I'm fully spec'd Rage at the moment (level 35) and haven't had any issues so far -- although you tend to be a bit of a one-trick 'HULK SMASH' pony, which might get a bit dull for some people. Despite that though, it's amazing how many Smash-build juggs, maras, guardians and sentinels are out there currently filling up the lowbie warzones...

This is good. I'm spec'd full Rage (level 35 just now, clearing up Taris), so I let Quinn pull aggro with an attack -- all mobs run to him -- I force charge one of them, and Smash the crap out of the whole group. With a mixed standard/strong group, I force charge in -- choak the strong mob to build up Shockwave -- and drop a massive Smash bomb on their heads. There has only been one 'oh-sh*t' moment, when I was fighting in among the Vulture mobs in the bonus questline when I got knocked back into another group with an Elite. Only this time did I actually have to use cooldowns/medpacs AND even switch Quinn to Med-watch stance. Usually I have him running on his 'really useful' damage stance...

Happens occasionally -- not often. But it does seem to choose the most inappropriate time for it to occur...

Isn't this what RANKED WARZONES are for? Can't we just leave the Warzone 'quick-queue' for pugs and randoms and put the pre-mades where the are on a level playing field with other pre-mades?

This is so out of date it needs to be UN-STICKIED.

Seems after the Harbinger, the Bioware servers are all getting a bit twitchy. Was randomly disconnected from Red Eclipse in the middle of a class quest dialogue.

With the removal of the global character limit of 50 (!?! I mean, seriously -- who is realistically going to be taking advantage of that perk??), does this mean we can get paid-for server transfers too?

I'm puzzled why people automatically expect all 3 healing classes' healing skills to be exactly the same on a per heal basis. As I understand it, balance has been achieved on an overall healing throughput basis, factoring in multiple considerations, such as own survivability, resource management, cast time of skills, multiple target healing, etc. Even if you generated same-encounter HPS parses between the 3 classes, this would still be unreliable due to the likely massive amount of overhealing Sorcs (AOE puddle) and Operatives (HoTs) do, which skew their total healing done.

This is definitely an intense fight for a group that tries to carry 1 or 2 players (either for gear or for personal skill-level reasons). Healing is obviously made more dfiifcult when you are trying to heal players who are not up to the requisite level for this encounter. So, it's important to realise that the problems you're facing might not just be down to your own set-up, rotation or ability. Definitely the first couple of times my guild encountered this boss fight, we struggled -- which is only to be expected for such a fight with a few new boss mechanics to figure out. But with practice and increased familiarity for all the raid members, it gets a bit more manageable every time you run it. Absolutely, the Chain Lightning attacks need to be spotted, and people move as far away from each other as much as possible. Also, the only other kicker which immediately springs to mind (which is almost a perfect piece of trolling on Bioware's part) is the phase when the tanks become debuffed so that any healing you do to them is converted to damage. Sorry, I have no idea what those debuffs are, but if I remember rightly, it's only in the final phase that it happens. Finally just to echo the other posters above, I think you've stacked way too much Crit in your stats set-up, and need to redistribute with more of an emphasis on Power. I think we all should by now have realised that the stat bonuses from any one complete gear set are not always the most optimised stats set-up. PS. My guild now only runs with Operative/Merc healing, since that's all we've got left! And we seem to manage just fine without a Sorceror's AOE puddle.

So I asked recently if there was a cap/soft-cap on Power, to which I got quite a few people responding with 700. Is this therefore not correct? Anyone with a link to an analysis showing no DR on the Power stat?

Even though this thread is ostensibly about PvP functionality, in comparison to this comment, our DPS Marauders and Mercs are pulling 1900-2100 DPS on HM Denova bosses...

Oh look, another thread started by a Marauder who is belittling the relative performance of other classes. Now, if I had £1 for every time this happened..........

Alacrity is a bit of a double-edged sword for healers -- albeit a blunt double-edged sword, perhaps. But it's faster-casting benefit is balanced by its detrimental effect on heat generation. N.B. I would also say this unwanted negative side-effect is probably more commonly found in sustained PvE fights where there are other ways round the unwanted heat generation, and not so much of a feature in PvP fights. OK, so the theory goes like this. [i'll change the numbers to make my mental arithmetic a bit simpler ] Zero Alacrity: Rapid Scan - Heat Cost 20 - Cast Time 2secs 10% Alacrity: Rapid Scan - Heat Cost 20 - Cast Time 1.8secs During 30secs with Zero Alacrity, you can cast Rapid Scan 15 times and generate 300 heat In the same time with 10% Alacrity, you can cast Rapid Scan 16 times and generate 320 heat With this additional heat generation over the same time period, it places additional pressure on you to maintain the optimal heat dissipation level. Obviously, the heat generated is compounded the longer you are held in combat -- hence my earlier comment about this being more of a PvE issue. I'm sure I saw commentary from Devs way back in the mists of time suggesting they were going to be looking into the functionality of Alacrity as a whole, and this unwanted side-effect. But I've seen nothing recently from them on this -- but that could be part of a whole different can of worms...

