SAGE/SORCERER PvE HEALING GUIDE Guide by Webb - Wall of Light (US) For more class guides as well as hard mode flashpoint/operations guides, visit http://www.torpro.net! The latest version of this guide can be found here. Table of Contents i. Introduction ii. Talents iii. Stat Priorities iv. Spells v. Gear i.Introduction Sages and sorcerers are the most well-rounded healers in the game. Equipped with strong AoE heals, excellent single-target heals, they are able to handle any healing situation. This guide will attempt to lay out a basic guide for healing as a sage/sorcerer. Keep in mind that certain situations will require the healer to make decisions, and that the "best practices" as described in this guide will not apply to every encounter. Please post comments and feedback on our forum thread. It can be found at: http://torpro.net/forum/index.php?topic=11.msg13#new ii. Talents Maximum Healing (31/7/3) This healing spec is designed to maximize healing and contains all talents which increase healing received and dealt, including the talents in the Seer (healing) tree. A couple talents are debatable here, but if you don't find it necessary to have the extra 20% movement speed buff from Force Armor, then this is the most optimal healing build. If you find the pushback reduction from Foresight unnecessary, then a build like this would be more suitable. Personally, I find that in many of the current normal and hard mode flashpoints, healers are susceptible to unavoidable damage which makes the knockback reduction a much better choice than the movement speed bonus. iii. Stat Priorities Stat priorities in this game seem to be a bit different than in other popular MMOs. As your maximum Focus pool does not increase from gear, you will find that alacrity rating is not necessarily optimal in PvE, unlike in some MMOs. Some amount of alacrity rating is still desirable as it scales well with a number of your abilities, but since you are using up Focusat a higher rate, it can also be detrimental to your healing. The itemization on the tiered gear appears to be quite good so far, and I haven't found it really necessary to start swapping mods around yet. Until the combat logs are released, I will refrain from commenting on optimal stats - so far, a healthy balance seems to be quite effective (although it does seem like crit is too plentiful for my liking). iv. Spells Rejuvenate/Resurgence While on its own the spell isn't too powerful compared to your major heals, the buff from your talents make this #1 on your priority list. Paired with Deliverance, it will provide you with maximum healing, and if paired with Healing Touch, it will make for extremely focus-efficient healing for a small dent in HPS. This spell should almost always be on cooldown. Healing Trance / Innervate This spell is your bread and butter heal. The focus cost is extremely low, considering it will have the highest HPS of all your healing spells (before Rejuvenate buff). Since it has a 3 second channeling time, alacrity rating gives it a big boost to healing. Keep in mind that since this spell scales better with gear than any other spell, so it will have more HPS than an unbuffed Deliverance (for example, the HPS of my HT is 1314 vs 1160 HPS for my Deliverance). This spell should almost always be on cooldown. The talents from this spell allow you to heal without a huge loss to efficiency almost indefinitely. Make sure to use your Consumption/Noble Sacrifice each time it procs, and you will rarely go OoM. Deliverance / Dark Infusion This spell scales quite well, and if used after a Rejuvenate, is your highest HPS spell. However, if the healing power of Deliverance is not required, keeping Rejuvenate and HT on cooldown with the occasional Deliverance will keep your Focus high. Salvation / Revivification Your only AoE spell, and it is both very powerful and costly to use. It can heal allies up to 8 yards away, but the animation on the floor is inaccurate. Learning to judge the actual distance of the cast is important in maximizing the potential of this situational ability. Benevolence / Dark Heal This spell is almost useless. The only time it could be useful is if someone will die before you can finish a Deliverance cast. Still, it is good to have it on your spell bar as an emergency heal, and it has its uses in PvP. Force Armor / Static Barrier Try to keep this up as much as possible on the tank and anyone else taking damage. With a mix of blue/hard mode flashpoint gear, it seems to absorb around 2-3k damage, but it is difficult to figure out without a combat log or damage meter in the game. If my estimation is correct, then it is roughly on par or even better than HT in terms of HPS. In some hard modes, bosses may have abilities which deal more than the amount of HP you have (ie. if you are undergeared). Putting up a Force Armor may help you survive these abilities. v. Gear For those just hitting level 50, I recommend completing as many daily and weekly PvP quests as possible. These quests give you gear bags which have a chance to contain commendations to be used toward epic PvP gear, or, if you're lucky, just PvP gear. While not optimal for PvE, the tier 1-2 PvP gear can replace blues and greens that you were wearing when leveling. The extra endurance (and willpower) will give you an extra edge in survival and power when attempting certain hard mode boss fights. Bosses like Vokk, Ironfist, and XRR-3(Eternity Vault - hard) have spells that pack a punch for people with low hp and armor (sages come into mind). For flashpoints, I recommend doing hardmode The False Emperor as much as possible as a sage. It is one of the easier hardmode 4-man instances that most groups can finish without wiping too much, even though many groups complain about HK-47 (unfortunate that it is a dps fight and not really a healing oriented one). The other reason for doing this flashpoint is because of the insane amount of sage gear that drops from 3/4 bosses that are in this instance. You should be attempting Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace with your guild (or pugs) on normal once you have attained a good number of pieces from the methods above. The bosses on normal are a real joke and it is important to clear these areas every week for free loot (item level range from 128 tionese types to 136 columi tier).

