Are all three healing classes equally viable healers, or is one the “primary” healer

star-wars-the-old-republic

I want to play a healer in SWTOR, which originally lead me to the Jedi Sage / Sith Sorceror as they seemed like the obvious healer type. Since then I've run across some conflicting reports that say that all three healers are expected / designed to be equally viable in healing.

So, it's a big question, but are all three healers equally viable at healing, or is one of them designed as the "primary" healer and the others are more secondary?

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I can't answer from direct play, but using the skill calculators and the baseline skills for both classes, they all do the same amount of healing, just in different ways.

The Jedi healers have high output spells designed to heal one person a lot at a time, with a few group heals at the higher levels.

The Fringe healers (operative/scoundrel) heal over time, so you are healing multiple times over the course of a few seconds, breaking your casts up, and they seem more stackable.

The Tech healers (mercenary/commando) seemed to be based around group healing with a greater chance of scoring critical heals.

All three groups pump out around the same number of hit points over time, so I think the one you chose should be based on how you want to deal with the aggro. From direct play experience, I know that our jedi healer pulls way more aggro at a time than our operative healer. She heals with fewer abiility presses in each fight but they are spread out though the fight, while our operative tends to front load the healing and then spend the rest of the fight sneaking around and dropping people from stealth. I haven't played with the mercenary yet, so I can't speak to the actual in game tactics.

Updated answer Having now played through fifty and with a few more alts running around, I have learned that the above holds true but the force users with a tweaked build are in fact capable of pumping out more healing than the others, although the edge is only about a percent. Also, If you are going healer, biochem makes you better by about ten percent and allowing you to self heal with reusable medpacks that don't draw aggro. At least until it gets nerfed again.

Related Solutions

Are all trainers the same

All the trainers (that are appropriate for your class) will teach you the same skills. In the top right (if I remember correctly) of the training menu you can choose to display the skills you haven't learned yet or don't have the level requirements to learn yet.

All the trainers teach you the same basic skills. IE. All Sith Inquisitor trainers will be able to teach you force lightning at level 2. Multiple trainers are scattered out to make it easier to get your skills when you level up.

Are the classes in TOR really mirrored across factions

I've found one case where an ability is different between the mirrors, but even beyond that there are definitely some differences between how the mirrored abilities themselves play out. The differences mainly seem to be in the animations used (and the speed differences therein) as well as travel time from projectile to target. As such, most of these differences have very little effect except in PVP, where a few seconds can be critical.

Just for the sake of context, here are the mirrors:

  - Jedi Knight      <-> Sith Warrior
  - Jedi Consular    <-> Sith Inquisitor
  - Republic Trooper <-> Bounty Hunter
  - Smuggler         <-> Imperial Agent

Obviously maintaining a list of every single difference would be unwieldy not to mention probably end up outdated, but here are some differences I've found to illustrate my point:

Bounty Hunter's "Unload" doesn't get interrupted if you take damage, but the Trooper's Full Auto does. This makes the Bounty Hunter's ability better.
The Bounty Hunter's Death From Above starts applying its damage immediately, compared to the Trooper's Mortar Volley which takes a few seconds before damage starts being applied.
The Sith Inquisitor's Shock does its damage immediately, whereas the Jedi Consular's Project ability has a longer animation and a travel time.
Smuggler's Dirty Kick stops the forward movement of the smuggler, where as the Imperial Agent's version does not stop the forward movement of the agent.
The Imperial Agent's Flash Bang is on a 60 second cooldown, but the Smuggler's Flash Grenade is on a 90 second cooldown. They otherwise appear to be identical. They plan to patch it soon.
The Imperial Agent's Backstab happens instantly. The Smuggler's Back Blast animation takes longer.
The Imperial Agent's Explosive Probe animation is quick and damage happens almost instantly, whereas the Smuggler's Sabotage Charge has a longer animation plus the damage isn't applied until the charge travels to the target.
I see at least one example of ability difference (assuming TorHead can be trusted). The Consular gets a level 46 ability, Unity, which lets them and their companion reduce damage by 50% for 15 seconds. The Inquisitor has a level 46 ability called Sacrifice which nearly kills their companion, but heals themselves 40%. Pretty different effects. This is biggest difference I've seen, and haven't heard of any others like this.

So to answer your question directly, no, they aren't perfectly mirrored. I think the animation speeds have a much larger impact on how the mirrored classes play differently, as opposed to the minor round-off problem in the conversion such as that between heat and ammo. But even then, the mirroring is close enough that it probably won't matter to anyone except in PVP.

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Are all trainers the same

Are the classes in TOR *really* mirrored across factions

Are the classes in TOR really mirrored across factions