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Is a combat medic really that bad?


redhoodrider

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I'm thinking of making an Operative healer for FP's and WZ's, but for PVE I would like it better if I didn't have to just heal Kaliyo. Is a combat medic that bad for PVE? Like keeping your tank at high health and throwing in some dmg? I've heard people say "if you choose heal, you are good at healing. If you choose DPS, you're good at DPS. If you choose both, you are poor at both." Is this true? And if possible, could I go almost entirely healing spec and still get some dmg in soloing PVE? Thanks
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For doing PvE solo content that's absolutely viable. Additionally all healing classes have some healing abilities even when you are not specialised on the healing skill tree. Can't speak for the Imperial Agent/Operative, but as a Mercenary Bount Hunter you have your main healing skills available (Kolto Missile, Healing Scan, Rapid Scan) even when specced to Arsenal (ranged DD).

 

Only when doing HC Flashpoints and Operations you really should focus on healing or doing damage.

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Honestly, I find soloing as healer very boring. You don't really have time to heal, your dps is subpar and not terribly interesting because all you have are basic attacks. Since you are a subscriber, I'd suggest getting the field respec legacy unlock when you can. Go DPS for solo, and respec to heal when you want to do group content.

 

Alternatively you could probably get away with a hybrid build for both. I hear concealment + medic kinda works. You generate tactical advantage with your probes and transform that into damage with lacerate. Just don't bring this into any hard modes if your group isn't well overgeared. :rolleyes:

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Leveling and soloing as a healer flat out stinks. My main is a Commando Combat Medic and I have kept two sets of gear for him since I chose Commando at level 10.

 

Whoever says doing both makes you suck at both isn't just wrong, they are idiots. Doing both makes you good at both beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

Soloing as a healer, even with a geared DPS companion, is just too slow even if you throw DPS out there. You are better off soloing as DPS with a tank or healing companion (I prefer healers myself) and healing in group activities (if you have the field respec unlock which I highly recommend),

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Personally, I didn't really have too much of a problem leveling a healer. I leveled a scoundrel and a merc as a healer and it really wasn't that bad, especially compared to previous experience in other games where I did not have a companion to help me out.
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Personally, I didn't really have too much of a problem leveling a healer. I leveled a scoundrel and a merc as a healer and it really wasn't that bad, especially compared to previous experience in other games where I did not have a companion to help me out.

 

QFT.

 

I've leveled healers in other games. I don't understand what the problem is in this game. It's much easier to level a healer here than any other game. Send in tank, Spend 2-4 GCDs doing dmg, heal tank. Alternatively, place bubble on tank early on then faceroll pulls.

 

It's not as blindingly fast as leveling a DPS, but SLOW? I would not call it slow by any stretch.

 

Get field respec if you want, but don't be put off from leveling a healer just because some folks say it's slow. It's not.

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o.O

 

my op healz does decent DPS. certainly not on par with a dedicated sniper, but it's still pretty reasonable. during FPs i tend to "play dps" between heals if things are going smoothly.

 

the only real downside for solo leveling an op healz is the lack of a big AoE attack until you get Orbital Strike. using stealth and your stuns sensibly can give you an incredible amount of battlefield control.

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I had no probs to level my healers in PvE solo game. Sage, and Commando are both 55, operative is around 40+, catching up fast atm, all leveled as healers. Granted, HK-51 as companion speeded up things a bit for Sage and Operative. But their own DPS companions are not all that bad, either. Kaliyo I like for her funny comments, but not much in battle, though. So, I might have equipped her as dps, had I not gotten HK-51 via my Mando. IMO, all of the healer ACs do a fair deal of dps themselves between heals. Not compareable to a DPS spec, but that I would not expect in the least, anyway. I exchange the mods every 4 levels on char + main comp, though, and rather craft than put up with stupid distributions of stats with the comm dealers.

 

I do think that playing the roles in FPs while leveling does teach a lot, and be it only to exercise reflexes. But there is no reason whatsoever to not switch the roles IMO. As someone else said, at 55 one might want to decide, as it is hard to equip the char for 2 roles. But before that, fun is my only concern, really.

Edited by Nazdika
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You won't have any problems leveling a healer, but it is much slower than were you to level as DPS.

 

You have to look at it from the long view. Individually, fights won't take much longer but if you add up the extra time needed to finish a fight as a healer, it turns into a rather large number by the time you hit 55.

 

You aren't really getting good, useful experience as a healer by just healing yourself and your companion while leveling up. Experience for end game healing will only come from running FP's and maybe a bit from Heroic 4's.

 

If speed isn't an issue, healers have enough combat abilities to do the job.

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While the individual fights might take a bit longer, your survivability is much higher, and due to that, you will spend a lot less time traveling back to quest locations b/c some random pathing MOB runs into you. Quite frankly if you level as a DPS one too many MOBs and you will die right along with your companion, if not you dying before your companion. Yes Medical Probes help, but as a healer you will just laugh when a couple of extra MOBs path into your combat furball.
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I started out as a healer on my operative, by the time I got to Nar Shaddaa I found I spent so little time healing Kaliyo that I switched to dps tree and never looked back. I did lvl up a commando as healer before that, it went just fine with tank comps, but it's not necessary and you're just slowing yourself down.
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Leveling and soloing as a healer flat out stinks. My main is a Commando Combat Medic and I have kept two sets of gear for him since I chose Commando at level 10.

 

Whoever says doing both makes you suck at both isn't just wrong, they are idiots. Doing both makes you good at both beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

Soloing as a healer, even with a geared DPS companion, is just too slow even if you throw DPS out there. You are better off soloing as DPS with a tank or healing companion (I prefer healers myself) and healing in group activities (if you have the field respec unlock which I highly recommend),

 

Well, then, you're not doing both. You're switching back and forth.

Doing both would be throwing down an aoe heal then doing your dps rotation until the cd on your aoe heal is up and repeating.

But I agree with unlocking the field respec.

 

Because they're ranged, a Commando combat medic can still do decent DPS if the group isn't needing much healing done.

If you are DPS, you still have some basic healing abilities if your healer gets overwhelmed while doing damage on par with other DPS classes.

Edited by JacksonMo
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