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The person in question was on crack.
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True Story
Don't I know you???
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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.
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I think what you mean is the ability to (instantly and without user-input) pick your rank/potency of heal spell based on how many hitpoints the target has lost. Hasn't been true for a long long time, not since they normalized mana costs across all ranks of spells and (earlier still) began requiring input to fire off any spell at all. I think the later poster who mentioned starting a heal with a long cast time, in anticipation of the target taking more damage than when the spell began, is probably what the OP's group leader had in mind.
Actually I half wonder whether the group leader was trolling you, to see what kind of Empath you really were. Maybe a thin hope.
I preemptive heal all the time on my empath...
before a fight that looks tough, I'll fire healing aura and say "preemptive heals!"
it usually gets a laugh, which is all I was after.
No
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
I think you underestimate our fools, sir.
Why /duel is a bad idea
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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.
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Everquest had some heal over time spells as well.
Don't think the person quoted nor the group leader referenced in the OP was talking about HOTs either, but heck, I'd be hard pressed to name an MMO UO-onward that *doesn't* have HOTs.
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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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This doesn't work reliably due to network and game latency, and isn't actually preemptive. So, you may disagree, but you're wrong. Healing is 100% reactive. Healing before damage is dealt does not mitigate anything.
[quick "devil's advocate" reply]
Often when playing my Dark defender I'll hit Twilight Grasp before damage is applied knowing that the animation time takes a few seconds. Damage is delt, followed very shortly with the heal from TG.
Oh wait, I'm usually doing that against an AV to further debuff it's to-hit and dmg.. ;-)
Actually my favorite is when I start casting a heal, get slept, heal goes off and wake myself up. Preemptive sleep cure.
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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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This doesn't work reliably due to network and game latency, and isn't actually preemptive. So, you may disagree, but you're wrong. Healing is 100% reactive. Healing before damage is dealt does not mitigate anything.
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Well, saying I'm wrong is basically saying you're not willing to listen to a counter argument, so I won't bother.
Actually, it looks like he listened and then poked holes in a flimsy counter argument. Yes, if you know activation times well enough and don't have content with an X factor of lag, then you could time heals so that you hit the button before the damage actually hits but the heal itself takes place just after.
This, however, is in no way "preemptive". If it were truly preemptive then you could use the heal and it would protect against damage at a later time. This is just gaming the combat system to give the illusion of a preemptive heal. As previosly stated, healing is 100% reactive and healing before damage mitigates nothing. The fact that you can heal in such a way as to give the impression of a preemptive heal doesn't mean the heal is actually preempting damage. It isn't.
I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
Iscariot's Guide to the Tri-Form Warshade, version 2.1
I'm sorry that math > your paranoid delusions, but them's the breaks -- Nethergoat
P.E.R.C. Rep for Liberty server
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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The key words in the OP were "set up," there is no real set up in what your describing, nor is it preemptive healing. It certainly is preemptive power activation, but if none of your targets are injured between the time you reach for the button and the healing is applied, it does nothing. It is at the mercy of dumb luck to succeed rather than any inherent ability for the power to preempt anything.
Its a tactic I often use myself, a habit I picked up soloing on my Kin/Elec. I hit Transfusion right before hitting Short Circuit in the hopes of dealing with any incoming damage that occurs during my reaction time so that SC's 3 second animation time is less of an issue for anyone. Too often someone has needed a heal just after I pressed the key, usually myself, so a tiny waste of endurance is something I'm willing to risk to forestall any potential issues. Thankfully it actually helps now and again, but it isn't reliable like a buff would be at preempting anything.
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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Don't worry, you could post one word in a thread and it will cause a plethora of anti healer remarks. That would really solidify why you avoid the forums. You really want to get their ire, just say X defender set is sub par to empathy and watch the trolls come.
regen is all i can think of unless they were smokin something.
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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Both gave reasonable reasons why they thought you were wrong. No harsh language was used. Whats the problem? Should they be more indirect when stating their opinion?
