Guide [TOR] Faardors Guide to Merc / Commando Healing

[Faardor]

I am often asked to teach people how to properly heal as a Mercenary or commando but in order to do so I would have to explain a lot and I don't feel that a chat box is sufficient enough to teach someone so below I will first go over on how the classes differ (in ability names) and explain a rotation I use

 

Mercenary / Commando healers are the king of single target heals as evidenced below:

• Average crit'd heal (all abilities considered): 8000 to 14000.
  
• Fully decked out gear crit'd heal (Medical Probe / Healing scan): 10000 to 15000
  
• Perfect circumstance crit heal (medical probe / healing scan): 13000 to 18000+
  

 

Commando healing abilities (Or healing related abilities):

• Kolto Bomb - Advanced Medical Probe - Medical Probe -  Bacta Infusion - Field Aid - Trauma Probe - Super charged Cells - Concussion Charge - Med Shot - Successive Treatment
  

Indirectly Aids with healing: Tech override - Reserve Power cell - Reload

• Utility: Emergency Medical Probe - Adrenaline Rush
  

 

 

Mercenary Healing abilities (Or healing related abilities): 

• Kolto Missile - Healing Scan - Rapid Scan - Emergency Scan - Cure - Kolto Shell - Super Charged Gas - Jet boost - Kolto shot - Progressive scan
  

Indirectly Aids with healing: Power Surge - Thermal Sensor override - Vent Heat

• Utility: Onboard AED - Kolto Overload
  

As you can see the republic likes to probe people while the imp side prefers to give intrusive scans, anyway the names of the abilities are set up so that Kolto bomb is the same as kolto missile, advanced medical probe is the same as healing scan, etc etc.

 

 

Ability Explanation

- Kolto Bomb / Kolto Missile:

Base: 2500 Crit: 5000 Buffed crit: 6000

HOT: 1200 (2400+ if fully critted)

8 man AOE heal that heals for 2500 base - 5000+ average crit and gives them a small HOT (800-1000)

Kolto bomb / Kolto missile CAN crit on multiple people but you could be unlucky and have it crit on only one person. Same goes for the HOT portion of this.

 

- Advanced Medical Probe / Healing Scan:

Base: 7000 Crit: 12000-14000 Bonus crit: 15000-16000+

Your highest heal since 3.0. Applies a 45 second healing buff on the person used on. Using this on a tank to give him extra healing is useful but not entirely necessary, heals are to be spammed to keep your group alive, not a single person.

 

- Medical Probe / Rapid Scan:

Average: 4000 Crit: 8000+ Bonus crit: 9000+

Your spam heal and something you will use most of the time, nothing special about it other than the fact that this will be your most used heal since it has no cool-down. When used it will also give you 2 charges of supercharged cells or super charged gas meaning you don't have to rely on your rapid shots / hammer shot to build cells in the midst of battle. Since 3.0 it grats 1 stack of critical efficiency which reduces the heat cost of your healing scan (5 per stack, maximum of 3 stacks so it can reduce your healing scan to a cost of 5 heat) If utilitied into it also grants 1 stack of power barrier. (1% damage reduction per stack, for 5% maximum)

 

- Bacta Infusion / Emergency Scan:

Average: 4250 Crit: 8000 Bonus crit: 9000+

HOT: 1800 (no crits) - 3000+ (if fully critted)

Your utility / Energy free heal. When casted it gives you a buff called Emergency responses which allows you to instant cast healing scan. Also applies a HOT that heals f or

 

- Field aid / Cure:

Average: 1250 Crit: 3250 Bonus crit: 3800

Says what it does on the box. Cleanses physical and tech effects. (Also certain force effects but not all, touch and go that shit)

 

- Trauma probe / Kolto Shell:

Average: 1000 per Shell Crit: 1800 bonus crit: 2200+

Total: 7000 Crit: 14000 Bonus crit: 15500+ (altough it critting every time and then doing it under the best circumstances is probably never gonna happen)

A HODT (heal on damage taken) ability, It doesn't heal for a lot though but it serves its uses. Always best applied before a pull. Get 10 charges of supercharged gas and then place it on everyone. Word of warning: This can potentially generate a substantial amount of threat on you, consider asking for a guard or aggro drop. Re-applying kolto shot mid battle should only be used during lulls when people are full health or near full health priorities of re-applying it should be tanks, healers and melee dps and then ranged DPS (in that order)

Word of warning 2: If you are in a group with 2 mercenaries and you're better geared ask the other merc not to cast unless its an in combat cast.

 

Successive treatment / Progressive Scan

Average: 8000 (main target) Crit: 16000 (assumes every tick is a crit) Bonus crit: 18000+

Other: 2100+ Crit: 4400 Bonus crit: 5000 for each target ticked (up to 4 people)

a Pseudo 4 man heal that hits pretty hard, one of the abilities that should always almost be on cooldown unless healing requirement is low. Also applies an armor buff on the person casted on and everyone that it additional ticks for healing.

