I noticed the first couple tiers in Bodyguard and Arsenal have talents which benefit both damage and healing. These talents alone would bring you to level 23.

 

You'd probably quest using a tank or even dps companion, half dps and half healing him, and do flashpoints as both a healer and dps when you only need light healing. Is this a viable strategy? Are you at a severe disadvantage by not going straight up Aresenal? Can you heal flashpoints effectively without any points in Bodyguard?

I noticed the first couple tiers in Bodyguard and Arsenal have talents which benefit both damage and healing. These talents alone would bring you to level 23.

 

You'd probably quest using a tank or even dps companion, half dps and half healing him, and do flashpoints as both a healer and dps when you only need light healing. Is this a viable strategy? Are you at a severe disadvantage by not going straight up Aresenal? Can you heal flashpoints effectively without any points in Bodyguard?

 

I personally don't think you should try to dual spec between Arsenal and Bodyguard. If you placed points in both, you wouldn't be effective at DPS or healing. You should pick one of the two trees and focus on one or the other..

Well. Tricky question. I'm thinking about "dual spec" because I like the idea. Great to be able to heal myself when out quseting or back-up heal in flashpoints. If it turns out to be a major fail I can always re-spec (I know, at a HUGE cost).

 

Play whatever you think is fun and you learn to play with YOUR spec YOUR way and YOUR style! That's what I'm going to do :-)

Back on the old forums, Werdan had a hybrid build posted on his Ask a Merc thread:

 

http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/bounty_hunter/mercenary/#::e5f2efefefe3fe4f2ef5e3f3efefe2f18:

 

Sounded like he got a lot of utility out of it in PvE and PvP.

 

In the end, viability does come down to what you enjoy playing If you play in a guild, there may be expectations on what role you're meant to fill, which might influence your build choice, but if not, go with what makes sense to you. Running a DPS or tank companion and healing them on the side sounds fair enough to me, I was kinda wanting to do the same.

Quoted and answered in my new thread.

Not a good idea. If you take a look at the bodyguard tree the level 24-27 talents are critical (critical efficiency), as are the level 10-19 talents, and in the arsenal tree it's imperative to get tracer missile ASAP.

 

I wouldn't consider the dual spec until after Kolto Shell is obtained in the BG tree.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Darinford

With Mako it feels like I should be focusing on DPS spec early and getting Healing later when Flashpoints/Raids become an issue. L50, well... Guild/role/PvE/PvP/Gear/Buff/Nerf. We'll see.

Levling as a hybrid would work but not efficient. I rather go healing spec and use the Jawa, unfortunatly you get him later on. But you dps for soloing is not bad as a bodyguard considering you use the same gear for healing and DPS anyway.

Play and spec out to your liking, I think a lot of class performance comes from the player, you may not have all the high end skills raid groups may be looking for but you should be fine if you do like werdan spec wise, very smart build imo

Having a hybrid spec at end game is a lot different than leveling as one.

 

Werdan mentioned that the best way to go was to start in one and keep with it. I think this is due to powerful abilities being at 3rd tier and you're delaying your access to them if you spread your points around too much.

 

I'm certainly going one spec tree till 3rd tier at least.

It would seem that it is far better to level as a pure choice, and then pick a companion to complement your skill set.