Warlord - I don't get it

[Kaffis]

The warlord should have been my favorite class. A smart leader who is tough and has martial skill? That should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, though, I hate the warlord. I can't stand the attack-something-to-buff-your-allies mechanic that pervades the class. As a result, what should have been my favorite class turned into one of my least favorite classes.

Oh well, at least I love the fighter.

Perhaps your definition of "leader" in "a smart leader who is tough and has martial skill" is different than I typically understand it to be.

Attack-something-to-buff-your-allies is very leaderly, in that your actions aid others in acting more effectively. That's leading.

I think the problem you're describing is that you are incorrectly assessing your desired character. You're looking for a kick-ass martially skilled character who happens to have a party that does what he says out of combat (or in combat, I suppose -- just using up their own resources and actions to do so). And that would be, indeed, a fighter with a party of henchmen.

 

[Mirtek]

You're thinking a bit too much in 1-3E terms if you worry too much about a 'primary healer'.

A cleric does offer some extra healing, but not a lot. Almost all of their powers that heal expend the target's healing surges. The cleric no longer adds huge numbers of hit points to the group's total.

As far as the single encounter is concerned he does add a huge number of hp to the groups total.

From what I get from all the different PHB Light Pretests and KotS reports it does make a huge difference whether you have a healer or not. Because whether you access one healing surge per encounter or 3 healing surges per encounter is a vital advantage.

If won't help you with how many healing surges you have per day, but your daily total doesn't help you when you're dying with 8 unspend healing surges left becuase you can not access them

 

[Kaffis]

It literally took about 2 years before people in general got around to accepting that preventing damage in the first place was just as effective (if not moreso) than healing it after the fact. I see the same arguments coming up here about the warlord in 4e. I suspect that we may eventually learn that his way of helping the party is at least as effective as playing 'the healer'.

And even still, many empaths downright ignore their non-healing powers that are arguably more awesome than the heals. Empaths who go "huh?" when your blaster asks for fortitude are a crime.

 

[Kaffis]

As far as the single encounter is concerned he does add a huge number of hp to the groups total.

From what I get from all the different PHB Light Pretests and KotS reports it does make a huge difference whether you have a healer or not. Because whether you access one healing surge per encounter or 3 healing surges per encounter is a vital advantage.

If won't help you with how many healing surges you have per day, but your daily total doesn't help you when you're dying with 8 unspend healing surges left becuase you can not access them

Well, keep in mind, in a group of 5, it's 5 healing surges vs. 7.

If your defender is playing his part enthusiastically, then yes, for him it's 1 vs. 3.

But in a leader-less group, I think it behooves the defenders to *not* mark targets initially, and only begin marking once the strikers and controllers take a hit or two (spreading the damage around so the defenders don't have to take it all), and then, if you have multiple defenders, use marks wisely to spread the damage between you.

 

[Kez Darksun]

It may be that I am taking the Leader role to be one of primarily healing the party instead of it being a role that CAN heal, but may not necessarily be the particular classes primary function. Also, as I have said before, I haven't had a chance yet to try the classes out in actual play, so I don't have a feel for how much healing tends to be needed in an encounter.

After reading through the replies, and thinking about it a bit more, it finally struck me what the Warlord reminded me of. The Captain class from Lord of the Rings Online. While that class can heal, its main focus is helping to make the group better through inspiring the group or demoralizing the enemy. I'd always liked that class idea, so now that I have a better frame of reference for the Warlord and not just fixated on the idea of healing as the be all and end all of the Leader role, I think I'm ready to take another look at the Warlord with more enthusiasm.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

I want my druids and bards back. >_< Warlord and warlock should have been shafted for the first release and put out later via DDI and the PHB2.