Issue 28: Casual Friday - Sick Of Healing

[The Escapist Staff]

John WalkerThough common in tabletop role-playing, playing a supporting role was never a major focus for video games until online multiplayer became popular. John Walker tells us why he's no longer going to be one of those supporting roles, a healer in an MMOG.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: sallizar

Beautiful! I also played a healer in City of Heroes... I was in an excellent supergroup that respected the class and was understanding when things hit the fan and someone died... Grouping up with random folks was exactly as you described though... If I ever get around to playing another MMOG I'll head your wisdom and make a brawny warrior...

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Glacialis

Hey, if you're ever on Guardian and want a Gravity/Bubbler controller, I'd be happy to have you. Sounds like you ran into the massive stupidity inherent in any MMORPG. I gladly reject such anger-retaining retards from a team, even if it takes me an extra 20 minutes to find decent players. Of course, I'm the one with Repulsion Field up and playing tank by running into baddies that are attacking my fellow protective and regenerative squishies.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Seasought

Meh.

It's always dependent upon one's experiences I suppose, but I've also met similar treatment in WoW and other MMORPG's I've played in. Yet I've always found that the good outweighs the bad. The scenario of dropping in on a low level player fighting for his life only to intervene and "save the day" crushes dozens of experiences with idiotic, pre-pubescent mouse mashers who condemn and insult my healing abilities.

The article reads great for a pro-healer viewpoint however, bringing attention to the fact that the players who do take the time and skill to provide for others are under-appreciated. However giving up on other players and not healing is not going to help change the viewpoint any time soon and simply contributes to the problem.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Chris

Great article. I play an Empathy Healer on COH. I have gotten him to level 36. You story is very true. I have a great supergroup (Lions, Tiger and Bears) and usually have a good expereicne as a healer. I always seem guilt ridden when a toon dies, but I know that I can't be healing everyone at once. Especially, with a large group and people decide to split up in a mish and go their own direction. Then they deserve to die. I always start each mission by saying to the group, "stay as close to the healer as you can". That way it is beneficial to the group as awhole and not just an individual. But, overall, I love playing a healer in COH. Its probalby because I always love playing a cleric in D&D. Just in my blood. Thanks again for the great article. I truly related to it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Usiris

I know exactly what you mean. Good read. I played a Restoration spec Druid in WoW. I once had a Shaman start yelling at me because I couldn't keep the whole group healed in a place with very dangerous elite mobs (that city in the Hinterlands with the elite trolls). Nevermind the area was dangerous and my mana was limited. There are people who insist on sticking to stupid patterns that cause more problems and expect more healing than is beyond any healing class's capacity. Such examples include melee hunters and shamans in WoW who should be using it as a last resort or after they've set up totems respectively.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Chris

A grea tpoint about Stamina. I hav etried and was able to take certain abilities in COH to enhance my stamina regeneration. But early on with my toon, people dont realize that I, as a healer, run out of stamina too. Also, that my powers take time to regenerate too. THe belief is that healers have an unlimited amount of stamina and that all my powers regenerate instantly. I say to anyone who bitches at the healer, create a toon that is a healer and see what the results are. At the least, you will have an understanding of what it is like to play a healer.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brinstar
http://acidforblood.blogspot.com/
Great article. Though I don't tend to play healers myself, I always appreciate having them in my groups. Healers are definitely underappreciated and much-maligned.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Asteroth

You start off saying that you wanted to be a healer, but then you claim that you never offered your toon as one. You can hardly stop playing healers if your attempts at grouping weren't meant to fill that role. Your complaint is more about the stupidity that is so common in massives. The players that don't understand what your powers do, or pull too many mobs, or don't even understand what THEIR powers do. Of course you're going to be mad if you say "I am not a healer" and then they expect you to be one. When I played a warlock in WoW people would ask me to heal them, or tank, or get angry when I couldn't soul stone more than one person at a time. Everyone gets screamed at by idiot players at some point, but if that's really going to bother you you should probably start looking for a new genre.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Richard
http://www.richardcobbett.co.uk
I used to play a healer in MMORPGs. I demanded tithes.