 

- Med shot / Kolto shot:

Average: 1100 Crit: 2500 Bonus crit: 2600-3000

Hooray! with the support cylinder / cell you can now hit your allies with bolts / a beam that heals them and reduces your heat.

Also applies 1 charge of supercharged gas / cells. This generally should be used when your heat is above 40 as a way to reduce it. Alternatively during lulls in a battle you can use it to top-off people. You can use this to build up 10 stacks of supercharged gas before a battle also

 

- Concussion Charge / Jet boost:

Heal: 1200 Crit: 2000+ bonus crit: 2500+

Just an AOE knock-back you say? WRONG! with the right tree spec you can turn this into an 8 man AOE heal that heals you and all allies in range. Note: If there are adds around try not to knockback them unless its necessary to keep the group alive.

 

- Supercharged Cells/Gas:

Technically doesn't heal but I included it as a healing ability since it amplifies your healing by 5% HOWEVER. just by being at 10 stacks of this and not activating the ability you get a 3% increase to all your heals so you only want to pop supercharged cells for 2 reasons: - to reduce your heat/cells (it vents 8 heat) 2 - you absolutely need 2% extra heals for a burn phase. As an added effect super charged gas removes the cool-down on healing scan/advanced medical probe. When you pop super charged gas only heal with healing scan during that period. (I mean unless you don't need to lol)

 

- Tech override / Power Surge:

Allows you to insta cast an ability (this can be used for both healing abilities or offensive abilities) Is your tank taking too much damage? use this in conjunction with rapid scan / medical probe (This also works great with reserve power cell / thermal sensor override)

 

- Reserve power cell / Thermal sensor override

Allows you to cast an ability free of heat charges (can be used for both healing abilities or offensive abilities) Are you above 40 heat / below 60 cells? Use it, because being above 40 heat / below 60 cells reduces your heat / cell regeneration (you get the most regeneration below 40 heat / above 60 cells)

 

- Reload / Vent heat

Reduces your Heat / Increases your cells by 50 over 3 seconds (15 instant cell regen with cell capacitor utility while also applying 10% alacrity for 6 seconds)

I rarely use this as with proper heat management you wont have to use it. That said there ARE times when it is necessary: To save the life(s) of your tank(s) or to burst heal the raid group up to acceptable levels of health. Note that people new to merc / commando healing are free to use this but try to move away from being dependent on it.

 

- Emergency Medical Probe / Onboard AED

Nothing special, only your combat rez. Note: this shares a 5 minute cool-down with any other healers combat rez. So if a Merc uses his combat rez that means that a Sorc or Operative wont be able to use his combat rez. (stealth rezzes still work since that is a cool-down on revive)

 

- Adrenaline Rush / Kolto overload

A rapid heal that heals you back to 40% of your maximum health. You can trigger it when you expect a large hit that will bring you under 40% of your health or when you are under that %. Mind you should not be used if you are at 39% or similar health amounts. Ideally I would use it around 15-20% to get the most out of it without being in a danger zone of health.

 

 

Rotation (deviating from this is alright but I will list the most perfect rotation as possible)

 

Before fight:

1. Get 10 stacks of supercharged gas / cells
   
2. Apply Kolto shell on everyone
   
3. (Optional: apply successive treatment / progressive scan on main tank for the armor buff)
   

 

During fight:

1. Emergency Scan / Bacta infusion
   
2. Healing scan / Advanced Medical Probe (This will be an instant cast and place a healing buff on the person casted)
   
3. Successive treatment / progressive scan
   
4. Rapid scan / Medical probe
   

 

(kinda touch and go from here but if you were to follow your cool-downs and keep casting it would end sort of like this:

1. Rapid Scan / Medical probe
   
2. Rapid Scan / Medical probe
   
3. Rapid Scan / Medical probe (probably with thermal sensor override)
   
4. Healing scan / Advanced Medical Probe
   
5. Successive treatment / progressive scan
   

 

Additional Notes

1. Be sure to refresh Kolto shell / trauma probe on the tanks and perhaps yourself and the other healer(s) and possibly others in the raid group if time allows it.
   
