Healing is a subset of other power sets. People who claim to be healers are only using part of their power.
HBD LISAR.
My SD/SS knockback resister does occasionally appreciate the assistance of a healer. Especially if there are no Buff/Debuff types who are using their full powersets around to make the healer irrelevant.
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell. 
The way I look at "healing" is direct damage mitigation. When all other measures (buffs, defense, resistance) have failed and someone just took a nasty uppercut to their glass jaw, an Empath (or other type of healing defender/controller) can infuse the unlucky one with a bit of health and thus keep them standing in spite of themselves. Or, if they HAPPEN to get KO'd, revive them.
I prefer the Kin heal, because it does several things:
1) Heal the melee'ers clustered around something
2) Apply a minor End drain on the target
3) Apply a minor Regen debuff on the target (stackable)
Transfusion, properly slotted, is a fast-cycle AoE heal that can give a LOT back. There is a to-hit check (which means sometimes it fizzles). But, if you combine it with Transference, your Kin can rapidly sap a target, AND keep the team surrounding that target both healthy AND energetic. Empaths can do the same thing, but their regenerative and recuperative auras are on a slower timer and the instant-refill powers are single-target, not AoE. Kin of course, has no rez... but that's why you bring the Dark and the nasty evil yumminess that is Howling Twilight (AoE ally rez, AoE stun/regen debuff/damage).
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Shibbs, I totally agree. I've been kicked off of plenty teams who get rage-drop at me and boot me. I dont understand the NEED for a healer OR a tank on ALL teams. Any team frankly. I think that a team that can work together and work well (though this rarely happens) can overcome anything without the use of a tank or healer. Hell, I've been on teams that have done it.
So you fill in a spot with someone who is only using hallf thier skills with someone also using half thier skills.
Good thing this game is mostly on easy.
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You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell.
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Which why it's better to stay in the Corruptor forums, where people actually know to use their entire powersets.
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So you fill in a spot with someone who is only using hallf thier skills with someone also using half thier skills.
Good thing this game is mostly on easy.
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Not quite what i actually said, and it was obviously intended somewhat humorously, but it's your birthday, so...
Whatever. 
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Much later edit because i felt like it:
To clarify why your reply made little sense to me:
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who are using their [u]full[u] powerset[u]s[u]
[/ QUOTE ]Is what i wrote. A habit i have when i parse language is that i don't read full as half, nor do i read powersets as singular. In other words, they should be using all relevant/available aspects of both their primary and secondary sets as apropriate. i know that writing it so flippantly and concisely made it very hard to parse my intent. For that i apologize.
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
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You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell.
[/ QUOTE ]
Which why it's better to stay in the Corruptor forums, where people actually know to use their entire powersets.
[/ QUOTE ]Heh, well, there are some really stupid people in this game both blue and redside, and since I primarily play villains most of my rage is induced by corrs and MMs who are 'pure healers'. Yes - it does happen a lot more frequently with defenders, which can be attributed to the fact that their support is the primary powerset.
I remember doing an ITF run with this emp-defender who had two attacks and no ones health ever dropped below 90% so he just sat there doing nothing the entire TF. When we were fighting Romulus and I asked him why he wasn't attacking he said he was a healer, at which point I said he was worthless, he ragequit and we completed the TF without a hitch.
That's too bad, he could have used whirlwind to save us.
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This is a rage post about why I refuse to invite people who advertise themselves as a healer and why I usually end up kicking people who ask for a healer.
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so you're some kind of weird counterbalance to all those people who won't invite you unless you're a heal0r and who will kick you for not heal1ng?
Cool, I guess, although I think both factions act like twits.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell.
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Which why it's better to stay in the Corruptor forums, where people actually know to use their entire powersets.
[/ QUOTE ]
You'd think...
*thinks of the Rad/Rad who had only the healing aura, AM, and rez at 36....*
And happy birthday to Lisar!
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You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell.
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Which why it's better to stay in the Corruptor forums, where people actually know to use their entire powersets.
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buh? The defender forum regulars are avidly, even occasionally rabidly is AGAINST the whole "I'll just sit back here and heal" mentality. Have been as long as I've been taking part there, which is pretty well since release. Heck the defender forum regulars are the ones who spawned the Repeat Offenders coalition, who's members play defenders who'd rather shoot you in the face than heal you.
That was my point exactly, Lady.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
After reading all the replies, all I can say is...
I'm thankful I solo.
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[ QUOTE ]
This is a rage post about why I refuse to invite people who advertise themselves as a healer and why I usually end up kicking people who ask for a healer.
