A few notes about Pocket Healers.

[squishwizzy]

Ok, for those of you who have obviously never run in a full party using a pocket healer, here are a few guidelines:

1) If your only healer is a pocket healer, and your inclination is to run the quest on elite – don’t. Just don’t.

2) Bring heal pots. Trust me on this one…

3) If you run the quest on elite with a full party, and take along a pocket healer don’t expect instantaneous heals. They won’t be forthcoming.

4) In defense mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is on the bottom of the priority list.

5) In aggressive mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is NOT on the priority list. Sorry.

6) Yes, I know that in defensive mode, the healer is not supposed to be aggro-ing mobs, but that was patch 8.2 - we’re on 13.3. Some Dev is out there laughing until he wets himself over the “updated” AI they just put in.

7) If I summon the healer, it follows me. If your toon is a half a mile away from where I’m standing, you’re not going to be healed.

8) There is no clicky on the healer’s action bar that commands the healer to “heal the whiny jacka** in the party.”

9) Healers, pocket or otherwise, cannot heal through stone. Yes, I know that mobs do that on occasion to one of their own, but that rule doesn’t apply to you.

10) If the pocket healer is busy healing a pet, no matter desperately you try to select someone in your party to heal, and click on the heal button, the healer will only comply AFTER the pet is completely healed.

11) In the real world, you might be able to change the priorities of the pocket healer by walking up to it, and giving it a swift kick in the a**. Unfortunately – unless the country you live in has dragons, minotaurs, and green-skinned trolls – DDO is not the real world.

12) If someone says, “hey guys, maybe doing elite with a pocket healer on this quest isn’t a good idea,” prior to entering the quest, maybe you should listen to him / her.

13) If you’re whining about how you’re not getting heals because you’re “zerging” the quest, then you’re obviously not zerging the quest, or you suck at zerging (see my observations about zerging post).

14) Don’t whine about not getting heals if you suck at zerging, and then complaining about how everyone else is “piking.” If you were a good zerger by any stretch of the imagination, you’d have a stash of heal pots, scrolls, or a wand that you could fall back upon.

15) If I’m being attacked, and I control the pocket healer, I’m not going to stand there while Bob the Ogre Chieftain stomps on my skull for the next five minutes while I instruct my healer to go heal *you*. Sorry.

16) There have been successful runs with a full party that has a pocket cleric as their one and only healer. They usually rely on this strange concept called “communication,” and do this obscure tactic called “sticking together.”

17) If you’re mad because the guy who controls the pocket healer isn’t being Johnny-on-the-spot with the heals, maybe when the quest leader said something about “who has a pocket healer?” you should have been the one who piped-up and said “I’ll go get one” as opposed to listening to the crickets chirp for a hour-and-a-half.

18) If you p*ss off the guy with the guy with the pocket healer to the point where he or she leaves mid-quest, the pocket healer doesn’t stay out of courtesy.

19) If the guy with the pocket healer is not in the quest yet – because he’s running to another house to buy a pocket healer – you will not get healed. Intending to get a pocket healer is not the same as having one, or even being in the quest and having one.

20) It takes a sum-total of about a minute to run to a specific public area and buy a healer. Consequently, it takes just about that same amount of time to go from the vendor that sells the hireling to the quest entrance. Time does not warp after you’ve made your purchase. So, if you want the healer to be available to you when you start the quest…WAIT FOR THE GUY WITH THE POCKET HEALER TO GET BACK FROM THE VENDOR. (Emphasis added.)

21) Despite the writings of Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, or even what you may have seen in the Aliens series of movies, Artificial Intelligence is not as advanced as they all thought it would be by 2012. I know the Jetsons had a robot that cleaned the house and made the meals, but that was a cartoon. We live in the real world (see reference to dragon, minotaur, and green-skinned troll sightings to confirm that your country of origin also exists in this real world realm). So, expect a few limitations when using a pocket healer.

[squishwizzy]

But I'm not bitter...

[Kylstrem]

Best way to run quests if you can't get a live cleric is 2 or 3 real people and 2 or 3 pocket clerics.

Fast and fewer idiot personalities to screw up the quest, and you aren't sitting around waiting 30 minutes for quest to fill.

