Healer Specific Changes

When I consider this and ponder the implications on the game as a whole, I think maybe we miss an opportunity by limiting alignment. What if a healer could be any alignment with skills that work both for two alignments and against two.

Evil could harm good or neutral, or aid neutral or evil. Ect.

While the idea opens the neutral cleric door players have been searching for as long as I can remember, let's not pigeon hole a great idea by attaching too many restrictions.

Edit. Neutral obviously could aid three alignments.

you describe a class that can gate all over, summon, has stellar defenses, offenses, can heal itself, cure itself, while being neutral and getting the damage advantage that comes from it. 

you wont get ALL of this as a regular class.

In his defense, he did eliminate gate.

Protection spell could be changed too. I always thought the protection should reflect the total paradigm of ethos/religion. Meaning lawful good is most protected from chaotic evil. Order is some protection from chaos, light some from dark. But. It's not a popular opinion.

5 hours ago, Kyzarius said:

you describe a class that can gate all over, summon, has stellar defenses, offenses, can heal itself, cure itself, while being neutral and getting the damage advantage that comes from it. 

 

you wont get ALL of this as a regular class.

I eliminate Gate to grant only portal which is given to a highly offensive mage path already, and heal would be eliminated altogether with the exceptions of the scroll and potion you can obtain. Summon I didn't touch on because I'm not too sure they should be allowed to if considered only as Neutral, so it's not a given at any point in time whether to keep it or not. I don't think any Neutral class has the ability to summon, but I could be wrong on that part.

As far as Offenses go, they're gaining third attack without the ability to dual wield so at best they're hitting 3 hits per round, and the only real enemies that would be taking extra damage would be 'Unnatural' races which they currently can capitalize on three of the five total anyways, so this just gives them an edge to those other two (albeit Avatar isn't really a race mind you, but still unnatural). Divine Retribution already gives off damage to all but Good aligned characters, so tweaking it so that it doesn't affect Neutral and begins affecting Good, means you're greatly reducing their overall output, even more so if the damage is upped simply for those few qraces and lowered for all else.

Any class with staves (or is it wands?) can very easily cure themselves of diseases, so ultimately that has zero affect on balance issues really. Add in the cool down timers on everything tweaked, they're already becoming more balanced out due to that fact alone. Psi's are reliant upon memorization, so when they forget those things, they're in a bind because they're forced to meditate to gain back that knowledge. In the case of the Healer in this situation, their cool down on such spells is a much harsher punishment since it means they'd have a longer time before they can change tactics if affronted by an array of enemies meaning that ~60 ticks of being fairly vulnerable, where as a Psi could be up and running again in as little as 4ish ticks.

It's geared towards being able to PK in a class that isn't allowed to do so really now within reason. That literally means that the advantage goes to any other race out there since the damage output would be lessened by the simple fact that they're not the main target of this class. Add in Watcher skills/spells, sure it gives them a higher edge towards them being capable of taking out qraces, but that's how I've always viewed them. It wouldn't be hard to gather items that grant you a portion of what Healers already are capable of doing, just time consuming in some aspects. In summation, All of those concerns were pretty much stated in my original post, but being that it was long, I'm sure some points were missed if merely skimming. And if I hadn't touched base on them like above, I apologize. Hopefully this clears up more of the idea of what I meant.

You do realize that comparing your proposal to psi doesnt help the push to not make it a q class. 

The damage boost is from no protection spell vs neutral.

Consumables have limited charges, and those that do cure significant mals like lamian staves are rare. 

I am sorry but you are describing something that can tank, heal, cure, and dish out significant damage.  Third attack? No caster in the game gets 3rd attack. When i had 3rd attack on a cleric i was called op.  And it would be 4, 3 plus haste, no 5, with divine retribution.  

So one less than an ill psi using time compression and meta boost, and they can heal, cure, summon, fly, buff ac, bless, pshield, have a free shield in spirit shield, shield block by itself.  Annd now your saying they would be buff against all q races for being unatural...

I wouldn't get hung up on if the numbers will be too strong or not. When you are designing a template of a class at this stage, you are looking to implement a general playstyle. For example, how does the class initiate combat? How does it deal with other class's initations? How does it heal/regen? How durable is it? Does it have special evasion, physical/magic defense? How does it deal with attrition? Searching for enemies, mobility, offensive strategies and so forth.

