DJs Mercenary Healing Guide For Dummies

[unclekaula]

I tried to read the guide but its disorganized and hard to follow.

[archzai]

That's weird, I have higher stats all across the board with maybe 250 expertise and can't seem to break 5k, at least I haven't noticed, and I doubt I have.

 

I got 5.6k but that involved using kolto missile +5% buff, plus supercharged gas + +power adrenal and i had to get a crit.

[TempestasSilva]

That's weird, I have higher stats all across the board with maybe 250 expertise and can't seem to break 5k, at least I haven't noticed, and I doubt I have.

Maybe after getting the power increase buff?

[TempestasSilva]

I tried to read the guide but its disorganized and hard to follow.

 

Yeah, you know for organizational purposes, there should have been a Table of Contents. Maybe even with clickable links. Oh wait...

[Chorusgirl]

That's weird, I have higher stats all across the board with maybe 250 expertise and can't seem to break 5k, at least I haven't noticed, and I doubt I have.

 

yea definitely get the 15% exp buff then you shouldn't have a problem when you use it with a Rapid Scan, and you can pop Super Charged Gas for good measure. That should definitely get it for ya

[TheHunted]

Thanks for the tips. It's nice to see people do a little bit of work so that the dum*****es and slackers to go off a guide......... then again those people wouldn't really be reading any of this........ well anyway thanks for the tips to look into the BG of the BH. Now i want to dive into my toon even more and tinker with what i got to tweek it quit a bit.

[RuQu]

I enjoyed your guide. I wrote Commando version on the Commando and Healer forums.

 

I've been exploring differences in Mercs and Commandos.

 

I notice you say that your regen has 4 levels:

----Heat Level%-------|-------Bars------|--------Speed-------

------------------------------------------------------------------

---------80+---------------------->----------------Very Slow

--------60-79-------------------->>-----------------Slow

--------40-59------------------->>>--------------Moderate

---------0-39------------------>>>>----------------Fast

 

Can you confirm those values? Sithwarrior.com reports that regen is:

0-40: 5 H/s

40-80: 3H/s

80-100: 2H/s

 

This would align close with the other similar resource classes which have 3 tiers of regen (Ammo and Energy), and those align fairly closely with Trooper levels (0-40%, 40-80% used, and 80-100% used for Mercs vs 0-33.33%, 33.33-75%, 75-100% for Commandos).

 

I would like to suggest you reasses your stance on alacrity. You put up this quote:

Originally Posted by TempestasSilva

Thoughts on Alacrity:

1) its a set bonus for us, so Bioware intended for us to like it.

2) Allows me to cast the same #of spells for the same heat Faster

3) Now have more time to spam rapid shots which increases my healing

4) Now am done casting sooner so my heat starts dissipating sooner.

5) 3+4 = more throughput

 

I would counter:

1) Their intentions matter less than the realities of the stat.

2) This is untrue. The Effective Cost of the spell is "Listed Cost" - "regen while casting." If you cast it faster, you regen less, so the cost goes up. The more alacrity, the more expensive Healing Scan and Rapid Scan become.

3) Yes, you eventually fit in more Rapid Shots, but Rapid Shots is your worst scaling ability. It is instant, so it always takes 1.5s no matter what your alacrity, it has a base healing value of 0 (compared to ~900 for Rapid Scan), and it has a coefficient of 1, so it increases by 1 for every 1 point of Bonus Healing, compared to a coefficient of 2.72 for Rapid Scan. And, due to the increase in EC, you end up fitting in a lot of those extra Rapid Shots during SCG phases, which means they don't even generate CSC charges, so you can't use SCG more often.

4) This is only true if you cast, pause, cast pause. You cannot bank the regen. If you shave 1.5 seconds off of a cast rotation and then wait 1.5s, you will be at a higher Heat level than if you had zero alacrity and finished at the normal time.

5) This ignores the opportunity cost of the larger non-RSh casts you could have been using if you spent your stat budget differently.

