View Full Forums : When did you discover your healing was iffy?


FireCaller01
09-17-2002, 04:35 AM
I'm just looking for definite situations (both grouping and raiding) that proved to you that our healing ability is not up to par.

My story is that I was asked to keep the rampage tank alive during a Vindy raid that was a tad short on clerics. I kept them up for about 1/2 of the fight and eventually I could not keep up with the amount of damage being dealt to the rampage tank. Chloroblast was too fast and did not heal enough whilst NT just has too long of a casting time and rampage is a hard thing to time (or at least it was for me). That raid proved to me that even as a "back-up" healer the healing that we have is just not enough for some situations.

Any other stories similar to this out there?

Racmoor
09-17-2002, 04:47 AM
Tholuxe Paells went live in Oct/Nov of 2000. I started the game in December of 2000. There were no twinks on my server when I was growing up.

I found my healing lacking at 40 when I was forced to heal in DL. It never got better only worse. I'm now 60 with 34 AAs

Racmoor

Seriena
09-17-2002, 05:07 AM
/echo Racmoor

I got very frustrated with our heals in the early 40s trying to heal DL groups.

Hobbo
09-17-2002, 05:11 AM
First time I noticed my healing was pretty crappy was when my guild started farmin HoT for armor and I sometimes were assigned to heal the monks pulling and when we did dozekar I pretty much were unable to keep 4-5 melee healed against his 400dmg unresistable AE.

More recent examples were when I was assigned to keep a group alive against arch lich AE dot, simply couldnt do this either. Towards the end of the fight melee in my group had to run back to clerics and ask for CH. Also remember a couple months ago when we did grieg and I were only healer in a group and people started dieing because I was oom and couldn't keep up with the AE.

Sometimes I am still assigned to keep monks healed in pull team, it's ok as long as they dont take much dmg on pulls but when a monk comes in and FD with 1 bubble health and I have to use 2000mana to heal them up and it takes 40 seconds you know something is wrong... mostly when this happens though we dont even bother but the monk asks a cleric for CH and is GTG for 400mana and in 10s.

Want me to go on? ;-)

Edit: Talking about raids here, in groups from about level 35 or so it was obvious it was a clear disadvantage to have a druid as main healer instead of cleric.

Chronomis
09-17-2002, 06:40 AM
Some of you took a rather long time to notice that druid healing was poor. I was first struck by how inferior druid healing was when my druid was in the late 20's. Levels 26-28, mostly. It was relatively difficult to get a group at the giant fort in FM relative to clerics the same level as they already had Greater Healing, which I wouldn't get until 29. The notion I have often seen expressed of druids having more to offer experience groups than clerics is generally not true for about half the levels up through level 33, assuming the druid and cleric are of equal level.

The overall weakness in druid healing, as opposed to occasional weakness based on getting heals five levels late, becomes pretty clear in the 40's where Greater Healing is rapidly diminished in value due to the much higher amount of damage mobs start hitting for and the lack of druid healing upgrades.

Kalinn
09-17-2002, 06:41 AM
*the first time* was about 2 1/2 years ago, when i was in my 40s in pre-kunark lguk. i learned two things. first, that i was hard pressed to keep melee alive as primary healer in the harder camps. and two, that when a group says "looking for healer", they mean specifically "looking for cleric" and didnt want ME. this is also about the time after several weeks of lfg for hours at the zone that i became a soloing druid almost exclusively.

*the last time* was last week. sonts aes with the resistance changes are naaaasty, and i found myself unable to even keep myself healed during the fight. it was a very humiliating experience.

Batou062671
09-17-2002, 06:43 AM
I noticed it in my 20's somewhat but it didn't really sink in till my 40's when I got to dreadlands.

