That's actually always true. The Agent is repeatedly referred to by military personnel as an officer - though I don't recall whether or not this is true after the designation of Cipher. But there are several times where the Cipher is expected to be overt. During Act 1, Keeper tells the Agent to use his position within Imperial Intelligence to scare the Imperials and achieve his objectives. I'm not disagreeing with your point that Spies and Spec Ops are different, I'm just saying that there are some significant similarities as well.

I'm not sure if anyone else said this, but conceptually, the non-force classes are opposite mirrors of each other. The Trooper's position is analogous to the Agent - the best of the best, high ranking, afforded high operational freedom within the military command structure, etc. Sure, the Agent is more of a spy, and the Trooper is more of a soldier, but effectively they're both Spec Ops. ____________________________________ On the flip-side, the Bounty Hunter and the Smuggler have a lot of similarities. Both flirt with the criminal element, both exist outside the formal structures of their faction, both value freedom and credits over everything else, etc. etc. Just saying

Dear Qishari, I understand that you had to lock my duplicate post. I am not complaining! I just wanted to thank you for making me feel a little heard, and taking the time to link to the original post. I don't know if that's SoP or not, but it's a nice touch. I understand this post will get locked too, and that posting about a locked post likely gets me in some trouble, but if so, it was worth it to give you a pat on the back. These forums are CRAZY(!), and I don't envy you having to police them all day. So here's one less rage post.

PvE or PvP? Are you single healing or trying to heal a group? Are you playing with other people who play (reasonably) flawlessly? Do you feel like you have a significant margin of error for your abilities? That last one is the kicker. Sage/Sorc has a significant margin of error in all but the very rarest situations; as an Operative, if I screw up, I better have (a) a backup healer (b) all of my cool-downs, or © wipe. But all of that is moot! The point of this post isn't whether the very skilled Trooper/BH & Smug/Op healers can keep up and do some good healing, but rather about the classes as a whole. I want to hear about whether or not anything is planned with will make non-perfect Trooper/BH/Smug/Op heals on par with the Sage/Sorc peers.

You're right, I didn't know the Sorc healing rotation until right now. I guess I erred in my initial post. I believe that the Ammo/Heat/Energy mechanic was designed to give healers using those systems and edge in duration healing. I didn't mean to imply that I think it's working. It's just the only justification I can see from this vantage (50 Op Heals) as to why I have so little utility compared to a Sorc. I don't want the Sorc's abilities nerfed, I just want to know if Op/Smug & BH/Trooper healing is being looked at.

Been there, done that. I understand it's in "poor taste", but there have been weeks of discussion on various forums - class, PvP, role specific - without any one from Bioware giving some feedback. I've looked at Devtracker, I've read the interviews, I've scoured every source I can think of to not make a "LOOK AT MEEEE OVER HERE GUYZ!" post. In the meantime, the Warrior/Knights have complained and ended up getting some guidance on the future of their class. That's all I want - a little bit of insight from someone who has it. This is an important issue, at the very least to myself, and I think other people as well. I'm not asking for a nerf, or a buff, or a change, or a this or a that. Just a glimpse into what the developers currently think about this. Why can't you support that?

And I've apparently misjudged today as being a good day to bring this to General Discussion, ugh.

