pondering which will make for a smoother trip to 50...

 

on one hand lightning seems to have some groovy aoe which always means speed killing, but apparently a well armored tank companion and heal spec makes you immortal.

 

how was your leveling as a healer, anyone who has tried it?

you'll go faster as a DPS!

 

 

I've made it with my Sage, first I went lvl 40 as a healer, okay you never die, you make H2+ alone and maybe some h4+ if you have good skills, but as a DPS you really kill mobs faster and finish quests Faster, I changed server and went as DPS without making any Heroic quest and Went clearly faster

pondering which will make for a smoother trip to 50...

In my experience with commando healer is easier, but DPS is a bit faster.

 

 

a well armored tank companion

No such thing. Tank companions were overpowered for healers. To fix it Bioware nerfed them so hard they're useless for anyone but a healer now. They don't have any armor bonus skills anymore so basically they don't have any more armor than a DPS or healer with heavy armor.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Game-Hermit

pondering which will make for a smoother trip to 50...

 

on one hand lightning seems to have some groovy aoe which always means speed killing, but apparently a well armored tank companion and heal spec makes you immortal.

 

how was your leveling as a healer, anyone who has tried it?

 

I took a sage to 48 specced seer (healing) and a sorc to 50 specced madness/lightning hybrid (dps). I don't have the /played but the sorc felt a hell of a lot faster. The sage could solo heroic 2 and some heroic 4s along with champion mobs, which I didn't even bother trying on the sorc.

In my experience with commando healer is easier, but DPS is a bit faster.

 

 

 

No such thing. Tank companions were overpowered for healers. To fix it Bioware nerfed them so hard they're useless for anyone but a healer now. They don't have any armor bonus skills anymore so basically they don't have any more armor than a DPS or healer with heavy armor.

 

So they are essentially tepid dps companions with a taunt? In theory would it be better to use a dps companion and just stay on them for heals?

Leveling as a healer is ridiculously slow - it's not even the same ballpark. This is especially true given how powerful healing companions are compared with others - DPS companions do comparatively weak damage, while the healers only need to do "enough" healing to keep you alive, which they do.

 

Healing is zero sum, while dps is uncapped.

This is especially true given how powerful healing companions are compared with others - DPS companions do comparatively weak damage

 

This has not been my experience at all. I always level double dps because my dps companion actually puts out ~75% or so of my own, which is quite impressive. That is why levelling as a healer or with a healer companion is always slower than with a dps character/companion.

So they are essentially tepid dps companions with a taunt? In theory would it be better to use a dps companion and just stay on them for heals?

 

They do have an armor bonus skill but it is an activated damage ability they have to fire off (melee typically) that gives them 20% more armor. The only real benefit to a tank companion is the taunt/threat thing. If you are a casting class you won't have pushback issues with a tank companion, or threat issues in general.

 

Right now you can also 'reset' your companion after every fight by dismissing/resummoning them. This restores all their health and resets the cooldowns on all their abilities. This removes any companion downtimes from the picture (and helps tank companions have a low/non existant downtime without a healer).

Edited March 15, 2012 by hadoken

IMO Healer/DPS hybrid is the absolute fastest overall. Especially if the dps tree you hybridize into is the one with more aoe options, normal mobs are super easy, strongs are burned down before they do much, elites and champions can be turtled. You have an answer for every situation, you don't have to pick and choose which encounters you take because of the idiosyncrasies of your spec or class.

pondering which will make for a smoother trip to 50...

 

on one hand lightning seems to have some groovy aoe which always means speed killing, but apparently a well armored tank companion and heal spec makes you immortal.

 

how was your leveling as a healer, anyone who has tried it?

 

Personally I started out as a dps/madness for lightning spam but once i started to hit boss fights (zash) i switch to healer as it makes boss fights pretty much cake and just kept going like that with khem tanking (SI).

 

 

Even though its a bit slower just mindless killing groups of enemies, cause most of your damage is from your companion but you can do just fine being semi-afk while throwing in some heals/bubble. Also its great for soloing 2+/4 instances with a geared up companion as most other classes can't even think about doing that. and you can easily kill any of the elite mobs around the world with very little trouble.

 

 

You can help speed things up by spamming your aoe when fighting a group of enemies as half will get stunned over and over, reducing their damage to minimal. and there is hardly any down time as you can just dismiss your companion/mount then unmount/resummon and they are back at full hp and you don't come close to running out of force unless its a long boss fight.

 

But for me, being a healer from 20-50, took me 5 days in-game time to reach it... don't really know if that is good or not and wasn't questing 100% of the time and actually talked with ppl

This has not been my experience at all. I always level double dps because my dps companion actually puts out ~75% or so of my own, which is quite impressive. That is why levelling as a healer or with a healer companion is always slower than with a dps character/companion.

