Are healers still good after the recent updates

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Dalenger
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Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Dalenger » Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:03 pm

I haven't been doing a great job keeping up with the recent updates, but if I'm following correctly mages are now considered better and sword & board got an effective nerf. From a party support standpoint (in both pvp and pve), are healers still considered good? The core benefit of healers is healing front-liners, but if no one is taking damage in the party (except summons) then it kinda defeats the purpose, right?
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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Vrass » Fri Nov 15, 2019 12:16 am

Healer is a bad investment. You lose just about every cleric feature in exchange for uber healing that can be gotten without taking the healer path if you know how to build optimal clerics. You will get stomped by mobs and players constantly and wont have armor or weapons with which to face them which will just make you die faster when they all gang up on you which they will do every time because anyone smart will recognize you as a priority target and act accordingly to neutralize you. Its just not worth it.

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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by A good woman » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:39 am

  • healers are still good
  • you will not get stomped in pve unless you're very unlucky or very rusty
  • you can smartly solo everything barring 2-3 bosses
  • you can easily be the bane of whoever you're pvping (especially in groups)
  • there are some good class dips to strengthen you depending on what you like
  • (((remember you are playing a specialized support)))
ask the builders in 3.0 for tips and tricks

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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Aren » Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:29 pm

Heal Path clerics are among the most powerful builds on the server.
And with the new changes to Lore, they are even more powerful.

Whoever says Heal Paths are bad, simply has no clue as to what they are talking about.

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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Dalenger » Fri Nov 15, 2019 4:26 pm

Without conj focus or animal domain (say, taking trans focus & war domain), can a healer still mange by themselves? Or without conj/animal, are summons just trash?
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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Alantar » Fri Nov 15, 2019 4:41 pm

Healers are VERY strong. I played one and it was, by large, my strongest character PvP wise.

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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Wrips » Fri Nov 15, 2019 4:43 pm

A Healer is heavily advised to take either Conj focus or Necro focus and Mummy Dust.

Necro and Trans focus with War domain is really powerful now, especially with the new changes.

I'm a particular enthusiast of the pure 30 Healer CHA based that relies on the Protection domain sanctuary. You can still summon EDK while protected by the domain sanctuary. You get -respite at 28, an ability that is very underrated.

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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Dalenger » Fri Nov 15, 2019 5:00 pm

Wrips wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 4:43 pm
A Healer is heavily advised to take either Conj focus or Necro focus and Mummy Dust.

Necro and Trans focus with War domain is really powerful now, especially with the new changes.

I'm a particular enthusiast of the pure 30 Healer CHA based that relies on the Protection domain sanctuary. You can still summon EDK while protected by the domain sanctuary. You get -respite at 28, an ability that is very underrated.
That's my thought exactly. Pure healer, war+protection domain. I suppose the debate comes down to which of two spell focuses: abjuration, transmutation, necromancy, or conjuration. Abjuration will make your protection sanctuary undispellable, trans adds +2 to all your zoo spells, necro makes mummy dust even more hilarious, and conjuration will make lower levels (when healers are garbo) a breeze. I suppose the easiest one to cross off is conjuration, so that leaves us abj, trans, & necro. In the PvP setting, wouldn't dispel resistance be really important? Or did the new updates change how dispelling works?
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Re: Are healers still good after the recent updates

Post by Zanithar » Tue Nov 26, 2019 8:19 pm

I just stumbled across this looking for another thread. I have 2 healer builds which were both started pre-change.

I have a 30 healer Protection/War healer and I have a 26 Healer / 4 MonkTravel/War HOrc QStaff builds, the first at 30 and the second in mid epics. Both received indirect buffs to the series of changes that went on.
1. EDK was nerfed with respect to toughness which is mitigate le by cleric.
2. The Lore change has allowed both builds access to 9th level spell scrolls of other casters. Most notably Timestop and Mords. As clerics and thus healers (and wizards of course) have the most versatility for equipment options across all the classes they are the most suited to take advantage of this.

This said, I have not rebuilt either yet. I can spare a Feat for Lore on my Straight healer but my Monk / Healer is exceedingly feat constrained and I have not decided whether or not I will be making that trade.

A couple more things in closing:
1. A Sanc healer build does not need Abjuration to make his/her Protection feat undispellable as previously noted. They need Arcane Spell Defence and need is a strong word for the edge case of being hit with an AOE dispel whilst untargettable to everyone and invisible to anyone not sporting Truesight.
2. Someone noted that healers are weak compared to normal clerics, this has not been my experience. I have both a battle healer (Mo/Healer) and a straight Healer, both of them stand up well to armoured clerics. So much so, I would even suggest the opposite in a general build. If you are playing a caster cleri , there is no mechanical advantage to not playing a healer and this has been re-enforced by the change.

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