Healer: IA Operative or Sith Sorcerer

[Dawon]

Here is the issue, I've been playing the beta-weekend and only that so due to very limited playtime, I couldn't test both Operative and Sorcerer. I chose to level the Sith Inquisitor this weekend and reached 20:ish, i.e. at least getting a few healing-spells and some skill-points to play around with. It kinda gave me a decent impression how the healing is with that class (I got a disc-priest feeling, if talking wow-terms).

My problem is that I obviously didn't have a chance to try IA Operative at all, didn't want to level both to 11-12 because that barely opens up the spells and skills for the classes.

In wow I've been raid-healing as holy priest for 3 years, holy-pally for 2 years and on/off as resto-shammy and disc-priest. Never healed as a druid as I dislike rolling hots. Prefer my holy pally a bit above the others, except back in vanilla/tbc when my holy priest was the main and I loved that state they where in.

So, please help me out here, which healer do you prefer yourself and what do you think is most suited for me? Anyone managed to get some decent testing and experience from Operatives or preferably on both these classes, that could help me out?

[Mooji]

Operative healing is interesting but I didn't go very far on my healer. With a SI you basically want to cast the "riptide" ability on cd right? With operative you have this passive called "upper hand." You get that to proc from casting your main heal. Once it's active you can then use a bunch of other abilities, such as your regen ability(re-cast every 45ish seconds), a faster heal, etc. If I was going to compare SI to operative I'd simply ask myself do I want power word:shield(SI) or an instant heal on a 20 sec cd?I think that shield is where SI stands out vs what the other two healers have.

[Dawon]

Yeah, the shield is nice indeed, the only thing that worries me a tad with SI is PVP-healing. I see lots of casting-time here (interrupt-screwed?) while IA looked to have more tools for PVP?

I'll mostly focus on PVE so that should be the main importance when deciding but will (like in wow) do PVP as well when bored. So the choice is very very hard, last thing I want it so pull a char to 50 and realize that I have to start over due to not "feeling the healing"! :P

[Dawnseven]

Looking forward to any responses to this myself. I was hoping to try both but I decided to go with the Inquisitor first too and couldn't play the Agent much.

[Bolson13]

I played a trooper which is similar to bounty hunter I guess up to level 20. The abilities were:

A standard heal for decent healing
A little weaker heal but cost less mana (ammo for a trooper). This one also had a CD for some reason.
A super weak heal through my standard shoot ability which also makes a chargecounter go up. At 30 you can supercharge for a few seconds making your standard heal basically free for a bit.

The mana regen (ammo) is a rather strange concept. You regen quicker depending on how much you have left. So you always want to try to keep your ammo above 60%. This means throwing 2 regular heals.
There is also a skill which gives you (I think) 50% of ammo back on a fairly long CD. In case you need to burst heal.

All in all, the trooper felt pretty much like a paladin. Heavy armor, a shield ability, a bunch of stun/get off me abilities. I think if balanced properly the trooper/BH feels (since I didn't play the others) like it is the "pvp healer of choice".
I am not sure but they also did not seem to get an AoE heal. He felt more single target/tank healer because of the regen ammo and heals available.

[Jukex]

I played a smuggler healer to 31 (IA equivalent) and I love it. Been playing a paladin on WoW for 6 years. The higher you get the more utilities you get, at 30 you get a spell that acts like World of Glory. As for pvp, I am always topping healing charts, however the 30% trauma healing debuff they give you for pvp seems to be a bit much. Can get solo'd by most classes without interrupts.

However it is beta and warzones were pretty laggy (about a .5 second delay for everyone I did them with) so it is still hard to tell.

I also played a Sage to 18 (Sorcerer) and it is definitely a lot like a disc priest, didn't like it.

[Hulari]

Met a guy on the beta this weekend who was playing a Sage/Socerer. He said it's very similar to a Shadow / Disc Priest and he was enjoying it very much.

The healing tree has beneficial shields that absorb damage as well as a couple of healing spells. You have to sacrafice your own health to produce force to use on the spells at lower levels but you get talents that reduce the amount of health you lose. Eventually the shields you provide also have talents that increase the speed of the shielded target by 20%.

Looks pretty and a lot of fun. Not to mention you get a nice Force Hold CC (60 seconds in combat control) and a LIGHTSABER!!!

[indahra]

So, please help me out here, which healer do you prefer yourself and what do you think is most suited for me? Anyone managed to get some decent testing and experience from Operatives or preferably on both these classes, that could help me out?

