From a merc healer point of view, we got a buff with the snare added to kolto missile, that should help us escape powertechs at least for a few seconds. I can see it being really handy in a lot of situations including slowing down the huttball carrier. The self heal kolto shell thing might be nice but I'm not sure I'd spend the skill points for it because there's not a lot I'd want to give up. I will probably not use the interrupt in pvp since I'm mostly targeting friendlies. I agree however the arsenal and pyro mercs were the ones that really needed the fix and it will be interesting to see if the root makes a difference. Probably not.

I am one mod shy of full campaign with black hole optimizations and I run as much alacrity as I can without sacrificing surge, here are my stats (buffed and stimmed), fully augmented with reflex and overkill: aim: 2289 power: 952 (bonus healing 738.1) crit: 235 (40.90% tech healing chance) surge: 342 (77.36) alacrity: 228 I tried swapping in more surge for alacrity but gain so little I went back to running more alacrity. IMO at the end of the day its about keeping ppl alive. During tough stretches you are going to need to rely on rapid scan, if you get an additional .1 seconds due to alacrity it can make the difference. Alacrity won't cause overheating problems, because you just rotate in free heals more than a merc with no alacrity, overall net gain in HPS and better reaction time on cast time heals. BTW I mostly use aim mods because with the 9% aim bonus specced I gain so much additional critical chance I can swap in more power mods instead of crit.

Bodyguard spec (PvP and PVE) 1. How others perceive our class PVE: The weakest of the healers, mox parser tells them so. PVP: Can be a good healer, can stand in the fire more than the other healers. Won't top the charts in healing though and operative healer widely regarded as the best for PVP. 2. How I perceive my class PVE: Mercs healing output was clipped much lower than the other classes in 1.2. SCG isn't used much because all the benefits were cut to 5%. In high damage situations, Mercs weaknesses show because Rapid scan is the only non-rs heal without a cooldown and at 25 heat we hit the heat cap quickly. I have concern that as newer content finally arrives that we're all starved for, merc healers will be perceived as liabilities compared to the much higher raw healing output of a sorc or op and lose their spots in leading edge raid groups. Ask the 16man competitive guilds how many merc healers they run with right now. PVP: The situation is better for merc healing in PVP. Heat isn't as much of an issue it seems like. Our heavy armor and shield give us some survivability that makes up some for our low mobility. I wish we had one more escape tool.

Yep this bugs me the most also. BTW I mostly see DPS sorcs guilty of this. They are simply padding their medal count at the expense of the team.

Speaking from a personal POV I see powertechs differing from marauders or snipers. I can get away from the latter two and survive. If a PT gets me on on one I can't escape and will die.

Making someone invisible while they're capping doesn't sound like something the devs intended to let happen considering in all other cases capping pulls someone out of stealth.

That's raw healing of course. Probably a whole lot of overhealing from the circles. But that raw output can keep people at higher health which reduces risk of a raid fail, which is extremely important. When someone doesn't get out of a circle on time or something doesn't go smoothly that adds some forgiveness that makes a big difference. On a smooth run, merc heals from a geared player are sufficient to hold up their end of the deal but smooth is unusual until you really outgear an operation or you've done it so many times with the same players it's on farm mode. Apparently force is not an issue for the sorc. But yea, point taken. I gave up Muzzle Fluting in 1.2 and put the point into Improved Vents, plus power shot damage was nerfed 10%, so I rarely use this. Would rather have the SCG on hand to handle any emergency burst healing situations, but that's my conservative play. On Kephess, the fight has so many stages that can be wrecked by one death I stay on the conservative side.

I run with a sorc in my 8-man and he can heal over 2000 HPS and he out damages me on Kephess walker phase easily by dropping crushing darkness, affliction and force lightning. PVE heal Mercs are very far behind sorcs except maybe in single target healing. We probably out damage operatives but they can spam hots with no energy issues, surpassing us in raw healing output significantly. Not saying we can't pull our weight but we will always be well behind sorc or op healers of similar gear/skill.

Agree completely unless operative is a healer, in that case I'd bump up op to above sorc.

Here's mine from solo healing KP Story. Both of our highest HPS came on Jarg and Sorno. You topped me in HPS but I topped you in EHPS http://www.torparse.com/a/3619

The big difference between merc healers and the other healing classes is rapid shots. Its free and can be cast on the move and can be used for healing or damage. There are times when it makes more sense where rapid shots on the enemy makes more sense. e.g. all friendlies out of range, everyone full health etc. Otherwise all healing classes have damage capabilities that have utility and should use them if necessary, e.g. using an AE to stop a cap, slowing/killing the ball carrier in huttball etc.

True, I was with a strong group who know what they're doing, not a lot of stepping in purple circles etc. BTW if you have that 1600 hps parse I'd like to check it out. Guessing a lot of Kolto missiles on ppl who could use them?

HM Denova on The Bastion tonight. Lag-o-rama.

I clear EC HM weekly on a merc healer but I don't like being the weakest healer by such a wide margin, and the mini game of resource fail isn't all that fun, but I agree it's never a dull moment and if my main was another class that bored me it could feel exciting. We always run mox parser so I know how much healing I'm doing an it's soo much less than sorc or ops. I have almost maxed my gear, bonus healing is around 730 buffed; my parses stack up favorably to other Mercs. To test my top end I solo healed KP story the other day, averaged around 1300 HPS. Yet this output is so far less than the other healing classes can crank out, by more than 20%. I'm concerned when the next content comes out I might not be invited to go because I hurt chances for success because my raw output is just so much lower than the other healing classes.

