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Originally Posted by Big W Powah!  As far as the healer dicussion goes. Thats great for one style. the Lifetap Healer.
but thats not all there is to it. REST CUT FOR LENGTH |
Yea, your other ideas is basically what I was touching on in the last paragraph. Make healing a byproduct of participating in the fight itself, i.e. damaging the mobs. It doesn't have to all be direct life drain spells, I just went into detail on that specific idea.
A 'tank' class that can heal themselves/others by doing certain combat moves. Think of the WoW warrior revenge ability, but instead of doing damage to the mob, it heals the person with lowest health in group for X amount. Or, another similar reactive ability that intercepts the next attack the mob does to an alternate person. A really good tank could actually pick up slack for shitty healers if played properly, and vice versa.
A druid type class who has a special melee attack that can place a debuff on the mob to reverse the damage of the next spell cast by the mob, long cooldown. With proper timing, a bolt volley type effect would then heal the group for that amount instead.
Give a paladin/defender class a similar idea to rage, the more they see comrades injured or the more they are attacked (whatever works for the style of the class better), the higher a faith/deity meter builds up. When it's full, they can unleash an instant heal spell to heal one member to full, or the whole group X amount.
Make the healing spells more passive overall or reactive to the mob itself. The whole problem with whack a mole, and you CAN eliminate it without trivializing content, is that a dedicated healer has to watch bars instead of the game. If you can get your healing cues from mob actions or abilities, that's fine. If you have a group heal, and you have to hit that spell in reaction to seeing the mob do an AE damage effect, it's a way more enjoyable experience then watching a health bar.
Melee abilities that place debuffs on the mob, similar to the paladin judgement of light, that then allow others hitting the mob to heal, or for the mob's attacks to heal the target for X amount (like shaman's earthen shield but on the mob instead).
There's tons of creative ideas that many MMO fans have come up with, I think developers have just gotten themselves into a creative rut, and don't spend as much energy thinking of new ways to be a healer.