Originally posted by retye50
Hats off to you, my friend......healing is a tough, thankless job. Don't be discouraged by the 10 % douchebag clan!! I personally run a dps character for the reasons you have talked about. The one thing I have noticed in game are the people who ask "what's your QL level?". This drives me crazy, my brain registers it as "what's your gear score?". I think to myself, "hey turd....do you think I would be LFG, just to go in and embarrass myself." Anyway, kinda went off on a stupid rant......keep up the good work, I'd run with you anytime!!!

We had a healer for Inferno that we thought was bad so I ended up offhealing.  When we got to the last boss our tank finally inspected him to see he was wearing starting gear.

Apparently he walked from Jack Boone into Savage Coast and saw our LFG advertisement for a healer.

After that, we kinda started looking closer at group members :)

Without a doubt the best healing in the game right now is groundwork with veteran and post op. That is bread and butter healing with out a doubt, besides the awesome aoe healing it will also apply a 20% plus leech to everyone. Put groundwork (veteran and post op passives) in a mouse macro with Shot of Anima (using increased dosage passive) and you will face roll nightmares as a healer. Other active abilities should include Blood Shield, Angelic Aegis (angel's Touch passive) and Cold blooded. Blood healing is great when you need to be mobile and can't always face your target to use AR abilities. Another acitve can be something like Platoon for a quick emergency instant group heal or something like The Scarlet Arts if you want another single target heal, personally I prefer the Platoon group heal cause DPS is always getting into trouble. Throw in Shadow Medic passive for the 7.5% bonus to direct heals.

Also as a healer you should also be able to cleanse your group and also purge your offensive target, don't rely on DPS for these functions (what if your DPS cleanser or purger dies? Guess what it's a wipe), sure in some cases a nice cleanup is great but rarely needed.

Since you are not alway having to heal I suggest the final active be blood Line, a 4 hit Focus attack on a one second channel that builds resources for both weapons, I suggest this ability because you can use Ready for More passive that triggers at the end of any Focus attack and performs a AOE cleanse. Final Passive would be Magnetic Variance, a purge that has 33% chance to activate on a crit. Since you are probably going to be the person in the group with the highest crit rating why not run it? And guess what, your blood line will have 4 chances per second to crit, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a purge within 3 seconds. 

So now you can heal like a beast, cleanse and purge (very important in nightmares), so even if your nightmare boss is at 80% and 2 dps are dead from aoe or just plain stupidity you just stack on that bosses ass with the one remaining dps and do your groudwork, cleansing and purging and laugh at that nightmare boss has he dies.

Run a minus hate signet and be a smart healer and you will never pull aggro, no need for any minus hate passives or actives.

Actives:

Groundwork, Shot of Anima, Blood Line, Platoon, Blood Shield, Angelic Aegis, Cold Blooded

Passives:

Angel's Touch, Veteran, Post Op, Shadow Medic, Increased dosage, Ready for More, Magnetic Variance

You will know just how good you are at healing when your group can just stand on the middle platform roasting in fire and take the boots to the Flesh Tank in nightmare Hell Raised for the last 250k of his health.  Why run around like chickens with your heads cut off avoiding fire when your heals and cleanses make the fight trivial.

You say you are new to MMO's so heres my generic advice.

---

The absolute #1 rule for healing in a MMO: make friends with one or two tanks and practice working together at every opportunity. Know what the tank does and why. Know when the tank needs your heals and when they dont. Learn the fights to widen that knowledge. Practice. You will become a good healer.

Then when your tank(s) are not available learn how to team with random tanks and determine quickly what they do differently and is it better or worse. If better, then great, you have something to tell your tank friends. If worse, then try to explain to the tanks how they can improve.

Keep a list of tanks that will listen and try to stick with it.

Then you'll have fun.

Rule#2: if a dps dies often work out quickly why. If its their fault explain it to them once. If they dont listen ignore them.

If its the tanks fault, go back to Lesson #1.

