I've been running some tests and found that Potent Medicine doesn't apply to all skills. The easiest skills to see this on are Hammer Shot and the HoT from Preventative Medicine, since their Base Healing is constant, meaning that they always output the same amount of healing and the same amount of critical healing. My Tech Crit Multiplier (without Potent Medicine's effect) is 73%. My Hammer Shot normally does 192 (with full CSC charges), and 361 when it crits. That makes sense, because (361-192)/192 = 88%, which is my Crit plus 15% for Potent Medicine (88% total crit). My Preventative Medicine HoT does 242 per tick normally, and 439 when it crits. (439-254)/254 = 73%, which is my Tech Crit Multiplier WITHOUT the benefit of Potent Medicine. Potent Medicine is supposed to apply to ALL heals, not just direct heals. If it's not applying to Preventative Medicine, are there other skills to which it's not applying as well?

Yes to all of the above. Our GM is having to post screenshots for other officers to see. And what I'm seeing is that I have no idea why we're losing so much money. Withdrawls slightly exceed deposits, which is what I'd expect as we're filling up the bank with useful mats and eng-game items. But that doesn't explain our recent loss in funds. I can only conclude that some people are using bank funds way too much for respeccing and repairing, but I have no idea who, since the ledger is so poorly designed to show only certain types of withdrawls. Can you imagine if actual banks worked that way?

Are you Gunnery spec or Gunnery/Assault hybrid? If Gunnery spec, I'm not sure why you're using Plasma Cells. If you switch to Armor-piercing Cell and use the Cell Charger skill, any ammo regen problems you're having will disappear. I rarely if ever use Hammer Shot to regen, in spite of having 15% Activation Speed. In boss fights, I can dish out non-stop damage for long periods and never reach for HS (of course, I use Recharge Cells and Reserve Powercell frequently). Sure, just check with a biochem. They can make these, although they can be rather expensive. They last 15 seconds and have a 3-minute cooldown, but are much more powerful than relics. Actually, they only last 20 seconds, and if you're also using an adrenal, that's only 15 seconds. If you're fighting a boss, it's best to get 5 gravity vortexes up, for both your own benefit and that of your party, so you're delivering 5-10% extra damage on top of everything else. At that point, hit your relic (and adrenal, if applicable) and also hit some of your most damaging skills: Demo Round and procced Full Auto do much more damage than Grav Round, ESPECIALLY if they crit (+30% bonus crit damage with the Deadly Cannon skill).

Alacrity works very well for Combat Medics, as you might expect, but also for the Gunnery spec if combined with Critical Rating. High Critical Rating = massive Full Auto and Demo Round damage, but also increased ammo regen thanks to Cell Charger. High Alacrity = higher rate of fire, which means more damage over a shorter period of time, but this is offset by even more crits in that time, which helps offset ammo burn. I do LOTS of damage with an Activation Speed of 15%, yet hardly ever have to use Hammer Shot to maintain ammo regen, even in long fights (of course, I frequently use Recharge Cells and Reserve Powercell).

Really? Not meaning to be rude, but it's one of the best tools at your disposal whenever it's up. In PvE, I frequently knockdown 3-5 mobs and if I don't kill all of them, they're all but dead. If there's a strong with them, he's not knocked down, but he loses at least a quarter of his life. In PvP, I use this whenever it's up, especially at the doors in Voidstar (aka, "AoE Heaven"), or in Alderaan around the towers. The trick is not to aim where people ARE, but where they're GOING to be. Takes some practice, but I usually can hit 3 Imps, many of whom are perfectly happy to sit in an AoE, and the rest are hit because of the HUGE 8 m radius of Mortar Volley as it currently is. I've killed as many as 3 (already wounded) Imps with this. If they nerf the radius but remove the delay, then you'll be able to hit PvP players just as easily as you do currently with Hail of Bolts (for Commandos). The big problem will be in PvE, where you'll be lucky to get more than 3 mobs. Sigh.

