Adventures From the Back Row: The cost of healing
The healer gets a bad rap. In guild drama stories the healer is always some emo kid with a divisive personality. They're loot whores who sell their services to the highest bidder. They're fickle, unreliable showboaters who delay raids by hours while they shop for spells at the broker. And, of course, there is some truth to that.
Most healers I know, though, are the kind of folks who don't look for any of that kind of attention. The art of healing in most Massively Multiplayer games puts you at the back of the party. There, you can shine without being the star of the show. You can contribute without having to compete for the top of the DPS chart, and it's highly unlikely anyone will yell at you for pulling an unwanted mob.
For a lot of people that role in the back row is counter-intuitive to the reason they play Massive games. Seeing the big numbers appear above the heads of monsters is the ultimate goal of those hours of grinding, and anything that detracts from that is of secondary concern. The most extreme examples of that philosophy make for legendary pick-up group stories, the folks who say thing like 'gtg, cat's on fire' or 'gtg, mom died.'
Most Healers are just the opposite. It's not just that they don't want the pressure of taking down the mob, their first priority is that they want to play with people. Healing is seen by a lot of players as a noble profession, but for a lot of people that do it there's no nobility about it. There's no tradeoff or downside to that low place on the DPS ladder, it's simply a question of mechanics.
Having in a healer benefits a group by greatly increasing survivability. That enhanced survivability translates to longer playtimes and more socialization among the party members. Whether they're looking for chit-chat or just more xp, Healers are in it for the myriad benefits of playing with people. In a way, they embody the essence of the MMOG genre.
Social gameplaying has been around since the days of Pong, but it's becoming an ever-more-important element of modern gaming. This site's existence is a testament to that, and I think it speaks to something higher than an interest in getting phat lootz and taking boss kill shots. Americans have gotten so busy that interacting with others via a virtual medium is a given part of most people's daily lives. That we choose to wrap our text chat inside avatars and then go hunting for dragons is simply one expression of the intrinsic human desire to connect with others.
Healers are the ultimate expression of that desire. By providing a center around which a party can form, they allow us to tear down the walls between us and connect ... if only for a few hours in the depths of a dungeon. This column is going to focus on the issues facing the strong support from the back row. Be it from without (antagonistic party members, rampaging elite mobs), from within (class balance, overhealing), or from beyond (UI mods, concentration, burnout) whatever concerns face the party's Healer will be addressed and disarmed for your reading pleasure.
Anybody call for a Medic?
