I think a lot of people posting in the poll can not read so the results are a little inaccurate. He said in your ARENA team not in general, of course everyone runs healers in GW and DS/LS =P
Also most people that use a 'healer' in arena use daka, but not for her heal at all, for her annoying constant stuns and the aggrivating need to kill her before you kill anyoen else or they will ressurect, 100% of the time, dont care what the percentages say the ressurect chance is, it is practically 100% =P
According to swgoh.gg (with a sample size of 3889 different top-100 arena teams), 87 out of 1264 top ten arena teams or 7% have Lumi on their squad. So she's well-represented (she's the 12th-most used toon), but not quite a majority as @Jedi_Yoda noted. It's also interesting that Lumi is used by 16% of top-100 teams, but only 6% of #1 teams and 7% of top-ten teams. So the more elite a team is, the less likely they are to use Lumi.
I wouldn't consider Daka to be a healer so much, as her heal is weak and on defense the AI will only use it after someone dies. She's really a stunner and rezzer.
Lumi is the only toon I'd actually take into arena for healing (I think Barriss is bad), and she's absolutely still viable. Does nice damage - I love how hard her basic hits - and has a very powerful heal. I just switched back to her from Daka as I had been trying out a stun squad with Phasma leading, but it didn't seem to do so well on defense. I've now switched to ST Han leading, paired with RG, GS, QGJ, and Lumi. With two tanks Lumi's heal becomes much more relevant, as unless you have multiple dispels (which almost nobody does in arena) you're going to have to focus the tanks so she can really help keep them alive.
Use Lumi, but for her damage mostly. Her heal is just an added bonus. And because she's easy to get. If I had someone else to match her damage and with better utility than her ability block, then I'd prob switch her out.
I haven't used a true healer in forever, but slight caveat as I now use JE
I don't consider JE a healing toon. His heal is not very good imo. I use him for his turn meter and crit up for my droid team and only once was he alive to use his 'heal' for resurrect. The AI focuses on him (and he's only 4* so very little health). He is the first toon to die after RG dies.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing" - Darth Vader
Replies
Also most people that use a 'healer' in arena use daka, but not for her heal at all, for her annoying constant stuns and the aggrivating need to kill her before you kill anyoen else or they will ressurect, 100% of the time, dont care what the percentages say the ressurect chance is, it is practically 100% =P
Source: https://swgoh.gg/meta-report/10/
Lumi is the only toon I'd actually take into arena for healing (I think Barriss is bad), and she's absolutely still viable. Does nice damage - I love how hard her basic hits - and has a very powerful heal. I just switched back to her from Daka as I had been trying out a stun squad with Phasma leading, but it didn't seem to do so well on defense. I've now switched to ST Han leading, paired with RG, GS, QGJ, and Lumi. With two tanks Lumi's heal becomes much more relevant, as unless you have multiple dispels (which almost nobody does in arena) you're going to have to focus the tanks so she can really help keep them alive.
Sometimes I'll sub in Yoda.
So no, I haven't used a healer for a long time.
I don't consider JE a healing toon. His heal is not very good imo. I use him for his turn meter and crit up for my droid team and only once was he alive to use his 'heal' for resurrect. The AI focuses on him (and he's only 4* so very little health). He is the first toon to die after RG dies.
I changed it fairly early on so its pretty much accurate...
I use both, and the rest of my team are all attackers. Works fine for me.
I use Lumi + RG too, it's nice when she saves someone under 50% HP while that character's being protected by RG.
No healer need apply..