Trying To Evilly THROWRAWKS (Again). Tharan Still a Tool.

In case you are not familiar with the terminology, Consulars, unlike Inquisitors, THROWRAWKS (pronounced: “throw rocks”) at things. THROWRAWKS!

Solid rocks are far more dangerous than that insubstantial sissy purple lightning. I’m always counseling my 5-year-old not to throw rocks, but I don’t bother talking about purple lightning. (If some kid gets purple lightning to the FACE, he probably deserved it.)

Ahem.

When I last was playing my sage, I discovered:

Being evil is difficult and makes you look terrible.
I am terribad at being a sage, in both healing and THROWRAWKS (I haven’t written about this, but I assure you, I totally suck)
Theran is a tool

Makes me want to jump right back in, right? But, as much as I love gunslinging, it is a totally useless alt to have, as my main is already pure dps. And consular healer seems like the logical choice because:

I am an abysmally bad tank and a quite competent healer (at least in other games)
I suck at managing energy/ammo/heat because of the weird variable regeneration rates (which takes scoundrel and commando out of the running)
Consular is a pretty powerful healer!

If only consular weren’t so boring... The story is boring. The character is boring. The combat is boring. The companions are boring. Even being an evil consular is boring.

I feel like a walking contradiction every time I heal myself with the power of the light.

Maybe I need to pay the cartel coins for HK so we can evilly delete some organic troublemakers together.

I mean, seriously, THARAN! He gets to Hoth and he’s all whiny about the cold, and tauntaun shit getting on his imported boots. Here’s the gist of his scintillating storyline so far: ***SPOILERS BELOW***

Tharan: Hey, I want to do science shit.

Me: OK, but that’s not really our mission on this ship, whatever. In fact, I don’t even recall inviting you aboard. And who are these assholes in my conference room?

Holiday: (insert inane, annoying blathering here)

Tharan: Now, Holiday, we’ll have weird holo-sex later. But about my ever-so-important science.

Me: I’m waiting for any blathering that doesn’t make me want to vomit… continue.

Tharan: I um need you to buy me some liquor so I can invent better. Yeah, that’s it. (Double entendre optional here.)

Me: Go fuck yourself, or have Holiday do it for you. I’m not buying you booze.
[Tharan: -41 of Sobriety]
Tharan: God, you’re no fun. Oh well, off to do more science! Holiday!

Holiday: (TEE HEE IN THE MOST ANNOYING WAY POSSIBLE)

Me: (Where is the [Remove Holiday’s Batteries] dialogue option?)

Yeah, that’s my life.

Tell me how awesome this toon will be at endgame, please?

Comments

Trying To Evilly THROWRAWKS (Again). Tharan Still a Tool. — 26 Comments

Civiars'hu on March 8, 2013 at 9:43 am said:

I’ve got a Sage and a Commando healer and I have more resource issues with my Sage than I do with my Commando. But the story and companions of the trooper probably aren’t any better.

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- Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 10:06 am said:
  
  I am actually taking my trooper up the vanguard tree. But Elara is a huge spoilsport. I was about to close the deal with Jonas!
  
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  - Civiars'hu on March 12, 2013 at 7:09 am said:
    
    My male trooper had to kick Jorgan out so I could BSOCK Lt. Jaxo.
    
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    - Njessi on March 12, 2013 at 8:23 am said:
      
      My silly husband initially rejected Jaxo’s advances, and then later tried to flirt with her and she shut him down HARD. I laughed!
      
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Geldarion on March 8, 2013 at 9:58 am said:

The sage comes into its own on AoE healing for sure. It is a very strong healer.

I laughed so hard at the convo with Holiday and Tharan. Tharan is very creepy, I agree.

Replying to the comment above me, all of the healing classes have resource management issues, otherwise it wouldn’t be fun to play them! 🙂 The Sage is definitely more what people are used to in a mana bar. The Commando and the Scoundrel have that weird staggered regen system that I love so dearly. I think it is cool, but it isn’t what some people prefer.

