We encourage guest posts from players and owners across the Larp genres. They will not always express our views or fit every game. If you would like to do a guest spot, please email us here with your idea! Dave Jurns has been Larping for several years and has served (and continues to do so) as a Plot person for WAR (Rage Hollow).
Like basically everything else in WAR Accelerant, healing is
going through a pretty radical shift and I think it’s going to take a little
processing to wrap our heads around the differences. Hopefully, we can work though some of that
today.
Big Change #1: Healers can’t heal forever.
This is big, and it’s going to be weird for those of us (me
included) who are used to making it rain “10 Elemental Healing”.
“But Dave,” you may be saying, “I couldn’t heal
forever! I was using up components, and
I’d have run out eventually!”
No, you wouldn’t have.
LCO components, at least in my neck of the woods, fell from the sky like
manna. I don’t even know if anyone used
them for anything but cantrips. Everyone I can think of just called them
“cantrip fodder”. You get the idea. The point is, with a system like that healing
was effectively infinite.
No more.
Healing resources are going to be a little bit tighter, and
the straight-up NERO style “backpack” just isn’t very feasible. Basic healing requires attribute expenditure
and there just isn’t that much to go around.
But, (deep breaths here) it’s
cool.
Big Change #2: Big
Change #1 is OK.
Here’s the thing though: being a healer isn’t as big of a
responsibility in WAR Accelerant.
Point 1: There’s lots
of healing to go around
In NERO, the only people with access to substantial healing
of any sort were Earth scholars and Alchemists.
Not so in WAR Accelerant! Below
is a list of headers that are capable of healing either themselves or others.
Alchemist: Makes healing potions.
Beastmaster: Can heal anyone/thing with the “Animal” trait
(themselves included)
Berserker: Can heal themselves (they frenzy to do it, but
who’s counting?)
Bloodmage: Heal themselves by attacking the enemy
Guardian: Can heal either themselves or their protectee.
Healer: Well, yeah.
Necromancer: Heals anything with the “Undead” trait really well.
Scalawag: Heals themselves.
That’s a pretty big list.
Admittedly, nobody heals as long or as well as the Healer
(which seems reasonable), but there’s no reason that a thoughtfully constructed
team should need to go running for a healer everytime somebody gets an ouchie.
Point 2: You just
won’t need as much healing
Seriously, you won’t.
Spell used to take so long to wear off that it just wasn’t
worth waiting for or they didn’t wear off at all. In Accelerant, even the nastiest effects are
cured by five minutes of rest. Healers just
won’t need to be dropping healing spells on every little thing.
Also, nobody dies to uncalled damage. Did goblins just beat your friend down with
uncalled damage? Let him sit for five
minutes, it’ll teach him a lesson.
Remember: unless they go down to called damage or a killing blow,
they’ll get up in five minutes only slightly worse for wear.
What Can I Do to Stay
Alive?
1. Look
at your healing options. If you have a
header with a little self-healing, pick it up.
If you can resist effects for fewer attribute than it’d take your healer
to repair, pick those skills up as well.
Don’t rely on your healer to fix everything. You have access to those
skills for a reason.
2. Think
about non-conventional healing roles. A
group of nature casters can heal themselves pretty well if they all take
abilities that grant them the “Animal” trait.
Same thing with a group of filthy Necromancers and the “Undead”
Trait.
3. Utilize
production! Between healing Alchemy and
Armor and Flesh runes, there’s a lot that production can do to help you stay
alive.
4. Play
it smart. Seriously. Recognize that infinite healing isn’t a thing
anymore and adjust accordingly. Don’t
challenge a Death Knight, secure in the knowledge that your healer will be able
to keep you up indefinitely.
What Can I Do to
Still be an Effective Healer?
1. Don’t
max out the header first thing. It’s
great to be able to walk into game able to heal anything that comes your way,
but the full header comes to a whopping 41 cp (the most expensive one in the
game). Chances are pretty good that that
won’t leave you as much as you’d like left over. Instead, pick up some of the lower abilities,
a status fix, and get to “Prolonged Healing” and “Efficient Healer” as quickly
as you can.
2. Don’t
ignore attributes. The healer has a
pretty even mix of attribute use, so it’s worthwhile for you to invest in your
attributes, especially Spirit.
3. Grab
a production header. As mentioned
earlier, all of the production has great ways to augment you healing
ability. Between wands, attribute
potions, healing alchemy, and defensive runes, there’s a lot for you to play
with. You can go any direction, but be
sure to get at least one.
