Crap.. I’m a healer!

Who would have thought? For as long as I can remember my sole purpose in fantasy games was to bash things with large blunt weapons. I’m not supposed to be the guy in robes with the staff who bandages the wounded warriors. It’s so lame.. or so I thought.

After playing round after round of scenario matches in Warhammer Online, and being constantly pummeled by the teams with the talented healers, I decided to give the Rune Priest a try. Yeah they are fat little dwarfs but they are supposed to be some of the best healers in the game and if I’m going the healer route I may as well go all out.

After jumping in and getting Megabeard (Bigbeard was already taken) up to level 9, I started to really get a feel for the role of the healer. Standing behind the main force in the battlefield and picking targets to keep alive is not as easy as it would seem. It’s a much more engaging role than that of the common warrior. Sometimes I have to choose who lives and who dies as I cannot heal everyone at once and in this respect the healer has much more command on the battlefield than any other class.

No longer do I feel like my presence on the battlefield is a mere damage statistic. As the healer I have swayed the battle in our favor. Sometimes focus healing on someone keeps them alive long enough to wreak havoc in the enemy ranks or hold out until reinforcements can arrive.

Knowing when to run and when to face the enemy has been a fun experience as well. If played correctly the Rune Priest can tank a lot of damage. Some classes I am able to tank indefinitely while witling down their health with my small assortment of burning spells.

I am winning many more scenario battles than when I played the Choppa and even the battles we lose I am still getting decent experience points for all the healing. I am far less dependent on gear than warrior classes, and everyone wants you in their group when doing public quests. This is great for someone who is pretty much exclusively into the pick up group (PUG) play style.