I've played this game too, you know. EVERYTHING doesn't do 4k per hit, man. There are plenty of effects that deal well less than that. Still, even if that were the case, that's 1 less 4k hit you would have taken. Instead of being at 75-80% HP, you're at 95-100%. Not that different, actually. Expertise doesn't start having gear cost until the WH level, and even then the cost isn't much (maybe 10% of the other stats, plus the fact that you're locked into Endurance-heavy modules). 10 seconds isn't long enough to get to the enemy team in any of the WZ except possibly Voidstar. Another exaggeration. Beyond that, obviously your opponents are going to lead with their most powerful attack. Just understand that even if it only lasts 1 attack due to that, that's one attack where you took significantly less or no damage because of it. Their instacast heal also requires their Tactical Advantage stack, which requires either a their equivalent of DI cast, or a random proc from their HoT heal. They can only spam it under 30%, and that's if they aren't otherwise occupied trying not to die (if you let a healer freecast on your focus target, you deserve to lose). Then again, if we want to play that game, they have no channeled heal like we do. Outside of Surgical Probe (above), Kolto Probe (HoT, requires stacking), and Nanotech (AoE, requires close targets), all of their heals are cast-time, and none of them do quick instant healing. Innervate absolutely demolishes anything they have in terms of quick healing. Their only options (outside of Surgical Probe) are to using Kolto Injection of Kolto Infusion, the latter of which only barely beats the former in HPCT, but also costs a TA stack and burns a hole in their energy pool in no time. Our Resurgence also blows their Kolto Probe (even if 2-stacked) out of the water, healing for almost twice as much per tick, plus the moderate direct heal on cast. Direct 1:1 comparisons never work well. Our emergency healing isn't confined to just Static Barrier, while an Operative's is essentially confined to just Surgical Probe. Comparing one to the other is like comparing Kolto Infusion to Innervate, it just doesn't make sense. Suffice it to say that yes, our burst healing is a little weak at times, and our resource management could use some work, but Static Barrier isn't at fault here. It's a lot more powerful than you give it credit for (and little piddly bonuses like a HoT or additional spell vamp aren't going to change that anyway).

Willpower augments are about 10-15% superior in all available gearsets, you should always be using Resolve augments. In addition, you should always be using the unlettered version of mods (example, Mettle Mod 26) rather than the A or B model. Lastly, your Power to Crit ratio is WAY too high, and your Alacrity to Surge ratio is a bit too high. This thread links to the current BIS gear setups. More directly, here is the Lightning BIS: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/a5189a89-2f15-4a76-aed0-b8fcb08b7cbd

Your final sentence seemed to suggest primarily a PvP focus, but just in case, you can find the latest information on all 3 primary PvE specs, including skill allotment, ability priorities, stat balances, etc. in my compendium out at MMO-mechanics: http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Sorcerer-Sage-DPS-Compendium

Thank you all for the wonderful words. I believe this is my last day, but it's hard to tell from the subscription page (WTB EVE's sub info page, which tells me the precise date and time, down to the second, when my sub expires...). A reminder, I can still be reached on the MMO-Mechanics forums (including the super shiny new ones we just added for theorycrafting games other than SWTOR) under the ID Kaedis.

Remove Dark Heal from your rotation entirely, it's simply too inefficient and heals for too little to be worthwhile. The standard for Corruption is to use Rejuv -> Innervate every 9 seconds (or every 7.5, once you have the 2-set PvE bonus), Static Barrier either on cooldown or as needed as a buffer, and Reviv as your AoE heal as needed, and DI to fill in the gaps. DH has extremely limited use, it's rarely actually cast.

Ok, shredding in one hit is a bit of a hyperbole. The shield absorbs around 20% of your max HP in decent gear at 50. That's not insignificant. It's also equivalent to a heal that's more potent than anything but a DI crit, and is instant and far cheaper for that. Honestly, let's keep this in proper perspective here. You don't get to have a "lol I can't die" button. If the shield absorbed 10k instead of 4k, even if it were only self-target, there's be no way you'd be balanced in PvP. Given the per-target cooldown, the sheer potency of the ability (especially given its cost and instacast nature), and the already potent upgrades to it in the Lightning tree, it really doesn't need more passive effects (especially ones that are essentially useless, as I pointed out above). That said, your idea there (10% DR for a few seconds after it breaks) isn't a bad one. I'd actually say it would make more sense to give it 20-25% DR for 3-4 seconds instead of 10% for 8, though, since the point is mitigating incoming burst damage.

