The Bodyguard (not The Healbot)

[Ewert]

The Bodyguard

 

 

The Muzzle Fluted Hasted Solo HM Ops Healing and

PvP worthy all in one

 

(As in the complete package, not the healbot on a test dummy)

 

Warning: Long and I mean LONG post coming

 

 

The spec

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

 

2 Pyrotech for haste, non-negotiable

7 Arsenal for Aim, Power shot & Kolto Missile buff, crit% and Muzzle Fluting, non-negotiable

32 Bodyguard, a single point swap if you don't PvP much: Drop Cure Mind talent for Improved Vents 2/2. If you don't PvP at all, consider dropping either Heat Damping or Power Shield for 1% Integrated Systems.

 

(if you only PvP, then there are arguably some talent point swaps that are choice-based, but this guide is meant for the PvE/PvP dual utility two-in-one spec)

 

Spec explanation

Mostly the choices are no-brainers. This guide includes "full" alacrity (as in not swapping out item mods to zero out your alacrity, I have 419). A couple of pointers from game-realism point of view about the talent choices:

 

Stuff hit you. Stuff spawn midfight. Stuff hate healers at starts of fights, and that is especially when there tends to be lots of different Stuff hitting you all. You WILL get tons and tons of mileage out of pushback-resistance, as well as the -10% threat is non-negotiable anyways. But that final 30%, and interrupt immunity? It is non-negotiable for PvP, but also very worth it in PvE in the starts of fights like EV turrets, zillions of trash pulls done while tank eats muffins with one hand, as well as sometimes during add spawns. So yes, the spec has Power Shield.

 

You need to move out of Stuff. Replace with the other s-word for the usual name of "red s on the ground". Normal reaction times of people rarely go under 0.2 seconds. My twitch finger reaction times are around 0.21 seconds. Alacrity sucks, you say? Going from 9% haste to 21% gives you almost double the reaction time to land that critical Healing Scan (about 0.2 seconds faster). Sure on a healing test dummy, it doesn't sound that awesome, since you are just spamming your keys on a non-changing target with no interruptions. But this is from game-realism included point of view, so yes, we want alacrity to increase our reaction window massively. Oh and moving out of Stuff? Guess what, that 0.19-0.24 seconds your Healing and Rapid Scans take to finish, that right there again about doubles your time window of getting that heal off instead of having it interrupted due to moving out of Stuff. Movement usually means zero heat usage (unless you pop insta-cast CD), at worst you just canceled a critical heal and sat at 0 heat for a second or two of moving out of Stuff.

 

Healing is all about avoiding deaths. How do deaths happen? Burst damage usually. Again, that haste % right there as mentioned above may double your reaction window on that single target. Now what else do bursts mean? Yep, burst healing required. Controlled burst healing, not random chance! With end-game stats, as shown by the numbers I will post, alacrity is the best heal per time stat. Yes, even using a power adrenal (565 power) is less heal / time than my 419 alacrity. MUCH less, that power gives around 8.7% increase to my Healing Scan and Rapid Scan, whereas my 419 alacrity gives me around 15% increase to my healing output with the same skills. Repeat after me: 419 alacrity = 15% output increase, 565 power = 8.7% output increase. Surge adrenal is near worthless, we are talking of only 3.5% increase here. Crit adrenal around 6%. So dropping my 419 alacrity for ANY of power, surge or critical would mean a massive downgrade of my burst (Heal + Rapid Scan during SCG) healing ability. Oh and by the way, diminishing returns works differently with stats like haste, where static bonuses increase the value of the stat bonus. I have 12.1% haste from alacrity, but that is worth 15% output. Math is funny like that. So yes, we talent all haste talents.

 

PvP and haste? The more the merrier, can't have enough. Interrupts, moving, reaction times, you name it, haste gives you more chances to either make it or to avoid it.

 

So how about Death-by-Attrition? Overall healing values? Yes, alacrity does NOT increase the heal/resource value of your heals. Directly. That is what Rapid Shots is about, in the "spare" time. If nobody is down critically, you throw in a Rapid Shot to stay under 40 heat. Oh and staying <40 heat is critical for avoiding Death-by-Attrition while solo healing HM ops, but not yet the time to talk about that. In an Another Thread, Far Far Away, using the healing cycle synthesised by RuQu and my gear level, we are talking of overall healing values. It seems I used a wrong value for Rapid Shots back then, so I redid the math, and overall currently with my gear we are talking of around 2.5% less overall healing versus 8% better burst healing. Add the reaction time bonuses to real gameplay, and yes please I'll take that swap! On a side note, the more power you have the lesser the gap between overall healing becomes (I want more power, mmmm).

 

And then we move into the area of "Bodyguard, not Healbot". Games tend to have 4 things in them: mitigation, damage, healing and utility. Mitigation and healing are obviously healbot duties, for us with buffs for mitigation to the tank, and healing for umm I guess healing. Utility? Sadly we lack it somewhat, but there are the stun, the CC and the knockback. For those, we have a talent for -8 heat. PvP, non-negotiable. PvE? Yes, it gets uses. You knockback Stuff hitting you in melee, you knockback Stuff about to explode you to pieces, you stun Stuff (best heal ever! 0 heat and 4 seconds of no damage!), and finally you CC stuff (even better, and even in some bossfights like Boney in Karagga). So that utility talent IS useful. Even in PvE.

 

But wait, the 4th one? Damage? Do you already hear the screams of "oh my god, we are healbots not dps, roll a dps if you want dps!"? I am sure some of you have seen the threads about it. Here's the thing: 1 talent point. ONE. Muzzle Fluting instead of 1% overall healing. I will come to why that 1% isn't 1% in a while, but first, let's talk damage. More importantly lets talk damage while not hurting your burst heal readiness. Now when is damage needed? That annoying add that will do Something-Awful if not killed fast? Check. Burst mechanic for boss? Check (the toughest boss fight currently in game, Soa, has one, and also has near zero healing required during it) Two healers in 8man, 4 in 16man mode? Hah, you can DPS very often, and pretty much at all burst mechanic points of boss fights. All that damage while regening heat during SCG, or 9 heat saved everytime you fire off a shot during lull-times of healing.

