The attribute (or statistics in DCUO terms) choice for a "Healer" is, as in any other MMO, a trade-off between Power (mana) regeneration and Power quantity (for example, in World of Warcraft you have Spirit (Vitalization in DCUO terms) and Mana (Power in DCUO terms)).

The attributes to look out for are:

• Restoration
• Power
• Vitalization

The choice between Power and Vitalization is a difficult one to make, there have been cases where Priests in World of Warcraft have chosen Mana (quantity) over Spirit (mana regeneration) with efficient results (this was before the boilerplate state of World of Warcraft where you cannot experiment anymore).

• Savage Growth (Plants) is the only offensive spell used as an interrupt as well .
• Regeneration is slow to activate, but regenerates both power and health to all party members.
• Swarm Shield (Shapeshifting) is acquired by sacrificing a point to Gorilla Form but works great as an emergency heal. It also seems to function well to prevent damage spikes, especially when starting combat.
• Metabolism (Shapeshifting) first sets pheromones and then combines with the next skill Blossom (Plants) that removes the pheromones. Both of these powers heal but when activated in sequence will heal even more. Metabolism is an AoE HoT and Blossom has instantaneous effects.
• Cross Pollination is also an AoE HoT - perhaps this can be further optimized or exchanged for a Robot Sidekick iconic power.

The mapping to keys is intentional, for solo, Savage Growth can help interrupt enemies, followed by Regeneration and the rest of the skills for healing.

Any weapon that has upgrades based on Restoration, Critical Heal Chance, Critical Healing Magnitude or Power and Vitalization is a good choice, providing that it is a ranged weapon that will allow you to stay out of combat and accumulate power.

The Hand Blaster is a good example. If you look at the skill tree, you will notice that most skills affect healing:

• Solar Flame → +1% Critical Heal Chance
• Block Breaker → Permanently Gain: +3 Restoration
• Critical Healing Magnitude → Permanently increase statistics: Boost Critical Healing Magnitude by 4% per point.
• Restoration → Permanently increase statistics: Boost Restoration by +7 per point
• Power → Permanently increase statistics: Boost Power by +6 per point
• Vitalization → Permanently increase statistics: Boost Vitalization by +2 per point

The tactic is to stay away and shoot randomly at mobs in order to regenerate Power and then heal.

Three iconic powers are important:

• Miracle Worker → Permanently Gain: +10% Critical Healing Magnitude
• Empathic Healing → Permanently Gain: +3% Critical Healing Chance
• Wisdom of Solomon → Permanently Gain: +50 Vitalization / +100 Power

The only thing that matters when it comes to Combat Rating, is the gear that you have in your possession. It can be acquired through drops, or just bought at a set-vendor. In any case, the gear has to be in your possession (either inventory or bank) but it should not be necessarily worn.

Each piece of equipment is given a different combat rating depending on the slot that it is equipped in. The DC Universe Wiki, hints to the following distribution of Combat Rating multipliers per gear piece:

When shopping or looting, you should pick the gear items in sequence that have the highest Combat Rating multipliers.