Both Corruption and Lightning are suffering from high damage they take (aka weakest link of the chain) and inability to contribute to your team when being attacked. This is due to the fact that their instant attacks/heals are too weak and every instant has a lenghty cooldown. Lightning Sorcerer: - Spell Pushback is a real problem. The situation happens quite often: You and your oppenent (usually a Warrior class) are low on HP and both have used their Def-CDs. I win if i land the next cast. But due to Pushback i am delayed by 1 sec and that's the deciding second. I die - not because of a clever interrupt or superior skilllevel - just because of mechanics. Solution: Give the talent in the tree 100% spell pushback protection - not only 70% - The offensive damage potential of lighting is nice, but it depends too much on crits and proccs. Due to the DR-curve of crit-stat this stat is almost worthless to take. The second arc of Lightning strike and Thundering Blast is nice, but not plannable. Solution: Remove the 30% Chanc of a second arc for lightning strike and make Lightning strike a guaranteed crit if your target is affected by your crushing darkness. This way it's more controllable for the sorcerer but it still takes time to set up this burst. Due to the sound effect of crushing darkness a good player will recognize the potential situation and is given a chance to line-of-sight. - If on the move a lightning sorcerer is doing almost 0 relevant damage and eats a lot of damage due to the squishiness. I have no problems with the fact that i have to kite people and take a clever position. But my tools to do this are lackluster compared to the offensive gap closers from other classes or their ability to deliver damage on the move. Both must be adressed to be more viable. Solution: Make 2sec root on Kickback baseline for all sorcerers and give each sorcerer a Defensive Cooldown that allows them to either heal themselves or make damage on the move. A possible solution could be that on activation Dark Heal and Lightning Strike become instant casts for 6 seconds. The Damage from Lightning Strike is not too high and the force cost of dark heal high enough that you have to consider if you can afford to use it. The length of the cooldown depends on how you adress Spell pushback. If spell pushback is adressed like i proposed, a 3 Min Cooldown should do it. It has to be shortened (by a lot!) if you don't adress the spell pushback. Corruption: - Spell Pushback is a real problem too like a lightning sorcerer. Solution: Give the talent in the tree 100% spell pushback protection - not only 75% - If on the move a corruption sorcerer is doing almost 0 relevant healing and eats a lot of damage due to the squishiness. I have no problems with the fact that i have to kite people and take a clever position. But my tools to do this are lackluster compared to the offensive gap closers from other classes or their ability to deliver damage on the move. Both must be adressed to be more viable. Solution: Make 2sec root on Kickback baseline for all sorcerers and give each sorcerer a Defensive Cooldown that allows them to either heal themselves or make damage on the move. A possible solution could be that on activation Dark Heal and Lightning Strike become instant casts for 6 seconds. The Damage from Lightning Strike is not too high and the force cost of dark heal high enough that you have to consider if you can afford to use it. The length of the cooldown depends on how you adress Spell pushback. If spell pushback is adressed like i proposed, a 3 Min Cooldown should do it. It has to be shortened (by a lot!) if you don't adress the spell pushback. - the direct healing on sorcerer is a concept i enjoy. But on the move i cannot contribute anymore. Suggestion: Give Dark Infusion and Dark Heal a stackable Hot This way the heals of a corruption sorc should be in line with operative healing, but a good team still has the chance to interrupt the healing potential of a corruption sorc by clever interrupting and crowd control. But the healing doesn't stop all immediately if the sorc is hunted down and gives the team a chance to react. - Corruption sorcs need the possibilty of force regen without the health tax. Suggestion: Move Dark Resilience higher up in the tree and give it a 100% health spending-free consumption

Maybe i should have mentioned that this build was thought primarily for PVP and AE mob killing awesomeness. On a single target it won't be the best build. As mentioned your main damage needs to be casted or triggered from casts - so it only takes 1 good meelee to almost shut your dps down. That's why you need to be stealthy at first, position yourself away from your healers and Range-DPS camp - preferably near a pillar/tree/something to l-o-s. And always avoid to be the first target all the smasher use to jump at! So far my favourite spots: Novare: walk in a large circle to the pillar facing the hutt. Stand very close to the pillar and move just enough to target your focustarget. Preferably healer/range DPS camp. Pay attention to snipers - they like to sit on the other side of the pillar and will burn you down if you don't los them! AHG: ATM I prefer to run in VERY fast and postion myself near their entrance to the middle on one of the ramps. Usually they focus on what's in front of them and not on the side. Can buy you quite a bit of time. If that doesn't work i love to use the thing in the middle to los. Will be tough if melees/range DPS of the enemy team is spread across all the room. Alderaan: Ledge of course or under the ledge near the ramps (the 35m range helps a LOT here!) Voidstar: One of the Pillars. Always try to be on max range.

