"are you healer spec'd"

[Riggs]

I ask due to one ToD run i was in:

Party leader: ok so for part 3 we are going to have FvS heal Horoth....
FvS: i'm not a healer
Party leader: um what
FvS: i'm not a healer
Party leader: ok, but could you heal this time so we can finish?
FvS: no

I guess i should just ask if the FvS is a d-bag but i find asking if the FvS can heal much nicer

Exactly.

And this is Tod, not a normal shroud run that can be healed by a bard - so it actually matters how good the 'healer' is at healing, as 1 second lag or 1 bad moment can turn the whole thing to a failed raid if you find out 'the healer' doesnt actually want to heal - and/or sucks at it.

Which makes the second point - if you have a fvs that refuses to heal others - people should know it so they can just bring a better melee instead - since the power of a fvs is the ability to melee well, and heal - refusing to heal means you are required to point out no fvs is going to melee as well as a 'real melee', and if they choose to give up half the class abilities because they are ignorant - well either be able to do both, or reroll.

[seobanio]

raise Specced Ftw

Lol

[Llewndyn]

noob: "Are you heal-specced or melee?"
Me: Yes
noob: Well which is it?
Me: <link masterwork rapier>
noob: what does that have to do with anything?
Me: So can I join or not?

Most of the time when someone asks if you are heal specced that means they want you to be nothing more than a healbot, in which case I already know I do not want to join their group and have a little fun at their expense. If they still take me, I will do what I made my FVS/ cleric to do: Jump out in front, feel the wind in my hair, see my enemas driven before me, and hear the lamentation of the kobolds. Then die, I'm not that good of a cleric. But whatevs...

on the other end of the spectrum, when we get a cleric/ fvs that joins and proclaims that all they can do is heal, if I am group leader I would kick them as a hireling would be better in that case. Take it like this: If someone asks you if you are healing specced and you have a standard(ish) build, you're probably not going to be having any fun (and no, simply following along and healing is not my idea of fun) and can spend your time better somewhere else. If you join with your 2 monk/ 5 wizard/ 6 cleric/ 1 barb and they ask, then that's because you've made a stupid character, in which case you SHOULD have to go through a vetting process to get into the group (which is why I no longer get all whiny when I try to join a group on my 2 monk/ 3 wiz, it's non-standard, it's INCREDIBLY tough to do on a 28 point build, so I understand the apprehension)

[Ryaner]

Finaly managed to log on, and read the replies with great interest. Besides the "you suck as a healer" and " you must be one of the lousy nannybots" comments which made me chuckle, i'm really glad some people got what i was saying.

Kudos and +rep to Riggs for so eloquently saying what i tried, and apparently failed. Healing a shroud is completely different from healing a lvl 20 raid, and if you want to do that efficiently you need to have the right feats, spells and enhancements. Sure every healing class can heal, but not all can do it effectively, which makes the question healer specced or not not as weird as it looks at first glance.

[Lorz]

I used to heal.....heck i used to be a healbot.....


Then one day i was enlightened.....

It is much easier and cheaper on my resources if i just rez you rather than heal you.



/is that wrong......the math says its not :P

[PopeJual]

I used to heal.....heck i used to be a healbot.....


Then one day i was enlightened.....

It is much easier and cheaper on my resources if i just rez you rather than heal you.



/is that wrong......the math says its not :P

Depends on whether you buff them after the raise or not. If you just raise them at the end of the quest, it is *WAY* cheaper.

[PopeJual]

Should, and do are two very different things.

Many good players can do both, and have the feats for it.

Many people - usually found in pugs - do not, or cannot handle raid healing and swinging a weapon in between at the same time.

And raid healing, and Shroud are two different things. Unless your running shroud at level - it is not a challenging raid for well played, well geared level 20 TR's say.

People comparing what happens in normal shroud runs to how uber builds are kinda missing the argument.

Level 20 or epic raids - it is not a 'waste of a slot' to have someone healing focused.

You are correct in saying that it is easier for a FvS to make a completely failtastic character than for a Cleric to do so.

That certainly doesn't mean it's hard to build a good FvS. A good FvS (and a good Cleric) should be able to heal, but that should not be the only thing that they can do. I know that you agree with that statement.


"Are you heal specced" really just means, "Are you a complete failure at this game or did you manage to build some minimal level of competance into your character?"

[Jaid314]

"Are you heal specced" really just means, "Are you a complete failure at this game or did you manage to build some minimal level of competance into your character?"

mind you, i can totally understand why someone would ask that question... especially if they've had a bad day with PuGs.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Edit: double post, iPhone fail.

