I realize my item rating is only 236 but I cannot look up the top rated Sentinels to see how they are specced. Every BG I enter, I am sat on by the opposing team (maybe they can check my item level and see I am easy to kill).

Current Spec:

SKILLFUL:

Jedi Enforcer

Stoic

MASTERFUL:

Force Face

Ardor

Pulse

HEROIC:

FleetFooted

LEGENDARY:

Zealous Judgement

Intercessor

Any ideas? Or am should I be Watchman or Ceoncentration?

I really just want to have some semblance of balance in PVP. Even 1v1 I am getting wrecked.

The best pointer I can give you, just in general for improving at PVP is to record gameplay footage of yourself and give said footage to a player that is more familiar with the class than you so that they can offer critque. Without any sort of video to observe your gameplay, I can only offer vanilla advice.

A lot of the problems that people who are new to Sentinel, or just aren't as adroit with the class as others stem from

1) Not setting up bursts properly

2) Not being able to stay on target

3) Either being too slow with their DCDs which makes them take way more damage than they should (therefore causing panic-pop Saber Ward + Guarded by the Force), or they aren't quite familiar with how each DCD works which leads to misuse.

With Combat Sentinel, the DPS is dependent on the burst during the Precision Window. Setting up said burst with filler, Strike, Zealous Strike, Twin Saber Throw, Leg Slash or Blade Rush, then popping Precision and using Clashing Blast, Blade Barrage, Dispatch and/or Lance. The rotation itself isn't too complicated, easier than Concentration. Using Zen as much as possibe to boost your APM is important too, but getting it to consistently pop before you use Precision is the key to getting that burst in there as fast as possible.

However, even when mastering the rotation, what can really hurt you as a Sentinel is not being able to stay on target once they start kiting away from you. Aside from time, which helps with pretty much any deficiency in your game, using hardstuns (you took the util which lowers the CD of the HS which is nice) just before you precision, or roots/slows such as leg slash and twin saber throw will help. There are a couple rooting utils that you can take instead of the 6 sec stealth which I find to be overrated. Also, if you don't operate with mouse movement instead of keyboard-turning, please do so because it'll help stay on target.

DCDs are a massive part of maintaining uptime obviously and I don't feel as though I can fit all of my thoughts here. But I believe what really boosts your survivability as a sentinel would be applying obfuscate to the right targets at the right time (ie obfuscating the white damage dealer rather than the yellow damage/healer if possible). Maximizing the amount of defense given by Saber Ward by coupling it with Transendence, some good RNG with Ataru form and trying to make sure it is popped when you are whitebarred (if you take Zealous Ward util, don't have to worry about whitebar) because a hard stun will pretty much negate the defense benefits given by SW. Timing the blade blitz to absorb big bursts, which is easier to do against ranged because much of their bursts have a cast time. And, of course, stealthing out when you are low, trying to out of combat heal or find a kolto station.

I could give more tips (and I hope other posters give some too), but without seeing how you play and in this somewhat finite space of a forum post, I'll cut it right here. In terms of whether you should switch specs, Concentration is the easier of the three to play because it's much easier to stay on target with the second force leap while Watchman is the DOT spec. However, it's ultimately up to which one you have the most fun playing because it's going to hours upon hours to 'git gud' so might as well spend those hours working on a class you enjoy.

Awesome, I am reading through this. I changed to Concentration as I was told that'd better than Combat.

Also, been kicked from 2 straight PVP ranked matches due to having 236. I get it, but bullying people trying to play and learn isn't fun. In fairness people can tell I have crap gear and sit on me anyway. I am 100% the focus target of every match. I'll see if I can record some matches.

Can I ask how you are key binding? This game as far more buttons to press so I cannot keybind everything I need.

Awesome, I am reading through this. I changed to Concentration as I was told that'd better than Combat.

 

Also, been kicked from 2 straight PVP ranked matches due to having 236. I get it, but bullying people trying to play and learn isn't fun. In fairness people can tell I have crap gear and sit on me anyway. I am 100% the focus target of every match.

