NOW I am gonna sound like I'm making excuses. Sorcs have an ability that allows them to take away some of their health. Hopefully this explains a lot...

While I haven't done any dpsing experience as a scoundrel of any kind, I will have to say most of what you say about scoundrel healing is misunderstood or just plain incorrect. As a result of no combat meters being released as of yet, I will have to rely on PvP endgame boards to help push my point regarding numbers. Therefore It is only fair I only talk about PvP healing. You start off saying that we have almost no burst healing what so ever and that we can only HoT to keep our party members up. This is very false. I believe we have some of the best burst in the game paired with EMP, UWM, and our energy resource. At my 50 with full champion gear, I can crit someone with JUST UWM for 5k most of the time. Now couple that with the inevitable 2.5k EMP that follows. Now that's 7.5k right there. Now, that total "rotation" of UWM/EMP takes about 2.8 seconds to go through with my current alacrity. At a max I can cast that same rotation 4 times before my energy hits around 56% and I need to use DS, which only takes around 2.6-5 seconds and I'm back to 80% at least. That only leaves a downtime of 3.6 seconds after a total of 30k healing (estimated). So, after a total of 14.8 secs I will have done 30k healing on a multiple of targets. That's not even including our HoTs! While our HoTs don't heal for much, they aren't meant to. There purpose is to mitigate small incoming damage like aoes while your big UWM/EMP takes care of the big damage. Sorry for that wall of statistics and text. Now I will give you visible proof, if the numbers weren't enough, of our dominant healing ability in PvP. Now I am seeing a lot of "Oh, but I make the top of the charts, that must mean I'm good!" and honestly after this I will be guilty of the same thing. However, the point isn't to show that I made the top of the charts, the point is to show who didn't make the top of the charts. And with that I hope this proved enlightening or informative. (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6)

I must admit, I did not even think about how PvP may differ from server to server. At least for my server/myself I found that if you ran with a group (Which I almost always found myself doing) you were almost guaranteed a win. The Empire on our server may outnumber us, but we have the better WZ win rate from the ones I have done. However, even with the fact that PvP may be slower on different servers than my own, I still hold true to the opinion that you will cut your gearing time in half by pvping. While I do not know the exact amount of commendations you get from the normal mode instances at 48-50, I do know that the blue gear you get from the Corellia commendations is around level 120, if not lower. Now, compare that to the Champion level gear you get from Champion bags by pvping, which is level 136. While the rate at which you receive gear will be slower, from what I have witnessed the rate of gear dropping from them is 1 for every four bags. So when you hit 50 and have 6 bags waiting for you to get there is high chance you will at least get 1 piece of gear from them, if not more. And couple this with doing the weekly, which gives you 3, and the daily , which gives you 1, you will gain 10 bags in your first week of hitting fifty by pvping which will likely grant you at least 2 pieces of level 136 gear which is only one off from the recommended gear for Hardmodes. At the end of the day it is always your prerogative, and if you like doing normals and getting the feel for instances before going into them essentially blind during a hardmode then by all means go for it. And about the daily's, that is something I totally agree on. Thank you for your opposing viewpoint in the matter though, it's always good to have multiple ways to do things.

As far as the better of the two items the Cyber Stim Relay would be the better of the two for sawbones leveling. The reasons for this conclusion are that the former one has accuracy, a dps stat, the second one also has a higher amount of cunning and gives us both power and alacrity. In all honesty though, unless you plan on using these ear pieces at level 50, picking between the two is very trivial at level 43. Hope that helped!

I realized that logically if you had 5+ energy, then the Kolto Cloud -4 would only give you that much energy on the one skill, while the +5 gives you, technically, -5 to ALL skills. AKA, PvP set is most definitely better.

Anyone else feel like the Medic PvE set bonus from the vendors is pretty useless and inferior to the PvP set? PvE Set: (2) Energy cost of Kolto Cloud reduced by 4. (4) Critical Chance of Kolto Pack is increased by 15%. PvP Set: (2) Healing dealt by Kolto Cloud increased by 15%. (4) Maximum energy increased by 5. My thoughts were that you could use 2 pieces of PvP gear and 2 pieces of PvE gear as the (2) bonuses seem to be the most worthwhile (Keep in mind this is only comparing the bonuses themselves, not the gear stats.) Wanted to hear the communities thought on this as I haven't found a thread regarding this yet.

Finally, updated this guide to its final version! Or what is planned to be the end of this guide. As always feedback is greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy!

