Should I be using healing word?

shumanfoo · October 2013

I realize that I haven't run some of the top tier dungeons yet, but I ran quite a few along the way to lvl60 and quite a few of the epic versions of dungeons that I had a high enough GS to run. So far I have not run into a situation where I wanted or felt I needed to use healing word, yet I see a lot of people talk about it as one of the "must-have" encounters to slot. I'd like to hear why others use it. I'm considering a respec anyway to tweak what I picked as I leveled up.

Personally, I run this most of the time:
BotS, Seal
Break the Spirit, Astral Shield, Forgemaster's
Foresight, Holy Fervor

I have found that Astral Seal along with divine A. Shield, divine FF, and fairly frequent Hallowed Ground (with moon touched feat) I can keep everyone going strong.

Next dungeon run, I will probably try out healing word and maybe switch holy fervor for divine fortune to see how it goes.

lihin23nihil · October 2013

I found that Healing Word's utility changes over time as you level.

Early on you use it. Soon as you can levelling you drop it. Early 60 play doesn't need it but as you gear and become more powerful it becomes very useful again late end game.

Do you need it? - no. Is it useful in T2s and up? - yes very.

All of the powers have a utility curve as you level up. You can spend so long avoiding HW though, that it does feel weird when you slot it again.

inthefade462 · October 2013

Early on in t2s or in bad parties its helpful. Once you get full mh set and every encounter becomes a heal then its less useful. Then once your in good groups you no longer need mh or hw as its all overhealing anyway.

I prefer divine glow to break the spirit personally, along with hallowed ground and 3 stacks of high prophet debuff.

craeh1 · October 2013

Healing Word is not a must have - but sometimes a very nice to have.
e.g. on Forzen Heart endboss, most tanks feel kinda happy while kiting the masses of adds, to know they aren't all alone

In other words, it becomes a little easier to most tanks out there, if thex catch up a healing word from time to time.
Also at spellplaque endboss, one of the few bosses in the game where AShield is kinda senseless (if you ask me... never used it there), Healing Word is very usefull.

You are right, AShield and masses of ASeals are way enough heal on most places, often ASeal only is more then enough to keep a soloing TR at boss alive, there again a Healing Word is sometimes usefull, if the TR dodges to late and gets some hard hits.

Break their Spirit is a kinda nice spell, but on common PvE it's kinda waste in my opinion.
Divine Glow or even Sunburst or any other encounter seem to be more usefull to me.
At some places I may use Break their Spirit, Spellplaque endboss could be one of these ... but not on common runs...

Id say skill Healing Word, may you will need it one day, or just on a few situations.
I run most things without, but sometimes I'm glad to have it.
Depending on the way you play, you can "safe" alot points by not skilling class feats, also at at-wills, encounters and dailys.
Lance of Faith is one of those, I don't use it - so any more point than the default one, would be waste (safe 2P). Also Prophetic Action sounds nice, at second sight its waste (safe 3P).
Soothe is not needed at all, too - I'm running fine without it since ages (... is it fixed yet?

- safe 3P).
Going on at daily skills, choose the two, matching to your build, you won't use the others that often (safe 6-9P).
In total there are 81 Points, you can spend 61, as shown above it's kinda easy to max all the things you need - since my last build, I did the "Powers" tab keeps annoying me, cause I got 4 points left and about a month later still no idea where to place....

gpassucc · October 2013

As with all encounters it has situations in which it shines and those in which it is not the best. I generally run Astral Shield (like every cleric in the world), Sun Burst (really awesome AP gen, just a solid ability overall). My last encounter is totally based on the fight at hand. ToS last boss? Forgemaster's Flame is ridiculous here. Bosses where people are more spread out but will be taking damage? (SP last boss good example) Healing Word can be beast mode. If you use healing word it is important to note that you basically have to slot Divine Fortune. If you use that and also happen to have Etheral Boon feated (10% of divinity bar on encounter cooldown) you will have more divinity than you know what to do with and can throw out massive heals with Healing Word divinity. The trick to this is that you get the 10% of a bar when Healing Word's "global cooldown" of a few seconds recharges not when the encounter charge recharges. I'm not sure if I explained that well but if you utilize Healing Word, Divine Fortune, and Etheral Boon together you can almost act like a "traditional" mmo healer, more or less. To have maximal returns from HW though your situational awareness needs to be very high since it is a single target ability and not an aoe, like most of our abilities. I can't count the number of times I have saved some CW's bacon with a Divine Armor -> divinity Healing Word.

