1 simple change and BH heals could be fixed.

[Silomatic]

I don't see any problem with Merc healing at 50. I am every bit as effective as an operative or sorcerer healer and my guild knows it. I admit emergency scan could do with a bit of a buff... but its still instant cast and free. I can't count how many times I've saved a tank with it.

 

I'm not sure who these people are who are saying the BH heals are bad, but its certainly not a problem on my server... I've never been turned down from a group. These people are badly misinformed.

 

 

 

The same people that get bad BG's in their pt or ops. I healed BG from level 10 to 50. I'm currently main healing EV. Downed SOA night before last for a server first. When my reg heals are hitting for 3k and I'm critting somewhere near 5.5 to 5.7, I dont need emergency heal. The only thing i'm missing from my skill sheet is a combet rez. Freakin bs we dont have one. That is all =)

[Kveldur]

Only problem i have with healing is the kolto bomb, aoe heal for only 3 ppl?? should be a heal for everone due to its limited area but the supercharged kolto missle should only apply 10% dmg to 3 ppl, but it would be nice to be able to mark wich on get it like a tank or meele dps.

 

But if your having problems healing you should check what your teamates are doing, as it is I´m leading raids in my guild and if I see anyone take dmg from boss mechanic that they can avoid I snap a little at them, only because the more I have to dish out heals to ppl that are to lazy/stupid/ignorant to move out of the "fire" the more heat I produce wich = less heals as the fights goes on.

Know it´s kinda harsh but the hardest class to play in my opinion is the healer atm and ppl taking an extra source of dmg isnt helping anyone.

[Sith_Lord_Revan]

Its funny,

 

I came here from the Operative forum because we were complaining about our lack of burst or HoT heals, Only to find Merc's have there own problems.... Are Sorc really the only terribly effective healers in this game?

[Ivaed]

Its funny,

 

I came here from the Operative forum because we were complaining about our lack of burst or HoT heals, Only to find Merc's have there own problems.... Are Sorc really the only terribly effective healers in this game?

 

I would say from my experiences so far that we have excellent single target burst healing. BH heals can hang with sorcs on single targets easily. Where we start to lag behind is in the AOE healing department. That sorc AOE heal aura is just wayyy more effective than our measly little 3 target Kolto Missle. Plus sorcs have an in combat rez which makes them even more desirable.

 

I also think emergency scan could use a bit of a buff. I think it should at least hit as hard as Rapid Scan or it should add a HoT on the end of it or something. (Maybe have it mimic a fully feated Healing Scan)

 

If you think our AOE healing is "just fine" just try taking two Merc healers into a HM/NM Eternity Vault Soa (last boss) fight. Healing the whole group through the platform drops is way more difficult without at least one sorc heal aura especially if your group is low b4 the drops start. Frankly, if you think we are anywhere close to sorcs on AOE healing atm then you either don't have much experience with healing Operations or your just ignorant to the facts of it for whatever reason.

 

Give us a Kolto Missle with no target limit, an in combat rez, and maybe a slight buff to Emergency scan and we will start to come close to Sorcs with our out-heals. It's really not asking for much TBH.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Ivaed

[Pazernus]

bh healing is fine, infact on my server most people asks for bh healer instead of others.

 

its not about not having big heal, if tank gets 1shot to below 50% there is something wrong, such as tactics are up to f or people just dont follow em.

 

 

sure example red reaper robot boss you get healing issues if there is 5:1 blue red ratio on crustals, and tank gets shot with blue.

 

my self ive healed since lvl 14 and i had no issues at all in healing, spamming the heat free skill (mobility heal thats spammable, basicly hot) and make sure tank always has over 4 stacks of kolto shell, and always use heal scan when out of cd to keep 10% armor buff on with the hot. olto missile i usually save abit to heal heavy situation, and i never EVER use 30 stacks of combat support unless it really calls for it. such as heavy party dmg going out.

 

and then i pop heal scan > quick scan repeat constnatly. or if only 1 person in party is below 80% other than tank, i just pop heal scan to tank and then quick scan to that player.

 

unsure how well its on 50 hard modes, but i doubt its any harder really than its now. since im most of time on 0-30 heat, rarelly past 50.

[Xermalk]

The only 2 things i realy wish was changed with bh healing.

 

1. Kolto missile

Kolto missile needs to hit more then 3 targets, its realy usesless in Ops with 8+ players (its fine in groups as you heal 3/4 then). 3 players every 6 sec is just /lulz when yo play with 8-16

 

2. Healing with Rapid Shots.

For the love of god make this a toggle ability (on party members only) that only activates if your ability queue is empty. My hand cramps up on long ops from spamming it.

