Shield of the Divine (and Virtuous v Faithful)

jaolez

Hi all

I have a (new) 70 cleric, was running with one of the well tried and tested buff/debuff specs out there (soloed heavily up to 70). I don't enjoy the game so much as a buffer though (even if that is what we're supposed to best for) and prefer to play the role of a (mostly) healer with the occasional buff/debuff. I tend to do mostly PuGs and from experience, these seem to need healing more than buffs/debuffs (and have rarely been in the same party as a Healadin).

So - going to respec. Was thinking Virtuous but am confused about Shield of the Divine. The description implies I don't have to do anything other than literally stand there (within 30 NW feet I think) and it procs when someone is hit. Is that it? Does it repeatedly proc or is capped / timebound? Presumably must be some restrictions on it. I'm a bit unsure about it transforming all my heals to HoTs though, i.e. would be caught short if in desperate need of a clutch heal etc.

So quick couple of questions:
1. How does Shield of the Divine trigger? Do I need to do anything?
2. How often is it used?
3. What do players generally think is more valuable - the Virtuous or the Faithful path? (please don't say Righteous, I know that is supposed to be our best, but I don't enjoy it. Want to go one of these two, even if it makes me a bit naff. It is a game afterall ..)

Many thanks for any advice/tips given

Keep the Peace
Ninial

devlin

Shield of the Divine does 2 things as you mentioned. Turns your heals into HoT's and provides a heal when hit.

1) The "when hit" heal is over 10 seconds and is worth 500% of your weapon damage. You don't have to "do" anything to activate this. People get hit near you and it triggers. It wont refresh until it expires (after the 10 seconds then they have to get hit again to reactivate it) and isn't a relatively powerful heal by itself.

2) It's used all the time. Someone gets hit, and it starts healing. Individually, each HoT you put on someone doesnt do much, but the beauty of virtuous is that you can have SO many HoTs on people that as a group, they heal like crazy.

3) A tough choice. If you are super into PVP, faithful is far superior (though I think virtuous is good as well). In terms of PVE, I REALLY like virtuous (though I am righteous like most) over faithful. I know you said you didn't particularly care about buffing, but going mainly virtuous with a splash of righteous allows you to pick up the following:

Virtuous: 5/5 Lasting Wishes, 5/5 Battle Fervor, 5/5 Gift of Haste, 5/5 Gift of Life, 1/5 Virtue's Gift, 4/5 Cleansing Fire, 1/1 Shielf of the Divine

Righteous: 5/5 Furious Intervention, 5/5 Ancient Warding (apparently getting fixed soon), 5/5 Weapons of Light.

That way you get all the power sharing benefits of righteous, gift of haste, and great heals. It is very similar to the "meta" righteous buff build aside from the debuffs (Bear your Sins and Condemning Gaze) that righteous feats provide (that may or may not be needed/missed depending on group makeup). The other negative of course is the minus on your own personal damage but you dont seem overly concerned with that.

I think Virtuous needs some serious work as it has a lot of useless feats, but overall, it provides a pretty nice balance between heals and buffs.

In regard to "clutch healing", assuming you have your HoTs going, most people heal back to full VERY quickly (assuming they arent just one shot killed which no amount of heals can prevent).

enicegeo

1. It auto heals people, however the heal is somewhat small HoT, so it's not gonna be saving squishy people that don't know how to avoid getting constantly hit.
2. It triggers whenever someone is hit but does not stack. The description says it simply ticks healing until the amount is exhausted or not needed anymore.
3. I think Faithful, due to the auto-clutch heals it can do. If you want to clutch heal with Virtuous you'll need a timely empowered Bastion of Health and a squishy who isn't running around like a headless chicken, because when they dodge your heal nuts to them. That's a roughly 10 second recharge time.

The HoT basically parcels out your heals over time. It won't be an instant heal as you may be used to seeing. So when people start getting dangerously close to becoming floor matting it'll be a bit of crunch time for you in trying to bring them back up. Empowered Bastion will be more than enough to instantly bring their health back up to safe levels, as long as they don't dodge it but they seem to have a habit of scampering all over the place, even when they are no longer in danger of being attacked by anything.

If you go Virtuous you may find that you'll be dishing out a lot less damage and may make soloing be more grueling, although on the other hand you'll find yourself with more durability.

jaolez

Excellent, thanks both - much appreciated!

alphastream

I have a question about Heal over Time. If an ally is at full health, is the HoT on them and ticking (but not currently healing), and could activate if they take damage, or does it fail to be on them?

As a simple example, if an ally at full health can't gain the HoT, then they can't get the Gift of Haste benefit. But, if even at full health they gain HoT, then they can gain Gift of Haste.

Thanks!

devlin

Yes the heal is "on them" ticking away even when they are at full health. And yes; they gain the gift of haste buff even when at full health when a heal is applied to them (or yourself). It's actually a handy way to gain some of your daily back when no mobs are around. "heal" yourself and watch it fill!