Combat Medic PvE Guide (Updated for 1.2)

[RuQu]

RuQu,

 

Thank you for both the initial guide, and for putting so much of your time and effort in to the project as a whole. I'm a fairly casual player and levelling my main to 50 has meant my Commando has been sat at 20 for a while now, but this has inspired me to head back to it. Sadly I'm away from home so I've had to read all 23 pages of this on a smartphone, but I think Its worth the headache!

 

I got a good chuckle out of that.

 

You're welcome.

 

You should see the headache I get out of it sometimes.

[RuQu]

Got my latest analysis of Alacrity written up.

 

Short version: your worst stat in Tionese due to the low strength of heals causing you to chain-cast more. As your other stats improve and you can gain some down-time, Alacrity improves and becomes roughly the same as Surge.

 

See the link for assumptions, details, plots, etc.

 

I'll be updating the relevant section of this guide sometime soon.

[JonathanDark]

Got my latest analysis of Alacrity written up.

 

Short version: your worst stat in Tionese due to the low strength of heals causing you to chain-cast more. As your other stats improve and you can gain some down-time, Alacrity improves and becomes roughly the same as Surge.

 

See the link for assumptions, details, plots, etc.

 

I'll be updating the relevant section of this guide sometime soon.

 

Thanks for keeping up with the research on this!

 

I have one small request: when you update the guide, could you add a "Change Log" somewhere, maybe on the last page of the guide? I come back to your guide frequently, and sometimes it's hard to spot what's changed (although this time with Alacrity it will be obvious).

[johnyangelo]

Hi,

 

I'm quite new into combat medic and so far I haven't found any actualy viable build for PvP. I'd like to be specced for max healing and endurance, I'm using this one currently, but I was told it's mosre for PvE:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bfRMRzfbkqZrcoZb.1

 

Thanks for advice.

[RuQu]

Hi,

 

I'm quite new into combat medic and so far I haven't found any actualy viable build for PvP. I'd like to be specced for max healing and endurance, I'm using this one currently, but I was told it's mosre for PvE:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bfRMRzfbkqZrcoZb.1

 

Thanks for advice.

 

I don't PvP much, but try this.

 

The armor buff from AP is great, and with your heavy armor makes you even sturdier when you are healing yourself.

 

We get a fair amount of alacrity anyway, so the extra self-healing and endurance is likely better than 4% alacrity.

 

There aren't really a whole lot of options to move around.

[JonathanDark]

Thanks to some quick folks in the community, there's already a combat log parser that takes the combat log generated from the 1.2 test server, parses it, and makes it available to a program called the Advanced Combat Tracker. You'll actually be able to get some solid numbers on the 1.2 changes:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=364068

[amantheil]

Thanks for getting the 1.2 version updated so quickly!

[RuQu]

Thanks for getting the 1.2 version updated so quickly!

 

No problem. Some parts are still pending more data, but I did what I could.

 

Of particular note, I ran sims using the new TP values comparing refreshing it only when you have a full 12 Ammo vs letting you refresh at 10, and refreshing at 10+ Ammo resulted in a 4% loss in max sustained HPS. Obviously, refreshing it below 10 Ammo will have even larger effects as it will drop you out of max regen.

 

I updated the Rotations and Strategies section with advice on how I see TP best being used in light of these changes.

[Kytea]

Companions (Coming Soonish)

 

Still coming soonish?

Edited April 13, 2012 by Kytea

[RuQu]

Still coming soonish?

 

Yeah, sorry. I'll try and get that taken care of this weekend.

[rjavig]

so what im cruious is what exactly should be the rotation after 1.2 i tried the new operations explosive conflict and on the first boss i ran out of ammo halfway during it. my rotation is hammer shot, adv probe, hammer shot, bacta infusion, med probe and us scc when 50% or lower for tanks hp and the 2 dps im healing. i run out of ammo really fast even when i dont spam my heals,most of my ammo is waisted ammo just doing heals so people dont die and id really like to know if theres any way around it or if i should just become a dps commando because as of now there useless and i get put aside for a sage healer.

