or a commando armor

Healing crit, alacrity, surge. DPS, not much experience here but I would go for crit, surge, alacrity Tech power comes from aim not need to focus on it.

Level 44 I use Blizz pimped out in CWG/RR gear and some PVP items am full Bodyguard spec.

Depending on how you look at it and on how the end game gear will look like. If as in most situation the best gear will come from Ops and not crafting, remember is did say most not all, your best bet is actually Biochem for the consumables. Take a look at this Rakata Reflex Stim Binds on Pickup Requires Level 50 This marvel of biochemical engineering is not consumed on use. Use: Increases Aim by 136 and Power by 56 for 120 minutes. Only one stimpack can be active at a time. This effect persists through defeat. 136 Aim and 56 power. The highest items I was able to find have 122 Aim on them here's a list. http://www.torhead.com/items/aim/gt/120/and But until we know all of the BOP mods/items it is hard to be sure which is best.

Level 44 update. New abilities. Emergency Scan - 21 seconds cool down - Instant cast heal, very nice filler during rotation, heat free which means you actually get -5 heat ( if you keep below 40 heat ) due to the GCD. All the essential skills are in place now, my current build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rfRoRzcdkqZr.1 As I PVP fairly often in the WZs I decided to keep Heat Damping and Power Shield until I find myself doing HC/Ops. Once at 50 those 2 point will to into Critial Reaction (CR) with about 30% crit and using RpS to heal one should be able to keep CR. Rotations - my impression, advice Healing is not DPSing there is no set rotation you have to be able to adjust see if you need a big heal/small heal do you need to heal on the move. Regarding rotations there is not much change here, you start off with a HS than follow up with a RS which has reduced heat cost. Once you build 30 charges of CSC you pop SCG and this is where the change is. At level 29 you should have CE maxed out which means that every RS cast after a HS will have its heat cost reduced by 16. A HS costs 16 the reduced RS costs 9 in total you use 25 heat for 2 heals. A HS spam is still a viable options in an emergency as that .5 seconds might make all the difference. With no/very little alacrity you can cast HS 7 times in the 10 seconds if you keep the spam up. Currently I am frequently running CWG and RR ( RR was fixed on the 27th and the last boss is a really nice encounter ) with people ranging from 38 to 46. Obviously the higher the levels the easier it gets but with a smart group there is not much to heal and you can dps building up charges for the SCG. I relly look forward to HC FPs to see how demanding they become. From my own experience most encounters are designed in a way that people should be able to avoid the unnecessary damage. TOR actually rewards it by giving the group another DPS source, be it low. How will this change during HC FPs and Ops this is something too look forward to for me. GEAR - First view The 40+ gear seems to start to set a tendency for the secondary stats it seems that CRIT is emerging as the main secondary with a mix of alacrity and surge. I am currently using a mix of the level 40 PVP set and items from CWG and RR As always questions, discussion, critic most welcome. Glossary: CSC - Combat Support Cylinder CE - Critical Efficency SCG - SuperCharged Gas HS - Healing Scan RS - Rapid Scan CWG - Colicoid War Games Flashpoint RR - The Red Reaper Flashpoint

Thanks for pointing that out changed to Shell. It is still a proc for me since you need to be hit for it activate, from a math point of view it is a percent chance, even if it's 99%, for it to be activated since I will not activate on dodge, parry, deflect. You could say it will activate on hit and has a cool down of 3 seconds between activations.

The Kolto Shell can proc every 3 seconds. The math does not include the 30% debuff but from the information have the math here is simple you just cut the heal by 30%. Currently I do not have access to level 50 gear and stats to do all the calculations based on real stats. I am afraid that I do not do much PVP and do not plan to however if you can provide a screen shot of a lvl 50 character with the tech stats I could do the math.

Different I have not played a Sorc so I do not have first hand information but from the information I was able to gather so far they seem very similar. On first glance the Sorc seems to have more HoTs as their disposal while the Merc gets the Kolto Shield which seems to me that the Merc is designed to be be a single target/tank healer while the Sorc would be better suited to multi-target healing I would never go as far as saying this class is better than that as healer it's simply different. I have never paid attention to how much the Kolto Shell heals for in PVP but you can be certain that it heals for ~500 Hp. I am currently level 37 the tool tip of the Kolto Shell states it heals from 180-195. The healing coefficient is 0.481 (torhead data) this means you add about 48% of your healing power to the skill and that should be the amount it will heal for. In my case, currently, I have 203.1 bonus healing. 203.1 x 0.481 = 97.6911 - unsure if the system rounds up or down in this case lets make it a round 97. With my current stats it is 180 + 97 to 195 + 97 = 277 to 292 healed. So on this level to have it heal for 500+ hp non-crit you would have to have about 700 healing power. The base heal value of the Kolto SHell scaled with the health pool take a few items off and see the numbers on the tool tip change. That healing value seems to be 2.99% for min heal and 3.44% for the max heal. From what I see in the war zones before 50 the health of everyone seems to be at around 12000. The base heal of KS would be 358 to 372 I currently am unable to check how much bonus healing you get in the war zone but I feel confident when I say it will be more than enough to break the 500 heal. There are rough calculation and might be off as I am currently at work and do not have access to my notes. Hope this answers your question

