Newbie question about Healer

[yllly]

 I want to make a pure healer, I noticed that the controller has healing skills too. So who is better to make from? Or does the defender have any treatment bonus?

[Broken_Prey]

Defender will have the best heals and buffs of any AT because it is their primary. 

 

Who is better is really up to you and what you want. 

[Darkir]

Please read the defender guide that is stickied. Pure healers are not the most effective toons in this game. There are ways of making your entire team take only 5% of all the damage that comes at them through softcapping their defenses and you can even make their resistances skyrocket as well. Even with those methods though, your attacks are still valuable for dmg and the debuffs they provide. An empathy/Sonic blast defender can increase the damage of everyone in the party through their attacks, softcap defenses for three people, provide endless endurance to the whole team, and they can heal. The healing will be needed less and less as you level up though.

[Erydanus]

I have a friend who has a very pacifistic mind set and in every game he tries to play a pure healer. Ultimately I have to say this game really isn't set up that way but if you don't like attacking much there are so many choices you can make about taking key powers that represent control and debuff more than straight blasting damage.

 

Also, I do want to let you know that this isn't a new question and in the old days there were people who would play the Empathy set and then only take the 1 required attack. They were not well regarded. Often these people wouldn't even actually be good healers, they'd just stand around spamming the healing aura power and not doing a darn thing and preening that they were so indispensable to the team. That's not the case. Healing is spackle, it's not an absolute for many party formations. There's so many ways to negate damage offensively with crowd control and debuffs, as well as passively negate it by placing buffs on the team.  A mix of techniques is actually great. 

[Doomguide2005]

I think the ultimate irony is if you really, really want to churn out the heals in an IO end game build ... you'll need to take and slot the blasts to crank up your global recharge.  By far it was my Offender Empaths who could cycle through their HA, HO, etc., the fastest if they wanted to do so.

[SmalltalkJava]

Try a nature/ healer on a defender.    It has a heal patch you can lay on the ground that also procs some endurance restore .  
 

But I like it’s cast heal the most.  it’s cast heal is a humongous cone so you can point you character in a  direction and heal.  It doesn’t require any targets to fire off.   
 

it also has some nice buffs

 

as for controller vs defender.   If you want to blast go defender. If you want to crowd control go controller.       

Edited October 28, 2019 by SmalltalkJava

[Justaris]

While I don't recommend going 'pure' support on any character in this game, I much prefer Controllers who do this to Defenders.     Defenders will have higher base values on their heals, but if they totally ignore their secondary powerset then the overall benefit to the team is substantially below that provided by a Controller who can also offer pets (in most cases) and CC.     Even worse, some 'healer' builds will also ignore or undervalue their buffs in favor of only doing heals, which results in an even weaker character.     Almost any build of Defender is better than a 'pure healer'.

[ambpup]

I won't advise going 'pure' healer' either, even if my first toon in COH (early 2005) was a empathy/energy and I never used my attacks much due to KB. For most groups it didn't matter, but to other people it did and I got complains from time to time with just floating above the group and healing/buffing. If I had to do it again, I would take a attack power with some sort of debuff and use it between heals/buffs. Because while heals are important, its the buffs that start really mattering to your teammates once you get past the teens in levels.

 

In the end, I left my very first defender to just do Hami raids because she wasn't really that useful anymore. Those Defenders that came later, even at 50th lvl I could find fun things to do with varies groups on ITFs or other TF.  Which kinda leads to one of the funny stories (at least I thought it was funny) back when I was playing a dark defender in Faultline and the TL kept asking for a Healer. He won't start the mission till we had a healer. So with like 5+ mins of waiting, I noticed we had a kin in the group and mentioned to the TL that with my heal and the kin's heal we should be ok. Of course he didn't listen, and we kicked him off the team and did the mission with little trouble.  

 

And its the same now, one doesn't need a "pure" healer in COH... most groups just need one or two members with good buffs/debuffs and the occasion heal.

[Williwaw]

To be sure, there are some endgame boss battles (iTrials in particular) where having a character constantly spamming their PBAoE heal on the group is helpful, but even then there's many Support sets that have a basic PBAoE that wouldn't otherwise be considered a "healing" set, like Thermal, Time, or Rad. And it's helpful, but not required; by that point most characters have a lot of survival mechanisms of their own.