Hello dear Sorc-Friends, the past few days I have been playing around with the Skilltree and have finally found a very nice specc - at least for me: http://www.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/sorcerer/12/?build=030000000000000000000000000000000302122002120212023000020000000003020302013100010000000000000000&ver=20 Please be aware, that this specc has been tested in random BGs only. I don't know how it performs in rateds and don't care about that too much. But it has something to offer and should be worth a try. Pros: - Nice single Target Dmg with either Lightning Strike or Force Lightning. Both can trigger some nice Proccs - Variable Playstyle: If allowed to Freecast: Wreck havoc on 'em and heavy AE-pressure with chain Lightning proccs, Deathfield and FAST Force Lightnings. If you are getting chased: kite em with Force Lightning, get your Wrath procc to be able to cast an instant on the move - and maybe trigger instant CL for another cast on the move. - No force issues at all if you are not spamming bubbles and/or heals on your teammates - Blind those Smashmonkeys with your epic awesomeness - and maybe with a little help from Backlash - 35m range with Lightning Strike - Disturb the enemies Movement with your CL Cons: - No electric bindings so you better position yourself wisely - No Thundering Blast aka no OMGCRIT Playstyle: As described in the Pros you can play very variable. If you are left alone try to get as many CL proccs as possible and spread some very nice AE pressure on the enemy healer. Use Deathfield on cooldown. Spread Affliction on 2-3 enemies to get the barrage Procc and use your Force Lightning to slow down fleeing healers and or Meelee that chase your healer. Use the Wrath procc for Crushing Darkness preferably. After some time even the dumbest enemy team realizes what kills them. Use your Force slow, Force Speed, Stun and Overload to create a little bit of distance within you und your new Smashmonkey-Friend. Use this gap to channel a Force Lightning to get a Wrath procc. If you have it preferably use it for Lightning Strike. It keeps up your Conduction and gives you a chance for a instant CL. It works surprisingly well against a single melee. But if you are chased by more than one melee it's either Force Barrier or GG. This specc works very well with 1-2 Smashers on your team. The combined AE pressure can whipe half of the enemy team before they realize they should spread out. And let's be honest: It's very unlikely that there is no smasher on your team. If executed well, you are going to be one of the top DDs of your team. And always remember: 90% of the damage is not crappy "fluff" DoT Dmg. It is direct dmg that kills.

