Starting to hate leveling a healer

[Deleted]

Not sure what the other classes are like, but as a few before me have said, I'm having NO issues as Smuggler in healing spec.

and a bit off-topic:
the healer companions I've had on my other classes are incredibly dumb as well. When I'm at 80% they throw everything they have at me and when I'm at 20% fighting an elite they just stand at a distance drooling.

[ZeroWashu]

I found that it is far easier to level with a companion tanking if you learn to play the companion as you play your own character. For me that means keep the companion bar on the left side and toggling which abilities I want and when. Certain abilities you want active at all times while others are best controlled.

[Deleted]

Im a BH bodyguard(healer) and respecced this recently. Before i used to fly through mobs enjoyably. Now with healer it is noticibly more slower but I think its because I havent mecanized the rotation and dps abilities yet.
In pvp, im starting to have fun and lasting longer every new day. However I do agree with you that we should have at least mouseover working, im just so used to it.
I love healing, had and played all wow healers, so im sticking to leveling as healer even though its slower.

[Lasica]

I tried it both ways on my sage.

As dps sure I killed stuff fairly quickly, but my companion died every time he tried to tank an elite. As a healer I'm killing stuff slower, but my companion is virtually unkillable with me keeping him alive.

That said, I'm also levelling a commando as gunnary spec and have found that pretty easy too with 4X tanking a couple of mobs while I nuke the rest.

[Teri]

Currently leveling mostly solo as fully healer spec commando level 37 (haven't gotten Tanno Vik yet, but on the mission for him), if you keep gear up to date, updating barrels in custom(orange) weapons with blue/purple approriate to level whenever possible increases damage a ton, and if you keep Jorgan and 4X's gear up to date with proper armoring/mods (custom items are great) they can do great as tank/dps, as long as you turn off some aoe skills in group situations that would break CC's, A little more commands like "move here" would be nice tho , companions don't easily move out of fire/bombardments etc

Supercharge cells at 30 stacks can do a lot of versatile things for increasing dps/healing/reducing damage, proper use of relics and other long cooldowns , can easily solo most Heroic 2 missions. I don't use my healer companion much since my skills points already went that way, dual spec would be nice in the future however.

I hated the ammo system at first but once I got the skills and abilities, a proper rotation can be in place for very long term healing, just don't expect to spam everything dps and heals because that will make you run out fast.

[shadowkras]

Get orange gear for your companion (flashpoints mostly) and gear them using commendations, buy the cheap mods and armoring and they will be pretty strong.

[Darieth]

It would help if you had said what class you are playing. I'm a Sorcerer playing in full healing spec, and I struggled around 35-40, and I still don't really know why. I keep my tanky companion decked out in decent gear, and can solo all the 2+ quests, and since hitting 41 (I'm 46 now) I've not had any problems. Use your CC, stuns and interrupts sensibly and you're laughing.

[ghostprotocol]

I find lack of macros makes it bothersome to heal and dps with a tank companion. I was there was a way I could dps and cc, while healing without having to constantly target my companion.

[Deleted]

I leveled my whole Commando Combat Medic without even using a tank companion. In fact, I was using Elara Dorne most of the time (Another healer) just for story purposes. Certainly wasn't the fastest, but it worked without any major issues. On occasion had to switch to M1-4X for champions and such but again, no major issues there.

On my Smuggler it is more difficult though, Bowdaar indeed seems a completely rubbish tank and trying to keep him up sometimes doesn't really get me anywhere. But I am managing, not really that fast, but managing. No big issues on my Imperial Agent yet either.

Overall in PvP I'm doing very well. Often hit the top healing in a warzone and most of the time am capable of scoring quite a few kills and find that healers in SWTOR are a lot more capable of defending themselves than in say WoW, which I love.

In general I get better results using DPS companions, might I add.

[Lusitan]

I am enjoying SwToR but am starting to hate having to level as heals. The tanking companion is as smart as a door knob compared to healing companions. While healing companions actually know how to heal, tank companion has horrible AI and is as squishy as a wet piece of paper. The heals scale terribly so far, not to mention my damage after speccing as healer is atrocious at best.

PvP-ing as healer is terrible as well, you could do 100-200k heals but you don't get any credit for helping in kills, you barely get 2-3 kills per warzone after healing yer guts out.


Level 37 and it's starting to get tedious. A friend also level a healer till 21 and then rolled dps for similar reasons.