Nice guide for the beginners. Worth keeping track of it. If you would like to discuss some more advanced theorycrafting on healing I would like you invite you to check a thread I started http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=45673 anyway thumbs up for the thread.

Based on torhead data Chaff Flare has the following effect: ModifyThreat: AmountPercent=>-0.25 therefore I would assume it cuts your threat by 25% of your current value.

This is why I mentioned the KM is optional depending on the situation. So far I have never had to stand and spam that rotation over and over. So far I was able to stay below 40 heat about 95% of the time and for that 5% that is what Vent Heat is for. Heat management is everything for a BH Bodyguard And I HS is 16, RS is 25, KM is 16, 16 + ( 25 - 16 [from Critical Efficiency] ) + 25 + 16 = 66 total Heat Am currently at work so I cannot be 100% sure, based the above calculation on torhead data. At lowest level head dissipates at the rate of 5 per/sec, you are correct that a constant spam will fill the heat bar fast this is where the heat management comes in. My current solution is to pause for 1-2 seconds between casts, I probably should have mentioned that in my main post will make sure to add this. By doing this you can extend the rotation by 3 seconds which gives you extra 20 heat vented, your rotation extends to 12 sec which gives now 60 heat vented this is assuming you can make perfect 1 sec breaks between casts. Thanks for your insight, I actually got a idea to improve the heat management. To ensure that you do not over heat one could cast Rapid Shots after the first and second Rapid Scan. This would result in a 2 second break after every cast which would mean the rotation time goes up by 6 adding 30 heat vented to a total of 70 which would leave you with extra 4 heat vented. I have intentionally skipped the Kolto Shield as you cannot know when it will run out exactly the soonest it can run out is after 30 seconds, assuming the tank gets hit every 3 seconds and the shield loses a charge. The above is based on pure math in a real situation Heroic/Ops you have to be flexible and adjust there might be periods of intense healing and than you get some room to vent heat and only heal using rapid shots. PS. don't stand in fire it helps us healers see that bright light coming from the sky it is NOT a teleport beam....

Ohh that is so true you can drop the G13 easily but those keys on the mouse are the best idea since sliced bread ヽ(´▽`)/

Try to learn the SHIFT and CTRL binds it will make your life much easier. No one is telling you to assign all the keys try 1-4 for start with some skills that you frequently use but they have a longer CD. That's my advice good luck hope it works out for you. And very important you DO NOT NEED IT to heal efficiently however if you learn it, it will help you get better. I don't even mean the new mouse just learning to use the as you called it "savvy" key binds

Got a Naga and a G13 once I got the Naga I actually stopped using the G13 and switched to a mechanical keyboard. With Naga you can assign all the skill on the keys on the mouse and make 3 times as much but assigning them with SHIFT, CTRL and ALT. You can than get even more by using the Naga's feature to set it as the NUM pad keys. I have the NUM0 to NUM9 and - and + that I have doubled by assigning them with SHIFT that gives already 24 keys. Not enough add a CTRL set and you are up to 36, add ALT and you got 48. Still not enough? You can use 1-4 and Q,E also with modifiers the max number of keys that can be comfortably used is 48 from mouse + 18 on keyboard = 66 key binds enjoy I will take time to get used to but I think its well worth it as once you do your whole movement style changes as your left hand is free to use the WSAD to move and you only need it for SHIFT, CTRL and ALT modifiers.

