PVE BG Healing 1.2 Numbers and rotations.

[TempestasSilva]

So last night we did Toth and Zorn 8-man story mode. We killed them twice but both time didn't have enough people alive to take out their "Handler" so we wiped.

 

I was running the new combat log and MOX Raid Meters (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=394608)

It worked really well. It does not have over healing though.

 

On my best attempt, I was just over 1k hps. My worst was a little over 700 hps. My average for the night was about 870.

 

I was using a "rotation" and I play with everything hot keyed and I had just switched some, so I was not doing my best. I also did not work in Emergency scan enough.

 

The basic rotation I used was HS RS KM RPS RPS. (RS=Rapid Scan, RPS = Rapid Sots)

 

Kolto Shell - I put it on at the beginning of the fight and only hit it again if I was at 0 heat and no one needed healing.

 

Supercharged Gas - HS RS spam would cause heatlock, so I continued my standard rotation popping SCG just before KM. You give up 3% healing to get a temporary 5% then have to rebuild the 3% after making that bonus at best 2% and really worse because you start back at 0% after while you rebuild your stacks. The only real benefit is the 5% DR on KM and it vents a little heat. So I really didn't use it that much.

 

Other than using Emergency scan instead of RPS when available, anyone have suggestions on improvements? I though I had seen some rotations, but couldn't find them when I wen looking.

 

 

(For perspective, I am in 1/2 Columni - 1/2 Rakata. My guild is has not beat SOA in HM, but regularly beat all other bosses in 8man HM in EV & KP)

[DomingoDarkrage]

We did the big twins last night on normal mode, also wiping to that handler. Eventually we got past him though. Fun OP

 

I'm still working on my healing rotation, which pretty much adds in a rapid shots after every single heal I do. If not a rapid shot, E-scan or using thermal sensor override. I still found myself high on heat, though probably due to the insane amounts of AE damage possible. Once we got a strat working, i wasn't overheating as often, and heat was managed ok using rapid shots all over the place.

 

It will take some time, but I do not mind rapid shots. My new strategy is just popping supercharge whenever it is up, and I am above 20 heat. I no longer see the usefulness of supercharge as the sheild to kolto missile, as 5% isn't that much (it is nice though). Now supercharge is mainly for the heat release imo, and with these changes, I'm going to want to vent heat more often with it (possible wearing PVP armor mods so it lasts less long, so it can be used more often)

 

tl;dr. Got to spend more time figuring this out, but I'm enjoying the new changes. Except the silly sound kolto shell now makes. Whats up with that?

[Broncomen]

I am normally one of our main dps for progression and raids. I have full rakata for dps, and legs and chest rakata the rest of my healing gear is columi. I use my rakata wepons for healing also.

 

Being the Bounty Hunter I am (knowing as much of the small details i can on my class) I was told to respec for healing for this instance.

 

The only issue we had with the first boss was positioning and not getting debuffs ect. I had some trouble with heat but we cleared the first boss with only one person in my heal group to die. I think he died to aoe and I didnt have time to in combat res him.

 

The next boss the..2 tanks was more intensive. I first started on the flame tank side...but had problems avoiding lightning colums and keeping people alive. I then moved to the other tank...cant remember name and didnt have much problems there...although heat was a major issue and I had to vent and spam rapid shots alot. Everytime the dps on my side had to take the debuff I just watched them come back around to my side of the tank and I dropped kolto missle.

 

Basically the rotation I use is I spam rapid shots the entire time and will throw in rapid scan or emerg scan ect on critical times with tanks or dps. I have a sorc dps in my heal group that draw a hella lot of aggro even after dumping. When doing trash pulls I coordinate with my sorc healer and he puddles the melee and i constantly drop kolto missle on ranged group. I also throw on shell to the tank before we go in and will throw it on during the fight if i can get to it and not over heated.

 

Saying this, everyone in my progression raid group is full rakatta except for me and the sorc healer. In my personal opinion as far as merc healing goes...if they keep the heat issues with us they need to increase the rapid shot heals or make rapid scan on the move or something. With the mechanics of this game we have to constantly run to avoid aoe...and rapid shots and emergency scan does not put out quite enough heals for damage taken.

