Birr's Operative Healing Guide

[Birr]

Birr's Operative Healing Guide

Contents
1. Introduction
2. Main Stats
3. Energy
4. Tactical Advantage
5. Healing Abilities
6. Talents

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1. Introduction
The Imperial Agent - Operative is quite a capable class playing either the healer or dps role. This guide will focus on players interested in the healing role. Playing a healer is a highly rewarding aspect of gaming, however it’s not for everyone. It will be your job to keep your party or ops group alive, rather than kill your opponent. You will in all likelihood spend a lot of time looking at health bars instead of the fight taking place. That said, you need to be situationally aware of the fight so you can move out of area of effect (AoE) abilities so you don’t get killed. If you die, most likely, so does everyone else.

In this guide I will attempt to differentiate what I know as fact from what I believe to be important by adding a personal note section when relevant.
Personal Note: Sadly, I have not yet posted 10 times on Old Republic, so I cannot provide links in this guide. I will attempt to rectify this in the near future.

2. Main Stats
Cunning
The imperial agent’s primary stat is Cunning. This stat boosts damage output, healing output, and critical hit chance. When given the option, you should be prioritizing this stat.

Endurance
For every point of endurance your character gains 10HP. This directly translates to your survivability.

Power
Directly increases healing output.

Alacrity
This increases the speed at which you perform your actions. When channeling an ability or perform an action with an activation time, alacrity reduces the time it takes for these actions to complete.
Personal Note: As an operative healer, much of our healing comes from instant cast abilities, this makes alacrity much less useful in my opinion.

Critical
With every action performed there is a chance you will get a critical success. This is your critical chance, which is increased via the Critical stat.

Surge
By default, when you crit, you deal 150% of whatever the action would have done. If you were about to heal for 1,000 you will instead heal for 1,500. Surge increases this value above 150%. If you stack crit, you should also prioritize surge as the two work hand in hand.

Expertise
This is a stat you won't get until you've been PvPing (if that interests you). It increases your damage and healing on other players as well as reducing the incoming damage.

Order of Importance
Personal Note: If you disagree, please let me know why, I'd love a constructive discussion and don't mind being proven wrong.
PvE - Cunning > Power > Alacrity > Endurance > Crit > Surge
I'm keeping Endurance above crit and surge because there's usually AoE damage, agro wipes, or random boss attacks to deal with in and if you don't have to worry about immediately healing yourself or being 1 shot, you'll be better off. (I have not yet experienced the SWtoR operations, so if the boss battles are all tank/spank, I will happily remove endurance from the list, but that seems unlikely)

PvP - Expertise > Cunning > Endurance > Power > Alacrity > Crit > Surge
When you start acquiring PvP gear you're going to be force fed these stats anyway (except surge). In the meantime I'm keeping endurance above the other stats because you're going to need the endurance to keep yourself alive. Generally once an enemy notices a healer, they've found their next kill target.

3. Energy
Virtually every action performed by an Operative requires a resource called Energy. This resource regenerates over time and has a maximum (un-talented) value of 100. The rate at which energy regenerates is based on how much energy you currently have.

Current Energy Level	Regeneration / Second
100%-60%	5
59%-20%	3
19%-0%	2

The above data was sourced from Lizzy’s Sniper guide (My apologies to Lizzy, I tried to link to both her profile and guide but apparently I don’t have privileges to put links in my posts yet).

4. Tactical Advantage
There is a temporary buff that the Operative gets after performing certain actions called Tactical Advantage. This buff stacks up to 2 times and lasts 10 seconds. Certain other actions require the Operative have tactical advantage active in order to activate them, and then consume tactical advantage on use. This only consumes 1 of the possible 2 from the stack. If you perform an action that grants tactical advantage it will reset the timer on the buff. However, an action that consumes a tactical advantage does not reset the timer. When you take the Medical Consult talent, your healing is increased while Tactical Advantage is active.

[Birr]

5. Primary Abilities
Diagnostic Scan (Channeled, 3 seconds, 0 Energy)
This is the most basic healing ability and requires no energy.
Personal Note: This ability is best used in conjunction with 2 stacks of Kolto Probe to keep a single target at full health. Ideally used when only one target is taking damage or when you have absolutely no energy and need to heal. Do not just stand around doing nothing.

Kolto Injection(2.5s activation time, 2s talented, 25 Energy)
This is the primary heal ability utilized by the Operative. Along with the talent Incisive Action (Medicine, 1st tier, 2pts) this spell always triggers a Tactical Advantage.

Kolto Infusion(1.5s activation time, 20 Energy, Consumes 1 TA)
This heal consumes a Tactical Advantage and heals for a large quantity.
Personal Note: Once you get Surgical probe this spell becomes much less useful.