In WoW I played a Holy Priest for quite some time and then switched to a Resto Shaman (my favorite healer). I have been a healer in MMOs for many years. I too, dislike the druid healing in WoW the most, because rolling HoTs on everyone is quite boring and requires little skill (very non-reactive healing)...

In SWTOR beta I tried out both the Operative and BH healers.

Operative - I played the Operative to 20. I have heard people compare Operative the most to druid but I disagree to some degree. I think people only make the comparison because they do have a HoT (maybe more after 20) and they can stealth. The comparison ends there.... they are much more involved than just dropping hots on people and stepping away. You have a lot of CC such as a stun, an aoe blind, knock downs, etc. You can utilize these things in pvp to make your life easier.

Heals I had at lvl 20:
- 2 cast time single target heals (2.5 sec and 1.5 sec respectively)
- 1 HoT (through a talent) at level 20
- 1 Small channeled 3 sec 3 tick heal that costs no energy but healed for very very little

Resource:
Basically have a rogue's energy bar. This means that you can heal and never go oom, if you are smart. But if your energy goes below about 60% you start regening it slower and slower. This basically just means that you DO NOT have a lot of bursty heal, or you have the opportunity to burst heal about once every minute if you don't want to do much healing after that - whichever you choose.

Special Mechanics:
Called Tactical Advantage. One of your heals (and some dps skills) build up 1-2 stacks of this. The stacks only last a short period of time maybe 10 seconds. Once you build up Tactical Advantage you want to utilize it to pump out your faster more powerful heal (or you can use it on other more powerful dps abilities that consume it). You can also use Tactical Advantage to increase your energy regen with an ability called Stim Boost. This helps you manage your energy and put out a little bit more burst. I guess in essence you can think about all of this as Holy Power for paladins in WoW.

Playstyle:
I played the Operative in PvP and the opportunities to CC, stealth, drop hots were quite fun. I was usually second in healing to SI's. I am not used to being 2nd, and so I am not sure why that was... but it may have been that I was distracted by my other abilities and pumping out equally as much dps (via run and gun tactics, flash bombs, and melee if I got brave). I felt like some sort of weird rogue/healer hybrid (at least at that level). If 2 melee got on me and I did not have CC up, I got pretty rocked. Close to paper, definitely not pally or shamanesque in PvP in that respect.



Bounty Hunter Merc (Bodyguard) - I played this to level 15. I did not like the storyline or the companion character as much. The gameplay I found to be rockin as ranged dps. The amount of AOE you can rain down upon mobs is extreme. I did not get the ability to really start healing some things until I ran out of time at around 14-15.

Heals I had at lvl 20:
- 2 cast time single target heals (again 1.5 sec and 2.5 sec respectively)
- At 15 you also get one of your shooting abilities turned into a healing ability. You can now shoot people to heal them. That ability was cool, was instant cast, could be used on the run, but didn't do much healing, I think 3-4 ticks of 22 heal each at lvl 15.

Resource:
You use "heat" as your resource. Your bar starts at 0 heat. Basically all of your abilities cost heat and once it all adds up to 100 you overheat. You have a way to vent 50 of your heat every 60 sec. I found it to be able to do a bit more burst single target healing than IA Ops could, but not as sustained if your vent heat was on CD.

Special Mechanics:
You also have to build up special charges (I forget what they are called) using your heal shooting ability. Build up to 30charges (a buff on you that lasts about 1 minute, so unlike Tactical Advantage, you don't have to use it or lose it right away). Once you build up charges you use the charges to super power your heals. To give you an idea, it takes 10x casts of your heal shoot abilitiy to create 30 charges. So there is some busywork of spamming heals involved there.

Playstyle:
Otherwise, I didn't get too much further with the BH, and I didn't get to PvP. I suspect with the heavy armor wearing, absorb shield I got at lvl 15, and the knock and stun, it could probably hold it's own better vs some melee. Maybe more like a shaman or paladin, survivable wise. But also probably like a shaman or paladin in that you can lock it down better since it relies more on cast times, and really only has the heal shoot ability as a weak instant cast heal.

[Abelf]

I played a smuggler healer to 31 (IA equivalent) and I love it. Been playing a paladin on WoW for 6 years. The higher you get the more utilities you get, at 30 you get a spell that acts like World of Glory. As for pvp, I am always topping healing charts, however the 30% trauma healing debuff they give you for pvp seems to be a bit much. Can get solo'd by most classes without interrupts.

However it is beta and warzones were pretty laggy (about a .5 second delay for everyone I did them with) so it is still hard to tell.

I also played a Sage to 18 (Sorcerer) and it is definitely a lot like a disc priest, didn't like it.

