I'd like to chime in on the matter saying that kolto shell have so far being the biggest culprit for unwanted aggro for me. Shelling tank pre-pull is generally a bad, bad idea since you get heal aggro on everything at the first hit. I've not logged in since the patch, though. Not sure if they did anything about it

Honestly, if efficiency is your concern = bye, bye missle blast. It's on a sidebar along the cosumables for me, for only one thing: fan factor against trash. As a bodyguard, I get no flashy moves (I'm looking at you powertechs/shieldtechs ), so making a random unfortunate greenie eat rocket to the face and fly off a few meters is worth it... once or twice a day.

If you look at the companion bonus skills, either Biochem or Armstech crafters receive the most benefit, if aiming for critical crafts. Blizz has +1 crit armstech. Torian has +2 Bioanalysis crit Gault has +2 Biochem crit Bounty hunter is also the only dark side class with with +crit to both armstech and biochem. As it stands, biochem wins hands down Me personally, I went with cybertech anyway, because I felt it fits the persona of my hunter better. If I min/maxed though... def biochem.

Yep. Orange gear is sadly only viable up to the point where you stop levelling and start end game. 4 piece sets + critted purple drop schematic craft for select pieces are the way to go for the rest. I've ranted enough about how both pvp and pve sets look like UTTER GARBAGE, but I suppose I'll say that once again. They look like utter garbage. And the only way to be effective endgame, one must disregard any sense of aethetics and subscribe to one designer's questionable artistic vision. =(. I realize that I will sound childish when I'll say this, but I will not be resuming my subscription if the situation is not remedied. I refuse to pay to play the game where my character is forced to be ugly in order to enjoy post story content.

Get it, imho. I may not be a good authority as I am more of a pve healer, but I do some warzone matches here and there, and if you keep your crit high (which you probably are already for pvp burst) crit reaction procs a whole damn lot, especially with kolto missle, in my experience. Combined with moderate alacricy from gear and our talents, the effect is quite noticable.

This is the problem with people switching spec mid game without taking time to learn the purpose of the skills, unfortunately. Our 'weak aoe' heal isn't made with a purpose to 'aoe heal' it's a DR screen + incoming healing buff for your other heals, with added benefit of a tiny spot heal for 2 people near the tank. Sure, mando warheads from arcenal will add +20% to that heal, but if you are using it for raw healing, you playing your bodyguard wrong. I'm not going to retype the guides already available on the merc forums, but I'll just say that BH are very strong healers in the right hands. Particularly, very strong tank healers.

100% agree. Well. I am at the point where my orange shells modded with best purple mods available in game aren't cutting it compared to the sets. I will not be resuming my sub, unless they allow to get rid of the freak show appearance. Yes, I am that upset.

I personally opened a ticket with request to either allow for a cosmetic outfit slot, or ability to transfer set bonuses to a different item shell. I want to give a bloody nose to the person responsible for art direction for both of them. My BH looks like a freak show wearing those, and same goes for other class sets too. I had a look I really liked, moddin a 35 mercenary bp + legplates and area champion boots/gloves with cybertech purples, but those don't cut it anymore once you are 50 and doing hardmodes, or seriously decicating time to pvp. Once you are done with levelling and story, there is no choice but throw a towel and be the laughing stock of everyone not doing endgame. Or quit the character and roll an alt. Pisses me off, to be honest.

The point isn't the wrong hilt. The point is they can't use weapons that are listed in their codex. At all. It isn't a matter of swapping in a mod with appropriate stat, it's a matter of not being able to find a weapon they can use unless you go beyond any reason to obtain one. As it has been mentioned there are no orange techstaves/techblades. Hell, there aren't any easily obtainable blue's either.

I've learned to avoid using kolto shell on tank unless I know the fight is going to be very demanding on healing or if it's a boss that hits like a truck. I just pop it on myself most of the time nowadays, for exactly same funky aggro reason. Chaff flare... I've not seen any noticable difference deploying it. Tried casting it close after beginning of the fight, or in the mid, or just before the stages that require some heavy spike healing... it can just be a social 'pretty lights' ability for all it does for me. I keep it on my hotkeys, because it seems like it should be one of the good ones, but I've yet to see it make any difference.

I geared him out and use him exclusively as a bodyguard, and getting him a decent weapon has been by far the biggest challange I've stumbled on yet. It's ridiculous. I've reported it in game. Nothing to write home about, though... got a reply that my request was forwarded to some other department, k thnx, bye. . Maybe if enough people will write similar request/complaint they'd actually let him use @#$@ electrostaves, but I don't have high hopes for that.

What I use if I need a little 'oomph' as a bodyguard is open up with fusion missle then death from above then, if there is a group of weak mobs sweeping blasters, and if not, I usually build up supercharged gas( if it wasn't ready to use already) use it and go powershot happy. Supercharged gas reduces the cost of powershot to managable amount so you can really deliver some hurting with it. I personally moved unload and flamethrower skill to the sidebar as they rarely see any use. Especially unload with it's bugged to hell animation. Quickshots to 30 supercharge->gas->powershots on single target works better for me than unload, but it may be a personal preference. Things that imho, absolutely have to stay on hand, are all your heals, supercharged gas, vent heat, shield, determination, chaff flare, heat sensor override, your CC skills, powershot, death from above and fusion missle. Explosive dart is decent too, if you don't forget to use it when mobs are nicely clustered. Cylinders, buffs, food, grenades, stims and relics on sidebars atm. Debating if I want to just remove non- combat support cylinders to free up some more space for different medpack, food and stims :/. Running out of space as it is.

I leveled as a healer bh from the start up to now (45) and I've had 0 problems, as long as I've kept my equipment up to date with either commodation buys or cybertech. I also agree that it's pointless to spread out points in non-bodyguard tree untill later to grab the +healing beneficial talents like +aim, +healing, +healing crit chance from arcenal. Word of advice: Ditch Mako as soon as you can (I rushed through Tatooine to pick up the next one). I can't stress how much of a difference it made. Currently using Torian, equiping him as dps (melee, but still uses aim) instead of a tank that he's listed at (he's has no absorb, no shield, taunt, so keeping his damage output is preferable to attempting making him into defence, imho). We can solo clear Heroics 2 (not 4!) and kill the named without breaking a sweat, it's great. The roughest spot imho, is in the 20th, up till you get non-Mako companion, after it's a smooth ride as a healer . Plus, it's never a problem getting a group together when one is needed.

Confirming also. Can't reverse engineer the first ones (100 skill req ones). boo.