Riftmaster

I have been really thinking about moving my keybinds around more since I'm using a whole lot of mouse + key binds for my healing and such. I find it interesting that you and Jilla have been using Rapid Shots on #3 instead of where it usually sat. Usually I'm so accustomed to using the normal awsd keys. Maybe I should move it to the center of the boardlike drfg (where f has that notch) and remap the whole thing, even removing the normal hotkeys for guild, codex, jounral etc and using the upper bar by clicking on the respected options. That would take a lot of getting used to lol. Or maybe I should unbind my q and e and use modifiers with that as such. Going to have to really experiment.

Jilla

Thank you Jilla! Healing is actually an enigma and it's extremely fun too, especially this class.

Soloing as a healer was OKAY during my 1-20s. Once I started hitting the 30 range, things started getting rougher as the enemies started getting more deadlier and can self heal etc. I went with a hybrid spec (in Werdan's sticky) until I got Blizz.

Blizz, is something else. He became my all time favorite companion (save Mako for her personality even as a light side player, but she stuck with me the whole way through). Ever since I specced back into full heals because of The Founrdy flashpoint, I decided to start giving Blizz a try in his DPS mode. That little guy is actually quite a little bad*** for the most part. His cuteness contradicts his awesomeness as you see him Ziplining towards enemies and firing a Salvage Rocket. He's been keeping me going and I have been moving quite well through my missions with him by my side. Keep Kolto Shell on Blizz and you will see some magic fly (quite literally lol).

I think best companion is subjective and it all comes down to how you are wanting to play. I have heard a lot of people going with Gault, but he goes down like a fly in a flyswatter (maybe because I was hybrid specced with him).

Thank you for making this guide, it has helped out a tonne. I am also leveling as a healer use Gault (love his personality). And don't have a problem with questing. I've just hit 31.

I am mainly doing PvP as healing as a merc in WZ is really fun, and quite enjoyable to do.

Riftmaster

 

I have been really thinking about moving my keybinds around more since I'm using a whole lot of mouse + key binds for my healing and such. I find it interesting that you and Jilla have been using Rapid Shots on #3 instead of where it usually sat. Usually I'm so accustomed to using the normal awsd keys. Maybe I should move it to the center of the boardlike drfg (where f has that notch) and remap the whole thing, even removing the normal hotkeys for guild, codex, jounral etc and using the upper bar by clicking on the respected options. That would take a lot of getting used to lol. Or maybe I should unbind my q and e and use modifiers with that as such. Going to have to really experiment.

It does take some getting used to.

Especially since I was also used to the WASD keys.

But currently, I mainly use W and R for left and right strafe, respectively, and LMB + RMB for forward movement and turning. MMB is my CC breaker, and I unbound camera zoom from the scroll feature because if I hit the CC breaker wrong I would sometimes zoom in accidently.

It’s just a basic 3-button mouse.

Edit: I bound the arrow keys to forward/backward and left/right turn, in case I want to move around with one hand occasionally (like while consuming food or beverages, or some such).

I actually had been using my 2nd and 3rd fingers for LMB and RMB (respectively) previously, but I’ve had to start using my 4th finger for RMB instead, as moving it between RMB and MMB when I got CC’d was putting too much strain on it, IMO. 3rd (middle) finger is now MMB, so if I break your CC I suppose I’m giving you the finger…lolz.

I based my changes on a combination of this guide and watching some recorded/live streams of that guide’s author (taugrim, if anyone has heard of him) playing a Powertech/Vanguard.

He seems focused on a keybind setup that only requires 1 keypress for each ability, which makes it easier to activate them.

The way he has it set up, the top middle bar is keys 1 through =, and the bottom middle bar has bar slots 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11, and 12 bound as Q, E, T, Y, A, S D, F, G, H, MMB, and unbound respectively. (the 12th is for things such as your medkits)

Then his left vertical bar has 5 abilities near the bottom, with bar slots 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 bound to Z, X, C, V, and B respectively.

Thing is, even those guide/videos don’t provide enough keybinds for all the abilities, so I've found myself throwing rarely-used skills (like unload or my 60s stun) on one of the side-bars, unbound, to allow for more often-used skills.

I need to tweak my binds a bit, I think, but overall it seems smoother than my previous (default) setup.

For example, I’ve found that it’s helpful to hit auto-run occasionally in PvP, to allow me to keep moving while firing off a Kolto Missile (as it requires targeting via the mouse, which otherwise inturrupts the LMB + RMB foward movement). Granted, I could just stop or strafe with W or R, but...

Trouble is I still have it set as Numlock, which requires that I take one hand away from its normal position to do so, wasting a half second or so of time.

