I'm sorry for your unexpected celebration of Singles Awareness Day. Blizz, however, is perfectly fine. Like all tanks his damage is terrible, but his aggro control is the best available out of your tank pets. I found two to three heals was enough to keep him full life at any time in Ilum--the healing rotation lends itself well to proccing SCG for your main source of damage. Make sure to use your knockback to keep mobs distanced from each other so you can utilize your CC's. Kill weaker mobs first. Should be a breeze. Ilum is only really viable for picking up gun barrels. Access to Columi (HM FP's and Normal Ops) is attainable at entry level 50's range if the group is competent. On an unrelated note, since I enjoyed Blizz's efforts so much I bought him a full supercommando suit. It's a bit of a mismatch of Champion and Columi, but it works.

I can answer this. At most the better of the two mercs had one piece of pvp gear and neither used consumables whatsoever. Mar is T2/T3 PvP gear and using stims, adrenals, relics and pots. Merc was hitting for 7-800 a TM with a poor crit % (geared mercs will have 50% crit base), while the Anni Mara popped zerker with his dots placed for 300ish x2 healing on each tick. If the merc had any brains he would've at least buffed after respawning (he had nothing up) and used cleanse to cut off the Mara's healing ticks. He still would've lost. They were pretty bad and really undergeared. The video does demonstrate an important point: TM spam by itself will take a ridiculous amount of time to kill an equally geared opponent, and even longer against someone better geared. It's a lot like grabbing full rage on a Mara and doing nothing but vicious strike--except you don't have to VS to set up abilities. It often looks so potent on the receiving end because competent mercs layer delayed burst abilities with a TM+instant damage follow up. All you see is the missile(s), when in fact you're being hit with 2-3 abilities at once after a TM buffed set up.

It has the potential, when critting a fair amount, to equal the base healing on one Static Barrier. It does suffer from overhealing, and it is supposed to take longer to dispense its healing than Sorc shield's refresh rate. It is currently still broken and able to dispense its stacks faster than intended (~15s instead of 30s). Either that or they forgot to update the tooltip. It isn't incredibly underwhelming for being a free cast, but it is for costing a talent point, being weaker than its counterparts, and only being single target. The ability could certainly use some fiddling.

Maybe we have different definitions, but I always thought filler was something you fit in between abilities to make more powerful attacks manageable in a given resource system. For Mercenaries, that's anything that diminishes heat or lets you keep an efficient rotation. Power Shots is simply an immobile attack that requires Arsenal speccing to ever be efficient. Compared to Unload, however, it is more costly and time intensive to use for Rail procs in a Pyro spec. This makes it more of a last resort for burst/procs than a filler. Rapid Shots is a filler ability since it is: 1) Free + instant & 2) Powerful when specced in the Pyro tree. This makes it very good at heat dissipation while performing the role of a resolve ignoring slow, armor bypassing DoT, and a buff to Rail shot damage/efficiency.

Your leap cancels casting abilities and immobilizes the target. You do know that immobilize is immune to resolve? You can root and slow anyone, irregardless of CC immunity. You have access to the shortest CD interrupt in the game (6s CD with 4s lockout). Pair this with a close quarters leap and you can perma disable any ability you like. This is on top of a blind and the normal two CC's (stun + AoE incap). You have speed+cloaks, predation, ataru, and leaps. If you're really put off by a knockback then you're purposefully ignoring your strengths. The only class I know of that has two knockbacks is a Mercenary--ironically the one class type in the game lacking any interrupt or mobility at all. You must spec into the second, it is ~4m, you can cast half an ability in the time it takes to walk back. Long story short: Position yourself better, don't waste your leap as an opener against a class with a knockback, or just get full resolve before leaping to someone.

As far as I know, there's only two Rakata pieces you can make with Armormech. You will need to craft each one several times until they crit. This will let you drop an augment into them. There are Columi schematics that drop off HM bosses. It's possible there could be Rakata on NM, but I haven't checked. The extra components for them usually drop off raid bosses at that level of play.

I do this regularly. I duo with a low geared Operative in HM Ops and am not running into this issue. If people are taking massive amounts of AoE damage it isn't a healing problem, it's a positioning problem. There are no events in the game that require burst AoE healing. It's simply a luxury that a lot of people will prefer in a raid setting.

Slows, Immobilizes and Interrupts don't build Resolve and aren't affected by it. This means you can be snared, slowed or interrupted no matter how full your resolve is. Many classes and specs have abilities/talents that either let them apply non-resolve CC or resist/deal with it. E.g. Mercenary Bodyguards can gain full immunity to interrupts when they activate their shield, Pyros gain immunity to movement impairing effects with shield and even vent heat when they are applied. Juggernauts gain damage stacks (up to 25% increase to next ability) when their movement is impaired. Etc.

Because it's an oversight? Consumables shouldn't be granting 5k healing medals, yet they still are. It will get fixed if you report it.

I think you're selling mitigation short. Our higher than average health and better base mitigation make us a group friendly class. Many of those awesome "Deflect, resist" abilities don't block all forms of damage or attack types. Damage Resistance, which our shield increases, reduces ALL incoming forms of damage. This includes damage that would bypass armor. This is pretty important in PvP, where players may spec into trees that specifically use elemental/internal damage. I took this today: http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/9905/resisttank.jpg Keep in mind I'm a bodyguard, so I usually have my Kolto Missile 10% shield on as well when I get focused. Arsenal will post similar numbers with their extra personal 10% shield, and Pyros have their stock shield but can potentially have it up more than twice as often.

They'll be fine. Blizz is one of the better tanks because of his AoE abilities. I went from 36 to 50 as a Bodyguard + Blizz. Just remember you have to do damage, because tank damage was severely nerfed.

