Need PvP healing advice

[Madsax]

Hey Guys,

 

I'm leveling an BH merc alt (lvl 33) and have enjoyed the high damage scores in WZs. I want to try healing but extremely noobish in this category (never even healed in WOW) and was looking for tricks or tip for PvP healing. Would you healing pros mind giving me a couple of your good tips for pvp healing please? I've checked out the sticky already...just fyi.

 

Thank you.

[Choffware]

I'm a healing level 50 who has around 10% bonus stats to pvp. I only mention this to put in perspective how long I've been healing in pvp as a level 50(around 2 weeks).

 

I've also been a healer in WOW(druid) and in Warhammer(shaman). WOW for many years. So I like to think I have an insight into pvp healing in general but just starting to master the BH.

 

I will say this BH are a difficult pvp healer to master. The heat mechanic and the lack of any true fire and forget HOTS make it difficult. Also other than the one instant emergency heal and the koto shell all heals have a long cast time that requires us to stand still. So until you get enough alacrity through talents and gear... your not very mobile. On top of the fact that quick shot exposes you to the enemy and makes you a clear target. Other classes have more subtle cast animations and are harder to spot when all hell brakes loose. The heal missile also has an important heal mechanic associated with it but is a pain in the *** to fire while trying to avoid being seen and moving around. We also lack cc

 

All that being said its a pretty big rush once you have the right gear and the mechanics down(read the healing guide at the top of this forum). what we lack in cc we gain in being tough to kill (again need the gear at level 50) and packing a little dps hear and there.

 

I went full healing spec for pve reasons and still feel very viable in WZ. I know some people mix in the pyro or arsenal trees and I probably would to if I wasn't running flashpoints.

 

=====

 

EDIT: I guess I didn't make my point very well. Bottom line mercs are fun to heal with but they are a hard class to start with if you haven't done pvp healing before. So if you still want to try it expect it to be hard. But stick with it and you will probably get it. The sticky at the top is almost all you need to get started... but in pvp no one holds aggro so the key is not to bring attention to yourself and focus on healing.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Choffware

[Madsax]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to help. I just went into my first WZ without testing the new tree in the field and did "ok" (I'm on a work computer and fps is around 12) lol. I can't wait to try at home and bind some keys.

 

Other than directly clicking on the healee, what is the best way to select a teammate you want to heal?

 

Thanks again for the help.

[ForceWelder]

As a level 50 Merc Battlemaster healer I have one piece of advice to give the OP.

 

Wait until you are level 50 to make the switch.

 

I say this for a number of reasons.

 

1. You won't have access to all your skills until you are 50. This may not be such a big deal for dps players, but those skills are crucial as a healer. Warzones are quite volital places through most of the matches and you may find that you will be on the receiving end of quite a bit of opposing team interest. Without your healing tree full optimized and followed up with alacrity and bonus skills from the other two trees, you may find healing to be quite a frustrating thing to pull off well.

 

2. Your lack of mobility is always going to be an issue as a healer. If you server runs like mine, in most matches you will be healing by yourself or with just one other person. That makes you a target. Beng a lower level that makes you an easy target. Being a non moving healer makes you the perfect target. Taking you out is worth taking out 2 - 3 of your dps team mates. And without the survival skills you will pick up by the time you hit 50, you will be the constant target.

 

3. You still need to level your toon. Most people would do a hybrid class to get that done. But this is very difficult to pull off as a Merc Healer. Heat is always goign to be an issue. As a hybrid you can't dissipate heat effectively. This also means your healing is not going to be good nor is your damage going to be up to snuf because you are shuffling points into at least 2 trees. This makes you a liability to your team in PVE content and can slow your leveling down when soloing in PVE.

 

4. Your DPS is simply going to suck. This goes back to number 3, but I can't stress enough how much it is going to impact you. You can all but give up critical damage hits and you will lose some of your core abilities. If you go strait healing, the cooldowns on your combat abilities get lengthy and will likely lead to some frustration.

 

5. You aren't going to be able to kill anyone. Give it up because it aint going to happen. You heal. That is your thing. The best you can hope to do is make the match last so long that the other player simply gives up and leaves. But if the opposing player has access to interrupts you are done. I will give it less than a minute before you are respawning. You simply don't have the tools to fight back. You either stun and run or stand your ground and heal your *** off.

Edited February 29, 2012 by ForceWelder

[ForceWelder]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to help. I just went into my first WZ without testing the new tree in the field and did "ok" (I'm on a work computer and fps is around 12) lol. I can't wait to try at home and bind some keys.

