Combat Medics, how are you doing in WZ's ?

[stendarrs]

This discussion is only in reference to unranked WZ's. I've been running an assault DPS commando for quiite a while and do very well with damage. I've got 8 WH pieces (eliminator) and the rest BM. I had noticed an incredible lack of any healing in WZ's lately so I decided to bite the bullet and just respec for healing. I had never healed before so I got some practice with PVE before moving on to PVP. My gear is obviously not made for healing so I don't expect to put up the best numbers. At this point I consider a "good" match for me to be about 100K damage with 200K heals. I'm curious what the pure medics with good combat medic gear are able to do in comparison. I would say that based on my small sample of matches so far my winning percentage is higher when I'm playing a heal spec rather than pure damage. I think this is more a result of the fact that it's better to have at least 1 healer than no healers, not so much that I have mad healing skills.

 

Also, any tips on countering pyrotechs? My "heavy" armor pretty much melts like butter and I just can't heal through the damage. Does the combat medic gear give you the ability to heal through a pyro or do I just need to stun/run?

 

I also find it pretty sucky that the "green beam of death" is almost totally useless in PvP. It would be nice to weave it in for ammo conservation and build stacks for SCC but as soon as you light that thing up it's like the entire enemy teams stops what they're doing and kills you in 3 seconds.

[wulfparn]

i'm running as full war hero geard and full heal specced (31/8/2) commando in normal warzones and in ranked ones.

 

Normal Warzones: in a pug or 4-man-premade its easy even with no optimal support... its all about position and kiting. My personal goal is always to reach like 300-400k (sometimes more sometimes less) heals in every wz. The numbers don't say much because they vary because of so many factors (other healers with you, enemy level of focussing you, your teammates skill etc.) but you asked for some guide line. The times where you could try to go for 100-200k dmg and the same in heals are over... especially when you are the only healer in a warzone cause you'll be out of ammo in 1-2 rotations when you try to dps and to keep up your mates. So for me its heal or no heal ^^

 

Ranked Warzones: completely different story. And a sad one. First of all my rating is not high (14xx) and i've done only 50-60 matches so far. If i'm not mistaken i've seen 1 mercenary healer so far in RWZ and thats it. Every other team is running 2 operative healers or 1 operative 1 sorc. Cause there is simply no reason to choose a commando over any of the two other classes. We don't have better survivability (with 1300 expertise, 20,5k hp) i get hacked into pieces in seconds. We don't have the better heals + we are highly stationary healers so the most important thing is a pro guard tank and awesome kill+cc support from your teammates.

 

to underline this a bit with numbers: tonight we had a rwz match in alderaan civil war where the middle node remained uncapped for the entire match (10:0 for us in the end... yay ^^). Due to the lack of ppl we were running a suboptimal setup with 3 healers and no tanks. 2 scoundrel healers and me as a commando. As you could imagine from the end result it was an intense fight at the middle node and the healing numbers in the end were as follows:

scoundrel 1: 1.060.000 (thats over 1 milion heals from one player... haven't seen this before...not even in voidstar)

scoundrel 2: around 800.000

me: 500.000

 

you always heal less when you got 2 strong players with you but there i got clearly outclassed. Both scoundrels outhealed me for 300-500k ^^. so sick. I'm seriously thinking about rolling dps now lol xD

 

p.s.

 

scoundrel/operative healer are op /cry

[Chaoskyx]

...kiting.

 

Combat Medics cannot kite, they have no kiting abilities.

[aethertongue]

If you're going to be a healer, it's probably best to focus on just healing, don't try to DPS. If your team makeup includes pure healers, then your current equipment may make you a moderate DPSer / off-healer, but really, you need to choose to do one or the other or you're not really benefitting your team much; no one wants a "kind of, sort of" DPSer or Healer on their team.

 

I don't have full WH yet (5 or 6 pcs w/ the rest BM), but I average around 300k healing per match. I hit 400-500k every few matches, it really depends on how much I get focused fired.

 

You're going to get focused fired, you're simply going to have to learn to live with this. You'll die a lot, and it can get frustrating, but with experience, you can become fairly hard to kill and able to escape and evade.

