Heya guys!! Welcome to my advanced mechanics guide on Centering/Fury. Most players start their Marauder/Sentinel and think that they only have one resource system, Rage/Focus. But the truth is that you have to manage two resources systems, the 2nd being Centering/Fury.
Note: Post last updated 1/12/2012.
Note that I will initially reference both faction names for abilities, and then only refer to the Sith counterparts after.
What is Centering/Fury?
The object is to build up 30 stacks of Fury in order to use Zen/Berserk, Transcendence/Predation, or Inspiration/Bloodthirst. The goal is to be able to use these abilities as often as possible, or at specific key moments when they are required. But we’ll get to that later.
For now it is important to understand that spending Rage generates Fury, and defeating opponents generates Fury. I am unsure if you have to get the killing blow, or simply the kill credit, in order to generate Fury at this time. I will update this later.
That said, there are alternative options for building additional Fury.
Building Centering/Fury
You have the base class ability Valorous Call/Frenzy which will grant you 30 stacks once every 3 minutes (180 sec). But you can’t count on just that. So lets look to our talents.
- Combat/Carnage offers us Defensive Forms/Defensive Forms and Temperance/Erupting Fury.
- Watchman/Annihilation offers us Valor/Short Fuse.
- Focus/Rage offers us Inner Focus/Relentless Fury.
It is important to note that only Combat/Carnage offers talents that can be chosen by any spec. Watchman/Annihilation’s and Focus/Rage’s talents are so deep into their respective trees that you cannot get them unless you fully invest into them.
Talent Breakdowns
Defensive Forms grants you 2 Centering when attacked. The value of this talent in PvE comes down to whether or not you will be taking consistent hits from mobs in Flashpoints (4 man instance) and Operations (raids). The frequency of this during boss encounters will determine it’s value. As someone is always attacking you in PvP, it becomes far more useful in that environment.
Erupting Fury finds itself in a similar situation to Defensive Forms. If boss encounters have a great deal of adds to be defeated then this becomes useful. If not, then it becomes situational to useless at best. And as you should *hopefully* be defeating opponents in PvP this becomes more useful in PvP as well.
Short Fuse is the best Fury talent available. Whether you PvP or PvE this is a must buy.
Relentless Fury comes down to what your role or play style is. If there are boss mechanics that require constant movement, or if your guild’s tank needs that extra 10% defense from Predation, then RF becomes situational to useful. As Predation can be very useful in PvP, pending your play style, this could be a very strong talent to pick up there.
Which ability do you use?
You have 3 options available to you:
PvE
Bloodthirst is your best ability hands down, but it has a 5 min CD. So there are two very important questions to ask yourself. Is the encounter longer than 5 minutes (which would allow for using BT twice)? And is there a burn phase on the boss encounter that Bloodthirst should be saved for? You have to know that before you can make any decisions on when to use Bloodthirst.
If there are boss encounters with high mobility requirements, or your tank needs that extra defense for key boss abilities/phases, then Predation becomes useful. But that should be the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.
Outside of those circumstances above you should generally speaking use your Berserk every time it becomes available, keeping in mind boss phases and factors that would make it wise to delay the use. For example, you don’t want to pop your Berserk when you’re about to have to run away from the boss.
PvP
Bloodthirst should be popped when you absolutely need that advantage. Burning down a ball carry who got too close to the goal line, killing defenders at Voidstar right as the rez barrier timer resets, solo defending a point versus two opponents, etc… Don’t be afraid to use it in PvP, but don’t use it at the wrong times either.
Predation becomes far more valuable in PvP. As an escape mechanism it’s phenomenal, but don’t limit your options. Use it as the ball carrier to ensure a goal. Use it to keep in range of the ball carrier trying to escape you. Use it to kite attackers while you wait for reinforcements. Think outside of the box!!
Outside of these more esoteric concepts, generally speaking Berserk is always a tried and true option for just burning down the opposition!
Summation
Not only do you need to track your CD’s and Rage, but also your Fury generation as well. Being able to do all of this at the same time is what will separate the good Marauder’s & Sentinels from the amazing ones. Assuming otherwise is only setting yourself up for failure.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or track me down through my Contact page.
-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…
So i’m wondering, do fury points decay? If so, how fast? I haven’t been able to test this sucessfully last beta. Also, what would you say is best? Keep you’re fury points for that special moment? Or spend as soon as possible?
Wow, I don’t remember. And I actually asked the same question while playing and checked on it. I just can’t remember for the life of me. I’ll check during the Early Access (decay rate).
As to when to use Fury that is largely dependent upon what you are doing. While questing I’d use it whenever unless you are doing Heroic Quests. Save it then for the difficult fights. In PvP, it depends more on your spec and your situation. That’s such a broad question there that you could dedicate an entire guide to the specifics on when to use it and still not cover all eventualities.
The thing that is important to remember is that if you always save it for that “special moment” then you’re never using it. Remember to actually use it. The key is differentiating between fights that you don’t need it, and fights where using it becomes smart.
Fury was on a timer–30 seconds I think. they don’t decay down in a trickle effect. They just time out and go from 30 to 0 if you exceed that timer. Running from one point to another and entering combat allows it to stay pretty cranked up.