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[Guide] PVE Scoundrel Healing


Elbmuh

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Last updated 04/07/2014!

 

Important updates:

 

Updated for Patch 2.7.

Added Crit v. Power analysis with math!

 

Introduction

 

Hello, my name is Brian and I main a sawbones scoundrel from the Jedi Covenant server named Bayani. I don't consider myself an amazing player, but I do know that I love being a healer and that I am absolutely in love with the scoundrel healer of The Old Republic and I've done my fair share of studying and learning. This guide is meant to offer a starting point for endgame scoundrels to work on their gear and attributes, as well as for people to learn better uses for their abilities. Much of what I learned is credited to the several Scoundrel healers I have had the pleasure of healing with, such as Inovisible, other useful guides (like Classicks's and KeyboardNinja's), and personal research.

 

 

 

The Big Question - What Attributes Should I Stack?

 

Cunning v. Endurance – Choose Cunning. Cunning will always benefit you more as a healer than Endurance. In operations, your tank should be taking the bulk of damage and there should be no reason for you to focus on survivability. Your healing and your tank’s ability should cover this.

 

Power v. Critical Rating – The short answer: 100 to 500 will suffice depending on your surge and alacrity, after that just stack power. The long answer: Critical rating after 2.0 adds much less to your critical chance, but you will still see some benefit from critical healing for the earlier hundreds of critical chance. If you do prefer, you can stack some critical rating, and know that although its diminishing returns curve is not harsh at all, the tradeoff with power is harsh. For the most part, the more power you trade for critical rating the lower your healing effectiveness is. This is highly dependent on your surge rating, but in general the first few hundred points in critical rating is still useful for scoundrels. This is mainly due to three things: 1) Accomplished Sawbones in our skill tree gives a huge 30% critical healing bonus to Underworld Medicine, Kolto Pack, and Kolto Cloud -- your 3 biggest heals. 2) We benefit from diagnostic scan critical heals to gain back energy. 3) There is so much surge available with the current tier of gear that critical rating gains some value. The benefits of critical rating are really felt when burst healing someone from under 10% health to max. With crit and surge combined this is easier than just stacking power. I'll explain the math in the spoiler.

 

Alacrity v. Surge – The short answer: Have alacrity at least 450 and surge at least 247. Do whatever after that. The long answer: Alacrity is a great stat to have now that it also reduces the global cooldown and speeds up energy regeneration. You'll need at least 440 alacrity to reduce the cast time of Kolto Pack to the global cooldown. You'll need 450 alacrity to use 11 global cooldowns before having to refresh Slow-release Medpac instead of 10 global cooldowns with alacrity below 450. Most guides will tell you to get alacrity down to 0, then stack surge after that. For people who care about diminishing returns, Surge sees heavy diminishing returns around 247. You can choose to stack alacrity after that, but most will still find the marginal benefits of critical healing bonus from surge more useful than the marginal benefits of alacrity. The scoundrel has many instant cast abilities so you can get away with less alacrity. I don't have any hard math on which is better.

 

The spoiler below contains details about each attribute.

 

 

Cunning

 

You gain a healing bonus of 14% of your cunning. This part of cunning has no diminishing returns. You also gain critical chance with cunning. Your healing is affected by tech critical chance, so this does not include the bonus from aim. The formula for critical rating is a bit more complicated, but post 2.0, the amount of critical chance gained through critical rating has dramatically decreased. This part of cunning does have diminishing returns, but unlike critical rating, this is hardly noticeable.

 

Verdict: Stack as much cunning as you want. ALL THE CUNNING NOW!

 

Critical Rating

 

Trying to get your critical chance up to a certain 30% as an ideal is an idea perpetuated by misinformed people, e.g. Noxxic. Your %-age Critical chance is boosted by several different stats so you want to look at the underlying stats and NOT at the %-age. Each individual stat has its own, different, graph of diminishing returns. If you are at your goal critical chance % (whatever % it may be) but you're not receiving diminishing returns from critical rating yet, it's still beneficial to get more critical rating. Just a thought.

