Fatman, shwatman, because of low population of my server I have 1-5 players who basically target me right from respawn zone, just by my nickname, no matter my spec or if I am marked or not. Three of them are marauders. My other sage buddybros have a lot in common with me, I am 31 healer, they are either hybrid or 31 Balance. We still manage. Balance/Madness is a nasty spec, and 20/21 is an overall competetive spec because of s-load of controls, whatever point you are looking at it from.

Actually we can, we can pull them to our side across the whole battlefield (Rescue/Extrication).

The numbers are off, but yeah, Balance usually does twice the damage than TK (for lulz, I was full TK few days ago, and did 200K on Voidstar, while my guildmate in full Balance did 400K+). TK is probably the worst spec in the whole game - final skill does damage comparative with Grav Round *when crits*, but has a cooldown and actually channels longer. Every skill has casting time, and there is a lot of kinetic damage, which gets absorbed my armor. TK is so ****y, you can make anecdotes about it. Now, hybrids with it are much more viable, but that does't give any credit to damage skills: as most people pointed out, you only take controls from TK, while you still DPS using Balance. And yes, you can do burst with hybrid. It goes around FiB, Physic Projection and instant Mind Crush. It's not Gore + Ravage type, but it is ranged, cost effective and pretty reliable to make enemy feel they are having trouble. With TK you *can* burst, but it's a star-aligned burst working around procs and channeling time, which would not happen in PvP unless your opponents are completely dumb.

If there would be more guardians like TomC my sage healer would already have Valor 100 -_-

Yes, he is. If you want to be on frontlines, hybrid Guardian, Vanguard or Tankasin are better for you.

This thread made my day. From my 6 characters, marauder leveled up the fastest. I did about 8-10 levels an evening, getting him from 1 to 40 in about 5 days. I gave Vette two orange blasters and spended my commendations on hilts for me and barrels for her. Standart pack of mobs get cleaned in about 10 seconds. Only Commando/Mercenary can do it faster, when their 4 AoEs are off cooldowns. I also PvPed a lot, and usually that was wins to me. Yesterday I used Undying Rage for the first time in PvP, killing a sentinel and then killing a commando in a row. He stunned me using Tech Override and Sap and healed himself to 60% HP, but I just roflstomped him when I was at 5% HP using Undying Rage. I had double damage in comparison to second top DPSer on that WZ. This class is so scary. It certanly has issues: your utility is somewhat limited to choke, roots (if Carnage) and predation; you are focused a lot because people *know* how bad you are; ranged abilities are limited. But I know that, just like my guardian, my mara would get Dispatch and AoE stun soon, and that would outlift my troubles with utility. Really powerful class, it's DPS to an extreme. Must admit - also fun to play, because of speed and ferocity it puts out on a battlefield. Truly one and only berserker class.

Well you could probably go 31 Balance then, or dance around Force Wake and instant Lift for PvP, and straighten up everything else for PvE damage. I kinda liked 31 Balance for both PvE and PvP, it's okay.

That is teh spec for PvE. You can do probably almost as good with 31 Balance AND PvP using 31 Balance. I'm not into DPS anymore (being good healer in PvP is more useful now for people around), but if I would go PvP, it would be maximum utility/control hybrid. Like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600ZdcMrbMrZcMfRsMk.1

Alacrity is an interesting stat. Our top clan healer/dpser Sage once told me it improves DOT's ticking, though I never really checked viability of her words. It fastens channeled skills (like Full Auto), as well as Charged Bolts (I think I went from 1.5 to 1.44), and I've read confirmation that it speeds up GCD. Usually if I have something channeled, I go for 9-10% speedup, at least that's what I did for my Sage. My trooper still has a few levels to 50, so I did't calculate anything about her equipment, so maybe someone more experienced would want to give his/her word about that. I wish to believe Alacrity buff in Assault tree has something more behind that than Biowarian incompetence.

All DPS, not that much utility. Makes complete sense when it comes to marauders with their top damage and incredible survivability. Have difficulties capping nodes/preventing being capped? Go Carnage.

