My biggest advice to you would be to keep at it. Merc energy management is challenging at all levels, but the passive buffs in the skill tree make it easier as you level. It's normal to struggle in the beginning, especially until you have Supercharged Gas (28) for regular heat dispersion. Until then, make sure you're specced into the Improved Vents utility and practice avoiding overhealing. You've got bursty heals, so use em appropriately. Rather than repeatedly cast Rapid or Healing Scan, use kolto shot to top off. Again, it's simply going to be difficult until more of the tree unlocks. But stick with it, as it's a very dynamic and rewarding class in the endgame. If you've played Commando healing, it's completely the same. Ammo works identically, just reversed on a 100-0 scale instead of a 0-100 scale.

Alright, I understand. Thanks. I thought that was what it was going for, but for some reason I kept worrying that it was a suggestion to spam rapid shots in those filler spots. Sorry. Like I said, dumb question. Thanks though!

I feel sort of dumb, but something about the arsenal part of the guide just isn't clicking for me. I get the priority system and all, but not the "slightly advanced arsenal" rotations. Why is there such a liberal use of rapid shots? Why not just fill those in with more tracer missiles?

Hey. I am the leader of a modest raid group just moving into HM in an attempt to get it done before the expansion. The problem I'm having is one of our tanks wants 2-3 seconds at the start of every pull to build some aggro. It is my understanding that this should be unnecessary. But when we all start at the same time, our dps (which is fairly good) is occasionally pulling aggro off him for a moment. While he never has any problems once the fight gets going, this is becoming a point of contention between him and some of our dps. Basically, my question is this: does he have any ground to stand on? Should I be permitting him the extra seconds? Or does he need to suck it up and play a bit better? Or is it a problem with our second tank not building enough aggro to increase the amount taunt generates? I'm not a tank or a jugg, so I wanted to ask you guys.

Is there any reason I can't use the same gear for both classes at 60? I was looking at the numbers and they seemed fairly similar, but I figured you guys probably know a lot more about marauders than I do. I have a bunch of gear in legacy armor that I put together for my jugg, and if it'll work [well] on maurauders, I'll definitely level one up next.

So, in good faith, I've been using some of the numbers people here and on dulfy suggest for a merc dps. At the moment, I've got unaugmented dps gear that's optimized 192 commendation (haven't gotten a chance to get token yet.) I'm struggling to sustain 3300 on the dummy in IO. The confusion comes from the fact that when I put on my healing gear, (power augmented, optimized token 192), I'm pushing 4k. Why am I doing so much more damage? Is it really just the difference between having/not having augments? Is it the token enhancements and mods? Does the dummy not take into account accuracy? I'd really appreciate some explanation. Trying to grasp this whole gear thing so I can lead my guild properly, which is fairly new to raiding.

Thank you for the response. I figured that was the case, but I wanted to make sure. Though, a necessary corollary: are the 198 commendation mods/enhancements superior to 192 token? I'd assume no... I've only been playing since 3.0, so I didn't know about the fluctuating differences. Maybe I'm cynical, but I wouldn't put it past them to decide for 4.0 to even out the difficulty...by making them all equally, annoyingly difficult. Sidenote: Thanks for the excellent guide. Especially not giving a rotation. It was frustrating at first, but definitely better in the long run to work it out myself. Appreciate it.

Just a simple question. Should I be using the unlettered power mods from the token gear despite the loss in strength, and is the higher power in token gear enhancements worth losing the extra endurance as a melee dps? I'd appreciate any advice. If it matters, I'm using the gear guidelines in the pinned guide at the top of the forum, and using mainstat augments over alacrity.