^^ this

Made me laugh

Question: Are there any more changes planned for the sorc/sage(healingwise, never played the DPS specs) class in 1.2? For example I think Dark mending reducing the cast time of Dark infusion by 1 second instead of 0.5 wouldn't be a bad change. If not could we get a justification for the changes currently on the PTR? Background information: At the moment I find the way you adjusted sorcs/sages to be more balanced quite weird: The first part of this is perfectly fine it wasn't fair that we could use this proc twice instead of once and lead to way too high numbers. The second part however would make our "burst" heal a 2.5 second cast(talented but unmodified by alacrity) while the other healers have a 2 second cast(talented, unmodified by alacrity) This creates several problems: PVE: You cast it and especially on tanks the person can quite easily die within those 2.5 seconds because it's quite a long time. I can already see this on foreman crusher 16man nightmare if I try to do a dark infusion without a force bending proc the tank can easily spike down to nearly no health/death. PVP: Everyone that is at least semi competent will be able to interrupt/knock back/stun a sorcerer trying to cast a 2.5 heal. Especially with ranked Warzones coming out, imaginable leading to better/organized groups this heal will almost never go off successfully. This all wouldn't be so bad if dark heal would be remotely useful but even a crit dark heal heals for less then a non crit dark infusion + costs a lot of force for the low amount of healing. In theory you could reduce the cast time of dark infusion with alacrity but I don't think the diminishing returns allow for a decent reduction and you would end up with a faster heal but it will heal for a lot less due to stacking alacrity instead of other stats. PVP: In my pvp gear(champ/bit of BM) I got 16.5k hp(BH buff) and consumption will tap for 8%(talented/3% was healed back by the set bonus) this equals 1320 hp, not that bad resurgence will nearly/fully heal that back up. PVE: In my pve gear(full rakata) I got 18660 hp(BH buffed+replaced High Endurance enhancements for low Endurance ones) and consumption will tap for 11%(talented) this equals 2053 hp, not that bad resurgence will nearly/fully heal that back up(assuming it crits properly). But using resurgence on this will cost 28 force and I will only get 48/52(PVE set bonus makes it 52) force back from the consumption, so for these 2 GCD's+getting a force surge proc I get about half a abilities force cost back: 20/24, not even enough for the cheapest heal we have. Feels a bit silly that I spend 2 global cooldowns healing for 0 and my gain from this is a bit a force but not even enough to cast one heal. On top if this the health spent on this will go up faster then my healing will so the better the gear the more damage I will take. Which leads me to believe this can not possible be a permanent solution for our "endless" force as eventually we need to spend more force then we get from it to heal the damage back up or rely on other healers to heal us up, which would raise the question: why are we even in the ops group? On top of this, especially with random spike damage that sometimes happens in PVE encounters, losing 11% of your hp at the wrong time can prove lethal. Makes the other nerf hit a BIT less hard but all in all doesn't justify the rest in my opinion. Q&A from feb 17th: Makes it seem we are exceeding your numbers only because of the force bending proc abuse yet we get quite largely nerfed in 2 different areas on top of this bug being fixed. Q&A March 27th: Fine, people can change their mind I suppose. So we got too much force regeneration. Why did it have to be "fixed" in this manner? Instead of reducing the amount of force we get from consumption/increasing the amount of force our abilities cost we get some weird mechanic in which we have to proc an ability, stab ourselves for a bit of force, throw a hot on ourselves that consumes more then half that force to heal up the damage all to eventually gain so little force that it isn't even enough to cast ONE heal? Sounds a bit long and complicated for so little reward? To compensate we get a reduced force cost on our main ability(with force bending up) but the ability also gets made near useless in pvp and not amazing in pve either due to the longer cast time this created(2.5 sec talented). While other healers have their big heal on a 2 sec cast timer(talented). In an attempt to make dark heal useful you changed force bending to make it crit nearly always depending on your chance to crit but it still heals for less then a non crit dark infusion and costs more force(both force bending up). Making it the most ineffective heal ever, which we might have been able to live with if consumption didn't give use such a tiny amount of force(after healing up the dmg). So why make these changes while sorc/sage healing output/force regen could have easily been balanced by reducing the amount our heals heal for/reducing the amount of force we get from using consumption? I think I and a lot of other sorcs/sages would love to either see additional changes to the sorc/sage class to compensate for the nerfs or a proper explanation from BW about why you think we deserved these changes and how you still see us as viable healer compared to the other classes in PVE AND PVP. Because at the moment most of the sorcs/sages on the PTR forum appear to be losing faith in their class post 1.2. As made apparent by the "1.2 Sorc Nerfs" topic that "has exceeded our normal threshold for thread length" about 6 times now? Without any response/acknowledgement from BW.

