PC DCs and Rescuing the Dying

myles08807

Thesis: DCs who hit "F" and kneel down to rescue an ally in the near-death condition should not be interrupted by taking damage.

Argument: My first D&D character was a cleric. That would be on or about 9/1/1980. I've put a lot of mileage on the cleric class over the years. Given that, these days, Neverwinter has pretty much two hit point statuses (Full and Zero/Dying), DCs are mostly around for the buffs and debuffs. (BTW, thank you Cryptic for making my main Divine Oracle DC not only relevant, but downright popular, again!) I strongly believe that it is in the nature of the DC to rescue the dying when they can, and in order to do this, they would gladly absorb punishment and venture into red zones. A DC's ability to rescue the dying without interruption should be a class feature.

putzboy78

its not a dc's job to rez fallen party members. This is nothing wrong with dc class and all about incompetent party.

majorcharvenak

^ So much truth in one image. Well done, Sir!

rapo973

myles08807 said:

I strongly believe that it is in the nature of the DC to rescue the dying when they can, and in order to do this, they would gladly absorb punishment and venture into red zones. A DC's ability to rescue the dying without interruption should be a class feature.

Regardless the philosophy and the nature of the DC class, the gameplay reality is the opposite. Imo the DC should never rez.
Not only because of the funny pic by @putzboy78 , but also because, in my experience, the timeframe I spend to rez a mate it's also the timeframe where I stop my rotation, I stop buffing, I stop healing, I stop mitigating, I stop eveything.
In the hardest moments (because that's where you usually rez) for 1 I rez, 2 die meanwhile even if you absorb (your) damage. So I don't usually rez: it's a simple cost/benefit analysis

putzboy78

joking aside, it depends on my role in the party. If I'm the healer, yeah no rez, if i'm just buff/debuffing/dps (i.e. party isn't looking to me to heal) I rez becaue they buff/debuff/dps role isn't essential to party survival. i.e. it's a dps slot not a healer slot. Healer, tank, and in some cases cc roles shouldn't bother to rez, other roles should be keeping an eye on the party and disengage their target to rez as required. In my experience the best resource for this is TR, who can stealth to drop agro then rez but that's no excuse for other dps classes to not rez.

clericalist

Perhaps its something they could add as a feature for the Bard class, should it ever come along. A long time back I used to have the Lathander artifact, because for immersion reasons I did believe that clerics should be in the revive business, however too many times the people that got revived without anybody nearby did not know what was going on and promptly died right away.

I do agree with others that practically its not a good idea to be the reviver. But if you absolutely must, then you can use divine armour and heals on yourself and go into the hot zone, you can keep on trying to revive them and get interrupted but hopefully the attempted saves will eventually buy enough time to do a complete revive, I end up doing this on occasion when nobody in the party seems to care.

myles08807

Some interesting perspectives here. I've been running Dragon Heralds with a 13k chat group for the past few weeks and guess what? Everyone gets res'd in combat, usually by the nearest person regardless of class. The only exceptions to this I've seen is when that last unlucky toon can't get mounted and clear of a zone flooded with mobs after the dragon's down...and there's literally no one else around to rescue them. Sorry, not sorry for playing a DC like a cleric, folks.

beckylunatic

In Heralds these days, there is nothing so significant at stake that a rez can't be done by whoever is closest. It's a zerg. The object is to melt as many dragons as you can as quickly as possible. Tank/heal are irrelevant. But anyone who goes down and doesn't get rez'd is left behind and might miss a dragon while catching up again. In other words, it's courtesy to rez if you're the closest. (In some zerg content, the most courteous thing to do is for the downed person to release and come back, not wait for a rez at all.)

In high stakes content where you need to play a role, it's a bad idea for the tank or the heals to stop what they're doing to pick someone up. Another advantage of a TR doing it is 95% of the time, the TR can use Impossible to Catch for additional safety, assuming your party has a TR. Party members should understand this going in.

As much as you might feel it's in keeping with the cleric's job to be the picker-upper of the fallen, it's taking your attention away from casting. Not the first time combat mechanics and roleplay ideals in NW are at odds, but don't you think it makes sense for the sneaky guy to nip in unnoticed to grab the wounded and bring them to you, so to speak?

putzboy78

ever occur to you that people are dieing because your rezing and not healing? 13K'rs shouldn't be dieing in heralds... even without a cleric

and becky's right, in dragonflight or epic sh hes, the best thing you can do is release and run back

voidgift

You can always make the CW rez. If there are mobs he can usually control them long enough the make a safe delivert. Only not if the floor is covered with red or you are fighting things like giants.

enicegeo

In my experience it basically depends on the situation. A group is dungeon melting and someone at boss goes down, usually someone at range, I'll go rez. The group should be able to handle themselves for the few seconds I'm not there. If the group struggled some and they go down at the boss, I may or may not try to rez. It depends on how badly I may be needed at keeping everyone else up.

Since my cleric is made to absorb some abuse taking damage when trying to revive someone isn't a hindrance, unless the guy is in the middle of a sea of flames. However if I am downed and Soulforged back I'll have to bail on the guy and head back to where needed. If I couldn't rez him the first time I'm not gonna be able to on the second try. Then there are times when I was able to revive a downed person but then I get downed in the process. Lathander works well here as now both of our health meters are brought back up.

mebengalsfan

putzboy78 said:

its not a dc's job to rez fallen party members. This is nothing wrong with dc class and all about incompetent party.

I think you need to clarify this statement so everyone who is new to MMOs understand this statement.

If you are a DC (healer) you should not do any form of picking up dying allies. That is the job of the damage dealers in the group. To often I see damage dealers leaving their dying allies and I as the tank, will pull the adds with me to the dying companion and since I use Steel Grace, I can typically move fast enough to the player and do the pick up prior to the adds getting there. There are some really naive players that they decided it is in their best interest to top the pain giver chart and attack the mob that is following me, which usually results in another down player.

Now if the damage dealers were playing for the group, they would stop their rotation and pick up the fallen ally without any further deaths but that rarely happens due to most DPS wanting to be top on the Pain Giver chart.

onodrain

If in a larger raid group, best to let the OP auto-rez people with their aura. It only works once every few minutes due to rezz sickness. But it is instant.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

bitt3rnightmar3

( Actual footage of a PUG DPS in Neverwinter )

Many times if someone is raging about not being picked up or dying this applies. I really appreciate the DPS's that help me by reviving people so that I can have a cast of a heal similar ready to top both of their HP as soon as they come back up.