Combat Medic Archive

I would like opinions on this...

In the developer response to the Top 5 CM issues (http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=combat_medic&message.id=12195), it states that:
"Combat medics have decent offensive ability but could use a little more help on the "nice" side. Ideally it should be some type of quick benefit that only lasts a minute or two durning combat. CM's will be getting an additional ability or two in the future along this mentality"

Here's my proposal: Give Cm's a new ability called "Rally" that allows the CM to use an area mind heal. The heal should be temporary (same duration as spice), cost a reasonable amount of mind to use, and of course a crafted component. This would fit in well with the nature of a Combat Medic, and allow CM's to 'encourage' the troops in the middle of battle.

Overall this would solve some issues with various PvP griefs, and give a temp defense against mobs that suck mind in the field. Making the ability a temporary fix at a strong cost to the CM (250mind?) would limit its power and prevent spamming, even to the point of limiting a CM's ability to area heal or apply poison because of the mind cost.

Opinions?

Mind healing would be a different animal than what Mr hanson was getting at although that paticular issue needs to be covered soon. I was thinking along the line of temporary buffs, increase to poison resists, increased resistance to status effects, etc. Also maybe possibly an AoE cure that doctors would craft but CM's would throw or a special med pack that will douse the flames from a commando. Another past post suggested special kits that would reduce the groups damage to different types of damage for a short time. At any rate, I have no clue as to what our dev has in store for us, but any ideas can be easily passed on to the correspondent forum.

Kavedawg, I really like the poison resist idea. I currently sustain my Doc/Cm career byselling Buffs, tips from wound healing, and the occasional tip for a resusitation. I can imagine how hard it must be for Master CMs hoping for the kindness of a hunting group to tip for stims, unless they pay you up-front to tag along and heal.

The idea of CMs being able to make and sell temporaryanti-venom or innoculations against disease is great and I'm sure would help bring more income to the class. This would only work if the resists were just raised however, not 100% for a certain time. The we as CMs would just be useless against the powergamers rich enough to Buff/Innoculate all stats before every PVP encounter.

well...CM's probably wont be able to sell their buffs, it was said that they would only be a one or two minute buff and only useable during combat. sorry to get your hopes up

Thats why I suggested the above 'Rally' ability. Not an ability able to be sold, has a discernable effect that enhances gameplay and has a steep enough cost so as not to be abused/ spammed. Making it combat oriented fits the class perfectly, and benefits PvP or PvE. The stim packs used for 'Rally' could be sold on the open market, but like poisons and disease, only used by other CM's. That way a Doc/ CM could create a good pack and make a little profit. Of course rallying a group of combatants should give the CM combat XP when overall XP is awarded, especially since a CM would take such a risk sacrificing his own mind pool in the heat of battle to protect the troops.

I think strict disease/ poison resistance should be kept in the arena of Doctors, although I would like to see Docs be able to use their resistance abilities as a limited ranged action outside of hospitals. The ranged effect should come once again as a heavy drain on a Docs mind pool. Doctors should NOT replace Combat Medics, but should be allowed to be pressed into service in an extreme situation. Of course, thats another thread in another sub forum. =P

Detchi,

I think that this is, if anything a Squad Leader, or elite elite entertainer ability.

I actually agree with Khragon that nearly all the whining about CM damage (tick) rates is a misguided rant on the problems with mind damage in general...but I can't really see that the solution to that shoudl be an added ability for us that implicitly demeats the value added of classes like SL or entertainer elites.

Party buffs/rally/mods is what the entire SL profession was about (and several of them are quite unhappy at our recent terrain negotiation fix as being stealth diminuation of their powers).

I think the key here is in finding added abilities for CMs that do not infringe upon the strategic intended value add of other classes. I just don't see how this one doesn't.

I really like the notion of resists to poison/disease, but the moment we can give them to a partyI think we're in SL land. The moment we can craft packs as passive resist buffs I think we're in Doctor land.

What I continue to think can work (and makes sense) is that CM/Doc (not medic) gets passive resists to poison/disease along their skill lines because they deal with it frequently. Pistoleers get defense against melee and ranged defense...as to other combat classes. It's reasonable to suggest that doc/cm get increased resistances to what they deal wtih.

I don't think i agree that they should be specials, because the defenses for combat classes against range are passive. But I do they think they need to be self-only. Party is SL based.

Now, how could this be pushed to a party? I think Doc/CM and SLs would be served by a bonus that said that a Squad Leader Leading a group could impart x% of the passive resist poison/disease of the strongest doc, cm, doc/cm in the group, where x% is an increasing function of the SLs skills (and inherently an increasing function of the elite medic's skills).

This provides the same benefit but requires teamwork between a SL and CM/Doc...which the devs wish to encourage anyway.

Jacore MD/MCM, Tempest

Hey Jacore! I completely agree with your post!

After thinking a little longer I had about come to the same conclusion as you, realizing this suggestion was little more than a power grab for my MCM. =)

Earned resistance for CM's is a must...I have no idea how it is that we deal with poisons/ diseases daily yet are completely vulnerable - this is a sci-fi game, right?

Perhaps CM's could be given the ability to make a good pot of campfire coffee when the group is recouping...Make strong coffee +50 would be a great skill, and I dont think the chefs would mind...

Good post Jacore, we can close this thread now.

Rally? I take it you've never looked at the squad leader tree

And to my surprise, it seems like a copy of this idea has been implemented on the Test Server the day after I posted. Im either a visionary or as crazy as the SOE developers. Scary...

ha....don't pat yourself on the back too quickly, /healmind is a single target, close range heal that causes heavy wounds to your mind, wisdom, and focus (a different animal from your rally idea which was a group heal). you will only be able to use this ability 6 times (only 6 people healed) before you mind pool is compleatly drained.

True, the difference from area to single target makes a huge difference, but it can still sway the course of an outing in either PvE or PvP. Used tactically it can be very powerful indeed. I still like that I got very close to what is on TC.