BH Bodyguard post 50 equipping

[MournelitheCalix]

I was hoping others on the board are having more luck with this class than I and would be willing to share their wisdom.  My problem is I am having trouble healing hard mode instances.  Simply put I can't keep up with the damage done.  I thought my problem was simply the wrong focus in mods.  To that end I changed from power/ crit to crit / surge hoping to get better results.  While I sometimes now hit 4k,  my non crit has went to a paltry 1.6 k which has caused me to fall further behind.  Any ideas?

Just as an FYI I am full bodyguard with 10 in the middle tree.

[Nebu]

Check out THIS THREAD.  It's a known issue.  If you want to run Hard mode flashpoints and don't have a VERY well geared tank, you're going to need a sorc to heal.  My guild has been running hard modes for over two weeks now and our Merc healer gave up his heal spec in favor of dps.  He just couldn't heal some of the encounters no matter how well he played.  Sorcs have a better healing mechanic and a larger power pool. 

[Merusk]

The way stats work, my understanding is you'd want to pump power as high as possible to raise the floor throughput of abilities.  Actual crit doesn't matter for most MMO healing unless you've got abilities that trigger off of it to save you resources.  

Pumping surge seems like it would be pointless as it only pumps critical heals, not your base heals.

What about Tech Rating?  Does that affect Bodyguard heal abilities?

What you could be running in to is that the class just isn't a power healer.  I don't know for certain, not having played a healing spec. I heard sorcs are the hotness for PVP healing; it could be they're the same for PVE.

Fakeed:  Just found this post.  Looks like you'd want to pump Aim, then Power and Tech rating.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=70055

Bonus Healing:
Aim Stat: 7.14 : 1 (Healing point)
Power Stat: 5.8 : 1 (Healing point)
Tech Power: 5.88 : 1 (Healing point)

[Sky]

If you want to run Hard mode flashpoints and don't have a VERY well geared tank, you're going to need a sorc to heal.

Furi asked me yesterday what my plans for 50 were. I'm not even going to bother with hard mode flashpoints because my gear is so completely awful. The amount of RE and gathering I'm going to have to do just to get a set of purple crafted tank heavy crosses my grind line. So I'll play out the rest of the quest lines and work on alts.

Tried some pvp, though I find it passingly fun, the amount of grind again crosses the line when considering fully gearing from it.

Operations, see hard mode FPs.

[Nebu]

Furi asked me yesterday what my plans for 50 were. I'm not even going to bother with hard mode flashpoints because my gear is so completely awful. The amount of RE and gathering I'm going to have to do just to get a set of purple crafted tank heavy crosses my grind line. So I'll play out the rest of the quest lines and work on alts.

Tried some pvp, though I find it passingly fun, the amount of grind again crosses the line when considering fully gearing from it.

Operations, see hard mode FPs.

Do the PvP dailies and weeklies.  If you get to Ilum before the patch, you can easily complete the daily/weekly and that's 4 champ bags.  If you can get a few pieces of epic pvp gear, it will be enough to do the lower tier hard mode flashpoints with no problem.  Just learn the tricks of the bosses and make sure that you have good mods in your orange gear and you'll be fine.

[01101010]

Do the PvP dailies and weeklies.  If you get to Ilum before the patch, you can easily complete the daily/weekly and that's 4 champ bags.  If you can get a few pieces of epic pvp gear, it will be enough to do the lower tier hard mode flashpoints with no problem.  Just learn the tricks of the bosses and make sure that you have good mods in your orange gear and you'll be fine.

And what about those of us who find PvP in an MMO pointless? What's the other avenue to explore here?

[Nebu]

Fill your orange gear with purple mods from the Global Market.  That should be plenty to start doing the hardmodes in the order which you ran the flashpoints leveling.  You'll see where your limit is quickly and can just farm the first few for the pve dailies/weekies until you are geared for the later flashpoints.

