Quote Introduction

Updated for 1.2

Do you like really big guns? Does laying down a lethal storm of fire and then healing any of your allies dumb enough to step in front of a lightsaber sound like fun? Well then, the Combat medic may just be the AC for you.



One of the things they did really well in this game was to allow you to heal without sacrificing too much dps. None of the Trooper trees, Vanguard or Commando, has any talents to boost the damage of our AoE abilities. That means you, as a healer, can lay down just as much AoE damage as any other Commando.



This ability to put out huge AOE damage, and decent single target damage, makes leveling a Combat Medic so much more fun than the pain we are used to seeing with leveling healers. We also have a new resource mechanic that is more interesting than the standard, tired, giant mana pool mechanic we are all used to from every game before.



I've seen a lot of questions in general and guild chat, and no sticky post with answers, so I figured it was about time we started getting one together. This guide endeavors to answer most standard questions and help a new Combat Medic get off to a good start.



Combat Medics saw some major changes in the 1.2 Patch, and the implications will be addressed in their relevant sections.



Table of Contents Abbreviations Ammo Abilities Skill Tree Builds Stats Stat Priorities Alacrity Gear Rotations and Strategies FAQs Links Contributors Professions Companions (Coming Soonish) Theorycrafting Stat Calculator (1.1.5 version. I will post an update when I get the 1.2 version working)

Abbreviations CM: Combat Medic

AP: Advanced Medical Probe

MP: Medical Probe

SCC: Supercharge Cells

CSC: Combat Support Cells

BI: Bacta Infusion

KB: Kolto Bomb

TP: Trauma Probe

HS: Hammer Shot

CB: Charged Bolt

HIB: High Impact Bolt

FA: Full Auto

RC: Recharge Cells

ARPS: Ammo Regenerated Per Second (gained)

APS: Ammo Per Second (spent)

Ammo



Ammo is our resource mechanic, and deserves a section to discuss how it works. You have 12 ammo, and using most abilities costs some ammo. A few are free. Ammo regenerates on its own, at a rate tied to how much ammo you already have. The more ammo you have, the faster it regenerates. This means you generally want to stay as conservative as possible to stay in the high regen range.



Very Slow: 0-3 Ammo. 0.24 ARPS

Moderate: 3-8 Ammo. 0.36 ARPS

Fast: 8-12 Ammo. 0.60 ARPS



Note: It is worth mentioning here that our regen windows are 0-25%, 25%-67%, and 67%-100%. Compare this to the resource windows for our mirror, the Mercenary, which are 0-20%, 21-60%, and 61%-100%. This means that Heat is actually easier to manage than Ammo, so if you aren't dedicated to a faction yet, it is worth thinking about.



We do have a couple of abilities to help with this.

[*]Recharge Cells: Instant. 2 minute cooldown. Restores 6 ammo over 3 seconds. When talented, 2 additional cells recharge instantly.

[*]Supercharge Cells: Instant. 1.50 seconds. Among its other effects, instantly recharges 1 cell. Requires 30 charges of Combat Support Cell. This ability was changed in 1.2. The ammo return was reduced to 1 Ammo from the old value of 2, and the benefits of the other ability effects were also reduced. More on the implications later.



Abilities



Medical Probe: 3 Ammo. 2 second cast. Standard Heal.



Advanced Medical Probe: 2 Ammo. 1.5 second cast. 9 second cooldown. This heal is slightly weaker than MP, but it is your core heal. Once talented it not only heals, it also increases the target's armor, adds our only HoT, and reduces the cost of the next MP to 2 Ammo. That means for 4 Ammo (the cost as MP + 1) and a slightly longer cast time, you get the heal from AP, the heal from MP, the heal from the HoT, and the decreased damage intake from the armor boost. Not a bad deal.



Bacta Infusion: Free. Instant. 21 second cooldown. Huge free heal limited only by its cooldown. 21 seconds is pretty short. Use it early, use it often!



Trauma Probe: 2 Ammo. Instant. No Cooldown. Free reactive heal. This puts 10 charges of a shield on a target, and every time the target takes damage they get healed. It isn't a large heal per charge, but it's free and it adds up substantially over time. This ability used to be free, and was a great ability for the cost. I have run simulations refreshing this only when you are already at 12 Ammo, and again refreshing it whenever all the charges are used up and you are at 10 Ammo or above (so it doesn't put you below 8). The verdict: only use TP if you are at 12 Ammo and don't need to cast anything else at the moment, otherwise the Ammo cost leads to a 4% loss in max sustainable HPS.



