I just started playing sage lvl 12 now and i want to heal. I have only healed as a BH before now. My question is when do sages actually become playable as healers for pvp? I played one match and got squished like never before and couldnt keep anyone up. I dont expect alot at this level but on all my other toons i actually did OK at this lvl.

Seer spec starts putting out viable healing when you get the talent for the automatic proc from the Rejuvenate ability.

If you want to heal as low level sage, I'd recommend just dpsing while spamming out force armor on anyone near you who starts taking damage. Pretty easy to come up with 200k+ from force armor alone as a lowbie. When you get healing trance in the mid levels, you can begin to actually heal people.

I think its a common misconception that we start getting our class (or tree ) specific abilities both early and at a rapid rate.

What most people find is that, regardless of class (sage, knight, operative, etc.), and regardless of the tree they choose (dps vs. heal....tank vs dps, etc.), you don't really start to get abilities that stand out until the mid to late 30's, and sometimes not until the early 40's for most, if not all, toons. Obviously you get useful skills, but the best ones come later as you level more.

The skill progression is slow, but on the plus side.....you level pretty rapidly at lower to mid-levels.

When you get healing trance. Best healing ability of a sage and one of the best in the game. At level 12 put first two points in the seer tree reducing the cast time of deliverance, together with force armor you will be able to heal people till you ROOF or die.