Set up Healer

Hello,

I am keen to understand what would be the best setup for a healer.

Which armour, offhand items, weapons, glyphs and so on is recommended?

Any advice would be appreciated.

(I have been playing for about 8 months now and really enjoy the whole game.)

TIA.

 

I've been building this https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/building-a-cleric.162922/

Its quite good fun so far.

 

Hey @Amanita , I wont act as if I was a healing pro, as I only do it occasionally, but here are some things I have noticed :

1. If you have Life Magic Specialization, healing is WAY easier. With only a Thaumathurgy staff, I am able to keep a party of 11 alive against pretty much all the content we do.

2. Armor has little impact, I use full chain, you could go with anything that suits you best.

3. Taming + Life means you can have a pet participate in the DPS while you heal and dont lose your bonus from not damaging enemies.

4. Life attunement will up your healing a good bit, but you don't necessarily need to go crazy, I dont even hit 200 on my healer deck as I have most of my water gear on right now.

5. A healing grace cast on most people can greatly help reduce casting on people who just took a few hits but have low HP. Someone with 500HP falls in the red real quick, but 2 or 3 ticks of healing grace will bring them back to max, so you can focus on others.

6. Spells like Douse and purify can be interesting to keep on your bar. When everyone is full life, I buff up their resistances to death and fire with those spells.

 

@Amanita , I found that adding the Life Specialization really did not do anything more than the normal 100 (GM) skill points in each. In all of the Control Points and UT after removing the Life Spec was the same in keeping a party alive.

With the Bard skills the default mending one is really nice to add to a healer and it is only one skill you need to learn. Unless you want to go further into being a bard.

 

@Elgarion is a really good healer. Have any points here to share?

 

Thank you for all your replies.

Really appreciated!

 

Just my 5 cents:
1) Light armor. It makes you more flexible, and don't forget movement is your friend in this game, its the friend of your igg/XP per hour rate too when you play small scale party or solo.
2) Dynamic deck with stacking.
3) Active usage of focus tree skills.
4) You don't need ankhs, even 100k type of staff is extremely good.
5) There is no best second spec for a healer. Even spec in heal only makes you extremely powerful support. Try different then pick up best that matches your playstyle.
6) If you want cumulative support second spec choose sun.
7) Best for this type of sup is fustian set with usual PVE properties max int max dex max focus.
8) Your shield of AIR will be strong without spec too.
9) If you will have air+heal or sun+heal or water+heal, you would be a very, extremely good teammate in PVP.

 

VS

So..... which is it ?
Is Life spec worth it or not ?

 

I find it fun, and a bit more relaxing. No spec can sometimes mean you miss that clutch save meanwhile the reduced cooldowns from spec can get you are "just in time" heal

I like Healing spec very much.

 

I found the 24 million XP was not worth Life Spec. I am still effective at healing with GM skills in Life. I rely on Healing Ray, Healing Blast, Life Power, and Beneficent Blessing all at 100 (GM) level. NO problem keeping up.

 

I agree, 100%, life spec is not needed, I just find it super clutch and fun, so for anyone reading my comments, Greagoire is 100% right, it is not required, I just find it more fun!

 

Eh, I just mash buttons I have a lazy playstyle. I'm the last person to ask for build advice, hahah. Well, maybe second to last. Life, Focus specialized, but I hunt solo as bludgeon. Both of those add to my survivability considerably.

 

Life spec drasticaly reduces healing blast casting time and provide a 6th gliph that boost your hot, healing grace, if casted 6x and provide you 1 gliph more for each healing skill, if you are an healer, why don't take it?

 

As Dhanas stated, it gives a drastically reduced cast time (50%) at 100 spec. Anyone actually playing late game content would tell you this is required. If I wasn't healing spec I couldn't duo the Tartarus maze control point. Not only do I need the increased cast time, I need the extra glyph to survive the last two waves.

If you want to be a true healer then I think there is two specializations to currently choose from. I don't think this is a needed position yet, because most content can be done with 2 to 4 people max, so having one with little to no damage isn't ideal, it is definitely viable to ensure your teammates never die. I haven't tested out bard specialization, but even just the bard heal plus healing grace and elyusium is giving you almost 100 Regen every 2 seconds.

I think the better build currently, is life/water. Soothing rain will take off fire DOTs, and last drastically longer with water spec. You can wear chain, with an ankh and water orb for 0 fizzle and huge attunement buffs. Finally you would have a decent bit of damage output with banish/soothing combo and ice arrow + ice field bonus.

Honestly would love to get some content hard enough that a healer is required but currently I think that's only for two to three bosses (ancient yellow dragon/spider queen) and control points (east reach and brightbone) at the moment.

 

This is a very well written explanation where the Life Spec is needed. Thank you for sharing. Life and Water combo makes total sense.

I have never been to Tartarus so I don't know what surviving there is like. I just have done the Grannus Colossus waves, the Upper Tears waves, and a few of the Control Point waves and did not see the need for Life Spec when I had it and after I removed the skill points from it.

My question is this for you @SaltyPerro , how do you survive with the Water/Life combo if you are on your own? Or is that combo just useful in a group setting?

 

So,

What I have set up so far is a fustian epic cloth armour set with rings of life plus ashen wands.

Glyphs are all locked atm and are Healing Ray, Healing Touch, Healing Burst, Healing Grace, Melody of Mending, Resurrection, Douse, Purify, Ice Field and Immolation.

I will try combos later on once the skills gm.

Skilling up the Life inmates and working on the Water inmates next.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

For PvE, as the main healer of your group, I would be slightly against Immolation and Ice Field. These two spells will reduce the power of your heals, as if you deal damage to an enemy you are losing on healing power! If you want to use "Support" style skills to increase your party's damage or effectiveness, you could use Juxtapose + Douse combo, which makes the mob you cast it on lose resistance to fire, actually very strong, or Blind/Fireflies, which will make yyour physical damage dealing party members stronger without locking you into a 10+ second cooldown.

I can answer this bit myself as I am a Water/Life spec, with Life being alternated with Heavy Armor. This spec combo makes you have a TON of self sustain, my Soothing Rain can heal me for upwards of 100 health per tick, while Healing Grace reaches the 60s if I am not mistaken. With Heavy Armor (Full chain except for the helm right now), I have 0% fizzle on all the spells I use (except chain lightning sometimes), which means I am always casting. I went to the Tartarus Maze, and my only issue I had, while fighting 2 warlocks and an archer, was that the Warlocks had too much magic resistance that it was too long to kill them, so I had to get myself some physical damage for those guys, but I was able to self-sustain pretty much all the damage they were doing. I'm a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to boss fighting, so I haven't done much dragon hunting, but for Cabalists I only needed a Bow to fight (Avara?) the one that gives Damage per focus spent debuff, the other ones I can deal with pretty easily. Heavy armor is more for solo play, especially in zones where you fight a lot of physical damage dealers, while Life is better for group play as I can be the dedicated healer if need be, and the bonus damage on Banish undead is great for CPs.

All in all, it is a very fun class that fits my needs perfectly and allows me to do all the content I want to do.

 

Thank you @Violet Ronso . That helps me understand.

 

Soothing Rain, Blind, Fireflies, Root, Spellbinders stance (This one is actually great, an extra 30% faster casting speed as long as you do not move, can be paired up with blink to teleport around which wont break your stance), heck even moon beams to mesmerize enemies your party is not focused on! These are all great choices.