CuddlyChud Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) Hi. I'm having some trouble healing against bosses that do a lot of AoE damage. I recently ran Taral V (at lvl 31) and Maelstrom Prison (at lvl 36), and I had a lot of trouble during the Lord Hasper encounter in Taral V and the giant Tarantatek in Maelstrom Prison. Specifically I just could not get everyone's HP back up before the next AoE. Once it was just me and the Tank left, I was ok. My build is all into Combat Medic branch and 2 points for Havoc Rounds in the Gunnery branch. Are there any tips or tricks for dealing with AoE damage? Should I be spamming kolto bomb? Medical Probe just doesn't seem to be fast enough / powerful enough, and I can't build up SCC fast enough between AoEs. Also, would it be possible to have a more hybrid CM/Gunnery or CM/Assault build and still be an effective PvP/Flashpoint healer? Edited January 9, 2012 by CuddlyChud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagameng Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 You'll need to have the DPS bunch up for kolto bombs. It can be tough for PuGs, but a group you normally party with should understand and stay bunched up. Kolto is really the only AoE heal you have. Keep em clustered and drop those green bombs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcfromrbc Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Make the dps group up for your Bomb, and just heal your butt off. Till you get a lot of Alacrity AoE fights are going to be rough. The bad thing about Commando heals is we don't get really good till later in our tree. Yet it teaches you to be a better healer overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dashall Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Save up your charge. When they get hit by AE pop Supercharge Cells, then Kolto followed by Adv Med Probe spam and a Bacta. At least I have found that to be effective and quick enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcfromrbc Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 He doesn't have Bacta yet. He's just level 36. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dashall Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I feel confident that he can work around this seemingly impossible complication. Perhaps simply by leaving off the Bacta until he gets it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syas Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I feel confident that he can work around this seemingly impossible complication. Perhaps simply by leaving off the Bacta until he gets it. Basically what they said. Now that said, I am at 40 and I am Combat Medic up through Trauma Probe. I haven't yet (and again, I am 40) really run into a situation where AoE damage was not mostly mitigated by smart players. Make sure people are not standing in circles/cones/know the fight/use their cooldowns and that will lower the healing you need to put out toward DPS. That said, when I need to deal with it I typically SC a Kolto Bomb where possible, or SC AMP and green beam one player while I AMP the other two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehash Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 My experiences through level 40 on my Combat Medic Commando: 1. Unless you are planning to pre-shield damage with an SCC kolto bomb, DO NOT use SCC unless AMP is on CD. Use it to refresh the AMP cd otherwise you are wasting the first few seconds of SCC by casting an AMP that was already cooled down. 2. You should ALWAYS precede an MP cast with AMP, this gives you both heals for the Ammo cost MP would have been on its own. I find that with intelligent use of Trama Probe and Kolto Bomb I can cover the healing needed for AMP to cool down. If there is a time where I am in doubt about being able to cover it, thats when I use SCC. 3. Kolto bomb is mostly useful either to shield damage with SCC or to apply residue when your party is already at relatively full health. The heal is negligible enough that you are probably better off HPS-wise using SCC and spaming AMP->MP over and over. I think the real point of Kolto is to apply the two Buffs which can only be applied by the Commando AC (as far as I know): The 10% damage shield from SCC and the 5% healing increase from residue. There are exceptions to this as Kolto can crit (for about 300-400 less than AMP at my level) and can output a fair amount of healing if all of your party members are close enough together and actually need heals, but this is not always the case. 4. Hammer shot should be used as a way to gain CSC charges without expending ammo and to proc First Responder. The heal is negligible, but because it ticks 3 times, is very likely to get you a crit. There is no reason not to use Hammer shot every time there is a lull in damage to keep first responder up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KangasCollective Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Quick question. Do you find it more useful to hammer shot for damage or hammer shot a friendly for heals when you are trying to build up SuperCharge Cells? Does that answer change in PvP? I guess I have not looked carefully at whether all the hammer shot related stuff procs independently of whether its doing damage or heals... Now that I have more heals available and a better handle on SCC I feel like I can afford to use green ray less. In Warzones(PvP) I have been doing the damage version more lately because it doesn't paint a big "kill me now I'm a healer" sign on me that the green heal ray does. A lot of time I feel like the green ray is more for building confidence in teammates (especially pugs) and a tank that "Oh the healer is doing lots of heal stuff, awesome" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disguised Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Triage healing = If they are not actively taking damage they do not need to be topped up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RagnarokJC Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Triage healing = If they are not actively taking damage they do not need to be topped up. This. One thing that newer healers need to realize is that it's not all about them in a run. Don't blame yourself if somebody else is playing poorly. Prioritize targets, with the tank of course being at the top of the list. Discuss the tactics for boss encounters, as that can make your job a lot easier too. Also, if the tank isn't keeping a mob off you, he's not doing his job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aliensanta Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I did the bonus boss of Taral V (sp?) and after an initial wipe where everybody died horribly, we took a step back and realized that the boss has a lot of damage that can be interrupted by players. After we realized that, the dps and tank started prioritizing interrupts on the boss' attacks and major aoe fun time splodey move. That made healing it still a chore, but a lot easier than before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Flin_ Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 This. One thing that newer healers need to realize is that it's not all about them in a run. Don't blame yourself if somebody else is playing poorly. Prioritize targets, with the tank of course being at the top of the list. Discuss the tactics for boss encounters, as that can make your job a lot easier too. Also, if the tank isn't keeping a mob off you, he's not doing his job. This. basically, if the tank dies, it is your fault. If you die, its the tank's fault (or yours). If DDs die, it's their fault (and who cares anyway ;-) ). Furthermore, remember your selfhealing and your shield (shield may be too much without reload). And your healing potions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts