Healing - So long and thanks for all the fish

[TempestasSilva]

I am done as a Bodyguard(BG) in PvE content. I still love PvE Healing, but for me - BG healing is broken. I have healed for the last few days as an Operative and healing is so much better from an enjoyment standpoint, that it will be my new main since there are no changes coming to BGs in 1.3.

 

I hope that some BG's, especially new ones, find value in my opinions and observations. Please keep in mind that my thoughts are entirly within the bounds of PvE Raiding, not PvP, Flash Points, etc.

 

Let me define broken:

It does not mean that a BG cannot heal all available content without being carried or having to over gear it. Anyone that says otherwise either sucks or raids with a bunch of poo standers.

 

What it does mean is that IMO the design is broken. IMO, each healer essentially has three things that set them apart from other healers:

 

Resource System

BG has the least flexible resource. There is nothing you can change to get resources back faster. Both other healers have mechanics that allow them to change their actions and regain resources faster.

 

Core Mechanic

SuperCharged Gas (SCG) was completely broken by patch 1.2. As for our core mechanic, gaining a 3% healing buff then trading it for a temporary 5% buff plus some fluff at the cost of taking time to rebuild the 3% buff is close to worthless and more importantly lacks any real decision making. Why this wasn't addressed in 1.3 I will never understand.

 

Playstyle

It plays like a DPS class. Because you are juggling resources and cooldowns, you have less options than the other healers. In some cases, this is probably a benefit and attractive as it makes a healing class more accessible and usable by people who have been DPSers. For me who has only ever been a main healer in MMOs, it was kind of a let down prior to 1.2 and more so after.

 

A separate issue is the output. In the nerf/buff cycle of MMOs, which classes have the best and worst output is always fluctuating. I think it is foolish to change classes based on output alone unless you are in a guild going for server or world firsts. I am not. Patch 1.2 accomplished its goal of bringing the output of the three healers closer in line, however there is still a surprisingly large discrepancy. I also think they made the wrong adjustments and nerfed BG too far in output. Either that or both the other healers need their output nerfed. I hope they fix that for the rest of you as I think any BG would welcome that change. This is also not necessarily a bad thing. Since BG has the lowest utility and output, it is the most challenging healer to be successful with. If you are all about challenging, BG is a good choice for you.

 

As a side note, after playing an operative in hard modes and some nightmare content, I am very surprised at the utility of always being able to instantly throw a small heal on someone to help prevent them dieing while I cast a larger heal to get them back up. From what I understand of Sorcs, bubble works similarly. It surprises that the BG similar ability has such a relatively long cooldown.

 

Based on the three main points above, I am done with BG unless these areas are fixed. Even if BGs get buffed to where they have the most output, if these issues are not addressed I will not be back.

 

Therefore, this will likely the last thread I participate in that is located in the Merc Forums. I have tried to be a helpful and positive influence here as well as hold a middle ground between BGs are worthless and BGs are amazing-L2Play. I still believe BGs are in the middle of those two schools of thought.

 

To those of you who still enjoy playing BGs, congrats, and I honestly hope the devs do not change whatever it is that you like. To those of you who no longer enjoy playing a BG, I hope the devs fix that without affecting those who do.

 

For those of you who may be new to BG healing and or the BG Healing community, I have a few final comments:

 

1) Don't listen to anyone who thinks Kolto Shell is worthless or only a pre-pull ability. This is someone who has no grasp of math. It is quite simply our most efficient heal other than rapid shots. Try to keep it up as much as possible, but remember that post 1.2, it has a significant heat cost, so try to re-apply it (even if it still has several charges left) during lulls of the fight where you have no heat issues.

 

2) Don't listen to the People saying the class is completely fine because we are amazing burst healers. There are two flaws with this line of thinking. A) As I and others have shown in several threads, the math is not there to back this claim up. B) There is no content that cannot be healed by all three healers. Any of the three healers can heal the tank through frenzies and other mechanics., meaning that even if BGs were the best burst healer by a significant amount, who cares and why would you trade output and utility for something that is not needed?

 

3) Don't be afraid to continue to call for buffs and changes. The L2Play crowd obviously fail at simple math. BG has the lowest output of the three healers even considering Effective HPS. It is not a L@Play issue.

 

4) Don't listen to those who say BGs are completely broken and fail. If you are failing and you are geared appropriately then you are not playing the class right or your raiders are taking damage that should be avoided. There are plenty of BGs, some of whom are raiding as BG & BG in 8 mans that have completed all current content. It is simply more challenging. Wear it as a badge of honor.

