Long ago, when Healers were first introduced with the split, they had a few attack supplications (Blind and Flamestrike I believe). With the PBase decreasing, and often times not being able to find those to travel with, would it be possible to give back to healers some ways to deal more damage. We have three classes that are looked at as support. Bard, Transmuter and Healer. Both the Bard and Transmuter can do well in groups as well as able to handle fights by themselves. The Healer class is a different case. By themselves, they can do little. (Takes about 10 minutes to slay an outer guardian if you are a hero with no opposition). I am not thinking Healers really need much in the PvP front, though a boost to Bulwark of Faith damage might be nice. But more "prayer" like means of dealing damage would be nice (IE: No more kicking to death foes.)

A couple of suggestions I had.

1) Return to healers the Flamestrike Sup, but do not give it to them to the later levels (L30 or so). While this would be one of the least recommended ideas, it can be a quick fix. Or another simple damage prayer.

2) Give them a power that works in the reverse of Vitrolic Steam. IE: It starts off small damage, but after four rounds of going, would hit for a big hit. In PvP, opponents could just flee before the big hit comes, but against NPCs, the extra damage would really help them. Example would be starts off doing 25, 50, 100, 250 damage. Would think Holy or Defilment damage based on the alignment of the priest. Two round lag to commune. Other communes can be used in this time, but no skills, so no chance of the healer using lash or other lagging skills.

3) Commune that does its damage based upon the Health of its foe. So PCs wouldn't take much damage at all, but a Mob would take a decent amount of damage. IE: A mob that has 30,000 hp would take 300-500 damage, while a PC that has only 1,000 hp would only take 50-100 damage. Two round lag of course so that the priest has to decide if he wishes to deal damage or heal.

Names for prayers are not my strong point. I just wish to see Healers have more options then simply healing when there is not much to do. In PvP I believe they can be effective, but when it comes to NPCs, not so much. So that is the focus of boosting them. Make them more on par to the other support classes.

I don't really ever want to see flame-throwing healers.

This kind of thing becomes clear when you're trying to work on other classes-- if you get sloppy with the design boundaries of one, they all start looking the same and you lose the 'feel'.

I'd argue that's the problem with shamans now, and something we're trying to address during future efforts.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

1) Your idea for reverse vitriolic stream made me think... I thought you were going to say an ability that healed you, and worked its way down a ladder in amount of healing given per round. But neither this suggestion nor yours is necessary.

2) I like the idea of giving -evil- healers an offensive supplication. If they are going to take such a large hit in amount of healing that they are capable of in comparison to good or neutral aligned healers, then they could use a boost in the opposite direction. Flamestrike sounds interesting. Give it an edge option to be unholy flames so it can still hurt Maran.

Otherwise, healers are meant to heal and protection, and not much else.

I feel like the non-offensive nature of the healer class is an inherent part of the class design. They're supposed to be really good at one thing: keeping themselves and others alive. If you want to play a support class with some offensive output, as you point out there's always bards and transmuters.

Or, if you want to do offensive healer, go scion/empire, or go fortress and obtain relevant progging gear.