I could go on, but…

And it’s really dependent on your specific playstyle/preference – I was having trouble with my previous bind setup, so I applied Taugrim’s general ideas, and after a week or so it’s as if I always used them.

And...stuff.

Edit 2: On a side note, Mako apparently got a CC ability at some point around lvl 30 - now I can just DPS and heal myself while she stuns some targets for a bit - it matches well with my abilities that only work on an incap'd enemy, such as rail shot or Shoulder Slam (just got that one)

I recently just went past level 30, and I'm pretty much a pure healing spec. With Gault as a replacement for Mako, I've found that I need to keep him geared up high so he has enough health and armor to survive a fight with a 'gold' mob.

How often are the rest of you healers using the chaff skill? I tend to hit that right after triggering a fight to lower threat on me and divert them to my companion. Does anyone havve a preferred time to set off chaff to boost its threat mitigation the best?

I recently just went past level 30, and I'm pretty much a pure healing spec. With Gault as a replacement for Mako, I've found that I need to keep him geared up high so he has enough health and armor to survive a fight with a 'gold' mob.

 

How often are the rest of you healers using the chaff skill? I tend to hit that right after triggering a fight to lower threat on me and divert them to my companion. Does anyone havve a preferred time to set off chaff to boost its threat mitigation the best?

I'm lvl 35, still using Mako as my companion, and I actually DPS mostly, while throwing a few heals on myself and getting healed by her.

Works fairly well atm...

I'm perhaps using an odd setup...

 

I'm lvl 35, still using Mako as my companion, and I actually DPS mostly, while throwing a few heals on myself and getting healed by her.

 

Works fairly well atm...

i have been dong this too and it works quite well

I recently just went past level 30, and I'm pretty much a pure healing spec. With Gault as a replacement for Mako, I've found that I need to keep him geared up high so he has enough health and armor to survive a fight with a 'gold' mob.

 

How often are the rest of you healers using the chaff skill? I tend to hit that right after triggering a fight to lower threat on me and divert them to my companion. Does anyone havve a preferred time to set off chaff to boost its threat mitigation the best?

I was about to post a topic about that skill but it was already in the Bounty Hunter forums. I feel like it works sometimes as well as it doesn't at all. It drives me up the wall sometimes especially when I draw a lot of aggro from deploying Kolto Shell on my tank in the middle of a fight. Hopefully the skill will be relooked into.

Also, I couldn't redo my keybinds. I tried it once and it felt completely out of place for me. I know that it takes time getting used to, but I'm used to multi-tasking to the max. Example: utilizing the map, guild chat, etc while I'm running forward. I know there's an auto-run function, but that doesn't help with the fact that I might need to stop on a dime if I'm about to run into trouble or a cliff.

On Bodyguard leveling:

So I am 32 now. Still love our 2nd combat companion and have only had problems with one fight.

However, because I benched him, I upgraded all Mako's gear and plan on trying to see if she's viable, especially now that I have her decked our in a dancer costume (I know, I am a pig), but thanks to Armoring, mods, etc., she is still in good shape stat-wise and way better to look at!

On Topic:

I hate things that people spout as fact that have not been tested. How many time have people told us that Alacrity does NOT affect the global cool down? Well they are only 1/2 right:

It does not affect the GCD for our instant cast abilities. However it does shorten the GCD on our ones that have a cast time.

So again, for those who complain about alacrity being useless, I remain unconvinced that it is bad and this video makes me more confident that it has a use. Whether there is a cap, or whether its effectiveness is stair-stepped as it increases, I look forward to seeing the theorycrafting, but to simply dismiss it "because it just makes us overheat faster" is a bad move.

I think it's the same debate in many other mmos about casting speed vs the amount, crit, etc. Even in WoW, we needed to hit a certain haste criteria to become a more efficient healer, but that would also include running the mana reservoir dry even quicker. I think the fact of the matter is that completing your tasks quicker while giving you more time off the casting window will give you that breathing room, much as the heat dropping to 0. Pretty much as you mentioned in your notes aforetime.

That video you posted is actually very interesting. Although, I thought the GCD was one second and not 1.5. Maybe I'm missing something here?

I recently just went past level 30, and I'm pretty much a pure healing spec. With Gault as a replacement for Mako, I've found that I need to keep him geared up high so he has enough health and armor to survive a fight with a 'gold' mob.

 

How often are the rest of you healers using the chaff skill? I tend to hit that right after triggering a fight to lower threat on me and divert them to my companion. Does anyone havve a preferred time to set off chaff to boost its threat mitigation the best?