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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Both gave reasonable reasons why they thought you were wrong. No harsh language was used. Whats the problem? Should they be more indirect when stating their opinion?
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No he's just being ironic in being absolute in his inability to accept absolutes. And, he wants a cookie because he can time his heals to overlap with incoming damage animations. You certainly deserve a cookie, because cutting down your reaction time on heals saves lives.
None of this, however, is relevant to the fact (not opinion) that healing is reactive and cannot be preemptive.
Alright. I'm going to have to agree with the forum majority on this one. So many people in the game have their heads on completely backwards concerning what powers are preemptive (e.g. "stay close for heals", Healing Aura on auto) and what powers are reactive (e.g. "zzz for cm"). So that's the most likely explanation: the leader's head needed a good 180 degree turn clockwise.
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I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.
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Again, I'm more than happy for people to disagree with me. It's statements like this that make me not feel like discussing it. Thanks for reminding me why to avoid the forums.
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It semes like people disagreeing with you is precisely why you don't want to discuss it. On matters of opinion, I'll make relative statements. On matters of fact, I'll feel free to make stronger declarative statements about what is and isn't so. That's the nice thing about facts, they're not debatable. Unless you're working from a definition of "preemptive" I'm not aware of, healing in this game cannot be preemptive. It just can't. We can't have a discussion about it because it's a matter of fact.
Now, on subjects like "do you need an empath do anything remotely difficult?" or "what is a healer and do I need one?", we can have a back-and-forth discussion that goes on functionally forever. This, no.
Iscariot's Guide to the Tri-Form Warshade, version 2.1
I'm sorry that math > your paranoid delusions, but them's the breaks -- Nethergoat
P.E.R.C. Rep for Liberty server
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That's the nice thing about facts, they're not debatable.
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A philosophical quibble: facts are indeed debatable, and mutable over time. Might I comment that it was once an accepted fact that the Earth was flat.
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Actually my favorite is when I start casting a heal, get slept, heal goes off and wake myself up. Preemptive sleep cure.
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I love it when that happens.
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That's the nice thing about facts, they're not debatable.
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A philosophical quibble: facts are indeed debatable, and mutable over time. Might I comment that it was once an accepted fact that the Earth was flat.
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Touche. Fair enough, I suppose I should amend that to say that facts can only be debated using other facts. Theories are disproved with evidence. In this case, the fact that preemptive healing is not possible could only debated if the underlying framework of combat and HP in this game were reasonably called into question as being other than we as players understand and observe it to be.
I don't expect that will occur, however.
Iscariot's Guide to the Tri-Form Warshade, version 2.1
I'm sorry that math > your paranoid delusions, but them's the breaks -- Nethergoat
P.E.R.C. Rep for Liberty server
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That's the nice thing about facts, they're not debatable.
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A philosophical quibble: facts are indeed debatable, and mutable over time. Might I comment that it was once an accepted fact that the Earth was flat.
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Actually its more like conclusions based on observed phenomenon are debatable. I believe the word "fact" is rather inadequate since it tends to have slightly different meanings depending on who you ask. 
Can we go back to the cookie thing?
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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Does anyone know what preemptive healing is?
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Preemptive healing (as opposed to reactive healing) is a WoW concept.
It refers to the idea that you start casting a healing spell BEFORE the tank has taken damage (and abort it if no damage has happened), on the assumption that the tank MIGHT take damage and a heal that has already started casting will get the tank healed faster than if you started after the damage happened. That's relatively important in WoW raids, because (1) burst damage can and will frequently kill a raid tank in the time it takes you to wind up a heal and (2) most heals are spammable without a cooldown on them and casts can be aborted if they haven't completed yet. (In fact, in some situations, such as where the tank takes more than half her health in damage each second, WoW raid healers will not even abort heals, because the cost in terms of mana is not worth the risk of a damage spike occuring just between the time you aborted it and the time the heal would have landed.)
Of course, the concept makes little to no sense in City of Heroes.
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The person in question was on crack.
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