Just a quick, specific question about power. I got several confirmed reports that the soft cap on Power was 700, yet you stack all the way up to 905. Have you verified through testing that there are no Diminishing Returns by stacking that high?

Once you are geared up, you can easily tank yourself and have a DPS companion out. I use Torian mainly for any PvE stuff, like Black Hole or other dailies.

Playing any of the healers in end-game PvP is always going to be tough. They all have their pros and cons, which you have to learn intimately and use them to your advantage. But no matter what healing class you end up going with -- just make sure you get a minimum of 1100 expertise ASAP, or you will always get your arse handed to you on a plate.

Yeah, I've never had the need to use it elsewhere. But raid members love that skill when we get those bloody annoying stealthkillers in Denova.

I most certainly do not struggle while healing in Operations -- certainly no more than sorcs or operative healers. I don't like my class to be regarded as the worst all round healer either, thanks very much.

That's right -- the story requires you to use certain companions for certain phases. This was difficult for me too (as Gunnery spec) since both Yuun and Tanno were in really rubbish gear. I even noticed afterwards I'd put a chestpiece on Tanno that had no armour mod slot in it I wondered why he kept dropping like a sack of spuds...! But yeah, absolutely epic mission -- totally loved having your whole squad working as a team!

Me! /5chars

This is a really interesting discussion that I've just re-stumbled on. I logged my healing for the first time on a KP NIghtmare Mode, and attached is the parsed results. http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-06-04_20_43_36_897962.txt#20_48_27_643000 The 2 false starts on Fabricator and Karagga aside, I think these are fairly respectable HPS numbers. Not exactly hitting the stellar heights of 1500 HPS, but not at all bad. Using the estimated overhealing calculation suggested above, I'm pushing around 12% on the Fabricator fight. (Don't worry so much about the threat on the Bonethrasher fight, since my Op colleague died about half-way through, leaving me to solo-heal for the rest of the duration... ) How does this compare to everyone else's results?

Okay, despite fear of ridicule and finger-pointing, I will post up my healing raid log from a recent attempt at Karagga's Nightmare Mode. http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-06-04_20_43_36_897962.txt#22_24_18_511000 --Of particular note are the 3 more difficult fights: Jarg & Sorno (1272 HPS), the 2nd Fabricator (1368 HPS) and the 2nd Karagga (1222 HPS). And Yes, the multiple attempts mean that we wiped on the first version . I don't really know how these stats compare with other healing Mercs, or even with the other healing classes. But the analysis with this tool is pretty fascinating to me, even just the simple things about knowing exactly how much crit results you get over the course of the fight. This is the build I use: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rfRMR0cdkqZrcoM.1 I am in full Rakata, with 3 Black Hole items (Helmet, Earpiece and 1 Implant). Anyone else brave enough to share/discuss?

HOTs rule, man! Or is that Hutts...?

Sorry Onager, but why does the tone of your guide have to be so confrontational and aggressive? And then becoming uber-defensive when someone tries to challenge a specific point in your guide? I mean, the content is great, and it's clear you've spent some time on it. But it's not always great to assume your audience is full of "fools" - even if this is meant tongue-in-cheek.

No, No, NO! You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you must be equal or close to Sorc's HPS number in a raid environment. That will just never be the case. As people have been trying to say to you, the Sorc's AOE heal is perfectly designed to artificially inflate their HPS numbers 1. it targets 8 people, and not just 4; and 2. most Sorcs will use it constantly off cooldown -- even when raid members don't need it -- thereby further inflating their HPS numbers. In my simple estimation of raid healing roles, Mercs make very fine Tank healers, and Sorcs make very fine Raid healers. Normally, the HPS logs for these two roles will not be the same -- hence the reason for the disparity. I mean, have you even verified things like equal gearing, equal stims/adrenals, equal relics, healing same targets, etc.etc.? Until and unless you are able to generate 2 separate healing logs (from both a Sorc and Merc) where you're equally geared and healing on a combat healing dummy, then your posts start to sound like very little more than uninformed QQ.