Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IC 1-4: Combat Roles; Combat Medic
What defines theCombat Medicrole in combat?
The Combat Medics role in combat is two-fold.
On the one hand, they are the ultimate damage healing profession. They surpass the Medic Profession as well as the Doctor Profession in their ability to heal massive ammounts of damage a player receives and doing so at long range and on a large scale. Ranged and Area Stims are bar none the best in-combat support abilities in the game.
On the second hand they also have the ability to apply damage via poisons as well as wounds via diseases, both singularly as well as too a large opposing force.
Their role in combat is not only as the major healing support, keeping an entire group alive better and faster then any doctor could, but also in providing crowd control in the guise of extremely hard-to-craft poisons and by having the ability to 'sideline' an opposing force through the use of equally hard-to-craft diseases.
What basic combat elements should they possess?
There really aren't any 'basic' combat elements that a CM should possess other then what is granted in Novice Marksman or along the Ranged Support Branch. Perhaps a weapon cert could be inserted into that branch at some point, but even without the CMs are fine.
What offensive abilities?
They should retain their current offensive abilities of both poison as well as diseases. They should also, perhaps, be given the ability to inflict states upon opponents as a way of fulfilling counterpart to the doctor ability to heal said states.
What defensive abilities?
There should, perhaps, be some form of poison/disease resistance skill mods inherent within the profession who has a title of 'Chemical Warfare Expert'. If they can make the poisons/diseases then they should be at least a bit immune.
What unique abilities?
The Area and Ranged healing/poisons/disease abilities are the only unique abilities that CMs require.
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
The area and ranged stims should allow any group the ability to take on larger and tougher PvE opponents as well as outlast in PvP engagements. The ability to use 'crowd control' measures on enemies, both PvE and PvP, is also an added advantage.
How could/should they interact with other professions?
The really, as do most if not all Medical Professions, require a bit less interdepency upon others and more self sufficiency. As it stands, each Medical Profession can only advance through the healing of others and their consumables are only usable by others with similar skills.
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
Combat Medic should NOT be the end-all, be-all Combat professions as some would wish. Nor should it be solely a 'Support Profession' as others claim. A 'Pure' Combat Medic should never be able to outdamage a Bounty Hunter or a Commando, but they should have the tools available to outwit other professions in terms ofusingtheir abilities to toss poisons and diseases as well as self-healing.
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?
The 'Unique' Role of Combat Medic in the Galactic Civil War is exactly what their abilities allow them to be... Crowd Control. If there is a bottleneck at the opening to a base which other Combat Professions are unable to penetrate alone, the Combat Medic in the group could let loose a volley of poisons and diseases to wreak havoc upon their enemies and weaken them to a point where the invading group can 'storm the castle' as it were.
General Comments
I implore the developers to seek the facts before making any further changes to this profession. Yes, there are indeed a lot of cries for the 'nerfing' of Combat Medics but you must understand where those cries are originating from and around the one particular type of poisons/diseases that have created the uproar.
They cry nerf stating that Combat Medics should be hit hard with the 75% reduction in PvP or the removal of poison or any other number of other inane ideas born of ignorance.
In PvE, poisons and diseases perform so poorly as to be useless. The ONLY place they are viable is within the realm of PvP. Some have even suggested that the 75% reduction had already been placed on the Combat Medics, only it landed squarely on their PvE abilities. Removing our poisons would only serve to weaken the profession to the point of non-existance. The argument of 'I don't pay 169 Skill Points just to throw stims' has surfaced time and again, and does have a valid point.
And yet, it isn't ALL of a CMs Poisons or Diseases that rally this sincere hatred. It is, in fact, just one. Namely, the Combat Medics ability to assault the mind with impunity.
Combat Medics are not alone in their ability to target the Mind pool, yet they are most often the focus of rage and nerf cries because of their ability to target this Unhealable(CM Mindheal ability notwithstanding) pool.
Leave it be until the HAM portion of the Combat Revamp is concluded. At that time, with the abilty for Medical Professions to exploit the heal system for xp removed, perhaps you can reintroduce our ability to heal mind in the same fashion that we do with Health and Action. Believe me when I say that, once Mind is made as readily healable as Health or Action, the nerf cries will cease.
I was a Master Doctor far longer then most, Xy. And a Healer since the early days of beta.
In terms of pure Damage Healing, a Combat Medic will always outdo a Doctor. Always. Simply by using area heals when doctors are confined to single-target.
Think bigger then just the 'base' number and you might actually understand where I'm coming from.
The inability to heal everyone in an area with an area stim is a bug, nothing more. But, to be honest, if you are to go single-stim to single-stim then yes, a Doctors single-stim is more powerful then a Combat Medics.
And, personally, I think thats actually fine in some ways. As a CM you sacrifice a bit of power for range and area.
when it comes down to it all, combat medics really need a more active role in combat. I can see this as being achieved by putting a "variable" slot on the meds to give them special abilities, or a special weapon. As the only class that truly fuses the med center with the battlefield, combat medics really should have combat abilities.
Thunderheart wrote:
Given the basic considerations listed above, please answer the following questions:
What defines theCombat Medicrole in combat?
A combat medic is a special breed of medic. A combat medic should be able to easily heal his own side in combat, the "medic" part of the profession, while also being able to deal damage ("combat"). If a combat medic did not have combat skills, he/she would be a "field medic" and not a "combat medic." Although the combat part of the profession is very important, it also needs to be able to have those ranged heals, fulfilling the role of a support class.
What basic combat elements should they possess?
Both an ability to heal and attack should be included.
What offensive abilities?
