SWTOR 6.0 Sawbones Scoundrel PvE Guide by Xelthìa

This is a Complete SWTOR Sawbones Scoundrel 6.0+ Guide for PvE. It’s suitable for both beginner players and more advanced and experienced veterans, who seek to improve their performance! Written for VULKK.com by Xelthìa (previously known as Kamiala)

UPDATED FOR PATCH 6.2.1

Introduction to Sawbones

Sawbones is a relatively easy to use but hard to master healer specialization, possibly the hardest of the three choices available in the game. It relies heavily on abilities that do heal over time (HoTs) and Area of Effects (AoE), given that it is its strongest in comparison to Sage and Commando, although it lacks in the capability to heal on demand, being inferior to the other two in that regard.

On this guide I am going to show what kind of stats, gearing to take it, how to make use of and maintaining the heals as efficiently as possible during fights, and other tips that will help learning most of the bits of this specialization. Enjoy!

Gearing and Stats

I am going to give a brief explanation on how Stats/Amplifiers/Bonus Sets/Tacticals generally work, along with brief description how to reach the Best In Slot on the gearing, in terms of mods and the like.

Caution regarding gear:

1. All End-Game gear, Armorings, Mods and Enhancements are Legacy bound now, meaning that its not restricted to one character alone, unlike previous expansions.
2. When buying gear, you have to be careful, since it cannot be refunded at the vendors once bought. The grinding to obtain the gear is easy but doesn’t mean that it can be just shrugged off. Other things, as for example, amplifiers are a massive a credit sink.

Stats

Earpiece and Implants will be considered as Enhancement, as they generally have the same tertiary stats (Critical/Alacrity).

I am currently using 286 but I will provide the closest I can to BiS as much as I can, including the new 300 and the old 228 augment versions.

Relics will usually be the ones that give Mastery (Focused Retribution) and Power (Serendipitous Assault) buffs, although the Critical (Devastating Vengeance) can still be picked, but it is not exactly recommended. For capped content, the Relics to use are the Critical (Devastating Vengeance and Alacrity ( Primeval Fatesealer).

Crystals will be the +41 critical stat (Eviscerating)

Builds in this guide will not include Enhancements that are not Adept (Critical) or Nimble (Alacrity) although if someone wants with other type and is requested, please ask in the comments of this guide.  – Must have the companion bonuses. It is highly recommended to have them otherwise some stats won’t be correct. Screenshot below to check what I mean. It can be found in the legacy window on the Global Unlocks Tab, following with Imperial Classes/Republic Classes

The example in the screenshot, Imperial Agent players (Sniper/Operative) need to finish Scorpio story companion and/or max affection to have access to the bonus from her. It gives exactly 1% extra on accuracy, and other companions give other buffs, like +1% critical rating and so on. It is not accumulative with other companions from other classes.

Gearing in PvE is more complicated compared to PvP, given that the range of stats have a great variation, and that same variation has to do with using points between Alacrity Rating and Critical Rating. The range of Alacrity goes between 2200 and 3700 and every other possible stat point going to Critical. The reason for this is due to the balance between having higher frequency of critical heals and critical surge(how high the critical healing can go) of same heals and how fast the ticks and energy regen are. The preference of most tend to be the ‘standard’ +3208, which I also go for, but others go for numbers between that range but that comes to preference (placebo perhaps?). As per request, I updated the guide to include a few +2200 buids in gear.

• +2200 for Alacrity (1,4 seconds global cooldown but the time of channeling abilities will be shorter than the usual if they were stuck on 1,4s but longer if you would go for 1,3s);
• Everything else goes for Critical Rating

OR

• +3208 for 2^nd Alacrity threshold (1,3 seconds global cooldown);
• Everything else goes for Critical Rating;

 Below it will be displayed how the stats can be achieved, in different stats.

• The best Mods on 6.0, at the moment, are the unlettered R-2, unlettered R-3 and unlettered R-5 but other versions work just fine, and thus, they won’t be mentioned below;
• The best Armorings, Barrels and Hilts are the unlettered and either unnumbered or R-1 versions.

Medium Alacrity with High Crit

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 74 (Rating 286):

Alacrity – 2200+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200)

Build 2

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200
• 1 Augments (+108 each)

Build 3

• 4 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it to 2200)
• 5 Augments (+108 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats:

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version / Implants and Earpiece are best recommended)
• Any Augment slots left (+108 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)
• Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 77 (Rating 300):

• Alacrity – 2200+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200)

Build 2

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200)
• 1 Augments (+130 each)

Build 3

• 4 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it to 2200)
• 4 Augments (+130 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats:

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version / Implants and Earpiece are best recommended)
• Any Augment slots left (+130 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)
• Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 45 (Rating 228):

Alacrity – 2200+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200)

Build 2

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 2200)
• 1 Augments (+130 each)

Build 3

• 4 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it to 2200)
• 4 Augments (+130 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats:

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version / Implants and Earpiece are best recommended)
• Any Augment slots left (+96 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)

Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

High Alacrity with Medium Crit

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 74 (Rating 286):

Alacrity – 3208+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 6 Augments (+108 each)

Build 2

• 7 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 2 Augments (+108 each)

Build 3

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it to 3208)
• 10 Augments (+108 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats :

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version / Implants and Earpiece are best recommended)
• Any Augment slots left (+108 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)
• Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 77 (Rating 300):

Alacrity – 3208+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 5 Augments (+130 each)