Once you decide that hey, I want a buff centered class that is great at physical and magical defense, but has a really crappy ability to finish opponents and can't deal with debuffs well and is particularly weak at escaping. You put skills to that general design, then you plug in the numbers to make it work.

So @Tantangel's and anyone else's ideas at this point could be made to work if we decide that is the feeling we want for the class. That feeling and playstyle is the main thing we need to be discussing. Balance it at the end.

Personally, I'd rather NOT see a buff-based class. It could be a communer, but that doesn't mean it needs to operate like a cleric/shaman/druid. You could easily make a real shaman style (tribal shaman/medicine man, not FL evil shaman) communer.

Regardless of the lore, I suggest a rogue/communer hybrid (a gap in our class spread). Very good at searching and forcing engagements (like rogues), good at mitigating heavy burst damage/or charmies (inverts rogue weakness, like druids/clerics) with a rather poor weapon selection (bad precision melee defense), generally bad buffing (not so great quality of life), poor engagement evasion (no rogue hide, no portals, similar to melees), unreliable lag protection/ability. Likely has a special defensive skill to counter an obvious weakness (think like dk/paladin bash defense, predict, balance, sleep protection, some particular debuff immunity, common melee skill protection, special flee, throw/fired weapons counter, dispel counter, something like that).

Generally poor passive offense (communer tier melee output, much less than rogues/melees) with a stronger opener or finisher (like rogues). Likely a weak regener and lower durability (like rogues), but good at negating hurting opponent regen. Main damage can either be through active skills (similar to blademaster style - think onslaught/critical skills/counters) or spell (clerics), likely little ability to capitalize on vulns (communer). Bad passive damage output.

10000% not a qclass. No more qclasses!

22 hours ago, Kyzarius said:

You do realize that comparing your proposal to psi doesnt help the push to not make it a q class. 

The damage boost is from no protection spell vs neutral.

Consumables have limited charges, and those that do cure significant mals like lamian staves are rare. 

I am sorry but you are describing something that can tank, heal, cure, and dish out significant damage.  Third attack? No caster in the game gets 3rd attack. When i had 3rd attack on a cleric i was called op.  And it would be 4, 3 plus haste, no 5, with divine retribution.  

So one less than an ill psi using time compression and meta boost, and they can heal, cure, summon, fly, buff ac, bless, pshield, have a free shield in spirit shield, shield block by itself.  Annd now your saying they would be buff against all q races for being unatural...

Now I get what you mean, I didn't quite grasp what you were specifically entailing about it being a qclass sort of situation. A Cleric could do exactly that in any aspect, but the only clincher would be that they can have protection. The point of them being unnatural killers in general would mean they should have the ability to dominate said qraces. As is fighting a Healer as any type of Undead means you're fighting an uphill battle unless the Healer is very new to the class. I remember waiting inside the Hope Clan while Messalantha would keep trying to take me out. Despite the fact that I should be capable of killing a Vampire at that point with fair ease, I could never catch her at the tail end, or I was stuck fleeing and gating away because it got to the point that I needed to since I wasn't sure if the other Syndicate was going to jump in or not. I figured not, but wouldn't risk it, so it became an alternating attack to wear me down which began working very well at that point. Even with a boost to damage against them, it would still be difficult to catch them in the end to finish it since you can't lag at all, and any smart player could escape with ease if it got too rough. It would have very minimal impact on that in the end, so a boost there and a reduction in damage to races that aren't that type balance it out very well. I'm basically giving away more than I'm getting in return since there's few Qraces out there anyways, and a ton of regular races so it's not really a buff on that part.

