Incorrect. You find it better because Hybrid Specs ARE better than 31's.

Do play against good rated teams and then come back to me.

I am stating that crit level inclusive of the agent buff. Already at surge cap. 899 Bonus Force Damage with Stim (Rest is power). Have everything min-maxed for months now. Now the myth that people need to understand, stacking endurance or defensive stats like (defense, shield, absorb) does not affect your survive ability all that much in PVP let alone in rated. For every major class (every tank class) the survive ability comes from their utility and from their burst DPS. This is the reason 90% of successful tanks in rated teams (mostly assassins) run with DPS gear. So as a sorc, one of the classes with the worst survive ability it makes no sense trying to stack endurance to allow us to survive longer, just doesnt factor into rated PVP. Our best bet is to have intelligent play, lots of utility and good kiting skills to stay alive longer not how much health we have. Those stats on endurance are better spent on crit and power to get slightly more burst out of this really nerfed out class. I can understand where you are coming from and in theory some of your logic is definitely sound. I agree that a DR curve at the end will have diminishing returns whether they be at 20% or at 30%. However, most of your arguments are based on PVE gameplay than PVP. Whenever referring to WH gear, I would assume that the discussion should be based around PVP. Let me add in my two cents being a hardcore pvper, 95 valor sorc and leader of my rated team on the server (Only way I can go with them over the OP classes ). First off pure madness, pure lightning, pure corruption all three trees are useless in PVP, rated or otherwise. When you are getting focused in a WZ, you still have some escapes if you run hybrid utility specs trying to pickup as much utility as you can in the lightning tree. Now I have been running variations of this Hybrid Utility DPS build for ages now and consistently drop 350k+ in Rated and 450k+ in any decent sized regular WZ, longer ones I have broken 575k. I can tell you for a fact that stacking Crit is very very important in Rated PVP at the very least to the soft-cap that is agreed upon. I know other Hybrid Utility Sorcs on other servers who run up to 38-39% Crit Rating (With Operative Buff). This is because going back to my original argument about survive-ability, its completely driven by our abilities to kite and cc combined with the best burst we can do. Unfortunately for Sorcs we have some of the worst burst in the game, however, with the right rotation and crit rating we still have a very decent burst on most targets (except tanks). A rotation consisting of recklessness, chain shock, deathfield, force slow, force lightning and crushing darkness has great burst. This increases our survive-ability. Stacking power (even though I have 899 bonus damage) and being dependent on Turret spamming Force Lightning or other Lightning Tree burst is not viable in rated. Chain Shock and DF are your best friends and more often than not you want them to Crit to make sure you stay competitive with the other OP DPS classes such as Marauder, Rage Juggs, Snipers and Powertechs (Can't stay competitive with these). If it was up to me and If I was not re-rolling and leveling my assassin right now, I would be trying to push my crit rating even higher to 38-39% and experimenting with that. Sorcs in PVP have specific roles, in essence the best way to categorize them would be 'battlefield manipulators', they need to be able to read the enemy and utilize their CC's for consistent harassment, whether this be in peeling players off your healers in big group fights, CC-ing a group of 3-4 enemies by intercepting their rotation from one node to another or keeping healers locked down with chain cc's and good burst. This means that we have to be consistently on the move and this movement will more often than not lead us to 1v1 scenarios against enemies, in these 1v1 scenarios against OP classes, its extremely extremely important to have minimum soft-cap crit rating. If you are not rotating and you are being part of the big group in the central node it is again extremely important to have crit rating to hit deathfields appropriately and chain shocks on the healers.

Why only 195 Crit? I target 34-35% Crit Chance i.e. hit the soft cap. I understand that with recklessness crit is not AS important but 195 crit is really low. I am really interested in the reasoning behind this, if its valid It would actually give me something to do (Gear wise).

You need to start min-maxing and that is a long process. Get the WH Stalkers Generator for the extra crit. Unfortunately for us Sorcs crit is hard to acquire in regular gear therefore you will need to opt to stack a couple of Crit Augments over Willpower Augments. Next are the Enhancement and Mods All your enhancements should be 41/53. Whether that is 41Pow/53Surge, 41Crit/53Surge, 41Pow/53Alacrity, 41Crit/53Alacrity. All your mods (or most if you still want a certain level of HP) should be the +39 secondary stat over the +12 secondary stat, therefore +39 Power or +39 Crit. This also includes your orange belt and bracer. They should have the +39 WH Mods in them. I think in total thats probably going to net you around 8-9 extra gear pieces minimum.