Thank you all for your advice, comments, theories, and all around feedback! I will be updating this guide, as I have now reached 50 and I have found I agree with a lot of your guys' advice and comments, hopefully in the near future. Which leads into my next guide I will be trying to produce. As this one follows Sawbones leveling, I will be making one that follows Sawbones healing in flashpoints/operations. As of now my experience with these two things has been rather slim, with only all of the heroics under my belt, I hope that I have accumulated enough information to make useful to fellow scoundrels. First I will be updating this, then will be working on that. I would make a PvP guide, but bshenkd has that covered with his "Scoundrel Healing 101" post which I encourage anyone who hasn't already to check out.

Good job thinking outside of the box, although there are a few things I disagree on. One is that the scoundrel as a whole can preform dps rolls fairly well, even as sawbones. Now comes the problem, I think you are ignoring some key parts of the sawbones pvp healing. For example, I would take out Scramble and put it in Homegrown Pharmacology, I can't tell you how many times SRMP saved my life. Next would be to take out points in Psych Meds and Open Wound, putting them into Keep Cool. Cool Head has allowed for me to keep my team up against 5 sorcs until we could get them down to a manageable level. In a nut shell its very useful. Keep in mind that I'm leaning more towards the healing part of pvping, so if use sharp bomb on a regular basis and it works for you keep using it. It is also nice to see people coming up with new builds to share with the community. All in all, well done!

Thanks for the reply! As far as stealth goes, it is not a game changer. If you don't like stealth, or in your case, like to kill things without worrying about pre-planning then you don't have to use it. In my opinion I find it very nice, especially when you get a stealth-attack. If you look at the sawbones tree you will see a tranquilizer talent that is actually very useful for taking out elites, especially when hes surrounded by weaker enemies. I doubt it will be usable on any kind of boss (Haven't had the time to try it myself.), but if it does then it would be an invaluable raid/solo utility. All in all, it's not so much about the fact that you can sneak around opponents or that your invisible. It's about what abilities you use from stealth. Hope that answers your question.

