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Last Updated: 5/31/21
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Overview
About the Class
About the Class
Commando Combat Medics are a very well balanced healing class. They do strong AoE healing through a channelled smart heal and a low-cooldown small AoE heal, combined with very strong burst healing windows once every 20-30 seconds. When added to their very strong defensives, good mobility, and great utilities, Commandos can hold their own in any situation. Also, Commandos are the best choice in a raid group if doubling up on healers from the same class, as they can flex to AoE or single target healing much more easily than Sage or Scoundrel healers. Their main downside is the ease with which energy management can be stressed.
Utility and Mobility
Utility and Mobility
Commandos have strong mobility through Hold the Line and Propulsion Round, especially if Hold the Line is buffed via utilities.
Survivability
Survivability
Commandos have great survivability. Except for classes that include a tank discipline, they are the only DPS class that wears heavy armor. As a class with a healing discipline, they possess good off healing capability for emergencies. They also possess a wide range of useful defensive abilities that include a straight buff to DR, an emergency sustained self heal and a powerful reflect.
Role in Operations
Role in Operations
Commando Combat Medic is a healer class so should be focused on anticipating damage to maintain high health levels. Combat Medic is strongest at burst single target healing and supplementing AoE heals, so ideally they should take primary responsibility for healing the tank with aggro and helping out with AoE on the side.
6.1.2 Impact on Discipline
6.1.2 Impact on Discipline
Commando enjoyed status as the strongest healer beginning in 6.0 (and some would say prior to 6.0 as well). In path 6.1.1, the discipline was buffed to address issues with being underpowered in leveling, which had the effect of buffing the endgame healer even further. As a result, from 6.1.1 until 6.1.2 Commando healing was by far the best healer and probably the most imbalanced healing meta in my memory of the game.
Enter 6.1.2 and some pretty dramatic changes. Concentrated Fire was previously the BIS choice for healers due to its +10% critical chance buff. The crit chance was dropped in favor of a much weaker buff, so the set will now only be a good "off DPS" choice to provide buffs to healing while also buffing healer off-DPS in progression situations. Tech Medic emerges as the solid favorite as the new BIS set bonus due to its new 6-piece bonus that makes Med Shot apply an 18s HoT that heals for around the same as Kolto Bomb and can be applied to multiple targets. Even more importantly, Rocket Fuel Vapors was severely nerfed from granting up to 8 Supercharge per use of Kolto Bomb to instead granting one extra tick of Kolto Pods (Kolto Bomb's HoT) and a +5% buff to the ability's healing. Instead, the primary tactical choices will involve SC-4 Treatment Scanner (+5% Successive Treatment healing and up to 4 Supercharge over its channel) for sustained healing and more frequent Supercharge Cell windows or Running Restoration (+15% Advanced Medical Probe healing and can be cast on the move) to provide more powerful Supercharge Cell windows and better mobility.
So what's the bottom line? Combat Medic Commando got a severe nerf by losing its high uptime on +10% critical chance and losing the nearly constant uptime on Supercharged Cell from the Rocket Fuel Vapors tactical. The good news is that the discipline was so powerful that the discipline should still be quite good (and maybe even still the best healer on many fights) just not head and shoulders above the other healer disciplines.
The main consideration for Commando healers to adjust to the new balancing is to get used less uptime on Supercharged Cell and its impact on both tougher energy management and reduced burst healing. I think the "sky is falling" and "RIP Commando, time to re-roll Scoundrel/Sage" comments are way overblown and the discipline will be just fine after a little bit of adjustment in playstyle.
Utilities
Utilities
I usually take some combination of the following Utilities, though the optimal combination can change from fight to fight. As of 6.0, the tiers have been reorganized.
Skillfull Tier
Skillfull Tier
You must take 3 to advanced to Masterful.
Cell Capacitor - Recharge Cells now immediately recharges 15 additional cells and grants 10% alacrity for 6 seconds.
Must take, more energy = more healing.
Parallactic Combat Stim - You recharge 20 cells when stunned, immobilized, knocked down or otherwise incapacitated. Also, when incapacitated, your next Tech ability deals 10% damage or healing. This effect lasts for 15 seconds.
Situational, used for fights with lots of stuns or knockbacks as it will significantly increase DPS by using more high-energy high damage fillers. Given the lack of good choices in Skillful, I would nearly always take this utility.
Suit FOE - Increases stealth detection, melee and ranged defense by 3% and reduces the cooldown of Stealth Scan by 5 seconds. Also, when you activate Field Aid on yourself, all periodic damage taken is reduced by 30% for 12 seconds.
Not a utility I would have taken in 5.X, in 6.0 it remains the best available option to provide some highly situational damage mitigation from DoTs.
Masterful Tier
Masterful Tier
You must take 6 between Heroic and Masterful.
Overclock - Reduces the cooldowns of Concussive Round and Tech Override by 15 seconds each. Also, Tech Override grants a second charge, making your next two abilities with an activation time activate instantly.
A very useful utility for Commando healers. Using Tech Override during a Supercharged Cell window enables not only one extra instant cast of Advanced Medical Probe but due to its cast time being longer than a GCD, the instant cast enables you to get more healing output overall while also being more mobile.
Advance the Line - Increase the duration of Hold the Line by 4 seconds.
I usually take it as a longer duration for Hold the Line grants significant extra movement speed in fights and can be very helpful on many fights.
Reflexive Shield - When you take damage, the active cooldown of Reactive Shield is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1. Seconds. Also, when taking damage, you have a 20% chance to emit an Energy Redoubt which absorbs a low amount of damage and lasts 6 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.
Frequently take, this can drastically reduce the cooldown on a key defensive.
Charged Barrier - Charged Bolts , Grav Round, and Medical Probe build a Charged Barrier that reduces damage taken by 1% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
I usually take, a good utility that will grant you 5% extra DR for the majority of most boss fights, helping survivability. I always take for any fights where Advance the Line is not needed.
Electro Shield - When activated, your Reactive Shield charges with electricity, zapping attackers for elemental damage when they deal direct damage to you. This effect cannot occur more than once each second.