My idea to fix that would be to add a bonus for healer commando set, which improves HS and makes it invisible or just barely visible.

IMO there is't really other way, 7 points in second tree are mandatory, just as 31 point in your main tree. I myself prefer to ditch Parallitic Stims for Degauss, and 3% crit for Quick Thinking, because I like to implement healing in my kiting: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bZMckZfhMrzGGRs.1

Everything is innefective when taken out of the big picture, but if we combine WoTJ with all the other healing bonuses Seer tree has, it makes sense to take it.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=461386 Last posts even have spec. TLDR: Go Balance.

IMO Aric Jorgan is pretty funny guy. Can't give any opinion from female perspective because I am not, but playing as a female trooper was overall fun. As a female trooper, you get some flirt options with handsome SIS agent, and, while Jorgan is, err, a "cat", he is stoic and dependable. I was more invested in his Deadeyes story than in last act. He has some great lines, too, my favorite was about . And Jennifer Hale was particularly snarky when voiced her lines with Jorgan.

People who tell other people how to speak and act generally get what they deserve. If OP wanted to impress somebody and make them act like him, he should've just made another good criticism thread, that's it.

I was really dissapointed after Lord Scourge literaly said "And yeah, bro, that's it, we've done talking for the rest of the game".

Huh. In PvP I often activate it right before combat, so when being struck those temporaly HP would wear off by enemy damage, like a bonus shield. I thought about it as Aid from D&D. Does't it work that way?

You mean my Force Bubble should left me survive an atmospheric fall to Dathomir? Oh, and I would then marry a witch.

Actually, f-word cooldownshields. If we are going that far, I would prefer and additional kiting ability. So let's be melted together in a pile of goo if we made a mistake at kiting, but let's be an absolute horror for melee characters to kite just like Scoundrels are. I am talking about: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink Let it take a % of Force (a quarter? a third? a half?), so the lower the force, the more cost effective it becomes - like Maras shield. Let it have a decent cooldown (around 2 minutes). For the sake of balance, it may not break stuns/lifts, and not avaible while sage stunned, but breaks slow and root. Could also be not avaible for 10 seconds after Force Speed was used to prevent exploiting it on huttball/voidstar. Imo, that sort of "Vanish in Force" with animation of falling empty robe on a floor would fit Sage perfectly =3

It's just that Inquisitor gets togruta, and, well, togrutas are hot. What's her character compared to male romance, is it the same Master/Padawan relationship and "master oh master yes master and I Have Double Saber Master" as Kira/Nadia/Jaessa? Who would be a more fresh and interesting character to talk to if I already bantered with these three double-saber girls: Ashara or Andronikos? And with Bounty Hunter - is Mako a lot like Vette? Cause if it's the same lively talkely funny adorkable, I might as well go with female Bounty Hunter just for a change of things and see what's that mandalorian is about.

"Let's be exellent to each other" said S. Woo's alt. Like it how half of the post starts with "I", "Me", "I am", etc.

Ladies, and gentlemen pretending to be ladies, which character has more interesting and, uh, sexiest male companions: Inquisitor or Bounty Hunter? Also, who's female voice acting is better when it comes to these two?

I rolled mara myself, in a spec that is supposed to be not "overpowered" (Carnage). I murder people, and my two combos consist of two buttons (Gore > Ravage; Berserk > Massacre) and one regain (BA). It's supposed to be spec which proves that, if you can play it well, you are a better marauder. Of course, there are fillers/shields/jump/camo/finishers, but that's what every other class has. I also do well on huttball when save my jump/predation. What am I doing wrong, why it's not hard 2Play?

I started to get a lot more attention from teammates too after 1.2. The number of healers just went down, so I find myself pleasantly running under Guard, HoTing/Trancing tank and throwing salvations/bubbles/deliverances around (I use Alacricity relic for 1.6 seconds Salvation). Being always on the run makes me survive longer, too. Tanks and healers just start to loose old habits and accept new way of playing. My spec is your basic cookie cutter since beta now, for both PvE and PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGdRrdbzGzZf00MZ0M.1