How to play a healer

How to play a Healer

Overview

This is 1 of 4 guides that is intended to show players how to play their respective roles; Healer, Tank, Damage and Controllers. The focus of these guides is not on any particular powerset, but an overview of how to play your respective role. The purpose of this guide is to show how the Healer role should be played.

The knowledge in this guide is garnered from various members of the DCUO community. Any and all player suggestions are welcome and will be considered valid until proven wrong by the general community. So in other words if you have an idea feel free to post it!

As stated above this is the Healer guide. It will focus on both PvE and PvP content and show you, the player, what you need to fulfill that role. Healers can take advantage of the Nature, Sorcery and Electricity powersets.

If you intend to use this guide to build and create a Healer please be sure to read through it at least once so that you know how to the guide works and which sections you need to refer to.
List of contributors
Superskull85, DarkMagic, SoCal_Ninja, dcuo_owl, mrdosu, yd00w, SnixDragonfyre (Wannebep; grammar)
Table of Contents

1. What is a Healer?
2. How Healing Works
3. Types of Heals
4. Learning your Role
5. Managing your Role
6. Building your Character
7. Balancing Stats
8. Positioning
9. Group Interaction
10. Weapons and Equipment
11. R&D
12. Conclusion

What is a Healer?
A Healer in DCUO is the player that maintains a group’s Health and overall well being. In general Healers focus on 3 things: Health, survivability and stat increases (Buffing).

Health is a Healer’s main focus. In DCUO Health is the stat that keeps players alive and allows them to do their respective jobs. Without Health the group dies and the instance, or dungeon, will not be successful. Health is indicated by the green bars next to your groups’ names. To maintain Health levels you need to use a “heal.” For information regarding heals please see the “Different Types of Heals” section below.

Survivability is a Healers second focus. Survivability is the measure of a Healers ability to keep players alive. This measurement is based on several factors including Restoration, Power Management, Positioning, and Group Interactions. Healers can use Shields to increase a groups survivability as well.

The third focus of a Healer is Buffing. While this focus is not available to all Healers, some do have the ability to Buff both healing and damage. Buffs are usually regular traits that you use with special effects to boost Restoration, Might or Precision.

Healer Myths

Healers should focus equally on damage.

This is not true. An effective Healer should be focusing on healing stats and not damage stats. Most heals will not do any damage to enemies so in order for a Healer to take advantage of Might they would need to sacrifice a heal for another trait. This can be a burden to your team if there is not a full Healer in your group. Unlike the other roles, Healers will do next to no damage with their traits.

There is a way to play a hybrid Healer, or a backup Healer, but this play style requires a full Healer or is limited to certain content. For information about hybrid healing please see the appropriate section below.

Healers play well with same powersets.

This is the opposite of what is actually true. Healers of the same powerset do not play well with each other. Each powerset has a couple aspects that interact with all Healers of the same type. For example some Field heals will cancel other Field heals and some healing buffs do not stack with each other. The most optimal setup for Healers is to have a maximum 1 of each powerset.

There are ways you can play with 2 or more of the same powerset but this requires more communication between the 2 Healers. For more information please see the Healer vs. Healer section under Group Interaction below.

Healers are always required to use ranged weapons.

This is a common misconception shared by all roles except Tanks. It is socially accepted that all players in a group should be using ranged weapons except the Tank. This is not entirely true or accurate. While it is safer to use ranged weapons, Healers (or players in general) should not think that they must use ranged weapons. If you know the battlefield well you can use any weapon that you prefer using.

For more information please see the Ranged vs Melee section under Weapons and Equipment below.

How Healing Works

There are 2 types of healing a Healer can take advantage of: Health Healing and Power Healing. Both types of healing generally does not split unless used on both a player and and an NPC.

Health Healing is a Healer’s primary focus and the basis of most of their heals. This type of healing utilizes the Restoration stat and has a base range.

Power Healing is a minor focus of Healers that usually involves using a Supercharge trait. This type of healing utilizes the Vitalization stat and usually has a constant base. Tho
All Healers have 4 basic heals that they can take advantage of: a Targeted Self Heal, a Full Group Heal, a Shield and a small Healing Buff. Each of these basic heals cost similar amounts of Power, have the same effective bases and have a similar Health/Power ratio.

Targeted Self Heal:

This heal costs 250 Power, has a base range of 68-83 and affects you and the lowest group member. It is usually has the worst Health/Power ratio. Nature uses Blossom, Sorcery uses Rejuvenation and Electricity uses both Bioelectric Surge and Bio-Capacitor.

Full Group Heal:

This heal costs 360 Power, has a base range of 68-83 and affects you and 7 others in your group. It usually has the second best Health/Power ratio but requires a 5 second cast time. If you are interrupted during this cast time your group will not receive any heals but you also won’t lose any Power. The exception of this rule is Electricity’s Ionic Drain that channels several smaller heals up to the big group heal.

For Nature this heal is Bloom, for Sorcery it is Invocation of Renewal and for Electricity it is Ionic Drain.

Shields:

The cost of this heal varies between the 2 powersets; Nature’s Shield costing 250 and Sorcery’s costing 280 Power. Electricity has 2 shields: Flux which is self shield costing 250 Power and Group Transducer costing 50% Supercharge. Unlike the other 2 shields Group Transducer can attach to 8 members of a group at once and will heal the targets when enemies attack the shield.

Shields don’t have a base heal range, instead their healing is directly based off of the Healer’s Restoration (125% in Healer stance and 60% in Damage stance). Shields will attach to the 4 closest group members and/or the Healer if a 4th group member is not present. Shields have the best Health/Power ratio.

Healing Buff:

This buff does not have the same effect between the 2 powersets but it is usually a cost free increase that interacts with other heals in the powerset. Nature’s buff are Pheromones they release, Sorcery buffs themselves with Golden Soul Aura and Electricity uses safety nets and electrical charges

The Healing Formula

All healing is based off a general formula. This formula models all heals and can predict healing numbers well beyond current limitations.

Healing formula: RH=B*(1+HB)*(1+HR)*(1+RV/(100*SR))
CH=B*(1+HB)*(1+HR)*(1+RV/(100*SR))*(1+BA+A)
where,
RH=Regular Heal, CH=Critical Heal, B=Base Heal Value
HB=Healer Bonus (65%), HR=Heal Received (usually 100%)
RV=Restoration or Vitalization, SR=Scale Rate (4 for Health, 10 for Power)
BA=Base Critical Heal Amount (25%), A=Additional Critical Heal Amount

Each heal has a Base Heal Value (B). This value can vary between heals but is usually no more then 100 and no less then 1. Base values also differ between Health heals and Power heals.

Health heals always have a min and max bound to their base value. The game sees this boundary as (MinB, EffectiveMaxB+1) and will select a bound at random each tick of a heal from MinB-EffectiveMaxB. So for example the basic self heal has a base range of 68-83. The effective range is actually 68-82 so the game will randomly select a base value from that range every time you cast the heal. This range gives the heal a minimum regular heal effectiveness of 319-385 at level 30 (minimum Restoration of 740).

Healers will receive their Healer Bonus only in Healer stance. In Healer stance this bonus increases all base values by 65%. In Damage stance Healers effectively have a Healer Bonus of 0% meaning that base values are unchanged.

For a list of base values please see the 3 charts below:

Health Healing and Restoration

Health Healing is the main job of a Healer and is the way Healers restore Health to group members or balance out damage the group is taking. Health increases (+) are represented by green numbers and damage (-) is represented by red numbers. You can see your group members remaining Health by looking at the green bar next to their name in the group listing.

Health Healing utilizes the Restoration stat. For everyone 4 points in Restoration you increase your base Health healing by 1%. A level 30 Healer has at least 740 Restoration or 185% increase of all the base numbers listed above.

Power Healing and Vitalization

The opposite of Health Healing is Power Healing. Power Healing is primarily the job of the Controller role. However Healers can utilize this type of healing by using either Regeneration (Nature), Transcendence (Sorcery) or Speed Drain (Super Speed). By restoring Power using one these Supercharges you balance out the Power you and your group are using to fulfill their respective roles. You can see your group members remaining Power by watching the blue bars next their names in the group listing.

Power Healing takes advantage of the Vitalization stat. For every 10 points in Vitalization you increase your base Power healing by 1%. By default Healers do not have any Vitalization and their gear does have not have a Vitalization component. Any increase to this stat needs to be done through either skill points or power points.