Build 2

• 7 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 2 Augments (+130 each)

Build 3

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 9 Augments (+130 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats :

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version)
• Any Augment slots (+130 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)
• Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

Gear in 306 rating + Advanced Augments 45 (Rating 228):

Alacrity – 3208+:

Build 1

• 6 Enhancements (+431 each – Can poke with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208)
• 7 Augments (+96 each)

Build 2

• 7 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208 but not recommended here)
• 2 Augments (+96 each)

Build 3

• 5 Enhancements (+431 each – Can tinker with other versions R-X to make it closer to 3208 but not recommended here)
• 11 Augments (+96 each)

Critical ( This is already the BiS ) – Rest of the stats :

• Any Enhancement slots left (+431 – Unlettered and Unnumbered version)
• Any Augment slots left (+96 each)
• Crystals (+41 each)
• Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim (+109) (Only use this if one wants to stack full crit)

Amplifiers

Right from the get-go, I will say that if anything outside of these two Amplifiers picked, there will be a loss of potential Heal output, and even still, only one is truly recommended. The choice here goes between MedTech and Periodic Restoration. Which one is better? Lets put that question on the side for now and we will evaluate each.

It is true that Sawbones Scoundrel is a heavily focused heals over time (HoT) specialization and on the first hand, the logical choice would be to go for the Periodic Restoration Amplifiers, which give 2.20% each Armor mod and +0.88% with the one Amplified Champion armor piece, making it a total of 20.68% increase. A massive boost considering that around 65% – 70% of all healing from Scoundrel healer comes as a HoT. However, it is not 100%. I would say that, despite that aspect, it remains as the strongest amplifier. More so because the other heal abilities (Underworld Medicine, Kolto Pack, Emergency Medpac and Kolto Waves) represent a smaller chunk of the total healing in the end of the fights.

With what was said about Periodic Restoration and the fact that it does not affect all the healing abilities, would that make picking Med Tech is more of a viable choice her? I could say that but it is not the case. Still it isn’t something to be overlooked anyway. It is less viable but going for this is means that you intend to bolster all the healing abilities, regardless of them being affected by the Periodic Restoration or not. When maxed out, Med Tech can stack up to 9,40% increase of the output for 100% healing abilities., 1% per Armor mod and 0,40% for the Amplified Champion piece.

However, there is also the pick between mixing these together, which is a valid possibility. However, this is dwelling into a lot of testing between failure/success and you feel about it.

Now, we come back to the question made earlier. Which is better? The theory and math dictates that Periodic Restoration is better, and honestly it is. Like I said, your healing will come, in majority, in heal over time rather than any other type and buffing that aspect just makes everything better. Even if MedTech buffs everything, it does so to a smaller degree. Your HoTs will do less healing in general in trade do more on the other non-HoT ones. My recommendation is to go for Periodic Restoration. You will perform better with this. Even though my personal preference still goes for full Med Tech still since I just prefer all my abilities to be buffed in the end and to have a stronger burst healing. That and since I play a bit more PvP than PvE, and rerolling amplifiers is expensive, so I just stick to one.

Bonus Sets

I am going to only talk about two sets, those being the Tactician and Aggressive Treatment, as there is no purpose for covering other bonus sets, given their niche/underperforming utility. Also, now that I am in topic, when you pick one bonus set, always go for 6 pieces of each + 1 of Amplified Champion so you can take advantage of the Amplifier bonus it gives.

Tactician
Effect 2p: +2% Mastery. 4p: Hot Streak additionally resets the cooldown of Tendon Blast and Triage. Gaining a Upper Hand increases your critical chance by 10% for 10 seconds. Can only happen once every 18 seconds. 6p: Upper Hand gets an additional stack. Having a Upper Hand increases your damage and healing by 5%.
Recommendation The main set for Scoundrel Healing. Increasing Critical chance by 10% for 10 seconds every 18 seconds is a big yes. The player will have this buff 60% up all the time. The increased healing by 5% for having one Upper Hand is permanent, which is also a big help. And the reset on the cleanse if a good niche that comes along with it, when using Hot Streak. And the second bonus is the 6p. The additional Upper Hand, bumping it from 3 to 4, is actually a big thing, as we can spare one more for quick spam of heals, rather than planning out on what to use ahead.

Aggressive Treatment
Effect 2p: +2% Mastery. 4p: Removes the energy cost for Bushwhack. 6p: Bushwhack heals any allies standing inside it.
Recommendation This bonus set is close second to Tactician when it comes to performance. It is a straight downgrade, given that its niche use exploits in increasing AOE heal on demand by using your AOE attack, which gives healing comparable to Kolto Waves. And, in all honesty, its fun to use, but that is my opinion. Like I said, compared to Tactician, you are going to lose every buff in trade for the already mentioned extra AOE heal, which in theory, it does not sound like a great idea, but it will solely depend how you use it, and that means there is potential to be better. Just like the 4p describes, Bushwhack will not have Energy Cost, but it will still need 1 stack of Upper Hand to be casted. Do not get mistaken in this regard. The upside of this is that it helps massively regarding energy management, when also counting the 6p, but then again, you should not be struggling in energy when playing Sawbones Scoundrel. The 6p, at first, sounds goods, and honestly, it does give quite the decent output on its own (about 20% to 25% less than Kolto Waves), and it is on a relatively short cooldown, can be used at a distance (perk from Sawbones Scoundrel Specialization) and it is not channelled either, unlike Kolto Waves, it can be put it on any place and heals anything inside it. With all this said, there are still three problems when using this set. First, like previously mentioned, its weaker in prowess when compared to Tactician in basically every way, you lose the buffs that it provides and it can affect your play over a very long time; Second is that it still costs Upper Hand to cast Bushwhack although proper management can mitigate this part; Third and last, is related to the fact that the player will be limited to 3 Upper Hand Stacks with this set and pairing it up with Regenerative Waves ( Kolto Waves Tactical ) can be detrimental to your management of Tactical Advantage but good use of UHs should circumvent this problem anyway.