Situational, there are some fights where this utility would be useful and preferred over Charged Barrier.
Heroic Tier
Heroic Tier
A maximum of 3 utilities
Forced March - Allows Full Auto, Boltstorm, and Successive Treatment to be activated while moving.
Always take, being able to channel on the move is a massive boost to your mobility and is the most essential utility for this class.
Shock Absorbers - Reduces damage taken from area effects by 30%. Also, while stunned, you take 30% less damage from all sources.
Must take, 30% AOE and stun damage reduction is massive.
Adrenal Surge - Adrenal Rush triggers at, and can heal you up to, 60% of your maximum health. Also, Adrenal Rush lasts 2 seconds longer and heals for twice as much each time it restores health.
I usually take, I love this utility for any operation with lots of raid-wide damage. If you get low on health but the healers are swamped and trying to burst-heal a tank to keep them alive, then as long as you don’t eat any big damage spikes you don’t need any heals for 12 seconds (and generally will still be in decent 50-60% health after 12s). When used with skill, this makes Adrenal Rush a HUGE survivability boost over its existing capabilities. Absent an enrage or other high damage AoE or mechanic, I never die when I hit Adrenal Rush with this utility.
Trauma Stabilizers - While Reactive Shield is active, you generate a stack of Trauma Stabilizers each time you receive direct damage. Stacks up to 10 times. When Reactive Shield expires, each stack of Trauma Stabilizers instantly heals you for 4% of your maximum health.
Don’t usually take as while a 40% potential heal sounds nice, you need Reflexive Shield for this to be meaningful and Shock Absorbers will usually reduce your damage taken by more than this utility will heal you.
Example Utility Build
Example Utility Build
Here is what I run for most encounters, though I frequently take other situational utilities for specific fights.
Key Passives
Key Passives
Emergency Responders - Eliminates the energy cost of Bacta Infusion. In addition, activating Bacta Infusion grants Emergency Response, which makes your next Advanced Medical Probe activate instantly. Lasts 15 seconds.
Makes Bacta Infusion your only free heal apart from your basic Med Shot ability. Its effectiveness is limited by its lengthy cooldown, but should generally be used on cooldown and paired with Advanced Medical Probe to provide a powerful single target burst heal.
Kolto Residue - Kolto Bomb leaves a residue on up to 8 enemies in its area of impact, reducing movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. Also, Advanced Medical Probe grants Invigorated to its target, increasing healing received by 3% for 45 seconds.
The slow is largely meaningless in PVE. The Invigorated buff from Advanced Medical Probe is a helpful buff and skilled healers should endeavor to keep this buff on all targets taking regular damage. Spam of Advanced Medical Probe during Supercharged Cell should be sufficient to guarantee this effect.
Potent Medicine - Increases the critical healing bonus of all heals by 5% and causes Medical Probe to generate an extra stack of Supercharge when activated. Also, the effects of your Supercharged Cell are modified.
This passive is key in that Medical Probe - despite its filler status - is your most effective ability to generate Supercharge due to it doubling up on stacks.
Field Triage - Activating Medical Probe grants a charge of Field Triage, which reduces the cost of your next Advanced Medical Probe by 5 energy cells. This effect can stack up to 3 charges.
This passive makes your Bacta Infusion and Advanced Medical Probe combo even more energy beneficial. Due to the cooldowns on both abilities (outside of Supercharged Cell), you will have used Medical Probe 3 times in between each use and thus have maximum stacks. As such, Bacta Infusion will only cost 5 energy cells while your base energy regeneration is 5 energy cells per second, thus the combo should be +10 in net energy.
Med Boosters - Reduces the energy cells depleted of Kolto Bomb by 5, and increases the critical heal chance of Trauma Probe by 5%. Also, Med Shot regenerates 1 energy cell when it normally heals and 2 energy cells when it critically heals.
This passive is notable primarily for the buff to Med Shot that enables it to actively regenerate energy in addition to any passive energy regeneration during that GCD. As you will see below in the rotation discussion, Combat Medics should anticipate periodic use of Med Shot due to this passive.
Preventative Medicine - Bacta Infusion applies Preventative Medicine to the target, healing for additional health over 9 seconds. Also, Successive Treatment grants the Protected effect to targets it heals, increasing their armor rating by 10% for 45 seconds.
This passive further buffs Bacta Infusion by applying a minor HoT to the target and granting a second helpful buff to the armor rating of friendly players.
Gearing in 6.0
Gearing in 6.0
Gearing Stat Allocation
Gearing Stat Allocation
Please see my Gearing Guide and Alacrity Guide for a detailed overview of gearing in 6.x in SWTOR.
For Combat Medic Commando, I gear as follows:
Set Bonus: Tech Medic (Concentrated Fire is an okay backup)
Tactical: Running Restoration or SC-4 Treatment Scanner (I prefer Running Restoration for my personal healing playstyle, but I swap to SC-4 Treatment Scanner for fights with above-average AoE damage and will occasionally run Rocket Fuel Vapors for very high AoE damage fights like Red)
Amplifiers: Medtech
Mods: Unlettered Lethal Mods
Relics: Devastating Vengeance & Primeval Fatesealer (Serendipitous Assault & Focused Retribution for Dxun/PVP)
Stim: Proficient
Adrenal: Critical (Triage for Dxun only)
For Combat Medic Commando, I allocate my tertiary stats as follows:
Accuracy: 264 (Heals don't miss! However I run a Proficient Stim in capped content so get some Accuracy, and may occasionally run a bit more Accuracy for a few prog fights like Revan where healers need to get an interrupt and want to avoid their interrupts missing.)
Alacrity: around 2,200, a secondary option is around 3,500 for high alacrity (at least 2,050 if the Zeal guild perk applies)
Critical: all remaining tertiary points go into Critical
Shield: None
Absorb: None
Set Bonus
Set Bonus
Tech Medic
Tech Medic
Increased drop rate from conquest crates.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Emergency Medical Probe becomes an instant-cast.
(6) Med Shot leaves Lasting Meds on its target, restoring health over 18 seconds.
