I honestly can't believe you are trying to argue that the apo is stronger than the sorcerer. And you call me deluded. Clearly the apo is missing key items and a niche. He is, without doubt, the worst support class. Yes ROF is too strong right now but that doesn't make the entire class strong. The reason people prefer to play them than the tactical says more about how awful the tactical is than how good the apo is.
2 secs of standing still (IF the narthecium decided it's one of those special days when it actually targets the dying marine at your feet) in a game with an average 1,25sec ttk is a lot, by the way. Any support minded apo/wp would switch to ranged healing beam in a heartbeat if he could.
Sorry, but I'm playing a Sorcerer as well... and that is really easy in terms of healing and chosing fights... Fun thing is, you are just saying: "Very strong support class is being good at melee, having a bolter for ranged" and that's it... no explanation - nothing... So... what makes him "good" at melee is the DoT on the Nath... nothing more - nothing less... just WOW! On clangs the Apo will lose nearly every engagment... The Bolter is okayish but it's still hard to hit (I'm talking about aimed fire) with it due to lag/netcode/server problem... sometimes your enemies are "hoping" "If you can't figure out how to stand behind cover to heal, then I don't know what to tell you." Tell you something: Maybe that's news to you but most downs occure in the open or in melee brawls... wish I had a power were I could hide behind cover and heal guys in the open or in brawls... oh wait, the eldar and csm have something like that, surprise... Once again: the full self-heal needs 3 seconds to be applied upon yourself... so you need to be in a save place.... far away from a melee enemy... so there is no difference to the other support classes... but they can also move while healing (except the painboy). just to be clear, I'm fine with the standard Apo as it is... but saying that it is a very strong support class is a bit over the top...
I'm not saying it's overpowered, I'm saying it's a very strong class. Two fast attacks from a narthecium with poison DoT is a guaranteed kill, a bolter for range is better than the sorc gets, I don't know what you expect for an explanation besides it's a bolter. It's really not hard to hit with it, if you're going to say it's bad because of lag then everything falls under that honestly. I have watched apoths rez people mid-fight, with melee going on all around them. If they heal themselves first, they have a HoT to protect themselves from being hit while they do it. It is not hard to do, you're making it out into this instant death sentence and it's simply not.
I did't say the bolter is bad but the server problems make it hard to use. And besides that: melee is ruling the game (because map layouts, lock on and so on)... so ranged is some kind of meh... yeah, regarding the two fast attacks and the guaranteed kill you are right... as long as there is no life steal or healing involved... and considering you get those two hits through... Just a quick game of numbers: 3 secs to apply self-heal... 1-2 secs to get to your downed mate... 2-4 secs to rezz him (he has to hold still, you have to aim at him correctly to apply the healing) makes 6-9 secs to heal one fallen mate... all follow ups would be between 3-6 secs... the HoT isn't giving you the "I'm frank the tank"-time... you will go down by two melee hits... maybe you can take 2-3 more bolter shots... but that's it. Yeah, I'm also running into the crowd/open and do heroic stuff... but you said "If you can't figure out how to stand behind cover to heal, then I don't know what to tell you." besides: I don't making it out into an instant death sentence. I'm explaining the situation... putting "the very strong support class" of yours in the bigger picture and comparing it to the other support classes... because: if you are saying something is very strong... there also has to be something weaker than that... and I like to know what you are comparing the standard Apo to, to understand where the "very strong support class" part comes from...
meh MoK is inferior to the MoS so unfortunately i wouldnt know i've lost loads of 1v1's due to burning to death. not to actual loss vs my enemy
If you need to apply the HoT to yourself - yes... if you don't need to - it's 3-6 seconds... as I explained above... but you're obviously just reading 1-2 sentences out of the whole post... but hey, your rules apply here: play it from the other side... grab a standard Apo and see for yourself
I have. Your grossly exaggerated estimate would only even apply to the first rez target, anyone nearby is back up in 3 seconds or less at full health and with an HoT as well. And don't even pretend apothecaries are rare to see, there's usually pairs or even groups of them running around chain rezzing each other.
I referred to the tactic of zerging the point and turning it into the moshpit by CSM noobs, not the Mark they got equipped. Then, when in duel and without 5 friends to back them, they drop like eldar. But yeah, DoT needs to go or be tuned down heavily on all weapons, including that cheese Failbaddon auto cannon.
