Not true. TFB HM is complete, and it was done without what the thread seems to label as "ideal" optimization.

KK

 

That's great for you, but lots of other people are still trying to clear TFB HM, and gimping their potential healing by improper gearing is not the best way to do that.

I have tested 0% alacrity setup. It is useful and Sage healers can clear hardest bosses with it, but in situations when intensive healing is required I feel that it limits Sages healing output. While crits with "0%" build are huge and pleasant, I prefer ~9% alacrity because it just makes healing easier.

Personally i find it is dependent on which role you play in the raid/ops group. For my ops group i am the main tank healer and my commando partner is the raid healer. So alacrity for him is essential as he needs to quickly heal raid members and then get back on tanks. Whereas for me I find that alacrity doesnt help me in any way for my role in the group. I would rather be able to crit for about 7.2k than get a .1 second in cast time decrease. I also played about with alacrity augments in pvp and found with every augment being alacrity based that my deliverance was only .25 shorter. I personally wouldnt stack alacrity on purpose because of my role in group. My commando partner has skills in which can considerably boost his alacrity in his skill tree which makes him a better raid healer. All in all i think it all depends on what setup your team is running and what your role is in group.

For my ops group i am the main tank healer and my commando partner is the raid healer.

 

I've actually never heard of a group with sage/commando or sage/scoundrel where the sage wasn't raid healing. Good for you guys!

I've actually never heard of a group with sage/commando or sage/scoundrel where the sage wasn't raid healing. Good for you guys!

 

The reason for this is because of the alacrity boosts the commando gets in their skill tree allows for them to pop off quicker heals than a sage can. Plus our commando healer has about 11% or so alacrity so it helps. Plus the cast time for their big heal is .5 seconds faster than ours so if a raid member takes a big hit they can top them up faster than i can. This setup as me as tank healer and him as raid healer works very well for us and we hardly ever have problems with it unless DPS dont do their job so he is overspent and has to hammer shot for a while. Again i think it is all down to what role you play in your group and the understanding you have within it.

I guess you could put that down to playstyle

 

Slower large heal vs. faster small heal. As long as the HPS is the same and you have no resource problems than both sides are right.

 

Personally I am not giving up my Alacrity. So many times I have watched the tank die with 0.5s left on my cast. In fact it made me use Benevolence in hectic times often two in a row just to save them and then tend to my Force when things have calmed down.

 

I have experimented with different set ups over the time and found that for me the best distribution (including class buffs and Exotech stims) is:

 

40% crit (majority from WP, around 200 crit rating)

75% surge (300ish)

8-10% Alacrity (300ish but less than Surge)

Everything else to Power and Mainstat

 

But feel free to disagree and play whichever way you want. However, the idle point made earlier is valid. If you have time that you do not need to heal not only is that beneficial to your Force regen but it also allows you to 'play' the mechanics of the encounter.

 

Also ever since my Force Mend is 5k (7k crit) I don't even bother with Force regen and use NS up to 2 stacks, almost always with 1. I also overheal (last time on Operator IX it was something about 30%) since I am of the opinion that salvation fixes everything. Yet the only time I run into Force issues is when people are making mistakes/the other healer is dead/I am drunk

Edited October 29, 2012 by Darth_Dreselus

You are one of the few sages that has the same itemization as myself; alacrity IS useless for healing sages because we are support aoe healers not single target surge healing monsters like scoundrels. I have around 80% surge, 39% crit, and over 1000 power and yes I know that dim returns for surge starts around the 75% range but what I want more is when people stand in my salvation, I rather them get a +950 tick rather than something like +700 if you mess around with stacking alacrity. Plus when I do need to do some single target healing, my healing trance ticks for +2300 per second when it crits so that is more than enough. I also found that deliverance was a waste in an op situation anyways even with a lot of alacrity because it takes too long to cast and tanks sometimes take spike damage which is usually unavoidable. Don't forget our best and most useful ability is force armor so use it as much as possible. The only gear I have that has alacrity in them is my two implants.

 

***Btw this is coming from someone that is part of a 16 man group that has TfB HM on farm and the first boss of EC NM down***

Edited November 18, 2012 by bryceman

Did you really feel the need to post in every thread on this topic?

