Sentinel/Marauder Advanced Class Guide

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Sentinel/Marauder Advanced Class Guide

June 3, 2012 Geldarion

Welcome to the Sentinel/Marauder Advanced Class Guide! This is the go-to compendium of knowledge for The Fanatical Swordsman on the Sentinel and Marauder advanced classes.

LAST UPDATE: Update 2.3

Note from Geldarion: The Sentinel is my 3rd level 50, but it is actually one of my favorite PvP playstyles I have encountered. For readability sake, since I am used to the Sentinel, I will use the term Sentinel occasionally as the overall descriptor of this class-type, especially for things that are true of both classes, such as discussions of general tactics. However, I will refer to the specializations by both their names, and I will show builds for both the Sentinel and the Marauder, and I will refer to skills in a manner as such: Jedi Knight skill name/Sith Warrior skill name.

Roles and Overview

The Sentinel is a damage-dealing machine. Two blades, one purpose. The Sentinel is also one of the few classes that can give group buffs, including a huge burst damage boost. Interrupts are also a specialty of Sentinels, as we have a 4-second interrupt on a 8-second cooldown (6-second talented). Sentinels can consistently outrun most opponents, have superior escape skills, and can unleash a frightening amount of damage consistently.

Focus

All Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors function of off a resource called Focus/Rage. Knights and Warriors have a maximum of 12 Focus/Rage pips at a time, and generally start combat with zero. Skills such as Zealous Strike/Battering Assault and Strike/Assault add pips and skills like Merciless Strike/Annihilation spend pips. These are lumped together into “Focus/Rage-builders” and “Focus/Rage-spenders.” Most of the Sentinel’s and Marauder’s best skills and hardest hitting attacks are Focus/Rage-spenders. There is no innate regeneration of Focus/Rage, but certain talents can increase the production of pips, and certain talents can produce pips in ways unrelated to skill-usage.

The following are ways to build Focus/Rage:

Name	Effect	Type
Strike/Assault	builds 1 pip	Melee attack
Force Leap/Force Charge	builds 3 pips (untalented)	10-30m range leap
Force Stasis/Force Choke	builds 1 pip/second	10m range channeled force attack
Zealous Strike/Battering Assault	builds 6 pips	Melee attack
Zen (Shii-Cho)	Grants 2 pips every 0.5 seconds, 6 charges	Self-buff
Focused Slash/Enraged Slash	Slash/Vicious Slash, Dispatch/Vicious Throw, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Merciless Slash/Annihilate return 1 pip	Watchman/Annihilation tier 1 talent
Focused Leap/Enraged Charge	adds 1 pip to Force Leap/Force Charge	Watchman/Annihilation tier 4 talent
Plasma Blades/Hemorrhage	burns have 30% chance to generate 1 pip	Watchman/Annihilation tier 6 talent
Jedi Crusader/Cloak of Carnage	Rebuke/Cloak of Pain produces 1 pip when reflecting damage to attackers	Combat/Carnage tier 1 talent
Combat Trance/Blood Frenzy	Blade Storm/Force Scream returns 1 pip if it consumes Opportune Attack/Execute	Combat/Carnage tier 4 talent

Centering/Fury

Centering/Fury “stacks” are another kind of resource that the Sentinel and Marauder have to manage. These stacks range from zero to thirty, and are built primarily by using skills that spend Focus/Rage pips. Having fewer than 30 stacks is of no benefit, but once 30 are stacked, there are three skills that can be used that will consume all 30 stacks. Two of these skills are group buffs as well, and the third is a group buff in Juyo form and of solo benefit in Ataru and Shii-Cho forms. All of these skills are off of the global cooldown, and so can be used in a rotation with no loss of damage.

Zen/Berserk

Zen/Berserk is the first stack-consuming skill. It is learned at level 10 and mostly benefits the Sentinel/Marauder. This skill’s effects depend on which stance you are in. Regardless of stance, it has six charges that will have to wear off before stacks of Centering/Fury can be built again.