Analysis:
Tech Medic was redesigned in patch 6.1.2. Combined with nerfs to Concentrated Fire (the previous healer set bonus of choice), it seems that the developers intended for Tech Medic to be the preferred healer set bonus.
The four piece set bonus is very slightly helpful for progression situations. An instant rez is better than a cast rez or having to burn a cooldown for an instant cast. I would prefer an actual healing buff but I have seen many situations in progression where a tank dies and the group wipes because the team was one GCD too slow in getting them revived. So cool though not really great.
The six piece set bonus adopts the old HP-5 Dart tactical benefit by letting your base heal apply a HoT. The HoT lasts a long time over 18 seconds and provides a heal that is fairly close to the heal by Kolto Bomb applied to each affected player. The HoT can be refreshed on one player such as a tank, or by rotating it among several players a healer can keep several Lasting Meds HoTs ticking at once.
The value of this set bonus is most important when viewed in context with the impact of changes to the Rocket Fuel Vapors tactical. Prior to 6.1.2, using Kolto Bomb on cooldown in a group would provide super high uptime on Supercharged Cell and its energy savings and healing buffs. In that situation, I found myself using Med Shot only very occasionally as I never really had energy issues.
Now I expect to see much more use of Med Shot. It should not need to be spammed given the discipline's energy cooldowns and still fairly frequent use of Supercharged Cell. That said, a Commando healer will likely need to use it semi-frequently anytime energy cooldowns are not available to stay energy positive.
Skillful players will likely look to keep Lasting Meds ticking on several targets at once by rotating their use of each Med Shot amongst 3-4 players. It is a far cry from the ticking HoTs from Scoundrel healers but between Trauma Probes on most players and Lasting Meds on several more, the Commando has more and better passive healing with Tech Medic than otherwise.
In comparison to the new Concentrated Fire set bonus, I think Tech Medic is a clear winner. Concentrated Fire offers the potential for more Supercharge but at an almost negligible level (see below for more discussion on that). The six piece is better to offer a guaranteed critical heal every Supercharged Cell, but as discussed below that is also a bit marginal because the Bacta Infusion could crit anyway. Tech Medic offers a guaranteed sustained healing increase.
Impact on Rotation:
Med Shot will need to be used anyway in the rotation and generally should not be prioritized just for this extra HoT. However, I do think there are a few considerations to how to decide when to use Med Shot:
Rotate Med Shot among players as much as possible. Refreshing the Lasting Meds HoT by spamming Med Shot is a huge waste of this set bonus. If you can remember to rotate each Med Shot among around 3-4 players who consistently take damage then you will get a lot more sustained healing from having HoTs ticking on multiple players. The best candidates will be any tanks and likely most melee DPS, though this may vary from fight to fight. Sometimes you may have to spam Med Shot on one player to try and keep them up when your energy is horrible, though honestly if you are in that situation Med Shot is unlikely to save them anyway.
Heat management. Med Shot is free and its total heal with Tech Medic is not too terribly much lower than Medical Probe. Experience is key here but if you know there is little danger of spike damage then Med Shot is far better with this tactical to heal players or at least mitigate low ongoing damage in combination with Trauma Probe.
Prep for AoE damage phases. In fights with predictable sustained AoE damage phases (e.g., Dread Council burn phase) then using Med Shot to get HoTs ticking on most players and get your heat in an optimal situation can be very helpful. Just like an Operative who has HoTs ticking on most players, a Commando who has Trauma Probes and Lasting Meds on most players will be able to really kick out powerful sustained AoE healing.
When to Take:
I recommend for all healers unless their team composition will require significant healer off-DPS. In those cases, Concentrated Fire may be better due to its much better buffs for damage while still providing healing benefits.
Concentrated Fire
Concentrated Fire
Increased drop rate from PvP.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Damaging an enemy or healing an ally has a 10% chance to generate a stack of Supercharge. This effect cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
(6) Activating Supercharged Cell makes your next High Impact Bolt, Mag Bolt or Bacta Infusion critically hit or heal.
Analysis:
Concentrated Fire was nerfed in 6.1.2 to remove the +10% critical chance buff applied by gaining a stack of Supercharge. The four piece then assumed part of the old six piece bonus without any net additions to the combined set. It's design goal appears to be primarily for DPS players and to offer an off-DPS option for healers.
The set suffers greatly by losing its main attraction to healers via the +10% critical chance buff. The remaining benefits are really not that great, as we will briefly discuss below. When compared to the Tech Medic set that offers a guaranteed and high uptime buff to healing output, Tech Medic is a clear winner for healing though Concentrated Fire will be slightly better for healing while prioritizing off-DPS for tight DPS checks.
The 4 piece can generate a Supercharge as often as every 5 seconds but that is misleading given the low chance to proc. The rate limit means that the RNG to proc it only begins 5 seconds after it procs then takes some time to proc again. More testing is needed to determine an average proc rate but it seems likely be 5-10 seconds or so. That suggests the 4 piece should provide an extra Supercharge every 50-100 seconds, or around 4-6 extra Supercharge windows over a fight. It's also possible to waste the proc if you are sitting at 8 Supercharge, proc it to get to 9 and then cast Medical Probe that would have gotten you to 10 anyway thanks to the Potent Medicine passive. So, it's nice but very RNG dependent and not that helpful due to the lack of control. Letting a high cooldown ability trigger an extra free Supercharge 2-3 times a fight would have been a similar HPS benefit and far more useful in my opinion.
The 6 piece is helpful by making your Supercharged Cell windows more powerful by giving you an auto-crit on your free heal. It is also very helpful for adding off DPS for tight damage checks on operations by letting you use the auto-crit on a High Impact Bolt. For healing purposes, it's helpful but weak. The healing ability could crit anyway, so the incremental healing is as big as the difference between a crit and a non-crit, but as small as the difference between a crit with extra crit damage and a crit with regular crit damage. In the latter case, the buff is quite small indeed.
Impact on Rotation:
No change to rotation or ability priority.
When to Take:
I do not recommend for healers except perhaps in cases where DPS checks are a major factor and a little extra healer DPS would make the difference. However, I personally would prefer Tech Medic and allow the better healing to give me a few more GCDs of DPS versus Concentrated Fire.
