House Stark is looking to re-man our 8 man progression group. Currently raiding NiM TfB with Withering Horror, and Operator IX down. Current members can not meet mandatory times and/or nights and looking to replace them to finish the content and progress to SnV NiM. Currently looking for some DPS and Tank spots. Willing to help finish min/max-ing characters but please be close to min/max. Please send in-game message or PM to Dakterion, Zera'tul or Tristam.

The reason you can not get a set bonus without raiding anymore is simple. It's what steave said. It rewards raiders with the necessary bonuses to continue completing the hardest content in the game. The set-bonus should be thought of as "raid bonus." If you are not raiding then there is no need for a set-bonus. There is no single player or even flashpoint HM that requires players to have the set-bonus: no tight enrage timers, no high burst damage tanks are taking, nothing that would require the additional benefits of raid gear. If you want the set bonus then you can join a guild and run story mode TFB and/or SaV and receive a set-bonus from the arkanian gear. These operations are laughably easy and even a PUG should be able to clear it after a few hours of actual raiding. Heck you don't even need to figure out the strategies, they're all spelled out for you now on dulfy.net.

As a Scoundrel Healer who has cleared this in HM and NiM, the most important thing is to cleanse the tank. The reason being is that you can pop Dodge (or the imperial equivalent) as we have a passive attribute Lucky Dodge on the Pub side that cleanses all adverse effects when dodge is activated. So it should go cleanse tank, pop dodge...and then back to healing. Biggest thing is to keep your HoTs up on the tank you're healing and yourself. Use your aoe if melee are by the tank for the most efficient healing and, of course, always have at least 1 stack of upper hand for those "oh sh*t" moments. But keep at it and good luck!

Dakterion Artanis or as the guild just calls me...Dak

Best thing you can do is find a guild that is not as casual as your current guild. There are several different types of guilds too (casual, pvp-oriented, raid-oriented, RP, etc.). If you're interested in doing end-game content (i.e. Raiding) then you will need to find a guild that suits what you are looking for and the type of social experience you want. As a guild leader, I can tell you I have no trouble helping new MMO players get adjusted to the demands of hard mode raiding (SWTOR is my current raid leader's first MMO) but what drives me up a wall is when guild members demand to be run through raids without ever openly participating within the guild (i.e. use our website, join in our voice chat, etc. etc.). Find something that fits you as a player and you'll be much happier than solo-ing everything.

Willpower or power augments (preferably willpower for added crit). Alacrity is not all it's cracked up to be. Max out your alacrity at about 200-250 (which you'll get from your implants, and off hand). More than that and you're wasting other stats for alacrity.

My general rule is as follows: Crit chance 40% (fully buffed) Surge 75% (anything over that is hitting the Hard DR mark) After that stack power (for reference my powers is 1064). Currently, at 40% crit, 77% Crit multiplier with 725 bonus heals (not fully max/min-ed). With an adrenal I will heal myself for about 950+ in my salvation. Basically, my salvation is now a set it and forget it heal for everything but HM EC. It's not exact numbers that you were looking for but it's really what you think is most important, more frequent crits or harder hits.

I'm not an Smuggler/Operative healer [i'm a sage healer]. It would help to know the full percentage of your crit chance, crit multipler, activation speed and their stats respective number (i.e. alactity 275, etc.). Then we can begin to help you better max/min your gear. However, as a starter, I've seen too many healers put too many points into alacrity (it's the base stat for healing gear). From what I can see alacrity has very little effect on reducing cast times, cooldowns or making channeled heals tick faster so if you're over 200 alacrity then I'd say you have way too much. For example, I have approx. 200 alacrity and a friend of mine has 415, our deliverance cast times are 2.3 and 2.2 respectively. The way my gear is setup and with all buffs I have +75 bonus healing on him so all my heals hit harder. As a rule in my healers for SWTOR, I want 40% crit after the buff, 75% crit multiplier (anything over that means you hit the diminishing returns cap) and then after that I stack power. [i choose to stack power over the main stat because I see a bigger increase in my bonus healing and since the main stat contributes to crit which is already at the cap I find it more effective but that's up to the individual healer]. Another suggestion, don't use the matrix cube...it's trash. You'd be better off with an activation relic and a proc relic or if you PVP then I would suggest 2 augmented War Hero relics (+113 to power) for overall hard hitting heals. Hope that helps and gives you a starting point.

Does anyone know if these two skills stack for Telekinetic Throw? If so, do you have some combat logs to show the difference? Thanks!