i personaly like playing a healer simply because of the survivability, it's definately a very defencvie playstile. i also like the fact that healers are usually a battle turner. those with more or better healers usually win.
as a dps you are always begging people to take you in the group. as a healer everyone is always happy to have you in groups pvp or pve. even a bad healer is preferred to a decent dps
i just find that the most effective way to help your team the most it's usually healing especially in pvp which is what i like to do most of the time. i've always for some reason taken more pride in most healing done then most kills just because you know that you've pretty much helped every single one on your team to preform better.
Funny, I always find DPS roles to be the most boring. Every other role has some important part to play, DPS just sits in the back and goes pewpew, or stands behind going stabystaby while trying to stay out of the fire. It's very static, whereas the other roles seem more dynamic - probably because you not only have to react to the encounter and game, but also to those playing around you.
For me it's normally the most challenging class to play. And the fact that you hold the lives of others in your hands also helps! lol
And RIFT is perfect for me, as I love DPSing too, so a build of Shamicar - passively heals group and tank through DPSing is great fun, adds another aspect of challenge.
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
Because it's harder than dps for me but less difficult than tanking. A good, middle of the road, have to pay attention but not quite as stressful as keeping aggro job. It's also a matter of, if I want something done right, sometimes it's best to just do it myself.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Just curious, I 've been playing MMO for couple years and as weird as it sounds. I have never asked the question to the healers.
edit:
why do they find it fun?
It's a challenge. Like playing whack-a-mole with life or death. Often times a single error in timing can wipe a party.
Heal a speed run of players in crap gear who insist on pulling 2, 3, even 4 pulls at once. It isn't boring heal-bot gameplay.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Originally posted by Granrey Just curious, I 've been playing MMO for couple years and as weird as it sounds. I have never asked the question to the healers.
edit: why do they find it fun?
The very first time I rolled up a healer, it was for purely selfish reasons. Being able to heal myself while fighting meant less deaths
Then I started healing others and found it to be a totally different game from hack and slash fighting. I was playing a mini-game with the monsters with the players in my party. I have the philosophy, if they die, I fail. No longer did I concentrate basically on the one health bar of the main monster, but the 5-10 health bars of my teammates. (I never played a healer in a raid setting.)
When all is said and done, I just get a good feeling by helping others stay alive I guess it is more of a passive game than the usual fighting mode.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
It's a power trip for me actually. The Healer is the most powerful character class in any game. Healers truely hold life or death in their hands for every encounter. When you save the day you're a hero. When you let the party die you're the villian. When you piss a healer off and then do something stupid we get to stand there and laugh as you go down when we could have saved you. Being a Healer is as powerful as it gets in a multiplayer game. Whether you live or die is truly in our hands so you'd better be nice to us! Muhahahaha!
I like it because it matches how I am in real life. I like being the secret boss that really determines how things go, and when everything goes wrong the co-boss (tank) gets the blame 90% of the time.
"Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people." - Eleanor Roosevelt "Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security." -Norman Vincent Peale
I find it fun for a few reasons. One is I enjoy being a valuable member of the group. I also enjoy pretty much making a decent group with whoever I group with.
Also I find the whack-a-mole gameplay of being quite like a form of meditation. That is.... The reactionary style of healing from some games (You see the health go down..... You heal the health - like whack whack-a-mole) I don't really enjoy the pre-emptive anticipation style of healing for Clerics from EQ2 though for example (anticipating who will be damaged and how, and then doing something about it before the damage happens)
I once heard that meditation is about focusing the mind on a simple and ever so slightly brain engaging and mundane task....... Then the rest of the mind achieves peace.
That is healing for me. It pretty much helped me quit smoking 5 years ago.
"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon... Don't concentrate on the finger or you'll miss all the heavenly glory" (Bruce Lee)
(Insert your favourite mmo here): ......And behold, a pale horse.... And a million hellishly bad mmos followed with it.
I like feeling wanted and valued. I also found it easy where others found it difficult, letting me feel special.
Then at a certain stage my ego gets huge and I demand compliments at every turn, and blame the tank and the dps for the failure and make sure they know it. Then the "developer" changes the healing mechanics completely and I have to re-learn everything just to become #1 healer yet again.
The raid might blame the content on our failure because its too "hard" but as a healer, I have the luxury of just blaming the raid hehe.
Just curious, I 've been playing MMO for couple years and as weird as it sounds. I have never asked the question to the healers.
edit:
why do they find it fun?
