The Sage Healing Guide

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Bertina Ilene Haynes
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1 Forward: The purpose of this guide is to share my experience and knowledge from healing through many heroics, flash points, and operations. It is created exclusively for members of the Shock and Jawa guild. Thank you all for the opportunity to laugh, share stories, and play together. Remember that failure is not falling down, it is refusing to get back up and keep going. And something is only impossible until it is done. Table of Contents 1. Building a Sage Healer Skill point distribution Seer Tree Telekinetics Tree Balance Tree 2. The Basics of Healing: Healing abilities Important stats Gearing up 3. Advanced Healing : Group healing tactics o Ops healing with other sages o Ops healing with smugglers and commandos Tricks of the trade o Force management o Interrupts and crowd control (CC) 4. Stats and Caps for the mathematically inclined: Percent of Cap Stat chart Full circle

2 Building a Sage Healer: It is extremely important to allocate the precious few skill points we have available to ensure maximum effectiveness. The goal is to maximize healing output and efficiency, while not missing out on important abilities and talents. Below is a screen shot of the build I am currently running on my level 55 Sage. It is: 37/7/2 (Seer/Telekinetics/Balance). Seer: This is where you will spend the majority of the your skill points. There are two things that are important to note. First, spec in Valiance for the 4% reduction in health cost while using Noble Sacrifice and 30% increase to Force Mend. A dead healer is no good to the group. Second, Humility, Egress, Confound, and Master Speed are very situational and not worth your valuable skill points. Telekinetics: 3pts in Inner Strength gives 9% cost reduction for healing. 2pts in Mental Longevity increases total force by pts in Telekinetic Defense 20% increase to force armor. Balance: 2pts in Will of the Jedi to get a 6% willpower bonus.

3 The Basics of Healing: As a Sage we have four (4) direct heals, one (1) AOE heal, and one (1) self heal at our disposal for end game. There are also several additional abilities that come into play, Restoration, Force Armor and Noble Sacrifice. Direct Heals: Benevolence Our first healing ability and is primarily used to top off group/ops members. When used in conjunction with conveyance becomes a high efficiency heal. Deliverance Our second healing ability which becomes your emergency heal for end game. Used in conjunction with force potency for burst healing. Rejuvenate Our third healing ability is a small direct heal that ticks for additional health. Instant cast, great for healing on the run, and should always be on cool down. This ability also activates conveyance, and when used in conjunction with any other heal can double the effect. Healing Trance Our fourth healing ability is channeled. It heals once for a base amount, plus once per second for 3 seconds. When used in conjunction with conveyance easily becomes your biggest direct healing ability. The down side is that you cannot move while channeling, so your positioning becomes important. If your target leaves line of site or moves out of rage the channel stops as well. AoE Heal: Salvation Our area of effect (AoE) healing ability, that when cast allows you to heal up to 8 allies simultaneously. All that stand in or around it will benefit from a heal over time effect (HoT) for 10s. This is not an efficient heal unless 2 or more are benefiting from its effects. Once again, positioning and communication is key to maximize effectiveness. Additional Abilities: Force Mend This instant self heal can be cast on the run for those critical moments when you attract the unwanted attention of enemies. There is no force cost but it does have a 30s cool down. Restoration This is primarily a cleansing ability used to clear up to two (2) negative effects. It also casts a small heal on the target. Very efficient, not for spam healing but handy in a pinch.

4 Force Armor This is a shield buff that is extremely effective at preventing damage. Ideally used on your tank to increase survivability when fighting a boss or multiple targets. It is an instant and can be cast while moving. Noble Sacrifice This is a very misunderstood ability. I Highly recommend using it and here is why; Normally you regenerate 8 force per second for a total of 80 force. When using noble sacrifice you return 48 force + 60 force over the next 7s, that is 6 force per second due to the penalty, for a total of 108 force. That is a 35% increase over standard force regeneration. Force Barrier This is a short duration personal shield that will prevent all incoming damage. it will also remove threat and tick a small heal until the spell ends or is broken by moving. There is a cool down so use it wisely. Important Stats: There are several important stats for sage healers and they are: Willpower, Power, Force Power, Critical Rating, Surge rating, and Alacrity. Willpower is our primary stat and it provides 0.14 to bonus healing per point. It does not have diminishing returns and also provides a small bonus to critical chance. Power provides 0.17 bonus healing per point and does not have diminishing returns. Force Power is gained only from our main and off hand gear. It provides 0.17 bonus healing per point and does not have diminishing returns. Critical Rating converts into critical chance and caps out at 30%. It does have diminishing returns, meaning that the more critical rating you have the less benefit you receive from it. Surge Rating converts to critical multiplier, which determines how hard you hit when you crit. The base critical multiplier is 50%, which translates to 150% more damage/healing than a regular hit without any surge rating. Adding surge rating will increase the critical multiplier, however, it does have diminishing returns and caps out at 30%. Alacrity reduces the amount of time it takes to channel abilities. It converts directly to our activation speed. Basically you will do the same amount of damage/healing but in a reduced time frame. Alacrity also has diminishing returns and caps out at 30%. For all you min/maxers out there it's all in the numbers. There is absolutely no reason to have more than Alacrity or Critical in your build. Stack all the Willpower, Force Power, and Power you can. Bottom line: sustained heals will win out over burst heals!