 

To those reading, let's be clear on a few points. This guy has no mathematical foundation for what he's saying whatsoever. This concept has been thrashed to hell and back, and even an elementary analysis shows that 0 alacrity is absolutely a nerf to your healing output. When the justification for this boils down to pigeon-holing the class and restricting your playstyle, well... that speaks for itself, really.

Did you really feel the need to post in every thread on this topic?

 

To those reading, let's be clear on a few points. This guy has no mathematical foundation for what he's saying whatsoever. This concept has been thrashed to hell and back, and even an elementary analysis shows that 0 alacrity is absolutely a nerf to your healing output. When the justification for this boils down to pigeon-holing the class and restricting your playstyle, well... that speaks for itself, really.

 

Deep breadths Vesia, Deep Breadths!!!!!

Did you really feel the need to post in every thread on this topic?

 

To those reading, let's be clear on a few points. This guy has no mathematical foundation for what he's saying whatsoever. This concept has been thrashed to hell and back, and even an elementary analysis shows that 0 alacrity is absolutely a nerf to your healing output. When the justification for this boils down to pigeon-holing the class and restricting your play style, well... that speaks for itself, really.

 

The only reason I have been posting so much is because over the past couple of weeks I have been matched with some of the worst sage healers in Ops (pugs) and HM FPs. I just thought I would get my opinion out there in hopes that some other sages will adapt and re-look their play style and itemization for possible flaws.

Edited November 18, 2012 by bryceman

As a sage healer I do not limit myself to only support role - sages can perform any role in a raid group perfectly. if you can not main heal in operations, you are doing something wrong.

 

Here is my stats: http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6881/sagewf.jpg

 

Not BiS, but as you can see 9% alacrity does not impact my surge rating too much. I like to be able to cast faster, and faster casts are crucial in NiM EC. With 0% alacrity you get extra 50 healing from every Salvation critical tick, but you lose versatility and limit your movement.

As a sage healer I do not limit myself to only support role - sages can perform any role in a raid group perfectly. if you can not main heal in operations, you are doing something wrong.

 

Here is my stats: http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6881/sagewf.jpg

 

Not BiS, but as you can see 9% alacrity does not impact my surge rating too much. I like to be able to cast faster, and faster casts are crucial in NiM EC. With 0% alacrity you get extra 50 healing from every Salvation critical tick, but you lose versatility and limit your movement.

 

There have been plenty of times where both of the single target scoundrel healers have died and I have been able to keep the tanks up with my single target healing. Losing most of your alacrity does not gimp you as much as you might think. My only advice is that you try it out yourself before writing it off completely.

Losing most of your alacrity does not gimp you as much as you might think.

And why to gimp myself at all? Alacrity gives me so many benefits: every five casts I get a whole free second of movement, every ten casts give me free GCD for Adrenal or anything else, my Healing Trance channels faster, I can spam Benevolences like machine gun, and so on. If I ever need big slow heal I can get 15k in 6 seconds with Force Potency buff. So what the point in extra 4% of Surge rating?

 

My only advice is that you try it out yourself before writing it off completely.

As I have said a few posts earlier, I have tried 0% alacrity setup. It didn't work for me.

If I had to pick between Math or gut I'd pick math without hesitation.

 

Playing your own style is completely fine. Dismissing math is not.

Has anyone looked into the changes with alacrity? There's a big fuzz about it on the update news release. I'm just wondering on how it affects a healer's build too. Here are my main big q's:

1. Does it actually speed up ticks for over-time healing powers?

2. Is it worth sacrificing crit/will/power for alacrity?

3. Is it worth sacrificing other skills for alacrity-boosting ones?

Whatcha guys think?

First off, let me say this. For 2.0 you do want some Alac (you get a 2% buff in your skill tree as a sage or sorc), but you'll never need to get rid of crit/power for Alac. Alacrity/surge are the 2 things that are the interchangeable stats on Emnhancements..

 

Personally I wouldn't go with a lot of Alacrity tho either. Even with the 2% buff, I'd stay around 6% Alac, and have the rest of your gear with Surge. Keep your critical % around 25-30% (your preference) I go more towards 25% myself, and stack the living crap out of power from that point on.

 

Directly to your questions

 

1) Yes it will speed up Ticks of healing

 

2) no it is not Possible to sacrifice Willpower/crit/power for Alacrity. (never Augment for Alac) it's not needed.

