Healing, help please :D

[Strifegambit]

Hi guys

 

I just rolled a merc healer and was wondering if anyone had any methods of healing using some sort of addon or anything, there probably isnt one out/made yet.

So i assume people just keybind their healing skills so you can dps & heal in flashpoints and stuff seen as they havent given us the option of more than 4 utility bars.

 

Is this the case or is there another way to do it ?

 

THanks

[Bastionhawk]

There are not any addons. This is good b/c you can learn to be an active an proactive healer.

 

This is how I have my hotkeys set up:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

shft + 1, shft + 2, shft + 3, shft + 4, shft + 5

Q, W, S, and E are my movement (L strafe, forward, backward, R strafe)

A, D, R, X, V, B and G

 

I'm able to use all the abilities I need to macro in a hurry this way.

 

Learning the order to cast them is important to, but I don't think you are asking that here.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Bastionhawk

[Omarax]

Ya def no addons yet.....good ol fashioned awareness and click and cast healing is the way in this game.

[Strifegambit]

Yeah i figured there was no addons,

just trying to sort out the best way for my keybinds, so i can still dps and heal

thanks for the input guys will get home and try a few of these out

[Puzzlybox]

Maintaining normal WASD and Camera Turning

 

12345

Shift+1, Shift+2, Shift+3, Shift+4

Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3, Alt+4

Middle Mouse, Mouse Button 4, Mouse Button 5

Q, Shift Q, E, Shift E, R, Shift R, T, Shift T

F, Shift F, G, Shift G

V, Shift V, C, Shift C, X, Shift X, Z, Shift Z

 

12345, The Shifts, The Alts, And Mouse Buttons, and the q,e,v,f,g,t,r,c are all used for things that I use on a regular basis (only spell I took out from Action Bar was Flamethrower. I couldn't think of a good use for it).

 

The ones like pots, items, long cooldowns, etc, I use the more annoying to reach ones like Z, X, C.

 

When you need to contort your finger to use z,x,c and their Shift Counterparts what I do is adjust my camera with right click to face my toon to somewhere good situationally, then hold left and right click to just run straight as i let of the W button and hit the hotkey real quick before I assume the wheel again with W.

[SheepishOne]

I don't do anything fancy. I have my damage/often used skills on 1-5. Alt is bound to my mouse key, so Alt+ 1-5 triggers my heals. You can use some of the other close to reach keys as well, but I stay away from binding my movement keys to a modifier. I find I use a lot of abilities while running and don't want to cut my legs out from under me.

[Puzzlybox]

Sorry to double post. Just to show you how I map my stuff.

 

ACTION BAR 1

1 - Rapid Shot

2 - Missile Blat

3 - Vent Heat

4 - Rapid Scan

5 - Unload

Middle Mouse - Trinket/Break Free

Mouse 5 - Jet Boost

Mouse 4 - Rail Shot

Shift 1 - Recharge and Reload

Shift 2 - Energy Shield

Shift 3 - Sweeping Strikes

Shift 4 - Death From Above

 

ACTION BAR 2

Q - Explosive Dart

E - Emergency Scan

R - Healing Scan

F - Rocket Punch

V - Throw Huttball (BIND THIS. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HOTKEY THIS)

Shift Q - Powe Shot

Shift E - Kolto Shells

Shift R - Supercharged Gas

Alt 1 - Kolto Missile

Alt 2 - Concussion Missile

Alt 3 - Electro Dart

Alt 4- Cure

 

LEFT ACTION BAR

Shift V - Mount Vehicle

Shift F - Aggro Dump

Z - Shoulder Slam

X - Cybertech Mines

Shift Z - PvP Potion

Shift X - Kolto Overload

C - Fusion Missile

Shift C - Stealth Scan (BIND THIS BIND THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BIND THIS)

T - Alacrity Relic

Shift T - Regular Medpak

G - Thermal Sensor Override

Shift G - Power Surge

 

RIGHT ACTION BAR

-Alots of random things here and there like Emergency Fleet Pass and Quick Travel and buffs. None of which I hotkey and I just click. Once they add Purge I'll find room to hotkey my buffs.