If you are in Juyo (the primary form of the Watchman/Annihilation tree), this skill makes your next 6 bleeds auto-critical hits and heal the other three people in your party.
If you are in Shii-Cho (the primary form of the Focus/Rage tree), Zen generates 2 Focus/Rage pips every 0.5 seconds for each stack, for a total of 3 seconds and 12 Focus/Rage pips.
If you are in Ataru (the primary form of the Combat/Carnage tree), this skill grants 30% alacrity for the next 6 skills used.

Transcendence/Predation

Transcendence/Predation is the primary, most-available group buff the Sentinel/Marauder has. It is available at level 22. This skill buffs the party’s melee and ranged defense by 10% and increases the party’s movement speed by 50% (80% with the talent Fleetfooted/Unbound). This buff lasts for 10 seconds. This is the only buff that is currently Ops-group-wide, i.e. it helps all 8 of your team members, not just the 4 in your party.

Inspiration/Bloodthirst

The last buff comes at level 44, and it is the only one with a cooldown (a whopping 5 minutes). Inspiration/Bloodthirst buffs the party’s outgoing damage and healing by 15% for 15 seconds. Use it early in boss-fights so it can be used twice per fight. This only buffs the 4 people in your group, not the entire Ops group, so it is useful to put one Sentinel/Marauder in each group.

Building Centering/Fury

The following are ways to build Centering/Fury:

Name	Effect	Type
All Focus/Rage-spenders	builds 2 stacks (untalented)	Attacks and buffs
Valorous Call/Frenzy	instantly builds 30 stacks	3 minute cooldown skill (untalented)
Valor/Short Fuse	Focus/Rage-spenders build an extra 1 stack per rank (up to 2)Decreases cooldown on Valorous Call/Frenzy by 15 seconds per rank (up to 30 seconds)	Watchman/Annihilation tier 1 talent
Defensive Forms	builds 1 stack per rank (up to 2) when attacked	Combat/Carnage tier 1 talent
Contemplation/Brooding	Allows Introspection/Channel Hatred to build Centering/Fury over the duration of the channel	Combat/Carnage tier 7 talent

Force Leap/Force Charge

Force Leap/Force Charge is very useful and very dangerous. You can use it and its long root to stop people in the fires in Huttball then run off, turn around, and Force Stasis/Force Choke to hold them in the fire while they roast. You can clear large distances with the Huttball safely in hand. You can jump up from the pit up to the edge and run straight into their goal.

However, Force Leap/Force Charge is dangerous because when you jump into the fray, AoE damage can whittle your health to nothing. Also, using Force Leap/Force Charge to attack a Sage/Sorcerer or a Commando/Mercenary will probably result in you being knocked back on your butt with either a slow or a root for your trouble. Approaching these classes, it may be better to just run up to them with either a speed boost from Transcendence/Predation or even better, Force Camouflage.

The 3 Specializations

Watchman/Annihilation

The first specialization, Watchman/Annihilation, is highly survivable, potent set of tools for both PvP and PvE. This tree primarily capitalizes on the Juyo form and on burns/bleeds (DoTs) that are produced both by the Sentinel/Marauder skill Cauterize/Rupture and the Watchman/Annihilation tier 3 skill Overload Saber/Deadly Saber. These DoTs heal the Sentinel on critical hits, as well as the other three people in the party when using Zen/Berserk (because the Sentinel is in Juyo). Force Camouflage is also buffed in both duration and in speed bonus. Also, one of the hardest-hitting attacks the Sentinel/Marauder gets is the capstone skill of this tree, Merciless Slash/Annihilate.

This specialization has two active skills available that come from speccing into the tree.

The first, available at level 20, is called Overload Saber/Deadly Saber. This skill makes the Sentinel’s next three melee attacks proc a bleed on the target. This bleed stacks up to three times, but cannot be placed more often than once per global cooldown (1.5 seconds). This means that Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash, for example, cannot put the bleed on more than one target at the same time, though it will place a bleed on one target. You can, however, place bleeds from Overload Saber/Deadly Saber on more than one opponent, they just have to be on sequential attacks. This bleed lasts for 6 seconds, but refreshes with each buff.

