I'd guess most people just use the Balance Sage guide on Dulfy as a reference and translate the abilities over themselves. ETA: http://dulfy.net/2015/11/12/swtor-4-0-balance-sage-pve-guide-by-splizza/

I don't really care about raiding content, but that's just me. I think there's probably room for debate about just how social raiding really is, but it all comes down to semantics, preferences, and individual experiences. I do question a move to WoW if what you're looking for is an energized raiding group. Until their xpac drops, I'm guessing it'll be a little dead on that front.

I guess it depends on what the real gripe is. If the problem is that people are bored with the current group content, and new FPs, Ops (etc) are overdue, then that's one thing. I don't happen to be bored, but I get why someone else might be. Incidentally, it's a general problem with all MMOs as far as I can tell. Player bases have become more and more skilled had farming content. Bioware may be comparatively slow, and if people don't feel like they're getting their money's worth...well, there are only so many options at that point. I'd hope that people realize that perfectly legit complaints on a forum aren't likely to do much. On the other hand, if the root of the gripe is that all these modes of group content also have solo content options, then I guess I don't see the problem. If people are playing the solo version in place of the group version, then maybe that's indictment of the community rather than the game. I obviously can't speak for anyone else, but I'll reserve my group play for friends and guild mates. Long gone are the days when I had much interest in meeting anyone in game. Most of the time the unpleasantness doesn't make the experience worth it, and I'd rather just complete the Flashpoint, or whatever else, solo.

I'm not sure how that question should be answered because could we could just say, "Of course! You should play it because you enjoy it, and you don't want to dual wield." Is there any reason not to play the juggernaut? The fact that you have a guardian doesn't seem super relevant, unless boredom is prompting an unstated desire to play a class that has significant mechanical differences from what you already have.

I guess it's a difficult question to answer b/c I'm not sure that it matters much. Or rather, I'm not sure it mattered much for me. Unless you were planning on spec'ing the Sage as Balance, I'm not sure the rocks vs lightning is quite the right comparison; balance is really where you'd see most of the rocks. Going down the telekinetics tree as a Sage is really more about underwhelming forcequake graphic (compared to force storm) and lots of bubbles. I will say i refuse to tank on my shadow because I really dislike how Kinetic ward looks (floating rocks). If you're going to level both on the Imperial side, it sounds like the question is whether to make your consular a shadow or sage. And I'm less inclined to make that decision based on visuals. The more useful issue for me is choosing between a steathing melee, which is useful for crate grinding heroic 2s or a ranged dps, which I prefer for general questing/leveling/flashpoints. And if we're just talking about solo content, I go back and forth on that. Sometimes I really want the time saver of stealthing past mobs, and sometimes I want the destructive ease of a tk sage.

That's been my experience as well. The final boss does seem to be a little too unforgiving for 4 random players.

Without knowing what the specific objections are, yes. Any spec will almost undoubtedly get better as you gain the active and passive abilities that its designed around. I haven't actually level as Hatred, but it looks like there might be similar deficiencies in the low 20s. Death field will provide you with some more aoe, but it's probably not that awesome. And without a way to spread your dots (lvl 28?), it might feel underwhelming. Hatred is a little less dependent on positioning than Deception due to Maul, but it's not like you're using Maul outside of a proc anyway, and there's always low slash (or a tanky companion) to help with positioning. Just my opinion, but the melee classes feel a little more awkward in the lower levels. Thankfully, the lower levels don't last long.

Obviously enjoyment and clunkiness are subjective. I can tell you that I enjoy my max marauder (carnage) more than I thought I would, and I don't usually feel starved for resources. There are rare moments when I'm caught unawares, can't jump, my go-to fillers and Battering Assault (builder) are on CD, but those moments are pretty few and far between.

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, or if this the wrong forum, but... I can't seem to get the Imperial Scholar title on new sith characters because the new heroic mechanism doesn't allow me to finish the conversation, which would give me the title. I assume that's the problem anyway. The title still exists for characters who have completed it, however. So, is this intended behavior and the title is just not something new characters can get anymore, or it something they might "fix" at some point?

