Fer Caledor!! As ah was raised in the Elven lands ah have come to realize that this
has given me a different perspective on mah career and I'll share it with yeh. Fer a
sip of that .. yes that in yer hand there ... the orange stuff ... never seen that before
... ah thank you, very interesting .. and mah mouth is on fahr ... water please, ah
thank you. Oh, ah see ah interrupted mahself, ah will progress ..
Most wp descriptions focus on our chosen spec - salvation/grace/wrath, but let's
describe wps by what we REALLY choose to do, and let's not limit ourselves bah
our spec choice alone.
The "WP Specs" links in the sidebar will give yeh the spec descriptions if yeh want,
but done a little differently than the usual spec review and with the secondary spec
takin' into consideration.
A good place to start is a run through of Dwooid's List of WP Stuff-Ta-Do!
Dwooid's List of WP Stuff-Ta-Do!
Focus #1: Druid WP of the Empire
Now the druid wp doesn't think he's a slayer in armor. This wp is specced, armored,
talismaned, career tacticed, linimented, moraled, and skeeled mostly as a healer.
This wp cares about heal power and crittin', willpower, anything else that helps with
healing, and can often be seen reading in battle, if yeh can believe that, and that's a
book that helps keep righteous fury flowing fer healing.
This comes at a price, survivability.
Ah recognize that the rigors of battle force many Druid WP of the Empire to get more
protection at the expense of healing powers (without necessarily becoming true melee
healers). Athough any healer's survivability increases dramatically from mastery of the
environment, movement & camo skills, and class skills, this wp is going to depend
more on those skills than other wps. Ever found yerself healin' from behind a confused
choppa wonderin' where yeh went? Hoowah!
For those totally new to battle, there aren't any official "Druid" or "Melee Healer of
the Empire" titles, these are just names ah'm giving to these styles of wp skeelz.
The salvation specification is a foundation for the wp committed to healing, healing,
and above all, healing. However, that's just the start. All those other above mentioned
options can have a huge impact on healing. This wp wouldn't be as excited to go
head-to-head with a choppa as a Melee Healer of the Empire would, however.
This wp doesn't do as much melee (which also generates righteous fury for healing)
as some other wps, so this wp often relies on tactics, their book, and recharge time
to keep the righteous fury going. Once yeh get the rythm and business of this, it
works out, but can be tricky at first if not always.
If salvation specced you'll often see this wp AOE heal everyone forward of him within
range. This is particularly useful where targeting is difficult. The salvation specced
wp will often choose an additional mid-level damage absorbing buff fer the group, too.
You'll often see this wp in annihilator, sentinel, darkpromise, warlord, and post-1.3.6
patch sovereign, as these sets of armor lean a bit more towards healer needs.
Focus #2: Melee Healer of the Empire
This wp is a healer, truly, but regardless of their spec they load on armor, talismans,
tactics, potions or liniments, etc. for survivability more than a Druid WP of the Empire.
They may start by trying to load up on healing mostly and find out that classes designed
to kill them require them to toughen up one way or another or spend a lot of time running
from a wc or spawn point.
While this wp surely isn't a tank, the build decisions put this wp further along a protection
curve, thus allowing them more close-up survivability.
This wp cannot seriously spend all day swinging a little one-hander, but rather swing
great hammers creating a whole nuther level of damage, and they give up the books
fer righteous fury feedin' to do it. These great hammers often have great melee stats and
an extra slot fer even more melee stats. Though I'm a Druid WP of the empire, fer special
occasions ah got a great hammer with 90ish dps, 90ish str, 6% melee, etc., for example.
If mah great hammer and mah little one-hander ah usually use ever got in a fight with each
other, it would be ugly fer the little guy.
Also, the Melee Healer of the Empire gets more healing from their melee if they do more
damage, so you will see some of these guys put a little effort into doing more damage
such as strength talismans .. instead of more survivability. You can see why they may
only be trying to heal more rather than perhaps think they are melee dps like slayers.
A serious melee wp gets enormous value out of tactics designed for this purpose, and as
such must give up some of the healing focused tactics. A quick review of the options
will reveal which these are, it's not tricky.
This melee healer wp, like all wps, isn't just swinging iron at the the bad guys. All wp's
melee arsenal have magic benefits including slow bad guy, big strength buff to one guy,
lower initiative of bad guy, and so on. As this wp is doing a lot more melee, this becomes
much more relevant.
You'll sometimes even see a salvation specced druid wp suddenly run at a bad guy to
slow him and/or lower his initiative with a one-two quickie one-hander swing to set him up
for others to dps down. We all know how much faster that happens when the target is
slowed. This is a melee healer of the realm utilizing all the tools at his/her disposal to
boost group/team utility.
