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Advice for target healing, please. . .
oneangryvulcan
Member Posts: 2 Arc User
Hi all,
So, I started playing this game a few days ago and have leveled a cleric to 36, aiming to specialize in healing. I have currently inflated my critical chance and power to 1000ish. The problem I'm running into is targeting. The only healing spells I'm finding worthwhile are Healing Word (if I can get my party to stand in a line) and Bastion of Health (especially empowered). Sun Burst is also useful in thinning enemies standing on squishies, I find.
What I'd really like to do is find more use for the Exaltation power, but damned if the targeting system is constantly HAMSTER me. I tend to lose my tank in the mass of other DPS that tend to stand in front of and around them, so I'm wasting the heal my empowered version does on people that tend not to get hurt. Then, I give up and frantically try to re-empower my Healing Word to bring the tank back up after s/he has dropped to below 30%, due to that waste. Can anyone give me advice on how to only heal the tank in a crowd of other PCs?
Thanks.
So, I started playing this game a few days ago and have leveled a cleric to 36, aiming to specialize in healing. I have currently inflated my critical chance and power to 1000ish. The problem I'm running into is targeting. The only healing spells I'm finding worthwhile are Healing Word (if I can get my party to stand in a line) and Bastion of Health (especially empowered). Sun Burst is also useful in thinning enemies standing on squishies, I find.
What I'd really like to do is find more use for the Exaltation power, but damned if the targeting system is constantly HAMSTER me. I tend to lose my tank in the mass of other DPS that tend to stand in front of and around them, so I'm wasting the heal my empowered version does on people that tend not to get hurt. Then, I give up and frantically try to re-empower my Healing Word to bring the tank back up after s/he has dropped to below 30%, due to that waste. Can anyone give me advice on how to only heal the tank in a crowd of other PCs?
Thanks.
Post edited by oneangryvulcan on
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AoE heals/Heals over time are the way to go (you should have Searing Light on your bar at your level, it fires off an AoE heal in divine mode) so once you get some more levels and get Divine Glow you'll be set and it gets even better once you get Astral Shield.
I use Divine glow too as it heals/buffs and damages.
Searing light is excellent on trash, but doesn't seem to be as good on most boss fights, I feel like it would be excellent if I was running with nothing but melee. I hate healing word because it can't follow the contours of the ground, it's only good in flat areas and even then it's kind of a piece of HAMSTER compared to glow. Bastion isn't a bad idea, but using shield during divinity for temp points is better. I never use it and so far have no issues. I also can’t see having both it and shield as they both do pretty much the same thing, except shield does it better just in a different way.
I completely disagree with the post up above about sun burst, as it is our single biggest action point producer and when used properly (throw mobs against a wall, over the edge, etc.) is fine. It's also nice for getting the adds off you for a sec as we are also offtanks. I can't think of anything other than sun burst, glow, and shield I would have on my bar for a dungeon. I'm finding the best healing is through the 11% dmg reduction of foresight, hallowed ground and another 5% reduction through hots. We don't have a single heal that can outheal the dmg reduction we can do.
But as I go through t1 and t2 content my opinion might change. One last thing about healing, if you're in a group of randoms, do NOT hesitate to educate them briefly on how you heal, since it is so far different from other mmo's, and they didn't roll clerics, so they don't know. By simply telling my group to stick together and stay in the gold circle I've had much smoother dungeons than when I just kept my mouth shut and watched some ignorant ranged run in circles in the middle of nowhere until he dies.
Bastion of health is by far the most useful I've found, but only if you know how to control your divinity and empowerment's well.
Another one I believe is a must is Astral shield, but making sure its used with again, divinity and empowerment's...
Now the 3rd skill will change, some prefer sun burst, some glow... Sun burst really should only be used when facing the boss (unless you're a pretty low gear score for the dungeon you're doing..) however otherwise, I believe glow should be used up until the boss.
We should only use sun burst when 1. we're trying to push adds off an edge... 2. if there really is an increase of adds (which only really occurs in boss area's. The rest of the time, we should be buffing up group members and debuffing adds...
Here's how I run dungeon's and are often complimented on my healing skills...
Make sure you get 3 divinity ready (+)
as soon as mobs spawn, divine astral the ground, devine devine glow, come out of divinity and throw an empowered astral shield on the floor. rebuild up divinity (you should still have 1 divinity (+) still at this point (I usually get 2+ divinity in around 3 astral seal/ brand of the sun hits) as soon as its back, repeat.
When it comes to using Bastion, keep in mind that on its own, Bastion isn't great at healing... if you're rinsing the powers suggested above, and managing your divinity as suggested above (it takes around 5 seconds to go through the cycle) You'll easily have 3 divinity for Bastion when its needed most. if needs be, spam bastion in divinity 3 times for a super quick heal, and if you're really desperate, use your empowered bastion for a full heal.
My average healing per dungeon is between 3-5m (highest being 8m)
But then again, there is no wrong or right build or technique, everyone has there own way - this is just my suggested way of doing it as it seems to work amazingly well for me!
