So I've just come back from leaving in.. ~1.1, so my knowledge is outdated, to say the least -- however after bouncing between all my many alts, i've settled on leveling my sage again -- 38 atm, middle of hoth. Problem is, dunno if it was nerfs or i'm just bad -- but i'm getting faceslammed. my gear is mostly blues/oranges filled with blues/purples, running what was the normal spec in my day -- but I can see it's probably not as good anymore -- Balance up to Presence of mind, TK up to tk wave/psychic projection. Problem is.. i'm dying too easy, multiple normal mobs are no problem, TK throw/project/force quake rips through them, but I run into even one silver with another mob? qyzen is almost-if-not dead, and i'm halfway there.. and the fight takes forever. Rotation is simple Weaken mind -> project -> Tk throw until procs -> Mind crush -> Repeat So, TLDR; Anyone suggest some tips, or a build for a returner to level with in this strange new world?

Pretty much, it boils down to two things. 1.) The juggernaut is more sustainable; Rage starts low and turns into a storm, that is, once combat gets going you don't manage rage, it's just builds up and after a bit is always there with the rotation Whereas heat builds up and you are desperately hanging on to the next vent heat (Rail shot can be free and vent heat, but you have to line up two procs for that) 2.) Next being that a PT can fight from a range, while a jugg has to be in melee -- in fights where juggs are in and out, the PT will win, in a fight where it's a tank and spank, the jugg will win simply because resource management isn't a thing for him

to be fair, comparing dps in warzones is a bad idea for a number of factors. 1.) dps is mitigated by time in combat vs time running, holding the ball, capturing objectives; I've been in alderaan runs where I took left and just sat there the entire game while everyone fought over middle, but I wasn't going to leave it unprotected -- once or twice I got in a skirmish, killed a dude. Overall dps was tiny, think I did like 20k that match, total -- was I any less important to the team's win? had I left we would have lost left to those two, and we would have started lagging behind in points because mid was going in/out. Also dying negatively affects your dps -- I know, on my marauder, I do 250k at 16 alone, not because I have l33t dps, but because most of the time people just ignore me in warzones, I force leap around and stab things and they're more concerned with killing the sorcs, so my damge just ramps up with no downtime. 2.) you are comparing a single target burst spec to aoe specs. Sorcerers/sages? have this thing called wrath/presence of mind, it makes their cast time spells instant cast and do 20% more damage; their strongest aoe, telekinetic wave/chain lightning is a 3 second cast -- hits 5 targets, at 38, in -PVE- I've seen TK wave crit a group for 1.3-1.5k, in pvp with bolster it's always around 2.5k .. on a 6 second cooldown.; This is not including the steady stream of dots -- which are made insta-cast by the above and do internal damage. Which is why you see them on the top half of the dps charts in most WZ's, not because they have AMAZING burst, but because they have an easily spammable AoE that hits really hard; numbers are padded. So yes, you have to realize A.) Most pvp'rs see gunslingers as a threat -- read the other forums, guides fro the classes almost all say "how to handle X" and gunslingers and snipers are almost always "Hope you kill them before they get their stun off." Other classes are like "only ones who give me any trouble are snipers" (.. which copies to gunslingers, mirror, etc.) A well played gunslinger is scary 1v1, dirty kick -> sabo charge -> smugglers luck/charged shot -> aim shot -> trick shot = anything short of a tank is probably dead.

It was more that I was coming from my sage; I'm used to "force armor -> tk throw/wave/FiB spam" with no downtime, I keep forgetting to check my health and dashing into a fight with 200 hp left >_>; Not my fault I kind of fall into blind killingspree mode when playing marauder

So, I find myself in an odd position -- I saved sith warrior for last on my alt train, every other class (save trooper which I have no interest in) has been played to at least 20, highest being a 41 sage and a 39 powertech .. But on random (.. reading about Jaesa, actually, my inner rpflag flew up) I decided to roll a sith warrior, having already gotten a 27 jedi guardian, I opted to go marauder -- which is weird, I'd researched and found most people hate their marauders, overly complex rotations for mid-range dps.. However i'm enjoying it, I faceplant abnormally large amounts of the time -- pretty sure my armor almost broke twice on Dromund Kaas -- But it's fun, and just a matter of getting back up and blitzing back in to stab things. However, my inner min/maxer is telling me I shouldn't settle for "Wee this is fun so what if I faceplant" -- I have an 80 swashbuckler in Eq2, and played a melee rogue from 1.1-1.5 in rift, i'm sure I can fill the skill requirement once I adjust but.. easier to ask for pointers to smooth the road So TLDR; Any tips on playing a marauder? I know being only level 16 as anni is part of the reason i'm dying so much, but.. still want to know if there is anything in particular I should look out for.