Thanks for sharing your build, but I have to disagree on a number of points. Since you and the OP are both interested in Ops and HMs, I would not bother with Concussive Force, Tenacious Defense, or Cover Fire. While these are all wonderful abilities to use in PvP, they have little use in endgame PvE. Also, you should get rid of Soldier's Endurance and replace it with the extra Accuracy from Target Lock. After all, your job is to do DPS, and you should not sacrifice that for survivability in PvE. For PvE, I much prefer Khalirei's build (see above). I'm not sure why you're waiting to get off 5 whole Grav Rounds before using Demolition Round or HIB. Remember, Gravity Surge gives you an extra gravity vortex with each Grav Round, so after 2 Grav Rounds, you've already got 4 gravity vortexes, and since you want to use Demolition Round and HIB as often as possible, it's not worth waiting for even one more Grav Round just to get that 5th gravity vortex (unless fighting a boss, in which case the whole party benefits from your vortexes and you want all 5 up as quickly as possible). True, you're only getting 2 stacks of Charged Barrel out of a possible 5 on your first HIB, but you still want to start getting those off early and often. And in a protracted fight, you'll be getting 3-5 stacks of Charged Barrel on your future HIBs. I like that you're including an Adrenal (15-sec duration) and Relic (20-sec duation) in your rotation, but would probably place these immediately before your first HIB and Demo Round. That way, there's a good chance one or both buffs will still be up when you proc a +25% Full Auto. Also, verify that you're getting full benefit from stacking two Power buffs. I know that stacking two Surge buffs or two Critical buffs gives very little additional benefit, but have not tried two Power buffs. It's also good you're using Reserve Powercell, but I wouldn't lead with it. Better to use it slightly later on a non-instant skill after you've spent a couple ammo, so that when you use it, not only does your attack not cost ammo, but you're also recharging ammo. I might suggest something like this instead for most fights (adding in Full Auto whenever it procs and HIB & Demo Round are on cooldown): Grav Round -> Grav Round -> HIB -> Demolition Round -> Grav Round -> Reserve Power Cell w/ Full Auto -> Grav Round -> Grav Round -> etc. And this for boss fights: Grav Round -> Grav Round -> Grav Round -> Crit/Surge Relic -> Power Adrenal -> Reserve Power Cell w/ Full Auto (if +25%) -> HIB -> Demolition Round -> Grav Round -> Grav Round -> etc. Be sure to hold off on this particular Full Auto until you get the +25% proc - when stacked with your Relic & Adrenal, it's deadly. I mostly agree with you here. However, don't forget about your buffed Recharge Cells. Some people hang onto this for emergencies, but I actively plan to use it early and as often as I can. Go ahead and burn hot early on, and then pop Recharge Cells when you're down to around 3 ammo. This will put you back up to nearly maximum ammo and high recharge rate almost instantly. At this point, you can start weaving in Hammer Shot as needed to stay about 60%, until your next Recharge Cells is nearly available. This allows you to do more damage in a shorter timeframe than you could do otherwise.

One of the downsides to being a Commando (like your Merc) in PvP is that whether healing or DPSing, you're something of a turret. Of course, you learn to work with that, and as a Combat Medic, I consistently put out top heals along with a generous dose of DPS. Now don't tell them I said this, but I AM jealous of the higher mobility of Scoundrel healers in PvP. Similarly, the Vanguard is more mobile than me when I'm DPS specced because of having more instant skills, and is better primed for close combat. I'll probably put out more total DPS than a DPS Vanguard in most situations, so long as I have a halfway-decent team. But put me one-on-one against a good Power Tech or Vanguard, regardless of their spec, and I'm in trouble. Honestly, I'd say you should give Vanguard a try, especially since you've already done Merc (says the hypocritical Commando with a Merc). If you make a point to always pair with a good healer (especially in Alderaan & Voidstar), you'll get some serious protection medals while dishing out handsome DPS and kills, while your healer keeps you alive against overwhelming odds.

I've never found the Tank companions to be as effective as the other ones, and most other players (regardless of class) seem to feel the same way. When my Commando is specced for heals, I want increased DPS that the Tank companions don't provide, even when in their DPS stance. When specced for DPS, I find Dorne's heals keep me going non-stop, whereas when I bring a fully-geared Tank companion instead, I'm constantly having to stop to rest him up (or unsummon/resummon). If I were a Vanguard specced as Tank, I certainly wouldn't want another Tank with me, and would opt for a companion to boost my DPS. The only time I bring out a Tank companion is situations such as when trying to three-man a Heroic and we're lacking a player Tank. In this case, it's probably more of a question of whether 4X or Vic has the more up-to-date gear than anything else (although I'm partial to 4X myself). Honestly, I wish there were more good situations in which to use the Tank companions, and sometimes I bring one out simply for variety.

I know this thread is a bit old, but if you ever update it, here are some figures that may help you (using a Surge adrenal, Surge relic, and various armor): 96: +13.40 198: +21.15 281: +24.69 418: +27.72 546: +28.96 648: +29.45 731: +29.67 868: +29.86

