Commando Guide on active Skills

[choboon]

This is a guide on the skills for Commando, specifically the Combat Medic and Gunnery Trees.

I did it with a rating system, this is my personal oppinion and does not reflect any absolute truth. If you disagree it would be great if you could say so and post why.

 

Index

 

1. Active Skills

1.1 Trooper

1.2 Commando

 

2. Passive Skills

2.1 Commando

2.2 Combat Healing

2.3 Gunnery

 

1. ACTIVE SKILLS

 

 

1.1 TROOPER:

 

 

Hammer Shot:

Basic Attack, needs to be part of every chain, whether healing or doing damage,

in order to keep ammo up.Should be used often enough to keep ammo reg above 80% ideally or 60%

when having to burst a bit more.

Rating: 10/10

 

Fortification:

Self and Group Buff for 5% more Endurance.

Make it a habit to ALWAYS buff the team when entering instances, when a team mate was rezzed or

during reg times in flashpoints so it does not run out.

Rating:

10/10

 

Explosive Round:

Sometimes nice to set up a normal mob for High Powered Shot to finish them quickly, or to finish

up a low health mob after Mortar. Though both combos should not be used in longe encounters as

it is not ammo efficient.

Pretty much useless at higher levels.

Rating:

3/10

Stockstrike:

I really like that ability, it can crit for very decent damage and is the only melee ability we can use

without preconditions having to be met.

I got it on a mouse button and use it frequently to finish off mobs that get to close.

You can get along without ever using it but lets face it, its fun to bash things with

a huge gun. Swings the Gun in front of you.

Note: Stock Strike has a speccable knockback to it, which can be used to interrupt mobs casting. (Thanks Mujrim for pointing that out)

Rating:

5/10 for Utility

9/10 for coolness

 

Full Auto:

Bread and Butter, you enter a stance to brace yourself against the knockback of the gun and let off

a hail of bullets.

Even if you are Healing Commando you should never take this off your hotbar. In my build i still

have the crit strength passive skilled for this.(Deadly Cannon)

The good thing is that you practically regen back the cost while the animation runs.

If you went Gunnery you should always skill "Curtain of Fire" to have FA up as often as possible.

Rating:

10/10 Damage is great all the way to 50, crits will make you smile.

 

Plasma Cell:

I cant really comment on this ability to much, as the synergies for this are all in the Assault

Specialist tree, which i never really tried out. Pre 50 and in the case of Gunnery, pre "Cell Charger"

it is the ammo of choice for levelling when not healing.

Rating:

8/10 for Gunnery pre Cell Charger and 10/10 for Combat Medic if not healing or soloing tough mob with tank companion. (I prefer Combat Support Cells in that case)

 

Sticky Grenade:

Nice Ability for three reasons, it does decent aoe damage, which always helps as there is rarely fights

against a single target. It knocks back normal targets and sets them up for a finish wit High Powered

Shot. And most of all it takes one normal out of the fight as they will be frantically trying to get

the sticky off instead of fighting back.

You can use Sticky + Mortar to get rid of packs of ranged normal mobs.

Rating:

8/10 when soloing, not strictly necessary.

4/10 when in group as normal mobs die to fast for

it to go off. In rare cases can be used to quickly take one normal mob out of the fight that shoots the healer etc.

 

High Impact Bolt:

Another Bread and Butter Skill. As a Combat Medic there is no synergy for this skill, it still does

decent damage though and the prerequisites are easily fulfilled.

If going Full Gunnery or Gunnery Hybrid, then Grav Round will leave a mob vulnerable to Bolt.

A maximum of 5 vortex stacks can be used to increase Bolt damage.

Among the conditions that enable Bolt are Vortex from Grav Round, burning from Plasma Grenade or

Plasma Cells, the stun from Full Auto, Cryo Grenade and all knockdowns.

Rating:

7/10 for Combat Medic

10/10 for Gunery/Assault

 

Pulse Cannon:

You fire a cone of lightning from your bfg.

With no other ability do i have such a love/hate relationship.

It is easily interrupted and if you move an inch after activation it will do nothing and go on cooldown.

Mobs pretty much have to be stationary for it to reach full potential.

On the upside it does great damage to all targets in its very respectable cone area and if you

start a few crits you will see damage numbers in the thousands fill your screen.

If you are a Combat Medic and always stay back and lets the DDs do all the work

then this is not for you. That would really waste potential though.

Edit:

If you are surrounded by mobs you will usually hit a max of 2 targets with this, which makes it painful to use for Vanguards and limits use when having agro.

(Credits to LordKivlov)

Rating:

8/10 because of its "issues"

 

Tenacity:

Removes all incapacitating and movement impairing effects. (does not seem to work for snares though)

Great Skill that will save your group from wipes in difficult encounters, shines in pvp of course

but definately also a great pve skill.

