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Ridiculous healing for level 55 flashpoints


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So I am just going to come out with it: healing these revamped flash points for level 55 is HORRIBLE. Why is it that Bioware thought that the best way to make level 55 FPs "challenging" was to give the healers an even more difficult time when they ALREADY had the hardest job in a group.

 

Before 55 lvl FPs, a well geared healer could help keep up an ok geared Tank. Now the tank has to be ridiculously almost over geared for the two to stand a chance. I am referring to the DOTs that need to be cleansed in fight like the first boss in Hammer Station, the last boss in Athiss and the last boss in Mandalorian Raiders.

 

I have been in far too many FPs where even healers in full 69's quit because of far too many wipes. I foresee a great deal of less people wanting to bear the burden of being blame for wipes (because they already were) and even less people will choose to be healers. This role is already by FAR the least played and less desirable role. It was ALREADY difficult to come across great healers let alone good ones.

 

Help me out guys, am I just having bad luck with the 55 FPs?

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I mostly play healers, and I kinda prefer the new FPs. Cleansing is not that hard, and something that should be done on any cleansable debuff or DoT as a matter of habit. Even as DPS, I cleanse myself of whatever I can the instant it appears.

 

For the two bosses you mention, just cleanse at 5-6 stacks for the first boss in hammer station, and the healing is quite manageable. For the last boss in Athiss, set your focus target to the boss so you can see when he is casting the DoT, and be ready to cleanse it asap. Focus target has to be set every time he comes out of stealth, but nobody ever takes more than a tick of that when I am healing.

 

The only boss fights I have found really challenging are the bonus boss in Hammer Station, the bonus boss in Cademimu, and the wookie boss in Cademimu. Occasionally the dog boss and the 4 guys in Mandalorian Raiders can be hard if you run into knockback, pushback, and LoS issues.

 

It is really the trash pulls that can be interesting. I use more cooldowns and have more energy problems on bad trash pulls than boss fights.

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I will admit the first time through each Level 55 HM Flashpoint was a pain and we had a few wipes. However, after seeing them first hand and understanding the mechanics I think they are tuned just about right. They are not the facerolls that Level 50 HM FP became, yet, but they are not impossible either. I’ve just had to concentrate on healing and priorities my healing to the tank, myself and to the dps actually playing as a team or the dps putting out the highest output. It requires the healer to pay attention to not only the health bars, but everything else going on in the fight.

 

I will say, I have done all the 55 HM flashpoints a few times each and I have done all or most of the 2 level 55 SM Ops and the flashpoints seem harder to me to heal. Still I am very happy for something that does not put me half to sleep healing and love the FPs as is.

Edited by mikebevo
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tbh, I disagree. I think mostly it's people getting spoiled from previous HM experience.

 

The flashpoints are ideally balanced for gear rating 148. I've healed a tank who had black hole or worse DPS gear with my black hole scoundrel with some rakata pieces, not even fully augmented.

 

It's difficult, but absolutely doable (in fact, nobody died). And that's with both tank and healer ideally undergeared for the content. The dps too weren't exactly in fully arkanian gear, more likely in 63/66s if we were lucky.

 

In the end, they're fine and will be very easy again once people start overgearing them as we did with the old ones (which were balance around gear with rating under 126 and were done with gear in rating up to 150)

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My main is an operative healer. As soon as I dinged 55, I paired with a guildie DPS and jumped in the queue. I could tell right away that these FPs were no joke for the healer. The tank knew what he was doing too, and I had 61/63 gear. That was still some of the most intense healing I've had to do in this game thus far. I like it.
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What class are you?

 

Im a sorc healer and could maybe give you a few tips on each boss.

 

Hammer Station is really just cleansing at 5 stacks and healing through. Most people actually find the bonus frog boss more difficult.

 

Athiss for the final boss your group just needs to 1) avoid fire and 2) not stand in purple circles. The boss also has a big dot that (without looking) I feel hits for something like 10-15k. You can cleanse it, but I generally just heal through it. Important to keep players topped off so that this dot doesnt kill them.