Tacticals

On this topic, only four Tacticals will be covered, as the others, class specific or not, are useless for healer guide. However, unlike in the other Sawbones guide, all of them have good buffs attached to them, which can’t usually be exploited in PvP.

Critical Surgery
Effect Emergency Medpac always critically heals targets below 50% health. Source: Increased drop chance from defeating Flashpoint bosses.
Recommendation One of the two “main” Tacticals that are usually picked. It’s the one that bolsters the single target healing, by providing autocrit heals when the groupmate or you are below 50% health. There’s really not much outside that but it still provides quite the good healing.

Regenerative Waves
Effect Kolto Waves consumes a Upper Hand and heals 20% more per tick.
Recommendation It’s the other of the “main” Tacticals. This one, unlike in PvP, is powerful, as it increases what the specialization of Sawbones is already good at, and that is AOE Healing but it comes at a cost of a Upper Hand which demands you to watch your stacks of it. The rules to use it, however, remain the same. Only when there’s more than one player to heal. Of course, in PvE, that will happen far more often, given that you want to optimize your healing output. Outside that scenario, it is still a “worse” tactical than the first one, but worth the use, nonetheless.

Combat Medic Training
Effect Hearttrigger Patch becomes an instant cast and Kolto Pack can be cast while moving.
Recommendation This one bolsters your mobility quite a lot. It is the fact that it requires to be crafted, and usually expensive in terms of mats or price in GTN, along with the fact that it just gives mobility alone is that makes it average though. Still worth to get for those fights that force you to move a lot around to avoid mechanics.

Diagnostics Probe
Effect Activating Emergency Medpac reduces the activation time of the next Underworld Medicine by 0.25 seconds. At 3 stacks, Underworld Medicine activates instantly and consumes all stacks. Source: Increased drop chance from defeating Operation bosses.
Recommendation Curiously enough, this one is pretty good, as it offers instant Underworld Medicine, however it forces the player to just ‘waste’ 3 Upper Hands on Emergency Medpacs to get 1 of that. However, the fact it also decreases cast on 1 or 2 stacks as Emergency Medpacs can make a good difference.

Utilities

This category in the guide is structured by recommendations.

Skillful

Recommended

-> Scar Tissue: Increases damage reduction by 5%.

Damage reduction for everything is always nice, even if it is a small amount, still affects in every type of damage taken.

-> Smuggled Get-up: Reduces all area of effect damage taken by 30%.

Always useful since most of the fights will include a bucket load of AOE damage. If anything, most, if not all, bosses have a form of AOE attack that will catch you.

-> Sneaky: Increases movement speed by 15% and effective stealth level by 3

The added speed bonus can help with reaching certain parts of the map area, but still it’s the only good stuff there is about the utility. Others don’t show much utility either.

Situational

-> Dirty Escape: Reduces the cooldown of Dirty Kick by 15 seconds.

Can be useful to have good control on some NPC actions and relieve some pressure away from your groupmates or even save them by giving some time to heal someone back up. Still, not any better than the ones on the Recommended.

-> Curbing Strategies: Quick Shot and Lacerating Blast reduce the movement speed of targets they damage by 40% for 6 seconds. In addition, when Flash Bang ends it leaves behind Flash Powder that reduces the target’s accuracy by 20% for 8 seconds.

The accuracy debuff is the useful attribute in this utility. One any NPC that can be CC’d, means you will temper with the accuracy of them. It won’t affect anything that has immunity to stuns.

Useless

-> Let loose: Lacerating Blast deals 25% more damage

If you play Sawbones, then it is to play as a healer, not as a DPS. This is purely a DPS utility. And even if it was to help, the energy cost is quite high for its use.

-> Holdout Defense: Striking a target with Blaster Whip or Bludgeon grants Holdout Defense, increasing your movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds

Same as the one before, even though it has a very, very specific use to kit. However, if you want to kite, just roll away.

-> Anatomy Lessons: Reduces the energy cost of Dirty Kick and Tendon Blast by 5 and makes Tendon Blast immobilize the target for 2 seconds

Yet another DPS utility, with the only use here is the reduce energy cost of Dirty Kick but then again, the use of it during fights will be rare.

Masterful

Recommended

-> Flee the Scene: Reduces the cooldown of Disappearing Act by 30 seconds and activating Disappearing Act increases movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds

Combat Stealth is used to leave combat entirely when in trouble and having a shorter CD for it is just good. It also helps with having an extra rez on the long run in fights.

-> Keep Cool: Cool Head now immediately restores 15 addition energy

Unlike in PvP, there are times, during Operations, World Boss kills and/or Flashpoints where you will be required to burst heal by spamming Underworld Medicine and this could help out negate some of the heavy energy consumption. Still, given that the specialization is heavy AOE heals and HoTs, so these moments will be rare but never hurts to prepare beforehand.