Menlaiene
09-17-2002, 07:27 AM
The levels right before a new heal spell were always hard. But the levels right after a heal spell were great. Until the 40s, when I didn't get a heal spell like I usually did every 10 levels. I remember at level 41 trying to keep a four person group alive with greater healing in the dreadlands. It was incredibly frustrating. My heals did hardly anything on the 49 warrior main tank. you'd think with his level he'd not be hit as much, but apparently not. I spent half my mana bar every fight on healing. I chainhealed the whole fight. Then from almost empty, I medded up to 60 again so we could pull. It was excruciating. I was pretty sure I could kill the mobs by myself more efficiently :/

At 45 the situation improved a bit, as they'd just added focus items and I got an improved healing II and a mana efficiency II item right off the bat. Also, my mana pool increased considerably in the late 40s. 51 was my hope, but it turned out to be dissapointing. I lost both my focus effects, and by the time I got it superior healing was already pretty pathetic for the average tank. Its also painfully slow.

On raids I get assigned jobs like "keep the enchanter healed" or "keep your group cleric alive" or "heal the puller," and as I have discovered, superior healing is woefully inadequate for these jobs. It is too small to make a significant difference and too slow for emergencies.

Firemynd
09-17-2002, 08:18 AM
I spent half my mana bar every fight on healing. I chainhealed the whole fight. Then from almost empty, I medded up to 60 again so we could pull. It was excruciating. I was pretty sure I could kill the mobs by myself more efficiently :/

You were right, though. If you actually hunt in a challenging zone for your level, trying to play main healer for a group is going to be amongst the slowest exp you'll ever plow through. There have been many times when my mana was low and I had to basically force them to let me solo dot the mob to low health. If melees had engaged, I'd have gone oom trying to heal them, and if casters had nuked, root would have broken and I'd waste mana (re-rooting and/or having to stand instead of medding).

I discovered our healing inefficiency early on, and made it a point to group with other healer types so I wouldn't be frustrated asking for med break every five minutes. I did quite a bit of soloing because kiting and root/rot was actually funner to me than trying to heal with inadequate spells for the job; it's like trying to build a house with a fisher price toolbench.

I also knew that if my healing wasn't enough to keep someone alive, the only thing I could really do for them was get them ported back to the zone where their corpse was. I couldn't get back their exp from hours of hunting, and if no rezzers were available, that person would have essentially lost the exp benefit from having been in my group. That isn't fun for me or for them.

I'm fully aware of people on this board who claim to have no problem playing main healer at high level. Well sorry, but I'm not talking about "main healer" for 60th level NToV-decked melees in a Velks or Seb camp, where they might need a chloroblast every fight or two. Try keeping that mana bar over half full if you're the only healer for a group in The Deep or UP without a slower.

~Firemynd

Kulothar
09-17-2002, 08:27 AM
40+ it became a concern, 45+ it became a problem, 51+ SH made the problems go away, 53 it became a concern again. 54+ I could not be a "Group" Healer and bacame a "spot" healer.

Now if I am going to be in a raid group there needs to be some other form of backup healing even if a paladin or a ranger. And in an Exp group there has to be a cleric or a shamen.

Oldoaktree
09-17-2002, 09:20 AM
Hmm I knew I could not heal effectively in a group after about level 40. But I didn't worry about it as much at the time. I always would think the next heal spell I would get would help fix the problem.

As I recall, NT and CB were added just around the time I could get CB. So I thought well, great!, I can heal after all! No worries!

For a while it seemed to matter. CB because of its speed was handy on the run of the mill hate and fear and chardok runs where dmg was lowish and the "raid" was about killing a lot of little stuff.

I also could do ok in HoT when the time came with NT and CB...could keep a secondary group going (long as there were not too many rangers in my group, or low level melee...ugh).

What really brought me up short was my guild's first pass on Dozeker. I was completely OOM from trying to heal the AoE we were getting (messy pull but still) by time time Doze was down to 80%. We failed that attempt of course, but from that point on I realized I really couldn't hold up in a real fight as a healer.

A while after that we did our first NTOV boss...Koi Doken. I was really pleased with myself because I was able to keep my group alive even with one or two melee in it. Of course, I was consuming mod rods almost continuously, and I probably should not have been wasting them on me but let them go to clerics for bigger heal benefits or wizzies for faster kills...but I did get through...limpingly...with all the group surviving. Of course, most of us were hidden through the fight so my healing needs that day were modest.

