Dead Men Walking

Old Server Admin Section => SOG Archive => SOG War Room => Silver Oak Guardians => Archived Topics => The Clean Up => Topic started by: Asheera on May 25, 2006, 09:33:32 PM

Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 25, 2006, 09:33:32 PM
After some healer complain in today MC run after lock skill called Life Tap i did a full run w/o using it, u could say:
healers, mages and all others but u rly should know locks use a shitload of mana (personaly i use around 4.9k mana every 30 sec w/ a manapool of only 6.5k) and differently from other casting class we have NO mana regen while casting that means one we r OOM the only thing we can count on is BoW
tonight only in mc i used 86 waters and i lost around 150 DPS on trash mobs and 270 on bosses.
That's only my point but in a normal raid we have around 20 healers and 5 locks so it could be 5 single heal each lock which won't drain so many mana from casters but that's  only my point of view so i hopened this topic to talk about it to reach a solution between locks and healers
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Bob on May 26, 2006, 09:02:45 AM
I made a post some time ago under off-topic (clicky (http://forum.deadmen.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13369&hl=lifetap)).

It was originaly intended just for fun - a kind of "healers deep sigh" over locks you can run into in a PuG.  But I do believe there are some serious points in it as well, hidden below all the humor ;)

The problem with locks using lifetap, is that in some (many?) situations can be hard for a healer to actually be aware of what's really going on.  All I see is that somebody suddeny drops like a rock on my emergency monitor, and I don't really have a way to say if that's somebody who really need a big heal, or if it's a lock who are life taping, and have full controll and can bandage himself and such...

I had some more thoughs in my mind that I would like to share, but they seem to have disappeared for now... I'll have to come back with more later :P
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Odesa on May 26, 2006, 10:40:29 AM
If a lock isn't allowed to use 'life tap', then a priest isn't allowed to use 'PW:shield'... 'Life tap' is an essential part of the locks skills and I really can't see a problem in locks lifetapping.

Locks usually don't need heals; they should be able to take care of themselves in combat (aggromanagement, 'life tap', bandages, 'drain life', 'siphon life') and healers know that when a lock's life is dropping, it's usually beacuse of 'life tap'.

Ofc a 'shield' and 'renew' is wasted once in a while, but is it something to complain about? Then healers should complain about warriors in 'beserker stance' and mages and rogues who can't control their aggro, too. They take up much more of the healers mana than lifetapping locks.

But maybe a 'lifetapping lock'-macro could warn the healers that lifetapping is going on.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: TeaLeaf on May 26, 2006, 10:54:53 AM
life tap and PW:shield are totally different and not comparable.  A lock does not get a warning and is not required to prioritise and do something when PW:shield goes up on a priest.  In fact, unless they hear the 'bubble' by standing next to them they would never know.

Locks usually need a fair degree of healing, so I would argue they *do* need heals (as evidenced by the regular calls on TS).

The macro idea is a good one and perhaps the locks and healers can organise a way of using it that doesn;t spam more people than necessary - or maybe just skip that user from the emergency monitor?

TL.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: lunares on May 26, 2006, 10:55:00 AM
The problem isnt lifetap during a fight. Then its rly needed.
But they also do it a lot after a fight and then a healer heals him. (i hate health bars dropping). Then first it took some time for a lock to life tap, then a healer heals him and basicly the fight starts with a healer with less mana (which normally isnt a problem, but when a mispull happens or a speedpull then every mana counts).

Lunares
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Bob on May 26, 2006, 10:55:35 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Odesa+May 26 2006, 11:40 AM-->
QUOTE(Odesa @ May 26 2006, 11:40 AM)
healers know that when a lock's life is dropping, it's usually beacuse of 'life tap'.[/b]
Just note what you said: usually... that's the problem - it usually is lifetap, but what about those times when a lock really is in deep shit and need a boost of healing to stay alive??

But I don't say that life tap should be avoided totally - not at all.  But the healers should get a notification about what's going on.
So what you wrote about that, that's a good idea :)
Title: Life Tap
Post by: TeaLeaf on May 26, 2006, 11:00:21 AM
Mmm, possible max number of channels problems are seen ahead.