Learning the healing spec prior to filling out your tree isn't exceptionally helpful. There isn't a huge benefit to going healing until later, and the respec isn't painful. Pros to switching late (30's+): -Easier/quicker leveling. -Access to better companions for healing spec. -Access to the actual skills you'll use as a healer. These completely change your playstyle from early levels. -Healing specced characters not necessary in Flashpoints until 30's. If you are determined to go Healing early, I massively suggest going into Arsenal first for Muzzle Fluting. Then you need Bodyguard for SCG. Empowered Scans and Critical Efficiency are very helpful as well. These form the backbone of a Healer's DPS. They let you support your companion and yourself, and then buy you time for free powershots with SCG. Without these you'll find it difficult to combine damage & healing without being heat intensive.

You'll be fine if you want to heal. Some guilds/raid configurations will have strict needs for raiding, and this means your lack of utility may get you passed over as a healer. This does not mean you cannot heal well, and it doesn't mean you're not going to get raiding groups. Mercs are fantastic healers. Arsenal DPS is very solid. You can't go wrong with it.

Picking up a full set of Tionese gear is really inefficient. It's much quicker to just grab a set of Columi by running HM's and Normal Ops--all doable in lvl 50 greens/blues. If you have a nice enough group you can always do HM Ops and skip to Rakata. Just use the tionese commendations to plug the holes in your T2/T3 sets. For DPS in PvE the general notion is that you'll need accuracy to be 110%. That'll give you 100% acc on tech casts against bosses.

I haven't noticed any more attention because of my rapid shots.

There's a reason many don't play Pyro in PvP. If you're watching you'll that the Op is correctly cleansing the dots on himself during the fight. Ops and Mercs both use this in fights against classes that rely on tech/phys dots to deal armor bypassing damage and set up abilities. It provides a natural advantage over the pyro/lethality specs if you're willing to use the energy/heat. As for the Merc player, they popped their shield for no reason, wasted breakout, didn't have any stims, didn't use adrenals/relics/pots, slowed himself voluntarily by bunny hopping, and otherwise failed to play a good starting hand well. I agree that every class should have an Interrupt, but this is not a very convincing example of a time where it would've helped in a duel.

If your class doesn't have leap it either has ranged interrupts (10m > Jet Boost), stealth, in combat sprints, massive hp shields, portable cover, stuns, incaps, pulls, or cleanses. Sorry, but if you can't find a way to get back onto someone after being knocked back & slowed perhaps you should just try running away from them. If you don't stand near them, Mercenaries can't do anything to catch you. Merc slows (sans pyro, in which you don't need to worry about TM) are either Melee or force the Merc to talent heavily, stand still, and channel. Either way, they're situational, short duration, and can't be used to catch up with someone.

Mako: Okay. Teen high school with a storyline that never completes. The only reliable option for DPS. Gault: Why didn't I get the choice to turn him in again? Torian: Honor bound personality intermixed with a pretend language. Weapon is one of the least available in the game. Pass. Blizz: Aww, a naive little jawa, maybe it'll dance! Decent AoE tank. Good choice for healers. Skadge: Why do I need to have a disgruntled button presser on my ship? Same weapon issues as Torian. Poor agro control if there's more than 1 mob. There's always more than one. The majority of the companions are useless, difficult to upgrade and have shoddy storylines that just throw them at you. They often force you to be unprofessional as a bounty hunter and try to supplant the idiocy with some kind of "feelgood ragtag band" vibe. It really doesn't work for me. I'm sure it could for some. Endgame: They're all just craft monkeys. You'll never use them again. And there was much rejoicing.

From what I can tell it's about 5-6% more damage done, 5-6% less damage received, and 5-6% more healing over someone in a full Champion set. That's a large difference.

Lots of people going in weird directions here. This is about the problem of queue behavior when healing. Often times we'll cast a heal and queue an instant right after it. If the target we're healing dies (prevalent in PvP), it will cancel the current cast but activate the instant on ourselves. This effectively wastes the instant. There is no toggle for self-cast when no target (or friendly) is selected. It really should be implemented.

In most cases you should be using it for its buffs. Aiming it into a group of players of mixed damage levels is only feasible if they are far enough apart that you can accurately aim. Otherwise you'll generally be better off split casting your heals onto targets.

It will remove two debuffs that have the tag (Tech) or (Physical) in their description. This does not cover many incaps and stuns. When specced it will cost less heat and also remove (Mental). Sorcerers have the only debuff strip that, when specced, provides the same energy reduction and extra debuff type as BH/IA's get. Yet it also includes a heal for the target you cast it on. It's a minor thing.

I concur with the original claim. The 2 set PvE bonus is massively powerful for how necessary TM is. There is no reason not to take it if you're arsenal, especially when the PvP set bonuses are so lacking.

I bet most Commandos/Mercenaries would be happy to trade a Knockback for one of those things you have. What are they called. Interrupts?

If a Commando/Merc tried to straight burst heal we'd top out on heat just as fast--4 to 5 casts of Rapid Scan. Our heat dissipation comes from a few efficiency talents/abilities and smart spacing of these in our rotations. Healing Filler (0 heat, GCD abilities): Emergency Scan (mid range instant heal, 21s CD) Rapid Shots (+Tech Healing, must be in healing stance, cannot target self) Kolto Shell (Reactive HoT, very weak) Heat Management: Thermal Sensor Override (removes heat cost from next ability) Vent Heat (can be improved in heal tree) Our shield does make us immune to interrupts as long as it's specced (Bodyguard tree). This 12-15 second every 2 min. immunity is arguably fair since Commandos/Mercs are the only classes in the game that have no interrupt. This isn't really a problem for healers, but it's a major weakness for DPS Mercs/Commandos.