Problems Staying Alive

[LloydEsaka]

First, if this is the wrong board I apologize.

 

Second, I arrived at Alderaan last night and I'm having significantly more problems staying alive than I did in Tatooine. I'm a Balance Sage, focusing on willpower and critical chance (mostly using the resolve modification with critical enhancements since my crafting skill is artifice), and I'm starting to think I'm doing things wrong.

 

I normally open a battle by lifting whatever is most dangerous then using project and telekinetic throw to beat up the normal mobs. Normal mobs are not a problem, its when I fight the elites and higher that I start getting beat down. When I fight the stronger ones I normally start by putting Force Armor on myself and Theran (before disrupting lift) so we can withstand a little damage then trying to burst it down with all of my damage skills ASAP, keeping my DoTs on them and using Force Stun when I can. I end up spamming telekinetic throw a bit since I have the perk on the skill tree that removes its cooldown and allows for an instant cast of a charge ability (normally save the instant cast for mind crush).

 

Essentially, is there some sort of skill I should be prioritizing (besides Mind Crush), or should I be healing along with Theran because I mostly let him handle keeping me alive.

 

Any help I can receive would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

 

EDIT: Forgot to state that all of my skill points have been put into the Balance tree

Edited January 21, 2012 by LloydEsaka

[Phydra]

Your skill/stat focus should be prioritized as follows:

 

Willpower

Primary Affect: Base for force damage

Secondary Affect: Increase chance to critical, increase amount of base force heal

 

Power

Primary Affect: Base for minimum force damage amount and force heal amount

 

Critical

Primary Affect: Chance (%) to critically hit with damage or heal

 

Surge

Primary Affect: Change to increase the percentage of critical damage or heal amount (e.g., 75% Critical multiplier on a hit of 100 = 175).

 

I suspect your attention to critical has been at the expense of power and this is why you're having difficulty putting out the DPS needed to manage your hunting. Try shifting to power as your secondary focus stat and I suspect you'll find a pleasant resolution to the matter. Roll in critical once you've got power to a respectable number (i.e., roughly 2% - 5% of Willpower) and you should be one happy camper, indeed.

 

Also, if you're running with a companion, be sure you're keeping them upgraded so they too can keep up with the hunt (and you).

 

Hope this helps!

[Alikain]

right all that you have done is right but one. when fight elite or other mob move abit away from your healer so that those mob that have AOE would not effect your healer. the only thing your healer need to do in such fight is to focus on you and CC when needed but if you let him take damage in an elite fight you will not get enough heals from him. and reapply you force armor when it ready. you spec allows you to move around without any problems. Edited January 21, 2012 by Alikain

[LloydEsaka]

Thank you both. My survivability has increased a little bit but I'm still getting torn apart by quite a few things, even some strongs and groups of 5+ normals (or normal groups that are too far spaced for me to lift at least 2). I assume that theres something fundamentally wrong (and I will blame a small portion of it on lag because my computer isn't exactly powerful and has problems running it even on the lowest possible settings) with my play style so I will continue to research the problem. Again, thank you both

[Mufawa]

first off i'm a lvl 45 balance sage. usually use tharan cause fess dies too easily without me healing.

 

i'm built like you, dumping my stats into willpower and crit, and i do pretty well, can take on two elites, though i'm hurting after if i didn't lift one.

 

one thing i found that effected my survivability wasn't so much my skill order but what skills Tharan was using. first off, he's got low dps, and as a balance sage you should be doing enough to do alright, but because of the damage you take, having him not heal from time to time to waste a GCD on a damage ability reduces your survivability. Also, while Holiday does save you alot of damage from time to time and is a handy interrupt, it can also kill you. its not a cast and forget ability of his, but a channel. so while she's out you don't receive any healing. The worst is when he casts it on a mob who is immune to CC effects, he continues to channel it even though its not working which means 10 seconds of no heals.

 

TL DR

Set Tharan to med watch, disable both dps spells and holiday and see how that works.

Edited January 22, 2012 by Mufawa

[LloydEsaka]

Thank you all for the help. I finally figured it out (mind snap is a godsend...after you find it in your ability list) and getting a few rage enhancement 11's gave me that extra DPS I needed. Also movement helped out a lot...assuming I paid attention to what I was doing and didn't run directly into another group Now the only mobs giving me problems right now are the missle volley droids and the sith war apprentices (still in the first area of alderaan, mind). Anyways, thanks guys. I went from worrying about every small advantage to feeling like a ******. You've saved Jedi Sage for me.

[OCoChoco]

Thank you all for the help. I finally figured it out (mind snap is a godsend...after you find it in your ability list) and getting a few rage enhancement 11's gave me that extra DPS I needed. Also movement helped out a lot...assuming I paid attention to what I was doing and didn't run directly into another group Now the only mobs giving me problems right now are the missle volley droids and the sith war apprentices (still in the first area of alderaan, mind). Anyways, thanks guys. I went from worrying about every small advantage to feeling like a ******. You've saved Jedi Sage for me.

 

missle volley droids, mindsnap, stun, mindsnap...

 

Wait till you hit Quesh if your having problems now... Melee mobs shouldnt be a problem with the kiting. but casters you have to interupt even if it means moving out of line of sight. and move away from any ground targets. force wave always interupts but becareful of your CC

 

and i wouldnt suggest turning off holiday, its 10 seconds of that 1 mob not hitting you. CC highest hp's kill lowest hp's first.

[Mufawa]

missle volley droids, mindsnap, stun, mindsnap...

 

Wait till you hit Quesh if your having problems now... Melee mobs shouldnt be a problem with the kiting. but casters you have to interupt even if it means moving out of line of sight. and move away from any ground targets. force wave always interupts but becareful of your CC

 

and i wouldnt suggest turning off holiday, its 10 seconds of that 1 mob not hitting you. CC highest hp's kill lowest hp's first.

 

i told him to turn it off to see how it improved his fights. i also said she can be very situational, not to mention annoying when cast on an immune character. also, besides the fact he likes to try and CC my focused target, as balance you should be tossing dots on anything that you didn't use Force Lift on (which will negate Holiday).

[playamike]

You just suck at pressing buttons. I know it's kind of like brain surgery. Pressing buttons if VERY difficult. You should leave it to the people who are not *******. I didn't die until level 36 and that was just because I went AFK to get something to drink. This game is NOT difficult. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to win.

 

Sincerely

 

Seksmehard