Question for Healing Clerics

soonergm · September 2015

I'm asking here because the class threads are pretty inactive. I have a DC for my 2nd character and recently got to level 60. I think I'm getting the hang of everything, but my biggest problem right now is that there always seems to be at least 1 person that is constantly going to near death status. During trash mobs, gift of faith and a couple of divine glows will get them back up. However during dungeon bosses, it can be more difficult.

For example, yesterday I did Frozen Caverns. On the final boss our tank was dropping health quickly at one point. I had Brand and Astral Seal for my encounters. I hit some divine glows and even bastion of health but he lost everything I just healed. Someone spoke and said don't worry about me I have potions, heal the tank. Problem is I don't know how to heal an individual effectively. Everything I use is AoE. When I use the divinity healing option, it seems like a waste of divinity... it takes a long time to bring up someone's health, and then everyone else is at risk because divinity is gone.

Maybe if I Brand enough ads, it will keep the divinity flowing in fast enough? In the heat of the moment I did not notice. Also, it can be hard to find 1 person, especially with lots of adds, and I seem to draw a bit of aggro myself, so now I'm dodging, seaching, and trying to heal all at the same time. Definitely more difficult than some people might think, lol.

Basically, does anyone have some advice for healing a single target?

patsfire · September 2015

You can use Healing Word, mainly in divinity, and it is pretty much the go to in order to heal ONE person in particular. However, I personally LOVE Bastion in divinity it just heals so well and in divinity I cast it super fast. So I typically spam Divine Glow and/or shields most of the time. BUT when I see that someone or many of the others are taking lots of damage I spam divinity Bastion, heals them all the way in a split second.

Typically my runs consist of: Astral seal-Sacred Flame(till divinity)-Divinity Shield/Glow-Empowered Shield/Glow-repeat as needed

OR
Astral Seal-Sacred Flame-Divinity Shield/glow/bastion-Empowered shield/glow

popezen01 · September 2015

When I healed I used Healing word (non divinity - it has three charges) and saved divinity for BoH for single spot heals then diving glow for debuff or you could use searing light for damage and heals.

littlevale · September 2015

The two authors before me gave great healing advice, so I'll touch on the aggro you're drawing. Get an owl for a companion. The 25% reduction in threat makes a HUGE difference for my bandaid girl.

patsfire · September 2015

Also, I must add, there is no tank that I have ever played with that can consistently stand and take EVERY RED area attack without heals. So most will, and should, move out of red as well, but some choose not to. I had one tell me that he would stand in the red as much as possible simply because he could take it, and that I didn't need to heal him. 5secs into Scorpion fight on ELOL he went down....smh

gkjones85 · September 2015

Gift spec is meant for them to go down in health FYI if they aren't getting the gift your spec isn't working with your group. Problem with gift spec is its blown on players popping pots and your heals are 25% less effective so doesn't seem like you are doing much as is. Get the dreconic suit for the 20% bonus to heals and might off set the loss. I Always suggest respec once your power is higher to virtuous. I have three clerics and my virt cleric always takes the cake in my group above and beyond the gift spec. I might enjoy gift spec more if I had a notification or a bar showing me how much health my gift had stored up. But as is in always worried when playing that spec.

I enjoy healing words x3 and words from divinity once for the temp hp or if you still run with shield a divinity shield is nice to toss in once in every rotation just to buffer hits or when you see a lot of red on the ground I try to hit everyone with some temp hp. A lot of people I think undervalue the temp hp but it's fun sometimes to go into boss fights with temp hp as the goal. Fun never seeing health go down at all. But that's also virt spec as is. You may want to give it a shot. I didn't like it at first but as I got stronger virt spec wins everytime.

Also if your tank keeps dropping health like you say, it's probably knights valor and someone else in your group is the cause of his health loss. Or he's just not geared up much. If your glowing blue that's your tank taking half the damage everyone else takes. Sometimes may want to have them turn it off if you have a group member who can't get out of red.

Also if you are divine oracle spec for foresight and the bottom paragon fear first row of virt spec gives anyone your healing 16% damage resistance throw in ashield they are up to 26% damage reduction that right there covers the 25% loss in your heals as faithful that's 5% from hot 11% from foresight specced and 10% from ashield but once your heals get better ashield is useless and can swap out for divine glow. I usually keep healing words and bastion slotted as my group does speed runs of everything and huge heals are generally needed. I use my third slot as my situation slot depends on what I'm doing is what goes there. It's usually divine glow I must say the buff/debuff/heal/damage is nice all in one. another alternative is sunburst but you may get heat from using it with group members.

Chuck Norris
Gt: tater tot 91685

stpensive · September 2015

1st rule of Fight Club: Blame the healer

You know what the 2nd rule is...

My main is a 17.5k Cleric. Ill address some points.

People forget that, at least for MOD5, the healer is basically been relegated to damage mitigation. If anyone is gearing their toon properly, they should have loaded defense and lifesteal before pain. Sounds like your one, continually out of life, guy did not do this. The same goes for you, however, power (something your gear already gives you in spades) is the last thing you build.

Now for MOD 6, looks like they hosed LS and regeneration so the DC will be in demand again (glad I rolled a SW right before this, Christ...)

soonergm said:
Also, it can be hard to find 1 person, especially with lots of adds, and I seem to draw a bit of aggro myself, so now I'm dodging, seaching, and trying to heal all at the same time. Definitely more difficult than some people might think, lol.

Tis the nature of the game and will likely always be something to contend with. I would not call it a 'problem' (I once would have) as any other 'solution' would dilute what it means to be a good healer IMHO.

