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Sith Marauder ANNIHILATION Discipline | SWTOR 5.0 Guide

Sith Marauder CARNAGE Discipline | SWTOR 5.0 Guide

A Complete User-Friendly Jei Sentinel Watchman Guide 4.0

► Don’t miss my COMBAT Sentinel (CARNAGE Marauder) Guide for Patch 4.0+!

VIDEOS

INTRO

The Watchman Discipline is the first of 3 available paths for the Jedi Sentinel Class. It provides no Burst damage at all, but excels at the Single Target and (to some extend, read below) AoE sustauned Damage Dealing. Due to the bigger number of abilities included and the mechanics of the spec, it is not recommended for leveling and for newer players. It offers good survivability and almost full mobility.

What is Watchman Good For

The playstyle is quite more complex than Combat and even Concentration, involves a relatively big number of abilities, has less than zero Burst in the opener.

The spec is ideal for single target damage dealing. The longer you stay on the boss (or Dummy), the better your results will be, provided you follow the priority of the abilities correctly. The changes Bioware made in Patch 4.0 revived the spec and it is not only useful, but also much more entertaining to play.

The AoE potential hidden inside Watchman is incredible. Depending on the amount of mobs, their HP pools and the situation, players can spread DoTs very effectively. Cauterize for quicker and easier pulls, both Cauterize and Force Melt for fights that would last longer than a few seconds. Spreading DoTs became possible and very popular for AoE environment after 3.0, but it was seriously boosted and improved in 4.0 after the alterations Bioware made to the Cooldowns and Durations of the DoTs.

If played to the best of its abilities, Watchman is on par with the highest parsing disciplines in the game, currently. It does not have a specific rotation (well, you could develop one, but it would ONLY be viable for the Ops Dummy)

My personal recommendation for leveling sentinels is to avoid the Watchman spec. Its complete lack of Burst spec makes the leveling process slower and more tedious. Not that you will have any real trouble leveling with it, just Combat (my favorite for low levels) and Concentration offer better tools for faster and smoother progress through the planets. If you really enjoy Watchman from the very beginning, there’s nothing to stop you from using it. For some tougher bosses (and even trash) its self-heals and better long-term single target DPS will come in handy.

Changes in Patch 4.0

With Knights of the Fallen Empire and Patch 4.0 the Watchman spec was changed significantly. Some of the changes I covered in my Preview video, based on the Developer Blog, some were never listed in the Patch notes, so we had to discover and adapt to after the release. The weird, confusing and dull skill priority system from 3.0, involving very long DoTs, is now gone and we are once again returning to the 2.X times with shorter DoTs, big self heals and interesting priority/rotation cycle.

Here’s a list of some of the most important changes made with Patch 4.0:

Gaining Utilities at different levels:

Tier 1: 17, 25, 33 (up from 11, 19, 27)

Tier 2: 41, 49 (up from 35, 43)

Tier 3: 57, 65 (up from 51, 60)

New and changed Abilities:

New Active Ability: Blade Blitz! Dash forward 20 meters, dealing weapon damage to enemies in your path and i ncreasing your defense chance by 100% while dashing. Cannot be used while immobilized or hindered. Has a

45 second cooldown, and can be attained at level 61.

ncreasing your defense chance by 100% while dashing. Cannot be used while immobilized or hindered. Has a 45 second cooldown, and can be attained at level 61. Master Strike has been renamed Blade Dance. The Jedi Knight’s Master Strike ability has been renamed “Blade Dance” because Soresu Form reduces the Focus gained by “Strike” abilities (Strike, Sundering Strike, and Warding Strike), but Master Strike does not generate or cost Focus – so its name is out of place with the conventions of the rest of the class. No change needs to be made for Sith Warriors who gain Rage with “Assault” abilities (as Ravage does not contain the word “Assault” in it).

Specific alterations to Watchman:

New Passive Skill: Smoldering Burns! Merciless Slash makes your burns deal 10% more damage for 3 seconds after you activate it.

