My credentials as an Elite Warlord Mercenary are as follows, Preseason Rating of 1562, 121 wins, 57 losses, 1649 Total Wins, 51363 Player Kills, Medals Earned 25807, and MVP Votes Received 3136. I’ve played 102 days and 15 hours and 0 minutes at the moment of this post. I’ve been playing since Launch when my brother bought me this game. I leveled as a bodyguard mercenary, and most of my hours have been playing a healer in both PVE and PVP, although I consider myself excellent at all three specs, bodyguard will always remain my main.

Anyway, my conclusion is as follows.

Our healing output is too low, too reactive, and too cast dependent. Here’s why.

Utility:

Mercenary/Commando healing output simply cannot compete with the other healing classes. Both Sorcerer/Sage and Operative/Scoundrel bring so much more to the table since their healing output is higher, more proactive, and less heavily cast dependent. Additionally their mobility all put Mercenaries/Commandos to shame.

Operatives/Scoundrels bring so much utility to the table. Their ability to stealth and sap assist in controlling the initial battle makes them quite powerful. Combine that with an instant aoe flash grenade that has a travel time, they are extremely powerful in assisting for a node capture. They also have the ability to take cover, which means they are less susceptible to gap closers. Thus follows they are effectively immune to Force Charge/Force Leap and the ranged interrupt they act as. The ability to heal in cover, capture objectives in cover is quite envious. This is an underutilized, but extremely potent mechanic.

Sorcerers/Sages are considered to have greater utility in warzones. The ability to quickly travel in warzones is quite prized in all warzones, but especially in Huttball. Combined with their Rescue/Extrication, their pull ability allows them to share their mobility, rescue people stunned in fire, and negating the other team’s prepared burst when someone is most vulnerable. Their ability to cleanse force dots, and when taken physical dots, makes them have the most useful cleanse currently in the game. The ability to cleanse force crush/force exhaustion allows them to negate much of the otherwise unstoppable Rage/Focus damage of the Warrior/Knight classes. On a side note the range reduction to their four second stun severely weakened both their force lift’s potency. The ability to electrocute, then force lift at a distance >10 meters now was quite the potent combo. Bubble stun’s capability to mitigate damage is extreme. Combine that with a team that correctly knows how to utilize it (clicking off the buff as sn off the global cool down, while stunned, stun) it is amazing utility. The amount of resolve generated means that a team can explode it one by one, keeping someone perpetually stunned for a full 10 seconds while only generating exactly 1000 resolve. With the draining of 100 resolve per second, or ten seconds of stun immunity, a character can theoretically be stunned for literally half the game, while taking damage.

Mercenaries/Commando has the strongest passive armor mitigation given to a healer in the game. Combined with their energy shield/reactive shield’s ability to negate interrupts for 12(15) seconds and when talented increase healing received by 20% for the duration makes them one of the best short term tanks in the game. However with the changes to Custom Enviro Suit/Heavy Trooper, as well as the increased time period it takes to accumulate a white bar of resolve under focus they have reduced the advantage dramatically. Our Kolto Bomb/Kolto Missile snare, as well as our Jetboost/Concussive charge and our shared ability to cleanse physical/tech and mental effects, when taken, summarize our general utility.

Healing Output:

Mercenary strength individual single target healing is quite important in the absence of guard mechanic. In ranked warzones, where coordination is important, healing output and utility is more important than pure interruptible single target heals. Sorcerer/Sages, and Operative/Scoundrels, with all their utility, still have a much higher healing output than mercenaries.

Operative/Scoundrel healers can spread their Kolto Probe/Slow Release Medpack onto 6 people perpetually, although generally the top echelon’s healers do four people (the tank, on the healer itself, likely other healer, as well as the target that is being focused on currently). By doing so they have a regular supply of tactical advantage/upper hand and can indefinitely maintain 2-3 stacks of it. This combined with Emergency Medpac/Surgical probe’s ability to not consume tactical advantage while the target is under 30% health allows an operative to maintain an extremely high healing output even under duress. In ranked, this meshes well with a Sorcerer/Sage’s bubble as well as the guard mechanic.

It also allows them to maintain high output while being very mobile or even higher output when they stand and utilize some of their excess energy. An Operative/Scoundrel’s single target healing is quite similar to Mercenary/Commando. With a short heal that consumes tactical advantage/upper hand, and a hard thorough heal that consumes energy Operatives/Scoundrel’s have heals that are basically the same as a Mercenary/Commando’s healing scan and rapid scan.