The second active skill is available at level 45, and this is that hard-hitting attack, Merciless Slash/Annihilate. Using this skill in a regular rotation is actually kind of tricky, due to the fact that using the skill grants a buff called Merciless/Annihilator that reduces the cooldown on following uses of Merciless Slash/Annihilate by 1.5 seconds per use, and this buff stacks up to four times. This skill could thus be reduced from 12 seconds on cooldown to 6 seconds on cooldown. Maintaining this buff is important and makes the rotation extremely difficult to learn because the length of time between each Merciless Slash/Annihilate is different for the first 3 uses of the skill.

PvP Specs:

Sentinel 39/2/5

Marauder 39/2/5

Healer-killer PvP (Outdated)

Combat/Carnage

The second spec is the Combat/Carnage tree. This spec heavily emphasizes mobility through a major buff to the movement speed buff from Transcendence/Predation and buffs the more frequent use of Blade Storm/Force Scream. This tree both grants and uses Ataru form, which boosts attack speed and movement speed, as well as proccing “Ataru hits,” which are small secondary damage effects automatically added to melee attacks with a random chance. Ataru hits proc the Opportune Attack/Execute buff that increases damage done by Focus/Rage-spenders and proc other buffs called Combat Trance/Blood Frenzy and Hand of Justice/Slaughter. The former makes the next Blade Storm an auto-crit and generates Focus/Rage, while the latter resets the cooldown on Precision Slash/Gore and Dispatch/Vicious Throw and makes Dispatch/Vicious Throw usable on targets above 30% health.

Also in the mix is the Precision/Gore buff that increases armor-penetration by 100%, which is granted upon use of the Tier 5 skill Precision Slash/Gore. This skill is off the global cooldown and it only costs 1 Focus/Rage.

The general rotation for PvP is to Force Leap/Force Charge or Zealous Strike/Battering Assault to build Focus/Rage, then use Precision Slash/Gore immediately after, before the global cooldown has completed. Follow that with a Blade Rush/Massacre to proc an Opportune Attack/Execute buff and the Combat Trance/Blood Frenzy buff, then Blade Storm/Force Scream to take advantage of the +10% damage, auto-crit, and 100% armor penetration. If Hand of Justice/Slaughter procs, follow that with a Master Strike/Ravage and a Dispatch/Vicious Throw.

For PvE, Master Strike/Ravage should come before Blade Storm/Force Scream. If you are able to time it, then when Hand of Justice/Slaughter procs, the following sequence is optimal:

Zen/Berserk
Precision Slash/Gore
Master Strike/Ravage
Blade Storm/Force Scream
Dispatch/Vicious Throw

This fits perfectly into the Precision Slash/Gore buff, due to the alacrity boost from Zen/Berserk.

This specialization has three active skills available that come from speccing into the tree.

The first skill, available at level 20, is the lightsaber form of choice for this tree, Ataru Form. Regardless of the other talents mentioned above, Ataru Form always offers an accuracy bonus of 3% and a 20% chance that your successful melee attacks will proc additional small attacks called “Ataru hits” that proc the benefits above. Also, the use of the talent Defensive Forms gives a permanent 15% movement speed boost to Ataru form.

The second skill is available no earlier than level 30 and is called Precision Slash/Gore which grants a 6 second buff of 100% armor penetration on a 15 second cooldown. This buffs all attacks, so plan wisely. It is off the global cooldown now, and only costs 1 Focus/Rage.

The third skill, which is the Tier 8 ability, is available at level 45 and is called Blade Rush/Massacre. This skill, in addition to being a hard-hitting attack with no cooldown, automatically triggers an Ataru hit, as well as granting a buff for 6 seconds that increases the chances for an Ataru hit by 30% for a total of a 50% chance.

