Healing Blast vs. Healing Sphere

This is a question that has been kind of niggling in the back of my head for awhile now:

Why does Healing Sphere cost 9 adrenaline for 10 healing (per second), when the Healing Blast costs 50 adrenaline for 50-400 healing?

I mean, comparatively:
-Healing Blast does a minimum ratio of 1:1 [adren:healing], and a maximum of 1:8.
-Healing Blast has a radius of 2200
-Healing Blast has a 2 second delay before activating
-Healing Sphere does a ratio of 1:1.1
-Healing Sphere heals a radius of 900 [default]
-Healing Sphere doesn't have falloff the further away from the center you are
-Healing Sphere does not have a delay when activating

Although the Sphere does have some good points, namely, that it doesn't have falloff, and that it doesn't have a delay, on all other points it seems noticeably inferior to the Blast. I'm just curious what the rationale is for this particular state of affairs. Is it because Sphere is passive (and thus provides a measure of spike damage protection that the Blast can't due to the delay and its nonpersistent nature)?

I don't use the sphere because of the adren:hp ratio, but I think that there is also the advantage of the sphere not being blocked by pillars and other obstacles (I think I have observed this, but am not sure)

I'm starting to use sphere a little more now when lower level characters are on.
I find blast is better (you'll see me do a run by and heal blast a group and keep going) but with lower levels it doesn't actually heal a lot so the sphere can be more usefull.
and the range does help have you ever had someone run by with 50hp only to miss them with the blast and waste the 50 adren because they ran around a corner

No real answer. I did the sphere first. Later I did the blast.

I think on balance I made the sphere a touch too weak and the blast a touch too strong - an instant recovery boost should not be quite as adrenaline efficient as a slow drain artifact.

However, people would not want me to make the adjustments - they are happy with the blast as it is and would not want it reduced in power. And to improve the sphere to be even better than the blast is not going to help matters.

So, it will probably stay as it is.

However, if you are running your own server, both are configurable in the UT2004RPG.ini file.

Szlat wrote:

However, if you are running your own server, both are configurable in the UT2004RPG.ini file.

Not until it is released

greg11 wrote:

Szlat wrote:

However, if you are running your own server, both are configurable in the UT2004RPG.ini file.

Not until it is released

Officially, correct. However, Wail knows how to find the config variables in the code and add them to the RPG file.

Szlat wrote:

No real answer. I did the sphere first. Later I did the blast.

I think on balance I made the sphere a touch too weak and the blast a touch too strong - an instant recovery boost should not be quite as adrenaline efficient as a slow drain artifact.

However, people would not want me to make the adjustments - they are happy with the blast as it is and would not want it reduced in power. And to improve the sphere to be even better than the blast is not going to help matters.

So, it will probably stay as it is.

However, if you are running your own server, both are configurable in the UT2004RPG.ini file.

Cool, just curious if there was any particular balancing rationale behind that status quo. I'll probably end up tweaking the values slightly in either direction so I feel like there's more parity between the two artifacts.

Though I rarely use the sphere any more, there are a couple other differences I'd like to point out.
The sphere is always centered around the caster, while the blast can sometimes inadvertently be activated at some distance.
The sphere is highly noticeable from a distance giving that visual cue to others that there is an active medic in that area willing and able to heal teammates.
The sphere can be left on until adren runs out, or shut off when no longer needed.
The sphere looks really cool at endgame when your character is frozen in midair.

I think that it would be good to be able to purchase upgrades to the sphere making it a more useful artifact. It would be logical to do this for all class specific artifacts (as are already available with monster health and monster intelligence for medics). If that meant that the blast would have to be weakened in order to make room for upgrades, I would be fine with that, but then I have points to spare so perhaps I am not the one to ask.

Artifact upgrading would also make it so non-class artifacts (like a medic picking up a lightning rod) would work at some reduced level but could not reach the effectiveness of the AM. I love the lightning rod when I can find one, but sometimes I feel just a tad guilty running around with the thing zapping everything in sight when I'm a medic - but then I get over it.

cribbage wrote:

The sphere is highly noticeable from a distance giving that visual cue to others that there is an active medic in that area willing and able to heal teammates.

This is actually my favorite aspect of the sphere. I hadn't really expected the dynamics of it before bringing it over to Monster Mash, so it was a pleasant surprise to see in practice. It's kind of interesting to see something like that because it's a social dynamic that the blast doesn't have (the blast seems like incidental healing almost all the time). Because it's such a cool team tool for that reason it made me wonder whether there was a major rationale between the apparent power differential between the sphere and the blast.

I wouldn't mind the spheres so much if I could see what I am doing while they run. the flashing colors make it really hard to shoot ANYTHING with the curtain of blue or purple or white in the way

I also play a medic primarily and I think an adjustment is in order.

I think that the blast could be improved as in removing the delay because while I’m in a battle I want it to activate instantly so I can stay alive but at the moment I see a lot of medics die from the delay. Also I think this would be a good idea because when people run past with low heath then it would heal them and not waste all of your adrenaline. It is just a thought
though.

Removing the delay would tend to make the blast better I agree. There is an argument that the 2 second delay allows people to see the emitter and run to it, but in practice I think that is rare.

However, removing the delay might make it too powerful. The delay does at least mean the medic has to be thinking ahead. And if the delay was removed, there would be even more imbalance between the blast and the sphere.

So, given that high level medics are already pretty difficult to kill, I can't justify making them even more powerful.

As for people running past a medic, I think they need to learn. Medics shouldn't be chasing after people trying to heal them, nor firing blasts on the off chance that the running player stops. Save it for the people polite enough to stay. Shoot them with a healing weapon, and they will get a message that you are healing them. If they want healing they will stop. Then blast them.

Szlat wrote:

The delay does at least mean the medic has to be thinking ahead.

Right. The two second delay actually can be pretty handy when you are surrounded by monsters and you know that you'll be receiving a good pounding in the next couple of secs.

On reflection, I think it will not hurt to up the healing sphere to 15 health given per sec instead of 10, and reduce the cost from 9 to 7.

At the moment the return back from the blast far exceeds the sphere. With this change, running a sphere for 7 seconds will give everyone in the sphere 105 health. A blast for the same cost will typically heal the same people between 100 and 300. So we are not giving more points to medics, just increasing their options. But it may encourage other players to throw their adrenaline at the medic to keep the sphere running.

Similarly, I think the damage sphere could come down from 12 per sec to 10 per sec. A damage sphere will not stop players getting killed, but can get them out of a tight situation.