Continuing in usual faction, I will start with the latter part of the subject:
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WISHED ME A HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY! And a bonus thank you to those who sent gifts. It was a really awesome surprise and I appreciated it.

Now, to the former part of the subject… My frustration grows. I’m starting to understand how Combat sentinel feel is one way to put it.

I was gotten back to by my friend and he told me how both his sages said the Set Bonus really helps with bosses, so I asked two questions:
1. Have they ever not used the set bonus?
and
2. Did you notice anything different in the log? (I had sent him my combat log to look over)

The answer to both of these questions was “No”

which means:
1. They never tried without the bonus so they really have nothing to test it on
2. That means even without the set bonus, I was not doing better or worse with it. I was doing exactly the same.

My boyfriend is a combat sentinel so I constantly see him being yelled at to be Watchman by, well, other Watchman’s–most who have usually never tried Combat to begin with (and a good portion of the ones who have that just didn’t understand it). I’ve seen Combat Sentinels do more damage than Watchman many times. Watchman may have it’s advantages (and it’s much better for PVP), but Combat isn’t bad.

In that sense, neither is not using a set bonus. If you do your rotation right, 50 force will never make a difference. While Healing Trace’s cooldown reduce is helpful, again, if you’re doing it right, you won’t ever find a point where you will not have it ready to go when you need it.

In fact, I will have to choose between losing 11 Willpower and having the 2 and 4 Force-Mystic Set Bonus or keeping the 11 Willpower and having the 2 Set Bonus from Force-Mystic and Force-Master. I am used to the latter, but I know I will be criticized if I do not do the former despite it being no different.

When the official site is back up, I may ask for advice in that regard, but I would like to continue to point out that the Set Bonus has done nothing for me. I did not do better. I did not worse. You just forced me to switch for absolutely nothing and I’m stuck using this because of what other people say.

You are not me. You do not know how I play my class. So stop acting like you do. Stop acting like you know my class when you don’t.

Not all guides are right–that’s why you try and ask actual people who played the character. And if they say something different than what you assumed by how they may have done something (which, for all you know, could just be a hold over until they can get what they need), saying that they’re wrong does not make you look better or help anyone.

And while number crunching and theory can do a lot, it’s still not perfect. You still need to actually try because sometimes, it might not be that simple.

Moving on, we may have a lead on the Wondrous Egg…but who knows :/ At least more nests have been found.