What level are you?

Hey -- I have a level 27 Sawbones Scoundrel, and this is the first healer I've ever played in an MMO. At this point, I'd like to gauge exactly where I stand as a healer, so I can decide whether my tactics are sound or if I need to re-evaluate my approach. If you're willing, please post up your average healing totals in WZ's, your personal best in WZ's, your level, and your class/tree (if your best healer is not a Scoundrel). Needless to say, I'd like to keep exaggerated numbers to a minimum; I'm not here to pass judgement, simply to gather data from the SWTOR healing community as a whole. To start, I am a Level 27 Sawbones Scoundrel who averages about 150K in WZ's, and my personal best was 215K. Thanks.

Hey -- I have a level 27 Sawbones Scoundrel, and this is the first healer I've ever played in an MMO. At this point, I'd like to gauge exactly where I stand as a healer, so I can decide whether my tactics are sound or if I need to re-evaluate my approach. If you're willing, please post up your average healing totals in WZ's, your personal best in WZ's, your level, and your class/tree. Needless to say, I'd like to keep exaggerated numbers to a minimum; I'm not here to pass judgement, simply to gather data from the SWTOR healing community as a whole. To start, I am a Level 27 Sawbones Scoundrel who averages about 150K in WZ's, and my personal best was 215K. Thanks.

Yeah, I usually don't HoT *everybody*, but I'll double the tanks and HoT as many people as I can. Tanks and people around 75% who aren't taking too much dmg usually get priority. But, basically, I'll focus on HoTs rather than EMP and UWM. (My earlier post describes my reasoning behind this tactic) Also, thanks for the input on Kolto Cloud. I'll keep it in mind.

I'm only level 35 and so most of my experience comes from sub-35 content and PvP warzones, but my friend has let me use his level 50 sawbones (a while ago, to "test" it out before deciding on my class). From what I've seen, Kolto Cloud is a very limiting power, and it's not really worthwhile, in terms of the range, the number of targets, and (esp) the energy drain. I also spec into Scrapper for Surprise Comeback instead of Dirty Fighting. This is because I *always* have Pugnacity on (more on this later), and Surprise Comeback effectively turns Pugnacity into an energy regen power that also HoTs for 30% of my own health. Just wondering; how do Pugnacity and Cool Head play into your rotations? These two are major assets which will keep your energy very high for a very long time. If you're not turning on Pugnacity the second the icon lights up, you're wasting free energy regen (and, if you get Surprise Comeback like I do, a free HoT). I'd strongly advise you to focus on using SRMP extensively -- very extensively. Obviously, it *is* impossible to double-SRMP entire operations (8-man team x 2 SRMP = 16 SRMPs = outrageous). But, I always start out double-SRMPing the tanks. With the buff to SRMP (30% chance to upperhand per tick x SRMPs spaced out on 4+ targets = virtually never lose upperhand), the more SRMPs you cast and the less UWMs, the better. It minimizes the need to spam UWM -- if their health is at 85% and they're not drawing aggro, what's the point of burning UWM-sized energy to heal them to 100% (with some leftover healing wasted, mind you) only to have them drop back to 85% next time they take a hit? Wouldn't it be better to do the same healing over time on the offchance that they take another hit soon, thereby keeping that leftover healing from going to waste? What's so urgent about 75-85% health that you need to plant for 2s (eliminating the advantage of being a mobile healer) and burn 25 energy on an instant heal, then burning the UH on your EMP as soon as they take another hit? Keeping that UH gives me a 3% healing boost on all ticks from my HoTs (from Healing Hand). More importantly, by using SRMP to get UH and then Pugnacity, I'm able to have moments where I sit back and let my energy regen at great speed because the SRMP keeps everybody topped, meaning that as soon as things start getting hectic again, I'll be at 100% energy and not 75% because I didn't just burn a UWM over-healing somebody who was already at 80% health. UWM is something I save for targets that are getting focused and/or are between 35-75% health; EMP's are for targets that are in real trouble. Even if their health is at 50%-ish and they're drawing aggro, I'll only rotate UWM+EMP to about 75% then I'll cast a double-SRMP and watch to see if the aggro starts going to somebody else who I'll then have to focus on. SRMP is my invest-in-the-future heal -- it builds my UH's without draining my energy too much, sets me up to activate pugnacity, and, if the target is close to 85%-ish, it's enough to bring them back to 100% health and gives me a helping hand if they suddenly start drawing aggro. Here's my decision-making process (more or less): >30% health --> EMP 30 - 50% health --> UWM <15% energy --> Cool Head 50 - 75% health and taking damage --> UWM then double-SRMP, then keep UWM/EMPing until they're in the clear upper-hand --> pugnacity 50 - 75% health and not taking damage --> double-SRMP 75+ and taking damage --> double-SRMP and (maybe) one UWM at my discretion 75+ and not taking damage --> single-SRMP Since you're a higher level than me, obviously, your experiences might be drastically different from mine, and I hope that what I've said isn't totally like "well duh" or "that's ridiculous" advice to you, nor was I trying to be redundant & repeat myself (although in retrospect maybe I was). But maybe my ideas/rotations/tactics help you a bit, and, if you *do* decide to test out my methods, I was hoping for some feedback on how effective it is at your higher level.