I'm currently lvl 35, also pretty much a full bodyguard heal spec and also using Gault as my dps companion, and I don't use Chaff Flare at all when soloing.

At my current lvl I'd much rather tank the mobs myself rather than trying to divert threat to my companion, as with Energy Shield (and the various talents that make heals uniterruptable when its up etc) its much easier to keep myself alive than keep my companion alive.

Hi guys thanks for the love.

Alacrity is a nice stat that gives us haste. Contrary to the cause, people deny alacrity as a useful stat because of heat "complication" issues. If you heal right and use the right rotations for healing, you shouldn't be running into much trouble with heat issues at all. That being said, the quicker you get a heal off, the better you're off. This is because of the major crunch time you have between you and damaging foes. In a PvP aspect, this is even more essential because popping off your heals quicker can mean life or death in the battlefield. We need to focus on Alacrity and Power. Power doesn't scale as we are expecting per say, but the added boost in the healing benefits can prove contrary.

Also, look at the note that I placed in quotes that TempestasSilva mentioned located in Healing Specs (subjected to be moved into Stats and You). The quicker the heal, the more time you have to do other things.

ALSO, another cool thing is that alacrity affects the Global Cooldown. The faster the GCD, the more likely you are able to set off another heal. Just remember, working the right rotation can make a large impact in your heat management.

TempestasSilva

I just did some field testing and heat dissipates even after you begin your casts for healing.

On Leveling as a bodyguard:

Ok, so I have a very sad (for me) update. I am now 37 and just finished the Taris Bonus series and Moved on to Quesh. Now Quesh is listed as 36-37, so I am not under leveled. Infact, I thing I have been hitting most of the planets at the lowest level in the range.

There was a HUGE jump in difficulty IMO. And I am not alone in thinking so as referenced in this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=897709

I have all three of our companions geared very well with mostly orange gear and current level blue armorings, etc.

While I am in no way saying it is not doable, I tried all 3 companions and I wasnt satisfied with any. A simple reg+strong was no longer simple and an elite was now a crap shoot.

SO....I respeced enough to get tracer missile, then put the rest back in Bodyguard. I basically gave up Kolto Shell, and the talents that gave boosts to healing scan and I only have a 665 chance to reduce the cost of my next rapid scan. I also switched from Combat Support Cylinder to High Velocity Gas.

The difference is NIGHT and DAY. To the point that I wonder if I should have done it sooner.

I am also disappointed that out 3rd companion didn't have "modes" like the 1st 2. Mako have DPS and Heals. The next has Single target DPS vs AOE DPS. I expected the third to have like DPS & Tank, but no such luck. Even with changing which abilities he had and trying to give him as much endurance as possible while still having aim too, his health is lower than mine by several hundred and he does not seem much more resilient than our 2nd one. I do like him being Melee.

The good news is I don't feel like I lost THAT much in healing and I will slowly get back what I lost.

In Some ways, I kind of feel like a traitor, but it was needed.

On Topic

Yes, the "normal" Global Cool Down (GCD) is 1.5 seconds.

In another thread, a poster (Mooby) stated that with 17% Alacrity, he was getting 1.25 second Healing Scans. He also made some other statements that need discussion and testing:

Crit has a 40% soft cap / 50% hard cap, so you're probably not wanting to go over 35% unbuffed Tech crit. Surge has massive DR from 85% so that's the point to stop for that, maybe even stop at 80%. Power has a bad coefficient to Healing Power compared to Damage but after the above are reaching the point where DR is coming into play it's the best alternative. So I'm going to go on a limb and say:

 

Crit to 30% - 35%

Surge to 80% - 85%

Alacrity to 10% (15% with System Calibrations)

 

After that, stack power. These numbers will be impossible to obtain without Flashpoint / Operations / Mastercraft crafting gear. Myself, I've gone with a nice mix and Tech crit is at 35%, Surge at 77%, Alacrity at 10% and +323 Power. Unfortunately I have no math to back this up, purely my own observations after playing Bodyguard and what "feels" right.

Alacrity is a nice stat that gives us haste. Contrary to the cause, people deny alacrity as a useful stat because of heat "complication" issues. If you heal right and use the right rotations for healing, you shouldn't be running into much trouble with heat issues at all.

That's nice and all, but even with the right rotation, the only thing you get out of this is more rapid shots.

Firing off heals faster in PvE and PvP is of course better, it lowers that "deadzone" where the tank receives no heals. However it's not the discussion whether or not alacrity is good; the discussion is whether alacrity is BETTER than other stats like crit. Casting 0.1 sec faster is nice, but so is 5% extra crit.

