The Most Worthless Healer

[Hannah_banana]

The problem in my mind is that Energy has to be managed 100% efficiently just to be even remotely competitive. If an Op and Sorc are each healing a target, and have to each drop 5 Big Heals, the Sorc is in a much better spot when he comes out. The Operative will be at 5 Energy and have to pop a CD just to recover, and the Sorc can just stand there with his linear force regen and continue as normal.

 

The point is, thats inaccurate. If you keep pugnacity up (especially if you have the power return talented for it), I can spam UM+EMP and even throw in Triage every 3rd spam or so, all day and actually have to use hots to make my energy drop.

 

I also talent 23/0/18, because Shrap Bomb + Fighting Spirit = great energy return when pvp healing.

 

Energy is NEVER an issue, I think I've popped Cool Head twice when healing in the last week and thats because i'm trying to heal everybody AND steal my kb for the medal at the same time.

[Kuari]

(not even counting shields!)

 

You do realize shields are counted under healing in warzone scores, right?

[Sarkav]

There is an ops healer on my server that I play against often and he is nearly impossible to kill. Granted, his gear is probably top notch and he is usually guarded but playing against him is ridiculous.

[GurgleGoop]

I'm not even going to read past the first few lines. I am a sawbones scoundrel and I am virtually unkillable in warzones. It takes two people focusing only on me, blowing cooldowns and "burning" to drop me while I heal myself and usually a third joins by the time I actually die. Its not a case of someone else healing me, as it happens when I'm solo in Ilum as well. If you can't heal as a Sawbones you need to take a long hard look at your abilities and skills, and work to maximize your use of them.

[Hannah_banana]

I'm not even going to read past the first few lines. I am a sawbones scoundrel and I am virtually unkillable in warzones. It takes two people focusing only on me, blowing cooldowns and "burning" to drop me while I heal myself and usually a third joins by the time I actually die. Its not a case of someone else healing me, as it happens when I'm solo in Ilum as well. If you can't heal as a Sawbones you need to take a long hard look at your abilities and skills, and work to maximize your use of them.

 

^ Pretty much this.

[beejlee]

Escapability as a combat medic is near impossible. Without a tank guarding and taunting, it's tough to survive being focused. Don't underestimate teamwork though, if you can find a good tank to team with that guards and taunts, you'll be unkillable. In a good WF I'm always rocking 400k. But yes, if you want easy mode, roll a sorc...

[Talkative]

Mercs and presumably Commandos are amazing healers.

 

Sorcs/Sages are amazing healers.

 

Op/Sco may as well settle for only deserving the 3 medals given to healers because that's how bad Sawbones is.

[steinsgate]

I'm not even going to read past the first few lines. I am a sawbones scoundrel and I am virtually unkillable in warzones. It takes two people focusing only on me, blowing cooldowns and "burning" to drop me while I heal myself and usually a third joins by the time I actually die. Its not a case of someone else healing me, as it happens when I'm solo in Ilum as well. If you can't heal as a Sawbones you need to take a long hard look at your abilities and skills, and work to maximize your use of them.

 

I didn't even have to read past the first two sentences to realize you're either lying or level 10 and just did your first warzone.

 

Just for kicks, I read the rest of your post and was assured you were lying.

[Kyrandis]

While nearly not as durable in pvp, the class is actually a really damn good healer. Mainly because you Almost cannot run out of energy if talented correctly. Between using Upper Hand into Free Insta cast(albeit relatively small heal), Pugnacity, and Diagnostics Scan Crits to regain energy quickly its pretty solid in a PvE environment, and once you get Expertise you actually heal for A lot(in pvp).

 

The Problem is in PvP our escape mechanism is Flash Grenade(a mez) for multiple players. 1 Minute cooldown, coupled with no knockback, and a poor self-Shield(also 1 minute). Disappearing Act is a 3 minute cooldown for this spec as well. It a cooldown reliant healer whose cooldowns are fairly long.

 

It is immensely reliant on team mates peeling for you. Although if the enemy team is stupid and lets you free heal all day(which happens a lot) you can put out some pretty high numbers.

 

Edit: I should also point out that we are the most mobile healers.

