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Now I Know Why Healers are Hard to Find..

It is a thankless job and probably the hardest of the 3 (DPS, Tank, Heals).  I am running Fists/AR around level 3/4.  I do not have many blue items, so I'm running Polaris multiple times to get blue items and learn "how to heal".  It's rough man, especially for someone new to MMOs this year.  My group made it through both times with me as healer, but it was down to the wire with the last boss.  The whole group died twice, once each run.  But the problem is on top of learning, trying to keep the tank alive, and watching for AOEs from the boss, the DPS players complain if I don't heal them enough.  I do try to rotate through, but I thought the main job was to keep the tank alive?  I do not want to quit healing, but get better.   

I did expect some bumps in the road, but my real reason for the post is some advice.  Here is my setup currently:

 

Actives:

Nuture- Fist builder  **I use this most

Surgical Steel- Fist consumer  **I spam this with Nuture

Anima Shot-  When I can, the tank is usually taking too much damage to keep spamming this.  

Energize- Leech buff

Pack Leader- tank buff

Triggr Happy- Regular consumer

Fire at will-  When I do get  a chance to do some damage.

 

Passives:

 

Anticogulant-  This works awesome soloing because it applies affliction while healing myself or group.

Nuturing Gift-

Anima Boast

Leech Therapy-  I thought this would be awesome and have yet to see it help at all.

Experience

Mind of Matter- Crit to Appliction stack

Alpha Wolf- buff to pack leader

 

 

Any advice is appreciated! 

 

 

 

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Comments

  • AerowynAerowyn Member Posts: 7,928

    some good builds to try in here http://tswguides.blogspot.com/p/builds.html

    personally I hate healing but that's just a personal preference nothing to do with the mechanics of it.

    I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg

  • PyukPyuk Member UncommonPosts: 762

    If you're able to beat the last boss with only 2 wipes, you're doing fine. Folks who die at the drop of a hat and have never played healers are the biggest entitled whiners. I consider any raid boss encounter a success if we only wipe a couple of times. I usually play a tank, btw.

    I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.

  • DerrosDerros Member UncommonPosts: 1,216

    Last boss has some positioning issues, since hes so big, he may turn and dps get caught in the breath attacks.

     

    Leech therapy is good, but only if you are spamming Anima Burst or Anima Shot as your main heal, and only if the dps is kinda close to the tank.  The size of the last boss on polaris, and the fact that the tank needs to have him turned away, doesnt allow for it to be very useful. 

     

    The vast majority, if not all the dmg from the last boss is avoidable by the dps, barring wierd positioning issues, and your first responsibility is to the tank. 

     

    My advice would be to get Shot of Anima ASAP, its a great AR heal consumer, but not really needed for polaris.  I remember healing it with just Anima shot.

  • Stuka1000Stuka1000 Member UncommonPosts: 955
    Originally posted by Coolrockski

    It is a thankless job and probably the hardest of the 3 (DPS, Tank, Heals).  I am running Fists/AR around level 3/4.  I do not have many blue items, so I'm running Polaris multiple times to get blue items and learn "how to heal".  It's rough man, especially for someone new to MMOs this year.  My group made it through both times with me as healer, but it was down to the wire with the last boss.  The whole group died twice, once each run.  But the problem is on top of learning, trying to keep the tank alive, and watching for AOEs from the boss, the DPS players complain if I don't heal them enough.  I do try to rotate through, but I thought the main job was to keep the tank alive?  I do not want to quit healing, but get better.   

    I did expect some bumps in the road, but my real reason for the post is some advice.  Here is my setup currently:

     

    Actives:

    Nuture- Fist builder  **I use this most

    Surgical Steel- Fist consumer  **I spam this with Nuture

    Anima Shot-  When I can, the tank is usually taking too much damage to keep spamming this.  

    Energize- Leech buff

    Pack Leader- tank buff

    Triggr Happy- Regular consumer

    Fire at will-  When I do get  a chance to do some damage.

     

    Passives:

     

    Anticogulant-  This works awesome soloing because it applies affliction while healing myself or group.

    Nuturing Gift-

    Anima Boast

    Leech Therapy-  I thought this would be awesome and have yet to see it help at all.

    Experience

    Mind of Matter- Crit to Appliction stack

    Alpha Wolf- buff to pack leader

     

     

    Any advice is appreciated! 

