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Guide: Sentinel Combat/Focus PvP Min/Max for 2.0


Dawginole

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I felt like it was about time we had a guide for min/maxing for PvP in here for 2.0.

 

By request, added Cliff Notes with a just a shopping list at the end.

 

FIRST THINGS FIRST: This guide will explain how to efficiently and properly min/max PARTISAN gear. One may think that their best stats advantage will be to purchase a Partisan piece and move straight into exchanging for a Conqueror piece, but this could not be further from the truth. A min/maxed set of Partisan gear will significantly outperform a default unmodified set of Conqueror gear. The objective of this guide will be to get you min/maxed in Partisan so that you are at your peak performance, at which point you will begin replacing your Partisan piece meal, mod by mod into Conqueror. Your objective as a Combat/Focus Sent (and this probably applies for Watchman as well) will be to stack as much strength and power as possible, with your tertiary stat going to surge.

 

Step 1: Coming from WH/EWH or other non-pvp gear, your biggest immediate boost will be to replace your ear piece and both implants. You DO NOT have to purchase Partisan gear for trade in on these pieces. So your first objective should be to purchase Conqueror ear piece and implants. These are the pieces with power/surge as secondary stats.

-Buy a Conqueror Weaponmaster's MK-1 Device (ear)

-Buy TWO Conqueror Vindicator's MK-1 Package

 

Step 2: While some will suggest pushing toward purchasing weapons first for the hilts, this is the wrong route to take in 2.0 because the 4-piece set bonus for Sentinels is now a +10% damage bonus after Force Leap for 5 seconds and we are no longer forced to swap armorings out of Vindicator gear to get this bonus. Therefore, your 4-piece set bonus is going to be a bigger boost to damage than the slight stat increase from Partisan hilts.

The cheapest and fastest way to get your 4-piece set bonus is going to be buying:

Challenger's Gloves

Weaponmaster Feet

Challenger's Legs

Weaponmaster Head

 

Make sure to purchase these specific items as they contain the enhancements we are looking for and will reduce your time spent min/maxing later on.

 

Step 3: Let's purchase weapons! At this point go ahead and purchase your weapons. For your first weapon purchase a VINDICATOR'S MAIN HAND. You are purchasing this weapon first because it contains the same hilt in the Weaponmasters/Challengers variety, but also contains the mod and one of the enhancements we will be using to min/max our toons with. This is the Advanced Deft Mod 27X and the Advanced Adept Enhancement 27X. The Weaponmaster/Challengers sabers use different mods. So you are knocking out 3 birds with one stone here and by purchasing the Vindicators saber you now have one complete min/maxed saber. Unfortunately, hilts are no longer interchangeable, and you will be required to purchase either an offhand saber that will need to be modified.

 

You will now need your last hilt, which is the offhand. Purchase the Challenger offhand as it has the Adept enhancement we are looking for. You will only be pulling the hilt and the Adept enhancement out of this piece for your gear, and obviously if you don't already have a +41 expertise crystal then grab that out of it as well. But use one of your purchased Advanced Deft Mod 27X as the mod in this set.

 

Step 4: Now we will buff our endurance a bit. Go ahead and buy the Partisan Challenger's chest piece with WZ comms as this contains one of the enhancements we are looking for. Then purchase level 69 waist and bracers from the PvE dealer (or better yet 72's if you have the comms, or if you have no comms you can have someone craft you lvl 66 Advanced Might Armoring 28's). These will have no expertise, but you will not suffer much from this and will gain a decent buff in endurance that is being lost by min/maxing your other gear. Remember, Sentinel is a glass canon. Min/Maxing will reduce your endurance, but it maximizes your damage output. You will break easily, but especially if you have a healer, you will become an unstoppable force in WZ's.

To be specific. None of the WZ belt or bracers sets come with the appropriate mod we are looking for. So don't waste your comms on them. Put your purchased 66/69/72 armorings in your choice of orange waste and bracers and we will accompany them with the correct mods shortly.

