Everybody complains so much about mercs and commandos being underpowered but the elephant in the room is never addressed: the dps sage/sorc. Lightning sorc is pretty much unplayable. Was messing around with respeccing last night, as it's now free for subbers. I tried a full lightning and it was horrible, could only do it for one match. Then I specced the fad that's in these days, the hybrid healer, for a few warzones and it was pretty much just an invitation to get focused and killed every time I spawned. Nothing gets you noticed more than electric bindings and a bubble that explodes in a blinding flash. I found I had more survivablitiy without those things as I wouldn't get noticed as much and therefore wouldn't be targeted by 3 or 4 enemies every time I came out of the spawn zone. Respecced back to full heals asap.

Ha, its funny because I honestly don't see that many hybrid healers like me out there in the (normal) warzones. It's not for the weak of heart and not for the high ego.

Yes, I often get focused more then the main healer. This isn't neccessarily a bad thing.

Ultimately, I don't care what my 'numbers' are in the end, provided we win.

If messing with me and largely ignoring the good 400k output main healer means we win, then hey, I'm good. Although to be honest, with a savvy healer we just crossheal each other, and that REALLY ticks off the pugs...

I have to jump on the bubble band wagon. Pretty damn annoying...

Back to mezz or only pops on the caster.

I have to jump on the bubble band wagon. Pretty damn annoying...

 

Back to mezz or only pops on the caster.

Aw man, I thought you'd be in the "Adds Proper Resolve, No Unclicking the Buff" camp.

In other words give us our flipping healing and dps back that the idiots from bioware took in 1.2 that was completely uneccesary. they neede to fix one bug and that was double dipping for the conveyance proc, that's all they needed to do.

I agree! DPS for SAGE/SORC has sucked since the great 1.2 NERF'ing. How about add some skill back into our trees and we won't be downgraded to use dirty trick bugs to stay alive and viable to PVP teams.

Fix TWO BIRDS with one stone here Bioware! PVP QQ and LOW PVE & PVP DPS for SORC/SAGE.

1. BUFF the Madness/Balance Tree so "REAL DPS" can happen like it should for crap armored players.
   
2. Keep STUN BUBBLES - but make them only burst on damage or timeout.
   

Maybe instead of two 3% stack on "Will of.. Jedi/Sith" you make it 10% @ stack for a max of 20%.

Aw man, I thought you'd be in the "Adds Proper Resolve, No Unclicking the Buff" camp.

LOL...

As my two mains are melee... I MAY be a bit bias.

Those wouldn't be bad... but honestly I feel like it shoud only stun on the caster. There is a ton of CC in this game already. We really don't need more...especially with the resolve changes in 1.4.

What about instead of a stun or mez or any other CC, it reduces damage to all people in 10 meters by 20% for 6 seconds? Essentially a weaker AoE taunt that is more effective on melee classes than ranged classes. That would still be awesome group utility, without being overly frustrating to fight against.

Also, make it only activate if it is broken by damage.

What about instead of a stun or mez or any other CC, it reduces damage to all people in 10 meters by 20% for 6 seconds? Essentially a weaker AoE taunt that is more effective on melee classes than ranged classes. That would still be awesome group utility, without being overly frustrating to fight against.

 

Also, make it only activate if it is broken by damage.

Why would we want 8 man teams capable of AOE taunting at will again? Nothing says fun like 20% damage reduction 2...3...4...5...6...7...8 times in a row on a 17 second CD.

*******No longer directed at quoted poster***************

Did I miss something with bubble at some point? It's a 4k heal that can be cast in advance, with talents it costs minimal force, has no CD and would potentially be ready to put back on the first person by the time you use it on the 8th one, and is not susceptible to overhealing as it does not go into effect until damage is given. Why does everyone feel this ability needed a buff?

Here is what I have seen as reasons from people so far:

1) Other classes have OP abilities like Smash: How does one ability being OP justify having another one? What you really want is a nerf to Smash, which is an entirely separate thread topic (or 1,000 thread topic).

2) It makes sorcs wanted in rated: How about we ditch this annoying ability and do something that actually makes sorcs BALANCED for rateds. Like, I don't know, having some burst DPS. Personally, I don't want to be like carnage maras, brought along for one ability.

3) It makes up for all the warriors in warzones: Roll a GS/Sniper and you'll see how angry warriors can be. The bubble pop just pisses off everyone.

