That's pretty much how I end up towards the end of a major boss fight in FPs and even during Heroic 4's. I'm only 17 so I'm guessing this gets better once I reach 20 and get Noble Sacrifice and Rejuvenate, but even then I don't see Noble Sacrifice being that amazing without the Resplendance talent which I won't be able to get till the mid-late 30s.

 

Granted, if there's no healing to be done I'm usually throwing out some damage, so I'm expending force then as well. Is this a mistake in group content? Is it better to just stand around waiting till healing needs to be done instead of "wasting" force on doing damage? I might be using Force Armor too liberally as well. I pretty much reapply it to the tank as often as I can, but it's quite expensive to use.

 

I really just wanted to know when I can expect to get a bit more healing longevity on my sage since our resources don't have the potential to maintain itself as well as other class' resources.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Kurugi

When I'm on healing duty I usually don't do any DPS at all. Only time I'll do so is after a group of mobs only 1 is left. And I have time & Force to spare between heals to throw out a bit of DPS.

 

I'm casting Force Armor on the tank every cooldown as well. Costs Force sure. But you save a bit of Force that way. Because you don't have to heal the damage the Armor absorbs Plus it acts as a buffer if your target takes a load of damage at once.

 

Not throwing out a lot of DPS will save you a lot of Force in the long run. Force you're going to need later on in the game Just got to level 50 with my Sage and I've been healing like this since Hammer Station onwards. Esseles is very forgiving and hardly needs healing.

If you don't have the two talents from the foot of the Kinetics tree, one that increases your force pool and the other that decreases the cost of abilities, I'd recommend getting them ASAP, maybe once you get Rejuvenation as the cost reduction on Deliverance will also help.

To OP maybe its your gear. I've done many FP's with people who go in with abismal gear. I mean come on, proper level greens cost almost nothing and would give them a huge boost in every aspect.

 

I'm not sure how your going OOF because I couldn't do it if I tried on one boss unless I spammed my insta dot over and over without letting it tick full duration. I'm lvl 29 but I did FP's from Hammer Station to Cademinu and can't recall going OOF but maybe a couple times

If you don't have the two talents from the foot of the Kinetics tree, one that increases your force pool and the other that decreases the cost of abilities, I'd recommend getting them ASAP, maybe once you get Rejuvenation as the cost reduction on Deliverance will also help.

 

Is it really worth getting your talented healing abilities 5 levels later to get those 2 talents early?

I also don't do a lot of DPS when I'm on healing duty as well, save for the occasional Weaken Mind or Mind Crush. Throwing Force Armor on the tank helps out a lot as well, and should always be cast when on off cooldown, because that absorbs the amount of damage that the tank takes and then you can heal him/her effectively or you can throw out a heal on another DPS.

 

If you continually use Deliverance (your big, slow cast heal) you will run OOF real fast and be out of luck, so as minor as the healing is for Benevolence, use it often, unless your party member is taking too much damage for it to be effective.

 

Once you get Rejuvenate and then put points into Conveyance, your heals will be much more efficient as that will increase the effect of your next healing ability. Also, learn when to use Force Potency (like if your tank's health is running low, Force Armor him/her, use Force Potency and then heal as that will improve your healing ability.

 

But that's just me, there are others with more experience with healing.

Is it really worth getting your talented healing abilities 5 levels later to get those 2 talents early?

 

It's been a while, but until you pick up Healing Trance, I would say getting your TK tree points first is a good idea. Getting Rejuvenate + Conveyance is useful, but again, it's how they work with Healing Trance and Salvation even later that actually makes those talents vital.

 

As for the OP, what I do when leveling is do a little math to find what heal will be the most efficient use of force/energy/ammo, etc. and that is my goto... as in I don't cast the other heals unless it's an emergency. If I recall when leveling my Sage, until you talent it Force Armor is rather inefficient. I didn't cast it on the tank on CD, rather used it as an emergency heal.

If you continually use Deliverance (your big, slow cast heal) you will run OOF real fast and be out of luck, so as minor as the healing is for Benevolence, use it often, unless your party member is taking too much damage for it to be effective.