 

Unless you never rest, it's not. Also, there is absolutely no way that the companion is doing 75% of your dps, especially if you are aoeing a lot, which you should be. There are no dps charts to look either way, but look at the damage numbers of their abilities and their cooldowns, and you will see that they are severely lower than your own even with up to date gear.

 

Healing companions still do some damage, but they also entirely mitigate downtime between mobs.

Unless you never rest, it's not. Also, there is absolutely no way that the companion is doing 75% of your dps, especially if you are aoeing a lot, which you should be. There are no dps charts to look either way, but look at the damage numbers of their abilities and their cooldowns, and you will see that they are severely lower than your own even with up to date gear.

 

Healing companions still do some damage, but they also entirely mitigate downtime between mobs.

 

You can eyeball it by sticking them on a strong while you take another strong, etc. They absolutely do far more than a healer, and as I said with the reset trick the downtime is minimal anyway. I have 5 50s, and my dps/dps combos went far far faster than any healer+ combo.

You can eyeball it

Yay, you can safely be ignored.

 

 

I have 5 50s too; using a healer companion is as fast, and far more safe, when compared with using a dps companion.

Yay, you can safely be ignored.

 

 

I have 5 50s too; using a healer companion is as fast, and far more safe, when compared with using a dps companion.

 

Wait, you have problems levelling without a healer?

 

I think I see the problem here.

Wait, you have problems levelling without a healer?

 

I think I see the problem here.

 

No, I have limitations leveling without a healer that I don't have leveling with one. Trying to say otherwise is flat out lying, lol. You can pull more, and you can pull faster, with a healer npc rather than a DPS npc. Your aoe capabilities on most classes drastically outweigh any dps companion, and AoE efficiency drastically outweighs single target for practically every ac. It's not a difficult concept.

 

There are a few ACs that can safely use a dps companion and still aoe like crazy, mostly because of their ridiculous defensive capabilities in dps specs; sorcerer/sages, for example, can live behind the relative safety of their bubble which can be cast proactively. The vast majority lose efficiency by having to heal post combat, especially melee classes who cannot effectively burn melee enemies before being hit.

Edited March 17, 2012 by Delekii

Really, so much of your XP comes from missions, and so much of your time goes into traveling, it just doesn't matter. Pick the play-style you enjoy and get out there.

Really, so much of your XP comes from missions, and so much of your time goes into traveling, it just doesn't matter. Pick the play-style you enjoy and get out there.

 

I feel you, its just I really don't know -what- I enjoy. Caster archetypes are new to me, I always play a tank type in MMOs but I greatly disliked Jug and heard Sin has similar ability bloat.

 

I rather arbitrarily chose madness to get the force lightning battery going, I don't like the idea of a non renewable resource. So as soon as I can get an infinite loop of force I will be happy. I was thinking of hybrid healing after that, but with the way people are freaking out over the patch notes it might not be worth even trying to heal.

So they are essentially tepid dps companions with a taunt? In theory would it be better to use a dps companion and just stay on them for heals?

Yes, for anything but a healer. If you're a healer and keep them well geared they can actually be useful if only for their agro skills. It's kind of hard to heal yourself if you're getting beat on after all. Especially for a commando since we can't self-target hammer shot. My DPS also drops to like half of normal when I have agro. Since I'm not over 40 yet (still 30's) I don't have any points for the other tree so I don't have the -70% pushback for attacks yet. Just because they're (barely) viable for one role doesn't mean they aren't broken though. Tank companions badly need a buff. The way it is currently, if Aric could taunt there would be no reason for M1-4X to exist.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Game-Hermit

At level 44 I decided to go pure heal spec with my sorcerer and I prefer it more than my old hybrid dps spec. I send companion in to dps while I hang back and heal/dot--I think it works much better.

I'm gonna put my two cents in. I find that (as a sith inq's assassin) That tanking with a healer is the quickest way for me to level, So if you happen to have a tank companion, It can go quite smooth and less stress full. Now, I did do pure dps with a tank, And it was once very overpowered to tank with my companion while i was in dps spec... however, now they are next to useless unless you can heal them due to the recent nerfs on the tank companions.

 

So it's basically like this Dieing alot with alot of kills/speed OR slower speed, But less deaths (If you got a geared healer.... im using 2V-R8 and i want to punch a baby because he comes completely un-geared and worthless.)

Edited March 19, 2012 by WoundedChaos

I was the 8th level 50 on my server, 1st smuggler class. I leveled Sawbones Scoundrel the whole way with Corso tanking everything in the sand people social armor. I must admit, after making the other classes, I always look back and think of how much easier life was to level safely at a moderate pace than having to stop after nearly every group to recover.

DPS, always. But compared to tanking, there are circumstances where tanking levels faster ( yes, right, im talking about shados and assassins)