The XP rate overall has increased, even outside of double xp events---it's really insane then. For kicks I made an assassin for leveling purposes and decided to do all missions available to me (rather than just the character storyline and main planet storyline). By the time I was starting Tatooine, I think was level 47, which is about 20 lvls above the planet. Granted, I was also doing the Heroics for those planets. As a side note to that, if you want to do all the exploration missions, there's a option in your large map that will let you see those. I personally prefer Deception's burst, at least for solo'ing and leveling. I'm not a huge fan of dot watching, but they seem sort of wasted when things die so fast. I'm sure there's a way to make that more efficient by gathering larger groups together, but I still prefer Deception. Is it wrong that I get a tiny bit of pleasure from having Khem in healer mode?

For fast leveling? Lightning. Though... And I never thought I'd say this, but after leveling more than a few sorcerers now, I've found there can be such a thing as too much purple lightning. Madness can be a nice break now and then. *makes a mental note to have that carved on his tombstone*

Preface: I am not max level on my 'sin yet. I'm having a little trouble deciding between Deception and Hatred myself. So far, for solo play I've found that Hatred's self heals (not super impressive yet for me) combined with the use of dots makes it a little slower than I'd like. If a mob lives long enough for my dots to run their course, then I feel as if I've done something wrong. That being the case, the use of dots at all seems silly. Deception is a bit more straight forward and burst-y. Some people think that's a negative because it might lack in single target dps over longer fights while doing so in boring way. Because the fights I'm in are shorter, and I am not impressed by a more interesting (i.e. needlessly complex) combat flow, I'm preferring Deception for the time being.

In terms of lore, I don't think Treek is all that inappropriate. She's adventurous opportunist at her core, and she's not afraid to get bloody. In terms of personality she fit in great with my Sorc, but I played him light-sided; perhaps that made a difference in my mind. From a mechanics perspective, I preferred Treek over Khem as a tank. Using adaptive gear with equivalent level of mods, Treek just seemed to make the fight go smoother and faster. I'm not sure what combination of DPS, ease of healing, and threat generation went into it, but if I felt like I was having to heal Khem a little too much, I'd use Treek instead. I suppose I could have used stuns, CCs, and knockbacks more effectively to reduce damage to Khem, but I'll just say Treek is more forgiving in that area. That said, she's mouthy. It's like having a yapping terrier tank for you. While I don't have a problem with how Treek fit my Sorcerer lore-wise, I do prefer Khem.

When I see it in action (in swtor), the dual saber style always seems amazingly inefficient. It's as if the character is trying to wave the sabers around as much as possible in the hopes of maybe hitting something at some point. With enough alacrity it's almost comical, imo.

I'm not sure why'd you necessarily be having trouble if your gear is up to date. Try pre-armorning yourself and your companion and opening with: Mind Crush Weaken Mind Turbulence TK wave Project Then fill with Disturbance, keep Weaken Mind up, Turbulence on CD and so on Making use of interrupts, stuns, and knockbacks to keep those high damage abilities at bay should help.

For me, FStorm was perfectly fine to use on standard mobs....FS >> CL >> FS. Even if there was one strong mob and several standard or weak, I'd start out that way. After the lower mobs were dead I'd just slap on an affliction and thundering blast. If that's not enough to kill it, then follow up with whatever combination of lightning strike, force shock, and lightning flash seems most appropriate. If they're all standard or weak, I'll put a shield on myself before the pull. If there's one strong, both my companion and I get a shield and I'll send the companion to attack the strong just before I cast the first forcestorm. For two strong mobs: CC one, affliction, thundering blast, and whatever single target spells most amuse you at the time while putting priority on affliction and thundering blast. It's not optimal dps, but I like changing up the routine if it's just solo content. Once the first mob is dead, you'd naturally move onto the cc'd mob. Both my companion and I get shields before these pulls. As you level, pay attention to the discipline tree, and you'l notice more synergy between abilities the higher you get that will influence your priorities.