I didn't make it high enough to play around with the WoG type heal this weekend, but glad to hear my instincts were right about the Op/Scoundrel playing somewhat like a pally. We even get an 18 sec HOT to replace holy shock. Probably still be tank healers also.... not that I do alot of PvE, though. From what I've seen, Sorcs/Sages will be the priest healers(lots of different tools and shields).

[Jukex]

Yeah, I had a blast healing in PvP with my scoundrel. But like I said the debuff they put on everyone to reduce healing seems extreme, but I'm sure it will all even out eventually.

[Prag]

I am a bit confused as to why someone who doesn't like rolling HoTs hadn't tried Bodyguard (Bounty Hunter) for healing? Or did I miss this in the OP.

I leveled a BH for this weekend, spent the whole time running Warzones and Flashpoints and some questing.

Healing felt very direct. Until level 20, you've got a high-cost, high-yield heal (Rapid Scan), a low-cost, medium-yield heal (Healing Scan) and your low-cost, low-yield heal (Rapid Shots).

It felt like everything was centered around my Combat Support Cylinder buff. I took that feeling and ran with it, leading to a general feel of:

When damage was low: Spam Rapid Shots to build/refresh stacks of CSC.
When moderate Tank damage: Spam Rapid Scan/Healing Scan.
When moderate Raid damage: Focused solely on getting to 30 stacks of CSC, using the Supercharged Gas and then spamming Healing Scan.

I know that later on there's a few tools you get for better AOE, and one that leaves a HoT on your targets, but I hadn't made it that far yet.

[RoninaThorstone]

Here is the issue, I've been playing the beta-weekend and only that so due to very limited playtime, I couldn't test both Operative and Sorcerer. I chose to level the Sith Inquisitor this weekend and reached 20:ish, i.e. at least getting a few healing-spells and some skill-points to play around with. It kinda gave me a decent impression how the healing is with that class (I got a disc-priest feeling, if talking wow-terms).

My problem is that I obviously didn't have a chance to try IA Operative at all, didn't want to level both to 11-12 because that barely opens up the spells and skills for the classes.

In wow I've been raid-healing as holy priest for 3 years, holy-pally for 2 years and on/off as resto-shammy and disc-priest. Never healed as a druid as I dislike rolling hots. Prefer my holy pally a bit above the others, except back in vanilla/tbc when my holy priest was the main and I loved that state they where in.

So, please help me out here, which healer do you prefer yourself and what do you think is most suited for me? Anyone managed to get some decent testing and experience from Operatives or preferably on both these classes, that could help me out?

I healed a lot on a lv 20 ai-op. I topped healing in almost every bg as well as getting decent dmg done. I capped the ball a number of times.

I will be playing ai-op on live and here's why:

Koltoinjection granting TA is the greatest thing ever. Cycling that and koltoinfusion can keep a tank up almost all the time. The only trick is to keep stims up otherwise you will run out of energy in 10 seconds.

When you hit lv 27 or so DS becomes a key part of your rotation. Also the HOT droid. I found that one is good when you are on the move in pvp or you want to heal a play who isn't the tank but don't want to spend 2 seconds off the tank cause of a bursty phase. Sometimes I had time to cycle in rifle shot into my rotation instead of DS. Its not a lot of dmg but it only costs a second and no energy so if you are pveing or pvping considering it between heals otherwise you are wasting a GCD.

Energy based healing is the greatest invention of all time. You'd think "hey i dont have to worry about going oom!" But if you spam heals like crazy you will wipe about 15 seconds into the fight because you spent your energy unwisely and will be unable to have the through put when you need it.

I love this class. Its like the best parts of playing a rogue in warcraft with the best parts of playing a shaman in warcraft.

Oh also, flashbang?

Probably the best thing in the game.

Ive blinded entire enemy teams with it.

It probably needs a nerf.

...

Probably.

[RoninaThorstone]

I played a smuggler healer to 31 (IA equivalent) and I love it. Been playing a paladin on WoW for 6 years. The higher you get the more utilities you get, at 30 you get a spell that acts like World of Glory. As for pvp, I am always topping healing charts, however the 30% trauma healing debuff they give you for pvp seems to be a bit much. Can get solo'd by most classes without interrupts.

However it is beta and warzones were pretty laggy (about a .5 second delay for everyone I did them with) so it is still hard to tell.


I also played a Sage to 18 (Sorcerer) and it is definitely a lot like a disc priest, didn't like it.

That's why you use stun/sleep/blind to get a chance to free cast to full hp and continue wearing them down.

