SWTOR 8.0 Sorcerer and Sage Balance Changes: Overview and Analysis (PTS Updated)

SWTOR’s very first 8.0 PTS iteration includes level 85 changes for all 3 Sorcerer | Sage disciplines and got some updates in the next update (PTS #1) that we’ll also go over.

General Changes Approach

The changes on the PTS are very, very preliminary. Each combat style is getting one of their baseline abilities replaced with a version that adds a unique additional function for each discipline at level 83, like the second ability each class gets at level 15.

None of the unfinished business with ability trees and talent choice design have been fixed (yet), it’s just that new ability and a “new” passive at level 83, though that passive is almost always just that spec’s most popular tactical item and the new ability is usually a cooldown.

It seems like they’re intending to make the most popular tactical less ubiquitous, rather than just balancing the alternatives properly, and the fact that they’re doing it this way has the potential to create even more imbalance without eliminating this flavor of the month issue because they’re going off of popularity rather than actual power level or intended use case.

Many players are not even aware that tactical items exist, nor that they’re designed like ability tree choices where they tend to be optimal against a specific enemy and content type, whether it be a boss (fight), trash mob (solo content), or player (PvP).

Some players just pick the one, usually the single-target sustained option meant for boss fights and end up doing worse in other types of content and end up disengaging rather than learning.

Tactical items also cost a lot of Tech Fragments and Credits and take up unnecessary inventory space while acting as an incentive against having alts.

Really, each discipline has ~3 tactical items that should just be migrated to their own new talent choice in the tree. The ones that need rebalancing or refining can be addressed individually.

So far, it feels like they’re trying to use a single size screwdriver to fix a bunch of specific and unique problems, but sometimes that screwdriver just doesn’t fit. I don’t think the same one-size-fits-all approach will work here like it did with Ability Trees because the problems for one spec aren’t shared by another.

Sorcerer | Sage

The level 83 modified ability for Sorcerers | Sages is Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw. Currently, the ability is a 3s channeled attack that deals damage 4 times and slows or roots the affected target.

Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw is only used rotationally by Madness | Balance where it functions as a filler attack with different characteristics from the base ability. The attack has no direct integration with either of the other specs but it’s not super detrimental to use in the right circumstances.

Most players find it odd that Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw is not a central or essential part of the Lightning | Telekinetics rotation, so there is some merit in attempting to integrate the ability with that spec, but that doesn’t apply to healers.

In the early days of SWTOR, it was the case that each Affliction | Weaken Mind tick had a chance to grant a proc that made your next activation channel and tick twice as fast, but this was too RNG-dependent, so they removed it. I don’t think that it fits very well, certainly not as well as their idea on the PTS, so there’s no reason to bring it back.

Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity would be more appropriate since none of the specs have space for more abilities on the GCD, but then you have to think about how Static Barrier | Force Armor was never properly implemented as the combat style’s level 15 specialized ability in 7.0, nor was Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz ever able to do the same in 6.0.

Lightning | Telekinetics (Updated for PTS #1)

Lightning | Telekinetics expands Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush and Shock | Project interactions with Force Lightning | Telekinetics, enabling it to fully replace Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst in the priority system. It also bakes Stormwatch into the discipline.

• Each tick of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw now also extends the duration of Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush by 0.75s and the final tick refreshes the cooldown of Shock | Project and increases the critical chance of your next Shock | Project against targets affected by your Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush by 100%. (3s channel, 9s cooldown)
• The final tick of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw increases the critical chance of your next Shock | Project against targets affected by your Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush by 100% for 6s. In addition, Shock | Project finishes off Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush, and reapplies it. (1.5s channel, 12s cooldown)
• The Stormwatch tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Lightning | Telekinetics.
  • This makes Ticking Force-bomb the new BiS tactical for boss fights alongside Endless Barrier for PvP and hacky Elemental Convection for solo eras content.

Lightning | Telekinetics also has far too much to do with its filler GCDs already. You don’t have enough time to consistently maintain your Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst procs for DR and Force regen, nor do you have on-demand room for situational abilities like Force Storm | Forcequake, extra Chain Lightning | Telekinetic Waves, or Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz.