For roleplaying purposes, of course. Friends got freebies, idiots soon found that one single complaint about my services meant doing without them until my god told me that they were forgiven. Money was usually a pretty good way of helping the spiritual wheels turn. Yes, some people occasionally complained, but while sticks and stones may break my bones, wormfood never hurt me.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Broomy

Great article. I play healers in most of the MMO's I have played and I certainly can relate to being blamed when ppl do dumb things that endanger the group and then try to blame the healer. In fact I think this is why so many people DONT or WONT play healers. The responsibility is too great for many. This fact however puts us in a position of always being wanted...yet resented at the same time due to the groups dependency on our class. I play EQ2 btw where you dont go far without a healer in your group. If I am insulted by someone because they did something wrong and expect me to work miricles I simply say nothing and NEVER group with them again. Makes my life easier

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Keilu

This was a great article, tieing a real life world problem to something experienced in games, thus how games teach us certain issues. 99% of us that read and comment are actually healers (in some form). With a former Priest(WoW) and a current Assist(FlyFF), I see healers are always put on the backburner. In EQ, Clerics were a hard class to play due to their pure healing aspect, therefore not many people played them. WoW was a good start to make more people go towards a healing class, adding very good offensive power to make them attractive. Yet the most common build is a Shadow Priest, who the heck actually specs Healing? In FlyFF the most common Assist is probably a battle Assist.
These examples are the results of what Walker talks about. Most people that play an MMO game will not want to heal, but there's a small fraction that does actually want to be giving and help others. It's out of people's kindness that We become Healers (that is Helpers). As Walker cites, the worse kinds of people Healers come across are ones that don't understand their healer. Too many healers are getting burned by the thankless field of healing/medicine. Therefor, the shift towards such offensive geared healing classes. The only time I've been properly thanked in FlyFF has been from another Assist, after I ressed him. Other times it's, "Get *bleepin bleepin bleeper bleepin* to res me or *bleepblepblp*" and so on... Thus, like Walker, any healer class player will now think about protecting Himself First, not the group.
It's a sad cycle that we wish to be broken. The best that I've seen in my career of MMOs: I constantly thanked my party's Cleric each time he healed me and he told me, "That's ok. I'm just doing my job." Thank you.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Cody K.

I think a major point of contention that was not brought up is the fact that a majority of MMOG players are children and teenagers. I don?t know of many games where people over 25 can honestly enjoy playing together with 15 year olds. Most MMOGs have game mechanics and pacing that provide a ?struggle? for personal enjoyment in themselves? now factor into the equation that a huge part of your enjoyment lies in the collective hands of people nearly half your age (and the opposite can be true as well).

I remember playing a board game with my nieces and nephews? and found myself playing the referee more than a player enjoying the game. I?m hoping The Escapist soon covers the ?generation gap? in gaming (or maybe they already have?) and how it affects both sides of the coin with respect to online play and how games are developed.

Then again, John Walker may have just been playing with a bunch of ?Jerks on the Internet?. ;-)

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Adam

If there's one thing I've learned from playing a priest in WoW, it's that priests have infinite mana, their spells heal an infinite amount of HP, have infinite range, and have no cooldown. Oh, wait, that's just what everyone thinks. Because, after all, as a healer it's my job to make sure people don't die, so anytime people die it's obviously my fault.

The problem gets worse in battlegrounds like Alterac Valley, where I hear this complaint despite the fact that they were typically either out of range, taking more damage than any amount of healers could save them from, or they were so busy using their pro DPS skills that they didn't see the 5 warriors charge me and tear me to shreds.

I really do wish I was kidding.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Lockeownzj00

I think this is applicable not only to MMORPGs, but FPSes as well--specifically, Enemy Territory comes to mind.

