I just let Blizz tank him. I believe it took me three or four stealths before he dies while Bodyguard spec. As long as a companion grabs agro first you won't need to deal with the debuff. The fight requires some lateral thinking, but is otherwise not that bad. The adds are laughable; Admiral should be your focus whenever he's able to be punished.

I'm still not a fan of taking all the alacrity talents in endgame. The ~20% (with crit reaction) on T2/T3 sets & 4 talent points is just wasteful for a couple of reasons: -Just one point in Critical Reaction will save you 3 talent points and only be a loss of 4% alacrity--it will always be up in a build with some crit in it. -The difference of casting time in your heals between the crit/surge routes (7.5->11->16.5) vs. 20%+ doesn't seem tempting. It's not worth missing the thresholds for your other stats. If you can do both, great. You are, however, just trading the cast time at a point when the extra healing you're getting is less powerful than what other stats could offer in the same place. -BH's already have access to some of the quickest heals and reactionary abilities. I wouldn't say we're hurting for fast casts. -Overhealing vs. Underhealing is a tricky debate. I could easily say Overhealing is infinitely more preferable than underhealing given the BH energy budget and ease of itemization. If you overheal, you can heal someone else with the next heal in the rotation. If you underheal, you need to heal that person again and/or leave them and others vulnerable to death. This is very critical in NM level healing, where there are encounters that require people to be almost full life at all times. e.g. The Jarg and Sorno fight can easily deal 18-20k damage every railshot. That leaves a small window of HP that needs to be topped off constantly. -PvE doesn't really require reactionary healing; it isn't exceedingly chaotic in its damage distribution like PvP. Alacrity lets you cast faster, but a healthy crit/surge can mean you cast less. I'm not saying alacrity is bad, but it shouldn't be stressed over all other stats. Not when they're all so accessible. I have run with both 20%+ alacrity builds and crit/surge builds. I stick with my crit surge since it keeps me at 16% alacrity, and I get stronger crits more often with the option of 50% crit rate for up to 35 seconds. Most of the differences between endgame players just comes down to a few talent points, relics/adrenals, and a couple of 140 gear inserts anyways. This is a nice guide, and I'd recommend it to new players.

It's nice to break out of the healbot every once in awhile and give your Powershot some love. http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/4254/doingitwrong.jpg

I haven't noticed this problem in PvP since the past few patches. Button hanging USED to occur everywhere, and it did seem linked to instants, but the latest rung of patches focusing on button response and GCD control seem to have fixed them. I'm not sure of a good use for it in a PvE setting--DPS wise. I use it for emergency heals with my bodyguard. In PvP it gets indispensable. Instant Concussion, Tracer Missile, Rapid Scan, Power Shot. Whatever your flavor of burst needs to be. It's also very useful for maintaining mobility. If I'm chasing someone for a kill as an Arsenal an Explosive Dart->Instant Tracer + HSM/Rail is better than nothing.

I think the issue with FP healing in greens/blues comes down to a couple things. 1. You're in a PUG. To fix this: Play with people you can depend on. 2. Dynamics may be new. Positioning, pot/adrenal/relic/stim use, interrupts, cleanses, CD use, etc. 3. BH and OPs without decent crit+surge have to make up for it with a high cost spam heal in a landslide energy system. Sorcs don't suffer as much in this department. In crappy gear you aren't just racing the Enrage, you're racing your healer's energy. Our energy systems allows for sparse mistakes and are incredibly punishing if you pass the threshold with no CD's up. It's certainly a "crucible" to start people out on trainer content, however it stresses basic concepts necessary for raiding AND awards T2 gear. If it's too tough, there's always Normal raids. I understand how difficult it can be, and can surmise how hard it might be for newcomers with the new changes. The good news is that it probably lasts for less than a week or more. The time it takes to gear up in this game is pretty small in PvE, and the stat increase from T2->T3 is small as well. Very effective gear is available to every class of player. What I don't understand, however, is that people might actually be using T1 gear now. When the game came out by the time you had enough commendations for a piece of Tionese you already had close to a full set of T2. It may make content easier, but may be making it longer as well.

I'm not really seeing such a large drop in healing. My PvE crits are 5-6k (rapid scans). Here's a game post-nerf that should show they're still possible in PvP as well. I'd rather avoid analysis of the game. I have plenty of other pictures where I've gotten them, but didn't hover over the healing stat to view the max heal. Not all games are great, and this one was kind of a dud. We went through maybe two or three teams on each side as people would dodge every time a point was scored. 5k Heal Medal I do find it difficult to nab the medals because once I pop my shield any other healer gets boosted. I can get topped off so fast I've found I need to lose enough health so that I'll have at least three tries at a crit available. I usually wait until I'm <10k/20k to pop it.