[wax_on_wax_off]

I've figured it out. The solution to the whole drama. No more misinterpreted intentions. No more sarcastic responses to genuine yet misguided inquiries.

Instead of
Enlightened Favoured Soul has joined the party
Party leader: are you a healer?
Enlightened Favoured Soul has left the party
(guild chat): #%¥€ing noobs wanted a nannybot

Enlightened Favoured Soul has joined the party
Party Leader: Hi, welcome, do you feel like throwing some heals today?
Enlightened Favoured Soul: hi, thank you, why yes I do

There are many possible variations on above but if you stop questioning peoples ability to heal and ask if they want to then you will get much better responses. Also there is a reality that some EFS' can be lazy at times (or drunk) and may prefer to stay in one role or another.

Another point I wanted to make. This suggestion that a melee specced fvs is a worse healer than a caster specter fvs is pretty inaccurate and shows a basic lack of understanding of game mechanics, at least with the most common example WF Lord of Blades. Requiring only power attack and improved critical to be able to melee (ignoring thf line in favour of twitching) leaves 5 feats for metas - plenty to cover all that is required.

WF fvs and caster have similar sp pool as similar charisma.

The main advantage that the caster fvs has is the free clw wounds capstone. That's all.

Each is likely to have full life magic line. The usefulness of the critical line is questionable at best though I still put a few points into it on my WF fvs.

The WF fvs has a healing advantage over the caster fvs; less stressed spell slots. It is very unlikely if I had a caster fvs that I would have every mass cure spell while on my WF fvs it is something that I can comfortably fit in. This is useful in some content when the alternative to cycling the 4 would be to use more metas and be less sp efficient.

Edit: spelling errors, iPhone post fail

[transtemporal]

And you know quite well that even a gimp ass melee FvS CAN heal. The legit question is not "are you heal spec'd" but "can you handling healing for us on this run?"

I'm sure I don't know! Melee FvS are gimped abominations, and should be burned!!!

[LordPiglet]

Hmmm, I just realized that I've only received two tells asking if I can come heal on my WF fvs. I honestly I wonder if the 3 claiming to not heal had a big impact on sarlona. Of course my surname is "drinkapot" so that might affect it to. Ofcourse that name is referring to things like curse, poison, lesser restoration , not drink a cure serious and take care of yourself while healing velah. (And especially that I plan on ever taking am neumonic in any standard content).

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I'm sure I don't know! Melee FvS are gimped abominations, and should be burned!!!

Next thing you're gonna tell me is that a bard can't heal better that most clerics

[wax_on_wax_off]

I'm not sure if it's still true I heard once that Epic Devil Assault is one of the hardest quests in the game. For this reason, I went into it with some trepidation about the possible outcome considering being a melee WF FvS and being solo healer.

Awesome outcome! Completed quest, got the keepsake I need for boots, 2 epic dungeon tokens and I didn't use any majors (just 2 normal SP pots and ~20 heal scrolls which i have a bunch of). To top it off I got some kills too (~13 i think). Only 1 person died.

Very exciting quest! Thanks for accepting me to the group and thanks everyone for the excellent CC and DPS.

[LordPiglet]

Nice, sounds like you ran with a good team

[Tirisha]

Um I think people are reading too much into the Question, for the most part I think it is with good intentions that a party leader asks *are you healing specced* as opposed to, *Can you heal* If I was a bad healer and new that about myself and walked into a pug and the leader asks, the dreaded question: *can you heal?* I would feel inclined to either Lie *to avoid embarrassment* or leave the party pretending offense (maybe not pretending) to save myself embarrassment. But by asking the Question *are you heal specced?* offers me an easy out, by claiming that my toon is not built around healing, it can save me the embarrassment of having my playing capabilities put into question, while still securing me a spot in the group.

Yes I understand that healing specced is not easily Defined, personally I think the main thing is the metamagic feats because no matter how Healing Specced the "Player" is, his heals *or ability too heal* will benefit from them *max, empower, emp heal, extend and quicken* Though the Truth is I don't believe that's the question *in Question if you will, I believe it's mostly an honest attempt at diplomatically building an effective team of adventurers. Basically people are too touchy and mistake the question as a jibe at their build.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Yes I understand that healing specced is not easily Defined, personally I think the main thing is the metamagic feats because no matter how Healing Specced the "Player" is, his heals *or ability too heal* will benefit from them *max, empower, emp heal, extend and quicken*

In this last quest (arguable one of the hardest in the game) I only used quicken and empower healing. I don't have extend on my WF FvS (prefer ady body) but that doesn't affect healing ability (only SP efficiency on buffs but 20 minutes is long enough). Maximise is available to me when needed but I only use it when laying down blade barriers.

