Controllers as Healers?

Hey there, I have a level 30 or so Gravity/Empathy healer aptly modeled after Jesus XD and of course, I want him to be a healer. (No, he can't cure your blindness.)
A question I had was how effective a Grav/Emp build could even possibly be for team healing, as I want to make him more of an AoE healer as opposed to a single target healer. Also, what are some good builds for this kind of thing, if any.

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You realize you can't have more than one AoE heal, right? So to be an "AoE healer" means you'll set follow on the Tank, put Healing Aura on auto and then get up and leave the room because it'll get BORING.

Also, insert standard rant HERE about how healing in this game is overrated and unnecessary and how making a "healer"* is totally pointless. ESPECIALLY if you're a controller, who's job it is to prevent your teammates for even taking damage in the first place.

However, if that's what you really want to do, the only Controller primary that'll help your cause is Plant; it has Spirit tree, which increases the Regen rate of all nearby allies. None of the other controller powersets have anything that'll add to your healing abilities.

*: Note that "healer" =/= Empath. Empathy has other great tools that aren't direct heals, but help the team be more productive and thus ensuring that they don't need to be healed as much in the first place.

Interesting. In the last two days I have seen three controllers advertising as "healers" on the team member search. Could this be a new fad?

Controllers as healers isnt new, it used to happen alot in PvP.

Good news is you picked a great controller primary for a PvE healer, Grav is awful!

Probably the best healer combo is Illusion/Emp.

You get an invisability power that allows you to heal without pulling aggro, also its a relatively passive primary; drop the pets then get on with the healing and buffing.

thing is in this game their is no direct heal role let me explain. Or gonna be doing more things then heal you should be doing
A.heal/buff/light damage
B.heal/debuff/damage
C.Heal/buff /control
D.heal/debuff/control

see people that do heal also do other things all the the same time. Just heal your gonna be only using a third of your power at most. Don't fall into the *healer* role

Lets be honest you can be both with one build. It's not like you can really add anymore aoe healing to a build, so what do you do with the other power choices?

You want to be a good support character? Focus on your primary (so fewer heals are needed) and your secondary (so you use them when they are really needed)

haha awesome! I saw a zombie-jesus the other day on Freedom redside! Dunno the build, but he was cool-looking

I'm going to offer an alternative view to some of what has been said here.

IMO Controllers can not just be excellent healers, they can be among the best healers. We just have to define "healer" as someone who is capable of repairing HP damage, removing/preventing status effects, and reviving KO'ed heroes in addition to other things like mezzing enemies or dealing damage. Following the team around and healing to the exclusion of all else, as is done in some other games, is not usually a viable tactic in CoH.

A Defender can achieve better heals-per-second and heals-per-endurance-point, but IMO a Controller's primary set makes up for this with by providing more ways to slow incoming damage. It's hard to say whether the Defender or Controller is the better "healer," but clearly Thermal Radiation and Empathy characters are better healers than, say, characters with Martial Arts or Invulnerability.

Some argue that if a Controller was doing his or her job, there would be no need for healing. I think this is more true in theory than in practice. Except under specially engineered circumstances a single Controller cannot stop 100% of the damage coming at the team. Having a heal around is often useful if for no other reason than to keep the team moving.

It is also true that there are team make-ups that make having a healing character less useful. This is kind of irrelevant though. There are team make-ups that make tankers, bubblers, mezzers, and just about any other -ers less useful, so that fact that one can build a team without a healing character shouldnt be mistaken as a sign that healing powers are useless. It is easy to engineer situations where the entire Controller archetype is useless.

As for the single-target heal vs aoe heal topic--it turns out in this game that the 3 main "healing" sets (Empathy, Thermal, and Pain) have both single-target and AoE heals. Both the single target and AoE are useful to have, so I wouldnt recommend specializing with one set or another. Your reaction time will never be good enough to target each team member as damage is done, and an AoE heal hits all team members, their pets, and any NPCs that are assisting the party. As a matter of course, when there are Masterminds in the party it is a good idea to occasionally fire the AoE heal even if you are just "guessing" damage is being done, as can often happen in chaotic fights or if your target is obscured by a doorway.

Of the other sets that are capable of healing HP Kinetics and Radiation both have only an AoE, and Storm has only a weak-ish single target heal that doubles as a useful anti-mezz.

Hey, I'm pretty angry that I got 19 replies and 18 of them weren't really helpful. And I hope you all realize you're ripping on Jesus here.
Anyway, I made the character early when I started and it seemed like fun, so I stuck with it. I DON't want to re-roll to defender, and I already have two builds, one as a troller, and one as a healer.

How bad really IS gravity? There's no way it's un-saveable, right? I mean, suppose I get our lord and savior to 50, he'll be able to pack a punch, won't he?
Anyways, thanks for all the replies, but I'd prefer more like the last one, that is, "Well, I don't like what you're doing, but here's how I would do it..."

Blessed art thou.

Never mind.

Sorry, I should have clarified.
Yes, I want one of my builds to do nothing but heal, and to be able to keep my group alive, regardless of how the tank is doing. A single target healer is an okay alternative if Grav/Emp is no good at AoE heals, and that's fine, I just want to put extra emphasis on my one AoE ability.

So for a single target healer, anybody have any suggested builds?

The word "healer" tends to inflame people a bit round here, Doc. As long as you're aware that empaths buff (or bless or anoint) as well as heal, you'll be fine.

Anyway, I ran a Grav/Emp to 50. Solo'd often and teamed and loved the combo.

Gravity's main problem is that your bread and butter area control comes late (Wormhole at 26) and when it does it has a bit of knockback associated with it, which can lead to people asking you not to use it one teams. Incorrectly in my opinion, but they will do that.
That aside, Gravity is a really fun powerset. Propel is fun because you throw random stuf at people. Wormhole is fun because you get to teleport mobs around as you stun them. Standing inside Singularity while mobs try to melee you is fun. It's probably the least effective set for tearing through PvE content, but its maybe 80% as effective as Illusion or Fire rather than 50% as effective, so dont worry too much about it coming last.
You'll control well and do decent single target damage for a Controller. After playing a Blaster, the saftey provided by my single target hold had me in awe.

As for running a Controller Empath instead of a Defender Empath, your powers are typically around 88% effective as a Defender. You get them later, but other than that a Controller can make for very good team support.
Add in Leadership for some extra buffage - I ran Tactics and Assault on my Grav/Emp. Fortitude gives bigger bonuses to the chosen few, and is an absolute must have, but Leadership will spread bonuses to the whole team, including yourself and your pet.

You could reasonably get by with just Crush, Gravity Distortion, Propel, Wormhole and Singularity from Gravity and not miss much. That leaves room for 8 Empath powers (skip Absorb Pain), Travel Power and pre-requisite, Fitness and 3 Leadership powers.

One question - what travel power does Our Lord use, just out of curiosity?