Don't really want to get into this but the ability prevents/absorbs damage and does not heal the player. BW couldn't ignore its effects from the number chart people love reading, and they would have been unable to put it into the protection chart as then we would be the only class to have an effect in all three charts so creating an imbalance in medals etc. Either way after the pedantry on both our parts it is an oh s**t damage is coming my way I had better prevent it, which is the same as other defensive abilities. I do like your extra utility idea though. Doesn't this response from the developers sum up possibly what needs to change: "Thank you for the questions Paowee! The Combat Team is comfortable with how Sorcerer DPS is balanced in comparison both to other ACs as well as its participation in End-Game Raiding Content. Any disparities one finds in pure DPS numbers likely comes from a failure to take into account the AC's inherent utilities (off-heals, Static Barrier) in a Raid Setting. These utilities off-set DPS differential with other classes (much the same can be said of the Merc AC) and to our thinking allows for them to bring a very unique set of skills to end-game content. At the moment we think the AC is very well positioned for its particular role in End Game Content and have no serious concerns about balance. Thank you for the respectfully worded response!" They won't buff your DPS due to your extra utility in their eyes of off heals etc. pretty much sums up what you need to give up if you want higher DPS...

In BW eyes being able to heal yourself and others is probably viewed as a form of defensive ability. I am not saying it is a good defensive ability, just that that is the way they view it. What I am mainly getting at is that possibly we have been asking the wrong questions. As healing for a DPS sorc is a silly form of defence (but is still a defence in BW eyes) then ask for that to be replaced by a defensive cool down, otherwise BW will just use the argument of you can hide behind cover to heal up when they cannot (then nothing happens and no progress). I am agreeing that sniper DPS are stronger than Sorc in just a DPS role which is true. And I agree that this is something that needs fixing, but you can only do that by asking the correct questions by removing something that in BW eyes could be useful to you on paper but in real life is not, with something that is actually useful. You have to think about BW's response to every question. For question 1. If you propose removing heals for your DPS tree to make you stronger, how can they make a reply of well you obviously have an advantage over snipers etc? Question 2. I am not a PVP expert but you can usually shut down any class which has channelled abilities especially if you are ganged up on my multiple players. But in the response BW quote you being able to heal as part of your survivability, for that I suggest removing heals with better defences as above. Question 3. I have no real issue with at all, seems a very reasonable question. We already have a force management ability called consumption (which is worse that other classes energy ability), So maybe we could have focused on this being modified? I think we asked some of the wrong questions or worded them in a way that gives BW an easy let out clause like you can heal snipers cannot. Leading in BW rejecting the question and then the whole community going up in arms when in fact it is your fault for not asking the appropriate questions or to consider their possible responses.

Exactly so why not make the Middle DPS tree a pure tree and (limit healing abilities to only healing tree), buff damage ad maybe add a defensive ability? That way there can be no hybrid tax and then they can also fight snipers and marauders for places on these high level content... Then if people want to have a mix of healing and higher DPS then mix between both trees and accepting that you will not top healing or DPS but can do both. If you want to improve your class in a certain way you usually have to be willing to give something up, in DPS terms a healing ability which you will not use. It is things like this BW are more likely to accept, and it will also make the class better.

Not really as sorcerers still have static barrier which is a cracking defensive skill which also gets a buff in the middle tree. The DPS trees of the operative and commando dont do as much damage as the pure DPS classes due to them being a slight hybrid and being able to heal. I kind of agree with you on those latter points. Of surely isn't it points like this which we should be approaching BW with instead of asking them to make us pump out as much damage as the pure DPS and also having extra defensive abilities and heals, because that just sounds like saying "BW please just make us OP". If the DPS players want higher DPS are not wanting these untalented healing abilities , then surely that is what you should be asking. I.e. Excuse me mr BW is there any chance you can boost our DPS up to the level of snipers ect, in return we are happy to give up these healing abilities (which are useless for us for x reasons)?

To be honest I don't have too much issue with the healing as I understand that they all have different benefits. It is just people outrage at 'heal to full' it is obvious that developers are not expecting a DPS sorc to constantly heal themselves in a fight, it is just a different way of saying that they have the ability to heal without medpacks which snipers ect don't have (unless you count the 1% health every three seconds while in cover). All I am trying to say is that if you want a pure DPS class you have to give up every other tank/heal ability so that you can only DPS otherwise it screws over the other pure DPS classes. But people are unlikely to want to accept that.

Just reading the other thread I gather that many pure DPS sorcerers are complaining about survivability and are waning a percentage defensive ability on GC like many other classes. As a healing sorcerer myself I think that adding that ability to all sorcerers would probably make a healing specialised sorcerer very very hard to kill unless double/ triple teamed, so is unlikely to be put in as a general ability. However you could possibly add this cool down into the pure DPS tree so true healing sorcerers wont have easy access to it. But also consider this fact that if you start adding defensive abilities to DPS and increase damage to the same level of snipers and sentinels then you come into another problem. You can heal and they cannot so you will just end up with more complaints from the other side. So two real solutions add the defensive abilities to the DPS tree and remove healing abilities from general sorcerer use, putting them into the healing tree so only healing sorcerers can heal (this is as apparently pure DPS sorcerers don't need/want the ability to heal in ops, and so bring them to comparable stance with other DPS classes etc.) The other option is to accept that you have the ability to heal yourself occasionally if you need to and sacrifice a bit of high end DPS. As I am not as experienced as some of the sorcerers on this forum I probably have made a load of mistakes but I think this is reasonable. Snipers and other pure DPS classes don't have the luxury of healing without med packs, if you really want DPS sorcerers to compete in pure DPS and defensive cool down you probably should be willing to give up your healing benefits so you are on a level playing field. You can't have everything. On a side note as having a healing sorc and healing operative I understand that they heal differently. Operative is more instant and Sorc more channelled, giving different benefits. Only silly thing is that an operative can heal more with a 2 second channel then instant, than a sorcerer can with a 2.5 second channel. Maybe a longer channelled ability should be rewarded more?