Shaman seems to be direct + HoT. Cleric seemed to get direct + absorb. What is Druid supposed to be? Also will there be CH, and if so will they all get it?
Basicall - will there be like in EQ a skill that only one class will get and makes it significantly better than the other two?
Also is it known if one of them will be better at group healing?
To me druids seem to be more of a pre-healer. The Verdanfire Seed, for example, you put on your target before they even take damage and it heals them when they do. The Hyrode's Chrysalis is pre-rez that you put on your target so that if/when they die it rez's them. I'm guessing they'll also have some direct heals and/or heal over time spells as well. But that's the feeling I get from the class page. We'll see how that actually plays out!
I agree, I hope there is not complete heal spell.
All three healing classes are being designed to be equally proficient at group healing, they're all supposed to be able to get the job done. With that said, I imagine there will be situations where a specific healer has a chance to shine, and another maybe struggles a bit more but can still do the work. I wouldn't want them all to be equal in all ways.
Really looking forward to the PTV this week, focused on the healing classes! :)
Ranarius said:I agree, I hope there is not complete heal spell.
This right here, a complete heal spell, is something I fear most because it is a spell that quickly becomes stupidly overpowered. Invidiually it isn't overpowered, but when you have 6, 7, 8 10 or more priests casting it in a rapid-fire change it just ruins content. Then there is the issue of utter boredom when you're a cleric and you're stuck just watching chat spam looking for your name to then click a button while you're over in a corner/around the cornerd unable to look at anything.
SynSymbio said:Shaman seems to be direct + HoT. Cleric seemed to get direct + absorb. What is Druid supposed to be? Also will there be CH, and if so will they all get it?
Basicall - will there be like in EQ a skill that only one class will get and makes it significantly better than the other two?
Also is it known if one of them will be better at group healing?
Shaman is, from watching the streams, nearly wholly focused on HoTs. They apparently have an ability called 'Hurry the Past' that will, allegedly, complete the current HoT by applying all the remaining healing power of the HoT into 1 heal then restarting the Hot. It appears to be a good spike damage response ability which Shaman appear to completely lack otherwise.
I think the main difference, heal'wise, is this:
With the Limited Action Set, it will probably be possible to change how a class feels if you deliberately focus your build on underrepresented healing ability types for your class.
I agree with Ranarius and Vandraad about not having a complete heal (at least not unless there's a way to make it so it doesn't get chain cast at raids).
SynSymbio said:I suspect that some diff will also come from weapons. I always thought that Clerics should have spears and Shaman hammers. Its unfortunate for a person like myself that wants to be a 2h spear weilding Cleric.
Clerics traditionally have had blunt weapons only, Shaman favour piercing through a spear and Druids tend to have wooden weapons like a staff crafted from nature.
Ezrael said:Clerics traditionally have had blunt weapons only, Shaman favour piercing through a spear and Druids tend to have wooden weapons like a staff crafted from nature.
But this is Pantheon, not some other MMO...so there is no reason why that tradition must be followed. Also I don't recall any lore reasons for why the available weapons were chosen as they are now. Apart from healers obviously having fewer weapon skills overall since they focus on their casting. Still, IMO there is no reason why the skills could not be expanded a bit for each healer, or swapped around.
Back on topic, druids get some skill that looks like absorb + heal (Verdanfire Seed), meaning a shield spell that absorbs a certain amount of damage and then heals for the absorbed amount (but I'm quite sure that won't be the only way they heal). I found that an interesting concept and look forward to finally hearing some news on the druid front :)
Ask and you shall receive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIz58zA1W10
I am curious about what pet druids AKA sidekick companions will be for other races ?
Halflings = white fox
Elves = maybe flying dragon ?
Orge = Crocs, Barghests, Turtles ?
Archai = rock dervish could even be colored like thier markings .
Humans = if rangers get no pet then I say falcon or hawk . or Chicken cause would be hilarous to see a human with a chicken sidekick going BOK BOK BOK .
I know its stupid, but I am curious if there is a critical mass of hirode, the druid pet, to just keep a person up, like how good is the healing really?
Like if 6 druids group together can one person have 6 hirode spamming heals as they "main tank" and lead the offensive druids? Or better yet 5 druids and a dire lord spreading dots everywhere lol
Heal styles:
Cleric: Buffs to increase health pool + heals to replenish substantial lost health and supplemental healing from melee attacks (comparable to HoT)
Shaman: Debuffs to substantially decrease incoming damage + HoT and occassional substantial lost health on CD
Druid: Buffs to prevent incoming damage (and death) + reactive substantial heals + proximity HoT
While i'm gonna main the hell out of druid, the shaman has a cool toolkit. I like that you can make your HoTs even more effective by debuffing enemy damage output and buffing ally's damage mitigation if you were looking to go full heal "build". (hopefully a better word than "build" evolves over time...maybe spec/specialization?)
