So after playing 2 of the 3 healing classes SWTOR offers (and really enjoying them) and thinking back on the general lack of information i saw on them around the net, even with the NDA lift, I started writting my thoughts on how the healing works in SWTOR, but it ran so long that i actually had to stop and leave work. It was so long in fact, that im now wondering if people would even give a shit about any of that information (as I went through spells, resource management mechanics, rotations and whatnot).

So this thread is basically to gauge the interest on such a topic. Are there any people out there that didnt play the beta, or played the beta but didnt play a healer that would be interested in knowing more about them? I would be assuming you have at least a general knowledge of MMOs and use a lot of common termanology, so keep that in mind.

Let me know, i will gladly do it if people are interested. Peace out.

i would be interested, think thats a great idea mate.

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

If you're worried about putting a lot of effort into something you feel might go to waste, make this an "Ask Me Anything About Healing!" thread.

I have a question for you, as a Scoundrel I only got their underground healing spell during the beta and I didnt have enough time to delve in deeper. Is the Sawbones a viable healer or is it majorly outclassed by their Trooper, Consular counterparts?

Theres three healing classes?

Which side only has one healer?

Hey man,

I initially was quite put off by the open beta, but towards the end of the weekend came to the conclusion that it was pretty OK, just not that innovative in terms of gameplay.

But as an answer to your question, hells yeah man. I actually didn't even hit lvl 10, just started a bunch of chars to see the different zones and cutscenes. But during my WOW raiding times, healing was my profession of choice. I'd be really curious to hear how the healing mechanics function, how it differs in different sized groups or just comparisons to wow healing classes.

Post your about your experiences and I'm glad to play ball with you on the subject.

@coakroach: AFAIK the mechanic goes so that all classes choose from 2 specializations when hitting lvl 10, usually with the choices of being either DPS/TANK or DPS/HEALER, with the exception of Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, who get the choices DPS or DPS/TANK.

Anyone correct me if I got it wrong.

@Funkydupe: Awesome contribution there.

@SamStrife: Thanks.

Imperial Agent healing (up to level 20)  Kolto injection, kolto injection, (stim boost when it's up) kolto injection, kolto injection, kolto injection, kolto injection, *run out of energy* Diagnostic scan, diagnostic scan, diagnostic scan *energy is ok again* kolto injection, kolto injection, kolto injection...    i suppose you can attack in between but there's no real finesse thus far.
 
I played a druid and priest in wow so i know a little bit how their heals work, this just seems more like a holy paladin just spamming holy light(kolto injection) and keeping up divine plea(stim boost)..  guess it gets better later on but never really liked healing, gonna just be a sniper.

Just listened to the Bombcast you were refering to there funky. Definitely will not keep me away from TOR. Already been through 2 beta weekends including the last on that just past. So anxiously waiting for this game to come out. If you never played Knights of the Old Republic 1 or 2, chances are your not gonna like this mmo. I never expected bioware to completely redesign the mmo standard, nore should they. They delivered the first voice only mmo, which is a huge achievement, and yes there are still the standard kill this collect this quests, but what were they expecting them to fill the game with?? The flashpoints and class only questlines are by far the best aspects to this game. Not to mention the social point system they during multiplayer conversation during flashpoints with your group.

All in all bioware's got themselves a solid mmo more then capable of taking on WoW. Although that game dont need any help getting knocked off its pedestal they seem to be doing that all by themselves. What the hell is with the pandas??? lol

Love to see more of guild wars 2 thats about the only other mmo I would play and its free online so major bonus!

Dec 15th could not come any sooner.

Sure, be a pioneer.
What class you planning on?
 
I really loved Trooper Combat Medic, which I will be at launch instead of my initial choice of Consular.
It might be my bad eyes (I refuse to wear my glasses for this short distance) but I had a little trouble keeping an eye on my buffs and procs etc.
The ammo system and the supercharge cells look really great tho for the time I spend with them.

Jedi Guardian most likely. I always go tank class for every mmo. But for healer I was definitely looking into jedi sage, though beta ended before I got a chance to start one up. The class looks like it still has good dps, though I'm only going by the videos I saw.