Kolto Bomb: 2 Ammo. Instant. 6 second cooldown. Our only AoE heal. Limited to only heal 4 targets, but has a low cooldown. Talented, it also provides a 3% buff to healing received. Patch 1.2 increased the number of targets from 3 to 4, but reduced the buff from 5% to 3%. Kolto Bomb doesn't heal the 4 most injured, it heals the 4 closest to the center of the targeting circle, so getting it to hit the 4 people who need it most in a cluster during Operations is generally impossible. The increase in target-cap does increase the odds of healing the people who need it, though, and makes AoE healing in FPs easier as well.



Field Aid: 1 Ammo. Cures Physical and Tech Effects. With the Psych Aid skill it also cures Mental effects and provides a (very) small heal.



Hammer Shot: Free. Instant. No cooldown. When using Combat Support Cells as your ammo type, you can use this to target people as a very small heal while letting ammo regen.



Skill Tree Builds



SWTOR skill trees are all pretty straightforward, without a lot in the way of options, so this build shouldn't be much of a surprise.



Standard PvE Build w/ Muzzle Fluting.

Standard PvE Build w/o Muzzle Fluting

No Alacrity Build



I highly recommend taking Muzzle Fluting. The changes to Charged Bolt make it free during SCC now by default, so the faster cast time lets you fit more of them in during SCC. With the increase in Ammo costs for AP/MP spam, you can't afford to spam it as much during SCC, so weaving in Charged Bolts will help you maintain Ammo and meet enrage timers.



The increase in Ammo costs also re-raises the concern about Alacrity interaction with Effective Cost. Some more modeling needs to be done to assess that answer properly, but the No Alacrity Build may help if you are having trouble with Ammo management.



Optional Skills in the above build are discussed below. If a skill isn't mentioned, it is pretty much essential and there is no reason you should ever not take it. Psych Aid. Cleansing debuffs is currently not a significant part of any fights, and the healing debuff in PvP can no longer be cleansed. That said, there really aren't any other options at this level, so you might as well.

Muzzle Fluting. Free Charged Bolts will help you with Ammo management during SCC, and making it faster helps ensure you can fit that last AP or KB in before SCC expires. This used to be optional, but it is now highly recommended.

Cell Capacitor. Ammo management is now for less forgiving, so you should be taking these.

Treated Wound Dressings. The less damage you take, the less you or another healer has to heal you. A dead healer saves no one.

Med Zone. Viable alternative to Treated Wound Dressings. Increased self-heals when you need them most.

Combat Shield. Great for PvP, but more importantly makes sure you get that self-heal off when you really need it. I don't put points here, but it is a good alternative to Treated Wound Dressings, or Muzzle Fluting if you really don't want to take it.

Trauma Probe. Far less useful now that it costs 2 Ammo. I recommend still taking it and only casting it when you have 12 Ammo. Pre-casting it, however, can add trouble with initial aggro from adds at the start of a fight, so it is possible you may find yourself using this ability very rarely. Not a lot of other good options, though.

I have seen a lot of hate towards Kolto Bomb, and some of it is warranted. Per person, and correcting for cooldowns and duration, KB heals for 52% of the HPS of Sage's Salvation. Capped at 4 players, this means we can AoE heal for half of what a Sage can in 4-man content, but if we want to cover 8 people in an Operation, we can only do 26% of a Sage. On the other hand, we can cast it on the move, and it is cheap enough to be used nearly every cooldown. KB is absolutely worth taking, especially as we have no other AoE options and single-target healing 8 people is not Ammo efficient anymore.



Stats



The only stats you should be concerned with are Aim, Surge, Critical, Power, and Alacrity. Endurance comes for free, so don't worry about it, and the other stats are for other classes.



Aim: Provides increases to ranged damage and critical chance, tech damage and critical chance, and healing power and critical chance. Note healing critical chance IS tech critical chance. Simply stated twice to make it clear Aim increases healing critical chance.



Critical Rating increases the chance you will have a critical effect from damage or healing abilities. This increases the effect by 50% plus the bonus from your Surge rating.



Surge rating increases the bonus on critical effects.



Power increases the base damage/healing of your abilities. Power affects all of your abilities, Tech Power is exactly the same, but only benefits Tech abilities, such as healing.