 

All in all though yes heat is a big issue...and if everything is not timed right you will wipe very easy. I like challenges but I think the heat increase is gonna hurt pve progression. I agree it was prolly needed for pvp, but pve is very difficult with the heat and having to be mobile because of aoe and healing 4 to 8 people.

 

Just my opinions on the current healing.

 

Again I dont claim to be a master merc healer, my primary role is arsenal, although I know my class well enough to do any role I am requested.

[Ivoes]

I have to say, I'm a little confused about heat issues...maybe I just don't have my gear set up right (in pretty much full Tionese at this point, with a columni earpiece and rakata implants), but what little I was able to play yesterday, I wasn't having any heat issues, unless I spammed Healing Scan during my SCG activation.

 

Now, mind you, this is based only off the following: Trying out the new FP with some guildies, running the Bel dailies with pretty much the same group, doing a Correllia Daily run with 2 non-guild friends (PT's Blizz was our fourth for the Heroic) and a HM Kaon run.

 

Only difficulties I had were more operator error then anything caused by the patch (Except maybe the second boss from the new FP...from what I've been hearing, you need 3 interrupt's to keep his thunderdome's from being littered all over the floor); The Kaon run happened around midnight CST, so I at least was starting to drag after my day.

 

 

As for the rotation I've been using...pretty much spamming Rapid Shots, and tossing out healing scan on the tank for the armor buff, and using my other heals as needed on group members; I tend to be OCD about keeping everyone topped off, so maybe a lack of DPS affected my heat level as well? Either way, I'm of the opinion that 1.2 didn't hit us as hard as some think...though I'll probably have a better idea after Saturday and Tuesday, once I've done some Ops runs in-guild.

[Tepy]

I have to say, I'm a little confused about heat issues...maybe I just don't have my gear set up right (in pretty much full Tionese at this point, with a columni earpiece and rakata implants), but what little I was able to play yesterday, I wasn't having any heat issues, unless I spammed Healing Scan during my SCG activation.

 

The heat issues everyone is talking about is the usual bread and butter we used to have of doing a healing scan followed by a rapid scan and where, before, those together would only generate 24 heat and now they generate 32, making it pretty much impossible to go through an SCG without rapidshotting like I used to be able to do.

 

Like most others, I now find myself using rapid shots just about after every heal which isn't terrible, but eventually I'll need to rapid shot more than once in a row, during that time the amount of healing being done is extremely low for an order of at least 4.5 seconds which is easily enough time to kill a tank in the new hardmodes.

[Tepy]

Other than using Emergency scan instead of RPS when available, anyone have suggestions on improvements? I though I had seen some rotations, but couldn't find them when I wen looking.

 

My best advice for you is to be smart with your heat. in essence, you want to rapid shot whenever you are over 20 heat is the new rotation. you still want to do rapid scan following healing scan, and kolto missle after SCG pop if multiple people are damaged or incoming damage is on the way for the raid, but besides that, you want to keep your normal rapid shotting going during SCG.

 

If you cast anything above 20ish heat you get awfully close to losing our much needed extra 2 heat dissipation when you go over 40. The only time you can afford to let this happen is when you either have vent heat up or thermal sensor override to get off that extra rapid scan or kolto missle off if absolutely necessary to keep from going over 40.

 

You pretty much hit the nail on the head with kolto shell, that's how I'm using it atm as well.

 

With SCG, its most useful effect is now the 8 heat is dissipates, be sure to utilize it and not pop it if you are <20 heat. BUT if you mean to kolto missle the raid immediately after popping it, make sure you are <23 so that the kolto missle won't put you immediately above 40.

 

Also, as my other post mentioned, you want to avoid having too many dips in your healing and keep your HPS mostly consistent, so rapid shotx2 in a row is a long period for your target to go without substantial heals if they are taking damage. obviously continually use rapid shots if no one is taking damage, but as far as tank healing goes, I'd still be trying to precast if you see a swing coming of get a missle on the way if raid damage is incoming.

[Broncomen]

No offense Ivoes....but wait till you do ops runs. Have you ever done SOA or Bonecrusher in HM or NM? People get hit alot harder than what rapid shots can keep healed not to mention you cant just focus on the Tank, you have to move and dodge aoe and heal everyone else including yourself.