I agree with you on the tiny icon sizes for the buffs, pretty hard to see. Im sure plenty of modders will come out with different ui soon enough.

@Funkydupe said:

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

I enjoyed the beta very much, even with some of the irritating bugs that plagues all MMOs in the begining. People just had to high of expectations....

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

@Rhaknar said:

So after playing 2 of the 3 healing classes SWTOR offers (and really enjoying them) and thinking back on the general lack of information i saw on them around the net, even with the NDA lift, I started writting my thoughts on how the healing works in SWTOR, but it ran so long that i actually had to stop and leave work. It was so long in fact, that im now wondering if people would even give a shit about any of that information (as I went through spells, resource management mechanics, rotations and whatnot).

So this thread is basically to gauge the interest on such a topic. Are there any people out there that didnt play the beta, or played the beta but didnt play a healer that would be interested in knowing more about them? I would be assuming you have at least a general knowledge of MMOs and use a lot of common termanology, so keep that in mind.

Let me know, i will gladly do it if people are interested. Peace out.

Playing a JC Sage with a friend when live and will later make a IA Operative Medic. I have seen many plays with in game and video of a PVP IA Medic having one of the highest kill rates with an equal amount of healing/saving people from death. IA healing is a bit more tricky at how you can best utilize your skills for maximum efficiency compared to a JC/SI though (steeper learning curve for some players at the start).

@Rhaknar: I'm incredibly interested in this game, and always play healing classes in MMORPGs. So, man, if you have enough experience to do a solid breakdown, I'd be incredibly up for reading it.

@Funkydupe said:

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

Because:

a) not all of us are done with the MMO formula like the Giantbomb staff, and are certainly interested in a Star Wars themepark adventure with BioWare's touches

b) not all of us agree with the rather uninformed breakdown that Jeff provided. I'll be the first one to defend the Bomb staff for not being remarkable masters at every game that comes out, but Jeff doesn't play MMORPGs, and he only gave the unreleased product an afternoon. After about 30 hours with the beta, and a fairly elaborate history with the genre, I'll say that I'm glowing with excitement for it.

@Brodehouse said:

@Funkydupe

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

That podcast is so full of misinformation that... Oh, it made me sad.

It was cringe-inducing, for sure. But we have to give them a break for not having the time to follow every game religiously.

@faizjuma: While SWTOR does take place in that same era/universe, I don't think you need to enjoy KOTOR to enjoy this game. I think the game more akin to a hybridization of Mass Effect (dialogue system, speaking to your companions at opportune times, etc.) and Dragon Age (hotkey bar, gifts/loyalty system). I'd step back and make a general claim of: 'if you like/dislike BioWare games, you'll either like/dislike this MMORPG. And I would say that that fact is more paramount to your liking of the game than whether or not you enjoy MMORPGs.

@project343: True. A very good post, sir. I'm hoping for innovation on what an MMO is, but for this "generation" of MMOs, they're about leveling up through fetch/kill quests and get more gear. I've accepted that. TOR is an attempt to refine whats already out there with a few twists here and there. I think that actually it might serve as more of a singleplayer experience for me personally, but maybe I'll be surprised by multiplayer later, as during the weekend I felt it was very detached and really not needed for class stories.

I'm interested in healers, but at this point I think I'd like to fumble around with it myself before reading the latest cookiecutter news.

@project343 said:

@Rhaknar: I'm incredibly interested in this game, and always play healing classes in MMORPGs. So, man, if you have enough experience to do a solid breakdown, I'd be incredibly up for reading it.

@Funkydupe said:

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

Because:

a) not all of us are done with the MMO formula like the Giantbomb staff, and are certainly interested in a Star Wars themepark adventure with BioWare's touches

b) not all of us agree with the rather uninformed breakdown that Jeff provided. I'll be the first one to defend the Bomb staff for not being remarkable masters at every game that comes out, but Jeff doesn't play MMORPGs, and he only gave the unreleased product an afternoon. After about 30 hours with the beta, and a fairly elaborate history with the genre, I'll say that I'm glowing with excitement for it.

