TBH as a Carnage Mara..

I dont depend on Ravage and depends on the situation... Sometimes I like to use it as a closer and not an opener because sometimes merely running up to them is enough to freak them out and make them go defensive...I use it as a opener if people are stupid and let me...

Secondly... If you are Carnage...Beserk + Massacre = tons more DPS, this with using Gore + Ravage as a closer gets me lots of kills... Ravage is a huge noticable chunk and skers them... If you spec Carage right, and pop off beserk and maybe gore and if you really want to unload pop a fury and bloodthirst and expertise adrenal and maybe a trinket... and Just spam massacre... lots of damage... the problem is after you blow your load if they have defenses or healing you have to build up to it... So I tend not try to overload my DPS and spread it out... and pretty much just stick with Beserk and Massacre... you can actually sneak up a lot of damage that way it seems...

Thats the upside you can hit like a mack truck.

The downside is you are just about completely dependent on outside healing, otherwise you might as well be a suicide bomber or try to be a sneaky hit and run guy... your scores are going to vary wildly if you dont have a premade or some sort of healing....

"HERP DERPZ LOOK MAH SMAHZORZ CRITZ, LALALAL I HAS NO SURVIVABILITY LOLOL"

Here's your typical Jugg Rage player

LOL my smash juggy is name herpa-derp

Like anything else, there is no "best" spec. Marauder happens to be the only class in the game with 3 completely viable trees for PvP and PvE. Since we're talking PvP here, I'll share my experience with the specs:

Rage:

Hate it. The damage is incredible, especially since 1.4. Personally, I find the play style of Rage to be boring and have spent very little time playing it.

Annihilation:

I think this spec's rotation is a bit wonky and disjointed. You pretty much build up a full bar of Rage, hit your DoT rotation, then build up Rage again for the next round. The added survivability in PvP is nice with self-heals and extended Force Camo. It's better for those 2vs1 situations as well. However, PvP is not about sustained damage or DoTs. It's about burst and how fast you can burn targets down. If you PUG a lot, Annihilation is probably a more viable option for you.

Carnage:

Probably the hardest hitting burst spec in the game. Carnage is fast with the Ataru form in-combat speed buff, and multiple roots (that don't affect Resolve)...you're not chasing after targets trying to catch them like with the other two specs. Your best bet is to pick out targets already engaged with someone else, leap in, wreck face, and get out. Force Camo removes CC for those sticky situations when they try to tie you down, and Predation has a nice 30% speed increase for helping your team move between objectives.

You won't put up huge damage numbers with Carnage, because it's all single target damage. If you're an objective-based player who runs with a premade and/or healer, it's hard to go wrong with it.

This was a necro.

Please don't feed the zombie thread more brains.

Like anything else, there is no "best" spec. Marauder happens to be the only class in the game with 3 completely viable trees for PvP and PvE. Since we're talking PvP here, I'll share my experience with the specs:

 

Rage:

Hate it. The damage is incredible, especially since 1.4. Personally, I find the play style of Rage to be boring and have spent very little time playing it.

 

Annihilation:

I think this spec's rotation is a bit wonky and disjointed. You pretty much build up a full bar of Rage, hit your DoT rotation, then build up Rage again for the next round. The added survivability in PvP is nice with self-heals and extended Force Camo. It's better for those 2vs1 situations as well. However, PvP is not about sustained damage or DoTs. It's about burst and how fast you can burn targets down. If you PUG a lot, Annihilation is probably a more viable option for you.

 

Carnage:

Probably the hardest hitting burst spec in the game. Carnage is fast with the Ataru form in-combat speed buff, and multiple roots (that don't affect Resolve)...you're not chasing after targets trying to catch them like with the other two specs. Your best bet is to pick out targets already engaged with someone else, leap in, wreck face, and get out. Force Camo removes CC for those sticky situations when they try to tie you down, and Predation has a nice 30% speed increase for helping your team move between objectives.

 

You won't put up huge damage numbers with Carnage, because it's all single target damage. If you're an objective-based player who runs with a premade and/or healer, it's hard to go wrong with it.

This is pretty much my view on it as well.

Nice necro.

I'm currently specced for Rage, but my heart is in Annihilation. It's difficult to measure the effectiveness of the two specs because they are significantly different. From a straight numbers point of view, the AOE damage from the Smash auto-crits adds up really fast. I do 50-100k more DPS per WZ in Rage. So Rage is certainly better for damage on my Marauder.