Anyway, I misunderstood the lifetap issue, if it is before a fight starts then yes I can see your point Bob.

TL.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 26, 2006, 12:03:03 PM
well a macro will cause loads of spam imo and thx to a personal experience in MC as healer (RG2 w/ my pally) healers don't have much time to read chat or so then a big LOCK GOT AGGRO NOT LIFE TAPPING means he rly needs healings or another way is just to enable MT targets and c if a mob is targeting a lock

personaly i skip life tap every time i can cuz i won't annoy healers, i got improved life tap as talent that gives me 20% more mana than usual so less health needed to fill our mana bar (which is lower than health one, i have 7k hp and 6k mana) and i also got another talent to drain mana from pet which is slower than life tap but still useful when we still have more than 60% mana after a fight.

and when not in combat we don't need healings personaly i use life tap to delete some healt and using food + water i'll be back 100% sooner than only w/ water
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Gorion on May 26, 2006, 04:16:45 PM
a macro in the raid channel seems a solution..
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Vargen on May 27, 2006, 11:45:56 AM
Basically, if the big thing isn't targeting the locks, the locks are ignored. Sure I might throw on an instantheal or a small heal just because I didn't have anything better to do :P
I've played a lock, so I know how important lifetap is on the longer fights. I actually like it when locks lifetap so I have something to spend my mana on during a fight. But I think what most healers are annoyed about is when the fight is over and healers sit down to drink up as fast as they can. They really don't want to get up, heal a lock that was too lazy to use water OOC and then sit down and drink water yet again.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: lunares on May 27, 2006, 05:57:45 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Vargen@May 27 2006, 11:45 AM

 But I think what most healers are annoyed about is when the fight is over and healers sit down to drink up as fast as they can. They really don't want to get up, heal a lock that was too lazy to use water OOC and then sit down and drink water yet again.
[post=129125]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]

Thats what i hate indeed during a fight its needed and i am glad if they do it to help kill him. however say after a bossfight we are all OOM the healers drink some water to regain mana only to see the lock used his lifetap after the fight to regain full health(and they can also get some water from the mages) which means we heal them and we can drink again cause we dont want to start a fight with lower mana if its not needed. This takes more time and for some healers (at least for me it seems not needed).

Lunares
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 27, 2006, 06:54:44 PM
well i said many times i don't need healings OOC cuz i ask mages to have some food too but i keep getting healed.
lifetapping till mana and healt r at the same point makes the OOC restoring faster than drink only mana
and it's not true life tap is a plague for a raid as some healer says since w/o mana u loose locks DPS and u know, some locks can do a pretty ammount of DPS
btw i'd like to c some more ppl (expecialy the ones that talk about life tap) posting here and maybe another lock point maybe i'm wrong and this is only my point of view
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Neff on May 27, 2006, 09:05:44 PM
Well, if we locks dont use Life tap during a fight, we loose alot of dps, just like mages have Evocation.

But you couldnt have lost that much dps on trash mobs:P i have mana enough to do f.ex 2 Giants( first pull) maybe 1 or 2 lifetaps when i dont use Drain Soul.

Trash mobs = cool it down, no need for full mana pool or 50%hp on 'em

Bosses = Just do what we locks tend to do>:D
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Bob on May 28, 2006, 12:31:16 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Asheera@May 27 2006, 07:54 PM
well i said many times i don't need healings OOC cuz i ask mages to have some food too but i keep getting healed.
lifetapping till mana and healt r at the same point makes the OOC restoring faster than drink only mana
[post=129172]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]
This might be true, but you also need to wait for all the healers to get all their mana back OOC - and the raid leader doesn't (at least mostly) start anything before the healers are ready. Not to mention that most healers (afaik) have more mana than the locks, meaning we need longer time to drink up with mana than you do - so it won't hurt the raid if you take that time to do the same :)
Water is free (I love mages :D ), so drink anytime you've got some spare seconds during fight - if you drink a bit all the time (I have some times spent close to 80 bottles of water during MC), you'll reduce the need to take longer breaks from time to time 8)

I don't know how easy this is to understand, but at least I (and I know for shure some other healers as well) take their pride in keeping the raid as full on health as possible at all times - this to be ready for anything (unexpected) that might happen.

