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A DPSers take on playing a healer (minstrel)
wykkid79
Member Posts: 131
In the many, many years I have been playing MMOs I would have NEVER considered having a healer as my main. Sure, grouping is easier as a healer. Getting into a raiding guild or being in a raiding guild and getting raid spots is much easier. But the tradeoffs were always too great. Plus, I've always taken pride at never being second best at whatever I play. On a server with hundreds of rogues I was recognized as the best. (actually, 2 servers... Even after the guild transferred I couldn't find a better rogue) In Asheron's Call 2 I played an enchanter. I personally never saw anyone who I felt was better, perhaps close, but never better. (at least with WoW I have hard numbers and videos to prove my statement, you'll have to take my word on AC1 and 2 =P) In Asheron's Call 1 I played a mage and was one of the best on the server. And during my brief stint on Dark Tide with my friend's character and a similar build I saw nothing there to make me think I couldn't match any hardcore pvp'er.
I just wanted to provide a background, that is very dps heavy, with very little to no interest in EVER playing a healer in any MMO. (I did play one in AC2 but that's only because you could respec to a different class, would never have leveled as a healer.)
At any rate, my real point...
I have always felt healers, usually, are playing a healer because they tend to be inferior players and are taking the easy out to getting the "epics!". This isn't always true and I've known people who were amazingly skilled at various games as a healer. But that's an exception to the rule. So, after the last wipe, I figured... what the hell, let me try a minstrel. I would like to put my skills as a healer to the test. I had already played a minstrel to 18 before the wipe and had kind of liked it, although not as much as my hunter. Not to mention, I had pretty much come down to a champion or hunter as my main and wanted to play something I wouldn't play in retail.
So, now my Minstrel is level 35. I have done several instances, Great Barrows, Garth Argawen and City of Fornost. I've spent a great deal of time in groups learning all the nuances of the class. While pretty boring to play solo it is amazingly fun in a group. So fun that I'm seriously considering taking on minstrel full time now. It's like they took the best parts of being a dps class, which is aggro management, and combined it with the healing prowess of a priest. Combined with that is medium armor (optional and traited) and a sword and shield. The minstrel has more aggro reducing abilities than any other class that I know of. The hunter gets 2, the champion gets one or two, I think some of the others have 1 or 2. The Minstrel has 3 at least, perhaps 4 depending on how you look at things. It's also very intense. As I have to continuously make decisions as to how to best serve my group it's almost always exciting. Do I go ahead and start my Ballad cycle to work up to the melee buff? Do I need to get up to Anthems so I can slap on my increased health regen? (It's kind of like a fellowship HOT that has no aggro because it increases your normal combat regen to 27 morale/second at 35 and scales with level...) Do I need to forgo that for now and perhaps go straight into healing? Does the group need extra dps? Do I need the extra 10% healing that Herald's Strike (melee attack) provides? Do I need to pop Cry of the Chorus (instantly unlocks all ballads and traits without working your way up the tiers, 10 min timer) to give me instant access to the 40% threat reduction for 30 seconds? Do I have time to sneak in a Song of Soothing in between a flash or greater heal? (no, they're not called that, but for simplicity's sake) Do I fear right away or do I wait until a mob aggros me?
Up until this game and this particular class, being a healer in a fellow pretty much meant you stared at your fellowship bars and were pretty much oblivious to what was actually going on in the fight. This is not the case at all with a Minstrel. With a Minstrel you need to be aware of everything that is going on around you. Both with the mobs, where their health is, what mobs are attacking who, how many mobs there are, what mobs are being tanked by who, where the ranged adds are, etc etc. You have to be intimately familiar with everything going on at any given moment to be successful. As a long time raid leader this appeals to me on a level I find difficult to put into words. I can't wait to see how it works out in LOTRO raiding and how it affects my ability to lead a raid and make adjustments to strategies. In WoW there was no one class that had to be aware of everything.
So, if you're thinking about playing a Minstrel as the easy out to grouping or because you think it's fairly simple to watch group/raid health bars and keep people alive, this class is not for you. However, if you want one of the most complex classes you will ever touch in an MMO, I highly recommend.
Comments
We make sure they are the first to die when they step foot in Ettenmoors
who me ?
Would love to hear about what ratio mix this minstrel class is though, didnt get a chance to play one. And you mention alot of types of songs etc, how big of effect d o those really play, do people really request you play a certain song during certain pulls?