However, Annihilation has a lot more survivability and contributes some pretty decent healing numbers. It's also an awesome single target eff you, as everything you attack will die. That doesn't always happen in Rage because of the missing survivability component. You are a lot more dependent on your cooldowns to survive, thus the shorter cd on Undying Rage.

The sophistication and complexity between the two specs is obvious. Annihilation is by far the more cerebral spec. Rage is a 4-button lolsmash, sometimes 3. But I still find both specs fun to play.

I haven't really given Carnage a good intense run. Think I will do that next before switching back to Annihilation.

Tiko- Carnage Marauder.. since launch...

I hear all these people talk about annil and rage nonstop, but carnage is toppin charts every wz i play. maybe its a lack of skilled annil/rage in my battlegroup, but the burst to finish someone off in 3 seconds is too nice.. Im sure its a preference thing, i have spent alot of time watching my dps in all 3 specs... Guess maybe im a player that likes to rape a healer, move on, rape a healer, move on.. finish someone off, move on.. and it still pulls more overall dps in damn near every wz.. possible a skill thing in comparison to others.. but carnage should get more love =D

How many pages back did you have to go to find this corpse?

More importantly, why did you decide to desecrate its grave with such an inane comment?

I just logged in today for the first time since 2.0. Now a brief background, I left the game over a year ago and came back about two weeks ago. I read the forums, checked out the templates, and it seemed as if Annihilation was the way to go for a PVP spec. So, I allocated my points and went to town. It was fun and I was learning the game again.

Logged in today and of course my points have all been reset, the trees are changed, and I have to do all this freaking research to figure out what is going to be the best PVP spec again.

It looks like Annihilation is gone, from what you all are saying and the debate is between Carnage and Rage.

If I get this right Rage has more AOE damage but Rage is "easily" countered.

Carnage is close in terms of damage and you can hit on the move, making it hard to kite. Is that correct?

Our guild is pretty much dead so there are not a lot of us online anymore. I know the game is set up for warzones but being an oldschool SWG player I prefer open world PVP and enjoy scouring the galaxy for red dots to attack.

Do I have the pro's and con's properly identified?

Any suggestions?

Hey AshamonReborn, I've been playing Mara since launch and while I think all 3 are good and have their strengths for for regs, in rateds it comes down to Rage and Carnage. Personally I really like Annihilation (fav of the 3), but with the changes in 2.0 I'm not sure how it'll fair (takes too long to build the stacks to lower the cooldown on annihilate imo). Someone playing Rage should out damage a Carnage player in a wz (equally skilled of course) just because of the AOE of smash. But in open world, I'm not so sure.

I mostly play Rage and don't get easily countered. Pretty much the only counter that I've seen is the Assassin/Shadow immunity to force attacks, a well timed stun or a knockback right before I hit smash. Great spec to play in wzs, putting up large numbers and killing enemies. It does suffer in 1v1s.

Carnage is the burtsy single target spec, fairs very well in 1v1s and has better predation. In 2.0 people are mixed. Some think it got a huge nerf, others think it got a buff. The force scream proc isn't consistent now, but you do get a refresh on your finisher and Gore. You just have to watch your toolbar for more buffs now.

Marauder has 3 great specs for pvp and good players can do well with any. Hope I helped!

Hey AshamonReborn, I've been playing Mara since launch and while I think all 3 are good and have their strengths for for regs, in rateds it comes down to Rage and Carnage. Personally I really like Annihilation (fav of the 3), but with the changes in 2.0 I'm not sure how it'll fair (takes too long to build the stacks to lower the cooldown on annihilate imo). Someone playing Rage should out damage a Carnage player in a wz (equally skilled of course) just because of the AOE of smash. But in open world, I'm not so sure.

 

I mostly play Rage and don't get easily countered. Pretty much the only counter that I've seen is the Assassin/Shadow immunity to force attacks, a well timed stun or a knockback right before I hit smash. Great spec to play in wzs, putting up large numbers and killing enemies. It does suffer in 1v1s.

Carnage is the burtsy single target spec, fairs very well in 1v1s and has better predation. In 2.0 people are mixed. Some think it got a huge nerf, others think it got a buff. The force scream proc isn't consistent now, but you do get a refresh on your finisher and Gore. You just have to watch your toolbar for more buffs now.

Marauder has 3 great specs for pvp and good players can do well with any. Hope I helped!

This.