I'm not seeing any real discrepancies at the 50's level. You'll want to work on filling out your talents so you can have access to your full healing stable. I wouldn't recommend mando warheads early on. Kolto missile heals for a very small amount (2.5kish crits) so it's not imperative to boost its heal. The only time it would be nice is if you're picking up Muzzle Fluting for PS spam (very helpful when leveling as a BG) and need the extra talents to progress in the tree. I'd recommend swapping Vent Hents for kolto residue. With Residue, SCG, and protective field you should have no problems breaking the 5k healing medal--when you're properly geared at least. After that Cure+Reactive Armor and into Warden->Emergency Scan. Very straightfoward, and it lets you pick up Ironsights at levels 40-43. A nice enough time for it as any. The talent gets stronger as you level up, and is much more effective at higher levels with all the stats you begin accruing.

Neat videos, but why do you play with your camera so close? Zoom out!

Then comes companions.

It does need the debuff. You can keep people up just fine, and there are ways of dealing with it. If they did remove or soften it, they'd need to increase the heal debuff skills in the game to 50% instead of 20%. It would also make those classes necessary for dealing with healers. As a bodyguard I can expertise pot, Kolto Missile shield, and Energy shield. This gives me ~60+% damage mitigation (30% base + 25% shield + 10% shield + difference in expertise) and, as long as I'm healing myself with shield up, about +30% to healing. So BH's have: -30% pvp debuff +10% armor Expertise +15% consumable +10% SCG +5% Kolto Residue +20% Shield = 30% increase to healing at optimal. Since T2 gear will land you crits in the 5-6k's, you'll easily get your 5k medal. When other classes take their +healing talents, like Arsenal Mercs, you can also get higher heals. This does rely on CD's, but true burst from a DPS class does too. I usually nab the medal and then rely on the expertise pot for tanking with SCG shield, while keeping Energy Shield for serious focus moments. If you catch a Bodyguard without their CD's up they're dead. Nothing they can do against competent DPS except try and keep their head above water until somebody saves them.

They do get augment slots. Yes, they're BiS for PvE. Or at least I haven't seen any better.

If you aren't a healer but ARE a Mercenary or Operative and have a Physical/Tech dot on you: cleanse it by your damn self. Don't be a dirty person. Cleanliness is next to win.

I think it's funny that you'd complain about an Ops sustained DPS in a Mercenary forum.

This is so two patches ago.

This is straight up bull on a realistic level. I fully understand the theoretical argument from a "it's healing so it should be on the agro table" standpoint, but its counterpart (shield) suffers none of the drawbacks, uses the main healing stat (+heal x 327% + 1127), and has very solid pros in addition. Static Barrier guarantees optimal output, gives it instantly, doesn't suffer overhealing, isn't reliant on crits, is a base skill, has no target limit, can be effectively used more often on the same target, has variants of talents for healing and DPS, and it has no aggro generation for all of the damage it mitigates. All for the price of having it cost force in a very easily managed & traditional power scheme. The heal from KS is very nice given time. Especially when you consider it's a "free" heal. I will consider it a win as long as it remains broken. It's STILL able to heal twice as fast as intended, as it unintentionally and uncontrollably exploits the same mechanic that double resurgence exploiters (Sorc/Sage) have been using to get x2 procs. This often lets it get better numbers than one barrier cast--if they cast two barriers within 15-18 seconds it's game over for BH apologists.

It does remove dots. It's very effective at shutting down many of the Armor ignoring PvP specs from Tech/Physical classes: Annihilator Marauder, Pyro BH (hybrid), Lethality IA, and some Assassin debuffs ( I believe Physical/Mental). It won't remove Force dots for obvious reasons.

Then make a thread about it? Not sure how it helps to fabricate issues that don't exist to sort of meander into a broader topic that makes more sense in the PvP forums; where resolve can be discussed by everyone.

Merc Bodyguard Main, although I do jump into Arsenal/Pyro every once in awhile. My alt is a Marauder (Anni atm). I was surprised at how simple it was to play. I heard that Carnage Micro was pretty intense because it relies on managing procs and fury, but I do the same on my bodyguard/arsenal with an even greater emphasis on awareness than a Marauder really requires. It's great to play the strict counter to my own class, experiment with the best interrupt + cast cancels and have a slew of mobility + anti-focus at my fingertips. All of those are inaccessible to me as a Merc so it's really refreshing.

You like pie analogies, that's great. You walk into a cafe every day and buy a pie from a self serve. Every time you do you take two. Management figures this out and, instead of reprimanding or arresting you, simply has the servers deliver the pies instead of letting you take more than you paid for. Now you only get one pie. You call the manager and say that you paid for one pie and are therefore entitled to two. The rest of the world stares in wonder as you try to justify your position. If you can't see how the above applies to abusing Resurgence to cast it twice within one GCD then we don't know how to help you. The bug fix is necessary, and it has been a known exploit--not a game mechanic. Therefore it is not a nerf and IS a bug fix. Nerfs change the relative values of abilities. Resurgence has always been on a 6s Recast, its numbers aren't being retooled. If they do change those numbers for the worse then it can be called a nerf. In this case, however, it is not.

