Watchman Sentinel & Annihilation Marauder 7.0 Guide

7.0 Watchman Sentinel & Annihilation Marauder

PvE Guide

by

Lithisto (Star Forge NA)

Youtube Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiEBc6h9x0M&t=105s

    Hi everyone, and welcome to my 7.0 Guide for Watchman/Annihilation! I'll be going over some basic gearing, Skill Tree choices, rotational basic and advanced theory, and a bit of ranting here and there.

    This guide is tailored to anyone playing Watchman and Annihilation in 7.0, be it new people to the class or seasoned Sentinels who want to catch up on what is new!
    What is Watchman/Annihilation? Watchman and Annihilation are the DoT (Damage over Time) specializations for the Sentinel and Marauder Combat Style, respectively.

    What is a "Combat Style"? A Combat Style is the new name for what used to be called your Advanced Class. I won't go into detail about Combat Styles here.

Gearing and Stat Priority using 326 IR and 286 Augments

    I am going to preface this section by saying that not everyone will have 330 Rakata gear and 300 Augments available to them. I will be focusing on Tertiary Stat pools using 326 IR numbers that are available to all Grades of gear from all types of content, and 286/"Purple" Augments as 300/"Gold" Augments are still ridiculously expensive and are not even available on the GTN on Star Forge. That being said, I do personally use Rakata Gear and 300 Augs and will provide Rakata Gear builds for both types of Augments as well. 

                                                                 

General Gearing - Accuracy and Relics

Accuracy - 110% or 2694+ for PvE.

•  2 Accuracy Armor pieces - Pummeler Gloves and Leggings
•  1 Initiative Earpiece
•  8 Accuracy Augments
•  1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (MK-2 optional)

Other - relics

• Focused Retribution should always be your primary relic.
• You can use either a Serendipitous Assault or Devastating Vengeance relic. S. Assault yields more consistent results but D. Venge. can yield higher numbers, just less consistently.

Fearless Victor Build

Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 5 Alacrity Augments

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2400~ raw Critical points 

• 1 Pummeler's Boots
• 1 Pummeler's Main-hand Saber
• 1 Berserker's Call Package
• 1 Fearless Victor Package
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 1 Critical Augment
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Dispatcher Build

 Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 1 Dispatcher Package

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2400~ raw Critical points 

• 1 Pummeler Boots
• 1 Pummeler's Main-hand Saber
• 1 Berserker's Call Implant
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 6 Critical Augments
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Examples using Supreme Decurion/Columi Pummeler Gear and Purple 74 Augments

326 Supreme Decurion/Columi Optimized Build (Dispatcher, Optional)

This build is entirely optional but is technically best in slot for 326 IR

Rakata Gearing

    I'm adding this segment post-publish as its become more apparent that most people are going for 330 Rakata gear. I would also like to credit TheGamingRonin for his awesome critique of my guide. His YouTube channel can be found here: TheGamingRonin

    Further, I would like to highlight something; Rakata Gear is not necessary or required for any content until Nightmare/Master Mode Operations. Your best gain in DPS is going to be knowing your class and knowing the fights/mechanics most importantly!

Gearing with 330 Rakata and Purple 74 Augments

General Gearing - Accuracy and Other

Accuracy - 110% or 2694+ for PvE.

•  2 Accuracy Armor pieces - Pummeler Gloves and Leggings
•  1 Targetter's Boots
•  1 Initiative Earpiece
•  2 Accuracy Augments
•  1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (MK-2 optional)

Other - relics

• Focused Retribution should always be your primary relic.
• Devastating Vengeance is your best bet, but a Serendipitous Assault relic will also work. 

Fearless Victor Build

Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 5 Alacrity Augments

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2600~ raw Critical points

• 1 Berserker's Call Package
• 1 Fearless Victor Package
•  1 Pummeler's Saber
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 7 Critical Augment
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Dispatcher Build

 Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 1 Dispatcher Package

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2400~ raw Critical points 

• 1 Pummeler's Main-hand Saber
• 1 Berserker's Call Implant
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 14 Critical Augments
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Gearing with 330 Rakata and Gold 77 Augments

General Gearing - Accuracy and Other

Accuracy - 110% or 2694+ for PvE.