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The new FP's are much more mechanics based than the previous HM's. Thus, if the group does not follow the mechanics (or finds a way to trick the mechanics in your favor) you will have a hard time healing.

 

I have healed all of them on my Merc and yes, it was a little more difficult out of the box with 61/63 mods, but once you get just a few pieces of 66/69, it gets much easier.

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I have to disagree as well... I am loving the new mechanics and difficulty level. I would find any game boring that I never died playing, and a tank-and-spank fight could not be any less interesting to me. If the game is not a challenge, I potentially will lose interest quickly.

I play a Sage and there are some fights where at the end my heart is racing and it was very exciting! Add to this the Star Wars music building in the background and I think the new HM FPs rock.

That said, in a couple months when we are all geared up these will be a cake walk too... just in time for the next content release :D

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From what I have seen in the new 55 FPs... the tanks take a TON of damage, even on the trash. You can't just run through the FP willy nilly and aggro everything.

 

Now, the healing needs HAVE intensified a bit, however, especially on the bosses, as long as the tank is holding aggro, and the dps is avoiding unnecessary damage, there really shouldn't be much healing going on, other than the healer healing the tank. If as the healer, you find yourself dropping a lot of green numbers on the dps, they are probably doing something wrong.

 

As for the droid boss in Hammer Station with the cleanse? When I do that on my DPS Merc... I always let the healer know to cleanse at 5 stacks, and I will re-cleanse the tank at 5 more stacks. I will also occasionally drop Kotlo Missile or a heal or two on tank or the DPS to help lighten the load on the healer. The enrage timers are not SO tight, that a few lost dps to dropping a few heals is going to make or break anything. (actually, don't ONLY the bonus bosses have enrage? Or is it the bonus bosses and the final bosses?)

 

Basically.... what I am trying to say, is that in the new FPs, with how the mobs hit, and the tank's new mitigation calculations... healers will find themselves really focusing on the tanks more than before, so it's crucial that the tank keep aggro off the DPS (which also may mean using CC, and the DPS not being stupid and breaking it early) and the DPS not taking unnecessary damage, and the classes that CAN, help out the healer when they can spare it.

 

My 2credits anyway.

Edited by Ocho-Quatro
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As a healer main the first time I stepped into the new 55 FPs I did notice some interesting mechanics compared to the previous FPs, e.g. need to cleanse, healers pull more aggro etc...

 

The main trick is as with all FPs is to know the boss fights, most of the bosses that have hard hitting dots, i.e. last boss on Athiss don't hit that hard normally so your job as a healer is just to keep an eye on the dots. With 2.0 this is easier as you can resize the debuffs but if you dont want to do this just keep an eye on the whack-a-mole bars and when you see a party member taking ~3k/sec then cleanse. All healers should have their cleanse skills hotkeyed (i.e. mine is hotkeyed as Z)

 

I actually like the added challenge in the new 55s and once you get 2-3 pieces of Black Market the FPs are very easy, hell a well co-ordinated team should be able to run through these FPs. It helps if the tank and healer has confidence in each others abilities and that the DPS follow the trash rotations, i.e. weakest->strong, tank should be strong->weak. Only exceptions to this rotation is to pull aggro off the healer, which we get more of now.

 

In each new 55 FP there is always a challenging area to heal through, Mando Raiders I am looking at you with the dog pulls, but with a little strategy the pulls become relatively trivial.

 

The new 55 FPs (like the unnerfed LI HM) teach people to use all their skills, i.e. tanks need to taunt and position correctly, dps need to know when to drop aggro and focus fire (also a CC/interrupt occasionally would be nice :) ) and healers need to be able to cleanse, manage their energy and keep up the tank. This in turn allows players to progress into Operations which should be the goal of the Flashpoints, ie. teach the players the mechanics as this was skipped mainly through levelling

Edited by bsbrad
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This is coming from a player who's main in SWTOR is a tank (JKG) but who has played a LOT of healers in a LOT of games over the years (I even have a level 50 scoundrel), so take this for what it is worth...