I find it surprising with everything you said that you average 3-5 mil heals. I just use AS and if you get really good at timing it you should prevent any damage being taken so the lower the heals, the better. Though once you get to T2 it seems like a completely different game that I can't yet figure out. Just spam AS for heals, hit points and damage mitigation atm.
I don't use either actually. I can build divinity faster than the shield cooldown, so I have no reason to boost divinity and healer's lore would be great if I was doing any healing. I generally run with holy fervor and foresight. I want action points, since hallowed ground is ridiculously good during the addon zerg portion of boss fights you want it up as much as possible. I keep flamestrike on my bar for trash though. I typically tell my groups to leave a few adds on me for the bonus healing from chaplain's strength, if I'm not standing up with the melee to begin with (which I usually do) but then I also build action points quickly through sun burst.
This is close, but not exact: http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=npb:26jb5o:1zsnwg,1lif324:1z0000:1u50uu:110000&h=1&p=dvo not near my xbox one at the moment. I like all the plus healing, makes passive healing easier, but I'm thinking about respeccing a bit for more action points and survivability. Not going to change anything until after I go through t2 though.
I've been using this build throughout T1 with absolutely no issues, except on the wolf and dragon fights where people tend to run around like dying chickens, makes it impossible to heal. Once I get people to hold still and just eat damage, no issues. I stack crit/recovery/defense, No Power! you get a crapload of power with gear, no need to seek it out since you'll just be hitting diminishing returns (if it's like PC) somewhere in the mid 2000 to the point it's a worthless stat.
I'm averaging about 400K healing at the end of a T1 dungeon with little or no deaths, though with a geared group I've actually taken second on the healing meter with under 300K and I can say they never lost more than about 15% of their health and never had to use a potion.
EDIT: I should mention that my rotation looks something like: pop divinity - shield, glow, shield, drop divinity and gain another + and then drop gold shield. I try to keep glow on cd as it gives a direct heal and a heal over time that is instant cast. Mostly this is for the 11% (foresight) and 5% (have faith) dmg reduction through the hot and the dmg boost to your team. Depending on what I have up I'll pop back into divinity and drop some more temp hit points rather than heal. End result is a total of 16% dmg reduction through HoT's, a gold shield absorbing roughly 2600 dmg per hit (9% max hp - feat for increased hp if you can), dmg increase, temp hit points, and plenty of passive healing through Seal and crits. All I typically see are red 0's.
We're definitely not healers, we're damage reducers.
And yes, I still have 6 power points to spend. We don't have many good choices. You'll notice I do have bastion of health maxxed as I may switch it out with sun burst for some fights in T2 or in the Castle.
Sunburst in the spellplague boss fight and that one boss fight with the brain and tentacles (I forget which dungeon it is) is awesome.
On Power diminishing returns: I've read somewhere that power doesn't suffer from diminishing returns as harshly as the other stats and is fairly liniar in gains per stat. I'm not sure if that was old or surrent information though. Either way I got 3k power without even trying which is plenty for now.
I've also seen agent of the divine save lives after someone takes a big hit. You just gotta build it up a bit.
How is lasting wishes working out for you? I'm thinking of respecing to max that out. Those points would come out of righteous suffering. I specced into that since I needed more damage as I was leveling but now I've been doing mainly epic dungeons so I don't really need that extra damage anymore. I think I'm going to keep astral fury for when I do my dailys and to kill adds when I need to.
Dread vault, and it's great on that fight if you stand in the back, you can actually knock some of the bosses off the edge with sun burst. I've two manned that fight when I was just under 7k gs with another under that amount, took awhile though.
Going with agent means you give up the 5% dmg reduction from Have Faith, which I just can't do since I've never had anyone go under 45% - except the random undergeared ranged running around in the middle of nowhere. I feel if anyone goes under 45% health, I'm not doing my job. I can see Agent being good for those running bastion over shield, but for a shield build I can't imagine a scenario where losing 5% dmg reduction is worth it. Shield is all about preventing dmg in the first place, if people are dropping to 45%, a rethinking of strategy, or gearing, is probably necessary. Bottom line: I can't drop a 5% dmg reduction that I always use for a heal I would almost never use.
lasting wishes just looked like a good idea at the time. I'm actually thinking of changing it to furious intervention for the bonus AP gain. I would like to find out if the bonus counts for passive healing through seal, which is why I took it.
As for power, you prove my point, you get power no problem so really no reason to seek it out. But I just wish I knew an exact number for DR turning it to HAMSTER. Through t1 and I'm near 3K myself, without trying to find it. I think it might come down to how you spec feats as well.
