Yet another addition to the pile of disappointments that Bioware has thrown at us with this game.

Not a single one of those sets is even remotely appealing. I'll be ripping a lot of mods out of those and rocking my Omenbringer set.

Balance/Madness has zero burst potential, making it nearly useless against organized groups. Yes it's strong in 1v1 and small group sitations, but it sacrifices the survival skills that hybrid and full telekinetics/lightning specs in order to get that single target root/dot.

Melee should hit harder based on what? Their need to reach a target? I would agree with you if all melee classes did not have gap closers or stealth, but that isn't the case. Ranged DPS requires far more setup than simply "get close to the target", you need positioning, spacial awareness and targets who aren't running in and out of LOS. I played an Operative at release (didn't take it to BM, as I knew they were going to be nerfed and got sick of Huttball 24/7), and my brother currently plays a BM Scoundrel, they still do a ton of damage and when they play their role are incredibly effective. Operatives/Scoundrels are not a front line assist train brawler, they're are a "get behind the opposing group and pressure the hell out of their support classes" role. Don't try to justify changes to one class because of changes to another. You're clearly not familiar with playing a Sorc/Sage at endgame, and have nothing to contribute to this thread.

I'm hoping that this being the first "round" of patch notes for 1.2, there are a lot more changes coming to both of the single target (Lightning/Telekinetics) and DoT (Madness/Balance) trees before this goes live. If not, we'll all have proof that Bioware really did just listen to the massive outcry for nerfs instead of actually doing testing themselves. Sorcs/Sages are the squishiest class in the game, hands down. Yes, we have access to several survivability cooldowns, but with the current resolve system aside from force speed they are unreliable in almost any non 1v1 situation. Shields are part of our healing utility, to claim they are a defensive cooldown is just foolish when you compare it to the defensive cooldowns available to Sentinels & Marauders. When it comes to the burst damage available to a Sorc/Sage, the Hybrid was the only worthwhile option. Full Telekinetics/Lightning specs force you to become a turret, much like a Sniper/Gunslinger, but without the benefits of cover, CC immunity, or even close to the same damage output. Full Balance/Madness specs are incredibly weak outside of small engagements, as they offer little to no burst damage which is what kills people in organized PvP fights. If your opponents have almost no healing, then Balance does very well, but that's a terrible thing to hope for going in to each and every fight. I'm fine with the potential loss of "number inflating aoe damage" if they address just how poorly designed the Pure DPS trees are. The hybrid spec was born because of just how awful they are, now we're being left with two skills trees that should have never made it out of beta.

To be honest we had "average damage" at best before. Our numbers in warzones were greatly inflated because of the AoE splash we have (will have had) access to. Unless there are some major changes (ie. complete overhauls) coming to both the Telekinetics and Balance tree, Sages will be few and far between in high level ranked warzones. Obviously this is only the first round of patch notes, but so far I'm pretty disappointed in the upcoming 1.2 changes - not only for Sages, but all classes. Shadows and Assassins got no real attention thus far, while other classes like the Gunslinger / Sniper are getting tons of changes despite being the least played class in the game (that's not to say they don't need them, only that just because something isn't popular doesn't make it "broken"). My level 43 guardian alt will be taking over my sage's spot if this doesn't pan out well.

Working on leveling up a Guardian (just hit 40), and having played three other classes to 50 already (Sage, Assassin and Operative), I can agree with the OP that leveling up Guardians is less forgiving than most. Much of it is because they don't get their healer until the mid-30s, and are more gear dependent than a range DPS class might be. If you don't outlevel the opponents you are fighting you're going to be resting between every other fight, if not every fight - this wasn't the case for me leveling my other 3 characters to 50. I wouldn't go so far as to say that leveling a Guardian is terrible, but it's not as fluid as some other classes. It's doesn't feel all that epic when you have to wait 15 seconds between each fight to heal up, and that seems to be the goal they had in mind for other classes with the "leveling experience".

Power relic and Power adrenal are your best choices. For PvP however you want to use Expertise consumables over the Power adrenal.

