Mercenary|Commando PvE End Game Healing Compendium - 1.2

[zeroskaterMHS]

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Mercenary-Commando-PvE-End-Game-Healing-Compendium-1-2?pid=19672#pid19672 Edited April 15, 2012 by zeroskaterMHS

[Ewert]

Not even a mention of Muzzle Fluting as (optional)? Another pure healbot I guess, which now with our heat and gas gimped is funnily enough even worse overall than before.

 

For the longer explanation, read my opinions on the Bodyguard thread I started (found by clicking me + posts started). What 1.2 changed is that, unfortunately, the bastardized dmg-while-gas-for-regen is a bigger portion of max overall raid benefit routine, since we no longer can use gas for healing bursts that much. =P

[zeroskaterMHS]

First off, I am certainly not a pure healbot. I realize that you cannot plant yourself in place and heal constantly. There will times where you have to move and will not be able to cast a heal. Trust me, I am well aware of that.

 

Although, I suspect you stopped reading after the skills section in my compendium, I did read through your post almost entirely. As you have been playing mmos for around 10 years you must know what hardcore progression raiding is (Raiding the hardest content with he lowest number of healers that you can possibly bring in the previous tier's gear). My compendium is focused on hardcore progression raiding, not cleared content, not PvP, etc.

 

You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but I honestly didn't see any true math to back up your claim and all of the content you mentioned is irrelevant to progression guilds in 1.2. Solo healing HM Ev/KP is completely different to healing Story Mode or Hard Mode Explosive content. Now if you are capable of solo healing Hard Mode Explosive content I would love to know, because clearly everyone else is doing it wrong.

 

Not even a mention of Muzzle Fluting as (optional)? Another pure healbot I guess, which now with our heat and gas gimped is funnily enough even worse overall than before.

 

For the longer explanation, read my opinions on the Bodyguard thread I started (found by clicking me + posts started)

 

Now, I would argue against you, but given your initial response it is clear to me that you operate with a closed mind and are unwilling to even consider my side of the argument.

 

. What 1.2 changed is that, unfortunately, the bastardized dmg-while-gas-for-regen is a bigger portion of max overall raid benefit routine, since we no longer can use gas for healing bursts that much. =P

I honestly don't know what you are trying to say here. You might want to correct your grammar. Are you arguing that with the changes to Supercharged Gas that healing with Supercharged Gas up is not even worth it?

Edited April 16, 2012 by zeroskaterMHS

[NotRonin]

I like the idea is of using Supercharge Gas spamming 0 cost Power Shots when you need to vent heat in lieu of using rapid shot.

[Rhaphael]

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Mercenary-Commando-PvE-End-Game-Healing-Compendium-1-2?pid=19672#pid19672

 

Great guide!

 

Question:

In the simulator part you only talked about either a Power/Surge or a Power/Alacrity enhancement. But what about Critical/Surge and Critical/Alacrity enhancements? Since surge gets more effective the more crit you have, I think it would be worthwhile to test those 2 combo's as well, at the very least for completion sake.

[zeroskaterMHS]

Great guide!

 

Question:

In the simulator part you only talked about either a Power/Surge or a Power/Alacrity enhancement. But what about Critical/Surge and Critical/Alacrity enhancements? Since surge gets more effective the more crit you have, I think it would be worthwhile to test those 2 combo's as well, at the very least for completion sake.

 

You make a very good point about those two enhancements, the main reason I chose to only simulate those two enhancements is the shear amount of combinations that comparing all four produces. I'll go through the math below:

 

2 Color Crystals, 2 slots to fill = 3 Combinations

2 Mods, 7 slots to fill = 8 Combinations

2 Enh, 7 slots to fill = 8 Combinations

2 Aug, 7 Slots to fill = 8 Combinations

 

Total Combinations = 3*(8^3)=1536

 

Now, let's assume you want to include all four Enhancements and while we're at it the 5 different Augments as well.

 

2 Color Crystals, 2 slots to fill = 3 Combinations

2 Mods, 7 slots to fill = 8 Combinations

 

4 Enh, 7 slots to fill

(10*9*8*7*6*5*4)/7! = 120

 

5 Aug, 7 slots to fill

(11*10*9*8*7*6*5)/7! = 330 Combinations

 

So first lets determine the total # of combinations with 2 Augments to pick from and all four Enhancements:

 

Total Combinations = 3*120*(8^2) = 23040 Combinations

 

Now lets look at the overall total combinations, which includes all four enhancements and all 5 Augments:

 

Total Combinations = 3*8*120*330 = 950400 Combinations.

