I play mostly solo PVE, and only do PVP for my daily. I keep up with all of my dailies and do the flashpoints, which keeps me overleveled. For example, Alderaan is, I believe 28-32. I was at 32 when I first arrived on the planet.

 

Anyway, I have Doc now and he's doing a really good job of keeping me healed. Although i enjoy the Watchman spec, the recent nerf has made me consider changing to Combat. Is this a good move, or should I stick with Watchman? This is strictly for someone who plays 99% PVE. Oh and I'm a subscriber if that means anything at all.

 

It's not like I haven't done my own research on this, but most of that was before the nerf, and almost everyone said go with Watchman, but at the same time almost every bit of information I find is related to PVP with little to no advice about PVE.

Combat is fine for pve and does around about the same numbers for ops etc. Edited November 20, 2012 by AngusFTW

I just resubscribed this month and have been hearing about this Watchman nerf, but haven't really seen much of a difference in actual practice. I ran through my Black Hole dailies about as efficiently as ever. I attribute the slight reduction in performance more to me having five months off of the game than I do the effects of the nerf.

 

Personally I still think Watchman provides the best damage and survivability of any of the Sentinel trees. But Combat and Focus aren't bad. I've always played Watchman so it's natural to me and I don't want to make a switch to a new system. But if you don't have that ingrained in you yet, I'd say give it a shot and if it doesn't work out you can switch back.

 

Being overleveled and having Doc really should remove most of the danger anyway, so feel free to experiment.

Leveled up watchman and played watchman for my sentinel for the longest time. Recently switched to combat for 1.4 as the TFB encounters cater to burst slightly more. I'm definitely enjoying combat as it does provide as good (if not, better) dps as watchman. Focus management is much easier on combat rather than watchman. The increased transcendance is nice as well as the 30% aoe dmg reduction.

 

However with the free respecs, I switch back and forth between watchman and combat depending on the operation. I feel watchman suits better for EC while combat is better for TFB. Again this is only my opinion. I reitemize my gear with two enhancements that I swap in my sabers depending on the spec.

 

Watchman is definitely still viable for ops, give combat a try and play with whichever you are comfortable with.

I soloed Chasing the Shadow post nerf (the 4h in the black hole daily area) survivability for the watchmen is just fine. I say if you wanna try combat then try combat. Respect are free for subscribers now so you really don't have anything to loose. Both watchmen and combat put out similar dps I'd say one is as good as the other what it'll come down to is personal preference and play style. Some people like combat better some people like watchmen. You'll never know which you prefer until you try.

I soloed Chasing the Shadow post nerf (the 4h in the black hole daily area) survivability for the watchmen is just fine.

 

Well, you can solo it with every spec. :-)

Well, you can solo it with every spec. :-)

 

My point being watchmen survivability post nerf isn't any worst then any of the other specs thus you don't NEED to switch because of it.

I would not spec combat before lvl 40 personally, Blade Rush is far to important to overall dps. Slash is pitifull in comparison.

The sooner you realize there is no better spec, the better things will be. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. It comes down to how and what you are going to be playing.

My experience with the different specs leads me to the following conclusions:

 

Watchman - Best for solo play. Whether you're solo PvE leveling or solo PvPing, all things considered, this is the best spec to go with, even post 1.5 nerf. Watchman's enhanced survivablility will make PUGging in PvP seem far less frustrating than the other specs, and you generally can make a greater contribution to the possible success of your team than any of the other specs assuming you're not getting a significant amount of heals from another player. However, Watchman is the spec that requires the most amount of "ability juggling." If you're not good at multi-tasking or gettin' jiggy with your rotation on the fly, then this might not be your best option.

 

Combat - Best spec to have in a coordinated group, whether PvP or PvE. Generally the best spec for any PvE content like Flashpoints, etc. Your role is to DPS the crap out of a single target as much as you, and none of the other specs do this as well as Combat. Slightly harder to level with, especially if solo, because the top end of the skill tree is VERY important to the success of this spec.

