All healing corruptor?

I ran into one of these (all healing corruptor) last night. It was on an 8 man team doing the spread the outbreak virus mission. Granted, we were all level ~12, but even then, does this make any sense?

He was AR/Pain, and no, it wasn't just a corruptor with more heals than attacks. Here's a few quotes from the fight.

Him: Going back to all healing mode.

Sometime later...

Him: Aren't you guys glad I took all my heals?

...

Him: I'm going to take the medicine pool next.

Am I off my rocker for saying he was a wasted spot on the team? Would you team with a corruptor that only healed? Again, I could be wrong here, which is why I'm asking, but it seems to me that he's like a petless MM.

Sounds like he's one of those people whose Mentality gravitates towards Hero Team Dynamics. I agree, it's wholly out of place in a villains team. Suffice to say, I would have had some quite choice words to say in reply to his smug self-satisfied compliment fishing.

What is wrong with someone wanting to focus on healing? Frankly there are times where I wish there were more people who'd heal me (who have heals) while I'm SMASHING.

Are you off your rocker? In my opinion...yes. Could i team with a corruptor that only healed...absolutely.

The total amount of heals he can take is 4, and one of hem nearly kills him, while aother in completely pointless (Aid Other)! All Healing ANYTHINGS are a waste of team space, especially when I could have had a Dark/Pain corruptor with just 2 heals that can handle it, while spamming his Dark Blast AoEs enough to keep the enemies from being able to hit us in the first place!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler you *******!!!!

Here is a quote from http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...282#post262282

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo_Utopia ...No-one wants to play a gimped Blaster (too much Primary, not enough Secondary) or a gimped Defender (too much Secondary, not enough Primary), but will love plaing the mix that gets to solo well and be welcomed on teams.

I think "So you want to be a Corruptor? (a guide)" says it all.

An all-healing build is a bit silly... an all-buffing and healing build, on the other hand, has its place. It's very specialized, but it has a place.

I'll reference a hero-side analogy: I have a pvp-built emp who only has the level 1 attack, and otherwise is entirely focused on buffing and, if needed, healing. It gets no play nowadays, but when emps were more in demand for pvp, it served well as a zone pvp buffbot for blaster teams (in Sirens, especially.) It's also handy for a really reckless full team doing something crazy, like Malta missions on invincible or the like.

I would direct readers to the link in my sig - I wrote a guide on this - but the link is broken (and will be fixed when I have 5 minutes of utter boredom ); it does go over the rationale of such a build.

Downside is that it's boring to play except in the cases I mentioned.

As far as the roleplaying argument - it's a villain and should be selfish, so why would it only take heals etc. - has merit, I suppose; I myself am totally and completely NOT a roleplayer, though, so that hadn't really even occurred to me. I guess to me it's more blue and red than hero and villain... I just get on one when I want to hunt the other in zones

I should emphasize my argument is about a build devoted to *buffing*, not *healing*... frankly, a good corruptor (like a good defender) - especially one devoted completely to support - should be doing a minimum of healing if they're a proper buffbot.

And taking the medicine pool is pretty redundant and silly for any but maybe a duel-built /cold corruptor, and then it's for the self-heal.

Ah, an issue close to my heart. See that avatar over there <-- ? that's Doc. She's a rad/rad Corr. She's also a dedicated healer. She is also my first lv 50.

Before Pain Domination came along, there were several options available to Villains as far as team healing was concerned. None of them were as effective as /Empathy.

I decided, in my particular madness, to build a healer using rad/rad. Why? Because I noticed one thing about radiation... both the primary and secondary had strong debuff capability.

So, I set out on a career as a one trick pony using Radiant Aura, Radiation Infection, Enervating Field, Mutation, Accellerate Metabolism, and Lingering Radiation to their best effect. I also took the medicine pool to give me more options for healing, rezzing, and breaking holds (ala "clear mind.") The few attacks I took all were slotted for defense debuff as well as damage.