 

It becomes near impossible for me to simulate every single gear combination, especially when each combination must be simulated 120 times to produce an acceptable sample size (which if your curious amounts to 2764800 simulations for 4 enh, 2 aug and 114048000 simulations for 4 enh, 5 aug). The biggest limiting factor is time here and I cannot afford to run these simulations until I've finished the guide for 1.2.

 

Also, if Crit/Surge or Crit/Alacrity were superior to Power/Surge then I would have expected the current results to have swayed more toward the crit mod than the power mod. Then based on the number of Power/Surge and Power/Alacrity mods you would be able to indirectly conclude if Crit/Surge or Crit/Alacrity is superior to Power/Surge.

 

This was not the case and the results depicted Power mods with Power/Surge Enhancements, which leads me to conclude that an enhancement or mod with Power will to be superior to one with out Power. Since Power/Surge is the leading enhancement from the current results, I can run the simulations to compare Power/Surge vs. Crit/Alacrity and Crit/Surge.

 

TL;DR: Stuff takes time, sometimes too much time to be worth doing.

Edited April 16, 2012 by zeroskaterMHS

[Ewert]

First off, I am certainly not a pure healbot. I realize that you cannot plant yourself in place and heal constantly. There will times where you have to move and will not be able to cast a heal. Trust me, I am well aware of that.

You seem to have misunderstood, I said "muzzle fluting" in this post here, while whereas my thread concerns _mostly_ alacrity, I spesifically targeted the lack of even a mention of Muzzle Fluting on your "talent choices" part. In fact, the word "Muzzle" is not even found in a search of the post.

Although, I suspect you stopped reading after the skills section in my compendium, I did read through your post almost entirely. As you have been playing mmos for around 10 years you must know what hardcore progression raiding is (Raiding the hardest content with he lowest number of healers that you can possibly bring in the previous tier's gear). My compendium is focused on hardcore progression raiding, not cleared content, not PvP, etc.

I do not play even flashpoints really, I only raid / pvp. I raid max level stuff, not story modes.

 

For maximum raid benefit, Muzzle Fluting gave you zero heat power shots for insane burst for no heat cost, which for example for Soa 3rd phase in 8man is pretty pretty darn big part of raid dmg (think 1 mind trapped, 1-2 losing some dps for avoiding a ball, you could actually be easily a 15+% increase of raid dmg for the last phase).

 

So you fail in assuming what I do for gaming. Last game I played, Rift, I was in our servers our side top progressive guild, AFAIK someone who actually followed the stuff we were about 6th in world and 1st for Guardians in Hammerknell, but don't quote me on that as being true, that's just what someone said in guild who cared bout that stuff.

 

Also, what most have forgotten about SWToR mechanics for ops/mercs, and especially mercs, is that we have a constant fast regen resource mechanic, and _multiple_ lulls of healing needs, meaning times for dps plentiful enough.

You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but I honestly didn't see any true math to back up your claim and all of the content you mentioned is irrelevant to progression guilds in 1.2. Solo healing HM Ev/KP is completely different to healing Story Mode or Hard Mode Explosive content. Now if you are capable of solo healing Hard Mode Explosive content I would love to know, because clearly everyone else is doing it wrong.

And as I said, you failed to grasp the initial point, that is _muzzle fluting is missing in ENTIRETY_ from your post. It's a major change-of-pace talent for bodyguards. Tickling about pre1.2 content for now is irrelevant. For the record, if you read the end of thread where I changed guild to one which actually has 2 healers for raids and did NM EV/KP, you would have noticed that HM Ev/KP is actually harder to heal solo than NM Ev/KP with 2 ever is, hence, more time for dps.

 

As for EC, still learning strats for that, but so far the same still applies: there are lulls in healing needs, maxing the utility of those lulls, especially since gas is so severely nerfed for constant healing now, that is dps times...

Now, I would argue against you, but given your initial response it is clear to me that you operate with a closed mind and are unwilling to even consider my side of the argument.

Pot, kettle, black.

