Your PvE guide seems solid, but I don't agree on BiS PVP gear and the skilltree for PVP (especially arenas).

I could post mine if you'd want to compare

I don't agree on BiS PVP gear and the skilltree for PVP (especially arenas).

 

I could post mine if you'd want to compare

For PVP, gear or skill points may vary based on the composition or strategy of your team.

I haven't played ranked arenas, which is why I wrote nothing about arenas other than sharing an example of an alternative allocation of skill points for readers to consider. On the other hand, while healing hundreds of pre-season (8v8) ranked matches for several teams, I was a top-performing Sorcerer (especially in the crucial categories of healing done and damage taken per death) and maintained a rating > 2300. Therefore, I'm comfortable with my recommendations for 8v8.

I welcome recommendations about gear or skill points for arenas, but only if these

1. have been vetted (unchanged over 100+ ranked arena matches);
   
2. have contributed to a high rating; and
   
3. are suitable for healers rather than true hybrids.
   

My goal in this guide is to provide sound, seasoned advice. I'd prefer to say nothing about arenas than to speculate.

For PVP, gear or skill points may vary based on the composition or strategy of your team.

 

I haven't played ranked arenas, which is why I wrote nothing about arenas other than sharing an example of an alternative allocation of skill points for readers to consider. On the other hand, while healing hundreds of pre-season (8v8) ranked matches for several teams, I was a top-performing Sorcerer (especially in the crucial categories of healing done and damage taken per death) and maintained a rating > 2300. Therefore, I'm comfortable with my recommendations for 8v8.

 

I welcome recommendations about gear or skill points for arenas, but only if these

1. have been vetted (unchanged over 100+ ranked arena matches);
   
2. have contributed to a high rating; and
   
3. are suitable for healers rather than true hybrids.
   

 

My goal in this guide is to provide sound, seasoned advice. I'd prefer to say nothing about arenas than to speculate.

Though ranked PVP is quite dead on my server, and thus I am victim to small sample size, I can (more or less) confirm your recommendations for healing arenas. Obviously on a ranked-dead server most of my arenas have been regs but enough of those regs have been full 4 premade vs. full 4 premade that I feel confident in commenting (and the few ranked arenas I did get a queue pop for, I went 6-1. Then the queue remained silent for 4 hours on prime-time weekends, on multiple consecutive days, before I finally gave up).

I run 26/18/2. Your build is fairly similar to mine but there are some differences in the stuff in corruption I take. Differences:

1. I put 2 points in Efficacious Currents, not just 1. Our Force regen mechanics, to put it bluntly, are bad, and making one of our primary heals cheaper allows us to kill ourselves less often; therefore that which helps us prolong our Force is a very good thing. If you're running bubblestun this is especially important as you want to get as close to 100% bubble uptime on yourself as possible so you have reactive CC against PTs pulling you and trying to stun you to set up their kill and/or sins trying to low slash/maul you, and/or carnage marauders trying to gore you when overload is on CD...you get the idea.

2. I put one point in Corrupted Barrier. It really doesn't do much, but as bubblestun is PURE single target healing with no AOE whatsoever, I like the idea that I can bubble myself and slowly, passively regen through dot damage or whatever isn't hard focus while I focus on healing whoever is getting focused. If I'm bubbled for reasons enumerated in my first point and the other team spends 20 seconds trying to kill someone else, I've given myself a 3k heal to top myself off all while healing the other person. Though I consider this to be the least important of my tweaks to the "suggested" bubblestun spec and there is certainly room to argue this point belongs elsewhere.

3. Yes I go 1 point higher to put that point in Force Surge. Again this is to make a bad regeneration mechanic slightly less bad, which in turn means I don't need to use it as often. If an arena stalemates I need to be able to recover enough Force to continue-while under intense pressure--to heal through the full five minutes and have some force left over to add my DPS to the acid phase. By getting the Force Bending stacks I remove consumption's penalty to regen, which shortens my consumption cycle, which means more GCDs available for healing. This actually becomes really, really important in the long, drawn out fights when the other team is actively trying to run me out of Force as a means to score a kill.

4. To attain these add-ons to corruption, I give up Reconstruct entirely as a paltry 10% bonus to paper-thin light armor doesn't really seem worth it to me. I could probably justify putting my 1 point in Corrupted Barrier here instead, and I do find it a tough call. Ultimately though, it feels like adding 10% to 0 insofar as my own armor is concerned; my armor is my bubblestun. I also give up the one point in Sith Defiance to make room for that 26th point.