 

What is that damage you do worth? Here, again, we get to the lovely part of this spec, haste combined with Muzzle Fluting and Super Charged Gas. Most dps classes, heck all of them really, do not have alacrity or haste much. We do. Tons of it, well 21% of it. For cast-time skills, spesifically Power Shot (0 heat cost spammable while being your 3rd best damage / time skill), that is a straight up 21% damage increase. That is massive, huge, big, major. And +10% from gas itself. We burst right up there near dps specs for 10-13 seconds. So, for example for Soa, the Bodyguard (not healbot) is the ultimate heal spec for the 3rd phase. And power versus alacrity factor again, even with that 565 power adrenal I would do over 7% less damage than with my 419 alacrity. And since it is 0 heat cost, that is straight up 7% less no questions asked. A quick interpolate later, it is approximately 9% less damage with 419 more power than with my 419 alacrity. Yes, 9% less. Alacrity sucks right? So with Muzzle Fluting, alacrity and SCG a single Bodyguard (not healbot) will help in the hardest fight and hardest phase of current fights massively, easily having the chance to be the difference between a 5% wipe or a kill. Oh and you can do the dps most times even if you are solo healing the fight in HM.

 

In PvP, MF is non-negotiable, IMHO. Healbots are ---> that way, here be Bodyguards (you ever heard of a real life bodyguard that just does medic duties?). We have arguably the best damage skill in game, Death from Above, and alacrity makes it all the more deadlier due to much less time to avoid the massive damage it does (21% less time, and remember the reaction time part, it goes the other way this time, that 0.63 seconds less absolutely kills the oppositions chances to avoid many ticks).

 

I think that about covers the spec. Now the stats.

 

Stats for healing with a game-realistic viewpoint

Now I already mostly covered the alacrity part and why you should NOT ignore it or avoid it. With endgame gear and alacrity we are talking of way higher returns on burst healing and damage, and all of that controlled static boosts, not spikes. But lets talk a bit more about healing especially.

 

Now we have two very different things in a game, damage and healing. Why is it different, you may ask? Because damage usually ends only once, whereas healing is start-stop-start-stop-start-stop kind of thing. You really almost never "overdamage", actually only the killing blow "overdamages". Now "overhealing", that happens. A lot. And the bigger and spikier your heals are, the worse it gets. Okay okay, heal over times are also bad, but lets focus on the Bodyguard healing style.

 

Overheals are why we did not talent that 1%/2% overall healing, since there were more crucial talents to take (if you are not PvPing, then only 1% is missing). To simulate overheals with maths to get a real value is nigh impossible, and even with combat logs it will be very player skill spesific issue also, but overall this holds true: critical rating and surge rating are NOT straight up 1:1 increases to healing efficiency nor healing rate. Yes, they are worth something. No, they are not worth their "face values". We can mostly ignore surge currently, as it is just bad even straight up mathematically (don't go much past 100, 150ish tops). Critical rating diminishing returns is not as bad, but overall you should not emphasize it too much, 300ish is okay value to compromise the DR and the lesser value of criticals due to overhealing. Alacrity is special in this regard, it has very little diminishing returns due to the inverse nature of haste (each 1% more is worth more than the previous 1%), it is boosted by our 9% talents, and it is static controlled increase of healing instead of spiky healing, and thus less prone to overheals. Power is better than critical or surge no questions asked, but as shown before, it gives much less burst ability than alacrity. Unfortunately I do not have an alacrity adrenal to test it out, but even my alacrity relic is almost as good as a power adrenal, so this ratio of alacrity > power for bursting holds true even with end game gear. Actually I think it is stronger with end-game gear, but anyways.

 

So if we think of game situations, overhealing and critical/surge and to a lesser extent power, what happens? Person is missing 3k hp, you throw a Rapid Scan, if it crits that crit is nearly worthless, if it heals for 3030 instead of 3000 that is lost as well. Person is down at 3k hp, you throw a Rapid Scan, if it crits that is awesome but if it takes you a quarter of a second longer to get it off, that is a quarter of a second more time for the person to take extra damage and to die. There are of course infinite permutations to these issues about overhealing and about healing in time, but overall:

 

A smaller heal landed is INFINITELY stronger than a bigger heal too late

Overhealing happens, spiky heals or very big heals are not worth their face value

Burst healing combined with the above while not gimping overall healing = Win

And that, my friends, is what nearly two decades of MMORPG style gaming, mostly as healers, has taught me. To undervalue the big or randomly spiky (crits) heals, and to give extra value to controlled burst healing/time ability. While it means that especially surge is not worth it's face value, and also critical rating is not worth nearly as much, but also that even power suffers from the same issue. And, by definition, each and every thing that increases your healing sizes are not worth as much as their face value. Yes, that 1% extra healing is not actually 1% extra healing overall. Now granted, they do count for burst healing and overall healing, and burst healing counts for a lot, so we do want to get upgrades to all the stats. But alacrity is the burst king in stats, it does not gimp your overall healing (earlier mentioned 2.5% less overall healing in one healbot style healing cycle simulation), and compared to the other stats, alacrity does not suffer to the same extent from overhealing. If we take the 3 above postulations, we have a Win, Win and a Win, for alacrity. Best burst, best reactionary and least hit by overheals. Also anytime in a fight that healing needs calm down and you can cool off, that just reset the "overall healing & Death-By-Attrition" situation. Those situations happen plenty enough, and they dilute the worth of overall healing versus burst healing.

 

But but you will overheat and wipe

Ahh yes, since you can expend your resources faster, you may think it will cause more heat problems. Well that is of course both not true in one sense and true in another, but heat management is just as much a required skill with zero haste % as with 20+%. I think some people are used to dipping into the 40-60 heat range, but to truly excel, you must naturally avoid that zone at all costs. Learn to live that 1.5 seconds of Rapid Shots or Kolto Shell if there is no true emergency. So, the what, why, where and when tricks of heat management, also meaning optimizing overall healing done, I will go over some things per skill:

 

Kolto Shell:

Your best healing / time, though delayed, and never overheals really. If Kolto Shell has 4 or less procs left, there is no emergency anywhere, you have full gas and you could use a heat free breather, refresh it on the tank. If it is off, use it even if you are still building gas or have gas going and need a heatbreather.