 

I reiterate again: your post does not mention Muzzle Fluting at all. It's an option for those bodyguards who are willing to go the extra tenth of an inch to max out their dps potential for the lull times of healing. As in, those bodyguards who are pushing beyond the pure healing limits... really progressive ones ya know.

I honestly don't know what you are trying to say here. You might want to correct your grammar. Are you arguing that with the changes to Supercharged Gas that healing with Supercharged Gas up is not even worth it?

Here, I'll make it easy:

 

Constant regening resource with small window of utility

Heatfree dps potion with Muzzle Fluting increasing that dps very much

Healing has times of lesser needs

Bodyguards are by far the best of the 3 healing specs to be the healer who does dps on the side whenever the full input of all healers are not required

Maxing your dps output for those times = good

Not even considering maxing it for those times since "omg dmg roll a dps class" = bad

Edited April 16, 2012 by Ewert

[zeroskaterMHS]

Okay, forgive me for being a initial post. I took the healbot insult personally. Instead of arguing over the forums, I will add Muzzle Fluting to the compendium as optional, though I will say I do not believe you will find a lot of opportunity to use it while healing Hm EC or NM EC. I will be speccing into Muzzle Fluting and testing it out in HM EC tonight and I will report my findings. What is your suggestion Ewert for removing a 1 talent pont?

[Rhaphael]

You make a very good point about those two enhancements, the main reason I chose to only simulate those two enhancements is the shear amount of combinations that comparing all four produces. I'll go through the math below:

 

~LOTS OF MATH~

 

This was not the case and the results depicted Power mods with Power/Surge Enhancements, which leads me to conclude that an enhancement or mod with Power will to be superior to one with out Power. Since Power/Surge is the leading enhancement from the current results, I can run the simulations to compare Power/Surge vs. Crit/Alacrity and Crit/Surge.

 

TL;DR: Stuff takes time, sometimes too much time to be worth doing.

I understand that the amount of variables would be huge when you would take everything into account. But since you already know that with the current variables Power/Surge is optimal, you could just run Power/Surge vs. Crit/Surge and leave everything else the same. This would only be 8 cases to test. I agree that since Power comes ahead of everything else in your tests it would probably win, but I'm just curious about Crit since without it Surge is so much less effective. Perhaps a certain combination of Power/Surge and Crit/Surge enhancements would turn out better than only Power/Surge.

 

Critical/Alacrity I would personally never use, I just mentioned it because you used Power/Alacrity.

[Ewert]

Okay, forgive me for being a initial post. I took the healbot insult personally. Instead of arguing over the forums, I will add Muzzle Fluting to the compendium as optional, though I will say I do not believe you will find a lot of opportunity to use it while healing Hm EC or NM EC. I will be speccing into Muzzle Fluting and testing it out in HM EC tonight and I will report my findings. What is your suggestion Ewert for removing a 1 talent pont?

Not really much options if you run for high alacrity (1% overall healing), but since haste has taken a punch in 1.2 2% alacrity from the pyro tree another choice I guess now, as well as many people have swapped out alacrity enhancements out so for them definitely the 2% haste.

 

The thing with new operations is always the learning phase is much higher on avoidable dmg naturally, and that is what we are seeing currently in healing needs.

[zeroskaterMHS]

I understand that the amount of variables would be huge when you would take everything into account. But since you already know that with the current variables Power/Surge is optimal, you could just run Power/Surge vs. Crit/Surge and leave everything else the same. This would only be 8 cases to test. I agree that since Power comes ahead of everything else in your tests it would probably win, but I'm just curious about Crit since without it Surge is so much less effective. Perhaps a certain combination of Power/Surge and Crit/Surge enhancements would turn out better than only Power/Surge.

 

Critical/Alacrity I would personally never use, I just mentioned it because you used Power/Alacrity.

 

Alright, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and I've made the change to the code to account for Crit/Surge, Power/Surge, and Power/Alacrity Enhancements, but I will only be pursuing these options with Campaign gear as time is getting short.

 

Not really much options if you run for high alacrity (1% overall healing), but since haste has taken a punch in 1.2 2% alacrity from the pyro tree another choice I guess now, as well as many people have swapped out alacrity enhancements out so for them definitely the 2% haste.

