Hi all- recently came back to SWTOR.

 

What is the state of PvP healing in SWTOR right now? A few questions-

 

1) Pros / Cons of each of the three classes? (I like sorc / sage, good to play?)

2) Is healing output good compared to DPS output?

3) Is there one healing class that is fotm right now?

 

Thank you

All healers are fine in regs. I am not a 4v4 ranked master so for better input on that meta you'll have to ask someone else.

 

Sorcs are slippery and have great mobility, strong heals, easy heal rotation, easy to keep tunneled targets up, it's my favorite healer and probably the most well-rounded. Easy to keep up more than one target up too when they getting pounded hard. Sorcs also have decent defensives, surprising since it's a "light" armor wearer. They get nice utilities that can boost your defensives which are something to consider when you play sorc heals.

 

Mercs are fine for keeping up one target but can kind of struggle if you got to keep 2-3 targets up simultaneously. They get a nice AE heal but it's not really so nice it's going to save multiple targets from getting tunneled. Mostly good for fluff heal points imo, but w/e. Mercs are not as easy to escape damage, you get pounded by enemies en masse I liken this to a water buffalo getting pounced on and dragged down by a herd of lions. That's how it felt on my merc healer sometimes. Merc has really strong defensives though, which let you soak up tons of damage.

 

Operative healers are fairly mobile and I liken their healstyle to that of playing whackamole with your HoTs. You have to be aware of who has your HoTs on them, when they will run out, and when to re-apply the HoTs. By keeping your HoTs running you are healing effectively as a Ops. You got a really nice AoE umbrella heal that gets you tons of healing points if you manage to catch a large group of your team in it. I personally hate the Ops stand-still cast heals. They are necessary at times when a player is getting pounded hard, and this leaves you open to getting demolished by decent DPS or getting rooted etc. Once Op healer is rooted and you got a couple melee on you with zero breakers available you die fast.

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

 

Can anyone describe 4s healers? Thank you.

In 4s: Mostly sorc, just because they are easy and do well; they can consistently respond to burst dmg and have two breakers. A good tank makes Ops > Sorc but otherwise not. Merc’s can be out DMGd and are probably the worse of the 3, but they do ok when everyone in the grp is tanky/slippery, and if you can make it work, you get a (or an extra) net. Edited February 6, 2019 by Wimbleton

All are doing fine, also in 4s, just play what you want. Grab some mates and practise with them. If your mates suck, no healing class is going to do well. Even on mercenary heal kiting can be an important skill you could master, as well as for operative heals. But that's not necessarily a primary note for heals, that's generally in 4s.

You really have to differentiate when you try to rank the healing classes:

 

Difficulty to learn/play: easiest Sorcrer - Mercenary - Operative hardest

 

HPS output when freecasting: highest Operative - Mercenary - Sorcerer lowest

 

Defensive cooldowns: most Mercenary - Sorcerer - Operative least

 

Kiting tools: most Sorcerer - Operative - Mercenary least (depends how much you count Merc knockback vs melee dps as a kiting tool. When it comes to LOSing a range dps Operative is better than Merc)

 

Immune to interrupts: most Mercenary - Sorcerer - Operative least

 

Team Support: most Sorcerer - Mercenary - Operative least (what I mean by that: Sorcerer's pull, Mercenary's net, also both classes have knockbacks and 30m range on interrupt and soft CCs. Operative only has group stealth which isn't that helpful usually and the 10m range on important stuff sucks sometimes.)

 

So what does that mean?

 

In Solo Ranked it's not guaranteed that you get matches with tanks, matches of 3 dps and 1 healer are very common. In these matchups Sorcerer is strictly the best because of their kiting tools. Yes, they are vulnerable to net but Operatives are even more vulnerable to that. Combine that with the fact that healers are usually getting CCed, Sorc also has the 2 breakers (CC breaker + Barrier), which makes them superior in those matchups. But also for Tank matches, considering that without voice communication you might not get guard always when you need it, Sorcerer can use their kiting tools while the other classes might be dead. Combine that with Sorc being the easiest class to learn, Sorcs are the go-to-class for Solo Ranked.

 

In Team Ranked it always depends on your team's strategy and the opponent's strategy and how they match up to figure out which class is best. But in short: Sorcs and Operative each have matchups which favors them a lot, while not being completely terrible in the other matchups. Merc is always good but never the best, which makes them the overall least played healing class in 4s. Though it might just be the ideal pick if your opponents try to exploit your healer's class weaknesses.

All the healing classes are fine in regs.

 

In fours, operatives are by far the strongest healing class in the game right now. They’re so over the top right now that they’re meta healers against hard swap comps, even though that should be a niche that’s filled by sorcs or mercs. On top of incredible hps potential, they have a variety of tools such as a tech cleanse, on demand interrupt immunity from exfiltrate, evasion on a very low cooldown, stealth out to break focus/reset medpac, 30 sec hardstun, instant reposition... they’re extremely strong right now. Once you learn how to maintain hots, they’re also the easiest healer to play, as you can dump huge amounts of healing out with only a couple abilities.

