Sage/Sorcerer Leveling: 10-20 Healing

For the first 10 levels of playing a Sage/Sorc healer, you’re no different than any other Consular/Inquisitor out there, so I’m going to refer you to my 1-20 DPS Guide for information about how to level and what spells you get during the 1-10 range if you feel you need it.

This guide is aimed specifically at leveling as a healer which takes place from level 10 on, so that’s where this guide is going to start. I will be discussing how to deal damage in the healing spec, and how to go about questing and so forth, I’m just going to assume that you’re already at least level 10 for the purpose of this specific guide.

Playing a Consular Seer/Inquisitor Corrupter
Playing a healer isn’t all that much different than playing as a non-healer. You’ll still cast similar spells while you’re solo questing, and overall you’ll notice very little difference. The only real difference is that your talent points are going to help you better survive and better keep your companions alive as opposed to making you deal more damage. So instead of killing a group of mobs in 10 seconds, might take you 12-14 seconds instead.

Once you step out of the realm of solo play and into grouping your experience will change a bit because your primary focus shifts towards keeping everyone in your group alive rather than trying to kill things. That’s not to say you can’t help them kill the mobs you’re facing, which you should do if there’s no need for your heals, you just have a change in priority.

The key to healing is understanding your resources and the taxation on them. As a Sage your resource is called Force, and you have a total of 500. A talent exists in one of the damaging trees that will increase your total to 550 for one point or 600 with two points, but otherwise there is no way to increase your resources beyond 500. Your spells will range in cost from 20 Force to 65 Force (at this level range), and you regenerate Force at a rate of 8 Force per second. If math really isn’t your thing, don’t worry about it, but if you like to know the numbers behind the class then there’s your starting point.

In order to heal effectively you need to know how much healing each of your spells is capable of, how much Force they cost to cast, and how much time it takes to cast them. Those three things are what determines how useful each individual spell actually is. I’ll get to that in just a moment, but first let’s take a look at what spells you have.

Important Spells & Abilities
This list is only going to include the spells that particularly important for your healing. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, as I’ve already covered DPS leveling you can refer to that post if you would like information regarding rotations and which spells to use when and how. So this list will include your heals, obviously, but also spells that can perform a specific function for you while healing that’s important for leveling as a spec that has no damage buffs.

Benevolence/Dark Heal (10): Heals a friendly target. (fast cast, small heal)
Deliverance/Dark Infusion (12): Heals a friendly target. (long cast, big heal)
Force Armor/Static Barrier (14): Surrounds the target in a Force shield that absorbs a high amount of damage and lasts 30 seconds. Protected targets become Force-Imbalanced and cannot benefit from Force Armor again for 20 seconds.
Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (14): Crushes the target’s mind with the Force, instantly dealing kinetic damage and additional kinetic damage over 6 seconds.
Weaken Mind/Affliction (16): Weakens the target’s mind, dealing internal damage over 15 seconds.
Force Speed/Force Speed (16): Increases your movement speed by 150% for 2 seconds. Does not break stealth.
Mind Snap/Jolt (18): Interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for 4 seconds.
Noble Sacrifice/Consumption (20): Sacrifices 15% of your maximum health to restore 8% of your maximum Force. Each time this ability is used, your Force regeneration rate is reduced by 25% for the next 10 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times.
Rejuvenate/Resurgence (Lv 20 Talent): Immediately heals the target for an amount, plus an additional amount over 9 seconds.

Healing Spells
Benevolence is the first heal you receive, and one of the worst heals you’ll ever have. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its uses, but it’s not one that you’ll cast with any amount of frequency once you get another option. This spell costs 50 Force, has a 1.5 second cast time, no cooldown, and heals for a fairly small amount.

Deliverance is your bread and butter healing spell. It costs 55 Force, has a default cast time of 3 seconds (2.5 w/ talents), no cooldown, and heals for a significant amount. For 5 more Force and one extra second worth of cast time, this spell will heal for roughly twice as much as Benevolence, which is why it’s so much better. Soon after level 20 you’ll also get another talent to help with that cast time to make it even better.

Force Armor is a “bubble” which means it absorbs damage that the target would have taken until it reaches its limit and is then removed. This spell has your highest base cost at 65 Force (35 Force with higher level talents), an instant cast time, a default 4.5 second cooldown (1.5 seconds with later talents), and absorbs a “high” amount of damage. Force Armor is also unique in that it applies a debuff to the target that makes them immune to Force Armor for 20 seconds so it prevents you from spamming bubbles on a single target over and over.

Rejuvenate is a healing spell that also contains a heal over time (HoT) effect to it, and it will soon become the single-most important spell because of how other talents interact with it (I’ll get to the details in the 20-40 guide). Rejuvenate costs 30 Force, has an instant cast time, a 6 second cooldown, and heals for a decent amount.

Utility Spells
Mind Crush and Weaken Mind belong in the same listing here because of what they are – damage over time (DoT) spells. As a healer, you’re lacking a lot of the killing power that other specs have, but DoT’s allow you to deal damage to several targets at once without having to waste time casting the damage spells which allows you to spend cast time on your heals instead. If you find yourself facing tough enemies, one of your best tactics as a healer is to cast your DoT’s on them and then start running away and stopping only to heal yourself or reapply your DoT’s. This tactic is called “kiting” and I can go into more detail in a later post if anyone needs me to.

When DoT kiting you don’t want to run away in a straight line, you want to run in circles and abuse terrain and structures to keep distance between you so that they can’t hit you with melee attack, and break their line of sight so that they can’t use ranged attacks on you either. When your DoT’s wear off, simply reapply them and then take off running again.

Mind Snap is an interrupt spell, used to cancel a spell that’s being cast by an enemy. I mention this first because as a 30 meter ranged interrupt it’s one of the best in the game so you should be familiar with it, and second because one of the best ways heal damage is to not let it happen in the first place. If an enemy is casting a spell that you know is going to deal high damage or they’re casting a crowd control spell on you, your companion or a party member then you can use this to stop the spell from happening and preventing it from being cast again for 4 seconds. Experience will teach you which spells are worth interrupting and which you can ignore.

Force Speed increases your speed by 150% for 2 seconds (which is 40% faster than the fastest mount in the game right now, btw). There are countless ways that this spell is useful, but the main reason I wanted to mention it is for the same reason that I mentioned the DoT spells and Mind Snap up above – it’s fantastic for kiting, and getting out of your enemies’ attack range is a great way to prevent damage from happening to you in the first place. It’s also good for group play if you have members of your party/raid that have moved out of your healing range so that you can quickly reposition yourself to be able to reach whoever is in need of a heal.

Noble Sacrifice is a spell you definitely need to be aware of. Casting it sacrifices 15% of your health in order to restore 8% of your Force. At this level, casting this spell is a bad idea unless you absolutely NEED the Force it gives you. As you get higher in level you’ll get talents that reduce the amount of health you have to sacrifice as well as a proc that removes the health sacrifice all together. So keep it in mind and remember it’s there to be used, but be cautious for right now of casting it without a literal need. It’s also important to note that casting this applies a 10 second debuff on yourself that reduces your Force regeneration by 25%, and this debuff stacks up to 4 times which means a full stack will completely remove your Force regeneration for 10 seconds.

If you need the Force to keep people alive, then by all means use this. Also, if you’re not taking any damage at all and not in any threat of taking damage, then go ahead and use it. Keeping people alive is your job, and if sacrificing some of your health in order to heal someone else is required then so be it. Just keep in mind that if you die because of using this then nobody is getting heals regardless.

Leveling a Consular Seer/Inquisitor Corrupter
This is the section where I normally like to talk about rotations and such, but healing doesn’t have an actual rotation so I’ll discuss how to heal in just a moment. I’ll go ahead and talk about your damage rotation while you’re questing, but first I want to address something that’s bothered me about so many other guides I’ve seen out there for people talking about leveling this class.

Time and time again I see Sage/Sorc guides say that you should start every build, no matter which tree you’re going to spec into, with your first 5 points spent in Inner Strength/Electric Induction (9% Force cost reduction) and Mental Longevity/Reserves (+100 total Force). I’m here to tell you right now that with the exception of a full Telekinetics/Lightning build I have never put any of my first 5 points into either of those two talents, and I’ve leveled just fine.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea for you to put some points in there early on, but I am saying that it’s unnecessary. If you find that you’re constantly running out of Force then the first thing you should do is evaluate which spells you’re casting and whether or not their effect is worth the Force cost to see if maybe you’re not casting the right spells. If everything looks good there, then you may want to consider putting points into those talents to alleviate some of that Force cost.