As for Sorcerer/Sages, with even their hybrid talented bubble Sorcerer/Sages, with their superb utility still output more healing then Mercenary/Commandos. Sorcerer’s recently acquired a stronger version of Mercenary/Commando’s 31 point talent 21 second cool down emergency scan, on a 30 second cool down for a self-heal. Combined with recklessness a sorcerer’s burst healing potential is quite potent. Add to that, a Sorcerer’s bubble is proactive (can be casted before the ally/self has taken damage) and it’s a stronger version of our emergency scan as well on a 21 second individual lockout timer. The ability to consume health for more resources is something a Mercenary/Commando dreams of when he’s out of resources. Add the ability to relocate allows a sorcerer to hard cast more heals when required.

Low Mercenary/Commando healing output is a relic of past adjustments exacerbated by subsequent buffs to other classes. By reducing the effectiveness of Critical Efficiency and supercharge gas cylinder, while adding a heat cost to Kolto shell effectively made managing our resources impossible in today’s Ranked environment. To reach the same output as sorcerer’s and operatives, I find myself utilizing Kolto bomb’s heal to the fullest. Running as a pack with three warriors, dropping Kolto Bomb on all four of us every chance I can. Our critical efficiency, as a 3 point talent is worse than arsenal’s terminal velocity by a lot in the amount of heat reduced. Combine that with reducing our Hired Muscle talent from 2, 4, 6%, our single target healing is not as strong as it used to be. We simply cannot compete at all Inquisitors have 20 second cool downs on their force speed, and leaps have been reduced in cool down, meaning we do not have as long to hard cast heals.

Conclusions

On a poor developer’s budget, in PVP, I would allow Kolto shell to be placed on multiple people, or simply remove that limitation completely. Additionally I would give mercenary’s operative cover so that they are not as vulnerable initially to leaps, and will allow us to effectively take the high ground. Additionally I would change critical efficiency to be a 3 point version of terminal velocity. These changes while leaving a lot of to still be desired would definitely help give us a leg up in the competition while not affecting pve too much.

P. S. i'd be really impressed if a developer read this and then responded that they read this with the following phrase. May the force be with you!

Commando/Merc do have something. They have strongest single heals and are the only healing class that can tank a 4v1.

- Note this, the learning curve for commando/merc healers is very large. You have to be highly experienced in MMO and must be a naturally god-like gamer. If you are an average player, don't even think about commando healer.

They can tank 4 v 1 because they have to, and only while their energy shield is up.

Remember I gave my credentials out. I've played mercenary extensively and made it work. However my ranked guild replaced me for an operative because the best operative healer outheals by 300 hps the best mercenary healer. I've healed 930k in a civil war before, with 920 hps, so it's not like I can't bring out the heals. It wasn't against a bad team we were against either. I was with RSU against the top republic team at the time, Foundation stone.

My credentials as an Elite Warlord Mercenary are as follows, Preseason Rating of 1562, 121 wins, 57 losses, 1649 Total Wins, 51363 Player Kills, Medals Earned 25807, and MVP Votes Received 3136.

you probably should have left this part out

Commando/Merc do have something. They have strongest single heals and are the only healing class that can tank a 4v1.

 

This is simply not true since 1.3.

You cannot talk about 4 unskilled people jumping on me with recruit gear but 4 equally equipped players who are average. In that case I have seconds to live.

Yes there can be certain moments when I can endure it as NO other healer can. With supercharge + full resolve + shield. Then I can for a 15 seconds outheal even 4v1.

I hope there will be something in 1.7. that will adjust commandos performance. Way too many people asked for it. Evenso BW has shown that balance patches tends to be full of big unexpected changes.

I took to popping my energy shield, a medpack, my kolto overload and a expertise adrenal. That combined with a kolto shell really can keep you alive if you're white barred. I also save my trinket for one of the stuns you will eat during this situation.

I love my teammates. In a situation like this, near the end of my shield, I'd be pulled out of that mess. Or they would keep pounding on me while I was stunned, and I would be recieving 20% increased healing from my sorc ally, who would then pull me once I fulfilled my tanking roll. I must say, I make good bait for my smash jug friends to pound away at the enemy in that case.

I didn't put enough emphasis on this, but we overextend very easily, and it becomes very hard to recover without assistance. We can't kite as well because of our reliance on cast spells, thus making the space we make, not matter as much since we utilize it to get 2-3 heals uninterrupted. I sincerely think giving us a form of cover really would make a huge difference at least in the playability of my gameplay. It would make tracer mercenaries less vulnerable, while still vulnerable to ranged interrupts. It really is such an powerful mechanic.

