Looking back at the start of this thread, where many Operatives/Scoundrels already felt the window had closed and unsubscribing was already happening, and now with the impending changes in 1.2 it doesn't appear that Bioware has satisfied the group that was on the fence. I personally had shelved my Operative healer until they tuned things up a bit and rolled a Mercenary healer. This patch doesn't encourage me to keep leveling a Mercenary. This makes me wonder if the window is now to save Healing rather than just Op/Sc now? If post-patch Operative healing is as impressive as early PTS reports indicate, how long will it last before Operatives get whacked again by the nerf bat?

You should roll sorcerer, I hear their lightning melts faces. Both Deception Assassins and Concealment Operatives will require you to play well to make the most out of them. Concealment has more front-loaded damage out of stealth and significantly less without stealth openers. Deception assassin relies on stacked effects and procs to do the big damage, but stealth is just icing and not required. Both will require situation awareness and positioning. But seriously, I heard Sorcerers melt faces with lightning.

The irony is that on the boards for those classes, they complain about KB nullifying their closer. When a marauder leaps, even SI can interrupt the leaps with a well timed KB. The leap is an instant ability is interruptable because of the traveling animation. They are likely slowed or immobilized and the CD of their instant closer has been wasted. (I take it your are referring to Stealth as a "closer" which can be interrupted just by people looking at you...) Speaking of Channeled abilities, there is a prominent example of a Channeled ability that does damage instantaneously at the start of the channel and on subsequent 'ticks', which is Force Lightning. (though the Jedi mirror ability apparently a split-second pause). FWIW, the SI AoE KB, Overload, has a minimal amount of maneuverability even in mid-air. I have seen some interesting maneuvering with it.

It is worth noting that Snipers (not Operatives) get the KB from cover. Using it from cover makes the utility you are discussing much more difficult to execute. Juggernauts have a single target KB (Force Push) on a 1 minute cooldown. Marauders do not have a KB at all. Mercenaries have to spend talent points to enhance their AoE KB to get the optimal KB distance you seem to envy. Their KB is limited to 5 targets, but has a built in slow effect. *Powertechs do get a KB immunity ability which could be triggered to nullify a SI KB if they were quick enough. The SI AoE KB has no target limit and with Sorceror / Sage talents has an immobilize effect. Assassins / Shadows do not get any enhancement for their ability though. 3 of the 8 ACs have no KB ability (Marauder, Operative, Powertech) and would gladly accept yours if you don't like it.

Your Hyperbole makes a good case for why RN should not be used. However, RN is not as bad as you make it out to be. Without the 2pc set bonus the energy cost (30) is equivalent to 2 Kolto Probes. With the 2pc set bonus the energy cost (24) is comparable to Kolto Injection. From 100 energy this takes you to 76 energy, 1.5sec regen for 9 energy during GCD takes you to 85 energy. You still have the 25 energy needed to cast Kolto injection without breaking the optimal energy range. Factoring in Crit/Surge (esp the bonus from Accomplished Doctor) RN (482*5) heals slightly more than 1 KP (390*6) even with the shorter duration (if you ignore crit/surge it is marginally less (KP 303*6, RN 347*5)) on a single target. 1 RN on 2 players ~= 1 KP on 2 players 1 RN on 3 players > 1 KP on 3 players 1 RN on 3 players > KI+SP on 1 player If 3 or more players take damage, RN is useful. Looking at a 15s window where 3 players take damage: You could KI+SP*4 for 21,142.87 healing on 3 targets or RN + KI+SP*3 for 23,087.35 healing on 3 targets for the same energy expenditure. If you can hit 4 targets this margin widens. RN is only useful in limited circumstances, but it is not useless. RN could be MUCH better, but it is not. RN is similar to DS. It isn't great, but has uses. You can skip it, but the alternatives aren't stellar either. I have my fingers crossed that RN will be more useful in 1.2

I think that Hardmode Flashpoints are the only time in your career where RN might be of use, hence the preface, and it is cost effective, not for HPS but for HPE or HPGCD, hence cost-effective. The heal is roughly equivalent to a Kolto Probe on multiple targets, if you have the set-piece bonus it is more cost effective than KP purely for healing (KP, however does generate TA). Comparing HPS it is craptastic compared to our bread and butter. With 2 targets, RN exceeds KI in HPE & HPGCD. With 2 targets, RN even exceeds the HPGCD of KI+SP HM FP = 4 players In a HM FP, RN also makes trash pulls go a lot faster. You may have experience a PUG where the group wants to keep churning through trash like a compactor and rarely pause to heal up. This is more prevalent with 1 or more Sith Warriors. RN + KP on the tank can cover most of the trash pulls in HM FPs. This is probably more of a factor of the Hardmode Flashpoints not being exceedingly hard.