[Kawai]

+1 -Great Post, and thank you for doing so. We usually twobee elites with NannyBotz quite frequently... just a matter of multitasking and using proper control. The Hirelings commands can be hotkeyed for simplicity. Suprising how many people don't bother, and then blame the hirelings AI for getting themselves turned into a ghost.
How nice would it be, though, if we could use our own ALTS for hirelings? THAT would blow me away. :D
-Tarelyn (Achillesia, Thelanis)

[Grace_ana]

Haha! +1

Most of this applies to real healers too. The number of times someone has run off in a quest and started screaming for heals before the divine was even IN the quest boggles the mind.

[Missing_Minds]

Best way to run quests if you can't get a live cleric is 2 or 3 real people and 2 or 3 pocket clerics.

Fast and fewer idiot personalities to screw up the quest, and you aren't sitting around waiting 30 minutes for quest to fill.

Have you played with the pocket healers yet? :)

Another rule of thumb I find is look at their spell list. If they are pure healbot, expect to micromanage a LOT, let alone having to save them a lot.

If they have a few combat spells in their list? I seldom have had to micromanage them. But you do have to worry about them blowing through their blue bar depending on the length of the quest.

Note: the level 19 FvS emerald claw, bow using woman that has implosion? NOT worth it at all any more. When they "fixed" her to stop casting implosion as soon as it was off timer, her effectiveness dropped by 70%. (rough estimation) If she had a "raise dead" spell of some kind, I have said 45-55% drop, but she doesn't.

There are times I will use a heal bot that is 2-3 levels under me just because they preform better. So learn your hirelings antics and figure out which one is worth more to you.

[Loromir]

[QUOTE=Kawai;4467497 How nice would it be, though, if we could use our own ALTS for hirelings? THAT would blow me away. :D
-Tarelyn (Achillesia, Thelanis)[/QUOTE]

OOOH...now that would be awsome.

[morticianjohn]

I love hirelings and their AI which has them healing the party without me having to command them to do every little thing.

Hirelings are sufficient for elite quests all the way through the vale (though maybe not sleeping dust).

They might not be sufficient for elite reaver's refuge or amrath but they do just fine in elite inspired quarters with the exception of mindsunder and dreaming dark.

They are a little bit overpowered in my opinion with the amount of SP they have (I think they use 5 majors before they stop potting but I'm not entirely sure because they start potting at 60% mana and I never bothered to keep track) they are frequently better than bringing an actual cleric.

[Kawai]

...and adding to that, I'd absolutely LUV to make an entire party out of ALT hirelings. hehehehehehehe Screw a PUG! :D
-Tare

[squishwizzy]

I love hirelings and their AI which has them healing the party without me having to command them to do every little thing.

Hirelings are sufficient for elite quests all the way through the vale (though maybe not sleeping dust).

They might not be sufficient for elite reaver's refuge or amrath but they do just fine in elite inspired quarters with the exception of mindsunder and dreaming dark.

They are a little bit overpowered in my opinion with the amount of SP they have (I think they use 5 majors before they stop potting but I'm not entirely sure because they start potting at 60% mana and I never bothered to keep track) they are frequently better than bringing an actual cleric.

You must run with a lot of very well-organized groups.

I hesitate running a quest past lvl 5 on elite with a pocket healer as the sole healer, in a full group. It works OK with hard and normal, but elite is generally brutal. That being said, I HAVE been in groups that did it in Amrath, but it was a very slow go, more than a few deaths, and lots of coordination.

[teh_meh]

Pocket healers are fine if you know how use them in response to their AI ahem tendencies.

Tips:

- park the healer in safe spots. they are agro magnets, especially undead
- call for them in between fights to top up
- use them to pull levers you don't want to and watch them soak for damage lolololllololololol

expecting anything more from a hireling is your fault, not theirs.

[Kylstrem]

And, yes... bind their hotkeys to the keyboard (at least "come to me" and "stop"... but the "Defend" and "pacify" are great as well).

Tips:

1) If you are worried about your hireling dying from running through a trap, then park them a long ways from the trap... Get past trap, and find a place to jump down from that is about twice your height. As you jump down (featherfall is helpful), hit the "come to me" key you bound. They will teleport directly to you if you are high enough.

2) When you get into a big fight, get them parked slightly outside the fight area and put them on Stop and Defend. They'll you just fine and be outside splash and grazing damage.


Yes, they'll do dumb things sometimes and die. But you can choose between sitting around for 30 minutes hoping a cleric joins your group, or you can be questing, and maybe going slightly slower in the quest to have hirelings heal you.


currently, in my TR group of 3 people and 3 hirelling clerics, we have a 175 elite streak going at level 15 and rarely die, and have never party wiped... and we are pretty much zerging the hell out of the quests... I hardly ever pay attention to my health bar, because the hirelings do such a great job.