On some fights we can "get by," but had that fight lasted even a minute more everyone in my group would probably have died. It was rather a pathetic use of resources considering I went through probably about 5 mod rods and got some necro dumping too.

Elawnah
09-17-2002, 11:20 AM
My early 40's most definitly. Healing in Dreadlands was difficult with only Greater Healing. At level 50 I couldn't keep a group alive well enough to heal at all in level appropriate zones (i.e. Karnor. /shuder Let us never speak of Karnor again). Lucky me I turned 51 right as they lowered the level on Superior Healing. It was a nice heal... but too little, too late. Chloroblast was nice at 55... but by that level my healing role changed drastically. I went from Can-maybe-squeek-by to Spot-healing-for-a-real-healer. Even now at 60 I have a hard time being a healer. I was the healer for a group the other day, 2 warriors, a Wizard, and myself. That was down right comical.

Fayne Dethe
09-17-2002, 12:00 PM
It was rather obvious all throughout the life of a druid level 40+. Pre-kunark, greater heal was not adequate, kunark superior heal was not adequate, velious - chloroblast/NT not adequate, Luclin - chloroblast/NT are woefully inadequate. Now comes Planes of Power with 9k hitpoint warriors, 1300 damage quadding gods, massive AOE damage that will probably be unresistable, etc. Whatever "upgrade" they deem to give druids again for PoP wont be adequate, especially that joke of a not-so-CH (remove the 3k cap, 75% of heal is bad enough limitation ;p).

The game should never entirely focus around one class, yet it all revolves around clerics. You have more than 1 class that can debuff, slow, haste, give mana regen, etc. You can even have non-warriors main tank mobs, especially if the mob is perma-rooted and you use the "run" technique. However, there is currently ZERO replacements for the CH spell. That's why a 75% CH with no cap would not be overpowering, every other class has a replacement. This problem will just get even worse in PoP with more hitpoint inflation/mob damage inflation.

meysura
09-17-2002, 01:43 PM
I noticed my heals were really inadequate sometime in my early 40s. I went to kill ulthorks with a warrior friend/guildmate of mine one evening and simply couldn't keep up with the damage, so I stuck to soloing mostly after that. Prior to that, I had mostly grouped or partnered.

meysura
55 druid

LivinAmbuDunamis
09-17-2002, 01:53 PM
I noticed around lvl 30. It was my first character and I had just gotten GH at 29. So, I figured since our heals are 5 lvls behind clerics, and they got SH at 34, then we would get SH at 39. One day I was looking at spells on Castersrealm and almost started crying when I saw that we didn't get SH until lvl 53 (51 now). That's when my eyes were opened and I realized that it was going to be a hard road. I had to solo most of the way up when I got into the mid-40s. I'm at lvl 55 now and almost never can find a group. When I did get SH at 51, by then it was practically useless except for spot heals. There's no way I can be the main healer in the group, unless we are just doing stuff that is really easy. It's hurt my guild also. There are so many raids we've had to cancel because we couldn't get the few clerics in our guild to show up. But, we'd be there with no less than 5 druids. Having a better heal would have at least let us do some raids. May not have been as easy as having a cleric there, but it could have been possible.

Kolen SL
09-17-2002, 06:10 PM
Early 40's I guess.. Pre-Kunark SolB. Being the sole healer without mana regen was just painful. However at the time it was standard for a group to want two healer classes so one could play backup, and that worked fine if the other had half a clue. (Healer class in SolB usually meant a shaman or druid on Trib at the time... At least in my timezone. All the clerics were off in LGuk getting their phat lewtz :p )

frisleafshadow
09-17-2002, 07:00 PM
prekunark, I could play healer in Unrest all the way to the Ghost; but when I made it to solB I couldnt heal a group anymore. This was when 3 groups were in the preist/champ/king area. No way could I be healer in a bug group and I was fodder on efretti raids.

