How to entice healers back into the WZs?

[symke]

Lately I have noticed that although there are healing classes in my WZ group, I am the top (or close) healer at the end even though I am a Watchman. Usually there is only one, and even that is becoming more and more rare, with huge healing numbers which would mean there was only one that was actually playing as a healer.

 

It happens a lot and it made me thinking about the reasons why healing has become so rare in WZs.

I understand that Sages, Scoundrels and Comandos can be specced as DPS, but is that the only reason those classes end up with very little actual healing? Or do they simply refuse to heal since healing is probably the most difficult profession in warzones and guards are (imo) rare?

 

What would you, healers, like to see or change in WZs so you would be more inclined to focus on healing?

 

WZ groups can be very frustrating if for example there are just a bunch of DPS classes and no tank to guard a healer, but this happens rarely. Usually groups are more or less a mix of all three professions, so I see the lack of communication as a big obstacle in making a group fight as a cohesive unit. Which is the only way to win.

 

Would something as healers announcing themselves at the start and asking for a dedicated guard, help in any way? Similar to announcing the tactics of the play at the start of the WZ.

 

Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to bash healers. I think theirs is the profession that can have the most impact on the outcome of the WZ, so I would just like to see if there is a way to make them more inclined to healing.

 

An thoughts?

[Darth_Precursor]

For me, I always announce I'm a healer before a WZ starts, and things like guard, focusing people who target me, etc usually happen. Healers get antsy to PvP because of the huge amount of bads that don't do simple things that largely affect a healer's part for the worse.

 

My 2 cents

[Rincewend]

Well for a lot of the sorcs we are running hybrid (not really healers) so that we can get picked up in groups for Bubble, not what any of use wanted to be, but the role we have been forced to play. I would like to see balance to come back to PVP.

[Masarko]

I put my healer spec on the shelf when the PvE'ers started queing

[Codle]

I still heal in some WZs, but it frustrates me doing so. I'm unguilded, so I play with PUGs, which I realise is a reason for my thoughts. I very rarely get any forum of protection from tanks, and the DPS have actually ignored me fighting a marauder (I'm a sage, bear in mind) before. I would like to see tanks give healers a guard, and actually BE tanks, rather than being just someone there to take a lot of damage to delay their caps. DPS AC's that can be Tanks (i.e. PT, Sins and Juggs, and mirrors of course) USE YOUR TAUNTS. It's free, off the GCD, and reduces damage done by the target. I fail to understand why you wouldn't use taunts to be honest. It's very rare that I see taunting or the taunt debuff on anyone.

 

Basically, Tanks need to guard and taunt, DPS also need to focus down whatever the hell is hammering on us (not only attacking, stuns, knockbacks, slows, roots on melee, whatever they can do to keep the other team away from us, just play smart!). Also, DPS use your taunts. As said, they're free and off the GCD, and can make a difference.

 

P.S. I always announce myself as a healer at the start of any WZ, and I also ask other healers to speak up. It's not very often that I even get a response from Tanks/DPS, let alone a guard. I've even gone as far as marking myself and the other healer before, and that did nothing. People need to learn to play smart.

[Ycoga]

In pug WZ, healers get focused and your 'team-mates' don't care. Also, tanks that actually tank in pug wz are as rare as hen's teeth.

 

I ONLY play healer now when I have my trusty tank at hand - especially in premade or ranked modes. I've had my 6+ months of unwanted attention as a healer and now I prefer DPSing just so that I don't feel like the freshman that inadvertently entered a gay bar.

[Venlo]

I've had my 6+ months of unwanted attention as a healer and now I prefer DPSing just so that I don't feel like the freshman that inadvertently entered a gay bar.

 

lol seen the same

[Lualei]

I can only nod to the above mentioned reasons. I started warzones myself as a healer (sage) and mostly only experienced to be totally focused - and the team more or less ignored me. So after months of frustration I gave it up, respecced to dps and doin' better. At least I can now defend myself;)

In warzones we need a much better awareness from other players in terms of how they can protect their healer, we need our team to go for the oppsing team's healers so the pressure on us is reduced and we need more tanks to guard us, and for the love of god I can't understand why there are so few taunts. I guess the players don't even know that they give the group protection by using taunt. Which leads me to the next assumption: In general pugs just go into warzones without anything in mind that pew-pew'iing. I don't think this picture will change anytime soon, because it would require a general improvement of the average player and normal warzones are too casual for that.

