For the up-to-date Guide and Model, see here. I had to split the Guide into two posts, and I no longer update this thread.

I believe that most DPS-classified hybrid healers have 21 points in Corruption to pick up Innervate. If your goal isn't hybrid healing, read on. Creeping Terror and each point in Shapeless Spirit is worth more in damage reduction than any point in Corruption is worth in healing. In the Lightning tree, Electric Induction > Reserves for Force management. 3/3 Electric Induction might also be necessary to forgo Accuracy from gear. In Madness, I'd drop Oppressing Force for 2/2 Corrupted Flesh. In light of my previous comments, you'll no longer have a point available for Sap Strength, anyway. Consider dropping Haunted Dreams for Disintegration. I haven't tried Haunted Dreams since a recent patch improved it, but I hadn't taken it. Your team usually has enough instant CCs to white bar your CC target for days without Whirlwind, and, since you weren't planning on taking Creeping Terror, clearly you're not yet comfortable kiting. A point in Sith Defiance is likely more valuable than a point in a healing skill in Corruption, especially Dark Mending. Without pushback protection, you're not finishing a cast of Dark Infusion without Polarity Shift, so, most of the time, Dark Mending is a trivial reduction in the cost of Dark Heal. Last, for your 5 points in the lowest tier of Corruption, I suspect that Empty Body > Forceweaver. Empty Body buffs healing from DOT crits, Death Field, Unnatural Preservation, or Dark Heal or Infusion.

I agree that an Operative is ideal for NiM DP. But a Mercenary and Sorcerer should pass every round of Raptus's Healing Challenge. Expected healing of the Dying Captive: Sorcerer - 78k Operative - 71k Mercenary - 70k Assumptions for the above: The duration of a Healing Challenge is 15 seconds, and each class's first GCD is for a cleanse that contributes no healing to the Dying Captive. Roughly BIS 186s. Ability cooldowns are used, but not an Adrenal. No Relic is active (proc or clicky). Neither Static Barrier, Kolto Residue, nor Armor buffs reduce the amount of health lost by the Dying Captive. I counted Kolto Residue's +3% healing received for the Mercenary only. For the first round, Force Barrier is your team's Evasion. For the second round, the Sorcerer cleanses the Dying Captive, sets up his two HOTs (Revivification and Resurgence), and cleanses himself. Over the remaining ~9 seconds, the Sorcerer's expected healing of the Dying Captive is 62k. Both Adrenal the second round.

You don't. I've never missed it. Having it isn't necessary for my triage, and it shouldn't be for yours.

For a guide, see the link in my signature. For Arenas, play Balance. For Warzones, Seer is fine, though you might fare better as DPS. A reasonable goals for healing during a Warzone is 750k for Novare Coast or 1m for Hypergate, Civil War, or Voidstar. 300k is "uberbad", and undoubtedly a significant factor in your teams' losses.

As far as I know, Operation Frames must have a multiple of 4 players in each Party/Column. If you disable "Show Health Text", you can shorten the height of each player a lot. For an example, see the screenshot of my UI for 16-man PVE under "Maximizing Your Performance" > "User Interface".

Any class with stealth can plant the seed in time without assistance -- Stealth + Rocket Boots.

You state the point, and then miss it: 20 seconds. No other class has an ability like this, not even tanks. This is on top of AOE damage reduction to such an extent that standing in fire (e.g., purple circles in the final phase of Brontes) can be fine. That's a poor approach. Material class changes seem unlikely before the next major content patch (with a level cap increase and new Operations). Even if changes were on the horizon, it's myopic to ignore any of S&V, DF, or DP, the three Operations released during RotHC, when considering how classes might fare in future Operations. Snipers had incredible advantages for NiM S&V and its secret boss, Hateful Entity. Snipers had advantages for NiM DF, Brontes in particular. For those keeping score, that's two out of three. I could fisk your analysis of NiM DP, but I won't bother. But, seriously, Sorc pull? Moving on... For Council, Sniper DPS is fine. Lethality isn't behind Sorcerer or Mercenary specializations, and you're ignoring the fact that this fight's AOE damage, all of which is Kinetic or Energy until the final burn phase, shreds Sorcerers.

I disagree. While Operation design is an issue for SWTOR, a Sniper's bag of tricks is part of the problem rather than of the solution. Bosses in SWTOR have few mechanics. If every ranged class could shrug off or cheese mechanics like Snipers, it would raise the question whether Operations in SWTOR were for RPing rather than challenging PVE.

For Operations, Snipers' DPS can't be increased as long as a goal of Bioware's is class diversity for progression raiding. For Operations, a Sniper brings: Range (of 35m rather than 30m); Among ranged classes, peerless AOE damage reduction; Immunity to many boss effects through Cover or Entrench; Immunity to most damage on a short cooldown through Covered Escape; Self-purge; Armor debuff; Healing debuff (for Brontes); Diversion to trivialize an add's damage dealt or, for Thrasher, damage immunity; Leg Shot to manage adds; Raid-wide damage reduction through Ballistic Shield. No other DPS comes close to this laundry list of valuable utility. No other DPS comes close to cheesing so many boss effects. Unless you disagree with BioWare's goal of class diversity for progression raiding, Snipers would have to exchange several of the above for higher DPS during Operations.