I hope they fix the UI and let us have mouseovers and target of target etc soon.....like really really soon because it should have been in the box and there is no excuse for a UI from 1990 in a game released in 2011.

if you are healer spec, you should use a DPS companion, ranged one preferable.

the problem with tank companions is their AoE skills, that turn back on (when you disable them) when you mount, die or summon him

Also as a healer you can still get quick medals (the thing that matter for the amount of valor and commendations) - http://www.oldrepublic.net/304-pvp-v...tles-list.html

[Ghosty]

I tried it both ways on my sage.

As dps sure I killed stuff fairly quickly, but my companion died every time he tried to tank an elite. As a healer I'm killing stuff slower, but my companion is virtually unkillable with me keeping him alive.

That said, I'm also levelling a commando as gunnary spec and have found that pretty easy too with 4X tanking a couple of mobs while I nuke the rest.

I leveled as the flip side, I was the tank with a healer companion, and while yes stuff died slower there was little to no down time between packs as my companion would have me healed up before the next group. About the only time I ever recuped was if I was low on ammo. I rarely ever died, unless for some odd reason my healer companion decided they didn't want to heal when I pulled that elite or 2 strong mob packs, this did happen a few times and I think it had to do with odd LOS issues between myself and the companion (the healer companion will not move once you engage in combat).

I'm leveling a Sage as a healer and am not having any problems at all.

[kenn9530]

i leveled as a sorc healer and had no problems at all, as soon as i got the pirate andro i used him and things die very fast, if your going the tank companion - route then its going to be a lil slower but if your leveling as healer and get a ranged companion use them and things go smooth, i took things slow and didnt rush leveling and done it in 5 days play time.

[Ragnarocket]

As a healing Mercenary I tended not to use my tank characters as much as one might think. As soon as I got Torian I started to use him and found that using the DPS companions made things die fairly quickly while still keeping agro off of me (mostly). I just stuck a Kolto Shield on Torian, sent him in to light everything on fire and set oil on the ground, and I would charge my Supercharged Gas with Rapid Shots and the occasional heal when needed. Once I got the Gas charged up I would activate it and let loose with all of my abilities. (which now had +10% effectiveness)

Worked like a charm...so maybe just try changing up the way you do things and the companions you are using.

[mrbadxampl]

that's funny, I was just thinking the other day about how much better it is in this game leveling as a healer than when I leveled a priest as holy back in BC

the sidekick tank may be pretty slow, but as others have said, gear him up as you level and he does ok...

[Nirawen]

As a healing Mercenary I just sent Blizz in, Death from Above and then Sweeping Blasters to clean up. Unload, Rocket Punch and Shoulder Slam takes strong's down in no time. Throw Kolto Shield on him and a Kolto Missle & Emergency Scan while running to the next pack meant he always had full HP and I never had to stop.

Blizz now has more HP than my own character at 50 (15.5k) so they're only as squishy as how well you gear them.

[ravenshaelo]

I'm loving leveling as a healer. I use a DPS companion though (was Andronikus until I got Ashara), as I found Khem had low DPS (or maybe I wasn't keeping enough of his gear up to date - I make gear on my SI, so most of his gear has been updated, just not for non synthweaving items). I can easily burn down a couple of mobs in the time it takes my companion to burn a couple down, then I heal the both of us up, and we're back on our way.

[sidebar]

The tanking companion is as smart as a door knob compared to healing companions.

Use a DPS companion ... that has medium to heavy armor. Not sure what class you were, but as a sorc, I just shielded the comp (revel) and had him attack the silver ... I could usually kill everything else by the time I had to toss him a heal, and generally, before I was done healing him, the silver would be dead with no help from me.

Make sure you actually give your comps good gear ... like orange everything and keep it fairly close to max level.

---------- Post added 2012-01-04 at 08:32 PM ----------

Unlike everyone else here, I agree with the OP. I'm 50 now (SI), and I tried leveling a while as a healer, and I just hated it. Everything felt like it died so slowly. Running a tank/healer is about the worse DPS you can ask for.

Yep .. so don't run tank healer .. run DPS / Healer.

As a Healer, you do pretty decent DPS and the comps, when properly geared do pretty good dps ... seems like a lot of people assumed they needed a tank instead of a well geared (medium / heavy) dps comp. Between my comp and myself, stuff just withers.