That said, with only 5 in a raid, and BOH and (to a lesser degree) DG, they cover a decent area, this will be less an issue for you if you raid with a regular group. You get used to how they play and you can tell the Rouge, 'bro, stop going to some random trash so far away as I cant heal you if I cant see or reach you.' Dont you be shy either; you should not be too far away from the group. The bonus for Templar armor (for example) has a proximity condition.

Also, get in the habit of telling them where YOU will be. For example, for CN raid, I tell everyone Ill be at the door for the final boss. Other than who is on the dragon, you come close to me when you need a shot of life). In many raids, you will be the one directing traffic so make sure you know the raid well and the other class abilities.

Lastly, Astral Seal the hell out of everything starting with the hardest (let the tank engage first, of course). The one exception being the Tiamat heads. Not that it has any negative impact whatsoever, its just many in the game think it does and know how to copy and paste what other have said. Never seen so much ignorance in my life.

thedynamitelotus said:
The two authors before me gave great healing advice, so I'll touch on the aggro you're drawing. Get an owl for a companion. The 25% reduction in threat makes a HUGE difference for my bandaid girl.

The OWL is not a bad companion (I have one) but if you dont run with a tank, and the squishies are taking a beating, better you than them. They can take out what is hitting you, you cant.

If you went 'Faithful', you actually need to get hit a bit to build Test of Faith. TOF will make you look like you clutched heal someone from near death, when it reality, it was automatic. When they thank you, just act like you did it on purpose.

Also, you wear the second best armor class in the game; you can take a punch. Better you than the squishies.

soonergm said:
When I use the divinity healing option, it seems like a waste of divinity...

Yeah, stop that thinking. Frankly, casting BOH any other way takes too long. You dont need to burn them all, just use it to spot \ spike heal. I used healing word in the beginning but found that DG (always on your bar, never remove it) and BOH to be superior.

Got to get back to work. If you need help, PM me; always glad to help a fellow Cleric.

patsfire · September 2015

^^ I think we probably run the class the exact same way. Granted my DC is my 1st alt, so its only at 16.5k currently, but he is still a beast.

soonergm · September 2015

Wealth of information here, thanks to all of you.

Right now I'm playing a bit of a hybrid Healing/DPS DO. In a good group it works pretty well, I can get 3rd or 4th in damage dealt and keep up with all the healing needed. It's not always like that obviously, in my first post I had to go full healing and still struggled LOL. Stats and gear aren't where they need to be yet, less than 10k GS still and I'm being stingy with the AD. I may go virt in Mod 6, since just from reading some posts a hybrid may not be a viable option.

Does anyone know what armor set will be good to go after initially once the new content hits next week? I have not unlocked WoD on this character yet so I highly doubt I will be able to get the Draconic Templar set by then.

patsfire · September 2015

High Prophet still one of the best, if not the best set. Personally I switch between HP and DT.

gkjones85 · September 2015

I do the same. Boss fights with hp and dt for trash. if having problems with heals too may want to check out a vorpal to help crit heal bigger numbers. Just a thought. I run greater pf with my hp suit and works wonders! As a faith spec also crit severity may work out better too. Something I'll have to try out on my faith cleric!

soonergm · September 2015

well thankfully i am currently rolling with the HP set

gkjones85 · September 2015

Stack hit points as well IMO. I never die anymore at 35k hit points as only like two things hit me for over that amount and if you aren't one hit you can keep yourself up. Would love to get 45k hp like some clerics! But my capped dr would suffer currently with that setup but still probably worth it lol

stpensive · September 2015

Armor:
The HP armor is indeed the best set for boss fights but not so much elsewhere IMHO. I wore mine till it got holes in it (and was just under 16k with it) but for survivability, the Draconic Templar is the next best IMHO. Also, with it, the debuff is similar (not nearly as much, however) but its proximity based. I other words, I dont need to hit something to enjoy it.

Vorpal or Plague:
My Crit Severity is already at 81% so I moved my Vorpal to my SW and put Plague in my Cleric when I moved off my HP set to make up for what I lost.

Spec:
For MOD 6 (especially), I would not recommend specing DPS \ Heal combos (that's what TempLocks used to be for). LifeSteal and regen are getting the shaft so people will need more consistent healing from us.

For when you want to hurt (solo \ PVP), have a second set of crafted Armor Pen Rings and Neck with Darks in them. Swap them out \ in based on hurt \ heal situations. An Ioun stone is fantastic for this. I cant recommend getting an Ioun Stone enough.

And for all you other Clerics, anyone that tells you not to use your powers (other than sunburst, that can get annoying in places), tell them to HAMSTER off. If there is a problem with a power (and there is not for us), then the devs need to fix it. Had someone in Tiamat actually say, 'Dont use Hallowed Ground, it lags DPS'. Christ....

obliquity811 · January 2016

I run a Tanky DC Faithful Cleric, I have found that for dungeons I am able to mitigate most damage to the party in this way:

Enchant - Trans Terror
At Wills - Astral Seal, Lance of Faith
Encounters - Astral Shield, Divine Glow, Bastion of Health

Throw down the Astral Shield first in front of enemies (know your dungeons) tag the enemies with AsSeal, drop Divine Glow on th and keep your divinity up

For most Bosses I throw down a fully Empowered Astral and I let my team know it's such

With all of the buffs/Debuffs going on trash mobs melt and bosses are nice and smooth

stercesderised · April 2016

If you're using healing word as faithful I think you're missing the primary strength of the class. Faitfhfuls use bastion for those lovely 6 digit heals and some AP goodness. Virtous use healing word for haste/heal over time goodness. These two variations in healing play to the strengths of the class specializations.

I personally wouldn't slot both. As a faithful dc, divine glow, bastion, shield can get just about any group composition through content. If you want to go full time haste as faithful go divine glow, sunburst (divine mode), and bastion.

Question for Healing Clerics

Comments