NOTE: this is a repost from the healer forums - it might even get moved back there! - but I've not seen a dev look in the "Role" forums yet, and I could really use some feedback here! If you healers want to learn something about the future of our classes, SPEAK UP! Dear Devs, Now, I know this post is likely folly, as you've repeatedly stated you don't talk about future changes and things in progress, etc. And I get that - it makes sense as a policy to not talk about things before they're ready for the limelight (especially given the environment on these forums); so I'm not looking for specifics or details or anything like that. But I need some guidance here: As an Operative healer, I'm having a crisis of faith regarding how the class is working and how it stacks up against the (according to popular consensus on these forums) dominate healing class: Sorcerer/Sage. I've not seen a single dev post on the subject of how well non-Sorcerer/Sage healing is performing compared to expectations, and I need to know whether or not that current state of things as seen as problematic; if it is receiving attention or discussion; or if it's all working as intended. Again, no details necessary (though obviously welcome ), I just want to know where these things stand so that I can make a more informed decision about continuing to play my current class as a healer. Thanks. ---------------------------------- Dear Everyone else, I wanted to put up a little something to preempt the "everything is fine", the bioware white knights, and the l2p comments I expect this to draw. I am not asking for Sorcerer/Sage to be nerfed. I believe they are working as intended, and that the other classes are in need of a little attention in order to balance things out so that the prevailing perception is parity between the classes. I do - in fact - understand my class and know how to play. I understand that there are supposed to be tradeoffs between the utility of the Sorc/Sage and the other healing classes. Trooper/BH get heavy armor, Smug/Ops get stealth etc. etc. It is my belief that these trade-offs are not working as intended; leading the Sage/Sorc to become considered the dominate healing class. I understand that one of the major differences between Sage/Sorc & the other classes is meant to be their resource system; and I understand that the Ammo/Heat/Energy system is capable of - in the hands of someone adequetly skilled - out-lasting the Sage/Sorc. It is my belief that these differences have been unintentionally minimized, leading the Sage/Sorc to be considered the dominate healing class. My previous two points are particularly salient given the the vast utility a Sage/Sorc has (threat dump for allies, shield, force speed) which the other classes lack; as they currently stand Trooper/BH and Smug/Op can only heal at an almost comparable rate (if not conceptually for a slightly longer time). More so than prevailing forum opinions, it is apparant that the Smug/Op & Trooper/BH healing tree is either (a) incomplete or (b) poorly planned. Too many of the talents in both of these trees appear useless compared to those contained in the Sage/Sorc tree, such that raching the 31-point skill requires numerous "throw away" talents in non-Sage/Sorc trees. This is again true of the healing abilities granted to the non-Sage/Sorc classes - speaking from experience, a Smug/Ops healer really only makes use of 4/7 healing abilities on a regular basis - making the other classes feel half-baked and unfinished. See, the moral of the story is, I want to be a main healer; I'm one of those masochists who likes to heal (or maybe it's stockholm syndrome??). I was under the impression that any of the three healing advanced classes would be able to "main heal"; that they would be - despite minor differences - functionally equivalent. However, given the amount of utility the Sage/Sorc has vs. the other classes, this is not the case: except for very niche things (say, an all stealth team comprised of 1 stealth tank, 2 stealth dps, 1 stealth heal) there is no scenario where a Sage/Sorc healer wouldn't do just as good as the other classes. Yes, I know, that sounds like parity, but consider the other side of the coin: there are very common instances (massive damage spikes, high damage encounters, other players mistakes) where a Trooper/BH/Smug/Op healer cannot perform to the same level as a Sage/Sorc. That's the problem. I want to be a more than mediocre niche healer. So I need to know if BW has any intention of looking into/changing/adjusting the current state of Smug/Op healing, of it it is - in their judgment - working as intended. If it's working as intended That's fine! - it just means I picked the wrong class for the role I want to play. But, if BW is looking into these things, I want to know, because I think healing as an Op is fun, it just needs a little devlove. Please, make this into a discussion. Talk about what you love/hate about healing between the 3 classes as it currently stands. Make this into a discussion worht a dev post and we might get some of the answers we're looking for. Cheers, and thanks for reading all this eyebleed.

If I repost this in general will you go give it a bump?

I know and agree. This is especially true in light of your first point. I agree with you; and am in the same boat. I didn't mean to imply that I think there is no problem, merely to clarify for those who don't play Op/Smug or Trooper/BH heals that it's not that we're complaining about being 100% broken and just 10% broken is enough to merit getting left out of groups. Solidarity!