[RuQu]

so what im cruious is what exactly should be the rotation after 1.2 i tried the new operations explosive conflict and on the first boss i ran out of ammo halfway during it. my rotation is hammer shot, adv probe, hammer shot, bacta infusion, med probe and us scc when 50% or lower for tanks hp and the 2 dps im healing. i run out of ammo really fast even when i dont spam my heals,most of my ammo is waisted ammo just doing heals so people dont die and id really like to know if theres any way around it or if i should just become a dps commando because as of now there useless and i get put aside for a sage healer.

 

One bit of advice is to use SCC as often as possible for the 1 Ammo return. You can click it off early to start rebuilding CSC charges if you don't need to actually heal but are hurting for Ammo, or you can toss out a free Charged Bolt or two to help with DPS if no healing is necessary and you don't want to click it off.

 

Never cast Bacta Infusion or use Reserve Powercell at 12 Ammo.

 

If you are going to cast Trauma Probe or use Tech Override and then use another non-free ability, always use the instant one first. When you cast a non-free instant ability you regen during the GCD. When you cast a non-instant ability, you don't begin regen until after the cast completes. This seems trivial, but every little bit counts these days.

 

AP/MP now costs 4 Ammo and takes 3.5 seconds. Assuming you weren't at 12 when you cast AP, you will regen a max of 2.1 Ammo during that cast time (less with Alacrity). That leaves 1.9 Ammo to regen. Two hammer shots will regen a max of 1.8, so you still come up short by 0.1 Ammo. So just to remain neutral you need to cast AP/MP/HS/HS/Pause (any order after AP), or slip in a third HS in the mix such as AP/HS/MP/HS/HS. The more Alacrity you have, the longer that pause needs to be, so for simplicity you can just say 3 HS per AP/MP combo. Obviously a BI or Reserve Powercell-MP could fill a HS spot.

 

Try and avoid spamming AP/MP during SCC, and try and avoid going under 8 Ammo during SCC. When you have less than 8 Ammo a single HS only returns 0.54 instead of 0.9, so you rapidly end up needing a lot of HS spam to recover. A single AP/MP combo in SCC after the Field Triage nerf now needs an extra two HS to compensate!

 

Finally, it looks like the value of TP will be dependent on gear levels. At Tionese levels of gear my sims suggest it isn't worth maintaining unless you are at 12 Ammo. In full Rakata it looks like it is. Unfortunately, my new computer is delayed because parts are on backorder, and due to some space limitations I may need to remove my SDK tools from this computer and will be unable to work on updating my simulations until the end of the month.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, my guild lost a tank due to real life changes, and I had a 50 Shadow ready to go so I am no longer healing end-game regularly. I am, however, continuing to follow the state of Combat Medics and Bodyguards through discussion with experienced players and through simulations and theory. I think the advice above is sound, but I have not had much opportunity to test all of the above in-game myself, and your mileage may vary.

[redfield]

New tip:

 

It's been mentioned but I really want to stress the importance of this.

Dump Trauma Probe NOW. Use that point to increase endurance or something...anything is better than that ability now. The cost now, even at 2 ammo, is simply too much for the crappy heals it gives and makes it useless and an ammo waster mid fights both PvP and PvE.

Edited April 15, 2012 by redfield

[ImariKurumi]

One bit of advice is to use SCC as often as possible for the 1 Ammo return. You can click it off early to start rebuilding CSC charges if you don't need to actually heal but are hurting for Ammo, or you can toss out a free Charged Bolt or two to help with DPS if no healing is necessary and you don't want to click it off.

 

Never cast Bacta Infusion or use Reserve Powercell at 12 Ammo.

 

If you are going to cast Trauma Probe or use Tech Override and then use another non-free ability, always use the instant one first. When you cast a non-free instant ability you regen during the GCD. When you cast a non-instant ability, you don't begin regen until after the cast completes. This seems trivial, but every little bit counts these days.