Well I would be a bit worried, if you played for as long as you have, and is as good as you say, and you basicly had the impression that heales are less worth, or even no brain classes, and only playing healers for the easy life, of always being wanted in groups/raids etc, i dont understand how you can claim to be the best rogue/chanter, if you apparently dont understand the work involved in other classes, and other classes abilitys etc, Im only happy to hear that you learned that its not as easy as you thought. I guess most healers sees the DPS classes the same way you saw the healers " a nessesary extra package to fill the group", ill just stand here autoattack while i get a cup of coffee, no one will notice....
My impression is, and i have played almost all classes in the mmorpgs ive been playing, is you can play your class average, doing exactly whats expected, or you can take it to the next level, a wizard that makes max damage but still manages to balance agro, the chanter who manages that extra crowd control that saves the day, the tank who makes the good single pulls, and keeps on holding agro, the healer who knows when to use the right heal, not overhealing creating agro, but still keeps everyone alive in the end, i could keep on going.
The best groups i ever been in, is the ones where ppl knows the other classes, and how to utilize the groups resources, what to do when certain classes is present, and NOT to do... what chanter dosnt hate when you got mobs mezzed, and certenly som w....r fires of a AE attack, breaking mezzes so you can start all over again.
just my 2 cent.
~Baldorf
playing healer can be very very boring (solo) but also very very hectic (siege, mass pvp)
the no brainer classes are the damage dealing ones actually, that's why I have almost never played a healer, just don't have the patience for it and also don't want to have all that responsibility for keeping the party alive
I always admire people who are playing healer classes and achieved the highest levels, cause healers are hugely boring to play with in most games and a good healer has my respect
but that's the good thing that I love about lotro and middle-earth generally (books), that every class knows how to fight to survive, mage (Gandalf) takes a sword in one hand and staff in other and runs to fight the Balrog ^^ healer (minstrel) can take a weapon and go to slap some orcs in the face, love this aspect of lotro
Hah, love it. Any fool can walk into a room full of strangers and declare all sorts of triumphs.
I was impressed with their DPS. I dueled my friend's Hunter that was 2 levels higher than me.
I prefer Captains because they are better solo than a Minstrel.
I have always played healers, and have a level 70 Priest in WoW as well as a level 61 Druid. I hope you were joking about healers just riding the easy train to good gear.
I hate laptops...
I spent about 20 minutes typing this great big reply explaining my position and this tiny keyboard I somehow managed to accidentally hit the "back" hotkey and lost it all. Ugh.
At any rate, this wasn't ment to offend healers. I also didn't say ALL healers are bad, just a lot of them. I often hear how someone chose a healer because it's "easy to group". The good healers usually like the challenge of keeping their group alive. The bad ones picked it because they wanted easy groups. And yes, healers are one of the most important classes in any group and as such you notice weaknesses in a healer long before any other class.
This post was designed to show a background heavy in dps from an individual who never saw himself doing anything but that. But the Minstrel takes healing out of watching fellowship bars and raid status bars, which even good healers have told me that's pretty much all you do in a raid, and turns it into a very dynamic class that has many roles to fill in a fellowship. It's basically the way a hybrid healer should be, and it's the primary healing class. Which I love.
So, sorry to those I offended. I really wish I hadn't lost my post as I had gone through and explained much better what I was trying to get at. When I typed the original post I had just stumbled in from the bar next to my hotel after drinking many tequilas.
So, I wasn't saying you were bad, but that a lot of healers are. If you considered yourself a good healer at whatever you're playing than you don't really need to defend yourself here as this was directed at the 90% of healers that are bad. (and if it makes you feel better, 90% of players at any class are usually bad. you just notice healers more than anyone else...)
have you ever wondered why dps players are always the most popular among mmorpgs.
its actually because they are simple classes to play.
the reason why finding things like reliable tanks and healers is difficult is because its alot more difficult to be good at these roles than it is to be a dps'er.
since everyone wants to pwn, pwn classes are the simplest to master, while the veteran players usually choose more demanding roles like that of tank, healer and where applicable, crowd control.
most players who choose the "healing role" are inherently good players. Otherwise they would just choose hunters like everyone else on pwn factor alone.
The problem is that there are an aweful lot less people to choose from when it comes to advanced roles.
This game is going to have alot of minstrel availability problems come launch. Everyone is playing hunters.
in the perfect mmo model, there is no "dps" role. Thats a role everyone should share.