SWTOR Operative Healing Comprehensive Guide

SWTOR Operative Healing Comprehensive Guide by bshenkd

My first attempt at a comprehensive SWTOR guide. Be easy on me

Constantly livestreaming level 50 PVP and PVE healing @ http://www.twitch.tv/aioribfz.

Another Twitch.TV sawbones healing streamer: http://twitch.tv/LarceApollo

Videos

Voidstar #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKdLGWFWA4

Alderaan #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFu6x6z4NDs

Final boss of Eternity Vault – SOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqMnBW0Qnlo

Voidstar #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYdho4QiPaY

Huttball #1 (8-man premade!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYDnNRO-CfE

Alderaan #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w2NPpxT4fk

Here are also some pictures that display the power of Medicine healing:

http://i.imgur.com/EvSux.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZPuII.jpg

Introduction

First and foremost, Imperial Agent Operative healing is the most fun healing class I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing! It combines the stealthiness and the energy of a rogue with the healing reminiscent of a Holy Paladin. As long as you manage your energy and cooldowns well, you could be the most versatile healer in the game.

The “Tactical Advantage”

The Tactical Advantage gives a couple % damage increase while active and allows you to cast certain abilities. When 3 points are put into Medical Consult, Tactical Advantage also increases your healing output by 6%. It can stack twice, but the % healing/damage increase does not stack. IE: 1 stack of TA gives you the same stat bonus as 2 stacks of TA. It’s crucial to keep at least one stack of Tactical Advantage up at all times to give you that 6% healing increase and, in case of emergencies, allow you to use a faster cast time/instant healing ability such as Kolto Infusion or Surgical Probe.


Abilties

Diagnostic Scan: Diagnostic Scan is the very first healing ability that you receive. It’s a 3 second channeled ability that heals your target for minimal damage. After thoroughly looking through the talent tree, I can see it used as, not a healing ability, but a energy regeneration ability. With talents + stats, it’s percentage to crit could be anywhere from 70-90% and with talents, each crit restores 2 energy. Based on that alone, you could see how it could be a very useful energy regeneration ability.

As for me, I chose to leave it out of my spec as I currently do not have any energy regen problems. I’m a hardcore PVP’er and I cosntantly need to be on the run, so a 3 second channeled ability isn’t the “best” ability for me to choose. Although, like someone else in the thread said, it could be used as a good interrupt decoy.

After spending many days as a PVE and PVP healer at level 50, I have concluded that Diagnostic Scan is indeed a very good ability. In situations where Adrenaline Probe is down and you need to regen a lot of energy, it helps tremendously. It’s also a great interrupt bait in PVP.

Kolto Injection: This is your “bread and butter” healing ability. When 2 points are put into Incisive Action, it causes your KI to grant you the “Tactical Advantage”. With a hefty price of 25 energy per cast, spamming this ability should only happen if you need to do some burst healing and if Adrenaline Probe is off of cooldown.

Kolto Probe: KP is your first single-target Healing-Over-Time (HoT) spell that you receive in the game. It stacks twice for double the healing which is a good and bad thing. It’s bad in that it requires you to use it twice in order to get the full effect out of the abilitity, but it’s good because after you get two stacks of KP rolling, you only need to use the ability once more in order to refresh it.

Kolto Infusion: Kolto Infusion is the first Tactical Advantage exploitable healing ability that you receive. It has a 1.5 second cast time and a heal size that’s comparable to Kolto Injection, but it slightly less. It costs 20 energy and can also eat away at your energy supply. For the purpose of organization and less confusion in this guide, I will not refer to Kolto Infusion as “KI”. Whenever I refer to “KI”, I’m talking about Kolto Injection. Note: After going through all 50 levels, I have seen no use for Kolto Infusion whatsoever. Surgical Probe replaces it completely.

Surgical Probe: This ability is pretty much an instant cast version of Kolto Infusion. It does a slightly less amount of healing, but with no cast time and no energy cost. It consumes one stack of the Tactical Advantage. This replaces Kolto Infusion completely.

Recuperative Nanotech: RN is the Imperial Agent’s one and only AOE heal ability. It’s a HoT ability and only heals up to 4 members contained within the AOE. RN does not require nor consume a stack of the Tactical Advantage, but does have a 30 energy cost and has a 12 second cooldown.

Stim Boost: This ability consumes one stack of the Tactical Advantage and gives you an extra 3 energy every 3 seconds for 45 seconds. This is an ability you must have up 24/7.

Adrenaline Probe: On a 2 minute cooldown with no energy cost, Adrenaline Probe restores 50 energy over 3 seconds (66 energy if talented).

Shield Probe: On a 45 second cooldown that costs no energy and lasts 15 seconds, it’s a great addition to the Operative arsenal of abilities. This is a great ability to pop right as you’re being targeted and, if talented, increases your healing to yourself by 15% while active.

Countermeasures: Classic ability that lowers aggro while healing. Pop it when you start to direct attention to yourself in PVE.

Skills & Stat Priority

My current skill tree
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401MffbzGoRdsZ0cZGb.1

The link listed above is my preferred talent tree.

As far as stat priority goes, here’s what I have come up with:
Cunning > Surge > Crit > Power > Alacrity

Strategy

Always try to keep your energy level above 60%. If your energy level is above that, you’ll gain the full amount of 5 energy per second (6 energy per second if Stim Boost is up). The less energy you have, the slower the energy regeneration is. The energy regen goes like this:

• > 60%: 5 EPS
• 60% > x > 20%: 3 EPS
• < 20%: 2 EPS

If you ever find yourself around 20-30%, you might as well drop yourself all the way down to zero and pop Adrenaline Probe. You’ll get the most out of this very important cooldown this way. The same can be done if burst healing is needed.

A great way to prep for a fight is to cast Kolto Injection * 2 to get your Stim Boost and one stack of the Tactical Advantage before the fight even begins! It saves some energy down the road, which is crucial for Operative healing.


Single-target Healing

The way I start off my single target healing goes something like this:

• Cast Kolto Injection * 2 to get 2 stacks of the Tactical Advantage.
• Cast Stim Boost (I now have 1 stack of TA left)
• Cast Kolto Probe * 2.
• Cast Kolto Injection once more (if KP hasn’t procced an Tactical Advantage by now, I now have 2 stacks of Tactical Advantage)
• Switch between KI and SP. Never let KP lose its two stacks. It’ll cost you an extra 15 energy.

Multi-target Healing

• Once again, get two stacks of Tactical Advantage with KI and cast Stim Boost.
• From there you can keep everyone topped off with KP HoTs. Note: You don’t have to give everyone two stacks. The only people that should be getting two stacks are the tanks and the people who are taking most of the aggro away from the tanks.
• Use KI/KI/SP if needed. Also,