Bodyguard in 7.x looks dreadful

[krackcommando]

So...I leveled my IO and Gunnery toons from 75 this week. And I thought that while there were some difficult choices (losing Thrill of the Hunt and Cryo Grenade), I still came away with all of my DCDs in tact. I'm alright.

I hop on the Bodyguard to level him up (yes, I realize I could put all three combat styles on the same toon. it's more about conquest), and HOLY S**T! This spec is totally screwed.

Rocket Out - I have it on IO/Gunnery without having to select it (I took echoing deterrence). On Bodyguard, I have to choose between Responsive safeguards and rocket out! that can't be right? for real? um. ok. I'm not sure how I have them both on my DPS toons.

Kolto Surge / Power Shield / Thrill of the Hunt - what in the holy hell? you cannot do this to Bodyguard! IO and Arsenal, ok. but making Bodyguard choose just one of these is crazy bad. no wonder nobody wants to heal.

Trauma Regulators / Gyroscopic Alignment Jets - healing is resource intensive, man. even this choice is brutal.

all these together means I'm spending 3x more time casting self heals, and Mercs are back to being turret healers again. iunno. I think the pruning was brutal on the heal spec. and that's before you consider the fact that dmg is way outpacing healing in this xpack.

the shared ability trees have to be reworked according to spec. this is nuts.

edit: well FML. I just did a bodyguard loadout on my IO toon, and when I swapped back I lost RO. pro coding. 😄 but that explains one "issue."

Edited March 9, 2023 by krackcommando

[Avnika]

Been playing Bodyguard for a few years now, and I've found that it's fairly well-balanced overall. You can choose between being a turret healer or being extremely mobile, and both options are pretty viable. Bodyguard doesn't have the unbeatable defense that it did in 6.0, but it's still damn near impossible to kill. Overall we're in a good place.