 

Learn to become invisible and hide in plain sight, consulting a Shao Lin monk may be of use here. You can't stand out in the open and cast heals, any competent enemy is going to take note of this. You also don't want to make it a habit of standing in the back, that's where most healers and ranged DPS like to stand, and enemy DPS know this. Use Line of Sight to your advantage (just be aware that your teammates are most likely not paying attention to this aspect and will LOS you, so....

 

One of the best things you can learn is how to be a mobile healer; Scoundrels/Operatives aren't the only ones good at this, they're just... well, the best at it. Your biggest heals do require you to stand still, but they're not your only heals. Learn to make good use of Bacta Infusion and Kolto Bomb while on the move, and use these two abilities often. I don't remember the name off-hand, but we do have an ability that makes our next ability with a cast time an insta-cast, this is great for getting your Medical Probe off on a near-death teammate (or yourself), and since it is insta-cast, it can be performed while moving. Weave in and out of the fight (never make it easy on melee DPS to hit you, move around -- I believe this is actually what someone earlier was referring to as 'kiting'), get behind the enemy (many PvPers suffer from tunnel vision and bad situational awareness; use this to your advantage). While evading, try to run into the LOS of any known tanks, hopefully they have enough sense to realize what is going on (scream like a grandmother if you have to), then peel your attackers for you and/or put Guard on you if you're not currently guarded.

 

Which brings up another point: if a tank has placed Guard on you, remember that the range is limited and you will need to stay near the person guarding you when attacked or Guard will not benefit you.

 

While you may think of Hammer Shot (glowing beam of death) as not so useful, I beg to differ. You can put out a lot of useful healing with your Hammer Shot for free and all while on the run, so you might as well use it, even if it does cramp your Shao Lin style (/rimshot). In my opinion, there are times when using your notoriety as a healer is a benefit to your team; use it to draw away enemies, make them lock their tunnel vision on you while a teammate stealth caps an objective.

 

Against Pyros, you will want to use your Field Aid ability to cleanse their fire DoTs as often as possible. Use this on yourself and your teammates; it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who is on fire... because, they're on fire. If you spec into Psych Aid, Field Aid will also remove mental effects and provide a minor heal; this is an insta-cast ability, yet another mobile healing tool.

 

Remember that you can't be Interrupted (though you can be Stunned and Knocked back) while your Reactive Shield is up, so save that for when it will benefit you the most. If specced into Med Zone, you also receive a bonus to self-healing while Reactive Shield is up. Yes, you'll want that.

 

Your Commando Knockback ability is also good for saving your hide; you probably already know how to use this to your benefit having been a DPS Commando. As a healer, it buys you an extra second or two to get off a self-heal when in trouble; if you can knock someone over a ledge (like in Huttball), even better.

 

Learn to 'bait' classes that have interrupts by beginning to cast an ability other than a heal; this doesn't always work, but in my experience, it works more often than not.

 

That's about all the advice I can think of off the top of my head. It really does come down to experience, though. If you enjoy healing, I do recommend switching over to the Combat Medic gear as soon as you can, it is a big help and even just getting the Battlemaster gear will benefit you.

[Naariss]

CM have a great group heal!!

Run ahead and show your self "Hey Im healer" All enemy will gang up you. Self heal Stim or do something to survive long as you can. This mean you can save you friend's HP Bcuz they ane not attacked.

[MasterFeign]

I just got my CM to level 50, so I'm running with some recruit and BM gear. I'd say that commando healers are still on par with scoundrel ones, but mostly in huttball. I find in huttball that sorc healers still pull the better numbers.

 

CMs are better individual healers and great if you stick to the ball carrier. I find that throwing up the shield (to have uninterupted heals also helps to peel opponents off of you while you try to frantically heal.

 

The CM is also my first ever healer, as I've only played ACs on the imp side that don't have the healer option.

 

I would like to think I play the class right as well. That while I don't have huge DPS numbers my healing is significant enough to help out the team. I dps mostly to CC someone or stop a cap. It's still possible to solo someone if you do some kiting and self healing.

[Venzun]

i'm running as full war hero geard and full heal specced (31/8/2) commando in normal warzones and in ranked ones.