[Yazule]

Ya def no addons yet.....good ol fashioned awareness and click and cast healing is the way in this game.

 

yet? They anounced just before live that there would be no third party programs (addons) though they may ad functionality to the existing gui themselves.

[Skeme]

Some other ideas to go along with these...

 

Here's a couple things I do.

Mouse Button 4: Next target. As a healer you could use this to cycle through friendly targets.

Mouse Button 5: Nearest target. Same thing, just change to nearest friendly target and use this to quickly target who's right next to you.

Mouse button 3 (middle scroller): I set this to my AoE DFA and shift + is sweeping blasters. I assume as a healer you could set kolto missile, that way just point your cursor and click middle button and it's right there.

 

I use Tab for Break Free, shift + Tab is shield.

 

X: Vent heat.

 

Not much more input than that though I don't play Bodyguard. Although it's hard to imagine not having enough hotkeys if you do what these guys have said.

[_Nyth]

I generally try to find a keybind layout that i can use across my characters. Try to get the same kind of abilities in the same slots.

For bounty hunter it's as follow:

Main Action Bar:

 

1 - Rapid Scan

2 - Healing Scan

3 - Emergency Scan

4 - Kolto Missile

5 - Break CC ability

T - Railshot

Shift+R - Unload

R - Power Shot

Shift+E - Supercharged Gas

E - Rapid Shots

Shift+Q - Flamethrower

Q - Rocket Punch

 

My main action bar cover all my direct skills. It's split up in the 1-5 part which I use for healing (and in this case breaking free but that might move later).

The T/R/E part of my keyboard has always been restricted for offensive abilities. Now as healer I put supercharge gas in there, but say I were to spec Arsenal I would put Tracer Missile on R and swap Power Shot to Shift+E and probably move HSM to 4. That keeps all the offensive direct needed stuff tightly together.

 

Secondary Action Bar:

 

Shift+1 - Jet Boost

Shift+2 - Electro Dart

Shift+3 - Concussion Missile

Shift+4 - Sweeping Blasters

Shift+F - Kolto Shell

Shift+T - Recharge and Reload

Alt+1 - Medpack

Alt+2 - PvP Med

Alt+3 - <To be used> (probably gonna contain an adrenal or for pvp maybe the expertise buff)

Alt+Q - Chaff Flare

Alt+E - Power Shield

Alt+R - Kolto Overload

 

That's my secondary bar.

The Shift 1 through 4 keys cover my utility skills. Sweeping Blasters is a bit odd out. I used to bind my main AoE attack to 4 (DFA) but later found that to be better used for other stuff. Shift+4 was the accompanying lesser AoE skill, but that one stuck as I like how that is. Might change it later.

Shift+F for kolto shell; seeing as my alt is an Agent I use Shift+5 there for him as shift+f is cover shield. Shift+T is easy to reach yet, not as quick to contain something vital; figured this makes sense.

Alt keys are generally my emergency stuff. With 1 through 3 for medpacks and the like, and letters for the class abilities. Since Alt+4 or higher is hard to reach in combat without lifting from WASD i dont use them, period.

 

Right Action Bar:

 

Middle Mouse Button - Death from Above

Shift+MMB - Fusion Missile

Ctrl+MMB - Explosive Dart

Alt+MMB - Missile Blast (hardly ever use this)

Shift+MB5 - Mount

Ctrl+F - Cure

Ctrl+T - On the Trail

Ctrl+R - Stealth Scan

Ctrl+E - Vent Heat

Ctrl+Q - Toss Huttball

G - Power Surge

Shift+G - Thermal Sensor Override

 

Bit of an odd action bar at first, but it works out for me. Basically the Middle Mouse button covers all AoE (apart from Sweeping Blasters as mentioned earlier).

I use Mouse Button 5 for auto run, and then shift+MB5 for mounting; Did that in WoW find it convenient to stick.

Ctrl + letter keys are basically all my abilities I won't use very often, but are needed on the fly. Same goes for the G keys, which are my cooldowns.

