This guide originally appeared on SWTORHUB - content may not be accurate, but it is queue'd for an update for 2015 SWTOR.

An advanced class of the Jedi Knight, the Sentinel is the premier melee DPS in SWTOR. They fulfill this role by using their mastery of the force and deadly lightsabre techniques to summon abilities to quickly defeat their enemies and then make an expediate getaway. While they can't heal and wear medium armor, their damage mitigating abities and the fact that they make quick work of any opponents means they have little use for them anyways. 

Below you'll find our full assortment of Jedi Knight Sentinel Guides! Be sure to bookmark this page and check back often as our team of talented guide writers are working around the clock to produce guides to help you protect the Empire and bring chaos to the force.

Jedi Knight - Basics

Focused by the force and equipped with a lightsabre in each hand, the Jedi Sentinel can cut even the heaviest armor to ribbons with surgical precision. While they may only be clothed in medium armor, their advanced defense abilities and option to go stealth when things are looking grim make them able to survive the most deadly encounters. Where the Sentinel specializes though is dishing the damage out, via his dual lightsabres. The Focus and Combat trees train the Sentinel in more powerful immediate damage while the Watchman tree leans more towards damage over time.

What goes into powering all of these abilities are Focus and Centering. As a Sentinel you will start with an empty resource bar that can be filed by performing Focus building abilities. Two of the more effective ones are Force Leap and Zealous Strike. Centering is your secondary resource and is built up by using attacks and abilities that require focus, and by defeating opponents. When you have built up 30 stacks of Centering you become “Centered” and can use one of the three abilities, Zen, Inspiration, or Transcendence.

  • Shii-Cho Form: The first lightsabre form your gain access to is the Shii-Cho Form. This is supposed to be the swiss army knife of forms as it is the perfect balance between damage and defense. Providing a 3% reduction in damage received and a 3% increase in damage dealt.
  • Ataru Form: Enters an acrobatic lightsaber form, increasing accuracy by 3%. In addition, your successful melee attacks have a 20% chance to trigger a second strike that deals 234 - 279 weapon damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.
  • Juyo Form: Enters an offensive lightsaber form, causing your melee attacks to increase all damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. The second form unique to the Sentinel, it will improve damage output by a good deal.

Opening moves with the Sentinel are all about closing the distance between you and the enemy, laying an opening salvo of damage, and limiting their movement. Force leap is your go to opening move followed by Overload Sabre and Zealous strike to build up focus and centering. After that Cauterize, Merciless Slash, and Master Strike will deal a good amount of damage. If the enemy is attempting to flee at this point a leg slash will ensure that they don’t get too far. You should still have a decent amount of focus at this point so you can throw Blade Storm and Blade Rush into the mix, returning to the previous abilities when you’ve ran out of Focus or are waiting on cooldowns. When you’ve built up 30 centering you can activate one of the three abilities that use it. Which one you choose is different depending on the situation you are in. Zen and Inspiration are good buffs to damage output, while Transcendence will increase your movement speed and armor, a great one for quick getaways.

Choosing which tree to specialize in is a little harder with pure DPS classes and depends on your preferred playstyle. The Watchman tree’s specialty is buffing the burn effects of your lightsabre causing much more damage over time. Combat takes a more direct approach and enhances the immediate damage many of your attacks do. Since Focus is shared by Guardians and Sentinels it’s a bit of a mixed bag and offers both buffs to DoT and immediate damage, with a few crowd control enhancements as well. A good choice for those unsure of how they want to play.

In a PVP setting the Jedi Sentinels have a lot to offer. They have a good amount of utility and are decent Huttball carriers due to their Force Leap and damage mitigating abilities. First and foremost they are single target hunters. Sentinels are excellent in 1v1 fights and can make quick work of most other classes when the gear is balanced. If you’re looking for a melee DPS then this is the advanced class for you.

