Neither Madness or Lightning is able to 'burn' anything down currently. By contrast, Mercs can rather easily hit a Sorc for 60-80% of his or her health within the reflect's duration.

You're not supposed to beat a Merc.

It's fun?

Just read this. 2016 really has sucked for celebrity deaths.

You know, I'm good on my Balance Sage doing 30% less damage than other damage specs and having all my defensive utilities be nerfed or bunched in one tier. The whiners complained prior to 5.0 launch about Sorcs and so the devs nerfed nearly every ability we had. Now, I feel no pressure to do good DPS, because it is no longer possible. I don't worry about dying. I just play and am glad the FOTM rollers have moved on to Mercs.

Honestly, I suspect that Arsenal will see damage nerfs and there will be a defense nerf attacking one or more of their new cooldowns/utilities. BTW - That's just a guess, I'm not advocating for that.

Well no one can tell you with 100% certainty what the devs may or may not do in the future, but the intent is for you to sell them at cap. That's why they are sellable.

Based on the Merc cooldowns, Corrupted Barrier should have been buffed instead of nerfed.

A single DPS should not be able to reliably kill a healer.

You must know that this situation will not continue indefinitely?

I'm not even convinced that they didn't intend to give Trauma Stabilizers to PTs in the first place. I really can't see why Mercs got that.

If it happens "literally all the time," then you should be able to easily support your point by reference to specific powers. If it's this prevalent, then please tell us what the off-healing character is doing that resets the fight. How hard is it to say, Sorcerer casts this power, then this power, etc. thereby resetting the fight?

Please define the situation a bit more, include specific powers. I'll even give you a list of healing powers available to Damage specs: Sorcerers Dark Heal Resurgence Static Barrier (but that doesn't heal so under your formulation it shouldn't count) Mercenaries Rapid Scan Kolto Shot Emergency Scan Operatives Kolto Infusion Kolto Probe Diagnostic Scan So how exactly would one go about resetting a fight with these powers. As I said I'll give you Lethality, especially with the new utility on Kolto Infusion. But none of these other powers heal for more than 15% of the current 130K health at 70.

Off heals do not allow a reset, Healers allow a reset. Off-healing can save someone in a pinch, but so can a well placed guard or taunt or buff. If the OP is complaining about the ONE operative spec which can do decent off-healing then his suggestion is too broad. There is no Merc, Sorcerer or Concealment Op doing 2-3K HPS in off-healing. And Lethality deserves the advantage given their middling ability to do their actual job of damage.

Taunts prevent damage altogether, in that respect they are better than heals. Look the only effective off-heals is a lethality/ruffian. Sorcs and Mercs can toss you a heal if you are about to go down, but don't have the resources to do so without a major drop in DPS. Even Lethality can only provide HoTs and the roll Kolto Infusion. Which is nice, but isn't enough to swing a game. I don't know why Guardians, Vanguards, and Shadows don't taunt more. Even if they just used them indiscriminately on cooldown they would help a bit on average. I also don't known why Snipers hardly ever use their shield, even when both teams are bunched up. But we can't nerf because of bad play by opponents.

No. Also....no. And let me add......no. All classes have group friendly advantages. Off-healing is just one of a few.

On-topic, it would sure be nice if TB/Turbulence and Force Leech/Force Serenity could break 20K. In a world where my tanks can hit for 20K with rotational skill and all.

Could you please leave Sorcs out of this please? I'm quite happy with my nerfed class TYVM.

That is what I needed to know, thanks.

See subject. I'm totally cool if our companions just aren't returning as part of the story, but the issue is that we don't know and the dang terminal tempts us by suggesting that we may miss out if we grab them now. But my main, a Sage, only has 1 of her original 5 back. If you don't want to go on record saying it won't ever happen, could you at least ensure we don't miss out by reclaiming them?

Take that to its logical conclusion and you end up with stalemates because classes are immortal. Nerfs are a necessary part of balancing. I'm not prepared to say what should be or not be nerfed in 5.0. Mercs look pretty strong but so do Assassins and Juggernauts. I think the contrast between 4.0 and 5.0 with Mercs is so wide that people will need to adjust before we can fairly decide what, if anything, to nerf. But I said that about Sorcs and they got nerfed to crap (sans healers), so I suspect the same will happen to Mercs eventually.

Honestly if they would have awarded a set piece at set intervals the system would be perfect. I would have given set pieces out at: 1 - belt 8 - bracers 15 - boots Etc. till Tier 1 was done Then start again at 101, 108, etc. for tier two. I see the problem to answer your question, I'm just not personally upset by it. I don't have a problem with the concept, just the implementation.

This is just a caution for my Merc friends. The nerf is coming. Maybe not today, or next month, but it's coming. Enjoy what you have while it lasts. Stop engaging with the nerf criers. You can't win. I fought to get Sorcs not to be a free kill. When we finally got there, relentless nerf whining was waiting. Heck some of you were doing the complaining. Don't try to find common ground, it will not be appreciated. Don't try to defend, you will be charged with bias. Don't exclaim that you having been playing the class since whenever, you will dismissed as a FOTM roller anyway. What I'm trying to say is that you've been given a wonderful gift by Bioware. Enjoy it. I don't know if they will attack your damage or your defense. If it goes like Sorcs, it will be both. But it will happen.

Not likely, as I was meh at best, and "this sucks" when I filled it out. I would check your spam and junk folder.

I don't know if we're getting them back. ON-TOPIC: I do think the story is effectively over. We have this near invincible fleet which makes us the de facto ruler of the galaxy. At this point we should be sending people out to handle most of our business. I haven't done the uprisings, but I really don't see why the immortal emperor/eternal commander would bother to handle that personally. I also think this is entirely on purpose. I don't think we're headed for maintenance mode just yet, but the large overarching story just won't make sense unless you come up with some completely random super-enemy like the Yuuzhan Vong.