Please note that Power Healing is a very minor focus of Healers. You should not worry about restoring Power unless you have any skill or power points to spare.

Critical Heal Amount and Chance

Critical Heal Amount is the amount your regular heals are boosted when they are selected to be critical heals. Critical Heal Chance weighs the random roll for regular vs. critical heals more towards critical heals.

Critical Heal Amount is also known as Critical Healing Magnitude and Critical Healing Effect. There have been many debates about whether these 3 names represent different stats. However through testing it has been shown that each of these known names boost regular heals by the same amount.

Tanks and Heal Received

Tanks can increase your healing to them by modifying the “Heal Received” variable in the formula above. Tank healing increases affect both regular and critical heals. Currently only Fire Tanks can increase the Heal Received variable and they increase it to 180% (or +80%). Nature’s Gorilla form can also increase the Heal Received variable to 125% (or +25%).

Types of Heals

There are 4 types of heals currently available. These heals include Self, Group, Area and Field.

The strength of a heal is unaffected by its heal type. So you could have heal A that has a base of 10-14 which is a Group heal and heal B that has the same base but is an Area heal. Both heals would have the same strength of 10-14 regardless of their type.

Self

Self heals hit 1-2 players and are usually single target heals within your group. This means that they will hit you and the group member with the lowest Health.

For Nature these heals include Metabolism (Canine) and Blossom. For Sorcery these heals include Watcher and Rejuvenation. For Electricity these heals include Bioelectric Surge and Bio-Capacitor.

Group

Group heals can hit multiple targets within your group. Unlike Self heals which hit a max of 2 targets, Group heals will heal a group member even if they don’t have the lowest Health. Buffs and Shields are also considered to be Group heals.

For Nature these heals include Roar, Metabolism, Harvest and Regeneration (50% Supercharge). For Sorcery these heals include Invocation of Renewal, Transmutation (heals when items, ie: barrels, crystals, and so on, are destroyed), Shared Fate and Transcendence (50% Supercharge). For Electricity these heals include Ionic Drain, Invigorate (50% Supercharge) and Group Transducer (50% Supercharge).

Area

Area heals are similar to Group heals but have a larger range of targets. Like Group heals Area heals will hit all group members but they will also hit players and NPC’s that are not in your group. For example if Batman needs a healing in Batcave: Inner Sanctum during the Brother Eye fight then you could use an Area heal to recover some of his Health.

Only Nature and Electricity take full advantage of Area heals.. Sorcery’s only Area heal is Life Element. All other heals in Sorcery are considered Field heals which are explained below. Nature’s Area heals include Savage Growth, Bloom and Cross Pollination. Electricity’s Area heals include Galvanize, Electroburst (when targets are Electrified) and Arc Lightning.

Fields

Field heals are a localized version of Area heals. Field heals can heal any player but they must be within a certain radius or “field.” Field heals will also heal NPC’s such as Batman in the Batcave Raids.

Fields are currently restricted to Sorcery. These heals include Circle of Protection (CoP) and Soul Well.

Auras

Auras are mobile versions of Fields. Auras attach to target needing healing and will heal other players and NPC’s if the target gets close to them. Auras tend to have a significantly smaller radius compared to Fields but have the advantage by being able to reposition.

Currently only Electricity takes advantage of Auras through the use of Electrogenesis.

Buffs

Buffs are not true heals but they are important to a Healer and do indirectly increase the strength of all heals and other stats. Buffs can increase Restoration, Might, Precision, Critical Heal Amount/Chance, Critical Hit Amount/Chance and damage prevention. Buffs are limited to the 4 closest group members.

The most noticeable Buffs are included in the Nature powerset which include Hive Mind, Carnage, Insectoid form, Primal Wolf form and Gorilla form. Sorcery can buff themselves (and the group) but they do so in different ways. Sorcery can buff their critical heals using Golden Soul Aura while their CoP can add Control Resistance to whomever stands in its field. Electricity can buff the group using Wired and can protect players using safety nets. Safety nets are generated through the use of Bio-Capacitor or Invigorate.

Shields

Shields are a defensive version of Buffs and are considered a special type of heal. Unlike normal heals Shields will not restore Health instead they absorb and prevent damage. They are considered to be the most efficient type of heal with their strength directly scaling with Restoration (60% of Restoration in Damage stance and 125% in Healer stance). Like Buffs, Shields increase a group members damage prevention to 100% and are limited to the 4 closest group members.

Nature’s shield is Swarm Shield, Sorcery’s shield is Boon of Souls and Electricity’s shields are Flux (self) and Group Transducer (50% Supercharge).

Learning your Role
Leveling

This is your time to experiment with your different powers and to learn what each of them does. That said, while you are leveling you are mainly going to be by yourself. Your only responsibility is to yourself. This means if you are in the healing role, you’ll want to equip any heals needed to keep yourself alive, while also having damage skils so that you can get through content quicker. You’re goal for leveling is to just have fun with your character. You can really try all manner of skills and powers, and the experimenting will help you know what powers you liked and didn’t like for the future.

If you’re leveling with a friend you should look at the Duo section below.

Duos

Duos are the best starting point for someone just learning the healing role, because Duos won’t demand that you focus entirely on healing. Instead it’s good to try a more hybrid approach, mixing single target heals, shields, buffs and some damage abilities. The big group heals probably aren’t necessary, as it would be a waste of the extra power those abilities cost. That being said, you are still responsible for keeping your teammate alive, so it’s important to know how the healing role works in conjunction with the other roles you’ll be playing with.

Healer and Healer:
This is a little overkill. One healer should be sufficient to heal all Duos. One of the healers should switch to the Damage role. This will make the duo move a lot quicker. However, if you are having trouble in the Duo, there is nothing wrong with having 2 healers (aside some power interactions, see Healer vs Healer 9.a.), and it will increase your survivability to make it past trouble spots.

Healer and Tank:
This is the slow and steady combo. A Tank that knows his role will be managing all threat and should be taking the blunt attacks from all enemies and bosses. Tanks have high Defense (Ice), or a high max Health and self heals (Fire), meaning they can take a lot more punishment than other roles. Also your heals get a bonus when used on Fire tanks (see Tanks 2.e.). It should be relatively easy to keep the Tank’s Health up, and you should be protected as long as the Tank is taunting the enemies properly. In this combo you should feel that keeping Health up is easy, and you will have less pressure on you. This means you can focus on doing extra damage with your weapons or even using some damage abilities. The downsides to this combo are a lower damage output and Power regeneration is limited to weapon combos.

Healer and Controller:
A Controller’s role is to give power, debuff and crowd control. You should find this combo to be the middle ground between the Healer and Tank combo, and Healer and Damage combo. With debuffs on enemies they should take more damage, and do less damage to you. The extra Power back will allow you to cast more heals and have an easier time keeping you and your partner alive. Controllers can also stun enemies and manage enemies similar to a Tank, but without the damage mitigation. You’ll be without the super defense and threat management of the tank and the higher damage output from a Damage role, but this middle ground should hold up its own.

Healer and Damage:
In this combo, you will have no help healing your partner, but a good Damager can more than double the damage output of any other role. Enemies should die a lot quicker, but you will be required to play a lot more defensively than you would with other roles. You should let the Damager worry about doing all the damage, and focus mainly on keeping your weapon combo going for Power regeneration, and casting shields and heals to keep the party up.

Alerts

Alerts are the first opportunity Healers have to test their healing abilities. While in an Alert group it is recommended that you do not try to take a hybrid approach as there should be other player in your that will fulfill other roles. Your group will appreciate your full healing abilities and in harder content being a full Healer is essential. When participating in Alerts make sure you practice moving with your Tank and conserving Power to help your Controller keep Power up for the rest of the group. For more information about power management please see Power Usage.

There are a couple different tiers for Alerts.

Normal Alerts:
These Alerts are meant for lower levels. You don’t need a full group of players playing each role to complete these Alerts but it can help if you need the support. It is recommended that you complete these Alerts as you level to get a better understanding of how to work with a group. They will also give you XP that will gain some levels.

Hard Tier 1 - Easy:
You are not required to have certain gear for these Alerts but they are slightly easier to other Alerts. Typically you should be able to complete these as you complete Duos. Playing these Alerts will give you the gear you need for next tier of Alerts. These Alerts consist of Area 51, Ace Chemicals and Watchtower Containment Facility/Hall of Doom Armory

Hard Tier 1 - Normal:
This will be the first time you will be required to have certain gear. You will be required to have a Combat Rating of 34 to enter these Alerts. However this amounts to a couple of pieces in the easy versions. Usually these Alerts are harder then the easy versions and require you to be more attentive to your group members Health. Be sure to use your shield whenever possible. These Alerts consist of Smallville, Arkham Asylum and Stryker’s Island Penitentiary.