Everyone who is putting Sorc/Sage in top 3 is clearly trolling our class. 1. Pyro PT 2. Rage Juggernaut 3. Operative Healer 4. Tankassasin 5. Carnage Marauder 6. Sniper 7. Hybrid Juggernaut 8. Hybrid Sorc 9. Operative DPS 10. Mercenary Healer 11. Sorc Healer

I am all for objective based play (being a utility hybrid sorcerer myself). However, until bioware fixes the class balance. I would love a heavy utility team go against a heavy burst team and see if they can beat them (hint: they cant). A team consisting of 3 Pyro PT's 2 Rage Juggs 1 Carnage Marauder 1 Tankassasin and 1 Operative Healer , or typically any 6 dps 1 tank 1 heal compositions are hard to beat. Since 1.2 this game is skewed towards BURST DPS. Utility cant do much against that.

I liked the environmental awareness and kiting skills on display in the video. But I am still not a massive fan of that build as even in the video it seemed to me to be turret-like at times. I would like to see some video of that spec in rated games if at all possible and see if its viable, maybe then I will give it another go. Polarity shift is definitely the bomb though, unfortunate for me I can't incorporate it into my build. Also I know this was solo Q and all (and knowing Imperial luck we never get healers anyway) but I would have enjoyed seeing more 'peeling' off friendly healers with the utility provided in the lightning tree. Also some more friendly off-healing and shielding. Its essential really to drop dark heal or dark infusion onto friendly DPS that you know for a fact will do more DPS/Burst than you yourself doing that burst for e.g. Rage Juggs and Pyro PTs Can I ask typically what average DPS and heal (self-heal) figures you put up in each WZ (except Huttball)? Just curious.

I can understand that some Sorcs would enjoy the above two hybrid playstyle more but I personally cant figure out how that would work in rated as a lot of the rotation is dependent on procs and turret like DPS and the last thing a Sorc wants to do in Rated is to stay still. Also not going high enough in the Madness tree and missing out on things like Haunted Dreams, Deathmark and Corrupted Flesh is a big no-no for Rated. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201oZfc0RbMrZcMsRsRk.2 I use the 1-19-21 Hybrid Build. Which is pretty close to the main hybrid build that people run the exception is that I do not go full up on a lot of the talents (i.e. 1/2 instead of 2/2). The other thing I want to point out is that the 1 point in Corruption is with regards to my stat itemization and min-maxing (I wanted to stack power more so I acquired 35% crit via this point). Your rotation with this build would be quite standard. Single-Target Affliction -> Force Slow -> FL -> Wrath Proc CD -> DF -> Chain Shock Multi-Target Turret Style Affliction -> Recklessness -> Death Field -> Chain Shock -> FL -> Wrath Proc CD Multi-Target Mobile Style Affliction as many targets -> Force Slow Healer -> Sprint and Use Backlash manually -> Recklessness -> Death Field -> Chain Shock -> FL -> Wrath Proc CD -> Walk to secondary healer or tank and use Overload to knock them out of guard/heal range. I have had quite a few 500k+ DPS games in unranked playing with this build and a few in ranked (easy opponents). I have barely had any problems with marauders because I know how to kite and CC them well. Powertechs are Powertechs (cant do much against that burst) but my main rival will and always will be Juggernauts both Hybrid and Rage Juggernauts are the hardest enemy for me to deal with (because of CC immunity and in general the control they have over smashing). In ranked I am able to consistently drop above 350K DPS unless my role is not to be part of the main pack. For e.g. in Novare I tend to hover around middle and CC/Slow down their main attacking group and make sure that I keep eating the speed and expertise buffs so my DPS on Novare more often than not is not that high. I have been able to out DPS some decent Powertechs and Marauders on my server in good ranked teams consistently (not the powertechs on my team though, they smoke me in total DPS done...a good 200+ DPS gap...they generally drop 600k on a decent sized game). So constructively I would advise against going so far up in the Lightning tree because of a few things - Decrease mobility and increases turret like playstyle - Dependent on Wrath Proc Lightning Strike which is a DPS LOSS over FL or Wrath Proc CD. - Does not maximize utility by not picking up Haunted Dreams or in one of the builds (Backlash). - Decreases survive-ability because of not putting points in things like Corrupted Flesh + AOE is better than general Hybrid + Good Proc rotation provides good burst But at the end of the day Sorcerers are not MEANT to BURST or be masters of AOE DPS. Our class is not designed for that, if we try to go towards those two playstyles we lose out on a lot of native advantages of our class such as mobility, harassment, control and peeling.

