Ideal buff for the Watcher

While the concept of a pet that helps you heal is pretty neat, its also largely inconsistent and requires TWO skills to be occupied, the summoning and Devotion, meaning a lot of Sorcery healers are migrating to ways WITHOUT the usual combo, and I think the nerf on it was largely responsible, but also because it feels clunky by design. Trusting an AI to react to fast-paced battles and burst damage is proving to be more of a cripple, with Sorcery lacking reliable Heal Over Time compared to other powers (since Soul Well and Circle of Protection are limited by their range) while pets like Fury and Guardian react better by attacking or drawing aggro and Devotion balances their power by requiring the player to react to their power levels.

The idea is: Changing the Watcher so instead of randomly healing an ally, it functions almost like a moving Soul Well, giving off a healing Aura (with a generously large range) with the Devotion skill no longer necessary as the pet won't be spending power.

I think you are using a translator?

Ritualistic Word: Group heal (and PoT for the pets)
Offering: Power-Up your Pet.


I agree on Watcher being a bit stubborn and clunky. Thats with all the Pets (especially Brick and Watcher).
When I used Watcher to heal (still do from time to time) I went with:

Prio Heal
Group Heal
Offering
Shield
Pet
Arbiter of Destiny (with: Pet, Offering, Group Heal, Prio Heal, Shield and Soul Bolt (or Shard)).


For me the Watcher was used as a background HoT and mainly healed with the Prio + Group Heal + Shield. Healers Basically only need a Prio Heal and a Group heal. All paired with Superpowerfocus.

That being said, I like the idea of the watcher being something like a flying healing aura.. but then again.. the movement will be stupid because thats how AIs are in this game )
I am personally just more of a pure burst healer.

Derp I have NO IDEA why I kept thinking "offering" as "devotion", I must be mixing my games here xD (plus the name does fit)
Currently I'm using this build and liking it quite a lot

• Boon of Souls
• Offering
• Shard of Life
• Group Heal
• Prio heal
• Summon Watcher

Leaving the summon for last since its the skill I'll use the least (and having prio heal on number 5 is sort of a kink, ALL my healer have the prio on the 5th slot)

I think it might make watcher worse. It always goes up to the boss. So in elites, everyone but the tank is usually as far away as possible. So it would mainly heal the tank, which may be what it is already doing. I use watcher, have for like 10yrs. You absolutely do not need to use offering to keep it powered up. I use phr and page so spamming my group heal is my jam. Which feeds watcher. It doesn't need a completely full power bar so you just keep feeding and it's all good. If its power bar is completely empty, desummon and resummon. I've had instances when a group decides to wipe and watcher won't let us die. It puts out rather substantial heals when it feels like it lol.

I've found my favorite loadouts for eog spam/ or non eog spam and they've allowed me to solo heal anything the game has offered in the last few years. Granted, my toon is fully built in both roles with maxed artis, augs, gear, and over 520sp. But the only loadouts I ever use:

Non eog:

Priority heal (I rarely use as I still love the orb artifact since tanks have close to 500k health in some cases now)

Boon of souls. I spec my extra sp into dom after getting 100 into might and power for shield strength.

Watcher

Invocation of renewal. Favorite heal in the game. So handy and if you time it right, can usually save a wipe in a 1 shot situation

Circle of protection. I love that you can aim where it goes. I play with turtle tankers so it works well. Needs some love but still works

Then group heal. Spammy spam spam that always. Stack revivify, feed your watcher.

Eog, swap CoP for bloom. If you want to never have an issue, tac swap eog with phr. I'll use invocation when I go to put it in and then hit my priority to call out the spectre while I swap back.

Its an interesting idea for a New Power for Sorcery, but not as a replacement for Watcher. What you're describing doesn't fit Watcher, Watcher is not meant to be Earth's Brick. Its not there to do up to Half of your job for you simply because that would kill Sorcery with Boredom.

Watcher is exactly what its meant to be, Bonus Healing. You Heal 90% and it covers 10%. Its a gimmick power. But it can't be made so powerful that its Necessary to have it. What happens to players who prefer no-pet Loadouts then?