 

Step 5: Finally, let's get to min/maxing. First off we want to get the right Mod in our belt and bracers and then the rest of our gear. At the top of the vendor list you will find free standing Mods. You will want to purchase EIGHT of the Advanced Deft Mod 27X. Put the first two in your belt and bracers where you already have your PvE armorings so that they are ready to go. The remaining six will go in your head, chest, gloves, legs, feet, and offhand. Congrats! Your Mods are complete. (An alternate method to this is to purchase 6 of the Deft Mod27X, and go ahead and use the ranked comms you are accumulating to buy 2 of the Deft Mod 28X for your belt and bracers.)

 

Step 6: Now you need to min/max your Enhancements. We need FIVE of the Advanced Adept Enhancement 27X (Power/Surge) and TWO of the Advanced Initiative Enhancement 27X (Power/Accuracy). If you purchased the gear I suggested then you ALREADY have FIVE Adept and TWO Initiative. This was previously a huge pain, but with the addition of the Challenger's set, one can mix and match Challenger and Weaponmaster gear for the correct enhancements. So your major min/maxing is just going to be getting the correct mods!

 

Step 7: Augment your gear with MK-9 level power augments for a slight bump in raw damage or strength for a slight bump in the critical modifier. Run dailies areas for your creds for these if you are short on cash. Right now a well geared 55 can get through BH, Ilum, Belsalvis, and SecX in about 2.5hrs and earn over 500k credits. Also purchase your preferred relics. The BEST relic is still the Elite War Hero power relic. If you don't have these from pre-2.0, buy whatever you feel best compliments your play style or boosts power or surge, or if you can't find anything in that area shoot for crit/acc.

 

SOME NOTES ON PARTISAN MIN/MAX: To get the most out of your setup for a full min/max, in addition to gear, you can reach 10,000 affection on all your companions. As described in your Legacy info by each companion, you will gain a 1% bonus for each stat a companion corresponds. Also, make sure that you have all the relevant datacrons; in our case mainly strength and endurance, but willpower will also buff your force moves like Force Stasis. If you have the available credits, you can also use Might Stims and purchase Warzone Medpacks.

 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: At this point we will want to start working on our Conqueror gear. However, it will be a HUGE mistake to purchase a piece of Conqueror and just toss it on in place of one of your min/maxed items.

Let me show you why:

 

Min/Maxed Partisan Sentinel:

 

STR 1044

END 1249

EXP 1350 (unbolstered out of warzones)

PWR 816

ACC 120

SRG 300

 

Unmodified Conqueror Sentinel :

 

STR 1088

END 1096

EXP 1200 (unbolstered out of warzones)

PWR 132

ACC 128

SRG 256

CRT 314

 

As you can see a Sentinel in unmodified Conqueror gear is actually at a disadvantage to a min/maxed Partisan Sentinel in almost every respect. Note that these are unbuffed stats that also do not include the stats from a full set of augments or the ear piece and implants or relics, as these are static numbers that would raise both sets of numbers equally. But what you will notice is that while there is a slight drop in strength, you will have a nice advantage in both endurance and unbolstered expertise as well as much higher off stats that dramatically increase your Bonus Damage. So when a unmodified Conqueror geared Sent is complaining on Fleet as to why they are getting waxed by people in min/maxed Partisan gear, you'll know why.

 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE CONT.: So if that's the case, then how should we proceed in gearing with Conqueror gear? Well in this case, we already have our set bonus which is the Sentinels big damage boost in combat. So we don't have to worry about armorings first AND based on this method you already purchased your Conqueror ear piece and implants. So you will likely want to first trade in your weapons. And then go to your armorings.

HOWEVER, we don't want to screw up our min/max. In order to do this, you will want to AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE just tossing on the new Conqueror piece. As sexy as those level 65 mods look, DO NOT DO THIS. Purchase your weapons and trade in only the hilts and any Advanced Deft Mod 28X and Advanced Adept Enhancement 28X you receive (this will only come from the Vindicators weapon you trade in. On the Challenger offhand, just swap in the hilt and enhancement). Then begin to purchase feet, gloves, legs, head, and chest. Once again, ONLY swap in the armorings and you will once again find that this gear comes with the desired enhancements.