 

Emergency Scan:

It actually has quite bad healing / time, so definitely use it for the heatfree cost factor. If there is overall even a mediocre amount of dmg spread around the raid, use it. Use it often and definitely use it to avoid 40+ heat zone. Even during super charged gas, or rather especially during supercharged gas since Rapid Shots won't build any charges then. Do NOT save this for "emergency" use, funnily enough though the name is what it is. Power Surge is a better "emergency while moving" button anyways.

 

Kolto Overload:

Taken damage yourself ? Don't forget this one, it does not use GCD time. Not to mention it is not that good for emergencies, so use it a bit more freely if there is raid dmg and strong healing needs.

 

Healing Scan:

Prioritize the tank, always, with this. Even if the tank is pretty high and there is raidwide dmg to heal, use it on the tank 1st, then rapid scan a low raid member. Having the heal over time part do its job increases the worth of Healing Scan nearly by 50%, and the armor buff is pure gravy. During SCG spam, you may start off with someone else more critical, but make sure to use it on the tank the first possible moment when nobody is very critical. If nobody is critical, your heat is very low and HS is off CD, even if the tank is maxed out just blow it on him. You'll get the proc ready and waiting, and the CD, HoT and armor buff ticking.

 

Rapid Scan:

Well it's the big heal, so not much to say. Just be careful to not jump over 40, even a second or two over 40 will plummet the worth of the heal due to lesser regen, so use a heatbreather before using it near 40 if there are no critical situations. During massive dmg situations without gas up, remember to use TSO on a Rapid Scan before hitting 40 heat.

 

Kolto Missile: (note tooltip broken on heal value)

This is mostly for the melee group or on the move. The small healing buff isn't worth it on a single target hit except rarely on tanks. Hitting a tank + 1 melee guy down some HP makes it kinda good enough though, but a 3rd person is required for it to be worth it straight up. Raid healing with it can be very tricky due to targeting being random, since you kinda need to be able to hit 3 people who are down HP for it to be worth it properly, so mostly save it for the tank&melee group. During SCG, throwing this the 1st thing on the melee group is a good practice due to the dmg reduction, and refreshing it in the end of gas a possibility if heat allows it to stay <40 (bit more rare, in critical situations with Vent Heat up should do it).

Rapid Shots:

Your basic heatbreather. When gas is not full and nobody down that much, give priority over even Emergency Scan. During gas and a critical situation, if you don't have Vent Heat, ES or TSO available, it is a judgement call on whether to go over 40 heat or scrape by throwing a Rapid Shots to get a heatbreather for another HS/RS combo while staying under 40 heat. Learn to love it to stay under 40, don't get into a habit of topping anybody up and jumping over 40 heat for even a second or two with Rapid Scan, and also if nobody is down much at all (<15%), and KS doesn't need refreshing, use it to chill down even further in heat. You never know when the next bad situation is coming.

 

Cure:

Unfortunately in PvE mostly useless, even with talent. Only a few places where it is useful at all sadly. In PvP of course a different story. Most all DoTs that can be cured give good "heal"/resource.

 

Supercharged Gas:

Not many realize it, but when the Stuff hits the fan and if you are already bit higher in heat, you should use a heatbreather if at all possible first so you can start off near 20-25 heat. At 21 if you pop gas, and start with Healing Scan, your HS shoots off about when you get 0 heat, so you have the maximum amount of heat & time to cycle through HS/RS. Always remember to cycle HS on different persons if at all possible, so if the tank is down a lot and raid damage elsewhere, (if melee group is nicely clustered KM them first), HS tank then depending on health levels use that RS on tank or someone critical. Then HS a raid member, RS tank, HS another raid member, RS tank. About now it will be a critical time for YOU to choose, overheat to 40+ or not? If Stuff is still badly in the Fan, time to continue, trying to aim a KM for the last second of gas for another melee group hit, or a HS to hit right near the end of gas so it won't go on CD, and then depending on situation Vent Heat or chill with heatbreathers. If the situation is salvaged somewhat, don't go over 40 even if that HS/RS combo lures you in strongly, use a heatbreather during gas and try staying under 40. Also if you are starting at or near zero heat during a Stuff-in-Fan situation, a KM+RS+ES or a RS+ES combo before popping gas works wonders. Of course if you have HS also up, a KM+HS+RS works even better. I myself still sometimes succumb to "STUFF!" and pop gas at too low heat, so be careful with that. Kolto Missile is usually usable in any Stuff-in-Fan situation beginning, luckily for those near zero heat situations.

 

Thermal Sensor Override:

The best time to use this is if you don't have gas up, things are hectic and you blow it on a Rapid Scan between HS/RS and Rapid Shots/Rapid Scans while staying under 40 heat. If Vent Heat is down, and you have gas up and things are really really Stuffy, it may be good idea to use it for a HS during the HS/RS cycle instead of a heatbreather. If the healing of the fight is not Jarg & Sorno solo HM tough, it is also a nice one for damage burst to combo it with Fusion Missile if you are bit higher in heat.

 

Power Surge:

Heat savings from Power Surge, wut? Yes, you should save this for Moving-while-low-heat situations to blow a Rapid Scan, to "save" heat by not wasting regen at zero. Examples are plenty, like Soa steps, Doggy lava jumping, etc., where there are prolonged movements in the fight.

 

Your utility skills:

Remember no dmg is the best heal? Any silver mobs around (and some golden ones), don't forget to use your 0 heat stuns and CC, also Jet Boost vs melee guys can actually be a very good "heal"/resource. And yeah, Energy Shield as well, naturally. Chaff Flare should not be forgotton after a few heals during pulls.

 

Pewpew?

Damage is actually quite simple with the talent choices made. Death from Above is quite simply put #1 dmg skill, even on a single target. It pumps out massive damage/time for a very low cost. Fusion Missile is the best damage/time by far, but it costs an awful awful lot, so only use in situations where heat is not an issue (either you can chill down after with 0 cost power shots, or you use TSO on it). After those two, 0 cost gassed Power Shot is where it is at. If you need to regen more, first skip FM or even both DfA and FM and just PS through the gas. If you start near zero heat, a KM+HS on tank/melee group before popping gas and starting off with DfA right after, then TSO+FM or some PS before a FM, and some more PS to cool off. Also if at any point during SCG the healing situation ends, remember you can throw out a 0 heat cost Power Shot on someone.