FyyrLuStorm
09-17-2002, 07:54 PM
40 ish to 50.99 when looking for pick up groups.

Luckily most of my time spent in those levels were with a pretty much ready made group.

I hated KC already, but having chars 5+ levels below you getting groups was noticable and made it worse.

I am glad there is no reason to go to that cesspool anymore.

Taylen
09-18-2002, 04:21 AM
Yesterday in Seb, was only healer in a small group doing frogs around the front. Me lvl 60, monk 56, SK 51, bard 51. I had to take a break every fight. And no, the melees weren't uber, and yes *gasp* un-uber melees do exist.

Tevenim
09-18-2002, 04:48 AM
This thread makes me cry. Right around 38 maybe 40 I started having party members die on a regular basis, It used to hurt my pride as a priest class. I'm 55 now and have no pride left :( for some reason it still pains me to see a party member go down though.

The worst part though is that the fights that are the most fun are those barely get out alive ones with adds coming in from all over and you just squeek by. I'm never a part of those anymore because if I was the group would have no chance of squeeking by.

I'm done whining now time to go play my monk and refuse any druid that wants to join my group as main healer (I'll take them as backup any day though)

Tevenim Silverwolf
55 druid
Rallos Zek

Quintee Senchul
21 monk
The Rathe

Riggen
09-18-2002, 09:28 AM
30 to 34 my healing ability was grandeur.
35 to 39 I was good
40 to 44 I could manage
45 to 49 started sucking to be healer
50 to 53 was before they dropped SHeal down to 51 and was a trial by fire
54 SHeal was tweaked into usability but it still hurt
55 Chloroblast! At the time it was a godsend for caster healing, but by that point anything would have been an improvement
56 I could manage as a backup healer, but keeping a tank alive was mostly a manabar draining exercise in delaying the inevitable.
57 to 59 Tanks started gaining toughness and became somewhat easier to maintain. Imagine my amazement when I discovered that I could be primary healer in an adequately equipped group in some places.
60 Able to manage as primary healer using Nature's Touch in places like Howling Stones, the easier areas of Chardok, Upper Sebilis, Velk's and the like.
60+AA As gear and supporting spell selection has improved I've actually acquired a certain level of comfort healing in the aforementioned places. My healing alone, however, is not sustainably adequate in higher difficulty areas.

GoozerTheGooz
09-19-2002, 02:06 AM
I quit a paladin to play my druid so I wasn't so angry with the bad healing, seemed good enough for me. My lack of healing never got in my way until 60 when I noticed I was losing all my mana healing the warrior during a fight with a froglok krap knight.

Now Im really picky about who I group with if I'm the main healer :p

Orolmy
09-19-2002, 04:28 AM
I'd have to agree the the majority, it was in the late 30s, early 40's when I was trying to heal people in Sol-B, I considered myself fortunate that I dinged 51 literally a couple of days after they made the change to move Superior Healing from 54.

But even after getting that big upgrade, I felt lacking.

ps Nice to see a fellow Fire Caller :evil:

TeriMoon
09-19-2002, 09:23 AM
I agree that with C3, PoTG and a tough tank, I can heal in spots like HS, seb, hole, chardok, ME, umbral (sorta). But not for anything really huge. I have to use NR in combination with NT, CB and SH (and of course RoTG) but I can do it under these constraints with a minimum of downtime for the group, but its a strain on everyone's nerves.

iegil
09-19-2002, 11:18 AM
Druid heals are of the Suke!

I first realized this in HHK when clerics had G-Heal and I had healing.

Now late in my life as a druid, I've turned around a bit. I'm comfortable being spot healer in high end exp camps. Com1/Com2 in SSRA, or main healer in places like guk, seb etc.

The best may still come, I anxiously await the Partial heal spell.

Venerable Iegil Eyriewind
Heirophant

Ainalda
09-19-2002, 03:18 PM
When did you discover your healing was iffy?

The release of Ruins of Kunark was the beginning of the end of the druid class. Pretty much.