Rakata is the pve set.

Except the part where they don't. Both wear heavy armor. Exact same base. We get a talent hat increases it by 16% more so by definition we have 16% more armor -rating- now % damage decrease talents actually show up on your stat sheet as straight bonuses to mitigation, so you guys have +6%, with all the talents we have +9%. So regardless, we have 3% more mitigation and 16% more armor. we do have more mitigation than you. Straight number don't lie. I should however mention that those ~37% etc I gave were ballparks, so a good PT is probably closer to 52%? then. anyhow, by design, juggs are the middle ground, asassins are low mitgation high defense/shield, PT's are high mitigation high shield, no defense.

This is actually a false statement for a variety fo reasons. This is as common a misconception as guardians/juggernauts not being good dps (they're insane dps.) Mathmatically speaking PT is better in almost every single way. Resistance: Guardians get the standard 60% heavy armor and 6% flat damage reduction from soresu form. ends them at ~37-40% armor when well geared, iirc. PT gets 60% + 16% + 5% from ion cannister + 2% from ion shield + 2% from prototype armor. 3% more flat, but with the armor, most PT's sit at 47% with good gear. and finally, -4% from combust, easily appliable in aoe via flame sweep for another -4% damage (and for comparison shadows, in light armor, get 150% +20% from a talent armor, which actually puts them at about 80% of a guardians armor, and 2% from one talent, not in their tanking tree -- they focus more on defense and shielding than armor; they do however get 9% interna/elemental from one of their stances, (and 10% from their buff, but that's neutral, since most raids will have a sage/sorc, seeing as they're by far the most common class) PT is clear winner here. in terms of shield chance -- PT's get their tanks tstance bonus, 10% from empowered tech, 2% from shield vents, and 4% absorbtion from.. a talent whose name I can't remember. Guardians get.. the bonus from soresu Shadows get 15% from kinetic ward. (5% from their rakata set bonus too, if they have it) Shadows are the clear winner, if they maintain a 12 second buff with 8 charges (1 charge/shield) -- PT's are at 3% less, passively, no charges (which in many cases makes their overall mitigation better if a shadow manages to let kinetic ward drop accidentally Defense: Shadows have 4% from a low level talent, 2% from a talent no one takes (but added fro consideration), -5% to hit from force breach, and 5% more base (inquisitors/consular have 10% base defenses) so 10 + 5 + 4 +2 = 21% defense chance. Guardians have 5% base, 6% from guardian stance (a talent); and 6% for 6 seconds every time they use riposte (on a 6 second cooldown, so we'll just call it "always up") PT's have 16% for 20 seconds via oil slick -- hedge math puts that at ~5% defense, so 10% total. Shadows are kings, guardians in the middle, PT's at the bottom. | Outside things that could add: guardians/juggs have an ability that causes one of their big attacks (blade storm/force scream) to put a bubble on them, but it's currently worthless, bubble is about 800 or so damage, but comes -before- armor, so it pops with less than one hit, and they're on like a 12 second cooldown. That said their resource (focus/rage) builds up over time, so they don't suffer from fatigue in long battles, they're actually weaker at the start of a fight. Shadows are reliant on force, which regenerates at a constant 6/second with a base pool of 100; and maintaining several 15 second buffs/debuffs and procs, so they're on a much higher skill curve. PT's have to manage heat (.. you can trade 10% shield chance to go carolina parakeet and fix that),but also have some of the hands down highest spike damage in our tank spec (the natural OOMPH of our attacks aside, rocket punch is pretty much a garunteed crit for huge damage) === Most Important Part === Ranged Tanking; a lot of people say PT's aren't a ranged tank, and well, they aren't.. completely. we have two attacks that requires short range -- Rocket punch, and Flamethrower. For fights where the bosses have an "aoe phase" (that is, makes being in melee a bad idea) -- you have several long ranged moves, rail shot, unload, explosive dart, or hell just shooting them -- you can keep building threat from 30m away. Guardians can't, they have one long ranged attack (saber throw), so when one of those phases come, they have to guardian leap out ot an ally, and.. saber throw.. wait 6 seconds.. saber throw.. leads to them fighting to hold agro. Shadows are in the middle here, they have several 10m moves, and can make one of their big hitters 30m with force potency -- which works, I guess. In a raid, the ability to avoid boss mechanics and still tank trumps any small amount of mitigation they may beat us by So end is: Resistance: PT's are kings (save internal, where shadows/assassins peak ahead) Shielding: Shadows with bffs up, PT's passively. Defense: Shadows; with PT's at the bottom of the heap. So, typically speaking, overall, a PT is the easiest tank to heal, just takes the lowest damage per hit naturally, while a shadow has the highest "average" mitigation, but it's dependant on the RNG liking their dodges so it's very spikey. Guardian is in the middle, some dodges, some armor, a weak shield.. but suffer from the fact that half of the talents in their tanking tree are.. pretty worthless, just reduced cost on things, not actual mitigation bonuses. That said all tanks can tank, just.. the misconception that PT's are bottom of the barrel is so hilariously wrong it's not funny. Also to OP: it's just mercs being flashier, and better dps (all classes are NOT equal in dps, there is no "hybrid tax" perse, but some trees have more utility, less dps -- compare a AP PT to a arsenal merc, merc has more aoe, does truckloads more damage but.. that's it, whereas the AP PT does less damage, but has a lot more of a toolbox to play with. and more versatility.) -- I, to this day, with my PT at 39, constantly think of rerolling, simply ffor the aoe pewpew.. that and well healers on my server are mediocre, did FAthers of Taris yesterday, died 14 times (not my fault. operative kept breaking stealth before he'd CC, so i'd have to energy shield -> DFA -> Charge -> Flame sweep, and i'd get all the agro, but both of our "Healers" were dps specced, and kept trying to dps, so.. i'd drop before I got a single heal -- and i'm a maxed cybertech, so every piece of my armor save boots and belt are orange with all blue up to level mods in them =/)

