[Another Sage Shelved.]

I really don't know what the devs must be smoking if they think our damage (particularly burst damage) and heal quantities are "working as intended." I mean, we have the weakest armour in the game and the lowest hp of any class, save our mirror; therefore we should be doing the MOST damage and healing. It's just common sense after decades of rpgs, unless our lovely devs have never played any of these. It's still laughable that heavily armoured Guardians/Juggernaughts or Powertechs/Vanguards can actually do close to 2-3 times our output in burst damage.

 

I really hope a developer reads this, but considering the already lengthy discussions on the unnecessary sage nerfing already, I suppose this will just be considered another "QQ" and some marauder troll will reply saying "lrn 2 play newb-MMO's are like this, I'm a go kill more squishy newbs like you."

[Sage dps in pvp after patch 1.2]

This is my favorite PVP build thus far post 1.2:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600ZfMMMbMbZcrcRsMkR.1

 

Being the squishiest class out there and the recent damage buffs, you really have to utilize the sage's CC's and immob options to add the most value to your team. In addition, i think we can all agree that some of the hardest classes for us to kill are the melee dps such as sentinels/shadow tanks, etc. This build will help with these types quite a bit, but as a side note, if you're solo 1v1ing them you're still dead. period. the game currently is designed in such a way that dps sages in a 1v1 setting just flat out lose against almost everything, and yes it sucks. But in a team environment i find this build will help survivability.

 

 

Some pro's of this build:

 

1) Kinetic Colapse/Telekinetic Defence: KNOW HOW TO USE IT!

 

Buffed up bubble that explodes on failure incapacitating near by enemies for 3 seconds. You really have to get used to using this properly on yourself vs melee dps. Say a sentinel jumps you. Dont panic, Get a couple of shots in, then bubble and stop all dps on target!!! If you hit them during the immob kinetic collapse is basically useless, you HAVE to know the mechanics for it to be useful to you. Once the bubble pops (takes no time at all) force sprint and try to get close to your team. If they persist i usually cast slow, dot them up, then start the pebble throw to get the most out of the distance you've gained. This is also awesome for ball carriers vs melee on huttball for obvious reasons.

 

2) Force Wake

 

Butt stomp gets a 5 second immob in which 2 seconds of that damage can be applied without breaking root. Step 1) not good enough to kill that pesky melee? This is Step 2). Once again i usually use this root to try to get back near my team for assistance but if thats just not an option same thing applies. Root em, throw up dots and try to get away as much as possible.

 

3) Containment/Pinning resolve Combo

 

Insta lift with 2 second stun on fall, PLUS 10 seconds shaved off force stun. If you havent figured this out yet, the theme of this build is stun/cc/root to the max. That 10 seconds shaved off stun is actually pretty huge, and the super lift is tons of fun for PvE content. Another reason to put the points into pinning resolve is that you will eventually reach a point where you need to place 2 points in the balance tree to get to the next tier, and i think the PVP gain from Pinning resolve beats out jedi resistance, focused insight, and mind ward. Be careful with force lift as it will max out resolve bars.

 

 

The other nice thing i like about this build is that in the damage department all you're really missing out on is the +30% to dots, which is pretty big but if your not getting severe force it only really affects 2 of your spells, and really really only affects weaken mind effectively. Remember that the point of the hybrid build from a DPS perspective post 1.2 is to get psychic projection, as it still double dips and hits pretty hard.

 

An additional note, please remember to use your force potency appropriately and often to either get off a couple of extra TK throws at distance or to punch out some bigger burst. Unfortunately through this 1.2's early lifecycle, i believe our dps classes have the mediumish burst, mediumish AOE (FiB = 3 targets sucks), pretty bad dots, and we wear cloth... so time to become utility artists and just pray that we get top tier buffs or TK wave back when they figure out how to fix double dipping/in the next patch. and PLEASE don't become a dot spammer/bubble vendor... if thats the only useful aspect of your pvping experience you will get very bored very fast and the numbers you put up at the end of the day are usually pretty useless to the team. Good luck team squishfaces, hope this helps and hope BW figures out the idea of the glass cannon soon :/.

 

 

I think you truly hit the nail on the head with that. Bioware really needs to understand the glass cannon concept, and it's completely ludicrous that it hasn't yet. In any rpg, ranging from pre-console tabletop to modern sandbox game mage type characters have always worn the weakest, lightest armour, but they've made up for it by doing the HIGHEST armour-unmitigated damage and/or the HIGHEST single and group healing (I'm putting priests/monks/ whatever a game called them into the same category).

 

Honestly it's unbelieveable that while Sonic Team figured this concept out in 1987 with Phantasy Star (making Lutz/Noah's hp and armour the weakest but giving him the best damage spells) Bioware in 2012 still doesn't get it.