Trying it right now, does not work. TB cast should be complited or interrupted? You're forgetting, that in my parse LB is consuming Death Marks, which boosts damage. Again, In overall damage pool it's virtually nothing. I would not even bother, seriously.

Sorry to ask again, just to make sure i've understood. I sould put TW/CL on cooldown hard casting, than start casting TB/Tb and get pushback via incoming damage, right? Unfortunatly, while i do have a sage toon, i dont play him at all, aside from crafting. So i may not know some sage specific things. Are you sure that all passives, affecting DoTs, do not affect Rippling Force? I was looking into this matter some time ago, i was under impression, that they all work. Let's use mine parse and closest to mine sage parse (http://parsely.io/parser/view/105188/0 and http://parsely.io/parser/view/108237/3#damage-done). On side note, this sage uses slightly more TT than i'm using FL(hence, he've got slightly more RF), but that's not that important for us. Also, i've feeling that my sorc have (had at that point at least) better gear, due to difference in damage for most abilities, and that we should keep in mind. I've thought that the reason that LB was dealing slightly (130 on avg hit aint that much, with passives not working, the difference should be much more) more than his/her RF, is that LB actually consumes Death Marks. Notice, that our DoTs deal pretty much same damage, while the difference should be in line with all others abilities. Maybe i'm missing something, will be glad to be wrong. Also, that all being said, if (if) you're right, the differnce in dps will be about 10. Which is not noticeble.

Can you please describe what exactly you do in raid and in pvp duel to proc said glitch? Tried to activate it with hard casting Chain Lightning, didnt work out. Actually, it's other way around, this bug (and yes, it's certanly a bug) is a dps loss for Sith Sorcerer. Thing is, Affliction, Creeping Terror or Demolish deal more damage per tick than Lightning Burns. Which means multiplication bonus from Death Marks gives you more, when it consumed by said DoTs, not by Lightning Burns.

I dont think that all encounters should be tuned for and revolve around 2 tank 4 dd 2 healers. The way I see it, if boss encounter allows you to play around with raid composition, tuning it around role, not class you're playing, it's actually a good boss desing. But maybe i've played too much D&D, maybe this cant be applied for MMO, i'm not entirely sure. I'm pretty sure, we both will agree that practice is the only thing that actually matters. While discussing this, i would also point out, that Vengeance actually have energy managment, while Madness, when used in ecounters like Styrak, less so Tyrans (NiM ofc), will just run out of force before boss will run out of hp. Or we'll have throw lightning strike out of window, but with lightning strike will also go our dps. And we dont have that much to start with.

Sorry, but i dont see alternative raid composition for Draxus as cheese. It's a valid option, it's not an exploit. Kephess is perfectly fine without storng AoE, due to low hp of groups. Corruptor Zero is easier, yes. But it can be done without much issues with little to none AoE damage. IF Torque was correctly tuned - he is not. And i doubt that he ever will be. And that was my point - you never need AoE damage. It's good to have, can be convinient, but it's never a "must have". That's exacly my point. Some people can veiw dps checks as very competitive thing. And feel very dissapointed, when their raid members doing about 1k dps better than them just by facerolling on keyboard. I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, just most shouts "nerf this, nerf that" (and "buff us", of course ) from high skilled players comes form this. So, basically, they are pretty much equal, arent they?

In my raid team i have a PT, mara, merc and sorc (truly yours). We've done pretty much everything by now, and there is not a lot of change since 3.0. If you have some adds to work with, you're fine. If boss is purely single target, like Tyrans, Styrak, Brontes etc, sorc and merc are pretty much equal, and way, way below PT. Generally, on single target boss, our PT gaining 500+ dps more than me (and he is as lazy as one can possibly be). And it's not like i'm the last sorc on the list. In my opinion (which is just my opinion), when people are talking about dps checks, they mean something different. What i think they mean, is that they want to be competitive. In current balance, i know for a fact, that i'm unable to compete with powertech or mara, when it comes to single target damage. Provided they're as geared as i am, they are as skilled with their class as i am with sorc, i'm unable to suprass them, no matter how good my performace is. Sorcs are very good in AoE department, that's true. But in SWTOR, there is no true need for AoE. At least in my experince, if there is a dps check, it's always a single target check. Your information about Vengeance is outdated, they're parsing just like Madness on single target.

I thought so myself, when it's became obvious that Shifting Silhouette just not working. Still, i think, it would a very nice tool, requiring good mark placement and timing. Shame, that it's not working.