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- Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 10:09 am said:
  
  I have discovered that I am really bad with the variable resource bar. I either chicken out on using abilities out of fear, or dig myself into a serious mana hole. Strangely, though I thought it woudl be the hardest to learn, I actually like the build-and-spend focus model of the knight.
  
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  - Geldarion on March 8, 2013 at 11:27 am said:
    
    Yeah, that build-and-spend resource system is quite fun, and it makes Guardian DPS really good at quickly switching to tank role. Since you are at zero focus a lot anyway, it doesn’t really hurt that bad to switch stances (which dumps your current focus). I know in PvP I have used this several times to quickly switch from my DPS stance to the tank stance to guard the Huttball-carrier really quick.
    
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    - Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 11:29 am said:
      
      Plus when you get battle-rezed in PvE, you just go right back into pounding on the mob. Battle-rezing another dps with an empty resource bar is less effective.
      
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Echonna on March 8, 2013 at 10:52 am said:

If you’re going to be a healer, you don’t need Tharan, now do you? 🙂

Willpower healers are probably the easiest of the three; I get really confused if I have too many abilities on my bars to keep track of and I’m fine with healing on a Sage. And definitely, the constant resource generation reduces the confusion a lot too. Mind you, I haven’t tried anything that’s not available in the group finder tool at level 50 so my thoughts aren’t necessarily relevant for the difficult operations stuff.

Storywise I was really meh about Chapter 1 of the Consular story. Don’t know how far you’ve gotten before (I see a mention of Hoth?), but for me the story definitely picked up in Chapters 2 and 3; I like the “diplomacy” and then “leadership” part much more than that “archaeology/mysticism/history” nonsense in Chapter 1. Also Consular’s last companion is the best <3 (as long as your character is female; if male, the 'hero worship' part of it makes the romance arc a bit… yikes).

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- Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 10:56 am said:
  
  I tried running with Qyzen, but it’s really annoying to heal your own companion. Plus tanks are usually close to death and whiny. Even lizards whine. So I decided to DPS and let Tharan heal ME. After having a healer at your back (lazy mode) it’s really hard to give that up, even if combat is slow and boring.
  
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  - Geldarion on March 8, 2013 at 11:24 am said:
    
    One thing is for sure, if you spec heals and have Tharan, you will probably never die. It may take you an hour to kill an elite, but you won’t die! 😛
    
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    - Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 11:27 am said:
      
      I’m currently specced Telekinetics, but I do plan to heal at endgame. Maybe I should practice before then. I can probably switch to Iresso when I get him. Qyzen’s gear is way behind at this point.
      
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      - Geldarion on March 8, 2013 at 4:31 pm said:
        
        You could also use your DPS companions. That is what I did on my Commando healer. I just used Jorgan most of the time.
      - Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 4:39 pm said:
        
        Just got Zenith. Was disappointed that I couldn’t BSOCK him. Sent him to the ship to rethink that issue.
Valinar on March 8, 2013 at 1:03 pm said:

and just think, as a sage you’ll be a better healer on paper than my scoundrel is now, the moment you open yer free gear bag 🙂

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- Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 1:07 pm said:
  
  Oh geez, my gunslinger got the free gear bag and I was literally 1 comm short to get all my pieces. I think it was budgeted for an offhand rather than a 2nd gun. I had to smuggle myself some stuff from my main.
  
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  - Cleeyah on March 8, 2013 at 8:14 pm said:
    
    Nope, the same happened on my warrior and agent. I think that’s Bioware trying to entice you into earning that last comm and getting you hooked on whatever you need to do to earn that comm.
    
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ScottishGuard on March 8, 2013 at 5:19 pm said:

My first toon was a Sage. Took her to fifty. I didn’t mind the story, but it was the first one I really saw thru to the end. Thus, I suspect my perspective was biased because of that.
I had *South Park Timmy voice* THARAN out for about a minute, then sent him away permanently. Nope – couldn’t do it – refused to use him. He gets sent on crew missions, that’s it.
Used Qyzen (and Nadia for a few levels) the entire story. He bitches, he does need heals, but he draws aggro well and is a good tank. Tharan just stays on my ship, frelling his hologirl or w/e.

