As a sage with this spec I actually do use our wrath equivilent for our lightning strike equiv. The reason for this is because wrath procs so much that I will likely see it up an average of 2-3 times in the span of the CD on crushing darkness. The rule of thumb that I use is if its up and I have more than 3 seconds left on the dot CD I use it to grab an insta 1k+ hit, 3 seconds or less and I will save if for the next insta dot. The only thing that takes this out of the rotation is if I have barrage procs up then I ignore the others untill I use that barrage.

As a level 41 full heal spec sage, I know your situation. Some tips that I have found the hard way, start healing before you or your target gets below 90%, I find it easier to keep up a target longer that way, and the longer you keep the target up the better chance the ADD"HD adle brained dps will lose interest and leap to a new target. Stack your heals, by this i mean place your aoe heal, then HoT and bubble then channel healing trance, doing this can heal a lot of damage over the time that these things are up. I pretty much took the long cast big heal completely off of my bars. My standard rotation Bubble (if you can) HoT, AoE heal, Healing Trance, HoT <rinse and repeat as CD's are up throw the fast cast heal when the rest are on CD> Doing this I can keep people up decently, but I do run out of force a lot.

At the end of the day this argument is really pointless in most situations because when the heat is on, with the amount of damage flying around in WZ's, taking a GCD to cleanse will most likely mean a dead target. I get into situations all the time where my target is being beat down, I am chain healing keeping his head just above the water, my big heal is too slow to cast he would be dead before it finished, and my instants are too small, they are doing more dmg than the instant or channeles can keep up with, the only option is the small fast heal which heals just enough, fast enough to take the target from 5% to 10% just in time for the dps to take them back to 5% any interuption in that chain heal and that target is dead. So it becomes a race to see who's resource lasts longer, and a sage healer post 1.2 will always lose that race.

If things were 1v1 then this ^^ would be a valid complaint, but there are 3 of you DPS for every healer in a WZ, most of the time more than that, so someones debuff will stick for long enough to kill the target. Our cleanse is on about the same CD as your interupt, 2 interupters on a healer can effectivly lock that healer out of all but the smallest heals, and with the large numbers flying around WZ's these days small heals just dont cut it. And lets not forget that cc and knockbacks also interupt casted heals, they just dont lock out that heal but still interupt a 1.5 second cast heal thats at least 3 seconds before a casted heal can land, add in your interupt on the next cast there is another 1.5 seconds wasted with no healing output, i switch to another heal since that one is locked out, bam cc stops that one so there i am nearly 6 seconds from when i tried to start healing and still no healing output. post 1.2 it isnt unheard of for a good dps to put down nearly 10k or more dmg in 6 seconds. So now you are 3/4 dead or if you didnt trinket out of the cc most likey allready dead. The only way healers survive these days is on the good humor of tanks that pay attention and use guard and taunts to reduce the incomming dmg to the point that our smallest heals can at least stem the flow of pain from a torrent to a trickle because out large to medium heals just cant land reliably anymore. Problem is too many of these players dont pay enough attention to where the heals are comming from on their own team so we dont get guard/taunts enough.

You could use the same argument over casting any cast time heal when there are interupts near. Almost every dps has an interupt, when yould you need to cast a heal? when DPS is nearby, but when DPS is nearby that heal would get interupted (and locked out for longer than it takes then to kill you) But you still heal because not every DPS is smart enough to find their interupt at the correct moment, just like not every healer is smart enough to find their cleanse at the correct moment.

Another disadvantage for healers is, as a dps, especially melee dps, when your out of resource you can still deal dmg, just not the big hits, and those small hits build your resource back up. As a healer when your out of resource thats it, your useless you can no longer do your job, and since they made the changes in 1.2, healers run out alot faster now since damage out strips healing, and there are more sources of damage in a match than there are sources of healing. Think about it, DPS crits hit upwards of 9k now for a good heatseeker, the best heal crit I have ever seen was just over 5k, so your already at nearly a 4k difference now add in the fact that there are 3-4 dps for every healer in a WZ, all adds up to healers fighting a losing battle before they even get started.

