I'm back after a long break (almost 2 years). I love this game for the PVE storyline element. I'd like to play through the Jedi Knight storyline and am wondering which class is easiest to solo. I'm not looking for PVP or raiding and all my friends play other games so solo it will be. So.....guardian or sentinel?

What would your choice be and why? Thanks ahead of time for your input.

I am a (maybe) average player (or below average), and in leveling, I had less trouble with the Annihilation Marauder than with a Vigilance Guardian, because the Mara has the leap that does not depend on the distance and refreshes fast.

Both specs though, as long as you manage to get them on the target you actually want, and don't leap to another group instead of the guy right in front of you cut through the leveling content like a hot knife through butter. Guardian's DCDs are really fantastic. So, I can run a Guardian with a rDPS comp, but ran Mara with a rTank in the sniper stance.

Seriously, for leveling, you just need to decide if you like two sabres or one. Both are waaaay over the top in the animation department, but a dual-wielder at least doesn't carry the sabre in front of him in that annoying fashion.

I am a (maybe) average player (or below average), and in leveling, I had less trouble with the Annihilation Marauder than with a Vigilance Guardian, because the Mara has the leap that does not depend on the distance and refreshes fast.

 

Both specs though, as long as you manage to get them on the target you actually want, and don't leap to another group instead of the guy right in front of you cut through the leveling content like a hot knife through butter. Guardian's DCDs are really fantastic. So, I can run a Guardian with a rDPS comp, but ran Mara with a rTank in the sniper stance.

 

Seriously, for leveling, you just need to decide if you like two sabres or one. Both are waaaay over the top in the animation department, but a dual-wielder at least doesn't carry the sabre in front of him in that annoying fashion.

While the above is all true, there is some additional information that needs to be considered.

First; if your goal is SOLELY to level your character in Solo PvE content, then the Guardian/Juggernaut in the Tank spec actually has a great deal more survivability than the Sentinel/Marauder does in any of its specs. This is because the Guardian gets to wear all that fancy Heavy Armor, as well as because of the fact that the Guardian in Tank spec gets access to the use of a Shield and all the associated defensive stats.

Additionally a Tank Spec Guardian does not suffer from a significantly lower kill time than a DPS spec class because of the fact that the Tank Spec Guardian can easily get away with taking a DPS Companion around the Galaxy with them on their various missions. Meanwhile a DPS spec class is kind of pigeonholed into needing to take a healer spec companion with them in almost all missions except a very few where they can take a Tank Spec companion. The exception to that rule being the Sorcerer/Sage who kind of needs to take a Tank spec Companion everywhere by virtue of having such flimsy armor and defensive capabilities.

Point is that overall the Guardian in Tank Spec will have the greatest Solo Survivability of either of the six Jedi Knight Specs. In fact the only class that overall has better Solo Survivability would be the Powertech when it is in it's own Tank spec.

That said, I would never recommend Tank Specs for group play to someone who is unfamiliar with how they work in group play, as you kind of need to understand how to perform the role of a tank in order to pull the job off successfully.

Meanwhile a DPS spec class is kind of pigeonholed into needing to take a healer spec companion with them in almost all missions except a very few where they can take a Tank Spec companion.

Wat ? No.

You can absolutely take a tank comp as DPS and breeze through all solo content just as easily as if you had a healer companion, if not more. Most incoming damage goes to the companion, who is healed instantly when mounting your speeder/rocket boost, and they do significantly more damage than healer companions (who do close to 0).

You can even use a dps companion as dps, but while viable, that's somewhat reckless.

Now, to answer OP, I'd say guardian has a few perks that make it more fun to solo with IMO, in either the vigilance or defense spec. It's more simple and straightforward than sentinel. You get more passive damage reduction and better defensive cooldowns, and then there's the little extras like unremitting (immune to all CC and physics for a few seconds after leaping into battle, vigilance spec only but soon to be available to all guardians), and preparation (resets the cooldowns of saber throw, force leap and combat focus, basically 3 moves you typically use one after the other when starting any fight), allowing you to chain pull enemies one group after the other without delay.

I don't disagree at all with what you say.

Where I come from is that by far my biggest problem in the game is with the combat movement, targeting and switching the targets to the specific targets I want, and in that respect, and that respect alone, I find the Annihilation Marauder better than Vigi Guardian, again, thanks to that awesome leap.

I found myself standing dumbly in place for those instances it takes you to realize you are just out of range, or creeping up to the target (or even more annoyingly walking away from the target just as slowly to gain the leap distance) with the lightsabre drawn while the companion is doing the job much more often on the Guardian than on a Mara.

I also find that melee auto-targeting is not particularly (I am only speaking of myself here) slow twitch player friendly, because it doesn't happen way too often, again, I notice it more on the Guardian.

On the other hand, the taunts are certainly a plus for the Guardian, to make the melee NPCs run around pointlessly instead of attacking the comp.

Guard/Juggs have best DCD in game. And overall protection as tanks and DPS.

But if you want to have DAT AWSOME LEAP!!!!!!! - It's your call.

But for solo PVE Juggs/ Guards are awsome.

Guardian... If you do vigilance you basically do as much damage as a sentinel but have heavy armor protection and you can stance dance for more survivability as needed. If you do tank... Your dps is still not bad, you can stance dance to do more dps as needed, you can also use a dps comp more quickly. By this I mean even if you are geared enough and good enough to run sentinel with a dps companion...as the Guardian tank you can pull more mobs and then have less down time regening health as well. So in the end, at least imo, for soloing Guardian is a net gain which ever way you go.

You can also do what I do... When I solo I run tank BUT in dps gear. Stuff dies darn quick and I basically never die or even see my health drop below 75%. If I run Doc or Treek I solo Heroic 2's. Fun fun.