+1 on this. Haven't made it past the new character creator. For some reason, it really reminds me of City of Heroes from the early 2000's. The pre-7.0 char creator was much nicer.

Indeed, understanding synergy always improves performance with any build, as does situational awareness. It's also a 'fun' design for a spec, even though it's weak now. Weaken mind benefits the beginning the rotation, as does mind crush, then turbulence before moving on to gust , and so on while spamming every instant-proc the GCD allows. You're actually awarded for running the alacrity boost cd with a doubled chance at the free auto-cast telekinetic wave. You can also play an unconventional rotation and avoid ANY cast-over-time with the spec if you so desire by throwing Project , force stun and a Rejuv in. Our difference of opinion may be in a "support dps role". To me, a support dps-role is a healer (specced heal) that manages a killing blow when the target is 1% on life while you're stun-locked and on CD, or a tank who has another prime function in a fight. The squishy mage-class on the other hand should inspire one of three thoughts from opponents (depending on class) 1. "Lock that thing down quick or we're all going to die." 2. "That thing is going to kill my healer". 3. "Do I still have potions?" All glass, no cannon. Anyway thanks all for the discussion. My thoughts have been made known. I'll simply summarize by saying the nerf itself wasn't a killer, it's just the opposite direction of what I think is logical, and hopefully was not made simply because people see large #'s on the scoreboard. Cheers.

I don't really consider the AoE range reduction a nerf at all. It'll maybe knock us down the damage chart a few notches, but it doesn't change anything in effectiveness. (I laughed when I read the devs state it was "too effective". No offense meant to them of course). However the reduction in life leech from 25% to 10% was a major nerf. This number really needed to be going up to 35 or 40% IMO. And the very last one isn't a big deal, but kind of a funny slap in the face: " Fixed an issue where Mind’s Eye allowed one Sage's Weaken Mind effect to cause any Sage's Force Serenity damage to be increased on that target." ^ Sounds like a legitimate gameplay scenario. But if they want to lock their mechanics to a single player's rotation, oh well, it's whatever.

Thanks for the suggestions. Vanguard is next on my list to try. I also liked Marauder a lot. My preferred play style is a fury warrior in other games. I may end up back at it with a Sentinel or Guardian. IE the situation on Harbinger, you are correct. We have been winning more depending on time of day. I like Imp side more. But I don't like it as much as I enjoy a challenge, so long live the Republic.

I wish this were true. In other MMO's a DoT pressure class is a lot of fun to play. The way I view madness/balance right now is the DoTs are supplemental damage that give bonus to nukes on the target. Whereas a true DoT pressure spec, the nukes are inconvenient supplemental damage (think long activation time for that extra umph!)

If you can find a Sage that hits 20-30K bursts on live with TK spec, you may convince me. The most I've managed with everything on CD is just below 16k, and that's very rare. (I'm almost right at +68% bonus from crit..formerly known as surge). I hit much higher super crits with the DoT spec. Most crits in TK are in the 7 to 9k range. With current HP levels this is the equivalent of firing off a flashy BB gun. Currently the classes hitting competitive numbers appear to be: Jugg/Guardian Assassin/Shadow and both classes of the bounty Hunter / Trooper

As I said, I do top damage in wz's. The damage is meaningless though because the AoE dots do not burn more than 5 to 10% off of multiple targets. While this looks great on a board, it doesn't mean we're actually killing anyone. In fact the only reason I happen to spread dots, is because it's an extra effect of one of my nukes. Otherwise I could care less about the mechanic. I'd gladly see the nerf remove the AoE dots altogether if they gave us more single-target damage, and a higher percentage on the life leech effects on that single target.

I wish I could say I understood. I remember when sorcs/sages were worth crying about. From a gameplay perspective, the sage fits three archetypes from another popular MMO. It can be a mage, a warlock, or a resto druid. In the first category, it doesn't receive the tradeoff of insane ranged damage that it should for having extremely weak defense. Classes with much higher defense receive that. In the second category, it feels like it's missing at least one extra DoT (whether single target or multiple) to pose any real threat. In the third category, it feels fine. The healing is decent, but by no means better than other classes. I'm mostly just confused by the sentiment if anything.

I'm a recently returned player (maybe two years or more away). This thread is not intended to cause any trolling or FOTM type discussions. I'm mostly just wanting to see if this nerf makes sense to other sage players. Having played a sage before I left and absolutely loving TK in pvp, I went this route when I came back. This was only to find that the class was extremely weak compared to what I remember. To be fair, the extra resource cost doesn't sound too bad as I haven't felt like resource management was even existent since coming back. However that's about the only upside of the class I've noticed. After quite a bit of frustration, min/maxing, and learning some new rotations, I found that both seer and balance spec were marginally playable in WZ. In balance I have been topping damage, but knew the damage was inconsequential. The DoT spread maybe ticks away at the top 95% of several player's health bars in an area after a rotation. What matters of course is burst, utility, and staying power. In full exemplar gear, fully augmented, I finally made one or two solo kills in balance spec this week. All the while, I'm still the squishiest thing on the battlefield, almost always targeted/focused first. My mobility is so-so, I make do. My CC is so-so, I make do. My burst output is laughably not even close to most other classes. So with all this in mind, I've been re-rolling. So my main concern isn't so much, "Why are we being nerfed?" . My question is more, "Why are we being nerfed when I feel like the class needs a serious buff?" Thoughts?

Not really, that's twitch gaming. What in the world are you all playing for? The whole structure of an MMO is the virtual carrot on a stick - to become more powerful.

What's with this anti- "Better Gear" arena talk? I expect a bunch of lazy socialists IRL, but not in my games. Sorry but I put a TON of time and WORK, strategizing, talking with my teamate(s) and researching theorycraft on the web. I also spent months practicing. It paid off, I was good at WoW arena. I was also an awesome raider. I cannot stand casuals that want to get free epics from grinding a few warzones / battlegrounds. Or players who think it is unfair that the amount of effort they put into the game, doesn't equal that of everyone else. The only people who have room to complain are old-school PvE players from original Everquest type days. You know...followers of DKP system, praise almighty Keith Kaplan.

Has anyone here used the droid? I personally use Quinn as well, because he's balanced. But from the sound of it, most people here are concerned with down-time. The droid's healing surpasses from what I understand.

I'd venture to say that players who are having a hard time with the SW, never had the warrior class experience in World of Warcraft. And let's be honest, the mechanic and even most of the skills are identical (with new names and animations). In vanilla, it was the most difficult and frustrating leveling experience out of any class available. It also made us very good players. Frequent death and heavy armor meant - more repair costs...more running to rez, groups wiping....down time. The better you were, the less time and money it cost you. Flash forward to end game - Warriors DOMINATED in PvP, and were the mainstay of PvE as well. Class balance issues aside, Warrior and melee classes in general, tend to come into their own down the line. We are heavily gear dependent and spec dependent. There is nothing wrong with SW in this game...except for poor artwork on our armor sets. And that's something Bioware can easily address. Good luck & hope you enjoy your class. *Edit* I take that back. Finally found a good looking set for Marauders. Venerable Ardent helm and chest, with the sentinel leggings. They're spread across two different commendations vendors. I'm sure there will be more good looking armor as drops as well.