And Harnessed Darkness* I would highly suggest not taking that build for several reasons: Lets start with the Deception tree: 3/3 Duplicity: When are you planning to use maul while tanking? You need to be behind the target to be able to use maul, which you won't be as tank. Darkness tree: 2/3 nerve wracking: The target needs to be controlled by spike/electrocute so it needs to either be on the ground or stunned depending on which skill you used, good luck doing this to bosses and if you plan to raid 16m any of the trash.(which makes it a waste of 2 points) 0/2 Harnessed Darkness: Means you are throwing away a quite frequent heal of 3% total hp per tick of force lightning(ticks 4 times I think) so that's 12% health. I would highly suggest not lacking this heal. 0/1 Wither: No Wither means the boss will hit you 5% more of the time which means you take considerable more damage, Wither gives a stack of Harnessed Darkness(see above) which will result in you healing for less as well without the ability and to top it all off you will lack severe AoE threat without Wither. 0/3 Mounting darkness: Results in considerable less threat(especially AoE threat) as it severely increases the damage done by 2 of your primary abilities, not recommended to go without. Madness tree: Looks fine BUT you won't have 2 points for 2/2 claws of decay due to earlier mentioned reasons and if you did I would probably stick them in 1/1 Death field + 1/2 in fanaticism. All in all I wouldn't go with this build for PvE tanking, which is what is being discussed in this topic.

+1 to OP To the 16man raiders: are you telling me you get only 2 rakata pieces on 16m? I'm currently on 10/10 nightmare 8man mode with my assassin tank. Earlier this week I cleared 16m KP Hardmode on my sorcerer and the amount of loot it dropped was way higher then 8m. If I checked every item out the loot timers would almost run out before I was able to select a choice on all items.... and as far I remember that included more rakata loot as well. O btw the fact that you raid 16m instead of 8m which is harder to organize gets compensated by mathematically easier encounters, for example SOA nightmare: You could also take a 5th healer instead of a 11th dps and still require to do less dps then 8man and have to do even less healing. And I'm not saying 8man is harder then 16man, I know that it is much harder to get 16 good people then 8 good people but you are already getting compensated for that and now you want better gear as well? PS: I've always raided 40 and then 25man in WoW and have never supported 10man loot being the same as 25(currently slightly more tier loot per person) but atleast in wow the 10man fights are easier for multiple reasons and not just because you only need 10 good players.

Yes you can go to a skill mentor in Kaas City(near all the vendors iirc) or on the fleet in the combat training section.