Apex Predator
Apex Predator
Increased drop rate from Dxun Nature of Progress operation. Not available from the Tech Frag vendor.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Activating Charged Bolts, Grav Round or Medical Probe increases the critical chance of your next Charged Bolts, Grav Round or Medical Probe by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times but is removed on 6th stack.
(6) Dealing damage with Charged Bolts or Grav Round or healing with Medical Probe grants a stack of Power Step, stacking up to 5 times. At 5 stacks, your next Charged Bolts, Grav Round or Medical Probe is more effective and generates no Heat.
Analysis:
This set is not terrible but buffs the wrong abilities and as such is outshined by the Tech Medic set bonus. For healers, Medical Probe is a filler that is used semi-frequently but is the lowest priority and does the least healing. Buffing it is nice but it encourages over-use which is a very bad idea. Tech Medic's buff to Kolto Shot provides a safer and more predictable (i.e., not RNG dependent on critical chance) healing benefit.
The critical buff from the 4-piece set bonus means the average use of Medical Probe will be buffed 25%, with the 6-piece set bonus meaning every 6th use of the ability is free. This is a nice buff but is unlikely to come close to the impact on healing from Tech Medic.
Impact on Rotation:
No impact. The periodic free use of Medical Probe will help energy management and likely enable a second use of the same filler shortly thereafter, but that will vary based on the healing situation so would not fall into a “rotation” comment so much as simply making your healing decisions regarding energy levels slightly easier from time to time.
When to Take:
Not recommended but is a possible alternative to Tech Medic. However, it is not as strong a set for healers and is much more difficult to obtain via its limited availability solely through drops from Nature of Progress operation or random appearance on the Kai Zykken vendor.
Restorative Drive
Restorative Drive
Increased drop rate from The Nature of Progress Operation on Master Mode Difficulty, and has a small chance from Unidentified items on the Spoils of War vendors.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Activating a healing ability has a 15% chance to grant Combat Medic's Critical Bonus which causes your next Medical Probe to be critical.
(6) Healing an ally with Medical Probe applies Restorative Drive to them for 10 seconds. Each enemy defeated by this ally increases your healing by 2%, stacking up to 5 times.
Analysis:
This set bonus was introduced in patch 6.1.2 along with MM Dxun. A key unknown for is what internal cooldown (if any) is applied on the triggering of the auto-crit buff. Absent a cooldown, the ability has a 50/50 chance to trigger after 4 GCDs and 75% chance to trigger after 8 GCDs. This can be really strong though it seems likely there will be an internal cooldown limiting its use to every 30 seconds or something.
The six piece is tantalizing but I think very difficult to utilize on most fights. It offers the potential for high uptime on a +10% healing buff but with a lot of hurdles. You can only get the buff from players whom you have healed with Medical Probe, only within 10 seconds of using Medical Probe on them and you only get charges when they defeat an enemy.
The ideal scenario for the 6 piece set bonus are fights with high uptime on add waves. The best example is the Control Center encounter in the Dxun Nature of Progress operation, where you are continuously fighting 8+ adds at a time. Just use Medical Probe on a DPS with high sustained AoE damage and you are highly likely to get a couple stacks of Restorative Drive. The downside is that Medical Probe is usually a very low priority in AoE fights due to the desire to use Kolto Bomb and Successive Treatment on cooldown versus their lower priority in single target. Trying to fit in extra Medical Probes to proc the set bonus is a mixed bag because it offers a cool healing buff but comes at the cost of reduced healing output for using your worst single target healing ability instead of a better heal.
Impact on Rotation:
No change in overall ability rotation. You should be using Medical Probe often enough to take full advantage of the 4 piece set bonus anytime it procs. For the 6 piece, I would recommend adjusting your target selection for heals such that Medical Probe is nearly always going on a DPS player (preferably one assigned to deal with adds).
When to Take:
The set's recommendation depends highly on the internal cooldown for the 4 piece set bonus auto crit. If the set has no internal cooldown then it is likely to be best in slot. Assuming that the cooldown for the 4 piece set bonus is 30 seconds or longer then I would recommend the Tech Medic set for most encounters.
The Restorative Drive set is potentially very powerful on fights with lots of adds. Continuous waves of adds provide to enough opportunities to get stacks of Restorative Drive and to buff all your heals.
Tactical Items
Tactical Items
Rocket Fuel Vapors
Rocket Fuel Vapors
Increased drop rate from flashpoints.
Kolto Pods last a second longer and heal for an additional 5%.
Analysis:
Rocket Fuel Vapors was significantly nerfed in patch 6.1.2. Now it provides a buff to AoE healing by adding an extra tick of healing from Kolto Pods (the HoT applied by Kolto Bomb) and buffs the HoTs overall healing by 5%.
Kolto Pods normally ticks 3 times over its duration so adding an extra tick represents a 33% increase in healing prior to the 5% buff. Combined this should buff the healing done by Kolto Pods by 40%. In comparison to an average tick of Kolto Bomb per person, Kolto Pods does around half the healing as Kolto Bomb's initial heal. Thus, on a combined basis I would expect Rocket Fuel Vapors to buff the combined healing provide by Kolto Bomb by around 13-15%.
A 15% buff to a low cooldown AoE heal is very helpful for AoE fights. On a heavy AoE fight where I can use Kolto Bomb on cooldown and always clip the maximum 4 people, I would expect Kolto Bomb to output around 35-40% of my total healing combined with the Kolto Pods HoT. In those scenarios, running Rocket Fuel Vapors could provide around 5-6% extra healing entirely through AoE HoTs. That's not as powerful as the old Rocket Fuel Vapors but still a meaningful increase in AoE healing.
It is important to note that the healing buff from Rocket Fuel Vapors falls apart on any encounter where you are not using Kolto Bomb on cooldown. The tactical buff in incremental healing per use of Kolto Bomb is relatively small so its power entirely depends on being able to spam Kolto Bomb via its 4 GCD cooldown. On fights with some but not continuous AoE I would typically use Kolto Bomb far less often and its HoT would often be wasted via AoE healing from myself and other players. In that scenario the tactical healing buff amounts to maybe 1% or so which is very weak compared to SC-4 or Running Restoration.
