Balancing for Healers

[UnknownOneMS]

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Tanks & DPS (expect for Engineer, Machinist DPS) are all properly balanced. However, I've always felt like the healers in GoThongs have been very unbalanced for sometime now.

I'm not looking at the healers based on how well they do when min-maxed, or not (which I find boring, personally). I'm looking at the healers from a general point of view. And, I'm comparing the healers in terms of how well they do in DPS, healing, buffs/debuffs, and utility too.

The design of each healer be will judged on their play-style, and how effective they are in combat, both solo runs, and party runs too. Difficulty does NOT matter to me, nor do I care about it. Because, that is something that needs balancing and fixing later for a proper overhaul too, in the future.

For this reason, I will be reviewing the following healers as listed, and I will post my personal thoughts and feelings about how well the classes play out.

Tentaclemancer (Siphoning), Monk (Medicine), Star Dreamer (Moon Dreamer), Engineer (Mechanic), Priest (Morality), Earthmender (Watermending), & Druid (Growth).

Paladin will NOT be added into the list. Since, I'm still waiting for Toonie to give her class a proper overhaul. Once that has been done, I'll post my feedback on the balancing for that class too (in the near future).

Also, I will be creating a tier list on purposefully. Because, whetever we like to admit it or not. Some classes in GoThongs are just straight upgrades, compared to other classes.

For this reason, I'm listing down current classes from top to bottom in my own tier.

1. Earthmender (Watermending)
2. Star Dreamer (Moon Dreamer)
3. Tentaclemancer (Siphoning)
4. Monk (Medicine)
5. Engineer (Mechanic)
6. Druid (Growth)
7. Priest (Morality)

[UnknownOneMS]

Priest (Morality): Basic of all basic healers.

Pros:

-DPS is "decently good". -Class can reduce damage by 50% only to self. -Good in solo runs.

Cons:

-Very difficulty to manage healing a full party of 3-4 players. -Very basic of all healers. -Healing is very weak compared to other healers. Even with the buff to increase healing. -Designed to work well in a party of 1-2 players only, since release. -5th ability CD is too long, even with abilities being able to reduce down the CD timer. (Note: I had to equip Dreamer's Sight Wish, and pray to the RNG gods that I get the mana buff. So, I could force myself to lower down the CD timer even faster.) -Requires overhaul or buff to not fall behind the other healers.

The problem with Priest is the fact that it's the weakest in buffs/debuffs, utility, and healing. Since, the class is better as a single target healer, but not for AoE healing. Personally, I understand why the class is so vanilla, and simple by design. However, the core problem with Priest is the fact that...almost all of the other healers in GoThongs can heal themselves, their teammates, and do better in the DPS, buffs/debuffs, & utility areas in general.

Druid (Growth), Earthmender (Watermending), Star Dreamer (Moon Dreamer), and Engineer (Mechanic) do their jobs better as a healer, than Priest (Morality). Because, they have better, designed kits that make them very fun, engaging, and interesting to play as. In fact, these classes are straight, direct, upgrades compared to Priest (Morality).

Even Monk (Medicine), & Tentaclemancer (Siphoning) (which are melee fighters with ranged healing, by the way) do a better job than priest. Because, both of them have utility and buffs/debuffs (mainly for Tentaclemancer (Siphoning)) in order to be more effective in the long run, compared to Priest (Morality).

Personally, I don't really have too many ideas or suggestions at the moment for how this class can be buffed, overhaul'd, or balanced properly. So, I'm going to leave this one open to the community, Toonie, and Jasdac. So, they can voice their own opinions on how they feel about this class.

[UnknownOneMS]

Druid (Growth): Overtime Buffer/Debuffer Healer

Pros:

-Healing is short, but powerful. -Great in parties -Only healer that can interrupt enemies, outside of DPS roles. -Reduces spell cost by 10%. -Flower Patch heals HP and recovers mana back (bugged, but please keep this added in for the healer support role).

Cons:

-Overtime effects don't have the same amount of utility, or support compared to sort other healers (Watermending, Siphoning, & Star Dreamer). -Not a very strong, compared to other healers with better DPS. -Solo-ing as this class can take sometime to get use to. -Requires a bit more skill and knowledge to understand how this class works. -Bramble Patch is bugged. The mesh will silence ALL enemies who stand in it.

As I listed earlier, Bramble Patch is bugged. And Flower Patch is bugged too. It's mainly the mesh that still has the old stats in the coding. However, I'd strongly suggest keeping Flower Patch the way that is it. Because, the only healer in GoThongs that can restore mana back to teammates is Star Dreamer (Moon Dreamer), but the amount is very small.

Another thing to note about Druid (Growth) is that the DPS for the class feels pretty underwhelming compared to the other healers.

