Is this true or just forum scuttlebutt? If it's true, please be willing to provide a source. I ask because there are two constant complaints on MMO forums: (1) PvP is imbalanced and (2) the devs don't play my class. This is so disingenuous, I have to believe you're intentionally sidestepping the point. Of course healers are taxed when the tank or DPS screw up. That was never what anyone was talking about. It's pretty clear to anyone who heals in this game past level 20 that resource management is a joke. Players on the forums have openly admitted this. When resources become a non-issue, healers don't have to make any up-to-the-minute hard decisions. There are no trade offs. In those situations, the mechanics are so trivialized that playing the class becomes deeply boring. See also: Wrath of the Lich King, where every caster class had an infinite mana pool. They could never do this in practice. The playerbase would scream bloody murder if they shifted the difficulty that much between tiers. See also: Cataclysm.

Absolutely. I was talking about heals ("green beam"), not DPS.

I'm leveling both mirrors right now. Merc will be worlds easier, but for my money the Sniper has more fun & involved gameplay. You'll do well with either, but popular opinion is that the IA storyline is hands down the best in the game. That doesn't really help you, but I'd suggest rolling both until you get a few AC abilities, and then making your choice. At least then you'll have a bit of direct experience & will have a better idea which playstyle suits you better.

^ This. There's only one healing spec for Troopers, and it's only available to Commandoes. Also, OP, "focus fire" refers to a group attacking the same target. It doesn't mean you chain casting Grav Round into a single mob (which would be called "tunneling" damage). (Trying to be more helpful than pedantic, in the case you are new to MMOs.)

Get into the habit of keeping one eye on the ops frames & another on the field. Do not use Hammer Shot across long distances. That green beam is a huge "gank me" sign to the other players. Positioning is everything. Do not spam heals in the open. Keep moving. Use LoS, pillars, boxes, and the environment to your advantage. Save your knockback for situations where it will make it impossible for opposing players to get back to you quickly, if at all (Hutball catwalks, Voidstar bridges). Do not use it on flat ground against ACs that have gap closers like Force Leap. Anticipate those interrupts. Either juke them or plan ahead. Save your shield until after you get interrupted the first time. Learn what classes and specs rely heavily on dots, and make sure you actively cleanse them. Kite opposing players into your teammates. In pugs, nobody actively peels for their healers so you have to make it easier for them. Find a good tank and stick to them like glue. Or, find another healer and crss heal one another.

It depends on parses and live play. Min maxers and Elitist Jerks types are the ones to figure this out, but I could see a situation where people would take 1/2 Field Triage because it turns out a 50% chance is enough to get by on the current content. (Similar situations happened with Blizzard's healing specs all the time). But I agree on the face of it. Three points to save a single ammo seems excessive. Part of the problem is that on a 16 point scale, they've really limited their options on how much they can nerf or buff ammo.

As a player, I always think resource free abilities are pretty stupid design, unless it's some kind of stance change. Why they did this and then eliminated the cost of Riot Strike is a mystery to me.

Did you really try & sneak "Pokemon style pet battles" into the middle of your list? Really? Hey, how about a new playable alien race that look like ... Pandas?

Reasons why this would never work, or at least be so inaccurate as to be meaningless: It assumes - All tanks pull at the same rate. - Everyone is capable of the same DPS. - The Flashpoint is being run at the appropriate level. If you want quick runs, find out what level the bosses are. Then only run with groups that are over that level. The only thing that will ever slow you down are the alignment choices & social cutscenes.

It's only weird if the teenage boys on your server assume, because your toon is female, that you're female in real life. And they start flirting with you via whispers. The upside is that these same people will often offer to give you free stuff. I've played a mix of genders. If I go female over male, it's because the animations might be better, or the avatar is smaller. And yes, also because the staring-at-her-butt thing mentioned by previous posters. In SWTOR, a large part of this is driven by voice acting. I can't stand the male trooper voice & the female is voiced by Jennifer Hale (FemShep, Bastila Shan, Satelle Shan), so the decision to make my trooper a woman was a no brainer. For the Consular, the male voice is pretty bad. Plus, going female gives you the small advantage of very cheap orange gear at level 14, for slots you wouldn't be able to fill until much later.

