I'm a returning operative with mostly 140 gear from back in the EV/KP ops days. Tried dps but never liked it on the Operative, so I'm basically trying to heal my way through Makeb.

Which companion should I use? I've been using Kaliyo mostly and she's got decent gear. I do have Treek, but she's a tank/healer so she doesn't do much damage. Should I give Scorpio a try? Worth it to get HK (don't have him yet) for those 4 levels?

Why don't I enjoy dpsing as an operative?

Any DPS companion that's well geared will do the trick. That means Temple or Vector, but Temple is so much easier to gear up that she gets the nod. Bonus points for using Temple: You can take all her gear except the off-hand and give it to Dr. Lokin if you ever want to respec to DPS.

HK will also work, but HK is harder to equip than Temple. Once you get past crafted L53 bits you can only upgrade HKs robo-parts with crafted Armorings. Anything that comes from a FP or Op will have the armoring locked to 'Chest' or 'Boots' so it won't fit in droid armor slots. That gets expensive at 55, or limits how strong you can make HK. None of your humanoid companions suffer from this problem so Temple, at least to me, is a better choice than HK.

Why don't I enjoy dpsing as an operative?

It's an acquired taste. If you force yourself to retrait and gain a level or two as DPS though I think you'll come around.

Dr. Lokin makes a great "tank" too. You open from stealth on one mob, he tosses a heal and catches aggro from everything else, you shoot/stab everything in the back one by one as he heals himself. It's fun and effective while leveling.

Maybe I was lacking a good tank that could actually hold aggro. Once I start with my opener, I would have aggro the entire time. It's hard to backstab when the mobs are facing you the entire time. Maybe it's different with Treek, I only just got her.

I'll try Temple out and see how she does. I think I have some spare ops gear laying around that's mainly dps gear. Should be interesting. Thanks for the tips.

51-55 if you wanna dps, i think lethality is better than concealment, so you dont need to get that many backstabs off at all.

Leveled my Operative through Makeb in concealment so don't really know about the best companion. Generally if you have patience i think a Kalyo or Sorcio would do fine if they are geared. Haven't done Lokin Raghoul mode much, so i don't know how good he is at keeping aggro, but i might be worth a try. Otherwise probably your best gear DPS companion.

Well with straight forward dps, it's pretty easy. You just do what you do and kill mobs with a healer pet (or even tank). Concealment always gave me trouble after the first opener, my companion would never have aggro again.

I did run with Temple last night. Completely forgot that Lokin took all my offset raid gear. I swapped out gear and she does pretty well. I end up tanking and healing myself with the occasional damage ability tossed in. It's pretty funny how much more powerful our heals are compared to what the mobs can throw at you. Few kolto probes and self healing HoTs and me and my companion are good to go.

Is it faster than straight up dps with healer pet? Prob not, but I only have 3 more levels to put up with. Then I can go back to healing ops with the operative like I'm use to.

Is it faster than straight up dps with healer pet? Prob not, but I only have 3 more levels to put up with. Then I can go back to healing ops with the operative like I'm use to.

I just can't stand healing my companion and myself for leveling/dailies/whatever. I find it boring to the point that gets on my nerves.

Different when you rolling a tank character with a dps companion, while your damage isn't great you're still there hitting stuff and everything. That's actually fun... but healing a companion through hundreds of trash mobs for questing ? uff...

When I leveled my operative, I did it using Lethality and Treek as dps and that worked great. For heroics and flashpoints I would respecc to heals.

Well with straight forward dps, it's pretty easy. You just do what you do and kill mobs with a healer pet (or even tank). Concealment always gave me trouble after the first opener, my companion would never have aggro again.

 

I did run with Temple last night. Completely forgot that Lokin took all my offset raid gear. I swapped out gear and she does pretty well. I end up tanking and healing myself with the occasional damage ability tossed in. It's pretty funny how much more powerful our heals are compared to what the mobs can throw at you. Few kolto probes and self healing HoTs and me and my companion are good to go.

 

Is it faster than straight up dps with healer pet? Prob not, but I only have 3 more levels to put up with. Then I can go back to healing ops with the operative like I'm use to.

I dont know what you wanna do with your operative in end game, and whether you wanna play any serious pve at all, but if you want to it is good also getting a bit comfortable with lethality. It is great pve dps spec and you just provide has more options if you can play it. That being said, operatives are great healing AC and as heals you always can get a spot with an operative, despite them not being as over powered as in pvp

I finally got to 55 last night. Honestly, I almost quit it took that long. My other classes are all dps, so it's pretty easy to just pew pew your way through Makeb. Luckily, I was able to just do quests on Makeb and stealth past a lot of trash mobs.

I ended up erking my way to 54 last night, and then just ran TfB in a 16 man SM as a healer. Basically got the entire last level from clearing the trash through a full TfB run.

On Makeb though, I took the advice from above and geared out Temple in my other purple cunning gear. She does fairly decent dps, and with my healing I was basically the tank for both of us. Some mobs took forever to kill (hovertanks on Makeb), but we got through it. Should be interesting trying to tackle Oricon as a healer with dps pet.