I didn't put enough emphasis on this, but we overextend very easily, and it becomes very hard to recover without assistance. We can't kite as well because of our reliance on cast spells, thus making the space we make, not matter as much since we utilize it to get 2-3 heals uninterrupted. I sincerely think giving us a form of cover really would make a huge difference at least in the playability of my gameplay. It would make tracer mercenaries less vulnerable, while still vulnerable to ranged interrupts. It really is such an powerful mechanic.

I like the idea of an "Entrench" ability, I really do. There are so many examples of an implementation like it in other games for classes with an assault cannon/minigun-archtypal weapon. Severe (75%+) to complete (100%) movement speed reduction, increased damage/healing while in that state, higher damage reduction, put a cooldown on swapping in and out of that "Entrench". I feel it would make a lot of sense for the class.

But I'm also somewhat against it. I'd like to see a mechanic that is unique to the Commando and Mercenary that actually has value for the team. One mechanic that's had some momentum on these forums is Cash's "Run and Gun" mechanic which is in a way kind of like Upper Hand/Tactical Advantage. I've seen discussion on a friendly leap (ie. Guardian Leap) or possibly a tuck and roll "Disengage", which both seem interesting. For the healer class in general, there could be something interesting in introducing an on-death buff for nearby friendlies like "Martyrdom", which would make sense considering the Combat Medic should be the hardest to kill directly.

From someone who's also had extensive experience in the class (Valor 100, Rating 1900 102 wins and 26 losses, playing since early access), there are several major weaknesses with the class which would be understandable if we also had several significant strengths. As it stands, we can accomplish some very quick burst healing, but our highest burst potential is only available every 18 seconds (Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan + healer 4-set bonus + chained with other channeled heals). We otherwise must rely almost entirely on casts, but also have probably the single best defensive ability amongst the healers: 25% damage reduction for 12 seconds (can be increased to 18 seconds depending on set bonuses) with interrupt immunity and +20% healing received on top of all other passives.

Looking at the spec in general, I think there are a few major things which could be improved to bring the class back on par (listed as Commando abilities/skills since I'm most familiar with them off the top of my head)

• Increase the healing received buff of Kolto Residue to 5% from 3%, reverting a change in Update 1.2. To my knowledge none of the other healers can actively increase a targets healing received for themselves or allies. This kind of support utility should be PROTECTED, not WEAKENED in class changes.
   
   
  
• Relax some of the ammo restrictions introduced in Patch 1.2. Increase the ammo returned from Supercharging by 1 ammo; or Increase the effect of Field Triage's ammo reduction by 1 ammo, or allow it to stack twice for the same effect. Alternatively, possibly in conjunction with one of the above, allow Bacta Infusion to return 1 ammo on use (similar to the Vanguard 31-point abilities). The cooldown on Bacta Infusion could also be reduced by 3 seconds, which combined with the existing healer 4-set bonus, would give it a cooldown of 15 seconds.
   
   
  
• Make Trauma Probe more cost-effective. It isn't a bad ability contrary to what many say, but it's cost is arguably quite high considering it can only be on a single target at a time. Either improve its effect on its target (ie. higher healing received or damage reduction relative to the number of charged remaining on it); allow it to be casted on multiple targets at the same cost (possibly with a cap); or reduce its cost to 1 ammo and leave it as is. Also: make the damn thing work properly. When you are taking damage from multiple unique sources (ie. 2 or 3 people), it's not uncommon for multiple charges to be consumed. This'll cause you to fly through the charges and need to cast a new one sooner than what should be intended.
   
   
  
• Introduce some mechanic which allows Combat Medics/Bodyguards to reach Supercharge more frequently. This could be done via an on-demand ability (ie. Recharged Cells grants ammo regeneration and 30 stacks of Supercharged instantly); through procs (ie. critical heals, damage taken generate 1 or 2 charges every x seconds); or create a skill in the skill tree called "Valiant" or "Vigorous" which allows the Combat Medic/Bodyguard to start with 6 or 9 charges instead of 0. If a mechanic that allows more Supercharges is implemented, it might not be necessary to relax the current ammo restrictions.
   
   
  
• Make Tech Override, the original Commando Lv50 ability, a centerpiece of the advanced class in general. Put a skill low in one of the trees called "Tech Specialist" or "Tech Sergeant" that in some way reduces the cooldown of Tech Override globally, through procs, or an internal cooldown. This could also help address problems facing the advanced class in general which already has a heavy dependence on casts.
   