Because all specs are viable, in my case I tried pyro at 32, doing the mission between acts I/II on dromund kaas, got halfway through the cave and just.. fleet pass'd. couldn't do it, rotation is simle enough, flame burst -> Thermal missile -> Rail shot/Rocket punch rotation, keep dots up. I seemed to kill painfully slower than I did as a shieldtech (..odd, I know), and died really quick.. went back to shield tech and.. fine again. Thinking about switching to AP and trying it out when I finish up Taris, because as shield tech my rotation is usually just Dart -> charge ->Flamethrower -> Rocket punch/railshot spam anyhow, having prototype flamethrower seems like it'd be useful.. though i'm loathe to give up my precious ion cannister. is really why my alt-itis has been so sgtrong lately, the PT trees just kind of.. suck, with my sorc i'm building towards something, Death field, free FL, FL making my spells isnta-cast, Chain lightning.. seems like i'm reaching for milestones. .. my PT.. not so much, shield tech's capstone is crap, and there is no real milestone after flameshield.. Pyro has no milestones, top half of the tree is tiny 3% bonuses and wierd defensive bonuses.. AP.. i've not really looked at, but doesn't seem much better.

Just posting but it does in fact seem that there is a minor imbalance, if only in pve. My sorc, at level 11, hit the beasts roaming dromund kaas (the silvers) for ~103/104 a tick with FL. at level 12, my sage, whois atually in slightly better gear (.. I got a helm from Esseles, my sorc had no helm till 15 or so) -- both specced balance/madness, so technically my sages tk throw should have done 4% more.. TK throw, level 9 silver in the galactic market -- 98 damage/tick. IT's not much, but it looks like mobs have slightly less energy resistance for some reason

No. just.. no. Inquisitor end game armor is so bad it literally made me reroll sage. endgame sage (slash shadow, but recolor, gogo Pvp: http://i.imgur.com/yNVoK.jpg PVe :http://imageftw.com/uploads/20120115/Screenshot_2012-01-15_22_57_48_659533.jpg endgame Pvp: http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/fathom18/Midnight%20Reveries/StellviaPVP.jpg Pve: http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/fathom18/Midnight%20Reveries/StellviaPVE.jpg PVP SetS: Sage looks like.. a sage, overhanging hood, thick robes, looks like well.. a mystic, face hidden, ominous Sorcerer looks like a glorified chicken.. reminds me of rita repulsa from power rangers in a way. PvE: Sages get thick robes and pauldrons/guantlets.. yea, silly looking in a way, but looks -good Sorcerers get a.. halter top with massive oversized pauldrons and a helm stolen from the witch king -_- The rest, maybe. but.. not armor. just.. not armor.