 

3) I don't see it as a Sacrifice for the 2% Alacrity buff in the skill tree. The skills I didn't take in the tree (and I only have 36 points in my healing tree), are more for PvP, and are unnecessary as a PvE Operation healer. PvP specs may differ of course.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Toraak

Alacrity/surge are the 2 things that are the interchangeable stats on Emnhancements.

2. It is not Possible to sacrifice Willpower/crit/power for Alacrity. (never Augment for Alac) it's not needed.

 

Can you tell I'm new at this?

Thanks for the help!

Can you tell I'm new at this?

Thanks for the help!

Just for clarity, stats come in 4 groups:

 

Group 0: Endurance- every mod has this, in greater or lesser amounts

Group 1: Primary stats

Group 2: Power, Crit, Defence, Absorbtion

Group 3: Surge, Accuracy, Shield, Alacrity

 

So- you usually trade one group element for another: for example, a mod will have either Power or Crit- but not both.. (Note that this is for Item modifications only- set pieces follow slightly different rules)

 

So- you can only trade willpower for another primary stat- like Strength or Aim...

 

Now Augments are probably what you are talking about. They come in +End and + one other stat, and can be any one... So you can have Will augs or Alacrity Augs (cleverly enough, called Alacrity Augments)...

 

Don't swap Will(Resolve) augments for those. Ever.

1) Yes it will speed up Ticks of healing

 

Alacrity only affects cast times and channeling speeds; while Healing Trance will be faster, Rejuvenate will remain unchanged.

Can you tell I'm new at this?

Thanks for the help!

In addition to Sludgebuster's excellent writeup, another thing to keep in mind when working out optimal gear:

 

1. Armorings will always be main stat (Willpower, Strength, Cunning or Aim) and Endurance only

2. Mods will always have main stat and Endurance, and (starting at level 33) one secondary stat.

3. Enhancements will never have main stat and will only be endurance plus one or two secondary stats.

4. Armoring, Mods and Enhancements have different versions with different amounts of the same stats.

 

Examples:

 

Resolve has more Willpower, Force Wielder has more Endurance.

 

Aptitude 30 has more Willpower+Power, Aptitude 30A and 30B have more Endurance.

 

Adept 30 has more Power and Surge, Efficient 30 has more Endurance.

2) no it is not Possible to sacrifice Willpower/crit/power for Alacrity. (never Augment for Alac) it's not needed.

 

In fact it is. The purple lv 54 ear pieces and implants offer more secondary stats than the arkanian gear, but you loose some willpower (or other main stats) and endurance.

 

For example, i have an lv 54 ear piece with 105 END, 105 WILL, 111 AP and 108 ALAC.

Another ear pice of mine (an arkanian one): 159 END, 159 WILL, 77 AP, 72 ALAC.

 

You can sacrifice 54 Willpower to get 34 more AP, and you sacrifice 54 Endurance for 36 ALAC.

Since i have more than enough life points to survive any operation, i basically sacrifice 54 Willpower for 70 points in secondary stats.

 

I'm not saying that it is better, i simply wanted to point out an alternative, at least until you have the 72-gear.

Stacking entirely Surge is absolutely, completely, undeniably a reduction of your potential HPS. If you're only doing encounters where the healing burden is far below your output anyway, that's fine, but in fights tuned tightly for your gear level you will heal less than someone with more balanced stats.

 

The virtue of a Sage's large resource pool is that we can afford to cast faster and burn our resource quicker.

In my books, Surge equals overhealing. Yes, you need it, but I'm finding the idea of a Power+Alac build to be actually worthwhile lately. Granted Sage is not my main and I haven't done extensive parses, but I had plenty of crits result in a 30+% overheal, and it really feels like I could be healing more efficiently.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Helig

In my books, Surge equals overhealing. Yes, you need it, but I'm finding the idea of a Power+Alac build to be actually worthwhile lately. Granted Sage is not my main and I haven't done extensive parses, but I had plenty of crits result in a 30+% overheal, and it really feels like I could be healing more efficiently.

 

I totally agree with this. Trying to keep my crit around 23% +/- 2%, and working on my alacrity. I don't want to sacrifice power for more crit. I am however, having trouble finding that sweet spot for surge. But I'm sure it isn't 70%. do we have numbers on surge output yet?