There’s also a lot of separate procs that add a whole bunch of unnecessary complexity to the spec and consolidating them would fix this issue while making the spec easier to understand:

Note: This next list is my suggestion, not an official change

• Force Lightning | Telekientic Throw and Force Storm | Forcequake now also have a 50% chance to build stacks of Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point
• Each stack of Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point (which already stacks up to 5 times and lasts long enough) now does the following:
  • Increase Alacrity by 1%
  • Increase Damage Reduction by 5%
  • Increase Force Regeneration Rate by 6%
• Lightning Effusion | Telekinetic Effusion proc now just increases your range by 5, but reduce the baseline Force cost of all Lightning | Telekinetics-specific abilities by 75% (they conveniently represent ~60% of the discipline’s activations and the proc has ~60% uptime)
• Reserved Light | Reserved Darkness now also makes Dark Heal | Benevolence cost no Force
• Eliminate the following procs:
  • Insulated Blast | Defensive Blast (5% DR)
  • Deionized | Force-imbalanced (5% DR)
  • Charged Reaction | Mental Continuum (10% x3 Force regen)
  • Fulgurous Fortification | Telekinetic Refuge (5% x3 DR)
  • Lightning Effusion (75% Force cost reduction)
• Consolidate the Subversion | Concentration proc into a charge of the Convection | Clamoring Force proc
• Switch Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz to be the level 15 ability
• Make Lightning Burns | Rippling Force a universal trait of Lightning | Telekinetic attacks (turn it into an attack subtype like bleeds/poisons/burns) and replace Forked Lightning | Telekinetic Momentum with Lightning Burns | Rippling Force
  • Lightning attacks need a teensy bit of smoke and sizzle
  • This fixes the animation bugs and procs getting wasted by Forked Lightning | Telekinetic Momentum

Aside from the proc issues, I strongly preferred the previous implementation of Force Lightning+ | Telekinetic Throw+.

I liked that Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw extended the duration of Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush with each tick, though it could do without the cooldown reset on Shock | Project, and the autocrit needed to be a proc that increases the critical chance of Shock | Project by 25% with each tick, rather than requiring a full channel.

In the updated version, the 1.5s duration of the channel defeats the purpose of incorporating Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw at all, like the channel is too short and often doesn’t appear for more than half a second because the Forked Lightning | Telekinetic Momentum second arc animation is still playing, so it doesn’t feel like you’re really using it.

At the same time, the full damage of a 3s channel being concentrated into a single GCD is problematic with all the new abilities added since the old proc was removed.

Since the cooldown on this iteration of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw is 12s (compared to the 15s cooldown on Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush) and it has a 6s proc duration, you are often able to refresh a single Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush activation multiple times.

This means you get all the damage of the DoT and a bonus Shock | Project autocrit. Keep in mind that Shock | Project actually does more damage than Thundering Blast | Turbulence in this situation, so this is a pretty massive bit of extra damage.

I think you can only get it every other activation of Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush, but I’m 100% not sure. I tried to do the priority where you try to get it as often as possible, but it’s hard to do while still using all your other heavy hitters as often as possible, on top of juggling all the different fillers you have to do, which now includes:

• Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw
• Static Barrier | Force Armor
• Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst
• Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz (especially with Elemental Convection)
• Chain Lightning | Telekinetic Wave
• Force Storm | Forcequake
• CC abilities

Then you also have to consider offensive cooldown use and timing, including optimal use of Force Speed with Gathering Storm and the alacrity boost from Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity throwing things off. It’s just too much to manage, and that’s coming from someone who has been maining the spec for nearly 15 years now.

If Broadsword is dead set on giving a unique effect to Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw for each discipline (and they shouldn’t), I would prefer if they just increased the cooldown on the initial PTS version of the ability to 15s and make the aforementioned adjustments to procs centered around Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point.

That way, you still have a significant period of the rotation where you’re using Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst and can retain the other, nice features of the original version.

However, Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw already has some existing utility for Lightning | Telekinetics:

• It functions as a way to resynchronize Thundering Blast | Turbulence with the internal cooldown on Lightning Storm | Tidal Force (the proc that makes Chain Lightning | TK Wave instant) without making Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst proc it early.
• It’s also a nifty ability to use against enemies that have barely any health left, without screwing up your rotation, using an overkill ability, or waiting for a cast to finish.

I think it would be much better to integrate this new effect into Ticking Force-bomb to give the spec another playstyle with clearer PvP implications thanks to the enhanced spike damage potential.

Madness | Balance

Madness | Balance adds Dark Echo | Resonant Pulse and Deathmark | Force Suppression application to Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw and bakes the Killing Field tactical into the discipline.