Introduction: After picking my advanced class (Which was scoundrel... obviously.) I knew I wanted to be a full-time healer. So, to make sure I had the right idea in mind I went over to these forums to see if I could find a thread about the basics of sawbones leveling/healing. I did find bshenkd's very nice guide to PvP/Group PvE healing (Scoundrel Healing 101), but that didn't help me when it came to leveling, at least not what I had in mind. Therefore, after reaching a reasonable level of 39 and having found a decent system to scoundrel leveling, I have decided to share it with the community in hope that it will help upstart sawbones' or perhaps give myself a few more tips. Stat Priority: Cunning--> Tech Power--> Critical Chance--> Surge Rating--> Alacrity--> Power Specs: Level 20 Spec Level 30 Spec Level 40 Spec Level 49 Spec Play style: If your looking at this guide then you are probably thinking about becoming a scoundrel healer or are already leveling one, so it is safe to assume that you know that you will not be pushing the same amount of DPS that a Dirty fighting/Scrapper would. However, this does not mean that you will be doing zero damage. The very basic idea of the whole smuggler class is to keep your energy above 60% at all times! Remember that and you'll never find yourself energy starved. Early on, before you pick your advanced class at level 10, the game tosses you a ton of DPS abilities form the get-go. Attacks such as your grenades, dirty kick, charged burst, and quick shot. All of these will make up the foundation of our damage dealing capabilities. Level's 10-19: Not much to say here other than keep doing what you've been doing. The only healing skills you have are Underworld Medicine (UW) and Diagnostic Scan (DS). DS is not very useful unless you run our of energy, even then, at this level, it is not very useful. Personally I would stay away from it for now. UW is expensive, lengthy, and only heals about 1/4 of Corso's overall health. Use in emergencies. Ignoring those two abilities, the big thing you receive early on is stealth. If your feeling lazy then this will get you past most enemy groups. Slice droid is also very useful. Blaster Whip grants Upperhand and deals a moderate amount of damage. The fact that it grants Upperhand makes it extremely invaluable. Using this then pugnacity is the ticket to a happy energy bar. :Edit: For some reason I was acting a bit derpy when I mentioned Quick Shot. It is a energy waster that should be replaced by the much better Back Blast (BB). My personal way for dealing with most groups of enemies was using my grenade (The out of cover one, I dislike cover.) and using Blaster Whip/ Pugnacity. Then its a matter of using my free attack, Back Blast, and blaster whip and keeping pugnacity up. Level's 20-29: Slow-release Medpac (SRMP). The ability that will keep your tank topped off and delete the time casting UW and instead dpsing. Put two stacks on your tank and 1 stack on yourself (Optional) and just start the same "rotation" from level's 10-19. Getting tranquilizer is also a big milestone. Now you can have up to 2 opponents sapped while you take care of the rest. Kolto Pack (KP) is expensive and doesn't offer as much healing as UW does. Not only that but it uses up 1 Upperhand proc. If you find yourself in a pinch and need a quick heal, pop it, but don't use it often. Once you get your first stealth-attack, swap that with your grenade and continue using blaster whip and Back Blast. Level's 30-39: Not that much has changed except for the addition of another awesome heal skill. Emergency Medpac (EM) Swap this for Kolto Pack immediately. Now you have a free heal to use in conjunction with SRMP and blaster whip. Not much else has changed. :Edit:In this bracket you receive Shoot First which should be used as your stealth opener if possible. Level's 40-49: Many have brought it to my attention that the Kolto Cloud(KC) Ability is a useless ability and waste of a talent point. They are partly true. However, they should rectify their statement to state that KC is useless while "questing". Which leads into my next point. At around this level you should start pvping in Warzone's (WZ's). Kolto Cloud is an AoE (Area of Effect) HoT (Heal Over Time) that heals up to 4 people, this ability will be almost on CD in WZ's. Not much changes upon this format until around level 47-48 when you receive XS-Freighter Flyby, an AoE DoT (Damage Over Time) that decimates weak and strong foes, although it costs 30 energy to use. If you have been following this guide and using SRMP and DS then 30 energy for an AoE of this magnitude shouldn't be a problem to keep up with. Basically, use it often and wisely. Tips: Here's just a few miscellaneous leveling tactics that I have gathered while leveling that may help you: Always Do the Bonus series ASAP! You may be utterly sick of Taris, but with only an hour or more of the planet you can more efficiently accomplish the next planet. Do the Bonus Quests that have stages! I was too impatient to do the ones that didnt have more than 1 stage, but the ones that do give a significant amount of XP and 3 commendations. Spend your commendations! Keeping your gear top-of-the-line will make your life a lot easier. Keep your companions gear current! This is important for obvious reasons. Use Saps! They can save your life when confronted with an elite alongside strong enemies. Make sure you sap the stronger enemies while you take care of the weaker ones. Companions: Keep in mind there will be spoilers here (they will be covered up for those story-caring folks). Corso Riggs:Ranged Tank; Harpoon gun is actually useful to us. At least to me it was. I used him until I got my DPS companion. Bowdaar:Melee Tank; I tried him when I got him and I found that Corso seemed to be the better tank BECAUSE of his harpoon gun! I'm sure all the gunslingers are already blustering in confusion. When you sap an enemy Bowdaar will almost immediately run in and use his AoE, breaking out any cc's you placed. Corso just grapples the one you tell him to attack to him.(I actually like Corso...) Akaavi:Not much else to say here, but she is easier to heal than Risha, but does a little less damage. Guss Tuno:Another healer. Good for PvP, but even then I found Risha more useful. In case this makes a difference, which it very well may, Guss is a Mon Calamari. (IT'S A TRAP!) Why To PvP ASAP? As you get to level 50 you will quickly find out that just waltzing into a hardmode with all greens and custom gear is difficult. The normal level 50 dungeons do not give enough of a reward to make them very efficient. The most efficient way to get gear when you hit level 50 is through Champion Bag's. Each one of these bags drop 3 centurion commendations and, more importantly, a chance to give you champion gear. The bags themselves cost 200 WZ commendations and 200 Merc commendations. To put it more simply, it costs 800 WZ commendations for one champion bag. You can receive one of these bags while leveling, but you can not open it until you hit level 50. If you have 1000 merc commendations and 1000 WZ commendations at 50, you will be able to buy 5 bags, including the one in your cargo hold, immediately when you hit 50. As shown, Pvping while leveling will reap you big rewards in the long run. Screen-shots: This is mostly me just showing off, but these screen-shots show the potency of this same build in PvP (From 41-50.) Level 41 Level 45 (1), Level 45 (2) Level 50 Conclusion: If anyone else has anything to add or any advice then please feel free to comment .I will, hopefully, be updating this quite frequently as I level. Until then, I hope you found this helpful!