 

I'm trying to get a premade group running myself and if more ppl tried to get their own little groups together, maybe that would encourage players to specc into healing, cause at least then they could have some fun...just my 2 cents

[Banderal]

As a (DPS)tank, I'll try to throw my guard on someone. I'll pick a healer if I know we have one. Sometimes they announce themselves, and sometimes they throw HOTs down while waiting for the game to start. I should probably ask "any healer want a guard" before the game starts... so I pledge to do that from now on.

 

But I also try to watch health bars and I'll switch my guard to someone else if I see them dropping quick and it doesn't look like the healer is in trouble. 'Course it sucks when I realize that health bar dropping is mine! In HB I try to save my guard for the ball carrier when possible.

 

And I also try to taunt, but I know I often fail in that regard if I'm focused on my rotation trying to do DPS to kill a target.

[AdrianDmitruk]

DPS, please slow and root the three melee that keep following us around, and use taunts liberally if you have them. Slows and roots don't fill resolve, but WILL help us get away. Often, if we're trying to escape, we're not facing the dps on us, so sometimes doing this ourselves can get impractical. If you have AOE snares/roots to help us out, you don't even really need to switch targets.

 

Oh, and roots on KB *WILL* work even through whitebars. The enemy will be immune to the kb, but not the attached root. (At least this works for my bubblestun sorc's Overload). The only exception to this is CC-immunity buffs/cooldowns, like Unremitting in the Guardian vigilance spec.

 

The more stress you can take off your healer, the less time the healer has to spend in respawn and/or healing himself and the more time the healer can spend healing YOU.

 

Edit: Oh and tanks, whisper the healer you're guarding, and both tank and healer should use focus target on each other. The default keybind is ALT-F, and this should also be mentioned because not everyone is familiar with it (after returning to the game, I thought it was CTRL-F for the longest time, then wondered why my focus target didn't work). If there is more than one guard around (admittedly rare), it can be impossible for a healer to discern who is guarding whom. Tanks, a healer will often go where he is needed, so please try to follow--we can't heal you from across the map

Edited January 9, 2013 by AdrianDmitruk

[Ashyra]

Healing in this game particularly in WZs has many drawbacks and few benefits and the situation has only been getting progressively worse since 1.2 especially for commando and sage healers due to dubious design choices that turned the core synergies of these ACs upside down, rendering them not only less entertaining to play, but also less self-sufficient in instances that occur frequently in random WZs. If even single DDs consistently outdamage healing on random players, the usefulness of healing is put in question entirely. I am afraid that the only way to achieve greater interest is to give healers more viable tools or abilities to deal with the rampant damage. Edited January 9, 2013 by Ashyra

[BLOOD_ZERO]

I play my Sage as a heal spec pretty exclusively. Only switching if we have another healer in the group, then I go 21/20/0 and still put good healing numbers up. Besides the normal complaints, one thing that extremely pisses me off is when Sents/Maras have 30 stacks of Centering/Fury and DON'T USE ANY OF THEIR BUFFS (Inspiration, Trans, etc). Being a healer, mobility and LOS is half the fight. If I can't get away from anyone, the only person I'll be healing is myself. So when I'm doing my normal healing rotation and I start healing a sentinel who has 30 stacks of centering, USE IT. Trans makes me much faster and gives me damage reduction.

 

Of course I'd also like pocket tanks, taunts, slows on people attacking me, CC's, DPS focus firing, DPS watching nodes (healers shouldn't need to play the objective so much), and teammates to be aware of where the healer is. Don't know how many times I'm spamming someone who is on the brink of death for them to leap to someone far away or LOS me.

[Ycoga]

The worst, the absolulte worst, is when a tank puts Guard on you before the match starts, then speeds into the distance and you never see them again.

[Zekiirah]

The worst, the absolulte worst, is when a tank puts Guard on you before the match starts, then speeds into the distance and you never see them again.

 

^ That.

 

I've never been as stressed as a healer in any previous games like I have been in SWTOR. I have geared myself towards better survivability (higher Endurance and Power for stable heals.) My gear is min/maxed for PvP. Today I found myself at the end of 6.2k+ Smashes constantly. I'm honestly at my wits end. I find myself alone with three attackers eating away at my HP (my grenades, CC, and "cooldowns" all used and still I'm stuck in this situation), with my team attacking one person way off yonder. When they get low? They just run away. They are completely unaware of the reason why I am not able to keep them up as well as myself against so many.