I've always played a healer as my main in WoW since the very beginning back in vanilla, I like having the option to be able to replenish my HP with heals and also do some damage aswell. The main reason i rolled a healer to begin with though was i enjoy been chased around in PvP and have 3-4 players all beating on me trying to take me down.
I enjoy utility roles, where I can do multiple things to help my group. In DAoC I played as a Bard often and while healing I would also twist my songs for the buffs it provided. In WoW, I hate the healing model, staring at bars and filling them up, so I tend to play dps specs where I can do some things to help out the group.
I hate the healing model of WoW where you seem to just mostly stare at bars and fill em up while using a defensive cooldown to save others. Although, Monk healing might be fun.
GW2 looks to be up my alley, where I can switch up weapons and "role" on the fly to best support my team.
Just curious, I 've been playing MMO for couple years and as weird as it sounds. I have never asked the question to the healers.
edit: why do they find it fun?
I played a healer in vanilla WoW, and switched to dps in TBC. Something came over me that made me hate the idea of being a paladin healer. People wanted me to be a healer in PvP as well. I hated that.
but after playing Rift, it made me realize, that it wasnt the healing that was boring, it was the way I healed that was boring. Healing in PvP as a Paladin in WoW, vs healing in Rift as a (insert healer build) cleric? Come now,,, that's common sense ,,,, I had so much fun in Rift as a Mage/cleric healer. I became popular in the warfronts as a awesome great healer. The power, knowing you control the strength of your own shields (aka keeping ally alive to defend you), as well as keeping self alive and baiting enemies.
healing in PvP is like Tanking in PvE. It takes skill more advanced than other roles, and you have to be ready to grab aggro and stay alive while the enemy beats on you...that's so fun!!!!!!!
I enjoy it because I know that everyone else in the party is relying on me to perform. Without a healer, or me, they can not continue their raid/group/pvp.
I don't play a healer but I know why our healers play them because they explained it a few times. They like the idea of supporting people, surprisingly many of our healers are female and a few have children, although some are male. I think people who play healers like the idea of having a role of caring for others.
I've played a healer in every MMO I have ever played since 1999. I play them because....
- I enjoy helping others (Something nearly extinct in today's MMO's unless there is something in it for the other player).
- You can always find a group as a healer. (Or can heal yourself at least because few look for groups outside of high end raiding since in most you can solo to cap anyways)
- Being needed.
- Someone's gotta do it. (Since most want to be the 1337 DPS and try to outdo each other in damage instead of anything else)
It's really sad because I remember in EQ quite a few people played healers. Anymore, healers are a rarity...like tanks, because as stated above..most players now want to stand out and be the top DPS...or "top" in any other category they can. They treat MMO's like console games and expect achievements and make it a rat race to outdo each other. I just feel today's MMO generation has this self entitlement attitude and expect as much as they can get, with as little effort put forth as possible. This is my opinion anyways after 12+ years in the genre.
I've played a healer in every MMO I have ever played since 1999. I play them because....
- I enjoy helping others (Something nearly extinct in today's MMO's unless there is something in it for the other player).
- You can always find a group as a healer. (Or can heal yourself at least because few look for groups outside of high end raiding since in most you can solo to cap anyways)
- Being needed.
- Someone's gotta do it. (Since most want to be the 1337 DPS and try to outdo each other in damage instead of anything else)
This is what I could hear in my head playing nearly any MMO now. That or music used in films prior to sound in them. Everyone races to cap so they can complain there isn't enough content. Silly.
LF tank, LF healer, that's why. They're needed, guaranteed a spot in parties and raids. There's usually an abundance of DPS and while doing the tank bit, keeping agro on the bit and 'Bring it on!' can be quite heroic, the healer usualy plays the whack-a-mole game. If playing a full healer was actually fun, more people would be doing it.
They play healers because they're needed, like the tank. Try an instance without those and see how far you get.
People play healers because they like taking caring for others and like the idea of other having to be grateful for saving their butts.
It's one of my main critiques against GW2. I like to play healer. Not always but regularly. It is a good role to fill. You keep the people alive and fighting, everyone loves a good healer. ^^
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It's one of my main critiques against GW2. I like to play healer. Not always but regularly. It is a good role to fill. You keep the people alive and fighting, everyone loves a good healer. ^^
True, but everyone will love a good guardian too. A character that will be able to prevent damage to them instead of having to heal them after being beaten close to death. You'll also keep the people alive and fighting and they'll love you for it. There are alternatives to playing the healer.