PvP Specs:

Sentinel 5/41/0

Marauder 5/41/0

Mobility PvP (outdated)

PvE Specs:

Sentinel 5/38/2

Marauder 5/38/2

Armor-piercing PvE (outdated)

Focus/Rage

This is the shared tree with the other advanced class. Focus/Rage actually has more Force-based attacks than the other two trees, it offers a second leap, and it contains several defensive talents that are quite useful for PvE and PvP. It is focused around the Shii-Cho form, and as such is also more of an AoE-based tree, with both talent- and proc-based buffs to Force Sweep/Smash. As with the other two trees, buff-management comes into play in this tree, specifically a buff called Singularity/Shockwave, which is produced by Zen/Berserk and Force Exhaustion/Force Crush.

This specialization has two active skills available that come from speccing into the tree.

The first skill is available at level 20 and is called Zealous Leap/Obliterate. This is a short-ranged leap (10m) on a 15 second cooldown and it consumes 3 Focus/Rage, but it is extremely hard-hitting. Also, it makes the next Force Sweep/Smash an automatic critical hit. Combine that with the damage buff from Singularity/Shockwave, and you have a very powerful burst-damage combination. The cooldown on this skill can be reduced through the use of a number of skills if the talent Zephyrean Slash/Overpower is equipped.

The second skill, which is the Tier 7 ability, is available at level 40 and is called Force Exhaustion/Force Crush. This is an instant skill that is a progressive slow, slowing the target 50% down to 10% over 5 seconds. An excellent trick to use as someone is approaching the firepits in Huttball, so the slow is unexpected and fatal. This skill also grants 3 stacks of Singularity/Shockwave, decreasing the Focus/Rage cost of Force Sweep/Smash and increasing the damage done by Force Sweep/Smash by 11% per stack up to 33% total.

PvP Specs:

Sentinel 5/3/38

Marauder 5/3/38

AoE, Force Shii-Cho (outdated)
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Author’s Favorite PvP Spec: Watchman/Annihilation

This build is about killing healers while simultaneously becoming one (sorta). Your DoTs can heal your party (not the whole Ops-group) with each tick while in Juyo after popping Zen/Berserk, and DoTs just generally keep you alive, even when Zen/Berserk isn’t up. Healer-hurting skills like your interrupt (Force Kick/Disruption) are on a short cooldown, Force Leap/Force Charge has its minimum range eliminated and its cooldown reduced, and you are able to run farther and faster in Force Camouflage as well.

It should be noted that Overload Saber/Deadly Saber is off the global cooldown, and thus can be used almost immediately when off cooldown.

When attacking, the general rotation is:
No Merciless/Annihilator buff
Force Leap/Force Charge – 4 pips
Overload Saber/Deadly Saber (in the air) – 1 pips
Zealous Strike/Battering Assault – 7 pips
Merciless Slash/Annihilate – 3 pips
Cauterize/Rupture – 1 pips
Strike/Assault – 3 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips
Slash/Vicious Slash – 3 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips
Slash/Vicious Slash – 3 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips

1 stack of Merciless/Annihilator buff
Force Leap/Force Charge – 9 pips
Overload Saber/Deadly Saber – 6 pips
Merciless Slash/Annihilate – 2 pips
Cauterize/Rupture – 0 pips
Zen/Berserk – o pips (off global cooldown)
Zealous Strike/Battering Assault – 6 pips
Blade Storm/Force Scream – 2 pips
Strike/Assault – 4 pips
Strike /Assault – 6 pips
Slash/Vicious Slash – 4 pips
Strike/Assault – 6 pips

2 stacks of Merciless/Annihilator buff
Force Leap/Force Charge – 10 pips
Overload Saber/Deadly Saber – 7 pips
Merciless Slash/Annihilate – 3 pips
Cauterize/Rupture – 1 pips
Zealous Strike/Battering Assault – 7 pips
Blade Storm/Force Scream – 3 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips
Slash/Vicious Slash – 3 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips

3 stacks of Merciless/Annihilator buff
Force Leap/Force Charge – 9 pips
Overload Saber/Deadly Saber – 6 pips
Merciless Slash/Annihilate – 2 pips
Cauterize/Rupture – 0 pips
Zealous Strike/Battering Assault – 6 pips
Blade Storm/Force Scream – 2 pips
Strike/Assault – 4 pips
Slash/Vicious Slash – 2 pips
Strike/Assault – 5 pips (with bleed, probably)

As can probably be seen, there are three phases per stack of the Merciless/Annihilator buff. The first phase is stacking bleeds and setting up Merciless Slash/Annihilate. This involves Force Leap/Force Charge and Overload Saber/Deadly Saber, followed by Merciless Slash/Annihilate and Cauterize/Rupture.

The second phase is only present once we have stacks of Merciless/Annihilator going, and it consists of firing off Zealous Strike/Battering Assault followed by Blade Storm/Force Scream. Zealous Strike/Battering Assault are used in the very first rotation to build pips for Merciless Slash/Annihilate, so it is not yet off cooldown.

The third phase is a stalling phase, mostly consisting of alternating Slash/Vicious Assault (which requires 3 pips, but returns 1 for a net cost of 2) and Strike/Assault (which builds 2), but is also a good phase to make sure that your opponent is slowed, has a healing debuff on, etc. You just want to make sure you are ready for Force Leap/Force Charge to come off cooldown with 5 pips. Bleeds will be returning pips occasionally, so that will help in the extra management. I did not really take that into account above, but there will surely be extra pips lying around that you will want to put to good use for slows and healing debuffs, etc.

It is very important to have certain parts of the rotation down pat, such as the Force Leap/Force Charge -> Overload Saber/Deadly Saber combo. In PvP, there are very few times where it is simply following a rotation, so the large rotation above is highly idealized. The main thing is you try your best to hit Merciless Slash/Annihilate when it is up, hit Overload Saber/Deadly Saber when it is up, and hit Cauterize/Rupture when it is up.

My personal spec for use in Warzones is the Healer-Killer Juyo Sentinel 33/8/0 build.–>

Strategies

PvE Strategies

When using Watchman/Annihilation group heals from bleeds, be careful on fights like Eternity Vault’s Dark Council, where it debuffs you if you heal another player. You should use Transcendence/Predation or Inspiration/Bloodthirst instead, because it does help the other players, but you do not get the debuff.
Use Inspiration/Bloodthirst at the beginning of boss-fights, so it can be used twice in the fight. It is useful to have one Sentinel in each group for this skill, as it is only group-wide, not Ops-wide.
Use Dispatch/Vicious Throw every time it is off cooldown and the boss is under 30% health. The current set bonus for the PvE gear makes it only cost 2 Focus/Rage untalented, and with the talent Focused Slash/Enraged Slash, it only costs 1 total.
Keep Rebuke/Cloak of Pain on cooldown for fights that involve AoE damage. Though you are not being directly attacked, it does absorb AoE damage and return some to the source, increasing DPS and lowering damage taken.
Transcendence/Predation can help speed people up in the platform phases of Eternity Vault on Soa and Gharj.
Learn how to effectively interrupt. Some fights like Jarg and Sorno in KP require a good Sentinel/Marauder to keep Sorno from healing.
On the 4th boss in Karagga’s Palace, the G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator Droid, you can build both Focus/Rage and Centering/Fury on the droid before the boss fight even starts. Just start building and when you reach full stacks, let the leader know so they can start the fight.

Every PvE build should consider having the following abilities, as they are all Tier 1:
- Watchman/Annihilation
  - Valor/Short Fuse (2 points) – Increases Centering/Fury building rate by a large amount. More of this is always good.
  - Focused Slash/Enraged Slash (3 points) – Slash/Vicious Slash, Dispatch/Vicious Throw, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Merciless Slash/Annihilate return 1 Focus/Rage when used. This just helps with resource management, which is good, regardless of the situation.
- Combat/Carnage
  - Dual-wield Mastery (3 points) – Increases damage done by offhand lightsaber by 36%. Straight up damage boost, which is your role in PvE and PvP both.
- Focus/Rage
  - Insight/Malice (3 points) – Increases Force critical chance by 6%. This is usually useful as one of our hardest hitting attacks, Blade Storm/Force Scream, is a Force attack. It is not always good though, since in the Combat/Carnage tree there is a talent that makes Blade Storm/Force Scream an auto-crit under most conditions.

