MMO Gaming

Last month’s Warhammer Online Newsletter was hardly worthy of being sent out (at least if you are believing what I write, and really, who wouldn’t) but they have a chance to make that up as I just received the February 2007 issue of the Newsletter.

It’s again more of the same, and none of the professions/classes really get me too pumped, but the “Warhammer Online Grab Bag” this month did have one question that I’m interested to see how it pans out. For those who don’t want to look, the grab bag is a bunch of questions that the CM responds to in the Newsletter about the game. I’ll quote the question and answer below.

Q: I’ve heard it said that there will be no “healer-onlyâ€? classes in WAR. I am used to games where there are healers, and there are hybrid healers. Unfortunately, many groups tend to bark at hybrid healers, and say that if you can heal, then that’s all you should do for the group.

How are you planning on preventing that, and making it so that a group would want, say a Zealot or War Priest, for something other than a healbot?

A: Oh, this is such a pet peeve of mine. I tend to play games at work, because I have the coolest job ever, but playing at work means I solo – it’s hard to get groups, and I often have to dart away at a moment’s notice to do my actual job. That’s not fair to the one group I do manage to find, you know? Anyway, my circumstances push me to play a lot of hybrid types – a little magic, a little brute force, a little healing, etc. Then at night, I find a group… and aaaaaaaall they want is one of my many tricks, and they complain that I fail to be BEST at the trick they want.

But I digress.

The answer is pretty simple. Boiled down, the answer is “We’re not going to have any one-trick ponies, so your healer will be welcome.� But that’s not nearly as interesting as the conversation I had with Designer Steve and Designer Josh, and I thought you guys would enjoy a peek at the inside of the carnival. It’s no Paul Video Diary, but it’s still cool! It starts up after I sent the original question over to Steve, with my own acerbic commentary for flavor.

STEVE: It boils down to fulfillment of critical roles. Our healers are capable of being a 100% effective healer. They are also capable of fighting, but no healer is ever going to be as good at fighting as a true fighter class.

The reason they will want our healers is because they can fulfill their healing role AND contribute in other ways as well. Besides that, there will be no single-issue healers…all of our healers can fight as well as heal. There will be no preferred healer that is ALL heal, and better at it than the others.

SANYA: Er… no, I think you just directly contradicted the point I made. Players may want to BE the guy that can heal and contribute in other ways, yes, but the groups that those players join do not want their healers fighting. Ever.

JOSH: Being a “pure” healer will be an inefficient play-style based on how our careers are designed. The Warrior Priest, for example, builds Righteous Fury by dealing melee damage. That Fury pool gates some of his support abilities and augments others. If the WP hangs back and just tries to use his baseline, non-fury abilities to act as a pure healer, he will suck like a diesel-fueled vacuum cleaner.

It will be impossible to “focus” on healing rather than damage, so players won’t be able to ignore combat healers in favor of “pure” healers because pure healers won’t exist.

STEVE: Right. The point I was making is that there is no class that is more effective “just” healing.

For instance, WPs also [at this time] have an aura-based buff system that buffs friendlies IF they are within range of him. This means that he is better off being in the front line where the fighting friendlies can both fight and be in range of his buffs. If he held back and just healed from range, he would not be doing as much good as getting in the thick of it.

SANYA: *squints distrustfully*

STEVE AND JOSH: Have you tried it yet, or are you just assuming?

SANYA: *leaves to go try it*

Okay, Steve and Josh didn’t actually say that last line even though I did give them the evil squinty eye. They didn’t have to. Does this design work in practice as well as theory? Well, so far, so good… you guys should let me know how you feel once beta starts and you get your hands on it all.

I’m hoping this works out well though I can’t be sure if I’ll like it when it comes right down to it. I enjoy playing a pure healer class at times and not having one per se might be something that turns me off if it doesn’t work well enough. Of course, if it does, and the way they describe it the mechanics at least sound interesting, I would definitely try it out as I think it will definitely add something to the role of healing.

warhammer online, newsletters, mythic entertainment, upcoming games, healers, hybrids