Welcome to our build guide for the Jedi Knight, this particular guide will focus on the SWTOR Sentinel Combat Build. Throughout this guide we will first look at the actual top rated build itself, followed by a brief play style guide, as well as some general tips and reminders to look at, and the we will briefly go over a few of the key talents and abilities for this build. Now let’s get started!

SWTOR Sentinel Combat Build

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#501bcZGGbrddMoMsZG.1

SWTOR Sentinel Combat Build Playstyle

Alright, now that you’ve got the particular build for the Sentinel Combat class, I’m going to get more into how you actually play the build. As you know, just plugging in the talent points to the right places are going to do jack unless you are using the right abilities at the right time and utilizing your buffs and debuffs and much much more! In this section I’ll cover most of that, and then I’ll cover some general tips and reminders, and then head into the key abilities and you’ll be set to go practice.

Now, for the Jedi Knight you know that your resource is focus, focus is regenerated over time and can also be regenerated by using certain abilities. Focus is also mainly going to be used as a cost for your better abilities, therefore it is important to utilize your focus the best way possible so you can use your best abilities and then regen focus abilities so it’s possible to use the best ones every cooldown.

When you’re low on focus you will want to use your Zealous Strike and Strike abilities to regenerate focus, also keep in mind that your Force Leap ability will regenerate focus and this is one of your main rotation abilities so that helps. Zealous Strike is on a 12 second cooldown so when you are regenerating focus use this first and follow up with a strike or two and you should be set to go back into this rotation:

First you will want to use Precision Slash, followed by a Blade Storm, and then a Blade Rush. Precision Slash is something you really want to prioritize as it gives you an insane 100% armor penetration buff which is amazing, also make sure you are using it before your other abilities as it will amplify their damage due to the buff. Your Blade Rush ability will grant 6 seconds of increased ataru form procs, therefore the armor penetration buff greatly amplifies that.

So for a base rotation should be Force Leap to start, followed by a Zealous Slash, this will generate a good amount of focus to follow the rest of the rotation which will be a Precision Slash, a Blade Rush, followed by a Blade Storm, and then another Blade Rush. Now you have about a 6 second window to use another Force Leap or Zealous Strike or Strike to regenerate some more focus.

SWTOR Sentinel Combat Build Tips/Reminders

I’ve been emphasizing this throughout the playstyle, but you really need to be aware of that 100% armor penetration bonus from Precision Slash, this is so useful! Make sure you aren’t using high damage abilities such as Blade Storm and Blade Rush unless you have the Precision Slash buff going as they will be somewhat wasted.

As for stats you will want to reach the Accuracy cap before really worrying about anything else, once you’ve got that the next most important statistic is Strength, get as much as you can and if you aren’t able to get gear with strength you’ll want Power as a next best thing. After that Surge and Critical strike are both OK but won’t be quite as useful as Strength and Power but can be used as a last resort.

SWTOR Sentinel Combat Key Abilities

Ataru Form: This form will increase your accuracy by 3%, keep this in mind when building for that accuracy cap so you aren’t gearing for too much accuracy as that is a waste, so make sure when setting up all your gear that your Ataru form is ACTIVE at that time. Your ataru mastery talent will increase the damage dealt from your Ataru Form attacks, these are another bonus that comes with the form. All of your successful melee attacks have a 20% chance to trigger an Ataru Strike for 229 damage, however this cannot occur more than once per 1.5 seconds.

Precision Slash: Slashes the target for 253 – 387 weapon damage and grants Precision for 6 seconds, increasing armor penetration by 100%. Oh hey look, we’re talking about this again, must mean it is pretty important! Remember to utilize this whenever possible and you’ll do just fine.

Blade Rush: Strikes the target for 247 – 378 weapon damage, this attack will automatically trigger an Ataru Strike, additionally, for the next 6 seconds after using Blade Rush your Ataru form has a 30% increased chance to inflict another Ataru Strike for the next 6 seconds.

SWTOR Sentinel Combat Build Conclusion

There you have it, everything you’ll need to know to master this build and bring it into the game. Be sure to check out some of our other build guides as well as overall class guides, leveling guides, and much more for SWTOR!