You might want to try sticking with the default Scrapper tactics set for melee and use the custom slot for Ranged. That still prevents you from altering the tactics for melee combat, but at least you’ll get a semi-decent melee combatant when you swap to melee. Alternatively you can ignore melee combat entirely and set the character to Ranged behavior with customized archer tactics, that way they draw less attention and keep loosing arrows even in melee range.

Besides that I would appreciate some more suggestions for every NPC and for every PC Class.

Have a party of 4 – mage (mc), rogue, tank and another mage/ranger (currently all are ~L11 with reasonable equip).

In easier fights tactics work ok, save for AoE spells which my ppl seem to run into whenever they please, and switching from ranged to melee weapons. But when it comes to a more serious predicament, i.e. 2 yellows and 1 brown and few whites, I get obliterated, especially with the mage present in the enemy party.

I’ll keep on trying to juggle the tactics (sustained buffs b4 the fight is a gr8 idea, thanx) but maybe some1 has a profile similar to mine and worked out a nice system already?

I’m on a different story line than here and so far only had a group of 2, but I immediately saw the benefits of using Combat Tactics, even when i wasn’t clear on how they worked. I found this post to see if the tactics can trigger on the character you’re controlling, since I invested in an extra Tactics slot on mine without really knowing what it was and I’m playing as a Warrior, so taking the most damage. It makes since that they don’t trigger while controlling the character, but auto-heal on a tank would just be so nice. =)

This feature is one of those types of things that people might skip or ignore to just ‘play the way they are used to’ b/c you don’t really see the benefit until you try it. But invest a few minutes trying it out and your mind starts racing with the possibilities. Back when I used to have time to game a lot (my college years, over 10 years back), I used to play a lot of online MUDs (text based MMORPG games) and this feature reminds me a lot of triggers and actions that those games would have. Once you use them, you can’t live without them.

I think BioWare did a great job adding this feature (don’t know if it’s any other of thier games) which adds intelligence to your party members. This not only makes your play more efficient as you mentioned, but also more fun for gamers not used to playing RPGs (how tedious would it be to switch to each character to cast heals all the time?) and adds a new layer of strategy for RPG vets (I want my archer to switch to a shield and sword when he’s getting pounded on by 2 or more foes. I used this one in my case).

Thanks for your introduction and suggestions!