Warlord: Knight's Move vs. Aid the Injured

[Nail]

How is Aid the Injured anywhere near as good as Cure Light Wounds, let alone better? CLW doesn't use up their surge, ATI does. Apart from ATI being able to heal any creature instead of just you or an ally, that;s the only difference. Do you really find yourself wanting to heal enemies often enough that it matters?

Like I said: I'll bet his opinion is based on ATI being an encounter and CLW being a Daily. The additional flexibility of ATI is important....but I, too, would rather CLW's "as if..." power to bring back someone with no Healing Surges left.

 

[James McMurray]

Wow. I never noticed that ATI was an encounter power. Doh! That definitely puts them closer to equal footing IMO.

 

[keterys]

And poor Shake It Off gets no love.

 

[Nail]

Wow. I never noticed that ATI was an encounter power. Doh! That definitely puts them closer to equal footing IMO.

Yep.

...as I look over utility powers, I note that many are Daily. Daily utility powers suck, IMO. They require lots of guesswork ("Is this encounter the time to use it?" and "How many more encounters are we likely to do today?") in a way that's different from Attack power Dailies. For an Attack power Daily, you save it for the boss fight. If there's no Boss fight, no big deal, 'cause you pro'ly didn't need it anyway. Utilities are used differently than that.

So At-Wills and Encounter utility powers are my choice......usually. Usually, the added power of a Daily doesn't off-set the lack of flexibility, compared to an encounter power.

Usually.

 

[Nail]

And poor Shake It Off gets no love.

My PC = Taclord

...so no, no love for SIO.

 

[keterys]

My PC = Taclord

...so no, no love for SIO.

Ah, yeah, fair. My inspiring warlord is for LFR, where I tend to assume... very little... about my party, so I felt that inspiring would be a lot safer. Accordingly SIO looks pretty nice. Especially if I get high enough level that I can start guaranteeing saves and giving people a solid chance to jump back up from death saves

 

[cmbarona]

And poor Shake It Off gets no love.

Not surprisingly. The Inspired Recovery feat tends to do the job when they really need that saving throw, and Heal checks can help dole out saving throws anyway. Aid the Injured is also great for cases where Second Wind has already been used; assisted saving throws have no similar once-per-encounter limitation. Plus, saving throws are much more situational, whereas damage occurs in every fight (okay, I'm sure someone will point out a monster I'm unaware of that does no damage, but I'm sure the exceptions are few and far between). Comparing the two powers, Aid the Injured will see much more use and is therefore a more reliable choice.

Edit: Keterys, you ninja! Anyway, if saving people from death is a concern, you might notice that Aid the Injured would do this automatically, whereas Shake It Off would only offer an increased chance of it.

 

[keterys]

Heal checks can help dole out saving throws anyway. Aid the Injured is also great for cases where Second Wind has already been used;

Meh, standard action cost is significant. I like Knight's Move and Shake it Off better because I'm more likely to have the actions spare.

whereas damage occurs in every fight

Has to be enough damage that you exhaust all of your other healing outlets and need to heal more than you need to spend a standard action, say, killing the thing dealing damage earlier.

I think Knight's Move will generally be the most useful power, Shake It Off will make a difference occasionally if you've got Charisma, and ATI will help if you're _seriously_ starved for healing, fight a lot of elites and solos, and can't easily get healing potions.

I think of the four groups I play or DM for, only one would have used ATI ever, in any battle. The same group that burns through healing potions like candy and has fought a lot more solos and elites.

 

[Mengu]

For me Aid the Injured and Shake it Off are plain boring. Knights Move is a much more interesting power.

• It will let the wizard quaff that potion he didn't get to drink last turn, but happens to have in his hand.
• It will let the rogue tumble into position so you can Hammer and Anvil a target.
• It will let a Dragonborn use its Breath.
• It will let a grabbed ally to make an escape check before their turn.
• It will allow a dazed and engaged wizard or warlock to shift before their turn.
• It can allow a fighter or two weapon ranger to draw his weapons in a surprise round.
• It can be used to trigger a number of magic items before a characters turn when ongoing effects deal damage (such as Amulet of False Life).

There are also a good number of minor and move powers that can be useful before your turn. For instance giving the rogue a move to use Fleeting Ghost to stealth before his turn will always be appreciated.

That kind of flexibility is hard to pass up for Aid the Injured or Shake it Off.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I prefer Knight's Move, but I'm not the sole party healer. Aid the Injured is unimpressive, yes, you get to use it every encounter, but it's hardlly different from using a heal check to activate a second wind - reallly, it's like getting to do that a second time 1/encounter. Not as good as provoiding a save, with a bonus, out of turn, nor as much fun and tactically flexibible as Knight's Move, but, as a sole party healer, you should probably take it, and Stand the Fallen, and Inspiring Reaction... oh, and the Cleric Multiclass feat.

With a single healer, the problem tends to be allies getting dropped durring the encounter. When you have two or more healers (my part has a warlord, cleric & paladin), you don't have so much trouble keeping allies on thier feet, the problem comes when one guy runs completely out of surges before the rest of the party, bringing your adventuring 'day' to a premature end. Non-surge healing like Cure Light Wounds or Stand Tough is a lot more desireable in that situation.