Kolto Probe(Instant, 15 Energy)
This is a HoT (heal over time) effect applied to target player and stacks up to 2 times. It lasts 18 seconds and reapplication of the HoT will reset the timer. When the Medical Engineering talent is taken this ability will provide you with a number of helpful extra Tactical Advantages.
Personal Note: In PvE you want to keep this stacked on your tank. Due to the energy efficiency of this spell if a party member takes some damage but is not directly being attacked you can drop 1/2 on them and let them slowly heal. Allowing you to continue to focus you main healing efforts on the tank.

Surgical Probe(Instant, 0 Energy, Consumes 1 TA)
Quality instant heal spell using no energy, but consuming a tactical advantage. When Surgical Precision is taken this spell can be spammed on a player with low HP until the player gets above 30% HP as the Tactical Advantage is constantly refreshed.

Recouperative Nanotech(Instant, 30 Energy)
Puts a HoT on your allies.
Personal Note: I’m finding this ability somewhat lackluster. The 30m range doesn’t always seem to work properly. I haven’t had much cause to use it in PvE yet. In PvP I’m generally not standing close enough to my team to make effective use of this spell, as such, I do not presently take this talent in my PvP spec.

Toxin Scan(Instant, 10 Energy)
Removes certain negative effects from players. Removes poison effects. Does not remove reduced armor.
Personal Note: I’m still working on exactly which abilities this removes. I think, but am not certain it removes snares.

Adrenaline Probe(Instant, 0 Energy)
Restores 50 energy over 3 seconds. Can be talented to also immediately restore another 15 energy.
Personal Note: I am not presently taking the talent for PvP as I feel my 2 talent points are better spent elsewhere.

Shield Probe(Instant, 0 Energy)
Powerful defensive utility. Creates a shield around the Operative absorbing a moderate amount of incoming damage.

Stim Boost(Instant, 0 Energy, Consumes 1 TA)
This provides a buff that restores 3 energy every 3 seconds, it is critical to keep this buff up at all times.

[Birr]

6. Talents
The Operative has three skill trees, Medicine, Concealment, and Lethality, as a healer most of the talent points will be spent in the Medicine tree.

You can read the full description of each talents for yourself, for now consider this section entirely my opinion. I expect to edit this section over time, but, taking these talents should allow you to build a strong PvP or PvE build. Considering it a starting point.

Required Talents

Tier 1
Incisive Action - Reduces the cast time of Kolto Injection and causes it to grant Tactical Advantage
Imperial Education - Increases total cunning

Tier 2
Medical Consult - Increases healing done while affected by Tactical Advantage
Surgical Steadiness - Reduces pushback when activating a heal ability

Tier 3
Prognosis Critical - Increases the crit chance of Diagnostic Scan
Koldo Probe - Primary HoT ability

Tier 4
Patient Studies - Restores energy on Diagnostic Scan crit
Medical Engineering - Kolto Probe has a chance to grant Tactical Advantage

Tier 5
Surgical Probe - Necessary instant heal spell.
Surgical Precision - Allows the ability to spam surgical probe on a low HP player.

Useful Talents

Concealment Tree
Tier 1
Survival Training - Increases overall healing

Lethality Tree
Tier 1
Lethality - Increases crit chance

Interesting PvP Talents

Concealment Tree
Tier 2
Inclement Conditioning - Encreases endurance, thus total health, keeping you alive longer.
Scouting - Increases defense rating and stealth detection.

Tier 3
Revitalizers - Stim boost also restores 2% HP every 3 seconds

Lethality Tree
Tier 3
Combat Stims - Stim boost provides a small amount of energy immediately with a shorter cooldown.

Tier 4
Adhesive Corrosives - The tier 3 AoE Corrosive Grenade ability now snares enemies for 6 seconds. This would make for a useful escape ability, but I’m not thrilled at the cost to get there.

[Birr]

Reserved Post #1

[Birr]

Reserved Post #2

[Lizzy]

The above data was sourced from Lizzy’s Sniper guide (My apologies to Lizzy, I tried to link to both her profile and guide but apparently I don’t have privileges to put links in my posts yet).

No problem Birr, it's not like I invented energy regen. Actually one of our forum members posted that the old regen table was no longer valid. Then I just tested it myself in-game and it turned out to be true...so I updated it. The end

[Traxex]

I am curious to why you consider endurance a more important stat that power? are you considering stats from a PVP or PVE perspective? Because in PVE I wouldn’t even rate endurance among the top 5 most wanted. probably not even for PVP, since you get a fine amount from gear – for PVP you would get a lot more from expertise than stacking endurance. Very much have to disagree with endurance being an important stat at all.