@Brodehouse said:

@Funkydupe

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

That podcast is so full of misinformation that... Oh, it made me sad.

It was cringe-inducing, for sure. But we have to give them a break for not having the time to follow every game religiously.

@faizjuma: While SWTOR does take place in that same era/universe, I don't think you need to enjoy KOTOR to enjoy this game. I think the game more akin to a hybridization of Mass Effect (dialogue system, speaking to your companions at opportune times, etc.) and Dragon Age (hotkey bar, gifts/loyalty system). I'd step back and make a general claim of: 'if you like/dislike BioWare games, you'll either like/dislike this MMORPG. And I would say that that fact is more paramount to your liking of the game than whether or not you enjoy MMORPGs.

What did Jeff say? I don't feel like listening to the Bombcast. I don't doubt it was horribly misinformed and just, "I DON'T LIKE MMOS ANYWAY SO THIS IS BAD BY DEFAULT!"

@CL60 said:

What did Jeff say? I don't feel like listening to the Bombcast. I don't doubt it was horribly misinformed and just, "I DON'T LIKE MMOS ANYWAY SO THIS IS BAD BY DEFAULT!"

It's the first matter of discussion. Essentially from the first minute to about 20-25 in.

Just, there were a lot of direct claims that he sort of inaccurately made. For example, he defined the Jedi Guardian as the tanking option and the Jedi Sentinel as the DPS option. When the Guardian offers two skill trees entirely devoted to pure DPS if they so choose. He also overemphasized the alignment-dependence of gear, suggesting that min-maxing light/dark side points was the only valid way to play the game. Jumping right off that, he gave the impression that there was important social gear that could only be unlocked via social means. While it does exist, it's purely cosmetic. He downplayed the variety of companion personalities, and how they conflict with your decisions. I managed to recruit a woman who strictly followed orders. If I deviated from those orders, even for something that may seem morally good, she would have a hissy. It isn't simply "she likes good people." On the crafting system, Jeff says that the game purely involves gathering by sending companions on missions. Many gathering professions in the game do involve stripping local robots for parts, or gathering gems from clusters in questing areas. I'd continue to go on, but I think you get the point. There was a lot of nuance that he wasn't entirely accurate on.

And I'm completely okay with Jeff not being a SWTOR scholar. He doesn't like the genre, and to my knowledge, he's not a fan of either KOTOR or Dragon Age (the two BioWare games that this game most closely resembles).

@Rhaknar: I think that now more than ever we need a deeper insight into the game , due to what was said in the bomcast , and Im not saying that the dudes must like the game , but I think we need a more positive or rather more deep insight , even if it just the healer classes (or rather the healer options?) ... as for me my moment of most enjoyment came when I realized I could heal with my bounty hunter and working with another player in real cohesion taking down the force wraith in Naas :D

@coakroach: To clarify on the healing classes, each side has 3 classes that can become healers as an advanced class. The same goes for tanks. There are 4 mirrored classes on each side, with each of those having two advanced classes, so 8 total on each side.

I saw this on MMO-Champion and thought it might be of interest to everyone. Not to steal your thunder or anything, I'm not in the beta and I think having someone to answer specific questions might be useful, but I thought this was a pretty fantastic general breakdown for people who are interested in TOR healing.

I'm still trying to decide what kind of healer I want to roll between Commando/Mercenary and Sage/Sorcerer. Right now I'm leaning commando or mercenary - commandos get fucking miniguns and have Jennifer Hale as a voice (Femshep!), and mercenaries have some really cool animations. Sages and sorcerers sound the most polished and the spells/force weaving sound like mechanics I'd enjoy, but Sages look kind of boring (and if that gear progression video is any indicator their hats look kind of silly), and Sorcerers get lightning and look cooler but everyone's going to play them (of the people who filled out which class they're going to play on Bioware's website, Inquisitor is the most popular).

