Holiday Raiding

I mean ops. Totally ops.

Holidays are upon us, and we’re in that weird Zone between Thanksgiving and Xmas when people are shopping, cooking, and generally have obligations (myself included). As such, raiding has been spotty, and we often find ourselves trying to cobble together a group that isn’t ideal.

But, you say, how is this your problem, Njessi? The answer is that I’m a fucking idiot masochist and accepted an officer position in my guild, despite my best intentions to live as a carefree peon. Now, suddenly, I’m worrying about shit like rostering and class balance even though I’m not the one who leads or rosters the raids. I’m clearly insane.

Meanwhile, I’m gearing up my operative healer to heal things in the face. I’m flailing around for something useful to do with an alt, since I’m still frustrated with marauder being not particularly useful in raiding, outside the blatant face-smashing context. No other class has clicked quite the way marauder has for me, but I’m still doggedly trying to find a good fit for a respectably useful alt.

And that’s what is happening right now. Not terribly eventful.

Really ops/scoundrels have it made. Pre-Makeb, I never went so out of energy that I couldn’t do anything. And if I did, it was usually after a big healing spree or being aggressive with dps and/or trash. Between free instant heals that hit for ~1/2 of your regular heal (pre-Makeb at least), and the scan that regens extra energy on crit, you should be fine. A counter point to Traitline (no offense since he was speaking from a dps pov), but weave your scan in instead of the free attack because 1) the chance to proc extra energy, 2) your free dps shots should not be the difference between a wipe and a kill. If they are, then your dps need to pick it up, or your group is under geared (still more of a dps issue). At any rate, a few seconds low on energy but then you’re back to “close enough” to full. And that’s only if you got over aggressive with dps or had a mess of people to heal at once (more so than normal). Again, my experience is pre-Makeb, but I haven’t read anything that says otherwise (I browse reddit and the class forums every now and then).

I find myself much worse off with force where the only way to get more is wait or hurt yourself. Granted, I was a very poor sorc healer (honestly didn’t read up on it), and I tend to be aggressive with mixing in dps, which hurts with force, but even if I was good, I think I’d enjoy the mobility advantage and utilities of op healing.

Your hots should always be ticking and your free, TA/UH consuming heal is not only awesome and instant, but besides getting free tickets from the existing hots, it grants an automatic one when used on a target below some threshold of health (I forget exactly). That little bonus helped us clear some things that we might not have otherwise (just the tank and me up). It really only gets better the more gear you get. I can’t speak to the UH/TA + energy consuming heal because honestly I never used it. Some people really like it, but I never even needed it on my bar. Before long you’ll be able to weave real dps in with your healing, assuming you’re not already there. For now, just throw an orbital strike every time it’s up and health pools aren’t crazy bad.

Overall, if you take the time to practice (flashpoints) and, if need be, look at the official class forums, you should be fine, no matter which healing spec you run. I’d recommend other sites, but I don’t like Noxxic and I haven’t kept up with mmo-mechanics, so I don’t know if they have any kind of forum activity going on. The official class forums aren’t hives of scum and villainy like gen disc.

I believe in you!

Reply ↓

Comments

Holiday Raiding — 12 Comments

mooftak on December 12, 2013 at 12:44 pm said:

Yeah, totally ops planning/wrangling responsibilities can be not fun. Peon is definitely the way to go when one can, assuming there is good leadership. Anyways, in my experience, nothing beats op/scoundrel healing. Granted I haven’t raided, I mean, op’d, since before Makeb, but being able to heal on the move, diagnostic scan to regen energy, knife/kick and flashbang enemies when cc is broken, it’s really got everything. No purple circle, but who cares 🙂 I’ve healed on my sorc, but never again. Mana, I mean force issues, are just no fun to deal with compared to how carefree the ops/scoundrels have it by comparison.

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- Njessi on December 12, 2013 at 12:56 pm said:
  
  I really suck at resource management for classes where it’s diminishing returns (basically, non force users) where you get penalized for dropping too low – you can get yourself into a hole and never be able to get out. But I seem to be doing ok with the healing so far. I haven’t tried to do anything strenuous yet though – I’m still training muscle memory.
  
  Reply ↓
  - Traitine on December 12, 2013 at 1:19 pm said:
    
    Weave in your ‘free’ attack every couple of shots. Flurry of shots for smugglers as an example. That solved all my management problems (at 55 anyway) with DPS classes. Never tried Ops healing, but I’d guess good resource management could be part of the reason they are crazy good right now. Didn’t have resource trouble healing on a BH/Trooper either.
    
    Marauders are OP in warzones right now if you’re looking for something to do with it. You’ve picked two great classes for PvP if you ever felt like crossing to the ‘Light side’ of gameplay content…
    
    Reply ↓
  - mooftak on December 12, 2013 at 8:58 pm said:
    
    Really ops/scoundrels have it made. Pre-Makeb, I never went so out of energy that I couldn’t do anything. And if I did, it was usually after a big healing spree or being aggressive with dps and/or trash. Between free instant heals that hit for ~1/2 of your regular heal (pre-Makeb at least), and the scan that regens extra energy on crit, you should be fine. A counter point to Traitline (no offense since he was speaking from a dps pov), but weave your scan in instead of the free attack because 1) the chance to proc extra energy, 2) your free dps shots should not be the difference between a wipe and a kill. If they are, then your dps need to pick it up, or your group is under geared (still more of a dps issue). At any rate, a few seconds low on energy but then you’re back to “close enough” to full. And that’s only if you got over aggressive with dps or had a mess of people to heal at once (more so than normal). Again, my experience is pre-Makeb, but I haven’t read anything that says otherwise (I browse reddit and the class forums every now and then).
    
