Commando Archive

I tried this template on testcenter and had a decent amount of luck with it. I usually wind up providing most of the healing support for people in my guild, (most of whom like to run out of healing range *grumble*), so it seemed logical in-character. When everything lands the way it's supposed to, the fire DOTs from the cm deuterium toss and the flamer stack veddy, veddy nicely. Top that off with infect/poison for additional health wounds, and commando-scale damage, and someone's going to have a bad day. The debuffing abilities you get from CM are also useful since they can be used to slow your target's movement rate, make them more vulnerable to state effects (ala blind from your acid weapons ), and mess with their action/mind regenerations. I read somewhere this morning that they increased the effect that these specials had in live. Defenses were decent, and you get full certs for battle and assault armor. The major drawbacks I found were not having scout or terrain nav. abilities, and, really, having too many abilities to choose from. All in all, i think this will give you a decent heavy hitter who can play a hella support role. Just be careful with the medic hate system. Creatures now target the heaviest hitter in the group and will consider any damage you heal as damage done directly to it. This'll require a bit more tactical planning on your part so that you don't get overwhelmed because you're hitting for a lot of damage AND picking up a lot of hate for healing.

I do recommend picking up another profession for a few specials and defense points, otherwise, you won't be using your commando skills to (i think) their full potential. The only lines I was able to try out were in carbineer (various combos) and the line in pistoleer that gives you stopping shot. And, if you think about it, both of these also work well with the aforementioned CM abilities since both carbs and pistol abilities allow you to control your target's movement rate. I had decent accuracy and defense mods with both variations. However, since it sounds like you want to save a good number of points for FS stuff and may not want to go for another elite profession, I'd suggest you pick up another couple of boxes in basic marksman if for no other reason than to get a special or two.

hope this helps some