 

Looking at the graph for critical chance gained from critical rating, critical chance doesn't see significant diminishing returns for a while, but the bonus it provides is significantly less than before and when you compare this to the healing power you get from power, it loses. It's also important to note the critical heals from diagnostic scan give you back energy which is crucial when your energy dips below the ideal energy range, a point ignored in most healing theory currently. Many guides will tell you to bring your critical rating to 0, but personal experience has shown me that I benefit from a little extra critical especially when trying to burst heal someone from 10% health. Some critical rating is good because of over 400 surge at the current tier of gear, our critical healing bonuses from our Accomplished Sawbones in the sawbones skill tree, and gaining energy back from diagnostic scan criticals. If a guild you are trying to get into is requiring your critical rating to be 0, tell them exactly what I said in the previous sentence.

 

How did I come up with this? I used Inovisible's spreadsheet model and downloaded and modified it on my own for the 78 level of gear (Dread Forged). Note that this analysis is if you are using Inovisibles rotation for over 450 alacrity. So at the following stats:

 

Cunning = 3,770

Aim = 155

Tech Power = 2,302

Surge Rating = 470

Alacrity = 470

 

I got this HPS analysis:

 

No pieces with crit: Power = 1,675, Crit = 0, HPS = 8,308.00

1 piece with crit: Power = 1,544, Crit = 131, HPS = 8,349.97

2 pieces with crit: Power = 1,413, Crit = 262, HPS = 8,375.48

3 pieces with crit: Power = 1,282, Crit = 393, HPS = 8,386.07

4 pieces with crit: Power = 1,151, Crit = 524, HPS = 8,383.18 - Diminished returns, lets try something else.

3 pieces with crit, 1 extra enhancement with crit: Power = 1,213, Crit = 462, HPS = 8,386.14 - Higher than 3 pieces with crit. This is the ideal crit for 470 surge.

 

 

Verdict: Use 100 to 500 critical rating depending on your surge. If your surge is under 247, use 100. If your surge is closer to 500, use over 400 critical rating. Remember Inovisible's model will only work with over 450 alacrity as the rotation used in his model is for over 450 alacrity.

 

Power

 

You gain a healing bonus of 17% of your power. This stat has no diminishing returns so the 1,000th point of power is still as good as the first. This gives you raw power that usually wins against critical rating (after a few hundred points at least).

 

Verdict: Stack as much power as you want once you have a good amount of critical chance. Power is always good.

 

Surge

 

Surge is a great attribute as it increases the healing amount of your critical heals, however, too much of this is a very bad thing. You start receiving diminishing returns from Surge significantly around 247 where the critical healing bonus you gain is only half as much as the first point of surge. However, because of the nature of critical chance and bonuses, going well over the half life of 247 is still beneficial when compared to surge's rival stat, alacrity. Also, the current tier of gear has so much stats available that you really can stack surge much higher than 247.

 

Verdict: Have a minimum of 247 surge and 450 alacrity, then do whatever you want. Choosing alacrity will make you a much more reactive healer allowing you to take more actions in a short amount of time, but choosing surge will make your critical heals count a little more and will probably be felt more when trying to heal someone up from under 10% health.

 

Alacrity

 

Alacrity will reduce the activation time of your abilities along with the channeling time of channeled abilities. This also slightly reduces the global cooldown and also slightly increases energy regeneration. Alacrity is therefore no longer bad for digestion. Opinions vary heavily on this attribute, and it will change on your healing style. If your healing style involves keeping Slow-Release Medpac up on several targets, you'll want alacrity anyway as it allows you to pull off more heals in between having to refresh the first one again.

 

There are a few reasons why you would want at least 450 alacrity.

 

1. Surge has huge diminishing returns past 247. So anything above 247 is giving you less and less critical bonus, whereas alacrity's diminishing returns don't happen until much later.

 

2. The Accomplished Sawbones talent gives you 30% more critical bonus to some of your main heals anyway.

 

2. Somewhere around 440 alacrity, the cast time of Kolto Pack will match the global cooldown, effectively making it have no cast time at all.

 

3. Around 450 alacrity lets you cast 11 global cooldowns of spells before refreshing your first slow release medpac, while having less than 450 alacrity lets you only cast 10.

 

Verdict: Have a minimum of 247 surge and 450 alacrity, then do whatever you want. Choosing alacrity will make you a much more reactive healer allowing you to take more actions in a short amount of time, but choosing surge will make your critical heals count a little more and will probably be felt more when trying to heal someone up from under 10% health.

 

 

 

 

Best-in-Slot Gear - Picking the Right Pieces

 

Use this section to plan your gear.

 

 

Ear

 

Enforcer’s Ear - Critical and surge.

Field Medic's Device - Critical and alacrity.

Field Tech’s Device - Power and surge.