 

Other than directly clicking on the healee, what is the best way to select a teammate you want to heal?

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

there is none. You either click on the person or you click on their health bar in the group / ops window. There are some options in the UI that do help a bit, but they are a bandaid fix to say the least. The game is simply not setup to easily select between friendly targets. And if you are trying to heal somebody in a pile of people, you can forget about clicking on them. By default, the game assumes you want to select the oppsoing player so it will likely take repeated clicks on the person before it actually clicks on the right person. And those few critical seconds, the guy you are desperately trying to save will be dead.

[Madsax]

there is none. You either click on the person or you click on their health bar in the group / ops window. There are some options in the UI that do help a bit, but they are a bandaid fix to say the least. The game is simply not setup to easily select between friendly targets. And if you are trying to heal somebody in a pile of people, you can forget about clicking on them. By default, the game assumes you want to select the oppsoing player so it will likely take repeated clicks on the person before it actually clicks on the right person. And those few critical seconds, the guy you are desperately trying to save will be dead.

 

Mmmmmm this sucks, but glad to know I was doing it right. Also, thanks for your 5 points in your previous post...all are valid. I think I'm going to continue (because it's so different from dps) even though I'm gimpped at my level. I appreciate your advice.

[TempestasSilva]

The only thing I can add is try to stay alive. If you get focused bur you shield and other defensive CDs to try to get away. Your lack of healing for the respawn, wait, and run back cycle is way more lost healing for your team than to run away, heal up and come back.

 

Forcewelder:

Just a suggestion, but the community could really use a PvP healing thread with discussion of build, talent choices, strategies, etc.

 

If you think you are up to it, post in my thread listed below.

Edited February 29, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[Madsax]

The only thing I can add is try to stay alive. If you get focused bur you shield and other defensive CDs to try to get away. Your lack of healing for the respawn, wait, and run back cycle is way more lost healing for your team than to run away, heal up and come back.

 

Forcewelder:

Just a suggestion, but the community could really use a PvP healing thread with discussion of build, talent choices, strategies, etc.

 

If you think you are up to it, post in my thread listed below.

 

I second this!

[solitary]

I've been healing in pvp for about 2 months now, made the switch when I was already at level 50 and I am seriously never, ever going back to dps on my BH.

 

I think the most obvious thing that a Merc beings to the table as a healer is their unrivaled survivability as a healer. Right now I'm sitting at about 19k hp and I at max die twice per pvp game and if I get a "pocket" assassin to run with me, I never die, even when the entire team is beating on me.

 

I don't know if I have any conscious rotation in abilities that I cycle through except for certain times, like popping both shields and overload to stay alive when I dip below 5k hp. I'll have to look into that.

 

Once you get full champion gear, as a healer, you are a force to be reckoned with.

 

Alacrity isn't even that big a deal to me, I traded my alacrity talent for a endurance boost and got used to the .1 slower cast time very fast.

 

I would love to answer any direct questions you may have or can think up.

[zerobounds]

It takes plenty of getting used to in order to use well. I've been healing for 2 weeks straight and I'm just now becoming effective. You have to use the skills given and see what they do then connect the dots in your head and use everything at your disposal because you will need it all.

 

Thats all I can really say without making a ten page post. There are some significant changes in the PvP vs PvE build to be "most effective" such as choosing to get the Shield boost stuff (PvP) or the extra aim for bigger heals (PvE).

 

Emergency Scan is a must have.

[Madsax]

I've been healing in pvp for about 2 months now, made the switch when I was already at level 50 and I am seriously never, ever going back to dps on my BH.

 

I think the most obvious thing that a Merc beings to the table as a healer is their unrivaled survivability as a healer. Right now I'm sitting at about 19k hp and I at max die twice per pvp game and if I get a "pocket" assassin to run with me, I never die, even when the entire team is beating on me.

 

I don't know if I have any conscious rotation in abilities that I cycle through except for certain times, like popping both shields and overload to stay alive when I dip below 5k hp. I'll have to look into that.

 

Once you get full champion gear, as a healer, you are a force to be reckoned with.

 

Alacrity isn't even that big a deal to me, I traded my alacrity talent for a endurance boost and got used to the .1 slower cast time very fast.

 

I would love to answer any direct questions you may have or can think up.

 

Cool!

 

1. would you link your spec please?

 

2. do you use kolto missile only in groups?

 

3. after you build up 30 units of super charged gas, when is the best time to use it?