Ich beziehe mich ausschließlich auf's PVP: Zu 1 (Sichtweise anderer): Full-Heal Hexer: Ordentliche Heiler, aber nicht herausragend. Nahezu kompletter Einbruch der Heilleistung wenn sie sich bewegen müssen. Hybrid Heal/Lightning Hexer: extrem nervig wegen Backlash. Wird er erkannt Prio-Ziel 1, da dann das Töten der anderen erheblich vereinfacht/beschleunigt wird und er von 2 guten DDs in ~ 5-6 Sekunden gelegt werden kann. alle DD-Specs (Lightning, Madness, Hybrid): Kippen schnell um und sind daher ein gern gesehenes First Target. Werden allgemein gerne von jeglichen Meelees angegriffen um schnell und ohne große Gefahr die 5k-Crit Medallie abzuholen. DD-Hexer die sich gut positionieren und sich vom Getümmel fernhalten können hierdurch in der Kill-Priorität etwas nach unten rutschen. Das können Sie aber nur, weil der Damageoutput nicht als "schwerwiegend genug" betrachtet wird um hierin ein Problem zu sehen. Zu 2 (eigene Sichtweise): Full-Heal Hexer: Solange genug Mana vorhanden ist und relativ in Ruhe gelassen wird spielt er sich als ordentlicher Heiler. Man hat das Gefühl sein Team gut zu unterstützen ohne übermächtig zu sein. Sobald Mana knapp wird, wird es aber ziemlich haarig. Consumption kann dies im PVP Getümmel auch nicht adäquat ausgleichen - auch das Talent im Heilbaum hat hier deutlich zu wenig Verbesserung. Hybrid-Heal-Hexer mit Backlash: Vom Supportgefühl spielt es sich besser als der Fullheal weil ich weiß, dass ich mein Team vor mehr Schaden bewahre, obwohl meine reinen Heildaten schlechter sind. Das weiß auch mein Team und fragt daher bevorzugt nach dieser Skillung. Generell Heal-Hexer: Ich habe nicht das Gefühl bereits einem mittleren Burstschaden etwas entgegensetzen zu können. Sobald ich zwei Smasher auf einem Mitspieler sehe und ich kann ihm kein Schild mehr verpassen weiß ich, dass der Spieler zu 95% Wahrscheinlichkeit tot sein wird, bevor meine große Heilung gecastet ist. Auch der "schnelle" Heal bringt hier nichts, da er den enormen Schadensspitzen in keinster Form etwas entgegenzusetzen hat. Lediglich Innervate kann hier den Tod noch etwas herauszögern, aber dieses hat ja auch einen Cooldown... Generelle Sichtweise zum DD-Hexer: Die grundsätzliche Spielweise macht mir Spaß und ich kann mit dem Ziehen, Stampfen (am besten mit Root) und/oder instant Wirbel einige nette unterstützende Dinge bewirken. Diese sind auch bei weitem nicht übermächtig bzw. andere Klassen haben auch nette Dinge zu bieten. Das Hauptproblem ist jedoch, dass ich - in egal welcher Skillung - keinen solchen Schaden entwickeln kann, dass ich das Gefühl habe, eine echte Bedrohung für das gegnerische Team darzustellen. Die Dots ticken für lächerliche Beträge und skalieren sehr schlecht mit der Ausrüstung. Machtblitz ist als normaler Treffer (d.h. ohne crit) ein relativer Witz und für den Gegner nur wegen der Verlangsamung nervig. Parasitismus sind stetige Tropfen auf den heißen Stein und ändern nichts am tatsächlichen Kampfverlauf. Dies zusammen mit dem Fakt, dass ich eine sehr schlechte Überlebensfähigkeit habe, sorgt für ein hohes Frustpotential. Einen Nahkämpfer kann ich mir noch halbwegs vom Leib halten bis ich Unterstützung erhalte; aber wenn er von einem weiteren Spieler Hilfe erhält - egal welche Klasse wohlgemerkt - wird der Rest des Kampfes schnell zugunsten der Gegner ausgehen. Eine kleine Anekdote an dieser Stelle, die Gefühl einen DD Hexer zu spielen meines Erachtens ganz gut wiedergibt: In einem Huttenballspiel habe ich mit einem Kumpel gespielt und wir waren auch im TS. Ich spielte meinen Hexer mit Backlash/Madness-Hybrid. Er seinen Sniper. Ich stöbere einen Gelehrten am Rand des Spielfelds auf und fange an ihn zu bearbeiten - er hatte offensichtlich die gleiche Skillung und ähnlich gutes Equip. Mein Kumpel sieht es und sagt über TS "Ach ich lass dir den, damit du deine 1on1 Medaille bekommst". Es entwickelt