As many, many others have mentioned Lightning/Telekinetics absolutely must be added to this list! Sorcerer/Sage dps is so bad, raid groups won't even allow you to play the class (I have personally had this experience). Madness/Balance should be pulling the same dps as Innovative Ordinance, meanwhile Lightning should be comparable to Arsenal. In fact, given Sorcerer/Sage's lack of survivability, perhaps they should be pulling slightly more dps than the comparable dot or burst classes. Madness/Balance desperately needs work: 1. It needs a substantial boost to sustained damage. This should come from boosting single target abilities, i.e. Demolish, Force Leech, and especially proc'd Lightning Strike. Be wary of buffing spreadable dots or Death Field as the spec's AOE is already quite strong. 2. It's ideal rotation should be force positive. Currently, correctly performing the rotation is force negative, leaving you out of force before the end of the fight. Perhaps add a Force regeneration element to proc'd Lightning Strike usage. 3. Cooldowns on abilities need to be tweaked so the rotation is on a clear cycle. Currently the cooldowns of Death Field and Force Leech do not synergize with dot reapplication. Lightning/Telekinetics on the other hand needs a boost to its burst potential. This should come in the form of an increase to Thundering Blast and by tweaking all abilities to trigger their forked counterparts 100% of the time during Polarity Shift. Such a design change would concentrate burst potential around Polarity Shift windows. Sorry to be so verbose, but as a Sorcerer/Sage main since launch, this class needs critical attention to it's dps specializations. Please no longer allow the player base to hassle me into playing heal spec

I just wanted to confirm this glitch, and add a voice to hoping that it will be fixed. I reported this via the in-game ticket system at the launch of KOTFE and it is still not fixed

Eric, As I understand how the gearing system works, it seems the following very problematic situation is possible: Even with the most diligent and consistent gameplay, it is entirely possible with very poor luck that I could spend all of 5.0 collecting gear and never receive that final set bonus piece I need. Even with disintegrating repeated pieces, the next gear drop from a crate is still random (within your advanced class), therefore it is likely I could consistently miss out on a crucial piece of gear. Please let me know if there is some safeguard in the system so that this does not occur. If this is in fact how the system will operate, that seems like a very serious design flaw that does not reward player effort at all! Thanks for answering!

Experience raider here, 10/10 prior to 4.0, looking for a group that raids earlier in the night, finishing before 10 pm Eastern. DPS here with both Republic and Empire characters. Please let me know if any groups are doing HMs and maybe pushing NIMs that could use another DPS. Thanks!

Experienced HM/NIM raider here, 10/10 before 4.0, looking to transfer to the server. Primarily a dps here, hoping to find a team that does HM and NIM Operations. Need a group that raids earlier in the night that finishes before 10 pm Eastern. I have both Empire and Republic characters available to transfer. Thanks!

But the key thing you are missing is that there is no downside to offering 224 gear from Nim Ops. In fact, if all Nim bosses did drop 224 gear it would be more similar to the current PVP gearing situation. Currently, with PVP gearing you can earn the best gear by multiple avenues by doing both regular war zones and ranked matches. Ranked matches, which are the harder content, give you a greater reward. Unfortunately, BioWare's decision regarding NIM gearing, would be like winning a ranked match and then you *might* have a chance of winning any commendations at all. We may disagree with BioWare's PVP gearing strategy (and I assume we do since it over rewards casual play), but the strategy does allow multiple methods of acquiring gear. This announced PVE gearing strategy does the opposite by restricting methods of acquiring gear.

