SWTOR - Choose your healer

For many players, being a healer is a calling, a question that does not even arise, and with each new game, the only question they ask themselves is what class they will save the buttocks with. their little friends. I understand these people, and I even help them, because I'm a good guy, and yeah! The NDA having fallen, prepare yourself, in addition to the guides, for a good little recap / comparison which should allow you to know under what features you will soon save lives in The Old Republic.

Note: the following is only my opinion and is based on my little beta experience. I haven't played any of these classes at max level, and for the most part I'm extrapolating gameplay elements from my mid-level tests and talent trees. So don't come and complain if the class I described to you doesn't seem like the one of your dreams. Don't piss me off, I'm a bad guy, I eat babies and everything.

 

What will make the difference? By way of introduction, I would like to remind you that we are soon in 2012, and that the elitist world of video games has been made casualized by blows of pallets of dollars, DLC and wiimote. So do not expect classes with a totally distinct and complementary design in an almost essential way, we are in the logic of a lot of mmo at the moment: a healer must be able to fulfill any role (heal tank , heal raid, etc.). However, The Old Republic at least gives us the pleasure of providing quite different styled healers, especially through various resource systems, and that's pretty cool. We therefore have, despite a common base (a small heal, a large heal, a HoT, an Aoe, etc.), healers who offer somewhat varied possibilities: in short, what to choose.

 

Sage / Sorcerer: the great classic that has it all First thing to know, the two classes on the Galactic Republic or Sith Empire side are pure mirrors, apart from the name of the skills, everything is similar. Well there is one who heals with the kind force on the side of the good guys and the other who patched up with the corruption of the villains, but overall: same resource, same mechanisms, same healer. The resource, let's talk about it, is what makes these classes the most classic, or at least the ones that appear the most traditional in The Old Republic. You use Force points quite logically, you have a reserve of 600 points at level 50 and the average spell costs you around 8. Regeneration side, it goes back to about 2 per second, in short, we are in the framework of what we would call mana on another game for example. You have a large pool, it regenerates slowly; you will have understood that the stake of these classes will be in the economy of resources by treating only what is necessary to keep some under the feet for the difficult moments (you know, when the tank starts to cry on mumble ). The downside is that you'll be the healer who is most likely to run dry. I also propose oof for Out Of Force, but I feel that this acronym will be worth mocking me just for what it risks giving in vocal: "Hey guys, I'm oof!". In short. The advantage, however, is that as long as you are not empty, you have plenty of resources to save people who are suffering. In PvP in particular, it should allow good big sessions of intense heal to save 3-XNUMX people, even if it means dying in the aftermath like a sausage from Auvergne. Talents and skills side, we stay in very classic systems (I invite you to look at the guides for details). What differentiates these two classes from their competitors and colleagues is having at their disposal an absorption shield, greatly enhanced by talents, that they can lay on anyone. This kind of skill is frankly interesting since we are talking about intelligent heal (as long as your target takes or will take damage, a shield is protection without over-heal) and they are not very many in The Old Republic. You suddenly have a nice array of varied treatments, a large reserve of resources, but suddenly not enough panic buttons (you know, those keys that you press to save a guy's buttocks at 5% of life): basically you will be satisfied with a small buff that makes you criticize your next three heals and a clever use of your spells. For the sidelines, you are not too badly provided. You have a zone bump to send the unwanted back to the tank, controls like "You, you stay there spinning in the air and you shut up", a small shield to save your buttocks and stuff to slow down and kite bad guys if needed. Which in the end is not bad.

• Advantages

• Large reserve of resources: good burst capacity you have.
• With an absorption shield, make the peons dream you go.
• Thanks to good crowd control skills, piss off people.

 

• Drawbacks

 

• Low regeneration, your resources will have to be managed, or you will end up dry.
• Few emergency heals, manage to avoid complex situations you will have to.
• Light armor, in foam you are, dear you will take.

• Who is this class for?
• Those used to classic heal standards (a la WoW) and who like resource management and smart heal.
• Gamers looking for something not too confusing but demanding.
• Lovers of lightsabers.

