Annihilation | Watchmen Compendium

[Genu]

In Progress...
Sith Marauder - Annihilation | Jedi Sentinel - Watchmen
Compendium SW:TOR Patch 1.1.3
Content will be updated and expanded

Content:

Foreword

1. Foreword 2. Quick reference 2.1 Talents 2.2 Rotation 2.3 Stats 3. Talents 4. Abilities 5. Stats & Gear 5.1 Stats 5.2 Relics and Consumables 5.3 Best in Slot 6. Raid section

First of all, special thanks to all registered users of this forum, for their thoughts, opinions, maths and work they provide to this community. This compendium is merely a result of the discussions made here and swtor forums and some simulations with the spreadsheet. For the publication of concrete numbers i will wait some more spreadsheet releases. Yet information is incomplete, but i try stick to it. For further discussion, please use the Annihilation discussion thead or contact me per pm for content updates. Hence i play a Marauder myself, i will use the Marauder ability names until the first content updates have been made. The purpose of this compendium is to gather important information about the Sith Marauder / Jedi Sentinel class mechanics and to theory-craft the potential of our merciless class. This thread is for everyone who attempts serious raiding and who wants to optimize his own (or others) performance. If you have question, ask them here after using the forum search. Concrete numbers on DPS and Stats EP will be derived when SW:TOR SimulationCraft steps out of baby shoes.

Quick reference

2.1 Talents

Description	Marauder	Sentinel	Comment
Skeleton	31/3/0	31/3/0	Basic Build, 7 Talent points left for personal usage.
Survival Variant	31/10/0	31/10/0	This one takes the reduced AoE damage for lightning ball detonation at Soa nightmare mode.
DPS Variants	31/8/2 31/10/0 31/7/3 31/3/7	31/8/2 31/10/0 31/7/3 31/3/7	These are different variants and possible candidates for a maximum DPS spec.

2.2 Rotation

Rotation may be a misleading word, since we do not rotate anymore, rather than having a priority list, which abilities are more important to use for dps than others. however i chose the rotation wording for search reasons.