New Passive Skill: Smoldering Burns! Merciless Slash makes your burns deal 10% more damage for 3 seconds after you activate it. Merciless Slash are now trained at level 42 (up from 41).

Force Melt is now trained at level 58 (up from 57).

Accelerating Victory are now trained at level 60 (up from 59).

Changes, unannounced in the Patch Notes:

Force leap now has a minimum range of 10m (cannot be used on CD and from melee range)

Force Melt now has 15s CD and 9s duration for its DoT. The ability is trained at lvl 10.

Force Melt now builds 3 focus.

Cauterize now has 9s Duration and still 0s CD.

There may be others that I have missed, will add them later as I remember or as you remind me. :)

Changes in Patch 4.1

The introduction to the new cratable +Accuracy/+Crit stim may confuse some, but it’s all the same as before. If you choose to have the Accuracy Stim, you will have to replace the missing Mastery (no power!) points with shuffling some Augments. For Boss fights I would suggest you try out a new higher crit and alacrity build. It is much more beneficial for Combat/Carnage Spec, but is not bad for Watchman/Annihilation either.

To avoid confusion, I invite you to check out this special video I have. It’s dedicated to exactly this topic – comparison between the new Accuracy/Crit stim and the good old Mastery/Power. Bottom line is, you DO NOT need to switch as the difference is very small, but just to be clear, the new stim has theoretical advantage. Why I don’t recommend you switching is simple – a lot of gear needs to be swapped around, Accuracy is the most important stat and if you choose the stim with it, you will have to Always have it active (unless you are farming something easy, solo, simple).

STATS PRIORITIES AND GEARING TIPS

The main damage comes from the DoTs – roughly ~30-35% (or more) of the total damage dealt. Keeping them active all the time on as many targets (if AoE is possible) is vital. It’s also important not to overlap them, meaning don’t use the next Cauterize before the previous one expires. The longer duration of Force Melt allows it to be spammed. Overload Saber should be used on Cooldown and it has just about the same priority as in 3.0. More on that down in the Active Abilities section.

After the changes made to Crit (for more details check this video or this article), now it is the single most important stat to stack like mad. Let’s not forget Accuracy. But, it would be better if we go over all of the main class stats with a brief description.

Stats Priorities

I have described the stats below in the order of the priority you should give to them. Accuracy always comes first, Crit is the 2nd most important stat and should be stacked high, Alacrity is easier and a lot more affordable now due to changes made to the 2 previously mentioned stats. Mastery and Power are last in our builds in terms or priorities.

Accuracy

Is now easier to get due to the curve and formula adjustments Bioware did for KOTFE. The new target is now 110%. The basic abilities no longer have accuracy penalty and both basic and special attacks require 110% now. The way to achieve this number is not set in stone. Using any gear that is available to you at the given time and moment of your gearing process, you should look for Accuracy in Implants, Ears, Augments and balance them to reach the new gold number 684 (as it was researched and posted here). You should not forget the Companion bonus as well!

Critical Rating

CritRating saw the biggest change in its formula and usefulness not only for this patch, but over all since the release of the game. For almost all DPS classes it has become the most important stat to stack after reaching 110% Accuracy. Crit now includes Surge, meaning there is no more a stand alone stat called “Surge”. When stacking Crit, you both increase your chance to land a critical hit as well as the magnitude of this hit. Crit is also viable and important even for specs and abilities with Autocrit, because of the extra addition. When an ability procs for an auto-crit (100% chance to land a crit hit), a new formula comes into play that adds a portion of your crit to your surge making the ability hit even harder. I cannot tell you the exact way this is calculated, but one thing is for sure – the crit is not added 1:1 on top of Surge for Auto-Crit abilities. The recommended percentage for EndGame is ~37-39% Crit Change and ~69-70% Surge. Keep in mind that both are dependent on Crit, so you cannot manually boost one without the other. After this the DR starts hitting the stat and depending on what your playstyle and server lag (!) is, you may decide to add one more item with Crit or start building Alacrity.