I really enjoy playing this game and probably spend far too much time playing it; however, this has to be the worst decision you have made yet regarding this game BioWare! (And let's be honest my friends at BioWare, your track record with the development of this game has been far from stellar). A large portion of the raiding community was already disheartened when it learned of no new Operations with the launch of 4.0. Many decided to quit playing the game to look for more challenging raiding content easily found in many of this game's MMO competitors. Given this decision regarding Nightmare Operations, I cannot see why anyone who enjoys challenging raid content would continue to play this game. Perhaps BioWare can give us some objective data regarding the current hightlighted HM completion rates, but until then my subjective perspective, as well as others that I play with, is that the current HMs are far too easy to be considered challenging content. Only the Nightmare Operations provide any real challenge to veteran players. Why would any game developer actively discourage it's players from pursuing the most challenging game content? That is exactly what this decision regarding 224 level gear dropping in Nightmare Operations does: remove any reward from completing the most difficult operations. Please BioWare listen to me and the many others posting in this thread: All Nightmare bosses should drop 224 level gear. Please don't continue to dissuade us from playing and paying for your game!

Sorcerers are the lowest parsing ranged DPS, although Lightning is not But I mention the class generally because in essence, we have only one PVE spec. Outside of a few random instances where you can abuse dot spread, Madness is the inferior spec for most all fights in the current tier. This creates the scenario of Lightning being a jack of all trades but master of none. As you said: A good Mercenary, and especially a good Sniper, utilizes their other specs for maximum potential. So if you bring a good Merc or Sniper player, you are getting both better sustained and better burst/target-swapping potential than if you chose a Sorcerer, and all of this is before you consider the Sorc's light-armored, creamy squishiness. Having a Sorc healer on your team also bolsters the case of not bringing a DPS Sorc. In addition to your list of utilities for Sorcerers, I would also add the Unlimited Power buff. But if you have a Sorc healer, both the utility of Static Barrier and the class buff are covered by that role (and as you mention, off-healing is not a motivating consideration when filling a DPS slot). I don't think another class is hindered quite as much as Sorcerers are by having multiple roles on the same team. For instance, DPS Mercs love having a Merc healer there to pop Supercharged Celerity for them. I completely agree. Quite frankly, a major reason that Sorcerers have a perception as the lesser choice (not bad, just not as good) has to do with encounter design. The two apex bosses of this tier are primarily sustained single-target fights (where Lightning will invariably be slightly behind I/O and Virulence) with mechanics that Sorcerers cannot easily mitigate (whether it be Force Barrier's inadequacy against mouse droids or the advantage of Hydraulics and Entrench on the upper floors of Revan). Lightning might be far more desirable in 4.0 as more variable boss encounters, like Brontes and Dread Council, become progression again. So right now, the bright-side is if you are good Lightning player will you be viable for every fight; you have good burst, strong AOE, and even competitive single target damage. However, until Madness is made comparable with the other Ranged DOT specs and BioWare lends heavier weight in the comparison of mobility versus survivability versus damage output, Sorcerers will remain the "lesser" of the ranged dps pack. Think of the current state of Sorcerers in this way: Let's say you are a good player with a geared Sorcerer and an equally geared Mercernary. What will your raid leader say if you wanted to switch out your Sorc for your Merc as you progress to pulling Revan? Now, imagine asking the reverse and picturing the funny look you would receive if you asked to bring your Sorc instead of your Merc to Revan

I do have to agree with this a bit, Thundering Blast doesn't feel like it has quite the *umpf* that it used to; especially when you compare it to 14k Ambushes! We do have to remember though that TB is a guaranteed crit as long as we have Affliction on the target. The larger numbers are sacrificed slightly for a consistent burst. Given Sorcerer's current state though, I could be convinced that a proper adjustment in 4.0 would be to make Lightning slightly more bursty (it's sustained single target is very admirable for a ranged/burst class) and to add more single target sustained damage to Madness (in a way that would not be additional fluff to dot spread, i.e. increased Lightning Burns damage).

