Is being a heal bot really that bad?

General Discussion
21

Back in the day when wars were fought with swords, spears, and arrows the skill of the general who could command hundred of thousands of soldiers really mattered.

The most common type of general was the “by the book” general. The dudes who couldn’t ever be trusted to win complicated or disadvantage battles but their methods also prevented them ever losing to weaker foes.

To tie this in. Heal bot players are like this. Given a good team they will get the win but give them a bad team and they will 100% lose. They are incredibly consistent in their raw numbers which will keep them at a certain rank without fail but climbing up past that will require the kind of support playstyle best personified by Jonnak and ML7. The active aggressive kind. They don’t wait for their tank to take damage. They use their Utility to curb the enemies aggression and set up win conditions.

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22

Some people like it, i dont. If i want to be a bot, i wouldnt play a PvP game. i would go to a PvE game and activate a healbot along for me which exist in some games. Even healing should be proactive.

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23

being a heal bot is a perfectly acceptable strat that will land you a very very comfortable place in plat, diamond is a little out of reach though

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24

There is nothing wrong with doing something if you enjoy it. Personally when I play support I do it because I want to heal my allies for the most part.

25

i mean I like supports who have utility that can keep teammates alive too (like armor on old brig packs) bc it’s a little more exciting than just clicking on a teammate as you have to think about when and on whom to use the utility ability. It’s not getting kills but it’s more interesting than being a healbot

26

It’s not bad being a heal bot with Mercy, but there are many heroes that do that and better.

27

I disagree. Learning heal priorities for supports is really important. Especially since in lower ranks the DPS aren’t going to be making use of the damage boost well. Giving an extra 120 HP to your Rein is worth more than giving your DPS an extra 90 Damage into a shield or into an enemy tank being hard pocketed

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28

I feel like healbot almost every game I play, lol…like I have no choice really.

29

Yes, to really improve at support you do need to learn to be proactive in using your support abilities. It’s why the role is named support and not healer after all!

30

Tried the “pure healer” thing, and it was awful, nothing would die except me (no peel), then I would see my entire team on the kill feed. Mic up to tell them,"I’m going for the gold!"Switch to moira, 4 gold’s and one silver, potg and card. No endorsements but our useless dva got all the votes for most mech recalls. Yeah,gr8 community.

31

Persoanlly I dont think being a heal bot is really that big of a deal. It’s like calling DPS “damage bots” - like, yeah duh, that’s their role. When I play support, my goal is trying to keep my teammates alive, not killing enemies.

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32

heal botting is basically just hoping you get carried, having no real impact on winning fights other than making them longer, use your cds agressively, flank, get kills when you can, mark flankers. dont just be a background player

33

I play support to support my team, not to spend my entire time trying to keep some feeding lunatic alive. If you enjoy that, no problem, but that isn’t the role.

34

It’s just a lowkey way to insinuate that support players are lesser. Just like how people call rein a shield bot because they’re annoyed that he impedes the headclicking they so richly deserve.

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35

Pretty much, you have to realize that sometimes you can’t carry your team no matter who you damage boost/pocket so you just have to mostly ignore healing and go for kills.

It seems counterintuitive but the best way to make sure people don’t take damage is to not heal them and just kill what’s shooting them

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36

Sometimes it isnt, but try to remember, heroes like moira are literally not in the meta solely because they lack utility, so if you aren’t utilizing said utility on your heroes it’s a massive boon to your team.

37

Like many things in this game, maybe or maybe not. Most everything is situational. In general, you need to do more than simply heal to maximize your impact.

38

Just chatting here FreeWin…

I think the issue I see (just in comparison to how I play Mercy), is when you say “when you pocket (a) DPS/Tank teammate”.

Your not really helping your team as much as you can by focusing on just “a” singular dps or tank. You should be pocketing your entire team…everyone (that you can get too within reason).

If you are going to focus on just one person, then that person needs to be getting that job done. Otherwise, if they miss their shots, or aren’t engaged in the fight in any real way, you as Mercy really don’t exist.

Example: If you are boosting an Ashe(or whomever) who misses most, if not all their shots, then you’ve just wasted your time. You’re casting your boost, but to no effect, as nothing Ashe puts out there is landing. So you and that Ashe are absent from the team.

So, my suggestion is that if your going to try and pocket one player, find that one player that is getting things done. And if that person can’t, move to the next player. Ditto for tanks. If you have a suicide-rein, then move over to another tank.

But really, unless a DPS or tank is just an absolute superstar, then I suggest pocketing your entire team. That’s really Mercy’s game. She is a triage support, flying here, flying there, boosting when she can, healing when she has to, and resurrecting when it’s safe. All while trying to keep her beam moving from place to place, using what is needed, when it’s needed.

yatta yatta yatta. =)

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39

It is, though. The devs designed supports as healers, and healing is a form of support. You can argue about semantics all you want, but that’s what they do. If you like the supports that also have a little extra utility to them then that’s great, but let’s not pretend their primary purpose is anything but healing your team.

As I said, no different that calling dps players “damage bots.” Their purpose is to deal damage.

40

Most supports’ primary function is healing. Some folks on this forum act like the difference between bad Mercy and a good Mercy is how often your beam is blue… but dead teammates can’t be damage boosted.

Good Mercies still heal a lot. They’re just better at identifying situations where it pays to tap that right mouse button, which not just knowing your teammates’ health but knowing what they’re doing right now and knowing damage values well enough to be able to think about things in terms of hits, not hit points.

Incidentally, a 30% damage boost on zero damage is still zero damage. Don’t listen to silver McCrees who think damage boosting them 24/7 is a good use of your time. There will still be some reliable damage that you can boost (like if your Rein is swinging or if you see your Hog has gotten a hook) but generally in lower elos, you’re going to find out that you don’t have nearly as many good reasons to use your blue beam as you would if you were playing in a higher elo.

1 Like