Healers are the TRUE tanks in warzones?

[Stenrik]

Depends on how you define a tank. In the PVE context, a tank gets the enemy to attack them, instead of their teammates.

 

I feel this often happens to healers in warzones, as more than one dps often focuses them. By running, ccing, and healing themselves, a good healer can kite these players away from an objective just as a PVE tank would kite a boss.

 

Actual tank classes in warzones are more of debuff classes, and proactive healers in their own way with Guard. But they really don't seem to draw much "aggro." I mean, as a dps, would you go after someone decked in heavy armor, or someone squishy?

The only time I would really classify an actual tank class as a warzone tank by this definition is when I'm healing one, and purposefully keeping him at 30% HP, just so that the enemy dps keeps battering away at him hoping for an easy kill. (Many dps just look for whoever has the lowest hp, regardless of gear or class.)

 

I'm not saying tanks aren't useful in PVP. I love being in a group with a good one, especially when it comes to defending objectives!

I'm just wondering if anyone shares my perspective on this role healers can take in warzones. Also, I heard someone say once that it's "selfish" for healers to be healing themselves all the time in warzones. I say, if they're being focused and taking the enemy's mind off of other players, it's just as useful as healing said players. Heck, when I'm dps, I admit I tend to get tunnel vision trying to take down a healer who just won't die.

 

If anyone here thinks there's something wrong with healers keeping themselves alive (as in, healing themselves as much as or more than the rest of the group due to being focused) please tell me your reasoning.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Stenrik

[skotish]

I play a merc healer i aint not tank

[skotish]

double post sorry Edited April 4, 2012 by skotish
double post

[L-RANDLE]

Depends on how you define a tank. In the PVE context, a tank gets the enemy to attack them, instead of their teammates.

 

I feel this often happens to healers in warzones, as more than one dps often focuses them. By running, ccing, and healing themselves, a good healer can kite these players away from an objective just as a PVE tank would kite a boss.

 

Actual tank classes in warzones are more of debuff classes, and proactive healers in their own way with Guard. But they really don't seem to draw much "aggro." I mean, as a dps, would you go after someone decked in heavy armor, or someone squishy?

The only time I would really classify an actual tank class as a warzone tank by this definition is when I'm healing one, and purposefully keeping him at 30% HP, just so that the enemy dps keeps battering away at him hoping for an easy kill. (Many dps just look for whoever has the lowest hp, regardless of gear or class.)

 

I'm not saying tanks aren't useful in PVP. I love being in a group with a good one, especially when it comes to defending objectives!

I'm just wondering if anyone shares my perspective on this role healers can take in warzones. Also, I heard someone say once that it's "selfish" for healers to be healing themselves all the time in warzones. I say, if they're being focused and taking the enemy's mind off of other players, it's just as useful as healing said players. Heck, when I'm dps, I admit I tend to get tunnel vision trying to take down a healer who just won't die.

 

If anyone here thinks there's something wrong with healers keeping themselves alive (as in, healing themselves as much as or more than the rest of the group due to being focused) please tell me your reasoning.

 

I suggested the same thing and got shot down for it. As a DPS Sage, I feel like I got Auto-Taunt "ON" and a sign on my back that says, "Three people please attack me!"

[kweassa]

Ever try beating on a WoW priest or druid?

 

 

If you've tried that, then you really wouldn't complain about the healers in this game.

[Neoforcer]

Ever try beating on a WoW priest or druid?

 

 

If you've tried that, then you really wouldn't complain about the healers in this game.

 

Did this all the time in wow me and on my hunter with my friend on his would kill a healer of any class in wow. The healer would die in under 5s because we would both pop agil pots and hit all cds no healer could stand that amount of burst when you have 2 burst dps classes pop out of stealth and hit you that fast.

 

 

course we got reported for hacking because all they saw was one tauren hunter and not the tiny goblin hunter hiding under the tauren lol. They thought the tauren hunter just 2 shot the healer not 2 hunters killing the healer.

 

 

P.s The thing you do to kill a healer lol man it was hell being between a tauren legs

Edited April 4, 2012 by Neoforcer

[ShavedEwok]

Ever try beating on a WoW priest or druid?