 

Your Sentinel will now be geared with level 28X hilts and armorings and retain its min/max of level 27X mods with the desired 28X enhancements as mentioned above. At this point, follow what you did before and begin purchasing the free standing Advanced Deft Mod 28X's.

 

Good luck and may the force be with you!

 

CN: What to buy in a nutshell.

Conqueror Weaponmaster's MK-1 Device Earpiece

2x Conqueror Vindicator's MK-1 Package

Partisan Challenger's Gloves

Partisan Weaponmaster Feet

Partisan Challenger's Legs

Partisan Weaponmaster Head

Partisan Vindicator Saber Main Hand

Partisan Challenger Chest

Partisan Challenger Off Hand

9x Advanced Deft Mod 27X

2x Elite War Hero Relics (or your choice if you don't have these from pre-2.0)

14x Advanced Overkill Augment 28's (or Might Augs if your preference is for mainstat)

For belt and bracers use 2 of your Deft Mod 27X's and two level 72 Might armorings.

 

Then replace these with the corresponding Conqueror piece preferably starting with main hand and off hands, and then adding the armor and enhancement from the corresponding main pieces, and finally buying mods.

Edited by Dawginole
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I felt like it was about time we had a guide for min/maxing for PvP in here for 2.0. First off bear in mind that you will likely not see a tremendous amount of benefit from this guide until lvl 55 WZ's bolster situation is fixed. If you have better gear (PvE 66/69/72) then continue to use that for now and just store your earned PvP gear. But you can go ahead and be working toward your set up.

you will have 1400 expertise and get smashed for huge amount if you go in with the high end pve gear.

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you will have 1400 expertise and get smashed for huge amount if you go in with the high end pve gear.

 

This is absolutely not the case. It will change drastically when bolster is fixed and when bolster is fixed you will not want to go into warzones in PvE gear. However, right now with the bugs high end PvE gear is still much better than what most people have.

For instance I am currently running Warzones pre-bolster fix in 66/69 armorings, 63 mods, and 66 enhancements, Conqueror ear/implants and no relics and have over 2200 STR, 1200 PWR, and over 1800 EXP.

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full expertise is 60% pvp dmg boost 1800 is like 54% thats quite a difference. Also you loose like 5% mitigation the most pve gear you want on your pvp gear is maybe one pve weapon (of 69/72 quality) thats the only case it'll be possibly (and even this is debateable) a benefit.

 

Also high end pve gear 69/72s that would actually benefit stats over the pvp gear doesnt bolster with much expertise at all i have like 1500 in mine lol.

 

You really want pvp gear as fast as possible you can use pve gear or your old ewh to gear up but thats it.

Edited by AngusFTW
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full expertise is 60% pvp dmg boost 1800 is like 54% thats quite a difference. Also you loose like 5% mitigation the most pve gear you want on your pvp gear is maybe one pve weapon (of 69/72 quality) thats the only case it'll be possibly (and even this is debateable) a benefit.

 

Also high end pve gear 69/72s that would actually benefit stats over the pvp gear doesnt bolster with much expertise at all i have like 1500 in mine lol.

 

You really want pvp gear as fast as possible you can use pve gear or your old ewh to gear up but thats it.

 

Still, 1800 is better than nothing or going in with greens. I'm not telling people to store their gear until they are fully min/maxed. I'm just essentially stating what should be obvious to most people. That is, until bolster is fixed, just have situational awareness about your gear and put on what is giving you the best expertise and other stats. After a few days of PvP on a fresh 55, one should have all of their unmodified gear plus ear piece and implants. At that point go ahead and throw that on.

