PvP Healing Survival

[dannycarr]

Hey guys,

 

Just want to see how people are feeling after 1.4 has hit, I have noticed that I am getting beaten really quickly by a Marauder just too quickly if you ask me. My gear is split between recruit and BM, so I know gear is going to be an issue, but that doesn't explain why I can be dead in 2 GCDs. Not a QQ thread just want to see how other seer;s a feeling in WZ (Normal not ranked).

 

/thanks

[tehjifbo]

Your sprint breaks roots now. If a carnage Mara jumps and roots you. You don't have to knock back or eat it anymore!! Just bubble, sprint away. Use LoS the best you can. With the free heal and new sprint we survive a little longer. Not much better, but I'll take a little anyday. At least we aren't arsenal mercs XD

[astronal]

recruit and BM gear is terriad, only compare classes once min maxxed. Marauders will be your hardest to kill out of all classes anyway due to multiple CC breaks etc , lots of interupts and high burst damage.

 

Seriously dont even look to compare until full BM augmented, and even then until warhero its pretty hard to compare.

[dannycarr]

Yeah I am getting used to the fact that I am going to dye a lot, especially being a healer, so on with the grind to get the better gear, and more use of LoS and sprint root break. Enjoying the healing, and can't wait till my gear is a lot better. Each piece I get is augmented so each piece is a decent upgrade.

[shadowflit]

New abilities are pretty much awesome for increased survivability. And yes, until you start getting augmented gear, life will be painful. It's surprising how much the extra buffer buys you time to survive.

 

Also, I disagree about Mara/Sent being toughest to deal with. We can cleanse all debuffs from that class, dealing with a PT/Vanguard means we have to deal with non-cleansable tech effects.

Edited September 27, 2012 by shadowflit

[Ergecrs]

I actually feel we are back to pre 1.2 lvl's of survivablity. I can heal thru one dps attacking me now and also heal another player so I am not completly useless. Not to mention the amount of force that can be put back thru noble sacrifice and force mend is just great. And the Sprint oh ya makes me very happy.

[Cleet_Xia]

I'm with Ergecrs on this. The changes are great. We were OP pre patch 1.2, and they nerfed the spec for good reason. But they went way too far. The 1.4 changes gave us just about what we needed to be balanced. The range nerf to stun isn't even an issue, because it's best saved as a defensive CD against melee. It's been nice to observe the confused behavior of players who've gotten used to medal farming sage healers or going 1v2 on a sage + X pair. Edited October 3, 2012 by Cleet_Xia

[Gnoblesse]

It's been nice to observe the confused behavior of players who've gotten used to medal farming sage healers or going 1v2 on a sage + X pair.

 

 

Especially operatives hitting a bubble blind specced sage.

 

I had a PT come after me a couple of nights ago (on my sage) when I had nearly full health and he had something like 2-3k. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but I imagine he was surprised when instead of running, I turned around, smacked him in the face and killed him. It was glorious. I giggled.

 

Loving the changes.

[_Ekinox_]

I arrived level 50 with my Jedi Sage and I am Seer with the following build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GubRRdddGzZf00MZ0M.2 As I am not in a guild and I don't know anybody in-game I am actually dependent to get the information from the forum. Do you have any recommendations on this build. I want actually just heal but feel very very weak in for instance Flashpoints. If I would get a cent for each time I die, I would be rich.

[Ashyra]

The situation does not seem to have changed much regarding survival against some of the heavy hitting dps. They could produce more damage than we could heal even pre 1.2 with double dipping and hasted big heals, so there never really was a moment when sage healers had any kind of superior advantage against them. It was quite rare if an attacker could be defeated at all alone even before, now it is just even more so. If heavy hitting dps classes decide to set up an assist train, there is not much that can be done with healing even with a premade team and a tank with guard.

[limenutpen]

I am full WH augmented and I need 3 - 4 people to kill me in a normal WZ.

 

Back to the good times or very close to them I would add. For the original poster, the way you use Force Mend is key to your survivability. If I am attacked I like to pop it at 70-60% never leave it later, you will feel sorry for this later on.

[LittleLummo]

I am full WH augmented and I need 3 - 4 people to kill me in a normal WZ.