I think you need to look at the healing classes separately. 1. Operatives were actually buffed in 1.2. They can cast most of their good heals on the move and have a lot of ways to escape. This makes ops fairly strong healers with high survivability even against the 'overpowered' DPS classes. 2. Sorcs lost cast speed on their big single target heal making it mostly impractical to use in PVP. DPS has increased since 1.2 so sorc survivability has gone down. They can still put up big numbers on maps where they can drop a circle with a lot of players around, which is 3/4 of the maps. In general survivability and flexibility are down for sorcs. 3. Mercs had their output cut essentially in half in 1.2. Their AoE was increased to 4 targets and can be cast on the move, offsetting the nerf a small amount. Also the fact respawning resets heat offsets the resource nerf a little compared to PVE. DPS for merc healers (DFA, power shot) decreases, further reducing flexibility. Survivability under fire is still pretty good for Mercs exempt when facing Vanguards/PTs whose attacks pretty much negate heavy armor. Mercs don't have much escapability so they really benefit a lot from guard. In general I'd say that now operatives are still big difference makers but sorc and merc far less so except situationally. I would say healing in PVP is not as fun any more with sorc and merc either due to the reduction in options they have. I wouldn't say healing is totally broken but would like to see sorc and mercs empowered a little to better match the far superior healing/survivability of the PVP operative.

If ops leader puts forth a standard plan I.e. 2 snow, rest mid, it's pretty dumb not to follow it say by being the 1337 pair of dudes with mads skills that goes to grass because you could've helped be the ones to turn the tide at mid; instead you become the difference as to why both caps are lost because there's insufficient force at either.

The talent also boosts Kolto Missile, so healers spec it. Would be nice if it boosted Fusion Missile.

I agree, people should be required to go find their nearest enemy VG/PT if they want a quick respawn, not a command they can type in chat.

That's the description for the pyrotech mistakenly placed, obviously. Ironically, probably the most dangerous to their cousins over on the wrong side of the tracks, the mercs.. Their attacks completely ignore heavy war hero armor, they dot I cleanse, they dot again and smack me with a rail shot crit which ignores my armor. I try to get away so I stun them, but I am snared. So I cleanse. Stun's worn off, I jet boost and get pulled back. I try to heal but the damage is faster than I can heal. Sorcs in the same boat with a couple more tricks to get away. Op healer could probably get away and cast 10 heals while doing it. No wonder PT/Vanguards are the most common ac in ranked teams and Mercs are the least common DPS or heals.

If a fight has mechanics that negate the sorc circle then the sorc's output just got cut way down. However EC rewards stacking on every boss fight, thus the circle is simply awesome there. As a merc I much prefer running raids paired with a sorc healer because we can succeed. 2 Mercs on EC is just plain dumb because even geared in full 61 we would need a perfect run in order to succeed without too many wipes. Wipe recovery in EC takes 20 minutes or so, simply no fun. it would be great if the game would be tuned so raids weren't so dependent on circles, and also if Mercs healing could get some love.

If you are in a forum thread and want to post a reply, but are not logged in, you are taken to another page that tells you you need to login. After you login, instead of being taken back to the page you are on, you are taken to the swtor home page. This puts you 5 or 6 clicks away from finding that forum thread again to be able to reply. In other places in the site if I login, I am returned to the page I was on as would be expected. So in some places it works but not in the forum threads. Can this be fixed?

Merc is not a joke, but is a much weaker class. PVE - merc arsenal DPS is good. Probably not the top but quite acceptable, better than PT DPS with similar gear/skill. The tracer missile debuff is loved by all. Otherwise, merc heals are probably the weakest in PVE. PTs can spec tank, and are good at it. PVP - don't kid yourself for a second. PT blows merc away. PT pretty much blows every other class away. Sure a good merc might top one of the newbie fotm PT alts but thats not saying much really is it? Marauders hit hard, PTs are the only class that I'm really scared of. They do fantastic damage that pretty much ignores heavy armor, they can deal all their significant damage on the run and they have some very nice cc including a pull. What does a merc dps have over a PT? Heals? Well if you're DPS speccd you have no instant heals so that means you can go hide in a corner and heal yourself. Merc heal-specced are decent in PVP, won't usually top the healing charts but can fare ok. I dont want PTs nerfed. They are a really effective class and seem fun to play, and fun in a game is good. Instead maybe the merc could be tuned into a cool class....Maybe now with Georg-merc-nerf-nerfherder-Zoeller gone the merc will get a second look from the devs.

I've been running lvl 6 gift missions and gotten several synthweaving schematics but no bracer or belt armormech schematics. Does anyone recall which mission they've gotten electrum onslaught bracers or belt schematics from?

It doesn't pop up after the first mission is completed. The second mission is completely gone.

Good news is you'll want to stack the same stats as you do for DPS except trade accuracy for alacrity. Accuracy is unnecessary for healing. Since 1.2 most raiding healers have even dropped the amount of alacrity in favor of more power/surge i.e. fewer but bigger heals. Rationale: 1) we must use rapid shots to avoid overheating so optimize bonus healing. Rapid shots are instant so no benefit from alacrity. 2) alacrity hastens overheating, so the more alacrity you have, the more you'll need to use rapid shots. It's too bad this trade off has to be made, because spell haste can save lives--but given the merc's challenges it's optimal to stack surge over alacrity. Since surge soft caps at levels similar to crit, there's room for 150-220 alacrity on a raiding set so I'd say you are in the ballpark.