Carnage Vs Annihilation

[Syteck]

I'm trying to decide which is a better spec for end game raiding. I have been playing Carnage since lvl 10, so that might be why I seem to do well at it. I raid with 2 Marauders in an 8 man guild, and on Fabricator I notice I kill my stun droid a lot quicker then the other Marauder (He is Annihilation). I am slightly less geared, I have a couple champion pieces where he has columi. I was just wondering which you think is a stronger spec? I'm sure the bleeds make for a good sustained damage and berserk heals the raid. But keeping 100% uptime on Massacre makes almost every other attack proc an extra swing and gore is just too powerful, imo, to pass up.

[Enochx]

i would like to know what the general consensus is for this as well. i am only level 33, but I have been annihilation the whole time. It rules. I kill everything very very fast. I feel like I have great burst damage and then it is a race to see if my cooldowns reset before he bleeds out. most of the time he bleeds out.

 

But lately I have been thinking about carnage. I like the allure of high, direct, burst damage....plus I really like force screaming at people. I think what will make my mind up.....as silly as this might sound to yall.....is which animation looks cooler. massacre or annihilation.

 

So which spec has the best combat animations? anyone who has done both got an opinion?

[Omophorus]

I'm trying to decide which is a better spec for end game raiding. I have been playing Carnage since lvl 10, so that might be why I seem to do well at it. I raid with 2 Marauders in an 8 man guild, and on Fabricator I notice I kill my stun droid a lot quicker then the other Marauder (He is Annihilation). I am slightly less geared, I have a couple champion pieces where he has columi. I was just wondering which you think is a stronger spec? I'm sure the bleeds make for a good sustained damage and berserk heals the raid. But keeping 100% uptime on Massacre makes almost every other attack proc an extra swing and gore is just too powerful, imo, to pass up.

 

I've mostly been 3-manning hard modes with a couple friends, so I can't speak for all of "end game", but I like Anni for a couple reasons.

 

Firstly, the ability to stick bleeds on a boss and clear adds is handy when there isn't much wiggle room on beating enraged timers in some fights.

 

Secondly, while the Berserk heals aren't earth shattering, a little extra self-sufficiency is nice.

 

Thirdly, when "strip naked, train, and die" is a regularly-used cheese mechanic to save time (friends are Assassin and Operative, so they can stealth and sneak, whilst I cannot), having 4 seconds of invincibility to train to a safe spot is damn handy.

 

Lastly, Fury buff uptime is glorious with Anni spec, and any of the 3 buffs can come in damn handy depending on the situation.

 

For "normal" HM or Ops I'd wager that Anni and Carnage are about equal, with one or the other having an edge depending on the fight in question.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Omophorus

[Kricys]

Annihilation is ahead of carnage in dps and utility. I'd rather be raiding as rage than carnage.

[Tumri]

Carnage is a spec that I wish was competitive but isn't. Rage is too reliant on Force Choke and Force Charge in it's sustained DPS rotation so it's absolute crap for any sort of PvE boss.

 

Annihilation pulls ahead of both at the moment but content is easy enough that Carnage is fine if you prefer it.

[Kricys]

Buff force screams damage 30%, make it aoe all targets in a cone for 50% reduced damage and make it snare as well. Make ataru procs not suck. Make ravage uninterruptable and root in all specs. Change overwhelm to add critical strike chance of ravage and massacre. Make gore last for next 3 attacks instead of 6 seconds.

Make it happen.

 

 

Oh, yeah. The acrobatic stuff. Make ataru form reverse grip and add some fancy stuff.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Kricys

[Cindikle]

Thirdly, when "strip naked, train, and die" is a regularly-used cheese mechanic to save time (friends are Assassin and Operative, so they can stealth and sneak, whilst I cannot), having 4 seconds of invincibility to train to a safe spot is damn handy.

 

Force Camo can be used to ninja. If the distance is small enough it does the job.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Cindikle

[Kibaken]

Make ataru form reverse grip

 

Acrobatic != reverse grip.

