1.2 PvP Healing? Don't bother

[Kyntari]

Currently the only healer that is kicking in pvp are fully geared ops/scoundrels. Easily the best right now for pvp. Everything else is meat for the dps grindstone.

 

This pretty much sums it up. I feel like a raid boss on my BM op. Harder to keep people up post-1.2, but from what I see in WZs we're easily the least-worse-off of the 3 healers in PvP since the changes. Which is no real surprise, given who received buffs vs. who received nerfs.

 

I haven't even bothered to PvP on my champ geared Sorc since 1.2. Having to jump in to the fragfest without my 1.4 sec big heal is just ... no thanks. She's basically my PvE ***** now.

[Crimestick]

Had a BH as my main pre 1.2 and never like healing in WZ's with him. Before 1.2, i had him in full champion but never found healing in WZ's appealing at all due to the fact that the "meat and potatoes" of Merc heals requires you to stand still being able only to move a few feet at a time in between kolto missles and emergency scans. I could get targeted, put on my sheild and keep 5 or six of them on me for the duration of the shield with the spamability of merc heals. still seemed a little off since i could easily out heal and keep a group of people busy while the rest of my team won the WZ for me. As i said, that was way too boring. I wasn't in the fight most of the time and spent most of the time healing myself rather than the group.

 

I decided to reroll a sorc healer. I hit 50 on him the day before the patch so i didn't have any reference point for PvP healing except for my merc. since then, i have purchased my entire recruit set and replaced 3 peices and my lightsaber with BM gear. I feel formidable. I can get absolutely annihilated by a WH or full BM sent/marauder, but that is something that i've been adjusting for. Even though i have more cast times than my BH, i still feel like i have more mobility with force speed and static shield. Over all, i can expect myself to be squishy and for the last few days, my 4 man that i regularly queue up with have had little to no resistance.

 

With the changes, i think the fact that they fixed the exploit with getting 2 force bending spells from one cast of resurgence was not a nerf but working as intended. by taking the 1 second cast time off my big heal and changing it to 60% crit makes it so i now have to use my short cast heal for spamming, i can force them to use an interrupt by starting with my big heal or revivification and spam the smaller heal in between resurgence. I have been trying to play smart and have had no issues. after i get my 4 peice of BM, I'll get 6% of total health back from using my consumption with no regen penalty. All of this including the rebalance of expertise was actually balancing the game and makes the game MORE strategic. rely on your team and queue with people you know to be good players.

 

I think people are just over reacting. Or i am just not seeing what you are seeing.

[Aaoogaa]

Had a BH as my main pre 1.2 and never like healing in WZ's with him. Before 1.2, i had him in full champion but never found healing in WZ's appealing at all due to the fact that the "meat and potatoes" of Merc heals requires you to stand still being able only to move a few feet at a time in between kolto missles and emergency scans. I could get targeted, put on my sheild and keep 5 or six of them on me for the duration of the shield with the spamability of merc heals. still seemed a little off since i could easily out heal and keep a group of people busy while the rest of my team won the WZ for me. As i said, that was way too boring. I wasn't in the fight most of the time and spent most of the time healing myself rather than the group.

 

I decided to reroll a sorc healer. I hit 50 on him the day before the patch so i didn't have any reference point for PvP healing except for my merc. since then, i have purchased my entire recruit set and replaced 3 peices and my lightsaber with BM gear. I feel formidable. I can get absolutely annihilated by a WH or full BM sent/marauder, but that is something that i've been adjusting for. Even though i have more cast times than my BH, i still feel like i have more mobility with force speed and static shield. Over all, i can expect myself to be squishy and for the last few days, my 4 man that i regularly queue up with have had little to no resistance.

 

With the changes, i think the fact that they fixed the exploit with getting 2 force bending spells from one cast of resurgence was not a nerf but working as intended. by taking the 1 second cast time off my big heal and changing it to 60% crit makes it so i now have to use my short cast heal for spamming, i can force them to use an interrupt by starting with my big heal or revivification and spam the smaller heal in between resurgence. I have been trying to play smart and have had no issues. after i get my 4 peice of BM, I'll get 6% of total health back from using my consumption with no regen penalty. All of this including the rebalance of expertise was actually balancing the game and makes the game MORE strategic. rely on your team and queue with people you know to be good players.