-> Med Shield: Your Defence Screen heals you for 5% of your maximum health when it collapses

Aside from mitigating damage, the player receives a small healing when it wears out.

Useful

-> Supplemented Medpac: While your Slow-release Medpac is active on yourself, your damage reduction is increased by 3% per stack.

A must-have for Sawbones Scoundrel. One of the must-do things for it is to keep the probes up all the time, and this will automatically let the Scoundrel healer have +6% damage reduction on itself. It won’t apply to others.

Situational

-> Skedaddle: When activated, Disappearing Act grants 2 seconds of Dodge

This utility works to ‘guarantee’ a safe escape after using combat stealth, since it will cleanse anything that Dodge that already can.

-> Dirty Trickster: Surrender purges all movement-impairing effects when activated. Additionally, when Tranquilizer wears off, the target is struck by Sedatives, reducing all damage dealt by 50% for the next 10 seconds

This will only be used to break roots and nothing else. The Tranquilizer effects don’t work on bosses or CC/mez immune bosses. It could help nerfing a troublesome add, which can be affect by this, for a while but outside that, there’s no use for this utility.

Useless

-> Get the Bulge: Tendon Blast will now grant a Upper Hand.

Another useless one. It’s a DPS ability and it has to do with Upper Hand. A resource that you should be swimming on and you have 2 other more reliable ways of gaining them.

-> K.O.: When used from stealth, Backblast and Point Blank Shot interrupt and knock down the target for 3 seconds. Player targets are immobilized for 3 seconds, rather than being knocked down

Yet again, another DPS utility. Instead of using this to root, its best to just hardstun the opponents.

Heroic

Recommended

-> Surprise Comeback: Pugnacity now additionally grants Surprise Comeback restoring 5% of total health every 3 seconds and reducing damage taken by 20% for the duration

Heals 25% of the health along with having damage reduction increase by 20%, along with Upper Hand and extra alacrity. I’d say it is imperative to take this. Even with its long CD, it is extremely useful, as it can relieve you from wasting a few precious global cooldowns on attempting to mitigate/healing the damage taken, giving the opportunity to prioritize healing teammates rather than yourself.

-> Sly Surrender: Surrender grants Sly Surrender, causing your next Slow-release Medpac on a new target to immediately grant two stacks. Additionally, Surrender heals you for 1% of your maximum health every second for 10 seconds and Kolto Pack now initially restores X health and then additionally restores X health over 9 seconds.

A must have for Scoundrel healer. Helps the player out when in trouble by healing 10% over time, it will also let you apply 2 stacks of Slow-release Medpacs on the next time you use them and this aspect helps a lot when losing a bit of control of the probes falling off from groupmates. And turns part of the amount of heals from Kolto Pack into HoTs, which are benefitted in case you are using Periodic Restoration Amplifiers.

Useful

-> Hotwired Defensives: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Defence Screen by 30%

A good utility and it can gain a spot on the choices, but like in the PvP guide, I will have to say that it is regrettable that its on Heroic Tier. Would be a must pick if it was in a lower Tier, since it would be offering a much better mitigation that way, and that is the only reason as to why it is placed as Useful and not as Recommended like the others. Wasted potential here.

Situational

-> Scramble: Every time you get attacked, the active cooldown of your Dodge is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds

It is a strong utility in theory, for Sawbones Scoundrel it is not the case. This offers a reduction on cooldown of your Dodge by 3 seconds every time you are hit, and that means you would have a reliable source to remove dots and other effects effects, and a way to avoid direct damage (ranged/melee, unless stunned). Still, the only few times you’re using this is probably when you are going to pair it with Back At Ya in very specific fights, in order to dish out some damage. Outside that, it will be the tanks and the DPS who will take the damage and not you. Directly, at least. Thus, it won’t justify the reason to take this.

-> Back At Ya: Activating Dodge grants Back At Ya, returning 150% of direct single target tech and Force damage taken back to the attacker while Dodge is active. Note: This does not trigger with Skedaddle

This can be abused, together with Scramble, in a very good way but, unfortunately, very few boss fights exist to allow this to make it that useful. Master Core, on Revan fight, for example. It is often where the player can reflect the damage back and help in the kill. Of course, there is a sacrifice of losing other utilities that could prove more useful, depending how the fights go.

-> Smuggled Defenses: Reduces the cooldown of Escape by 30 seconds, Defence Screen by 5 seconds, and Smuggle by 60 seconds

With this, you’ll have your Defence Screen on a lower cooldown, which means more damage mitigation, plus reduction on stun break. A good utility but, unfortunately, you won’t be attacked as often as to justify using this.

-> Sleight of Foot: Reduces the cooldown of Trick Move by 10 seconds and allows it to be used while immobilized. When activated it purges movement-impairing effects and grants a Upper Hand.

This would work as a root breaker and CD reduce on a gap closer, that can be also used to teammates, to avoid mechanics of certain fights. Outside of this, it is useless.

Useless

-> Slippery Shooter: Scamper grants a charge of Slippery Shooter, reducing the energy cost of your next Quick Shot by 100%, increasing its maximum range by 20 meters, and making it knock the target back. Each use of Quick Shot consumes a charge of Slippery Shooter and grants 10 energy

Useless DPS utility. At its best, it could be used for interrupting channel/casts of npcs, but then again, it won’t work on bosses and NPCs that are immune to anything that comes to CCs and stuns.

