I recently played Rift prime,
I would like to think of myself as a seasoned healer. However with so many variables it could be easy or hard.
game-to-game
group-to-group
low-vs-high level
spec-to-spec
Without going into too much detail, here is the basics:
I created a pure healing Cleric, I studied and watched many Youtubes. I practiced healing on open world players doing Rifts, However I noticed my healing amounts never seamed very strong, but I believe I speced the best I could.
It came time to enter my first dungeon. I was careful to be about medium level as to not be too weak. I entered the dungeon finder and it randomly gave me a "very high tank" and "very low dps players".
As with all modern games and random players from Looking-For-Dungeon. Everyone decided to speed run as fast as they could, I had to chase everyone to apply buffs. The Tank was so high my heals were not very effective at all, however he was able to hold his own.
The problem came with a dps taking at random two shots and dead. This happened almost instant, and happened twice.... Next thing I know I was kicked from the group, "not a single word was talked". I could have petitioned the group, but I'm thinking what's the use, they were speed running.
My self-esteem was in the toilet.... Maybe I'm not a good healer, yet more often than not I'm great at it. I'm not sure if I'm justifying my actions with the encounter or if I suck ! Anyway, I try and keep an honorable reputation in games, but at times I feel it's unjustified. I can't decide.
At times I think to myself.....Just play a dps and have fun with no responsibilities. Then I can be the guy that speed runs, or randomly AFK when ever I feel.....Then I can blame the healer !!..... or maybe I do suck.
Comments
In MMOs class distinction has been going downhill for ages, mostly due to solo-MMO design which needs each class being able to do everything. But once you move to more action combat it is harder to get of powers at the right time and in the right place. Some will say you just need to develop your skills in this area and that's true to a certain extent, but there is a clash of design philosophy which is making difficulties where there need be none. And your example highlights the issue, support classes can have a hard time in zergs and speed runs.
If you look at healing in many shooters you drop of a heal for others to pick up. The speed of the game means its better to let others have responisbilty for finding heals when they need them. This will be an issue for some years yet I think.
Random groups can be unpleasant in the best of circumstances, and especially so for healers who tend to be the scapegoat of choice when things turn out less than ideal.
It might also be a good idea to check out the forum and look at healing builds for your character type and the souls available. Sometimes there are factors that affect performance which may not be readily apparent from the spell and ability descriptions alone, which are often highlighted in these guides for the benefit of the reader.
There comes also one thing that is seldom discussed: the responsibility of damage dealers. Many people choose dps as an easy role where you don't really have to care about other people in your group as long as you deal some damage to the same target as others. This is wrong of course. It's your job to make sure mobs go down before healer's mana is depleted just like it's healer's and tank's job to keep heals and damage mitigation big enough.
There was a time when you picked your group manually and adapted to your group with the resources you had in hand. Every dungeon run was a bit different depending group's composition, classes and levels. It made games fun and you didn't use the same tactics on every run. Today you just run behind the leading character and try to keep up the pace while looting dead mobs.
Honestly, the whole speed running concept pretty much turns me off from MMOs at all these days, regardless of what class, and especially in a DFer PUG.
The lack of downtime is what kills it for me, as someone said when you play support you need time to gets buffs applied, and just take a bit of a mental breather before the next pull.
Running after the group to apply buffs and heals with mana still half charged puts too much stress, and it seems if you don't already know every fight at launch you risk being unceremoniously kicked without comment.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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I played a White Mage and not only did you have to be fast in curing, healing and dodging stuff you also had to take on large numbers that the tank will ask you at the start of the run how fast you were able to play. Plus some dungeons had mechanics that required you to cure ailments fast or people died and to stand on this plate or behind that pillar or move past all the area damage and not get hurt and occasionally throw DPS. Bombs on people that you had to take off or whole groups would die. I actually left in the end because it was too stressful to play.
Same thing with FFXI. I played Red Mage/White Mage and the buffs for mana regeneration would expire every two minutes I think it was and aside from buffing that and the melee speed I also had to spot heal and debuff mobs after being in a static group for awhile, one day I got up and decided to leave the game. Honestly it was just too much.
The only thing that was good was that I was much sought after not trying to brag but if you play well people not only know you by name in FFXI where even the Japanese players would send me tells and we used that automated chat thing since we could not understand each other otherwise and I was playing from Asia then and not like Europe now. They will give you points like in FFXIV I never failed to get them every dungeon run.
Games require you to perform well in groups and yes speed runs in FFXIV needed you to be fast and know every dungeon mechanic by heart. Playing like that takes a toll but I think most games will be like this and don't think just because the pace is slower in Pantheon it is going to be easy. I played a healer in Rift when it came out originally and you had to play well or else you did badly. Sorry OP this is the reality of playing a healer, you are either good or out.