Anyway, here's the post, from detectivekr on mmo-champion, a permanent beta tester:

Hello, I am a regular (not weekend) beta tester. I am planning to main a healer, so I gave all three a chance. This is a comparison of the healers, based on what I've played and what other testers have said.

There are three healing ACs (advance classes) in the game per faction. They are Operative, Sorceror, and Mercenary on the Empire, and Scoundrel, Sage, and Commando on Republic. If you are unfamiliar with the process, you start the game as a class (i.e. Jedi Counsular). At level 10, you pick an advance class (i.e. Sage), and you put talent points into one of three trees (i.e. Seer).

You can see all the talent trees here: http://www.torhead.com/calculator/skill

Overall, if I had to rank the healers: Sorcerors > Operatives > Mercenaries. Note, for brevity, I will be using the Empire names for classes and abilities. If you want to play Republic, don't worry, it's the same. You'll just need to cross-check the names of the abilities. They are rapidly improving all the classes, so I expect by release, the gap between the healers will be much smaller.

Operative / Scoundrel
Base Class: Imperial Agent / Smuggler
Healing Talent Tree: Medicine / Sawbones
Closest WoW Equivalent: Holy Paladin (has mechanics reminiscent of holy power)
Equipment: Medium Armor
Primary Stat: Cunning
Unique Mechanic: "Tactical Advantage"

Talent Trees: Operatives (and Scoundrels) are the Frankensteins of healers. If you took the healing abilities of a paladin and gave them to a rogue, but left some medium-ranged attacks for good measure, you would have an operative. Two of the talent trees emphasis stealth-based melee dps, while the third talent tree is focused on healing.

Resource: Operatives use ENERGY for their resource, which is functionally identical to the bounty hunter's heat and trooper's ammo. So both sets of classes are restrained by a limited resource pool. Energy regenerates on a GATED/tiered system. The less energy you have, the less regen you will have (2 to 5 energy/sec). So the best strategy is to maintain high energy levels so that you have high regen levels. When I maintained maximum regen, I was able to keep a group alive without ever going oom.

Unique Mechanic: Tactical advantage works similarly to holy power. Certain abilities (direct heals, hot ticks, some attacks) give you a point of Tactical Advantage. Unlike holy power, abilities that consume tactical advantage only consume ONE point. So you can save it up and use it one-by-one. Most abilities that consume tactical advantage do not use energy, so it's important to rotate TA-generating and TA-consuming abilities so that you regen stays high.

The regular heals are:
1. Kolto Injection: 2.5 cast (2.0 after talents) heal, 25 energy (can generate TA with talents)
2. Kolto Probe: Instant HoT, stackable, 15 energy (can generate TA with talents)
3. Recuperative Nanotech: Instant AoE HoT, 30 energy, has cooldown
4. Diagnostic Scan: 3.0 sec channel, 0 energy

The TA-requiring heals are:
1. Kolto Infusion: 1.5 cast heal, 20 energy, consumes TA
2. Surgical Probe: Instant heal, 0 energy, consumes TA

Other Healer Abilities:
1. Resuscitation Probe: Combat rez
2. Toxin Scan: Instant, Removes debuffs (can be talented to provide direct heal, too)
3. Stim Boost: Regenerates energy in an emergency

In my opinion, operatives and scoundrels can be a lot of fun if you like a dynamic healing rotation. You can only spam your bread-and-butter about 6 times before going oom. Like paladins, operatives are strong single target healers, but they are weak when it comes to raid/party heals. They have no direct AoE heals, and must rely on HoTs to do the job.

Operatives and Scoundrels are close to being competitive. I expect them to be ready at launch. Personally, I would consider them polished if they had at least one direct AoE heal. Ideally, it would be consume tactical advantage. That way, one AoE heal does need it (the AoE HoT), and the other does (the AoE direct heal).



