A Healer's 1.2 Grievances: The story of why healers are upset

[pathiss]

 

DPS is easy living if you ask me you can jump in a battleground and actually play rather than worry about keeping your team alive.

 

 

DPS is vastly easier than playing a support toon, I agree. I would think that would be a general opinion of people that play competitively at both in any mmo. There is reason that good support players are the backbone of competitive play.

[Altaira]

I didn't destroy anything. It's the undeserving healers, standing around, pressing 4 buttons, making fights into a bore fest.. they're the ones that destroy this game.

 

I think that if you heal, you should automatically get your comms and warzone rewards cut in half. It's not like they're DPS'ing and killing people and decided the outcome of a fight. They just stand there, being useless and all.

 

Also, they should tweek Maras/Juggies/Melee Operatives just a tad bit more to allow them more mobility during fights. My Mara would really appreciate if those healers would just stay in one place so I can beat them over the head with my glow sticks. It's not like running away is going to change anything, they still gonna die, might as well speed up the process.

 

Haha, you a funnay guy. You are so witty, you instigator you! You remind me of explosive diarrhea. You make a lot of offensive noises and everything that comes out belongs in the toilet. I bet your hate for healers stems from problems like you being 'out of LOS' when you need healing. I know I'd take a team loss just to see you bite the dust.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Altaira

[Balmuck]

Haha, you a funnay guy. You are so witty, you instigator you! You remind me of explosive diarrhea. You make a lot of offensive noises and everything that comes out belongs in the toilet. I bet your hate for healers stems from problems like you being 'out of LOS' when you need healing. I know I'd take a team loss just to see you bite the dust.

 

Is that like a food?

[RStoney]

Can healers heal post 1.2...yes. Is it fun..NO!

 

I think that's what healers are pissed at. One if you think it takes no skill to heal you've never healed, it's not a button spam it's about resources, finding LOS, avoiding the wave of death as soon as folks find out your healer. DPS is easy living if you ask me you can jump in a battleground and actually play rather than worry about keeping your team alive.

 

This brings me to my point. Healers got a major nerf and then the medal system. A good healer is not trying to capture objectives as a rule, he/she is moving with there team and keeping them alive. If I try to grab kills, objectives most times it's a choice between keeping folks alive or that. In my opinion it discourages healers from doing there job. An example last night I came into a game a late I got two medals and nothing for it...what I think is a joke is this was a pug and I still pulled 3 MVP votes. Three random people thought I did a good job but biowares medal system not so much. As a player it gets old seeing dps pull 15 medals and me do ten.

 

What has this done?...now I go in focused on medals rather than HEALING. That's not a good thing, not at all. Do I go for the win in a losing game and throw solid heals or say screw it so I can get an extra medal. Winning game where I still lose or lose and get a few comms..this is not a cool decision, doesn't come up that much but when it does...

 

My point with this healing is still doable but it's not fun anymore. Stressing about medals isn't fun...at all. Being a punching bad even less fun.

 

 

Played the healer role - and just accepted I would not top out the leaderboard EVER. I was okay with that. Like you - when I hustled, and dished out the healing, I would gather the MVP votes from appreciative DPS/tanks who got all the medals. I was perfectly fine with that. Welcome to life of a healer.

 

Post 1.2 - not only do I have a billboard over my head announcing what I do (making me easy to pick out, as if anyone with half a brain couldn't have figured it out previously) I basically can count on using TWO heals whenever needed. Everything else is interrupted, or I am perma-stunned. That is - until I die, which is one or two swings and I am back at the respawn.

 

As mentioned earlier - stick a fork in this one for me. *sigh* Sad, as I did enjoy the pre-1.2 PvP.

[Echoo]

Healing is broken. We know. Its sad. I wonder if switching around expertise would fix the issue. Probably not.

[WaywardOne]

Who comes to a star wars game to play the guy with the healing gun? Where's the in-combat healing in any of the original movies, tv shows, novels, comic books or trailers for this game? It is my belief that most (definitely not all - there are no absolutes, but most) healers just picked the class because they like to be OP. They just lost that "completely OP" status and so of course they are going to whine. I couldn't care less.

 

In my experience with 1.2 (as a wh guardian and bm sentinel and a mid-level healer), healing is fine right now. If a healer has two DPS on him he will survive longer than any other class can in a 2v1 (unless he's stunned the whole time which not every class combo can do while dpsing). And healers still -need- to be targetted first if you want to win a fight or objective where one (or more) is present. Is that right? Arguably not - it's a dynamic carried over from other MMOs and it is getting very old there - but that's firmly how it is. Healers are still the most important characters on the battleground. Since 1.2, I've won games without healers vs teams with 3+ healers but guess which side had low damage, high deaths, low kills? And guess which side got outplayed (in every one of those games)?