Though rarely used in normal encounters, it can make a huge difference in boss encounters.

Rating:

10/10 when you need it, though it may not be often

 

Mortar Volley:

Ahhh, my favourite skill for the past 50 level.

I know many hate it, Bounty Hunter has better activation times bla bla. For PVE that doesn't matter.

The damage at 50 is still good against groups of normal targets. For me it crits for 1200+ each impact.

So against groups of 3+ you can easily reach 8k-10k damage. Not bad for the time invested.

The best part tough is that it has a 8m range and knockdown against normal targets.

In Hard mode even the normal mobs hurt, beeing able to eliminate any incoming damage from them is

very nice.

I usually use it after Tank aoe taunt, when groups of normals spawn in predesigned spaces, such

as from doors in FPs or to start off a fight when soloing.

Sometimes i get higher up before using it to watch the mortars fly their arc of doom ;.)

I dont want to spoiler here but some FP Bosses have add waves where mortar can shine.

Rating:

10/10 when solo

10/10 for Fun Factor

8/10 in group if tank can aoe taunt or you have another DD to finish mobs off quickly.

 

Cryo Grenade:

Our only real stun. As a Combat Medic i usually use it to mitigate damage in case i or one of the DDs

gets agro from some random and Sticky wont help as they are Hard+

When soloing just use when opportune.

Rating:

9/10 when solo

7/10 in group as DDs/Tanks already interrupt and Concussive Round is the superior CC.

 

Reactive Shield:

Reduces all damage taken by 25% for 12 seconds.

A lifesaving ability, wont let you tank anything but survive random agro or fights gone wrong when solo

Has two synergies in Combat Medic tree of which only Combat Shield is really worth it imho.

Cannot comment on the Assault synergy from Reflexive Shield as i never used it.

Rating:

10/10 Even the no synergy basic 25% damage reduce is awesome for any class.

 

No Retreat:

You and Companion recover some Health and Cryo Grenade cooldown is finished.

Oh crap button for soloing. Will rarely save you if things go so wrong that you need an oh crap

button but there it is, i rarely ever used it as Comba Medic. As Gunnery i find myself using it more

for the instant availability of Cryo Grenade.

Rating:

4/10 for Combat Medic, just not needed

8/10 for Gunnery as Healing/CC always helps DDs

 

Adrenaline Rush:

Restores 15% hp over 10 seconds.

Rarely ever use it in pve as a Combat Medic, Gunnery Spec i used it every fight it came

off cooldown.

Assault specs can reduce the cd via crits with "Adrealine fueled"

Rating:

1/10 for Combat Medic. It is instant and free but one Kolto will heal nearly as much, + my companion

9/10 for Gunnery. Free Heal is free heal, could use lower cd though.

 

Blitz:

Meh, i was looking forward to this ability but it turned out to be pretty much useless due to its

prerequisite.

A melee attack only usable on incapacitated targets.If i cryo something up close i already have High Powered Bolt.

Was hoping for a better version of Stockstrike. As is, i dont even have it in my quickslots for pve.

Rating:

2/10 Running in close to do this is a waste of time and damage. If something comes to you, you still have the

prereq.Useless imho.

 

Stealth Scan:

Instantly deploys drones to uncover any stealthed npcs/chars in its smallish area of effect.

pve i think i used it once for the giggles, pretty much a pvp only skill as far as i can tell.

Rating:

0/10 as the guide covers pve

 

Reserve Powercell:

Next abilities Energy cost are reduced to 0.

What is not to love.CD is 2 minutes which is still ok.I sometimes use it with Tech Override to get

an instant/costfree Plasma Grenade for some nice aoe damage, also enabling High Powered Bolt.

Rating:

10/10

 

1.2 COMMANDO:

 

Trauma Probe:

Fire and Forget reactive heal. Puts 20 charges on a singe group member. Whenever he/she is hit, a small

heal is fired off and a charge is lost. Needs 21 points in Combat Medic.

Right now it seems the charges are not correctly deducted, nevertheless a great tool that should

always be up on the tank at least before a pull. Heals seem to crit for 400-700, which is definately

helping out.

Rating:

10/10

 

Supercharge Cells:

Bread and Butter for any Healer. Let me rephrase it, if you try and heal without this you will

make your life significantly harder or fail right out.

30 charges must be build up before it can be used, one Hammer Shot will build up 3.(dont have game open,

hope its not 2 o.0)

The medical Drones also build charges. So you can use Hammer Shot on the tank before a fight, while running through

FPs/Instances and enter the fight with the 30 charges already up.