 

Focus - If you have more than one Sentinel in a PvP group or if you're attempting a Flashpoint or Operation with groups that have a lot of mobs in them, then this is a great choice. Soloing in PvP with them is almost completely wasted, as the damage you do to multiple targets will quickly be healed by the opposing team's healers since you're not typically as good at burning down a single target. The damage numbers they put out are insane, but ultimately not as useful if you're unable to coordinate your actions with a group.

I personally played Combat why leveling, never did any pvp while I leveled. I did struggle for a bit when I hit lvl 50 switched to Watchman. I person did not like it due to the fact I never really do much or many FP,HM, or raids. Just dailies. So I went to Focus due to the fact it can take down crowds better, and with the new section x there are lots of crowds. I love Focus it suits my play style perfectly.

Been leveling the entire time with combat, after getting to precision slash and swift blades I picked up some lower tier points for the other 2 trees: insight and master focus, focused slash and valor. Then back to cap the combat tree off.

 

Survivability has been great, I can't tell you the last time I died while soloing single-player content and I typically run content with my level at or below the "suggested" level range. First character I made during 11/11 beta was a combat sent, and as it turns out this toon is going to be the last of the classes I level to 50.

 

If you're curious about the other specs try them out and base your decision on what works best for you. Watchman seems like it would be fun, focus as well, but I've been barreling ahead leveling through the story that I don't feel like doing a compare and contrast of skill trees to stop or slow momentum.

Edited November 26, 2012 by mokkh

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update everyone on what I'm doing.

 

I tried out the Combat spec and found that I am In fact a lot more effect with it in PVP, but since I don't really enjoy PVP that didn't do me much good. After a couple of days I switched back to Watchman. I didn't mind Combat it just didn't work for me in PVE.

 

About a day ago I decided to try out a Focus build. Thank God respecs are free for subscribers. Anyway, I was kind of shocked to discover how much damage I can put out in groups. People have told me you could do a lot of damage with a Focus spec but to be honest, 90% of the topics in here are about Watchman and Combat so I didn't give it much thought.

 

I think I'm going to stick with Focus. The main problem I had with the Watchman spec, and in a similar way the Combat spec, is that I was killing stuff too quickly due to being overleveled. You may not consider that a bad thing, but it caused me to use the spec very inefficiently. I could take out single enemies without problem, but groups would rip me a new one.

 

With Watchman, an enemy would usually be down to 5% of their health by the time I started the burning. I could give the burn to someone else with more health, but that would then require me to kill the one with lower health with a skill that I need that has a longer CD. This threw off my ability to manage focus properly. Strong and Elites would die easily, but groups would hurt me far more because I couldn't keep up the burns long enough to do much good.

 

I'm still trying to get a feel for Focus after playing Watchman through most of the game but I think it fits my style a little more. There are more Sentinels in my guild than any other class and almost all of them are Watchmen. Being able to put down staggering AOE damage in short order has helped my group out quite a bit.

 

So thank you for all of the advice and opinions, but it turns out that the spec the minority suggested I play is actually the one that fits me best.

Focus is definitely fun! I know you have found your answer but to add some thoughts for posterity...

 

I've been Watchman since about level 20 and for 9 months. Last night I went back to Combat for Denova Nightmare because we were having trouble beating the 2nd DD instakill. The burst is insane and great in Ops. We went from pushing to clear the second DD to easily beating it. T&Z were also easy to adjust to.

 

The three main downsides of combat compared to WM in my book:

-definitely notice being squishier, I spent much more of the fight at lower health do to less frequent self-heals

-miss the shorter range on the force leap for running to a target slightly in range

-expect I will miss the 6 second interrupt in some places

 

Will still probably switch back to WM at times and wish I wouldn't have to redo my gear between respecs.

Watchman has been the only spec I've played and I have no complaints and think it can be used in both PvP and PvE. Yesterday evening my guild finally cleared Firebrand and Stormcaller on 16-man NiM and my DPS for the pull was 1881 so the spec has the potential.I'd imagine that more skilled players than myself -- in terms of both actually playing and also theroycrafting -- are able to put up even better numbers.