But that might just be the way I feel it ;)
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 28, 2006, 08:02:24 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Neff@May 27 2006, 08:05 PM
But you couldnt have lost that much dps on trash mobs:P i have mana enough to do f.ex 2 Giants( first pull) maybe 1 or 2 lifetaps when i dont use Drain Soul.
[post=129178]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]
that's why u go afk 2 times a fight :P

and what about bob said i got your point, u have more mana but also more mana reg/spi so prolly it will take the same time for both healers and locks
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Othbarty on May 28, 2006, 11:42:17 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Gorion+May 26 2006, 05:16 PM-->
QUOTE(Gorion @ May 26 2006, 05:16 PM)
a macro in the raid channel seems a solution..
[post=129022]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]

When i use Life Tap, i usually use it multiple times, and i have a shitloads of extra btns as it is. A macro in the raidchat would spam it like TANGO, and could cause that important messages to get spammed away. Maybe a /y?


QuoteOriginally posted by Vargen@May 27 2006, 12:45 PM
Basically, if the big thing isn't targeting the locks, the locks are ignored. Sure I might throw on an instantheal or a small heal just because I didn't have anything better to do :P
I've played a lock, so I know how important lifetap is on the longer fights. I actually like it when locks lifetap so I have something to spend my mana on during a fight. But I think what most healers are annoyed about is when the fight is over and healers sit down to drink up as fast as they can. They really don't want to get up, heal a lock that was too lazy to use water OOC and then sit down and drink water yet again.
[post=129125]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]


Title: Life Tap
Post by: StrontiumDog on May 28, 2006, 12:55:12 PM
Just my 2 cents, I use life tap a lot but never without the ability to heal myself. During combat I will use a heathstone/bandages/pots but my health will never be lower than 50% whilst I am doing this.

OOC I use water and food, apart from a dot there is no reason to heal any lock who is OOC.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Neff on May 28, 2006, 01:02:29 PM
Quotethat's why u go afk 2 times a fight
Yeah, me being afk must really burn when i still outdmg you, and not even overagroing omgomgoggomg.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 28, 2006, 01:41:40 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Neff@May 28 2006, 12:02 PM
Yeah, me being afk must really burn when i still outdmg you, and not even overagroing omgomgoggomg.
[post=129222]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]
keep dreaming neff
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Neff on May 28, 2006, 04:05:25 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Asheera@May 28 2006, 12:41 PM
keep dreaming neff
[post=129227]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]
im not, you obviously forgot the time in mc when you ended under me. i was nr.1 you 2 and someone else under us.

Quit dragging Afk into a topic where it has nada to do with it .
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 28, 2006, 04:16:00 PM
my hero ! /golfclap stop complaining and come back to topic plz
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Neff on May 28, 2006, 06:54:43 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Asheera@May 28 2006, 03:16 PM
my hero ! /golfclap stop complaining and come back to topic plz
[post=129248]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]

Well, i wasnt the one who started complaining, you was the one who started, but thats an 9year old argument.  I never started with something negative before you did.
Thing was that i dont loose that much dps ( or lost)and i have like 2k less mana then you? (you had 6k right?)

But i think we got enough views from healers  & locks so closing the thread would be apropriate.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Voretex on May 29, 2006, 12:38:48 PM
Yea i got fed up wth that a long time ago, thats why locks arent in my Emergency monitor :D
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Asheera on May 29, 2006, 04:20:30 PM
well completly delete the class from emergency monitor isn't the right thing to do but accordign to what i read on this topic + i also have talked w/ some healers about it in game the end of story is:

1) Locks will ask to mages to have some food too before the start of the raid
2) Healers r not supposed to heal lock OOC that uses life tap

a macro that sais Lock under attak or lock using LT it's only a spammy thing and healers don't have that much time to take care of chat too tho

if any1 have some other thing to say or just agree plz keep posting ;)
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Goreandor on May 30, 2006, 11:20:52 AM
Being a healer who is usually OOM on longish fights much before the end of the fight, I can understand most healers' points of view. As many have learned from experience, DPS during the fight is as important as healing. If a mob dies faster, then less healing is needed and less chance of someone dropping dead.