Comments
i personaly like playing a healer simply because of the survivability, it's definately a very defencvie playstile. i also like the fact that healers are usually a battle turner. those with more or better healers usually win.
as a dps you are always begging people to take you in the group. as a healer everyone is always happy to have you in groups pvp or pve. even a bad healer is preferred to a decent dps
i just find that the most effective way to help your team the most it's usually healing especially in pvp which is what i like to do most of the time. i've always for some reason taken more pride in most healing done then most kills just because you know that you've pretty much helped every single one on your team to preform better.
Funny, I always find DPS roles to be the most boring. Every other role has some important part to play, DPS just sits in the back and goes pewpew, or stands behind going stabystaby while trying to stay out of the fire. It's very static, whereas the other roles seem more dynamic - probably because you not only have to react to the encounter and game, but also to those playing around you.
For me it's normally the most challenging class to play. And the fact that you hold the lives of others in your hands also helps! lol
And RIFT is perfect for me, as I love DPSing too, so a build of Shamicar - passively heals group and tank through DPSing is great fun, adds another aspect of challenge.
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
Because it's harder than dps for me but less difficult than tanking. A good, middle of the road, have to pay attention but not quite as stressful as keeping aggro job. It's also a matter of, if I want something done right, sometimes it's best to just do it myself.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
It's a challenge. Like playing whack-a-mole with life or death. Often times a single error in timing can wipe a party.
Heal a speed run of players in crap gear who insist on pulling 2, 3, even 4 pulls at once. It isn't boring heal-bot gameplay.
Then I started healing others and found it to be a totally different game from hack and slash fighting. I was playing a mini-game with the monsters with the players in my party. I have the philosophy, if they die, I fail. No longer did I concentrate basically on the one health bar of the main monster, but the 5-10 health bars of my teammates. (I never played a healer in a raid setting.)
When all is said and done, I just get a good feeling by helping others stay alive
I guess it is more of a passive game than the usual fighting mode.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
It's a power trip for me actually. The Healer is the most powerful character class in any game. Healers truely hold life or death in their hands for every encounter. When you save the day you're a hero. When you let the party die you're the villian. When you piss a healer off and then do something stupid we get to stand there and laugh as you go down when we could have saved you. Being a Healer is as powerful as it gets in a multiplayer game. Whether you live or die is truly in our hands so you'd better be nice to us! Muhahahaha!
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
I like it because it matches how I am in real life. I like being the secret boss that really determines how things go, and when everything goes wrong the co-boss (tank) gets the blame 90% of the time.
"Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security." -Norman Vincent Peale
I find it fun for a few reasons. One is I enjoy being a valuable member of the group. I also enjoy pretty much making a decent group with whoever I group with.
Also I find the whack-a-mole gameplay of being quite like a form of meditation. That is.... The reactionary style of healing from some games (You see the health go down..... You heal the health - like whack whack-a-mole) I don't really enjoy the pre-emptive anticipation style of healing for Clerics from EQ2 though for example (anticipating who will be damaged and how, and then doing something about it before the damage happens)
I once heard that meditation is about focusing the mind on a simple and ever so slightly brain engaging and mundane task....... Then the rest of the mind achieves peace.
That is healing for me. It pretty much helped me quit smoking 5 years ago.
"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon... Don't concentrate on the finger or you'll miss all the heavenly glory" (Bruce Lee)
(Insert your favourite mmo here): ......And behold, a pale horse.... And a million hellishly bad mmos followed with it.
I like feeling wanted and valued. I also found it easy where others found it difficult, letting me feel special.
Then at a certain stage my ego gets huge and I demand compliments at every turn, and blame the tank and the dps for the failure and make sure they know it. Then the "developer" changes the healing mechanics completely and I have to re-learn everything just to become #1 healer yet again.
The raid might blame the content on our failure because its too "hard" but as a healer, I have the luxury of just blaming the raid hehe.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
I've always played a healer as my main in WoW since the very beginning back in vanilla, I like having the option to be able to replenish my HP with heals and also do some damage aswell. The main reason i rolled a healer to begin with though was i enjoy been chased around in PvP and have 3-4 players all beating on me trying to take me down.
