I have leveled and completed EV and KP with Carnage, I am currently at 44 valor as well. I am thinking of trying Anni again because last time I tired to play it I dont think I gave it the chance it really needed. With the Atrau Form hitbox bug I am looking at other options as well. I was playing around with the calcuator and came up with this http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100bIbRrRMchZZur0rz.1/ I thought that since vicious slash is so widely used 6% extra damage and 15% crit rate to it would be useful and you would gain the ability to Obliterate which really turns me on since its the only gap closer in the game that can be used against targets in cover. I am just not sure losing the bleeds rage battery and Dual Wield Mastery would be worth it. Please let me know what you guys think. You lose annihilate but obliterate would hit almost as hard imo.

Ok, wow, this post has kind of run away. I started it saying that for all the problems everyone seems to have with the Marauders I find that they are actually OP then everyone makes them out to be. Although we don’t have the stealth or vanish of rouges from WoW, we are for all intensive purposes the single highest sustained DPS on a 1v1 target. I gave everyone my impressions of the trees in case anyone was having trouble deciding what spec that wanted to play. There is definitely a place depending on your play style for them all; I just prefer carnage for several reasons listed in my opening post. I will say reading through the forums I saw someone mention that gore -> slam can be powerful and holy hell, they were right. Pop my trinket and I can crit almost as hard as when I was rage spec. Since I don’t have to wait for force choke or crush for the ticks and gore is on a 6 sec CD I can do some damage while waiting for gore -> ravage to come back up which I have heard people slam on as well, but still remains very powerful to me and quite usable in pvp due to the root. My statement was for pve and pvp and my impressions of carnage, obliviously, anni and rage can deal damage too. I ran Eternity Vault this weekend and could literally solo destroy the mind traps making sure I kept gore and ravage in reserve for them. I just think that carnage is more than a one trick pony compared to the other specs. I ran a ton of pvp this weekend as well and will reiterate; the only class to consistently beat us out in damage were smugglers/operators. I saw someone else mention that we don’t have a ranged interrupt, obliviously, however this brings up one of our strongest assets, almost all classes are dependent on casting times for a lot of their heals/damage of noteworthiness. Sure they have instants but it will use up their heat/force and cool downs fast if they play like that, tracer missile takes forever to get off and even as carnage I have 4 interrupts. Force jump, disruption and intimidating roar and force choke. We however only have 2 channeled abilities that even if you interrupt cannot prevent the damage that was done before you got around to it. Most of our dps can be mitigated, but not prevented.

It is for me, i assume he deems its worth more in another skill, but I posted you my talent spec above, a LOT of people are going to say you don't need Malice, and that my be true for to them, but it increases the crit strike on your Ataru form procs. So i can't live without it.

Absolutely, try to keep it up as long as you can, with Cloak of Carnage, Blood Frenzy and the lower CD on Battering Assault you will never be rage starved. It gives you the ability to have 1 free rage every 3 seconds. Even in PVE I use it and my Cloak of Pain usually refreshes for its full duration under the conditions of you taking damage, 30sec total on a 1 min CD. That’s 10 rage for free under ideal circumstances, even if it only lasts the 6 seconds, that 2 free rage from a rage free skill to use, as well, it prevents 20% damage which is massive. Saber Ward and Cloak of Pain = keep you alive for the duration, prevents almost as much damage as Undying Rage. + the damge that it gives off can add up pretty quickly.

i haven't been able to play any other spec BUT carnage and I've tried them all, this is the spec I use http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#1000cZGGMbddrorsZG.1

Displacement is great for pvp AND pve, its allows you to stop them dead, mainly in pve it allows you to get off a savage kick on a strong opponent. Unbound is nice, but not really worth it because of the time, it won't be a movement slowing effect, it will be a stun and it doesn't work on that. Just keep unleashed until you need it, like running the Huttball in the last couple seconds. There are a lot of stuns in pvp, it would make most WoW players choke but use the time you are stunned to mash on that cloak of carnage or saber ward or be ready with force camo if you are low.