If you are running Hard Mode Flashpoints, RN is actually very cost effective healing. If you have 2+ melee it really shines giving you considerably more breathing room. RN loses its lustre quite rapidly in Operations though.

You might look at the guide on this forum and look at the guide in the Role>Healing forum. RuQu has an excellent guide with plenty of good info. I would recommend you dump all accuracy and all alacrity. Alacrity is not your friend (unless you really like Hammer Shot). Then focus on the tank. Keep Trauma Probe up at all times. Bacta Infusion when off CD (especially when things are intense). Focusing on Kolto Bombs for AoE will suck your energy and not heal as much as you desire. Combine KB with SGC when possible. If you need to AoE heal, toss a KB for residue and follow it with AMP on 1 target, MP on another.

If the gains from shield rating were equal or better than absorb rating this would be true, however, when you run the numbers, Absorb % and Shield % are roughly equivalent in regards to mitigation, but Absorb rating yields more value per point than shield rating. Also, we begin with higher shield chance so stacking shield rating is less critical. Shield rating / 0.32 Absorb rating / 0.18

The question you stated is something that I have been pondering more and more recently. I wonder if the reality of getting such a massive project out the door, combined with whip cracks from EA spurred them to the more limited and finite approach we see today. Not something we are likely to get definitive insights on though. I have similar impulses regarding optimization, but I also like to have choices. The more finite and clear it is how to build a character "correctly" the less interested I am. A part of the fun is optimizing and making the character your best, as opposed to copy / pasting from the internet, and pressing a macro in time to a metronome. Allowing players enough room to play in a world with their characters to discover things gives birth to emergent gameplay and those moments that can't be had anywhere else. In the spirit of candor, I was never a fan of the tree druid. I rolled an Operative because I was interested in something fresh. ( I guess trees can be fresh, but with their roots rarely touching water, that seems unlikley ) To explicitly state my notion of range, I think the operative is geared towards medium range, I gravitate to just outside of 10m to stay outside of AoE and pop inside 10m when I want to drop an ability that hs limited range. Only 1 heal has me standing still, so I tend towards skirmishing. A close / medium range heal makes more sense when you aren't already standing as far away as possible. A single strong melee heal reinforces the notion of movement and skirmishing. An array of melee range healing techniques would encourage us to stay in melee range, but frankly we aren't built for prolonged exposure at melee range. If the operative continues down the path of instant HoT heals, you will have more freedom to move. A strong limited range heal would encourage Operatives to use their mobility. The alternative is most Operatives rooting in one place hugging a wall like wallflowers. They might as well turn us into a tree then. I enjoy discussing and debating these things, so keep it coming. My operative might not see much attention otherwise until 1.2

Selective quoting from waaaaaaay back: At one point, they had a more diverse notion about what a healer could be, but this was also around the same time they still had a ranged tank at range.

It is impractical to completely avoid Alacrity as an Operative or Scoundrel Healer given the current itemization in the game without creating a net detriment to your stats. Removing alacrity would require a complete re-itemization of the entire game to remove it from gear. Revising alacrity would be the other approach but is not necessarily a simpler solution. 1.2 (or earlier) would be a great time to look at addressing the issue. For Operatives / Scoundrels if you stack enough alacrity, you can significantly increase your heals per second when you gain enough energy from faster DS to cast 1 more KI in a heavy burst scenario. This, however, would diminish the amount you heal in a sustained scenario making it impractical, but it does have a potential use.

I commend you for waging forward with numbers and graphs. Knowledge and informed decisions will make this a better game. That said, stacking alacrity to the levels where a significant yield is seen isn't terribly practical. Completely eliminating alacrity is also impractical. Having an alacrity relic or adrenal handy is something that could be of measurable benefit as pointed out elsewhere. Alacrity is good for increasing burst healing in a finite time frame such as enrage timers where fractions of a second can count.

I have weighed in a similar angle, because a Healing Shiv would be awesome. Healers are a support class. Based on the stated goals of the developers during development, I believe that they intended for Healers to have more relevance than simply making the numbers go up. That is why every healer has access to stun abilities, mesmerize abilities, defensive abilities, and so on. The non-healing support functions of the Operative function @ <10m. Whether intentional design or not, the Operative does not fully function @ 30m Rather than grafting the heal onto Shiv, a separate melee heal would be optimal. Making Kolto Infusion a melee instant heal (with a talented secondary buff) would be worth stepping in momentarily for. Alternately, allowing our other abilities to function @ 30m could solve this going the other direction.

