Best PVE Healer?

[Lynnx]

Usually Sage/Sorc is best for PVE healing. Is that still true?

Is it much better than Scoun/Op or Comm/Merc?

 

I want to do a lot of FPs and soloing as well. Will also want to do endgame stuff when I get to it.

[quirez]

Usually Sage/Sorc is best for PVE healing. Is that still true?

Is it much better than Scoun/Op or Comm/Merc?

 

I want to do a lot of FPs and soloing as well. Will also want to do endgame stuff when I get to it.

 

All healers are capable of healing all endgame content.

 

Sages/sorcs have 8man aoe heal, commandos/mercs are probably best tank healers and operatives have great amount of strong HoTs and instant heals + stealth.

 

Take your pick, all are good. If you want to solo alot then stealth might be useful tho.

[Atramar]

scoundrel/operatives can do magic, most of healing art is balancing with energy

sorcs/sages can heal 'stupid' behavior, but are bound to art of procs or force dies with tank.

[NoFishing]

So, I have both sage and operative healers. And yes, I *do* prefer my sage, but that is just a matter of play style preference. Both are very very strong healers for end game.

 

For FPs, operatives come out slightly ahead IMO, due to easier energy management, HoTs that can be applied on the move, and stealth that allows many mobs to be skipped. The sage 8-man AoE heal is of very limited use, because it is quite expensive to use, you don't even get it until level 45-ish, and there are only ever 4 people that could possibly benefit from it anyway.

 

For operations, it really depends on the fight whether a sage or operative is better. There are definitely certain fights, or certain phases of certain fights, that are easier with salvation. Points where people are naturally clustered and taking raid-wide damage without needing to move a lot turn sorcs/sages into healing gods. But such cases can also be handled with 2 operative healers, they will just be working a bit harder. Also note that 2 operative healers will not conflict with each other in the same way that 2 sage healers will.

 

For leveling, I give them a tie, mostly because I never figured out how to properly DPS on my operative. So solo content was me healing a DPS pet that got to have most of the fun, with me maybe throwing out the occasional AoE or knifing something in the back. While on my sage, excellent ranged DPS was just a respec away...and even if I didn't respec, I could still throw out a respectable amount of single target and AoE damage. Then again, the operative had stealth, which let me skip a lot of pointless fights along the way. Oh, and the operative story line and dialog beats either the consular or inquisitor by a *mile*.

[haksilence]

Commandos have the highest HPS output by far and will out aoe heal a sage any day and its no contest in high movement fights.

 

All healing classes are perfectly equal but have their strengths, play what you enjoy.

[Fiamma_Verde]

I main a sawbones. Personally I love them for their high mobility (nice in pvp and certain boss fights), and their ability to practically bring people back from the dead due to EMP. Plus it's kind of nice being able to stealth out of a fight if it's going South.

 

Scoundrels tend to be very reactive, while sages require a little more planning and knowledge of a fight IMO. I think that it may be easier to mend mistakes on a scoundrel too.

 

That said, I much prefer being paired with a sage or a commando than another scoundrel.

[Mridc]

For a quick run-down, I'd say... (disclaimer: this is a very subjective thing )

 

1. Healing FPs (given that you know what you're doing and can work with the rather crappy UI):

Operative > Merc > Sorc

That doesn't necessarily mean Sorcs are bad, but they're not special by any means. Sort of a Jack of all trades thing. Mercs have huge single target HPS, but their group healing is a bit on the weaker side (nothing that won't get you through any FP mind). And Operatives... well, they have quite strong single target healing and probably the best (small group) group healing of all the healers.

 

2. Ease of use/quality of life:

Sorc > Merc > Operative

 

So, it's reversed here... Sorcs are pretty much fire&forget casters with a huge resource pool so you don't have to worry about resource management too much. Mercs being direct turret healers aren't especially hard to play, but their strict resource management can make your healing life a pain sometimes. Operatives last because... while their resource management isn't as unforgiving as a Merc's, you will still have to closely watch your energy. Also, to keep the awesome HPS up, you will have to work with what is probably one of the worst healer UIs in the history of MMOs. Managing HoT uptimes with that sort of UI can be a bit of a pain in the backside.

