I stacked crit/surge like everyone else to use resurgence, innervate and consumption rotations to stay force neutral. Now that surge has a reduced benefit, what is the softcap? I'd heard 300 before, but what should be the target now? So far I'm reading that I should continue to stack near 300, and that I should reduce to between 200 and 250. I'm wondering if there's an actual consensus based on the DR of other secondary stats. I can easily stay above 30% crit while dropping battle enhancements to lower my surge to cap. Currently, I'm at 294 surge, 489 crit (it kinda happened on accident, really...), 1632 willpower and 1161 force power, if any of that helps the theorycrafters.

My understanding from reading other threads is that Andronikus works out to be a great companion for a DPS sorc. While I use Khem and don't have to heal much when I'm AOEing a group of standards, the rules start to change on strongs and elites and you're likely better off with Revel's DPS than you are with Khem's tanking, unless you've got a healer with you, too.

I haven't done a single warzone yet, having been jaded by experience in the *** battlegrounds. Are these things actually worth playing in or is it another mad dash to kill people and not defend anything ever?

I play a corruption spec (healer) sorc. Your first companion (pet) is a tank. There has been nothing short of a Champion level mob I can't solo. Keep yourself and your companion geared for your level and the sorc is a great solo class. Really, though, I think all of them are capable. You're basically required to take a companion with you everywhere, so you always have the help, and while I've not leveled anything else yet, the game seems very solo player friendly. You'll need to get groups for heroic quests, but other than that, you should be fine no matter what you choose.

This, except for that last part. Using WSAD to drive is something I stopped doing in EQ1. I use mouse buttons to drive. Push them both down and you're off. Release even one and you're no longer moving. I have my hotbar pulled down to my letters. A-G, Z-B and T and Y do skills 1-12. I put a secondary hotbar under the 1 to = keys and can reach 6 of those easily. Q and W are for strafing, E replaces TAB and R stayed on "reply" because I didn't have anything else to do with it. I've used this in WOW, EQ2, Rift, and Warhammer Online before now to great effect. Now you have, at the very least, the vast majority of your skills within reach on one hand, and your right hand should never need to leave your mouse, so you can get out of the fire quickly. Beyond that, click the option to use operations frames as group frames for flash points so you can see the action and not be staring at the bottom left of your monitor the whole time, and you should have no problems.

I spent some time doing space missions and flashpoints to level a bit after Tatooine. Pick up 2-3 levels (and, in flashpoints, some nice gear) and try again. Also, when you're questing, KILL EVERYTHING THAT MOVES. I suspect you're finding whatever way you can to skip past trash and get to the quest objective (we all do it). Back in WoW, at the BC release, I noticed that my mage leveled to 70 much earlier in the zone progression than my rogue. It was then that it dawned on me that my mage was killing everything while my rogue was stealthing in and out. If you don't clear your way in and out, over time your experience gain will have suffered enough to put you in this position, where you're a planet ahead of where you should be.

I understand the desire of most of us SI's to do the class quests solo. That said, if you're spec'd healing and are taking a healing companion by requirement, enlist a friend's help. "A Sith is nothing without a power base". Power base = people, and I can't see any reason why "making one of them kill stuff for you" would detract from the experience. YMMV and all that, but just a nugget to maybe help get you over the roleplay aspect if that's your thing. EDITED TO ADD: I appreciate your spoiler warning. It's nice when people are thoughtful enough to do that. It appears, however, that you are unaware of the spoiler flag that will auto hide that info. It's the gray gear shaped icon, bottom row on the right, at the top of the compose window.

If someone else posted this on page 2 or 3, please forgive me for having the same idea you did... I've developed a theory that our ship droid is there to help us embody the anger and hatred that's befitting a Sith Lord.

People keep missing the fact that the "AOE heals" talent also does "AOE damage", and thusly improves force storm that you got at level 34. Admittedly, not very impressive, and Athan isn't wrong to suggest that you may want to wait until the end to pick it up, but picking up improved AOE damage is something I actually liked. EDIT: To be honest, the trees as they are now don't bother me too much, but I guess that's because they remind me a lot of the WoW talent trees before Cataclysm (an expansion I didn't play much of) so I don't have the "oh the talent trees are supposed to change my experience with every point" mentality. I'm comfortable with the slow progression towards greatness

Sorcs are the more 'traditional' healers. The 3 healing classes, as I understand it, where designed to compliment each other. Any healer you choose should be fine. That said, I'd suggest that you try more than one. Find the one that suits you, based on your enjoyment with the class. Taking the word of other people handicaps you, some what, in that you're trying to base your opinion on our experience. You're level 14 and, as you said, still figuring the game out. I understand you looking to end game and wanting to have a toon you can play there enjoyably, but you'd be well served to take some time to learn the game before you spend too much time looking that far down the line. Read the forums for all the healers. Read the codex's and guides and the general gameplay styles and abilities and details about the class. Try each of them on and level up a bit. See what you like and then follow that path. You'll be glad you did.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201MMZf00MZ0M.1 Try that. The 7 points in lightening are just too powerful to not take first. The 2 points in madness can probably be reassigned until later, but I took them and had no trouble healing that flashpoint at 22. The shield is key, as is making sure you avoid the ranged damage that last boss puts out. Remember as a healer your healing priorities are: 1. the tank 2. you 3. everybody else OH! And mind that you're using DI over DH. It's much more force efficient. Also, check out the codex that's sticky'd at the top of the forum... lots of good info there. Shield doesn't need to go on everyone all the time. Shield on the tank all the time, and if someone draws aggro and grabs some burst, it's a good way to buy time for a big heal. Keep in mind, though, that if your DPS is pulling aggro alot, you can let them die. No sense burning all your force on them, frankly.

I know you can view all the keybindings (and customize them) in the preferences settings. Nothing printable, but at least you can look and see what everything does. And smack your husband. Tell him to stop running away with people's companion frames.

LOL, I made the same comment in guild chat.

Worked like a charm. Thank you much, Adnon!

I'll give that a try. Thanks for the tip, I'll let you guys know what happens.