 

4. rapid scan and healing scan seem very similar to me. I know one is faster and the other heals a bit more, but is there a preference here?

 

5. the sticky post guide guy says to spam rapid shots as much as possible. I know this gives your location away, but do you agree/disagree with this?

 

6. assume your in a WZ and a teammate is 1v1. You're under no pressure. What is a typical heal rotation in this rare (lol) senario?

 

7. same as question 6 except you have a guy beating on you as well. Do you pop shield/shields, concentrate on yourself, continue to heal teammate plus youself, etc.?

 

Sorry for the onslaught of questions and thanks again for your (and everyone else's) help.

[DomingoDarkrage]

Cool!

 

4. rapid scan and healing scan seem very similar to me. I know one is faster and the other heals a bit more, but is there a preference here?

 

5. the sticky post guide guy says to spam rapid shots as much as possible. I know this gives your location away, but do you agree/disagree with this?

 

6. assume your in a WZ and a teammate is 1v1. You're under no pressure. What is a typical heal rotation in this rare (lol) senario?

 

7. same as question 6 except you have a guy beating on you as well. Do you pop shield/shields, concentrate on yourself, continue to heal teammate plus youself, etc.?

 

Sorry for the onslaught of questions and thanks again for your (and everyone else's) help.

 

I'll take a stab at these if you want a variety of opinions:

4: I always try to cast healing scan first. First is because if we get an inturrupt, we want it to be healing scan so we can still spam a healing cast if possible. Also, it gives a small hot, some armor, and lets the next healing scan be really cheap heat cost. They both heal about the same (with the hot from healing scan).

 

5: Those looking to find the healer will find you anyhow. The green shots or not, they will find you. However, since people take a lot more damage in pvp than pve, i find rapid shots is only when i need to get supercharge up, people are not hurt much and dont need a heal at the moment, or healing on the move.

 

6: Your teamate is doing a 1v1? Give him kolto shield, toss a healing scan and then start dps'ing his target- death from above and unload are good damaging skills that do not cost much on heat due to upfront cost + channel time. Unless they are dropping like a stone, you shouldn't need to do a healing rotation on him, but just patch them up a bit.

 

7: 1 guy beating up on you? Just forget about him. You should be able to outheal any 1 person. However, if you are having trouble (mauraders give me problems that are really geared and know when to interrupt), pop energy shield when you need to start healing yourself (50%), preferable if you are CC immune, or close to it with your break avail. with the non-interrupts we gain from specced energy shield, you should be able to heal up NP. Heal on the move to friendlies.

 

7B: If you have multiple people attacking you, get energy shield up asap. try to keep yourself up, and use supercharge if needed. The shielding from kolto missile is excellent extra damage mitigation and last a long time. You may want to heal on the move to friendlies, stay in one spot healing yourself, or even call it a suicide death and heal yourself on the move to put the attackers at a disadvantage of some sort- Depends on the situation.

 

Other tips from me:

Learn when to break out of CC. If you do not need to heal anyone, you probably shouldn't break. Did you get stunned, or mezed? Dont break a stun (usually comes first) unless you are CC immune, for the mez may come later and cripple you and your team. Sometimes you just have to eat a stun/mez because it is actually the best thing to do. Also learn where are good places to stand in each arena for strategic areas. You want to be able to be out of LOS of the enemy while healing your friends, and it can be hard to heal melee's this way, but it keeps you from getting shot at.

[Madsax]

I'll take a stab at these if you want a variety of opinions:

4: I always try to cast healing scan first. First is because if we get an inturrupt, we want it to be healing scan so we can still spam a healing cast if possible. Also, it gives a small hot, some armor, and lets the next healing scan be really cheap heat cost. They both heal about the same (with the hot from healing scan).

 

5: Those looking to find the healer will find you anyhow. The green shots or not, they will find you. However, since people take a lot more damage in pvp than pve, i find rapid shots is only when i need to get supercharge up, people are not hurt much and dont need a heal at the moment, or healing on the move.

 

6: Your teamate is doing a 1v1? Give him kolto shield, toss a healing scan and then start dps'ing his target- death from above and unload are good damaging skills that do not cost much on heat due to upfront cost + channel time. Unless they are dropping like a stone, you shouldn't need to do a healing rotation on him, but just patch them up a bit.

 

7: 1 guy beating up on you? Just forget about him. You should be able to outheal any 1 person. However, if you are having trouble (mauraders give me problems that are really geared and know when to interrupt), pop energy shield when you need to start healing yourself (50%), preferable if you are CC immune, or close to it with your break avail. with the non-interrupts we gain from specced energy shield, you should be able to heal up NP. Heal on the move to friendlies.

