You Don’t Have to be Bored Playing a Healer
stargrace 
Yes, that’s my rogue, and yes, she is a halfling riding a giant ant.
In almost all MMOs the first ‘trinity’ type character I make is a healer. You know, the holy trinity? Healer, tank, dps? Right. That one. Well I’m most comfortable playing healers, so that’s what I stick with at least the first time around. Healers are pretty boring. You spend all of your time watching other peoples health bars and making sure you’re not stepping on something you shouldn’t be. It’s rare that you get to move from that role, even when EQ2 added dps stances through alternate advancement it was still pretty boring.
Vanguard took a different approach to healing; at least for two of its classes. I can’t confirm on the other two because I don’t play them. First, the blood mage. This is my main character and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The blood mage is a cloth wearing healer who acts more like a necromancer then a healer. That is to say that unless you’re doing damage to the mob, you’re not doing a lot of healing. Your heals are tied directly to your nukes. The more damage you’re doing, the more you’re healing. This presents some good things and some bad. One bad would be that if the mob is too high level for you chances are you’re being resisted and there for having a difficult time healing. On the plus side, you’re having a lot of fun ganking agro from your tank with your uber dps, and it makes things a lot more fun in the long run. Blood mages are also the only healer class who gets counter, which is a reaction that can cancel the mobs spell casting. An amazing thing when you’re fighting mobs that silence, stun, or heal. Blood mages also create hand crafted items called symbiots (may have spelled that wrong). These little creatures are created from live body parts that you rip out of mobs, a different body part depending on which dot you’ve placed on it. They’re used to create ‘attachments’ to players with a timer. Basically a temporary buff. There are a lot of them and they’re all useful. Some are hastes, some give levitate, some allow you to cast spells with reduced energy (mana) consumption. Not only that, but blood mages have a huge amount of buffs, at level 47 I’ve got at least 10. The down sides, being cloth, they’re squishy.
Then there’s the disciple. This is a monk healer class. They get feign death, and stuns and do their healing through dps combos on the mob. Again if you’re getting resisted a lot you may find yourself having a hard time healing but it’s a lot of fun to play. That doesn’t mean that you’re not still watching health bars, but at least you’re also doing something else at the same time.
I love Vanguards approach to healer classes. It’s nice to know there’s more for me to do, and that I’m not restricted to dps OR healing, that they’re both tied together. What game has your favorite class? Is this something that would appeal to you?
Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!