Impact on Rotation:
Rocket Fuel Vapors should only be taken on fights where you expect to encounter very high AoE sustained damage to the group. As such, you should generally look to use Kolto Bomb on cooldown to maximize its benefit. If your healing priority does not let you do that, then Rocket Fuel Vapors is probably not a good choice for that fight.
When to Take:
Take in very heavy sustained AoE damage encounters, though based on preference and playstyle either Running Restoration of SC-4 may still be preferred due to their buff to single target healing.
Running Restoration
Running Restoration
Increased drop rate from operations.
Advanced Medical Probe can be cast while moving and heals an additional 15%.
Analysis:
Advanced Medical Probe is typically the most used healing ability for Combat Medic Commandos and the key to burst healing phases during Supercharged Cell windows. Running Restoration provides a powerful buff to single target healing during these windows.
On purely single target healing, Advanced Medical Probe can make up more than half your effective healing. A 15% buff to half of your healing can be up to a 8% (or better) healing buff overall and is quite strong. This tactical is straightforward and a good choice for stronger single target healing and making your Supercharged Cell windows much burstier if used to spam Advanced Medical Probe.
When compared to other tactical options, Running Restoration may be an ideal choice for some fights and for some play styles but not all. The tactical will not be ideal for AoE healing as Advanced Medical Probe is a purely single target heal. For really high sustained AoE healing that requires using Kolto Bomb on cooldown, Rocket Fuel Vapors is a solid choice. For mixed single target and AoE healing, SC-4 Treatment Scanner is a good choice also.
The real question is for general purpose use whether to use Running Restoration or SC-4 Treatment. Running Restoration provides a stronger buff to Advanced Medical Probe, which is primarily usable during Supercharged Cell windows. SC-4 Treatment Scanner provides a much smaller buff to Successive Treatment that is used far less often in the rotation, but more importantly generates 4 Supercharge during its channel. SC-4 therefore provides more frequent uptime on Supercharged Cell and its energy regeneration and availability of Advanced Medical Probe with no cooldown and a reduced energy cost.
So which is better, really strong Supercharged Cell windows via Running Restoration or weaker but more frequent windows via SC-4? For pure single target healing, the results are fairly close and depend heavily on playstyle. My testing seems to favor Running Restoration, though as you factor in more group healing (and Successive Treatment becomes more important) the balance shifts towards SC-4.
The key distinguishing factor between the tacticals relates to energy costs. SC-4 provides more frequent uptime on Supercharged Cell and its +5% healing buff and 10 energy regeneration. However, SC-4 does not otherwise noticeably increase my actual healing output via its core abilities, as the 5% buff to Successive Treatment is just not that impactful. As such, to deliver more healing I have to use Advanced Medical Probe or Medical Probe (my two spammable heals, though one only during Supercharged Cell windows) more often with SC-4 than I would with Running Restoration. I actually can do that fairly easily, and in my testing I found that I Advanced Medical Probe actually made up a higher percentage of my healing output than under Running Restoration because I could use it that much more often.
However, it’s important to remember that Supercharged Cell only regenerates 10 energy whereas Medical Probe costs 18 and Advanced Medical Probe has a base cost of 20 (which can decrease down to 0 depending on whether Supercharged Cell is up and the number of Field Triage stacks). So each Supercharged Cell only “pays for” around half a Medical Probe or around the same for an Advanced Medical Probe at its base cost. That is not a self sustaining net energy usage to deliver enough higher cost healing to compensate for the +15% buff from Running Restoration.
In my testing, I found that to keep using Advanced Medical Probe during each Supercharged Cell window I had to use far less Medical Probes. That makes sense since Advanced Medical Probe is a far better healing ability, but using less Medical Probes severely compromises my Supercharge generation since each one generates +2 Supercharge. My preliminary testing found that this compromise cut the net Supercharge coming from Successive Treatment by nearly half.
Overall, I found that Running Restoration outperformed SC-4 in a purely single target heal context primarily because it delivers more healing per ability use net of the related energy costs. By getting as much healing out of every Advanced Medical Probe as possible, I had more overall energy available to use Medical Probes to generate Supercharge stacks.
Since it probably seems like I’m dumping on SC-4 as a tactical option, let me be clear. I think it’s a really good tactical. When one still maintains a primary focus on single target healing priority but includes at least 4 total healing targets, I found the two were extremely close in total healing output.
I believe the key driver for folks will depend largely on playstyle and will shift from fight to fight. Players who tend to avoid using Supercharged Cell on cooldown and sometimes save it a few GCDs for predictable burst windows should most likely take Running Restoration to maximize the burst of those Advanced Medical Probe spam windows. Folks should take SC-4 if they are used to the old Rocket Fuel Vapors tactical and want Supercharged Cell up as often as possible for energy management and reduce the risk of spike damage without burst available.
Impact on Rotation:
No change to rotation. Advanced Medical Probe will be stronger when it's available off cooldown and during Supercharged Cell windows.
When to Take:
Running Restoration is great for fights that require high mobility (e.g., Master/Blaster, Red, etc.) or where the key focus is very high single target burst healing.
Ultimately the choice between SC-4 and Running Restoration will depend a lot on healer playstyle. If you tend to sometimes wait to hit Supercharged Cell to align your burst heal phases with high burst damage, Running Restoration will be really strong since each burst window will be significantly stronger. If you tend to use Supercharged Cell on cooldown for energy purposes or tend to focus more on AoE healing, SC-4 will be better. I suggest running both and swapping back and forth as needed between fights.
SC-4 Treatment Scanner
SC-4 Treatment Scanner
Increased drop rate from flashpoints.
Successive Treatment heals for an additional 5% and generates Supercharge stacks while channeled, up to 4 stacks for a complete channel.
Analysis:
Coming Soon.
Impact on Rotation:
SC-4 is a great tactical in that it provides a slight buff to your best burst group heal ability and noticeably increases your uptime on Supercharged Cell windows. I feel that it is the best tactical for folks as they transition away from the old Rocket Fuel Vapors, and its ridiculously high uptime on Supercharged Cell, back to a “normal” healing system.
