With the upcoming "Strongholds" and Guild ships - that would be the perfect place for all these comms. Give different items out for the different comm levels, or just vary the expense of a single item 200 Basic 20 Elite

My ship droid !!!

Well - let me help you with that a bit. You *are* going to screw up on occasion as a healer. And when it happens, likely there will be some 'leet skillz knucklehead' who is going to give you a ration of crap about it. It is going to happen, and likely more than once. Ignore them. Pay attention to the helpful ones who will give you some good tips. So - figure out what you did wrong, and try not to do it the same way twice is all ! I play a Sage healer most times. Some fights are easy, especially if you have a good tank / dps crew. Some are just a 'healer battle' - and those are your chance to shine. So, maybe a good healer is hard to find, but A good healer / tank combo makes for a fun smooth run. p.s. - just got a Shadow tank to 50. Huge respect to those who can tank well. Am learning.

From heals and dps perspective, yes you can use PvP gear. Did until I got enough to get a PvE set of gear. I held up just fine, even when something odd happened (Not taking the walker down on time in Kephess fight) although obviously would not have minded the extra health and such from a PvE set!. So, if all you have is PvP - likely will be starting on the lower difficulty ops. You should be fine. Will let the tank folks speak for the tanks. No experience yet to speak to the new ops, but would think by the time you progress to them, you would have a PvE set anyway, at least a full Verpine set.

Yes, this is normal. As wishihadaname pointed out - As a sage, not only are you relatively easy to kill (compared to some other classes) but if they do not kill you quickly you are either going to bring quite a bit of dps or healing to the fight. Neither of those scenarios end well for the other team. (but is a fun time for you!) So, keep mobile. Several of your skills can be cast on the run, learn which ones, use them often while moving. Find the little nooks you can cast from and not be noticed as much. Center of the fight ball = dead sage. You have a good 30 meter range, you should seek to use at least 20 meters at all times. 28 is even better, if you have suitable targets. High spots as wishihadaname pointed out, should be your habitat. Also, learn to keep track of where the healers are tucked away. Having one of them around (and hammering anyone who touches your healer) nothing aggravates a healer more than trying to save you with heals, as you run AWAY from them. ack ! Be easy for them to heal, and stay around them-paying extra special attention to the smashers and such who try to take them out. Make them pay.

Okay, perhaps I will get flamed on this one. If guarding node, am I the oddball, because I pretype something like "Inc Snow - " so that all I have to do is type a number and get to defense? I see two coming - Hit 2, enter to send, and then get to work on - well - defense? If a third shows up, whatever, at least I got SOME help on the way! (I hope)

Well - will just ignore all the "it ain't no big thing' post above. Nice fights, you two, and good work. enough said there.

NICELY done !! I enjoyed that - start to finish. Great background music, choice of clips and angles. Got into it immediately! Congrats to you on good work!

This +1 If you leave the healers to free cast - they will generate enough heal points to negate two of the opposing team dps numbers PER HEALER. Yes..that is a huge force multiplier. As it should be. Start taking out the healers quickly, so they spend more penalty box time, than heal time - that number will drop significantly, and mainly reflect the healer trying to keep themselves alive. This negates the 2 to 1 force multiplier effect --WHICH IS THE HEALERS REASON FOR BEING THERE !! And do not forget - both factions have healers. So, while you are complaining about "healz is so op, derp derp derp" -- it is likely a healer that is keeping you alive long enough for you to face-roll those huge DPS numbers you epeen about. So - in that I do quite a bit of PvP (esp. prior to 2.x patches) I can post up some ridiculously large heal numbers **if left to free-cast untouched** Start attacking me, making me self-heal, FOCUS ON ONE PLAYER AT A TIME so my heals are less effective -- and those numbers start to mean less and less.

Nice ending - great for a laugh !