[Kylstrem]

Oh, yeah... someone mentioned it... our current TR characters have no trap skills... so in Maze of Madness, our clerics got to pull all the levers. If they die, another cleric raises them, and we only lose 5% bonus instead of 10% bonus.

[gallantian]

4) In defense mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is on the bottom of the priority list.


This is trumped by any charms you have. The pocket healer will generally heal the charmed mob just as you are releasing it from the charm in order to dispatch them. Hireling like to make you work for it.

[Gremmlynn]

I really don't know why it is so hard to understand how best to use heal hirelings.

First, eliminate the rough points by not summoning those pets in the first place. They just aren't worth the trouble they cause with both the hireling and the range they pull agro from.

Second. If something is kicking you butt, it's generally a good idea to try to become the "closest thing near" the groups hireling. So rather than standing there and dieing or running willy-nilly screaming like a little girl, reposition yourself were you are most likely going to get the healing attention you need.

Yes hirelings have limitations due to their AI, but as players we don't. So stop playing as if the hirelings worked like you want them to and start playing in a manner that reduces their limitations.

[squishwizzy]

This is how this whole post started: I decided to run with a PUG - didn't know any of these guys. So we're waiting around for a healer to show up. Nothing. Fifteen minutes into waiting, the party leader mentions "let's run with a hireling." They want to do this on elite, I immediately voice my concerns. My past experience has made me uncomfortable with that. Not leaving at that point was mistake #1.

So anyways, the decide to do elite, and they decide to use a hireling. The party leader says, "hey, who has a cleric hireling we can use?"

Crickets.

More crickets.

Ok, after an uncomfortable amount of time waiting for someone to pipe-up, I finally say, "We'll I'll go get one." That was mistake #2.

So I run across All Tarnation to go buy a frickin' healbot. When I say I have the hireling, they decide to start the quest. I'm literally located on the far side of the Marketplace, and the quest itself is on the far side of that specific house. So, I'm trucking to get back...but they've already started. No problem, I jump in, summon the hireling, and start prepping my toon. Immediately I hear someone say "Where are the heals?"

These guys are scattered all over the quest. No one said this was a zerg. Wasn't in the LFM, no discussion of it in the chat area, nada. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure there was no specific intent to zerg as a couple of people (the quest leader included), didn't seem to have a clue as to where they were going. To be frank, I was also a little lost, and it took a few minutes to get my bearings (it was a quest I don't do a lot). However, we all finally come together at one point, and start the main part of the quest in earnest.

It's like we're in a race. The DPS is up front running up to everything, hacking away, and moving on as fast as he can. My toon is doing its part, and for the most part, I'm concentrating at the mobs coming at me ('cause now they're all aggro-ed), and doing my bit. I'm not really paying too much attention to the pocket healer. Yeah, in retrospect, maybe I needed to just stand around and control the healbot, and not do any fighting. But I was doing what I normally do, which is damage-dealing. Maybe - maybe, mind you - that was mistake #3.

Eventually we get into a pretty major scrap. The DPS is runnning ahead, fighting everything. At one point a rouge toon gets incapacitated, and shouts out, "Hey can I get a heal before I die?" I apologize for not watching the heals (assuming the healer was catching them), and get him up and running. The player in question replies "no problem."

Well then the next fight starts getting ugly. The DPS runs up, starts smacking stuff, kinda getting in over his head. I'm moving back trying to kill everything that is now coming my way. The healer? It's healing the pets.

The DPS says, "Hey, can I get some heals?"

Ok, I stop, highlight the DPS toon, click the hireling's CCW button and...nothing. The spell is cast, the DPS isn't the target. So I repeat the same thing, making sure Mr. DPS is highlighted, and click CCW. Again, DPS gets nothing.

The DPS starts getting cranky. "Where's my heals?" he starts to protest. Then I notice the hireling zapping off a bunch of heals. I start looking around, and find the hireling...it's healing someone's pet.

"C'MON GUYS, HEAL ME!" The DPS shouts. I shout back, "I AM!"

Then I notice the DPS is on the other side of the wall from the healer, and the healer is doing what the healer does...heals a) the closest thing to it, and b) the pets. In this instance, it was a double whammy, as the pets were closer than the DPS.

