I agree, there are a lot. Average on my server is 14-16 on Bal and it can be hard to get people to bite. I can usually rally at least two others, my mate and I play together so it's usually easier when there's already two. I think people are more inclined to join if the group is nearly full so they don't end up waiting around forever. I also find I get better responses if I talk to the population instead of just spamming LFG H4 etc.

Indeed he's slow out of the blocks, but there's a couple of things you can do. 1. Direct him to attack using the hotkey. This negates the pause between your initial opener and khem deciding to get stuck in, but it might throw your timings off of your first rotation. Or, 2. Throw a bubble on yourself before the fight starts. This way you can get your first few attacks off without taking damage and Khem will have enough time to run over and start taking the agro. This is what I usually do and it works well.

I'm a few levels below you so there could be something I don't know, but I haven't had any problems with Khem (Save for him interrupting every time I talk to Zash) and compared to Quinn on my Marauder he seems vastly more durable. I haven't had him die on me yet in fact, at least not to normal circumstances. Only time he's fallen so far has been when me and my mate tried to take a H4 by ourselves 3 levels below the recommended level. Just for a laugh more than anything, turned out to be fairly unfunny in the end. We got laid to rest. As the above says, make sure you keep him up to date with gear. I usually choose Khem gear for mission rewards and it's been more than sufficient so far. Give him a nice shield to boot and he's good to go. As tempting as it is to take all the loot for yourself it pays to keep Khem up to spec since if he dies, you'll often follow haha. Probably goes without saying, but it only takes a second to give him a Static Barrier during battle.

Could those who say it's not viable please offer a better explanation as to why it isn't? It's difficult to find the truth with so much disparity between opinions. I haven't had chance to experience +50 play as my LI Sorc is only lvl 19, I've really enjoyed it so far and can happily plug away quests a few levels above me. Of course, I acknowledge that this is probably worthless as from what I gather any class can complete the story without any major difficulty. So far I've been having an easier time than my Marauder, even after 1.2. I left my mara at lvl 30 about a week ago and re-rolled a sorc (Despite the uproar about 1.2 nerfing sorcs) but I was only interested in LI spec. From what I understand LI tree was more or less untouched by 1.2 but just wasn't particularly stand out in anyway compared to the other trees. I just wonder if I'm suddenly going to hit a wall and start having a hard time. I get the impression that those questioning its viability may be exaggerating the flaws somewhat, in that having a spec that puts out slightly less DPS than the tree that offers the maximum makes the lesser spec somehow nonviable. This is really what I need clarification of. Is the LI Tree nonviable for an appreciable number of missions, or will the player just have a harder time than if they specced Madness? It's just that post 1.2 this guide seems pretty bang on it: http://mmo-mechanics.com/news/sorcerer-sage-dps-compendium-updated/ This guy states that: Now to me, I would read that as the 1/12/28 hybrid offers the best DPS with Madness and LI being 2.7/2.8% behind it. Firstly, .1% is negligible so its fair to say Madness/Lightning are essentially the same in the realm of DPS. Secondly, and I suppose this is the important question: Does having 2.8% less overall DPS than the best DPS spec have an appreciable impact on the capabilities of the class? I'd be inclined to say 2.8% is pretty small and chances are it won't change much but as I say, I have no end game experience of my own yet and I'm new to MMO's. No doubt the delivery of each tree's DPS is different, I could understand if this was the problem, but I can't figure out how 2.8% would be a deal breaker. I just need an impartial answer from someone who can validate their argument reasonably. I can live with being 2.8% behind the best plus I'm only PvE'ing, but I would like to know that if I stick with my build I can still complete ops/flash's/heroics etc when I'm end game. Thanks in advance, Harry