Hiyas,

 

Gunslinger here. Getting ready to roll a sage. I have read 2 of the 3 stickies on this forum. I mostly play PvE...or 99.675% of the time . Anyways, it appears to me that a TK Sage is the way to go in PvE. Only confusion ( a little dense here) is, does the TK build allow for effective healing in a PvE group? Some of the end game content?

 

I am not looking to do both great, just be some what effective, with a toon that gives me some PvE action without being a pure healer, but able to heal somewhat to be helpful on that end.

 

I know it wont be a DPS animal like my gun slinger, but I wanna be able to kill for the most part.

 

So, base on that, is TK my option?

 

TIA

 

Regards,

Despite what you may read from fails who talk about "pure" DPS classes as opposed to hybrids, you cannot effectively heal in any DPS spec. Whether you go TK or Balance, you only get two heals as a Sage. Both are casted, and both will drain your force so fast that you will be completely ineffective as either a healer or a DPS while using them.

 

You can heal an over-geared HM flashpoint group or the Heroic dailies on Ilum and Belsavis and the Black Hole, but you are never going to heal a raid or HM Lost Island as a DPS Sage.

 

TK Sage is great for leveling but is not nearly as popular for endgame as Balance. Balance is more mobile, and it's much easier to get the rotation down. Too much standing and casting with TK, which doesn't work that great in most of the tougher ops. Either is perfectly viable for DPS but neither will allow you to heal in the endgame. If you want to heal, spec heals. If you spec DPS, you will be a terrible healer.

Also, any group that expects you to heal while spec'd DPS is idiotic. If you are spec'd as a DPS Sage, you bring value to the group as a DPS. You aren't a healer.

As said above, if you are going to heal at all, spec into Healing - the abilities you get in that tree are invaluable to your success. Salvation, healing trance etc are staples. The new self-heal you get now as sage only helps you anyways.

 

As far as DPS sage - our Guild uses a few of them in our different ops groups, and they are all spec'd as Tele'K - their DPS output is actually pretty good. Now, they aren't as good as our Sentinels/Slingers or Commandos, but they do very well still and are definitely viable.

 

Balance spec is a little easier to play, the mobility is nice for some situations - I suggest you try both and see what you like better - both are viable.

Just to clearify, when leveling you pack quiet a punch when specked for healing. ofc not as much as a dps. But you wont have problems with killing stuff. I usually throw out a heal or two on gold mobs, but afar from that its just sitting back throwing out dots or forcequakes.

You're a gunslinger and you wanna roll a sage dps?

 

You'll end up hating the dps output and going back to your gunslinger!

You're a gunslinger and you wanna roll a sage dps?

 

You'll end up hating the dps output and going back to your gunslinger!

Why, I'm a Gunslinger and rolled Sage DPS as well. Not like I need a FOTM or something, I just like to experiment with different playstyles and learning different classes. Also, I love Sage visuals and animations. Although lack of energy management is what I probably find most boring. And I can always play GS when Sage is lacking DPS.

Edited November 14, 2012 by Lightning_

With 1.5 you can respec as frequently as you'd like. Just buy the field respec Character Perk and evermore forget what spec you want. As a sage, you'll be using roughly the same stats no matter what spec you go with (with the exception of set bonuses and relics) so you can roll what you want right now, respec when you need something else, and then spec back to what you like. You can even do this in the middle of a raid if you're party will give a minute to do so. More than ever, you have the freedom to experiment.