To quote your post:

Originally Posted by TempestasSilva

Thoughts on Alacrity:

1) its a set bonus for us, so Bioware intended for us to like it.

2) Allows me to cast the same #of spells for the same heat Faster

3) Now have more time to spam rapid shots which increases my healing

4) Now am done casting sooner so my heat starts dissipating sooner.

5) 3+4 = more throughput

1. That doesn't say much. They gave Alacrity to other classes that have less use of it too. They put alacrity on a lot of sniper gear, and my sniper really has next to zero benefit out of it.

2. This is nice; but again. There are only 3 benefits you get from faster casting.

a) You can react to burst damage better (mainly pve)

b) You have less chance to be interrupted (mainly pvp)

c) You have extra time to cast.

A and B are valid gains, the question however this is more valuable than say critting. For PvE I'm not so sure; PvP is hard to judge, but faster casting is really good of course.

C on the other hand is tricky. The only thing you can do with that extra time is cast Rapid Shot, after all you are limited by the heat. That does mean more healing done, but since rapid shot is so low healing the alternative of crit gains value relatively.

3. True, but rapid shot is marginal healing. Say you have 15% alacrity which in your rotation allows 1 extra rapid shot. You just gave up 10-15% crit which gives you substantially more throughput.

4. This is plain false. Heat is dissipates while casting too. Casting faster has no effect on heat at all, other than bring you above the 40+ mark faster if you're not careful

Quick example:

Say I do 2 rapid scans followed by a rapid shot. Total time taken = 2 + 2 + 1.5 = 5.5 seconds. In those 5.5 seconds I use 50 heat and regen 5x5.5 = 27.5 heat.

Now I have 60% alacrity, bringing the rapid scans down to 1.25 sec casts. In the same 5.5 seconds I can now do 2 rapid scans and 2 rapid shots. Total time taken = 1.25 + 1.25 + 1.5 + 1.5 = 5.5 seconds. In those 5.5 seconds I still use 50 heat, and I still regen 27.5 heat.

My total gain is just that 1 rapid shot.

5. Already explained. It's true, but doesn't necessarily make alacrity wanted.

-------

Not saying here that alacrity sucks and should be avoided. Just saying it's has to be viewed critically and always remember:

You can NOT compare having alacrity to having nothing. You ALWAYS give up something for getting alacrity; be it crit or surge or whatever.

Seperate post for a comment on the actual guide.

Nice guide, I think it'll help a lot of people. Personally it's not quite my taste the way you bring it. I kinda prefer things to just be tight and to the point. The funny stuff in between just bloats it too much IMO. I think a lot will appreciate the light weight of the read that way though, so it'll still get my thumbs up.

I think were missing something here, Alacrity isn't solely for the purpose of spamming heals, single heals are affected too, and Im sure as hell 95% of Bounty Hunters would kill for a quicker Rapid Scan. I think we are unnesecarily overcomplicating the matter when really a lot of this will come down to personal preference. Some Bounty Hunters will prefer the quicker smaller heals, whilst many will pimp out crit and surge aiming for procs. A major plus for haste/alacrity was always that you can cast and move a lot quicker therefore preventing boss aoe's etc quicker. Time is money!

Both ways are fairly viable with the current content.

I'm fairly sure I will be biased towards Alacrity/Crit gear as Surge seems like a bit of a wasted stat when we cant depend on a crit to keep people up and procs are generally not life threatening if they arent there.

In most instances I have found that not much will do enough damage for you not to keep a tank up who has Kolto Shell followed by Healing Scan and a Rapid Scan.

Playstyle, Personal Preference, Spec and Raid Set-up are all factors to take into account and due to lax talent trees there isnt too many ways you can go wrong.

P.S. Nice to see you got the attention of quite a few people now DJ, keep up the good work

Much Love

Ryka

@_Nyth:

Thank you for your input. I wish more people would think about this stuff and debate it more as we are all better for it. One thing I think you may be taking out of context is my points on Alacrity were meant to go against the people at the time that were saying Alacrity is worthless. I never said anything about its value relative to other stats. My point was simply that it was not a worthless stat and BW are not idiots for making it a set bonus as some people were claiming.

Not @_Nyth, but related to his points:

1) We can stack multiple stats (I know you all know this know this, but sometimes we talk in absolutes like its only A or B when in fact it could be 25%A and 75%B or even 10%A and 20%B and 70% something else). And yes there is a finite amount for you to determine what allocation is best. Crit is great, but what if you stack 80%? That would be dumb. And, with Crit you want surge too. It is all about ratios and priorities. Lets say you already have 35% Crit, 75% Surge, 15% Alacrity without even wearing your chest piece. Which stat should you focus on? At that point what helps you more? maybe none of those and power or something else is better? Someone needs to put together a spreadsheet with formulas form here: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-SWTOR-formula-list (assuming the formulas are correct)

Then you can put in your current stats and play with adding more of each and shifting ratios to truly see what is better.