 

I think people are just over reacting. Or i am just not seeing what you are seeing.

 

Great post. I kill BM geared sorcs in 4 global cooldowns currently...5 if their shield is up. One DPS...2 DPS means death in 3. I feel for the healers currently they are just not effective...well except operatives and only because they get away...not because they keep their friends alive.

Edited April 17, 2012 by Aaoogaa

[Jay_Stocker]

completey bored of pvp healing now. if i get targetted as a commando, im dead. if i dont get targetted, im out of ammo too fast to keep anyone alive. so much fun right now in this game.

[Urishir]

switched to dps from my healer, i dont really know rotations and such yet but its just way more relaxing to throw damage around and see people getting hurt instead of trying to throw heals around which are nullified in second or 2 from dps while being focusfired by 2-3 melee

at least now that im dps that focusfire isnt on me as much, i die a bit faster than as healer but at least i know ive damaged my attacker as well instead of being speedbumb

mostly psychological i guess but healing atm feels pretty meaningless

 

dont get me started on huttball now...was in a game where ball almost never left middle due to ball carrier getting killed

and both sides really tried to score passing ball and such

 

thats for pvp in pve im still healer

Edited April 17, 2012 by Urishir
typo

[Chuck_Diesel]

I don't see much 1.2 feedback from Combat Medics in these threads. Is that because they aren't playing anymore? I know I certainly am not playing mine anymore. Standing around and/or dying because I am perpetually out of ammo is not my idea of fun...

[SirPayne]

I stopped healing on my Operative, which i leveled as healer since the start. Even when the healing might be now closer to that of a sage, i still have no real utility compared to the sage. The shield i have is still a joke and gone in one second as soon as i have a Marauder on me which demolish me in a matter of seconds. I still can get easily interrupted. The hots are still worthless and barely noticeable when under attack. And Zoellers so called "burst" healing is depressing.

[pavelmatejka]

Hehe probably my last post on these forums. Did a little bit of testing. Switched to dps for 2 days didnt get fosused died a lot less got more medals focused and killed any healer I spoted ( was wierd at times since I did a lot of same faction wz and I knew them lol) I felt bad but dps is just so sooooo boring and how could I do the most dps as assault commando most wz??? Switched back to healz the next day we won most matches so is pvp healing ok? NO it isnt I noticed we were playing against bad teams. Those 10 or so matches they only focused me 2 times and I died in 3 seconds but that day I can understeand for some healers it may look ok. I was the only commando healer lvl 50 on our server I stlii may login on my time I have left but its unlikely I will. I remember waiting for rated our team was ready now its - 2 healer spots our guildmaster has to fill oh well. Sry did this on my phone.

[XtremJedi]

I called up support and got them to switch my account off, saving the days I had left. So, if I decide to reactivate at a later date, I'll still have all my days credited - and I had 3 months of credit left on my account. I'll watch out for the big patches and re-evaluate. If things turn a great deal better, I may come back.

 

X

[Lightsun]

If you play a Medic Operative in PVP like myself then you must be thrilled about the TA and RN changes mostly. Having said that, PVP is my bread and butter as an OPS Medic and I can easily play both Heals and DPS in the top 2% of every game. I have played a lowbie BH Merc healer and was also successful so your skill set does transfer over to whatever character you play. My 2 cents for healers having difficulty surviving, esp. SI's or Sent are they just stand there and try and heal through the dmg. Smart healers will always LOS, and for those O **** moments, run to a dps so they can peel. Again, this only comes with experience so if your getting burned out or tired of your class mechanics then maybe you should read more postings about what people are doing right and follow their lead.

[Chuck_Diesel]

...advice...

 

I'm sure that to an Op/Scoundrel, the answer to survivability is "move around more" but you are neglecting the fact that Op/Scoundrel is the most (arguably the only) mobile healer. While it is important to kite and LOS as a healer as much as you can, the rest of us are often left with the option to heal in place or die on the run.

[Devenia]

I've been having trouble with this patch as well, sorc healer here. It was really easy for 1-2 dps to burst me down, sometimes in the absence of interupts/cc, when i had around 600 expertise in full champion gear. I've got around 900 expertise now and it feels a lot better though. It takes some gearing up for those like me who went into this patch w/out full battlemaster and were used to just tanking damage.