 

Left Action Bar:

Shift+Mousewheel down - Sprint

Shift+Mousewheel up - Class buff

Quick Travel (unbound)

Fleet Transport (unbound)

Minipet (unbound)

<Empty>

<Empty>

Ctrl+1 - Combat Support Cylinder

Ctrl+2 - Combustable Gas Cylinder

Ctrl+3 - High Velocity Gas Cylinder

Ctrl+4 - Shoulder Slam

Ctrl+5 - Open

 

Ok first let me say that this bar currently contains everything I don't need on the fly. WIth a reason.

This is the bar I replace with my companion bar whenever he is out. I quite like to adjust his stance or toggle his abilities on the fly. So I just try to have that out. That is why, until bioware makes more customizable action bars; or allows companion keybinds to be used WITHOUT showing the bar (huge pain). I'll leave it at this for the moment.

 

There are some other keybinds not mentioned, for example:

 

Mouse button 4 - Companion attack

Shift+MB4 - Companion Passive

Ctrl+MB4 - Companion Stance 1

Alt+MB4 - Companion Stance 2

 

Alt+F - Set focus

F - Focus modifier

I'm likely going to change this later; but for now it does. I tend to only use a focus target when questing with a friend+companion (I focus his companion just to make sure it stays alive)

If bioware doesn't do anything about the current UI; It's likely i'll try to itterate and optimize my focus keys.

 

Currently I still have ZXCV bound to default stuff. This is likely to change. I'll probably move my AoE abilities to one of these for example. As I like to have mouse keys available for doing something simultaneously with keyboard skills. (Example: Controlling companion / Specific targetting / Focus)

[Sticksabbi]

Yeah i figured there was no addons,

just trying to sort out the best way for my keybinds, so i can still dps and heal

thanks for the input guys will get home and try a few of these out

 

Sorry, but this isn't the right attitude to have here. A Merc is a very Pro-active healing class. Meaning if your not actively healing you need to be thinking about what heal your going to do next. Questions like "what heal should I spit out next, how's my heat looking, is there about to be any big damage about to come in, how many charges of kolto shell does the tank have on him, is proactive medicine still up, is it time to toss out another kolto missile, do I still have 30 charges of supercharged gas up, etc..." should constantly be running through your head. if your happy with all the answers to all those questions then maybe just maybe it might be ok to toss out a little bit of damage before you go back to healing. At least in pve this will be the case.

 

If all that doesn't sound like your cup of tea you might want to consider rolling up a sorc.

[Strifegambit]

Ahh i see i see.

 

Sorry im only level 12 atm so i havent had enough time to get all the healing skills and talents yet haha didnt relise we are more of a HoT class and havent seen to much of the heating system yet in hectic situations, thanks for the extra info on the class mate will help alot when i finally start healing some flashpoints and heroics.

 

Much appreciated

[_Nyth]

Ahh i see i see.

 

Sorry im only level 12 atm so i havent had enough time to get all the healing skills and talents yet haha didnt relise we are more of a HoT class

 

We aren't really a HoT class.

 

What Sticksabbi described goes for each healing class. Your first and foremost priority is healing and everything that includes (minding buffs / managing resources). Then comes CC and the like, and last on the list is Damage.

 

What Sticksabbi said is mostly true, but merc isn't in any way a much more pro-active healer than the other healing specs. A sorc has to be just as proactive, be it in different ways. Having to think ahead to not run out of force too early, etc.

 

That said though; there are plenty of times, especially during trash in flashpoints, where you simply have enough time to deal damage.

Edited January 19, 2012 by _Nyth

[Silomatic]

Well with our dmg shield plus Kolto residue I find that I have plenty of time to throw in some dps when healing. Wether it be a raid boss or trash. I just keep the tank topped off and everyone else looks to be atleast 75% I'll throw my dot on the mob and hit it with a rail shot inbetween heals. Sure we're not going to put out any real dps. We dont have the time to, but when you're trying to beat enrage timers, every little bit helps =)