yeah, a couple of the bosses in directive 7 feel a bit too powerful for fresh 50s.. the boss mechanics just feel a bit unnatural (ie standing underneath the panels) and like a lot of the hard modes, dps is a huge problem for undergeared groups. if you're still having trouble with bulwark, i found this guide to be fairly helpful (even in a PuG!).

SHARPSHOOTER PVE/PVP GUIDE Guide by BonBon - Wall of Light (US) For more class guides as well as hard mode flashpoint/operations guides, visit http://www.torpro.net! The latest version of this guide can be found here. Table of Contents i. Introduction ii. Talents iii. Rotations and Mechanics iv. Stat Priorities v. Gear i. Introduction Bursting down people/creatures for huge numbers from halfway across a map is always a neat experience. It's even better when you don't have to pay much attention to any boss cleaving, running in and out of boss aoe abilities, and (best of all) when it is a clear wipe you can just use the "exit area". The Sharpshooter PVE/PVP Guide will be breaking down the class and analyzing how it really works. Please post comments and feedback on the forum thread. It can be found at: http://torpro.net/forum/index.php?topic=6.0 ii. Talents Standard "Do Everything" Sharpshooter Build (31/2/8) or (31/5/5) *sabotage/dirty fighting talents can be changed around depending on your preferences (ie. taking Bravado and maxing cunning for 31/5/5 or 31/2/8, etc) This is probably the most pvp/pve balanced spec for anyone looking to be utilizing the sharpshooter tree for doing both pvp and pve (or leveling), without wanting to respec. Some adjustments can be made if you exclusively pve or pvp; however, I feel most of the talents fit together very well even if you have a preference only for pvp/pve. PVE Considerations: *If you are primarily concerned with pve, it might interest you to take out Bravado if you have it (and maybe a point out of Streetwise, haven't done the testing) and grab the Vital shot talents in the Dirty Fighting tree. Bravado is also nice for pve, but taking the vital shot talents might improve your overall dps by a little bit. *I'm also going to point out that Percussive Shot and Diversion don't have much use in pve, but the alternatives aren't very great either (have to take either Cover Screen or Trip Shot). They are excellent for pvp though *On the same note, you might be thinking, "Gee, well Ballistic Dampers doesn't do much for me in pve too...". Well that isn't exactly correct because it does have the potential to save you from getting killed by certain bosses that do raid damage or specifically target you (ie. XRR-3, it reduces a good 4-5k dmg on hard and nightmare mode). Sure it doesn't add to your overall dps potential, but its better than the alternatives and can actually save you from dying occasionally. *For the decision to take Burst Volley, while I agree that it probably isn't the greatest of talents that the sharpshooter tree offers, I feel that it is still marginally better than Lay Low and (to a lesser extent) Trip Shot. I say this both as someone who is mainly doing pve with some pvp added into the mix. Most pve fights so far do not require the deduction in XS Freighter Flyby (from Lay Low). It is mainly used to clear trash faster; however, for fights like Gharj (hardmode), I can only get off the XS Flyby spell twice (first add wave then second/third wave) regardless if I took the talent or not. Burst Volley vs Trip Shot is more of a preference issue between somebody who mainly pvps with some pve or vice versa. All in all, Burst Volley does offer a marginal increase to lower gcd, speedshot cast time, and a o.1sec off aimshot. PVP Considerations: *Not sure about exact rating caps for accuracy, but the pvp gear currently available have a lot of accuracy rating on them. I've considered taking out two points off the Sharpshooter talent and placing them into Cover Screen, but I have not done any math on the effects it will have on pvp targets. Cover Screen has its obvious benefits in pvp, even gunslingers have to move around constantly to find a better position or kite targets. *I find Bravado extremely helpful in pvp because you'll be needing to spend energy a lot of energy and might find yourself dropping below 60 energy very often. Dirty Escape is also a pretty cool talent too, but