 

Reverse grip, specifically the one used by Starkiller, is best used with Shien or Djem So style. Djem So is the preferred style of Darth Vader, hence why Starkiller used it.

[Kricys]

Acrobatic != reverse grip.

 

Reverse grip, specifically the one used by Starkiller, is best used with Shien or Djem So style. Djem So is the preferred style of Darth Vader, hence why Starkiller used it.

 

IDC IT LOOKS COOL.

Make it happen.

[Syteck]

Thanks for the replies, I honestly didn't know Carnage was lacking that much. I feel stupid for playing and defending the spec now, haha. I guess it's time to get used to Annihilation. Speaking of, why does the ability cost so much rage!?

[Spiderbubble]

Carnage is my favorite spec out of the three, and yet I will still say it's not as good as the rest. In PvE, I'd say Rage and Carnage are about equal, simply because Rage can clear adds simply by being close to them and doing the general damage rotation on the boss (thus hitting both the adds and the boss simultaneously).

 

Annihilation is by far the best in PvE, and it's very effective in PvP as well.

[Jowsterr]

Carnage isn't that much behind annihilation if played well its that small that it really doesn't make that much of a difference... Though when it comes to pvp annihilation is alot easier to perform well. Edited February 12, 2012 by Jowsterr

[Omophorus]

Force Camo can be used to ninja. If the distance is small enough it does the job.

 

I'm well aware, but it doesn't cut aggro range enough or last long enough to be useful in many situations.

[cyvaris]

Buff force screams damage 30%, make it aoe all targets in a cone for 50% reduced damage and make it snare as well. Make ataru procs not suck. Make ravage uninterruptable and root in all specs. Change overwhelm to add critical strike chance of ravage and massacre. Make gore last for next 3 attacks instead of 6 seconds.

Make it happen.

 

 

Oh, yeah. The acrobatic stuff. Make ataru form reverse grip and add some fancy stuff.

 

Wow someone sounds a little butthurt that the spec they like isn't very good. That many buffs to Force Scream...really? That is just dumb.

[Kricys]

Wow someone sounds a little butthurt that the spec they like isn't very good. That many buffs to Force Scream...really? That is just dumb.

 

Gotta aim high brah. When you make your christmas list do you put one thing on there? Psh.

Besides carnage sucks right now, why would I like it. Only way to make it good is to have it tunnel ridiculous amounts of damage into people since it doesn't have the utility rage/anni does.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Kricys

[Hizoka]

Gotta aim high brah. When you make your christmas list do you put one thing on there? Psh.

Besides carnage sucks right now, why would I like it. Only way to make it good is to have it tunnel ridiculous amounts of damage into people since it doesn't have the utility rage/anni does.

 

just because that kinda crap helped out the bads in wow does't mean bring that crap to this game.

 

If you suck deal with it or learn how to get better instead of QQing.

[Anbokr]

just because that kinda crap helped out the bads in wow does't mean bring that crap to this game.

 

If you suck deal with it or learn how to get better instead of QQing.

 

No thanks, I'll stick to annhilation/rage and ask bioware to bring carnage up to par. I guess the epitome of skill is shooting yourself in the foot and playing a gimped spec, never opening your mouth to critique. You can take your elitism back to WoW; where you and the 20 million other arena gladiators can exert your mastery over the "plebeian" masses and rub each other's epeens.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Anbokr

[Kricys]

just because that kinda crap helped out the bads in wow does't mean bring that crap to this game.

 

If you suck deal with it or learn how to get better instead of QQing.

 

You really are in no place to talk about pvp in this game or any other... lol.

Trust me, I'm most likely better than you since I'm better than most. After noticing some of the vomit you spew on these forums I wouldn't dare use the term QQ if i were you.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Kricys

[Oofthka]

i have tried both Carnage and Annihilation skill trees and have come up with this:

Annihilation is by far the best PvE tree to be in especially on boss fights because of heavy DoT. i have never found it good in PvP though since many other classes have knockbacks, making the three stack bleed hard to keep up and therefore making annihilation a pain. You will most likely not have your accuracy above 100% when using this spec and will occasionally miss hitting the target when it is critical that you do (which annoyed the snot out of me). The combat animations are OK, but not as cool.

