In this Third edition I will be taking on the Jedi Consular. Easily one of the Republics top classes for healing in Raid situations, yet oddly enough also a prime candidate for Off Tanking! Much like the Paladin in WoW or the Cleric in Rifts, the Jedi Consular has some interesting abilities with regards to damage mitigation and survivability. In considering the versatility for the class it will be important to note that for tanking Alacrity is still just as important as it is for healing, yet you will be switching out willpower gear for Endurance. This is not a big concern as you will not be healing the party, yet like the priest/paladin tanks using your powers for aggro control and damage mitigation.

With this in mind I will dive in and get to the gritty details of the core skill set that I will use for this discussion. The Jedi Consular has the following core skills:

• Double Strike (Instant)
• Force Valor (Instant, party/self buff; lasts 60 minutes.)
• Saber Strike (Instant, damage over 3 melee attacks; uninterruptable by caster.)
• Project (Instant, weak targets are stunned for 3 seconds.)
• Telekinetic Throw (Channeled, slows movement to 50% over 3 seconds. Weak targets immobilized.)
• Force Wave (Instant, AoE pushback and weak targets are knocked down for 3 seconds.)
• Force Lift (Charged, 2 second cast; 8 second duration, damage breaks early.)
• Force Stun (Instant, stuns for 4 seconds.)
• Force Potency (Instant; Grants 2 charges that increase heal/crit 60% and increases Telekinetic Throws distance, discharge with Telekinetic Throw or force crit. Lasts 20 seconds.)
• Mind Crush (Instant, with DoT for 6 seconds.)
• Mind Snap (Instant, interrupt with same skill cast block for 4 seconds.)
• Force Slow (Instant, damage with 50% slow over 6 seconds.)
• Tumult (Instant, requires incapacitated target.)
• Unity (Instant, damage reduction for you and companion by 50% over 15 seconds.)

The uninterruptable ability is just that you will watch the whole 3 strike animation regardless of what you do... T.T so if your in some fast moving PvP do not commit this action recklessly. A lot of great CC and the project combined with Telekinetic Throw is a great combination. Many use Force lift to wait for the GCD to roll over on Force Stun then lock you down with Force Stun, Project, and Telekinetic Throw.

The basic combination that is here is: Force Potency, Force Stun, Tumult, Force Slow, Project then Telekinetic Throw.

Balance

Balance is the tree shared in the Advanced classes of the Jedi Consular. The Balance tree nicely combines many of the already potent abilities of the class to crowd control, assist and even lay down some heavy damage. A bare Balance Tree would look something like this. All the basic elements to be fully ready to move into an offensive tree or defensive build.

Pinning Resolve opens up Force Lift to include 2 additional enemies and Focused Insight makes casting the ever enjoyable Telekinetic Throw all that more enjoyable. Each tick of TT that critically hits heals you for 1% of your total (not current) health. This really takes the edge off in PvP when your under fire. Mind Ward is really a useful tool a lot of the incoming damage not from a Tank or Melee class is likely DoT, this reduces that by a full 15% which is noting to balk at.

Balance Sage

In putting this build together I noticed the high level of versatility that the class has as a active aggressor in PvP. In considering this build I will list the core skills that this class adds to the discussion at hand.

• Disturbance (Charged 1.5 seconds.)
• Benevolence (Charged 1.5 seconds.)
• Deliverance (Charged 3 seconds.)
• Force Armor (Instant, 30 second bubble with 20 second debuff before you can use it again on same target.)
• Weaken Mind (Instant, DoT 15 seconds.)
• Restoration (Instant, cleanse target of 2 debuffs.)
• Cloud Mind (Instant, Threat reduction.)
• Force Quake (Instant. AoE DoT.)
• Rescue (Instant, lowers target threat and pulls them to you if they are an ally.)
• Revival (Charged 1.5 seconds. Combat res prevents other skills of same ability for 5 minutes.)

