Leveling as Healer ?

[MisterSoup]

For quite a while now, I've been leveling my Sith Sorceror as Corruption, which is their healing tree. Getting Khem Val early in the game (Khem Val is a tanking companion) definitely helps this cause. I can't speak for other healing classes, but having Khem Val tank groups of enemies for me while I bubble and heal is excruciatingly easy. It's even to the point where I can solo many of the Heroic 2+ quests in my leveling zones, and I can easily 2-man Heroic 4+ quests with a DPS or Tank party member.

Things "do" die noticeably slower than if I were leveling as Lightning, or even Madness. I'll admit that much. I have swapped to Lightning today, simply because there is an abundance of healers on my server, and it's actually easier to find Flashpoint groups as a DPS than as a healing spec.

But to answer your question simply: yes, it is very viable.

[Deleted]

I used Kaliyo from start to finish. She may not do much damage, but I was not standing behind just healing her, I was going all out with dps too. In fact I didn't have to heal much at all unless it was some tough boss or a heroic quest.

[RushLimbaugh]

Sure do, I have a 48 Commando at the moment, Hybrid DPS/Heals, mostly heals.

This is my spec at the moment:
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bfRRRbcdzzZrckdo.1

It's really nice for long fights with a tank companion - able to fire off five grav rounds, high impact bolt, heal companion up, pop supercharge cells, fire off free(!) charged bolts, not to mention the fact that you have trauma probe for some more DPS time on a target.

I initially started this spec using Aric, used him until ~level 38 or so, once I got to Belsavis & the mobs got a bit tougher, I switched up to Tanno (melee tank companion) and went all out DPS. It's really nice to pop trauma probe, do the standard rotation, heal up, pop his defensive cooldown & unleash hell with charged bolts.

Loving every second of it =)

[Deleted]

btw you can setup any tank companion into a dps stance and toggle on the aoe abilities. Perhaps they do a little less dps, but the taunts and heavy armour are useful too.

[Tehfred]

I leveled for probably 30 levels as Corruption (Sorcerer). Especially once I got Force Storm. The damage doesn't scale much higher in different specs, so equip Khem with tank gear and spam away. It's just as fast for aoe packs as madness/lightning, and less downtime due to heals being more efficient.

It's also less stressful on your wallet if you want to heal flashpoints/warzones on your way up.