5. In lightning tree I do not put any points into Chain Shock; instead I put them into Lightning Effusion for Force management reasons, again because our regen mechanic is so bad. That leaves me with one point in lightning left over (that I have to allocate to unlock Lightning Effusion in the first place), which I put into Lightning Spire, because occasionally I find the ability to position at slightly more than 30m away from the fight slightly useful. Especially if I have a ranged comp against anything with pulls. (Though putting this 1 point into Chain Shock instead could be beneficial in other situations, I suppose.)

I would love to get 100 ranked matches under my belt but alas Bioware has done an incredibly poor job of supporting arenas. I run an arena spec in all my PVP because of inability to filter arenas from the queue and inability to have a separate arena spec and warzone spec. I have run the same spec in all PVP since 2.4 released, so it is a stable spec. Sadly I doubt sorc healers even get invited to ranked teams on servers with a more vibrant PVP scene because operative healing is just so much ridiculously better for a deathmatch environment in so many ways.

Can you elaborate about the use of power vs critical chance. The conversion I calculated is (rounded) 5.8 points of power = 1 bonus healing HP. Is it really worth to gain ~250 bonus healing from over 1000 points in power (that is so much) if you can instead have something like a 25-30% critical chance. That would be 50% on your Innervate. 50% critical chance on your main heal is insane.

I noticed you have excluded crit chance from your model entirely, when to me it seems that's the stat that sorcerers have the highest synergy with.

Apart from that I agree with basically everything you've said. Please note that I have only played a sorcerer for like, 2 weeks total.

Today I updated the guide, Section "PVP", Subsection "Skill Points".

Thank you, AdrianDmitruk, for your advice (which I agree with) and for catching an error (I'd intended to have 2 points in Efficacious Currents).

The conversion I calculated is (rounded) 5.8 points of power = 1 bonus healing HP.

At level 55, the conversion is 5.3 Power : 1 Bonus Healing. Include the bonuses from Penetrating Darkness, a skill, and Unnatural Might, the Warrior buff.

Is it really worth to gain ~250 bonus healing from over 1000 points in power (that is so much) if you can instead have something like a 25-30% critical chance.

I don't understand your figures, or they're incorrect.

In BIS gear (i.e., with 0 Critical from gear), your Critical chance is 25.3%. At level 55, your Critical chance would be 40.1% with 1000 Critical from gear. Note, too, that an x% increase in Bonus Healing doesn't increase the amount of each heal by x%.

The napkin math for your example has the same conclusion as my complete model: Power > Critical. In 78 gear, for the final 1000 stat points of your budget for Power and Critical,

• Power increases healing done about 11.2% for each ability, including Static Barrier.
  
• Critical increases healing done about 10.5% (assuming 70.5% Surge, which would be BIS with 1000 Critical) for each ability other than Static Barrier. The increase for Static Barrier is 0%, because it doesn't crit.
  

I noticed you have excluded crit chance from your model entirely

No, my model includes Critical in every formula that Critical affects.

The default build on worksheet "Gear" is BIS gear, which has 0 Critical. All formula recalculate when you choose different gear.

t seems that [Critical is] the stat that sorcerers have the highest synergy with.

Among the healing classes, a Sorcerer benefits least from Critical.

1. The only healing class with a heal that doesn't crit is the Sorcerer. Static Barrier, which should provide a significant share of your total output, doesn't crit.
   
2. The only healing class without a skill that increases Surge is the Sorcerer. Skill Penetrating Darkness increases Bonus Healing instead.
   

Though Critical increases the likelihood of Force Surge procs from Innervate, even with 0 Critical from gear the Critical chance of Innervate is > 50% when it's buffed by Force Bending. This provides a sufficient number of procs of Force Surge; more procs would often be wasted.

I've only just reached level 55 a few days ago. With full Willpower > Crit > Surge Rating equipment, no power, no alacrity, I only have 25% force critical chance. It's all purple 25 mods. Without the equipment my critical chance would be only 15%

I have 1736 Willpower, 634 Critical Rating and 376 Surge Rating (70% surge).

My skills are pretty exactly the same as in your build, except that I have force dash for convenience.

http://i.imgur.com/ecYK633.png

I've only just reached level 55 a few days ago. With full Willpower > Crit > Surge Rating equipment, no power, no alacrity, I only have 25% force critical chance. It's all purple 25 mods. Without the equipment my critical chance would be only 15%

 

I have 1736 Willpower, 634 Critical Rating and 376 Surge Rating (70% surge).

My skills are pretty exactly the same as in your build, except that I have force dash for convenience.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ecYK633.png

You're missing exactly 6% Critical chance. Assuming that you have 10% Critical chance from skills, which you should, the missing Critical chance is:

1. 5% from Agent buff, Coordination, and
   
2. 1% from completing all dialogue and quests available from companion Andronikos Revel.
   