Let's put this theory to the test: You want to get a portrait of yourself painted to hang up in your "Snob Room" (I assume this room is also where you condescendingly make forum posts, but we'll get to that later). You've got a choice between two artists, both advertising for the same price: Artist 1 has trained with all of the best painters in the world - he is THE painter. However, similar to most one-day famous painters, he is dirt poor, and has had to sell of the majority of his painting supplies and paints in order to eat for the last 4 months. Artist 2 graduated from the local art school. He's not the next Great Master -in 100 years not a person will remember his name - but he can paint a decent portrait. As such, he has a vast variety of brushes and paints which he'll use to paint a near-photographic likeness of you. To review: Artist 1 will be painting with his fingers, utilizing only the 3 primary colors. Artist 2 has every conceivable type of brush and has at his disposal a number of different colors that puts Crayola to shame. Question: Who do you expect will paint the better picture? Do you get my point, or should we try the same exercise with surgeons? The problem here isn't player skill. The problem here is that Sage/Sorc is given a whole set of tools to help mitigate damage and restore health, such that even a mediocre Sage/Sorc easily outperforms a Smug/Op/Trooper/BH.

Dear Devs, Now, I know this post is likely folly, as you've repeatedly stated you don't talk about future changes and things in progress, etc. And I get that - it makes sense as a policy to not talk about things before they're ready for the limelight (especially given the environment on these forums); so I'm not looking for specifics or details or anything like that. But I need some guidance here: As an Operative healer, I'm having a crisis of faith regarding how the class is working and how it stacks up against the (according to popular consensus on these forums) dominate healing class: Sorcerer/Sage. I've not seen a single dev post on the subject of how well non-Sorcerer/Sage healing is performing compared to expectations, and I need to know whether or not that current state of things as seen as problematic; if it is receiving attention or discussion; or if it's all working as intended. Again, no details necessary (though obviously welcome ), I just want to know where these things stand so that I can make a more informed decision about continuing to play my current class as a healer. Thanks. ---------------------------------- Dear Everyone else, I wanted to put up a little something to preempt the "everything is fine", the bioware white knights, and the l2p comments I expect this to draw. I am not asking for Sorcerer/Sage to be nerfed. I believe they are working as intended, and that the other classes are in need of a little attention in order to balance things out so that the prevailing perception is parity between the classes. I do - in fact - understand my class and know how to play. I understand that there are supposed to be tradeoffs between the utility of the Sorc/Sage and the other healing classes. Trooper/BH get heavy armor, Smug/Ops get stealth etc. etc. It is my belief that these trade-offs are not working as intended; leading the Sage/Sorc to become considered the dominate healing class. I understand that one of the major differences between Sage/Sorc & the other classes is meant to be their resource system; and I understand that the Ammo/Heat/Energy system is capable of - in the hands of someone adequetly skilled - out-lasting the Sage/Sorc. It is my belief that these differences have been unintentionally minimized, leading the Sage/Sorc to be considered the dominate healing class. My previous two points are particularly salient given the the vast utility a Sage/Sorc has (threat dump for allies, shield, force speed) which the other classes lack; as they currently stand Trooper/BH and Smug/Op can only heal at an almost comparable rate (if not conceptually for a slightly longer time). More so than prevailing forum opinions, it is apparant that the Smug/Op & Trooper/BH healing tree is either (a) incomplete or (b) poorly planned. Too many of the talents in both of these trees appear useless compared to those contained in the Sage/Sorc tree, such that raching the 31-point skill requires numerous "throw away" talents in non-Sage/Sorc trees. This is again true of the healing abilities granted to the non-Sage/Sorc classes - speaking from experience, a Smug/Ops healer really only makes use of 4/7 healing abilities on a regular basis - making the other classes feel half-baked and unfinished. See, the moral of the story is, I want to be a main healer; I'm one of those masochists who likes to heal (or maybe it's stockholm syndrome??). I was under the impression that any of the three healing advanced classes would be able to "main heal"; that they would be - despite minor differences - functionally equivalent. However, given the amount of utility the Sage/Sorc has vs. the other classes, this is not the case: except for very niche things (say, an all stealth team comprised of 1 stealth tank, 2 stealth dps, 1 stealth heal) there is no scenario where a Sage/Sorc healer wouldn't do just as good as the other classes. Yes, I know, that sounds like parity, but consider the other side of the coin: there are very common instances (massive damage spikes, high damage encounters, other players mistakes) where a Trooper/BH/Smug/Op healer cannot perform to the same level as a Sage/Sorc. That's the problem. I want to be a more than mediocre niche healer. So I need to know if BW has any intention of looking into/changing/adjusting the current state of Smug/Op healing, of it it is - in their judgment - working as intended. If it's working as intended That's fine! - it just means I picked the wrong class for the role I want to play. But, if BW is looking into these things, I want to know, because I think healing as an Op is fun, it just needs a little devlove. Please, make this into a discussion. Talk about what you love/hate about healing between the 3 classes as it currently stands. Make this into a discussion worht a dev post and we might get some of the answers we're looking for. Cheers, and thanks for reading all this eyebleed.