I think it works like this: Imagine your stats are: Def = 30% Shield = 57% (with DW) Absorb = 50% Now imagine this scenario happens: You get 10 hits that would each hit for 10k(this is after your armor reduction) if you don't mitigate them, which results in 100k total potential damage(unless unmitigated hits can crit us?). 3 miss due to 30% def = 30k mitigated >> Remember SWTOR works with an annoying 2 roll system instead of a 1 roll for all system like WoW so we cant be CTC(Combat Table Coverage) Capped, which is most likely another reason why Absorb is more valuable then Shield and we take considerable more damage due to it. << 7 are left but due to 57% shield chance: 7x0.57=4(rounded up from 3.99) so you shield 4 hits for 50% of the damage = 20k mitigated, 20k damage taken. 3 hits are left that fully hit you for 10k each, 30k damage taken. So you mitigated 50k and you took 50k damage of a total 100k potential damage. 50k of 100k = 50% So you have a mitigation of 50% and a hit chance of 3 out of 10 = 30% Granted this assumes that chance isn't a ***** and you mitigate the exact chance you have to mitigate something. Also this doesn't seem to take into account the 5% miss chance from the debuff and whatever the base chance is for a boss to miss you(panda's calculations might do that or might not) PS: I wonder if [Experimental Shield Overcharger] at all reduces the value of Absorb rating due to its 395 absorb rating extra for 6 seconds with a 20 sec ICD and how useful this relic actually is compared to others. Also anyone know if the icd starts when you gain the effect or when it expires? The text states: "can only occur once every 20 seconds" which leads me to believe it starts when you gain it as that is when it "occurs". PS 2: Would still love a confirmation if you can or can not get a prefix(veracity etc) before [Columi Survivor's Motivator(implant)] through RE'ing it with Biochem(Torhead seems to think you can... but it's not 100% reliable imo). If not I assume that makes: [Veracity Nano-Optic Resistance Implant(Mastercraft)] BiS?

Just out of interest is everyone else having problems trying to get anywhere near these recommended stats? Seems to be hard to not have Accuracy and still have a decent amount of absorb. Currently on(stimmed): 1149 Rating - 465 Defense. 459 Shield. 225 Absorb. Gear: (numbers between brackets after mod/enhancements are the numbers in the tooltips) Veracity Hyperaccelerated resistance module(Superior) - Could use a mastercraft version but its hard to find on the GTN. 2x Veracity Nano-Optic Resistance Implant(MasterCraft) - 2x 28 Absorb Augment Rakata Survivor's Bracers(MasterCraft) - 28 absorb Augment Columi Survivor's Headgear - Absorb Mod(58) Shield/Def Enh(56) Columi Survivor's Robe - Absorb Mod(56) Shield/Def Enh(56) Rakata Survivor's Handwraps - Absorb Mod(58) Shield/Def Enh(58) Rakata Survivor's Waistwrap - Should have made this till MasterCraft before getting biochem, stupid. Rakata Survivor's Legwraps - Def Mod(58) Shield/Def Enh(56, downgraded from accuracy 58) Columi Survivor's Boots - Absorb Mod(56) Shield/Def Enh(56) Exar Kun's Double Bladed Lightsaber - Def Mod(58) Shield/Def enh(56, downgraded as well) Rakata Survivor's Shield Generator - Shield/Def And unimportantly Relics: Columi Relic of the Shrouded Crusader - Shield/absorb use Experimental Shield Overcharger - 395 absorb rating proc on shield, 6sec dura 20 sec cd So yea the only way to get more absorb rating seems to be to get more augment slots / farm extra rakata tokens for absorb mods(and even then absorb won't be very high)... unless it's actually viable to downgrade a defense mod(58) to a absorb mod(56) which would piss me even more off since I'm already downgrading the enhancements due to accuracy... Wish they would put some absorb/def and absorb/shield enhancements in the gear tbh. Also Panda any idea how much worse low absorb, high def/shield chance is then the recommended balance? PS: I have no difficulties tanking any nightmare boss, just trying to optimize.

Don't bother with it tbh, the accuracy you get from your implants/earpiece/OH is more then enough.

Ehm no... you know taunt has a long cd right? If i have to taunt to even get him to follow me to the pillar and then when he gets there he switches again I can AoE taunt but once that is on CD there is nothing i can do. We have been getting really close to kill him on NM(4%) until this patch making it nearly impossible.

I'll refer you to my earlier post: And before I had those extra's I put the non accuracy enhancement from the daily quest on ilum in the columi pieces.

