New healing mechanic

[Noxious]

After reading the post on Healing Basics on this page, an idea for a new system occured to me. I thought it was an interesting idea, not necessarily a useful one, but, well, interesting.

Remove all spells from the game that increase health. You heard me. Replace it all with damage shields of varying effectiveness and increase overall toughness of all players. Now you have a situation where all damage done is permanent, while in combat. The healers react to who is taking damage and try to mitigate that damage as best as possible while themselves contributing to overall dps. Its proactive, and takes skill. It also allows dps classes to have a little more fun.... you dont have to dps a specific target to feel useful, every point of damage you deal contributes to your teams success. The end result is combat where the damage is getting spread around much more, therefore each individual player is in the fight for longer and ultimately having more fun. To me, the focus fire aspect of RVR in this game is its most glaring drawback, as it makes your success in combat almost purely based on what the enemy thinks of you.

One of the obvious drawbacks of this system is the usefulness of tanks in this situation, as having high armor/toughness wouldnt be as beneficial if the shields in some way "replaced" armor. Then again, it could be possible to make the shields just bolster resistance to damage by a percentage, thereby retaining the usefulness of being a tank.

Just thought this was a neat idea, and thought I'd share it. Discuss at your leisure.

[Dionysis]

Ummmm No...

[Imalter]

Ever played Counter-Strike?

[thylantyr]

Sounds like Star Trek... need shields :p scotty..................

[JRDobbs]

I can imagine that. They won't do it here, it would require a radical rework of the current game, but it's an interesting concept.

[Teh Jace]

This has been implemented in guild wars but healing as such wasn't left out.

The problem is with all these WoW kiddies using pve addons like healgrid/squared we would experience really terrible and fast matches. So yeah you would finally see who is a good healer and who not but... 90% of the current healers are just healgrid noobs anyways.

[Ob|ivion]

This has been implemented in guild wars but healing as such wasn't left out.

The problem is with all these WoW kiddies using pve addons like healgrid/squared we would experience really terrible and fast matches. So yeah you would finally see who is a good healer and who not but... 90% of the current healers are just healgrid noobs anyways.
Lol, WoW Kids using Squared/Grid? Go check the UI forums and ask how many people use it, who have played WoW.
/ontopic
Don't like this idea as it would really damage PvE, and RvR. What if somebody takes you down to 1k health, all you can benefit from is shields and potions. As soon as a shield ran out you'd need another one asap.

[Teh Jace]

I don't care how many of them have played WoW. That tool is just bad for a pvp healer.
You wanna become a hotspamming zombie? Use healgrid.

[Aiiane]

I don't care how many of them have played WoW. That tool is just bad for a pvp healer.
You wanna become a hotspamming zombie? Use healgrid.

A tool is a tool. For some, it will be a bad thing. For others, it is an additional resource that can help them to perform even better.

Unless you think that less information is always a good thing?

Having Squared/HealGrid does not force you to mindlessly spam HoTs on it.

[Teh Jace]

But pvp healers need to know who is gonna be attacked so they can respond in time. Squared/healgrid will not help them at this.

Squared is a good tool for pve since it is a static enviroment. U have a tank rooted in one place tanking a boss so u can rely on "this square is my tank and he is going to take some dmg soon".

Srsly many ppl using squared/healgrind become very unaware of whats going on around them cuz they focus on fading squares only.

[DreadMage]

So, you want WAR to be a game of attrition? Whoever mucks up and lets some damage through their shields first gets rolled.

Sorry, the average player has the situational awareness and reflexes of a dead trout, so such a mechanic would mean that this game will revolve around staring at the respawn counter 90% of the time.

You would need perfect timing and coordination to nullify EVERY single source of incoming damage that is being applied to EVERY single one of your team mates. Will never happen. ATM, healers cant even spot heal every member of the group with one HoT, how do you expect them to be able to maintain damage shields/prots on everyone at all times.

[Teh Jace]

You would need perfect timing and coordination to nullify EVERY single source of incoming damage that is being applied to EVERY single one of your team mates. Will never happen. ATM, healers cant even spot heal every member of the group with one HoT, how do you expect them to be able to maintain damage shields/prots on everyone at all times.

Yep thats why it takes months to train a good monk in guild wars. They need to have perfect reflexes and prediction to be somewhat competitive. I can't imagine this with the current WAR playerbase.

[Deeva]

Yep thats why it takes months to train a good monk in guild wars. They need to have perfect reflexes and prediction to be somewhat competitive. I can't imagine this with the current WAR playerbase.

Having been one of those superhuman monks, the two styles of combat are completely different.

Guild Wars is, at the most, 8v8. There's '12v12' but you're unable to see anyone outside of your group of 4 on your interface. Your goal is to, generally, kill the other team.

There's more factors in WAR. Knockbacks, being unable to effectively preprot, objectives (muderball?), stealth, the general 'clusterfark' of so many people running around at once, line of sight issues being more common in WAR. In Guild Wars, I can see casting animations on my peripheral vision, so I can tell if an elementalist is trying to start a spike, or if they're sending a nuke my way. This isn't possible for me in WAR- the wild variation of races, figures, casting animations etc. doesn't allow for it.

[Tiresias]

A tool is a tool. For some, it will be a bad thing. For others, it is an additional resource that can help them to perform even better.