Mercenary / Commando
Base Class: Bounty Hunter / Trooper
Healing Talent Tree: Bodyguard / Combat Medic
Closest WoW Equivalent: None (lacking abilities) / Shaman (reactive shield like earth shield) / Warlock (!) (mechanic similar to soul shards)
Equipment: Heavy Armor
Primary Stat: Aim
Unique Mechanic: "Combat Support"

Talent Trees: Mercenaries (and commandos) are, despite the heavy armor, play like a traditional caster. They have two ranged DPS trees, and one healing tree. Mercenary and commando healing is in need some tuning and extra abilities.

Resource: Mercenaries use heat while commandos use ammo. While the bars look a little different, and heat is generated in reverse, they function identically to energy. See my explanation under operatives for more information on energy, energy regen, and pacing.

Unique Mechanic: Combat Support is a stackable buff that increases your healing. It is generated by healing others with your free (no heat/ammo) heal, and with your cast heals when talented. Once the stack reaches 30, you can consume your stack of CS to vent heat (restore ammo) and give your abilities a temporary bonus effect (think warlock soul shards) for 10 seconds. Any abilities you use in these 10 seconds can get the bonus.

The regular heals are:
1. Rapid Shots: Instant, 0 heat, generates combat support (3 CS)
2. Rapid Scan: 2.5 cast (2.0 after talents) heal, 25 heat (generates 6 CS with talents)
3. Healing Scan: 1.5 cast, 16 heat, has cooldown
4. Kolto Missile: Instant AoE direct heal, 16 heat, has cooldown
5. Emergency Scan: Instant heal, 0 energy, has cooldown

Combat Support Bonuses:
1. Removes cooldown from healing scan
2. Gives small damage-reducing shield to kolto missile

Other Healer Abilities:
1. Power Surge: Removes cast-time from one ability (i.e. nature's swiftness)
2. Cure: Instant, Removes debuffs (can be talented to provide direct heal, too)
3. Kolto Shell: Shield, 10 charges, heals target when taking damage (i.e. earth shield)
4. Vent Heat: Vents heat in an emergency (same as gaining ammo for trooper)

Mercenaries and commandos are stable healers, but the lack of Tactical Advantage (compared to operative) makes them slightly more prone to going oom. Also, instead of relying on HoTs to generate your special mechanic (as is the case for operatives and tactical advantage), mercs do not get any HoTs. Only one ability can be talented to have an occasional bonus HoT attached. Instead, you must top players off yourself using rapid shots, which in turn generates combat support (CS). It feels like more busy work during an instance, for better or worse.

I think mercenaries and commandos need a little more work, but I expect them to be competitive by launch. If they had a HoT that could generate combat support, and perhaps a better way to control heat/ammo, I would consider them polished.



Sith Sorceror / Jedi Sage
Base Class: Sith Inquisitor / Jedi Consular
Healing Talent Tree: Corruption / Seer
Closest WoW Equivalent: Discipline Priest (absorptive shields), Resto Druid (numerous heal/hot combos), Resto Shaman (similar mechanics to riptide)
Equipment: Light Armor
Primary Stat: Willpower
Unique Mechanic: "Force Bending"

Talent Trees: If you're looking for a very traditional mage experience, sorceror and sage are your best bet. Two trees are dedicated to spellcasting damage, and the third is focused on healing. It's very obvious that the most time has been spent polishing this healer compared to the others. It feels the most complete and ready for endgame healing.

Resource: Sorcerors and sages use force as a resource. It feels a lot like mana, but it is limited. You cannot stack force via gear (it's always capped at 500/600 depending on talents). You CAN, however, improve your regen with gear. The other healers DO NOT have that option, making sorcerors/sages unique. A well-geared sorceror could theoretically heal forever without ever needing to use regen abilities.

Unique Mechanic: Resurgence is an instant heal + hot (like riptide) that alters the mechanics of your next heal (also like riptide). Resurgence is on a short cooldown (again, like riptide), so you can easily weave it into your rotation. The bonus effect caused by resurgence (called force weaving) only effects the next heal.