See this is a misconception; all 3 ranged classes have a "standard" burst spec (using kinetic/energy) -- Lightning/TK; Sharpshooting/sniping; Arsenal/Gunnery the latter two seem to be the most popular -- for good reason; but i've seen tons of tk sages -- just makes sense, burst damage = good, right? .. but people forget, sages and sorcs aren't the only ones with a dot spec. Gunslingers have Dirty fighting which gives them three dots, and a channeeled ability that does an extra hit -per tick- for each dot; Mercs have Pyrotech, which is dot-based damage Difference? Sages/sorcerers have infinitelymore sustainability, while the other two run through resources like crazy.

and in some fights the opposite. Rather than 1.4 seconsd between shock and something else hitting, it's .6 seconds between project and something hitting -- it allows for a bigger "Burst" of damage.

0.8 second not 1.5, and it's not that big of a deal. more often than not, it won't kill you. and .. what incap? force lift? it's 60 seconds just like whirlwind, it goes from 8 seconds to 60 with the same passive that makes tk throw/project 30m range.

The latter, it was essentially doing a double heal because it ticking at second 0

.. lightsabers ARE your stat stick. you never get rid of it, you just.. don't swing it, because you primarily stay at 30m range. BEating things with a single saber is the purview of guardians (.. who have viable dps specS)

To be honest, it's worth it for the fluff sense -- I mean who doesn't want to be a jedi master running around with their padawan? in every rp sense i'd take nadia over qyzen/iresso any day, and probably will when I get her. Qyzen doesn't do a very good job of holding agro anyhow, I usually end up tanking with force armor =/

Just going to point out http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=249703 this thread, which shows Psychic Suffusion doesn't affect TK wave, so those are some points you can free up.

triple so with the misinformation. I had someone tell me a powertech/vanguard was the worst tank yesterday, JG was best -- and half my guild agreed with him, then promptly agreed JG's couldn't do damage .. basic math proves them wrong, vanguards/pt's have the highest outright mitigation of any tank spec, and the ability to tank both at range and in melee, while maintaining the highest aoe output of any tank. .. is somehow worse than the middle-ranked tank (lower mitigation than a vanguard, higher than a shadow, lower defense than a shadow, higher than a vanguard), while JG's, who in focus spec have one of the single hardest hitting attacks, which is a -aoe-, are somehow incapable of dpsing. It's like that for pretty much every role, people get to used to the WARRIORS ARE TANKS EVERYONE ELSE IS A HYBRID THAT SUCKS, PRIESTS ARE HEALERS, THEY CAN'T DPS. mindset of other games =/

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/fathom18/Midnight%20Reveries/StellviaPVE.jpg Could be worse, that's the -rakata- set for inquisitors, the sage sets look ******, robes, slightly armored, hats look silly, but meh. sorcerers? look like someone went to japan and tried to get them to a draw a 63'd anthromorphized optimus prime. They get to work through the endgame to.. get that

There are tons of variations on how the tk points are spent and some of the low tier balance points Generally as long as you get tk wave, FiB, psychic projection, telekinetic balance, psychic barrier, presence of mind and mental scarring you are good. Rest of the points can be spent any number of ways, some for more damage, some for more cc, some for more sustainability.. is really up to you

That's not an issue though, it's a matter of versatility, in pvp and while soloing I am in combat stance. In groups and with a guard in pvp I use force tech The point of the kc points give you a boost while in combat stance while boosting force techs survivability

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rcbMkZZfMcRrbkrc.1 ? you net the two big survivabilitytalents from the bottom half of the tree, auto-project crits (big), all theg ood stuff from balance, and chump change bonuses to dps (more combat tech activations, more tech damage) .. course you lose the potential for shadow technique and a few shadow strike bonuses, but personally I never use shadow strike, it's really expensive and FiB hits roughly as hard. =/

To be honest, I felt thi way for a while. dropped my shadow at 26, went and leveled a PT to 36, enjoyed it, felt a lot more smooth. was specced kinetic combat -- went on a whim and respecced balance (s'free, why not?) .. should have done so much sooner, leveling is a blast -- just stay in combat technique and you don't miss it; pvp is crazy -- just did 3 wz's, lowest damage done was 207k, highest 271k. usually second or third highest in kills, 20k+ protection. upheaval + cheaper projects and FiB on cooldown makes life so much easier. not to mention the HUGE double strike crits and the ability to just shove crush mind in peoples face at random with procs.. completely different. I actually enjoy playing it now, moreso than my PT. so my advice? try a different build, you'd be surprised the difference it makes.

