Janith Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) This question has probably been asked multiple times before - though I couldn't find it after searching for obvious keywords, my bad luck maybe? Anyways, which class is better when it comes to their right skill tree, Balance/Madness. I've always just seen it as Sage/Sorc = Ranged, Shadow/Assassin = Melee-Range. Is that just it? Are the defensive cooldowns for one class better than the other classes for that tree? Etc. Thanks for the help EDIT: Thank you everyone for the information! To add to my original question, which is better in your opinions when it comes to the PvP side of things. Edited October 7, 2014 by Janith Further information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyboardNinja Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Shadows/Assassins have higher mobility, higher DPS, an execute and better defensive cooldowns than Sages/Sorcs in the shared tree. However, they're also melee. Sages/Sorcs are ranged, which for most fights means that they're able to achieve higher uptime and thus higher overall DPS. It varies a lot. If I had to choose between an equally skilled player on one spec or the other, I would probably choose shadow/assassin simply because of the higher DPS potential, but it can vary a bit depending on what else is in the group. Sages/Sorcs have the significant advantage of being able to spec TK/Lightning on certain fights, which is a massive massive DPS jump. A Sage/Sorc in TK/Lightning is going to out-parse a shadow/assassin in Balance/Madness on a number of fights, most notably Bestia (which is basically a nine minute DPS check) and Draxus (which is a series of tiny burst/AoE DPS checks). Infiltration/Deception just doesn't offer the same sort of compelling alternative benefits that TK/Lightning does. So yeah, it depends on a lot of factors. I can see valid scenarios where I would prefer the Sage/Sorc, and also valid scenarios where I would prefer the Shadow/Assassin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinplainview Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Shadows/Assassins have higher mobility, higher DPS, an execute and better defensive cooldowns than Sages/Sorcs in the shared tree. However, they're also melee. Sages/Sorcs are ranged, which for most fights means that they're able to achieve higher uptime and thus higher overall DPS. It varies a lot. If I had to choose between an equally skilled player on one spec or the other, I would probably choose shadow/assassin simply because of the higher DPS potential, but it can vary a bit depending on what else is in the group. Sages/Sorcs have the significant advantage of being able to spec TK/Lightning on certain fights, which is a massive massive DPS jump. A Sage/Sorc in TK/Lightning is going to out-parse a shadow/assassin in Balance/Madness on a number of fights, most notably Bestia (which is basically a nine minute DPS check) and Draxus (which is a series of tiny burst/AoE DPS checks). Infiltration/Deception just doesn't offer the same sort of compelling alternative benefits that TK/Lightning does. So yeah, it depends on a lot of factors. I can see valid scenarios where I would prefer the Sage/Sorc, and also valid scenarios where I would prefer the Shadow/Assassin. Unless you have TK Sages pulling 3800+ on average when the Madness Sins are consistently doing 3700+, IDK where that's coming from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardimuer Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Unless you have TK Sages pulling 3800+ on average when the Madness Sins are consistently doing 3700+, IDK where that's coming from. He cited several fights that are add heavy. The fast build up AoE burst could be more important than single target sustained damage in those situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittaany_Banks Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Shadows/Assassains will pull more DPS (About 500 more dps) but they are also melee which means more damage from bosses that do 5m AoE attacks. Sages/Sorcs also have the ability to to heal themselves quite well which is great for the healers because they don't need to focus heal them up as much and sages/sorcs can DoT heal whcih saves a ton of time and resources for healers as well. Like it has been said already, it is quite situational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudik Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Shadows/Assassains will pull more DPS (About 500 more dps) but they are also melee which means more damage from bosses that do 5m AoE attacks. Sages/Sorcs also have the ability to to heal themselves quite well which is great for the healers because they don't need to focus heal them up as much and sages/sorcs can DoT heal whcih saves a ton of time and resources for healers as well. Like it has been said already, it is quite situational. If you mean by DoT heal the self heals from DoT crits and FiB/Death Field then both classes have that. Shadows/Sins also have heal on Battle Readiness/Overcharge saber that heals for a bit more than Force Mend with a longer cooldown and way better defensive cooldowns. Since Sages/Sorc basicaly have the self heals and bubble. If u ment the HoT that comes from the healing tree of Sages/Sorc, then no DPS spec can't access that without hurting the damage outcome. Other things KBN covered pretty well. Most bosses are more ranged friendly so Sage will have better uptime. Also a Pull skill on friendly target which can be lifesaver if some1 in ur party doesn't pay attention Shadow has combat stealth which in Balance can be saved for stealth ress, cuz u really don't need it as a part of dps rotation. It really comes to personal preference. I have them both and currently raiding more on my Sage cuz our group lacks ranged. And I really love that u can change specs based on the fight with Sage cuz Shadow/Sin is really only one spec class for PvE. I run Balance for Nefra and Grob, 0/28/18 for Draxus, 2/28/16 for C-0 and full TK for Brontes. On the other hand as Shadow I'm stuck with Balance tree. Now I'm not saying full Balance as Sage or Shadow doesn't work on the other fights, but the different sages specs work better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janith Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 Updated the original post by me. Thank you again everyone for the information. What about when it comes to PvP? Which do you prefer and why. Thanks again I'm asking because I have this issue where I can only really focus on one toon at a time - which is why I tend to go Cybertech with any toons I level until they are 55 and then pick more appropriate skills for them. I find it really, really, REALLY annoying just to hop on another toon and send mods to another toon. I'm leveling up a sage and a shadow at the moment - though mainly my shadow. Would like to decide on which one I want to concentrate most of my time on for both PvP (on the imperial side, as on my server IMPS perform better in PvP) and for PvE (with my guild on the republic side, as my guild is more active on that side and I have come to make friends there). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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