This is for PVE only.

I've been trying to decide which of these classes to concentrate on. They both appeal to me in different ways and it's difficult to make a solid decision, so I put it to you.

Which do you prefer and why?

Sentinel will be easier to do well with. Watchman in particular is a pretty easy spec to play, and not boringly so.

Top shadow dps requires you be balance spec'd--which is not an easy spec to play at all. 7 or 8 things you need to keep track of at any given time. Infiltration is far more simple, and imo more enjoyable, but it does less damage.

Shadows can also tank if you ever feel inclined to-- and are probably the most fun tank of the three, at least imo.

People tend to enjoy the JK story over the JC story. I'm neutral. Both were average to me.

Shmex appeal goes to the shadow though. Double-bladed is way cooler than dual wielding.

Long story short: I would probably say that if infiltration did more DPS I'd prefer it over a sentinel. I end up playing my Mara over my Assassin because the damage is just much easier to come by (1700 vs like.. 1400 in similar gear). If you want a challenge-- go balance shadow.

Shadows are great to solo with. Much easier levelling and dungeoneering. I'm enjoying my Sin as much as I enjoy my Marauder, but Sin is more flexible in terms of field tactics. As far as endgame goes, both are viable in PvE, as the previous poster said.

Keep in mind that Shadows allow you to spec tank, *and* to use out of combat CC, which makes soloing heroic dailies much easier.

Have a level 50 Shadow and a level 47 Sentinel.

Story: Knight

Game Play (leveling): To close to call. I soloed Heroic 2+ on my shadow with easy using stealth and CC's. However, I solo Heroics 2+ on my Sentinel by killing everything real fast. I have done Knight last because as I leveled my smuggler, shadow and trooper I would constantly help guildmates and strangers spamming in general chat for help on a knight boss. I was scared to death to play a knight considering how much trouble I had leveling a sawbones solo in my first MMO. My knight has killed every boss up to Voss at level 47 solo and I can count on one had how many times she has died outside of trying to solo heroic 4+ or doing them with 2 people. Outside of my agent (which benefited from me already knowing the class from leveling a smuggler first) the knight has been the easiest class for me. Shadow was great and I could easily stay on level with her, knight is way too easy to get overleveled since you cannot just stealth out of an area. So to me both are fun for different reasons.

I am one of the stubborn people still playing a infiltration shadow. She has done everything up to including HMEC, but other than TfB, I have been low to mid dps for our group. TfB on the other hand is pretty much designed for shadow infiltration burst dps. However, I am about to respec to balance or tank since you can't run TfB every night. After 50, groups will much prefer a sentinel over a shadow for dps. Even if the shadow IMO is far superior survivability. At least my shadow lives longer than the sentinels I run with, but I do know what a defensive cooldown is and I am not afraid to use them.

Companions: Neither are that memoriable. Love the Smuggler and Agent companions so much more than either of these groups. May give a slight edge to the Seninel over the Shadow.

Gear: Consulars have the worse looking gear in game...end of story

So it will depend on your taste which on is better, if you want a endgame dps for operations, go sentinel. If you just want to casual level and be able to see everything solo, go shadow. I love both, my shadow is all about fun. Sentinel is about killing big stuff real fast. Persoally I couldn't choice, which is why I plan on playing these two and my sawbones and selfing my trooper.

I am going to slightly disagree with the above posters but keep in mind that my experience with Shadow's is from a Tanking point of view.

As far as Story goes I preferred the Shadow story up to Chapter 3. The ending was a bit underwhelming but I really enjoyed chapter 1 and chapter 2 was only slightly less interesting. The Knight story on the other hand was just cliched and too repetitive until chapter 3 for my tastes. Still, this is purely subjective and will be different for everyone so don't let my opinion sway you too much.

Companions - I think this would have to be a tie. There are both companions I really like and ones I don't care for with both classes. I think my favorites are Kira and Nadia though. T-7 is amusing at times but the others just... I dunno didn't do it for me.

As for playability, well like I said my shadow experiences are from a Tanking point of view and I have only really played a Watchman spec sentinel but I think I give the edge to Sentinel in terms of dps enjoyability. I disagree in that the Watchman spec is "easy" though as you spend quite a bit of time watching buff icons, and ability refresh timers instead of what's going on around you. This is because of the "proc" type mechanic built into the watchman tree with your DoT's. It's easy to play and just smash buttons, but to get the most out of your DPS without wasting DoT ticks and keeping others up 100% will mean you need to pay attention to them.

Ultimately if you like both classes, then play both. I did and I enjoy both for different reasons.