 

 

Implants

 

Enforcer's MK-X Package - Critical and surge.

Field Medic's MK-V Package - Critical and surge.

Field Medic's MK-X Package - Power and surge.

Field Tech's MK-X Package - Critical and alacrity.

Professional's MK-X Package - Power and alacrity.

 

 

Relics

 

There are 3 relics you mainly want to switch between depending on the fight and the situation.

 

Relic of Focused Retribution – 30% chance to gain a 6 second primary stat (for us, Cunning) boost with a 20 second cooldown.

Relic of Serendipitous Assault – 30% chance to gain a 6 second power boost with a 20 second cooldown.

Relic of Boundless Ages – 30 second burst of power on a 2 minute cooldown.

 

Relics are highly personal preference.

 

As of Patch 2.1.1, stacking 2 Serendipitous Assault relics no longer gives you the proc twice. Instead of using 2, we now only use 1 Serendipitous Assault relic and choose a different relic for the second one.

 

If you want a burst cooldown ability, you should pick first the Relic of Focused Retribution and the Relic of Boundless Ages (especially if you do not have biochem or cannot afford adrenals). This relic is also useful for certain boss fights that have a healing heavy phase (like the final phase of Dread Guard in HM DP). Combined with pugnacity, it makes you a healing beast. This combination provides a lower healing output than the next combination, but may work better in situations where that opportune burst is needed.

 

For nice sustained healing, choose Focus Retribution and Serendipitous Assault if you aren't using a Boundless Ages relic.

 

Ephemeral Mending is a bad idea because you don't know when the extra heal will proc and who you will be targetting, potentially resulting in lost healing.

 

 

 

Color crystals

 

Advanced ??? Hawkeye Crystal - Power.

Advanced ??? Eviscerating Crystal - Critical.

 

 

Barrel

 

Advanced Skill Barrel.

 

 

Armoring

 

The best armorings you can find are Advanced Skill Armoring from set bonus gear for the PVE 2- and 4-piece Field Medic set bonuses.

 

Before 2.0, we used to also grab the 2-piece PVP set bonus in a Battlemaster shell if possible. Given the new set bonuses in the new tier of armor, the new 2-piece set bonus does not stack with the Battlemaster 2-piece set bonus. Also, the new Partisan 2-piece set bonus has inferior attributes and a 2-piece set bonus that adds to survivability which is not optimal in a PVE setting. This is why we now choose the 4-piece bonus.

 

 

 

Mods

 

All operations mods are bought using token drops from 55 Hard Mode operations.

All commendations mods are bought using ultimate, elite, or basic commendations.

All MK-2 mods are dropped.

 

Advanced Artful Mod - Power.

 

Found in the following Operations pieces:

Field Tech's Boots

Field Tech's Gloves

Field Tech's Headgear

Enforcer's Armguards

Enforcer's Belt

Enforcer's Leggings

Enforcer's Blaster Pistol

Enforcer's Jacket

Field Medic's Bracers

Field Medic's Belt

Field Medic's Leggings

Field Medic's Shotgun

Field Medic's Blaster Pistol

Field Medic's Suit

Professional's Armguards

Professional's Belt

Professional's Leggings

Professional's Blaster Pistol

Professional's Jacket

 

Found in the following commendations pieces:

Targeter's MK-1 Bracers

Targeter's MK-1 Belt

Targeter's MK-1 Gloves

Targeter's MK-1 Headgear

Targeter's MK-1 Suit

 

Mender's MK-1 Boots

 

 

Advanced Keen Mod - Critical.

 

Found in the following Operations pieces:

Enforcer's Headgear

Field Medic's Headgear

Professional's Headgear

Field Tech's Suit

Enforcer's Gloves

Field Medic's Gloves

Professional's Gloves

Field Tech's Bracers

Field Tech's Belt

Field Tech's Leggings

Enforcer's Boots

Field Medic's Boots

Professional's Boots

Field Tech's Blaster Pistol

Enforcer's Shotgun

 

Found in the following Commendations pieces:

Mender's MK-1 Suit

Mender's MK-1 Headgear

Targeter's MK-1 Boots

Mender's MK-1 Gloves

Mender's MK-1 Bracers

Mender's MK-1 Belt

 

 

 

Enhancements

 

Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement - Power, alacrity.

 

Found in the following Underworld Pieces:

Field Tech's Headgear

Field Tech's Gloves

Enforcer's Leggings

 

Found in the following Commendations pieces:

(Jedi Knight) Pummeler's MK-1 Greaves

 

 

 

 

Advanced Adept Enhancement - Power, surge.