I'm glad you're persisting. People should not be kicking you, that's awful.

An obvious step you can take is to raise your item rating to at least 248. You won't be targeted nearly as much just because of gear then. If you're pvping regularly, you should be getting enough unassembled components to at least get to 248 relatively quickly. The gear itself isn't important, it just signals that you're new when it's 236.

I'm glad you're persisting. People should not be kicking you, that's awful.

 

An obvious step you can take is to raise your item rating to at least 248. You won't be targeted nearly as much just because of gear then. If you're pvping regularly, you should be getting enough unassembled components to at least get to 248 relatively quickly. The gear itself isn't important, it just signals that you're new when it's 236.

Yeah it's depressing but rated PVP provides more resources than regular PVP. I'm grinding has hard as I can.

Keybindings and rotation as Concentration is what I need help with. Gotta figure out how to keybind things such as Valorous Call and Zen. I seem to be starving for energy all the time.

When it comes to keybinds, I use a Razer Tartarus v2 gamepad and my mouse is just a standard laser gaming mouse. The only abilites on my quickbar that are bound to my mouse are Target Switch and Transendence, everything else is on that gamepad. One thing I will bring up when it comes to keybinding is to not have the binds for Saber Ward and Guarded by the Force right next to each other because you will fat-finger, hit both of them when pressured.

For solo ranked survival, like Alex said, you need to raise your gear rating. It's not just because a low-item rating will make you seem like global-bait, but bolster does not affect armor rating, a stat which boosts your natural damage reduction (in turn will boost the effectiveness of Rebuke). The higher the gear level, the higher the armor rating, the tankier you will be.

In terms of survival in a solo ranked match, Concentration is definitely preferable to Combat. The passive CC-immunity from Force Exhaustion means that you should not get chain-stunned right off the bat. If you coordinate the 6 sec CC immunity from the start of Saber Ward with the 6 sec CC from Force Exhaustion after the prevoius immunity, you keep the other team from hard-countering your Saber Ward with a hard stun....they have to hit through it or swap. Like I mentioned earlier, using SW with Transendence boosts your defense to 65%, using a Concentrated Slice attack will boost it even further to 75%.

That being said, you can still be effective with Combat Sentinel in SR, definitely much easier if there are tanks, heals or tank/heals.

Some other survival tips I would give for a Sentinel is...and this is irrespective of the spec. If you get tunneled, especially against burst, it's perfectly OK to stealth out early before using your DCDs. This is especially true if I'm going against other Sentinels who can obfuscate me or Mercs with nets (which lbh you will face) as even if I play my DCDs perfectly, it'll be hard to do meaningful damage as I'm getting debuffed throughout the tunnel. Better sometimes to just stealth out early, try to find a spot to out of combat heal....if they chase, use your DCDs to help kite as the DCDs are much better at keeping you alive against 1-2 attackers than all 4.....if they don't chase, just heal and then jump back in, this time fighting, using your DCDs before stealthing out because their burst shouldn't be sycned.

I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time, should the other team pick up on your strat and adjust by jumping on you then swapping to their intended target the moment you cloak out.

Also, if you know you're getting tunneled, don't use Transendence at the very start of the match because the defense boost will go to waste, don't force camo in because you'll be without your best escape tool for quite awhile.

Regardless of whether or not you're the target, if you're playing with an OP, tell them to stealth you in so you can get the first jump because that's super important if you don't get jumped on right off the bat. Don't want to type heads off so I'll cut it off here.

For solo ranked survival, like Alex said, you need to raise your gear rating. It's not just because a low-item rating will make you seem like global-bait, but bolster does not affect armor rating, a stat which boosts your natural damage reduction (in turn will boost the effectiveness of Rebuke). The higher the gear level, the higher the armor rating, the tankier you will be.

Thanks for this. I wanted to point this out (tired, need sleep) is that I upped my M/H weapon from 230 to 252 (offhand was already 252) and my damage went up IMMENSELY in random BGs. Like, nearly double the damage.

