Manananggal Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I am a mercenary and am currently speccing into DPS. However, healing does interest me. I was wondering if anyone could let me know how different the play styles are. Is one more fun then the other? Can a healing merc still level well? Or should i stay DPS till 50? I am currently lvl 24 BTW. I was hoping for some I insite before I spent some credits on respeccing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETCarson Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Bump. I'm in the same position as you and was wondering whether I should do the same... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahwinters Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 You will do fine on the solo PvE stuff specced for heals, and you will be a more valuable asset on group PvE stuff. I find that I make a very good healer for flashpoints as a heal spec merc. Don't forget that if you run into trouble while soloing, you can often use concussion missile on a target and then heal yourself up and continue. I have not had a very good time trying to heal in PvP with merc. The kolto missile does not heal for much and people are rarely clustered enough for it to benefit, and the other heals have long cast times which is tough for PvP. However, alot of my guildmates say that they do well in PvP as heal merc. Give it a try though, I have found it super fun healing for flashpoints and heroics. I am lvl 31 now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manananggal Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 You will do fine on the solo PvE stuff specced for heals, and you will be a more valuable asset on group PvE stuff. I find that I make a very good healer for flashpoints as a heal spec merc. Don't forget that if you run into trouble while soloing, you can often use concussion missile on a target and then heal yourself up and continue. I have not had a very good time trying to heal in PvP with merc. The kolto missile does not heal for much and people are rarely clustered enough for it to benefit, and the other heals have long cast times which is tough for PvP. However, alot of my guildmates say that they do well in PvP as heal merc. Give it a try though, I have found it super fun healing for flashpoints and heroics. I am lvl 31 now. Awesome thanks. This is exactly what I was wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronic Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 You will do fine on the solo PvE stuff specced for heals, and you will be a more valuable asset on group PvE stuff. I find that I make a very good healer for flashpoints as a heal spec merc. Don't forget that if you run into trouble while soloing, you can often use concussion missile on a target and then heal yourself up and continue. I have not had a very good time trying to heal in PvP with merc. The kolto missile does not heal for much and people are rarely clustered enough for it to benefit, and the other heals have long cast times which is tough for PvP. However, alot of my guildmates say that they do well in PvP as heal merc. Give it a try though, I have found it super fun healing for flashpoints and heroics. I am lvl 31 now. pretty much what he said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errtu-Zarathos Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 If you just want to heal, you can even when you havent specked anything from Bodyguard. I only have Hired Muscle from there and I have been healing in instances as only healer. Just use Combat Support Cylinder and heal with Rapid Shots and Rapid Scan and you can keep your heat down all time. Healing Scan just to boost your heal, but normaly you dont need it. Problem is that you kind of cant dps then at all.. Perhaps Fusion Missile some times to get dot running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xNonphixionx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Good luck healing at level 50 with only 1 point in bodyguard. It just wont happen. Saying you main heal groups with only 1 point in Bodyguard makes me think you are a low level. Sorry but Black Talon doesnt count as healing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errtu-Zarathos Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Good luck healing at level 50 with only 1 point in bodyguard. It just wont happen. Saying you main heal groups with only 1 point in Bodyguard makes me think you are a low level. Sorry but Black Talon doesnt count as healing. tnx for irrelevant comment. Starter of this topic is lvl24 and he has interest in healing. Only1 talking about 50lvl operation healing is you. Last flashpoint I have been healing as only healer was Cademimu and I have 3 points in Bodyguard, why should I put only 1 point for crit chance? All I'm saying is that you can heal in flashpoints when you are leveling, even tho you dont have any points in healing skills. So if you like to try healing, you can do it in dps spec while leveling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrac Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I'm leveling as a Bodyguard Merc and I'm having no problems with solo missions. I'm currently level 35 and the thing to keep in mind is that I almost always have Mako as my companion, I keep her gear current, I use Combustible Gas Cylinder and keep Kolto Shell on myself when fighting. Mako does a good job of trying to keep me topped off. I keep an eye on my health and keep the shield up. If you have multiple tough enemies, make sure you use your Concussion Missile on one of them to take them out of the combat until you're ready. Just remember to not use your AoE abilities around