 

For me, however, like I said, I'm in min/maxed 66/69's PvE. So in testing between default gear and my PvP gear with the bolster bug I'm not seeing any advantages with the PvP set, though it would probably make me less squishy.

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would u say 6 might augs and 6 overkill??

 

I would go elsewhere for specifics on augments. I went with might augs on my (E)WH build and I may go power this time. Some are also arguing for crit with the new changes. I believe most will say there is only about a 1-3 points of damage by going power over strength, but the strength augs will supposedly help with crit bonus.

 

I would look for someone who knows the math better and can add in the numbers for ear/implants that are absent from my numbers and then consider the stats from either option and any possible diminishing returns. I would guess one would want to go all one way or all the other rather than splitting them up unless diminishing returns comes into play (which I think are removed from 2.0, but verify that).

 

But frankly I'd hope that this thread won't turn into an augment war and will remain focused on the general build up for min/maxing. Sorry I can't be of more help in that area. :p

Edited by Dawginole
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Good guide, very sound! Couple comments:

 

Partisan Challenger's Leggings are +accuracy, +power tertiary stats. Partisan Weaponmaster's are +accuracy, +critical tertiary stats if I'm not mistaken. I checked this on torhead and askmrrobot but am at work so cannot check in game. I believe it's a similar story with the gloves - but not sure.

 

From what I could tell Weaponmaster's set has more of an even distribution of all tertiary stats while Challenger's weights towards Power and Surge in general.

 

 

I'm taking a similar approach, str>end>power>surge

 

What i've gone with is:

 

Weaponmaster helm

Weaponmaster boots

Challenger chest

Challenger gloves

Challenger leggings

Challenger belt

Challenger bracers

Challenger Earpiece Mk-1

Vindicator implant Mk-1/2 (accuracy as needed)

Relics

Weapons

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Good guide, very sound! Couple comments:

 

Partisan Challenger's Leggings are +accuracy, +power tertiary stats. Partisan Weaponmaster's are +accuracy, +critical tertiary stats if I'm not mistaken. I checked this on torhead and askmrrobot but am at work so cannot check in game. I believe it's a similar story with the gloves - but not sure.

 

From what I could tell Weaponmaster's set has more of an even distribution of all tertiary stats while Challenger's weights towards Power and Surge in general.

 

 

I'm taking a similar approach, str>end>power>surge

 

What i've gone with is:

 

Weaponmaster helm

Weaponmaster boots

Challenger chest

Challenger gloves

Challenger leggings

Challenger belt

Challenger bracers

Challenger Earpiece Mk-1

Vindicator implant Mk-1/2 (accuracy as needed)

Relics

Weapons

 

Thanks for the post!

I'll have to reassess the Challenger gear to see if any of them have the Initiative enhancement and I missed it or if they have some power on them versus crit on the weaponmaster that would be better temporary enhancements before min/maxing.

I'm pretty slammed with work/gradschool stuff being finals week, but next time I can get on I'll check it out!

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Thanks for the post!

I'll have to reassess the Challenger gear to see if any of them have the Initiative enhancement and I missed it or if they have some power on them versus crit on the weaponmaster that would be better temporary enhancements before min/maxing.

I'm pretty slammed with work/gradschool stuff being finals week, but next time I can get on I'll check it out!

 

Legs and head have initiative enhancement I believe. Belt and bracers have power instead of crit. I run Focus Sentinel so lean more toward power over crit when given the choice. Most of my comparison has been between weaponmaster, vindicator, and challenger stats. I'm not a true min/maxer though because I take a more moderate approach and keep a healthy dose of Endurance for survivability. I don't run many warzones with pocket heals so i need the beef.

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Min/Maxed Partisan Sentinel:

 

STR 1044

END 1249

EXP 1350 (unbolstered out of warzones)

PWR 816

ACC 120

SRG 300

 

Unmodified Conqueror Sentinel :

 

STR 1088

END 1096

EXP 1200 (unbolstered out of warzones)

PWR 132

ACC 128

SRG 256

CRT 314

 

Where the hell did you get that Expertise number from??? You will have 2018Exp in either sets of gear given that they have identical Exp(Part/Conq).