 

Back to the good times or very close to them I would add. For the original poster, the way you use Force Mend is key to your survivability. If I am attacked I like to pop it at 70-60% never leave it later, you will feel sorry for this later on.

 

^This

 

My sage is fully augmented etc and i can be very hard to kill in WZ's, i make even some of the best Imps rage(not angrily, most of us are friendly on my server:p), and i'm even harder with a good guard.

 

Force mend and Egress have hugely benefitted us, and make use of WZ medpacs and adrenals especially in emergencies, they are lifesavers.

[Ewgal]

I am full WH augmented and I need 3 - 4 people to kill me in a normal WZ.

 

 

At the moment any reasonably geared PvP Sage healer should only ever go down to to being focused by several geared PvP players on the other team. If you are going down easily 1 on 1 with a Marauder then you are doing something wrong, be it gear, spec, pressing the right buttons, or a combo of all of these issues. Even maxed out gear Marauder shouldn't be able to chop you into pieces as long as your reaction time is good, once he bursts his dps cool-downs and snare the marauders dps plummets, so just kite to your team and hope they have the common sense to nuke that sucker down, you can even DoT the Marauder while kiting to help take him down quicker, and always have slow cast onto him after surviving initial attack. Operatives/Scoundrels can get lucky with crits if they jump you, but as long as you react fast they will find it hard to kill you and again just kite them to the team and hope they nuke him down for you.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Ewgal

[DaigleForceX]

I feel like a glass canon .. I hate duel wielding ******* , i last 5 secs. I just hate my class after that , nothing i can do to properly get away clean or even kill em before they totaly trash me with their riidiculous dps that needs serious nerf -.-' "" /rage

[eventidephoenix]

At the moment any reasonably geared PvP Sage healer should only ever go down to to being focused by several geared PvP players on the other team. If you are going down easily 1 on 1 with a Marauder then you are doing something wrong, be it gear, spec, pressing the right buttons, or a combo of all of these issues. Even maxed out gear Marauder shouldn't be able to chop you into pieces as long as your reaction time is good, once he bursts his dps cool-downs and snare the marauders dps plummets, so just kite to your team and hope they have the common sense to nuke that sucker down, you can even DoT the Marauder while kiting to help take him down quicker, and always have slow cast onto him after surviving initial attack. Operatives/Scoundrels can get lucky with crits if they jump you, but as long as you react fast they will find it hard to kill you and again just kite them to the team and hope they nuke him down for you.

 

I have put in bold the biggest problem

Edited October 17, 2012 by eventidephoenix

[TMar]

Your sprint breaks roots now. If a carnage Mara jumps and roots you. You don't have to knock back or eat it anymore!! Just bubble, sprint away. Use LoS the best you can. With the free heal and new sprint we survive a little longer. Not much better, but I'll take a little anyday. At least we aren't arsenal mercs XD

 

It breaks roots but you're not immune to pulls or stuns. It worked great until people adopted and stun/pulled a sprinter. Bubbles go down in a few hits and damage out scales heals. Throw in an interrupt and you're dead before your next shield/sprint is up.

 

Until all forms of control are dependent on resolve this is going to continue to be a problem.

[Floegens]

i have absolutely no problems staying alive, a good sage/sorc healer should be really hard to kill unless all your get-the-f-out tools are on cd. The new self heal and the increased range on the knockback is huge, even in 31/something spec, without the bubbleblind, i dont feel like a free kill at all, and im only in BM. Edited October 18, 2012 by Floegens

[Ewgal]

I have put in bold the biggest problem

 

It's something Bioware could improve by balancing team composition in war zones queues and indicating in the raid frames which players are healer classes. Then simply put in a few tips about class roles into the PvP screen and problem largely solved.

 

However, that would be very progressive from Bioware. At the moment as a healer you have to learn to run and heal and if in a weak team just keep going for a few medals or quit the team.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Ewgal

[Ashyra]

At the moment as a healer you have to learn to run and heal and if in a weak team just keep going for a few medals or quit the team.

 

So you admit that there is a survival problem after all, if the team does not help whatsoever? In that case, our healing survival depends not on what we do or how we play our seers, but on our teams entirely. Therein is the biggest problem, unless you are trying to say that we can consistently perform equally well to the other class roles even without any help whatsoever.

