You can do anything you want But the answer to your question is in my first reply. Plasma is such an integral part of assault spec and dps, I wouldn't dps without it. You can always kill them before they kill your healer.

I chose assault and I built around HIB (as opposed to ss). I also use AP now but for a while I sacrificed it for the aim buffer until my aim was high enough. I chose my gear aim > power > crit > surge. Keep in mind that as assault you will do most of your dmg in 10m or less. This puts you right in the middle of everything and so for the most part, survivability might be an issue with you. My favorite thing to do is make friends with a healer. Get a pocket healer on your side, then go kill all of their healers. Happy hunting.

If you just want respectable numbers, just run around spamming a healer. If you want to win wz's, learn your class and play with difft builds, find what works best for you, not for someone else. When making my VG, I knew I had to choose one of three paths: high dps, low survivability....med dps, med survivability, low dps, high survivability.... I simply chose a path and learned a play style with what I had. I've seen people put up great numbers in full recruit. What was interesting were the number of people with better gear doing much less.

Because you play alts a lot I think you will always feel like you are mediocre from a skillset standpoint. I wouldn't beat myself up about it, if that's what I enjoyed.. Unless you are a hardcore robot gamer, you either play one toon exceptionally well or play several toons just good.

Dps VG in late 40's is absolute Fun. Then you'll hit 50 and throw pillows at everyone and become a china doll. Once you're geared back up, it gets fun again, but it's a painful process with no escape. Just stick with it. Assault with the 15% HIB gear bonus. Stack aim then power. Works well for me.

How do you go from being #1 medals on a shadow to not using a taunt button on a VG? I don't get that.

I've never actually seen a debuff icon On the target. You can use it on a healer that is low hp and hope they are spamming the same heal on themselves but if they are using an instant, medpac, or another heal, it won't delay that cast. At least that's the way I understand it. I guess it's hit or miss since you can't effectively predict what their next cast in their rotation is. I use it mainly for the iterrupt.

Easiest way for me was to find a merc near a node and stay on him, hopefully he fires off dfa, hit interrupt and watch him fall prematurely to the ground. Dfa is one of the most noticeable animations in the game imo and is easily interrupted.

I like this build and it is what I am leaning towards. I just have a feeling that the dmg output difference between sticky grenade and assault plastique is less than actually maxing HIB. I could be wrong, but I'm going for it. Learning English could be more easier

I'm just curious If you stack any surge? You were talking about hitting hard but surge isn't in your priority stat listed? I'm only lvl 44 ATM and tbh I haven't really checked the bm or wh gear for VG yet. I was just wondering if surge was an option or if you could jus use augments to stack that? Thanks

Played two arsenal mercs to 50 full bm. After getting my first to 50, I waited patiently for a server merge. When this didn't happen I created another on a difft server and got him to 50 as well. I'm happy to say that I no longer play either one. They are full bm crafting *****es now. I liked them but I grew tired of waiting for a GU fix. Now I play a Dps VG. I could care less if it is fotm or whatever. I play to have fun and spending more time complaining about my class on a message board than playing my toon is not fun for me. When I created my BH, I always envisioned him surviving and soloing and doing dps like my VG. For many levels it was. I think they bloom earlier than some classes but post 40's it's just dismal. I smile everytime someone force leaps on me and pray for wz solo fights now. These were two situations I avoided as a merc. I've recently started a scoundrel (sawbones) and am loving it as well. I say just stop playing mercs altogether, let the class die and throw it back onto Biowares plate. They're obviously not going to read a few posts and change anything. Just my .02.

You're a healer using a healer companion so your dps will not be that great. When I was heal specced I used Torian and it was ok. Try speccing arsenal and see how you like it?? Also, gear, gear, gear. Upgrade it. Orange armor, purple mods if you can or use blue if you can't afford. I just used the lvl 20 pvp armor and kept modding it. Your waist and wrist will suffer unless you spend like 150k on broker (on my server) or you can just buy some purple player made. Just my .02 on all this

It's a rant if you are saying all of that just to say it. If your intention is to be heard and taken seriously, whether it's Bioware devs (which I am assuming is his intended target) or you're going for a job interview, then yes, it's English class. Take a little extra time to do it right, it makes a world of difference to the reader. And I did mention they were all good points, which you reiterated for me.

This my second trip to 50 (server change), and now I'm 43. I've beaten them and gotten beaten. A large factor comes down to gear and class knowledge, more so than the class alone. I've gained a ton of dps by switching my rotation and tbh, having tso again in it has helped alot. Swapping out some crit for accuracy has helped as well. Just keep learning your strengths and don't focus so much on your weaknesses. You're gonna win some and lose some.