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Healing while leveling


ravndark

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We found, while doing instances up to lvl 35 in a guild group while being ~3-4 lvls below the recommended level, that any instance past hammer station generally requires healer spec.

 

The reason is not so much throughput but that nonhealer specs don't have the energy/focus/whatever sustain that healing specs do...they tend to oom too early and don't have the talents to let them use their efficient heals well.

 

Also at around 30+ people start getting their talent tree heals which are great, and necessary for harder content.

 

However, we did find you can pretty easily do dungeons with good coordination if you have 2 offspec dps healers, or 1 dedicated specc'd healer.

 

Hope this helps.

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As the above poster stated, only up to a certain point. The two points in lighting for increased force are the best talents you'll spend in regards to healing for awhile, but the reduced cost of static barrier and reduced dark infusion cast time are what define a healer post-hammer station.

 

Without those, you simply will not be able to keep up with the damage being outputted. You can always level as healing, though (it's what I'm doing.) I'm more than capable of soloing well (I actually solo 2+ heroic quests), and outside of those first two points in lighting, I am fully corruption specced. (so far. I'll end up around 31/7/3, if I'm not completely off somewhere.)

 

http://torguild.net/calculator/sith-inquisitor/sorcerer/?p=232322210212001223132000020000000000000020000000000000000

Edited by Coolfusis
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My guild and I went into Hammer Station last night. I'm lvling a Sith Sorc. I had no issues on trash. First boss we wiped once, second boss was easy. Last boss was wiping my Force out quick. I have my 7 points in the Lighting tree to help on Force and Static Barrier. I just seem to go thru Force really fast on some bosses. This was my first time healing on this toon.
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i have solo several heroic as healer, ive also soloed the first flash point. Getting into the healing tree i can see makes a huge difference. Points to reduce infusion cast time, then the hot that reduces it another second. Hot instant cast then a 1.5 sec dark infusion cast time plus the super cheap static barrier. My companion can tank just about everything with me as a healer. atleast till level 25
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Personally I level as a healing spec (usually the one i'll raid with minus some tweaking), I am not having any struggles with any content as far as healing goes.

 

I think the earlier FP's aren't as hard to where you have to have a dedicated healer, but yeah around Mandalorian and up its best to have somebody thats a dedicated healer.

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Been leveling spec'd healing. It's awful. Slow as anything leveling, and I still can't heal well on anything other than trash.

 

Aggro is wonky in this game. So I end up having to heal the entire party. with casts of healing spells being the MOST expensive spells I have, I go OOF before the elite or whatever is even halfway dead. And then I just sit there and watch my party die. Awesome feeling as a healer.

 

Consumption might as well be removed. 15% for 8% is awful. 8% is less than 1 cast. 15% of my life means that I now have to waste that cast healing me. It's poorly implemented.

 

It worked on Warlocks in wow because they could heal themselves with damage dealing spells. It fails here.

 

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've run healers in every major MMO to date, and in a metric ton of F2P ones. It's frustrating here.

 

I just respec'd out of healing. Not worth the investment.

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One thing I've noticed that some people do that is a waste is putting Barrier up on everyone. You will go OOF quickly if you do that and don't have the reduced costs skill in the corruption tree. I don't have that skill yet in my build so I'm not sure how costly it is after picking it up.

 

I only keep barrier up on the tank and use it re-actively on others that are taking heavy dmg. To keep it on everyone is a waste of force and often someone will take a small amount of dmg that someone will cast shield when all you need is a heal to top them off but people will cast the barrier then a heal. The barrier wears off before they take dmg again.

 

At level 20 I haven't had major force problems in any heroics or Hammer Station except the one Heroic group I had that everyone was doing there own thing and no one was tanking so I had 4 people including myself taking heavy dmg. I left that group though after trying to get them organized a few times then watching them split up and go attack two separate groups of Elites. I do have the first 5 points in lightning though to help with force and that seems to help a ton.