 

The thing with new operations is always the learning phase is much higher on avoidable dmg naturally, and that is what we are seeing currently in healing needs.

 

Yea, I think that may be you're best option if you're trying to free up a talent point. Are you still gearing heavily for Alacrity, Ewert? I know you mentioned that Merc healers are not viable healing Stormcaller in HM, but I'd like to know what size are you in and what are you gearing for? I've been helaing Stormcaller in 16 man HM and I found it difficult to heal my group (which consisted of the Stormcaller tank and the two melee taking the dot) during the shield phase, but I suspect that my group combination is a hard example.

[Ewert]

Yea, I think that may be you're best option if you're trying to free up a talent point. Are you still gearing heavily for Alacrity, Ewert?

Well I'm not switching enhancements away, so my gear is as it is unless upgrades happen. If I have two choices now though, to take power or crit over alacrity, I'd take it ... surge not so, since it just stinks. Chances are I will quit the game for good before that though, I already canceled, I _may_ sign up for 1 more month to see if they do a quick fix (yeah right, haha), and then that 1 free month happens. If they revert HS/RS combo again to be a 16+9 heat cost that would probably be a good spot overall for us, but current cost is idiotic (as in mathematically pure HS with HoT spam is more effective than HS+RS comboes, etc.).

I know you mentioned that Merc healers are not viable healing Stormcaller in HM, but I'd like to know what size are you in and what are you gearing for?

8man, "plain" near BiS pre 1.2 gear, earpiece upgraded with a MK-IV or something power/surge from EC HM.

I've been helaing Stormcaller in 16 man HM and I found it difficult to heal my group (which consisted of the Stormcaller tank and the two melee taking the dot) during the shield phase, but I suspect that my group combination is a hard example.

Yep that's the same, during shield + adds + tank running around + the two other guys already low probably from dots, it honestly just feels the BH simply does not have enough oomph to pull it off _reliably_. Sure I managed usually so that something other wipes the raid, like a lightning spire dropping on top of us (targeted tank midair on a jump, whee, happened twice in row ). But it's a losing battle, wasting all CDs to try to stay alive, and topping people up is a faraway dream (unlike on the otherside which is easy as heck comparitvely).

Edited April 19, 2012 by Ewert

[zeroskaterMHS]

Yep that's the same, during shield + adds + tank running around + the two other guys already low probably from dots, it honestly just feels the BH simply does not have enough oomph to pull it off _reliably_. Sure I managed usually so that something other wipes the raid, like a lightning spire dropping on top of us (targeted tank midair on a jump, whee, happened twice in row ). But it's a losing battle, wasting all CDs to try to stay alive, and topping people up is a faraway dream (unlike on the otherside which is easy as heck comparitvely).

In 16 man we have a bit more options and can spread our two melee apart across groups, which solves the problem (theoretically at least, will be doing this tonight). This however isn't an option in 8 man, and I definitely don't think we have the ability to keep everyone about 5-10k, let alone topped off.

[Nuadul]

Good guide Keegan, as always. There was some good information going between you two, none of it being 'wrong' in any real way. I enjoyed both guides but when reading Ewert's I know he did 8man stuff in the previous tier. I don't know if maximizing dps was "neccessary" during any stage of any fight in that tier. You mentioned Soa, I agree that dpsing would be helpful but in no way, in any level of difficulty was it neccessary. No fight in that entire tier was even close to needing healer dpsing to prevail in any fight...even the "really progressive ones ya know :)"

[TempestasSilva]

Hi Keegan,

 

I have several questions. I am trying to update the thread in my sig specifically with a new 1.2 PVE Healing Build. I started this thread for that purpose: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=419153

 

I have also re-spec'ed several times since 1.2 trying different things. In all, I don't know that our spec really changed much if at all, but I want to get other people's perspectives since the builds in my thread have been used a lot and I don't want to steer people the wrong way. Also, I don't want it to be "my" opinion, so I may not even use the spec that is determined to be the best. I just want to help those who are looking for it and give them information to make up their own mind when it comes to choices/options.

 

So, I hope you don't mind if I pick you brain a little. Also, with our tree, I feel like in order to reach the top of the tree we need to put points somewhere...and sometimes I feel its like picking which close to worthless talent you are going to put them in. If you are just calling something mandatory because its the least crappy of the crappy choices, that's valid, just let me know.

