Combat Medic Guide

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bZbfRMRbcdkqZrco.1

This is the build I use on Squidopus (formerly Blain).

med zone? i dunno. i don't use that in my build. treated wound dressing seems more effective to me, permanent 4% damage reduction means i need less healing in the long haul. but thats just me. med zone is active how often?

Can we get screenshots of your builds paw and squid?

Paw is 100% right. Don't know why I had those points in there. Doing spec's from memory is bad. Edited first post to show the ACTUAL spec I use.

Commando - Combat Medic (WORKING, This is old and will be brought up to date as necessary)

The combat medic is an interesting healing class. Unlike the typical healer, a combat medic can take a lot of punishment and deal a fair amount of damage. This class is very versatile so it can be tempting to fire off a mortar volley instead of throwing a heal out, however you will lack the "big" heals that are seen by truly dedicated healers (sages) so the combat medic must focus on the fight 20 seconds in the future instead of the right now.

Prior to getting into the details of healing as a combat medic understand that the Sage class is designed as the "traditional" squishy healer. Big heals, but can't take a hit well.The combat medic is a proficient single target healer with a nice AOE heal for a closely grouped fight. The downside to Commando healing is the slow progression of the healing tree and abilities. Until end-game, there aren't any big instant heals for the Commando and many heavily used abilities aren't available or very effective until around level 20-25. Don't get discouraged at early attempts to heal as Combat Medics are very versatile group members and have a lot to offer in terms of healing.

The key factor for a combat medic is ammo control. Each of your abilities will eat at your ammo. If you run out of ammo someone is going to die. Controlling your ammo levels is crucial and spamming medical probe is a great way to run out before the fight is even close to being over. Remember the CD on Recharge Cells is very long, so if it is used too early you won't get much of a benefit from it. Timing your Medical Probes is key to being a viable healer long into fights. Also, don't worry about trying to keep everyone at 100% health. It is okay to hover in the 50-60% range without fear. Look for who is actively taking big damage and focus big heals on that toon, and throw your hammer shot out on those taking periodic damage.

Important Attributes:

Aim: Aim is the primary attribute of the Trooper. Points in aim increase overall effectiveness of the heals including critical chances and damage/healing numbers.

Endurance: This stat is important because it lets you live longer. The big debate with Endurance follows along two lines. The first is that a healer shouldn't be getting hit often if they have a good group, the second is that endurance leads to survivability in areas where a healer could take a lot of damage. Personally, I would never sacrifice another stat for more endurance. Looking at PvE endgame scenarios the healer shouldn't take anymore damage than normal group damage.

Crit: A critical hit increases the damage/healing done to the target. The higher your crit is the more often you will land a critical heal. Crit is very important for a healer as a critical heal can turn a barely surviving group member into a very healthy one.

Tech Power: This attribute affects the base amount of damage/healing done for each Trooper ability. The higher this number is the more each heal/damage abilities do per use.

Alacrity: Alacrity is a haste function. A high alacrity score reduces the cast time on abilities. This affects things like medical probe, which has a three second cast time, but not instant abilities like Kolto Bomb. So don't sacrifice attributes like Crit for alacrity. This may also reduce global cooldown times for non-instant abilities.

Surge: Increases the critical bonus for scoring a critical hit. This stat won't come into play early in the game but will matter for end-game and PvP.

Important Abilities:
Combat Support Cell: This ability, achieved at level 14 is a must. When this cell is on you get bonus healing and your hammer shot now heals a friendly target. More importantly you gain "charges" with use of certain abilities while this cell is active. These are important for reasons listed later.

Advanced Medical Probe: This ability provides a quick mid-level heal and has a short cooldown. It is good in situations where you don't have time for a full medical probe, but need something more than hammer shot. Additionaly, the Field Triage skill causes the Advanced Medical Probe to reduce the ammo cost of your medical probe making your fight longevity increase dramatically.

Medical Probe: This is your main big heal ability. The medical probe cast time is somewhat long so it isn't an emergency heal. Expect to drop this on any toon that gets close to the 50% mark.

Kolto Bomb: This is the AOE heal for the trooper. This is effective when all party members are grouped close together. It produces a green cloud which scares new players away so make them aware that green gas clouds are good.