Your priority at this time isn't optimizing your gear to match BIS, but rather is farming any item that offers a higher sum of stats that benefit healing (i.e., Willpower, Power, Critical, Surge, or Alacrity). This topic is outside the scope of this guide. Please see instead a resource for farming gear for a fresh level 55.

I'm not interested in a farming guide. I want to understand what stats are important, how any why.

And I only have 5% critical chance from skills? 3 from Seeping Darkness and 2 from Life Surge. Where do you get the other 5%?

I want to understand what stats are important, how any why.

This guide describes the ideal allocation of stats for end-game content. If you wish to understand the derivation of this allocation, or to customize your allocation for the meager stats that gear from questing provides, see my model.

Worksheet "Introduction" has instructions for using my model. The quick-and-dirty approach is to use worksheet "Gear" as follows.

1. Enter your stats from gear alone in Column W.
   
2. Maximize the EHPCT Rating in Cell Z3 by moving stat points in Column W between alternatives. Power and Critical are alternatives; Surge and Alacrity are alternatives.
   
3. Note the distribution of stats from gear that maximizes EHPCT Rating, and aim for a similar distribution with your gear in the game.
   

And I only have 5% critical chance from skills? 3 from Seeping Darkness and 2 from Life Surge. Where do you get the other 5%?

My mistake, skills alone provide 5% Critical chance. My point is unchanged, however -- the Critical chance in your screenshot is exactly 6% less than it could be with your gear, proper skills, the bonus available from companion Andronikos Revel, and full buffs.

Today I updated Section "PVE" of the guide.

1. Based on feedback from Darth_Dreselus, I expanded "Tips for Certain Bosses" and Topic 5 of "Playing Like an Expert" to cover more best practices for Static Barrier.
   
2. Based on feedback from Selenial, I clarified a topic discussed under "Rotation".
   

Thank you both for your feedback.

Is it not worth it to have Overkill augments after a certain amount of Willpower?

The short answer is: yes, but we're just short of the point at which Power > Willpower for PVE. It's so close, however, that I wouldn't invest mats or credits on Willpower Augments if you've already augmented with Power.

The long answer is below.

The rate of return for Critical from main stat diminishes. BIS 78s with all Resolve (Willpower) Augments has about 590 less static Willpower than the amount at which we'd begin to prefer Power.

The proc of a Dread Forged Focused Retribution Relic adds 740 Willpower, and the uptime for its proc is about 28% from only healing or about 46% from healing and from maintaining Affliction on one enemy. This averages out to about 210 or 340 Willpower, which is less than 590.

A couple of complications exist.

1. Since Static Barrier can't crit, the breakpoint at which we begin to prefer Power falls as Static Barrier's share of your EHPS increases. 590 is based on Static Barrier being 16.5% of your EHPS. For certain periods of intense healing, it's best practice to spam Static Barrier (see Section "Tips for Certain Bosses" of the guide), and, therefore, 16.5% is an underestimate for such periods.
    
    
   
2. Since Willpower increases Critical chance, having all Willpower Augments increases by almost 2% the expected number of procs of Force Surge from an Innervate buffed by Force Bending. This isn't significant, but I'm comfortable with this factor being the tie-breaker in favor of Willpower at this time.
   

I roll full corruption build in unranked WZ. I'm in the process of respeccing and I just had a few questions. I only use this character for PVP, currently, so all of my questions are completely in that realm.

I'm having a hard time making a decision on whether or not to put points into a few things and I would love your detailed opinion. Basically, I almost never cast Revivication and very rarely do I cast Consumption. I am perfectly open to the idea I am not managing these skills properly, but they seem extremely situational to me. Too situational to justify points spent there and not elsewhere? I can't decide.

Revivication, so I have found, can almost never be used to heal others (at least to justify casting it) since they are constantly moving -- on their own or because of pushes/pulls -- and if there is a moment when some teammates are collected enough to justify casting it, it is very rare. I know I can use it for myself if I need to use Consumption, but usually in the moments I run low on Force are times when I can't afford to take away from my own health, either. Which makes me wonder if Forge Surge is worth it at all (or Revivication for that matter, since for the sake of Force management it should always be cast with Force Bending and with Force Surge to reduce casting time). Consumption should probably never be used without speccing Force Surge or at least Reverse Corruptions. There is a certain amount of management needed to most effectively use these skills, as well, though I'm sure it just takes a little practice to become second nature.

It -must- be worth it, because almost every spec I've looked at has allotted points to Revivication and Force Surge so I would really love to be enlightened on it.