 

As a parting gift for those of you who want to learn all you can about BGs and my last attempt at a positive impact, here are some valuable threads that I had subscribed to. Some are out of date and they are in no particular order, but all are at least somewhat useful IMO.

 

RuQu's PvE Combat Medic Guide (Updated for 1.2)

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=181357

 

Mercenary|Commando PvE End Game Healing Compendium - 1.2

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=413858

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

 

Mercenary Builds (PVP, PVE, Leveling, BG, Arsen, Pyro)

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=279723

 

DJs Mercenary Healing Guide For Dummies

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=58702

 

Post 1.2 PVE BodyGuard Build Discussion

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=419153

 

Heal skill stats for 1.2

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=420623

 

The Bodyguard (not The Healbot)

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=338252

 

BH Healing for PVE

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=120269

 

Healing Statistics PvE

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=428397

Edited June 14, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[Reenox]

i agree with everything you have said if im honest, i play both an agent and merc heals and can heal any content on both that we have on farm. However the merc is less forgiving, and you have to work alot harder to achieve this. To enable us to learn new content where people are making mistakes, i have to take my agent everytime. The bounty hunter can not be pulled back from resource lockout, quickly enough like the agent can.

 

I hate all the learn to play reponses you see, as i can play both of my healers well, but the simple truth is when i am on my game........my Bounty Hunter will never compete with my Agent

[NotRonin]

Merc healer can still do decent damage. Other healers cannot. That is the major difference, and why balance goes out of whack.

 

For easier content lke HM FP , HM EV and SM EC, a merc healer will have resource to do a bit of damage as well with unload/Death from Above. On a HM KP run, I will deal over 100k damage to Bonethrasher overall. This is something operatives or sorc healers cannot match. For flashpoints I can spend half the time DPSing and half the time healing. As our gear name implies, we are indeed the 'combat medic'. Unfortunately, once you move into the harder contents like NMM KP/EV and HM EC, resource becomes a real issue, and that is where the other healers out perform us.

 

While healing is still viable, our quality of life will be a lot better if we get a buff in heat management. Something like a chance to lose 8 heat when using rapid shot will be perfect.

 

On a side note, super charge gas is awesome for the free power shot, especially when paired with a alacrity/power relic.adrenaline combo. You're can do well over 2k dps for 15 seconds!!

[pureeffinmetal]

I've healed on a Sorc and Trooper. I prefer the Trooper, its more enjoyable. I've healed all content at some point or another on my Sorc. And I've healed all T1 content on my Trooper (most of which was healed in very poor gear. Healing NiM KP in epic 50 and tionese gear for exmaple)

 

The skillcap required to play a Trooper is definately higher than a Sorc. By no means does that make Merc/Commandos unviable healers, like you said. It just means that the average player will have a far more difficult time playing one.

 

In order to reduce the skill cap a little bit, I think 1 of 2 changes need to be made.

 

1) Change the heat/ammo reduced on Medical Probe/Rapid Scan back to 2/16 after using Advanced Medical Probe/Healing Scan.

 

This would be a major buff and make life much easier on Combat Medics and Bodyguards. I'm still not sure if its needed but it would definitely be a possible solution.

 

2) There needs to be more abilities that can stack Charge. Supercharge is fairly crucial to healing on a Bodyguard or Combat Medic. I would suggest having Bacta Infusions and Emergency Scan build 6 stacks of charge and having Healing Scan and Advanced Medical Probe build 3.

 

Faster stack building, more supercharging, more ammo regen, more HPS. This is the change I would enjoy the most. I love being able to Supercharge and spam Charged Bolts :s.

 

Either of the changes would be welcome and would reduce the skillcap on the specc. Like I said I would prefer the latter.

 

On a side note. Kolto Bomb/Missile could use a small buff I think. Either a small increase to its direct healing, or adding the Benefits of Proactive Medicine to Kolto Bomb/Missile, giving it both instant heals with a small HoT. Again I would be in favor of the latter.

 

 

PS: Most of my healing experience is from my Trooper so sorry I messed up any of the mirror names, but I think I got them all right.

[Splaktar]

Very helpful post and great discussions. I agree with most all of it. I still haven't gone back to BG after 1.2 came out. But I have been spending some time leveling a Sorc healer.

