Which are generally more needed? I'm torn between my Mercenary and Powertech.

Healers for pvp of course. But for pve on my server, Jedi Covenant, my tank insta pops when I queue pretty much everytime, and my healer normally just takes a couple minutes. Both very short queue times and both needed

My queues tend to pop instantly to near-instantly on my Operative and Sorcerer and five to fifteen minutes on my Guardian and Vanguard (at not-quite-peak-hours; it's more like 30-90 for either at four in the morning, of course), so I'd say healers, at least on Shadowlands. The difference isn't so huge that I wouldn't just tank if you feel like tanking, though.

As you're leveling, the numbers are going to vary. There will be some patches where healers are more in demand, some where tanks are.

 

If you like tanking at all, however, I would definitely go Powertech over Merc. Not only will you have low flashpoint queue times, but it's much easier to put together a group for Heroic quests.

 

Heroic 4's are much easier to do with 1 Tank, 2 DPS, and 1 Healer Companion than 1 Healer, 2 DPS, and 1 Tank Companion, I've found.

 

Tanking is far easier for solo-questing, too. You have the most flexibility for which companion you want to use (once you have a choice).

Edited January 16, 2013 by RogueDiplomacy

Healers are more needed in a general sense. You can get though a three man FP and heroics without a tank and that is when a healer is definitely needed. Tanks however obviously have their place, they are the ones who minimize overall group damage from the environment and opposing players. You don't NEED tanks, but not takin them is about equivilant to shooting yourself in the foot and then breaking your ankles as you crawl for a jar of peanut butter, entirely possible to get that jar of peanut butter, but why the **** would you try other than to challenge yourself? Not having a healer is like adding a tiger in front of the fridge to get the same peanut butter.

Healers are more needed in a general sense. You can get though a three man FP and heroics without a tank and that is when a healer is definitely needed. Tanks however obviously have their place, they are the ones who minimize overall group damage from the environment and opposing players. You don't NEED tanks, but not takin them is about equivilant to shooting yourself in the foot and then breaking your ankles as you crawl for a jar of peanut butter, entirely possible to get that jar of peanut butter, but why the **** would you try other than to challenge yourself? Not having a healer is like adding a tiger in front of the fridge to get the same peanut butter.

 

In the most literal sense, this is true. However, the OP is obviously referring to group finder pops, in which case it will ONLY pop with a tank, a healer and 2 DPS.

 

In that scenario, far less people queue as tanks than the other classes. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the 2 most obvious are that a tank requires a separate set of gear whereas most DPS classes can still heal effectively with their DPS set, and tanking tends to put you in an assumed position of leadership, something some people wish to avoid.

 

If you want fast pops, trust me, play a tank.

On the Jedi Covevant, 3 of our guild members were wanting to run some HMs. We had 2 DPS and one healer. We sat in que for 20 mins nothing happening. I log onto my tank, re-que, it instant pops. This is just one example of many. During prime time hours, healers should get decent ques... Outside of prime time, tank fare much better on my server.

 

Not only do tanks need special tank gear in addition to being the assumed leader, they required a greater understanding of both fights and mechanics. Unless you're an off-tank you can't just wing HM OP fights.

On the Jedi Covevant, 3 of our guild members were wanting to run some HMs. We had 2 DPS and one healer. We sat in que for 20 mins nothing happening. I log onto my tank, re-que, it instant pops. This is just one example of many. During prime time hours, healers should get decent ques... Outside of prime time, tank fare much better on my server.

 

Not only do tanks need special tank gear in addition to being the assumed leader, they required a greater understanding of both fights and mechanics. Unless you're an off-tank you can't just wing HM OP fights.

 

Even if you are an off-tank you can't wing HM OP fights. In many fights, tank swapping is needed so you have to have as much knowledge as the main tank.

I also play on Jedi Covenant, and queue pops faster for tank.

 

Sometimes, I queue as heal on my sorc for HM FP because I don't want to wait the dps queue, and it pops within 30 sec-2 min.

 

 

It is also doable to do crap without a healer, altough its mostly breaking a leg to get to the peanut butter jar.

 

However, as sorc DPS I pretty much 2-manned with a PT from my guild the last fight of Kaon HM since we missed the "brb" message of the healer. Other dps didnt move when the two rak were sent on him, got killed, and we pretty much killed the 3.

 

I however threw 2 heals at him + the bubble. Also sorc is rather good at nuking the thrash adds.

 

They made content that most dps cannot take the damage, even with a healer at their back, and most likely the healer end up under fire quickly and needs to keep himself alive as well.

Tanks.

Definitely tanks. Instant pops ftw.

Healers are more needed, but a good tank is hard to come by. Always hate when I get shouted at to heal when the bloody tank doesn't agro adds.