 

7B: If you have multiple people attacking you, get energy shield up asap. try to keep yourself up, and use supercharge if needed. The shielding from kolto missile is excellent extra damage mitigation and last a long time. You may want to heal on the move to friendlies, stay in one spot healing yourself, or even call it a suicide death and heal yourself on the move to put the attackers at a disadvantage of some sort- Depends on the situation.

 

Other tips from me:

Learn when to break out of CC. If you do not need to heal anyone, you probably shouldn't break. Did you get stunned, or mezed? Dont break a stun (usually comes first) unless you are CC immune, for the mez may come later and cripple you and your team. Sometimes you just have to eat a stun/mez because it is actually the best thing to do. Also learn where are good places to stand in each arena for strategic areas. You want to be able to be out of LOS of the enemy while healing your friends, and it can be hard to heal melee's this way, but it keeps you from getting shot at.

 

I love to get different perspectives to my questions.

 

Thank you.

[ForceWelder]

I'll take a stab at these if you want a variety of opinions:

4: I always try to cast healing scan first. First is because if we get an inturrupt, we want it to be healing scan so we can still spam a healing cast if possible. Also, it gives a small hot, some armor, and lets the next healing scan be really cheap heat cost. They both heal about the same (with the hot from healing scan).

 

5: Those looking to find the healer will find you anyhow. The green shots or not, they will find you. However, since people take a lot more damage in pvp than pve, i find rapid shots is only when i need to get supercharge up, people are not hurt much and dont need a heal at the moment, or healing on the move.

 

6: Your teamate is doing a 1v1? Give him kolto shield, toss a healing scan and then start dps'ing his target- death from above and unload are good damaging skills that do not cost much on heat due to upfront cost + channel time. Unless they are dropping like a stone, you shouldn't need to do a healing rotation on him, but just patch them up a bit.

 

7: 1 guy beating up on you? Just forget about him. You should be able to outheal any 1 person. However, if you are having trouble (mauraders give me problems that are really geared and know when to interrupt), pop energy shield when you need to start healing yourself (50%), preferable if you are CC immune, or close to it with your break avail. with the non-interrupts we gain from specced energy shield, you should be able to heal up NP. Heal on the move to friendlies.

 

7B: If you have multiple people attacking you, get energy shield up asap. try to keep yourself up, and use supercharge if needed. The shielding from kolto missile is excellent extra damage mitigation and last a long time. You may want to heal on the move to friendlies, stay in one spot healing yourself, or even call it a suicide death and heal yourself on the move to put the attackers at a disadvantage of some sort- Depends on the situation.

 

Other tips from me:

Learn when to break out of CC. If you do not need to heal anyone, you probably shouldn't break. Did you get stunned, or mezed? Dont break a stun (usually comes first) unless you are CC immune, for the mez may come later and cripple you and your team. Sometimes you just have to eat a stun/mez because it is actually the best thing to do. Also learn where are good places to stand in each arena for strategic areas. You want to be able to be out of LOS of the enemy while healing your friends, and it can be hard to heal melee's this way, but it keeps you from getting shot at.

 

To the OP ...

 

4. Is good advice. Heed it.

5. Rapid shot is great in Huttball. Since we have no default speed boost and the inquisitors tend to be the primary ball handlers, being able to throw any heal on them (even weak) while on the move is a big deal. I can't count how many times I have played huttball and the ballhandler pulls it off with just a sliver of health - a direct result of you tossing energency scan and rapid shot on the move.

6. DPS and tanks seldom have issues 1 vs 1. Throw your team mate a couple of heals and move on to the next team mate. Odds are a few heals from you will be enough to force the other player to break and run or lack the time to defeat your team mate in battle and be killed. 2 vs 1 and you may not be able to keep your team mate alive. But you can help to keep the fight going so long that your other team mates can be free to take an objective. And a person close to death (your team mate) tends to draw attention of other opposing team players who are looking for that kill shot medal. The longer your heals draw out the fight the more opposing team mates might get involved.

7. I rarely have just one person beating on me. It is usually two. And if it is just one, you can guarantee that one is spamming interrupts. My advice is to throw your weak stun and see if the opposing player uses their CC break. If they do, follow it up with your 1 min stun and move away. As for energy shield, you really have to be smart about when to use it. This comes with practice. You should expect to guess wrong more often than guess right. It also isn't a life saver. All it will do is buy you a few more seconds. But this works in your favor as well. The more enemy players beating on you, the fewer there are defending or attacking an objective. Milliseconds can be the difference between winning and loosing.