Played another round of pvp last night and a lot of the bugs that were there from the 1.1 patch going live was no longer an issue. Based on the games played last night I will again stand up to the statement that Marauders are OP, I am serious, when playing in a random queue against other random teams, I could have my way with anyone. I can cap a turret guarded by two people if all of my CD's are up. Every day I learn to play my class better, we have an AOE stun that takes up to 6 people out of action. That’s plenty of time to take down a healer and then pop Undying Rage to finish off the second. As I learn where the med stations are on each map and take the time to break off, vanish, heal up and get back in. I have been dying less and less. I will try to shoot a video; I have never done anything like that before. Placed in top three for all matches I played yesterday. Obviously, when I go up against a premade and they all stick together I go down faster than a whore in church. I started to play a Bounty Hunter Bodyguard (Healing tree) because in other MMO's I always played a main healer and hit 18 last night, looked at the trainer skills later in the levels that I couldn't get yet and realized that BH have NOTHING compared to the utility of a Marauder. One stun. One bubble. That’s about it. We have 2 damage reducing abilities, if you spec into it, 2 damage immunity abilities, stun droid, stun aoe, 3 movement snares. We have the tools to completely f*** someone’s day up. I also started this post talking about pvp, pve and world pvp. If you play on a pvp server you don't have to worry about getting ganked, you have so many skills to stay alive and run away, fight back. I have died waaaayy more on my BH so far because I misjudged how flimsy it was even with the heavy armor compared to my Marauder.

Shut up, you love your robocop uniform 1."Serve the public trust" 2."Protect the innocent" 3."Uphold the law" 4.(Classified)

I find the statement learn to play generates a lot of hate, but coming from previous MMO's it was refreshing that as I leveled I really did NEED to read ALL of my skills and skill trees and understand what I could do. When it came time to defeat some of the end of chapter storyline bosses the only way I could defeat the boss solo was to learn my interupts, and my defensive CD's. A very late game boss I popped call on the force to keep me alive and still died and thought, "well NOW how am I going to beat him." Then used the previous battle to change my tatics and defeated him without it but it relied on knowing all my skills. This was very refreshing because I really do believe the players I group with later in the game are going to know how to play thier classes better than a lot of high level players I grouped with in other MMO's. I will concede that the thread title of this post probably needs to be changed to something like "Marauders, not as underpowered and sucky and everyone keeps crying about" I would really like some Heavy Armor though, your progression video lied to me about how my end game armor was going to look. As well, All medium armor wearers in other MMOs have slealth or range.

Why would you fight Darth Baras? He is my master and I serve him faithfully

If you lead off with a force jump which, I am not going to lie I do often, always comes with the chance that you will be knocked back. But most classes knock back is on the same CD as our force jump so honestly it’s a pretty fair system, rage spec is nice for the secondary force jump if you have the rage to use. But I use force jump more defensively as well. If it’s too hot or I am done with a target I tab through enemies and jump away. Also you can set the delay on skills animations in the settings so you won't break off an attack early to start the next one. I started this thread before the 50 bracket and I have to admit we aren't OP anymore; we are more middle of the ground now. I will admit that gore can be a pain to get off and if you are stunned or slowed you miss your opportunity but unlike rage that’s not our only trick as carnage. Massacre and force scream can be decent punches and as far as damage goes, you can roll your eyes if you want but it’s all based on how long the fight lasts, two sides each playing the full 7 mins on the reactor, 2/3 turrets taking out the ships for 15 mins, huttball locked up in the center with no advances, how many times you die, how many times you get stuck waiting for the next portal opening. When I say 300K damage, the next closest dealer was 197K. How many Bounty hunters have a vanish when they are getting close to death? I am sure damage will get better as I achieve my battlemaster gear. But pvp is only one aspect of this game. I think the marauder has very good utility and with our ability to keep a droid stunned indefinitely we can be an asset for flashpoints. I also believe we are one of the strongest classes against almost anyone 1v1. When we aren’t being gang banged we have enough interrupts and armor stripping abilities that we can kill pretty effectively.

I agree with all of that, just saying we are not as broken as most people claim, force jump is pretty powerful skill however. can literally get knocked down into the pit and target a rotworm coming out of spawn zone and force jump to goal line. for exp.