 

Finally, I thought you might be interested in the link in my signature. I added Merc healing support to my Combat Medic calculator, using the different Merc mechanics, thresholds, and costs.

[TempestasSilva]

I enjoyed your guide. I wrote Commando version on the Commando and Healer forums.

 

Can you confirm those values? Sithwarrior.com reports that regen is:

0-40: 5 H/s

40-80: 3H/s

80-100: 2H/s

 

I would like to suggest you reasses your stance on alacrity.

 

DJ has been a little busy and has not updated this guide. <nudge> <nudge>

 

 

The sithwarrior regen levels are correct. Also, my comments on Alacrity were spitballed back in December. Things have changed a lot since then. And lightyears with your recent modeling.

[RuQu]

DJ has been a little busy and has not updated this guide. <nudge> <nudge>

 

 

The sithwarrior regen levels are correct. Also, my comments on Alacrity were spitballed back in December. Things have changed a lot since then. And lightyears with your recent modeling.

 

I coded up a new tool into the calculator and posted a thread on the healer forum containing my analysis of the alacrity results.

 

Results will be slightly different for Mercs because you stay in max regen longer than we do.

 

I'll post a new version of my calculator once I convert the alacrity tool over to work for Mercs. That will be version 1.0.6b.

Edited February 16, 2012 by RuQu

[TempestasSilva]

RuQu:

If its not too much trouble, my fellow Bodyguards would love to see your new graphs. I have started a new topic in our forums, I'd love to get your thoughts as we discuss it: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=306667

[djinnerman]

I notice you say that your regen has 4 levels:

 

 

Can you confirm those values? Sithwarrior.com reports that regen is:

0-40: 5 H/s

40-80: 3H/s

80-100: 2H/s

 

I still stand by my values (OH! Except for 3 H/S so thanks for that pointer). I just double checked and the values change from Moderate to Fast when it hits 39. When it hits 40, it stayed on Moderate. When it hits 60, it stays in Slow whereas 59 switches to Moderate.

 

As far as TempestasSilva said, I have definitely been busy. Life crept up on me and my second job has been starting to get me up and going. I have yet to sit down and crack down on reiterating the entire guide to make it up to date as best as I can. It's rough when things change so much, so I tried to leave out a lot of the serious stats out until things get stapled in a little nicely without moving around so much (i.e. - buffs, nerfs, etc.)

 

BTW - I saw your guide I about a couple weeks back I think, great job!

 

PS - Nice calculator too

Edited February 17, 2012 by djinnerman

[RuQu]

Just logged in and checked. Sadly my young BH is a lvl 11 Powertech, but I friendly Merc ran the test for me and confirmed 3 Ammo per second from 40-80, then 2 above 80.

[djinnerman]

Just logged in and checked. Sadly my young BH is a lvl 11 Powertech, but I friendly Merc ran the test for me and confirmed 3 Ammo per second from 40-80, then 2 above 80.

 

I updated it my post and the guide after I realized there was no 4. So thank you for that. However, I'm still picking a bone on Sithwarrior about their values of where and when it starts and stops.

[RuQu]

I updated it my post and the guide after I realized there was no 4. So thank you for that. However, I'm still picking a bone on Sithwarrior about their values of where and when it starts and stops.

 

Just needed to make sure I coded it in right in the Merc calc. Can't get up in arms about the imbalance of all that extra slack you guys get if my numbers were based on a false assumption.

[zeroskaterMHS]

I'm still picking a bone on Sithwarrior about their values of where and when it starts and stops.

 

I was unaware that this disagreement had come up and I can confirm that you are correct about the values of where and when it stops. My guide will be updated this evening to reflect this.

[Chorusgirl]

I would counter:

1) Their intentions matter less than the realities of the stat.

2) This is untrue. The Effective Cost of the spell is "Listed Cost" - "regen while casting." If you cast it faster, you regen less, so the cost goes up. The more alacrity, the more expensive Healing Scan and Rapid Scan become.