• Each tick of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw has a 50% chance to trigger Dark Echo | Resonant Pulse and the final tick applies 15 stacks of Deathmark | Force Suppression to the target.
• The Killing Field tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Madness | Balance.
  • This makes Tempest of Rho the BiS tactical for all PvE content instead of just boss fights while eliminating a viable solo eras content tactical as the spec becomes even more oppressive in PvP with AoE on top of Endless Barrier!
• Unlisted: Force Lightning now has a black visual for Madness only and Deathmark has matching VFX on affected targets
• Unlisted: Death Brand | Shifted Balance has been redesigned to work like Halted Offensive | Power of the Force where it just hits harder and steals more life but doesn’t have AoE

It seems Broadsword’s attempt at solving the structural problems Madness | Balance has with ability duration, cooldown alignment, damage distribution, etc. is to make Death Field | Force in Balance less of a priority by enabling Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw to apply Deathmark | Force Suppression as well.

It’s not done yet, but I can see how Broadsword could be planning to use an ability replacement to consolidate a bunch of the effects that Madness | Balance has that completely change how Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw works.

It’s an interesting idea, and the visuals are cool. I can see how they’re trying to shift Madness to more of a dark ritualist type of look while Balance looks at the Living Force as tapping into a flowing river, but I don’t think it’s enough.

The cooldown on Death Field | Force in Balance needs to be synchronized with the duration of the DoTs. The emperor won’t tolerate further delays on one of the spec’s core abilities.

That being said, I like the idea where Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw applies Deathmark | Force Suppression stacks, though I think it only ought to be 1-2 per tick so we don’t devalue ability tree talents like Unrelenting Affliction | Consuming Light.

Lightning Strike | Disturbance is underutilized and can step in to fill in the gaps. It just needs to benefit from but not consume Wrath | Presence of Mind.

Force Leech | Force Serenity feels like it’s losing its identity to Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw as well, but I think it could serve as an anchor for the life steal aspect of the spec. I can already see it fitting with Force Serenity with a visual like running your fingers through a stream.

Perhaps its healing percentage could be tied to Deathmark | Force Suppression charges or something rather than seeing sooooooo many green flytext numbers from every single other attack.

They redesigned Death Brand | Shifted Balance so it doesn’t have the PvP-only effect, and the fact that Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw applies Deathmarks | Force Suppression charges means you can still spread Demolish | Vanquish, even if it is more cumbersome.

Really, Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw and Force Storm | Forcequake both need to apply a much lower number per tick, perhaps with a chance tied to critical hits or triggering Lightning Burns | Rippling Force.

The extent of the visual change to Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw also indicates that this needs to be presented as some sort of ability replacement. Their best bet would be just to make Demolish | Vanquish the baseline ability and get rid of Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush entirely.

Corruption | Seer

Corruption | Seer currently adds a healing buff effect that ends in Roaming Mend | Wandering Mend to an ability like Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw and baked One for All (Roaming Mend | Wandering Mend) into the tree. It’s not gonna stick.

• Force Lightning deals nominal damage to the target (Corruption only) and each tick pushes the targets body beyond its limit, increasing the target’s healing received by 1% per stack up to 10% for 18 seconds. The final tick applies and triggers a unique Roaming Mend | Wandering Mend.
  • Does NOT replace Force Lighting | Telekinetic Throw
• The One for All tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Corruption | Seer.
  • Storm’s Succor is now BiS for everything but 16m+ groups, in which case you’d use the confusingly named All for One tactical instead.

Corruption | Seer’s concept just isn’t gonna work. There is no canonical basis for healing others with Force Lightning, and they already acknowledge it doesn’t make sense for pebbles. Changing the ability too much means it isn’t that ability anymore and their whole framework falls apart.

The Sorcerer | Sage healer spec already has a healer version of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw. It’s called Innervate | Healing Trance. Conveniently, there’s a presently worthless talent choice for it called Polarizing | Potent Resolve, which could easily have the same effect they’re trying to cram into a new ability.

Of course, we haven’t even gotten to Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz, yet. With One for All being turned into a discipline passive, the clear winner will be Storm’s Succor, and there already isn’t enough room for that ability, let alone Static Barrier | Force Armor.

Still, I think there is a smaller, unutilized place for Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw in the healer spec, and that’s as the proper inverse of Innervate | Healing Trance.

