A Healer view on 1.2 (Thoughts not QQ)

[hairlessOrphan]

Perhaps you should stack alacrity, then. That's always an option and it IS one that Bioware uses to balance classes. No one uses alacrity. I personally would try adding a ton of alacrity and seeing if that works.

 

Sure, you're going to be sacrificing power / surge / critical, but those might not be the most advantageous in PvP. Try experimenting.

 

Well, if that is the way you feel, then by all means, go DPS. The point is to have fun!

 

Alacrity may help, but the problem isn't - it still isn't - that I can't get my heals off. I always get my heals off (I'm not terribad at this job, seriously. Maybe I'm a few teabags short of pro, but). The problem is I'm not healing for enough relative to the new DPS dynamic. I'm going by the numbers here:

 

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Sorcerer-Sage-Healing-Compendium-Updated-for-1-2

 

Which tells me my Will + Power stacking is solid. I may try to dump End for Alacrity (since all those extra HP's is doing me so much good, har har), but that isn't a traditional (aka easy) stat trade-off on gear, so I've hesitated before re-investing.

 

In the meantime, I've already stepped over to DPS. I don't like it, it's not as much fun for me, but while I will happily criticize in a criticism thread, I'm not gonna get emo about it in fleet chat, nahmean? I'll do what the game asks of me.

[Rootgurr]

He used "to" correctly there though.

[hairlessOrphan]

800K+ is pre 1.2 right? There's no way any one stays alive long enough now for you to put out those kind of numbers now.

 

You can still get those numbers off. But pre-1.2, it was 800k on the same couple of guys. Now, it's 800k doled out a dollar at a time on various teammates between trips to the respawn.

 

That's part of why I (and I'm not going to speak for anyone else, here) am frustrated. The numbers are totally bonked. I can pretty reliably top healing in a WZ doing little more than force-speeding through some AoE's, hiding in a corner, and healing myself (yeah, I did this as part of a larger "anecdotal test suite"). I can top healing in a WZ getting one heal off on The Guy Who Is Being Focused, and just switching targets with the enemy DPS. I can top healing in a WZ by closing my eyes, hitting Next Friendly a random number of times, and casting a heal. None of this is really contributing, though.

 

I've found that the most useful thing to do, right now, is to ignore the guy who's being focused completely and follow your assist train around. When your assist train picks a sucker, target the friendly that he's targeting, and heal him. In other words, just keep your assist train topped off and hope they do better than the enemy assist train.

[JMCH]

Perhaps you should stack alacrity, then. That's always an option and it IS one that Bioware uses to balance classes. No one uses alacrity. I personally would try adding a ton of alacrity and seeing if that works.

It somehow works.

 

In fact, you'd need so much alacrity to really heal faster it's worthless. I should have like 300 on my merc, which stacks with merc's abilities to ~1.16" for the small heal and ~1.5" for the big heal (somewhere in-between that and the 2/2.5" base cast times without a -very- temporary, crit-triggered, buff), it's ok as long as you don't look at heat generated per hit point healed.

 

On top of being low on the hp/heat side, the said spec has a flaw as I spent 2 points in "maxed alacrity" (4% "more" cast speed bonus in fact, if alacrity gives me 10% then I cast 14% faster, so that would be awesome with a high alacrity cast speed bonus, but it's so hard to get...), which proves less efficient than "reduced pushback" because I often get hit.

 

In the end, I don't even know if I should focus on alacrity at all and not simply max out "damage" specs (crit/surge/power) to maximize efficiency, just like I did on my lvl 47 gear (used the offensive, low end, crit/surge and power/surge enhancements).

Edited April 16, 2012 by JMCH
forgot to translate 1 term - 3 times -

[andysdead]

I changed my (albeit low-leveled) sorcerer to lightning spec after 1.2 and while it's not amazing and I have basically 0 survivability when I get someone on me, it is fun to spam chain lightning at large groups of players.

[SpoeMeister]

OK, so tonight I did some PvP grindfest with my tank. Each warzone I asked who the healer was and I decided not to move from his/her side and just guard him/her with my life. These were solo queues but I usually ended up with one of three healers, two sorcerers and one agent. (this is L50 bracket).

 

Novare Coast: We still stalled long enough until more defenders arrived. By keeping my healer healthy and peeling the opponents off of him/her, the healer was able to spam some powerful heals. This allowed us to maintain a steady defence. But I needed to be very careful on what to taunt, what to grapple, etc...

 

Voidstar: We battled some BM premade here, so this was a totall loss. Still, healer was targeted and I was able to give her a decent fighting chance. I did however see our teammates drop like flies. A lot of AoE was running around...

 

Alderaan: Actually the same as Novare Coast... Good protection and very good healing (healer capped at 700K healing). We facerolled this one time with only 7 people, adding to my theory that a well guarded healer that is allowed to do his/her work can make 1,5 teammates. A group of 4 man will become a group of 6, allowing us the freedom to split forces and keep pressure everywhere. In another case we faced the BM's again... We wiped but not without a good fight.

