Hi all, I recently brought up my nature heal to cr303, SP330. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any artifacts leveled up yet since she took advantage of double/triple lex coin mark weeks. But hey, artifacts is supposed to enhance the normal gameplay, but normal gameplay should still be possible with gear alone right? In my first VMF run (which i ran many times before as dps/troll/tank), my group wipes b/c my heal can't keep them alive during DoT in the room. I run out of power way too quick with 3 primary heals and my power bar is drained, and my heal over time is no where good enough to keep them alive. I'm pretty sure i'm playing nature wrong, so I need some help. If anyone could give me pointers or advice/loadout/playstyle on nature healing in VMF, that'd be super helpful. Leveling artifacts is not an option at this point despite the bonus week (AND I really think i should be able to run basic alerts and raids without them, not elites, but basic ones, yes). Thanks in advance.
Normal gameplay is balanced around players having three Artifacts. It is possible to complete content without Artifacts but it will be an unnecessary challenge. Let's start with what loadout are you using? What's your rotation? Artifacts may vary depending on your playstyle.
Aww your poor thing sorry to hear about that wipe and yeah The DOT in Turrets can be challenging for healers not up to it. On my main it's a cake walk always easy . But Lorax can help he's full of useful helpful tips always good stuff.
Thanks for the clarification on whats expected as a normal play. I looked up posts and read a few of your posts on nature heal loadout and arts. I will follow one of those in the future. But as of now, I think I'll bench this alt toon. The thought of leveling more set of arts makes me queasy. Cheers.
Nature Healing loadout Savage Growth Metabolism Cross Pollinate Blossom Flourish Swarm Shield Nature Healing routine Apply Phermones (Savage Growth, Metabolism, Cross Pollinate) which will serve as Heal Over Time for the group. Blossom as Priority Heal to address immediate spike damage. Flourish will refresh the Phermones, and spread them around, somewhat removing the need to re-apply frequently. Flourish before HoTs expire. Flourish after casting Blossom as well to reapply. Swarm Shield is a 4 player shield. Use it as appropriate. If you know that you are going to struggle with the DoT element of the Lex fight heat/coolant release, then save your shield until partially into that phase, so that your initial Heal Over Time phermones balance the earlier damage, and as the damage steadily increases, you pop the shield at a point where you really need it to take some pressure off for a second or two. The fight is doable without Artifacts. I did solo heal it with my Electric Healer with no Artifacts (and I consider Nature Healing stronger than Electric Healing for that fight, just because it's so spread out and there is little in the way of adds). It is not an easy fight, however. There is a significant amount of damage coming in, so even with my main (Nature Healer with 200, 200, 160 artifacts) I still see the odd failure here and there. It's not all the Healer. Those DoTs are brutal. They are not the measure of a good healer nearly as much as they are a DPS check. If your DPS isn't burning down the turrents fast enough, they can make it incredibly difficult for you to just carry them through it. Especially when the DPS want to split up and each target a different turrent, rather than focus fire, so Superman doesn't even start moving for several seconds. If you are getting to the point where the screen is getting the prompt that the Heat/Coolant is becoming overwhelming, that means that your DPS is just not burning fast enough. Since it's an alert, you'll see different group compositions. Things like Artifacts can be used to overcome certain situations. I, for example, use a 200 Demon's Fang for power regen, so I rarely struggle even when I don't have a Controller. If you are working without Artifacts, it could very well mean that power recovery becomes an issue for you. Make sure that you are drinking sodas for power, rather than saving it as an emergency health heal. Similarly, if you're working without a Tank, that means that Lex is going to be pounding on people less prepared to take it, and you're going to have to punch more priority heals, which can be rough for power management. That's not a shortcoming of the powerset, but rather an adaption you have to make to meet the conditions of the group. Since the hardest part of this fight is the DPS check on that turrent phase, the most commonly preferred group dynamics are going to be DDDH. But that means you've got to adapt to playing without a Tank or a Controller, both of which present their own challenges. A TCDH traditional team will roll smoothly until those turrents but is going to have a rougher go of getting them downed fast enough before those DoTs really start ratcheting up. If you are still really struggling, another option would be to use your Supercharge. Drop Swarm Shield and add Regeneration to the bar, which is a 50% supercharge and should refill quickly enough. Then instead of spiking a Swarm Shield when the dots start ratcheting up, you can drop a Regenerate. It's not generally a good supercharge in most situations, but to offset a single heavy DoT, it might be enough to tip stuff in your favor just long enough to get the DPS through the turrents. Lastly, while Artifacts can be approached as optional (the way I haven't dinked around with them on my alts to any significant degree), if you opt to go with no Artifacts, and you also have no Generator Mods, and you also have no White Mods in your gear sockets, and you also have no League Passive bonuses, and you also have a generally low number of skill points, each of those things continues to add to the challenge. Not to say that it's not doable, but it might require some better optimized teammates to carry some of that extra slack. The Alert will still be in the realm of CR relevance even throughout the Wonderverse expansion, so you may end up being CR 310 and wearing a bunch of Wonderverse gear before you're able to solo heal it effectively, using the gear to make up for your shortcomings elsewhere. If you're position is that you simply don't have Artifacts, and not that you are actively going No Artifacts as some sort of intentional self-handicap, I'd recommend you get and start on one. Focus on getting just one Artifact to level 80. You can do that without too much trouble just using your Nth Metal from the Vault. And none of the 1-80 breakthroughs should require a Seal. It's fast, easy, and free. Personally as a Nature Healer, I like the Orb/Fang combo, but I've heard a lot of other healers swearing by the Trans/Strat card combo. I just haven't personally tried out Trans/Strat because I refuse to start Artifacts over again just to chase the meta. The major milestones for Artifacts occur at 80, 120, 160 and 200. Having one Artifact at 80 will generally be better than having 3 at 79. It doesn't have to be a rush, but actually leveling just one to level 80 can have a significant impact on gameplay, really helping out when you're in a pinch. And I know this might sound silly, but don't forget to use your trinket. I cannot believe the number of people who put their trinket into the gear for the passive stats that it applies, but never seem to remember to actually push the button. You want that restoration boost, especially when you are going into something scripted and predictable like that DoT turrent phase.
