Star Wars: The Old Republic mirrors their classes across faction to keep PVP balance in check.  The mirror class of the Mercenary is the Republic’s Commando.  Like the Merc, the Commando likes to shoot things and blow them up... and he does it really, really well.  In this player guide we’ll go over the two of the best skill trees and what sorts of abilities you’ll want to use out on the PVE battlefield.  Our full PVP guide for the class will be coming at a later date.  Maybe from YOU!

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The Commando is an advanced class of the Trooper. Its skill trees are Combat Medic, Gunnery and Assault Specialist. The Assault Specialist tree is shared with the Vanguard. The Commando is the mirror class of the Mercenary. Combat Medic is a healing spec that uses kolto gas. Gunnery is a DPS tree that uses explosive to damage enemies and lower their armor. Assault Specialist is a tree that focuses on better management of Energy Cells and self preservation.

Playing a Combat Medic

Essential Skills:

• Tech Override:
  • Your next ability with an activation time will activate instantly. Effect lasts 15 seconds.
• Field Aid:
  • Cleanses a friendly target of up to 2 negative tech or physical effects.
• Advanced Medical Probe:
  • Heals a friendly target
• Combat Support Cell:
  • While active, Hammer Shot charges your powercell with each use. Charges increase all damage and healing dealt, up to a maximum of 3% at 30 charges. In addition, targeting an ally with Hammer Shot will heal the target for 100% of your tech bonus healing. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.
• Medical Probe:
  • Heals a friendly target.
• Bacta Infusion:
  • Instantly heals a friendly target.
• Kolto Bomb:
  • Heals up to 3 allies within 8 meters of the targeted area.
• Trauma Probe:
  • Deploys a Trauma Probe that has 10 charges and lasts 5 minutes. When damaged, the it loses 1 charge and heals the target. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds. Only one Trauma Probe can be deployed at a time.
• Supercharged Cells:
  • Converts 30 charges of Combat Support Cell to supercharge your blaster, restoring 2 energy cells and increasing all damage and healing dealt by 10% for 10 seconds. While active, the following abilities gain Supercharge effects:
    • Advanced Medical Probe: Cooldown reduced by 100%.
    • Kolto Bomb: Places a shield on all targets, reducing damage taken by 10% for 15 seconds.
  • Hammer Shot:
    • Fires a quick stream of bolts, causing weapon damage.

Combat Medic is a pretty straightfoward healing spec. Advanced Medical Probe, Medical Probe and Hammer Shot will be your main heals. Hammer Shot heals if used on friendly targets if you have Combat Support Cell active. As an instant heal that uses no energy, it can be spammed but the amount healed is very low. Advanced Medical Probe has a cast time, costs 2 energy cells and is on a 12 second cooldown and if talented will reduce the energy used by your next Medical Probe. Medical Probe is a weaker version of Healing Scan without a cooldown, but costs 3 energy cells unless used after an Avanced Medical Probe. Medical Probe will also generate three extra charges of Combat Support Cylinder if talented. Field Aid removes debuffs, Trauma Probe allows your tank to get hit harder without dying as fast through its damage absorption, Kolto Bomb lets you heal 3 targets at once while increasing the healing they receive by 10% if talented and Bacta Infusion is a instant heal for emergency situations.

Playing a Gunnery

Essential Skills:

• Armor Piercing Cell:
  • Loads your blaster with an armor piercing round. While active, armor penetration is increased by 35%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.
• Demolition Round:
  • Fires a demolition round that deal kinetic damage. This damage is increased by 5% per gravity vortex on the target.
• Grav Round:
  • Fire a round that creates a gravity vortex on the target, dealing damage and reducing the armor rating by 4% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. Gravity vortex's  leave the target vulnerable to High Impact Bolt.
• Full Auto:
  • Fires a continous stream of bolts that deals weapon damage every second. Weak and standard enemies caught in the blaster fire are stunned for the duration.
• High Impact Bolt:
  • Fires a very powerful round at the target that deals weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.

The Gunnery spec is all about reacting to procs and layering debuffs. Full Auto is your most powerful attack with talents nearly doubling its power, and attacks causing the cooldown to finish much earlier than it would alone. Grav Round is your main attack, adding gravity vortexes to the target, lower its armor and causing your next High Impact Bolt to do more damage. Demolition Round also does a large amount of damage but is not prioritized as high as using Full Auto. It's advantage is that it is an instant attack. If everything else is on cooldown, and you have all 5 stacks of Gravity Vortex built, throwing in a High Impact Bolt won’t hurt your damage. Hammer Shot is your filler shot when your energy is too low. Using any skill is better than using no skill, but if you can manage, every skill is better than Hammer Shot.

Playing an Assault Specialist

Essential Skills

• Charged Bolt:Spins up the assault cannon and fires off a quick burst of powerful, charged rounds at the target for weapon damage. Requires Assault Cannon.
• Incendiary round:Fires a round that explodes on contact, igniting the target for elemental damage and additional elemental damage over 18 seconds.
• High Impact Bolt:Fires a very powerful bolt at the target that deals weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.
• Plasma Cell:Loads your rifle with plasma cell, giving all of your rifle attacks a 10% chance to deal additional elemental damage over 6 seconds. Only one cell can be active at a time.
• Full Auto:Unloads your blaster into the target, dealing weapon damage every second. Weak and standard enemies caught in the blaster fire are stunned for the duration. Fires both blasters if dual wielding.
• Hammer Shot:Fires a series of hammering shots, causing weapon damage.
• Recharge Cells:Recharges 6 energy cells over 3 seconds.

The Assault Specialist is a very CC focused spec with lots of DOTs. Much like the Pyrotech of the Mercenary (Empire Mirror Class), for PvE rotation Incendiary Round should be your first attack used and used again just before its dot runs out to keep the burning effect up. Besides that High Impact bolt will be your strongest attack, ignoring 30% of your targets armor, recharging energy after use and refreshing Plasma Cell's burn effect if active. Using Full Auto as it cools down and Charged Bolt as a filler will reset the cooldown of High Impact Bolt and make it free. On those occasions where you need energy cells, use Recharge Cells to give it a boost. Luckily the Assault Specialist spec gets 30 seconds off the cooldown of Recharge Cells too. Like the Pyrotech on the Empire, this isn’t the most easily used spec in the bunch, but it definitely has it’s uses (namely CC and DOT).