Once you use the supecharge you recover 2 ammo, increase healing by 10%, Kolto get a Shield with 10% damage reduce,

Full Auto cost is reduced by 1 and most importantly, Advanced Medical Probe cd is reduced by 100%

 

That means that with Field Triage skilled, you can use Advanced Drone + Drone for 3 ammo

repeatedly during 10 seconds, at which point the supercharge will stop.

That time is your best burst healing if you used Kolto for the 5% buff right before. It will not

go any higher then that.

Rating:

11/10 for Combat Medics

 

Grav Round:

Many people seem to dislike the animation/sound on this, i actually think it fits quiet well. Replaces Charged Rounds.

Fires a stream at a target where it turns into a swirl.

Does great single target damage and debuffs armor for the rest of the team as well.

I got this on my hybrid spec to have one heavy hitter.

Gunnery tree builds up on this ability.Even if you do not skill any synergies in the Gunnery tree,

the armor debuffs on the target (max. 5, 4% armor debuff each) will also increase High Impact Bolt

damage.

Most important thing to remember when getting this is to not spam it.

Always remember to use Hammer Shots and of course Full Auto, especially when Gunnery Tree specced,

because of higher FA damage buffs and the chance for no cd.

Keep that ammo regen high. For ammo reasons needs the Gunnery passive "Muzzle Fluting" to lower cost.

Rating:

10/10 for Hybrid specs

11/10 for Gunnery

 

Kolto Bomb:

Targetted aoe heal, max 3 targets. Needs 11 points in Combat Medic.

Kolto crits for around 2k now for me, usually it is much closer to 1k though. That is not a lot

but cd is only 6 seconds and you can use it while moving. Also our only Group Heal.

Mobility while healing is low for Commandos, for many Boss Encounters Kolto will save Group Members.

In normal fights i use it for the 5% increased healing on targetsfrom Kolto Residue and to top off people

on the way to the next mobgroup.

Rating:

7(10)/10, max 3 targets and low healing values. Unfortunately it is the only group heal we get and as such

a must have. So 10/10 for that and 7/10 because i feel it should do more.

 

Bacta Infusion:

Only instant single target heal Commandos get.As with Kolto Bomb the big advantage here is mobility.

I used it while our tank was not so well equipped, now that he can take more of a beating and we

coordinate better i specced out of it to get Grav Round.

For me, it is a nice to have, the other tools you have should be enough to get the job done though and the added dps from Grav really helps in a few encounters where damage is more important then healing.

I would reconsider if cooldown and healing would be increased. A 2 or 3 min cd tank superheal. The way it is it can be skipped.

Rating:

5/10

 

Incendiary Round:

Assault tree, all i can say is that i found the ability itself to be underwhelming.

Needed for Ionic Accelerator though, which gives Full Auto a chance to finish cd on Impact Bolt.

Rating:

none

 

Charged Rounds:

Grav Rounds for the poor. Basically if you go all the way up the Combat Medic tree, then this will be

your single target heavy hitter.You will still be able to get Muzzle Fluting for a cost reduce.

No added debuff though. Base Damage is shown as higher but imho it hits for less.

Could be because of armor debuff by Grav Rounds or because Grav has a different damage type.

Rating:

9/10 before Grav Round

0/10 after Grav Round

 

Medical Probe:

Finally we talk real healing

This baby crits for up to 5k for me. Has an ammo cost of 3, so spamming it will make you run out of ammo

in no time, so it needs a few things to complete you as the best single target healer.

I would seriously recommend taking all passives, cd reduce, healing improvements and of course have

Combat Support Cells active at all times.

At first i went all out crit/surge. But i realized that enough alacrity to get down cast time for drone

to 1.5 sec is pretty much needed. Especially when skipping Bacta Infusion.

So i will redo my equipment to fit that.

Can be used with Tech Override for a fake instant heal.

Rating:

10/10 for Combat Medic

4/10 for Gunnery as it is simply to expensive, unless used with Reserve Powercell.

 

Hail of Bolts:

To be honest, i only used that once when i got it. Has some Synergy in the Assault tree to do higher

damage on burning targets.

Cannot give a rating on this, maybe i will try it again someday. If anyone uses it with success then

it would be great if you could say so.

Rating:

none

 

Armor-piercing Cell:

This is the Ammo of choice for Full Gunnery Specs. Crits with rounds and Full Auto return one ammo.

(max every 3 sec) Imho a must have passive, as anything that regens ammo is a blessing.

Rating:

10/10 for Gunnery

 

Combat Support Cell:

The Ammo of choice for Combat Medics, see also "Supercharge Cells"

Hammer Shot now heals friendly targets. Crits quiet often for somewhere in the 200s.

