This thread is an excellent example of confirmation bias at work.

I am currently level 27 and been topping WZ medal counts since starting at level 10 basically. going the middle dps tree (someting prototype, i don't have the client open right now). the trick is to go into tank stance at the start of the WZ and choose someone to put guard on, preferably melee, marauders work well. then you basically follow them into battle and stay within 15m of them. this will get you 3 medals in the first 30 seconds or so: the 2k, 5k and 10k guard medals hopefully. if i miss the 10k medal i don't usually chase it but go on to the next step: once i have those medals from guarding i am usually dead from all the damage they have taken, so when i respawn i switch to the dps stance from the middle skill tree (the one with 5% damage increase and passive 15% movement buff). from here i just do the normal dps stuff. you should get the 75k damage medal, the 10 and 25 kills, a killing blow (that's 7 medals so far) just as a matter of course, depending on how even the teams are and how long the match goes for. then you will often also get defender points, solo kill etc as well. so you should basically be averaging 7 medals. we are very lucky the guard medals are so over-valued, i feel sorry for the poor healers having to work so hard for 1 or 2 medals for the entire WZ and having so much of an impact, while we get 3 medals in the first 30 seconds just for turning up! it's also great we can use guard when specced into the dps trees simply by changing stance.

this is hilarious. once again JKs get shafted in this game, this time with the hardest of the matrix shards to acquire. i recently went on my sage to get the 3 shards for the level 50 willpower cube, and it was so amazingly easy in comparison. not one of them required another person and only one required a piece of equipment (for the ice cube on hoth, which you buy at the hoth starting point and don't have to do anything special with). one was actually at the starting base in ilum, literally 30 seconds away from arriving on the planet. in comparison JKs have to jump through a million hoops to get their's. i'm not going to bother, will just wait until i get the drops from taral v or champ/centurion ones.

Good question and some good points. It will still be useful to the pure dps classes though in that (speaking from a sentinel perspective) a lot of skills are specifically for PvP, so one can still have a pve and a pvp spec. but yeah in terms of raiding/HMs it's pretty much useless for the dps classes so they should really have something else to compensate.

i have two level 50s and a level 48 on the swiftsure. not going to bother with a transfer unless i can get the same names (which i reserved during the first wave of early release), and if legacy goes across too (although that might be flexible depending on whether legacy will actually ever do anything substantial before the game gets old!).

yeah have to agree with the majority of responses that sage healing is very powerful. if you're having trouble with the content it sounds like you have fallen behind with your gearing. there are difficulty spikes at certain points in the 40s which require you to keep on top of gearing for both you and your companions.

did you know it doesn't reset with the weeklies, it resets a week after your last respec. so if you respec every 6 days, for example, it will never reset.

i have levelled a scoundrel and now a sage to 50 switching with both between healing and dps specs as i get bored with one or the other. i can tell you that healing is a lot slower for solo content than dps spec. dps you just kill stuff much quicker for obvious reasons. especially trash mobs, which is 80% of the solo content. since i got nadia at 44 i have gone heal spec in preparation for endgame and it's slower but not bad and quite fun. personally i found that no companion before her could put out sufficient dps to warrant soloing as a healer. on average i would say healing is about 75% as fast as leveling as dps. also in WZs you will get a lot more medals as DPS. you are looking at averaging 6-7 as dps (you should still get an opportunity to get a medal for your 2.5k heal) but only 4-5 as a healer, as healers are very hard done by in pvp. not sure why anyone would heal WZs except for the pure love of it, which is fine. i routinely was topping healing (usually as the only healer) and often topping objectives as well and often getting no MVPs and just 3-4 medals. even if you only do daily WZs, those extra medals as a dps will add up over 40 levels to a lot more valour/xp/commendations etc. so short answer i would say go dps unless you get really bored with it or just love healing. edit: ^ oh yeah as was pointed out, one of the few benefits of healing is being able to solo some heroics and being able to solo some champion mobs without too much difficulty. not really worth it imo.