The regular heals are:
1. Dark Heal: 1.5 cast heal, 50 force
2. Dark Infusion: 3.0 (2.5 after talents) cast, 55 force
3. Innervate: Instant heal + hot, 40 force, has cooldown
4. Resurgence: Instant heal + hot, 30 force, has cooldown (talented to give bonus on next heal)
5. Revivification: 2.0 cast AoE direct heal (+HoT for people remaining in area), 100 force, has cooldown

Force Weaving (Resurgence) Bonuses:
1. Reduces force cost of Dark Heal by 100%
2. Reduces force cost of Revivification by 60%
3. Increases crit chance of Innervate by 25% (which in turn, when it crits, regenerates force)
4. Lowers cast-time of Dark Infusion by 2 seconds

Other Healer Abilities:
1. Reanimation: Combat rez
2. Purge: Instant, Removes debuffs (can be talented to provide direct heal, too)
3. Static Barrier: Absorption shield (i.e. Power Word: Shield)
4. Extrication: Lowers target's threat and pulls them to you (i.e. life grip)
5. Consumption: Instantly regenerates force at cost of life (like Life Tap), also lowers force regen rate momentarily

As you can see, sorcerors and sages have the most toys to play with. They also have the biggest library of heals, and with the force bending mechanic, they have the most versatility and dynamism in their playstyle. Without a doubt, the most effort has been put into polishing these classes, so it's not much of a surprise. I cannot foresee many situations where they would run into trouble.

The biggest hurdle is at the lower levels, you do not have gear that boosts your regen, so you are reliant on pacing yourself. Consumption is best used in emergencies, and not as a regular method to get more force. Sorcerors have no problems with chain pulls, but long boss fights can really put a strain on your force. In comparison, a well-managed operative can go forever during a boss.

is it possible to solo thru most of the game?

@oasis789: The first 8-12 hours of every class are tutorial-worlds, and can be done entirely solo (plus late companions) except perhaps the very last bosses. So that's 80 hours of soloing if you want to see all the classes. :)

After that you can choose to try the first flashpoint/group raid with a handful of other players from your world. I found this kind of boring because all we could do was spam the same kinds of abilities. After you can group and do the main quests with a proper cadre of miscreants, I'm sure it's a lot more interesting to see the class abilities work off one another.

What are the healing classes so I know not to play them. Not that im sure they arnt viable classes, but I like shooting a bitch.

@sgjackson: considering that quest instances only allow 1 of each class, it might be to your advantage (groupwise) to pick a less popular class like trooper/BH

@oasis789 said:

@sgjackson: considering that quest instances only allow 1 of each class, it might be to your advantage (groupwise) to pick a less popular class like trooper/BH

Yeah, I'm probably going trooper right now. Having seen what the higher level sage/sorc gear looks like I'm...less than impressed, but it's really hard to fuck up armor and miniguns.

I'd be more inclined to consider a scoundrel with that logic (they're going to be the rarest class coming in, according to the info I've seen) but I think I'm gonna make a gunslinger after my healer main so I'd rather not do two smugglers in a row.

I think I'll have a consular and a gunslinger.... but the dark side beckons me....

@Funkydupe said:

After this weeks Bombcast, I'm not sure why anyone would want to touch TOR at all.

Most of the reasons Jeff stated that he felt were against the game are actually not an issue for me, it's all a matter of opinions.

Not one of my initial beta classes have been healers. I would love to see content describing how they function and how their mechanics work. Since I'd been playing mostly early-game I saw little need of them (even in the Talon Flashpoint) although seeing how there's Tank and Healer specs, I suspect they must become instrumental at some point.

I didn't get very far in because I spent too much time being an altaholic. ξ

@project343 said:

And I'm completely okay with Jeff not being a SWTOR scholar. He doesn't like the genre, and to my knowledge, he's not a fan of either KOTOR or Dragon Age (the two BioWare games that this game most closely resembles).

That is enough for me to know not to play this game. Thanks!

Sincerely, though, I think you'd find a handful of people who will read it, but most on this site will say something along the lines of "TL:DR" or "I don't really want to play TOR anyways." I keep tricking myself into wanting to play this game because of the way the Matrix Online community left off, but I can't motivate myself to do it. Thanks for the offer, though!