NOTE: I did not read through all the posts; perhaps someone has already said this; I apologize is that is the case. Regarding Sage/Sorc being the only viable healer: This is not completely true. Yes, Sage/Sorc currently have significant advantages in PvE healing - bubble, armor buff and multiple different healing spells in no significant order - compared to other classes. But, as an Operative healer, I have noticed one area where Operative/Smuggler ought to have an advantage over Sorc/Sage ---> Duration healing. When things go right for the Op/Smug healer - i.e. the group knows how to play, tank gets aggro and uses defensive cooldowns appropriately, dps doesn't take aggro too often, people are aware of their surroundings, etc. - we can heal forever. This may also be true for the Sage/Sorc if they are actively managing their force and not spamming (I don't know enough about the math behind Sage/Sorc costs vs. 8 force regen/sec vs. free procs), but I frequently notice Sorc healers having to use consumption during a fight. That's fine, because I've got enough resources to heal them back up, because I rarely need to dump all my energy (and never twice during 2 mins). So there's the main "strength" area I've found for Op/Smug healing - we are built to heal for the long fight. .2¢

This is not true. Disassemble reduces the item to it's crafting parts. I agree with the others here - rolling on an Orange simply for the mods is A.O.K. In fact, because most appearances are copied on other Orange items, I would suggest that rolling on an Orange strictly for it's appearance should be prioritized lower than rolling for the mods. But, I'm with LogicalPremise here, I roll greed on anything that I don't want to use personally - that includes companion gear.

4-5 would be overpowered. Even adding 1 additional TA would mean that we could spam surgical probe 3 times in a row on a target above 30% health. Rather, I'd like a talent that makes TA's last twice as long. That way I don't get screwed over just because I (1) haven't cast a KI in the last several seconds and (2) have gotten unlucky on the KP proc. But the entire medic tree needs a buff. Combine the 2 talents required to make DS useful into 1 Make Med Shield do something useful (my idea is to have the talent make the shield targetable on allies) Add a talent that gives Kolto Infusion a buff to absorption/armor/defense to make it worth spending the energy and a TA on either buff Recuperative Nanotech's healing or give it something extra (e.g. reduces the accuracy of players targeting an ally affected with Recuperative Nanotech by 5-10%) As it stands, a lot of the points in the medic tree are a "lesser of the bad" decisions - throw away points so that you can get to surgical probe. While there will always be some talents in the tree that are less than optimal, the large number of them currently needs to be fixed, along with adding some general utility to the Medic.