I am seriously not trolling here, if you look at the damage breakdown at the end of a match, its all over the board most marauder fall somewhere in the middle. However, in every match that I get grouped into or against a guild on my server that plays together their (when I am against them and my (when I get randomly grouped with them)) dps is always top three. The reason I say we are overpowered it that consisently we are able to place in the top 3 with minimal support. I actually dropped the Unbound in favor for Cloak of Carnage, Malice however adds to the damage of the followingForce Attacks Smash Force Choke Pommel Strike Cloak of Pain Force Scream Savage Kick Ataru Form Procs Since you will be proccing A LOT, its worth it TO ME. As I have said before that is my playstyle. I really miss unbound though. Just gave the new bracket a try and its defiantly is a lot rougher but I am still placing in the top 5 as a solo random group member. I pick my fights, try to stay with the group, force camo when it gets hot and mash my defensive CD's as soon as they are up. Overwhelm Ravage is absolutely not underpowered. I have destroyed runners in huttball with it. and if they break the movement stun on it, I follow up with force choke. My point of this post is this, how can people whine about the broken class when I can consistently place in the top 5 (formerly the top 3)(still working on getting battlemaster)

Kricys, what helm are you wearing, it looks like a robe headpeice.

About what part? Normally, 6 hits of Massacre are going to take 6 X 1.5 seconds = 9 seconds to complete. IF YOU SPAM them, which you wouldn’t be able to do anyway because even if you had a full bar of rage you would use 12 of it. Berserk it and it becomes 6 x 1sec = 6 seconds of Massacre which is only going to cost you 6 rage. So effectively one battering assault will carry you through an entire Berserk with an increase of dps by 30%. Any time berserk is up I spam massacre and finish with a force scream = instant death to anyone in my way. This is not even taking into the consideration of the procs massacre is going pop by using it back to back like that which you wouldn’t have the rage to do normally.

While berserk is active and you are in Ataru Form, which is the only form you will ever be in, it decreases your Global Cool downs, so while massacre is an instant attack without a cool down you still have to wait for it to cycle, it’s a brief half a second, but its there. While in berserk, it is reduced to as fast as you can push the button.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#1000cZhGMbddrRrsZG.1 I find it a very balanced mix between pve and pvp. Every post I read states that one spec over another is better for burst damage. I think every spec has that opportunity depending on how you play them but carnage can produce more sustained damage; with the lowered CD on battering assault you never run out of rage, sure it takes longer to BUILD rage for berserk, but there are more in between skills to use while you wait. A lot of the other specs forgo using ravage and omg, ravage does HOW much? At 50 its around 2500 damage. Weaving in Ravage in between your Force Screams (which should be used every time CD is up) is massive dps output. And with overwhelm they can’t escape it. Not that useful in pve but completely worth it in pvp. Oh, i totally forgot how great it is to try and be kitted by an opponent who roots you, and to be able to force scream at them for 2500 damage so they run away far enough to allow you to force jump to them. Never underestimate your ranged attacks and carnage, anni and rage require you to be in their faces.