5 Gearing Up: The gear in SWTOR is based on a tier type system. As you progress through the end game content new gear will become available. All of the tier gear is level and is restricted to base class, which in our case is Jedi Consular. The tier gear drops from boss encounters in flash points and operations, but can also be purchased with commendations that can be acquired by completing daily and weekly missions. Gear ratings and mod level are shown in the table below: Gear Rating Name Mod Level Mod Name 156 Artifact Black Market/Arkanian Verpine/Underworld Kell Dragon/Shadowed Oricon/Dread Forged Augments: Always augment your gear whenever possible. It is not necessary to go straight to purple (28), as the blue (28) is only a few points less and far more inexpensive. The resolve version is highly recommended for the extra willpower and endurance. You will still need an MK-9 kit to use each augment, which you can make or buy off the GTN. and remember everything can have an augment, even your relics. Most of the armor you will want to acquire for PVE/PVP will be called Force-Mystic, indicating that it is intended for healers. There is a big incentive to obtain this armor, as it provides additional bonuses based on the number of pieces worn. Also keep in mind that these bonuses are maintained across the tiers, allowing you to mix and match pieces. This means that an Underworld chest and Oricon gloves count as 2 pieces. PVE Force-Mystic armor set bonuses: (2) Reduces the cool down of innervate or healing trance by 1.5 seconds (4) Increases total force by 50 PVP Force-Mystic armor set bonuses: (2) Reduces the lockout debuff duration of static barrier or force armor by 3 seconds (4) Consumption or noble sacrifice restore 3% of max health over 6 seconds

6 Advanced Healing: The road to being a good healer can be a challenging one. As with all classes it requires time and experience to learn the ropes. It also requires patience, quick thinking, and the reflexes of a Jedi. From this point on I will write about personal experiences and ideas that will push the limit of our healing capabilities. Remember, there is a fine line between genius and madness as some concepts may seem counter intuitive. Group Healing Tactics: When healing in a group, especially in pugs, you will need to quickly identify your tank. If possible, always set the tank on the top of your frames, the dps in the middle, and yourself on the bottom. Using this setup will also help you set an order of importance for healing. I also recommend using ops frames as more of your main screen will be open. I typically run the game across three 24" screens so I can see a lot more of the battle field than most. As you would expect, the tank is always your primary for heals with dps on secondary. Focus on the tank with single target heals and bubbles to keep them going. Use your AoE heals for the dps, but if they steal attention from the tank, a quick bubble and direct heal usually does the trick. Use rejuvenate to activate conveyance then healing trance to proc resplendence. With resplendence you can build up to three (3) charges which can be used to instant cast Salvation, or to lessen the effects of noble sacrifice. When needed, hit force potency and cast deliverance two times for big heals; 11-13K per cast with my current build. Always bubble first to stop the damage then use direct heals. During the fight it may become apparent that you cannot keep everyone alive. When this happens, and it will happen, you must quickly decide who to keep alive. Always use your intuition and consider the circumstances. Late in a fight usually requires a switch to dps, but early on its best to stay on the tank. It may seem cold, but the whole group will definitely fall without you, so stay alive. If you get the unwanted attention of a boss or group of mobs be sure to stay calm. Use force barrier to drop aggression and stop all damage taken. If force barrier is down, use force armor on yourself and move towards the tank. Also use force mend or a med pack if your low on health. Remember to let the group know that you are in trouble and call for an AoE taunt to pull threat away from you. In the end you may still find yourself with all defensives on cool down, low power, and almost no health. Call for help from your fellow healers, move to a safer area, but do not stop healing! Even the smallest heal can make the difference. Healing with other sages: Split up the healing duties and each take on half of the ops raid. Setup your ops frames accordingly so each sage knows their responsibilities. Also, make sure to coordinate on your AoE heals for both ranged and melee. Communication is key as intense fights may require you to double up on AoE heals to mitigate raid wide damage.