Hard Tier 2:
These are entry level Alerts to Raids. You will be required to have a Combat Rating 43 to participate in these Alerts which will require mostly Tier 1 Iconic gear. There is not a whole lot of difference between these Alerts and others. They are a stepping stone to Raids and are usually longer and more involved. Not only will you need to kill enemies but you will also have to destroy certain object to prevent enemies from spawning and you will need to kill bosses before they enrage. If a boss enrages your group will die pretty fast. For the most part these are responsibilities of the Damager role but be sure to help them out whenever possible.

Raids

Raids are the highest level of PvE content. Raids require a group of 8 players to complete and the most communication. During this type of content you should have a healing a partner. Try to split up your responsibilities evenly and make sure you and your partner are able to cover the entire Raid group. You want to make sure you don’t use too much Power and that you are able to work well with your partner. You can find more information about group dynamics in Group Interaction.

Like Duos and Alerts there are different tiers to Raids.

Tier 1 Raids:
Tier 1 Raids require a Combat Rating of 43 and will help you earn gear for Tier 2 Raids. These Raids don’t require specific strategies but there are attacks and mechanics that you need to avoid. In Kahndaq make sure you able to heal around the many objects in the area. It is recommended that each Healer are separate from each other to cover Be sure to target the Waterkeeper’s and the main boss to prevent additional enemies from spawning to fast. During the last boss fight be sure to block or roll whenever Black Adam targets you.

For the Batcave Raids be sure to focus spawners and any Shield Armors that spawn. Before entering the last boss fights be sure to ask your group what their strategy is. Each fight requires a specific strategy and the strategy varies slightly.

Tier 2 Raids:
These Raids require a Combat Rating of 53 and will help you prepare for future Raids. You will want to ask your group for the strategies before the Raid starts as your group will be required to work well together in order for the Raid to be a success. The most important rule you need to keep in mind is that you should avoid melee for the most part. The mobs in these Raids hit really hard causing you take a lot of unnecessary damage. Try not to fly to high as you will be targeted by turrets or take extra damage through grounding effects. As a Healer it is important you use your shield to protect your group. At this point in your progression your shields will protect your group members from several hits allowing them to escape from enemies if need be

Open World

Healing in the open world cities of Metropolis, Gotham and Central City can be a bit trickier then healing in an instance as a group. In massive battles you will not be able to group with everyone so some of your heals will not work as intended. When healing in the open world you want to use Area and Field heals as they will hit any player regardless if they are in your group or not. Try to stay near the majority of players and use your heals more aggressively then you normally would. You will be able to see a player’s Health if they are not in your group by constantly healing them. You will see their Health bars above their character and below their name.

For Nature be sure to use Savage Growth, Harvest, Bloom and/or Cross Pollination. For Sorcery be sure to use Soul Wells, Circle of Protection and Life Element. You will not be able to attach shields or buffs to players not in your group.



PvP
PvP stands for “Player versus Player.” You can access PvP content through Arenas and Legends. You should be using PvP gear. This will give you added survivability through the use of the Toughness stat. However you will not need to wear any PvP gear in Legends.

Arenas allow you to use your own character, loadout and weapons against other Heroes or Villains. Arenas can be played with 2, 4, 5 and 8 players. Your group should consist of at least 1 Healer, Controller and Tank so that you can overcome the effects of your counter role. For 8v8 Arenas having another Healer and Controller can useful to cover more ground.

As a Healer in Arenas you will be focused a lot. Your job will be to absorb most hits and keep your opponents focused on you so that your group can take them out. Sometimes the Controller in your group will share some of the damage. If this is the case you can either let them do that if they feel they are able to or if you spec into Health and Toughness you can keep your healing strong and force your opponents to focus you.

There are no roles in Legends. In Legends you pick an Iconic player to play as and against other Iconic character. These characters include Batman, Huntress, Two Face, Catwoman, etc. Because there are no Healers you do not actually need to heal. Your job in Legends is to work with your group to capture the objectives. Legends can be played with 2 or 4 players.

In both Arenas and Legends it is important to fight on the objective. By fighting on the objective you a) capture the objective for your group and b) prevent your opponents from capturing it. Once your opponents are down make sure you capture the objective fully before moving on to the next one.

Managing your Role

Managing the various aspects of healing is a tricky part of playing the Healer role. Constantly casting heals will quickly drain your Power and prevent you from player your role when your group actually needs healing. Healers also need a clear path to other players and certain players require more attention then others.

Healing Priority

As strange or hurtful this may sound, not every member is as important for group survival. The most important player in a group is arguably the Tank. Without a Tank the chance of a group wiping is really high unless the group has a lot of higher level gear and is aware of the situation. The role of a Tank is to grab the attention of most of the enemies so that they only hit the Tank and no one else. Without a Tank your group may find it hard to perform their own roles.

Your second priority should be Healers. For the most part this means keeping yourself alive. However if you are in a situation where 2 Healers are needed and the other Healer is unable to heal keep themselves alive then you should lend them a hand. Without a Healer your group will have a lot of trouble staying alive. So as long as the Tank is grabbing the enemies attention you should ensure that your group receives healing by keeping yourself alive and able to heal.

Your third priority should be Controllers. Controllers provide your group with Power so keeping them healed will ensure that your Tank keeps the attention of the enemy, your Damagers able to deal damage and you able to keep healing. Controllers do have other priorities as well so managing your Power well helps them perform their job better and spread Power to other members of your group. This is explained in the following section.

Your last priority should be Damagers. For the most part Damagers are not 100% essential to group survivability. That is not to say Damagers are not essential to your group makeup, they are, but if they go down it does not mean your group will go down as a result. Getting through the various content will be slower but a group with a Tank, Healer and Controller can survive against most encounters. Now there are situations where your group can wipe without the assistance of a Damager due to certain enrage mechanics. If you are faced with such a situation keep at least 1 Damager alive will usually ensure that you overcome the enrage mode as long as all other members of the group are also alive.

Healing in DCUO does not require you to specify your target like in some other MMOs. Usually heals will target the group member with the lowest Health. Healing priorities become less imported for specific heals but rather how you position yourself or who to prioritize when reviving. Reviving is the method of picking up player who has been knocked out. There is a short window available to revive a group member so if 2 players go down prioritizing a Tank over a Controller, for example, is going to give your group a greater chance to survive. You can find out more about positioning below.

Power Usage

Out of the 4 roles Healers have the biggest available Power pool but it can be easily be wasted if you don’t pay attention to how you are healing. The first skill you need to learn when managing Power is how to read Health fluctuations. Health will continuously increase and decrease throughout a battle. There is no permanent way to prevent Health from dropping so being aware of which heals you should use is essential to conserve your Power by using weaker heals when appropriate.

Being aware of the battle:
Some bosses have random attacks that can cause an extreme amount of damage but will usually not immediately deal the same amount of damage a second. If this is the case then building a players Health up gradually is more efficient then using your biggest heal and depriving your group of any passive healing that you may have provided them.

The general rule for awareness: If a player is hit hard and not in danger of getting hit again try to gradually heal them. If you notice that they keep taking damage and you can’t keep their Health stable try a stronger heal. If they are in danger of dying then use your strongest single target heal to bring them to full Health.

Different types of Tanks:
There 2 types of Tank currently available in game: Ice and Fire. Ice Tanks can usually prevent most of the damage done to them which generally requires less healing. However Ice generally has less Health. When healing an Ice Tank try to keep them maxed out whenever possible. Ice Tanks do not receive any additional healing so being more attentive to their Health will dramatically increase their survivability.

Fire can provide assistance in keeping their Health up. They also have a higher Health pool which means their Health fluctuation limits is lower then other players. Healing given to a Fire Tank is increased by 80% which you can use to your advantage. Because they receive stronger healing your gradual increases are more effective and a stronger heal won’t go to waste if they are low on Health. You don’t want to keep a Fire Tank always maxed on Health. Keeping them around 75% Health and allowing them use their own heals to supplement yours. When healing Fire Tanks you can generally take a less attentive approach and focus more on the group.

