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Complete Concentration Sentinel Guide for SWTOR Update 6.0, suitable for players who seek to improve their performance! It describes both PvE and PvP elements of the gameplay for this discipline with a slightly heavier leaning towards PvE. The guide features an introduction to the class, gearing and stats priority, abilities descriptions of how they work and how to use them for best effect, utilities break-down, rotations and ability priorities and tips.

UP TO DATE FOR PATCH 6.1.2

This guide is written for VULKK.com by Anatessia

INTRO

Hello, welcome to my 6.0 guide to Concentration Sentinel! Concentration is the third combat proficiency path available for the Jedi Sentinel. It’s a melee class, using a combination of melee weapon and Force attacks to deal good single target damage, both burst and sustained, and the spec can also do decent bursts of area damage. While Watchman currently deals slightly more damage, Concentration makes up for it with better defense and increased mobility. This guide covers how to play Concentration in both PvE and PvP content.

Single target damage: Concentration does good single target damage. While not exceptional, Concentration still is above average, and is able to meet all single target checks in the game.

Area damage: Concentration can do a lot of AOE damage in one quick burst, but isn’t quite as good at sustaining it. It has good enough AOE for all solo questing and for PvP. But if you need to meet a tough area damage check such as on Izax or the CI-004 encounter, consider playing Watchman instead for that fight.

Execute phase: Concentration does slightly more damage when its target is sub-30% health, but doesn’t excel at it the way some specs do.

Survivability: Concentration is one of the toughest DPS specs in the game, possibly the toughest. It has a stun immunity, several good shield abilities, and can disappear entirely for short periods to escape as needed.

Raid utility: Sentinels are perhaps the best class for raid utility, with a raid buff that temporarily increases all damage by 10% and a group-wide speed buff on a short cooldown, which also cleanses certain debuffs.

Overall rating: Concentration performs very well in most fights, both in PvE and in PvP. It’s very hard to kill when played properly, deals good damage, and is a major asset to your team-mates and group members with its raid buffs

STAT PRIORITIES AND GEARING

Overview

Set bonus : Descent of the Fearless

: Descent of the Fearless Tacticals : Cauterized Coronary (for single target) and Enrage Crush (for AOE). Defel Spliced Genes is also good for PvP and certain boss fights for a defensive boost.

: Cauterized Coronary (for single target) and Enrage Crush (for AOE). Defel Spliced Genes is also good for PvP and certain boss fights for a defensive boost. Amplifiers : Armor Penetration

: Armor Penetration Relics : Devastating Vengeance and Primeval Fatesealer for most PvE content. Serendipitous Assault and Focused Retribution for PvP and Dxun.

: Devastating Vengeance and Primeval Fatesealer for most PvE content. Serendipitous Assault and Focused Retribution for PvP and Dxun. Accuracy target for PvE : 1590

: 1590 Accuracy target for PvP : 700

: 700 Alacrity target : 1213

: 1213 Critical target : 3000+

Read below for more information on what each stat does and why it is useful, if you are not already familiar with the stats.

Detailed Breakdowns

Set Bonus

Descent of the Fearless (4 piece):

– Effect: Whenever you gain or consume a Force Clarity ability charge while in combat, your damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds. (6 piece) Dealing damage has a 10% chance to build a Force Clarity ability charge. Can only occur once every 5 seconds.

– Notes: This set gives you a 10-15% damage boost, which is significantly better than any of the other options for most content.

The Victor (4 piece):

– Effect: Defeating an enemy increases your movement speed by 75% for 8 seconds. Can only occur once every 8 seconds. (6 piece) Defeating an enemy heals you for 20% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds.

– Notes: The lone exception is Master Mode story chapters, where The Victor set is a good choice, as you are fighting large mobs that deal significant damage but die quickly.

For perfect gearing, you should use a head piece from the Amplified Champion set (which contains an extra combat-enhancing amplifier slot) with 6 pieces from the Descent of the Fearless set. Why, you may ask? Well, you only need 6 pieces from Descent of the Fearless for the set bonus. The seventh piece is redundant. And it’s best to put the Amplified Champion piece in the head slot, so that you don’t lose your set bonus if you end up doing Dreadful Entity or Hateful Entity, which both require wearing a special helm.

Tacticals

Cauterized Coronary for single target damage.

Concentrated Slice now causes its target to burn. Aside from the obvious benefit of increased free damage, this also increases the chance that your Descent of the Fearless set bonus will proc, further increasing your damage.

Enrage Crush for area damage.

Focused Burst and Force Sweep detonate Force Exhaustion, dealing Force Exhaustion’s remaining damage to up to 8 enemies in the area around the primary target. This one is pretty straightforward and it gives you a free AOE that fits perfectly into the rotation.

Defel Spliced Genes for increased defense and escapes.

Activating Transcendence resets the cooldown of Force Camouflage. Force Camouflage is your cleanse, your threat drop, and a good cooldown for area damage in PvE, and your best escape move in PvP. Getting to reset the cooldown is very handy. Use this tactical when surviving is more important than dealing a lot of damage.

A lot of PvPers, particularly in unranked warzones, like to use Life Warden, which heals you for a large amount when you fall below 20% health. However, this has a long cooldown, will only activate once per match, and the cooldown does not reset between rounds of an arena game. I would not use or recommend it personally.