Builds up charges for Supercharge.

Rating:

10/10 for Combat Medic

 

Concussion Charge:

Pbaoe Knockback that affects a maximum of 5 targets and also slows them. Deals damage though i never thought of using it

for that. Cracks the Earth under your feet, which is a cool effect.

Uses are pushing enemies down cliffs etc., push back melee attackers, push mobs into aoes or closer to tank.

Incredibly funny and useful in pvp so i wont go into that here.

Rating:

10/10

 

Advanced Medical Probe:

The box of tools heal. If you skilled all passives, then it will lower the cost of Medical Probe to 1 ammo,

put a HoT on the target and raise armor by 10% for 9 seconds.

Its cooldown is 0 while Supercharge is active.

Rating:

10/10 for Combat Medic

8/10 for Gunnery as it is only 2 ammo and faster cast time.

 

Plasma Grenade:

Engulfing 3 enemies into flames, fun times. May not be a flamethrower but can be used from a safe distance.

Because of the rather heavy ammo cost of 4, i tend to use it with Reserve Powercell.

The other good thing about it is that the dot does its damage over only 6 seconds, which is acceptable.

Rating:

7/10 Could use a 1 ammo cost reduce or at least a cast time of 0.

 

Concussive Round:

Knocks out a target for 60 seconds. Must have and must use utility skill, period.

Knock out the elite/hard, clear the trash, kill the elite/hard without his backup.

Works on humanoids and droids.

Has some charge up time but can also be used to take out targets midfight or renew the knock out on a

target if more mobs added. Breaks on damage so any kind of voice communication works wonders with this skill.

At least you should always agree on someone to mark targets.

Rating:

10/10

 

Field Aid:

Outside of pvp i found it pretty unnecessary until higher levels.Then it starts becoming important in pve.

I have it on mouse wheel down now. It is instant cast and with the synergy skilled (Psych Aid)

it only costs 1 ammo and heals mental, tech and physical effects.

Use it for those pesky dot bosses.

Rating: 10/10 Not needed often but when you need it you need it now. So make it accessible.

 

Diversion:

Agro reduce instant cast, nice to have.

Rating:

10/10 I rarely use it though, might be more important in pugs.

 

Tech Override:

I mainly use this for three abilities: Plasma Grenade, Medical Probe and Concussive Round for in instant knockout.

Makes the next ability with activation time an instant.Lasts up to 15 sec.

First i had it on my taskbar but didnt really use it, now its one of my regular skills.

See how it works for you.

Rating:

10/10

 

 

2. PASSIVE SKILLS

 

 

2.1 Commando

 

2.2 Combat Medic

 

Field Training:

A no brainer, +6% ranged and tech crit chance. I would not dream of putting any less then 3 points in here.

Rating:

10/10 Should be your skill of choice for investing points after Quick Thinking

 

Quick Thinking:

Reduces activation time of MP and cooldown of AMP. Definately worth 2 points.

You want AMP to be up as often as possible and the activation reduce for MP means you will need to invest less in alacrity to get it to 1.5 seconds later.

Rating:

10/10 Should be your first two skillpoints

 

 

Cell Capacitator:

Recharge Cells gives 1/2 additional cells. This is a tough one. If you use Recharge Cells when you are about 20% or 25% then you are back in the 4 pip regen area anyhow.

But more ammo is never bad.

The higher your alacrity, the faster you burn through it.

I would first try without it in favor of other skills, if you later on think you need it you can respec into it.

Rating:

7/10 Nice to have but points are scarce and those two can be used to get Supercharge Cells asap and start in the Gunnery Tree.

 

First Responder:

I did not take this at first but as i meantioned earlier, i think it important to get MP to 1.5 seconds activation time and this helps. May be skippable if you can reach that mark with equipment but at first i would take it.

Rating:

7/10 Not strictly necessary but at lower to mid levels your heals can seem quiet slow as tanks tend to take more damage. You can skip it at first and decide at mid 30s if you want it.

 

Steady Hands:

Pushback is lame and agro reduce is always a good thing to have. Maybe not needed if you never get agro in your premade, for others i would take it.

Not much else to say.

Rating:

8/10

 

Field Medicine:

Increases Healing of MP/AMP and charges of MP for Combat Support Cell.

Both things are definately a treat. Would recommend taking this asap, again, i cant stress how important it is to build Supercharge as fast as possible.

Rating:

10/10

 

Kolto Residue:

I really want to like it, 5% buff to healing sounds great, it isnt though.

It only holds 15 seconds, so to keep it up you need to reapply Kolto.

But mostly the tank takes damage. Kolto Bomb is 2 ammo. So even if i do heal 5 or 6 times and add in the Kolto Bomb heal itself, i will get about the same figure i get from one good MP.