Tam, I believe your assessment of the spec is quite generous, and I'm sure it's due to your own biases as I know we both love Lightning so much. The basic facts are this: 1. Sorcerers are the lowest parsing Ranged DPS 2. Sorcerers are the squishiest DPS. Quite honestly, all other things being equal, there is no strong case for a raid leader to choose a Sorcerer above a Merc or Sniper, just specifically on the merits of the class. Perhaps you meant your assessment in terms of the history of Lightning during the game? if so, then yes Lightning is currently probably at one of its strongest moments since launch (sans the Super Storm period ) I'm having quite a hard time understanding your reasoning for the latter statement given the former. Lightning does, I agree quite fairly, perform less than the sustained specs of IO and Virulence, and in an honest analysis probably is over performing in a sustained single target fight given that it is a Ranged AOE/Burst spec. I'm sure BioWare hasn't nerfed Lightning any further though due to the poor state of Madness for PVE. Madness is the sustained DOT spec and is currently both less mobile and much tighter on resources than Lightning. There is no legitimate reason why Madness should not receive a healthy buff. It is unfortunate though that Madness has such a boring rotation; hopefully, 4.0 will bring both sustained damage buffs to Madness and adjustments to the rotation. (As an aside: I think the cure to the boring rotation problem is to surprisingly remove spammable Force Lightning. While it makes the class unique, I believe BioWare has struggled to work around the no CD channel filler) In my opinion, this is one of the chief points of concern to Lightning's current status in PVE. Mechanics like the Ruugar mouse droids quite frankly make you a detriment to the raid team. Lightning's strengths provide no benefits to this particular fight, and your team would be far more secure if you were a Merc or a Sniper. Unfortunately, BioWare does not weigh survivability into a class' DPS potential. If they did, Sorcerers would probably be the top DPS in the game, and it would provide a more dynamic pro vs. con discussion in bringing a Sorcerer to this fight. If BioWare intends to leave the state of Sorcerer survivability as generally squishy with an immunity cooldown, then they need to adjust Force Barrier so that we retain the aggro for such mouse droid moments. My critique aside, I believe Lightning is in a "good" place. It's current high mobility leads to an active survivability (you can easily move, so don't stand in bad!) that mixed with it's bursty potential leads to an engaging play style. Unfortunately, for this tier of content Lightning's greatest strengths are on some of the weaker bosses (i.e. Bulo), and it's low passive survivability coupled with no dedicated sustained spec make it the least desired Ranged DPS for the apex bosses.

Hey guys, experienced HM raider here (currently 8/10) looking for a group that tackles Operations during the day time hours or late at night. Something before 7 PM Eastern/4PM Pacific or after 12 AM Eastern/9PM Pacific would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, I cannot commit more to the regular "primetime" hours. My most likely characters for such a transfer would be a DPS Sniper or a DPS Shadow, so let me know if there are any Day Walkers or Night Owls out there. Thanks!

Hey guys, experienced HM raider here (currently 8/10) looking for a group that tackles Operations during the day time hours or late at night. Something before 7 PM Eastern/4PM Pacific or after 12 AM Eastern/9PM Pacific would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, I cannot commit more to the regular "primetime" hours. My most likely characters for such a transfer would be a DPS Sniper or a DPS Shadow, so let me know if there are any Day Walkers or Night Owls out there. Thanks!

Hey guys, experienced HM raider here (currently 8/10) looking for a group that tackles Operations during the day time hours or late at night. Something before 7 PM Eastern/4PM Pacific or after 12 AM Eastern/9PM Pacific would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, I cannot commit more to the regular "primetime" hours. My most likely characters for such a transfer would be a DPS Sniper or a DPS Shadow, so let me know if there are any Day Walkers or Night Owls out there. Thanks!

Hey guys, experienced HM raider here (currently 7/10) looking for a group that tackles Operations during the day time hours or late at night. Unfortunately, I cannot commit more to the regular "primetime" hours. I have alts on both Empire and Republic sides, so let me know if there are any Day Walkers or Night Owls out there. Thanks!