     

     

     

    Don't know about TSW as I have not played it but your main job as a primary healer in standard MMO's is to keep the tank in the fight.  If the tank loses the aggro and the dps get wasted that isn't your fault, especially if the dps have detaunts and don't use them.  In most games you will find that groups utilise the services of two healers,  Primary to keep the tank up and an off healer for filling in the gaps.

  • godpuppetgodpuppet Member Posts: 1,416

    Heres my AR/Feral build for NM's, I swear by it, take a look :)

     

    http://tswguides.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/elitenightmare-healer-build-fistar-by.html

    ---
    image

  • TardcoreTardcore Member Posts: 2,325
    Originally posted by Coolrockski

    It is a thankless job and probably the hardest of the 3 (DPS, Tank, Heals).  I am running Fists/AR around level 3/4.  I do not have many blue items, so I'm running Polaris multiple times to get blue items and learn "how to heal".  It's rough man, especially for someone new to MMOs this year.  My group made it through both times with me as healer, but it was down to the wire with the last boss.  The whole group died twice, once each run.  But the problem is on top of learning, trying to keep the tank alive, and watching for AOEs from the boss, the DPS players complain if I don't heal them enough.  I do try to rotate through, but I thought the main job was to keep the tank alive?  I do not want to quit healing, but get better.   

    I did expect some bumps in the road, but my real reason for the post is some advice.  Here is my setup currently:

     

    Actives:

    Nuture- Fist builder  **I use this most

    Surgical Steel- Fist consumer  **I spam this with Nuture

    Anima Shot-  When I can, the tank is usually taking too much damage to keep spamming this.  

    Energize- Leech buff

    Pack Leader- tank buff

    Triggr Happy- Regular consumer

    Fire at will-  When I do get  a chance to do some damage.

     

    Passives:

     

    Anticogulant-  This works awesome soloing because it applies affliction while healing myself or group.

    Nuturing Gift-

    Anima Boast

    Leech Therapy-  I thought this would be awesome and have yet to see it help at all.

    Experience

    Mind of Matter- Crit to Appliction stack

    Alpha Wolf- buff to pack leader

     

     

    Any advice is appreciated! 

     

     

     


    I agree with Pyuk that you aren't doing shabby at all. TSW is very unforgiving game and dying is just to be expected in some situations.

    As to any deck advice I recommend getting and using healing sparks and use anima burst rather than anima shot. I know its slower but it heals more and synergizes excellently with healing sparks which is pretty much Fist healings bread and butter. You might also look at Fired Up, Platoon, and Mortar Support.

    image

    "Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "

  • ZinzanZinzan Member UncommonPosts: 1,351

    Coming from a tank, communication it the key.

    It's essential if a group plans on trying the tough stuff, the tank needs to know when the healer is rescuing the DPS so he can pop mitigation abilities. Same if the healer is struggling, tanks in TSW have some great survival actives, a GOOD tank will have several ready for such eventualities, a BAD tank will either have only one or none slotted or burn them at the wrong time.

    DPS need to realise when they are going to need to be self reliant and use healing pots.

    The worst players i have seen in TSW have been Blood DPS....they are almost to a man completely oblivious to their own HP's and almost always test the healers patience because they die and whine at the healer.

    This being said, i have seen ranged standing in AoE damage pools wondering why they die and healers who don't seem to realise they too must move a lot to stay in the game.

    TSW is essentially a gear check, you need the higher QL kit to be viable as any class, it's just far more obvious if the tank or healer are under geared. This being said running with under geared DPS will also cause fights to go on too long and oftem leads to failure.

    The great thing is many builds are viable for a healer, there is no one "best" spec. My advice check out the misc abilities, look for synergy between actives and passives, often you'll find great passives in other weapon trees that don't need that weapon equipped (as a tank i have Hardcase slotted which is from the shotgun line but doesn't require i have a shotgun equipped, i am dedicated to my Hammer/Chaos build).

    Check out the official forums Deck area, loads fo good discussions there about healing and healer specs, best bet is to read for information and make your own decisions about the spec you want to play or test out.

    Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy :)

  • HarttzHarttz Member Posts: 91

    This is just something that you have to get used to as a healer. DPS just want to stand there and pew pew without having to worry about mechanics and tactics. They will constantly stand in the fire and then complain when they die. This is the way the system works. If you want to heal you have to develop a thick skin and let the criticism roll off you. 

