Guide to Sorcerer Healing

[Scribblicious]

Guide to Sorcerer Healing

 

This guide is to give some pointers on sorcerer healing for new players. It will cover various tactics to maximize force efficiency of heals during “steady state” healing and how to heal oh sh*t situations. The guide is a work in progress and suggestions would be great.

 

First a few tips.

1. Be liberal with your shields (but don’t spam on everyone during the fight).

If you have both shielding talents (and you should), static barrier is your best answer for anyone taking damage. At 35 force points its only 68% of Dark Infusion cost (51 talented) and blocks for similar amount of health healed by Dark Infusion and should be applied to anyone expected to take a moderate amount of damage that you would have otherwise healed with Dark infusion. Do not reserve Static barrier just for the tank. It also gives you a health buffer that you can use to heal other players in danger of dying.

 

2. Be liberal with your innervates (especially when combined with resurgence).

Do not reserve the ability just for the tank. The crit boost from resurgence (easily 50% total) will push the force efficiency of your innervates through the roof and turns it into a fairly large heal. Being front loaded, it is also more useful to save someone close to death (following Static Barrier) than Dark Infusion.

 

3. Try to keep the Force Bending buff up (as long as your are not over healing or refreshing it before it runs out). This will speed your response to oh sh*t situations by accelerating your Dark Infusion and boosting Innervate.

 

4. Keep shields and resurgence on your tank, this is a no brainer.

 

5. Resurgence and Innervate do not have to go on the same target.

 

6. Try to use Revivification when you can hit many targets

 

7. Dark Infusion is your oh sh*t spell and Dark heal is your oh sh*t sh*t spell that you are unlikely to use.

 

8. Use a 31/7/2 talent spec with one floater talent point

 

Shield (if target is expected to take damage worth at-least 3/4th of your shield) > Resurgence and Innervate combo> Dark Infusion

 

Steady State Healing

During this situation, your group is only taking a moderate amount of damage on a few players that you can heal with shields, resurgence and innervate combos and the odd Dark Infusion. You should be popping Consumption when possible and your net force usage should be a net zero or negative (your gaining force). Your main goal is to maintain party health and to conserve a large force pool for Oh Sh*t healing.

 

Oh Sh*t healing

Triage is important in this situation, your job is keep as many people alive as possible and use whirlwind or jolt in you must. Generally, Tanks and Healers should have a higher priority than DPSers. It is crucial that you use your judgement in these situations and not rely on rotations.

 

Your priority should be:

Who will take fatal damage.

Who is taking heavy damage.

Who will take heavy damage.

The health of your group members and who is getting low but not at risk.

Managing your resources (use those force surge procs).

Who is taking light damage.

Topping up the health of your group members.

 

Spam shields on those who are and will take damage.

Try to use your innervate and resurgence combo when possible but otherwise heal with Dark Infusion, force efficiency is second to keeping people alive.

 

Dealing with damage over time debuffs on your group members.

When it comes to DoTs applied to multiple group members, your Purge ability is limited by a 4.5 second cooldown. As such you should be shielding people in-between each purge (Purge, shield, shield, purge). Your shield will absorb the brunt of the dot in a more force efficient manner than healing.

 

PVP Healing (Work in Progress)

Spam shields on people taking damage. The damage absorbed by the shield will count towards your total healing. A secondary benefit is that shielding is less obvious than direct healing and does not produce a large KILL ME graphic on your character.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Scribblicious

[Songweaver]

Guide to Sorcerer Healing

 

Oh Sh*t healing

Triage is important in this situation, your job is keep as many people alive as possible and use whirlwind or jolt in you must. DPSers are expendable. It is crucial that you use your judgement in these situations and not rely on rotations.

 

Your priority should be:

Who will take fatal damage.

Who is taking heavy damage.

Who will take heavy damage.

The health of your group members and who is getting low but not at risk.

Managing your resources (use those force surge procs).

Who is taking light damage.

Topping up the health of your group members.

 

 

I have to beg to differ on a point here. You say you should keep as many people alive as possible - then say DPS is expendable. Poor wording and while your priority list is reasonable, I don't think it's accurate.

 

DPS is never expendable. You should always heal with the intent of keeping them alive if at all possible, not with the intent of, if they die, they die - unless they're absolute idiots and "standing in fire" then it's not worth the energy and time to keep them alive.