PvP Strategies

You can increase the size of your opponent’s casting bar in your UI options so it is easier to see what is being cast so it is more convenient to interrupt healers.
At the beginning of Huttball, Civil War, and Novare Coast, a speed boost at the beginning can be very useful. Use Valorous Call/Frenzy and Transcendence/Predation to get a quick speed boost for the entire group.
Generally, as Transcendence/Predation is the only Ops-wide buff, you should stick to using that for the most part. The other buffs can be useful, such as using Zen/Berserk to stay alive when defending a turret, or if you are with your half of the Ops group and you need the extra damage or healing power from Inspiration/Bloodthirst.
When interrupting healers, watch for the big heal and interrupt that.
- For Commandos/Mercenaries, watch for and interrupt Medical Probe/Rapid Scan
- For Sages/Sorcerers, watch for and interrupt Benevolence/Dark Heal
- For Scoundrels/Operatives, watch for and interrupt Underworld Medicine/Kolto Injection
Watch for damage-absorbing bubbles. Don’t blow all of your cooldowns on enemies that are using bubbles. You can usually spot them because they glow a certain color.
- Look for green bubbles on Smugglers/Agents. This is actually a +100% Dodge buff, so melee and ranged attacks are the only attacks affected by it. Feel free to use Force attacks like Force Stasis/Force Choke, Force Sweep/Smash, and Blade Storm/Force Scream.
- Look for dark-blue bubbles on anyone. This is probably a guard bubble. There is more than likely a tank nearby guarding the target. If you can spot a grey honeycomb pattern under the feet of a nearby tank, they are the one guarding. Try to separate them.
- Light-blue/light-purple bubbles are usually from Force Armor/Static Barrier from a Sage/Sorcerer. This buff has a long duration, but does expire after taking a certain amount of damage. Don’t pop offensive cooldowns when attacking this, as when it pops, it can CC you.
- Saber Ward looks like a red bubble, which you probably know. On other Sentinels/Marauders, this is not such a big deal, but on Guardians/Juggernauts, the first couple of seconds of this are huge defenses. Don’t blow your big attacks.
- Guarded by the Force/Undying Rage doesn’t look so much a bubble as it does an aura. It is blue for Sentinels and red for Marauders. Wait out the 4 second duration, then kill them.
Speaking of using Guarded by the Force/Undying Rage, remember it takes 1/2 of your health away while giving you 99% damage reduction. You want to hit this at about 5% health or less, so it doesn’t take a lot of health away, but be aware that it will only mitigate 99%. If you hit it at 2 health, then yeah it only takes away 1 health, but any attack hitting for 100 or more will kill you.
Watchman/Annihilation specced players can use Force Camouflage as a short term stealth that can get you up to the door in Voidstar without being noticed.
Use Rebuke/Cloak of Pain when heading into what looks like a big brawl. Try to keep it on cooldown, but it is best used when you know you will be taking consistent damage.
You can be a great help to a ball-carrier by jumping ahead of them and using Awe/Intimidating Roar to mez everyone around the goal-line.
Every PvP build should consider having the following abilities, as they are all Tier 1:
- Watchman/Annihilation
  - Valor/Short Fuse (2 points) – Increases Centering/Fury building rate by a large amount. More of this is always good.
  - Focused Slash/Enraged Slash (3 points) – Slash/Vicious Slash, Dispatch/Vicious Throw, Blade Rush/Massacre, and Merciless Slash/Annihilate return 1 Focus/Rage when used. This just helps with resource management, which is good, regardless of the situation.
- Combat/Carnage
  - Dual-wield Mastery (3 points) – Increases damage done by offhand lightsaber by 36%. Straight up damage boost, which is your role in PvE and PvP both.
  - Defensive Forms (2 points) – Builds 2 Centering when attacked. This in almost useless in PvE, since Sentinels/Marauders should not be taking aggro, but in PvP, this is a great boon, as you will be attacked quite frequently (much more than you like, in fact). There are also some ancillary effects to this talent that may or may not be useful in PvP, depending on the lightsaber Form that is being used.
- Focus/Rage
  - Insight/Malice (3 points) – Increases Force critical chance by 6%. This is usually useful as one of our hardest hitting attacks, Blade Storm/Force Scream, is a Force attack. It is not always good though, since in the Combat/Carnage tree there is a talent that makes Blade Storm/Force Scream an auto-crit under most conditions.

