Full Heal Commando Questions

[CobraCommanderx]

So I have a few questions, mostly concerning skill rotation and crew skills.

 

I haven't jumped into PvP yet since I want to get some levels and skills under my belt before I take that on. This is mostly in Heroics and Flashpoints. So it basically goes like this. Tank starts off the fight, and I use Hammer Shot with Combat Support Cell until the tank is at a reasonable level of low health that I should drop a Medic Probe, normally I wait until about 75-80% health. If the Tank has pulled too much, or the mobs are just wailing on them I use Medic Probe, Adv. Probe, by then the first is off cooldown so medic Probe and back to Hammer Shot. I then jump back and forth between Medical Probe, and Hammer Shot until Adv. Probe is off cooldown. Rinse and repeat.

 

Now all this is issued under buttons 1-4. I keep Stock Strike on 2, Concussion Charge on 5, Cryo Grenade on 6, and finally Recharge Cells on 7. Now I don't have a fancy mouse or a game pad, so I'm pretty much limited to the keyboard for bindings. I'm just really looking for the most efficient way to bind them, plus a few suggestions on what other skills I should consider using.

 

The second part of this lengthy post would be my chosen Crew Skill. Currently I'm running Armourtech, Scavanging, and Underworld Trading. I'm curious to know if maybe Biochem may not be a bad option to pick up for a full Heals Commando. With the option to make reusable stimms and Medpacks, it may be a good idea to consider some of these so I wouldn't have to waste time healing myself with Medical Probe, or Adv. And just quickly pop the medpack and continue healing the tank. I'm wondering about the staying power of this skill, espicially concerning end game content. Can you fashion a medpack that heals for 1-2k? If so, I may consider looking into it.

 

Your Thoughts?

COOOBBBRRRAAA!!!

 

P.S: Something I was actually wondering about. With Cryo Grenade, when you use it on a mob that isn't targeting you, does it cause aggro, and has the potential to pull from the tank? If not, then I may consider adding it into my rotation when I need to heal the Tank without him constantly taking damage.

[xLunchPatterson]

I use 1,2,3,4,q,e,f,x,z and those +shift for my binds.Ssadly that's turning into almost not enough with my guardian haha. Guess I need to add c maybe.

[Butches]

Bind your main heals to 1-5 which ever are easier for you. Hammer shot and utility to r,t,c and f which ever is easier for you.

As far as crew skills go amortech is the best for any commando spec.

And to the cyro grenade question, if the tank has initial threat you will not pull. I would always use it on packs of mobs 3+.

[Dekaye]

Im left handed. And 7 years of wow has locked me into mousing lefthanded as well. But this opened up a whole new set of options for me as far as keybinding. All my movement is done with my 4,8,6,2 for the L,U,R,D respectively, and 7,9,1,2,0,.,+,-,/,* for abilities. Yes its 2 less than 1-+ on the other side, but my hands never pick up and leave my keyboard or mouse now. I can button press on the move, and my mouse has 2 side buttons that I can use for jumping. Most of the time I dont even use the movement keys, I just double click run with both mouse buttons. Maybe this will help.

 

Usually I have my basic 1-4 abilities on the 7,9,1,3. An interrupt on the 5, aoe abilities on the + and -, proc ability on the /, and autorun on the *. 0 and . are touch and go depending on the class. This I find usually accounts for most used abilities. The only thing left are CD's that I prefer to just mouseclick so they don't get accidentally hit and are on a 2nd hotbar.

 

Someday I actually hope to find both a lefthanded gaming mouse, and a right handed gaming pad so that i can mouse on the left, gamepad on the right, and just leave the keyboard for talking.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Dekaye

[Sylanaris]

I saw some screenshots where this guys had some channeled or casting abilities on "Shift + W", which I think it's pretty clever and I'm going to use that (was running out of keys)

 

No point on moving for a channeled stuff right? =)

 

and for the Cryo grenade... probably one of the greatest healing spells, because it does prevent lots of damage. Use it, and use it often, same as Concussion Round (lvl 22)

 

Syl

[Stilgarr]

If the Tank has pulled too much, or the mobs are just wailing on them I use Medic Probe, Adv. Probe, by then the first is off cooldown so medic Probe and back to Hammer Shot.

 

You did'nt say your level so I going on pure guessing here, but this is totally wrong (in my personal opinion) unless you want to run out of ammo on bigger fights fast.

 

Personally if I see the tank has pulled too much or is taking a beating (same applies to 4X) it's Kolto Bomb (talented for +healing) > Adv Probe (again talented for....) > Med Probe (seeing as it only costs 1 ammo with talented Adv probe). Then do what ever is required including another Med Probe as you saved ammo from casting Adv 1st. Also, make full use of the 30 charges and use it every chance, the regular Med Probe can be specced to give you 6 stacks per cast so it builds back up in no time at all.