 

It's rare I ever find someone solely interested in my survival. I have several friends who "tank" for me but rarely give me their full attention. I see myself and other healers cast off constantly as players not worth the trouble to help. Taunts, CC from regular DPS, and focus fire would help healers considerably even without a guard. But as the above posts have mentioned, the quality of players in regular Warzones does not generally allow for this. Even in Ranked Warzones I never find myself as protected as I know I can be.

 

I've gone entire days without logging into my healer because I know when I do, I enter the same picture again. I am instantly marked, mauled by 3+ of the other team (while my team's ballcarrier runs past them...) and taken out, my pots, heals, LoS, skill, gear, stuns, all of it, completely all for naught.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Zekiirah

[Spoletta]

I've been pugging in wzs with my scoundrel healer for 6 months now (since my guild left). I know that i'm the odd one here, but i'm loving it.

No i never receive a guard, nor a taunt, nor any help, but my class can easily survive in pugs when the enemy is not coordinated enough, and many times i end with 1 or 2 unbeatable.

I'm also leveling a vanguard tank, and following healers taunting, peeling and guarding is quite fun. I don't understand why other don't like doing that.

[Ycoga]

I've been pugging in wzs with my scoundrel healer for 6 months now (since my guild left). I know that i'm the odd one here, but i'm loving it.

No i never receive a guard, nor a taunt, nor any help, but my class can easily survive in pugs when the enemy is not coordinated enough, and many times i end with 1 or 2 unbeatable.

I'm also leveling a vanguard tank, and following healers taunting, peeling and guarding is quite fun. I don't understand why other don't like doing that.

 

i was waiting for an objection from a scoundrel; and here it is!

[Belly]

I think i'll start announcing myself more. Usually I'll just drop my heals before the start of the match, but now i'll actually start saying "I R Heals!!" Hopefully that will get me some help.

 

I'll admit though, on my DPS, I sometimes don't see the healers in distress because I focus heavily on objectives. That's a part of my game I'll start working on

[Glower]

Healers focused by PUGs? Are u fken kidding me?

If you team wins, no one attacks you for 60-80% of time lol! If you lose, lol this is PUG after all...

Edited January 9, 2013 by Glower

[Spoletta]

i was waiting for an objection from a scoundrel; and here it is!

 

Yeah we are by far the best healer in pug pvp.

[Thoniei]

The worst, the absolulte worst, is when a tank puts Guard on you before the match starts, then speeds into the distance and you never see them again.

 

This. If you don't plan on staying where the main fight is don't bother guarding me. I won't follow you on a sucide mission if I'm the only healer. Give someone else the chance to guard me or at least let me know that I am on my own for this one. If you do plan on staying by my side and tanking for me make sure I know who's guard it is. When I see someone guard me before the match stars I always target them and send a few heals there way to acknowledge the guard. If there are three tanks all gruarding someone and you aren't targeting me anymore then I have no idea whose guard it is. Please send me a tell and I will be sure to stick by your side and keep you alive.

 

Also if you want heals wear your pvp gear. No really don't argue just wear it. If you don't have at least 900 expertise or are in full min/maxed augmented DG I won't heal you, it's not worth my time.

 

Finally think about where you are standing. If there is a healing circle on the ground and you need healed go stand in it. If you are at 100% don't stand in it on top of your team mates with your SMASH HERE sign. Spread out as much as you can while still staying in the healers range. Do your best not to LoS us when we are trying to heal you. In a team with good healers and tanks its best for most of us to stick together. Wait and regroup before rushing mid solo again. If you are solo guarding and I've come to help you run towards me when you are about to die. I can't help you and watch the node when you go and cower behind the bunker where I can't see you.

[fungihoujo]

Fix the TTK and the insane amount of CC.

 

As a healer I expect to be targetted by lots of dps- what I don't expect is an abundance of crits doing a quarter of my health damage being thrown around like candy from a pinata.

 

Even when that isn't there- we have to stand still to heal, but if we stand still we're toast. Top that with way too many stuns and mezzes, and then add in that even when white barred we can still be rooted and interrupted constantly- and against any decent team you spend very little time able to heal because you are either dying or being endlessly CCed.

 

Basically- it all adds up to the most miserably healing experience I have seen in an mmo.

 

I healed through WoW vanilla- Cata as both shammy and pally- fine for pve, and pally was great for pvp, shammy was... ok.

DDO healing- pve of course, the UI isn't great so that hurts, but not too bad.

Rift- felt fine as well.

TSW- once you get the hang of it, kind of interesting.