 

This is only relevant is you are getting to >39 heat otherwise you are topping people off quicker at no difference in cost. Our abilities don't get more expensive as our alacrity goes up. Your number of casts vs. the dissipation rate will be different as your alacrity goes up. This just means you have to use more free abilities in your conservation rotation.

 

3) Yes, you eventually fit in more Rapid Shots, but Rapid Shots is your worst scaling ability. It is instant, so it always takes 1.5s no matter what your alacrity, it has a base healing value of 0 (compared to ~900 for Rapid Scan), and it has a coefficient of 1, so it increases by 1 for every 1 point of Bonus Healing, compared to a coefficient of 2.72 for Rapid Scan. And, due to the increase in EC, you end up fitting in a lot of those extra Rapid Shots during SCG phases, which means they don't even generate CSC charges, so you can't use SCG more often.

 

Free abilities are free even if they don't scale as well. If you start at 20ish heat when you pop SCG you can spam your heart out till it's over throwing in like 1 emergency scan and you will still remain below 40 heat. You are also squeezing in an extra cast as soon as you're at 220ish alacrity (along with the talents) and that benefits from the extra 10% healing. Resulting in a higher net healing during the cool down. You will have to do a few rapid shots after the rotation but at that point you'll start to build up your charges again.

 

But in all seriousness WTB crit surge enhancements. I wish our rakata didn't have alacrity on every single piece.

[RuQu]

This is only relevant is you are getting to >39 heat otherwise you are topping people off quicker at no difference in cost. Our abilities don't get more expensive as our alacrity goes up. Your number of casts vs. the dissipation rate will be different as your alacrity goes up. This just means you have to use more free abilities in your conservation rotation.

 

If you regularly buy something for $30 that has an instant rebate of $10, and then the store changes the rebate policy to $5, did the price go up? Semantically you can argue that it did not, it was always $30, but the rebate went down. In practical terms (ie all that matters to anyone anywhere), the Effective Cost did go up, because the rebate went down causing more cash to leave your wallet.

 

This is absolutely analogous to the regen of Heat/Ammo. The abilities have a fixed base cost, but Alacrity decreases how much of a rebate you get. The abilities do get more expensive.

 

Now, you are correct, this isn't a problem a decent amount of the time, when you are just chilling in max regen and no one is taking much damage. It only hurts you if you need to cast a bunch of heals in a row.

 

In other words, it doesn't hurt you when you didn't need the Alacrity anyway, it only hurts when you need the boost. Until I see a Dev post saying that is intended, the lack of logic there suggests that this is an unintended consequence of implementing standard haste mechanics in a non-standard resource system.

 

Free abilities are free even if they don't scale as well. If you start at 20ish heat when you pop SCG you can spam your heart out till it's over throwing in like 1 emergency scan and you will still remain below 40 heat. You are also squeezing in an extra cast as soon as you're at 220ish alacrity (along with the talents) and that benefits from the extra 10% healing. Resulting in a higher net healing during the cool down. You will have to do a few rapid shots after the rotation but at that point you'll start to build up your charges again.

 

But in all seriousness WTB crit surge enhancements. I wish our rakata didn't have alacrity on every single piece.

 

Stats don't exist in a vacuum. Any stat that only buffs Hammer/Rapid Shots is a poorly spent stat point. Yes free is free, but weak is also weak.

 

You find $20 in the laundry, and decide to buy better food for the week. Do you stick with the cheap roast and buy expensive organic potatoes and carrots, or buy a better steak? Personally, I say improve what matters most...get a nice steak.

[Zunayson]

Yeah personally I don't see how Alacrity is really all that bad...

 

It allows you to cast faster to get the same healing done in like 1.7 instead of 2 seconds or something. This makes a big difference over time...

 

It allows you to spam rapid shots, yes, which is more healing, which is (again) added up over time.

 

It doesn't make the cost of it go up, but more heat means you can do less - It's still x heat or whatever, and it goes down at the same speed. You just get the healing done faster. Which is always better.