  

I have a similar resume to the OP, but on rep side. Played a Trooper CM for 10 months, mostly PvP.

Lately I felt like trying the other healing classes, and leveled a Smuggler to 50, and it's crazy how much better that class is. I don't think you need the wall of text to prove that, it's blatant to anyone who's played both.

The thing is that the real difference is all mechanic based. (Not sure I'll express this correctly...)

Troopers/Mercs are casters, and in competitive PvP, you don't get to cast. There's so much cc/interrupt it does not happen. Smugglers/Ops have everything as an instant. I never get interrupted and I can move constantly. I have great defensive abilities, so I don't die as often. I have more up-time both in terms of avoiding cc and being alive. I throw more cc's on the opponents, which is better for my team.

This is a fundamental difference in the classes, and it makes a huge difference in PvP. The only way to balance it out would be to boost the trooper's raw healing...so on the dummy you'd have x2 HPS or something...but that can't happen b/c you unbalance PvE.

So, yes, the classes aren't balanced at all for PvP, but the reason is a mechanic one which won't change.

I play a commando healer as well. And I've had comments from DPS saying that I'm hard to kill. But really an equally skilled Sage/Scoundrel will always heal for more than me. Sometimes even a lesser skilled Sage can still heal for more than me.

I feel like we could use a buff. Something simple like allowing is to put Trama Probe on multiple targets, this would be similar to the Slow Release Medpac. And the healing of Hammer Shot and Medical Probe should be increased. Perhaps a change to Kolto Bomb: increased its range/targets or add a small HoT to the heal.

Just so you know, I'm not talking about stun immunity. I'm talking about the cover operatives get, as opposed to snipers. Mainly I'm trying to state that

Mercs, when they utilize cover, are immune to the Force Leap/Force Charge, Pulls, but still vulnerable to knockbacks, stuns, interrupts, and the 10 meter leap obliterate. Cover is off the gcd, so when stationary there's no reason for a healer operative to not be in cover. We should be able to be lept to if moving at all, but not be able to be lept too if say we take the high ground in hutt ball. As a Mercenary/Commando, I am always forced to drop down to a less advantage position because I otherwise act as a leap post. It shouldn't be that way. It would mean my positioning matters more, and ranged classes interrupts would actually be more important in fights. (right now melee get so many interrupts/cc, that a melee will catch every interrupt.)

As for the Run and Gun idea, I honestly don't think it's a bad thing, but from what I read it was a channeled on the move ability? I assume knockbacks, interrupts and stuns will still stop it, but I mean, it seems a bit too much of a change in the meta for Bioware to actually commit to something like that.

They could do things like give healing scan immunity to interrupts, or make it so that when we have the Critical efficiency buff, our next rapid scan is immune to interrupt or lowers the cast time by half or .5 seconds. That would make it in line with other 3 points skills of that tier and effectively be a large buff to supercharge gas cylinder.

I definitely agree on the increase back to kolto residue. I also think supercharge gas cylinder should be returned to 10% increased healing so it's more pivotal other then a way to refresh healing scan when interrupted. The heat reduction of -16 would be nice again though.

So many ways the Developers could quickly help mercenary and commandos. I look forward to seeing how they surprise us in the coming patches.

I know I'm double posting, but I felt like I had to repost something I wrote long long time ago in this thread.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=565610

I as a Valor ranked 100 Mercenary Healer, who has played many many games, quite a few of them ranked shall share my input

Mercenary healing took a nerf in patch 1.2. At the time, people didn't know what an interrupt was hence, mercenary healing was at it's peak.

The nerf was targeting mainly our resource management. Because of it, we have a 3 point 4th tier talent called critical efficiency, which is worse at reducing heat then the comparative energy management of the 4th tier arsenal talent. They effectively doubled our rapid scan cost after we use a healing scan. Additionally they added 16 heat cost to our formerly free talent, Kolto shell, and reduce the amount of heat vented from supercharge gas cylinder. Put all together they managed to completely cripple our resource management.

As time went on they proceeded to nerf the things that made our single target heals so attractive. They nerfed our crit chance, from 2, 4, 6, a tier 1 talent, to 1, 2, 3. Then they proceeded to reduce the healing received from a second tier talent in arsenal that gave us an additional 6% healing received to 2% because we were difficult to kill. Despite the fact that we didn't do as good of a job of keeping everyone else up.