They'd lose Divine Intervention, so Combat Healer wouldn't be affected by that anyways considering they'd have no access to it outside of items granting haste. They'd be able to heal, sure. Many classes can heal, albeit cure light I believe is the greatest a Neutral can currently do outside of herb and staves/potions. They don't NEED third attack as it was merely a suggestion, but we could also eliminate Feral as a race so that they don't have the capability of even mini haste, and the items that grant haste are either never in, or are incredibly rare/unique so 3 attacks a round wouldn't be a clincher regardless. I compare them with a Psi merely because it was an easy relation between them. I could also say that they're a lot like Clerics still, but without the high damage output from Ray of Truth and Path of Deception, they're not going to outright win against anyone who's even remotely intelligent about PK. They don't need Summon, I don't see a need for it, and they can lose fly, but those points are really moot considering that anyone and their dog has access to it so that holds no argument to me. AC buffs, same thing for them, though if you want, they can lose stone skin which leaves them armor/shield and one other I forget. In fact, pretty much all of those in the last bit you state can be gotten very easily by most classes with staves/wands/scrolls, the only thing they get that no one else does is spirit shield. And spirit shield has 0 use unless you have a shield that can be disarmed, and even then that's only a factor in fights against those who don't have shield disarm since you'll probably not use it because of that fact.

I stated originally they should be buff against qraces, so it's not like that statement came out of left field. The Lamian item is around a LOT compared to what it used to be, so it wouldn't be a huge benefit for them keeping it. Though for the sake of this, I'm okay with them losing it too. Or go the extra step to say that they keep it, but it can only be used on others and not themselves so that they're more desirable in groups which would mean either a new spell, or making the Lamian stave and gnarled staff pretty much pointless if it doesn't work on you. Fewer players/characters has made that stave far more abundant than it ever was years ago though. I honestly don't want to see a hybrid version of them simply because to me it makes them seem less Healer, and a bit more Melee which makes it far less Healer type and more Rogue. I still see them as a Priest of sorts, but with less restriction due to the Neutral path. Maybe instead of pointing out the flaws in it, suggest some changes yourself? I am the type of person who believes something is wrong that you shouldn't complain about suggestions if you have none of your own. I work with people like that and it's baffling to see them offer only criticism and never contribute to a goal. You've been here a long time and you're well respected, so suggest. I'm open to everyone's ideas on the matter, and the more everyone contributes, the better off we are with something more well rounded than 3? people making suggestions. I'm sure you have some thoughts on the class, otherwise you wouldn't be so adamant about saying certain things are too strong for them to have if it's been added to them.

One thing that I haven't seen is the complaint on Resurrection perks when they're applied since it grants +10 to recovery up to +50 until you die. Perhaps limit that to +10 at best and only have it +1 after every resurrection or eliminate it altogether and give them another bonus. Tie it into the Healer Staff portion of the idea thread, making it cast those spells between 0-10?

@TantangelIt is a bit difficult to follow exactly what you are proposing in paragraph form. Would you please translate it into a complete class skill/spell list that provides short mechanical explanations for any new abilities that you have included? Of course we don't expect it to be perfect or completely fleshed out and please mark any areas where you are having troubles or are kinda on the fence about so we can direct our suggestions that way.

Resurrection bonuses are permanent for a reason.

NO other class of characters is willing to let themselves be drained for an extended period only to aid some one else.

Regardless whether its a neutral character, its still self sacrifice and SHOULD be rewarded.

Without gate, per your suggestion, staying alive would no longer be a guarantee.

It sounds like you want to gimp a class, and then punish them if they play the role well.

I, like Celerity, would like to see it in a format that might prove me wrong here.

Looking forward to what you bring brother.

19 hours ago, Fool_Hardy said:

Resurrection bonuses are permanent for a reason.

NO other class of characters is willing to let themselves be drained for an extended period only to aid some one else.

Regardless whether its a neutral character, its still self sacrifice and SHOULD be rewarded.

Without gate, per your suggestion, staying alive would no longer be a guarantee.

It sounds like you want to gimp a class, and then punish them if they play the role well.

I, like Celerity, would like to see it in a format that might prove me wrong here.

Looking forward to what you bring brother.

The reason for the removal of gate and favor portal instead is simply to keep it balanced so they can't just run in and out at will and have larger benefits against those Qraces or escape easily from anyone who gains that upper hand on them. Right now you can walk around and never be killed with just gate alone and clinch a win over any Undead race. That way with the boost in damage to those races and slightly reduced damage to all others from Divine Retribution, they're not going to be both unkillable AND still get away with ease. Portal, although a gateway to safety, is pretty much set to one point, and if a character leaves it in one area of focus, anyone who finds that point will know exactly where they'll portal to. Gate just simply makes someone wonder where they could have gone since it could be anywhere in the game regardless of whether they gate immediately to one area, then gate to another. It just levels the playing field a lot more that way I think.

