Combat Medic Archive
Thread: Combat Medic Role: What Do You Want It To Be?
What should the combat medic's role be?
1. Healing on the battlefield in ways docs cannot (ranged and AOE damage healing)
2. Combat support with poisons and diseases, which should be insidious, not overpowering.
I honestly think that we've got these two now, but factors beyond our control (buffs making promiscuous use of composite possible with no degredation in combat power possible) cause us to appear to be overpowering dominators of the PvP battlefield. Mainly because our moderate attacks seem devatastaing when we can get past composite armor and other damage dealers, with far greater raw power, cannot.
Alone, we are nothing in PvP. We can "damage from beyond the grave" but only if our victim is unprepared or does not have their wits about them.Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who panic at the first tick of disease or poison, and this gives us psychological power far beyond our real power against a determined, prepared opponent. Pretty much how an MCH who calls out a rancor can psych out someone unprepared for it and win.
Those who have learned, though, and know we're there and know how to defeat us do not fear us, but respect us.
The psychological impact of CMs on the contemporary SWG battlefield is devastating. Between us and the other mind damage dealing profs, we do hold dominance. Mainly because other profs can't get past composite armor like we can. If it were not for the trival ability to wear composite, we'd be seen more as annoyances than serious threats.
I am old school firm believer in the MMORPG holy trinity of Healer-Nuker-Tanker.
Current state of game make that irrelevant since everyone can be mega Tanker with Buff and good enough Healer with Stim-B.
But ONCE Combat balance is done, and healing mean something in combat, then I for one see CM as healer first and nuker distant second.
Isee CM as other half of Doctor in combat. Better than Doctor in damage healing to a point where most people would PREFER to have CM instead of Doctor when hunting.
I would prefer after combat balance where no group can survive in advanced/elder planet like dantooine/dathomir/endor/yavin-4 without a healer. They would prefer CM as healer but Doctor can do the job if he had to. Ofcourse it would be SO MUCH better if group can have both Doctor and CM.
I would prefer that healing in group is SO important that CM would just have no time to nuke even if there are Both Master CM & Master Doc in group.
My opinion involves diversity.
I took Combat Medic/Doctor because I wanted to be the best healer in the game I can possibly be. In my play style I am a healer first and an attacker second.
Having said that, I have played many other MMORPG that the healer is essentially a push-over in combat. EQ, and DAOC come to mind. In EQ at least you HAD to have a cleric to go after the tougher things, in this game a healer is not needed for anything.
A player can pick up Novice Medic some powerful stim B's and they can heal themselves almost as good as a combat medic can heal them. Everyone has some medic essentially in this game right now, a Doctor is a buff-bot and a CM is a poisoner. Neither are really needed for their healing skills.
I remember in the early days of the game, as a CM/DOC, I could go hunt Krayt dragons with a group and has the only healer in the group, I could keep 10 people fully healed, ressed, buffed, and their state effects removed. When you have a 10 - 1 ratio attackers to healers in a game it is clear there is no need for healers.
It is nice being aCM in this game though, that is because I have teeth, you want to take me on? Fine, you will kill me I am sure, but you will spend some time in the cantina for your efforts, and maybe if I get lucky enough with the small combat skill I do have, I might beat you.
What do I see as the role of CM? I see the role of the CM as being the profession that makes the enemy plan a little better. What I mean is this: If you take CM away, you will find that everyone will have the best armor, buffs and foods they need to stay alive against health and action damage. They will gear their defenses against the only other class that effectively attacks mind and that is riflemen, they will build up heavily in order to stay alive against them.
The in combat it becomes a case of offense against offense, or Unreal Tournament that you pay to play. Everyone will be running and shooting, without any thought to anything else that might bother them in the game. Since everyone can heal a little, no Doctors will be found on the battle field because face it state effects do jack crap nothing.
Enter the combat medic, and the real reason why everyone wants to nerf us. We make people think beyond the best armor, best heals in the game since we cancel all the millions of points in armor that you have. You have to do something else with that 35 points of filling instead of putting it all in state defense. That is what the CM is all about. Put the CM back in the game and doctors become necassary since they are the only ones that cure.