I've been doing this as well, and it helps a lot

I'm really interested in hearing what you are basing this on tbh. I can't find anything to support your theory that our accuracy above 100% reduces our targets accuracy, nor does it make any sense. What I can find on the subject: Which actually does make sense and keeps the stat useless for us.

Not really, especially for Columi gear, you just farm EXTRA columi head/gloves tokens and remove the enhancements from those items. Then you put those enhancements in all other gear you got instead of their accuracy enhancement. Also putting these in the rakata gear I'm picking up tbh because the difference between the columi and rakata enhancements is not big enough to warrant accuracy. You do however keep a bit of accuracy on your Offhand/implants/earpieces. Currently in 4 Rakata pieces(augmentable bracers) rest Columi with crafted augmentable veracity implants and a veracity crafted earpiece(no augment sadly) and I'm on: 22206 hp(incl BH buff+nerfed BC stim) 28.41% Def(433 rating, including nerfed BC stim) 60.24% Shield(with DW up)(411 rating) 45.47% Absorb(250 rating) 6823 armor rating 94.32% accuracy(126 rating, cant get rid of more) ^^ this.

If you can do them why not, really depends on how your healers gear is. I think the enhancement is from [Group 2+] Poisonous strategy on Ilum(daily). The mod from [Group 2+] Freeing the Fallen which is part of the Belsavis bonus series(dailies) And the armoring from [Group 4]Old Enemies(not sure on the name of this quest) also from the Belsavis bonus series dailies. Aggro can be a *****, especially AoE aggro when for example mercenaries open up with Death from above. Single target should be manageable though but if they outgear you I suppose its harder to do so. Remember to use Guard on people that give you aggro problems, it has a short range though so I guess the only real viable targets are Melee.

Ye I saw that as well, but I'm not sure if ToRhead is correct, doesn't seem to be as accurate as WoWhead is for WoW.

I got a pattern for: [Columi Survivor's Motivator] from hard mode ops today, can anyone confirm or deny that you can RE this for prefixes? It's kinda pricy to make don't want to risk it if its impossible. Because it seems pretty crap otherwise, compared to the green crafted ones that you RE to Epic.

I got a pattern for: [Columi Survivor's Motivator] from hard mode ops today, can anyone confirm or deny that you can RE this for prefixes? It's kinda pricy to make don't want to risk it if its impossible.

If your dps cant steal aoe aggro from a assassin(and perhaps other tanks) they either suck or purposely hold back to not get aggro

Actually the best thing to do would be to first rotate all other Crew skills with "rakata" quality BoP patterns and then taking biochem afterwards . For example with Synthweaving you can make the same Rakata bracers+belt that you get from raiding BUT with an augment slot as long as you make them till you crit. This makes those two items BiS no matter how much you raid, unless you can somehow get better then Rakata gear?

The head and gloves have shield rating on the enhancements. I'm currently farming Kaon under siege for additional helm tokens(drops 2 per clear, 1 from the bonus and 1 from the end boss) and take those enhancements out to put them in the other tier gear instead of the accuracy enhancements.

Biochem is currently your best choice for end game. If you want to know why read the various topics on the matter.

My bounty hunter was an Armstech... hes now a Biochem. My Assassin tank was an Synthweaver... shes now a... you can guess it... Biochem!(after making the 2 rakata pieces ofc) Biochem>all OT: Armstech was slightly useful while lvling if you make epic barrels for yourself but that's about it. It has 0 use once your level 50 because as said the daily token vendor sells better barrels then you can make and most items don't have barrel slots. Would be really interested to hear why armstech is the only crew skill without rakata BoP patterns.

I've been wondering this as well, would be really nice to get an answer to this question

I'm fairly sure the EU servers are located in... the EU and not the US. Also WoW always had different maintenance times for EU servers and they didn't have 12m subs from the start, if I recall correctly