 

Carnage is great for quick, single target DPSing and can be considered great for both PvE and PvP since you can incapacitate a single target with your lightsaber throw and ravage. the added accuracy above 100% is nice so you have armor ignores and your main hand lightsaber never misses. the added ataru proc is cool to since you get an extra bit of damage thrown in. also the combat animation is super cool since ataru form is known as the acrobatic form.

 

i have never seen a jug or marauder use Rage in PvE, but it is used a ton in PvP and is the superior spec for such.

 

In all i say if you are gonna PvE much more than PvP then go Annihilation, but if you are like me and consistently do both i would say go with Carnage because it is more of a hard hitting hybrid class with excellent incapacitating effects.

 

I personally spec Carnage because i find the combat to flow much more nicely with it and i seemed to pull agro off tanks more often when raiding then i did with annihilation.

 

hope this helps

[Elyx]

But lately I have been thinking about carnage. I like the allure of high, direct, burst damage....plus I really like force screaming at people. I think what will make my mind up.....as silly as this might sound to yall.....is which animation looks cooler. massacre or annihilation.

 

Thats more then half the reason i went empire for my Jugg/maruader. they just look cooler doing the same thing the jedi do

 

and Force scream is by far my favorite skill amongst them all, even the other classes combined. everything I do on my Jugg IMO is to lead up to my scream

 

so ill prob go carange on my maurader, but im glad this post is here...don't want to be frustrated with my progress just because i like force scream.

 

Edit:

@ Oofthka - based on your experience, which one would you start out with? keep in mind that for me, as long as i can kill the mobs and move on with little frustration, the flow of combat is more important to me. I'll be leveling with vette too. went with quinn on my jugg, and hes become somewhat stale, so i want to enjoy the vette story from the start with my maurader. which one would be a good balance for that?

Edited February 13, 2012 by Elyx

[ReapestLife]

This class is frustrating. I make it perform well in PVE/PVP but god knows. TOO MANY buttons and too much cool down watching.

 

And before you say yeah that's part of the class, think for a second that if you like paying 15 bucks to watch bars go up and down you're a rere.

 

And what the other guy said. There's a diffrence between skill and making a craptastic class do DECENT, (not great, but DECENT)

[Kibaken]

This class is frustrating. I make it perform well in PVE/PVP but god knows. TOO MANY buttons and too much cool down watching.

 

And before you say yeah that's part of the class, think for a second that if you like paying 15 bucks to watch bars go up and down you're a rere.

 

And what the other guy said. There's a diffrence between skill and making a craptastic class do DECENT, (not great, but DECENT)

 

I can say right now that after the initial warmup/first few Deadly Sabers I do I only glance at bars to watch cooldowns. If you need to be constantly staring at your bars/buffs/your targets debuffs so be it, but it isn't required and is more than likely a skill hump you'll just need to pass over.

[ReapestLife]

Well it's not deadly saber I worry about. It's fine. It's the blasted Rupture coming off cool down from visious slash, (which I reliaze that Annihi will be a half the time it works, half the time it dosen't) That being said, I don't literally stare at the bar all the time. But anyone knows if you look up and said skill is off cool down, that was a second or two you skipped it. I'm sure it'll play better at 50 versus 32.

 

 

As well, Thanks for the guides.

[Enochx]

so i switched from annihilation to carnage last night and I gotta say...it sure seems like carnage is a heavier hitter. I mean DOT's are cool and all, but DUDE carnage rules. I am glad yall talked me into it. I could force scream at people all day long.

[Hoseman]

Buff force screams damage 30%, make it aoe all targets in a cone for 50% reduced damage and make it snare as well. Make ataru procs not suck. Make ravage uninterruptable and root in all specs. Change overwhelm to add critical strike chance of ravage and massacre. Make gore last for next 3 attacks instead of 6 seconds.

Make it happen.

 

 

Oh, yeah. The acrobatic stuff. Make ataru form reverse grip and add some fancy stuff.

qft

 

Very nice suggestions btw.