The Jedi Consular, the Sage and the Shadow all use different variations of the same system. With this, it would greatly depend on which advanced class specifically you were referring to get understand it correctly. In this case alone, BioWare has me sold on each advanced class being a different class since these mechanics operate very differently. Let’s take a look at them one at a time.

Force

The Jedi Consular seems to run on a basic Energy system called Force. The system works like this, your character has a base Force pool which is capped at 100 (not 100% confirmed on this). Some skills require Force in order to be cast and as you cast them it will deplete the Force pool, which starts at full. To counteract this, the Consular has a static regeneration rate of Force which is currently unknown.

For an example of this someone can look at the World of Warcraft Rogue or any of the Warhammer classes as they all operate on a form of Energy system. With this base in place you then move on to your Advanced Class and this is where things get tricky. Each AC comes with a passive skill which greatly effects how this class resource is controlled. Let’s take a look at the Sage first.

Jedi Sage

Let us start with the skill that defines the difference between a base Consular and the Sage.

Let us take this skill apart piece by piece. First is the increase in your maximum Force pool by 400. That is a tremendous increase over what a base Consular has. This increase is great at illustrating that the Sage will not only revolve around a very steady skill usage, but that these skills will all be Force intensive. Many people have compared this system to a Mana system but it should be noted that this is a point where it is nothing like Mana. A Sage will have a fixed Force pool which is not augmented by stats. If their Force system acted like mana then the size of the Force pool would be effected by stats as well.

The second part however is where it is very much akin to mana and not energy. Typically all energy systems have a static regeneration rate. This allows the developers to balance their skill usage to ensure that they cannot “frontload” their DPS, or if they do, they will then be energy starved and unable to act in as powerful a fashion. However, we see here that like a mana system, the Consular will be able to stack Presence in order to increase their Force regeneration. This is a very big deal.

Ask any experienced raid healer, resource management is often one of the most important elements to being successful. We now know that resource management for this healer is all about spacing out skill usage in order to maintain a steady amount of Force. What I like about this system for a healer is that any healer knows the pain of being in a raid and going OOM (out of mana) and basically just staring at their monitor as their fellow guildmates die. With an Energy system, a player can still bottom out their resource pool, and that will still not be a good thing to do. However, now they will still be able to provide some healing, even if it is at a handicapped speed.

Jedi Shadow

The Jedi Shadow also takes the base system and expands on it a bit, although they do it by going in a much different direction.

As you can see the Jedi Shadow stays much more true to the traditional energy system. A small energy pool that is dictated by proper skill usage and energy management. Everything revolves around pace since the important part of your resource is its regeneration, not its base value. Not to call out World of Warcraft but I cannot help but associate the “rogue” playstyle of the Shadow directly to the Rogue from WoW, the similarities are simply too great. Anyone who has played a WoW Rogue or any Energy based melee class previously should feel very comfortable in the Shadows shoes.

As you can now see the variation in resources between the two advanced classes is much greater than any of us originally suspected, especially mine. I can see why there was such confusion on how the resources actually worked for this class and it took a bit of research to get answers to my own questions. One word of caution. I did reference skills that have appeared in previous builds of the game which dictated a large part of my analysis in this article. Remember, any of this is subject to change so take it with a grain of salt.

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Consular players!

Jedi Consular provide a myriad of roles including DPS, Crowd Control, Healing, and even Tanking. They not only have offensive abilities, but defensive abilities as well. They can be a utility class or fill a main role in a party. Like the Jedi Knight, they command a Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette.

Playable species for the Jedi Consular class are Human, Miraluka, Mirilian, and Twi’lek. The advanced classes are Jedi Sage (ranged damage and crowd control or healing) and Jedi Shadow (tanking or melee burst DPS). The latter use two lightsabers, while the Sage uses one.

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Consular players!

• Jedi Sage wields a single-bladed lightsaber, has powerful telekinetics/healing and is a ranged controller with damage or healing powers.
• Jedi Shadow wields double-bladed lightsabers, and possess stealth and burst melee damage abilities. They can also tank.

Jedi Sage

The Jedi Sage’s abilities will focus on healing and removing negative effects on allies. They will also have a powerful range of force powers to attack enemies at range.

Read more about Jedi Sage (including leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more…)

Skill Trees

The two Sage skill trees are Telekinetics and Seer. The shared Sage and Shadow tree is Balance.

• Telekinetics – Affords the power to distort reality and move waves of energy, tearing apart enemies. In RPG terms, this is a Ranged DPS skill tree. The skills in this tree focus on improving the existing force abilities and conserving force points.
• Seer – Allows the Sage to master the art of the force to heal and protect allies.
• Balance – Enhances the Sage’s force attacks and augments the Shadow’s force and lightsaber abilities.

Abilities

Below is a full list of the abilities that a Jedi Sage can learn. Remember that you also have access to Jedi Consular abilities as well.

Jedi Shadow

The Jedi Shadow’s abilities will focus on dealing burst damage and stealth attacking enemies. Jedi Shadow can also tank using force powers and lightsaber defense.

Skill Trees

• Infiltration – Masters of stealth, these Shadows use positional attacks and surprise to defeat foes. In RPG terms this tree is a melee DPS tree.
• Kinetic Combat – Uses the double-bladed Lightsaber defensively to protect the Shadow and his allies. In RPG terms, this tree would be a tank.
• Balance – Augments the Shadow’s Force and Lightsaber abilities from both classes as it’s the shared skill tree.

Abilities

Below is the known list of the abilities that a Jedi Shadow can learn. Don’t forget that you also have all these Jedi Consular abilities at your disposal as well.

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Shadow players!

 

Learn more in: Jedi Sage guide, Jedi Shadow guide