•  2 Accuracy Armor pieces - Pummeler Gloves and Leggings
•  1 Initiative Earpiece
•  6 Accuracy Augments
•  1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (MK-2 optional)

Fearless Victor Build

Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 4 Alacrity Augments

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2600~ raw Critical points

•  2 Critical Armor Pieces - Pummeler's Boots and Lightsaber Package
• 1 Fearless Victor Package
• 1 Berserker's Call
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 4 Critical Augment
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Dispatcher Build

 Alacrity - 7.14%+ or 2054+ raw Alacrity Points 

• 2 Alacrity Armor Pieces - Pummeler Helmet and Jacket
• 1 Pummeler's Offhand Saber
• 1 Dispatcher Package

Critical - remainder of Tertiary stats. 2600~ raw Critical points 

• 1 Pummeler Boots
• 1 Pummeler's Main-hand Saber
• 1 Berserker's Call Implant
• 2 Eviscerating/Critical Color Crystals
• 8 Critical Augments
• 1 Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim

Legendary Items

    Legendary Items are the new set bonuses in SWTOR. Legendary Items are Implants that have set-bonus like effects on them. Please see my Fearless Victor vs Dispatcher analysis here: Fearless Victor vs Dispatcher Analysis

Berserker's Call

    This offers excellent DPS gain for single target and AoE situations. Use it. This Legendary item carries Critical as it's Tertiary Stat. Many of you will recognize this as very similar to the 5.0 Sentinel Set Bonus.

Fearless Victor

    This Legendary Item is essentially a watered down version of our 6.0 set bonus, Descent of the Fearless. This Legendary makes the class play very similar to 6.0 as well. If you are a Fury or Jugg main who plays Annihilation occasionally, this is a solid choice but will yield less damage than Dispatcher. This one carries Critical as it's Tertiary stat. 

Dispatcher

    After extensive testing I can say, with confidence, that this is the definitive Best-in-Slot legendary for Annihilation and Watchman. The extra Rage/Focus generation, as well as being able to use the Blood Fury/Burning Zen Tree choice make this a clear winner. This one carries Alacrity as it's Tertiary stat. 

Tacticals

Spiteful Saber

    This is your default tactical and should be used for all situations. Never pull a boss without this if you can help it!

Hidden Power

    Use this before a boss pull to build 12 Rage. Very useful for use before boss fights where you can't use a gap closer to the boss, such as Izax.

Defel Spliced Genes

    Use this after using Hidden Power. Equip it, hit Predation/Transcendence to reset the cooldown of Force Camo, then swap back to Spiteful Saber. 

Key Abilities and Passives

Credit to Parsely.io for many of these screenshots. Star Parse is a great tool and I highly recommend everyone downloads and uses it! http://ixparse.com/

Deadly / Overload Saber [Level 60] - Charges your lightsabers with deadly energy for 15s, making your next 3 successful melee Attacks to make the target bleed/burn for <1> over 6 seconds. This effect cannot be applied more than once per second, and stacks up to 3 times max. This is a stacking DoT you apply with Melee filler. More on that later. 

                                                             

Annihilate / Merciless Slash [Level 47] - Strikes the target with both lightsabers for <1> weapon damage. Each use of this ability grants Annihilator/Merciless stacks for 30s, lowering the cooldown of your next Annihilate/Merciless Slash by 1.5s. Stacks up to 4 times after Level 73 [Swift Demise/Accelerating Victory]. Makes target Assailable for 45s (7% increased damage taken from Elemental/Internal damage). 

                                                             

Rupture / Cauterize [Level 35] - Strikes the target for <1> weapon damage and causes it to burn for <1> internal/elemental damage over 9 seconds. 

                                                                                                                         

Force Rend / Melt [Level 15] - Calls on the power of the Force to build 4 Rage/Focus and cause it to bleed/burn for <1> elemental/internal damage over 9 seconds.

                                                                                                                         

Smash / Force Sweep - Our DoT spread ability. This ability's cooldown is lowered by 9 seconds when we reach Level 23 [Hemorrhaging Smash/Burning Sweep], giving it an overall cooldown of 5s. This ability will spread Rupture/Cauterize and Force Rend/Melt.