Now that the 3.1.2 changes are live, I'm really hoping the developers can answer a quick question regarding just one issue: Force Flash. Force Flash is the buff granted from Lightning Flash which reduces the cast time of Crushing Darkness by 0.5 seconds. The 3.1.2 changes added 3 seconds to the cooldown of Lightning Flash (bringing it to 15 seconds) but the patch did not alter the buff of Force Flash, leaving it at 12 seconds. This creates "odd" moments in the rotation where you have to either delay Lightning Flash or Crushing Darkness in order to avoid casting Crushing Darkness at its regular 2.0 second cast time. So Devs: Was it intentional for Force Flash to retain it's 12 second duration while Lightning Flash now has a 15 second cooldown? If this was an oversight: It is understandable that some things slip through the cracks while combat adjustments are being made; however, this issue was reported several times on the PTS forums without any developer response. That being said, I sincerely hope a quick patch can rectify the issue so we Sorcerers and Sages can begin to adequately understand our new rotation. If this was intentional: I have to admit that this issue seems entirely like an oversight; therefore I struggle to understand why it would be an intentional design choice. The only conclusion I can draw from Lightning Flash's buff differing from the ability's cooldown is that it aims to add some complexity to the rotation. However, the changes to Force Storm and the Chain Shock utility have demonstrated an intent to simplify Lightning's rotation, not complicate it. Furthermore, with the Force Flash buff remaining at it's previous 12 second length, it only creates a very small window in which the buff is missing, leading to more of a "trap" for unaware players than an actual priority system to focus the rotation. Ultimately, if this was an intentional developer decision, I sincerely hope you reconsider returning the buff duration to match the ability cooldown, or redesign the buff so that it maintains the strict priority structure of Lightning's rotation. Thanks!

I think that statement is crucial when looking at ways to buff Madness without ultimately sending Lightning to secondary status as it was in the previous tier. The developers only need to stay true to their stated goals for the specs: Lightning is the burst and burst AOE discipline and Madness is the sustained damage and sustained AOE discipline. Following these goals, any buffs to Madness must come in the form of increases to sustained damage, i.e. mainly dots. Buffs to Force Lightning, Force Leech, and other direct damage abilities would only increase Madness' burst capabilities bringing it in competition with Lightning. Given dot spread with Death Field, perhaps the baseline damage of Affliction and Creeping Terror should not be greatly modified, but instead increase the damage applied by Demolish, given it takes time to build the associated Wrath procs and can only be directed at a single target. In fact, focusing on the importance of Wrath procs should be key to Madness, not the current situation of higher damage from ignoring Lightning Strike use with Wrath. I agree with ThatEvilDude that Lightning Burns should be returned to Lightning Strike, but it should be in the form of a slightly stronger or longer dot. Imagine one of these two scenarios: 1. Lightning Burns is a strong dot that lasts ~3 seconds, where the goal is to maintain its uptime with Lightning Strike Wrath procs (sustained damage that must be maintained) 2. Lightning Burns becomes longer dot which can be stacked over multiple Lightning Strike Wrath procs (sustained damage that must be ramped up) My suggestions are far from perfect, but in my opinion this is the direction the developers should look towards buffing Madness, so that it's burst potential will not greatly increase and Lightning can still have its viability. Madness should have two key features: 1. It is a dot spec and dots should be the core of the its damage; damage buffs should focus there first 2. Wrath procs must be meaningful; it is a unique feature to this discipline that must be built up by an immobile channel, therefore it should be integral and not ignored for more Force Lightning. A quick aside about survivability: I know many would like to see an increase in Madness' mobility for both PVP and the high movement fights in the current Operations, but I would suggest that the developers be very cautious in considering such a change. As with the aforementioned damage priorities, the survivability features of the two Sorcerer disciplines should be unique. Madness has significant passive and offheals currently and that should be the focus of its survivability, leaving greater mobility for the Lightning discipline. Maintaining these current distinctions should be a priority in the new discipline system: Lightning is burst (quick in and quick out) whereas Madness is sustained (a survivor).

Hey KTap, can you list your stats for us now that you are BIS?

Experienced raider here looking for a progression team that runs either during the day or late at night. I have an odd schedule and cannot make most normal group times that are between 7pm - 11pm Eastern. Skilled Sorcerer DPS here; ready to jump right into the new HMs. If anyone has any guild suggestions or recommendations, please let me know. Thanks!