What are your plans
to live, thrive, and survive? Let us
know in the comments!
I think in this new system whack-a-mole healing is the way to go. Wait for someone to get smacked down by called damage and then heal.
ReplyDeleteHeal out of combat to top ppl off, and during combat make your team to rely on their self heals more.
At the very least I would pick up a weapon skill for something else to do. It's not only offense but defense as well. Somethng like a polearm allows you to keep monsters at bay for a few secs and give you the ability to attack behind the protection of your shield wall.
Couple of thoughts from someone who's played a fair number of healers in other Accellerant games:
ReplyDeleteKnow your diagnose tree. The addition of the stable/unstable to the list of conditions adds a fantastic variety of ways you can accidentally kill someone by either forgetting to diagnose stable, or assuming that once someone is stable they're going to stay that way.
If you can, stabilize first, then Diagnose Stable. That'll tell you right away if you have the time to figure out what's wrong with someone or if their situation is considerably worse than 'bleeding right now'. If the answer is no, the next step is to begin first aid (in case they're Stricken, at which point a general stabilize/healing skill won't work on them, but First Aid will) and then Diagnose Dead. If they're stable after you check for that, then start running down damage/stun/paralyze to figure out what's wrong with them. But always check stable first.
Oh yeah, and 'Diagnose Stable' is a better question to ask than 'Diagnose Unstable', because if you are Dead, you are not unstable. Have seen a few people nearly resurrect because the people around them were asking 'Diagnose Unstable', getting a 'no' answer, and then couldn't figure out what was wrong with the person such that healing/cure stun/cure paralyze didn't fix them.
Also, don't assume that just because a bunch of checked/stable bodies has been carefully piled up behind the line that they're going to stay like that. Some of the more tragic deaths I've seen involved someone in the stable pile of bodies getting tagged by a random packet from the fight and then bleeding out in full view of everyone in a 'safe' location.
I see the theory of the health/healing/damage worked out rather well. I just have to see it in action at this point. There's no other way for me to form an option till I see it work.
ReplyDeleteI think people will def have to get out of the mentality of "endless healing" and that's not just on the healers, but on the fighters, rogue types, casters, etc. No more will you be able to stomp in to the fray and it's cool, cause the healer has 300000 healing pts from healing pools. Have to fight more strategically, and remember that Healers aren't responsible for everything anymore.
ReplyDeleteI know the last few years people with shields literally reach it out to catch packets as they come, now it really behooves people to actually move, lol.
Remembering Ashton when I started, there was very little healing and like three life spells in town. We had GREAT fights and were always scared. We had strategic fights, and very close knit groups for combat, that included different types of weapons (like 2 handers to reach under the shields). Very much looking forward to that....
I think the thing to remember is that there really is an unlimited amount of healing, but it's not very fast.
ReplyDeleteA good Shield Bearer/Runesmith can probably survive for a very long time thanks to Prolonged Healing. The new game is going to be managing burst healing, and knowing when it's appropriate to meditate for that Heal 2.
I mean, one of the people on our team took the Healer Header, and their only actual heal is Prolonged Healing. I didn't think of it when we designed the header, but it's pretty sweet that it can actually end up that way!
I've also played healers in both the NERO and Accelerant systems. There is a very different feel and style to healing in those games. Part of the difference is the obvious ones relating to the more limited amount of healing and the lower numbers of hit points and damage. But pacing is where I notice the biggest difference.
ReplyDeleteIn NERO it is common to see a fighter/backpack combo standing toe to toe with the bad guy or guys trading blows back and forth very rapidly. The backpack hunches down with their hand on the fighter's shoulder pumping in healing as required. You typically don't see that in Accelerant games.
Between the flurry rule and the smaller pool of hit points on both sides fighting tends to be a lot more measured. You don't typically see two people lock up and just start slugging away at each other until one or the other falls down. Instead what you are more likely to see is a quick exchange of blows and then a separation.
As a NERO healing I am very often called on to heal people while they continue to fight. My job is to heal fast enough to keep up with the damage being taken. If there are a good number of healers in a fight it is rare to see a Fighter step off the line at all.
In Accelerant the majority of the healing that I do happens during the brief pauses in the battle. The challenge in that case is to careful measure who and how much I heal so that I can last as long as I can. Fighters constantly cycle off the front lines in order to refit armor and reset defensive abilities.