Here I was able to construct a rather interesting tree that accommodates both the inherited skills and the core skills. With regards to the Mind Crush over Weakened Mind one would rather side with the Mind Crush for the 2 second duration increase as it has a higher DPS gain over the 15% broad damage boost to Weaken Mind which lasts 15 seconds. A Balance Sage tree would look something like this. At this point I felt getting the full effects of Concentration from Telekinetic was more beneficial than a full stack in Penetrating Light.

Force Armor and Rescue will be some interesting clutch skills in PvP to keep your allies alive. I have seen the Rescue skill be used to get the ball holder from ground level to the platforms in Hutball many times. I am not certain if they drop the ball now or not but it was neat to watch! In this case it would be easy for the Balance Sage to keep an enemy locked down DoT'ed up and constantly wondering what to do next in order to survive.

Sage Telekinetics

The Sage Telekinetics is a rather fantastic ranged force tree that has lots of very nice flashy skills and allows the Sage to also get in close and lay down some melee hurt. In this build it is easy to see how devastating the Sage can be at range an lock down opponents for later.

Still a deadly foe at close range, this class capitalizes on ranged tackling abilities and a rather interesting ranged AoE force power called Telekinetic Wave. This nice ability hits its target and up to 5 additional targets much like a grenade. Looking higher up one sees Turbulence which auto critical hits any target under the Weaken Mind affect. Considering our original combination that should be any target your DPS'ing.

A modified combination would look like this: Force Potency, Weaken Mind, Force Stun, Tumult, Force Slow, Turbulence (look to see if Weaken Mind is still up so you automatically critically hit; if not just toss another out and then Turbulence) then Telekinetic Throw.

Sage Seer

Likely one of the best Main Heal classes in game, the Jedi Seer is fully outfitted with some awesome skills. A Sage Seer tree would look something like this. Here we pick up some heavy healing skills, great sustainability and some great reductions to other skills GCD's and cost.

Diving right in we immediately see that I went deep into the Seer tree. I choose to side with most other theory crafters on the idea of Main Heal/Tank, If your not committed then just quit now. This is not to say you can not make some neat hybrid builds that work well some of the time, yet the whole idea behind being main anything is to be consistently reliable. Solid build is a solid player.

Seer grants us the following key skills for healing:

• Rejuvinate (Instant; moderate heal with HoT)
• Healing Trance (Channeled; 3 seconds)
• Salvation (Instant; Heals target and up to 5 additional allies with a residual HoT at the area the skill is cast)

Looking into our build here we see that there are some major additions to a skill called Noble Sacrifice, in which you sac life for force power. Here this build has a chance to reduce that cost to 0 with Resplendence. Now each time you critically hit with your Healing Trance you can hit Noble Sacrifice and gain energy for free. If your ever in a crunch you also have an overall reduction to the health lost with Valiance. This also allows us to kick Force Armor up a notch to allow higher movement for those we bubble. Preservation is our friend as it fleshes out Force Armor a bit and takes the edge off the debuff. In all, we have just established one hell of a healer :3

Balance Shadow

The Jedi Shadow adds an interesting Off Tanking option for players looking to get in to low to mid level taking for their party, solo missions or just having fun. The Shadow advanced class also adds some new tricks for the foundation skills that allow the Balance tree to come to life. Most notable of the additions would be stealth. A Balance Shadow tree would look something like this.

In addition to the basic elements of the bare Balance tree we discussed earlier, you can see we pick up a nice boost to Mind Snap. A great skill for incapacitating your target and getting into those neat combinations. Technique Mastery and Shadowy Veil are welcome additions as the main tactics of the Jedi Shadow are openers from Stealth.