I enjoy utility roles, where I can do multiple things to help my group. In DAoC I played as a Bard often and while healing I would also twist my songs for the buffs it provided. In WoW, I hate the healing model, staring at bars and filling them up, so I tend to play dps specs where I can do some things to help out the group.
I hate the healing model of WoW where you seem to just mostly stare at bars and fill em up while using a defensive cooldown to save others. Although, Monk healing might be fun.
GW2 looks to be up my alley, where I can switch up weapons and "role" on the fly to best support my team.
I played a healer in vanilla WoW, and switched to dps in TBC. Something came over me that made me hate the idea of being a paladin healer. People wanted me to be a healer in PvP as well. I hated that.but after playing Rift, it made me realize, that it wasnt the healing that was boring, it was the way I healed that was boring.
Healing in PvP as a Paladin in WoW, vs healing in Rift as a (insert healer build) cleric? Come now,,, that's common sense ,,,,
I had so much fun in Rift as a Mage/cleric healer. I became popular in the warfronts as a awesome great healer. The power, knowing you control the strength of your own shields (aka keeping ally alive to defend you), as well as keeping self alive and baiting enemies.
healing in PvP is like Tanking in PvE. It takes skill more advanced than other roles, and you have to be ready to grab aggro and stay alive while the enemy beats on you...that's so fun!!!!!!!
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I enjoy it because I know that everyone else in the party is relying on me to perform. Without a healer, or me, they can not continue their raid/group/pvp.
I don't play a healer but I know why our healers play them because they explained it a few times. They like the idea of supporting people, surprisingly many of our healers are female and a few have children, although some are male. I think people who play healers like the idea of having a role of caring for others.
i play healer sometimes but only because i hate waiting for a healer
hate healers
I've played a healer in every MMO I have ever played since 1999. I play them because....
- I enjoy helping others (Something nearly extinct in today's MMO's unless there is something in it for the other player).
- You can always find a group as a healer. (Or can heal yourself at least because few look for groups outside of high end raiding since in most you can solo to cap anyways)
- Being needed.
- Someone's gotta do it. (Since most want to be the 1337 DPS and try to outdo each other in damage instead of anything else)
It's really sad because I remember in EQ quite a few people played healers. Anymore, healers are a rarity...like tanks, because as stated above..most players now want to stand out and be the top DPS...or "top" in any other category they can. They treat MMO's like console games and expect achievements and make it a rat race to outdo each other. I just feel today's MMO generation has this self entitlement attitude and expect as much as they can get, with as little effort put forth as possible. This is my opinion anyways after 12+ years in the genre.
^This because I like to get !@#$ done.
In PvP, I like killing dps classes as a healer, specially a crowd-control hybrid healer ^_^
watch dps classes frustrate themselves trying to kill me
dps classes getting over-confident and tunnel-visioned into killing themselves slowly
watching me heal and cut their hp 1% at a time until it's too for them late to notice they've lost...
Healing is boring... when you're always the last man standing. Make sure you have the right background music!
QUEUE MUSIC!
>>>>>>>>Benny Hill Theme Song<<<<<<<<
This is what I could hear in my head playing nearly any MMO now. That or music used in films prior to sound in them. Everyone races to cap so they can complain there isn't enough content. Silly.
LF tank, LF healer, that's why. They're needed, guaranteed a spot in parties and raids. There's usually an abundance of DPS and while doing the tank bit, keeping agro on the bit and 'Bring it on!' can be quite heroic, the healer usualy plays the whack-a-mole game. If playing a full healer was actually fun, more people would be doing it.
They play healers because they're needed, like the tank. Try an instance without those and see how far you get.
People play healers because they like taking caring for others and like the idea of other having to be grateful for saving their butts.
It's one of my main critiques against GW2. I like to play healer. Not always but regularly. It is a good role to fill. You keep the people alive and fighting, everyone loves a good healer. ^^
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
True, but everyone will love a good guardian too. A character that will be able to prevent damage to them instead of having to heal them after being beaten close to death. You'll also keep the people alive and fighting and they'll love you for it. There are alternatives to playing the healer.
I don't enjoy being the leader all the time, but I enjoy having a pivotal role in a group and a notable contribution.
Personally I don't get why people like being DPS... /assist pewpew on auto follow? Easy mode tbh.
Each to their own I guess.
I find that playing a healer you usually attract more friendly people.
You are apreciated more then the average DPS, and if you do your job well even more so then a tank.
Besides that.. I simply enjoy doing it.