Then we got a nerf on our ranged stun, which allowed us to keep warriors at range, or kite a bit better. It really hurts us because our other 30 meter stun is a 2 second cast spell, concussion missile. Which is actually really useful in conjunction with powersurge. But in all honesty I'd trade it in a heart beat for an operative grenade. They also made our kolto bomb slow people for 3 seconds by 50%. Which is actually pretty nice, except there is no way to get out of range of people's gap closers without a piller.

For that nerf, they did several things, they changed our 5 point 5th tier talent, which basically gave our heals an additional 15% surge into a 3 point talent with the same effect, thus freeing up two points to put into something else. To address our self heal, they made it so kolto shell will tick every time we autoattack the enemy. It's a pointless talent, because you're not going to be shooting an enemy, you'll be shooting your ally with your rapid shots. Not to mention ticking faster on Koltoshell doesn't help us out too much since it costs 16 heat in the first place.

We do have one advantage though. With our Energy Shield, we can not be interrupted, which means 15 seconds where we are like a sniper. We still can be stunned and mezzed so you have to be careful when you use it. It's best used in conjunction with a medpack, overload, and a expertise adrenal. By doing so you literally cannot die for the duration of the shield. Afterwards, hard cast your spells, draw out their stuns. With a talented 4th tier talent, you get an additional 20% healing received with the shield up. So even if they focus you, cross heals will keep you up until you can start healing yourself. It's basically a second life with this combo.

Now here's the drawback. Once your shield is down, you're very easy to lock down. It has a two minute cooldown, and unlike an operative who can stealth out, sap someone, heal back up to full, and start healing somewhere else, they know where we are. Not to mention even though we are uninterrupted, we still have to pace ourselves or else we'll overheat. Seriously, our burst heals really take a toll on heat management. When you get to 80 heat and don't have vent heat, you're healing output is cut dramatically. In rateds, this is the time my team ignores the mercenary healer. Sorcerers can constantly re position themselves, cure force debuffs, and right now add insane utility with their bubbles. Those bubbles are awesome, specially when a smash jug jumps to you, while still in lag, pops off their bubble, and then smashes everyone for 7k while they're forced to watch in horror.

I remember one time my friend's republic smash guardian decided to sit on me the entire match. In the civil war, he dealt 400k damage to me alone, and killed me 8 times. I'm really one of the hardest mercenaries to kill in the game so that's saying something.

Random story aside, we have to compete with the tech heal. Operative output is higher then us even when they are blind, focused and ecetera. Their rolling dots allow them to constantly heal four people, and they have in my opinion, almost as good single target heals as we do. Especially since they have a better resource management, which properly managed will not ever let them stop their healing.

Anyway, basically because Operatives and Sorcerers have higher healing output and more utility. Very very few rated groups will bring a mercenary along, especially in the top ranks.

Sincerely,

Elite Warlord Mathrim Cauthon

I don't think bioware reads the forums.

Tough luck.

 

As for Sorcerer/Sages, with even their hybrid talented bubble Sorcerer/Sages, with their superb utility still output more healing then Mercenary/Commandos. Sorcerer’s recently acquired a stronger version of Mercenary/Commando’s 31 point talent 21 second cool down emergency scan, on a 30 second cool down for a self-heal. Combined with recklessness a sorcerer’s burst healing potential is quite potent. Add to that, a Sorcerer’s bubble is proactive (can be casted before the ally/self has taken damage) and it’s a stronger version of our emergency scan as well on a 21 second individual lockout timer. The ability to consume health for more resources is something a Mercenary/Commando dreams of when he’s out of resources. Add the ability to relocate allows a sorcerer to hard cast more heals when required.

I love your post. This is what I think:

In my honest opinion Emergency Scan is just way better than Sorcerer's instant heal because it can be used on other players.

Yes, Sorcerers have bubble that can be talented into annoying "bubble pop". Thing is, they are not really healers and should be seen as some sort of annoying support. It is not a healing build. I cannot and will never give my HP in a hand of a hybrid healer . Also, it will soon be fixed and since we are talking about the future, we can delete the bubble pop right now.

One more thing: I would gladly trade my Consumption for Vent Heat. There is no place for it in PvP against organized team. If there is, then the opposing team just does not have the damage or mine has a lot of healers.

So, I do think Instant heal and Vent Heat are better than Sorc's heal and Consumption, but...there is one thing I would like Mercs to have: Jet boost. It would be just like Force Speed.