 

1v1, dps vs healer, it can go either way if the healer knows how to mix damage into his rotation.

 

The part where healers are nerfed by 30% in pvp is because healers are built around negating boss damage to an entire party (or raid). If they kept that rate in pvp we would need dps doing boss-level damage.

[Safgril]

Who comes to a star wars game to play the guy with the healing gun? Where's the in-combat healing in any of the original movies, tv shows, novels, comic books or trailers for this game? It is my belief that most (definitely not all - there are no absolutes, but most) healers just picked the class because they like to be OP. They just lost that "completely OP" status and so of course they are going to whine. I couldn't care less.

 

In my experience with 1.2 (as a wh guardian and bm sentinel and a mid-level healer), healing is fine right now. If a healer has two DPS on him he will survive longer than any other class can in a 2v1 (unless he's stunned the whole time which not every class combo can do while dpsing). And healers still -need- to be targetted first if you want to win a fight or objective where one (or more) is present. Is that right? Arguably not - it's a dynamic carried over from other MMOs and it is getting very old there - but that's firmly how it is. Healers are still the most important characters on the battleground. Since 1.2, I've won games without healers vs teams with 3+ healers but guess which side had low damage, high deaths, low kills? And guess which side got outplayed (in every one of those games)?

 

1v1, dps vs healer, it can go either way if the healer knows how to mix damage into his rotation.

 

The part where healers are nerfed by 30% in pvp is because healers are built around negating boss damage to an entire party (or raid). If they kept that rate in pvp we would need dps doing boss-level damage.

 

mid level healer? LOL

 

dude playing in the 10-49 wz is way different then the 50 wz...

how about this... finish leveling up your sage healer or sorc healer....let me know how he does in the 50 wz....

 

if you dont have a maurader or assassin on you all the time then the team you are playing sucks or know you are a crappy healer anyway.

 

if you think you can survive against 2 dpsers which are usually a maurader or assassin... then you are god man... you should be put on the pedestal...but i will bet my years salary you would not fair well against 2 dpsers like a maurader and assassin...

 

good luck trying to get 1 heal off...

 

i already know your experience as playing a healer is horse blinded... you are only talking about a healer from a dpser perspective.

 

a dpser will always think its easy to play a healer. but yet never plays one...

 

however as a healer.. i also have a BM geared dpser... i have played both... and know how both sides of the token work.

 

however are you sure you do? my bet is you dont because you dont even have a 50 healer

[Safgril]

Healers get Objective medals just as easily. A good healer will protect the objective rather than follow an idiot that runs away from them just to keep him alive. Healers should always get alot of defender medals.

 

if you are sitting at a node not healing your teammates while they are trying to get another.. you are NOT doing your job...

 

you are farming for medals then...

 

sorry i have gotten well over 200k healing and gotten only 2 medals...you only get 2 medals for doing your job.

 

so now medals are not easily to get. Sad that they changed it to getting medals to get anything. What a horrible idea.

 

you have done nothing but defend 1.2 on the forums claiming to be the god of pvp yet are you actually playing the game? You must always be on teh winning side in order to have this kind of attitude.

[WaywardOne]

<<

mid level healer? LOL

 

dude playing in the 10-49 wz is way different then the 50 wz...

how about this... finish leveling up your sage healer or sorc healer....let me know how he does in the 50 wz....

 

if you dont have a maurader or assassin on you all the time then the team you are playing sucks or know you are a crappy healer anyway.

 

if you think you can survive against 2 dpsers which are usually a maurader or assassin... then you are god man... you should be put on the pedestal...but i will bet my years salary you would not fair well against 2 dpsers like a maurader and assassin...

 

good luck trying to get 1 heal off...

 

i already know your experience as playing a healer is horse blinded... you are only talking about a healer from a dpser perspective.

 

a dpser will always think its easy to play a healer. but yet never plays one...

 

however as a healer.. i also have a BM geared dpser... i have played both... and know how both sides of the token work.

 

however are you sure you do? my bet is you dont because you dont even have a 50 healer

>>

 

1) I never said I was an expert healer.

2) I don't need more than 2 level 50 bm+ characters to know exactly how the level 50 game works. I don't need to have a level 50 healer to have an educated, informed opinion about how healing works in this game (and many, many others - it's not that different than Wow, for example, where I've played a priest, druid and paladin to at least 80).

3) I have 0 interest in playing a healer - I only did it to figure out how to beat one. It has nothing to do with ease/difficulty - see my first paragraph.

