Discussion Thread: How should the devs balance healers?

-Yes I know the devs will never listen to any ideas that we come up with. This is a sort of for-fun thread to see if us forum-goers can "create" a balance in all the healer specs-

Sorc healers right now are outperforming Operatives, and Operatives are outperforming Mercenaries in healing right now. That is a given fact we have known for a while now. If you for some reason think that all three healers are perfectly balanced, just ignore this thread.

The question is how should the devs fix this problem?

The way I see it, there can be two paths to achieve balance in the healing classes.

Option A: Buff operatives a little, and mercenaries a lot in order to bring them to the level of sorcs


OR

Option B: Buff mercenaries, and nerf sorcs in order to bring them to the level of operatives

This original post will focus on option A, since I personally believe that would be for the best to achieve balance among the healers.

The way I see it,

-Mercs should be best best at single target, and burst healing, but bad at AOE group healing

-Operatives should be awesome at AOE heals, but should lack heavy single target burst

-Sorcs should be somewhat in the middle, sort of a "Jack of all trades, but a master of none"

So lets get down to my proposed changes to operatives and mercenaries in order to make them balanced with sorcs.


Operatives

-Kolto Probe and Recuperative Nanotech both needs a buff. I can't tell you the exact amount but using the calculations done by aristrokratie:

There needs to be some sort of buff to Operative's HoT's.

-Some healing should be moved from Kolto Injection to Surgical Probe.

-The initial healing for Kolto Infusion should be lowered, but the HoT part of it should be buffed.

-Kolto Waves suffers from the same problem that the Sorc AOE heal of fun does... No One Stays Still In Pvp So Kolto Waves should have it's duration cut in half, but it should keep the same HPS that it does now, (Maybe even a slight buff) the heals that are lost from Kolto Waves is then free to go into Kolto Probe and Recuperative Nanotech.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries right now suffer from poor heat management, and an vulnerability to being interrupted/stunned during their burst period.

There are two paths I see that could be taken to buffing mercenaries, but first I'll go over some changes that should be made to the class regardless.

-There should be an ability (Maybe add it on to the level 64 ability) that goes something like "Every time Kolto Shell critically heals a target, you gain one charge of Supercharged Gas. This can not occur more than once every 3 seconds"

This will allow mercs to have their burst period up sooner without relying on an expensive heal to do it for them.

-Kolto Boosters should be redesigned (lv 60 ability) It should be: Every time you build (or refresh) a charge of Supercharged gas, you vent 1 heat. Also the heat generated by Kolto Missile is reduced by 10, and Kolto Shell's critical chance is increased by 5%.

This will help with heat management.

-IMPORTANT: The 6 piece set bonus should also increase the duration of the utility Supercharged Defense by 4 seconds as well.

-Kolto Shell's heat cost should be reduced by 5


Now, as stated before, I see two paths mercs can take.

Option 1: Mercs gain a lot more mobility, with less cast times.

Option 2: Mercs gain extra passives that makes them very hard to shut down during their burst period.

The changes that I would suggest for each:

Option 1

-Every time you build a charge of supercharged gas, the active cooldown of Emergency Scan is reduced by 1 second.

-Kolto Missile should have it's base heat cost be 15 instead of 20 (So with the lv 60 buff, it's only 10 heat). Also it should build a charge of supercharge.

-Using Supercharged grants (no idea how many, probably 2) charges of Instaheal (Made up that name) which allows the next X Healing Scans to be casted while moving.

-The cast time of Healing Scan should be reduced by .5 seconds, so that it is only a 1.5 second cast.

Option 2:

-activating supercharge grants (Something) that absorbs the next X stuns (Lasts 8 seconds, 12 with the 6 piece set bonus). It only stops hardstuns and mezzes. This is so that the merc is harder to stun when in his 'burst period"

-Leaving extra space, since I ran out of ideas.

In Conclusion

Hopefully we can start an active discussion that brings in other ideas on how to balance the healing classes in this game. I do want to know how others think we should balance the classes.

We complain about balance all the time. It's time we put some of that energy towards attempting to fix the problem, however slim our chances are of doing so.