This. A thousand times this. When DPS are focusing on whatever the tank is attacking and leaving a pile of trash to attack me, I am going to kill the trash or I am not going to live, and dead healers do even less healing than DPSing healers.

Sabotage charge, thermal grenade and vital shot all have a 30m range. Do you really have so little healing pressure in a HM FP that you have the energy to spare to DPS more than that? I haven't started running HMs yet, but I was expecting them to be more intense than that.

Very much this. Keep 0 or 2 stacks up on people, 1 just isn't cost effective. I usually keep 2 on the tank at all times, but only spot-heal the DPS as needed. Also, it will get much easier as you get the rest of your healing tools. You get triage at 24 which helps a lot with healing pressure, since you can cleanse DoTs instead having to heal through them, and emergency medpac at 30 which helps a TON with energy management. Another thing which might help is to use your CC. A well placed dirty kick or flash grenade can reduce the incoming damage quite a lot.

Skip content. I actually skip a TON of content as I level up. (50+% of planet side-quests). I greatly enjoy the role-playing aspect of SWTOR, so I accept quests that my character would actually do. On Alderaan I even ended up skipping the main planetary quest chain. I'm just there to make a few deliveries, and some republic military guy is trying to convince me to charge Sith head-on?! On the other hand, random people offering to pay me money to deliver X or gather Y are right up my alley. On my trooper it's the exact opposite: I don't have time to waste on random civvie crap, I'm fighting a war! The advantage is I can play through a second time and still have plenty of fresh content.

I would recommend scoundrel/sniper rather than gunslinger/op. The deciding difference for me was companion progression. As an agent, you get your healer 3rd, whereas a smuggler you get your healer last. Being able to cast some heals yourself is a nice thing if you're going to have to wait until you're almost done with leveling until you get a heal companion.

Lokin is the only companion my agent trusts. Not trust as in "he's got my back", but trust as in he's a consummate professional. I can rest assured that if he is on board with an op, that op will go through even if he has to sacrifice ME to get it done. Since my agent has exactly the same attitude towards him and the other companions, it seems only natural that ours is by far the most comfortable relationship. We both truly know where we stand with each other. Kaliyo on the other hand, I only keep around because Bioware won't let me shoot her in the head and space the body as a bad security risk. I justify it by thinking about how a wanted criminal is a good thing to have around in case I need a cut-out in a future op who I know the local authorities will "like" for whatever atrocity I committed.

And even awesome-ER at lvl 31 when you get the next talent which lets you stack UH to 3 and cast your instant heal for free on targets with < 30% max hp.

I find that Tanking is like herding cats. I find that Healing is like juggling cats. I find DPS boring, so I usually makes tanks and healers, and this game is no exception. I have a 50 jugg and a 50 op, and I enjoy them both in PVP and PVE.

QFT. There is far too much separation of quest areas for the different factions. I rolled onto a PVP server because I want to see people on the other faction while I'm out in the world, and have a chance to kill or be killed by them.

Except grass is not always east or always west and same with snow. If you're like me and play both imp and republic alts, when you say grass or snow, I have to stop and think "which team am I on today? which side did I start from?" Left/Right works fine for republic, but is exceptionally confusing for imps where the 'right' side of your minimap requires that you run to the 'left' speeder in your starting area. East/West are always, instantly obvious. I cannot fathom why people don't use them.

They did, actually. Read the skill description again; notice that it specifies that it only works on weak, standard and strong targets. Players are none of the above.

Strafe the other direction. Now your index and middle fingers are free to hit any of those keys.

Dear BW, Nerf paper, scissors is fine. Sincerely, Rock

Actually I'm having more fun as a concealment op in 1.2 than before. My burst seems about the same, my sustained damage seems a bit less, but now that sleep dart doesn't whitebar its target, I'm even better at 2v1 and ninja-cap situations.