Healing Word

[boakham]

Can anybody explain to me what the point is of Healing Word being a close blast power when it will only target one ally?
Why not just have it as a ranged power?

 

[jodyjohnson]

You don't draw an Opportunity attack with a blast or burst.

Ranged powers do.

 

[abyssaldeath]

You don't draw an Opportunity attack with a blast or burst.

Ranged powers do.

You aren't quite right. You don't provoke with melee or close attacks. Only ranged and area attacks provoke. Burst or blast doesn't matter.

 

[ValhallaGH]

The point is that you can use it without getting stabbed/clawed/bitten/clobbered by monsters using an Opportunity Attack.
Obviously, that's useful.

One of the (many) subtleties to note when choosing / analyzing powers is how their range works and how that interacts with the Opportunity Attack rules. I can't count the number of times I've looked at a power and done this: "Oh! Nice, I'll be taking ... to hell with that, I'm a melee guy and that power will get me stabbed."

Good luck.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Does the blast work even if the ally is invisible?

 

[DracoSuave]

Does the blast work even if the ally is invisible?

Concealment, Total Concealment, Line of sight, and the Hidden status do not matter towards Area or Close attacks. These don't care, and can and will target an enemy you are unaware of in their areas of effect, IF they are of the 'Target: All Creatures' or 'Target: All Enemies' varieties.

If they are of the 'Target: One enemy' variety, then you need to know that they are in the area, but you do not need to know exactly where. Targeting a square to attack them only applies to Melee and Ranged powers.

And, so, yes, you can effect an invisible ally with a Close power.

One of the (many) subtleties to note when choosing / analyzing powers is how their range works and how that interacts with the Opportunity Attack rules. I can't count the number of times I've looked at a power and done this: "Oh! Nice, I'll be taking ... to hell with that, I'm a melee guy and that power will get me stabbed."

Again, remember, ONLY Area and Ranged powers or attacks provoke. It doesn't matter the shape of the area of effect. Only the attack type.

 

[Starfox]

Concealment, Total Concealment, Line of sight, and the Hidden status do not matter towards Area or Close attacks.

I've been wondering why these powers are not Melee 5 Instead of Close Burst 5, one creature in burst. This might be the reason why. A more likely reason is simply that Melee 5 is a very ugly way to describe something (even if it works perfectly well in the game).

 

[Jack99]

Can anybody explain to me what the point is of Healing Word being a close blast power ..

It's not, but as others have mentioned, close burst (and blast for that matter) do not provoke OA's.

 

[holywhitetrash]

i assume it is close burst 5 just so you don't have to worry about any random occurances that would stop you from healing

 

[DracoSuave]

I've been wondering why these powers are not Melee 5 Instead of Close Burst 5, one creature in burst. This might be the reason why. A more likely reason is simply that Melee 5 is a very ugly way to describe something (even if it works perfectly well in the game).

There's other reasons as well, the OA thing being the most obvious, but melee powers have LOS issues, as well as other niggling little things that wouldn't come up that often in play, but do enough that it's not worth the bother.

Also, Close burst 5 interacts with effects that trigger on things being in the area. So... let's say you have a Close burst 5 attack that attacks a single target in the area. (Rare, but it happens.) Feats that say 'Get a bonus if an ally is in the area of effect' actually benefit powers like this. (In the area of effect doesn't necessarily mean targetted by that power)

(They also work on Area blast X in X powers that Target: All Enemies for the same reason.)