[01101010]

Fill your orange gear with purple mods from the Global Market.  That should be plenty to start doing the hardmodes in the order which you ran the flashpoints leveling.  You'll see where your limit is quickly and can just farm the first few for the pve dailies/weekies until you are geared for the later flashpoints.

Cool... I like options. I am making my mods/armoring for the OJ pieces I have. Just waiting on that shmuck Zenith to crit underworld a few more times.

[Nebu]

You can gear up entirely by pve.  I enjoy pvp and found that way much more appealing.  I'm sorry if it sounded like I was claiming that to be the best way... it was more of a personal preference.

I forgot to mention: Do Ilum dailies.  They pay well and provide commendations for some nice mods. 

[Ingmar]

And in case it was not clear (it wasn't to me until I went there) the dailies on Ilum don't flag you for PVP. Belsavis also has a set of max-level dailies (doing the bonus series will lead you to them) so you can increase your commendation income there as well.

[01101010]

And in case it was not clear (it wasn't to me until I went there) the dailies on Ilum don't flag you for PVP. Belsavis also has a set of max-level dailies (doing the bonus series will lead you to them) so you can increase your commendation income there as well.

But Corellia has all the shit I WANT TO BUY! Literally everything on the comms equip vendor on that planet I want for me and my army.

[Ingmar]

The commendations you get from the Belsavis dailies are "Daily Commendations" like the ones from Ilum. Purple armoring/barrel/hilt mods that are one level above the best crafted for 8 mods, and implants/earpieces for 120.

I think you can get more Corellia commendations by doing dailies associated with flashpoints of that level? And repeating heroics probably.

[01101010]

The commendations you get from the Belsavis dailies are "Daily Commendations" like the ones from Ilum. Purple armoring/barrel/hilt mods that are one level above the best crafted for 8 mods, and implants/earpieces for 120.

I think you can get more Corellia commendations by doing dailies associated with flashpoints of that level? And repeating heroics probably.

Fuck pugs... no way in hell am I running around with that rabble. 1 lvl above my precious cybertech parts? The wtf am I doing waiting on Zenith to make me shit? Christ, why did I do Cyberteching in the first place?!? 

[Ingmar]

Yeah it is pretty annoying. I'm doing it anyway because... I don't know why. I just want to kit all my dudes out in shit I made for whatever reason.

[Sky]

It would be nice if there were a concise way to even see what options were available at 50. I'm a crafter, I'd assume I'd do crafting.

I only found out about the pvp dailies here.

[Ginaz]

I've done two hard mode FP's, Black Tallon both times and same people both times.  The tank (BH) and healer (SI) were both fairly well geared (multiple purpz, looked like from pvp) and we had pretty smooth runs with only 1 wipe each time.  That being said, the healer was often just barely able to keep the tank alive on some of the bosses and the tank was getting hit hard, esp. on the last Jedi boss.  I would definately outfit yourself with as many pieces of orange moddable gear as you can before you attempt any HM FP because greens and low 40's blues aren't going to cut it, even for dps.  My BH has almost all orange gear with 49 blue mods and I had to really step up the pace on the boss fights before the enrage timer hit.  

On a side note, I did manage to win the roll both times for the crafting material that drops from bosses in the HM FP and now have the lvl 50 purple waist and wrist armor.

[Azuredream]

Level 50 PvE gearing options..

The lowest stuff is from Corellia commendations and the regular mode 50 flashpoints (battle for Ilum, False Emperor, Directive 7)
You can get epic level 50 enhancements, mods, and armoring from the group dailies on Belsavis and Ilum.
The daily commendations can be traded in for epic level 51 enhancements, mods, armoring, hilts, and barrels.
The hard mode flashpoints give you Tionese commendations and drop Tionese level gear, except for the final boss token drop, which gives you a columi level piece of gear. On Empire side, Black Talon drops bracers, Boarding Party drops gloves, Foundry drops boots, Directive 7 drops leggings, Battle for Ilum drops offhand, and False Emperor drops the chest piece. For whatever reason, the helm is in the Palace raid though since the patch I have no idea.
The operations I am not so sure on, they give Columi commendations and drop mostly Columi level stuff but I'm sure Rakata stuff drops from some of them. I'm pretty sure there is no distinction in the quality of gear from normal to hard mode, but hard mode drops more stuff. Stuff drops on a per member basis, but Alloys/Recipes drop to the raid at large.
It goes Tionese(51)<Columi(56)<Rakata(58), with the Rakata stuff having mods/enhancements that list as level 58 and have the best stats. You can get implants/earpieces from Daily commendations that are of this caliber, and the Armormech/Synthweaving only stuff is also on this level. The Biometric Crystal Alloy you need to make them is dropped from the final boss in HM Flashpoints and drops in operations as well. They can crit just like anything else and critted Rakata gear is the best in game hands down.