                                                                                                                         

Dual / Twin Saber Throw - a free filler that gains a 100% damage buff when procced by our DoTs, which is from the Pulverize/Mind Sear passive at level 60. Refreshes the duration of Rupture/Cauterize when using the Spiteful Saber tactical. You should be able to use this more or less on cooldown, as long as it is procced. This ability will also autocrit your next Slash or Dispatch/Vicious Throw when using the Dispatcher Legendary Item. 

                                                                              

Vicious Throw and Vicious Slash / Dispatch and Slash - These are our main fillers. Vicious Throw/Dispatch is only useable on targets below 30% health. Both of these fillers refresh the duration of Rupture/Cauterize when using the Spiteful Saber Tactical.

                                                                              

Ravage and Assault / Blade Barrage and Strike - Our free fillers. Used on a low priority when Rage/Focus are above 10 [Ravage/Blade Barrage], and when we need 1 or 2 extra Rage/Focus soon for an Annihilate/Merciless Slash that is coming off cooldown.

                                                                                                                         

Sweeping Slash / Cyclone Slash - Used in AoE situations occasionally. Can gain a 25% damage buff from the Path Carver/Trail Blazer skill, but that is not always necessary. 

                                                                                                                         

Battering Assault / Zealous Strike - The Marauder/Sentinel's main Rage/Focus builder. Applies the Beat Down debuff on targets, making them take 5% more damage from Melee attacks. Builds 6 Rage/Focus. 

                                                                                                                         

Force Scream / Blade Storm - Literally useless for Annihilation/Watchman. Take it off your bar and forget it exists.

                                                                                                                         

Predation / Transcendence - Increases movement speed by 80% for 10s. Purges movement impairing effects. 30s cooldown. This is the only choice you should be taking at Level 27 for all content. Additionally, increases Melee/Ranged defense by 10% for the duration. 

                                                                                                                         

Bloodthirst / Inspiration - Our raid buff. Arguably the best raid buff in the game. Increases Damage and Healing by 10% for 10s. Requires 30 stacks of Fury/Centering. 

Skill Tree Choices

I want to thank Parsely.io for their website's Combat Style tool, where I designed this build and screenshotted it. Abilities circled in green are the useful ones. If its not green, its useless in all content.

This is a basic skill tree that you can use with either Fearless Victor or Dispatcher. See further down for the changes that are possible when using Dispatcher. 

[Level 23] - Draining/Melting Center

"Activating Force Rend/Melt immediately builds 10 Fury/Centering and deals four times it's damage when it consumes a stack of Berserk/Zen." This is a must have. This is the best single target damage increase in this tree and actually adds some burst to the rotation. 

[Level 27] - Predation/Transcendence

Our raid movement buff. The other two really don't have a place in PvE. 

[Level 39] - Rupturing Rage/Cauterizing Focus

"Rupture/Cauterize applies Trauma and refunds it's Rage/Focus during Berserk/Zen. Trauma reduces the target's healing taken by 20% for 10s." Great for Rage/Focus in your opener and target swapping.  

[Level 43] - Bleeding/Burning Center

"Critically hitting with periodic bleed/burn damage builds 2 Fury/Centering, even during Berserk/Zen." Great for having our 30 stacks to use up in the right place in our rotation. Furious Power/Force Clarity is not as much of a gain as this one. The last choice, being Blood Fury/Burning Zen, is only possible to use with the Dispatcher package, but the combination of those two is a significant DPS gain.

[Level 51] - Defensive Roll

Defensive Roll is permanent 30% AoE DR. Most damage in PvE that you take will be AoE damage.

[Level 64] - Blood/Zealous Ward or Cloak of Annihilation/Adjudicator

Blood/Zealous Ward is used for healing intensive fights or where you will need an additional knockback or lift immunity. Cloak of Annihilation/Adjudicator is used for less healing intensive fights, where you may take more small sustained AoE damage.