Edited by Deafside
typo
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Where the hell did you get that Expertise number from??? You will have 2018Exp in either sets of gear given that they have identical Exp(Part/Conq).

 

Yeah I didn't want to criticize this guy because he took the time to make this thread, but it is seriously flawed, and I don't think he even ran any theorycrafting on his numbers/checked his parses. I'm actually hoping people listen to him and do weird stuff with their sentinels so they continue to suck and we get less QQ threads about smash.

 

This guide is pretty good for someone who is absolutely clueless and just wants to gear up and generally be on the right track.

Edited by iheartnyc
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Yeah I didn't want to criticize this guy because he took the time to make this thread, but it is seriously flawed, and I don't think he even ran any theorycrafting on his numbers/checked his parses. I'm actually hoping people listen to him and do weird stuff with their sentinels so they continue to suck and we get less QQ threads about smash.

 

This guide is pretty good for someone who is absolutely clueless and just wants to gear up and generally be on the right track.

 

post the details then

Edited by angelserra
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Very much appreciate the guide. However, I learned one thing the hard way though, DO NOT MIX PVE and PVP mods like is suggested for bracers and belt, bolster can't handle that and your expertise in WZ will drop by 500-600. There is a warning from the devs on this somewhere her on the forums.
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post the details then

 

You're recommending mixing PVE and PVP gear for instance.

 

You make no distinction between Combat and Focus build. You say power all the way, but what about crit? What about accuracy? And why one over the other?

 

When should you choose strength over power?

 

Have you done any theorycrafting or is this guide just based on what sounds right?

 

For instance, what's the damage boost you'd get from stacking full power to full strength augments? What's the number for Focus vs. Combat in this scenario?

Edited by iheartnyc
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Where the hell did you get that Expertise number from??? You will have 2018Exp in either sets of gear given that they have identical Exp(Part/Conq).

 

I got it from the place where I stated under those numbers that they did not include stats for relics, ear/implants, or bolster. They are strictly the raw expertise from your seven main pieces of gear and both weapons. I mean I said this right underneath the numbers to explain why they were so low in comparison to what you would see in a wz. I mean right underneath...

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You're recommending mixing PVE and PVP gear for instance.

 

Run the numbers on a reduction in endurance versus the reduction in expertise defense from the slight reduction. Let's see what we get. I look forward to your post on this, seriously!

 

You make no distinction between Combat and Focus build. You say power all the way, but what about crit? What about accuracy? And why one over the other?

 

This is mainly a combat spec build but I run with several focus spec sents that run this build and are seeing 9k+ force sweeps which is why I included that spec in the thread title. If you can find a better build then that's okay and I would encourage you to use that one. :)

 

When should you choose strength over power?

 

You never have to choose strength over power. Power is an offstat. You can choose power over critical, accuracy, or alacrity. If you are speaking of augments, I also confronted this issue in the OP and stated the basic premise behind going with strength or power augments and you are free to fight that out in another thread. There are plenty of strength vs. power augment rage threads on the boards to participate in.

 

Have you done any theorycrafting or is this guide just based on what sounds right?

 

No offense, but you sound kinda new to Sentinel with questions like this. That's fine, that's what the guide is for.

 

For instance, what's the damage boost you'd get from stacking full power to full strength augments? What's the number for Focus vs. Combat in this scenario?

 

Once again, you seem to be asking a lot of questions that were either answered in the OP or have nothing to do with the OP. So your criticisms of the thread come across as nonsensical. I realize it was a very long post and people may miss things by skimming the info. So no worries.

Edited by Dawginole
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You never have to choose strength over power. Power is an offstat. You can choose power over critical, accuracy, or alacrity. If you are speaking of augments, I also confronted this issue in the OP and stated the basic premise behind going with strength or power augments and you are free to fight that out in another thread. There are plenty of strength vs. power augment rage threads on the boards to participate in.

