Is Draw Closer suppose to be better than Hawk Bat Swoop?

Draw Closer can be used from a range of Medium while Hawk Bat Swoop can only be used at short range. The cost is still the same for range band movement but Draw Closer has 1 extra range band.

They're each pretty okay, even on their own, but it's important to consider the tree as a whole instead of just directly comparing single talents.

Niman Disciple can use Draw Closer to pull in an enemy from Medium Range, and in the process, probably stay further away from other enemies than other lightsaber specializations, use their force rating to knock up direct damage from their lightsaber attack, then if the enemy is still alive, use (Improved) Center of Being to raise crit rating against themselves or Force Assault to move the enemy away.

Ataru Striker would use Saber Swam to gain Linked for one or both of their lightsabers, then use to Hawk Bat Swoop to bring in the player towards an enemy (and probably towards other enemies), then use their force rating to up their advantage so that they can trigger Linked, Criticals, (if they have it) Dual-Wielding, or any combination. Then if the enemy is still alive they can use Dodge to upgrade incoming attacks but also have Improved Parry.

Basically with Niman, you're slightly weaker in general, and you're using your force rating to compensate to help you keep more out of the fray as well as improve your lightsaber checks. Whereas with Ataru, you're just purely about slicing the enemy down, whether it's with the sheer damage of multiple Lightsaber hits or if it's from a powered up critical from activating it multiple times for a single hit, with defense being compensated through the expenditure of strain (which can be more easily recovered with Balance).

ohh i see.

Here's something else to keep in mind with Draw Closer.

Yes, you can target an opponent that's at Medium Range, but spending 1 Force point only brings the target to Short Range, so you need 2 Force Points to bring the target to Engaged so that you can attack them with your lightsaber. So with Force Rating 1, you pretty much need to roll double Force pips in order to use the talent.

Hawk-Bat Swoop is useful on it's own just for the ability to save a Maneuver to engage an enemy (which could be used to Aim beforehand, or simply not require the Ataru Striker to suffer 2 strain for an additional Maneuver to engage) while those Advantage can be spent either for Saber Swarm or simply to trigger a critical injury or even the Sunder quality. One of the fastest ways to shut down that lunatic with the vibro-axe is to Sunder that vibro-ax, with 3 Advantage being enough to render the weapon inoperable, and even 2 Advantage making that lunatic's attacks a lot more difficult. Plus, with FR 1, all you really need is that single Force point to use the talent, meaning you've got better odds of having it work (especially if you're willing to convert a Dark Side pip into a usable Force Point).

Hawkbat swoop is like what Jedi Knights do in SWTOR. It allows you to jump in and get close to everyone.

Hawkbat swoop is like what Jedi Knights do in SWTOR. It allows you to jump in and get close to everyone.

But then I never saw the LS side of SWTOR, so it might be identical.

Hawkbat swoop is like what Jedi Knights do in SWTOR. It allows you to jump in and get close to everyone.

It also showed up in KOTOR, though the distance you could cover was a lot further than what I'd deem Short Range.

If anything, the KOTOR/SWTOR effect would probably be best covered under the Enhance power's Force Leap effect, having taken the Control Upgrade to "leap" to a target currently at Medium Range as a maneuver.

I'd say watch Yoda's fighting style in AotC and RotS for an example of Hawk Bat Swoop in action, where he literally bounds at his opponent with a series of flps and starts slashing away. He probably also used Saber Swarm before hand, hoping for a lot of Force points so that he could trigger Linked (provided courtesy of Saber Swarm) and quickly cut his adversary down to size. Dooku likely survived due to having a slew of ranks in Parry (he is the poster boy for Makashi/Form II after all) and Sidious was probably the same (as he's been noted to be an expert in all the Forms of lightsaber combat as well as various Sith techniques)

I'd say watch Yoda's fighting style in AotC and RotS for an example of Hawk Bat Swoop in action, where he literally bounds at his opponent with a series of flps and starts slashing away. He probably also used Saber Swarm before hand, hoping for a lot of Force points so that he could trigger Linked (provided courtesy of Saber Swarm) and quickly cut his adversary down to size. Dooku likely survived due to having a slew of ranks in Parry (he is the poster boy for Makashi/Form II after all) and Sidious was probably the same (as he's been noted to be an expert in all the Forms of lightsaber combat as well as various Sith techniques)

Not to mention Dooku gets a boost die when facing a single opponent.