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Questions about healing in group play...
cesmode8
Member Posts: 384 Bounty Hunter
Hey there,
I rolled a Cleric(12) yesterday and I think I am liking it way more than my rogue(22).
So I did two skirmishes, and I must say the healing in this game is pretty intensive, popping in and out of 'd-mode'. However, I have a few questions:
1.Are Clerics to be relied on soley for healing and keeping the group alive/topped off like most MMOs? Im getting the feeling that our heals are not packed with enough punch to keep the tank topped off. Im getting the feeling that we are more of a support class than healing class, providing extra heals when everyone else should be potting as well. Is this correct?
2.How are you supposed to handle healing in groups? I like sunburst, I like going into D-Mode to use sunburst, but I feel the knockback will <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> off tanks and melee. But its a good heal, especially with the buff!
3.Are we supposed to be going into Dmode to cast the single targetheal? Or is this almost useless? What are the applications for this?
4.How do you manage Dmode? Offensive? For heals? I've been building up a few charges, popping into Dmode and throwing out a few abilities, and then going right back into "normal" mode. I dont even bother with the at will abilities while in Dmode, I think they are pretty weak. Thoughts?
5.Quick question about solo play: How do you utilize dmode? The same as you would in a group situation?
Any info is appreciated! I will also try to find some threads for answers as well, but I am currently at work and in the event that I cannot, I figured Id post my questions as well.
I was having a blast with the cleric last night, but I'd imagine it can be pretty daunting in a real boss fight.
I rolled a Cleric(12) yesterday and I think I am liking it way more than my rogue(22).
So I did two skirmishes, and I must say the healing in this game is pretty intensive, popping in and out of 'd-mode'. However, I have a few questions:
1.Are Clerics to be relied on soley for healing and keeping the group alive/topped off like most MMOs? Im getting the feeling that our heals are not packed with enough punch to keep the tank topped off. Im getting the feeling that we are more of a support class than healing class, providing extra heals when everyone else should be potting as well. Is this correct?
2.How are you supposed to handle healing in groups? I like sunburst, I like going into D-Mode to use sunburst, but I feel the knockback will <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> off tanks and melee. But its a good heal, especially with the buff!
3.Are we supposed to be going into Dmode to cast the single targetheal? Or is this almost useless? What are the applications for this?
4.How do you manage Dmode? Offensive? For heals? I've been building up a few charges, popping into Dmode and throwing out a few abilities, and then going right back into "normal" mode. I dont even bother with the at will abilities while in Dmode, I think they are pretty weak. Thoughts?
5.Quick question about solo play: How do you utilize dmode? The same as you would in a group situation?
Any info is appreciated! I will also try to find some threads for answers as well, but I am currently at work and in the event that I cannot, I figured Id post my questions as well.
I was having a blast with the cleric last night, but I'd imagine it can be pretty daunting in a real boss fight.
Post edited by cesmode8 on
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Now to answering some questions?
PS. Dont forget to change up for more dps skills when soloing though.
http://guidescroll.com/2013/03/neverwinter-cleric-minimum-wisdom-build-guide/
in the lower game. most of your healing is done dropping astral seal on many mobs. the proc can do a good bit of healing as your group beats them down. trowing non-divine sunburst every time its up, the divine aspect of it can help tossing mobs off ledges in some places.. healing word i really only use when a play comes for it out of the pack. trying to catch some one dieing wile fighting is tuff mostly end hitting some one else or a companion.. popping the daily hallowed ground when ya have something big to kill.
later some of your damage/buff have a healing effect when in divine mode such as forge masters flame, bastion of health. and astral shield. which will leav it a tuff thing to get your group below 75%
any how thats my take my toon is still 34 so some one else may better answer of the late game
luck
Divinity is generally only used to boost encounter abilities, but it can be useful for the at-will heal in between fights if you really need to top someone up.
Use it for offense only if no one needs healing but never let it stay at 3 pips. Use it!