For 3 ammo i get AMP+MP. Much more healing and no buff to keep up via an active skill.

If you go pure healing, take it, otherwise use those 2 points on something else.

Rating:

8/10 for pure Healers

3/10 if you want to heal when actually needed and help with damage otherwise

 

 

Combat Shield:

Further reduces pushback and makes immune to interrupt.

I have to admit i only took this for pvp. If you only PVE then you might be better off investing that point into something else.

Rating:

3/10 in pve

 

Efficient Conversions

Reduces cost of Concussion Charge, Concussive Round and Cryo Grenade by 1.

I personally love this, ammo reduction skills are gold, a cryo can mitigate more damage then a heal and anything it costs less is more i have for other stuff (that was totally obvious but i just felt like writing that down)

Rating:

9/10 Can be skipped in favor of other things, little things add up though.

 

Med Zone:

Increases all self healing by 20% while Reactive Shield is active.

I skipped that, in theory any skill that improves your self heals would be great. A half dead medic is often worse then a half dead tank.

But points are scarce and Shield isnt always ready, all in all i prefer my points in skills that are less situational.

2/10 for pve

 

Field Triage:

AMP has a 50%/100% chance to reduce cost of next MP by 2.

Congratulations, you are now a true Combat Medic !!

If you do not take this you might as well respec to Gunnery.

Now you can pop supercharge and use AMP+MP/AMP+MP/AMP+MP and so on for 3 ammo each combo. This makes you the best tank healer ingame imho.

Just make sure to not overheal by the thousands in all the excitement.

Rating:

12/10

 

Treated Wound Dressings:

Up to 4% reduce from all damage taken.

I took that to advance to the next tier of skills, a 4% damage reduce is something tanks would kill for. We arent tanks of course, no where close in fact, but every bit helps and this helps every time you get damage, no precondition.

I would rather have something else that helps me heal better but choices are limited.

Rating:

4/10 but on that tier the better of two evils.

 

Armor Screen:

Gives AMP a 10% Armor buff on target. 10% more armor is nothing to sneeze at and in theory you can keep this up near constantly if you cast AMP every time it is up.

Were it a seperate skill i would rate it lower but we cast AMP anyhow so not taking this would need a very good reason.

Rating:

9/10

 

Psych Aid:

Reduces Field Aid cost by 1 and now also heals mental effects.

Field Aid is an easily overlooked skill but in many encounters it can make all the difference.

Cost reduction is al always awesome and the ability to purge mental effects will make those looney tanks happy.

Rating:

10/10

 

Potent Medicine:

I skipped this in favor of dipping deeper into Gunnery. If you play a pure Combat Medic you will need to take this anyhow to get to Bacta Infusion.

Critical Bonus increase on healing of up to 15%. This is not higher base crit chance, which i would take anytime. As is, if you do not want Bacta it isnt worth the 5 points imho.

My crit values went down a bit but the "normal" heals stay the same, which is what you have to do your math with, crits are a bonus. Nothing more.

Rating:

3/10 If you go for Bacta you will have to take it anyhow

 

2.3 Gunnery

Ironsights:

Increases Aim by up to 9%

Its a % based bonus on your main stat that governs nearly everything. No-brainer.

Rating:

10/10

 

Advanced Tech:

Increases healing done and received by up to 2%.

If you totally want to min max then go for it. I do not think it is worth it, i rather take something higher up to help out in dps races against the enrage clock. My healing is already sufficient as should yours be without the 2%.

Rating:

2/10

 

Havoc Round:

Increases damage done by Rounds and Charged Bolts by 6% and healing from Kolto Bomb by 20%.

Damage done by rounds also increases healing done by Hammer Shots and more healing for Kolto to make it at least decent is always welcome.

At tier 1 it is decent.

8/10

 

Heavy Trooper:

Increases Endurance by up to 2% and Healing received by up to 6%.

For pve i would skip this skill, you already have a decent healthpool and healing to yourself, while nice should not take priority over passives that help your entire team.

Rating:

4/10 in pve

 

Special Munitions:

Increases effects of cells while they are active.

For pure Gunnery, who most likely take Armor piercing it will reduce the cost of high impact bolt by 1, for the other two the crit chance for tech goes up 3%.

3% more tech crit for 1 point is totally worth it.

Rating:

9/10

 

Muzzle Fluting:

Reduces the cost of Charged Bolts and Grav Round by 1 ammo.

If you take grav round you pretty much have to take this. If you go pure healer you might be able to skip it if you do not dps much in your group.