 

Found in the following Operations Pieces:

Enforcer's Jacket

Field Medic's Suit

Professional's Jacket

Field Medic's Leggings

Professional's Leggings

Enforcer's Blaster Pistol

Field Medic's Blaster Pistol

Professional's Blaster Pistol

Field Medic's Shotgun

 

Found in the following Commendations pieces:

Haven't found it yet.

 

 

 

 

Advanced Insight Enhancement - Critical, alacrity.

 

Found in the following Operations Pieces:

Enforcer's Headgear

Field Medic'a Headgear

Professional's Headgear

Enforcer's Glvoes

Field Medic's Gloves

Professional's Gloves

Field Medic's Boots

 

Found in the following MK-2 (dropped, not commendations) pieces:

Mender's MK-2 Headgear

Mender's MK-2 Suit

Targeter's MK-2 Gloves

Mender's MK-2 Leggings

Targeter's MK-2 Boots

 

 

 

 

 

Advanced Battle Enhancement - Critical, surge.

 

Found in the following Operations Pieces:

Field Tech's Jacket

Field Tech's Leggings

Field Tech's Blaster Pistol

 

Found in the following MK-2 pieces:

Targeter's MK-2 Headgear

Targeter's MK-2 Jacket

Mender's MK-2 Gloves

Targeter's MK-2 Leggings

Mender's MK-2 Boots

 

 

 

 

 

 

Augments

 

Advanced Overkill Augment 28 - Power. Stacking these will net you 2.6 more units of bonus healing but no boost to tech critical chance.

 

Advanced Skill Augment 28 - Cunning. Stacking these will net you less bonus healing but a small 1.25% boost to tech critical chance, among other benefits from cunning.

 

 

Mathematically, the overkill augments will add more healing bonus even after considering the 9% bonus to cunning, but only at a slight amount. Cunning will give a healing bonus and increased critical chance as well. This is up to personal preference. From trying both power and cunning augments, I feel better with the cunning augments and I think it's because of that extra critical chance.

 

 

 

 

Skill Tree - I Hope You're Using Sawbones

 

I've recently adopted Classicks's skill tree for more utility. I found Scramble to be very useful in many fights. If you'd like, the points in Scramble can be used in Smuggled Med Delivery instead so that you don't need to generate the upper hand before battle. A personal note, the point in Open Wound in the Dirty Fighting tree can go elsewhere. If you miss the healing bonus from Defense Screen's collapse, put that skill point in Med Screen in the sawbones tree. Also, Classicks notes that you can use the 2 points in Mortal Wound and Open Wound in the Dirty Fighting tree in Holdout Defense in the same tree instead for fights that require more movement, as you can use Blaster Whip not only to move faster but generate a stack of the upper hand as well.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701MffrzGRRzcsZ0cZG0oz.3

 

 

 

Energy and Upper Hand - Our 2 Resources

 

It's important to note that you have two resource mechanics rolling for you. The first is energy. You have a fixed amount of energy that regenerates at a different rate depending on how much you have. The more energy you have, the more you regenerate. Keeping your energy above 60 is very important.

 

The upper hand is generated by certain abilities and will give you a bonus in healing (and damage) as well as give you access to abilities that consume stacks of the upper hand. Always have at least 1 stack of the upper hand active.

 

Use Cool Head when your energy drops to critical levels. If I see my energy drop below 50, I usually just burn through abilities then pop Cool Head.

 

 

 

Healing Abilities and When to Use Them

 

Slow-release Medpac - SRM usually nets the highest amount of healing for scoundrel healers and is our bread and butter, signature, world famous healing ability. It's a very slow heal over time ability that can be stacked up to two times per person. SRM ticks 6 times, 3 seconds apart, and each tick has a 30% chance to grant the upper hand. This can only occur once every 9 seconds. The more people you have stacks of SRM on, the easier it is to maintain the upper hand. Keep 2 stacks refreshed on tanks, sage healers, and raid members that are expected to be taking a lot of damage to maintain the upper hand. There are also a few fights when you are expecting raid-wide damage and can easily prepare by going around and casting SRM on all raid members.

 

Kolto Pack - KP is a heavily underrated ability that grants a moderate heal and a small heal over time afterwards. Please, do not remove KP from your quickbar. Although it is a resource hog costing an upper hand like EM and the same amount of energy as UM, it provides more healing than EM and has a lower cast time than UM. If you have at least 440 alacrity, the cast time of KP matched the GCD so it will effectively have no cast time at all. Why is KP so good? Not only does it provide a decent heal up front but the heal over time (and scoundrels are famous for their HOTs) is a very decent HOT and will help you help keep your tank topped off. If you have 2 or more stacks of the upper hand and over 80% energy, KP is the best ability to use.

 

Kolto Cloud - KC is my favorite ability. It's an instant cast rapid heal over time that hits 4 targets, the one you use it on and 3 within 10 meters of that person. KC, when used properly, nets the second highest amount of healing for scoundrel healers. With talents, crits, and the PVE set bonus, this becomes a very powerful ability. This should always be used if you have the energy and there are 3 or more targets clumped together.

 

Emergency Medpac - EM is an instant cast ability that consumes a stack of the upper hand. It doesn't consume a stack of the upper hand on a 10 second cooldown. Use when you have 2 or more stacks of the upper hand and less than 80% energy.

 

Underworld Medicine - UM is your biggest heal and also is one of two heals that require a casting time. The casting time is long and easily interrupted. UM grants a stack of the upper hand. UM should be used when you have only 1 stack of the upper hand or an ally is missing a large chunk of health.

 

Diagnostic Scan - DS is your only channeled heal, and is a very short, 2-second channel. With all the talents, lots of crit, and high surge, DS becomes an extremely nice, quick, and free heal that gives energy back. Use as soon as you dip below 60 energy.

 

Triage - Triage is your cleanse. This is very important in certain fights. Please know when you need to use this. Keep track of debuffs on raid members and know which ones need to be cleansed and who needs to be cleansed first.

 

 

 

How to Heal - Should I Follow a Rotation?

 

If you want to maximize your effective healing per second, by all means follow a rotation. But if you want to be a truly effective healer, you need to be reactive and be able to adapt to the situation going at hand.

 

I usually keep a few things in mind while healing to decide what heal is the best heal to use at the time.

 

1. If the target suddenly starts dropping health, use the largest possible heal with with respect to the amount of time you can estimate their health will drop. Use combos to consume all your upper hand liked EM + EM + KP then use UM.

2. Keep Slow-release Medpac refreshed on several targets (most importantly tanks, sage healers, and raid members expected to take heavy damage.) to maintain the upper hand.

3. When at 2 or 3 stacks of the upper hand and above 80% energy, use Kolto Pack if it isn't on cooldown. Use as often as possible.

4. Use Kolto Cloud at a lower priority than Kolto Pack. Use as long as you see at least 3 people near each other. This should be on cooldown unless you know you need to save it for when you need a big heal for multiple targets.

5. When at 2 or 3 stacks of the upper hand and less than 80% energy, use Emergency Medpac.

6. When at 1 stack of the upper hand, use Diagnostic Scan if you're low on energy or Underworld Medicine otherwise.

7. If someone is missing a huge chunk of health (30% or more), use Underworld Medicine then Emergency Medpac immediately afterward.

 

I personally don't use a rotation but rather choose the best heal I can at the time, these are some rotations developed by Inovisible that are based heavily on how much alacrity you have. The rotation over 450 alacrity is VERY tight and will require a lot of practice to get all the heals in before you have to refresh SRMP. This rotation will yield really high effective healing per second parses, but we all know parsing isn't everything.

 

Alacrity < 450

1. SRM on 4 targets

2. Kolto Pack or Diagnostic Scan depending on energy

3. SRM on 4 other targets

4. Kolto Cloud

5. Emergency Medpac or Diagnostic Scan depending on energy and upper hand

6. Repeat

 

Alacrity > 450

1. SRM on 4 targets

2. Kolto Pack - Replace with Diagnostic Scan (clip at 2 ticks) every 3rd rotation

3. SRM on 4 other targets

4. Emergency Medpac

5. Kolto Cloud

6. Emergency Medpac - Replace with Diagnostic Scan (clip at 2 ticks) every 3rd rotation

7. Repeat

 

 

 

 

Combat Abilities and When to Use Them

 

Scamper - Use to change your position quickly. You can use it twice then it will have a 10 second coodlown.

 

Dirty Kick - Use to stun single targets or to interrupt for 4 seconds. Doesn’t work on bosses.

 

Distraction - Use to interrupt those abilities that need to be interrupted.