Excellent guide, very informative. I read it some time ago, and now as an experienced player, still follow much of the advice, such as concerning rotations. Trauma Probe There's just one point where I disagree, which is with the importance of always keeping Trauma Probe (TP) on the tank, at least during the initial assualt in a PvE environment. When the tank first attacks, they should immediately draw threat from one or more foes, and will be targeted even by foes beyond reach of threat abilities. However, as soon as one foe damages the tank, TP kicks in to heal a tick. Now, any foe that whose threat the tank hasn't drawn yet will immediately target the source of that healing: you. In trickier environments, such as Hardmode Flashpoints, this can lead to a lot of damage to you rather than the tank, who is much better at mitigating that damage, and now you have two people to heal rather than one. I find that many times, it's more efficient and less risky to place TP on myself for initial pulls, especially involving trash mobs. Depending on the length of the combat, I may or may not transfer TP to the tank. Boss fights, of course, are another matter entirely. If there aren't any inital adds, I'll start with TP on the tank, and if there are, I'll transfer TP to the tank from myself once the adds are under control. If the battle involves adds spawning partway into the fight and I'm playing with inexperienced DPS players who may not pick them up quickly enough, I may keep TP on myself, since I'm the preferred breakfast of add spawns. Reactive Shield I'd also like to add that both of the skill tree buffs that affect Reactive Shield are invaluable. Although I originally added them to my build for PvP, I've found them equally useful in tough spots in PvE. While Med Zone's 20% extra self-healing once every 2 minutes may seem minor, combined with 0% pushback and the immunity to interrupts from Combat Shield, it's amazing. If I drop to 30% health due to concentrated fire, I pop my Reactive Shield and spam heals on myself. Even with three players focus-firing me, and even if stunned part of that time, I can get myself to 100% health very quickly. And since I have 3 extra seconds of Reactive Shield provided by the Champion 2-set bonus, they will frequently get discouraged and move on to easier pickings before I become vulnerable again. It works equally well in complicated boss fights or if there's a bad pull to 1) keep me alive and 2) quickly get me back to full health so I can get back to healing the rest of the team.

This is great information, and I appreciate your obvious skill and hard work. I was wondering how this translates to the PvP battlefield. While many PvE situations may allow the combat medic to sit back and spam non-stop heals, the PvP environment is rarely so accommodating. At 50, it's the rare Imperial team that is foolish enough to let the healer heal undisturbed (they're so inconsiderate). While I do my best to take advantage of both range and line-of-sight, I still spend a considerable amount of time CCed, dodging, and activating defensive buffs. All of this means that I spend less ammo than I would normally, except in emergency situations when I use SCC to spam AP (although I usually avoid this, since it burns ammo too fast) rather than the usual AP - MP. From this point of view, the downside of Alacrity - increased ammo consumption - is less of an issue, and its ability to get a quick heal to someone as they're going down can be a literal life-saver. Nonetheless, I remain partial to Critical Rating, since each crit increases critical healing and alacrity due to skill points. However, this too can be overdone, as I recently discovered that stacking a Critical/Surge relic with a Critical or a Surge adrenal leads to seriously diminishing returns. I wonder if you have any thoughts on the value of Alacrity over other secondary stats (Critical Rating, Surge, and Power) in the PvP environment.

While you should never sacrifice Aim in order to gain Cunning with your equipment, there IS benefit gained from Cunning (bonus to tech damage/tech crit chance). Therefore, if you're hunting Datacrons, you may want to include the Cunning datacrons in your search. It's a free stat boost, after all (aside from the investment of time and effort). If you get all of them, they should add 40 to your Cunning, which is equivalent to 0.32% tech crit chance (that includes healing) and 8 points of bonus damage. Not a huge bonus, but worth getting eventually. Of course, you should get all of the Aim and Endurance datacrons, and you may also want the Presence datacrons to improve companion performance. However, Strength and Willpower datacrons are COMPLETELY useless for troopers, as far as I can tell. Strength only modifies Melee skills, and even our two "Melee" attacks (Stockstrike and Blitz) are considered Tech skills. Willpower only modifies Force skills, which we also have none of.

I'm not sure that this is accurate. I have 10,000 affection or close to it with most companions, and while I see the occasional "crit" result, I don't know that I see any more than when I was starting out, but I could be mistaken. However, affection most certainly DOES affect how FAST they gather materials. When you send companions to gather, compare the time listed for the mission to the time your companion actually takes. The greater your companion's affection, the greater the reduction in time (15% time reduction at 10,000 affection). It's the same thing with crew skill bonuses for the most part. Almost all are bonuses to EFFICIENCY, meaning they gather more quickly. As far as I know, efficiency bonuses do not produce additional criticals, but I could be wrong. Only a few companions have bonuses to crit instead.

I was looking for this myself, but haven't found anything. I've been keeping track a little bit, so here are my highly unscientific AVERAGE amounts for gathering GREEN items: Moderate: 4 Abundant: 8 Bountfiul: 10 Rich: 12 Prosperous (missions only): ? Wealthy (missions only): 50 Please note, these are averages. For instance, Moderate typically yields 2-4, but can sometimes yield 7. These amounts don't seem to vary based on Tier level (i.e., Moderate T1 and Moderate T6 both seem to average 4).