so I remember that awhile back when I was doing the grave yard and I was with a team of wizards. there was me, the fire wizard, a storm wizard, and a life wizard. the storm and I were setting up for our attacks but the problem was: so was the life. a fire wizard and a storm wizard in most situations is the expected hitter and life wizards are usually the healer because of rebirth and other healing spells. as the battle went on we were getting increasingly hurt but the life wizard didn't do anything so I was forced to use a rebirth TC I brought incase of an emergency to keep us alive so the storm could attack, ultimately making it so life wizard did pretty much nothing. don't get me wrong I know that all schools can attack and be powerful but in group situations it would be better if you played your part to get things done with maximum efficiency. I know I said that I used rebirth but it would have been much better coming from the life than me. I would have been upset if a storm played tank instead of hitter because storms naturally have more damage and should be hitting to make things faster and easier.
so I remember that awhile back when I was doing the grave yard and I was with a team of wizards. there was me, the fire wizard, a storm wizard, and a life wizard. the storm and I were setting up for our attacks but the problem was: so was the life. a fire wizard and a storm wizard in most situations is the expected hitter and life wizards are usually the healer because of rebirth and other healing spells. as the battle went on we were getting increasingly hurt but the life wizard didn't do anything so I was forced to use a rebirth TC I brought incase of an emergency to keep us alive so the storm could attack, ultimately making it so life wizard did pretty much nothing. don't get me wrong I know that all schools can attack and be powerful but in group situations it would be better if you played your part to get things done with maximum efficiency. I know I said that I used rebirth but it would have been much better coming from the life than me. I would have been upset if a storm played tank instead of hitter because storms naturally have more damage and should be hitting to make things faster and easier.
Communication is key in team-ups; instead of getting upset over the Life Wizard ignoring your health, you should have asked if they would heal the team. And then if he/she refuses use the TC.
The best way to not get in these situations is to discuss strategy before jumping in the fight.
Especially if it's a random team up. Soon as I get in the graveyard I greet everyone. Then I ask who's going to be hitter, who going to tank, who's going to heal? Just because there's a life there I don't assume he/she is going to blanket us in heals, because I have been in a situation where life wizards decide 'hey, you want to stay alive you can heal yourself. I want to hit too.'
Does that make for the most efficient run? Obviously not, but again assuming people 'should just know their roles' is not going to help you in the long run.
Talking to your team before running head first in battle and asking who's going to do what usually mitigates these problems.
you should always talk about what role people will play before going into dungeons. There are many life wizards who can do some hefty damage and usually run hitting gear. I do both myself. If I was doing darkmoor, my team and I would have gone over our gameplan. Given the people involved, it certainly would have made sense for the life wizard to heal, but if you didnt ask if that's what they were doing, or stated you wanted a designated healer, then your group failed, not the life wizard. Nobody should be forced to play a role they dont want to do, or didnt know they had to. Even in this case, if it was explicitly talked about, then the group is the one who failed.
One wizard should be the "hitter", whichever one happens to have the best damage, even if it is the life wizard. Once when I was doing tartarus on my life, who had like 95% damage at the time an ice with 60% damage insisted that i should heal them instead of hit which is ridiculous.
I am going to guess the storm had more damage than you, in which case you should have supported them with blades to speed up the battles. I have seen storms with low damage as well as fires and others with higher damage, so do not always assume fire or storm is going to be your best hitter.
In conclusion, the vast majority of battles go faster with only 1 hitter, so before you start any dungeon decide as a team who that is going to be so everyone else has a chance to set up their deck appropriately BEFORE you being any battles. Could be the life had no heals in hand honestly.
sometimes communicating can be hard because some people don't bother to have chat turned on or some players don't have open chat. I try to communicate as much as possible but sometimes my lack of open chat or others lack of participation can be a big problem.
I get your pain, although I have never truly experienced it. I usually do major quests with friends, and we just sort of know what our plan is. I am almost always the tank, buffer, and crowd control, thanks to my spell Power Nova, and all of my boosts like feint, hex, balance blade, bladestorm, etc. Although, I agree with the other replies on this post, it is usually a good idea to convey strategies before hand if you don't already have a plan.
You really can't just assume a life is gonna heal or a balance is gonna support. The poor life wizards being harassed because you're demanding them to heal them can do whatever they want regardless of your health. And if you want a life to heal just make your own and start playing.
I play a few life wizards and we cant assume they will heal a party member every time he/ she needs healing. Too many things can be involved such as not enough pips to cast another heal back to back. Life wizard also gets attack causing them to not be available to heal others at the moment. They have to keep themselves alive too so they can heal who needs it. I do one shot duel dungeons, Darkmoor and other challenging dungeons. That's when I switch to my healing deck loaded with heal spells but even then, it still may not enough to save a party member from being defeated. People tell me we will protect you so you can cast rebirth, unicorn and other healing spells. It helps but it does not always work that way specially in Darkmoor. Again, we can not assume a life wizard will keep you from being defeated.
I think I'm going to agree with the others, in that roles should be agreed upon before the battle starts ... and that no school must be locked into traditional roles when they actually might better serve the team in a different way.
