Annihilation vs Carnage (for general-purpose PVE sustainability)

[sunwise]

In the first half or so of my leveling, I was running Carnage spec and loving it. Massive Force Screams were wonderful and way too much fun besides. As the levels wore on, though, I found my survivability -- and, perhaps more relevantly, sustainability -- to be rather lacking, particularly coming to this from my Operative, who could basically go forever without stopping. Having to Channel Hatred after every single fight was annoying, and quite simply not something I wanted to deal with. So, despite not particularly wanting to, I switched to Annihilation, and the combination of self-heals and Quinn kept me going without stopping all the way to level 50. I told myself I'd switch back to Carnage once I hit 50, since I wouldn't need to do the leveling run-around anymore.

 

So, now I'm level 50, still as enamored of Marauder as I was when I began, but I've not yet switched back to Carnage, because I failed to account for daily missions. Sustainability remains a useful trait to have, for that reason alone. So, I pose a question to the Marauder-playing community:

 

At level 50, does Carnage no longer have the sustainability problems it had in the mid levels? I'm willing to keep Quinn, much as I'd rather use Jaesa, simply because it seems a healer companion is non-negotiable for DPS classes, but will that be enough? Or will I find myself scrambling back to Annihilation just so I don't have to stand around healing up after every single fight?

[Tumri]

Annihilation is currently far better than Carnage in terms of usability and effectiveness. This holds true even in 1.2 with Carnage's buffs.

[Dacer]

You have less down time in lvling with annhiliation during leveling from the self heals. but if thats the real problem keeping quinn with you should almost elimitate 90% of your downtime.

 

Carnage has less survivablity in pve - no self heals and you lose out on the 4% damage reduction to energy and elemental you get from defensive forms.

 

That said carnage is still effective in pvp - its gives you some of anti-kitting tools that are useful in 1v1s and to the group as whole in WZs.

[Local_Assassin]

So with the new 1.2 implemented and looking at carnage before it was a viable pve spec. With the recent changes would people disagree saying that the PVE aspect of Carnage has been nerfed and it was turned into a buffed pvp tree? Or do people still think Carnage can put the dps down needed for bosses? Or are some of us Mauraders forced to submit to the Annihilation tree for PVE.