Click-to-cast healing?

[Isomodia]

Is there no option to assign your heals to click-to-cast or mouseover? I've only been playing this game for a few days, and I was noticing how clunky most of the combat mechanics were, but I'm enjoying the game enough to overlook it.

 

That said, I've always healed, since the days of Everquest. Since WoW:BC I've been using click-to-cast. I feel like this should be an option to all healers. Sure, not having to click on a frame before casting a heal increases the reaction time of the healer, and it could be argued that it gives an 'unfair advantage' to click-cast users, but honestly not having it just adds artificial difficulty and makes the combat feel even more clunky than the lack of auto-casting basic attacks in melee range.

 

I'm really enjoying this game, and I really want to get into it, but if there are no current plans to include some click-cast mechanics, I'd just like to know for sure before I waste any more time with it.

[Varnithis]

WoW is the only game I know of that allows that kind of add-on functionality, and it bred some of the laziest healers I've ever had the displeasure of playing with.

 

IF you can't be bothered to move your finger to the proper F# key, and then hit your heal hotkey, I don't want you healing me.

 

Bioware has made it fairly clear I thought that they won't have third party addon support. While some addons were never a bad thing and could be very useful, things like Click-to-cast forced the devs to make encounters so tight that it was impossible without these addons to keep them reasonably challenging.

 

This takes the evolution of game out of the devlopers hands.

[cs_Kimmo]

Bioware has made it fairly clear I thought that they won't have third party addon support

 

Lolwut?

[Varnithis]

Lolwut?

 

If I'm mistaken, please point out the contradiction. I was under the impression they had no plans to allow it at this time.

[Isomodia]

IF you can't be bothered to move your finger to the proper F# key, and then hit your heal hotkey, I don't want you healing me..

 

So, in a 20 man raid enviroments, which F key selects my 15th party member?

 

Clickcasting GREATLY increases reaction speed and allows for a far greater margin of skill. I'm not asking for healbot here, I just want to be able to set up my heal button to go off when I left click on a unit frame. It saves 2 clicks EACH HEAL. If you don't understand how this allows healers to be more efficient, well, just play a DPS class. I'd rather not have you doing anything meaningful in a group with me, as you're obviously just stubborn.

 

As far as WoW being the only game you've seen this in, have you ever played any other MMOs? It's pretty much been the industry standard to have the option for, I don't know, the last half decade? Rift, Aion, everything that made any kind of a splash AT LEAST allowed for mouseover macros. It's nothing other than clunky mechanics to not allow it. There is no more skill in having to click on a unit, press my heal, then click on another unit to press another heal. The only thing this does is prevent high speed, fast reaction combat. After all, you have to make sure the healer has time to select each unit each time.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Isomodia

[Isomodia]

If I'm mistaken, please point out the contradiction. I was under the impression they had no plans to allow it at this time.

 

I agree. I just don't know why you brought it up. No one is talking about addons. We're talking about a click-casting or mouseover casting option. It could be a checkbox in a menu.

[Iwipe]

WoW is the only game I know of that allows that kind of add-on functionality, and it bred some of the laziest healers I've ever had the displeasure of playing with.

 

IF you can't be bothered to move your finger to the proper F# key, and then hit your heal hotkey, I don't want you healing me.

 

Bioware has made it fairly clear I thought that they won't have third party addon support. While some addons were never a bad thing and could be very useful, things like Click-to-cast forced the devs to make encounters so tight that it was impossible without these addons to keep them reasonably challenging.

 

This takes the evolution of game out of the devlopers hands.

 

Rift has it..mouseover macros etc. you can also use external logitech software to make click to cast etc.

[RuthlessMercy]

I was under the impression they had no plans to allow it at this time.

 

They clearly stated that they weren't going to have third party add-ons at RELEASE, they never said anything about the game not supporting third party add-ons.

[Kholvan]

What do you mean, your "heal button"?

 

Dark Infusion? Dark Heal? Resurgence? Innervate? Static Barrier?

[Emilyi]

WoW is the only game I know of that allows that kind of add-on functionality, and it bred some of the laziest healers I've ever had the displeasure of playing with.

 

IF you can't be bothered to move your finger to the proper F# key, and then hit your heal hotkey, I don't want you healing me.

 

Bioware has made it fairly clear I thought that they won't have third party addon support. While some addons were never a bad thing and could be very useful, things like Click-to-cast forced the devs to make encounters so tight that it was impossible without these addons to keep them reasonably challenging.

 

This takes the evolution of game out of the devlopers hands.

 

Haven't seriously try out healing in release, did a bit of healing in beta...which sucks.

 

Take wow for example, healing take more than simply clicking non stop to be efficient (except for LK where 1 button spamming ftw...so stupid) The reason your healer failing might not have anything to do with add on at all...its just they simply suck and dont know how to play their class properly.

