Leveling Medic - Identity crisis, advice?

[Ruark]

Hello fellow Ops, I've just started levelling a medic and seem to be having a bit of an identity crisis and was hoping I could get a little advice.

 

I'm currently level 13 and not entirely sure what I should be doing during questing. It seems if I focus on healing my companion stuff dies really slow, and frankly they don't need much healing on normal mobs, so I gather unless they are elites/Champs I should probably DPS, and this is where my identity crisis comes in. Should I be sitting in cover and sniping, or should I be up in their face as melee?

 

I can't help but feel like I need to keep my distance as a healer even though I'm technically spec'd in a melee DPS specialization. I think what confuses me is that I'm not spec'd in any melee enhancing talents, so I'm not sure if my ranged abilities will keep pace, damage wise, with my melee ones. Snipe certainly seems to get the job done, but it's quite energy sapping and I'm curious if the gap between Ranged and Melee will grow over time. In which case I should probably get used to using melee all the time instead of getting "set in my way" of being ranged.

 

TL'DR: What should I be using to DPS while questing; melee, ranged or some kind of mix?

 

P.S. I have no doubt this has been asked before but there doesn't seem to be a search option on these new forums. So sorry if I'm beating a dead horse and feel free to just toss me a link to a current thread.

[Kaijan]

I leveled as a medic and I was in their face stabbing them. It's a good habit to get into because in later levels you'll actually use those TA procs from stabbing for free heals and keep your energy high for healing Kaliyo.

[Synaesthesia]

I personally levelled up with medic and in your face (or behind) stabby stabby for the most part, switching to medic and ranged attacks when I began to level up in Warzones (slower than adventuring but much more fun!). The up close and personal style was great for picking off groups of mobs one by one, while Kaliyo tanked them for me and if I bit off more than I could chew, operatives get quite a few crowd control abilities which certainly helped turn the tide in my favour. I really enjoyed levelling this class as it was a nice mix of skills, challenge and picking your targets well; pretty much how I imagine a real life agent would be

 

Happy levelling!

Edited April 24, 2012 by Synaesthesia
spelling

[Arrys]

At level 13 do you have backstab yet?

 

In your face on their back stabby stabby and make sure to activate kaliyos AOE attacks as well as use your own on trash.

 

Use your stuns interupts to stop the mob from channeling etc...

 

Sleep dart and Kaliyo's aoe off is a great way to deal with elites.

 

Ops develop their full suite of abilities rather slowly.

 

A crouch explosive probe is known to make the stabby stabby rotation;).

[Ruark]

Thanks, guys! So, the general consensus seems to be to get up in their face (back) and melee. I suppose given the cool-downs on the two melee moves I have right now I just fill with the free rifle shot?

 

So, crouch is really only used for the odd explosive probe then? Fair enough.

 

Edit: yes, I have backstab at 13.

 

Thanks.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Ruark

[Arrys]

Thanks, guys! So, the general consensus seems to be to get up in their face (back) and melee. I suppose given the cool-downs on the two melee moves I have right now I just fill with the free rifle shot?

 

So, crouch is really only used for the odd explosive probe then? Fair enough.

 

Edit: yes, I have backstab at 13.

 

Thanks.

 

you'll also add abilities like carbine burst cone AOE and a single target blast as well. But yes regular rifle shot is decent damage over time and filler. Having levelled with a 9 second CD on backstab vs 12 I used it you'll use it more. Don't forget to get your poison dart ticking on gold elites early in the rotation. Do a gold with and without rifle shot and you'll appreciate what it adds;).

 

I'ld probably get to 11 in medicine for Healing probes then climb conceal to 11 as well if I did it today. Putting kaliyo in DPS stance on trash is also advised. It goes faster.

[Marak]

I'm going to go against the mold here. I stayed in cover a lot when I was leveling as medic. Snipe and explosive probe hit as hard, if not harder, as any sort of shiv/overload shot rotation you can come up with and you take far less damage, thus less downtime, as ranged.

 

Once you get Temple this is especially the case as she is also ranged and between the two of you things go pretty quick.

[Qaoz]

The beautiful thing about Operatives, when leveling Medic, is that you've got so many options. Lack of variety has put me off many other classes. As an Operative, you do your best when you can stand behind someone and stab giant vibroknives (what's up with that, by the way?) through their torsos, using the Tactical Advantage stacks to heal Kaliyo and yourself.

 

That doesn't mean you have to do that, though. Sometimes I prefer to roll into cover and just throw grenades and launch probes and darts at stuff while picking off low health adds with Snipe (god, I love the sound of that animation). It's not as efficient as stabbing, but it's an option. Being able to utilize your ranged abilities as well as your melee abilities is what makes you a good Operative.

 

In summary, don't think of it as an identity crisis. You're not trying to choose between two identities, you're just trying to figure out one amazing identity.

[z-monty]

For now and the rest of the early levels, yes you should be up in people's face/back and just stab the heck out of them. As you move up your tree and the mobs become a bit more powerful, and Kaliyo becomes a tad more squishy, start to hang back more and let her pull the aggro but still toss a grenade for some CC every now and then, but just be mindful of the energy. Once you get your Surgical Probe off the tree, this is really when you're gonna start focusing on healing more than damage dealing since all it costs is a TA and, if you do things right, you should always have at least 1 TA up. Still be a bit up close so you can get a stab in here and there, but you should keep an eye on whatever companion's health your using since mobs will get tougher.

[Gomigakari]

Decide how you like to play and gear/spec accordingly. Melee talents improve melee, healing talent improve heals, etc. The operative is versatile, but don't play against your spec/gear choices. For example, if you beef up your gun, don't be stabbing people with your lvl 5 vibroblade. Also, if you put all your talents into healing talents, you'll lose out on things like cunning boost and some other talents that help dps.

 

Seems like the low-level instances don't require full healing specs anyway and I think that's the idea because BW probably wants players to actually be able to kill stuff (and feel somewhat powerful) as opposed to healing their companion while the companion kills everything (although you can do that if you want).

 

I would say to put more talents into DPS and less (but some) into heals. If you have serious problems in flashpoints with healing, then make talent point changes accordingly. Otherwise maximize damage to allow you to kill stuff faster and feel more powerful

[Ruark]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Operatives certainly do seem to have a ton of choices but I think I'll try to focus more on melee for now and get used to being up close. It's certainly interesting trying to weave damage and healing into a single encounter. I have a feeling my key bindings are going to grow similar to my Mara, and I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I do enjoy more complex classes.

 

Cheers!

[metalblaster]

At that level all the classes are very ambiguous when it comes to how the roles are set up. At level 13 on my Operative i was stabbing people left and right as well as sniping from cover. Either way it doesn't matter. Cover is nice since you can still throw out heals, but stabbing is great too because shiv gives you a TA point. Course TA points dont matter at that level yet.

[Canis_Anubis]

Get in their face. DPS as much as you can get away with. Just because you're spec'd to heal doesn't mean that knife of yours can't go in your enemies' spine.