 

AP/MP now costs 4 Ammo and takes 3.5 seconds. Assuming you weren't at 12 when you cast AP, you will regen a max of 2.1 Ammo during that cast time (less with Alacrity). That leaves 1.9 Ammo to regen. Two hammer shots will regen a max of 1.8, so you still come up short by 0.1 Ammo. So just to remain neutral you need to cast AP/MP/HS/HS/Pause (any order after AP), or slip in a third HS in the mix such as AP/HS/MP/HS/HS. The more Alacrity you have, the longer that pause needs to be, so for simplicity you can just say 3 HS per AP/MP combo. Obviously a BI or Reserve Powercell-MP could fill a HS spot.

 

Try and avoid spamming AP/MP during SCC, and try and avoid going under 8 Ammo during SCC. When you have less than 8 Ammo a single HS only returns 0.54 instead of 0.9, so you rapidly end up needing a lot of HS spam to recover. A single AP/MP combo in SCC after the Field Triage nerf now needs an extra two HS to compensate!

 

Finally, it looks like the value of TP will be dependent on gear levels. At Tionese levels of gear my sims suggest it isn't worth maintaining unless you are at 12 Ammo. In full Rakata it looks like it is. Unfortunately, my new computer is delayed because parts are on backorder, and due to some space limitations I may need to remove my SDK tools from this computer and will be unable to work on updating my simulations until the end of the month.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, my guild lost a tank due to real life changes, and I had a 50 Shadow ready to go so I am no longer healing end-game regularly. I am, however, continuing to follow the state of Combat Medics and Bodyguards through discussion with experienced players and through simulations and theory. I think the advice above is sound, but I have not had much opportunity to test all of the above in-game myself, and your mileage may vary.

 

Any advice on PvP healing?

 

Cant afford to use HS in PvP, i usually just pause for regen but that usually means 1-2 people will die. PvP requires on the spot burst healing so i feel even if i did use HS, it wont make a difference, plus i would be revealing my position to the enemies.

 

Anyways i dropped TP, as you mentioned its only good when you have full ammo, which means the only time i can use it is after respawning, which i find worthless...

[RuQu]

Any advice on PvP healing?

 

Cant afford to use HS in PvP, i usually just pause for regen but that usually means 1-2 people will die. PvP requires on the spot burst healing so i feel even if i did use HS, it wont make a difference, plus i would be revealing my position to the enemies.

 

Anyways i dropped TP, as you mentioned its only good when you have full ammo, which means the only time i can use it is after respawning, which i find worthless...

 

Honestly, and I want to make it clear I am not being sarcastic or trolling, my advice on PvP healing as a Combat Medic right now is this:

 

Don't.

 

You can't swap TP anymore.

 

You can't burst heal anymore.

 

KB DR shield was slashed.

 

HPS was slashed ~20% according to my sims.

 

The Marauder healing debuff can no longer be cleansed.

 

Expertise now provides twice the benefit to Damage Done that it does to Healing Done.

 

It is very clear that the Developers felt that the presence or lack of healers had too great an effect on WZ success rates. Instead of setting a check in place and always making a WZ have 2 healers (from what I hear, 0-1 was too little healing and 3+ was too little DPS), they instead simply made healers a liability.

 

Your team will do better if you reroll as DPS. The faster things die, the less damage they do. This is called "Preventative Healing," and currently as DPS you can prevent more damage to your team than a healer can heal.

 

If you really insist on PvP healing, my advice is to switch to a Scoundrel/Operative, since the extra UH/TA and the improved KC/RN provide them with better instant cast flexibility. They also didn't take any Energy management reductions, and they should be putting out about 1300+ HPS compared to a max of ~1000HPS for a Commando/Merc. You are still providing less benefit than an extra DPS, but you will provide far more benefit than a Commando.

 

I know that's not what you were hoping to hear, but that's the truth of the current situation.

[ImariKurumi]

Honestly, and I want to make it clear I am not being sarcastic or trolling, my advice on PvP healing as a Combat Medic right now is this:

 

Don't.

 

You can't swap TP anymore.

 

You can't burst heal anymore.

 

KB DR shield was slashed.

 

HPS was slashed ~20% according to my sims.

 

The Marauder healing debuff can no longer be cleansed.

 

Expertise now provides twice the benefit to Damage Done that it does to Healing Done.