Being underwhelmed with Scoundrel healing at endgame, I rolled a Sage specifically for PvE healing at 50. Now level 46, I have mostly been going dps, finding leveling as a healer comparatively slow, and WZs unrewarding as a healer. Now I have switched to healing and plan to stay that way. The thing is, after healing a couple of heroics and FPs (albeit without much trouble), I'm not sure I'm doing it right, and it seems hard to find info on sage healing. My prospective build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGbRrd0dGzZf00MZoM.1 Any noticeable weaknesses with this? Rotation: Bubble tank going in only if there is going be an opening burst, otherwise save bubble so i can drop it on him if I need to switch to the dps. Open with rejuvenate, use healing trance until it procs a free noble sacrifice. use the free NS at every opportunity. if tank's taking a lot of damage then bubble him and rejuvenate -> deliverance -> healing trance. Rinse, repeat. If dps is taking damage then rejuvenate - healing trance, or deliverance if HT is on cd. if it looks like they arent going to take any more damage then just bubble them after rejuvenate. If HT is on cd at any stage then go to deliverance. Salvation if i can get 3 or more of the group in the same spot. Never using benevolence. So HT is my main go to skill, and I am using rejuvenate before pretty much every other skill. Just doesn't seem like a lot of skills to manage compared to a smuggler. Does this seem right?

seems natural that as time goes on people are learning what they should be doing, i.e. focusing on you and bringing you down at all costs. also sounds like you have run into more than your fair share of decent pre-mades who are able to co-ordinate this strategy effectively. your sample not withstanding, most WZ teams are still TERRIBLE at identifying and shutting down healers. i am constantly amazed at how on my scoundrel or sage i can stand there spam healing the dps/tank standing a few metres away while people's tunnel vision stops them from noticing, let alone trying to stop it. i think dedicated healers are relatively few and far between in WZs and as a result the majority haven't really effectively learned how to deal with it, except in some instances like in your recent experiences.

the link to "Wobb's Seer Healing Guide" just goes to a guild forum which doesn't seem to have the guide mentioned.

i have a 50 scoundrel and have fought my share of operatives in WZs on my (lvl 34) sage. scoundrel/op damage is all in the opening burst, they are essentially useless after that initial 5 seconds or so, especially if you can put some distance between you and them, which, as a sage, should of course be your speciality. i know someone made a good argument earlier for eating the opening stun, but the problem is that by the time that's finished and you are going through all the animations/gcd of breaking the second stun your health is so low that the fight is essentially over no matter what you do from there. Depending on CDs i think the trick is: - break opening stun asap; - use your knockback to gain some immediate distance; if your knockback is on cd then stun them* and burst run (or just run) away; - pebble them to slow their fresh approach. remember: ops/scoundrels have no gap closer whatsoever, they depend on being up close and personal and staying there, and we have lots of tools to stop this from happening. even our most basic slowing effects (i.e. pebbles) will make it very hard for them to get back on us fast; - once they reach you again (by which time most of their opening buffs should have worn off) use your stun if you didn't have to use it a step earlier and/or run or burst run away to get some more distance. - hit them with your snare while you're running and a project/dot if you have time. any time you manage to get more than 10m away, use your pebbles to slow them and do damage at the same time. - once you have used up all your gap-creating cds, basically just kite them in a circle and use your instant cast dots, bubble, snares etc to keep up pressure and try to outlast them until the cavalry arrives.** * if you have instant force lift talented then use that in one of the early steps to either make them waste their cd or cc them long enough to gain some distance if they decide to eat it. this will free up your hard stun to use at will later in the fight when they get to you again. ** we are not really supposed to be able to beat them 1v1 because stealth/opener is all they have, so if they catch us in their element the best we can do is hope to hold them off long enough to run away or until someone else gets there to help. the only time you "should" be winning a 1v1 vs an operative opening from stealth is when there is a significant difference in gear and/or skill. tl;dr: break cc asap, distance, distance, distance!