it is hard to fit that talent in because it is purely for pvping, where as the other options improve all aspects of play. *Rapid Fire/Speedshot isn't all that great (still good in some cases) when it comes to playing in warzones because people are running out of range or sight all the time. It is pretty good in pve though, so unless pvp in SWTOR become super competitive, there's no real need to figure out min/maxing talents that have some uses in other areas. *May want to swap out Burst Volley for more pvp-oriented options, such as Trip Shot (or even cover screen). General tips for those new to the playstyle: The Sharpshooter tree has talents that try to improve the damage output of your casting abilities (aimed shot, charged burst, and speed shot). The most important talents that holds this tree together are Foxhole, Trickshot, Deadeye, and (to a lesser extent) Quick Aim. Everything about Trickshot (with the Recoil Control + Deadeye talent) is simply amazing. It has a super low energy cost, yet firing it after an aimed shot or charged shot will provide some of the sickest bursts in the game. The remaining talents I put in the sabotage and dirty fighting tree really complete the rest of the spec. All of them serve to beef up the gunslinger's stats, making them stronger; however, I feel that most people don't give Bravado (+10 energy) enough credit (although putting the talents into vital shot is probably better). Bravado does much more than just increase your maximum energy by ten, it provides the user with much more room in regards to the whole energy management aspect of the gunslinger class. iii. Rotations and Mechanics Energy Management As a gunslinger, the rate of missing energy returned is determined by how much energy you have left. The maximum rate of energy returned per tick is capped when you have 60 or higher energy. With the Bravado talent (if you have it), sharpshooters have it super easy when it comes to energy management, compared to players using mainly the dirty fighting tree. Scrambling Field and XS Freighter Flyby Not exclusive to sharpshooters; however, scrambling field and XS Freighter Flyby are sick spells you should abuse whenever you can. Scrambling Field can help make certain boss fights easier (ie. XRR-3, Ironfist, and other bosses on higher difficulty); learn when to use it and you will become very valuable to any group. XS Freighter Flyby is probably the strongest aoe spell in the game right now (and can even be directly improved through talents and tier bonuses). It is often used to clear trash mobs, but for fights where the boss spawn adds (Gharj, Lt. Isric, Ironfist, etc) make this spell just insanely easier to down bosses. Ability Rotations Sharpshooters use ability rotations that are fairly conservative when it comes to wasting energy. Most of the time in pve, you are relatively safe and do not have to move around too much (able to setup spells in a sequence without needing to move or be interupted). Even if you have to move periodically, you can use your intuition and piece together your dps chains smoothly. *For pvp situations where you really want to open a long dps chain, but do not want to get interupted or knocked back, use your Hunker Down ablity (with defense screen if you want) to keep you in. Decent DPS Opener (broke it down a bit in steps for easier viewing): 1. Generally speaking, I like to keep Flourish Shot and Vital Shot up at all times, unless they have very low hp. I open up with these two. 2. Aimed Shot -> Trickshot (use relic "A" and Illegal mods here if you want) 3. Speedshot -> Rapid Fire -> Speedshot -> Speedshot (sometimes it bugs and lets you use a fourth speedshot without the cooldown) 4. Sabo Charge -> Charged Burst -> Trickshot -> *start re-applying Vital Shot when it is off the target 5. Flurry of Bolts -> Smuggler's Luck -> Charged Burst -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot 6. Keep energy around 80ish, if you want to get in some extra charged bursts - use Cool Heads to bring the energy back up. 7. From here, use Speed shot when it is back up and your relic "B" when the cd is ready. Your cooldowns on spells will refresh and you can reapply various dps patterns (ie. aimed shot + trickshot, etc) 8. Relic "A", illegal mods, and rapid fire will refresh around the same time together. I like