Well, i want some sort of dps / medic hybrid. But i am not interested at all in the vibroblade and melee skills. I love blaster rifles and considering this is the ONLY class on the Imperial side that can use them, i'm seriously considering to roll an Operative.

Now, is it possible? Is it possible to focus on ranged dps with this class (while healing ofc, since dps may be gimped)? I understand it may not be optimal etc, but is it viable at all? Are there enough ranged skills (with the rifle etc) for it to be possible and enjoyable?

I've had a look at the Trooper and Bounty Hunter as well, that i am also very interested in for the blaster rifle gameplay (much less interested in the Bounty Hunter due to being limited to pistols, what were Bioware thinking..).

But something about the extra support aspect of the Agent is interesting to me, or did i get this backwards? Is it viable to be just as much of a support / heal class as a Vanguard, as it is with an Operative?

I had a look at that talent tree website, but without knowing what skills & abilities the classes have, it is hard to decide. (like, +2% ranged dps traits may be cool, but without knowing how good or interesting the abilities themselves are the talent trees are not saying much)

Thanks! Any further tips on what i might like as ranged dps + utility/heal support is appreciated.

There's a ranged healer that uses guns. It's called a Mercenary.

Sure, you can pretend to be a ranged Operative Healer. Don't get mad if I laugh at you though.

If you're dead set on this, then I suppose any off-points you have to spare should go in the Lethality Tree.

I'm still going to laugh though.

I dont care if elitists laugh at me, this is what i'm going with.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401McfbdG0RzZZGbMkrb.1

Operatives are not a ranged class. You will not get ANY new ranged abilities beyond the base ones once you choose Operative aside from the one in the lethality tree. The lethality tree still requires you to be within 10m to be effective, and quite frankly the tree sucks currently. You won't do anything close to the damage that a concealment op can put out and if you're trying to heal as well as dps then you're going to drop even further. Secondly, healing as an op requires a good deal of energy management. Trying to throw in dps skills is going to make that much more difficult to pull off. Combine that with the fact that you don't have all the healing talents and your healing is considerably less effective as well.

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I assume that the point of asking the question was to get information on whether this works well or not. Of course you CAN do it. If you want to sit in cover and mix snipes and heals, you're welcome to, but it's not going to be very effective at doing either damage or healing.

I'd get Lethal Dose if I was going up that talent tree as a healer, it would affect most of your heals as well which can't be a bad thing (especially considering you're getting patient studies). No idea if adrenaline probe can crit, but if it can even more reason to get it I would get the two points in endorphin rush too instead of sedatives..

On another note, I never tried playing IA and I have no idea what I'm talking about.