noob cleric question

Demodude - Dreamweaver

My cleric is only level 25 or so so this question is completely out of ignorance and not really knowing the class yet. There are many different healing skills (mostly referring to the single target heals) and they all seem to do the same thing. In what situations would you use one over the other? How are they even different from one another?

Thanks in advance!

b:thanks

Xx_BeLLa_xX - Harshlands

There's 4 single target heals.

-Blessing of the purehearted (BotP): This isn't use at all once you get the other heals, it's not cause it's a bad heal, it's just that the others are better. So no need to level that one.

-Ironheart blessing (IH): One of the most important heal since it have a fast chan, cast and cooldown and also heal over time for 15 seconds. Level that one ASAP.

-Wellspring surge (WS): the second most important single target healing skill, similar to BotP, but have a faster chan which is why people use it over BotP. Level it ASAP.

-Stream of rejuvenation (SoR): Similar to IH this one heal over time, but have a longer chan, useful for the demon clerics (it give a 100% p.def bonus for 10 seconds).

So BotP and WS are similar, but WS win over BotP cause it's way faster.

Same with IH and SoR, they both heal overtime, but IH is faster. Unless you roll demon later on, you might find yourself not using SoR a lot.

So your 2 single target main healing skills should be IH and WS, IH should be use when the person need heals, but isn't in danger of death, WS should be use if the target is about to die.

IH can be stack on the target before a pull.

Also, purify isn't a heal, but sometimes can be more a life saver than any heal.

So basically with IH, WS and purify you should be able to keep your squad alive without any issue and if you chose the demon path SoR will be useful for the bonus, but not that much as sage.

opkossy

Caution: Wall of text that describes each heal. Skip to the bottom for a tl;dr version if you don't want detailed information. Said tl;dr version also includes the commonly used abbreviations for the skills.


The thing that makes ironheart so strong is that it stacks. This is one of the main reasons that it beats out nearly any other heal as the effect will continue working even if you need to take a moment to purify/res/debuff/buff. This also makes it extremely valuable on hard hitting enemies as it means whoever you're healing will be getting a constant heal instead of only being healed in small bursts. Ironheart is going to be your primary heal and should be your top priority when it comes to learning skills.

Wellspring Surge's greatest strength is how fast you can toss it on to get an immediate effect. This makes it ideal for things like topping off HP or as an emergency heal to save someone that needs some form of heal right now. Ironheart would need a slight moment to begin to kick in and Pureheart/Stream both take so long to cast that if you're trying to use them on someone in that situation, they'd either die or burn their charms long before you managed to get the heal off. Don't rely on wellspring as a primary source of healing though as the amount it heals is relatively low. So unless you're using it on a squad member in arcane or light armor, as they usually have a low enough HP for wellspring to give them a decent chunk back, you'll want to avoid relying on this too much.

Stream of Rejuvenation is somewhat of a mix of ironheart blessing and pureheart as well. Each individual part isn't as strong as the respective gain from the two... but as it combines both it winds up being the most "powerful" heal you have. However, the drawback is it has a massive channeling time that keeps it from being an ideal source of healing. It's still very useful for times like if your tank is slowly losing HP even with a stack of ironhearts. At times like that, you can use stream to give your tank a large chunk of HP and then go back to ironhearts. You won't really find yourself using this much, but it will be very useful when you do need it. Demon clerics, on the other hand, will have their use of this skill increased substantially due to the phys defense bonus it gives their targets. Depending on the situation and your tank, keeping that bonus going can make many difficult fights become much much easier.

Chromatic healing beam is, in essence, a squad version of pureheart. It's very handy in general squadplay where you may need to heal multiple people at once but still be mobile. It does take a bit of time to channel, so if any one member is at critical health while others aren't, throwing them a wellspring before using this is recommended. The range of this skill increases as you level it, so keeping it up-to-date makes it more and more useful as you'll be able to heal without needing everyone huddled up as much. You'll also find this handy for bosses that AoE frequently but that either interrupt your next squad heal... or that have a weak enough AoE to make rooting yourself in it not worthwhile. Don't get into the habit of needlessly spamming this skill, though.

Rejuvination Aura (more commonly referred to as BB or Blue Bubble) is a squad heal that also offers a 50% damage reduction. It's your weakest heal in terms of the raw amount it heals for, but it's primarily used for the damage reduction anyway. For bosses that have a hard hitting AoE or times when a tank pulls a large amount of mobs and the squad needs to AoE them, this skill is invaluable. It's also very handy for when you either have multiple people in squad that bounce aggro between them or are facing a boss that hits hard enough that the damage reduction is more important for the tank than the heal itself. The two main drawbacks of this skill are the massive chi cost (it takes 2 sparks to use) and the fact that you're stuck in place unable to do anything other than use your genie and regular potions once it goes up. Despite the drawbacks, it's a very useful skill, if a tad overused due to current player mentality.