 

I also don't find it slow to level. I keep Khem in offensive mode almost all the time and DPS with him only casting heals when needed to keep him up. I blaze through mobs with little problem.

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Right now im LV30 and i've been going healing all the way

 

I've done all the heroics up to Tat and i'll probably finish those today

Ran a couple of the first instances and have a fair good idea on what im doing

 

if you gotta heal whole party every fight.. your DPS suck.. cant control their hate

give them warning about concentrating on tank and tell them to scale it back cause if ya run outta force.... its not gonna be pretty.

 

Static Bubble... learn it.. live it... love it!!

 

do consumption every once in a while, dont wait til your force is down to 5% to start spamming it.. do a few heals, use it... wait til the side effect goes away... few more heals.. use again...

 

not meant to refill ya all the way just keep the force loss to a trickle than a pour

 

med packs for you really help too. slap one on after ya do consumption so ya dont have to heal yourself

 

(dont know name of spell off top of my head) stun spell, not whirlwind, but other one helps too, stuns most stuff, even gold stars for 3-4 seconds, helps your tanks out

 

if ya havent got derp-ing dps that like to spam aoe, throw a whirlwind on somehting thats away from the action, stuns it for a minute, helps tons when everyone knows CC

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Just to update, I respec''d back into healing, got into a different group, and it went a lot better. I still OOF sometimes, but took 2 back to back elites and we all survived. Just goes to show you, CC, get decent tanks, and healing is much better. Get a retarded team, and my god, the horror.
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L20 here, and only noticed the following things:

 

- Some DPS suck. They don't focus fire, so you have 4 elites beating on the whole group for a long time.

 

- Seems like people don't use damage avoidance sometimes. They have skills (not sure what they are), and stuns to help out with healing.

 

- I usually bubble people right before a fight as we move, then seeth for 2 seconds before the fight to get my force back up. You really don't need to start fighting for a few seconds after the battle starts anyway, so I seem to be able to seeth to refill post-bubbling pretty easily.

 

- If I run low on force, I try to consider why that is happening. Does the group DPS suck? Am I DPSing too much? If the group DPS sucks, I often start out the fight with a little DPS to help eliminate a guy or two, plus with the other tactics above (bubbles then seeth), I can often do better than just healing during the fight.

 

- As noted above, use your stun on gold mobs. A few seconds is a few seconds less dps. Also, pop your interrupt at nearly the END of their cast time to really reduce some damage.

 

 

Obviously those are newbie tips... so take it with a grain of salt.

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Healing tree isn't required until Cademimu though mando will be hard. There is no cap on respec costs so respec less often. Leveling as healing I find only a little slower but once you get force storm... It's simple.

 

The issue with healing without the healing tree is force. you will run out in a long fight or a heavy healing fight. Electric induction is mandatory. Once you get innervate life gets easier and more efficient but boarding party last boss will use your whole force bar and then some.

 

One point in force surge removes the need to conserve force. 2 points and I have not been out of force since.

 

I did not have 2 points in reserve for the extra 100 force until the last 2 levels. I found rushing to innervate was more important. 3 points in electric induction is mandatory.

Edited by Zidaen
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also resurgence/force bending will greatly improve your FP healing. you can cast a resurgence on anyone and then get a cheap dark heal or a fast infusion (and other benefits to future abilities). a great way to use consumption is as soon as you use infusion, use consumption a few times and then cast a resurgence on yourself. it'll give you a HoT to help with the consumption costs and then gets you a nice cheap/fast heal for whoever you've been neglecting :p
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From what ive seen up to level 23

 

Ive spent all points into the healing tree current build here http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201GG0RZz.1 and have no real troubles leveling or healing FPs or heroic 4. A lot of it will come down to your group skill level. If you have 2 dps that just want to do maddps in groups with their aoes without regard of the tank or the healer then your going to be hurting. Let them die you and the tank alone can handle most boss encounters up to my current level.