Rating:

10/10 for Gunnery or Hybrids with Grav

4/10 for Combat Medics

 

Steadied Aim:

Pushback on attack skills is still lame and i still needed 3 points invested to get Grav Round at this point.

Rating:

9/10

 

Deadly Cannon:

Increases crit bonus of Full Auto and Demo Round by up to 30%.

For full Gunnery this is candy on a stick. For Hybrids i would either chose this or Concussive Force. (see next passive in the list)

Rating:

10/10 for full Gunnery

5/10 for Hybrid

 

Concussive Force:

Strockstrike get an up to 100% chance of knockback and knockback on Concussion Charge is improved by 2 meters.

For Hybrids i would always recommend this, full Gunnery will take it anyhow.

You can protect yourself and team mates against melees etc etc

I did not take this at first but now i would not be without it.

Rating:

10/10

 

Charged Barrier:

Charged Bolts and Grav Round build Barriers of max stack size 5, giving 2% damage redux each. Combat Medic Hybrid will most likely have no points left over for this.

For Gunnery i would recommend taking it. 10% damage redux is awesome and you can easily keep them up during a fight.

Besides, the way the Gunnery tree is set up, when having all "necessary" skills, you will be left with the option of either taking this or Tenacious Defense (see next) to be able to advance in the tree.

Rating:

10/10 if you solo a lot.

5/10 if you group a lot as pure DD

 

Tenacious Defense:

Imho a pvp skill. In pve Concussion Charge and Tenacity are usually not used enough to warrant the 2 points for the 5, respectively 15 sec cd reduction. Might be worth it if you group a lot for hard modes and want Tenacity up asap.

Rating:

1/10 if you solo a lot

8/10 if you group a lot in tough instances

 

Gravity Surge:

No-brainer for Full Gunnery, builds Gravity Vortices faster. Needed to get the damage increase passive on high damage bolt.

Rating:

10/10

 

Cell Charger:

One of the main reasons Gunnery uses Armor-piercing ammo.

Returns 1 ammo on crits with Full Auto or Rounds, can happen every 3 seconds.

If it happened all the time then Emperors with Unlimited Powaaaa would cry at watching us hand out carnage.

Rating:

10/10

 

Kolto Recharge:

Regenerates 7% Health over 10 sec when using Recharge Cells.

Can be taken if you need to invest 1 more point for Demolition Round and you have nothing else to skill, though i would rather get 1% more endurance over this.

7% Health every 2 minutes or so is nothing game changing and if you group a lot you should have a healer anyhow. Quiet underwhelming.

Rating:

2/10

 

Charged Barrel:

Builds up stacks that increase the damage of your next High Impact Bolt by 6%, stacks 5 times. HIB is one of your main damage skills and one of the few good instant skills.

Rating:

10/10

 

Rotary Cannon:

Increases the damage of FA by 33%. So now awesome becomes awesome + 33% !

Rating:

10/10

 

Cover Fire:

Gives your FA a 50%/100% chance to snare the enemy for 2 seconds.

If you solo a lot this is quiet nice. In group not really needed but most probably you will have to take it anyhow if you want Demolition Round.

Edit:

The snare refreshes timer instead of stacking and all three hits from full auto are in the last 1.5 seconds of the channel so you only get 3.5 seconds of snare

(Credits to LordKivlov. I havent confirmed the numbers personally)

Rating:

8/10 when solo

2/10 in group

 

Curtain of Fire:

Up to 20% chance to finish cd of FA when using Grav Round. (I dont mention Charged Bolts because frankly, if you are this far in Gunnery you should never use Charged Bolts anymore.) After finishing cd on FA, the next FA will also do 25% more damage.

Yes, i know, i also get glazy eyes right now.

Rating:

10/10 It improves FA, what did you think ?

 

Reserve Round:

Reduces cd of Concussive Round by up to 15 seconds and Reserve Powercell by 30 seconds.

Concussive is our best cc and makes life easier, Reserve Powercell is a regular for me, so this makes this skill a "want to have"

Rating:

7/10 You could do without it but you will most likely have to take it anyhow to get your last tier and frankly, you could be worse off.

 

I hope that helps a bit for people deciding if they want a Commando, or people new to them.

It would be great if you could give some input and even greater if you could post your own guides

 

If people actually do comment and find it helpful i might post a video guide of all active skills.

Edited January 30, 2012 by choboon

[beepboopbeepboop]

I found this useful. Thanks!

[mujrim]

Stock Strike has a speccable knockback to it, which can be used to interrupt mobs casting. This is a pretty useful utility when soloing.

[BlasterFace]

Good descriptions. Thanks for putting the time into it. I would want to hear what your rotation is with Gunnery. It sounds as if most of your time has been spent as CM though.