According to early PTS data, specs with 30% bonus was extremely overperforming, in fact, Lightning with 30% was almost as ridiculous as Adavanced Prototype. That being said, i still think, that Recklessness should work as Critical Multiplier bonus, since Thundering Blast consuming it anyway (if used right after TB activation). Concerning AoE potential, it's often comes as an argument "but sorcs so good in AoE, why you need any damage ups?". While it can look true on paper, most challenging fights demanding single target damage and do not have any place to show AoE. Revan, Styrak, Kefess, Brontes etc. Class should have access to strong single target damage, otherwise it's just not viable in those fights.

During Revan HM encounter yesterday, i've tryed multiple times to take advantage of Shifting Silhouette Utility during last phase - Sacrifical Sphere. I've found out, that this utility do not protect sorc from Sphere's pull - while utility description clearly states "keeping you from being leapt to or pulled". I was very glad, when this utility was announced, not just because of 30% AoE damage reduction, i thought, that upon right timing this utility can be a poor man's hydraulics on sphere, and sorc will not be that bad on Revan. It's quite dissapointing that it's not working. Have anybody tryed to do this? Maybe i'm doing it wrong or something.

During Early Access, my raid team cleared Dread Palace operation in Hard Mode to get 224 tokens. First four bosses dropped 220 + 224 tokens as intended. But from Dread Counsil encounter we got only 220 token. Back than, i didint thought much about it, such bugs are normal during Early Access, and submitted a ticket. Today i've received a response, which was somewhat frustrating to say the least. Quote from response: "I've been able to lok into problem that you experienced with Dread Palace and though I can see that you cleared operation I'm afraid that I have been unable to verify that you met all the requiremenrs for the additional exarch gear" With all respect to BW employees, how this answer even make sense? We have got a 220 token from boss fight - so it was, without doubt, a Hard Mode operation. Dread Palace was a Highlighted operation during Early Access, no need to verify that. How come that we do not met all the requirements? Maybe i've got salty, and do not understand his answer?

While comparing dummy parces of different classes/disciplines is arguably a mistake on it's own, what you are saying just not correct. At this moment, 6 people among Sorc/Sage broke through 5k (Kumbell, who has posted log from closed KOTFE test server, does not count). And they did it, using Dread Master set bonus, which will most likely not work in 4.0. Top 50 Mercs opens with 5.1+, not to tell top 5. What people are trying to tell, is that Bounty Hunter/Trooper is the best choice in PvE, with best dps and utility, that allow player to just ignore some mechanics of boss fight. When some raid group managed to take down Revan on Hard Mode, first question is - how many bounty hunters?

Close, but not the same, finishing CD will give you 10.5 between uses, 1 second CD reduction will give 13. Also, both variant will play differently in terms of Madness rotation. in certain situations, It's better to hold 4 Wrath stacks, for exemple, your Death Field is almost ready, DoT-effects are ready to reapplication. Considering this, i would prefer time reduction, not CD finishing. But that's just my opinion. The actual difference is quite small, you're right.

If you dont have Sage/Sorc as healer in raid group, than you do bring a lot of utility. If you have one - not really, some things, like Extricate, are nice, but nothing to write home about. That would be nice, yeah. And not ground breaking for PvPers. But what we'll likely recieve is minuscule critical chance bonus to Force Lightning/DoTs. Or nothing at all. Good idea, looks logical to me. But, 2 stacks resetting CD of Demolish, it's a bit too much. Activating Lightning Strike with Wrath lowering CD of Demolish by 1, maybe 2 seconds is more reasonable, in my opinion. Well, Force Lightning in Madness do act as sort of auto-attack, since it's full channel is energy positive. But Madness actually build around interrupting FL. As i've said before, making Consuming Darkness viable in Madness rotation as energy tool will require additional mechanics with that ability, somewhat like what we have in Corruption discipline. And i dont see it happening.

I'm pretty sure, that 3 Wrath stacks will never happen. Execute bonus looks logical to me. I dont really know, what to propose here. Madness rotation is energy-negative as it is, and in order to bring some energy management (like, snipers/mercs have), devs will need to bring additional mechanics with Consuming Darkness for Madness. And i dont see it happening. I think, that simply adding AoE damage reduction from some of our Utilities will do the trick. After that sage/sorc will be just fine in operations when it comes to survivability.

Yeah, all of that is too much. What i would have done, is increase execute bonus to DoT-effects to 30%, as IO does. It'll not affect PvP too much, and will provide dps boost in a long run. Damage buff to Demolish is unnessesary, it's strong as it is, but lower it's CD by 3 seconds will do just fine. Back to 3 Wrath stacks - "clipping wsa never intended". I find it rather funny, that the smartest thing BW ever did to this discipline, was an accident and they didnt want that.