Brutenga said:While i'm gonna main the hell out of druid, the shaman has a cool toolkit. I like that you can make your HoTs even more effective by debuffing enemy damage output and buffing ally's damage mitigation if you were looking to go full heal "build". (hopefully a better word than "build" evolves over time...maybe spec/specialization?)
I like specialization, or maybe "loadout", but I don't mind "build" either. We will have the abiilty to kind of customize our skill set, which can basically be thought of as "building" our characters the way we want. If someone only puts mastery points into heals, I would say that they're "building" or "specializing" for healing. I was pretty set on Shaman last year, but now I'm torn on which healer I will main again lol. At this point, it may come down to a combination of racial active abilities, how Druids will look in leather armor (I absolutely can't stand how WoW Druids look in feathers, antlers, tree bark etc - and the image of the Druid on this website is not reassuring) and how Druid's will handle resource regeneration (knowing that Shaman can exchange health for mana and clerics will be able to generate resource from melee attacks).
Great video posted by Hegenox, and one thing that stood out to me was the cleric ability to place an actual physical barrier for defensive purposes. This makes me wonder, will this barrier also be a useful tool "funneling" enemies? For example, to summon 2 barriers with a gap between them that forces enemies to pass through a choke point that AoE damage abilities could take advantage of? Or to create a wall of barriers that enemies would have to travel around, and thus extending the time it takes for enemies to close the distance and allow a range heavy group of adventurers to inflict more damage before the enemy reaches them. It even sounds like, under certain geographic conditions, a cleric could literally trap enemies with barriers. Say, a group of enemies is standing near a wall. Could the cleric quickly place 3 overlapping barriers that enemies are unable to get out of until the barriers are destroyed?
Shea said:I am curious about what pet druids AKA sidekick companions will be for other races ?
I really hope everyone gets a choice and it isn't one per race. And while I hope many are fictional Terminus creatures, here are some ideas using real animals.
As long as we don't do the same EQ mistake of having 3 healers and only one with the ability to ress and restore exp, it shouldn't really matter. Make the resurrections thematically different, sure, but they all need to be able to do it otherwise you end up with two classes that are either unwanted and/or just glorified buff bots.
So you have a Shaman that excels in proactive healing, a Cleric that excels in reactive healing and a druid that excels in "shield" healing (think FFXIV Scholar really). They can all ress and are all equally good at it - in their own way.
Far too many MMOs drop the ball on classes, they should all excel in their role, but how they do it should be very different similarly - every non-DPS class needs to have an engaging fight outside of their primary job, the ability to _also_ be dpsing would be greatly appreciated. It is the _main_ reason people do not play Tanks & Healers. I have secured the threat? Great I can swap over to more DPS focused skills now. Everyone is topped off, fantastic - I can swap to some DPS.
Rufious said: IMO if you remove CH just to get rid of CH chains, it will just become replaced with which ever direct healing spell, that is the most powerful after that one. Getting rid of such a spell isn't the solution, but changing how it works could be. For example, even leaving CH how it is in EQ, you could add a tick counter to the player that receives the CH(similar to rez effect). This counter has a value for each time CH is cast upon them while they are in combat. Once out of combat, counter drops immediately. Let's say the counter has a 10 second fading effect. So if during those 10 seconds, another CH hits the same player, it refreshes the counter and adds a value to the counter. With each value, it reduces the effect CH does. So with long raid fights, CH chains won't be effective past the first few casts, but still leaves the ability to cast it, and after the counter fades, it can still be just as effective if cast again. And remember, once player leaves combat, the counter would drop instantly. I feel this could be a solution.
This isn't automatically true, plenty of MMOs have had all sorts of different types of heals that have meant the solution to raid healing was not simply chain spamming the largest single target heals.
In EQ2 when we parsed the raid healing the majority of healing came from a Cleric's stacked reactive spells, a Druid's stacked regen spells and a Shaman's damage prevention wards. Direct heals were just used to top a tank off or during tricky moments when they dropped between 50-25% hp.
Counterfleche said:
I really hope everyone gets a choice and it isn't one per race. And while I hope many are fictional Terminus creatures, here are some ideas using real animals.
- Archai: Phoenix (fire), Beaver (water), Condor (wind), Badger (Earth). Or a mini dragon-like creature which has the same color and attunement.
- Elves: Elk, Goat, Lemur
- Halflings: Fox, Raccoon, Ferret, skunk
- Humans: Turkey, Dog, Cat
- Ogres: Hyena, Sabre-Tooth Lion, Vulture
It's a nice idea but that would mean a huge amount of extra time to animate all those different sized creatures and ensure they can use all of Hirode's abilities correctly while interacting with players, enemies and the environment and then a load of Q/A work to test all of the possible scenarios and combinations too.
All so that one class gets loads more choices for customisation that everyone else? Doesn't seem like a good use of dev time really.
Having each race have a unique manifestation for Hirode would be plenty, they could all be smaller versions of whatever target creature also to make the animation work and Q/A process simpler too.