Well, I kill off the last mob that's attacking us, and FINALLY get the healer over to where she can heal the DPS toon.

"C'mon guys," Mr. DPS says scornfully, "what's going on here?!? Where are my heals?!? Are you interested in running this quest, or are the rest of you piking?" (Something to that effect.) "You don't start picking it up, I'm gonna leave!"

At this point, I'm fuming. I'm piking? A couple of these guys are moving like it is the LeMans with armor and swords, and all manner of pointy things, and he's complaining about not getting heals and the rest of us "piking?"

"I can help you with that, " I reply. Release, Leave Group, done. No more healer. Problem solved.

Mind you, I was doing ranged damage throughout the entire quest. So I'm standing on high ground, away from the action...and the healer is following me. I should also point out that before we even stepped into the quest, I made sure I had a full stash of CSW pots because...well...we didn't have a real healer.

Normally, I don't dump out of a quest like that, but it was a relatively long quest, and we hadn't even gotten to the hard part at that point. The whining by Mr. DPS about people "piking" was pretty much the big indicator that this was going to go downhill, fast. Plus, if he was an experienced player, he should have known right off the bat that a hireling is NOT going to be the optimal for a group like this; not even by a long shot. Cripes, I'm not loaded to the gills with experience, and I figured that out. He should have had some back-up healing, and stopped rushing ahead.

[LOOON375]

Best way to run quests if you can't get a live cleric is 2 or 3 real people and 2 or 3 pocket clerics.

Fast and fewer idiot personalities to screw up the quest, and you aren't sitting around waiting 30 minutes for quest to fill.


And, yes... bind their hotkeys to the keyboard (at least "come to me" and "stop"... but the "Defend" and "pacify" are great as well).

Tips:

1) If you are worried about your hireling dying from running through a trap, then park them a long ways from the trap... Get past trap, and find a place to jump down from that is about twice your height. As you jump down (featherfall is helpful), hit the "come to me" key you bound. They will teleport directly to you if you are high enough.

2) When you get into a big fight, get them parked slightly outside the fight area and put them on Stop and Defend. They'll you just fine and be outside splash and grazing damage.


Yes, they'll do dumb things sometimes and die. But you can choose between sitting around for 30 minutes hoping a cleric joins your group, or you can be questing, and maybe going slightly slower in the quest to have hirelings heal you.


currently, in my TR group of 3 people and 3 hirelling clerics, we have a 175 elite streak going at level 15 and rarely die, and have never party wiped... and we are pretty much zerging the hell out of the quests... I hardly ever pay attention to my health bar, because the hirelings do such a great job.Darn good advice and I agree on all points. You basically just described what me and my two guildmates do. We have ran 99% of the content on hard and elite doing just what you described.

[Gremmlynn]

This is how this whole post started: I decided to run with a PUG -... So basically you were in a PuG with a group of players, one specifically, that didn't know the first two rules of hirelings. #1 They are stupid, but get the job done if you make it easy for them.
#2 If "who has a hireling" get's asked, be the first one to volunteer as that makes you the one they follow around unless ordered to do otherwise via the "defend this target" command.

The leader shouldn't have asked "who has a healbot", he should have asked Mr DPS, or whomever he felt most needed the attention, if he had one and sent him to get one when he didn't.

[squishwizzy]

So basically you were in a PuG with a group of players, one specifically, that didn't know the first two rules of hirelings. #1 They are stupid, but get the job done if you make it easy for them.
#2 If "who has a hireling" get's asked, be the first one to volunteer as that makes you the one they follow around unless ordered to do otherwise via the "defend this target" command.

The leader shouldn't have asked "who has a healbot", he should have asked Mr DPS, or whomever he felt most needed the attention, if he had one and sent him to get one when he didn't.

Basically, yeah.

Or someone should have listened to me when I said, "I really don't like running elite quests with a posket healer being the only healer."

Maybe I should have just continued to listen to that sweet cricket musiak...

[zyp]

Well first I'd like to say that hirelings have made the game hugely better. They do some of the stupidest things imaginable and their AI seems like it's the farthest thing from intelligent but they are less expensive than potions and wands and sometimes they even take beneficial actions without instruction. They can even pull levers and stand on buttons so I can do quests with them that I could not otherwise do solely by myself. They have been a HUGE improvement to the game.