In addition, I've read some interesting opinions on Corrupted Barrier and Reconstruct. Some guides slot them both, others just a point in one or the other, and sometimes none at all. For Reconstruct, 10% armor is not awesome but any little bit helps, or so I've thought. Then there is Corrupted Barrier. If 10% armor helps, doesn't the 1% per second from Corrupted Barrier help? Usually when I pop Force Barrier, it's that oh-crap-button moment when the tank guarding me dies and a sea of red names turns on me. I pop Force Barrier and wait it out. Usually in that time, my Unnatural Preservation finishes CD and either my adrenal/medpac finishes CDs or comes close. I've done this many times and usually always make a full comeback, surviving long enough for my tank to return and re-guard. That little bit of healing really seems to help, though admittedly I have never tried it without Corrupted Barrier.

I haven't been healing in PVP long, just a month or so. I try to read as many guides as I can but this is kind of the only detailed one that pertains to 2.6, so I am still not entirely positive the best actions I can take in a WZ. I'm almost always top heals but I know that's not very hard to do, usually because there are no other heals. I am not sure I'm doing something wrong so much as there are probably things I could be doing better.

I roll full corruption build in unranked WZ. I'm in the process of respeccing and I just had a few questions.

 

I'm having a hard time making a decision on whether or not to put points into a few things and I would love your detailed opinion. Basically, I almost never cast Revivication and very rarely do I cast Consumption. I am perfectly open to the idea I am not managing these skills properly, but they seem extremely situational to me. [...] Which makes me wonder if Forge Surge is worth it at all [...].

For 8v8 Warzones, I don't use Revivification often, but when I do, it's valuable. The more melee on your team, or the more often that you're in the thick of it, such as at the heavily-contested side in Voidstar, South in Novare Coast, or Middle in Alderaan Civil War or Ancient Hypergate, the more valuable it is. Though not force-efficient as a single-target heal, it's also useful for you as a HOT, including while you're in Force Barrier.

With 36 skill points in Corruption, I'm concerned that you rarely need to use Consumption in 8v8 Warzones. Maximum HPS is very force-negative for a Sorcerer. While kiting, you should still be spamming Static Barrier and dealing damage, both of which are force-negative. You need Consumption in a competitive Warzone (other than Huttball) unless you're node guarding or falling far short of your potential.

I often use the hybrid build that I describe in the OP in 8v8 Warzones. It trades Revivification (and other Corruption skills) for DPS and Bubblestun. I rarely exceed 1m healing with this build, while with Revivification (and other Corruption skills) I can exceed 1.5m if conditions in the Warzone make Revivification valuable. Force management is easier with this hybrid build, because it's force-neutral or -positive while dealing damage.

In addition, I've read some interesting opinions on Corrupted Barrier and Reconstruct. [...] For Reconstruct, 10% armor is not awesome but any little bit helps, or so I've thought. Then there is Corrupted Barrier. If 10% armor helps, doesn't the 1% per second from Corrupted Barrier help? Usually when I pop Force Barrier, it's that oh-crap-button moment when the tank guarding me dies and a sea of red names turns on me. I pop Force Barrier and wait it out. Usually in that time, my Unnatural Preservation finishes CD and either my adrenal/medpac finishes CDs or comes close. I've done this many times and usually always make a full comeback, surviving long enough for my tank to return and re-guard. That little bit of healing really seems to help, though admittedly I have never tried it without Corrupted Barrier.

With 36 skill points in Corruption, you should have at least 1 point in Reconstruct. The additional tick from Resurgence allows you to use it on cooldown and rotate it between two players without clipping the HOT. This is such a substantial increase in healing for 1 skill point that a build with 36 skill points in Corruption but none in Reconstruct is unjustifiable.

Whether you allocate a second skill point to Reconstruct or 1 point to Corrupted Barrier is up to you. I favor a second point in Reconstruct, because I rotate Resurgence among at least three players, so I don't clip its 15-second HOT. Even if I were to consider Resurgence's fifth tick on only me (ignoring its fifth tick on two other players), my Static Barrier would need to last for at least 5 seconds for 1 point in Corrupted Barrier to offer more healing. It's very rare for my Static Barrier to last so long.

Though Corrupted Barrier also adds a HOT to Force Barrier, if you need the HOT from Force Barrier, you're not using Force Barrier optimally. Force Barrier is meant to resist incoming damage that would otherwise drop your health low. If your health is less than 30%, Force Barrier is late. If you're using Force Barrier to give reinforcements time to arrive, as you noted and which I recommend, a HOT from it is of little or no value. If reinforcements arrive, you're fine without the HOT. If reinforcement don't arrive, you're dead with the HOT.

Thanks for replying! I really appreciate it.

I was rolling full corruption because I was healing in PVE, but decided to respec when I knew I wanted to focus on PVP only. I decided to go 37/7/2 for the moment until I got some feedback (technically currently 36/7/2 since I'm only 54, delaying 55). I removed revivication but did spec Force Surge for the benefits to Consumption. I decided to put 2 points in Reconstruct and 2 in Corrupted Barrier, thought I am really considering dropping the 2 in Corrupted Barrier for 2 in Sith Defiance. You make a good point with the HOT on Static Barrier being rarely worth it.

