PPU-Idea: The Heal in Neocron
I do know many people will disagree and will scream out in rage about my idea to touch something ingame/change something - but imo its necessary to accumulate a more consistence game-experience and more fun ingame.
i do have an idea about how to improve the rather passive-play-style of a PPU in PvE/maybe PVP. We do have Mobs around that do quite insane direct DMG-pikes and these DMG-pikes are mostly very random and not predictable, neither i can prevent my teammate from dying of many PvE-Elements that are roaming Neocron - that is fine and could be balanced with Mob-DMG-Changes - but i think its more a problem of how players get healed by their supporter.
If i look at certain other support-classes in other MMOs their job is very similar to ours with one difference:
1.Boost your Team and there Skills to maximize DMG-Output and Resistance
2.mitigate DMG with Shields
3.provide Heal-Point-Restoration - direct Heals and HoTs
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In Neocron you only fulfill 2 or 2 1/2 of these jobs:
1. PPU-Buffs raise sub-skill-points - proved very well in the field :) everything's fine (DMG and Resistance Buffs)
2. Shields - not that i am happy to have to cast 3 Shields(NC1/2 got only 2 shields - much better) but its fine and works and mitigates DMG as intended
3. Heal-Point-Restorations - here is a Point where i disagree with the system in its current state:
Let me explain it:
As a PPU your "Heals" provide a 60 Seconds Heal-over-Time effect. It acts more like a buffed Medkit and i am the Brain to use this Medkit :D - i cant see the amount of Heal-per-Second that my heal would apply so its a very vague/shady style of healing - you take what you get - its brainless.
So our heal is good for dealing with AE-Damage and with DoTs that do DMG in ticks as long they are applied.
in my opinion and experience - many PvE/PvP DMG-Sources are mostly DMG-Pikes, not DoTs.
Lets take as an PvE-example the chaos-cave. All these Mobs fire in relatively short amount of times (if they can hit you - last patch addressed that very well) and every hit does a certain amount of Direct-Impact-Damage and it applies a Poison-DoT. The DoT is not a problem in our current heal-system - if you collect to many DoT-Stacks - you will die - that's a good thing.
Everything s fine so far, but what really bothers me, that even if you are a PPU you can only watch your Teammate die if he gets shot by a Direct-Impact-DMG-Mob (DiD-Mob if you like ;) ). Your Holy heal and your Holy heal Sanctum will only raise his passive-Regeneration - you are doomed to watch him die under direct-fire and cannot intervene. This has its upsides and its downsides - the DMG-Dealer has to be careful and watch his steps - downside is - a PPU cant really do something against a dumb runner who doesnt work with cover - is it intended to use cover most of the time or have a tank that gets the Mob to shoot him while his team takes it down)
I feel a bit exhausted by the fact, that as a PPU i am more occupied by casting shields and boosts, as casting heals.
Wouldn't it need to be the other way around - buff and shield your personal at the beginning of a fight - concentrate on healing and boosting regeneration and keep them alive)
to get to my point - the ppu is not able to prevent a teammate from dying if he get hit by Direct-Impact-Damage in any ways (only if the DiD is coming in fast small amounts or in slow big amounts).
A PPU only raises the overall regeneration and works like a Medkit with brain (if X not applied-> cast Heal, Boost, Shield)
So its a simple job and the timing is nothing special in my opinion.
In NC1 i can remember that the heal-spells where shorter in duration and provided greater Ticks of Heal(10second heal). So boost the amount of healed points but reduce the Time the DoT applies. (more to do for PPUs). On the other hand we do have short duration Buffs and Shields. These have to be tuned as well - Longer Buffs, longer Shields - shorter Heals. That would be the essence of my thoughts :D
back in these days i found it much more challenging(and rewarding if i succeeded) to get these Heals out (they did cost a fair amount of PSI) and rescued a Runner and prevented him from death, even if he got struck by a DMG-Pike.
To account this problem, i would love to have a direct heal-spell (it should be very expensive in PSI-Cost and hard to equip) but it should provide the PPU with a short-Burst-heal that accompanies the problems mentioned above.
I know that this spell would be really hard to balance, but i think its a good idea to boost the population of MONKs and especially PPUs.
As a matter of fact this could lead to very hard PvP-Fights and could lead to godlike-PPUs - i am aware of that :D.
So lets make this spell so exhaustible to the Monks mind that he CAN'T HEAL HIM SELF with this spell.
So if you have a PvP-Fight - the ppu could only raise his normal regeneration with his Holy Regeneration and his Holy Regeneration Sanctum (aka Holy Heal, Holy Heal Sanctum) - his Holy-heal can only be applied on his Teammates.
as a result the PPU could provide a good supporter but would not gain a godlike class, that cannot be killed in PvP.
Give me some thoughts of your own and don't hesitate to criticise my ideas. I am playing NC since 2002 and i still love it, like it is now. But i had many thoughts on improving the game-experience and the game-play-mechanics.
Furthermore i'd wish that more people would play Neocron - till its one game of a kind and it has potential. With more players and more diversity in the amount of played races/classes - neocron could get big again.
In my opinion the very difficult play mechanics and inconsistency of gameplay dont attract new players - so i see the big-picture here - if we cant get people to play NC (more than nowl) it will vanish and that's not what it deserves.