Unless you think that less information is always a good thing?

Having Squared/HealGrid does not force you to mindlessly spam HoTs on it.

And it's a great tool! Much thanks to the author, whomever they might be... :p

Having said that, the DEFAULT UI gives you the ability to pull out other groups into your playing field and monitor them. The only problem is that it is AWFUL. Since I can't effectively remove debuffs anyway -- the removal spells are awful -- all I really care about is their health.

Squared actually PREVENTS me from being a healbot, since it allows me to easily monitor my team without having to read an eyechart-like UI. I can focus on my enemies and start shielding/healing as necessary.

As far as the OP is concerned: wow, that idea is terrible. It would make the game even more of a damage race than it is now, and would make Sorcs, Bright Wizards, and tanks useless.

[Prymordius]

You might as well make it so you only get hit once then back to the starting point...lol...Im'a WP I dont use any of those modes first off,
1. That was fit for a WOW invironment not WH.
2. It takes your eye off the field 90% of the time.
3. WP and other healers have a better advantage anyway looking at the area surounding them. Cituational Awarness is keep to survivability.
4. For tyhose that use it, gratz to you, I hope it helps, Healer classes like WP have to have constant multi-tasking, if grid helps you to learn the mechanics of healing to start, cool. But mind you healing classes including WP require a more seasoned MMO player and far more experienced.
With that said, having no healers in a Fantasy game is problematic, "shields"...are you kiding me? Yikes. Nice try on the thought though its what counts, its just my opinion against it.

[Aiiane]

Srsly many ppl using squared/healgrind become very unaware of whats going on around them cuz they focus on fading squares only.

That's not an intrinsic aspect of Squared/HealGrid, but rather a failing on the part of the individual to avoid tunnel vision. People can lose focus on what's going on around them and just focus on the group bars, too, or on a single tank/dps, or whatever. Tunnel vision in general is bad. Nothing to do with any particular unitframes.

[NatashaK]

I don't like the add-ons but I don't see another way to realistically to WB / PUG SC healing without one.

I never used an add-on to heal in WoW. But I'd shield first, heal second in PvP.

[Prymordius]

Just to add,

The modsare ok for pve where the group/wb is static and usually unchanged because your not moving about so much as you would in pvp. Saveing the lives of as many as you ca nsave is kep priority, but realize this good groups/wb, consist of the key elements of DPS, Healers, Tanks and CC. If you have each group complete of those elements your attentnio then should thus be on the firect element group your assigned to. Its like a Squad in combat your assigned specific members of a JOb/MOS to fill the shoes of each class slot, thus making a special team of specific elements. But if you truely want to master healing become aware of your surroundings,know your skill trees and the skills themselves, and learn to multi-task. If you cant function more then one thing at a time healers are NOT for you.

The AOE heals are good for ppl in the area of effect and if you have more the none healer with the same aeos in different locations you pretty much cover all angles. Thats ina perfect world though. A good group consists of

2x Healer Wp/ RP or RP/AM AM/WP though in my opinion Wp=OH/RP=MH is the best combo
1 tank- Iron Breaker or Knight
3x DPS /CC Eng/BW BW/WH Wh/Eng- In my opinion best combo DPS/CC is BW/WH/Eng since u can have three . One of each.

As players know thier class jobs, and use the right combination to suite the cituation, and not just mash buttons, then you have a potent arsenal of a group or WB, but when you get players that mash buttons and have higher expectations of a class EX: WP and expect them to be DPS......you have a seriouse problem. Wrath or not DPS will never be a "TRUE" DPS on a Wrath WP compared to all other DPS.

I tried all trees and found Salvation to be the one true spec for a WP for healing and DPS survivability. Grace was a nice spec too, Wrath in my opinion is obsolete and really needs some seriouse help from mythic.
That is if they are spec'd just right for a PVP or Rvr Group.

Wrath cant sustain a long life expectancy in combat for one self or his/her members. Therefor a bad medic/ healer is obsolete. Salvation is keep element fo anyone wanting to be a WP and to be high on the score boards in senarios, liek in the 200k-300k healz, and still be on top or in top ten for kills. Look up my profile and check out my statistics on my screenshots. I havent reached 200k healz yet , as youll see, but im on top for kills and top 5 for healing even top at some points, DPS is average and minimul deaths 0-3 at most most of the time,and I was only a rank 31-33 in T4 sens. Even beating a Rank 40 in my Healing class who was spec'd as Wrath or Grace, I know cause he was in my guild and I asked him. There is proof enough that Salvation is the spec' WP should go if they want to be successful for thier groups and themselves.

Best advice from a healer, Keep your comrades up to keep up the fight and you yourself will reep 50% of thier glory in RP, XP, and top the charts. Use your group members as your front- line and still maintain the onslaught yourself with them. You'll notice its much easier to heal your group and fight and keep them up then to heal yourself and keep your own arse up. And know your skills and tree and choose wisly which mastery you collect. Keep those buffs up for he groups benifit. Good luck.

[B1ackout]

I see where the OP is coming from. But personally my opinion is that a change that massive and game changing shouldn't be attempted at this point in the game's cycle. It might be fun if balanced right, but the balancing would likely take months, if not years and I for one wouldn't be willing to play a broken game for that long.

I think the current system of healing needs tweaking and improving, not a fundamental full scale overhaul.