 

1) Improved Vents: Mandatory

Why? Since 1.2 I have ben using a DPS style rotation and seldom have heat issues. When I do overheat, VH without the improvement has been working fine.

 

2) Surgical Precision System: Not Recommended

I have never played w/o this until last night and on CE Story 8-Man, I noticed pushback on several occasions both on bosses and trash. Am I doing something wrong? Did I just not notice the pushback before even though it would have been less?

 

3) Critical Reaction: Recommended

What are your thoughts about only 1 pt here? When I have done so, I still seemed to have it up most of the time when chain casting.

 

4) Protective Field: Mandatory

I actually agree with this, but I would not expect most people to agree with it. When I know I am going to take damage or when I took unexpected damage and might take more, or when I purposely want to stand in "poo" to continue healing, I will pop my shield and Kolto Overload and thanks to this choice, I seldom need to cast a heal on myself. Why did you choose it?

 

5) Integrated Systems: Mandatory

I coulf see "Recommended", but mandatory? What are your thoughts there?

 

6) Muzzle Fluting = Not Mentioned.

Why not at least "Optional"? I'd make it at least "Recommended". I know Ewert's feeling on it and I used to staunchly disagree. However I was lightening my stance before 1.2 and the change now to Power Shot pisses me off. Even if we are healers...Even if we do not *need* to DPS a boss...there are exceptions. Obviously the Council in EV comes to mind. But also there are times like SOA that my heat is low and no one needs heals so why not dps when he breaks? But even more important than that is daily quests. As a raider, even with the reduced repair costs, I still need money. In fact, Reflex Sims on my server go for 30k which makes me wonder why I am cybetech even after Biochem was nerfed. Moving on. Before, you didn't *need* Muzzle Fluting for those items. You gained a little more heat, but you could still use PS and during SCG - PS spam did decent DPS for a healer. But now...that cast time is awful. Plus it seems to get pushed back more now. I don't know...I might even call MF mandatory now. Your thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited April 19, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[Ewert]

Good guide Keegan, as always. There was some good information going between you two, none of it being 'wrong' in any real way. I enjoyed both guides but when reading Ewert's I know he did 8man stuff in the previous tier. I don't know if maximizing dps was "neccessary" during any stage of any fight in that tier. You mentioned Soa, I agree that dpsing would be helpful but in no way, in any level of difficulty was it neccessary. No fight in that entire tier was even close to needing healer dpsing to prevail in any fight...even the "really progressive ones ya know :)"

Yes, some of us like to actually maximize our output even if not necessary. Other's just chill it out. Feel free to pick your poison, nonmaximum and chilling or maximum and pushing it.

[zeroskaterMHS]

Yes, some of us like to actually maximize our output even if not necessary. Other's just chill it out. Feel free to pick your poison, nonmaximum and chilling or maximum and pushing it.

My personal preference is to maximize my healing output as much as possible as a healer. When it came to 16 man NiM EV, we normally brought 4 healers, though I'm certain we could have done it with 2-3, and I would argue that maximizing your dps would have been a good option in that scenario. In all honesty, during that period my entire focus was on building my simulator and I didn't even think of maximizing my dps.

 

Currently, in 16 man HM EC I really find no opportunity for me to spam any dps ability and be able to maintain my healing output. As fights become easier, I'm sure this will change and maximizing your dps will become viable.

 

Tempestas, you ask some very valid questions that require some long responses. I'll post my reply later this evening when I'm at home.

Edited April 20, 2012 by zeroskaterMHS

[Ewert]

My personal preference is to maximize my healing output as much as possible as a healer. When it came to 16 man NiM EV, we normally brought 4 healers, though I'm certain we could have done it with 2-3, and I would argue that maximizing your dps would have been a good option in that scenario. In all honesty, during that period my entire focus was on building my simulator and I didn't even think of maximizing my dps.

 

Currently, in 16 man HM EC I really find no opportunity for me to spam any dps ability and be able to maintain my healing output. As fights become easier, I'm sure this will change and maximizing your dps will become viable.

 

Tempestas, you ask some very valid questions that require some long responses. I'll post my reply later this evening when I'm at home.

