Souncdrel Healing -- What is our strength? PvP focused

[MXaviorM]

I see strengths of Sages and Commandos, but what is ours?

 

I find that if I run into a battle midway through, that I am far less effective than a sage or commando. We have no 'bubble to put on others, I enter with no upper hand, so to do any sort of 'burst emergency healing I end up with very little resource left, and I am then faced with an abysmal regen rate.

 

I have had some success in fights such as voidstar, where I can easily keep LOS on everyone and throw out my hot, but it doesn't heal for much and is seen as our version of preventative healing. So is that our strength? To overheal?

 

What about mobility? When we have upper hand stacks ready to go, then we are perhaps the most mobile of healers, but the only way to reliably achieve upper hand is to sit and cast. I would still trade that for force speed and a knock back or the commando bubble to prevent dmg and interrupts.

 

I have found our class severely lacking in pvp healing when it comes to respawning or running into a battle in progress needing immediate heals. Am I doing or seeing something wrong?

[Aetou]

Our strength is supposed to be mobility. It sort of works, with SRMP to generate UHs and then EMPs whenever they proc. Obviously as a full-on healer that is very lacking. You aren't going to be keeping a focused target up like that for very long. Still, as a hybrid it can work pretty well and is 'invisible' healing which is a big boost to survivability. You'd also be surprised what a boon even just SRMP is to your team. Sure, it's not as amazing as a sage bubbling everyone but it is more than enough to swing a fight. A Scoundrel hybrid and a shadow tank coming out of stealth together at an objective are very, very awesome.

[MXaviorM]

Any healing can be very helpful, for sure, but I'm still struggling to see any reason to continue on my Scoundrel as opposed to the other healing classes. Right now I'm hoping 1.2 will help, but if it doesn't then my Scoundrel will probably just be shelved.

[EbonFade]

Sawbones healing is really incredible, up until you hit full battlemaster groups that focus. The problem is when you have a BM Juggernaught, Pyro PT and say a maurader on you its more or less over.

 

You get cc'd and are dead in like 3 seconds, even with guard and another healer healing you.

Its the same problem for sages actually.

 

Meanwhile a Merc/trooper healer can trivially survive that type of focus fire, which is why they are the best pvp healers in the game atm.

 

It is what it is...

[Rahak]

Imagine there is a wall of ice infront of you.

Your objective, to throw flaming potatoes at it, you also have juggle the potatoes to avoid them burning your hands.

Whilst you do this, there are three Gorilla's attacking you;

One is grabbing trying to take a potato

Another is pushing and pulling you around

The third is trying to punch you in the groin.

 

That's sawbones.

[KilmarFyrewynd]

The sawbones' strength is they can cloak and run away. Sages can't. Sure sages heal better, have tons of cc, can cast shield on tanks, have self bubble, can AoE knockback with root, can heal more than 3 players with their AoE and can pull friendlies to safety, but sawbones can cloak and run away and they can't! Edited March 16, 2012 by KilmarFyrewynd

[Azaranth]

By far, our biggest advantage is that we're damn near unkillable. It's rare that I die more than once in a warzone.

 

All three healing classes can be decently survivable on the run. The difference is that for us, we can keep healing while we're doing it. A majority of my voidstar games, for example, end up with me running circles around a pillar to break line of sight while dropping SMRP's, EMPs and Triage on my friends. Kolto Cloud is awesome too, since you can group heal without having to stop moving.

 

When things get hairy, flash grenade buys you enough time to get a UWM cast or two off. Defense Screen + Rakata Medpack is a huge recovery tool. The most important tool for survival is managing your line of sight.

 

Embrace your survivability. I queue premade with a Sage healer. He regularly heals for about 25k more than I do, but I usually do about 50k more damage and have a few less deaths (which means more defense/interrupts/etc). In the end, I feel like my contributions are greater than his, even though he always gets the MVP votes for healing more

[Azaranth]

The sawbones' strength is they can cloak and run away. Sages can't. Sure sages heal better, have tons of cc, can cast shield on tanks, have self bubble, can AoE knockback with root, can heal more than 3 players with their AoE and can pull friendlies to safety, but sawbones can cloak and run away and they can't!