Jedi Shadow adds the following skills of note to our pool:

• Shadow Strike (Instant; Requires double bladed light-saber and must be behind target.)
• Force Technique (Instant; adds chance to do additional Kinetic damage; does not break stealth.)
• Force Breach (Instant; multi faceted skill based on what Technique is active.)
• Guard (Instant; protect a target within 15 meters; they take 25% less damage and you receive 50% of all incoming damage to target; Requires Combat Technique.)
• Combat Technique (Instant; you main tanking Technique; Does not break stealth.)
• Mid Control (Instant; forces target to attack you or they do 30% less damage to any one else.)
• Mind Maze (Instant; incapacitates for 60 seconds; damage breaks early; can not be used on droids.)
• Force Cloak (Instant; combat stealth, allows you to exit combat and reduce damage incoming to you.)
• Blackout (Instant; Increase stealth by 15; does not break stealth.)
• Deflection (Instant; Increase ranged and melee defense by 50% for 15 seconds.)
• Whirling Blow (Instant; AoE to all nearby enemies.)
• Mass Mind Control (Instant; forces all enemies in 15 meters to attack you for 6 seconds; or they do 30% less damage to others.)
• Spinning Strike (Instant; Only usable on targets at or under 30% health.)
• Resilience (Instant; Removes all removable hostile effects; Increases force/tech resistance to 100% for 3 seconds; Does not break stealth.)
• Spinning Kick (Instant; Damage with Knockdown for 2 seconds; requires stealth.)
• Battle Readiness (Instant; Increases Technique damage and healing for 15 seconds; Does not break stealth.)

With regards to the high number of tanking skills it is easy to bite off more than you can chew with the Jedi Shadow. Under most circumstances when coordinating with the main tank make sure you communicate clearly when you AoE pull mobs. In this you can easily pull down all the adds and the Boss(s) aggro... not likely what you want to do. So when your Main Tank is ready to pull aggro back if the Boss gets away, that is when you tell others your using the skill(s).

A neat trick I learned in PvP with the Shadow was that you can cast Resilience on other players from Stealth to aid them if your not able to take the group with them. This helps immensely in hold off situations against overwhelming odds. Likely the aggressing group spams all their CC/Tackle abilities during that 6 seconds and blows them all trying to incapacitate the target ;)

Shadow Infiltration

The Infiltration tree is an interesting mix of accumulating Exit Strategy and using Force Breach, Force Fade combinations. In this the Shadow becomes a true ninja in the aspects of hit fast, hit hard and get out. The addition of Shadow Technique gives all your melee attacks a chance to do internal damage in addition to the normal damage they already do. A Shadow Infiltration tree would look something like this.

A good from stealth (in Combat Technique) combo would be: Battle Readiness, Spinning Kick, Whirling Blow, Mass Mind Control (or Mind Control if a single target), Force Cloak and Resilience.

Once back in stealth the target(s) can not attack you so they are stuck with the 30% DPS drop for 6 seconds while your party eats them up. Keeping in mind that most of the build up occurs under Shadow Technique you could drop that in to the same combination above and increase the damage from Force Breach by up to 35%.

Shadow Kinetic Combat

This is the Shadows Tanking tree and is well developed for multiple threat mitigation over single critical hit mitigation. In this, the class soaks white damage well yet has to recover from critical hits more often than other classes suite for critical hit mitigation. A Shadow Kinetic Combat tree would look something like this.

Keep in mind that the tree better capitalizes on Telekinetic Throw over Project so I went for the critical heal for periodic abilities over the project increase. The project buff would be better if you plan on attempting a Main Tank role as it adds more aggro management overall. The Force Speed modifications are nice yet not fully necessary as most tanking will be done standing still, ranged or melee.

A nice element is the 2% all damage reduction over the force breach damage increase as you will be facing multiple mobs and staying alive is more important then becoming a glass cannon. The idea behind tanking is not topping the DPS charts but staying alive ;) An added element to consider as well is the Force Kick/Force Stun bonus for all incoming damage, make sure to use this on all non elite/boss mobs that it can affect.

After discussing this all with you please remember that not every build is ideal for every ones play style. As the game gets under way there will be changes to the timing, cost and affect of each skill over time. In the end the idea is to have fun and enjoy the game as much as you want. Good luck on your class crafting and I hope you continue to enjoy the content provided here for reference when building your final build.