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Ravanel Griffon on March 8, 2013 at 6:23 pm said:

Am I the only one who likes Tharan? Had him out as soon as I got him and kept him all the way until Nadia. The dialogues, the remarks… so hilarious!

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- Shintar on March 8, 2013 at 7:07 pm said:
  
  I like Tharan too. I think he’s funny.
  
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mooftak on March 8, 2013 at 6:47 pm said:

You might want to reconsider scoundrel. Outside of AOE heals, it’s really quite OP. You’re healing on the go, your hots means you can throw some dps here or there, and if you drop low on resources, the process looks like this:
1. Heal way too much using energy consuming heals
2. ????
3. Profit

But guess what?! We now know what ??? is. It’s “Healing with the power of interpreting ekgs!” AKA Diagnostic Scan. It’s not a great heal but it’s it’s fantastic at regen’ing energy. Basically, you alternate DS with some EMP (instant UH consuming heal) and BLAMMO! Energy. So you can go back to step one. Or you could start relying more on SRMPx2x2 (2 of them on the 2 tanks), DS, explosive probe or dotshot, Real Heal ™ (the 1.5s base cast time heal), SRMPxwhatevs. Insert Emergency Med Pack as needed, laugh all the way to the bank. You can also in combat stealth and attempt to out of combat rez an ally. Free battle rez. Saweet. I use it if things aren’t hairy so I can save a real Brez for when the taun taun hits the fan. Ideally you don’t need both rez’s, but I run with fools sometimes. Anyways, if you yourself get rez’d, guess which AC has the fastest return to viability? Probably that guy/gal with the DS that boosts regen. Definitely not the guy/gal who’s only way to get energy NAO! is to take their own health. Anyways, that’s my sales pitch for scoundrel/op healing. It’s totes the best. You’ll be like whoa.

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- Njessi on March 8, 2013 at 8:01 pm said:
  
  We do have a lot of scoundrel healers who swear by it! Unfortunately, we have a lot of scoundrel healers who swear by it. It’s pretty rough in our current gear levels with 2 scoundrel healers when the AOE damage hits the fan. I am also abysmally bad at remembering to keep up pugnacity.
  
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  - mooftak on March 8, 2013 at 9:25 pm said:
    
    Yeah, it is nice to have one sorc for the aoe and/or bubbles or a mando for aoe + armor, but still scoundrels have the best hats. Plus in 2.0, pugnacity won’t be that big a deal to keep up. Myself, I’m sure it falls off from time to time, but if you keep it near other cooldowns that you watch (on your bar), it’s not that bad. Anyways, I find that for me personally, scoundrel is the most natural/sense making play style. My guild’s sorcs seem to enjoy their sorci/sageyness, but they also complain sometimes about not being able to move or running out of force. I tell them I can’t hear what they’re saying over the sound of how awesome I am as I’m pistol whipping fools and backblasting like a boss. “Oh yeah, say that again in a second, but first I gotta drop trou and throw this bomb.” KABLAMMO. “Ok, what was that? Oh sorry, my freighter is calling.”
    
    😀
    
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Targeter on March 12, 2013 at 3:15 pm said:

I tried with a sage. I really, really tried. They’re just so … ugh.

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- Njessi on March 12, 2013 at 3:34 pm said:
  
  Even being an evil sage sucks sometimes. Some idiots sicced their guards on me, and when I inevitably beat them down, they’re like “oh noes we’re sorry we sicced our guards on you.” And my choices were “it’s ok” (light side), “you idiots” (neutral), or “pay me” (evil.) Wait, seriously? “Pay me” is a smuggler thing. Where’s the “kill you for your insolence” option? This sucks.
  
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ScottishGuard on March 12, 2013 at 3:38 pm said:

Lol… That option is on the Inquisitor side, me thinks.

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