However the reason I don't like what WoW has done is the heirlooms all things being equal I can play a healer well but once you add the heirloom people the pace is no longer fun because I don't have the heirlooms. Vanilla WoW I played a priest and I loved it. The reason FFXIV , FFXI and games like that in my opinion worked for me was because people were more or less equally geared. Heirlooms destroyed that.
One day as a lark I posted something like "clueless group forming, will be resting often and no knowledge required "
I was bombarded with tells asking to join me and we didn't prevail that day but everyone had a good time and no one bitched about dying.
I quit right after that but if I ever go back to PUGs I might form my own guild for like minded folks.
Probably call it CDR, Clueless Dungeon Runners or something like that.
Could end up as one of the largest guilds in the game.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Why are you giving power to others? Why are you allowing them to define you.
There are asses in every corner of gaming. Join a good group of people who just want to have fun. They might not do the highest level of content or be able to be "uber" every step of the way, but at least you will enjoy yourself and enjoy what you are doing.
If you have a problem solve it. Don't make me say "man up" 'cause I so will!
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I miss crowd control ,next to healing my favourite role is crowd control. I loved that about City of Heroes I could crowd control, and heal my gravity /empathy controller /so sad.
Rift dungeons can be a pain for the under geared, poorly spec'd and clueless. Given that you are playing on a server in which most everyone has already done the content, players play differently because they remember waltzing through everything at some point. They don't remember running anything as a newb.
No PUG is going to take it slow. Doesn't matter what game you play. The mentality of a PUG is to complete something as quickly a possible because having conversation or actually socializing is not on the agenda. You want a normal paced run, you have to run with friends or a guild. Period.
Healing is just dpsing your team mates. The more you dps them, the more they gain health. You're just working from a negative number to a positive number. Dps are just taking a positive number and reducing it (i.e. taking away health). People make healing out to be so much more than it is. They making tanking out to be more than it is. People play dps because it is more fun, not because it is "easier".
Everyone has to avoid the bad stuff. Everyone has to do their role on the move. Everyone must have a certain level of gear, knowledge, et al. Everyone has buffs and debuffs to apply. If you see your role to be more work than the others it's because you play it that way.
Good tanks should be aware of the healers situation, if they're pulling too much or if the healer needs a mana break etc. Having good understanding between healer and tank is usually the key to success in random groups. The DPS are often oblivious about a lot that's going on, since they have no responsibilities, so they rarely have any meaningful criticism of your play as a healer in my experience.
I enjoy challenging gameplay as a healer but I agree that the speedrunning trend has made playing with random people less fun. In my opinion the main reason for the speedrunning is that the content is simply too easy in most games. Tanks barely have to work to maintain aggro on mobs in most games now, as a consequence DPS don't have to worry about pulling aggro so they can just attack any mob they want and aoe as much as they want at any time with no worries. Crowdcontrol also seems to be a thing of the past, it used to be that you had to organize cc for every pack you pulled and sometimes have people kite certain mobs or you would simply die.
I think some tanks and a lot of DPS who didn't play vanilla WoW are going to struggle with vanilla dungeons at first, unless they make them easier, because aggro management is a big deal there and DPSers actually have some responsibilities for crowd control and not drawing aggro :]
I have played a lot of PUGs in FFXIV it was PUGs all the time, I would to 10-15 dungeons a day sometimes and they are horrible but they also train you well because when you can do well in a PUG you can do well anywhere.
I also vote kick lousy players. Any person constantly dying to dungeon mechanics gets kicked especially when they do not listen and learn. Sorry not wasting my time.
As long as Automated group finders are in MMORPGS and content is so stupidly easy where players dont take responsibility for their own actions playing any healer or tank class is a waste of time. This is why I refuse to play any of the modern MMORPGS. I will play Ashes and Classic WOW thats it.
Down side of healing is you get blamed when people die.
It's not fair. But it's not new either. You cite Rift but it could be most any game.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Imo the hardest jobs are usually tank and healer so dps should have the decency to let the tank wade in first and learn to back off when required cause a dead dps is no dps and if that's too difficult to understand then they can have fun waiting in the group finder!
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
It's true that games today don't really require much strategy. It seems speed runs to defeat the purpose of games like MMOs. That makes it just about the loot and not about enjoying the game itself.
The speedrunning dungeons thing seems to be common in WoW and Rift from what I've heard. In FFXIV people will do dungeons fast but they will slow down in my experience if someone is falling behind or watching the cutscenes.
It sure is annoying though when people just assume all of the group is able to do whatever they are able to usually do, and just blame the healer who had no fault in the whole ordeal.
I would say, don't give up on healing. Just wait to heal dungeons until later on in the game, as usually the speedrunning will stop around end game (although that sucks if you really want to play dungeons).