Am currently level 33 only one ability that helps out in healing. Skills/abilities Kolto Shield (KS) - Good skill casting it on the tank gives you some more room to work with minor heals but it seems it is able to crit. The healing from Kolto shield counts towards YOUR threat not the tanks. Its good to cast it after the pull. New skills this it where a lot is happening, buffs to healing scan. My current build - http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rfRoRzcdz.1 Proactive Medicine, Critical Armor and Critical Efficiency all 3 start to create a rotation that, to me, clearly shows BH Bodyguards as tank healers. First rotation draft The whole rotation, on a single target revolves around the 9 seconds between casting Healing Scan. Please not that this is not a spam rotation you will not be able to cast it all the time. What I am doing right now is, please keep in mind that at this point there is still one heal missing the Emergency Scan which I believe has a 21 second cool down. Start off with Kolto Shield AFTER the pull and a few seconds have passed for the threat to be set to the tank. As mentioned earlier casting KS might draw aggro to you as it couts towards your healing. If possible I cast KM first if not I start the following rotation. Healing Scan [HS](1.5s) > Rapid Scan [RS](2s) > Rapid Scan [RS](2s) > Kolto Missile > Rapid Shots healing if possible DPS > back to start once the CD on Healing Scan is done (1.5s) - cast time Quick explanation the HS opener reduced the RS heat by 16 that allows you to cast another RS right after and stay in the fast heat dissipation zone. That puts the leaves 5 seconds on the HS cool down. If additional healing is required cast KM, if not you can skip it the KM buff lasts 15 sec therefore you can delay the casting fight before the CD on HS finishes and let the heat go down. This is still rough draft I will try to make short movie and maybe even some exact math. For now is more about feeling the flow of the rotation rather than an exact science. Discussion, pointers, comments more than welcome. I am constantly monitoring this thread.

I currently have a thread regarding healing going on here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=45673 I am compiling my experiences and putting them there currently working on a level 33 update. So far it seems that the BH Bodyguard might be the best single target healer on the Empire side. With unlimited resources you can heal forever if you manage your heat plus you get a lot of bonuses that your heals provide especially to a single target. tl,dr: imho, BH Bodyguard the best single target healer

A character transfer service could be as easy as simply changing the serverid in the database to make the character appear on a different server or might involve long strings of code that need to transfer all the character data to a different database. Everything depends on the design, planning and the infrastructure of the datacenter/database the servers are using. Give them time the queues will relax in a while.

6 months I like it here a LOT

There is not that much you can do in 1v1 the way you win is to outlive your enemy. This depends on the situation world pvp, or warzones, if you are doing world pvp you have your companion that will help if you keep them alive and clear of CC. You have to simply live through the initial burst if you do that you should be able to win the fight. Bodyguard is a team dependent spec it was not exactly designed for 1v1. tl,dr; heal them to death expect a long fight

Indeed things are slow at the start but they pick up around 28 and it is fine from there. I am level 33 right now full bodyguard and perfectly happy. It might be a little slower than leveling a dps but you get so much survivability that you make up on those "oh shi" moments that would otherwise result in a death.

You are right about the shield buff moving those 2 points to integrated systems might be a good idea. How ever I do frequently use all of the skills that are included in heat dampening both in solo and group PVE. Currently slowed down on PVP since doing it made me outlevel the current content by so much that I do not find it that I can rush through the quests with ease. Currently during the leveling I find it useful and you have to get either Heat Dampening and the Power Shield to get to the next tier talents its that or 2 points in Power Insulators. I believe that those two are the better choice but I the long run this might be a personal preference. What is your crit rate @ 42, Critial Reaction does not seem that great unless you have really high crit and can you tell by how much that 5% does it reduce the cast on your heals. As far as I remember you would need at least 20% - 25% to see a noticeable difference.

works fine for me as well, never bothered to take a look on the tool tip but the skill has no cooldown while ScG is active

Good video however the tank is 23 that makes him 6 levels above the final boss. That makes a huge difference. This is a good overview guide. You should work more on key binds less clicking with the current target system you can lose a lot of time clicking. The vid is informative but does not really show a normal case scenario that is a tank that is at the current boss level, nevertheless nice effort.

If you are a healer all the healing skills you need are utilized there is a synergy between them but that synergy might not be apparent until later levels. You can get +20% on the healing from the tier 1 talent in Arsenal. That 5% works on all heals so in the long run it piles up and does end in saving you that extra heal, you can put off taking the Kolto Residue for last but you will need to take if if you wan to get the tier 5 skills that will be at level 28 and 29. The other option Critical Reaction is based on your crit chance and is currently not worth taking as there is not much information on how much crit will mercenaries have at 50 to do the math on this skill. You could currently skip it during leveling but I would advise against that as you should learn you skill rotation. I will post my thoughts on is and a first overview once I have it done. PS. just hit 26 writing up another part of my overview

Good thread useful info.