One thing I gleaned from the OP experience: Hirelings are much more of a problem when you group with others. It's hard enough dealing with the sub-par non-artificial intelligence you encounter in groups without having to deal with a balky hireling that is running around somewhere independent from you.

[Ugumagre]

Well first I'd like to say that hirelings have made the game hugely better. They do some of the stupidest things imaginable and their AI seems like it's the farthest thing from intelligent but they are less expensive than potions and wands and sometimes they even take beneficial actions without instruction. They can even pull levers and stand on buttons so I can do quests with them that I could not otherwise do solely by myself. They have been a HUGE improvement to the game.

One thing I gleaned from the OP experience: Hirelings are much more of a problem when you group with others. It's hard enough dealing with the sub-par non-artificial intelligence you encounter in groups without having to deal with a balky hireling that is running around somewhere independent from you.

Yes, hirelings are OK if you are fully aware of the problems. It is only so, that they are changing the AI continously, at the time a lot of hireling just won´t heal at all. Today I was laying on the floor at -5, and my hireling wouldn´t heal me. Some other time I was fighting and the hireling also not healing. I had to run away, call the hireling, select myself and click several times on heal until he did it. Yes, Arias Oreith, I am talking about you, you **** zerger.

[Feanor74]

16) There have been successful runs with a full party that has a pocket cleric as their one and only healer. They usually rely on this strange concept called “communication,” and do this obscure tactic called “sticking together.”

And this is the best part of your summary. I had bad PUGs and good PUGs, glorious victories and complete wipes.
In the end, the best PUGs had been those that worked together as a team. Doing so can even compensate being slightly under level, missing gear or buffs or lacking "real" healers.

[SirValentine]

4) In defense mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is on the bottom of the priority list.


Nah, that's not the problem or the bottom of the priority list.

It really seems that healing ITSELF is at the bottom of the hireling's priority list, which is far more annoying than the fact that it doesn't heal a player who can drink a pot if needed.

[Wickednisse]

Ok, for those of you who have obviously never run in a full party using a pocket healer, here are a few guidelines:

1) If your only healer is a pocket healer, and your inclination is to run the quest on elite – don’t. Just don’t.

2) Bring heal pots. Trust me on this one…

3) If you run the quest on elite with a full party, and take along a pocket healer don’t expect instantaneous heals. They won’t be forthcoming.

4) In defense mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is on the bottom of the priority list.

5) In aggressive mode, the pocket healer’s priority is to a) aggro mobs, b) heal pets and summons, and c) heal the closest thing near it. Healing the player who has the lowest health is NOT on the priority list. Sorry.

6) Yes, I know that in defensive mode, the healer is not supposed to be aggro-ing mobs, but that was patch 8.2 - we’re on 13.3. Some Dev is out there laughing until he wets himself over the “updated” AI they just put in.

7) If I summon the healer, it follows me. If your toon is a half a mile away from where I’m standing, you’re not going to be healed.

8) There is no clicky on the healer’s action bar that commands the healer to “heal the whiny jacka** in the party.”

9) Healers, pocket or otherwise, cannot heal through stone. Yes, I know that mobs do that on occasion to one of their own, but that rule doesn’t apply to you.

10) If the pocket healer is busy healing a pet, no matter desperately you try to select someone in your party to heal, and click on the heal button, the healer will only comply AFTER the pet is completely healed.

11) In the real world, you might be able to change the priorities of the pocket healer by walking up to it, and giving it a swift kick in the a**. Unfortunately – unless the country you live in has dragons, minotaurs, and green-skinned trolls – DDO is not the real world.

12) If someone says, “hey guys, maybe doing elite with a pocket healer on this quest isn’t a good idea,” prior to entering the quest, maybe you should listen to him / her.

13) If you’re whining about how you’re not getting heals because you’re “zerging” the quest, then you’re obviously not zerging the quest, or you suck at zerging (see my observations about zerging post).

14) Don’t whine about not getting heals if you suck at zerging, and then complaining about how everyone else is “piking.” If you were a good zerger by any stretch of the imagination, you’d have a stash of heal pots, scrolls, or a wand that you could fall back upon.

15) If I’m being attacked, and I control the pocket healer, I’m not going to stand there while Bob the Ogre Chieftain stomps on my skull for the next five minutes while I instruct my healer to go heal *you*. Sorry.

16) There have been successful runs with a full party that has a pocket cleric as their one and only healer. They usually rely on this strange concept called “communication,” and do this obscure tactic called “sticking together.”