tl;dr healing word, not necessary but definitely useful, especially in the right hands

faiteaccomplii · October 2013

I use it A LOT in pvp, however many don't . It is a matter of playstyle, what works for you? And some clerics consider themselves more of dmg. absorbers than healers or others as dps'ers etc. It boils down to what you do in pvp , how you play and the role you take on. I am pure healer, only care about healing. I absorb dmg too but not as much as maybe one of these guys built for that and I can do dmg if i try but usually don't.

Therefore I use healing word a ton, saves my bacon and many others plus it builds just enough divinity to heal someone in a pinch.

tyrtallow · October 2013

Healing Word is not particularly great by itself but it can become a core power for some builds if you combine it with Divine Fortune and other low cooldown powers+feats like Ethereal Boon. It does has value in certain fights.
If you do decide to get it, make sure you also get Divine Fortune.

Break the Spirit is very useful against bosses and mobs which do massive damage, but it's not really a power you should slot for general use. I agree with others, you should instead use a power like Sunburst if you don't expect to fight a lot battles where one particular mob/boss stands out.

Note that Forgemaster's is not very useful for certain fights or for certain group compositions. Healing Word/Bastion/Chains are decent alternatives, and perhaps Divine Glow/Daunting Light when tackling easier content. Divine Glow is a great power, but for a non-healing power its cooldown is pretty high.

misssmoozie · October 2013

Healing word isn't bad, nor great. If you want a solotarget heal, it definitely has its uses. For example, in any dungeon with a lot of burst, ToS for example. We're fighting first boss, a CW has some bad luck and all adds jumps him, reducing him to 10% HP, solution, Divine Healing Word followed by Soothing Lights until he's full HP again 3 seconds later. That's how I've started to use it, or, final boss in SP, adds has found our TR, I cast HW on him, and he stealths, suddenly I'm the only visible one having any decent amount of threat, adds come for me, letting me stay with the CW and look lost about what I should be doing.

So yeah, Healing Word has its uses, but most of the time I run something more damaging nowadays, the buff might change that tho.

hortinhaportugal · October 2013

My opinion is that it's bad.

I never used it.

I use:

Astral Shield.
Forge master
Sun burst... - if you are in dungeons that you cannot get agro replace this by single target, or small target area. Example: I prefer Daughting light. Very usefull to kill archers in FH for example.

hidahayabusa · October 2013

I guess that you will like Healing Word much more, if you run Divine Fortune over Holy Fervor.

gpassucc · October 2013

With the patch today letting recovery reduce cds on encounters with charges, Healing Word is pretty nice. I would say anyone who flatly states "Healing Word is bad" has never used it correctly. Sure in the ideal group Astral Shield and Astral Seal should be more than enough healing and all clerics could slot dps skills besides that. Unfortunately sometimes **** hits the fan and being able to heal someone directly instead of hoping a mob is close to them for a big heal (Forgemaster's) is really nice.

rnewton8 · November 2013

My setup is

Astral Shield
Sunburst

Then for the third, i typically use Bastion or HW depending on the d/d

Healing word is difficult to target properly when ppl are really bunched up tightly together But its great when everyone is spaced out and you can target properly. HE has a long range too which is nice

A few end boss fights come to mind where its definately a really good choice. Frozen Heart end boss is one. Great to keep the kiter topped off, and the person on the boss. For that fight, i dont even slot any other heals, because its just not appropriate. Astral sheild doesnt work for a kiter, and would just be totally overhealing on the boss.