Jedi Knight - Choose Your Destiny

Why choose the Sentinel over the hearty Guardian who boast heavy armor and can shrug off powerful attacks. First off is the damage. Jedi Sentinels do a large amount more damage than the Guardian and have access to Cauterize, which makes their damage keep adding up even after the strike has landed. While they may not wear heavy armor the Sentinel is still now slouch in the defense department. Sabre Ward can reduce much of the incoming damage for a long enough time to activate Force Camouflage to make a speedy exit.

When you do come to that crossroads at level 10 it all comes down to personal preference and not just between one lightsabre and two (although that is one). Are you more inclined to the damage roll in a flashpoint?, dealing out heavy damage while keeping your threat controlled? Do you want to wear light brown robes and wield dual lightsabres with deadly precision? If so then the Sentinel may be a perfect fit for you.

Anyone looking to capture the true Jedi Knight feel of the movies will definitely want to consider the Jedi Sentinel as their frontrunner. Their dual sabre combat style, brown robes, and ability to dish out whack loads of damage and keep on ticking are only a few of highlights you’ll discover.

Jedi Knight- Equipment

Medium armor is what’s on order for the Sentinel. The Stats you will want to have on these pieces of armor are the Jedi Knights primary stat: strength (bonus to melee/force dmg, and crit bonus) and secondary Endurance, for an increase in overall health and health regeneration. Any extra boost in endurance you can get will help out with the medium armoring you have to deal with.

Secondary stats to consider when picking up gear are the same no matter the tree you specialize into.. All players will find more utility in pieces with a higher amount of power, surge (crit bonus), and critical rating (chance of critical).

If you’re going to be taking part in PVP you’ll also have to consider resilience. This catch all PVP stat determines how much damage you do to another player in PVP combat and how much damage you will receive from him. Fresh level 50 characters will definitely want to suit up with the basic PVP set or risk getting torn to pieces in warzones.

Jedi Knight - Companions

Like the other classes the Guardian has five companions at their disposal, covering the five archetypal roles in the game. The healer, ranged tank, melee tank, ranged dps, and melee dps. While you most likely will not use all of them equally, there are always gathering missions to send them on.

What the Guardian needs for a companion varies slightly depending on the situation, and what type of build (DPS/Tank) they are. Below you will find all five of the Jedi Guardians companions complete with a description and their strengths and weaknesses.

T7-01

The starting companion for the Jedi Knight, T7-01 is added to the roster during initial training on Tython. A ranged tank/ Dps by nature, T7-01 puts out a fair amount of damage and can pull quite a bit of aggro. Those taking the tanking route will most likely want to steer clear of the little droid when they gain access to Doc later in the game. But Dps Guardians may just find the lack of attention beneficial.

Kira Carsen

Your second companion recruit, Kira Karsen is a fellow member of the Jedi Order picked up while on Coruscant. Wielding a double sided sabre she is specialized in melee dps and is great for quickly leaping into multiple foes and taking them down quickly. That being said, if you’re in an extended battle her lack of health and your lack of heals may prove to make things difficult.

Doc

The Doc can be found on the war ravaged world of Balmorra. Your first and only healer companion is the Jedi Guardian’s best friend. Having a pocket healer not only serves to put your mind at ease when taking on a regular group of MOBs, it also allows the tank spec Guardian to take on some of the smaller group quests solo. A definite must for anyone leveling through as a tank, or as a DPS that doesn’t like to slow down the pace by stopping to meditate.

Sergeant Rusk

The ice covered planet of Hoth is where you’ll find Sergeant Rusk waiting to join your team. Ranged DPS is his specialty and paired with a DPS specced Guardian, can make quick work of standard groups of mobs. High aggro levels from his high damage output may prove to be troublesome however as you may find yourself jumping between targets a lot.

Visit our database for more information.

Lord Scourge

The final and most unlikely of companions for the Jedi Guardian is Lord Scourge. This Sith Lord is as close to getting a Sith Juggernaut on your team and is outfitted as such with a single sabre and heavy armor. Again like T7-01 his aggro abilities may come in handy for those taking a DPS route, but may prove more of a nuisance for a tank spec.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

Comments