 

One thing I would like to add is that unless you have biochem, the pvp medpacks are the geatest thing since slice bread. I keep a dozen on me at all times (it helps that I have nothing else to spend those accomendations on). Save them for those "oh #$@%" moments. Getting back 1/3 of your life when opposing team mates are spamming interrupts at you like they are condoms at a Rolling Stone concert will leave some of them wondering just what the hell you can do and how you can do it. The next thing you know some guy is posting hate posts on the forums about Merc Healers being OP.

 

Just use all of your tools and those in the game and be willing to explorer.

[ForceWelder]

The only thing I can add is try to stay alive. If you get focused bur you shield and other defensive CDs to try to get away. Your lack of healing for the respawn, wait, and run back cycle is way more lost healing for your team than to run away, heal up and come back.

 

Forcewelder:

Just a suggestion, but the community could really use a PvP healing thread with discussion of build, talent choices, strategies, etc.

 

If you think you are up to it, post in my thread listed below.

 

That is the problem with this game. There is no such thing as a perfect build. It all comes down to what you want to do with your character and what equipment you have.

 

For example, if you do a lot of PVE healing, you probably won't want to put a point into improving your shield so you get interrupt immunity. But do PVP and you would be completely foolish not to invest that point.

 

Also if your gear is crit & surge heavy, you may not want to devote points into this area and instead put it into alacrity options in the trees instead. On the other hand, if you do PVE content you will likely not care about alacrity at all and continue to push those stats even with diminished returns.

 

The reverse is also true (alacrity). A number of the early level 50 pieces push alacrity over crit and surge. So if you prefer crits over speed you will likely go over kill with allotting points into those skills in the skill trees. Or you may take advantage of the equipment stats and push alacrity even more to shave off a few more 0.1 seconds off of your heals.

 

(In PVP everything is measured by 0.10 seconds. And I have seen objectives lost and players killed simply because a heal didn't land 0.10 seconds sooner.)

 

And then of course there is always mod swapping to contend with. There are a number of players who experiment - who swap out mods to find the middle ground. But with mod swapping, you also have to consider moving points in your skill tree as well - to compensate for some of the changes (and redoing your skill points is often cheaper than ripping a mod out of a level 50 gear piece).

 

My point is that there are way too many variables that come into play with toon design. The better approach is probably the one that is already done on with these forums. Asking specific questions and getting feedback from players. Because if you ask 10 players who have been kicking around a healer class since beta, you will likely get at least 5 different perspectives on which stats are more important to optimize.

[TheZen]

1. would you link your spec please?

 

I'll be using this when I hit 50, Currently, im sitting at 38 as an alt.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300bfRMRkcdkqZrcoZb.1

2. do you use kolto missile only in groups?

 

I still use Kolto Missile on single targets mainly because of the talented Kolto Residue. It adds a 5% healing recieved.

 

3. after you build up 30 units of super charged gas, when is the best time to use it?

For me, it depends on how slow the enemies are. What I mean by that is, a lot of the time, I can Kolto Shell, Kolto Missile, Healing Scan, Rapid Scan, Rapid Shot/Kolto Missile/Rapid Scan as needed and that person will be topped off.

 

I'll probably be in that rotation for a good 10 seconds before either more people jump on the person I'm healing or they jump on me and really start to pummel on them. At which point, I'll supercharge to keep up with the healing. Then again, on my server, not many bright ones that just jump the healer or gang up on someone.

 

4. rapid scan and healing scan seem very similar to me. I know one is faster and the other heals a bit more, but is there a preference here?

As previously answered, when you talent into Healing scan, healing scan will leave a HoT and reduce the cost of the next Rapid Scan. Generally, you'd want to start off with Healing Scan then Rapid Scan. When you Supercharge, you want to weave Healing, Rapid Scan, Healing, Rapid Scan with some Rapid Shots here and there to reduce your heat.

 

5. the sticky post guide guy says to spam rapid shots as much as possible. I know this gives your location away, but do you agree/disagree with this?

I hear a well geared 50 Merc Heal can Rapid Shot Crit for about 1-2k or more. I don't know if thats actually true or not. I do have to say that I can agree with the sticky for a bit. In my case, Kolto Missle, Kolto Shell and Rapid shot is enough to keep someone up for a the first few seconds of a fight.