Amplifiers

Amplifiers are another new addition to gearing with Onslaught. Amplifiers slightly increase certain attributes, and the amplifiers on armorings and hilts are the only ones that increase your combat attributes. Though the bonuses seem small, they do stack, and with the right amplifiers you can get a significant damage boost from them.

For a Concentration Sentinel you want +2.50% Armor Penetration amplifiers, which should give you approximately a 7% damage boost from a full set. Unlike some specs, Concentration only works well with this one amplifier type, and the other options are half as effective.

Note that re-rolling amplifiers is costly and makes less of a difference than any other step of the gearing process, so I recommend waiting until you have your set bonus, amplifiers, enhancements, and augments before you worry about amplifiers.

Relics

Technically, the Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault relics are the best options, which passively grant you a mastery and a power bonus every 20 seconds.

But with the level sync that most PvE content in the game currently has, your mastery and power stats are capped, meaning that these two relics will do nothing for you outside of PvP content and Dxun Operation. For most of the PvE in the game, you are better off using Devastating Vengeance and Primeval Fatesealer relics, which give you a passive chance for a critical bonus, and an alacrity bonus when you click it respectively.

Stats Breakdown and Info

Mastery, Power, and Endurance matter if you are planning to run PvP or the Dxun Operation. Otherwise, skip this section and just use whatever 306 rating parts suit you. Most PvE content in the game is currently level synced, so you will have more than enough of each of these stats without trying to optimize them.

When selecting armorings and hilts for your gear, go with the unlettered ones. They are the most common, and for DPS, the best choice, since they have high mastery.

For your mods, get the mods with the highest overall stat pool. I believe 80R-2 is the best, but the unlettered 80 mods are fairly close.

As far as enhancements, the unlettered ones are best for level 75 content and PvP, since they have an overall higher stat pool. 80R-1 enhancements are best for the old PvE content since they have the highest tertiary stat pool. You will probably have to do a bit of math yourself to figure out how to best set up the enhancements and augments for your gear, since there are so many options for you.

Mastery and Power

Mastery is the primary stat for all classes. It increases base damage and slightly increases critical damage. Power only increases base damage, but to a greater degree. Both of these stats have linear gains, rather than curves with diminishing returns like the other stats.

Endurance

Endurance increases your total health pool by several hitpoints for each point of Endurance you have.

Defense

This is intended as and normally used as a tank stat. But for the older Nightmare Operations with level sync, your mastery, power, and endurance stats are capped, so even DPS players can use Warding mods with no downsides. It increases your damage reduction significantly when you’re not stunned. However, it is not mandatory, and you should be able to clear the old content just fine without defense. For PvP or for Dxun, you do not want to use warding mods or have any defense stat.

Accuracy

Accuracy both increases your chance to hit a target, and reduces the target’s chance of dodging, parrying, or otherwise avoiding your attacks. The accuracy target for PvE is 110%, or 1590 raw points of the stat. Concentration players should use an accuracy stim, so you only need 1,325 accuracy from your gear. With under 110% accuracy, a significant amount of your attacks and more importantly your interrupts will miss in Operations, so it is very important to hit this target if you do PvE. For PvP, accuracy is slightly less important. It still helps, but it’s not the end of the world if one attack misses. Most players like to aim for 105% accuracy in PvP as a compromise, which requires 700 raw points of the stat.

Alacrity

Alacrity shortens most ability cooldowns and shortens the global cooldown (GCD). Alacrity has two target thresholds you can aim for. The first one occurs at 1213 (or higher) alacrity and brings your GCD to 1.4s, the second occurs at 3208 (or higher) alacrity and brings your GCD to 1.3s. Any number of alacrity points you spend between these two values will result in no change to the GCD. I strongly recommend the low alacrity build for Concentration Sentinel.

Critical

Critical increases the chance of a critical hit when you attack an enemy. It also increases the amount of damage dealt by a critical attack. Ideally you want to end up with a little over 3000 points of critical, but there is no precise number you need to hit with this stat.

ABILITIES

All ability cooldown timers here are the base cooldown with no alacrity bonuses. The level listed is when you are first able to learn the ability.

Concentration Spec Abilities

ABILITY NOTES

Focused Burst (level 10, 12s cooldown, 10m range)



Deals a powerful burst of Force energy at your target.

Zealous Leap (level 26, 12s cooldown, 10m range)



This ability deals moderate damage and moves your character to your target when activated. At higher levels, it makes your next Focused Burst or Force Sweep automatically a critical hit.

Force Exhaustion (level 42, 18s cooldown, 10m range)



Rapidly slows your target’s movement speed for 3 seconds, dealing a small hit every second, and exploding at the end of the duration for a moderate hit. At higher levels you get a passive ability that makes Force Exhaustion grant interrupt, stun, pull, and knockback immunity for 6 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds.

Concentrated Slice (level 58, 9s cooldown, 4m range)



Deals a massive burst of weapon damage to your target. At higher levels you get a passive ability that makes Concentrated Slice increase your defense chance by 10% for 6 seconds.