 

One might argue what a "pure healing" set even looks like in this game.  Even the most heal-focused sets in the game have very few direct heals - Empathy and Nature Affinity have three each, Pain Domination has three on a MM and four on other ATs.  The rest of the powers in those sets are buffs, debuffs, and a rez.  In CoH, there's a lot more focus on preventing damage than healing it afterwards (and the melee classes are a lot tougher than melee classes in any other game I've played, even other superhero games, so they don't need to be healed as much).

 

I think you may want to give Controllers a try rather than a "pure healing" Defender.  You'll be able to buff and heal your team with your secondary and keep most enemies locked down and helpless when healing is not needed (which it usually won't be).

[Outrider_01]

Try a controller, you got the ability to control the flow of battle and reduce incomming damage with the primary.  I suggest a debuff secondary or kinetic which will make the team more effective with out watching HP bars.

[Call Me Awesome]

As others have said, it's STRONGLY recommended to NOT go "Healer", in fact that word is almost an insult in this game among the veteran players.  In this game Healing is possibly the weakest form of team support as it's purely reactive.  A Force Field defender can prevent 95% of the damage his team takes, a Sonic Resonance Defender can make attacks do much less damage, a Radiation Emission defender can make the mobs miss the team, make them take more damage, keep hard targets from regenerating, give the team increased damage, recharge and endurance, and as an afterthought, can heal.  And there's Kinetics... from the awesomeness of Speed Boost which gives massive endurance, recharge and movement speed to the minor little detail of Fulcrum Shift buffing the team to the Damage cap.  You'll never lack for appreciative teammates as a Kinetic.  Oh, if needed you also have a massive heal based around an enemy.

 

Buffs and debuffs in this game are VASTLY more powerful than you're likely used to in other games.  Even the "Heal" set of Empathy is mostly buffs for the team instead of heals like a team buff that gives endless endurance, a team buff that turns the team into Regeneration scrappers, a buff that gives bonus defense and damage to a teammate.  Those are more useful than mere heals.  A defender's secondary powerset is damage, so you need to be dealing damage in addition to laying out the buffs and debuffs.  Oh, and buffs and debuffs STACK as well so more support characters are always better.

 

Dealing with the Defender/Controller (and Corruptor) question it's a matter of what you want to do.  Defenders have the strongest buffs and debuffs since their primary powerset is support.  Controllers have control as their primary set and support as their secondary so their support powers are a bit weaker... about 2/3 strength as I recall.  Corruptors are a reversed Defender... their damage powers are stronger while their buffs and debuffs are weaker since they have damage as a primary and support as a secondary.  Also, you'll get powers from your primary set at earlier levels.  As an example, a Kinetic Defender can get Speed Boost at level 12 while a Controller has to wait until level 20.

[Ankhammon]

And if you want to learn, in detail, about the value of Buffs/Debuffs in the world of CoH make a build that utilizes them extensively. Something like Sonic Resonance. Simple to use so you can blast to your hearts content but the values you add to the team are huge. 

You can tell any potential team that you can add over 55% resistance to all but Psi, a 30% -res toggle so it never goes away (-60% for an individual target), an "I win" button in Liquefy that just crushes (when available), and a sneaky good cage that can take one danger point out of action (Think like a DE stone or a Tsoo Sorcerer). You are literally making tank mages out of your team.

Add to that you can blast away forever because your team will all take a tiny 10-20% damage during play that will leave you with an end discount that will last for days.

 

Then add more control for your team with H2O or Ice, or more debuffs with Dual Pistols or Mental or Rad or anything else you can come up with. Just look as much for the secondary effects of the blast set as the damage.  Once you get the hang of things you will soon realize you are actually controlling the battlefield.

 

If you get worried you aren't "doing" enough damage, just take a second to realize you are adding and additional 30% or 60% to the damage of your whole team on top of the damage you can throw. 

 

[Dragon Crush]

On 10/28/2019 at 2:33 PM, Erydanus said:

I have a friend who has a very pacifistic mind set and in every game he tries to play a pure healer. Ultimately I have to say this game really isn't set up that way but if you don't like attacking much there are so many choices you can make about taking key powers that represent control and debuff more than straight blasting damage.