The -10% on spell cost is very nice, but I'm highly suggest buffing this ability up. Up from 10% to 25%. So, if someone is using Star Dreamer's Prism Bell (which gives -30% spell cost reduced). It can be paired along with side with Druid's Rejuvenate (-10% spell cost reduced).

Additionally, I think Swarm should deal some extra damage, if used again on the same enemy. OR, do something like this. Swarm: While applied on a target, increases Nature Shock's damage done by X%.

Just so that way, it helps out more with the DPS for this healer.

Otherwise, this class is pretty much, well balanced, all around.

[UnknownOneMS]

Engineer (Mechanic): Armor Management Healer

Pros:

-Burst DPS/healing with 2nd ability (can be very powerful if paired with items, enchants, weapons, and abilities that increase max mana. Some of which can be found in PanRi free roaming too). -Group AoE dispel and heal. -Reduces movement speed for all enemies within 10 meters of Magnetron. -Repair Bot is best bot. Allows the player to focus on combat or healing another player. -Good in parties

Cons:

-Requires a bit more time to adapt to use in solo runs. -Requires a MUCH higher skill level and game knowledge to manage armor and healing. -Requires the player to manually walk over metal to repair own self's armor. -NO armor repairing abilities for other players. Note to self: Annoy Jasdac or Toonie later (sorry again in advance!) to add in something like that to ability 3. -Drone keeps blocking the view by flying over the targets or into people's camera. Suggestion: Reduce the drone's size.

Engineer (Mechanic) is a VERY interesting, concept and idea for a healer. Using your own armor (similar to Engineer's Metal Management from TF2) to heal other players, and to restore all of your mana too (being scaled based on how much max mana you have).

The only problem that I have with Engineer (Mechanic) is that NONE of their abilities repair the armor of their teammates. It's VERY annoying, whenever players are entering into a challenge dungeon, boss. And some players don't have enough armor on, before they get the nude penalty (which increases damage taken by 20%, if I remember correctly).

I think giving Engineer's 3rd ability, Salvage, the ability to repair another player's armor would be a good idea. The current amount of healing for Salvage is 50 HP, when using up one slot of your armor. I'd reduce it down to 25 HP, but also restore back the armor of the selected player too.

I've also had a few complaints from the testers that Magnetron's CD timer (20 seconds) is too short. Even when using the 1st ability.

Also, Weld needs a damage cap. Because, any player with over 80-90 max mana WILL be dealing A LOT of burst damage to a single enemy. OR, have a VERY powerful burst healing option for healing another player.

[UnknownOneMS]

Monk (Medicine): Melee Healer

Pros:

-Great DPS and healing -Engaging healer and class. -Great in solo play/runs. -Slightly increased mana regen. -Very fun class

Cons:

-Requires a bit more skill and management in parties. -Very vanilla compared to other healers. -Basically is Priest, but with melee DPS.

I find this class to be the most balanced out of all healers in the game. Despite it being a melee fighter with ranged healing options.

Personally, I don't really have too many issues with this class. However, I will point it out as mentioned above. This class IS basically Priest, but with melee DPS, and better healing options in general.

Making this class another, direct upgrade from Priest.

I don't have too many things to say about this class, but if anyone wants to suggest something for this class. Please feel free to share it.

[UnknownOneMS]

Tentaclemancer (Siphoning): Defensive melee healer with good buffs/debuffs, and utility.

Pros:

-High survivability -Reduces damage taken and increases max HP to a (friend) single target. -Reduces max HP to enemies. -Class recovers HP overtime by itself. -Strong in utility

Cons:

-Very powerful in solo runs. -Very weak DPS compared to other healers. -Strongest in parties, but requires high skill level and management to be effective. -Lag can prevent this class from working well at times. -Medium to low healing at times. -Costs HP to heal and can lead the healer down-ing themselves.

This class feels VERY tank-y in general. In fact, I didn't really have too much of a hard time dying in any runs that I did with this class.

Wrap basically gives you +30% reduced damage, AND it dispels ALL debuffs while active on the user. Grope basically gives the user +20% max HP. Meanwhile, the enemies get reduced max HP by 20%. And, your party members get a strong heal, and reduced damage, but the user themselves gives up 20% of their max HP by doing so. Assistacle is just the butt whipper, that helps give the ranged (and sometimes melee) classes more damage, and healing.

Since, this is a melee fighter with some ranged healing options. I'm tempted to call this, "a direct upgrade to Monk", but I feel so that the play-style is different enough for me to consider it unique for what it is.

It does feel pretty well balanced, but I do find it odd that the "Reduced Damage" buff isn't being used on Paladin's healer spec. Just thought I'd point that out.

[UnknownOneMS]

Star Dreamer (Moon Dreamer): Jack-of-All-Utility, Battle Mage.