A very simple element to help address the imbalances of the healers would be to make the primary heal for all healers equivalent regarding Standard Health % Healed (base Heal) and Healing coefficient (healing bonus received on heal). This would actually result in a small buff to all 3 healers (marginal for SS/JC) in addition to yielding a more equal baseline for the three healers. To that end: Rapid Scan / Medical Probe Modify healing to 0.116 ~ 0.156 * Standard Health (7085 @50) + Healing Coefficient: 3.41 Kolto Injection / Underworld Medicine Modify healing to 0.116 ~ 0.156 * Standard Health (7085 @50) + Healing Coefficient: 3.41 Dark Infusion / Deliverance Modify healing to 0.116 ~ 0.156 * Standard Health (7085 @50) + Healing Coefficient: 3.41

Thank you.

That is true, however, in the go to combo, R+DI, the force-bending effect reduces the cast time of Dark Infusion by 1 second making R+DI faster than both KI+SP and HS+RS (and Resurgence has a cooldown of 6). I don't know what these 'metrics' are that the development team is using, but they might need to check their math. EDIT: corrected Resurgence cooldown

While we are discussing the efficiency, I wanted to bring some numbers to the table. Below is a calculation of the healing done per % of resources spent. Compared are the Primary Heal, the Fast Heal, and the Primary Healing Combo. Operative Kolto Injection 92.94 Kolto Infusion 101.05 -TA KI+SP 139.61 -TA Mercenary Rapid Scan 92.94 after HS: 258.17 Healing Scan 117.02 HS+RS 167.83 Sorcerer Dark Infusion 342.29 Dark Heal 194.61 after FB: 428.14 R+DI 389.97 The Sorcerer has a massive margin because his heals cost less than 10% of their total resources, whereas most heals for the other two healers cost over 10%. You can look at my numbers here Aside from cost, the main difference between the 3 primary heals is the healing coefficient. Kolto Injection and Rapid Scan are 2.72, but Dark Infusion is 3.41 which leads to a growing disparity over gear growth.

Unfortunately, we do not really have much of a burst cycle. The strongest burst we can fall back on is Kolto Injection > Kolto Infusion until energy hits below 20, then use Adrenaline probe to continue. Surgical Probe can be interspersed to elongate the spiral. A sustained mode calculation would be excellent. The burst /recover phase length would certainly highlight deficiencies, but I don't know how useful it would be otherwise.

Worth quoting one more time so that it can't be missed. Like the masochist I seem to be, my second character is an Assassin Tank. I enjoy many elements of this game and hope they can fix it. I don't want to draw a line in the sand. Thank you all for being vocal and intelligible in the process.

Accuracy will help with your MELEE attacks which start with base 90% chance to hit. Accuracy above 100% reduces the defense chance of your target. If you have no accuracy bonuses you may run into issues consistently getting procs from Thrash. Accuracy does not currently help for FORCE attacks which start with base 100% chance to hit. Accuracy above 100% reduces the resist chance of your target, but there currently are no bosses at endgame with significant resistance (data points to 0%). Accuracy bonuses are wasted on FORCE attacks.

I hear that a number of PVP players prioritize gear differently than is standard for PVE. How your gear is prioritized makes a massive impact. Some PVP players also tend to ignore Dark Ward. Endurance is prioritized highly over Willpower; then Defense>Absorb>Shield The harder content of the game is hard until your gear outpaces it, so with all that said, if you survived then you did it right. Until you really know the content in and out, you will feel squishier.

Some of the changes that have been suggested would homogenize the Operative with other healers. Although I want the Operative healing to be +/-2% effective, I do not want it to operate the same as the others. Synergizing / Riffing on our class features will keep us feeling like Operatives. Cover: Energy cost reduction while in cover Talent Alacrity boost while in cover Talent Healing bonus while in cover Talent Stealth: Targeted Stealth as an emergency button (wipes threat on target, but player "sits out" for a few seconds in stealth) Infiltrate usable in combat as an emergency button for Stealth. Infiltrate grants defense boost similar to Evasion when used in combat in AoE radius Close/Med Range: Healing Shiv i.e. instant direct melee heal Weakening Blast / Cull like ability that boosts HoT heals We have already seen Armor/Move Speed buffs (SS/JS) and Heal Received/DR/Armor buffs (BH/Tr), so some buff potential for the IA/Sm would be good, especially a unique buff. Buff: KP/SRMP or RN/KC grants Damage Bonus KP/SRMP or RN/KC grants Threat Reduction Any of these would increase our effectiveness while maintaining our class identity.

As a darkness specced assassin, I have yet to have a boss pose a serious challenge. I am not finished with the class quests, nor is Ilum on the radar yet, but I don't anticipate much of an issue. As an IA, we had a ridiculous Sith-head of a boss to deal with that has made almost any enemy/boss since pale in comparison.

Are there any plans to re-balance the healing classes?