sich ein ewiger Kampf zwischem mir und dem Gelehrten, der sich gefühlt über 5 Minuten hingezogen hat (Echtzeit vermutlich irgendwas zwischen 40 und 60 Sekunden). Gegen Ende des Kampfes fragt mein Kumpel überrascht "was du hast den noch nicht tot? Ich hab in der Zwischenzeit schon 3 Spieler getötet!". An dieser Stelle war für mich klar, dass etwas ganz gewaltig schief läuft mit dem DD Hexer. Denn: selbst wenn ich meine Dots noch auf andere Gegner gecastet hätte: Die Dots hätten dem Gegner die wenigsten Sorgen gemacht (wenn er diese nicht gleich selbst entfernt) und diese haben auch herzlich wenig zum Tod des Gegners beigetragen. Ich bin aber auch nicht in der Lage ein einzelnes Ziel in einer - für dieses Spiel - angemessenen Zeit zu erledigen. Was soll das?! Der größte Scherz und auch das größte Problem beim Balancing dürfte aber sein, dass die Gesamtdaten in der Statistik des BGs wirklich gut sind. Die ganzen Dots und die Heilung durch Parasitismus bzw. die Schilder addieren sich ganz schön auf. Aber ich habe dadurch weder einen Spieler wirklich getötet noch mich oder mein Team vor einem Tod bewahrt. Ich glaube auch nicht, dass sich das Problem lösen lässt, wenn man auf der bestehenden Basis ein Schräubchen hier und da nachjustiert. Meines Erachtens muss im Blitz und im Wahnsinnbaum jedes Talent ab dem 20er-Bereich auf den Prüfstand und ggf. ersetzt/getauscht/neu konzeptioniert werden. Im englischen Forum gibt es im "Time for a pvp fix" viele hervorragende Denkansätze. Ach und noch ein kleiner Hinweis: Die Machtblitzanimation des Hexers ist wie ein großes Schild mit Leuchtreklame drauf "Schau mal- ich bin HIER. Ja hier! Ja ich versuche dich gerade zu töten. Willst nicht auf einen Kaffee oder Smash vorbeischauen? 5K Crits gibts auch im Rekrutenset!". Im Vergleich zur Spiegelfähigkeit des Gelehrten oder auch den Schüssen der Sniper finde ich das etwas arg übertrieben. Hier sollte etwas nachgebessert d.h. reduziert werden.

I have (thanks to server merges) 2 lvl 50 sorcs. 1 specced as heal, 1 specced dps. Both of them have at least full war hero gear and i've been playing them quite a lot. So i guess i know what i'm talking about sorc-wise. But last 2 weeks i've leveled a Powertech twink to lvl 50 and spent most of my time equipping him. He is now 60% war hero, 10% elite war hero and rest recruit mk2. So still a lot of potential unused. The difference to my dps sorc is absolutely astonishing. It is - even with the subpar gear - so big I can't even find the words to really describe it. I can actually KILL people 1on1 - fast! I still have some utility to offer (heck, with some tankgear and respecc it's even better). I have about the same survivability. I can actually turn the tides in a close fight. Amazing. In one of my first lvl 50 warzones (full mk2 recruit gear) i did 450k dmg. Yesterday i logged on my dps sorc again. Spamming affliction, deathfield and shield while running from that Marauder and/or Powertechs, sometimes being able to stand still and "burst". It felt so awkward. Just because i now know how it could be if a class is not gimped by its design and how a class not able to change the tides doesn't matter how good it is played. But what actually made me laugh at the end of the warzones: My total dmg and healing numbers where very good (and always have been). And since the developers probably analyze this data I'm very worried, that they won't redesign the class in the way it really needs it. In my opinion the outlook for sorcs is not very good: I guess there will be "adjustments" with the Makeb Patch. If they do it right, sorcs will come out a little less gimped than they are now. But i don't think they are willing to change the mechanics in a way we need it to be competitive in pvp (as the data says sorcs are fine). So pvp-wise better roll a heal sorc. As a dps sorc go PVE or /reroll. I did.