 

6. assume your in a WZ and a teammate is 1v1. You're under no pressure. What is a typical heal rotation in this rare (lol) senario?

As mentioned in my previous comments, Kolto Shell, Kolto Missile, Rapid Shot (if needed), Fusion Missile/Rail Shot/Death From Above in a non-specific matter or when heat allows it. I want to maintain under 39% heat.

 

7. same as question 6 except you have a guy beating on you as well. Do you pop shield/shields, concentrate on yourself, continue to heal teammate plus youself, etc.?

I pop Kolto Shell on team, try to stay near him as well, Kolto missile, Jet Boost -> Concussion Blast (was it Blast or shell?) If i;m lucky CB goes off (and he doesnt Interrupt me for some reason) and I get to run away. If he pops his escape ability, I instantly Electro Dart him (i'll have 4 seconds to heal either of us). When needed, I'll pop shield (since im talented there's next to no spell pushback and it's harder to interrupt me), pop supercharge and go mad healing teamate with rapid scan, while I drop a healing scan on myself. Kolto shell always on teammate and kolto missile on us both if possible.

 

I forgot to mention that I'm a biotech with some reusable medpacks. I normally prioritize healing my teammates while using the reusable medpacks on myself in wz. Saves an extra cast that could have gone to my teammate, and keeps me up a tiny bit longer before I need to oh ****.

Edited March 2, 2012 by TheZen

[Madsax]

I'm very impressed with the detailed and intelligent responses. I have put many of the suggestions to use already. This is very different from my marauder (main).

 

Thank you all.

[rotatorkuf]

am i the only one that hates interrupts which put your abilities on cd? especially when the enemy's interrupt ability is on a 5 sec cd

 

it's bad enough we only have 1 real insta cast (on a 21 sec cd) and kolto missile (on a 6 sec cd)

 

then we have rapid and healing scan (on a 12 sec cd)

 

use healing scan, get interrupted, can't use it (either cause of normal cd or enemy given cd), use rapid scan, get interrupted, can't use it

 

IT'S AMAZING THAT INTERRUPTS DON'T ADD ANYTHING TO THE RESOLVE BAR SINCE THEY ARE......CROWD CONTROL HMM!?

 

you can pretty much get chain interrupted in this POS game, unless you're a sorc with all the crazy healing utility

 

that being said, when you aren't interrupted, merc healing is pretty beasty, i usually top healing charts if people aren't focusing me since we're not very mobile healers

Edited March 2, 2012 by rotatorkuf

[DomingoDarkrage]

I hear a well geared 50 Merc Heal can Rapid Shot Crit for about 1-2k or more. I don't know if thats actually true or not. I do have to say that I can agree with the sticky for a bit. In my case, Kolto Missle, Kolto Shell and Rapid shot is enough to keep someone up for a the first few seconds of a fight.

 

 

I crit with rapid shots around 330 (each shot) or so, so at best I can heal for 1k per cooldown. I don't think rapid shots can get much above 1k even with all crits. Since most of our gear is alacrity, i imagine you can get a little extra healing from swapping enhancements around, but i normally figure rapid shots heals 750.

[solitary]

Cool!

 

1. would you link your spec please?

 

2. do you use kolto missile only in groups?

 

3. after you build up 30 units of super charged gas, when is the best time to use it?

 

4. rapid scan and healing scan seem very similar to me. I know one is faster and the other heals a bit more, but is there a preference here?

 

5. the sticky post guide guy says to spam rapid shots as much as possible. I know this gives your location away, but do you agree/disagree with this?

 

6. assume your in a WZ and a teammate is 1v1. You're under no pressure. What is a typical heal rotation in this rare (lol) senario?

 

7. same as question 6 except you have a guy beating on you as well. Do you pop shield/shields, concentrate on yourself, continue to heal teammate plus youself, etc.?

 

Sorry for the onslaught of questions and thanks again for your (and everyone else's) help.

 

1. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rfRoRdfdkqZdZ0c.1

 

2. in actual combat, i rarely use the kolto missle but i find myself most often using it on myself rather than other people because it's easy to throw down and get a 1-2k heal from it when I'm being zerged.

 

3. I am constantly using super charged gas, i use it mainly to drop some heat, the other benefits of it are great too but with how hectic pvp can be, the main reason is heat, the only time i do not use it is when I'm under 15-20 heat, i find throwing in some rapid shots will take the heat away fast enough when its that low.