 

The level 55 HM FPs are fine just the way they are. They are all doable without wiping, and here's the key, if every group member pays attention and does the job they are expected to do. There is no more ROFLstomping through an FP. Tanks have to pay attention to where the rest of the group is located before jumping into combat. CC is important again. Players actually have to pay attention to their surroundings to make sure the group is not overwhelmed. Players need to make sure that everyone in the group knows the fight.

 

On the subject of cleansing, I'm glad that cleansing debuffs is now something that healers have to do. Healers have had the ability to cleanse for some time, but up until now the ability had no real purpose. Now it does.

 

Healing and healer responsibilities are more pro-active...this is a GOOD thing.

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I don't remember the dot from the final boss in Athiss ever did any significant damage. Are you sure it's not because the tank is standing in the purple circle of doom?

 

The only valid compliant would be the droid in Athiss because it's actually not obvious at all that the laser is stacking debuff at a first glance. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Your DPS are supposed to burn down stuff and CC, including using stuns, if necessary. If you want to charge into a pack of 5 strongs or 2 turrets of doom in Mandolorian Raiders and expect to live without using CDs you'll be very disappointed.

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I have been in far too many FPs where even healers in full 69's quit because of far too many wipes. I foresee a great deal of less people wanting to bear the burden of being blame for wipes (because they already were) and even less people will choose to be healers. This role is already by FAR the least played and less desirable role. It was ALREADY difficult to come across great healers let alone good ones.

Help me out guys, am I just having bad luck with the 55 FPs?

 

I promise you, those 69 geared healers rage quitting are not the good ones. A skilled 69 geared healer with low latency should be able to keep everyone topped off a majority of the time, or close to it. Try mezzing a couple of elites if things are too rough.

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I think it is mostly a player skill issue. The healing required for flashpoints is not at all extreme. Any competent tank and healer combo should steamroll through the flashpoints. Just yesterday, we were short a tank and we 1 shot all of the bosses in HM Athiss with 3 dps and a healer. We had snipers tanking on each of the bosses! Edited by bbare
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Honestly the FP's are fine for the most part, there are some trash packs that could use some toning down (like the dogs in mando raiders) and certain bosses just have a ton of HP as a lazy *** way of making the fight longer/harder (Battle lord Kreshan) and the usual bugs (Cadimemu).

 

It's really more about learning to use your cooldowns and actually remember that you have a cleanse button, of course if your pugging well thats never fun if you get a tank who's horrendously undergeared/stupid, run with your guild/friends to help make things a little easier too.

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i did a 55 flashpoint with my guild. the tank was in dps gear and a shield (hadnt tank for the longest time) and the healer was a commando that had only just switched to heals for the first time. we wiped once because the healer started doing his dps rotation by accident. so no, these flashpoints arent as hard as you say. Edited by thatPERSON
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Found that at first it was a pain for semi-geared team and healing. Usually lost the TANK at the end of each Bonus Boss Fight, but managed to finish. Being in 69's now I'm seeing less issues except when a tank just doesn't know how to tank. (IE: Use his/her GCD's and/or tools)

 

Stupid SHACKLE bug is extremely BW-FAIL and needs to be corrected, but most of the others are pretty bug free.

 

I do agree the dogs are a tad overboard on trash mobs.

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I promise you, those 69 geared healers rage quitting are not the good ones. A skilled 69 geared healer with low latency should be able to keep everyone topped off a majority of the time, or close to it. Try mezzing a couple of elites if things are too rough.

 

A 69 geared healer isn't even going to come close to outhealing the DPS of say the 5 strong droid pack in Athiss that all do Charged Burst for 5K at the same time if the tank didn't use a CD, or the turrets of doom in Mandolorian Raiders. Of course you got to ask why is your tank not using CD, or why is the healer not CCing one of the strong (all healer types can CC any mob not immune to CC)?