If its your fault, have another coffee or log off for a while :)

cheers

Here's another solid AR/Blood build with early, mid, and end versions:  http://dulfy.net/2012/07/14/bloody-assaultan-arblood-healer-build/ 

Good explanations about the choices made also.

If you want to be a healer for the first dungeon it is very wise to repeat content to grind out a lot more AP. Other roles really don't need to do this other than the tank maybe (perhaps why they take such a beating). The best healing passives and actives come in the upper tree so those trying to heal with the bulk of powers in the lower tree will be doing a piss poor job.

It is completely amazing how much of your ability comes from your passives and to build really good decks you need to snipe passives from other weapon trees. That is something you simply can't afford in AP early in the game.

As others have stated this is an active game.  If you sit still and get in an AOE you will die.  You can avoid all the attacks from the final boss for the most part in Polaris.  The Mdps might get hit a few and toss them a heal, but all ranged characters should be avoiding the AOEs.

I find if you enjoy healing to get yourself in a cabal.  That way you are appreciated by your cabal and you will always have good tanks as well, and knowledgable DPS.  (I did Polaris without a cabal, but nothing afterward)

Not going to go much into builds, but if you like AR, get Veteran Elite passive ASAP.  Its absolutely amazing.

I've actually taken some build ideas from this thread and put them into a evernote noteook..good stuff.  I am into the theorycrafting.

I only have 1 friend who plays this game, but we play at different times.  I do need to find a cabal.  I am in the mmorpg.com Dragon Cabal, but there doesn't seem to be much activity..I have progressed slowly so most in that Cabal are way ahead of me.

I healed in Polaris last night..no problems.  I added shot of anima to the rotation with fists and the tank stood no problem.  I am working on rotating through the group of DPS to give them quick heals..but thinking my next unlock should be platoon so I have 1 aoe for everyone.  

I know people love Blood healers, but just isn't my style.  I have enough ideas to for AR/FISTS.

Thanks again for all of the feedback..all of the replies have been helpful and worth thinking over.

I decided to try healing in TSW for the first time in my MMO career, and one of the very first lessons I learned was "as a Healer, you are not going to heal your group's lack of tactics, you are going to heal their healthbars".

If everyone "stands in the fire", you may as well just sit down and watch. Doing Polaris with various pugs, I could sometimes sail through it, and sometimes fail to complete it. Yet I was using the same skills and gear each time. Some people tend to think that because there is a healer in the group, they don't have to avoid obvious incoming damage, because they will be healed.

So as a "intern" in the Healing profession, don't be discouraged if you can't keep everyone alive every time. After a while, you will get a feel for what you can and cannot do, and what other people should be doing to help you.

After restarting about 4 times in a row (that's going through about 4 hours each) I've finally settled on the faction and mix I'm going for, and it's exactly the same as yours. Assault Rifle/Fists. I played all day yesterday, it being a nice day off, and got to Polaris and went in as main healer. Twice. The first time the tank was awesome and I had no troubles at all, the second time the tank was taking a lot of damage, not to mention we nearly wiped at the part with the electricity in the water as the dumb DPS thought they'd be fine standing in that. We did manage to kill the last boss on the second attempt though.

After playing around briefly with Blood healing in my previous Preacher build, I have to say the AR/Fists combo is so much harder, there's a ton of stuff to remember on top of all the running around you need to do. Mixing the two's passive abilities is also tough. Preacher had a lot of synergy with Blood and Blades, but I'm not seeing so much with the AR/Fists.

A few things I'd like to know: My plan is, due to needing to hit to heal with AR, to get the Head and Major talismans with Heal bonuses and the Lesser talismans with To Hit bonuses. Is that a good idea, or should I go all heal? Also, what's the point of blue talismans? Am I missing something? Stat wise they're better, but they lose so much health and other stuff I really don't see the appeal of them. All the greens I have give extra health and are only a few points below what a blue can give. e.g. Green Heal = 90, Blue Heal = 140. Is that a big difference or not? Big enough to lose the 100+ health on the green for?