 

 

Potential 3.

Combat Res, minor but still unfair that both operatives and sorcs have one, even dps operativs can combat res. (Though I'm not sure if the operative one is considderd a exploit or not, As the Sorc one triggers a cooldown on all other party members revive)

[Bastionhawk]

I also have to say that our healing is fine.

 

I honestly would like to see a better HoT but also don't forget that you can get off quite a large amount of healing with your rapid shot while moving. You have to be proactive when healing as a BH, not just channel casting and HoT'ing people up.

 

As far as burst healing goes... that is what crit is for. My Emergency scan can get well over 3.3k.

 

Manage your heat, use a crit adrenal, know when to use your Gas Canister and Kolto missle (and when to use them together) and get yourself the proper pvp gear (easier said than done, I know) and you'll come to find that we do pretty well.

 

For example sake here are two videos of myself healing Huttball and Voidstar. Nothing special, and I'm certainly not the best, but a good reference I think for those interested.

 

BH Huttball Healing

 

BH Voidstar Healing

Edited January 16, 2012 by Bastionhawk

[Snapandpop]

I am sure we would all like to see a buff to Emergency Scan, but you have to consider we have things that the other healers don't. Heavy armor, higher HP, and mediocre damage. I am not so sure how the other healing classes work, but I think Emergency Scan is the way it is for obvious balancing purposes.

 

I don't want to sound rude, but if you are overheating while healing during a boss fight, something is very wrong with your ability rotation. 1 thing I see not getting used enough by other BG's is Rapid Shot. It is your filler, and should constantly be used.

 

I am also an Alacrity/Power based BG, and for example, my Rapid scan cast time is 1.4 seconds. I prefer this setup much more than I do a crit based healing scheme.

 

If I am normal healing (w/o supercharged gas) I usually use this rotation

 

Healing Scan > Rapid Scan (reduced heat cost after H.S.) > Rapid Shot > Rapid Shot > Kolto Missile > Healing Scan > Rapid Scan > Repeat

 

Of course, I throw in Kolto Shell as needed when the stack runs out. I also throw in Emergency scan instead of a Rapid Shot here and there.

 

So far, I have never overheated in a boss fight unless I am feeling cocky and want to dish out some DPS when there isn't much damage being taken by team mates. If I over heat there, I just fire Vent heat and go back to healing.

 

As far as other players not wanting you to heal bc you are not a I.O. or Sorc, just give it time. People will eventually understand that we are completely viable healers with a much higher chance of survival if things go wrong.

[Mournelithe]

just so many baddie responses, impossible and useless to respond. Im not talking about what it takes to heal your companion. Compared to other classes its nuts to think we arent gimped. Try to join any operation and i promise they would rather have a sorc/inq. Emergency scan is a joke. Yes its instant and helps our overal heat,,,but its sooo weak and its the top of the bodyguard tree.

 

You are 100 percent correct in this. The sheer volume of raiding guilds bear this out as well. Sorcs heal better and are more reliable. I went to 50 with little to no problem healing. If I was putting a group together I wouldn't want a BH healer either. This is coming fr someone who played a BH BG to 50 and still has the character spec'd for it. I now have two healers a sorc and a BH I don't think that I will ever use my BH again except to do dailies and make guns/barrels. I don't even want to burden my guild by taking up a spot that is how badly I think the state of BH healing is.

 

In my opinion they should take away kolto missile and significantly buff the rest. That is the only fix IMHO. Then both sorcs and BH:BG has a role.U

Edited January 17, 2012 by Mournelithe

[WickedTexan]

I was perfectly fine with the mechanics and abilities of BH Healing until last night when we tried to down Krel Thak in Battle of Ilum HM. I couldn't heal everyone at the amount of damage they were taking during the waves of adds. No other HMFP gives me any problems, but my heals felt pretty gimp during that fight. I know it's only 1 fight, but it hurt my feelings a little.

[Snapandpop]

IMHO, all of you BG's that complain about the low HP heals, you should really try an Alacrity/Power stat gear set instead of a crit based one. I have NEVER had trouble healing bc I heal so darn fast. The role of BG is to keep going through your ability rotation. We aren't stand around healers that throw one big heal out every once in a while. If you keep the proper rotation going, you should NEVER overheat, and your peeps should not have massive HP drops.

 

Look at it this way... Some on this thread have complained about no H.O.T. abilities, but try and view a BG as a H.O.T. heal in itself. We are designed to be non stop, fast healers, constantly feeding our team mates HP.