Priority	Sith Marauder	Jedi Sentinel	Condition
1	Berserk Berserk Sith Warrior Activation time: Instant Mirror: Combat Focus Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to go Berserk. Lasts for 6 charges. This effect varies based on your current lightsaber form: Shii-cho Form: Vicious Slash costs no rage and strikes 1 additional nearby enemy. Juyo Form: Increases the critical chance of your bleed attacks by 100% and causes bleed damage to heal your party for 1% of max health each tick. Ataru Form: Reduces the rage cost of Vicious Slash and Massacre by 1 and reduces their global cooldown by 0.5 seconds.	Zen Zen Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Activation time: Instant Mirror: Berserk Requires and converts 30 stacks of Centering to enter a Zen state. Lasts for 6 charges. This effect varies based on your current lightsaber form: Shii-Cho Form: Slash costs no focus and strikes 1 additional nearby enemy. Juyo Form: Increases the critical chance of your burn attacks by 100% and causes burn damage to heal your party for 1% of max health each tick. Ataru Form: Reduces the focus cost of Slash and Blade Rush by 1 and reduces their global cooldown by 0.5 seconds.	Use always when available, if you about to use Adrenal and Relics, line them up here
2	Annihilate Annihilate Sith Warrior (Marauder) Rage: -5 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Merciless Slash Strikes the target with both lightsabers for [?] weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Annihilator for 15 seconds, lowering the cooldown of your next Annihilate by 1.5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires two lightsabers.	Merciless Slash Merciless Slash Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Focus: -5 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Annihilate Strikes the target with both lightsabers for () weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Merciless for 15 seconds, lowering the cooldown of your next Merciless Slash by 1.5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires two lightsabers.	if cd-reduction buff is about to expire
3	Vicious Throw Vicious Throw Sith Warrior Rage: -3 Range: 10m Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 6 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Dispatch Throws the main-hand lightsaber at a target, dealing (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.265 WeaponDamage * 2.85) - (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.305 WeaponDamage * 2.85) energy damage. Only usable on targets at or below 20% max health.	Dispatch Dispatch Jedi Knight Focus: -3 Range: 10m Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 6 secs Mirror: Vicious Throw Throws the main-hand lightsaber at a target, dealing (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.265 WeaponDamage * 2.85) - (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.305 WeaponDamage * 2.85) energy damage. Only usable on targets at or below 20% max health.	When target is below 20% hp
4	Rupture Rupture Sith Warrior (Marauder) Rage: -2 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Cauterize Stabs the target for [?] damage and deals an additional [?] internal damage over 15 seconds.	Cauterize Cauterize Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Focus: -2 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 15 secs Damage Type: Elemental Mirror: Rupture Strikes the target for 111 - 170 damage and deals an additional 932 elemental damage over 6 seconds. Requires two lightsabers.
5	Annihilate Annihilate Sith Warrior (Marauder) Rage: -5 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Merciless Slash Strikes the target with both lightsabers for [?] weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Annihilator for 15 seconds, lowering the cooldown of your next Annihilate by 1.5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires two lightsabers.	Merciless Slash Merciless Slash Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Focus: -5 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Annihilate Strikes the target with both lightsabers for () weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Merciless for 15 seconds, lowering the cooldown of your next Merciless Slash by 1.5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires two lightsabers.
6	Deadly Saber Deadly Saber Sith Warrior (Marauder) Rage: -3 Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Mirror: Overload Saber Charges your lightsabers with deadly energy for 15 seconds, causing your next 3 successful melee attacks to make the target bleed for [?] internal damage over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.	Overload Saber Overload Saber Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Focus: -3 Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 12 secs Mirror: Deadly Saber Charges your lightsabers with deadly energy for 15 seconds, causing your next 3 successful melee attacks to make the target burn for [?] elemental damage over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.	lined up with Force Charge or Assault
7	Battering Assault Battering Assault Sith Warrior (Marauder) Rage: 6 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 15 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Zealous Strike Strikes the target multiple times with both lightsabers, dealing (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.05 WeaponDamage * 0.5) weapon damage and building 6 rage. Requires two lightsabers.	Zealous Strike Zealous Strike Jedi Knight (Sentinel) Focus: 6 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Cooldown: 5 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Battering Assault Strikes the target multiple times with both lightsabers, dealing (LvlRankDmgAmnt * 0.05 WeaponDamage * 0.5) weapon damage and building 6 focus. Requires two lightsabers.	If resource < 7
8	Vicious Slash Vicious Slash Sith Warrior Rage: -3 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Slash Slashes the target for <> damage. Attacks with both weapons if dual wielding.	Slash Slash Jedi Knight Focus: -3 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Vicious Slash Slashes the target for [?] damage. Attacks with both weapons if dual wielding.	If resource >= 7
9	Ravage Ravage Sith Warrior Range: Melee (4m) Channel time: 3.0 secs Cooldown: 30 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Master Strike Performs a series of lightsaber attacks that deal <> weapon damage over 3 seconds. Standard and weak enemies are additionally stunned for the duration of the effect. Strikes with both weapons if dual wielding.	Master Strike Master Strike Jedi Knight Channel time: 3.0 secs Cooldown: 30 secs Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Ravage Performs a series of lightsaber attacks that deal [?] weapon damage over 3 seconds. Standard and weak enemies are additionally stunned for the duration of the effect. Strikes with both weapons if dual wielding.	When 2,4 + 5 remaining cd is above 5 seconds.
10	Assault Assault Sith Warrior Rage: 2 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Strike Inflicts <> damage with a series of quick melee attacks. Builds 2 Rage. Attacks with both weapons if dual wielding.	Strike Strike Jedi Knight Focus: 2 Range: Melee (4m) Activation time: Instant Damage Type: Weapon Mirror: Assault Inflicts <<1>> damage with a series of quick melee attacks. Generates 2 Focus. Strikes with both weapons if dual wielding.	When nothing else is ready for use or your resource would fall below 5.

Basically you do want to have a rage pool of 5 rage to use Annihilate

Annihilate
Sith Warrior (Marauder)

Rage: -5
Range: Melee (4m)
Activation time: Instant
Cooldown: 12 secs
Damage Type: Weapon
Mirror: Merciless Slash

Strikes the target with both lightsabers for [?] weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Annihilator for 15 seconds, lowering the cooldown of your next Annihilate by 1.5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Requires two lightsabers.

and Rupture

Rupture
Sith Warrior (Marauder)

Rage: -2
Range: Melee (4m)
Activation time: Instant
Damage Type: Weapon
Mirror: Cauterize

Stabs the target for [?] damage and deals an additional [?] internal damage over 15 seconds.

whenever they become ready, so try to never fall under 5 rage by using Vicious Slash

Vicious Slash
Sith Warrior

Rage: -3
Range: Melee (4m)
Activation time: Instant
Damage Type: Weapon
Mirror: Slash

Slashes the target for <> damage. Attacks with both weapons if dual wielding.

or Deadly Saber

Deadly Saber
Sith Warrior (Marauder)

Rage: -3
Activation time: Instant
Cooldown: 12 secs
Mirror: Overload Saber

Charges your lightsabers with deadly energy for 15 seconds, causing your next 3 successful melee attacks to make the target bleed for [?] internal damage over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

except when you can fill this pool up until Annihilate and Rupture become ready.