In general, don't stack with the tank carrying the ball, because a Sorcerer must avoid AOE damage. Heal the ball-carrier from 30 meters in front of him. First, you can Extricate him (once your level is high enough to train this ability). Second, he can advance the ball by passing to you, or, if he's a Juggernaut, by Interceding to you. A Sorcerer is a good ball-carrier with Force Speed + skill Fadeout (and, at higher levels, skill Corrupted Speed). There's no reason for any player to have trouble passing the ball. Some players treat every Warzone as an Arena (i.e., as a deathmatch). How you handle this is up to you. I score or assist with scoring, and let players ignoring objectives die. Heals aren't a human right; a player who wants healing should be worthy of it.

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The formula for the maximum amount of damage absorbed by Shield Probe at level 55 is: 2.61 * Bonus Healing + 11180 * 0.13 For an Agent, without relic procs, full Brutalizer provides up to 1003.6 Bonus Healing. This means that Shield Probe absorbs up to 4073 damage. Increase this amount by 10% if you have the PVP 2-piece Medic's set bonus, 30% if you have 2 points in the Lethality skill "Augmented Shields", or 40% if you have both. Shield Probe is comparable to Static Barrier as a self-heal. The formula for Static Barrier at level 55 is: 3.27 * Bonus Healing + 11180 * 0.164 For a DPS Sorcerer, without relic procs, full Brutalzier provides up to 991.3 Bonus Healing. This means that Static Barrier absorbs up to 5075 damage. Increase this amount by 10% if you have 2 points in the Lightning skill "Lightning Barrier". For a Concealment Operative (without the PVP 2-piece Medic's set bonus), Shield Probe is off the GCD, is free, absorbs up to 4073 damage, and has a cooldown of 20 seconds. For a Madness Sorcerer, Static Barrier uses a GCD, costs 13% of your maximum Force, absorbs up to 5075 damage, and has a cooldown of 20 seconds.

I standardized the formatting across the 3 models to ease comparison of the classes' abilities. The updated models may be downloaded through the links in my signature.

BIS is similar to your current gear: 3 items with Surge and 7 with Alacrity. As I wrote in the Guide (see "PVE" > "BIS Gear" > "Surge versus Alacrity"), the alternative is 4 items with Surge and 6 with Alacrity. The alternative's expected output is only about one-third of a percent lower than BIS's, and the difference in activation times isn't noticeable.

Both of your healers have room to improve, because Nightmare Dash'Roode can be solo healed by a skilled healer of any class in 168 gear. It's also likely that your group is taking a phenomenal amount of unnecessary damage from the Sandstorm. Each of your healers should peruse a guide for his class. Commando Sage

Of course. Happy to help.

For your Sage, today I added advice for healing Nightmare DP to my guide. I discuss Raptus's Healing Challenge in great detail. See the link in my signature, and go to "PVE" > "Tips for Certain Bosses". A couple of highlights: Salvation is best as a cast with 2 stacks of Resplendence. It's even better as a cast with 1 stack of Resplendence than as an instant with 3 stacks. Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault relics almost always outperform Boundless Ages for a Sage over both rounds.

Today I added advice for healing Nightmare DP to "PVE" > "Tips for Certain Bosses". In particular, I discuss Raptus's Healing Challenge in great detail. I also released a new version of my model for PVE healing. To tailor the model for the typical PVE Sage healer, the data on worksheet "Boss Fights" is now based on Nightmare DF and DP 8, rather than on Nightmare TFB and S&V 16.

Today I added advice for healing Nightmare DP to "PVE" > "Tips for Certain Bosses". In particular, I discuss Raptus's Healing Challenge in great detail. I also released a new version of my model for PVE healing. To tailor the model for the typical PVE Sage healer, the data on worksheet "Boss Fights" is now based on Nightmare DF and DP 8, rather than on Nightmare TFB and S&V 16.

You can set a hotkey for "Target Companion" in Preferences > Key Bindings > Targeting.

I've released a model for PVE Commando healing (link in my signature). It confirms the recommendations of the OP regarding stats. Since not every Commando has the same rotation, assignment, or co-healer, I encourage you to personalize the data on worksheet "Boss Fights" so that my model tailors stats for your healing. My model analyzes the effect of gear on your EHPS rather than on a single, fixed rotation's HPS.

I've released a model for PVE Scoundrel healing (link in my signature). It confirms the recommendations of the OP regarding stats. That is, a decent amount of Critical from gear is optimal, and Alacrity is very beneficial. Since not every Scoundrel has the same rotation, assignment, or co-healer, I encourage you to personalize the data on worksheet "Boss Fights" so that my model tailors stats for your healing. My model analyzes the effect of gear on your EHPS rather than on a single, fixed rotation's HPS.

I've released a model for PVE Scoundrel healing (link in my signature). It confirms the recommendations of the OP regarding stats. For example, it shows that optimal Critical is 400+ for a typical PVE Scoundrel healer with high-end gear, and that having less is fine. My model is more advanced than, and has two significant advantages over, Inovisible's. By personalizing the data on worksheet "Boss Fights", you can tailor stats for your healing. Not every Scoundrel has the same rotation, assignment, or co-healer. My model analyzes the effect of gear on your EHPS rather than on a single, fixed rotation's HPS. Since having 100% effectiveness is rare, and maintaining a single, fixed rotation is rare, my model is more practical and less academic.

This looks spot on in every respect. I recently released a model for Operative PVE healing, which you might wish to use. A link to it is in my signature. It's meant to be viewed in Excel. You can personalize the EHPS data on worksheet "Boss Fights" using one of your NiM DF or DP raids. At the moment, the data is from a pre-2.8 NiM DF that I healed on my Operative. My model suggests that having one more item with Alacrity than Surge is preferable to an even split, but this is a minor. Regarding Critical, my model suggests that Critical > Power even with one more piece with Critical than you have. So, you need not be concerned that your Critical is too high.