A Few examples: I focus on Healing, but I will add DPS to focus down targets if it will not endanger my team. If I find a target of opportunity (nearly dead w/ no DPS on them), I will use a GCD or two for a Backblast and Pistol Whip to finish them off. Many times in Huttball I will switch to DPS to help Focus the ball Carrier. In Voidstar, I tend to add more DPS when attacking the door, and pretty much only heal when defending. Now, I am not going to DPS if people are in danger, but if there are only 1-2 enemies up, the sooner we can clear them, the better chance we have to plant. In a heal heavy team, I will DPS. Generally, if you have 3-4 healers and a tank or two, nobody on either side is dying. Although my DPS is not great, energy is better spent on that then making sure my team stays at 100% hps instead of 80%. In Civil War, if I am solo guarding a Node and only one Imp tries to take it, I am going to kill him. In any match, if our side is not taking a lot of damage, and no one on the enemy side is going down either, I will HoT up my team and harass the enemy healer. I won't kill him, but I can sometimes distract him enough that he lets someone die. I normally have about 200k-300k Healing, 50k-100k DPS and lots of CC and running to Hotspots depending on the match. If only healing (Voidstar or some Civil Wars) I am about 300k-400k with under 20K damage, and I am also not doing much of anything else but Healing. I feel that being flexible adds more to the team then just being a healbot, unless what the team needs is a healbot.

As a Sawbones healer, I was considered Under Powered pre 1.2, but I thought I was doing just fine in WZs. Post 1.2 I am considered Over Powered but feel like I am about the same as Pre 1.2. IMO, 3 things changed to give this impression: 1. Sages and Commandos were nerfed down to Sawbones level. That is not to say that they should not tweak Commando or Sage healing a bit (Particularly Commandos), but I think the level that a Sawbones is at is the correct target level. 2. Expertise was adjusted. Even though this is a bit painful for all healing classes, it was needed to that you did not have 0-0 Voidstar matches where no one dies at upper expertise levels. 3. There are more Marauder's now. As a Sawbones I can survive w/o hard casts. Sages and Commandos are more reliant on Hard casts and a Marauder's 6 second interrupt will severely impact them. As a Sawbones, a Concealment Operative gives me the most problems, but they are in short supply right now. As a Sawbones, I still envy the other classes at times. I have survivalbility and mobility, but they have some great utility. I have learned how to be effective in Huttball, but I would love the knockbacks, pulls and force speed of a a Sage. I would love to have the knockbacks and interrupt immunity shield of a Commando.

Pretty similar experience on Ajunta Pall as a Republic. Average Win Rate: 35% (60-70% vs most Imperials, 0-5% vs Mouretsu Premades) Average Run Time: ~8-12 mins Valor Rank: 72 Queue status: PuG 95% of the time Current Gear 2 WH pieces, the rest BM

No kidding. I saw this earlier and figured everyone else would see the joke and the thread would quickly die.

Last night in a Voidstar we had successfully defended the first door. Pretty even matchup on teams. A few minutes in while we were attacking, it continued to be a stalemate. After a death, I noticed there was no one visible on the E door. I assumed that there was a Stealth near by, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I stealth up (Sawbones) and start to cap. I get attacked and survive for a bit before a second comes over to finish me off. He leaves after I am dead. I continue to do this 2-3 times in a row. Soon there are two always on the E door. I am dying pretty quickly (Good DPS. If they were bad DPS I can run them around for a while) I always head out unstealthed and stealth within view/ and then vary when I attack/mez. After getting them into a rhythm, I stealth and turn to the W door. I am bad DPS, but adding a bit and making sure we do not lose anyone, we were able to quickly cap 8 vs 6 and win. This doesn't always work. But in a stalemate or a losing position, I will take a gamble like this once in a while.

As a Rep Sawbones, I do feel your pain. I normally lead damage taken by a fair amount in most WZs, and I mostly solo Que. I get Guarded sometimes, and cross healed, but for the most part, I consider that a nice bonus. With that said, I like healing. I like being considered that important that the Sith all want to High Five my face with their lightsabers. It's a challenge, and it can be very frustrating at times, but I like it.

