Some of my readers really make me dream. This is totally the case with Korgall who sent me an email a few days ago that sounded a bit like “Well I did that, I thought you might be interested”. The “it” is an analysis table of the comparative effectiveness of the different treatments in the game thanks to data and formulas retrieved from TORhead. It's a working document, but if you want to take a look at it, it's available online at Google Doc. I advise you to go and watch it, it's very informative and will bring you lots of cool information. Besides, open it in fact, you have no choice, I will not have fun recalling the figures in the article, so if you want to get an idea by reading me, you will have to have it in front of you. In addition, you can take a look at the site's forum, in the section devoted to the Scholar and the Sorcerer where it already caused a lot of these scaling questions last week.
Well you can imagine that faced with such a thing, I had a reaction like: “Omg but that's too good!” and that ben here, a few days later, an article arrives. As always, take the following with a grain of salt. This data comes from TORhead and although it is normally quite good, everything can still change. Some things are missing because the data is not yet accessible or because it was missed. Talent influence is normally taken into account, but there can be mistakes. In short, this table is a way to give you an idea of how it works at the moment, if you want to do your own calculations, it is better to go and get the original data yourself at the source. But hey, that's still valid info and overall bullet bomb. That being said, let's see what information this analysis brings us on the comparative power of heals and healer classes.
No big surprise, that's good news!
For those who still doubted it, the analysis of formulas and scaling of skincare skills shows us that the developers and game designers at Bioware have not totally sunk into cheap potato alcohol. Overall, what we observe is logical and holds up well. HoTs have a good effective heal / cost ratio compared to direct heals, AoEs are profitable from 2-4 targets, rapid heals cost more, instants do not heal too hard, etc. I won't go into detail, go digging if you're a little familiar with the heal mechanics in a TOR-style game, but you'll see that there aren't any big surprises in what we have here. . This is very good in the sense that it means that things are balanced and that a priori there is no useless healing skill (aka the heal which costs an arm and has a ridiculous cost / effect ratio) and no totally smoky stuff either (aka the care that makes the coffee and costs nothing without having the slightest flaw).
In short, we have a good little system that is taking shape before our eyes, and it's nice to think that it should work properly. By the way, I will clarify it immediately for people who will inevitably ask the question and interpret crappy stuff from the board: no, no class is better than another. It's balanced, really. Sorry for those who still hope to find the magic class where you press a button and it wins the warzone / drop the boss. For that, if you are in need of gameplay with the difficulty and the balancing adapted for quadriplegic child, there are the games on PS3. I know, however, that these class stories are what interests you, so we will try to see what this painting teaches us on that side. See which skill works how for each class, and especially towards which main role they destine you in your job of healer.
The Scholar / Wizard
Versatility and power embodied!
Let's see what the numbers tell us Force users. First of all, we have the most powerful AoE in the game, especially since in an ideal world you can fit more than four people in it. It may not be the most practical to use, but in terms of sending massive area heal on a packaged operation, it will remain the reference. Well, it costs a little an arm, it takes a long time to spell, yeah, but shit, it sends the pie. Okay, so coming to another skill that will be the signature of the class, Force Armor sends as you might expect heavy. Better skill in terms of care sent / cast time ratio, far ahead of the big moments of the other two classes, it's very violent. Good after, it's to be moderated in the sense that it costs us a lot of talent points to get there, that it still has a cooldown and that we cannot put it on whoever we want because of the debuff. Still, it will remain a hell of a good trick to mitigate the damage on the tank and save a person under focus. The good surprise from my point of view is the healing trance, compared to its cost (and especially the fact that it brings us free regen via the talents), it is still a healing spell. well strong. This is all the more interesting as it is typically a modular spell since you can stop the channeling in progress without losing all the care involved. Interesting. For other skills, not much to say. The HoT is interesting as one would expect, especially in terms of treatment / cost ratio, the two basic treatments are ... basic treatments. We prefer to play thoroughly with trance and new youth to save Strength.
Ok, that's all well and good, we can see the gameplay overall. What influence does that have on our role in an operation or in general in a group? For me, this is clearly a versatile role. We have a way to have a very effective tank heal cycle based on shield, trance, HoT and a little direct heal to polish the whole thing. Besides that, we are the strike force when it comes to putting together a packaged raid which is expensive, and we know that this kind of situation is frequent in boss strategies in mmorpg. And we also have a good ability to react to an isolated target that takes dirty with Shield + HoT + random heal. In short, we do everything, we do it quite a bit, but you still have to watch out for the Force points that pass. In my opinion, the Scholar / Sorcerer must be the quiet force in a healing team, the one who cheats on the brakes, saves his resources while the others take care of the bulk of the group's outfit and brings out the heavy artillery when the time comes. peak damage. In PvP, it should be strong when it comes to arriving on a teamfight and getting back up / holding your group in less than two, on the other hand it will be clearly stretched to keep up with an AoE not suitable for warzones, a pipeline hard to use and Force armor that sucks resource to death.