to wait and combine these cooldowns together to make the three speedshots much stronger (+the other spells after it that are affected by the buffs). iv. Stat Priorities *Without damage parsers, this section will mainly be thoughts and ideas I have come up with from playing the game. On accuracy: I'm not quite sure about the accuracy stat itself. I think it isn't exactly armor pen after 100%, more likely it just starts to bite on a target's dodge/parry stat (whereas the 100% reduces the chance to miss). The rakata/colomi gear has a massive amount of primarily accuracy rating. On alacrity: Alacrity is pretty useless for our class, from what I can tell. With how the energy system works, I don't see how alacrity is very useful for us in general (we end up burning our energy faster to maybe fit in 1-2 extra auto attacks throughout a longish fight). On power: Power is probably the correct choice to stack after 100% accuracy (unless stacking accuracy after the 100% ends up yielding better results in pve). I mostly say this because it is never a bad stat to get because it doesn't depend on another stat (surge -> crit) and power is great for pve and pvp, whereas accuracy seems to mainly be for pve. On surge and crit: I do want to give surge a menthion though. Our crit is already quite high with crit boosting talents. On paper, surge might be one of the most effective stats to be stacking with crit after 100% accuracy (especially true for pvp). The surge stat seems to increase the %dmg crit by a lot per point. I haven't checked how much per point it is, but mine is already around 68-72% without stacking it on my gear. With the Deadeye talent, I always get an excited feeling every time my trickshot cooldown comes up and I get very high crits (very often with our high base crit). I haven't added in the stat priority part mainly because I am unsure of the mechanics of accuracy. I haven't drawn conclusions about whether it will be worthwhile to be stacking accuracy past 100% (although bioware seems to love added accuracy on everything), instead of going for a stat like surge + some crit. Perhaps something along the lines of: -100% accuracy -> power -> crit or surge This seems the safest bet for now; however, when some tests come out for accuracy past 100%, this might all change for pve. If you mainly pvp, I feel the equation above is probably the most effective stat allocation for doing damage on dynamic targets, such as players, that are constantly on the move and running around. Pretty much anything except alacrity has some use. v. Gear For those just hitting level 50, it is recommended to complete as many daily and weekly pvp quests (ilum and warzones) as possible. These quests give you champion gear bags that have centurion commendations and a chance for epic pieces to drop. While not optimal for doing pve (still sick good), the tier 1-2 pvp gear can replace blues and greens that you were wearing when leveling. The cunning is unusually high on certain pvp pieces (some higher than pve pieces) and are surprisingly still great for doing a lot of pve content with. Gear from hardmode flashpoints are pretty easy to attain for gunslingers. Even if your team consist of players with unimpressive gear, utilizing scrambling field and other goodies (ie. XS FREIGHTER FLYBY YEAAA) can keep your team from dying most of the time. Can't name a hardmode that caused much problems for gunslingers in general (closest is probably Vokk because you have to cancel casts to move away). You should be attempting Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace with your guild (or pugs) on normal once you have attained a good number of pieces from the methods above. The bosses on normal are a real joke and it is important to clear these areas every week for free loot (item level range from 128 tionese types to 136 columi tier).

Thanks for organizing all the information! If you could add my guide to the list, that would be great. It is hosted at http://www.torpro.net/guides/sage-class-guide. Thanks again!

They are all doable in 45-50 blues, and since you already have some PvP pieces, you should be able to breeze through them (assuming the rest of your group is adequately geared and knows the fights). This site seems to have good guides for heroic FPs if you need them: http://www.torpro.net/pve.