Not bad ideas, although I think the strength of the telekinetics spec is supposed to be range and burst, with the disadvantage being that it suffers abit with more than minor movement, and has the lowest sustained dps in a stationary fight of the viable sage dps specs. I do think that the TK spec has to work alot harder than balance or hybrid specs, for minimal gains. Still, as a min-maxer, I'll take it for those gains, but I'm also lazy and wish I didn't have to work 3x harder than other classes who can just faceroll 4 buttons and out-dps me with less gear. When it comes time to blow up bombers in the kephess fight in denova, or burn down Soa when his shield is down... I really appreciate the burst of the TK spec. However, it is a little deficient in sustained damage. This could be corrected, and the spec simplified a little if tremors had a 100% chance to proc on disturbance or tk wave, similar to how concentration works with disturbance. its reliable, so as long as I use it once every 10s, it doesn't wear off and its not based on random chance. The buff from Tremors would probably have to be reduced in duration to balance out that change, but that would be fine. I disagree with making psychic projection a fixed chance, I like having *some* use for crit, although the TK spec in general values crit very little, psychic projection is one of the few things that increase its value. I also dislike Mental Alacrity. I'd rather a talent with a fixed alacrity bonus, (4% or so), over yet another cooldown. Between Force Potency, power adrenal, power relic, and mental alacrity, its just yet another button to an already button-overloaded spec (when compared to balance or hybrid, anyway).

I am curious as to who on the development team for this game thinks that an interrupt is equal to armor and range, because that is the only vague semblance of logic I can find for the decision to prohibit only one advanced class out of 8 from having an interrupt. As the only class in the game without an interrupt, I really feel at a disadvantage in pve content when I am unable to contribute to handling core mechanics of several fights (like colonel vorgath in hm denova, or even the Lost Island flashpoint; if you don't have interrupts, tough rocks) As much as I like having interrupts on my sage, if mercs don't have interrupts, then snipers, sages, marauders, and operatives shouldn't have them either. The design balance there would be 'only the three advanced classes with a tank spec should have interrupts', in a similar line to the 'only advanced classes with a heal spec have no cooldown on revive, and get an in-combat revive'. Then, the two pure-dps classes should have higher dps (and they do as a general rule, with similar gear and skill). The problem is, of course, that some content in the game assumes that you'll have multiple interrupts available to coordinate for a given fight (like sorno in kp). Fights like that would have to be redesigned to function with only one interrupt. By far the easier solution is to give mercs an interrupt, as this wouldn't require re-balancing existing content, but one or the other should take place, for the health of the game.

Yeah, 30% crit, with +5% from IA, and +15% from 2pc set bonus, gives tracer missile a 50% crit rate, and you can get 2 of them off every 3 seconds, which is the internal cooldown of Terminal Velocity. Obviously its just a rough estimate, as sometimes you wont crit for a few in a row, but on the average, half the time you will. More crit certainly isn't bad, but it will do very little for your heat mechanic, so I recommend power after you have sufficient crit.

I'll agree that after a certain amount of surge, alacrity will be more useful, but I just don't see it as necessary. IA gear comes with enhancements that have more power (and less endurance), they just happen to have surge instead of alacrity. I consider both to be in the running for the worst secondary stat that actually has any impact. While casting .1 or .2 seconds faster may help you get an ability off before an interrupt (like when fighting karagga, as his tunneling drill is random target), I find increasing the power of instant-cast heals like emergency scan and kolto missile make more of an impact, especially on fights like Soa, where you have alot of people taking alot of damage. During transition phases, I do about half of the healing needed on the move. (The 3 target limit of kolto missile does irk me, but I still find it very useful). There are only a couple fights that really need burst healing, like foreman crusher during his frenzy. These times are, however, predictable, and easy enough to save supercharged gas for them. I don't find my burst healing to be lacking, and some alacrity could still improve it further. But, I view healing on the move to be more of a weakness. Its really a matter of preference, I suppose. I just wanted to make it known that alacrity isn't needed for any content currently in the game.

The problem is, that that alacrity does nothing for instant-cast abilities, while power does. I'd gladly take 10% more heals on my heat-building cast abilities, and not have to spam a weak attack to try to make up the difference. The primary problem is that bh gear doesn't come with power enhancements that don't have alacrity. I replace them with enhancements from imperial agent gear, so I have power and surge instead of power and alacrity. its more work, but the healing throughput is superior in most cases, even moreso while moving. I haven't had a problem in heat even during nightmare ops. Yes, a little alacrity will let you get an extra healing scan in during supercharged gas, and an argument can (and has) been made for having up to 221 alacrity. However, having modded my gear for alacrity/power and then comparing that to modding my gear with power/surge, the lack of alacrity makes heat a non-issue, while the effective healing throughput in most actual bossfights, superior. I can't really speak to pvp, as I don't do that much. but for pve, alacrity is a terrible stat for sustained healing. It is sometimes useful in burst healing, but you'll pay for it, heat-wise. For pve, sustainability is critical.

healing nightmare mode pve.

crit till 30%, then power.

I play with 0 alacrity, and no alacrity talents, and I don't have any trouble with heat or healing throughput. I keep about 30% crit, which I get from implants/ear/aim, and I've replaced all my enhancements with power+surge ones (puts me at around 77% surge) The surge isn't really that important, but having over 500 power makes things pretty trivial. Alacrity is viable for burst healing, but for sustained healing, power is unbeatable.

like sorcerers?

mercs/commandos should have a true interrupt ability (stuns and knockbacks are irrelevant in pve bossfights), and they also need an in-combat revive. I'm rather disappointed that bioware would actually launch the game with such glaring flaws. Adding those capabilities will not increase dps in any way, they'll simply add utility that should have been there in the first place.

In addition to lacking an interrupt, mercs are also the only healer that doesn't get an in-combat revive. I love my merc, but we need to have the proper tools to contribute in pve.

Had this happen constantly to two different people in my group (commando and sage). Almost impossible to beat when it spawns clones like mad on the 2nd or even third scan.

The challenge of a game should come from creative mechanics and exciting gameplay, not fighting with an archaic interface to get your character to do what you want, when you want it. swtor has many first-rate features, but its interface is nowhere near one of them. In fact, I'd say that among mmos that still use a subscription model, swtor has one of the worst interfaces of them all, simply because its not customizable. Its terrible for healers and tanks due to clumsy targeting, tiny icons, an poor feedback about what your target/focus target/non-targets are actually doing. The interface is only moderately passable for dps, as long as you're content with being a below average player in an average game. All things considered, it would be a fine interface for a single-player game.

I find that if you spam your abilities, they sometimes generate twice the heat listed. If you wait for the ability to nearly finish, and only press the key once for the next one, it seems to work fine. but its pretty brutal to button-mashers.

I find as long as you have one ranged dps, who, along with your healer, can avoid all of the damage that fight, only the tank and melee dps will require any healing. This generally isn't too taxing for a healer, leaving you free to stay in and do damage. However, failure to interrupt Bulwark Smash will likely get your tank killed, and at the very least keep your healer too occupied to heal you through Bulwark Burst. I also recommend staying on a side with a panel (left or right, when looking at him down the hall) If you just end up with a healer that cannot spare you any time, then back away from the boss when you get low health. If you're as far away from him as the panels are, then you don't take any damage. However, if you get too far from him, his long-range attacks will destroy you (about 15'). You'll still need to move in to interrupt for your tank.