Hey just wondering if there are any guilds/groups planning a republic +10 datacron run. I mostly play solo and have been trying to find a group for this for a couple of weeks now with no success. Anyone?

Archangel you make some well thought out, unbiased, and intelligent points. Truely a wall of text that I didn't mind reading. I feel as though you've really nailed it when you gave the example "why should I bring <insert class> to ranked warzones, and are correct by saying that there should be reasons for every single class. I'm sorry to see you're putting your commando on the shelf when it comes to pvp, and I wish you the best of luck on your shadow. I seem to be in roughly the same boat, as I play a balance sage and find that when the forementioned question is asked the answer for dps sage seems to be on par with the answer you receive for your commando. Yes we can be useful, but we don't have a role that can't be better filled by one of the other dps class options available. So cheers to you man, hopefully BW will find the time to rework class balance and class roles in group pvp, or at least the time to acknoledge that its something they need to work on.

Fact is that many people don't give a damn about 1v1 or regular warzones anymore. Ranked warzones are a much different story, one that has teams focusing targets, CCing healers, and taking advantage of every chance they have to focus a sage down within 1 gcd. Sage healing is certainly viable in the ranked game, but it seems as though a full balance sage quickly becomes nothing but a burden for your tanks/heals to try to keep alive. I'm not here trying to bash dps sages, I've played my sage as my main since early access, am full best in slot, rank 97, 2300 highest ranking, but to say that my guild was better off with me there than they would have been with an equally geared and equally skilled vanguard, sentinel, or gunslinger is an outright lie. So in response to the title of this thread i'd have to say that the best part of playing a sage is enjoying the few ranked games you're a part of, and to understand its nothing personal when you're asked to step out in order to adjust the group composition, just grin and bear it, and know that your time on top of the mountain will likely come again sooner or later.

I feel as though this pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to sorc/sage. The potential to put up big numbers is there(I've seen a sage that was basically allowed to free cast for the entire game put up 690k damage, 200k healing in voidstar post 1.3) however the survivability that would allow the to reach this potential is obsolete.

To be completely honest id rather not see a nerf. You have 4 classes that can put out beastly damage(gunslinger, vanguard, sentinel, focus guardian) as well as 2 classes that can put out fairly decent damage(dps shadow, scrapper scoundrel) and have the advantage of stunlocks/stealth. Sage dps is CLOSE to where it needs to be, and given the amount of utility is has available to it, it seems to be just a little lacking on survivability. Commando dps is probably worst off overall, and could use a buff to be on par with the other classes. So rather than nerf vanguards/sentinels/gunslingers, i'd prefer to see sages gain a bit more survivability and a VERY small burst damage increase, and i'd like to see commandos given an interrupt, another defensive cooldown to help survive long enough under fire as the leading dps classes, and a decent dps increase...this would leave you with: 1.Vanguard, sentinel, gunslinger able to put out outstanding dps, and with good survivability. 2. Shadow and scoundrel dps slightly lower than vanguard, sentinel, and gunslinger, but made up for in the ability to pick their fights from stealth, and the ability to lockdown enemies with stuns. 3. Sage dps on par with shadow and scoundrel, but still less than vanguard,sentinel, gunslinger. This is made up for by the amount of slows, snares, stuns, knockbacks, bubble, and sprint. Still squishy to a degree, but overall better survivability than the current build. 4. Commando dps on par with vanguard, sentinel, gunslinger, an interrupt, and survivability on par with these 3.

