TigoBeratix Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 Trying to get better and would really appreciate any tips; strategy; or change of goals for hutball. Level 42 sawbones is hitting#1 or 2 overall in heals for the other war zones - it's straight forward. Coordinating effort in a pug without voice can be done. I know I am helping the team. I am getting crushed in huttball - the angles, drops and spread out players is driving me nuts. To become more effective my first step is going to roll a vanguard to just practice the map and learn how to not focus on heals I am open to the pros for healer advice in PUG huttball with out voice What should i focus on? Must do / never do? How do you know you are helping the team? Thanks in advance for your guidance
glenbruton Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) try and stay in sight of the ball carrier (edit: this means running past people that need heals sometimes). best tip I've got for you. Edited March 30, 2012 by glenbruton
paul_preib Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) Trying to get better and would really appreciate any tips; strategy; or change of goals for hutball. Level 42 sawbones is hitting#1 or 2 overall in heals for the other war zones - it's straight forward. Coordinating effort in a pug without voice can be done. I know I am helping the team. I am getting crushed in huttball - the angles, drops and spread out players is driving me nuts. To become more effective my first step is going to roll a vanguard to just practice the map and learn how to not focus on heals I am open to the pros for healer advice in PUG huttball with out voice What should i focus on? Must do / never do? How do you know you are helping the team? Thanks in advance for your guidance I can't speak to your specific class, that's the only healer I have actually not run any warzones with (being that my smuggler's all of level 12 while my commando/sorc are 50). But I can throw out a few general things that I've noticed. 1.Don't always have to be right on top of the ballcarrier-- As long as you are in range and maintaining line of sight, sometimes being somewhere a bit different from the ballcarrier is actually handy. This can either A. keep the heat off you if the team tends to zerg the ballcarrier alone or B.Spread the defenders out as a couple become busy chasing you, thus you are taking damage (and potential knockbacks) away from the tank anyway. Usually the best way to pull this off is to make good use of catwalks and try to hold the high ground when possible. 2.You can play fire-eater-- not sure how feasible at sub-50 where the fire damage to health pools and healing ratios are a tad more unfriendly, but in the 50's bracket you can run through the fire ahead of the pack and self heal up while giving a leaper with the ball someone to jump to, or take a pass far enough ahead of the defense that they can't catch up to you. 3.Purge is your friend-- I am not sure if the scoundrel has one and if so if it has restrictions, if so this is huge. Not only for dots, but certain movement impairs/stuns/mezs can also be cleared this way, far more useful then trying to simply spam-heal a ballcarrier through it. 4.Don't go straight to the mosh-pit in the middle. If you are a healer, commando/merc, or sniper/gunslinger I think it is far better to take a side route at the outset of a match rather then join what is sometimes all 15 others in the bonzai to the middle. This gives you a a better tactical view of the field for who to heal, allows you to potentially take a pass that catches the defense flat-footed and nets a quick score before they can catch up to you, puts you in a position to support a ballcarrier that hopped on the air-jet, or allows you to knockback/stun any opposition trying to get into passing/pulling range. 5.Pure healing isn't always the answer-- While your primary job first and foremost is to keep teammates alive, there are indirect ways of doing this as well. Crowd control and knockbacks are as important as healing with regards to making sure everyone is alive and able to score. 6.Prioritize-- there's a sentinel with 4k health left that wants to just dive into the pile and blenderize or a vanguard that's at 9K who's working the middle, taking on a couple opponents so they don't get the ball and overall contributing more to the fight. It is ok to let the 4k dps die so you can keep your attention on who matters and will be most impacting the outcome. 7.Draw 'em away-- Sometimes as a healer I can help as much by just getting their attention and getting myself out of the flow of action. If you take 2-3 opponents with you (assuming you are in a position to survive a halfway reasonable amount of time) this can be very effective since the healer is often marked which causes dpsers to get tunnel vision and try to burn you down. Take a few into the pit with you where even once you die they still are effectively out and away from the action. 8.Ballcarrier before self-- If you and the ballcarrier are being focus fired and you don't have the oomph to keep both up, make sure that ballcarrier stays alive before anything. If he dies without getting a pass off the other team now has the ball and you are staring at them without enough damage to really make an impact. If you focus heal the tank for as long as you can (potentially using medpacks or any possible defensive cd's your class may have) then when you go down the tank may have just enough time bought to stay alive and score, someone else may be able to catch up and support (healing, cc/knocking back attackers, getting in pass position, etc.). 9.Know you will be focused-- Most ops leaders will mark anyone they notice healing so people see and know to focus you. It is a pain sometimes when you can't take two steps without seemingly the whole team's firepower and CC raining down on you. Nature of the beast, take it with a good sense of humor. Edit: Another one-- pre-hotting with low cost/cooldown abilities on someone you anticipate taking damage can also be quite useful. This is especially handy when people have a tendency to run out of range/line of sight before you can get anything with a cast time off. If the hot wasn't needed usually the energy is recovered/cooldown back before it becomes a factor again, but every so often squeezing those extra couple health ticks can make a difference. And.... Smaller faster heals are usually much more helpful then your big heavy hitters. Don't know again your specific class's mechanics but in general too easy to go out of range/line of sight, be interrupted, or just have someone die while trying to get a long-cast heal off. The resource to healing ratio on these smaller heals may not usually be as efficient, but a heal actually put on target is infinitely more effective then a nice big potent heal that never lands. Edited March 30, 2012 by paul_preib
paul_preib Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 Another thing you can try is playing with your spec, nothing says you have to be a dedicated full 31 point healer. I have tried all different variations and right now my favorite on the sorc only has 23 points into the healing tree. I cough up my big 31 point talent, but have a ton of versatility. This is especially useful in the highly mobile/spread out huttball arena. A quick look again without a deep knowledge of your AC I cobbled together a 24/0/17 pvp spec that utilizes shrap-bomb for the aoe damage/slow (with the slow on it can use it on a team trying to chase down your ballcarrier, or slowing down while damaging a healer/tank combo that has the ball, purge is on a short CD meaning only one of the two can be dot-cleansed right away). Gives you that dirty-kick speed boost which can be very useful for the final leg of the map when your team has the ball (get across a fire-pit before it flares, run to the endzone to receive a quick pass, take out a defender and catch up to the ballcarrier, etc.) The couple items to boost vital shot can be handy as well if the other team is light on healers, as the dot damage can add up and chip down a ballcarrie.
Rensel Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 Roll an Operative, and use only kolto probes and surgical probe = 500K heals. Both being instant casts means you don't have problems with people moving out of LOS, and more importantly, the enemy won't see you cast healing spells. hint: if you cast a healing spell with a cast time = you get marked = you might as well quit the WZ.
Astarica Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) Roll an Operative, and use only kolto probes and surgical probe = 500K heals. Both being instant casts means you don't have problems with people moving out of LOS, and more importantly, the enemy won't see you cast healing spells. hint: if you cast a healing spell with a cast time = you get marked = you might as well quit the WZ. That's really good advice there. A good player will generally hunt you down to the ends of earth once they see that you're a healer, so if you never use anything with a casting time, it makes it harder for the opposition to figure you out. Huttball is a map that greatly emphasizes on mobility so the lack of throughput isn't a big issue here for only using instant heals, and the Huttball catwalks will increase your survivality far more than any class-based skill would. Edited March 30, 2012 by Astarica
Khoraji Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 1 - Stay in LOS of the ball-carrier 2 - Try using the high ground to get a better view 3 - get to 50, 1-49 bracket is not the place to practice your pvp skills.
DeltaEkotte Posted March 30, 2012 Posted March 30, 2012 What should i focus on? Must do / never do? How do you know you are helping the team? Thanks in advance for your guidance When you make the first push out of the spawn box as a healer I run just up onto the lip of the acid pit and just heal from there becuase I can reach out to where the ball spawns and the first people out there take a ton of damage quickly. Pop any HoT's that you have just before the split to go left or right at the acid pit to go around to grab the ball (also on first push out of the spawn box) so everyone gets a little extra healing. When I find a 2v1, my teammate is at 50% health and I can keep him alive until he kills both of the guys he was fighting. I will admit, all the walls and walkways really are a pain for healing, cause the ops group health bars will show that they are in range, but when you try to heal someone they are on the other side of the walkway up over the acid pits and you can't see target....
TigoBeratix Posted March 30, 2012 Author Posted March 30, 2012 You guys rock!! - thank you for taking the time to help
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