Combat Medic Archive
Thread: CM's What R they? VOTE!
There seems to be a big divide on what role the Combat Medic should play.
One side believes they are support. Doing group heals and keeping the combat types up and fighting. (Lets not worry about the mind damage stuff right now)
One side believes that Combat is the first word in the title meaning they should be able to fight like a combat class. (Lets not discuss PVP or LOS right now)
I feel that if we can define the role of the Combat Medic as we the players feel it should be.We can focus or discussions on how the Dev's can make the class more enjoyable to play.
Please Just a start at the Top of your Post. COMBAT or SUPPORT and a short(short) statement of why if you like.
PS If you are not a Combat Medic PLEASE Do not vote!
Thanks.
It's very simple to me. We are a combat medic. Meaning we do combat and we do medic. I don't see how (just from looking at the title) someone could just take one and not the other. We are combat; we have offensive abilities - a means to deal out damage to others. We are medic; we have healing capabilites - a means to repair damage to others. We are both; a hybrid class formed from skill sets of different disciplines.
We are mostly a defensive combat class; our weapons are DoTs and guard-type skills. If you take one gander at the Ranged Weapon Support tree you will see that all of those skills granted are of the defensive type. Perfect for crowd control. Meaning we should not be in the frontlines. We are a ranged class. We hang in the back to deal damage from afar and our ranged stimpacks let us be kept in the back. Let the brawlers get bloody, they know they are safe if you are safe ready to throw that blue glowing ball of love.
This works on both the realms of the PvP and the PvE. First, when fighting creatures we have the ability to throw an area-effect poison. Gas clouds aplenty. Of course, what you have there is a bunch of angry mobs heading for your neck ready to gut you in a flash but that is where our Guardsman skills come into play. Pick your skill of choice (defending on number and toughness of the mobs) and delay their approach, be it be warning shot or suppression fire. (there are uses for both in different situations) Delay them enough and your poison/disease stacked with a bleeding shot from your weapon of choice will make quick work of them. I highly recommend pistol. For fighting creatures in groups, well all you really need to do is keep an eye on your "self-appointed" tanks, whether they're actually suited for the job is another matter, and keep them alive when necessary. Remember, you always come first in your healing list. If you're dead, no one is there to keep your "tanks" alive. Also, I believe it is a waste to use poisons while in a group but to each his own. Poisons drains your mind too. Sometimes your medic half is more important than your combat half and it really shows in groups.
You are your own appointed bodyguard. Do not in any situation rely on others to help you out when in danger. Your first order of business when aggroed upon and being hit is to get the critter off your skin.
For PvP, you are just another damage dealer if you are alone (I do not recommend this in anyway. Going solo is not your job in terms of war. Let a commando go solo but if you are a combat medic, you are just going to waste). Similar to grouped PvE situations, PvP situations calls for some healing. I suggest to not constantly do this in PvP. Only when there is a call for it and that you gain a lot of benefit by healing that person. PvP is a messy affair. The lagand the chaos can get to some people. Most can't handle it.
Anyway, good luck to ya. We will see you on the battlefield.
Support. We are medics who can heal better than any other profession during combat. Ranged + ae heals gives us this ability. Since range is our biggest asset, I think it should be increased slightly. I seeCM's as traditional clerics/healers. You can't be the best healer in the game and expect to have great weapon skills. We should have more support skills.
We are a hybrid class and thus should have the benefits of spending the 3rd most skillpoints in the game. We should be equally as effective as a pistoleer/rifleman/carbineer since we spend more points to become our profession. toss in our ability to heal, and we become a worthwhile hybrid class. watching a master pistoleer being far more powerful for far less effort than I truly disheartens me
some picked the class for ranged and ae heals and some picked the class for dots and aedots.
i for one and an offensive combat medic. when dots are coupledwith my carbine ( which is ae happy) i can lay down some serious action damage or a combination of action and mind damage. while applying ae knockdown and dizzies.
my ability to heal is nice but i mostly use it in downtime or when it gets really hairy.
were it not for the dots in combat medic i probably would have stopped in medic. ( without the useless diagnostic line)
But it's just as easy to throw bacta-grenades, so we *CAN* do that if we have to.
If you wanna heal, be a doctor.
Lemme play it the way I want to play it.