My Preferences

This is the general build of utilities that I use when I play as Operative healer, regardless of it being Ranked or Unranked.

• Green = What I believe it should be taken
• Yellow = What I pick will depending on the situation but generally I pick the heal shield
• Red = What I don’t take

General build you will be looking for will generally look like this:

• SKILLFUL: Scar Tissue, Smuggled Get-up, Sneaky
• MASTERFUL: Flee the Scene, Keep Cool, Med Shield, Supplemented Medpac
• HEROIC: Surprise Comeback, Sly Surrender, Hotwired Defensives if not Supplemented Medpac.

Abilities and Rotations

Healing Abilities

Slow-release Medpac

                The most important ability on Scoundrel’s tools. One that should always be kept up on the teammates, since it counts close to 1/2 of the healing that will be done at the end of the game.

Kolto Cloud

                The second most important heal ability due to its nature. This is what one could call a ‘smart heal’. When casted on the main target, it will reach to 3 more teammates with the lowest health.

Kolto Waves

                Big AOE heal. Affects up to 8 targets. A must use if the team is taking damage. Not worth of using it if it is on a single target.

Emergency Medpac

                The ‘big burst’ heal from Sawbones. This ability will be used to refresh probes (Only refreshes if there is a 2 stack on a target. If its only 1, it won’t work). So, not only will it apply its own heal, it will also be buffed by the Kolto probe refresh that one gets from applying 2 stacks.

Kolto Pack

                One of the main heals, costs 1 Upper Hand, relatively cheap in energy and has a short cast, which is a bit of the opposite of the next one. In the patch after the nerf of Tactician Bonus set, this ability is also now capable of refreshing Slow-release Medpacs on the target.

Underworld Medicine

                One of the main heals, generates Upper Hand, expensive in energy cost, and has long cast.

Diagnostic Scan

                Helps to regenerates Energy and has no Upper Hand cost. Can be interrupted and it’s a bad thing, if by chance you are also low on Energy and with the Resource regen is on cooldown.

Tool Abilities

Triage

                The cleanse. Used to remove negative effects such as crowd controlling effects (CCs), Hardstuns, Roots, and any other kind of debuffs that lets the opponents deal more damage on targets.

Flashbang

                Main CC. Will be used to save teammates by interrupt/delaying certain casts on NPCs that can be affected by it. Breaks on damage.

Surrender

                The aggro drop ability, in PvE. Basically, removes the threat from you, in case the boss jumps on you, when you’re performing TOO well. If the player takes Sly Surrender utility, it also allows to place 2 Slow-Release Medpacs immediately on a selected target. This second attribute won’t be consumed if the target already has 1 or 2 probes on.

Pugnacity

                Great tool that will allow to instant cast Kolto Pack or Underworld Medicine; Can count as a DCD in case one takes focus, when the utility of Surprise Comeback is taken, giving +20% DR and 5% heal every 3 seconds. The cooldown on this ability is long, so its use should be considered, as there are two uses for it.

Hot Streak

                A cooldown reset of Pugnacity, Kolto Cloud, and if paired with Tactician Bonus sec, it will also count for the Triage cooldown reset, along with a great boost of +20% for Mastery stat pool for 15 seconds. It will heal a great deal to have bigger numbers on healing abilities. This is a very important tool, mind its use!

Cool Head

                Your main Energy regeneration. Should be used if below 60%. Not immediately though. The best value to use it on would be around 40%. It bumps back to +70%. If the utility with increase energy regen is taken, you can push it to 30%. Maybe 20% but that is gambling.

Tranquilizer

                Sapping happens often during fights with non-boss enemies, to make the work for your group mates easier, by relieving them off the pressure from taking damage. It breaks on taking damage.

Dirty Kick

                The hardstun. Should be used to save yourself or a groupmate, and/or to interrupt/delay a channel/cast from a stunnable NPC.

Trick Move

                A gap closer. Can be used to escape to a teammate or closer to NPC to escape a mechanics of fights.

Smuggle

                Cloaks entire team if they remain within range. Can be useful but one thing is to be remembered and that is the teammates will have a lower stealth index compared to the one who used this ability, thus NPCs can detect them easier.

Defensive Abilities

Scamper

                What many players call Roll. Its used to cover a decent distant by having your character roll to the direction where your camera is pointing at and not to where your character is facing towards. Keep this in mind!

Escape

                Usually used to break Hardstuns, CCs and Hinder effects. Outside of that, it shouldn’t be used.

Defense Screen

                A defensive shield that can absorb a decent amount of damage, usually around 30k. Should be used to mitigate burst attacks. Not DoTs. That job goes for the next one below.

Dodge

                Increase your defense rating by 200%, making any Ranged/Melee (White damage) based attacks miss automatically on you. Yellow attacks will still go through. If the Reflect utility is taken, then the Yellow damage-based, direct single target attacks will be reflected at the targets that casted them in the first place. Non-direct and AOE yellow ones, do not get reflected. It should also be used to cleanse any form of DoT abilities.

Disappearing Act

                Your combat stealth. It will forcefully make the player disengage and go into stealth from a fight. Usually used to escape situations of danger and/or going for a stealth resurrection without the need to use the combat one, and lastly to reset fights in case you are one of the last players in the fight after a wipe.

Offensive Abilities

This topic is touchy and I will explain later as to why I am bothering to mention the abilities here.