I had a big tldr write up on how to survive, but it's all fairly simple and prime for a bullet list. If you're leveling you won't be playing with a full deck, so expect to be killed by players with more tricks than you. Your shield is your lifeline. Don't waste it. Other than that, utilizing proper rotations and instant abilities/CC's will keep you up in the lag time. -Cure. -10% DR shield from AoE -PvP gear (Expertise = DR + Anti-PvP debuff) -Energy Shield + Talent: Uninterruptable + 100% pushback resistance +(optional) 20% healing. -Consumables: Stims, HP, Expertise, Adrenal, and Relics are mandatory. With that set up you can avoid a ton of damage through dots, mitigate the damage you take normally, and push your mitigation up to 55% Internal/Elemental | 75% Kinetic/Energy for 15 seconds. When you reach 50 and PvP for a little bit (T2 set) you'll be sitting at 18k HP, and your Rakata medpack will be an 8k heal (4k green + 'silent' 4k additional HP boost). The mitigation is absurd, but few and far between. A lot of times its better to hedge your bets and use the DR shield in the interim, and the Energy shield when you get seriously focused.

AoE healing probably won't fix all problems, but it's a great start. I don't have any issues with what's been said. Those are large changes that have been stated; they change gameplay. Smaller steps are preferable, even if Mercs/Ops inability to walk currently seems unbearable. The same people who think fixing the double-cast exploit on Sorcs Resurgence is a nerf think that Shockwater was really intended for healing.

I'm not sure about the optimal setups. I've never crunched the numbers and just rely on hunches. I'd say just one activate relic is fine, since you'll be layering it with your adrenal. If you have an additional activate relic just make sure it isn't on the same CD as your other relic. It shouldn't be too much of a tragedy. There is a line of PvE relics that give +end and a passive proc effect, and as such fulfill a hybrid role between pure stats and activatables. For healing mines gives a very small hot (400+hp / 3 s every 20 s to one target) with a 50% proc--aoe's only apply to the closest target. It's rakata level, so +72 End. There are versions for extra damage (dots in at least kinetic, internal, and elemental) and even shielding (+abs) for tanks. I don't see them mentioned often, so a bit of visiblity never hurts.

This really is a terrible idea since you are missing the basic rotations of each tree. You will just have some sustained DPS and be lacking in all forms of burst that let DPS classes stand apart. This isn't like Assassin switching, since your new stances in merc don't completely change gameplay roles and medal availability. You're just trading two weakened versions of a DPS tree back and forth. Tracer Missile spamming will not kill someone. I know it's funny to say that it's all that's needed, but it will not be downing anyone soon on its own. Arsenals kill by punctuating that sustained DPS with their buffed follow ups (Rail Shot, HSM, and Unload). Pyros kill in much the same fashion but with elemental dots punctuated with TD+Rail+<30% dot crits. You are also missing the key defensive abilities in your trees. Even when they were available (Such as the absolutely fantastic Power Shield) you opted for heat efficiency. Rocket punch and -16 heat isn't going to save you. A <1 min recast on Energy Shield or Power Shield + Energy Shield will keep you alive.

Yes. Bodyguard Mercenaries expend a talent point and gain immunity to interrupts for 15 seconds (with pvp set bonus). We can also spec into a 20% increased healing when the shield is up--this lets us get around the -30% heal debuff we automatically get in PvP and is the only shot at a legitimate 5k heal. School lockouts on Interrupts are a terrible idea. Do you even know the characteristics of the ability? The shortest CD on an interrupt is 6s--compared to your 12. That recast with a 4 second lockout paired with non-resolve building & cast cancelling abilities (like leaps) means you can already keep one ability from ever being used--or at least always be 2-3 casts ahead of your opponent. I think maybe you'd understand a Mercenary's limited immunity to interrupts better if you examined our skillset. We are the only class in the game that doesn't have an interrupt ourselves. We don't even have a mobility skill. We have a knockback, a stun, and an incap. You should not be angry that the class that has no possible means of escape or even anti-focus gets a 2min cd mitigation skill that's worth a damn. Focus the BH, focus someone else when they pop their shield, return to them and kill them. It's not rocket science. That's Arsenal spec.

Does it still work for its intended purpose? Yes. Does it still work for its unintended and exploited purpose? No. The problem is solved, or maybe I just didn't realize how many people were attempting to make light red colored crystals in Warzones. You already have abilities to recoup health+energy out of combat. You don't need a massive burst heal, or easy access to healing medals even BM healers have to use every trick to get. Stop trying to justify combat artificing. It was stupid. Roll or support your local healers.