schmidtyfi
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Posts posted by schmidtyfi
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P.S. and already people are crying for healer love. I play a sage healer and have no complaints. As far as I'm concerned they are as powerfull as they need to be and don't need an update. That's just me though, a skilled mmo'r.
I have no "problems" healing either. I'm effective at it and have cleared most content in the game (Denova HM is giving us trouble in non-healing related ways).
But, the Sage healer has been changed pretty radically since launch without any developer discussion. The changes seemed stop-gap and ad-hoc and now the class feels awkward, to me. To have the OP specifically discuss Tanks/DPS philosophy in such depth...well, the healing omission seems quite glaring...
Although I don't have "problems" healing, I also don't have nearly as much fun at it as in other games (ahem). Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I hope you continue to have fun playing your Sage. I'll be playing elsewhere.
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Bioware,
Do you have any designers dedicated to the healing experience in this game? It really seems hard to believe that you do.
You shipped MAJOR bugs in the healing abilities: the double-tick on the sage AoE, the missing initial burst on the Sorc, the insane force regeneration abilities. An ability (benevolence) that had no utility whatsoever. Did anyone actually play a healer on your QA team? How could they possibly have missed these things?
In the first path, you "fixed" one of these issues by removing the initial burst on the Sage AoE, even though the tooltip clearly indicated it should be there and the animation is designed for one as well, while not fixing the double tick issue. A completely ad-hoc, shot-gun "solution".
The next patch, you fix the double tick and then completely change the Sage healing rotation because the force mechanics were so out of whack so that everything we learned about how to play the class had to be relearned. As it turns out, you simultaneously grossly oversimplified the sage healing experience while making it harder to heal your instances if DPS make mistakes (and then, inevitably, blame the healer).
Now, 1.3 and you have a thorough description of Tank and DPS balance, with nothing on heals.
This isn't QQ about your nerfs. This is a serious question about whether you have designers dedicated to the healing experience. It seems hard to believe that you do, given the above and some obvious usability issues (impossibly small debuff icons for cleansing, companions not appearing in ops frames, etc).
My initial 6 month subscription runs out in 3 weeks. I doubt I'll renew. Healing in this game simply isn't fun and you've given me little reason to believe that will change any time soon.
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Thanks for the replies.
I ended up getting the off-hand. I guess it's better.
I have to say, I personally hate the gearing system in this game. I'm sure some people really like being able to wear whatever gear they want for the looks by swapping mods. But, to me its just a big pain in the neck. Getting a new gear piece feels more like a punishment than a reward, at this point.
I'd rather they just made the end-game gear actually look nice and have class appropriate stats.
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I have a bunch of black hole comms that I haven't spent yet. I'm basically in Rakata right now. I'm trying to figure out what the heck I should buy. I already bought the robe, because my prior robe was Columi and I already have 4/5 for the set bonus.
The next most expensive piece, besides slots that would lose a set bonus, is the off-hand. So, since things in life that are more expensive are always more awesome, I'm assuming that's my next piece.
But, I'm confused.
Is the Mk1 force lord focus the healer piece? http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/gear/38230/black-hole-force-lords-mk-1-focus
Relative to the Rakata force master, it trades a huge amount of crit (-82) and surge (-51) for force (+84), force power (+34), and alacrity (+57)with a bit more endurance (+23).
I'm not sure how to evaluate these stat trade-offs. I'm assuming the black hole is better, but honestly, it's kind of unsatisfying to see this mixed bag type of upgrade. Can't Bioware give simple guys like me lots of +Green upgrades to make it feel warm and fuzzy? Why this mixed bag nonsense? Did they just mess up the stats the prior level, and are fixing it now? (I would think +power is better than +crit for healers, but wth to I know).
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Got my first black hole piece with comms just now. Looks great with the Rakata gear, eh?
I'm sorry, but this gear is just disgusting. I look like a bride that got stuck in a sewage drain :-(
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Are there any plans to make discovering cleanse-able debuffs easier for healers?