The power you described sounds like a cool SC replacement, but Watchers working as intended. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Everyone I know that was a firm Sorcery healer has changed powers. Sorcerery is already boring and limited. It's not broke but it does need to be looked at.

Watcher is actually bearable with phr

Any flaw that sorcery has is made up for by arbiter, arbiter might just be the best healing super in the game

Ironic really, as i remember suggesting to change Sorcery to a new Version of a Combo Power to make it more engaging and exciting. As I recall you were the only one to reply disagreeing. You can't have Sorcery be the same yet be entertaining so it might be worth choosing a side

If I remember correctly I didn't like your idea specifically.

Sad when a power has only one special tool.

I dont think you are to be honest, there were no specifics. I merely mentioned Combo Power with no elaboration.

Forget it anyway, I dont want to derail the OPs thread

I don't like combo powers. A lot of people don't like combo powers. Terrible idea to completely retool the powerset from scratch.

Then it stays as is, choice made.

Later

I love that sc. I can’t not use it lol.


As for loadouts I personally like:
Group heal
Priority heal
Group shield

These 3 abilities are something that is pretty much standard on all healing loadouts for all powers. For the last 3 slots I use:
Watcher
Channel heal
Arbiter

Watcher is there because it heals on its own and your group heal gives him a little power.
The channel heal is just there incase the group takes large damage as a whole.
And arbiter. I want to be in it as much as possible lol.

My arbiter loadout is:
Group heal
Priority heal
Sc generator
Watcher
Circle of protection
Soul well

While in arbiter some abilities have extended animation lengths so it’s important to clip the with your group heal or priority heal. While I’m arbiter you can pump out the heals. CoP is just for the extra HoT. Soul well while a weak heal can be stacked up to 3 while I’m arbiter which helps keep background heals for when arbiter expires.


Know, as for watcher heals. Yes they are a bit inconsistent. But you aren’t relying on it for primary heals. It’s there for background healing. And if you run into a rare BoP troll than it’s heals go higher. While in arbiter watcher also gains more power because you can cast your group heal more often. I don’t think it needs a rework. Maybe a change to use less power?

anything is bearable with phr.......

Im healing all elite content with prio heal grp heal and 1 4 man shield. Im using Robot sidekick and 2 non functional 25% supercharges. Im using Eog and scrap on top wich are also not for healers by design. (Yes Eog field heals too but its not a major factor)

With watcher it’s different, because phr has a chance to reset your group heal, and said heal powers watcher

I think if people can admit that watcher is inconsistent and nothing more than a background heal… then that should signal a rework being needed. In my opinion watcher shouldn’t be just a background healer, it should be a key element of sorcery healing considering that sorcery is supposed to be a pet power. I feel like Sorcery has really lost it’s identity. I think offering should include a small heal to the group so it is worth having in the loadout, and watcher should be reworked to be more consistent.

My current non-supercharge loadout is
Priority
Group
Shield
Shard
Soul bolt/transmutation
Invocation

The only move I could even see myself possibly replacing for watcher would be soul bolt/transmutation- but why? Increased range is the only potential benefit but as of right now I can still output more heals with a more controlled frequency. Oh, and I don’t have reduced passive power back. From where I stand there’s too many drawbacks from using watcher that need to be addressed, and having purple being used as the “solution” here doesn’t really sit well with me.

yes i know, but my point was that you need only 3 certain skills for any healer powerset to be able to solo heal 99% of the content. Its actually a nice synergy but not using watcher would have also have a nice synergy with strategist card due to more crits for example.

Not that its important since we have Phr but watcher also debuffs your power regen by 5% like any pet. Another downside to this already underwhelmingly mediocre skill.

Long time sorcery user opinion: I'd switch powers immediately if I heard sorc was going to become a combo powerset. Switched from celestial to water on an alt, switch from rage to ice on another, and then switched another rage toon to munitions and won't use any combo powers for any of them. Too many things knocking toons out of combos lately and it gets very frustrating. Even tho I run mostly elite content, I play to relax. Combos aren't a favorite. Personally, I'm fine with sorc as is in all respects as I've found what works perfectly. Wouldn't mind some slight changes like a stronger/ better heal from CoP and soul well and make watcher only heal but can live without them.