[valkyre]

Would compare IA healing to the Druid/pala
You have single target healing capabilities (yet I didn't played to 35+ ^^ to check out the last AoE talent, but from what I've read in the sw:tor board, you won't depend on it much, cause its an AoE-hot....) and a long-lasting HoT.

While it's possible to heal a group in later flash points, and managing a decent energy-tick, I guess the Sith Sorc has it way easier then, cause of Resurgence (heal+HoT component) and your final talent. Depends on your grp though, if all mindlessly rush in and try to NOT avoid the fire

Your resource is energy -wohoo- and the more heals yer spam, yer lower your refill. But you have 1 core ability, where you add another point to the tick for 45 sec. All you have to spend is 1 point of tactical advantage (TA), which is the 2nd 'kind of' resource you have to manage. You can have up to 2 TA running, and they can be spent to either on a heal (no energy cost) and the ability I just mentioned (which you'll have to all the time).
You also have a very tiny channel-hot (diagnostic scan), which can be augmented to restore energy on a crit as well. Should be used if there is no much healing needed, cause it costs nothing. (and it should have about 50% ~ crit at 50 I guess: talents+gear)
Else you can summon HoT-probes, on a person (stacks up to 2), which serves as your basic TA income and one of your basic heals . (18 seconds)

I guess the main-job is to keep the tank alive in an operation later on, cause that's what he can the best. (you just can't spam your HoT on a whole grp, you will be out of energy faster than you can count up to 3...)
If I have to compare them to WoW, the Mercenary healer is basically the shaman (earth-shield, chain-heal aká kolto missile, 10% armorboost-heal), while the Sith Sorc is more like the priest (init-heal+HoT , a very decent grp heal later on and some single heals)

So I think the sith sorc will be most suitable for you then.

Even if my 1st char will be a powertech tank, I liked the IA healing and it'll be probably my 2nd char

[Hairyzac]

I didn't get to try operative but I did play a Sorcerer till 25 over the past two weekend betas. You basically have the highest force pool in the game through talents. You get all kinds of awesome dps abilities as well. I didn't get any instant heals by 25 though besides your Barrier. You can spec into 10% increased force regen stacking up to 3 times by casting Force Lightning. So you just stack it to 3, and then don't let the stack fall off to keep your 30% extra force regen rolling. I really liked the playstyle.

[Jukex]

That's why you use stun/sleep/blind to get a chance to free cast to full hp and continue wearing them down.

Easier said than done with the latency in warzones this past weekend.

[RoninaThorstone]

Easier said than done with the latency in warzones this past weekend.

I turned down all the graphic settings to low except view distance (set to mid) and experienced 0 lag on nigut road or its warzones.

Were you on a uk server?

[Jukex]

Nah was on Iron Citadel, only played warzones religiously on Saturday afternoon (when there was a 3+ hour wait lol) which probably didn't help either. I'm sure it has something to do with all the spell effects flying around but I don't know. Had no problems in any of the flashpoints I did.

[prestilence]

I've played everyclass and spec in WoW currently (won't be that way come pandapatch) one thing I can say about SWTOR from my experience playing video games and being a game developer myself is that SWTOR is probably the best MMO to date. The immersion, lore, interactive player choice, and the intense customization in player environments. (Graphics are great but for other hardcore MMORPGer's, we care probably 90% about game play and not shiny things) And the game play is definately there. Control, utility, skill allowance, etc. BUT as all games ther will be changes, and I can already tell there will probably be an almost immediate change to the healing classes. There really no dominant "tank"class as of yet, and with the introduction of early level instances there will be alot of complaints of how hard it is to keep your group alive when there is lack of DPS (new MMO'ers won't understand the threat mechanics) a few DPS classes will end up holding 100% aggro on boss encounters (Cough Merc-BH) especially since there is no threat dump. There really is no utility healer as of yet (Holy-Paladin, "hands") to help with this, salvation and etc. Inquis will probably be the most popular starting out since people are attracted to lightsabers and lightning, but also unfortunate for their group probably the worst healer to compensate for the lack of accomodating a groups lack of MMO dungeon experience. It will be interesting for sure, but I strongly suggest convincing atleast 5 of your best WoW friends you raid with to play SWTOR, or else you will be bald by level 30-40 from ripping your hair out.

I also believe they will be changing their gear weighting from an (inside source.) Too many classes will be able to roll on gear they don't need and has literally no reason going to that person. But again, lack of experience will result in experienced players who are probably carrying groups to miss out on actual upgrades from everyone being able to roll on their gear.. SIGH.

[Jukex]

I was able to heal all of the flashpoints up to Cidermamu (30ish one) without the use of a tank. I'm a Scoundrel Sawbones.