17) If you’re mad because the guy who controls the pocket healer isn’t being Johnny-on-the-spot with the heals, maybe when the quest leader said something about “who has a pocket healer?” you should have been the one who piped-up and said “I’ll go get one” as opposed to listening to the crickets chirp for a hour-and-a-half.

18) If you p*ss off the guy with the guy with the pocket healer to the point where he or she leaves mid-quest, the pocket healer doesn’t stay out of courtesy.

19) If the guy with the pocket healer is not in the quest yet – because he’s running to another house to buy a pocket healer – you will not get healed. Intending to get a pocket healer is not the same as having one, or even being in the quest and having one.

20) It takes a sum-total of about a minute to run to a specific public area and buy a healer. Consequently, it takes just about that same amount of time to go from the vendor that sells the hireling to the quest entrance. Time does not warp after you’ve made your purchase. So, if you want the healer to be available to you when you start the quest…WAIT FOR THE GUY WITH THE POCKET HEALER TO GET BACK FROM THE VENDOR. (Emphasis added.)

21) Despite the writings of Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, or even what you may have seen in the Aliens series of movies, Artificial Intelligence is not as advanced as they all thought it would be by 2012. I know the Jetsons had a robot that cleaned the house and made the meals, but that was a cartoon. We live in the real world (see reference to dragon, minotaur, and green-skinned troll sightings to confirm that your country of origin also exists in this real world realm). So, expect a few limitations when using a pocket healer.


Sadly, this will not fit in my character's bio... but +1 because it made me laugh :)

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

What does the term "pocket healer" actually mean ?

[DarkAlchemist]

What does the term "pocket healer" actually mean ?
Think of Mini-me who will pop out when needed with his aura, and knows how to use heals.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Ah, okay, thanks.

[Starla70]

Thank you for starting my Monday off with a laugh or two. The rules you gave as so true. There are a couple of the cleric hirelings that just seem to have the people in the party at the very last priority. I swear they want to heal the flowers first. Then others do pretty well.

[Blood]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but there's a bug I've noticed with the healers. If you set them to 'pacify', and then later set them to 'defend', they will not heal you normally (it's almost as if they get stuck on 'pacify'). To get them back into 'defend' mode, I set them to 'aggressive', and then back to 'defend'.

[QNecron]

Pocket healers would be fine if the DDO Devs didn't have a cruel since of humor and program the enemy AI to automatically target them. Spamming 150 crits on enemies only to have to ignore you completely and target the Passive commanded cleric is a little much, needs fixing IMO.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I only have two problems with pocket healers:

They die! A lot! Almost constantly. Because for some reason they purposely stand where they are sure to take the most damage, and refuse to heal themselves. (kinda like a lot of PUGers.)

and the people who summon them either do not make them active, or are totally oblivious to the rest of the party, so that no one else but th eplayer who summons them, ever gets healed.

(I see much different results on healing the entire party, when it is "my" pocket healer.)



Back to problem one.
When I need more res scrolls to res my hirling healer, something is wrong. :(

[DarkAlchemist]

Wasn't it really recent that a Turbine dev looked into the hirelings and said they were working as intended?

[Esserbe]

They die! A lot! Almost constantly. Because for some reason they purposely stand where they are sure to take the most damage, and refuse to heal themselves. (kinda like a lot of PUGers.)


I love it when the squishy cleric hirelings are standing in range to heal you, and then decide that running up and standing right next to you where a boss is cleaving is DEFINITELY the place to be!

Folks, don't forget to toggle that "stand still for the love of all that is holy" button!

[squishwizzy]

I love it when the squishy cleric hirelings are standing in range to heal you, and then decide that running up and standing right next to you where a boss is cleaving is DEFINITELY the place to be!

Folks, don't forget to toggle that "stand still for the love of all that is holy" button!

This may have been modified, but I could have sworn that one of the healers ignores that stand-in-place command. I'll never forget that one quest where I told the healer to stay in place, but then I'd see them in the middle of a fight right next to me. I thought to myself, "Ok, maybe I didn't click the right option." So I'd set them, double check, and then the next thing I know, they're running up to fight.

Drove me absolutely nuts.

I seem to remember it was only one pocket healer I used (definately a cleric as I mostly use clerics), and not all of them.

[Grimdiegn]

I have no problems with healing bots but as stated above, you do need to know which ones work well.

