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Is a Healer character rewarding?

Stuck between making a healer or a DPS, of course I can make both, but does playing a healer feel rewarded?

I don’t expect to be number 1 at cosmic charts, but is it more impactful to play a tank/DPS than it is to be a healer?

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  • jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,424 Arc User
    Do you mean in general, or specifically in end game content?

    If you are leveling it can be painfully slow because you kill the mooks much more slowly, even in hybrid. Having a well-kitted out vehicle makes leveling by doing missions much quicer, but you end up feeling like you didn;t play the character and don't have as good a feel for it (much the same as for tanks).

    If you mean end game, then healers are absolutely essential (more so than bad dps) and can often save the day.

    There are different kinds of healers too. You can be a main tank healer with Iniquity and all the rest of the high end direct heal kit, or could be more of a background healer who provides a decent level of healing that keeps people topped up (and can rez them), but doesn't do direct heals. You can also be a healer/buffer/debuffer.

    I have 14 characters who have healing as a significant aspect and enjoy them all. Give it a try. You may find it as rewarding as pew pew pew, or maybe not ;)
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  • holloweaverholloweaver Posts: 582 Arc User
    If you're looking for something rewarding, avoid tank. lol
    Joke but still.

    So I made a healer. A huge difference.
    She can kill stuff after a certain long time, on the other hand if something can't oneshot her, she can outheal everything and never have to worry about her hp geting low.
  • blumoon8blumoon8 Posts: 430 Arc User
    Playing a healer can be quite rewarding. It's a different kind of gameplay as you are watching the green bars instead of red, but I definitely enjoy it as a break from DPS. I've decided to level a healer to 40 for the training program and I do find it a lot of fun. The more challenging aspect of being a healer (especially in alerts), is when everyone is running around and getting out of range. Or worse, minions are popping up but other players are so focused on the main boss that you die because you are swarmed.

    So basically, other players can be more frustrating when you are a healer than the content.

    I say stuff and I say things, sometimes together but only when I'm feeling adventurous.

    I'm @blu8 in game! :D
  • qawsadaqawsada Posts: 736 Arc User
    In endgame content, Healers are VITAL for the group. It doesn't take much to be good with a healer, both build and mods. You could even dual role a Healer/DPS on one character. You can look into this thread if you want to know more about how to make such build. Just for the love of god, if you're getting the Aura of Protection Aura, max rank it. If you don't it will bug the run if another AORP user comes and cause Block to not function correctly.
  • blumoon8blumoon8 Posts: 430 Arc User
    qawsada wrote: »
    Just for the love of god, if you're getting the Aura of Protection Aura, max rank it. If you don't it will bug the run if another AORP user comes and cause Block to not function correctly.

    This is insanely helpful to know. I had no idea. I know I'm not the OP but still thanks for sharing it. (As well as that build link).

    I say stuff and I say things, sometimes together but only when I'm feeling adventurous.

    I'm @blu8 in game! :D
  • warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,069 Arc User
    blumoon8 wrote: »
    Playing a healer can be quite rewarding. It's a different kind of gameplay as you are watching the green bars instead of red, but I definitely enjoy it as a break from DPS. I've decided to level a healer to 40 for the training program and I do find it a lot of fun. The more challenging aspect of being a healer (especially in alerts), is when everyone is running around and getting out of range. Or worse, minions are popping up but other players are so focused on the main boss that you die because you are swarmed.

    So basically, other players can be more frustrating when you are a healer than the content.

    I just leveled a Lifedrain healer (Orichalcum) for the Defender event and the above is so true that I made a brief macro announcing what I am and please DON"T RUN AWAY from me. Most still did.
    .

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  • holloweaverholloweaver Posts: 582 Arc User
    warcanch wrote: »
    (...)
    I just leveled a Lifedrain healer (Orichalcum) for the Defender event and the above is so true that I made a brief macro announcing what I am and please DON"T RUN AWAY from me. Most still did.

    I've seen that too. Dps running to the boss and leaving the healer alone in the middle of all the spawns.
    With my main tank, I usually choose to let the dps hit the boss and lunge to help the healer.
    Never got a thanks though, heh.
  • warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,069 Arc User
    The ones meleeing the boss were fine because I could stay close enough to them.

    It was the ranged players that kept running away from me when they needed the healing that drove me nuts.​​
    .

    -=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
    "Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
  • magpieuk2014magpieuk2014 Posts: 1,268 Arc User
    You can certainly have healing capabilities and have decent damage too, and that type of multirole character will be of great help in most of the game's content, everything from Alerts to multiplayer boss fights, Save The Earth - it's really only Cosmics where you need to specialise. It's only when you get a team with those extra functions (stuns, holds, passive heals, part-time active heals) that you realise how useful they are.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited April 2020
    Really any role in this game is rewarding so long as you try to do it well. Being a healer and making everyone around you effectively invincible is pretty sweet - if on top of that you're also improving everyone's damage output then you're basically some sort of god thing leading your cult followers to victory. It might feel shaky at first as you get used to the game's targeting and figure out how you want your keybindings/UI set up, but once you get it it'll feel pretty cool.