 

Some advice: we sorc healers have to kite to stay alive now. There's really no point in healing yourself with cast-time spells when you have melee on you, your best bet is to force slow, spam dispel and other instants on yourself, and keep as much distance/LoS as possible between you and the dpser(s) chasing you, and once you get away then spam cast-time heals to get back up to full. Oh, and keeping Revivification down as much as possible is Huge. Reviv is something like our highest hps heal on single target (though weak hpf on 1 target) and at 2+ its hands down our best heal.

 

I've also phased out using Dark Infusion in favor of more Dark Heal in situations where I need to do much single-target burst healing. DI is too much of a time-investment, which makes interupts/cc at the end of the cast very damaging. If you are sure you will be able to get a DI cast off before the person dies, then its better hps and much better hpf, and ofc its better to use DI with recklessness, but DH is better most of the time.

 

This patch seems to have made gear disparities harder to overcome. BM gear seems pretty essential to survive as a sorc healer - even though I've only ug'd about half my champion gear with BM so far, it still feels easier to survive. Also, War Hero gear looks like about as much of an upgrade over BM gear as BM was over Champion last patch, so it shouldn't be very bad if you can't get WH gear very quickly.

 

When this patch first hit I was really pissed at how weak I felt in pvp. I was even leveling an operative to heal with because of it. But with some adjustment and gearing up, it's becoming somewhat more bearable, so I've decided to just stick with sorc heals for now.

 

I also think having 1 sorc healer in rateds will be very helpful just for Revivification. Sorc aoe healing is boss, the other healers just can't keep up in aoe situations. I kinda figure operative/sorc 2 healing RWZs would be ideal, though my guild will probably run Merc/Sorc just because that's what we have.

 

TL,DR - patch sucks for sorc healers but its not an insurmountable problem. We need to get gear and to learn to kite well to survive. Basically its not the end of the world.

 

PS: Please don't flame. I do agree that they kinda overnerfed healing this patch, mostly because they paired the expertise fix with class nerfs to sorc and merc healers. All I'm saying is that we can adapt and overcome.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Devenia
clarity/spelling

[signahead]

I don't see much 1.2 feedback from Combat Medics in these threads. Is that because they aren't playing anymore? I know I certainly am not playing mine anymore. Standing around and/or dying because I am perpetually out of ammo is not my idea of fun...

 

I still playing my Combat Medic, but he's a grav round-spammin' Gunnery Commando now. Since the switch, PvP has been a lot more fun for me, even compared to the halcyon days before patch 1.2. My character is no longer the Imperial zerg's first target and he doesn't get marked. As a result, he lives longer. Even though the average time-to-kill seems to have dropped precipitously, my own survival rate has greatly improved.

 

Best of all, he gets to spend more time fighting and less time kiting. I think "More fight. Less kite." is going to be my new guiding principle whenever I make a character. I had no idea how burnt-out I was with healing until I switched to DPS.

[Xaearth]

I'm sure that to an Op/Scoundrel, the answer to survivability is "move around more" but you are neglecting the fact that Op/Scoundrel is the most (arguably the only) mobile healer. While it is important to kite and LOS as a healer as much as you can, the rest of us are often left with the option to heal in place or die on the run.

 

Don't mind the poor folks that still think lolHoTs and Surgical Probe spam equate to mobile healing.

Compared to a once-per-combat med pack or any of the other healing options DPS have available to them? Yeah it's a godsend.

 

But to anyone that actually mains a healer, it's still a joke.

 

<Insert mandatory quip about removing from the gene pool the person who decided mobile heals should have a 75% reduction in throughput as a fair trade for being mobile>

Edited April 18, 2012 by Xaearth

[SotA-K]

Hmm.. I dunno, we are definately a lot more squishy, just got to play smarter. Heres a post of an epic game.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/howEVIL/Screenshot_2012-04-18_21_07_35_691642.jpg

[D-bombz]

I stopped healing on my Operative, which i leveled as healer since the start. Even when the healing might be now closer to that of a sage, i still have no real utility compared to the sage. The shield i have is still a joke and gone in one second as soon as i have a Marauder on me which demolish me in a matter of seconds. I still can get easily interrupted. The hots are still worthless and barely noticeable when under attack. And Zoellers so called "burst" healing is depressing.