 

Wouldn't Benevolence run you OOF faster? It costs like 5 force less but casts 1 second faster. Seems a lot less efficient to me. From what I've read the only real use Benevolence has is if your target is low and won't survive long enough for a Deliverance to get off.

 

It's been a while, but until you pick up Healing Trance, I would say getting your TK tree points first is a good idea. Getting Rejuvenate + Conveyance is useful, but again, it's how they work with Healing Trance and Salvation even later that actually makes those talents vital.

 

Well I'm level 20 now and just picked up Rejuvenate. Should I go ahead and respec to get the 5 points in TK or just put my next 5 points there? Or go ahead and get conveyance and then put points in TK?

Edited June 17, 2012 by Kurugi

Well I'm level 20 now and just picked up Rejuvenate. Should I go ahead and respec to get the 5 points in TK or just put my next 5 points there? Or go ahead and get conveyance and then put points in TK?

 

I went with the 5 points in Telekinetics first as well. Sure you'll get your healing abilities 5 levels later. But the extra Force and Force cost reduction really helped offset that

I leveled with the 7 telekenetics points most of the way, swapped once I could reach Salvation (by that time you know your force regen, and have NS), and then put them back into Telekenetics as I continued leveling.

 

At low levels you probably need more Force Armor, but as you go up, don't always use it. It's great for the oh **** moments where you need to buy time, and if you're using it constantly it might not be available.

 

I often end fights OOF at 50, but that's a choice to not bother with regen mechanics in the short fights and dpsing like crazy when not healing. If you're ending up OOF because of your addition of dps, that's not a bad thing. If you're ending up OOF and just healing, you're probably overhealing.

Edited June 17, 2012 by shadowflit

Wouldn't Benevolence run you OOF faster? It costs like 5 force less but casts 1 second faster. Seems a lot less efficient to me. From what I've read the only real use Benevolence has is if your target is low and won't survive long enough for a Deliverance to get off.

 

Your right. Spamming Benevolence will run you OOF quickly. Its better to use Deliverance as much as possible. And when someone is taking too much damage I like to give them a bubble. I find Benevolence too poor of a heal until later when talents can boost the crit. If it crits then is not such a bad spell.

Right, sorry, I'm already at level 40, so my Benevolence crits consistently because I have the points talented to do so....

That's pretty much how I end up towards the end of a major boss fight in FPs and even during Heroic 4's. I'm only 17 so I'm guessing this gets better once I reach 20 and get Noble Sacrifice and Rejuvenate, but even then I don't see Noble Sacrifice being that amazing without the Resplendance talent which I won't be able to get till the mid-late 30s.

 

Granted, if there's no healing to be done I'm usually throwing out some damage, so I'm expending force then as well. Is this a mistake in group content? Is it better to just stand around waiting till healing needs to be done instead of "wasting" force on doing damage? I might be using Force Armor too liberally as well. I pretty much reapply it to the tank as often as I can, but it's quite expensive to use.

 

I really just wanted to know when I can expect to get a bit more healing longevity on my sage since our resources don't have the potential to maintain itself as well as other class' resources.

 

It gets better as you level. Noble Sacrifice is useful if you're mixing DPS & Healing, you'll get some more useful healing spells as your progress your Seer spec (like an insta-cast one), which should make up for lost health from Noble Sacrifice. I'd say later on, particularly for Ops, you're going to just be healing focused as generally there will be somebody who needs healing. Also try not to waste too much force in your rotations, put up force armour on people and you'll heal them less, once you get your AoE heal, that can be a big force saver when it comes to healing multiple people.

 

If you take a Telekinetics spec for DPS, you do get some more tools for keeping your force up. It's rare for me to use Noble Sacrifice and I can just spam attack after attack with the obvious draw back of not being very mobile.

I'm also noticing post-tranfers that the bottom of the skill base bucket fell out completely. People I grouped with pre-transfers seemed to at least somewhat know how to play there classes and they usually would respect a cc'd mob and focus fire down the right mob. This is the way to clear a FP quick and painlessly. Post-transfers the players dont know how to play there classes very well, the target cc'd mobs most of the time and they rarely if ever focus fire the main target. This leads to longer fights, damage spread across the entire group and much much slower FP runs. Maybe thats contributing somewhat to your force pool evaporating? Edited June 17, 2012 by Kumakichi