To make Merc healers better they could add:

1. Jet Boost (Force Speed)

2. Vent Heat cooldown reduced

With that implemented you would also have (I will point what is in my opinion better or same):

1. Amazing shield that gives you immunity (Sorcerer has no immunity, but has bubble. I do not count Force Speed as some immunity -.-)

2. Instant Heal that you can cast on other people (Sorcerer cannot. They have Perp. heal but I usually compare it with Rapid Shots.)

3. Small aoe shield combined with aoe heal and slow for up to 5 enemies (Sorc's aoe heal is better only if people are standing in it for its duration. Has longer cooldown. Has no reduced damage but still has bubble)

4. One not-that-good Kolto Shell but still a shield that can heal you a little bit (Sorc's have bubble)

5. Ability to make your next spell instant (Sorcerer does not have it)

6. (Instant) 8 sec cc (Sorcerer has to be specced into it to make Whirlwind instant)

7. Abilitty to make your next heal cost no heat (Sorcer does not have that but does have Instant Heal that costs no Force. On the other hand, Mercs have Rapid Shots that do not heal much but have only gc and cost no heat)

8. Vent heat (In current game, if both healers are out of resources, Vent heat is better)

10. Heavy Armour (Sorc's have light armor, but we can say they have bubble)

With all that combined I think adding Jet Boost (Force Speed) would be fine. Having Vent Heat on lower cooldown would just make Merc's complete healers to go against DPS race that happens in WZs. They do need some sort of escape.

Conclusion: For me, in my hands, for my play style in current state of the game: Merc > Sorc. It is not all in numbers at the end of the WarZone. The only time when I think Sorc > Merc is in Huttball. In every other game I would go with my Merc.

Long Story short: Give to Mercs Jet Boost (Force Speed) and reduced CD on Vent Heat.

That is my opinion. If I made some mistakes, sorry. I am sleepy.

Any changes that affects pve will never happen.

Now, i'm just throwing a random suggestion here, but what if interrupts and CC gave you supercharge stacks? And maybe reduce the CD on the shield?

Wouldn't this fix the class without any change to pve capabilities?

Any changes that affects pve will never happen.

Now, i'm just throwing a random suggestion here, but what if interrupts and CC gave you supercharge stacks? And maybe reduce the CD on the shield?

Wouldn't this fix the class without any change to pve capabilities?

Well, not much can affect PvE. The only thing that could is if we ask them to increase healing done by XXXX.

It would be nice for people to waste their interrupt when your Energy Shield is up.

Any changes that affects pve will never happen.

Now, i'm just throwing a random suggestion here, but what if interrupts and CC gave you supercharge stacks? And maybe reduce the CD on the shield?

Wouldn't this fix the class without any change to pve capabilities?

Depends on how many stacks, and it would help.

As for changes that affects pve.

Most of my suggestions wouldn't really interfere with pve.

Rapid scan being uninterruptable after a healing scan (with the critical efficiency talent) wouldn't do anything for PVE. So would a cover like mechanic which merely prevented force charge, (again not talking about an entrench.) Things like increasing back the amount of healing received also doesn't affect pve really. I would love to have energy rebounder be a lower talent. Would be very very useful for mercenary healers.

Pretty sure mercs are good tank healers in pve, but they still definitely don't have the highest healing output when it comes to raid wide healing. Or burst healing. We do decently well for sustain, as long as we properly manage heat, but when we burst heal we don't really have a good mechanic of recovering.

So things like increasing healing recieved by 5% with kolto residue, increase back the damage reduced by the shield brought on by a super charged kolto bomb, and increasing healing done by 10% when utilizing supercharged gas all wouldn't really break the balance of healers. Operatives and sorcs already outheal mercenaries anyway with a much easier resource mechanic. I remember when 1.2 hit, people talked about how the changes were too harsh and a whole bunch of mercenaries quit. Well they were right.

As for sorcerer's being worse then mercenaries, it depends truely. In rated play? No way is that the case, but for regular warzones, perhaps. ALso bubble sorcerers are real healers. My friends Joeydeluxe, Hairyzac, Jadedcupcake, Oseva, and Ownedjoo all can heal a ton in bubble spec. Their healing output is less then puddle spec, but still greater than a mercenaries heals easily.

As for a vent heat, your self heal in a way is towards that. You can consume consume, pop recklessness, then use the strong self heal. Force back with no hp loss. Not to mention, a sorcerer in full heal spec can heal forever. A mercenary almost always will run into heat problems in warzones.