What's the matter, Shibbs? Like in every other MMO and even D&D, you need a healer class or your team blows!
Wrong. In CoX, the conflicts are normally always massively one sided. As in, you can tank something effortlessly, or it will chew through 90% of your health in one hit and a 600 health heal isn't going to save you. Very rarely are there encounters that are honestly in the middle.
Let's compare buffs vs single target heals. In empathy, heal other will give back about 600 health - your average tank will have about 2000 health. Sonic's shields however will give you 40% damage resistance. So, if something hits you for 1000 damage, 400 of that bites the dust passively - every time it hits you.
An empath is capable of healing 900 (we'll say 900 assuming they are following you using their AOE heal and single target) every 6 seconds (activation time + recharge). So, if you're fighting one person, who wins? The empath.
However, since sonic buffs protect passively, if you're fighting a group which does 4000 damage per attack wave, 1600 of that is mitigated.
No. I am not saying empathy is worthless, and no, I did not compare the other aspects of the set versus the other aspects of sonic aside from the shields.
Perhaps I've just been really lucky but I've never really been in a situation where a heal has saved me or the team, not as a frontliner or a backliner.
tl;dr my point is that buffs > heals and you make yourself look like a total newbie by advertising as or requesting a 'healer' and you don't belong doing taskforces.
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Wow. I haven't seen someone completely avoid being correct since my last debate with Totality.
I'd rather have an Empath than a Sonic in most team scenarios, as long as both are played by reasonably skilled individuals. The Empath can bump up defences and pop me a heal from time to time, and if I'm lucky, spot me an Adrenalin Boost and turn me into a God of Armageddon. Speaking as an Empathy player, the heals are very important; just as important as Fortitude.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
Someone relaying on the heals or the tanker better play Scrabble(tm)
LISAR replied to an earlier post of mine:[ QUOTE ]
So you fill in a spot with someone who is only using hallf thier skills with someone also using half thier skills.
Good thing this game is mostly on easy.
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To which my response is:
[ QUOTE ]
Much later edit because i felt like it:
To clarify why your reply made little sense to me:
[ QUOTE ]
who are using their [u]full[u] powerset[u]s[u]
[/ QUOTE ]Is what i wrote. A habit i have when i parse language is that i don't read full as half, nor do i read powersets as singular. In other words, they should be using all relevant/available aspects of both their primary and secondary sets as apropriate. i know that writing it so flippantly and concisely made it very hard to parse my intent. For that i apologize.
[/ QUOTE ]
And now for something completely the same: Raging thread of justice!
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
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You'll get along famously with the folks in the Defender forums, I can tell.
[/ QUOTE ]
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Someone relaying on the res buffs or SB better play Scrabble(tm)
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I can play that game too. Heals and alpha takers let you do things that otherwise could not be done. Do you advocate a Nin stalker not taking Sha? Because anyone benefiting from a heal should play Scrabble.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
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Someone relaying on the res buffs or SB better play Scrabble(tm)
[/ QUOTE ]
I can play that game too. Heals and alpha takers let you do things that otherwise could not be done. Do you advocate a Nin stalker not taking Sha? Because anyone benefiting from a heal should play Scrabble.
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makes me wonder
... what's the percentage of CoX players good at scrabble in their native tongue, or chess???
Arcanaviiiiiiiiiille, we want the numbers^^
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Speaking as an Empathy player, the heals are very important; just as important as Fortitude.
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First, I'm not diagreeing with you, as much as using this statement as a starting point for my own take on quality Empathy play.
I agree that the three heals (I do not consider Reg Aura to be a heal but a team buff. One may reasonably disagree on that position) are approximately as valuable as team-protection tools as Fortitude is, which really makes a case for effective Fortitude usage being seen as fundamental to even 'adequate' Empathy play. This is not something you see manifest in most 'healers' playing the game. After lvl 33, with well slotted AB and Regen Aura joining Fortitude to round out the buff arsenal in Empathy, healing becomes very much a secondary aspect of the set, though not exactly an afterthought.
In truth, in late game a decent Empath defender, unless playing as the only support on a large team, will probably find themself using Heal Aura for damage taken to themself from agro they earned dealing damage to baddies more than for healing imperiled teammates (though covering the team while firing off HA to heal oneself can provide a handy (but not typically vital) top-off function).
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Someone relaying on the res buffs or SB better play Scrabble(tm)
[/ QUOTE ]
I can play that game too. Heals and alpha takers let you do things that otherwise could not be done. Do you advocate a Nin stalker not taking Sha? Because anyone benefiting from a heal should play Scrabble.