[Level 68] - Undying Rage or Mad Dash / Guarded by the Force or Blade Blitz

Figure out which of the two will benefit you better in the fight, and use them. I am available via Discord [see end of guide] to discuss the situational uses of both of these DCDs. 

[Level 73] - Brazen / Stoic

    2% extra Damage Reduction (all types), and you build 2 stacks of Fury/Centering when attacked, which helps with consistently having 30 stacks of Fury/Centering. The slow utility is a PvP only thing, which I don't even take for Anni PvP play personally. The raid buff utility synchronizes better with the Dispatcher Legendary, which is why I have Brazen/Stoic recommended for the general build.

 

Skill Tree Changes Using Dispatcher

    Most skill choices are the same, but I will highlight the 2 differences below.

[Level 43] - Blood Fury / Burning Zen

    "All melee damage deals x additional bleed/burn damage during Berserk/Zen. This cannot occur more than once per second." This utility choice syncs well with the extra Rage/Focus generation from the Dispatcher Package. We do not need the additional Fury/Centering from Bleeding/Burning Center since we have an abundance of Rage/Focus to build it instead by using better filler! Note; for Watchman Sentinels, the additional burn damage currently consumes stacks of Zen, but Marauder's additional bleed damage does not consume Berserk stacks. We cannot be sure which way this one is supposed to be intended, but can assume the Marauder variant is the intended function. Imperial damage buff confirmed?

[Level 73] - Thirst for Rage / Inspired Focus 

    "Bloodthirst/Inspiration generates 12 Rage/Focus when activated, and you heal for 1% of your health whenever you activate an ability that consumes Rage/Focus." This is the better choice over Brazen/Stoic for the Level 73 Tier, as we do not need the extra Fury/Centering from that utility anymore. This utility also makes you a self healing machine, and I've gotten up to 10k effective healing from it! The 12 Rage/Focus generated is also excellent for using Bloodthirst/Inspiration in the very beginning of your opener, which negates the need for Hidden Power.

Credit to parsely.io and their Rotation Visualization tool!

Rotational Changes with Dispatcher

    Not much will change when using Dispatcher. You will notice you have an excess of Rage/Focus and will need to Assault/Strike or Battering Assault/Zealous Strike significantly less. Ravage/Blade Barrage and Dual Saber Throw Placement should only be used within the Berserk/Zen window, which I will highlight with a graphic below.

    Specifically for Marauders, Ravage can be used for the 2nd stack of Deadly Saber if you activate Berserk before Ravage. This is advantageous to do and yields both a significant DPS gain as well as a more relaxed time generating Fury before your next Rend. 

    I've highlighted the Berserk windows to show you when to use Ravage and Dual Saber Throw. The reason we use Ravage/Blade Barrage and Dual Saber throw in the Berserk windows is neither of those abilities generate Fury as they are both free of Rage/Focus cost. These free fillers also have the chance to build Rage/Focus if they crit, thanks to the Bloodlust/Burning Focus passive. 

Class Resources - Rage/Focus

    Rage or Focus are the resources we generate and spend when using abilities. Annihilation/Watchman have three ways of generating this resource:

1. Direct Generation - Battering Assault/Zealous Strike build 6 Rage/Focus, and Force Rend/Melt build 4 Rage/Focus.
2. Indirect Generation - Critical melee damage against a Bleeding/Burning target build 1 Rage/Focus [Level 51 - Bloodlust/Burning Focus], and Critical Bleed/Burn ticks have a 20% chance to build 1 Rage/Focus [Level 35 - Hemorrhage/Plasma Blades].
3. Taking damage during Cloak of Pain/Rebuke with the Cloak of Annihilation/Adjudicator Skill Tree Choice at Level 64. Currently bugged for Marauders.

Class Resources - Fury/Centering

    Fury and Centering are the secondary resources for Marauders and Sentinels. This resource stacks up to 30 times, enables the Berserk/Zen ability which grants 6 stacks of 100% Critical chance for our Bleed/Burn effects. For Annihilation/Watchman, we have four ways of generating this resource:

1. Using a Rage/Focus spending ability builds 4 Fury/Centering [Fury/Centering Passive that all Sentinels/Marauders gain]. 
2. Force Rend/Melt builds 10 Fury/Centering with the Draining/Burning Center Skill Tree Choice. 
3. Critically hitting with a Bleed/Burn effect builds 2 Fury/Centering when using the Bleeding/Burning Center Skill Tree Choice.  
4. Being attacked builds 2 Fury/Centering when using the Brazen/Stoic Skill Tree Choice. 