Looking for advice -- Do you feel that Kolto Cloud is useless? I'm thinking about just not taking it ever, and I want to now how that would pan out for me. As of right now, my rotation revolves mostly around double-SRMP on tank, single-SRMP on all others (double if I have time), maintaining Pugnacity, using Cool Head as energy panic-button, and using EMP and UWM in situations where health is below 30%/75%, respectively.

What's your rotation and how are you specced? That might be influencing your performance as a healer. I've found that Sawbones is more nuanced than most healing classes, but, if well-planned and executed, is just as viable.

Can you tell me how you specced your healer and what your rotations are so I can maybe give you some advice for healing?

I can see his point though. I mean, Anakin Skywalker absolutely ruined the dark side for me.

But... WoW isn't TOR. For my own reference, why do you expect the "good side" of TOR to mirror the "good side" of WoW? Also, I've played only a bit of WoW. Is Alliance really that underpowered?

So, maybe it's just me, but a general pattern I've seen is that people tend to favor the Empire over the Republic. On my own server, I would estimate that Imps outnumber Pubs about 1.8 to 1. For those of you who only roll Imp or who have an Imp for a main, what's your reasoning behind rolling Imp? Also, for reference, my main is a Smuggler/Scoundrel, and I've rolled a Knight/Guardian and an Inquisitor/Assassin as my alts.

The Holo-call isn't glitched. The reason some options are grayed out during Holo-call is that, according to the laws of physics, a formation of light (i.e. a holo-gram) can't actually fire/swing/use a weapon. So, the devs deliberately chose to limit your options if you choose to communicate with NPCs via Holocall.

As a Scoundrel who has specc'ed into Scrapper, how good are your healing abilities? Obviously, you don't expect to be as excellent as a Sawbones Scoundrel, but, right now, as a Level 18 Scrapper, I find that occasionally going off-script and improvising as a healer can be necessary. It seems to me that Corso can be a little squishy if you don't keep an eye on his health, and, if SWTOR turns out like WoW, there will be a drastic demand for healers and tanks. In short, my question is this: At Level 50, is the Scrapper any good at healing? Can I fill a role on a team as a decent-ish healer? If needed, can I off-heal? Or are your healing abilities basically useless at that stage? Also, who is your favorite companion to use at 50?

Well, as I said before, even though I mostly spec into Scrapper, I focus mostly on healing in PvE. I want to be able to do a few attacks for massive damage at the beginning, then I let Corso tank while I heal. Outside of my opening attacks, the only time I'll DPS is with low-cost abilities when I don't have enough energy to heal. Mostly I spam Underworld Medicine and follow it up with Kolto Pack, but I find that my energy runs out pretty quickly. However, I rather enjoy that role quite a bit. Pure-DPSing with Scrapper draws a LOT of aggro and, frankly, I think Corso can be a little squishy if you don't keep an eye on his health anyway, and, obviously, our tank dying is very, very bad for us Smugglers. I think that maybe DPS will become more viable as a full-time role once I get deeper into Scrapper (i.e.: Sucker Punch), but, regardless, I want to be able to act as a decent main healer or a very good off-healer without going to far into Sawbones. I feel like it would really increase my ability to work within a team or even solo. Which is why I initially created this thread: Is it possible to focus on Scrapper but still function as a decent healer by spamming UWM and Kolto Pack?

Just wondering, as a DPS Scoundrel, what do you do after the first sneak attack to keep pouring on the damage?