Hey Mercenary Healers! Let's talk.

[CogitoErgo]

So I'm level 18 and I've now run Hammer Station twice as a healer. I have three heals (rapid scan, the other quicker scan that I don't remember the name of, and the healing cylinder).

 

With the lack of any type of AOE or HOT spells to cast I find myself having a pretty difficult time with the Heat mechanic. Even with spamming the rapid shots/canister heals and Vent Heat that reduces my heat level, I end up standing around with full heat unable to heal (This is especially true on the first boss due to the laser beam thing).

 

So how do you guys feel about the Heat mechanic and how it syncs with healing? Any troubles at all? Am I just new and need to fine tune my weaving of spells and canister shots? Does healing get better than single target casted heals later?

[bobafetea]

So I''m level 18 and I''ve now run Hammer Station twice as a healer. I have three heals (rapid scan, the other quicker scan that I don''t remember the name of, and the healing cylinder).

 

With the lack of any type of AOE or HOT spells to cast I find myself having a pretty difficult time with the Heat mechanic. Even with spamming the rapid shots/canister heals and Vent Heat that reduces my heat level, I end up standing around with full heat unable to heal (This is especially true on the first boss due to the laser beam thing).

 

So how do you guys feel about the Heat mechanic and how it syncs with healing? Any troubles at all? Am I just new and need to fine tune my weaving of spells and canister shots? Does healing get better than single target casted heals later?

 

You get much better heals later on including a free heal and AoE heal. I''ve heard it is harder to heal early on but it will get much much easier as you keep leveling.

Edited December 22, 2011 by bobafetea

[DrekorSilverfang]

Your biggest task as a healer is to manage your heat. In fact that is pretty much your job. As long as you do that well and your group mates do their jobs everything moves along slowly. It's only when you mismanage your heat or your group mates screw up that things get more difficult.

 

Ideally you want to stay under 40 heat at all times. If you go over that you should immediately start taking action to bring it down(rapid shots, supercharged gas or vent heat). As you level up you'll also gain access to a lot more tools to manage your heat well and heal better.

[Vasharan]

As is mention above as you level you will get some talent that help manage heat. Any situation that you have to spam rapid scan your going to have heat trouble. Super charged gas is very helpful in this as is the talent that drops the cost of rapid scan after a healing scan. Also make shure you are weaving rapid shots in as well. Even if your tank is down 1/2 health stay calm, hit a rapid shot then your rapid scan. I find when i panic and start spamming heals is when i over heat. When i stay calm and weave rapid shots and dont spam anything i can heal indefinably.

[djinnerman]

As is mention above as you level you will get some talent that help manage heat. Any situation that you have to spam rapid scan your going to have heat trouble. Super charged gas is very helpful in this as is the talent that drops the cost of rapid scan after a healing scan. Also make shure you are weaving rapid shots in as well. Even if your tank is down 1/2 health stay calm, hit a rapid shot then your rapid scan. I find when i panic and start spamming heals is when i over heat. When i stay calm and weave rapid shots and dont spam anything i can heal indefinably.

 

Basically what Vash just laid down here. What we are looking at is the idea of spamming big heals lead to faster heat increases which would then slow the heat cooldown time the higher the percentage goes. My main (Just as Vash again mentioned) is to fire Rapid Shots and build charges, as I call it, Keep pressing 1.

 

Another note he mentioned is staying calm. Panic (remember when the Bounty Hunter Advanced Trainer said that you are limited to your equipment?) is equivalent to your heat. You heat up in your own mind then you have to cooldown on your own end. Utilize that Supercharged Gas as much as you possibly can and shoot off Healing Scan when you activate it, and get that talent Critical Efficiency in the 4th tier.

[DervimNorth]

I've gone to arsenal tree and that didn't stopped me from healing the healer(sorc) and sniper(dps), as well as taking agro off the main healer so that he could heal our tank while I was disposing of all the trash mobs and laying some hurt on boss whenever possible.

 

So I'd say early lvls healing is all too easy so long as you're not main and as long as you keep your head cool and finger glued to "1"

 

The first boss was pretty easy, so easy that our main healer didn't even bothered with healing, my green pew-pew+"rapid" scan spam were more than enough.

[Soljin]

So I'm level 18 and I've now run Hammer Station twice as a healer. I have three heals (rapid scan, the other quicker scan that I don't remember the name of, and the healing cylinder).

 

With the lack of any type of AOE or HOT spells to cast I find myself having a pretty difficult time with the Heat mechanic. Even with spamming the rapid shots/canister heals and Vent Heat that reduces my heat level, I end up standing around with full heat unable to heal (This is especially true on the first boss due to the laser beam thing).