.. 0/13/28 is a cookie cutter spec, anyone responding to this post should, in theory, know the spec. http://knotor.com/skills#AgEADRyJkqq6ydLbK0lSWmJ5iZOZq7K6y9oA there are a few variations (.. less upheaval, more pinning resolve, etc) to the OP, rotation is simple, dot 2-3 targets with weaken mind, then just.. spam tk throw until presence of mind procs, then hit Crushing mind, next time it procs use tk wave instead. Force in balance on cooldown to keep force suppression up/spike damage. .. really simple. For more information, hit up the sorcerer forums, there are a dozne guides there, skills are the same, just different names (Shock = project, tk throw = force lightning, disturbance = lightning blast, Affliction = Weaken mind, Crushing darkness = crush mind)

.. see I feel the opposite about sage's storyline, for me.. it felt epic, I keep going back to my shadow because I want to play more of it. Sorcerer is just kind of.. 'eh. yay, sith. yay, obviously backstabbing master, yay, hunting relics so my master can obviously give me infinite power without backstabbing me, because shewould never backstab me, oh no.

This, look at the sage forums, then look here. There are like ten guides on specs and in depth anlysis of skills While most sage posts are like "whars the best dps spec" and gets a reply with like 6 builds and no real expolanation of how they work Not to say sages are worse players, more of the vocal players and guides writers went dark side.. end result all the imperial class forums tend to have more serious discussion and guides, while the players on republic , not gonna hold your hand.", whereas the inquisitor forums tend to be "yea, try this spec, and this rotation, should help a lot"

Whatever the best spec is, it won't be 31 lit, not because lit is bad or anything, simply because OP fights are long, and without sith efficiency to shore up your force pool, you are going to be stuck without force a minutw or two in. Sustainability is > burst in raids, ergo 13 balance is almost a requirement

One leads to the other talent in tk ... psychic projection I think? The lightning barrage mirror makes it so affliction crits cause tk throw ro channel at double speed. More people dotted = more procs more prrocs = more burst, more burst = more kills

What I've come to do when in doubt, refer to the sorcerer forums, most of the more hardcore players from other games went dark side. So they've broken the class down, have several guides for build One of said guides was written vy someobe who is op leader for her guild and benchmarked it in the only way we can so far -- in the eternity vault there is a fight where each member of the raid is paired up 1v1 with stheir own boss kill speed on identical bosses is a good benchmark She said she was the first done with a "very skilled and geared operativr" 12 seconds behind the a marauder, I thinl? 30 seconds or so behind him So yes, viable dps is viable

U 13 tk/28 balance Sith sorcs have mastered the mirror spec and put up a dzen guides for it.. i'l link some when I get home, higher end tk is lacking, whereas balance with enough tk for tk wave/projection adds up quickly

Currently looking to roll a Sage so that leaves me looking for a Repub-heavy server -- which means an rp server-- I have all of my republic characters on lord Adraas -- Great server ,friendly people but the economy is terrible (i've often looked through all 3 armor catagories for purples and gotten 0 hits in the middle of the day), whereas on The Shadowlands, where I keep my empire characters, I can usually not only find purples but get them at half the price, if I were lucky enough to find them on Adraas .. that said, if I have to watch another 4 hour general conversation on whether or not grey jedi exist and how they're an abomination against nature because lucas said so.. I AM going to harm someone XD So was curious if any rp server has a more.. I don't want to say hardcore but.. progressive bent? or should I just stick with Adraas

I've noticed in a lot of WF's, sorcs tend to have > 500k damage, but i've yet to see a sage break 200 -- may just be sages on my server or bad, or the minmaxers all huddle on that side but -- several threads have shown the mirrors aren't.. really mirrors, in favor of empire (.. smuggler has a talent that gives 5/10/15% bonus healing, IA's mirror talent gives 10/20/30%; smuggler's flash grenade is a 90s cooldown IA's is a 60 secon cooldown -- there are several of these between troopers and BH's too) So I was curious if there was something pushing sorc out ahead of us? (outside of project's cast time which.. lol shouldn't be using project anyhow). Currently have a 28 shadow and a 17 sorc, and.. the sorcerers quest line is just so.. bland, like I hate chaotic evil types, and even the light side choices seem to be so generically.. sith, and boring. -- that, and the sith endgame armor looks terrible sage end game armor looks like.. so hoping I can find a good republic server and reroll sage.. just don't want to if i'm putting myself at a disadvantage doing so.