I see a lot of people complaining about marauders, I mean a lot. I really don't understand where they are coming from. I only died 2 or 3 times per PLANET while I was leveling (carnage from level 10 with Quinn). If I got in too deep, that was what force camo is given to you for, RUN AWAY and come back. Hit 50 a couple weeks back and realized that fastest way to get epic gear is to pvp to valor 60, I am currently at 26. In the 2 weeks I have been doing pvp nothing can touch me. Sure I die often but that is pvp. 1v1, sometimes 2v1 I am very hard to take down. First let me say there is a completely different mindset and playstyle from pvp and pve they don't mix well when performed close together. I never did any pvp while leveling. Now that that’s all I have been doing when I pve it take me some time to get my head on straight and realize I don't have to hit EVERY CD as soon as it comes up. At level 50, I tired both Rage for 3 days and went back to Carnage and then Anni for 3 days and went back to Carnage. These are MY impressions of those trees ANNIHILATION PVE: Your HEALING ticks will not suffice even with a maxxed out dps companion in pve. You WILL end up dying more often before killing certain pulls unless you use a healing companion, and then, what’s the point? I play on a rp/pvp server so even though Quinn is grimy and on my s***list I use him. It allows me to continually chain pull mobs without having to stop and heal. PVP: In pvp you can put up some big numbers but again the healing is not going to save you, the fights are not that long and draw out, Undying Rage can keep you alive longer than the heals from Anni spec. Unfortunately, pvp anni requires Predation to keep up with your target so you will not be able to use Berserk as often. Sure you can use snares and force camo and stuns but rapidly changing from target to target and getting off damage, anni spec specializes being able to get off your chain on one person to destroy them. It can kill one person in pvp very quickly but you have to commit to that target. RAGE PVE: In pve you don’t even have to bother dps’ing the adds, just go after the boss and smash away. However single target damage relies on smash to dps effectively and its slow waiting for you primary CD to come back up again. PVP: King of the mobs, if you are playing Alderaan map around a turret you are fighting for or Huttball you can jump into the middle of a group and smash them half to death and its awesome, what isn’t awesome, waiting for all of your CD’s before you can charge up your ticks to critically smash them again. I personally hate playing like do A, you so can then do B, so you can SMASH with C. I AM NOT SAYING THESE SPECS ARE BROKEN, I am just saying I did not like there playstyles for the following reasons. CARNAGE (AKA my first, my last, my everything) I read through carnage before trying to level as it and realized that it not be as easy as the others because most of the skills I wanted came later but how can you turn down massacre (wait did I read that right, it has NO CD and IT REDUCES my GLOBAL CD?!!!!) As I started playing it I thought that this was great damage but pve but how could I use it in pvp, well turns out it played better at pvp then I ever thought it could. PVE: Never tried to level as another spec so cannot comment on how easy or hard it is, didn’t die much though, I’ll tell you that. Force jump, Savage kick (1 normal mob dead) Force Scream, Pommel Strike (2nd normal mob dead) turn to elite Gore, Ravage, Battering Assault, Berserk, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, Force Scream dead. Quinn has me at 80% health, Force jump into next group. Also, oh man this is so awesome, spec into vicious throw and you have use it on an Strong enemy, root him, and savage kick = massive burst PVP: Ok,pommel strike and savage kick can’t be used, too bad, but no surprises there. Where I calculated my attacks before for enemies that had 80000 health, in pvp they had 16000 but can rip you apart. So it’s a different monster. If force cloak or saber ward is up, its on. AS I am jumping to target, sometimes I will try to save for carrying huttball, but that’s it. Undying rage, use whenever you go under ¼ health. These are main stay alive functions, now, here comes the bread and butter of CARNAGE 15% FASTER RUN SPEED AT ALL TIMES….let that sink in. Almost no one can escape me if you try to sprint away, I have vicious throw and charge, if you try to kite me I can break all movement impairing effects and run faster than you, screw unleashed force camo is a FASTER CD then unleashed and does the same thing if you spec into it. I consistently place in top 3 for damage and usually achieve 4-6 medals. Sure I have PLENTLY of deaths but I have PLENTLY of tricks to stay alive too. I once killed 2 people at 5% health because they didn’t turn around while I was running behind them. PVE + PVP: I love Massacre, sure it might not sound like crazy damage of numbers like Annihilate but with Blood frenzy, the lowered CD on battering assault and lower global CD on berserk I can spam you to death. I was got my A** COMPLETELY kicked by another Marauder, there was nothing I could do to stop him, at the end of the match he had done over 300K damage. I created a Republic character just to tell him that he ***** my face and asked him what spec he played……..Carnage, turns out I have not been using my spec the most effectively as I could. Enter Gore, how did I not place this further up on my rotation. Gore + Ravage which ROOTS them in place = a lot of damage. Final thoughts, Play how you want to play, different specs for different playstyles, I am sure anyone can be happy with any of them. But STOP complaining that we are nerfed and need to be stronger. For every time I have been grabbled into a vat of acid playing huttball I have force choked someone over a flaming grate. Every time I have been outmatched I force jump to another opponent or force camo or undying rage or saber ward and force cloak. Its pvp, sometimes an ops or smuggler will knock you down and stomp you to death, nothing you can do. But way more of the times I will destroy everyone around me. Hmmm, a 2v1 with a healer, force roar while the dps is holding his head I will destroy the healer, oh he got free? Vicious throw to root him in place. Healers trying to live, interrupt, force jump. We have so many skills its ridiculous to say we are underpowered. We may wear medium armor but we have soooo many skills to survive.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro with a 750gb drive, I use 500gb as my MAC OS X and 250gb as Windows 7 using Boot Camp (which comes on every new MAC) I have the i7 2.3ghz quad processor and 1gig DDR5 GPU, i have 16gigs of DDR3 RAM. Within windows, I can play this game at 1650X1080 res with everything on high but shadows, I can also play Skyrim with no problems. Message me if you have any questions on how to set your system up but it runs great average frame rate is 60-100.