 

I still pvp with my op healer. I usually get a bit over 400k a game, its not like sorcs pre 1.2 with 800k healing but its still pretty good for me anyways.

 

I dont think shield probe is a joke. Every 45 seconds we can absorb damage over 15 seconds. Not bad and we still have another defensive cooldown every minute.

 

hots have good sustain healing imo and is useful for stacking TA

 

If a marauder is on me i cc with debiltate and then flashbang. They usually waste their cc breaker on debilitate. Pretty much takes them out of the fight for a short duration to have hots and TA stacked. Dont forget to fake cast to waste their interrupt.

 

This class is weak in some areas but all classes have their pro and cons

[GavDaragon]

Some perspective, I have a 50 sage healer, in full BM. Ill actually be putting on some WH gear as of tomorrow. I am probably among the elite pvp healers on my server. To the point where I am instantly recognized and focused by any imp pvper worth his salt. I have only one character because all I've wanted to play since beta was a Sage Healer. And I am devastated by these changes to sage healing, we didnt get the nerf bat we got the nerf sledge! There is no more class balance for sages. Are only saving grace before 1.2 is that we could usually survive an attack long enough to get some help or till other players could peel off some dps on you. Not anymore! We can no longer heal through any similarly (and often less geared) damage output. And if we get attacked, we are done, if we dont end up killing ourselves regenerating force. My new favorite excuse from all the people who dont think sages are bad in pvp is, ah use your abilities, or terrain, or skill, or just work with your team better. WOW, really you think thats the issue, like we didnt do that before.... and I love how that is only a unique excuse to healers. Do you tell a Marauder, you need another player to help you be able to deal damage otherwise you can't kill another player, or ah you need to use the terrain in order to do your damage. And I love, hey just run away and heal yourself then go back to the fight.... Really name one dpser who just goes "Oh healer left, Ill just walk away, and not force leap, or stun him, or slow, or any of the other multitude of things i can do as a dps class, oh wait ill just interrupt him...." WIN And thats if you only end up with one guy on you. You are justifying class balance on an unknown, unproven variable that cant be accounted for in-game.

 

Before 1.2 good marauders, assasins, operatives could take me out. Not juggs so much, but hey thats class balance for you. The problem was dpsers whined because they couldnt just mow through us like the could others...no duh...In order for me to heal, i need to be able to survive. Healers in any mmo are often tough to kill, cause guess what..... THEY CAN HEAL! What good is being able to heal anyone if you cant survive. But again Bioware listened to all the whining and complaining from bad players who couldnt quite kill us fast enough. Now there isnt a class around that cant murder us, and what can we do in defense.....ask a friend to help.....give me a break....maybe I can hot key that feature since i dont need any of the other buttons.

 

Time to go dps on my sage, since all pvp has degenerated down to a dps race. Thank you Bioware for absolutely ruining the one class I wanted to play. What you guys did to sorcs/sages was ridiculous and next time why dont try boosting dps somemore, then you can just eliminate healing classes all together. Lord knows we dont need em now.

Edited April 21, 2012 by LexiCazam
Inappropriate content

[OwnzYou]

All I heard from people leading up to 1.2 was everyone complaining about Healers getting nerfed. I lvled my Sorc to 50 as heal spec the whole way (switched to DPS after 50 because 50 lvls of healing got boring). Healing as my Sorc was super-easy mode. (I played PvE ONLY as my Sorc) Very rarely (during HM FPs) would anyone die on my watch without unforeseen circumstances (accidental aggro during a fight, etc.), the only time I ever had problem was when fresh 50s would be undergeared for HMs. It was such a breeze. I actually kind of wanna try healing again on that char just to be actually CHALLENGED.

 

NOW, I have switched servers (playing with RL friends) and have gotten my Shadow up to lvl 42 (Balance/Madness spec). On this character I have been pretty much doing exclusively PvP. I gotta tell you guys, 1.2 hasn't done much to healers in WZs that I can tell (pre-50 WZs). Perhaps it's my teammates that disregard the target markers above healers' heads. I go 1v1 against a mid-to-high level Sorcerer/Operative/Mercenary..... I can't kill them fast enough to avoid getting ganked by his spawning teammates that come to rescue him. Sorcs are STILL the worst, my god I wanna punch a baby when I go against these guys.

 

I start attacking the Sorc -> Static Barrier -> Dark Heal -> Dark Heal, I use my Interrupt) -> Dark Infusion, I use Force Stun, lasts 4 seconds -> Dark Infusion, I use Force Lift, which results in his Resolve Bar filling 100% -> Static Barrier -> Dark Heal (no longer interrupted, and my interrupt is still on cooldown) -> Overload, I get knocked back -> Dark Heal -> his Marauder teammate spawns and proceeds to make mince meat out of me while the Sorc is STILL SELF-HEALING.

 

I don't have much of a problem with Healers, that's usually my preferred class in MMOs/RPGs, but MY GOD does this game have a SERIOUS problem with Self-Healing. I know that while they;re self-healing they're not really contributing to the team while I'm working them, but it's like treading through molasses! Not to mention if NOBODY ELSE decides to attack the marked healer, they can keep their whole team alive, and they get an easy Win

[Syylara]

All I heard from people leading up to 1.2 was everyone complaining about Healers getting nerfed. I lvled my Sorc to 50 as heal spec the whole way (switched to DPS after 50 because 50 lvls of healing got boring). Healing as my Sorc was super-easy mode. (I played PvE ONLY as my Sorc) Very rarely (during HM FPs) would anyone die on my watch without unforeseen circumstances (accidental aggro during a fight, etc.), the only time I ever had problem was when fresh 50s would be undergeared for HMs. It was such a breeze. I actually kind of wanna try healing again on that char just to be actually CHALLENGED.

 

NOW, I have switched servers (playing with RL friends) and have gotten my Shadow up to lvl 42 (Balance/Madness spec). On this character I have been pretty much doing exclusively PvP. I gotta tell you guys, 1.2 hasn't done much to healers in WZs that I can tell (pre-50 WZs). Perhaps it's my teammates that disregard the target markers above healers' heads. I go 1v1 against a mid-to-high level Sorcerer/Operative/Mercenary..... I can't kill them fast enough to avoid getting ganked by his spawning teammates that come to rescue him. Sorcs are STILL the worst, my god I wanna punch a baby when I go against these guys.

 

I start attacking the Sorc -> Static Barrier -> Dark Heal -> Dark Heal, I use my Interrupt) -> Dark Infusion, I use Force Stun, lasts 4 seconds -> Dark Infusion, I use Force Lift, which results in his Resolve Bar filling 100% -> Static Barrier -> Dark Heal (no longer interrupted, and my interrupt is still on cooldown) -> Overload, I get knocked back -> Dark Heal -> his Marauder teammate spawns and proceeds to make mince meat out of me while the Sorc is STILL SELF-HEALING.

 

I don't have much of a problem with Healers, that's usually my preferred class in MMOs/RPGs, but MY GOD does this game have a SERIOUS problem with Self-Healing. I know that while they;re self-healing they're not really contributing to the team while I'm working them, but it's like treading through molasses! Not to mention if NOBODY ELSE decides to attack the marked healer, they can keep their whole team alive, and they get an easy Win

 

So you can typically neutralize a healer but not kill them when attacking them by yourself?

 

That's balanced.

 

You get killed when several enemies show up to defend their healer from your attacks?

 

That's fine.

 

Your teammates can't seem to get their **** together and focus fire decently enough that a sage/sorc under your pressure can still pump out enough heals to keep "their whole team alive?"

 

That's your problem.

[Ashlian]

I decided to reroll a sorc healer. I hit 50 on him the day before the patch so i didn't have any reference point for PvP healing except for my merc. since then, i have purchased my entire recruit set and replaced 3 peices and my lightsaber with BM gear. I feel formidable. I can get absolutely annihilated by a WH or full BM sent/marauder, but that is something that i've been adjusting for. Even though i have more cast times than my BH, i still feel like i have more mobility with force speed and static shield. Over all, i can expect myself to be squishy and for the last few days, my 4 man that i regularly queue up with have had little to no resistance.

