Apothecary

## Overview

Apothecaries are Space Marines with special medical training. Their special abilities allow them to heal their allies.

## Skills

All of the Apothecary's skills are healing-related since the priority of this class is to keep squad members alive. These skill's cooldowns are significantly reduced by the Narthecium, an Apothecary exclusive melee weapon. The Apothecary has access to the following abilities:

COOLDOWN
 Auto Heal
 Mass Heal

In general it is advised to keep **Heal** for tough situations or when battle brother's arms (*or legs*) are broken, as it heals those injuries instantly. Some players prefer to have always one heal on cooldown and another one ready for the "oh crap!" moments, while keeping everybody on full health pretty much all the time.

It is up to the player to find out the best way to use the skills for the maximum efficiency, but experienced players usually use **Mass Heal** every time it is off cooldown and if at least one squad member is not on full health.

## Armour

Each class has access to three Armour Passive Adornments. These adornments come in the form of a Cooldown Reducer, an Effect Reducer, and an Effect Boost. The player may choose one passive from each of these categories to equip for a mission.

Old: shard the same options for armour adornments and can pick one from each tree:

### Cooldown Reducer Adornments

Wile the Effect Reducer and Effect Boost Adornments effect the all classes the same way it is important to take note of the Cooldown Reducer Adornments effects on an individual class. For more information on armour adornments see the List of Classes here.

The cooldown reducer adornments are designed to lower the recharge time of a classes skill by 10%, 15%, and 20% depending on the renown cost of the adornment. In the following table, each adornment's skill cooldown time (both base and with the Narthecium equipped) is listed in seconds with their respective cost.

Cooldown Reducer Adornments
 15%
 20%

### Armour Customisation Recommendation

For an **Apothecary** the most recommended loadout is:

1. Mass Heal Cooldown Reduction 20%
2. Acid Effect Reduction 50%
3. Armour Boost 20%

Since **Mass Heal** is the most used skill in **Apothecary'**s repertoire, lowering its cooldown even further (*granting player is using* Narthecium *as well*) is vital for squad's survival. Acid damage reduction and higher armor value ensures survivability and chance for successful mission due to vital position that **Apothecary** occupies in the squad.

## Weaponry

   There are 6 weapons available for the **Apothecary**, four ranged and two melee:

**RANGED WEAPONS**

* Storm Bolter

* Storm Bolter Mk. II

* Redemption

* Hellfire

**MELEE WEAPONS**

* Lightning Claw
* Power Fist

**SPECIAL**

* Narthecium

Unless you are challenging yourself or have another dedicated **Apothecary** in the squad, it is always recommended to take Narthecium , as it lowers cooldowns of all **Apothecary'**s skills by approximately 60%. As for the main weapon, depending on the difficulty level and personal skill, most players opt in for Hellfire (*usually if friendly fire is disabled*) or Redemption (*if friendly fire is enabled*).

## Perks

As an **Apothecary** you can choose from 7 available perks. As usual - it depends on the personal preference and playstyle of each player, to determine which one is the best.

 Blessed Blood
 Chirurgeon
 Machine Spirit
 Mantle of the Redemed
 Resilient
 Surgicall precision

Experienced players generally agree that best perks for this class are either **Blessed Blood** or **Resilient**. Here are most common reasons for each perk, and it is strongly recommended to experiment with both of them to find the one that fits you:

**BLESSED BLOOD:** Main advantage is that when playing with enabled friendly fire, this perk can completely negate random shots from team mates, Redemption's ricochet bullets and Heavy Flamer. Also as an **Apothecary** you shouldn't get hit that much and hence can survive with less hit points and slowly heal up any damage you may sustain. With this you can save your self-heal for critical situations.

**RESILIENT:** With this perk you can make sure you don't get killed in one hit with pretty much everything on No Mercy difficulty, thanks to extra health points. Also as an Apothecary you have self-heal skill on quite low cooldown, hence no need for HP regeneration. This perk can also raise your chances of surviving if you get caught off position, because health regeneration of the Blessed Blood is not fast enough to negate sustaining damage from attacking enemies.

## Tactics

Typically an **Apothecary** wants to stay in the middle of the squad - ideally behind two front liners, with a back covered by the rear guard. In that case he can reach whole squad with **Mass Heal** and still be within reach for single target heal. All that while being protected from direct enemy attacks and able to shoot approaching threats.

If friendly fire is enabled, caution is required when using Hellfire weapon, since direct hit can deals huge amount of damage. Also beware of splash damage and blinding animation produced by explosive rounds.