 

I tend to agree that DPS has skyrocketet. I have seen more damage on my powertech than before. But healing is still a necessary role in a WZ, but I believe tanks will have a more prominent supportive function in WZ's, taunting and reducing damage.

 

These are based on my experiences tonight. They are therefore subject to change :-)

 

TL;DR: Healers are still viable! They have to work really hard AND tanks are needed to protect them as well as mitigate damage with taunts.

[Misaki-chan]

 

800K+ is pre 1.2 right? There's no way any one stays alive long enough now for you to put out those kind of numbers now.

 

Also, to and too are two different words.

These numbers aren't part of pre 1.2 you can do this post 1.2 by just tossing out an aoe heal every now and than.. I understand the second part, but it's not even in what you quoted >>. Edited April 17, 2012 by Misaki-chan

[Misaki-chan]

Perhaps you should stack alacrity, then. That's always an option and it IS one that Bioware uses to balance classes. No one uses alacrity. I personally would try adding a ton of alacrity and seeing if that works.

 

Sure, you're going to be sacrificing power / surge / critical, but those might not be the most advantageous in PvP. Try experimenting.

 

I don't think the gear in the game atm can provide enough alacrity to make it worth while.. but shaving the time from 2.5 to 2.3 wont really change someones ease to be able to stop your cast =). Though i think if there was more available (or maybe scaled a bit better ?) it would be a very good stat.

[Misaki-chan]

 

TL;DR: Healers are still viable! They have to work really hard AND tanks are needed to protect them as well as mitigate damage with taunts.

Interesting enough, but as i read this i saw your point of view on both sides...Makes me really want to have all 3 healing classes to see all points of view...

[rjkishida]

interesting OP. I would say that Bioware wants people to be DPS spec not healing spec. If a healer can't keep people alive, why be a healer? Sure anyone should die if there are 2-3 DPS on them, but even 1 on 1 is a joke now.

[adrockcafe]

TL;DR: Healers are still viable! They have to work really hard AND tanks are needed to protect them as well as mitigate damage with taunts.

 

Well that says it pretty clearly for me. My healer requires my very own dedicated tank, focusing on me, to have a positive impact on my team's WZ.

 

Sounds very balanced! /sarcasm off

 

 

Devs: with the speed at which people get mowed down, there are FAR too many deaths where we don't get to:

 

Make strategic decisions and take tactical actions

Activate abilities to attack/counter an enemy

 

...you know...actually play the game?

 

Unsub'd tonight, would love to come back if you fix it.

[Sugarray]

Good post mate.

 

I think you are spot on with the TTK. A lot, and I mean really A LOT does not take advantage of CC and rightly timed interruptions, I believe that these should be the determining factor when killing someone, not how can I push in as much DPS as possible as fast as possible.

 

If you take advantage of your CC its quite easy to kill people, but I partly agree that right now it might be better to throw in an extre dmg attack.

 

Some like this new pace, but I really do believe that you guys are mistaken the speed of MMO PvP with that of FPS games. MMO isnt meant to be super fast, hence the GCD. Its about tac and coordination, in other words working together and applying CC.

 

The problem with that is how ever, that PUGs have a hard time doing that. As a Shadow DPS spec I pride myself on using Force lift as often as possible in multiple player combats, how ever my beloved friends often break this CC that I use on targets we're not killing, sometimes healer sometimes DPS.

 

Also tanks are the new thing in SWTOR compared to WoW pvp etc. If you couple them with healers it gives a strong tactical advantage, but without healers can be quite vulnerable as of 1.2. And its seem that tanks are not around too often when PUGing. So you are powerful in Premades and vulnerable pugging, which makes for a hard time for BW to balance that.

 

TTK must go up or this game will remain less skill dependent and FPS'ish.

[DarthSianiz]

You have good English Nice use of slang - you don't seem like your vocabulary came straight out of a text book.

 

My thoughts on healing - and I think this is what you are kinda saying too:

 

Basically, in some matches, people with roughly equal expertise will kill the target you are healing very quickly when it is only 1v1.

 

In other words, if you have a teammate who you are healing, and an enemy comes up and starts attacking him, there are times when even with your heals he simply dies very quickly.

 

Am I right in saying that is kind what you're saying? Basically, sages now can't even keep one person up (or themselves) while taking damage from one person.

 

Sure, if it is 2 or 3 on 1, they should die quickly. I think what many sages are upset about is that they can't even keep themselves alive against 1 dps (or keep 1 target alive against 1 DPS), even when the amount of expertise seems to be about the same on all characters involved.

 

Now, to be honest OP, I have had mixed results. Some games it seems like people are sliced through in seconds... other times it seems like it is normal as it was before 1.2

 

I really don't know what to make of it. For now, I'm just going to stick to healing and see how things change once i get my War Hero gear (which has better stats for Sages than our Battlemaster gear - so that should help). So far, I am having enough fun and PvP and while I do notice being way more weak in warzones, I'm still having fun and finding ways to help my team.

 

OMG!!! i applaud u sir, this guys really its a healer!!!