For example, as a healer you do not want to use Project/Shock in your rotation because it’s damage compared to its Force cost make it a total waste if used for anything other than finishing off a mob that’s close to dying. It’s just like Benevolence/Dark Heal, the cost is just too high for what you get out of it.

Sage Weak Mobs: Disturbance, Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2, Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Weak Mobs: Lightning Strike, Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2, Force Lightning

This is a simple rotation for taking out the weak mobs. Pull with a cast time spell, follow it with a channel, two more cast times while the channel’s cooldown finishes, then fire it off. You can use Project/Shock here to finish off mobs that are low on health, or you can use Force Wave/Overload to deal AoE damage instead. Some healers also like to keep Saber Strike on their bars since it’s free damage and also regenerates a small amount of Force, and use it as their finishing move instead.

Sage Strong+ Mobs: Force Lift, Mind Crush, Weaken Mind, Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2, Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Strong+ Mobs: Whirlwind, Crushing Darkness, Affliction, Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2, Force Lightning

These rotations differ from the others only in the spells that you’re going to start combat with. You want to start by using your 60 second crowd control spell on the toughest target out there to remove them from the equation. Follow that up with Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness and Weaken Mind/Affliction both on the second-toughest target, and then fall into your default rotation. The reason why we start this round with Telek. Throw/Force Lightning instead of Disturbance/Lightning Strike is because we’re already in combat and can’t take advantage of having Dist/LS’s cast time combat-free, so instead we go for instant damage with our channeled spell and then use the cast-time spells while the other is on cooldown.

If you’re solo questing, then it’s also a good idea to cast Force Armor/Static Barrier on yourself and/or your companion before combat begins so that you can focus on the damaging spells once the fight starts instead of having to jump straight into healer mode where you’re dealing no damage at all.

If you have your bubble’s debuff active and you’re taking some damage, then Rejuvenate/Resurgence is your next best bet for keeping yourself healthy while still focusing primarily on damage to kill the mobs. If you need more healing than that, then of course it’s perfectly fine for you to actually cast your healing spells as needed.

Also, always keep in mind that you have some fantastic crowd control spells at your disposal. Force Stun/Electrocute is a nice stun that will give you time to cast a couple of heals freely, Force Wave/Overload is an AoE knockback that can buy you a little time for healing or to run away, and Force Lift/Whirlwind has a cast time on it but it does remove the target from combat completely for up to a minute. And if all else fails, hit your Force Speed and run away until you can either heal safely or the mobs drop combat and reset.

How to Heal With a Consular Seer/Inquisitor Corrupter
Healing doesn’t have a rotation at all because here’s no consistency in when someone is going to take damage or how much they’re going to take. There is sort of a priority system, but it doesn’t actually come into effect in this level range, so what I’m going to do is explain how and when to use each of your healing spells and a couple of different situations and how you might handle them.

Benevolence/Dark Heal
This spell has an incredibly high Force cost compared to how little it actually heals you for. It’s only real benefit is that it has a short cast time, so it can give you a little boost in an emergency when other spells are not available. For this level range, you want to avoid using this spell whenever possible. If you absolutely have to have a heal in the next 1.5 seconds and your bubble isn’t available to be cast on the target, then go ahead and use this spell.

After a few more levels you can use this to top people off when you get a proc that cuts its Force cost in half, so it will eventually be useful for topping people off when you have nothing else to do. Until you get those talents (in the 20-40 range), your main use for this spell is to pad someone’s health who has taken a lot of damage really fast but you’re unable to use your bubble on them, so hopefully a quick heal will provide enough of a buffer that they can take one more hit while you switch to casting Deliverance/Dark Infusion or while your bubble cooldown or debuff clears to allow the bubble to provide a barrier for those larger heals.

Deliverance/Dark Infusion
This is your main heal now and forever, so you want to get real familiar with this one. It has a 2.5 second cast time after talents, so it’s a little bit slow. Because of that, you’ll want to get a feel for how long that 2.5 seconds really is so that you can judge, based on how quickly your target is taking damage, whether you have time to cast this or if you need to sneak a bubble or other healing spell in first.

In terms of a default rotation, it’s good to be in the habit of casting Rejuvenate/Resurgence before Deliverance/Dark Infusion because of other talents you’ll receive shortly after level 20.

Force Armor/Static Barrier
Since bubbles prevent damage from happening at all rather than simply restoring lost health, it is the most effective method of healing out there. Because of that you want to make sure you’re making frequent use of this spell when targets really are taking the damage to warrant its use. It does have the highest Force cost you’ll see until you get your level 40 talent, but it’s a great tool.

There are three ways that you want to utilize this. First, to prevent damage from happening in the first place which gives you time to regen your Force and gives you time for a breather or to reevaluate the situation if needed. Second, it gives you a buffer for your HoT spell to give its full healing to the target because while they’re pseudo-immune to damage the HoT gets to tick away freely. Third, it acts as a buffer to allow you the time to cast a bigger heal (Deliverance) without the target taking more damage during your cast time.

The two things to keep in mind about this spell are its debuff, which prevents the target from having the bubble cast on them again for 20 seconds, and its Force cost. Because it’s the highest cost you have, you don’t want to cast this on people who aren’t going to take enough damage to make it worth the cost. You can spam bubbles on your whole party if you really want to, but if three of your four party members never take any damage then all you’ve really accomplished is wasting 195 Force.

Rejuvenate/Resurgence
This spell is good right now for a couple of reasons. First, it provides an instant healing effect with an instant cast time, which is great even if the healed amount is low. Second, it provides a heal over time effect which acts similar to a bubble in that sometimes the HoT tick will fall right after damage is taken and it basically works out as though the damage had never occurred.

Having that HoT effect bringing a constant stream of healing in also gives you more time to cast other, bigger heals that have a longer cast time. Waiting on a 2.5 second Deliverance cast isn’t quite so bad when you’ve got a HoT ticking away that’s keeping your target somewhat more stable (hopefully) while the cast time is taking place.

Situation Examples
Now we’ll look at a couple of example situations and how you should go about using your spells to handle the situation. Keep in mind that the following information is applicable only for healers up to level 20 as talents from 21+ will significantly impact how you heal.

Minimum Damage: Target at 70%+
When your target still has most of their health you don’t need to be too worried just yet, so start off with Deliverance/Dark Infusion, followed by Rejuvenate/Resurgence. This will provide a nice, big heal at the front followed by a HoT that will either help top them off or provide some buffer to keep them nearer to their full health. If Rejuv/Resurg is on cooldown, then use your bubble after your big heal instead.

Moderate Damage: Target at 30%-70%
When your target has taken some pretty big hits you need to be more aggressive in your healing to prevent them from getting to a critical level. Start with Rejuvenate/Resurgence followed by Deliverance/Dark Infusion and follow it up with Force Armor/Static Barrier, and if necessary follow with another Deliverance/Dark Infusion.

High Damage: Target below 30%
If someone is in critical condition and desperately needs healing to prevent them from dying, then it’s time to get serious. Your first priority in this cast is Force Armor/Static Barrier if they don’t have the debuff to prevent it, followed by Rejuvenate/Resurgence and Deliverance/Dark Infusion once or twice to bring them to a more stable level.

If your target does have the Force Imbalance/Deionized debuff on them that prevents your bubble from being cast, you might consider (very carefully) casting Benevolence/Dark Heal first if the debuff is about to wear off of them within the next 2 seconds. If it’s going to be more than 2 seconds before the debuff is gone then you should skip them both and go for Rejuv/Resurg followed by Del/DI casts to get them back up to a reasonable level until you can bubble them again to buy yourself some more time.

At this level range you don’t have a whole lot in the way of emergency healing tools, so your goal is to keep people right around that 70% or higher range. You don’t need to keep people at 100% health at all times, and your Force pool won’t allow you to do that very often anyway. Everyone has a free non-combat ability that refills their health and resource bar, so there’s no reason you should feel a need to top them off when your real job is to keep them alive during combat and they can freely top off themselves after the fighting is over.

Talent Spec: 20 Seer/Corruption Tree

Sage: Seer	Sorcerer: Corruption
Torhead: Seer	Torhead: Corruption

I’ve listed these in priority level based on what level they become available to you. So the first two are tier 1, the second two are tier 2 and so forth. Immutable Force is the more important talent in tier 1, but it benefits a spell that you don’t get until level 12, meaning that if you spend your first 2 points on it then you have a talent that currently gives you no benefit. So if you want to get all technical about spending points then you want 1 point in Penetrating Light followed by 2 in Immutable Force and then then 2 more in Penetrating light.

