How to Play a Healer

Sidekicks & Accomplices

Sidekicks & Accomplices are special pets that help support the group. Unless you picked up a seasonal pet at some point a Sidekick or Accomplice is the best support pet available. Upgrades 1 & 2 will both healing group members, Boost 1 will add additional taunts and Boost 2 will an additional Power Heal. Unlike Supply Drops a Sidekick or Accomplice provides mobile healing.

In addition you can pick any weapon for your Sidekick or Accomplice and they share cooldowns.

Sidekicks & Accomplices should be obtained second.

Backup & Henchmen

Backup & Henchmen are the opposite of Sidekicks & Accomplices. Instead of supporting the group Backup & Henchman focus on attacking your enemies. Upgrade 1 provides you with 2 Backup or Henchman, Upgrade 2 gives adds additional damage to your Backup or Henchman, Boost 1 adds a 3rd Backup or Henchman and Boost 2 provides your Backup & Henchman with Flight. .

You can pick between any theme you purchased to be used as a Backup or Henchman all sharing the same cooldown. Backup & Henchman also share cooldowns with Sidekicks & Accomplices.

It is recommended that you only pickup Backup or Henchman if you are aiming to be an Aggressive Healer.

Supply Drop

Like Sidekicks & Accomplices Supply Drops give Healers additional ways to heal or support the group. Unlike Sidekicks & Accomplices Supply Drops can be used to support non-group members as well. Upgrade 1 will heal players once. Upgrade 2 will heal players once and over time, Boost 1 will heal and provide Power and Boost 2 will heal, provide Power and give players a 50% damage buff.

If you want to be a Maximum Healer than I would recommend picking up Supply Drop over Backup or Henchman.

Orbital Strikes

Orbital Strikes provide a strong multi-hit damage tool. For the most part Orbital Strikes are only useful to Damagers. However at Boost 2 Orbital Strikes is very helpful to group support. Upgrade 1 damages enemies once, Upgrade 2 damages enemies once and overtime, Boost 1 will damage enemies, ground and root, and Boost 2 will damage enemies, grounds, roots, remove shielding effects and lower the targets Control Resistance.

As of 02/25/13 Boost 2 Orbital Strikes are able to make PvE bosses vulnerable to control all control effects.

Orbital Strikes have limited use to Healers. it is probably better to use Sidekicks & Accomplices, Supply Drops or Backup & Henchman over Orbital Strikes.

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Conclusion

Healing can be a complicated but rewarding role. Sometimes you are playing both Healer and Tank or trying to pickup the slack of your Controller but at the end of the day you know that your group could not have completed their task without you. Healers are the life and blood of any group which makes Healers one of the most vital members of a group.

If you have any questions, concerns or wish to suggest an addition to the guide please be sure to leave a suggestion.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this guide and I hope it helps all Healers, new and old. You can see some additional tips below.

Player Suggestions

“Nature:
Pheromone Effects from each power do not stack. So ask the other healer what powers he is using and use different ones. It helps if each Healer has 2 powers that release Pheromones. I remove Blossom from my loadout when running with another Nature healer as it removes Pheromone effects. I let the other Healer cast it so I can focus on putting out Pheromones. One Healer needs to have Hive Mind as it boosts Restoration for both healers. If both have Hive Mind, it helps to call out when it is cast. Both Healers should have Regeneration (unless one is a Speedster and has Speed Drain)

Sorcery:
Circles of Protection do not stack. They may even cancel out if a certain amount overlays (need to test but I suspect this based on experience). So try put down a Circle of Protection in a different area than the other Healer. Soul Wells may not stack either but I try to place one as far from the other Healer as possible. It is good for both Healers to use Boon of Soul and rotate usage during boss fights. Team mates don't need as many heals if they are protected by Shields. Both Healers should have a Supercharge that benefits the team (Transcendence, Arbiter of Destiny or Speed Drain)”

- dcuo_owl

“It seems as though one of the key things to healer basics is communication with the other healer, no matter what the powersets are.
Most people think healers are just watching the health bars and hitting powers when they see it low

- Wannabep

“A. Chaining powers is a great way to avoid long power animations. The power that I chain together is:

Soul Well + Boon of Souls - I use this combination before every fight.