4) It provides utility: Because sorcs didn't have enough utility. If there was one thing sorcs really needed it was more utility. I could list everything we have and it still doesn't change the fact that before 1.4 burst DPS was the problem. Survivability was lacking (self heal and shorter CD on force speed helped here). Utility was never missing. And so they rework this ability that we didn't need and fail to help out the DPS trees at all. But keep pushing to keep this ability, it's really improving the class in a meaningful way.

Did I miss something with bubble at some point? It's a 4k heal that can be cast in advance, with talents it costs minimal force, has no CD and would potentially be ready to put back on the first person by the time you use it on the 8th one, and is not susceptible to overhealing as it does not go into effect until damage is given. Why does everyone feel this ability needed a buff?

 

Here is what I have seen as reasons from people so far:

 

1) Other classes have OP abilities like Smash: How does one ability being OP justify having another one? What you really want is a nerf to Smash, which is an entirely separate thread topic (or 1,000 thread topic).

 

2) It makes sorcs wanted in rated: How about we ditch this annoying ability and do something that actually makes sorcs BALANCED for rateds. Like, I don't know, having some burst DPS. Personally, I don't want to be like carnage maras, brought along for one ability.

 

3) It makes up for all the warriors in warzones: Roll a GS/Sniper and you'll see how angry warriors can be. The bubble pop just pisses off everyone.

 

4) It provides utility: Because sorcs didn't have enough utility. If there was one thing sorcs really needed it was more utility. I could list everything we have and it still doesn't change the fact that before 1.4 burst DPS was the problem. Survivability was lacking (self heal and shorter CD on force speed helped here). Utility was never missing. And so they rework this ability that we didn't need and fail to help out the DPS trees at all. But keep pushing to keep this ability, it's really improving the class in a meaningful way.

Well said... the bubble was amazing before the changes. Give them burst... not an AOE stun every 5 seconds. Sorcs have a ton of utility and escape tools... the mezz was fine. They didn't need a utility buff... they need a burst buff.

also keep it to pvp only stop nerfing skills that us in PvE use, it's getting beyond a joke that everyone has to suffer theses downgrades due to some part of the game they don't play or want to play.keep PvP separate from PvE please.

(as if that will happen...)

 

Amen.

Rember the 1.3 shadow nerf? Where did all the pve shadow tanks go? Sage has had one major nerf already, before we go nerfing the class a second time- nerf someone else! The class has low survival as it is, so why take away all survivable cooldowns? The derpsmash people haven't received a proper nerf. Blunt scissors per ro.cks request- paper says thanks.

The survival of shadows in pve tanking went to the ringers because the pvp community demanded it. Sadly they took too much away. And few shadows still are welcome as main tank And even fewer still tank! Imagine what they will do to sages if they do nerf? No bubble - no survival.

Why would we want 8 man teams capable of AOE taunting at will again? Nothing says fun like 20% damage reduction 2...3...4...5...6...7...8 times in a row on a 17 second CD.

How would it be "at will" when I said the bubble has to be broken by damage? I'd much rather take a 6 second damage debuff than a 3 second stun.

Giving them burst damage might work, but it's also the least inventive solution. I think it makes the game more interesting when classes have their own specialty (e.x. amazing group utility, low burst) rather than aiming for an equal mix of everything.

This change, this INSANE change, needs to go. It was OP BEFORE it was changed to stun, now it's just plain stupid. Even if their goal was to make sorcerers more in demand, which it does in the sense that you need one exclusively for this one specced ability just to be competitive now, it also promotes horrible, lazy play with the synergy from the change to the resolve mechanic. Unlike before where you at least needed to have well coordinated teamwork to take full advantage of it.

Among the many, many stupid changes I've noticed both before I left and since I came back, this one stands out. The only one that comes to mind that surpasses it would be the way in which they handled Ilum. Just plain idiocy, I can think of no other way to describe this.

Mind boggling.

I agree! DPS for SAGE/SORC has sucked since the great 1.2 NERF'ing. How about add some skill back into our trees and we won't be downgraded to use dirty trick bugs to stay alive and viable to PVP teams.

Fix TWO BIRDS with one stone here Bioware! PVP QQ and LOW PVE & PVP DPS for SORC/SAGE.

BUFF the Madness/Balance Tree so "REAL DPS" can happen like it should for crap armored players.

Keep STUN BUBBLES - but make them only burst on damage or timeout.