Yes that is pretty much how it goes. Anytime healing > required, muzzle fluting is golden. If healing is just eeking by (learning content), it's very content spesific. Firebrand tank, easy to dps a lot while gas. Stormcaller ... ungh lets not go there. Zorn & Toth mostly there is use in MF to regen while gas, it is not as bad just as long as people don't mess up.

 

Can't say of the 2 later bosses yet, haven't been there. In 8mans it swings more wildly from one extreme to other (muzzle fluting golden <> muzzle fluting not used), in 16mans I'd think muzzle fluting would always be getting a lot more action.

[zeroskaterMHS]

1) Improved Vents: Mandatory

Why? Since 1.2 I have ben using a DPS style rotation and seldom have heat issues. When I do overheat, VH without the improvement has been working fine.

I suppose this is something to consider. The main reason I put this as mandatory is the extra heat vented adds up in the end. What would you suggest instead?

 

2) Surgical Precision System: Not Recommended

I have never played w/o this until last night and on CE Story 8-Man, I noticed pushback on several occasions both on bosses and trash. Am I doing something wrong? Did I just not notice the pushback before even though it would have been less?

How often did you suffer from a push back? Once per 10 seconds? Once per minute? Etc. And what was the total number of push backs?

I just went through the video of my 16 man HM Toth and Zorn kill and counted 4 total times that I suffered from push back over a 4 minute fight. 3 Rapid Scans got pushed back and 1 Healilng Scan got pushed back. Here's a link to my combat log from that figiht.

http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-04-17_20_31_14_453467.txt#20_54_07_190000

 

You can see that I casted 39 Rapid Scans and 22 Healing Scans, but lets look at percentages:

(3/39)*100=7.69% and (1/22)*100=4.55%....So what do we get from this? That very few of my heals will ever suffer from a push back, however, we cannot draw final conclusions from one sample.

 

So I went ahead and watched my 16 man Nightmare Pilgrim kill as well. From watching that video I saw a total of 30 push backs. 24 Rapid Scans got pushed back and 6 Healing Scans got pushed back. Here's a link to that fight

http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-04-19_18_10_43_882196.txt#21_27_06_950000

 

Again with percentages:

RS- 77.42% and HS: 40.0%...so from this we can see that I suffered from a lot of push backs and having SPS talented would have been well worth it.

 

What I would conclude from this is that on fights with a lot of aoe SPS is definitely a requirement, but on fights with minimal aoe SPS is not worth it. Honestly, we need more data to draw any real conclusions from. At the least, data from each of the current fights.

 

3) Critical Reaction: Recommended

What are your thoughts about only 1 pt here? When I have done so, I still seemed to have it up most of the time when chain casting.

Honestly, I would love to see some data regarding the uptime percentage with 1 point and 2 points. If there isn't much of a difference, then clearly 1 point is enough, but if there is a drastic difference then 2 points would be necessary.

4) Protective Field: Mandatory

I actually agree with this, but I would not expect most people to agree with it. When I know I am going to take damage or when I took unexpected damage and might take more, or when I purposely want to stand in "poo" to continue healing, I will pop my shield and Kolto Overload and thanks to this choice, I seldom need to cast a heal on myself. Why did you choose it?

 

Back in 1.1, I did a quick damage reduced model in excel, which showed PF being better than Powered Insulators.

PF is very useful to use when you know damage is coming, but I do like the passive reduction that PI provides. I would really like to see some parses with each talent separate, and some with both, then I would be able to compare the damage received.w

 

5) Integrated Systems: Mandatory

I coulf see "Recommended", but mandatory? What are your thoughts there?

 

This talent increases your healing done by 2%, which is the easiest and best way to directly increase your healing. That's my reasoning behind it. What would you suggest instead of this talent?

 

6) Muzzle Fluting = Not Mentioned.

Why not at least "Optional"? I'd make it at least "Recommended". I know Ewert's feeling on it and I used to staunchly disagree. However I was lightening my stance before 1.2 and the change now to Power Shot pisses me off. Even if we are healers...Even if we do not *need* to DPS a boss...there are exceptions. Obviously the Council in EV comes to mind. But also there are times like SOA that my heat is low and no one needs heals so why not dps when he breaks? But even more important than that is daily quests. As a raider, even with the reduced repair costs, I still need money. In fact, Reflex Sims on my server go for 30k which makes me wonder why I am cybetech even after Biochem was nerfed. Moving on. Before, you didn't *need* Muzzle Fluting for those items. You gained a little more heat, but you could still use PS and during SCG - PS spam did decent DPS for a healer. But now...that cast time is awful. Plus it seems to get pushed back more now. I don't know...I might even call MF mandatory now. Your thoughts?