Vital Shot

                This is the ability that you will want to keep on target as much as you can, if you have the time to do it, of course. It is a DoT with a relatively long duration and helps out on doing damage, even if it is not that much.

Blaster Whip

                One of your melee attacks that deal big damage. Builds Upper Hand. If you find the time, use it along with Backblast.

Backblast

                Your other big melee attack. Although it comes with the condition that you have to stand behind your target. It is called back blast for a reason!

Bushwhack

                Your big AOE attack. Sawbones specialization gets the perk of being able to throw it at a distance, rather than just dropping where you are currently located. It costs one Upper Hand to use it.

Thermal Grenade

                Another big ranged attack but also quite the expensive one at that. Deals damage on the main target you have selected plus some minor if there is anything near it.

Lacerating Blast

                This is your melee AOE spam attack. It will be hard for you to use this attack, given that not only is it expensive in energy, it also has low damage and it works on a cone which is rather ambiguous to see what it hits.

Quick Shot

                Your ‘big’ medium ranged attack. Unfortunely, not worth to use it. The damage is not that great and it is expensive when it comes to energy. Besides the range, as well, is short. I would say that it is better to exhaust the other options from above, according to their description rather than using this.

Flurry of Bolts

                Your freebie attack. If you find yourself having exhausted the other options above, at a distance or melee, you should spam this. Assuming you have the time to do so. Besides, this is the attack that you will most likely spam, since it costs no energy.

Key Buffs and Procs

I won’t give the full explanation of what these buffs and procs do. I will only highlight the more important ones that should be noted of.

Smuggled Technology – Granted at Level 16 – Gives Interrupt Immunity after using all Scamper (Roll) stacks for 4 seconds.

The interrupt immunity is the more important attribute here, since, if the rolls remain at 1 and then are used to turn into 0, those 4 seconds will be given.

Medpac Mastery – Granted at Level 28 – Each tick of Slow-release Medpacs, Kolto Cloud and Kolto Waves have a 10% chance to generate Upper Hand. Can only happen once every 6 seconds.

This is another reason as to why keeping up probes and other abilities is important. Generating Upper Hand will allow the player to use Emergency Medpac and Kolto Pack many times without resorting to Underworld Medicine and suffering its heavy energy cost.

Psych Meds – Granted at Level 32 – Triage can now remove mental negative effects and heals the target for X.

This means that the player will be able to cleanse quite a lot of CC abilities. Crucial knowledge during the fight. One should know about this already but still, I mention it. I will present a list of what can and cannot be cleansed on a topic below!

Accomplished Sawbones – Granted at Level 52 – Healing a target with Emergency Medpac, will refresh the duration of Slow-release Medpacs

No explanation needed here. This is pretty much an invite to use Emergency Medpac quite often, since the ability will heal, along with the bonus of the ‘re-heal’ from refreshing probes. 2 heals in 1.

Bedside Manner – Granted at Level 60 – Executing a Upper Hand with a heal increases all healing by 3% for 6 seconds

There are no words needed to explain how much this helps. Using Emergency Medpac and/or Kolto Pack will give this buff for 6 seconds. On the long run of trying to maximize it, can help a lot!

Bootlegged Remedy – Granted at Level 68 – Using Kolto Pack will make the next Emergency Medpac have a 100% critical chance. Can only happen once every 18 seconds.

Another one that doesn’t need explanation. Auto-critical heals is always good. Specially since this can become a great combo (Kolto Pack into Surgical with one added retick of Slow-release Medpacs on top of it as example. It won’t tick twice because there’s an internal cooldown in the refresh, apparently) to burst heal a target in need.

Heal Rotation

For healing, there is not exactly a rotation for abilities but rather priorities. That works the same for Sawbones Scoundrel, although most of it will be keeping HoTs up and use the other abilities in between according to the situation happening.

1. Keep Slow-release Medpacs up on teammates
   Refresh them by using Emergency Medpac and Slow-release Medpac, if at 1 Tactical Advantage
2. Use Kolto Cloud as off cooldown as you can
3. Kolto Pack
4. Underworld Medicine when Kolto Infusion is on CD OR when in need of Upper Hand stacks (Single target)
5. Kolto Waves (multiple targets)
6. Diagnostic Scan to regenerate/maintain your energy up (Single target)

1 – Slow-release Medpac is a must use and must be on as many targets as possible, although not too many that could hurt the gameplay. The best number would around 3 to 5 teammates but only those that need help. Going over that number will make it too hard to keep everything in check. Any others that are nearby but not taking damage are not exactly worth the effort to put probes on them.

Just as previously mentioned, these will do most of the healing during the fight. They are that vital. Also, use Emergency Medpac to refresh probes if you have more than 1 stack of Upper Hand, as well to keep the +3% heal buff up and use Slow-release Medpac itself to do it if you only have 1 stack of Tactical Advantage.

2 – Kolto Cloud is next due to how it works. Like how it was previously described, it affects the main target and 3 extra targets, and these 3 will be the ones the lowest health level on the vicinity of the main one. And it also comes with a relatively short cooldown, as well. It should be used as much as you can, preferably on cooldown.

3 – Kolto Pack comes next due to the nature of it being a faster and cheaper cast compared to Underworld Medicine, even if it comes with the Upper Hand cost. Kolto Pack also refreshes Slow-release Medpac, which adds to some burst healing value. There is also the proc, mentioned on the previous topic, that can offer 100% critical chance increase to Emergency Medpac, which will heal immensely. Adding this with the autocrit nature of the Critical Surgery Tactical is a big deal.