2.3 Stats

Priority	Stat	Condition
1	Strength	Until 1550 unbuffed.
2	Accuracy	10% including talents.
3	Critical rating	Total crit near to 30% (or 20% from critical rating)
4	Surge rating	Total surge near to 75% (or 25% from surge rating)
5	Power	-

Talents

3.1 Talents

There are 4 types of classification: mandatory, recommended, optional, not recommended. You will not be able to pick all recommended talents with your talent points, hence i wont do this list for all 3 specs. So the basic build is
31/3/0, take everything mandatory and make your choices between the recommended and optional talents, as you prefer. The tables represent the skill trees from left to right.

Tier	Sith Marauder	Jedi Sentinel	Classification	Comment
1	Enraged Slash		mandatory	Directly affecting DPS.
1	Quick Recovery		recommended	Directly affecting AoE DPS, therefore not mandatory for single target optimization.
1	Cloak of Annihilation		optional	Since you should not be attacked, you should not be able to use Retaliation, so this will be useless.
2	Hungering		recommended	Your healers will be happy about this in hard or nightmare mode.
2	Seeping Wound		optional	Only interesting for PvP.
2	Juyo Mastery		mandatory	Directly affecting your DPS.
3	Blledout		mandatory	Directly affecting your DPS.
3	Deadly Saber		mandatory	Additional ability, which profits from and can trigger other talents.
3	Blurred Speed		recommended	Yes lineup with Deadly Saber is great, but there are bosses where you are not able to profit from this.
4	Short Fuse		mandatory	Directly affecting your DPS.
4	Subjugation		optional	Categorized more as PvP-thing. Obfuscate may not save your tanks ass anymore. For disruption there is no need, hence currently all kickable bosses can be Charged, which interrupts too.
4	Deep Wound		mandatory	Directly affecting your DPS.
4	Close Quarters		recommended	Yes, melee Force Charge is awesome. But it has some negative points, too. Explained in upcoming boss section. So only recommended.
5	Ferocity		optional	Yet i have seen no Encounter where you really need this. May get interesting in upcoming Encounters.
5	Pulverize		mandatory	Chance to reset your one of your stronger abilities.
5	Phantom		recommended	Having an additional "Oh-Shit"-Button is never wrong.
6	Empowerment		mandatory	Increases your Resource generation, therefore directly affects your DPS.
6	Hemorrhage		mandatory	Directly... you know what i am going to say.
7	Annihilate		mandatory	That's what this Spec is made for, Baby.

Tier	Sith Marauder	Jedi Sentinel	Classification	Comment
1	Cloak of Carnage		optional	You should not get attacked, therefore no gain.
1	Dual Wield Mastery		mandatory	Increases nearly all damage you deal.
1	Defensive Forms		recommended	Damage reduction from some AoE abilities never can be wrong.
2	Narrowed Hatred		recommended	With this you can free up up to two enhancements you may want to change.
2	Defensive Roll		recommended	This one is a very great gain for many encounters. For nightmare mode i would nearly say mandatory.
2	Enraged Charge		optional	Currently considered as a pretty DPS boost.
2	Erupting Fury		optional	No. Just no. Even if there are adds at a boss fight, its unlikely to get more than 1 last hit, and even thats nor for sure.

Tier	Sith Marauder	Jedi Sentinel	Classification	Comment
1	Ravager		recommended	Very small DPS boost, since Ravage is quite low in our priority and by and the time window where it is most useful is very small.
1	Malice		recommended	A nice boost for your DoT's.
1	Stagger		not recommended	Current bosses cannot be Immobilized, so there is no use to it at PvE.
2	Payback		optional	10% heal every 3 minutes? not really worth a talent point here.
2	Force Alacrity		not recommended	No Shii-Cho Form, no Force Alacrity.
2	Enraged Scream		not recommended	No Shii-Cho...
2	Brutality		recommended	Increases critical chance of your resource dumping ability.