 

The rest of the attack skills are rarely used. While Unload does eke out past Power Shot in a heatneutral comparison in non-gas situation, you can build some gas points with the PS+Rapid Shots combo, as well as Unload being prepaid may suffer from a need to interrupt + emergency heal. So even Unload is arguably worse than PS, because we do want to build gas if it is not built up. The times I have used Shoulder Slam in operations is unfortunately zero, besides it is not even as good dmg / time than Power Shot with haste. Rail Shot and Rocket Punch are on-the-move skills only.

 

For area damage, aside DfA/FM which rule supreme in general or in damage/time respectively, Flame Thrower with endgame gear and 2+ targets gets nice, or Explosive Dart with 3 targets. Unfortunately, both are very tricky to pull of reliably. Explosive Dart 2 targets is arguably useful, but I'd say only if you have full gas ready and Rapid Shots is not useful in that regard. Flame Thrower is unfortunately buggy (IMHO), the channel time is not reduced by haste, so it has the chance of targets moving out of it. It is quite okay even with 2 targets though. Sweeping Blasters does pump out damage at 3+ targets, and is useful then if you can afford the big heat cost per use. It is not useful at 2 targets.

 

Don't forget utility from damage abilities either. Dart + Missile Blast + Unload and you can daze 2 normal mobs for a while. That is about the only use for Missile Blast.

 

Gear?

Get the 2 and 4 piece set bonuses ASAP with commendations if need be, of course. Otherwise, just get the medic designed items, their itemization is just fine mostly. Relics can be used for either power or alacrity (if your haste is still quite low), as well as adrenal. While "boring", you can also use the healproc relic and datacron relic so you don't have to worry about CD usages that much. Crafted gear of Supremacy and Vehemence are good ones, of course make sure you get the ones made of the medic base item. In my experience so far, there has not really been much need to switch mods/enhancements, though due to my 69 crit implants I wouldn't mind losing some crit for some more power/alacrity.

 

Numbers or didn't happen!

"Combined" means used with Rapid Shots for heat-neutral end result at >0 <40 5regen/sec state. It is not the "best" stat to sort by, but useful. Kolto Missile tooltip appears to be broken, I think it might not be showing the +20% from the talent (dual bonus talent so guess it might be why it is "special case"), it shows way too little healing in the tooltip compared to actual. I have used a +20% from tooltip value. Note that things that increase overall healing with percentages do not change the relative value of heals. These stats are with my PvE set on. The "mod" values are overall effect of crit/surge. For comparison purposes I threw in Power Shot with 9% haste and power instead (565 is the actual, 419 interpolated).

 

[size="1"]Name	              Avg	Cost	Time	/resource	/time	/comb	netheat		Dmg mod		              Crit	38,86
Kolto Shell	3375	0	1,5	Free	2250	Free	-7,5		126,14%			              Surge	67,26
Emergency Scan	1863	0	1,5	Free	1242	Free	-7,5		Heal mod			              HealSrg	82,26
Rapid Shots	528	0	1,5	Free	352	Free	-7,5		131,97%			              Haste	16,1
Kolto Overload	2756,25	0	0	Free	Free	Free	0					              + proc	21,1
Rapid Scan post-HS	2379	9	1,58	264,33	1505,7	1364,69	1,1					              Alacrity	419
Kolto Missile x3	2511	16	1,5	156,94	1674	971,69	8,5					              is haste	12,10%
Healing Scan + HoT	2266	16	1,18	141,63	1920,34	930,33	10,1					              565p	80,8 +heal
Healing Scan	1697	16	1,18	106,06	1438,14	752,51	10,1					              output speed	
Rapid Scan	2379	25	1,58	95,16	1505,7	716,57	17,1					21,1% vs 9%	1,15
Kolto Missile x2	1674	16	1,5	104,63	1116	710,13	8,5						
Kolto Missile	837	16	1,5	52,31	558	448,56	8,5						



Power Shot SCG	2069	0	1,18	Free	1753,39	Free	-5,9						
PS SCG +565pwr	2219,5	0	1,37	Free	1626,01	Free	-6,83						
PS SCG +419pwr	2180	0	1,37	Free	1597,07	Free	-6,83						
Shoulder Slam	2138,5	0	1,5	Free	1425,67	Free	-7,5						
Rapid Shots	980	0	1,5	Free	653,33	Free	-7,5						
Flame Thrower x3	8241	25	3	329,64	2747	1808,2	10						
Unload SCG	3091,5	8	2,37	386,44	1304,43	1739,69	-3,85		daze				
Explosive Dart x3	4588,5	16	1,5	286,78	3059	1646,41	8,5	x3	daze				
Flame Thrower x2	5494	25	3	219,76	1831,33	1258,8	10						
SBlasters x3	6061,5	33	2,37	183,68	2557,59	1174,77	21,15	x5	knock				
Explosive Dart x2	3059	16	1,5	191,19	2039,33	1168,44	8,5	x3	daze				
Death from Above	4764,5	25	2,37	190,58	2010,34	1163,3	13,15		knockdown				
Unload	              3091,5	16	2,37	193,22	1304,43	1069,84	4,15		daze				
Power Shot	2069	16	1,18	129,31	1753,39	899,06	10,1						
SBlasters x2	4041	33	2,37	122,45	1705,06	868,64	21,15	x5	knock				
Fusion Missile	2903,5	33	1,18	87,98	2460,59	768,41	27,1	x3	daze				
Rocket Punch	1736	16	1,5	108,5	1157,33	755	8,5						
Rail Shot               1712	16	1,5	107	1141,33	747,5	8,5						
Flame Thrower	2747	25	3	109,88	915,67	709,4	10						
Explosive Dart	1529,5	16	1,5	95,59	1019,67	690,47	8,5	x3	daze				
Sweeping Blasters	2020,5	33	2,37	61,23	852,53	562,5	21,15	x5	knock				
Missile Blast	1184	25	1,5	47,36	789,33	516,8	17,5		daze				
Jet Boost	              376,5	8	1,5	47,06	251	260,31	0,5	x5	knock+slow				
[/size]

Edited March 2, 2012 by Ewert

[Brakner]

From all the RuQu post’s I have read he recommends not to go above 7.5% Alacrity in PVE. From what I have read here you recommend as much Alacrity as possible, its this just for PvP?