Warzone Strategies

Transcendence/Predation

Transcendence/Predation gives the benefit of +10% ranged and melee defense and, more importantly, of a +50% run speed boost. If the Sentinel/Marauder is specced Combat/Carnage, this bonus is +80%. This is useful in all of the Warzones, with examples ranging from getting to the next room in Voidstar faster, to helping the ball carrier to clear two firetraps quickly in Huttball.

Crippling Throw/Deadly Throw

This skill is mid-ranged (10 meters) and is on a 12 second cooldown. It debuffs the target for -30% incoming healing. It is useful if the Sentinel/Marauder is the Focus Target, as it can help bring down healers, ball carriers, or high-profile players more quickly.

Force Kick/Disruption

This is one of the shortest-cooldown interrupts in the game. If the Sentinel/Marauder is specced Watchman/Annihilation, then it is on a 6 second cooldown, and it locks out a skill for 4 seconds. Otherwise, it is on a 8 second cooldown, which is still pretty short. This is excellent against healers.

Zealous Leap/Obliterate

Zealous Leap/Obliterate are only available if the Sentinel/Marauder is specced Focus/Rage, and it does not root nor does it interrupt. It can, however, be used on people in Cover, so it is excellent in Huttball for jumping up to the ledge so they can run into the endzone.

Group Roles

Using the article I wrote on group roles in PvP as a base, the Sentinel and Marauder’s trees are specifically good at the following roles.

Watchman/Annihilation: Healer-Interrupting DPS

Combat/Carnage: Support DPS (Transcendence/Predation buff)

Focus/Rage: Support DPS (AoE damage and Ball-carrier leaps)

All specs are good at being a Focus Target. The frequent use of Crippling Throw/Deadly Throw is the main draw to having this class being in charge of calling targets.

In general, the Watchman/Annihilation spec is good at staying alive through bleed heals. You should be on the enemy healer at all times, and if you are using your interrupt correctly, that healer will not be able to get off their big heal, so the healer will need support.

Combat/Carnage players should be close to objectives, mainly popping Transcendence/Predation to facilitate their allies’ movements across the map.

Focus/Rage players should be in the melee, popping AoEs, and in Huttball, you are a great ball carrier.

Crew Skill Selection

Crew skill selection can be important to a class’ progression. Only one crafting skill may be trained at a time, and the options that are really useful for a Sentinel/Marauder are Synthweaving, Artifice, Cybertech, and Biochem. Armstech is utterly useless for this class, and Armormech, while able to make Smuggler/Agent medium armor which can be worn by a Sentinel/Marauder, cannot make anything with Strength on it, which is the real stat for Sentinels and Marauders. Jedi Knights have companions particularly suited for Slicing (+2 crit), Synthweaving (+5 crit), Biochem (+5 crit), and Investigation (+1 crit). Sith Warriors have companions with bonuses to Treasure Hunting (+5 crit), Synthweaving (+5 crit), Investigation (+2 crit), and Bioanalysis (+2 crit). By virtue of these, Jedi Sentinels should think about going Biochem or Synthweaving, and Sith Marauders should strongly consider going Synthweaving.

Update Log

08/19/13: Updated for 2.0+ changes and added update log

The Fanatical Swordsman

Sentinel/Marauder Advanced Class Guide