my wife and I recently finished leveling up my juggernaut and her Inquisitor Healer… it was great, and we can do Heroic 4’s just fine with no one else. So last night, we decided to use my Sentinel who has been retired for some time and she leveled up a healer while I am at work. So we went to Belsalvis to help her with her Heroics, with my 50 and her at 44 and we breezed trough the Heroic 2+ but we got creamed in a heroic 4 even though I am a 50 with Tionese gear, just like my Jugg.

Should I make a Guardian to better compliment her healer…. Not too excited about doing the same story though.

Let me ask this, do we need better tactics to make a Sentinel/Healer work in a Heroic 4 or is that combo a lost cause for that stuff? Your thoughts will help me decide if we should just dump our Jedi and focus on other alts… We are holding off doing much end game stuff with our Sith combo until repair costs are fixed. My Sentinel, in our experiment, cost me 28k in repairs…. I was not about to keep trying different tactics at those prices, figured I would ask some opinions first. Before they jacked up repair costs, her and I would just keep trying different tactics and companions to find what works best.

It is very obvious to me, a Tank/Healer combo is the way to go for 2 people Heroic 4’s based on existing tactics we use… So dump him and build a Guardian or better tactics using a Sentinel to go with her Healer? If not for the crazy repair costs we would just keep trying. Your opinions will count...

I also read that a shadow may be a better tank than a guardian, is this true?

Thank You

Firstly you didn't say what companions you are using. you need to create a full group tank healer and 2 dps, my suggestion would be healer uses tank as its easier to mange abilities and healing effects on it that way. they need to to be geared to the right level as well since companions don't have the deep skill sets of players gearing is what makes them makes them more or less effective. You need to prioritise targets like a group would as well, which leads into the next thing CC. Has to be used, no way around it with only two of you so all companions aoe's need to be off unless your up against single targets.

It can be done, some will be more difficult than others and since you say the healers only lvl44 there will be some of the critical healing skills missing since your wife won't have the points to put into the tree yet. Healer sage does have good versatility though, i ran a lvl 50 h4 today with another healer sage both of us off DPSing using a tank and dps companion, both of us had nothing more than 1 columni peice being mostly tionese, once your wife gets her sages level up a bit and into better gear you really won't run into too many problems with that combo.

hope that helps

You need to be much more active at using your defensive cooldowns. I know you are level 50, but I still see a lot of 50s who have no clue or unaware of the tool they have that makes them even more "Tanky" than a real tank. As a recap, these are the skill you can use:

- Rebuke

- Pacify

- Saber Ward

- Guarded by the Force

- Heroic Moment (Requires a companion to be out)

- Any Legacy moves that you have that comes with Heroic Moments. Namely Unity if you max out your light side points or buy it with credit/Cartel Coins.

Thank you to you both for the reply....

I do prioritize my targets and depending on the matchups, I usually would go for the weaker ones first, so if I die, they will not be there for the second trip. lol. I think the real challenge for me is learning how to use that Sentinel better, I was so use to tanking with her and i got tanking pretty well nailed, but that Sentinel really is more of a challenge, one that I do want to overcome.

For example, her and I wanted to try using our Tanks, like me using Scorge since her tank, Qyzen, is not as strong yet. We have done things with our Sith that worked well, like with a single big time boss, Ill tank with NO DPS, her and my healers will be out there and Ill go to town while being healed by 3… With multiple foes, then we may also both use DPS while she will heal… Fact is, exploring the different ideas was really awesome and fun, I loved the challenge of learing what worked and did not work.

Only because my repair was 28k and going over and over other tactics would have got expensive, I wanted to ask some opinions like yours on how to better manage my Sentinel. Now we are waiting on the next update that will bring back down the repair costs and allow us to explore and experiment again. I am determined to get something to work using my Sentinel…. Since I now know Heroic 4’s can be done by 2 when we were sith tank/healer combo.

One of the things I prefer as begin the tank is my ability to maintain Aggro and keep all focused on me, this is where the Sentinel does not have many options and hence, I became weak using him or trying to use him as a tank, this will not work at these higher levels as I now realize.

Before we stopped, I was using Kira and she was using Nadia for the first fight, we actually did well, then got totally creamed 3 times by the second group before beating them…. That’s when I realized a DPS can’t tank (well, I knew, but tried anyway) and when the next bunch took us out, we went for repairs, I paid 28k and decided to stop without further exploring other methods.

Daragon, I will definitely try the “traditional” methods and I do realize a companion Tank may not be as effective but worth exploring more… maybe 2 tanks at one time and I am the only dps?

Phantom, I will definitely look at better using my skills, I did not think to use “Guarded by the Force” but since I am paired with a healer, she can heal me up right away to make that skill help more, thanks for the tip …. Heroic moment, we love it, just the long cool down makes it so we usually save it for a final boss fight. I will also look into them legacy things that will help, thanks for that tip too.

Basically, I get the impression you both feel my Sentinel is not so bad, I just have to rethink and use better methods, like stop trying to tank with him….when I created my Sentinel, my wife was not playing, so I felt it had some good balance for solo play. If she was able to play on release like I did, I would have went tank at that time since she loves playing a healer… 4 of her 5 toons can heal.

The biggest challenge I am having is probably how to protect my healer as a DPS, with my Tank, it was easy to pull them back to me, not nearly as easy with my Sentinel… once she dies, we all die, so I try hard to protect her.

This is her and mine first MMO, even though we love learning ourselves on how to survive heroics and flashpoints, there are times I know more experience players will have better methods. Soon, we will like to try larger groups, maybe even join a guild.

Thanks guys…