Wow, I finally get it--heal your team mates

[xena99]

I've been mostly a cleric on 4 servers and have been around for more than a year, but got tired of killing red nixes with my 90 cleric on epith and decided to play my 20+ mage. I've now partnered with a handful of clerics in Luminous Stone and not one even shot me an occasional heal. I don't mind hitting my stones and pots, but this was ridiculous. Why would I want to duo with a cleric if you don't even occasionally heal me? I get more exp. points without you, more drops, your party buffs are not worth it, you don't kill fast enough to make up for that especially if I have to run back to town just as often to get heal stones. I don't expect a heal bot, been there don't like it either, but this was unbelievable.
Guess things have really changed since I was a level 20 cleric.

[ahtai]

Yes they do. Try get no buff no heal in when your alt get to 60s and you go O.O!

[Selkice]

Its like in the rant thread I mentioned
"Clerics are basically useless until about 4x"
I dont know what makes us so stupid until then
but its a serious problem :/

[Celtic_Princess]

There are always exceptions to the rule. I've run into 3x clerics who went on to be some fantastic Paladins.

I think its about learning curve when it comes to this game. The first thing all of us learn to do is kill. And for all intensive purposes, thats all the other 3 classes really have to know how to do. What I mean by that is that Cleric is the only class that has to learn to balance killing with supporting in a party. Sure, fighters have to keep aggro, but mock only involves 1 button every now and then.

So, when everyone else has figured out what to do with their characters...be it kiting, or what combinations kill the fastest...clerics are expected to learn how to heal, survive, and kill at the same time. It takes a little longer to get used to if you aren't familiar with it.

To bring this to an actual point...at the time when everyone else is learning how to kill...so are clerics. What could be presumed as arrogance at an early level because of lack of heals could just be a cleric who's not familiar with being in a party, and so behaves as though they are not.

As more experienced players, thats the perfect place for us to step in and guide a newer player so that they really learn how to get the most out of their character.

[grummin]

To bring this to an actual point...at the time when everyone else is learning how to kill...so are clerics. What could be presumed as arrogance at an early level because of lack of heals could just be a cleric who's not familiar with being in a party, and so behaves as though they are not.

I agree with everything said, but this part really, in my opinion, goes to the core of it. Whether it's lack of familiarity, or perhaps even a lack of practice at multitasking- being used to fighting and healing yourself, and not having caught on to watching everyone else's health as well. Or not yet being skilled at changing targets for healing....F keys, clicking portraits in the party list...

Admittedly I've yet to hit level 30 with any character I've created...but I've almost laughed at times when I go into a KQ, and at the end I've got a party full of people acting like I'm God's Gift to Parties- ummm, why? Because I heal everyone in the bunch? I thought that's what I was supposed to do, yet people act like I've started some new phenomenon. *shrug*

But then I've been in parties where it wasn't the case- two (or in a couple of cases, three) clerics, and only one of'em ever cast heal at all. Guess which one that was, and who he cast it on? Yep: me, and on anyone who needed it at the time.

Healbot? *shrug* Not what I want to do full-time, but I'm all for adapting to the current situation. If all hell is breaking loose, I'm usually worth more keeping everyone else alive while they get things back under control. Sometimes I can pounce on a monster in a way that helps, sometimes not. Whatever, it's about the party- not me.

If everything's going really smoothly, they're killing faster than I can get involved and I don't mind that either. But in between, there are situations where I can get my shots in and heal as well- whether a calm where I can jump in fighting just to say I did it, or chasing down a monster that's charging one of my squishies. Oh no, monster- that's one of mine, you don't get it without a fight. :D

And if I really get the uncontrollable itch to fight- I enjoy soloing. Slow, but I'm not one who gets itchy about that. Okay, so I danced with Marlone for 25 minutes (or maybe more...wasn't really watching the clock) last night. Only one of us walked away, and it wasn't Marlone. He was kissing Burning Hill dirt. ;)