WAR- playing a DoK was actually a little too simple and boring since the aoe heal was your best heal 90% of the time...

 

SWTOR- playing a healer in pve is perfectly fine... but it's like other than operative, the heal specs weren't designed with any thought towards pvp viability at all. Look at sorc- a 2.5 second heal in a game where many classes have 8 sec CD interrupts, one even has a 6 second interrupt- and there's bonus interrupts on leaps- plus many stuns, can't stand still due to TTK- no emergency heal, even though dark heal initially gives the impression that's the purpose of it- ultimately it is not at all.

 

We are lacking two main things that lower the skill needed to beat a healer. 1- Ability to fake cast. Now, yes, we can fake cast- but with how easily applied burst damage is in this game, fake casting is a death sentence- because even if you were to constantly cast you'd still never outheal anyone's damage... fake casting makes it even worse.

2- Any good dpser is going to kill a healer- but, any bad dpser is going to keep a healer constantly moving, and thus unable to heal. I think this is a big reason why people are avoiding healing roles- why bother when the only way you're going to be able to get off decent healing for your team is with instants (which aren't many- pretty much bubbles for sorcs), and when even bad players can easily keep you chain rooted and running for your life at all times.

 

Our survivability depends massively on how our allies play- people don't like playing healers even when they are survivable fine on their own, but when you make it so they are defenseless without a babysitter you make it that much less appealing.

 

Ultimately- there's actually more healers in this game than there should be. Mercs, sorcs, ops are the three healing classes... they're also the three classes that everyone sensible agrees blows for dps- and are never taken for dps in RWZ. People playing those classes are mostly healers now- but if they were given viable dps specs for pvp, you'd see healers pretty much vanish.... that- and once the bubble stun is removed, sorcs will just reroll or leave the game since the only viable pvp healer will be an operative.

 

 

Oh- and on top of the insane TTK, CC and interrupts, lack of defensives, squishiness, lack of CC breaks, long heal cast times, etc....... the cherry on top of the cake is that we have a permanent trauma debuff reducing the amount we heal compared to pve.

 

BW simply hates healing classes- pure and simple. No other game treats healers this bad- and that's saying alot since healing is rarely popular due to how healers get treated.

[Glower]

The worst, the absolulte worst, is when a tank puts Guard on you before the match starts, then speeds into the distance and you never see them again.

 

This is bad not only for you but also for another (real) tank. He's cant guard u cuz u already guarded! Drop ur guard buff pls in this case.

[EldonNyriss]

Well, I play a Sage healing hybrid. I've dropped my casted AOE-Heal for the Knockback root and Bubble flash stun talents, and I have to say, it's sooo much more fun! (BTW I love healing, and I currently have 4 healers. )

My Sage's gear is not optimal, and yet I seem to be doing quite well. The spec I use allows me greater control and mobillity, which is crucial in PvP. Besides, it's so much fun, stunning 3 guys chasing me with my bubble, or knocking and locking them into firetraps or the Hypergate blast zone!

My healing is now depends greatly on Healing Trance (using the 2-set piece bonus from PvE set through Campaign armorings just to lower its CD), which I keep on CD (and Rejuvenate of course), and fill in with Deliverance, Force Mend and my cleanse. Though my healing numbers are a tat less than those of a fully-specced Seer, I manage to put out quite some healing, and the bubble- stuns I cast on my teammates certainly have saved many of them.

Though I gotta say, Republic PvP has improved greatly on my server. I've even been on some teams with 4 or 5 healers and we are undying:cool: . But, truth is, team me up with a Scoundrel Healer and we can go on for quite some time without being killed, keeping our allies alive and well.

Anyway, I'm loving healing in warzones, and I believe the hybrid spec is much more fun and provides great utility.

As for my teammates, haven't had many bad moments. Okay, guards are rare but I try not to depend on them, I make a greater effort to keep other healers alive, cause I'm gonna need their help sometime.

[symke]

Well it looks like I will be making a Tank. I've been thinking about it for some time as I don't see how I could be of much use to healers as a Watchman. I do try to help them, but I must admit that most of my focus goes to killing other side's healers, so I don't think I've been helping ours a lot .

 

I've already been told that the best tank for guarding healer in WZ is a Guardian, so I will start on one as soon as possible. Maybe I will be able to do some good and if I manage to "convince" at least one healer to continue healing in WZs, I think I will do enough for start.

[lordkhouri]

This is ridiculous. Every warzone i enter has 2 bubble spec sorcs on the other team. Healers do just fine.