 

Flash Grenade - A crowd control ability that will blind a target for 8 seconds or until they are attacked. Doesn’t work on bosses.

 

Blaster Whip - A combat ability that generates a stack of the upper hand from melee range. If you're healing in melee range, this is a great way to generate the upper hand when you have no stacks and if you have the Holdout Defense talent in the Dirty Fighting tree, will grant you a small movement speed boost.

 

Vital Shot - A combat ability that does damage over time and does a decent amount of damage especially with the Mortal Wound and Open wound talents. Use when you need to help out with DPS.

 

XS Freighter Flyby - An area of effect ability damage over time ability that does a good amount of damage but takes a long time to cast and a chunk of energy. Really only used at the beginning of fights or when a lot of area of effect damage is needed in the fight.

 

Back Blast - A combat ability that must be used from behind the target but does a good amount of damage. Use when you need to help out with DPS.

 

Shoot First - Really situational. You need to be behind the target and in stealth to use this ability. If you're in position to use it in the beginning of the fight you can but you are better off using Flyby.

 

 

 

Burst Cooldowns - Oh Sh*t, Why is Everyone's Health Dropping?

 

Pugnacity is an ability that increases your alacrity and grants a stack of the upper hand. Use if you have 0 stacks of the upper hand or during a burst healing phase.

 

Use a Triage Adrenal for dependable burst. The reusable version is fine, or you can go with the nano-infused version if you can afford to buy these.

 

If you aren't a biochemist or you can't afford adrenals, you may want use a Relic of Boundless Ages for a burst cooldown that provides you with a significant power boost that will net a lot of healing if combined with Kolto Cloud and Slow-release Medpac.

 

 

 

Defensive Cooldowns - Oh Sh*t, Why Is My Health Dropping?

 

Surrender - Instantly lowers your threat by a moderate amount. This isn't really necessary if you have good tanks and damage dealers in your group. Use if you pick up aggro from the tanks.

 

Defense Screen - Your main defensive cooldown. It absorbs a moderate amount of damage for 15 seconds. With med screen, will also increase healing received. It should be used when you're expecting a spike in damage for a short amount of time. It has a minute long cooldown.

 

Dodge - A defensive cooldown that increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks for 3 seconds. This can be used in stealth. This also works as a self cleanse so that you can use Triage on a tank or DPS instead. Use for self cleansing or right before you use disappearing act to stealth rez.

 

Disappearing Act - This will drop all your threat and put you in stealth unless you have any abilities ticking at you. If you don't have any dots ticking on you, use this to drop back into stealth.

 

 

 

Healing Tips - Because Sometimes Common Knowledge Isn't Very Common

 

Depending on skill tree - Start in stealth

 

If you take Smuggled Med Delivery in the sawbones tree instead of Scramble, starting in stealth will grants you 2 stacks of the upper hand immediately after you break out of it thanks to a talent in the skill tree. It’s no longer necessary to build up stacks of the upper hand before battle.

 

Healing from melee range

 

Healing from melee range isn't always a bad idea. In fact, being in melee range gives you another way to generate the upper hand using blaster whip. If you don't have to stand in range to avoid damage, or if you have a strong sage healer in the party to throw salvation on the melee group, healing in melee range is possible and probably a good idea. Being able to get a quick stack of the upper hand for an Emergency Medpac while you have no upper hand and when someone drops below 20% can prevent many wipes.

 

Reviving in combat

 

Besides your combat revive, you can also revive allies if you don't have a DOT ability ticking on you, you can drop all threat, you have no SRM running on anyone, and if you can avoid taking damage. A great combo is to dodge right before using disappearing act. Make sure you do this after your SRM has fallen off on all targets or you will be put back in combat. This will put you out of combat and will allow you to revive an ally without wasting your combat revive. Use extremely wisely, as you can be easily interrupted by an attack that you could have expected. If you are going to attempt a stealth rez, make sure you won't take any damage as this can easily be ruined.

 

Cast cancelling Underworld Medicine/Kolto Pack

 

If everyone is close to being topped off and you aren't pressed to heal, you can start casting Underworld Medicine/Kolto Pack then move or jump to cancel the cast if the target doesn't take any damage. This will save energy.

 

Cast cancelling is also useful if an ally's health is suddenly dropping. Just jump or move to cancel your cast and throw an Emergency Medpac.

 

Underworld medicine and Emergency Medpac combo

 

The biggest heal you can dish out is a combination of Underworld Medicine and Emergency Medpac. Underworld medicine will immediately grant you stack of the upper hand that you instantly consume with Emergency Medpac.