    Healing is all about the concept of triage. You have to be able to quickly prioritize whom to heal and how. This requires you to have great awareness of your surroundings and a strong understanding of the fights which you likely don't since the game is brand new. 

    The best solution is to find a good guild or run with friends becuase they are more likely to take their time and help you out as much as possible. They also usually won't rage if you wipe. If you can't or don't want to find a regular group then you just have to get used to taking the heat.

  • ReeperReeper Member UncommonPosts: 121

      yes healing is a thankless job, most other players that whine and yell they dont get healed enough, would never tolarate being whined at or yelled at (hence they dont play healers, usualy a dps) its a personal satisfaction in healing a party, and feels good at times when  you get with an apriciative group, take advice from players who have played healers, but never let them tell you HOW to play your Character, its your time, your computer, your money and your character, piss on the tank that knows how to play your character better then you, just find another tank,

     

       i would rather play with a group that has fun and wipes  20 times rather then play with a bunch of whiners that will quit the group on the second wipe, your playing a game, Have fun.

  • CoolrockskiCoolrockski Member Posts: 51

    Thanks for the tips..strategy-wise and philosophical. It is good to get feedback here because it is not happening within the groups you form in public in-game.  I also see the tanks take a lot of abuse for not genrating aggro..and honestly, I don't care if it is a public group. It is much "cooler" to be helpful than a complainer.  

     

    I should say this isn't all DPS..it is the minority.  Some in public are way cool..we just need more of them.

  • WBadgerWBadger Member RarePosts: 371

    Just say this to the DPS that complains.

     

    "You ARE able to dodge in this game."

  • XPraetorianXXPraetorianX Member CommonPosts: 107
    Originally posted by Coolrockski

    It is a thankless job and probably the hardest of the 3 (DPS, Tank, Heals).  I am running Fists/AR around level 3/4.  I do not have many blue items, so I'm running Polaris multiple times to get blue items and learn "how to heal".  It's rough man, especially for someone new to MMOs this year.  My group made it through both times with me as healer, but it was down to the wire with the last boss.  The whole group died twice, once each run.  But the problem is on top of learning, trying to keep the tank alive, and watching for AOEs from the boss, the DPS players complain if I don't heal them enough.  I do try to rotate through, but I thought the main job was to keep the tank alive?  I do not want to quit healing, but get better.   

    I did expect some bumps in the road, but my real reason for the post is some advice.  Here is my setup currently:

     

    Actives:

    Nuture- Fist builder  **I use this most

    Surgical Steel- Fist consumer  **I spam this with Nuture

    Anima Shot-  When I can, the tank is usually taking too much damage to keep spamming this.  

    Energize- Leech buff

    Pack Leader- tank buff

    Triggr Happy- Regular consumer

    Fire at will-  When I do get  a chance to do some damage.

     

    Passives:

     

    Anticogulant-  This works awesome soloing because it applies affliction while healing myself or group.

    Nuturing Gift-

    Anima Boast

    Leech Therapy-  I thought this would be awesome and have yet to see it help at all.

    Experience

    Mind of Matter- Crit to Appliction stack

    Alpha Wolf- buff to pack leader

     

     

    Any advice is appreciated! 

     

     

     

    I was a top three healer in EQ2 in the Guild Darknessfalls name was Pawket incase some one knows me =-P. Heals is always the hardest job. Not so sure about thankless though. If I did not show to raid there where mobs we did not kill period. Any other class in our raid could be replaced even our main tank Pinpoint could be replaced by our offtank SK Vein. However if our Mystic or CLeric was MIA for raid and that was rare it was a no go because to pug a healer would mean Death. So yeah heals are hard but it is no thankless job.

  • GargolaGargola Member Posts: 356

    It do get's franctic and it's thankless a job, often you can get flamed due to people dying... only to see that your tank has HP but zero mitigation (all DPS stats in gear other than HP)  and your DPS love to eat AoE's and environment damage, or steal aggro cause they are so uber.

     

    However... TSW is the first game i've ever played a healer, cause that doesn't exclude me from playing other roles without needing to reroll.  I have 6 (done in an economic way regarding AP/SP, after all, to get the skills you want for a build you may get quite a few that work for others) builds including a full healing and 2 tanking ones.

     

    Healing is by far the hardest, but also the most engaging and challenging, it's quite fun.  My healing build ended up better geared than my main build :P.

     

    This also means i almost never have to wait for group spots... as i can fill the roles and even compliment different groups as DPS or tank, for different effects.

     

    OF course, i'm just in Egypt, so let's see how it holds up for elites and NM.

  • DakirnDakirn Member UncommonPosts: 372

    Everyone needs to be responsible for their own health if possible during boss fights.  There are healing/shielding potions for a reason afterall.

     

    But I'd say you're doing fine.  Bosses really are meant to be unforgiving if you mess up.  Dying is expected (heck it's part of the game lore) so don't feel too bad when it happens.

     

    Most good players realize it happens a lot in TSW.  Those that complain about a few deaths are probably the reason for those deaths :)

  • GargolaGargola Member Posts: 356

    On thougher encounters sometimes i end up losing someone near the end or dying myself, but basically by then the victory is assured and it's just a matter of seconds for our victory.

     

    It feels bad when someone dies on your watch, but as long as you learn and things don't get screwed (nor ends up being the norm) all's cool.

  • SiugSiug Member UncommonPosts: 1,257

    Been a healer in several MMOs and this is a tough job. Especially when joing a pug because you never know who you group up with. Just one drama queen can spoil a whole run for everybody. I think that MMO players were much friendlier in the past but maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic here :)

    But tswguids.blogspot.com really has some viable builds or at least it gives some ideas how to build your favourite. Just got interested in one tank build there and thinking about making one.

  • GargolaGargola Member Posts: 356

    I'd also advise to "inspect" your tank and other members to have an idea of what kind of a task you are gonna face, and be prepared.

  • chefdiablochefdiablo Member Posts: 202

    One of the greatest issues I have with raid and dungeon content is that many players don't want to learn the tactics. They expect to get through the content fast and perfectly on the first try. Not everyone thinks like this but a large number of people do.

    This is one of the reasons why I appreciate good groups and guilds. We can learn the best way to get the job done and improve for the future.

    I also tend to lean towards solo content these days because I can run through stuff over and over and get better at doing it without exessive drama or waste time with lfg spam.

    My least favorite thing in the whole MMO universe is a PUG that does not communicate at all.

    If I tank and ask questions or talk and get silence, I know right away there is trouble on the horizon.

    If I am DPS and again no one is talking I prepare for failure.

    I don't heal. I probably could, but I can't resist killing stuff and therefore will not burden anyone with a healer without the heart to do it. That is just wrong.

  • retye50retye50 Member UncommonPosts: 50
    Hats off to you, my friend......healing is a tough, thankless job. Don't be discouraged by the 10 % douchebag clan!! I personally run a dps character for the reasons you have talked about. The one thing I have noticed in game are the people who ask "what's your QL level?".

    This drives me crazy, my brain registers it as "what's your gear score?".

    I think to myself, "hey turd....do you think I would be LFG, just to go in and embarrass myself."

    Anyway, kinda went off on a stupid rant......keep up the good work, I'd run with you anytime!!!
  • DakirnDakirn Member UncommonPosts: 372
    Originally posted by retye50
    Hats off to you, my friend......healing is a tough, thankless job. Don't be discouraged by the 10 % douchebag clan!! I personally run a dps character for the reasons you have talked about. The one thing I have noticed in game are the people who ask "what's your QL level?". This drives me crazy, my brain registers it as "what's your gear score?". I think to myself, "hey turd....do you think I would be LFG, just to go in and embarrass myself." Anyway, kinda went off on a stupid rant......keep up the good work, I'd run with you anytime!!!

    We had a healer for Inferno that we thought was bad so I ended up offhealing.  When we got to the last boss our tank finally inspected him to see he was wearing starting gear.

     

    Apparently he walked from Jack Boone into Savage Coast and saw our LFG advertisement for a healer.

     

    After that, we kinda started looking closer at group members :)

  • moreblahblahmoreblahblah Member Posts: 58

    Without a doubt the best healing in the game right now is groundwork with veteran and post op. That is bread and butter healing with out a doubt, besides the awesome aoe healing it will also apply a 20% plus leech to everyone. Put groundwork (veteran and post op passives) in a mouse macro with Shot of Anima (using increased dosage passive) and you will face roll nightmares as a healer. Other active abilities should include Blood Shield, Angelic Aegis (angel's Touch passive) and Cold blooded. Blood healing is great when you need to be mobile and can't always face your target to use AR abilities. Another acitve can be something like Platoon for a quick emergency instant group heal or something like The Scarlet Arts if you want another single target heal, personally I prefer the Platoon group heal cause DPS is always getting into trouble. Throw in Shadow Medic passive for the 7.5% bonus to direct heals.

    Also as a healer you should also be able to cleanse your group and also purge your offensive target, don't rely on DPS for these functions (what if your DPS cleanser or purger dies? Guess what it's a wipe), sure in some cases a nice cleanup is great but rarely needed.

    Since you are not alway having to heal I suggest the final active be blood Line, a 4 hit Focus attack on a one second channel that builds resources for both weapons, I suggest this ability because you can use Ready for More passive that triggers at the end of any Focus attack and performs a AOE cleanse. Final Passive would be Magnetic Variance, a purge that has 33% chance to activate on a crit. Since you are probably going to be the person in the group with the highest crit rating why not run it? And guess what, your blood line will have 4 chances per second to crit, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a purge within 3 seconds. 

    So now you can heal like a beast, cleanse and purge (very important in nightmares), so even if your nightmare boss is at 80% and 2 dps are dead from aoe or just plain stupidity you just stack on that bosses ass with the one remaining dps and do your groudwork, cleansing and purging and laugh at that nightmare boss has he dies.

    Run a minus hate signet and be a smart healer and you will never pull aggro, no need for any minus hate passives or actives.

    Actives:

    Groundwork, Shot of Anima, Blood Line, Platoon, Blood Shield, Angelic Aegis, Cold Blooded

    Passives:

    Angel's Touch, Veteran, Post Op, Shadow Medic, Increased dosage, Ready for More, Magnetic Variance

    You will know just how good you are at healing when your group can just stand on the middle platform roasting in fire and take the boots to the Flesh Tank in nightmare Hell Raised for the last 250k of his health.  Why run around like chickens with your heads cut off avoiding fire when your heals and cleanses make the fight trivial.

  • marcustmarcust Member UncommonPosts: 495

    You say you are new to MMO's so heres my generic advice.

    ---

    The absolute #1 rule for healing in a MMO: make friends with one or two tanks and practice working together at every opportunity. Know what the tank does and why. Know when the tank needs your heals and when they dont. Learn the fights to widen that knowledge. Practice. You will become a good healer.

    Then when your tank(s) are not available learn how to team with random tanks and determine quickly what they do differently and is it better or worse. If better, then great, you have something to tell your tank friends. If worse, then try to explain to the tanks how they can improve.

    Keep a list of tanks that will listen and try to stick with it.

    Then you'll have fun.

    Rule#2: if a dps dies often work out quickly why. If its their fault explain it to them once. If they dont listen ignore them.

    If its the tanks fault, go back to Lesson #1.

    If its your fault, have another coffee or log off for a while :)

     

    cheers

    Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76)
    Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe

  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719

    Here's another solid AR/Blood build with early, mid, and end versions:  http://dulfy.net/2012/07/14/bloody-assaultan-arblood-healer-build/ 

     

    Good explanations about the choices made also.

     

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  • TamanousTamanous Member RarePosts: 3,025

    If you want to be a healer for the first dungeon it is very wise to repeat content to grind out a lot more AP. Other roles really don't need to do this other than the tank maybe (perhaps why they take such a beating). The best healing passives and actives come in the upper tree so those trying to heal with the bulk of powers in the lower tree will be doing a piss poor job.

     

    It is completely amazing how much of your ability comes from your passives and to build really good decks you need to snipe passives from other weapon trees. That is something you simply can't afford in AP early in the game.

    You stay sassy!

  • kilunkilun Member UncommonPosts: 829

    As others have stated this is an active game.  If you sit still and get in an AOE you will die.  You can avoid all the attacks from the final boss for the most part in Polaris.  The Mdps might get hit a few and toss them a heal, but all ranged characters should be avoiding the AOEs.

    I find if you enjoy healing to get yourself in a cabal.  That way you are appreciated by your cabal and you will always have good tanks as well, and knowledgable DPS.  (I did Polaris without a cabal, but nothing afterward)

    Not going to go much into builds, but if you like AR, get Veteran Elite passive ASAP.  Its absolutely amazing.

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