 

Tanks should always have priority over DPS, and if it's choice between keeping the tank alive or a DPS, then yes, you should default to the Tank. Otherwise, If you're tank is handling the damage (shield/cooldowns/etc), even if his health is low, and not in immediate danger of dying, your first priority should be those that are critical. I'll reuse your word here - triage - even in those moments when a lot of stuff is going wrong - is what's important. It's prioritizing the most critical first, regardless if they are a Tank or DPS, with the only exception to the rule is if your Tank runs the risk of dying before you switch back to healing him.

[Scribblicious]

I have to beg to differ on a point here. You say you should keep as many people alive as possible - then say DPS is expendable. Poor wording and while your priority list is reasonable, I don't think it's accurate.

 

DPS is never expendable. You should always heal with the intent of keeping them alive if at all possible, not with the intent of, if they die, they die - unless they're absolute idiots and "standing in fire" then it's not worth the energy and time to keep them alive.

 

Tanks should always have priority over DPS, and if it's choice between keeping the tank alive or a DPS, then yes, you should default to the Tank. Otherwise, If you're tank is handling the damage (shield/cooldowns/etc), even if his health is low, and not in immediate danger of dying, your first priority should be those that are critical. I'll reuse your word here - triage - even in those moments when a lot of stuff is going wrong - is what's important. It's prioritizing the most critical first, regardless if they are a Tank or DPS, with the only exception to the rule is if your Tank runs the risk of dying before you switch back to healing him.

 

ya i should change that part, I meant that tank and healers are at a higher priority than DPSers and that keeping DPSers alive should not be at the expense of tanks and healers.

[Lokiliesmith]

As soon as I figure out how to +1 this, I will. This is a great starter guide.

[SySnootles]

I´m finding that keeping the dps alive is a big priority in this game, as a lot of the flashpoint bosses have an insane amount of hitpoints.

[zerobounds]

For bosses as long as you are maintaining or increasing the party HP without dragging your FP down then the DPS should take a back seat. The fights are so uncontrollably long that the important factor is managing your force power so you don't run out and let someone die. Extra damage wouldn't make that big of a difference and often times the DPS guys are more of a crutch if they're aggroing the boss.

 

If you're losing FP during a boss fight and will run out before he dies then you have to change something in your skills or kill it before you run out of FP.

 

For regular questing I focus on damage and barrier buffs then just let health drop after that since the short fights don't give the enemies enough time to actually kill anyone if we all focus on high damage.

[Azhriaz]

I use a lot of the guidelines I see here, only problem I run into is that ranged mobs often attack me, even when I let the tank take the initial attack and soon after I Static Barrier and Resurgence mobs turn to me. I did ask if anyone can taunt or get the mobs off of me but sometimes it looks they don't even notice and I end up casting Static and resurgence on myself instead of the tank.

I try to use Cloud Mind to reduce threat but I am under the impression this skill doesn't even work or worthwhile to use.

 

Also another question is, I refresh resurgence a lot just for the Force-bending proc, even when it has not wore off yet. Is this bad? Or does every healer use the advantage? I never run OoF much because of it.

[Seonho]

I use a lot of the guidelines I see here, only problem I run into is that ranged mobs often attack me, even when I let the tank take the initial attack and soon after I Static Barrier and Resurgence mobs turn to me. I did ask if anyone can taunt or get the mobs off of me but sometimes it looks they don't even notice and I end up casting Static and resurgence on myself instead of the tank.

I try to use Cloud Mind to reduce threat but I am under the impression this skill doesn't even work or worthwhile to use.

 

Also another question is, I refresh resurgence a lot just for the Force-bending proc, even when it has not wore off yet. Is this bad? Or does every healer use the advantage? I never run OoF much because of it.

 

You have your answer right there.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Seonho

[MezaZg]

I have to beg to differ on a point here. You say you should keep as many people alive as possible - then say DPS is expendable. Poor wording and while your priority list is reasonable, I don't think it's accurate.

 

DPS is never expendable. You should always heal with the intent of keeping them alive if at all possible, not with the intent of, if they die, they die - unless they're absolute idiots and "standing in fire" then it's not worth the energy and time to keep them alive.