I also would like to know if you fully tested alacrity, because one of you heals is a channel and alacrity works so really well on this. are you sure it’s not better than being 5th most important? making it a stats you never take. Getting high sustained heals (make power/cunning prim) with alacrity as second - going for high sustained heals with less cast time. Sounds like the best option to me. Although operatives have a lot more hots and instant heals. Yet this rule of thumb usually applies for healers, maybe not operative.

at least 20% of all healing done from critical heals over a period of time, will be overheals. You cannot rely on a critical heals so you begin to heal earlier and if it crit for 4000 and the tank only needed 2500...

Following me? Am not criticizing your work at all, I’m trying to give you perspective

[Birr]

I do focus on PvP far more than PvE, which is why I prioritize endurance. As a healer in pvp you always wind up getting focused. Since you can't get expertise until you have been PvPing, you need the endurance to help get you there. I'll try to make that clear so I'm not misleading people.

I agree with you on the power/alacrity discussion, I've always been one to take these stats over crit (and now surge). The power, crit, surge, and alacrity weren't intended to be in order of importance, however following cunning/end which I had prioritized this is confusing. I'll try to clarify this. I personally would rank power 3rd, but really am not thrilled with alacrity as of yet on the operative. I certainly have not fully tested it and I will try to do so in the coming days.

I almost never have the chance to utilize the channeled heal (diagnostic scan) in PvP. I do make use of it in PvE, but it's normally a situation where I'm just keeping the tank topped off, or there's no real extra bust on the tank, and it with Kolto Probe will get my tank full eventually. If I need to break it early to cast an actual heal, I'm not really concerned about it.

This is my first guide, and I hesitated to write it in the first place. I'm thrilled to have your kind of feedback (constructive) and appreciate it.

[Naphtali-MZN]

Main Stats =

- Might want to include what has DMR
- Alacrity is important because most of our USEFUL heals are NOT instant cast, you mislead here imo
- In your order of importance you make a common mistake I see in class guides for SWTOR which is making them like a WoW class guide. Specifically you do not mention or explain that you will NEVER have to trade Cunning for Crit, you will be trading Cunning (foolishly for Aim, Str, or some other classes main stat). You will need to make the choice between Crit and Power however, and Alacrity vs. Accuracy etc.

Tactical Advantage =

- Might want to mention what the buff does beyond granting ability usage, i.e. it increases overall healing output

Primary Abilities =

- Shield Probe: Might want to mention that talented this will increase healing you RECEIVE so is a must-have talent and usage for PvP and also useful in PvE imo.
- Adrenaline Probe: Not talenting this is a big mistake imo as it keeps you below the "magic" regen rate
- Toxin Scan: Might want to mention that talented this removes more things (including some snares) as well as puts people out that are on fire. This is KEY for PvE and useful for running through fire in Huttball.
- Recuperative Nanotech: Typo "Recouperative", also I'd try to highlight that the SUPER HIGH Energy cost vs. what you actually heal makes this a worthless ability.
- Kolto Infusion: Still useful as it heals for waaay more than Surgical Probe, so in PvP unless you are bringing someone back from the brink with SP spam you'll want to alternate KInj and KInf on someone getting mobbed.
- Kolto Injection: I'd mention this is our "big single target heal"
- Diagnostic Scan: The ONLY use for this is weaving it into your rotations for energy regen which requires being talented.
- Overall you might want to put in how much these heal people

PvP Talents =

- Inclement Condition: Typo "Encreases"

Required Talents =

- Tier 3: Typo "Koldo Probe" =)

I realize your guide is not finished but I feel you are making a mistake right off the bat by conflating PvP healing with PvE healing for us. Healing in an Operation depends greatly on your other healing team members imo. I heal 8-mans with a Sith Sorc so I try to roll HoTs on everyone and then focus on topping off folks with KInj letting him handle the AoE heals (because as you mention our 31-pt talent is garbage). In PvP though I am using HoTs only on myself and maybe one other person (yes, it IS possible to "cheese the meters" by rolling HoTs on the whole Huttball Team but you aren't going to actually keep anyone up). Instead, I am finding who is being targeted by enemy DPS and KInj/KInf and possible SP's if they are below that 30% to bring them back. Also, if you are going to talk about PvP should probably mention our snare, flashbang, stun etc.

Overall good start, please don't let any of my comments bring you down I think it is beneficial to have such a guide for our Heal spec but am obviously not willing to put in the time you are, so kudos sir!

[charis29]

Thanks for this, will definitely be referring to this as I run with my healer and trying out the different tips listed here.