Healing In Warzones (Issues with Kills/Commendations)

This is what I'm talking about.

If they gave more commendations for just pure heals it would be too easily exploited. There are already ways in the game to do this as I saw a healer spamming heals on himself when running into the liquid and fire areas in huttball. I'm not even specced to heal but could probably out-heal anyone in the game by doing so. Healing numbers are easy to pad in such circumstances.

I believe healers are expected to do much more than just heal. Like somone said already, healers are more of support and thus must play with the mind set of supporting team objectives which may require some out of the box thinking other than spamming heals all over the place.

Healers never get as many kills as everyone else. It's the nature of the beast. And it's also why not many of us are truly good at it, it takes that mentality. The healer may not get the gaudy kill numbers, etc, but they are the difference between defeat and victory.

I hear a lot of talk in here about how healers should focus on multitasking and doing damage when appropriate which creates a high level of stress and accountability on an already stresfull role to play. That being said for all of those nay sayers where is the accountability for DPS classes to alternate into healing?

Of course making a request like that would be completely ludicrous, as is requesting healers to do much outside the bounds of what they were designed to do.

I play a vanguard. I usually follow around a DPS class or a healer. By far, the best healers I have played with, the ones who have been most helpful to accomplishing objectives for the WZ and the ones who have gotten the most medals are the ones who truly understand the way healing works in this game.

Unlike other games where a healer just stands in the back and heals a someone who is wailing on someone else, the healer in this game is most effective when using other abilities in conjunction with heals.

There have been many fights where no matter how much I was healed, I would lose...but if that healer used force knockback or one of their stuns, or even just added a tiny bit to the damage being done, we''d walk away and be virtually unstoppable.

Healers in SWTOR are support classes. They are expected to use all their abilities to keep people alive.

You can say this adds another level of "stress" to being a healer, but honestly, all the healing classes were designed this way, and pvp was balanced this way. Personally, barring a few issues, I really like the way they''ve designed the pvp. It forces people to be more active, to have to make better decisions as the fights can last a while assuming you don''t have 5 people single targeting you. And if that happens, why isn''t your healer running in and pushing them all away so you can stun them and try to regroup?

You can also say that in comparison to DPS, it''s unfair to expect the healer to fill out so many roles. People play healers because they don''t want to DPS, they want to "support" their team. Well, using your stuns and damaging abilities is a way to support. There are no two shots in this game, most people can last long enough at 1/2 to 1/3 health for a well timed Dirty kick or some other CC to make a huge difference in the battle.

DPS also suffer from stress, but not the same kind as a healer. Most of it is questions in regards to our survival. We don''t have a way to heal ourselves other than POTs, which means that in order to be as effective as we possibly be, we have to rely on the support watching our backs to be as effective as they can be.

Since I play a vanguard, I spend most of my time mitigating damage and doing my best to direct attention to me. Using CC to block attacks sot he healers can heal and other things.
It''s really frustrating when I use a CC to stop someone from killing a healer, and then the healer just heals themselves up and proceeds to try and heal me through the next massive wave of damage when what they should do is use their CC to prevent people from attacking me and then heal me up.

Gah, my point kinda got lost somewhere in there.

TLDR
Healers are not designed to just sit in the back and spam heals, they are designed to use their damaging and CC abilities to assist with controlling the fight. Play the way the game is designed, not the way you expect it to be, and you won''t have a problem.

So that's how you get tons of metals.. from now on I will waste my energy throwing a grenade every cooldown, thus performing worse and getting greater rewards, thanks for info.

That just means you're terrible. And I have seen many players like you. In one huttball game, I spam healed our ball carrier for at least 80k until he eventually died from holding the ball too long - despite his repeated attempts to die by LoSing out out-ranging me I managed to prevail.

Normally if a healer is close enough to the fight to use the AoE knockback, her positioning is poor. The healer should never be exposed in the middle of the battle.

Your misinformed opinion, and when you eventually see some high level PvP you will understand why. If a healer gets out of position against competent opposition, he can be completely shut down.

Of course there are situations where it's safe and the correct move for the healer to come out and do this or that, and the healer frequently needs to CC, but you seem to be under the impression that the healer should run into a fray of 5 melee on an open field.

That's like asking a bum to not be a bum, but to be a bum with a house.

So with that being said, can i expect dps spec'd merc BH's and Operative IA's to use there heals as well. And for all other classes that don't have healing abilities to use stims and medpacks. Since us healing spec'd players have to use our damage abilitys to fill our role and get equal commendations as you, I think its only fair.

Would you ask a healer in a flashpoint or an operation to do damage so you can get the boss down that much faster? No you wouldn't cause what is there role? HEALING! Not heal if the group is in trouble and dps when no-one is taking damage, but just heal. end of story.

If BW didn't want healers to just heal in WZ then they wouldnt of made a healing tree for anyone.

Reading through almost every post in this thread, here's what I have to offer, and why I think I'm an extremely effective "healer" in every warzone I participate in.

A) Healing is my priority. If I run to a battle, the first thing I do is look at my ally's health. If someone actually needs healing (60ish% or less), I'll heal them.

B) I don't over-heal. Keeping someone at 100% sounds nice, but you're wasting force and prolonging battles if you do that, which can be very costly. Once they're at or above 75%, help them burn the target(s). Interrupt casts, stun them, dot them, do whatever you can to make their life difficult.

C) I don't go into the warzone trying to prove my healing skills are more 133T than anyone else's. If I notice that we already have a dedicated healer who's keeping people at responsible levels, I won't hesitate to go full dps. Yes, I'm full heal specced but my stacked willpower does just as good at throwing rocks as it does with healing.

Playing this way, in a "bad" round I will receive a minimum of 4 medals. I can very consistently pull off 165k+ healing and 35k dps, all without dying more than 2 times. Do I get out-healed sometimes, even when I'm mostly healing? Yes. But every time I do, the amount they over-healed me is less than the amount I over-dps'ed them. A healer in SWTOR is, in fact, a hybrid if played effectively.

That is mandatory lol. if you have the force or energy to spare and your partner needs a heal . ofcourse you hand them a quick heal lol.

Your view of gaming is so very wrong....

That way of thinking is what i hated most about wow. You think in your own little box, and every players has to fit in that box. Its the downfall of the community that happened when people began thinking like that.

As a Commando specced in a all trees (we call that a hybrid) i have been doing very well in warzones and flashpoints. The thing you forget is that its a support class. NOT a heal class only.

I can do over 100K healing and also 100K damage in the same battle. I can get 10K efence points while we are at it. I would say that is a great performance, but you probably think i was wasting my time. If no one gets hurt in a Flashpoint you want me to stand idle and wait till someone needs healing right ?

I just wish you would change your mind and start thinking outside of the boxes that became appearent when classes were introduced.