Case in point, last night I saw that the Lost Pages quests are back and recently, my Storm has unlocked the last area of Azteca so she can finally finish that part of the Lost Pages event. She went into battle against those fire mobs who loved spamming efreets, sun serpents and Storm shields. Arg! It was not a pretty sight, lol!
Along comes a cheerful Myth who offered to help (he was after spellwrits, too) and we very quickly realized he has higher firepower due to being level 120 vs. Sierra only at level 92.
So.
Sierra is Storm - does that mean she always must play the role of hitter? Not in this case. He had a higher innate damage plus the spellwrits weren't shielding against Myth. The only logical thing to do was have Sierra switch to a support role which she gladly and immediately did. She stocked her deck with Cleanse, Feint, Potent (Feint), Tower shields and Satyr. She 'tanked' and trapped, and kept the Myth guy free of Efreet leftovers while he went to town with Mystic Colossus.
It was beautiful. We had a blast together and farmed the Fire spellwrit boss a dozen times trying to get the Bone Dragon mount.
So yes, we should agree on roles ahead of time but no, no school should be pigeon-holed into just one role because that's what their 'expertise' is supposed to be. Sometimes it makes the most sense for Life to be the hitter. Sometimes it makes the most sense for Storm to be a tank.
I have to somewhat disagree with some of you. If you are in a group, Life heals. Although it's good to discuss what roles everyone is playing, Life should not be the main hitter in a group.
In most groups, my Life will heal. Period. It doesn't matter that I have 94% damage, my job is to keep everyone alive. I pack smaller heals rather than a bunch of Rebirth. That way, I can do back-to-back Unicorns or spot heal. With my outgoing heal being high and boosts , this works very effectively.
Very rarely will I use my hit/heal deck. This deck has mostly heals with only a couple of hits (just in case).
Everyone has a basic role they play in a group. Things can change, but for the most part, stick to what works best.
I have to somewhat disagree with some of you. If you are in a group, Life heals. Although it's good to discuss what roles everyone is playing, Life should not be the main hitter in a group.
In most groups, my Life will heal. Period. It doesn't matter that I have 94% damage, my job is to keep everyone alive. I pack smaller heals rather than a bunch of Rebirth. That way, I can do back-to-back Unicorns or spot heal. With my outgoing heal being high and boosts , this works very effectively.
Very rarely will I use my hit/heal deck. This deck has mostly heals with only a couple of hits (just in case).
Everyone has a basic role they play in a group. Things can change, but for the most part, stick to what works best.
I have to disagree, if the life has 120 damage and the others have 90, they most certainly should be the hitter. If you do the math, considering life blades are higher than storm blades, life only needs 1 more blade than storm would to do the same damage in most cases. Perhaps your life wizards are built to heal, however that is not the case for everyone.
I have to somewhat disagree with some of you. If you are in a group, Life heals. Although it's good to discuss what roles everyone is playing, Life should not be the main hitter in a group.
In most groups, my Life will heal. Period. It doesn't matter that I have 94% damage, my job is to keep everyone alive. I pack smaller heals rather than a bunch of Rebirth. That way, I can do back-to-back Unicorns or spot heal. With my outgoing heal being high and boosts , this works very effectively.
Very rarely will I use my hit/heal deck. This deck has mostly heals with only a couple of hits (just in case).
Everyone has a basic role they play in a group. Things can change, but for the most part, stick to what works best.
This is exactly what I meant. I basically said leave it to the life wizard to decide his or her role in the game. If you want to hit go ahead just be mindful of the other players health.
I have to disagree, if the life has 120 damage and the others have 90, they most certainly should be the hitter. If you do the math, considering life blades are higher than storm blades, life only needs 1 more blade than storm would to do the same damage in most cases. Perhaps your life wizards are built to heal, however that is not the case for everyone.
There are many factors which would decide who does what, but what you forget is, just because Life has 120% and someone else has 90%, doesn't mean Life will hit harder, nor does it mean they should be the hitter. Life is a school with spells that are low damage hitters compared to Storm, Fire, and others.
Life has the advantage of heals. Storm has the advantage of hits, Fire has the advantage of DOTs, Balance has the advantage of support, Myth has the advantage of support + hits, Ice has the advantage of defense, and Death has the advantage of drain spells.
So, because you feel Life "should" hit, does that mean Storm tanks and takes care of group heals while Life gets his jollies spamming Forest Lord? If there are 4 wizards in a group, there's a thing called 'synergy'. Taking a school completely out of its element in a group battle isn't kosher, especially when Life wants some glory while everyone else is struggling because they have to heal themselves.
Each school has their role to play. It can change a bit, according to what is needed, but that applies more to other schools than to Life.
There are many factors which would decide who does what, but what you forget is, just because Life has 120% and someone else has 90%, doesn't mean Life will hit harder, nor does it mean they should be the hitter. Life is a school with spells that are low damage hitters compared to Storm, Fire, and others.
Life has the advantage of heals. Storm has the advantage of hits, Fire has the advantage of DOTs, Balance has the advantage of support, Myth has the advantage of support + hits, Ice has the advantage of defense, and Death has the advantage of drain spells.