 

Sages heal better - Barely

have tons of cc - So do we

can cast shield on tanks - Pretty cool

have self bubble - So do we

can AoE knockback with root - You already mentioned CC

can heal more than 3 players with their AoE - So can we.

 

I'm willing to guarantee you that I heal more with Kolto Cloud in PVP than any sage does with puddle. For Kolto Cloud, you only need to catch everyone standing together for a brief second. With puddle, everyone has to stay in the area. Know what happens when puddle goes down? AoEs. Not a great PVP ability.

 

I wouldn't trade my Scoundrel for a Sage. No way.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Azaranth

[Turn-XGundam]

can't sawbones just stealth when about to die???

if so that a huge advantage, commando/merc do less healing resource wise.

[KilmarFyrewynd]

Sages heal better - Barely

have tons of cc - So do we

can cast shield on tanks - Pretty cool

have self bubble - So do we

can AoE knockback with root - You already mentioned CC

can heal more than 3 players with their AoE - So can we.

 

I'm willing to guarantee you that I heal more with Kolto Cloud in PVP than any sage does with puddle. For Kolto Cloud, you only need to catch everyone standing together for a brief second. With puddle, everyone has to stay in the area. Know what happens when puddle goes down? AoEs. Not a great PVP ability.

 

I wouldn't trade my Scoundrel for a Sage. No way.

Sages heal better - Barely - But still better.

have tons of cc - So do we - We have flash grenade and Tranq (invis only) and arguably maybe Tendon Shot. Am I missing others?

can cast shield on tanks - Pretty cool - Yup, it is.

have self bubble - So do we. - Sawbones is for 15s every 45s. Sage is 30s every 20s with 4.5s cooldown and I believe mitigates more dmg. I apologize as I should have said "have better self bubble"

can AoE knockback with root - You already mentioned CC - We do not AoE KB nor can we root.

can heal more than 3 players with their AoE - So can we. Kolto Cloud does 3 + yourself. Many people don't even spec Kolto Cloud. How many healing sages don't spec Salvation? I doubt you would find very many if any at all.

 

I should also add sages do not have to micro-manage energy consumption like we do.

 

Now, I'm not saying we're bad. I love playing my sawbones. But to say we are just as good as sages...

Edited March 16, 2012 by KilmarFyrewynd

[Azaranth]

Now, I'm not saying we're bad. I love playing my sawbones. But to say we are just as good as sages...

 

I guess it depends on how you define good.

 

I very much enjoy having 0 death warzones. I also enjoy the random hijinks we can pull with stealth and CC that sages cannot. I enjoy that Freighter Bomb isn't channeled like Forcequake, and makes for a far better defensive tool to prevent caps. I also enjoy that I don't stand out like a big glowy beacon while healing like sages do.

 

You've done a good job of pinpointing a few things sages are good at. None of them convince me that Sage's are "better" than Operatives*.

 

(* Other than in Huttball, because Huttball is f'ing stupid and makes me want to die).

[KilmarFyrewynd]

I guess it depends on how you define good.

 

I very much enjoy having 0 death warzones. I also enjoy the random hijinks we can pull with stealth and CC that sages cannot. I enjoy that Freighter Bomb isn't channeled like Forcequake, and makes for a far better defensive tool to prevent caps. I also enjoy that I don't stand out like a big glowy beacon while healing like sages do.

 

You've done a good job of pinpointing a few things sages are good at. None of them convince me that Sage's are "better" than Operatives*.

 

(* Other than in Huttball, because Huttball is f'ing stupid and makes me want to die).

 

I'm not saying we're "worse", but I would say we are not as "efficient" (aka Easy Mode) as sages, not necessarily worse. And yes, I also despise Huttball. Here's hoping the 1.2 patch will make things "better".

[Gorzh]

Hiya! Hoping not to hijack the thread, but I got a level 22 scoundrel(sawbone specced) and I'm wondering if they get any better burst healing? I really wanna level the scoundrel, but if I try to get someone up fast in PvP I find myself energy starved pretty quick!

 

I don't have the same problems on my sage(also level 22), hoping for any fine answer that can boost my scoundrel hopes up!