Offensive Abilities

ABILITY NOTES

Strike (level 1, no cooldown, 4m range)



Builds 2 Focus and deals a small amount of weapon damage.

Slash (level 1, no cooldown, 4m range)



Consumes 3 Focus and deals a moderate amount of weapon damage.

Force Leap (level 1, 15s cooldown, 10-30m range)



Builds 3 Focus, causes you to leap to your target, and immobilizes the target for 2 seconds.

Force Sweep (level 3, 12 cooldown, 5m range)



Consumes 3 Focus and deals a moderate amount of kinetic damage to all targets within 5m of you. Stuns weak and standard enemies for 2 seconds.

Zealous Strike (level 4, 15s cooldown, 4m range)



Builds 6 Focus and deals a small amount of weapon damage.

Cyclone Slash (level 5, no cooldown, 5m range)



Consumes 3 Focus and deals a small amount of damage to up to 8 targets within 5m in front of you.

Blade Storm (level 6, 12s cooldown, 10m range)



Consumes 4 Focus and deals a large amount of kinetic damage.

Blade Barrage (level 8, 18s cooldown, 4m range)



Deals a large amount of weapon damage over several small hits in rapid succession.

Dispatch (level 32, 10s cooldown, 10m range)



Deals a large amount of energy damage. Target must be under 30% health.

Twin Saber Throw (level 51, 18s cooldown, 30m range)



Throws both lightsabers in a straight line in front of you, dealing moderate weapon damage to all targets along its path, and slowing them by 50% for 6 seconds.

Blade Blitz (level 58, 45s cooldown, 20m range)



Quickly dash forward, dealing a small amount of weapon damage to all enemies along your path, and becoming immune to all damage (save scripted kills) for 1.5 seconds.

Group and Personal Buff Abilities

ABILITY NOTES

Force Might (level 1, 6s cooldown, 30m range)



Increases the target’s bonus damage and healing by 5% for 60 minutes. If the target is a group member, the buff will apply to the entire group.

Introspection (level 1, no cooldown)



Using this ability will rapidly heal you to full health. Cannot be used in combat.

Zen (level 2, no cooldown)



Requires and converts 30 stacks of Centering to immediately grant 4 Focus, plus an additional 8 Focus over the next few seconds.

Transcendence (level 22, no cooldown, 40m range)



Requires and converts 30 stacks of Centering to grant Transcendence to yourself and all group members within 40m, increasing movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds and increasing melee and ranged defense by 10%.

Inspiration (level 44, 5m cooldown, 40m range)



Requires and converts 30 stacks of Centering to Inspire you and all group members within 40m, increasing all damage and healing done by 10% for 10 seconds.

Valorous Call (level 48, 2m30s cooldown)



Instantly builds 30 stacks of Centering.

Force Clarity (level 72, 30s recharge timer per charge)



Force Clarity can have up to 4 charges. Using the ability consumes all charges, converting them to stacks of the Force Clarity buff. One stack of the buff is used whenever you use a single target melee attack, increasing its damage by 25%.

Defensive and Crowd Control Abilities

ABILITY NOTES

Saber Ward (level 4, 3m cooldown)



Increases melee and ranged defense by 50% and absorbs 25% of incoming Force and tech damage for 12 seconds.

Save this for when you’re expecting to take a lot of hits in rapid succession since it has a long cooldown.



Resolute (level 9, 2m cooldown)



Purges all stuns and movement impairing effects.

For PvE, the best time to use this tends to be on a fight-by-fight basis, but in PvP you usually (not always) want to wait until you’re white-barred to use it.



Rebuke (level 10, 1m cooldown)



Reduces all damage taken by 20% and deals minor energy damage to your attacker when you take damage. Lasts 6 seconds. Rebuke refreshes its duration when you take damage but cannot last more than 30 seconds total.

Try to keep this up as often as possible when you’re taking damage in PvE or PvP.



Leg Slash (level 16, no cooldown, 4m range)



Deals minor weapon damage and consumes 3 Focus to slow the target by 50% and reduce their healing received by 20% for 10 seconds.

Very good in PvP when you’re trying to kill an enemy healer or ranged player, since it both slows them and reduces their healing. It has less uses in PvE, Nightmare mode Brontes being the only fight I can think of where people actually use it to reduce her self-healing slightly before the final phase.



Force Kick (level 18, 12s cooldown, 4m range)



Interrupts your target’s current channel and prevents it from being used for the next 4 seconds.

In PvP, you’ll want to use this to interrupt your enemy’s hardest hitting attacks. If your target is a healer, try to interrupt their spammable heal ability. Interrupts are very useful in PvE too, with many boss fights requiring you to use them properly. However, it is situational and you should ask your group when to use it if you are unfamiliar with a fight.



Force Stasis (level 24, 1m cooldown, 10m range)



Stuns your target for 4 seconds, deals a small amount of kinetic damage, and builds 3 Focus over the duration of the channel. Can be channeled while moving.

Pacify (level 28, 1m cooldown, 4m range)



Reduces the target’s accuracy by 90% for 6 seconds. Cannot be used on Operation bosses.

This is mainly good for reducing the chance an enemy player with hard-hitting attacks will hit you for the next few seconds, particularly a ranged player. It has some uses in PvE too, especially Flashpoint bosses.