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[
[*]Red (Severe): If the burst healing phase is predictable, have Salvation down on the tank first. Pop a relic. Force Armor before the relic if it's Crit/Surge or Alacrity, after if it's Power. Force Potency > Deliverance x2 > Rejuvenate > Healing Trance. Wait till you're back to Yellow to spend your Resplendences, unless you're about to cast another Conveyed Healing Trance or Resplendence will fall off without being spent.[/indent]
First off, great write up. Very similar to how I've evolved post 1.2, although I've been a bit of a sissy and don't NS as much as I should be.
. I need to work on that and your description of having 2 pools, instead of 1, really hit home for me, so thanks!I do have a few questions/comments.
I might be misreading the Red (Severe) strategy: Is the quote, above, exclusively for predictable damage, or is it intended for all "code red" situations, with an additional prep of Salvation for the predictable cases?
If damage is not predictable and I'm in a code-red, my style post 1.2 has been this. I'm mainly worried about waiting for that first Deliverance to pop in your strategy:
- Shield: (if the target doesn't have Force Imbalance). This might keep them alive till the next bullet.
- Rejuvenate: because, although technically a HoT, it's front loaded: an instant 1k up front and then another 1k over the next 15s. This might keep them alive till the next bullet.
- Healing Trance: because as a channeled spell, it begins taking effect almost immediately. Yes, it's slower than Deliverance overall, but you're getting results immediately, which might keep them alive till the next bullet
- Force Potency + Deliverance: hopefully, you've clawed enough HP back to allow this super slow spell to go off
Unfortunately, Shield and HT might be unavailable (Force Imbalance, cool down), in which case I (Shield) + Rejuv + Benevolence (crit) + Force Potency + Deliverance + Deliverance
<><>
For the "green" situation (~1-2k deficit), I use Rejuv and then I start winding up my Deliverance. If the target takes some more damage before my Deliverance hits, I let it land. If not, I "jump" and start winding it up again, etc. With the Rejuv buff, Deliverance is very cheap force-wise.
<><>
One thing you might call attention to is that Rejuv is highly front-loaded: so, you do want to wait until the target has some (~1k, ideally) deficit before using it. In WoW, by contrast, I'd often have my holy priest immediately shield + HoT in anticipation of damage, but that would be a mistake here.
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One final point I'd make, which maybe some of your readers would find useful, is that A LOT of damage is avoidable by party members and, post 1.2, it's imperative they do avoid it.
Before, we were god-mode and could heal through things like Bonecrusher's swipes, Garj's pounce, etc. But, now, probably the best "heal" is the one that never needs to happen because the damage was avoided in the first place.
I actually find this to be a bit depressing, because I want to fill up health bars. Being able to do that is fun. The reality, though, is that it's simply not possible to heal through consistently sloppy play by party members any more.
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Aside from the minor niggle that Toth didn't exist prior to 1.2, this is a good post that underscores a lot of my feelings as well, and also give insight into the reasoning behind the nerfs in PVE. Sage/Sorc healers were capable of compensating for sloppy play, and the sloppy players started blaming us when that was no longer the case.
You're absolutely right about Toth -- what I wrote didn't make any sense.
What I meant: there were many bosses pre 1.2 (Bonecrusher, Garj) and now similarly post 1.2 (like Toth) where DPS can take a lot of avoidable damage before they die. We can temporarily heal through these things, but it puts us under a lot of pressure post patch. I suspect that's by design on the part of Bioware, because they want people to learn the mechanics that they built.
Unfortunately, the way they went about it makes the healers look (and feel) as if they're not keeping up when, in fact, it was poor execution on the part of DPS. Instead of making the damage more severe, for example, they gimped our ability to heal it. At least for me, that can make for a very frustrating and decidedly un-heroic experience.
I often hear that healers are in short supply. By accentuating the un-fun aspects of it (being unfairly blamed for wipes, running out of force, waiting for cool-downs, watching your cast bar as your target is dying), I suspect they made the shortage worse post 1.2.
I, for one, am still healing with my sage because I'm RL friends with my crew. And, we are making ops progress, despite being casual players. But, I can very well understand why some are frustrated enough to quit healing, quit their toon, or even quit the game.
