Sawbones, and likely the Imperial Equivalent, though I have never played an Operative. We have 0 defensive capabilities, weak HoTs, and only 2 direct heals, one of which can't be cast without a Proc the other gives. Interruption: We have no protection against this. Our HoTs are far too weak to counteract the sheer levels of burst -any- class can put out. This leaves us spamming Underworld Medicine or Kolto Packs. Underworld Medicine is a 2 second cast time, and if it gets interrupted, you're SoL until it comes back, or you're blowing a GCD on Pistol Whip so you can cast a weak Kolto Pack in the meantime, or begging the RNG gods that your ticks of Slow Release Med Pack are proccing Upper Hand. Self Protection: Once again, you've left us with nothing. Defensive Screen blocks maybe 3k damage, which is simply 3-4 seconds of damage for any class in the game. Dodge's only purpose is to clear debuffs. It doesn't "dodge" half the incoming attacks, doesn't stop reapplication of DoTs, and doesn't stop interruption. Vanish is equally worthless. For the cost of breaking combat, we become more useless than a Lemming in a factory, unable to heal or be healed for 10 seconds. Furthermore, any halfway intelligent monkey knows to just instantly hit an AoE or Stealth Detection ability, and you're coming right back out of stealth, achieving only a temporary target drop and now unable to heal anything they do for 10 seconds. Distance Breakers: You must have them against Melee. We don't. We have a stun in a 30 second (talented) CD, and permanent spammable snare. Neither does us any good, as almost all snares in the game that Melee use are Force, and we can't dispel those, not to mention that gratuitous amounts of gap closers they have. I understand why they have them. They have to stay in range of classes with Knockbacks (See every class except Smuggler). We don't have Knockbacks. We have a Flash Bomb. That breaks on damage. So what does that leave us with? Well we're a one trick pony. Emergent Emergencies. Free Emergency Med Packs sub 30% health. Clutch healing at its finest. Too bad one stun (which generally last 5+ seconds) at sub 30% health is death knocking at your doorstep. Maybe it's a gear issue. I'm only sitting at 8% Expertise because how abysmally outnumbered the Republic is on my server, making it impossible to do the new Ilum dailies or win 75% of our PvP matches. I've just been healing MMO's for a long long time, and all the tools that a healer needs are not there. At the end of the day, a DPS should be able to kill a healer. They just shouldn't be able to do it so lopsidedly.

I really would. I'd love to go in, heal some folks as a Scoundrel, have fun with my friends, and have a nice mix of wins and losses. But I can't. Because PvP gear gives increased damage to players, therefore severely punishing those that fall behind. Because the Imperials vastly outnumber us. Because the Imperials seem to have certain built in advantages that I don't have (Flash Bomb CD for example). Because I die in 3 seconds (Yes 3, I counted) to one solo player without being able to cast, run, heal, or escape, cooldowns up or down, doesn't matter. In the time it takes me to cast Underworld Medicine, I've lost triple the health it heals thanks to the PvP debuff. I reached 50 before clawing my way to 4% Expertise and the results haven't changed. So I'd like to enjoy your PvP, it really looks like fun. It's a shame I can't.

Crit / Surge and blaster whip for Upper Hand. On it!

Maybe it's just me, maybe it's a gear issue (Level 50, orange items in every possible slot with 46-50 Blue Mods), or maybe I just don't know how to heal without a mana bar. It just seems like the healing for the Scoundrel is really lacking. The HoTs don't tick strong enough, which seems to be what the class is balanced around based on the energy consumption of the more direct healing abilities. I also say this through gritted teeth, as we only have one strong HoT and one AoE (Diagnostic Scan does NOT count). Trying to counteract burst damage (Such as PvP or boss fights like the Assassin Droid during the False Emperor) puts you out of energy within seconds, forcing a switch to the completely useless heal of Diagnostic Scan while you pray for crits to recover it back. Our entire healing structure is based around a proc. The only way to guarantee this proc is to expend 25 energy on our biggest heal (See problem above) or pray to whatever god you believe in that our HoT will proc it. If it doesn't, have fun swimming in OOM land while you cast Underworld Medicine so you can switch to Kolto Pack, which is only 5 energy cheaper for 1000 less healing. The energy recovery ability in our tree is based around our 2 minute CD. Why? The other 2 trees get additional energy based off Pugnacity, our MAIN source of energy, why do healers have to suffer when I am expending much more energy as a healer rather than a scrapper. Our go-to energy conservation ability is Emergency Medpack, which is ironically our only clutch mechanic. These cannot be combined. We cannot save energy and save lives at the same time. Saving lives quickly should be costly. Conserving energy should not be. Anyways, just my 2 cents. I'll continue healing and see if I can figure this out. All advice / comments / hatred welcomed!