 

Tanks should always have priority over DPS, and if it's choice between keeping the tank alive or a DPS, then yes, you should default to the Tank. Otherwise, If you're tank is handling the damage (shield/cooldowns/etc), even if his health is low, and not in immediate danger of dying, your first priority should be those that are critical. I'll reuse your word here - triage - even in those moments when a lot of stuff is going wrong - is what's important. It's prioritizing the most critical first, regardless if they are a Tank or DPS, with the only exception to the rule is if your Tank runs the risk of dying before you switch back to healing him.

 

M8 i play WoW from 2004. In the mean time tryed Guild Wars, Aion, Age of Conan and Eve.

I play healers or support in every game i play. For 5 years holy prist after this 3 years holy paladin. And it is exactly as he said. No one should die but if someone must die DPS is the best choice.

[Tericoco]

M8 i play WoW from 2004. In the mean time tryed Guild Wars, Aion, Age of Conan and Eve.

I play healers or support in every game i play. For 5 years holy prist after this 3 years holy paladin. And it is exactly as he said. No one should die but if someone must die DPS is the best choice.

 

But in this game there are numerous hard enrage timers so if your dps are dead you are gonna die either way. Everyone is important in this game no one takes priorty prioritise everyone or die in the end.

[Kaile]

Great post.

[HenTz]

Good Thread

[hiddenpuudji]

Good post. I <3 healing with my sorc in both PvE and PvP. Would be cool if someone added a section about PvP. I leveled as a healer and did many FPs along the way so I have the most practice in PvE and would like a little info on PvP. It seems like some abilities get dismissed in PvP in favor of others and insight would be helpful. I have a lot of fun in PvP but I sometimes feel useless/or that I'm healing the wrong people. Premades can cause this...but additional info would be nice.

[Scribblicious]

Changed a few thing, suggestions and constructive criticism are welcome.

[illgottengains]

I didn't read the whole thread. But I did read your post. And I think I have something to add to it.

 

I'll preface this with I'm not sure how many folks are aware of it and if it is considered working as intended by bioware/EA. This may be patched out soon.

 

When you use the resurgence to force weave other spells you can chain the spells if timed properly to gain an extra effect.

 

For example...

 

Your tank is at 20% hp. You bubble then you pop a resurgence on him. From here you have two options. The most cost effective combo is innervate with a dark infusion just as the innervate is about to finish. If you time this right you can get all four of HoT ticks and still cast DI at 1.5 seconds cast time. This should bring your tank from 20% to 90% or better.

 

Alternatively you can go bubble, resurgence, Dark heal, Dark Inf. You spend a bit less force this way and you are done with cycle sooner and can return to a high priority target however your force spent to healing ratio drops a bit here.

 

This is not something that you do all the time. This is my oh shizzle my buddy is about to die solution. The bubble, resurgence, innervate combo is the best for maintaining a healthy force pool while keeping your buds alive.

 

Tl;dr

 

If properly timed you can gain an extra use of the force weaving bonus granted by resurgence by chaining innervate into DI or by chaining DH into DI.

Edited January 5, 2012 by illgottengains

[HumanJackalope]

I think this guide is a good place for a question I have because as a new player, not only to SWTOR but as a healer, I have wondered the answer a lot.

 

The short version is: Is it ever ok to "cut-off" someone that is not working with the team?

 

Long version (feel free to skip my second reading makes it sound like a lot of QQ):

 

I was running Assembly Line with two tanks and a lightning specced SI, I am healing specced SI. As we worked our way through the two tanks, especailly one of them, proved to be terrible at crowd control, they would not focus fire, one was notorious for attacking the gold mob that I whirlwinded, and in general they proved to take direction very poorly. After the third time of nearly getting us all killed I told the worst of the two, "if you don't stop attacking the whirled enemy and don't start focus fire I'm going to stop healing you." The double pull when he paniced and starting running away was especially frustrating. Good news is in the huge ordeal only one person was defeated.

 

Next fight after the double pull, he jumped across the screen the very second my whirled enemy started going up in the air. I decided not to heal him this pull. In the end I felt guilty when he almost died, he even used a medpac (something I didn't think he even knew existed given the way he was playing), I threw a static barrier and healed him back to ~80%.

 

How should I deal with people who just seem incapable of working with the rest of the team? I declined the request to go on another heroic with them and as soon as we were done fast traveled back to the cantina for a hard drink. Just before I dropped out of the party one said, "how did he do that?" referring to my fast travel. That is when I starting feeling a little guilty about being harsh with them at the end. In my defense, after the very first bad pull I told them we were going to work on learning how to pull and we spent a few pulls very deliberately explaining target priority while doing just that. Sorry for the life story, this has just been bothering me.