Please see the analysis above on Running Restoration as it relates primarily to discussing the merits of each tactical. SC-4 will be better in a variety of circumstances. It provides better group healing in situations where Successive Treatment is a highly effective group heal. It provides more frequent uptime on Supercharged Cell, which can be important for fights where spike damage is unpredictable or highly frequent. The increased uptime can also be very helpful for players who prefer to use Supercharged Cell as an energy cooldown as much as for spamming Advanced Medical Probe.
When to Take:
SC-4 is a a solid all around tactical due primarily to the extra uptime on Supercharged Cell from its extra stacks. This will enable significantly higher uptime on Supercharged Cell for energy management purposes. It's 5% buff on Successive Treatment will also be more helpful on most fights for strong single target healing combined with good AoE healing. I also think that SC-4 will be a good "bridge" for folks used to the playstyle under Rocket Fuel Vapors with very high uptime on Supercharged Cell. SC-4 won't be nearly that high but still noticeably higher than Running Restoration.
Ultimately the choice between SC-4 and Running Restoration will depend a lot on healer playstyle. If you tend to sometimes wait to hit Supercharged Cell to align your burst heal phases with high burst damage, Running Restoration will be really strong since each burst window will be significantly stronger. If you tend to use Supercharged Cell on cooldown for energy purposes or tend to focus more on AoE healing, SC-4 will be better. I suggest running both and swapping back and forth as needed between fights.
Amplifiers
Amplifiers
Med Tech
Med Tech
As a tech-based healing class, this one is a no brainer and clear best solution. There are amplifiers to buff AoE healing and HoT-based healing, but given that Tech Healing buffs ALL your healing abilities and your best healing is single target via Advanced Medical Probe, Tech Healing is by far the best option.
Key Abilities
Key Abilities
Trauma Probe - Costs 10 energy cells. Deploys a probe with 7 charges that last up to 3 minutes. When the target is damaged, a charge is consumed and heals the target. There is a 3 second cooldown on triggering Trauma Probe charges. Only one Trauma Probe may be active on a target.
This is the Commando equivalent of the Sage bubble, except instead of absorbing damage it applies a heal to partially offset the damage. An individual charge doesn’t heal as much damage as a Sage bubble absorbs, but the multiple charges and much longer duration more than offset it.
Field Aid - Costs 10 energy cells. Cleanses negative tech, physical and mental effects.
Basic cleanse ability. Notable that it cleanses Tech but not Force negative effects. Thus it is useful for certain fights like Karagga (can cleanse gravity debuff) or Corruptor Zero (cleanse DoT on tank) but not Force debuffs.
Bacta Infusion - Instant single target healing ability. Free ability due to passive ability. 21 second cooldown prior to effects of alacrity.
Best and most efficient healing ability, should generally be used on cooldown. Due to the long cooldown, its overall benefit is reduced.
Advanced Medical Probe - Costs 20 energy cells (15 during effects of Supercharged Cell, and can be reduced to 15/10/5 due to stacks of Field Triage). Cast single target healing ability, can be buffed to become instant after Bacta Infusion due to Emergency Response passive ability. Due to Kolto Residue passive ability, grants Invigorated status to its target (+3% healing for 45 seconds). 12 second cooldown prior to alacrity, no cooldown while under the effects of Supercharged Cell.
Most powerful single target heal but with limited use outside of Supercharged Cell. Spam during Supercharged Cell, otherwise try to pair with Bacta Infusion to make it free. Due to regular use of Medical Probe outside of Supercharged Cell, Advanced Medical Probe will generally be net positive from an energy perspective.
Medical Probe - Costs 18 energy cells. Cast single target healing ability. Filler. Generates 2 stacks of Supercharge due to Potent Medicine passive.
This is the spammable single target healing ability, so will be used very often. That said, due to its energy cost it cannot be spammed indefinitely. See below for further discussion on rotation, but generally will want to alternate Medical Probe and Med Shot to manage energy.
Successive Treatment - Costs 28 energy cells over duration. Channelled AoE healing ability. Heals a friendly target over the duration, and heals one new friendly target within 20 meters with each tick, healing up to four total targets with the final tick. Ability also grants Protected buff (+10% armor rating for 45 seconds) to targets it heals. 15 second cooldown prior to alacrity.
A powerful channelled AoE heal that can be used on the move. Due to its long channel time, is a great candidate for using Reserve Powercell (next ability that costs energy is free) to maximize the energy regeneration.
Kolto Bomb - Costs 15 energy cells. Instant AoE healing ability. Lobs a kolto bomb at the target area, exploding on impact. Heals up to 8 allies within 8 meters of the targeted area. 6 second cooldown prior to alacrity.
Does less AoE healing per person than Successive Treatment but can affect more players and has a much lower cooldown and so is semi-spammable.
Med Shot - Free single target healing ability. Basic “attack”. Generates 1 stack of Supercharge normally and 2 if it crits.
Your “basic attack” heal, see below rotation discussion as this ability should be used semi-frequently in most rotations.
Supercharged Cell - Requires and converts 10 stacks of Supercharge to recharge 10 energy cells and increase healing done by 5% for 12 seconds. While active, Advanced Medical Probe has no cooldown and depletes 5 fewer energy cells.
Supercharged Cell is the signature ability to Commando classes, and while in healing spec its most important benefit is the removal of the cooldown on Advanced Medical Probe. This enables massive burst single target healing.
Cooldowns & Other Abilities
Cooldowns & Other Abilities
Recharge Cells - Rapidly restores 50 energy over 3 seconds. Most powerful energy cooldown. 1:30 cooldown.
Reserve Powercell - Your next ability costs no energy. Lasts 15 seconds. 1:30 cooldown.
Tech Override - Your next ability used within 15 seconds with an activation time will activate instantly and then grant immunity to pushback and interrupts for 6 seconds. 1:00 cooldown.
Hold the Line - Grants 6 seconds of immunity from movement-impairing effects, knockdowns and physics and increases movement speed by 30%. 45s cooldown.
Full Auto - Channeled ranged attack, can be used on the move with Forced March utility
High Impact Bolt - High damage ability, 15 second cooldown.