 

In emergencys when you gotta dump some rapid scans to keep people alive, you will have heat issues with 1.2. I am usually fairly efficient with my heat levels, but with different debuffs and range issues, you cant gain a full bar of heat in about 4 casts trying to keep someone alive.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. But after healing the first 2 bosses in the new ops instance, you will start to pull your hair out. Like I said in the previous post it is more challenging yes, but still need a little buff to the amount rapid shots heals if that is going to be a main part of the rotation. I can tell you just rapid shotting a tank during a frenzy or the likes....will not work.

[Tepy]

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. But after healing the first 2 bosses in the new ops instance, you will start to pull your hair out. Like I said in the previous post it is more challenging yes, but still need a little buff to the amount rapid shots heals if that is going to be a main part of the rotation. I can tell you just rapid shotting a tank during a frenzy or the likes....will not work.

 

Let me start by saying, I feel ya. rapid shots = tank death, especially during a frenzy. Like my other posts, having to rapid shots more than once in a row also usually means a tank death since our HPS drops too low for too long.

 

I posted about this elsewhere, but our old niche of being the kings of dealing with a frenzy ability are done. They completely changed critical efficiency, and as such, totally changed how we need to play and what role we can fill. With the buff to kolto missile hitting an extra person, that's a 33% buff to the ability, and I suggest you milk it for all it's worth. To do that, also consider putting points into the arsenal ability that increases the effectiveness of your missiles by 20%, 1 kolto missile from me can now heal for at least 1300 per person non crit, making it our most efficient heal by far in terms of healing per heat generated, not counting kolto shield.

 

In short, we are definitely not the best at dealing with tank burst any longer so I'd suggest mentioning something to that end to the raid leader so he puts you in something we are more suited for now like raid healing.

[TempestasSilva]

I have to say, I'm a little confused about heat issues...maybe I just don't have my gear set up right (in pretty much full Tionese at this point, with a columni earpiece and rakata implants), but what little I was able to play yesterday, I wasn't having any heat issues, unless I spammed Healing Scan during my SCG activation.

 

Its all about content vs gear. At full tionese, my guess is you should be fine for most HM FPs, and you should be able to heal them w/o much heat issues provided the people with you are not constantly taking avoidable damage. Now switch over to things that will likely challenge you at your gear level like the missile phase of the first boss in EV unless you hide behind the pillar, the steps of SOA, Bonecrusher, or Jarg & Sorno. I think if you did those you which are appropriate for your gear, though more challenging, you might appreciate the issue a bit more. What about the optional boss in Kaon Hard? Any problems healing that? If I recall, that is a little more challenging, but I haven't done it in a long time and I might have been in less than Tionese when I did. At my gear level, I was cruising through all of hard mode operations one-shotting most bosses EXCEPT Jarg & Sorno and SOA. Those were very challenging to me and if you can't heal enough, its a heat issue. After the recent heat nerfs which really affect our burst ability more than anything, I don't even want to try J&S Hard. The heat problems will be frustrating. If I had full Rakata or even had the credits to pop out some of the alacrity and replace with crit and power, I may be fine again. Maybe get some hardmode gear out of the new OP. Gear always makes it easier. The heat issues from the patch are only an issue when you are doing challenging content for your gear.

 

Also, as my other post mentioned, you want to avoid having too many dips in your healing and keep your HPS mostly consistent, so rapid shotx2 in a row is a long period for your target to go without substantial heals if they are taking damage. obviously continually use rapid shots if no one is taking damage, but as far as tank healing goes, I'd still be trying to precast if you see a swing coming of get a missile on the way if raid damage is incoming.

 

That is an excellent point. I pre-cast and cancel Rapid Scan, but you are right, 2x RPS is probably not good. Maybe RS->RPS->HS->XX->KM where XX = Emergency scan, TSO'd RS or RPS.

 

 

I posted about this elsewhere, but our old niche of being the kings of dealing with a frenzy ability are done. They completely changed critical efficiency, and as such, totally changed how we need to play and what role we can fill.

Yeah, I don't want this thread to be perceived as QQ/whining, etc. But this is about the best way you can put it. Its not that we aren't viable, but our niche/playstyle has been forcibly changed. Now we adapt and make lemonade. Thank you for your constructive input. It is very much apreciated.

Edited April 13, 2012 by TempestasSilva