Are the healing AA's still worth getting now, with mercs?

[Old Keg]

Pretty simple question.  With the advent of cleric mercenaries, are healing AA's worth pursuing early anymore?  The crit and max heal ones, specifically.  Along with mend companion, as well.

I'm stopping at 62 to grind out some AA's.  I've got all the defensive AA's I can get currently, as well as both double attack AA's available and Paragon.  Next up is SCR, and then SCR Mastery for the extra ticks of paragon, and I dislike having to cast haste so much. :P

I was originally planning on getting mend companion, to get that extra little bit of survivability.  But again, with the cleric merc, this seems redundant.

Just wondering how people think mercs have affected AA path, and when are the healing AA's worth bothering with anymore?

[Nusa]

Do you use lifetap procs? Heal AA's affect that.

Do you always have a merc up, in every situation?

What do you do when the merc gets killed?

Mercs take experience...if you're capable of doing the content solo, you may find the exp comes faster without the merc. Depends on your gear and the content in question.

Yes. No. Maybe. The only right answer is one that fits the playstyle and priorities of the person asking the question. In other words, you have to answer it yourself.

[Vidyne]

A 0.1second heal is still useful even with a merc.

Granted anything that likely causes you to use it will kill the pet in the next couple rounds if the merc is that lacking on healing.

[Razimir]

UF healing AAs are quite bottom of my list. Will get them eventually, before pet AAs.

-Raz

[Karve]

Healing aa's for crits affect the mercs ability to perform exceptional heals too.

[AbyssalMage]

Healing Gift/Adept 9...After that you have to make your own choices.

[Old Keg]

AA healing crits help the merc as well?  Is that confirmed?  That's pretty awesome if they do.  Although it makes me wonder why the max heal ones or SCR don't work as well. :(

[Wolfcaller]

I think AA heal crits would only affect the 'Promised' line of healing spells cast by your merc.

[nedoirah]

They also affect the pet heals we cast. I think...

[bobokatt1970]

The Mend Companion line is pretty low heal-wise till the higher tiers of this AA... it also has a long recast until, again you get more aa's to reduce the timer.  Then it's brilliant.  It's the "holy crap he's gona get rolled" AA, and this is gona save him.  Higher up since I group or raid... I never use a merc... don't remember the last time I used him other than to buff I guess.  Hence at least for me, the healing lines were welcomed for sure.

[bladepaw]

   As we all know even a J5 merc is not the sharpest tool in the shed.  I have saved my group on many occasions using heals, Paragon and focused Paragon (hastened of course) Focused Paragon can keep those  clerics up in a pinch.  Right now I noted I can heal a group mate for about 25% and I have not worked my healing stuff to  the cap.  I am not supposed to be the main healer but i can let the cleric take a breath in a fight.
  Remember if you do any raiding where it may be really needed you can not use a merc.  So I say you at least need a few ranks of healing AA before you may want to move to other kinds of AA but do not forget them.

[Sharrien]

I'm working on the healing lines right now.  I recently picked up a Flesh Scourge with it's nice lifetap and I also use Teenta's Sympathetic Stone with it's lifetap on nukes/dots, so I decided to move Fury of Magic and Healing Gift to the top of my priority list.

[Blarp]

Personaly Healing AA's Faded out after Omens of war when the Solo content for us starts to drop a great deal. i dont  hardly use my heals other then AA pet heals now and there on rids i spot heal thatsaboult it.

[Kanan]

Adept line is a flat % increase on any heal we cast, period.  Gift, after a certain point, especially, imo, the SoD point, is proly poor return on investment.  I honestly really miss my LT augs/procs, as this could really add up during a fight.  Hell, if I had it, I might still use the Deathknell LT/Dmg aug over some others.

The AAs and other abilities that are always the best ones ae always the ones that always work.  Crit heal has a chance to work,  Adept always works.  I was honestly shocked to see an add'l rank of adept in UF, since the devs had been against flat % increase abilities for a long time.

[Grbage]

I still use life tap augs because it helps a ton in soloing. Don't forget the promised renewal line from clerics is focused by our aa's so yeah, IMO healing aa's are well worth it.