Alacrity

Behaves exactly as it did before 4.0. It shortens the duration of channels, the duration of DoTs and HoTs, the Global Cooldown. With one word – it makes everything happen faster. For Dummy Parsing Alacrity is a vital stat and helps a lot. Due to Watchman being primarily used in boss encounters where the sentinel is allowed to sit on the same target for longer duration, Alacrity is helpful here as well. Also the fact that Crit starts hitting DR is another reason to begin building the next stat.

Mastery and Power

Is probably I should have started with. It’s the new global stat that replaces all previously class specific main stats – Strength, Willpower, Aim, Cunning. Everything is now Mastery. There were no changes to its behavior, it still acts the same way our old main class stats used to. Mastery also benefits from all the Datacrons now. The single reason I didn’t lead with Mastery here is because its new name didn’t change much. The main difference between Mastery and Power is that Mastery adds main bonus to Damage, but also a small bonus to Crit, while Power boosts only Damage, but does it a little better than Mastery.

Gearing for EndGame

Many guides, posts and articles will tell us that this or that is the Best In Slot and ideal combination of items to achieve the perfect stats. I will do no such thing! The goal for each sentinel player is to be optimized for maximum possible damage output at any given time and moment. This means we have to use all available and various items to get to the numbers we need. It matters not how many Augments we use with this stat or that stat. The goals are as follows:

Accuracy: 110%

Crit Chance: 37-39%

Surge (Crit Magnitude): ~69-70%

Alacrity: 700-900

Mastery: 5100-5300

Power: 2700-2900

Please, note, these are not set in stone. If you’d like to see what a most optimal gear for each tier (216, 220, 224) would give you, visit this forum thread. With lower tier gear your stats will be low, but as long as you follow the priority and don’t spare resources for Augments, you can always reach the ideal or near-perfect stats for the spec and for your own play-style.

Once again, if I must, I will advice you to craft Crit Augments, but the reality is different. You may end up needing a few Accuracy Augments, maybe even a couple of Alacrity ones. It all depends on what items are available to you.

DO NOT start building your character from the get go following the mentioned in the above linked thread ideal ratings. This will cause serious drops in your performance while gearing up and that’s absolutely wrong.

Keep in mind that these are again recommendations, not set in stone stats. Bashing the dummy is never the same as fighting a real boss. Alterations for NiM content may have to be done and I will adjust accordingly my personal stats and recommendations once I start doing those. It’s still too early to tell with 100% certainty. Need more testing.

When it comes to Relics, it has been proven mathematically that the old ones work still best:

Relic of Serendipitous Assault

Relic of Focused Retribution

The fact that Crit is a much more valuable stat does not make the Crit proc relics more viable, because their bonus is ~2/3 of the one given by SA and FR.

WARNING! Do not replace your Armoring mods with any new ones until you obtain the tokens containing Set Bonuses. Set Bonuses are important and very needed for best performance. Even if you have the 192 set bonus, don’t replace the armorings with newer ones, which will remove your set bonus

ABILITIES AND PRIORITIES

In this section I will introduce some of the most important abilities – both passive and active, a template/example for an opener and explain why there is not such thing as a “rotation” in Watchman.

Important Passive Abilities

These are skills you learn automatically as you level up. You do not need to visit a trainer. For a more detailed overview, please refer to the video version of the guide. These are not all new or changed, just important to know passives and how they affect the gameplay.

Burning Sweep (lvl 12)

” Reduces the Cooldown of Force Melt by 9 seconds and the focus it consumes by 1. In addition Force Sweep Deals 30% more damage and spreads your DoTs if it hits targets already affected by them.”

► This is the big stuff for AoE. As I have described earlier, using only Cauterize for weaker Mobs or Cauterize and Force Melt for stronger adds, followed by Force Sweep is a key to maximizing the AoE output. I will add a bit more to that further down in the AoE “rotations” (Ugh, hate that word!)