Pros:

-Makes whole team become undefeated for 10 seconds. -100% smart heal to lowest HP party member. -Restores HP and mana being shared, when breaking Moon Gem(s). -Lunar Shard dispels, heals, gives dodge enchant, and active migration (giving tank protection during challenge dungeons, very good). -Highest DPS out of all ranged healers (4 different abilities can be used for DPS, plus Lunar Shard's damage can be used if the class has healing enchants equipped too). -Good in parties -Jack of all trades.

Cons:

-Takes time to learn how to solo. -CD ability set -Battle mage playstyle -Might require overhaul or adjusting later (personal note on my end to myself).

Moon Dreamer is pretty damn good, when you learn how to use abilities effectively.

By design (and on purposefully), this class IS designed to be a battle mage, healer. However, at times, I still believe that is class is basically, just better than most healers in the game (besides Watermending being #1). And this is mainly because, there's a lot of different options for healing the team. However, I find that the abilities 3 and 5 to be mostly situational at best.

Whenever the Moon Gems do spawn, most people don't even bother to walk into them (at least, from what I've seen in my runs and parties). Similarly to Shadow Knight's Soul Shards (from the Necro spec). It's nice that the the Moon Gems can heal both HP and mana, but I feel so that they should be less situationally and have of an impact on the healing for the team's mana, not their HP.

Dream Ray's 100% smart heal basically is a better version of Priest's Repentance (which only has a 35% chance of being effective).

Lunar Shard heals, give action migration (tank protection during challenge dungeon bosses), +30% dodge buff, but it only dispels 1 debuff. So, it's balanced out to not make it overpowered.

Moonlight is basically what makes this class the best healer for making boss fights easier (especially in challenge dungeons).

The only REAL issue with this class is that Moon Wave's 20% chance of resetting Moon Gem's CD timer can ONLY be tripled, if their attack (using Moon Wave only by the way) counts as a critical hit. Which does need to be fixed.

Otherwise, besides some small overhaul changes that I might make to the class. I think this class is balanced, but it's much better than most other healers.

[UnknownOneMS]

Earthmender (Watermending): Best healer (no joke)

Pros:

-Great healing & DPS -Best healing in the game. -AoE healing and attacks. -5th ability can increase healing taken by 50%, while healing all nearby party members. AND, has 100% mana regen too. -Can move while casting with 1st ability. -Immune to interrupts.

Cons:

-Multiple different options to heal, 5 being in total. -Surge can be spammed a lot, with or without 5th ability active. -Can DPS and heal well at the same time. -Can solo and do well in parties. -BROKEN AS FUCKING HELL!!!

Watermending is the best healer in the game...no joke.

During my solo runs, and any party runs that I was apart of. I never really found myself dying a lot, because Earthmender's Watermending spec is just very easy to play as, and the skill celling is pretty low too. Compared to the other healers that I listed earlier.

All of Watermending's abilities have healing attached to them. And it's still one of the best healers in the game. Because, you can solo as this class. You become the best healer in the party. You can even become a broken DPS healer, if you're using the following enchants: Mana, haste, berserking, healing, brute, power, and clarity

In some of my challenge runs (solo or in parties), I avoid using Earthmender (Watermending) because it's very overpowered. I can deal a lot of damage, or healing, just by using Surge, or Rapids. Even when my mana is low. I can just use Deluge to restore back my lost mana.

It's the design of this class that makes it very broken, and it's fact that it HAS such a low skill celling, but high reward factor that it makes Earthmender (Watermending), basically the best healer in the game.

Ever since the overhaul for Earthmender's Watermending came out. It's nearly close to being the best healer in the game to handle most enemies, and bosses in GoThongs.

On a side note, this is WHY I made Dreamer's Sight Wish. It's suppose to be an RNG staff that helps out the other healers, but also certain other DPS and tank classes with restoring their mana back.

The ability to deal a lot of damage, healing, and recovery is what makes this class very broken. Along side with its low skill celling too.

Most other healers DO require some skill, and knowledge of the class to become mastered overtime. However, Earthmender's Watermending spec is basically the best healer in the game. Because, by design, it's the easiest to play as in solo and parties runs.

I know that I'm one to complain a lot. However...personally, I just don't enjoy playing as Earthmender's Watermending. Because, there's a lack of challenge with this spec. Even with Priest's downsides, I can still enjoy what the class has to offer (but it STILL needs a buff, or overhaul to become better).

In fact, since I knew this while using my enchant set (Haste, luck/mana, berserking, & brute/healing/power). This class is basically very broken. https://gyazo.com/1c46d081881e3d2fef45783b310990ed

Gifs for Proof: https://gyazo.com/75175e5647a749167c8f812a072e371f

I don't know what else to say, but Earthmender's Watermending DOES need a serious nerf, and some re-balancing too.