Just came back and resubbed and thinking about making a healer. Have played all healers in WoW and also a cleric and mage healer in Rift but havent made a healer in this game yet. Just wondering what the easiest healer to play is where if I make a small mistake it wont cause a wipe. Also a decent DPS offspec would be nice as well. Been thinking about an Operative just because I heard their story was one of the bests but I also heard they have the worst DPS specs by far so wont that make leveling harder? Edited December 25, 2012 by Dabrixmgp

I can only speak from experience regarding Commando healers. I find it ridiculously easy to heal as long as you pay attention to whats going on.

Operatives have good dps if you know the class. If not, they suck. It has a very hard learning curve, but it can be done if you devote a little time to it. Also, they are great healers. I speak from Scoundrel experience.

 

Hope this helps.

Sage/Sorc healing is almost painfully easy: resource management is laughably simply, AoE healing is just dropping your puddle and laughing your way to the bank, and ST healing is 3 buttons at most (Rejuvenation>Healing Trance and then Deliverance if more is needed while those are on CD) not to mention Force Shield for "pre-healing". The only thing that it can't do well is heal on the move, but that's not a major consideration except in PvP and a few endgame boss fights.

 

Sage/Sorc also has respectable and effective DPS, and, since it's a pure Force spec, you can pretty much jump from DPS to heal spec and vice versa without needing to reitemize appreciably (all heal specs want to have some degree of alacrity but DPS other than Sage has little to no use for it; in addition, Scoundrel and Commando DPS both want accuracy, which you should never have as a healer).

Sorc/Sage healer is very similar to WoW priest (I played a holy priest through WotLK) the other healers are good, I'm also working on a Merc (BH) Healer...it's a different skill style, but still plausible.

 

If you want a Holy Priest copy, Sage/Sorc is the way to go.

The Operative/Scoundrel is hard to raid heal with if you're inexperienced with the class, reason being that if you're not up on your resource management then you'll be out of energy faster than any of the other healing classes.

 

If you're looking for easy, then hit the Sorcerer/Sage as it has the easiest learning curve.

Edited December 25, 2012 by Sivar

what about for soloing heroic quests and also easy leveling? I recently had an assassin and stealth seemed mandatory for questing. Also for DPSing while I level Scoundrels/Operatives have to get buffed soon when it comes to both their DPS trees and resource management. I mean they have sucked since like March and I have never heard of a class being that bad for 9+ months in any game ever made. Edited December 25, 2012 by Dabrixmgp

what about for soloing heroic quests and also easy leveling? I recently had an assassin and stealth seemed mandatory for questing. Also for DPSing while I level Scoundrels/Operatives have to get buffed soon when it comes to both their DPS trees and resource management. I mean they have sucked since like March and I have never heard of a class being that bad for 9+ months.

 

Soloing a heroic is hit or miss for any class as it really depends on the heroic in question.

 

When I leveled my Operative months ago, I did as a dps and only switched to healing as I wanted to do flashpoints and it wasn't bad leveling wise. Sorcerer/Sage is fairly easy to do as you could (I assume you still can) level up in the healing tree and still put out solid dps. As for the Merc, I haven't actually done one, but my Commando was leveled from the dps standpoint as well just like I did for the Operative, and that was easy enough.

When I leveled my Operative months ago, I did as a dps and only switched to healing as I wanted to do flashpoints and it wasn't bad leveling wise. Sorcerer/Sage is fairly easy to do as you could (I assume you still can) level up in the healing tree and still put out solid dps. As for the Merc, I haven't actually done one, but my Commando was leveled from the dps standpoint as well just like I did for the Operative, and that was easy enough.

 

I actually found it easiest to level a healer as Commando since most of what you're doing is Hammer Shot spam followed by Charged Bolts spam when you activate Supercharge Cells, not to mention that you get Mortar Volley and Pulse Cannon for AoE amazitude. Sage gets easier when you get Forcequake but, even then, you're not going to deal as much damage as a Commando heals. Scoundrel heal DPS is just painfully low, especially considering the terrible state of companion threat generation. Of course, they get stealth so a lot of the heroics that are impossible/difficult for a Commando/Sage to do because of that are laughably easy as a Scoundrel.

Sorc is the easiest healer by far.