Alacrity makes cast times faster. Cast time abilities cast faster. Channeled abilities take less total time, with the ticks coming faster. Unlike in some other games, this does not increase the number of ticks of any HoT/DoT abilities or the rate they tick. This also is the only stat with negatives associated, specifically it makes abilities more expensive. This happens because an ability with a cast or channel time has an Effective Cost that increases as the ability casts faster, defined as:



(Effective Cost) = (Base Cost) - (Resources Regenerated While Casting)



By casting faster, you decrease the Resources Regenerated, resulting in a higher Effective Cost. This can make chain casting more costly, and cause you to drop into medium regen with a high alacrity build when the same casting rotation would not have done so in a low alacrity build. Previous to 1.2, this was offset by the increase in free time where you could recharge, but with lowered throughput in 1.2 it remains to be seen if there will be sufficient free time to support high alacrity builds.



Stat Priorities



I am currently rebuilding my Combat Medic Simulator, and I will upload the program and source code once it is completed.



For now, I will just give general recommendations. Aim generally comes free with no tradeoff options. Otherwise, current modification and enhancement options give the decisions of Power vs Crit and Surge vs Alacrity.



Until I can get the new simulator fully functional, I will simply recommend getting your crit to ~30-35%, then Power > Crit. Surge > Alacrity, although it hits stiff DR penalties once you start getting above 200 Surge Rating. Above that, you can experiment with Alacrity and see how it treats you.



I will provide better recommendations once more post-1.2 data is available.



Alacrity



I will provide more guidance on Alacrity post-1.2 once we have more data and modeling available. For now, my instinct says that we won't have the downtime necessary to make the speed vs power trade-off we made in 1.2 for successful high-Alacrity builds. Until more data is available, I recommend focusing on making your heals hit as hard as possible, not as fast as possible.



Gear

Obviously, I'm not going to make a Best in Slot list, as those are annoying to keep up.



However, crafted gear is worth addressing. When you RE green crafted gear, it can gain one of three prefixes: Redoubt (+defense), Critical (+crit) or Overkill (+power). If you RE those blues, they can gain one of five second stats: Presence, Shield, Alacrity, Surge, and Accuracy. Presence only boosts your companions, and is useless in group play. Based on the above stat priorities, it can be seen that only two combinations are of any value.



Expert Gear: Power + Surge

Endowment Gear: Critical + Surge



Since the power vs crit debate is still open and will likely be a matter of preference even after the math is in, I'm not going to make a call about which of those two to use, but obviously there is better synergy with the Endowment gear. Take whichever works better for you.



As of Patch 1.2, you can get crafted orange gear with augment slots. You should be pulling the armoring, mods, and enhancements out of your set gear and putting them in these crafted orange items with a +Power augment.



Rotations and Strategies



We are going to have to make some adjustments in 1.2 from how we played before.



First, the basics: Always use Combat Support Cell as your Ammo type.

Before any fight, pre-stack 30 charges of CSC by firing Hammer Shot at your allies.

Now for some specific issues:

Trauma Probe:

Trauma Probe has always had a problem with early aggro. If you pre-cast it on a tank, when they pull, the first damage they take will trigger TP, and any adds the tank hasn't hit yet will turn and start attacking you. Pre-1.2, we worked around this by waiting to cast it until after the pull. Post-1.2, TP costs 2 Ammo, and the early moments of a pull before any of the smaller adds die tends to be when there is the most damage. You can't afford to cast TP after the first AP/MP combo, that will drop you into medium regen.



You can see the problem. When should you actually cast it? pre-cast on boss fights pre-cast on trash if you know the tank can pick up all the adds quickly pre-cast on trash if you actually want some of them shooting at you for a few seconds to reduce damage on a poorly geared tank. This can work well in a PUG, but it's risky. Cast during a boss fight if you are at 12 Ammo and have no need for a "real heal" at the moment. Cast during trash only if you are at 12 Ammo, don't need a better heal, and think the fight will last 30s so all the charges are gone before the next trash pull.

Trauma Probe has always had a problem with early aggro. If you pre-cast it on a tank, when they pull, the first damage they take will trigger TP, and any adds the tank hasn't hit yet will turn and start attacking you. Pre-1.2, we worked around this by waiting to cast it until after the pull. Post-1.2, TP costs 2 Ammo, and the early moments of a pull before any of the smaller adds die tends to be when there is the most damage. You can't afford to cast TP after the first AP/MP combo, that will drop you into medium regen. You can see the problem. When should you actually cast it? Supercharge Cells:

Supercharge Cells got hit pretty hard in 1.2. The Ammo return got cut in half, as did the healing done bonus (from 10% to 5%). SCC shined before partly because it removed the cooldown on AP, and AP/MP spam was so efficient. In 1.2, AP/MP costs 33% more, and you, frankly, can't afford to spam it like before.