[Azhriaz]

It depends, Assembly Line is not on a high lvl planet, so it could be that the tank is still learning how to use all his assets, but imo and for the sake of the whole group, if you give someone pointers and they still screw up and you feel like you have given it a chance and enough time (let's say about 4 or 5 screwups max) replace the tank or leave the group and find another one.

 

Should be pretty clear for a tank to a)hold aggro, b) prevent breaking cc, meaning no use of aoe other than taunts, c) listen and work together with the healer. Also meaning to use every skill available to reduce incoming dmg, like medkits etc.

[Ceeker]

I think this guide is a good place for a question I have because as a new player, not only to SWTOR but as a healer, I have wondered the answer a lot.

 

The short version is: Is it ever ok to "cut-off" someone that is not working with the team?

 

Long version (feel free to skip my second reading makes it sound like a lot of QQ):

 

I was running Assembly Line with two tanks and a lightning specced SI, I am healing specced SI. As we worked our way through the two tanks, especailly one of them, proved to be terrible at crowd control, they would not focus fire, one was notorious for attacking the gold mob that I whirlwinded, and in general they proved to take direction very poorly. After the third time of nearly getting us all killed I told the worst of the two, "if you don't stop attacking the whirled enemy and don't start focus fire I'm going to stop healing you." The double pull when he paniced and starting running away was especially frustrating. Good news is in the huge ordeal only one person was defeated.

 

Next fight after the double pull, he jumped across the screen the very second my whirled enemy started going up in the air. I decided not to heal him this pull. In the end I felt guilty when he almost died, he even used a medpac (something I didn't think he even knew existed given the way he was playing), I threw a static barrier and healed him back to ~80%.

 

How should I deal with people who just seem incapable of working with the rest of the team? I declined the request to go on another heroic with them and as soon as we were done fast traveled back to the cantina for a hard drink. Just before I dropped out of the party one said, "how did he do that?" referring to my fast travel. That is when I starting feeling a little guilty about being harsh with them at the end. In my defense, after the very first bad pull I told them we were going to work on learning how to pull and we spent a few pulls very deliberately explaining target priority while doing just that. Sorry for the life story, this has just been bothering me.

 

Generally I find if you pander to people and let them get away with doing stupid things, then they'll keep doing stupid things. One of the fun bits about being a healer is that you choose who lives and who dies, and you have the freedom to choose stupid people.

 

You shouldn't do this if it means a group wipe obviously (and sadly, if the stupid person in question is a tank such as in your case, it might well be), but if they die due to "standing in the fire" or other stupidity, it's their fault, not yours, and most people will back you up and tell them so.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Ceeker

[HumanJackalope]

I appreciate the responses. I'm glad to hear there is no Hippocratic oath that we take as healers or anything! Now get out there and save some lives!

[Azhriaz]

I didn't read the whole thread. But I did read your post. And I think I have something to add to it.

 

I'll preface this with I'm not sure how many folks are aware of it and if it is considered working as intended by bioware/EA. This may be patched out soon.

 

When you use the resurgence to force weave other spells you can chain the spells if timed properly to gain an extra effect.

 

For example...

 

Your tank is at 20% hp. You bubble then you pop a resurgence on him. From here you have two options. The most cost effective combo is innervate with a dark infusion just as the innervate is about to finish. If you time this right you can get all four of HoT ticks and still cast DI at 1.5 seconds cast time. This should bring your tank from 20% to 90% or better.

 

Alternatively you can go bubble, resurgence, Dark heal, Dark Inf. You spend a bit less force this way and you are done with cycle sooner and can return to a high priority target however your force spent to healing ratio drops a bit here.

 

This is not something that you do all the time. This is my oh shizzle my buddy is about to die solution. The bubble, resurgence, innervate combo is the best for maintaining a healthy force pool while keeping your buds alive.

 

Tl;dr

 

If properly timed you can gain an extra use of the force weaving bonus granted by resurgence by chaining innervate into DI or by chaining DH into DI.

 

I noticed it yesterday! I did 2 dark infusions with the 1,5 sec casting time. I tried to get it back but I waved if off as a casting error. I will try this moar

[Forswornz]

I seem to be getting two 1.5 second dark infusions as well. It only happens if you spam the button after getting the proc from force bending. This will most likely be fixed in a patch though.