You should be very careful about using divinity for sunburst, it can be a great boon but it is not worth it if it sends your entire party running after enemies. Keep in mind that most bosses are immune to knock back.
drake5252 wrote a pretty good guide about how they made their healer. The power descriptions are especially useful.
The-Devoted-Cleric-Guide-to-Healing
Yes, clerics can be the sole healer in a party and keep everyone alive. The only person in the group that will ever really be pressured enough (if your party dodges out of red damage circles) is yourself because of the massive healing aggro you will have on every add that pops up and goes straight for you. You will need healing potions, unlike the rest of your party, because you do 40% less healing to yourself and you will take the most damage in your party, especially at lower levels before you get threat reduction and before other classes get good abilities to handle adds.
At lower levels, keep Astral Seal up on the main kill target the entire time, put it on other targets whenever you have free-time to do it. Typically you want to open with Astral Seal on as many targets as you can. Put Healing Word up on anyone that's at less than about 85% hp. Casting this on other people also puts a HoT on yourself too. Healing Word is your main heal at this level. Use non-D sunburst as an AoE heal. Use Guardian of Faith as an AoE burst heal, but using Hallowed Ground in most cases, even without the moontouched healing feat, is going to be better for harder pulls. You're better off using divinity on Healing Word instead of Sunburst, it makes Healing Word do a small up-front heal and not consume any charges. This important so you can keep Healing Word up on as many people as possible that need it the entire fight. The knockback on Sunburst, as you said, will annoy people. I would only use the knockback if you're getting swarmed with adds and about to die if you don't use it.
It's almost useless, especially at higher levels in PvE. At early levels, before you get other good spells to use divinity on, it's worth using on occasion if someone is at low hp and about to die. It's also good when you're getting hammered by adds and need to move away. You can cast this D-mode heal while moving and that's pretty much the only real use for it. Don't waste divinity trying to top people off though, just use healing word and sunburst.
In lower level dungeons and skirmishes i used divinity mostly on damaging spells. D-mode Daunting Light and D-mode Searing Light do amazing AoE damage. I would typically use these two damaging spells with healing word and i could top damage while keeping my party alive.
D-mode Daunting Light is the best thing you can do while solo-questing. You can typically one-shot entire packs of mobs with it. It's the clerics only real good AoE spell and it does a lot of damage, questing without this is pretty horrible. On single targets i just use the at-will d-mode attack. A regular healing word is all the healing you will ever need while questing. Also slot the Flame Strike daily. It does great AoE and single-target damage just like Daunting Light and is pretty much mandatory for efficient solo-play. For your last encounter ability either use Sun Burst (for AoE against weak adds) or Searing Light, which does better single-target damage and does amazing AoE in D-mode if you can get it to pierce a bunch of mobs.
It gets much better at higher levels. Mainly when you get Forgemaster's Flame and Astral Shield.
Same here, People move too fast and mobs between, targeting is tough. Worse are the bob&weavers, they are skilled players (dodging red circle attacks etc) but you can't keep up with em. There needs to be a target locking feature.
Holding Left-Control will lock onto a target, but it turns your camera to follow the target so it kind of sucks.
This is important for people to understand, imo. Soothing Light (the at-will D-mode channeled heal) is a huge waste of Divinity unless you need to be healing but *cannot* stop to cast, as blahblahsean also pointed out.
Divinity is a resource. Use it wisely. By the same token... don't sit there with full pips (like reddestshirt said)! Spend some, because you're constantly re-fuelling it with everything you do.
D-mode Sun Burst - great for solo play, but yeah, you guessed correctly about the difficulties D-SB brings to group play. Use it only as a last-resort, desperate-measures action in group play. Use SB in normal-mode for groups.
I also think blahblahsean touched on some interesting points about the uses of Healing Word, both in and out of Divinity. I'm going to try to make more use of it than I have been, and I presume like all things, that even though NW "targeting" is incredibly problematic in the heat of the battle, that I'll get better at it with some practice. even if it's never something you can be excellent at
Some of the powers and feats people are mentioning are abilities you won't have access to for dozens of levels. Forgemaster's Flame and Bastion of Health are staples of the leveling Cleric once you have access to them, but it'll be a while before you get them.