[TempestasSilva]

I'm not sure I'd agree with BH being able to DPS more than other healers. I will have to look into that. I was so paranoid at becoming heat locked on my merc, that outside of specific "burn phases" I didn't add much damage even during lulls for fear of heating up some and then not having enough heat to spend on healing.

 

I don't want to turn this thread into Ops Vs Mercs, but after healing for another week, point #1 in my original post seems more relevant. When I burst on an operative and spend too much energy taking me well past my optimal regen zone, it is so easy to fix with Diagnostic Scan that I think I used my equivalent of Vent Heat once this week. That would really be a quality of life improvement for mercs. Having Rapid Shots be able to be cast on yourself and have crits vent a little heat similar to Diagnostic Scan would be a nice improvement IMO.

[Tatile]

The fact that Rapid Shots do not have heat management built into them was something I couldn't quite understand when my Merc friend and I were comparing notes. Whilst some might argue it would make the classes too similar, just any type of additional, semi-passive heat management would be beneficial (and really, who can argue against that?)

 

My own Mercenary is level 48 at the moment and I'm really debating with myself about making her a healer when she hits cap. I have a Sorcerer and Operative, so Merc would round me out, but currently there seems to be little reason for why I should want to have and run with one, versus my existing healers (gear aside, of course).

[RuQu]

I'm not sure I'd agree with BH being able to DPS more than other healers. I will have to look into that. I was so paranoid at becoming heat locked on my merc, that outside of specific "burn phases" I didn't add much damage even during lulls for fear of heating up some and then not having enough heat to spend on healing.

 

I don't want to turn this thread into Ops Vs Mercs, but after healing for another week, point #1 in my original post seems more relevant. When I burst on an operative and spend too much energy taking me well past my optimal regen zone, it is so easy to fix with Diagnostic Scan that I think I used my equivalent of Vent Heat once this week. That would really be a quality of life improvement for mercs. Having Rapid Shots be able to be cast on yourself and have crits vent a little heat similar to Diagnostic Scan would be a nice improvement IMO.

 

I've made this argument since Launch. Early on Op/Sc players claimed DS was useless, but they have always failed to admit the great strengths it also had. True, you can't cast it while moving, and true it does 1/2 the HPS of Rapid Shots. However, it is also the only return ability that scales with gear, and it only got stronger in 1.2 with the reduced cast time talent.

 

Our old equivalent was SCC/SCG. SCC had the option that it was really easy to use, while a 3s cast of DS took a lot of time not moving, even with the excessive Alacrity on gear. This meant that while DS was mathematically better, in practice it was rarely used, and even the most amazing ability is worthless if you can never actually use it.

 

Post 1.2, DS is now great. It is far faster, and Alacrity continues to benefit it. It scales your return with both crit and alacrity, which is pretty awesome. In contrast, SCC never scales with anything except a minor benefit from alacrity boosted Medical Probe (Rapid Scan iirc). SCC also got sliced in half, so the return is far less worthwhile, and it has an innate cooldown due to a minimum of 15s build up time (10x Rapid Shots). DS has no cooldown, and can be used more often and with more crits as you gear up.

 

You are, of course, absolutely correct on your other main points as well.

 

Playstyle is subjective, and personally I liked it, but the changes in 1.2 greatly reduced the enjoyability of that style. Being a spamming turret of healing glory is only a fun style if your decisions matter. If the rotation is too simple, it becomes way too obvious that your are just in a fancy Skinner Box. The style centers on using abilities in rapid succession, so there should be reward for choosing the right combo and punishment for choosing the wrong combo, but to do that requires that there be more than one actual combo possible. Pre-1.2, with the "high pressure" time constraint of trying to maximize SCC, this was the case. If you could land an opening and ending KM you could get 100% uptime on a 10% DR, plus maximize HPS between those two casts. With the nerfed KM and more expensive HS/RS combo, there is far less reward for doing it right and more punishment for over-reaching, so the decisions go away. In it's current state BG healing is barely better than a slot machine in terms of complexity and enjoyment.

 

Which brings us to your other key point, our Core Mechanic. As mentioned above, the changes fundamentally undermine the entire class. They reduce decisions, reduce reward for good play, and increase punishment for poor play. This combines into more static gameplay, which makes all encounters blur together since our response to all situations and mechanics is the same.

 

I keep watching the Patch Notes, but I've yet to see any indication that they even think healing needs fixing, let alone any intention to do so.