SWTOR’s very first 8.0 PTS iteration includes level 85 changes for all 3 Sorcerer | Sage disciplines. We’ll explain what they are and what we think about them.
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.
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
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%.
- 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.
Rotationally, the new Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw and the extra Shock | Project completely takes over for Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst. There is no essential place to use Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst anymore at all, though you can use it instead of secondary activations of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw.
Otherwise, you only have gaps for Static Barrier | Force Armor and can fill the remainder with secondary activations of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw exactly.
It’s certainly interesting and reminds me a bit of the Halted Offensive | Power of the Force static rotation we had at the beginning of 7.0, but a bit less punishing and more-priority-oriented.
The flow reminds of Marksmanship | Sharpshooter with how you return to Shock | Project instead of Followthrough | Trickshot but there’s less handholding. I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, and while it feels fresh, I worry it might be a bit too complicated.
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.
Mobility is also a lot more restricted. This does retain a use case for Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst with Subversion | Concentration and Convection | Clamoring Force, but I find the latter falls off before I am in a position to use them. I don’t have very much control over those optional Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw opportunities occur, either.
Forked Lightning | Telekinetic Momentum and the dependent cooldown reduction on Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity (from Conduction | Tremors) largely get defenestrated as well.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the animation problems caused by the former, but I’d rather the whole effect get tossed in favor of universal Lightning Burns | Rippling Force.
Since Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point doesn’t fall off like the Lightning Bolt | Telekinetic Burst procs, we can just roll both procs into the Focal Lightning | Telekinetic Focal Point.
On a smaller note, I feel like Stormwatch loses its spectacle when it’s ticking this much (Crushing Darkness | Mind Crush has higher uptime) and using Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw this often makes both Sorcerer | Sage DPS specs feel too similar to each other.
Setting all that aside, 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.
I would prefer if Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw’s unique effect for Lightning | Telekinetics was just to make the ability deal increased damage to enemies that have less than 30% of their health left (or are incapacitated).
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
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.
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 stacks or something rather than seeing sooooooo many green flytext numbers from every single other attack.
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.