As a Sawbones, we got some Quality of life adjustments with Upperhand stacking. Not a huge performance increase if you were good at managing your Upperhands. Our AoE got a 10% buff and ticks faster, although the recharge was increased to maintain the same HPS over time. Our free heal is a bit better, but still mainly just a filler hoping for Crits to regain energy. IMO, the big improvement was not documented. We no longer have to wait 10 seconds after Vanish to be able to heal or be healed. Once we leave stealth we can heal again. Before 1.2, if you Vanished, you were letting your team go w/o heals for 10 seconds. We lost 3% crit and 2% HPs on talents (Not everyone took them, but they were in my build). Also, a bug that was corrected that let Triage heal us for 2x what it does now. This was an instant cast that healed for a decent amount as well as wiping off debuffs. This is not to mention the changes to expertise, and DPS increasing better relative to heals. I would say that it is about a wash. I am a bit better group healer since the AoE heal is worth taking, but I have less personal survival due to Triage fix, some less HP and crit and losing the heal attached to Pugnacity in favor of the AoE. Although surviving and effectively healing is a bit harder now, I like the challenge now. We did not go up in power as much as the other two healers were brought down to our level. With all that said, I can still survive 2-3 bad DPS, but one good DPS can at least take me out of the fight, if not kill me outright. Ironically, I do not fear Marauders more then any other well played class, but I am very wary of a good concealment Operative. I know that Operatives are a bit lacking now in some areas, but from a targets point of view, they have a place taking out healers.

It seems like that. I guess it really does not matter, I just did not realize how much I was getting singled out until I started checking the damage taken numbers.

I am probably biased because I play a Sawbones, but I think the overall healing is fine now. Pre 1.2 I was putting up around 300K healing when focused on healing, where the other classes were putting out 450k or more. I tended to play a Hybrid build more since there were a lot of healers and I could adjust for whatever the team needs were at the time. I would put up around 200k Healing and 100k damage. With 1.2, Sawbone's AoE became more viable, although we lost about 1/2 our heal off of a bugged Instant Triage that was fixed. I feel that we came out about even. I switched to full Sawbones since healers were in shorter supply now. I am still healing about 300k, and those are about the same numbers I am seeing from other classes as well now. At 300K healing, I am still a benefit to my team. I am constantly focused, and really have trouble keeping some one up that is focused. I need Underworld medicine and all HoTs pre stacked to have a chance of keeping someone up that is focused, along w/ using my CC intelligently. Of course, it is rare that I can get off an Underworld Medicine vs a good group. I have to work my tail off to keep everyone up, and sometimes, I just can't. Overall, it is a bit more challenging now, but it feels like healing is where it should be. It can turn a close battle, but it is not overpowering like it was before. IMO, Sages and Mercs did take a hard hit. But they were just brought down to Sawbones level of healing. I think that as people adjust playing styles and learn how to adapt to the changes, all three healers will be viable.

I have never seen myself marked by the opposition, but I consistently take the most damage in WZs, some times as much as 2x the next highest person on my team. Is there any indication to show when you have been marked? Thanks

I actually think that the Sawbones is pretty sturdy. I was running a hybrid build until 1.2 w/ the increase in the AoE, and now I am a full Sawbones. Normally in WZs I am Top heals, or close to it. If I just focus on heals, I can pretty easily get Top heals, but after playing Hybrid for so long, I tend to add DPS and CC if no one is in danger of dying. I am also generally top Damage taken, and near the bottom of deaths. Well, except when I face our servers top premade. Then I just get top damage taken In Huttball, I prefer not to be a ball carrier, but can generally survive 10-15 seconds if just against a few DPS and have all my CDs up. I can not survive 3+ very long at all. In Civil war, I am fairly confident solo Guarding a Turret, able to buy enough time for help to arrive. Ironically, the only class that I really worry about are Concealment Ops/Smugglers. I do tend to move all the time, except when casting Underworld Medicine, Orbital Strike, Sab Charge and Charged Burst. We may not be DPS, but more then a few times Sab and Charged have brought down a ball carrier that though he was free and clear. Orbital is great area denial. It did take me a while to get comfortable with the playstyle though. It is not very intuitive since many of your abilities do not seem to mesh very well at first. I leveled up as a Sawbones, but I would imagine that it would be even tougher to level as a Concealment and switch to Sawbones. If you are interested in healing, give it a try. IMO, a very fun and diverse experience.

Good discussion and question OP. What if we changed the question a bit though? How may healers should it take to defeat a DPS?

I think that elite players should have lesser gear so that they can actually be challenged by opposition. Winners should be rewarded more Valor and Credits, but the loser should be rewarded more Coms. Great players will have a challenge , and less skilled players will have a reason to stick around. This is the way professional leagues work. Strive for a balanced playing field.

I should be doing research? I was testing to see how much you really know. There are three HoTs that a Smuggler/Ops can take. One of those which can stack 2 times. No build can have all 3 HoTs in the same build. Bet you don't know what the third HoT is w/o looking it up

Could you please name these 4 HoTs?

Actually as a Sawbones, I don't notice a huge difference in healing from now to before 1.2. Survivability is actually down due to increase in DPS. Healing a group is actually a bit more challenging now, which I think is a good thing. Before 1.2 we were considered a sub par healer that could do okay in PvP due to instant casts. With the nerf to the other healers, and a minor bump to us, now we are OP?