I suffer from severe lag spikes at times and agent helps cover for me during those times. I've also been in pugs where people run away from the group so it helps there. After picking up Test of faith (another anti lag healing feat) I just kinda figured I may as well take the cap stone feat since it seemed like it could be a clutch heal type thing(this was my thought at the time I picked it). I also have a couple friends that likes being a glass cannons so it helps out there (assuming they don't get one shotted). I've also seen huge damage spikes in T2 the past few days that have made me feel like those feats are coming in handy. I've been trying to stack defense to get good damage reduction and building my HP pool so I don't get one shotted. It sounds like we did the fairly similar things with our clerics but went about doing it different ways.
I definitely agree with you on power. It's important but not a top priority.
at wills - astral seal (always slotted), sacred flame (always slotted *gives a hp buff on third strike, can be buffed with dragon off hand i think for more hp)
encounter - astral shield (always slotted) , divine glow(always slotted), BoH (90% of the time slotted will switch it to try something else if im bored)
dailys - hallowed ground (always slotted and use as often as possible, 30% incoming damage reduction and 30% damage out put increase is beastly) *other daily dont matter as i never use it but flame strike or hammer normally slotted*
class abilites/passives - foresight (always slotted 11% damage reduction with feat), holy fervor (aways slotted, more ap gain = more hallowed ground = good times)
paragon points mostly all in faithful feats (definatly for the foresight buff)
playstyle = get a lot of recovery (2000-3000+) and defence (2000+) then work on HP and CRIT. you want to be able to get astral down constantly (recovery helps achieve this) and hallowed ground when available*a lot* (the damage reduction when these are both down makes passive healing very very easy, if your feats are chosen correctly you rarely need to worry at all)
Your problem will be solved once you unlock Astral shield. It'll help guide players to your Aoe heals. Bastion will be your bread and butter, but don't underestimate the power of Astral seal as well. That'll be where most of your healing comes from. Hope this helps!
Keep Astral Seal on targets, remember to use it in divine mode as a channel and look Bastion of Health and Astral Shield. Fantastic combo skills if you can get people to cluster on you. Even when It looks like we are overrun, as long as no one panics and runs from the circle, I can lay down Astral Shield, switch to divine and triple cast BoH. By the time I am empowered it's a judgement call if I need the nuke heal from BoH or Astral Shield.
Here's my build. If you have questions or feedback feel free to comment.
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/x/dc?b=2uhx:uscya1:9mbg:3x2,13l3314:1u0u00:1z0551:100000&h=0&p=anc
Afterthought: It's not always about casting your divine powers as quickly as possible, or casting your empowered spell. You can sit in empowered state and use your At Wills to build more divine if needed. Having that empowered nuke ready can be invaluable. Being able to Right Bumper + Y to drop an empowered nuke heal has saved many dps in a situation where if I was just casting as fast as I could with empowered skills, I may not have had it to drop. Just food for thought.
For at wills i run brand of the sun and astral seal. Keep brand up and then spam astral seal to fill divinity.
Unless you are running a dungeon that you are going to knock mobs off in, NEVER waste a slot on Sun Burst. You will upset your group more than anything. Also your safeguard for when you get agro is astral shield and your tank. If you need to evade, just move around but try to stay in your shield cuz more often than not it will save you just fine.
So i actually stand on the bosses with the melee and tank (i try to keep even the ranged dps in there too) but then every1 can benefit from buffs and astral shield,better. Beware though, when astral shield goes down for those few seconds, things can get hairy if people dont pay attention.
When i run T2 dungeons i replace healing word with daunting light and can actually out dps people and heal rather well too
Go to: Options -> Interface -> HUD -> Party Members -> Show party life: only when Recently damaged.
This takes out the green bars whose HP is max so it doesn't get in the way of seeing who needs the healing.
I also am a fan of empowered astral shield + bastion of health. For my third encounter I tend to use divine glow for the buff/debuff and spot heals.
I make it a point to look after the tank the most, as if they're doing their job correctly they're taking most of the aggro and the hits.
Hallowed ground seems effective as well. I went with a couple Guildies into IWD last night (we're all fairly new 70s and squishy), and that did seem to make a huge difference.
I used to have Sunburst slotted, because of its excellent defensive capabilities. If I got swarmed with mobs (as usually happens), I could Sunburst, then a couple quick slides away from that area, hopefully allowing someone more tank-y to aggro those mobs. However, these days, I try to just do the couple of quick slides, in order to have a little more crowd control with my Chains.
Since I usually run with a Control Wizard, we try to swoop all the mobs together with whatever her CC spells are, then I toss in a couple Astral Seals, hit them with the Chains, then I lambast them with Daunting Light (Divinity, Divinity, Divinity, Empowered). I do a quick HP check, and drop Bastion of Health as needed.
This might not be the "perfect" way to do things, but it works well for us... and any other Guildies who might join up with us.
"...I grab my wiener and charge!" - ironzerg79
I looked for this yesterday and couldn't find it. Admitedly I didn't look very long. Is this a PC feature only or do we get it on Xbox? The only thing I could find in options was the auto-target aoe on-off.
There is no option to do this on Xbox One.
I wish there was though as this would make it much easier.