Not in a good group; a good group will stay stacked up as much as possible and let the Sage's AoE do the work (this is also significantly more efficient than the Scoundrel rolling HoTs on everything).

Why do you reply to a quote that says "not as good as sage" by telling me how sages are better?

This isn't true. In an emergency situation, the Sage puts a bubble on the tank, HoT, 1.5s main heal, Healing Trance . . .

 

Spamming Emergency Medpack isn't going to counter that - without critting, Force Armor is going to absorb more damage than you heal.

Emergency Medpack WILL crit since with just normal itemization you easily go over 40% crit chance. That is hurt a lot by the surge nerf though. It is also free, and for PvP, cannot be interrupted. Along with double slow release and underworld medecine, you bring someone up end end up in better shape than if a sage did it. Not as good as a commando.

Also note that force armor doesn't requite a sage healer, and you can't have 2 bubbles on one person. Thats like using the raise ability as an advantage of smuggler over commando. It isn't one, because a non-healer can do it, especially since force armor is fast s it won't cut into a sage damage dealer rotation

I don't believe this, I think Nightmare would effectively murder a 2 Scoundrel heal team; though perhaps under certain RNG and very-well geared teammates . . . still no.

Between the fact that they can be far more liberal with energy (sages and commandos "never run out" if they do things correctly, but scoudrels can handle an almost braindead group and still keep going), and that all the situations where groups can't stick together don't hurt them as much for AOE, makes it quite possible. Again, harder? Of course. Do they need a buff? YES! But they can still do everything right now.

Its not even the healing that needs to be buffed, though it should (since they're designed to be in between commando and sages in single target vs group heal, but they're too weak on each side of the spectrum to stand out), its the lack of utility. Sages have rescue, force armor, knock backs, alacrity buff, etc. Commandos have the uninterruptable skill, the heavy armor, the knockback of doom, the armor buff on reactive healing etc. Scoudrels have cloak but it prevents them from healing, no knock back, only dodge and absorb skill (forget its name) for defense, etc.

Sage's AOE heal needs to only affect a limited amount of targets (like 99% of all AOE abilities, both offensive and defensive in the game), and smugglers need more buffs/utility on their abilities. Hell, i'd totally go for offensive ones instead of defensive ones, to make them more unit. Boost attack/crit during kolto cloud or something would be cool Classes need to stay different.

Note, again, that I do feel they need a buff. But calling them worse than they actually are is not productive. Its like Shadow tanks, which originally were the "weakest tanks". Oh sure they were, but they could still tank hard mode ops bosses during enrage for a minute+ in several cases without dying. So "weakest", yes, but "weak", no. Same deal here. Scoudrels heal just fine. Just pale a bit compared to the other options (and sage's AOE not having a target cap almost looks like a bug more than anything at this point)

Im not deluding myself, these people im healing with have raided with me for a long time in previous MMO's and they are not bad players. I outheal them with my scoundrel easily, you must be doing things wrong

How can you be sure? There are no heal/dmg meters!

People forget the real issue with scoundrel healing.

Things like, what your numbers are, or how you fair in comparison to people you know on other classes is irrelevant, nor is the skill requirement, pushing 1 button to have success doesn't mean they are less skilled it means they are more efficient.

Hard to beat the sage AOE heal in Raiding, sorry, stack a couple of those and the Kolto Cloud looks like a POS especially if you are stacking the smuggler heals. Hard to survive as long as a commando in pvp. Skill isn't even a factor, it is how they are designed, sure you can outheal them in those situations, but is that the class or the person playing it? Hint: It's the person playing it, attentive healing is how you do well, if you think you do great as a scoundrel, do it as a commando/sage you will do even better.

My first spec was a healer I since rotate my spec around for PvP and questing. Whenever I get a can you be are healer it's never been oh sages or commandos are better. It's just simply come help us out. It could be due to the fact that if I'm somewhere I usaully help a ton of other people out.