 

Why get +1% healing in the trees? What difference does it make? Oh, yeah it adds over time. All these stats only make a large noticeable difference (Keyword: LARGE) when stacked, including alacrity.

[RuQu]

Yeah personally I don't see how Alacrity is really all that bad...

 

It allows you to cast faster to get the same healing done in like 1.7 instead of 2 seconds or something. This makes a big difference over time...

 

It allows you to spam rapid shots, yes, which is more healing, which is (again) added up over time.

 

It doesn't make the cost of it go up, but more heat means you can do less - It's still x heat or whatever, and it goes down at the same speed. You just get the healing done faster. Which is always better.

 

Why get +1% healing in the trees? What difference does it make? Oh, yeah it adds over time. All these stats only make a large noticeable difference (Keyword: LARGE) when stacked, including alacrity.

 

Rapid Scan costs 25 Heat and takes 2 seconds to cast, during which you regen 10 Heat (<39).

 

That means RSc costs you, out of pocket, 15 Heat. That is the "Effective" or net cost.

 

Now reduce the cast time to 1.6s. The base cost is still 25, but the rebate drops from 10 to 8. The out of pocket price is now 17 Heat.

 

Now that might seem minor, and it probably doesn't matter if you are just topping people off and staying under 39 Heat. But if you are in that relaxed healing mode, the time of the cast doesn't matter either, so why bother with Alacrity? In that mode, alacrity is worthless because you aren't in a hurry. If you are in a hurry, if you are actively healing as much as you can, that heat difference starts to add up and you will cross to 40 heat faster, and once you do the effect compounds.

 

So, again, alacrity does nothing for you when you don't need it, and hurts you when you do.

 

Although to be fair, it isn't quite as bad for you Mercs. Your larger safe resource windows keep you from crossing that line as often. We cross it at the equivalent of 33 Heat instead of 39, and enter low at 25 instead of 20 for you. That makes it even more likely that the (real) increased costs will have a punishing effect.

[Gariuys]

1. You are correct, high alacrity compaired to say higher power does mean you use more heat too heal the same hitpoints..

BUT

2. The only situation where a BG has trouble healing is trying to keep a lot of people alive at the same time, for instance the burn phase of the first boss in EV. Which means that healing faster is more important at those times then healing more.

3. Our heals are already so big, that especially when healing dps you waste quite a bit on overhealing. without popping CD's rapid scan heals are 2600+ and crits are 5000+

 

tl;dr version, bigger heals are nice, but when stuff goes wrong, getting heals out faster and switching targets faster are a far bigger concern then the size of the heal.

 

I'm trying my best to keep crit and surge at 35% and 75% respectively, with alacrity at around 14-15% without the proc, everything else into power.

[RuQu]

1. You are correct, high alacrity compaired to say higher power does mean you use more heat too heal the same hitpoints..

BUT

2. The only situation where a BG has trouble healing is trying to keep a lot of people alive at the same time, for instance the burn phase of the first boss in EV. Which means that healing faster is more important at those times then healing more.

3. Our heals are already so big, that especially when healing dps you waste quite a bit on overhealing. without popping CD's rapid scan heals are 2600+ and crits are 5000+

 

tl;dr version, bigger heals are nice, but when stuff goes wrong, getting heals out faster and switching targets faster are a far bigger concern then the size of the heal.

 

I'm trying my best to keep crit and surge at 35% and 75% respectively, with alacrity at around 14-15% without the proc, everything else into power.

 

You make some very good points, but I think they point at a bigger problem.

 

As you say, we have the most trouble when a lot of people need healing, and we want small fast heals to hit everyone. The problem here is that:

 

1. We lack an effective AoE heal.
   
2. We have no fast expensive heal.
   

 

Don't get me wrong, Kolto Bomb/Missile has some great utility attached to it and is absolutely worth taking, but it counts as an AoE heal only in the strictest definition that it heals people in an area. Even on the first boss of EV, you can't use KB/KM to heal everyone up behind the pillars, you toss it as you run then spam single heals around back there. Or you wait for the Sage/Sorc to drop a real AoE heal.