Force Camouflage (level 30, 45s cooldown)



Become invisible and nearly impossible to detect for 6 seconds, greatly reducing your threat. While Force Camouflage is active you are immune to controlling effects, have 30% increased movement speed, and take 50% reduced damage. Dealing damage ends this effect prematurely.

In PvE, this is good for resisting a boss’ knockbacks or pulls, and you can take a utility that turns it into a cleanse. Note, however, that it does NOT resist the aberrations in the Revan boss fight. In PvP this ability allows you to vanish, run away from the action, and often leave combat so you can heal up before returning.



Guarded by the Force (level 38, 3m cooldown)



Reduces the damage you take by 99% for 4 seconds.

This makes you nearly immune for a few seconds in PvP, which is very useful. It’s still very good for PvE, but be mindful that many boss attacks will bypass it and a few do so much damage that you will still die through this cooldown.



Awe (level 42, 1m cooldown, 5m range)



Stuns up to 8 enemies within 5m of you for 6 seconds. Damage ends the stun prematurely.

This is very handy for tough solo content and has some applications in PvP. But since it breaks on damage don’t expect enemy players to remain stunned for long.



Force Exhaustion (level 42, 18s cooldown, 10m range)



Normally this is an attack ability, but after level 48, you get a passive ability that turns Force Exhaustion into a complete stun, push, pull, interrupt, and slow immunity. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds, so note that it won’t always work. But being able to time it well is very useful in PvP and certain PvE fights, most notably to resist Brontes’ Fire and Forget ability and Revan’s core push/pulls (again, it does not resist aberrations).

Blade Blitz (level 58, 45s cooldown, 20m range)



Quickly dash forward, dealing a small amount of weapon damage to all enemies along your path, and becoming immune to all damage (save scripted kills) for 1.5 seconds. Again, while an attack, this is one of your most important cooldowns in Nightmare raiding, as it allows you to become immune to boss attacks that would otherwise one-shot you. A good example would be the Doom and Lightning Field mechanics on the Dread Guards fight. It can be tough to learn to use it as a defensive successfully, but for Nightmare raiding it is a vital skill to have. In PvP, it’s not quite as useful, but you can use it to negate large channeled hits from Gunslingers and Snipers.

Passive Abilities

ABILITY NOTES Centering (level 2): Activating an attack that consumes Focus or defeating an enemy builds Centering stacks. 30 stacks of Centering enables the use of Zen. Swelling Winds (level 12): Increases the damage done by Force Sweep by 40% and reduces the cooldowns of Force Sweep and Focused Burst by 3 seconds each. Shii-cho Mastery (level 16): Increases armor penetration by 15% and Force attack damage by 3%. Saber Strength (level 20): Increases damage you deal with saber attacks by 5%. Fervor (level 24): Increases the critical strike damage of all attacks by 10%. Momentum (level 28): Reduces the cooldown of Zealous Leap by 3 seconds and causes Force Leap and Zealous Leap to make your next Blade Storm deal 5% more damage and generate 1 Focus rather than consume Focus. Nimble Slashes (level 32): Strike, Zealous Strike, Slash, Cyclone Slash, Blade Storm, Dispatch, and Concentrated Slice reduce the active cooldowns of Force Sweep, Focused Burst, and Zealous Leap by 1 second. Felling Blow (level 36): Force Leap and Zealous Leap make your next Focused Burst or Force Sweep an automatic critical hit. Heightened Power (level 40): Increases all damage dealt by 5% for 6 seconds after dealing damage with Force Sweep or Focused Burst. This effect cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds. Koan (level 44): Zen and Force Exhaustion grant Koan, making your next Focused Burst or Force Sweep consume no Focus and deal 15% increased damage. Gravity Vortex (level 48): Force Exhaustion grants Gravity Vortex, granting immunity to interrupts and all controlling effects for 6 seconds. Cannot occur more than once per 30 seconds. Additionally Zealous Leap and Force Exhaustion each consume 1 less Focus. Decisive Slashes (level 52): Increases the critical strike damage of Slash, Cyclone Slash, Dispatch, and Concentrated Slice by 5%. In addition, Blade Barrage now builds 1 Centering every time it hits a target, even during Zen. Force Flagellation (level 56): Slash and Cyclone Slash deal additional Force damage. In addition, Focused Burst and Force Sweep overwhelm their targets for 45 seconds. Overwhelmed targets take 10% more damage from area attacks. Concentrated Defense (level 60): Concentrated Slice grants Concentrated Defense, increasing your defense chance by 10% for 6 seconds. Centered Focus (level 64): Concentrated Slice grants Centered Focus, increasing the critical damage bonus for your next Force Sweep or Focused Burst by 15%. Burning Slices (level 68): Damage dealt by Blade Barrage stacks a burning effect on the target that builds up to 3 charges and deals elemental damage over 9 seconds.

UTILITIES

The example builds below are just that – examples. The Sentinel’s Utilities are among the most flexible and change-able of all. You will find yourself constantly dropping one in favor of another for the upcoming fight.

Please, take a moment to read all descriptions for each Utility in each tier and don’t blindly trust that one build will get you through everything, like with some other classes and specs in the game.

