In my opinion no. I roll combat or Smash(focus/rage) spec. Watchmans burns are cleansable and that removes your healing as well as your damage.

And with the stun issue at the moment I have to say that on both Guard and sent focus is the way to go until a nerf. It just pumps out way more damage than watchman and combat.

Combat is fun, watchman is kinda fun, Smash spec seems clunky to me but the fact is that its just the best melee spec at the moment.

I am a main PVEer. For PVP I would definitely be rolling a combat

For PvE I think Watchman is more than viable. I also play it in PvP Pugs where they cleanse rarely...

Having played both styles I prefer Watchman much more in PVE, except for the Terror (no leap really gimps Watchman in Phase 2). Focus may be better in some fights, too... depending on group composition. I'm thinking EC Kephess and Writhing Horror if your group is heavy melee/light on aoe.

You can argue that Combat would be better for bosses with high burst phases, but personally I don't see a disadvantage on any of them by going Watchman. Even in a burst phase as short as TFB Kephess, it is easy enough to time the 3rd tick of Master Strike + Merciless for a pretty decent burst.

Burst also comes from Overload Saber + Cauterize + Zen

That isn't the same sort of on demand burst a Combat Sentinel (or any other class considered a burst class) brings to the table.

My Carnage marauder has hit Kephess the Undying for 60k in 3 seconds with Ravage > Force Scream without having to apply 3 GCDs worth of DoTs and using a full stack of fury

Yeah...but combat burst was toned down in 2.0 and watchman burst was brought up. Plus...combat is still a good 200+ dps behind watchman sustained...after some have had a chance to tweak it you may be closer...but you'll be rage/focus starved where watchman really gets better focus/rage management.

This simply isn't true and you have absolutely no way to prove it. It certainly isn't true in live and basing that kind of claim on 1st day open PTS data is silly.

Combat has always been a burst spec, but its burst was so high that it averaged out to within 50 DPS of Watchman even on sustained tank and spank fights. If you add in any period of stop DPS to that equation, Combat became the clear winner for the fight.

As an aside, the burst potential for Combat has increased on the PTS, not decreased. Zen allows a player to use a PS window on ANY 4 instant abilities and Ataru form has a 45% chance to reset PS which allows 3 PS windows every 30 seconds instead of 2.

So I don't really know much about Combat, but my raid group just finished the S&V on PTS, and I had 2019 DPS over 7 minutes in Watchman. Obviously that's buffed and stimmed, but I would venture a guess and say Watchman has quite a lead over any other DPS spec (Sentinel or otherwise), given that I did 50% of the damage done to the first mini-boss in the last fight (Don't have the other logs, sorry) and 35% to the second mini-boss. Take a look. If I did this right, here is the link to the log.

http://www.torparse.com/a/141441

So I don't really know much about Combat, but my raid group just finished the S&V on PTS, and I had 2019 DPS over 7 minutes in Watchman. Obviously that's buffed and stimmed, but I would venture a guess and say Watchman has quite a lead over any other DPS spec (Sentinel or otherwise), given that I did 50% of the damage done to the first mini-boss in the last fight (Don't have the other logs, sorry) and 35% to the second mini-boss. Take a look. If I did this right, here is the link to the log.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/141441

It depends on the nature of the fight, as I've easily cracked 2k DPS on Live with Combat on tank and spank fights. I've also parsed 2450 on the dummy in Watchman on PTS, and 2400 in Combat.

This simply isn't true and you have absolutely no way to prove it. It certainly isn't true in live and basing that kind of claim on 1st day open PTS data is silly.

Combat has always been a burst spec, but its burst was so high that it averaged out to within 50 DPS of Watchman even on sustained tank and spank fights. If you add in any period of stop DPS to that equation, Combat became the clear winner for the fight.

 

As an aside, the burst potential for Combat has increased on the PTS, not decreased. Zen allows a player to use a PS window on ANY 4 instant abilities and Ataru form has a 45% chance to reset PS which allows 3 PS windows every 30 seconds instead of 2.

*Cough* Dispatch Spam*Cough* Combat is going to probably outshine Watchmen. While Watchmen will probably be better sustained. Combat is going to be able to quickly kill faster.

It depends on the nature of the fight, as I've easily cracked 2k DPS on Live with Combat on tank and spank fights. I've also parsed 2450 on the dummy in Watchman on PTS, and 2400 in Combat.

So, the 2288 Watchman parse on Live...you've got an answer for that too right? Since the best combat parses I have seen are only around 2150...that's not within 50 dps. That parse is 5 min even by the way...not 5 min 15 seconds...you know what I am alluding to with that statement I am sure.

So, the 2288 Watchman parse on Live...you've got an answer for that too right? Since the best combat parses I have seen are only around 2150...that's not within 50 dps. That parse is 5 min even by the way...not 5 min 15 seconds...you know what I am alluding to with that statement I am sure.

Why do you feel the need to so rabidly defend the Watchman spec, as though it's unpopular or thought of as inferior DPS?

The post I was responding to was about someone guessing that Watchman has "quite a lead over any other DPS spec (Sentinel or otherwise)"

That simply isn't true. Not in Live, not on the PTS. In fact, if dummy parses are your thing, according to the Legit DPS Claims 2.0 thread in the PTS forum Combat and Watchman are within 50 DPS before any editing goes in.

You also claimed that Watchman is 200 DPS ahead right now for sustained (aka Ops boss) fights. Not true. Look it up on torparse if you want. You'll see me on the 16m HM/NiM top 50 quite a bit. I've got the number 5 parse on the TfB HM and that's the longest fight in game currently (ignore the #1 parse for that fight, it's 60s). Combat is AS VIABLE for sustained DPS as Watchman and for fights with multiple stop DPS phases is probably the better spec for SKILLED players.