Don't play a Merc, but just posting in support of RuQu who has done a lot for IA Medic's and has helped organize, identify and catalog issues for the healing community at large. Doesn't take a genius to see these 1.2 patch notes are basically an insult to those who are still crazy enough to heal through the already janky mechanics. 31 days and counting. http://i.imgur.com/VMGM0.png

I know it's a bit of a faux pas to quote yourself, but yeah, saw this coming. Yes, it's easy to be pessimistic, but I (along with many of you guys) have played a lot of MMO's and it's always easy to spot the developers who try hard but still struggle to balance their game properly and the developers who simply do not understand their own game or how balancing an MMO is different compared to a multiplayer game (e.g. a class cannot simply be 'good enough' to be considered an equal). Bioware falls squarely into the latter. Lets look at the healing changes (from strongest to weakest class): 1. Sorcs - minor nerfs and bug fixes (some already in the game). Not what the game needed - sorcs should have been the standard, not the outlier 2. Mercs (distant second) - Nerfs? NERFS??!? I'm at a loss for words. 3. IA Medics - QoL improvements and a few 'numbers' buffs. A band-aid on a broken limb. Real problem here is the devs need to lose their arrogance and see the game for what it actually is, not what they think it is or hoped it would be. This will eventually happen, but it will probably take 2 or 3 major patches and an expansion pack before it does. Once they realize it's okay to change their minds, it's okay to take back a previous statement and it's okay to admit some ideas were misguided - this game will be the better for it. But yeah, not sticking around and paying money to go on this ride again. If an MMO wants their community to be patient and put up with all the issues they've already experienced in half a dozen other MMOs, the game has to offer something more than just being a Wow-clone with a story-driven leveling experience. -- IA Medic, Valor 69 and full BM. Not logged on in over 3 weeks. 31 more days until EA can no longer count me in one of their inflated subscriber reports.

I had the same "***?" moment as the OP when they said this during the live stream. However, I believe they were talking about auto-face on cast, rather than auto-face during cast. Either way it was a very confusing comment by Bioware. The fact that any type of auto-facing exists during PVP is hilarious. With the amount of movement effects and CC, casters already have a much easier time staying on target compared to melee. It needs to go.

You say that like choice is a bad thing. I would love to be able to choose what skills to use and when to use them - it might actually bring the Medic skill-cap out of the gutter. Currently, the my toolbox feels like it belongs to a non-heal spec hybrid. Also, if you feel running out of resource is a 'threat', then wow...just wow. Try having it be an almost certainty if things don't go exactly as planned. I'm just still in awe that this thread is still going. The imbalance in healing, on every level (be it raw output or utility), is so obvious and its effect is so noticeable (Medics are all but extinct) that anyone who possibly tries arguing against it must be willfully ignorant to the game they're playing.

I wish I had a healing tree where a run speed skill isn't considered worthwhile compared to all the other great skills. Just goes to show the massive dearth in quality between the Medic and Corruption tree.

Well, looks like Bioware gave a (reletively) long response to RuQu's question which you can find in today's Q & A. In short, they do not feel there is any significant inequality amongst the healers as all three specs can complete current and future content but they concede that there is room for minor improvements. So there it is. Official word from the devs that they do not see any fundamental problems with our class and that we only require tweaking. Well I suppose this is it. Truthfully I had already suspected Bioware did not have the resources nor experience to efficiently balance an MMO, but this just confirmed it. That said, I would like to personally thank Bobudo and RuQu for all their hard work with not only identifying the imbalance between healers, but doing so with a level of grace and thoroughness that is unfortunately far too rare on gaming forums. You both did right by the community and we appreciate it. God speed.

When you say Sorcs, do you mean healing (Corruption) specifically or just Sorcs in general? While I can't really comment on their damage, as I don't know enough about it, I definitely wouldn't say their healing is overpowered. The fact is, when you build an MMO based on The Trinity, you need to keep the least played roles (healing and tanking) very satisfying because once you have a shortage of them, the entire game begins to fall apart. The amount of damage having all three specs of the same role playing poorly will do to the game is beyond repair.

IIRC, it was mentioned that one of the main reasons tab-targeting feels so busted is that the 'cycle' is based on the direction your character's head is facing, not where your camera is pointing. So if the previous person you targeted is now behind you, causing your character's head to look like it's trying to recreate a scene from The Exorcist, good luck trying to tab to the person in front of you.

Or perhaps give players Rank 60 and above more reasons to play? Most of the ones I talk to end up being so frustrated by their Daily Bags of Disappointment™ that they no longer have any respect for the spirit of the game and instead want to get their wins and leave. RNG has a way of deflating and bringing out the worst in people.

Energy and Mana styles of play should compliment one another. Unfortunately, the reality could not be further removed. In theory, Mana users should be able to put out more sustained high HPS while being very fearful of going OOM and end up gimping themselves for the rest of the fight due to their limited tools for recovering spent mana. In contrast, Energy burst HPS should be lower and shorter, but once we reach 0, we're only out of the game for short periods. The unfortunate reality is that Mana users rarely go OOM, so the trade-off is not a fair one. There are a few reasons for this. In PvE, a lot of the encounters have time based enrage mechanics - so long fights (where an Energy user should shine) are few and far between. In PvP, dying and gaps in combat are so frequent that Mana never has a chance to go low - and even if it does, Sorc's Lifetap and the game-wide Seethe ability make regenning a cinch. Combine that with a flat in-combat regen which does not punish burst healing, and you're left with a very, very powerful healer. There are also severe utility imbalances too, but these are mostly because of the high faction imbalance causing 80% of PvP to be Huttball. It's a great Warzone (and possibly the most unique thing to SWTOR), but it favors acrobatic classes so heavily that it ends up adding insult to injury. I may have oversimplified a few things, but that's the general gist of it.