As far as drained from resurrection goes, there's an item that wipes it away almost immediately that is in a fair amount unless said item had that perk removed. The reason for the dip in bonuses is again more of a balancing factor. +50 is a bit much, but it's not permanent. If you die, you lose it all and have to start anew. With it being dropped 40 points, having it remain even through death could be possible, but with the lives returning to the character from a senseless death, and being able to resurrect evils now if they're neutral, it opens up the door to people asking for them more often.

I'll format it to be more readable on my days off work though. That way it may hopefully give a better idea for it, but I usually only get on a few hours before I wake up to go to work and right when I'm laying down to go to sleep. So roughly speaking, Wednesday/Thursday I'll start compiling it a little better.

I didn't read the entire thread, but couldn't gate just simply have a timer put on it? Removing gate takes a staple away from the game that's been here forever! I don't play healers, but if I ever did, it's because I want gate! :)

What if we replace either mass healing or sacrifice with alchemy?

Help Alchemy

syntax: grind

            grind

Utilizing pain staking techniques healers have developed lasting medications to aid in all manner of situations. Creates pills, unlike druid potions, pills can be used by anyone. The affects of such medications may cure maladies or even prevent maladies.

How does it work?

If you grind an herb that cures blindness, lets say it becomes a round pill. <your blind, shape makes it accessible>

If you grind an herb that becomes reserved, lets say its a gray pill.

If you grind a round pill with a gray pill you are affected by blind vaccine for a short period.

The applications could be very interesting.

Level                               Skills                                                   Spells

1                                    flail     mace                                         armor

                                      whip     scrolls     

                                      staves     wands     

                                      recall     staff     

                                      sword

2                                                                                             cure serious

3                                                                                             create water

                                                                                               cure blindness

4                                                                                             continual light

                                                                                               detect evil/good

5                                                                                             create food

                                                                                               refresh

6                                    meditation                                          detect magic

7                                                                                             bless

                                                                                               faerie fire

8                                                                                             detect invis

9                                                                                             cure critical

                                                                                              know alignment

11                                                                                           detect traps

                                                                                              protection

12                                  fast healing                                        

                                                                                              comprehend languages

13                                                                                           cure disease

14                                                                                           cure poison

                                                                                              remove curse

15                                  trance                                                locate object

16                                                                                           calm                                     

                                                                                              identify

17                                                                                           create spring

18                                   haggle                                               fly

                                                                                              protective shield

19                                  two handed

20                                                                                          sanctuary

21                                   shield block                                        faerie fog

                                                                                              heal

23                                                                                           infravision

24                                                                                           dispel magic

25                                   hand to hand                                     portal  summon

                                                                                              shield

26                                  second attack                                     cancellation

27                                  parry                                                 word of recall

28                                                                                          turn undead/Avatar

29                                                                                          pass door

30                                                                                          curse

31                                                                                          dispel evil/good

                                                                                              prayer

                                                                                              dispel undead

32                                                                                           cure insomnia

33                                                                                           accession

                                                                                              cure dysentery

34                                                                                           stone skin

35                                   sever             stake                            vitalize

                                                                                              restore faith

36                                                                                           divine retribution

37                                                                                           group recall

                                                                                              remove hysteria

38                                                                                          mass healing

39                                                                                          sacrifice

40                                   healer staff                                        barrier

42                                                                                           invigorate

45                                                                                           holy water

48                                                                                           esuna                       

50                                   Synthesize                                         spirit shield

                                                                                              Resurrection

Skills/Spells in Cyan are ones I suggest for complete removal to allow for the much less restrictive PK potential they have now. Ones in Red are skills/spells that are moved from  different level and possibly tweaked to allow for more interesting need of the spell. Spells/skills in Yellow are spells that are new to the class entirely.  The skills/spells in blue  are tweaked to fit alignment purposes.

Resurrection is now going to be affected by alignment/Religion similar to DI,

but with some permanent affects like increased gold if a follower of Greed

and so on. Sure that's kind of a turn off from the +50 hit/mana recovery that

you can get while a regular Healer, but lets add in the possibility of being

all alignments, so if you're a follower of Compassion that +50 is still possible

if it's maxed out, but your RP is going to be as limited to what Healers are

like now since it's the truest form of pacifist at that point again. A

follower of Life would get a boost to HP, not to exceed say 100hp. It makes

it more unique based off Religion, and allows multiple alignments to be created

and unless you're Neutral, you can only Resurrect your alignment and a Neutral.