My main is sage healer, I've spent a little time in heal spec on my commando alt, And I've got a scoundrel heal spec that's level 24. Honestly, I'd say they're all pretty equal difficulty. Though I would say that the scoundrel dps in heal spec is almost equal to that of a level 24 dps spec commando. And at level 1 scoudrels are ridiculously OP. There is a bit a balance problem while leveling I think. The utility of stealth is pretty handy, but if you don't care for melee range positional attacks scoundrel isn't the right choice. I don't find the resource mechanic of any them to be easier, unless I'm really pushing the limits. In that situation, the sage benefits from having the linear rate of regen, with no penalty from getting low. The biggest difference for leveling I think is actually the companions. Sage starts with a melee tank. Scoundrel starts with a ranged tank, And commando gets a ranged tank at Nar Shadaa. I prefer the melee tanks myself because I like the delay between when I command them to attack, and the pull actually occurs.

I respecced my sorceror to heals at 50 to get faster queue pops, as well as learn heals in case my guild needed another healer. First time healing, and TOR is my first MMO I've really played for more than a few days. So the whole process was alien to me, other than what I observed as a tank or DPS.

 

It's really easy, and you have the luxury of being able to respec into DPS without having to change your gear, other than the set bonus if you really want to split hairs, although the 4 piece PVE healer bonus (+50 force) is decent enough to use with either heals or dps.

Edited December 29, 2012 by MantorokTwelve

In PVE the Sage/Sorc is by far the easiest healer to play and the most forgiving to mistakes.

Alright, so I've played a scoundrel to 50, it's the mirror of operative so these should be true with differing names. I'm about average in skill, maybe a bit weak in the role depending on how the endgame players quality has shifted.

 

The benefits of the class:

In either role are:

2 separate CCs 1 droid, 1 human (out of combat only for that one)

Stealth (Plus a short duration group stealth)

A good deal of AoE output.

 

As Heals:

Heal Over Time is the priority, keeping 2 stacks of the single target HoT will be the mainstay

Emergency Medpack has no energy cost, but exploits the upper hand mechanic.

Kolto pack is a high number heal that channels quickly (exploiting upper hand)

Diagnostic scan crits regenerate energy while healing, and can be an effective mainstay if over-geared or lucky with a heal relic.

 

As DPS:

High spike-dmg.

Good, not great, sustained Melee-range DPS output.

Combo juggling is the key to amazing numbers in the scoundrel exclusive tree. (vital-shot(DoT), blaster-whip, Fletcheet-round + Back-blast, sucker-punch, pugnacity(energy-regen))

 

The drawbacks of the class:

In either role are:

The Humanoid CC is a one off.

 

 

As Heals:

Recently what was considered by many to be the best set bonus has been effectively removed from the game (2 PvE+PvP Hybrid)

Energy regeneration slows as you run low.

Kolto-cloud can only hit the primary target and 3 closest to said target (The AoE HoT) meaning in operations group healing require a great deal of single targeting.

 

As DPS:

The combo focus of your dps output can lead to some drawbacks when interrupted.

You need to hop in and out of cover a good deal for some abilities, (It's best to avoid using the in cover skill bar when healing if you plan to respec often)

It's often considered the weakest PvE melee dps.

 

 

I've yet to play a commando/merc but most commando players tend to prefer to DPS. I've seen several very amazing healers however. With Sage/Sorc I have not reached endgame myself, but have seen many players in both roles. Healer sages are far more common, and endgame guild members have complained about the effort needed to put out high DPS numbers as a sage, which seems to be re-enforced by an unusual number of enrages on Story-mode operations with PuGs during several runs with seemingly properly geared sage DPS. I will say that so far when playing my own sage/sorc the DPS output has been stable given the semi-fixed energy regeneration, so rotations should be reliable if that's the preferred dps style, while a commando/merc would have somewhat similar to scoundrel energy management system.

The bullet point to take away from this is none of the healers are terribly complex :')

sage is easiest to play in terms of healing, and has got ok dps.

Commando is not as easy more resource management, but more defences so when leveling can survive alot.

Scoundrel - hardest healing due to harder resource management, however you can solo heroics (2 and 4 man, not all but plenty) into alderaan if u are clever. However if you do learn and gear arguably the most lucrative healing in game and easily the best PVP healing due to its flexibility.

The Operative/Scoundrel is hard to raid heal with if you're inexperienced with the class, reason being that if you're not up on your resource management then you'll be out of energy faster than any of the other healing classes..

 

This is not even remotely true. Commandos have the hardest ammo management bar none. Scoundrels raid wide healing and ammo management is very very simple.

 

Healing classes rented from easiest to hardest

 

Sage-simple, straightforward, powerful with simple resource management.

 

Scoundrel-more difficult than sage, very effective raid wide healing as well as single target, slightly more complicated ammo management but still quite easy

 

Commcando- hardest healing class in the game, requires a great deal of skill to use effectively and even then are under powered com paired to the other two classes, and have an unforgiving ammo management system.