Bottom line is yes- put 3 pts into it and at least 1 pt in divine fortune for the times you need it. some ppl use it alot others situationally.

gudgeonator · November 2013

Healing word is great in pvp generally, and particularly awesome for topping up or replacing team member's health after some action. Most people in pugs don't carry pvp pots and a lot don't have any significant regen. Somebody is fighting and their health is dropping fast - get an AS on them, pop healing word, and then soothing light the rest (if you really don't want them to die right now). Other benefit is you can have a hot ticking on you most of the time which helps out for when you are inevitably controlled.

odd111out · November 2013

Healing Word was something I never used till T2s and Castle Never's end boss, and the Valindra fight in MC. Even then it can depend on how the group wants to tackle the boss. For instance, if you have one GF tanking the boss in MC's second fight, you can keep Astral Shield for the add fighters and just keep 1 HW counter at all times for the GF, and use it situationally for the rest of the party. But if you have a TR/GWF pair, it can be a wipe level event if you miss. I usually slot BoH and spam it on them with my Linked Spirit build, and rely on Soothing for spot touch-ups.

I do have the Sharandar Epic gear with the Divine healing tic, and I can say it procs nicely and regularly. I've been playing since the start of beta, and in groups with Clerics in MH gear I can say fairly certainly that I've been healed by it once. In FH a week ago on my GF. It has made running HW more appealing, as you can divine HW the tank and have it keep ticking. You just watch the purple proc mark by your name and when it runs out make sure the next thing you do is Divine HW the tank and it procs. Very nice.

I usually start the boss fight at the end of Castle Never with BoH slotted, until the hand phase starts, then switch to HW, as at this point the party spreads out to minimize the effect of someone dying. I slot HW for the 2nd and 3rd bosses, but for the first and the corridor fights I used BoH. I haven't used FF in a T2 since they nerfed the divinity gain from Sunburst. Speaking of which, Sunburst is the one thing I recommend slotting out for the FH end boss (the only time I do) because the add is real real sensitive to being damaged.

I never use HW when I solo or when I GG. When I solo, I slot Sunburst, Chains, and Daunting Light. When I GG, I run my Epic set up of Sunburst, BoH and Astral Shield. I very rarely slot in Break the Spirit. As far as where you spend points, I recommend spending them on BoH even if you never use it. It's the only encounter we have that builds AP outside of combat. It's always best to go into boss fights with your Daily up, and in GG you can build a bit in that first minute and first cap, even if you don't use it during combat.

hortinhaportugal · November 2013

My opinion, is that sometimes it's over healing... but that's what I do when I'm at in a group.
You say that you don't want ppl to spend money in pots... eheh

So yes.... I will use it. Astral, HealingWord,SUN.
I've to say that I love forge master when doing bosses... most of the time I replace SUN.
Boss gets slow and the guy attacking the boss is always getting great healing for 7 seconds. When I cast it I attack the boss.
Healing word is great at end levels.

fondlez · November 2013

Good for Sentinel PvP and for endboss of MC because the party inevitably ends up being spread out all over the place or chasing Valindra while being constantly peppered by some form of damage. Ok for healer kiting in FH.

Otherwise, dire and goes entirely against the core playstyle of Cleric class imo (which is mitigation, non-targetted healing spells, buffing/debuffing or utility). That will change a little with Anointed Champion when you get the supersized Healing Word equivalent (without the extra charges).

wildger · November 2013

There is no real right or wrong answers. A lot depends on your skills, GS, which dungeons and how your teammates play. Generally, Astral Shield and Astral Seal and BH provide enough healing to do the trick. At the two lowest dungeons, I may only arm with BoH and Astral Seal only. At the two higher dungeons, such as CN and MC, it becomes much more demanding and I function mainly as a healer and support. My usual combo is:hallowed ground, Guardian of Faith, Astral Seal, BoH, Astral Shield, and Healing word. In areas there are too much running, If there are so much running, Forgemaster's Flame will be used.

One power that is often neglected is Prophecy of Doom. I have been using it since day one. At full power, you will find that the end boss goes down much faster. I may substitute with Sun Burst if I am standing at the edge of the cliff or in the middle of a bridge.

Generally, I change my built a few time from the beginning to the end boss and may be different each time on the same dungeon with PUG.

Should I be using healing word?

Comments