I'll probably swap out maximise in the future if blade barrier falls into further disuse (prefer holy aura and energy drain for offensive spells already). I just don't think it's necessary if I can cycle 4 mass cures with superior ardor amd empower healing active. In this last quest I cycled only MCLW, MCMW and mass heal as I only have superior ardor VI clickies so far, this seems to be enough for all of the content that I've run so far (completions on every raid except titan at highest difficulties. No elite amrath yet, no epic sands yet, will wait for opportunities).

[LordPiglet]

Um I think people are reading too much into the Question, for the most part I think it is with good intentions that a party leader asks *are you healing specced* as opposed to, *Can you heal* If I was a bad healer and new that about myself and walked into a pug and the leader asks, the dreaded question: *can you heal?* I would feel inclined to either Lie *to avoid embarrassment* or leave the party pretending offense (maybe not pretending) to save myself embarrassment. But by asking the Question *are you heal specced?* offers me an easy out, by claiming that my toon is not built around healing, it can save me the embarrassment of having my playing capabilities put into question, while still securing me a spot in the group.

Yes I understand that healing specced is not easily Defined, personally I think the main thing is the metamagic feats because no matter how Healing Specced the "Player" is, his heals *or ability too heal* will benefit from them *max, empower, emp heal, extend and quicken* Though the Truth is I don't believe that's the question *in Question if you will, I believe it's mostly an honest attempt at diplomatically building an effective team of adventurers. Basically people are too touchy and mistake the question as a jibe at their build.

come on, you're so healer spec'd you don't even wear armor

(and one of the better healers)

[Bechtinger]

And raid healing, and Shroud are two different things. Unless your running shroud at level - it is not a challenging raid for well played, well geared level 20 TR's say.

People comparing what happens in normal shroud runs to how uber builds are kinda missing the argument.

Level 20 or epic raids - it is not a 'waste of a slot' to have someone healing focused.

You're right! It's not comparable BUT the ppl in normal shrouds or some quest pugs ask you, if you're a healer... That is where most of the problem lies...

If you wanna get into epic raid-pugs its much less of an issue. If you go for that, know your role! I'd say, dont even step in without the ability and willingsness to heal. Go fire your sp out on velah, then let another healer take over and add some dps. YEs its only half of a solid melee build, but it does add some.

[Tirisha]

In this last quest (arguable one of the hardest in the game) I only used quicken and empower healing. Maximise is available to me when needed but I only use it when laying down blade barriers.

I'll probably swap out maximise in the future if blade barrier falls into further disuse (prefer holy aura and energy drain for offensive spells already). I just don't think it's necessary if I can cycle 4 mass cures with superior ardor amd empower healing active. In this last quest I cycled only MCLW, MCMW and mass heal as I only have superior ardor VI clickies so far, this seems to be enough for all of the content that I've run so far (completions on every raid except titan at highest difficulties. No elite amrath yet, no epic sands yet, will wait for opportunities).

Understandable, I'm interested to learn which quest you ran *in case I missed it* What I mean too say is the more difficult the quest is; better yet the more incompetent your party may be the more you will see the benefit of your metamagic feats. You could live without them and function quite nicely, It's just I wouldn't recommend say Solo healing EDQ. I believe a previous post put it better than me by saying healing specced means taking everything that can improve your healing first then taking whatever secondary function you might want. be it DPS or Casting power. This is the approach that I made with my main and favorite toon, though I don't believe it's the intended quest by the Party leader in question (or in general what the quest commonly means) I think it's just a polite way of asking do you heal *Prioritize healing over dps* or Can you keep us healed in this quest *are you skilled enough to heal this quest* Which in all right a leader should be allowed to ask.

On a Side note I think being more "healing specced" indirectly increases your ability to DPS, If I'm casting twice as powerful heals as you, then it may be reasonable to say that throughout the coarse of the quest I spent half as much time healing as you did, using that extra time to DPS or Cast depending on the build. That being said I would consider leaving Maximize on and seeing how it effects your play. I know that if you adjust your heals accordingly not only could you save SP on more efficient casting but you could spend more time beating your enemies into the dirt with that good old WF PA.