Obviously this will need to be fleshed out for various Religions, but it's

interesting this way, allows replayability and a wide assortment of RP from

every walk of life.

Summon will now only be for Evil characters and thus any other alignment will lose it entirely rather than be given access to Portal.

Portal will now only be granted to those of both the Good and Neutral alignments.

Word of Recall would now only be given to Neutral/Evil alignment.

Group Recall is now given only to Good alignment.

Whip/Staff/Sword is an alignment specific. Whip goes to Evil, Staff goes to Good, Sword goes to Neutral. The reason for this change is simply that Evil should be slightly more geared offensively, while Good more defensively, and Sword because based off weapon selections, it seems to be the most down the middle of all weapons.

Protection will obviously only be given to Evil/Good aligned characters and Neutral will not get it at all.

Turn Undead/Avatar will be based off alignment. Evil will get Turn Avatar, while Good will get Turn Undead. Neutral will get both, or possibly even be given a choice to choose between one or the other.

Divine Retribution is now slightly similar to Steel Wall. It grants AC based off character level, gives off some damage based more towards opposite alignment, and in the case of Neutral, it affects Qraces at a higher rate of damage and greatly reduced towards fighting any other race for balance reasons.

Synthesize Being a Healer, you'd like to create certain concoctions that will benefit those even while not around. A process similar to brew for Druids, Healers are capable of brewing potions/pills that will cure most ailments, thus eliminating the need for their current spell sets. Most are around level 30, but those created that may grant something else and at higher levels, these items become RARE or Unique. Although they don't have access to spells like Heal, there's a possibility they can create such a pill/potion to grant it. They'll require more than one singular item to create these things regardless of the potion/pill they're trying to create. In the case of lower level cures, they can create them with as little as two herbs, potions found around Aabahran, and pills that are already known. When a Evil Healer creates potions, they have a possibility to even create negative affects that rather than eating/quaffing, merely need to be dropped to expose those around them to whatever toxin was dropped.

Stake will be both Good/Neutral alignment.

Sever will be Evil aligned, but geared towards eliminating the ability for an Avatar to execute any powers.

Stake will work as is, but will be Neutral/Good alignment only.

Healer Staff now creates the Healers weapon of choice assuming weapon choices go into effect, otherwise it'll remain as such a title. As such, a Healer may grant this weapon one of three possible spells that only can be unleashed by the Healer so that no one can come across it and have access to the powers.

             * Mass healing being one of them, granting the Healer to heal his party once every 24 hours.

             * Esuna but on a group level. This will flush out many side affects to both the Healer themselves and their group members once every 24 hours.

             * Sanctuary to the entire group granted as a level 40 spell rather than level 50 and again once only every 24 hours.

This in turn makes it so that these created weapons can only cast up to a maximum of 3 times given the maximum time limit of 3 days, and upon the third day it's used automatically just as the weapons last dying breath fades away. It means that although it's a buff, in no way does it make it overpowered since it can't be timed perfectly at any given time.

Now given the changes above, it is based off of a Healer being allowed to be any alignment and thus the changes. If Neutral only though, it wouldn't be difficult to make these selectable so the power doesn't go too far into the Healers favor as @Kyzarius pointed out that it may be too strong. In which case, this will hopefully open up more ideas for people, and it's not entirely what I thought they should have been way back when, but it flavors them up to a degree in which more would be willing to play them and their RP can be blown wide open with a fresh new look and wind brought to them.

@TantangelThanks for doing this, it is a lot clearer now.

Questions:

1. Which spells can be synthesized (both normal and evil)?

2. How do the evil toxins affect enemies? Is there a save, lag, etc.?

3. What is the difference between a rare and unique pill (potion?)?

4. Can you give us an example or two of the exact ingredient list for an example pill?

5. Will divine retribution continue to do holy damage for all aligns?

6. How does holy water/sacrifice work with different aligns?

General thoughts:

1. Qrace opponents, esp. avatars, are rare. Focusing a class on fighting them is not going to make a very fun or active class. It has enough trouble as a subcabal focus. That said, these powers are quite weak. Cutting off an avatar's buffs is nice, but not scary. It doesn't actually hurt the avatar in any way. Unless there are some creative and probably overpowered synthetic toxins to capitalize on this, it is very weak.