(There are other powers that chain but I forgot the other or don't know them.)

B. Knowing When To Heal

The difference between knowing when to heal and how to heal is vast. As you grow as a healer you should understand this the more you play as a healer. This is something that I can't explain but is well understood by most healers.

C. Have Fun

When raiding don't try to make it a competition on who healed the most. Stats are just a cosmetic but fun thing to look at. If you come up short on the leaderboard don't fret about it. With time you will improve.”

- Snix

“- you not only want a power that will debuff the tank but also stuns or has controll effects thems it takes pressure off your troller. condemn/vine lash/movement powers are good examples
- adjust your loadouts to map i.e. a map like batcave 2v2 would require you to do more damage then say the 8v8 so adjust by ensuring you have atleast one power that debuffs/stuns in your load out
- remember to use healing barrels when applicable! they give power and build supercharges
- don't be dettered from using melee weapons as some have good ranged attacks i.e. martial arts. others have buffs from controll effects which can be really useful e.g. one handed, two handed, dual wield, staff
- IF you are going to spam moves from far way choose block breakers. Arrow storm and mortar may put out decent damage but in healing stance it isn't anything significant. You are much better off spamming moves like explosive shot or shurkens as they help other members of your team build their melee combos
- IF you attack the tank which is highly reccomended avoid jumping in the middle of a battle - rather do it from the outside to avoid getting piled on. If you get spotted by the oppsing team use the lunge to get out of wherever you are”

- yd00w

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Reason for recreation:

Gafa's account has been temporarily banned due to a recent incident. So I would not be able to edit the guide during his ban and have him update it. We agreed that we could work on the guide together and I thought it would be best to start working now instead of waiting.

Changes in the last update:

1. Completed the Restoration vs Vitalization & Power section
2. Removed outdated information about Transmutation.
3. Added Dominance as a factor into the healing formula
4. Add tier 2 weapon innates

Changes to come in the next update:

1. Add notes about PvP season gear
2. Add tier 5 gear and progression
3. Add notes about Power cost scaling with tier 5.
4. Update Weapons and Equipment with recent additions

Changes to come in the future:

1. Finish updating Learning Your Role
2. Add general base values for other generic healing items and tools

Let me know if there is anything more I should change that I have not listed and what I should prioritize first.

Wat do these Super Speed Exobytes Do Exactly

Super Speed Exobits allow to use the plans from Central City. The most useful of these plans is the one that explodes objects.

Sorry for not posting. I refrained because I could not change the title. Feel free to post away now!

Me and Gafa are in the process of updating the guide. Stay tuned.

nice guide wish more healers would read it, I do disagree about modding with resto power, the amount of power you would gain, might give you back one heal, and thats if you mod all four yellow slots with resto power. I would rather have the extra 10 resto from each mod, and accoriding to your numbers that would give me an extra 2% in healing with each mod, giving an 8% increase in healing, thats using resto 4 mods of course. I belive the resto power mod 4 gives you 56 power, times 4 would yeild you 224 power, possiably giving you 1 extra heal. Having the rings would yeild you 336 extra power. Speaking from electric healer that would gain me 1 heal, if I was empty. The gain in my opinion isnt reqally cost effective, you would be loosing 40 resto to gain 336 power or 1 heal.

The extra Power would only help increase your overall healing if you routinely use your entire Power pool to heal as the extra heal is used only than. The true benefit of having more Power is so that you are less likely to be the one targeted by your Controller's instant returns and it gives you more stamina in longer fights.

Thanks for the comment and glad you found it useful.

Removing bloss form your loadout is a def no no, what if the other healer goes down or just gets caught up and cant heal at the second everyone needs it. and i dont believe in changing my loadout just cause im with another Nat healer, i mean its ok but you wont be on your A game without your normal loadout.