Damnit Bobudo, you've done it again! I wish I could get a refund on my remaining two months subscription and give it to you to put towards a plane ticket so you can gatecrash the Guild Summit and demand some answers. I'm usually the last person to promote childish conspiracy involving developers hating/ignoring/favoring any class, but the sheer lack of communication is really starting to raise eyebrows. Like I said in the Op forums, I do not believe there is a quick fix for us as it's simply not a numbers issue, so any meaningful redesign will require a lot of time and testing on Bioware's behalf. However, what doesn't require a lot of time is a little bit of developer feedback letting us know they're aware of the severe issues/imbalances and they're working towards addressing them.

We all have our own tolerance levels, and a straw that breaks my camel's back might not break yours. But, with that said, let me ask you something... This game has a heavy emphasis on the 'holy trinity' style of game play - to the point where most content cannot be completed without it. Meaning there needs to be a thriving player-base of all 3 roles. This game has 20 talent trees (double that if you include mirrors). Of those 20, only 3 are healing trees and of those 3, one is fantastic, another is mediocre and the third is severely under-powered. Now, if Bioware will not even acknowledge (let alone fix) such a gaping problem after 2 months of release and nearly a year of beta feedback - doesn't that ring serious alarm bells? If they cannot balance and carve out niches for just 3 specs, what hope do the other 17 have? Bioware needs to receive a clear message that they cannot ignore what is already the least played role and expect it to not have dire consequences for all aspects of their MMO. Quietly sitting back, handing over monthly subs, re-rolling a 'real' healer, etc - all that just feeds into the problem until one day, people will look around and wonder where all the non-force users went.

You shouldn't blame PvP for something that only happened due to Bioware's inexperience in balancing class based multiplayer. Anyone who has played an MMO for more than five minutes knows that first you tackle the global issues (Buff stacking, Surge scaling, OP professions, no 50-only bracket etc) and only then do you start tweaking individual classes.

You're right, a combat log/parser would help clarify details - but the reason I created this thread is because after many hours of play (over 15 days /played) I've come to believe that number adjustments alone will not fix this class - especially in the role of a healer. As it stands, there is not a single thing the Operative can do that can't be done equal to or better by others. No niche exists and changing a few numbers will not create one. If that's all that's on the table for the near future, I would prefer Bioware tell us now so that we can make an informed decision to either 1) Live with it, 2) Re-roll or 3) Quit. Bioware's inexplicable disregard for an issue as serious as role un-viability is beginning to show - the end-game Operative population on my server is dropping off a cliff, especially so for Medics (there are only 2 others I see regularly). Even if our healing numbers were to go up tomorrow, the acrobatic abilities of force-users will still make them vastly superior (who cares if your heals/damage do 10% more, if other classes can do a pull/leap/knockback/shield that saves the day?). As a fellow medic friend put it "In a game full of sports cars, we're a pedestrian with a gimp leg being handed a bus pass".

I've been playing my Operative Medic (Valor 64, nearly full BM apart from weapons) since launch and, like many of you here, I'm been checking the forums and PTS notes almost religiously for over a month now hoping for some change/improvements. But today, during a game of Huttball, I gave up. As I stood near the first firepit (frantically trying to keep my team alive as they did their best to attack the ball carrier), a Sorcerer ran up to me, knocked me into the pit, sprinted through the fire, pulled the ball carrier out of harm's way and proceeded to heal him as he crossed the goal line. I was in awe. But this isn't a rant about Sorcerers, no, he was just using the tools given to him to help his team. And yes, there were probably things I could have done to prevent the situation (like keeping my back to a solid object). The realization was that our class cannot be fixed with a simple 'numbers' patch, and because of that, we're going to be stuck in this rut for quite some time. These issues alone play on the very fundamentals of our class: Talent tree - Underpowered/lack of heals which can easily be locked out. Numerous useless/broken/bloated talents (4 points to make DS worth a damn? 2 points to buff a CC which requires stealth and OOC? A sixth -tier talent that only increases healing on ourselves when we have our own underpowered shield up? Medical Therapy still broken?) UI - A secondary resource mechanic fundamental to our class which is a nightmare to track (having to watch for a little '1' or '2' TA buff icon in the heat of battle? Such an important resource needs it's own frame at the very least - a giggle sound just doesn't cut it). Severe mobility issues - Trying to keep up with force users is near impossible. Having stealth is almost irrelevant as a healer, especially as we're punished for using it in an emergency. Having a 'Shadowstep' like ability (usable on friendlies too), would enable us to get back in the action after a knock back or catch up with a leaping ball carrier. Gear itemization - This genuinely makes me wonder if the Medic tree was play-tested at all. Alacrity? Really? It's very clear that Bioware is in 'launch mode', which means their priorities are on bug-fixes and content patches to generate headlines in the gaming press. The reality is this type of class re-design isn't going to happen for months - maybe not even until the first expansion pack. Suffice to say, I've canceled my account. I still have two months of playtime left (hey, I was optimistic about the game!), but I'm not really interested in re-rolling. So I guess I'll just keep an eye out for the 1.2 patch notes and hope that Bioware proves me wrong.