In addition to the 4 second stun, you've got a mez, a snare, vanish, guaranteed dodge and a talented speed boost. Compare that to the Merc, whose only option is a bubble on a 2 minute CD. The knockback is useless on flat ground; against most of the force wielding ACs, using it just gives them another chance to jump you. Basically, the Merc is forced to tank that Sent while the Ops has many more tools to actually get away from him.

Because I play one and in PvP, when you're getting focused, you have really limited options. Knockbacks are great, but in the current WZ maps they're only situationally useful (Huttball catwalks, Voidstar bridges) and really only work against players who flat out suck at positioning. Ranged stuns are also good, but I'd rather have a 12s snare on a 12s cooldown. With that, you can almost infinite kite someone while taking very little damage. Once the Merc chucks his Electro Dart and the 4 seconds are up, what's he got left? A good bubble on a 2 minute CD and a knockback of limited usefulness. This is compounded by a general lack of mobility and longer cast times that the Ops healer does not suffer from.

No problem.

Play EvE Online? No themepark in the current market is going to make you lose gear or XP when you die.

I like it better when the new guys just stand there for 2-3 seconds and do nothing, until they figure out that Hammer/Rapid Shot still works.

So now we're calling things a failure before they even go live? Cool. It's not optimal, but given that you're warned it's a mixed match before entering, I don't see a huge problem. Hell, mixed teams might even help smaller guild recruit new players. I also suspect, given, again, you're beefing about a system you haven't actively played, that you're the kind of player that would be SCREAMING on the forums about HUGE queue times if this kind of system weren't in place. So either they try and mitigate the queue times, in which case you call ranked WZs a failure. Or they don't, and you'll most likely call ranked WZs a failure. GG.

I really wish it would display the names of people passing & scoring in Huttball, capping nodes in Alderaan, or planting bombs in Voidstar. These people would get my votes ever time. The "objectives" measure is confusing and not self evident the way meters are.

Well, yeah. His list, not mine. It was ill conceived. I was mostly arguing from a PvP standpoint, but: - You can't claim the CC is meaningless in endgame PvE and then point to 4 second CC as an example of utility. I mean, you're right -- most mobs will be immune to CC -- but you also negated your own point. - The secondary effects of Kolto Missile are good, but they're also getting nerfed across the board in 1.2. Damage reduction is being lowered to 5% and healing received to 3%. It will also be more expensive to proc Supercharged Gas in the first place. I agree that the Armor buff is good and something Ops do not have. - Interrupts on any toon and any spec are only worthless if you're a bad player. Actively preventing damage is often superior to trying to heal through it. - If all Ops does is spam heals, what is the Merc doing that is so entirely different? Your logic here is boggling. Also: Moot. Melee.

Hit "O" and click the "Who" tab, or just type /who into chat. You should then be able to search for them by name. Alternatively, you could just add them to your Friends List. Both of these options only work if you share the same faction & they are online. Currently, if they ar offline there is no way to tell if a character exists on the server. Hopefully that will change soon.

Not sure if I'd agree with that, especially after 1.2. Sage and Commando resources are getting nerfed to hell. Commandos have jack for utility and almost no defensive cooldowns (the bubble at a 2 minute CD), and their heavy armor doesn't do anything against force attacks. Still have to wait to see how it plays, but I'd expect given their mobility that Sawbones will be in a much better position for PvP healing come 1.2.

Min maxing is hardly "skill," because it's a problem solved by a single Google query. Gimme a break.

First I'm hearing about the 1.2 battle rez. Do you have a source on that? Also, c'mon. In no way can Fusion Missle, Death From Above, and Unload be classified as utility. Those are DPS abilities. They don't CC anything else except weak NPCs, and are only really useful while questing. Utility means stealth, snares, roots, multiple CCs, ranged interrupts and the like. None of which the Merc has, outside of 2 CCs (one of which has limited usefulness) and a knockback on a 30 second CD.

Guess what? That makes it mostly speculation, and generally worthless at that given there's no way to weigh these opinions. The OP strikes me as a little kid obsessed with rankings, or a troll. Notice his lack of follow up.

Uh, just out of curiosity, why did you test for smart heals? Nobody ever said Kolto Bomb was going to be smart in 1.2, AFAIK.

It's a dumb & pointless question because most people do not have toons on the PTR, much less parses of combat logs from any of the content.