Wait...I thought Operative/Scoundrel was the worst healer in the game?

Here we go again with the whole Sage/Sorc > all. Determine what you want to do endgame. If you're playing with a progression focused guild, you will have more luck in having a spot in your Ops group by playing either a Sorc or BH. If you are playing to enjoy the game and are looking at casual endgame play, any healer is perfectly fine to play. Having a stable group of people to play with will make playing an Operative easier due to the poor mentality concerning them. There are some incoming changes with the next major patch, 1.2 that shows a lot of potential for improvements with both BH Mercs and Operatives, but with no details, it's currently a wait and see situation. Overall, Sage/Sorc is a very easy playstyle to learn and even easier to play. Mercs are decent overall. Operatives require a bit more knowledge and have a bit bigger learning curve. Pick what is going to fit you best for what you want out of your endgame play.

No list of official changes yet, you won't see that until just before they are ready to roll out the changes to the live servers. You might dig up some stuff when 1.2 hits the PTR - but that's about it. Until then, nothing specific.

Nice job taking something I said and twisting it. I did not say I didn't believe in utility, and I didn't denounce the argument for utility. All I stated is that simply using the toolkit as a blanket argument for why a Sorc/Sage is better than an Op is not justification for saying an Operative healer is bad. Grass is not greener. I agree that the Operative needs some help and tuning - but I do not want to see us made into a Sorc which is the impression that I get from many of the posters here. If i wanted to play Sorc, that is what I would be playing. Player mentality in telling anyone and everyone who will listen that Operatives are bad, don't play one, and don't use them as healers doesn't help in the least either. It's in fact, extremely detrimental. It doesn't help anyone and at the end of the day, makes life for those of us who do enjoy our operatives and choose to play them, harder than it needs to be.

Excellent logic and reasoning right there.

Sounds about right. I think overall it might be better if I stayed away from the forums. You can't have a discussion with people who won't listen to any viewpoint outside of their own. It's interesting how the mentality of why Sorc/Sage is better - no matter what changes in healing output are made to any of the healing class - will always be better and people will continue to tell everyone who asks or is not playing one, to forget all other healers and go play a Sorc/Sage instead. Then those very self same players will come here and complain about how no one wants an Operative healer in the group. The other outcome is that BW makes adjustments to bring Operatives on par and instead complain how all the classes are "exactly the same" and there is no individuality anymore between the healers because they all have the same toolkit. The only thing that matters to me is that we kill the boss and everyone is still alive. I don't need to put out some crazy numbers that make me better than that "Sorcerer" because healing never will be a numbers game to me. It's a responsibility of keeping your group alive so that they can kill ****.

I would like to post here the entire question and response that Georg make about Operative Healers in Operations as I believe it contains a very important concept. I'm not here to argue that Operatives are perfectly fine. I'm not here to argue that they need help. The fact is, at the end of the day, there are no hard numbers that can be obtained by a Combat Log to either prove or disprove the disparity between the classes. I further don't believe in comparing the respective "tool boxes" each class has and using that to say one class is better than another. I know how much people hate the mention of WoW - but an excellent example comes to mind in how perception and not having all the hard numbers can create a distorted view of a class. Disc Priests during Wrath took a nasty beating for awhile in game because when viewed on damage meters in game their overall HPS appeared abysmal compared to every other healer in the game. I can remember getting kicked from PUG Raids because of "low numbers" - all based on the simple fact that what people were not seeing was the amount of damage absorbed by Shields. I still hold my judgement of Operatives as healers very much in reserve until I can see hard numbers from an actual combat log.

I would like to point out that the Dev's during the Guild Summit did talk about Mouseover healing and it is something that is in the works and they are planning on implementing. There is no ETA on it - but the point is that they are working on it, just be patient.

Its the same thing you can do with Combat Logs from WoW and is how they are handled/managed. Without the use of Recount to convert the Combat Log ingame, this is the only other method to review encounters. It logs the Combat Log to a file on your computer - which you then can look at and review. It is pulling live numbers and putting it into a text format, plain and simple.

Did you even bother to listen to their reasoning behind this? Honestly, I think it's a great solution to much of the commentary on the forums about Combat Logs in game. Minimizes the ability of people to spam and epeen about their DPS/HPS but gives min/maxers a tool to evaluate and improve themselves.

Yes, there will be combat logs and it was stated. In game you will have access to some very basic information (not actual numbers - but info on if you died to something during a fight, etc). There will be hard information that can be logged to your computer and viewed after the fact to be able to view actual numbers.

The Sorcerer healer in my Guild pointed out something that I think should also be taken into consideration about Sorcerer healers. Many of the encounters make it easy for the entire raid to group up, and stand in one location long enough to take full advantage of AOE healing. Getting full use and duration out of a strong AOE heal will make them feel/appear to be OP and of course the result is for people to cry Nerf. Secondly, they are adjusting the healing effect - as well as the number of players that AoE healing for the other classes will effect - that has potential to bring them more on level with the Sorcerer.