Immutable Force/Dark Mending 2/2: Reduces the activation time of Deliverance/Dark Infusion by 0.5 seconds.
Penetrating Light/Seeping Darkness 3/3: Increase your Force critical chance by 3%.
Foresight/Lucidity 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating healing abilities by 75% and lowers the threat generated by healing abilities by 15%.
Pain Barrier/Empty Body 2/2: Increases all healing received by 8%.
Rejuvenate/Resurgence 1/1: [Instant cast, 6 second cooldown] Immediately heals a target for an initial amount, plus an additional healing over 9 seconds.

Immutable Force is absolutely critical for a healer because it reduces the cast time of your primary healing spell by 0.5 seconds. That might not sound like a whole lot, but with how much you’re going to cast that spell it’s a BIG FREAKING DEAL, trust me. Penetrating Light increases your crit chance, making your heals more likely to crit thus saving you Force in the long term by not needing to cast so many healing spells among other things.

Foresight is important in pretty much any situation. While solo or in PvP you get the benefit of reduced pushback on your heals, while solo questing you also benefit from reduced threat for when you’re letting your companion take all the hits, and in group play you’re reducing your threat generation so that mobs keep hitting your tank rather than destroying your expensive robes. Pain Barrier is all about your own survivability by increasing the healing that you receive. The role of a healer is almost as critical as it comes, so keeping you alive is always a good thing.

Rejuvenate is your heal over time, or HoT, spell. It works very similar to WoW’s Regrowth spell by providing an initial heal when you first cast it, plus a heal over time effect afterwards. At level 20 this is just another nifty little heal for you to use that takes some of the stress off of you thanks to the heal, but in a couple more levels it’s going to be the keystone to everything you do.

 

Sage/Sorcerer Leveling: 21-40 DPS

In the 1-20 guide I went over two specs for DPS leveling but this time around we are going to look at three. The first two will be Full Telekinetics/Lightning and Full Balance/Madness, and the third will be a hybrid of the two which is also my personal favorite.

For those of you who are interested I do have a healing version of these guides in the works that I will also be posting Soon™. I’ve got a level 30 Sage that I just switched over from Balance that I had a lot of fun healing with, so now I’ve got a baby Sorcerer who’s going to level as a healer to give me a view of the 10-30 range so that I know what the crap I’m talking about.

Playing a Sage/Sorcerer
As I mentioned before, the Sage/Sorcerer is the only “true” caster in SWTOR, and you’ll very much get that feeling while you play. That being said, the three specs I have for you today all have their own feel.

The Telekinetics/Lightning build follows the turret casting style, meaning that you will spend most of your time standing in one place as you cast spells over and over that have a cast time or a channel. Telekinetics is a spec that is really based around crits, so it’s great at burst damage.

The Balance/Madness build is a lot more mobile as it employs spells that have no cast time and talent points that percentage chance to make some of your cast time spells instant instead. Balance is more focused on DoT damage, and though it does have a couple of nice bursty tools available, it’s really made for sustained damage over time.

The hybrid spec combines the two DPS trees to get better damage and Force management from one and the better mobility from the other, turning it into one incredibly good multi-target damaging machine. This spec does a really good job of combining the strengths of both specs into one and helps to address Balance’s lack of burst by adding instant-cast Force Waves into the mix.

The Sage/Sorc class has some really incredible utility at their disposal. In addition to your good damage you also have healing spells, a damage-negating bubble, great crowd control, a Force Speed “sprint”, a ranged interrupt, and very solid AoE and/or multi-target damage capability.

Important Spells & Abilities
As a Sage/Sorc you do have quite a few different spells at your disposal. Some of them you won’t likely use all that often, such as your healing and cleansing spells, and others of course are your bread and butter. Luckily, even though we’re covering 20 levels worth of material here, there aren’t all that many new spells that you’ll pick up. You will get several chances to increase the ranks of your existing spells, but as far as brand new additions go you’ve only got a handful.

I’ll also point out just for completion’s sake, that level 25 is when you’re able to learn Speeder Piloting and can get yourself a mount. The training alone costs 40,000 credits (another 8k for a mount if you don’t already have one), so you’ll want to watch your spending habits up to that point. The level 25 version of speeder training allows you to ride a 90% speeder. At level 40 you can train the second rank of Speeder Training for another 210,000 credits (and 25k for a speeder that can go that fast), but you only get another 10% speed (100% total increase) for that price.

The Consular Sage versions of each spell is shown in Republic Blue, and the Inquisitor Sorcerer version is noted in Imperial Red as is fitting. Numbers in parenthesis is the level at which the spells become trainable.

• Force Slow/Force Slow (22): Deals kinetic damage and slows the target’s movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.
• Restoration/Purge (24): Cleanses a friendly target of up to 2 negative mental or Force effects.
• Tumult/Tumult (28): Kicks the target, dealing kinetic damage to weak and standard targets, and reduced damage to strong targets. Only usable on incapacitated targets.
• Cloud Mind/Cloud Mind (30): Clouds the minds of your enemies, instantly lowering your threat by a moderate amount.
• Forcequake/Force Storm (34): Channels the Force into the ground at the target location, causing it to quake and tremble. All enemies within 8 meters of the target location are struck for kinetic damage over 6 seconds and knocked off balance, reducing movement speed by 30%. In addition, standard and weak targets have a 33% chance to be knocked down by the quake each second.

Force Slow is a good utility spell. For PvE it’s occasionally useful if you’re trying to solo hard content as you can use it on melee opponents and then run circles around terrain while you let your DoT’s kill them off. For PvP this spell is amazing.

Restoration/Purge is definitely more of a PvP spell as far as leveling is concerned. As of level 43, I believe I’ve used this spell twice for PvE content and it wasn’t necessary at all I just used it because I actually had a debuff I could use it on and so I did. For PvP this is a spell you definitely want to keep around, especially when you’re facing other Sage/Sorcs as you can remove all the Force DoT’s out there.

Tumult is a really cool looking spell where you do a jumping, spinning kick to the face. The damage it does is surprisingly high, and I do find it useful when I’m using the Balance/Madness or Hybrid spec. I have used it as Tele./Lightning, but I prefer to simply kill them off with spells most of the time. The benefit of this spell is that it’s instant cast so if you have an incapacitated target near you then you can save yourself a cast time by finishing them off with this instead of a spell, but I’ll leave it totally up to you if you ever use this or not.

Cloud Mind is our threat dump, useful only in PvE. Any time you’ve got a mob trying to beat up on you when they should be beating up on someone else, Cloud Mind is your answer. All of the group play I’ve done lately was with another DPS class for questing, and I usually end up face tanking everything anyway just because of my bursty damage spikes, so I don’t really use this while leveling.

Forcequake/Force Storm and last but not least we come to our spammable AoE spells. The damage on these is great, there’s no limit to the number of mobs that you can hit with it, it applies a slow effect to those it hits, and it can knock down weaker mobs which takes them out of the fight. When it comes to cool looking spells, Force Storm pretty much tops everything else in the entire game. The Bounty Hunter’s Death From Above spell is pretty cool, but it’s got nothing on Force Storm. Of all the Sage vs. Sorcerer animation arguments out there, this is the one case where I hands down give Sorcs the reward because Forcequake is crap compared to Force Storm.

Leveling a Sage/Sorcerer
Playing a Sage/Sorc in this bracket is much the same as it was in the previous bracket, except that our new spells both from being higher level and from taking new talent points means we’ve got a lot more that we can do in terms of rotation.

I’ll break these rotation listings down into groups for each of the three specs that I’m covering, because each of them will do different things in different situations. We’ll look at Trash Packs which contain Weak and Standard enemies in groups of 1-7, Strong Packs which contain Weak/Standard/Strong enemies in groups of 1-5, Elite Packs which contain one or more Elite (gold star) mobs, and Champion/Boss mobs which are the best of the best.

If you’re facing a group of mobs with an Elite in them and you manage to kill all of the weaker mobs off first, then you’ll want to switch to the Champion/Boss rotation to finish off the big mob that remains unless their health is so low that you can finish them with a simple Project or Telekinetic Throw. Using your DoT spells on a mob that’s weaker than Elite is typically a waste if you’re going to use your AoE spells.

