fact, I have the impression that you tend to overthink things too much. In a way that makes them more complicated than they already are. (Sorry, if you think that is not true.) I get it, you are new to PvP, a part of the game you were hesitant to join like so many others, and after some first experiences, some good and some bad, you try to find answers for all the things you don´t understand (yet). IMHO, these questions should be the ones you ask yourself first: Has this been fun for you? You say you were initially doing it only for gear reasons etc. Has anything changed or not? If you don´t think it was that much fun then it just isn´t worth it, gear or not. You would do yourself and other PvPers a favor. And if you still seriously want to continue PvP just for the sake of it, trust me, most of your questions will be answered in time after many more games by yourself. That is, if you accept that you will probably lose and die many times before you see some real progress. Some people will tell you you suck if you don´t know how to handle yourself in certain situations. Some people will give you good advice. Some people don´t care. IT IS YOU however who will decide what to do. Finally, I think I will say one or two things about teamplay with different classes though. If this hasn´t been suggested before, I recommend dueling good people from other classes as much as possible. From my own experience that helped the most to understand my class and what to do against others. There you have all the time to review your mistakes, weaknesses and strenghts. The more you do it, the more it will become natural to play in certain situations and under pressure. But that is not the end of course, it is just one opportunity to improve yourself. If you have time, I would recommend leveling all the classes you struggle against. But everything is optional ofc, you decide how to proceed. Anyway, I hope you will have fun with whatever you decide to do.