Let's first look at the implications on the % healing change. Let's look at what happens if you used SCC every time you hit 30 Charges of CSC. It takes 15s to build up 30 Charges of SCC using HS. During that time, your % bonus is ramping up, from 0%-3%, and the average over the period is 1.65%. SCC lasts 10s, 13s with the PvE set bonus. So let's look at what the average % increase is over 25-28s pre- and post-1.2:



Pre-1.2:

No Set Bonus: (15*1.65+10*10)/25 = 4.99%

Set Bonus: (15*1.65+13*10)/28 = 5.52%



Post-1.2:

No Set Bonus: (15*1.65+10*5)/25 = 2.99%

Set Bonus: (15*1.65+13*5)/28 = 3.20%



As you can see, it was beneficial to use SCC as often as possible before, even if you didn't need it for AP/MP spam or the KB shield. Now, the increased healing buff only cancels out the loss from having to rebuild the stacks, and you would be just as well off maintaining 30 CSC and holding onto the 3% buff, saving SCC for when you really need it.



Note: SpaniardInfinity reported back with early results of the new Operation, Explosive Conflict. He found that Ammo management was sufficiently tight he had no choice but to use SCC every time it was available for the 1 Ammo returned. He would pop SCC, cast AP/MP/AP and then manually click off the SCC buff so the next MP would generate 6 CSC charges and allow him to use SCC again sooner.



This strategy completely negates the 2pc set bonus, decreases your average healing bonus % from CSC/SCC to a mere 2.46%, and largely prevents the use of SCC for the utility of KB's DR shield (the strength of which was cut in half anyway). However, with all of the reductions to our Ammo efficiency in this patch, it may be that this is how we are forced to play.



Supercharge Cells got hit pretty hard in 1.2. The Ammo return got cut in half, as did the healing done bonus (from 10% to 5%). SCC shined before partly because it removed the cooldown on AP, and AP/MP spam was so efficient. In 1.2, AP/MP costs 33% more, and you, frankly, can't afford to spam it like before. Let's first look at the implications on the % healing change. Let's look at what happens if you used SCC every time you hit 30 Charges of CSC. It takes 15s to build up 30 Charges of SCC using HS. During that time, your % bonus is ramping up, from 0%-3%, and the average over the period is 1.65%. SCC lasts 10s, 13s with the PvE set bonus. So let's look at what the average % increase is over 25-28s pre- and post-1.2: Pre-1.2: No Set Bonus: (15*1.65+10*10)/25 = 4.99% Set Bonus: (15*1.65+13*10)/28 = 5.52% Post-1.2: No Set Bonus: (15*1.65+10*5)/25 = 2.99% Set Bonus: (15*1.65+13*5)/28 = 3.20% As you can see, it was beneficial to use SCC as often as possible before, even if you didn't need it for AP/MP spam or the KB shield. Now, the increased healing buff only cancels out the loss from having to rebuild the stacks, and you would be just as well off maintaining 30 CSC and holding onto the 3% buff, saving SCC for when you really need it. SpaniardInfinity reported back with early results of the new Operation, Explosive Conflict. He found that Ammo management was sufficiently tight he had no choice but to use SCC every time it was available for the 1 Ammo returned. He would pop SCC, cast AP/MP/AP and then manually click off the SCC buff so the next MP would generate 6 CSC charges and allow him to use SCC again sooner. This strategy completely negates the 2pc set bonus, decreases your average healing bonus % from CSC/SCC to a mere 2.46%, and largely prevents the use of SCC for the utility of KB's DR shield (the strength of which was cut in half anyway). However, with all of the reductions to our Ammo efficiency in this patch, it may be that this is how we are forced to play. Kolto Bomb:

Kolto Bomb is tricky, with its lack of smart-healing it can be really frustrating to toss this into a group during an Operation and see it heal everyone but the 2-4 targets you wanted it to heal most. It is, however, instant, so it can be used on the run. I like to keep nameplates on and try and toss this out a lot as we move in the direction of the lowest nameplates.



Pre-1.2, the KB shield during SCC was amazing. It provided a flat 10% Damage Reduction, for 15s. At 10%, this was absolutely worth popping SCC for before a single predictable spike, even if the rest of the SCC duration would be spent on DPS or moving and unable to heal. At 5%, you should remember that this tool is in your bag, but it isn't nearly as effective as it used to be. This is a proactive ability, it only works if you can get it on the player before they take damage. It works quite well on bosses with spike phases like Gharj's Frenzy, Foreman Crusher, and even, with some coordination effort, to help shield players on Soa's Lightning Balls.