I really did like your bubble stun build, however this character is part of a duo. My juggernaut friend and I are almost always together. Most often, we are used as delay tactics, holding points, or to lure enemies to the opposing door in Voidstar. I'm not saying I never have need of consumption, only that it's rare. I have used it before, but sometimes there's no stopping death and sometimes I get a reprieve long enough to med a little. I'm 54 wearing Makeb commendations and I usually heal between 600k-900k depending on the warzone's demand. I almost healed 1m once but it was a particularly intense match.

So taking two out of Corrupted Barrier and throwing them into Sith Defiance maybe? Or perhaps something else?

So taking two out of Corrupted Barrier and throwing them into Sith Defiance maybe? Or perhaps something else?

If you're planning on having 36 or more points in Corruption, I recommend the 36-point build in the OP. If you insist on guarding a node (not a sound strategy, in general, as discussed below), you may move 1 point from Reconstruct to Corrupted Barrier if you'll guard with one other player, or both points from Reconstruct to Corrupted Barrier if you'll solo guard.

Two points in Sith Defiance isn't part of any allocation with 36 or more points in Corruption. Revivification is always better than 1% damage reduction.

I really did like your bubble stun build, however this character is part of a duo. My juggernaut friend and I are almost always together. Most often, we are used as delay tactics, holding points, or to lure enemies to the opposing door in Voidstar. I'm not saying I never have need of consumption, only that it's rare.

Yes, as I'd noted, if you're guarding a node, you'll rarely use Consumption.

Big picture, in a competitive match, committing a tank and a healer to guarding before your team is winning wastes your potential. Either a tank or a healer who has cooldowns available can solo guard before your team is winning, or, even better, work together to deny the enemy victory in the main battle. Only a foolish player would be lured to the side of a Voidstar that is guarded by a tank and a healer. I'd hope that most 55s whom you're playing against wouldn't make this mistake.

Yes, I tested it out on my sage and went on ahead and did your 36/7/3 build. She is 55. I will likely go that way on my sorc, too, when she hits 55 as well. After tinkering with builds for awhile, it just seems the best choice. Not that I doubted you, I'm just one of those people who likes to understand all of my choices by experimenting or talking it out with people who definitely know what they're talking about (like you). I think all my issues about not using Consumption were based on the fact my sorc is still 54 and I just don't have Force management issues as often in warzones on her as I can on my 55.

As for guarding nodes, I know exactly what you mean. We never guard nodes unless it's highly contested. We are always with the main group (unless we are delaying enemies at a node). As for Voidstar, we only lure enemies to the opposing door if we're attackers, and it always works. Because if some people don't come, we plant the bomb. We have gotten up to half a team before, but even just two helps out the other side. You never know exactly what you're dealing with until you're in the match, however, so we're always open to changing tactics.

Now I'm digging into your section about gearing. My hat is off to you, sir.

I agree with the majority of what you posted. I geared a little differently than you with what you posted, I went with a 470 split on alacrity and surge as well as took the 2 piece sorc dps set for the reduced CD on polarity shift along with the 2 piece sorc heal set instead of the full healing 4 piece set bonus, because 50 extra force is relatively useless. The reason I say this is because after your first two GCD's you are just maintaining your force. A lot of people would retort with the fact that with a total of 50 extra force you would receive more total force back when you consume. This is true, but look at it this way; 50 extra total force will increase the force you receive from consuming by a grand total of 4 per consumption. If you are doing what a good sorc does, you are not consuming enough to put the consumption debuff on yourself, so therefore you at most would receive 12 extra force any round of consuming. I personally have never been in a situation where I was saying to myself "Damn, if I had only had 12 extra force, I could have kept that guy alive." If you are constantly placed in that situation, then you might want to look at what you could do better.

My spec is also slightly varied from what you run. I run 37/7/2 (not updated for the 2.7 skill tree). The reason I do this is because 1% damage reduction for a hit that does 10,000 damage to you (which is usually the biggest hit you will receive as a PVE healer) only reduces that hit by 100. The 1 point in reverse corruption is extremely useful for fights that you do get into a tight spot. The reasoning behind this is because with this ability active, if you do run into a situation where you are super tight on force, you can consume like crazy, then pop force barrier to remove your consumption debuff stacks.