To get the most bang, the melee healer may be the hardest workin' healer in the realm, in
a constant state of choosing targets and options, all the while tryin' to survive the hostile
environment of the enemies' lines. If yeh suck at or don't enjoy multitaskin', yeh probably
don't want to do this.
You'll often see this wp in invader and conqueror as these focus on the needs of the
melee-focused healer. I expect warlord (and post-1.3.6 sovereign, too), someday because,
well, it is warlord, but warlord wp gear isn't really as melee-healer focused armor as some
others.
Focus #3: BATTLE REZ!!
All wps, regardless of spec, should love to do this. Wps can be great at rezzing other
healers and other critical folks, etc, under great duress, and especially when it needs to
be close to the enemy.
Calm, confidence, a dps's grasp of positioning, use of the environment, preheal dots,
saving up the rf for quick post rez healing, and personal skeel may be necessary to pull
this off in tight circumstances. And when it comes together and yer troops are back up
despite the enemy's onslaught, well, it's awesome! Hoowah!
Having great healers with yeh in a scenario or elsewhere is great. Unless they are dead.
Then yeh lose lots of time fer them to come back. And by then most everyone else could
be dead, too, and the momentum or critical spot lost. Then, well, you know how it goes,
many minutes are lost feeding reknown to groups of destro 1-4 order at a time, etc. until
everyone agrees to combine forces.
Most healers have the protection of saran wrap and when they stop to rez someone they
become targets. The wp is a tougher sort so truly dangerous and nearer-the-enemy's-lines
battle rezes is often the lot of the skilled wp. Note that wp armor is not true tank armor
and movement skeelz need to make up for this for the tight-spot rezzes.
In many areas of human, elven, and dwarven endeavor, this is referred to as a multiplier
effect. The wp helps everyone else by increasing the chance of rezzin critical players
and when possible those in forward positions like Howling Gorge mid and upon enemy
onslaught. The whole-group instarez morale is nice for this, but the usual single target
rez is probably much more commonly used.
Ah keep a list in mah head of the best healers in the realm and rez them in that order
when possible. On Phoenix Throne, Dary, Bardem, Selissca, and many others are mah
rez-at-all-costs first folks.
Focus #4: Group Buffs
You would do well to keep within 100ft of yer wp during battle. Think of yer wp as a
mobile flag standard on steroids. Imagine a flag that boosts yer armor 660, or gives
yeh healin when ye hit somethin', or accelerates yer damage, or casts 4500 damage
absorption on yeh ... you get the idea. All wp specs have versions of these group
support benefits as a defining aspect of the wp class, it is just the strength of them that
is specification dependent (salvation/grace/wrath).
While wps surely can still instacast and stack fire-and-forget heals on yeh if you are
150ft away, have a nice morale one direct heal, and very nice heals from melee, there
are these big special buffs (and even more importantly big heals) available for those
within 100ft. This is about the distance of a strong stone's throw.
The wp has to manage the group buffs to get the most value out of them. For one,
unlike the bw instant group recasts, there is a delay when switching amon the three
of them. This wp will look at the group make-up, the enemy at hand, how close his
groupmates are, and will decide which buff is best and decide when it makes sense
to use which group buff. The wp making the extra effort to maximize the use of
group buffs enjoys gettin every last drop from it.
Focus #5: Cripple Em!
The primary or secondary wrath specced wp has got an interesting, and largely
unknown, bag of tricks available to speed the enemy's demise through slowing them
and reducing healing to them (and enhanced dps but we are talking debuffs here).
No one even tries to get this wp to swear the hippocratic oath. It is hard to imagine
this kind of wp anything else than a Melee Healer of the Realm, too, as they've gotta
get up close and personal to take the time to make debuffing the enemy a big part
of their skeelz. Here the wp becomes a catalyst helping everyone kill faster.
Focus #6: Make Yer Own
Fer mah part, ah make the challenge taking care of bws a personal goal of mine. They
are among the toughest folks to keep up and in pitched battles need to be rezzed
often. Ah try to take care of em as ah understand how important they can be in battle.
And they got snazzy haircuts, too. I'm perhaps motivated also by having watched my
patron, a bw, die countless times.
Ah also enjoy trying to keep those not in groups back up fer battle when mah group
is doing well. It's tough to do as their status doesn't show so easily as when they are
in yer warband.
If you have any suggestions fer changes or additions
let me know! Mah contact info is found at "Contact Dwooid"
on the sidebar.
Best Regahds,
Dwooid of Caledor