Focused Slash (lvl 12)

“Slash, Dispatch, Merciless Slash (and a bunch more not from the spec) refund 1 focus when used. In addition Zealous Strike beats down its target for 45s. beat Down tagets take 5% more damage from melee attacks”

► Just to make it clear, this is a free passive the sentinel learns from a class trainer. It boosts the main focus building ability Zealous Strike and adds a damage boost to all melee attacks.

Merciless Zeal (lvl 36)

“Your Cauterize, Overload Saber and Force Melt burns heal you for 15% of the damage they deal”

► As mentioned already, DoTs go together with HoTs very well and the new scaled up Crit comes as a fantastic boost to this. Not only you heal yourself for 15% now, but the chance for the DoTs to Crit is quite high too.

Plasma Blades (lvl 40)

“Your burn effects have a 20% chance to build 1 focus when dealing damage. This effect cannot ocur more often than once every second”

► Not only that this passive is not bound to GCD, but the fact that the DoTs are main priority in combat, helps a lot with focus building and maintaining it. Combined with the fact that one of the DoTs (Force Melt) now also builds focus, transforms this passive into an amazing boost.

Inexhaustible Zeal (lvl 48)

“Juyo Form can now stack up to 6 times and Merciless Slash can now stack up to 4 times in total”

► I’d like to bring your attention back to this passive later on when we talk about openers. Because of the Juyo and Merciless Slash stacks, it is important to not begin with DoTs, unless it’s a short trash pull and adds will die in 10s.

Valor (lvl 50)

“Increases the amount of centering built by 2 when activating abilities that consume focus, and reduces the cooldown of Valorous Call by 30s”

Once an optional trainable passive from the old Skill trees Valor is not a free upgrade from the class trainer. Boosts Centering build and allows Zen/Transcendence/Inspiration usage more often.

Mind Sear (lvl 52)

“Your burning effects have a 20% change to grant Mind Sear, which increases the damage of your next Twin Saber Throw by 100%. this effect can only happen once every 18s”

► The 100% damage boost to Twin Saber Throw makes it a very valuable ability when the proc is up. Great as a filler and can be used pretty much on CD.

Blazing Ward (lvl 56)

“Dealing burn damage to a target increases your damage reduction by 5% for 3 seconds”

► Just another addition to the importance of DoTs and why the sentinel must keep them up at,all cost.

Accelerating Victory (lvl 60)

“Juyo Form and Merciless build 2 stacks at a time. In addition, Merciless Slash has a 50% change to build Accelerating Victory when activated, increasing the damage your next Slash or Dispatch deals by 5% per stack. Stacks up to 2 times”

► Combining this with the previously mentioned passive, brings us to the answer why should we use Merciless Slash before beginning to stack the burns. The 10% increase for Dispatch (sub 30% ability!) and Slash are just an extra bonus to an already powerful skill or in the other case – a nice booster to our filler ability.

Smoldering Burns (lvl 64)

“Merciless Slash increases the burn damage you deal by 5% for 4.5s after use”

► To maximize the 3 GCD duration of this effect, the sentinel must use Merciless Slash and Overload Saber combined with 30 stacks of Zen right in the moment when all the DoTs are stacked or at least on 2 stacks. It’s not easy to do and almost never possible in real boss fights, but the closer it gets to this perfect scenario, the better damage output for this short frame of the DPS chart.

Important Active Abilities

We begin, obviously, with the special ones, listed in the preview window for the Discipline

Force Melt (lvl 10) – 12s CD

“Calls on the power of the force to build 3 focus and melt the target, causing it to burn for elemental damage over 9 seconds”

► The new cooldown and shorter duration of Melt makes it a lot more fun to use. Its focus building addition is just excellent for focus management and almost completely negates the fact that Force Leap has a 10m minimum range now, effectively removing it from the fight in melee range. To be used on CD, of course.