For a new player? I'd go with Sorcerer. Khem tanks, while you stand back and call down lightning while healing/shielding. It's a pretty basic idea that works well in PVE. Now, having said that, in your late 20s or so you may end up thinking to yourself "Wow, stealthing past these mobs would sure be spiffy." Assassin takes a bit more finesse to survive (more use of interrupts and medpacks, etc), and you don't get a healing companion until later--unless you buy treek.

Thanks for the feedback. After some very low level experimenting with Sorc and Merc, I think Sorcerer wins out overall. And based on what I see when I'm playing, there's a lot of people who came to a similar conclusion But I haven't done an running count.

I played during launch a little and lost interest, but I'm back now. I played a sorcerer to upper 20s before, but i find that I'd rather start over on a new character rather then trying to remember the storyline part way through. Here's trickier part, though. I'm a little torn on what to play. My default impulse would be to go sorcerer again, but I'd like some input from people about their own experiences. Obviously, what I prefer is up to me, but personal insights from others can be useful. Here's how my thought process has gone so far in trying to decide: -PVE pretty much exclusively -Option to heal in groups if necessary. -I do like a lightsaber, which obviously favors some variety of sith. And while the sorcerer does technically have/use a lightsaber it seems to be all about the lightning....'sins have stealth and fun saber use, but no healing. -And stealth is darn handy....healing +stealth would lead me to Operator -Operator has the benefit of a good storyline (I've heard), while the SI storyline has pretty mixed reviews. -Between Sorcerer and Operator, current comments seem to indicate that Sorcerer would be significantly easier to solo with in terms of damage output...possibly also easier to heal. Would the storyline and stealth+healing options of the Operator outweigh Sith fun and overall ease of the Sorcerer? I suppose the obvious response is to do both, but I'd kind of like to focus on one first.

I liked my darkness assassin more. Playing a Sorcerer almost felt like cheating. As a ranged class, it seems you're already at an advantage. Your bag of tricks is just huge. Heals and shields combined with all the control of the baseline inquisitor felt a little nuts. So much so that it was kind of dull. It's not so much that Darkness Assassin was more challenging, though compared to a Sorcerer I will admit a little bit of a difference, it's more that it was just more fun for me. I got to hop around mobs slashing my my double bladed saber and my survivability is awesome. The stealth is handy too, though I like that it's really just a convenience for me instead of a strict combat requirement. You really shouldn't have a problem soloing with either AC, it's just seemed like Sorcerer lacked a little finesse for me. Plus, if I have a lightsaber, it might as well be good for something other than deflection, but that's just a personal opinion.

As others have pointed out, that fight is all about the interrupts. Give priority to interrupting the aoe, and use all your CDs toward that end, including knock backs. It's not as if the IA you're fighting isn't knocking you back at every opportunity.

Perhaps the OP would be able to make a more informed decision based on the experiences of others, though. For example. I happen to think that there is no one best leveling spec that one can stick with. For me, the different trees took center stage at different points. Early on deception was nice. For my mid 20s to low 30s, I liked madness--if for no other reason than I had deathfield. After that, I'm kind of a darkness fan. I don't necessarily disagree with you've said, but you've also not given the OP anything to go on either. I presume this is because you also feel that no advice you can give would be useful because everyone has to make their own choices. And while it's true that everyone has to make their own choices for their own preferences, I think we can still give useful input.

Lol, was that the nice way of saying "figure it out for yourself." ?

You don't really need to stealth as an assassin; it's just fun and convenient. It's not like we're Operatives.

So what would make it more fun, specifically? Unless I didn't understand the crux of the original complaint, doesn't every class have a basic set of attack patterns for non-elite trash that's optimal? I get the sense that you spent a decent amount of time explaining something that can basically be boiled down to "Meh, I just don't really like the class." To which I guess I would respond with, "Ok...have you tried something else?" Just my two credits, but the smuggler seemed to have the biggest bag of tricks for playing around with attack patterns compared to other classes. I wasn't overly fond of being a sage because the rinse/repeat of their attacks got old fast. Hence, I'm not playing one.