I think it goes like this:
- Before level 30, healing = Sun Burst, Healing Word, Astral Seal
- From 30 to 49, healing = Sun Burst, Forged Flame (in divinity), Astral Seal and Hollow Ground (45-49)
- From 50 to 60, healing = Sun Burst, Astral Shield, and Hollow Ground.
I pick Brand of the Sun and Sacred Flame over Astral Seal. BotS is a very good at-will to generate Divinity Power and maintain DPS. One BotS + crit can go up to 3k damage at lvl 50 on the lowest defense mob. Because usually there would be 10+ mobs swarming on your party, and they are more of a threat than the boss so it's hard so it's not really worth using astral seal. Especially when either you or the guardian fighter (or in rare case, the DPS) would be the target of those adds, you would have no time to make use of the seal for yourself. It's better to use BotS on mobs so I can do Divinity mode Astral Shield and Daunting Light.
I did a level 52 dungeon today and in the end, I got 2.5 million healing.
Before you get Astral Shield, try to build yourself super tanky, and don't heal too much, i.e. don't get Bastion of Heal, Forged Flame is enough, let others tank some bit for you too. You need those big damage resist buff from Astral Shield and/or Hollow Ground to blast your threat out of proportion when you do big group heal. If you go like: Bastion of Heal, Sun Burst, Forged Flame without some significant damage reduction, chance is that you will drop in dungeons between level 30-40. Not to mention Daunting Light is an amazing encounter power to clear adds.
Just one last question which wasnt really answered... Are we to be depended on to keep everyone alive? I.E. do people not use potions in groups anymore and its on us to keep everyone upright? Or are we simply additional heals? I.E. is it my fault if people die?
If people eat red circles, they need to pot.
If people don't deal properly with adds in a timely fashion, they need to pot.
If people are playing well, there *still* may be moments where someone might pot (often yourself, because of the reduced potency of your own heals on yourself). However, the need for potions on top of your heals is also dependent on your own ability to know which abilities you can use to help people a) take less damage and b) increase their dps, therefore meaning they take less damage because things are dead
Your the healer so yes its your fault. At your level no because there is no real way to keep up, but later on yes its your fault lol. If you go down your party will be down shortly after.
Astral seal + sacred flame is enough to keep people alive against any single target. I run Astral Shield, Sunburst (mainly for AP generation, it's insane) and bastion of health. So far it has worked great and I think it will work well at 60. Surviving adds is all about hallowed ground and using sunburst to get AP back ASAP. With using sunburst I generally get back my AP in about 30 seconds if there's 5+ mobs around. Best part is no targetting required.
Astral Shield + hallowed ground(with talents) is god-mode for a party.
By the time you get to level 50 and get Astral Shield (God Mode) you will be very comfortable with Cleric mechanics.
<Rarely Sober> - Beholder
The class as it is now should really be called a Druid, imho.
I would say the DC's role is to lower the amount of damage the group takes more than outright heal the group. Much of the healing comes from buffs/de-buffs associated with various casts.
The game forces players to be on the move. If they don't move out of damage they're gone. The DC can cast things that provide buffs and mitigate a good amount of damage but the mechanics are just not there to target heal one person effectively and move on to the next. You can't stay in a red circle, take a huge hit, and hope to get a 10K heal...at least I haven't seen one yet. This game is just a different style of play.
Is it your fault if someone dies? Well, if people in you group are standing in the heavy hits consistently and expecting you to heal them from 10% of their health to 100% of their health in one holy word, nope, it's not your fault. They need to go back to that other game if they are not willing to use their class abilities. IMO.
This class is fun, IMO. Give it a chance. Take a look at some of the builds posted in the forums. Also, some of the videos explain a lot.