There lies the rub, they tried to "balance" out healer as if it was 1v1 healer vs dps, sure I can still keep myself alive untill I run out of force when I have a single dps on me, even longer if I use LoS and posistioning. What they failed to take into consideration is that healers have a whole team that they need to worry about healing, that one dps can effectivly remove me from the match if i choose to live rather than heal my team, or I can ignore him, die in a few seconds and hope my contribution in those few seconds was enough to allow my team to reach the objective. Gone are the days where two healers on a team can be expected to reasonably keep 3-4 others as well as themselves alive now you have to choose, keep your self alive or help your team for a few seconds. Now if 2+ dps decide I need to die, I usually do so within the standard 4 second stun duration, sometimes less if my bubble wasnt refreshed before the stun.

The only time you should be using the big 2.2 second heal in PvP is to top a person off when the heat is off. With the changes in 1.2 that big heal is just too slow to react to the speed of PvP burst. Since the changes I use healing trance a lot more and I am still tossing 300k+ in WZ's and keeping ppl up just fine as long as they dont have 3+ ppl on them, which we shouldnt have been able to do in the first place.

Your first mistake was to put WoW and "real gamers" together in the same sentence. Seriously WoW was what kicked off the carebear generation of MMO gamers that feel like they should be able to go through the entire game without having to group up and work as a team in anything. All MMO games prior to WoW almost required you to group up, be social and learn teamwork to tackle anything past lvl 10 worth doing. Then along came WoW and the carebear kiddies that were bad at teamwork cried, and WoW listened and made it so you could solo to max level if you sucked too bad to get a group. Problem was, these perpetual petulent kids outnumbered those gamers that actually tried to be better, so WoW became popular and became the business model for all future MMO's.

For the purposes of game mechanics, roots are actually considered 100% snare, so to have them effected by resolve, then snares would also be effected.

If you read back a post or 3 I said I am all for them adding arena's, ppl are gonna cry no matter what is or isnt in the game, its in their nature, the average gamer will cry rather than adjust to the situation and figure out different ways around their percieved problems.

Most of those WZ related nerf crys mention at some point their "experience" in 1v1 situation vs the class in question. So yea the cry for nerf originates from something that happens in a WZ, but the basis for it is still the same 1v1 balance mentality that this game just isnt built on. It was designed as a team based, team balanced game, if they meant it to be a 1v1 balanced game then every class would have access to some form of in combat heal.

LoL @ crying over 1v1 balance in a team based game. If they wanted this game to balance around 1v1 every class would have some form of an in combat heal. No they meant this game to be balanced around team play.

I am all for them creating a room and letting these "people" that want it, DM it out in there, make it seperate from regular WZ que's so that if you dont want to DM you dont have to. That will get some of these noobs out of the WZ's that like to fight out in the middle ignoring the objectives then tell everyone how leet they are and how everyone else sucks cause they lost. And those that are saying that DM arena's are more challenging PvP than objective based WZ's...well in DM arenas, you have to worry about killing the other team more than they kill you, no real strat, stick together, watch each others backs and try to assist train ftw. in objective based WZ's, you have to worry about all that plus completing the objective and preventing the other team from completing it. Objective based WZ's just require one step of thought more than your average DM'r can manage, proof of this, watch when defending in voidstar, there is allways some glowstick wielding monkey out there fighting 50m or more away from the doors while the other team caps the door, thats your average DM'r right there.

This is the build I am aiming for in PvP http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400rzrrdRoRMZrI0boR.1 I think that this spec offers optimal utility for PvP while keeping damage respectable

I was the one that posted that "rotation", and as the OP didnt specify only tank shadows/sins I was just refering to my average encounter with that advanced class. But since you brought it up, I will say, yes I do die to tank specced shadows/sins, however it is never a "horrible death" nor is it ever as one sided as you make it out to be. First off, as someone else mentioned you shouldnt be targeting a tank spec anything in 1v1 but in the event that you find yourself all alone vs one you must fight smart, wise use of your control abilities to "kite" from cover to cover, the less that they are in melee range of you the more limited they are in what they can do to you. The rotation that I posted (obviously vs a tank type you wont get to takedown on the first round) should leave you having only been hit once in melee and leave them at full resolve, you follow up with a leg shot and use the full duration of it to get some distance. Doing this when ever leg shot is up can draw the fight out allowing you time for your CD's like cover pulse, orbital strike and flash bang to come back up and possibly find help, or just frustrate them into giving up.