 

With full Rakata and those 2 Alacrity talents a Merc would be sitting at 17% + Alacrity

 

 

P.S. I am 100% firm believer in Muzzle Fluting and DPS with and without SG. I have respec in and out of it many times changing my build and I have noticed a huge difference in how fast we kill things with it. (Sith Entity , Kaon Bonus boss)

[Ewert]

From all the RuQu post’s I have read he recommends not to go above 7.5% Alacrity in PVE. From what I have read here you recommend as much Alacrity as possible, its this just for PvP?

You have to understand the difference between healbotting a healing dummy that never gets overheals nor has interruptions / movement / target switching, and ingame situations. Alacrity is the best burst & reaction stat, while also upgrading overall healing quite close to power from the extra Rapid Shots possible.

 

Lets just say 7.5% alacrity just is gimping your reaction time window ...

 

I don't usually "recommend" anything, just write/speak out what I think and let the reader/listener think for themselves based on that. Personally I wish I had less surge for more power, and wouldn't mind swapping some of my crit for more power. I feel quite comfortable with my 21%ish haste. Would have to do some math to check exact values may do that later.

[TempestasSilva]

1) Thanks for this. I know you were already planning on this before I asked, but it's still appreciated.

2) This made me litterally laugh out loud: "zillions of trash pulls done while tank eats muffins with one hand"

3) This did too: "oh my god, we are healbots not dps, roll a dps if you want dps!" I don't want to start that again especially in your thread, but you can still DPS w/o MF. However, I get that a) it allows you to add in a Fusion Missile, and b) with as much haste as you have, you are getting of more power shots during SCG, so w/o MF you are gaining heat not heat neutral/dissipating.

4) When you refer to 21% (activation speed increase) are you including Critical Reaction, or do you typically really have anout 26%?

5) Obviously part of your ability to heal HM ops solo has to do with your gear and the gear of your crew which gives you better heals, and them more hitpoints, DR, etc. Another part is the experience of you and your crew. I.E., we are just starting HM KP and not only does my crew like to bunch up after about 1/2 through the fight on Bony and have like 3 to 4 people take a swipe, but I frequently go over 40 heat by a bit and find myself cursing. So, it would be easier for you to heal HM ops than me, however it is still an accomplishment IMO. Do you have any tricks for specific bosses that you could share with myself and the rest of the community?

[TempestasSilva]

From all the RuQu post’s I have read he recommends not to go above 7.5% Alacrity in PVE. From what I have read here you recommend as much Alacrity as possible, its this just for PvP?

 

I think the point to make is that both could be valid, it depends on your assumptions.

 

If we had combat logs and parsers, we could get a much better Idea of where reality lies because you'd have the tools to properly analyze it. You could run a fight several times in one set of gear, then swap gear, run it again several times, and have some real data to make a decision on.

 

Unfortunately, as much as Ewert has tried to provide numbers, a lot of his work is really "feel" not math. But its hard to argue with the results. On the flipside, RuQu has lots of math to back up his theories, but he uses almost a DPS style model to do so. In other words, if you were casting constantly over a 5 minute fight, then RuQus math is spot on. Reality is that while DPS is like a drag race, healing is like waves with many peaks and troughs. Spike damage comes and its a drag race, but then once you have people close to topped off you relax and may only heal intermittently until the next spike.

 

Who is right? Hard to tell without the right tools, probably both are depending on the specific situation/boss fight, etc.

 

Edit: And most importantly, what is right for you based your gear, style, raid comp, experience, ability, etc. There is no magic answer, just better and better data to help you form an opinion.

Edited March 2, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[Ewert]

4) When you refer to 21% (activation speed increase) are you including Critical Reaction, or do you typically really have anout 26%?

In the side of stats there are the values, and yep 21% is the proc included value.

5) Obviously part of your ability to heal HM ops solo has to do with your gear and the gear of your crew which gives you better heals, and them more hitpoints, DR, etc. Another part is the experience of you and your crew. I.E., we are just starting HM KP and not only does my crew like to bunch up after about 1/2 through the fight on Bony and have like 3 to 4 people take a swipe, but I frequently go over 40 heat by a bit and find myself cursing. So, it would be easier for you to heal HM ops than me, however it is still an accomplishment IMO. Do you have any tricks for specific bosses that you could share with myself and the rest of the community?

Well Boney hardmode, IMHO, everybody but melee should just stand still and eat the Stuff. Split into 2+2+2+2, so that swipes always hit 2 and nearly never 3+. Bursts kill the bigger they are, 2 target swipes are easily handled, couple of 3+ person ones not so. Spread out in 120 degrees apart pairs, and the melee have to be on their game so they don't turn Boney into swiping also the pair they are near. Pair up a hard target with a soft target, for example your toughest merc with your weakest sorc, so you even out the risk in each pair.

 

Later on when you have people more experienced (like checking his target with assist button to make sure which one of the pair it is), the other one can run behind him and return instantly he turns away, but it is not required even with solo heals, so with 2 healers absolutely not required.

 

If you have two healers, you can either put them together or split them, both seem to work. If you have solo healer, then he really should be alone so he does not have to worry about himself that often (8 targets, if you are alone = 1/8 chance of Bony on you, if someone is near = 1/4 chances). Then it is more 1+2+1+2+2 split.

 

Oh and stand far enough from the edge, hahaha. =P It is surprisingly far you have to stand. Almost double the "outer edge". But running people means lost dps which means enrage may happen before you down him if your gear/dps guys are not top notch. So, don't run. At all. I literally sometimes don't move an inch during the fight, unless someone goes to opposite edge out of range of heals for too long.

 

I usually end up cc'ing one of the dogs as they tend to beeline for me anyways, so I am the first to see if one is loose.

