How to play a healbot DC

pointsman

Okay so I have always played my DC as a DPS DC or a Buff/Debuff DC. I don't really like being a healbot. But it appears that this is the type of DC that will be required for the new content. But I have never had to do it so I don't really know how to do it. What do you do?

I imagine that I will have to respec from Righteous to Faithful. Which feats would be good?

But I"m also interested in just general strategy on how to play a healing DC rather than specific build advice.

Any thoughts?

thewolfisloose

Also interested in specific healing feats advice. Same boat.

Off-topic: "Healbot" is kinda negative. DCs can quickly advance people through lvl 60+ content when they'd otherwise be slogging thru trying not to die or straight up not being able to finish content. I think Mod6 will elevate supportive DCs from companion status...and if not just go back to dropping 100k+ daunting lights.

odelle12

Hey I'm a little lost with Mod 6 but I am a Faithful Build.

Currently I am running
Resounding Beliefs
Benefit of Foresight
Gift of Gods
Shared Burdens
Chaplains Strength
United by Faith

Then in Virtuous I took
Lasting Wishes
Have Faith
and one in Gift of Faith

I previously had Agent of the Divine but didnt feel it was worth it. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

clericalist

pointsman wrote: »

Okay so I have always played my DC as a DPS DC or a Buff/Debuff DC. I don't really like being a healbot. But it appears that this is the type of DC that will be required for the new content. But I have never had to do it so I don't really know how to do it. What do you do?

I imagine that I will have to respec from Righteous to Faithful. Which feats would be good?

But I"m also interested in just general strategy on how to play a healing DC rather than specific build advice.

Any thoughts?

It is not just Faithful that one can be a healbot, the Virtuous path is just as viable. Faithful gives big bursts of heal and Virtuous big heal overs time. I picked Virtuous, it works well in most situations, but I have occasionally had situations where people did not get one shotted by standing in red but were close to death, and I could not give them the clutch heals and I wish I had (but you also need tell people that the days of just standing still in red are over). For Faithful you will be spamming out a lot of bastions of health and for Virtuous a lot of sunbursts.

Whichever path you pick, you need to communicate with others not to panic and run away as soon as they see their health dropping, I have had a few PUGs now where people run far away and then blame me for being a bad healer), to be an affective healbot others need to stick close to you. Also don't neglect other stats just to be an uber healer, a dead healer is not healing. For the feats don't just pick the heal bonus feats, damage reduction feats are vital. You will also have to become more situationally aware about what others are doing than just a raw dps class (and I know I am going to get in trouble from somebody for saying this), watching the health bar movements of the party is as important as watching for red areas on the floor.

tyrtallow

I'm curious why you didn't slot Bastion clericalist, since DG/AS/Bastion would be my go-to encounters if I played Virtuous. I'd make it a point to use empowered Bastion any time I could (cooldown is roughly the same as the HoT duration thanks to Shield of the Divine, empowered bonus to heal effect should be retroactive so heal ticks will spike if someone takes massive damage). Divine Bastion is also handy for emergency heals. Or maybe you were just running a debuff loadout at the time? Is Shield of the Divine still working properly? Is the empowered Bastion effect not working retroactively? That might be a bug.

suicidalgodot

clericalist wrote: »

[...]
to be an affective healbot others need to stick close to you.
[...]

Sorry, probably you mean effective, but your way of saying it is so much more cuddly and sweet...

arcanaxe

I'm currently spec for Virtuous. My rotation is HW/DG/BOH for rapid healing over time, and depending on the team, I'll sometimes swap HW for AS. The problem with Virtuous is the 1-Hit wonder shot from adds that you can't always full heal. But something that I've been testing is that you don't take the last pip in the Virtuous tree, this enables you be able to do the clutch heal + rapid healing over time, its work out great so far, but further testing is still needed.

Been playing the game since Mod 1, and always been a Healbot DC I like it. In Mod 5 I switched to Righteous because of the minimum healing that was needed, and that more debuff/debuffing was needed. But with this Mod is back to healing which I like but finding the right combo for that rapid regen healing + burst full heals is not so easy, but give it some time there will be a proper answer after a lot of testing.

Updated

Ok after some extensive testing + 6 respecs further its come down to this, virtuous or faithful is not good enough to keep alive in dungeons. So the only answer now is, the same answer as the other mods, looks like hybrid build is going to be the answer, I'm testing it now, will post results as soon as im done.

If there is another DC hybrid build currently in testing, can you please share us your exp what and how choose your feats.

odelle12

arcanaxe wrote: »

I'm currently spec for Virtuous. My rotation is HW/DG/BOH for rapid healing over time, and depending on the team, I'll sometimes swap HW for AS. The problem with Virtuous is the 1-Hit wonder shot from adds that you can't always full heal. But something that I've been testing is that you don't take the last pip in the Virtuous tree, this enables you be able to do the clutch heal + rapid healing over time, its work out great so far, but further testing is still needed.

Been playing the game since Mod 1, and always been a Healbot DC I like it. In Mod 5 I switched to Righteous because of the minimum healing that was needed, and that more debuff/debuffing was needed. But with this Mod is back to healing which I like but finding the right combo for that rapid regen healing + burst full heals is not so easy, but give it some time there will be a proper answer after a lot of testing.

Updated

Ok after some extensive testing + 6 respecs further its come down to this, virtuous or faithful is not good enough to keep alive in dungeons. So the only answer now is, the same answer as the other mods, looks like hybrid build is going to be the answer, I'm testing it now, will post results as soon as im done.

If there is another DC hybrid build currently in testing, can you please share us your exp what and how choose your feats.

Thank you all for replying I've been trying to get a discussion about current healing specs.

I have heard several times lately about hybrid builds and I'm curious about it. I would also love to hear more.

Another question I have is what stats everyone is working on. Has this changed in the last mod or not?

mrvincent1959

I have tried the Hybrid route after being only DPS. Not working too well. People want HEALERS. I have gone to the dark side now.

I spent several hours re-speccing my DC to AC Faithful. I am enjoying it so far. I only PUG in this game and when I have a decent group, its poetry. I stay back a bit and passively/actively heal the heck out of them. One of my pets gives me 25% less threat which has also been a help.

mrvincent1959

One other thing I want to mention. You can try do do whatever you want, but with the current state of T2 dungeons, it wont matter. 99.9% of people doing T2 dungeons with any success are exploiting. We are not and will not be able to heal enough given what those dungeons pose.