Okay, so skillshot heals are a "probably not". How about channeled heals?

darkdill·Jan 12, 2016·2 votes·970 views

Was starting up a replay of SC2 Wings of Liberty, and thought to myself "League presently doesn't have any channel-type healers outside of ", though Janna's ult is not really meant to be used for patch jobs because of its long cooldown and reliance on AP to have real potency.

Besides, I was more thinking along the lines of the above Heroes of the Storm character, Lt. Morales. She has a channeled heal that she can keep going on an ally even while moving, though it's not strong enough to keep an ally alive if they're focused in a team fight, and she has to stay close to said ally to keep the channel from breaking.

While Riot might say "Soraka does this well enough", burst heals are different from channeled heals. A long time ago, Riot said that heal-ally-over-time effects were bad gameplay, but is that still the current opinion?

22 Comments

Aeolian MelodiesJan 12, 20163 votes

Janna

darkdillJan 12, 20163 votes

Already mentioned her in the post. Is reading too hard?

Aeolian MelodiesJan 12, 20161 votes

I would assume that the ability does not exist outside of her ult because it's hard to make a channeled ability that isn't a ult balanced.

LongHair FoxJan 12, 20162 votes

The problem with such heals are that they are relatively low gameplay. There is not much an opponent can do if you back out behind a tower and begin the channel. Potentially you could give it high mana cost or very low healing rate but that sort of thing typically will not feel as impactful as it actually is.

In short: good idea, but it is hard to make it in a way that creates decision making, interesting gameplay and feels good to use and playing against.

darkdillJan 12, 20162 votes

One way it could work is that it has a continuous mana cost (costs mana for each second you channel), and that its healing is stronger if your ally is wounded and/or in combat.

LongHair FoxJan 12, 20161 votes

In combat could work if you limit it to enemy champions but then the healing has to be quite strong for the user and recipient to feel the impact. Similar skills are fiddle drain and mundo heal which both heal for rediculous amounts. A weaker heal over time might result in lackluster gameplay.

On the mana side it might work but then you need to keep the support from rushing grail or something similar to have infinite mana.

LazerFruitJan 12, 20161 votes

if the heal was balanced it could deffinatly work, the problem would be not making it the supports main fuctions, as soraka already has that

XicashinaJan 12, 20161 votes

Fiddlesticks kappa

darkdillJan 12, 20161 votes

Doesn't heal teammates.

XicashinaJan 12, 20163 votes

Its called using bond of stone Kappa

darkdillJan 12, 20162 votes

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/37287023.jpg

IcyPepperJan 13, 20161 votes

kappa

Might want to google that.

Lovely PantsJan 12, 20161 votes

I think that's much more workable space. Not sure what the context of whatever statements Riot has said about healing over time would have been, but basically any conversation around healing is going to trend towards how you make the ability work better in combat than out of combat.

Actually, a recent example of healing over time which Riot has implemented is Tahm Kench's Thick Skin passive. While Tahm himself may be viewed currently as a fairly frustrating champion, the ability combines a couple of elements to make the healing combat oriented while giving some impactful decisions to both players. They seem keen on repeating this kind of interaction on things like Death's Dance which was recently introduced.

I could see something like a variation on the pattern on a channeled ally heal while adhering to Riot's principles on sustain. Could consider something like "Heals an ally X amount of damage taken in the last Y seconds"

LF AnnieJan 12, 20161 votes

i think it would be a cool mechanic to have a champ that attaches to other champs and heals them but like self suppresses during the duration as the ultimate. think mundo lvl heal over time.

Dominick DestineJan 12, 20161 votes

Janna

Fashion MageJan 12, 20161 votes

Passive sustain-y HoTs are most likely still considered as bad design (and I agree), although if a channeled heal could be pulled off in an interesting and well-designed manner then I wouldn't be opposed to it.

QuephaJan 12, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fashion Mage,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=P4uWAtJL,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2016-01-12T07:50:24.926+0000)

Passive sustain-y HoTs are most likely still considered as bad design (and I agree), although if a channeled heal could be pulled off in an interesting and well-designed manner then I wouldn't be opposed to it.

I can't imagine how it could be implemented in such a way where you'd actually want to use it in battle instead of just under turret between waves to keep your adc up and farming.

Aeolian MelodiesJan 13, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I can't imagine how it could be implemented in such a way where you'd actually want to use it in battle instead of just under turret between waves to keep your adc up and farming.

That's the thing. On Janna it's her ult so it has a long CD, plus it's her strongest disengage spell. If something similar was on a normal ability I don't know how you'd encourage players to use it in combat (where they can be CC'd and stuff) instead of "back off a bit, press button, enjoy".

MiraweaveJan 13, 20161 votes

The best way to encourage using them in combat is to have a fairly small heal coupled with damage reduction.

LRay The FallenJan 13, 20161 votes

I remember when ezreals w healed. Thats the only skillshot heal there ever was.

QuephaJan 13, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=kaos x Tempest,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=P4uWAtJL,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2016-01-13T02:35:00.646+0000)

I remember when ezreals w healed. Thats the only skillshot heal there ever was.

I guess old Karma's was the same.

darkdillJan 13, 20161 votes

Well, she had to use Mantra to get access to it.