Cauterize (lvl 26) – 0s CD

“Strikes the target for weapon damage and deals an additional elemental damage over 9s. Requires two swords”

► Cauterize’s 3.0 version had shorter duration, making it an extremely unpleasant ability to use. Now in 4.0, its 9s duration is an amazing boost to the fluidity of the way Watchman is played. To be used every 9s, obviously.

Merciless Slash (lvl 42) – 15s-3×1.5s CD

“Strikes the target with both lightsabers for weapon damage. each use of this ability grants Merciless for 30s, lowering the cooldown of your next Merciless Slash by 1.5s. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires 2 swords”

► Works very similarly like in 3.0, must be used on Cooldown or as close to it as possible. It’s the biggest hitting single target ability.

Overload Saber (lvl 58) – 12s CD

“Charges your lightsaber with deadly energy for 15s, causing your next 3 successfull melee attacks to make the target burn for elemental damage over 6s. Stacks up to 3 times”

► This is an important ability. Makes for a great Combo with Zen and full stacks of Juyo. My recommendation is to use Zen after the 2nd stack of overload Saber followed up by Cauterize to maximize the DoT boost, leading to a boost for the self heals as well. The ability is on a 12s CD and does not obey the GCD.

Zealous Strike (lvl 10) – 15s CD

“Strikes the target multiple times with both lightsabers, dealing weapon damage and building 6 focus”

► No extra info needed. this is the biggest and main focus builder ability for the whole class. Benefits from Focused Slash.

Zen (lvl 10) – 1.5s CD

“Converts 30 stacks of centering to enter Zen stance, lasts 6s. Increases the critical chance of your burns by 100% and causes burn damage to heal your group for 1% of max health each tick”

► The more you use Zen, the better for everybody! Ideally you can fit it into a spam-mode, but in most boss encounters you must wait a second or two before you apply it for maximum effect and in combo with your other active DoTs

Transcendence (lvl 22) – 1.5s CD

“Converts 30 stacks of Centering to issue Transcendence to you and your group within 40m, increasing movement speed by 50% andmelee and ranged defense by 10%. Duration is 10s”

► Good for both speed and defense boost. If you really like this ability and you or your team needs it for specific boss encounters, it can be altered by one of the available utilities. I’ll explain more down below when we get to the Utilities section.

Inspiration (lvl 44) – 5min CD

“Converts 30 stacks of Centering to inspire you and your group within 40m, increasing all damage and healing done by 10%. Lasts for 10s”

► This is the single most Overpowered group utility ever. Must be used very wisely as it has a very long cooldown and will be available only once or maybe twice per boss fight, depending on the ops and specific boss. It needs to be coordinated with other class buffs as well as with all the team players. Usually used in desperate moments (rarely) or in Burn Phases (mostly).

Twin Saber Throw (lvl 51) – 18s CD

“Throws both lightsabers in a straight forward line towards the target, dealing weapon damage to up to 8 enemies directly in front of you up to 30m away. Affected enemies are slowed by 50% for 6s”

► A perfect filler. Must be used always after it procs from Mind Sear and preferably on 2 or more targets. The fact that it benefits from all and any DoTs, makes it almost a certain proc every time its CD is off.

Blade Dance (lvl 8) – 18s CD

“Performs a series of lightsaber attacks that deal weapon damage over 3s duration. Standard and weak enemies are stunned for the duration of the effect. Strikes with both weapons if duel wielding. Cannot be interrupted”

► The only channeling ability that is regularly used in the ability priority for the Watchman spec. Deals huge damage, takes 2GCD to perform. Biggest hitter is the last strike.

If I feel the need to add more abilities and their descriptions, I will do so at a later point.

Utilities

Due to the huge amount of Utilities available, I will not list their description here, but will instead give you a few diagrams of which combinations are useful, where and how. For a more detailed description, check the video version of my guide.

