Cleric healing - non dynamic is not fun. Not next "gen" at all

kaelis33

I am posting against what I see as a rotten trend in some newer MMOs these days. A trend that Cryptic went all in on, non dynamic healing. The idea is simple, I understand what they are trying to do and why. The idea is to not make people play a "heal bot" and be able to epeen DPS like everyone else.

The assumptions are false, that more people will play a Cleric if they can rid the necessity of concentrating on healing all the time. Or if they make healing some kind of lightweight sideshow. The fact is the people who like to DPS and face smash are going to roll rogue for DPS epeening. This always happens. If I were to make a percentage estimate of people and there preffered roles it would be like 50% of the populace DPS epeen, 25% like to DPS but can be a bit versatile and play a support class, and maybe 25% of the population is actually more or less inclined to fill the gaps and play support classes.

This ratio (that I just made up ) does not change ever, from what I have witnessed. I normally will play a healer, or a support roll, something with a DYNAMIC and group support skills. I will DPS as a secondary thing. But what you have done here Cryptic is make healing boring as snot. AOE heals, HoTs are really not dynamic and are predictable. Yeah I know you are letting me cast and forget and get back to mediocre DPS.

The problem is I don't want to be a mediocre DPSer, I want to keep people from dying, time heals and spells that prevent death and failure. Its a good feeling to be able to react and adapt quickly to a rapidly changing situation with people taking damage and just barely getting heals off on time. Its challenging and fun. What you have done here ,and what so many so self proclaimed "next gen" mmos have done is to remove all of that.

In it's place we have weak watered down HoTs and AOE spells. I know HoTs make content easy to design for, because you don't have to account for user skill (as much) when you can figure that tank A will have X% of heals every second and so forth. But excuse me, this is lazy game design and most certainly not "next gen". And what you do is discourage people who normally would play a healer from doing so. And no matter what you do you are never going to convince most of the population to roll a cleric.

They just won't. Just tired of seeing poorly thought healers in MMOs lately. Age of Conan, Guild Wars ( dont even have one), this game, New Elder scrolls. It's sad to see the class roles being dumbed down so much. You still have a cleric demographic problem, and the challenge to me is can I even stomach playing a boring non dynamic healer to fill the needed gap in groups? You and so many game designers are flat wrong when you assumed that adding DPS to healers and watering down the mechanics and healing overall would attract more people to play healers.

You just made the cleric suck real bad.....you need dynamic adaptive healing skills. People need to see immediate effect. Being in the back and managing to keep the group alive is fun in itself. Being able to bounce in a smash a skull in on occasion is nice, but do not sacrifice healing dynamics to give people a underwhelming token DPS role in groups.


Any way that is my rant. Just sad to see MMOs doing this repeatedly. I am already not going to play Elderscrolls Online because of the healing dynamics. Its obvious that group play will be limited and that healing will be relegated to a skill less side show.

lerdocix

Feel free to go to other mmo where you will be pidgeonholed as healbot for the end of time.
I had a blast as Grace WP in Warhammer, I have a blast as Cleric here.

Cleric heals well sustained damage.
He is not meant to heal burst damage, because you are not meant to take it(dodge mechanics) or use pots(short CD is for a reason) if you got hit.

Clerics healing in here is fine, its only the healbot companions played by players that whine and complain as its not what they are used to and refuse to adapt.

efaicia

What you are requesting to be able to excel at a specific role and be known as "That Amazing Healer/Support". This is exactly why I have fought tooth and nail to stop the homogenization of classess and the thought that every class should be able to do everything.
I hate dps roles. With a passion. It is emensly boring to me. I love healing, I love saving the day. I love being challenged. I do not want to practice a rotation until my arm goes numb. I want to have the ability to do as you say and be a dynamic player. The last heal classess that had this ability that I played were in games that came before the mass releases of "Themeparks".

Anyway. Just stopping in to tell you that you are not alone. Unfortunately since these types of healers are easy to play and people dont really have to think beyond learning a rotation they are becoming the norm.

kaelis33

Thanks I know there are a lot of people that think the same way. I think the reason MMOs went this way was to try and accommodate a certain group of people, and there is no way to accommodate them. There is no MMO company that can flat out make a Cleric DPS like a rogue and maintain any semblance of balance in the game. Likewise without reaching rogue like DPS there is no way to get DPSers to play healers.

Guild Wars 2 is the most extreme example of where the MMO company went all in try to accommodate DPSers...they removed healers..and tanks for that matter from the game. I don't think I have played any more boring and chatoic group play than Guild Wars 2. Defined class roles add a layer of strategy and coordination that enhances group play.

I have always used the analogy like football. You need defensive linemen, safeties, Tight Ends, receivers, quarterbacks...and so on. They all of defined roles and work together. It makes football interesting to watch and PLAY. If everyone was a runninback it would be stupid...and really this is where MMOs are heading.


and to those saying this is wrong is it better to have a mediocre boring DPSer with lame unispiring healing? Or a dynamic healer with some DPS options? I just can't see why do this to a good class. The DnD Cleric is actually Oped in its 3.5 ruleset iteration, but still a plate wearing cleric with a big mace and dynamics heal would be a blast to play. A healer that has to fight to defend itself, not so much go offensive, but handle its own and find ways to get free from fighting to heal.

gtxinsane

If I could like this post i would. Now it's just spam Shield, and Sunburst, and wait till they need that third heal to pop (usually the 4-5 second AS down time) downright boring as f*ck.

lerdocix wrote: »

Clerics healing in here is fine, its only the healbot companions played by players that whine and complain as its not what they are used to and refuse to adapt.

No it's not. I'd like to see video evidence, or any evidence at all of people healing through T2 dungeons without 3 heals slotted. You have a 3 skill rotation, with 2 dailies where the only decisions you would make when casting them is "omg my party is dying, *plop Divine Armor*" or, "omg, my party is doing well *plop Hallowed Ground*". It was our 3 heal rotation pre patch already, but that 3rd heal back then could've been anything else your party needed. Now you have to slot that 3rd heal for the oh sh*t moment. We're not asking to be good at just healing, we're a leader class, not a healer class. As of now we have 3 skills that buff barring THP/Heal buffs, Astral Shield (defense), Divine Glow (divine mode for offense), and Hallowed Ground (daily).

And let's be honest, if your party is doing well without heals (people will learn to dodge like pros in no-time, a very good think actually), they should've just taken a 3rd CW.

healariuz

Agree with OP.
What do a Cleric do in this game? Drops shield, stand still. hit the other spells and reapeat. Thats all. Tho imo the problem is to few spells on the cast bar.