Rescue needs to go away.

[ASkellington]

I doubt it has every been used for its intended purposes and has only been used to kill other players...which is funny the first few times it has happened but after a while it is just annoying.

It has been used for its intended purposes. I've used it as intended and have never used it to troll outside of anything to do with my FC mates.

[Packetdancer]

There's a thread on the Healer subforum where I suggested adding a "disable help from allies" feature similar to other games like Dota 2 where a skill can be used to either save a player or potentially troll and kill them. It seems like a good compromise to protect people from griefing and purposeful killing if they're worried about it, protect them from unwanted use if they care about it or are trying to greed with manaward or something similar, but it would still keep the skill around for the people who do want to use it and want it used on them for strategies or otherwise.

My only problems with this are:

1. I rarely use Rescue, and pretty much only ever in the situation where not using it is about to cost me Swiftcast and 2400 MP -- e.g. the target player is about to die -- or where the player is standing somewhere that's about to wipe all of us. (Aglaia's final fight in particular, during the scale mechanic.) Without Rescue, I have nothing I can do for those situations, and the DPS can't really refund my 2400 MP.
2. Rescue's timing is... I'll politely call it "somewhat odd". If I have to use it, I'm generally having to stop doing everything else for a chunk of time. If you make it so there's a random chance that Rescue is just not going to work at all -- on top of the existing "Rescue sometimes goes off so late you're pulling an unconscious DPS to your side rather than a conscious one" scenario -- then I am likely to stop using Rescue altogether, rather than just using it rarely. As, I suspect, are any other healers who use it for its intended function.

If you want to remove Rescue, then just remove it. Making it conditional and demanding the healer play a guessing game of "hey, do I have to see briefly into the future and then drop everything to Rescue you, but maybe you've disabled it so it's just LOLNOPE and I wasted that time" is actually worse than just removing Rescue, because it will be functionally the same thing while still pretending we have Rescue.

I have come up before with ways to make Rescue conditional, but they're always kind of convoluted; for instance, if someone has disabled Rescue but a healer tries to Rescue them regardless, the Rescue doesn't work and the player instead receives a "Salvation Declined" debuff for 10s. If they die within that 10s, they get an "Unsaved" buff. A healer can rez an Unsaved player in question instantly and without MP cost, but the player is rezzed having gone straight through Weakness to the Brink of Death 50% debuff you get when rezzed while still under Weakness. That way, people who disable Rescue because they have plans to get to safety have nothing change; they can still move to safety and the debuff falls off. And people who disable Rescue and then stand in the bad at least don't cost a healer 2400 MP, so long as the healer tried to save them.

(And it's not a freebie you can just cheese a mechanic with, because the DPS hit on rezzing an Unsaved player would be significant.)

But that's not super straightforward. And I suspect people would still complain that, like, now healers use Rescue on them right before they're about to die so that they troll them by rezzing them with a more severe debuff. Or something.

So, fine. Just remove Rescue. But if you do, have something else to give healers in its place, I beg of you; the ability to pull people to safety and out of the bad is literally the only utility unique to healers in this game, and when used properly, it's an excellent MP management tool (inasmuch as a player who is no longer in the bad is also no longer going to cost the healer 2400 MP).

[VerdeLuck]

where the player is standing somewhere that's about to wipe all of us. (Aglaia's final fight in particular, during the scale mechanic.)

That's one of about 3 mechanics in casual content where a single player can cause a wipe, and even then there is in fact a ~2-3 person buffer on the scales so you don't have to be precise. Other than those extremely rare cases, mechanics in casual and normal mode content just kills the player and they need a resurrect, that's it. There's not even a DPS check to beat on anything below Extreme, except again, a few fringe cases where the checks are very forgiving. Even if there is a wipe, that happens in the game. Teams wipe, teams fail mechanics it happens, you just pick it back up and try again.

[Sebazy]

I doubt it has every been used for its intended purposes and has only been used to kill other players...which is funny the first few times it has happened but after a while it is just annoying.

Then you clearly aren't paying attention

[LittleImp]

It's a niche skill with value when its applied correctly, so I don't want to see it gone. Personally I think it should be restricted to pre-formed parties, as 99.9% of the time it's used on me in DF it's done so disruptively or on accident.