 

Normal Warzones: in a pug or 4-man-premade its easy even with no optimal support... its all about position and kiting. My personal goal is always to reach like 300-400k (sometimes more sometimes less) heals in every wz. The numbers don't say much because they vary because of so many factors (other healers with you, enemy level of focussing you, your teammates skill etc.) but you asked for some guide line. The times where you could try to go for 100-200k dmg and the same in heals are over... especially when you are the only healer in a warzone cause you'll be out of ammo in 1-2 rotations when you try to dps and to keep up your mates. So for me its heal or no heal ^^

 

Not to be a jerk, but I heal 300-400K in full BM gear with pugs. With full war hero you should be consistently hitting around 500k with a decent pug. What is your rotation? Also, I agree with you that healers should focus on healing in WZ and forget about DPS'ing.

[Kaesoron]

This discussion is only in reference to unranked WZ's. I've been running an assault DPS commando for quiite a while and do very well with damage. I've got 8 WH pieces (eliminator) and the rest BM. I had noticed an incredible lack of any healing in WZ's lately so I decided to bite the bullet and just respec for healing. I had never healed before so I got some practice with PVE before moving on to PVP. My gear is obviously not made for healing so I don't expect to put up the best numbers. At this point I consider a "good" match for me to be about 100K damage with 200K heals. I'm curious what the pure medics with good combat medic gear are able to do in comparison. I would say that based on my small sample of matches so far my winning percentage is higher when I'm playing a heal spec rather than pure damage. I think this is more a result of the fact that it's better to have at least 1 healer than no healers, not so much that I have mad healing skills.

 

I feel that I do ok, I have a mix of WH/BM a good game for me is 300k, I dont worry too much about my DPS, if your shooting an enemy your not healing a teammate and probably wasting ammo. I can never seem to keep up with sages or scoundrels no matter how well I play. There are soo many factors that will affect your final statistics every game will be different. My only problem is a lack of real mobility, I think the imperials know this, from my experience I tend to get focused and burnt down pretty quickly by small groups.

 

Also, any tips on countering pyrotechs? My "heavy" armor pretty much melts like butter and I just can't heal through the damage. Does the combat medic gear give you the ability to heal through a pyro or do I just need to stun/run?

Pyrotechs are the bane of my life, its very difficult to heal through almost impossible if they are better geared, constantly cleansing your self with field aid is the only way to stay alive. I usually run the other way when I see a pyrotech aiming for me

 

I also find it pretty sucky that the "green beam of death" is almost totally useless in PvP. It would be nice to weave it in for ammo conservation and build stacks for SCC but as soon as you light that thing up it's like the entire enemy teams stops what they're doing and kills you in 3 seconds.

I barely even use it, and its effect is pitifull. Edited July 15, 2012 by Kaesoron

[Tugoro]

Mine heals for 350 a tick with trauma debuff an 425 with no debuff that's crits of course I think it's around 300 and 400ish respectively

[Easpeak]

In regular WZs I do around 240-360k heals. In rated WZs I do 360-550k depending on the instance and I am not usually guarded - that's reserved for the more squishy healer. Yes they do swap guards but for the most part it's like that.

 

Compared to other healer classes I heal about 100-200k less than they do, if they are good healers.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Easpeak

[stendarrs]

Thanks for all the great input/advice so far. Here are some things that I think I have been doing wrong and have been working on based on the advice I've read:

 

-I almost never used kolto bomb...ever. I found it frustrating to continually "miss" targets and watch a green cloud that does nothing. I'm going to change my keybind and just work on tossing these on the fly.

-Trauma probe can/needs to be moved around. I grossly misunderstood the mechanic of this ability and would leave it on a person that did not need it or would not recast on someone that did. (including myself) It seems like it's great to cast TP right at the start but it's also an "oh crap" ability as it's instant.

-I need to save Bacta as another "oh crap" ability. I was originally using it fairly liberally and then finding myself on the run with no insta-heal (outside of medpacs).

