Rez Grief :)

[jonboy]

Like, I suspect he's dead amongst the snipers, that we rushed past (sigh), not that its a long walk in Victory Lap, King Mynas section, anyways after three rev attempts and wreaking the group we have this:

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae281/boganslaw/86116676.jpg

sry couldn't edit the naughties.

[RedRyder]

Lmao if theyre rushing then what gives? I love how they think we have a teleporting skill and have a .5 second cooldown on revive. Anddddd how the mages with no rev skill give us grief for not rev'ng them. If youre guys pvp built whyre u farming with him -_- u cant tank with a mage so..... T_T

[CanonicalKoi]

Also lmao. Oy. Nothing beats having two or more dead, widely separated, demanding rezzes. What is this "cool-down" you speak of? Surely, mages can cast rez over and over immediately. And so what if there's a sniper/Sobek/Other Boss sitting on me??!? Rez me, dagnabbit! It's your job! Whaddya mean, "mage is dead"? Hurry! Get back here and Rez me right now!. Respawning again? Man, mages are so worthless. Hurry! Ah, memories....

[Stratospaly]

I love the mages who refuse to rez, or heal for that matter. Health pots have made most of the mages I have grouped with lazy in the healing part of the game. If the tank is at 10% health, you might want to hit the green leaf, or you are going to be the next to die. If the tank dies, STOP running in circles casting lightning, and rez him so he can get the boss off of you. These are basics learned early on in other games, and completely ignored in this one due to the overpowered health pots that can be spammed.

[CanonicalKoi]

Heal is my most used spell. If there's only one Mage/pally it would help if the group stayed together--it's a more efficient use of the spell and it's easier to rez you if we know where you are. It's one of those, "help us help you" kind of things.

[Arterra]

I love how rezzing and healing gets every single semi idle mob around me in a frenzy for my blood. The rule of rushing is that if you are down, you will need a pot to get back. Mage can't afford to backtrack and save your sorry behind dunto his own suddenly combusting...

Ps I also hate how some people refuse to do the walk of shame and just spam reeeeeev until you get back.

[CanonicalKoi]

Ps I also hate how some people refuse to do the walk of shame and just spam reeeeeev until you get back.

Oh, so true this! If the whole group or the majority die, all of them should respawn. I can heal and boost you all at the same time--saves you pots, bonus! And we can go back in as a cohesive unit. Maybe even, *gasp*, talk tactics since whatever we did before didn't work. Otherwise, it's group lies on floor, I run back, rez one or two, I die, run back again. Meanwhile, the one or two newly risen get their butts waxed because they're out-gunned and we start all over again. Really, the walk isn't beneath you. Mind you, a pony would make it easier......

[Fyrce]

And since Ao3 came out and there's all this cool new EQ to get, they're ruder than ever. How dare we let them die (um, hello, Ao3?), how dare we not be around to rev, how dare the mage die and not rev them. Blah blah. Amazing. I should be rude back and wonder why they did not buff themselves, wait for the group to gather, stun the mob...

[Kalielle]

Totally concurr about people needing to respawn and walk if they die right next to mobs and the Mage had to respawn. it used to be that mages could get away with running in with a shield on and rezzing quickly then running back out. That's almost never the case in ao3. So if you die and the Mage is not there, look around you, use your best judgment about whether you could be rezzed safely, and if that's not the case then respawn and walk just like the mage had to. I always use to do this and it seems just common sense but it's amazing how many people don't do it.

Also, if you're a tank and you have a Mage with you and you're both sitting outside a room where there are mobs and dead people inside, don't expect the Mage to run in first wihtout you to Rez. Again, just common sense but I've seen people who don't do this.

Btw, if I'm host and you refuse to respawn when I tell you to do so, and put the mages in danger because you were too lazy to walk, you will get booted.

[pooop]

@ kaleille, my personal fav is when we rush to boss and the one guy w/o a pot (no, not required in my games, tho encouraged) dies right as soon as we get to boss. then he sits there dead by the boss while the rest of us do the work. i do ask for people to respawn, but if they dont i'll wait till abt 5% of the boss health left and boot lol

[Arterra]

i just like joining games so i dont have the option of booting these twits... price to be paid for not starting the game.

[Fyrce]

People, when you join the group, remember who the mage(s) is(are). If the mage(s) is(are) not near you and the mob/boss has a lot of life, respawn and come back and help. If you are near respawn, walk. Jeez. And yeah, I really hate the dead ones who watch the SLOW progress of killing the boss because they're flat on the ground laughing and not helping. When they get booted, good riddance.

[Azrael]

Heals are worthless. Real tanks dont ask or expect them.

[jonboy]

or eat quiche. :)

[Arterra]

Heals are worthless. Real tanks dont ask or expect them.

since mages give them out so sparingly they dont get used to it. a group with 2 mages spamming heal when it is ready is more likely to survive.