 

4. i think you're right on the money when recognizing the differences, I'd use Healing Scan when I need to build a buffer to buy time to use Rapid Scan, which isn't so rapid for me since I stack Crit, Surge and Endurance.

 

5. I find myself wanting to agree with him but I often forget to do this because I'm busy using the other healing abilities, I usually use rapid shots when some is missing 20-25% of their hp and isn't being attacked that moment.

 

6. If I'm understanding your scenario, I'm healing a teammate who is 1vs1 another enemy in a warzone? I think that would depend a lot on the gear of the enemy, how hard they're hitting etc.

 

There really wouldn't be a special rotation that I would rely on, I'd adjust on the fly and depending on each hit, how much HP is lost per. I don't know, for me its' a constant numbers game. I try to never fall back on a rotation that decides everything for me.

 

7. Way different scenario even though the seem alike, what teamate is it? is it my assassin that always plays with me that gives me his guard? In that case, at all costs I keep him alive because he's taking away 50% of my damage with his ability.

 

It is a person properly geared and worth healing because they have enough expertise? I try not to waste time on people who just hit 50, nothing against them.

 

If i had to give you an answer, I'd heal both myself and them, them being more important than myself because I am healer and that is my job.

[Calds]

Cool!

 

3. after you build up 30 units of super charged gas, when is the best time to use it?

 

 

My opinion on this is that the best part of supercharged gas is when you're high on heat. It vents 16 heat and is great for when you vent heat skill is down.

 

If you're under stress, the reduced damage is great either in combination with your shield (true o hell! moments) or alone to tip a fight in your favor. I really see that as just gravy though as I truly use that skill as a heat management skill while in PVP.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Calds

[Brad_Pitt]

As a level 50 Merc Battlemaster healer I have one piece of advice to give the OP.

 

Wait until you are level 50 to make the switch.

 

I say this for a number of reasons.

 

1. You won't have access to all your skills until you are 50. This may not be such a big deal for dps players, but those skills are crucial as a healer. Warzones are quite volital places through most of the matches and you may find that you will be on the receiving end of quite a bit of opposing team interest. Without your healing tree full optimized and followed up with alacrity and bonus skills from the other two trees, you may find healing to be quite a frustrating thing to pull off well.

 

2. Your lack of mobility is always going to be an issue as a healer. If you server runs like mine, in most matches you will be healing by yourself or with just one other person. That makes you a target. Beng a lower level that makes you an easy target. Being a non moving healer makes you the perfect target. Taking you out is worth taking out 2 - 3 of your dps team mates. And without the survival skills you will pick up by the time you hit 50, you will be the constant target.

 

3. You still need to level your toon. Most people would do a hybrid class to get that done. But this is very difficult to pull off as a Merc Healer. Heat is always goign to be an issue. As a hybrid you can't dissipate heat effectively. This also means your healing is not going to be good nor is your damage going to be up to snuf because you are shuffling points into at least 2 trees. This makes you a liability to your team in PVE content and can slow your leveling down when soloing in PVE.

 

4. Your DPS is simply going to suck. This goes back to number 3, but I can't stress enough how much it is going to impact you. You can all but give up critical damage hits and you will lose some of your core abilities. If you go strait healing, the cooldowns on your combat abilities get lengthy and will likely lead to some frustration.

 

5. You aren't going to be able to kill anyone. Give it up because it aint going to happen. You heal. That is your thing. The best you can hope to do is make the match last so long that the other player simply gives up and leaves. But if the opposing player has access to interrupts you are done. I will give it less than a minute before you are respawning. You simply don't have the tools to fight back. You either stun and run or stand your ground and heal your *** off.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300dfRRRdfdkoZMIk.1 is full healing spec with a build around powershotting ppl to death...

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300bfMMRzfbzZMIkbR0d.1

^ this is the hybrid build which is very easy to use, the 10% dmg reduction makes up for not having that instant heal if you shoot off enough tracers/powershots, just hit sumone with one every 15 seconds to the 10% buff never goes away, its so easy to do. kolto shell helps protect you, using healing scan will give you an extra 10% armor and heal over time, so it makes u really hard to kill and still dish out dmg, I used that build until i got to around 55 valor and I always did over 400k dmg with like 120k healing on myself to keep from dying

 

???

 

Mobility is the easiest thing with a merc.

 

Rapid shots heal for your bonus healing(mine is 550ish) and it usually crits so thats a 1k heal if it does for all three.

 

Kolto missle is spammed every 6 seconds, usually crits for 2.2k for me.