[Ocho-Quatro]

To reply to the OP: (with some qualifications)

• I am predominantly someone who prefers PvE to PvP. I enjoy PvP, but it is not my main gaming focus.
  
• I am not in full min-maxed PvP gear. I am fully augmented, in mostly Battlemaster with a few pieces of War Hero (WH: Mainhand, Head, Legs and both Relics)
  

 

I find my survivability in warzones, to be a direct function of two things:

1- How smart the opposing team is with regard to WHEN and WHAT skills they interrupt. (and how quickly they mark me as a healer.)

2- How well MY team protects/supports me as a healer. (i.e. guarding, and killing/pulling enemies off of me.)

 

That said... it also comes down to the specific warzone I am playing:

 

Huttball: I don't worry TOO much about my own survivability in Huttball. I keep myself bubbled, and always have Rejuv on myself, and I do almost nothing but focus on keeping the ball carrier alive, bubbled/cleansed/HoT'd, and positioning myself so that I can pull the carrier through traps and/or across the goal line. I can ball carry in a pinch fairly well, but my spec is more PvE oriented, so there are talents that I am missing (like Egress) that would make me more effective, but I am lazy and don't like respec'ing all the time, since I am happy with my PvE build. Basically, all that said: in Huttball, I am doing nothing but focus entirely on helping my team score.

 

 

Voidstar/Novare Coast: This is where survivability is huge. In Voidstar, unless there is a well coordinated team with good interrupts, I can defend a door, by myself for a long time. Keep myself bubbled, keeping Rejuv on myself, getting Salvation casted on myself as often as possible (interrupts are big here), Healing Trance whenever it's up, Benevolence following Rejuv so I am almost guaranteed a crit... and make sure that when I hit my instant-heal, I have Force Potency up, because it crits for around 6500-7k. Constantly cleansing DoTs off myself, and lay down just enough dmg/aoe/knockback to interrupt people trying to cap a door. It generally takes at least 3 people to drop me in an amount of time, too short to be able to call for help to have someone take over interrupting the door plant..... In Novare... I typically try to get the south bunker FIRST. My team behind me, will generally stun, slow, knockback, etc... giving me the few seconds I need to cap the bunker. At that point... unless things go terribly wrong, I will not leave the southern bunker. Breaking LoS inside there is very easy, keeping Salvation going covering the bunker itself and the area in front of it, and careful use of knockback and stun will keep me alive in that bunker for a LONG time as long as I can keep HoTs/Armor/Salvation going. (Warzone medpacks are also VERY useful here.) Once again, all I have to do, is stay alive in the bunker to keep the other team from capping it, keeping Salvation on myself, and use my single target heals to keep the rest of my team alive.

 

 

 

Civil War: For me, Civil War is the most difficult on survivability. If I am at the left or right, stealthers show up out of nowhere you are attacked by 3 and 4 people at once, and I can't survive long, because the attackers have the chance to coordinate their plan/targets on the run across the map to get to where I am. However, at the mid location, there are tons of places to break LoS. That is the key to survivability in this warzone. Break LoS, peek out from behind pillars and heal your teammates. If you start getting attacked, cleanse, bubble, Rejuv, force speed to another pillar and break LoS. When a left or right node is being attacked, force speed over there, support your teammates who are defending, and get back to the mid where you can break LoS and live longer.

 

 

I am not saying these are the BEST strategies for surviving as a healing sage in warzones... I am not saying I am ANY sort of expert. I am just saying, this is what has made the most difference for me personally to be able to ENJOY pvp, without spending half the match standing behind the forcefield door waiting to get back in the fight.

[Ewgal]

So you admit that there is a survival problem after all, if the team does not help whatsoever? In that case, our healing survival depends not on what we do or how we play our seers, but on our teams entirely. Therein is the biggest problem, unless you are trying to say that we can consistently perform equally well to the other class roles even without any help whatsoever.

 

I think Bioware could possibly give sage a cool down, but I sort of think that would help the lesser skilled healing Sage / Sorc compete making the class easier to play. That might be a good thing for PvP. As it is, though, I have seen skilled Sorc/Sage in warzones survive very well, but I think it likely not easy, and may even be above and beyond what the majority playing the class at the moment can achieve. So, yes, you may well have a point.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Ewgal