The Sage doesn’t wear heavy armor like some of the other classes so they have to rely on mastery of the force to evade, protect and heal them when they come under fire.  Abilities such as Force Armor and Force Sprint are especially helpful when stuck in a high damage situation, and provide valuable seconds allowing you to get a heal off or sprint away. When on the offensive the Sage can use their great speed and long range attacks to keep distance between them and the enemy, blasting them down with force attacks.

The Sages resource pool consists of force. Starting at 500 this energy will be depleted every time a force consuming ability is used and unlike the other classes, does not regenerate faster when more remains. Force will always replenish itself at a rate of 8 points a second unless using your out of combat regenerate. When in the thick of it the Sage does have one method of quickly restoring force, Noble Sacrifice. The sacrifice ability will trade 15% in return for 8% of your maximum force. This ability does have a catch however as each time you use it your force regeneration will be reduced by 25% (stacks up to 4) for ten seconds.

Sages are a great class to choose for those looking at taking up the healing profession. The Seer tree being the specific tree you will want to focus most of your skill points in. Not only will you up your healing output by a large margin, you’ll also gain access to all new abilities. These abilities are a must for anyone speccing solely as a healer and include the Rejuvinate, Healing Trance and the Salvation, an AoE heal great for PVP.

Those looking to take on a damage role will want to spec into the Telekinetic or Balance trees. If you’re a fan of blasting away at enemies with long range force attacks then the Telekinetic tree is the spec for you. New abilities gained such as Telekinetic Wave and Turbulence will become mainstays of your damage rotation and cover all the bases, the former being an additional AOE ability and the latter being a powerful single target damage dealer.

The Balance tree is shared between both Shadows and Sages so it’s a bit of a mixed bag and Instead of burst damage it places an emphasis more on DoT Effects and internal damage with abilities like Force in Balance and Sever Force. Those who have played a Warlock in a certain other game will find some familiar ground here.

The PVP playstyle for those taking the damage route will start out a little different depending on whether you’re specced into the Telekinetic or Balance tree. The entire fight for Telekinetic will be your standard long range force attacks while a Balance Sage will want to get their DOT abilities on the target right away to maximize damage. Once the DOTs are up then the Balance Sage can switch to the direct force attacks. Of course during this time both trees should be using their slow and speed boost advantage to keep a safe distance between them and the enemy. Remember to always have static barrier up before entering a battle, as it will take the brunt of the enemies opening attacks.

Sage Seer specced players are a great addition to any warzone group as they have a good selection of single target, AoE, and HoT abilities perfect for any situation. Keeping Healing Trance on the huttball carrier or casting Salvation on a group of friendlies defending a door can make a huge difference and will usually end up getting you a good sum of MVP votes. However, with all of this healing power comes a lot of attention from the enemy team and the light armor won’t keep the Sage alive for long. Luckily in addition to the heals you are now using on yourself, you also have Force Armor and Force Sprint to avoid and mitigate enemy damage all together, not to mention Force Mend the Sages emergency heal button.

Choose Your Destiny

It’s hard to deny that the Shadow, with their hard-hitting sneak attacks, doesn’t seem like attractive option to take, however let’s look at the facts. The Sages utility is second to none. The ability to heal and deal large amounts of AOE and single target damage make the Sage welcome in any group.

They hit hard. With long range powerful force attacks the Sage can hit from a distance and sprint away before the enemy can close the gap? Project, Turbulence and Chain Telekinetic Wave all put out big numbers and if you can’t take them out in the first attack, heal up and hit them again.

The choice between the Sage and the Shadow is made a lot easier by their very different play styles. During your quest from level 1-10 some things you should be considering are: Did you enjoy long range attacks with hard hitting force abilites? Do you want to play one of the classic star wars force wielders? Do you want the option to heal? If you answered yes to the preceding questions then the Sage will definitely be a good fit for you.

Equipment

The Sage relies more on their mobility and damage mitigating abilities to avoid and reduce incoming damage that goes right through their light robes. The primary stat you will want to have on this armor is Willpower, which will provide an increase in Force damage/crit, Bonus damage/crit, as well as Healing Power. Stacking up a good amount of Willpower will ensure you’re both dishing out the damage and healing it.

Secondary stats for the Sage to consider are different depending on the spec. Those looking to do damage should look for pieces that add Power, Surge, Critical, and Accuracy in order to increase attack damage, critical chance, and critical damage. If you choose the healing route you’ll want to look for Power and Alacrity rating (increases casting speed) for fast and more powerful heals. Of source no matter what specification you will always want to up your endurance when possible to increase your health pool.

Taking part in PVP combat will definitely require you to pick up some PVP gear to reduce damage taken from other players and increase your own. Expertise is what you looking for here and for those in the healing profession it has the added bonus of increasing your healing power on other players. The basic recruit set is a good investment for players who have just reached 50 and comes in versions to make the stat needs of the various specs.

Companions

While Jedi usually prefer to roll solo or with a padawan the Sage actually does come with five companions ready to help.  The healer, ranged tank, melee tank, ranged dps, and melee dps are all covered in your companions that you pick up on your travels. Depending on whether you go as DPS or Heals you will find yourself using some much more often than the others, but all are good for a chat.

Below you will find a list of all five of the Consulars Companions along with a brief description, their strengths and weaknesses, and a link to their database entry.

Qyzen Fess

The first companion you wil receive, Fess serves as a melee tank with both a taunt and a leap to keep the attention on him. For Shadows he’s not the greatest fit as you will be a melee DPS or tank yourself.

Tharan Cedrax

The wily smuggler is a perfect fit for tank specced Shadows as he is quite the good healer. Even if your going as DPS having him around will allow you to take on much larger groups of enemies without fear of becoming overwhelmed.

Zenith

Ranged damage is Zenith’s specialty and she can add the missing damage to a tank specced Shadow. In tougher fights you’ll want to stick with Tharan though.

Felix Iresso

Felix is a ranged tank and does a good deal of damage as well. If you’re a DPS spec Shadow he can be a good fit as long as you have the damage output to take down the enemies before he runs out of health.

Nadia Grell

A fellow Jedi Shadow Nadia doesn’t really make a good fit for either the Shadow or the Sage. If you’re just out in the open taking care of normal strength MoBs then shes all right, but in tougher areas she should be swapped for a healer or ta