-Knowing when to run. This one is tough for me because I hate the idea of running around while I watch my teammates life bar drop down. I'll have to use kolto bomb in these cases and I guess turn on the green beam of death. (I still can't believe we have that while the imperial mirror class just looks like a regular shooting animation)

-Last but definitely not least is leaving my dps mentality behind. I'm going to try to only dps in small 2v1 or 2v2 fights on the node to try to burn down faster. My HIB still hits hard so I can open with a cryo/HIB/full with a teammate focusing fire and burn someone down pretty fast. In the larger battles it's just heals from now on.

 

Thanks again for all the input and please feel free to keep it coming.

[Aaoogaa]

Save your cryo to help you kite away from an enemy. If you have the ammo to throw in some damage open up with your fire grenade then hib...two abilities that can account for good damage. The biggest thing is to find someone to guard you and break up the DPS train. If you get that you will enjoy the class...if not it is up hill both ways since it is easier to coordinate DPS on a target with a rather large icon over their heads.

[MasterFeign]

For trauma probe, I always cast it on myself at the very beginning (behind the gate), then I'll either give it to a ball carrier, a tank who is guarding me, or if 2 of us are guarding a node. That green beam for me has been very useful. If I am not so high on ammo, I can use that and often I am close to using supercharge cells, which I'll pop asap.

 

The only thing I don't like about the green beam is that it makes it more obvious who the healer is than the BH equivalent. Sure it's just a matter of process of elimination, but when you have a cluster of people, and the BH healer hasn't been marked yet, it's at times hard to tell where the healing is coming from.

[JattaGin]

The times where you could try to go for 100-200k dmg and the same in heals are over... especially when you are the only healer in a warzone cause you'll be out of ammo in 1-2 rotations when you try to dps and to keep up your mates. So for me its heal or no heal ^^

 

I never had those times times because I started my commando after the nerf. However, I manage to get 100-200k damage and heals, albeit mostly on the lower end of the scale. And it of course depends on the group. On my server we have an excess of healers at the moment, so there are usually 3-4 healers in my group, with me being the only commando healer. Since I know I would be the least productive healer, I usually take the role of the allrounder and even though someone here said this does not help much, I think the contrary - again: depending on the group.

 

I support the other healers and the DPS - sometimes I even go close in and pretend to be a tank (which is ridiculous but someone has to do it) - and most importantly, I try to cap all the time. I plant the bombs, I get the turrets and the huts. This is mainly - and here comes my criticism on the rotation - because most healers and DPS only do "their" job and nothing else. In Voidstar (attacking round) for example, this annoys me: We have no deaths, but we don't get behind the first door. Why? Because I am the only one trying to plant the bomb and that makes it easy for the defenders. They only need to focus on me and they know they won (if they attacked first and got the door). I dislike seeing 500k heals with zero (or only few) objective points and having lost with 0 turrets or before the first door. I then know that the player was only doing his/her rotation, probably not even watching the game progression, but just the OP interface. For me, the most important in warzones is the objectives. And I give up healing for a cap if it seems appropriate.

 

So, my advice is to be prepared to leave the usual rotation behind. You won't have a too good healing score, but you get enough medals for other stuff and well, someone has to try to do something for the win. The other healers are too weak, so if the DPS, tanks or stealthers are not doing their job (if they are present at all), who if not us can do their job? As I said, what are zero deaths worth if you lose?

 

(This might be a special situation on my server and/or the groups I get in. I do not claim to be right on anything, but it works the best for me at the moment. Just wanted to give another point of view to the thread opener to consider.)

[Saltydogg]

Combat Medics cannot kite, they have no kiting abilities.

 

According to everyone else who doesnt play a commando medic we can kite all we want.

[Renita]

i'm running as full war hero geard and full heal specced (31/8/2) commando in normal warzones and in ranked ones.

