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Alacrity


Talyndor

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Not as simple as that actually. From memory, alacrity is better for burst above 250 surge and better for sustained at around the 300 mark (it's on mmomechanics, can't remember the exact ammounts). So for pve, anywhere between 250-300 surge and then stacked alacrity is fine.

 

PvP however is entirely different. Aginst top players, you'll find yourself interupted constantly (You can try fakecasting, but not reliable and takes up time). You therefore want less alacrity and more surge as you'll never have the chance to cast KI anyway.I find in a top match I'll get about 10% of my heals from KI and the rest from instant casts, meaning that surge is better as alacrity will only affect 10% of my healing.

 

The reason people don't like alacrity is that fasting healing gives energy less time to regenerate, meaning you drop into lower regen rates. This isn't too muc of a problem, as faster casting opens up a GCD where you can use DS to regenerate it.

Edited by Vacarius
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I've been a healing operative since launch... Alacrity is good if you've maxed out every other stat your gear will allow.

 

In concealment, you get accuracy to not go over surge soft cap.... In healing, you get alacrity to not go over surge soft cap. Simple. Usually end up with about 150-200 or 3-4 enhancements you can swap out.

 

Posts on alacrity are difficult to decipher, and not always encouraging about stacking alacrity.

 

For a healing Op....what do i want to shoot for in terms of alacrity?

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Posts on alacrity are difficult to decipher, and not always encouraging about stacking alacrity.

 

For a healing Op....what do i want to shoot for in terms of alacrity?

For healing, do not try for alacrity. Most of our heals are instant cast, so you do not benefit from it greatly (only channeled/cast heals is Diagnostic Scan and Kolto Injection (ya....I ignored infusion)). KI probably makes up about 25% of total healing and DS is more about getting energy back (and is already fast channel).

 

On top of that, alacrity takes a big number to truly make a difference. IMHO, go for surge (even with the sharp roll-off). I am min/maxing my healing OP and have surge rating in the 400s. I think I have a tad over 100 alacrity in my PvP set (but that was due to the WH implants).

 

TL/DR: Don't target alacrity. If you have some, it doesn't hurt (it helps a little), but you are better off getting a higher surge. If you still want alacrity, I recommend going for a surge rating of at least 300 first.

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For healing, do not try for alacrity. Most of our heals are instant cast, so you do not benefit from it greatly (only channeled/cast heals is Diagnostic Scan and Kolto Injection (ya....I ignored infusion)). KI probably makes up about 25% of total healing and DS is more about getting energy back (and is already fast channel).

 

On top of that, alacrity takes a big number to truly make a difference. IMHO, go for surge (even with the sharp roll-off). I am min/maxing my healing OP and have surge rating in the 400s. I think I have a tad over 100 alacrity in my PvP set (but that was due to the WH implants).

 

TL/DR: Don't target alacrity. If you have some, it doesn't hurt (it helps a little), but you are better off getting a higher surge. If you still want alacrity, I recommend going for a surge rating of at least 300 first.

 

Sorry, but this post is incorrect. 400 surge is 100 surge too much, by aiming for that you're reducing your hps. As stated by most posters, anywhere from between 250-300 surge then stacked alacrity is what you should aim for (I prefer closer to 300 as I find burst healing easy anyway). That said, this relies on near perfect management of energy. More surge is thus prefered if energy management is problematic (as alacrity will make this worse if you're not on top of it).

 

 

Hmm, haven't had time to go through this properly yet but looks very good. Have you had a look at the discussions on mmomechanics about alacrity (operative forum)? It's been a while since then so I'm always looking for others to do the maths for my inept mind :)

 

EDIT: Found it (http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/thread-775.html), basically go to the end of the first post.

Edited by Vacarius
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I want to thank everyone for their helpful comments.

 

Sadly, although I have read (not skimmed) all of them , and followed the links to other posts and graphs (some of which befuddle me, btw), I am left just as confused as before. (Not helped, btw, by a fellow operative guildie I respect who says don't worry about alacrity at all).

 

It seems there is a real split between the value of alacrity versus other stats. I am seeing suggestions of a soft cap for surge at 250-300 (after which i should go for alacrity) , a soft cap for crit at about 350 (after which I go for power). But then I see posts suggesting I should get my crit rating to 40% for better heals.

