Thats an interesting approach, i may give a go with Critical Surgery Diag Probe may not the worth the energy tradeoff (Usually going for UM is only reliable when you stimboost it for those windows, so) Also, there's a interesting post about how BW is approaching class changes since 5x: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9333043 As the OP and other pointed, i don't think taking HPS (not even EHPS!) raw numbers into account makes for a justified nerf. Also, balancing pvp towards pure TTK/TTH is very unreliable, since stunlocks, interrupts and LoS pay a great deal to those numbers.

Agree that Kolto Pack is more of a streamlined refresh then EP, but you mentioned *You will never have to hardcast Underworld Medicine again (hopefully you weren't anyway) * wich implied Diagnostics, so. Precasting probes is the only way to setup a counterheal to spike damage before it happens, it takes 8-16 GCDs, so can't be done during spike damage, correct? Assuming 20s spike loops, its the only way to go.

I believe you meant for the Agressive Treatment buff, but honestly i fail to see what youre talking about since Emergency Pack does exactly the same thing, its instant cast and proc our Diagnostic Probe tactical. Also, SRM management on PVE is already sustainable without any helpers; you can keep 2 stacks in the whole raid the whole time. Finally, taking Agressive Treament means nerfing yourself by 10% crit and 5% heals.

Precisely. Im afraid that may be the case if the nerf was targeted: Balance taking raw numbers into account when those rarely reflect actual healing requirements. And when burst comes in, you can put barely half of the necessary EHPS, making all that APM ceilling useless.

If we look at the feedback so far, both sides brought valid points and all thats left is: 1. Why Bioware stealth nerfed this? Didn't had the time to make a proper post about those changes? Those were shipped accidentaly to PTS? Can we expect for a response from Eric, Daniel and the Community Team about this? 2. Based on internal data (not player feedback), whats BW statement over Op Heals / Lethality? The nerf is on par with BW target numbers for equal balance and reflect the same potential of other classes? 3. Nerfing Tactician was a targeted nerf to all builds or its unpredicted collateral damage? (Highly doubt thats the case) 4. The nerf was based on HPS numbers, EFH HPS, or Live NiM completion rates and internal data? 5. Assuming the nerf is absolute and no matter how much noise we do, there's any plan on the pipeline to compensation? Compensation is necessary to Medicine and Lethality according to your data? 6. BW is satisfied with how Op heals are played atm? (We're the healers wich can push the highest HPS atm, and barely half of it are EFH). Believe an official statement is necessary if you want us to support your game design philosophy. We're all passionate gamers and nerfs will only be supported if they're transparent and logic. Dont leave us hanging in the abyss

Assuming a perfect rotation and optimal APM, the post-nerf operative wouldnt be an optional composition. Isnt sub-optimal, its unfit for doing that content. Thats game breaking. Fair, thats the same reference i gave with TK sage 4.0 on ranked. Post-nerf Ops will be in the same boat: running Meta + Ops will mean wipes and failure. Soon, people will give up on trying it, and meta will take over, as it is for PVP. Valid point with Acid Lash, but how you can claim Op heals can clear all content while at Live they're already sub-optimal for the very same scenario they just had been nerfed at? Also, pointing out that Bioware should make new sets is kinda obvious, but assuming that you're aware how such sets are released and how long it takes to actually fine-tune a healer set, sorry, i don't think wishful thoughts and *solve your own issues* can help Op healers right now. On the other hand, rolling back the nerf or adjusting it so it doesnt hit healers is far easier then starting stuff from scratch. Don't get me wrong, i would love a HoT oriented set, i even suggested one. But pls, lets be realistic. I agree on Conc ops needing to be nerfed, but there no valid argument that can support an untargeted nerf on a build that already lack the proper kit to clear NiM content when compared to Mercs and Sages.

You do understand the class performance set the spot preferences for progression guilds on HM/NiM ops, right? For reference, please elaborate how many 4v4 Ranked teams you saw pre 5.0 with a TK sage on the composition. Or go back to 2.0, where sentinels and gunslingers formed every HM progression. The same goes for PVE, if a build is underperforming far worst then the curve, it will be avoided. Its still able to clear content? Probably, same as undertuned builds would perform well on PVP if pushed above the curve. The issue here is that the collateral damage from nerfing Conc will exclude Op healers from progression again, since the build weakness was never solved in first place (thats a systemic issue that goes back to 4.0). So no, sadly the nerf on Tactician isn't a simple matter and obvious as it looks. Also if they simply wanted to nerf Conc, they could push the nerf on Acid Lash further, or remove the dmg component of the +6 piece and leave the heal comp. On the other hand, if you look at other sets, nerfing it by 50% puts it on par with other buff uptimes. While that sounds logical, those builds already overperform Op heals, so youre stretching the gap again and making it an viable option only for content wich doesnt push burst heal scenarios (the class weakness). PVP balance cant be compared to scripted encounters on HM/NiM where the target requirements are fixed, since those encounters are tuned and buffed over player experience and internal testing, and those rarely reflect the undertuned builds, but the meta ones. So imo balancing PVE is actually harder then PVP, where playskill can overcome numbers.