For your using Dark Infusion over Dark Heal, I do agree that force management wise it is better to do so. However for my personal preference I use Dark Heal more often than Dark Infusion. My reasoning behind this, is as you said earlier in the guide your healing focus is primarily triage, not topping off people. My raid group runs a sorc healer and an operative co-healer. As the sorc, I focus primarily on the tanks, while the operative handles the raid. For my triage on the raid, I will usually use my static barrier to initially save a dps, then pop a Dark Heal on them. My Dark Heal will effectively heal majority of dps for 1/4 of their health. This gives enough cushion for the operative to catch back up on the raid and since that rotation of Static Barrier > Dark Heal only takes at most 2 seconds, I can easily hop back to the tanks and top them off with a Dark Infusion. I can heal any fight that I have come across in the game (NiM included) this way without straining my force horribly. Whenever I do get into a new fight; i.e. NiM DF progression, I will change my healing to Dark Infusion over Dark Heal for better force management until I learn the feel of the fight. Once I do, I will generally go back to my roll of triage on the raid and main focus of the tanks.

These are a couple of my views on sorc healing. If you have anything you would like to add/challenge, please feel free to do so.

I [...] took the 2 piece sorc dps set for the reduced CD on polarity shift [...] instead of the full healing 4 piece set bonus, because 50 extra force is relatively useless.

50 more force, and 4 more force from each Consumption, has some value for every fight that's challenging to heal. In contrast, reducing the cooldown of Polarity Shift to 1:45 is worthless unless this ensures that it'll be available for one additional period of intense healing during a fight than it would be with a 2:00 cooldown. I'm not aware of any such fight.

My spec is also slightly varied [...]. [A] hit that does 10,000 damage to you (which is usually the biggest hit you will receive as a PVE healer) only reduces that hit by 100. The 1 point in reverse corruption is extremely useful for fights that you do get into a tight spot. The reasoning behind this is because with this ability active, if you do run into a situation where you are super tight on force, you can consume like crazy, then pop force barrier to remove your consumption debuff stacks.

Please see my discussion of the several cons of Reverse Corruptions in the OP. I've never had the debuff from Consumption, even solo healing several fights in each of NiM TFB and S&V (in 72s) and almost every fight in each of HM DF and DP (in 78s).

A factor contributing to your running low on force at inconvenient times is your choice of set bonus. Having 50 less force, and gaining 4 fewer force from each Consumption, adds up to at least 100 less force for a fight. 100+ force is significant for a fight that's challenging to heal, especially if you've learned to leverage your resource pool as I describe in Topic 3 of Section "Playing Like an Expert".

Another factor contributing to your running low on force at inconvenient times is your frequent use of Dark Heal, discussed below.

If Reverse Corruptions is worthless, Sith Defiance is more valuable, though it's value is low. First, Nightmare Mode, even 8-man, has numerous mechanics that deal more than 10k damage and might hit you. Mistakes, bugs, lag, or RNG also cause you to take a big hit from time to time. Second, Sith Defiance isn't merely to mitigate a rare big hit. It's mitigation accumulates for fights with frequent, unavoidable AOE damage. A parser totals your damage taken over a fight, and 1% of this figure can approach the value of one heal.

For your using Dark Infusion over Dark Heal, I do agree that force management wise it is better to do so. However for my personal preference I use Dark Heal more often than Dark Infusion. My reasoning behind this, is as you said earlier in the guide your healing focus is primarily triage, not topping off people. My raid group runs a sorc healer and an operative co-healer. As the sorc, I focus primarily on the tanks, while the operative handles the raid. For my triage on the raid, I will usually use my static barrier to initially save a dps, then pop a Dark Heal on them. My Dark Heal will effectively heal majority of dps for 1/4 of their health. This gives enough cushion for the operative to catch back up on the raid and since that rotation of Static Barrier > Dark Heal only takes at most 2 seconds, I can easily hop back to the tanks and top them off with a Dark Infusion. I can heal any fight that I have come across in the game (NiM included) this way without straining my force horribly. Whenever I do get into a new fight; i.e. NiM DF progression, I will change my healing to Dark Infusion over Dark Heal for better force management until I learn the feel of the fight. Once I do, I will generally go back to my roll of triage on the raid and main focus of the tanks.

I won't discuss this at length, since you negate it yourself with your last two sentences. For a well-geared group, a fight on farm is easy to heal, and, therefore, you're unlikely to pay a price for lazy or sub-optimal technique. No one needs a guide for farm content; this guide is for progression content or undergeared Sorcerers.

I've observed first-hand your technique for content on farm. A co-healer, whom I've healed with for over a year, often heals as you've described. When she heals like I recommend in the OP, she competes with me. When she heals as you've described, her EHPS drops, she spends more GCDs on Consumption, and she sometimes has the debuff from using Consumption without Force Surge. The consequences of frequent use of Dark Heal are unavoidable.