 

With the changes, i think the fact that they fixed the exploit with getting 2 force bending spells from one cast of resurgence was not a nerf but working as intended. by taking the 1 second cast time off my big heal and changing it to 60% crit makes it so i now have to use my short cast heal for spamming, i can force them to use an interrupt by starting with my big heal or revivification and spam the smaller heal in between resurgence. I have been trying to play smart and have had no issues. after i get my 4 peice of BM, I'll get 6% of total health back from using my consumption with no regen penalty. All of this including the rebalance of expertise was actually balancing the game and makes the game MORE strategic. rely on your team and queue with people you know to be good players.

 

I think people are just over reacting. Or i am just not seeing what you are seeing.

 

The bolded portion up there is the difference in what we're seeing and you're not, really. Many of us don't have the luxury of queuing on our servers with a group of four people regularly. I queue with a friend who fortunately happens to guard my squishy sage self, or I wouldn't touch pvp with a ten foot pole as it stands now. The ratio of Imps to Reps on my server is at least 3:2, if not flat out 2:1, and in nearly all my post-1.2 matches after the first day, we've queued starting 6 against 8. Right there you have a situation where people look less to an overall winning strategy, because it ISN'T HAPPENING, not even if Obi Wan himself appeared in our warzone after the first few minutes are gone, and more to just getting those precious three medals while being facerolled by the pre-made Imp teams so the warzone isn't a total loss. Guarding a healer, peeling dps off them is just not happening in that case.

 

It's a die in 10 seconds after leaving your spawn point sort of situation and it becomes very frustrating very quickly. There's really no opportunity for those of us who weren't full BM and aren't queuing with pre-mades to get gear in any kind of reasonable time frame compared to the opposing faction when they're fielding full teams and we aren't. Especially when the pre-mades and better solo players on our faction will often drop from wz's if they find they're in with people they don't think are up to their weight class. And this is why ranked wz were so necessary.....there's no way for those of us with less experience to learn a damn thing when we die like flies against vastly superiorly geared forces who literally outnumber us by a quarter or more. We're just padding their medal count.

 

I respecced to a hybrid heal/dps build and it helps a lot with mobility and force regen. But I could afford to do that because in my pve time I group with a heal specced commando. Until they put dual specs in, ranked wz's, and ameliorate the severity of the nerf they gave merc/commando and sage/sorcerers, a lot of us will simply quit pvp, and that just kills pvp faster on many servers. Stupid overall move if you want people to learn to play. There are better ways to encourage development of skill than a huge swing of the nerf bat that just went way too far.

[Xaearth]

<Waaah I can't 1v1 a healer and blow them up as DPS sub-50.>

 

Please understand that comparing damage between classes at an arbitrary level (16) is not going to yield any useful insight into power differences between classes.

 

5char.

[Jinkblade]

Healing unless u are a Ops/Smug is a joke in pvp... Mercs/Coman still have it a bit better than Sage/Sorc which pvp means u are dead if people forcus u, and if they dont u cant keep up a person being focused on....

 

Interrupts and cc is the way to kill a healer one on one, a lot off people dont seem to get this point so they complain that they cant kill a healer.... now Burst DAMAGE is all that matters in pvp.....

 

LOL nice joke. the sage nerf was nothing in comparison to combat medic. I still see sage healers pulling out massive numbers in WZs all the time, you just aren’t playing a completely OP class anymore.

Commando healing got the biggest nerf in swtor so far.

[Bankaikiller]

Well, I think i'm done with this game for now unless they revamp sorc healers again. Instead of just increasing operative healers healing, and leaving the other classes alone, they decide to nerf the other two. Thanks bioware for being a bunch of morons, and making the game less fun for healers, especially mercs.

[kenbenobi]

Mathematically, you are hampering your team as a healer.

 

The numbers say it is more efficient to remove enemy damage dealers faster than to use a healer while removing enemies slower. The concept is called "preventative healing" and when it becomes the superior method in an MMO, healers start leaving the game.

 

I agree.

[Fetor]

Wow, I've never felt more useless in a Warzone since my Engineer at the launch of Warhammer. Full Rakata/Battlemaster gear Ops Healer and I still feel that queueing up puts my team at a huge disadvantage.

 

How Bioware can mess up class balance so, so bad is beyond me.

 

(P.S. most matches are 10/16 Maras nowadays. I have yet to see ONE Merc/Commando after three hours of play)

 

Yeah, don't bother!