Frequently Asked Questions

Questions in this thread will get added here if it seems appropriate.



Links



Contributors

Sheridyn - error corrections to the skill calculator

Lileth - an alternate build and pvp advice

Dashall - PvP advice

Proctor - assumption corrections and GCD information

Raani, maxbaby, Moobi, and Serialx for testing of the C++ calculator Do you like really big guns? Does laying down a lethal storm of fire and then healing any of your allies dumb enough to step in front of a lightsaber sound like fun? Well then, the Combat medic may just be the AC for you.One of the things they did really well in this game was to allow you to heal without sacrificing too much dps. None of the Trooper trees, Vanguard or Commando, has any talents to boost the damage of our AoE abilities. That means you, as a healer, can lay down just as much AoE damage as any other Commando.This ability to put out huge AOE damage, and decent single target damage, makes leveling a Combat Medic so much more fun than the pain we are used to seeing with leveling healers. We also have a new resource mechanic that is more interesting than the standard, tired, giant mana pool mechanic we are all used to from every game before.I've seen a lot of questions in general and guild chat, and no sticky post with answers, so I figured it was about time we started getting one together. This guide endeavors to answer most standard questions and help a new Combat Medic get off to a good start.Combat Medics saw some major changes in the 1.2 Patch, and the implications will be addressed in their relevant sections.Ammo is our resource mechanic, and deserves a section to discuss how it works. You have 12 ammo, and using most abilities costs some ammo. A few are free. Ammo regenerates on its own, at a rate tied to how much ammo you already have. The more ammo you have, the faster it regenerates. This means you generally want to stay as conservative as possible to stay in the high regen range.Very Slow: 0-3 Ammo. 0.24 ARPSModerate: 3-8 Ammo. 0.36 ARPSFast: 8-12 Ammo. 0.60 ARPSWe do have a couple of abilities to help with this.[*]Recharge Cells: Instant. 2 minute cooldown. Restores 6 ammo over 3 seconds. When talented, 2 additional cells recharge instantly.[*]Supercharge Cells: Instant. 1.50 seconds. Among its other effects, instantly recharges 1 cell. Requires 30 charges of Combat Support Cell.Medical Probe: 3 Ammo. 2 second cast. Standard Heal.Advanced Medical Probe: 2 Ammo. 1.5 second cast. 9 second cooldown. This heal is slightly weaker than MP, but it is your core heal. Once talented it not only heals, it also increases the target's armor, adds our only HoT, and reduces the cost of the next MP to 2 Ammo. That means for 4 Ammo (the cost as MP + 1) and a slightly longer cast time, you get the heal from AP, the heal from MP, the heal from the HoT, and the decreased damage intake from the armor boost. Not a bad deal.Bacta Infusion: Free. Instant. 21 second cooldown. Huge free heal limited only by its cooldown. 21 seconds is pretty short. Use it early, use it often!Trauma Probe: 2 Ammo. Instant. No Cooldown. Free reactive heal. This puts 10 charges of a shield on a target, and every time the target takes damage they get healed. It isn't a large heal per charge, but it's free and it adds up substantially over time.Kolto Bomb: 2 Ammo. Instant. 6 second cooldown. Our only AoE heal. Limited to only heal 4 targets, but has a low cooldown. Talented, it also provides a 3% buff to healing received.Kolto Bomb doesn't heal the 4 most injured, it heals the 4 closest to the center of the targeting circle, so getting it to hit the 4 people who need it most in a cluster during Operations is generally impossible. The increase in target-cap does increase the odds of healing the people who need it, though, and makes AoE healing in FPs easier as well.Field Aid: 1 Ammo. Cures Physical and Tech Effects. With the Psych Aid skill it also cures Mental effects and provides a (very) small heal.Hammer Shot: Free. Instant. No cooldown. When using Combat Support Cells as your ammo type, you can use this to target people as a very small heal while letting ammo regen.SWTOR skill trees are all pretty straightforward, without a lot in the way of options, so this build shouldn't be much of a surprise.I highly recommend taking Muzzle Fluting. The changes to Charged Bolt make it free during SCC now by default, so the faster cast time lets you fit more of them in during SCC. With the increase in Ammo costs for AP/MP spam, you can't afford to spam it as much during SCC, so weaving in Charged Bolts will help you maintain Ammo and meet enrage timers.The increase in Ammo costs also re-raises the concern about Alacrity interaction with Effective Cost. Some more modeling needs to be done to assess that answer properly, but the No Alacrity Build may help if you are having trouble with Ammo management.Optional Skills in the above build are discussed below. If