 

It is very clear that the Developers felt that the presence or lack of healers had too great an effect on WZ success rates. Instead of setting a check in place and always making a WZ have 2 healers (from what I hear, 0-1 was too little healing and 3+ was too little DPS), they instead simply made healers a liability.

 

Your team will do better if you reroll as DPS. The faster things die, the less damage they do. This is called "Preventative Healing," and currently as DPS you can prevent more damage to your team than a healer can heal.

 

If you really insist on PvP healing, my advice is to switch to a Scoundrel/Operative, since the extra UH/TA and the improved KC/RN provide them with better instant cast flexibility. They also didn't take any Energy management reductions, and they should be putting out about 1300+ HPS compared to a max of ~1000HPS for a Commando/Merc. You are still providing less benefit than an extra DPS, but you will provide far more benefit than a Commando.

 

I know that's not what you were hoping to hear, but that's the truth of the current situation.

 

 

Haha, i feel like i got dumped after a confession lol...

 

Thanks a lot for your input, i have been in denial for this past few days, PvP is eveything to me in MMOs so i was very persistent on healing as a CM. Now that you have thrown me back into reality, i guess i will switch to my Scoundrel.

 

On another note, if we were in pre 1.2 but with the new expertise changes(Buff in dmg), CM will also be about useless in PvP? Swtor has one of the highest PvP dmg buff i've seen in MMOs, i feel even if we werent nerfed, we would suffer a lot due to expertise...

Edited April 15, 2012 by ImariKurumi

[RuQu]

Haha, i feel like i got dumped after a confession lol...

 

Thanks a lot for your input, i have been in denial for this past few days, PvP is eveything to me in MMOs so i was very persistent on healing as a CM. Now that you have thrown me back into reality, i guess i will switch to my Scoundrel.

 

On another note, if we were in pre 1.2 but with the new expertise changes(Buff in dmg), CM will also be about useless in PvP? Swtor has one of the highest PvP dmg buff i've seen in MMOs, i feel even if we werent nerfed, we would suffer a lot due to expertise...

 

Yeah, its a hard pill, but it is the truth. I'll keep watching the forums and update if I start seeing people reporting better results as PvP CM's, but the math says that isn't likely.

 

As to the question of pre-1.2 healing with the Expertise change, I'm not sure. It would certainly be harder than pre-1.2 PvP healing, but possibly still viable. Sages would still have a fast enough big heal to manage to avoid interrupts on occasion and CM would still be able to swap TP and afford more than 3 casts.

 

I think they also wanted to decrease PvE healing, so the more likely alternative is that they would have nerfed the healers and left Expertise alone. Since they universally nerfed burst healing capability, even with the old Expertise PvP healing would likely be tough.

[rjavig]

One bit of advice is to use SCC as often as possible for the 1 Ammo return. You can click it off early to start rebuilding CSC charges if you don't need to actually heal but are hurting for Ammo, or you can toss out a free Charged Bolt or two to help with DPS if no healing is necessary and you don't want to click it off.

 

Never cast Bacta Infusion or use Reserve Powercell at 12 Ammo.

 

If you are going to cast Trauma Probe or use Tech Override and then use another non-free ability, always use the instant one first. When you cast a non-free instant ability you regen during the GCD. When you cast a non-instant ability, you don't begin regen until after the cast completes. This seems trivial, but every little bit counts these days.

 

AP/MP now costs 4 Ammo and takes 3.5 seconds. Assuming you weren't at 12 when you cast AP, you will regen a max of 2.1 Ammo during that cast time (less with Alacrity). That leaves 1.9 Ammo to regen. Two hammer shots will regen a max of 1.8, so you still come up short by 0.1 Ammo. So just to remain neutral you need to cast AP/MP/HS/HS/Pause (any order after AP), or slip in a third HS in the mix such as AP/HS/MP/HS/HS. The more Alacrity you have, the longer that pause needs to be, so for simplicity you can just say 3 HS per AP/MP combo. Obviously a BI or Reserve Powercell-MP could fill a HS spot.

