From protection to devotion

ventilato4 · June 2015

Hi fellow paladin players.
Since i like to play my class to the fullest and try out everything possible on it, i'm thinking of a devotion respec for my protection paladin.
I'd already did it if a thought didn't stop me.

What with artifacts?
At the moment i have slotted sigils of the devote, of the scourge, of the paladin and a wheel of element.
Everything for HP, stamina gain, deflect and power.

Since i can't even think of replacing them at the rate RP come in this game, would they do fine for a devotion paladin?
Not having played it yet but i can think for it as a simple progression that goes like: more heals>more survivability(since it doesn't even have a dodge mechanic).
If my thought are right they would be fine and i won't need to change them.

Are the heals of a devotion paladin high enough benefiting only from feats/powers/gear?

beckylunatic · June 2015

Disclaimer: Not an answer from an expert.

Healing requires you to survive, therefore building defensively probably isn't the worst thing you could do. Aura of Courage is a useful buff that requires a big HP pool for max efficacy.

My artifacts on a Devotion paladin are DC Sigil, Lantern, and HR Sigil, with the 4th undecided because I want to see the full Tiamat set before committing. HR Sigil is pretty close to the SW one with recovery instead of deflection. I certainly wouldn't be *un*happy with a Wheel in the mix, because it's a strong artifact.

I am playing Justice, with some Light.

ventilato4 · June 2015

Thanks for your answer beckylunatic. I have leveled my HR to 60 because i needed the sigil for my CW so i could swap only the scourge one with that.

Is justice "better" than light for a devotion? Or they are just two different playstyle?

What has justice to bring in more than light?

I look at the Holy Bonds feat of the light tree as the best thing for a healer, 100% more recovery if the kids are united! (plus all the other healing buffs that aren't exactly that bad)
What feat you loose going light instead of justice assuming you heal enough to choose?
Prism of course because it's a great feat but you shouldn't be injured that much and allies should be kept up at full anyway.
Echoes of light and vengeful judge are replaced by holy bonds.

leeksie · June 2015

ventilato4 wrote: »

Thanks for your answer beckylunatic. I have leveled my HR to 60 because i needed the sigil for my CW so i could swap only the scourge one with that.

Is justice "better" than light for a devotion? Or they are just two different playstyle?

What has justice to bring in more than light?

I look at the Holy Bonds feat of the light tree as the best thing for a healer, 100% more recovery if the kids are united! (plus all the other healing buffs that aren't exactly that bad)
What feat you loose going light instead of justice assuming you heal enough to choose?
Prism of course because it's a great feat but you shouldn't be injured that much and allies should be kept up at full anyway.
Echoes of light and vengeful judge are replaced by holy bonds.

Hi Ventilato4,

TL-DR version since this another wall of text reply:

Your artifacts are still valid as a Devotion OP
Devotion and Protection are very different playstyles
Justice and Light are both viable, but depends on what you want to do
I recommend Justice unless you really want to play a dedicated healer

Not sure If I am *expert*, but I do have a Devotion/Justice OP and run with a guild member who is Devotion/Light so I'll add my 2 cents as well. We are a few days away from maxing out all our Shar/IWD boons but have all the DR stuff and up to the 5th boons of ToD/WoD so have invested a good chunk of time in the guys.

I'm also a bit of an Altaholic who loves to really get into the mechanics of the game and see how things all work, interact and synergise. Hence 1 of each class.

My OP is adequately geared but nothing exceptional... he's my 8th toon so I don't have the luxury of gearing any of them to anything like BiS. It's an affordable build with a full T1 set for armour, purple Main/Offhand, purple G.Con belt, the L70 neck (for now) and I tend to run with an Ioun Stone slotted with gear to increase my HP. Got R7 Radiants in my Def slots and a combination of things in my Offensive, but nothing above an R8. Still boosting Jewelcrafting to get a better couple of Rings/Necks but I would recommend an AP increasing neck rather than an AC increasing one if you have an artifact neck. To be honest, he was viable when his artifact gear was Blue, but its better at Purple

Sontag (My OP) can comfortably run T1s in any party configuration, can solo minor HEs and has been able to solo any content I have taken him to if you play him smart. I have not yet taken him into any T2s, hence my claim not to be an expert, but based on everything else I know about the game I think that he will be able to play his role there as well.

Light is the dedicated healing path, Justice is more of an offensive hybrid. Justice brings a lot of additional buffs to the table in terms of party boosts and your own offensive capabilities so it does depend on what playstyle you are looking for. My Guild colleague is a more potent healer, and my guy has more offensive punch. The two play well together, both can solo, but you end up tanking via your HP pool and heals rather than through DR and temp HP like you do with a Protector.

To answer your main question: I have DC artifact, OP artifact, GWF artifact and the CW artifact (as a Stability one to use those stones up!) but if I had a Wheel that would be better

All but the CW one boost HP which gives me more DPS via Aura of Courage and more sustainability via a bigger HP pool. So your current artifact selection will still be very valid!

If you are looking to mainly Solo and run some delves then I would recommend Justice over Light. OP have plenty of survivability but lack DPS when soloing and Justice gives you a number of tools to offset that. Your capstone is a straight up damage increase, prism is crazy in parties (just don't use it in open world HEs, Dragons or Tiamat as it lags the whole instance in big groups), purifying fire is a nice DPS boost if you use it property (5+ hits then encounter) and you get some good encounter cooldown reduction from your other feats allowing you to spam them a bit more.