 

Approaching a tough pull

 

You can build stacks of the upper hand before a big fight by casting Slow-release Medpac on multiple targets or casting Underworld Medicine and recovering energy with Diagnostic Scan. It’s also a good idea to get 2 stacks of it on the whole group when approaching tough pulls or for the initial phase of a boss fight. There are also tough sections of fights where you’ll know you need 2 stacks of the upper hand on all raid members in 8 man.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Please leave any feedback or anything you'd like me to add to this guide. I hope that you've learned at least a little bit more about the sawbones scoundrel by reading or skimming through this guide.

 

 

***

Edited by Elbmuh
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You have a lot of useful information here. I would like to point out that the second stat build has added benefits simply because too much alacrity can greatly impact your energy maintenance. With the base cast time of 2sec for our primary heal, combined with our instant heal, our casts are largely energy null, meaning that you can maintain exceptionally high levels of energy for long durations of fights. This means less diagnostic scan to regain energy with an exceptionally weak heal, and more time getting the big heals to the correct locations.

 

Just something to possibly add.

Edited by Kaijan
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Hello guys:

I got 2 questions and i would love to be helped out.

1) In your guide i understood that you only use the set bonus of two pieces?

2) Is it worth using black hole mk-1 implants over the rakata's one and to loose crit/surge and consequently use enhancements to recover it? Or is it better to use rakata, and use the enhancements for other stats such as power and alacrity? I haven't done the maths thou...which of this two possibilities is the best one?

 

Thanks for your help

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Hello guys:

I got 2 questions and i would love to be helped out.

1) In your guide i understood that you only use the set bonus of two pieces?

2) Is it worth using black hole mk-1 implants over the rakata's one and to loose crit/surge and consequently use enhancements to recover it? Or is it better to use rakata, and use the enhancements for other stats such as power and alacrity? I haven't done the maths thou...which of this two possibilities is the best one?

 

Thanks for your help

 

I suggest grabbing both of the 2 piece set bonuses over just grabbing one 4 piece set bonus. I explain in the spoiler why I only suggest grabbing the 2 piece set bonus for both the Campaign and War Hero set. They both have to do with one of your biggest heals, Kolto Cloud. The 4 piece set bonuses aren't as useful.

 

The black hole implants have more cunning than the rakata pieces and that is why I suggest to take them over rakata. Yes, I think it's a good idea to recover the lost stats with enhancements.

Edited by Elbmuh
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I explain in the spoiler why I only suggest grabbing the 2 piece set bonus for both the Campaign and War Hero set.

 

Why not get the Battlemaster piece (with the set bonus already in the piece) and have more stats from general PvE armorings.... Expertiese = USELESS in PvE content.... so why have it...

 

Oh and another thing.... Blaster whip costs 15 energy... 15 WASTED energy to gain an upper hand that you're probably going to use for EM, so why waste it....

Edited by Thorriin
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I have 1 question regarding critical diminishing return.

As I could understand from your post, cunning crit chance has a different DR than the critical rating? So do you recommend to go for the 350 critical rating anyway? if I am for example in 40% crit. or do u recommend to stay there and start topping power instead?

 

Thanks for helping me

 

PS: i have seen that you went for cunning augments instead of power augments. Can you explain?

Edited by numore
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http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/d8ae014f-66d1-4e38-8713-d35637dc8d6d

 

This is my eventual goal thoughts? Also which do you prefer the 2 War Hero relics or 1 War Hero one Campaign and why?

 

In your spec, why do you put points into Scramble? When are you going to need 20% extra movement speed? And when are you EVER going to use dodge just for that movement speed?

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PS: i have seen that you went for cunning augments instead of power augments. Can you explain?

 

Scoundrel's get 9% more cunning from Bedside Manner, which makes the cunning augments better than power ones.... not every class needs to use power augments...

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thats why i was asking, cause ive read that Crit Chance from Cunning got a DR as Critical Rating, if that was the case, its worth going for power. Otherwise its better going for cunning augment.
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thats why i was asking, cause ive read that Crit Chance from Cunning got a DR as Critical Rating, if that was the case, its worth going for power. Otherwise its better going for cunning augment.

 

Yeah it's pretty much impossible with current gear for power to become better

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http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/d8ae014f-66d1-4e38-8713-d35637dc8d6d

 

This is my eventual goal thoughts? Also which do you prefer the 2 War Hero relics or 1 War Hero one Campaign and why?