FPS games have their own finer nuiances, but I find the same thing happens. However, if you are a good battle-medic, people are actually quite shocked and relieved. I've met tons of good medics on ET, but a lot of the time they are simply average or highly incompetent. I think I can safely say without fellating myself too much that when the team first starts getting revived by me consistently, the gameplay suddenly changes and the fronts of the battle shift.

Medics often don't get respect, or are ignored, though. Still--when you walk out of the spawn, when you're *in the middle of a heated battlefield* and 'for some reason' your health keeps replenishing, remember it's because there's a medic firing packs around your feet at breakneck speed.

One thing that I'll always find satisfying, as well, is seeing another player feel invincible. With a two-man combo of a medic in the prone position and any other player in an mg42 tower, any enemy combatants who shoot or snipe him will be met by surprise as he just gets up again and again. Players are often elated when I offer 'personal medic' scenarios.

I also like the hit-and-run heals. One of my specialties in ET is when someone (or a few people) dies at a crucial geographical point in the map, and re-spawning would essentially 'reset' the recent progress made--at which point I make a sprint across the area and quickly jab my syringe in the unconscious players, rounding the corner once again to lie in wait, pick off enemies, and do the same thing again.

Great article.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Kieron Gillen
http://www.kierongillen.com
IIt should be noted that despite John's passionate story, he's a terrible healer and everyone should be glad he's not going to be one in future.

Love you John!

KG

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: John Walker
http://botherer.cream.org
Kieron rests my case.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Tobin Henderson

It seems very childish to take what must be a few, relatievly isolated incidents (and I only say so because I have played CoH for a very long time now) and extrapolate them to this degree. Of course you will run into morons while playing this game, whether you are a 'healer' or playing any other role.

This does not mean that we are experiencing some pandemic attitude problem - it only means that that there are idiots who have access to the funds necessary to play these games. Hardly a revelation.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Pudds
http://www.elite-forces.org
There's something wrong with the fact stated at the beginning of this article. The author states that

"The enemy I'm sapping might die before the process was complete; I might take damage, thus interrupting the action; or the person I'm healing might move too far away to be in my area of effect (AoE)."

There are only 2 enemy targetted heals in the game, found in the dark set and the kinetics set. Only the kinetics heal has the issue of "phantom heals" caused by the target dying. This power, however, is NOT interruptable. Only 1 heal in the game is interuptable, "Aid Other" available from the medicine pool to all archetypes. This power is not intended for combat healing, as stated inthe description. There is no heal with all the conditions listed in the article.

With that said, assuming the kinetics set is the one referred to, it is one of the least likely powersets to be regarded as a "healer" in City of Heroes. Empathy takes that crown, with 1 AoE heal and 2 ally-targetted heals, none of which are interruptable or can be missed. That said, even empathy is a buffing set before a healing set. All of the other defender powersets are built around buffing and debuffing. Kinetics, specifically, has an ally damage resistance, ally +speed +recharge +endurance, AoE endurance recovery, enemy -speed, ally +damage and ally +damage AoE...its not a set based around healing.

That is the true joy of City of Heroes; healers are not needed. People who set themselves up to be healers, or search out healers, are doomed to be disappointed. Damage mitigation is far more reliable and effective than healing after the fact. A well placed foe -accuracy power can lead to killing in complete safety, with no need to waste endurance on heals, and no blame necessary.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Ghog

One thing this article does not cover is the lame gameplay that is offered by healing over damage dealling classes. In WOW I have a 60 warrior and a 60 priest and I can tell you that my memorable moments come from playing the warrior.

IEven when you go back to pen and paper D & D. The fighters and mages had more fun:

Fighter - "I crit for 56 damage!"
Mage - " I cast a fireball for 77 damage hitting all the orcs!"
Priest - "I heal fighter for 44 hit points."

The last post hits on something that I believe is a problem in the game mechanics. It is time to take the necessity of healing out of these games. Sure healing is good - but being a healer class is not the fantasy I and I assert the majority of players want to explore.