 

Test dark heal speed vs force regen and see how fast you can cast this while keeping close to your mana regen levels. This was one of the first things I did to figure out which heal was more efficient. The bigger heal is the way to go since its nearly the same force cost as the fast one. This stays true ill you get force bending which makes the fast one nearly free which I use usually to top off dps or myself.

 

Consumption needs to be looked at, its not the worse form of this type ability ive seen but seems to need help. I consumption 3 times (depending if im topped off), hot myself and use the fast cast big heal to use a the force bending to your advantage. Then use the hot to continually top yourself off till full and use the speed of the big heal throughout the fight.

 

Leveling seems way easier. Ive leveled an assassin to 33 and it was a lot more difficult than it has been as a healer. You MUST KEEP KHEM GEARED, if you do that it will be all good. Also learn to control Khem and who he attacks and when. PLay him like a character and not a pet to keep agro on him. I play him as a tank or dps, depends on the situation. So far I haven't had any problems what so ever.

 

So far the class/spec has been more about management than just going all out. Manage your pet, manage your force and you win.

 

Barrier is key and only for the tank in most scenarios. Hammer station first boss is the only real time I use it on non tanks because when others get targeted by the laser, if they are low level that can take a chunk off of a toon.

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I'm 8 Lightning / 2 Corruption at the moment with my level 19 Sorceress. Going futher down the healing tree from now on.

 

The runs I have done so far were a mixed lot. Some runs went smooth as silk and I could throw out some Force Lightning in between shielding and healing. Other runs had me thank God for picking up the extra 100 Force and 9% Force reduction talents from the Lightning tree right away. And of course the 20% extra damage absorption on our shield.

 

For solo the Sorceress rocks. Just got my 2nd companion. You know. That very annoying blabbering Droid. He loves breaking any CC I apply but at least he heals. Just wished I could use Force Lightning on him to get him to shut up.

 

Leveling up with a healer build is definately viable in this game. :)

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I've been leveling as a healer since I unlocked my talents at 10. I had a few struggles early on (Fighting the disappearing spider and it's minions) and the fight to get the Lord title... But the only reason the first fight was hard was because my framerate sucked and I hadn't learned the nuances of the class yet. The other fight was because I was 5 levels below the boss (And still got her down to about 15%).

Since I got Andronikos, I haven't brought out Khem except for the 2 quests I had to. With him as a companion and me being high up in the healing tree, I solo everything and win.

It's actually at the point where I purposely go to a planet 2-3 levels low just so it's a challenge.

I don't find it to be slow at all... It might be faster as lightning spec, but I like the utility of being able to jump into the healing role on any heroic, and in a pinch I can come out on top.

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Leveling as a healer is very viable. Currently around 46, full heal spec from level one.

Soloed Hoth bonus Heroic2 on level 46. The last pull was 3 elites.

Ashara tanked and killed one, one was in whirlwind and I tanked the last one.

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Can you heal effectively in flash points and heroic quests while in a dps spec or do you have to be in healing spec?

 

I`ve been doing quite well leveling as a healer - damage is nice, has great soloing capabilities (able to solo 2+ quests easily with khemy :-) and it makes it a lot easier to find groups for flashpoints).

 

Now toyour question, you'll need a dedcated healing spec after a certain level because as mentioned before you'll have issues with force management if you dont.

 

On a sidenote, to those who believe leveling as a healer is a lot slower, that's wrong: might not be as fast but nothing too significant that should make you alienate this spec in the first place (tip: keep your companions equipped).

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Running out of Force and dying maybe a few times more is always considered downtime which could be spend killing mobs or finishing quests faster. It's all about management, the person who plays must understand how to manage his resources and that can be the difference in wasting time dying often or excelling in lvling.

 

I am full heal specced, I get invited in groups a lot, on my server there seems to be some lack of heal specced sorcerers and often after the group is done people put me in friends list so i get invites to FP's/HC's between questing.

 

That's one of the plussides of being healer.

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