Skillful Tier

Defensive Roll : Reduces AOE damage taken by 30% and internal and elemental damage taken by 3%. This one is a must-have for all content and does a lot to make you more durable.

: Reduces AOE damage taken by 30% and internal and elemental damage taken by 3%. This one is a must-have for all content and does a lot to make you more durable. Stoic : Increases all damage reduction by 2% and you build 2 Centering when you take damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. This is good for all content. Not a must-have, but I’d certainly recommend it.

: Increases all damage reduction by 2% and you build 2 Centering when you take damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. This is good for all content. Not a must-have, but I’d certainly recommend it. Adamant : You generate 4 Focus when stunned, immobilized, or knocked around. Resolute’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds. This is a must-have for PvP, as it puts your stun break on a shorter cooldown and builds Focus, which is helpful for playing a priority system. In most PvE situations it isn’t very useful since you should be playing with a rotation.

: You generate 4 Focus when stunned, immobilized, or knocked around. Resolute’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds. This is a must-have for PvP, as it puts your stun break on a shorter cooldown and builds Focus, which is helpful for playing a priority system. In most PvE situations it isn’t very useful since you should be playing with a rotation. Trailblazer : Cyclone Slash does 25% more damage. This one is good if you need to do AOE damage in PvE content. I wouldn’t advise it for PvP as there are better options.

: Cyclone Slash does 25% more damage. This one is good if you need to do AOE damage in PvE content. I wouldn’t advise it for PvP as there are better options. Jedi Enforcer : Increases the damage dealt by Rebuke by 15% and increases its duration by 4 seconds. This can be useful if you’re doing a fight with a lot of outgoing damage and need to pad your damage numbers. But it’s not a huge difference and I usually won’t take it.

: Increases the damage dealt by Rebuke by 15% and increases its duration by 4 seconds. This can be useful if you’re doing a fight with a lot of outgoing damage and need to pad your damage numbers. But it’s not a huge difference and I usually won’t take it. Jedi Crusader : When Rebuke is active it builds 1 Focus whenever you are attacked. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds. This isn’t very good for most PvE fights. For PvP, though, it’s a decent amount of free Focus and not a bad thing to have.

: When Rebuke is active it builds 1 Focus whenever you are attacked. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds. This isn’t very good for most PvE fights. For PvP, though, it’s a decent amount of free Focus and not a bad thing to have. Debilitation : Blade Barrage immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. This can be useful in PvP if you use it on a target and run around behind them, since they will be unable to turn and face you for a few seconds. It has no PvE use. Personally, I don’t use it since there are other better options.

: Blade Barrage immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. This can be useful in PvP if you use it on a target and run around behind them, since they will be unable to turn and face you for a few seconds. It has no PvE use. Personally, I don’t use it since there are other better options. Incisor : Force Leap and Zealous Leap snare the target, reducing its movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. This is useful in PvP for helping you keep up to ranged targets by slowing them down. No PvE use.

Masterful Tier

Watchguard : Reduces the cooldown of Pacify by 15 seconds and increases its range to 10m, reduces the cooldown of Force Kick by 2 seconds, and allows you to activate Rebuke while stunned. This is great for some PvE boss fights if you need an interrupt on a short cooldown, such as the city guards in Scum and Villainy, or Izax. In combination with the Zealous Judgement utility it can be a great option for PvP.

: Reduces the cooldown of Pacify by 15 seconds and increases its range to 10m, reduces the cooldown of Force Kick by 2 seconds, and allows you to activate Rebuke while stunned. This is great for some PvE boss fights if you need an interrupt on a short cooldown, such as the city guards in Scum and Villainy, or Izax. In combination with the Zealous Judgement utility it can be a great option for PvP. Force Fade : Increases movement speed by 15%, increases the movement speed bonus of Force Camouflage by 20%, and increases the duration of Force Camouflage by 2 seconds. Not very useful for most PvE, but this can be good in PvP arenas since it gives you more time stealthed and thus you can put more distance between yourself and the enemy team.

: Increases movement speed by 15%, increases the movement speed bonus of Force Camouflage by 20%, and increases the duration of Force Camouflage by 2 seconds. Not very useful for most PvE, but this can be good in PvP arenas since it gives you more time stealthed and thus you can put more distance between yourself and the enemy team. Ardor : Transcendence now has a 30 second cooldown and does not consume any Centering. This one is practically a must-have for PvE, since there are very few bosses where the movement boost isn’t useful. In PvP, always take it for regular warzones. For arenas, it matters less, since they tend to be fought more in clusters, but in conjunction with the Fleetfooted utility is still useful for purging slowing effects.

: Transcendence now has a 30 second cooldown and does not consume any Centering. This one is practically a must-have for PvE, since there are very few bosses where the movement boost isn’t useful. In PvP, always take it for regular warzones. For arenas, it matters less, since they tend to be fought more in clusters, but in conjunction with the Fleetfooted utility is still useful for purging slowing effects. Pulse : Reduces the cooldown of Force Stasis by 15 seconds. Having a shorter stun cooldown can be good in PvP. Don’t take this one for PvE though.

