Haven't tried other classes enough but I find the Sage solo capabilities ridiculously strong. You are squishy so it's not necessarily easy, however with the right play it has a lot of potential on solo pve. I've soloed several heroics 2+ of my lvl, it isn't easy tho. 1 min lift, heals, good dps. Actually it's all about the heals, to solo PVE being able to heal yourself and your companion makes a huge difference. You should put Qyzen's taunt manual, and use it manually. This way if you have a gold enemy and 2 silvers, you lift the gold, taunt a silver and then you and your companion focus one of them, healing when necessary (more often than not). You won't use much the lightsaber tho, at low lvls double strike still dishes a good amount of DPS and its instant without delay, so it's nice but you won't use it except to give a fast lasthit to an enemy. You can also deflect with de LS but it's just a passive, and the chances are low, it's a squishy cloth-mage arquetype. The decision is easy: melee/CQC DPS/tank/stealth = shadow, uses LS. caster DPS/healer = sage, doesn't use LS.