What is the best armor for a Bodyguard Mercenary?

[WretchedxEgg]

As the title says I want to know what the best armor for a bodyguard speced mercenary is ;D? Edited August 3, 2012 by WretchedxEgg

[Cold]

PvP or PvE..?

 

And the answer is going to be Black Hole or War Hero's. Unless you elaborate a little.

[iprovoast]

Well, once you get to level 50 pve tiers you're going to want Combat Medic gear for the most part, but without any information we have no clue what your level is.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

All of your gear will need to be some sort of Combat Medic armor. and the more alacrity you have the better. BUT if you have hit the "soft cap" (soft cap means the point when diminshing returns happens) then thats a little much ala. it typicaly will be Endurance < Ala < Aim (meaning endurance is not emportant and aim is most emportant with ala being somewhat important)

[bobmcbo]

All of your gear will need to be some sort of Combat Medic armor. and the more alacrity you have the better. BUT if you have hit the "soft cap" (soft cap means the point when diminshing returns happens) then thats a little much ala. it typicaly will be Endurance < Ala < Aim (meaning endurance is not emportant and aim is most emportant with ala being somewhat important)

 

I've heard that unlike other healers, mercs shouldn't be going for alacrity, since 'the faster you cast, the faster you overheat". I would actually go more for power/crit than alacrity

[Azareal]

I've heard that unlike other healers, mercs shouldn't be going for alacrity, since 'the faster you cast, the faster you overheat". I would actually go more for power/crit than alacrity

 

I would argue that the faster you cast the sooner you can move. Stationary in a RWZ = death. Cast and move, cast and move, this is why BW gave us rapid shots. Fast casts, move while shooting rapids shots for small heal and reduce heat means you survive longer. But maybe I don't know what I'm talking about...

[Cody-licious]

Alacrity is a bit of a double-edged sword for healers -- albeit a blunt double-edged sword, perhaps. But it's faster-casting benefit is balanced by its detrimental effect on heat generation. N.B. I would also say this unwanted negative side-effect is probably more commonly found in sustained PvE fights where there are other ways round the unwanted heat generation, and not so much of a feature in PvP fights.

 

OK, so the theory goes like this. [i'll change the numbers to make my mental arithmetic a bit simpler ]

 

Zero Alacrity: Rapid Scan - Heat Cost 20 - Cast Time 2secs

10% Alacrity: Rapid Scan - Heat Cost 20 - Cast Time 1.8secs

 

During 30secs with Zero Alacrity, you can cast Rapid Scan 15 times and generate 300 heat

In the same time with 10% Alacrity, you can cast Rapid Scan 16 times and generate 320 heat

With this additional heat generation over the same time period, it places additional pressure on you to maintain the optimal heat dissipation level. Obviously, the heat generated is compounded the longer you are held in combat -- hence my earlier comment about this being more of a PvE issue.

 

I'm sure I saw commentary from Devs way back in the mists of time suggesting they were going to be looking into the functionality of Alacrity as a whole, and this unwanted side-effect. But I've seen nothing recently from them on this -- but that could be part of a whole different can of worms...

[HemaOne]

From a pve standpoint as a bodyguard merc, alacrity is probably your worst stat - yet a lot of our set gear comes loaded with the stuff.

 

Aim>Power>Crit(30%)>Surge(75%)>alacrity is what you're aiming for, but tweaking this and still getting fast enough casts to keep up with healing intensive fights requires a bit of swapping about with mods enhancements etc from the stuff we are given.

 

If you haven't got the War hero relic of boundless ages, I'd grab that as the return of power from it is unparalleled. You'll also want to avoid the med-tech blackhole earpeice - it has masses of endurance and less crit than than boltblasters version. (favours crit over endurance.)

 

I also have the campaign relic of boundless ages which is good for moments of fights that need a lot of hard hitting heals, when I pop this, My rapid shots are critting upwards of the 500 mark, and my gear still needs a fair bit of work.

 

People have argued to augment Aim/endurance instead of power/endurance, but after a point, the power augment produces better returns, especially if you're over your crit/surge soft caps and you should have more than enough aim from your gear alone + reflex stim.

 

I don't focus a lot on pvp, so perhaps one of this lovely communities hardcore bodyguard pvp mercs could provide better insight on this area.

[NotRonin]

You should have enough alacrity so you're able to land your 2 major heals with only one hit in between. That requires Healing Scan + Rapid Scan in under 3 seconds.

 

For PvE, the 'BiS' armoring consist or your Rakata/Columi/Tionese being replaced by Black Hole 68aim armoring. The bodypiece armor requires a Mk3 body drop from HM EC, the rest are from BH comm vendor.

 

All the mod should be 54 Aim/41 power, and your enhancement is a mixture of Power/Surge and Power/Alacrity. Earpiece and implant are either crit/.surge or power/alacrity.

[bobmcbo]

surge is probably also a major stat- since your bonus healing determines how powerful rapid shots are.

[DakSomtaaw]

Crap. This probably means I'm going to be picking and choosing black hole gear to rip out the mods.

 

I've got 12% alacrity. About 250 Alacrity Rating

 

My surge is 68% and my crit rating is 30(35 for healing)

 

Should I start ripping out the Boltblaster mods mods