Group fluctuations:
Conserving Power when healing a single target is easier then conserving Power when healing a group. Generally speaking weaker single target heals will not be efficient in healing a full group that is taking a lot of damage. This is where your more expensive group heals come into play. You have 2 options when your entire group takes a lot of damage: a) cast a weaker heal and then cast your full group heal or b) use your Superchage.

The first option takes at least 5 seconds to pull off. This is not ideal in situations where your group is vulnerable to a quick second hit. However if you can predict the battle effectively you can use your group heal without wasting your limited Supercharge heal. The second option should be only be considered if you have no other choice. Using a Supercharge will not cost you any Power but you have limited (usually 2 or 3 times per battle) use of Supercharges so you do want to use your Supercharge careful.

If you are healing with another Healer work with them to bring your group to manageable Health. Allow your healing partner to heal the group half of the way while you heal the other half. You will want to communicate with the other Healer so that you don’t use the same traits. Healing from the same trait will not stack more then once.

You can utilize your shield to help prevent a player’s Health from fluctuating allowing you to heal them more efficiently. You can’t target the shields specifically so positioning yourself closer to your injured group member is important as you will only be able to shield a maximum of 4 players. Make sure to cast your shield first before you attempt to heal.

Last thing to keep in mind is your combo level. You should try to get to at least a 12 hit combo in between healing your group. The higher your combo the more Power you will restore yourself. More information about combos can be found in Weapon Combo Regeneration 11.e.

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Tanking in PvP

PvP forces a Healer to take on the Tank role and the Healer role most of the time. In PvP there is no such thing as aggro in the traditional sense. The threat level in PvP is dependent on how strong your group is. Generally the opposing team will want to test your strength as a Healer. If they find you are not too strong they will continue to focus on you. However if they find that you are too strong they will focus your Controller(s). Your job as a Tank in this situation would be to show the opposing team that your healing is even strong when given to your group members.

On paper playing as a Tank is not all that difficult; grab aggro, cast some defenses and block. In PvE you generally don’t want the aggro. However if you do need to grab aggro to help revive a fallen Tank this can be tricky. NPCs generally don’t aggro to Healers as they will usually flip between Controllers and Healers alike. To grab some aggro you can try to do a bit more damage then usual or you can knockback or stun mobs. Once you have aggro you will be acting more like a Fire Tank by cycling heals and blocks. For information about PvE tanking tactics please see the How to play a Tank guide in this series or the various Fire Tank guides.

As a Tank in PvP be sure you know the mechanics of PvP well. Know when and what to block, know when to block breaker, know what to lunge, etc.

How to Debuff a Tank:
Your job as a Healer in PvP is to not only heal but to debuff and distract a Tank. To debuff a Tank use any offensive trait. If the Tank is blinking or has Control Resistance you will not always be able to debuff them. In general heals, fields, buffs and shields will not debuff a Tank. For Nature you can use Vine Lash, Savage Growth, Roar, Harvest, Impaling Thorns, Briar or Thorn Shield. For Sorcery you can use Condemn, Vengeance, Weapon of Destiny, Soul Storm, Final Ruin and Karmic Backlash.

When you debuff a Tank you take away all of their role bonuses. For Ice this means 90% of their Toughness and all of their damage prevention effects. For Fire this means 60% of their Health and they will receive 80% less healing. If you attack a Tank with your weapon you can gain a Confidence boost of +60% to all of your damage bringing your total damage modifier to 135%. You can use this boost to help knockout a Tank.

Overcoming Controller Debuffs:
There is no true way to resist a Controller. Controllers are supposed to be a Healer’s counterpart so it is generally best to avoid Controllers if at all possible as a Healer. However there are some ways you can overcome when a Controller is able to debuff you.

First make sure you have a Tank that can clear you. Tanks are meant to counter Controllers and they have the ability to remove any and all debuffs a Controller applies to you. If you get debuffed make sure you tell your Tank and they will clear you. You can also try using the Symbol of Renewal trinket. This will protect you for 20 seconds but it does have a 2 minute cooldown. This should be your last resort in PvP.

When fighting a Controller just to outplay them. You will have no advantage against them if they debuff you and because of their Confidence they will be doing significantly more damage then you. If you want to resist a Controller you need to outplay them. Losing to a Controller is nothing to be ashamed about as they are built to take you down.

Building your Character
Building your character correctly for your play style can be challenging. What do you pick for your Movement? What loadout should I use? Which powerset do I pick?

Powerset

The main difference between the powersets is mobility. Nature is usually a more mobile powerset then Sorcery that works better when your group is closer together. If you prefer moving around while you heal pick Nature and if you like grouping together and don’t mind communicating with your group more.

For more information about specific powersets please refer to the appropriate guides.

Movement

There are 3 different Movement types: Flight, Acrobatics and Super Speed. Flight users are able to hover above the battlefield while also being able to attack. Their Movement speed is slightly worse then Super Speed but on par with Acrobatics. In combat Flight has the slowest speed and the least amount of agility.

Acrobatics moves around by jumping, gliding and zipping to walls. Their Movement speed on the ground is slightly faster then Flight but slower then Super Speed. Acrobatics can also glide through the air with automatic altitude adjustment. Their sped in the air is similar to Flight if they are not adjust altitude. In combat they have the most agility and mobility.

Super Speed has the fast horizontal Movement and has slightly less agility and mobility in combat. Super Speed is able to jump fairly high and can run faster then Flight can fly.

In harder boss battles and PvP Movement choice is less important because of grounding effect taking away all of your Movement advantages. Still Acrobatics and Super Speed are generally easier to kite or move enemies to wherever you want them while Flight has the advantage of avoiding most damage.

Loadouts

A Healer’s can change depending on your situation. However a good general formula for a loadout should be:

Low Power Heal - Self Heal - Buff or Large Heal - Small Medium Heal - Supercharge Heal - Shield

Low Power heals can include Soul Well, Savage Growth, Roar, etc. For self heals either Blossom or Rejuvenation. Buffs can include Hive Mind or Carnage while large heals can include Circle of Protection, Cross Pollination, etc. Small medium heals can include Shared Fate, Watcher, Metabolism, etc. Supercharge heals include Regeneration and Transcendence. Shields include Swarm Shield and Boon of Souls.

This loadout gives you the ability to play both PvP and PvE content and gives the widest range of healing abilities.

Balancing Stats
The tricky aspect of being a Healer is balancing the various stats that you need to be effective in your role. On the one hand you have PvE that only requires Restoration, Critical Heal Amount and Chance. On the other hand you have PvP which requires Healers to take on a semi-Tank role and requires a mix of Toughness and Health.

There is also the issue of the amount of skill points you have. A good Healer covers some of the critical stats but a great Healer takes advantage of everything. This means Healers usually need a lot of skill points to be effective in their role.

Skill and Power Point Management

How should a Healer spend their skill points? There are a lot of opinions on this topic but in general it seems Restoration > Critical Heal Amount = Critical Heal Chance and Health > Toughness for PvP. Power and Vitalization are also minor stats a Healer could focus more on if they have extra points to spend.

The first thing Healers should do with their skill points is make sure they have a functional weapon. Like every other player Healers should be able to defend themselves and be able to perform. This is especially important in PvP where your usage of weapon combos could make or break your groups survivability. Included in your weapon combos should be a Lunge (hold square), a Block Breaker (hold triangle) and enough weapon combos to build your Weapon Regen. This should cost you anywhere from 5-10 skill points depending on the weapon you want to use.

After you have a functional weapon you should make sure your Movement is functional. The investment in skill points varies between the 3 Movements but when you should have is either Supersonic for Flight, Speed Force for Super Speed and Rocket-assisted Glide for Acrobatics. If you want more usability and mobility pick up Dive Bomb for Flight, Internal Flywheel for Super Speed and 1 or 2 of Grapple Line or Glide Line from Acrobatics. This will cost you an addition 1-3 skill points.

Your third priority should be Restoration. You can find Restoration in the Dual Wield, Dual Pistol and Martial Arts weapon trees. This should cost you an additional 19 skill points unless you selected either of those weapons.

After Restoration you should balance Critical Heal Amount and Critical Heal Chance. Please note that Critical Heal Amount is labeled as “Critical Healing Magnitude” for this purpose. By balancing these 2 stats you will have a steady 4:1 increase for critical healing effectiveness. You can find Critical Heal Amount in the Bow, Hand Blasts, One Handed and Staff weapon trees while Critical Heal Chance can be found in the Brawling, Rifle and Two Handed weapon trees. For Critical Heal Amount balance the first 3 stacks and then finish the 4th stack after you have all Critical Heal Chance. This should cost you an additional 49 skill points unless you selected one of these weapons.

