The Republic Trooper – Commando Healing

Hello all and welcome to another guide by myself, Elicas. This is my guide for Commando healing. I’m hoping to make this guide the ”go to” guide for all things Commando PvE, from healing your first instance to healing the MT at the latest raid boss. This guide will include which companions you can get, what their specialisations are, where to get them and also what crew skills work well for a Commando. I will not however, include any hidden companions or anything about the Story Arc. I’m not here to ruin you’re enjoyment of the game, there are no spoilers ahead!

TR Primary Stats 
The Primary Stats for all Commandos are Aim and Endurance, which increase damage, healing and Health. Aim gives 0.2 ranged damage and healing while Endurance gives 10 HP per point. Aim will always give + Ranged Damage and + Tech Damage, so a TR will never need to gear for +Tech specifically.

TR Secondary Stats are:

• Presence – Boosts companion health, damage and healing.
• Tech Power – Found on weapons, increases Tech damage and healing but not Ranged damage.
• Accuracy – Gives +hit and gives armour penetration when over 100%.
• Crit – Gives Ranged and Tech critical chance.
• Surge – Increased critical damage.
• Armour – Reduces physical and kinetic damage (all Tech and Force powers unless otherwise specified are Kinetic)
• Defense – Increases Parry/Deflect.
• Shield – Increases chance to be shielded on attack
• Absorption – Increases the % of damage shaved off shielded attacks
• Alacrity – Cast/channel Haste The most important of these will depend on what you currently have the most of.

For a Commando main healing in PvE, the single most important stats are Aim and Tech Power. Having plenty of crit is also a must as this allows Commandos to keep the 5% Alacrity buff up at nearly all times. This can really mean the difference between landing a heal before someone dies, and being that 0.1 second too slow. Even at low levels, it’s minimum contribution is 0.1 seconds off of every cast.

Each stat needs to be thought of as a tool for a different job. The same way you wouldn’t use a wrench to bang in nails, a healer needs to select the appropriate tool for the job that is being done. This is where playstyle and raid composition come into play. Priority on stats is also subject to the rule of diminishing returns (DR). What this means is that at a certain amount of a secondary stat, incremental gains begin to diminish at an increasing rate. Thus a good Commando healer will want to maintain a certain balance between Crit, Surge and Alacrity.

The stats that each Commando gear for will depend on their raid role or instance role. What this means is that different Com’s with the same spec, will gear in very different ways. A Commando who is always main healing the tank or flashpoints will want to a high level of Surge and Crit, allowing them to use Hammer Shot the maximum number of times between having to use heals. Heals will be bigger but slower. A Commando who is raid healing however, will want a higher amount of Alacrity, allowing them to get off smaller but faster heals to more numerous targets. Either way, Crit will be Com’s most important secondary stat until DR is reached, due to it proccing the 5% Alacrity buff talent. This will help in getting our main heal down to the 1.5 second GCD cut off point.

The basic cookie cutter healing build currently available 31/8/2. The two points in Heavy Stock are in fact 4% bonus Alacrity in game. This spec hit’s all the major points from the Combat Medic tree, allowing for a healing ‘rotation’ to be set up. This ‘rotation’ is the optimum way to heal a single target being hit by predictable damage.

From 12 ammo, this rotation will finish with you back at 12 ammo, never dropping below maximum ammo regeneration. This healing rotation will usually be enough to keep most main tanks alive through Heroic 4, Flashpoints and hardmode Flashpoints. Note that when keeping on top of healing, the second MP can be changed to Charged Bolts and the two Hammer Shots can be used against an enemy target and still build CSC charges. This will usually happen most when vastly outgearing content. This is an effective way to complete H2 content with the M1-4X companion tanking.

This is also a very effective way of quickly building to 30 charges of CSC. Rather than blowing SCC every time it comes available at 30 charges, the most effective way to use SupC is to wait until your tank is hit by a large damage spike. Pop SupC, KB, then alternate AMP and MP until SCC runs out. Then return to your ‘rotation’.

However, a large amount of content cannot be simply healed by following one set rotation. This is where Commando’s take into account our HPS and HPA to create a priority list of healing. (see section below for maths and equations) This is as follows:

Even though Kolto Bomb has the lowest healing score and should be placed lowest on the priority list, it is in actuality placed highest when it is used to apply the healing buff, then placed lowest for healing. It is also worth noting that the above rotation can be ‘delayed’ due to the amount of damage incomming on the target your healing. It is inefficient to keep spamming this when nobody is taking damage for example, that’s just a waste of time and resources. As long as the Kolto Bomb buff is kept up and the FT buff is used within 15 seconds of AMP, it doesn’t matter which order you use your skills in if everyone stays alive. A more typical snapshot of a portion of combat would look something along the lines of:

Operation and group healing as also very different to healing a single target. While in Operations a Commando healer will most likely be the Main Tank healer, there will be times where they will have to raid heal. At these times, it becomes a case of good SCC management. Getting to 30 charges, using SCC and then using AMP on as many targets as possible before the SCC buff runs out, while using the FT proc to heal the MT if they go too low. Distributing KB’s around the raid during SCC can also make the difference between a kill and a wipe, due to the added shield effect.

A quick note on Recharge Cells usage: with this spec, try to always use RC when down to 3-4 cells. This will put you straight back into the maximum regeneration zone.

This spec is most likely not optimal for PvP, though it does seem to perform well. As I know very little about PvP I shall refrain from writing about it, instead I shall just provide a screenshot of what I’ve done with this spec, at level 20, and let you figure out whether or not it can work for you. I have used this spec for all leveling since level 10.