 

For single target, I always start out with 5 grav rounds, then HI bolt, then Full Auto, hammer shot and basically rinse repeat, with dmg reduction CDs mixed in if necessary. For longer fights (although I haven't had a ton of long ones while soloing), i would grab ammo when at about 30%, and then do a little more hammer shot mixed in. But most elites that are even-levelled with me take around 3 sets of the above rotation.

 

I also don't quite understand "rating" healing spells. They are all situational. And you put 10/10 on both AMP and MP, implying that they should be used equally as much. Everything I've read, and the xp i had when CM, showed that AMP was FAR superior, and should be used every time it's available, and when Supercharge Cells is up, that it gets spammed unless there's no healing necessary.

 

I'm interested that you suggest not taking bacta infusion. Do you skip the 5 points of crit bonus? If you take all of those points, is there something that was more valuable to heal with in one of the dps trees? When i made a pretend spec, there wasn't anything I saw that would compare to having an instant heal, whatever the CD. The AMP and MP cast times, in a pinch, mean the tank could die, and the instant heal gives him enough to survive the long cast time. If people are making healing specs, would you suggest they skip the talent completely?

 

 

 

Hail of Bolts: I find this to be useful on mobs when soloing, as the alternative to Mortar Volley. I know it pales in comparison, but if you don't want to wait in between every trash pull, it's there for aoe, and to get aggro. Otherwise, Elara gets aggro if I just target a single guy. The lack of stun means I would usually throw a sticky first on the middle guy and then spray everything else around. The sticky then explodes, and the mob might be out of range of the Hail range, which I think is the same as MV.

 

Again, thx for making this. We don't have a comprehensive guide yet, and this is one more step towards one.

[mujrim]

Grav Round X 3 for full armor reduction, then Demo Round. 2 more grav rounds and then HI bolt. if Curtain of Fire is up at any point after the enemy has 5X Gravity Vortex, I will use Full-Auto immediately. Then just spam Grav Round, Full-Auto whenever CoF is up, Demo Round when it comes off of cooldown, HIB if I have 5 stacks of CB.

 

For packs of mobs, MV -> SG -> GR on whatever's left standing. Use plasma grenade instead if MVs on cooldown. I used to use Hail of Bolts in here too, but at a cost of 4 ammo, it's just not worth it for the damage it does.

 

I used to Aric as my companion, so I was probably killing stuff much faster than you, I never had any problems taking out mobs before I ran out of ammo even if I was spamming abilities. Just had to pop Recharge Cells when I got down to like 3 or 4 ammo when fighting Elites.

 

From doing FPs though, if you do need to manage ammo, keep it in the range where it's regenerating 0.6 ammo per second. If you fall below that, it's not worth it trying to regen back up. Just blow off your ammo until you have 3 or 4 left and pop Recharge Cells to go back up and then manage it properly so you don't go that low again.

Edited January 9, 2012 by mujrim

[malyen]

Awesome post..... Thanks for the hard work you put in....

 

This needs to be a Sticky!

 

[choboon]

Good descriptions. Thanks for putting the time into it. I would want to hear what your rotation is with Gunnery.

 

GR/GR/HS/FA/GR/HS Rinse/Repeat

 

I also don't quite understand "rating" healing spells. They are all situational. And you put 10/10 on both AMP and MP, implying that they should be used equally as much. Everything I've read, and the xp i had when CM, showed that AMP was FAR superior, and should be used every time it's available, and when Supercharge Cells is up, that it gets spammed unless there's no healing necessary.

 

MP has a cost of 1 after AMP if specced, so 2xamp = 4 Ammo, AMP+MP=3 Ammo

So when Charge is running you should not spam AMP alone but alternate.

 

I'm interested that you suggest not taking bacta infusion. Do you skip the 5 points of crit bonus?

 

Yes. I instead took Grav Round and the Crit bonus for Full Auto + the tier 1 passives to Kolto Bomb + main stat.

 

 

Hail of Bolts: I find this to be useful on mobs when soloing, as the alternative to Mortar Volley. I know it pales in comparison, but if you don't want to wait in between every trash pull, it's there for aoe, and to get aggro.

 

Good point, i will try that.

 

Again, thx for making this. We don't have a comprehensive guide yet, and this is one more step towards one.

 

Thanks for your feedback

[malyen]

Awesome post..... Thanks for the hard work you put in....

 

This needs to be a Sticky!

 

[choboon]

Bumping after edit, all passive skills for Commando Combat Medic and Gunnery now included.

[Sorbitol]

how do I get Demo Round? I dont see it as a trainable skill I only see it in the skill tree that you can put skill points into it but how does one get the skill?