 

Sigh.....I don't mean to sound exasperated. i just cannot reconcile the differing views, and maybe its best to just digest what people have said and try to optimize my healer as best I can.

 

I am grateful for those of you who took the time to respond to my original post.

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It seems there is a real split between the value of alacrity versus other stats. I am seeing suggestions of a soft cap for surge at 250-300 (after which i should go for alacrity) , a soft cap for crit at about 350 (after which I go for power). But then I see posts suggesting I should get my crit rating to 40% for better heals.

 

These really aren't opposing views. B/c of how stats are distributed, you really only end up trading surge for alacrity. Surge tends to soft cap around the 250-300 where you hit diminishing returns. After that point, alacrity is okay and is more helpful for builds that have a lot of channeled skills (e.g., operatives don't have too many, corruption sorcs are pretty much all channeled heals).

 

You can also trade critical rating for power. The critical rating stat does hit dimishing returns around 350. However, your overall chance to have a critical hit is also dependent on your mainstat. This main stat dependence is on a different formula from the critical rating stat and has no (significant?) dimishing returns to worry about. With the best gear in game, you tend to have about a 38-40% critical chance by nature of your huge cunning pool and combined critical rating.

 

You also have the fact that alacrity's effect is harder to quantify for healers. DPS, for example, are always trying to pump out as much as possible and maximize DPS. "Optimal" rotations are really important as a result. Healers are reactionary, so max output is not as critical or clear a factor. Depending on how people prioritize "max output" vs. "reactionary ability" you get many of these sorts of arguments.

Edited by Infalliable
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I want to thank everyone for their helpful comments.

 

Sadly, although I have read (not skimmed) all of them , and followed the links to other posts and graphs (some of which befuddle me, btw), I am left just as confused as before. (Not helped, btw, by a fellow operative guildie I respect who says don't worry about alacrity at all).

 

It seems there is a real split between the value of alacrity versus other stats. I am seeing suggestions of a soft cap for surge at 250-300 (after which i should go for alacrity) , a soft cap for crit at about 350 (after which I go for power). But then I see posts suggesting I should get my crit rating to 40% for better heals.

 

Sigh.....I don't mean to sound exasperated. i just cannot reconcile the differing views, and maybe its best to just digest what people have said and try to optimize my healer as best I can.

 

I am grateful for those of you who took the time to respond to my original post.

There are plenty of different views. Most disagreeing comes with the little stuff, we all tend to agree on the big numbers.

 

Ignore everyone else and listen to me. :p I have tons of healing experience (PvP and PvE). I have parsed plenty and solver equations for maximized healing.

 

Core things to consider:

This advice is for level 50 player (most will hold true for sub-50 tho):

Cunning: Get as much as you can. When it comes to augments, get cunning...no others.

With skills and buffs 1 cunning gives about the same healing output as 1 power, but cunning also gives you extra crit% (power does not).

Crit: Get around 36% to 40% buffed

We have some heals that give a surge boost (30% extra surge when crit happens). That makes crit very important (Injection and RN). The reality is, you will be trading between crit and power in your gear. I suggest getting crit up to these numbers then going for power. If you are slightly above or below this range, it probably wont make a huge difference in your overall healing (hps).

 

Power: After you are at your ideal crit range, go for as much as you can (except when you have a choice between power and cunning)

 

Surge: 300 minimum

Surge has the quickest slope on the curve. You are a fool if you dont get at least 180. 300 should land you somewhere near 75% surge. Hard cap is 80%. I have a surge rating above 400 (probably around 78%). I value surge more than alacrity.

 

Alacrity: After surge is 300, you may consider putting rest into alacrity.

Alacrity is really only useful on your Kolto Injection. It does not help KP, SP, or RN. Some value having an extra 0.1-0.2 sec shaved off the 2 second cast time (you are probably starting at 1.9 sec if you skilled 2pts in tree). Since emergency heals are typically SP spam, I dont think the extra time savings necessary. Putting your points into surge will give stronger heals on everything (even if you are experiencing major diminishing returns).