She survived well on her own until about lv 15 or so. Then she found her niche... AV killer. Someone else had to do most of the actual damage you understand, but she made the job so much easier. I found a few people who appreciated that rather specialized field or medicine and took pity on the poor, insane, corruptor. Before I knew it, she was 50.

I'm not saying this is for everyone. It's a challenge that takes a lot of patience. But it was fun. And thats why we're here isn't it?

I understand the angle behind this, I used to feel this way about someone who didn't fully utilize their build IMO. For example. a corrupter player who doesn't utilize their attacks and uses all heals, or a dominator player who on teams uses more assault powers and hardly any holds. I understand the logic...but, if they are contributing cool...and eventhough its kinda like "ugh" everyone is entitled to play how they desire.

I play both my primary and secondary on my Fire/Thermal, but sometimes the team is weak enough that they need chain healing. At the lower levels, this could be the case I guess. However, the fact that they want to take the Medicine pool makes me believe they are playing with a WoW/EQ/etc mindset. I've seen this a lot though, especially with Empaths. If I'm on my FF Defender and the team isn't taking any damage, a lot of Empaths will just... sit there.

The beauty of CoX is that a lot of the time (not ALL the time) you don't need a dedicated healer. There's a ton of powers that help decrease the need for healing at all. The problem is weening people off of the ways of other MMORPGs. It was a newbie team though, so perhaps they'll learn. I know that in lower levels "healers" are probably the best kind of support to have. Perhaps when they get to a higher level and see the strength of buffs/debuffs/crowd control in CoX they'll flesh out their villain a bit more.

While I would never play a healing only anything at least this guy contributed to the team. There are times when kill speed is at an acceptable pace that someone like that can be more mindful of reactive defense. That's fine.

What I can't stand are /Pain players that don't heal at all, wait until a fight is over to heal, stay at ranged never healing melee, etc... The very worst case was a lowbie MM I grouped with that was so excited about his revive power he never healed anyone. If you died he would say "Wait, don't use that wakie I can revive you!". Then he would go back to setting his pets on aggressive, and only using dual wield over and over.

So while an all healing corr is a bit unorthodox there are far worse that you could group with.

I think i can sum up my point of view by saying this.

A character that uses all the tools at their disposal is more useful to a team than one that relies soley on one aspect of their character.

A corrupter who blasts/heals/buffs/debuffs > A Corrupter that heals
A Mastermind with pets and secondary > a petless mastermind
A tank that fights > a tank that only uses taunt and armours
A Stalker that fights > a stalker that uses AS and then waits for hide

etc etc

Corruptors who play as healbots make baby Jesus cry.

In my experience, those that try to be good at healing and dps are good at neither.

Further, while it would be great if people could reliably play that way, it's actually quite a rarity to find a truly competent healer. That's because healing isn't as easy as things that aren't as NOTICEABLY critical. Sure it's critical that you output the most dps you can, but no one can judge you based on that. But if you have someone with heals present and people keep dying, guess who gets the blame.

It's a tough gig, with few willing to fill it, and even fewer able to do so well. Even at low levels, I am constantly INTENSE teams where we are seriously hanging on for dear life at every pull. I have been the healer on some of these teams. Had I even attempted to blast something in between the single target and ae heal, my heal/second would have been reduced, because due to lag, finding a target, moving, etc. Even if the activation time fits in between two heals, you just don't have the leeway you need.

Now if you are in a more relaxed group where people aren't constantly getting their heads 3/4 bit off by a giant cobra, it's a different story. But even then, not everyone is as 1337 as some of you think you are, and if they want to focus on healing because that's what they can handle, then let them.

From level 2 to 50 it's the same deal too. Villains can pretend they are able to get away from the holy trinity but they can't. You either have a gamebreaker team (team of VEATS , bubblers, etc), a team where several people have a decent aoe heal, or you have a decent healer, or you die.

I have no problem with an all healing Corruptor as long as he backs of his claim and heals like crazy! I made a all healing/buffing defender and the only reason why I wasn't kicked for not attacking much b/c I was spot on with the heals and buffs even had vengance and auto :P.

I love it when a splash some blue side mentality hits redside and vice versa. IT makes the team seem "Balanced".