Once you have your healing skills you should pickup the resistances from your Movement. If you maxed out the suggestions above you do not need to spend additional skill points. However if you did not you may need to do so. Start by picking up Knockback Resistance and Recovery followed by Stun Resistance and Recovery and then Breakout Mastery. This will cost you an additional 5 skill points.

Power points vary between the 2 powersets. However any remaining power points should be spent on the Empathic Healing and Miracle Worker Iconic traits.

In total you should have spent 75-85 skill points and 2 power points for a fully functional spec. However that is not all! Generally this is where Healer builds become more diverse.

Once a Healer can fulfill their main job they look to take a secondary job. There are many approaches that seem to work. The first approach utilizes the Vitalization stat and gaining a bit more Power to fulfill a support role. This approach has limited use but can help the Controller role with restoring Power.

The second approach utilizes the Health and Defense/Toughness stats to increase your survivability. The main application of this approach would be in PvP where the Healer essentially becomes a Tank. This approach doesn’t help your group directly but increasing your personal survivability helps if a boss decides to hit you with one of their random attacks.

The third approach utilizes Precision and Critical Attack Amount and Chance. Though a very expensive approach in terms of skill and power points this approach will increase the overall damage of your group. However it can be tricky to take advantage of this job and still be effective in your primary job.

All 3 approaches have uses and will be explained in the following sections.

Restoration vs Critical Heal Amount and Chance

Many Healers have asked if spending skill points in Restoration first is really better then spending skill points in Critical Heal Amount and Chance first. There have been many opinions on this topic, but these are mostly just that, opinions. Some Healers believe that you should focus on critical heals because if you will be healing for many small heals that will increase your odds of landing a critical heal. Other Healers believe that by focusing on both Restoration and Critical Heal Amount and Chance equally you will increase both regular and critical heals equally. However testing has shown that neither of these approaches are best.

Testing has revealed that Restoration should be focused on first because it affects both regular and critical heals. The way critical heals work is by increasing regular heals by a certain. Regular heals are rely on Restoration for their effective so that means critical heals also benefit from Restoration. Consider the following example.

You have a heal A that base value of 10. Knowing that a level 30 Healer has at least 740 Restoration, 25% Critical Heal Amount and a bonus of 65% in Healer stance you can determine that the effective regular heal of A is 47 and the effective critical heal is 58. If you increase your Restoration by 100 (25% base healing) you get 51 and 63 compared to increasing Critical Heal Amount by 25% you get 47 and 70. Overall you get an average of 10 healing from Restoration compared to 7 healing with critical healing skills. If you max Restoration at about 150 (37.5% base healing) and Critical Heal Amount at about 75% then the numbers become 53 / 66 and 47 / 94. Overall healing would be 14 for Restoration alone and 38 for Critical Heal Amount.

At first glance it is not a huge difference but with few skill points Restoration is a better choice over Critical Heal Amount. As you get more skill points though Critical Heal Amount would be better to get first. In general though Restoration is better considering that critical heals don’t always happen without enough Critical Heal Chance.

Restoration vs Power and Vitalization

Another topic of debate is whether Restoration is better then getting more Power or having a high Power regen.

More testing is needed in order for me to continue writing this section. If anyone has any facts they would like to share on this topic fee free to add them. -- Superskull85.

Defense/Toughness and Health

An interesting approach to a secondary job is trying to mimic a Tank. If you ever queue into Alerts with random players you will find that sometimes the Healer acts like a Tank if the actual Tank is not on par. This can usually cause a wipe unless the Healer is familiar with tanking tactics. This is especially true in PvP where more often then not the Healer acts as the Tank the whole match.

Of course the best option for a Healer is to not to grab aggro in the first place, but if you are forced to Tank then knowing how to Tank will help you dramatically. This is especially true in PvP where you are usually forced to be a Tank. You can find more detailed information about tanking as a Healer in PvP Tanking.

Obtaining the right stats is just as important as knowing how to play a Tank. The 2 main stats you should focus on are Defense/Toughness and Health. Healer gear generally has a lot of Health as it is but obtaining more Health helps you survive those last couple hits before needing to heal. You can obtain Health in the Brawling, Rifle, One Handed, Two Handed and Hand Blasts weapon trees. This will cost you an additional 15 skill points to max out Health skills.

Toughness is the key stat in PvP and should be stacked carefully to avoid wasting skill points. Like Healing damage reduction seems to “lose the decimal” which means it is possible to overspend on Toughness. It is only possible to get a max of 250 Toughness from skill and power points (5 stacks of 30 Toughness (150 total) plus the Iconic Nanoweave Armor (+100)) so only 213 of that Toughness will benefit you. The other 37 points should only be used to balance out your armor. Say your armor gives you 1951 Toughness (27% rediction) you could use that extra 37 points to give you grand total of 2201 or 31% reduction. The key to balancing Toughness is to complete the +71 jumps you need for 1% reduction in damage. If you get all Toughness skills it will cost you an additional 15 skill points.

In general Health is a better investment then Toughness. However if you only need, say, 10-30 more Toughness to complete another +71 jump get those before you get any Health. Once you have all of your Health start going into more Toughness. It might be best to spend your skill points in other areas until you have 8 to spare for another 1% reduction though. To fully max out Health and Toughness you will need a total of 30 extra skill points or 105-115 skill points to max out healing as well.

Damage vs Healing

This is another topic that some players have commented on. Why do Healers do so little damage? There are many reasons for this: there is no damage component to heals, Healers are penalized by a 25% damage reduction, Healer gear has a lack of stats and in order to be an effective Healer you can’t overly use your Power.

Now that is not to say Healers can’t help with damage after all Healers need to attack Tanks in PvP. How can a Healer do damage then? Well first they need to utilize the Precision stat. By utilizing Precision 0Healers can avoid using too much of their Power. They can also increase their combo for even greater amounts of Power. You can increase your Precision by swapping out less vital gear like rings or face pieces or even sometimes your weapon. Healers don’t always need maximum Restoration. For example you can easily heal the Batcave and Kahndaq with around 1400 Restoration. Swapping out some gear would not overly hurt your healing abilities if you have more stats then you need.

Healers do still suffer from a damage penalty. You can’t overcome this penalty in PvE but you can in PvP. By simply using weapon attacks on a Tank you can gain a total of 135% damage thanks to your Confidence boost. Combined with a debuffed Tank this will allow you to do a lot more damage.

To increase your damage even more you could spend extra skill points in Critical Attack Amount and Critical Attack Chance. Spend your skill points evenly just like you would Critical Heal Amount and Critical Heal Chance. Increasing these stats will increase your critical damage which would help in the long run. However you will need a lot of extra skill points in order to have an effective amount of these stats.

Swapping some healing for damage is not a very popular investment for Healers because of a “kill, kill, kill” mentality. Focusing too much on damage could hurt your group’s overall healing if the Healer is not careful.If your group is suffering from your lack of healing it is highly recommended to focus less on damage. Still if a Healer is careful they can help with damage a bit.

This investment will cost you 12 skill points for all Critical Attack Amount skills and 9 skill points for all Critical Attack Chance skills or 91-101 skill points including healing. You could also pick either Weapons Expert or Tactical Genius from Iconics if you have the power points to spare.

Positioning
Positioning is fundamental skill each player should have. Being able to move would with the environment helps you attack enemies and heal efficiently. If you are behind an object your cannot heal your group members and if the enemies move away from you it can be hard to kill them.

Using ranged weapons will usually be safer for a Healer but melee users need to be extra aware of their surroundings. Using your shield will help you and other melee users avoid damage. Make sure to use it if you have any melee users in your group.

Ranged healing:
If using a ranged weapon (Bow, Rifle, Dual Pistols Hand Blaster or Martial Arts) it is best to stay at the back of the group so you can see the whole battlefield and effectively heal your group. There will always be occasions where you are spread out in a circle like during the Brother Eye and Black Adam boss fights but it is still best to keep your distance. Try to stay to the side of the Tank so that you don’t get hit by cone attacks and you give your Tank some knockback room.

Melee healing:
Using a melee weapon is usually challenging by itself in harder content but healing using a melee weapon is probably the most challenging. In order to be a melee Healer you need to be extra aware of your surroundings and be even more efficient with your healing. You got to know when to lunge in and attack and when to get out of the way when you take too much damage. Block is especially useful as a melee Healer.