If I want to heal, give me the tools to heal. If I want to dish out some damage, gimme the tools to do that as well. We shouldn't make it a cookie-cutter class, like many of the other classes are. The class should be able to do both effectively, but NOT by relying on our other skills. I shouldn't need sufficient Doctor skills to heal well, and I shouldn't have to master Rifleman to be able to hit for some damage. But the second I'm told that my class is a support class by design, or combat class, that's the second I stop playing. I'm not in this to play my character the way somebody else wants me to play it.
From a PvE perpective, we are combat support. IMO, our power lies when we group with people.
When soloing, I would muchrather stack Action Shot 1with Action Shot 2 bleeds than chuck an Action poison. Although poisons do stack with bleeds, I find the posture down effect of the Action shots (and shooting things with my carbine) more efficent than wasting an attack trying to apply a poison. That said, my CM skills does nothing for me while soloingin PvE. All of my soloing power comes from me being a Carbineer/Medic.
In small groups (5 or less people), I tend to play the role of a primary damage dealer; only healing people and pets when they are about to bite it, or during some misc downtime.
My style of play in mid-size groups (~6-10 people) depends on the group dynamic. Some groups aremore aggressive than others;I won't commenton their play style... only thatthey require more healing 
In larger groups (10+ people), I am the primary healer. I will do my best to keep my group mates alive (and topped off). Rather than have each member worry about their own health (and stimming on their own), I figured that if I constantly heal everyone withan AOE stim, everyone can just keep happily fighting. As such,the group's DPS increases. One lesshealing action taken by a group member = 1 more attack for the group, and 1 of my AOE heals = x number of healing actions required by the group as a whole.
Besides, there's nothing like the healing spam you get when you heal large numbers of people with 1 action. My personal best was 1 or 2 days at Fort Tusken after the big patch (when AOE stims finally started towork as advertised). ~43 healing messages with 1 AOE stim... Now, that's power.
I don't understand what the confusion is all about.I guess some people need to look up the word 'medic'. As in a person dealing with medical duties. Medical meaning relating to medicine. Medicine meaning the science of healing andcuringillnesses, diseases, and wounds.
Looking over the skill point costs, I see the points some of you are trying to make. A master pistoleer can get master medic totalling 183. A master combat medic with a weapon specialization also costs 183. So you basically people wantpoison + weapon spec to equal damage a pistoleer can dish out? But a combat medic can use ranged stim E's, ae stims, diseases, and poisons. Seems fair to me the way it is now.
We are not Combat MEDICs or COMBAT medics...
i think most people fail to see how perfect a weapon the Dots are for the CM class...
As a doctor or a medic, one has to choose between 2 things...healing or attack...healing takes the place of a attack...so u chose to do damage or you heal...
as a CM u have a fire and forget weapon which lets u both attack and heal. You spend one attack to apply a poison that attacks every 8 secs in your stead...hence u no longer have to decide between healing and attacking because u are doing both...
I can dish out damage while healing without having to decide because im doing it both...
the dot attacks for me while I heal...
so in essence you dont have to choose between the two...
now the real crux of the issuecome with what profession you choose to complement CM...in this way a CM with elite combat class is going to be a front line combatant damage dealer not because of his CM abilities but because of his combat abilities. There is no elite combat class in this game right now that cant kill faster then a CM using only dots. If a CM chooses to go doctor, then they are even more of a support class because of lack of offensive capabilities...howeveru will add much more benefits to the grp you are with...
but just looking at CM alone...it is not a solo combat class...we have nothing in our linethat gives us pumped out damage special moves...killing someone with poisons over 30-40 secs is not upfront damagedealing...but just because we are not a solo combat class does not mean we are not a combat class and strictly a medicclass...
so the great thing about CM is u dont have to choose if u are combat or support cuz u are both
I am new to the profession but as I see it Cm should have an equal ballance between healing and DoTs. however when SOE beginsmaking the elite elite professions CM should be a spring board to 2 dofferent professions: a profession which is proficent in healing during combat, and one which is the master of DoTs.
SinceI am new I can't reallysay how effective the poisons are but I have tried using teh A poisons and it did 24 dmg. 24 dmg!!!! I can punch for a better damage output andI dont even have novice brawler, I just hope the other poisons are better.
This class is played however you wanna play it.. personally I play mine as a COMBAT medic.. and I toss occasional area stims (as these are great you can heal someone else.. yourself.. and other people with 1 action (that you would of used to stim yourself anyhow..) Making a COMBAT medic, or a combat MEDIC class.. would be stupid and very cookie cutterish.
the more i think about it...
i think with adding LOS to dots...the devs have decided that we should be a front line combat class...
otherwise why give use a short range unhealable AOE attack?!