1. Others perceive the class as brittle glass without a cannon and go for quick focus kills. Considered inferior in healing to both Operative and Mercenary healers. Considered inferior in DPS to a lot of the more 'bursty' classes that are viable in rated. [PT, Mara, Rage Jugg, Tankassasins] 2. I perceive my class as a unique support class whose sole responsibility is to 'peel' enemy DPS off healers and contribute a lot of 'control' with respect to objectives. I still consider my class highly fragile and think that it definitely needs some form of buff to survive-ability either by a new defensive cooldown or by increased burst.

First off be a Hybrid Spec. Some people already posted that. Hybrid - Heals or Hybrid - DPS. If you want to heal people already posted varying hybrid heal specs. Secondly never do anything alone. Always stick to a group. Even if you are in a pug with another premade and the premade orders you to solo hold this or that, ignore them and stick with the main group. Tell someone else to do the 'solo' responsibilities. Use Electric Bindings, Backlash, Lightning Effusion, Force Slow and Electrocute to Kite and LoS. Do not stand around for long and turret cast. Lastly, use extricate. Extricate is not only useful in Huttball, It can allow you to pull that friendly DPS or Tank to you who can then peel enemy DPS off you. Other than that accept the fact that you are going to die and know that timing your 'death' is a very useful skill in Warzones as well. Keeping an eye on door times and dying so you can re-spawn instantly is often much better than wasting medpacs and heals to keep yourself alive.

I am a fully WH min-maxed DPS Sorc and I can keep within a 25-100k DPS of a lot of the fully geared PT's during ranked. With the exception of one (my guildie) who regularly drops 675k+ with his PT. However, this myth about Sorcs being viable for rated etc and being good in 1v1 is wrong. Too bad I am not on the bastion. All I want is you find some of the better Rage Juggernauts / Carnage Marauders / Pyro Powertechs and even Tankassassin and tell me how your guildies fare in a 1v1 against them. Especially the rage juggernaut. (I am not calling them OP btw, I think Juggs are one of the most balanced classes) I just know for a fact that an equally geared and decently skilled Rage or even Hybrid Juggernaut will destroy Sorc and Merc DPS easy.

I agree with Pink here as well as Cempa to a certain degree. I feel that hybrid heal and hybrid DPS are the only viable specs (with emphasis on utility). The other specs will not be part of top-rated teams. Although both your builds I have interesting questions about. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201hZdcMRbMMZcMcRsrk.1 That is Cempa's build my argument is why are you picking up corrupted flesh over parasitism. You have 3 points in crit chance, along with min-max WH and recklessness you will be getting quite a bit of crit self-healing so parasitism makes sense there. Or are you generally putting points in corrupted flesh because of predicting overstacking of Pyro PT's and Anhilation Marauders once rated hits. Would be curious to know why you decided to do this. Also I disagree with Backlash I understand it can be difficult to control but it doesnt fill up resolve that much and with good communication with rated team you can keep their resolve below 100%. Also having a AOE CC that keeps them clumped for AOE DPS is better than overload. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201MZbsbRbMrZcMfRsMz.1 This one is a bit closer to my build. Except I have no idea why you are picking up lightning spire haha. You are not specced into Thundering Blast or Chain Lightning and Lightning Strike is just thrown into rotation for fun (as it is often a DPS loss unless criting). I am not a big fan of the 2nd tier of lightning tree because both Exsanguinate and Lightning Spire I am not a big fan off. This is my preferred Hybrid-DPS Build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201oZdcMRbMrZcMsRsRk.1 The 1% Crit I might decide to remove once augments in 1.3 come as I am just doing that to stay at 35.8% Crit. I will probably put that point in either Suppression / Parasitism or Corrupted Flesh. Not sure yet. Probably Corrupted Flesh is lots of anhilation Marauders on my servre

I do not believe in stacking a particular class in my ranked team so we will be running with. 1 Operative Healer 1 Merc Healer 1 Powertech 1 Anhilation Marauder 1 Immortal-Veng Hybrid Juggernaut 1 Tankassassin 1 Utility Sorcerer 1 Rage Juggernaut/Marauder The operative healer, utility sorcerer and Hybrid Juggernaut will make one group of three. The Powertech, Rage Jugg/Mara and Merc Healer will make the other group of three. The Anhilation Marauder and Tankassassin will be the primary floaters. Obviously roles of each player are bound to change based on circumstance and on the fly adjustments.

Utility Sorc because I love frustrating enemies so much that they start focus firing me instead of my healers.