 

Instant cast heals:

Slow release Med-pack

Emergency Medpack

AoE Heal over time that doesn't require we aim it.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Kyrandis

[Youmu]

"I Can vanish" only to have it immediately broken by one of the 5 dots on you that you can't dispel.

 

"I can evasion" for 3 seconds/minute.

What dots? Use Evasion, it clears all those pesky dots and you can stealth away. As long as you can dodge the PBAoEs people toss to try and find you.

 

"I can spam a free, fairly large heal on myself on the move every GCD" except I can only spam it twice and it crits for ~2k.

While running around and taking some damage you can spam it over and over again. It's not a very happy place to be, but you can quite often get away spamming it, depending on how aggressively people are chasing you.

[Reavyn]

"I can never run out of energy" if the other team doesn't know how to focus fire.

 

"I Can vanish" only to have it immediately broken by one of the 5 dots on you that you can't dispel.

 

"I can evasion" for 3 seconds/minute.

 

"I can spam a free, fairly large heal on myself on the move every GCD" except I can only spam it twice and it crits for ~2k.

 

"I Can drop two different hots, one an aoe" which is the least resource-efficient spell in the entire game and may or may not actually land on the targets I intended.

 

"I can shield myself" for 3k damage every 45 seconds.

 

"I can cover" to no point or purpose.

 

"I can LoS and use my 1.75s cast big heal to drop 2.5-6k healing on myself, depending on buffs." I can then proceed to run out of energy after that cast if I was doing anything to help my team. I can then proceed to be hit for 2.5-6k damage by the bounty hunter or sorc who was tailing me and caught up easily because I have no defense against slows.

 

To be blunt, your anecdotal experiences in the low-level bracket against horrible teams is not an accurate judge of how a class fares against players who actually know what they're doing. If the opposing team sees you are an operative/smuggler healer and does not proceed to train you every time they see you, then they are terrible.

 

 

if the other team doesn't know how to focus fire.

 

This statement kill your whole argument. If the other team is focusing on a single person then you are pretty much going to die unless you have at least 2 to 3 people healing you.

[thekrazo]

I agree with the people saying sawbones are pretty solid.

 

They also make really good hybrids. I have put out 200k damage / 300k healing in a full length void star. I have seen better too.

 

But I do think that interrupting underworld medicine if you don't have hots on allies and upper hand is a little too good. Juking doesn't do much in this game and needing an upper hand for kolto pack is lame when you could use it on an instant rather than stopping.

 

I'd like something to do other than hot if I have no upper hand and uw gets interrupted. Would be nice to have another castable heal.

Edited January 19, 2012 by thekrazo

[Aidank]

A couple things, while I agree that scoundrels/operatives are probably the worst healers, you aren't as bad as you're making yourself out to be.

 

 

I have an operative healer in my guild that does very very well, and while this is anecdotal he says that a lot of scoundrels are bad players for simply spamming underworld medicine.

 

 

You need to remember that upper hand stacks twice, If you are interrupted you should generally have 2 stacks of upper hand up at all times so you can continue healing while interrupted.

 

On my scoundrel interrupts are rarely if ever a problem, Just use one heal while locked out of the other.

 

The other thing to consider is that your hots are stackable, and they can be on multiple targets, if you can manage to track the buffs you can keep 2 stacks on 6-7 people at a time if you're refreshing it. This is a TON of blanket heals, in places like voidstar where everyone's taking damage it's an easy way to top the heal meters.

[GurgleGoop]

I didn't even have to read past the first two sentences to realize you're either lying or level 10 and just did your first warzone.

 

Just for kicks, I read the rest of your post and was assured you were lying.

 

Gebbun, Level 50 Scoundrel, Sith Meditation Sphere

 

You're welcome to come visit.

[steinsgate]

What dots? Use Evasion, it clears all those pesky dots and you can stealth away. As long as you can dodge the PBAoEs people toss to try and find you.

 

 

While running around and taking some damage you can spam it over and over again. It's not a very happy place to be, but you can quite often get away spamming it, depending on how aggressively people are chasing you.

 

So you're saying to avoid fire I have to use a four minute cooldown AND a 1 minute cooldown?