I would welcome a change to vent heat to be a minute, or 40 seconds, and make our next heal or damage attack heal for 50% more or something! Kinda like a Smash Juggernauts rage gain ability. But that definitely would effect pve quite a bit.

Referring to SpaniardInfinity post upon kolto shell, I agree wholeheartedly with you. Although I kind've like the bugginess sometimes since it heals for more (too bad so much overhealing) Honestly, I would be pretty happy if they changed kolto shell into a rolling dot heal like a more powerful version of an operative dot heal.

As for tech override, I would love for them to lower the cooldown upon it in some shape or form. I'm severely jealous of a powertech's explosive fuel. (25% increase to crit chance for 15 seconds) It would be nice if tech override/powersurge was a 30 or even 20 second cooldown. That would return much of the usefullness of concussion missile, and grant us back some of our maneuverability. Would be a cooldown almost as awesome as explosive fuel!

I'm suprised people haven't gone, Wall of text, over 9000!

My main is a Gunnery commando at heart, but I'm experienced with all three trees in PvE. (In PvP I've only done Gunnery.) I would greatly support allowing us to put Trauma Probe on multiple people at once. Of the three healers, we definitely have the weakest heals-over-time.

that is because Merc has the highest single target healing.

Trauma Probe/Kolto Probe really should be able to be put on everyone in your group. Operative HoTs can be, and so can Sorc bubbles.

i think that there should be some kind of active cooldown reduction on Emergency Scan/Bacta Infusion. im thinking either "being interrupted reduces the active cooldown by Xs" or "critical heals reduce the active cooldown by Xs". having interrupts reduce the active cooldown would probably be better for complementing the overall spec imo

oh, and Kolto Bomb/Kolto Missile should really heal for more. an AOE that barely crits for 2.5k is very underwhelming.

Yeah that's what i was thinking, for me the mercenary is actually missing it's role. The scoundrel is the highly mobile stealth healer, the sorc is the high utility healer, the merc...what? The sturdy healer? It's not covering enough that role right now. If he had some kind of interaction with being interrupted and CCd then he would gain a role and still be an original concept.

Isn't that the root of the Commando/Mercenary AC problem? I feel like Bioware had an idea for the class and somewhere along the way they had to abandon it. It would explain why it was the only class that had no interrupt, it was the only healing-class without an in-combat revive, and the only healer who's cleanse couldn't heal.

Personally, I don't think Combat Medic/Bodyguard is all that broken. It could use a buff, yes. Mainly in utility and ammo management. In fact, I don't even think that an escape mechanic would be necessary if we had something which justified the weakness. That's why I have so much interest in making Tech Override a key ability for Commando/Mercenary in general. What is one of the AC's single biggest problems? The class is heavily reliant on casts and is easily shutdown because of it. Well the AC has a way of instantly casting a select ability on demand, but its on a terribly long cooldown (2 minutes) that most people don't even know it exists.

And what if instead of an escape, Commando/Mercenary got an ability which prevented enemies within a 20 meter-radius from using leaps for let's say 8 seconds? That alone would be a fair compromise for cover (and help establish some semblance of ranged superiority), could be a team utility that can be used both offensively and defensively, while also being an escape mechanic if you need it.

For all the comments about Merc having the best single target heals, honestly I don't actually believe that is completely true.

An operative rolling a dot, then throwing their comparative single target heals has greater single target healing capability then a mercenary. The advantage we have is an armor buff with healing scan, and how our healing scan also throws on a rolling healing dot. As for rapid scan, they have a restrung version of it that heals for the same base amount and same cast time. And comparing Emergency medpac, against Emergency scan, again they match up quite similarly. In fact the operative may actually win in the sub 30% range quite handily, when combining the surplus tactical advantage to keep someone at a healthy 40ish percent, with a couple free emergency scans when TA is low.

The nerfs they did to our healing output reduced our single target healing. Perhaps if they gave back our 2/4/6% bodyguard talent, and changed our heat management so we can go back to spamming healing scan during the supercharge cylinder time period we'd again have excellent single target healing. But as it is, to sustain healing, our single target healing is only so-so compared to the other healing AC's. We can burst heal someone up, but we'll pay for it in the long run, while an Operative and Sorcerer have ways of recovering.

Oh, and as for Kolto bomb. It is actually a pretty powerful heal. I've used it to get 900+ hps before, but that was utilizing it every 6 seconds and hitting 4 targets (3 warriors and me) at a time. It definitely could use some tweaking though, just like all other mercenary skills. Smart healing + increasing the radius would be nice. Especially with the buff + snare. Perhaps make critical efficiency add say 60% chance your next kolto bomb will crit. It would be pretty nice if we got some of those healing buff things that sorcs get with their innervate. (I know, I'm a copy cat) But a Mercenary can dream can't he?