2.  Healer staff weapon types: without additional melee skills/buffs, weapons are purely defensive for this class. Getting a whip as an evil means the whip will have to have some very special procs to make it comparable to a one-hand staff on the good side.

1. Group recall without a regular recall is both a buff and a curse, but mostly just annoying. I would suggest sticking with regular recall here.

2. Religion-based resurrection buffs: Sure, seems alright, but I would certainly want to review the buffs first. Experience tells me that most religion-based buffs will be badly balanced (tattoo/divine intervention/bless/holy hands). Scaling per resurrection makes it more difficult too. Experience also tells me that this will be the primary factor in which religions are selected for this class, not RP.

3. Protection: You can solve the align issue by giving a straight 20% damage reduction spell that can't be stacked with protection. Then all aligns could use it, or otherwise use protection through consumables if they prefer a slight bonus against opposite align.

4. Divine retribution as proposed is a weak steel wall. Steel wall doesn't care who it hits, only that the caster got hit. If retribution's damage scales based on opponent type, it will either be too strong against its intended target or too weak against other foes. Be very, very, very careful about making unblockable passive damage as the main damage source of a class (no other damage ability in your proposal).

Analysis:

As proposed, my conclusion is that this is a very weak cleric. It lacks a main damage spell/skill, only curse as a debuff, no blind attack spell (earthquake) or initiating skills in general, no burst/finishing ability OR counter burst/finishing abilities, and less survivability (no spell-turning, no cure poison/disease). If holy hands is about equal to a healer weapon and divine intervention traded for synthesize, support skills are comparable. The gain against avatars is simply too minor to compensate for all of these losses.

In the end, the class has halfway good defense (not great), abysmal offense (worst in the game), and questionable support skills. It has no outstanding synergy potential with any cabal that I can see. You've spent a great deal of effort making sure this class isn't overpowered, but I think we need to sway it in the other direction significantly from here. It needs some more new, cool and powerful abilities.

The hallmark skills here are synthesize and resurrection. This means you've actually just made an Alchemist class.

One small worry, healers need gates. Maybe not access to jump anywhere. But getting to those you intend to heal needs to happen fast. Gate is often the escape route, but I belive it's intention was to head toward those in danger not away from it. It would be better to keep gate for all three alignments, and place an excitement timer on healers defending themselves. Must be out of combat at the top of the last couple ticks or you are too excited to open the gate.

Unfortunately I did have a few more things added in before my laptop forced a reboot on me when I wasn't paying attention to it and hadn't saved it yet. RIOT was going to be something similar to frenzy, but with a shortened timer and a higher hit/dam boost for it. Resurrection buffs wouldn't give the bonus that Divine Intervention has, but it would be unique. Each would differ based off each religion, but it can be discussed at length to become interesting too.

I at one point added in 'unholy' water for Evil alignments that would boost their damage output against Avatar opponents to coincide with the whole 'sever' content which would help them with damage. Divine Retribution damage would remain 'holy' only when Good aligned and it could be changed however seen fit by suggestions from others too. Selectable skill sets could be chosen specifically to boost a specific path of Synthesize, meaning a Healer could focus more on creating pills to cure diseases and such, or even focus more on a toxin. Toxins could be ingested for a short time until which the Healer could unleash it simply by 'spitting' it upon the enemy at a given time and causing them to break out in diseases. So it may be better to let them keep cure disease in this instance unless it's something that can't be transferred over just by simple contact.

Rare/Unique pills or potions made would vary mostly based on the spell level that it creates. In the case of a toxin, it could be something as simple as Poison at level 55. Races that are resistant to poison/plague would be certain to catch it and the damage will be slightly increased in the case of Poison. They'll all have to check saves in order to land, but once it's hit the poison will act like Ninja's Lotus Scourge, and Plague will act as normal. In the case of actual items used, herbs used of two of the same type can create a pill/potion to benefit anyone if they get their hands on it at least. This means that a Healer has the potential to actually gain some skills/spells outside of their own set, but doesn't mean they can have it at all times being that they have to have them on hand readily to do so. In the case of the Gyvel leaf, I suggest using two of them would grant a potion of cure blind, and the more they have on hand, the higher the level of curing it would be. Since it's mostly a defensive curative, having a level 60 cure blind potion/pill won't make it rare or unique so that it can be carried at all times.

