Class Interview #8 - The Priest of Mitra

[B. de la Durantaye]

The truth is revealed about Priests of Mitra! Often referred to as perhaps the most "powerful" healers, Evan Michaels tells us the facts about the class. We learn a little about their offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as find out how their ability to control crowds affects their other abilities and how it all comes together on the PvP battle field.

While one may be inclined to presume that the Priest of Mitra may be the “good” healer—especially when compared to the Tempest of Set—this assumption wouldn’t be totally correct. At their core, Priests of Mitra are a bit on the vengeful and (perhaps overly) righteous side, using religious zeal as a source of power and strength. While a Priest is often portrayed as being “nice”, Priests of Mitra are often a bit more inclined to smite their enemies with Mitra’s wrath than try to sit down and have a friendly conversation. In the end, good and evil is fairly subjective and the holy vengeance of Mitra could probably be viewed as either one—depending on the beholder, of course.

• Read all about the Priest of Mitra in the newest Class Interview.

[Protect]

HAHA I swear everytime I read one of these I am like I want to play that class!!!! Well as an alt anyway, I have my mind set on Barbarian even though I feel other urges.

[Narrator]

I really like the idea of the class, extremely powerful heals, strong (perhaps strongest) CC-abilities, and less focused on raw damage.

However, I vividly remember a certain other MMO, where CC-abilities were constantly nerfed, until they were only shadows of their former selves. If this were to happen here, it would probably severely affect the Priest of Mitra (and not in a positive way!). Therefore, I will probably play some other class first, and see how Funcom handles class-balance-issues, before trying a PoM

[Cody Bye]

Originally Posted by Narrator

I really like the idea of the class, extremely powerful heals, strong (perhaps strongest) CC-abilities, and less focused on raw damage.

However, I vividly remember a certain other MMO, where CC-abilities were constantly nerfed, until they were only shadows of their former selves. If this were to happen here, it would probably severely affect the Priest of Mitra (and not in a positive way!). Therefore, I will probably play some other class first, and see how Funcom handles class-balance-issues, before trying a PoM

Which game in particular are you thinking of? I've known a couple CC-nerfing games in my day.

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by Narrator

I really like the idea of the class, extremely powerful heals, strong (perhaps strongest) CC-abilities, and less focused on raw damage.

However, I vividly remember a certain other MMO, where CC-abilities were constantly nerfed, until they were only shadows of their former selves. If this were to happen here, it would probably severely affect the Priest of Mitra (and not in a positive way!). Therefore, I will probably play some other class first, and see how Funcom handles class-balance-issues, before trying a PoM

WOW....you are so right in that regard. I can see the assassin nerf threads starting already...

[bvan00]

Originally Posted by Smilodon

WOW....you are so right in that regard. I can see the assassin nerf threads starting already...

If I thought it would help I would start the assassin nerf thread now

When a class gets nerfed all hell breaks lose but can you give an example of devs unnerfing a class because all the people who play that class start complaining.

When the Border Kingdoms come into play the classes with CC will be the most popular, and because of that people will go nuts When the assassins start killing the CCs people will go nuts again So dev will nerf them all and people will (you guessed it) go nuts Mean while I will be doing my drunken brawling laughing at everyone

[Longbow]

I haven't played DAOC's RvR PvP lately, but what I've read/heard is that it is a "mez/CC fest", those who's mez lands first, wins, kinda deal.

I absolutely abhor this style of "fighting" as removing control from a player's hands is a hideous way to do things. Personally, I'd be for removing all proactive CC effects from these games. I'd keep the ability to snare someone who's under 25% life, and perhaps a self-buff "stun" effect for the softer types that isn't fast recasting. That buff would be a buff on the person who cast it, and would fire off if someone hit them with an attack, stunning those enemies nearby for a couple seconds. No more. And give it a nice long recast, so it could only be used as an escape/emergency thing, not a "chain stun the crap out of people" effect.

[B. de la Durantaye]

Excellent points. I guess things remain to be seen. Everything is in the hands of Funcom and the testers now.

[Cunobelin]

Originally Posted by Protect

HAHA I swear everytime I read one of these I am like I want to play that class!!!! Well as an alt anyway, I have my mind set on Barbarian even though I feel other urges.

I know! The get the same thing. I still am going to go Ranger first, but the Priest of Mitra seems like it'll be challenging to play well.

[cirric]

Originally Posted by Cunobelin

I know! The get the same thing. I still am going to go Ranger first, but the Priest of Mitra seems like it'll be challenging to play well.

I'm think the same thing as well. Ranger first, then maybe PoM if it isnt nerfed into the ground.

The default size of the Priest of Mitra and all other Priest cone heals is a 120 degree cone, offset 60 degrees from the center of one’s character. This cone extends 6 meters from the caster, and targets must be in line of sight of the healer at the time the heal is cast. Provided these criteria are met, the heal will be applied to any friendly targets (even ones outside the group) within the area.

We feel that this method of healing is fairly unique to the MMO genre—where single-target healing is the norm—and contributes greatly to the action-oriented nature of combat. In most games, healers are typically forced into very passive role, which really is not an option for us with Age of Conan’s combat system. Executing healing in this manner provides a clear reason for Priests to get up in the fray and experience combat first-hand.

This method of healing is very similar to the way a Defender (and even some controllers) from CoH does it. They had AoE heals. It worked on every friendly target in the area. Nothing to new about it. But, I'll agree that it is a much more active way of healing and will keep the healers on their toes. No more hanging out at the back and hit 1 button over and over.