Not trying to be critical here, but the video is 7 minutes and 35 seconds long, and there's maybe 3 minutes of actual combat footage, much of which is 1v1s in Ilum against opponents you get the drop on and have them down to 75-50% before they even respond (not that there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't make for overly entertaining footage IMO). Many of these opponents are Sorcerors, which as our mirror makes it obvious in 1v1s who either is better geared or more skilled. I can't really tell from many of the fights because they just aren't even close. A few of the fights are cut off either at the beginning or very end, so viewers can't even tell how it played out. Sages aren't immortal, we do die (quite frequently regardless of how OP the forums make us out to be sometimes), don't be afraid to show yourself dying as you launch that burst in to the crowd of enemies. Our strength lies in the pressure we place on enemy healers, not our ability to kill one or two opponents in fights away from nodes/objectives. Don't take this post as a bash, because that's not my intention, simply feedback that I admittedly may not have worded as cordially as I might have were it not 4:30am. I'm always looking for Sage/Sorc videos because there really aren't many of them, and sometimes you pick up a thing or two from them.

The other thing to keep in mind is that while Telekinetic Throw is a 3 second channel (not 2 seconds as said above), it deals damage instantly and can be cancelled if you absolutely need to move. Being interrupted while casting it reduces the damage it has dealt, rather than completely negating it. An otherwise well timed interrupt (ie. closest to the end of the cast as possible) is the least effective interrupt in cases with channeled spells. As Hybrid you are still going to be stationary most of the time, because that is how you are most effective, however you are more capable of pumping out the hurt on the move than a full Telekinetic Sage. Balance obviously is the most mobile and defensive of the DPS specs, but that's not why we're here.

Leveling as balance is a good call, I went Telekinetics up until about 30 before I realized how solid Balance was and switched over. Where you spend your points is fairly straightforward as you make your way up the tree. The extra 50 force from Telekinetics isn't worth taking until you've picked up Sever Force at the top of the Balance tree, so don't sacrifice progress towards it for it. Once you've picked up Psychic Barrier 3/3 you shouldn't have any more issues with force unless you're spamming Project on cooldown. As for companions, I used Qyzen right up until Hoth and then switched to Iresso once he became available. Tank pets I find were faster for questing in almost every situation over using Theran for healing, because they actually help you clear packs of enemies faster, and can be healed instantly to full after each fight by dismissing and re-summoning them. While leveling there isn't much reason to really focus on stats as you go, just take the gear you get while questing until you can build up a set of moddable orange gear and use that right up to 50. Hit up the GTN and keep your armoring slots up to date, use planet commendations to to fill the mods/enhancement slots.

I wouldn't go so far as to say we're not a "burst class", as we do have some great burst, however it's not *the best* in the game, nor should it be. We have a ton of utility which works for us in some situations, and obviously not so much in others. Personally I've been running as a Hybrid spec since I hit 50 and even after doing many warzones as Full Balance and Telekinetics to try them out while in guild premades, Hybrid still comes out on top. Telekinetics will give you the better single target burst damage, in the form of building up a Tidal Force proc, followed by chaining a hardcasted Turbulence, Project and instant Telekinetic Wave. There is a lot of problems with mobility and as above posters have mention you essentially have to become a "turret" and hope your opponents leave you alone. Balance spec is great for 1v1s and small group fights, however it has almost no burst because it plays essentially the same as a hybrid spec, but with a weaker, non-aoe skill to use your Presence of Mind procs on (Disturbance instead of Telekinetic Wave). Obviously you have stronger dots, and the instant root on Sever Force is nice for keeping some melee opponents off of you, but it's not as useful (in my opinion) as the root from Force Wake that you get in Hybrid specs. With a Hybrid spec, with decent gear you can push 8-9k easily in a burst (Telekinetic Throw for Presence of Mind proc, cast project, instant telekinetic wave followed my force in balance. 7-8k of that is AoE, which in many situations is devastating to your opponents whether they have heals or not.

It was like a thousand Star Wars nerds cried out at once, then simply facepalmed.

Don't feed the troll kids.

Disapprove of the part at the end where I get dropped in like 3 seconds.