Telekinetics/Lightning
Sage Trash Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Forcequake, ***Project/Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Trash Pack: Chain Lightning, Force Storm, ***Shock/Force Lightning
Sage Strong Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Forcequake, Weaken Mind (targets > 20%), Turbulence, Telek. Throw
Sorc Strong Pack: Chain Lightning, Force Storm, Affliction (targets > 20%), Thundering Blast, Force Lightning
Sage Elite Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Weaken Mind, Turbulence, Disturbance, Telek. Throw, Disturbance
Sorc Elite Pack: Chain Lightning, Affliction, Thundering Blast, Light. Strike, Force Light., Light. Strike
Sage Champion/Boss: Mind Crush, Weaken Mind, Turbulence, Disturbance x3, Telek. Throw
Sorc Champion/Boss: Crushing Darkness, Affliction, Thundering Blast, Light. Strike x3, Force Lightning

***Concerning trash packs, the only reason I list Project/Telek. Throw in the rotation is because they are instant spells that deal damage quickly after activating them, making them a great choice for finishing off mobs that are at low health when compared to casting Disturbance over and over with its cast time. Project in particular is not a good spell for Telekinetics as a spec because the force cost is high compared to its damage. Telek. Throw is fine for the spec, but it’s very low on your priority list unless you have a Psychic Projection proc that makes it tick faster. In terms of Force cost and damage output, Project and Telek. Throw are “bad” choices for you, which is why I’m listing them in a rotation against trash packs as you can easily refill your Force between pulls.

Now, Sages of all specs don’t actually work off of rotations. Instead, they follow a priority list because there are several talents that have a chance to proc special bonuses or benefits when various things happen. You can follow a general rotation and do just fine while you’re questing, but if you want to actually maximize your performance then you need to know and follow this priority system:

1. Weaken Mind/Affliction (if it’s not active)
2. Disturbance/Lightning Strike (if you have less than 3 stacks of Concentration/Subversion)
3. Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (if it’s not active)
4. Turbulence/Thundering Roar
5. Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning (only if you have a Tidal Force/Lightning Storm proc)
6. Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning (only if you have a Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage proc)
7. Disturbance

For the Telekinetics spec, Weaken Mind is crucial for your damage because (1) it guarantees a critical hit from Turbulence, (2) its crits are how you proc Psychic Projection for faster Telekinetic Throw ticks, and (3) it deals nice damage and has a high crit rate. Disturbance is the second highest priority, but only until you reach three stacks of Concentration for increased Force regeneration at which point it drops to the bottom of your priority list until Concentration is about to expire.

Mind Crush seems a bit odd for the spec because you have almost nothing to boost the spell’s performance, unlike the Balance tree, but it still does very good damage and should not be passed up in a fight that will last long enough for it to deal its damage. Turbulence is the final ability in the Telekinetics tree, and with Weaken Mind active on a target it’s guaranteed to crit, so it follows only your DoT’s and your Force regeneration in priority.

Telekinetic Wave follows if you have a Tidal Force proc to make it an instant-cast, otherwise it can wait. Telekinetic Throw follows a similar pattern, having priority only if you have a Psychic Projection proc, otherwise you shouldn’t waste time casting it with this spec.

Disturbance is at the bottom of your list as it’s your filler spell to be cast at all times when the rest of the priority list has already been met. Disturbance is a big deal for the spec because it’s the key to your Force regeneration and some of your procs.

Balance/Madness
Sage Trash Pack: Forcequake, Force in Balance, Project/Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Trash Pack: Force Storm, Death Field, Shock/Force Lightning
Sage Strong Pack: Mind Crush, Forcequake, Force in Balance, Project, Telek. Throw
Sorc Strong Pack: Crushing Darkness, Force Storm, Death Field, Shock, Force Light.
Sage Elite Pack: Mind Crush, Sever Force, Force in Balance, Weaken Mind (all), Project, Telek. Throw
Sorc Elite Pack: Crushing Darkness, Creeping Terror, Death Field, Affliction (all), Shock, Force Lightning
Sage Champion/Boss: Mind Crush, Sever Force, Force in Balance, Weaken Mind, Project, Telek. Throw
Sorc Champion/Boss: Crushing Darkness, Creeping Terror, Death Field, Affliction, Shock, Force Lightning

With this spec you’re going to utilize a lot of instant-cast spells and DoT damage. DoT’s are a big thing for you because you’ll apply a debuff with your Force in Balance/Death Field that boosts your DoT damage by 20%. Presence of Mind/Wrath procs will be used for instant Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness casts unless they’re on cooldown. It’s better for a full Balance build at this level to save the procs for Mind Crush casts, even if it’s on cooldown, because Disturbance is pretty worthless for you. If you can finish a mob off with a instant Disturbance then you might as well (if you don’t already have DoT’s on them that will do the job), but otherwise save those procs for your DoT’s.

Balance also follows a priority system if you really want to maximize your performance. Not everyone can keep track of a priority system effectively, so you can certainly fall back on the rotations above if you’re struggling, but here is your Balance/Madness priority list:

1. Force in Balance/Death Field
2. Weaken Mind/Affliction
3. Sever Force/Creeping Terror
4. Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (only if you have a Presence of Mind/Wrath proc)
5. Project
6. Telekinetic Throw

Force in Balance tops the list because it’s the source of your 20% increased DoT damage debuff, not to mention it does really good damage on its own. Weaken Mind is next, even though you don’t currently have the talents that really make it great, it still does great damage and has a long duration.

Sever Force is next as yet another DoT spell with a cooldown, followed by Mind Crush to burn off those Presence of Mind procs to make it an instant-cast. You don’t want to bother with Mind Crush if you would have to spend time hard casting it (meaning you don’t have an instant proc), but you shouldn’t have many problems getting Presence procs as long as you’re not wasting them on Disturbance casts. If you’re fighting multiple mobs then you’ll want to be sure to apply these DoT’s to new targets if they’re already established on one target rather than replacing the existing DoT with a new version.

Project deals good damage as Balance thanks to Upheaval’s 30% chance to make it a double-cast for 50% more damage, and it’s another instant spell which is why Balance is so fantastic on the move. Telekinetic Throw is your filler spell since you’ve removed its cooldown and it now restores Force every time it deals damage.

In SWTOR, clipping your DoT’s (which is reapplying them before the first cast has finished ticking) is a bad thing, so if your DoT is already on the target you don’t need to cast it again until it’s about to wear off. The one exception to this is Mind Crush when you’re facing a single target. If you have a Presence of Mind proc, go ahead and cast Mind Crush even if its DoT is already active. Mind Crush deals initial damage when it’s applied, and you’re robbing yourself of additional Presence of Mind procs if you’re not using them just because the DoT is already active.

Hybrid Spec: Balance-Telekinetics/Madness-Lightning
Sage Trash Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Force in Balance, Project/Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Trash Pack: Chain Lightning, Death Field, Shock/Force Lightning
Sage Strong Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Force in Balance, Forcequake, Project, Telekinetic Throw
Sorc Strong Pack: Chain Lightning, Death Field, Force Storm, Shock, Force Lightning
Sage Elite Pack: Telekinetic Wave, Force in Balance, Force Lift (an elite), Project, Telek. Throw
Sorc Elite Pack: Chain Lightning, Death Field, Whirlwind (an elite), Shock, Force Lightning
Sage Champion/Boss: Mind Crush, Weaken Mind, Force in Balance, Telekinetic Throw, Project
Sorc Champion/Boss: Crushing Darkness, Affliction, Death Field, Force Lightning, Shock

As you can see, when facing anything weaker than an elite (gold star) you can destroy them with your use of AoE. Start off with your cast-time AoE, follow it up with your instant-cast AoE, and follow that with spells that clean up the few that remain or with your channeled AoE if multiple mobs are still alive with more than about 20% of their health.

When you add an elite or two into the mix then you want to use the same type of rotation to kill off the weaker mobs first, but you’ll also utilize your instant crowd control spell to remove the largest threat while you finish off all of the others. Force Lift/Whirlwind will heal an Elite or Champion level mob, but that’s fine as the point is to kill all of the weaker targets in the pack first and then deal with the strong one on their own.

When you’re fighting single Elites, Champions, or bosses it’s time to get serious about your rotation. As with the other two specs above, your real rotation isn’t a rotation at all, but a priority system. As a general guideline, you can follow the rotation that I have listed. The idea here is to establish your DoT’s to start off the fight, followed by your instant AoE (though you don’t get the talent that explains why until 43), then your channeled filler spell (Telek. Throw/Force Lightning), and then Project/Shock. From there you want to go off of priority in order to maximize your DPS and your Force pool.

If you can handle working a priority system, then here’s where your actual priority is:

1. Weaken Mind/Affliction (if it’s not active)
2. Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning (only if you have a Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage proc)
3. Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (if you have a Presence of Mind/Wrath proc)
4. Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning (only if you have a Presence of Mind/Wrath proc)
5. Project/Shock
6. Telekinetic Throw

Weaken Mind is important because it’s going to trigger your Psychic Projection proc that will make Telekinetic Throw deal all of its damage in half the time. Telekinetic Throw only takes priority above the other spells when you have a Psychic Projection proc to make it channel faster, otherwise you want to cast the other spells in order.