 

Add on might make things less challenging to a certain extent but healing manually in a OP group is just messy...it is doable but just not efficient and cant make use of the full capacity of the healer because we spent too much time clicking on targets

Edited May 20, 2012 by LexiCazam
Inappropriate content

[DarkenAngel]

Holy crap people.. this is just insane laziness. This is coming from a WoW player of 5 years who had Decursive in its initial iteration and so on. Decursive - where we can replace you with a dunking bird because the mod did the work for you.

 

I offer you 2 options:

 

1) Reroll to a non-healing class. No seriously. If click-casting is that crucial for you to have 'skill', then save your parties the trouble and reroll now.

 

2) A less snarky option is to learn how to deal with it.

 

I had Grid back in the WoW days and realistically, besides some status icons, the UI functionality in TOR is almost exactly the same. (if less customizable) My style to heal is to have a separate bar devoted to healing. Lay it out so that it's comfortable for your action bar hand (usually the left). Stand your character in place and have the mouse hover over the unit frames. Click the person who needs the heals, use your left hand to tap the appropriate key for the ability.

 

Oh hey. Look who doesn't need click-casting to be quick and reactive.

 

Stuff appears underneath you? Gotta get out of the way. Move your hand down from the numbers back to W, S, A and D and be reactive! Oh hey! Healing the way it should be done without mods for laziness' sake.

[Suzina]

I would prefer if we never have addons, but that is just me.

 

Originally, they said this:

 

“What we’ve said is, regarding the question ‘Will there be addons at launch’ is “no, not at launch”.

 

This statement indicates nothing more than that there will not be addons at launch. Nothing more, nothing less.”

 

 

Then, they said this:

 

Q: How much of a priority is the Mod API to bioware?

The UI team is going to work on improving the existing UI first before we look at modding it. Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on ‘when’ that we can share right now.

 

 

Their message has been very consistent for the last 3 years. "Not at launch, but we're not saying never". Other dev posts I can't find to quote (because the old forums were wiped) included them saying that addons are a "mature MMO feature, and not something we need right away". They have also said, "If addons come, UI addons will come first before anything else.".

[Suzina]

I should also specify, that I am healer-spec'd in every MMO I play. EQ2, FFXI, SWG, LOTRO, and in WOW I played both a Priest healer spec'd and druid healer specd.

 

I have used mouseover healing in WOW, but I am not spoiled by it. I had to use mouse-over healing because it's not fair to my group-mates if I choose not to.

 

I hope we never ever have addons, ever. If Bioware makes mouse-over healing part of their game? great, fine, whatever. It's not a big deal either way, because it's an equal playing field for everyone.

 

But I don't ever want addons of any form in this game.

[Hochrami]

Holy crap people.. this is just insane laziness. This is coming from a WoW player of 5 years who had Decursive in its initial iteration and so on. Decursive - where we can replace you with a dunking bird because the mod did the work for you.

 

I offer you 2 options:

 

1) Reroll to a non-healing class. No seriously. If click-casting is that crucial for you to have 'skill', then save your parties the trouble and reroll now.

 

2) A less snarky option is to learn how to deal with it.

 

I had Grid back in the WoW days and realistically, besides some status icons, the UI functionality in TOR is almost exactly the same. (if less customizable) My style to heal is to have a separate bar devoted to healing. Lay it out so that it's comfortable for your action bar hand (usually the left). Stand your character in place and have the mouse hover over the unit frames. Click the person who needs the heals, use your left hand to tap the appropriate key for the ability.

 

Oh hey. Look who doesn't need click-casting to be quick and reactive.

 

Stuff appears underneath you? Gotta get out of the way. Move your hand down from the numbers back to W, S, A and D and be reactive! Oh hey! Healing the way it should be done without mods for laziness' sake.

 

This, except for that last part. Using WSAD to drive is something I stopped doing in EQ1. I use mouse buttons to drive. Push them both down and you're off. Release even one and you're no longer moving.

 

I have my hotbar pulled down to my letters. A-G, Z-B and T and Y do skills 1-12. I put a secondary hotbar under the 1 to = keys and can reach 6 of those easily. Q and W are for strafing, E replaces TAB and R stayed on "reply" because I didn't have anything else to do with it. I've used this in WOW, EQ2, Rift, and Warhammer Online before now to great effect.

 

Now you have, at the very least, the vast majority of your skills within reach on one hand, and your right hand should never need to leave your mouse, so you can get out of the fire quickly.

 

Beyond that, click the option to use operations frames as group frames for flash points so you can see the action and not be staring at the bottom left of your monitor the whole time, and you should have no problems.

[DarkenAngel]

This, except for that last part. Using WSAD to drive is something I stopped doing in EQ1. I use mouse buttons to drive. Push them both down and you're off. Release even one and you're no longer moving.

 

Yeah, that's a good style too. It doesn't work as well for me personally. I found trying to drive by the mouse a little too clunky and I would end up over turning an awful lot. But that's a style preference thing.

 

Glad to hear that some people are also not horrendously lazy.

