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A dedicated healing class might
well be the dividing line between traditional MMORPGs and active combat
MMORPGs. Despite the prevailing opinion of healers as whack-a-mole
gamers, that healers play the UI and not the game, the healer remains
the purest example of a support class and, as a result, the most
MMO-ish class there is. So why the animosity? What does a dedicated
healing class bring to MMO gaming, and how will healers fare in the
2011 MMORPG lineup? That and more in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/oct/4">Loading…
Healers Plz.
The
Pulse
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">What
is The Pulse?).
Today's
top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest 2
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
of the Rings Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online (UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age
of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
(UP 2)
Biggest
movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online
- UP 8
to
#13 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
Wars 2
- down 4
to
#8 style="text-decoration: underline;"> -
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2">StarCraft
II
- down 4
to
#17
-
size="-1">7/27
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2461"
target="_blank">Need
for Speed World
(release) -
size="-1">7/27
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
II: Wings of Liberty
(release) -
size="-1">8/17
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
of Heroes: Going Rogue (release) -
size="-1">8/18
- href="http://everquest2.com/free_to_play">EverQuest
II Extended (release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/7
- size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
Assault on Balaurea (free
expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/29
- Everquest
2 Extended
(release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/30
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv">Final
Fantasy XIV (release)
Releases
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/5 -
10/8 - href="http://www.gdconline.com/">GDC
Online -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/8 -
10/10 - href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/">New
York Comic Con -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y" target="_blank">BlizzCon -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
-
3/26 (2011) - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/" target="_blank">CCP
FanFest
- Ask the Devs!
Have you got a question about style="font-style: italic;">Rift:
Planes of Telera?
Well, you have a chance to ask the devs at Trion Worlds directly. Just
submit your questions href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53660">in
our forums.
alt="World of Warcraft PlayerScore"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/misc/PlayerScore/2010/PlayerScore_100410.jpg">
What's
your PlayerScore? World of
Warcraft players, find out at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.
Loading... Every MMOG's secret
desire.
The
href="http://swtor.com/news/blog/20101001">latest
style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars: The Old
Republic blog
introduces advanced classes, a concept that strikes me as pretty
similar to the archetype -> sub-class -> class
progression in
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest 2
(ex. Scout -> Predator -> Ranger or Warrior ->
Crusader -> Paladin), the principal difference being a shared
skill set between the subclasses.
The concept has been adopted or adapted a number of times since, so
Advanced Classes, so far as I can tell, isn’t especially
original or noteworthy. But what seems like a response to
Arena.net’s stance on healers in
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2
is interesting to me:
“The
play style generally associated with the ‘healer’
role in MMOs is very popular with many players and we wanted to make
sure that we offered that role in our game for our audience. In fact,
we are offering two classes that can develop into fully capable healers
for each faction via one of their Advanced Classes.”
Contrast that with this,
from the recent
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2
dev blog, “
href="http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/">A
New Look at Healing and Death”:
“Healing is
the least dynamic kind of support there is. It is
reactive instead of proactive. Healing is for when you are already
losing. In Guild
Wars 2 we prefer that you
support your allies before they take a beating. Sure, there are some
healing spells in style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2,
but they make up a small portion of the support lines that are spread
throughout the professions. Other kinds of support include buffs,
active defense, and cross-profession combinations.”
Reactive heals and heal-over-time buffs, what A.net is likely referring
to as active defense, has always been hybrid healer territory. What
most of us think of when we think of a dedicated healer is direct
healing – the ability to restore large amounts of hitpoints
at once. Pulling groupmates back from the clutches of death is at least
as satisfying to a healer as is having the highest DPS to a mage or
rogue type, and the kind of elation you feel as a healer at bringing
your group through a boss fight perhaps a little too tough for their
skills can’t be denied.
No other class has the sole ability to turn the tide of a fight quite
like a good dedicated healer, one that knows the nuances of mana
management and spell efficiency, and any good healer knows that healing
well is a pretty dynamic exercise in its own right. Plus, a good MMORPG
encounter has all traditional elements of drama, the exposition, the
rising action, the complication or climax, and the resolution. What
gets the group past the complication is, nine times out of ten, the
healer, and I don’t quite see how you can have a good,
throaty, thrillingly suspenseful encounter without the possibility of
some serious direct healing.
A dedicated healing class might well be the dividing line between
traditional MMORPGs and active combat MMORPGs. Despite the prevailing
opinion of healers as whack-a-mole gamers, that healers play the UI and
not the game, the healer remains the purest example of a support class
and, as a result, the most MMO-ish class there is.
That’s why omission of a dedicated healing class is perhaps
the boldest stroke of games like
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2
and (as far as I can tell)
style="font-style: italic;">DC Universe Online.
All of our previous examples of MMOs featuring “active
combat” –
style="font-style: italic;">DDO
and Age
of Conan especially
– offer at least one direct healing class. As for
future MMORPGs, healers can take heart. The bassist in the MMO band
will still play a very prominent role in 2011 MMORPGs like
style="font-style: italic;">Rift: Planes of Telara,
TERA,
and Star
Wars: The Old Republic.
Not to rehash the “
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/no-more-healers">No
More Healers” discussion,
but do you agree that dedicated healers are the soul of the traditional
MMORPG? Do you like how action MMOs are moving away from specialization
and towards hybridization, or do you like that old timey
“aces in their places” feel? Have your say in the
Loading… forums!
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=487">Contest
Announcements Forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53880">Get
Your Vindictus Beta Key!