 

3. Solo PvE/Leveling

Lowbie Merc > Lowbie Sorc > Lowbie Operative

Post-34 Sorc > Merc > Operative

 

Basically, it all hinges on getting to level 34 for Sorcs. Up until that point, all your damage will be single target, and you will take some time to kill stuff (what I did on my Sage alt was to simply go Telekinetics until 34, makes life so much easier). At 34 you will get Force Storm, and after that you're a PvE machine. You will get Ashara around that level as well. Gear her up and use her. IMO she's the 2nd best companion for healers in the game (with Torian Cadera taking the top spot). She's not too squishy and given proper gear can churn out a huge deal of damage. Her downside is that she is really annoying to live with. But if you can ignore her "I forgot I'm not a Jedi anymore" antics, she's really great. Special mention to Xalek, because he's a tank you can give your old gear to. I still prefer Ashara as a solo PvE companion, but Xalek is pretty decent.

 

Which leads us to Mercs... Mercs have a natural advantage in the AoE game, which in combination with their tankiness leads to them being awfully strong soloers early on. Having Mako in early game definitely helps as well, simply because you do enough damage at this point in the game. Speaking of companions, Mercs really get to cherry pick. Want a rogue'ish companion? Gault. He's wicked fun and can do some nice damage. Want a tanky DPS companion? Torian's your man. He has this whole Mandalorian pride thing going on though, so he can be a bit annoying at times, but nowhere near Ashara or Kaliyo levels of annoying. Also, keeping him geared up is really easy, because he can simply use hand me downs from you. And I'll be damned if Blizz isn't the most adorable little thing in this game. Skadge sucks, but since you already have Blizz at this point in the game, who really cares.

 

Operatives. Oh boy. Personally I think they're a mess for soloing. You get no AoE worth talking about until level 48. Your single-target DPS sucks unless you drop into "Poor Man's Sniper" mode. And you're stuck with Kaliyo for a looooong time. And if you (like me) think Vector is too squishy and too creepy, you're stuck with Kaliyo for even longer. I have never met a companion I wanted to kick out of the airlock more than Kaliyo, and I've leveled my Sorc with Ashara and my Juggernaut with Quinn, both of which are already uber annoying. Later on, you'll get Temple and although she needs some time to ramp up her DPS (like most ranged DPS she has cast times for her abilities) she isn't too squishy and like Torian she is able to use your old gear. I've never really used SCORPIO, simply because I was sick of sociopathic Dark Side companions after 40ish levels of having to endure Kaliyo.

 

4. Class Story

 

Without dropping the spoiler-bomb, I' say:

Agent > BH > Inquisitor

Imperial Agent has got to have one of the best, if not THE best, class stories in the entire game. Seriously, you have to play it, and if you're not keen on an Operative, at least roll a Sniper for the story alone. While the Merc's story isn't anything to write home about, it's much like the Smuggler, in that its charm lies mostly with the banter and funny lines you get to say. The Inquisitor story is... just awful. You get a few memorable lines here and there, but overall I feel it does not fit the class very well.

 

 

TL;DR:

Mechanics-wise, all 3 are more than viable to handle all content, so it should come down to whatever stly esuits you most.

If you want an easy-to-use, easy to live with toon that is also pretty good at soloing, I'd probably go for a Sorc.

Mercs are very fun to heal with, very easy to level/solo with (albeit not as much as Sorcs overall) and easily have the best companions on Imp side. Plus, your story involves you saying some outrageously funny things to people.

And if you think you're up for the awful solo experience and Kaliyo (*shudders*), go ahead and roll an Operative. They're very powerful healers with a kind of enticing mechanic and have a story you should have played at least once. Also, Imperial uniforms. The ladies dig those.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Mridc

[Dominoris]

For a quick run-down, I'd say... (disclaimer: this is a very subjective thing )

 

Also, to keep the awesome HPS up, you will have to work with what is probably one of the worst healer UIs in the history of MMOs. Managing HoT uptimes with that sort of UI can be a bit of a pain in the backside.

 

LOL

 

I guess you never played the original EQ with a healer. The UI was a spell book covering 100% of the screen.