I know that seems like a stupid question, and the simple answer is that they earned it because they are the best. How does this affect balance though? If Player A can beat Player B 8 times out of 10 times, why would you want to give player A more of an advantage through gear? Is it really more fun for either player for Player A to beat Player B 10 out of 10 times without Player A even having to put out much effort? IMO, I think you will have Player B quit from frustration, and Player A quit from boredom. What if Player B got better gear, and now Player A only beat Player B 6 out of 10 times. Wouldn't that be more fun for both sides? Or would Player A just get frustrated because his winning percentage would go down? I know that people PvP for various reasons, and I can not hope to understand what motivates all other players. But it seems that as a general rule, many people that PvP tend to enjoy matches that are tightly contested. For me personally, I enjoyed the 0-1 Huttball match we lost tonight much more then the Civil War match where the other side just gave up after we took two turrets. Of course, winners should be rewarded. For some, winning itself is the reward, but for most I believe that some sort of trophy makes the win much more tangible. My only question is why can't the reward be something that does not increase the imbalance of warzones? Or perhaps the current system along with a handicap to balance out the matches? I suppose that when we get ranked WZs, most of the issues of imbalance will go away, assuming there is a large enough player base to keep the que times reasonable. But the system is still flawed imo. I am not writing this as a personal complaint. I had no issues as a fresh 50, nor do I feel Godlike as a geared Battlemaster. I believe that skill (or lack thereof) trumps gear in most cases. I just do not understand why most MMO's follow the same system that tends to further exaggerate differences in skill by giving the best gear to those that need it the least. Just curious how others feel about this.

Agree with both points. I was guarding W in CW, and see one 1 Inc. I think I can probably solo him, but yell "1 Inc w" anyway just so the team is informed. Next think you know, there are 4-5 people running to W. Before I could get to Mid, knowing whats going to happen, Mid has already been capped.

A 4 min Huttball vs some very good Imps on our server. I don't really care about the lack of comms, but just another example of how the system does not work when your team is severely outmatched in a quick WZ. Notice that the match was so quick that one player on the winning team did not get anything either. http://flic.kr/p/bNcnUn

I was more looking for if you would prefer to Win w/ Less Coms, or Lose to gain more Coms.

Just curious what people value. If you had to choose between these two outcomes, which would you choose and why? WIN 5000 Prestige 5000 Credits 50 Commendations LOSE 0 Prestige 1000 Credits 100 Commendations

On Voidstar, as a healer, I generally prefer to heal those fighting at the door from a distance, and not standing next to the door where the AoEs are going off and basically self marking yourself as a target. Again, in most matches I have no problem getting 10+ medals. In the matches where your team just does not have a chance, I have walked away a few times with 0 medals. The system is fine as long as the match is somewhat competitive. IMO, the real issue is that the top Premades all came out to test 1.2 and start working towards WH gear. That is giving some people some very bad experiences on the other side, with nothing to show for it. That is what is highlighting issues in a system that was designed for a rated WZ environment where matches are theoretically going to be somewhat even.

On Voidstar, as a healer, I generally prefer to heal those fighting at the door from a distance, and not standing next to the door where the AoEs are going off and basically self marking yourself as a target. Again, in most matches I have no problem getting 10+ medals. In the matches where your team just does not have a chance, I have walked away a few times with 0 medals. The system is fine as long as the match is somewhat competitive. IMO, the real issue is that the top Premades all came out to test 1.2 and start working towards WH gear. That is giving some people some very bad experiences on the other side, with nothing to show for it. That is what is highlighting issues in a system that was designed for a rated WZ environment where matches are theoretically going to be somewhat even.

By doing what? Getting KBs that even the DPS couldn't get? Maybe he should stop healing and switch to DPS. Apparently DPS is the only contribution that matters anymore. I will say that as Sawbones I have experienced both ends. For the most part, PvP has been fine for me. I do help DPS to FF targets down if I can take a quick 3 seconds or so break from healing. I think that at times it is more efficient to DPS, CC or do other non healing duties. The one exception is the 10 games I played in a Pug getting rolled by the best Guilds Premades over and over. In those cases, I had a choice. Contribute and try to get an unlikely win, bail on the group, or farm medals. I continued to try for the win, but it was frustrating know that I was sacrificing any rewards just to play the game the way it was designed to be played. If you have not been in a PuG that just can not compete, you will not see the issues.

As a PvP Sawbones healer, the main difference I see is that people go down faster. I do feel a bit sorry for Sages right now. Versus normal to good teams, there is not much of a difference. But versus very good teams, I rarely can get Underworld Medicine off, even with attempting fake casts first. At least I have multiple instants to fall back on. I do not envy Sages that have to hard cast. Has anyone heavily invested in Alacrity and noticed much of a difference? One think I actually do like is that I have to work my tail off to keep people up now. Although somewhat frustrating at times, it does make the game more interesting for me.