It's Olok the shadow, not Olock

I have a different opinion than most it seems for stat targets when it comes to healing on a Sage. It is my belief that after buffs, stims, datacrons, and willpower augments that you want : 30% crit chance, @450 surge rating, and then dump the rest into alacrity. While the math on the spreadsheets is correct, healing doesn't happen in a vacuum and is subject to a lot of variables, which in my opinion makes the spreadsheet models mostly insignificant when talking about actually healing an encounter.

I read the disclaimer about hypothetical and variations and such, but most people will take this thread as saying use such and such stats and gear. So what's the point of figuring all this out since it doesn't translate properly to the actual game play. Based on what you're saying and the disclaimer this threads existence is basically pointless and misleading. I'm here to tell you that math in a spreadsheet is nice, but in the real world of actually playing the game, it's not accurate like a dps rotation/spreadsheet is. Just because something is proven by math on paper does not mean it translates to practical use. Thus, I'm making the claim that the BiS stats for the actual healing done in game and not the spreadsheet, is not what these players are suggesting rather it is what I'm suggesting. So the valid conclusion is that this thread is misleading for players looking to figure out how to get the best performance out of the sage healing class.

I would recommend you go with crit chance at 30%, surge rating around 450, and the rest in alacrity. The theorycrafting spreadsheets say otherwise, but I don't agree with them translating to an actual boss fight. I've just posted a longer response to that in Nibbon's healing thread.

I haven't seen anyone argue the point here in Nibbon's thread or in Orderken's compendium so I'm going to. While I agree with the Math they both do to arrive at what they are calling the BiS gear for healing Sage/Sorc, I do not agree in actuality that it is BiS. Stealing a saying from my guildie Fenrir/Hippolyta, "Dps is a science, Healing is an art, Tanking is strategy." What I mean by this is they can all analyze numbers from spreadsheets and whatnot, but only dps can be the most trusted. Healing is an art... you can run all the numbers you want in whatever spreadsheet, but it's all going to be based on constant casting and standing still, which is not at all how the actual healing goes in fights. Every boss pull is different. Sometimes dps will do a great job of avoiding dmg they can avoid and sometimes they won't. Sometimes tanks will take spiky dmg and sometimes they won't. Sometimes tanks and dps will take this dmg at the same time and sometimes they won't. Sometimes the tanks will stay close to full hp for a short while and the raid won't be taking dmg or significant dmg. You get the point. So I think we can agree that you are not healing every single second of the fight. You are not constantly standing still. You might even be adding in a little extra dmg if the fight and force management allows for it. During periods of intense dmg it would actually be beneficial to have a burst in healing, something that crit helps make possible in a small time frame as opposed to over the entire fight. So yes I'm saying the numbers and the belief of having 0 crit rating is wrong and not BiS as far as a healer painting the best masterpiece they can since healing is art and not science. So in my opinion based on hours of raiding, when you're buffed and stimmed you want your crit to be about 30%, which is just shy of 300 crit rating. You then went surge to be at the soft cap of 450 rating. The rest you dump into alacrity because while it's certainly useful, it's importance is over-stated and the spreadsheet is more of an artificial intelligence healer, unable to account for the variability that is damage taken and thus healing done. Consider this situation: Tank is taking huge hits like NiM DG, NiM Kephess, and NiM TFB. Tank is real low like 5-8k hp. The 0 crit all power heal lands and doesn't crit. My build with crit lands and doesn't crit. Ok I'll guess your heal does 600 more healing and lands on the tank for @7k. However I will have about 4-5% more chance for my heal to crit and if it does it will heal for @10k. That could easily make the difference in that tank dying or living. So... My current stats buffed, stimed, willpower augments, and all the willpower datacrons and +10 datacron: 1135.2 Bonus Healing 30.12% Crit Chance (291 crit rating) 73.36% Crit Multiplier (488 crit rating) 8.5 Force Regen Rate (330 alacrity rating) 6.51% Alacrity (330 alacrity rating) Current gear is min 72's. (75) Ear 1 (75) Implant (75) armoring in Boots and Bracers 2 (75) Mods 2 (75) Enhancements

I agree with everyone else that it does not require even a second of the devs time to take a look at it. I have not had any problem with force management in regards to losing hp from noble sacrifice. The only time I was having force issues recently was 16m NiM Dread Guards on our earlier attempts because there was too much unnecessary damage being taken by the raid. Once that was fixed I was able to properly manage my force again.

^ This. I mean make me a class rep and give me the dev's email/phone numbers and then I don't even need eric or amber as middle people to pass the questions and answers along between the 2 parties. Now I'm sure they do more than just that, but the point remains it really just looks like they are getting the community to do part of their job for them, but not sharing any of their salary with these reps.

