JC Sage Healing

[Verin]

Hey everyone. I would like to put up the obvious disclaimer here; I am in no way an expert at this class or healing in general and this is all simply my opinion. Others may disagree and I believe that you should always do what fits your play style best. That said...

Builds:
This is the build I am using/plan to use for PvE. www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGrRbd0dGzZf00MZoM.1
This is the build I would use for PvP. (Hoping for dual specs!) www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGbRbdbdGzZf00MZoM.1

Stats:

Primary Stats:
Willpower > Endurance

Secondary Stats:
Crit. > Power > Surge > Alacrity

Willpower:
0.20 Damage bonus per point
0.14 Healing bonus per point

Endurance:
10 HP per point

Power:
Increases melee, force and tech damage

Alacrity:
Increases cast/channel speed

Crit:
Increases melee, force and tech critical chance

Surge:
Critical damage

Force/Tech Power:
(Weapons only) Similar to Power but does not add to melee and ranged damage

Presence:
Boosts companion health, damage and healing

Expertise:
Increases damage and healing done in PvP
Decreases damage taken in PvP

Tips:
Great site for more info on healing in general www.forceheal.com/forum/index.php This is also in the Guides section of the forum but I thought I would throw it in for ease of access. (Thanks to Jeweledleah for the link)

As far as any tips I can offer, I would suggest binding your important heals and shield to mouse buttons (if you have a mouse with extra). I have this unexplainable need to move around during fights and so using the hot keys has never worked out great for me. I have all my important abilities bound to my mouse which allows me to move around, select my target and cast my heals very quickly. Of course this isn't a necessity and as I stated before you should definitely play the way you feel most comfortable.

That's my two credits for now and I'll update this as I learn more about the class. also please put some more tips, tricks, info up because we are all learning this right now and I would love to hear more about what you all are doing. Happy healing!

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Edit: Updated with new skill tree for PvE as well as PvP and stat importance. (Thank you Amistar for the tips and info) Hope to keep this updated as we go along.
Edit: Please reply with your tips/tricks/advice I'll add it to the OP and try to keep a nice post of info for any and all interested in the class.

[amistar]

Dec 30, 2011 14:41:31 GMT -5 Verin said:

Hey everyone. I would like to put up the obvious disclaimer here; I am in no way an expert at this class or healing in general and this is all simply my opinion. Others may disagree and I believe that you should always do what fits your play style best. That said...

This is the build I am using/plan to use. www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGrRbd0dGzZf0oMZ0M.1

There are a couple things I would like to point out with the build. In the third tier I did not take "Valiance" because I don't use Noble Sacrifice unless I have the "Resplendence" proc which makes it cost you no life or lowering of your force regeneration (more on this later). I also put my last point into "Concentration" on the second tier of the Telekinetics tree. This point I really had no place I feel it's needed, so put it where ever you feel comfortable. I put it there because I'd like to see how often it might proc when casting "Disturbance" but as I won't know until I'm level 50 I'll have to come back and update then.

Crit chance seems to be pretty important for the Sage. Especially with "Resplendence" and "Healing Trance". Resplendence has a 50/100% chance to make the next Noble Sacrifice activate without degenerating Force and without spending any health. This will give you your force back and keep you going for quite a while in those long fights, but it is important to use whenever it's available.

As far as any tips I can offer, I would suggest binding your important heals and shield to mouse buttons (if you have a mouse with extra). I have this unexplainable need to move around during fights and so using the hot keys has never worked out great for me. I have all my important abilities bound to my mouse which allows me to move around, select my target and cast my heals very quickly. Of course this isn't a necessity and as I stated before you should definitely play the way you feel most comfortable.

That's my two credits for now and I'll update this as I learn more about the class. also please put some more tips, tricks, info up because we are all learning this right now and I would love to hear more about what you all are doing. Happy healing!

Excellent writeup, the spec looks pretty much exactly like mine (I'd take reduced incoming damage in over something that procs on damage abilities since I plan on raid healing and won't be throwing out damage). I would like to suggest still focusing on alacracy to lower activation time/GCD, you can increase your crit chance of healing wave by 25% with Conveyance and it's not line we're going to be reforging to stack purely one secondary stat here, I obviously have a lot of playing around to do but I feel it's going to be Power > Alarcacy > surge. Often for periods of Force Conservation I'll drop the HoT, channeled HoT, immediately drop a big heal (There's a bug with conveyance where if you get a 2nd heal off just as the first ends you get the buff for 2 instead of one heal...) then hit a noble sacrifice. This allows me to both not waste the GCD by only restoring a small amount of FP, but also tends to keep everyone healthy.

I'd like to mention that while it is nice to not have to hit noble sacrifice without the proc, sometimes It's necessary, so always have a medpac (or be biochem and have a reusable one) this way you're not just funneling the force right back into your own hit pool. Especially useful FP healing until you have Resplendence.

I have a Naga, and for leveling especially it's insanely useful.

[Verin]

Absolutely agree! Thanks for the tips they are proving quite useful. As I move on in levels I am definitely seeing the need for the other stats and I'll be going back to refine the original post with updated information in time.

[amistar]

In my experience you will not need a PvP spec. I'm using the spec above as modified (last point to +1% Damage mitigation) and have been doing insanely well in warzones. Hitting 400+k generally every match, hitting 550-600k in voidstars.

I can see some of the PvP talents to be decent (e.g. the speed boost with shield) except they're useless in warzones. 100% useless, maybe marginally for huttball but we have force grab so that's way more imba.

[Verin]

There seems to not be very much play as far as the talents that become necessary. I am also using the PvP spec and doing quite well. I tried out the speed increase talents to get a feel for them and whether they are broken or just so negligible, it is absolutely not worth it.

I also put my last point into the damage reduction talent. another option might be disturbed mind which increases the duration of weakened mind.