 

Traditionally healers come with a big slow heal and a small fast heal, with the slower heal being cheaper. You see this with Sages Deliverance vs Benevolence, they cost the same, but one heals for twice as much but takes longer to cast. We have no such tool. Instead of choosing as needed whether we want speed or efficiency, we have to choose that up front and have it apply to all of our healing. Sure we might want fast heals regardless of cost when compensating for our lack of AoE ability, but in pretty much every other situation, that loss of efficiency is bad. A Sage/Sorc (or most any healer from other games) would simply switch back to their slower heal once that phase was done. Mercs/Commandos/Ops/Scoundrels, however, are stuck with the expensive spell for all situations the moment they choose to gear for Alacrity.

[Brad_Pitt]

Rapid Scan costs 25 Heat and takes 2 seconds to cast, during which you regen 10 Heat (<39).

 

That means RSc costs you, out of pocket, 15 Heat. That is the "Effective" or net cost.

 

Now reduce the cast time to 1.6s. The base cost is still 25, but the rebate drops from 10 to 8. The out of pocket price is now 17 Heat.

 

Now that might seem minor, and it probably doesn't matter if you are just topping people off and staying under 39 Heat. But if you are in that relaxed healing mode, the time of the cast doesn't matter either, so why bother with Alacrity? In that mode, alacrity is worthless because you aren't in a hurry. If you are in a hurry, if you are actively healing as much as you can, that heat difference starts to add up and you will cross to 40 heat faster, and once you do the effect compounds.

 

So, again, alacrity does nothing for you when you don't need it, and hurts you when you do.

 

Although to be fair, it isn't quite as bad for you Mercs. Your larger safe resource windows keep you from crossing that line as often. We cross it at the equivalent of 33 Heat instead of 39, and enter low at 25 instead of 20 for you. That makes it even more likely that the (real) increased costs will have a punishing effect.

 

With the surge rating being capped, it actually gives us more of an advantage over classes like operatives and other ones that all use instant moves... They basically cannot get past 80% multiplier, so they took a huge hit, I knew someone who was about 99% multiplier, and they do not benefit from alacrity because its all instant.

 

 

So now my tracer missle/powershots shoot at 1.25 seconds, with alacrity and skill tree.

 

If you are saying I am over heating you got it all wrong buddy. See, normally you would fire off a few heals blah blah rotation.

 

But now you get to use other things to your advantage, renew your kolto shell, that takes a full second to do, loss of 5 heat. Heal someone or shoot an enemy to build back up to your super charged cells, loss of 5 heat, using Cure, electro dart, afterburners can be reduced to 0 heat cost, throw that out there and really pay attention to when you need to use it, easily saves you 5 heat when you do it at the right time.

 

The other thing you are forgetting is that you want to use your vent heat eventually, you almost should purposefully over heat by doing the normal rotation and use no rapid shots just to use vent heat and get the timer started, the longer you wait to use vent heat the longer you are screwing yourself, because you could have made it come back.

 

My example is this.

 

 

I am full healer bh merc, I can shoot about 30+ powershots in a row. Cost 16 heat each time, my cast time is 1.25 seconds.

 

Brings your DPS up a whole lot going from 1.5 to 1.25, and it really is an awesome thing...

 

Heres how I use it

 

Have your combat cylinder fully charged first.

 

Power shot about 8 times in a row, pop your relics for power/crit/surge and adrenal, then pop your super charged cells, venting 16 heat instantly, and if ur in pvp armor its 10s of free powershots( it actually makes u vent 1 heat per powershot if u skill tree the right way) and then ur back to 0 heat when it finishes, then shoot off around 8 more powershots, then pop your vent heat, throw out maybe 1 rapid shot for good measure to make sure your heat is going to 0, then fire another 8 powershots.

 

It can really ruin someones day when you release that on them, and it is pure enjoyment if you pop your shield/relic/adrenal/medpac/instant heal/koltoshel/healingscan(10% armor boost) with kolto missle(10% dmg reduction) and you just fly up to 80% dmg reduction for 12 seconds, and powershot away until they die.