 

Boney is bit of a rng fight, sometimes I can throw power shots, sometimes not, very very random. But if you tell the rangeds people to sit still and not move an inch from their spots, and the melee always are at his back (not near his side), you will most likely get rid of the 3+ swipes.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Ewert

[DomingoDarkrage]

awesome post. I really like how you make a solid effort to inform people that crit/surge doesnt = the scaled healing we would expect from tooltips, due to overhealing. Your points about alacrity making heals land faster, as well as focusing on expected healing output (less reliance on luck to crit for surge bonus) is quite valid. I used to run the 21% alacrity but i felt that my heals were substandard and wanted larger healing. I forgot that larger healing comes with a price (over heals, less casts, slower), so I may dip back into the alacrity build.

 

I've never tried solo healing a HM, though i've had to when our sorc healer dropped during the first boss of EV. If that is something you can do on a usual basis, thats pretty awesome and exciting.

 

How do you solo heal the twins in KP, that seems impossible

 

As a side, do you know what heat value you should be at, when using SPG power shot spam (with muzzle fluting) to end up at 0 heat once SPG drops? Assume 4 piece PVE gear for the longer SPG time. Quick math says 71 if you only power shot spam during spg, but I'm not specced to practice it in game.

[Ewert]

I've never tried solo healing a HM, though i've had to when our sorc healer dropped during the first boss of EV. If that is something you can do on a usual basis, thats pretty awesome and exciting.

Cleared both EV and KP a couple weeks in row solo. Now the reason for it was simply no other healer on, our guild lost some keyplayers to real life stuff so we are kinda struggling for players atm and no real effort to pick up more people either.

 

How do you solo heal the twins in KP, that seems impossible

It is insane I'll grant you that, single dip into 40+ can wipe you. =P It is _easily_ the toughest fight to heal solo, no questions asked. We did one-shot them last week though, so I'd say it is not a RNG fight like Boney. Just insanely hard on a solo healer. Due to the cramped play area, I'm sure it could be easier with sorc probably with their AoE heal. Running the numbers on Kolto Missile makes me a sad panda, I mean merc ... Actually rethinking the insane amount of movement also required in that fight, I'm not sure if sorcs would have any easier time. Tough fight no matter what. All I can say is don't try without high haste, the movement required is so commonplace event in that fight that those 0.2sec extra times for casting stuff really matter.

 

As a side, do you know what heat value you should be at, when using SPG power shot spam (with muzzle fluting) to end up at 0 heat once SPG drops? Assume 4 piece PVE gear for the longer SPG time. Quick math says 71 if you only power shot spam during spg, but I'm not specced to practice it in game.

Well the math would depend on your alacrity of course, but generally going past 56 heat before popping SCG is not a good idea. The less time >40 the better, considering heat neutrality it seems the 3/sec regen rate drops your healing around 20-25% with my gear level depending on which heal you compare.

 

If we think of the other way, how high should your last Rapid Scan take you if you need it for your Gas to get to 30, then if we start it at 40, on end of cast we have regened "8" (5 or 10), so 40-10+25 = 55 (or 60), which funnily enough drops you to 39 (or 44). So to be safe if you have high haste, start your "final gas points Rapid Scan without HS proc" at 36 heat. Then proc, PS till 15 heat (3 or 4 shots depending on haste), DfA and PS the rest. If you got the low start of 35 heat on your cycle instead of 40, you should probably use a healing scan or kolto missile as your last ability to avoid 0 heat regen time.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Ewert

[SheepishOne]

I'm still not a fan of taking all the alacrity talents in endgame. The ~20% (with crit reaction) on T2/T3 sets & 4 talent points is just wasteful for a couple of reasons:

 

-Just one point in Critical Reaction will save you 3 talent points and only be a loss of 4% alacrity--it will always be up in a build with some crit in it.

 

-The difference of casting time in your heals between the crit/surge routes (7.5->11->16.5) vs. 20%+ doesn't seem tempting. It's not worth missing the thresholds for your other stats. If you can do both, great. You are, however, just trading the cast time at a point when the extra healing you're getting is less powerful than what other stats could offer in the same place.

 

-BH's already have access to some of the quickest heals and reactionary abilities. I wouldn't say we're hurting for fast casts.

 

-Overhealing vs. Underhealing is a tricky debate. I could easily say Overhealing is infinitely more preferable than underhealing given the BH energy budget and ease of itemization. If you overheal, you can heal someone else with the next heal in the rotation. If you underheal, you need to heal that person again and/or leave them and others vulnerable to death. This is very critical in NM level healing, where there are encounters that require people to be almost full life at all times. e.g. The Jarg and Sorno fight can easily deal 18-20k damage every railshot. That leaves a small window of HP that needs to be topped off constantly.

 

-PvE doesn't really require reactionary healing; it isn't exceedingly chaotic in its damage distribution like PvP. Alacrity lets you cast faster, but a healthy crit/surge can mean you cast less.

 

I'm not saying alacrity is bad, but it shouldn't be stressed over all other stats. Not when they're all so accessible. I have run with both 20%+ alacrity builds and crit/surge builds. I stick with my crit surge since it keeps me at 16% alacrity, and I get stronger crits more often with the option of 50% crit rate for up to 35 seconds. Most of the differences between endgame players just comes down to a few talent points, relics/adrenals, and a couple of 140 gear inserts anyways. This is a nice guide, and I'd recommend it to new players.

[Ewert]

I'm still not a fan of taking all the alacrity talents in endgame. The ~20% (with crit reaction) on T2/T3 sets & 4 talent points is just wasteful for a couple of reasons:

 

-Just one point in Critical Reaction will save you 3 talent points and only be a loss of 4% alacrity--it will always be up in a build with some crit in it.

 

-The difference of casting time in your heals between the crit/surge routes (7.5->11->16.5) vs. 20%+ doesn't seem tempting. It's not worth missing the thresholds for your other stats. If you can do both, great. You are, however, just trading the cast time at a point when the extra healing you're getting is less powerful than what other stats could offer in the same place.

 

-BH's already have access to some of the quickest heals and reactionary abilities. I wouldn't say we're hurting for fast casts.

Did you actually read my post with thought? Most answers to these are in there:

The more static bonus% you have, the stronger your alacrity rating becomes due to the inverse nature of haste. If you don't understand this, read this carefully: You have 12% haste from alacrity rating. Your cast time is 88%. In 100 units of time you will do 1/0.88 more casts than with 0% haste = 13.6% more output. Then you have 12% haste from alacrity and 9% haste from talents. Your cast time is 79%. In 100 units of time you will do 1/0.79 = 26.6% more output than with 0% haste. 26.6% - 10% (what 9% actually is in output) = 16.6%. Not only did you get 9% more haste and a LOT more reaction times and just MASSIVE upgrade to burst healing, you also just upgraded your alacritys worth by 22%.

