Star Wars™: The Old Republic, a story-driven MMORPG from BioWare and LucasArts.
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I am new to Swtor and haven't played an mmo before and I just got my Jedi Knight up to level 10. Now I cant decide which advanced class to go with. I'm primarily playing the game for the story not for PvP. I like the dual saber option and faster killing for the sentinel but I do not want to die constantly. Upon reading thru comments people say the vigilance guardian is the closest option to a sentinel. But does that extra saber make a difference? Which would be the best class for story missions and having the most fun while playing thru the story?
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I prefer the Guardian personally. Much better viability and I think it fits the story better
whichever you have more fun playing. seriously. you wont die with a healer companion
Does a sentinel kill quicker or are they about the same?
In normal play they're about the same.
In advanced play (both PvE and PvP) Sentinels have a bit more damage and utility, while Guardians have more survivability and versatility
This is the truth of it. The game's missions are so simple that it is all but impossible to fail with them. Plus Companions are so powerful now that they rule the roost. I literally took a character from level 1 to level 45 and never attacked a single thing: my Companion attacked and killed everything in every missions while I just watched.
So if you are just wanting to do missions Guardian or Sentinel makes no difference.
From my personal experience:
As far as how they play...
Guardian: Strong survivability and versatility. You'll be much harder to kill and will be able to do a lot of other cool stuff besides hit things with your lightsaber.
Sentinel: strong DPS and limited versatility. You'll kill things fast, and have a few tricks up your sleeve. Something a lot of people don't know at the start is sentinels have very limited stealth capabilities, if that piques your fancy (don't expect to be using it all the time though)
As for lore/feel....
Guardian: this feels a bit more lore friendly. You are the line stalwart champion, needing only your single mighty blade to vanquish the evil before you.
Sentinel: this feels a bit more badass in gameplay. You're a a badass cloud of lightsaber blades chopping through foes with ease. A lot of the effects and animations look really cool too.
Just saying, Sentinels also have fairly decent survivability as well. And considering the 45 sec CD on camouflage, you will actually end up using it fairly often.
Yeah, I really like that skill. When I first started playing I thought Mara/Sent would be really unfun (only melee DPS and I prefer 1 lightsaber and force powers to 2 lightsabers) but I actually really love the AC, in spite of being a Jugg/Guardian main
So let me see if I got this right. Sentinel just does light saber attacks while a Guardian does both saber attacks and force powers?
No sentinel also has force power attacks, o just wasn't expecting him to, given the whole dual saber thing
Guardian, if only for the utility that resets the CDs of saber throw and leap at the end of a fight, which means you can chain pull like no other class.
Vigilance also plays fairly well even if you have no idea what you're doing.
Free AoE slams make this spec easy for the clueless. Also that utility that gives a free execute upon a leap... I've tried leaping, planting a long DoT, doing a 30m saber throw, an execute saber throw from the utility, then another execute from a lucky DoT proc, all one GCD after another. Doing three consecutive saber throws is plain hilarious.
Because you only ever use one lightsaber in cinematics it feels better to be drawing your one lightsaber as a guardian instead of a sentinel where one is left hanging on your belt. At least as far as my immersion is concerned, but I've leveled 3 Knights and 3 Warriors.
Most people in my guild swear by their guardians. Probably the best tank class and great DPS for PvP.
Guardians are also better for DC hunting and other such stuff, just FYI. So if you're into parkour stuff at all, for sure get a guardian. No matter who you go with you can just toss them up and leap to them. Partner up with a sage and there's basically nothing that can stop you.
for story mode you'll be fine. I go guardian because i just simply don't like the look of dual wielding. Aesthetically, i think a vigilance guardian looks really cool. So just choose with what you think looks cooler
For pve story it doesn't make a difference what you pick - they're all very easy and quick to run in dps specs. For pvp and pve endgame I would go with sentinel at the moment unless you like to tank (but I don't recommend anyone try to tank until after they've played through most of the ops/fps as dps first).