 

 

If you've tried that, then you really wouldn't complain about the healers in this game.

 

So WoW was unbalanced and that's an excuse for this game to be so as well?

 

IMO, healing is obviously overpowered as it is now. When 3 players have serious problems bringing one healer down, then something is wrong.

 

Either dps vs healing is unbalanced or there's some hack at work. Either way it's not good.

 

Also, the interrupts which are supposed to work seem to do very little if anything to stop them. Spam it like crazy myself, but on some players they just don't seem to have any effect at all.

 

IMO, it's pretty clear BioWare needs to do either one of these two things:

 

1. Buff PvP dps.

 

2. Seriously nerf PvP healing.

Edited April 4, 2012 by ShavedEwok

[Hamatula]

So WoW was unbalanced and that's an excuse for this game to be so as well?

 

IMO, healing is obviously overpowered as it is now. When 3 players have serious problems bringing one healer down, then something is wrong.

 

Either dps vs healing is unbalanced or there's some hack at work. Either way it's not good.

 

Also, the interrupts which are supposed to work seem to do very little if anything to stop them. Spam it like crazy myself, but on some players they just don't seem to have any effect at all.

 

IMO, it's pretty clear BioWare needs to do either one of these two things:

 

1. Buff PvP dps.

 

2. Seriously nerf PvP healing.

 

if 3 people cant bring 1 healer down you have a problem... and its not the healer. maybe you should quit spamming your interupt and actually interupt something useful.

 

nerf healers anymore than they are and kiss healing in pvp goodbye.

[Varicite]

IMO, healing is obviously overpowered as it is now. When 3 players have serious problems bringing one healer down, then something is wrong.

 

Either dps vs healing is unbalanced or there's some hack at work. Either way it's not good.

 

Also, the interrupts which are supposed to work seem to do very little if anything to stop them. Spam it like crazy myself, but on some players they just don't seem to have any effect at all.

 

Which healer can 3 DPS not bring down? <.<

 

The only thing I can possibly think of is a Merc/Commando during their 2 minute cooldown, but that's only for 12 seconds once every 2 minutes.

 

Also, you can just stun them during it and you'll waste half of their free-casting time.

 

You can't just spam interrupts on anything w/ a cast time, you need to know WHAT to interrupt, and what to just let them cast because you can dps through it.

 

Even if you don't know what to interrupt, I can't imagine that 3 DPS who have any clue how to play this game would have any trouble dropping any healer pretty quickly (as in 10-15 seconds). I mean, maybe if they were terrible and all 3 of them continually blew their interrupts on the same meaningless cast and let them keep getting off the big heals.

 

Are you complaining about bad coordination and general lack of common sense among DPS, 'cause I agree that should be nerfed into the ground.

[ShavedEwok]

if 3 people cant bring 1 healer down you have a problem... and its not the healer. maybe you should quit spamming your interupt and actually interupt something useful.

 

nerf healers anymore than they are and kiss healing in pvp goodbye.

 

Let me take a wild guess...you're a healer perhaps?

 

Fine, don't nerf healing...boost dps then.

 

Regardless, IMO there's currently an imbalance between healing capabilities and dps in PvP.

[Nukor]

Ever try beating on a WoW priest or druid?

 

 

If you've tried that, then you really wouldn't complain about the healers in this game.

 

I don't believe this thread was intended to be a complaint thread, more of just general discussion.

 

I agree with OP because I play a merc healer and I often purposely try to draw "agro" to get 3-5 players to focus me, then I use line of sight to kite players away from the objectives, effectively taking them out of the fight. These kind of tactics are really the equivelant to what a tank's role would be in a PVE fight so the OP is definately viewing battle healers in the right light.

 

To the other merc healer that posted on this, if you're having survivability issues, you need to make better use of your abilities. Don't pop your shield when you're almost out of health, pop it at the beginning of the fight. Make sure that you're making use of the shield that kolto missile gives as well, it offers a great deal of damage mitigation and will save your life in many scenarios. Assuming you have all your pvp gear, you should be able to withstand the focus fire of up to 5 players so long as you are LOS'ing them effectively and using instant casts as often as possible. Hope that helps!