: Reduces the cooldown of Force Stasis by 15 seconds. Having a shorter stun cooldown can be good in PvP. Don’t take this one for PvE though. Reining Reach : Increases Leg Slash range to 10m, reduces its Focus cost to 1, and causes it to immobilize its target for 3 seconds. The immobilization effect can only be applied to a target once per 10 seconds. This is very useful in PvP for chasing down enemy players, especially ranged players. It doesn’t have many uses in PvE.

: Increases Leg Slash range to 10m, reduces its Focus cost to 1, and causes it to immobilize its target for 3 seconds. The immobilization effect can only be applied to a target once per 10 seconds. This is very useful in PvP for chasing down enemy players, especially ranged players. It doesn’t have many uses in PvE. Expunging Camouflage : Force Camouflage now removes all cleansable effects. This is a must-have for most PvE situations. Not all boss fights require it, but many do, so if you don’t like changing your utilities for every single boss fight, take this one. Don’t take it in PvP since most burns, bleeds, and poison effects from enemy players cannot be cleansed.

: Force Camouflage now removes all cleansable effects. This is a must-have for most PvE situations. Not all boss fights require it, but many do, so if you don’t like changing your utilities for every single boss fight, take this one. Don’t take it in PvP since most burns, bleeds, and poison effects from enemy players cannot be cleansed. Enduring : Increases the duration of Guarded by the Force by 2 seconds and reduces its cooldown by 30 seconds. Situational in PvE, but usually not needed unless you expect to have a hard-hitting boss on you for several seconds, such as Brontes for example. Up to your personal preference in PvP. The extended duration is useful, but there are a lot of good options in the Masterful tier for PvP.

: Increases the duration of Guarded by the Force by 2 seconds and reduces its cooldown by 30 seconds. Situational in PvE, but usually not needed unless you expect to have a hard-hitting boss on you for several seconds, such as Brontes for example. Up to your personal preference in PvP. The extended duration is useful, but there are a lot of good options in the Masterful tier for PvP. Jedi Promulgator : Each use of Strike, Zealous Strike, and Leg Slash reduces the active cooldown of Rebuke by 3 seconds. I don’t recommend taking this in Concentration spec.

Heroic Tier

Fleetfooted : When Transcendence is applied, it purges movement impairing effects. Additionally increases the movement speed boost of Transcendence by 30%. Take this for everything.

: When Transcendence is applied, it purges movement impairing effects. Additionally increases the movement speed boost of Transcendence by 30%. Take this for everything. Contemplation : Reduces the cooldown of Awe by 15 seconds. In addition you build up to 30 stacks of Centering over the course of using Introspection or a regen toy. Concentration tends to be very reliant on starting with 30 stacks of Centering, and your damage will suffer if you don’t. It is possible to use Valorous Call to build Centering at the start of a fight, and you can get away with that in PvE as long as you take Inspired Focus utility. But the cooldown is too long for in PvP. Overall, this utility is usually a good choice for any content, but not required.

: Reduces the cooldown of Awe by 15 seconds. In addition you build up to 30 stacks of Centering over the course of using Introspection or a regen toy. Concentration tends to be very reliant on starting with 30 stacks of Centering, and your damage will suffer if you don’t. It is possible to use Valorous Call to build Centering at the start of a fight, and you can get away with that in PvE as long as you take Inspired Focus utility. But the cooldown is too long for in PvP. Overall, this utility is usually a good choice for any content, but not required. Cut Loose : Blade Blitz can be used when immobilized and purges all movement impairing effects. Additionally its cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and it deals 50% more damage. For PvE this is very situational. You should take it for Dread Guards, and possibly Tyrans and Raptus depending on how your group handles those fights. While useful in PvP as well, I wouldn’t take it for that.

: Blade Blitz can be used when immobilized and purges all movement impairing effects. Additionally its cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and it deals 50% more damage. For PvE this is very situational. You should take it for Dread Guards, and possibly Tyrans and Raptus depending on how your group handles those fights. While useful in PvP as well, I wouldn’t take it for that. Zealous Ward : Activating Saber Ward grants immunity to stuns and incapacitating effects for 6 seconds, and getting attacked while Saber Ward is active heals you for 3% of your maximum health. Can only occur once per second. Great for PvP, giving you both free healing and stun immunity. While Saber Ward has a long cooldown, this is still a good option for arenas at least. In PvE, it’s situational. Very good for Brontes, but for most fights I wouldn’t bother.

: Activating Saber Ward grants immunity to stuns and incapacitating effects for 6 seconds, and getting attacked while Saber Ward is active heals you for 3% of your maximum health. Can only occur once per second. Great for PvP, giving you both free healing and stun immunity. While Saber Ward has a long cooldown, this is still a good option for arenas at least. In PvE, it’s situational. Very good for Brontes, but for most fights I wouldn’t bother. Inspired Focus : Inspiration generates 12 Focus when activated and you heal for 1% of your maximum health when you use an ability that consumes Focus. Useful, but not necessary, for all content. If you don’t take Contemplation, you must take this one for PvE. For PvP, and if you have Contemplation, it’s up to you.