1. Vanguard/Powertech DPS - blow for blow currently the best burst dps in the game, and can sustain strong dps in between the massive bursts. Heavy armor, damage mitigation, slow, stun, and the ability to give out guard at opportune times. The ability to pull enemies out of optimal positions, pull them back into the fray while they try to run for LoS, pull them off of healers/ball carriers, pull enemy ball carriers into fire, and enemy defenders away from nodes. 2. Sentinel/Marauder DPS - sensational single target burst dps as combat, as well as phenominal sustained dps as watchman. Defensive cooldowns turn you into a tank, with a 99% damage reduction for 5 seconds, then an in-combat stealth, giving your healers the time top you off. Snare, slow, and the only offensive healing debuff in the game. The ability to boost the speed of your party is HUGE and ensures you get to the nodes first in novare/civil war, get the ball first and move it like a no huddle offense in hutball, performs hard switches from door to door and allows your team to fast break after blowing the first door on voidstar, and makes shifting from nodes and doors on defense a breeze, all in all its most likely the most influential ability currently in the game. 3. Guardian/juggernut Hybrid - Decent Dps with a boatload of utility. Able to solo-defend nodes and win most 1v1's, as well as survive long enough for help to come when outnumbered. Able to taunt and guard for healers, force push enemies off of healers, chain-leap and force push your way to scores in huttball, with an immunity after the leaps. I like to think of a good hybrid guardian/jug as being a lot like Shaq...a big, beefy guy that's gonna hold his spot in the paint, and isn't gonna move for anyone. 4. Scoundrel/Operative heals - Subtle heals that don't draw much attention, the ability to heal on the run, which no other class has makes staying with the play, and staying in positions to LoS potential attackers fairly easy. Dodge is just another tool that other healing classes just don't have nor have they got anything like it, not to mention being able to stealth, in combat stealth when in trouble, mez from stealth, aoe blind, stun, and slow. The healing is top notch and the utility is on par with most other classes. 5. Shadow/Assassin hybrid - Tank tree up to force pull gives u the survivability and utility that wins games, and gives you enough remaining points to at least build a decently strong burst rotation. Obviously stealth defending/ninja capping can be clutch at times, and can completely change the outcome of games. Force speed as well as a cooldown giving you full immunity makes you a top-shelf ball carrier, and if u don't remember the many uses of force pull scroll up and read the vanguard/powertech description. Initial burst from stealth can lockdown or even kill a healer when unexpected, and force pull from stealth can cause confusion and makes you a great last-ditch defender. 6. Gunslinger/sniper dps - All in All by far the best ranged dps in the game, and although underrated due to lack of utility/mobility, these guys can change games. In huttball they are exceptional defenders, able to knock opponents to lower levels, then pound on them as they helplessly flee to find LoS, and can snare a full resolved ball carrier in the fire, from range, without having to worry about a leap/charge. Their AoE is absolutely amazing when it comes to defending in novare/voidstar, and they can put up INSANE damage numbers while barely being noticed. 7. Sage/Sorc both heals and dps(balance/madness) - Arguably the most powerful heals in the game. Force armor makes opponent feel at times like they forgot to equip something, and although you die fast, a team with a dedicated guard that will taunt and peel for you is usually enough to keep you out of the respawn. A ranged stun, slow, and force speed all help to make you very slippery, and your dispel is the cream of the crop. Being able to pull your teammates to you sure in handy when a stealth dps opens up and stunlocks your teams other healer, and make scoring the huttball easy mode. Balance/madness is concidered to be underpowered, but a big part of that is due to lack of survivability, and lack of skill. A skilled player knows that they bring the most utility there is to a team, between stun, lift, snare, slow, channeled slow, force speed, force armor, and rescue. Survivability can be an issue, but with a team that realizes how much you contribute, and makes a point to keep you alive, its really not that bad. In high end ranked zones sorc/sage dps is often ignored by the other team, as they arnt concidered a priority threat, hower this is when u can make them pay, a sorc/sage that spends a large amount of time freecasting can put up as big of numbers as almost every other class. Lunch break is over so I can't continue, but those are my top 7. I suppose next would be a smash/sweep guardian/jugg, followed by commando/bh heals, then a vanguard/powertech tank, and scrapper/conceal smuggler/operative

Its happened to me a lot as well, usually in huttball, and usually after landing from being airborn(via force push, the air vents, ect.)

No they don't, but its the same principal, its something u have to grind out and work for to make your character better.

As soon as these legacy buffs were put into the game in 1.2 I started leveling different classes in my spare time. Basically just to get the buffs for my main character. These buffs are available to everyone, and anyone could grind them if they wanted them. Personally I look at people who claim to want to be competative in pvp but haven't bothered getting them as somewhat lazy. These buffs should definatly still be allowed in RWZ, as they are just another grind that someone must do to have the most complete character they can. Should other things that are available to all players, but that some players choose not to get, also be removed from RWZ? "Hey I didn't feel like spending my time getting datacrons, but all those people that did spend time on it have a unfair advantage, take those datacron stats out of RWZ!!" See how ridiculous it can get? Don't ask for another nerf just because you're too lazy to grind out another option to make your character better. Just get out there and grind it. Btw, you can usually finish chapter 2 around level 36, with ~2 days /played...

Well I'm gonna get back on topic here with the reasons I don't play ranked warzones. 1. Server transfers came too late, and almost everyone I played with quit the game. Since transfering I've joined a pretty good pvp guild that runs ranked on a nightly basis and has some success (most people are rated between 1700 and 2000) but since I don't play a FOTM class, and since I'm one of the "new guys" in the guild, I spend most nights sitting out, occassionally being brought in as a backup. 2. Finding 8 people from outside of the guild that can actually work together and have some success is pretty much impossible. 3. Class imbalances are still a problem, not as terrible as most people on these forums lead you to believe, but its definatly an issue. 4. Lag in warzones. It's out of control! Period.