them. So far, I've had very few problems completing missions solo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raveniteh Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 (edited) Hia everyone, I am leveling as bodyguard merc too, currently at 34 with no problems whatsoever - flashpoints/heroics/quests. Using Mako as companion with semi-up to date gear (means no sweat, will take a reward for her, but wont buy anything). I spent all my pts to bodyguard tree so the survivability went up even more - Kolto Shell 100% uptime and Healing Scan applies little hot on target. When it comes to the Kolto Missile... I use it time to time, especialy when expecting spike healing - 10% up healing is nice. And when you have 3 melee in group and focus targeting its nice bonus. I did not pvp much yet, only WPVP and it was... satisfying to say at least. Resource management makes this class very interesting healer class requiering abit more focus while playing then others imo. I found quite well done guide for bodyguards, feel free to check it out -> http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=58702 . Edited January 2, 2012 by Raveniteh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordgrin Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I am often top heals in pvp matches. With your shield, self hot and kolto shell, your fairly hard to take down. Specing to make your bubble also make you immune to interupts is fairly awesome. In pvp, always lead with your healing scan as with later talents will make it proc 100% free rapid scan on next cast. As a BH healer, we are severly lacking in HoTs but proactive meds later make our healing scan apply a HoT. 31 point is an insant heal to drop on someone. In pvp this is a "breathing room" ability to give you time to cast something, in pvp it is a life saver. I have tried all the specs: Arsenal gives the least amount of movement and play choice. You spam tracer missile while not being able to move, to stack some armor debuffs and get some dmg output, via slightly underwhelming burst. Later you get an instant missle that does more if you have already hit them a lot with tracer missle... decent to nuke someone or something if you have no worries about moving around and they stand there and let you cast in pvp i.e. ledge hunting. Pyrotech is more manuverability and you get to have some nice instant dmg+ some dots. Lot more heat intensive that Arsenal and your rely on proc'ing free rail shot's in pvp for burst dmg, but when you do they are free and it resets the cooldown. You do less dmg as healing, but only because you do not have all the extra things from the trees. Our dmg stat is our heal stat, stack aim crush face. We are short cc, we get our one stun missile, our 4 second, and our knockback, so standing still in pvp is rough. But having played them all. If your doing it right your going to be top dmg or top heals, we put out higher numbers easier with spam casting than anyone else right now. I have had no trouble leveling overall. I just use Gualt as dps and keep myself up, he is squishy~ish but he doesn't normally get hit at all. You won't die ever if your bodyguard spec, simply tough to always do real dmg while keeping yourself up. I found pyro to be very well rounded out of the three. The main thing to realize is that our trees are really about heat management as an ability to control our output healing or dmg. They make certain abilities more friendly to use with our mechanic overall. Level till your in your mid-upper 20's around 28-30 each spec comes into it's own and you can really feel a play difference. If you want to try it out, try out the different specs then. Before that out talents don't do enough to notice. You need your second tier talents to give your price breaks and your third tier for the tree ability to get a good feel. Hope this ****** wall of text helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manananggal Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 Thanks everyone. I've recently respecced into heals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denti Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Another cool thing is once you get him, Torian can wear all of your old gear (except for weapon and offhand of course so).Once you get him, start giving him your old stuff. Once you get him geared you can level faster if you are quick on your toes...Torian is a good choice. It's just a lot faster paced, but it will make you better in the Oh Crap moments as a healer, because you will have plenty of those moments pulling Silver and Gold mobs in your 40's. But I liked this route, got kinda boring with just Mako and it was slow. I leveled all the way heal spec and did just find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrheim Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I'm Bodyguard spec and I hate doing missions as this spec, but respec cost is too high to be switching around. I tend to do a lot of pvp so I can make full use of my healing spec. I wasn't spec'd bodyguard until 44 or so. I don't think I would like going with bodyguard all the way up to 50. It's bad enough just getting the last 6 levels as bodyguard when you are used to arsenal! Healing is great as a Mercenary. I find that it's really hard to kill a bodyguard when you spec right. Also I did heal heroics as Arsenal. It's not that bad just make sure if there is room for a companion that you get to have Mako out. In short unless you are going to be healing a lot of flashpoints and pvp go arsenal for the vast majority if not all of your grind to 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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