Another suggestion would be to give overload, a 4 second immunity to leaps/pulls, and a short movespeed boost.

To give mercenary + mercenary healer some more utility, we could make their stealth scan root(i'm aware that it's a powertech tank talent) At least when those pesky marauders leap to us, and then we knockback, we can counter their stealth gap closer. Would definitely make mercenaries more unique and stronger against the classes(at least one) that tear us apart.

I like kolto bomb snare, however I feel it's not strong enough. 3 seconds at 50% means over 6 seconds (time to cast one kolto bomb) we slow them down 1.5 seconds worth of distance. Yet a powertech 30% snare ( over 6 seconds, the duration of one snare) slows us down 1.8 seconds. I'm thinking a 33% snare over 6 seconds would be nicer and better for us over the 50% 3 seconds.

What would also be cool utility wise, is that kolto bomb snare negated speed buffs like Transcendance, obliterate speed boost, and other speed boosts. I'm just throwing out constructive ideas out, and will keep doing so until, well until Mercenaries are in a good spot.

Perhaps make kolto bomb stronger if it's only healing fewer people, but overall greater when more people.

If 2 people, have a base heal of say, 2k each. If 3 people or more people, 1.5k. This I mean through the trauma debuff. So likely would be more in pve. Perhaps it could scale down to what it currently is at 4 people, and just be greater with fewer people. Or perhaps increase the kolto residue buff to 10% increased healing recieved and shorten the duration. 3% is pretty weak.

Would be nice if cleanse talent heal would heal for more, or perhaps allow us to cleanse force crush. Force crush is such a pain due to being the sole way of negating smash juggernauts. Also allow us to cleanse bubble stun! Or hell take cleanse off the gcd. We shouldn't be forced to choose between a heal and another cleanse. At least imo we shouldn't.

Make it so during energy shield, stuns last 50% less but build the same resolve. With the way stuns work now, it's much more difficult to get a white bar. Give us something like pooled darkness. Every time we're stunned our heal output is increased, or our damage reduction increases. Make it so we have elemental resistance talents. Make it so we have aoe damage reduction talents. Sorry, I'm just listing basically all the things i'm envious of. Make it so our Overload gives us a speed boost, or rocket punch, or tracer missile, or rail shot, or heat seekers. OR something.

Make it so our kolto bomb slows enemies but speeds up allies. Make it so our kolto bomb will aoe cleanse mental, or give us an ability that is an aoe cleanse mental/cleanse bubble stun. Let us set up healing stations which within a range gives us increased healing powers. Or some other buff. Make it so our healing scan buffs our allies power by 5-10%. Or speed. (that might actually be a good idea for arsenal with tracer lock)

Tracer lock now reduces the cooldown on healing scan by 20 % for each stack. Additionally, when healing scan is used with the assistance of tracer lock, movement speed is increased by 50% for 2 seconds. Or 30% movespeed boost for 2 seconds, and root immunity + root cleanse. (this would be nice for making supercharge gas cylinder very useful, and prevent the constant warrior root phenomena that we face.)

Anyway, that's my 2 cents for today.

Wall of Text over 9000! (compared to 7000 on 5 enemies by our nemisis it's really not so bad)

"TW: What do you believe has been your biggest struggle?

JH: We always try to do the right thing for the players, the team and the business, and it is a very thoughtful and difficult balancing act. Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in unfair and somewhat misinformed negative discussions surrounding our game – it is a struggle for the team to see their hard work and dedication greeted that way, and we have to remind the team that there are lots of people and players who really do appreciate all of their work and who love the game as much as we do."

This thread is an attempt to provide positive feedback in a form which shows I do appreciate the work done by the Developers, as well as show to what extent I actually do love this game. Honestly, I think another round of asking us for suggestions for each class in a controlled format would be a good exercise even if a lot of it would be negative. It would head off some of the negative feedback, and you could attempt to direct it toward a more positive note.

Some of the Changes suggested in this thread likely would have zero affect on pve, and be lauded in Pvp. Perhaps some of these can be made before Makeb! Perhaps even with a disclaimer that some of the buffs are only temporary. The people that still play mercenaries are extremely desperate that we'll take even welfare handouts here.

Sincerely,

Mathrim