[AlphaBraddox]

Clicking does suck for healing. Lazy or not. A cone are area heal would be so much better! This allows the healer to be more effective with DPS and less micro-clicking-management. Edited January 6, 2012 by AlphaBraddox

[Numerio]

im not sure if I understood your problem,

didnt play WoW though

 

how I heal:

 

Focus Target (alt+f) on the tank, with the focus target modifier key on the middle mousebutton,

all my heals/shield accessable with alt+ 1, alt + 2, etc

(aggressive skills on 1, 2, 3 etc)

 

so when I keep mid mouse button pressed I just have to use my skill hotkeys and heal my focus target, if I release it I heal myself

 

and in pvp I dont know... I click on the player I want to heal on the grid then use my hotkeys

- I dont understand how this should work with one click.

What heal is used when you click once?

As sith sorc you need your hot skill before you can really heal him ( to be effective)

 

And btw I enjoy healing, the only annoying thing is people running out of your cast range / vision

Edited January 6, 2012 by Numerio

[Tenaciouzd]

i hope they never allow any addons. addons are such a huge crutch in wow and they extremley closed the gap from terrible players and good players. you can even get an addon for wow that has a girl saying when people use what cooldowns in arena....you dont even have pay attention. same in pve, like ultraxion hour of twilight, girl counts down from 5 so you know when to use heroic will....... talk about extreme lazyness. if u cant bind your healing keys around your movement keys and use your mouse to click the party unit frames and still have normal reaction time, i dont even know what to say to that.

 

ok let me edit this....addons that do things for you, should not be allowed. informational addons like damage/healing meters would be ok, but its not like bioware can build that into the ui. addons that play the game for you....shouldnt be allowed. hopefully bioware wont be sellouts like blizzard.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Tenaciouzd

[kemmadar]

easy solution...stop using the mouse to play the game and use the keyboard...it might take some time but once you realize you have 10fingers available to do the healing for you instead of having to click every person and heal that you need to cast, you will realize the true power of the force.

[DerexSWTOR]

*shrug* Why not do the following with the Belkin N52:

 

14 buttons, shifter, thumb movement.

 

Macro buttons 1 - 12 to ability bar 1-12.

 

Macro Thumb button + 1 - 12 to the following macro:

 

< select player 1 >

< click cast heal >

< select previous target >

 

(you can do previous target through focus if you want to by changing the macro to:

 

focus current target

select player 1

click cast heal

select focus target

 

Set this up for all buttons 1 - 14 and you should be able to "focus cast" at least 14 targets in the raid. Not sure what max raid force size is so this might not cover everyone, still it definitely works for flashpoints.

 

Why post this? Simple enough, all of you complaining about click to cast being OP or otherwise problematic don't seem to realize that there's hardware out there that allows you to do this pretty quickly and easily (N52, there's another one with like 20 buttons on it that does the same thing, Logitech G15 Keyboard, etc. etc. etc.).

 

Anything I can macro to a programmable hardware button should be able to be shortcut through the game itself in some way...otherwise I'm simply required to have specific hardware to be more efficient at playing my class.

 

-Illydth

[DerexSWTOR]

<snip>

 

ok let me edit this....addons that do things for you, should not be allowed. informational addons like damage/healing meters would be ok, but its not like bioware can build that into the ui. addons that play the game for you....shouldnt be allowed. hopefully bioware wont be sellouts like blizzard.

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Damage meters is the death to games. There's a thread on this already somewhere, look for it.

 

Basically, the moment I can determine that class X is L% behind class Y in something, class X no longer gets to play the game due to the min/maxing mentality of upper end players.

 

The longer no one knows if Sorcerer DPS is behind Sniper DPS or that BH's mitigate 5% more damage than Juggernauts the better this game plays for EVERYONE.

 

--Illydth

[Lankyspanky]

All I ask for as a healer is the ability to move health bars somewhere where i can see what is under my feet while I heal, mouse over macros, and a better way for me to keep track of hot/tactical advantage duration/count. That isn't that much, right?

[Calixtus]

The UI functionality requested in the original post was and is available in the stock WoW UI.

 

It has nothing to do with "addons", and whatever your opinion on that particular subject, it has zero bearing on this discussion.

 

 

Now; Many MMOs have click-to-cast or mouseover casting as a UI option. I also think the SWTOR UI should have this option, because requiring a ****-ton of keyclicks to perform a simple action is not useful.

[kemmadar]

f# key to target, then # to cast... failing to see where the ###-ton of keystrokes is...lazy...and the mouse style click play is overworking oneself Edited January 6, 2012 by kemmadar

[snacktray]

It has nothing to do with lazy.

 

Without mouse over healing you leave healers as the only one unable to keep a boss targeted during an encounter. This can be pretty important when you need to quickly react to cast bars, buffs, or other events.

 

It also makes things awkward in pvp when swapping between a target and healing.

 

Anyone who thinks this is a lazy issue just hasn't been doing this the right way.