Exactly! Given BioWare's previous projects, it is no doubt that voice acting was perhaps the most expected and predictable cost associated with their entire venture into this game. Unless they release an actual budget, we will never know the true cost or its relation to the rest of the project, but like in any business, predictable costs are preferential to the unknowns (such as creating your first MMO infrastructure). The true concern around expanding class stories and additional voice acting is about "value." Story telling in The Old Republic is arguably one if its best features, largely thanks to BioWare's great experience in story driven video games. However, as can be seen in the various planetary and side quests with numerous NPC voice interactions, it can be overused. What we are currently seeing in BioWare's announcement for 3.0 class missions, is a continuing search for finding the right amount of development in individualized story content versus any number of other things the company could be working on. My personal take is that we should be very encouraged that they are listening to feedback and incorporating more class story. It's a step in the right direction.

I know it's still a work-in-progress (and I have only had the chance to read Dulfy's notes), but two quick points: 1. I think BioWare should look at reworking Convection (passive) as it would seem to imply it would be a dps boost to use Force Speed in rotation to give two instant casts. (Maybe I'm missing something here?) 2. This is a personal preference but ability activation upon the chance of damage received as in Subversion (passive) is less desirable than a proc based on actions or abilities I activate.

I'm glad to see us Sages/Sorcs getting on board with the wish lists too! Given recent buffs, Sorc/Sages overall are in a decent place; certainly better than some other classes. However, I believe the spec that needs the most attention in 3.0 is Lightning/Telekinetics. PVP Certainly the weakest spec in the Sorcerer arsenal for PVP is Lightning. Don't get me wrong, Lightning is definitely viable in 8v8 warzones where focus on objectives and seven other friends can help smooth any class discrepancies. In these warzones, Lightning can top the damage charts relying on its burst and AOE potential. However, Lightning greatly suffers in 4v4 arenas, and really has no place in ranked play. The specs susceptibility to interrupts, stuns, and resists coupled with low survivability due to few defensive cooldowns and limited kiting potential make the spec an easy kill. The problem for Lightning is not its damage output but the ability to reliably deliver this damage. I believe the developers have two directions they can go to enhance Lightning's effectiveness in PVP: 1. Increase the spec's ability to kite OR 2. Create a limited window for unimpeded damage delivery. Go Grease Lightning (Kiting): Lightning already has some tools for kiting. The recent change to access Fadeout (removing movement impairing effects with Force Speed) has been immensely helpful. But before that, Lightning already had Chain Lightning's short root and slow, a root attached to Overload, and the stun from Backlash. The problem with these talents is they are not quite enough. Slightly buffing a combination of these could allow Lightning to have more time to reposition and begin casting again. Aside from that, the developers could take more drastic action such as making some abilities instant (I know many pray for Thundering Blast here) probably dependent upon building stacks associated with some casted ability. Windows of Opportunity: The Lightning spec plays very similarly to the Sniper class, preferring static positioning and relying on casted abilities. Fortunately for Snipers, they receive Entrench which allows them to have immunity to interrupts and stuns for a short duration. Timed with offensive cooldowns, this allows Snipers to dish out some burst even if they are still the primary targets in arenas. Lightning would greatly benefit from a similar ability. Sure Polarity Shift already provides interrupt immunity but a quick stun or knockback neuters it's effectiveness. Another method could be to make Thundering Blast (the keystone of our burst) uninterruptible. It would still be susceptible to knockbacks, stuns, line of sight, or certain resists, so I don't believe it would be quite as overpowered as the suggestion may seem. Of these two directions, I personally believe the second one is more in tune with the feel of the spec. I really don't see BioWare changing Lightning's reliance on casted abilities, therefore I hope they embrace the spec's "turretness" and allow us an opportunity to dish out at least some of that damage before we go squish. PVE I am curious as to how others view Lightning in PVE, and I think it warrants some discussion. The spec obviously has its place and is practically necessary on fights like Draxus and Corrupter Zero where burst and AOE are everything, but it is about 400 dps behind Madness in dummy parses. In single target fights and those that require high mobility, such as Nefra and Tyrans, Madness is far superior to Lightning. Given that both dps specs have their moments to shine, perhaps the burden is on BioWare to produce more fights with a variety of conditions (sustained boss dps phases, add phases, high mobility moments, etc.) that will allow a Sorcerer true choice of which spec to use. Brontes is probably a good example: For most of the fight, target-switching and burst favor Lightning but the final phase (undoubtedly where it counts the most) Madness is far superior. Even though Lightning has its place in current content, I feel that 400 dps behind Madness is just a bit too much. I would like to see a slight increase in the spec's sustained damage. A good place for this would be Crushing Darkness (You know that annoying 2 second cast that has no pushback protection and while necessary feels utterly underwhelming in Lightning). In addition to pushback protection, the developers should add a little more "oomph" to this slacker of a spell. I would personally love to see better synergy with the spec in the form of a shorter cast time or a damage boost to some other ability when it is on the target. TL;DR: Buff Lightning in PVP so we can deliver our burst and do something about Crushing Darkness