 

Normal Warzones: in a pug or 4-man-premade its easy even with no optimal support... its all about position and kiting. My personal goal is always to reach like 300-400k (sometimes more sometimes less) heals in every wz. The numbers don't say much because they vary because of so many factors (other healers with you, enemy level of focussing you, your teammates skill etc.) but you asked for some guide line. The times where you could try to go for 100-200k dmg and the same in heals are over... especially when you are the only healer in a warzone cause you'll be out of ammo in 1-2 rotations when you try to dps and to keep up your mates. So for me its heal or no heal ^^

 

Ranked Warzones: completely different story. And a sad one. First of all my rating is not high (14xx) and i've done only 50-60 matches so far. If i'm not mistaken i've seen 1 mercenary healer so far in RWZ and thats it. Every other team is running 2 operative healers or 1 operative 1 sorc. Cause there is simply no reason to choose a commando over any of the two other classes. We don't have better survivability (with 1300 expertise, 20,5k hp) i get hacked into pieces in seconds. We don't have the better heals + we are highly stationary healers so the most important thing is a pro guard tank and awesome kill+cc support from your teammates.

 

to underline this a bit with numbers: tonight we had a rwz match in alderaan civil war where the middle node remained uncapped for the entire match (10:0 for us in the end... yay ^^). Due to the lack of ppl we were running a suboptimal setup with 3 healers and no tanks. 2 scoundrel healers and me as a commando. As you could imagine from the end result it was an intense fight at the middle node and the healing numbers in the end were as follows:

scoundrel 1: 1.060.000 (thats over 1 milion heals from one player... haven't seen this before...not even in voidstar)

scoundrel 2: around 800.000

me: 500.000

 

you always heal less when you got 2 strong players with you but there i got clearly outclassed. Both scoundrels outhealed me for 300-500k ^^. so sick. I'm seriously thinking about rolling dps now lol xD

 

p.s.

 

scoundrel/operative healer are op /cry

 

 

They probably were able to heal for so much because I assume you have kolto bomb talented to buff heals. I would also assume you used kolto bomb pretty much everytime it was off cooldown. That buff helps all heals including you buddy scoundrels as well as the self heals people do. I am not saying that 1 million heals is not impressive, but they should probably thank you for buffing their heals. Once when I was healing with my buddy scoundrel he healed me for nearly 8k in a single heal due to me having my sheild up and kolto residue.

 

Another misleading thing about commando healing numbers is if you use supercharge cells religiously we are sheilding players, preventing them from taking 5 percent damage. While sages/sorcs get credit for their bubbles, I don't think we get credit for preventing that damage.

 

I have never healed in ranked yet, my highest heals is 518k, this was a full length void star against an amazing premade, and yes I had a pocket tank. It was a close match, but we took too long to plant the first door, they got through the bridge and we did not.

 

I only have like 2 pieces of war hero, rest battlemaster, but most of my gear is augmented.

[MoofKnight]

I've just dinged 50 and got full recruit + WH cannon + BM Helmet (yes, I saved up all tokens until 50). I've pretty much exclusively levelled via PvP so here's my take on things.

 

1) Hammer Shot: you get stacks even when you DPS with it. So, if you want to "cover-up" the fact your a healer by not igniting the green bar of "here I'm a healer come focus me" then tab to the nearest target and shoot them the switch back to your healing target (as long as you're not going to break a soft mez).

 

2) Kolto Bomb: It's a shame the shield this procs doesn't count as protection. It's awesome and I throw that stuff about whenever I have 30 stacks. Throw it around anyway even if you don't have 30 stacks you can pop.

 

3) We aren't the best healers, so don't be afraid to throw in a little DPS. I frequently use mortar volley, it's great on nodes and doors when there's a battle going on. Remember, it's everyone's job to interupt cappers, and you're not going to do that by healing.

 

4) CC. We have 2 that are worth it. Cryo and the longer soft mez. If you spot a healer who is doing your head in and not getting focus, hit them with Cryo. In a panic they will pop their cooldown to clear it. This is great for us as we can then follow up with the longer soft mez and lock them down for a while. The same works with Pyro's. But you also have an AOE knockback.

 

5) Trauma probe: Move it about. No point sticking it on a node defender who is sat twiddling their thumbs.

 

6) Don't give up. We may not be OP, but I think we're still fun to play. You don't have to top the meters to get the MVP awards. People know commando healers are weak, so if it's clear you're playing it well and doing a job for the team, you'll get the rewards.