Nope.jpg. Single saber mastery = 6% more damage comes out to -1% from 5 stacks of juyo form (.. if that's what they're using) then decimate, which is a whopping 30% damage boost ofr force sweep, which .. yea,.

pvp armor yea.. but is that really howt he end game pve armor loooks like? ugh **** armor. Certainly hope ther is way to rejig it into an orange piece for looks or something, i'm a picky little bastard about my asthetics :<

/1 "Someone help me with Number One With a Bullet?" .. will net you several tells, I've done ever heroics so far just hiting up general. People generally don't mind helping. It's an MMO, you are supposed to work together

Oh, no, I can go further than just theorycraft here, can provide solid proof on this, I have both. Level 21 BH, my flamethrower hits for 195-210/tick, crits for ~270. 10 meter cone, no target cap, ticks 4 times. level 24 shadow -- Tk throw hits for `140 a tick, crits for 230. level 21 Bh my rocket punch hits for 320, my rail gun hits for 340, crits are always in the low 500's/high 400's. 24 Shadow -- projecth its for ~380, crits for mid-500's. Project has higher -singular- hits,but.. the BH can hold up that cycle almost indefinitely with a little luck shielding to vent heat, and shielding in a few levels will reset rocket punches cooldown, while project has a high, fairly prohibitive cost, that ends in it being used far less than it's up

From what I unerstand, Focus is just that -- at about ~30, you get some talents that a.)Make your leaps make force sweep insta-crit B.) makes every tick o force statis give you 25% more damage on your next force sweep, up to 4 stacks. .. Obviously orce sweep is an instant aoe, and with those talents, i've seen screenshots of it critting for up to 7.2k, making it one of the hardest hitting abilities in the game.. so.. yea. you can do that.

Checking your blog, you are a primarily focus user? any reason, pvp burst obviously, but does it out perform vig in pve in your experience or..?

Yea, that's more just me longing to make it a strong point.. gotten so used to the wonderful 1-2 combo of my BH's explosive dart-> flamethrower

Assumed as much, as long as it doesn't end up being "Lf1m dps" -> "Guardian?" *kick* I'm fine wit htaht. As for build.. guessing pure vig is the way to go? 0/21/20 looks like it has plenty o goodies to offer (., lose 3% from shien form, but get the cooldown bonuses n' stuff from shii-cho, plus felling sweep/singularity for an opening AoE salvo..) Or is pure vig the way to go?

XD was talking about a focus/vigil spec, not looking to top dps charts, just.. enough that I can level at a non-glacial pace and.. won't get laughed out of a group at 50 for ops/flashpoints -- I mean I intend to tank eventually, I guess, just.. waiting until the tree gets some much needed love before trying that, until then, i'll probably roll pure dps..

Currently have a Jedi Shadow at 23, Figured it would be fun, nice alternative tank style yay. .. wrong, ended up being a pain, rerolled BH and loving it, great tank, solid gameplay, feels :right:.. but I don't know, my inner nerd is wanting to play a jedi.. but I know the sad sad state guardians are in at the moment (.. I've watched my shadow outlast them several times, despite being in crappy gear) So, that leaves me with Sage, Sentinel, and Guardian dps -- Sage is a possibility, but I really don't want to do the first half of the counsular act I again so that's out Sentinel is possible, thoug..i really don't like duel wielding, Jedi using a single saber just seems.. right. Then tehre are the Guardians, they DO have a single saber dps spec but.. I don't know how it stacks up, the forums seem to go between "it's amazing!" and "don't bother, roll a sentinel instead." (plus, hey, if/when they fix the guardian tank spec, i'll have a viable tank spec too!) I know there is no combat log, no dps meter to benchmark it -- but i'm sure SOMEONE has been leveling alongside say.. a commando, gunslinger, or sentinel and has taken the time to compare kill speeds. So, is it worth my while to roll one up, or.. would I be better off just squashing the jedi urge and sticking to my trusty flamethrower?