Abilities

4.1 Abilities

Sith Marauder	Jedi Sentinel	Comment	Damage calculation
Annihilate	Merciless Slash	Profits from Pulverize Talent.
Assault	Strike	Basic resource generation, good damage per gcd, average damage per rage.
Battering Assault	Zealous Strike	Average damage per gcd, awesome damage per rage.
Crippling Slash		Bad damage per rage, bad damage per gcd and its effect is useless at PvE.
Deadly Saber	Overload Saber	Good damage per gcd, good to awesome damage per rage. profits from Hemorrhage and Bleedout Talents. Can trigger Empowerment.
Deadly Throw		Average damage per rage, average damage per gcd. No Profit from debuff at current encounters.
Force Charge	Force Leap	Average damage per gcd, good damage per rage.
Force Choke	Force Stasis	bad damage per gcd, bad damage per rage
Ravage	Master Strike	Good to awesome damage per gcd, great damage per rage, since it does not consume it. First two hits are about Vicious Slash / Slash damage, final hit is close Annihilate.
Retaliation	Riposte	Off gcd but bad damage per rage. In addition, you need to be attacked to use it.Should never occur, and if, just ignore it. Rage can be spend better.
Rupture	Cauterize	Awesome damage per gcd, awesome damage per rage and profits from Hemorrhage and Bleedout talents. Can trigger Empowerment, can be triggered by Pulverize talent.
Smash		Awesome damage per rage if talented, good damage per gcd.
Sweeping Slash		Bad damage on single target, awesome damage per gcd at 3+ Targets.
Vicious Slash	Slash	Good damage per gcd, average damage per rage. Can trigger Pulverize talent, can profit from Brutality talent.
Vicious Throw	Dispatch	Very high damage, great scaling.

Stats & Gear

5.1 Stats

Critical gain from strength per point will be updated.

Priority	Stat	Condition	Effect per Point	Underlies DR
1	Strength	Until 1550 unbuffed.	0.2 bonus damage, 0.2 bonus force damage, 0.008 critical hit chance
2	Accuracy	10% including Talents	0.0362 hit chance	x
3	Critical rating	Total crit < 30% (or 20% from critical rating)	0.044 critical hit chance	x
4	Surge rating	Total surge near 75% (or 25% from surge rating)	0.1 critical damage	x
5	Power	-	0.23 bonus damage, 0.23 bonus force damage

The conditions for critical hit chance and Surge are softcaps, you can surpass them. The benefit from each point of rating beyond these is minimal, so you want to prefer Power or Strength when these caps are reached.
To clear a common misunderstanding: As there a no real softcaps and values decrease with each additional point in SW:TOR, i define it as the point where the value of a point decreases so much, that an other stat becomes more interesting to focus on. The effect per point displayed here, displays the average gain per point until this softcap. As for example, the surge rating 25% / 255 ~ 0.098 ~ 0.1 average per point increase.
Of course the gain of surge is higher for the first points, less high to the last points near to its softcap.
As you surpass, to stay at surge, the softcap, average increase would be for example 28% / 360 ~ 0.077, which means quite 20% less effect per point.


Simplified modification:
For enhancements, take accuracy / power until accuracy cap, then pick crit / surge to surge cap, fill the rest witch crit / power. Avoid high-endurance enhancements.
For modifications, if you are below Rakata tier gear, take high strength / low power. If your critical hit chance is below 26% unbuffed, you may want to take strength / crit on your preference. Fill augment slots with strength.
For modifications at Rakata tier gear, take low strength, high power modifications in 3-4 pieces of gear. Fill augment slots with power.

5.2 Relics & Consumables

For easy comparison between the relics and consumables activation buffs and permanent stats, the buffs are converted to a permanent stat bonus they provide.

Permanent Stat gain = (Stat boost * boost duration) / boost cd.

Relic	permanent gain
Matrix Cube M7-G0	58 strenght + 24 crit or 11,6 bonus damage and 0,46% + 1,05%, so 1,51% crit
Rakata Relic of Boundless Power	63 ap or 14,49 bonus damage
Rakata Relic of Forbidden Secrets	39 surge + 39 crit or 7,8% surge and 1,71% crit (dimishing return and falloff at softcaps not included)
Plasma Burst Device	For 70% Surge and 30% crit we have normal proc 168 * 1.1 damage, critical proc 168 * 1.1 * 1.7, 184.4 normal damage, 314.16 critical damage. So we have 0.7 * 184.4 + 0.3 * 314.16 average damage per proc, which equals 223.328. With an average proc at every third use after internal cooldown is over, we have 223.328 / 9 ~ 24.814 dps.
Rakata _whatever_ Adrenal	39,6 Stat

Now is the big question: How is the DPS relic comparable to the others?
Currently, it is not. All we can do is make an assumption here.
If 1 Bonus Damage/Force is a direct 1 DPS Increase, the proc relics are superior.
If 1 Bonus Damage/Force is a direct DPS Increase above 1.5, the activation relics are stronger.