Here are some suggestions I've thought up to generally help with sage issues. They mostly are small changes that I think would make us just a little more viable in ranked warzones. I've played my sage since release, have 57 days /played on him, am valor rank 91, and legacy 39 even though he is my only level 50 character. Note: I play balance, and see balance as the best option for sage dps in pvp, so most of these suggestions affect the balance tree. 1. Prescence of mind increased to a 40% proc rate(up from 30) and 30% damage increase(up from 20) 2. Force supression bonus damage increased to 25%(up from 20) 3. Force speed removes any stun or snare effects, and makes the user immune to slow effects(but not stuns/snares) for the duration. 4. Force armor's force cost reduced by 5%, and absorbs 25% more damage when cast on self. 5. Focused insight and Force inbalance regenerate force as well as health. 6. Phychic Absorbtion increased to 75% per point(up from 50) and includes force regen. 7. Restoration cost reduced by 10 force, and gives a buff that reduces damage taken by 5% and increases movement speed by 3% for 5 seconds when cast on self. 8. Sever force DoT uptime reduced to 10 seconds(from 18) 9. A new 2 point talent that increases that damage, healing, and force regen of force inbalance by 4%, and damage of project by 2% for each of your damage over time debuff's on the target, per point in the talent. So basically that's what I've worked up. Numbers 1,2,8, and 9 add a little more cannon to the glass. Numbers 3, 4, 6, and 7 thicken the glass a bit, and numbers 4,5,6,7 all help with force regen.

2 heals, 2 tanks, 4 dps. Scoundrel - heals Commando - heals Shadow - tank Guardian - tank Gunslinger - dps Sage - dps(possibly hybrid if u feel the extra heals are needed) Sentinel - dps Vanguard - dps So that gives you 3 characters that can give guard if need be. 2 potential ball carrier, 2 stealth, 2 grapples, 1 rescue, a nice mix of direct damage burst, plus great aoe when needed.

Title say it all. Normally I try to stay around 30% crit, as close to 80% bonus from surge, and all the rest power. Is this optimal for pvp? What about alacrity? As on now I pick up very little of it.

Let me start by saying blink is not the answer. I've played a dps sage since release, and I have to say the class certainly need to be reevaluated when it comes to their survivability/damage output, however I'm not sure that a blink will really help much. As of right now playing full balance will give you seemingly a large amount of useful abilities to keep melee opponents at a distance. These include instant force lift, aoe knockback, instant ranged stun, instant slow, instant snare, force armor, and force speed. The problem is that the two classes that give us the most trouble come with enough utilities to close the gap in almost all cases. Between being able to spec the cooldown and minimum distance of charge, being able to force camoflage out of snares, being able to slow and snare, as well as choke, debuff healing, and hit for decent amounts from a small range with lightsaber throws, the chances of a sage/sorc being able to successfully kite a sent/marauder with equal gear is very small. Same situation with powertechs, they can charge or grapple you into range for their semi hard hitting melee abilities, stack their dots, then pound you with railshot as you try to escape. All of this is somewhat acceptable. I believe that classes should have abilities to keep potential kiters within range of their attacks, however what is unacceptable is the difference in damage output and survivability once engaged. The fact is that both of these classes (not to mention juggs and tankassins) have so many abilties to close that gap that u really don't have much of a choice other than to stand and fight at certain times, and when u do stand and fight, these classes have defensive cooldowns that mitigate damage (rather than just give u a chance to try to escape the fight, like our cooldowns), cooldowns that regenerate hp (as balance we do leach back a small amount of hp from our dot crits, however its so little that it seems to barely make a difference when a marauder is melting your face with back to back 4k crits, especially when he has a healing debuff on you), and have overall can put out more damage faster... So I know that got a little long-winded, but what I'm trying to say I guess is that instead of giving us another cooldown that creates distance, just to have the gap closed, give us some kind of survivability or at least a damage output advantage when we are forced to engage....

1 guardian tank 1 shadow tank 1 scoundrel healer 1 vanguard dps 1 gunslinger dps 1 sage healer 2 sentinel dps Comp works with a second shadow or vanguard tank instead of the guardian, however having the guardian can be a real game changer in huttball, and now that you can no longer climb over the side to reach the middle turret in civil war, force pushing an unaware opponent from the top ledge over the wall to the opposite side takes that person out of the fight for a looong time.