Blessing of the Pureheart is, essentially, your worst heal. It heals a good chunk of HP, mind you... just that every other heal does the job of healing better. Ironheart beats it as a stable heal, Wellspring beats it for emergencies, stream beats it for a large recovery, and chromatic/BB are both better at taking care of your squads. The large channeling time would put it at around the same use as stream... except stream is a better heal so you would default to it over pureheart anyway. Most will leave this at level 1 to get a chi building skill that costs almost no MP for when they can't be bothered to use other (notably faster) skills due to MP cost.

A special note goes to purify. While it's not strictly a healing skill, the removal of debuffs is essential and knowing when to use it is one of the biggest things that separate many good clerics from bad ones. Knowing when to BB over when to IH/Purify, for example, can make a huge difference for your tanks and tends to be very appreciated by those who know when it's not a boss' attack so much as the DoT the boss is spamming that the friggin cleric won't get out of the damn bubble and purify because it's a freakin noob that never bothered learning to p-- ... Sorry, bit of a rant there. Point is, learn purify and love it. Especially as leveling it increases the range on the skill AND decreases the cooldown.









tl;dr summary + abbreviations:
Ironheart Blessing (IH): Main heal. Heals over time and can stack so that tanks have heals even when you're doing something else.
Wellspring Surge (Wellspring/WS): Quick emergency heal and good for topping off. Fast heal with immediate effects but weakest heal. Still good for healing most squishies.
Stream of Rejuvenation (Stream/SoR): Massive heal that takes a while to use. Best for when strictly using IH isn't enough but you don't need BB. Use it as an intermediate heal between IH stacks instead of a main heal due to the long channel time.
Chromatic Healing Beam (Chrome/Squad heal/CHB): Heals squad but has a bit of a channel time. Good if everyone needs heals but you can't afford to stick yourself in one spot with BB. Don't spam it on single target bosses or when only one person has aggro unless you wanna **** off your tank.
Rejuvenation Aura (Blue Bubble/BB): Used for damage reduction more than the heal. Good for AoE pulls, strong bosses, heavy AoEs, and aggro ping-pong.
Blessing of the Pureheart (Pureheart): Outshined in every way by other heals. Essentially useless and typically left at level 1 for getting chi.
Purify (Puri): Not a heal but essential. Learn how and when to use it and you'll be loved. Ignore it and people will want to strangle you.

Demodude - Dreamweaver

Thanks for the very in depth responses. And knowing when to use what in different instances just comes from experience I'm guessing?

Xx_BeLLa_xX - Harshlands

Yea pretty much, the only one I would say to be careful to not use too much is CHB, a lot of cleric just CHB spam, CHB is so slow that often people's charms will have time to tick before people get the heal which make it useless and it's frustrating for people. Ofc sometimes people charm will tick it's sort of normal, but if people are living on their charm then you might use CHB at the wrong moment.

Remember that since IH heal for 15 seconds you can stack it on many people, so you can keep the tank of your squad in IH, but also can use it on other people that could potentially get aggro.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary

These are mostly what you will use and do level them up.

-Ironheart blessing (IH): One of the most important heal since it have a fast chan, cast and cooldown and also heal over time for 15 seconds. Level that one ASAP.

-Wellspring surge (WS): the second most important single target healing skill, similar to BotP, but have a faster chan which is why people use it over BotP. Level it ASAP.

Satyrion - Sanctuary

I also highly recommend to have your heals on hotkeys - and get comfortable with them. There are some situations where you just cant move your mouse fast enough to switch target between squad members and click on the different healing skills. Cleric is the class I use hotkey on the most.
There are also times where mobs will aoe-interrup a lot. I especially noticed this places while doing weekly seat and the squad are doing massive pulls. Due to the constant interrupting skills casted by the mobs and the long channelling of chromatic healing beam, you sometimes wont be able to use the skill. Such times you'll have to stick to the very fast channelling heals (wellspring, ih) on every squad member to keep them alive. I seen clerics and squad members die in such situations because they kept on trying to use the chromatic healing beam as its the squad heal & everyone was taking damage.
^This is usually also depend on the clerics channelling from gear. Currently I have both demon and sage cleric. While my demon having very high channelling from my gear, my sage kind of lack it. If she get in such situation as mentioned above, I find it VERY useful to cast a magic shell on myself (sage version offers increased channelling) On my demon I sometimes triple sparked for the channelling when her gear was lesser.