 

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Edited by Zhothon
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The above poster is correct, but I'll make it simple for you:

 

Stack cunning > power > crit > surge (300) > then when you can't do the power/surge enhancements anymore (losing HPS after 300), do power/alacrity.

 

There is a ton of crit here (41% with the talent), that you could probably drop a little for power to push it over 800. Just swap out 1 or 2 of the crit/alacrity enhancements for power/alacrity. But this is pretty good: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/805bdb0c-a653-4b40-be4e-21aa7ba74d9c

 

On the plus side, you'd only have to swap out 4 enhancements if you decided to switch specs.

 

There are plenty of different views. Most disagreeing comes with the little stuff, we all tend to agree on the big numbers.

 

Ignore everyone else and listen to me. :p I have tons of healing experience (PvP and PvE). I have parsed plenty and solver equations for maximized healing.

 

Core things to consider:

This advice is for level 50 player (most will hold true for sub-50 tho):

Cunning: Get as much as you can. When it comes to augments, get cunning...no others.

With skills and buffs 1 cunning gives about the same healing output as 1 power, but cunning also gives you extra crit% (power does not).

Crit: Get around 36% to 40% buffed

We have some heals that give a surge boost (30% extra surge when crit happens). That makes crit very important (Injection and RN). The reality is, you will be trading between crit and power in your gear. I suggest getting crit up to these numbers then going for power. If you are slightly above or below this range, it probably wont make a huge difference in your overall healing (hps).

 

Power: After you are at your ideal crit range, go for as much as you can (except when you have a choice between power and cunning)

 

Surge: 300 minimum

Surge has the quickest slope on the curve. You are a fool if you dont get at least 180. 300 should land you somewhere near 75% surge. Hard cap is 80%. I have a surge rating above 400 (probably around 78%). I value surge more than alacrity.

 

Alacrity: After surge is 300, you may consider putting rest into alacrity.

Alacrity is really only useful on your Kolto Injection. It does not help KP, SP, or RN. Some value having an extra 0.1-0.2 sec shaved off the 2 second cast time (you are probably starting at 1.9 sec if you skilled 2pts in tree). Since emergency heals are typically SP spam, I dont think the extra time savings necessary. Putting your points into surge will give stronger heals on everything (even if you are experiencing major diminishing returns).

 

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Edited by BlackSpin
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Surge: 300 minimum

Surge has the quickest slope on the curve. You are a fool if you dont get at least 180. 300 should land you somewhere near 75% surge. Hard cap is 80%. I have a surge rating above 400 (probably around 78%). I value surge more than alacrity.

 

The math suggest that this should be 240 Minimum, 300 Maximum. Even if channeled heals only make up 20% of your healing actions, you're going to see more overall healing gains from Alacrity than you are from any surge past 300.

 

But yes.. the difference of opinion is in the small details. We all largely agree on the big picture :)

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The math suggest that this should be 240 Minimum, 300 Maximum. Even if channeled heals only make up 20% of your healing actions, you're going to see more overall healing gains from Alacrity than you are from any surge past 300.

 

But yes.. the difference of opinion is in the small details. We all largely agree on the big picture :)

 

Mathematically this post is correct, simply because overall hps is increased following this (KI->SP will be your basic heal with KP stacked). I'd personally advise running mox or another parser with surge at 300 for one (optimal sustained level) and surge at 400 for another (replacing alacrity with surge essentially). If you do everything the same, you'll find overall healing higher at 300 surge than at 400. Note that alacrity is 500% better than surge for burst healing at 300 surge, so 400 surge will really hurt in reactionary fights. This will all turn into repetition so I'll leave it at that :)

 

To the OP: Ignore % values for crit/surge etc. These are basically irrelevant as the final value is determined by multiple variables. So, the important thing is the diminishing returns on the crit stat rather than the % of the crit value if that makes sense. Crit rating to 350 is generally accepted as where it should be at, irrelevant of the crit %. Most people give % values simply because you'll roughly end up there if you go for the optimal stat levels. Don't worry too much about reading the spreadsheets (I don't :)) but they all come to the same conclusion for stat levels, I let people make them and just use their results.