 

Try and avoid spamming AP/MP during SCC, and try and avoid going under 8 Ammo during SCC. When you have less than 8 Ammo a single HS only returns 0.54 instead of 0.9, so you rapidly end up needing a lot of HS spam to recover. A single AP/MP combo in SCC after the Field Triage nerf now needs an extra two HS to compensate!

 

Finally, it looks like the value of TP will be dependent on gear levels. At Tionese levels of gear my sims suggest it isn't worth maintaining unless you are at 12 Ammo. In full Rakata it looks like it is. Unfortunately, my new computer is delayed because parts are on backorder, and due to some space limitations I may need to remove my SDK tools from this computer and will be unable to work on updating my simulations until the end of the month.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, my guild lost a tank due to real life changes, and I had a 50 Shadow ready to go so I am no longer healing end-game regularly. I am, however, continuing to follow the state of Combat Medics and Bodyguards through discussion with experienced players and through simulations and theory. I think the advice above is sound, but I have not had much opportunity to test all of the above in-game myself, and your mileage may vary.

thank you for the rotation but i have not tried it yet so im going to run lost island to see if it does help without having to worry that when i use hs my team mates will die because thats what i had trouble during ec is that when i put hs heal it would be really insufficient and the next second i would already have to cast a major heal. my alacrity is 11% took of alacrity bonus on tree so my ap is done in 1.3 seconds and 1.7 for mp without alacrity buff. so i was wondering i If something like that happens were my teammates hp would drop to 50% when i use hs would you recommend to use bacta infusion or make med probe free? and then continue on with cycle? and i have full columi so i use tp but find it useless to put on again because i need to constantly throw heals on Edited April 15, 2012 by rjavig

[RuQu]

thank you for the rotation but i have not tried it yet so im going to run lost island to see if it does help without having to worry that when i use hs my team mates will die because thats what i had trouble during ec is that when i put hs heal it would be really insufficient and the next second i would already have to cast a major heal. If something like that happens would you recommend to use bacta infusion or make med probe free? and then continue on with cycle? and i have full columi so i use tp but find it useless to put on again because i need to constantly throw heals on

 

MP heals for more than BI, so if Reserve Powercell is available, that's the more powerful choice. It's also the longer cooldown, so the sooner you use it the sooner its available again.

[SpaniardInfinity]

Haha, i feel like i got dumped after a confession lol...

 

Thanks a lot for your input, i have been in denial for this past few days, PvP is eveything to me in MMOs so i was very persistent on healing as a CM. Now that you have thrown me back into reality, i guess i will switch to my Scoundrel.

 

On another note, if we were in pre 1.2 but with the new expertise changes(Buff in dmg), CM will also be about useless in PvP? Swtor has one of the highest PvP dmg buff i've seen in MMOs, i feel even if we werent nerfed, we would suffer a lot due to expertise...

 

To piggyback on RuQu's post, Combat Medic is viable in PvP IF and ONLY IF you have at the very least one person dedicated to protecting you (ie. a tank). I highly discourage you from putting any faith into matchmaking by queuing solo. Sure it might work, but having one teammate reduces the stress monumentally. Also, don't expect to heal single handedly anymore. The damage output in warzones DEMANDS at least two healers. You will never keep up unless playing against very poor players. It should also be noted that healing bonus from expertise hasn't really changed much (so you more or less are doing the same healing pre/post 1.2). The caveat is there is WAY more damage to heal and less resistance to mitigate.

 

Among the big things to note post 1.2:

- If you are getting attacked, a teammate needs to peel them off NOW, not later. You will likely die otherwise (why I recommend grouping with a buddy)

- Since most fights end much faster now, you actually tend to be more ammo efficient (since it really only matters for long term healing).

- And as much as I hate to say it, deal some damage whenever you can. You shouldn't have to (IMO a pure spec'd healer's HPS should match the damage of a pure-spec'd DPS) but it will definitely help.

- Also, when I mentioned tanks before: there is a bit of an unexpected silver lining post 1.2: A DPS in tank stance is incredible. And even pure spec'd tanks make awesome partners, since although the healer-tank combo has been weakened, smart tanks can often surprise DPS with their new damage outputs.

 

That's of course assuming you are in fact sticking to the class.