Opener and Rotation

Opener:

Pre-cast a Regen ability for 30 stacks of Fury/Centering.

1. Force Charge / Leap if a gap closer is necessary.

2. Deadly / Overload Saber [Off-GCD before first Melee ability]
3. Battering Assault / Zealous Strike + Raid Buff [applies first stack of DS/OS]

4. Annihilate / Merciless Slash + Frenzy/Valorous Call + Berserk/Zen [applies 2nd stack]

5. Force Rend / Force Melt [delays a stack]

6. Rupture / Cauterize [applies a 3rd stack]

7. Filler

8. Filler

9. Filler

10. Filler

11. Follow DS/OS blocks and priority

Hidden Power Opener

    These are when using the Hidden Power tactical to build 12 Rage/Focus before starting a fight. The gain of doing this is nominal, but it is required for fights like Calphayus NiM or Izax in any difficulty where you cannot begin the fight with a Force Charge/Leap.

Deadly / Overload Saber Blocks

DS/OS has an 8 GCD cooldown. The idea behind these blocks is to apply the first 2 stacks, delay with Berserk/Zen and Force Rend/Melt, then apply the 3rd stack on the 4th or 5th ability in the block, depending on the situation. 99/100 times, you want to apply the 3rd stack in the 4th slot of the block. Low Alacrity will mess up getting your 3rd stack properly applied if you are Smashing in the 4th spot for AoE sustain.

Single Target Block

[1] Deadly/Overload Saber + Melee filler

[2] Melee Filler + Berserk/Zen

[3] Force Rend/Melt

[4] Melee filler

[5] Melee filler

[6] Melee filler

[7] Melee Filler

[8] Melee Filler

AoE Sustain Block

[1] Deadly/Overload Saber + Melee filler

[2] Melee Filler + Berserk/Zen

[3] Force Rend/Melt

[4] Smash/Force Sweep or Melee filler

[5] Smash/Force Sweep Melee filler, whichever you didn't do in [4]

[6] Melee filler

[7] Melee Filler

[8] Melee filler

Explanation

There are 3 main priorities in our rotation: 

1. Using Berserk/Zen right before Force Rend/Melt to buff its initial damage by 400%. 
2. Delaying our 3rd stack of Deadly/Overload Saber by 1 GCD using Force Rend/Melt and making sure our Berserk/Zen is on for the 3rd stack application of DS/OS.
3. Have enough Rage/Focus to use Annihilate/Merciless Slash on cooldown, and having enough Rage/Focus for us to generate 30 stacks of Fury/Centering before our next Rend/Melt.
4. Have enough Rage/Focus to use Annihilate/Merciless Slash on cooldown, and having enough Rage/Focus for us to have 30 stacks of Fury/Centering before our next Rend/Melt.

    

Melee Filler Priority

[1] Annihilate/Merciless Slash

[2] Vicious Throw/Dispatch, Slash, Battering Assault/Zealous Strike. 

[3] Ravage and Dual Saber Throw / Blade Barrage and Twin Saber Throw.

[4] Assault/Strike, and Sweeping/Cyclone Slash [AoE situational]

1. Our hardest hitting melee and makes up 14% of our DPS.
2. Throw/Slash/Dispatch refresh the duration of Rupture/Cauterize when using Spiteful Saber. Battering Assault/Zealous Strike to ensure we have enough Rage/Focus to get to 30 stacks before hitting Rend.
3. Free filler that can build focus if they crit on a bleeding/burning target. These move down in priority from 6.0 because they do not build Fury/Centering, but are still great fillers. If these are available for applying Deadly/Overload Saber, only use them for 2nd or 3rd stacks, as they can cause a bugged 1 GCD delay if used for the 1st stack, extending your block to 9 GCDs and causing a small but noticeable DPS loss and that's just really annoying.
4. Assault/Strike as needed for a little extra Rage/Focus here and there. The upper echelons of Annihilation play will use it periodically if we have an Annihilate/Merciless coming off cooldown in 1 GCD or so, just for the extra Rage/Focus. Use Sweeping/Cyclone in AoE situations, but only if you don't need to refresh Rupture/Cauterize on your primary target.