4) Healers, right now, make a very large difference in any wz (@50). I've been in WZs without them on my team and it hurts. I know several good healers on my side on my server.

5) If you play a healer yes, you're going to get attacked by good players as much as possible. If you weren't so important to your team you wouldn't be. Half of winning right now is marking enemy healers (same as pre 1.2). If they are part of a team of cc'ers and/or have tanks with them it can be next to impossible to kill them with a team of just melee dps. Come to Ven Zallow if you need to see how it's done every night.

Edited April 17, 2012 by WaywardOne

[Lindraskada]

aah it never changes does it, DPS mouth breathers thinking they should be able to win all the time. "healers getting killed ? LOL get a tank"... oh so we need a pair of players to be effective ? and yet you whine when we tell you to get someone to assist you to kill a healer ? .... never seen that argument before

 

as a total aside, and sorry if this has been mentioned before, i dont have time to read all 57+ pages, but..

 

 

would it help at all if marking went away when you died ? rather than persisting on people through a WZ? i havent done much since the patch, for many reasons previously mentioned to dont know if its still true, but it was often the case that if you were tagged, you were being molested pretty much coming out of the gate on a respawn

[Digtahk]

Not sure if they changed something this week or people have just altered their playstyle to be a bit more defensive but I specced back to healing and I found it to be quite enjoyable died a few times in each match once I got focussed, but generally still can through a combination of good situational and positional awareness and raw healing power keep any single dps at bay, till help arrives....... and I do get the feeling my heals make as much if not more of a difference to the outcome of the game than they did prior to the patch. All of this in solo queues.

 

For the first time ever I was in a match where having lost the first door inside a minute in voidstar managed to prevent the opposition from extending the bridge holding out for over 6 minutes with 3 healers in our side still keeping the whole team up.

 

Healing numbers don't seem massively down perhaps slightly but the games are a lot faster in general which seems a good thing.

[Actualism]

Remark 1: I played a sage. Note: played.

 

I think what the majority of at least sage/sorc healers pre 1.2 can agree to is 1: we had ridiculously effective force regeneration and 2: many have reported the double-dip bug that allowed us to cast two 1,4-second Deliverance in a row with conveyance active, when conveyance was only supposed to allow one. No wonder we did outrageously good in healing. And sure, all sage healers I've talked to who did not agree to both of these things, were the sage healers that did 150k healing overall on the scoreboard, when the top healer did 600k. In other words, those who clearly had no clue how their class actually worked.

 

But very, very few of those I've encountered who heals fulltime in PvP and PvE have denied the fact that not only did sages/sorcs need toning down, but the troopers/BH needed to be toned down a bit as well. Just as the majority agreed that the poor scoundrels/agents needed a boost.

 

Coming from a healer who ranks among the top healers on my server (and still did after 1.2), I found the 1.2 changes absolutely horrible. Sure, I can still manage. Sure, I still end up with far higher numbers than anyone else. But I find myself scratching my head and wondering how on earth I managed to get 600k heal in an Alderaan Civil War, when it felt like all I was doing was pushing -any- available heal with no real pattern to it, and not seeing much change at all in someone's HP when I tried to pick it up a few percentages.

 

Healing isn't just redundant post-1.2, it's also extremely dumbed down. The synergy of a sage healer is completely ruined. I could have swallowed the Legacy nerf far better, if only bioware hadn't decided to more or less pick my class dynamics apart and take a piss on it. As an avid fan of the sage class, like so many others, I have several fully functional ideas on how they could have nerfed us without crushing the need for a healer completely.

 

That said, I have also dipped into a hybrid sage DPS, something that was surprisingly fun when I wanted to change it up, or there was far too many healers in the WZ's and too few DPS to make a progress on the objectives. And let it be said that the only healer I ever struggled taking down alone was the trooper/BH. Just as a good DPS could easily take me down with well timed interrupts and use of cooldowns, I could just as easily nuke down other sages and scoundrels/agents.

 

But as a player who has PvP as a game-focus, and more importantly, much prefer to play a healer, I don't want to be one of those succumbing to the wretched changes done to my class. I don't want to respec to be a full-time DPS so I can steamroll others. I want to play a healer. Subtly changing the layout of the game, feeling like I stand a chance with keeping others alive, as well as myself. But despite noticing that I can still keep someone alive (if I sacrifice my own life to heal THEM to 100% while I have people nuking me down, then run back in and rinse and repeat), it feels like a chore, and a very painful one at that. I'm not saying I demand the faceroll healing that was pre-1.2, even if healing then could also be a welcome challenge at times if we were set against a good enemy team. I'm saying that there's a vast difference between "faceroll" and "chore". "Challenge" is somewhere between the two, something that makes PvP the splendid fun it's supposed to be. As it is now, bioware can take their free 30 days and stuff it. I've no wish to play a DPS or a tank, and I've no wish or will to go into warzones as a healer anymore either, coping or not.