: Inspiration generates 12 Focus when activated and you heal for 1% of your maximum health when you use an ability that consumes Focus. Useful, but not necessary, for all content. If you don’t take Contemplation, you must take this one for PvE. For PvP, and if you have Contemplation, it’s up to you. Zealous Judgement : Dispatch refunds 2 Focus and can be used on any target affected by Pacify regardless of health. Additionally, using Pacify grants Zealous Judgement, reducing the damage you take from Force and tech damage by 75% for 6 seconds. This essentially gives you another fairly strong DCD, making it great for PvP. It goes well with Watchguard. It can also be useful in Flashpoints, but is not good for most Operations, since Pacify cannot be applied on most Operation bosses.

: Dispatch refunds 2 Focus and can be used on any target affected by Pacify regardless of health. Additionally, using Pacify grants Zealous Judgement, reducing the damage you take from Force and tech damage by 75% for 6 seconds. This essentially gives you another fairly strong DCD, making it great for PvP. It goes well with Watchguard. It can also be useful in Flashpoints, but is not good for most Operations, since Pacify cannot be applied on most Operation bosses. Hidden Advance : While Force Camouflage is active, you gain a charge of Hidden Advance every 0.5 seconds. Each charge lasts 6 seconds and increases the damage of your next attack by 4%. Stacks up to 12 times. Don’t take this utility. There are better options for all situations, and this is really only useful for dummy parsing. Intercessor: Force Leap gets an additional charge. This one is never necessary, simply a matter of convenience if you want to be able to move from target to target faster.

Example Builds

As I said above, please, note that there is no just one Utilities build that can get you through everything. Learn which fight demands what of you and switch your Utilities often to maximize their effect.

General Use Build

PvP Build

ROTATION AND PRIORITIES

Concentration is best played with a rotation in PvE content. The rotation is fairly simple and short, only 13 abilities long. It can also be easily adapted to AOE situations. For PvP, you will usually find yourself playing with a priority order instead.

Opener

Concentration doesn’t really have an opener, assuming you’re using the recommended tacticals. Build stacks of Centering before the fight, either with Introspection or your regen toy (if you have Contemplation) or Valorous Call. Force Leap to the target at the beginning of the fight.

Rotation

Zen Blade Barrage Focused Burst Concentrated Slice Slash ( Dispatch if off cooldown and target is under 30% health) Zealous Leap Zealous Strike Force Exhaustion Focused Burst Concentrated Slice Slash ( Dispatch if off cooldown and target is under 30% health) Zealous Leap Blade Storm Repeat from Zen

Multiple Target Rotation

Zen Blade Barrage Force Sweep Concentrated Slice Cyclone Slash or Twin Saber Throw Zealous Leap Zealous Strike Force Exhaustion Force Sweep Concentrated Slice Cyclone Slash Zealous Leap Blade Storm (You can use Twin Saber Throw instead if at 30 stacks of Centering already) Repeat from Zen

Notes

Both the single target and the AOE rotations work with any of the 3 recommended tacticals. The AOE rotation for Concentration deals more overall damage than the single target rotation if you are attacking more than one target, even if it’s only two targets. These rotations should be used for most PvE content. In PvP, you build a lot more Focus and Centering, so a priority system is often better.

Be mindful that Zealous Leap does move you when you use it. On most fights, it’s fairly easy to work around it, and you only have to avoid leaping into AOE puddles. However, it can cause a lot of problems on two fights in particular.

On the hard mode Master and Blaster fight, using Zealous Leap will pull you too close to other group members during phases where everyone has a bomb on them, which can cause both of you to die. Honestly, you should not use Concentration on this fight. You can avoid using Zealous Leap here, but you sacrifice a lot of damage over most of the fight, and it’s not really worth it. You’re better off playing Watchman or Combat here even if you barely know how to play them.

On the hard mode Revan fight, Zealous Leap can cause two problems on the final floor. First, it repositions you, which can cause you to die to aberrations or push/pulls. This is fairly easy to work around in the phase before Revan dies, and I didn’t have any trouble with that. Second, when you use Zealous Leap on the machine core during the final burn, it actually pushes you away from the core toward the edge of the room. You can actually use this to your advantage, if you use it immediately before a pull and back up slightly, you lose less uptime on the core. But if you use it before a push, or during aberration explosions, you will probably die. Having done the fight many times with several different classes and specs, Concentration is definitely the hardest spec to do this fight on. But it can meet the damage check and with practice you will be able to use its abilities to your advantage there. Regardless, if you choose to fight Revan as Concentration, you will need to play priority rather than the rotation on the final floor.

If you are forced to delay your rotation for any reason between activating Zen, and your Zen stacks expiring, continue the rotation as normal, except replace the first Slash in the rotation with a Strike.

In the AOE rotation, the first Cyclone Slash may be replaced by Twin Saber Throw. However, the second Cyclone Slash cannot be replaced with Twin Saber Throw. While Twin Saber Throw deals more damage than Cyclone Slash, it does not build Centering stacks. The first Cyclone Slash also does not build Centering stacks because Zen is active, but the second does build Centering, so replacing the second will mess up your Centering and thus Focus management.

How you approach recovery as a Concentration Sentinel depends on the situation and what was messed up. Some mistakes are fairly simple to recover from, others less so. I’ll cover some common issues you may run into, and how to recover from them.