Edited April 16, 2012 by SpaniardInfinity

[Jinkblade]

The complete 1.2 combat medic guide: Respec gunnery.

[keiva]

I just wanted to bring up a couple things on this thread that may or may not be obvious and that i hadnt seen mentioned yet. Disclosure: Combat Medic since day one in full Rakata and my first peice of black hole gear. Since the patch we had time to complete Story Mode EC to learn the mechanics, but hadnt started HM yet.

 

1) As mentioned, the patch has been rough for us combat medics, but i wouldnt switch to gunnery just yet.

2) Even if you aren't raiding EC HM, you can get a ton of commendations just doing the heroic weekly in Corellia, doing the weekly KUS and Lost Island, doing KP NM, and doing story mode EC. It is nice that at 30 BH comms you can get your first peice, but i went for the new implant at 35 comms before we will start HM EC this week.

3) Armor changes that should be made based of RuQu's sims pre-1.2:

 

a) for the most effecient healing, alacrity had been shown to cap at around 315. With full rakata you are way over that amount, so when running EV/KP HM/NM try and score two of the surge/crit enhancements to trade out for the alacrity enchancements in two of your peices.

b) to keep the 4-peice rakata set bonus, we can choose one peice of rakata armor to trade out for an augemented orange peice. I chose the chest since i thought it would be the hardest Campaign peice to get. Make sure you put the surge/crit enhancement in there and the Advanced Overkill Augment with +18 power, +12 endurance.

c) we can also trade out our rakata weapon for an augmented orange cannon. Again the Overkill augment should be placed in there for more l33t power since it doesnt have diminishing returns, and I even elected to trade out the +41 crit crystal for a +41 power crystal while I was at it.

 

4) I decided to keep my point in trauma probe, because I still find it useful to put it on the tank before each fight. However, unless I get back up to full ammo with everyone topped off, it never gets placed back on.

5) I unfortunately havent taken the time yet to figure out if any of the debuffs that need cleansed in EC or Lost Island are 'mental effects' but I decided to take my point out of the 1% alacrity and put it in to Psych Aid until i figured it out, because there is A LOT of cleansing now between those two instances; so much so as I needed to have one of the trooper DPS's help out a little so as not to slow down my rotation. Thoughts on this would be great... although im assuming none of these cleanses are going to end up being a mental effect, and I am going to take it back out.

6) Thanks RuQu and everyone else for your thoughts.

[Accioli]

Good guide, help me a lot.

[rjavig]

so i haven't re posted about how it went but it turns out i ran lost island hard mode and a few other hard mode flashpoints and it is do able. Though the ammo restriction is really high and if you mess up one part in your rotation it can be unforgiving. i do admit that we were op before 1.2 because i could just sit there and spam ap/mp especially because of scc and heal incredible amounts though making tp 2 ammo was insane if anything make that 1 ammo, have scc the effect were if you use it mp becomes 1 when ap is used before it is activated and i think healing as a cm wouldn't be as insane as it is. Though i got to say thank you for the help and rotation made my life much easier for healing as a cm

[Gabe_Grinstead]

Healing has been more difficult in Hard Mode flashpoints. However, my ammo rotation remains largely unchanged. I dropped all Alacrity off of my gear besides 51 points of it, which I will replace as soon as I can get something better. I have 9% via my skills, however.

 

So far every hard mode has been doable with the exception of Lost Island, which we have only tried one time. The first boss (droid) was very difficult. But in all fairness, two of our DPS were not even Tionese geared, which may have something to do with it. Additionally, the next time we try this encounter, I am asking the two other commandos to throw a heal on themselves if my ammo is below 7ish. It will slow DPS down a bit, but should allow me to keep ammo up until the boss is around 25% or so, where I can then be ready to use recharge cells, SSC and reserve power cell. We did get the boss to 30% on our last attempt before I went OOA, so I feel some better DPS may all be that is needed for this encounter. But I do love the flexability of having two commandos that CAN throw a backup heal on themselves. We havn't needed to do that yet, but the lack of interupts may cause me to heal more than intended which could be offset by the commandos throwing a heal on themselves.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Gabe_Grinstead