 

There isn't a single class who, if they catch you under 30%, cannot out-damage surgical probe spam.

 

This statement kill your whole argument. If the other team is focusing on a single person then you are pretty much going to die unless you have at least 2 to 3 people healing you.

 

No, it doesn't. We have the worst sustained bomb-heals of any healing class. That's the only argument focus was related to, anyway.

 

Gebbun, Level 50 Scoundrel, Sith Meditation Sphere

 

You're welcome to come visit.

 

Nah, bro. You keep soloing 3 dps.

Edited January 19, 2012 by steinsgate

[thekrazo]

You need to remember that upper hand stacks twice, If you are interrupted you should generally have 2 stacks of upper hand up at all times so you can continue healing while interrupted.

 

On my scoundrel interrupts are rarely if ever a problem, Just use one heal while locked out of the other.

 

The other thing to consider is that your hots are stackable, and they can be on multiple targets, if you can manage to track the buffs you can keep 2 stacks on 6-7 people at a time if you're refreshing it. This is a TON of blanket heals, in places like voidstar where everyone's taking damage it's an easy way to top the heal meters.

 

If you're playing anyone good, you're on the move a lot repositioning. That's what makes a scoundrel good. But it uses a lot of TA to keep using the instant on the move.

 

But if you get jumped by two assassins who don't suck, good luck getting a UW off. So the only thing you can hope for is that you have hots on people to get UH procs + Blaster whip.

 

If you're never getting interrupted on UW, you're not playing decent people and if you always have 2 stacks on, something weird is going on too.

[Hannah_banana]

Gebbun, Level 50 Scoundrel, Sith Meditation Sphere

 

You're welcome to come visit.

 

 

No! Its much easier to call people liars than to L2P! Just roll with it, noobs will be noobs.

[thekrazo]

So you're saying to avoid fire I have to use a four minute cooldown AND a 1 minute cooldown?

 

There isn't a single class who, if they catch you under 30%, cannot out-damage surgical probe spam.

 

snares, stun, aoe mez and los

[skuggz]

Frankly... I find that I'm able to be fairly competitive in terms of healing output... things like cover, and decent use of the, free auto reproc'ing Emer med pac means I can get alot of cheap healing out in the right situations (often to life support a character through a burst and buy time for the big(ger) heal to actually land)... especially if I've been diligent with HoT's before the hammer comes down, I find I can put out a respectable amount of healing... and I've really seemed more than adequate in PvE situations...

 

That said... I can easily outheal weaker Sages/Sorcs... but I also know some friends who are exceptional, and their 350k averages and 600k peaks on a good Voidstar seem well out of my reach as a sawbones. Frankly, I assumed it was gear til I hit 50 and got geared and still vary rarely manage to get those sort of numbers, on healing, let alone the shielding and the 100k plus damage their putting out at the same time...

 

which brings me to point 2,

 

To me, the other major difference is the fact that I would have to close range (something, obviously, I never want) to do anything major offensively... be it dps (to focus down an enemy) or CC... which is a major weakness over, say, a sorc, who can essentially live at 30m and function fully.

 

Personally, I would fully endorse getting another stack to slow release med pack (and whatever the IA version is)... It deepens our niche at single target healing... doesn't hurt our mobility (which is a good deal of what we have going for us now) and increases our potential output without being a gratuitous "buff" since it would require an increased energy investment in that target. I just don't think the 600 (ish) per 3 seconds is a significant enough heal to be a factor in such a burst heavy pvp system, a little less than 1000 every 3 though, would begin to functionally take the edge off that incoming dps and allow us to get bigger heals off as I assume we are intended to.

 

just my two cents

[Kagumi]

Stop crying. Operative is a really powerful healer - I am playing Operative heal too. You are right in all those points, also you are very agile - cast all the dots on yourself and run, run, run. Plus you have all 3min the possibility to get out of the fight - very useful if you get focused. You will not do any damage tho, but you will be a great healer for your own group.

[SliggXx]

I love my sawbones healer. I am very tough to take down even in subpar gear and I have a lot of utility and escapability. I do think they need to tone down sage/sorc bubble OR improve our defensive screen to be on par with it, but I really don't have any issues. I am pretty sure, however, that ha a lot to do with me personally rather than the class being balanced as a healer when compared to sages.