So i was thinking about Sorcs in PVP lately and how i can help my Team in rBGs. Playing around with the skill calc i came up with this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201GhM0MZfoMRbMbZsMbRo.2 The basic idea is to be able to spam the Stunbubble on yourself and your team, maybe help out with healing if one healer gets focused or dies. If possible i would be spamming Deathfield and Force Lightning with only a little bit of Affliction spamming (just for the Barrage proc and maybe some parasitism). Please note: this spec is not thought for regular BGs. I think it requires a well-built team for you to really take advantage of this build. I didn't have the chance to try the spec so far, but i think you should be able to contribute both: Solid healing numbers and solid Dmg. Pros: Stunbubble available for team, flexible gameplay for sorc - you can do whatever is needed in the current situation. Your team can run with 2 other healers with AoE Heal. Cons: No innervate, no HoT healwise. Loose of a "real" DD slot if your team decides to show up with 2 heals and you. The bubbles should also give you some force problems. So what do you think about this idea? /discuss

Well... it's about time to adress Sage/Sorcerer PVP-wise: Especially as a DD Sorcerer you just can not compete with the other DD-classes in rated BGs. They pump out a lot more DPS/total DMG, very often they last longer under pressure due to better defensive CDs and the (little) utility I bring on the battlefield is NOT making up for my squishyness and subpar DPS. Also as a healer you are wanted in rBGs mostly for your stunbubble (Nerf inc soon!) which is ridiculous, since you loose your groupheal and pretty much gimp yourself as a healer for it. Dear Community Manager. If you actually read this and have the possibility to forward this to the Devs please do it. Possible Fixes: Make Madness DOTs better. The 31pt talent should really put some pressure on the foe and generally the dots should scale better from AP. This could also be managed with a 2-3 point talent high up in the madness tree. Or make a talent, that the dmg from dots increases massively during its duration (so the last 2-3 ticks really hurt). Goal of this spec: The enemy team should actually worry about a sorc/sage standing in the back and dotting up the whole team. It should make the healers worry "oh man i need to dispell QUICK or we are going to have serious problems". This means a healer should not be able to heal through the dots+direct dmg a sorc/sage delivers against 2 or max 3 ppl. Also there should be some more mobility and/or another Defensive Cooldown to make up for the lack of burst so you can really wear ppl down. Give Lightning some real burst/Finishing possibility. Maybe a talent that you make +30% Dmg on Targets <30% Health. The Goal of this Spec: Glass Cannon. The Dmg here should really be boosted. Don't worry about the range: All of the smashers/Stealth Classes have more than enough possibilites to reach the Lightning Sorc very fast AND kill him very fast. Just don't give Lightning extra defensive CDs. Lightning should be on par with snipers in terms of bursting ability. But while snipers can defend themselves better, the lightning sorc brings the utility it currently has and nothing needs to be changed. For the Healspec i think there's not too much to do: the reason why other Healers are ahead of Sorc/Sage Healers atm is mobility while still being able to heal and survivability under pressure. Possible fix: Get rid of the 1.5sec Heal which no one ever uses and replace it with an INSTANT spammable medium heal with medium Forcecost. Of course innervate and the large heal should be the best in amount of Heal/Force cost ratio. You should always want to cast those if you can. But if you need to run away from that lolismashudiejugger this instant heal should give you 10 seconds to keep yourself or your team alive while moving. Oh and also: Please don't overanalyze the raw data you get from non-rated BGs. The total numbers there don't seem too bad for sorcs/sages. Just take a look at the class ratio in rated BGs and compare that to the total class ratio. You WILL see quite a gap there. Please note: I am not telling "nerf X and Y". I am just proposing my own thoughts about how you could make sorcs/sages a desired class in rBGs. But at the moment I do not want to fill a spot in my guilds rBG Team the second a full equipped Sabo Heal or a Smasher/Sniper comes online. And this can't be the point of any balance you want in your game. Maybe you generally need to separate PVE class balance from PVP class balance. This could give you the chance to really sort some things out... Please excuse for bad english. It isn't my mother language and i haven't used it in quite a while. But i hope you can get my points.

Just did the DPS Test with only my own classbuff but with Rakata stims (Attackpower + the one giving the 15 sec boost to AP) My Gear is mostly Columi with 3 pieces Rakata. Class: Sorcerer Spec: 3/5/31 deep Madness DPS (WITH Use of the Boost Rakata 2x ) over 234 secs: 1372. Also very Interesting: Parasitism added up for a HPS of 149, the 31 talent from the Madness-Tree AND Deathfield did almost the same Dmg as Affliction did. Also interesting: According to this Data my DPS will drop by ~40 - 50% if i have to move and can't channel spells...