This section shows the mathematics behind Heals per Second (HPS) and Heals per Ammo (HPA), as well as showing how they are calculated into an effective Priority List.

Calculation of HPS and HPA is a rather simple affair. Using the following formulas:

To calculate your Average Heal, take the lowest possible heal and the highest possible heal and find the mid point value between them. In the case of an ability like AMP add the HoT component as well. The following maths is taken from a level 50 Trooper, who is completely naked. These are using pure, top level ability costs. It is displayed as “Minimum heal-Maximum heal = A / C = HPS”.

• Advanced Medical Probe – 551-810+185 = 865.5 / 1.5 = 577 HPS
• Medical Probe – 854-1123 = 988.5 / 2 = 494.25 HPS
• Bacta Infusion – 560-917 = 738.5 / 1.5 = 492.33 HPS (0 cast time, but 1.5 second GCD)
• Trauma Probe 94-108*10 = 1010 / 1.5 = 673.33 HPS (0 cast time, but 1.5 second GCD. Healing not upfront but over a minimum of 30 seconds)
• Kolto Bomb 116-218 = 167 / 1.5 = 111.33 HPS (0 cast time, but 1.5 second GCD. Healing is per person hit up to maximum of three for 334 HPS.)

Now to calculate the HPA using ”Minimum heal-Maximum heal =A / Am = HPA”.

• Advanced Medical Probe – 551-810+185 = 865.5 / 2 = 432.75 HPA
• Medical Probe – 854-1123 = 988.5 / 3 = 329.5 HPA  854-1123 = 988.5 / 1 = 988.5 (field Triage Proc)
• Bacta Infusion – 560-917 = 738.5 / 0 = 738.5 HPA (0 ammo cost)
• Trauma Probe 94-108*10 = 1010 / 0 = 1010 HPA (0 ammo cost)
• Kolto Bomb 116-218 = 167 / 2 = 83.5 HPA (Healing is per person hit up to maximum of three for 250 HPA.)

All of the above calculations are subject to change due to the amount of gear that you have. Inputting your own numbers into these equations will give you your own list. With this list complete, add the HPS and HPA together, the total of this being the abilities place on the priority list, going in descending order.

• TP – 673.33 HPS + 1010 HPA = 1683.33
• MP FT proc – 494.25 HPS + 988.5 HPA = 1482.75
• BI – 492.33 HPS + 738.5 HPA = 1230.83
• AMP – 577 HPS + 432.75 HPA = 1009.75
• MP – 494.25 HPS + 329.5 HPA = 823.75
• KB – 111.33 HPS + 83.5 HPA = 194.83 (one target) 334 HPS + 250 HPA = 584 (three targets)

Troopers get a wide variety of companions throughout the course of their Story. There are a variety of  healers, tanks and several dps companions. Below is listed where we get them (but not how to get them) what their specialities are and any crew skill bonuses they might have.

Aric Jorgan – Ord Mantell
Combat Style: Ranged DPS
Armor: Heavy
Weapon type: Assault Cannon
Starting Kit: Concussion Round
Crew Skills: +10 Armstech Efficiency, +2 Diplomacy Critical

Tanno Vik – Balmorra
Combat Style: Melee Tank
Armor: Heavy
Weapon type: Rifle
Starting Kit: N/A
Crew Skills: +5 Critical Armourmech, +1 Critical Underworld Trading

M1-4X – Nar Shaddaa
Combat Style: Ranged DPS
Armor: Heavy
Starting Kit: Flamethrower
Crew Skills: +5 Cybertech, +5 Critical Scavenging
 

Elara Dorne – Taris
Combat Style: Ranged Healer
Armor: Heavy
Weapon type: Blaster Pistol
Starting Kit: Medpack
Crew Skill: +10 Biochem Efficiency, +10 Bioanalysis Efficiency

Yuun – Hoth
Combat Style: Melee DPS
Armor: Heavy
Weapon type: Electrostaff
Crew Skills: +10 Research, +10 Slicing Efficiency
 

C2-N2 – BT-7  Thunderclap
C2-N2 is the Droid that comes with your personal ship, the BT-7 Thunderclap. He is a non-combat companion. This means that while he can be taken into the world and used to heal you, he doesn’t have any damaging spells or abilities. The best usage of the C2-N2 driod is as a crafter/mission runner.

Professions for the TR come down to a choice in whether weapons, armour or healing kits and raid stims are required. There are four main crafting professions that work well with the TR. These are:

• Armourmech – Crafting of Medium/Heavy armour for non force users.
• Armstech – Crafting of Blaster Rifles and Pistols, as well as Weapon Mods.
• Biochem – Consumables and Implants.
• Cybertech – Droid components and Armour Mods.

Certain resource collection skills work well with each of the above. Each crafting crew skill has a gathering skill and a mission skill that compliments it. Each crafting skill has a skill that is labelled as ‘primary’. This means they will gather the items most useful for that crafting skill. Each crafting skill has the possibility of having a secondary skill. Secondary skills gather items that can be used to level the main crafting skill, but aren’t necessarily only for that crafting skill.

• Armourmech – Scavenging primary and Underworld Trading secondary.
• Armstech – Scavenging primary and Investigation secondary.
• Biochem – Bioanalysis primary and Diplomacy secondary.
• Cybertech – Scavenging primary and Underworld Trading secondary.

Personally, I have chosen Slicing, Bioanalysis and Biochem. This allows me to maintain a positive credit balance, whilst selling lot’s of mats on the GTN as well as keeping my guildmates stocked with useful stims, implants and med packs.