2) I have seen the argument about only fitting in a measly Rapid shots due to alacrity. Rapid shots does more than just a little healing for no heat, it gets you closer to your next supercharged gas(SCG). So if you can fit one more rapid shot into your rotation, how many more uses of SCG is that in a 5 minute fight? And what is the increase in overall healing output as a result of more time under SCG?

3) I know alacrity does not speed up our heat dissipation, but can it be valuable to change the cast order of our rotation to keep a lower heat threshold especially when you don't need your full rotation because your target is not taking enough damage to warrant it? Also I'd need to think more about "Oh Crap" situations with/without vent heat. How valuable is alacrity then not just in output but in finishing healing a finite amount faster and also in being done and cooling off...does it make a difference? I'd have to think about it more and I am not in the right frame of mind ATM.

So I have asked a lot of questions. Hopefully people will chime in with thoughts and more questions and we can continue to move the discussion forward.

@DJ:

Congrats on the Sticky!

@ Tempest

The main reason alacrity is my preffered stat comes from the survivability factor, quick heal and move has always been a successful way to heal especially on bosses that are very mobile.

I cant knock what you are saying at all, without the balance between all stats we will find we are lacking either the haste on heals or the amount we are healing for.

Much Love

Ryka

I think the biggest debate about alacrity is the difference between being useless and being a priority.

While maintaining a stat pertaining to a casting class, certainly we aim to get to our destination at a quicker pace than we are intended to by default (without haste stats period). In such case, alacrity does not make or break the player, but tweak the efficiency altogether in order to get the most bang for your buck.

The hottest topic I have seen so far is about ratio. While we need to maintain a certain threshold in our other prioritized stats, one cannot neglect other minor details in order to fulfill the entire role of the class. A body would not be complete without a hand and if the minor things are missing, such as fingers, then we are lacking a perspective as a whole in the entirety of a bodily function, such as a human body.

Furthermore, for those of us who have heard of the Golden Ratio are aware of the perfected proportions in the mathematical field. Whether it is physical or astronomical, we are seeing a certain pattern somewhere in the system. Yank out a speck of that area and we have ourselves a flaw.

Now what I am proposing is something to be taken very lightly as this was only a portrait of various analogies, but we can see the possibilities one may introduce to another that may indeed become beneficial. Simply put, is it really all that worth it to focus heavily on one thing or all in general?

@Tempest

Thank you. My heart dropped since this was my dream. I'll need to plan on reiterating the guide to be a little more accurate since after gaining weeks of experience as a bounty hunter, things have been subjected to change.

@Myli

Thank you for your kind words

@Nyth

I highly value your input and you have made some good points.

I really suggest you read this thread:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=159516

To sum up some of the more important points:

1) TOR seems to lack "soft caps". Most stat increases suffer diminishing returns on an exponential scale. Meaning that if I have 10 crit and bump it to 15 (talking ratings, not %) I will get a huge bump in comparison to increasing it from 200 to 205, even though in both cases I raised it 5 rating points.

2) Surge may not be as important as some have suggested.

3) Alacrity is still a question mark.

4) Power is more important than many thought, but more so at high levels of AIM.

Very nice guide, it will be interesting to see how BH spans out.

Im currently 32 BH Merc and wanna change to healing once im 35 (dont know why)

I want to share my qbinds for those that dont have all the mousebuttons (i got a Logitech Gx9 mouse so im cool)

Here are some basic easy reachable to use for aoe skills and CC:

Q E R T, you dont need what they are bound too anyways

Some others to overlap this is:

Shift + Q E R T, Im using cooldowns with shift as modifier

For quick usable abilities or something you always use:

F and G are easy to reach without lacking movement.

along with Z and X.

Mount is always bound to Shift + Mousewheelup. This makes me do quick mounting.

Im looking forward to try the BH healing and hope this gives away some help for your qbind section

Hey guys just wondering for pvp which relic would you get alacrity or the surge & crit?

Thanks

good guide your spec i think is off. Get rid of heat damping you never use those as a healer enough to matter like maybe once per pull? power shield get rid of necessary evil to maximize your character. Put those points into systems calibrations, intergrated systems for 2% increased healing across the board. seems to me this guide is outdated maybe? missed some obvious stuff.

correct build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rfRMR0cdkqZrcoZb.1