In addition, the figures in your argument for your approach for farm content are exaggerated. First, Static Barrier > Dark Heal is 2 GCDs, which is longer than 2 seconds. Second, in 78s, an average non-crit Dark Heal is 4000, and an average crit Dark Heal (even with your 470 Surge from gear) is 6900, neither of which is 1/4 of a health pool that exceeds 38k.

50 more force, and 4 more force from each Consumption, has some value for every fight that's challenging to heal. In contrast, reducing the cooldown of Polarity Shift to 1:45 is worthless unless this ensures that it'll be available for one additional period of intense healing during a fight than it would be with a 2:00 cooldown. I'm not aware of any such fight.

I don't run into issues with force management with the way I heal, and it seems that you don't either. So I will concede that this point is more of a personal preference than something that is required to make a Sorc healer good. It goes back to the fact that I have never used the 50 extra force because of back when you could take the 2 piece PVP set bonus without penalty, that is what I did, so I have gotten used to healing without needing that extra force.

Please see my discussion of the several cons of Reverse Corruptions in the OP. I've never had the debuff from Consumption, even solo healing several fights in each of NiM TFB and S&V (in 72s) and almost every fight in each of HM DF and DP (in 78s).

 

A factor contributing to your running low on force at inconvenient times is your choice of set bonus. Having 50 less force, and gaining 4 fewer force from each Consumption, adds up to at least 100 less force for a fight. 100+ force is significant for a fight that's challenging to heal, especially if you've learned to leverage your resource pool as I describe in Topic 3 of Section "Playing Like an Expert".

 

Another factor contributing to your running low on force at inconvenient times is your frequent use of Dark Heal, discussed below.

Your cons are very well spoken, and I do agree. Depending on the fight I will swap my spec to receive benefits that generally are only useful for that fight. Also, as stated before I do not run into force management issues. The only time I have ever had the Consumption Debuff is if I fat finger the key bind on accident when I am super tired late at night which happens maybe once every 6 months or so.

"....especially if you've learned to leverage your resource pool" I have done this exceptionally well, because again as stated above, I have never had the 50 extra force so I have learned to be able to be a competitive progression healer without it.

If Reverse Corruptions is worthless, Sith Defiance is more valuable, though it's value is low. First, Nightmare Mode, even 8-man, has numerous mechanics that deal more than 10k damage and might hit you. Mistakes, bugs, lag, or RNG also cause you to take a big hit from time to time. Second, Sith Defiance isn't merely to mitigate a rare big hit. It's mitigation accumulates for fights with frequent, unavoidable AOE damage. A parser totals your damage taken over a fight, and 1% of this figure can approach the value of one heal.

This is actually a very good point and I was discussing it with a friend of mine the other night. We both agreed that my original spec, while not useless for inexperienced sorc healers, is not something that players of our caliber should be speccing into.

I won't discuss this at length, since you negate it yourself with your last two sentences. For a well-geared group, a fight on farm is easy to heal, and, therefore, you're unlikely to pay a price for lazy or sub-optimal technique. No one needs a guide for farm content; this guide is for progression content or undergeared Sorcerers.

To get content on farm and get the gear required to be considered well geared, you had to do the fight before with lower level gear. Therefore I have already made it through the phase where I would have had to pay the price for "lazy or sub-optimal technique'.

I've observed first-hand your technique for content on farm. A co-healer, whom I've healed with for over a year, often heals as you've described. When she heals like I recommend in the OP, she competes with me. When she heals as you've described, her EHPS drops, she spends more GCDs on Consumption, and she sometimes has the debuff from using Consumption without Force Surge. The consequences of frequent use of Dark Heal are unavoidable.

Healing the way I do, my EHPS is usually 82% or higher. I also again never have to over consume healing the way I do. I believe that you are misinterpreting what I mean when I say that I use Dark Heal more than Dark Infusion. I didn't exactly elaborate on it really well, but Dark Heal is what I use for DPS primarily. My reasoning for this is, as I said before, that it allows me to do triage and get back on tanks quickly. With the fact that there are 4 DPS and only 2 Tanks, this will usually end up having me at the end of the fight, using Dark Heal more than Dark Infusion. I do not use Dark Heal exclusively like you seem to think I do. My apologies for not making that clearer.

In addition, the figures in your argument for your approach for farm content are exaggerated. First, Static Barrier > Dark Heal is 2 GCDs, which is longer than 2 seconds. Second, in 78s, an average non-crit Dark Heal is 4000, and an average crit Dark Heal (even with your 470 Surge from gear) is 6900, neither of which is 1/4 of a health pool that exceeds 38k.