[DarthSianiz]

Well that says it pretty clearly for me. My healer requires my very own dedicated tank, focusing on me, to have a positive impact on my team's WZ.

 

Sounds very balanced! /sarcasm off

 

 

Devs: with the speed at which people get mowed down, there are FAR too many deaths where we don't get to:

 

Make strategic decisions and take tactical actions

Activate abilities to attack/counter an enemy

 

...you know...actually play the game?

 

Unsub'd tonight, would love to come back if you fix it.

 

SO... u are suppose to heal and tank 3 to 4 dps @ the same time being 1 mans army....

 

/sarcasm off

 

learn about balance, learn about team based pvp and most of all L2P...

[TheEvilEeyore]

my 2 cents... a juggernaut can kill me in 3 global cd's if am stunned.

 

if a jugger pops adrenals and trinkets he is hitting me for 6k back to back...

[EduardoJN]

U guys should vote for healers in wz´s.

 

Im sick of ppl voting for the top damage when sometimes the healing done is even higher.

[DarthSianiz]

my 2 cents... a juggernaut can kill me in 3 global cd's if am stunned.

 

if a jugger pops adrenals and trinkets he is hitting me for 6k back to back...

 

That can mean many things, including the gear that u are wearing and the gear the juggy its wearing... i havent seen anyone yet get a kill ALONE in 3 GCD the TTK went down alright... but its not as high as many people think. The juggy must have been BMS full and u just ding 50...

[Sugarray]

U guys should vote for healers in wz´s.

 

Im sick of ppl voting for the top damage when sometimes the healing done is even higher.

 

IS there even a significant reward for being voted MVP? It seems ridiculous and should be removed to me.

[Misaki-chan]

SO... u are suppose to heal and tank 3 to 4 dps @ the same time being 1 mans army....

 

/sarcasm off

 

learn about balance, learn about team based pvp and most of all L2P...

Though i am glad to see so many opinions on the matter, keep to discussing without trying to flame him please, considering none of what you said was even in his post.

[Sugarray]

Though i am glad to see so many opinions on the matter, keep to discussing without trying to flame him please, considering none of what you said was even in his post.

 

Must people who tell other to L2P are not worth your time.

[Kunda]

I still see a lot of my fellow healers not utilizing terrain as if we were pre 1.2 and they can still face tank DPS, however, it does feel like TTK is a little low right now. I think pre 1.2 a healer/tank combo was simply too powerful but DPS seems a little overtuned at the moment. We'll se what adjustments come in the future.

[Misaki-chan]

I still see a lot of my fellow healers not utilizing terrain as if we were pre 1.2 and they can still face tank DPS, however, it does feel like TTK is a little low right now. I think pre 1.2 a healer/tank combo was simply too powerful but DPS seems a little overtuned at the moment. We'll se what adjustments come in the future.

Pretty simple sum up, that i do tend to agree with =). Hopefully they can get somewhere in the middle of these two in the near future.

[Raz_Eye]

This is mostly directed at JK/SW...they are just way to op now.

 

There was nothing wrong with healing before. Yes...I could healing myself while keeping one or two others up while taking damage from two or three PC's...TWO OR THREE HORRIBLE PC'S! I would see them stand there trying to decide which skill to click next...getting one skill off everyone 1-2 seconds and not interrupting...

 

A good player had no problem at all killing me pre 1.2.

 

All JK/SW have to do now is leap and use a skill and you are down half health or more...how the hell is that balance?

 

I have a 50 sage healer and 50 Rage Jugg.

[cashogy]

i wouldnt say that healers are not able to make a difference anymore.

 

2 of my guildmates, a op healer and a sorc healer, make a huge difference in the outcome a fight. theyre able to keep me up, even with 2-3 people focusing me, so that i can continue to dps, as well as keep enemies off of them. throw in a tank to guard and throw out taunts, and the 4 of us are not going to be easy to kill.

 

its all about teamwork

[SpoeMeister]

Well that says it pretty clearly for me. My healer requires my very own dedicated tank, focusing on me, to have a positive impact on my team's WZ.

 

Sounds very balanced! /sarcasm off

 

 

Devs: with the speed at which people get mowed down, there are FAR too many deaths where we don't get to:

 

Make strategic decisions and take tactical actions

Activate abilities to attack/counter an enemy

 

...you know...actually play the game?

 

Unsub'd tonight, would love to come back if you fix it.

 

The balanced should not be about roles specifically, it is about the use of the Trinity... Tanks were/are underused in PvP. How many times have you seen off the chart protection coming from one person? A lot of people use hybrid specs Tank/DPS, because they want to live longer while doing damage. But that's not really their role. As stated many times before on this forum, the devs don't like hybrid specs, including tank/dps hybrids.

 

Call me naive, but I have a faint hope that the devs decided to add these changes so there would be more dedicated tanks. If you think about it, isn't mitigation + heal = DPS?

 

I am going to test this further in the next few days, I will find myself a pocket tank for my healer and a pocket healer for my tank and just do that. The one big flaw in this theory I see is how poor Defense and Shield are in PvP...