Permanent Deadly Saber Rotation

    The permanent Deadly Saber rotation is an alternative timing to activating Deadly Saber. In essence, the way it works it to only have 2 stacks left on your buff bar with none on the target. You would then use 2 melee abilities, activate Force Rend and Deadly Saber and apply the 3rd. Once those 3 stacks fall off the target, you will immediately begin applying the remaining 2 stacks and repeat.

    This rotation is a slight DPS gain over the Deadly Saber blocks I provided earlier, but at a greater risk of mistake as well as being niche use in an actual raid setting.

    There are probably a million ways to do this and each way works different for each person. This use of Deadly Saber takes a lot of practice to get down and I recommend not attempting it in any important boss pulls unless you are absolutely sure you aren't going to screw up. Mistakes here will cause you to lose more DPS than you would have gained in the first place.

    The key point to take from this is when pre-casting Deadly Saber, wait until the stacks on your bar have 4 seconds remaining until they are going to fall off. This prevents you from accidentally applying your 3rd original stack, as they will fall before your next Melee ability. Annihilate, Rupture and Force Rend will take up 4.2 seconds, which is above the 4 seconds remaining on the original stacks.

Ranged Abilities and Deadly/Overload Saber

    A quick note I would like to add about Dual/Twin Saber Throw as well as Dispatch/Vicious Throw: Never use these to apply your first stack of Deadly/Overload Saber. For some reason, they make your next Melee ability not apply your 2nd stack. You can generally get away with using these ranged abilities for your 2nd or 3rd stack, but I always either save them for the 3rd stack or not use them entirely for applying DS/OS.

This is from a 7.0 dummy parse I did recently.

Blood Fury / Burning Zen Utility

    This is a skill tree choice you can take instead of Bleeding / Burning Center. It does provide a DPS gain but at a few costs that you may want to avoid situationally. Without the extra Fury/Centering from the other choice in that tier, you are going to need to use more Rage/Focus spending filler in between your Deadly/Overload Saber windows, which requires somewhat tighter energy management. Additionally, currently the additional Burn damage consumes stacks of Zen for Sentinels, while the additional Bleed damage does not consume Berserk stacks for Marauders. The only thing this shifts is allowing you to use Berserk 1 extra GCD before Rend to squeeze in a Ravage as a Marauder, or forces you to use Zen directly before Force Melt and then use Blade Barrage on your 3rd Overload Saber stack.

    This skill tree choice plus the Dispatcher Package can yield the biggest numbers for Annihilation right now. 

Blood Fury Damage

Blood Fury will account for about 3% of your Damage Output.

DoT Bouncing Rant

    Something that was once integral to Annihilation AoE sustain has changed quite a bit. We used to Smash/Force Sweep in the 3rd slot of our Blocks to maintain 100% uptime of Force Rend/Melt on our primary target in AoE situations. Since the use of Rend/Melt has changed so much in 7.0, we can no longer avoid manually applying Rend/Melt anymore. This pushes Smash/Force Sweep into the 4th or 5th slot. IF you've got around 8% or more Alacrity, you can get away with Smashing in the 4th slot before you lose that 3rd charge of Deadly/Overload Saber. If you are right at 7.14% or 2054 Alacrity, I would wait for the 5th slot to Smash, or even refresh Rupture/Cauterize in the 5th slot and Smash on the 6th. AoE damage is important situationally, but not nearly as much as keeping up your primary target damage. Losing Rupture/Cauterize is a rookie move, but we all do it from time to time as well. Knowing the fight, positioning changes, target priority changes and when you can sustain AoE damage or fluff will always be a bigger DPS gain than just Smashing every 5 seconds.

