Alright, I was looking over this thread about Consulars, and it glosses over how they are going to be the main healer class along with Sith Inquisitors. It is clear though in the Advanced Classes chart that other classes specialize in healing too. Imperial Agents, Smugglers, and Troopers all have trees for HoTs (Heal over Time(s)) which makes me wonder how important Consulars are. I know that HoT classes and burst healing classes are different, but what adds to my concern is SWTOR's method of revival.

In SWTOR when a player dies they can revive themselves after a period of time, or instantly revive to their last bond point. Any player can also revive any other player as well as their companions. This makes me worry even more for the designated healer class because it lowers their importance even further. There has been discussion lately on the SWTOR discussing the importance of healers, and it seems to be agreed upon that they aren't as important as people may think. Seeing how other classes actually have a heal tree it is possible to operate without a main healer. Now I'm saying this subjectively of course. I haven't played the game and BioWare hasn't confirmed how important healers are, specifically Consulars, so everyone may be over-thinking this, but I want all of your educated opinions.

My thought is that Consulars/Inquisitors have burst heals (instant heals that provide a large amount of health) and better HoTs than the other classes (from what I can see in the Advanced Classes section), but the relaxed revival system leaves them out of a job. The only thing that puts Consulars over most other healers is that they can provide strong group buffs that other classes cannot, but that doesn't seem to raise their importance in community speculation. I am just concerned because I don't want to full on spec healer and find out that I am worthless or easily replaceable.

Very valid concern. I love it in WoW when people bitch all the time about class balance and classes being way too OP or having been nerfed too much. The dev team works day in and day out to try and maintain a class balance and any change to any one class is going to equal a lot of work as they'll have to make sure that one change doesn't make that class too OP or nerf them too badly.

For a very long time in WoW Paladins were way too OP. You could literally faceroll and still be top DPS as a Pally. PvP? Facerolls abound! What's that? I'm dying? ::bubble:: ::heal:: ::continue to faceroll::.

It's nice that there are lots of options for healing in TOR. In a setting where there is literally a liquid that heals wounds and replenishes vitality, I don't see why not. If i'm a Jedi and I get gravely wounded, a Soldier should be able to come up and hit me with a medkit and get me back on my feet. Does this negate the need for designated healers? No. Like you said, Consulars provide great buffs for the group and probably heal way more efficiently/quickly than any other method.

I think that the idea of giving people the option to heal is a way of making sure the game doesn't come to a grinding halt if the healer dies and no one can bring them back. No one will have to leave an instance to fly back or what have you.

Again...like you said, Angel...it's all speculation at this point. I played a Consular Sage in the demo and I spent most of my time buffing and doing DPS. I healed on the really tough mobs or when people needed it. it was nice, because I wasn't bored off my rocker waiting for someone to take damage so I could heal them. I actually felt like I was contributing to the fight instead of the person no one notices unless things go badly.

~D

Interesting point. I think it’s hard to say without more information from Bioware. I’m sure the classes especially will go through a lot more balancing before the game hits the shelves. Information I have gathered, however, does seem to suggest that a typical MMO main healer class may be unnecessary except for perhaps the most difficult encounters.

I am inclined to agree that, while many classes might have some degree of healing ability, the Consular Sage will have access to more powerful and varied heals. Heal harder, more or less.

However, it may be that the Consular Sage would have to be more rounded as a rear-support class instead of just being “the healer.” It seems that this may well be the intent of the devs. Making it more “Star Wars” (I read a post by someone who asked when anyone saw a character sitting in the background healing in any of the Star Wars films. Everyone was in on the action) and trying to get everyone in on the heroism, reduce downtime and not make a designated “healer” an absolute necessity as it is in other MMO’s. At least until the bigger, more involved encounters/raids as I mentioned above.

Of course then there are the people that dispute this thinking due to the lack of info at this point, so who’s to say? At the very least you make a good point.

