There should be macros. This game would be more enjoyable with macros... FOR EXAMPLE The reason I won't play a Jedi Knight, or Sith Warrior is because its annoying to have an ability that supercedes, but doesn't replace an ability. Assault - Minor Damage, adds 2 rage Battering Assault - Medium Damage, adds 6 rage, 15 second cooldown. One button should use Battering Assault if its up, then switch to Assault. Why have 2 buttons for the same functionality. Who has the OCD enough to watch a 15 second cooldown on a terrible UI? I want to play the game, not watch icons refresh and pay attention to stuff like that. You should be able to setup your combat more efficient and combo things. Having 50 buttons while some pretty much function as the same ability is a WASTE. This game is already button intensive enough, so why not simplify it a bit.

Shadow's have 100 force, while Sages have 500. A Shadow can cast Double Strike 4 times, while a Sage could Double Strike 20 times (without considering Regen). It makes sense from a Shadow's point since they aren't fighting attrition of combat. After a while a Sage will run out of force, and what do they do at that point? At least give them a little bite left if they want to swing around and are in close. Look at bounty hunters, troopers, agents, smuglers; at least their basic attack is ranged. All I'm saying is from a game perspective, I can spend force for half the damage while I HAVE TO BE in melee, or I could be at range and spend less force for more damage. The Shadow doesn't have this problem since they have to be near melee for their TK Throw.

Double Strike is not good damage compared to the other abilities. Simply put, there should be a method for a sage to DPS (to some extent) without using force. Even with the force cost right now, you can't viably melee another melee. I'm just saying make double strike pretty much our auto attack since Saber Strike is completely useless.

The Sage's lightsaber is useless as it stands, and reading the forums no one seems to have a fair sense on how to fix it. The arguments are its damage is too low, so up the damage and make it more melee viable. "But this will make it imbalanced and sages shouldn't be able to melee". Right now, the damage on double strike is FINE, but there isn't ANY reason to use it once you spec in any talent tree. 1) You need to be in melee to use it. All other force abilities can be used in MELEE AND at range, so it loses viability there. 2) It's instant cast and can't be interrupted, but so are a few other abilities, like Weaken Mind, Project, Force Slow, and a few others like Force in Balance if you spec for it. 3) The damage per force. This is the big offset here. Without ANY spec, my double strike does about half the damage of Telekentic Throw. I'm sure at higher levels and specs that gap changes, but the thing is you have spend TWICE the force in MELEE to achieve the same damage as Telekenetic Throw, while Telekenetic Throw also SNARES the enemy. Disturbance can increase your force regen too. The only solution I'd say is make double strike either 0 force, or a huge reduction. It should be used in times when we are out of force or want to conserve our force and still put out a bit of damage. I think Saber Strike (the level 1 melee ability) is absolutely USELESS for a sage. It does half the damage of Double Strike and takes a bit longer to cast. There isn't any reason to ever cast it since it will never amount to anything significant. With so many hotkeys already being used, you'd rather just wait for your force to regen and use another TK Throw or Disturbance. In terms of Lore I think it would mesh really quickly, since a sage should be powerful enough that they shouldn't have to put much "force effort" into making a saber swing. With this change, you could use your lightsaber from time to time, and it wouldn't break the game at all. You'll still do more DPS consistantly with TK Throw, or Disturbance. It would also give Seer Sages a chance to keep damaging if they kept everyone topped off in healing while still conserving force.