 

Thug / Secret Agent: healer and fufu, where do we sign? Once again, the two classes are very similar on the Republic or Empire side, so we won't go into this too much. On the resource side, we have energy. It is a bar of 100 points which regenerates quite quickly, and which also has the particularity of filling up more or less quickly depending on the amount remaining. To put it simply, the less energy you have, the less it regenerates quickly (it ranges between 2 and 5 per second). Oh what a beautiful, interesting mechanism! Basically, instead of having resource management in economy mode, we are more for this class in a tight flow with care skills that are not too expensive, a resource that goes up quickly, but you have to when even avoid stacking down, otherwise it will start reloading badly. One word: interesting. What's more, to help a little, there is a nice little cooldown that allows you to recharge your bar from time to time by taking a deep breath. To give you an idea, in beta, skilled agents / smugglers manage to heal without ever running out of steam, ever (good normal damage when people aren't doing anything eh!). In terms of healing mechanisms, these classes were initially announced as HoT oriented and then, well that changed a lot. Even if they have a fairly powerful stackable HoT and well boosted by talents. The main healing mechanism, or at least that specialization, is perk. What the hell is this thing? A buff that your little heals (short heal, HoT) have a chance to trigger and which has some nice effects. First of all, thanks to your talents, it increases the care you provide in general, which is not bad, but above all it allows you to use your biggest heals and in particular your big kikoo moment of death that kills. Well, the problem is that using those big healing skills consumes this famous buff, and you're good to wait for it to proc again. In short, the gameplay is clearly in alternation of phases. Recovery of the advantage thanks to its small care, then phase of comfortable heal by taking advantage of the bonuses and finally phase of overheal by burning the advantage to send heavy. The advantage of this gameplay is that it should be quite fun and not too monotonous, the disadvantage is that you can feel the keyboard bite when your tank falls because the advantage does not want to come for 20 seconds, what to have a little fun in short! In terms of skills, even if the design and the balancing vary a little, we generally remain in the model: a small heal, a large heal, a HoT, a pipe, an AoE, a moment, and then basta. On the talent side, a few little things that help save energy on the right and left and some little bonuses, no other big life-killing mechanism. On the other hand, what should not be forgotten with these classes is that being a healer does not deprive you of the other advantages of being a kind of old deceiver who shoots from afar hidden behind a crate! The group camouflage, the ambushes, the cover system, the knives in the back and the kicks in the nuts are yours! Well that's for sure, in PvE it seems a little more incidental, although we do not know the possible exploitations of the various skills, but in PvP, it's still a lot of pretty sexy features that agents and smugglers have. .

• Advantages

• An original and powerful resource system.
• The advantage of snapping big instant heal that stain.
• All the sides that go well (camouflage, blanket, etc.)

 

• Drawbacks

 

• Burst abilities that depend on the advantage proc.
• When things go wrong, energy regeneration decreases, hard!
• Little way to manage the party or mitigate the damage outside of HoTs.

• Who is this class for?
• Tired of the classic system of resource saving.
• Caregivers who are looking for something dynamic and demanding.
• Those who have long dreamed of being able to hide like a deceiver and hit the crotch while remaining a healer.

 

Commando / Mercenary: big guns and big care For these two classes, there is a little more to say about the difference between the Empire and Republic sides. The Mercenary and the Trooper look quite different because at first glance they don't have the same resource system. One uses ammunition to launch his skills and the other uses an overheating gauge that fills up when he uses his skills. Behind these two seemingly distant designs actually hides a deep similarity. The principle is simple: you have a twelve point gauge, whether it is empty or filled, it is the same thing. In fact, the resource system of these two classes is just reversed, but behind, it is the same mechanisms, the same costs, the same principle.

I will detail a little, because it is not obvious at first glance. The Commando therefore has an ammunition gauge, which regenerates at a speed which depends on the quantity available, exactly like the energy of the previous classes. The more ammunition the Commando has available, the faster they regenerate. For the Mercenary, on the other hand, he has a judge who is free from overheating, which fills up when he uses his skills, if it is full, he cannot throw anything until it cools down, and the less he overheats, the faster it cools, you see the principle? In short, in both cases, we have a small pool of resources that recharges relatively quickly unless you are dry. Even more than with Agents / Smugglers, the principle is to run just in time. If you only heal roughly one in two GCDs with a soldier, your ammo bar is generally still full. So you can easily hold a fight for very, very long periods of time as long as people aren't doing anything and the heal pace isn't overly sustained. You even have a little free heal via your basic shot to furnish and save resources, isn't that nice?

Now that we come to that, let's talk a little about the healing mechanisms. You have a permanent aura-style buff that allows you to boost your healing by stacking stacks from a buff and using your base fire on your allies to heal them. Yes, yes, you can treat with your big gun! In addition to that, you can via a skill on the second row of talents consume the stacks obtained via the buff for a small bonus of 10 seconds which increases the healing and gives sympathetic effects to the skills (cost reduction, healing increase, bonus effects, etc.). With that you have in addition to grenades / rockets which make area heal and heal buff, a charge shield that heals a target over time, a flash heal that buffs and increases the target's armor, a little cooldown to recharge / cool down urgently and to finish a big moment with a one-minute cooldown that sends fatty heal. Rah lovely! Other than that, it's worth noting that unlike other classes, you don't have HoT in the form of a skill. You will understand, of the three classes of healers, the Commando / Mercenary is the one who has the greatest variety of mechanisms and originality at the present time. Its gameplay is quite varied and demanding, the fact of having to mount your stacks by shooting your friends (or the villains if there is nothing to heal, it also works) is quite pleasant, and the mechanism of consumption of stacks to turn into a butt saving machine for 10 seconds is really cool. The danger is to have neither its stacks, nor its moment of up when the tank is opened, and there, well it is more tense. In short, we will have to intelligently manage the fights and anticipate death. These classes have an excellent ability to manage over time, to keep a group alive without spending any resources, but managing damage spikes and emergencies will be a real challenge.

• Advantages

• Oh damn, the resource system is so good and the heal mechanics varied and cool!
• His race, by switching posture, I can do dps with stinging flames, and even in heal, I can hit people to raise my stacks! Pay your assist dps!
• Heavy armor and big guns baby!

 

• Drawbacks

 

• Uh shit, how do we manage when things really go crazy and we don't have our cooldowns?
• Damn, it's really boring this ammunition that does not go back and this buff not stacked, I thought it was for the no-brain me!
• I am the target of very scatophile mockery on the pretext that I heal my friends with probes, it's disgusting!

• Who is this class for?
• Experienced people who want to hit a really varied and original gameplay for a healer.
• Those who prefer to manage over time, plan, anticipate rather than burster like nags.
• Lovers of big guns, heavy armor and the effect: surprise I'm heal!

 

Conclusion: well, what do I take? You have seen it, I have dealt with the three classes roughly from the most classic to the most original, each one really has its own identity and can do things that the others cannot handle at all, even so ultimately just about any of these classes will be able to do the job. There are several ways to choose:

• You can choose based on your past experience as a healer, if you are looking for stability or originality, it shouldn't be too hard to see what to turn to!
• If you want to choose based on what class you played before, that's a possibility, you can look for what comes close to what, but if you will never find exact equivalents.
• Do not hesitate to choose according to your favorite! Changing if you are disappointed is not too penalizing in The Old Republic, you will have a new story, new companions and a new game system to discover, much less boring than raising yet another healer on a classic game.
• Choosing according to your guild or companions is a possibility, but I do not recommend it, the classes are well defined, have their own style, and once you've fallen for one, you will have a hard time being satisfied. 'a default choice!
• Test through the open beta weekend. You won't have too much access to high-level heal gameplay, but the first levels of a class are a good way to capture the spirit of the class.

Need more information to make your choice? Look above you, you see the menu with the Guides, you should find what you are looking for? Edit: I also allow myself to add following many discussions following this article that I do not think that one class is fundamentally easier to play or better than another. The classes seem really balanced to me. It is above all a question of more or less confusing or original classes. I don't think there are any classes for experienced players, just some may be more appealing to them if they feel like a change from what they may have played in other games. There you go. Complement: For English speakers and the more WoW enthusiasts among you, an article broadly similar to what I do, and focusing on the comparison with WoW was posted on the mmo-champion forums today. It can give another perspective if you still have doubts.