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Home >> Articles >> Others >> Temp. >> Levels and Healing

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Levels and Healing

For the record, here is my explanation for the level cap, speaking as a cleric.
Obviously, the higher a tank levels, the more hp/ac/atk/resists he has. Also, and more importantly, the LESS agro he has. This agro, unfortunately, cannot be measured, but it is there. That's why level 60 is such a huge bonus... a level 60 has much less agro (relative to MA for instance) than a level 59. Innate resistance goes up a lot above level 55, too... that's why 55 is such a big deal in ToV (among other reasons)... 55+ chars resist aoe's a lot more than 54-. Also, the agro radius is much smaller for 55+. We discovered that in PoF, if a char under level 55 zones in at full spawn, they will get double number of mobs agroed on them instantly. Of course, that does not apply to a single mob encounter. Anyway...
A level 55 tank will take less dmg due to AC, last longer under that damage due to HP, hit harder due to atk, take less aoe dmg (if applicable) due to innate resistance, get resisted less on casting (if applicable), and he will get less agro compared to the MA. The overall effect is twofold... first, it will take less of my mana to keep this guy alive, meaning I can keep someone else alive, too, or keep this guy alive longer. I would say, offhand, that a level 55+ tank is going to take half to two-thirds the mana to heal that a 54- does, in an uber-mob encounter (the revamped CT and Inny definitely count as uber). So, in the best cast, I can keep 2 level 55+ tanks alive for the same mana as a 54-. In the worst case, I can keep a 55+ tank and a non-tank melee (monk, warrior, rogue) for the same mana as 1 level 54- tank. The second major overall effect is that the MA will keep agro better. The most efficient way to fight any mob (in theory) is to have only one person take dmg, and to keep that person alive as long as possible, using the most efficient means possible. Obviously, this means that we use our biggest tank and we CH him. This system works beautifully, as long as the MA has agro. If he loses agro for even one round, we lose the efficiency of our healing system, because we have to use a lesser heal on someone else. That's why clerics in the CH rotation heal no one but the MA. So, if you put someone in the raid who catches more agro relative to the MA, you decrease the overall healing efficiency of the raiding group.
Summary... 54- tanks take up to 150% the mana to heal that 55+ do on an individual basis, and can reduce raid efficiency by getting more agro relative to the MA than a 55+ tank.
Note: this is only from the perspective of a cleric. There are other reasons, primarily lag, but I am best qualified to speak from my own point of view.
Also: the things I mentioned can be worked around. As someone said, you can set up a group just for the 54- and let them work on their own. That's fine from my point of view, but recall that lag is also an issue.
I'm sorry if this post doesn't make sense. I'm trying to put it as plainly as I can, but I've never claimed to be a great teacher or anything. I'm just a cleric who's completely obsessive about his mana pool. :-)

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Added on:

October 07 2002

Author/Source:

Sovran Specific

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n/a

Posted by:

sovran