[Ellyidol]

He sure does live up to his name.

[Kalielle]

Heals are key for clearing negative effects in certain scenarios. King Mynas comes to mind for instance. I've watched whole groups of potted tanks taken down by him because once he does his debuff attack and you have that purple/black symbol next to your name, your health will go down faster than you can chug pots. A single good mages who heals at the right time makes all the difference. (Incidentally, I don't spam heal when I'm play my mage and we face him, except perhaps if I'm lagging - otherwise I save my heal and cast it at exactly the right time, when I see the debuff happening, because you have maybe 2 seconds at that point before everyone goes down unless you clear the debuff.)

Also I remember when rushing AO2 map five, having a pala along who spam healed and cleared debuffs meant much easier survivability for all involved. I used to always rush with my bear and when I built my pala it took some convincing to get my bear groups to accept him - until they saw what he could do, at which point I was always asked to bring him. I don't think we ever had a map 5 rush fail while my pala was on the team.

Finally as Arterra points out, spam heals are always nice to have as a backup, and can save the day if someone is lagging or distracted for a split second. It's just like wearing 3 Isis for regen - not strictly necessary I suppose if you're a perfect, never-lagging, never-distracted bear but it has certainly saved my life many times. And yes, I do know how to keep a finger on the health pots button and spam chug them when I'm playing my tank - but nevetheless I'm always glad to have mages along.

[Azrael]

Id love classic healing and tanking in the game, and yes heals can remove debuffs. That said, as kalielle points out perhaps the best use of heal is in fact its "cure" component. When mobs deal out damage as quickly and powerfully as they do, and tanks have so little HP (150 more hp at level 50 than at level 1), players can often die if they rely on heals in the 3 second cooldown time of the heal spell. Its an issue at not just for level 45s or 50s, but for all levels.

Yes, i've known some good healers who have made a difference, but i still would never rely on them, and i don't think its fair to expect more from a Enchantress than what i know the game itself allows them to be capable of.

[CanonicalKoi]

Heal is maxed out--it's a 5.5 sec cool-down, but it heals 95-200 HP (and Devs? Could we maybe make that not such a wide variable sometime?). It likely won't fully heal you, but it might keep you alive long enough to have a chance to suck a pot. I wish folks would bear in mind that while it has an 8m effect area, it doesn't cross voids or go around corners. I have to be within 8m of you, in the same area, so don't demand heals and then grumble about "stupid mages need to stay back". We can only stay back but so far if you want heal-spamming. And yeah, Azrael, I'd agree with you--folks are going to need heal pots whether or not a Mage is present--we can only do so much and there's a lot of stuff that one-shots us or drains mana down to bupkis.

[Arterra]

completely forgot them mynas debuffs... also, who you gonna call when your frozen right after using stomp on plothozz? remember the cure..... i notice that some of those mummies have some 'festering' debuff that when they are all attacking at once can actually almost kill you faster than you can spam pots. this was with a pally yes less HP but same armor mind you! 3 isis and one thoth in some instances.

[Stratospaly]

I understand the need for heal pots, and especially on bosses where streak crits can kill you. I always spam heal pots on bosses, but this should not be the case. Spending 200 health pots on a zone run as a tank while some newb runs around in his pally mage setup with full mana the whole time refusing to cast any spells, kinda sucks. If I tank for a group I make no money unless an awesome pink drops for me, if I stay back and dps I can make a little cash. Mages can get high m/s cutting down on the need for mana pots, or just use less spells if needed. Self heals and mage heals should keep a tank alive durring battles, not the tanks ability to spam click health pots.

This is a major flaw in the game that should be looked at.

[Fyrce]

Heal is essential. My bear notices immediately whether a mage is any good. Unfortunately, most of them still need to be told to heal as often as possible and use other skills. But then I have to tell birds how to use their skills, bears how to use their skills, so I don't think mages are that different. It IS immediately noticeable from the tank perspective when a mage or mages actually do work though. The fight is MUCH shorter and furry bear uses MUCH fewer pots and groups likely won't fail because the bear is dead and the rest of the group is getting pounded.

My mage has generally not been told to leave, even by a group of bears. Generally they are happy to have the mage. Of course, it's obvious when they're buffed, healed, rez'd and the enemies are debuffed. That doesn't mean accidents can't happy and magee has walk back, but it's also obvious when bears know what they're doing: Magee almost never has to watch out about getting pounded. Now if the tank is an idiot, dies a lot, yells a lot, gets the mage killed a lot, well, that also is obvious. It's also obvious when the level 50 STR bear and the level 49 STR bear are waiting for the level 46 INT mage to lead the way ...

I think all this means that a good group is wonderful to play with, the same as it was in AO2 and Swamps and Nightmares and really, anywhere.

[jonboy]

I think I'll write an article about palys and tanks.