Edited April 4, 2012 by Nukor

[Ruuprect]

Which healer can 3 DPS not bring down? <.<

 

The only thing I can possibly think of is a Merc/Commando during their 2 minute cooldown, but that's only for 12 seconds once every 2 minutes.

 

Also, you can just stun them during it and you'll waste half of their free-casting time.

 

You can't just spam interrupts on anything w/ a cast time, you need to know WHAT to interrupt, and what to just let them cast because you can dps through it.

 

Even if you don't know what to interrupt, I can't imagine that 3 DPS who have any clue how to play this game would have any trouble dropping any healer pretty quickly (as in 10-15 seconds). I mean, maybe if they were terrible and all 3 of them continually blew their interrupts on the same meaningless cast and let them keep getting off the big heals.

 

Are you complaining about bad coordination and general lack of common sense among DPS, 'cause I agree that should be nerfed into the ground.

 

I can tank 3 terrible undergeared players that never use thier cc's or interupts only if I am gaurded. 1 good dps can take me out in seconds and if im gaurded they make it impossible for me to be able to heal anyone but myself. If people would stop being terrible there would be no need for nerfs.

[Lymain]

Let me take a wild guess...you're a healer perhaps?

 

Fine, don't nerf healing...boost dps then.

 

Regardless, IMO there's currently an imbalance between healing capabilities and dps in PvP.

 

Have you seen the 1.2 patch notes? Healing is getting nerfed soon.

[ShavedEwok]

Have you seen the 1.2 patch notes? Healing is getting nerfed soon.

 

Thanks, must have missed that.

 

Good. Many of us feel healing is currently overpowered and I'm glad BioWare seem to agree with us with the upcoming nerf.

 

Thanks again.

[Varicite]

Thanks, must have missed that.

 

Good. Many of us feel healing is currently overpowered and I'm glad BioWare seem to agree with us with the upcoming nerf.

 

Thanks again.

 

We know that many of you feel that healing is currently overpowered.

 

The problem a lot of us have is why you feel that way, which hasn't often been shown to be the best of reasoning.

 

And no, I don't even play a healer; all DPS classes and 1 tank.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Varicite

[Ruuprect]

Thanks, must have missed that.

 

Good. Many of us feel healing is currently overpowered and I'm glad BioWare seem to agree with us with the upcoming nerf.

 

Thanks again.

 

Its not that healing is OP, it is the majority of the PvPers in the game fail terribly. I can harass healers in my heal spec, yet a dps cant kill/harass one. Not sure what the problem is.

[kickinhead]

Are you Kidding me?

 

Besides them being able to guard and taunt, the maps are also designed in a way that surviving longer is very useful or if you have the huttball, you'll draw fire anyways.

 

And Healers are definitely not tanks, just because they are main-targets to focus, because they are incredibly squishy.

 

Besides: If you focus-fire and count down spikes, healers go down very easily. Just bashing down constantly on one healer will not work obviously, but thats also an incredibly stupid way to play in a game where the healers have a rather easy time healing up pressure (just because mana-management is so easy and almost all healing is rather strong but have high cast-times), but have almost no burstheal to counter focused spiking of single targets.

Edited April 4, 2012 by kickinhead

[Battilea]

Its not that healing is OP, it is the majority of the PvPers in the game fail terribly. I can harass healers in my heal spec, yet a dps cant kill/harass one. Not sure what the problem is.

 

DPS has always been the refuge of the lazy and incompetent. It is the one slot that you can normally be carried by the rest of your team, by the tanks, healers, and the actual competent DPS. Makes the good DPS something to be prized.

 

But yeah, I can mostly shut down a healer pretty easily with my healer as well. Not like it takes much.

 

With the resource production of sorcs and mercs brought down (maybe too much, if so, well, further tweaks can fix that), now they just need to bring the DPS they've admitted can do too much damage down to an appropriate level.

[ThaiSamurai]

I don't think healers are overpowered. I switched to all out sawbones on my scoundrel. Granted im lvl 46 this is my experience.

 

If there are more than 2 people attacking me I cannot get my heals off in time.