Plasma Grenade - Hard cast single target / AoE filler
Charged Bolts - Filler cast ability
Electro Net - High damage ability that deals increased damage as the target moves. Long cooldown.
Hammer Shots - Free spammable basic ranged attack, builds 1 Supercharge per use.
Reactive Shield - Increases damage reduction by 25% for 12 seconds. 2:00 cooldown.
Echoing Deterrence - Absorbs all incoming single target direct damage for the next 6 seconds and reflects 50% of the absorbed damage back at the attacker and healing you for 5% of your maximum health each time an attack is absorbed. Can be used while stunned. 2:00 cooldown.
Adrenal Rush - Applies a Health Monitor that lasts 60 seconds, which triggers Kolto Overload when your health is reduced to 35% or less. If your health is already 35% or less, it triggers immediately. Once triggered, it goes on cooldown for 3 minutes and rapidly heals you up to 35% of your max health for 10 seconds but will not exceed 35% of your max health.
Rotation
Rotation
Combat Medic Healing Guidelines
Combat Medic Healing Guidelines
Healing requires a very fluid playstyle. There are not any set rotations as the healer is constantly adapting to the damage taken by the team, predicting burst damage phases to prepare heals in advance and balancing the team's healing needs against the healer's energy levels to ensure they can continue providing heals when needed.
Don’t go below 60% cells for ANY reason unless you have energy regeneration abilities available.
These include Supercharged Cells (recharges 10 cells), Recharge Cells (recharges 50 cells over 3s, or 65 if taking the Cell Capacitor utility), and Reserve Powercell (next ability costs no cells). Supercharged Cells usually means you can substitute ONE Medical Probe for Med Shot.
Reserve Powercell should always be used on Successive Treatment and can enable substitution of 1-2 Medical Probes or other energy-costing abilities instead of Med Shot. Recharge Cells should be used around 30-35% energy. Usually the cooldown will get you fairly close to max energy, such that 1-2 Medical Probes may be still be usable (with caution).
Utilize Supercharged Cell on cooldown in most circumstances to enable spamming of Advanced Medical Probe.
Supercharged Cell helps with energy management and makes Advanced Medical Probe spammable for 8 seconds. As such, this should be utilized on cooldown in stressful healing situations. The only exceptions are when healing is light and energy is in good shape or can use Med Shot to regen energy, or a high damage phase is incoming within 10-15 seconds so you are saving it. In AoE healing situations, Supercharged Cell should still be utilized on cooldown just for the energy regeneration properties.
Outside of a burst window, your best single target healing combo is Bacta Infusion ---> Advanced Medical Probe.
Due to the passive abilities Emergency Responders and Field Triage, this combo of abilities should both be instantly activated, deal very strong burst healing, and be significantly net positive for energy regeneration. As long as it won’t overheal, this combo should be used on cooldown.
Utilize Med Shot and Medical Probe on approximately a 1:1 basis if energy cooldowns are unavailable.
Whenever Bacta Infusion and Advanced Medical Probe are on cooldown, your only choices for single target heals are Medical Probe and Med Shot. In these circumstances, you will need to alternate Medical Probe and Med Shot to keep your energy at a decent level.
If your energy is below 60%, unless someone will die you should substitute Med Shot or use an energy regeneration cooldown.
Once you dip below 60% energy, it severely cripples your energy regeneration and can become worse if you keep using abilities with an energy cost. As soon as you realize your situation, either use an energy regeneration ability or spam Med Shot to recover.
Use energy cooldowns aggressively and intelligently.
Skilled players will be aware of when energy cooldowns are (or are about to be) available and use high energy heals proactively such that Reserve Powercell and Recharge Cells are used very nearly on cooldown.
Healing Combos
Healing Combos
Healing is a very reactive class compared to tanks (defined high threat rotation intermingled with taunts) and DPS (very defined rotation/priority system). As such, it is easier to think in terms of healing “combos” that will vary depending on the situation. Here are some of the most common situations and how a Combat Medic Commando would generally approach them.
Note that all of them assume Recharge Cells is NOT available, as typically that cooldown can only be used around twice per fight. As such, I highly recommend trying to plan rotations without relying on it so that it can be the “oh ****” button when someone unexpectedly takes massive damage. They also assume energy at 100%, for lower energy levels substitute Med Shot for a Medical Probe or simply add a Med Shot somewhere in the rotation.
Combo #1 - Pre-fight / Everyone has Max Health
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Trauma Probe - Cast/refresh on all players (tanks first)
Med Shot - Cast on anyone to maintain max energy and build 10 stacks of Supercharge
Combo #2 - Single Target / high damage / no AoE damage / Supercharge IS available
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Bacta Infusion - Free and powerful heal, due to its long cooldown using it early is preferable so it will be available at the end of the rotation
Advanced Medical Probe - Instant cast due to Emergency Responders passive, it is also slightly cheaper due to using Medical Probe up front. Since we are about to hit Supercharged Cell and reset its cooldown, using it here essentially gets us an extra Advanced Probe.
Supercharged Cell OFF GCD
Tech Override OFF GCD Grants 1-2 instant casts
Advanced Medical Probe - First and possibly second should be instant from Tech Override, frontloading heals to target. Should spam Advanced Medical Probe until just before Supercharged Cell drops off, leaving one more available after Bacta Infusion before ability goes on regular cooldown.
Advanced Medical Probe - Spam while Supercharged Cell is active.
Advanced Medical Probe - Spam while Supercharged Cell is active.
Advanced Medical Probe - Spam while Supercharged Cell is active.
Advanced Medical Probe - Spam while Supercharged Cell is active.
Advanced Medical Probe - Spam while Supercharged Cell is active.
Reserve Powercell OFF GCD - By the end of Supercharged Cell, energy will likely be below 60% so if we need another strong heal this enables a cast of Medical Probe without further compromising energy.
Medical Probe - Free with Reserve Powercell
Med Shot - Needed to get energy back to a stable level.
Med Shot - Needed to get energy back to a stable level.