 

I am not entirely sure if the people you guys are running raids with just had BG's that completely sucked and didn't understand the mechanics, or are just too darn serious about what many forget is a video game. I wouldn't want to play along side people that take it that darn serious anyway.

 

I really suggest anyone that is having heat problems, or are having problems keeping their people alive in FP's or Raids, you really need to check this sticky out. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=58702

 

And remember, use RAPID SHOT!

[Damarak]

Why don't people realize classes fill some rolls differently/better than others, I will never understand this.

 

1) We are GREAT PvP healers

2) We are GREAT MT Raid Healers

3) Good players can heal any 4 man HM just fine, just not as easily as a sorc, we gotta actually pay attention.

 

Conclusion? BH Healing is fine, yes emergency scan could use a little love, but we are FINE. If your having trouble, its rotation/gear issues, not class issues. So what if sorcs can face roll healing through a HM, I for 1 like a bit of a challenge. We are every bit as good of healers in every other phase of the game, if not the best.

 

Bad DPS taking too much dmg in HMs is still the DPS's fault, not ours for not being able to keep them all up. DPS has a roll to play in keeping themselves alive, but everyone always wants to point fingers at the tank and healer for wipes.

 

The only change we "need" is a battle rez somewhere deeper into the Bodyguard tree IMO.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Damarak

[Damarak]

I was perfectly fine with the mechanics and abilities of BH Healing until last night when we tried to down Krel Thak in Battle of Ilum HM. I couldn't heal everyone at the amount of damage they were taking during the waves of adds. No other HMFP gives me any problems, but my heals felt pretty gimp during that fight. I know it's only 1 fight, but it hurt my feelings a little.

 

This is a problem with your DPS, not your healing. DPS need to realize when he sheilds and not attack him and take his big dmg hits. Those adds should be dead/knockedown/knocked back before they ever reach anyone to do any damage, they have low hp, high damage. Need more reliable dps players, not a more reliable healer.

[Snapandpop]

Why don't people realize classes fill some rolls differently/better than others, I will never understand this.

 

1) We are GREAT PvP healers

2) We are GREAT MT Raid Healers

3) Good players can heal any 4 man HM just fine, just not as easily as a sorc, we gotta actually pay attention.

 

Conclusion? BH Healing is fine, yes emergency scan could use a little love, but we are FINE. If your having trouble, its rotation/gear issues, not class issues. So what if sorcs can face roll healing through a HM, I for 1 like a bit of a challenge. We are every bit as good of healers in every other phase of the game, if not the best.

 

Bad DPS taking too much dmg in HMs is still the DPS's fault, not ours for not being able to keep them all up. DPS has a roll to play in keeping themselves alive, but everyone always wants to point fingers at the tank and healer for wipes.

 

The only change we "need" is a battle rez somewhere deeper into the Bodyguard tree IMO.

 

^ This...

[Shraq]

Theres nothing wrong with BH healing, just be a proactive healer isntead of a reactive healer while keeping your heat low and you will do fine. I jumped right into HM flashpoints and raids a day after I hit 50 and i've had no trouble at all keeping up unless someones a moron and takes unnecessary damage. BH healing is fine, leave it as is, another aoe heal would be nice though.

[StingOfWrath]

About getting into ops...wouldn't they want you to heal a tank if you can heal ONE person VERY WELL over and over? Good point? Idk because I'm still only like 40.

 

[Shammus]

Lets face it, burst healing is the problem. If someone takes a large hit, we simply dont have that single big heal that can save it. Groups simply dont want BH healers right now. If we cant get in groups b/c they only want a sorc/inq id say that is a problem.

 

Solution: Emergency scan is weak is tooooo weak!!!!. Keep the cd the same but just up its power. If emergency scan was a 4-5k heal it would really improve bh heals. We could certainly be competitive with other healing classes and handle the "oh crap" situations more effectively than we can now.

 

 

I agree with you.. unfortunately I don't know what the fix is.. I was thinking add a larger heal to kolto missile with a small heal over time

 

Lets face it we get a HoT from healing scan but its on a 9sec cooldown and its heal is minimal. I can burst heal a single target but will end up quickly overheating and the more people taking damage the worse the problem becomes.

 

This is especially noticeable due to almost all mobs being ranged.. which means I'm usually taking heavy hits as well as the tank.. and we cannot kolto shell more then one person..