 

Mercs should be the best pvp healer, because their toolkit has so much potential. They have a lot of personal survivability, but their true strength comes from being the ONLY healer with cc immunity (on rocket out), lower cooldown tech cleanse and also lower cd mez, and a hinder effect through net. However, this is offset by their poor output when they are pressured. Merc is a very cast heavy healing class that falls apart under coordination. It’s a shame, because the class otherwise has a decent mix of burst and cleave healing when it can freecast.

 

Speaking of low output, let’s talk about sorc. There’s a lot of misconceptions about this class, because sorc has the lowest skill floor. It’s the easiest healer to jump in and do healing with, and it’s the hardest to shut down. Because of this, a lot of people say sorc is easy. This may be true in regs, or in solo ranked, but in group ranked you learn real fast that this class is just as terrible as merc. This is due to one main reason: sorcs don’t have the output to compete with high damaging teams. The last nerf screwed with the class’s playstyle in high level matches. With the nerfs to roaming mend and innervate, your healing in these matches becomes increasingly reliant on revivification, which you can never instacast due to the ridiculous force costs associated with it. To have high uptime on reviv in a match where you’re being shut down requires shifting your ENTIRE rotation to set up a reverse corruptions proc prior to reviv, and then consuming that for the grand pay off of being slightly force negative unless you blow a force bending stack on it. Sorcs are by far the most difficult class to heal cleave on due to terrible force management and low output on your abilities.

 

Tl:dr any healing class can work in regs, Operatives are the strongest in a fours settings. For solo ranked, output is not as important, so sorcs utility makes them the strongest here.

All the healing classes are fine in regs.

 

In fours, operatives are by far the strongest healing class in the game right now. They’re so over the top right now that they’re meta healers against hard swap comps, even though that should be a niche that’s filled by sorcs or mercs. On top of incredible hps potential, they have a variety of tools such as a tech cleanse, on demand interrupt immunity from exfiltrate, evasion on a very low cooldown, stealth out to break focus/reset medpac, 30 sec hardstun, instant reposition... they’re extremely strong right now. Once you learn how to maintain hots, they’re also the easiest healer to play, as you can dump huge amounts of healing out with only a couple abilities.

 

Mercs should be the best pvp healer, because their toolkit has so much potential. They have a lot of personal survivability, but their true strength comes from being the ONLY healer with cc immunity (on rocket out), lower cooldown tech cleanse and also lower cd mez, and a hinder effect through net. However, this is offset by their poor output when they are pressured. Merc is a very cast heavy healing class that falls apart under coordination. It’s a shame, because the class otherwise has a decent mix of burst and cleave healing when it can freecast.

 

Speaking of low output, let’s talk about sorc. There’s a lot of misconceptions about this class, because sorc has the lowest skill floor. It’s the easiest healer to jump in and do healing with, and it’s the hardest to shut down. Because of this, a lot of people say sorc is easy. This may be true in regs, or in solo ranked, but in group ranked you learn real fast that this class is just as terrible as merc. This is due to one main reason: sorcs don’t have the output to compete with high damaging teams. The last nerf screwed with the class’s playstyle in high level matches. With the nerfs to roaming mend and innervate, your healing in these matches becomes increasingly reliant on revivification, which you can never instacast due to the ridiculous force costs associated with it. To have high uptime on reviv in a match where you’re being shut down requires shifting your ENTIRE rotation to set up a reverse corruptions proc prior to reviv, and then consuming that for the grand pay off of being slightly force negative unless you blow a force bending stack on it. Sorcs are by far the most difficult class to heal cleave on due to terrible force management and low output on your abilities.

 

Tl:dr any healing class can work in regs, Operatives are the strongest in a fours settings. For solo ranked, output is not as important, so sorcs utility makes them the strongest here.

 

That's what I always got annoyed with on my merc in solo ranked. If they decided to focus me, in all honesty I did fairly well with all my DCDs and ability to self heal, but as soon as a team split damage up on multiple targets I never was able to keep the team up especially if they added one decent DPS on me.

 

On my sorc, I usually had to really focus on managing my resources more than years back, and although I could get my heals off on myself and group members fairly well it was really tough keeping up with the damage and keeping my resources up at the same time. I found if i didn't stay aware of my resources I would blow through them pretty fast.

 

As for Healing Ops I never played them in 4s so found what you explained really interesting. I believe it though, I bet anything they are exactly as you presented, thanks for that explanation!

 

The interesting thing is I have not done ranked in 1-2 years and what you explained sounds about exactly as it was when I stopped lol. I figured some guys like you and others would be up to date though and have a lot more to add regarding ranked and heals.

 

I wish they could have found a way to make merc heals more viable in ranked when I used to play ranked more, instead I always ended up playing a sorc for rating as it was easier. I never enjoyed Ops healing even though I knew it was quite strong in past metas, I just never liked the gameplay of the spec.

i use to play them (a lot now very less) and I think all three healers are in a good spot atm. Now I am not a ranked fan (used to do it), but if you go solo each healer is a bit difficult especially if you got no one to peel the DPSers from you.

I started playing this game with Sage so he is still my favorite of the bunch, and I do prefer the Smuggler to the Commando. The Smuggler has its own kind of mobility and is very different to a Sage. Hence why I was a good Smuggler and very good Sage. I think in good hands the Smuggler is a bit better to a Sage cause of his instant heal, and the Hots. But the mechanics of the Smuggler are not so straight forward.