 

Also, I do want to let you know that this isn't a new question and in the old days there were people who would play the Empathy set and then only take the 1 required attack. They were not well regarded. Often these people wouldn't even actually be good healers, they'd just stand around spamming the healing aura power and not doing a darn thing and preening that they were so indispensable to the team. That's not the case. Healing is spackle, it's not an absolute for many party formations. There's so many ways to negate damage offensively with crowd control and debuffs, as well as passively negate it by placing buffs on the team.  A mix of techniques is actually great. 

 

Since your friend seems to be OK letting others beat on enemies and just doesn't want to personally attack, might have them try a mastermind, taking pets and skipping personal attacks to focus on secondary like nature, empath or FF (others seem more "attacky" to me, but may fall within friend's interests).

 

And to OP, to echo everyone else, pure heals aren't very useful in this game, especially if it means you're neglecting buffs/debuffs/control/damage. Beyond buffs and debuffs drastically reducing the need for need for heals, literally anyone can play healer to a degree with the medicine pool powers. I've played both blasters and tanks who would toss the occasional heal for groups with no traditional support classes before. However, pure support on the other hand can still be useful, controllers locking down enemies while buffing and debuffing, or defenders/corrupters who slot for debuffs/control in their attacks rather than damage can still bring alot to the team neutering foes and/or turning allies into unstoppable juggernauts. Or you can try the "passive" MMs I mentioned at start if you want to play a character that doesn't personally attack.

[Erydanus]

My friend is not playing this game. I'm merely stating that I understand why some people have a motivation for this type of playstyle aside from thinking that its the best sort of approach to a support character. 

[Dragon Crush]

I meant to frame it in a way if you wished to try to talk your friend into playing, sorry for the miscommunication.

[oedipus_tex]

Your best bet for this playstyle is an Illusion Controller with Pain, Empathy, or Thermal as your secondary. You'll still not be doing pure healing, but you also won't need to do much blasting. Your illusion army can tank and you can confuse enemies into doing your bidding.

[biostem]

On 10/28/2019 at 1:25 PM, yllly said:

I want to make a pure healer, I noticed that the controller has healing skills too. So who is better to make from? Or does the defender have any treatment bonus?

I'm gonna go in a different direction with my advice, here:  First, I'll second what SmalltalkJava said about going with Nature Affinity;  It has a nice heal power that's effective while being unique among the other healing powers out there.  It also offers a variety of buffs and debuffs to help keep your team alive.  Second, and this is probably the more contentious opinion, but I'm going to suggest going with a mastermind.  My reasoning for this is threefold:

 

1. There are a lot of powers in your primary that are "optional", thus freeing up other power picks.

 

2. Since your pets have their own endurance, you don't have to worry about choosing between healing/buffing/debuffing and attacking.

 

3. Your ability to solo, should you be unable to find a team, is much higher.

 

The only other suggestion I'll make is that it's a really good idea to take some leadership powers, (especially in the case of a mastermind), since they offer a global buff to you, your teammates, and your pets, and since your tier 1 pets will be -2 levels to you once you get all 3, that extra tohit from tactics really makes a difference.

[Luigrein]

For a pure healer type playstyle my first thought is mastermind as well. You need 5 powers from your primary set, only 3 of them need slotting. You can devote the rest to your support abilities and power pools. If you are ever stuck soloing  you still have a team to support.

 

Time investment in the primary can be as simple as summon and upgrade pets, put them on defensive follow, replace as needed. Rest of your time and energy is on support.  I’d recommend a buff focused set to stick with the feel, but literally only healing will probably run in to some issues. I feel like healing+ buffs sticks pretty close to the goal though.

 

Is this going to win awards as best/most effective build? Probably not but it can solo and contribute in teams while fitting the pure healer playstyle decently well.

[SmalltalkJava]

Yes MM makes a good support/healer.  80 to 90% of their damage comes from 3 abilities that takes minimal oversight and management.   At the most basic sense pets are just fire and forget damage over time spells.  That in turn allows you to focus more on the secondary activities 

Edited November 1, 2019 by SmalltalkJava

[HelenCarnate]

On 10/30/2019 at 8:35 PM, oedipus_tex said:

Your best bet for this playstyle is an Illusion Controller with Pain, Empathy, or Thermal as your secondary. You'll still not be doing pure healing, but you also won't need to do much blasting. Your illusion army can tank and you can confuse enemies into doing your bidding.

Exactly what I was going to suggest.