Marauder/Sentinel Defensive Cooldown Usage

    Each of our DCDs has a specific use. Reading your ability tooltips and looking at your Damage Taken tab in Starparse to find out what type of damage you are taking will tell you which DCD to use. Asking a more experienced raider in the group, or knowing your opponents classes in PvP, can always lead to successful DCD usage. 

Saber Ward

• Increases Melee and Ranged defense by 50%, and Absorbs 25% of incoming Force/Tech damage for 12 seconds. 
• Use against bursts of any damage type.
• Examples: NiM Thrasher Snipers, Izax Hull Cutter phase.
• Additionally, with Blood/Zealous Ward, use to resist lift from Brontes in Burn phase as well as a few other knockback mechanics. 

Cloak of Pain / Rebuke

• Reduces damage taken by 20%. Lasts 10 seconds. Taking damage refreshes the duration, but it cannot last more than 30 seconds at a time. Deals energy damage to attackers.
• The bread-and-butter DCD of Marauder/Sentinel play. Use for all damage taken types.
• Can be buffed by the Cloak of Annihilation/Adjudicator skill tree choice. Assault/Strike and Battering Assault/Zealous Strike lower the Active Cooldown of CoP/Rebuke by 4s each time you use them. You can achieve nearly 100% CoP/Rebuke uptime using this skill choice if you are taking small sustained damage.

Undying Rage / Guarded by the Force

• Reduces all damage taken by 99% for 6 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
• Can be used against any large damage hits that have a numerical damage value, to a point.
• Example: taking 1% of a 136,000,000 hit is still 1,360,000 damage. (NiM Dread Guards "Doom" in 6.0).

Mad Dash / Blade Blitz

• Increases Defense chance by 100% while dashing, which lasts 1 second.
• 100% Defense chance to all damage types, as it does not specify Melee/Ranged or Force/Tech. 
• Timing the use of this ability for the last 0.7s of boss Channels or for Debuff tooltip timers can cheese insane amounts of damage. 

Force Camouflage

• Obscures yourself with the Force, removing all cleansable effects and becoming difficult to detect. Reduces your threat towards all enemies and all damage taken by 50%, grants immunity to controlling effects and increases movement speed by 50%.
• This is your self-cleanse, threat drop, and combat stealth. Force Camo will not remove you from Combat, and dealing direct damage will remove you from Camouflage. 
• Use this to cleanse DoT/Debuffs, resist the knockdown from the Titan 6 grenade, resist other scripted knocks/lifts except things like Revan Core Push/Pull.

Conclusion and Shout Outs

Marauder/Sentinel is a very fun class. We've got a button for just about everything to encounter, and I feel that the strength of Annihilation/Watchman from 6.o has only been multiplied while other classes have been nerfed slightly or significantly with their Skill Tree choice options. It is still very early 7.0, but I see it remaining as one of the META melee DPS specs for this expansion. I'm always willing to chat about raids and PvP and talk shop about the class, so feel free to find me on Discord at Lithisto#2295. I'd also like to give a big shout out to Pulled Porkins/Clowns of the Empire for their awesome and wholesome raiding community and Cad's Discord streams (if you know you know), another big shout out to the gamers in Easy Target for adopting me as their resident "degenerate," Front and the Final Burn crew for keeping the Pubside dream alive and for some reason choosing me to lead a team through a good portion of 6.0 and still within 7.0, my own guild Scruffy/Corrupted Nerfherders and by extension my right-hand-man Blake/Keld'Ano, and of course my best friend Cy and her amazing heals for keeping me alive while I stand in stupid, juice on bosses, always having a positive and fun attitude when it comes to our raids and being the best conversationalist in the world.

    Quick shout out again to TheGamingRonin for his excellent critique of my guide. His video guides for Annihilation are also an excellent resource and you should check them out!

My current best Dummy parses to date:
Non-permanent Deadly Saber 6.5m Dummmy: https://parsely.io/parser/view/640774/0

Non-permanent Deadly Saber 10m Dummy (for fun): https://parsely.io/parser/view/648014/0 (yes, this is an alt of mine).

Permanent Deadly Saber 6.5m Dummy: coming soon

Permanent Deadly Saber 10m Dummy: I doubt I'll ever do this.