This is what worries me about rolling a healer. Like about 2 million other people that Blizzard admits left WoW, I got tired of the ridiculous imbalances. Waiting until wh gear to be viable, only to find DPS are much more viable, does not make a happy healer. This game includes both PvE and PvP, and a role should be viable in both aspects .... that is, able to contribute. Being able to cast up to two heals maximum (players experiences in other threads) before death is not contributing.

Thank you for the replies. I shall no doubt end up as a healer in some form, as always. You have addressed my main concerns ... fun and viability. Hopefully they shall tweak any overdone nerfage soonest. I have been looking at IA for healing, but engineering sounds like a lot of fun too. No shortage of choices.

Having greatly enjoyed beta, I was happy when I was finally able to purchase and play SWTOR. Just in time for patch 1.2 ... and the news is not encouraging. Simply stated, SWTOR's "vision" sounds frighteningly like that of another game; reward DPSers, punish healers. This is ensured by making PvE healing more work than fun, and rewarding DPS more than healers in PvP. Long cast times, low damage mitigation, susceptibility to chain interrupts and chain CC ... that is why I stopped healing and eventually quit another game. Oh well, 29 "free" days left and maybe tanks or an Engineer will be fun.