 

Legacy with its grind-mentality and PvE focus doesn't appeal to me as a PvP player, so I'd rather remember the days when healing was fun, instead of the days where I feel like screaming and cursing, cause healing is like willingly sprinting head-first into a brick wall.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Actualism

[fungihoujo]

Considering healing is reactive- having healing lower than damage output- and on top of that making healing very easy to interrupt/pressure unlike damage... basically means healing is completely useless.

 

It's not 'gone from unkillable to sometimes can die'- any marauder who doesn't suck can kill a healer in 6 seconds, even ones that are terrible can at least lock out a healer for the 15-20 seconds it takes to kill one.

 

 

DPS say 'well, we should be guaranteed to kill a healer 1v1', really? So you think people want to play a class where the entire purpose ofyour class is to help others before someone looks at you and you just die?

 

No- and that's why nobody heals anymore.

 

It's fine to say 'well get a tank, then you can heal fine', but heaven forbid someone tells you 'maybe you should focus the healer and learn to interrupt'.

 

No- the game should be about damage damage damage- well, you got what you wanted- a 2D game where no skill is needed, just marauders.

Edited April 18, 2012 by fungihoujo

[shadomen]

Welcome to BW's version of Quake.

 

Team Deathmatch.

 

Healing?

 

/rofl and /unsubscribed to the game.

 

Shadomen

[MnniBeast]

You guys have to understand, there is no win for BW at this moment, here's a scenario before patch 1.2 that happened to my shadow.

 

Chilling on Ilum, gonna try to get my first kill, had a few pieces of centurion and champion gear equipped at the moment when I spotted a sage, light armor, no bubble shield. Of course we all know how sneaks are, kick you to the ground and burst damage, and if that doesn't work key up for burst again. Long story short I spent 20 seconds fighting this healer who had full BM gear and he didn't even sneeze, when he was caught off guard and I had him stunned for 6 seconds, the lowest his health went was to around 60%, then as soon as my stuns wore off, back to 100% health. Its depressing as a DPS knowing you cannot kill that squishy sonofa ***** right in front of you. What happened? He said "If you know what's best for you stop attacking me" and I proceeded to sneak off in shame...

 

Burst damage, you guys I don't think you get the full whim of my argument, after I key up my first burst most of my remaining hits for 10 seconds are critical hits, and I couldn't get this guy below 90% after 6 seconds. Guaranteed being an overpowered healer must feel like a god, being part tank I know what it can feel like while teaming up with a healer. Hell on the Alderaan war zone me and a sage healer teamed up against 6 of the enemy team, we couldn't die.

 

Bottom line is cut BW some slack. This is the 4th or 5th month the game is out, things take time to fix. People are whining about Op and Nerfs and lags and they have their hands full. You guys realize that BW is trying to do everything they can to make the game pleasing to everybody.

Edited April 18, 2012 by MnniBeast

[mksaccount]

and yeah 1 healer should be able to heal up 4 players in PVP...

 

So 2 healers should be able to heal the entire team in a WZ and no one dies? Oh wait, that is what used to happen. Good riddance.

[aRtFuL]

a

would it help at all if marking went away when you died ? rather than persisting on people through a WZ? i havent done much since the patch, for many reasons previously mentioned to dont know if its still true, but it was often the case that if you were tagged, you were being molested pretty much coming out of the gate on a respawn

 

I could tell you now that against experienced pvpers, it probably would not.

 

People I pvp against everyday I pretty know what class they are by heart, what specs they are, and generally how they act in pvp. I will remember their names (and gear appearance) as they come in and change targets to them as soon as I see them.

 

They should've never use buff dps as a solution to the unkillable geared healer issue. Instead they should've introduced interrupts with shorter cooldowns, interrupts when specced has sliencing effect, or more attacks that have healing debuffs when specced etc (such as fire pulse in vanguard tree - besides not very impressive burst damage and low ammo cost it really has nothing much to offer. They should've chucked a healing debuff on it to make tactics more attractive as a utility spec).

[Arkerus]

If healers can fully protect themselves AND dps, they will win any match 1v1. This is not WoW. Healers are not invincible.

[Lt_Latency]

If healers can fully protect themselves AND dps, they will win any match 1v1. This is not WoW. Healers are not invincible.