[/ QUOTE ]
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I greatly agree with A_C.
Heals by themselves are not as great a form of mitigation as buffs. Applying heals with those buffs can be the greatest form of mitigation, and I would much rather have both than just one or the other.
Who needs heals? Green inspirations are cheap to buy, and if you don't have any, you can make some by combining. Heck, they're dropping all the time as long as long as you leave a spot open.
Empathy Defenders have a lot more to offer than just heals. They have plenty of buffs as well.
You seem fixated on a level 50 empathy defender.
It doesn't appear that you have been here too long if this kind of thing is setting you off.
I have to ask how much lower and mid level content that you've played?
I've played a lot of it and characters with heals can be useful to any team. Of course a good player uses all their powers and not just their heals. (I've also been on teams where healing and buffing/debuffing was I could do, otherwise, I wouldn't have enough end to heal when I really needed to.)
If someone is advertising themselves as a healer, you can probably expect that ::
<ul type="square">[*]They haven't played CoX for long.[*]It is a joke (and they might be a scrapper with a self heal)[*]They intend to just heal if you invite them to a team[*]On rare occasion, it just means that they can heal (and as you have pointed out, some players are looking for "healers")[/list]
A group of any mix of ATs on a team should be able to accomplish pretty much any mission in CoX if they work together as a team to augment each others powers.
If a team starts whining for a "healer", I would tend to think that you are on the same kind of team that would whine for "tank" (or a "brute" in your case, however, I still firmly stand with my belief that mm's are the "tanks" of the villain side).
Sit back for a moment and watch the play style of the players that are asking for "healers" and "tanks". Check their info to see if they have any vet badges.
<ul type="square">[*]Are they rushing in all the time?[*]Are they new to the game?[*]Are they fighting like melee characters even though they are squishes?[*]Are they biting off more agro than they can chew?[*]Do they stand there and die instead of making a run for it when their health starts to drop to far?[*]Are they rushing into the next group or agro-ing more than one group at once when the team is wiping?[*]Do they insist on fighting a whole group at a time instead of pulling when it obviously isn't working?[/list]
There are a lot of situations that can go on.
Some people start playing CoX and immediately think that they know how to play because they played some other MMORPG.
Those of us that have been here a while know that that simply is not the case no matter how many people want to say otherwise.
We have seen the result of it enough times to know what we are looking at.
I can tell you that the people that think that they are "healers" aren't the only ones in this boat - but I will admit that some of them do consider themselves to be "healers".
I've played all the archetypes. There are good players and bad players. There are players stuck in certain mindsets. There are players that can join a group and figure out how they can use their powers to the best benefit of the team. There are players that join and make an excuse to go afk as soon as they are in a mission. There are players that rush into battle before the rest of the team is ready and think that it is their place to do so because the rest of the team is lazy.
It is your decision of as a player to stay on a team if it is good, or leave a team if it is bad. As a team leader it is your place to recruit and dismiss players as you feel fit. Players have the NOTES function and Ignore to keep track of players that they don't want to play with.
tl;dr
This is a rage post about why I refuse to invite people who advertise themselves as a healer and why I usually end up kicking people who ask for a healer.
What's the matter, Shibbs? Like in every other MMO and even D&D, you need a healer class or your team blows!
Wrong. In CoX, the conflicts are normally always massively one sided. As in, you can tank something effortlessly, or it will chew through 90% of your health in one hit and a 600 health heal isn't going to save you. Very rarely are there encounters that are honestly in the middle.
Let's compare buffs vs single target heals. In empathy, heal other will give back about 600 health - your average tank will have about 2000 health. Sonic's shields however will give you 40% damage resistance. So, if something hits you for 1000 damage, 400 of that bites the dust passively - every time it hits you.
An empath is capable of healing 900 (we'll say 900 assuming they are following you using their AOE heal and single target) every 6 seconds (activation time + recharge). So, if you're fighting one person, who wins? The empath.
However, since sonic buffs protect passively, if you're fighting a group which does 4000 damage per attack wave, 1600 of that is mitigated.
No. I am not saying empathy is worthless, and no, I did not compare the other aspects of the set versus the other aspects of sonic aside from the shields.
Perhaps I've just been really lucky but I've never really been in a situation where a heal has saved me or the team, not as a frontliner or a backliner.
tl;dr my point is that buffs > heals and you make yourself look like a total newbie by advertising as or requesting a 'healer' and you don't belong doing taskforces.