Um, what? That doesn't make any sense. So sometimes you are unable to provide answers which is why it may appear you are remaining quiet, but Class Reps will solve that problem? They will magically make you able to provide answers? and sometimes even when you provide answers, the community feels the question they tried to ask is ignored so Class Reps will solve that problem? They will magically change your answers so that it addresses the question they originally asked? Dude, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and I can't believe you actually wrote that and posted it for the public to see. You are USING, yes using, the class reps to be secretaries and organize all the class questions so you don't have to read through forum posts. The community team has been a disaster since the game launched. Recently posting within 24 hours of 2.2.2 that the patch was planned to be delayed a day because of 4th of July because you forgot to let us know what was already planned how long in advance?

True story

Also depend on how much damage dps take as in are they avoiding mechanics that cause dmg. Another factor is the skill of all the healers. Having a weaker healer or two with two strong ones means the strong ones will have higher ehps. I would bet for alot of our kills the healers are not over 3k ehps, even DG. If your question was just for healing a tank then I don't know. None of our healers are specifically assigned to heal a tank and only a tank.

No, you subtract the Absorbed from the amount it says it hit for to get how much it actually hits for so he got hit for 34420.

There is aoe dmg often shortly after the jump (within 3 seconds)

Hrm found one attempt where i got hit by it, but it hit me for 37997 (6128 absorbed). I had no rejuv so no increased armor.

Dude, full 72's with full hp and a bubble that is casted when you get the reticle and you live. Granted I'm a healer so my bubble is better, but if that's the difference than get bubbled by a healer. It doesn't one shot you. I'm a sage and I can tell you when all those things are true it doesn't one shot me. It leaves me close to dead though and if he does his aoe dmg after the jump before I get a heal then I probably die.

/signed. Once NiM comes out, a progression guild can't run HM on it's mains to gear up say a new recruit or a healer who now needs dps armorings with set bonuses. Also a player that is doing NiM content can't help out other guildies, friends, or the public with any HM runs. They need separate lockouts!

If I get the red reticle, then I cast a bubble on myself. I will be almost dead after. Usually I'll have my self heal up and/or another healer is looking to heal me. I know when someone else, sage or whatever, gets targeted... I bubble them and prepare to throw a heal on them right after they take the dmg. It's tough, but doable. That's what happens in NiM.

Oh I know he's not linked to Frog. I have no problem with you guys at all. I like Mana and Weenea and frequent their streams. I was merely pointing out that the signature he removed showed he was on the same sever as Frog and it appeared as if he's just unhappy that a US guild beat out a EU guild. No worries man.

You shut your mouth when you're talking to Thinmints! He's our raid leader and is probably responsible for most of our strategy so your intelligence comment is badly misplaced. As for competition, we never were more than 1 boss ahead of Frog and Chosen. We killed DG, then they kill DG. We killed Operator and then they did as well. We killed Kephess and then they did as well and we know we killed TFB first so it sure seems like 3 guilds were very much in a competitive race. The inaccuracies of your comments along with being on the same server as Frog hints that you're really just butt hurt that we cleared it before they did. If my assumption is wrong, oh well... but that's really what it looks like. GL to everyone else still trying to clear the instance. Keep at it!

Nope. Comes up like the video is 0 seconds long.

Terror From Beyond dead! http://www.twitch.tv/ariss_sg/c/2489092 Excuse the sounds of me hitting my keyboard lol.

For both 8m and 16m progression tracking, guilds should be require to complete the bosses in order on NiM to be given credit for boss kills. Lowering the difficulty on a boss just to get by it because the others are easier is not how progression tracking and racing is meant to be done. So in this case the guild could say they are 4/5 in terms of how many bosses they have killed, but in the progression tracking they should be 1/5 because the 2nd boss, Dread Guard, has not been killed yet. I guess once that boss is killed a guild can then be considered 5/5, but they should not be awarded the point values for the bosses beyond the skipped boss. And since most tracking systems award pts for when you kill bosses and later bosses and final bosses are worth more then I would say the guild needs to rekill those bosses after the 1st kill of the skipped boss and that point in time is when there kill is recorded in the progression tracking.

Should probably just erase this thread because after today, your target dates are just a load of B.S. And yes I know they are "target" but when they are cancelled less than 24 hours before the date that's just epic fail.

Did you guys seriously wait until coming in to work today to try patching for NiM TFB and Server transfers??? WTH have you been doing the last few weeks??? Were you too busy playing WoW??

Just when I think EA/Bioware can't get any worse they do something like this. The patch was taken off the PTS a week ago and they couldn't get it ready for tomorrow??? Look everyone wants a well functioning game, but if there was that much work to do, the release date should have never been so close to the PTS period for the patch. I mean... Before memorial day weekend the PTS goes up along with a forum post. Most people have problems copying and those that do have lock outs and can't do anything anyway. No response over the holiday weekend of course and then less than 1 full week on PTS before the patch is taken down two Sunday's ago. Now the patch still isn't ready?? Just stop all the passive aggressiveness and just come out and say that you want players to cancels their subs and go play some other game because you don't care enough to operate this one properly.

I've only used Willpower augments since augments came out. There was quite a debate on if Willpower or Power augs were BiS and it was Willpower back then and still is. There was never a need to stack crit and now I would not stack alacrity. It's not really that good.