[Jybril]

I am sad rescue disappeared in my pvp abilities. It was so fun saving people with rescue.

This is the only thing I liked about Rescue tbh.

I'll vote yes but would also talk about a rework.
The animation/lag whatever is terrible so someone might die anyway.
It's too clunky for me and I rarely use it.

I like something like Expedient where you got a speed buff to run out
and you're at your own control. Not being in control of my character is garbage.

[Renalt]

Then you clearly aren't paying attention

when other healers use it on other people yeah I admit I'm not seeing it. I do however notice when im in a safe spot and get dragged through several horrible things at once. I will notice that.

"Nice rescue" is something I've not seen a single person use ever.

[Packetdancer]

That's one of about 3 mechanics in casual content where a single player can cause a wipe, and even then there is in fact a ~2-3 person buffer on the scales so you don't have to be precise. Other than those extremely rare cases, mechanics in casual and normal mode content just kills the player and they need a resurrect, that's it. There's not even a DPS check to beat on anything below Extreme, except again, a few fringe cases where the checks are very forgiving. Even if there is a wipe, that happens in the game. Teams wipe, teams fail mechanics it happens, you just pick it back up and try again.

Sure, wipes happen. (And 2400 MP isn't -- usually -- the end of the world, though it definitely can hurt if more than one player has eaten the Bad.) Rescue usually isn't critical; if I let the sprout run off in a panic with the stack marker in Dun Scaith or stand in the bad during Behemoth's meteors or Amon's Curtain Call, it's not the end of the world. If they stand in the landslide path on Titan and get yeeted into space -- one of the other few places where I have used Rescue -- and have to sit out the rest of the fight, eh, we can still easily take the guy down without them.

Though I've had more than one sprout go "OH! I wondered why I always died to that." after yanking them to safety in a mechanic and they see they survive. So it can be an educational experience. (Even if I'm always a little bemused they overlooked everyone else standing behind the big rocks / giant ice.)

And sometimes it's not saving one person from the bad. If someone is sitting on the party while marked with the chasing exoflare in T.G. Cid and demonstrably not planning to move, thus going to explode the entire party? I will absolutely run to the side and Rescue them away. Yes, I will die too, but the rest of the party survives, and my co-healer can get me back up. Rather than me booking it to safety and then needing to rez 7 people who didn't notice the targeted player was still standing with them. (I have done both of these things. The first one -- two rezzes, one being me -- is infinitely preferable to the latter.)

But you could apply the same attitude to spot-healing. "Oh, they got clipped. Well, I don't need to bother using a GCD to heal them; if they die to the next raidwide, it's not the end of the world or a wipe. This isn't savage or anything. They can sit on the floor until my co-healer or I have Swift back up." I mean, that is demonstrably true in most alliance raid content, especially Crystal Tower and Shadows of Mhach.

As a healer main, I'm going to try to keep my party alive. Even in low-level content where they don't need to be.

So although I demonstrably find Rescue useful (even if I usually use it like, once every month or so for one of those scenarios)... like I said, just get rid of Rescue rather than crippling it in a way that's actually worse than just not having it. Because at least if you get rid of Rescue, an argument can be made that healers need something to replace it, some utility unique to the role. If you leave it but make it fundamentally useless, to the point no healer is going to bother trying to use it to save one, it's easy to pretend you still have Rescue and thus don't need a replacement.

[Renalt]

So people say if we get rid of rescue then we need a replacement. Instead of replacing it I say we just alter how it works. Instead of being able to physically move someone I say it just puts an "all or nothing" shield on them that lasts for only a few seconds...enough to RESCUE them from a mechanic. No damage...no debuff...they are immune for a few short seconds. The shield has no HP amount really...if they take 10 damage...the shield is gone...if 100k damage...the shield is gone. Have pretty much same recharge rate as a Benediction or something.

[Packetdancer]

I would prefer for Rescue to be reworked as a teleport instead of an animation. Most of the death associated with the legitimate use of Rescue is from that animation lock.

Or that moment when you see one of your party on the wrong side of the Danger Bacon in E6S and have a moment of Dumb as you try to rescue them to the correct side... and watch them instantly die halfway there as they come flying across said Danger Bacon. (I was a brand-new shiny inexperienced raider new to savage, and I panicked.)

Just because I try to use Rescue correctly does not mean I always succeed, I grant.