 

Healers are just OP vs bad players. The problem is there are lots of them. As sent I can Force Leap to block the first heal, kick to block the second, Choke to block the third, Then Awe to stop the 4th. That is a bad day for any healer. People need to learn their are more then just DPS buttons on their bars.

 

I actually feel bad for them

 

Good teams will always send everything they have at the healer all game. They need to be able to do more then get stunlocked and flop over dead.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Lt_Latency

[Quesadilla]

2 words: Operative/Scoundrel healers.

[Arkerus]

Healers are just OP vs bad players. The problem is there are lots of them. As sent I can Force Leap to block the first heal, kick to block the second, Choke to block the third, Then Awe to stop the 4th. That is a bad day for any healer. People need to learn their are more then just DPS buttons on their bars.

 

I actually feel bad for them

 

Good teams will always send everything they have at the healer all game. They need to be able to do more then get stunlocked and flop over dead.

 

I forgot, its not that healers are OP, its that they are just simply uber skill keyboard warriors. Please, spare me.

[Zhaker]

It goes both ways, those with multiple strong HEALERS make a group nearly unkillable.

 

Those with multiple strong range DPS make any group dead meat.

 

In the Long run irregardless of the outcome focus fire > focus heals. Which is fine but.

 

Groups that go against Multiple HEALERS frustrate DPS because they cant kill anything or DO anything and becomes an attrition.

 

Groups that go against Multiple range DPS frustrated HEALERS because they're focus fire destroys any target within seconds.

 

In terms of an even match of multiple HEALERS, it becomes an endless battle where both teams cant push forward on the objective to do anything and becomes boring cause nobody dies and nobody can really do anything. Sort of like watching a football game where the same team passes back to each other in circles.

 

In terms of an even match of multiple DPS, it becomes a frag fest of who dies the fastest, and gear becomes king, thus those that out gear the other team usually win out.

 

1.2 is more melee DPS oriented but the Healer archetype is still viable. 1.1 was a heal fest, those that had more healers usually win out over DPS.

 

I think 1.2 is fine, those that can adapt as a healer will thrive, and those that can not will reroll or unsub. Healers are not to be godlike anyway. I prefer quicker matches then endless battles as a healer but thats just me, I can tip the balance alone as a healer. And besides Range DPS is boring, Melee DPS is getting more interesting.

[Lt_Latency]

I forgot, its not that healers are OP, its that they are just simply uber skill keyboard warriors. Please, spare me.

 

Every Pug Warzone I see that is in tears about healers, Not a single one of them is focusing or interrupted healers.

 

Yeah if you don't use any tools they give you to deal with them yeah, You going to get spanked.

 

I listed mine.

 

 

I kick them, Which stops that heal from being casted again for a while

I force leap them, Which blocks it again

I choke them, Which stuns them for a long time

I awe them, Which stuns them again for along time, By now kick and leap are getting close to recycling so he might get one or 2 of before I kick and leap again.

 

and

 

I can reduce healing by 20%

 

You should be able to put a target on the ground with your team by then

 

If there are 2 of us. Forget about it.

 

 

Healers should be useful. A balanced group should always be stronger then a group stack with only one type of class type.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Lt_Latency

[Arkerus]

Every Pug Warzone I see that is in tears about healers, Not a single one of them is focusing or interrupted healers.

 

Yeah if you don't use any tools they give you to deal with them yeah, You going to get spanked.

 

I listed mine.

 

 

I kick them, Which stops that heal from being casted again for a while

I force leap them, Which blocks it again

I choke them, Which stuns them for a long time

I awe them, Which stuns them again for along time, By now kick and leap are getting close to recycling so he might get one or 2 of before I kick and leap again.

 

and

 

I can reduce healing by 20%

 

You should be able to put a target on the ground with your team by then

 

If there are 2 of us. Forget about it.

 

 

Healers should be useful. A balanced group should always be stronger then a group stack with only one type of class type.

 

 

Most of us DO use our whole toolset. Healers just have hte mindset that because they have heals they are supposed to beat DPS all the time. It can't work that way.

[Lt_Latency]

Most of us DO use our whole toolset. Healers just have hte mindset that because they have heals they are supposed to beat DPS all the time. It can't work that way.

 

No, there have a mind set that there addition to a group should be useful.

 

If you roll a support class and your addition to a team of DPS doesn't improve the group. Why the hell would you want to be a support class????

 

Like say if 4 dps = 3 dps and 1 support. Why would you roll the support?? No one in their right mind would. It's the same reason you don't take 4 dps to a pve instance and then scratch your head when you wipe.