It is entirely possible to heal without Blossom as a Nature Healer. I did it on Thursday using Bloom instead of Blossom (heck with the recent change to Bloom and you time it right, Bloom is better overall compared to Blossom. That goes for the new Invocation of Renewal compared to Rejuvenate as well.) and I heal most content using Harvest instead of Blossom when I dual spec.

If you play off what if scenarios you will never be open minded to other styles of play in my opinion. The reason being is that the anti-what if loadout is almost always going to be the full blown rounded loadout that everyone uses.

bloom and IOR are no way better than blossom, its totally not reliable while your in the cast time someone could already be dead. and yea you can jump cancel it to toss out a quick heal but then thats a waste of even using it if you can get it off. people just use bloom and IOR fro the scoreboard.

and everyone uses SG,Metabo Blossom cause its the best Nat has not to mention cross pol is in my opinion way better than bloom. and you need to always think what if cause anything can happen in a sec and u need to beable to react quick.

and im not saying your loadout dosnt work i just prefer to use SG,Metabo bloss and cross pol cause no matter what the other healers doing i play like im the only one

What I like to do with two Nature healers is put on Harvest in my load out instead of Blossom. Harvest will do a burst heal for every Pheromone stacked, and it heals multiple people. Also it adds another Pheromone.

Normal loadout ~ SG > Blossom > Meta > Swarm Shield > Cross Poll > Regeneration
Two Natures loadout~ SG > Meta > Harvest > Swarm Shield > Cross Poll > Regeneration

If I'm playing with good players who know how to block or over gear content... I'll run Bloom in place of Swarm Shield... Just to see those high numbers hahah XD

Which leads to wasted Power scenarios. For example if someone is using Blossom, Rejuvenate or Bioelectric Surge and you use it a split second after you just wasted some Power. When healing with others you need to be open to other play styles.

As for the Bloom cast problem that's why I mentioned timing. Of course using Bloom when players are almost dead won't help, but that is not at all when you should be using Bloom. You use Bloom in anticipation for big hits and because it is beneficial you can cancel another heal (for example Metabolism) for the sustain heal while waiting for the cast time. Again proper timing is key. If you wait until your group is already hurt to use Bloom than you have waited too long.

The strength of the heal from a numbers standpoint is much higher than Blossom. Bloom is double effective target having a base range of 136-167 versus Blossom's 68-84. Per Raid group Bloom hits 8 times and Blossom 2 times which comes to 1 088-1 328 for Bloom and 136-166 for Blossom. Power cost is also much lower.

In order to surpass the healing of Bloom you would need 4 layers of Pheromones already applied to each target. Doing this means you are essentially comparing 5 heals (costing about 3 times as much Power) to 1 heal and must already have Bloom in your loadout (as you need it to reach 4 layers of Pheromones).

So if you can master timing of Bloom than yes it is much better than Blossom.

What I mentioned also applies to Invocation of Renewal and Ionic Drain.

I'm not saying your play style is wrong either but that you should be open and flexible depending on various factors and don't stick with any one loadout. The purpose of this guide is to show players a wide variety of ways to play a Healer whether it be support, solo, main, aggressive, etc.

As for the "only for the scoreboard" comment that makes zero sense since other heals would help give you those numbers too just in different ways and because over healing does not count towards your Healing Out score. So just because you saw a 3000+ critical in fly-by-text does not mean that you actually healed that much.

Theres really no mastering bloom you just use it and hope someone needs a heal by the time the cast is over. its nice for another stack but would much rather have cross pol than bloom. and why waste all that time just for another stack when sg/metabo will heal anything.

But again that is where you and me disagree and how you seem not to be open minded.

I am open minded but bloom is just not reliable. i dont care what the numbers say cause in action blossom will alway be a better heal. to many people on here get caught up with silly numbers, yea bloom is better on paper but not in a raid

and i never really have a problem healing with another nature healer i just tell them to take it easy on blossom thats it.