50 Geared Commando - Tips, Tricks, and Opinions for the masses

[Pokeytehpenguin]

Thank you for this unusually useful post.

 

I appreciate the time and effort you took to make my life easier.

[Corran]

And they provide less PvE support by not having an interrupt!! yay.!!

 

No guild in their right mind would take a Commando healer over a Sage or Scoundrel.

 

-no interrupt/in combat revive and our healing is nowhere near the level of Sage

 

And I thought we were Combat Medics.

 

the sage would still win out in the interupt category since the scoundrel interrupt is 4m melee range, and the sage is 30m

[towani]

Ugh - I'm level 32 commando atm specing into gunnary and my craft is armormech.

I've got it just past 300 as well as underworld and scavanging. After reading this I feel like I've wasted my time

 

What I gather, and from previous experience, it's basically get to 50 then start to work on getting your gear in order. However, since I"m not there yet, I don't quite understand what all you talk about.

 

Once at 50, are you saying the best gear you get is by doing flashpoints that drop tokens that you turn in for gear?

 

I know that is kind of a noob question, but I really didn't do much in beta and i'm pretty much solo right now. So, any help would be apprecaited.

 

Thanks.

[Freeborne]

And they provide less PvE support by not having an interrupt!! yay.!!

 

No guild in their right mind would take a Commando healer over a Sage or Scoundrel.

 

 

I think your flaw here is assuming the healer should be responsible for interrupts.

 

All of these classes have their interupts as part of their class, not talent trees, so that DPS sage, that Scoundrel Scrapper...

 

I'm sure there will be plenty of interrupts in any given raid group. You would need an extreme class imbalance to not have it.

[Sheridyn]

Yes, but can't I acquire 56 and 58 level mods using those commendations/boss drops as well? That is to say, buy gear, pull out all but Armor slots (which I can't) and those armor mods should be boss drops, right? (So, in the end, the only thing I don't have is the set bonuses?)

 

I don't think I've seen anything with a 56 or 58 armor mod in that you can rip out. I think it's all built in to the gear. You can only rip out the mod and enhancement slots.

 

Also, if anyone wants to know the set bonus for combat medic gear (since you can't see it until you have at least 1 piece of gear):

2 set: Increases the duration of Supercharge Cells by 3 seconds.

4 set: Reduces the cooldown of Bacta Infusion by 3 seconds, and the cooldown of Advanced Medical Probe by 1.5 seconds.

 

To clarify how to get gear at 50:

Hard mode flashpoints will drop Tionese gear from most bosses, with the last boss dropping a Columi gear token (type depends on instance). I'm not sure what the normal mode level 50 instances drop as I never did them.

 

Off the top of my head the Columi tokens are something like:

Maelstrom Prison - Boots

False Emperor - Chest

Directive 7 - Legs

Esseles - Wrist (I think)

Taral V - Gloves

Battle of Ilum - Offhand weapon

 

And the helm comes from normal mode raids.

[Swijr]

^ That's the PVE gear

 

PVP gear is had via Mercenary and Warzone commendations...and a sometimes mean RNG.

 

 

Swijr

[Davion]

I'm not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere, but another two cents from another high level geared commando;

 

Even if gear isn't perfect for you and you get it on a greed roll, strip the mods from it, suddenly you might have some extra mods you can slot in somewhere else. Also, don't just go with Biochem because the OP says so. Your crew skills level incredibly fast compared to something like WoW and most of them do not REQUIRE the profession to wear or use it. You can create Rakata level gear (belt and bracers) for yourself, plus schematics drop from Malgus.

 

A better solution as opposed to the OP is to start crafting your ideal armor. Once you have it, you can drop Armortech and pick up Biochem, since that is the only profession you'll have to keep for the consumables. With a high level alt, you can completely supply all your needs to any crafting profession.

[Brad-]

For the level 50s out there ... how do you feel compared to the other classes? Edited January 6, 2012 by Brad-

[Daeson]

I feel as if I reign death from afar with a gun I ripped off a battletank. TANTRUM. [HIMYM]

[zorphon]

Does this mean I should reroll as a Sage, if I want to heal? 175 hours put into my lvl 50 CM.

[Ellie_]

Does this mean I should reroll as a Sage, if I want to heal? 175 hours put into my lvl 50 CM.

 

No. "Combat medics can't heal" is utter horse manure.

 

I'm healing through all hard-mode operation encounters as a combat medic just fine, in a progression guild.

 

But I guess people still stuck on normal modes might not see the applications of dedicated tank healers.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Ellie_

[BMBender]

No. "Combat medics can't heal" is utter horse manure.

 

I'm healing through all hard-mode operation encounters as a combat medic just fine, in a progression guild.

 

But I guess people still stuck on normal modes might not see the applications of dedicated tank healers.

 

I've found that with DPS CM's a SOLID MT healer thanks to the Miti buff it's only when things get outta whack on the DPS side that CM's generally have a harder time imo, and yea it's more evident in 4mans

Edited January 8, 2012 by Paralassa
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[darkonnis]

@OP: Can you comment on the aim>crit>surge>power>alacrity usage at level 50? It seems to be a very large debate within the community as pertaining to Gunnery specced Commandos.

 

As a general rule for all classes, their primary attribute is most important.

Crit and surge are mostly for DPS specs, this is because of how abilities scale with your main stat and that the "limiting factor" is actually your ammo bar. Crit/surge make your abilities more ammo efficient when they crit. Same can be said for power. This is the real debate, which of these 2 makes the most difference.

 

Alacrity is generally a healer thing, and this stems from getting things to cast as fast as is possible. Seeing as efficiency is brilliant but if your tank is dead you have nothing to heal and thus aren't very efficient. I've seen lots of merc stacking crit/surge but whether this is a PvP thing to hit harder with crits over hitting harder overall i'm not sure.

[Kodosong]

I just hit 20 and am tossing up on continuing the gunnery tree or become a combat medic. It seems in any group situations I have been in (I mostly solo) I have ended up being healer.

 

As I normally solo I am guessing gunnery would be a better option as I can always respec later but for 2 and 4 man runs I am unsure.

 

I am doing PvE. Any suggestions where I should head.

[ArchangelLBC]

Thanks for the great post! Level 45 now. Hoping to be 50 in a few days but with the semester starting back my playtime is gonna drop off noticeably.

 

My 2 cents on companions is that gunnery commando with Elara is easy mode. Have had pretty much zero problems since I got her.

 

As for Crit vs Power, I'm trying to do some math and see what we can figure out without some sort of parser/DPS meter to give some real results but some preliminary thinking makes me think Crit/Surge is definitely the way to go. Will post once I've done some tedious calculations but a question:

 

Is Bonus dmg just a straight +dmg on an attack or does it just basically increase weapon damage? I.e. is it a flat bonus to your dmg or does it get taken into account for dmg reduction and crit modifiers?