    I find myself much worse off with force where the only way to get more is wait or hurt yourself. Granted, I was a very poor sorc healer (honestly didn’t read up on it), and I tend to be aggressive with mixing in dps, which hurts with force, but even if I was good, I think I’d enjoy the mobility advantage and utilities of op healing.
    
    Your hots should always be ticking and your free, TA/UH consuming heal is not only awesome and instant, but besides getting free tickets from the existing hots, it grants an automatic one when used on a target below some threshold of health (I forget exactly). That little bonus helped us clear some things that we might not have otherwise (just the tank and me up). It really only gets better the more gear you get. I can’t speak to the UH/TA + energy consuming heal because honestly I never used it. Some people really like it, but I never even needed it on my bar. Before long you’ll be able to weave real dps in with your healing, assuming you’re not already there. For now, just throw an orbital strike every time it’s up and health pools aren’t crazy bad.
    
    Overall, if you take the time to practice (flashpoints) and, if need be, look at the official class forums, you should be fine, no matter which healing spec you run. I’d recommend other sites, but I don’t like Noxxic and I haven’t kept up with mmo-mechanics, so I don’t know if they have any kind of forum activity going on. The official class forums aren’t hives of scum and villainy like gen disc.
    
    I believe in you!
    
    Reply ↓
    - Ikorus on December 13, 2013 at 5:41 am said:
      
      it’s 30%, and the forums are FILLED with whining in each role category about how the other roles are morons. don’t go there. do yourself that favor.
      
      Reply ↓
lonomonkey on December 12, 2013 at 12:48 pm said:

Bwhahahahahahahaahahaha

hahahahahahhhahaha

hahahahhahahahahha

/points at Jessi

hahahahahhahaha

You’ve been had again !!!

hahahahah

Reply ↓
- Njessi on December 12, 2013 at 12:55 pm said:
  
  I hate you so much.
  
  Reply ↓
Redbeard on December 13, 2013 at 5:26 am said:

The answer is that I’m a fucking idiot masochist and accepted an officer position in my guild, despite my best intentions to live as a carefree peon. Now, suddenly, I’m worrying about shit like rostering and class balance even though I’m not the one who leads or rosters the raids. I’m clearly insane.

Ouch. Yeah, that’d suck.

Herding cats is preferable to that situation.

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Ikorus on December 13, 2013 at 5:37 am said:

Incoming wall of text, sorry Njess.

Like I mentioned previously, I’ve mained an operative healer since launch. They’re amazingly fun to play for me, just as much if not more so than my beloved Ataru Marauder. Most of the math nerds (who are, by the way, generally wrong because of things like oh I don’t know variance in human resources?) will tell you to make sure your tech critical is no higher than 15% unbuffed to maximise power. This is a good plan for people with nerves of steel. If you’re like me – and it sound like you are – healing is both exciting and horribly nerve-wracking, especially in Totally Not Raids. Because we have only the one AOE and it’s limited to four people, the more people in your Not A Raid the more restricted you may feel. You’ll be constantly worried about your Energy, and you’ll frequently spaz out and chaincast kolto injection.

To compensate, get your surge to 75% and crit to 25% unbuffed, THEN stack power. this way on average one in three heals will crit, leading to sufficient energy regen off your scan crits to pull you back from the brink in just a couple GCDs. Besides, HoTs regularly critting is just pleasant to look at.

Maybe I’ll set Priyd as a healer instead of the planned concealment (I almost rolled sniper, SO CURIOUS, but couldn’t bring myself to ditch the off-healer crutch .-.) and give you my “Operative Healing for Nervous Wrecks: A Primer” in person…so to speak XD

My own guild back on Shadowlands with my main now has an overabundance of healers and a dearth of tanks, so I’ve been focusing on my powertech, which is fun, but hoth is so…well, it’s hoth 😐

At least I’ve got Mandalorian Arm Candy to keep me warm .-.

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- Ikorus on December 13, 2013 at 5:40 am said:
  
  Variance in human reflexes* I must have misspelled and then had autocorrect kick in. Dunno why it would say “resources” though O.o
  
  Reply ↓
- Njessi on December 13, 2013 at 9:02 pm said:
  
  I have actually stacked to 30% crit (buffed), which is about the same as you said. But I pretty well suck at resource management and I’ve always tended to leave myself a bit of wiggle room in that regard when healing is concerned. As DPS, you have the luxury of controlling what you cast and when, and nobody DIES if you mess it up a little.
  
  I don’t have the reflexes of a coked-out ferret, so I need all the help I can get.
  
  My PT is also on Hoth and… yeah… Hoth…
  
  Reply ↓
Shintar on December 13, 2013 at 7:46 am said:

As a fellow player who’d love to be a simple peon but has now repeatedly been roped into taking on responsibility because nobody else would, I feel your pain.

Reply ↓

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Holiday Raiding — 12 Comments

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