!! Fix Healer Rescue

[Packetdancer]

First off, disabling provoke on specific enemies isn't a functionality that's already in the game. In that way the "it may be more complicated to implement than it sounds," rule applies. I'm not even against the idea, though; if it bothers people and it is in fact a simple implementation then create a thread and make your case. Same with any other weird stuff you'd like toggle's for, though I'm pretty sure this is all just false flagging to make some kind of point.

It's not entirely, though I grant I exaggerated a bit to bring a point home.

I have seen more wipes just to Anghra Mainyu due to tanks having Provoke wars and spinning mister angry eyeball such that he cleaves random chunks of the party (a number large enough that I honestly don't have a count) than I have seen wipes on *any content at all* in the game due to Rescue, be it well-intentioned misuse or trolling.

I also know people who are angry that one of the new blue mage spells knocks back everyone, including allies, not just enemies. (Which fundamentally seems like the same thing; Rescue pulls you, but that spells pushes you. Either way, someone else is moving your character.) I know dancers who get angry about other dancers picking the same dance partner after they already have. Etc.

Personally, I (and, evidently, a number of other healers) think if Rescue is a big problem it's better that it just get removed. Yes, it's very useful to save sprouts, to pull someone using the limit break to a safe spot, etc., but I personally don't use it that often, not do most other healers I know. And if it were to randomly not work when I used it, I would just not use it at all (nor, again, would many healers who have posted in this thread, it seems). If it causes this much ire, just eliminate it, but do give healers something interesting (and useful) to replace it, to maintain at least some degree of unique capability to the role.

Heck, give us a "damage in waiting" which lets us make someone invulnerable, but then the damage is turned into a doom they have to do something to cleanse. (Maybe they have to do the damage they took to targets within X seconds for the Doom to go away; make it 150% so that if you take 80k damage converted into Postponed Fate or whatever, you must do 120k damage in return within 10s.) Then we can deal with them standing in a one-shot and maybe have them survive. I dunno. Something!

But all of those suggestions and comments keep getting shot down with how people would figure out how to use anything healers could conceivably be given in place of Rescue as a cheese method, and how a toggle would be better because then healers have the option to use Rescue. (Again: if it just randomly doesn't work, in general, many of us wouldn't use it.)

So while I don't personally think toggles that allow one player to dictate that another player's abilities should just Sometimes Not Work are a good idea in general, if a toggle is truly the simple solution that best fits the community's playstyle, then let's honestly look at where else we can use the mechanic once it's in place. I'm genuinely not being facetious there; if it's the path we think is best to go down, then it's a mechanic worth examining where else it can improve the game experience.

Because yes... one tank having the ability to disable other tanks' Provoke to avoid people turning Anghra Mainyu into a centrifuge would, on the whole, probably end up improving my life as a healer quite a bit when World of Darkness pops in alliance roulette.