Bacta Infusion - Comes off cooldown here so use immediately
Advanced Medical Probe - Since we only used 6 Advanced Medical Probes earlier instead of 7 (thus we finished spamming Advanced Medical Probe before Supercharged Cell ended), this remained off cooldown and can be used right after Bacta Infusion.
Conclusion - This is a really strong rotation without needing to use Recharge Cells, and can burst heal through pretty much any damage in the game without any help from another healer. This shows how powerful Combat Medic is while Supercharge is available.
Combo #3 - Single Target / high damage / no AoE damage / Supercharge IS NOT available
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Bacta Infusion - Free and powerful heal, due to its long cooldown using it early is preferable so it will be available at the end of the rotation
Advanced Medical Probe - Instant cast due to Emergency Responders passive, it is also slightly cheaper due to using Medical Probe up front.
Medical Probe - This is our strongest single target heal and builds 2 stacks of Supercharge. Three is the most we can use before energy drops below 60%.
Medical Probe - This is our strongest single target heal and builds 2 stacks of Supercharge. Three is the most we can use before energy drops below 60%.
Medical Probe - This is our strongest single target heal and builds 2 stacks of Supercharge. Three is the most we can use before energy drops below 60%.
Reserve Powercell OFF GCD - Makes our next cast free, which is critical given energy is now low.
Successive Treatment - Successive Treatment does respectable single target healing on its own, dealing slightly better HPS than Medical Probe. It channels so the first tick arrives earlier than Medical Probe, deals slightly less healing over a shorter period than 2 Medical Probes and at a lower total energy cost. Using Reserve Powercell here keeps us doing strong single target heals while mostly recovering energy.
Med Shot - Energy is still slightly low at this point, so this helps set us up for a Supercharge window shortly.
Advanced Medical Probe - Off cooldown and with 3 stacks of Field Triage due to the earlier Medical Probe spam, this ability is very strong and super cheap.
Medical Probe - These casts continue doing strong heals and gets us to Supercharged Cell even if we started the rotation at 0 stacks.
Medical Probe - These casts continue doing strong heals and gets us to Supercharged Cell even if we started the rotation at 0 stacks.
Med Shot - We want to have enough energy when we hit Supercharged Cell to spam Advanced Medical Probe without totally wrecking energy.
Supercharged Cell OFF GCD - Time for some serious burst heals
Advanced Medical Probe
Advanced Medical Probe
Advanced Medical Probe
Advanced Medical Probe
Advanced Medical Probe
Advanced Medical Probe
Bacta Infusion - Off cooldown earlier in the rotation but saved for the end of Supercharged Cell to get another Advanced Medical Probe off.
Advanced Medical Probe - This ability ends the burst healing window and leaves the player with around 50% energy.
Med Shot - Spam to get energy back to at above 65% or higher.
Med Shot - Spam to get energy back to at above 65% or higher.
Med Shot - Spam to get energy back to at above 65% or higher.
Conclusion - This rotation also manages energy and deals strong healing, but significantly more stress is placed on energy and it requires a lot more use of Med Shot to balance energy in between several smaller burst windows until Supercharged Cell is available.
Combo #4 - Healing team / high or low stress / high or low AoE damage / Supercharge is NOT available
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Successive Treatment - Best and strongest AoE heal
Kolto Bomb - Second priority AoE heal
Bacta Infusion - Free instant single target heal applied to whomever is lowest on health
Advanced Medical Probe - Instant heal applied to whomever is lowest on health (can be used to provide burst single target inside an AoE rotation or to provide two separate strong heals)
Medical Probe - No AoE heals available so target next lowest health player
Kolto Bomb - Off cooldown, second priority AoE heal
Med Shot - Energy is too low here for Medical Probe and everything else is on cooldown
Medical Probe - We can use another Medical Probe here due to Reserve Powercell being available. If it’s on cooldown, use Med Shot.
Reserve Powercell OFF GCD
Successive Treatment - Off cooldown, top priority AoE heal
Kolto Bomb - Off cooldown, second priority AoE heal
Supercharged Cell OFF GCD
Advanced Medical Probe - No AoE heals, rotate single target heals as needed
Advanced Medical Probe - No AoE heals, rotate single target heals as needed
Advanced Medical Probe - No AoE heals, rotate single target heals as needed
Kolto Bomb - Off cooldown, second priority AoE heal
Advanced Medical Probe - No AoE heals, rotate single target heals as needed
Successive Treatment - Off cooldown, top priority AoE heal
Conclusion - This rotation shows off the strength of Combat Medic in doing a combination of strong AoE healing and single target burst. It provides steady AoE healing while providing windows of very strong burst single target. When paired with a Scoundrel healer, this rotation is perfect for high AoE damage phases where the tank is still taking heavy damage (e.g., Styrak HM final burn phase).
Energy Management, Other Tips & Tricks
Energy Management, Other Tips & Tricks
Per the general principles above, if no energy regeneration abilities are available and you aren’t in a high stress phase, try to alternate Med Shot and Medical Probe. That rotation is slightly energy positive so can be done indefinitely, so there is almost no way to wreck your energy following this rule and is a good way to approach non-burst phases to make sure you have the energy available when you need it.
As much as possible, try to save Reserve Powercell for Successive Treatment It’s your most powerful single heal and due to the channel time it will give you the most benefit for energy regeneration.
Be careful about using Tech Override when low on energy. The instant cast front loads the energy cost, so if it drops you below 60% then you will regen less energy in that GCD. Bad timing can significantly alter your energy regeneration.
Be thoughtful in AoE healing situations about how often to use single target heals versus spamming Kolto Bomb. Kolto Bomb does 2/3 the healing to each target as Medical Probe and costs 3 fewer energy cells, so if you can hit at least two players with the full benefit then it is likely a better choice. The only downside is that you forgo building stacks of Supercharge.
Make sure to coordinate group healing with your fellow healer. Commandos perform best in prioritizing single target healing via Supercharged Cell windows (spamming Advanced Medical Probes) and can throw in decent AoE heals via Successive Treatment and Kolto Bomb without losing too much single target burst. If your fellow healer can prioritize raid healing, you can handle healing the tank while still chipping in solid AoE.
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