OK, first, TYVM for this detailed explanation. I literally copy and pasted this in word and named it "how to do nature v1." After this much help from you, I absolutely HAVE to give this alt another go. this heal was supposed to just be "oh look, league needs heal for DC/VMF. i'll just grab my alt and help them out" type, so I didn't focus on artifacts at all. It seems that I started to level arts when I had just come back, and for some reason, I chose gemini to level (?). I probably saw someone healing with it and just followed suit b/c I can't remember why I chose this. I'll look into orb/fang combo. It seems that trans/strat is useful as DPS as well, so that might mean I have to raise less arts so that's kind of enticing.
Gemini can be good, depending on your loadout. If no SC move...not so much. It's nice though as if you use an SC on the DPS side (assuming you work on the DPS side at all) the Arti is good for both sides of your toon. If straight heals and no SC move, I'd say feed it to another arti like Orb or if you want the option of going DPS later, Trans card....as it's a 2 sided arti as well. If doing that, do it this week so you don't lose the 1/2 XP...even if you can't do the breakthroughs(low on cats or seals)...you'll get the XP credit for breakthrough later. I started on my EOG when it came out, then realized the SC I was using at a full dump was not worth it. I'd only get a few pops off, generally 1 per boss fight, and if I accidentally hit it on the way to the boss it was a total waste. I later fed it to Strat card I think...maybe Solar amp....it was a while ago.
Brit - has a very detailed answer..... Reinhold also good advice if you can remember to get the blossom spore trinket when the sprint event occurs next year - it really helps as a 'pet' attacking and healing.... as far as artifacts - the Orb is a great crutch.... since Trans goes both ways - it very useful... I'm using all the cards at the moment (Trans, Strat, Page) and oh.... BTW if you did not know.... you can DPS all the way up to LEX (you and your fellow DPS' will need to block, use a shield, a cola, supply drop). you might be able to DPS all the way up to the 3rd set of turrents.... gettting past the 3rd set w/o a good healer... not so easy.... so ..... I also noticed that no one mentioned the mods from your base vendor.... they really help - for example: the cool down for shields is reduced. Whether you use a SC or an energized mod for your head gear also makes a difference .... and the resto mod in your leg gear..... the channeling mod for hands.... as for feet your choice.... some like tumbling master, others prefer inertial due to power gen or if you block and want to get them far away.... explosive block.... (neck and weapon mods are so obvious, right?)
I have an alt CR299 SP160 Nature Healer w/ no artifacts and it is challenging at the final boss fight so I can relate. I do complete the alert on a daily basis. So the toughest part during the fight is the 2nd and 3rd turret phases where the dots are present due to thermal/coolant leakage. Like Brit says, the composition of the group could make this easier or more difficult on you. As a healer, I can only help buy extra time for DPS to burn the turrets. I use the same loadout as Brit, except I have Regeneration SC in place of Cross Pollination. Once the dots starts I let the HoT ticks work a little bit, then I follow with shield, follow with SC and last I spam savage growth and metabolism with whatever power is available. (My full power bar is depleted after casting 3 powers and Flourish/Blossom barely does anything for me. Possibly due to low SP) Here are a few ways your team can make it more difficult for you: (Aside from the more obvious vortex, green dot aura, dead warsuit) Players standing in the turret krpytonite beams. It's not as apparent but it does twice as much damage as the non-intensive dots. Players manually smashing/breaking wall. After Lex Warsuit goes down, you have about a 5 seconds head start on the turrets before the dots begins. If wall is manually broken, the dots starts immediately. Players not working together on turrets. Destroying 2 turrets is crucial as it allows Superman to get up and head towards the wall to seal it. It's ok if DPS divide among 2 turrets and whoever finishes first should go to the other DPS and help get that turret down. You may also run into DPS where they will get 1 turret half way down then run to start on a new turret SMH. I despise these type of DPS, as I can only buy them so much time. Are they trying to burn all the turrets evenly? WTH Placement of Superman. You can pick where to have Superman pinned down before killing the Warsuit. The closer he is to leakage, the less travel he has to make to seal the wall. I don't know how to which side will automatically break on the 2nd set of turrets so I place superman dead center if I have aggro. Then the opposite wall automatically breaks on the 3rd turret phase, so I'll bring him closer to that side of the wall and position him ready to seal after 2 turrets are down. If Superman ends up on the opposite edge of the map, then you will need to cover a lot of healing in a long duration. Soder. Some players don't drink a soder during the dots to save themselves. I've inspected some players where they don't even have a soder in their loadout. One last thing. If you have a player that goes down or need to wait on a trinket/soder/SC cooldown, then don't kill the Warsuit to initiate the turrets.
Great advice. Thanks for all of it. I took the cross pollination out and put regen SC in. It helps a lot during the last turret fight. I can definitely last through the final turret stage with the full rotation that you mentioned. Of the runs that I've been in, most DPS just sit there in midst of the turret beams and expect me to heal them through it all. Then they die, and I can't revive them and spam burst heal b/c my power bar is drained from keeping the rest of the group from dying. So as someone in this forum likes to say, "I can't heal stupid" This is a lot easier with a troller, even a dps with a recharge power in the loadout. Then there's 0 problem. As Brit mentioned, I might feed the gemini to level up demon fang for power. It seems that this is my # 1 issue as nature. Thanks all!