If you use Zen a little too early or get stunned, knocked around, or interrupted before your Zen stacks expire: Simply replace the first Slash in the rotation with a Strike.

If you use Zen a little late: If for some reason you activate Zen after using Blade Barrage, which is fairly common with lag or high latency, replace the first Slash in the rotation with a Slash, Strike, Slash sequence, then continue the rotation.

For other mistakes: A decent recovery rotation is to Force Leap to the boss, then use the normal rotation, but use Zealous Strike instead of Blade Barrage at the start, and replace the other Zealous Strike and all Concentrated Slices with Strike. One cycle of this rotation will allow you to renter the normal rotation, even if you started off with no Focus and no Centering.

The best way to recover can vary a lot depending on what is off cooldown, how much Focus and Centering you have, and so on. You’ll get a better feel for how to recover once you’ve played the class a bit. These are just some basic tips to help you when you’re starting out.

Single Target Priority Order

Use Zen immediately when it becomes available, if you have 8 or fewer Focus. Otherwise delay it until your Focus drops below 8. Concentrated Slice Focused Burst (try to avoid using an unbuffed Focused Burst though) Dispatch if target is under 30% health Zealous Leap Force Exhaustion (unless you are saving it as a defensive cooldown) Blade Barrage Blade Storm Slash, Zealous Strike and Strike as needed to build Focus

Multiple Target Priority Order

Use Zen immediately when it becomes available, if you have 8 or fewer Focus. Otherwise delay it until your Focus drops below 8. Force Sweep (try to avoid using an unbuffed Force Sweep) Twin Saber Throw Zealous Leap Force Exhaustion (unless you are saving it as a defensive cooldown) Cyclone Slash Blade Blitz Zealous Strike and Strike as needed to build Focus

With the Enrage Crush tactical, you must use either Force Sweep or Focused Burst immediately after using Force Exhaustion. Otherwise you are wasting your hardest hitting area attack.

How to use Force Clarity

Force Clarity is the new ability that all Knights get at level 72. It can have up to 4 charges, and when you use the ability, you gain one stack of Force Clarity for each charge. When an ability consumes a stack of Force Clarity, it deals 25% more damage. Concentrated Slice, Dispatch, Zealous Leap, Slash, Blade Barrage, and Force Leap are the abilities that consume Force Clarity stacks.

Without the full Descent of the Fearless set bonus, you can and should use Force Clarity only before Concentrated Slice or Dispatch. Those abilities deal the most damage, so you get more bonus damage from using Force Clarity on them.

With the full Descent of the Fearless set bonus, which I highly recommend, you gain a lot more Force Clarity charges. Gaining or consuming a charge of Force Clarity also gives a flat 10% damage boost to all attacks for 10 seconds. Ideally you still want to use Force Clarity stacks on Concentrated Slice, but your primary goal becomes keeping the Residual Power buff active on your character.

How to use Inspiration

There are different approaches to this, depending on whether you took the Inspired Focus utility or not, and how well you are able to time Inspiration.

If you have the Inspired Focus utility, try to use Inspiration where you would normally use Zen, if it doesn’t delay it too long. Then continue your rotation as you normally would, with the exception that you replace the first Slash with a Strike. Without the utility, you can do the same, except use Valorous Call+Zen immediately after using Inspiration.

If you didn’t take that utility, or find yourself unable to make the timing work, use Valorous Call then Inspiration, and play by priority (but don’t use Blade Barrage) until you are able to resume the rotation.

CONCLUSIONS

Why Concentration over other Specs

Concentration excels at single target damage dealing, does decent area damage, and offers some of the strongest defensives of any DPS spec in the game, even stronger than other Sentinels. It can meet any damage check in the game, and has a lot of abilities that can cleanse various debuffs, plus several abilities that resist being knocked around or stunned.

In Operations, Concentration can do good single target damage and easily deal a large burst of AOE without interrupting its rotation. In an emergency, Concentration can survive holding the boss for at least 30 seconds. It has an additional leap for increased mobility, and is able to resist some mechanics that most specs cannot. And the speed and damage group buffs Concentration has access to are a major help to the group when used well.

In PvP, Concentration is very durable, able to resist stuns, have defensives up over 50% of the time while in combat, and in emergencies can even stealth out and run away to heal to full before rejoining the fight. It is also able to deal large bursts of damage in short periods, and the many movement speed buffs and leaps the spec has make it very good at chasing down elusive ranged targets.

About this Guide

This guide is based off my personal experience with Concentration. Remember that it’s just a guide, not a rule or law on how you must play the class. I’m sure I still have more to learn about Concentration Sentinels. My goal is simply to give you some direction and share my experience with the class to help you improve your gameplay.

From Vulkk

I would like to thank Anatessia for taking the time to produce this Concentration Sentinel guide. You can also find his Fury Marauder, Vengeance Juggernaut and Vigilance Guardian guides for SWTOR 6.0 available on VULKK.com

For this guide I have used icons from the TorCommunity and Jedipedia databases.

If you are skilled with a Class and Discipline that has not yet been covered with a guide on VULKK (check the list here), and you want to provide one for the SWTOR Community, contact me via email or wherever you see Vulkk present.

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