 

So how do you guys feel about the Heat mechanic and how it syncs with healing? Any troubles at all? Am I just new and need to fine tune my weaving of spells and canister shots? Does healing get better than single target casted heals later?

 

Keep your heat below 50% if possible....the higher your heat is, the slower it dissipates! Throw in some free heat cylinder shots in between heal spamming to keep your heat down. Most important thing I have found is forcing the group to CC, and the dps to not break CC and try to offtank mobs...

 

Healing is fine, groups are not always fine.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Soljin

[Temig]

So I'm level 18 and I've now run Hammer Station twice as a healer. I have three heals (rapid scan, the other quicker scan that I don't remember the name of, and the healing cylinder).

 

With the lack of any type of AOE or HOT spells to cast I find myself having a pretty difficult time with the Heat mechanic. Even with spamming the rapid shots/canister heals and Vent Heat that reduces my heat level, I end up standing around with full heat unable to heal (This is especially true on the first boss due to the laser beam thing).

 

So how do you guys feel about the Heat mechanic and how it syncs with healing? Any troubles at all? Am I just new and need to fine tune my weaving of spells and canister shots? Does healing get better than single target casted heals later?

 

Bodyguard spec, as a whole, is relatively mediocre until we come into our own later on eventually getting Kolto Shell and Emergency Scan. Those skills, along with the experience gained from playing and learning to manage heat effectively, make healing a much more manageable, and even enjoyable, task.

[Idyan]

I am level 46 merc bodyguard. I have leveled the whole time in full bodyguard. I say this because if you are splitting your points into arsenal trying to help your dps you will have problems healing mid-later flashpoints.

 

All the above points are true and very valid. I think I have went above 50 heat maybe 3 times in all the flashpoints I have ran (I run atleast 2 a night). It is much better to let someone sit at 50% life for a few seconds to keep your heat low.

 

Another tatic I use is to heal even out of combat with rapid scans and shots, especially before a boss fight. I will always have 30 charges up before each pull. Try not to wait until I fight starts to build them up. Some fights have a lot of burst in the beginning (HK-47 does a hard flamethrow right off bat).

 

It does get easier with levels

Edited December 23, 2011 by Idyan

[Mblythe]

It does get easier with levels

 

This.

 

Level 32 and I rarely get high heat. I can heal pretty much forever unless I mess things up. I remember doing Hammer Station and the heat I would get... I do not miss those times.

[Naviq]

....(HK-47 does a hard flamethrow right off bat).

 

It does get easier with levels

 

thx for the spoiler....

[WayneQuasar]

Everyone who has posted here has the right idea. As of right now, I am a 32 bodyguard, and I usually spam rapid shot heals until the tank gets down to about 70% health, then toss a healing scan for the HoT (it's a 4th/5th tier ability), and then rapid scan / rapid shots as needed. Supercharged Gas is your best friend for heat management. I rarely have to use Vent Heat, unless there's lots of AoE damage going on. Speaking of AoE, Kolto Missile is incredible as well, especially when you spec into the 10% more healing. It's great for healing a few melees at once, or if you need to toss a heal on the run. Mainly, just spam rapid shots, and try to have 30 charges everytime for Supercharged Gas. It definitely gets easier as you gain levels.

 

Good luck!

[Coraii]

I've leveled Bodyguard the entire way as well, and I am 32. It's worth repeating that healing gets better in the higher levels, vent heat quickly becomes an "oh sh@t" ability, and not a consistently used ability.

 

As someone said before, keep hitting that rapid shots, building up for super charged CSC, and avoid the spamming of rapid scan/healing scan--everything should go fine with those points in mind. I highly suggest not doing any hybrid talent tress, since most of the talents that make it easier come higher up in the bodyguard tree.

 

(Keep spamming those rapid shots, though)

Edited December 23, 2011 by Coraii

[Zag_Stratos]

You shouldn't have to worry about overheating if you're only healing. My buddy Operative and I did hammer us with our companions and it wasn't problem. (hard, tedious and long though)

 

Control your heals and also, if you're playing as a healer, you should have Biochems and area heals ready for emergency... with all this combined, even at boss fights, you shouldn't have to constantly spam heals.

[CericME]

Good to hear it gets easier.

 

Personally I've fully Bodygaurd accept 3 points when I started to get the Aim stat talent that give you 30% more Aim.

 

I'm level 20 and in Hammer station when I was 19 I couldn't keep the group up in the last boss fight. Everyone was taking so much damage...

[DrekorSilverfang]

Good to hear it gets easier.

 

Personally I've fully Bodygaurd accept 3 points when I started to get the Aim stat talent that give you 30% more Aim.