 

Kolto shell is easy to throw on someone and just help them damage the person they are fighting.

 

Using the ability power surge or whatever its called lets u cast something instantly.

 

Just using kolto shell on someone, then using instant heal, then using rapid shots, then shoot kolto missle is almost 5-6k healing within 4 seconds, plus what kolto shell heals for. Dunno wut ur talking about not being able to move....

 

I have fought and killed Jedi Sentinels by myself, yes I am talking about multiple on me....

 

Do you even know the healing tree?

 

You can easily pop up to 80% dmg reduction with relic/stim/adrenal/energyshield/combat supoort cylinder(4% dmg reduction) kolto missle(during super charged gas)

 

During that time your powershots cost nothing, and you can sit there and not be interuprted because with energy shield on you cannot be interupted, unless cc'ed, stunned or pushed back.

 

I regulary dish out 300k dmg and get the medal and still pull off around 250k+ healing.

 

You can use about 7-8 powershots in a row, then use super charged gas(10-13 seconds of free powershots, mine take 1.25seconds to cast with alacrity+ skill tree) and then fire off another 9 powershots in a row, then use vent heat, and fire some more if your target still isnt dead.

 

I dunno wuttttt u talking about we cant kill stuff, i would say if anything being a bh merc healer with some of the stuff in middle tree, that your invincible and u can just dish out dmg without even having to worry about being hit....

Edited March 3, 2012 by Brad_Pitt

[DomingoDarkrage]

Mobility is the easiest thing with a merc.

 

Rapid shots heal for your bonus healing(mine is 550ish) and it usually crits so thats a 1k heal if it does for all three.

 

Kolto missle is spammed every 6 seconds, usually crits for 2.2k for me.

 

Kolto shell is easy to throw on someone and just help them damage the person they are fighting.

 

Using the ability power surge or whatever its called lets u cast something instantly.

 

I think the previous (before Brad Pitt, loved you in Fight Club btw) posts concerns about mobile healing are valid. We can e-scan every 21 (18 with 4 piece armor) seconds, kolto missile (won't discuss actually landing a kolto missile on a moving target here) every 6 and maybe power surge 1 major heal. That isn't a lot of healing power. While rapid shots is something we can spam, 750 healing per cooldown isn't a lot either.

 

It is even harder if you are mobile healing yourself, as rapid shots will not benifit you and your stuck waiting 6 seconds for another kolto missile, or you must stop moving to land a real heal.

 

I'd sum our mobile healing as "slowly patching people up", and being nothing in comparison to an Operative. We got enough to get away from turret DPS, but not enough to really deal with a ball runner being attacked while we are unable to stop and heal.

 

Hutball is the warzone I personally have the lowest healing numbers, mostly for the mobility reason, as well as LOS all wonky and being flung in every which direction.

[Brad_Pitt]

I think the previous (before Brad Pitt, loved you in Fight Club btw) posts concerns about mobile healing are valid. We can e-scan every 21 (18 with 4 piece armor) seconds, kolto missile (won't discuss actually landing a kolto missile on a moving target here) every 6 and maybe power surge 1 major heal. That isn't a lot of healing power. While rapid shots is something we can spam, 750 healing per cooldown isn't a lot either.

 

It is even harder if you are mobile healing yourself, as rapid shots will not benifit you and your stuck waiting 6 seconds for another kolto missile, or you must stop moving to land a real heal.

 

I'd sum our mobile healing as "slowly patching people up", and being nothing in comparison to an Operative. We got enough to get away from turret DPS, but not enough to really deal with a ball runner being attacked while we are unable to stop and heal.

 

Hutball is the warzone I personally have the lowest healing numbers, mostly for the mobility reason, as well as LOS all wonky and being flung in every which direction.

 

I usually stand about 5 meters away from the person im healing, if they go on the run, shoot a kolto missle almost 2 ft ahead of them, rapid shots, and u can still get off a healing/rapid scan before they get out of sight, if they want to run away from a healer, let the *******es die, its their own fault if they are at 40% health and run away and die.

 

if they play like that they arent worth healing.

[Daize]

Still leveling up my Merc (have an operative healer at 50). Once I hit 50 I'd like to be able to heal in Operations/FPs as well as PvP with a single build (once we have dual spec I will have a pve dps build as well (same one I am using to level). Was wondering what y'all thought of this heal build based on the above intentions :

 

http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/bounty_hunter/mercenary/?build_id=2048#::e6fefefe7fef2ef7ef8e2f10ef7: