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Cleric's will have to educate the community on healing
unspecifiederror
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 315 Bounty Hunter
Something I've noticed over the last two beta weekends is that the community doesn't seem to quite understand how healing works in this game. I tend to heal through Astral Seal, Forgemaster's Flame, and the on-crit heal feat (with high crit) because I find it works better than the pure heals do. The problem is I don't think a lot of players understand how/why they are getting healed.
I keep seeing rogues run away off to a corner when they get low like they are hoping I'll heal them so they can go back to doing damage. The trouble with that is that unless I stop, pop divinity and right click on them I can't heal them because my other abilities are Chains of Blazing and Daunting Light. Our direct heals are just bad and a waste of an encounter slot imho.
I don't think there's anything wrong with cleric healing as it is (though useless abilities bug me) I think the problem is that, especially come open-beta, there's going to be a lot of people running around who just won't understand what they need to do to get healed.
The main thing people are going to have to learn is the radius of Forgemaster's Flame. I understand rogues need to move away and may not be able to attack for Astral Seal heals but they shouldn't need to move outside the radius of FF and/or the crit heals.
So I ask all clerics, try to remember we ARE going to have to educate the community on what they have to do to get healed because running to a corner waiting for us to click their little green bar just won't work.
I keep seeing rogues run away off to a corner when they get low like they are hoping I'll heal them so they can go back to doing damage. The trouble with that is that unless I stop, pop divinity and right click on them I can't heal them because my other abilities are Chains of Blazing and Daunting Light. Our direct heals are just bad and a waste of an encounter slot imho.
I don't think there's anything wrong with cleric healing as it is (though useless abilities bug me) I think the problem is that, especially come open-beta, there's going to be a lot of people running around who just won't understand what they need to do to get healed.
The main thing people are going to have to learn is the radius of Forgemaster's Flame. I understand rogues need to move away and may not be able to attack for Astral Seal heals but they shouldn't need to move outside the radius of FF and/or the crit heals.
So I ask all clerics, try to remember we ARE going to have to educate the community on what they have to do to get healed because running to a corner waiting for us to click their little green bar just won't work.
Post edited by unspecifiederror on
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Obey the Cleric.
And that's it. Simple.
Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
Fools who rush every group or cast first on 10 mobs, deserve to quaff hp pots to survive. Everyone is used to the mmo they have played for ever, and know what each class and spell can do. People have to adjust to the new classes and spells. Due to this, the new way of healing looks crappy and inadequate. Once your group begins to anticipate what each is going to do, the battles become much easier, and smoother, requiring less and less healing. It is going to take time for people to get used to this new dynamic.
I am enjoying the cleric greatly and am having a much better time keeping people healed, mobs debuffed and NOT drawing agro too much. Yes I still can draw agro, especially when mobs have not been hit, but I'm not pulling every mob in the fight on me as soon as I cast a heal. I have upped my power this time around and am doing some decent healing. Even the "crappy" small heals are now hitting a couple hundred, instead of 10-30's add some crits in there, and most of the time, the party isn't even noticing their hps' dropping.
Passives are a little harder to choose. Do you want 20% less heal threat, or building Divine Power with heals? Personally, for a pure heal build, I'd probably go Holy Fervor and Healer's Lore. Swap out Fervor for Soothe of you have agro problems.
Obviously taking the Faithful Paragon path for the extra Divine Pip, and 5/5 in Deepstone Blessing, Linked Spirit, Invigorated Healing, and Moontouched. The Heroic feat that cures on 30% of your heals (Cleanse) is a must, IMO.
I've just found with the above skills, I can keep pretty much anyone alive, albeit I can't do **** for damage. This is NOT a soloing build, this would be strictly for the epic dungeons and such.
I think that is the problem, so many clerics are spec'ing their clerics for damage, and not healing. I don't want a pure damage cleric, I'll play a CW for that. I have put points in areas where both healing and damage will help me in both solo and group play. I am not limiting myself to being purely damage.
I solo well, and when I'm grouped, I heal well. Astral Seal still tends to draw agro when I use it on mobs that have not been hit, but I have not noticed a great deal of agro generation from using heals, or heal affect spells. When grouped, I keep sooth up <rank 3> but have no points in the feat ability to lesson agro.
I can switch to pure damage spells when soloing, or mostly heals when grouped. I think they finally have a nice balance going for the cleric. I wish our self heal was 100%, but the 40% reduction is much better than the 75% from beta 3. I can still get some nice crit heals on players upwards of 18k healed over time at level 50.
I kept Healing Word on my bar for now, but it's impossible to use in messy team fights and boss fights. Helpful for downtime between mobs, but I plan to replace it with divinity-cast Forgemasters flame for more rapid burst healing healing during combat
Or you can run with friends and guildies and do OK damage when not feat'd for it, but still have the best dps skills at L3
That would be quest grinding etc, as with even one person it becomes very easy. Limiting their downtime increases the rate you will clear maps as well. (and nice mount from pack)
This is the one class that I would rush to 60 tbh. Solo farming at that point might be ok with few dps feats. A lot of the scaling off a good weapon, which being a delver build you should get sooner than later.
. . . don't even need a player cleric. . .
I plan on leveling up purely dps then swapping to a pure heal build once my other 4 static group members get up to level. I really want to play a "pure" healer in this game, and I think I've found the formula for it :P
Well maybe not exactly "amazing" but it can top up health bars very quickly, plus it does not consume an encouter charge so you can continue healing with it even after you run out of charges. I used to heal people back with Divinity Soothing Light when they took severe damage, but Divinity Healing Word actually heals for more, faster, and costs less divine power.
Not sure if I will use it at 60 though, but every time I remove it I start potting a lot. Those constant ticks really add up over a long period.
I just can't get it to stick to the right player. I'd rather use +divinity AOE burst heal that I KNOW will hit everyone (and hit it often) than waste time trying to stick a Healing word and hitting the wrong target and consuming a divinity in the process.
What is your HP's at 40 and what is your healing HP's on your better heals?
When you read your statement you can take it that, heals are ok. In the two beta's I played there was plenty of times, way more than not where the team was above 75% all the time. It had a lot more to do with the game being easy then me healing them. And when a player got low their best bet was still a pot. Part of the fun of combat is getting those HP bars moving both ways, but to have them move down fast, you have to have a way to bring them back fast. There isn't a reliable way in the game to do that. So you get an easy game, where HP bars don't fall fast very often.
I only made it to level 28 so I never got Forgemaster's Flame or Bastion of Health, so I can't speak to how to play a full-healer build. IMO, all powers should unlock in the early levels and the player should have to choose which ones to level up as they play, that way everyone can see how different powers complement each other to create a different Cleric than any other combination.