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Cosmics have gotten too Trinity

Background: Took my healbot off to fight the Ape last night. We did well, I scored decently for my efforts, kept people alive.

This morning I reflected on the activity, and concluded that something felt wrong. This is not how a superhero fight is supposed to work. In the comics, healers are 1) rare, 2) under-powered, and 3) spend most of their time trying to help bring down the bad guy. In my five years experience as a FFXI Whitemage, I did not spend entire fights focusing on my heal abilities: I buffed, I debuffed, I tossed control and damage spells in as opportunity appeared. However, in the Ape fight, I frankly was unable to take my focus off the tanks for more than the few seconds it took to get out of a lava patch, or they would die. At no point did I manage to take offensive action against the Cosmic Threat.

In short, I wasn't particularly super heroic. While I participated in the battle, I did not contribute to the fight.

So, just as we have many tank threads complaining about how the Cosmics hit so hard that they have to block every third second and can't get any good hits in on the monster in question, I am complaining that a healer has to focus almost exclusively on his or her spike heal after every one of those hits, because the tank lost 30-50% of their health through the block, and much more of that means they will die, and the whole fight wipes.

It isn't that I mind being a healer: I don't. I'm actually decent at it. I just want to be able to be part of the fight, too.
-
Formerly @Seschat pre PWEmerger. @Seschat on the Titan boards.

Supporter of the Titan Project.

Comments

  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,916 Arc User
    Enh, part of that is that comics tend to favor 1-on-1 fights over group fights with actual teamwork.

    In CO terms Superman would be a tank since he's the toughest guy on the JL.

    Batman would be a DPS with a side of dodge hax to be less squishy.

    Usually you don't see comic characters heal DURING fights because writing that into a story is not as easy.
    ChampsWiki
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  • pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    First of all, I can certainly get attacks in between heals during cosmic fights, unless I'm doing something like solo healing both main and baby tank during the dinosaur. They're just mostly ineffective because, well, I'm using compassion in support role with a support aura, even if I had dps powers they'd do maybe a third as much damage as a dps.

    Secondly, on Trinity, the basic problem is that challenging content has to be based on what characters can do, and the game lets you build a super optimized healer who spits out 5k health per second or so.
  • nephtnepht Posts: 6,898 Arc User
    Making the cosmics require teamwork kinda ruined the game for me. I remember a few years back you could get like get a crew of 5 OP heroes and really mess Dino Mom's s%$£ up. Now the big bads just feel like any other big bad in any other mmo. This game has lost its comic book feel.
    nepht_siggy_v6_by_nepht-dbbz19n.jpg
    Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
    They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
    I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
  • nevyn34nevyn34 Posts: 104 Arc User
    I like the cosmics as they are now. One of the things that keep bringing me back to this game is their accessibility. You show up, join the team up, fill your role and bob’s your uncle. Rewards for everyone who passed a fair score that is weighted for what role you choose does best.

    I do feel that they get repetetive sometimes. A few more for variety (on the regular cosmics, I know Edo is a thing) would go far.
    Current Roster:

    Frostbiter (Freeform Ice DPS)
    Battle Hazard (Unleashed AT)
    Glacial Tyrant (Glacier AT)
    Silver Mantra ( Freeform Single Blade DPS)
    Magnetros (Freeform Heavy Weapons/Lightning Hybrid)
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  • revanantmoriturirevanantmorituri Posts: 397 Arc User
    nevyn34 said:

    I like the cosmics as they are now. One of the things that keep bringing me back to this game is their accessibility. You show up, join the team up, fill your role and bob’s your uncle. Rewards for everyone who passed a fair score that is weighted for what role you choose does best.



    I do feel that they get repetetive sometimes. A few more for variety (on the regular cosmics, I know Edo is a thing) would go far.

    My issue would be you are having to show up as a hard fixed trinity role. For a superhero game, particularly one with the Champions name, that just feels off. Big Bad fights in the source material aren't about getting the right team mix, they're about grabbing whoever happens to be available, and getting it to work. Should an organized group outperform a "who did you feel like playing today" one? Of course, this is a somewhat balanced game, not a work of fiction. And we see that: a PQ Forum Malvanum team will ROFLstomp Firewing, while the queued one with two tanks, a controller, a lvl 20 DPS, and my lvl 40 debuffer will run out of time with the Defiance twins. But it still counts as a victory.

    Going back to the original post: playing my healer that night, I certainly contributed to the battle, but not to the victory. In character, Red Medic Sigma might feel she could have been replaced by a Support Drone. Were she an actual comic book character, that sort of thing leads to a month's long journey of self-discovery and re-training, coming back as a better fighter with a couple of minor healing powers. Mechanically, a respec.

    And to answer the upcoming question, "Why am I doing Cosmics then?", simple: there's stuff I want behind the @#$% GCR paywall. Specifically powers and costumes. As Spinny frequently points out, there's no need for Justice/Distiguished gear int he content I regularly enjoy.
    -
    Formerly @Seschat pre PWEmerger. @Seschat on the Titan boards.

    Supporter of the Titan Project.
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