You see, the model is sound and strong, fix some of the bugs, provide a couple of additional ways to defend and the game will be fine with no other changes needed.
Message Edited by RhenGordon on 05-06-2004 10:23 PM
I am a CM because I wanted to play a healer in combat. For me, a Combat Anything is someone who has gone through combat drill and is now able to perform his craft under combat conditions. He is not trained in weapons and destruction any more than a normal soldier.
I think in theory CM covers this concept just fine. You have a medic base, then add the soldier part of real combat experience and you are a medic that can operate in combat conditions. For me, that's it. No extra attacks come from that. With that under your belt, it's easier to pick up a weapon skill your fellow soldiers have. Even that is covered by CM because you already have marksman.
In my oppinion, every healing from a non-combat medic should be halved for each participant in combat: target in combat: half heal, healer in combat: half heal, both in combat: quarter heal. That would solve a lot of problems. It would give us the role we were named after: combat medic. It would make novice medic/stim B for everyone less viable though not impossible. It would give us an edge over doctors in combat.
We can take a combat profession on top of CM, the base is already there. What I really don't want to see are offensive weapons from the CM profession. I would like to play a combat medic like Eugene Roe from Band of Brothers, not some WWI gas trooper or even a WWII SS Guard. I am a medic, not a terrorist.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=combat_medic&message.id=18726&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
although I think we used the word "Dev's vision" instead of "role".
And there were some nifty discussion between Pahdbacca, Zarlor and Vortexala about it I think.
And ofcourse there was that CM Manefesto by Pahdbacca which is very worth a read.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=combat_medic&message.id=18538&highlight=#M18538
I think this question will always be asked since SoE tried a profession that can heal good and also can attack well and now they are stuck with it.
SioBabble wrote:
What should the combat medic's role be?
1. Healing on the battlefield in ways docs cannot (ranged and AOE damage healing)
2. Combat support with poisons and diseases, which should be insidious, not overpowering.
I honestly think that we've got these two now, but factors beyond our control (buffs making promiscuous use of composite possible with no degredation in combat power possible) cause us to appear to be overpowering dominators of the PvP battlefield. Mainly because our moderate attacks seem devatastaing when we can get past composite armor and other damage dealers, with far greater raw power, cannot.
Alone, we are nothing in PvP. We can "damage from beyond the grave" but only if our victim is unprepared or does not have their wits about them.Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who panic at the first tick of disease or poison, and this gives us psychological power far beyond our real power against a determined, prepared opponent. Pretty much how an MCH who calls out a rancor can psych out someone unprepared for it and win.
Those who have learned, though, and know we're there and know how to defeat us do not fear us, but respect us.
The psychological impact of CMs on the contemporary SWG battlefield is devastating. Between us and the other mind damage dealing profs, we do hold dominance. Mainly because other profs can't get past composite armor like we can. If it were not for the trival ability to wear composite, we'd be seen more as annoyances than serious threats.
The way I see it, CM's should be the ultimate in damage healing and docs the ultimate in wound healing. The docs already have the wound healing with all the wound treatment and treatment speed in the profession, so I think CM's should get a bigger bump in healing capabilities. Since in healing potential, master doctor isn't more effective than master medic, giving CM the ability to heal mind with stims creates a more significant difference in healing potential. I think this would bring healing differences between a novice and elite profession more in line with how combat compares between novice and elite professions.
Do I like poisons/diseases? Sure, they are very effective (I have yet to use any of my spider venom - I see them as ridiculous not only in how they compare to what CM's can craft, but also how dramatically they change the final disease/poison pack), but the main reason I liked the poisoning/diseasing was the uniqueness it brought to the class. DOT weapons have removed that a bit. I wouldn't mind seeing CM's take a damage hit with poisons/diseases. But there must be compensation.
When I first heard of the spider venom, I hated what it would do, and I stated I wished they had given us new schematics to apply state effects to targets.
Honestly, I would give up all poisons/diseases for significant healing perks (CM's being the only ones with stims that heal the mind pool) and significant abilities to apply states (dizzy, stun, intimidate and blind) - i.e. more efficiently than any of the other profession's attacks.
I've got more to say, but Mild-Breeze-Trooper pretty much hit those points pretty well.
-tae