4.1 – Underworld Medicine if it comes to single target. A more energy costlier, slower cast option compared to Kolto Pack but can be “spammed” assuming that there’s no interruption. It is also the one ability that will grant Upper Hand for sure, without counting the uncloaking procs, Stim Boost and the 10% chance to get 1 stack every heal tick.

OR

4.2 – Kolto Waves is next if there’s multiple targets that need to be healed. Never use it for single target. It heals less, and there’s a risk that the target that needs help will walk out of it, as well, thus making it pointless.

5 – Diagnostic Scan comes as last, but it remains as a very important ability because it has the unique perk of helping to regenerate your energy whenever it has a Critical tick during its channel. That and it also helps a bit in the healing, as its not a weak version when compared to the DPS specializations, due to its faster channel and, as the best perk, you can use it while moving.

Essencials

Finally, the last topic! Although it will come as a disappointment because this comes with the fact that it is all up to knowledge coming from you. What do you know of the Operations, Flashpoints and the likes.

Knowledge of Operation and Flashpoints

This one is obvious. If you want to perform well, you’ll need to know what you’re facing, and it is because there are no encounters where a healer is bad to use. There is one healer class that can perform better than the others in some of the fights but that doesn’t invalidate them into being of no use. This include phases, debuffs, add spawns and other mechanics. This is probably the most important aspect to excel at healing as any class. And the following topics would fit here but still, I will cover them.

Who to heal

This is a quick topic. On the group that you play with, there are priorities of targets that you will want to heal. I will put it on different categories, depending on their health level and inside these, which role that the groupmates represent inside the group.

• 1^st – Teammates in danger (Very low health)
  • 1^st – Tanks
  • 2^nd – DPS and other healers / you
• 2^nd – Teammates on low health
  • 1^st – Tanks
  • 2^nd – DPS
  • 3^rd – Other healers / you
• 3^rd – Anyone under the influence of periodic damage effects
• 4^th – Under max health
  • 1^st – Tanks
  • 2^nd – DPS
  • 3^rd – Other healers / you

Tanks will be the priority of the group, given that they are the ones that are taking the aggro from the bosses themselves and not the rest, unless certain mechanics of bosses forces the change of target. DPS comes as second, given that its them who are doing the damage to kill the boss. And finally, other healers on your group. Those are the last ones you should address to given that they can heal themselves up, and same argument goes to you, as well.

Cleanses

Triage is an ability that is able to cleanse negative effects that come in the shape of Damage, Crowd Controls, Hard Stuns, Roots, Slows and Debuffs, and each of these have their attribute/type (I don’t know the correct term. Sorry!). These are distributed in 5 categories. Force, Tech, Mental, Physical and None.

Playing as an Scoundrel, the player is capable of cleansing Tech and Physical by default, and specifically playing Sawbones will add the Mental to the list. The only one that can’t be cleansed is Force, and lastly, the one type that can’t be cleansed, no matter what you play with is the ‘None’. It is the awkward one of the group. Since it has no attribute linked to it, it means that no one is be able to cleanse it, no matter what class they play. I will leave a table below to see what class and type of specializations can cleanse.

Priority on targets to cleanse

The order of targets that you should look for to cleanse it quite simple.

1. Tanks should be the first ones, unless it happens to be an Assassin that can use its Force Shroud to self cleanse.
2. DPS that don’t have access to cleanses
3. Other healers in group that have their own cleanses on cooldown
4. Yourself (Dodge is on cooldown or can’t be cleansed by it) and DPS that can cleanse themselves

Priority on debuffs to cleanse

The order to cleanse should go this way:

1. Insta Kill Mechanics
2. Heavy Damage debuffs
3. CCs/Hard Stuns
4. Roots
5. Other minor Debuffs

In the end the truly ones that you should care about really are the first 3, as the last ones are relatively situational. Roots could still be considering though, in the case a teammate gets rooted in a spot where an insta kills debuff is applied.

Positioning

Position during fights is crucial when you need to make an escape from mechanics or at least break Line of Sight from the same things or even NPCs that target you unless the strategy of fight demands the opposite of that. Still, per usual, you’ll stick to your team and have them also clumped up, if possible, to abuse your AOEs but try to keep in mind the spots where you have to run to when the time comes.

Resurrecting groupmates

Well, by now, you know that you can resurrect teammates thanks to your ability, Heartrigger Patch, but this one is usually saved for a Tank or another Healer that died during the fight and not a DPS. That is where your normal Revive ability comes in. When you see that there is an opportunity to do so, use your Combat Stealth to go out of combat and revive the teammate. Thing is, it won’t be that simple. This is something that requires practice. And even then, there are a few things you must keep in mind before you attempt to do that.

1. Before anything, make sure to locate the dead body of your group mate. Its not good for you to waste time to look around out of combat and the revive. Do that before using combat stealth!
2. Don’t forget to put the Revive and even bind it on your Quick slots to do the thing faster.
3. You can’t have any of your heals or buffs on your teammates. You can ask them to click them off so it is faster.
4. You must be sure that you are in a phase of the boss fight where adds are not going to spawn
5. Don’t get caught or stand in areas where the NPCs or bosses cast attacks or anything that pulls you back into combat through taking damage or just getting tagged by some debuff.
6. Watch the abilities of your allies, as they can accidentally pull you into combat again. This requires coordination, from the ones that can do that. A few examples are Wandering Mend from Sage and Trauma Probe and Kolto Bomb from Commando and Slow-release Medpacs from other Scoundrels.
7. You must not have any damaging abilities that damage NPCs.