 

Recently, however, I switched over to Combat for PvP as my guild is trying to run rateds on non-raid nights and it would seem that Watchman is slightly less valuable in these situations because our dots can be cleansed and the class lacks the burst of both Focus and Combat. To be sure, I pvp a fair bit -- just dinged v93 -- and I've never left a WZ thinking Watchman was non-viable but I have run only 30 or so ranked games so I'm not in the best position to comment on it's viability in certain types of matches.

 

Although I'm still getting a handle on Combat's mechanics and optimal rotation, I will note that the damage from Precision->Master Strike->Blade Storm->Dispatch is phenomenal. Although I have had plenty of long, heal fest WZ matches where I'll finish with ~800k dmg, it still seems so strange to me that I can do so much dmg in such a short period of time. As well, the extra speed w/ Trans is definitely noticeable and it's nice to be able to break roots with Force Camo. I do, however, miss the elimination of a min range for leap and the reduction of the interrupt c/d as those are quite useful in locking down healers. I suppose a potential riposte, however, would be that there is less need to lock them down when you can simply burst them down. I still need to work on the rotation outside of this series of attacks as my sustained dps with Combat is still pretty low -- which is why I still use Watchman in PvE -- but I think this shortcoming is attributable to player error rather than inherent limitations of the spec.

 

As someone who has recently started playing Combat, I will note that one of the biggest differences from Watchman is that I have to be much more focused on watching my buffs as it's important to determine whether Combat Trance is active. It's not problematic but it is different.

 

So, as others before me have noted, I think each class is 100% viable and which you choose will be determined by your playstyle and preference. Now that you have free re-specs, you have no excuse not to give it a try

 

Regards,

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update everyone on what I'm doing.

 

I tried out the Combat spec and found that I am In fact a lot more effect with it in PVP, but since I don't really enjoy PVP that didn't do me much good. After a couple of days I switched back to Watchman. I didn't mind Combat it just didn't work for me in PVE.

 

About a day ago I decided to try out a Focus build. Thank God respecs are free for subscribers. Anyway, I was kind of shocked to discover how much damage I can put out in groups. People have told me you could do a lot of damage with a Focus spec but to be honest, 90% of the topics in here are about Watchman and Combat so I didn't give it much thought.

 

I think I'm going to stick with Focus. The main problem I had with the Watchman spec, and in a similar way the Combat spec, is that I was killing stuff too quickly due to being overleveled. You may not consider that a bad thing, but it caused me to use the spec very inefficiently. I could take out single enemies without problem, but groups would rip me a new one.

 

With Watchman, an enemy would usually be down to 5% of their health by the time I started the burning. I could give the burn to someone else with more health, but that would then require me to kill the one with lower health with a skill that I need that has a longer CD. This threw off my ability to manage focus properly. Strong and Elites would die easily, but groups would hurt me far more because I couldn't keep up the burns long enough to do much good.

 

I'm still trying to get a feel for Focus after playing Watchman through most of the game but I think it fits my style a little more. There are more Sentinels in my guild than any other class and almost all of them are Watchmen. Being able to put down staggering AOE damage in short order has helped my group out quite a bit.

 

So thank you for all of the advice and opinions, but it turns out that the spec the minority suggested I play is actually the one that fits me best.

 

I am feeling everything you just said. Single targets are lame and groups actually get close to killing me or on occasion do! (Although some of that may be attributed to I resubbed since last playing in Februray )

Can you link your Focus spec?

I switched to Rage/Focus on my mara. Love it!! Did it mainly for pvp but it is truly efficient in pve as well. We did The Foundry and I think the dps for this tree is excellent.

 

I still love Watchman on my Sentinel though but she's level 21 so I'll keep her on that tree for now. In pvp I put up A LOT of damage with Watchman tree.

Many players are exaggerating when they say that recent healing nerf has made Watchman useless. It's just .5%. If you want to min-max your character than it is a value to consider, or if you want to be competitive in ranked WZs also. But for PVE and ordinary PVP, watchman is still good and it's imo still the most fun to play of all three builds.