Combination 1:

Tier 1: Jedi Enforcer + Jedi Crusader + Stoic + Trailblazer

Tier 2: Defensive Roll + Force Fade

Tier 3: Jedi Promulgator

► In this one I am focusing on AoE boost from Trailblazer, while keeping mobility and survivability as high as possible. The first 3 Tier 1 abilities are pretty much a solid “always present” in my builds. Almost always. :)

Combination 2:

Tier 1: Jedi Enforcer + Jedi Crusader + Stoic

Tier 2: Ardor + Defensive Roll

Tier 3: Fleetfooted + Expunging Camouflage

► This build is ideal for boss fights where Transcendence is useful to the whole team and mobility is a key. A perfect example would be the Underlurker (3rd boss in ToS). Also not a bad idea for Master and Blaster (4th boss Ravagers)

Combinatin 3:

Tier 1: Jedi Enforcer + Jedi Crusader + Stoic

Tier 2: Defensive Roll +Force Fade

Tier 3: Jedi Promulgator + Contemplation

► An universal build for mobility, survivability, single target damage and a bood boost for the opener (with and extra 30 Centering ready before combat begins). Suitable for shorter (trash) pulls.

There are many and more combinations possible, depending on group balance, the encounter, the players’ experience. Sometimes a good upgrade of the defense and mobility is a key, other times maximizing the DPS output is vital for avoiding enrage timers. As you have noticed, some of the abilities, namely the first 3 from Tier 1 are always the same in my builds. I like Jedi Enforcer and Jedi Crusader together as they really work very well in a combination. Stoic is kind of a must have for pretty much any and all situations. Following with Tier 2 – my choices are usually mobility, defensive boost or group tools and I decide before each boss pull what is important and what will give the team best chances for a clean and easy kill. In Tier 3 I have one favorite and in most cases this is Jedi Promulgator. The reason I don’t often pick Fleetfooted and/or Expunging Camouflage is because, well.. Duh, they are momentary, just like Enduring (very, very useful one for 2nd phase in Master and Blaster, btw).

To list all possible combinations I have tested, used and keep using, we’ll need a whole new mini series of videos or a bunch of extra pages for this guide. If you have any doubts what to use or how to combine the Utilities, ask away.

Ability Priorities

I have already mentioned a lot of tips for good combos, how some skills should be used, when, where, why. Let’s try and put things in order now. The list is not exactly a 100% clean priority, but close to it and is all according to my personal preferences and gameplay style:

Force Melt

Cauterize

Overload Saber

Merciless Slash

Blade Dance (the old Master Strike)

Slash

Twin Saber Throw

Zealoust Strike

Strike

Dispatch (only after 30% of the mobs’ HP)

Still, the hardest hitting single target abilities are Merciless Strike and Blade Dance. However, Blade Dance is not high in my priority list at the moment as it takes 2 GCD and forbids movement, which is something vital for every MDPS. Overload Saber acts outside of the GCD and should be used on CD. In ideal situations it would be followed by Zen (if 30 Centering is available). Overload Saber stacks up to 3 times and I recommend you using Zen after you see the 2nd stack popping up. The Watchman Discipline is NOT a bursty one. In any kind of an opener the sentinel deals only a moderate damage, even low. This is due to the fact that most of the damage comes from the DoTs, they benefit from various stacks, explained in the Abilities section above as well as on some procs. That is why the longer the sentinel stays on the same target without interruption, the better and bigger the DPS output will be.

After 4.0 Melt and Cauterize were redesigned. Melt now can replace Leap in some sense. it builds focus, has 15s CD and produces a DoT, while on the other hand Leap now has a limit of 10-30m range, making it ineffective after combat begins.

Keeping Force Melt and Cauterize up all the time without overlapping their duration is a key to maximizing the damage.

