Amen...I have god awful amounts of crystals on all 3 of my 50's and nothing really to do with them besides trade them in for gear and sell the gear.

That is a solution to the problem presented by the OP. It will stop people from needing on the tokens that they do not need. I do not understand how you can say that it is not a solution. I also like the idea of locking the need button and adding a 3rd button that says companion for the peeps that want to roll for companions but cant need on it. Possibly make the companion button slightly higher than greed on the priority list and gray the button out if there is no companion that can use the gear in your companion list. All of those ideas can help curb greedy people and help gear people that need it.

I agree to some extent that Sage healing has taken a hit. That being said I also agree with the flip side in that you either adapt to the game mechanics or play another class. I for one have not shelved my healer and my gear is full Columni. The gear differential is only noticeable in HM's when you only get one healer. In Ops, some of the gear differential can be covered up by the other healer if they are decently geared. The only complaint that I have is that our force management took a nerf when it really did'nt have too. If the Devs are worried about hybrid classes being OP, then do what they did with some of the other classes and put the skills higher up in the healing tree so that you cannot possibly get to them if you are a hybrid. Just my 2 cents

+32 power, to me, is not that big of a difference when you are talking healing. +32 Alacrity was more of an important factor pre 1.2, but now, Sages just don't have to worry about stacking as much of these stats. If you are lacking in the power/alacrity department, then maybe it would be a good idea to have some extra stats put into this area. I would not sacrifice the 2 or 4 set bonus at this point in time to get a little extra power/alacrity though. +50 to force is an additional 2 to 3 heals and the cd reduction of HT from the 2 piece bonus means you will be able to use it more often. I believe the diminishing returns on crit is capped at 40% and surge at 60% so if you are over the DR cap on crit/surge you might want to reduce those a little and toss the extra into power/alacrity. Basically, what you want to try to do, be it pvp or pve, is balance out your stats and get them as close to the DR cap as possible. You were right to stack crit/surge first, but now it is time to try and get some balance with the other stats. I would say if you have to choose, take alacrity over power as alacrity not only speeds up your casted heals but also makes your HT tick faster, acting almost as a single heal with the added benefit of crit chances on each tick. Good Luck

Tell your friend the easiest thing to do is try to stay leveled 1 to 2 levels higher than the planet he is on. He can do this a few different ways as the previous posters have mentioned already. That being said, I started with my first 10 points in vigilance. The remaining 31 went into defense as a I leveled. I found that if you do this you can blow through ALL of the quests up to level 20. By then, you are leveled well past the starting level for the next planet and you just keep doing that from planet to planet. I used Kira exclusively until level 40, and after that only used Doc on the harder fights like champs and multiple elites. It only took me 2 weeks of playing almost everyday and only 3-6 hours a day to get to 50. I realize most peeps do not have that kind of playing time, but, with a little more time spent on each planet your friend will find himself on Correlia finishing up his class quest in no time. Hope this helps!

Personally, I think you should roll with whatever armor set you like. If you are wearing orange and a green drops that you like the look of, you can always wear the green while doing your solo act and switch to your moded orange gear when you are in groups and you need the stats. My Guardian is at 43 now and flying towards 50 and I have only changed my oranges out 2 times. I have even passed on better orange gear that dropped for me in FP's because I like having a cape/hood rather than a robe/hood. Just remember to keep your armoring mods up to date and keep your eye out for more orange gear that you like the look of for your toon. Hope this helps ya

It has been my experience that you do not need to complete a normal mode to get into HM. The only exception would be Maelstrom Prison needing Taral V to be completed first as part of the Jedi Prisoner quest chain. Me personally, as a Sage healer, I did a few normals while leveling to get gear and I also did about a weeks worth of dailies to get some of the armoring upgrades for my orange gear. The normal modes will teach you guys how the encounters go and what mechanics each boss brings for their encounter. Plus, you will get level 49-50 gear that is probably better than the greens that your group has on now. Oh, and one more thing, you said you were in Champ gear? If you are going to PvE a little, it would not hurt to get some pieces of gear from normal modes that are PvE so you can get rid of the resilience stat on your pvp gear. All resilience is doing for you in PvE is taking up a stat slot that you could use for one of your secondary stats for your particular choice in class. Hope this helps ya.