 

Already got a lvl 50 shadow and I almost get nightmares thinking bout' doing the consular class story again! >.<

[paha_kuukkeli]

Hiya! Hoping not to hijack the thread, but I got a level 22 scoundrel(sawbone specced) and I'm wondering if they get any better burst healing? I really wanna level the scoundrel, but if I try to get someone up fast in PvP I find myself energy starved pretty quick!

 

I don't have the same problems on my sage(also level 22), hoping for any fine answer that can boost my scoundrel hopes up!

 

Already got a lvl 50 shadow and I almost get nightmares thinking bout' doing the consular class story again! >.<

 

You don't get much of a burst capability before level 31. With talented Emergency Medpac you can cast two heals in 2 seconds (or less with some alacrity) and it doesn't drain your energy much. It's somewhat debatable whether this counts as burst heal or not as it's your basic rotation but it's a major upgrade to your healing at level 22.

 

I'm not very experienced PvP player but I've been moderately happy with my Scoundrel on Civil War and Voidstar - Hutball is rough though as I lack all the tools needed in that one (knockbacks, pulls, speed boosts, etc.). I rarely have problems with energy and even when I do most of them are generated by attempts to kill someone so it's rarely healing related.

 

So purely healingwise I don't feel I'm that much behind Sages on PvP (Salvation doesn't seem to be that big of a deal in PvP) but my utility is worse (especially on Hutball). With Salvation and Force Armor they get ahead of us in the statistics but in my opinion the real difference in value is smaller than the difference often is on the results screen.

[PerfectDuke]

Imagine there is a wall of ice infront of you.

Your objective, to throw flaming potatoes at it, you also have juggle the potatoes to avoid them burning your hands.

Whilst you do this, there are three Gorilla's attacking you;

One is grabbing trying to take a potato

Another is pushing and pulling you around

The third is trying to punch you in the groin.

 

That's sawbones.

 

Ugh, the gorillas. Why can't they just buff our gloves to be fire resistant!? Damn you Bioware!

Edited March 17, 2012 by PerfectDuke

[CaptainApop]

can't sawbones just stealth when about to die???

if so that a huge advantage, commando/merc do less healing resource wise.

 

 

Yeah it's amazing losing the ability to heal or be healed for ten seconds thus becoming totally useless and inevitably being taken out of stealth immediately by spammed aoe/trooper scans.

 

Stealthing is a death sentence for a healer in most situations. Our only real defenses in medium armor are our hot ticking and EMP/SP, which vanishing completely removes. Our one minute cd bubble is for a pathetic amount.

[Azaranth]

We have a ton of defensive tools. Being slippery is our claim to fame.

Here's a rough list of our defensive tools, in order that I tend to utilize them.

 

1. Line of Sight. Never stand anywhere that you can't use LoS to avoid tracer missile spam. Voidstar, Huttball and the Civil War all have great places to break LoS. Learn 'em and use 'em.

 

2. Teammates. Guard is amazing. Other healrers are a godsend. It's not like you're PVPing in a vacuum. You have teammates, appreciate them.

 

3. Heals that you can cast while moving. Triage. 2x Slow-Release Medpack. 1x Kolto Cloud. Emergency Medpack. Triage Again. Repeat. You can keep massive heals on yourself without ever stopping, which is key when you're busying kiting around a pillar (see #1).

 

4. Talented Defense Screen + Rakata Medpack. Pop med screen, then Medpack. You'll heal for 5k and then you have a ~2500 bubble on top of that. That's a big swing of HP, and it's up very frequently

 

5. Tendon Blast, Dirty Kick, Flash Bang. When you're out of all other options, you can always just stun and run away. It's pretty effective.

 

6. Vanish + Dodge. I disagree with the last poster. When you're getting focused too hard, Vanish is amazing. Use dodge immediately after vanishing to clear debuffs and dots. When you're about to vanish, juke a different direction. Bounty Hunter stealth scan will usually miss you. This is on the longest cooldown, so it's usually a last resort.

 

One of these things is almost always up. Most of them have cooldowns less than a minute, and it makes us very very hard to take down. I very rarely die more than once in a warzone.