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Healer Viability

Alator

Ancient Soul
Moderator
Legacy Supporter 7
Remastered Tier 2 Supporter
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
I have been watching discussions on the Healer path, and recently started messing around with the base path myself. The general gist of things is that healing is unwieldy at best, and a liability at worst. I haven't played a healer in PvP combat yet, and have only seen the specs on a spreadsheet. But the issues it seems to have is the the heals are a too-little-too-late deal that can not be counted on as reliable.

I'm not going to discuss the combination of warmups and cooldowns (which is a little wonky and forces healers to cope with two different healing methods in my opinion or the targetting thing, but a mechanic which I think will make healing more interesting for the healer and the party. I did anyway.

A new mechanic which affects the caster and the target. Don't know what to call it. Dual-casting, empathetic something-or-other. The gist is that the target of your spell gets one effect, and you as the caster get another.

For example:
Revised current skills
  • Pray - target is healed for x, caster gets mana regen for y seconds.
  • Smite - target takes x damage, caster moves faster for y seconds.
  • Chant - target is healed for x damage, caster is cleansed of all overtime effects (also acts as a form of "bar compression" [term from a different game])
  • Revive - revives your target, caster is healed for (a significant amount)
  • Rejuvenate - same HoT functionality, caster gains a small amount of mana at the same tick rate
Possible new skills
  • Zealous Fire - target is set on fire for x seconds, caster gains y mana
  • Soothing - Party members are healed for a small amount, caster gains a small amount of mana
  • Regrowth (I don't know if this is possible) -heal party members for x. For each member healed, gain y mana.

When I started writing this, I said I wasn't going to touch on the warmup/cooldown combintion they have. But I am going to anyway. I currently have access to the Bandage skill, and know that other heals work a similar way. You begin casting, wait a few seconds, cast, then enter cooldown. This has the effect of combining two type of healing that does not work in the Minecraft setting: reactive healing and predictive healing.

Reactive healing is affected by cooldown. You see someone getting hit so you throw a heal at them. You then must wait for the cooldown to run its course before you can throw a heal at the next person getting hit. This is the way the healing spells used to be.

Predictive healing is introduced by the warmups. You see someone taking damage, but can not heal them right away. You must wait for the spell to warmup or cast. If the target is dead or has taken heavy damage by the time your single spell fires, the useage of the spell has been wasted and the mana lost. Therefore, a healer has to start casting BEFORE heavy damage is incurred, making the healer predict who is going to need the heal next. If the healer is wrong, again the spell is wasted and the mana lost.

I feel the warmups should be eliminated, in combination with the skill suggestions. Minecraft requires quick action (just think of the last time you heard that hissssssss behind you) and forcing the healer to wait to do their job makes it harder for everybody. Also, being able to take care of their target and themselves will allow them to make better use of their very limited mana pool.

This discussion is for the viability of healing itself, not the prospect of 1v1ing a healer vs a combat class. The dual-casting will make healers more potent in a 1-on-1 situation, however, since they will be giving themselves both effects, but I feel this works out well. Either keep themselves alive fairly easily (while mana allows), or assist their team while giving themselves a minor bonus.effect. So I will allow discussion of healers fighting warriors or rogues, but will make heavy use of the warn button if this gets flamed out.
 

Zaspar

Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Location
NY/MI
Healing others with bandage is a pain, because you have to keep your targeting reticle on them, even when they're moving to heal them. The old insta-bandage would eliminate this problem.

Also, you forgot to mention the skill Chakra.
 

SaberStone

Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
or we could do a mix between reactive and predictive. Maybe healing yourself should take a longer cooldown and heatup then healing others. For healing others you might have predictive only without cooldown.
 

MeganPerk

Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
I think having a combination of both types of heals would be nice, but healing as it is is a horror to play and gives more stress than fun.
 

Kainzo

The Disposable Hero
Staff member
Founder
Adventure Team
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Location
The 7th Circle of Heaven
Healing warmup reactions are changed - they now currently WORK.

Your target is SAVED when you first start your warmup/cast - and no matter where you look - you will land it on THAT target.

We WILL include INSTANT / high cd heals - give us time to balance.
 

MeganPerk

Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Current rampup heals have cool downs of 9 seconds. I dread to see how long these "high cd"s are
 

Sleaker

Retired Staff
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Portland, Oregon
The issues at this point are getting too many skills = too complex for hotbars. We don't want to have more than 5ish active skills on each class otherwise it starts becoming too difficult to manage.
 

Alator

Ancient Soul
Moderator
Legacy Supporter 7
Remastered Tier 2 Supporter
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
The issues at this point are getting too many skills = too complex for hotbars. We don't want to have more than 5ish active skills on each class otherwise it starts becoming too difficult to manage.

That's fine. My idea is to revamp current skills more than add new ones. I just posted new ones for giggles.
 

MeganPerk

Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Hmm... none of the heals have the same CD's - care to tell me which ones have 9seconds? Will change it :)
Pray has (had?) a cool down of 9 seconds. It begins when pushed, but the 6 second ramp up makes it seem like only 3. Was made to prevent a quick cast bug I told sleeker about. May have since changed
 

Kainzo

The Disposable Hero
Staff member
Founder
Adventure Team
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Location
The 7th Circle of Heaven
Pray doesnt have a 9 sec cd - they're all pretty reasonable and we're ensuring that they stay that way.

Reduced the cast time of heals by a bit.
 

vudani

Legacy Supporter 4
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Location
Orlando, FL
Figure there's no need to start a new thread but increasing the range by double or tripple would make a cleric much more viable as a class. With the amount of lag Minecraft produces it is incredibly frustrating to heal during actual combat.

There are very few healers because they literally are 100% reliant on others to kill. They should at least be able to heal others as far as others can attack you. When projectiles can hit 100 blocks away its not much to ask for 1/3 that range on heals.
 

Zaspar

Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Location
NY/MI
The issues at this point are getting too many skills = too complex for hotbars. We don't want to have more than 5ish active skills on each class otherwise it starts becoming too difficult to manage.

How about assign unknownloner the task of... a double hotbar? Inspired by WoW/SWTOR, and have the bottom bar be skills only. Also, let's not forget that many of us have Improved Chat.
 

Theazian

Legacy Supporter 3
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Location
Hiding under a rock
How about assign unknownloner the task of... a double hotbar? Inspired by WoW/SWTOR, and have the bottom bar be skills only. Also, let's not forget that many of us have Improved Chat.

I think that we are straying away from the idea that this is minecraft, not WoW. I like the idea of some healer buff's for their healing, because they can't really effectiviely heal. But either way, there is no way we would be playing with a double hotbar.
 

vudani

Legacy Supporter 4
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Location
Orlando, FL
not gonna lie, I have NEVER used the "hotbars" it's just more effective to use hotkeys. being able to attack while using skills is imperative. Clerics have a fine amount of skills, they just need to be pvp viable by being more lenient with Minecrafts horrible lag in my opinion.
 
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