 

Dont forget that the more ammo you have, the better your regen is. Talenting and making use of talents / procs that drops costs makes a massive difference between having ammo to heal the whole group or failing the fight.

[hawga]

@ Cobra

 

Here is my work in progress for keybinds, I quickly set this up so that you can get an idea. It is a part of my site and is not even close to be finished, so check it out HERE.

 

Once your done looking at the keys take a look at the rest of the trooper guide, it might help.

 

For rotations you want to get in the habbit of using AMP before MP for the -2 ammo charge. The great thing about healer is that there is NO set rotation and your "personal rotation" depends on you and your party's playstyle (ie: moving, los'ing, skill, etc)

 

With that said my "personal rotation" goes a little summn like dis. (excluding BI)

Before fight I stack 30 charges of CSC.

HS tank until ~75%

AMP

HS until low(depends on how much dmg your tank is taking, might have to skip)

MP

HS if you can

SCC if you just chained AMP, then MP (super charge cells -USE EVERY TIME ITS UP

right after you use SCC use Kolto bomb for 10% dmg reduction sheild on tank

repeat

 

As far as crewskills I would take Biochem, Bioanalysis, and Diplomacy. Survival is the key as a healer, and being able to have reusable medpacks, stims, and adrenals is by far the best skill to have. I cant count the number of time I have taken aggro, used my sheild, medpack, and kolto bomb to surive. You can craft reusable adrenals for crit, and alacrity for some clutch heals.

 

Once again take a look at my blog/guide HERE to learn a little about medics, it is a new site so its currently in progress, and with leveling I havent had much time. I hope that you enjoy it and please let me know what you think via pm, on my SWTOR thread, or on the website.

[Vuelhering]

I use 1-5, alt-(1-5), alt-q/w/e, alt-a/s/d/f, x, alt-X, alt-c, and a couple on keys 6-0 which aren't used often.

 

Everything I have to hit often is under one hand, basically. I used to have heals under alt-q/w/e, but I moved those to the number keys.

[Aaoogaa]

1 through + (gives 12 keys)

Q through ] (12 more)

alt 1 through alt 6 (6 more)

 

I use these bindings.

[CobraCommanderx]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm level 25 at the moment.

 

I'm happy to see all the replies. Some very nice tips for key binding. I'm currently using Q for MP, and E for AMP for a quick one/two punch. Although I'm just now leveling the Talent to make MP cheaper, I think I'll switch them around to get more used to the idea of AMP first. I use R for Reative Shield, but mostly in the FP I'm doing, I rarely use it so I should probably start getting into the habbit of that as well. It saves lives.

 

There really is only vague rotations for healing? That's pretty cool. I've noticed early in the fights I kind of sit there until the tank starts taking enough damage that warrents dropping a MP, every once in a while I click and say "Oh, I should be using HS while I wait." but I kind of feel like it's pointless to do since I'm going to be healing ten times that amount as soon as I drop a MP. Maybe every little bit helps. I can't wait for add ons or whatever that'll show me stuff like DPS and Aggro. Maybe in a couple months they'll start popping up. Or Bioware will add something like that in.

 

At the moment I'm fairly beat, but I will take a look at that guide when I have a chance, thanks for the replies everyone. I have to say the Commando Healer is pretty ******. And I always get compliments! I guess the voice actor for the female Trooper is the same person who did the voice acting for female Shepard. Mass Effect MMO on in here? I think so.

 

COOOBBBRRRAAA!!!

 

P.S: Also, totally forgot to ask, how the Armourtech handles in late game? I mean, I can imagine being able to build yourself so pretty sweet armour would be a no brainer, but I find most of the drops for FP tide me over for quite some time before I have to gear up. Plus it seems like the crafting system is a little buggy. Like when you dissemble something, it takes quite a few tries to learn the better version of the thing you're trying to make. I've kind of held off upping my Armourtech in case I want to drop it for Bio, still considering... But those reuseable medpacks and stimm are so alluring.

Edited December 25, 2011 by CobraCommanderx

[Ansoof]

Not doing any DPS at all is a little alien to me in MMOs, so I try to manage my ammo in a way that I can keep everyone up and do some damage where possible. At the start of fights or single target fights with a good tank I get plenty of time to use Hammer Shot, Sticky Grenade and/or Charged Bolts.