 

Elites generally aren't a big deal. If you want to reduce damage, you should really mez the strongs. It usually makes more sense to mez the elite while your DPS burns down the strongs, but that'd require your DPS know what they're doing too. Nobody is gong to tank 4 strong mobs comfortably in the 55 FPs for a very long time, but at least 2 of those should die in the first 10 seconds if your DPS is any good.

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Found that at first it was a pain for semi-geared team and healing. Usually lost the TANK at the end of each Bonus Boss Fight, but managed to finish. Being in 69's now I'm seeing less issues except when a tank just doesn't know how to tank. (IE: Use his/her GCD's and/or tools)

 

Stupid SHACKLE bug is extremely BW-FAIL and needs to be corrected, but most of the others are pretty bug free.

 

I do agree the dogs are a tad overboard on trash mobs.

 

There's usually an explosive fuel tank or a coolant box near the big dog packs. You're supposed to use them. I think there are like 2 large dog packs where you get no help at all, but if you can mez at least 2 of them they're manageable. Your healer can always do one, and hopefully someone else in the group can mez another.

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To be fair, Bioware is talking out of both sides of their mouth a bit with the gear rating on these. They have always described the Basic gear vendor as "preparing you for group content at level 55," and by design obviously everything you do from 51-55 is intended to give you Basic comms. Basic gear is rating 156, so that all implies that you're "expected" to come into 55 HM FPs with that level of gear.

 

On the other hand, the weekly mission description says the recommended gear rating is only 146, which is Black Hole / Campaign. If everyone knows exactly what they're doing, then that rating is probably adequate, but that's never a sound assumption in PUGs. With 146 rated gear you have very little margin for error, and PUGs are nothing if not error prone.

 

In order for random uncoordinate groups to succeed more often than not, they need more safety margin, and that means a bit higher gear than the lowest "recommended." Fortunately it's pretty cheap and easy to gear up to Basic level with abundant 156 rated armorings, barrels, hilts, mods, and etc. available on the GTN.

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Healing in full 66 itemised gear, with remaining old 50 augments. Absolutely not having problems with any of those FPs, even the Hammer boss is easy to heal. But... you have to know what you are doing. No more just clicking one skill and that did the job, when we were all totally overgeared for the old FPs.

 

And finally there is fun to do - there is cleansing, there is more accent put on the AoE, you need to watch the procs and such. It''s much more fun to play healing sorc.

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CC and group coordination have become so much more important in level 55 FPs as it should be. Too many people just running ahead and dying for no reason or causing a wipe for no other reason than being impatient.

 

If you have a CC it should be used. Tank should pull first (Guardian/Jugg or VG/PT Tanks mainly) and then everyone who has OOC (out of combat) CC should use edit: before tank pulls. In combar after...

 

Now because of so many derp DPS doing their own thing, when I Tank I mark who I want DPS to focus on. I had to explain this to a DPS and why after 3 wipes in Cademimu before the Police/Droid boss. (DPS would aoe everyone I CC'd and wonder why we wiped). Now, I put flame on anyone I want people to burn down first.

 

If I'm healing Ill CC as soon as the Tank leaps/Stealths in. Even if they didn't ask me too. It makes my job easier. When I heal I try to let the tank call everything but sometimes Tanks don't know how to take the leadership role and I hate having to repair multiple times in a FP that doesn't net me the cost of my repair bills.

Edited by VigDiath
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just having bad luck with the 55 FPs?

 

It's not the gear that matters. My first level 55 was Cad and we wiped only twice on the Bonus boss. I had 63s and the tank had 61s (the dps had 58s). This wasn't a problem because the pug discussed strategy before each boss. I'm primarily a healer (heck look at my sig) and can say that healing 55 FPs is really a matter of coordination. Case in point, 2nd boss of MR. The boss doesn't do that much dps but if the group doesn't move to avoid AoEs and focus on the kill order the fight becomes a hot mess. In many fights it's not healing that's tough: it's healing people who are standing in things they shouldn't or the tank not doing their job properly. I think you've being getting unprepared groups skillwise rather than gearwise.

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