Gah, I'm going to have to bust out my 1.x guide and redo it once I'm back in the swing.

whynotboth.jpg

Dat regstar arena takes so long and is so worth protesting, amirite? Stop speccing Lightning for pvp (I know, it's hard, but if I could do it, so can you). Now that your primary handicap outside of skill has been removed, don't forget Fadeout to help you out of those overabundant roots. Above all, keep your distance and use Barrier effectively.

Looks like someone's new here, Dep.

Doubtful that anything will come of this thread anytime soon. Basically every sorc/sage in the top 50 is Madness and you can't count Mudclot because he quit and uninstalled.

If all these complaints are based around pugs and solo combat, then there's really nothing to discuss here. 9/10 yolo queues don't have a dedicated healer and to whine about a pug healer ignoring a teammate low on health is asinine. The only pvp that has ever really mattered for balance concerns is group ranked, although it looks like the "team" in charge of class balance is going to pay more attention to yolo than necessary. Certain specs have high skill caps, yeah, and that's the point. Sorcs, mercs, Carnage, they're challenging and operate best in coordinated team play, which is what this game is all about. No smart developer balances around duels unless that is specifically the focus of the game design. I'm not necessarily advocating a nerf as I more or less intend to make my mara into a second main and think that they're rather blindly swinging the nerf bat around while simultaneously ignoring problems that have been glaring for over a year with other classes. If there's any one skill that needs a severe design change it's Smash, as the 8-10k aoe autocrits are nothing short of game-breaking. However, because that's the intended design of the spec, nothing will be done about it. Even with a healer, if you get two smashtards into an enemy group, they'll deal about 32-40k damage in one hit, each. Smash is literally the biggest problem with the warrior class and yet it'll go untouched. As for how many dps should it take to kill a lone healer? 1-2, depending on class and player matchup.

I actually just got a marauder to 55 last week and played Carnage for the majority of its leveling. I spent roughly 15 minutes (1 warzone, and significantly longer on my juggernaut) as Rage and the first 25 or so levels as Anni. I understand weaknesses and cooldowns of the class and can safely say that outside of Rage, it's fairly balanced and well designed. Anni is unquestionably one of the best pve specs in the game, and Carnage is very competitive as well. In pvp, Rage is undeniably the best damage spec in the game in terms of output, survival and ease of play. Carnage is in a pretty good spot, too, and I'd say it's the most balanced of the three in pvp because it's not unkillable, but does a significant amount of damage. In case you were wondering, Carnage is by far my favorite spec. Let's compare with some other specs of other classes: Operative: heals are extremely survivable given a tank. Without one, easily focused down by semi-competent dps. Dps operatives are terribly squishy and do laughable damage in the hands of all but the best players. Roll can get out of sticky situations but requires a fifth of the energy bar. Juggernaut: All the survivability of a tank you'd expect as Immortal, weak sustained and burst as Vengeance with a 4 second immunity after a Charge and Rage is a glass cannon. Merc: Only really useful for net in pvp, few defensive cooldowns, root/physics immunity on a medium cooldown. I don't have one of these, but they're typically one of the first focus targets in an arena if there isn't a sorc. PT: imbalanced as all hell in AP, tank is average and pyro isn't that great. One of two classes that dominates solo queue. Assassin: has tank cooldowns in cloth armor, very bursty but easily taken down by equally skilled players of almost any class. Sniper: cover, a few defensive CDs and medium armor. Completely stationary, which is horrible in a deathmatch. 20 second CD roll. Can spec for Entrench. Typically destroyed by assassins in yolo and has a very low representation. Mine isn't very high so I can't really comment at 55 other than from observation. Sorc: light armor, no real defensive CDs, only healers get root/snare immunity during speed, 2.5-3 minute immunity CD that applies a self-cc because of channeling. Weakest knockback for a class that needs it. Questionable design philosophy overall, but particularly for Lightning. The top 1% of players can make it work exceptionally well, but the remaining 99% struggle. Even at baseline, Undying Rage is an amazing defensive cooldown, Cloak of Pain is essentially a flat 20% reduction every 30 seconds, Force Camo can get absurd, especially as Carnage. Marauders are excellently designed and maintained. Any complaints about root immunity can be sent to the Department of Learn to Play. Watch the buffs on your target and don't waste a root (short) cooldown. Marauders are almost fine; all that needs be done is to nerf their defensives, which is being done, and to seriously cut down on Rage's AOE potential, which has more or less be stated will never happen. So when I say to suck it up, I say it from a perspective that's not unfamiliar with the class. There's no real reason to bring melee that isn't a marauder to anything anymore when they bring the raid buffs and the damage potential to both pve and pvp. Many other ACs need more attention and love than maras do.

I've seen some amazing marauders and they wipe the floor with just about any comp out there. I wish I could remember this guy's name, but our team ended up as a 3v4 and he, as a smash mara, destroyed the other team. Took out two guys on his own. While he's exceptionally good, that doesn't change the fact that marauders have better tools than other classes. As it stands on live, maras are as hard to kill as tank classes in tank spec. AP needs a fix so that ion doesn't work as well with it, Madness sorcs die quickly under focused fire, op heals only get really imba with a tank guarding them, tanks of any sort aren't terribly effective without heals, and snipers splat about as quickly as sorcs do in yolo queue. I'm not at the level of Mud, Xeno or Glory, but to see maras whine about losing survivability when they never should have had so much in the first place rubs me wrong.

It's still cheaper to buy an obroan piece and rip mod/enhancement out than to buy both an obroan mod and enhancement. The obroan level enhancement itself is around the same price as a full piece of armor, so it's kind of stupid how they set it up.

Check out Nibbon's guide in the sage forums. Unfortunately for most PvEers, the sorc forums are heavily PvP focused.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=627405 Sage terms, but it's the pve guide to look at.

I'd actually love to see EB baseline with the talent updated so that the root doesn't break on damage. Melee has so many tools to get out of it and if you're a clever sorc, you'll purge the debuff from yourself or teammates.

Hence why I got serious with my marauder =/

The only thing they're removing as far as I've seen is the immunity outside of actual cover spots, so no kneeling down in an open field and laughing your way to the charge immunity bank.

Postin' in a troll thread, troll thread, troll thread