Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Alternative to the always-vital role of Healing (Tank Healer DPS)
Angelof2070
Member Posts: 224
In many mmorpg's there are the roles of Tank, Healer, and DPS with the occassional spice of a hybrid.
Often you can do without some roles, but healer is rarely one of them- especially in PvP.
Don't have a healer? You're screwed, and if not then there will be lots of downtime.
Enemy team has a healer and you don't? You lose.
I remember playing many rounds of DAoC or Warhammer where the (lack of) healer(s) determined which side won. I remember how much better my team would do if I was a healer instead of ANY other role. Not because I am bad at other roles- not at all. But because of how powerful a single healer can be in PvP. Tanks are often just as important in PvE, but not PvP.
In almost every MMORPG I've ever played, a healer could heal an entire player's HP within 1-3 heals. Huge chunks of health restored in an instant. This, I believe, is the problem. Overpowered instant-kill DPS and overpowered 100% complete healing- all in a matter of seconds.
The alternative?
Get rid of healing. Wait... but what about the awesome roles of Support, Cleric, Friar, or Paladin?
What about replacing healing, but keeping it at the same time?
Replacing healing with buffs, or HoTs which act in the same way as buffs. In fact, a +100hp buff would be better than a 10 hp 10-tick HoT which healed over a very slow pace.
Make Support healing classes primarily buffing classes (perhaps an active buff system), secondly another role (tank, ranged dps, etc. but weaker) and only thirdly a healing class which is used more for DOWNTIME healing than normal MMO healing.
In other words- remember Bard-healing? Bard songs made for regen of HP which didn't save anyone in combat, but was awesome outside of combat? But hey-- have two bard's healing songs playing (if they stacked in the game) and it was better than no healing at all. It didn't save people from dying, BUT it did prolong their death, giving them a smaller edge.
So what do you think? Replacing the healer class with a (fun, active) buff class or no class-- but making healing a tertiary role meant more for regen or "a small edge in combat" (similar to another buff) as opposed to a massive (almost always VITAL) role in Groups, Raids, and especially PvP.
Comments
City of heroes had several different specs for each class.
One healer spec was what was commonly called a bubble healer. That's because the healer didn't actually heal damage, but instead created a forcefield (that was a big bubble) that stopped the damage from hitting you in the first place.
Same difference really. I stop 100 points of damage from hitting you, i heal 100 points of damage.
But a combo of both a pure healer, and a bubble healer, was pretty unbeatable, You could walk through just about anything, and either you didn't take damage in the first place, or what little that got through was immediately healed.
It's very hard to innovate to the inevitable diffculty of healing in PvP being overly powerful.
Perhaps healing should stay in-- just not be so ridiculously overpowered that the amount of healers determine the tide of battle (i.e. Warhammer Instances) and also for it to not be so significant that it is a REQUIREMENT for grouping (like DAoC)