So I'm facing down a boss and I've got him at arms length, he has a scrap of health, I have a sliver. I will die if I fight any more.

 

I have used my med pack and its counter has gone all the way down, but I still can't use another because of the arbitrary rule about only one med pack per combat.

 

I have the guy at a distance and literaly, I have the choice between re-engaging and dying, or running benny hill style for the rest of my natural life.

 

Is there ANY other way (besides med packs and health spells I don't have) to heal in combat? Some biochem backup med pack or candy bar I haven't seen? Something I could buy on the GTN that doesn't share the med pack cooldown lockout?

Every heal besides medpack (some blue medpacks offer added health over time) is out of combat I believe I would imagine your best option is to kite the enemy to a friendly that can help kill him if in an area that is possible. Or kite him until your stun is off cooldown stun him and hope you kill him within the stun time.

The short version is no.

 

To mitigate these factors in prolonged fights, use your healing companion if you have him already. You can spec into the tank tree some to get more survivability (probably one of the best solo leveling specs). Make sure you are using your CC appropriately to avoid the enemy's biggest attacks and preserve your life that way. Otherwise make sure your gear is level appropriate and your level is quest appropriate and you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Thanks for the responses, I figured that was the answer. Just hoping there was something I overlooked. Cheers!

Thanks for the responses, I figured that was the answer. Just hoping there was something I overlooked. Cheers!

It appears you (and the other folks who replied) overlooked your Heroic Moment ability, which is a HoT for both you and your companion. Restores 2% of your max health every 3 seconds for 1 minute, on a 20 minute cooldown. It requires an "active" companion, so be sure you use it before he/she/it dies. Edited February 4, 2013 by Adric_the_Red

You're a shadow, so you can talent an ability called Force Cloak (if you're Infiltration spec). It dumps you out of combat and into cloak instantly. The only problem is, the NPC goes out of combat as well, which means he will run back to his home base and insta-heal to 100%. You won't die, but you'll be right back where you started.

 

Also, to make Force Cloak "work" you have to pop your other ability that cleanses all hostile effects like DOTs. It's most reliable if you're far enough away that the NPC can't instantly throw another DOT on you as soon as you cleanse them all with your defensive CD. So cleanse -> FC -> run away, hide, and heal up.

 

Other than that . . . as someone else said, use a healing companion. Your ship droid can heal if you slap some gear on him. He's not the best at it because he can't equip a weapon or offhand, so his stats are a little gimped. He will also run up to mobs and punch them like an idiot when he's not actively healing you.

 

And a few of the Shadow tank talents add very weak self-heals to some of your attacks, like Telekinetic throw. You also have two defensive CDs you can pop to mitigate a lot of incoming damage for a short period. One is 2 seconds 100% reduction, and the other is like 25% reduction for 8 seconds. Deflection and . . . I forget the other one; it's the one that's a defensive CD and a cleanse all in one. Resilience maybe.

 

Your best heal as a DPS Shadow though is just doing more damage quicker. You've got the burst talents for a reason; use them. Dead mobs can't hit you, and damage not taken is better than damage healed any day.

 

Or roll a Sage and just be a healer. Then you'll never have this (particular) problem again.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Heezdedjim

I love my shadow too much to sage. Unf! She is so unequivocally ******. Her philosophy is definitely along the lines of "The dead can't hurt me, and you can't hurt me, so threaten me...and you're dead."

 

What actually turned out happening was I thought I could solo a heroic area, and I thought I was at the boss and was about to beat it but just barely couldn't, and it was driving me nuts. Turned out he was not the boss...and I was only about half way. So I came back with peoples. Now I choose my fights more carefully.

 

But, I am glad I asked because there is some great info shared here for a newb shadow to assimilate so thanks again for the responses and for the new ones. Very helpful!