2. Pop Supercharged gas / cells if heat management becomes an issue or you need the extra heals
   
3. only in extreme emergencies should you use vent heat / reload
   
4. Using jetboost / concussion charge depends on your positioning but using it to only heal yourself is totally acceptable but positioning yourself in a group is better. It only costs 8 heat / cells (or 0 if you are utilitied for it. Im not but its an acceptable utility to take)
   

 

Gear:

1. 440-550 Surge, Rest of your gear should be power and alacrity. Main stat augments where possible since with the way I gear myself is that I only rely on the natural crit given to me by Aim and Cunning (might be worthwhile to get all aim and cunning datacrons out there)
   

 

Things to look at here:

Bonus healing (increases the base healing of all your healing skills)

Crit Chance (increases the chance of you getting a critical on a heal)

Crit multiplier (increases the amount of a critical heal)

Alacrity (increases heat dissipation, global cooldowns, activation speed, channel speed)

 

You gotta watch out that you dont get too much crit, gearing selectively and knowing what to replace in your gear will lead to a higher HPS/EHPS

 

altough you cant really tell my statimization in the picture, I could actually afford to get an extra surge piece at the cost of alacrity the HPS/EHPS difference wouldn't be too high however but my crits would be between 18000-19000 on my highest heal (instead of 17000-18000) which is pretty to look at.

 

Relics:

• Serendipitous assault
  
• Focused Retribution
  

Get crafted 186 PVE relics, Current PVE relics > PVP relics

 

Optional relic

• Boundless Ages (allows you to set a burst healing phase on your own volition)
  

Note: The set bonus for a mercenary / Commando healer is finally worth it since 3.0 They fixed it! Sad part is that the main reason you want it is the six piece bonus (so you got a long way to go)

 

Utilities:

 

Skillfull: Custom enviro suit, improved vents, power barrier

Masterful: Torque boosters, Protective Field (infra red sensors is also good here, heat damping is worth it if youre getting jet rebounder in heroic)

heroic: Kolto jets, Thrill of the hunt (optional: stabilized armor instead of kolto jets in AOE heavy fights)

 

 

 

Tips and tricks!

1. Med shot / Kolto shot healing should only be used to top people off or if they are getting minuscule damage. I try to only use it when people are around 85% or higher in terms of health (edit your UI to show percentages and numbers) Only do this if time allows it or if everyone is hovering at nearly full health. If people are getting hurt too much while you are trying to top people off then don't bother doing it.
   
2. If multiple people are grouped up and hurt use Kolto bomb / Kolto missile to give all of them a boost, up to 8 people will get healed from the bomb/missile healing amount and they will all get a small HOT too. Its not worth while to use kolto missile on one person, but if you can hit 2 or ideally 3 shoot em if you got em.
   
3. If you're having issues beating a particular boss due to lack of heals consider getting 2 triage adrenals (since most fights last longer than 3 minutes)
   
4. Consider carrying around medpacks or even giving them out if the above is causing your raid to wipe
   
5. Always be stimmed when youre healing!
   
6. Always be healing! If youre not casting youre not healing even if its med shot / kolto shot (if youre high health)
   
7. If nobody needs healing either DPS or apply kolto shell / trauma probe for future phases. KEY NOTE: REMAIN BELOW 40 HEAT WHILE DPSING (unless you know what you're doing) if you dont stay below 40 heat while DPSIng and people suddenly need heals you might find yourself unable to give them.
   
8. If you can, have someone craft you your entire 186 gear and improve your gear using ravagers, TOS.
   

 

186 comm vendor gearing guide:

 

Bracer: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 bracers (if possible replace the mod with a aim + power mod)

Belt: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 belt (if possible replace the mod with a aim + power mod)

Earpiece: Yavin med-tech mk-1 relay

Implant 1: Yavin boltblaster's mk-1 package

Implant 2: Yavin boltblaster's mk-1 package

Legs: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 legplates (if possible replace the mod with aim + power and the enhancement with either power + surge or power + alacrity. You can take the mods enhancements from the med-tech boots)

Boots: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 boots

Hands: Yavin boltblaster's mk-1 gauntlets

Chest: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 body armor (if possible replace the mod with aim + power and the enhancement with either power + surge or power + alacrity. You can take the mods enhancements from the med-tech gauntlets)

Head: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 helmet (if possible replace the mod with aim + power and the enhancement with either power + surge or power + alacrity. You can take the mods enhancements from the med-tech boots)

Mainhand: Ask for someone to craft you a barrel and use the mods + enhancements from boots or gauntlets depending on your surge (if its around 500 you dont need more surge)

Offhand: Yavin med-tech's mk-1 offhand blaster

Relics: Serendipitous assault + focused retribution. ask someone to craft 186 variants or hope you get lucky on TOS (first boss drops relics)

Edited September 12, 2015 by Faardor

[Yollo]

Merc/Mando is the one healing class I don't know anything about.  Thanks for the awesome guide, Faar.

[Xoza]

Let me know if this is the final, we'll move it to our guides board.

[DeumDeorum]

Are you looking for more guides to add xoza?

[CrescentSnow]

Good guide. I am a Merc Healer. This helps a lot. 

[Faardor]

updated for 3.0 included a gearing guide, if anyone has a merc (or any other healing class) and they need help with their rotation or gear upgrades feel free to hit me up ingame or on TS and ill give some constructive criticism or tips.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Faardor