 

It's crap like this is why I'm criticizing your guide of being incredibly superficial and simplistic. You know that you can choose "strength heavy" vs. "power heavy" mods in your PVP armorings right? Go to the PVP vendor and check out the difference between the Challenger and Weaponmaster and Vindicator sets, and then the individual mods which you can buy, and tell me again how you never have to choose strength over power. Next time learn to count numbers before calling someone nonsensical (no offense, of course :rolleyes:).

 

If you want people to pat you on the shoulder for being awesome good for you. I hope people follow your guide - crappy sentinels means less QQ nerf threads.

 

If you want to be taken seriously, do some DPS parsing in different gear combinations (assuming you have actually farmed all the gear and multiple iterations of the Conqueror mods/enhancements and have full sets of both the advanced Strength and Power augments in order to try a wide range of combinations of stats, something I seriously doubt you have accomplished so far). I haven't played around with SimC since 1.2 so I don't know if it's updated or if there is any similar program out there for SWTOR, otherwise you're just going to have to do dummy parses and grind all of the gear.

 

And all offense intended.

Edited by iheartnyc
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First off, please calm down with the rage. If you want to discuss builds, try to do so in a civil manner.

 

Secondly, I misunderstood your question and thought you were inferring to augment options in your question. I can't read your mind. :rolleyes: Various builds have been heavily tested and the power heavy set up always wins out. By next week I should have a full set of two sets of other mods and enhancements and will be happy to parse them.

 

The reason for this is because you are stacking Bonus Damage. Both strength and power contribute to bonus damage, but with the available mods/enhancements you can stack more total power than total strength. So with power heavy mods/enhancements you are stacking more total strength and power for your bonus damage. Strength also combines with critical to compute your crit chance. With the new method of computing crit, you could stack it to your hearts content and you still will not get back to the pre-2.0 magic number of 30% crit chance.

 

However, another reason Combat spec does not have to worry about crit chance as much is because its heavy hitter is Blade Storm which has a 100% crit chance with Opportune Attack. This is also why instead of worrying about critical, we heavily stack Surge. Because Surge affects the Critical Multiplier. So an appropriately buffed Sent with this gear should be in the area of 75% Critical Multiplier, with a 100% Crit Chance, and the highest possible Bonus Damage on their heaviest hitter.

 

Good luck to you as you find your own gearing path!

Edited by Dawginole
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It's crap like this is why I'm criticizing your guide of being incredibly superficial and simplistic. You know that you can choose "strength heavy" vs. "power heavy" mods in your PVP armorings right? Go to the PVP vendor and check out the difference between the Challenger and Weaponmaster and Vindicator sets, and then the individual mods which you can buy, and tell me again how you never have to choose strength over power. Next time learn to count numbers before calling someone nonsensical (no offense, of course :rolleyes:).

There isn't really a choice between strength or power. You just take the mod which has the greater sum of both which is the mod or enhancement with lowest endurance. Easy as that. Power and strength are virtually identical when it comes to contribution to actual damage. Crit is usually way behind. Theres no need to run any sim or do any parsing for that. It is known :D.

Edited by atschai
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There isn't really a choice between strength or power. You just take the mod which has the greater sum of both which is the mod or enhancement with lowest endurance. Easy as that. Power and strength are virtually identical when it comes to contribution to actual damage. Crit is usually way behind. Theres no need to run any sim or do any parsing for that. It is known :D.

 

Correct. So on the Deft Mod 27X you have a total of 95 strength + power. Where as on the high strength version (27AX) you only get 88 str + pwr. Which is 7 points toward your bonus damage x 9 slots for 63 points across the board toward the bonus damage calculation (which is hidden).

 

There is not a better mod for Sentinel.

 

I would guess nyc will not be chiming in further. He understands there is a difference between mods, but doesn't seem to understand how those stats are affecting his damage output or even how the basic damage proc for the Combat spec works.

Edited by Dawginole
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