With the current Tactician nerf hammer hitting hard, why not focus on a heal tailored set that actually amplifies HoT potential and support the original proactive healing style of Ops? Like: (2) 3% Alacrity (4) Kolto Cloud spread the current stacks of Slow-release Medpack on the target to all allies within 8m. Allies with both Kolto Cloud and Slow-release Medpack HoTs receive 10% additional healing for 12 secs. (6) Healing a target over 100% grants Kolto Injection, stacking up to 5 times. If the target drops from 50% HP, the stacks are consumed, each healing for (Mastery * 0.5). The stacks cannot last longer then 15 secs. Additionally, your direct heals have a 50% chance to leave a smaller HoT on the target, healing for (Mastery * 0.1) every 1 sec. Effect lasts for 8 secs.

Going from 90-95% uptime to 45-50% without being able to control the buff durations or proc flow is basically a 50% nerf on burst scenarios. 50% for a class that need to push APM to limits to be good compared with reactive healers, thats just insane.

While i agree Concealment/Lethality needs a compensation since it was NERFED ALREADY with 25% nerf on Acid Lash/ 30% on Synox), i believe bringing class theme preference theories into min-max balance isn't relevant to address the current issue.

I dont think % adjustments on raw values like Sages got would solve the class weakness. Also, their approach to Agressive Treatment buffs implies pushing HoT management, wich can turn into a solid buff for PVP, but its fairly useless for PVE. As for being the best PVP heals, i think very skilled ops are above the curve since they can keep up with multi HoT sustaining requirements for ranked pvp, but still, giving them a *best and easy* title would be unfair. This. The trait pretty much is a must have and basically means you have one less legendary trait for Op heals, since you ruined the base ability.

+1 to this. While Concealment/Lethality are slightly over the curve right now, Op heals was finally on par with other healers and Tactician was the cornerstone for balancing the lack of burst that always plagued Ops. Nerfing Tactician would bring it to the bottom again.

The whole concept is great, but hardly a valid choice over Tactician as it is, since you're trading full uptime buffs for a 10sec window every 5 min. And Smuggle? Even spending the GDC on it sounds terrible. If you wanna stick to this setup and make the set attractive i would suggest swapping Smuggle to Surrender on the +4 bonus. Surrender is naturally part of your rotation and making it an offensive cooldown would be extra useful. As for the +6 bonus, while +10% sounds powerful its still on par with another raid buffs, so the tradeoff of your own dps with Tactician doesnt worth the 10sec window imo. If you could add something like : *Every stack of Upper Hand spent increase the duration of Stack The Deck by 2-3 secs, up to 16-20 secs*, probably it would make it a more reasonable tradeoff.

So this talk had been gone for years, and we got a lot of *this isnt currently in our plans but its being looked at*, but, there's any chance that we have a QoL pass so respecing becomes faster and less annoying? 1. Save your skills to slots so when you respec they stay where you put them. Currently respecing forces you to change 5-10 skill slots, where some just vanish from the bar if you have full actionbars, making you go to the Skill panel to reslot them. 2. Allow players to create role specific gear sets wich can be saved into the character panel Again, respecing involves swapping 10-14 pieces of gear to offspec sets. That doesnt go just for multirole sets but for AOE/ST tailored dps sets too. 3. Why should i care about that? Playing healers and tanks on Veteran pugs very oftenly pair you with double roles so the natural move is to respec in the start of a FP, the whole Field Respecialization is designed for it. That takes 30-90-180 secs thou, wich divides groups and discourage ppl from doing it, making the whole design unnatractive. 4. Make Utilities reset for a role only when you click Reset The reset UI applet already works in a independent way, so why force players to rechoose utilities everytime? Since you already have a pre-base system in place with the appereance tab, shouldnt be a terrible effort to go further and make the QoL pass. Another games already have these features for years.

Yeah, lol, theyre aware of this for a long time and everybody is ok with it, sooo isnt thaaaat bad. Im upvoting magpies thou, even if im sticking with the taunling they gave me (wich i expected to grow into a full tauntaun... sadness). xD

Hello there!! I know this was probably argued over and over, but something must be done about the way we handle looting in the game. We had a bug introduced with Hutt Cartel, that if youre grouped and the first person loots it, the 2d person in the group auto-loot all function stop working and you have to manually loot each mob around you. (when you pilled for a whole heroic and you have to loot 14 mobs, this is ...well) Also, we had pets kicking for like 6 years now and they do...nothing. Its pure flavorish wich tends to make ppl forget or abandon pets after a while. Why dont make pets loot the bunch for you? Give them a reason to be there! While this seems sily and unimportant, looting had been really the most frustrating part of doing dailies while grouped. Since were on the QoL age now, we should consider the experience you have while dealing with loot. It cant be part of game design to make you run around and right click 20 mobs, (with animation bugs sometimes wich leads to mass clicking). Give pets a auto-loot skill. Everyone will be happy.