I don't know if this will get lost in the myriad of people telling you to go roll Sage/Sorc over your Merc, but I sure hope it doesn't. As copied from the Feb 17th Q&A: http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-17th-2012 Take that information for what it's worth. Many people have laughed at this as a joke and cried for supporting data to prove this. My first healer to level is a Sorcerer because I picked the Inquisitor as my preference for class and Healing is what I enjoy. I'm currently working on both a Bounty Hunter and Agent but I am not high enough to judge for myself the feel of the classes in comparison. I made my choice on class based off personal preference for what I wanted to play, not based of what is either the Flavor of the Month or by what other people say on the forums - personally I say play what you will enjoy playing the most, and to some extent the type of guild you will be playing with. Even on a serious progression level, with proper gearing, the content is not tuned to such an extreme that you cannot complete it if you're not playing a Sorcerer. Secondly, there are changes incoming to both the Bounty Hunters and Agents - a couple of things have been mentioned in specifics and that other changes are also being planned. Yes, they are increasing the healing done as well as the number of targets.

I <3 my Khem!

The tax OP is referring to is the short lived Hybrid Tax that was implemented in Burning Crusade for any class that could fulfill more than one role (Paladins, Druids, Shamans, Priests, etc). The "Hybrid Tax" is a term used to describe the baked-in reduction of the DPS of classes that can fulfill multiple roles. There is not necessarily a limiting factor that is visible in-game, nor is it a drastic reduction, and may be partially overcome with high skill.

That's the way to handle it, just keep telling people that a class is just bad, don't play it cause they do nothing well. Obviously the non Sorc/Sages are perfectly fine because I've found plenty of people saying they've ran Ops without a Sage/Sorc and found it to be exactly the same. Just stop perpetuating the idea and telling everyone you can tell that X Healer is Pro and the only one worth playing, and Y and Z are useless and worthless. When BW does make some adjustments, no one will be playing them because they will continue in the belief that they're a bad class to play, because they still don't do as much healing, or they don't have as much utility, etc.

Accuracy is for Assassin - as a Sorcerer you do not need Accuracy. Your gear should have Alacrity or Surge on it as a secondary stat. If you're looking at gear sets, make sure you buy the right ones according to set bonus. Gear with Force-Master in its title is DPS gear. Gear with Force-Mystic ini ts title is Healing gear. Ignore the other trolls.

Go do some reading... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=856 Gives spec, gearing, and priority rotation information for all 3 trees for a Sorcerer. Otherwise, you should be using a tanking companion for encounters - use your bubble, and heal when needed. Make sure that companion has level appropriate gear or they will have issues. If you find the mob you're going against likes to do lots of AOE/Ranged damage, you can opt to use Talos to heal you and you can tank, making sure to use your interrupts as needed. Again, don't forget you have a Bubble - use it.

No, not End Game Boss - it's the End Boss of your class quest series.

Maybe, ... just MAYBE, if people stop creating threads about "best healer" and splashing commentary about how Sage/Sorc is the only healer worth playing - or conversely everyone QQ'ing about the other healers being worthless and needing buffs - and instead, spent time playing what they enjoyed - and providing helpful, and useful feedback on their class - that just maybe a few more people would actually enjoy playing other healers. I don't doubt there are some needed changes, and it's already been stated that there will be changes coming, but sitting here telling everyone who reads the forums that the only class worth playing is the Sage/Sorc doesn't help anyone. Nothing bothers me more than to hear someone state that to do Ops runs *requires* a Ssge/Sorc in order, and people perpetuating that line of thought just makes it that much more difficult for other healers to do what they enjoy.

Mouseover healing - without the inclusion of macros) would be a nice bonus to the game for many healers. However, I have been healing for the past few years in WoW on a Resto Druid along with playing a Priest both Disc and Holy. The initial adjustment was awkward for me and it did take some getting used to, but now it's just as easy for me to target using the Ops frame and use keybound heals as it was using mouseover healing. Also, I during any healing intensive fights, regardless of how you heal, you're not doing much of anything except healing, hence the reason it's intensive. You shouldn't be doing - or feeling the need to do anything when you need to be focused on keeping your group alive. It makes some things a little bit more challenging at times, but it's minimal at best. Yes, I would love to see mouseover healing. Until then, I'm going to keep on enjoying my game and not worry about if I have it or not.

At least you're not sparkling...

Stop trying to sensationalize and actually take a moment to read what was said. People are doing something that the Sage/Inquis was NOT INTENDED TO DO. In other words, they are correcting an issue that is resulting in an exploit, NOT NERFING the class.

Every healer is equipped with spells and abilities that will lend it to filling a niche better than another, but at the end of the day, any healer can do what is needed beyond that niche to a certain extent. How well you understand the capabilities of the class you play and the way in which you utilize it will determine how efficiently they can heal any given situation. Anyone reading using this guide should take it and see it as a very simplistic breakdown of each other healing classes and take it with a grain of salt. To players coming from other MMO's, it helps to give you a good indication of what healing style you would prefer and be most comfortable with. For anyone new to the MMO genre, pick what appeals to you and play around with it and see what you are capable of.

I hate to throw WoW into the mix - but for once, I think using it for a reference here might actually provide a useful example. In WoW, they implemented an ability similar to Extricate for Priests - called Life Grip. While Life Grip does not include a threat reduction, it does pull your target to where you are standing. Guess what? It actually proved to be a very unique and extremely useful ability to have. Yes, there are people that will use it with the intention to grief other players, but honestly, the cases of this are minimal. Typically, it's people messing around with their friends, not using it to intentionally ruin someone's game play. The spell is perfectly fine the way it is. There is absolutely no reason to change or remove this spell. The usefulness of this particular ability far outweighs the potential for people to use it wrong. Please, stop being some dramatic and just go back to playing.