^ This Bioware. You need to make DPS Sorcerer viable in Pvp again before you nerf the bubble. Increase our damage back to where it was pre-1.2 nerf, and then you can nerf the bubble. Until then, the melee QQ'ERS will have to just eat it because I will not stand there and be some sith marauder's punching bag. If it means I have to resort to cheap tricks to ensure my team a victory, or to ensure my survival for a couple secs/mins more, you bet your bottom dollar I will do just that.

I don't get it. Sages get good DPS figures in WZ's. Their DPS seems fine, to me.

I think there's a difference between open-world and WZ. WZ is more organised and sages get focussed. In open-world, sages dominate as artillery that rains AOE from afar.

Force in Balance is virtually equivalent to Smash yet you don't see hordes of FIBers like you see hordes of Lolsmashers. Why? It's because sages are harder to play and more difficult to keep alive. Nothing to do with DPS output potential.

I don't get it. Sages get good DPS figures in WZ's. Their DPS seems fine, to me.

 

I think there's a difference between open-world and WZ. WZ is more organised and sages get focussed. In open-world, sages dominate as artillery that rains AOE from afar.

 

Force in Balance is virtually equivalent to Smash yet you don't see hordes of FIBers like you see hordes of Lolsmashers. Why? It's because sages are harder to play and more difficult to keep alive. Nothing to do with DPS output potential.

Sages/Sorcs don't get good numbers in WZs because they have no means to. There is no burst, only sustained damage. I guess the highest burst would be death field but that is nowhere near the smash. After death field you don't have that much tools to reduce one's HP further down. The figures on WZ scoreboards showing sorcerers damage are lies as every madness sorcerer who's dotting anyone and everyone with affliction knows. The figures in the table looks impressive but the fact which remains is that amount of sustained damage is relatively low when compared to any bursty class. In reality this means that having affliction on everybody would give sorcerer like 25k dmg but each target is hit for 2500HP max over period 16s (or more). That could be easily healed through and people are not really bothered about cleansing it anymore

I played the bubble stun spec for the couple of days and I must say I felt the difference I was making in WZs,. This did not happen since 1.2 (unless it was hutball of course). I have to admit that the controlled stunning is way OP and broken. If this was meant to fix sorcerer (by forcing them all to one spec), it was a failure.

Bubble would need to be fixed somehow but I would appreciate if they give us something in exchange in terms of buffed DPS. Buff the lighting tree because it is pathetic and buff the lighting strike because its the most pathetic spell sorcerer can use. Or maybe make us use the light saber so we can swing it occasionally for the proc like sins do. Or buff the DOTs so they actually have some meaning

I don't get it. Sages get good DPS figures in WZ's. Their DPS seems fine, to me.

 

I think there's a difference between open-world and WZ. WZ is more organised and sages get focussed. In open-world, sages dominate as artillery that rains AOE from afar.

 

Force in Balance is virtually equivalent to Smash yet you don't see hordes of FIBers like you see hordes of Lolsmashers. Why? It's because sages are harder to play and more difficult to keep alive. Nothing to do with DPS output potential.

Uh, no, the smash spec gives smash an auto crit and +100% damage.

But the main problem with sorc dps isn't the damage they can do, it's the fact that it's primarily either activation time abilities or dots, neither of which work well at all in pvp.

Force in Balance is virtually equivalent to Smash yet you don't see hordes of FIBers like you see hordes of Lolsmashers. Why? It's because sages are harder to play and more difficult to keep alive. Nothing to do with DPS output potential.

Let's say that you got rid of the bubble stun and compared a sorc to a mara skill for skill. The sorc would have to get a 10K auto-crit ability for it to somewhat add up, considering the light armor and whatnot.

I've been playing with the idea that sages/sorcs should get some form of stack mechanic. For every tele/FL tick they get +10 % damage to the next ability and applied dots. Stacks 5 times. That would have brought FiB/DF closer to smash.

i get the bubble absorbing damage i just dont get *** it has to give immunity to everything else. remove immunity or give it a 5 min CD.

What do you mean by immunity? It only offers damage protection (about 3-4k) as well as a 3 second stun if specced into the lightning/tele tree.

i get the bubble absorbing damage i just dont get *** it has to give immunity to everything else. remove immunity or give it a 5 min CD.

You're misinformed.

Force in Balance is virtually equivalent to Smash

LOL Wat?

Force in Balance does around 3k.. 4k on a squishy, if it crits. Smash auto crits, hits for 5k+ every time, and I've seen up to 8k on a squishy. Also, Smash hits 5 targets, Force in Balance hits 3.

Not even comparable.