So, because you feel Life "should" hit, does that mean Storm tanks and takes care of group heals while Life gets his jollies spamming Forest Lord? If there are 4 wizards in a group, there's a thing called 'synergy'. Taking a school completely out of its element in a group battle isn't kosher, especially when Life wants some glory while everyone else is struggling because they have to heal themselves.
Each school has their role to play. It can change a bit, according to what is needed, but that applies more to other schools than to Life.
I agree, if you enter a team-up then you must act as a team - you're not there to be the "hero" ( save that for solo ) you're there as a unit to accomplish that goal - beat the dungeon. However, if you're Life and your team is ok and you can hit; then why not? Since I am a Death Wiz I gladly give feints & curses ( potent or otherwise ) to a team effort. I also pack a few Sacrifices in the case that we don't have a Life wiz on the team.
There are many factors which would decide who does what, but what you forget is, just because Life has 120% and someone else has 90%, doesn't mean Life will hit harder, nor does it mean they should be the hitter. Life is a school with spells that are low damage hitters compared to Storm, Fire, and others.
Life has the advantage of heals. Storm has the advantage of hits, Fire has the advantage of DOTs, Balance has the advantage of support, Myth has the advantage of support + hits, Ice has the advantage of defense, and Death has the advantage of drain spells.
So, because you feel Life "should" hit, does that mean Storm tanks and takes care of group heals while Life gets his jollies spamming Forest Lord? If there are 4 wizards in a group, there's a thing called 'synergy'. Taking a school completely out of its element in a group battle isn't kosher, especially when Life wants some glory while everyone else is struggling because they have to heal themselves.
Each school has their role to play. It can change a bit, according to what is needed, but that applies more to other schools than to Life.
Not every team has four players.
Smaller teams = different dynamics and sometimes, a need for versatility.
Case in point, Jabberwocky.
A Life and a Fire go in to duo Jabberwock (which CAN be done, by the way). According to tradition, the Life must heal because they're Life and that's their only role. But according to the Jabberwock's resist to Fire and the very narrow window of opportunity to use the 200% feint, the only effective strategy for that particular team on that particular boss would be for Life to be the hitter while Fire supports.
When it comes to small teams, you go with the strengths and weaknesses of the two or three that you have versus the challenge at hand - and you think outside the box when the situation calls for it.
So yes ... on rare occasions with smaller teams, Life should be the hitter. As I said before, "no school must be locked into traditional roles when they actually might better serve the team in a different way."
Alia Misthaven Supporting other wizards since 2009
There are many factors which would decide who does what, but what you forget is, just because Life has 120% and someone else has 90%, doesn't mean Life will hit harder, nor does it mean they should be the hitter. Life is a school with spells that are low damage hitters compared to Storm, Fire, and others.
Life has the advantage of heals. Storm has the advantage of hits, Fire has the advantage of DOTs, Balance has the advantage of support, Myth has the advantage of support + hits, Ice has the advantage of defense, and Death has the advantage of drain spells.
So, because you feel Life "should" hit, does that mean Storm tanks and takes care of group heals while Life gets his jollies spamming Forest Lord? If there are 4 wizards in a group, there's a thing called 'synergy'. Taking a school completely out of its element in a group battle isn't kosher, especially when Life wants some glory while everyone else is struggling because they have to heal themselves.
Each school has their role to play. It can change a bit, according to what is needed, but that applies more to other schools than to Life.
Planning a team strategy can make boss fights go much faster. Specializing roles is a good idea if everyone agrees. But don't go in just assuming that a life wiz is automatically going to heal you, or balance is going to blade you or whatever. Some players want to do other things. Some may be set up for something else, or not versed in full-team combinations and won't know what you're expecting.
Communicate, as other suggested, don't make assumptions.
so I remember that awhile back when I was doing the grave yard and I was with a team of wizards. there was me, the fire wizard, a storm wizard, and a life wizard. the storm and I were setting up for our attacks but the problem was: so was the life. a fire wizard and a storm wizard in most situations is the expected hitter and life wizards are usually the healer because of rebirth and other healing spells. as the battle went on we were getting increasingly hurt but the life wizard didn't do anything so I was forced to use a rebirth TC I brought incase of an emergency to keep us alive so the storm could attack, ultimately making it so life wizard did pretty much nothing. don't get me wrong I know that all schools can attack and be powerful but in group situations it would be better if you played your part to get things done with maximum efficiency. I know I said that I used rebirth but it would have been much better coming from the life than me. I would have been upset if a storm played tank instead of hitter because storms naturally have more damage and should be hitting to make things faster and easier.
Communication, communication, communication. Make sure the life knows that you need a solid healer beforehand. Some life wizards like going for the hit, it's just the way they role. They can surprise you with how much damage they can do. I understand it's extremely frustrating, but you shouldn't get too mad, the life probably didn't have his/her healing deck on. Just make sure you communicate before you go into battle who's the hitter, who's the tanker, the supporter, and who's the healer. Whether they should know their roles in battle or not, it never hurts to talk about what they should do before complications arise.
It was not a pretty sight, lol!
Alia Misthaven
Sierra Stormcaller