 

now with that said I do feel that bounty hunters are great single target healers, but that's about it.. I wish we had the power that sorcs have

 

I also wish that all healing classes had an in combat rez.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Shammus

[Majo_NDM]

About getting into ops...wouldn't they want you to heal a tank if you can heal ONE person VERY WELL over and over? Good point? Idk because I'm still only like 40.

 

 

Go do operations with merc+operativ and keep everyone alive with so many aoes attacks bosses have.

 

Im not saying that Mercs or Operatives are bad healers. But I think they need some tweaks that any combination of healers in raid group could keep partymembers alive. Because we want to play with friends not with class they are playing.

 

And now its nearly impossible sometimes... or take two Mercs as a healers...

 

But if u need 2 tanks it could be two jaggs, or any other 2 same tanks. If u need 4 DPS it could be 4 same class DPS. But when u need healers it could be only two sorcs or sorc + merc/sorc + operative. Any other combo of healers is extreamly hard to play with.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Majo_NDM

[SheepishOne]

Go do operations with merc+operativ and keep everyone alive with so many aoes attacks bosses have.

 

I do this regularly. I duo with a low geared Operative in HM Ops and am not running into this issue. If people are taking massive amounts of AoE damage it isn't a healing problem, it's a positioning problem. There are no events in the game that require burst AoE healing. It's simply a luxury that a lot of people will prefer in a raid setting.

Edited February 8, 2012 by SheepishOne

[Majo_NDM]

I do this regularly. I duo with a low geared Operative in HM Ops and am not running into this issue. If people are taking massive amounts of AoE damage it isn't a healing problem, it's a positioning problem. There are no events in the game that require burst AoE healing. It's simply a luxury that a lot of people will prefer in a raid setting.

 

I think its not unnecessery luxury. Its balance issue. We pay same for playing this game and we all want same fun. Its possible but not reasonably neccesery so why do not tweak it a little? This all I want. A little tweak.

[Cohutla]

imho mercs are very strong in ops, with another healer to back them up, not that strong in a 4man group, but quite decent.

[midnyt]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=277894

 

Here's my proposal for a SMALL buff to our healing to make us more effective in situations where AoE healing is needed and at the same time give us more support for our burst healing.

 

The actual numbers in my proposal may change but we need help running tests so we can provide actual facts and numbers so that the developers notice us.

 

P.S. OP of this thread straight up trolls my thread.

Edited February 9, 2012 by midnyt

[Gariuys]

Personnaly, so far I feel I'm doing just fine, but I do agree on the combat rez and kolto missile remarks. still like kolto missile though, but its hard to rotate in, and is nicely heat effective if it hits 3 people. Making it smart/unlimited players would help, would even settle for 5 people.

 

Oh and massive aoe burst healing, thats not you or the tank, thats the dps. Especially on the really large groups, which are usually harder then the bosses IMHO, dps really have to pay attention to what they're doing.

[_droider_]

With just above average gear, Merc healing is fine. It just takes a quality person behind the keys to use it effectively. Managing heat is the #1 issue, which is a latent effect of the limited AoE healing (only an issue in 4-man HMs). If you don't forget to use missile and ES on cooldown, pop relics|SCG|Power Surge when necessary, and do your best to limit the use of RS without a pre-loaded HS or TSO, you should be fine.

 

As people said before, AoE damage is an issue, but it's not the root of the problem, poor execution is (i.e. fresh 50 continuing to DPS the last boss in BT after she pulls everyone in and getting 1-shotted or close to it, or not interrupting Krel Thrak's AoE).

 

If anything make missile hit 4 and give a minor boost to shell. Anything more, and we'd likely be seeing a nerf in the future.

[Dartagon]

With just above average gear, Merc healing is fine. It just takes a quality person behind the keys to use it effectively. Managing heat is the #1 issue, which is a latent effect of the limited AoE healing (only an issue in 4-man HMs). If you don't forget to use missile and ES on cooldown, pop relics|SCG|Power Surge when necessary, and do your best to limit the use of RS without a pre-loaded HS or TSO, you should be fine.

 

As people said before, AoE damage is an issue, but it's not the root of the problem, poor execution is (i.e. fresh 50 continuing to DPS the last boss in BT after she pulls everyone in and getting 1-shotted or close to it, or not interrupting Krel Thrak's AoE).

 

If anything make missile hit 4 and give a minor boost to shell. Anything more, and we'd likely be seeing a nerf in the future.

 

Increasing either of those would make it ridiculously easy to faceroll any of the current content.

 

A lot of the AoE damage or party damage is avoidable. Start grouping with competent people. I'm a firm believer that BH are the stample that other classes will be balanced around.