7 For boss fights and 16man ops, assign one sage to the tanks and one to the dps. This can help immensely with positioning, especially when a lot of movement is required. Ask your ops group to call out for a cleanse when needed. Split the duties casting restoration on each group member based on your preset healing responsibilities. Raid wide DoT's can be harsh and you can get to everyone faster and avoid doubling up on one person. Healing with smugglers and commandos: For boss fights and 16man ops with a smuggler, it is best for the sage to focus on the tanks. The smugger is much more mobile and their HoTs are perfect to keep the dps alive. If the tank is taking heavy damage, ask the smuggler to throw in a HoT to help stabilize your direct heals. When you need to use noble sacrifice to regain force, ask the smuggle for a HoT to keep your health up. With good coordination you can have virtually unlimited healing power. For boss fights and 16man ops with a commando, it is best for the sage to focus on the dps. The commando is great at direct heals, but they need to heal continuously with hammer shot to keep their healing bonuses up. Switching between multiple targets is not good for them. If the tank is taking heavy damage throw in a bubble to help stop damage. Use your AoE heals to keep the dps alive and use your direct heals to fill in the gaps. Team up for CC's and take multiple mobs out of the action before the fight eve starts. If the fight is going poorly use your CC's to quickly regain control. Remember that the smuggler can only CC droids once the action starts, however, the commando can CC all targets. Remember to always play to your team mates strengths. If the ranged dps are together and not moving use your AoE heal on them. If the tanks and melee dps are together, place your AoE there. The smuggle and commando are very mobile and should pick up the moving targets. Help them out with a bubble if they get in trouble and they will reciprocate when you need you help. Tricks of the Trade: If you run low on force during a fight, use noble sacrifice in conjunction with force mend. As a general rule of thumb I hit noble sacrifice two (2) or three (3) times then hit force mend. If you get low on health you can always cast salvation on the ranged dps and stand in the AoE yourself. Force wave is normally used to knock back mobs if they swarm you. I use it to knock down mobs and briefly stop damage. I also use it to push mobs together for AoE damage like force quake. Force wave also functions as a frontal cone heal with unlimited targets. Great for quick heals when you are on the move. Always use rejuvenate + healing trance to proc conveyance. Use the conveyance charges with noble sacrifice to recover force quickly. When in trouble use force barrier to drop mobs agro and stop all damage to yourself.

8 Use and abuse salvation, as this AoE can heal up to eight (8) people at once. When engaging larger groups of mobs, call out a target and use force lift. You can also make use of your stun to prevent damage and help control the mobs. Again call out your target and wait a second to make sure everyone can react. Stats and Cap for the mathematically inclined: Below are a few charts to help you better visualize what our stats mean and how they compare based on the amount we have in our build. This first chart shows us the percent of cap, and the point of diminishing returns. Keep in mind that this chart ends at 2500 stat rating.

9 This second chart shows us how much benefit we receive for each stat based on its rating. Keep in mind that this chart also ends at 2500 stat rating. Full Circle: Ok what does all this stuff really mean? It tells us that the stats are asymptotic and endless in nature. As each stat goes higher and higher we approach a point of diminishing returns. Take surge for example, and see how the line curves up towards the cap of 30%. The stat will continue to increase but the benefit from each point drops significantly around 500. So at 600 points the actual benefit is less than 1% of cap, and at 700 it is around 0.25%. Another interesting fact about our stats is that some actually bolster others. Take sages for example: as willpower increases so does their crit rating. With a willpower of 2500 a sage will have approximately 15% crit rating, which is halfway to cap without any points in crit rating itself!

When you hear talk about stat optimization, this is the stuff they are referring to! Optimization of your stats should be a priority once you hit 55 and start donning arkanium (69) gear.

10 When you hear talk about stat optimization, this is the stuff they are referring to! Optimization of your stats should be a priority once you hit 55 and start donning arkanium (69) gear. For sages, we need to stack willpower, force power, and power to push our heals to the max. Next in line are crit rating, surge, and alacrity. Sages should be pushing for a crti rating of 25-30%, and surge rating of 70-75%, and alacrity of 10%. These stat ratings will be accomplished with roughly 250 crit, roughly 500 surge, and around 250 alacrity. It does not seem like much but that is all it takes to reach the current soft caps. In closing I have added a screen shot of my sage. I thought it might be cool to show my stats and UI layout. I am sure everyone wonders how we healers see the world, so here goes.

Appendix B. Acquired Abilities. List

Appendix B. Acquired Abilities. List Attack Appendix B Acquired Abilities List Universal Abilities (Useable by both Force Sensitive and Non-Force Sensitive characters) Close Quarters Fighting: (Level 1); Mobile Attack: (Level 1); This character