I agree with you, I think I am, but at level 48 I have no desire to reroll at the moment. I rolled Operative on the belief that I could be a "main" healer without having to do the same old boring mana bar. And I like the energy mechanic a lot; but in exchange for having a unique mechanic, we got left off utility list. Sure, two of our three "mainstay" abilities are instacast, but they're both severely under powered compared to the Sorc. alternatives (Kolto Probe/ Slow Release Medpac requiring 2 stacks; Surgical Probe/Emergency Medpac doing just a little too little healing). Compare Kolto Probe/SR Medpac to Sorc/Sage 11-point instacast Heal+Hot which also grants a 10% armor buff (only useful in PvE) AND grants a host of neat-o tricks to every other healing skill. Compare Surgical Probe/Emergency Medpac to Sorc/Sage 21-point instant Heal+Hot which grants a free 8% return on force points (e.g. 40 points or the entire heal, making it free, but adding a GCD, so not spammable). It's a much more dynamic healing class, with a much bigger "bag-of-tricks"; and that is why anyone wanting to be a "main" healer should either roll a Sorc./Sage or hope that Bioware addresses the other classes (even though we've not seen a single post indicating that it's even on their radar). EDIT: To clarify, I'm not asking that Operative healing be made faceroll easy - I just wish that it would be brought to parity with Sorc. healing, even if it remains super difficult to do it right.

Our AoE is a joke of a 31-point talent, don't try and make it sound nicer just because it's insta-cast. And honestly, with the fact that Sorc. talent HoT adds an armor buff, and their shield absorbs a massive amount of damage and can be reapplied every 20 seconds, it's not a comparison. If you want proof, look at the Operative tree. Pick out the talents that you think are worthless. Now look at the Sorcerer tree and do the same thing. Their healing tree is awesome - it's dynamic, adds interesting abilities and buffs, and really looks like a lot of fun. The Operative healing tree is a half-baked mess - so many of the talents are worthless such that I cannot justify putting more than 25 points in that tree; and I want the name and email address of the dev who thought that forcing us to put 4 points into Diagnostic Scan to make it a little less than useless was a good plan. Bioware needs to do something different with Operative healers - while it appears they intended to use our energy mechanic to allow us to be long-term healers, they've cut too far against our healing utility to make it viable. That is to say, who cares if we can heal constantly for 10 mins. if the group wipes in the first 2? We need something in our toolset to give us more utility - and that's to say nothing for the (lack of) fun of healing with 3 buttons. Please, Bioware, just look into making a little fix to Op healing. I've already detailed my Shield Probe idea in another post (I still think it's the easiest and most balanced fix, but I'm biased), but buffing Recuperative Nanotech, or making the Diagnostic Scan talents do something more meaningful would go a long way to making me not want to reroll Sorc. just to be a proper "main" healer.

I agree that we heal fine, and my healing output is perfectly acceptable in the majority of situations; to wit, I typically have an excess of time and energy on my hands. The difficulty arises when multiple party members start taking large amounts of damage. While I cede that this is often due to a lack of familiarity with the mechanics or the specific encounter, the fact of is that an Operative is going to have a difficult time solo healing a difficult encounter unless (1) he and his party are already familiar with the mechanics of the encounter or (2) they become familiar by wiping once. This "trial-and-error" approach is frustrating, and indicates a specific lack of flexibility. Thus, making Shield Probe targetable seeks to address a niche concern of "panic" utility; making it targetable via talents seeks to keep it from unbalancing non-Medic specced Operatives; modifying the 25 point skill Med Shield to allow this makes Med Skill an non-useless talent (unlike it's current state). I'm not here proposing a buff for a difficult class just because I need to "learn 2 play", or because I feel inferior (though I understand that many believe Op healing to be inferior to Sorc healing, I don't feel the same way). Rather, I'm merely trying to address an area where Operatives are suffering from reduced utility. The currently inability of an Operative healer to reduce incoming damage directly undermines the mechanics of the class - this will be inevitably be fixed eventually in some form or another - I just think this fix happens to be the most effective and efficient method of accomplishing that fix without unbalancing the entire class or making Medic-specced healers over-powered. There would actually be several ways to address this issue of utility: Buffing Kolto Probe so that it does more healing, faster healing, or eliminates the requirement for 2 probes Buffing Diagnostic Scan so that it is worthwhile for more than energy regeneration Buffing Kolto Infusion so that it has a HoT component, making it worth the energy + TA Buffing any of the healing abilities so that they grant a defensive/armor/avoidance/absorption buff (this would make most sense on Kolto Probe, and justify the stacking; or Recuperative Nanotech) The difference is that all of these methods are (1) dramatic changes; (2) introduce new mechanics; and in several instances (3) would apply to the entire class (when buffing Infusion or Injection). In my opinion, making Shield Probe targetable is the least intrusive change that can be made to address the issue of mitigating incoming damage to another player. Not as a buff, not because I think we're underpowered, but just to increase flexibility and "panic" utility.