 

That is why "static bonuses boost the value of your alacrity", and why the post clearly says you take each haste talents possible, to pump out your alacrity ratings worth even more. Now arguably taking 2 or 1 points in the haste proc is a valid question, as especially rapid shots kinda makes it stay up near-always even with 1 point. But do NOT skip the 4% talent.

 

As for the other comments, re-read the original post, there are IMHO clear explanations about the "why"s. Just because we have the best healset for single targets does not mean that we should not use the best way to increase burst healing value while not gimping overall healing in the process...

 

-Overhealing vs. Underhealing is a tricky debate. I could easily say Overhealing is infinitely more preferable than underhealing given the BH energy budget and ease of itemization. If you overheal, you can heal someone else with the next heal in the rotation. If you underheal, you need to heal that person again and/or leave them and others vulnerable to death. This is very critical in NM level healing, where there are encounters that require people to be almost full life at all times. e.g. The Jarg and Sorno fight can easily deal 18-20k damage every railshot. That leaves a small window of HP that needs to be topped off constantly.

 

It's not a case of over vs UNDERhealing, but over vs. too-late-healing. If you overheal, that heat was lost, period, you can't pass it over to someone else. As for the "underhealing", the difference between topped off and alacrity rating vs. power/crit/surge values just is not that big. It's in the range of 4-7% on a heal, and even if we take "worst case scenario" of insane alacrity vs. insane power, and use the 7% figure, one rapid shot will fill up the difference in 10 000 hitpoints of healing. Thus, there is no chance at all that the difference between alacrity heavy and alacrity minimized builds will "underheal" for more than 1 rapid shots difference. That overheal will be lost on the topping up phase, and more of it the bigger your heals are, while "underhealing" will be just perfect for the Rapid Shots you can use because you are casting much faster and more time to do stuff.

 

-PvE doesn't really require reactionary healing; it isn't exceedingly chaotic in its damage distribution like PvP. Alacrity lets you cast faster, but a healthy crit/surge can mean you cast less.

You missed printing a massive "IMHO" in there. Lets just say, IMHO, you are very wrong. Raid damage is inherently chaotic, as they are usually totally random. Your crit/surge comment is made invalid if you play your aforementioned "need to top up people", since those crit/surge values are totally wasted on each and every heal where people are missing only 2-3k hitpoints. You definitely should NOT stack crit/surge, go for power, it's just better anyway you dice it than crit/surge. Now if you had said stack crit, and use a crit/surge relic + crit adrenal, then it would not be as bad, but if you go for any surge you should absolutely not use a crit/surge relic.

 

Also you forgot lots of what was mentioned in the original post, that being movement. Jarg & Sorno, which you took as example bit earlier, is full of avoid Stuff on the ground, or avoiding incoming point blank AoE, etc... Would also help if you mention are you talking of 16man or 8man with those 20k railshots (only the tank can take 20k railshots regularly and live anyways)

 

I'm not saying alacrity is bad, but it shouldn't be stressed over all other stats. Not when they're all so accessible. I have run with both 20%+ alacrity builds and crit/surge builds. I stick with my crit surge since it keeps me at 16% alacrity, and I get stronger crits more often with the option of 50% crit rate for up to 35 seconds. Most of the differences between endgame players just comes down to a few talent points, relics/adrenals, and a couple of 140 gear inserts anyways. This is a nice guide, and I'd recommend it to new players.

Well actually implants and earpieces have quite a lot of choices in them. I have 69/69 crit/alacrity with augment slots (aim, but if you really wanted to stack a stat you could with lots of +28 augment slots). You could also get mastercrafted belts and bracers too.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Ewert

[Ewert]

Oh man, it seems that with different resolutions and text sizes, the code /code gets all screwy and it does not format it properly how I did it originally in my own computer screen. =P

 

Anyways you can see pertinent stats there scrolling to the right. Taking a wild guess, if you get 50% crit and 90% healing surge (+15% talents 75% base) with all your procs up, that is a healcritmod of 1.45, mine with minimal surge and okay crit is 1.32. Ignoring the possibility that you probably have higher base crit and surge than me (and thus the difference is actually even less from your adrenal/relic boosts), that is only a 10% increase of healing values from your adrenal+relic. If your healcritmod is 1.34 baseline (easily could be that if you have more crit/surge than I) and 1.45 with boosts up (surge being nerfed badly in the DR I don't think you would have much higher), then the difference would be 8%.

 

Just the single +power adrenal nets me over 8% IIRC (at work don't have my bodyguard spreadsheet available to check), and combined with relic +power there is just no mathematical chance at all that you would heal more with crit+crit/surge than with power+power. Lure of the big numbers I call it often ... they looks sooo tasty, no matter you are actually doing overall less.

 

If you were a DPS, it wouldn't be double-whammied, as overdamaging does not happen, but overhealing does...

[beefgoodness]

Bumping this post back up for more views. Wonderfully written post with numbers and practiced theory to back it up.

[FriskyMonkey]

Great read. Thanks for this. Currently our guild is running double sorc healers for our Hard/Nightmares (double Revivs is fun for topping off the raid during the falling stairs lol) but utility is lacking...We've been doing great, but some different mitigation abilities thrown in there would be more ideal.

 

I already had a Merc around level 43 that will be finished off for next weeks raids and trying to absorb as many opinions as possible and this opinion on Alacrity is actually making me double think some of the choices I've gone with on my Sorc especially since his rotation is literally 100% force neutral popping them off quicker seems to be by far the better choice (Although the CD on Innervate might hamstring it slightly). Going to try and change up some of his enhancements this evening for this week's raid.

 

Thanks a bunch!

[Ewert]

Due to a guild change, I was able to go through nightmare modes of all the fights. Same spec, EV with a sorc and KP with Ops healer, as well as Soa with ops too (damn bug wipes).

 

The difference between hm solo and nm with two healers was night and day. Solo hardmode is massively harder.