1) Correct, Lightning has the lowest mobility of the specs, which is why it also has the highest player knowledge requirement, as you need to know the fights so you can anticipate movement phases. 2) Lightning has by far the highest burst damage of the 3 specs. With a chained TB -> Recklessness instant CL -> Recklessness hasted FL, plus Polarity Shift, it can absolutely melt things in the right circumstances. 3) Technically, but Madness tends to be regarded as superior.

Balance specs are force-neutral by default, so it's actually a DPS boost to pull the points from Inner Strength rather than Penetrating Light. 3% crit may not sound like a lot, but it's quite noticeable in total.

LS being either castable on the move or instacast is a VERY common suggestion. Unfortunately, it's also patently impossible, as that's our filler ability. It would make us way way TOO mobile, as the only things we'd have to stand still to cast would be TB, FL, and CD. It would also be a DPS nerf if they made it instacast, as LS would no longer scale with Alacrity at all. What would be better, in my opinion, would be making TB instacast. This would be a slight DPS boost, as well as a bit of a mobility increase. I also like your idea of allowing Shock to trigger Lightning Storm, that's one I hadn't seen before. Another option that would improve flow and mobility for both would be to make CD instacast baseline and boost it's damage by 20%, then buff LS's base damage by ~10% and cut it's Force cost to 15-20, and boost Wrath's damage bonus to 30-35%. This would boost mobility and DPS for both specs without getting out of control, and would actually balance out the specs a bit more as well.

Correct. The first roll is accuracy vs. defense: roll 100, add accuracy, subtract defense and base miss chance, if less than 0, miss, else hit). The second roll is crit and shield. Crit is on the top, shield is on the bottom, and if they overlap, crit is priority. If you have a 40% Crit chance and attack a target with a 60% Shield chance, you have a 0% chance of making a regular hit. If you have a 45% Crit chance and attack a target with a 70% Shield chance, you actually only have a 55% chance to be shielded (so 15% of that 70% is wasted). That said, these are close to impossible (if not completely so) against an even-level target given currently available gear, so this is mostly academic.

Yarp.

Post some of those numbers, along with a screenshot of the character's Force tab (on the character sheet) and their spec tree. I'll see what I can make of them. As for the interrupt, I'm going to have to suggest either your connection is somewhat shaky, or your reactions are, because I've never had issues interrupting TkT unless it was a Shadow.

Well, your anecdotal evidence MUST be correct then, mustn't it? I just checked the game files for each, and tested each to verify their equations. 0.079 StandardHealthMin and Max, multiplied by the 1610 level 50 StandardHealth constant, plus a 0.79 coefficient. Both do identical damage. If you can find me factual evidence otherwise (not just "we tested it, that's the way it is"), I'll investigate, but for now I must call foul. In fact, in order for it to do 300 more base damage, that 0.079 StandardHP figure would need to be 0.265, which is higher than pretty much any damaging ability in the game. As for interrupting, I've done it plenty of times in the past. Sages are easily interrupted on it, it's the Shadows that many times cannot.

Why? It's already one of the most powerful abilities Sorcs possess, and also already has quite a number of skills that affect or depend on it. I don't see any justification behind buffing it, or even "tweaking" it. Beyond that, at least you Corruption and Madness effects are basically flops. You would most need a HoT or additional self-healing when under fire. When under fire, however, your shield rarely last very long, and the more concerted the attack (and therefore the more you actually need the additional healing), the less likely your shield will sustain itself long enough to be worth anyway. The Lightning effect, depending on the balance, could easily result in Lightning sorcs being forced into Melee range for the additional passive damage. As long as the ability does more damage over 30 seconds than Lightning Strike does in a single cast (and if it doesn't, why is it even worth putting in?), it's a DPS gain to use it every 30 seconds in Melee range.

Telekinetic throw does identical damage (127.19 + 79% Force Damage Bonus per tick before skill modifications), has the same pushback profile, the same slow profile, and can be interrupted just like Force Lightning (ie. always unless the user is a tank-speced Shadow/Assassin with 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows/Darkness). I've tested it. Mechanically speaking, Sorcs and Sages are identical (which very slight exceptions due to travel time on abilities, all of which favor Sorcs). Seriously, where do you come up with these things?

I'm still dallying with TERA a bit, and occasionally with D3. At the moment, however, it seems my primary focus, at least as far as MMO-Mechanics theorycrafting is concerned, has become EVE Online (as I seem to to be the most experienced with that game, among the site's staff). I suspect MK will also end up pushing me toward GW2, when it gets closer to release. We'll see. It's not protest. The 1.2 changes certainly affected my decision, but they are not the sole source. Consider those changes the straw. I've simply developed a vote of no confidence in Bioware's ability to develop a worthwhile MMO, particularly with EA riding their back. That's all I'll say here, though. If you'd like to know more, PM me (preferably on the MMO-Mechanics forums, as I'm pretty sure my PM capabilities out here die in a couple days along with my forum capabilities).