    That up there is in most content, but at cosmics it feels a bit different than it does elsewhere. Truth be told at cosmics you will often not feel like you are making a huge impact. Now and then you might get a heal off when the tank happens to be low, but in general you'll just be one of many spamming heals on the tank. Same with healing everyone else, you'll often find that you go to heal someone and they're already being healed, though it does feel pretty good when you see a bunch of life bars go down and then run over and aoe heal them all. Basically the less other healers that are there, the more difficult your role will be, but also the more satisfying.

    An important thing to do if you want good feedback on your efforts is to enable health bars for all friendly players so you can see when people take damage, and more importantly so you can see all those little bars refill when you push your buttons.
    warcanch wrote: »
    It was the ranged players that kept running away from me when they needed the healing that drove me nuts.​​

    To be fair, many of us have zero faith that even if there are plus signs in the party that they'll actually heal us, or if they're gonna try that they'll even be fast enough to save us, so we've learned to take matters into our own hands! *bounces away behind a wall until boss loses interest*

    This is why Bionic Shielding is still one of the best heals in the game. You just need to be fast enough to select the person who's taking damage, then it doesn't matter if they run all the way to Lemuria.
  • warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,069 Arc User
    Yeah, I agree about the plus sign is no indication of intent or capability. Which is why I made the macro about my intent and what they should expect. Many did figure me out and thanked their healer.

    Other times it was like the Cosmics you described, plenty of other healers in the Alert so my heals were not very helpful. Which is also why she could do fair dps. It was combo of the Darkness Lifedrain healer + some rocky stuff from the Brick tree. I had fun. Even doing some Leeeerrooying in first.​​
    .

    -=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
    "Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    It'd be nice if they made a thing where if you get into an alert you can opt to drop out and have someone else who is queued immediately get your spot, cause when I join an alert on my healer and there's other healers there it just makes me wanna leave u3u
  • magpieuk2014magpieuk2014 Posts: 1,268 Arc User
    Well, plus is "Support" rather than "Healer". If you came into an Alert with one of my Support characters (a Melee AoAC toon whose speciality is stunning and generally locking down mobs) then you might be disappointed. I doubt a character like that has much utility in a Cosmic/Epic lair run (and perhaps only marginal in a Rampage) but it's great fun in Alerts/Custom runs and general content.
  • chaosdrgnz43chaosdrgnz43 Posts: 1,674 Arc User
    If you enjoy saving peeps from the brink of defeat, you'll enjoy healer. However it can get a bit of a chore when dps keep killing themselves on purpose like a drug addict. Lifedrain-like heals can keep the group alive most of the time if you move towards your teammates quickly. Also, I'd recommend to try Healing and CCing since they're closely linked.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    Well, plus is "Support" rather than "Healer". If you came into an Alert with one of my Support characters (a Melee AoAC toon whose speciality is stunning and generally locking down mobs) then you might be disappointed. I doubt a character like that has much utility in a Cosmic/Epic lair run (and perhaps only marginal in a Rampage) but it's great fun in Alerts/Custom runs and general content.

    It sounds like the kind of character that makes my support being there pointless, cause aint nobody takin' damage and holds are already being applied. Might as well let a dps or something else enjoy that.
  • warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,069 Arc User
    edited April 2020
    Those are more reasons why none of my healers are JUST healers. If my healing is unnecessary, at least my modest dps and possible CCing is useful.

    And, most of my dps have an external healing ability and a multi rez power.​​
    .

    -=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
    "Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
  • blumoon8blumoon8 Posts: 430 Arc User
    Yeah, I keep ending up in an alert with one or two other healers. Meanwhile, my other toons don't tend to get healers in their alerts. >.>

    I say stuff and I say things, sometimes together but only when I'm feeling adventurous.

    I'm @blu8 in game! :D
  • nique554nique554 Posts: 66 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    It'd be nice if they made a thing where if you get into an alert you can opt to drop out and have someone else who is queued immediately get your spot, cause when I join an alert on my healer and there's other healers there it just makes me wanna leave u3u

    This. So annoying when there's another healer in the group taking all your stacks. :<
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    nique554 wrote: »
    spinnytop wrote: »
    It'd be nice if they made a thing where if you get into an alert you can opt to drop out and have someone else who is queued immediately get your spot, cause when I join an alert on my healer and there's other healers there it just makes me wanna leave u3u

    This. So annoying when there's another healer in the group taking all your stacks. :<

    That's why offensive healer Forms are great. My fire healer doesn't care if there are other healers in the group. My Compassion healer on the other hand...
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Our alert queue needs to sort roles better u3u
    Problem is that CO has a flexible concept of building characters that has a weird way of defying automated grouping. Simply using the role isn't gonna cut it.
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  • holloweaverholloweaver Posts: 582 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Our alert queue needs to sort roles better u3u
    Problem is that CO has a flexible concept of building characters that has a weird way of defying automated grouping. Simply using the role isn't gonna cut it.

    Indeed as it would imply that someone with the shield icon would be expected to tank and hold aggro, someone with a cross icon would be expected to buff/heal/shield and I don't think many players will like that.
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