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Actually, it turns out that the best way to get force regain - for PvE at least - is to AoE lots. You can even build a pretty decent force-positive rotation around the AoE heal. See my thread in the healing forum on the subject; the rotation is in the second post (use the conveyance bug to switch round the HoTs and add in the extra Deliverance as suggested in the post).
X
Thanks for the effort you put into that thread. It was an interesting read.
I'm worried, though, that it's on the leeward side of theory vs. practice -- for example, I'm not necessarily able to be where/when the AoE is needed. Also, due to movement and the general dynamic nature of the fights, I'm skeptical how helpful a long, set, rotation is in practice.
Stepping back, I don't think it can be denied our burst and force management capabilities were significantly reduced post 1.2. That was an explicit goal.
My point was, that change coupled with the type of raid damage received due to poor tactics makes it look (and feel) like a healing deficiency. And, that's not a fun place for a healer to be. If you have a group with solid tactics and strategies, you won't feel it.
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I’ve been reading the PvE healing threads since patch 1.2 and, having now progressed through some content on my own, wanted to share some thoughts and get your reactions.
I think I understand both perspectives on this:
- I understand the frustration some have felt trying to keep their party members alive because I sometimes have felt it, too
- Other times, I’ve felt in complete control of the same encounter
How to reconcile these?
I think it’s this: there’s a lot of avoidable damage in FPs and OPs. And, here’s the key part: the damage is frequently the “death by several cuts” variety, not a big-bang nuke.
Sure, there are nukes: like, getting knocked into the green snot by Bonecrusher or walking onto an armed landmine in EC or exploding a hard-mode Soa ball in the middle of the raid. But, a lot of it is 10% here, 20% there. Drip, drip, drip.
Prior to our nerf, I felt I could paper-over the misbehavior of raid members that failed to avoid Toth’s beserk or Garj’s pounce or Bonecrusher’s swipes or conal damage: I had tremendous burst output and an ability to regenerate force after frequent AoEs.
Post patch, I simply do not have the resources to offset poor strategies or tactical mistakes. Because those mistakes often do not immediately kill (or nearly kill) the guy who made them, there is an expectation (no doubt cultivated pre-patch) that it’s the healer’s job to deal with it.
It’s easy to blame the healer: unless you hit enrage, or the tank is losing aggro constantly, or a player clearly blows himself up, it’s hard to trace the blame anywhere else. It’s easy to see depleted health bars that stay depleted.
By being somewhat forgiving to tactical errors, on the margin, Bioware has given the expectation these things can and should be healed through. But, often that’s simply not possible if it’s more than a one-off thing. My sage just doesn't have the force-pool for lots of AoE or burst healing anymore. I’d wager that’s “by design”, because Bioware wants people to learn the mechanics and movement and strategies.
But, the reality is makes it very easy to blame the healer, and, for a healer to blame himself. Even though the damage should have been avoided, it's a very helpless feeling to not be able to do anything about it, whether because of force management or no burst. So, healing post 1.2 can be dispiriting.
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Seeing whether an ops member has a cleansable debuff or extant heal-over-time buff (e.g rejuv) is very difficult.
- The icons are super small and do not scale
- The buffs and debuffs are all right aligned, so they get jumbled together; class rotations constantly add and remove irrelevant buffs
Are there any plans for making/discovering relevant buffs/debuffs easier for healers?
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Yeah, I'm using ops frames.
But, for me the icons are *super small*. I can see their color, but not much else. (I have an OK sized monitor (23") at HD resolution).
Another problem, besides their size, is that the buffs and debuffs all stack on the right side of the frame, so I can't even distinguish buffs from debuffs.
I dunno, maybe I gotta get my eyes checked.
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[i've searched for threads on this and wasn't able to find any, so I apologize if this is a much discussed issue (as I suspect it is, unless I'm missing something)]
I'm having a really hard time in PvE seeing when someone needs a cleanse (apart from health bars rapidly going down).