 

The reality is that I work 3x harder to get the kind of heal numbers that sages seem to generate effortlessly. I can't say I feel gimped, but I do imagine that I would feel completely overpowered as a healing sage.

[GurgleGoop]

Nah, bro. You keep soloing 3 dps.

 

I didn't say that I kill them, only that I survive them. Is it so incomprehensible that there are people out there better than you? Who don't immediately start complaining if they die?

[steinsgate]

I didn't say that I kill them, only that I survive them. Is it so incomprehensible that there are people out there better than you? Who don't immediately start complaining if they die?

 

Meh, maybe you're better than me, maybe you aren't. But you aren't survivng three intelligent dps. Three juggernaughts, maybe. But three sorcs? Three mercs? Three anything? You're full of it, bro.

 

I mean, sometimes I make facetious statements, too, but yours was overkill.

Edited January 19, 2012 by steinsgate

[Zdeath]

Ok 90% of this threads info is biased and unfounded. As a full time and 100% Ops Healer I have never had a problem with the class other then that 10-20 awkward time without skills. Other then that I would say we are arguably the best healers on a PvP battlefield. We have very strong single target heals (Yes not as strong as Sorc) and if talented you just need to learn to juggle your fighting buff (Tactical Advantage for OP). As a rule of thumb I try and keep a 2 stack up at all times in pvp when not in major conflict. This is to help solve your energy depletion problem as you Insta heal and then Kolto. This gives you just enough time to loose around 5% per popping both heals for around a total of 6k of healing at 50 (Normal Kolto is 4.5-5k and Probe is 1.2-1.8k) With good timing you can kolto and then Probe immediately after. This is all outside the fact we are the only class in game with a respectable HoT. Which is worth its weight in gold during PvP. Especially when you realize you only need to re apply once after 2 stacks to refresh them both. I commonly run with our other raid healer who is a sorc and have had a chance to really watch them in action healing in PvP against me. And I will say that while our numbers may not be as high in the end of the match (We usually have a 10-20k difference at most) I always have more kills, more damage done and am always able to keep moving unlike the common Sorc. Which IMO makes the OP the more favorable of the PvP healers because of our ability to adapt to a situation.

 

Now onto the none healing side of it. The strongest advantage of an OP/Smuggler is the list of CC's available. Learning to use guerrilla tactics when outnumbered and taking out the strays. I will admit that in this arena we definitely get the shorter stick but our stick is quick and silent. Stealth->Lethal Strike->Debilitating Strike->Backstab->Tendon->Shiv. This can all be done so quickly that most players don't know how they dropped half health. And they are now slowed and all of our CD's are up. Now at this point if you cant kill them learn to drop the attack and not be pulled into masses. We are a rogue more or less and need to treat the class as such.

 

Now the bad, we have no knock-back. We have no pulls. We have no shield buff to buff others. We have no real sprint buff. Our dodge is not as high as it should be and it would be nice to see another stealth feature be it buff or attack. Other then those few items I am more then happy with my choice to become a Healer as an Operative.

 

As a side note I have ran all available HM Flashpoints and both HM Ops as a main heals and have been sought after as one of the top 5 healers on my server. In the end it comes down to how well YOU can play the class and how well YOU can manage what you have.

[boooshy]

This whole thread is a joke... I regularly pull 100k+ damage and 400k+ healing on an average length voidstar, with screenshots to prove it. My hot ticks for about 700 and crits for 1300, orbital strike crits for over 3k! 5k heals are no problem with underworld medicine, kolto pack sucks but it is slightly faster. Seriously those complaining need to learn how to play their damn class, if anything we need a nerf! The sheer ability to drop a nuke, stun a mob of people in it, vanish away, and pop back up in their backline and continue healing 10 seconds later is ridiculous! My god do you people have nothing better to complain about!? Stop ************ and get yourself some damn champion pieces and you will do MORE than fine in the average warzone. If any of you wanna say this is false, head to Prophecy of the Five and talk to me in person, my character is Mooshin. Like I said, this whole thread is just plain stupid.