Mind Crush comes next if you have a Presence of Mind proc that will make it an instant cast. Telekinetic Wave follows Mind Crush, but only cast this spell if you have a Presence of Mind proc and you don’t already have Mind Crush on the target. DoT damage is a big deal for you even at this level, so you’ll want to prioritize Mind Crush over Telekinetic Wave if you don’t already have both DoT’s ticking. With other talents you’ll also receive Force regeneration from Telekinetic Wave casts.

Project is next as it deals very nice damage in this spec, particularly if you manage to score a double-cast from your Upheaval talent (tier 2). Telekinetic Throw is last on the priority list because it’s your filler spell. Telek. Throw is how you proc Presence of Mind which is what feeds two of your main spells in the priority list and it restores Force while you’re casting it, so it’s a very important spell to use as filler for several reasons.

Talent Spec: 40 Balance/Madness Tree

Sage: Balance	Sorcerer: Madness
Torhead: Balance	Torhead: Madness

Levels 21-30
Telekinetic Balance/Madness 1/1: Telek. Throw/Force Lightning no longer has a cooldown.
Psychic Barrier/Sith Efficacy 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Mind Crush/Affliction and Telek. Throw/Force Lightning by 75%. In addition, each time your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 100% chance to recover 1% of your total Force.
Presence of Mind/Wrath 1/1: When your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 30% chance to cause your next Force-damaging attack with an activation time to activate instantly and deal 20% more damage.
Containment/Haunted Dreams 2/2: Lowers the activation time of Force Lift/Whirlwind by 100%. In addition, when your Force Lift/Whirlwind breaks early from damage, the target is stunned for 2 seconds.
***Pinning Resolve/Oppressing Force 2/2: Reduces the cooldown of Force Stun/Electrocute by 10 seconds. In addition, your Force Lift/Whirlwind affects up to 2 additional Standard or Weak enemies within 8 meters of the target.
Force Suppression/Deathmark 1/1: Force in Balance/Death Field increases the amount of damage the targets suffer from your next 10 periodic damaging abilities by 20%. Lasts 30 seconds.

***Optional Talents: Pinning Resolve/Oppressing Force is a talent that’s almost completely worthless at end game, but it’s good while leveling. If you don’t want to take a talent now that you’ll want to respec out of later on, then you might want to replace the 2 talent points in this talent with Focused Insight/Parasitism instead, which causes your DoT crits to heal you for 1% of your total health.

Levels 31-40
Drain Thoughts/Force Horrors 2/2: Increases the damage dealt by Weaken Mind/Affliction by 15%.
Assertion/Lingering Nightmares 2/2: Increases the duration of Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness by 2 seconds.
Mental Scarring/Creeping Death 3/3: Increases the critical damage of Force in Balance/Death Field and your periodic damage abilities by 10%.
Psychic Absorption/Devour 2/2: Increases the amount of healing generated by Force in Balance/Death Field and Focused Insight/Parasitism by 100%.
Sever Force/Creeping Terror 1/1: Weakens the target, freezing it in place for 2 seconds and dealing internal damage over 18 seconds.

Talent Spec: 40 Telekinetics/Lightning Tree

Sage: Telekinetics	Sorcerer: Lightning
Torhead: Telekinetics	Torhead: Lightning

Levels 21-29
Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage 2/2: Weaken Mind/Affliction critical hits have a 100% chance to granting Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage, causing your next Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning to channel and tick twice as fast. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.
Mental Longevity/Reserves 2/2: Increases your total Force by 100.
Tidal Force/Lightning Storm 1/1: Your Disturbance/Lightning Strike has a 30% chance and your Forcequake/Force Storm has a 10% chance when dealing damage to grant a Tidal Force/Lightning Storm, immediately finishing the cooldown on Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning and reducing the activation time of your next Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning by 100%. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.
Telekinetic Effusion/Lightning Effusion 2/2: Force attacks that critically hit have a 100% chance to grant Telekinetic/Lightning Effusion, lowering the Force cost of your next two Force abilities by 50%. Additionally reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 10 seconds.
Kinetic Collapse/Backlash 2/2: Your Force Armor/Static Barrier has a 100% chance to explode in a concussive wave when it ends, incapacitating all nearby enemies for 3 seconds. Damage causes this effect to end prematurely.

Levels 30-40
**Telekinetic Momentum/Forked Lightning 3/3: When you activate Disturbance/Lightning Strike or Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning, there is a 30% chance the ability will produce a second attack that strikes the same targets for 30% damage.
**Tremors/Conduction 1/1: Your Telek. Momentum/Forked Lightning increases your Force bonus damage by 1% for 30 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
**Mental Alacrity/Polarity Shift 1/1: Grants +20% Alacrity for 10 seconds.
Reverberation/Reverberating Force 5/5: Increases the critical damage bonus of your Weaken Mind/Affliction, Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning and Turbulence/Lightning Strike by 50%.
Turbulence/Thundering Blast 1/1: Deals internal damage to a single target. Turbulence automatically critically hits targets affected by your Weaken Mind/Affliction.

**I split this tree into two portions a bit differently than the others because the level 30 talent isn’t quite as clear-cut in this instance. Being able to increase your alacrity for 10 seconds every 2 minutes is a pretty big deal, but so is increasing your damage output. I have the talents listed in the order that I suggest you take them in, but feel free to make your own choice about which order you take those first three talents in.

Talent Spec: 40 Hybrid Balance-Telekinetic/Madness-Lightning Tree

Sage: Hybrid (Balance/Telekinetics)	Sorcerer: Hybrid (Madness/Lightning)
Torhead: Balance-Telek	Torhead: Madness-Light

This is the hybrid spec that I’m currently having a total blast playing. You can go about getting this spec a few different ways. You can either reach the stopping point in one tree and then start filling in the other, or you can level fully in on tree and then respec at 38+ to get the baseline hybrid and then continue on from there.

My suggestion for leveling a Sage/Sorc is to start off at level 10 with the Balance/Madness tree until you reach level 20, and then continue on with this spec. If you are already Telekinetics/Lightning, then I suggest you take a look at my 1-20 guide and compare your spec to the spec I’m about to outline here so that you obtain the key talents for the build, and then start taking the talents in the screenshot above from the Balance tree to fill in your blanks.

For this progression list I’m going to assume you’re starting at level 20 as Balance/Madness:

Levels 21-30:
Telekinetic Balance/Madness 1/1: Telek. Throw/Force Lightning no longer has a cooldown.
Psychic Barrier/Sith Efficacy 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Mind Crush/Affliction and Telek. Throw/Force Lightning by 75%. In addition, each time your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 100% chance to recover 1% of your total Force.
Presence of Mind/Wrath 1/1: When your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 30% chance to cause your next Force-damaging attack with an activation time to activate instantly and deal 20% more damage.
Inner Strength/Electric Induction 3/3: Reduces the Force cost of Force attacks and healing abilities by 9%.
Mental Longevity/Reserves 2/2: Increases your total Force by 100.

Levels 31-38
Disturb Mind/Exsanguinate 3/3: Increases the duration of Weaken Mind/Affliction by 6 seconds.
Concentration/Subversion 2/2: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Disturbance(Lightning Strike), Telekinetic Wave(Chain Lightning) and Turbulence(Thundering Blast) by 70%. In addition, Disturbance(Lightning Strike) has a 100% chance to increase your Force regeneration rate by 10% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
Clamoring Force/Convection 1/3: Increases the damage dealt by Disturbance/Lightning Strike, Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness, Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning and Turbulence/Thundering Blast by 2%.
Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning 1/1: Deals kinetic damage to up to 5 targets within 8 meters of the primary target.
Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage 2/2: Weaken Mind/Affliction critical hits have a 100% chance to granting Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage, causing your next Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning to channel and tick twice as fast. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

Talent Options For Levels 39 & 40
Containment/Haunted Dreams 2/2: Lowers the activation time of Force Lift/Whirlwind by 100%. In addition, when your Force Lift/Whirlwind breaks early from damage, the target is stunned for 2 seconds.
Focused Insight/Parasitism 2/2: Causes Critical hits from your periodic damage abilities to restore 1% of your total health.
Clamoring Force/Convection (+2) 3/3: Increases the damage dealt by Disturbance/Lightning Strike, Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness, Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning and Turbulence/Thundering Blast by 6%.
Pinning Resolve/Oppressing Force 2/2: Reduces the cooldown of Force Stun/Electrocute by 10 seconds. In addition, your Force Lift/Whirlwind affects up to 2 additional Standard or Weak enemies within 8 meters of the target.