Supercharge Cells: This tier 2 talent allows you to buff specific abilities. Each use of Hammer Shot or Medical Probe (with talents) generates three charges. At 30 charges Supercharge Cell can be activated. The main healer feature of this is used with Kolto Bomb. When applied, the next Kolto Bomb will also produce a damage mitigation shield around all players within the radius. This shield allows the medic to "catch up" on heals and throw out a few big heals on those who need it while the shield eats their incoming damage.

Trauma Probe: Provides a 10 charge healing bubble around the friendly target that will heal them for a small amount whenever they are hit. This is a useful damage mitigation technique, but watch it carefully because those 10 charges run out quickly.

Bacta Infusion: This is the only big instant heal for the trooper.

Builds:
31/8/2 Heavy Medic Build
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bfRMRbcdkqZrcoZb.1
Achieves instant single target heal and increases crit chance of heals. Also increases amount of ammo from recharge cells.

Techniques:
A good healer will account for their group early in the fight. This means they must find out if the tank is good at grabbing aggro, if the DPS likes to pull aggro, and how well the group can take damage. The type of tank you are working with will usually determine the flow of the fight. Always talk to your group. Some tanks are very good about controlling the fight, but if they are quiet feel free to tell the group to keep close together and focus fire. It makes group healing much easier.

As a general rule of thumb remember the following techniques:
1. Always use Advanced Medical Probe before Medical Probe if it isn't on CD. The "Field Triage" talent procs very often and will make your Medical Probe only cost 1 ammo point so you will have more ammo more often.
2. If you have a non-tank party member that takes small amounts of consistent damage during fights feel free to use your Trauma Probe on them instead of the tank. This allows the healer to focus on the main tank and just throw the occasional heal on the wayward DPS.
3. Put the "Combat" in combat medic. Troopers are great single target healers and many boss fights will have a single enemy target, and most trash pulls won't do much damage to a party. Trooper healers have the unique ability to lay down some decent DPS even when using support cell. So if you notice the party isn't taking damage don't hesitate to go full auto and pwn some mobs or toss a grenade or two at a boss.
4. Spam hammer shot. Whether shooting at a mob or healing a party member always build up your charges for use with the Supercharge Cells talent.

Specific techniques depend on the type of group you are working with. Take the following as a baseline:
Good Tank: This tank is good at pulling aggro from every mob on themselves. SWTOR is fond of it's multi-mob fights, so occasionally a mob won't aggro on the tank and instead it will find the next highest threat toon, usually the healer. In my experience, Vanguards provide some of the best tanking because they can range pull mob's off of other members of the group. Additionally, they will be wearing heavy, endurance buffing, armor and can take a hit well. If the medic is healing a "good tank" they can expect to see a lot of burst damage up front so expect to spam medical probe on the tank at first and throw in Advanced Medical Probe when it is off of CD to account for the Field Triage talent. Make sure to throw out hammer shots on other players throughout the fights to build up charges.

Other than good tanks: These are the tanks that have trouble focusing on anymore than one or two mobs at a time. In this scenario you have someone, like a Jedi Guardian, who jumps into a fight, grabs aggro from two or three closely spaced mobs and forgets the other ones off to the side, outside the range of their AOE attack. In this case these ranged entities will almost always aggro on you, the healer. When this happens pop reactive shield and make sure you stay close to the tank. Use Medical Probe and Advanced medical probe on yourself and the tank as needed and use Kolto bombs as they become available. Typically, after the tank handles his first few targets, he will realize you are in trouble and help you out. Expect health for most players to drop below 50 in these fights and do you best to keep the tank and yourself alive.

Multiple tanks: Sometimes, a player in the group will act as a second tank. As a combat medic it is easier for you to focus on one group member, but in this case you now have to focus on two. The second tank may not be a "real" tank and instead eats damage taking the focus off the main tank. In this scenario always focus on keeping your main tank above 50% but as long as the MT is there, all other heals go to the "off-tank". Eventually the MT will kill their target(s) and take on the mob the off-tank has chosen.

Shield is active for like 12 seconds, and has a 2 minute cool down.