The buff/debuff icons in the raid frames are so incredibly tiny, and the buffs and debuffs are jumbled together so you can't just look for a "new debuff". People are always gaining and losing buffs based on their normal rotations, etc, so there's a lot of spurious flicker.
In hardmode Taral V, I can at least see when people get Edikar's grenade because they're in flames. But, take the Sith Entity, for example: the targeted player just gets a mild purple aura that's near impossible for me to see at a glance.
My question for you all is: how are other consulars discovering debuffs that need cleansing?
Is there a UI option or something I'm missing to make it more obvious? In FPs, I guess using party frames is an option. But, they have their own problems.
I know there's been a lot discussed about mouse-over heals and that would be nice, but the non-discoverability of debuffs seems like a much bigger problem, at least for me.
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As stated in the other thread, Salvation is working properly and as it should. The delay is on the flytext only. As far as the healthbar and mechanics of the game are concerned, Salvation is fixed.
What is the initial burst supposed to be, now? My initial 'burst', judging by my health bar, is like ~300. My ticks are also 300.
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So if you put both points in Conveyance, the bonus it gives to Deliverance is to reduce the activation time by 1 second. But you have to use Rejuvenate first, and when you do that there is a 1 second cool down before you can use Deliverance. So it seems to me that there's really no bonus at all in that regard. Am I just missing something here?
As the other poster said, the "bonus" is that you get the HoT + Deliverance, rather than just Deliverance.
But, IMO, the true magic of conveyance is when you couple it with Healing Trance and Resplendence. Conveyance boosts the crit change of healing trance, and crits on that give you resplendence, and resplendence give you a free noble sacrifice.
So, this rotation:
Rejuv + (Conveyance) + Healing Trance + (Resplendence) + Noble Sacrifice
gives strong heals and fantastic force management.
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Cool, thanks everyone.
I wonder, though, if this is the behavior they want if it woukd make more sense to drop an empty modded orange and then the mods separately.
Theres something unsatisfying about having two bosses in an instance drop a sweet legslot upgrade, and seeing the same guy need roll both. It also seems harder to quickly determine the extent of an upgrade because the compare tool only compares leg/leg, if Im not mistaken. Seems like this will lead to people pretty much ignoring the gear slot (legs, head, etc) when rolling and always rolling on any gear that is even partially an upgrade.
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You seem to fully understand why he rolled on the item and what he was going to do with it. One might think that you need it more, or it was a bigger upgrade for you, but as far as I can tell from what you are saying it would be an upgrade for him too, so he has as much "right" to roll on it as you do. Nothing wrong with using the mod system to take out and move mods as you see fit.
No, im nit sure i do fully understand. Thats why im asking.
Is it true that orange pieces only as good as the mods? Is there no reason to roll on an orange piece once you already have one, except to crack the mods? If thats true, then at some point, once you have all orange pieces, you pretty much need anything that has even a single mod upgrade for you, and the actual slot piece becomes irrelevant, making the stat comparison popup mostly useless.
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So he rolled it for a Companion? I mean bop oranges have mods that are still bound so only he can use the pieces from it
No, he rolled for himself, but only so he could crack out one or more of the mods. He was never going to equip the actual piece itself.
Because he was never going to put the piece on, it seemed a little odd to me. But, he said the oranges arent really relevant apart from their mods.
If thats how bioware inteneded this, i kind of wish the bosses dropped mods directly. I mean, I see the guys point, but it still seems a little weird. I didnt know if I was missing something, or if he was.
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I was in a flashpoint and some dude rolled 'need' on a piece that was a major upgrade for me, even though it wasnt an upgrade for him and the stats werent as suited for him. I dont remember yhe exact ststs, but suffice to say he was not goiing to wear yhe piece, just crack the mods out.
This struck me as kind of odd, but he said that orange gear is only as good as the mods anyway.
What do you all think of this?
. I need to work on that and your description of having 2 pools, instead of 1, really hit home for me, so thanks!
Class changes and balance in Game Update 1.3
in General Discussion
Posted
I've read many of your posts on this thread and all of them are incoherent.