These four options are listed in the order that I would suggest you take them in.

The first makes your CC ability an instant cast which is a pretty big deal, not to mention you’re adding a stun effect for when it’s broken early. If you need to CC a mob mid-combat then you don’t want to have to waste the time casting your CC spell when you could spend two talents to make it instant and get at least some amount of ensured control out of the deal.

The second option gives you some healing back any time your DoT’s crit. The healing is really small, but it does add up and can really be great if you’re able to spread your DoT’s around to several targets at once. I’d rather have instant CC personally, but this is a solid second choice.

The third option isn’t all that great because one of the four spells it enhances you’ll never have access to because this spec is a hybrid, and another (Disturbance/Lightning Strike) you’ll never actually cast. Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness and Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning are both spells that you’ll be using often, so increasing their damage is a good idea. With half of the talent essentially wasted though, it’s a bit harder to justify spending points here compared to the other choices.

The last option is again good for while you’re leveling but nearly worthless once you’re at max level. I mention it because I find it a great tool for soloing and questing, and it’s especially useful when combined with the first option that makes Force Lift/Whirlwind and instant cast spell.

Take whichever option appeals most to you and your play style.

 

Sage/Sorcerer Leveling: 1-20 DPS

Playing a Sage/Sorcerer
For the most part, playing a Sage/Sorc is much like playing a spell caster in any other MMO. In the world of SWTOR, they’re the only real spell casters in the game. While you can get a caster feel from some of the ranged classes (Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Imp. Agent) most of what they do doesn’t really feel like casting, at least not to me, unless you’re playing their healing spec.

Concerning Sage/Sorc DPS, there are two primary trees available to you and they each have their own feel. The Telekinetics/Lightning tree is the turret casting tree, where you’ll spend the majority of your time remaining stationary while you simply turn left or right as needed while you spam-cast your spells. You do have some spells that you can use on the move, but you’ll have a loss of overall DPS if you use them without needing to move. The Balance/Madness tree relies on damage over time (DoT) effects and channeled spells for the majority of it’s damage and is much more mobile as most of the spells you’ll use in those trees are instant cast either by design or thanks to talent-based procs.

When you reach level 10 and take your advanced class of Sage/Sorcerer there’s going to be a complete change in how you handle combat. Out of all of the classes and advanced classes, the Sage/Sorc AC has the largest shift in playstyle because you’ve just spent 10 levels killing things primarily with melee attacks with some occasional spells thrown in (maybe) and now you’re never going to use another melee attack again. Some players do play low level Consulars/Inquisitors trying to focus on spell casting, but since both of your damaging spells have cooldowns you’re really better of just beating things up in melee.

In addition to the switch from melee to casting you’re also going to notice that your spells now actually have a decent range on them. Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) jumps up to 30 meters by default as does Project(Shock), and your new spam-cast spell, Disturbance(Lightning Strike), is a 30 meter cast as well. You also get to quintuple your Force pool from 100 to 500, and your primary crowd control spell Force Lift(Whirlwind) goes from an 8 second duration up to 60 seconds. All of these changes combine to make one heck of a shift in playstyle, so you’ll want to find a few things to kill to get a feel for your new life as a real caster.

Important Spells & Abilities
I’ll break this section into two level groupings. I’m going to leave out numeric values since I have no trustworthy source to get the numbers relative to level 20. Hopefully the database sites out there can grow and develop soon so that we have a reliable source at least equal to what Wowhead is for WoW. Numbers in parenthesis after spell names reflect the level at which those spells become available, and spells with (1) are all spells that you start with.

The first group is level 1-9 which is your pre-Advanced Class levels where you’re a combination of both of your AC’s minus all of the cool effects that define the AC’s. The second group is levels 10-20, covering primarily the Sage/Sorc AC though there are some pure Consular/Inquisitor spells that open in that bracket as well.

CLASS BUFFS & REFILL
Force Valor/Mark of Power (1): Increases the target’s Strength, Aim, Willpower and Cunning by 5% and internal and elemental damage reduction by 10% for 60 minutes. If the target is a party member, all other party members are also affected.
Meditation/Seethe (1): Allows you to pause and meditate to restore your health and Force. Damage causes the effect to end prematurely. Cannot be used during combat.

Force Valor is your class buff, and one that you should always have active. Every class has a version of this, though not all classes buff the same stats (the Trooper buffs Endurance for example).

Meditation is the replacement for food and drink in SWTOR. It’s basically the means by which you refill your health and Force bars after combat.

LEVELS 1-9
Saber Strike/Saber Strike (1): Deals weapon damage spread across a flurry of 3 attacks.
Double Strike/Thrash (1): Strikes the target twice. Each hit deals weapon damage.
Project/Shock (1): Throws debris at the target, dealing kinetic damage. Standard and weak targets are additionally stunned for 3 seconds.
Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning (2): Hurls a volley of debris at the target, dealing kinetic damage and slowing movement speed by 50%. Standard and weak targets are immobilized for the duration.
Force Wave/Overload (3): Deals kinetic damage and knocks back all enemies within 8 meters. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down for 3 seconds.
Force Lift/Whirlwind (4): Lifts the target helplessly into the air, preventing all action for up to 8 seconds. Non-player, non-standard and non-weak targets heal rapidly while lifted out of harm’s way. Damage will break the effect prematurely.
Force Stun/Electrocute (6): Deals kinetic damage and stuns the target for 4 seconds.
Force Potency/Recklessness (8): Grants 2 charges of Force Potency, which increases the Force critical chance of your direct attacks and heals by 60% and increases the range of Telekinetic Throw to 30 meters. Each time a direct Force ability critically hits or you activate Telekinetic Throw, you lose 1 charge. Lasts 20 seconds.
Force of Will/Unbreakable Will (9): Demonstrates your force of will, immediately freeing you of all incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.

Saber Strike, Double Strike and Project are your starting offensive spells and what you’ll be using primarily to kill things up to level 10. Saber Strike restores Force while Double Strike and Project both spend it. The two melee strikes are all you need to reach level 10, though you’ll never touch them again once you get your advanced class (AC). Project will remain on your bars, as it will be useful for the Telekinetics/Lightning tree and surprisingly good for Balance/Madness.

Telekinetic Throw is one of your bread and butter spells regardless of which of the DPS trees you decide to focus on. For Telekinetics/Lightning this spell is best used when other talents proc to speed up the channel time, while for Balance/Madness this becomes your primary filler spell used to proc instant casts. Force Wave is a combination of area of effect (AoE) damage and crowd control as it knocks most targets back and weaker targets are knocked prone all together. This spell works great as an interrupt because of its knockback as well, and at low levels the damage it deals is good enough that it’s useful as a finisher spell for groups too.

Force Lift is a somewhat weak crowd control (CC) spell when you first get it with only an 8 second duration, but when you choose your advanced class it bumps up to 60 seconds and becomes significantly more useful. The Balance/Madness tree has multiple talents that improve its effect as well, including making it instant cast, modifying it to become a stun when broken early, and having it affect up to 3 targets instead of only 1. Force Stun is another of our CC spells, applying an instant 4 second stun. In some ways this is the more useful CC, especially for Telek./Lightning because it’s instant, and it deals damage in addition to the stun, not to mention Force Lift breaks on damage where Force Stun does not. When comparing this to Force Lift don’t weigh them too much one against another, consider them each their own tool with their own uses. Force Lift is best used before combat begins for example, where Force Stun is more useful mid-combat.

Force Potency is a short term buff that from 1-10 is most useful in my opinion for extending the short range of Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning), with its increased crit chance just a nice side effect since most of 1-10 is done via melee attacks. Once you take your advanced class the range on Telek. Throw is increased to 30 meters by default so it becomes strictly a crit buff (and a good one at that).

Force of Will is your final spell for the 1-9 bracket and it’s your CC breaker. You do face more CC from non-player characters/monsters in SWTOR than in most other MMO’s, but the primary use for this is still very much PvP related. As someone who enjoys player vs. player (PvP) combat I love that they give us our CC breaker so early.