I'll read up on this tomorrow and take your advice. I do seem to be energy starved and I am always trying to find VC and ZEN all the time. That's where I get a boat load of energy from. My rotation right now is...

Force Leap

Zealous Exhaustion

Zealous Leap

Strike

Zealous Strike

Blade Barrage

Concentrated Slice

Slash

Focus Burst

Then I end up usually tossing in Leg Slash and Blade Storm.

From there, I have to figure out the rotation and find VC and Zen as the mouse disappears when I am using the KB. I may have to look into your mouse!

More tomorrow and much thanks to you and everyone chipping in!

This definitely looks like a Concentration question, which is the spec I play the most in the game.

Concentration has the easiest resource management out of all the Sentinel specs, but you can still run out if you are inefficient in your rotation and/or you do not equip the right utilities. You have the right utils for the most part, though you could swap out Jedi Enforcer for Adamant for more focus generation.

Like Combat, you want Zen to be available as often as possible, except instead of Zen boosting your APM, Zen for Concentration (along with Force Exhaustion) grants Koan which makes your next Focused Burst/Force Sweep do 15% more damage and consume no focus.

When it comes to rotation for Concentration, I split it into 4 parts, each depends on the time frame between. Keep in mind that if you have trouble nailing down priorities, don't beat yourself up over it because with 6.0, the set-ups will change. It's important to make sure that passives like Felling Blow (Leaps make FB autocrit), Centered Focus (Concentrated Slice makes FB hit 15%), Concentrated Defense (Concentrated Slice gives 10%+ defense) are always being applied. The latter means that Concentrated Slice should be used off CD as much as possible.

The first rotation is basic opener I do at the start of every match. Taking advantage of all the Set Bonuses and Valorous Call.

Force Leap > Force Exhaustion > Forcused Burst > Zealous Strike >Blade Barrage > Pacify > Dispatch > Zen > Zealous Leap > Concentrated Slice > Focused Burst > Blade Storm > Force Leap

The second rotation is one I try to use every minute, sort of like the first where I'm taking advantage of all the Set Bonuses except for Valorous Call, and I may or may not need to Force Leap. If you need to use Zen earlier in the set-up, that's fine, just make sure it's not 4 GCDs before Focused Burst.

Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Zealous Strike > Blade Barrage > Pacify > Dispatch > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst

The third rotation is one I try to use every 30 seconds, only making use of the Set Bonus where Zealous Strike boosts attack for 15 seconds, pacify may or may not be off CD. Again if you need to use Zen earlier, that's fine, just make sure it's not 4 GCDs before Focused Burst.

Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Zealous Strike > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst.

The final rotation is one I use as often as I can between the 30 second and 1 minute windows, it's the most important window and it's all about making sure Felling Blow, Concentrated Defense and Centered Focus go off, all in at least 4 GCDs, (earlier if you use Zen instead of FE). IMO, getting this consistently is the hardest part of the rotation.

Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst

Fillers are Blade Storm when proc'd because it doesn't cost any Focus which helps with energy management, also is ranged and is yellow damage. Slash because it does decent damage and lowers CD of Focused Burst. Zealous Strike for obvious reasons, attack boost every 30 sec and grants focus. Twin Saber Throw because it's ranged and gives some focus. Blade Barrage, don't worry if the auto-crit set-bonus procs earlier than intended, the buff lasts more than long enough to take advantage of (unlike say AP PT). Leg Slash if I'm healer chasing or in a Tank/Heal match. DO NOT use Strike as Concentration.

I'm glad you're persisting. People should not be kicking you, that's awful.

 

An obvious step you can take is to raise your item rating to at least 248. You won't be targeted nearly as much just because of gear then. If you're pvping regularly, you should be getting enough unassembled components to at least get to 248 relatively quickly. The gear itself isn't important, it just signals that you're new when it's 236.

you absolutely need to augment properly though. fix your tertiary stat balances. don't rely on bolster to do that for you. it's not that intuitive.