Do
you like us? Then prove your like! We want you to...ugh, no. Put your
clothes back on; we don't need you to prove yourself quite that
way. Simply head over to our
href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ten-Ton-Hammer/9621518062"
target="_blank">Facebook page
and click the shiny LIKE button.
And if you need incentive to like us (we're not above bribery), we have
some beta keys to the hot, fast-paced free-to-play MMOG,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2462"
target="_blank">Vindictus
to give away to a few lucky, random likers. Vindictus kicks off open
beta on October 13, but you could get in now with a key from Ten Ton
Hammer. And, what's better, if you win a key you can claim two more to
share with your friends or the folks in this thread. Liking Ten Ton
Hammer makes you awesome. Sharing beta keys makes you a rockstar. It's
win/win!
Go
href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ten-Ton-Hammer/9621518062"
target="_blank">fall in like with us
for your chance to win.
=====================================
Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread
"Oh
but Shay, the others only like you for your beta keys whereas I on the
other hand... heh, almost got through that with a straight face."
-
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=443230&postcount=2">Anacche
=====================================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
6 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 12 Ten Ton
Hammer features in September! 1072 in 2010!
PREVIEWS
LEGO Universe Preview
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview">http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview
Fans
of the existing LEGO toys and video games are sure to fall in love all
over again with this adorable franchise once they've played the MMOG
version. In this hands-on preview, we'll cover some of the ups and
downs of our time in the LEGO Universe beta and tell you why this
kid-friendly title is sure to enchant gamers of all ages
INTERVIEWS
Dev
Talk: Where the Girls Aren't - The Role of Women in the Gaming Industry
href="http://tentonhammer.com/interviews/devtalk/2010/sep">http://tentonhammer.com/interviews/devtalk/2010/sep
When
it comes to women in video games there’s no shortage of
female
characters; from Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) to Tifa Lockheart (Final
Fantasy VII) there’s a long history of virtual women kicking
pixel ass.
But things are a bit different in the video gaming industry, where
real, flesh and blood female developers and industry experts are still
a bit of a rarity. Ten Ton Hammer spoke to industry professionals to
get their perspectives. We asked whether they felt women were given
equal opportunity in the gaming industry currently, and bid them to
tell us how they saw the role of women in gaming evolving.
MEDIA
DCUO
Releases Latest Screenshots of Metropolis
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/screenshots/metropolis-oct/1/2010">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/screenshots/metropolis-oct/1/2010
Launch
month is closing in for DC Universe Online and SOE is ramping up hype
with the announcement of Lex Luthor in game and the release of these
new screenshots. Get an early look at the DCUO world with
shots
across Metropolis and some of the areas that players will find
themselves in once they've donned their tights and have set out to
fight (or create) chaos.
FEATURES
& GUIDES
The
World of DC Universe Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/editorials/the-world-of-dcuo">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/editorials/the-world-of-dcuo
DC
Universe Online has been flying below the hype radar which makes it
almost hard to believe that the latest super hero incarnation will be
launching soon. If you have missed any of the DCUO news that has been
slowly coming out of SOE, no worries! We have a full recap on all the
game basics to catch you up on what the world of DC Comics will be
bringing to the MMO genre this November.
The
Cost of Transmutation - A Look at Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/transmutation-stone-microtransactions">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/transmutation-stone-microtransactions
ArenaNet
recently announced that "transmutation stones" were going on sale in
the Guild Wars 2 item shop to allow players to keep the looks of the
gear with the stats of new gear that they've found. These consumables
stones are sparking a bit of controversy over how microtransactions
will work in the upcoming Guild Wars 2. Our latest article takes a look
at how the item shop may work in GW2 and what all of this means. While
you're here come join our community forums and
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53882">share
your opinion on the subject.
WoW
Cataclysm – Twilight Highlands Zone Preview
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/zones/twilight-highlands">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/zones/twilight-highlands
As
players level in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm they will eventually
reach the new end-game zone called The Twilight
Highlands. This is
the zone where ultimately the fate of Azeroth is set to be
decided. In this zone you get to face off against the Twilight
Hammer Cultists and the Black Dragonflight to determine the
world’s
fate. The zone is extremely large and varied, and highly story
driven. Join Byron “Messiah” Mudry as he
explores the game’s new
end zone.
Today's
Top 10
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview">
style="font-weight: bold;">LEGO Universe
Preview href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/mastery"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/mastery">
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
- Introduction to the Mastery System href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/final-fantasy-xiv"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/final-fantasy-xiv">
style="font-weight: bold;">Final Fantasy XIV
Review at Ten Ton Hammer -
href="http://tentonhammer.com/interviews/devtalk/2010/sep">Dev
Talk: Where the Girls Aren't - The Role of Women in the Gaming Industry -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/rogue_cataclysm_talents">
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
Rogue Talent Guide for Patch 4.0.1 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/shso/previews/sept-2010"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/shso/previews/sept-2010">
style="font-weight: bold;">Marvel Super Hero Squad
Online - A Heroes &
Helicarriers Preview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90254">Ten Ton
Hammer's Beginner's Guide for style="font-weight: bold;">LotRO
- General Gameplay -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/features/reviews/character-rating-tools">Measuring
Gear and Comparing Scores in style="font-weight: bold;">World of
Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/interviews/dave-georgeson-sep-2010">Return
to Norrath! An Interview with style="font-weight: bold;">EverQuest
2’s
Dave Georgeson -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/editorials/the-world-of-dcuo">The
World of DC
Universe Online
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer
team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.