LEVELS 10-20
Benevolence/Dark Heal (10): Heals a friendly target. (fast cast, small heal)
Disturbance/Lightning Strike (10): Fires a blast of telekinetic energy at the target, dealing kinetic damage.
Deliverance/Dark Infusion (12): Heals a friendly target. (long cast, big heal)
Force Armor/Static Barrier (14): Surrounds the target in a Force shield that absorbs a high amount of damage and lasts 30 seconds. Protected targets become Force-Imbalanced and cannot benefit from Force Armor again for 20 seconds.
Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (14): Crushes the target’s mind with the Force, instantly dealing kinetic damage and additional kinetic damage over 6 seconds.
Channel the Force/Channel the Force (15): Summons the Force to aid you and your companion, immediately finishing the cooldown on Force Stun and restoring 2% of maximum health every 3 seconds. Requires an active companion. Lasts 1 minute.
Weaken Mind/Affliction (16): Weakens the target’s mind, dealing internal damage over 15 seconds.
Force Speed/Force Speed (16): Increases your movement speed by 150% for 2 seconds. Does not break stealth.
Mind Snap/Jolt (18): Interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for 4 seconds.
Noble Sacrifice/Consumption (20): Sacrifices 15% of your maximum health to restore 8% of your maximum Force. Each time this ability is used, your Force regeneration rate is reduced by 25% for the next 10 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times.

Benevolence is our first heal, and it’s kinda lacking. It has a short cast time which is great, but it costs 50 Force and heals for a relatively small amount. Deliverance is our second heal and while it takes twice as long to cast (3 seconds) and costs 5 more Force the heal is significantly stronger. If you’re in dire need of a heal then Benevolence can get you out of trouble, but Deliverance is significantly stronger if you can handle waiting just a second and a half longer.

Disturbance is your main spam-cast spell once you have your advanced class. It has a fairly short cast time, no cooldown, and deals respectable damage. If you go for the Telek./Lightning tree then this is your primary spell, where Balance/Madness will switch to using it mostly on talent procs once they get to level 20-21. Mind Crush is a damage over time (DoT) spell that has a cast time and a cool down. In this level range you’ll mostly use this to pull mobs with big heal pools or on bosses, but it becomes more important later on.

Force Armor is a bubble which absorbs all damage while it’s active. The amount that it can absorb is based on your level. It’s a great addition to your spell book and one that I frequently use right before a pull or in mid-combat for myself or party members as needed. Force Speed is another great all around Consular/Inquisitor spell, this time as a speed increase. In player vs. environment/everything (PvE) this spell isn’t terribly useful in terms of combat, while in player vs. player (PvP) it’s amazing. I use this spell all the time. If it’s on cooldown and I have any intention of running from one point to another, I’m doing it.

Channel the Force is an odd spell to me. It resets the cooldown on Force Stun and puts a heal over time effect on you and (I think) your companion, which is great, but it’s only usable when you have a companion out. It’s good for those times where you’re soloing something and having a rough time or when you’re in a small group because you have to have a companion out in order to cast it. For me, because it’s only usable when I have a companion and I almost never use my companions for combat, I forget this thing exists 99% of the time. For me it just seems like it’s an incredibly useful spell that can’t be used in groups which makes me want to be used to not having it so that I don’t come to rely on it when/if I ever raid or when I’m doing PvP.

Weaken Mind is another DoT spell, but this one has no cooldown and no cast time making it very easy to spam all of the targets in combat, and both DPS specs will want to use this on any targets that are likely to live for more than just a few seconds.

Mind Snap is our interrupt, used to stop pretty much any/every ability that has a cast time or a channel. At low levels I usually interrupt damage spells from my opponents, but once you get to around Alderaan (mid to upper 20s) and higher you start to run into mobs that use healing so I save it for them. From 1-20 using it isn’t all that important, but interrupting spells is a great habit to get into early on.

And last but certainly not least we have Nobel Sacrifice which converts 15% of your life into 8% of your Force. At low levels I wouldn’t advise you to use this very often. If you need the Force, then you need the Force, but if you’re hurting that bad for resources then you probably don’t have the health to spare either.

Leveling a Sage/Sorcerer
Now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about all of your spells and such, let’s take a look at how you actually play with Sage/Sorcerer.

Consular 1-10 Weak Mob Rotation: Double Strike, Saber Strike or Double Strike x2-3
Inquisitor 1-10 Weak Mob Rotation: Thrash, Saber Strike or Thrash x2-3
Alternate 1-10 Rotation: Double Strike or Saber Strike on all targets, Force Wave

When you’re first starting out you can kill almost everything with Double Strike + Saber Strike assuming DS doesn’t kill them outright. For tougher mobs, Double Strike x2-3 will finish most of them off. If you find that you still need to do a little bit more damage, I suggest Force Wave as your finisher to deal some AoE damage.

You can use your spells if you want to, it’s alright to start off combat with Telekinetic Throw if you’d like. On the one hand, Telek. Throw does really good damage and often times you’ll kill your first target using this by itself. However, you’ll actually kill things faster if you just rush in and open a can of melee.

The Alternate rotation is another method of playing at low levels, which is using a single melee attack on each target in the group followed by a Force Wave. Doing this will kill just about every weak mob in the starting planet, and the ones that don’t die should fall to a single attack after Force Wave.

Telekinetics 10-20 Weak Mobs: Telekinetic Wave, Disturbance, Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2, Telek. Throw
Lightning 10-20 Weak Mobs: Chain Lightning, Lightning Strike, Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2, Force Lightning
Balance 10-20 Weak Mobs: Disturbance, Force in Balance, Telekinetic Throw, Project, Disturbance, Telekinetic Throw
Madness 10-20 Weak Mobs: Lightning Strike, Death Field, Force Lightning, Shock, Lightning Strike, Force Lightning

When you first start trying our your advanced class rotating through Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2, and then repeat will destroy everything in your path. If you need a little extra safeguard for the fight feel free to start off with Force Armor and/or Force Lift before you start with the damage spells. If you’re going to start combat with a CC effect like Force Lift you usually want to target the strongest enemy with it so that you can kill off the weaklings first and then go back for the tough guy. If you do, go ahead and take the time to heal yourself up if needed after you’ve killed the weak ones before you break your CC on the big guy. You have the full 60 second duration to heal or regenerate your Force points, so you might as well take advantage of that.

If mobs get low on health and you don’t want to waste a cast time on them, finish them off with either Project, Force Wave or Telekinetic Throw, or you can use your melee abilities if you haven’t taken them off of your bars yet.

Telekinetics 10-20 Elites: Telekinetic Wave, Mind Crush, Weaken Mind, Disturbance, Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2
Lightning 10-20 Elites: Chain Lightning, Crushing Darkness, Affliction, Lightning Strike, Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2
Balance 10-20 Elites: Mind Crush, Weaken Mind, Force in Balance, Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2
Madness 10-20 Elites: Crushing Darkness, Affliction, Death Field, Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2

When you’re facing elites you want to make sure you put your DoT spells to use, and using them to pull is a safe and easy way to do that. If you’re facing several strong opponents then you might want to pull with Force Lift instead, or use Force Lift after Mind Crush. Just make sure you don’t use Mind Crush on the target you plan to CC or else the DoT effect will break your CC early.

After you have established your DoT’s and used any CC that you need, you can fall back into the rotation you use on the weak mobs that I listed above. As your DoT’s expire from running their full duration reapplying them may or may not be necessary depending on how much health they have left. If you see that they’re going to die in the next 3-5 seconds you don’t need to bother reapplying, but if they still have more than 25% of their health or so, go ahead and recast Weaken Mind if nothing else.

Any time you need to move, for whatever reason, that’s when you want to utilize Project(Shock). As Balance/Madness you have a good chance to double-Project(Shock) for extra damage which makes it a good option even when you don’t necessarily need to move, especially if there are weak mobs who will be stunned by the effect as well.

Talent Spec: 20 Balance/Madness Tree

Sage: Balance	Sorcerer: Madness
Torhead: Balance	Torhead: Madness

Balance/Madness is a fairly new tree for me, having switched in just the last week or so from Telekinetics/Lightning. I really fell in love with this tree after level 25, but I’ve had a blast with it on a new Sage as well.

What I like most about this tree is that it puts a stronger focus on instant casts and channeled spells which allows you to be more mobile (something I like for PvP) and making it easier to bounce around on targets when you see that one of them is just one hit away from dying so you can toss an instant spell at them and then switch back to your initial target instead of having to finish your current cast time, switch to them for another cast time, and then switch back.

The instant cast nature of the spec along with the procs that you’ll eventually get from channeling Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) make this spec feel much more aggressive an in control of the battle compared to the Telekinetics/Lightning tree. It also allows you to solo more content by making it easier and more viable for you to abuse the Line of Sight (LoS) technique to kill Strong+ or higher level mobs.

In the descriptions below, the spell names in the open refer to the Sage ability and the names in (parenthesis) refer to the Sorcerer-equivalent ability.

Empowered Throw/Calcify 3/3:
Increases the damage dealt by Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) by 12%.

Will of the Jedi/Will of the Sith 2/2:
Increases total Willpower by 6%.

