Game Mechanics: Group heal agro way too high

[wycca]

Group heal agro is waay too high. This is commonly known amongst healers that have group heals - pretty much, you cannot use group heals in fights. You instantly and irrevocably get agro on a mob.

The exception is Heroic Bond, which is a buff. I know that heals are coded to give alot less agro than dmg (or runes), but group heals drawing this much agro are not classic, and they will be valid options in several Velious fights.

Examples discussing use in fights that would NEVER be possible on p99 due to agro (I'm picking on group cheal just because it's more agro than any other group heal and none of these uses are possible -

http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10865
http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10865 (post #24)

[Haynar]

Classic heals should make the amount of hate that they actually heal. Not currently set up that way.

H

[Treats]

From another thread I posted in:

There were a few patches regarding Hate and healing spells on Live:

February 21, 2001

Quote: We've redressed the amount of hate generated by heal spells. Previously, and *partly* due to a bug, the high level heal spells such as superior heal or complete heal would generate no more hate than greater heal. In fact, so little hate was generated by these spells that it made controlling NPC aggression trivial. Heal spells will now generate an amount of hate more in line with the number of hitpoints actually healed. Due to our desire to leave the lower level game more or less untouched, two separate caps have been placed for targets level 50 or below, and 51 or above. Heal spells will generate significantly less hate for targets below level 51 than those at or above that level.

February 21, 2001

Quote: Healing and Hate:

A team member has asked that we clarify the changes to the way hate is awarded in healing. The important point that may not have been clear below is that there is a cap on the amount of hate that can be awarded for any particular heal spell. For a target below level 51, no heal spell can generate more than 800 hate, regardless of the number of hitpoints healed. For targets level 51 or above, the cap is higher, but does not approach the total hitpoints of a fully buffed warrior.

March 6, 2001

Quote: Hate from heals is also now calculated at a lesser number than the number of hitpoints healed. Previously, healing one hitpoint would cause one point of hate. Now, healing 3 hitpoints will cause 2 points of hate.

How it was calculated before the first patch when said to be bugged, I do not know.

Hate possibly capped at 300 (Greater Heal) no matter what heal spell was cast?

Word of Restoration/Redemption capped at 1800 Hate (6 Greater Heals)?

[Arteker]

aoe ehals where always hugue agro afctors, and one of the most memorable toys paladins got to their agro arsenal .

[eadric]

I agree with the OP, and want to reiterate the points I made in a previous bug report thread on this issue that did not result in any changes. Group heal agro is currently way too high in comparison to classic. I won't repost all the arguments I made in that earlier thread. I've observed that group regen spells (regrowth of the grove) also have absurdly high agro, so perhaps there is a connection there - a common function being called. Likely something that is not being called with a "buff" group heal like Heroic Bond, as that has normal or less than normal amounts of agro associated with it. This issue needs to be addressed before Velious is released, as it will cause game breaking imbalance at that point.

[Treats]

Could it be that Group heals are giving the amount of Hate right now equal to the spell's maximum instead of the actual healed value?

Ex:

Cast Word of Restoration on Group (10k group heal)

Heals Player A for 3000
Heals Player B for 2000
Heals Player C for 1000
Heals Player D for 2000
Heals Player E for 1000
Heals Player F for 3000

Generates 60,000 Hate? Instead of 12,000.

No idea without knowing which heal/threat mechanic is in use right now.