As a MM sniper I dont have that much trouble with most assassin/shadows, when they unstealth on me i hit cover pulse, entrench, target them hit ambush - EP - leg shot - followthru - corrosive (by now they are just getting back into melee range) debilitate - snipe - takedown. If they pop a defensive CD I will flashbang them and reposition, no sense wasting energy on them while their defensive cd is up.

If this had anything to do with it, your MM specced sniper would be hitting better numbers than the others since MM is mostly physical (white) damage witha bit of tech (yellow) thrown in and nearly no internal

I love to go into huttball and piss off as many of the other team as possible, then laugh as they cant seem to let go of chasing me every time they see me while my team runs the ball and scores. I play on their need to show that they are better, causing them to drop what they are doing to focus me when they see me, sure I die alot, sure I end up with low numbers, and most of the time even my own team doesnt know what i did for them, but I never have trouble getting needed wins. If people didnt get tunnel vision and feel the need to finish what they start by chasing me down, my job would be alot harder, so pls, deathmatch more.

I will take a well played OP any day over any of those other "best for huttball" classes played by some of the min/max idiots that post in here, min/maxer's have a certain "comfort zone" you take them out of that zone and they flop around like a fish out of water, a well played OP will know how to adapt his gameplay to meet any situation, he is used to making his skill set work for anything, so when a team plays unconventionally he will be able to adapt and handle it better than those who allways pick the "best" class for the zone.

Snipers have bar none the best defensive skills in huttball in the form of CC's, a very long duration (if ppl dont go aoe happy) aoe mezz, a melee range standard stun, an aoe knockback with a nice duration root and a short CD single target long range root that lasts a min of 2 seconds regardless of resolve. Do you know how many enemy ballcarriers have died in the fire thanks to my smart use of leg shot? how many enemies beating on my own ballcarrier have been blocked by fire thanks to a well timed flashbang? See, snipers really can make and break the game for a team, its just no one "see's" us doing it, I am off to the side of the pit leg shotting the ballcarrier as he hits the fire, I am hunkered down on the ramps using my aoe knockback at the right moment to create space for my ballcarrier, no one see's me do what I do, but you couldnt do what you just did without me.

And a DPS specced sorc dies alot faster than an entrenched sniper, or a well played merc. I go head to head vs a DPS sorc for control of the middle on my sniper I am done with him in 4-5 GCD's without losing 50% of my health. I cant tell you how many times I laughed as a sorc or sage grabbed the ball at mid and went to sprit off only to be faceplanted by an OP and relieved of the ball after a short burst of dps. A wide reciever *can* block a defensive end, doesnt mean he is the best man for the job, A running back *can* and at times has to block a nose tackle, doesnt mean he will do it well. A wrench *can* be used to drive a nail, its not the best use of the tool though. Point being, sure those classes percieved to have all the toys for huttball can fill all roles in huttball, doesnt mean they are the best at that role, or that they have to be slotted there.

We understand, you can do the stuff that the other classes can do, our point is the other classes can still contribute, can you do what they can? sure, but they can do part of what you can also, while playing the class they like instead of being pigeon-hole'd into playing the class with the most toys to min/max

These posts are like a 300lb lineman in football complaining that the game is unfairly balanced so that the 180lb reciever can do more. Plain and simple the ppl that post these types of posts are butthurt that they dont get the glory. Your class doesnt have the tools to do the scoring in huttball, here are your options, reroll a glory class, or find a way to contribute. Crying to BW to change the game because your choses playstyle and class isnt the game changing glory hound you want it to be is like the carebears that say even the losing little league team deservs a tophy.