That would be WAY too OP to be taken seriously. Honestly, all I'm asking for is parity - the other healing classes have shields (though the Merc one likely needs a buff), and it adds a significant amount of flexibility. However, it seems generally agreed upon that Operative Medics don't have that much flexibility as it is; thus I don't understand why a more flexible healer (Sorc) has a shield ability but we do not. Something about Operative healing has to change - I just think this is the most useful change without unbalancing the class.

More people need to see this. I want to heal; I like to heal! I just want to be rewarded for my effort - I don't want to waste my time helping the team out if it means I'll have to play 1.5 - 2 times the number of matches to get the commendations and valor as everyone else. Wanna know when I got the most medals? When I specced out of healing and got the Operative AoE poison grenade. 40 kills, EASY, just spamming that thing around. Didn't help my team for spit, but I got voted MVP and made off with a bunch of commendations.

/signed.

I tried to go out of my way to not be a "BUFF MY CLASS PLEASE QQ LOL" troll. Thank you for noticing .

Medals are meant to encourage people to play in a specific fashion. (Tank Medals, Healer Medals, DPS Medals, Defender Medals). But the Healing Medals are exceptionally hard to get, such that, as a healer, I would do better for myself running around and dotting every enemy player instead of doing any healing. I would do better, but the team wouldn't. BW need to reward the roles they want people to play. If they want PvP to be a free-for-all DPS clusterbomb, then don't reward healers. If they want PvP to be a team sport with players supporting each other, then they need to reward healers more substantially. Because as it is, I just don't heal. It's not worth it. I get 2-5 medals, while everyone LOLDPS-ing without regard for objectives earns 6-9. So I get rewarded less for playing "my role", a role which, if left unfilled, means the team loses. Not ok.

THIS!! As a healer, nothing is more rewarding that being recognized for it. I frequently only get 2-4 medals a match when I focus on healing a lot. But if I get MVP votes, it makes all the difference. The problem is most people are so impressed with kills and damage that they never see that my healing was necessary for everyone to get there. So Please, Tip Your Healer.

A bump for great justice! As it stands, healing in PvP feels very unrewarding, save the fact is is critical and vital to the success of the team. As an example: Player A is heal, Player B is tank, Player C is DPS. Player B guards Player A. Player A receives, on average, 4 medals (2.5k heal, 75k Healed, 150k healed, 10 Kills). Player B receives, on average, 9 medals (10 kills, 25 kills, the guarded medals, etc.) Player C receives, on average, 6 medals. The issue is that Player A and B are dependent upon each other: Without B, A would die very fast. Without A, B would not live long enough to do sufficient damage. But Player B receives the lionshare of the reward. That's where the problem is - Player A would do better for himself if he respecced DPS and didn't heal anyone - he would get more kills, do more damage, and earn more medals. But then the team would fail. So Player A is just as essential to the team as Player B, but doesn't get the same reward.