Some of this is bound to be wrong and it'd be nice if someone could fix anything that's incorrect.

[Ingmar]

Level 50 PvE gearing options..
The daily commendations can be traded in for epic level 51 enhancements, mods, armoring, hilts, and barrels.

Some of this is bound to be wrong and it'd be nice if someone could fix anything that's incorrect.

This bit is partly wrong. You can only trade the daily commendations in for armoring, hilts and barrels mod-wise (8 commendations per). Enhancements and Modifications come from doing the daily Heroic 2s on Belsavis and Ilum (one each, Ilum is enhancements, Belsavis is mods.) You *can* also trade the daily commendations in for implants and earpieces, 120 commendations each.

[Pezzle]

Wait, the only market for top cybertech are the people who do not want to run daily quests?

[Nebu]

Wait, the only market for top cybertech are the people who do not want to run daily quests?

Pretty much.  Crafting other than biochem is worthless unless you are able to get the drop recipes and reagents from raids.

[Zetor]

Well, cybertechs make the top-end ship parts still... but yeah. Maybe they could make speeders made by cybertechs non-BOP?

[Nebu]

Well, cybertechs make the top-end ship parts still... but yeah. Maybe they could make speeders made by cybertechs non-BOP?

While they're at it, how about make them cool looking too.  Some of those crafted speeders look like a lawnmower on steroids.

[Pezzle]

I have all 3.  The first one looks bad (and brown) .  The second one is at least reasonable.  The third I cannot actually see yet but the mini picture of it does not look promising.  Why they are bind on creation I cannot fathom.  People would not buy them for looks anyway. 

Giving each craft desirable consumables seems like it would be easy enough.  Armor and weapon could get repair kits and various buff consumables. Artificers could get color stuff and other buffs (maybe even buffs for crafting!).  Cybertech could get transport and party gadgets. 

Not having consumables at this stage I can forgive.  The lack of consumables AND no legitimate market because of all the existing rewards that are equal to or better than what you can make?  Not so much.

[Sky]

no legitimate market because of all the existing rewards that are equal to or better than what you can make?  Not so much.

Not really true in the leveling game if you're not into the mmo activities. There might be some better loot from pvp or FPs, but crafting purples is the best loot I saw from 1-41 (when RE broke for me).

Right or wrong, I think they are banking more on folks like me who hit the cap and roll an alt rather than grind dailies and raid. Why grind the same content ad nauseum for gear to grind harder content ad nauseum (add loop here) when I can go experience another class storyt?

Hell, if it weren't for xmas vacation, I wouldn't be 50 on Komoto yet.

[Pezzle]

Not sure I can fully buy into that Sky, but opinions do vary.

As for the alt thing?  Sure your core story will be different but everything around it is exactly the same.  Running through the same areas with an alt is just about as grindy as your daily quest thing to me.  I suppose you can stick to the core story stuff.  If you do that what are the chances you are shopping to keep your gear as current as possible?

Class story is good but it is only a fraction of the game. 

And no, I do not think players should be forced to go to crafters for viability.  I do think that crafters need a bigger market from either consumables or some other form of sustained desirability.  So much of what I can make is given out as rewards it makes finding a market difficult.  I have been working on my blue mod catalog.  Once I have a decent stock they can go to market and I will let everyone know how that works out.

