I haven't played in a pretty long time and I decided to return to the game last night. I've read through quite a few patch notes and see that there have been a ton of changes to the Sage (and sorc) class. I'm looking to dps mainly. The guild I'm with will put me in the dps role during any raids or fps we do so that just leaves, which to pick.

Let me be clear, I'm asking which I should pick, I'm trying to figure out the current state of each, hence asking for strengths and weaknesses of each. Keeping in mind that I plan on raiding, what are the pros and cons of each? Does one outshine the other in raids or in specific situations now?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can give.

46 views and 0 replies or people willing to help?

<sigh> Kinda disappointed in the community, it used to be pretty helpful

More of a case of not being able to reply on the device i was using

Looks like your after PvE content, so heres the quick summary:

Balance Spec: Mobile, ridiculously powerful (top 3 specs in the game), low burst damage, average AoE capabilities. Sort-of-force-negative, depending on the spec you use.

TK Spec: Turret, good AoE, Great Burst, decent sustained, almost unlimited force.

I recommend learning Balance spec using this guide (its in sorcerer terms), and if you know how to use TK spec use it on fights that need lots of target swapping or AoE and no mobility.

Unless you want to learn the hybrid (2/28/16) while it lasts (only 2 months remaining), though that only works on the viable TK fights (it does have a mobility advantage though)

More of a case of not being able to reply on the device i was using

 

Looks like your after PvE content, so heres the quick summary:

 

Balance Spec: Mobile, ridiculously powerful (top 3 specs in the game), low burst damage, average AoE capabilities. Sort-of-force-negative, depending on the spec you use.

 

TK Spec: Turret, good AoE, Great Burst, decent sustained, almost unlimited force.

 

I recommend learning Balance spec using this guide (its in sorcerer terms), and if you know how to use TK spec use it on fights that need lots of target swapping or AoE and no mobility.

 

Unless you want to learn the hybrid (2/28/16) while it lasts (only 2 months remaining), though that only works on the viable TK fights (it does have a mobility advantage though)

This has the translated guide in it. (Hurray, might as well have done this for something)

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=747040

If you want to be the best you can possibly be, you need to learn both specs. Start with Balance, since it's the one that gives you the biggest leg up on the fights with legitimately hard DPS checks. Once you feel pretty confident in Balance (and are able to parse around 3.8 or 3.9k in 180s), turn your attention to TK. I think TK is an easier spec in principle than Balance, since the rotation is a lot more fixed, but at the same time it is also a much faster rotation and one which is very punishing of tiny timing errors.

Use Balance on every fight which allows you to sit still and turret on a single target for a long period of time, or on fights where high mobility is required. TK is reserved for fights with burst requirements, target swapping and/or AoE requirements. Draxus and Bestia are the best examples of TK fights that really, really don't work well in Balance. Brontes, Council and Tyrans are good examples of fights which are extremely hard to do well in TK but extremely good in Balance.