 

 

If you ever noticed, this is what a repub commando does, and thats why its really hard to kill one sometimes if they pop all their stuff at same time.

 

80% dmg reduction means if you were to hit a 4k crit you would only hit an 800, and my kolto shell would heal me for 350-750 + my heal over time 200-450 every 3 seconds.

 

invincible

[RuQu]

With the surge rating being capped, it actually gives us more of an advantage over classes like operatives and other ones that all use instant moves... They basically cannot get past 80% multiplier, so they took a huge hit, I knew someone who was about 99% multiplier, and they do not benefit from alacrity because its all instant.

 

Within the context of current itemization where the gearing choices are limited to Power vs Crit and Surge vs Alacrity, this is an interesting and worthwhile point. It is quite possible to get way too much Surge, and there is nothing else to put it in. Sure Power and Crit might be far better than Alacrity, but that isn't a real gearing option.

 

 

But now you get to use other things to your advantage, renew your kolto shell, that takes a full second to do, loss of 5 heat. Heal someone or shoot an enemy to build back up to your super charged cells, loss of 5 heat, using Cure, electro dart, afterburners can be reduced to 0 heat cost, throw that out there and really pay attention to when you need to use it, easily saves you 5 heat when you do it at the right time.

 

Keep in mind this distinction, which is largely what I'm trying to draw attention to. You don't "get to" cast those other abilities, you "have to." Many players are used to a more intuitive haste mechanic where increasing it leads to a flat HPS/DPS increase, and lets you do more of what you were already doing. Alacrity does not do that. At best, it lets you do your main abilities slightly faster, but does not let you do more of them in a given time window. Instead it fills in that extra time with weak/utility abilities, and if you try to use the extra time for extra real heals/dps, you will suffer for it. At worst, for a class like Commandos, you actually get to use those main heals/attacks less, and replace them with cheap fillers.

 

The other thing you are forgetting is that you want to use your vent heat eventually, you almost should purposefully over heat by doing the normal rotation and use no rapid shots just to use vent heat and get the timer started, the longer you wait to use vent heat the longer you are screwing yourself, because you could have made it come back.

 

Part of the problem is that we are discussing Apples and Oranges. You are talking about doing DPS as a Bodyguard, I am discussing healing as one. Healers can't just blow their resource early then pop Vent Heat and go on like normal, because if there is no damage to heal, the extra is wasted. Sure you could DPS the boss, pop VH, then go on to heal, but you just burned an emergency button you might need at some point to save people. Not many healers would do that.

 

PVP DPS example

If you ever noticed, this is what a repub commando does, and thats why its really hard to kill one sometimes if they pop all their stuff at same time.

 

80% dmg reduction means if you were to hit a 4k crit you would only hit an 800, and my kolto shell would heal me for 350-750 + my heal over time 200-450 every 3 seconds.

 

invincible

 

Again, I don't think this is relevant as PvP DPS has very little in common with PvE Healing.

[Brad_Pitt]

Within the context of current itemization where the gearing choices are limited to Power vs Crit and Surge vs Alacrity, this is an interesting and worthwhile point. It is quite possible to get way too much Surge, and there is nothing else to put it in. Sure Power and Crit might be far better than Alacrity, but that isn't a real gearing option.

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind this distinction, which is largely what I'm trying to draw attention to. You don't "get to" cast those other abilities, you "have to." Many players are used to a more intuitive haste mechanic where increasing it leads to a flat HPS/DPS increase, and lets you do more of what you were already doing. Alacrity does not do that. At best, it lets you do your main abilities slightly faster, but does not let you do more of them in a given time window. Instead it fills in that extra time with weak/utility abilities, and if you try to use the extra time for extra real heals/dps, you will suffer for it. At worst, for a class like Commandos, you actually get to use those main heals/attacks less, and replace them with cheap fillers.