 

This is essentially what you should aim for:

-Stack cunning obviously

-Crit to 350 then stack power

-Surge to 250-300 then stack alacrity

 

These values are the optimal mathematically for a basic rotation of KPx2->KI->SP. You probably won't see much difference if you're a bit off these values, but if you're aiming for maximum healing power these are what you should aim for.

Edited by Vacarius
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Agree - BUT, the Crit DR is a long slow curve. You hit the apex (is that the right term?) around 750-800. 350 Crit is good, but more is better :) As long as you are where you want to be with your other stats.

 

It'd be interesting to see the difference between adding 42 power or 42 crit on top of 350 crit, or even 84. I don't have any calculators that can calculate overall DPS from stats.

 

Mathematically this post is correct, simply because overall hps is increased following this (KI->SP will be your basic heal with KP stacked). I'd personally advise running mox or another parser with surge at 300 for one (optimal sustained level) and surge at 400 for another (replacing alacrity with surge essentially). If you do everything the same, you'll find overall healing higher at 300 surge than at 400. Note that alacrity is 500% better than surge for burst healing at 300 surge, so 400 surge will really hurt in reactionary fights. This will all turn into repetition so I'll leave it at that :)

 

To the OP: Ignore % values for crit/surge etc. These are basically irrelevant as the final value is determined by multiple variables. So, the important thing is the diminishing returns on the crit stat rather than the % of the crit value if that makes sense. Crit rating to 350 is generally accepted as where it should be at, irrelevant of the crit %. Most people use give % values simply because you'll roughly end up there if you go for the optimal stat levels. Don't worry too much about reading the spreadsheets (I don't :)) but they all come to the same conclusion for stat levels, I let people make them and just use their results.

 

This is essentially what you should aim for:

-Stack cunning obviously

-Crit to 350 then stack power

-Surge to 250-300 then stack alacrity

Edited by BlackSpin
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Agree - BUT, the Crit DR is a long slow curve. You hit the apex (is that the right term?) around 750-800. 350 Crit is good, but more is better :) As long as you are where you want to be with your other stats.

 

It'd be interesting to see the difference between adding 42 power or 42 crit on top of 350 crit, or even 84. I don't have any calculators that can calculate overall DPS from stats.

 

I suck at maths, but the reasoning goes that more crit is good, just at 350 crit more power is better (no DR on power). The actual value is probably some horrible number like 356.9128918247214 but the principle remains.

 

The spreadsheet I linked can calculate the difference, I get other people to use if for me though since I don't know how :)

Edited by Vacarius
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The math suggest that this should be 240 Minimum, 300 Maximum. Even if channeled heals only make up 20% of your healing actions, you're going to see more overall healing gains from Alacrity than you are from any surge past 300.

 

But yes.. the difference of opinion is in the small details. We all largely agree on the big picture :)

Interesting discussion, but it really depends on the math. If we sat at a dummy and tried for max healing.....sure/maybe alacrity should factor into the equation for highest possible HPS. I really don't know.

 

In reality, there is a large variety of healing conditions. Maximum HPS that can be achieved on a dummy(s) doesn't mean squat to highly efficient and proper healing that is done in a WZ or raid.

 

Here are some numbers:

Surge/Crit Multiplier (30% additional for RN and KI not included)

0 / 50%

100 / 63.8%

200 / 71.3%

300 / 75.3%

400 / 77.5%

500 / 78.6%

 

Alacrity/Speed Bonus (with 4% from tree)/Kolto inj Cast Time [Approx....from looking at chart]

0 / 4% / 1.92 sec

100 / 7.5% / 1.85 sec

200 / 11% / 1.78 sec

300 / 13% / 1.74 sec

 

Lets think on this:

 

Alacrity does nothing for Kolto Probe, Surgical Probe, and RN. Inversely, you will get bigger heals on your crits with surge.

 

Alacrity does help cast your Kolto Injection faster. (Probably 1.7 sec vs 1.9 sec). However, if you crit, you will get more heal on the 1.9 sec cast.

 

Alacrity also helps DS, but at a .7 sec cast time....the help is negligible

.

So, alacrity speeds up our channeled/cast heals, but when does speed really matter? In clutch situations we will use Surgical Probe to heal (instant cast) and alacrity plays no factor in it. Once a person is over 30%, we cast Injection. Typically you are not getting smacked so hard that the 0.2 secs you shave off of injection is critical. The extra 7% from surge helps heal stronger when you crit that SP.