You know what I need?  Crystals, Barrels and likely a Hilt (not that I can find an orange Techblade, stupid Vik)

[Ingmar]

While there won't be a huge market for armoring mods, there's still something of a market for modifications, since you can't get mods from quest rewards except ones for your particular stat combination, so anyone (besides troopers, who use aim/end on every companion) might want to buy them for companions. But, there's probably not going to be a big price premium on that.

Also supposedly there are raid-drop recipes for better mods of various sorts. Remains to be seen if we'll ever raid of course.

[Pezzle]

More people are hitting 50.  I see no issues with doing a raid sometimes!

[Ingmar]

By the way, there are no orange techblades (because there are no aim hilts.) Or maybe that's the other way around cause/effect-wise, but in any case, no orange techblades.

[Pezzle]

WTF.

I suppose this is what we get.  Didn't they invent the techblade at the near end of Beta or was that just switching Qyzen to piss me off?

[Ingmar]

As best I can tell it is a consequence of them wanting to have melee companions in heavy armor that don't wear Jedi-looking gear. All the other heavy armor is aim, so they needed to add a melee weapon that used aim, but they didn't want to add a mod type that ONLY companions would use. Bowdarr, that furry yeti guy, and Khem don't display their armor so they get to use strength, I think all the other heavy armor/melee people (Qyzen, Vik, Akavi, etc.) use techblades.

[Fordel]

I want to say you can blame all the +Aim melee weapons on the two Trooper Companions that use them. The two companions actual troopers pretty much never use themselves.  


-fake edit- Ingmar beat me to it.

[Pezzle]

That is so dumb.  Why would people be angry about companion only mods when there is companion only gear?  

[kildorn]

That is so dumb.  Why would people be angry about companion only mods when there is companion only gear?  

It cuts down on the useless drops imo, but the companion gear will also cover techblades.

There's just a sad gap where there is no need for an orange con techblade, or the mods needed to make it function. Which imo makes techblade using companions far less attractive.

[Pezzle]

That is so dumb.  Why would people be angry about companion only mods when there is companion only gear?  

It cuts down on the useless drops imo, but the companion gear will also cover techblades.

There's just a sad gap where there is no need for an orange con techblade, or the mods needed to make it function. Which imo makes techblade using companions far less attractive.

Except the drops are not useless, just useless to you?  By that logic why do I get Jedi or Smuggler drops?  There should be gear available for all the combos.  And it could be offered as quest rewards (so, you know, tailored to your class).  Plus, by having a broader system now it makes it easier later when you have more companions or expanded player class abilities.  There really is no good reason for the exclusion.

[kildorn]

That is so dumb.  Why would people be angry about companion only mods when there is companion only gear?  

It cuts down on the useless drops imo, but the companion gear will also cover techblades.

There's just a sad gap where there is no need for an orange con techblade, or the mods needed to make it function. Which imo makes techblade using companions far less attractive.

Except the drops are not useless, just useless to you?  By that logic why do I get Jedi or Smuggler drops?  There should be gear available for all the combos.  And it could be offered as quest rewards (so, you know, tailored to your class).  Plus, by having a broader system now it makes it easier later when you have more companions or expanded player class abilities.  There really is no good reason for the exclusion.

Useless drop: "We have one of every class in this raid! And look, the last three drops due to the RNG aren't usable by any of them"

Companion-only items are only awarded via quest that I've seen. Never drops. I've never had a drop for say, Elara while I'm playing my smuggler off somewhere.

A +Aim hilt would be usable by what, 3-4 companions across both sides? It's annoying enough when you get 3 sniper rifle drops in a row on republic side and don't have anyone who uses sniper rifles.

As for quest rewards: there are blue con tech blades as quest rewards.

It would be nice if there were mods for every stat, but personally I'd suggest they rethink the companion in question's gear instead (Hell, both trooper melee companions are seen the entire run up to getting them using a rifle at all times.. You get them and suddenly they can't even wear them)