Life Tap is a great skill to use, especially for long fights if used in moderation. The Lock doesn't need to life tap till he is down to 20% health. As some have mentioned, most of the time healers don't have time to read any kind of chat during fights, especially if there's alot going on. If we see a health bar dropping dangerously low, we will heal. No healer likes to see health bars dropping, especially when in combat :D

If we're already running low on mana, the extra healing needed for a life tapping warlock, surely is an additional burden, unless we know he is life tapping and leave him be. However, I don't think there is a fool proof system that will work always due to the hectic nature of most raid encounters. If Locks life tap with moderation, I don't think it is such a big issue.

Having said that, once I was in group with a priest in ZF, and he had some kind of addon, that would throw a yell when he gained aggro and another yell when he no longer had it. Even though we may miss that single yell, it shouldn't spam if only locks use it and at least one of the healers will most probably see it.

Just my 2c. Might give a good idea to someone.
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Neff on May 30, 2006, 01:24:14 PM
So a very good answer could be to just restrain ourselves locks;) i usually life tap to 50/50 , or something in that range :-)
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Umbra on May 30, 2006, 01:27:35 PM
One of the replies from a lock here said it's faster to lifetap and bandage, than it is to drink water, but since what you're doing is converting healer mana to your mana, you surely have to wait for them to drink water again anyway?

Only limited experience with healers and locks, small parties etc, and maybe it comes from healers feeling they are expected to heal, but simply:

if you're not in combat AND it's not a speedrun, let them heal themselves. No-one is forcing you to heal them, and if it comes down to things going awry because they had no health, then it's something they have to sort out. Likewise, if you heal them and then a pull happens when you have low mana then that's something for leaders to sort. Don't heal them OOC AND complain, leave them to it. That's like doing someone elses dishes and then complaining they made you do it.

If it's in combat then it's a fair bet the lock has calculated that either, they don;t need the hp right now, OR, theyre going to die soon anyway so get off some high dps in a blaze of glory.

Having been on a few small raids with my priest, I know I only heal people ooc if I want to/HAVE to. If they then proceed to pull when healer mana is low then they get a slap or no combat healing.

However, maybe any lock who does Lifetap and then yells 'heal me' should get a slap too, maybe it should be influenced by officers, like innervate as basically it's similar but with pain involved (S&M locks)
Title: Life Tap
Post by: Goreandor on May 30, 2006, 02:10:37 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Neff@May 30 2006, 02:24 PM
So a very good answer could be to just restrain ourselves locks;) i usually life tap to 50/50 , or something in that range :-)
[post=129529]Quoted post[/post]
[/b]

Just as an example, instead of doing 4 life taps in a row, you could do 2 lifetaps - dps until oom - 2 life taps - dps until oom. This shouldn't restrain you anymore than doing 4 lifetaps in a row and then dps till oom. It also spreads out a bit your dps making it easier for tanks to control. In the meantime I may have also thrown a HoT on you for being such an understanding type :D

Even if you get ignored by healers, you might get aggro when you are low on health. Then you will get into trouble. I have seen plate wearers going from 100% to 15% or less health with one blow and druid heals take a very long time to cast :P  I have nothing against locks using life tap. In fact its not the first time i throw a Rejuv on a lock after a lifetap ooc if i'm on full mana. It only takes me 2/3 secs to get back to full again.

My point was simply to use it, not abuse it :) If this becomes a concern shared by many, we could try the aggro shout thing. We got nothing to loose just by trying. Ofc being relatively new to raids, i might be talking out of my TANGO :dummy: