...If you know your icons you can tell when someone has incoming attacks by watching the buff bar, thats the closest I can think of. That being said, particularly with ranged attacks the delay between the icon showing up and damage isn't consistent since the icon seems to first show up when the attack roll declares a hit, the attack still has to go thorugh animation + travel time.
But thats kinda stretching, it's not really preemptive so much as twitch reflexes. Closest thing in game to a preemptive heal is a regen buff.
The person in question was on crack.
The healing arrow does this
Pre-emptive healing is force fields.
shut up you! you're not allowed to talk about FF anymore 
Preemptive healing = Regen buffs.
@Mechaniker
Official Old Angry German Guy of CoV.
My Characters: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=247787
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The person in question was on crack.
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Hey! You just broke the first rule of what you're no longer allowed to do
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shut up you! you're not allowed to talk about FF anymore
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I'm still allowed to talk about them, I'm just no longer allowed to act as if I am the omniscient force fields know-it-all. Now I'm just the FORUMS omniscient know-it-all!
The person was probably talking about having Healing Aura on autofire, also known as spamming heals. Doing that is annoying to teammates, a waste of endurance, and just about the most useless thing you can do. The person is probably used to 'healers' who don't really understand the strengths of the empath set.
"Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in."
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I was on a pick-up group with my empath when the leader asked me if I had preemptive heals set up. She said that preemptive heals anticipate incoming damage and then activate quickly to counteract the damage.
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There are no powers that preemptively heal as such. The closest is any buff/debuffs that prevents damage from occurring in the first place. If he was indeed referring to autofiring heal auras then he has a poor grasp of proper defending.
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The person in question was on crack.
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preemptive heals set up
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From the words "set up" the leader probably meant "Healing Aura on auto." Which is not preemptive, and often not even healing.
As stated above, you can anticipate long animation, high damage attacks by looking at the icons, and you can time your heals to hit right after the damage hits. But this is a highly advanced skill, not something you merely "set up," and honestly I've never seen anyone use it. So I can't imagine your leader is asking you for something nobody's ever seen. 
(Except that one time four Gardvords simultaneously managed to hit a Forted blaster on my team with their sniper-level rock throws, and I miraculously got Absorb Pain timed to hit exactly between rocks number two and three. The blaster's life bar flashed greenyellowredgreenyellowred but he hung in there in time for Absorb Pain to recharge again. I got ridiculously lucky though, I doubt that's something anyone can reliably do in this game, except maybe with Respites and knockback protection.)
I asked the leader if she meant autofire, but she said no. I suspect now that she was thinking of RA and somehow construed it as being preemptive healing. But the group fell apart before she explained further. At any rate, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
Frostworks from the cold set could be construed as a pre-emptive heal, but even Turbo Ski, the official cold proponent, doesn't recommend that power except in certain situations.
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
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shut up you! you're not allowed to talk about FF anymore
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I'm still allowed to talk about them, I'm just no longer allowed to act as if I am the omniscient force fields know-it-all. Now I'm just the FORUMS omniscient know-it-all!
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And being omniscient he all ready knew all this.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
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shut up you! you're not allowed to talk about FF anymore
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I'm still allowed to talk about them, I'm just no longer allowed to act as if I am the omniscient force fields know-it-all. Now I'm just the FORUMS omniscient know-it-all!
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And being omniscient he all ready knew all this.
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Being omniscient sounds like a sweet gig... where do I sign up?
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shut up you! you're not allowed to talk about FF anymore
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I'm still allowed to talk about them, I'm just no longer allowed to act as if I am the omniscient force fields know-it-all. Now I'm just the FORUMS omniscient know-it-all!
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And being omniscient he all ready knew all this.
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Being omniscient sounds like a sweet gig... where do I sign up?
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Hah, if you don't already know the answer to that, you're not qualified for the job.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
Maybe there is another MMO with something like that and they got confused?
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Maybe there is another MMO with something like that and they got confused?
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I know WoW has all kinds of wacky features. I heard you can set up a healing power to only heal until the target's health hits max, and then shot off, saving mana.
Assuming the guy wasn't just referring to rocking the aura (which is most certainly not preemptive healing as described) maybe this is what he meant.
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
Actually I'm going to disagree with most here and say there is such a thing, involving the empath heals (or therm or any other with a targeted heal). I quite often used to do this on my emp. If I saw a teammate jump into a situation where I was positive they would be taking a lot of damage, I would activate a heal before they actually took the damage. That way, they would be healed immediately after taking the damage.
Yeah, I also agree about the crack.
The closest thing I can think of to 'pre-emptive heals' is a buff.
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Actually I'm going to disagree with most here and say there is such a thing, involving the empath heals (or therm or any other with a targeted heal). I quite often used to do this on my emp. If I saw a teammate jump into a situation where I was positive they would be taking a lot of damage, I would activate a heal before they actually took the damage. That way, they would be healed immediately after taking the damage.
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I would agree that this player tactic is possible and used often by skilled players, but it in no way shows to me that the power itself is pre-emptive.
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
There's no way to do anything other than reactively heal in CoX, because all the heals cast instantly (or within a half second or w/e.) The amount of time to react to incoming damage doesn't really make it necessary anyway.
This in contrast to other games where you can pre-cast a heal with a long activation time so that it will hit shortly after damage is taken.
@Dysc, on virtue:
Virtue blues: Overnight (DP/MM), Kid Ridiculous (FC/rad), Panorama (Ill/time)
Virtue reds: Block Party (SS/SD), Goldcrush (earth/fire), Deadwire (claws/elec), Snowcrush (ice/kin)
I was on a pick-up group with my empath when the leader asked me if I had preemptive heals set up. She said that preemptive heals anticipate incoming damage and then activate quickly to counteract the damage. I've never heard of this, and I can't find anything about it here or on the wiki. Does anyone know what preemptive healing is?