Most fun healing class, and why?

I've only tried Operative and Mercenary heals so far, and I like the Mercenary better, because you get to heal your teammates by shooting them, and that's just funny.

Of course the Bounty Hunter Mercenary. Why? Tchi tchi tchi tchick tchick tchik chik ick... because of the blaster with Combat Support Cylinder. I never had fun healing. Till I played the mercenary.

I play Sorc, Sage, Scoundrel, Operative heals.. I'd have to see that I find the scoundrel and operative to be the most fun. I can get top heals or close to it in WZ's and I can get out of combat fast when I get super targeted. In other words, I live longer than I do as a Sorc/Sage.

I prefer the Commando. I haven't really played the Sage past level 15, but it feels too distant, detached, and rooted for my tastes. I feel like the Commando is much more mobile than the Sage.

I like my Operative, but there's something about it that just doesn't really click for me. I love all of the moves, though. Kolto Injection, Shiv, Debilitate, and Snipe are all really fun moves. I also can't wait to get the AoE heal at the top of the tree (I think it's called Recuperative Nanotech [it's equivalent is Kolto Cloud for the Scoundrel]).

The Sage gets better at higher levels and eventually is neither distant nor detached.

That being said, at level 50 I feel everybit as rooted as I felt at level 15. The only reason I run is because Operations have mechanics that force it: the simple truth is that even with 9% alacrity my cast and channel times are pretty high - 2.5 seconds on my big heal, so I can't run that much when I'm spamming heals.

I love healing on my sorc. I actually dropped my PT as my main so I could focus solely on gearing up and being a dedicated healer. Leveling I switched from DPS to heal often. Only once I got Innervate and Resurgence did I stay specced into heals. Add in revivication and there you go.

For PvE the aoe heal is king. I've learned when to do the instant heal and when to stop for a minute to do a channel. PvP is way more situational because it isnt scripted. With the new instant cast self heal, which crits for well over 6k, I stay alive longer, its been a great improvement. You will have to kite as a sorc, especially in PvP, but I absolutely love when I get a melee on me just hammering away, while I heal up, kite, and throw out more heals on other people, I LOL when they just give up and go to another target that I just heal anyway. Now getting focused, there really isnt too much you can do about that. But am I having a blast playing a sorc healer?? Hell yea I am.

I've leveled an operative as well, but to me, not as much fun as healing on my sorc. I could solo most 2 man heroics if I had Khem geared up, and even a couple 4 mans, although I did tend to die a couple times before reaching the objective.

At this point I like healing more than DPS. It stil CHALENGES me in ways playing DPS never did. I'd like to level a commando at some point to see how that healing is.

they can be fun. the heat mechanic is very different then the force mechanic. the burst potential for a commando/merc is insane...but if you let it all out then you are done within about 15 seconds, period. so healing is about heat management. on my sage, its the long term outlook.

other then that, the heals are faster on a Commando, and your instants are actually pretty impressive. I heal most HM's on my merc with nothing but my kolto bomb and auto shot (it heals party members when in healing form). but if a party member takes a ton of damage, i have nothing like my sages bubble to get me those few extra precious seconds to lob in a huge heal. i have to hope that my instant cast is on CD, and that i have enough time to get another heal or two out.

On my sage, i have to watch force usage over the course of the fight. I know that if i use too much early on, I wont have resources later on. whereas with my merc, i have to make sure that my healing doesn't get my heat too high....but if i do that, keep my regular heat under 20%, and never spike past 50 or so, I can pretty much heal indefinitely. Its nice to be minutes into a boss fight and see the sorcs at 10% of their pool, and my heat is still dancing around 15-20%. but one big burst and im capped, and if my heat release is on CD....im on autoshot for the next 20 seconds until it cools down...so if i burst, I'd better have a backup plan. or i just moderate my healing, and i never run out.

both are a blast with very different mechanics and resource management.

I have played healing role with both, a sage (sorc) and a scoundrel (op). To be absolutely blunt, sage healing seemed a bit "op" in a way. With sages, the only concern I seemed to have was (had) sustaining my willpower pool and after the new self-heal introduced in the last official patch, not even that is an issue.

The new self-heal actually made sage healing feel somewhat boring in comparison to scoundrel (op) healing, or I should say, even more so. There is so much more to do and as a scoundrel (op) healer in comparison to that of sage (sorc): It requires more preparation: Using Slow Release Med Packs properly to keep Upper Hands in place, at the same time, knowing the phases of encounters well enough to know when to actually boost Slow Releases to cover the healing efficiently. Even dropping a strike to the NPC to get an extra Upper Hand. As scoundrel, I tend to have more time DPSing while healing (little dps boost in other fights than the Dread Guards at HM TfB).

HoT's running to keep Upper Hands flowing, using slow release med packs in optimal places, as some mentioned, it can be very efficient support "AoE" heal but it requires some energy planning. I think there is more to figure out through the encounters due to the more exhausting "big heals" scoundrels (op) have. My main role in SWTOR has been a DPS, and that is what I enjoy the most, especially with TfB. However, I've healed few EC and TfB HMs and I love the feel of rush I get with my scoundrel (op) instead of the feeling I can only describe as "willpower pool checkout" I have with my sage.

As a comparison and an answer: Scoundrel (op) is in between of commando (merc) and sage (sorc) as a healer. It has a bit of everything, even the big heals. In preparation for raid wide higher damage phases one can drop the slow release med packs and use the AoE heal of scoundrels. It actually gives the raid group huge edge with mobility (as some have mentioned) when you don't have to stand in the aoe healing circle. I have not yet tried commando (merc) healer and I doubt I will because I am primarily doing damage. Like our over raid healer, beefy sage put it: "As a sage (sorc) healer on Stormcaller (hard mode), I have time to make coffee or watch tv." Honestly, it feels the same with scoundrel if your healing strategy is viable for the fight. You can just "auto attack" the boss or DPS it half the time.