 

TL:DR

If Alacrity had a larger rate of return (higher percentage for points invested) I would really consider it. As it stands, its low rate of return does not beat out the benefits of putting the extra points into surge.

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Well, in a burst situation you'd ideally be using KI or infusion if you had the chance:

 

SP: 2.5-4k heal, 1.5 global cooldown v KI: 1.8 second cast & 4-7.5k heal with no GCD

-essentially you get 1.5-3.5k more healing for 0.3 seconds longer

-obviously you do have to be 1.8 seconds ahead of the blow that would kill the tank here

-while my figures aren't exact, alacrity is thus incredibly useful in these situations

-alacrity is 500% better than surge at 250 for burst because of some maths nonsense

 

Really all we're talking about here is that last 100 hps, which when we're hiting 2100ish anyway doesn't really matter -it's more for those who care about absolutely perfecting their gear. I don't know why the maths favours alacrity, but it does so I do what it says :)

Edited by Vacarius
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To restate what I think Zho was trying to get at in practical terms:

 

Ignoring energy management, think about what actually happens when you go from KI cast time of 1.8 sec to 1.7 sec. That means if you are chain casting 5 KIs in a row with zero delay between them you will come out half a second ahead. GCD is 1.5 sec so you are not actually gaining the ability to use even one more instant cast ability (you'd need 15 casts with zero delay between them for that). In actual fights with movement and energy management etc. this will never be realized -- if fights were a matter of absolute clockwork precision and every single action/movement/etc always happened at exactly the same time (down to precision of ~0.05 sec) then over the course of a whole fight all of the 0.1s could add up to a real difference in number of casts allowed. Actual fights aren't that precise, especially since latency is often in the range of 0.05 sec anyway.

 

The only other benefit would be quicker delivery of the heal to the target, but if you are in a situation where your target is consistently dying 0.5 seconds before you would have healed him/her then you have bigger problems than gear itemization ;)

 

The takeaway: starting from Surge ~ 300 and Alacrity ~ 100... adding Surge will give a -small- benefit, adding Alac will give -zero- benefit in practical application.

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This thread is going to turn into a rather lengthy argument Talyndor, so just take 300 surge then alacrity, we all seem to agree roughly on that.

 

Azaranth's guide on alacrity (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=553249) is really good, and I'd advise anyone interested to have a read. The one I linked earlier is detailed to the extent of being unreadable, so use his :)

 

I've quoted the bit I think is most useful:

 

A general way to sum up these scenarios would be:

 

                                                  [u]Surge[/u]                           [u]Alacrity[/u]
HoT-Heavy Fight                 medium impact                 low impact
Burst Heavy Fight               medium impact                 high impact

 

Here's some math stuff to support what I've been saying:

 

Since we're only looking to isolate Surge vs Alacrity, let's assume some base level stats. The following is in the ballpark of Dread Guard tier itemization:

  • 2300 Cunning
  • 900 Power
  • 1300 Tech Power
  • 350 Crit Rating

 

With those baseline stats, see the impact of surge:

  • With 0 surge, adding +50 more surge would increase the healing output of UWM by 2.41%
  • With 100 surge, adding +50 more surge would increase the healing output of UWM by 1.25%
  • With 200 surge, adding +50 more surge would increase the healing output of UWM by 0.66%
  • With 300 surge, adding +50 more surge would increase the healing output of UWM by 0.35%

 

Note how the impact of surge becomes increasingly minuscule.

 

Now let's note the impact of alacrity:

 

  • With 0 alacrity, adding +50 more alacrity would increase the healing output of UWM by 1.90%
  • With 100 alacrity, adding +50 more alacrity would increase the healing output of UWM by 1.74%
  • With 200 alacrity, adding +50 more alacrity would increase the healing output of UWM by 1.59%
  • With 300 alacrity, adding +50 more alacrity would increase the healing output of UWM by 1.45%

 

Note how alacrity continues to scale very well at higher levels.