Am on the fence still, as a Sage healer. Three WZs I played first day in on 2.0 (still wearing all the WH/EWH gear) I had my three best scores as far as total healing goes. (and yes, even captured some objectives) For anyone wondering, my play style is to heal the pressured folks as much as possible, watch for chance to capture objectives/deny capture with a rock throw. But - absolutely zero worry about force management, even with some seriously good numbers, and 'insta-cast' salvation circles. I just do not live long enough to drain my force down. I know some of it is I am getting marked and focused, but unless I have perfect conditions (guarded, salvation circle, my own heal+armor, mend, a HIGHLY attentive guard who can peel) I just do not stay alive long enough to get help. Isn't a rant thread on that - especially with the crit chances I can get now - leaving one good healer alive to free cast is a horrible idea. Two free-casting - match is about decided right there. Would I say the TTK is lower? Certainly at this point. Do I think that lower TTK is better for PvP? The way the maps are designed it gives a much better chance of objectives getting captured / recaptured. The odds of you getting the entire defending team taken out as you spread your forces to defend more than one point before you can reinforce is much more likely. Calls for incoming are not just a good idea any longer, they are critical. If they are not spot-on, with instant CORRECT reaction - bye bye point. Do I think this is good for PvP - ultimately no. I think this change will/has caused some higher numbers in all categories - heals, damage and protection. So those who are just epeen numbers geeks will have fun crowing how the pwn'ed and won the match. But even with three of the best heal numbers I put up - only two of those were wins. So "numbers" are not everything. I think these changes will promote PvP zergfest matches and face it - the one faction-independent consensus is - no one likes to be the one staring at the pulsing circle waiting for it to open.

Will throw my 2 cents in. Probably all it is going to be worth. Routine play a Sage healer. Yes - if you stand alone, in the open, no guard your chance of staying alive long is near zero, if there is anything decent on the opposing team. The times you just get to stand there and free-cast unmolested are few and far between. 50 level PvP it is even fewer. Chances are, if you GET that chance, you really do not need it - the other team sucks that badly. As others have mentioned - you have to think, and think ahead. Use the map to your advantage, find those 'niche' areas to block yourself from view, but still get a casting area for your team. Learn to use that raid frame to select and monitor your team for heals. Some heals/cleanse - you can cast on the move - so, cast them while moving to a good spot - cast your stationary heals and when your "moveable" heals are ready - MOVE ! Oh - and remember - people rarely look UP. Higher ground is still a pretty good tactical area. Other interesting tactic that can work - if you see a big melee fight. Drop a salvation heal in there...then move into the center of the fight. Believe it or not.....you can get "lost" in there.! Just be sure - don't stay there long. Keep moving. And last - accept one thing - if you are a good healer - you WILL get yourself marked and focused. Not a thing you can do about this, except stay alive as long as you can. Keep moving, keep breaking LoS, use your stuns and cc's best you can. Believe it or not, you can easily be in the 200 to 250k *average* heals per match (some matches can go significantly higher) which if you can do that - you are helping your team.

Look - there are good players in PvP, some OUTSTANDING players - and then there is the elitest-snob-set. Hang with the first group, learn from the second, and tell the last to f' off. Seriously, they annoy me. (and I PvP routinely. I am the first section - usually) These are the same ones who complain at others, telling them what they should do, when, how they suck, etc. and generally - they are the ones that suck. Queue up, don't worry about the epeening snob set, and enjoy the PvP matches that are close and not blow outs.

As mentioned (hacks aside) you need to have a companion out with you. First, and this is all assuming you have them on your bars somewhere - you click the heroic moment. Nice little feature to use if you are on a close fight at your level. Since you have that going, which, should be in some close or harder fight, go ahead and hit "Unity" if you and your companion are losing HP. While that heroic moment is going (your background music, if you listen to it, has changed) you can use the Legacy powers. It is fun to use them, but wouldn't consider them earth shattering. I am sure a couple people wondered how a Bounty Hunter suddenly hit them with a rock, but hey.....all fair in love an war.

My main toon is a pure heal Sage. Whoever throws guard on me moves to the top of the heal priority list. And gets my vote. Will bubble anyone/everyone I can (non-stun variety) but guards are #1 in the heal rotation! Yes, I know where my bread it buttered.