The stats in this game are probably the most confusing thing for me. What with To Hit and Attack, Evade, Block, Defense, Penetration, Crit Rating, and so on.. What do I actually need? Should I be getting a bit of each? Focusing on one or the other? I don't know!

Originally posted by UsualSuspect

 

A few things I'd like to know: My plan is, due to needing to hit to heal with AR, to get the Head and Major talismans with Heal bonuses and the Lesser talismans with To Hit bonuses. Is that a good idea, or should I go all heal? Also, what's the point of blue talismans? Am I missing something? Stat wise they're better, but they lose so much health and other stuff I really don't see the appeal of them. All the greens I have give extra health and are only a few points below what a blue can give. e.g. Green Heal = 90, Blue Heal = 140. Is that a big difference or not? Big enough to lose the 100+ health on the green for?

 

You need two things. Heal Rating and Critical Rating. Critical Rating, because you probably will use Empowerement passive elite from fists that heals for additional 300-400 if your HoT crits. Health should stay at 1970 for most of nightmare fights (except of a few bosses).

And don't listen that a good healer requires cleanse for nightmares, there is only one boss in all three NMs where cleanse is helpful, but not mandatory, and that's the final boss in Hell Raised. Still I managed to heal through the DoT without any cleanse and everyone survived. Those who says that you need to have pistols for your secondary are probably poor healers,

Originally posted by Pyuk

If you're able to beat the last boss with only 2 wipes, you're doing fine. Folks who die at the drop of a hat and have never played healers are the biggest entitled whiners. I consider any raid boss encounter a success if we only wipe a couple of times. I usually play a tank, btw.

This is why putting these things as the sole job of one person was always a dumb design, IMO.  They will always be entitled.  The tank and spank games are designed to keep them ignorant and narrowminded.

Try switching out AR for Blood.  It makes a world of difference because to get the best heals with AR you need to actually do DPS as well.  Its not hard but just alot harder then it normally would be as now you got to pay attention to misses and glances so you have to gear a little different.

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by Pyuk

If you're able to beat the last boss with only 2 wipes, you're doing fine. Folks who die at the drop of a hat and have never played healers are the biggest entitled whiners. I consider any raid boss encounter a success if we only wipe a couple of times. I usually play a tank, btw.

This is why putting these things as the sole job of one person was always a dumb design, IMO.  They will always be entitled.  The tank and spank games are designed to keep them ignorant and narrowminded.

So you would rather have it so that all members of the group can heal (and tank and dps) equally well ? And everyone has the same health and resists ? How exciting...

How do you manage aggro in that setup ? The boss will attack whoever is dealing the highest dps. If everyone is dealing exactly the same dps, most likely the one who landed the first hit will be attacked. So what happens then ? That person stops attacking and starts healing themselves, while the rest keep on attacking ? Or everyone stops attacking and starts healing the one taking damage ?

Because unless everyone has exactly the same skills, spells and stats, people will split into roles by themselves, so that they can focus on what they can (or like to) do best. That is what happens in TSW, because there are no rigid "classes" with pre-defined roles.

As a person who plays healers mainly I always used to feel beleagured when so much is placed on my shoulders. The tank and healer are the most abused players. Everything is their fault and I really think it is unfair but the alternative of everyone healing and tanking is not attarctive either but City of Heroes/Villains managed some interesting encounters with no real healers or tanks and it was such an interesting game but for the pitiful number of enviroments for the missions which finally made me leave. But gameplay wise the debuff,shields and CC game was one of the best.

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by Pyuk

If you're able to beat the last boss with only 2 wipes, you're doing fine. Folks who die at the drop of a hat and have never played healers are the biggest entitled whiners. I consider any raid boss encounter a success if we only wipe a couple of times. I usually play a tank, btw.

This is why putting these things as the sole job of one person was always a dumb design, IMO.  They will always be entitled.  The tank and spank games are designed to keep them ignorant and narrowminded.

hmm I never got the game because I felt there wasn't enough to keep me occupied since I could finish my build in 2 days but I solo healed polaris and inferno in beta np even with team that had no idea what they were doing.

Hell in inferno I had one group that the fight on the bridge with the fire they took to long so we had to kill the boss with me keeping them alive inside the fire and then they all died against the last boss so i did the last 20k of his hp solo so yeah i could dps while solo healing easily just had to know what skills so I don't see a problem

@Thillian

As for the pistol thing I went blood/pistols to try get the bots to heal with cleanse and for the %30 heal increase. They sucked long cooldowns wasting slots changed to blood/AR and healing got so much easier and i could dps while healing alot more. Only problem is AR attacks that heal not giving blood stacks so just had to find a blance that worked for me

Also not sure if they changed it for release but cold blooded was ridiculously OP

OP you're doing a great job.  The tank and healer need to stick together.  If DPS has issues, fuck 'em and find new DPS.  They're a dime a dozen.  Healing and Tanking is not.  remember that.

This comes from someone whom has a support/healing/dps build in TSW.  I'm working on tank build now.

Anybody can play anything.  If people are complaining as DPS in this game not getting heals, almost 99% it's because they suck.  Not you.  Keep the tank up.  That's your job.  If DPS needs a few heals and you have a second, throw them one.  Otherwise tell them there's Consumable toolkits in the game and that they can go buy some to make their own healing pots to save their own dumb ass.

Don't get discouraged.  You're doing great.

Originally posted by SpottyGekko

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by Pyuk

If you're able to beat the last boss with only 2 wipes, you're doing fine. Folks who die at the drop of a hat and have never played healers are the biggest entitled whiners. I consider any raid boss encounter a success if we only wipe a couple of times. I usually play a tank, btw.

This is why putting these things as the sole job of one person was always a dumb design, IMO.  They will always be entitled.  The tank and spank games are designed to keep them ignorant and narrowminded.

So you would rather have it so that all members of the group can heal (and tank and dps) equally well ? And everyone has the same health and resists ? How exciting...

 

How do you manage aggro in that setup ? The boss will attack whoever is dealing the highest dps. If everyone is dealing exactly the same dps, most likely the one who landed the first hit will be attacked. So what happens then ? That person stops attacking and starts healing themselves, while the rest keep on attacking ? Or everyone stops attacking and starts healing the one taking damage ?

 

 

Because unless everyone has exactly the same skills, spells and stats, people will split into roles by themselves, so that they can focus on what they can (or like to) do best. That is what happens in TSW, because there are no rigid "classes" with pre-defined roles.

 

You act like its never been done before.  Not all games are slaves to tank and spank.  Go out and look for them, you'll find them.

i love playing a healer. one of the things im gonna miss in gw2.

others have pretty much covered it.

yes you need to be a good healer .. but even when you are, you cant heal noobs that stand in fire .. at least you shouldnt be able to. but you'll never convince them of that. and in the rare case you do manage to keep them alive despite their best efforts, they will pull another pack of mobs before you can regen and blame you anyway.

just ignore the obvious trolls (dps that stands in fire and yells when they die) and try to make friends with ones that dont .. especially try to make friends with tanks who tank well .. though generally when you get to end game most tanks tank pretty well .. if someone doesnt tank well they usually give up tanking pretty fast. dps on the other hand are very valuable. find the ones that know how to play.

ill never forget healing mauradon in wow on my first healer character. i'll never forget the frost mage being smart enough to frost nova the mobs that started chasing after me when the tank lost aggro. changed how I play games in more ways than I can count.

OP don't beat yourself up over it. I'm running the same build as you (going for the Monk deck) and I found that our lower tier heals are extremely weak, borderline useless. I haven't done a single dungeon run, but I've PvPed extensively at all levels. I noticed a huge difference in healing power when I started getting my higher tier heals.