 

I'm level 20 and in Hammer station when I was 19 I couldn't keep the group up in the last boss fight. Everyone was taking so much damage...

Nearly everything in that fight is avoidable. Your group needs to avoid the blaster AoE as well as the grenades and kill off adds quickly(they are really squishy but do decent damage). If you do that it's a cake walk.

[Sioralarois]

Good to hear it gets easier.

 

Personally I've fully Bodygaurd accept 3 points when I started to get the Aim stat talent that give you 30% more Aim.

 

I'm level 20 and in Hammer station when I was 19 I couldn't keep the group up in the last boss fight. Everyone was taking so much damage...

 

 

What in the world gives you 30% more aim?

[Coloneloneil]

he means 9% lol 3 points of 3% each

[metalfenix]

Nearly everything in that fight is avoidable. Your group needs to avoid the blaster AoE as well as the grenades and kill off adds quickly(they are really squishy but do decent damage). If you do that it's a cake walk.

 

THIS. The leader of our group warned us ahead of time, and everyone avoided ther AoE, so I managed to keep up with the healing just fine (lvl 22 BTW).

 

Now, if wa talk about the last boss on Athiss flashponit..THAT'S a Mercenary healer nightmare. I still don't know how I managed to solo heal that FP. That was my first encounter with the dreaded overheating

[Traumaron]

The whole point of keeping stacks of Combat Support Cylinder up (beyond the 3% increase healing and damage) is to be able to pop Super Charged Gas. This is a great skill to use early in the fight when multiple mobs are on your tank. Why? Because when activated, Supercharge Gas + Kolto Missle will apply a 10% damage shield for 15 seconds to three targets. This may not seem like a lot but it helps reduce damage so you can manage your early fight heat. Once you pop that, immediately build up your stacks as soon as you can. By shooting your tank with Rapid Shots you build stacks and heal. Also, once you spec into it, your criticals from Rapid Shot will give you a 5 second Alacrity Boost from Chain Reaction skill.

 

 

Here is my "rotation":

1. Build stacks of Combat Support Cylinder pre fight with Rapid Shots.

 

2. Kolto Shell the Tank (once specced into it)

.

3. Pop Super Charged Gas just after pull and Kolto Missle the melees. This gives 10% damage shield for 15 sec. Also, it will increase healing to the Tank by 5% for 15 seconds due to Kolto Residue.

 

4. Build stacks if everyone is ok, if not, use Healing Scan followed by Rapid Scan (note, this order is important becuase of the 16 Heat reduction of Rapid Scan from Healing Scan when specced into it). Rapid Scan will also build 6 stacks of Combat Support Cylider. Also, Healing Scan will apply a HOT and give +10% armor when specced into it (Proactive Medicine and Reactive Armor)

 

5. Rapid Shots always in between other heals. This gives your heat a couple of seconds to drop and heals the tank for a small amount and it builds stacks.

 

6. If you are taking damage, pop your own sheild and Healing Scan your self. Pop Chaff too if you have it

 

7. If your heat is too high becuase things went to hell, pop Vent Heat to drop your Heat down. Super Charged Gas will drop your heat 16 as well which can give you another Healing Scan in a pinch. Also, Supercharge Gas can be your "oh crap" button because it removes the cooldown on Healing Scan and increase healing and damage by 10% for 10 seconds. Be carefull with this becuase you can rapidly max your heat spamming Healing Scan. Vent Heat ASAP if this happens.

 

A few Key Points:

-Dont be afraid to CC something with Concussion Missle, its free if you spec into it and less active mobs = less healing for you.

-If you having nothing better to do Rapid Shots something to build stacks, either a party member or a mob.

-Heal early. Merc heals have a longer activation time. Dont get to far behind. They key is nice steady heals, even if it is not entirely needed. If we burst heal, we build heat to high.

-Supercharged Gas+Kolto Missle is your friend, 10% damage reduction is nothing to sneeze at. Also you get the 5% increase to healing on the target.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Traumaron

[Syrch]

A couple of points to add besides the "it gets better with levels" which is very true.

 

It also depends on the group. You shouldn't have a problem with a good group. If everyone is taking a lot of damage, then it's the group and not the healer. If the tank is taking a ton of damage, is he really a tank and not just a jugger in dps spec thinking "I have a shield, so I must be a tank" as I've run into soooo many times...

 

The group makes a huge difference. I was healing boarding party and foundry as soon as they were available to me (orange in color) and didn't have a problem (HK-47 was a pain the first few times, but once we figured out the fight it's a 1 shot every time), the only reason because we had a good guild group to do it with, and it makes all the difference.

 

Now if you're puging the groups, that's another story, and expect it to be a pain the majority of the time.