Awesome, I am reading through this. I changed to Concentration as I was told that'd better than Combat.

 

Also, been kicked from 2 straight PVP ranked matches due to having 236. I get it, but bullying people trying to play and learn isn't fun. In fairness people can tell I have crap gear and sit on me anyway. I am 100% the focus target of every match. I'll see if I can record some matches.

 

Can I ask how you are key binding? This game as far more buttons to press so I cannot keybind everything I need.

You can get away with 236 gear as long as you have 252+ main hand weapon and your secondary stats set up properly with the right Augments (don’t use mastery Augs because the default Bolstered is a 236 Mastery Augment) because Bolster is set to 252.

you absolutely need to augment properly though. fix your tertiary stat balances. don't rely on bolster to do that for you. it's not that intuitive.

This is 100% true. I can’t stress enough how important it is to pay attention to that.

I'm glad you're persisting. People should not be kicking you, that's awful.

Yes, it’s good they are persisting. It’s terrible they are getting kicked, which is a bit of toxicity on the part of those doing the kicking.

The gear itself isn't important, it just signals that you're new when it's 236.

What if you have multiple Alts on multiple classes on multiple servers? 236 gear isn’t the best way to decide if someone is new or not. Especially when you can nearly have exactly the same or in some cases, bolster can give you better stats than someone with full 248 gear. It depends on how you tweak it and what lvl you’re using for a main hand weapon.

It annoys me in games when people still give people a hard time about gearing when they don’t understand how Bolster works themselves (not saying you don’t). I see people in full 248 gear who have no idea because their secondary stats aren’t adjusted for pvp Bolster, but someone in 236 gear has made the effort to do it and actually have better bolstered gear and they get people kicking them or snickering at them because they are in 236 gear.

What if you have multiple Alts on multiple classes on multiple servers? 236 gear isn’t the best way to decide if someone is new or not. Especially when you can nearly have exactly the same or in some cases, bolster can give you better stats than someone with full 248 gear. It depends on how you tweak it and what lvl you’re using for a main hand weapon.

 

It annoys me in games when people still give people a hard time about gearing when they don’t understand how Bolster works themselves (not saying you don’t). I see people in full 248 gear who have no idea because their secondary stats aren’t adjusted for pvp Bolster, but someone in 236 gear has made the effort to do it and actually have better bolstered gear and they get people kicking them or snickering at them because they are in 236 gear.

I agree with you. I don't ever complain about anyone's gear in ranked. But if I see someone with 236 gear on the opposing team, and I've never seen them before, I always assume they're new to ranked and target them first. 95% of the time that's the smart decision, because they are the easiest kill. There have been a few times I've been burned by doing that, but it's quite rare.

I agree with you. I don't ever complain about anyone's gear in ranked. But if I see someone with 236 gear on the opposing team, and I've never seen them before, I always assume they're new to ranked and target them first. 95% of the time that's the smart decision, because they are the easiest kill. There have been a few times I've been burned by doing that, but it's quite rare.

My guess is people know they’ll get focused like that and are too scared to run in 236 gear.

This could also be another reason for less people in the queue if they don’t have 248-258 gear available on that Alt.

Edit: you would also know that regardless of what gear you have, if you get concentrated focus first, you will probably get blown up if you aren’t on the right class. So focusing a 236 geared person can also be a self fulfilling situation because you know they will blow up because they are being focused first.

My guess is people know they’ll get focused like that and are too scared to run in 236 gear.

This could also be another reason for less people in the queue if they don’t have 248-258 gear available on that Alt.

All the more reason for people to gear up to at least 248 before queueing ranked. Even then, it will still become clear pretty quickly if you can't handle focus well, but it's a start.

Edit: you would also know that regardless of what gear you have, if you get concentrated focus first, you will probably get blown up if you aren’t on the right class. So focusing a 236 geared person can also be a self fulfilling situation because you know they will blow up because they are being focused first.

Experienced ranked players can tell the difference. Plus you can look at damage taken if you hover over the deaths column in the scoreboard, which frequently tells the story.