The option is yours. For story purposes do you want to roll around with two sabers (Jedi Sentinel) or one (Jedi Guardian).
For PvE End-game do you want a DPS all specs (Sentinel) or a tank/dps (Guardian)
Personally I made both and I enjoy both. Sentinel can put out some good numbers and kill things quickly where as the single saber touch and pushing things has nothing else like it.
You also won't die with companions to keep you alive pretty easily at the moment, unless you pull like 3 or 4 mobs in an instance.
I had the same question and went with a vigilance guardian. Only level 12 right now so I can't tell if it's the right choice... I also have a lvl 11 senti if needed.
While i prefer the Guardian playstyle, i would recommend going Sentinel. I really dislike the way Guardians hold the lightsaber while running, it just seems unnatural. The way the Juggernaut is holding it while running, in one hand, swept aside, blade pointed downwards, just makes more sense. It's just an aesthetic consideration, but there you go.
Guardian will be a much less frustrating experience.
Sentinel rotations are very awkward, and every fight is a DPS race that you need to rest after.
Choose sentinel if you like the duel wield lightsabers. But, the sentinel doesn't have force push like the guardian does, and to me, this ability feels "canon" to the Jedi knight class.
As for specs, I'd play the Focus guardian because in PvE it seems a bit more acrobatic and dynamic.
Pick Guardian if you're going Marauder for the Sith Warrior or Sentinel if you're going Juggernaut.
Sentinel is parsing higher than any other class in Watchman spec right now at endgame levels. That's all it does is DPS though.
Guardian is a solid tank class with the option to do decent DPS (middle of the pack as far as that goes), but both the DPS and tank specs are very much viable to be used in endgame content of all types.
You won't see any noticeable difference in how they perform only doing story content though, so make your choice based on what you want to do once you cap. I've leveled a marauder and sentinel, and juggernaut and guardian (and regularly play them in PVP and ops) and honestly the way they play feels almost identical, they share many of the same skills. It's basically one big class that just has a lot of specs.
Well im new to mmos.. I've heard the sentinel is harder to pick up, would it be beneficial to go guardian so I won't die as often?
It won't make a whole lot of difference. Sentinel gets pretty good survivability skills too and in the story content you'll have your companion to tank or heal anyways. Sentinel and Guardian are both about equal skill floor as well, but sentinel is slightly higher skill ceiling. I wouldn't call either class "challenging" though, there aren't many hard classes in SWTOR.
Looks like Guardian mafia has shown up to downvote all non pro-Guardian-only posts too.
As others have said, the difficulty of solo play while leveling is very low. You won't die unless you attack multiple groups of enemies at the same time by accident.
While leveling, both Guardian and Sentinal DPS specs have nearly identical damage output and survivability. You should just choose the one that you think will be the most fun to play.
Watchman Sentinel involves keeping track of your burn damage over time (DOT) effects on your targets. Watchman gets a lot of self heals from these DOTs, so that adds a bit to its survivability in solo content.
Combat Sentinel is much less focused on DOTs. It has a rotation of hard hitting attacks that you should only use while you have certain personal buffs active. Basically, Watchman is all about keeping track of your DOTs on the target while Combat is all about keeping track of your personal buffs.
Concentration Sentinel and Focus Guardian are both essentially the same with just a few abilities that are different and somewhat different resource generation. Both are area damage burst specs that revolve around building stacks of a buff on yourself that you then spend on a few hard hitting attacks. Like Combat, its mostly about cramming your hardest hitting abilities into periods when you are buffed.
Vigilance Guardian also has DOTs in its rotation, but it's simpler than Watchman because you just need to use those abilities as soon as they come off cooldown on your ability bar rather than watching their duration on the target. Also, like Combat it involves using your hard hitting abilities during seconds that you are buffed.
And even then, with a companion that you've got a decent level of influence with, you can usually pull it out even after a double pull.
if you're afraid of sucking to the point of dying, no matter what class you pick youre gonna end up dying., just go with what you prefer.
ive done both , had more fun on my Sentinel tho as it does more damage quicker .