My personal preference: On Bosses without certain nuke phases, i stick to the proc relic, at other, like Soa or Fabricator Droid, i switch to Power on activation relic.

5.3 Best in Slot

Coming soon...

[Soapp]

Good Job, but it's just "Vicious Throw" not "Deadly Throw" on abilities.

[Nolimit]

Awesome, looking forward to this being updated! Was just thinking about respecing annihilation and this will be useful.

[Gaahl]

Just a question about your Max DPS spec. I see you have some points talented into Malice in order to get brutality in the shared tree. Since all of your damage is internal and we rarely use Force attacks, is it really worth it to sacrifice 3% accuracy and an 100% chance to gain rage from force charge for the 15% crit chance on slash?

[Ezmode]

Internal damage is based on Force power, at the moment it is assumed Malice affects DoTs. Will look at the OP in more detail later tonight.

[Mertox]

Pretty sure Malice doesn't affect DoTs as they are not considered Force-type attacks but instead elemental damage. Think it needs to be re-evaluated to consider 2/2 Brutality vs. 3/3 Narrowed Hatred

Also not sure why 2/2 Phantom is really necessary as it completely drops aggro, wouldn't 2/2 Subjugation prove more useful?

[Ezmode]

DoTs are Internal Damage, based on Force Power and utilize Force Crit. It only seems logical that Malice would affect them. If not, then it needs to be changed.

[Greenebud]

(01-29-2012 05:50 PM)Mertox Wrote:  [/b]

Also not sure why 2/2 Phantom is really necessary as it completely drops aggro, wouldn't 2/2 Subjugation prove more useful?

I go 2/2 Phantom for a few reasons
First Boss in EV (Annihilation Droid) does a stun before he does his AoE Missile Attack, and while running to get behind the downed turret, I phantom and take 0 damage.

Another example is on Gharj, if by chance you are going to have to take a Frenzy Pounce while moving to another platform, while passing him you can phantom again take 0 dmg. Also if you happen to get knocked back into the lava, just phantom

As well as on Karaggas The Unyielding (Last Boss in KP) if your caught in any of his AoE's you can phantom and just return right back to your dps rotation.

And to counter any part about an interrupt being important, I completely agree, BUT with 8 to 16 people in your group, there will be someone else to interrupt. In the Raids my guild has run we never have interruption issues.

EDIT- With Obfuscate, I have found that normally the times its use is of most importance is when a boss Frenzy's (some style of buff mechanic lasting a period of time) the CD is up by the time the boss Frenzy's again.

[Mertox]

Well what about Obfuscate? It's usable on every boss.

[Genu]

Is it worth dropping the Accuracy and the Additional for Malice and Brutality?

The current answer is: Yes. Rupture and Deadly Sabers damage over time component are flagged as force attacks. As force attacks, they do profit from the talent Malice, increasing their critical chance.
However, the direct damage component from rupture seems not to profit from malice, even if its damage is displayed yellow (which seems to be a quite reliable source for identifying force attacks ingame.).
For the 6% Critical alone, it is not worth sacrificing Accuracy, but combined with Brutality you gain more damage than any other talent you can reach in the middle tree will grant you.

Why 2/2 Phantom over 2/2 Subjugation?

Lets look at the Skill, even without talent: Phantom saves our ass by reducing our aggro and we cannot be targeted anymore, so n1 reasons of death are AoE damage and DoT's.
Obfuscate may save the current Aggro holder, but only at 90% Chance, there is still room for error. When may, PvE wise, Obfuscate make sense? First Case, someone gets Aggro, you may save him. Second Case, Tank drops on low, you may be able to buy 1-2 seconds for healers to rescue the tank. However, in my Raid experience the tank happens to be low all the time or not, so the reduced CD on Obfuscate is no big deal. It may be useful for nuking down the last 1% Hitpoints of an enraged Encounter.
Enrage-Timers are quite close in hard and nightmare Mode, thus a dead DD is wipe same as a dead Tank.

So skilled we have Obfuscate - an unsure save for a tank or an overnuking dd, we may be able if we spam it, to use about 10% time of the encounter, which is quite nice, but at phases were we need it - for example enrage, we will still have only one and get no second, so there is no improvement by the talent.

Skilled Camo on the other hand buys our healers 3 seconds for _sure_ to heal us.
it can be used to take pressure from healers in massive AoE damage situations, it makes us able to dodge certain Bosses abilities and stay melee much longer.
And we can still use Obfuscate when it is necessary.