[Awthtem]

I believe one of the biggest factors here that no one is touching on is how important gear is - not only what you have on, but what does the other team have. Stats and results will be extremely varied depending on this. Like someone else said the factors here are endless. I do agree though that other healers, in most situations, tend to outheal us.

[Jay_Stocker]

According to everyone else who doesnt play a commando medic we can kite all we want.

 

so true

[gwyneira]

I just wanna thank everyone for the advice given in this tread. I am curently lvling a cm and had been a bit fearful about trying out wzs. I'm gonna bite the bullet and give it a go tonight though.

[Saltydogg]

I just got my CM to level 50, so I'm running with some recruit and BM gear. I'd say that commando healers are still on par with scoundrel ones, but mostly in huttball. I find in huttball that sorc healers still pull the better numbers.

 

CMs are better individual healers and great if you stick to the ball carrier. I find that throwing up the shield (to have uninterupted heals also helps to peel opponents off of you while you try to frantically heal.

 

The CM is also my first ever healer, as I've only played ACs on the imp side that don't have the healer option.

 

I would like to think I play the class right as well. That while I don't have huge DPS numbers my healing is significant enough to help out the team. I dps mostly to CC someone or stop a cap. It's still possible to solo someone if you do some kiting and self healing.

 

LOL you do know that throwing up the shield doesnt mean crap in this game. You can still be force choked even with the shield up. The only time shield will ever work is if you are full resolve and pop the shield. This is the largest failed class since the 1.2 patch. All the advice you have given here is just not correct. In a ranked WZ you will spend the majority of your time self healing. That does nothing to help your team. Sticking to the ball carrier is almost impossible seeing that we are a non mobile healer, not to mention knock back etc in hutball. The combat medic is garbage you might as well go assult with your healing gear. I can get great numbers dpsing even though I have all WH medic gear.

[Aaoogaa]

They probably were able to heal for so much because I assume you have kolto bomb talented to buff heals. I would also assume you used kolto bomb pretty much everytime it was off cooldown. That buff helps all heals including you buddy scoundrels as well as the self heals people do. I am not saying that 1 million heals is not impressive, but they should probably thank you for buffing their heals. Once when I was healing with my buddy scoundrel he healed me for nearly 8k in a single heal due to me having my sheild up and kolto residue.

 

Another misleading thing about commando healing numbers is if you use supercharge cells religiously we are sheilding players, preventing them from taking 5 percent damage. While sages/sorcs get credit for their bubbles, I don't think we get credit for preventing that damage.

 

I have never healed in ranked yet, my highest heals is 518k, this was a full length void star against an amazing premade, and yes I had a pocket tank. It was a close match, but we took too long to plant the first door, they got through the bridge and we did not.

 

I only have like 2 pieces of war hero, rest battlemaster, but most of my gear is augmented.

 

3% buff to 1mil heals is...ta da 30k healing. 5% reduction to 1million damage is ta da 50K damage. These aren't the reasons. CM is underperforming atm in pvp.

[Pizakel]

Im 32/6/3 and with my exotech stamina stim I have over 22.5k health so I would say gear is def a big factor, one of the Shadow Tanks I have in my guild I have MORE damage reduction then he does. In non-ranked WZs im usually doing 235k + heals minimum every time. I DONT use Kolto Residue and i dont LOS as much as I should .

 

Before I got my WH gear (only missing two pieces now) I speced into the Alacrity stuff a lot id suggest you use that, remember that LOS is important especially with all our casting times. I personally use the Reactive Shield + healing and I do feel that most ppl have a hard time burning me down super quick 1v1 (unless its a power tech)

 

Then again I have a lot of health (usually the most or 2nd most on Repub side in a lot of WZs) so that could be it too

 

Just get that gear and learn to position yourself well!

 

If your DPS teammates are good sometimes remember that you DO have heavy armor on and use that as a strat. IF you know the other team cant kill you let them jump on you while your DPS burns them down. I also usually can do the first or last chunk of ball carrying in Huttball as well with all the speccing into Reactive Shield i have!

 

And dont forgot you dont have the quickest heals but they hit pretty nice so if you have a tank buddy pair up with his guard on you and youll be VERY hard to kill!