Questing on planets is pretty much the fastest way to level, especially if you find someone around the same level and duo with them. Mix that in with dailies - WZ, FP, Space - and you will be on track to level pretty fast. WZs on their own are about the slowest way to gain xp for time invested. They are, however, a good way to get a head start on gear for once you hit 50. Your aim should be to have 1000 wz comms, 1000 merc comms, and a champion bag in your inventory when you hit level 50. That way you have 6 bags instantly and a good chance to pick up some reasonable epics straight away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdImWiDARPk ^ Nadia. That is all.

lol it's funny how the grass is always greener on the other side on these forums. people saying sage has no utility and/or are poor at pvp should go play a sentinel for a couple of weeks then come back and see if your opinion is the same. my (balance) sage is level 25 and i top damage in WZs around half the time, pretty much always in top 3. if you're not succeeding in pvp with a sage you are doing it wrong, they are ridic OP.

i really wish they would fix this exploit, i am seeing it in most WZs now, especially alderaan. a sage will stand at a capped node with 2 other defenders and heal themselves while we get slaughtered trying to cap the other nodes. they don't realise they would be better off actually fighting and the whole team suffers as a result. please fix this bioware!

I am new to this class, but don't we get a cleanse/dispel skill pretty early on? if you notice yourself moving very slowly or on fire, casting a cleanse on yourself should remove some or all of these effects.

yep same thing happens to me quite a bit, and not just with stealth but with all abilities. very annoying in the middle of healing a FP ...

try to do EV on normal mode - lot's of pugs get up for that and it's not too challenging - your lack of gear shouldn't matter so much diluted 8 ways rather than 4. also try taral v and maelstrom HM. these are the easiest and should get you started with some decent gear. the dailies only get you earpieces and implants don't they?

yeah i'm finding it just takes some practice and working out how certain fights work so one can be prepared. it also has a lot to do with group makeup and if running with pugs it can be really hard for healers because everybody dings 50 and wants to do HMs in half green gear with 12k HP, then blames the healer for them dying to the boss's melee aoe. having said that i did maelstrom yesterday and it was super easy, even easier than taral v, so i guess i will keep running those 2 (no gear yet after 4 runs!) until i get a couple of columi pieces, and maybe look for groups doing EV on NM, of which there seem to be a few. the fact it's hard actually makes it a fun challenge. i think i would much prefer this way than breezing through every piece of content, and i am focusing way more on pve now than pvp simply because it's so much more challenging. it's just a shame it's so much harder to get gear in pve than pvp. one other thing, does anyone have a problem with their abilities just not going off sometimes? the last couple of days it has been happening at crucial times. i cast UM or SRMP, it triggers the activation/gcd, yet nothing happens. i have noticed that my character is locked in an animation (hands forward as if casting SRMP) when this is happening, and it can go on for 5-10 seconds, usually at the worst possible times! is this the ability lag they keep talking about?

yeah some of those daily heroics seem easy for stealthers to solo. is that the bonus on the columni set? what do you spend the daily tokens on? so far i have only seen implants and earpieces, can you use them for armour/weapons? i have over a million credits and nothing to really spend them on, the crafted gear is sup par compared to champ/columni.

oh so this is the troll thread, that explains why there is so much discussion about something which is pretty much taken for granted in most MMOs, i.e. doing the right thing and having a moral compass which is at least slightly functional. i don't speak for everyone in the community but i think you will find the general consensus to be the same as mine, at least within the real world and within the actual game, not on a forum where people pose contrarian views just for the sake of being heard.

Not gonna read all the responses, but wanted to make these points: 1. people rolling on other classes' gear when in the same group is just wrong and should not happen. as OP correctly points out, this "prisoners' dilemma" option of screwing the other guy before he screws you actually turns out to be detrimental to all parties involved. 2. anyone who says it's okay because it's possible (or possible to merely be able to use the item) is just deluded. it's possible to steal your neighbours' mail and use their new credit card but does that make it okay? we still have moral responsibilities, and just because the game allows you to do something does not mean anything goes. 3. if you are the leader of the group you should immediately kick someone who does this. a corollary of this is to form more groups yourself so you have the ability to do this. 4. take heart in that it's not so much of an issue pre 50 where u will out-level the gear in a matter of game-hours, while at 50, people who do this will not be tolerated and it won't take long before the rest of the community knows not to group with them or have them in their guild.

no, you should sell them on the gtn and buy ones you can use ...

yeah ilum is simply not fun. i have been 50 for about a week now and was excited about going there when i heard it had been fixed. but it is just low framerate zerg on zerg. no skill or strategy involved whatsoever. i really can't face the grind of going there to do my daily/weekly any more. i really hope they fix it because it should be so much better, the potential is definitely there. they need to find a way to break up the zerg.