Currently, Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw does not have any healing integration, and all it needs is to trigger the same Force Surge | Resplendence effect that Innervate | Healing Trance does. This would make it much easier for Corruption | Seer to switch between off-DPS and healing.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Broadsword

Assuming Broadsword stays the course with their level 85 improvements for each combat style, I really, really don’t think that Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw should be the unique ability for Sorcerers | Sages.

So far, Sorcerer | Sage is the only discipline in the game where their level 85 (and level 15) abilities aren’t off-GCD cooldowns, and this has resulted in balance issues for the spec throughout 7.0.

The most notable example is the vast survivability chasm between Madness | Balance and Lightning | Telekinetics that has resulted in multiple ridiculous and failed attempts to rein in the discipline’s survivability by making global changes to the combat style.

I suggest that Broadsword make the following changes in the spirit of standardizing Sorcerer | Sage’s upgraded abilities at levels 15 and 83:

1. Static Barrier | Force Armor is no longer the unique ability for Sorcerers | Sages
   • Lightning | Telekinetics can have the Deionized | Force-imbalanced DR worked into Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point as described in the Lightning | Telekinetics section
   • The former Corrupted Barrier | Life Ward utility (currently treated as the unique effect for Madness | Balance) can be offered at level 73 in place of Conspiring Force | Confound
   • Corruption | Seer can have its reduced Deionized | Force-imbalanced duration added to the Sustaining Darkness | Soothing Protection passive
   • Conspiring Force | Confound and Corrupted Flesh | Mind Ward can be merged into Defiance | Resistance at level 73 (take the name of Corrupted Flesh | Mind Ward, though)
   • Add the unused Shifting Silhouette | Ethereal Entity utility to the open spot at level 73
2. Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz is now the upgraded ability at level 15. It is no longer on the GCD (but on a 1.5s rate limit, like Shoulder Cannon). It deals drastically reduced damage (and healing) and no longer has the Energized | Empowered. It can be used while channeling Force Lightning | Telekinetic Blitz (meant to evoke how Palpatine puts more oomph into his channels) against that target.
   • Lightning | Telekinetics combines it with a redesigned Elemental Convection that works with Suppressive Current | Dormant Tremors
     • Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz now arcs | sends groundwaves to up to 8 enemies within 8m of the primary target and automatically critically hits when used within 1.5s of activating Chain Lightning | Telekinetic Wave, Halted Offensive | Power of the Force, or Overload | Force Wave.
     • Suppressive Currents | Dormant Tremors has been reversed. Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw and Force Storm | Forcequake build a stack of Suppressive Currents | Dormant Tremors each time they deal damage (each stack deals 25% of the current damage) and Chain Lightning | Telekinetic Wave triggers that damage.
   • Corruption | Seer combines it with Storm’s Succor
   • Madness | Balance has a new effect (since The Rushdown has always been a detriment to use):
     • Each hit Dooms | Preordains the target. Your next Death Field | Force in Balance or Death Brand | Shifted Balance will also activate beneath anyone Doomed | Preordained.
3. Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity is now the upgraded ability at level 83
   • Lightning | Telekinetics
     • Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz does not consume a charge to activate and arcs to up to 4 enemies within 5m of the primary target when activated within 1.5s of any other Lightning | Telekinetic attack.
   • Corruption | Seer
     • Force Bending | Conveyance applies to all healing abilities activated during Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity and Force Surge | Resplendence is not consumed when activating Consuming Darkness | Vindicate.
   • Madness | Balance
     • The chance for Dark Echo | Resonant Pulse to trigger is doubled and every 4th Echo | Pulse on each target triggers a Death Field | Force in Balance or Death Brand | Shifted Balance instead.
4. Integrate aformentioned changes for Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw into each discipline through other means:
   • Increase the cooldown of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw to 15s
   • Add modified version of original Force Lightning+ | Telekinetic Throw+ to Ticking Force-bomb for Lightning | Telekinetics
   • Add the current effect given to Corruption’s | Seer’s version of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw to the unutilized Polarizing | Potent Resolve talent at level 39 for Innervate | Healing Trance
   • Replace Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush with Demolish | Vanquish (with a better name) as the baseline ability
   • Offer Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw as the upgraded version of the ability at level 60 for Madness | Balance.

While this list may seem like a lot, I’m mostly just moving around existing effects, making simple single-line tweaks, and adding a few simple effects in the same scope as other changes being made.