Doing damage as healer

Indeed. I am going to touch on this. Even though throughout the whole guide I insisted to have you focus on your role for healing alone, there will be fights where you are able to and should help in dealing some damage to help kill the bosses and adds. Specially during the times where you are doing overhealing, or ‘pointless’ healing when everyone is basically at full health.

It is true that your damage won’t be amazing and the same abilities, for Sawbones Scoundrel, are expensive in terms of energy but you will be mostly using your fillers. Or, at least, you should regulate yourself when it comes to this. Doing damage as healer is something like this. Small drops in a water bucket. Thing is that those drops still help to fill it and you are going to be those “small drops”.

Your DPS abilities to use will be these:

Vital Shot:
If you believe you can cast it as often as you can without compromising your capability to keep teammates alive, go for it, but don’t refresh it on demand. If it runs out, it runs out.

Blaster Whip & Backblack:
These are your melee attacks that still does ‘real’ damage. Don’t bother running close so you can use them. If you are on the spot, go for it, otherwise, screw it. Blaster Whip also grants a Upper Hand, in case you are in desperate need, but that is doubtful.

Bushwhack:
Surprisingly, this AOE does a lot of damage and as Sawbones Scoundrel, you can throw it from a distance, unlike in the DPS specializations. This also consumes a Upper Hand. Keep an eye on that!

Thermal Grenade:
Another strong ranged ability that deals some significant damage, and even has some AOE included in it, although it is quite expensive when it comes to energy. So be careful when handling this one.

Flurry of Bolts:
This is your freebie. When you are close to losing energy from using other abilities and you are not required to heal, use this. It’s a weak attack but it is better than nothing.

Guard Mechanic

The Guard is an ability that bolster your group’s lifespan massively by giving them extra damage reduction and generate less threat. If this buff is on your tray, that means you’ll be the target of those benefits.

Unlike in PvP, the fact you go outside its range, won’t make you lose its effects. Your threat and damage reduction given by the tank will still apply. The ‘blue guard’ debuff is related to the loss of damage transfer in PvP, so there is nothing to worry about if you run outside the guard range.

Teammates Abilities / Buffs

I will only cover the more obvious buffs that are deployable on the field. Any other buffs that appear on the buff tray are related to the other classes won’t be covered but I can always answer any questions in the comments if requested.

Scrambling Field (Gunslinger)

Ballistic Shield (Sniper)

AOE shield that gives +20% Damage Reduction to any teammates that stand inside it. Just stay inside it to benefit from it.

Diversion (Gunslinger)

Diversion (Sniper)

This AOE ability can give a -45% accuracy debuff that affects all types of damage. If your teammate uses it, stand inside it to benefit from its effects. Although doing this may prove inefficient if the opponent team is composed mostly of Ranged classes.

Riot Gas (Vanguard)

This one works like Gunslinger Diversion, although slightly weaker and only works on Ranged and Melee attacks, around but comes with the bonus of slowing down the opponents. The greatest aspect of this one is the fact that it applies 75% slow effect on any opponent inside it.

Deflection (Shadow Tank)

This ability from tank spec variants have the attribute of reducing the damage from opponents by 15% on Force and Tech damage. If the other team has melee players, stay inside it so that they are also forced to stay inside it, thus less damage taken.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Katrinka and Cerasi for the awesome help on how to play Operative Healer in general. After all, switching from PvP to PvE is not that hard. Its not just them. There is Riku to thank for the provided insight on some of the things and corrections, as well! The same goes for how to work around with the gear, buffs, utilities and more, along with taking notes of how to play during matches. And finally, for the people in Theorycraft Discord for the useful information they provided in BiS some stuff along with the research done in there!

About the Author

I’m known as Kamiala, from Darth Malgus, and Xelthia, from Star Forge. Author of the Lethality Operative and Ruffian Scoundrel Guides.

Passionate player who loves to play SWTOR. Main Lethality and Ruffian, mostly on PvP but with quite the good time dedicated into PvE content, as well. I’ve, as well, quite the long and good experience when it comes to play as Medicine and Sawbones, for a good “chunk” of hours, and had good ‘teachers’ giving me good lessons and tips.

Check out some of Kamiala/Xelthia’s other SWTOR 6.0+ Guides:

• SWTOR 6.0 Ruffian Scoundrel Guide by Kamiala
• SWTOR 6.0 Lethality Operative Guide by Kamiala
• SWTOR 6.0 Sawbones Scoundrel PvP Guide by Xelthìa
• SWTOR 6.0 Medicine Operative PvP Guide by Xelthìa
• SWTOR 6.0 Medicine Operative PvE Guide by Xelthìa

If you are skilled with a Class and Discipline that has not yet been covered with a guide on VULKK, and you want to provide one for the Community, contact me via email or wherever you see Vulkk present. I share on Facebook and Twitter whenever a new guide is available or will soon be ready.

How is the Class and Spec changing with SWTOR 7.0

In Update 7.0 BioWare is introducing a new term “Combat Styles”, which will replace the traditional class-specific disciplines. If you are curious and want to get a head-start, check out the SWTOR 7.0 Class Changes Previews available on the Public Test Server.

And if you are behind on the news, find out what the SWTOR Legacy of the Sith Expansion will have to offer.