The Thief / Agent
He does the job, and the cow he does it well.
For the past few weeks, I've been freaking out future Thugs and Secret Agents because of the Advantage which is scary because we tell ourselves that we won't have it when we need to, that we are going to heal like molds, that the world is too unfair, etc. It's time to take out the calculator to see what it is and what these tarlouzes who hide behind boxes and lattice the family jewels really have in the pants. Fuck yeah! Already, the best HoT in the game, it's basically brutal, stacked twice on a target, it's a monster. In short, it is the weapon to hold his operation or his tank in easy way mode. The instant emergency care is not disappointing, contrary to what the figures might lead us to believe, it must be remembered that it is an instant and free care, especially since it does not consume the advantage on the targets. less than 30% of life. For the Diagnosis, I am not yet 100% sure of the figures we have, to be taken with a grain of salt, in any case remember that it is free care and regen. It is used to procrastinate. Good surprise at the level of the basic care, Medicines / Injection which sends much more wood than what I expected. Well, the cast is long, of course, but it's still the spell that doesn't consume the Advantage, and it heals hard enough, we're not going to complain. The icing on the cake is the AoE which for a moment cheap in resources allows to ensure a group heal that is just dirty, violent, dirty and naughty. Well, it doesn't tick very hard, but bug it hits 4 targets and it lasts 15 seconds, if that doesn't do the job, I don't know what you need.
Conclusion? The Thief / Agent promises to be the benchmark operation heal. So of course, there's not really enough to save the lives of all of his friends in three seconds, or enough to raise a tank at the speed of light, but if it is to hold his group in front to a steady influx of damage, keeping his resource high and his hand in the pocket (* ahem *), there you have your man. If you enjoy being the puppet master and holding the life of your operation in your hands while giggling, you have chosen your class well. And then, let's not exaggerate anything, by burning its advantage, we still have the moment and the big, very violent heal for cheap. It won't be an obvious class to play, clearly, but a well-performing Rogue / Agent will be a must-have in any operation group. For PvP, I'll just ask you a glue: in your opinion, a double HoT and free violent moments on a target that drops below 30%, does that allow you to keep a focus? Let it be said, hidden behind their blanket, these healers are monsters.
The Commando / Mercenary
The friend of tanks and cacs.
So having a big gun is cool, but behind it, what do we have? Heavy armor enthusiasts have some nice surprises in their pocket on the heal side. It starts off strong with the Kolto Bulwark / Trauma Probe, the class's must-have healing skill. A "shaman-style" shield that heals a target at a cost ... nonexistent. Randomly, it is the tank who will benefit from this, and god he will love. A total heal which is just the best of the game in single target, intelligent which is more since it only triggers in the event of damage and overall, in terms of HoT, it is just the biggest tic of the game apart from the double stacking of HoT of Thieves / Agents. In short, it's dirty. The AoE sells a lot of dreams too. Okay, three targets, an average total heal, but a ridiculously low cost, a concrete synergy and above all fast and violent tics, in short, an AoE that goes up its targets quickly, and that's good. The instant heal is good, just enough to compensate for its cooldown, good as soon as you consider that in addition it is free, it starts to give a lot of happiness. The other two treatments (base and flash heal) are downright sexy compared to those of the other classes. Well, you have to compensate for the few resources, that's not how we will go back to a raid in an emergency situation, but overall, it will do your tank good. For the shooting in healing mode, my faith it will do the job well, whatever it is that it sends in real healing on the ground, it is not what you ask of it, it is there to mount the stacks.
If you hadn't understood it yet (but it should be fine by now): the Commando / Mercenary is the big heal tank that stains with hairs under the arms. Skills that consume but send fat, a just smoky shield that will be essential on your main tank, a perfect AoE to put on the CaC to maximize the heal tank and support it on melee dps. That is the demand of the people ? A free moment to complete everything and manage emergency situations. Okay. Let's not go so far as to say that a Commando will not be able to hold on to group heal, with a little skill and intelligence in the management of the resource and the placement of the grenades / rockets, it will also pass. , but let's be honest, that's not what it is. In PvP? Overall, you have doubts about your usefulness given what you send as a single target? Not me.
Conclusion
Life is fucking beautiful children!
I'm going to sound like I'm repeating myself, but frankly it's promising, or it's just me with poo in my eyes. We have three healers who assert their differences but a system that seems well balanced. Heals with clearly identified characteristics and different and complementary functions. We can of course expect some balancing needs on the loose ends but overall it smells good. On the other hand, we will surely have to expect different healmeters from what we have known. A Commando should have a lot of trouble keeping a Thief in group heal mode when it comes to sending pure healing, but the job isn't the same! I'm not even talking about the force users who will surely have to chomp on their brakes before sending the sauce in the overheal phases, etc., etc. We will have to get used to the idea that in TOR, if we have not revolutionized the care, we have nevertheless brought it a facelift not innocent, and I repeat, the difference and the variety of resource systems is at the heart of that evolution.
