In reality though, a Sage should NEVER use his lightsaber. If he does, he gimps himself in EVERY regard. Wrong range. Horrible dps. Allowing enemies to access their weakness (light armor vs melee). I'd prefer not even having a lightsaber than to have one and be gimped using it. IMO, it is bad game design when a class has an ability which, if used, will only HURT the player, and never (in ANY circumstance) help them.

You guys seem to be entirely oblivious to the obvious: Why give a Ranged Force class that uses WILLPOWER, a melee ability that uses STRENGTH? Why do this at all????? I realize you are scared of change, but this is lunatic to be without any reason in defending the Sage class, acting like it is okay for them to have a useless weapon and two abilities which rely on a stat they will never use.

1) Of course I didn't do my "homework" to this magnitude ahead of time. It is impossible to know what you are unaware of, and you'd have to get lucky to read about this small problem BEFORE picking the class. I only read of other issues. (I also missed the Miraluka clipping issues). This is my first character ever in SWTOR. I want to primarily use the force (Consular) and simply picked Sage because I didn't want to have a double-bladed lightsaber, which I did read (when doing my "homework") REQUIRED a double-bladed or you become gimped (a regular saber). I do not wish to play a Jedi Knight, as they are VERY different. I want to play my Sage, but have *some* way of using my lightsaber. You know...since I HAVE one. 2) This was about Jedi Consular, and from what I DID read, there were people (Shadows) complaining about the same thing. As you read the title, it is about Jedi Consular, not Jedi Sage (that is just what I rolled). I assumed that because pre-10 the Consular was so awesome, the sage would be similar at least in the lightsaber regard. Very pointless giving us a saber we never use in ANY regard. 3) This wouldn't "ruin the ranged class" as I clearly explained, beefing up Double Strike wouldn't even change how this class plays in any regard. It would just make double strike viable, even if still very ineffective. 4) All other ranged classes get melee attacks that are very nice. Regardless, I clearly stated this change would do nothing to the class but make it more fun. 99% of the time you still wouldn't want to EVER get in melee range. Giving them a beefier Double Strike doesn't change this simple fact, so QQ less. 5) This IS my homework, and I am grateful for the opinion on rolling a Shadow. Finally, thank you for your suggestions about Jedi Shadow. From the few posts I read of ppl whining about Shadow, I was under the impression they also weren't very lightsaber-friendly. (I assumed they were, but reading other's statements made me pessimistic.) I will re-roll a Jedi Shadow, especially since my Sage is a Miraluka with severe clipping problems due to his headpiece. Something I really can't stand. My new question is this then: QUESTION: Is there any way for a Jedi Shadow to be viable WITHOUT using a double-bladed saber??? Thank you everyone, even if I entirely disagree that Sages should have a 100% useless lightsaber. I'd prefer to have no saber and two-handed force animations like in the movies, than to hold a saber I never ever use. They could at least give more DEFENSIVE abilities or animations with the saber. Perhaps the Sage can use the saber entirely as a DEFENSIVE tool to reflect lasers, instead of as an offensive weapon. At least THAT would make sense and stop everyone from QQing about everyone else's idea to make the lightsaber NOT useless by giving Double Strike the Willpower stat instead of Strength.

As with a multitude of people, I want to join in with them to complain about the fact as a Jedi Consular (Sage?) we do not get to use our lightsaber, and it in fact gimps us. Even those Jedi who focus on the force, (Yoda, Emperor, Obi Wan?) they still were very strong in their use of a lightsaber. Pre-Level 10, I absolutely loved the Jedi Consular class. Before level 10, the Double Strike was actually the most damaging ability. As it always should be. Why? Stats. Before becoming a Sage and getting stacks of Will/End, I had a mix of Str/Will/End. Because of this, Double Strike was more damaging than all the others. (Sometimes I wonder if I stack Strength if it will stay that way.) 1) Lightsabers SHOULD always be the highest damage dealer (at least in spammable ability like Double Strike) because it's a LIGHTSABER. 2) Jedi Consulars are weak in defense, so allowing their highest dps to be Double Strike is perfect. It's still not very effective to use in PvE or PvP because other melee classes will toast you unless you stun them. In boss fights, you don't go up to double strike, you always use the force. With WEAKER MINIONS (PvE) though it is perfect. That's how I handled it pre-10, and it was a perfect finisher against weaker minions or a quick finisher against almost-dead bosses. Even if you make DS the highest common-ability (spammable) dps for Consulars, most still won't use it and will use the similar-dps force moves instead in safety. The solution? Unless I'm wrong... Double Strike's damage works off of STRENGTH, and not WILLPOWER. We can't stack Strength to become Lightsaber-Sages because then we'll gimp 99% of our abilities. I just want to use my lightsaber on the weaker minions, or as a quick finish when I'm high in health and they're about to die. I'll never use it unless it's to finish the enemy, or maybe spam until my knockback/stun refreshes and I can't run away, or for weaker minions. I'm NOT asking DS for Sages to become insane dps. I'm simply asking for it to be our #1 dps spammable, but definitely not out #1 dps and never the best ability due to its total lack of range. Either that, or replace one of our really powerful abilities (like the ones that have a 1-3min cast time) with a powerful lightsaber attack. That way we have at least 1 lightsaber melee attack, it doesn't kill us bc we're not in consistent melee, but it's awesome and highly damaging. I want to play a Jedi Consular pre-10, but for the rest of the game. 95-99% force, 1-5% lightsaber. As of now, it is 0% lightsaber.

There should be 0 punishment for leaving a battleground. WoW developers give you a 15 minute no-pvp debuff because they don't use their brain and just assumed that's what you do. SWTOR doesn't seem to have a PvP debuff for dropping, because Bioware uses their brains. There should be 0 penalty, because leaving is the only option sometimes. There are plenty of people, so that person who leaves will instantly be replaced by a new one. What's the problem? You're whining about people leaving unbalanced battlegrounds because the teams are stacked and they don't want to feed a bunch of level 50 artifact players? The only reason I'd ever leave a battleground is because it's pointless, 100% enemy farming us, 100% guaranteed loss because of horribly unbalanced teams with me having all the kiddies. Why should I be punished for wanting to leave and play a better, more balanced, battleground? Do you even remember we're here for the fun???? This is a game we PLAY.