The Apoths are normally called in after the fighting is done to help recover the gene seed of fallen battle brothers. Yes they can fight but they are very vital to a chapter and would not be thrown out to be chewed up in a meat grinder with the rest of the tactical cannon fodder if it can be avoided. But this is a video game and every race gets a healing class so guess what the Apoth gets to do. Apoths are one of the strongest healers in EC currently and the only one with good killing power at range. I will give this post a bit more time but it is probably not long for this world as the thread is not being honest about game play mechanics of the class and is a bait thread to see what responses you get.
I didn't open this as a "bait thread" I stated that in my opinion I feel they are squishy and wanted to see what others think bit instead I've gotten 3 maybe 4 responses like that while the rest have been people being volatile towards this. In retro spec yes probably could've named the thread just "let's talk about the apothecary" but I was a bit heated that my favorite class has turned into a stay in cover, shoot Bolter, hope people don't come in for melee.
I laugh at the fact nobody wants to mention the fact that 2/3 Apothecary variants are melee. Chainsword and Wolf Priest. The iconic Apothecary or Wolf Priest with melee weapon in hand are a joke still. Mauls and Axes are currently obsolete due to slow attack speeds and a death wish if you equip one, so the Wolf Priest is a non factor for the most part. So are Sorcs and Warlocks IMO. That's mostly due to the fact the melee is utterly broken at its core, but also due to the fact MELEE supports have such crap durability still. As a support/Apothecary if you take the Bolter you should really not have many durability options. If you go melee your Support should be much more durable, as in ALL supports for ALL factions should be way more durable and defensive by nature, but still able to function in melee when forced into a fight. Please let's not screw over Loyalist Supports because the Bolter is so horribly OP on a Apothecary compared to how meek and broken ALL melee Supports are right now.
i have no problems with melee as apothecary and i probably run into durability issues 1/10 fights, i get dbashed a lot more than i run out of durability
Not to mention that technically apos and wolf priests have two melee weapons potentially. I mean if you break your mace (which honestly isn't happening now that fists are what they are) you can just swap to pistol narth and have a fresh new melee weapon to fight with. I feel like is a very overlooked bonus to apo.
Okay as njord states we should not lump all apothicary together. Which I agree with so let's look at the apoth Currently the bolter apoth is dominant, massively. But as I remember in early alpha were everyone ran a sea of apothicary, did they not lower the strength of the apothicary bolter, I seem to remember them doing that and have they since raised it back to normal, this may be for some one to find out as I currently can't. Standard apoth melee not as commonly seen admittedly, the only issue with this is that it has two melee weapons and a pistol, the narth gives poison the chainsword just general. But honestly the melee apoth is not bad and enjoyable to play and fight against. Wolf priest now this guy has if you noticed reduced in number, partly as its so much easier to have bolter apoth. But they also have other negative traits. They have a mace which is slow and cubersome I have many times beaten wolfie cos of the mace being slow. Also the variations available to this model is hugely reduced which needs more help. They have the option to set you on fire and poison you which is just a poor way to die but provides some much needed help to the character. Overall the big issue is with bolter apoth, there are niggles but most of us have learnt to adapt to them. And finally in regards to lore apoth never has have a heal grenade, so you can't compare lore to a game as we have tried playing the game without the nad and it was hell for any apoth player no one wants those days back again.
Apothecaries have the best killing power but I wouldn't say they are the best healers, and they only have a high killing power when. Using the Bolter. While melee can be used effectively as stated by others in this thread by buffing and or dropping a healing grenade into the combat area but personally I don't think that I should have to use my group heal grenades for only myself to be good on melee.