It stutters the casting bar, meaning if it takes me 3 seconds to cast a heal, it stutters back from 2 seconds, back to 1.5, then stutters from 2.5 to 2 before finishing. I don't know if this is lag or an ability being used on me. Also half the time my heal casts get completely interrupted.

 

I CAN heal myself on a one v one fight. I pop my shield and dodge, then hit kolto cloud, slow release, and use heals on myself, I also just run away and kite them, doing my best to heal myself around corners when I get the chance.

 

I do think people get tunnel vision and almost a blood rage to kill me out of spite there's been times where someone attacking me chased me from the right turret all the way to the left turret, often it will be 2 guys chasing me.

 

I remember one time I had a pretty heroic moment, I stopped a turret from being capped, then healed myself as I was being pounded on by 5 guys, until backup arrived. Probably lasted no more than 20 seconds but it was pretty epic at the time, I mean i was being beat by 5 guys, when one of them could have been capping the turret.

 

As far as healing others in the WZ; I can keep people up if I start healing them when their health bar is above 50%. If I start healing them with their health bar below 50% their is a very good chance they will end up dying.

 

Also does anyone know a good way of targeting friendlies? Is there a "target nearest ally" I can hotkey? Because having to click on someone jumping around or trying to find their name on the WZ list, (they have like 3 names, makes it hard to search) takes too long and they end up dying because I started my heals too late.

[Varicite]

Also does anyone know a good way of targeting friendlies? Is there a "target nearest ally" I can hotkey? Because having to click on someone jumping around or trying to find their name on the WZ list, (they have like 3 names, makes it hard to search) takes too long and they end up dying because I started my heals too late.

 

You can keybind "Target Nearest Friendly" in preferences. I use it for switching Guards around when I'm on my Tankasin.

 

: )

Edited April 4, 2012 by Varicite

[TheNegotiator]

Pretty interesting the developers designed PvE to be a clone of the WoW tank/healer/dps model which actually works pretty good in PvE...then fails utterly in PvP.

[KonstantinT]

Healer heals for same amount as a dpser hits. Therefore you should not be able to take out one healer solo. He shouldn't be able to kill you either. Assuming equal gear, and assuming there are no stuns involved. This is simply fair. Coincidentally that's how it works.

 

So stop going after healer solo and expect to win every time. It's unrealistic, unfair, and stupid. Nobody would play a healer if that's how it worked. Instead focus them with 2 people at least. Only exception is hitting healer by yourself to deny them the ability to heal another person who may be getting killed.

 

PS: this is coming from someone who plays both a healer (OP), and tank (powertech)

Edited April 4, 2012 by KonstantinT

[ShavedEwok]

I remember one time I had a pretty heroic moment, I stopped a turret from being capped, then healed myself as I was being pounded on by 5 guys, until backup arrived. Probably lasted no more than 20 seconds but it was pretty epic at the time, I mean i was being beat by 5 guys, when one of them could have been capping the turret.

 

So you lasted 20 seconds while 5 players attacked you?

 

And of course there's nothing op about that at all...nothing whatsoever.

 

Instead it's highly likely that every single one of these 5 were complete and utter noobs who didn't have a clue and all just need to L2P.

 

Can't wait for 1.2.

[Obtena]

While your tone is sarcastic, you don't really understand how close to reality your statement is. Why? because I have seen single people kill bad healers and I have seen 5 people beat on 1 awesome healer. The fact that spectrum of success exists is very indicative that healing is no more OPed than DPS or tanking. If Healing was OPed, then ANY quality of healer would be able to survive any unreasonable matchup. That just doesn't happen. Edited April 4, 2012 by Obtena

[Karandor]

I actually play DPS spec instead of tank spec on my VG because of the lack of decent DPS in WZs. When I play tank spec I get tons of protection, good damage and do well but sometimes I get in a WZ and my team can't kill anything. When I go DPS I never have that problem.

 

12 wins in a row yesterday so it seems to be working for me.....

 

Healing right now is only too good in that the resources on a merc or sorc are nigh inexhaustible. The changes will make is so they will have a much tougher time managing resources.

 

Right now healers win because most DPS use up their resources before a healer is anywhere close to being out. The patch will even this out making an end (hopefully) to the ridiculous stalemates that could occur.