subcultured Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 hey guys ive just returned from a year long break and I remember mercenaries being awesome healers a year ago are they still good? or have they been nerfed etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blyndfayth Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 They are now considered to be the worst out of the 3 healing classes. Very useful for certain situations, but there's nothing a Merc healer can do that the other 2 classes (Sorc and Ops) couldn't do better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subcultured Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Even for very experienced merc healer vs a noob sorc healer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kallishnikov Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 As a 50 Merc Healer, I can only say, it depends. Heat management is the ultimate crux. With the right gear and a good rotation, you can heal your butt off and keep friends alive in PVP and PVE, but there is one fight that I've tried a dozen times and can't heal through. At the end of the Lost Island, both normal and hard mode, I cannot get my group through it. The random damage from the boss is too much for me to handle. I know it's not a gear issue, I'm in all Columni or better. Skill wise, I've healed everything up to this point without breaking a sweat, so it's a luck of the draw problem. Look around at the forums, the Healing Guides posted here really helped me out. Based on limited experience, the Mercenary Healer can handle just about any thing the other classes can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blyndfayth Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Even for very experienced merc healer vs a noob sorc healer? I've been a Merc healer since day 1, and yes, as an experienced Merc healer I can outperform a noob sorc. Yet as soon as that noob sorc becomes competent, not even experienced, but competent with his/her class they can outperform me with little difficulty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blyndfayth Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 As a 50 Merc Healer, I can only say, it depends. Heat management is the ultimate crux. With the right gear and a good rotation, you can heal your butt off and keep friends alive in PVP and PVE, but there is one fight that I've tried a dozen times and can't heal through. At the end of the Lost Island, both normal and hard mode, I cannot get my group through it. The random damage from the boss is too much for me to handle. I know it's not a gear issue, I'm in all Columni or better. Skill wise, I've healed everything up to this point without breaking a sweat, so it's a luck of the draw problem. Look around at the forums, the Healing Guides posted here really helped me out. Based on limited experience, the Mercenary Healer can handle just about any thing the other classes can. I agree, heat management is the key to a Merc healer, and we can kick arse in PvP and PvE, but as I've stated before, Sorcs and Ops can do everything we do, and do it better. For example, I'm almost completely in full EWH with full Reflex augments on everything, and I happened to be in a match in a WZ with a Sorc I know to actually be very good at thier class, although I'm unsure of thier gear. We both had plenty of people to heal throughout the whole match, yet even though I was virtually left alone and the Sorc was constantly harrassed, the Sorc was still able to put up a good 200k more in healing than I was. With tooting my own horn, I'm actually very good at my class, so it's not about learning to play my class, it's just that back towards the beginning Mercs in general got nerfed because other players didn't know how to handle us at the time. Now that they do, however, we've yet to get buffed to make up for our previous loss. Needless to say, we are currently sitting on the bottom of the barrel. If you like to be challenged though, like I do, then this is definitly the class for you, or maybe a Madness Assassin (for PvP). As for the LI issue, is the problem occuring during the last phase? If it is, is your group all grouped together with thier back to a wall? If not they should be. You can just keep dropping your Kolto bomb when it's up and should be throwing out any additional extra heals on those that need it. If that still doesn't work then it's probably not your fault at all, you just don't have enough DPS to get him down in time before you overheat for the 2nd time. Healers are typically the first to be blamed for any wipes, even though it may not be our fault at all. The best of luck to you though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedudeabidesman Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 My merc is full black hole/campaign and I heal just fine in my weekly ops group. In terms of numbers, we will never ever be able to outperform a sorc: their donut wins it all. What Bioware needs to do is change the kolto missile to act similarly to the donut: drop a load of kolto residue on the ground and anyone who runs through it gets healed. Then you'll see Merc healing numbers on par with the others....don't forget, a lot of healing they do is over-healing, and the sorc healer in my group runs out of force far more frequently than my heat is too high Otherwise, like any other class and spec in the game, if you're a good player and can manage your heat well, you'll be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesAustin Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Thought I'd throw my two cents in.. While im no means pro I've recently got BiS gear for my Merc Healer, and progression-wise am up to Kephess on Nightmare mode Denova with our guilds raid group. I'm always paired with an (awesome) BiS Sorc Healer and have made it my personal quest to try and outheal him on MoxParser for the last few months... suffice to say that has'nt happened exactly. I would say overall, on endgame operations (TfB HM / EC NiM) healing is split around 40% Merc / 60% Sorc. (On some bosses however, such as Terror from Beyond HM end boss it is more like 50/50 split.) The combination of a Sorc. paired with a Merc. is absolutely ideal in my opinion; Sorc. can put out massive blanket healing to mitigate damage and Merc can bring guild members back up from near death to full health in seconds. (if not instantly) I was getting very annoyed early on (campaign/bh gear level) that my class simply sucked for healing. However once you hit a reasonably high gear level (2x 27 Barrels in particular) I felt that the class really came into it own. Now fully maxed out (on crits); Kolto Missile puts out well over 3.5k per person (max 4 ppl) (6 second CD) Rapid scan puts out 7k average crit, or over 8.2k with (Triage) adrenal and (DG) relic running. I've also levelled a Sorc. to 50, healing for the majority of the time and while I'm nowhere near the gear level (or experience) to comment properly, it really made me appreciate my Merc. Healer. (While Sorc. seems much more optimised for healing in general... it felt pretty sluggish to react to situations when the S*** hits the fan ) I can't comment or compare on Operative heals (... next work in progress) So.....I would say that Merc healing is totally viable for endgame operations, really fun to play, really fast to react. Just persevere, once you get past a certain gear level it is awesome!! I've only done a limited amount of PVP (full WH & 1 EWH) If you are paired with a good tank you can be pretty much indestructible, on the other hand you have next to no utility with which to help the team (No Stun bubbles / No stealth / No pulls) Most of the time you are just a free meal to smashmonkeys . Food for thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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