Upheaval/Chain Shock 3/3:
When you activate Project(Shock), you have a 45% chance to activate a second Project(Shock), dealing 50% of normal damage.

Critical Kinesis/Disintegration 2/2:
Increases the critical chance of Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) and Disturbance(Lightning Strike) by 10%.

Force in Balance/Death Field 1/1:
Deals internal damage to up to 3 targets within 8 meters of the targeted area and heals you for 22 per affected target.

Empowered Throw and Will of the Jedi are both great talents for the first tier, and I generally alternate putting points into them while I level so that I get some benefit from both at the same time. Telekinetic Throw is your main spam spell with this spec, or rather it will be when you reach level 21 (see Force in Balance below).

Upheaval is one of my favorite talents as a Sage, purely from a “check out how freaking amazing I am” perspective as I launch two large chunks of terrain at your face. It also helps to make this spell actually worth casting as its damage is otherwise much less than any of your other spells. For folks who don’t like this talent, Pinning Resolve is a solid replacement as it makes your Force Lift(Whirlwind) hit up to 3 targets at once instead of 1.

Critical Kinesis is the second talent I like to take on tier 2 of this tree for the extra crit. I personally go for Upheaval first strictly because I like to make Project more viable in low level PvP, but Critical Kinesis is a great talent for both PvE and PvP, so take them in whichever order you prefer.

Force in Balance is my priority talent for level 20 because it’s a fantastic AoE spell. It deals great damage, is instant cast, and it targets an area rather than an enemy so it can be used to fish people out of stealth or to hit people who are out of your line of sight. However, this third tier is also where you get Telekinetic Balance/Madness which removes the cooldown from Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning), allowing it to become your spam spell. Being able to spam TT/FL isn’t crucial just yet because we’re missing other key talents due to our level, but that will change very soon. Between these two talents, the one you do not take at level 20 should be taken at level 21 as they’re both fantastic talents.

Talent Spec: 20 Telekinetic/Lightning Tree

Sage: Telekinetics	Sorcerer: Lightning
Torhead: Telekinetics	Torhead: Lightning

This is the spec that I started out with on my Sage/Sorcs, and it served me very well. This is the tree that I was using when I first started soloing Heroic 4 quests without even using with my companions.

This tree gives you a feel of the more traditional caster, standing in the back spamming cast time spells for stacking buffs and unleashing channeled spells for better damage. This tree is great for being able to maintain a high rate of spell casting without having to sacrifice performance.

In the descriptions below, the names refer to the Sage ability and the names in (parenthesis) refer to the Sorcerer-equivalent ability.

Clamoring Force/Convection 3/3:
Increases the damage dealt by Disturbance(Lightning Strike), Mind Crush(Crushing Darkness), Telekinetic Wave(Chain Lightning), and Turbulence(Thundering Blast) by 6%.

Inner Strength/Electric Induction 3/3:
Reduces the Force cost of Force attacks and healing abilities by 9%.

Concentration/Subversion 2/2:
Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Disturbance(Lightning Strike), Telekinetic Wave(Chain Lightning) and Turbulence(Thundering Blast) by 70%. In addition, Disturbance(Lightning Strike) has a 100% chance to increase your Force regeneration rate by 10% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Disturb Mind/Exsanguinate 2/2:
Increases the duration of Weaken Mind(Affliction) by 6 seconds.

Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning 1/1:
Sends a wave of telekinetic energy/lightning that deals kinetic damage to up to 5 targets within 8 meters of the primary target.

Clamoring Force is a simple damage increase which just so happens to buff virtually every spell you’re going to use frequently. Inner Strength reduces your Force costs which allows you to cast more spells for longer periods of time. I like to put points into Inner Strength over Mental Longevity (+50/100 Force) because over time that 9% reduction of cost adds up to be way more than a simple boost to my total Force. I also suggest you only put 2 points into Mental Longevity to start off with and then put the third point in at level 19 since you shouldn’t have too many problems with Force management at this level. Eventually, you’ll have points in both Inner Strength and Mental Longevity you just don’t need both at this level.

Concentration is a talent that I would normally ignore because the nature of casters is to stay out of situations where you would suffer pushback in the first place, but they also added a Force regeneration feature to it which makes this much more appealing. Keeping three stacks of Concentration up at all times really helps your longevity in a big fight. Disturb Mind increases the duration of your instant-cast DoT spell by 6 seconds which in turn means it deals more damage. Disturb Mind isn’t too critical for Telekinetics/Lightning for this level range but it will be pretty soon. If you want to spend these points elsewhere, Mind’s Eye(Lightning Spire) is a good choice for one point, and the other I would put in Mental Longevity(Reserves).

Telekinetic Wave is a cast time AoE that is centered on an enemy target, making it somewhat more limited in its use because of targeting, but still a great addition to your caster toolbelt since your only AoE option without it is your dinky pushback. As you continue to gain levels you’ll unlock other talents that just keep making this spell cooler.

Gearing Up
When you’re looking for new gear to increase your performance you want to make sure you’re always looking at your primary stat first. Sage/Sorcs rely primarily on Willpower for performance, so big boosts in Willpower are always a good thing.

Your secondary stat depends on your spec and what level you are. In the 1-20 level range the only secondary attributes you’re likely to find in large supply is Power (increases damage/healing) and Critical Rating (Crit), and lucky for us those are both appealing stats. Power is a guaranteed performance increase where Crit is good when you score a critical hit and worthless when you don’t making it a bit more hit and miss but potentially stronger when it does happen. I personally lean a bit more towards Crit than Power for the Sage because we have talents that proc additional effects based on getting critical hits with some of our spells.

Other secondary stats that are good include Accuracy (chance to hit) and Alacrity (haste, or the speed at which you cast your spells) though both of those are pretty hard to find in this level range. You won’t find enough gear with these stats on them in this level range for them to really matter, so if you happen to come across one you might as well use it, but don’t worry about hunting them down or trying to reach certain amounts in this level range. If you find it you find it, if you don’t you don’t.

The simplest way to keep yourself on top of the gearing game is to use gear that accepts mods and then craft or purchase mods as you level to keep it up to date. Modification items (mods) can be purchased on worlds beyond the starting worlds for either credits or commendations, or they can be crafted by the Artifice and Cybertech crew skills (as such you can often find them cheap on the Global Trade Network (GTN) as well).

And just to be clear, you will always and forever wear Light Armor and nothing more.

Crew Skills & You
Since I see the question of Crew Skills (professions) come up a lot whether it’s in game, on the blog, or on twitter, I decided I would go ahead and include a quick section for that with this post as well. The most important thing with professions in any game is that you take what’s appealing to you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s appealing because it’s the best thing out there or because you think it has a cool name, so long as it appeals to you in one way or another.

That being said, let’s take a look at the crew skills that have something to offer a Sage/Sorc.

Artifice: One of your best options as it allows you to craft three mods that you can use for your gear (Crystal, Hilt, Enhancement) and it allows you to craft your own off-hand items. Off hands are pretty easy to find as drops and the occasional quest reward, but being able to craft them gives you more control over which stats you get and allows for more frequent upgrades.

Biochem: A fantastic profession for every class, allows you to craft healing medpacs, long term buff stims, and short duration buff adrenals. Also allows you to craft Implants for level 21+ which is an often hard to fill slot while leveling (even more so because you have two implant slots to fill).

Cybertech: Another solid option, allows the crafting of Armoring and Mod modifications as well as Earpieces which can also be hard to find while leveling. Also allows you to craft explosives that deal targetable area of effect damage and include additional damaging debuffs or crowd control effects on the targets within the area.

Synthweaving: An appealing, but somewhat disappointing, crew skill that allows you to craft armor pieces for Force-users. While you can get some patterns for modable gear, the majority of your recipes will pale in comparison to modable gear of an equal level unless you’re willing to spend the credits/materials to craft blue quality or higher pieces which even then could be replaced by modable gear with better stats within a few levels. Synth offers nothing other than armor pieces, making it one of the least versatile and least useful crew skills available.

Diplomacy: Diplomacy is a pure mission skill, and offers very little to your class directly. The reason why I mention it is because all Diplomacy missions have a Light/Dark component to them which allows you to build your Light/Dark points faster than anything else. If you want to maximize your Light/Dark standing and do it quickly, then Diplomacy is the key.

Slicing: Slicing is a gathering/mission skill and is similar to Diplomacy in that it offers nothing specifically Sage/Sorc-related. What Slicing does offer is a cheap and easy way to have all the credits you’ll ever need. Just be sure that you don’t judge it by the first or second tier’s mission results and that you never waste your time/credits running missions above tier 5.