Also if you're a WF melee, use Barrage lvl 13 Wiz. Haste, Greater Heroism and Reconstruct all in one package. You just need to park him a ways back as sometimes he goes into suicide mode, casting Fireball at everything that moves.:D

[MindCake]

6) Yes, I know that in defensive mode, the healer is not supposed to be aggro-ing mobs, but that was patch 8.2 - we’re on 13.3. Some Dev is out there laughing until he wets himself over the “updated” AI they just put in.

Actually, it sounds like a feature added in 11.1 (http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Update_11_Patch_1_Official#Hirelings ):



Hirelings and pets in defensive stance will no longer aggro monsters without orders to do so, but will still aggro in order to defend their masters or guarded targets if their master or guarded target takes damage.

I don't recall it ever being removed, so it may be "WAI".
I noticed bard hirelings have been suicidal for quite a while, perhaps they finally got it working for divines?




This may have been modified, but I could have sworn that one of the healers ignores that stand-in-place command. I'll never forget that one quest where I told the healer to stay in place, but then I'd see them in the middle of a fight right next to me. I thought to myself, "Ok, maybe I didn't click the right option." So I'd set them, double check, and then the next thing I know, they're running up to fight.

Drove me absolutely nuts.

I seem to remember it was only one pocket healer I used (definately a cleric as I mostly use clerics), and not all of them.
Weapons shipment?

[Dyyvyyd]

This may have been modified, but I could have sworn that one of the healers ignores that stand-in-place command. I'll never forget that one quest where I told the healer to stay in place, but then I'd see them in the middle of a fight right next to me. I thought to myself, "Ok, maybe I didn't click the right option." So I'd set them, double check, and then the next thing I know, they're running up to fight.

Drove me absolutely nuts.

I seem to remember it was only one pocket healer I used (definately a cleric as I mostly use clerics), and not all of them.

I noticed the same thing on my pocket-cleric!! He would run up, cast a couple of spells, enter combat, etc... after the fight, he would RETURN to the spot I told him to park after everything's dead. After a couple of wipes, I "learned" to become his meat shield instead of finishing off the mob I was engaging... :(

[TashaDB]

Thank you for a good laugh this morning! Gotta love players that don't seem to realize that their job is not just hitting stuff and running just as fast as they can, it is also making sure they position themselves properly to get heals or buffs if they need them. Running half way across the dungeon away from the healer, pocket or otherwise, then yelling for heals is simply stupid. Sorry, it's your own fault you died. That's called terminally stupid.

I run a lot of elites with another guildie or so, and a hireling each. Works great, smooth runs 99.8% of the time. Learning to run a hireling effectively makes a huge difference in how fast we get through quests and tr cycles.

The onus is on us as players to learn how and when to use hirelings, and to use them well. The AI is much better than it used to be. They don't usually stand in lava now, throwing heal spells on themselves till they die while you hit the 'come here' button and they ignore you.

Our experience is that if a hireling has offensive spells on their bars, they are more likely to do offensive things. Parked hirelings that are not in passive mode definitely will run around a pretty large radius doing things and getting themselves in trouble. Parking one out of the fray, but close enough that they can run a bit closer to heal you works quite well. It does irritate me that they somehow are coded so that they have to be much closer to whatever they are going to heal than really necessary. I know for a fact my healers can target someone clear across a room and throw the heal without trying to run after them to do it. Oh well, if they increased that distance they would probably run around a larger radius getting in trouble!

I love that cleric hirelings will neutralize poison, remove blindness and other such useful spells which are not on their bars. These are certainly things I can do for myself, but it is easier and faster if they do it. Using hirelings properly when running a rogue means you can get your sneak attacks. Sight agro on a hireling gives you great opportunities, especially if you have Shadow Fade.

[brickwall]

I might consider use of a hireling if and only if i can design it my self and it has everything i have earned unlocked and i can fully equip it with the gear of my choice.

[yawumpus]

Human Clerics: Can't heal stupid.
Pocket Healers: Won't even try.

Sure, when you were soloing your hireling would spam you with heals right and left, leaving you to ignore your red bar over killing the mobs. This doesn't mean that the other guy's hireling will suddenly teleport to you and heal you while they (or even the arty's dog) is dying.

[teh_meh]

Tempys and his 16 casts of Divine Vitality III. Anything I get from him after that is all gravy.