All the more reason for people to gear up to at least 248 before queueing ranked. Even then, it will still become clear pretty quickly if you can't handle focus well, but it's a start.

I edited my last post as you where making this one.

I edited my last post as you where making this one.

And I re-edited mine in response

This definitely looks like a Concentration question, which is the spec I play the most in the game.

 

Concentration has the easiest resource management out of all the Sentinel specs, but you can still run out if you are inefficient in your rotation and/or you do not equip the right utilities. You have the right utils for the most part, though you could swap out Jedi Enforcer for Adamant for more focus generation.

I am running Adamant! Adamant, Stoic, Watchguard, Force Fade, Ardor, FleetFooted, Enduring, Zealous Ward .

I copied your message so I will be messing around with it, but I have to get keybinds that work. I using the keyboard to move and my mouse has only 4 buttons so I cannot bind much to the mouse. Wish there was an easier way to bind the options.

It annoys me in games when people still give people a hard time about gearing when they don’t understand how Bolster works themselves (not saying you don’t).

I honestly don't. I have been away from this game for 7 years. Just came back after saying a final goodbye to WOW.

you absolutely need to augment properly though. fix your tertiary stat balances. don't rely on bolster to do that for you. it's not that intuitive.

I need some help or a web page that talks about it for Jedi Sentinel running Concentration.

Thanks for this. I wanted to point this out (tired, need sleep) is that I upped my M/H weapon from 230 to 252 (offhand was already 252) and my damage went up IMMENSELY in random BGs. Like, nearly double the damage.

I can't help with anything else in this thread, but for this "main hand bolster" thing... I think Trixie touched on it already, but just to make sure it's really clear, and so you aren't worried about "wait, maybe the rest of bolster isn't working either!? :confused:" It's a known issue that the main hand, and only the main hand doesn't bolster. So what you are seeing makes perfect sense. Luckily, you already fixed it for yourself.

I can't help with anything else in this thread, but for this "main hand bolster" thing... I think Trixie touched on it already, but just to make sure it's really clear, and so you aren't worried about "wait, maybe the rest of bolster isn't working either!? :confused:" It's a known issue that the main hand, and only the main hand doesn't bolster. So what you are seeing makes perfect sense. Luckily, you already fixed it for yourself.

Get out of here, Banderal! Go back to WOW! Or ESO, whatever it is you are playing now!!!!! What are you doing here btw? lol

Yeah it's depressing but rated PVP provides more resources than regular PVP. I'm grinding has hard as I can.

 

Keybindings and rotation as Concentration is what I need help with. Gotta figure out how to keybind things such as Valorous Call and Zen. I seem to be starving for energy all the time.

I got the best tips about keybinding by asking on fleet, and in a noob zone tbh.

I watched tons of videos to get an idea how others setup keybinds, but the greatest help was by a guy that spent an hour going over his entire keybinds with me, and why he put them where he put them. I took notes, and set up my noob mara the way he explained.

You might consider recreating a new mara, and start keybinding with that. I say this because starting out keybinds with your entire repertoire of abilities will be overwhelming for you, I think.

Start a new toon once you know how to set up the abilities, and as you level up you will gradually get used to keybinding with skills as you gain them over a longer period of time instead of trying to balance 100 plates as once.

I honestly don't. I have been away from this game for 7 years. Just came back after saying a final goodbye to WOW.

It’s all good. At least you’re asking questions. Normally I just see people in matches assuming things and declaring them facts without checking.

I’m surprised you aren’t sticking around for WoW classic launch next week. I’m actually swapping from here to there next week.

It’s all good. At least you’re asking questions. Normally I just see people in matches assuming things and declaring them facts without checking.

 

I’m surprised you aren’t sticking around for WoW classic launch next week. I’m actually swapping from here to there next week.

I wish i could enjoy WOW for longer than a few weeks, for some reason I get bored of it really fast. I actually find the graphics appealing too, I just can't get into the gameplay.