I also find that when in Delves I am still able to 'overheal' considerably if I spec with the right powers, but its a completely different build to when I solo.

Solo build:
At Wills: Oath Strike and Radiant Strike
Encounters: Burning Light, Templars Wrath, Divine Touch
Dailies: Divine Judgement and Healing Font
Passives: Aura of Courage and Aura of Wisdom

Basically I use Radiant Strike as my opener/gap closer, then divine touch to do AoE and heal form the alpha strike counter, Templar to stun, charge a full (or close) Burning Light and then either Radiant Strike for AoE or Oath Strike for single target. Both build purifying fire stacks so spamming Radiant Strike is a viable option with a couple of Oath strikes in the mix. Divine Judgment is now an AoE Power more so than a Single Target. Divine Touch is only small damage, but heals me for over 80k in a pack, so I use it as a heal more than a DPS. Taking out the mobs is important (hence all AoE encounters), then you can dance with the Elites and chip them down mainly with your At-Wills. Lay on 5+ At-Wills to get the most out of Purifying Fire and then use an encounter and your DPS is acceptable. You are not a DPS class.

In a Delve, my role is a Healer, so I slot:
At Wills: Oath Strike and Cure Wounds
Encounters: Bond of Virtue, Vow of Enmity, Divine Touch
Dailies: Shield of Faith and Healing Font - Shield may be bugged though and not actually work!
Passives: Aura of Courage and Aura of Wisdom

Bond chains the party together so that your heals will affect everyone. Oath strike gives a healing pulse whilst DPSing but Cure Wounds is a ranged, spammable heal, that via Bond is basically a Heal All spell. As a Devotion OP, Vow of Enmity works like Astral Seal (or how AS used to work) and allows the party heal themselves by damaging the marked target, and Divine Touch is your clutch heal that will heal the party via your Bond. Shield of Faith is a party wide DR and Healing Font is an AoE Heal over Time that chains and is picked up by your Bond.

My usual rotation is to cast Shield as the guys charge in (if its a big pack and your Daily is up) or place the Font where the fight will take place, Vow on the elite and then either stay back and spam Cure Wounds on the Tank/DPS or get in there yourself with Oath Strike and use Divine Touch as a big heal. I have Burning Guidance from my 5th Dread Ring boon which adds some nice damage as well, and after casting a Daily I get a lot of extra healing from Prism. Your biggest challenge is not getting knocked back as that can break your Bond and you need to recast it (much like KF for a GF).

With all those healing ticks going off and shared via Bond, basically the party will either be at full-HP or dropped thanks to the wonderful world of Mod 6 1-shots. If the guys survive a hit, they are healed back to full instantly or in a couple of seconds tops.

Not much you can do about 1-shots though. I just need to remind people that 'I can't heal stupid' or 'I can't heal lag' depending on how they are going

Sorry for the long post! Hope it gives you some good points to start with though.

angrysprite · June 2015

I started both my Paladins (One Devotion, other Protection) in Justice path - I mention this because it allows me to really compare the two Paragons pretty directly and here's what I've discovered: Devotion is considerably squishier than Protection. That's not to say it's squishy, it's not. Perhaps just slightly more squishy than average GF, but definitely more than Protection OP.

On the flip side of that is this: The Devotion definitely heals a LOT more in terms of self-healing. For example: Kiting in Sanctuary can take you from almost zero HP to full HP in a matter of about three seconds. Protection OP: Ummm, no. THP is your lifeblood. Based on this comparison I would describe the two paragons this way:

Devotion OP is a very tanky DC.
Protection OP is a very tanky supertank of all things tankiness.
(In both cases it depends on your build, obviously.)

So this may be a good base off which to decide whether to respec Paragons or not.

(I've since respec'd my Protection OP to Bulwark branch out of Justice and I am freaking loving it - but I did not do that until well after I was level 70, so my comparison of Paragons I feel is pretty accurate - they both had same gear, same path, same feats, etc.)

I don't play my Devotion OP all that much, not because I don't like him (I love him!) But mo0re because DC was my main since alpha-beta days and more than two years as a healer/leader I'm just starting to burn-out on it, that's all. I just looking to be a brick wall for a while.

In short: both Paragons are awesome. OP is the bestest class there ever was (But I've felt that way since my PnP days back in the '70's LOL)

alkemist80 · June 2015

Justice all the way. They can put out more than enough healing, on top of that you provide great party buffs and can DPS to help the group and solo without loosing your sanity.

With bond of virtue, vow of enmity and prism, there is enough trickle healing going around it keeps everyone topped. Add in an encounter like divine touch, that will give you another burst of heal. You also have sanctuary, divine call and at-will cure wounds that can be spammed on top of that. As of right now, it's either people take some damage or they get one shotted. Obviously you can't heal a one shot, but we can easily heal people taking damage. Light is just a complete over kill and leaves you lacking (DPS) during dailies and solo play.

leeksie pretty much sums it all up for group play, however shield of faith is still currently bugged and not working. Divine judgement works just fine for me in T2's. Do some damage and primarily to proc that prism.

I use a different setup for solo play. Templar's wrath, vow of enmity and smite. Things will melt into the ground. I get enough healing off now with vow and divine call (sanctuary as needed). Before that when I was in T1 gear, I used templar's wrath, divine touch and relentless avenger. That helped boost survivability, primarily in IWD and WoD.

From protection to devotion

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