Another path could allow use of single ingredients, so instead of needing two gyvels, you could use one for a level 50 cure blind instead of two. Adding a second would make it level 55 or if it's deemed too powerful, it can just be +1 level for every additional gyvel used. Mandrake Root combined with some black leaves has a chance to create either a level 40 sanctuary pill or a level 45 stone skin. The possibilities are endless in this since a lot could be done with the skill alone. The created weapons could easily be tweaked to do various things too, such as a whip doing magic missile, casting a low level blind, burning causing a blind affect, or a number of other things. Assuming that is the weapons actually do change. Otherwise they're not really broken now, so it doesn't need to be fixed, but it does bring in interesting flare to the class too.

I can elaborate more once I put more thought into things still, but this was really just a brief thought process on what to add to the class. Being that this is the class I spent the longest with the entire time I've played (1200 hours or so) here, it's hard to not want to buff them up too greatly since they're already strong, just lack the offensive still. And many who haven't played them find them boring or too strong. Gate can be worked around with that kind of timer for aggression though, so it could stay.

Part of the problem from healers doesn't stem from their skill set IMO, I've played WAY too many healers over the years and its always been the issue of

1. resurrection being basically made useless as player knowledge grew so they don't MOB die as much and its useless in PK

2. the restrictions to their ability to PK, now I don't want a class that can run around and smash things and be unkillable but say as a Sigil, I think you should be able to gate to a fight, heal and buff allies, YES you revere life but you should care about the lives of the allies and the lives your allies will save by you helping them, religion gives you the option to play the complete pacifist but since we have someone lessed the tagging/ganging restrictions I feel that healers at least for me would be incredibly fun if I could actually gate around and scout out enemy locations, and heal/buff my allies without worrying about getting slayed because I'm protecting one life and having my buffs/heals contribute to an enemies death. Unless im mistaken about how passive healers were made but it was my understanding that healing/buffing someone who is PKing is still being agressive because you are trying to contribute to the death of someone even inadvertently. If we remove that part of it, and make it so they CAN support then i think their Niche is fine as is and I would roll one right now.

Good point @ajwetton, Healers are easily my favorite class as well. They are also the class I almost always become outcast with, because eventually this character or that pushes my kindly preacher too far. After all, my healers are mortal and therefor prone to sins of passion.

I believe that the staff is very observant of Healers in general. If you endear your characters to their chosen religion, utilize the journal system to illustrate your characters growing frustration, and ultimately your characters breaking point, you may find less backlash from on high.

Personally, I believe that the "heroic" perk when combined with Combat religion, creates a warrior medic that can effectively give it all over to the fight without worry of accidentally ending a life.

Some other religions may be equally absolved, but compassion/tranquility should be restricted. Play the gentle way, or play another way, we just want you to play.

I can for sure agree to that, religion should be something taken into account, but it seems to me no matter the religion that playing that "support" class was shunned because of ganging/tagging rules, even though you were in PK range with those more lax or at least they were last time I played and I enjoyed it alot, it seems to me like theres alot of room for people to play that "support/scout" character, i'd do it in a heartbeat if I knew that healing a cabal mate and being a support would not get me in trouble. sticking a round so i could be engaged upon not gate to mob heal person gate away etc, I feel that type of playstyle would be abit.... crappy for other players to deal with but if im in the chasm and willing to stay around until im hurt or need to flee to recouperate I feel healers should be allowed (religion allowing) to do just that.

I may be wrong on this one.

I believe that all healers can stand their ground, but not chase without fear of divine punishment.

I believe you ARE allowed to defend yourself, and even others.

I believe you ARE NOT allowed to end another characters life.

Unliving unprotected.

That's what I believe to be true, here is my personal opinion.

Tranquility states "you have never raised your hands to anyone".

Tranquility healers should avoid ENGAGING a living enemy when ever possible.

Compassion healers should avoid Engaging enemies when they (the healer) are the only persons in danger.

Again, these are just my opinions.