I don’t know if I’d say you would be not needed, however. The consular might just have a more varied role to play in battles, especially if there were multiple people present who could heal if needed. Buffing would certainly be important.

I think at this point you should keep an open mind and see what pops up from the devs to either make Consular more or less appealing to you as a class. I'm going to trust in Bioware at this point to avoid making it easy to push aside any one class.

In regards to the universal revival skill, two questions come to mind:

Can you use it in combat?
What is the penalty for death?

The trooper thread specifically says that it is unknown at this time whether or not the revival skill can be used mid-combat. If it is disabled during combat, then it would seem like a complete non-issue to me. Depending on what the penalty is for dying, it might be fine even if you can revive in combat. If the penalty is severe enough, that would still give you plenty of incentive to keep the players well healed.

I'm not worried, after all, this is Bioware we are talking about.

BlastingGravy wrote:

In regards to the universal revival skill, two questions come to mind:

Can you use it in combat?
What is the penalty for death?

I don't think a player can use it during combat. I haven't read anywhere the can or couldn't.

Right now the penalty for death is basically nothing. Self-revive just gets a longer cooldown, and I am not sure about other player revives. The details are still missing on this info.

As for what you've all been saying it has been reassuring. I still believe that the Consular Sage will still be an important role, I am just used to Medic in SWG, but then again this isn't SWG. If the beta was open to me I would definitely have less questions.... *cough*

Anyways thanks for the input and keep it coming! The more I hear from you guys the more comfortable I feel going into this game playing as a Consular.

Also, yes, this is BioWare so I shouldn't worry. I trusted them with Mass Effect 2 and they certainly exceeded expectations there!

EDIT: Found the video about deaths and resurrection. Starts around 3:32.

Penalties for death are time and credits, much like WoW.

All three Healers are being designed to fill certain niches. Word from Beta [Not in Beta myself, funny thing about NDAs is that you have to agree to them before they have any power] is that Troopers/BH are AoE healers, Smugg/IA's are HoT healers, and Inq/Con are big Direct Healers. I wouldn't consider EITHER the main healer, but if I must, most games have HoT healers coming out ahead for players that learn to predict damage well.

So, in WoW terms, Troops are Shaman/Holy Priest Healers, Smuggs are Druids, and Cons are Disc Priests [several shields are noted as common non-privileged knowledge]

I'm 99.9% confident that the universal revival skill is only for out-of combat use since they made a point in stating that Consulars/Inquisitors have an in-combat rez.

As for healers not being not being needed as much because each class may have a small self heal, not going to happen. Just watch the Taral V developer walkthrough.

Granted it's a smuggler doing the healing, but Dallas specifically talks about the trooper not being able to survive without the smuggler there healing him. He also mentions the smuggler needing to keep an eye on the knight and sage. In fact you see the smuggler run over into range to toss a heal or two their way as the fight goes on.

The interesting and cool thing to see is the smuggler early on being able to heal and dps. Although when they hit the mid boss, he's definitely focusing more on healing than dps. When they hit the big/main boss fight, he's definitely into full healer mode. Thus I wouldn't be worried about going with a full heal spec, as it will definitely be needed at post mid-game for sure. In fact I'm guessing that sometime in the mid-twenties you'll start seeing a real need for a dedicated healer in group missions.

Yeah, I watched both myself, and they have me very excited for the game. I really liked what I saw with the Smuggler in the Taral V. I also think you are spot on about the mid-game rise in healer need. The early game Esselese (however it is spelled), they didn't seem to need a designated healer on anyone, but the mid-game Taral V they would've been toast without the Smuggler. I think every class gets an out of combat heal, but they have to spec for a in-combat one, or at least a good one. These walkthroughs have helped to answer a lot of my questions about the game, especially the teamwork angle.

As for the revives, I think you're also right about that Pinkie, and that would make sense for the burst healers to have an in-combat revive. I think the out of combat team one is mainly to promote running missions with friends. More the merrier right?