Has anyone experimented with a Guardian hybrid where you spec in Vigilence up to Overhead Slash, and then put the rest in Focus? An example would look like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500ZfhMoruddbZfrbkrM.3 Essentially you give up the extra 15% crit damage and force exhaustion in order to pick up an empowered Overhead Slash, not to mention a Sweep that costs no focus, auto crits, and does extra 20% damage. How viable would this spec be for PVP?

If you plan on PVPing extensively, I would advise getting your expertise high enough so that it's giving you approximately a 10% boost in damage/damage reduction/healing against enemy players. After that, you're getting less bang for your buck for expertise. If you plan on PVEing extensively, suffice to say always go with the higher willpower stats. But once you have enough gear to get you to that 10% mark, you might want to swap out some of your PVP gear for PVE gear with higher willpower and other secondary stats (crit, surge, power, etc.).

I vote for a simple swap of Disturbance and Project. Make Project a 1.5 second cast time with the animation and the object hurtling part of the cast time, so when you finish casting, the object hits in sync. And Disturbance can be the instant cast/instant damage ability. With the animation already configured to have a second disturbance cast with the TK Momentum talent, that's just as easy to swap out for Upheaval. Plus it makes more sense when you're a TK build to be hurtling more objects around than if you're pure balance.

I agree with the above posters, but just wanted to provide an an example to illustrate. Let's say your mind crush does 1000 damage and an additional 300 damage per second over the next six seconds. That's a total of 2800 damage (1000+(300*6)). With the Assertion talent, you now do 1000 damage plus an additional 300 damage per second over EIGHT seconds. That's a new total of 3400 damage (1000+(300*8)). So it is a longer DoT duration AND it's more overall damage. What the Assertion talent does NOT do is spread the extra 1800 DoT duration over Eight seconds (instead of 6) for a same total of 2800 damage. The talent provides a longer dot and more overall damage because the damage is ticking for the same amount for an additional two seconds. Savvy?

I agree with the above posters about the Project delay. However... the OP has a point about the "stealthiness" of TK throw vs. Lightning. Especially when you add in 2-3 dots with it (Weaken Mind, Mind Crush, Sever Force). You can do a lot of damage to a player not paying attention to the tiny rocks pelting him from around the column.

I'm declaring shenanigans that anyone is regularly topping 600k damage post-patch 1.1.1 (or whichever patched nerfed the expertise buff stacking). As for me, I'm valor rank 63, full battlemaster gear (except for headpiece), expertise at 600+ for a total of 11.94% PVP boost. In a full, drawn-out match, I will regularly top 300k damage, often top 400k damage and, if the stars are aligned right, I will break 500k damage (pretty much only in a full Voidstar game). The problem I have though is competition for damage, since I often run with two guild mates (sage and trooper) who will also routinely break 300k damage so the 3 of us are always taking the top damage spots. I'm not saying I'm the greatest thing to Sages since sliced bread, and in fact I'm terrible in a 1v1, but I know how to play in a group. Full balance spec: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600hZf0MZcMfRsMkrfz.1 Edit: And for the record, I will gladly sacrifice my top spot on the damage/kill board in order to secure objectives and a Republic win.

One word: Expertise. I'm sitting at full battlemaster gear (save the hat which is champion), with an Expertise rating of over 600 for a PVP boost of 11.94%. The PVP gear generally sacrifices some Endurance and your base stat (willpower, aim, strength, or cunning) in exchange for Expertise. But basically if you're going up against me in your full Rakata gear vs. me in full Battlemaster, I'm doing almost 12% more damage to you and you're doing 12% less damage to me. And I'm healing for 12% more too. So we're talking a damage gap of about 24%. Your boosted stats aren't going to overcome that. My advice - get two sets of gear, one for PVE and one for PVP. 'cause I guarantee you that even with your better base stats, going up against an equally skilled player decked out in equivalent gear with Expertise, you will lose.

True, good points. I didn't take into consideration the PoM procs. That's some food for thought, though it's hard for me to give up my dots. I guess it's a matter whether you're going for more burst or sustained damage. Another drawback I see, however, is force management. You're essentially talking a trade-off between Sever Force and TK Wave. SF costs 20 force vs. TK Wave's 50 force. You get a lot of PoM procs and you're going to be depleted of force pretty darn quick. You'd better hope your target is dead by that point because you're going to be nearly out of force, even with the regen you'd get with TK Throw. So I will reassess my initial evaluation. But I think both pure balance and hybrids are viable for PvP and PvE, it's more of a style preference in which abilities you like better and what kind of damage you are going for (burst vs. sustained).

I'm an advocate of the full balance spec. (Here's my breakdown for those interested: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600hZf0MZcMfRsMkrfz.1) It seems the reason most people give for splitting half and half between TK and Balance is 1. the instant cast TK wave and 2. the root you get with Force Wave Let me address those individually. 1. Instant cast TK Wave: only happens if you are casting Disturbance or Force Quake. As for me, I never use disturbance. It not even on my ability bars. And I'm certainly not going to stand still long enough to cast it 3 times for that 30% chance to proc the TK wave. If I'm standing still, I'm using TK Throw. And the only time I use force quake is if there's 3 enemies or more clumped together. I wouldn't spam quake just to get an instant TK Wave, it costs too much force. 2. The Force Wave root. It's nice in PVP, but it's not a make or break ability. I can get around it with a couple ways. If it's a 1v1, force wave plus a sever force root (for 2 seconds), then a slow will usually keep me at as much distance as I need. And force speed as a backup. In a 2v1, same thing, only add an instant-cast Force Lift and/or Force Stun combined with the 1v1 tactic. And 3v1 or more, let's face if it 3 guys are on you, a force root isn't going to help you all that much unless you're merely trying to escape. I would much rather have Sever Force. It's an instant cast dot. It also roots for 2 seconds, even if the person has a full resolve bar. You wouldn't believe how many people i've caught in flame traps with that. Plus it's only a 9 second cooldown, which means I can have both Weaken Mind AND Sever Force running constantly on TWO different targets. Plus the occasional instant-cast Mind Crush gives me 3 instant dots all while staying mobile (save for the occasional TK throw spam). Plus the bonus to heals on dots adds significantly to my own surviveability. And for the record, at the time of this writing, I'm valor rank 63, full Battlemaster gear (save the belt, just need 1 more commendation) on The Harbinger server.

I didn't see this in the original list so I thought I'd mention it here. Force Wave vs. Overload (the personal aoe knockback) Force Wave has a leaping animation, about a 1-2 second animation time between the time the ability is activated and the knockback occurs. Overload does not seem to have this drawback. Thus, if an Inquisitor and a Consular are standing side by side, and activate their respective abilities at the same time, the Consular will get knocked back while the Inquisitor will remain in place. Alternatively, if the Consular activates Force Wave a second or two before the Inquisitor, both will get knocked back. The only time I've been able to successfully knock back an Inquisitor is if they simply don't use their Overload at all. Too many times have I been knocked off the Void Star bridge because of this animation delay. Oh, and, for credibility purposes: Level 50 Sage, Valor rank 57.