Me and my guild couldn't down him tonight on Normal. He was fine until about 15-10% HP in P3, kept resetting randomly... is this an old bug? Seemed to happen when one of the tanks go mind trapped.

Sorry, I'm not really a math person- I heal by observing what I feel works and what I feel doesn't. There are plenty of people who go all into the math theorycrafting, but I'm not one of them. I just have found from experience that my job goes a lot easier if I keep that buff up at all times on the tank, at the very least. When I was a noob healer, I rarely used KB, and I had to work a lot harder to keep people alive on bosses with lots of big spiky damage all over the place. After switching to using KB at the very least every 15 seconds when my ammo regen was at a respectable level, healing became much easier. Of course, my initial statement of incredulity only applied to my thought that he got rid of KB altogether- if it was simply the residue, that's less ridiculous. In addition, I said I didn't mean to be insulting because I really didn't mean to be- I simply found it hard to believe someone could find KB un-useful. I was simply stating that opinion.

Sorry if I come off an insulting, but getting rid of Kolto Bomb is rather ridiculous IMO- and yes, I run Hards too. The 10% damage redux buff and 5% incoming healing buff both make Kolto Bomb worth it- 10% hard damage reduction is huge. Like the difference between you keeping the tank alive through the last 5% of a Hard bosses' HP after enrage or having your party wipe kind of difference, not including the 5% increase to healing the tank receives. Of course, I tend to run with melee DPS, so I can usually hit all 3 with a KB. But still, even if you only hit the tank, it is well worth it IMO.

Exactly, I have no problem with it. They strike me as the equivalent of real world true machine guns (not assault rifles or submachine guns), which are fairly large and heavy things you can't just draw and shoot at the drop of a hat.

While you do get a flat bonus of 3% via CSC charges, they are best used as soon as they're up to throw the KB shield on the tank and the melee DPS, and, if you're good on ammo, perhaps throw an AMP to all members of the party (Assuming you have the talented HoT and Armor buff). You can even use it to do impressive burst DPS via CB spam if nobody really needs healing.

IMO, this makes him (and Yuun in the future) slightly inferior to M1-4X (or Aric for Yuun) due to them both lacking upgradeable weapons, and only being able to use weapons that you get from quests, rare drops or crafting. (M1-4X and Aric can use your hand-me-downs).

Your ideas are good, but the only one I think is absolutely necessary is an increase to the number of targets Kolto Bomb hits. I think giving abilities to make tech Override stronger is also a good idea, since TO is one of our key mobility skills.

So the DPS was our problem, then- they weren't burning down the adds fast enough. Like I said, we usually got by until I got a bunch of adds on me and then it all went to pot. We didn't have much in the way of AoE, though... the DPS were a Shadow and Sentinel. I'm a Commando heals myself and I could probably AoE them down, but obviously I don't want to ignore the tank and have him take a big meaty burst and go down.

Any advice on specific positioning in the room?

Is it the adds that are glitched? I was seeing whole humongous swarms of them, like 10 at a time.

We had this same problem tonight with my group... All of us were decently geared as far as I know. It would be fine if the adds stayed off me, that's the main thing that was killing us- I'd get a bunch of adds all over me and have to heal myself, and when the tank took a dmg spike he'd go down... I don;t even know who's fault it was.

You mean Commando/Merc.

World PvP barely exists in this game, if you want that you will be disappointed. Empire/Republic questing areas are heavily segregated, only intersecting very occasionally, and the PvP servers have such faction imba to Imps its ridiculous.

Quick note, this isn't like That Other MMO where healers are useless when things go smooth and the tank doesn't need a lot of heals- we can still do competitve DPS, and if you get rid of that Assault Cannon, you're nerfing your DPS. I have played a Combat medic levels 1-50 and into the endgame, and I can say there are times when you'd help the group more by helping the DPS burn down targets than by just sitting around and spamming HS on the tank to top him off when pulls go smooth and he's taking piddly damage. Obviously you need to keep an eye on everyones HP and don't waste too much ammo, but you'd be amazed how much DPS you can put out spamming CB when you pop SCC.

For number 4- I don't know if its just because I'm a Commando healer and have heavy armor and as much raw armor as the tank, but as long as I don't get aggro on like 3+ elites I can usually easily keep myself alive via heals in easy pulls. I've gone through bad PUGS with 1,2 or even 3 mobs on me every pull and we never wiped at a trash pull. Of course, remind the tank if the DPS die its his fault for not maintaining aggro and forcing you to heal yourself.

I agree pretty much with the line of thought that tanks aren't of much use unless you heal- not sure a DPS Commandos heals would be enough to keep him kicking.

One benefit to trooper heals is I can top off the party for free, no whining at dumb DPS required

I actually consider men who play exclusively male charcters (like me, clarifying this so you know I'm insulting myself ) to be "girlier" than men who play a mix of male and female characters. See, the way I've observed it is men often play female characters, but women rarely play non-female characters. I think it's because women tend to care more about their appearance more than men do, therefore they prefer to play female character who they make all pretty. Men, caring less about their characters, don't get meticulous with how their character looks and just default to whatever they feel like. I tend to think more like a girl when I'm making characters, because I do pay meticulous detail to how my character looks and I make sure he is always male- my toons are projection of myself, not just some thing I control. That, and I'm a consummate RPer- I take games a tad more serious than most. and since I am a straight male in real life, I find it easier to "think" like a man in an RP situation... I have that problem when RPing of making my characters think too much like me IRL.

Not many Heroic 4s are like this, though... a lot of them only need a healer and a tank and some of them can be soloed with some skill. There are definitely some that pose a serious challenge, however... I recall one I recently did in Voss called Not Afraid Enough... the final boss was amazingly hard for a heroic 4 boss, me and my tank buddy ended up needing to bring 2 geared level 50 DPS to take him down and even then it was hard. You have an annoying pet to deal with, and he lays out huge AoE dmg spikes with fair frequency.

Directive 7 is indeed quite a challenge without handholding- The Defender boss is one hell of a fight for first-timers. A tricky gimmick to manage and a lot of huge spike dmg flying around, especially on the tank. The final boss is more a test of how good you can run around like a chicken with your head cut off, but that can pose a challenge as well, especially if you have DPS who don't understand the concept that you need to wait until the final stage to actually attack the boss itself..

Unless they like, y'know, give people reasons to do world PvP in the first place, I don't see how adding flying mounts would hurt anything.

I feel Mando Raiders is where stuff becomes more challenging and you start seeing pulls made up of Strongs/Elites and CC becomes important for some pulls. The Imperial/Republic boarding party fight is a HUGE test of skill for newer players IMO. CC smart, learn that the SW/JK has no aggro table, and maintain a smart kill order.

Yeah, Trauma Probe is an important part of your toolkit and should be up on your main healing target (usually the tank) all the time... It makes keeping your main healing target alive that much easier. I've never pulled aggro becuase of it, I usually only pull aggro on loose mobs.

My Rp Combat Medic wasa Doctor first, but be came a soldier after the Empire took his home and everyone he loved from him. Even though hew fights, he still thinks as acompassionate healer first and a soldier second. I find it useful to keep in mind that your Trooper is basically an ordinary man/woman. Sure, one who excelled at combat training and got put in Special Forces, but otherwise normal nonetheless. s/he probably joined because he felt a duty to protect his homeland or something similar. Think about what modern soldier is- just a guy (or girl) who decided to protect his/her country. This obviously isn't the only way you could play it, but it seems like the most sensible mindset to me.

Pretty much the standard from what I've had with my healing experience, and that build is exactly my trooper's build. It's like you reached into my brain and pulled my methods and build from my memory. Good guide.