Agent Healing - redesign needed?

[Kehiss]

Agent healing is fine, and good fun - but it's not too well designed. The Tactical Advantage mechanic is clumsy and affects far too much. There's no problem healing a group of 4, or even 8, but try 16. As a healer here and in WoW for many years, I've always tried to have a strategy and plan ahead. Here, you can't plan ahead, because too much depends on the random availability of TA. You don't know what heals are going to become available, or disappear. You could always look closely at the TA icon and the minute digit in the corner (it's too small for my eyes), but by the time you've done that, your target may be dead. To use Stim Boost, or not? - again - it's very hard to plan ahead, since you may not want 2 heals suddenly to become unavailable. And then , Stim Boost itself may become unavailable if you don't use it. Healing a group of 16 becomes largely a matter of pressing buttons at random, and hoping they work.

 

The raising of the stack limit for TA has improved things a lot, and it may be that this is enough. I hope so. Other helpful additions would be addons (a nice big digit telling me how many stacks of TA I have, for instance), and macros, of course - and most of all - MOUSE OVER healing. I know it's my fault, but I find it very hard to get used to clicking on ppl I want to heal. In raids I go into auto-WoW mode and try to use mouse-over. Sure, I know I should be more adaptable, but I'm not quite as quick as you young things out there (being 66).

[Arrys]

Agent healing is fine, and good fun - but it's not too well designed. The Tactical Advantage mechanic is clumsy and affects far too much. There's no problem healing a group of 4, or even 8, but try 16. As a healer here and in WoW for many years, I've always tried to have a strategy and plan ahead. Here, you can't plan ahead, because too much depends on the random availability of TA. You don't know what heals are going to become available, or disappear. You could always look closely at the TA icon and the minute digit in the corner (it's too small for my eyes), but by the time you've done that, your target may be dead. To use Stim Boost, or not? - again - it's very hard to plan ahead, since you may not want 2 heals suddenly to become unavailable. And then , Stim Boost itself may become unavailable if you don't use it. Healing a group of 16 becomes largely a matter of pressing buttons at random, and hoping they work.

 

The raising of the stack limit for TA has improved things a lot, and it may be that this is enough. I hope so. Other helpful additions would be addons (a nice big digit telling me how many stacks of TA I have, for instance), and macros, of course - and most of all - MOUSE OVER healing. I know it's my fault, but I find it very hard to get used to clicking on ppl I want to heal. In raids I go into auto-WoW mode and try to use mouse-over. Sure, I know I should be more adaptable, but I'm not quite as quick as you young things out there (being 66).

 

Functionally I don't think the devs want 1 healing 16 effectively. Makes no design sense.

 

you do have every tool you need to maintain and generate TA now the 16 second timer makes KP random generation very functional and you also have the guarantee of Kinj.

[khahlel]

agent healing is one of the strongest in game, when managed correctly you have infinite resources, healing is designed in ToR for groups of 4 mainly so you should focus on your group as resources are balanced around healing your own group. Im healing NM modes with no problems even heal the sorc now and then so he can regen his force better.

 

The way i usually heal is have 2 probs on all my group as best possible, the diag scan to top up energy, use TA for probe as its free and use the big heal when needed along with aoe heal.

 

mouse over and temp buff trackers are all coming soon.

Edited April 21, 2012 by khahlel

[YavinResident]

TA is not that random. if you have three 2x KP stacks out all the time (which you should) TA should pretty much proc whenever it's able to (not on the 6 second or whatever cooldown). Don't you know that kolto injection also generates TA? Additionaly, you should keep one stack of TA all the time for surgical probe spam (below 30% hp). That way you have all your heals available at all times. It just takes practice not letting your HoTs fall off. Eventually you'll find somewhat of a rotation (there are no cookie cutter healing rotations) that satisfies these conditions.

[Slystalker]

Agent healing is a skill that never allows one to stop...before any major fight the agent must have at all 3 stacks of tactical advantage up and must demand of the tank to wait until such has occurred. Pop that TA before the fight restack to 3.....This is done with 8 KP out there on the group You are assigned to or kolto injection +diagnostic scan three times....Energy resource maintenance is the key....KP then your scan (talented) to keep your energy level topped over and over while you wait for the spike in healing damage....Surgical probe is a free instant heal....use it liberally as circumstance allows without losing TA.....MY rotation is KP then diagnostic scan on the 4 I main heal over and over without stop until major damage spike with free Surgical probes tossed in to keep the non tanks up....without losing that last TA...the fight may require you to aid the other healer...Surgical probes are excellent for this purpose as well as recuperative nanotech...RN is instant and the melee recieve it off the tank since it is a targeted cast....the same can be said to target it off the second healer as the ranged tend to congregate around that player especially if it is a sorc for the purple puddle....the higher your crit the more often that TA procs off your KP's....Adrenaline probe its for those huge healing spikes that eat up your energy....get used to using it sparingly by keeping your energy up by using your diagnostic scan and TA...hope this helps

[Taevannya]

Yeah, I have to disagree with the OP. Op/Scound healing is very different from any other healing class I've ever played but its adaptablity is unreal. One of the best, most engaging healing designs I've seen. If you mess up, it can punish you, and that is as it should be. Keeping up TA is very easy, you can summon TA whenever you want and if you need to get it quickly in combat, don't be afraid to shiv! It's an instant attack, pretty cheap and grants TA. I also find that this is one of the best healing classes for those who like strategy. No boss fight or trash pull is the same, I heal each one differently. In Lost Island HM I've found myself paying close attention to each phase of the encounters because that will determine what I need to prepare for. For an example, for movement heavy phases I try to make sure I have full TA and full energy before I need to get moving and ideally have everyone with a HoT stack or two rolling. That way when moving begins, I can throw out HoTs to refresh stacks or if someone takes a sudden spike I can pop that win insta heal (surgical probe) on the move and know I've got the TA to do it. I have yet to run into a movement phase that I couldn't prepare myself for like that if I'm paying attention to the mechanics of the fight. Also, don't be afraid to think outside of the traditional healing box with this class. One of the best things about it is the class' capability to offer more to the group outside of just straight up healing. I'm constantly throwing out frag grenades to help burn down adds that spawn in a boss fight, flash bang them to hold them in place so your dps get a chance to get at them faster, stun guys to stop them from doing damage to others, work out a deal with the person on interrupt duty that if they sometimes miss one (I'm thinking that first boss in Lost Island who's cast puts a really nasty debuff to heal/dispel through) to call it out so you can quickly interrupt the boss yourself. There's a lot you can do with this class. Play around, try some different strategies, don't rut yourself into a set healing pattern with this class and the suggestions above are really good ones to give you a solid foundation.