 

A couple of notes on your build: good luck finding the armoring for the bracers and belt. You can use Advanced Skill Armoring 25 instead and they will still be better than the unslotted bracers. Thank you though, I have edited the example and have added Advanced Skill Armoring 25 to the armoring section.

 

Also, switch out the enhancement in your leggings for Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement 26.

 

I prefer to have 1 Campaign Relic of Boundless Ages and 1 War Hero o Relic of Boundless Ages so that I have the on-use ability to replace an adrenal. Adrenals are pretty expensive, and I'm not a biochemist so I don't have a reusable one.

 

However, the math will show that the War Hero Relic of Boundless Ages will give you more HPS than the Campaign Relic of Boundless Ages.

Edited by Elbmuh
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Why not get the Battlemaster piece (with the set bonus already in the piece) and have more stats from general PvE armorings.... Expertiese = USELESS in PvE content.... so why have it...

 

Oh and another thing.... Blaster whip costs 15 energy... 15 WASTED energy to gain an upper hand that you're probably going to use for EM, so why waste it....

 

You are correct. Even the Advanced Skill Armoring 22 will yield more Cunning than the War Hero Armoring. However, consider the War Hero Armoring because many people want to customize their looks in endgame. If that is the case, the War Hero armoring is superior for the bonus. I have updated the post with your suggestion. Thanks!

 

Blaster Whip costs energy but Emergency Medpac does not. I only suggest this if you have 0 or 1 stack of upper hand and your team mate's health is critical. I will clarify this in the post.

Edited by Elbmuh
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I have 1 question regarding critical diminishing return.

As I could understand from your post, cunning crit chance has a different DR than the critical rating? So do you recommend to go for the 350 critical rating anyway? if I am for example in 40% crit. or do u recommend to stay there and start topping power instead?

 

Thanks for helping me

 

PS: i have seen that you went for cunning augments instead of power augments. Can you explain?

 

Go for the 350 critical rating anyway. Even if you critical chance is already at 40%, you an still stack more critical rating up to 350 without being hit too hard with diminishing returns because the diminishing returns on cunning's critical bonus isn't combined with that of critical rating's.

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Where do you get Advanced Skill Armoring 26 or 25 for belts and bracers?

 

Thanks!

 

PS: I didnt understand the answer to why not using battlemaster armoring instead of War hero. If you can explain it again please :)

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Where do you get Advanced Skill Armoring 26 or 25 for belts and bracers?

 

Thanks!

 

PS: I didnt understand the answer to why not using battlemaster armoring instead of War hero. If you can explain it again please :)

 

Soa and Karagga, both in hard mode, will drop Advanced Skill Armoring 25. You can sometimes find these being sold in the GTN. I haven't seen Advanced Skill Armoring 26 yet, except for the piece-specific ones you remove from the Black Hole pieces.

 

Battlemaster armoring doesn't carry the set bonus, but war hero armoring does. You can either choose to use the battlemaster shell combined with Advanced Skill Armoring 25 to get the bonus, or use any shell combined with the War Hero armoring to get the bonus.

Edited by Elbmuh
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and why do u wanna go for 400 surge rating, if with 300 surge you get till 75% and after that you need 100 more surge rating for only 5%. Is it worth it? have you consider on going more power alacrity instead? the enhancements i mean. Because like I said....100 points for only a 5%(maybe like 3.5%), i might consider on going for more power, that has no DR. Edited by numore
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and why do u wanna go for 400 surge rating, if with 300 surge you get till 75% and after that you need 100 more surge rating for only 5%. Is it worth it? have you consider on going more power alacrity instead? the enhancements i mean. Because like I said....100 points for only a 5%(maybe like 3.5%), i might consider on going for more power, that has no DR.

You're right about the diminishing returns of surge in the 300 - 400 range. Once you hit 300, you can either get more surge and go for alacrity because it's hard to swap surge for power. Usually you swap power for crit and surge for alacrity, unless you can get your hands on those reflective enhancements. My personal preference is to stack more surge. I'm not a big fan of alacrity.

 

Edit: After looking at it more, 400 surge might be better off put aside for more alacrity. I've updated the stat priority to reflect this. However, on some of the builds, I left 399 surge as the max, because people who really prefer to see bigger crits will still enjoy the bonus up to 400 surge.

Edited by Elbmuh
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