First, I did exaggerate, but only slightly. With 470 alacrity, my GCD is reduced to 1.4 sec (rounded up) and my Dark Heal's cast time is 1.4 sec (rounded up). So that would even out, as you said, to two GCD's equaling a total use time of 2.8 secs. 2.8 secs is longer than 2 but only slightly. Secondly, since I should have been more factual than just tossing numbers out there, using your numbers (which is without relic procs) I can effectively heal a dps for 10.53% to 18.15% of their total health in 2.8 secs, not to mention the damage that the static barrier will absorb. Finally, I thank you for your input. I believe that you took it a little more personally than I would have thought however. I wasn't attacking your guide, I actually have sent quite a few up and coming sorc healers here. I was just stating that my personal preference is slightly different. Thanks again for your input and again feel free to rebut any of my posts.

[...] I will concede that this point is more of a personal preference than something that is required to make a Sorc healer good. It goes back to the fact that I have never used the 50 extra force because of back when you could take the 2 piece PVP set bonus without penalty, that is what I did, so I have gotten used to healing without needing that extra force.

Upon 2.0's release, any class could double up on its 2-piece PVE set bonus, which I did on my Sorcerer healer. The difference between 600 and 650 maximum force is very small, though I did notice it in a few fights. You should review your combat logs to determine whether you use Polarity Shift more often because of its shorter cooldown. If you don't, which I suspect, the 2-piece Master's set bonus is worthless. The 4-piece PVE set bonus is underwhelming at best, but not worthless for a fight that is challenging to heal.

Healing the way I do, my EHPS is usually 82% or higher. I also again never have to over consume healing the way I do. I believe that you are misinterpreting what I mean when I say that I use Dark Heal more than Dark Infusion. I didn't exactly elaborate on it really well, but Dark Heal is what I use for DPS primarily. My reasoning for this is, as I said before, that it allows me to do triage and get back on tanks quickly. With the fact that there are 4 DPS and only 2 Tanks, this will usually end up having me at the end of the fight, using Dark Heal more than Dark Infusion. I do not use Dark Heal exclusively like you seem to think I do. My apologies for not making that clearer.

Dark Heal's HPF is poor. The fact that you've found a use for it is fine, but not suitable to highlight in a guide.

1. A common cause of force management issues for someone new to Sorcerer healing, who'll almost always be given responsibility for raid healing, is frequent use of Dark Heal. It's impossible to use both Revivification and Dark Heal on a regular basis in a fight that's challenging to heal without having to use Consumption so often that someone may die while you do.
    
    
   
2. Without your healing team's unusual assignments, you wouldn't have the use for Dark Heal that you've described. Though a Sorcerer can be the primary healer for both tanks in 8-man, in general it would be superior (a) to have your Operative co-healer in this role or (b) to share responsibility for tank healing (e.g., one healer to one tank).
    
    
   
3. In 16-man, you wouldn't have the use for Dark Heal that you've described. First, a Sorcerer is the worst choice for a tank's primary healer in 16-man. Spike damage is too high and frequent to rely on Dark Infusion when Static Barrier or Innervate isn't available. Second, featuring Dark Heal in your repertoire for healing 16-man's 10 DPS will drain your force.
    
    
   
4. The skill level that your practice requires is higher. This is a weakness, not a strength, especially when advising someone new to Sorcerer healing or seeking to perform well with greater consistency.
   

First, I did exaggerate, but only slightly. With 470 alacrity, my GCD is reduced to 1.4 sec (rounded up) and my Dark Heal's cast time is 1.4 sec (rounded up). So that would even out, as you said, to two GCD's equaling a total use time of 2.8 secs. 2.8 secs is longer than 2 but only slightly. Secondly, since I should have been more factual than just tossing numbers out there, using your numbers (which is without relic procs) I can effectively heal a dps for 10.53% to 18.15% of their total health in 2.8 secs, not to mention the damage that the static barrier will absorb.

If you wish to discuss how to split a hair (which we both knew is what we're doing), precision matters. For example, 2.8 seconds is 40% longer than 2 seconds; that difference is substantial for an analysis of HPS. And describing Dark Heal's healing as 25% of HP, when 11% is common, caused me to wonder whether you might be counting a simultaneous Surgical Probe from your Operative co-healer towards your Dark Heal's healing.

I believe that you took it a little more personally than I would have thought however. I wasn't attacking your guide, I actually have sent quite a few up and coming sorc healers here. I was just stating that my personal preference is slightly different.

No worries, I'm accustomed to direct, detailed arguments made forcefully, and don't take them (or intend mine to be taken) personally. I don't doubt your successes healing the most challenging content. I recognize that you're thoughtful and objective about your healing choices, not someone posting, "This one time, I two-healed HM Grob'Thok 8 with tons of Critical from gear, so Critical > Power!"

This is a guide to best practices, however, not a catalogue of every practice that can work. I wouldn't advise someone new to Sorcerer healing, or a raid group seeking to shore up its healing, with the choices or practices that you've described.