Template for an Opener

A possible good and standard opener for a single target enemy looks like this:

Force Leap + Overload Saber Zealous Strike Merciless Slash Force Melt Zen + Adrenal + Valorous Call Inspiration Cauterize Blade Dance (takes 2GCD) Slash Twin Saber Throw (if it procs!) or Slash Slash or Strike (depending on focus built already) + Overload Saber Cauterize Force Melt Merciless Slash

Important notes on Main Ability Priorities:

Due to the RNG still present, even though it is minimal, the various outcomes may differ from any opener. Depending on how many focus points we get back from DoTs, how the oponent reacts (if it’s a Dummy, there’s no point to discuss it, hehe), we may have to alter some parts of this opener. It’s not 100% needed to begin with Inspiratin. In most cases for boss fights this group boost, as I stated earlier, is used in combination with other class buffs and must be very well timed, making it hard to precisely time it with the inner sentinel cooldowns and ability rotations.

Merciless Slash must be used in the beginning before the DoTs to help build quick Juyo stacks and Merciless stacks. Adrenal may or may not be used. It’s best to save it for a more important phase or for the next Inspiration cycle.

Overload saber must be timed and usedin conjunction with Zen as often as possible in the sense that after the 2nd or 3rd stack of Overload Saber is up, Zen must be popped.

The good news for Watchman Ability Priorities in 4.0 is that the Cooldowns are now very well timed and we are able to usse pretty much all of our “big” skills on CD (spam them). The spec plays out much more fluent and is a lot more fun to play. Also easier to master. Not much. It’s still considered the toughest of all 3.

Even though Force Leap is now unusable from meleerange, the focus building possibilities are much bigger compared do 3.0 and even before that. A lot less fillers are expected to be used now (Slash).

After the 30% mark of our target’s HP bar, the Dispatch comes into play. It is, just like in 3.0, the main filler for this last stage of the fight. When it procs (2 stacks from Accelerating Victory), it becomes a good damage booster, but it should still only be considered a secondary ability and used as a filler. Main priority remains keeping the DoTs up and using Merciless Slash on CD.

Parsing

I upload all my new Boss Kill Videos (HM+) with a detailed Combat Log. The screenshots are only available below my videos here on my website. You can check out both my end results and how I reached the numbers, what role I played in the fight, how I did it and so on.

Since I rushed the guide due to an increbidly high demand and questions from many of you (thank you for relying on my work and content!), I am unable to provide you with decent parses at the moment of writing the guide. Using a mixed balanced set of 198/216/220. I was able to peak at 6.2k with an old 192 MH, haven’t tried a Dummy parse since obtaining the 220 (how I got it, look here :P). The leaderboards on the official forums state that with optimized 224 set the Watchman damage should be around 6700-6900, possibly even over 7000 with some luck and incredibly precise ability-usage.

CONCLUSIONS

Why Watchman Over Other Specs

While lacking on the burst factor and high numbers per ability, Watchman excels in sustained damage dealing and offers great survivability with its self and group heals. It is not limiting the mobility of the user, allows for both single and AoE damage. Most of all it is a much more complex and entertaining spec compared to what it was in Shadow of Revan and 3.X SWTOR era. I seriously urge any and all who have played it before to give it one more try. It’s a guarantee that you will like it and some may even fall in love with it. There are bugs (global ones or personal to the discipline) at the time of writing the guide, but they do not ruin the fun of melting and burning like a champion once again. The spec is very much on par with the rest of the disciplines, performs nicely in suitable boss encounters and offers decent challenge in mastering it.

About This Guide

This guide is based on my personal experience with Watchman from the first days into 4.0. Most of the tests were done with the old 198 set bonus and balanced, yet not perfect mix of mods spaning from 198 to 220. It is unwise to think my guide is perfect. Don’t believe the person who tells you they have nothing to learn any more. That is foolish. We all learn new things every day.

This is a guide, not a rule or a law. It is not meant to give you orders and tell you how to play. With it I want to give you directions and share my experience, while leaving enough room for each player’s individual style to shine.

Thanks and Sources

For various topics and calculations I have used the following sources to prove and confirm my tests, expectations, predictins, results:

After you finished this guide, I’d like to invite you to take a look at the huge amount of tutorials, overviews, walkthroughs and all kinds of other helpful (hopefully) videos I have created for SWTOR Patch 4.0 Knights of the Fallen Empire

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