The discipline already features very heavy spam of Slash even prior to eliminating the need to use Cauterize every 6 GCDs, so that spam further magnifies the benefit by it being being ticked very frequently on a typical encounter.Īnalysis: Merciless Slash should nearly always be the top overall damage per activation ability in the Watchman discipline. Lastly, the excess energy generated by Watchman further increases the power of this tactical. Given Cauterize does a high amount of damage over relatively few ticks (due to its low duration), that is a very sizable increase in damage. In addition to their base damage and refreshing the Dot for another 6 GCDs, it also causes Cauterize to tick an additional time. What makes the tactical really strong though is the ability to “tick its damage” via your spammable filler Slash and two other cooldown fillers.

Cauterize does deal some direct damage upon its use but even a basic attack deals more damage thus literally any other ability use will be a DPS increase solely based on freeing up the GCD. This tactical makes the rotation incredibly easy for Watchman while also significantly buffing DPS and making the discipline’s spammable filler Slash far stronger.Įnabling an automatic refresh of Cauterize grants an extra ability slot to deal damage very 6 GCDs (a 17% increase) without any DPS loss versus having to use the ability to directly re-apply the DoT as would be necessary without the tactical.

These should provide high uptime of the ability to buff damage 25% and nearly continuous uptime of the 10% damage buff.Īnalysis: Cauterize does very high overall damage in the discipline and its only drawback is a relatively short cooldown of 9 seconds / 6 GCDs requiring it to be reapplied far more often than more DoTs in the game. When taken together, the discipline will frequently have 3-5 chances each GCD to trigger the 6-piece set bonus to build a stack of Force Clarity (and refresh the 4-piece set bonus 10% damage buff). Also, the discipline frequently has 3 DoTs ticking between Cauterize, Force Melt and Overload Saber. Watchman should benefit from this set bonus even more than Combat or Concentration as each DoT tick can proc the set bonus to build stacks of Force Clarity, providing a further buff through more frequent use of the new 6.0 ability to buff specific ability damage by 25%.Īs the discipline dual-wields lightsabers, many attacks deal damage multiple times and offer multiple chances to proc the 6-piece set bonus. The set bonus should provide a very high uptime on a straight 10% damage buff. The remaining tactical options for Watchman are far less impressive and likely not relevant in PVE operations, though they could be useful in running heroics and flashpoints to increase burst AoE damage and enable more frequent use of Merciless Slash without needing to steadily decrease its cooldown through sustained use.īetween the new ability and set bonus (and their strong synergy) and the powerful tactical, the discipline is as strong as ever in 6.0.Īnalysis: The only set bonus that is BIS across multiple advanced classes, Descent of the Fearless is BIS for all Guardian and Sentinel DPS disciplines. With respect to tactical items and situational gameplay, Watchman received a very strong option in Spiteful Saber that makes Cauterize a one-time application DoT that can be refreshed via the rotation (i.e., in a similar fashion to how TK Sage can refresh Weaken Mind or Tactics Vanguard can refresh Gut) as well as making the filler ability much more powerful via its extra tick of DoT damage.

The ideal set bonus for the discipline, Descent of the Fearless, should provide a high-uptime 10% damage boost and much more frequent use of Force Clarity.

It received a helpful new offensive cooldown, Force Clarity, that can be used frequently to buff the damage of Merciless Slash (the discipline’s highest damage ability). The new expansion was good to Watchman and should see it maintain its place as one of the top sustained DPS disciplines.

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