When possible I also use Supercharge Cells for some cheap Charged Bolt spam, which if stacked with an Alacrity buff from a relic means I can unload some half decent DPS when the tank isn't taking much damage. Aggro hasn't really been an issue for me, using Cryo Grenade, the attacks above and sometimes a few others I rarely pull agro, a threat meter of some kind would be good though, so I know exactly when I can unload and when to ease up a bit.

 

With the exception of unsavable situations (incorrect tactics on bosses which result in unhealable situations) I've never caused a wipe, so it's obviously working, and I've received many compliments on my healing, all in all I have to say I'm very impressed with the Combat Medic, currently I'm level 44 and I've been leveling in heal spec since the late 20s, I'm equipping 4X at the moment (400 Cybertech FTW) as I heard he was quite good when well geared, so far I've been using Dorne until the mid 30s where I switched to Jorgan.

 

I'm looking forward to endgame! For keybinds, I use the basic 1 through to =, with the alt key rebound to one of my side mouse buttons, then alt 1 through = for the top bar. F keys after the group selections for a lesser used abilities with longer cooldowns.

[choboon]

I got 11 bindsm rest i use os rarely i mouse click as i dont need them in fight.

Best bind i have is targets target on mousewheel up and last targetted friendly on mousewheel down.

 

That way when i heal and want to add some damage i can flip mousewheel up then down again to drop a heal, up again to dps.

 

Works great.

[CobraCommanderx]

Choboon, that's a great idea! I never considered that. One problem I'm running into, but I can't remember if I mentioned it was when I focus target for some reason the game turns it off after a party convo and doesn't allow me to reset it at all, which lowers my effectiveness slightly, but again great idea. I'm going to use that.

 

Normally I don't contribute to DPS at all. I do minor CC if the mobs get pulled in my direction. Normally I just AoE knockback and let the tank repull aggro, but it's always hit or miss when I remember to use Cryo Grenade. I did a slight respec to get more use out of my Reactive Shield and CC powers, so I'm starting to use them more. But for the most part I just stick to healing. I've just gotten into the "Use AMD to make MD cheaper" portion of the tree and I just see huge results every time. Today I did a flashpoint, forget the name, the one after Mandalorian Raid? Which was 4 levels higher then me, and I had no problem keeping up with the damage when I started doing AMD/MD one two punches. Was very nice.

 

COOOBBBRRRAAA!!!

[Sazzar]

q,1,2,3,4,5,6,e,r,t,f,g,z,x,c,v,b

 

I don't like binding shift+anything. Using the above bindings completely surrounding the left hand is usually sufficient. What ever you do, if you want to be as effective as possible in pvp, you can not compromise mobility. What I mean by that, is that your days of search and destroy mouse clicking abilities is over. Mouse = movement only. You must be able to use any ability instantly without having to look and click on a hotbar, especially when LOS is such a massive pvp tool (troopers rule!) for us to utilize.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Sazzar

[Somewherehiding]

At around level 20 I realized that I had way too many abilities than hotkeys available. I did not have a fancy mouse either.

I rebinded from WASD to RDFG, making several new binds available to immediate reach.

 

The issue with WASD is that you only have "Q" as a keybinding on the left side. Switching it over to RDFG, you suddenly have QWEASZX as additional keybindings on the left side of your hand, without the need to ever move your had away from RDFG.

[MadMonkManiac]

I got 11 bindsm rest i use os rarely i mouse click as i dont need them in fight.

Best bind i have is targets target on mousewheel up and last targetted friendly on mousewheel down.

 

That way when i heal and want to add some damage i can flip mousewheel up then down again to drop a heal, up again to dps.

 

Works great.

 

That really is a great idea. Thanks for sharing it.

[JLapp]

I don't have a fancy mouse and use the normal movement keys.

 

I use 1-5 and ctrl+1-5 for my healing skills....all placed on the bottom quickslots

I have Shift+1-5 mapped to DPS abilities and placed on the left quickslot.

 

I recently mapped F and R (along with ctrl & shift variants) to some lesser used abilities and some biochem stuff so I'll see how that goes.

[Sylanaris]

Anyone knows if its possible to "diable" the Wintendo key?

[Galiven]

Anyone knows if its possible to "diable" the Wintendo key?

 

How to disable the keyboard Windows key

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216893

 

Google is your friend.

[PixelLantern]

I got 11 bindsm rest i use os rarely i mouse click as i dont need them in fight.

Best bind i have is targets target on mousewheel up and last targetted friendly on mousewheel down.

 

That way when i heal and want to add some damage i can flip mousewheel up then down again to drop a heal, up again to dps.

 

Works great.

 

Call me stupid here, but I can't seem to find the "last targeted friendly" bind option. Anyone care to point me in the right direction? This really is a fantastic idea and I'd love to use it hehe.