No, no they really don't. Shadows get a 30% threat bonus on project, and slow time is a high threat ability. Guardians get.. hilt strike, on a 30 sec cd. Problem? IGC generates high threat -- guardians get no proc with their tanking stance, shadows tanking stance proc doesn't do enough damage to mention -and- our attacks just plan hit harder. My shadows project at 28 hit for about 540 on a crit, at 28 my rocket punch hit for close to 700, -- and project uses half theirresource bar -- my 32 guardian's bladestorm -- their "big" hit -- hits for about 700, my rocket punch with hittng for 900 or so WE don't have high threat abilities because we don't need them, this isn't other games, by design we don't need a crutch to tank. .. sear someone needs to make a general tank information thread, because the amount of misinformation between the tank classes about each other is astounding.

Unload, and rapid shots use both blasters if you are a merc, thus the "uses both blasters if equipped" line. and they get sweeping blasters which uses both; as does their power shot. The big dps comes from the fact that their arsenal tree has.. several talents to boost it, tracer missile hits like a truck (harder than anything a PT has), heatseeker does more damage if you tracer them up, and their unload, in addtion to using two blasters, has 33% damage from a talent, and their tracer missiles/power shot have a 30% chance to reset it's CD and make it do an additional 25% damage, and have an additional 30% critical damage. .. So unload hits like a truck for them, crits like a truck, s easily spammed due to it being reset by another big hitter which lowers their armor per hit. Arsenal tree is just built better than the AP tree, s'all

for a PT it's actually not a bad idea, because how PT's work. we completely ignore avoidance (we get no boosts beyond the 5% base, and our shielding bonuses), PT's get the highest pure damage reduction to just take hits like a baws. Guardans are behind by about 6-7%, and make up for it in defense; which is worthless in pve. Something 've noticed though, is you have to use your whole toolbox as a Shieldtech, mostly due to ST giving you no real new attacks to fill a rotation with -- at level 33 I pulled 210k and 9 medals in a voidstar match, just door defending with explosive dart + unload (as a shieldtech it's really nice dps since ion gas is on-hit not on ability, so you can trigger it 2-3 times per use so it's decent burst, you can then just rail shot -> charge -> rocket punch and well, dead guy is usually dead. plus the hilarity of watching a sage/shadow use force speed after blowing the door to reach the bridge and juuuuust as his force speed runs out, hitting him with grapple -> electro dart -> rocket punch -> rail shot -> explosive dart -> unload and anyone without heals is a red stain on the ground. get hurt? energy shield -> Kolto-overload, they're now hitting me like a little girl. Shieldtech is very nice in pvp, and i'm only 33, I can imagine going Carolina Parakeet would raise the effectiveness of this massively, since the top two tiers of shieldtech are worthless for pvp

Expertise, fullstop.

It's a very effective tank, and dps, while not -amazing- is good, i'd put it around the middle of the tree, right above badly played guardians/marauders, but safely below well played sorcs/snipers/mercs.. about the same level as badly played sorcs/decent assassins. High burst in the form of the Thermal det->Thermal Missile -> Rail shot combo, though.

1.) PT. Passive (armor) mitigation is higher, guardians balane ito ut with higher defense (avoidance), which gets nullified by accuracy and the fact that most force/tech attacks ignore defense. 2.) in dps spec? Guardian/jugg, the Rage/focus spec puts out 4k force sweep/quakes like it's nothing, in tank spec? PT, our tank tree has several crit/damage increasing talents, and you can easily go the Carolina Parakeet (23/0/18 I think?), and lose nothing of value for pvp tanking (top two layers of the tanking tree are 10% higher shield chance (which is nice, but shields do jack against tech/force attacks, which are the most common types of "Big hits") and heat blast which doesn't increase survivability. .. and gain the bottom half of the better dps tree, neeting you super powerful rail shots that vent heat, and a DoT in the form of thermal missle. 3.) Same amount of taunts, PT's get a charge and a pull, Jugg's get a charge and an ally charge (intercept), talented jugs have a -5% acc debuff from quake, we get a 16% acc debuff for 20 seocnds with a 1 min cooldown so that bit is balaned really.

I gave a ballpark number, .. then gave exact numbers as to whyI gave those two ballpark numbers. You ignored the exact numbers then called me wrong based on ballpark numbers, the ~ was in front of those numbers because they were inexact. It's fine, and all, was just pointing out that.. the actual numbers were in the same post, but you called me out like they weren't.