I lol'd. The fact is that we don't bring as much to the table as the other healers. Unfortunately, the tuning of the operations thus far doesn't call for min-maxing (or maybe that's fortunate, depending on who you ask). I'm also usually brought in as a dps instead of a healer because Merc dps brings something to the table, while Merc healing really doesn't. If I didn't like DPS my guild would let me heal, but I don't see the point when our other healers bring more utility and I bring that extra oomph as a dps.

I think his point was that you posted "let's talk about builds." and then asked him to only talk about yours But I'm a healer, so I'm going to stop being annoying in your thread. -Kolto

Anybody know of a list of the things that a healing mercenary can dispel? I've found myself frustrated that it feels like my dispel doesn't do me any good...but I know that's because I want to dispel Sorc dots / CC (which is a force ability debuff or something?). I'm just wondering what we're able to dispel, really. Particularly in terms of CC. Anybody have any insight?

Why doesn't anybody MvP vote healers? I do a lot of work to keep everyone afloat and get no votes at the end (even though my healing is always top and my objectives is pretty high too!). Not like I need a handout to feel like I'm appreciated, but still...why does everyone vote the top damage and not the top healers who kept that damage rolling?

Anybody else think it looks absolutely amazing?

Although I agree with healing mobs being a pain, you should definitely use Gault. He's much better of a pet for us healer types.

I want to get into a non-bugged version because I hear this a lot! My group couldn't use turrets >.<

I did that one with 3 shadows and a scoundrel (who wasn't specced healing, but was healing). Basically, after two wipes we decided we didn't have the right group for it but we'd try one more time. What wound up happening is I tanked it and LoS'd around that big rock while throwing some dps out occassionally. My group was able to, for the most part, avoid taking damage while I just kited the mobs around like that. I'd definitely say it's a tough heroic quest, but if we had a real healer we'd have had no trouble at all with it. Considering 3 rogues and a non-healing specc'd healer can do it...I don't think it needs to be toned back at all.

I'm aware of that, but I'd much rather hear about intended fixes than intended content.

So this is the 2nd time this morning that I've gotten hit by a CC that never broke. I couldn't move from my spot and I just stood there being electrocuted. I could heal and dps from where I was but unless an enemy came over and killed me I couldn't do ANYTHING productive. I know the game is new and needs work, but please fix the bugs before you work on new content. Thank you.

I agree with skipping the Endurance talents. I don't think a negligible amount of endurance is going to save me from dying and I'd much rather spend those points elsewhere.

You're being ridiculous. How can you possibly even KNOW that Snipers are doing twice the damage as you? To me, it sounds like you just don't understand the heat mechanic and it's finally caught up with you. Keep your heat low and you will do more damage, with less down time. Plan your moves intelligently and you won't have half the issues you're whining about. Basic shot is your friend, weave it into your spells. My typical opening rotation: Power Shot -> Unload -> BASIC SHOT -> Rail Shot -> BASIC SHOT -> Power Shot -> Power Shot. Putting those basic shots in where I do keeps me at 4 arrows and using the abilities in the order that I do them also prevents me from hitting 0 heat. Again...PLAY SMART.

Thank you for your insight! I appreciate it! :]

Yeah, I'm basically wondering if I should stack throughput or survivability. I notice that currently (at level 16), I'm focused a lot for my healing. I know I don't have many tools yet, but I sure would love to have some more survivability when 2 or 3 people are beating on my face

Should a healer go for the Power pieces or the Absorption pieces? Or does it fall to personal preference?

Well I consider any class that has a powerful positional attack (even if you only want to use it with a proc) to be a positional dps class. But I guess that's just me.

That's one of the biggest problems with positional dps specs; they're awful for leveling. I'd suggest using a Balance spec to level, which is what I have done. It works out really well and none of your core damaging abilities require you to be behind the target.

I'm a fan of playing whatever class you want to play. If you put the time and effort in to your class you'll be better than all of your competition. A guild will bring you if you earn a spot, even if your class is overpopulated. It's mostly about getting in and proving your worth.

I don't want to play another spec because I still enjoy playing balance. @AstralFire, I don't disagree with your points. If the damage is going to the raid in general than it shouldn't make much of a difference overall, but Balance dps still suffers in the end due to it. All I'm asking for is to seperate the mechanics, put the 20% dot debuff on something that maybe lasts a bit longer, or procs when we use an ability (similar to how project procs our 10% damage buff). I love the spec and I love having that AoE for Warzones especially. I just don't think that the design is very polished as is and could use some tweaking.

I've leveled Balance from 10-44 so far and I've really enjoyed the spec. The rotation in a flashpoint setting is pretty clunky, but hopefully there will be some tuning to make it a less awkward in practice. The spec is very powerful for leveling and gives you a lot of pvp utility. You should definitely try it out!

Next level you'll get a survivability ability called Kinetic Ward. The KC tree really starts picking up from level 20-40 so from then on you should see your survivability going up! :] Hope that helps.

1) I'm not sure why people get so defensive when somebody brings a legitimate concern to the forums. I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying the game, and I love the spec. I just wanted to point out an inherent flaw in the design. 2) So it's your belief that we should just "get used to" a clunky dps rotation? Clunky rotations should be tweaked to increase their functionality instead of having people just "get used to it." I'm not saying that people shouldn't have to learn a rotation, but when most of the people who have played the spec believe that it is clunky in design, I think the devs should take a look. 3) I'm certain that other people's dots eat our charges. As I said in my original post, in a 4-man heroic group two days back, my charges were gone in a matter of 3-5 seconds. When I solo they typically last almost the full duration. A debuff that's intended to buff our dot damage shouldn't be stripped by other people. Doing 20% more dot damage for 3-5 seconds is useless.

So I've enjoyed leveling as balance quite a bit. I like not having to worry about positioning, and having strong projects. I enjoy hitting a group of 4 npcs and dropping 3 of them in about 10 seconds. I really like the spec for grinding and leveling. However, I'm very concerned about the potency of the spec in endgame (and even in flashpoints in general) due to one major factor: Our spec seems like it's built around Force in Balance buffing our dot damage. This concept is very flawed for two reasons. One, in a situation where you have to make sure you aren't breaking CC, it becomes extremely tedious to place the AoE in such a way that it hits your target and doesn't break the nearby CC'd targets. The other, more concerning, problem I see is that Force in Balance charges are consumed by everyone elses dots as well. The buff gives us 20% more damage on our dots (and hopefully does the same for others, considering they eat the charges too!) and since we do a decent amount of damage over time...it seems counterproductive that other classes consume your charges. In a 4man heroic quest group the stacks were falling off in about 3-5 seconds...I'd hate to see how it goes in an Operation. Please Devs, look in to this. Maybe replace Force in Balance with a single-target ability that does the same things and move Force in Balance to a base ability. Anybody else share my concern?

You take a class that by level 14-16 has: Effective Healing Effective Shielding Very Effective Damage Effective Crowd Control against the normal class that has maybe one or two of those and it's ridiculous. I mean, I understand this bolster system is to help make it so that all levels can enjoy pvp but I feel that my 41 shadow should have an advantage over a level 14 freaking sorc. I can't solo a class with less than half their toolbox...and no I don't suck. And yes I am QQing lol. And no, I don't care ;-) They're too powerful right now.

Just had a game against SEVEN Sorcs and I have to say it was the most frustrating match I've ever been in. whine whine whine, blah blah blah, nerf sorcs/sages.