 

Based on those runs, admittedly done with geared and experienced players, I strongly advice going for alacrity. At all fights but Jarg n Sorno there were multiple points of healing lull times allowing for heat dissipation and thus the reset of Death-by-attrition. I actually did not use vent heat probably more than 4-5 times total combined for both operations all bossfights. I am even contemplating on changing my aim augments to alacrity augs. That's real game versus healbotting requirements and usefulness differences!

 

Also since currently the hardest but still viable healing fights are solo hardmode and especially Jarg n Sorno hm, I feel confident in saying that alacrity may just be the best stat to stack. Only ONE single boss doesn't get much extra dps/reaction time use out of it, Foreman, since you should save gas for the frenzy and thus can't do dps cycles with gas. Though tbh pretty sure that if you have proper gear and tanks it doesn't matter and you could dps with gas, will try next time.

[Daiyukie]

I am speechless before the amount of information contained herein as well as the high-level experience. Field-testing is always more critical and telling than lab tests.

[TempestasSilva]

OK Ewert,

 

I tried your spec and switched my gear so that with Critical Reaction up, I was @ 22% Activation speed increase making my rapid Scan 1.6 seconds and my healing scan like 1.2 I think. I did EV & KP Normal and EV HM. The previous week, we did the same content and I had about 7% and had no points in either alacrity skill. All of the following is based on "feel"

1) Muzzle Fluting still doesnt wow me, but I dont pvp so I get zero use out of the point in cure anyway

2) On content that is already easy it feels better.

3) Content that was bursty but doable before like stacking for missiles on Annihilator was much easier.

4) Only one boss - Fabricator normal is ever truely hard because we only use a BH tank so he has -160% armor for the whole fight. I usually have problems with heat because I am casting the whole fight and using CDs as they become available. Usually there are several "close calls" or times I am spamming rapid shots hoping ES comes off CD or my heat drops enough that I can risk a RS. This week we couldn't do it and had to have a Juggernaut DPS taunt to drop the stacks. I was heat locked more and kept losing the tank. Now maybe something else changed in the fight that I didnt account for and its a really small sample size.

 

So on the whole its better, and based on my experience/gear/crew I like it better once we altered Fab's strat.

 

However it leads me to believe that less geared and experienced people may have more heat issues.

Edited March 9, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[The_Duck]

Is torhead bugged? I cannot seem to get those build pages displayed.

just a blank page

 

** had to JOIN torhead and the build showed **

 

 

GREAT THREAD!!

Edited March 9, 2012 by The_Duck

[Yazule]

Sticky this thread

[Ewert]

4) Only one boss - Fabricator normal is ever truely hard because we only use a BH tank so he has -160% armor for the whole fight. I usually have problems with heat because I am casting the whole fight and using CDs as they become available. Usually there are several "close calls" or times I am spamming rapid shots hoping ES comes off CD or my heat drops enough that I can risk a RS. This week we couldn't do it and had to have a Juggernaut DPS taunt to drop the stacks. I was heat locked more and kept losing the tank. Now maybe something else changed in the fight that I didnt account for and its a really small sample size.

Didn't much think of fabricator, never felt hard for us to be honest. Had a sith assassin tank so maybe they have it easier than powertechs.

 

But naturally that tank swap to clear stacks is a nobrainer if you have troubles of healing through the full stacks.

[Ewert]

Couple of updates.

 

As the above poster about fabricator, did an alt run a bit ago where with no tank switch and lower geared tank I noticed that it really is very healing intensive, and couple of unlucky stun drones later even a wipe as a solo healer downstairs on _normal_ mode. So yeah, definitely do a tank switch if possible, though two healers should be able to do it too (one of the top floor guys should be a dps guy with heals). I now have no clue what my old guild tank did since we had only 1 assassin, zero jug zero pt in our raids, but I reckon that was just having top end tanking gear which makes it solo healable in HM.

 

I did the alt run for fortitude stim, which is more useful for NM Soa, and also alacrity adrenal. I can now hit 32.98% (doh!) haste during max burst, and let me say it is insane. =P 1 second HS, faster RS than some people have HS, or 1s Power Shots and DFA/FM damage per second just insane. Best healer spec ever for Soa 3rd phase, there are so many interruptions and lots of movement there and the requirement for dps burn too.

 

Unfortunately 1.2 looms in the horizon, and on initial analysis it will hurt this alacrity heavy style in overall hps as well as lessen the burst length massively for healing. With current live version, 33% seems to be really the max you should aim for with relic+adr, and tbh it requires pretty much everything, since with 33% you can burst all the way to 100 heat during SCG. =P Gives you a just insane SCG+vent heat burst possibility though, or DPS bursts.

 

With current changes, there will be an approx 10% dps nerf to bodyguard burst (from power shot changes), and as I said burst healing length will be massively gimpy compared to now, if no changes happen, as well as being weaker too. I'd love if Rapid Shots was made a channel-while-moving ability, so that alacrity hastens it up, but there is near zero chance of that. The real hope I have is that they would revert the heat changes, and just nerf Rapid Scan down a little bit more, no sense in gutting our mechanics into dummy-mode.

[TempestasSilva]

About Fabricator...the difficulty varies by tank type. When we have have a BH tank, it is a LOT harder to heal with a single tank vs when we have an Assassin tank. Using a DPS Juggernaut to taunt and drop the stacks made the encounter trivial with the BH tank. Now in 16H, we even had to have the assassin tank do a swap.

 

I am now in full comluni w/ 2 Rakata pieces. Healing Normal modes even in 16 man which is inexpicably harder than 8 is pretty trivial. As such, I LOVE having a 1.56 second Rapid Scan. No more people dieing becase they were at 1/2 health and I didn't get the heal off in time.

 

Hardmodes...without comabt logs I really can't tell whether I am more effective or if it is simply more fun.

 

I really don't understand why Mercs had to be nerfed using heat. They could have raised the required SCG charges to 45 or maybe even 60 to make it more of a CD mechanic. They could have reduced a couple of coefficints, etc. Messing with our heat jsut sucks.

 

And if I have to go back to a 1.9 second Rapid Scan, that will suck too.

 

At any rate especially with good gear vs content high alacrity is good currently.