 

Of course, you need to remember to take these numbers with a grain of salt. You very rarely cast UWM alone, and it's much more frequently followed with an Emergency Medpack, and in fights where you're primarily casting Slow-Release Medpack, alacrity has very little value. Nonetheless, these numbers can help you understand just how quickly Surge tapers off.

 

So the point isn't that alacrity is better than surge (it's not), it's that the diminishing returns for surge is so great that stacking alacrity is better. At 300 surge, stacking more of it is going to give you around 0.8% more healing on everything. Instead, stacking alacrity will give you around 5-8% more healing on Kolto Injection which accounts for about 30% of standard healing. Note that KI is used even more in burst fights where every bit counts (0.8% more healing in a HoT heavy fight is largely irrelevant anyway as we're usually overhealing here).

 

Hope this clears things up, note that the numbers don't give values for adding 50 of a stat when you have 50, 150, 250 etc which would favour alacrity even more (and thus my math at the end is only an approximation). If you want to know where these numbers are coming from, use this: http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/thread-775.html, be warned that it's a lot more complex.

 

Note that the point isn't to fit another heal in, it's to increase healing per second, which alacrity does better.

Edited by Vacarius
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... adding Surge will give a -small- benefit, adding Alac will give -zero- benefit in practical application.

 

Thats your opinion, not fact.

 

There are lots of situations where EMP/(SP?) just will not save someone, especially if it does not crit. But Kolto INJ/INF will.

 

In my opinion, that 0.2 of a second alacrity takes off both of your biggest heals is a life saver in pvp. Both of your own, and others.

Edited by GHoppa
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In my opinion, that 0.2 of a second alacrity takes off both of your biggest heals is a life saver in pvp. Both of your own, and others.

 

You're not getting 0.2 off one cast in the scenario I outlined. If you have the 4% talent and 100 alacrity, KI is at ~1.85s. Adding even 200 more Alac will only shave off 0.11s, not 0.2s.

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You're not getting 0.2 off one cast in the scenario I outlined. If you have the 4% talent and 100 alacrity, KI is at ~1.85s. Adding even 200 more Alac will only shave off 0.11s, not 0.2s.

 

0.11 seconds off KI increases its hps by 5%. 200 more surge at 300 surge increases overall hps by about 0.8%. KI is responsible for about 30% of our heals. Therefore alacrity gives a 1.5ish% increase to hps, about double the amount surge would give. Thus, take alacrity.

 

These amounts are minimal and won't make much of a difference, but remember that KI is the most crucial ability for saving lives.

Edited by Vacarius
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Fun discussion going here. I have followed these debates since launch really and I would like to add a few things from my own personal experience. I have tried different min/max setups. 250 Surge is a solid number to lock in at, push it to 300 if you prefer. Then as others have said go with Alacrity. However, there are many shades of grey here that cannot be covered via math, dummy testing etc. etc.

 

One thing that cannot be taken into account is all the variables that accompany raiding. I have completed all game content in 8man, and we are currently progressing through NM EC. This is not to validate or say my methods and opinions are perfect or preferable, just that I have a basis to derive my information from.

 

In my experience there is no such thing as a "true rotation" when raiding difficult content per say. Granted once you know the encounters and are very comfortable you can change or push boundries accordingly with your healing and dps for that matter. There are many, many factors to consider. Like, what is the build of the raid group as far as classes, how skilled is everyone, how well geared is the group, how practiced is the group, is synergy good, what encounter is it, how many mistakes or hiccups happen during the fight? These are just a few things to consider that are not taken into account. Standing at a dummy and healing means nothing in a combat situation. All it provides is the possible max hps and best "rotation" to achieve such hps in a bubble.

 

Many people will say that an Operatives best rotation is KP-Kinj-SP. However, that is a very rigid system to go buy. Every situation is different. Especially when you are learning new content. SP is a good heal. It has it's place and is quiet handy in many situations. However, if someone thinks they will keep tanks and raid up effectively in difficult encounters by merely rolling HoTs, Injecting and SP. They will probably always be behind, put more pressure on the other healer(s) or people will die. The SP is great but it's farely weak when tanks are getting hit for 7-10k or even more at times. I am leading into Alacrity here, I do have a point as far as the thread is concerned directly :)

 

Kolto Infusion, yes the red-headed step child. The undrated heal that a large portion of Operatives overlook as useless or not as "good" as SP. This is simply not true. In fact the harder content becomes the more people will realize that Kolto Infusion is very good. Any Operative that dismisses it is cutting themselves short in the end. This has happened because math thumpers have convinced people it has no place on our bars. People also will list all the reasons not to use it without ever trying to figure out how effective it can really be for themselves. For those of us that have used it effectively and skillfully we have one more tool on our belt than those that do not.

