Weird Noob thing you did in CoH/V

[Lusiphur Malache]

I had left CoH before issue 21.  First day on Homecoming made a character and wanted to start in Galaxy City.  When i didn't get that option thought something was wrong with my install.  Deleted, reinstalled, recreated at least 3x before I googled galaxy city and found out the horrible news.

[MrPengy]

On 3/7/2024 at 2:41 PM, Shenanigunner said:

I dunno. I've never really understood why H**l*rs became so disliked and deprecated.

 

it's not really a useful niche build any more, but in between tanking and bashing and zapping, I really-really-really enjoyed running a first-rate healer, with a killer bind set on the numpad and a "zero drops" goal for myself.

 

Back in the day, heals were AMAZING, especially at low levels before damage mitigation was as powerful. The problem came when people from other MMOs, or newbs like my young self, thought "Alright cool, all I have to do is chill and spam my heal on the tanker, and put the aura on auto." The stories of toons who had just the tier 1 attack, and no support powers, just healing away...Like you know you can use an attack in between heals right? You have an entire secondary you're ignoring?! WHY WON'T YOU HELP MURDER THINGS??? And I agree, being a capable healer and keeping a team up through some stupid tough fights was amazing fun. But then your team was level 40, with strong defensive powers and buffs/debuffs from other support toons, and a "healer" joined to cast a heal on the tanker who had a slight dent in their health bar, but did not contribute in any other way...That people started hating "healers."

 

Also, players definitely have a tendency to over exaggerate their hatred, or make a mountain out of a molehill. "Ew that defender used Healing Aura, what a n00b, gtfo kthnxbai" when ya know, all the squishies just got hit by an AoE and I'm just topping them up in case four more come our way because the tanker just HAD to aggro the entire room instead of going mob by mob.

 

...It really came down to people not understanding the nuances of the game. And I feel perfectly fine calling out these terrible players, because I used to be one! With my empath, I eventually learned that the real strength of the set is Fortitude, Clear Mind, and Recovery/Regeneration aura, with some heals for insurance. Buffs and debuffs are the real stars of this game.

Edited March 11 by MrPengy
Typo

[Shenanigunner]

Well, there are stories of all alts being played badly, especially long ago and so forth. I guess I am still somewhat baffled why badly-played healers killed the breed, when all or most other mucky ATs survived.

[Mister Mass]

3 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

Well, there are stories of all alts being played badly, especially long ago and so forth. I guess I am still somewhat baffled why badly-played healers killed the breed, when all or most other mucky ATs survived.

People have already commented above that, past the mid-levels, groups started needing healing a lot less, so they began to be more interested in group members that added more of what they did need - buffs & debuffs, along with MOAR damage of course.  "Healerz" got outperformed by debuffers like Rad & buffers like Kin, so they started to get a bad name.  Meanwhile the game kept evolving.  In Issue 0, it started as City of Blasters, then became City of Tankers once armors could be stacked.  And after the "Global Defense Nerf" brought Tankers down to earth, it became City of Buffers/Debuffers.  The game changed again when IOs were introduced & again when the Incarnate System came online.  None of those changes made the old school Johnny One Note "Healer" more useful.  And the good players evolved with the changes.

 

That said, I want to tip my hat to all of the Empaths out there who helped carry PUGs through the dark days.  I especially appreciate the ones who learned the value of the other buffs in the set.  They made a lot of slogs less painful.  Thanks! 👍

Edited March 11 by Mister Mass