For the most part random “trash mobs” (enemies that you face in between boss fights) are easier to melee then bosses. Trash mobs are generally easy to stun, block and control so much so that even a Healer can hurt. If the mobs are blocking then make sure to block break them and if they keep attacking you try to block so that they get knocked down. Not all mobs are blockable so you may not be able to knock them down all that often. For boss fights try to be behind the boss so that you don’t get hit by most of the bosses attacks. You will also want to watch out for the red skull next to each NPC’s name.

Red skulls indicate that NPC’s are about to do a big attack. The kind of attack they use against you will vary depending on the mob. Usually though they also have an unique animation for each attack. What you want to do is either block the damage (if it is blockable) or get out of the way so you don’t take a lot of damage. You will have to experiment to figure out a NPC’s tells so that you know what to do.

Now as a Healer you want to make sure you don’t take a lot of extra damage. You can use your shield to prevent a lot of the damage when you are attacking or need to escape but make sure you have enough Power to heal your group. If you find that you are taking to much damage get out of melee range and tap triangle to do your ranged attacks. As a Healer your job is not to do a lot of damage but heal your group so make sure are careful when using a melee weapon.

Line of Sight

Most heals operate on the idea of having a clear visible path to your targets. You can’t heal through walls, objects or even on the same level of flooring so it is important to position yourself accordingly. In general if you can see your target you can heal them. There is also the issue of being in range of your targets. If your target is near an enemy then you should be able to heal them if you can target the enemy.

The only exception to these rules are Field heals. In order to heal your targets using fields you need to make sure the field is within range of your target. So for example in order for Soul Well to heal your group members there must be a clear path between the Soul Well and your target.

Buffs and Shields will also obey line of sight.

Group Interaction

It is not always apparent what you can do for your group members other then healing them and keeping them alive. What do you do when you are healing with another Healer? How can Healers, who focus on Health, help a Controller? How can a Healer up the damage of a Damager? And what else can you do to help a Tank? These are all important questions for group dynamics.

The ideal group has at 1 player using each powerset. Some powersets don’t work well with each other and others work well with other powersets. For example 2 Nature users will overlap each other in all aspects of healing and damage the same goes for 2 Sorcery users. However 2 or more Fire users gain strength from each other by setting everything on fire. That is not to say 2 Nature or Sorcery users can’t heal together but it requires a lot more communication.

Healer vs Healer

As mentioned above if you are healing with another Healer using the same powerset as you you will need to communicate more then you would normally. Most of the fine details of each powerset are shared between multiple Healers making it harder to efficiently heal.

The following sections will briefly explain each powerset. For more detailed information about the powersets please see other external guides.

Healing with 2 Sorcery Healers:
When healing with 2 Sorcery Healers it is important to remember that CoP’s will not stack. The first CoP to be used in an area will heal your group members. All of healing that would of been done by the second Sorcery Healer would be negated if 2 CoP’s overlap in the same area. In this situation it is best for one Healer to place their CoP on the main mob of enemies and the other Healer to place a CoP near the main group of players.

Healing with 2 Nature Healers:
If there 2 Nature Healers in a group there will be many overlaps. Nature works by interacting with small healing buffs known as Pheromones. When 2 Nature Healers heal together they will overwrite each others stack Pheromones. The optimal setup for 2 Nature Healers is for each Healer to use different heals that release separate stacks of Pheromones. So for example if Healer A uses Savage Growth and Harvest to heal then Healer B should try to use Metabolism and Cross Pollination. This way they will not overlap each others healing by using the same heals.

You should also designate someone to control the usage of Pheromones using Blossom. Blossom is a strong heal but it can easily mess up the overall group healing by removing all Pheromones for lots of healing for the entire group. This can cause both Healers to use extra Power if used incorrectly. Try to use Blossom when actually needed and communicate with the other Nature Healer when you want to use it. It is probably best if only one Healer has Blossom in their loadout.

If you have a Nature Damager in your group try not to use Harvest as you will steal his Poison Spores.

Solo Healing

Solo healing is not much different then healing with another Healer. The main difference is that you will be using more Power to heal the group and you will need to position yourself so that you have light of sight to all members. Typically solo healing refers to Raids where 2 Healers are generally best. You should try to have at least 2 Controllers and maybe another Mental, Gadgets or Light user that can give out Power in either role. This will help keep your Power up without stressing your Controller(s) too much.

Solo healing as a Sorcery Healer:
When solo healing as Sorcery it is important to position your CoP and Soul Wells so that most of the group receives your healing. You should also call out the position of your CoP so group members can easily receive healing if they need to. Invocation of Renewal is helpful in this situation as it can heal your entire group with minimal Power.

Solo healing as a Nature Healer:
If you are solo healing as Nature you should use the Insectoid form if you do not have Flight as your Movement. Using Flight you can position yourself above the group and can avoid most line of sight issues. Using Bloom and Cross Pollination will help heal your entire group as well.

Tanks

In order for a Tank to perform their job well they need to have enough Health and protection so that they can lunge in and survive against multiple enemies. The way you can help Tanks other then healing them is by working with what they are trying to do. If your groups needs a switch activated during the middle of a speed run then give your a shield so that they can attract the attention of enemies and get the switch without getting interrupted. If they need to stop blocking or attacking be prepared to heal them more then you normal would and be able to protect them with your shield.

Healers also have a limited use of encasement and transformation that they can use to slow enemies down. Try to use these to distract the enemy if your Tank needs a moment to regain Health from heals or to move to another location.

Controllers

Controllers restore Power to your group and control enemies. You can help them do this by using one of your Supercharge heals when the Power of your group is low or using your limited control abilities. You can also help strengthen their Restoration through buffs so that a Controller’s shields can take more hits.

Damagers

The role of a Damager is to kill enemies as quick as possible. So obviously increasing their damage potential will help them out a lot. You can do this with buffs with buffs as well to increase their Might and Precision. You could also use your encasements if they have ways of boosting their damage by destroying encased enemies. Ice, Mental, Gadgets and Sorcery can all benefit from extra encasements.

Weapons and Equipment
So the last question you probably have is, “What do I where as a Healer?” Well obviously you should wear Healer gear bu then the question is what gear should I get first, where can I get it and how does it work. These are all important questions and will be answered in this section.

If you follow the progression in Learning your Role 4 you should be able to earn gear that will help you with the next tier of content. For example the gear you earn while leveling will help you with Challenges and Duos, etc. Some items also have special effects that are not usually apparent through your progression but will help you as a Healer.

Gear Progression

In order to progress probably through the content you need to obtain lower tiers of gear. As you saw in Learning your Role 4 the natural progression goes from leveling -> Challenges -> Duos -> Alerts -> Raids.

Leveling:
Healer gear is harder to find through leveling then it is in the other tiers of content. In general when you are in the leveling process Healers are less vital to success. However as a Healer certain mission will drop Healer gear that you can use to increase your Restoration when needed. This type of gear is varied in effectiveness as you may not always find a full set of gear at each level. Don’t delete or sell lower level Healer gear though as you can still use it to help you as a Healer in Challenges.

Challenges:
Once you hit level 30 you can do Challenge mode missions that will provide you with gear blue quality gear. This gear will have similar Defense to the faction gear you can use for Duos and should even out your lower level gear you obtain through leveling. By completing Challenges you will earn Marks of Triumph and Renown that you can use to buy faction gear. You can find a set of faction gear in each wing of your HQ. A full set will cost you 10 Marks of Triumph. Faction gear does not have any Restoration on it but it is a good stepping stone to Duos that will provide you with more Restoration.

Duos:
Once you have replaced your gear with either Challenge or faction gear you are ready for Duos. You can enter Duos through the Duty menu. Duos will provide you with Marks of Triumph and the starred or daily Duo will provide you with Marks of Distinction. You will want to make sure to do all of the Duos as each Duo drops different pieces of gear. The gear you want to aim for will drop from the bosses.

Completing Duos will help you progress to Tier 1 Iconic gear. This type of gear is sold by Raven, Original Flash and Steel in each of their respective wings. You don’t need this type of gear for Alerts but any pieces you can purchase will help you progress easier and will improve your Combat Rating dramatically over Duo gear.