Score was 2-2 (both goals scored by me) minutes left : 2ish minutes I win the ball by knocking people into fire on our side of HB (first fire mid ramp). I then drop into OUR PIT and bring 6 enemies with me. Grab speed boost, grab health and then reset the ball calling out my teammates to grab reset and score quickly. I then proceeded to hold all 6 of them off because I am a utility sorcerer and with my knockback bind / whirlwind / electrocute and cybertech grenade I can do just that much before dying. A juggernaut picks up the reset and GOES FOR THE RANDOM JUMP instead of just moving forward. Jump fails he lands in the fire on our side and dies. Ball resets again. A Sorcerer grabs the ball and instead of jumping he sprints ahead and then passes the ball to a Tankassassin who is not looking and does not come out of stealth. Ball resets again, they grab it and score. I have never done so many facepalms in my life.

I believe in having as much utility as possible and not stacking multiples of too many classes. We will be running with. 1 Operative Healer 1 Tankassassin 1 Utility Sorcerer 1 Immortal-Hybrid Juggernaut 1 Mercenary Healer 1 Powertech 1 Anhilation Marauder 1 Rage Marauder or Juggernaut We will be paring up the PT with Merc Healer and Rage Mara/Jugg We will be paring the Operative Healer with Utility Sorcerer and Immortal-Hybrid Juggernaut We will be letting our Tankassassin and Anhilation marauder be the rotaters.

Any sorc who uses his class as a pure DPS solo rotation 1v1 dueling class is playing it wrong. Let the marauders and tankassasins do that role. I got tired of watching repetitive 1v1 against bads so I closed the video. Next video you post should have some team fights to see real skill, resolve management, LoS, kiting, peeling players off healers etc.

Utility Sorcerer Valor 92 Total Wins: 710 Player Kills: 15988 Medals Earned: 8992 MVP Votes Received: 974

I liked the video a lot. Finally a skilled player posting a video. I especially like the part where you delayed stopping each capper by a little bit so that you had a few seconds gap between the aggregate focus fire from them, typically a lot of people just drop an AOE to stop all 3 at once (bad). I did see some poor sorcerer kiting in the video as well (easy kills for you). But its refreshing to see a skilled pvp video finally. Would love to face you guys when Cross-Server (if ever) is implemented. I am also almost fully min-maxed WH (Just one +39 power mod away)

Fill his resolve at middle or side platforms. Do not touch resolve after he is past first fire. Do not play hug-wars with your ball carrier, peeling people off them and giving him passing options are more important. Keep an eye out if going against Shadows/Assassins, if they just died already start LoS the fires because more than likely they are waiting past a fire ready to knockback your friendly who you are about to pass to or they are about to pull you in the fire. Mark the pullers (powertech/tankassassins) not the healers. Undestand what is a LOST CAUSE and dont waste time and resources chasing that i.e. Tankassassin who hasnt utilized his force shroud with a healer on him running the ball. Or more than 4> enemies attacking. Understand the role of your class within Huttball, not everyone is supposed to run the ball, realize that you are more effective somewhere else rather than just tagging along with your attacking contingent. Trust them to finish the job.

Its better itemized. No more stacking of Accuracy and Alacrity. You can hit your Surge/Crit targets (soft caps) and also stack power. Also every bit of expertise does matter (until you hit 1200 at least)

4v4/5v5/8v8 is true competitive PVP. Open world PVP does not determine skill and is not viable for competitive leagues. So yeah its over-rated.

I already created a thread some time ago about Sorcs needing a defensive cooldown that had some good responses. I do not believe we need extra procs and extra bursts (although buffing thundering blast woudn't hurt). My opinion is that all we need is a simple pure defensive cooldown. Not something like Undying Rage or Force Shroud that allows us to cast/attack/move while on but rather something like a semi-instant 'ice block' where we are frozen (not casting anything) for 2-3 seconds and all it does is negate a burst. Maybe add a few self-heals while in this state but that is it. What this means is that it will require a very high skill-ceiling to master this ability. It would require in-depth understand of most burst-classes rotation and reading their movements in order to cast a iceblock/deflect their major burst at the right time for e.g. a smash or a railshot. If you fight good rage juggernauts or power techs you know that if you can negate one of their smashes/railshots it makes the fight much more pleasant for the sorcerer. You probably still won't beat him in a 1v1 but thats not the point of the class. Its all about surviving those extra few seconds so that help can arrive or you can kite him or one of your CC's if off cooldown to slow/electroctue/overload him and create the gap. This is especially true for Powertechs. I understand that the burst is reduced in 1.3 with the relic/adrenal nerf but I feel like this is still needed to make the sorcerer viable without being OP. I do not think we need increased DPS just more surviveability which will add up to more dps as the more we stay alive the more dps we will do.

Coming from competitive shooters its second nature for the mini-map to be on the top right and health on the bottom corners. Being PVP lead I am all about complete environment awareness and macro-reading of overall enemy players so I enjoy having space in the middle.