Age of Conan

Ok,

while open PvP beta the healers have low ticking HoTs. How is their DPS and defence ? Will PvE be a ZzzzzZZ fest for the "defensive" healer classes ?

This has been answered alittle in another thread,As you know heals will be aoe or cone healing,so you will have to move and not stand at the back,also all healers have other function's in the group,take the PoM they have alot of CC also so you wont just be watching player bars and zzzzzzzz you will also be on the attack.

from the AoC forums, an example of "healer" class versitality:

In the Tier 3 of the Lightning Tree, the ToS have a 3 point feat called Faithful of Set. Casting Lightning Strike, Charged Blast and Storm Field increases the power of Healing Lotus and Life of Set, it can stack up to 5 times.

Healing Lotus and Life of Set is 2 of the main heal abilities the class gets.

In tier 1 of the Thunder tree, there is a 5 point feat called Growing Storm that when you use Lightning Strike, Charged Blast and Storm Field, reduces the mana cost of Life of Set, stacking up to 4 times.

A tier 5 talent in the Thunder tree is Storm Charge, and improves the life of set ability to inflict lightning damage on all enemies near all allied friends whom gets healed by life of set and empowers your next Lightning strike or melee attack to deal more damage.

Life of set can be further augmented by a tier 7 talent, triumphant life of set, adding more life and damage to the spell.

Finally vital shock is gotten in tier 8 of the thunder tree, and is a nuke that heals all allies around the target of the spell.

As you can see, the typical "sit in the back and chain heal" mindset that we've gotten used to in other games doesn't apply.

That's usually the main issue I had with playing healing classes.  You could rarely, if ever do onto others as they do onto you.  You'd always be in the back dodging arrows and spells while trying to keep your buddies alive.  I kind of like the fact that at least some of the healing is a byproduct of your doing damage.  I can live with this a lot easier since I'm very offense oriented.  This might be the first game where I will make a "healer" but even then I'll more then likely specialize in damage.