[FranOhmsford]

OK I basically ignored page 2 of this thread so sorry if anything I say has alrady been mentioned but here we go:

1. Hirelings now have a timer on their heals - You see the shaded area go round the icon right?
Well if they're casting a heal and you have the temerity to tell them to cast a heal {even if it's on the same person} it blows their minds and no-one gets healed!
The way around this if someone specifically needs healing at that moment is to quickly hit passive - Then {having right clicked or F-Keyed that person} spam the heal button till hireling gets the message - Do this for anyone else who also needs healing at this moment THEN put hireling back on Active.

2. Defensive is useless - Hirelings stay on Active at all times unless I specifically need them on Passive.

3. If I'm leading a Party and we don't have a healer I will call a hireling thank you.

4. If I'm in a party who doesn't have a healer and I'm getting impatient {or someone else is} I will link my hireling and ask if it's ok to pull it.

5. You were a ranged character - A great choice for Pocket Healer duties i.e. you're not in the melee so neither is your hireling AND you have the benefit of being able to see all toons.

6. Arcane is usually the best toon to call Pocket Healer, Divine next, Other ranged character next - Tank calling pocket healer is a mistake {Hireling will stand next to tank and die every 10 seconds.

7. Lvl 1-2 Dryad, Lvl 3-4 Erythyn, Lvl 5 Kendra, Lvl 6 Mareth, Lvl 7-8, Laerathor {though I actually prefer to stick with Mareth}, Lvl 9-10 Marissa, Lvl 11 Arkyn, Lvl 12-13 Miranda, Lvl 14-15 Tempys, Lvl 16-17 Natasha {DV} Isadora otherwise, Lvl 18 Heystack, Lvl 19 Yeah Klin, Lvl 20 I actually like Wyoh for Implosion.
Those are your best choices - Maloren {lvl 4} is useless, Molin {Lvl 5}, Flower {Lvl 7}, Fergus {Lvl 8}, Samuel {Lvl 9}, Fayden {Ridiculously squishy Lvl 10}, Flagon {Lvl 11} and Dheren {Lvl 13} do not have DV
Only Samuel and Flagon are of any real use even for none casters.
Arias {Lvl 6} has DV but is not quite as good as Mareth.
Jatrina {Lvl 15} has DV but Tempys is miles better.
Ayron {Lvl 17} Too squishy by half.

Of the FavSouls - Larafay of course stands out by a mile - She is fully capable of healing an entire party in IQ AND Blowing up everything in sight at the same time.

8. Summons are fine when using hirelings {especially for those hirelings with their own} Klin comes to mind here - He dotes on that Hezzy and it saves you a heck of a lot of damage.
Caraneth {Lvl 19 FS} also has a Hezzy that you should be making her call.

However the Fiendish Spiders summoned by Flower and Fergus are completely and utterly worthless.
Sammy Merrik's Earth Ele is little better.

[ragwa1]

Darn good advice and I agree on all points. You basically just described what me and my two guildmates do. We have ran 99% of the content on hard and elite doing just what you described.

You wern't by any chance running "stormcleave" were you?

[squishwizzy]

5. You were a ranged character - A great choice for Pocket Healer duties i.e. you're not in the melee so neither is your hireling AND you have the benefit of being able to see all toons.


That is, unless the tanks are off and running, and leaving you behind...

[FranOhmsford]

That is, unless the tanks are off and running, and leaving you behind...

If they're doing that then a real healer is going to have the exact same issues.

i.e. Let them die!

[davidolson22]

Ok, for those of you who have obviously never run in a full party using a pocket healer, here are a few guidelines:

1) If your only healer is a pocket healer, and your inclination is to run the quest on elite – don’t. Just don’t.

2) Bring heal pots. Trust me on this one…


About #1: I must be doing it wrong. I've used pocket healers to solo heal the lord's march quests with a full party. Heck, I brought Larafey, so she barely did any heals at all, instead focused on CC and Instant death just like I'd like a real divine to do.

About #2: This should happen regardless of who else is in the party. You should always have some way to attempt to increase your hp for when the stuff hits the turbine. This doesn't just go for healing of course. A rez clickie is nice. Some way to buff yourself if you can't do it.

This only goes for good groups, of course. In a bad group, one should neither bring self healing or self buffs of any kind. Otherwise the group won't be bad.

[danzig138]

Folks, don't forget to toggle that "stand still for the love of all that is holy" button!

No such button. Be nice if there were. It could replace the useless "Come back to this spot after you've gone and ****ed everything off" button.