a skill isn't mentioned, it is pretty much essential and there is no reason you should ever not take it.I have seen a lot of hate towards Kolto Bomb, and some of it is warranted. Per person, and correcting for cooldowns and duration, KB heals for 52% of the HPS of Sage's Salvation. Capped at 4 players, this means we can AoE heal for half of what a Sage can in 4-man content, but if we want to cover 8 people in an Operation, we can only do 26% of a Sage. On the other hand, we can cast it on the move, and it is cheap enough to be used nearly every cooldown. KB is absolutely worth taking, especially as we have no other AoE options and single-target healing 8 people is not Ammo efficient anymore.The only stats you should be concerned with are Aim, Surge, Critical, Power, and Alacrity. Endurance comes for free, so don't worry about it, and the other stats are for other classes.Aim: Provides increases to ranged damage and critical chance, tech damage and critical chance, and healing power and critical chance.Critical Rating increases the chance you will have a critical effect from damage or healing abilities. This increases the effect by 50% plus the bonus from your Surge rating.Surge rating increases the bonus on critical effects.Power increases the base damage/healing of your abilities. Power affects all of your abilities, Tech Power is exactly the same, but only benefits Tech abilities, such as healing.Alacrity makes cast times faster. Cast time abilities cast faster. Channeled abilities take less total time, with the ticks coming faster. Unlike in some other games, this does not increase the number of ticks of any HoT/DoT abilities or the rate they tick. This also is the only stat with negatives associated, specifically it makes abilities more expensive. This happens because an ability with a cast or channel time has an Effective Cost that increases as the ability casts faster, defined as:(Effective Cost) = (Base Cost) - (Resources Regenerated While Casting)By casting faster, you decrease the Resources Regenerated, resulting in a higher Effective Cost. This can make chain casting more costly, and cause you to drop into medium regen with a high alacrity build when the same casting rotation would not have done so in a low alacrity build. Previous to 1.2, this was offset by the increase in free time where you could recharge, but with lowered throughput in 1.2 it remains to be seen if there will be sufficient free time to support high alacrity builds.For now, I will just give general recommendations. Aim generally comes free with no tradeoff options. Otherwise, current modification and enhancement options give the decisions of Power vs Crit and Surge vs Alacrity.Until I can get the new simulator fully functional, I will simply recommend getting your crit to ~30-35%, then Power > Crit. Surge > Alacrity, although it hits stiff DR penalties once you start getting above 200 Surge Rating. Above that, you can experiment with Alacrity and see how it treats you.I will provide better recommendations once more post-1.2 data is available.I will provide more guidance on Alacrity post-1.2 once we have more data and modeling available. For now, my instinct says that we won't have the downtime necessary to make the speed vs power trade-off we made in 1.2 for successful high-Alacrity builds. Until more data is available, I recommend focusing on making your heals hit as hard as possible, not as fast as possible.Obviously, I'm not going to make a Best in Slot list, as those are annoying to keep up.However, crafted gear is worth addressing. When you RE green crafted gear, it can gain one of three prefixes: Redoubt (+defense), Critical (+crit) or Overkill (+power). If you RE those blues, they can gain one of five second stats: Presence, Shield, Alacrity, Surge, and Accuracy. Presence only boosts your companions, and is useless in group play. Based on the above stat priorities, it can be seen that only two combinations are of any value.Expert Gear: Power + SurgeEndowment Gear: Critical + SurgeSince the power vs crit debate is still open and will likely be a matter of preference even after the math is in, I'm not going to make a call about which of those two to use, but obviously there is better synergy with the Endowment gear. Take whichever works better for you.As of Patch 1.2, you can get crafted orange gear with augment slots. You should be pulling the armoring, mods, and enhancements out of your set gear and putting them in these crafted orange items with a +Power augment.We are going to have to make some adjustments in 1.2 from how we played before.First, the basics:Now for some specific issues:Sheridyn - error corrections to the skill calculatorLileth - an alternate build and pvp adviceDashall - PvP adviceProctor - assumption corrections and GCD informationRaani, maxbaby, Moobi, and Serialx for testing of the C++ calculator Brushing off the dust on my Assault Cannon. Time to get back in the fight.