BiS relics for sentinel

Just a little post to explain why pvp relic is the best a sentinel can use at the moment (a discussion we had with Yllse today )

Nowadays 3 different relics can be considered for a Sentinel dps wise:

The matrix one: 66 str, 27 crit
The Campaign Relic of Boundeless Ages: 315 power during 30sec every 2 min = 78.75 power
War Hero relic (needs valor): 113 power
Champion relic (can be buyed and used by anyone): 97 power

A dps calculation (I can show it if you want) gives this order:

War Hero relic > Champion relic > matrix >> Campaign relic

Since I don't pvp I can't use War Hero relic, so I'm using Champion relics which gives me 97*2 = 194 power + 36 str from augments.

The only case where a Campaign relic would be better is a fast 30 sec fight. But anyway in such short fight, the benefit is not requiered.

This is a rather old and long discussion that we have in the senti community. Why the hell Bioware made a pvp item BiS for pve? No answer from them yet but its probably a tricky problem that they got when they changed the pvp relics.

well, this really boils down to a really awesome bonus for a critical moment like a boss fight or a slight boost with every hit. Mathematically, the odds would say that a little boost always is better than a large boost sometimes in pure EHP terms.

That said, we know how often a boss fight comes down to the wire and throwing everything you have at it is super critical to success. Especially where the DPS phases are broken apart into small windows (like kephess for eg)

My opinion, is you actually carry two sets of relics and swap them out as needed; put your passives with extra dmg in whilst fighting anything but a boss where you apply continuous dmg, but any boss with phases, you use an active relic instead.

My goal with my vanguard for eg; is to use 2 sets of relics always:

For bosses or spikey fights:

- Campaign Relic of the Shrouded Crusader (shield/absorb for 30secs)
- Campaign Relic of Shield Amplification (shield proc every 20secs
or
- Campaign Relic of Imperiling Serenity (DR for 30secs)

For trash or any ordinary non boss fight:

- Matrix Cube (augmented)
- Campaign Relic of Shield Amplification (shield proc every 20secs)


Now for you, i would approach it with the same methodology. You want to be able to serve up max dps when called for, but also dont want to carry a relic around with an active bonus you arnt using 95% of the time.

For trash
- Campaign Relic of Dark Radiance
- Matrix Cube M7-G0 (aug)

For boss
- Campaign Relic of Boundless Ages (+power 30secs)
- Rakata Relic of Forbidden Secrets (+crit/surge 30secs)

Needless to say that I have all these relics in the bag and can swap them accordingly, but it's a joke most of the time.

It's really nice to see how much you guys are busy with gear and such, makes me proud, .
I always thought the Matrix cube was the best you could get, and if I recall correctly, Artificers can make the Rakata or Campaign Relics, they're BoP, sadly.
Anyhow, if you need any other gearing advice, feel free to send me an in-game mail, reason for a mail is: I won't be showing up as much anymore, because I've been very busy with RP on the Empire Side.

New relic is comming with 1.5.

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For sentinel, boundeless age got an improvement, from 315 to 350. Still below pvp relic for steady dps but might be good to have in bag for specific fights

so whats the best second relic you can equip apart from the boundless ages i got enough dailies for the new relics coming in 1.5 so which 2 is the best boundless ages + ????

jumpinjonny wrote:so whats the best second relic you can equip apart from the boundless ages i got enough dailies for the new relics coming in 1.5 so which 2 is the best boundless ages + ????

Short answer:

For trash use 2 x Champion pvp relic (+97 power each)
For boss use 1 x Champion pvp relic + 1 x 1.5 boundless ages


Long answer:

Have in your bag the following:

2 x War Hero pvp relic (+113 power each) or if you don't have enough valor, 2 x Champion pvp relic (+97 power each)
1 x Rakata Relic of Forbidden Secrets (+175 crit & surge for 30 sec)
1 x Matrix relic (+66 str +27 crit)
1 x 1.5 boundless ages relic (+350 power for 30 sec)

and decide which association is best for you, depending on your play style, your build, the team you are in, the monster you are fighting... this can be tricky, but it's such non straightforward things that makes a given person skills and that makes the game fun

Since Champion relics were still better than Dread Guard relics, Bioware has decided to upgrade the Dread Guard relics and they added +47 power to them. Now the relics read:

Dread Guard Relic of Boundless Ages
+64 Endurance
+47 Power
Increase Power by 350 for 30 sec

Dread Guard Relic of Dark Radiance
+64 Endurance
+47 Power
30% chance of 210 internal, not more than 4.5 sec


So now BiS are changed.

1) It puts the matrix cube way behind

2) Dread Guard Relic of Boundless Ages is a must have.

3) For the second relic, you have to think which is best, between Champion relics or Dread Guard Relic of Dark Radiance. I don't have the anser yet since it's a bit tricky to know because of the internal damage source, but I will put my conclusions after a bunch of math and tests.

Hug,
^mel

*returns hug to Mel*
I've been holding onto my daily coms, only 70 off the Dread Guard Relic .

awesome mel i have the Dread Guard Relic of Boundless Ages and almost got enough for the second the dark radiance you dont have to be dark side to get it do you? if not im gonna have that one

jumpinjonny wrote:awesome mel i have the Dread Guard Relic of Boundless Ages and almost got enough for the second the dark radiance you dont have to be dark side to get it do you? if not im gonna have that one

Yes you can use the Dark Radiance relic. You are right that it may sounds weird for a Jedi to use a device that radiates darkness... but... dark is not always Star Wars Dark. It may refer to dark energy radiance, which is supposed to be all around us :-)

Apart from this metaphysics argument, pay attention that the Dark Radiance relic may not be better than the Champion one. It's 210 damage, which is a lot : it corresponds to a rough +650 power. But it's only 30% chance and has a 4.5 second CD. Since the GDC is 1.5 sec, it mitigates those +650 power to a rough +65 power, which is worse than the +97 power provided by the Campaign relic. Yes, but DR is internal damage which avoids armor... As you see it's not that straightforward :-)

After intensive testing, it appears that the two new Dread Guard relics give me ~180 more dps than the two Champion relics. Also instead of the Dread Guard relic of Dark Radiance I've used the Dread Guard relic of Elemental Transcendance which gives the same effect and is more Jedi friendly