After watching the following video about companions and healing I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on healing in TOR? Just for the purpose of getting a general idea of what people think I thought I'd start a multiple choice poll where you can pick and choose which you feel is important to the game. Please type out your choices (by letter) below.

CEFH is my choices

Pretty much everything they said in that gave me hope.

I personally think one of the stongest aspects of all BioWare games are the Companions, they can make or break a situation if used properly - and in MMOs I cant even begin to count the times I've been in a group or a raid and we're "one tank short" or we dont have "enough healers" - it adds (sometimes quite literally) hours on to your wait before you can start and now BW have just completely done away with it which to me, is just freakin' awsome.

They're not the first people to do it in an MMORPG, but considering I've never come across a "bad" BW title, TOR should deliver.

The fact that they also point out that almost the entire game is soloable (right up to endgame at least) is also another smart move in my opinion. I play MMO's because I like the group experience but sometimes I just wanna solo and often (especially when I play late at night) people I know aren't on. With other MMOs that means I do crafting or daily quests or whathaveyou...now it means I can actually keep playing.

The fact they're also mentioning about instancing is good too. A lot of games are taking this approach where there are multiple instances of the same game played across servers which works - in my opinion - really, really well. It stops key parts of the game feeling over-crowded (if you want swathes of people go to a hub!), cuts down on lag and loading screens and gives much more of a "you and your buddies vs the galaxy" feel because you dont have to tred over 5,000 night elf twi'lek chicks dancing in their pants played by 5 years olds every time you want to enter a store.

Have to admiit I couldn't find much about healing in that video though :S nevertheless here are my choices:

(C) I would prefer it if healing was available to both players and companions
- because I want to be able to heal my companion if they are in the middle of a "channelling" ability for example, but don't want to constantly 'hold their hand', so if they could also heal themselves when they drop below a certain threshold or something, that'd be good.

(D) I'm very interested in playing a healing class
I always end up playing these, but that being said I like Healers who can "kick some" as well, so the "life drain" and "force lightning" of the Inquisitor appeals.

(F) I feel that a player controlled healer should be better at that role than a companion character
Especially in end-game or high-end raids (assuming they do them) a bot just wouldn't have the reactions a player would. I play a fully HEAL-specc healer in wow and I'm often in charge of keeping 10-30 players alive with the help of 1 other healer and timing of heal-spells and buffs is crucial. I wouldn't wanna leave that in the hands of a bot unless I could set their AI.

(I) Healing should be restricted to certain classes
By this, I don't mean that "only 1 class per side should be able to heal", rather that I think it would be best if there was a "dedicated" healer class. For example, if an Imperial Agent could heal himself using gel or one of his flying droids for example that would be awesome, but I think the IA shouldn't be able to heal as well as a Sith Inquistor in that instance. Conversely, the SI should be able to do ranged damage just like an Imperial Agent, but the IA should be significantly better at it, with higher DPS.

C, lol I cant really add to what LW said

I went with E instead of D but other than that, Lunar has my votes and reasons spot on - that noctural post predator!

(C) I would prefer it if healing was available to both players and companions

(F) I feel that a player controlled healer should be better at that role than a companion character

(I) Healing should be restricted to certain classes

As per LW (wot he said).

LW pretty much added it up for me!