So I did a new Lightning parse (which I guess will now go to the honorable mention section ) Deimon - Lightning Sorcerer 3/36/7 - Parse Also here is my current best Madness parse which is full of bits of madness badness: 1. Resists because I'm still doing the one accuracy augment thing (Resists are so much more punitive in Madness versus Lightning) 2. Not great crit around 26% 3. Some rotation errors because its difficult to count to 3 wrath stacks (But seriously it can be tricky to maintain high APM while avoiding hard-casting lightning strike, since if you actually see the number 3 on that Wrath proc, you are already behind) Deimon - Madness Sorcerer 2/8/36 - Parse

Haven't posted in a while and really wanted to break 3600 but came up a bit shy Also gave Madness a try in anticipation of 2.8. I have not perfected my rotation but I'm surprised I did that well. I also used the 5/5/36 spec, but I believe 3/7/36 is supposed to be the better performer. My gear is all Dread Forged except implants: one is Dread Master, one is Oriconian. Deimon - Lightning Sorcerer 3/36/7: Parse - Madness Sorcerer 5/5/36: Parse P.S. WTB Rosalyn's cheat codes

Not to interrupt the "riveting" discussions into binomials and logarithms ... But wouldn't it be more helpful to the original poster and the sage community in general to determine "appropriate" ranges for power versus crit stacking in gear. Certainly it's enlightening to know that zero crit will provide the highest theoretical parse, but as KBN points out "some" crit will yield less variance over the course of operation encounters at a very marginal cost to top-end theoretical dps. Furthermore, given that gearing is a process as one advances through the available content, it would be helpful to know the acceptable trade-offs in upgrades even as one advances towards the theoretical best-in-slot. While our original poster certainly doesn't want to stack crit in every slot of his gear, certainly he shouldn't be afraid to pick up 100-200 crit on his was to BiS, correct? And what is the cost to his theoretical dps if he does have 200 crit for example? All this is to say that when some people make statements like "only stack power" and "crit is useless," it fails to capture the marginal tradeoffs unrealized by new players and the less mathematically-inclined readers of these forums.

I definitely agree that they did not need three numbers, but in retrospect, doesn't the Item rating number seem more superfluous than the mod rating number? Unless I am missing something, how is the Item rating number more or less arbitrary than the mod rating number? If they are equally arbitrary in their determination, shouldn't the utility of the mod rating number during leveling lend to its adoption instead? Continuing this line of though, why use the numbering convention in "Advanced Bulwark Enhancement 31" if only to show that it is the thirty-first in a succession of modification types? Could not the entire system be simply reduced to a convention of "Advanced Bulwark Enhancement 168"? By eliminating the mod rating BioWare has shown it wants to streamline and clarify its rating conventions, but I would hope they would go the step further and make these meaningful and legible to the players. Item rating as a convention is just as useful at endgame as mod rating; however mod rating has the added benefit of being useful for gearing during the leveling process. I believe BioWare chose to eliminate the wrong number, but I would love to hear some developer insight into the change and if there could be further improvements.