Combat medics need their poisons and diseases, however possibly a unique weapon certification to add to the "combat" feel (many cm's feel that for all the skill pts that they use, it is hard to swallow not having a weapon)
What defensive abilities?
Heals. definately heals, possibly some combat mods also (def. vs ___)
What unique abilities?
Poisons and disease are nice, and a ranged heal is also nice, but again, maybe a weapon?
also Kudos to whoever thought of heal mind, very fitting
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
PvE-ablility to heal the group and help them survive longer. PvP- healing group and being able to attack and gain Fpts also-another thing cm's sometimes have aproblem with isnot being able to gain fpts even in pvp.
How could/should they interact with other professions?
Heal other classes, but also be able to attack too and poison, disease, ect. combat
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
other classes should depend on the combat medic to heal them and keep them alive, but also the combat medic needs to be in the thick of the battle, helping the group damage
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?
maybe a "darker" side to the GCW exists, one that uses biological warfare and relies onhit-and-run methods. while it would not seem fair for a Combat medic to be able to take out an entire Batallion of troops (no more thanany other class), possibly a fpt bonus for damaging enemies or healing allies... Also a more interesting variety of "poisons" might be interesting, or a slot to powerup the poisons to have special techniques, as seen on rifles-things to put in togive a power boost, lower ham costs, ect-(eg a rocket to propel the med into a target=knockdowm, things to imput to cause diziness, blindness, stun, ect.-things that other classes can already do) with these new types of meds the combat medic would be able to participate more actively in combat and would not need a weapon as much.
Request For Comments:
The community is invited to make commentsthrough April. At that time, the thread will be closed to further comments. Feel free to comment on any or all of the above items. Please stay on topic.
Poisons and diseases. Like they currently do. However, it's been suggested that they get the 75% reduction in PVP that other DOT's get. It would still add to the damage of the group as a whole, but the one CM wouldn't be a "party pooper" so to speak.
lol I can see it now, our area poisons ticking for only 85 damage every 6 seconds, that works out to a whopping 14 damage a second...woo, please, do that to us now, we'll have such a minor factor in PvP that maybe I won't even bother showing up anymore...
vortexala wrote:
The inability to heal everyone in an area with an area stim is a bug, nothing more. But, to be honest, if you are to go single-stim to single-stim then yes, a Doctors single-stim is more powerful then a Combat Medics.
And, personally, I think thats actually fine in some ways. As a CM you sacrifice a bit of power for range and area.
But they shouldn't be as good at healing damage as us, we are the guys out on the battlefields, in the frontlines saving people's butts...a doc is in the back healing wounds, not damage, wounds! not to mention us tossing a stim sticks us to the ground for several seconds, leaving us wide open to attack.
Xytroncore wrote:
vortexala wrote:
The inability to heal everyone in an area with an area stim is a bug, nothing more. But, to be honest, if you are to go single-stim to single-stim then yes, a Doctors single-stim is more powerful then a Combat Medics.
And, personally, I think thats actually fine in some ways. As a CM you sacrifice a bit of power for range and area.
But they shouldn't be as good at healing damage as us, we are the guys out on the battlefields, in the frontlines saving people's butts...a doc is in the back healing wounds, not damage, wounds! not to mention us tossing a stim sticks us to the ground for several seconds, leaving us wide open to attack.
Overall, a Doctor isn't as good as healing damage as a CM, as I stated earlier. As forthe animation sticking a person to the ground leaving them 'vulnerable' to attack, well..that's where the 'range' part of a ranged stim comes into play
Also to note... at least as i've always seen it, combat medic IS a pvp profession...medics of any type don't have a very PvE feel to them, hanging around med centers and cantinas and all...
Xytroncore wrote:
Poisons and diseases. Like they currently do. However, it's been suggested that they get the 75% reduction in PVP that other DOT's get. It would still add to the damage of the group as a whole, but the one CM wouldn't be a "party pooper" so to speak.
vortexala wrote:
Xytroncore wrote:
vortexala wrote:
The inability to heal everyone in an area with an area stim is a bug, nothing more. But, to be honest, if you are to go single-stim to single-stim then yes, a Doctors single-stim is more powerful then a Combat Medics.
And, personally, I think thats actually fine in some ways. As a CM you sacrifice a bit of power for range and area.
But they shouldn't be as good at healing damage as us, we are the guys out on the battlefields, in the frontlines saving people's butts...a doc is in the back healing wounds, not damage, wounds! not to mention us tossing a stim sticks us to the ground for several seconds, leaving us wide open to attack.
Overall, a Doctor isn't as good as healing damage as a CM, as I stated earlier. As forthe animation sticking a person to the ground leaving them 'vulnerable' to attack, well..that's where the 'range' part of a ranged stim comes into play
So let me get this straight, we heal for less damage then docs, we get stuck to the ground doing it, but we do get bugged range, most I can toss is 45m, yet it should be 60 or so...lol oh that's perfectly fair...we get 2 negative aspects to our healing just so we can get crappy range, weeeee, we're amazing /sarcasm.
Xytroncore wrote:
So let me get this straight, we heal for less damage then docs, we get stuck to the ground doing it, but we do get bugged range, most I can toss is 45m, yet it should be 60 or so...lol oh that's perfectly fair...we get 2 negative aspects to our healing just so we can get crappy range, weeeee, we're amazing /sarcasm.
You do realize that, considering posts on the CM Board proper, the range limitations on Stims as of late is a bug and something that was supposed to have been applied to poisons/diseases instead?
As for the 'heal for less damage then docs' statement, I think we already covered that.