Alerts:
You can generally do Alerts at the same time as Duos but there are some Alerts that require a higher Combat Rating. There are 3 tiers to Alerts: Normal, Tier 1 Hard and Tier 2 Hard. Normal Alerts can be done while leveling and will award you with the appropriate level of gear. Tier 1 Alerts can be done with Duos while Tier 2 Alerts require some Tier 1 Iconic gear.

For the most part Tier 1 Alerts do not require any Combat Rating. However Smallville, Stryker’s Island Penitentiary and Arkham Asylum require a Combat Rating of 34. You can obtain this rating by completing the other Tier 1 Alerts and earning the gear provided. Tier 2 Alerts require a Combat Rating of 43 which will require you to purchase most of the Tier 1 Iconic sets. Tier 1 Alerts drop Marks of Triumph with a Mark Distinction daily and will help you buy Tier 1 Iconic gear. A full set will cost you 410 Marks of Triumph.

Raids:
Once you are able to do Tier 2 Alerts you can also participate in Raids. Like Alerts there are 2 tiers to Raids which require different tiers of gear. Tier 1 Raids can be done once you have a Combat Rating of 43 and will help you earn Marks of Distinction. The gear that drops in this Raid are better then the Tier 1 Iconic set and will help you progress through each in the tier. The progression for this tier should be Kahndaq -> Batcave Outer Caverns -> Batcave Sub Construct -> Batcave Inner Sanctum. Although this progression does not fit the storyline it is generally accepted to be the best progression. Tier 2 Alerts can also be done with these Raids and will drop Marks of Distinction. You can use the Marks of Distinction you earned to purchase Tier 2 Iconic gear.

Tier 2 Iconic gear can be purchased from Diana Troy, Power Girl and Batgirl in their respective wings. This gear will help you progress to Tier 2 Raids and a full set will cost you 410 Marks of Distinction. Tier 2 Raids will drop gear that is better then Tier 2 Iconic gear and should be progressed from The Chasm -> Sunstone Matrix -> Power Core. Again this does not follow the storyline but is best progression difficulty wise. These Raids will drop Marks of Krypton which you can use to buy Tier 3 Iconic gear. You can purchase Tier 3 Iconic gear from Supergirl in the Meta wing. There are currently no Raids higher then Tier 2.

PvP:
There 3 tiers to PvP armor. The first tier are rare quality drops that can be purchased using Cash. Tier 1 Iconic armor can be purchased from Aquaman, Hawkgirl and Robin using Influence. Tier 2 Iconic armor can purchased from Requisitions-T2H in the Hall of Justice for Heroes and for Villains using Marks of Conquest. You can earn Influence by killing Heroes/Villains or by completing wanted posters in Metropolis and Gotham. You can earn Marks of Conquest by participating in Arenas and Legends. You receive 1 Mark of Conquest for losing and 2 for winning unless it is the daily in which case you earn 4 marks for winning. You should progress from the rare armor -> Tier 1 Iconic -> Tier 2 Iconic.

Power Affinity

Affinities are extra effects that certain equipment have. When an affinity takes effect it is known as a “proc” and happens because you either attack an enemy or you use a beneficial trait. So far only necks and weapons have a Power Affinity.

There are 2 necks that have an affinity for Healers: the Restorative Pendant and the Livegiving Pendant. For both of these necks whenever you use a heal, buff or shield you have a small chance to increase your maximum Power by 225 for 20 seconds.

There are 2 types of weapons that have Affinities: PvP weapons and weapons obtain from the Fight for the Light DLC. PvP weapons come in 2 tiers and proc by attacking a player character. Tier 1 PvP weapons adds 192 Precision (a total of 97.1 DPS) and ignores 12% of that player’s Toughness. Tier 2 PvP weapons add 352 Precision (a total of 113.1 DPS) and ignores 25% of that player’s Toughness. You can find Tier 1 PvP weapons at the Ring War and Diamond Heist vendors and Tier 2 PvP weapons under the Meta wing of your HQ.

The Fight for the Light weapons have a small chance to heal you when you attack an enemy. These weapons can be randomly found throughout the Coast City, STAR Labs and Oan Sciencells Alerts.

Neck, Rings and Trinket

Necks, rings and trinkets are special types of equipment that will increase your stats but do not have a Durability counter. You do have to repair these items but they tend to be the rarest items in the game. Necks are the most effective at increasing your stats followed by trinkets and then rings. How you can equip 2 different rings at one time.

Trinkets allow you to increase your Restoration when activated. This increase will stack with any other buffs and is generally the best way to increase your Restoration mid-combat. You can obtain a trinket each tier of content. You can find he OmmiScry Vitalizer in Duos, Healer’s Focus in Tier 1 Alerts, Modular Psionic Enhancer (+296) in Tier 2 Alerts, Charm of the All-Father in Tier 1 Raids and Augmentive Healing Conduit (+432) in Tier 2 Raids. Each trinket increase your Restoration based on the content it is meant for.

You can also obtain PvP trinkets. These trinkets will provide some Control Resistance and a breakout with the exception of the trinket purchased using Marks of Conquest that will also clear a Controlller’s debuff. All trinket effects last for 20 seconds.

As mentioned above necks can have an affinity that will increase your maximum Power. Rings don’t have any special effects but like trinkets each tier of content has a ring available with the best being Clutch of Regrowth (+24 Restoration) that drops in the Power Core Raid.

Ranged vs Melee Weapons

There are 2 types of weapons available in DCUO: ranged and melee. When used properly ranged weapons will keep the user from receiving most of the damage done by enemies. Melee weapons are the opposite. If you use a melee weapon you are likely to take a lot more damage and you will be more vulnerable to control effects. To compensate for these disadvantages melee weapons increase Critical Attack Amount and will give you extra Control Resistance when used which will make you less likely to be controlled.

Both ranged and melee weapons have close and long range attacks. However ranged generally excel at doing more damage at a distance and melee weapons excel at doing damage up close. Ranged weapons include: Dual Pistols, Rifle and Hand Blaster. Melee weapons include Brawling, One Handed, Two Handed, Dual Weild and Staff. There are 2 weapons that have a mix of ranged and melee capabilities but do not grant you any extra advantages when used. These weapons include the Bow and Martial Arts.

It is generally excepted that Healers should use ranged weapons as it puts less strain on them for Health. The idea is that because melee users tend to take more damage Healers would have to use Power to heal themselves more then healing the group. Now that is not to say Healers should not use melee weapons but it is generally safer and more efficient for a Healer to use a ranged weapon.

For more information about using ranged and melee weapons please see Positioning 10.

PvE vs PvP

When you are playing make sure you where the appropriate gear. PvP gear won’t keep you alive long in PvE content just like PvE gear won’t keep you alive long in PvP content. You can tell the difference between PvP and PvE gear by finding out if the gear has any Toughness on it. If it does then it is meant to be used in PvP and if it does not it is meant to be used in PvE.

Some players like to mix PvE gear with PvP gear to gain a stat increase in PvP. In general PvP gear has worse stats on it compared to PvP gear so mixing in PvE gear helps to counteract that difference. The drawback is that you have less Toughness and Health. There is no exact formula for mixing gear but swapping your wasit, back and weapon for PvE counterparts gives you a good balance between Restoration and Power without losing too much Health or Toughness.

Weapon Combo Regeneration
Combo regeneration is a way to restore Power and Supercharge to yourself by attacking and building high combos. There are 4 tiers to combo regeneration and each tier gives 9 ticks of Power and 8 ticks of Supercharge.

Tier 1 has a hit counter range of 1-11 and restores 10 base Power and 2 Supercharge. There is no hit counter title for this tier.

Tier 2 has a hit counter range of 12-26 and restores 12 base Power and 3 Supercharge. The hit counter title for this tier is “Good!”

Tier 3 has a hit counter range of 27-50 and restores 15 base Power and 3 Supercharge. The hit counter title for this tier is “Incredible!”

Tier 4 has a hit counter range of 51+ and restores 20 base Power and 4 Supercharge. The hit counter title for this tier is “Superhuman!” Hits after the 51st hit only gives you 1 tick of Power and Supercharge per hit instead of 9 and 8.

There are 3 weapons that change these tiers: Hand Blasts, Two Handed and Brawling. The hit counter changes are listed below:

Hand Blasts: 1-9, 10-20, 21-40, 41+
Two Handed: 1-6, 7-13, 14-25, 26+
Brawling: 1-5, 6-11, 12-21, 22+

Combo regeneration scales with your Vitalization based on the healing formula explained above. For quick reference you see scaling in the following charts:



If you have to interrupt your combo it is recommended to stop at the beginning of the next time. So say you are on a 10 hit combo try to hit at least 2 more times before healing again.

