[what sawbones pvp relics to use]

No alacrity does not speed up your 'tics' of hots or dots.

 

It just affects the cast times or channeled abilities.

 

The alacrity relic can be quite useful in pve/pvp both for burst healing. If you need to keep someone up, and don't care about resources (eg: have cool head ready to go) then it can be great.

 

I personally have 4 relics. 2 crit/surge (one champ and one cent atm), 1 power and 1 alacrity. I swap them around depending on what i am doing, damage/healing/pve/pvp/groups/solo etc...

[1.1.3 Surge Nerf]

Actually have a look at the way it reads.

 

It does not state that it will lower your base surge, so it will remain at 50%.

 

"It will lower the per point contribution by 10%". That reads to me, that if i have enough surge (about 220 surge points give or take) to reach 80% (giving a bonus of 30% surge), those 220 surge points will provide 10% less surge. That means instead of getting 30% bonus, i will get a 27% bonus.

 

This is not that big a nerf guys, and it affects everyone. They obviously felt that surge was a little too easy to stack, so are making a small change that affects all classes. It you want high surge, it will still be easily attainable.

[Starting my PvP career, stay Sawbone or go Scrapper?]

It depends on what level you are and how much frustation you want.

 

A single sawbones in the 1-49 can turn the tide, and it gets esier and better as you level.

 

........

 

However you will be the poor man's melee since your sustained dps stinks and you won't last as long as an assassin/shadow under a lot of fire.

 

So it comes down to whether you like a support role or a dps role.

 

I have to say i pretty much agree with almost everthing said. With the exception of:

 

As a fresh 50 in a WZ, i found that i could keep someone up, even if they were being focused by 2 or even three people (depending on the situation).

 

Otherwise his post was on the money.

 

Oh, and from what i have read, dirty fighting does alot of internal damage, which is not mitigated by much if at all, so while the damage on it doesn't seem great on first glance, and it comes with other inherant issues (like dots removing some cc's), it can be effective. Haven't tried a 31 point DF spec myself tho, although i have dabbled up a fair way in the tree.

[Smuggler Healer (Scoundrel)]

I leveled primarily as a healer, and did alot of pvp on my way to 50. I routinely (and almost always) got 150k+ heals, with 50k+ damage at the same time. Also, because i was PvP'ing so much, my gear was routinely blues and greens 5 levels lower than my level, so i'm i could have done better if i spent hte time to buy gear on my way up.

 

I never quite reached as high with my healing as some sages got as I leveled up. Some sages i saw were getting 250k+ healing, where as my highest was around 220k. But, i found from my general experience, if someone was getting focused, i could keep them up alot better.

 

Don't be fooled though, its hard work. Lots of target switching, and situational awarness.

 

Still blows me away how people find use from the 4 points in the diagnostic scan skills.... can't really argue with any other advice given in here though.

[Why SWTOR Can't Do DAOC]

What they should have done is make classes independent from factions.

 

Then you make 3 factions, Light, Dark and Nuetral, and players can swap factions/choose there own factions as you level up by actions/oppertunities in the game.

 

I feel this was a Large oppertunity lost by bioware to make the game just that extra little bit special.

 

Also would alleviate pvp imbalance issues, as well as add alot to the pve/roleplaying side of things.

[Smuggler Healer (Scoundrel)]

I have been reading these forums now for a long time, haven't posted anything up until now.

 

The one thing that blows me away is time and time again i see 4 skill points put into the diagnostic scan ability. People say it has it's place, and it's handy for alot of PvE situations. Not in my experience.

 

I haven't had any energy management issues. The only time i really start to get low is when i am casting kolto cloud multiple times. It's an expensive skill to cast. (and only worth it i might add if you have a high crit chance). But this isn't very often. I am usaully tab targetting everyone with the speed of a meth addict to keep dot's up and drop EMP on them. I suppose it is hard work, but thats why i play a healer most of the time, i want a challenge, i dont want to just sit back and push 1,2,2,3 ...

 

I would invest those 4 points into other areas of the tree which would give you more survivability both solo and in groups, ala med screen. Also, another option may be to invest the left over points into the scrapper tree, with the goal to boost your endurance. Arguements can be made either way for that, ala active v passive defense.

 

Also if you intend to PvP at all, that may influence your build a little as well.

 

Please be aware i am not attacking the above build, different things work for different people, just saying that i have found those 4 skill points utterly useless for me.