 

I say this because Alacrity also effects this heal. My Infusion currently sits at a cast time of 1.25s and can crit for 6k easily. Via the PvE set bonus. Also with no GC to wait for I can spam 3 back to back to back, blowing my wad essentially in order to save the raid from a wipe. Also what about an Injection for crit plus an Infusion crit thats a HUGE heal in a pinch that KI/SP cannot hope to achieve effectively. The disregard has gotten so bad that many people take the PvP set bonus over the PvE bonus. For a mere 5 energy, which becomes useless once you dip below the top regen rates. However Infusion crits ALOT and is always there. Maybe it was less useful prior to being able to stack 3 TA's but no longer.

 

Alas, there is more. Alacrity also effects DS. Many people will say if you DS all the time your doing something wrong or your energy control is poor. Not true again. In fact one of the most effective rotations I have found is Injection-DS-Infusion-DS-Injection-DS-Infusion-DS on and on and on. You can do this inifinately and never run out of energy or even dip below the top regen rate. So, from my perspective Alacrity increased not only Hps over Surge past 250-300. It also effects 3 of our heals. Thats half of them.

 

What about our HoTs? Indeed Nano is great and effective and so are our KP's. However, again they really don't seem to help alot in more difficult content. Everyone will say you have to keep hots rolling to keep TA's up. Well, that is true and one method. But there are many ways to skin a cat. Sometimes it's just not worth the energy spent, especially on the tanks, to use the KP's. I'd rather hit them with an Injection than DS, and fit Hots in when I can and they are most applicable. Depending on circumstances of course. In fact I find Hots to be more effective on raid healing more so than tanks.

 

My long winded point is this. Our raid group currently heals with 2 Ops. We have never had any healing issues. I have healed all kinds of combinations of raid groups. Both Ops use pretty much the same min/max strats. Our numbers are very similar. If people contend there is one "best" way because of math and testing in a bubble than it stiffles the growth and exploration of the tiny details of the Operative class in healing. I have well over 2k Cunning ( way more than enough ) so I use all Overkill Augs. However many will tell you to go Cunning anyways, regardless if guys like me are performing above standards without them.

 

You have to focus on what works best for you and the raid encounters and group. Tweak things as you go. Make changes, try new things. Don't be afraid to go against the grain, you may find that doing just that will provide you with your best performances. I used to love me some Surge and Crit, but after much tweaking I have settled on a more balanced strat and it works great for me. I have never been a big math guy, I prefer to get my hands dirty and see how things really apply when all hell is breaking loose. Then you will have your "true" answers of what works best.

 

I know I went around the mulberry bush a bit here but I enjoy it. With MMO Mechanics barely having a pulse it's nice to see people discussing things here with our class. Good luck out there, cheers.

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The disregard has gotten so bad that many people take the PvP set bonus over the PvE bonus. For a mere 5 energy, which becomes useless once you dip below the top regen rates.

 

You're mixing up set bonuses.

The pvp FOURSET is +5 energy.

The pvp TWOSET is +15% healing on recuperative nanotech. This is the one people pick up. You can see why it works well with the pve 2-set I assume?

 

RN is in almost every fight going to heal more than your kolto infusion. Much more generally when used on cd.

 

Assuming 75% surge w/ accomplished doctor then a 15% crit rate for kolto inf is close to a 15% healing done on average. It's a little more than that but for simplicities sake we'll say it is.

 

Basically the pvp 2-set will provide more healing on average AND provides it statically rather than on a random chance.

 

As for cunning/overkill augs, the difference is so small no one who has looked into the maths gives a **** what you stack. That said in pure hps numbers cunning is going to win even at cunning levels in the 2500's. I don't even know why you brought those up but there you are.

Edited by CaptainApop
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