The latest Lightning build (and Madness and Hybrid), along with rotation advice, gear, etc, can be found in my compendium out at MMO-Mechanics.com: http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Sorcerer-Sage-DPS-Compendium

It scales fine with gear. It has one of the highest ability coefficients in the game (perhaps THE highest). Sure, it doesn't scale with Crit or Surge. Then again, Thundering Blast similarly doesn't scale with Crit. Instant abilities don't scale with Alacrity. These differing effects just contribute to the overall weight equations for each stat. It allows thing to be dynamic. I fail to see how Static Barrier being unable to crit means it "doesn't scale with gear".

I usually detest farewell threads (especially with another one near the top of these forums that basically just boils down to a whine), as they seem remarkably presumptuous and narcissistic. However, in this case, I'll make an exception, because I know I've had a fairly decent impact on these forums. I figured I'd start this a few days early, since I won't have access to post here after Monday or Tuesday. I'm stepping down in my role out here on the official forums. The capable Aurojiin has stepped up to take over my role (and my sticky), as has Hatterson. I'll still be reachable at http://www.MMO-Mechanics.com/swtor/forums, my ID out there is Kaedis if you have any questions. I'll also be maintaining my compendium out there, at least for a while (until I can find a replacement). It's been fun seeing the Sorc community evolve over the last 8 months. I'm not going to go into the whys or wherefores of my decision to unsubscribe, I've made those clear plenty of other places. I'm just glad I could be a part of it, and hopefully have made a solidly beneficial impact on many players out here. See y'all around! ~Kaedis

Why it doesn't is because it's copied from WoW's Power Word: Shield, which also couldn't. Also, since it's an absorb, it'd be difficult to telegraph if it crit. Lastly, it's already one of your most potent "heals" (as far as HPCT and HPF go), I'm not sure why it really needs to crit.

Ya, it was just a formulative calculation. I'm not even sure I'd know where to find in on that forum anymore, I just remember the verdict being that it wasn't worth it. Then again, that could easily have been because of the stat differential, when I think back. We didn't have set bonus shells back then.

I would wager that Seer's Alacrity balance is roughly the same as a Hybrid DPS, ie about 1:1 Surge to Alacrity (which is 285 apiece in BIS gear).

Well, to each their own. Just understand that you're sacrificing a fairly significant margin of additional healing potency in order to drop those heals that much quicker. Honestly, if your DPS are taking that much damage (particularly on Toth and Zorn, where most of it is negatable by proper positioning and movement), the issue is on their end, not yours.

Yes, but this is an issue with class balance, NOT with the mechanics themselves. There's nothing inherently wrong with the scaling between weapon and non-weapon attacks. Also, Sorcs are the only class that doesn't use their weapon, so your above statement basically boils down to "Sorcs can't do much damage instantly", which is already well and truly known. Lastly, any line that states something along the lines of this: "You can post "evidence" and "game mechanics" all you want. " Instantly nullifies any point you'd be making. It's functionally equivalent to "I don't care what's actually the case in reality, I believe X is the case, and NOTHING you say will dissuade me". You've moved beyond the realm of useful discourse at that point. It's effectively the same as a child's tantrum.

60% surge is actually remarkably low. ~75% is considered to be roughly the ideal (actually, specifically, 225-300 Surge Rating, closer to the low end for Lightning, mid for Madness, and high end for Hybrid). That said, even with an appropriate amount of Surge, the goal is to balance Power with Crit Rating, NOT to get your Crit Chance to the "right" value. Point in fact, there isn't a "right" value for Crit Chance, only for Crit RATING (and that right value is the point where Crit Rating's weight is the same as Power's). The only exception to this is healers, as they are somewhat justified in decreasing their total HPS in order to force themselves to 40% crit chance (regardless of the actual rating requirements) in order to guarantee Recklessness crits. Fact of that matter is that despite continuing rumors to the contrary, your Crit CHANCE is essentially irrelevant when it comes to deciding on your gear. What matters is the Ratings that drive it. Simple rules: Willpower is always the best stat (at least until gear levels about fourfold higher than are available). Power and Crit should be equalized in weight. The occurs at roughly 2.65:1 for Hybrid, 4:1 for Madness, and 6:1 for Lightning (those being Power:Crit Rating) in BIS gear, though lower ratios in lower-quality gear. Alacrity and Surge should be equalized in weight. This occurs at roughly 1.5:1 for Lightning, 1:1 for Hybrid, and 1:1.5 for Madness (Alacrity:Surge) in BIS. Thus you should always augment Willpower, PERIOD. I've literally never yet encountered a situation in which using any other augment would be justified, both for healing and DPS purposes.