 

 

 

Part of the problem is that we are discussing Apples and Oranges. You are talking about doing DPS as a Bodyguard, I am discussing healing as one. Healers can't just blow their resource early then pop Vent Heat and go on like normal, because if there is no damage to heal, the extra is wasted. Sure you could DPS the boss, pop VH, then go on to heal, but you just burned an emergency button you might need at some point to save people. Not many healers would do that.

 

 

 

Again, I don't think this is relevant as PvP DPS has very little in common with PvE Healing.

 

 

 

Healing is beyond your grasp if you don't understand what I said...

 

How are you ever overheating as a bh merc healer?

 

I am 60 valor, have almost full rakata gear, and usually I am the sole healer for our operations on normal mode, and I was the sole healer for kragga's palace on hard mode...

 

Never overheated once bro...

 

ME

Bonus healing 550ish

35% crit chance

73% multiplier

Healing scan 1.25s cast time

Rapid scan Almost lower than 1.7s (roughly off hand)

 

each healing scan reduces rapid scan by 16 heat, so it only costs me 9 to cast it.

 

using super charged cells vents 16 heat, the proper rotation is.

 

super charged gas, kolto missle(for 5% extra healing buff on them), healing scan(for heal over time + armor buff), emegency scan(to lower heat a bit), rapid scan, healing scan, rapid scan, kolto missle, rapid shots, healing scan, rapid scan, rapid scan, renew kolto shell(free),

 

and also somewhere in there you can pop your powersurge or wahtever its called that makes your next move cost nothing.

 

you want to use that right after u hit 40 heat, so ur vent at a rate of 5 heat per second and while casting ur not using any heat.

 

you will never over heat doing this ever, and if you do, just pop your vent heat.... super charged gas is so easy to build up thats all u ever need to do

Edited March 4, 2012 by Brad_Pitt

[Brad_Pitt]

Within the context of current itemization where the gearing choices are limited to Power vs Crit and Surge vs Alacrity, this is an interesting and worthwhile point. It is quite possible to get way too much Surge, and there is nothing else to put it in. Sure Power and Crit might be far better than Alacrity, but that isn't a real gearing option.

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind this distinction, which is largely what I'm trying to draw attention to. You don't "get to" cast those other abilities, you "have to." Many players are used to a more intuitive haste mechanic where increasing it leads to a flat HPS/DPS increase, and lets you do more of what you were already doing. Alacrity does not do that. At best, it lets you do your main abilities slightly faster, but does not let you do more of them in a given time window. Instead it fills in that extra time with weak/utility abilities, and if you try to use the extra time for extra real heals/dps, you will suffer for it. At worst, for a class like Commandos, you actually get to use those main heals/attacks less, and replace them with cheap fillers.

 

 

 

Part of the problem is that we are discussing Apples and Oranges. You are talking about doing DPS as a Bodyguard, I am discussing healing as one. Healers can't just blow their resource early then pop Vent Heat and go on like normal, because if there is no damage to heal, the extra is wasted. Sure you could DPS the boss, pop VH, then go on to heal, but you just burned an emergency button you might need at some point to save people. Not many healers would do that.

 

 

 

Again, I don't think this is relevant as PvP DPS has very little in common with PvE Healing.

 

 

 

Lowering rapid scan down to 1.7s .

 

THerefore assuming you cast it 5 times in a row, (you wouldnt really because of heat)

 

thats 5 * 1.7 vs 5 * 2.0 of what your saying

 

so its 8.5seconds vs 10 seconds.

 

in that 1.5 seconds you could have casted emergency scan, or a healing scan...

 

 

If you notice almost all healing gear has alacrity and power for a reason..

 

power gives you a higher percentage of healing than adding in crit + surge.

 

crit + surge is good to a certain point, around 250 surge is to much with current update cuz u hit a huge drop in gain from it, same for crit chance.

 

hence why power/alacrity is what good healers use.

 

 

so now that you understand its better to stack power/alacrity, because it heals more and heals faster, what is your problem? if you are over heating refer to my above post on why you're doing it wrong

 

WRONG

WRONG