Since I keep changing my spec my proficiency as a healer has gone down. As someone said you have to work at it. What I did before was only look the left side of the screen look at every bodies health and heal accordingly while managing my energy.

That got me in some trouble though as I would sometimes put myself into the fight not knowing it. Other times to save a teammate I would intentionally draw aggro on myself. As I know my team is reliable and someone with more health will come and take the aggro off me.

So I will say that when we have a group of four we can manage. It's when we start getting into ops groups when we have a problem if we are the only healer.

YOU feel this way because you have only the one character. level up the other two healers and you'll see and feel the disparity and clunkiness of scoundrel healing as i have

 

objectivity > subjectivity

Words like disparity and clunkiness scream subjectivity

I agree that my opinion is biased since I've only played Scoundrel healing but I see no reason to play another healer. I've already got a Shadow alt and I don't have much interest in playing a Trooper. I play more for the story so don't feel like repeating the main quests so soon. Thanks though for reinforcing the worthlessness of Kolto Cloud...I never was planning on getting that PvE gear since it looks bad anyways

So my issue atm is that while looking for a flashpoint during the day im being asked time after time if i can "keep up". When i ask them what that means the reply i get enrages me further....

 

Any advice on this issue? like i said i love smuggler (sawbones) and will be continuing, i just want to know if this issue is being seen across the game or just in rare occations?

Never really did address your post...as long as you're getting enjoyment out of Sawbones, I wouldn't listen to any naysayers. If people don't want to group just because you're a healing Smuggler then they're not worth your time. There's plenty of people out there who actually play for the entertainment and social aspects plus they make for better groups anyways. A good guild also helps...have you joined one?

OP, your biggest enemy as scoundrel healer is...

...The gear BW assigned to you.

Learn to dump all that alacrity away and you will see how the base line of your HoTs compensate from the weak points of Sages & Commandos...

...Mobility while healing (Or keeping heals while stuns are around)...

...But I repeat, Alacrity is your enemy as it takes away from the baseline your HoTs should provide.

Depends on the level, 20 and below and you are pretty much trash compared to the other classes that can heal due to the mechanics of our healing.

25 and above and you are fine, 30+ and no issues.

I have a sawbones, sage, healing commando, and sorcerer (I love to heal dammit!). The lower level healing has given the bad impression of sawbones healer because the other classes do it better mechanically speaking early on.

This assesment is not based on player skill, circumstance, or fairy go mothers, but basic class mechanics.

So my issue atm is that while looking for a flashpoint during the day im being asked time after time if i can "keep up". When i ask them what that means the reply i get enrages me further....

 

"Sorry its just that i HEAR that smugglers are terrible healers, looking more for a sage or commando sorry"

 

Really? i meen ouch

 

Are we that bad? my mains are level 50 (Guardian raid dps/offtank and a commando pure dps) and i honestly havent seen many smugglers in hardmodes at all that are sawbones. Is this a issue across the board or is this isolated to my experiance?

 

I love my smuggler alt and i enjoy the healing even though i have to work harder to attain what my friends/guidies can do with there sage/mandos. So am i rolling the wrong toon for endgame healing? The fact that i enjoy the smuggler story and combat keeps me playing the class, but if im going to be passed over alot of the time for other classes that are equally geared im worried ill end up going dps just to get some gear

 

Any advice on this issue? like i said i love smuggler (sawbones) and will be continuing, i just want to know if this issue is being seen across the game or just in rare occations?

 

Peace out peeps

Common sentiment is that Sorc/Sage healers are the most useful due to the aweseom AoE heal. Two Sorcs dropping an AoE is such a benefit that people are hesitant to take other types of healers if they have a choice.

Especially on EV when you are fighting SoA. You have to drop down the platforms and take lots of damage. It would be a lot harder, maybe impossible, for non-Sorc/Sage healers to have the entire raid group at full health at the bottom of the platform section.