I feel like the OP. And honestly I don't get the negative reactions (my limit, for sure...). It's 2012 and most games/MMOs are trying to shift towards a more open approach to classes and abilities, offering more flexibility and customization to your playstyle (Rift? GW2?). The very idea that classes can only be clones across games (mage->sage->...) and that you should be deeply restricted in your roles in my opinion comes from a lack of imagination, nothing less. It could be perfectly doable just to offer more options. Unfortunately SWTOR improved and innovated the genre on MANY aspects, but not on classes and the way their work. Those who are asking for more options and creativity (i.e.: Jedi's are not Mages, so make them play in a unique way...) are doing this game a favour. Then, of course, if you really really want to get stuck with the same classes across all games you play, go for it, I guess. But don't expect the others to necessarily be happy about that.

Wonderful OP. Well-thought, insightful, positive. Even if I probably don't dislike the "throwing" theme as much as he does, I have to admit that probably his suggestions would be overall more consistent and overall cool. The animation coolness fact has certainly some role in creating a slight faction unbalance, and that should be corrected. This is one of those cases where you hope the developers will be humble enough to listen and build upon their users suggestions...

Make Double Strike scaling with Willpower a talent which also increases its cost making it not efficient in the long run. Problem solved. Really, I am always puzzled by this "it would be clearly overpowered and I tell you why" statements. The balance of powers in every game design is achieved by calibrating various abilities and how they work, it's as simple as that. This game already has melee classes with some ranged abilities and ranged classes with some melee abilities, and they are balanced as far as they have been correctly designed to be so. The same could be for Sages and their single base class melee ability. Then you may not like the idea, and that's entirely legitimate, but it has nothing to do with something self-evident or necessary in itself.

I definitely endorse the OP. Shadow specced Consulars do have some viable ranged damage abilities, even if not as powerful as Sages. There's no reason for Sages not to be able to have some viable melee abilities, even if not as powerful as Shadows. Think out of the box once in a while, please. And yes, I know, Shadows can't heal themselves. But they can go stealth, while sages don't. You can have different opinions on this, sure. But stop stating that Willpower scaling in melee for Sages would be clearly overpowered as if it was a self-evident statment. It just ISN'T the case.

No mages here. This is Star Wars The Old Republic, people play Jedi's. Moreover, there's plenty of MMOs with ranged classes who also have some melee abilities. I really don't understand this Sage=WoW Mage idea, claimed as if it was self-evident that every MMO has identical classes which play the same way: it's simply not the case. Within this very same game Shadow Consulars are a mainly melee class with some minor ranged abilities and there's nothing unconceivable in an opposite option (in fact, that's exactly how Balance Sages worked during a specific Beta period). About the OP: I appreciate your creative ideas, but I have to say that I am not sold on them. Telekinesis is present in SW lore and imaginery, and it rarely involves the use of lightsaber, if not in the case already implemented by the Jedi Knight. I still see more consistent the idea of a Jedi Sage as capable of moving things around but still rarely using her lightsaber when pressed to close quarters. It just seems to me it flows better with the Jedi ways. But I understand this is still debatable...

This is called straw-man argument, technically. Depict the interlocutor as if claiming something he isn't and then proceed to criticize the false claim. Nobody in this thread has asked for the sage to be a melee DPS class or, even less, a tank. It's just a desire to have a basic melee ability actually implemented in a somewhat meaningful way up to max level, exactly as it happens for the basic ranged abilities of our Shadow Consular counterpart. Pretty simple and, in my humble opinion, perfectly reasonable.

Personally I am quite disappointed by this, as the OP is. I can understand that there are different preferences and points of view on this issue. Bioware took a certain route with the Sage and denied any, even minimal melee viability. That's a debatable option, sure. I kinda dislike it, someone else may like it. What I politely but strongly resist is the idea that the my option "doesn't make sense" or that what we would like to see "it's impossible". That's not the case, for the following reasons: - The Shadow AC is mainly melee but still with some effective ranged abilities. There's nothing intrinsecally impossible in giving to some extent an opposite option (mainly ranged, but some modest melee ability). - It's not true that in every game/MMO around you can only have strictly ranged or strictly melee classes. There's plenty of hybrids which are mainly one of the two, but with secondary access to the other side of things. The fact that mages in WoW are not like that doesn't mean that's the only way you can build and playa caster in a videogame forever. The world is bigger and offers more option than what Blizzard did with some of the classes or one of its videogames (which I played and enjoyed for years, just to be clear). I hope we can still agree on this. Moreover, even if all the MMOs so far would have done it this way (and, again, it's NOT the case) that still wouldn't be a reason not to offer something new. SWTOR does lots of things that previews MMOs didn't, and that's exactly one of the reasons so many of us are playing it. - The fact that at the moment if you are in close range the most convenient options never include your saber strike proves only that at the moment the Sage has been designed like that. A minimal but still viable utility for your single melee ability is not absurd or unconceivable. I find rather odd the contrary, to be honest. - I am perfectly fine with the idea that not every Jedi has to be conceived as saber-centered. I am so fine with it that I in fact chose to play a Sage. But that doesn't mean that I should think my character along the lines of a fantasy Wizard holding a staff. If I want to play a Wizard with a staff, I have thousands of other games available. Here I want to play a Jedi who focused on Telekinetic abilities. I will never be on par with a Jedi/Sith who focused on lightsaber skills, but still it would be nice and entirely reasonable to think that I can to some extent hold my ground with my saber, even if for a short time and in a non-optimal way. So, I can understand the other points of view, and I deeply respect them. But I still think that's entirely reasonable to advocate for a little bit of more spice given back to the Sage at melee level. Nothing game changing, but a very nice plus...