Just getting back into the game and I think its time I made my trooper. Although I haven't decided 100% between Com and Van I'm leaning towards a Com. I'm mostly a PvE player who occasionally dabbles in PvP. So what I'm wondering is, if played correctly (which I plan on doing), how do commandos stack up with sages and scoundrels when it comes to healing in late game ops/fps? When I was forced to leave the game about 9 months ago, commandos weren't exactly desired as healers but I keep reading that they've been changed but I haven't see much about how they now stack up.

 

Thanks in advance for any input.

A few months ago when I made my commando, I went full healing.

Kept like that for some time and saw that I couldn't be par with sages or scoundrels, so I switched to dps.

 

A few days ago, after 2.0, I gave myself a chance to the combat medic tree again and I was impressed, it had some improvement and now I feel that healing with a commando is a lot better and fun.

 

I still play a dps commando, but when PuGs for HMs are hard to pop, I just respec to heals and go for it.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Haggardbr

Just throwing my two cents into the ring, lets go:

 

Commando's have the greatest single target healing skillset and potential of all the healers. They also had (and still do have) the worst group healing skillset and potential of all the healers. If you have any questions about group healing on commandos, then the tooltips of each ability will give you an idea of our limits, Kolto bomb is our 6s CD, 4 player max main heal limit, unlimited player HoT limit. And that's it for our group heals. Scoundrels get the equivalent on a longer CD and comes with an attached harder ticking HoT that is attached to a max of 4 people. Sages get salvation, 8 people able to be healed at once. Scoundrels get SRM which act as a quasi AoE heal because the HoT lasts for such a long time and can be casted on the entire raid if desired. What all that means is that commandos have a singular purpose, heal 1 or 2 targets, and heal them good (heal them the best if only 1 target). Sages heal lots of people good and scoundrels are a good all-round contingency healer, aka my other healer (sage or commando) is not doing their job well, so I, as a scoundrel will perform my own healing duties ( whether it be group or single target healing) and help out with other healer's specific duties (generally the opposite of your job).

 

Scoundrels are the archetypal jack of all trades but master of none, they don't group heal as well as a sage, they don't single target heal as well as a commando. Sages are surprisingly good at single target healing, especially after 2.0 with benevolence becoming a very useful burst heal. But again, still beneath commandos.

 

All in all, commandos in PVE are (and always have been) useful and more than capable of clearing the hardest content with the same ease as the other healing classes. Commandos are interesting because their usefulness to the raid healing increases with better group healers. They are just not very good at picking up the pieces when your sage decides that healing everyone is for chumps and force barrier on CD is the way to go in life.

 

TL;DR: Commandos are the best single target healers. Everyone else can suck it when it comes to single target healing.

 

P.S I am a commando healing fan boy. But I think I know what I am on about, I do like debates though

Commandos are awesome healers. For our top ops team we usually run 1 commando and 1 scoundrel. (occasionally even 2 commandos)

All healers have a place in endgame ops. With 2.0 CMs got even better and are great healers with excellent utility skills. Commando and scoundrel are the 2 best healer's in my opinion and are an excellent ops duo. (sages are good but I think they get more credit than they deserve). Several times i have been in ops with sages that just couldn't cut it but have rarely been in groups where a commando or scoundrel were not up to the task.

Yep excellent healers - you have to think carefully to play them well, especially healing more than a couple of people - which makes the class a good challenge

Commandos are very very strong now. We did 4/7 16 hm SaV with me healing in only about half 69 gear (rest dread guard) horribly min/maxed. On Thursday and I was healing close to 5000 hps with 4800 EHP on dashroode. Topped out our half ultimate geared sage. Using kolto bomb on cool down provides arguably more AOE healing potential that the sage now.

 

I topped our charts every time.

So to answer your question HELL EFFING YEAH commandos are good PVE healers.

Although I speculate they may be better in the 16man scenario.

Commandos are very very strong now. We did 4/7 16 hm SaV with me healing in only about half 69 gear (rest dread guard) horribly min/maxed. On Thursday and I was healing close to 5000 hps with 4800 EHP on dashroode. Topped out our half ultimate geared sage. Using kolto bomb on cool down provides arguably more AOE healing potential that the sage now.

 

I topped our charts every time.

So to answer your question HELL EFFING YEAH commandos are good PVE healers.

Although I speculate they may be better in the 16man scenario.

In short, yes.

 

The best combo is probably Commando/Sage, IMHO, but any two healers can heal any raid in the game. Still, it's best to have a combination of two different healing classes for utility.

Kolto bomb is our 6s CD, 4 player max main heal limit, unlimited player HoT limit. And that's it for our group heals.

 

No.

 

Kolto bomb to hit 4 and then heal unlimited in puddle for about 800 over 3s before crits

Concussion Charge to heal unlimited in 360 AOE around you for 1600 instantly before crits

 

So in two moves you can heal an unlimited number for 2400 before crits and that takes 3s.

 

Per player they are weak but across a raid it is massive sponging, in a 16m grouped up thats 38400 health that won't have to be recovered some other way further down the line by either you or another healer.

 

The actual knockback mechanic has to be considered but in boss fights it's largely irrelevant since most things are immune to physics.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Gyronamics

No.

 

Kolto bomb to hit 4 and then heal unlimited in puddle for about 800 over 3s before crits

Concussion Charge to heal unlimited in 360 AOE around you for 1600 instantly before crits

 

So in two moves you can heal an unlimited number for 2400 before crits and that takes 3s.

 

Per player they are weak but across a raid it is massive sponging, in a 16m grouped up thats 38400 health that won't have to be recovered some other way further down the line by either you or another healer.

 

The actual knockback mechanic has to be considered but in boss fights it's largely irrelevant since most things are immune to physics.

 

I love the "bug" with Kolto Bomb/Missile that gives us infinite AOE HoT. Also if you have the Columi set bonus Kolto Missile/Bomb is a 5 Sec CD.

can anyone point me to a good commando healing guide? I'm raising one now as I'm a little bored of sage healing lol

I am a Combat Medic who up until recently had only healed since launch (I started DPSing to fill in for someone in a Flashpoint and liked it a lot so now I play it from time to time). In my experience, we are best combined with a Sage in raids as our single-target potential, combined with the Sage's great AOE heals, produce great synergy. Often, I am healing the tanks while the Sage heals the DPS, and we rarely have problems (unless I mess up with my ammo, then all hell starts to break loose).

 

Recently, I had the pleasure of healing along side another Commando in a raid for the first time in a couple months (I mainly raid with my guild and am one of the only Combat Medics) and I have to say when you double up the Trauma Probe the result is pretty damn nice. The main-tank's health was very easy to manage which left us with a lot more room to heal the DPS and off-tank.

 

Then again, I think Scoundrels are just better than us...but I don't have much experience with them to say for sure. Regardless of how our class compares, I find it enjoyable and plan to continue playing it (with some more DPS here and there as I learn how that goes).

 

can anyone point me to a good commando healing guide? I'm raising one now as I'm a little bored of sage healing lol

If you have not already, check out SpaniardInfinity's excellent PVP Combat Medic guide, Frontline Medicine: Combat Medic PVP Strategies and Tips. Much of the core of that guide also applies to PVE, just remember that you will be primarily healing the tanks (so give them your trauma probe).

Edited May 12, 2013 by Kickimanjaro

...

Recently, I had the pleasure of healing along side another Commando in a raid ...

 

I guess I know which raid you're talking about!!! *point to my commando's name in signature*

 

You did a great job that day tbh!