[LordKivlov]

Hammer shot - You got this correct. It does a lot of damage considering it's our 'basic attack' and is needed in liberal application to stay above 7 ammo.

 

Fortification - By itself it seems great, compared to any of the other 3 buffs, it's pretty ******.

 

Explosive Round - Nailed it, stop using this once you hit level 20.

 

Stockstrike - This and Sticky are your 'on the move' abilities. It's not ammo efficient to be using it under other circumstances (Except as you say, to finish something off.)

 

Full Auto - Don't disagree with anything you've said about it.

 

Plasma Cell - Only to be used in Assault Specialist.

 

Sticky Nade - The damage/ammo ratio on this isn't too bad but it only gets better when you add in the 2nd and third target. Can be used in conjunction with a grav->demo combo to spike damage someone for a lot of damage.

 

HIB - Don't disagree

 

Pulse Cannon - It's for AoEing large packs of mobs. It's difficult to use it when you're soloing because mobs spread out in a ring around you but otherwise, you won't find a better ability for AoE damage, except mortar volley but that's limited to 5 targets.

 

Mortar Volley - The activation time before you actually do damage with it is 2.5 seconds, which on some boss fights like Karagga is an issue because the little mouse bombs, if not AoE taunted immediately, are so far out of the range of it that you want to slap the developer that made it.

 

Cryo Nade - Gives far too much resolve (999 of 1000) in pvp and is only single target for PvE. Nice that it's 4 seconds but could at least do damage for costing ammo to use.

 

No Retreat - Free ability, no complaints.

 

Adrenaline Rush - I use this a ton when I play combat medic because it's free healing that I don't have to do on myself when I need to heal other targets, otherwise it's actually really not very good.

 

Blitz - Everyone gets one of these (guardians get 2!)

 

Stealth Scan - It has uses on some boss fights.

 

Bacta Infusion - Amazing ability. It's free, relatively short cool down and heals for a decent chunk. Allows you to be very, very ammo efficient.

 

Incendiary Round - Scales well with gear, does elemental damage and activates HIB since we only have a 16% chance to proc Plasma Cell (Vanguards have 100% chance when they use Ion Pulse. This is ********.)

 

Charged Bolts - Used by anyone that isn't a gunnery player. Does good damage and can either be made 1 ammo or resets CD on HIB. Don't dismiss this ability because you play some weird CM/Gunnery hybrid.

 

Hail of Bolts - It's your AoE ability when mortar and pulse are on CD.

 

Plasma Grenade - It does the most damage out of any of our 1.5s abilities and it's AoE. That's why it's 4 ammo and should stay 4 ammo. The damage/ammo ratio on it is very high.

 

Field Aid - Needed all the time in PvP. Less so for PvE.

 

Diversion - Not for healers, but for geared DPS. A ton of mobs and bosses have aggro dumping mechanics so this is used pretty much on CD. It's free and off the GCD, so why not?.

 

Cell Capacitor - This is in none of my builds simply because combat medics don't need it (they're ammo efficient if you take bacta infusion) and DPS commandos will take parallactic combat stims instead which is much better.

 

First Responder - No point in skipping this. It's a flat 5% reduction and you crit A LOT, especially when you hammershot.

 

Steady Hands - No point in skipping this either. You WILL take damage in fights while healing. No matter if it's a pug or a premade. The number of aggro dropping mobs in this game is large enough that you will, even if you have the best tank in the game.

 

Kolto Residue - It affects all healers and is a great ability. 5% on your 3k heal is an extra 150 health. What else are you going to take instead of this? 4% less damage taken? No, you aren't.

 

Combat Shield - PvP ability

 

Efficient Conversions - Waste of a point. You're ammo efficient anyways and could be put to better use.

 

Med Zone - Another PvP ability.

 

Charged Barrier - Is always good, in every situation.

 

Cover Fire - In theory, this is great. In practice, it's a waste of 2 points. The snare refreshes timer instead of stacking and all three hits from full auto are in the last 1.5 seconds of the channel so you only get 3.5 seconds of snare when Force Lightning is instant snare for entire duration of the channel, and freeze is a 9s 50% snare that is AoE around the jedi.

[Endek]

Great stuff..

[choboon]

...

 

Thanks for your Feedback !

I incorporated some into the Guide.

[TUXs]

Very good guide. People will of course have their own opinions formed from their own experiences/playstyle, but overall, this guide is pretty spot on imo. Well done

[choboon]

Very good guide. People will of course have their own opinions formed from their own experiences/playstyle, but overall, this guide is pretty spot on imo. Well done

 

Thanks !

 

I used the rating format mostly because it is all subjective and depending on build.

I tried to differentiate if skills werent useful. Will soon update on Assault as i am currently raiding with an Assault build.