 

Honestly, I'm currently going through a rewrite of the talent section instead of quickly editing it. This skill will at the least be bumped up to Optional. I understand Ewerts argument, I must admit that I agree with him.

[Ewert]

How often did you suffer from a push back? Once per 10 seconds? Once per minute? Etc. And what was the total number of push backs?

I just went through the video of my 16 man HM Toth and Zorn kill and counted 4 total times that I suffered from push back over a 4 minute fight. 3 Rapid Scans got pushed back and 1 Healilng Scan got pushed back. Here's a link to my combat log from that figiht.

http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-04-17_20_31_14_453467.txt#20_54_07_190000

 

You can see that I casted 39 Rapid Scans and 22 Healing Scans, but lets look at percentages:

(3/39)*100=7.69% and (1/22)*100=4.55%....So what do we get from this? That very few of my heals will ever suffer from a push back, however, we cannot draw final conclusions from one sample.

I think this is again a 8vs16 man difference. I have always done 8mans, and the amount of pushbacks due to trash spawns in bossfights, or start of trash pulls, etc., has been massive. Heck, EV 1st boss start with the 2 turrets in 8mans is just insane, and I don't see how I could have done it solo without pushback resistance.

 

I'd suggest noting that in 8mans it's worth is >>> than in 16mans, where there are tons more people (dps guys mostly) who tend to grab the adds aggro faster.

 

Then again I don't see much value in many of the other skills at all (like extra healing during shield), so never saw a problem putting the points in here.

This talent increases your healing done by 2%, which is the easiest and best way to directly increase your healing. That's my reasoning behind it. What would you suggest instead of this talent?

The thing is, the "top end" of healing increases are always not a straight up 1:1 increase, as such if the only change is having 1% or 2% of overall healing, it is NOT a 1% drop in overall healing. Due to overheals. It is mostly unsimulatable, but quite easy to understand, since most ops require you to keep people topped up, that final heal is always ignoring the 1 or 2% from this talent, so overall it ain't a 1% increase.

 

Currently since we lack in overall healing ability, and during hard healing fights are barely sc****** (wow what a stupid text filter) on being alive and not topping up people, for the current game balance it is more important than before. IF they fix us so we are comparable to agents (sorcs still blow everyone away with AoE until they fix that), then this talent again takes a backburner position. Personally, if I had to choose between 1% overall healing or 8 extra heat to Vent Heat, I'd pick the vent heat. Why? If things are steady, that 1% in all likelyhood does not matter at all. If things are poopoodidoopoop, that 8 extra heat may be the difference between maintaining <40 heat for a few seconds more, resulting actually in 8+2 per second you manage to stay longer in <40, as in _critical situations where it matters the most_, it MAY be the difference between life and death, and especially the difference between being at <40heat or >40 heat.

 

That is crucial. 1% overall, not so if the healing fight has times of lesser dmg and people topped up.

 

I called this the "death by attrition" vs "death by burst" difference. Attrition death resets _every time people are topped up and you have cooled off heat_, those tend to be plentiful in fights. As such, attrition deaths USUALLY are much lesser in number than burst deaths, and combating burst deaths tends to be more important.

 

Then again, currently as said, our overall healing is lacking so badly that we are constantly facing attrition deaths.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Ewert

[JamesBalla]

Hey Skate, My guild is 4/4 EC HM no problem, But one of our healers is going on leave, and as a Commando I feel Our healing has been gutted (As well as our Deeps) but I healed Hardmodes and Nightmare modes early into the game, I read over your Compendium and thought It was very well put together. A while back I tried healing EC with a solid group and was crushed my toth and zorn. then again the other group was the one that was falling and we had no idea how to position them etc. But I'm refitting my stats for my healing gear because Bioware obviously doesn't know how to gear commando's. I have the option of getting 4 Grade 61 Power/Surge Enhancements, or 4 Grade 61 Crit surge, Due to Alacrity being useless on a commando I feel power and surge would be best. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I am nervous to go at it again for healing on my commando.