Research & Development

Research and Development (R&D) is DCUO’s way of allowing players to customize their gear. In order to do this you need to gather ingredients and use the appropriate plan for the type of mod you want. There are a couple of different types of ingredients are they are obtained in different ways.

Exobits and Exobytes:
Exobits are found in either Gotham, Metropolis or Central City. They have spawn locations similar to Collections and can be found by looking for a small column of rainbow coloured light. You can anywhere from 1-3 Exobits at a time and you have a rare chance to obtain an Exobytes of any colour. However Super Speed Exobits and Exobytes only come from Central City.

In order to craft a mod you need to compact your Exobits into Exobytes. You can do this with Exobyte plans which you get from the researcher you talk to when you complete your Research and Development mission. There are 7 different colours of Exobytes: Support which are used for yellow sockets, Aggressive which are used for red sockets, Fortified which are used for blue sockets, Durable which can be used for yellow or blue sockets, Tenacious which are used for yellow or red sockets, Vengeful which are used for red or blue sockets and Super Speed which are used to make special Consumables.

Simple and Complex Materials:
In order to obtain these ingredients you must Salvage level 30 gear. You Salvage gear by using a crafting table which can be found in any wing of theHQ, Diamond District PD or North Burnley Nightclub in Gotham and Midtown PD or Midtown Nightclub in Metropolis. Salvaging an item gives you the chance to get either Junk, Simple Material, Complex Material, Focusing Element II or Focusing Element III.

Focusing Elements:
Focusing Elements are the harder to find materials. You can obtain from either fighting a boss or from salvaging an item. There are 2 types of Focusing Elements: type II and type III. Type II’s can be found in any Tier 2 Alert or Raid as well Fortress of Solitude: The Chasm. Type III’s can be found in Fortress of Solitude: Power Core or Fortress of Solitude: Sunstone Matrax Raids. You will need 1 Focusing Element each for type II or type III mods.

Plans:
You need plans in order to create mods. Plans drop just like Focusing Elements but are much much rarer to loot. There 5 types of plans: Alpha, Beta, I, II and III. Alpha plans produce the weakest mods and can be found in level 1-20 instances from the last boss. Beta plans produce mods slightly higher then Alpha mods and can be found in level 21-30 instances. Both Alpha and Beta plans require 1-2 Exobytes.

Type I plans can be found in Challenges, Duos and Tier 1 Alerts and produce mods better then Beta plans. They require 4 Simple Materials as well as 3 Exobytes. Type II plans can be found in Tier 2 Alerts, Tier 2 Raids and Tier 3 Raids. They require 1 Complex Material, 4 Simple Material, 6 Exobytes and 1 Focusing Element II. Type III plans produce mods better then type III, require 2 Complex Materials, 6 Simple Materials, 9 Exobytes and 1 Focusing Element III and can be found in Tier 3 Raids.

It is also possible to find Consumable which in general require 1 Exobyte and 6 Soder Cola Extremes and drop similar to plans for mods.

Interfaces:
You will also need an Interface in order to create a mod or Consumable. There Interfaces for each type of plan and they can purchased from the vendor next to a crafting table.

In order to use a mod drag it on top of the item you wish to mod using the square button. To use a Consumable simply equip it and use it like you would a regular soder. Modding an item increases its stats and Item Level (which will also increase your overall Combat Rating). Once you socket a mod you will not be able to unsocket it. However you can overwrite previous mods with new mods.

Healer Sockets, Mods and Plans

There 8 sockets a player can use to modify their gear. Each piece of gear has a different colour of socket depending on which class of armor you are modifying. For Healer armor you will 2 red sockets (head and shoulders), 2 blue sockets (chest and legs) and 4 yellow sockets (back, hands, waist and feet).

Each socket grants an Affinity Bonus if you match the colour of the socket with the appropriate colour of mod. Head and chest sockets will give you Critical Heal Chance, Leg and shoulder sockets will give Critical Heal Amount, Back feet sockets will give Power finally Hand and waist sockets will give Health. The amount given is dependent on the tier of gear you mod.

There are several kinds of mods and plans available. The most useful mods to a Healer include: Restoration, Power, Restoration & Health, Restoration & Precision and Restoration & Might. Although you can modify your gear with any mod you will want to use a Restoration mod if you want to increase your healing. However Healers don’t have to stack Restoration and following your second job as described above you could use your mods accordingly as well. Keep in mind there are no Restoration & Vitalization plans available at the moment you could not focus on Power Healing using your mods.

Using Consumables

Consumables help increase your effectiveness by providing you with a 30 minute buff or by giving you a tool to use. These Consumables require 1 Exobyte and 6 Soder Cola Extremes.

Buffs:
There are 7 different buff Consumables available through R&D. All-Natural which increases Health and requires 1 Fortified Exobyte, Energy which increases Power and requires 1 Support Exobyte, Nitro which increases Might and requires 1 Aggressive Exobyte, Vitamin which increases Vitalization and requires 1 Support Exobyte, Flex which increases Precision and requires 1 Aggressive Exobyte and Bulldozer which increases Dominance and requires 1 Fortified Exobyte. Every buff except for Bulldozer can be utilized by a Healer.

Some Buff Consumables require the Soder Cola Enhancer interfaces. You also cannot stack repeated uses of either buff.

Tools:
There are 5 different tool Consumables available through R&D. Bolt Sport Drinks will give you Super Speed Movement, Shock Sport Drink will deal damage to nearby objects and Flash Bang Grenade will stun the targets near you. These Consumables all require 1 Super Speed Exobyte.

There are also PvP Debuff Grenades and PvP Debuff Protection which require 1 Support, 1 Aggressive and 1 Fortified Exobyte each. PvP Debuff Grenades also require 1 Simple Material.

Tools either require a Device Toolkit or a an Alteration Agent interface.

Also available are the Soder Cola Primes which cost 25 Marks of Distinction and Soder Cola Maxes which cost 25 Marks of Krypton. Both of these Consumables require 1 Soder Cola Enhancer and 6 Soda Cola Extremes. These 2 Consumables are direct upgrades to the Soda Cola Extreme Consumable with Primes being least effective and Maxes being most effective.

Optimizing Stats

So now the question is, how do you optimize your stats using these mods and Consumables? That really depends on you and your character. You could base your mod selection on your primary job, your secondary job, or a mix of both.

Full Healer:
You will want to focus on Restoration and Power, and you will want to at least match your head, back, chest, legs, shoulders and feet sockets to get the Affinity Bonuses. Use Restoration & Precision mods for your red sockets, Restoration & Health mods for your blue sockets either Restoration & Power or pure Restoration for your yellow seconds. It is recommended that you use at least 2 Restoration & Power mods for your yellow sockets to get up your Power efficiency as well.

You will also want use a Nutri soder or an Energy soder as your consumable.

Full Secondary Job:
There are a couple of different secondary jobs illustrated in this guide. Either one would work with mods. In order to use your mods for your secondary jobs you will probably not want to always match the Affinity Bonuses. Socketing a mod does not require that you match the colour of the socket. So you could use a red mod in a blue socket if you need to.

If you want to spec as a Damager for your secondary job you should focus on Precision as Healers don’t do a lot of damage with their traits in the Healer stance. You will want to add pure Precision to your sockets. You could use Might or Precision & MIght as well if you have a couple of healing traits that deal yellow damage. Using Flex or Nitro soders will help increase your effectiveness.

To spec as a Tank for PvP you will want to use Health mods and for Power Healing you will want to use Vitalization mods. Using All-Natural soders will help a PvP Tank and a Vitamin soder will help Power Healing.

Splitting both jobs:
The best way to split mods for both jobs is to use hybrid mods. For a Damager you Restoration & Precision mods for everything except blue sockets (you will want to use Restoration & Health mods here to get the Affinity Bonuses). You could also use some Restoration & Might mods if you have a couple traits that deal yellow damage. For a PvP Tank job you will want Restoration & Health mods for every socket except for red (for these you will want to use Restoration & Precision or Restoration & Might).

In order to split for Power Healing you will not be able to use hybrid mods due to a lack of Restoration & Vitalization plans. To accomplish a split you will want to use pure Restoration mods in your head, chest, legs and shoulder sockets, and pure Vitalization mods in your back, hands, waist and legs sockets.

You can use Consumables based on your preference, but remember that you cannot the use of multiple soders.